#its all these made up recipies (which again is fine) but if youre gonna act like u invented how to make tofu taste good

[capfalcon]

every day i wait for the day that tofu food videos will stop infuriating me (tofu lover, chinese person)

[pocketramblr]

Poll Results

Alright, that’s it, i’m tired of trying to sort the answers so yall just get the big list of all the free response answers to that quiz about ofa. be aware some are less safe for work than others.

memorable ones: OfA Snickerdoodle, I’d Give It To A Cat, So You Know Vore Right?, I’m in Love With Nana, Slicey Blood Oath, and Homoerotic Sword Fight

(My answer above is how I think it did happen, not how I want it to happen.) I personally think something along the lines of a Bruce Banner Jennifer Walker blood transfusion where the OFA holder doesn’t realize they’ve passed it on until later.

a tender kiss. perhaps loving. perhaps they're dying, and i already knew that they loved me, either platonically or otherwise, and we always knew that i'd be next. perhaps they tried so hard to make sure it never happened, and perhaps that tender kiss as an apology as much as it is a gift. sure sucks to be gay i guess 

Peacefully? By doing the do and making it a wonderful moment of lovemaking and passing on the future.. If we're in the middle of battle you bet your freaking butt I want them to kiss me dramatically, tell me they love me, and then yeet me away as they turn back to the fight. Ow but relationship goals. 

If we're not romantic because I am obsessed with the Duo Holders ship currently, blood works fine. Ingest it or have them pressing a bloody palm into a wound of mine *shrugs* Gotta pass it along somehow

Personally, I'd rather drink blood instead of hair. It feels less gross. But I'd pass it on as hair just to fuck with my successor

Hair or blood eating, but no touchy-touchy or whatever thx.

Probably a vial of blood so it’s easy and over quick

kiss 👉👈

i would like it to be blood from an already opened wound just cause it would probably less weird, ..........but knowing my luck and because irl my sister has attempted to feed me her baby teeth by shoving it to my lips and saying "eat", thats actually how i would get ofa. ( >:/ i have almost eaten at least two teeth this way because i thought she was being nice and giving me candy )

Consider: doing one of those blood oath things where you swear to be BFFs for eternity except now you also get a quirk out of it. But lbr kissing is way more romantic and you’ve made First/Second my new OTP, so I’ll stick with that for them. <3 But also, maybe to make the kiss option more romantic First thought something more along the lines of wishing he could give ~everything he has/all of himself~ to Second which counted as including his quirk, rather than specifically about giving him the power to defeat his brother?

This is going to sound gross but all ways of transferring DNA is. Just work up a sweat and have the other party drink it. It would probably be the best tasting option which is kinda a weird thing to think about. Nvm sweat doesn't contain DNA looked it up but I don't want to delete all of this so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe a scraping of skin cells

Honestly the hair is probably the way I'd want to go. That or blood. Like just swallowing it.

Look, i know realistically it was probably some desparate on-the-brink-of-death "please defeat my brother" thing and oo, magic he gets the quirk. But consider. First's last fight with afo. Second is holding his bleeding body, crying. First gently cups Second's cheek and pulls him into a bloody kiss before dying. Second pulls himself together just long enough to flip off afo, barely resisting the urge to absolutely slaughter him, knowing he would lose. He finds his successor and trains him to the best of his ability, determined to not lose another person he cared for

I mean like dead skin cells probably dont work right? Except hair works so thats not true. So like you totally could lick someone to get OFA. Like could you imagine the whole holding your hand over someones mouth to shut them up but they lick you and they somehow wind up with your quirk, like crazy. What must have been the trial and error with this stuff cause they must have kept passing it inbetween each other to figure out its dna right. How long did it take for them to realize. Like you’re eating breakfast and theres a hair in your food like ew and why am i stronger now. Overall, comedic timing for getting a quirk would be hilarious.

My apprentice lays broken and bloody beneath me as I cradle them in my arms, crying on to an open wound on their face praying the power will be enough to save them

little bit of skin like a hang nail just like put it in a sandwich and dont thing about it

Put it in my coffee.

If I received it from Nana then I would love to have received it via eating her out~ though for passing it on to others I think I would just either spit into their mouths or shove a bleeding finger down their throat until they swallow and then run and get myself killed by AfO while taunting him with "I DON'T HAVE YOUR BROTHER'S QUIRK ANYMORE! SUCK MY NON-EXISTENT DICK YOU LOSER!"

knock me out and just inject the blood. if i have to actively think abt ingesting someone elses dna im gonna yeet myself into the ocean. to pass it on i'll just spit in a cup (or in their mouth) bc im not gonna make someone eat my hair nor is anyone getting my blood

who in their right mind would trust me with a power like ofa 💀afo just looks at me funny the quirk is his. im not a mc for a reason

Sexy battle where I’m the villain, and randomly the hero thinks “I wish I could save you”. Boom I punch them with bloody knuckles and the quirk passes to me. Now the hero has to teach me how to be good again. Also we fall in love.

You know, I always assumed I would head canon it as something romantic until canon proved me wrong But these options are so varied - I had to choose the most Dramatic (tm) one As for my actual answer: a gentle kiss with full consent from both parties

I will bite a holder as a sign of affection. There's probably some dead skin cells in the arm I can swallow by accident. They are used to this and sometimes we switch the quirk around for funsies.

You know, I spent like 10 minutes trying to think of something original here, but knowing my shit luck some bastard would spit in my drink or something and cast upon me the Curse of Bone Breaking and/or.... y’know..... AFO...........

okay this is gonna sound weird but. consider this i marry a very lovely women. we are in much love. we get attacked by evil people because she is a good hero but plot twist. i am secretly her nemisis. the attackers are my minions. i wanted her to protect me because i am very smol but. my comrades were too mean. she is nearly dead. "take this" she says. she kisses me and i am one for all. fuck, i say internally, but i dont tell her. she dies in my arms. i run and become vigilante and take down my once comrades. all is not well. i die unsatisfied. i eventually pass it onto a cat in an alleyway because they are the only one who is with me when i get hit with a back alley sniper

Blood or just like. skin. You could use nail clippers to take a bit off from a really fleshy area, like just under the nail. It's that easy

Spit in my food like an underpaid fast food worker.

i have long hair so that would not be ideal, but blood seems kinda...unsanitary, but i guess it would be better if i was 100% positive i wouldn't pass on some sort of disease. so if that could be ascertained then like a few drops of blood in a glass of water or something and then down the hatch, bam ofa passed on. i know other folks are probably typing some nsfw stuff but just. no. keep it in your pants y'all.

Blood transfusion First, pick a hospital Second, steal all their blood Third, have the previous user donate their blood to that hospital Fourth, get into a major accident and need a blood transfusion near the hospital you robbed Fifth, hope either OfA will only pass onto you bc your the intended recipient, or that no one else needs a blood transfusion Sixth, get the transfusion Seventh, steal all of the previous users blood back Eigth, return all the other stolen blood Ninth, get new identities, this crime leaves DNA everywhere Tenth, die of a blood clot due to incompatible blood types (optional)

okay realistically bleeding into a cut or a drop of blood into water and drinking it would be easiest but like... what if somehow dna could be baked into like a muffin or cookie or something... like i know when cooking with wines and stuff the alcohol cooks away and evaporates out but is that process the same for like blood? like if you baked your blood into a cookie would traces of your dna still be there? basically i want an ofa cookie (snickerdoodle preferably)

no i like my bones

drink a drop of blood. it'd go down easier than hair

no

Something dramatic and desperate in the heat of battle like blood or something

First of all, I think First passed OfA as he was dying entirely on accident, because Second was badly (though not critically) injured and they'd been sort of dancing around each other's feelings and doubting their own worth, so First, knowing he was dying and that his brother was a petty bitch who would probably kill Second anyway because he knows that First cared about him, kisses Second with blood on his lips and his last thoughts before dying are about how he wants Second to have the strength to survive if his brother comes after him.

If I was given the option of getting OfA, I wouldn't take it. I'm a coward and being given something like that is a death sentence.

If it was forced, probably ingesting the previous users blood, because blood is a lot easier to choke down than hair.

If I already had it and had to pass it on, I would want it to be something suitably dramatic like collapsing on the doorstep of a trusted loved one and explaining with my dying breath who killed me and why and then raising my blood covered hand to their face like I was going to caress their cheek only for them to taste blood. They cry and try to get me take it back and when I finally die they swear vengeance over my slowly cooling corpse.

Pass it on in a non-life threatening scenario where I decide I actually don’t like the weird bone breaking power a random person gave me as they were dying and wish I could pass it to someone else and through a weird set of circumstances end up accidentally cooking some of my own hair into brownies I was making because I shed like a dog and passing it to my new neighbor I came to welcome to the neighborhood.

Either drinking a glass of milk with their saliva (no icky hair taste), or an epic sharing of blood while clasping hands like knights in a noble brotherhood!

not by eating all mights long ass hair thats for sure, why did he give midoriya one of the longest ones he had, he has shorter hair right there on the back of his head. not to mention the fact of like how i would prefer to recieve it or give it away which would be just, fucking sharing a pop or something and swaping it through the backwash??? less nasty than hair and not as weird as the other options for spit which is like straight up spitting in a drink or the other persons mouth outside of kissing. if someone told me i had to eat their hair i would straight up say no thanks, cheers for the fitness glow up tho homie

I want nana 2 kiss me, on.,, the m,,,.."#*(@÷out.h pretty lady.,

Q-tip to the inside of the cheek

Those blood pacts where you slice your hands open and do a little handshake thing. Not very creative, but idk it just appeals to me

Via consumption of blood, babey

I would want it to be with a maybe maybe not homoerotic sword fight in a Wendy's parking lot, preferably while we are both being impaled on each other's swords. The sweet pain of almost dying is a very intense moment to share isn't it?

Sweet love

Hair

If it's someone cute, a kiss. Otherwise I'd probably just swallow a hair with some water.

i'd just like. spit in their water bottle. if thats not enough dna i guess licking a paper cut it is. hair is bad idwa bc it doesn't digest and can get wrapped up in things. and like. im too aroace for kissing and such

Last option, cause first is sexy as hell

okay you know what vore is, right. and you know how blood and organ transfusions work? well...

Not at all, like?? I enjoy being alive and not having my body destroyed thank you. Literally everyone with OfA died young-ish or has suffered debilitating injuries bc of it. Like Midoriya's bones are powder, and we don't even need to go into All Might's medical history. Like thanks but no thanks no freaky dna ingestion 4 me

Had a open cut from a can lid and ofa holder had an open cut. While lamenting about fins a successor.

Blood

Assuming we can bypass the rules of canon, it would be funny as fuck is OFA was passed on by intentional physical contact. So yes, a smooch for First and Second (and Second and Third) but also. Bitchslap of destiny. Nana giving her protege one last hug. All Might ruffles Mido’s hair like a dad to pass it on. I’m sure you get it

Bleeding over an open wound

lil bit of spit in a milkshake.

I hold their hand Platonically but it's summer and we're both sweaty and they're a little loopy and having weird thoughts due to dehydration and heat lmao, literally hanging around anyone for any extended period of time guarantees you accidentally ingest SOME of their dna. Dead skin cells are floating through the air ~constantly~ and if you have a friend I promise you've inhaled their dead skin cells before. Have fun with that knowledge!!

ok so like deffo a kiss, but in canon people get weird biological urges for using their quirks, like bby Toga drinking bird blood. First has had a LOT of "spit in their drink" intrusive thoughts over the years. immediately post first-kiss he is mystified that his intrusive thoughts have disappeared entirely, but then BAM it seems that second has the stockpile now, and with it, a preoccupation with vampire lore

drink from the same water bottle?

“EAT THIS!”

Pass it on by making them lick my arm because that would make them rly uncomfortable, passed to me by spiting in my 20oz Red Bull and then chugging it

[aveyna]

Homecoming

Summary: After the events of the Eternal Library, Varian and his friends return back to Corona. They had earned their happy ending, but now...Hugo had to face his biggest challenge yet. Impressing Varian's family shouldn't be as nerve-wracking as it was, except for one tiny problem. 

Eugene Fitzherbert is the most ineffectual thief to live. It is a shame that he is also his boyfriend's self-proclaimed older brother.

AO3 LINK

CHAPTER 1-Familarity

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“Is it just me or has everyone been acting really weird ever since we got here?” Yong questions, staring non-too-discretely at a few girls that had gathered amongst one another, talking conspiratorially behind raised hands. It seemed ever since they had stepped into Corona, their group had attracted…more attention than normal. Expected, really, considering who they were traveling with, but… “And why are they staring so much at Varian?”

 “Hm, I don’t know,” Nuru smirks, eyes plastered onto her novel as they walk past a storefront. Clearly, she is enjoying his misfortune a bit too much. “Why don’t you enlighten us, Hugo?”

 He wishes there were a complex answer to this, but…the reason is simple. It would seem that their dear alchemist was more popular than he let on. There were a lot of things Hugo could have, said, but he didn’t want to get kicked out of Corona so soon.

 Instead, he flips them off, though, he’s not entirely sure who would be the recipient of his ire.

 “Varian, are you sure it’s a good idea taking him along with us?” Nuru finally looks up from her book, its pages practically illegible from her iron-clad grip. Her golden eyes narrow in annoyance at Hugo and his admittedly pathetic attempts at garnering attention from the other alchemist. “I want to make a good first impression with Princess Rapunzel, but…Hugo is…Hugo……”

 “First of all princess, wow.” Hugo gasps, hand pressed dramatically to his heart and the other around Varian’s shoulders. It had been one hell of a surprise to learn their Varian was essentially the princess’s little brother. He’s still coming to terms with goggles being the Royal Engineer, but he’s seen enough from Varian to know that he is more than qualified for the title. “How can you not trust me after everything that we’ve been through? Look at this face; would I lie to you?”

 At this, everyone, even Prometheus, wears a look of utmost disbelief on their face. Sure, Hugo may have considered betraying them when he schmoozed his way into the group, but he more than proved himself during their whole ordeal with Ulla at the Eternal Library.

 “You still love me, right, Yong?” They had made it well past the borders of Corona and he must admit—the city is impressive, albeit a bit too bourgeoisie for his tastes. But, he can see why Varian had so adored this place; with the huge castle towering above this kingdom, it really does look like something out of a fairytale. Though, he’d suppose such a description would not be far off the mark for Varian. After Ulla and the library, hell, he had live through a fairytale—

 Or nightmare. Both could work depending on context. Enough time had passed from when the adventure they’ve had to heal some wounds, but other parts…secrets, a reality in-which he’d lost Varian—could and would have lost him to the library, the idea of someday overcoming those traumas would be impossible.

 Yong frowns, considering Hugo’s words. “I just want to meet Varian’s family.”

 “Okay, no, leave Yong out of this,” Varian snaps, dragging Hugo away from the shorter boy. “I should set up some ground rules. First, no stealing,” he says, glaring daggers at the taller of the two.

 “Alright, alright,” Hugo concedes, placing both hands in a placating manner. “I won’t steal from anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”

 “I—” Varian sighs as they start their ascent up towards the palace. “I suppose that’s the best I’m gonna get. Anyway, no stealing, arson, or overthrowing the monarchy.”

 Pouting, Nuru grumbles, “No promises.”

 Hugo would be tempted to agree with her discontent; Varian hasn’t talked much about his past, but from what he has mentioned, this king…he is definitely not a fan. He’d say something, but Varian’s face his split into a wide grin as he widens the distance between their group and solid ground.

 “Pete, Stan!” Varian exclaims, cheer laced in his voice as he runs towards two...guards? They must be, judging from their bronze armor and the Coronian crest engraved into their uniforms.

 “Ah, Varian; long time no see—”

 “Varian, you’re back! I’ve missed you so much!” Unfortunately, their greetings are cut too soon as a small blur of purple and brown tackles Varian, lifting him up in the process. “You need to tell me all about your adventures! I read all of the letters you sent, but they pale in comparison to hearing them from you!”

 “Princess, please let me down,” Varian wheezes, feet still dangling centimeters away from the ground. “Can’t breathe.”

 “Can’t blame me for being happy to see my favorite alchemist,” Rapunzel chirps, trapping the alchemist in a bear hug.

 Hugo laughs, turning away from the scene. It appears that Nuru is assessing Rapunzel, no doubt wondering as to how the princess has developed such strength. If the rumors were to be believed, he supposes carting around seventy feet of hair would give anyone muscles. As for Yong, he is…Hugo actually does not quite know what ever goes on in his head. Such a homecoming should be cause for celebration, but…it is odd—

 He feels as if someone is watching them. But, try as he might, he cannot detect any particular person…or, anything, really, that may seem out of place.

 For all intents and purposes, this meeting seems almost too normal.

 “Nice to see you back and in one piece, Varian.” An incredibly familiar, grating voice greets them, only for said voice to turn its attention towards him. A tall man in crimson attire points an accusatory finger at him, a curse on the cusp of his lips. “It’s you—!!”

 He squints, wondering if perhaps he needs a new prescription. There is no way the princess’s fiancé can be…but, no. He has heard the rumors of how the princess had been saved by a thief. It has to be him. Hugo would recognize this talentless hack and his stupid goatee anywhere. “Fancy seeing you here, Rider.”

 It was just his damn luck that Hairstripe knew Flynn Rider of all people. This must be karma from all the thefts he committed, all of the pain he put Varian and the others in…but even-so, he cannot help but curse his incredibly shitty luck. How can he impress Varian’s family with this fake being a part of the equation!?

 “You mean like the novels!?” Yong exclaims, gawking at the man in awe, waving a copy of Flynn Rider’s book that—

 He had somehow ripped out of a very irate Nuru’s hands. “I’m your biggest fan!”

 “No, no, tiny…overly-enthusiastic short person. I can’t go through this again,” Eugene sighs in exasperation. He directs his gaze towards Varian, a sheepish look on the alchemist’s face as he had finally broken free from Rapunzel’s hug. “It’s like looking into a mirror, huh, kid?”

 “Wait, I know you—!!” They can practically hear the gears turning in Eugene’s head, realization of…something or someone dawning upon his face.

 “Eugene, it’s…I can explain,” Varian chuckles, shifting on his feet as he averts his eyes. “Nuru and Yong are my close friends, and Hugo is—”

 “I’m his boyfriend.” He could almost laugh at Rider’s bewildered expression, if only…the man’s contempt wasn’t directed towards him.

 “You could have chosen anyone, but why oh why was it this menace of all people!?” Eugene screeches, and not a hair out of place on his stupid head.

 That smooth, perfect bastard. Hugo’s eye twitches as he recounts their…less than stellar heist. It was the first and [thankfully] last time they had worked together, and for a damn good reason. “At least I don’t model myself after a fictional character.”

 “The name’s Eugene, now. And I was merely showing my appreciation for fine literature, not that you’d know a good book even if it smacked you in the face,” the man quips, before turning to address Varian once again.

 “How many times have I told you to not go after the first handsome thief you meet!?” Eugene complains, striding over towards the shorter alchemist, hands on his hips and an incredibly disapproving scowl on his face. “No criminals, and especially no dating until you’re mine and Rapunzel’s ages.”

 “But Rapunzel did,” Varian splutters, faltering from Eugene’s disapproving scowl. “And I’m two years older than she was when you two met!”

 “Yes, practically a baby,” Eugene quips.

 “I stole the sundrop flower and nearly took down Corona single-handed!” the alchemist retorts in a half-joking manner. “And that’s not even getting into what happened with Cass! Don’t you think I deserve a little more credit?”

 Eugene raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms as he looks down at the alchemist. “You’re bringing that up now?”

 Rapunzel looks back and forth; green eyes marred in concern at…Varian’s less than ideal homecoming. Certainly, there’s no harm in this, but they’d best leave the two to catch up amongst themselves. Better get these three out of the way and let them have an overdue chat.

 “Oh, Nuru, Yong? Why don’t I show you two around the castle?” the princess questions, clasping her hands together, smiling pleasantly, short bangs falling over her green eyes. Unfortunately, she leaves no room for disagreements as she takes Varian’s wrist and leads them inside the brightly-lit palace. Hugo watches as the hem of her purple gown disappears, and thus, his last remaining shred of hope.

 “So…Flynn—”

 “I already said it’s Eugene,” he deadpans, casting a withering look at the two guards who had not even hidden the fact they had been eavesdropping.

 No wonder why a fourteen year old nearly took over a kingdom. Hugo resists the urge from rolling his eyes as the guards bumble around, saluting Eugene as he strides past them; shoes clattering noisily upon the polished marble of the palace.

 “Let’s find somewhere a little more private to talk; and away from prying eyes.”

 Hugo merely nods in affirmation, following the ex-thief only…to stop in his tracks as he hears the sound of two female voices, somewhere…not too far off, but as for where, he cannot tell. There is a bright red blur dart past in his peripheral vision and the metallic clang of chains, but…yeah.

 He has more pressing matters on hand, like impressing Hairstripe’s family…or, at least, everyone except for Eugene.

 ---

 “Okay, look—” Eugene had pulled him to the side, hands digging into his shoulders. It’s not that he minds, considering how utterly un-intimidating this man is. Except…this is Eugene of all people. How was he supposed to know this terrific big brother of his boyfriend was the Flynn Freaking Rider? Hugo had burned the memories of that lousy heist, but they were returning to the forefront of his mind now that he was face-to-face with the man. Slowly but surely, the ashes had begun to build upon in his mind, reforming into…quite possibly the shittiest situation he has ever had the misfortune of finding himself in. He’d even take Donella over the awkward conversation that was sure to follow.

 “Unfortunately that’s all that I can do now.” Hugo could almost laugh at the man. ‘Eugene’s’ eyebrows are pulled together, a stern frown on his face. It is comical how deadset he looks that…Hugo honestly would love for nothing more than to mock him.

 But, of course, he’s not gonna do that. He still wants to stay on Varian’s good side.

 “Varian may trust you, but I don’t,” Eugene lowers his voice to such a ridiculous extent. Hugo cannot tell if this man loves the sound of his own voice or is a fan of theatrics. He’s an imbecile. An imbecile that his boyfriend considers family, but a moron nonetheless. “I don’t care how perfect and shiny your hair is, though I’ll definitely need tips on what conditioner you use.”

 Hugo scoffs, “The same could be said about you.”

 “Don’t test my patience.” Unlike his own kingdom or even Nuru’s, the halls of Corona’s castle are bustling with life. He’d think someone would have interfered and halted Eugene’s…tirade, but clearly, they seem to be more than a little used to his nonsense. “Varian is like a brother to me. A strange, possibly criminally insane little brother who is probably lurking somewhere deep within the bowels of Corona as we speak……”

 “I’ll bet he’s already off on his own, searching for…potentially life-threatening chemicals or machines,” he continues on.

 “Actually, have you ever seen him eat?” Eugene’s frown deepens. “Lance said he saw the kid eat an apple once, but I don’t buy it. Personally, I think that boy only subsists on hot chocolate and spite.”

 “Really? Is that what you’re going to focus on?” Hugo retorts, biting back an insult. He almost has to squint from just how infuriatingly bright these halls are, but instead, he settles for adjusting his wire-rimmed frames.

 Out of everything he has ever gone through in this life of his, this conversation is not how he had expected it to lead towards. But, Hugo supposes it could be worse. Yes…it could always be worse.

 “Listen, you—”

 Unfortunately [or fortunately, if you ask Hugo], Eugene’s words had been knocked out…literally. A very short, angry girl and a taller one with red hair had ambushed them during the midst of their conversation.

 But…more surprisingly, why was Yong with them? Actually, no—this is to be expected. Hugo could hit, himself, really. With his training, how could it be that these three sneak up behind them during broad daylight?

 Of course I just had to tempt fate, Hugo sighs, eyes narrowing at the three kids.

 ---

 Keira and Catalina, that is what they had called themselves. He had heard of them from Varian and how they were like his sisters. At least, that is what he had gauged from the brief snippets Goggles would recount on the rare occasions he confided about his old home—but, if only he mentioned how utterly devious and conniving these two girls were. Honestly, under most under circumstances, he’d be impressed and maybe a bit disgruntled. All that it would take is his quick wit and silver tongue to get out of any situation, but……

 He knows no matter what he says, no words will be persuasive enough with these two.

 “Ugh, girls, what the heck are you two doing!?” The Captain of the Guard was attempting to break free from his restraints for the better part of five minutes, but to no avail. “And why is that kid with you?”

 “Sorry Eugene,” the red haired girl, Catalina, apologizes, seemingly remorseful. “We’ll let you go—”

 But, certainly, not sorry enough considering her part in this madness, Hugo scoffs, flinching as the cuffs dig deeper into his wrists from Eugene’s incessant movement. “Will you stop doing that!?” he hisses, the metallic chains still jangling from the other man’s fruitless attempts to break free.

 The other one, Keira, she…seems to almost revel at the sheer misery she had bestowed upon their heads. “We’ll let you two go, but after we catch up with V. Or, more like, Catalina has something to say to him.”

 What does Varian have to do with this—oh.

 “I still don’t get what you see in that nerd, sis, but—”

 Catalina buries her face in her hair, smacking her sister’s arm as she mumbles for her to shut up. To her credit, at least the black-haired girl looks sheepish enough, a regretful expression on her features as she mutters quick apologies. It…would seem that not only a good portion of Corona had admired Hairstripes [and, Hugo would suspect even some of the castle staff], but, still.

 Poor kid doesn’t stand a chance. Hugo can definitely relate. He would feel sympathetic towards Catalina, but not when she was one of two reasons why he was here…and trapped with Eugene of all people.

 “You got to monopolize all of V’s time these last few years. You had your chance, but now, it’s our turn.” Keira declares, voice irritatingly loud as she practically screams, “We’re kidnapping him!”

 Raising her hand into the air, Catalina is quick to include, “Just for the afternoon. We’ll bring him right back, afterwards.”

 “Okay, yeah, I get that, but why is he with you?” Eugene repeats, staring pointedly at Yong.

 Yong shrugs, before turning back towards a window, admiring the view outside of the palace walls. “I dunno.”

 Keira merely bounds up to the shorter boy before proudly exclaiming, “Yong’s our good luck charm! We’ll get through this with him on our side!” Hugo almost feels embarrassed for her.

 “It still doesn’t explain, you know what—nevermind. Give me the key and I’ll let this slide,” Eugene demands, irritation clear on his face. At least, the very, miniscule bare minimum, Catalina had the grace to look at least moderately ashamed. But as for Yong and Keira? Clearly, they were living for this.

 He should just leave it at this. Let Catalina go off and confess; it’ll take maybe…three, four hours tops? But as his eyes trail on the chains leading up to Eugene, he…cannot do this.

 “What will you do after?” Hugo questions, directing his words towards Catalina. “What then?”

 Catalina is silent, lips pressed in a thin line as she considers… “Um, I haven’t thought that far yet—”

 “Don’t talk to the enemy, Catalina!” Keira screeches, quickly grabbing her wrist as she darts out of the sunny room, Yong following quickly on their heels.

 “Bye, Hugo, bye Flynn!” Yong calls out, voice growing fainter as they watch the trio retreat. “We’ll be back; I promise!”

 “I keep telling you people—call me Eugene!!”

 ---

 “You’re telling me you, the Captain of the Guard, do not carry a sword!?” Hugo hisses, moments away from decking him in the face. “Or at least, nothing sharp. No weapons, nothing!?”

 “How was I supposed to know those three were going to lock us up for the day?” Eugene rests his head against the pillar, looking up at the ceiling as his eyes trace the patterns painted upon its colorful exterior. “Hell, prior to this morning, I never even met that last kid.”

 Hugo sighs, long and suffering as he assesses the trap they had quite literally stumbled into. It is certainly far from what he expected this day to be…at least they won’t be killed, but considering who he is trapped with, even death would be preferable. Almost, but as of now, this annoyance is tolerable to a bare minimum.

 Hopefully Nuru’s fairing off a lot better, wherever she is……

 The desire to let their words fall into obscurity, to stay in this obnoxiously bright room in complete silence was a reality that…he did not entirely disapprove of, but thankfully his unsaid prayers were answered, and not a minute out of place when high-pitched squeaks and chatters penetrated the looming silence that had shrouded over them. A busy tail, fluffy gray ears—Ruddiger, but he was biting down on a small, bronze key.

 Rubbing his wrists, Hugo gets up, thankful to finally be freed from such a ridiculous ordeal.

 “Man, I’ve never been happier to see Varian’s fat pet cat,” Eugene cheerfully states, only for Ruddiger’s fur to practically bristle as he hisses at the man, clearly unhappy with his statement.

 Hugo shoots a pointed look at him. “Rude.”

 “No, that’s not what I meant—” Eugene backtracks, only to sigh in defeat. “Let’s just…we’ve got a couple of traitors to stop.”

 For a moment, Hugo considers this. There is nothing to be gained from meddling with their affairs; it is clear nothing will come out of it, save for a few broken hearts…which, he can certainly deal with that. He has nothing to lose or gain from this. But, as much as he despises Eugene, he can’t say that some part of him doesn’t want to seek out revenge. Or, at least, mess with their plans.

 Eh, what the hell.

 There is no possible way for this day to get any worse.

[the-odd-job]

Harem AU Chapter 1 - Where It All Went Wrong

Rating: Explicit Warnings for Chapter: None Category: Other Fandom: Transformers Characters: Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Unnamed Characters, Original Characters Relationships: Sideswipe & Sunstreaker Additional Tags: Sticky, Abduction Words: 9898

Where it all began! No real warnings for this chapter, just keep in mind the fuck uppedness this AU devolves into starting from Chapter 2 :D

That I’ll hopefully have completed in the coming days.

“The rules are simple,” Sideswipe grinned at his audience, showing his cards between his claws. “One winning card, two losing cards. I shuffle them, you pick the winning card. Easy money! All you gotta do is point at the right one.”

He laid the cards on the table in front of him, face up, winking at a particularly attractive mech in the crowd watching him. “Whaddya say? Earn yourself a few creds to spend in a nice bar?”

“Sounds easy,” one mech rumbled, and Sideswipe nodded in agreement.

“It is easy. Just gotta watch carefully and you’ll have me parting ways with my money in no time!” His laugh earned a few chuckles from the onlookers. “Kidding aside, I won’t make this easy for you,” he teased the player stepping forward. “This wouldn’t be profitable if I was bad with my cards.”

“I can take you on,” the mech said confidently. “I’ve got a keen optic.”

“And you’ll need that! Five creds says I’ll win.” Sideswipe showed his credit chit for the mech to scan, five credits programmed into it. The mech mirrored him with his own credit chit and Sideswipe prepared the transaction after confirming there were five credits on that card as well. The mech accepted it and placed it on standby, the final recipient to be determined.

Then Sideswipe grinned, ready to play. “Take a look,” he said, tapping the table in front of the winning card. After the mech had nodded at him, Sideswipe flipped the cards over in quick, practiced motions.

Then he shuffled on easy mode, keeping the movement of the cards slow enough that his play partner had honest chances of winning.

Once the cards were properly mixed up, he pulled his servos back. “Time to pick, my good mech.”

Without hesitation, the stranger pointed at the middle card. Sideswipe flipped it over, and lo and behold, it was the winning card. He laughed and the crowd cheered for the other mech. “Ouch~ Five credits to you, then.” He completed the pending transaction in the other mech’s favor. Sideswipe, five credits poorer; the stranger, five credits richer. “Another round? Ten creds says you won’t pick right this time.”

“Deal.” And Sideswipe prepared the transaction, shuffled his cards a little faster than the first time, and had the mech pick again.

“No slag!” he shook his helm with another laugh when the mech picked right again. “You’re gonna turn me into a guttermech at this rate. One more round, fifteen creds. I promise you won’t win this time.”

“Like pit I can’t,” the other grinned at him, showing his credit chit again and initiating the transaction. Sideswipe accepted it and shuffled his cards once more.

But he’d done this since he was a youngling. It wasn’t profitable if he only relied on other mecha’s failing senses, and he couldn’t afford losing. He and Sunstreaker, they needed the credits. 

His player turning him into a guttermech? Couldn’t do that if you were already a guttermech. His audience didn’t need to know that though—didn’t need to know how he’d go hungry if he failed at the game. He kept his finish in a decent state just for this. No one trusted a guttermech. They were always desperate for survival and guaranteed scammers.

Sideswipe though? He was no scammer, for sure not. He looked just like any of them, didn’t he? He shone well enough, he had no undue amount of scratches on him, no unusual grime, no nothing.

He was just your regular entertainer, here to show you a good time.

They didn’t need to know he feigned the cards’ positions mid shuffle right under their optics, his claws quick in the act.

He’d long since trained himself out of any physical reactions when he did that, not even his spark flaring despite the zap of nervousness that always came with the chance, however slim, that someone would pick up on the cheat. Years of practice paid off though, and no one said a thing this time either, just like no one had said anything the whole day. Cybertron’s star was already in its downward arch and he’d call it a day soon.

He had decent winnings in his pocket already, fooled from other tourists—and some locals—that felt like taking their chances with him. Him and Sunstreaker, they wouldn’t go hungry tonight.

Sideswipe only hoped Sunstreaker had made enough for them to upkeep their frames. His own profits weren’t going to be enough to cover that, and they couldn’t afford to look like the lowlifes they were. None of this would work otherwise.

“Alright. Which one?” Sideswipe asked with an easy smile for the third time.

The mech pointed at a card. Sideswipe turned it over.

It was not the winning card.

“Aw, shucks,” he said, his smile turning into an expression of sympathy. The transaction was completed in his favor.

His player shook his helm, but he was smiling, showing no signs that he suspected he’d just gotten cheated on. Good. “Damn your servos are quick when you want them to be,” he joked lightly, and Sideswipe laughed along.

“I’ve been doing this for a while, is all. Say what though, one more time. Five creds. Pick right and you won’t have lost anything. You in?”

The mech considered that for a moment before nodding. “Alright, sounds good to me.”

Sideswipe grinned, initiated the transaction, showed all the cards, flipped them over, shuffled, swapped, and once again the mech picked.

It was not the winning card.

“Damn,” the other sighed, but they were still in relatively good spirits. “Give it one more go, I want my credits back.”

Sideswipe made a show of hesitating, before he nodded cautiously. “Okay, one more game, ten creds. But if you lose this time, gonna be the last one. I don’t wanna clean your pockets.”

“No worries, I’ll win.” His player’s optics were already intense on the cards, determined to pick right this time around and land himself back in his starting point.

Sideswipe didn’t stress the scrutiny. He showed the cards, flipped them around, and repeated the trick.

The mech chose the wrong one.

They both shook their helms in disappointment. “Like I said, I don’t wanna clean your pockets. You’ve lost enough.”

“Fair, I guess. You’re good at this,” the mech shrugged. The final transaction completed and Sideswipe bid the player goodbye.

Then he turned to the rest of his audience. “Anyone else feel more lucky, or you think I’m too good for you all~?” Sideswipe grinned.

The attractive mech he’d noticed earlier stepped forward, and the scam continued.

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

Before the last of daylight faded, Sideswipe grabbed his cards and the table he used and deposited them in his subspace. The few mecha that had still been around to watch him got a cheery farewell before Sideswipe headed for the driveway, transformed, and set course towards the energon dispensary. Iacon’s towers rose high up into the clear sky as he drove along the roads weaving around and through them, and above or below each other. Fliers zipped around overhead, following their own marked flight courses between the gleaming towers.

It was called Cybertron’s brightest spark, the city-state of potential, that all others envied. Word was that your fortune and dreams awaited if you saw through the trouble of becoming a permanent resident. Even those that didn’t want to make the move often came around to bask in the city’s glory, providing him with the visitors he needed to continue his games. 

Sideswipe didn’t know how true any of that was. Maybe they treated mecha coming from the outside differently, but he was created here.

And even in the brightest spark of Cybertron, he’d still ended up in the gutters far below the sparkling decks and high towers the tourists saw, scraping by just to earn himself the right to continue onto the next day. Was that by design?

No one had ever shown any care for two abandoned younglings whose commissioners found they couldn’t afford to mentor them after all. They sure hadn’t found their fortune here, just fallen through the cracks of society to end up on the streets with barely a thing to call their own.

But they’d learned to make do. They’d scammed and thieved their way to their current position, each of them a practiced con artist, but Sunstreaker now able to make his portion of their living through honest work.

They wouldn’t have gotten to that point without breaking the law countless times, though.

And it wasn’t enough to get them off the streets. Housing was costly. If they wanted to keep their frames functional and fueled, they couldn’t afford it.

The streets were their home, but that was fine. They’d learned to navigate them and the dangers that came with a life like theirs. Unexplained disappearances, murders, assaults… The enforcers didn’t care enough to dedicate time and resources to seeing to all the plight that guttermecha faced.

As far as most of Iacon was concerned, they didn’t even exist.

But they scraped by and made their life the best they could in their circumstances. Fuel for the night was a good tally on the scoreboard of their life.

He arrived at the dispensary already crowded with others, mostly lower class mecha that weren’t much better off. Those with enough credits to live properly didn’t particularly visit this part of town.

Sideswipe drove next to the walkway and transformed to step off the road, waving a greeting at a few acquaintances he knew from the lower levels—the gutters. A few friendly words were exchanged while they waited in the queues, some laughter, jokes.

The kind of things that lighted a hard life just a little bit.

Then it was his turn and Sideswipe paid for two medium ratios, just enough for their frames, a little larger in size than the average Iaconian.

Mid transaction he glanced over his shoulder at the sound of someone shouting his name.

Uppercut. His optics brightened with delight and Sideswipe subspaced his freshly acquired cubes before jogging over to the mech waving for his attention.

“What’s up, mech?” he asked as soon as they were in greeting range, their servos clanging together. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ve been busy,” his fellow guttermech said coyly, and Sideswipe could just imagine what Uppercut had been busy with. 

He laughed. “Yeah? And do you have something to show for it?”

“I do, actually,” Uppercut continued, and Sideswipe looked at his friend with more interest. He recognized that tone. The fun times tone. Uppercut leaned in conspiratorially, like he was about to pass a big secret. “I’ve got creeeeeds.”

Sideswipe knew his next line. “What you gonna use them for?”

“Well, now that I ran into you, I figure we can crash a bar and get wasted. My treat.”

“That much?” Sideswipe asked, more than a little in awe. His optics were probably as impressed and surprised as his tone. Uppercut snickered at him.

“Told you I’ve been busy.” Well, apparently hard work paid off sometimes.

He knew the story though. Credits , but not enough to change your life.

Not enough to get you off the streets.

So why not spend it on something fun instead?

The more fortunate probably would’ve just told them to save up , because surely they would eventually have enough to climb from the gutters. And maybe that was true if you could get more than what you immediately needed to spend for basic survival, like Uppercut had.

It was never that simple though, never just about the credits. You needed a job to keep whatever level of comfort you managed to gain, and if your income was even a little unsteady…

Uppercut had had a good run recently, but there was no guarantee that would last and that he wouldn’t just lose everything all over again, if he tried to reach higher.

“You in?” 

Stupid question. Sideswipe grinned. “Pit yeah.”

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

They drove to even lower levels to hit up a bar as cheap as they could find. The shiny, well lit, clean streets turned into dim lights, grime, and oil stains, cracks and dents, lined with mecha that made their homes in the creaky abandoned buildings and dark alleyways.

This was their world, the place where all the trash from the upper decks fell.

Drunken mecha were being loud outside of the bar they’d chosen as their target, probably kicked out for having gotten too rambunctious. Dangerous, but dammit they wanted those drinks.

So the both transformed next to the walkway, right next to the drunken group, and tried to ignore them.

They still got a few proposals and gropes, but that was it before they’d already slipped through the doorway and into the bar that was no brighter on the inside than the streets were on the outside. Nor any cleaner.

“So how’s your brother doing?” Uppercut asked as they sat down at the long bar and ordered their drinks. Sideswipe chose cheap because there was no way he wanted to waste Uppercut’s credits; Uppercut went for something a little better now that he could afford it, for once. 

“Sunny’s good. Still runs his thing at the park. Locals are starting to recognize him. A few times the tourists’ve said he was recommended to them even, imagine that!”

“Nice,” Uppercut said, as impressed as Sideswipe had been when his friend had practically waved his credits in his face.

“Yeah,” Sideswipe grinned at him, then shrugged. “Maybe we can afford a little more maintenance at some point, if he gets more popular and can raise his prices.” A little extra for some personal care sure sounded nice. Uppercut nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, the first thing I did was get some oil into my joints and replace some of my fluids that were running low. Still had some left over, so.” He raised the drink the barkeep handed to him before taking a long swig.

“Thanks for bringing me along,” Sideswipe said, sipping his own drink. Crappy quality like everything here, but it was high grade. He wasn’t going to say no to a good buzz every now and then.

“Sure thing. You’ve helped me out when you’ve had extra. Just wanna return the favor.”

“Eh, wouldn’t have been necessary.”

“Maybe, but I wanted to, so you’ll just have to live with it.”

Sideswipe just laughed at that and kept drinking. The conversation flowed as smoothly as it ever did between the two of them, and he had to admit he had kind of missed the mech when he’d dallied off to Primus knew where. There’d never even been a guarantee he’d return, but that was a possibility you just had to live with when making friends here.

He was relieved that Uppercut had indeed returned, and once the charge in his systems started to rise… That started to show a little more. Jokes turned more lewd until they were outright flirting, and then paying for a private room at the back for an hour or two, and before he knew it, he was already pinning Uppercut to the dirty berth that was stained with who knew how many other mecha’s liaisons. His friend was moaning as they kissed and groped, and Sideswipe didn’t exactly keep quiet either.

Especially not when his spike finally found its way to Uppercut’s valve, wet and hot. The calipers clenched around his length as he started to rock in and out, increasing his pace when Uppercut’s legs wrapped around his waist. Charge crackled through their systems, high grade in effect as much as their arousal, lighting the gaps of their plating with blue.

They both liked it a little rough, so when Sideswipe leaned down and bit hard on Uppercut’s neck cabling, all he got was a moan and dull claws digging into his seams with little bursts of pain from his sensors. He drove into his friend, chasing after his high just as much as he was pushing the other higher right along with him.

They’d done this enough times that it was familiar by now.

Uppercut came first, crying out his name as his frame stiffened and his overload crackled over him. The uneven clenching of his valve drew a strangled groan from Sideswipe before he tipped over too, releasing his transfluid deep into Uppercut’s valve.

He didn’t quite collapse over the other mech in the aftermath, but it was a close thing. His arms shook as he kept himself propped up, their fans whirring and vents heaving as they tried to dispel the heat from their systems.

Uppercut’s optics opened after a delay, and when they did, Sideswipe grinned down at him. “Again?”

“Again.”

Sideswipe’s spike sprang right back into pressurization when Uppercut rippled his valve around it.

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

Three rounds later they both stumbled out of the private room, then the entire bar, giggling and giddy from the afterglow of good overloads and the high grade in their systems. A kiss of goodbye later they parted ways, driving because who gave a damn about laws and safety, Uppercut most likely headed to continue working, and Sideswipe making his way through the streets to a different destination.

The area around the bar was a hotspot for activity, but some streets later things quieted down. There were still mecha around, but they were ones that had built their shelters here, little nooks and crannies they claimed as their own and defended ferociously.

The twins were no different, and Sideswipe stopped in front of one particular alley. His transformation felt a little wonky, high grade still cruising around his fuel lines, and his… Step wasn’t completely even, was it? He was pretty sure the buildings weren’t about to collapse no matter how his vision tried to convince him otherwise.

Sunstreaker was sitting on the mat they called their berth, doodling around on his sketchbook. He glanced up when Sideswipe got closer, raising one stately optical ridge at him. “Had fun?”

Stupid question, he already knew the answer. Sideswipe nodded anyway, collapsing next to his brother and peeking at what he was drawing.

More cityscapes. He was getting really good with those. “Made enough today?”

“Yeah,” the golden twin confirmed. Good. That meant they could hit one of the public washracks in the morning, before heading back to the upper levels for the day.

Reminded of that, Sideswipe pulled the cubes he’d bought from his subspace, offering one to Sunstreaker. He set aside his sketchbook and accepted it, and the both of them fueled in silence—and quickly, lest someone get the idea of trying to get their fuel from them.

He felt a little bad that Sunstreaker hadn’t gotten to come along to their bar night, but he also knew Sunstreaker didn’t really like getting drunk, so it worked out in the end. The low grade he’d been able to afford would be enough to fill his tanks comfortably.

It took him a while because wow the high grade was really making his processors fire in all sorts of funny ways, but eventually Sideswipe could focus enough to… Feel.

The disquiet. 

He really had to have been distracted to miss that. Now he couldn’t rid himself of it.

“Something’s bothering you,” he said, poking Sunstreaker on his arm.

His brother frowned, staring at his worn claws. It took him a while to say anything.

He did speak up eventually, though. “I’ve had this… Feeling, all day.”

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

It started in the morning, almost as soon as he and Sideswipe had left the public washracks they’d cleaned themselves up in and parted ways to hit different parts of the city that rose all around them. He felt… Watched.

And Sunstreaker had lived on the streets long enough to trust his gut when it said something was wrong. Ignoring your instincts was one of the best ways to get yourself killed—or raped or mugged, if you were lucky.

So he didn’t take the routes he normally would have, weaving instead through the streets he knew so well to more lively areas, until the feeling went away. Even then he didn’t take the straightest way to the park plaza he’d made his spot. It was a hot spot for tourists, exactly what he needed, and when he arrived, a little later than he usually did…

The feeling didn’t come back.

Sunstreaker sighed in relief as he transformed and walked to the shady little area he had made sure he could be found in every day. Word of him and his skills was spreading around slowly but steadily, but if he wanted those potential clients to reach him, he needed to be present.

He set up shop in short order, pulling out his foldable seat and the sign that presented his services and prices, as well as a few example pieces of what he could make, and placed them on the ground like he always did.

Then he sat down. Sideswipe was prone to calling for more “customers” quite loudly, but Sunstreaker had never fancied doing that. Personally he just found it grating. So, as usual, Sunstreaker merely pulled out his sketchbook, entertaining himself with practice and people watching as the activity on the plaza slowly increased. He got looks, his display got looks, and Sunstreaker caught optics and smiled to put on a friendly face and avoid driving off any potential clients by being a grump, as Sideswipe called him.

It wasn’t that long into the morning before he got his first customer. “Hi. Is this your work?” one of the mechs in the group of three asked as they got closer.

Sunstreaker smiled in greeting. “It is. A few credits and I can create something custom just for you.”

The mechs exchanged glances, then some words. About how his prices were fair, his works gorgeous, and how they could watch the entire process to make sure they weren’t being ripped off.

There was no need for concerns like that with him. Sideswipe, on the other hand… Well, a bit of caution was always well founded when in an unfamiliar city.

Or even when the city was familiar. Because the feeling creeped back to him. He had to suppress a twitch and a suspicious look around while he waited on the mecha, but his sensors swept wide, scanning the area as far as they reached.

They reported nothing out of place, but the feeling would not go away.

He hid his tension when the trio turned their attention back to him. 

“I’d love to get a work from you.”

“Me too.”

“Easily done,” Sunstreaker promised and pulled two canvases from his subspace. “Payment upfront and I’ll get started at once. I’ll need a few minutes.”

Their optics were brightening in excitement over the concept of getting this kind of memorabilia from their trip, and both were quick to pay him. Sunstreaker nodded his thanks before grabbing his pens and brushes and setting to work. He’d done this enough times that he was perfectly capable of being quick about it without lowering the quality of his work, and in relatively short order the patient pair were handed their finished pieces.

Both started squealing over them instantly, and this time Sunstreaker’s smile was honest, just a little bit of delight flaring in his spark. Sideswipe was poking at it instantly, but Sunstreaker ignored him in favor and thanking his first clients of the day. They thanked him profusely in turn before walking off with their new possessions.

It was always nice to be appreciated.

Not every customer he ever got was like that, but it was just a matter of staying firm even when they demanded refunds—likely not even because they were honestly unhappy with his work, but because they just wanted it for free.

Sunstreaker didn’t let himself be cowed, though. The plaza was always buzzing with activity and patrolled regularly by enforcers. It made it a safe location for a bit of lawful work, and even if someone would’ve tried something… They would’ve been the ones to get in trouble for it, not him. There was nothing illegal about what he did.

But all the while. All the while the feeling wouldn’t leave him. He smiled and kept his frame loose, inviting, polished as well as he could manage to make him blend in with all these mecha that didn’t live in the gutters, but he felt he wasn’t blending in well enough. Like someone was paying attention just to him specifically.

He couldn’t get paranoid and start looking around in earnest though. He had a facade to keep up, but now it felt like shackles around his wrists, binding him dangerously. 

There weren’t as many customers that day as he would have hoped, but there was enough. They could get by with relatively little, and Sideswipe brought in his own share of credits as well. They’d be fine until tomorrow.

When it was already turning well into the evening, Sunstreaker finished his last customer’s work before he began to pack up, his plating crawling all the while. It was driving him crazy, but now he could look around more freely, and did so as he gathered his things and organized them back into his subspace.

There were mecha walking about, alone or in small groups, going who knew where to do who knew what. Nothing was out of ordinary about it.

None of them were looking his way.

There were mecha sitting on some of the benches as well, alone or with company, again. Some were clearly partners, snuggling into each other, all lovey-dovey. Sunstreaker snorted at them, but still there was no one who stood out to him. No one even remotely appeared like they were or had been looking at him.

What was amiss? He couldn’t rid himself of the feeling and it put him on edge well beyond comfort, but even as he cast his optics around him for a wider view of his surroundings… There was nothing he could see out of place.

Was he losing his mind here, or was there really a danger he couldn’t pinpoint?

It could be the former, his imagination just playing tricks on him, but Sunstreaker acted like it was the latter. He hadn’t survived this long only to die because he got careless. 

He headed for the nearest stretch of road and took the short way to the closest highway, merging into the constant traffic of the larger roads, and again took a long, winding route through too many needless curves and sudden turns.

The feeling would not abandon him.

And he couldn’t drive around all night hoping he could ditch it sooner or later. He and Sideswipe couldn’t afford to waste fuel like that.

For that reason he eventually had to give and head towards the alley they had claimed for themselves.

But he didn’t go there. Instead he stopped a street away and entered one of the abandoned buildings with a knock on the perpetually open doorway, scanning the area for spark signatures.

One came up. “Lossless? Mind if I hang around until Sideswipe gets back?”

Lossless peeked his helm from the next room and waved in greeting. “Hey Sunstreaker. Sure thing, come on in.”

Sunstreaker took the invitation and walked in, and… The feeling receded. Oh, he was still a tense bundle of nerves, but it was an improvement, and he was downright relieved when he sat on one of the dirty couches Lossless and his company had scavenged from who knew where. It made his plating crawl for entirely different reasons, but sooner or later he couldn’t have helped it anyway.

There was no staying clean for long down there, not when you practically slept on the ground. They hit the washracks every damn morning for a reason.

“So where’s Sideswipe?” Lossless asked, reclining on another couch.

“Drinking, from the looks of things,” Sunstreaker shrugged, relaxing on the sofa to the best of his ability. 

“Wow, really? Did you get lucky with creds?”

“Not us, but one of his friends did.”

“That’s a nice treat. I wouldn’t mind if I had enough money on me to do the same.”

“Who would mind?”

“Don’t think I know anyone who would,” Lossless grinned at him, and Sunstreaker’s mouth twitched in something akin to a smile too. “How has your work been going, by the way?”

“I think I’m gaining some reputation.”

Lossless’ cadre slowly trickled in from wherever they had spent the day—stealing, scheming, scamming, if he knew them at all. They were pretty serious about parting better off mecha with their credits by any non-violent means necessary. He and Sideswipe had used many of the same tricks when they had been younger—one working as the distraction while the other handled the stealing.

But where they’d eventually moved on from that to some less risky methods, Lossless’ cadre had continued. They were good at what they did, and equally good at leaving the scene if something went wrong.

He and Sideswipe had run with them a few times, but as much as they admired the cadre, they had never felt the draw to join it.

At the end of the day it was just the two of them—one spark in two frames.

Conversation flowed around him easily, laughter echoing in the room as the cadre pooled the day’s resources, had their energon and counted their funds. He enjoyed the atmosphere as always, soaking it in well into the night. They didn’t kick him out despite how long it took Sideswipe, but as soon as Sunstreaker could feel him closer, he thanked them for having him and left their building to a chorus of goodbyes.

He had hoped that the feeling or the reason for it would have died off during his visit in the cadre’s housing, but he wasn’t even halfway to their alley before it came back.

He was getting ready to lose it at that point, but he had no target, because no matter how he scanned his surroundings with his sensors, he couldn’t find anything to explain the sensation of being watched. 

Aggravated, Sunstreaker transformed outside their alley and marched into the gloom, his engine growling as he sat down on their mattress with more force than necessary. There were only two ways to even go, and he still couldn’t see anyone!

He pulled out his sketchbook and tried desperately to distract himself until he could hear Sideswipe’s engine closing in, and then his brother was already staggering into the alley. Sunstreaker raised an optical ridge at him. “Had fun?”

Drunk or not, Sideswipe still drank his energon with him, but it took him a while before he managed to push through his overcharged haze and pay attention to Sunstreaker’s unease. He was poked in the arm, and usually Sunstreaker would have reminded Sideswipe not so kindly to watch the finish, it was already hard enough to upkeep, but not this time. Instead his optics dropped down to his own claws, dull from overuse and poor maintenance.

They didn’t really have the funds to replace the metal to have something to sharpen into an actual edge again.

“I’ve had this… Feeling, all day,” he spoke up eventually, glancing at Sideswipe. His brother’s optics gained more focus as the severity of Sunstreaker’s inexplicable anxiety slowly worked its way through the high grade in his systems. “Like someone’s watching me. But I haven’t seen anyone or anything.”

Sideswipe thought about that for a moment, then glanced around himself. “I mean… I don’t feel anything, but then again I’m drunk as fuck so that would probably explain it.” Anything but dismissal, Sideswipe instead frowned at his inability to trust his own presently addled instincts. “What do you think we should? One stays up as a watcher?”

“I think that’d be safest,” Sunstreaker agreed. It happened every once in a while that things just got too dangerous for the both of them to recharge at the same time. There was a good reason most of them tried to band together with at least one friend who they could trust to watch their back and vice versa. You never knew what might strike if you were alone.

“I’ll take the first shift, you need to sleep that high grade off,” he continued. Sideswipe nodded at him, not really disagreeing.

“Yeah, I probably should. Ugh. Well, better get started.”

Sunstreaker could feel Sideswipe’s unhappiness with his current overcharge, but there wasn’t really anything but time to take care of that. Sunstreaker scooted to the side enough to give Sideswipe room to lay down, and his brother was down and out within seconds.

Sunstreaker snorted despite himself even as he picked his sketchbook back up and continued working in the light of his optics. His sensors he threw far and wide, on constant lookout for anything out of place.

As the night crawled on… The feeling started to pass. He still couldn’t figure out what had caused it in the first place, but slowly his mind started suggesting that he had just overreacted to some small thing that had been amiss without him making conscious note of it. Which seemed like a pretty likely answer to things.

He glanced down at Sideswipe, his brother’s engine rumbling peacefully and lulling Sunstreaker further into the new explanation for his jumpiness. It had probably been nothing all along.

But should he nevertheless wake Sideswipe to take watch for the rest of the night? That had been the deal and he knew Sideswipe would be upset in the morning if he found out Sunstreaker never had woken him.

Was it necessary, though? It was always better to get a full night’s recharge. Sunstreaker wouldn’t get that at this point no matter what, but he could still grant it to his twin.

There was the scuff of a pede against the ground at the end of the alley.

Sunstreaker’s optics snapped up at once to the image of a mech’s silhouette against the dim light of the quiet street.

Quiet and still and in the dead of night when mostly everyone, even those who liked to stay up late, would be in recharge. A quick scan came up with no spark signature.

Either he was looking at a ghost, or someone living was intent on being bad news.

Not good. “Sideswipe!” Sunstreaker hissed immediately, shaking the red mech’s shoulder until his optics opened. Slower than usual to catch up with things, Sideswipe took a painfully long moment to brush the recharge from his mind.

“What?” he mumbled a little before that process was even over, glancing up at Sunstreaker, then in the direction Sunstreaker was looking at.

Then he froze just as Sunstreaker had.

“Run?”

“Run.”

They got up as one and booked it into the opposite direction, unwilling to find out just what random strangers in the middle of the night would’ve wanted from them.

There were only two ways to go, but the other way wasn’t blocked so that didn’t matter.

Until it did.

One step outside the alley and onto the street and arms shot out to grab Sideswipe, a servo wrapping around his throat with a grip tight enough to silence his vocalizer. Sunstreaker barely had the time to register that much before servos landed on him as well, his throat similarly caught into a crushing grip until he could only spit static.

The third mech appeared from the alleyway just when a fourth one cruised over, but it was only this one that made Sunstreaker’s energon run cold.

The big mech turned into a van, and was currently in his alt-mode. His side door opened as he got closer, revealing a space big enough to hold all five of them.

Sideswipe was struggling, Sunstreaker was struggling, but each of the mechs was a helm taller than they were, and more solidly built. And they acted as if they’d done this before, knowing just how to hold them to keep them from breaking free of their grip, or from screaming.

As humiliating as crying for help would’ve been, sometimes you would’ve needed to do it anyway.

Of course, there was no guarantee that anyone would risk their safety to check what the noise was about.

The van stopped in front of them and they were unceremoniously dragged inside by the mecha both larger and stronger than they were—and they were no weaklings themselves. The third one climbed in with them, and the door closed with a slam.

Clamps were placed around their throats at once, muffling their vocalizers but freeing the mecha’s servos so they could wrangle them onto the ground on their fronts. Their arms were pulled behind their backs despite their resistance, the larger mechs’ strength just greater than theirs, plain and simple. There their arms were tied together by the wrists. Sunstreaker immediately tested the binds, and felt Sideswipe do the same, but the conclusion they both came was that they were solid. 

Sunstreaker growled as he was manhandled onto his back next, Sideswipe panting hard next to him as the same was done to him. The mechs were speaking, but Sunstreaker couldn’t make sense of the language.

Which was enough of a clue on its own. Their optics were Northern blue, but that was an easy detail to fake. He suspected their original color was red.  

The larger frames that didn’t look like they even came from the Northern hemisphere, the harsh language … Those had Kaon written all over them. 

He hoped he was wrong. He hoped these were locals, that they were merely being taken for some manner of forced labor—industrial workers, miners, whores, there were all kinds of functions mecha were pressed to illegally. But if they stayed in Iacon… They would have a chance of reclaiming their lives.

If they were carted to the other side of Cybertron, to Kaon, how were they ever going to get back?

One of the mechs hooked into the medical port at the back of Sideswipe’s neck, heedless of the static coming from his vocalizer that would’ve been creative cursing and insults without the muting clamp. Sideswipe’s mental defenses were overrode with frightening ease, and they couldn’t even place the how before his brother’s chestplates were already splitting apart.

Sideswipe stilled in horror for one precious second before he bucked up, trying somehow to keep the mecha off of him with another quiet screech of static.

It was a fool’s errand. His spark chamber wasn’t pushed forward, but his internals transformed out of the way to give access to it.

One of the mecha held up a small device for their scrutiny. “This, is an explosive,” he spoke up in standard, getting their attention at once. “I will place it into your chassis. We have the trigger. If you try to run, boom.”

Sideswipe’s engine had stalled entirely as dread flooded over the both of them. He had no idea if what the mech said was true, but he wouldn’t have been surprised if it was.

And he wasn’t very willing to call his bluff in fear that it wasn’t a bluff. 

True to his words, the mech placed the device into Sideswipe’s chest, right next to his spark chamber despite Sideswipe’s continuous efforts to somehow prevent it all. Whatever witchcraft the one plugged into his neck was using, it prevented Sideswipe from closing his chestplates to shield himself from the treatment.

And then the device was in place and now Sideswipe’s internals shifted back into place and his chestplates closed tightly with a clang.

Too late.

His twin was left to heave ventilation after ventilation when they moved their attentions to Sunstreaker instead. He growled at them, engine revving an useless warning that they completely ignored, and plugged into his helm like they’d done to Sideswipe. There was nothing he could do but watch as his coding’s safeguards went simply ignored with whatever the mech did, and then his chestplates were parting too, without any input from him whatsoever.

It was not a pleasant feeling, and it was a very small comfort that his spark wasn’t bared on the same go. A device identical to Sideswipe’s was placed into his chassis before his internals returned back to their rightful places around it and his chestplates closed over it.

Potential explosives in their chassis? That was not on their bucket list.

The van they were in kept moving. With their escape made considerably less safe, the twins went mostly ignored by the three mechs in the hold with them. Their abductors spoke with each other almost nonstop, which didn’t matter one bit because they couldn’t understand a word of what was said.

And they couldn’t get a word in from the squeeze on their vocalizers.

They drove for a small eternity, their internal clocks counting on mercilessly. Now was the time they would have gotten up. Hit the washracks. Showered and polished to the best of their ability to get rid of the dirt they’d have inevitably accumulated. Headed out, Sunstreaker to the plaza, Sideswipe to any of the locations he rotated between.

Instead the van kept moving.

It was impossible to relax, but boredom seeped in despite the nerves making their spark flutter wildly. Sunstreaker stared at the ceiling and tried to build images from the bangs and scratches in it. Sideswipe was passing his optics between their captors, just to have something living to look at. 

Then they slowed, and finally stopped. Sunstreaker tensed all over again and Sideswipe followed suit as the mechs started to move around with more purpose. The side door opened to a flood of light, their optics struggling to adjust as the first of the mechs hopped out. The other two hauled them upright and onto the ground outside.

Which turned out to be an airfield, once they had a look around.

That… Likely meant they were going to get taken to a far off location, if nothing gave.

As if reading their thoughts, one of the mechs tapped Sideswipe’s chestplates. “Remember. Trigger.”

Sideswipe growled at the touch, snapping his denta at the mech, who laughed and said something to his fellows. They laughed too, and Sunstreaker found his own engine growling right along with his brother’s. 

But they weren’t clued in on the joke.

Instead and while completely ignoring their struggles, the trio marched them towards an aerial, in their alt-mode just like the van that never bothered to transform. There were airfield workers near the aerial, but Sunstreaker’s hope that they would be of help died off very quickly when they merely gestured for them to hurry up.

It wasn’t exactly difficult to see they were being taken against their will, was it? But the workers barely glanced at them. 

They were led up the ramp into the aerial’s cargo hold, full of what looked like perfectly legitimate cargo about to get transported to who knew where.

And now the twins were going to be along for the ride to that who knew where location.

They were shoved onto their knees at the very back of the cargo hold, out of sight of anyone who didn’t bother to walk well into the hold. The three mechs stayed with them, leaning against the wall as the aerial lifted off.

Sunstreaker glanced at Sideswipe and Sideswipe glanced at him, anger and fear mixed in his brother’s gaze. Sunstreaker expected he looked little different.

It was… Starting to look more and more likely they were on their way to Kaon specifically. And that was the opposite of good. Nothing good was ever said of Kaon. Not that there was much to say about a city-state that refused to interact with the outside word. A dictatorship that held a vice hold of its citizens and didn’t allow anyone in, or anyone out, with very few exceptions… Not a lot of stories escaped that place.

That was all he knew about it, but it was enough to make him desperately unwilling to go there. If they didn’t escape before that… What were their chances of getting out Kaon afterwards?

And why were they being taken there in the first place, he would really love to know that. It was a long way to transport two lowly Iaconians. Longest way there could be, what with Iacon standing proudly on the Northern pole, and Kaon doing the same on the Southern pole. 

But escape would be difficult if their internals were really going to get blown to smithereens were they to try.

They’d gotten out of many tight situations in their short lifetime, some life threatening, but Sunstreaker wasn’t sure how to turn this particular one around. He’d been held at gunpoint, stabbed with the intent to kill, gotten hit by one very angry truck, had the living daylights beaten out of him for being in the wrong place at the wrong time… But he’d never been told his spark would be blown apart if he made a wrong move.

They needed to get those damn bombs out of their chests, which was easier said than done when their hands were secured at their backs, tightly enough that their twisting did nothing to loosen the bonds.

What about trying to get someone’s attention to alert them to the fact they weren’t going anywhere willingly? But they couldn’t scream, and he would’ve bet on their abductors being prepared for something like that, ready to prevent their chances of it.

He was pretty out of ideas beyond that, as was Sideswipe.

It made him hate the situation quite a bit.

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

The aerial flew for a significant amount of time, but having never left Iacon before, having never flown before, Sideswipe had no frame of reference for how far they’d actually traveled. How fast were they even going? And w here? Southward, probably, but there were a lot of stops they could hit on the way to… Wherever they were going.

Kaon was their best guess.

He really wished they were wrong about that.

They did eventually land, and the cargo doors opened, and… It was night. The moons were high in the sky, the only things visible from all the light pollution.

They were escorted out first, in a hurry it felt like. Sideswipe wanted to stall, because if their captors were in a hurry that could mean someone they didn’t want around was coming, and that could be their chance to escape–

But they grabbed him by an arm and dragged him along when he tried to dig his pedes in, and he wasn’t big or strong enough to keep them from doing that.

There was another van waiting for them. They were pushed and pulled into it, and the door closed, and they were off along ground all over again.

He had no idea which way was which anymore, his internal positioning system so confused it was no help. Sunstreaker was vibrating with anger, but their spark felt fear next to it. Fear of the whole situation.

Fear of the unknown.

They’d never left Iacon, and they hadn’t exactly been planning to do that either. Where would they have gone? How could they have gone? Travel was expensive, and they could barely afford to take care of themselves.

If they’d ever gotten that much extra… Then yeah, seeing what the rest of Cybertron looked like would’ve been nice.

Now? Iacon was far behind them. The streets, the gutters, all the mecha they knew… So many miles away he couldn’t even count them. Their whole life was so far away.

Under better circumstances Sideswipe would have called this adventure and embraced it with all he was.

Under these circumstances he wanted nothing to do with it.

They drove another small eternity. Sunstreaker managed to kick their captors a few times when they strayed too close to his pedes, but surprisingly, there was no retaliation beyond something they assumed were expletives, spoken in another language. In the end one of them had just sat on Sunstreaker’s legs, putting an end to most of his motion. Sideswipe was already pinned to the floor of the van by another of the mechs, using his aft as a seat.

He was seething, Sunstreaker was seething, and their spark kept fluttering with fright they didn’t want to admit to.

The sun was back in the sky when they finally stopped and the door was opened. They were dragged out with as little fanfare as any time before. A look around showed a city skyline in the far distance, although he would’ve never been able to tell what city it might’ve been.

In front of them, there was a rotorflier talking with a couple of others, again in the language Sideswipe could only guess was Kaonite. Nothing for them to understand, which was probably according to plan. The mecha had shown they could speak standard too, just… Chose not to.

Which was smart enough. They could talk about whatever they wanted to without having to worry about the twins hearing it. Why give them any edge in the situation, anything they could’ve used to their benefit?

As nonexistent as their chances of actually getting anywhere from the situation were to begin with. If they didn’t have the damn explosives in their chests, then maybe.

It was a possibility they weren’t lying about the whole bomb thing. Sideswipe didn’t want to test it out, because if they weren’t lying?

Boom. Gone.

And he liked living.

The rotorflier seemed to greet the trio leading them along, exchanging a few words before he transformed and they were handed off to the other two mechs. Their original abductors didn’t follow when they were pushed into the helicopter. When they were seated in the heliflier between the two new mechs and they took to air, Sideswipe could just so see the other three returning to the van.

But there were actual windows this time, which was a nice change. They could see the scenery, for all the good that did.

It was a distraction though, because their spark was about filled to bursting with apprehension. Something made Sunstreaker think they were getting close to their final destination, and Sideswipe couldn’t really argue with that.

They’d traveled for a long time already.

Unexpectedly the mech sitting next to Sunstreaker pulled out two cubes from his subspace as soon as their flight had steadied. One was handed past the twins to his comrade, and then… They turned their attentions to the twin sitting closer to them.

Sideswipe tensed immediately.

“Drink up. You’ll need your energy soon enough,” one of the mechs leered, and Sideswipe did not like that tone. He growled despite the scared pulsing of his spark, and Sunstreaker revved next to him equally unhappily.

There was suggestion behind those words that neither of them appreciated, anxiety surging anew where they’d already partially gotten used to the whole gig of getting hauled all over Cybertron. 

They weren’t stupid. They knew a lot about the reasons mechs got taken off the streets, and what the mech was hinting towards…

Sideswipe fervently hoped they were wrong about it, but he had to resign himself to the possibility they were right in their assumptions.

None of that meant he wanted to be freaking fueled by their guards. Sideswipe kept his mouth stubbornly shut even when the mech next to him came to bring the cube closer. “Aw, don’t be like that,” was the disappointed sigh he got for his trouble before the mech started to just… Touch him. “Where’s your secondary intake? Hm? Here? Nope. Here? Ahh, there we go.”

Enough poking around his lower chest and back later he found the cover to his secondary intake from his lower back. He was shoved forward for the mech to have more room to work, and the cover got pried open in short order. Sideswipe hissed through his vents at the sting, but he went ignored as the guard started to sloppily pour the cube into the intake connected straight to his tank. The other didn’t care if half of it went to waste, but Sideswipe still watched his tank’s capacity meter fill up a little, even as much of the energon stained his armor and seeped to his internals through the seams in his armor.

The other guard had managed to pry Sunstreaker’s mouth open, and was with equally little care directing the cube’s contents down his brother’s throat. Sideswipe could feel Sunstreaker’s muted fury at the energon that was soiling his chin and front, but with the tight grip on his jaw holding him in place he didn’t manage to do much about it.

Primus, he wished they’d had their arms in use.Then they could’ve tried to do something at least. His shoulders were aching from being in the same position for so long, but they’d made no move to cut them free at any point.

It would’ve been pretty stupid to do that, but a mech could hope.

Forced fueling aside the trip was as uneventful as everything preceding it. The guards chatted with each other and the rotorflier, but none of it was in standard so he couldn’t do more than let the prattle wash over him. The scenery outside was no more entertaining, just flat fields of metal as far as the eye could see.

He didn’t know enough about Cybertron’s landscapes to confirm their position. Only their guess remained. He didn’t think they’d have to wait for too much longer before they’d find out the answer one way or another.

It turned out he wasn’t wrong about that. Sunstreaker was the first to notice it, his alarm jerking Sideswipe out of his thoughts and into scanning their surroundings again.

The walls that rose in the distance were unmistakable even to street urchins like them.

Kaon. Cybertron’s impregnable fortress, scaled up the size of an entire city-state. 

They hadn’t been wrong after all.

And that wasn’t a very good thing.

The lowkey fright that had been their constant companion ever since they’d been driven out of their alleyway reared up properly now. No one sane ever wanted to go to Kaon. It was where freedom went to die under a lone ruler running the show with an iron fist.

And now they were being taken into it despite Sideswipe considering them both perfectly sane.

His spark was spinning wilder and wilder the closer those walls got, and Primus but their sheer size. The towers within still rose higher than the walls, but that didn’t make them look any smaller.

The heliflier gained altitude just to even get over the walls, and as he did the amount of guns embedded on and in them became apparent.

It was insane. Fragging insane. Sideswipe could see why they called it a fortress, even if before he had thought it a little bit exaggerated.

It wasn’t exaggerated. It wasn’t exaggerated at all.

If the whole place was locked up as tight as the walls suggested, how were they ever going to get the pit out of there?

The rotorflier flew over the walls, with the guns at the top of the tower aimed at him all the while. It was freaking nerve wracking. What did he know, maybe they’d get shot down for whatever reason these mecha saw fit to shoot others down, and then the explosives in their chests wouldn’t much matter anymore.

But they didn’t get shot at at all, and just kept flying.

And kept flying.

And kept flying.

They wove between the towers to what Sideswipe guessed was towards the city’s center. The towers… They were so different from Iacon. They didn’t shine. They didn’t look like polished silver.

These towers were matte and dark, almost black. They were thicker, wider, and looked just as durable as the walls did.

It was like the whole city was built to handle a full blown bombing effort. He wondered if it had been bombed at some point, and how that had gone. None of the history files he’d ever integrated said anything about something like that happening, but he knew how lacking their education was.

They kept going long enough that his marvel of the city and everything he was seeing started to die out. He entertained himself by watching the other fliers passing them by. They were different from Iaconian fliers too. These were on average larger, with only a few smaller, defter aerial thrown in there.

And some were total behemoths. You’d only really seen them in the industrial sections of Iacon, but here they seemed to be flying all over the place.

The highways far below were darker in color too, but otherwise the way they ran between and through the towers was familiar enough. 

The whole city was so… Bleak, right down to the cloudy sky blocking out direct sunlight.

When the rotorflier started to slow down and lower itself, Sideswipe started to wish they’d kept going for a while longer. For like, so much longer they flew straight out of the city on the other side. That would’ve worked for him really well. 

Instead they were apparently coming to their destination. Sunstreaker straightened and tensed next to him, and Sideswipe copied him when he could feel them touch down on the landing pad of the particular tower. Their transport’s rotors slowly died down, and then the door was opening again.

Two burly mechs in identical dark paint jobs were already waiting on the other side. The twins were pushed out of the flier by their existing guards, words were exchanged around them, and once again they changed hands. The big mecha took a hold of each of them by the arm, and then it was back to being dragged to some unknown destination.

They entered the tower through large doors that led to a wide, long hallway. They were led along it, through several turns, one elevator ride, then more turns, until Sideswipe was hopelessly lost and Sunstreaker faring no better.

But finally they stopped in front of yet another set of doors. A green and purple mech was already there waiting for them, looking grumpy. Which was a nice enough contrast to the stoic guards that had been hauling them along.

The new mech plugged into their necks as they came to him, and this time they were legit medic’s overrides that opened their chestplates. The explosives—if they really were that—were plucked out of their chests and their chassis closed back up, then the clamps constricting their vocalizers were removed, and before they had the time to even react to that, their arms were freed.

No restraints. No muters. No could be bombs.

Free, except for the fact they were deep in one of Kaon’s towers with no idea which way the exit even would’ve been at.

They didn’t have enough time to do so much as share a glance between them before the doors were opened and they were shoved through them, stumbling into a room full of mecha large and larger.

More than a dozen optics snapped to them as soon as they entered, and Sideswipe felt his spark shrink at the emotion he could recognize in them.

Lust.

[aaarianna-actuallywrites]

Mistletoe Confessions

I wrote this for the Edens Zero Secret Santa Exchange on Discord. Here’s some EZ Crew Christmas Shenanigans!

“I know! We can do Secret Santa!” Rebecca suggested. “It’ll be fun!”

“Woahhh,” Shiki muttered, eyes growing wide. “Rebecca, what’s a Secret Santa?”

She gasped dramatically. Weisz rolled his eyes at her antics.

Shiki, Rebecca, Homura, Pino, and Happy were sitting on the couch in Edens Zero’s game room, with Weisz leaning against the arm, debating what to do for the upcoming holiday.

“I am also curious, but I won’t say that out loud.”

“Secret Santa is where everyone picks one person and gets that person a gift.”

“Ooh, I pick Rebecca!” Shiki shouted with his trademark enthusiasm.

“It’s supposed to be secret, idiot,” Weisz said. “And why do you not know, Homura?”

“We did not celebrate this ‘Christmas’ on Odeo.”

“So each person gets one gift?” Pino asked, her antennae wiggling in budding excitement.

“Yeah. Instead of everyone getting a bunch of presents, we each get one present that’s more personal,” Happy explained.

“How exciting!”

“Sounds like a shitty deal if you ask me.”

“Oh come on, Weisz, don’t be such a Grinch,” Rebecca teased.

“I am not a Grinch.”

“You’re totally a Grinch,” Shiki said.

“You don’t even know what that is!”

“It is decided,” Homura said, nodding solemnly. “Weisz is a Grinch.”

“Neither do you! Ugh, you guys suck.”

“What is a Grinch?”

‘Of course only Pino would have the decency to ask first,’ Weisz thought.

“A Grinch is a grump with a shriveled up heart who hates Christmas, gift giving, and cheer,” Rebecca explained, almost like she was giving a lecture to a group of kindergartners.

“Hm,” Pino said as she processed the new information. “The definition does seem to fit Mr. Weisz rather well.”

“What are we shitting on Weisz for this time?” Ivry asked as she, Hermit, and Witch entered into the madness.

“Weisz is being a total Grinch about doing Secret Santa,” Rebecca said.

“Oh, yeah, makes sense.”

“Why is everyone ganging up on me?” Weisz grumbled.

“Oh, are we celebrating Christmas, Lord Shiki?”

“Yeah! Rebecca just told me about it. It sounds like fun! She also told me about Santa and his spaceship that can travel across the entire cosmos in a day!”

“Santa’s not even-”

Before Weisz could finish his sentence, he was staring down the barrel of Rebecca’s spare pistol.

“Don’t even think of spoiling this for Shiki and Pino,” she threatened quietly.

Weisz held up his hands in surrender. Rebecca slowly lowered her gun, eyes narrowed in a threatening glare.

“If it is secret, then how are the recipients chosen?” Homura asked.

“Everyone writes their name on a piece of paper, and then we each take turns picking one out of a hat,” Hermit said, not looking up from her handheld game. “And then you keep who you’re buying a present for a secret until you give them their gift.”

Homura put her hand over her mouth at Hermit’s pointed comment, but said nothing.

“Couldn’t you just write a program or something that pairs us up randomly?” Weisz asked.

“I could, very easily. But I won’t.”

“Why not?” He was nearly whining.

“I’m keeping in the spirit of Christmas. Also, to piss you off, specifically.”

“Why does everyone want to bother me today?” Weisz grumbled under his breath.

“Cause you’re an easy target as long as you keep bitchin’,” Ivry said, punctuated by flicking Weisz’s ear as she strode past.

“Why do you not like Christmas, Mr. Weisz?” Pino asked.

Weisz shrugged. “It’s not like I hate Christmas, I just don’t care one way or the other about it. And it never made sense to me why so many people act like it’s such a big deal. It’s just another day.”

“It’s a holiday. That’s like saying your birthday is just another day!” Rebecca said.

“It is.”

Rebecca gasped again.

“Can you stop being so dramatic?”

“I have paper and pencils for everyone,” Witch called as she walked back into the game room.

Weisz blinked, not having realized that Witch left the room to begin with, but still taking the paper and pencil when she handed it to him.

The room fell mostly silent, with only the scratching of pencil on paper as everyone scribbled their names down.

“What about the hat?” Shiki asked.

Ivry snatched the sorceress hat off of Witch’s head and handed it to him, putting her slip of paper in. “Here ya go, Shiki. There’s your hat.”

“Awesome!” he said as he enthusiastically shoved his own paper in it.

The hat was passed around the room and everyone put their names in, though Weisz did it with extreme reluctance.

“Alright! I wanna pick first!”

Shiki nearly punched the hat out of his own grip with his zealousness as he reached in to pick his Secret Santa recipient.

“Remember, you’re not supposed to say who you got. It’s supposed to be a surprise to the person you’re giving the gift to,” Rebecca said.

Shiki handed the hat off to her as he read the name on the paper he picked. To Weisz’s surprise, he managed to keep quiet about who he drew.

As the hat made its way around the room, Weisz vaguely wondered who he’d get.

‘If I had to choose, I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to get a gift for Shiki. That idiot would be excited by actual coal,’ he thought, chuckling quietly to himself.

When the hat finally made it to him, there was only one piece of paper left inside.

Homura Kougetsu

‘Damn.’

He left the game room, wondering what in the cosmos Homura would want for Christmas.

‘Even if I asked, she probably wouldn’t know herself, since she’s never celebrated Christmas before.’

He groaned, dreading the task ahead.

~~~~~~~~

“Okay, we’re off! We’ll be back soon!” Rebecca called out to Witch as everyone piled into the Aqua Wing to venture down to Blue Garden to shop for their gifts.

“I apologize for not being able to go with you. Unfortunately, as you know, I cannot leave the ship.”

“Don’t worry, Miss Witch!” Pino said. “Miss Rebecca and I will help you get your present!”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. We’ll be in constant contact, it’ll be just like you’re there with us.”

Witch smiled, but Weisz could see that she was a little disappointed.

“In the meantime, I will plan out the decorations.”

Weisz put his new earbuds in to shut out his crewmates’ yammering. He’d taken to listening to music a bit more recently, even if the only songs he listened to were considered “old” by everyone else’s standards.

Though he’d never admit it, sometimes he did miss Norma. Even if it was only a longing for the simplicity of his time compared to the future he hadn’t quite gotten the hang of yet.

‘I still have no idea what Homura could possibly want as a present. I can’t remember her ever wanting anything since I met her, except..’

Weisz cracked his neck, shaking away the thought. ‘That’s not gonna help.’

~~~~~~~~

As soon as Rebecca led them to what had to be the biggest outdoor mall Weisz had ever seen in his life, everyone ran in different directions. Or in Shiki’s case, floated.

Weisz walked slowly, looking at all the shops around him. This part of the mall was mostly clothing stores, which would be useless, as he could make any kind of clothes he wanted in the Dress Factory on the ship.

One shop in particular caught his eye, however.

‘Heh. Christmas-themed lingerie? That’s worth buying.’

He was halfway across the court when he remembered that they’d be giving their presents in front of everyone else. And that Homura probably wasn’t one for lingerie in the first place.

‘I might be shameless, but even I’m not that shameless.’

He grumbled, but kept walking.

He passed by clothing stores, jewelry stores, and sports stores, all of which he doubted would carry anything that Homura could be remotely interested in owning. With each store he passed, his annoyance grew.

’What kind of gift do you give a swordswoman who says everything, but doesn’t seem to want anything material?’

His friends had long since ditched him, but even if he asked everyone on their crew, he doubted any of them could come up with a concrete answer as to what Homura would actually like. Though she said everything that came to her mind, she’d somehow never mentioned her interests, besides…

As Weisz rounded the corner, he finally saw a shop that he could work with.

‘What do you get a swordswoman? A decorative blade,’ he thought. ‘Even though her Ether Gear means she’s literally never without one, and I doubt she’d have a use for a blade that’s not meant to be, well, used, it’s as good a place as any to start.’

A bell rang as he walked into the shop, and almost immediately after stepping through the doorway, the noise from outside seemed impossibly distant. Weisz’s ears started to ring faintly in the sudden silence, one that even the dust seemed afraid to break.

The broad-shouldered clerk at the counter looked up, but didn’t say anything as Weisz began to wander around the shop. The sheer number of pointy-death-sticks hanging on the walls made him a little uneasy.

Guns have a safety function, after all, and knives and swords do not.

‘Zweihänder, Broadsword, Rapier, Dao, Katana, how many fucking ways can you make steel sharp enough to kill someone?’ he thought.

The man at the counter seemed to be the only employee in the shop, and he watched as Weisz navigated all the complicated classifications that he never even knew existed.

‘Well, a big sword is out of the question,’ he thought. ‘I don’t know if I can even lift it, let alone…’

He blanched as he noticed the price on a nearby Claymore.

‘..Afford it. A smaller knife will be fine. I think.’

The employee never spoke, but Weisz could feel his stare as he moved through the shop.

‘I know I’m a thief, but he can’t possibly know that, and I sure as hell can’t steal anything from here if I can’t even carry it.’

The silence was nearly unbearable, and as he came around to the back of the shop, Weisz was seriously tempted to just leave and get a generic Christmas gift that no one could dislike.

‘It’s not like someone who’s never celebrated Christmas before would know the difference, right?’

He shook his head. Homura couldn’t lie, and he- and everyone else- was sure to hear how much or how little she liked his gift. And he refused to be the only one unsuccessful in their Secret Santa charades.

Out of the corner of his eye, he just barely caught part of the description of a small dagger.

Valkyrie.

He nearly gave himself whiplash with his double-take.

Valkyrie Wingblade Dagger.

Even Weisz could admit that it was a beautiful work of art. The blade itself was somewhere around six to eight inches and two-pronged, but that wasn’t the most impressive thing about it.

Spreading out from the handle was a set of wings. Each individual feather had been meticulously crafted, and the wings formed a hand-guard of sorts. The handle itself was simple, yet elegant, and there were two little things jutting out from the bottom of it.

‘Maybe that’s for hanging it?’

“Find something that interests you?”

Weisz jumped as the employee’s deep voice boomed in the silent shop. He could hear his accelerated heartbeat in his ears.

“Uh.. yeah, maybe.”

“The Valkyrie dagger, huh? It’s a fine choice. Who’s it for?”

“A friend. She.. likes swords, and her teacher’s name was Valkyrie.”

“...Interestin’.  I heard stories about some warrior single-handedly changing the tide of the war on Odeo about ten years ago now. Some of ‘em put ‘er name as ‘Valkyrie,’ but I thought that was just hearsay. It is an ancient name, after all. Didn’t think anyone besides historians and sword experts knew about it.. Wonder if it’s the same person.”

Weisz blinked at the history lesson. “Valkyrie Yuna. That’s her name. And she’s definitely the same person as my friend’s teacher.”

“Yer friend must be one hell of a fighter, then.”

“Yeah..”

“You gonna get that one, or keep lookin’?”

Weisz glanced down at the dagger’s price tag, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief to find that it was reasonable.

“Sure, I’ll get this one.”

The clerk reached into the display case to grab it. “If you want, you can get it engraved. It’ll cost a little extra, and take a bit of time, but it’s a common option this time of year.”

“How much more?” Weisz asked hesitantly. “And how long will it take?”

~~~~~~~~

Edens Kitchen looked nearly unrecognizable. Witch had gone far beyond what Weisz had expected in turning it into a winter wonderland; Color-changing lights and garland criss-crossed the room, and fake snowflakes that he suspected Witch had cut out herself all hung from the ceiling. Christmas tree and gingerbread man cutouts decorated the bottom two feet of the walls, red and green ribbons were wrapped artfully around each of the tables and chairs, and fake snow covered the floor. There was even a real Christmas tree in the corner that was so picturesque, he vaguely wondered what movie it was stolen from.

Not to mention the mistletoe that was hanging in just about every doorway in and around the kitchen, which he took careful measures to avoid meeting anyone under.

Pino had frozen in excitement for a solid twenty seconds when she saw the decorations, to the point that Weisz was nearly concerned Hermit would have to reboot her. Shiki was equally excited, temporarily losing control over his Ether Gear in the process. Witch and Rebecca had to weigh him down so he wouldn’t ruin the decorations on the ceiling.

Weisz was impressed. Witch’s decorations almost put him in a festive mood, which was more than he could say for any other Christmas celebration he’d been to in his life. Even the food was festive, with holiday staples like mashed potatoes, turkey, and stuffing all decked out in red and green embellishments wherever possible. Even the eggnog and hot chocolate had red and green shavings in them, which Witch had assured all of them were just pieces of chocolate and sprinkles.

What she missed in Secret Santa shopping, she more than made up for with the decor.

“It’s beautiful, Miss Witch!” Pino’s antennae were nearly invisible with how fast they were wagging.

“Yeah, you really went all out! It looks amazing!” Rebecca said, trying to pull Shiki away from getting tangled in the lights.

“I must agree,” Homura said from behind her hand. “I feel as if I am in that Christmas-themed village from that movie Rebecca spoke of.”

“Thank you. I wanted to make our first Christmas together truly special,” Witch said, blushing. She’d replaced her sorceress hat with a Santa one, and her staff with a giant candy cane. “I even made everyone a Santa hat to really get in the spirit!”

“Everyone meaning everyone,” Ivry said, with a pointed look at Weisz. “And you gotta wear it. Ship rules.”

Weisz grumbled, but Witch looked so happy with herself and her efforts that he didn’t want to ruin it.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll wear the damn hat.”

‘I guess it won’t kill me, it’ll just do significant psychological damage.’

After an hour of partying, eating, drinking eggnog, and watching Pino try to meet everyone, including him, under the mistletoe- which he reluctantly agreed to, letting her give him a cold kiss on the cheek, both because he feared he might be staring down Rebecca’s pistol again if he didn’t, and she was just too adorable for words while asking(though he’d never admit it)- it was time for Secret Santa.

“It’s time for presents!” Rebecca sang.

Everyone scrambled to the pile of presents under the tree, rushing to give theirs first.

“Here,” a dry voice spoke beside him.

He turned to find Hermit presenting him with a small box.

“Thanks,” he said, opening it slowly. He wouldn’t put it past the little troll of a Shining Star to give him a gag gift that would blow up in his face.

He was pleasantly surprised to find a real present in the box, but also a bit confused by it. “Is this just the Arsenal Suit?”

“More specifically, Arsenal Suit Mark One-Point-Five. I spent two days slaving over the formulas to make it more cost effective. Plus a couple of other special features. We can test it out tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Thanks, Hermit.”

“Of course,” she said coolly.

As he looked around, he saw Pino giving Witch a box that was bigger than the little bot was- or, more accurately, Pino was sitting on top of the box, and Rebecca was handing it over- Ivry standing behind them, a gift he assumed was for Rebecca in hand, and Shiki giving Happy a candy cane colored bag.

He found Homura standing in the doorway under the mistletoe. As Weisz walked over, he made sure not to step under it.

“Here,” he said, suddenly embarrassed as he handed the long box over to her.

“Thank you, Weisz.”

As she moved to open it, Weisz was struck with sudden anxiety.

‘If she doesn’t like it, no one will let me live it down for who knows how long,’ he thought. ‘And I actually tried with this. She has to like it.’

He briefly wondered why he was so concerned about her reaction now, when he hadn’t been before.

‘Is it really only because this is the first time I’m giving a gift to someone who’s opinion really matters to me? Or is it because this is the first swordmaster I’ve tried to give a gift to?’

She stared into the box silently. And somehow, her silence was worse than her outright saying that it was horrible. He’d never seen Homura speechless before.

Slowly, she reached in and pulled out the blade, examining it carefully.

“Valkyrie wings…” she said quietly.

“Yeah,” he said, unsure of what else he could say.

He watched as her eyes roamed over the dagger, taking in every detail. Her eyes widened when she noticed the engraving.

“So, what did you want the engraving to say?” the clerk asked.

“Valkyrie Homura.”

Finally, Homura looked up at him, her mouth slightly open and eyes widened a bit in shock. Then, she pressed her lips together as tears welled up in her eyes.

‘Son of a-’

“Thank you.” She interrupted his train of thought, a smile spreading across her face.

“Y- you like it?”

She nodded. “Yes.” She took a deep breath. “Immensely so.”

Putting the dagger back in the box and closing it, she looked back up at him and smiled again. A genuine smile, one that Weisz had never seen on her face before.

‘She looks really pretty smiling like that.’

His shoulders scrunched up in embarrassment as he realized what he was thinking, and he looked away in an attempt to hide the blush he was sure was spreading across his face, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Good.” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I would not have expected something so thoughtful from you,” she said, immediately covering her mouth as she realized what she said. “Oh, I hadn’t meant to say that aloud. My apologies.”

“No, I’m with you on this one. I wasn’t expecting it, either.”

She giggled behind her hand.

“So, why are you standing over here?”

“I was hoping to meet Shiki under the mistletoe.”

“I- a- .. oh. Really?” he asked, ten kinds of confused all at once.

“Yes, I was hoping to challenge him to a duel.”

“A- uh, what?”

“Ivry explained mistletoe to me. If two are caught under it, they must duel. She called it ‘mistlefoe.’ She said it was a time-honored tradition.”

Weisz burst out laughing so hard that he had to lean against the doorway so he didn’t fall over completely.

“What is so funny?” she asked, her hand coming back up to cover her mouth again, this time out of embarrassment.

“That’s not what mistletoe is for,” he said after he managed to calm down enough to be understood.

“Then what is it for?”

Now completely calm, he stood up straight. “The point of mistletoe is that you’re supposed to kiss whoever you meet under it.”

They both froze as they realized that Weisz had stepped underneath said mistletoe without realizing it. Matching blushes sprung up on their faces as they struggled to speak.

“W-well, I suppose I would not mind it so much,” Homura said, slapping both hands over her mouth with a high-pitched squeak.

His shoulders scrunched up even further at her confession.

“Y-... you wouldn’t?”

“I-... I, umm..” her voice was almost a full octave higher than normal. “Sister Ivry!”

“Oh, shit,” the wicked nun cackled, hiding behind Witch as Homura stormed over to her.

Weisz stayed frozen, staring at the now empty space in front of him, his heart racing.

~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, everyone was passed out in the game room. Rebecca demanded they have a “Christmas Movie Marathon” after their Secret Santa shenanigans, and of course Shiki agreed.

Now, both of them were asleep on top of each other, drunk off their asses from Ivry’s spiked eggnog. The nun in question was also drunk, sprawled out on the floor.

‘I didn’t know Ivry could get drunk, seeing as she drinks all the time. And she’s an android.’

Hermit was sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, with Pino and Happy curled up in her lap, all of them asleep.

‘Apparently, androids sleep, too.’

Weisz shook his head, stretching his neck out and looking at the other side of the couch where Homura had been sitting. She left an hour ago, citing wanting to go to bed as the reason, but she left with both hands forcefully covering her mouth, and he had a sinking feeling it was because of him.

When they came in for the movie marathon, they sat on opposite sides of the couch and didn’t look at each other the entire time. Their earlier conversation crept, unbidden, into his mind again.

‘I wouldn’t mind kissing Homura, either, I guess. She’s beautiful, strong, kind-’

He considered it nothing short of a Christmas miracle that his stomach growled at that moment, interrupting his train of thought.

On his walk to the kitchen, he tried overthinking about what to eat, so as to keep thoughts of Homura and kissing out of his mind. It was easier to just brush off that conversation as the holiday spirit affecting her in an odd way than to think about wanting to kiss her and the ramifications of doing so.

‘For one, she can’t keep a secret to save her life, so everyone else would know within twenty-four hours,’ he thought. ‘She’s probably never even- Why am I still thinking about this?!’

He almost forgot about the decoration explosion in the kitchen. Walking into it was a decent enough distraction as he forced himself to change the subject in his mind.

The leftover food from their party hadn’t been put away yet; The bowl of mashed potatoes was nearly empty, both of the pies and the cheesecake were completely gone- most likely courtesy of Rebecca’s bottomless pit of a stomach- and the turkey was split down the middle almost perfectly, with one half picked at and the other untouched.

Weisz tore off a small piece of turkey and tossed it into his mouth. None of the party food really interested him, so he pulled up the holographic menu to skim through. But it didn’t do as much as he’d hoped in terms of distracting him. After five minutes of mindless scrolling where his mind wasn’t really on the food, he gave up and ordered a glass of water.

‘Do I really want to kiss Homura, or did that damn Santa hat do more damage than I thought it would?’

The kitchen slid his glass of water over to him, and he sipped on it slowly.

‘Is this what it’s like to doubt yourself? Have I really never doubted myself in my entire life? I probably should’ve.’

“Wow, I’m a selfish prick,” he muttered.

No longer hungry, he finished off his water, deciding to just go to bed.

‘Hopefully I’ll wake up and be able to convince myself that all of the “Kissing Homura” business was just a dream.’

As the kitchen door slid open, he ran into someone coming in. That someone being Homura.

‘Either the universe hates me, or it just likes laughing at me.’

“Weisz,” she said quietly.

“Homura,” he said, his mouth suddenly dry.

“I was just going to get some water.”

He nodded, unsure of what else to do.

They stared at each other for a few moments until Homura nodded and moved to walk past him. He was content to just let her pass him by- at least, he thought he was. But somehow, his mind and his arm weren’t on the same page, because he found himself reaching out to stop her walking away.

“Hey.”

She turned to face him, a hand coming up to cover her mouth. “Yes?”

‘Fuck it.’

“Did… did you mean it? What you said earlier?” he forced out.

“A-about.. kissing?” her voice was unnaturally high again.

He sighed heavily, suddenly very aware of his racing heartbeat. “Y- yeah.”

“I… yes,” she whispered, her cheeks a fiery red.

His shoulders scrunched up far enough that he felt like a turtle trying to retreat into its shell. His pulse pounded in his ears, and suddenly it seemed as though his entire torso was burning in embarrassment.

Of course it was only then that both of them looked up and noticed that they were right back where they were before: under the mistletoe.

Homura took a deep breath, straightening up. Her confident posture only lasted a couple of seconds before she spoke. “What about you?”

His eyes widened in shock. “Do I… wanna kiss you?”

She nodded, refusing to look at him.

“I, um… Well… You’re not drunk, are you?”

“W- what?” she asked, shocked. “No. In truth, I do not like alcohol. Not its taste, nor its effects.”

“...Okay.”

“Why?”

“It’s a weird day,” he said, shaking his head.

“Are you?”

“Stone cold sober,” he said. ‘Though this conversation is making me feel like I’m drunk,’ he thought. ‘Either that, or I’m in a fever dream.’

Homura paused, eyes darting back and forth. “You never answered my question.”

Weisz breathed in, then out slowly. “... Yeah,” he said, surprising both of them with his answer. “Yeah, I- I.. want to kiss you.”

Both of them were silent for a moment, uncertain of what to do.

“I have… never actually kissed anyone before. Is it like a battle?”

The noise he made was somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. “No, it’s not that complicated. It’s pretty easy, actually. Haven’t you ever seen a movie or read a book with a kiss in it?”

“Well, yes, but how can I know how much of that is fiction, and how much is accurate to reality?”

Weisz tilted his head to the side. “Fair point. But it’s basically the same, for the most part. It’s, well.. I mean, it’s just something you learn by doing.”

“Then let me learn. Or teach me, rather.”

“O-okay.” For the first time ever, Weisz hesitated to kiss her. Not even his first kiss was this drawn out.

He rolled his shoulders, projecting a calm he didn’t feel, and brought his hand up to her cheek. Without giving himself time to overthink, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

The first couple of seconds were awkward. Homura stood still, not quite grasping how to respond. But she proved herself a quick learner when she started kissing back.

Weisz brought his other hand to her waist, pulling her closer. Homura covered his hand on her cheek with her own, resting the other on his arm.

He ended their kiss sooner than he would have liked, but he didn’t want to overstep with a too-intense one. Resting his forehead on hers, Weisz still kept close to her lips, torn between wanting another kiss and wondering if Homura did.

At this distance, it was hard to not look at each other, but they both tried.

“That… was nice.”

He nodded slightly. “Mhm.”

“Weisz,” she whispered, finally looking him in the eyes.

“Yeah?”

She gulped. “...Teach me again?”

The corner of his lips turned up in a small smile. “Okay,” he said, leaning in again.

“Wait.”

He stopped. “Hm?”

Homura moved the hand that was resting on his arm to instead lay on his cheek. Then, she leaned forward and reconnected their lips.

Weisz’s hand on her waist slid around to the small of her back, pulling her even closer than before. His hand resting on her cheek slid down to join the other. He allowed himself to kiss her a little harder, nearly losing himself in the moment.

When they pulled apart again, they were breathless.

“Well… You’re definitely a fast learner,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Thank you, I pride myself on it.”

Weisz chuckled, which set Homura off giggling before taking a step back. Neither of them took their hands off the other.

“Thank you… for teaching me.. about mistletoe. It was…-”

“Yeah, it was good for me, too.”

Homura nodded, a small smile growing on her face. She looked away from him.

“Well, it has certainly been… an interesting first Christmas,” she said, stepping away slowly. “Goodnight, Weisz.”

“Night.”

She turned her head away, hiding her smile as she walked past him.

Weisz touched his lips lightly. “Yeah,” he said to himself. “Maybe Christmas isn’t so bad.”

[mammon-sama]

Breakpoint (Fanfiction) Part 1/6 | Belphegor

Heyo, it’s me again!  This is an older fanfic for Obey Me! that I haven’t updated in a hot minute, but I’m planning on working on it soon-ish.  Anyway, this isn’t fluffy or cute or anything, it’s really mostly lore stuff!  

Anywho, it’s a six-part story (only parts one through three are written so far) and focuses on each of the brothers (Satan being the exception since he was never an angel) breaking point in when they decided to rebel against their Father when they were angels up in the Celestial Realm.  

You can read all the chapters that are up (one, two, and three) here on AO3, but I shall post them on Tumblr one by one in the coming days.  

Also, I know I still have more requests to do, and I am working on them, I promise!

Title:

Breakpoint

Summary:

These are the tales of when Belphegor, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Mammon, and Lucifer each decided to actively rebel against their Father and together incite the Great Celestial War.  

Genre:

Backstory/Lore

Rating:

T

Word Count:

3126

Additional Note:

The chapters are ordered “age-wise,” in the sense that Belphegor is first and Lucifer is last.  However, the actual content of the stories do not go chronologically, save for Lucifer’s chapter, which brings all the previous chapters together.  As I stated before, the first chapter is Belphie’s!

-

“Belphie, stop squirming,” Beelzebub muttered.  “You’re not very heavy, but if you keep moving around, I’m gonna lose my grip and drop you.”  He readjusted his hands under his twin’s arms as he flapped his wings in descent.

Belphegor fidgeted a bit more at the movement, earning a hmph from his brother.  He knew better than to look down, especially as an angel without wings and so unused to flying, but some kind of inane reflex prompted him to anyway.

He gulped as he tilted his head downward.  The ground didn’t seem to be coming up awfully fast—Beel was a deliberate flyer—but that didn’t stop a tingle from snaking its way up his spine.  He clutched the scroll in his hand tightly, not daring to imagine what would happen should he drop it and it go whizzing down all the way to the verdant plains below.  

“I always forget how far the cloud cover of the Celestial Realm is from Earth’s surface,” Belphegor commented.  “I can’t believe you make this flight every day, Beel.”

“It’s my job, Belphie,” Beel responded cheerfully.  “Someone has to guard Eden, you know?” After a pause, he scanned their surroundings below, and decided, “Alright, I’m going to drop you off here.  I’ll walk the rest of the way—Eden’s only a half a mile north, but I’m pretty sure there’s a town nearby here for you to explore.”

As Belphegor’s feet touched Earth’s surface and he wriggled free from his brother’s grasp, he marveled at the solidness of the ground, despite having made this excursion several times before.  In the Celestial Realm, everything under their feet would be on a layer of cloud, and it was strange for him to feel the sturdiness of soil against the soles of his sandals.  

He turned to his twin.  “Thanks, Beel.”

“I would say, ‘anytime,’ but Belphie, you can’t keep doing this,” Beel warned, wringing the hem of his tunic anxiously.  “You know you always get in trouble whenever you come down here.”

Belphegor sighed.  Getting in trouble was quite an understatement.  As the Angel of the Sabbath, he was meant to spend his time in the Celestial Realm, managing reports on which humans below kept the covenant of the Sabbath and which did not, and calculating percentages of whether or not their Sabbath-related actions warranted them a spot in heaven.  As far as his Father was concerned, this was not a job that required him to go down to Earth, and every time that he did, he had quite the plethora of punishments to endure—most in the form of excruciatingly long lectures on disobedience. 

But that didn’t stop him from making the odd trips down to Earth.  It wasn’t necessarily the planet itself that fascinated him, but the creatures that inhabited it: in his opinion, there was no other being that his Father had created so engrossing than the strange little mortals that looked surprisingly like their angelic counterparts above.  These creatures—these humans —he could never find a way to truly describe them.  

Humans, with their mortal life spans, each living only a fraction of what he had lived, who had seen only an iota of what he had seen.  Humans, who lived each day like it was their last and loved so fiercely that altruism seemed to be embedded into their very beings. Humans, who were just another one of his Father’s innumerable possessions, expendable and easy to dispose of.     

He couldn’t help but allow himself to visit them now and again, and due to the fact that his Father had decided in the Beginning that wings were given to angels based on their job and how often they needed to travel down to Earth, he had to rely on his twin, Beelzebub, to fly him down on his way to Earth for his daily morning shift as a Guardian of Eden.

However, this always brought the discussion of when Beel was supposed to return after his stint at Eden to recollect his brother, so together they could fly back home.

“I’ll come back at sunset—that’s okay, right, Belphie?”  Beel asked. It had been the same schedule the pair had been using every time they visited Earth. 

“Uh,” Belphegor began, turning his eyes downward, as he unfurled the scroll that he had been holding.  “About that ...”

Beel’s eyes widened as he saw the contents of the scroll.  “Isn't that … isn’t that the official schedule for Messenger Angels on when they’re supposed to deliver messages to humans?”  He gulped. “Why do you have that?”

“Relax, I asked Gabriel for a copy, and he said I could have it,” Belphegor reassured.  He pointed to the hundreds of boxes inked on the papyrus, each box containing writing that depicted a single message, to whom it was for, and where a Messenger Angel could find the recipient.  “Some of these have dates for when they have to be delivered by,” he explained, tracing his finger along one of the boxes, which was stamped with an angel’s personal seal and acted as their signature.  “The ones sealed with purple wax means that someone has already been assigned to deliver the message because it was so urgent.”  He moved to the next box, which was stamped with red wax.  “This one means that it can be delivered at any time, but someone already is en route to do it.”  He then pointed to a box that had no stamps near it whatsoever. “And these?  They’re nonurgent  and no one’s signed up to dispatch them.  Those are gonna be mine.”

Beelzebub gulped.  “What do you mean, yours?”

He rolled the scroll back up and took a deep breath, not daring to look his brother in the eye.  He hadn’t told Beelzebub of his plan, yet, and he dreaded to hear his twin’s opinion of it.

Beel was a fastidious worker, who was proud of his role as one of the Guardians of Eden, but he was even more proud of his younger brother’s monumental task of being the angel who was in control of the entire Sabbath.  Belphegor’s titular role of Angel of the Sabbath was one that afforded him quite a bit of fame and power up in the Celestial Realm.  There wasn’t an angel who didn’t know his name, and he was always getting stopped by those who wanted his advice on various subjects, most of which Belphegor knew nothing about.

But that didn’t stop him from envying the role of angels who were granted wings and were permitted to visit Earth as often as they needed—Guardian Angels and Messenger Angels (as well as some of the all-powerful Archangels); even though their faceless roles didn’t offer as much prestige as his did, they were gifted the privilege of actually interacting with humans.

“I can’t keep doing this,” Belphegor admitted.  “Coming down here, spending a few hours until the sun goes down, just watching them, you know, Beel?  I want to talk to them, learn about them, heck, I want to learn from them—”

“No, stop,” Beel interrupted.  His eyebrows were upturned in worry as he lifted his brother’s chin so he could look him in the eyes.  “Belphie, don’t tell me that you want to stay here forever—” He paused and glanced at the scroll that Belphegor had been holding.  His eyes widened as he made the connection. “—posing as a Messenger Angel.”

“Not forever, Beel,” Belphegor reassured.  “Just … a few weeks. Let’s say three, okay?”

Beelzebub massaged his forehead.  “Three weeks? That’s three weeks where you won’t be able to do your duties as the Angel of the Sabbath.  You can’t—no—no—Father would be incensed.”  He reached over to his brother and grabbed his arms.  “That’s it, I’m taking you back to the Celestial Realm right now.”

He shook off his brother’s hands.  “No, Beel.  I’m doing this.  I’ve already made up my mind.”  He sighed, closing his eyes. “Just … promise me you’ll support me in this?”

Beelzebub smiled.  “Okay!” He grabbed Belphegor’s shoulders and flapped his wings as if he hadn't said a word.

“What—Beel put me down!”  He squirmed and kicked his legs.  “I’m serious!” He opened his eyes and looked down as they flew higher and higher, farther and farther above the Earth’s surface.  Taking a deep breath, he stopped wriggling and held still. “Beel … please. Just three weeks. I promise I’ll have my curiosity sated by then—I’ll never come back to Earth after that.  I’ll never leave the Celestial Realm, I’ll—I’ll stay up and run the numbers of Sabbath-day-keepers, I—I won’t even think of humans—I swear!”  He sighed. “... I won’t ... even think of humans.”

Their ascent stopped.  He couldn’t see his twin’s facial expression from where he hung, but he could hear the weariness in his voice.  “Who’s going to take over the role of the Angel of the Sabbath when you’re gone?”

Belphegor’s heart lifted.  “Azazel and Telantes. They work under me, you remember?”

He could feel the body-shaking groan that left Beelzebub.  “Fine.” He flapped his wings as they descended.  “Three weeks. I’ll come find you at sunset at the end of them. Do you know where you’ll be then?”

“I’m not really sure,” Belphegor admitted.  As his feet came to rest on Earth’s surface, he looked at his brother.  “But you’ll come find me, right?”

Beelzebub beamed.  “Of course, I will, Belphie."

-

Beel didn’t find him, and three weeks turned into three moons, which turned into three years.  

Belphegor had run out of messages to deliver after the first week and had spent most of his time wandering from city to city, country to country, living in camps that welcomed him as a messenger of the gods.

That was the case, at least, until about a moon ago; he had taken copious amounts of some kind of liquid that a village had offered him as an act of hospitality called wine.  He didn’t know what had transpired after he had consumed the fourth wineskin, but he had woken up in a deserted land, with nothing but enormous snowdrifts as far as the eye could see. 

Belphegor had seen the storehouses laden with snow in the Celestial Realm but never had he ever imagined it to be so blisteringly cold.  The Earth was still new, and humans had yet to populate the area where he was in.  Ill-equipped for such weather, Belphegor had no choice but to trek through the snow, shivering from the cold with his teeth chattering and his lips an unbecoming shade of blue.  

Being an immortal angel with no fear of hypothermia or frostbite, the only way he could find respite from the frigid air that surrounded him was to sleep.  

And sleep he did.

For days, in fact, until all Belphegor knew was sleep.  There was something cozy about the pitch darkness that enveloped him when his eyes were closed; it was a surefire welcome as opposed to the freezing wind and subzero temperatures that greeted him when he was conscious.  Sleep was a comfort, wrapping him in momentary joy instead of the crushing sense of abandonment that bodied him if he dared to open his eyes.

That was, until, he felt something other than the howling wind waking him up.  

“Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath,” someone said, shaking his practically frozen body, which was nestled deep in a snowdrift.

“Beel?”  Belphegor asked groggily, noticing that the silhouette glowed and had wings like an angel.

The silhouette offered him a hand to help him get up, which he hesitated before taking.  “No, my name is Jabril. I am a Messenger Angel.”

Belphegor rubbed his face with frost-covered hands and widened his eyes to take a better look at the figure, who he realized wore the standard white robes and blue sash of a Messenger Angel.  He looked at their surroundings. “Why are you here? There’s no one to deliver a message to around for miles.”

Jabril shook his head.  “No, Belphegor. I’m here to deliver a message to you.”  He produced a scroll hidden within his sash and unfurled it.

Belphegor choked as he noticed that it looked exactly like the scroll he had shown his twin years ago.  

Jabril pointed to a message box, which was stamped in purple with his seal.  “Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath, has been summoned to the Almighty’s Throne Room,” he read.  Underneath it was written today’s date and the exact coordinates to Belphegor’s location.

He gulped.  His Father never invited His sons to his Throne Room unless it was for punishment.  And it wasn’t the typical “lecture” punishment—no, no. These types of punishments were much more severe.  There was a real chance that Belphegor could have his title ripped away from him or Hell, his very existence erased.  “He waited three years to summon me.  Why?”

“You know better than to question, Father,” Jabril reminded him as he latched onto Belphegor’s shoulders and began to flap his wings.  “But you know how He is. Making you wait this long to wonder when He was going to find you might just be part of your punishment.”

Belphegor stomach clenched as the two continued to fly higher and higher into the Celestial Realm.  “I hope that really is the case.” 

-

The first thing he noticed when he entered the Throne Room was not the pearlescent marble floors, the walls encrusted in brilliant diamond, or the immense moonstone chandeliers that hung from golden chains off the ceiling.  

It wasn’t the seraphim that loitered around His throne, their haunting praises rumbling in their throats.

It wasn’t even the blinding light, the glory of his Father, that shone from the throne itself.

The first thing he noticed was the music.  

Soothing notes—a melodic piece—a cry of melancholy and reassurance, resounded from the masterful fingers of Lucifer as he guided his harp into realms of music so beautiful that Belphegor, who knew better than to linger in the Throne Room entryway, had to stop and listen.

From the left side of his Father’s throne, Lucifer’s music was a constant: he produced a sound so beautiful that the Almighty could rarely go without it.  His fascination with Lucifer’s music had grown to a point where the two were nigh inseparable.  

The Archangel of Music’s eyes were closed and his face held an expression that was so serene that Belphegor had to wonder if Lucifer even realized who his audience was; he looked as if his only purpose was to coax the notes out of the instrument, regardless of who might be listening.  

Belphegor stood entranced, his eyelids feeling heavy with the comforting tones before he was pulled out of his reverie with the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“My son.”  His Father’s voice, like peals of thunder, reverberated through the expansive throne room.  “You may approach.”

He walked forward, his shoulders straight, and tried to keep his gaze ahead, but every time his peripheral vision grazed the bright glory of his Father, his eyes watered and he was forced to look down.  When he was several feet away from the throne, he fell prostrate on the ground.

“Father,” he greeted, his forehead resting on the tile.

“Arise, Belphegor, Angel of the Sabbath,” his Father said.  “Although, perhaps it is wise to address you also by your self-given role of Messenger Angel, as well.”

He peeled himself off the ground.  Knowing better than to stare at the luminous figure of God, he stood and averted his eyes toward the almost equally brilliant Lucifer, who played on as if there was no one else in the room.  “That’d be alright.”

“Do you know why you stand before Me today?”

He took a deep breath, drawing a miasma of calmness from the harp and the low chanting of the seraphim.  “I do.”

A moment later, his Father boomed, “Do you know why, my son, I created the Sabbath?”

“I do.”

“You are the expert angel, in this case, then; explain it to Me.”

“You created it, Father, to represent the day of rest You took after spending six days creating the universe, back in the Beginning.”

His Father’s glow diminished for a moment, and Belphegor cringed.  For every time his Father’s light faltered, it would return a moment later tenfold brighter, signifying his rage.  

There it was: the glorious light roared back with a fierceness that indeed rivaled what it had been before.  “And yet, this duty of protecting such a hallowed tradition is something you are willing to shirk, only to take upon the duties of a Messenger Angel —a duty that is not even yours?”

“Yes,” Belphegor gulped.

Strangely enough, the inferno that was his Father receded slightly and didn’t get brighter.  It seemed almost as if the Almighty was actually calming down.  His voice, now, sounded like a stream of water, without an ounce of malice.  “You did well in your duties as a Messenger Angel, Belphegor; I commend you for that.  But, I cannot overlook your slothfulness into the work that I assigned to you.  I gave you the title of Angel of the Sabbath for a reason, and I expect you to go back and continue to fulfill it.  The dismissal of your actual work comes off as laziness, and I cannot tolerate My day of holy rest being made into a day of indolence on your part.”

“But, Father, I—” Belphegor knew better than to argue with God, but he had spoken without thinking.

The brightness of his Father’s glory flared irritatedly at his act of insolence, and He spoke over Belphegor as if he hadn’t said a word.  “My son, I will withdraw my original punishment from you, provided you understand the error of your ways. Answer Me, Belphegor, do you regret what you did?”

For a moment, Belphegor was silent, as he thought back to the moons that he had spent on Earth.  There were no words to describe just how much he had enjoyed his stay there, despite the overwhelming agony of going without Beel.  Every day was a new adventure as he trotted from village to village, delivering messages that his Father had decided was necessary for certain humans to hear from his underlings.  Sure, not having the actual wings of a Messenger Angel made the role significantly harder, but he was so fully dedicated to this job that it made little difference to him. Even the miserable moon he had spent in frigid hell, no matter how torturous, was worth listening to the fascinating stories that he had heard from the humans and the experiences he had gleaned. 

So that is why, Belphegor blinked through the tears that came with looking straight at his Father’s glowing presence, and declared, “No.”

[citadelsushi]

Detonate

Kaidan Alenko x fShepard Smut.

“I don’t get there during sex.”

Shepard said it with a shrug. Her nonchalance and Kaidan’s resulting bewilderment were second nature now, but this one stuck with him. He hadn't taken offense, not really.It wasn't about him.

When he said he wanted to try, Shepard did take offense. 

“I’m not broken.” “It’s still fun, I just don’t finish.” “I get myself there just fine.”

That felt like a breakthrough. At the time. Now, it felt like an incredibly awkward way to ruin an evening.

“This is fucking stupid.” Shepard threw her arms overhead and closed her legs. She was growing exasperated. Quickly.  “I’m actively turning myself off.”

Kaidan lauged, which earned him a seething look from Shepard. “Sorry, Avory, but I can’t take you seriously when you’re lying there Winnie the Pooh style.”

She raised an inquisitive brow.

“Winnie the Pooh style?” He gestured at her bare bottom half. “Top on, pants off?”

“This is already weird enough, I wasn’t about to go completely fucking naked.”

“Do you want me to take my pants off too?”

“I want you to just fuck me and not worry about this.”

Kaidan dropped his head and a sigh fell from his lips. This had gone all wrong. From the start, Shepard had been as up front with her feelings about sex as she was with everything else. She was happy to oblige him, enjoyed the act even, but rarely craved it. Barely thought about it. Even when she took care of her needs on her own, it was mechanical. Physical maintenance, like brushing her teeth. 

Pressuring her had never been his intention. Or changing her. He only wanted to prevent sex from becoming a chore, an obligation she dreaded, like washing dishes. He wanted to learn how to make her feel as good as she made him. Instead, he had succeeded only in making the entire act uncomfortable.

Shepard rolled onto her side and reached for him, her hand coming to rest on his cheek. Stubble scratched her palm and she smiled. “Kaidan,” reluctantly, he met her gaze, “I like having sex with you. I don’t need to have an orgasm to have fun with it. It’s like…” her eyes rolled upward as she searched for the words, “it’s like a vagina massage. It still feels good.”

He snorted. “A vagina massage?"

“Yes.” She answered, always self-assured. “And massages feel good.”

“Even if you don’t… reach climax?”

Avory narrowed her eyes. “That’s a gross way to say it. But yes. You’d still enjoy putting your dick in my mouth even if you didn’t finish, right?”

Kaidan rolled onto his back, huffing a defeated laugh. “My balls would probably ache after, but yeah.” “Well I don’t have balls, so no aching. Only fun.”

Doubt still weighed heavily on him, pulled the corners of his lips into a pout. "I guess so."

Shepard caged the teasing words that came to mind and pushed herself onto all fours. She crawled overtop him, straddled his waist. “I could go for a massage now, if you’re up for it?” She rested a hand beside his head, leaned forward to kiss him.

When their lips met, she could taste hesitation.

“I don’t know. I'm gonna feel weird about it now."

Shepard rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. Sex wasn’t a big deal for her, but it was for Kaidan. While she wasn’t the least bit ashamed of her menial interest in sex, they had entered into this relationship knowing it would be something for both parties to work on. For Kaidan, that meant understanding she wasn’t going to say yes every time. She wasn’t going to initiate. She wasn’t going to orgasm easily, if ever. For Shepard, that meant communicating. It meant having fun with the ways she could make him feel, the noises she could draw from him. It meant trying.

She lifted her head slightly, enough that they could make eye contact. “What if I try getting myself there during? Instead of just having you watch?”

Some life came back to Kaidan’s eyes. And lust. “What if I like watching?”

Shepard cocked her head, grinning despite herself. “Then you’re shit out of luck, Alenko.”

“It’s not often I get to see you nervous, though. It was kinda hot.” Mischief curled his lips.

“Oh, shut up.”

Kaidan laughed and gripped her by the waist, flipped her onto her back with ease and slid himself between her legs. They fell into a natural rhythm. Their lips tentative and tender to start, until they gave themselves to one another. Kisses became passionate. Nibbles turned to bites along jaws, necks, every bit of bared flesh. For a time, they existed in a vacuum, parting just long enough for air or to shed an item of clothing. 

It was familiar, comfortable, the way they came together. But this time was slower. As if exploring each other for the first time. Kaidan holding back and Shepard chasing after him, egging him on. Plucking at loose threads of him until he came unraveled. It didn’t take long until all reservations fell away and Kaidan was groaning, rolling his hips against her in search of friction. His need overriding any reluctance. Any previous feelings of selfishness long forgotten. 

Shepard smiled into their kiss. Her hands slid along his back, nails dragging against smooth skin layer over thick ropes of muscle. She dug into his lats. In the small space between their lips, his breath hitched. A gentle nudge on the shoulder, and Kaidan rolled onto his back. His erection twitched, beckoning. 

Patience was not a strength of hers. Shepard knelt between his legs and wrapped her hand around his girth. In one go, she took his entire length in her mouth. Lips sealed around the base of him, she swirled her tongue. Tasting. Teasing. Kaidan moaned as she worked him with her mouth. Up and down, in and out. She tested the limits of her throat until he could no longer be a passive recipient. His legs bent and his fingers wound themselves in her hair, pulling her down against him and holding her there. Shepard's eyes flitted upward, finding his, pupils blown wide with lust. 

"Fuck." Kaidan growled, thrust his hips once, found the back of her throat with the tip of his cock. "Avory, please. I need to fuck you."

He released her hair and she pulled him out of her mouth with a pop. 

"Yes, please." She nodded enthusiastically and sat back onto her knees.

Kaidan lunged forward, covered her body with hers as he eased her onto her back. Her hand snaked between them, wrapped around him once more. She aimed him at her center and tilted her hips, opening herself to him. The smallest of movements and…

"Fuck."

They sighed together as he pushed inside of her. Just the head, at first. She was slick with arousal, and he with saliva, and she yearned for more. But Kaidan was a wealth of patience, and he liked to make her wait. He hovered over her, watching every detail of her expression as he pushed further. Slowly. Savoring. Her eyes squeezed shut, her lips parted. Skin flushed hot pink along her cheeks. Along her chest. Oh, how he loved to see her like this. Wild in the most delicate of ways. At his mercy, the limits of her self-control subjected to new tests she never passed. 

As if on queue, Avory groaned and shifted her hips, trying to force him in further. He couldn’t help but laugh. Nor could he resist giving her what she wanted. He leaned down, supporting himself on one elbow, sunk in a little more. She mewed in response, half-satisfied. Smiling to himself, Kaidan cupped her breast with his free hand and found her nipple already standing at attention. He teased the bud with his fingers, gently pulling and pinching. She arched into him. More, she always wanted more. More pressure, more speed, more of everything. Kaidan obliged. He pinched, hard, and thrust in to the hilt. 

They whispered words against each other’s lips, ears, necks. Nearly unintelligible, but clear in their intention. Kaidan tried to go slow at first. Withdrawing almost entirely before plunging in again. The drag of her was exquisite. The heat. And soon he found himself unable to unsheath himself from her for long. He began thrusting in earnest, felt his release begin to build deep within his abdomen. A rubber band stretched tighter and tighter, so close to snapping.

Shepard snaked her arm between them and Kaidan’s efforts slowed abruptly. Her fingers found where they joined, then just above. He paused and their eyes met, something suddenly more important than his own release.

Shepard looked like a thief caught in the act. “Well, don’t stop.”

Kaidan snorted what might have been a laugh. “Aye aye, ma’am.”

“Fuck’s sake, Alenk-” he cut her off with a roll of his hips, his name breaking on her lips and turning into a begrudgingly satisfied, “-oh.”

“Mmm,” he leaned forward and kissed her, kept his forehead pressed against hers as he found a steady, slow rhythm, “I like when you say my name like that.”

Her eyes fluttered closed, her hand finding its own pattern between her legs. “Then make me say it again.”

Kaidan accepted her challenge with a growl. With her hand between them, he couldn’t push as deep. He pushed himself up onto both arms once again and focused instead on watching where they came together. It was insanely erotic, seeing her stretch around his width. Seeing himself disappear inside of her. Watching as she clung to him on every outward stroke, the evidence of her arousal gleaming on his cock. 

Her wrist moved in circles, her fingers pressed against her clit. She ground against him and her legs fell wide. Her athletic form bared completely before him. Kaidan found his gaze travel upward, where her breasts moved with each of his thrusts and gave him new motivation. He made his thrusts harder, sharper, but just as long. With each punctuation, her breasts jerked forcefully. Compelled, he reached forward and cupped them both in his hands. Shepard gasped in response and he worked her nipples, pinching and pulling and twisting until her noises blurred the line between pleasure and pain. Just where she liked to be.

She began to rub herself almost frantically, chasing the familiar feeling of release. But the intensity building within was anything but familiar. She felt lost. Completely and utterly swept up in a sea of sensation. She found herself writhing. Arching her back. Bucking her hips. His cock stretched her, filled her completely, but still she needed more. Even a modicum of space between them was too much. She breathed his name, thought to beg, but couldn’t imagine what she would be begging for.

A wanton plea was all she could muster. 

“Please.”

Her eyes opened wide, expression caught between fear and fervor. Eyes darkened amber locked on her own, grounded her. 

His voice warm as he soothed her, “It’s okay.”

Scorching heat flushed her body. There was no familiar tingle that stayed in her groin. It didn't wash over her in waves, it came all at once and radiated throughout her entire body. Blew over her like aftershock from a detonated bomb. Every feeling magnified by having him inside her, his cock being milked as she clenched around him. Kaidan dropped on top of her and grabbed her ass with both hands, rutting into her hard. He rode her through her orgasm, spurred by the symphony of wanton gasps he pulled from her throat. 

Only when he stilled did Shepard realize he had spilled his end, his cock still twitching inside of her. He was just as spent as she. His head fell to rest just beside hers, face down in the pillow. 

“That was…” he trailed off, out of breath.

“Pretty fucking cool.” She finished for him.

Kaidan huffed a laugh. “Yeah.” Then he pushed himself up with the last of his waning strength. “How was… you came, right?”

“Yeah, I did.” She could hardly believe it herself.

“And… how was it?”

“Didn’t we just cover that?” Kaidan feigned annoyance. She chuckled, then continued. “It felt…different. Good different.”

Kaidan smiled, sleepy but bright, like a kid on Christmas morning. “Good.” 

Shepard smiled too, lips still curved when she kissed him, tender and deep. Marvelling at how she felt more exposed, more vulnerable with him than she ever had. At how, somehow, beyond all reason, that actually made her feel safe.

[quicksilversquared]

How to Fake a Marriage Ch. 16

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  10  11  12  13  14  15            

(AO3) (FF.net)

It didn't take long for Adrien to absolutely hate his schedule for the second semester. He had a ridiculously heavy load on Tuesdays and Thursdays, only a couple things on Mondays and Fridays, and absolutely nothing on Wednesdays. It hadn't sounded bad when he initially got the schedule, had been slightly annoying at the start of the semester, and now?

Now he was very tired of being alternately overwhelmed and having nothing to do.

"Just before the bell, just like usual," Paul commented as Adrien dashed into his Quantum Physics lecture classroom ten seconds before three o'clock. "Jeez, Agreste, did you run here from your lab?"

"Yeah, I did," Adrien admitted, settling into his seat and immediately diving into his bag to dig out his notebook. "It ran over just a bit. I had to leave my lab partner to clean up the last few things, since he doesn't have class for another hour and I had to leave."

Paul just shook his head in disbelief. Somehow he had been luckier than Adrien with getting his schedule, and his labs were more spread out through the week.

"It makes me miss Wednesdays," Adrien grumbled as the professor came in and started setting up. "Yesterday I had nowhere that I had to be and I didn't have to run around campus like a chicken with its head cut off."

"I thought you hated not having anything to do."

"I do," Adrien admitted, flipping through his notebook to find where he had left off. "I got bored of studying and surfing the internet by noon, so I went over to have lunch with Marinette before she had to go back to work. And then I went home and studied some more and was sick of being alone by three. But it's better than having to rush around campus because I have back-to-back classes all day."

"And you really do need a break after labs," Paul agreed. "I hear that they tend to run over more and more once you hit the higher levels. That's what an upperclassman told me, at least. Not every lab, but often enough."

"That's not gonna be fun," Adrien sighed. He'd have to take it into account when making his schedule, and that would force him to have weird breaks during his day. "At least those labs should be more interesting, though. As long as I actually have a break after them and I don't have to worry about getting to my next class, I don't think I'd actually mind that much."

Before Paul could respond, the professor called the class to order. Adrien sat up and forced himself to focus. He couldn't let his studies suffer just because he had been in class all day and had another class yet after this lecture ended. His father would just blame it on his traveling instead of on his class schedule.

Despite himself, Adrien couldn't keep his mind from wandering just a bit as the professor did a quick review of what they had covered in the previous class two days prior. It had been difficult getting out of bed that morning, partly because he had been dreading his class schedule that day, partly because he had been out a little later than he had intended with Ladybug, and partly because Marinette had been sleeping over because her neighbor had been loud again and the bed was lovely and warm and he didn't want to leave her.

He had been really lucky that Marinette hadn't come over until after he got back from being Chat Noir. If she had come over while he was still out or, worse yet, had been in his living room when he detransformed, then he would have been in trouble. He hadn't really thought it through before giving Marinette an extra key to his apartment, but he hadn't run into any problems yet and it was easier for Marinette to let herself in than for her to have to knock, especially when her neighbor started up the music pretty late and Adrien was already asleep.

They had also been lucky that the tabloids had, for the most part, lost interest in him and Marinette. He had only had to do one interview since the semester started (well, an "interview". A reporter had cornered him at the bus station and had annoyed him into answering a few questions before the bus came by and saved him), and he sincerely hoped that it would be the last. Once again he had been forced to confirm that no, he and Marinette weren't dating, because apparently having been told that a good five times previously wasn't enough.

And that was all that they were going to get from him. There was no way that Adrien was going to tell them (or anyone else) that while he and Marinette weren't dating now, it wasn't exactly impossible to think that they might in the future. The realization had snuck up on him over time, but Adrien had found just recently that he couldn't exactly deny it anymore.

He had always thought that Marinette was amazing. She was headstrong and opinionated, but that didn't keep her from being kind and willing to help others. Her talent for design was absolutely undeniable, but she wasn't at all conceited about it and she shared that talent with others through gifts designed specifically for the recipient. Adrien thought that she was just an amazing person overall, and it didn't hurt that she was absolutely adorable besides.

Now that he was thinking about it, he probably should have guessed that he felt more than just friendship towards her after spending most of Fashion Week delighting over her reactions to things going down the runway.

It probably also didn't hurt that Marinette strongly reminded Adrien of Ladybug. Both women had very similar personalities, enough that it was fairly obvious that Adrien had a type. Still, he wasn't going to act on his newfound crush for several reasons.

One, he was still very in love with his superhero partner, and it wouldn't be fair to Marinette if he got into a relationship with her while still having feelings for Ladybug, especially when he still saw (and flirted with) Ladybug at least once a week.

Two, he didn't actually know if Marinette was interested in him. After all, he hadn't exactly seen any larges changes in her behavior towards him since the school year had started and he was fairly positive that she hadn't been interested in him like that then. He didn't want to make things awkward by asking her out and then being turned down.

And three... well, his father hadn't exactly lifted the ban on Adrien dating. And Adrien was planning on complying, at least for now.

A sharp elbow to the side pulled Adrien out of his thoughts and he glanced to the side to see Paul gesturing to the front. The professor had moved on from the review to new material, which meant that Adrien should be paying attention.

He sighed, picking up his pencil and starting to take notes. He could figure it all out later, he supposed. After all, he had to focus on getting through the day in one piece first.

  February turned into March, bringing with it weather that was occasionally actually decent enough for Adrien and Marinette to want to be outside for more than a minute at a time. Naturally, both suddenly developed a tendency to "go to bed early" on nice days, and soon Ladybug and Chat Noir would be out enjoying the cool evenings.

"Are you enjoying your time in London?" Chat Noir asked as they jumped over rooftops. "I know I am, even though we can't go out during the day."

"It's been fun," Ladybug said. She paused on a particularly tall rooftop to survey the city, letting the breeze tease her hair. She was wearing it mostly down today, with a bit pinned back out of her face. It looked quite a bit like the hairstyle that Marinette had been wearing earlier, and Chat Noir had to wonder if that particular hairstyle was in trend at the moment. He didn't know; after all, he didn't exactly pay attention to trends in women's hairstyles normally. He'd have to try to remember to ask Marinette about it sometime.

"It's amazing that we haven't been noticed yet."

Ladybug nodded. "Yeah! I mean, I know we've been careful, but even so, you would think that someone would just happen to glance up at the right time and see us jumping over the street. It's possible that people have glanced us and just not believed their eyes, I suppose, but it's not like we're hanging out in different areas each time we go out. If someone saw us more than once, then they might figure out that they weren't just seeing things."

"So... do you think we should be trying to go to different parts of the city, then?" Chat Noir asked. He really didn't want to, mostly because he knew these rooftops now, and if it started raining or sleeting (as it was prone to do at this time of the year), then it would be that much farther to get back to his apartment, and Plagg would be that much more likely to catch a cold. "Or, since no one's spotted us yet, are we still fine?"

Ladybug bit her lip, puzzling over that. "I...don't know. I mean, maybe we could try to shake up what direction we go in, but I don't know that it would make too much sense to go too far. I think for now, we should just stay as-is."

"Purr-fect." Chat Noir grinned at the exasperated look Ladybug gave him for the pun. "What? I happen to like this neighborhood quite a bit."

"If you say so." Ladybug suddenly looked a bit reserved, like he had maybe said something that he shouldn't have. She looked like that sometimes when he mentioned something that might reveal his secret identity, but he hadn't, had he? Unless she somehow thought that his comment about liking the neighborhood meant that he himself lived there and therefore it was too much information, but that was ridiculous.

After all, loads of people lived in the neighborhood that they roamed through the most. There were more than a few apartment buildings and townhouses nearby. Besides, he was fairly positive that he had once made some comment when they were in Paris about his family's house not being far away. Surely his comment now was far less revealing than that.

He decided not to worry about it too much. Maybe Ladybug was reacting to something else entirely. Maybe she lived in the neighborhood too, and she was just a little jumpy because of that.

That made a lot more sense.

"I can't believe how fast the year is going by," Ladybug said, breaking the silence as they started to move again. "Soon it's going to be properly warm again, and the days will be super-long..."

"Oh, that's gonna make things hard," Chat Noir realized with a bit of a jolt. "We'll have to go out really late if we want to stay hidden." That wouldn't be fun. He had been applying to jobs in London for the summer, and if he stayed up late to hang out with Ladybug and still had to get up early then he'd be tired for work. And, unlike in the classroom, his supervisors would probably notice.

Of course, depending on when Ladybug headed back to Paris, maybe it wouldn't be a problem. If she went back early, then there would be no real reason for him to go out as Chat Noir, because all he would be doing would be running around. He wasn't going to lie to himself and try to claim that meeting up with Ladybug was the real reason why he went out so often. Once she went back to Paris, he would probably only go out on occasion to stretch his legs and get some fresh air.

Or maybe he would go a little stir-crazy without Marinette across the hall to hang out with and he would go out every night just to enjoy the sounds of the city. It could go either way, really.

Maybe he would find himself trotting back to Paris over the weekend more often next year, simply because he wouldn't have either Marinette or Ladybug nearby and the homesickness would get to him. Part of him thought that it wouldn't be terrible, but the other part knew that it would be exhausting to always be traveling back and forth.

Besides, then he would never get out of doing any photoshoots.

"Being out too late would probably be a bad idea," Ladybug pointed out, pulling Adrien out of his thoughts. "I have a lot of stuff that I'll have to be getting done, and I'm never on top of my game when I've been up all night."

"It makes getting up in the morning impossibly more difficult," Chat Noir agreed. He glanced up to where the moon was occasionally visible, peeking out from behind the clouds. It had gotten pretty high in the sky while they were out running around, which meant that it was probably pretty late and he was going to regret this in the morning. Almost as though she was reading his mind, Ladybug sighed and slowed down before turning around.

"It's getting late. Let's head back, kitten."

Chat Noir pouted at her, and Ladybug only laughed. Reaching out, she scratched under his chin lightly until he purred. "C'mon, we've been out for ages. It's late, and I swear I'm only upright because of the suit. I'm gonna be half-asleep by the time I'm getting ready for bed."

It didn't take long for them to get back to where they had run into each other at the start of their "patrol". His apartment building was only a block over, so Chat Noir dawdled a bit on the rooftop so Ladybug wouldn't accidentally see him landing on his balcony and heading inside. Only once she was out of sight did he pole quickly over to the building and drop down onto his balcony.

And then he heard the music.

"It's not even the weekend yet," Chat Noir grumbled, stepping inside. The music wasn't particularly loud in his apartment, but he could still hear it faintly floating under his door. "That's not coo- oh, shoot!"

Music going late meant Marinette coming over once it was her bedtime. It was just after one in the morning, according to the clock in the kitchen- wow, he and Ladybug had sure been out for a while- which meant that Marinette had probably already come over ages ago and found him not in the apartment. This was bad, this was very bad, this was very, very bad- what if she had heard him come in and found Chat Noir instead?

Diving into the kitchen, Chat Noir detransformed, flinging open the fridge to provide a little more shelter and to try to disguise the light from his detransformation. Plagg took the open fridge door as an invitation to dive right in and help himself, but Adrien ignored him, standing very, very still as he listened for any sign of Marinette.

There was the sound of a key in the door. Adrien froze, grabbed a half-filled glass of water off of the counter so it would look like he had just come to the kitchen for a drink, and closed the fridge before popping innocently into the living room, ignoring Plagg's disgruntled "Hey!" from inside the fridge.

Marinette blinked at Adrien curiously as she stepped inside and re-locked the door. "Adrien? I didn't expect to find you awake!" She paused, getting a better look at him. "...are you really still dressed?"

...shoot. He was, in fact, still wearing his jeans. He really should have changed into his night clothes before transforming and going out.

"Did you fall asleep doing homework again?" Marinette asked, sounding a little exasperated. "Adrien."

"No, I was just reading and fell asleep before I could finish getting ready," Adrien claimed, pretending to take a sip of his water. "And then I woke up and needed something to drink. What about you? I would have thought you would have come over earlier."

"Fell asleep early on my couch," Marinette said after a pause. "So I slept through the start of the music, and only just woke up. So. Yeah. And now I'm here."

"And now you're here," Adrien agreed, still a little jumpy after nearly being found out. "Ah, so I still have to wash up and all, but you go ahead to bed. I'll be there soon enough."

Marinette nodded through a yawn, running a hand through her hair. "Okay. Good night, Adrien."

"'Night, Mari."

As Marinette headed down the hall, Adrien slumped a little against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief and silently thanking Ladybug for deciding to turn around when she did. If he had gotten back any later than he had, he would have really been in trouble. He couldn't think of any plausible excuse that would explain away why he was out of his apartment after one in the morning. Marinette knew him too well for any of his normal half-baked excuses to work properly, even when she was tired beyond belief.

"Hey! Lemme out!"

...and at least Marinette was now in the bedroom and he didn't have to explain why his fridge was yelling. That would have been really hard to explain.

  The rest of the first half of the semester positively flew by, even with Adrien's less-than-ideal schedule. Rosalie Fashions went through another Fashion Week, this time with all models present and intact. The man that Adrien had replaced for the fall Fashion Week was as good as new, and Adrien was pleased to hear that he had recovered quickly from the car accident and hadn't been too badly impacted. A bit after that was midterms, and then after that Adrien had the chance to breathe a little as he got another week off for spring break and the Easter holiday. This semester seemed to be harder than the last, partially due to the classes themselves and partly because of his crummy schedule alternating between making him scramble across campus and boring him to death, so the break was welcome.

But short. Way too short, and it went by way too fast.

Adrien had more time at home than Marinette, who had to use another couple of her hoarded vacation days to extend her stay long enough to see her parents properly. Adrien himself had to suffer through another round of photoshoots while he was at home, this time for late spring and early summer looks, before he could go out and visit his friends- and by that, he mostly meant Nino, since Alya had just gotten a potential lead about an old Miraculous holder and she could only tear herself away from the computer for a short while to say hi to Adrien before diving back in.

It was amusing, but also slightly concerning. Adrien decided that Marinette's concerns about Alya potentially neglecting her actual work to keep researching her own project when she found a promising lead were probably well-founded and likely at least a little accurate.

"I'd say that we would visit you guys in London again soon, but I don't know if I could drag Alya away from her work for long enough," Nino had told Adrien, sounding a little exasperated. "It takes almost everything I have to even get her to set things aside long enough for a date night, let alone any longer trips."

"But she is still getting her work for the newspaper done, right?" Adrien wanted to know. Nino had just made a face.

"At the moment, yeah. She lets things slip when she gets like this, though."

Adrien could only sigh and hope that Alya would take a few steps back and realize before it was too late that the Ladybug research stuff could wait, but her actual job really couldn't. He was sure that one reprimand from her boss would set her straight in a hurry and she would do everything she could to get back in the newspaper's good graces, but it still wouldn't look good to have that on her record.

After the too-short break, Adrien and Marinette were back in London. Alya had sworn up and down that she and Nino would come visit again later in the semester, but neither Adrien nor Marinette had particularly believed her. After all, whenever she wasn't eyeball-deep in Miraculous research, she was scrambling to catch up with the things she had neglected at her job during her research spree. They would have to content themselves with video calls for the time being.

Besides, it wasn't as though Adrien and Marinette really had the time to spare to host their friends again. Now that the second half of the semester had started, Adrien found that he had several more projects that needed to be worked on on top of his normal homework. Marinette had shown Madam Rosalie the results of hours upon hours working on potential fabric patterns and now she was working with an experienced fabrics designer on the staff to make her designs reality. It involved a lot of printing out short sample pieces and going over what proportions worked and what ones didn't and then editing and reprinting, over and over and over to get a pattern that would read well. On top of that, it was Marinette's turn to get a bit more experience working with models and photographers on photoshoots, so she was rushing from one to the other to try to get everything done. It resulted in more than a few long days and working on weekends to get everything done.

They were both badly in need of a break. So when Adrien heard about a local festival in mid-April in a town a ways to their north from a classmate of his who was from that area, both of them were eager to check it out. It would be an overnight trip, both because it was a ways away and because they wanted plenty of time to explore the festival, because the classmate had made it sound like it was a pretty big deal.

They had assumed that a pretty big deal for a town that size just meant that locally, it was a big event. Like, everyone in town would go, and maybe people who had families there would go back, and maybe a couple people from neighboring towns would show up as well. That assumption was apparently wrong.

"Nearly all of the hotels in the area are booked, and absolutely all the nice ones are completely full," Adrien reported as he clicked on yet another link. "But those would be out of our preferred price range anyway. And then there's a room with two single beds in it in a midrange hotel, but it's a smoking room."

"Nope," Marinette said immediately from where she was putting dishes away in the kitchen. She had been unfortunate enough to once not check on the smoking designation of the room, and she hadn't been able to sleep at all because of the stench. She was not doing that again.

"Then the only non-smoking rooms left only have one bed each," Adrien reported. "And there's only- oh. There's only one room left. That's it."

There was a pause.

"Well, it's not like we've never shared a bed before," Marinette offered. Since her neighbor hadn't yet kicked the habit of playing music late into the night several days a week (at least they had been largely confining it to Fridays and weekends after too many noise complaints), Marinette had found herself slipping over to Adrien's apartment to share his bed. He had never minded, even though the bed was perhaps a little small for both of them to really spread out, and Marinette herself definitely didn't object. "As long as the tabloids don't follow us there and then find out that our room is a single bed. And I don't think they will. I haven't seen anything printed about us for months." The reporters had been bad right after the runway and then spiked again after Christmas (apparently since they had been spotted hanging out in Paris, which was honestly ridiculous) and then again at Valentine's Day, but after several further rounds of interviews (generally at Mr. Agreste or Nathalie's request) where Adrien had to reiterate that no, he and Marinette's relationship status had not changed and they were not dating, they seemed to get bored.

It was really about time, in Marinette's opinion. She didn't understand what their appeal even was. Sure, Adrien was a model. Sure, maybe he was somewhat well known in the fashion world for his work as a model. But that was it- he was well known in the fashion world. Normal people out in the street probably wouldn't recognize him, if it weren't for the tabloids' seemingly constant coverage. She didn't particularly approve of their hounding of actors and other actually famous people either, but she could understand where people's curiosity about them came from, at least. With models, they were supposed to be pretty much vehicles for showing off clothes. Sure, they were gorgeous (her eyes slid over to Adrien; even in a simple t-shirt and jeans combination, he looked amazing), but there were plenty of gorgeous people who didn't go into modeling.

The sound of a few more clicks came from the other room, and then Adrien spoke up again. "So just share the room and the bed?"

"If you're comfortable with that, yeah." Marinette paused in the middle of putting things away. Was that an uncomfortable edge to his voice that she was hearing? She had thought that Adrien would be fine with it, since they had shared a bed so many times. Maybe somehow sharing a bedroom and not having the rest of the living space made it different somehow, but she couldn't understand how. They would have a bathroom that they could change clothes in, and-

"Yeah, I'm fine with it. I just wanted to confirm before booking it." Adrien's voice cut off Marinette's sudden internal panic-induced monologue and she let out a relieved breath. She had been worried that she had somehow crossed some invisible line in their friendship for a moment there. How, she wasn't sure, considering the number of sleepovers they had had thanks to the blaring music from her neighbor, but she supposed that there might be some difference if someone else- in this case, the receptionist- knew that they were sharing both room and bed. "Booked."

"Great. I'll get the train tickets after I finish this." Marinette paused for a moment as she tried to remember where Adrien normally kept his ladles. A second later, it hit her and she turned around to toss the utensil into the right drawer. "You said you can be ready to go by midday Friday?"

"Yeah, my one o'clock class is cancelled."

With the last of the dishes put away, Marinette drifted out of the kitchen to join Adrien at the table. "Did your professor say why?"

"A conference of some sort that he has to go to, I think." Adrien shrugged and made a face. "I can't remember the details, but he did give us extra homework to make up for it."

Marinette could only giggle. "Aw, that's too generous of him. He shouldn't have."

"Yeah, he shouldn't have all right. One of the problems is a real beast and I have no idea how to solve it. I'll have to see if some of the others in the class want to get together mid-week and work on it together." Adrien didn't look terribly pleased. The majority of the study groups that he had gone to hadn't been terribly productive, largely because of how easily some of the others got pulled off task. "That's why I like the class discussion groups better. The professor does a great job of keeping all of the groups on-task so we actually get stuff done."

Thankfully for Adrien's sanity, the classmates he found for a study group actually were pretty focused. They all came to the mid-week session with as much of the homework done as possible, and then they worked together through the sections of the problems that they had had trouble with. He left the study group satisfied, with his completed homework sheet tucked away carefully in a folder in his backpack.

"I only have a little bit of homework left that I want to finish over the weekend," Adrien told Marinette that Friday as they boarded the train. "Hopefully I can get it done on the train. Neither are things that are due right away on Monday, but I like starting the week without the little stuff still hanging over my head."

"Well, we do have a few hours of travel before we get there," Marinette pointed out as they settled into their seats. "Hopefully we won't have any loud kids or anything in our carriage. Did you bring anything for any of your projects?"

"Just a book to read," Adrien said. "I didn't want to over pack. I brought post-its and that highlighter tape stuff so I can mark up anything I think is important for later. I was gonna bring a couple papers to read, but I'm pretty sure that I won't even get through half of the book during the trip."

As the train started up and sped out of London ten minutes later, Adrien was already neck-deep in homework problems and Marinette was paging through a book, iPod earbud wedged in one ear. They had gotten largely lucky with their train carriage- the only members of the under-twelve crowd in the carriage was two babies that were currently fast asleep- but they had spotted a large family getting onto the train in the next section up just prior to departure. From the slightly exasperated expressions on the faces of the other passengers that they could see through the carriage windows, it looked like the family wasn't being particularly quiet.

Several hours (and several relatively short crying baby episodes) later, Adrien and Marinette hopped off the train and headed down the street to the hotel Adrien had found. The town was bustling with activity, and banners and posters alike hung from windows, advertising the local holiday.

"Well, at least there's so many people here that we shouldn't stand out," Adrien commented as they dodged around the family that they had spotted on the train earlier. The youngest kid was already hanging off of his mother's arm, begging for pastries from a stall set up on the street nearby. "And there should be plenty to do."

"You mean plenty to eat," Marinette corrected with a laugh, glancing around the crowded street. "That pastry stall smells pretty good, and believe me, it takes a lot for me to notice things like that."

Adrien grinned and made a sharp turn to detour over to the stall, tugging Marinette's arm so she followed him. "That, I can believe. I remember when we went to fairs and whatnot when we were in lycée and you almost never bought pastries from the food stalls while the rest of us were already digging out our wallets with the first whiff."

Thankfully the line at the pastry stall wasn't long, and soon Adrien and Marinette were continuing their journey down the road with a pain au chocolate each. It took all of the self-control Adrien had to not just scarf the whole thing down, but then again he had had the same problem with nearly every other pain au chocolate he had ever encountered. Marinette was only halfway done while he was licking the last traces of pastry and butter off of his fingers.

"We're going back to that stall again," Adrien announced as he finally got the last traces of his pastry off of his fingers. "I know the pastries from that shop near us are pretty good, but I always feel guilty about going there more than once a week."

Marinette laughed. "And somehow going back to that stall will be different?"

"It's a holiday, Marinette! All rules about feeling guilty are off the table when it's a holiday, don't you know?"

Marinette only groaned.

There wasn't much of a line when they arrived at the somewhat run-down hotel. Adrien and Marinette waited for a small family in front of them to check in with the bored-looking receptionist, and then it was their turn. If someone was going to make a big deal about them sharing a room, it was going to be now.

"Name?"

"Adrien Agreste," Adrien said, sounding a bit nervous. Now that they were here, he was thinking that they probably should have made the reservations under Marinette's name instead, since his was much more recognizable than hers was. "One room, queen bed."

"Uh-huh." The receptionist didn't even blink as she brought up the reservation. In fact, she looked impossibly more bored as she glanced up at them. "Card?"

Adrien handed over his card. A minute later, he and Marinette were setting their bags down on the bed in their room. After another moment, they both burst out laughing.

"We were all worried for nothing," Marinette chortled. "She didn't even care! We could have had the Queen along and she probably wouldn't have even had a change in expression."

Well, I have heard that customer service sucks the soul out of people," Adrien offered, flopping back into a chair. He was still grinning. "I've never actually seen it in person, though."

They fell silent for a moment and then Adrien spoke up again. "So, what should we do first? I don't suppose we can go back to that pastry stall, can we?"

  Their overnight bed-sharing trip went so well that Adrien and Marinette decided that, should they take any more overnight trips like that (and Adrien hoped that they would), they were more than willing to share in the future as well.

"It is a pretty easy way to save money," Marinette commented as they sorted through the bills from their last trip. "One room with one bed is almost always the cheapest option, and I think it worked really well."

"And it's nice and warm if the room is cold," Adrien added a bit dreamily, remembering how lovely it had been to slip in between the sheets and find them already warm because Marinette had been there already for a few minutes. He hadn't even minded that she took up more than what was strictly her fair share of the bed (how she did that when she was so small was beyond Adrien), because now that they had been sharing a bed a couple nights a week they didn't really worry as much about keeping space between themselves as they slept. If Marinette rolled over to take up two-thirds of the bed, Adrien would just curl up next to her instead of clinging to the edge of the bed to make sure she still had her space.

Adrien certainly didn't mind the proximity, and neither did Marinette. She occasional grumbled if he jostled her too much when she was about to fall asleep (or was already sleeping), but she never minded him occasionally falling asleep practically on top of her.

Of course, if she complained, she might be a bit hypocritical. Marinette sometimes moved around a lot in her sleep and ended up half-draped over Adrien. She had apologized the first few times it happened, but Adrien had hastened to assure her that really, he didn't mind it at all.

(Plagg teased Adrien about it mercilessly whenever Marinette wasn't in the apartment, insisting that Adrien was far more clingy with his "wife" than any of his past kittens had been with their mates. Adrien had finally decided to ignore him, but that approach just led to Plagg cackling about it even more in an attempt to get a rise out of him.)

Marinette's snort snapped Adrien back to the present, and he grinned a bit sheepishly at her amused look. Her cheeks were just as red as his felt, and Adrien had to wonder why. After all, he had been the one to wax poetic about sharing a bed with his friend, not the other way around...

It hit him like a slap to the face, and Adrien had to shake his head at his own momentary oversight. Of course Marinette was embarrassed by his comment about how much he enjoyed sharing a bed with her. It wasn't exactly something that most strictly platonic friends did, after all.

"I kind of want to go back to that town again next year for the festival," Marinette spoke up, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence. "It was fun, and that food was great."

"I really liked the dances," Adrien agreed, and then he did a double-take, hope starting to rise in his chest. "Wait, next year? Won't that be a bit too far to travel if you're back in Paris? Or...?"

Marinette's cheeks turned slightly pink at his expression. "I've been considering asking Madam Rosalie if I could stay another year. It's not unheard of," she added when Adrien looked like he was going to ask about that. "One of the head designers I work with a lot was an intern for three years before getting offered a proper job. And I do enjoy getting to work there, it's a lot of fun, and I'm learning a lot, and, uh. Yeah. I've made friends there, and it looks better to have been working somewhere for more than just a year."

"Right, of course," Adrien said, trying not to smile. It certainly sounded from Marinette's sudden nervousness that she maybe wasn't entirely telling the truth, which in turn suggested that maybe him being in London had been part of the reason behind her considering an extension. Either way, he was all for it. After all, Adrien enjoyed Marinette's company very much. She was one of his best friends, after all.

Now if only whatever had brought Ladybug to London would get extended as well...

[cutiesonthehorizon]

Blue Bloods Fic - Just Peachy

Written for the Winter Whumperland Fic Exchange. My recipient is @thebluejayawe 

Thank you for the awesome prompts you offered, I hope you’ll enjoy the results. Also want to thank @the-wandering-whumper for a beta on such short notice. All mistakes left are of course mine:D 

You can read the fic here, or over at ff.net or AO3.

For such a large and bulky man, their perp was surprisingly fast. Both Jamie and Eddie realized that when they saw him turn into a side street and then up into a dark alley. He had a pretty decent headstart and their chance of catching up with him once he reached the other side of that alley leading towards warehouses was rather small.

“I'll go on foot, you try and cut him off in the car," Jamie said, already out of the car, and Eddie gritted her teeth.

"Be careful," she shouted after him, but Jamie was already out of earshot. Cursing, Eddie stepped on the gas and took a sharp left turn on the street above. She hated it when they separated during pursuit, yet her partner didn't seem to share the same concern.

Jamie entered the alley at full speed but he quickly slowed down.  He looked around, but he couldn't see any movement. Which meant the perp had either vanished into thin air, or was hiding somewhere between the numerous trash cans. With a grimace, gun held at the ready, Jamie called out.

"NYPD! Step out with your hands in the air!"

There was no movement, not even a rustle. Well, it was worth a try. Jamie continued walking, wary of the corners and trash cans that could be used as a hiding place. What he didn't count on was that suddenly the cover of one of the smaller bins would come flying right at him. Years of instinct honed by living in a house with three older rowdy siblings taught him to duck anything and he managed to get out of the way of the flying cover, but it cost him dearly. His foot slipped on some trash and he staggered, losing balance. Next thing he knew, there was a pair of meaty hands fisted in his jacket, the gun lost on the dirty ground and he was being raised into the air. With an angry growl, the perp, who looked like a giant from this close, slammed him against the wall. Jamie felt his back hit the bricks, his head slamming against the unforgiving wall so hard his teeth rattled and he saw small stars as breath rushed out of him.

"That stuff is mine! It is mine!"  The perp screamed into his face, spittle flying from his mouth and Jamie could see the pinprick pupils. Suddenly he was regretting his decision to split up with Eddie.

"The phone is MINE!"

"Y-yeah, okay," he said, trying to placate the man, even as he was once again slammed against the wall.

"Hey, I said... it's okay," he grunted and tried to raise his hand in a sign of 'I give up', but the guy didn't seem to catch that. He was sputtering about people in the shadows trying to steal his stuff and that he had enough, all the while pinning Jamie against the wall maybe a foot above the ground.

It wasn't a good position to be in and Jamie wracked his brain trying to figure out how to get out of it, but his moves were rather limited, not to mention the perp seemed to be hopped on something that gave him enough strength to kill a horse. Jamie didn't want to test that theory, so he just kept talking, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. It was maybe a minute later when he noted movement behind the perp.

"Police! Let him go or I'll shoot!" Eddie shouted, but the guy didn't seem to hear her. He kept muttering, his hands wrapping tighter in Jamie's jacket and Jamie knew he was gonna be slammed against the damn wall once again. His body tensed in preparation for the crash, but then the perp froze, his eyes going wide as his body started shaking and in the next second he crumpled to the ground, bringing Jamie with him. With an oomph, Jamie landed right on top of the man, then rolled away as the perp’s fingers went slack and he finally released the grip on Jamie’s jacket.

"Reagan! You okay?" Eddie asked, even as she was rolling the perp over and cuffing him quickly. Which was a good thing to do, because the shock from the taser was wearing off fast and the guy started thrashing around. Jamie wasn’t a fan of using the taser they received as new gear a few weeks ago, but this time it seemed to serve its purpose well.

"Yeah, just peachy," he grumbled, taking a second to catch his breath, then with a groan got to his feet and went to help his partner.

Eddie gave him a quick look, but Jamie waved it off.  It took both of them to get the struggling man into the nearby parked car and lock the door. Once inside, he seemed to fall into some trance and became pliant like a baby. Jamie huffed.

"Of course," he grumbled and leaned against the car to take a moment to pull himself together, while Eddie was calling in the arrest. Jamie ran a hand over the back of his neck. His whole back felt like one big bruise and he could feel a small lump at the base of his skull, but there were no cuts and no blood. He didn't even have a headache... well, not worse than after a heated discussion at the diner table.

"Sure you okay, Jamie?" Eddie asked and Jamie straightened, giving her a reassuring smile.

"I'm fine. He just slammed me against the wall and held me there like a rag doll... no biggie."

Eddie rolled her eyes.

"You're such a lightweight, I bet he didn't even use both hands," she teased him and gave a pat on his shoulder. Jamie managed to look offended instead of wincing when the move seemed to send a shockwave straight up to his brain.

"Yeah well, next time you're running after them and I'll sit in the comfy car, how's that?"

Eddie raised an eyebrow, leaning against the car door.

"Are you insinuating that I weigh more than you?"  She asked and Jamie knew he was on dangerous ground. He ducked his head and climbed in behind the wheel.

"I would never dare," he said and closed the door, hiding his smirk.  Eddie pursed her lips, a warning glint in her eyes as she walked around the car and sat down in the passenger seat.

“You better watch it, Reagan,” she said and Jamie started the car.

oOo

Two hours later, they were out of the precinct and back on the road, four hours of shift still ahead of them. When they brought the perp in, calm as a cucumber, there was paperwork to be done so he could be processed. Jamie still managed to get a five minute shower and change of clothes, though he wished he could just have stayed under the hot spray. It helped his back, which was already starting to bruise up, if the glance in the mirror was anything to go by.  Having to sit in a car behind the wheel, however, made his muscles stiffen up and after twenty minutes Jamie was trying hard not to squirm in his seat, biting his lip to hide the grimaces.

"Damn, Reagan, do you have ants in your pants or what?"

Apparently, he wasn't hiding his discomfort all that well, or maybe it was just one of the hazards of having an observant partner.

"S'okay, just my back getting a bit stiff," he admitted and Eddie narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe we should get you checked out after all. The guy seemed to pack a mean punch."

"First, he didn't hit me, and second, we shouldn't get anyone checked out. I'm fine, just... need to stretch my legs. And maybe get some coffee," he added when he felt a twinge in his neck run straight into his brain. Eddie eyed him from the passenger seat then nodded.

"Okay, why don't we stop at Denny's to grab something to drink and eat? I'm quite starved. It doesn't look like it, but doing paperwork takes a lot of energy."

"Right, paperwork," Jamie grinned, but was relieved that Eddie seemed to drop the issue. He was also really looking forward to that coffee.

They were on a busy four-lane road and Jamie was just planning to cross into the next lane, when the car before him seemed to grow a double, blocking his way. Jamie blinked, but the image didn't vanish, though the lane seemed to waver and blur.

"Shit," Jamie breathed out, instinctively slowing the car but not daring to stop, because there were cars behind them as well.

"What's wrong?" Eddie asked and he could hear the concern in her voice. “Jamie? What's wrong?"

Jamie felt the blood rush from his head and bit down on his lip, the momentary pain clearing his head just a bit. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he was trying to keep the car straight on the road, but they must’ve been veering off into the next lane, because Eddie grabbed the wheel and steered them back.

"What the hell?"

"I can't.... something's wrong. Everything's blurry," Jamie said, panicked. "You need to take over."

"No shit," Eddie snapped. "We're in the middle of a four lane, Jamie. We can't just stop the car."

Jamie seemed to realize that. He shook his head and rubbed one hand across his eyes. Still a bit blurry, but at least there were no twin cars in front of him.

"Okay... I think... I think it's better. Just... need to pull over."

"Yeah... go slow. The right lane is free now and there's a shoulder coming up in a minute..."

Eddie kept her hand close to the wheel and ready to act if Jamie suddenly lost control, but they were lucky and made it to the shoulder without as much as a blaring horn. Being in the police car might've helped that. The moment he threw the car in park, Jamie leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes, taking in deep breaths.

"Okay, that was scary as hell," Eddie said, trying to calm her breathing as well, while trying to figure out what was wrong with her partner.

"Jamie? Talk to me. What's wrong?" She reached out, touching his neck, feeling his pulse. He didn't have a fever, but he was clammy to the touch and his heart seemed to be racing, just like hers. "Come on, partner. You're starting to scare me."

"I think I might've hit my head before," Jamie muttered with a grimace and opened his eyes, only to see Eddie watching him with concern mixed with anger.

"Oh, and you thought it was a good idea not tell me and sit behind the wheel? Are you trying to kill us?!"

Jamie winced at her raised voice, but acknowledged she was right.

"Sorry. Didn't... I didn't think anything was wrong," he said and looked so pitiful the anger left Eddie's eyes and there was only worry.

"You didn't lose consciousness? In the alley?"

"No, he just... slammed me against the wall... a few times. That's all."

Eddie growled, muttering something under her breath, but Jamie didn't have the energy to try and figure it out. The headache seemed to come back with vengeance and even Eddie seemed to gain a twin once or twice. Jamie actually had to close his eyes to stave off the nausea.

"So your vision's wonky? Anything else?"

"Mhm, headache, dizzy," Jamie muttered and felt one of Eddie's hands on his face, the other touching the back of his skull, looking for lumps and quickly finding one.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Eddie said with a sigh even as Jamie winced.

"Can you look at me?  ...Please?" she added when he didn't seem listen. With a sigh, Jamie opened his eyes, squinting when the sunlight hit him just wrong. Eddie peered into his eyes until he started blinking.

"I'm pretty sure you managed to get a concussion," she said and let him go. Jamie rubbed at his eyes and cursed again.

"The Serg will kill me," he moaned, mostly because the man asked him outright if he needed to see a doctor or not and Jamie lied to his face.

"Nah, I think your dad or Danny will manage that first," Eddie tried to cheer him up and obviously failed. Jamie haven't even thought about his family getting wind of this.

"Okay, time to get you to the doctor. Scoot over, your driving privileges are revoked till further notice." Eddie stepped out of the car, letting Jamie scoot into the passenger seat while she went around the car.

"Are you gonna hurl?" Eddie asked once they were back on the road and heading to the hospital. Jamie wanted to glare at her, but he did feel a bit peaky, so he decided keeping his mouth shut was for the best.

"That bad, huh?" Eddie sighed and focused on driving. She cast worried looks at her partner, who had his eyes closed and looked decidedly greenish. Her foot itched to step on the gas.  On the other hand she knew if she drove the way she wanted, they would definitely have to clean up the car afterwards. Thinking they would get enough flack as it was for this little stunt, she kept going within the limit, even slowing down at turns.

They finally reached the hospital and Jamie opened his eyes, at first relieved that the car stopped, but then groaning.

"Come on, there was no other place?" he asked pitifully when he saw they were at Linda's hospital. Eddie just rolled her eyes.

"Don't be a child. You think this won't get back to your father? We might as well use some preferential service," she said and stepped out of the car. Jamie wasn’t in any haste to move though, so she opened his door and pulled at his arm.

"Come on, partner. Don't be a chicken."

"I hate you," Jamie grumbled, though there was no real feeling behind it.

"Yeah, yeah. You'll be singing my praises once you get off your feet."

Jamie still didn't want to get out.

"Come on. You owe me for that stunt on the road," Eddie said, her voice losing all the amusement.  Jamie had the grace to look ashamed.

"Sorry," he mumbled and pushed himself to his feet, grateful for Eddie's supporting hand.

"Yeah, you can tell me how sorry you are when we explain this to Serg. You owe me big," she said, even as she put his arm around her shoulder and they headed into the emergency room.

Jamie wasn't sure what gave him more preferential treatment, the fact he was a cop in a uniform wavering in from the street, the fact he was the commissioner's son, or that the grapevine worked so fast, Linda knew almost immediately he was there. When she saw him, there was a look of panic in her eyes, which quickly turned into relief and confusion. There was no blood visible, no bruises.

“Hey Jamie,” Linda said softly as she reached him, her eyes giving him a quick once over. “You know you don’t have to get busted up if you want to chat with me, right?” she joked, touching his face and looking into his eyes.

“Yeah well… Eddie here thought you might have a slow day…. Said we should visit you,” Jamie tried to joke, squinting as the hospital lightning made his headache worse.

“Ah well, if Eddie thought that… maybe we should have a talk. Come on, buster.” Linda helped him stand up from the uncomfortable waiting room chair. Jamie wobbled a bit as the change in position made his dizziness return, but Eddie was right beside him, once again offering her shoulder as support. With Linda on his other side, he was led into a small exam room.  

"Don't even think about falling asleep before the doctor comes in," Linda warned him, when Jamie sat down on the bed and eyed the pillow wistfully.

"What happened?" she asked and Jamie opened his mouth to answer, but Eddie, who was standing by the door with her arms crossed, spoke first.

"He got slammed into a wall by a giant... several times. Then he decided it was a great idea not to tell anyone he was hurt and get behind the wheel. We almost crashed."

Well, there was not much else Jamie could add to that. He noted Eddie still seemed a bit pissed at the last part and grimaced, realizing she wouldn’t forget this anytime soon.

"Jamie!" Linda glared at him and Jamie winced, raising his arms in supplication. Having two angry women in the room when his head was already trying to kill him wasn't all that ideal.

"Okay, I messed up. Can you all just... stop shouting?"

Linda let out a huff, but didn't comment. Instead she helped Jamie take off his uniform. She walked to the other side of the bed to assess the damage to his back.

She gently touched one of the bruises and Jamie hissed.

"Really... you didn't think you were hurt?" Jamie could hear the reproach in her voice and cringed a bit. It was usually just Danny who got that tone when he said something stupid.

Eddie stepped closer and caught a glance at his back as well.

"Come on, Reagan!" She exclaimed, indignant, and Jamie decided that if he lost consciousness just then, he wouldn't mind at all. But he wasn't that lucky, so he just shot a pleading look towards Linda.

“You’re on your own here, buddy,” she smiled, long years of being Danny’s wife obviously making her immune to it. Linda just tsked and kept checking the bruises on his back and the lump on his head.

"You're unbelievable," Eddie muttered. "Am I going to have to strip you down after every chase to check if you're okay?"

Linda paused, then coughed, trying to hide her chuckle. Jamie blinked and looked at Eddie, as if trying to figure out if she really said that.

"Well, if you're offering, I won't mind," he said finally, his lips twitching in a smile. Eddie blushed, muttered something about having to call the precinct and left the room. Linda snorted.

"Smooth, Jamie. Smooth."

Jamie sighed and his shoulders slumped down. Eddie was gone and he could stop trying to pretend he wasn't hurting like hell.

"Okay, why don't you lie down and get some rest?" Linda offered, seeing that he was a moment away from slumping over on his side, whether he got permission or not. Jamie nodded gratefully and with Linda's help, maneuvered himself into a position that didn't hurt his back.

"I'm going to see when Dr. Richards can see you, then I'll call Frank, okay?"

"Can't we just... keep him out of this?" Jamie asked a bit pleadingly, even though he already knew the answer to that.

"If not me, your Sergeant will call. I'll make sure he knows there's no reason to worry, I promise."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Linda," Jamie mumbled, his face half hidden in the pillow and eyes already closed. Eddie was right... lying down was the best thing to happen to him in the last few hours and he would have to buy her all the coffee her heart desired... once he woke up from his nap.

The End

[otakugirlkrod]

Three years have passed

A/N: I’m sorry for the delayed but here I leave more Gajevy drama for all of you. Special thanks to @ranunculus-fox for helping me. BTW. I think I should change the genres of this fanfic XD Which ones would you think it will suit more the fic? Also, Sorry if I make Makarov a little out of character.   Anime: Fairy Tail

Couple: Gajevy Rated: T Status: On going Summary : Tired of being “the damsel in distress”, Levy left the guild without telling anyone except Master Makarov. She spent three years far away from Magnolia learning new spells to improve her skills. But finally, is time to return home. What’s that strange magic she learned? 

Chapter One:https://otakugirlkrod.tumblr.com/post/158442724445/three-years-have-passed

Chapter Two: https://otakugirlkrod.tumblr.com/post/159584893235/three-years-have-passed

Chapter Three: https://otakugirlkrod.tumblr.com/post/159780767225/three-years-have-passed

Chapter Four: https://otakugirlkrod.tumblr.com/post/160171984995/three-years-have-passed

Chapter Five: https://otakugirlkrod.tumblr.com/post/162149897065/three-years-have-passed

Chapter Six: Some pieces of the puzzle

The kiss was delicate, but brought warm feelings to both of them. Levy’s soft and warm lips responded to Gajeel’s actions. He didn’t know what exactly happened and why he acted that way but he was sure that he tasted a salty tear in her lips. This new feeling made Gajeel feel different. Why are we doin’ this? Gajeel thought as he opened partially his eyes and saw every little detail in her face. Her eyes were shut and some trails of tears were visible in her delicate skin. He admired every detailed and closed his eyes again. Gajeel held Levy by the shoulder and deepened the kiss.

Levy groaned and pulled apart abruptly. “I-I’m so sorry. I-We shouldn’t...” She got up of the couch but stopped in her tracks. She looked down and noticed that Gajeel was holding her left arm.

“Where ya’ think you’re going?” He looked at her intensely.

Levy looked away and said. “It’s not your obligation to help me Gajeel…” She sighed. “You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”

Gajeel tilt his head to the right and looked at her confused. “What the hell are ya’ babblin’ about?”

Levy looked directly to his crimson red eyes. “You don’t have to do any of this.”

“What exactly?”

“I know what are you doing, Gajeel.” She released her arm from his grip. “You don’t have to pretend you have feelings for me.”

His eyes widened. Feelings? ... For Levy? He thought as he got up of the couch.  “Oi! Stop acting like a stubborn child.” Gajeel held her again but this time by the shoulders.

Why…Levy thought. Her hazel eyes filled with sadness.  “Just stop it already!” She shouted. The black and purple mist started emerging once again and her eyes color disappeared.

Gajeel noticed this in a blink of an eye and shook her. “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!”  Levy placed a hand in his abdomen gently. “What the-” Gajeel looked down at the touch but didn’t expect what happened next.

Levy’s hand turned to an iron sword and pierced him. “AAGHH!” Gajeel screamed and coughed some blood.

Pantherlily heard the disturbing noise and went downstairs. What he saw made him stay still. He couldn’t believe it.“GAJEEL!”  The exceed shouted.

Gajeel looked at Lily transforming in his battle mode. “We have to stop her.” Gajeel heard him say as Lily drew his sword out and activated his aera, going towards Levy.

“NO! LILY! DON’T!” Gajeel shouted to the exceed but Pantherlily throw himself at Levy. Holding her down on the ground with his sword in her neck, Lily looked directly to her white eyes.

Gajeel could finally breathe since the sword was out of his body but he still coughed blood to the floor. He placed a hand in the injury and placed pressure to stop the bleeding.

A furious Pantherlily, yelled at Levy: “STOP THIS AT ONCE! THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE!” Levy’s eyes returned to normal.

“I’m so sorry, Lily” She looked at the exceed and placed both hands on the sword trying to break free. “I didn’t mean to.” She stopped talking when she saw her hand covered in blood.

“Are you alright?” Lily asked as he got off of her. She nodded.

The events ran in a matter of seconds in her memory. Gajeel…She whispered. She looked at him “Gajeel!” She rushed to his side.

The exceed flew to them. “Let me help you.” He held Gajeel and went upstairs.

“Please, place him on the bed.” Levy ordered Lily and he did what he was told.

Levy held a cloth and a recipient with water in it. She soaked the cloth and squeezed it to remove the excess water. She lifted Gajeel’s shirt and placed the cloth in the bleeding wound.

“Don’t worry too much about this, Shorty. It was just a pinch.” Gajeel tried to erase the look of guiltiness in her eyes.

“The magic felt threatened. That’s why I attacked you.” Levy said to him as she kept cleaning the wound. Gajeel was feeling a little tired so he closed his eyes. “This may require a few stitches.” Levy looked at him but was surprised at how peaceful and relaxed his face looked when he sleeps.  

She was able to work with the stitches and heard Gajeel groaned. “I’m sorry for that.” She murmured, knowing he couldn’t hear it because he was already asleep. For the final treatment she placed a gauze pad over the wound and some bandages around his abdomen. That’s it. She sighed. That’s the least I can do.

Lily was at Gajeel’s feet curled and already snoring. She looked at them and smiled. I guess I should be doing the same. She placed her arms on the edge of his bed and rested her head in them, falling to sleep slowly.

The next day, Lily woke up and looked around the room. He noticed that Levy was working on some runes in the bedroom.

“May I ask, what are you doing?” Lily asked vaguely, still a little sleepy.

“Oh,” She jumped. “Good morning Lily. I already make some coffee downstairs if you want.” She smiled at the small exceed.

Pantherlily got close to the runes. “What are they for?”

“I’m taking some precautions. When I finished I won’t be able to use any kind of magic in here or in the house at all. That would control both types of magic I possessed.” She explained to Lily. “I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“Will that affect Gajeel’s and mines too?” Lily asked.

“Oh no, it’s just me. In case you need to unlock the runes, this will tell you what to do.” She bent down and gave Lily a paper with instructions.

“I’ll lend you my pen as soon as I finished.” She looked at Gajeel. “I hope he gets well soon.”

“I thought you knew him fairly well to know that he’ll be just fine.” Pantherlily activated his aera. “He will have a special recovery since you were the one treating him.” He mocked her and left the room.

“LILY!” Screamed a flushed Levy. She finished her masterpiece and just like that her pen fell to the floor and she stopped sensing her magic. She picked up the pen and placed it in Gajeel’s drawer. Am I supposed to feel this dizzy?

Meanwhile in Oak Town, a dark guild was hidden in the deepest and darkest part of the forest. The Master is a cruel and despicable human being. He was wearing black shirt and pants with a dark green cape. His long black hair was tied in a low side pony tail. The hoodie covered his face but his sharp teeths didn’t go unnoticed.  

“Well, Katsumi, I gotta admit you did an excellent job with those Fairy Tail mages. Now tell me, it was her. Right?” The guild master ask to the black haired woman that fought against Team Gajeel in their mission in Onibus Town.

The woman nodded and continued. “Indeed. Even though the maid told me her characteristics, it was obvious to figure it out since the magic power was overwhelming.”

“What about the book?” He grinned.

“Here it is Master.” Katsumi walked towards him and gave him the “Solid Script Magic Book”.

He turned his gaze to the red-headed women on his left. “Tell me more about her, Sachiko.”

“It seems Miss Levy is having a hard time trying to control the magic. And for what I heard, she already did a number with her teammates in one of the jobs she took when she got back to Magnolia.” The woman answered.

He smiled. Perfect. “According to what are you saying it seems the ancient magic is already taken over her. That’s great. We need to keep targeting her. That’s the only way we can have her and obtain the magic power Hana locked in that cave. If only she knew her stupid little granddaughter increased its strength.” The master laughed.

Katsumi turned to the Sachiko and asked. “Did Yasu notice something suspicious?”

“That’s actually a good question. Did he notice his beloved and loyal maid helped the enemy?”

The read-headed woman answered. “No Sir. I told him I was going to meet my family.” She looked to the ground. I’m sorry I betrayed you Master Toshiro, but this is the only way to get revenge on the McGarden family. I won’t forget that Hana took my parents life’s in the battle with the town.

“That fool didn’t even noticed that you were a spy these whole time. Hahahahaha!” He laughed maniacally. “Well, then I think is time you teach me “Instans Mortem”, Sachiko.”

“Ok Sir” She nodded.

“Now then, let’s get to the second part of the plan.” The Master said, taking off the hoodie revealing his piercing red eyes.

“You must remember that little McGarden is with Gajeel, and he is a tough opponent. I had a rough time dealing with him.” Said Katsumi.

“The former mage of Phantom Lord?” The guild master asked. Katsumi and Sachiko nodded. “If that’s the case,” He intertwined his fingers in front of his face. “Then we should eliminate him first.” An evil laugh was heard in the whole dark forest.

Gajeel woke up and looked to his side. He saw Levy sleeping at his side. “Lev’”

Levy heard his raspy voice and woke up instantly. “What happened? Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.

Gajeel chuckled. “Ya!  I’m fine.” He smiled. “ Come ‘ere.” He told her blatantly. Levy’s face turned red. “Relax, I’m not gonna eat ya.” Gajeel mocked her. “Unless you want me to.”

Levy wasn’t expecting such request. “Gajeel!” Her face turned redder. “Ummm…I-I know but-” She stuttered.

“It’s not like we haven’t sleep on the same bed.” He teased her.

Flashback

Gajeel felt her hand on his firm chest, applying a little pressure to it to push him down gently. He held his breath. Leaving her hand there, she snuggled her head to his shoulder to hide her blush and said: “I want to rest a little.” In a low, embarrassed voice she asked: “Would you stay here for a few moments?” Letting out the air in his lungs, drops of sweat appeared on his forehead as his heart quickened. “Umm…okay…” 

End of Flashback

“It’s not the same.” Levy said looking away. “Do you need help getting up?” She changed the topic quickly.

He smiled. “I can do it on my own, Shorty.” He sat on the edge of the bed.

“Come on Gajeel. Don’t be rude.” She stretched out her hand, offering him some help.

He took her hand and smirked. “Huh?” Levy asked.

Gajeel pulled her to him. “Wait” She said as she rested her free arm on his thigh and opened her eyes.

Levy noticed that Gajeel was looking at her lips. “Why the red face?” He teased.

Their faces were so closed. “Gajeel…” She remembered the kiss they shared at the couch and closed her eyes nervously, but what he did next made her stay still.  Gajeel moved forward and kissed her forehead.

Pantherlily walked in. “Ahem. I didn’t meant to interrupt such intimate moment, but I thought that maybe you may need my help.”

They separated quickly. Gajeel rubbed the back of his neck. “Nah, don’t worry Lil’.”

Pantherlily looked at Levy. “Master is downstairs.” Levy’s eyes widened. “He wants to talk to you.”

Would I be able to face him? Levy thought

“You should go.” Gajeel ordered her. He knew Levy needed Makarov, but she was afraid of being rejected.

As soon as Levy’s footsteps were heard downstairs, Makarov looked at her and asked. “Anti-magic runes?”  Levy didn’t dare to look at her father figure. She kneeled before him.

“My child, get up.” He said to her quietly as he took her hand.  “There is no need for you to do this. I’m not afraid of you, none of your friends are. You should know by now that Fairy Tail is not only a guild. It’s a family.”

“But, Lucy, Wendy-” Levy started.

Makarov interrupted her. “They are alright. They want to help you and we are all waiting for you to come back.”

Levy hugged him and started crying. “I’m so tired. I don’t want to keep crying. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to be alone again.”

Makarov hugged her back and tried to console her. “You are not alone, my child. Fairy Tail will always love you and will always be with you wherever you are. I know Hana would be proud of the beautiful woman you have become.”

Levy’s eyes opened and broke the hugged. “You knew her?”  She asked Makarov as she wiped away the tears with her hand.

“Of course I did. Before naming me master of the guild I went on a job in which was to protect the people in those towns nearby during the war. I met her and I was able to know your family secret. It was unfortunate that she didn’t warned your parents when she could. Also, her bravery was known all around Fiore. It’s not easy to challenge and defeat the soldiers that attacked the nation during that war.”

Levy listened carefully to every word he said. “Your parents thought the magic you possessed now was good and pure. That’s why they encouraged you to unlock it to protect your friends when the time came, but when they noticed that it was the cause of Hana and your ancestor’s death, they regret telling you that. They knew your curiosity won’t stop on the bedtime stories they told you.”   

His word took Levy by surprised. “Why didn’t they tell me the truth?” Her hands clenched tightly to her chest.

Makarov looked away. “That’s when the tragedy happened, my dear. A despicable dark guild which beliefs are to wipe out any order in this world, was searching for the ancient magic, but your parents didn’t want such powerful magic to be in such evil hands. They refused to tell them where the cave was and the dark spells the solid script magic had. Not long after the massacre, I found you. ”

Levy realized something. Wait a minute. I heard that phrase before.

Flashback

Yasu looked at Levy. "This Solid Script Magic book is not an ordinary one. It contains the most powerful spells of this type of magic. Including the dark and forbidden ones." He leaned forward putting his arms on the edge of the table. "I'm pretty sure a skilled mage will try to sneak in tonight during the celebration to get this book in her hands. The small dark guild she belongs to are after every type of spell that eradicates one's life force. Their beliefs and motto is to 'cleanse' this world of the people who try to maintain any semblance of order. In this book is a simple yet powerful spell called 'Instans Mortem'."

"…Instant death…" Levy murmured a little terrified.

"Correct." Yasu confirmed, looking directly into Levy's hazel eyes. "From what I've heard, two members of that guild have already mastered it, which is why we have to be very careful."

End of Flashback

Instans Mortem…Levy murmured.

“What was that?” Makarov asked.

“Nothing.” Levy answered calmly. The same guild who stole the book was the one who killed my parents. Why they want to have this magic? She shook the thought out of her head. “Thank you so much, Master.” She gave Makarov a smile.

TBC

[n4lentertainmentltd]

Chapter IV

1 City, Many Fallbacks, Unnecessary Rush

“Shit you never know with him bro.” Young replied.

Just as they were talking they all got a notification of a text on their phone. 

Recipients: BrisQuo, Russ, Young

Theo: Fuck yall niggas. All yall some ho ass niggas. Y’all just gonna leave me? Bitch ass niggas. My granny bringing me anyway. Don’t say shit to me when you see me.

None of them knew what to expect from him when they saw him, but they didn’t care. They needed to get to Orientation. They couldn’t wait all day on him. Besides, he had found a way there anyhow. He’d be aight.

The first time Young met Russ, he thought he was funny; he didn’t talk funny or walk funny. He was just a nice guy. Super nice. The nicest guy Young had ever met before. He was the kind of guy you did something wrong to, and he would end up apologizing for it. He had a kind soul.

Russ was closer to Young’s height. He was about 6’3”, dark skinned, built from his years of playing high school defensive end and tennis, and he had one dimple on the left side of his face that he often flashed at any chick willing to give a glance. Young did not know at that time, but they were going to end up being best-friends. Inseparable.

Text Messages

F: Angelica

T: Young

Angelica: Hey babe what’s up? I haven’t heard from you since you got off last night. 

Young: Sorry babe. I got off at like 1 then came home and packed for Orientation.

Angelica: Its okay I understand. I was sleep anyway. Are y’all in Austin yet?

Young: Naw not yet. I almost didn’t respond to your text.

Angelica: What?! Why not? 

Young: I thought you were Theo! We left his ass in Dallas and he been talking shit ever since.

Angelica: Ugh. That sounds just like that nigga. He so angry to be so light-skinned.

Young: Exactly! Lmao

Angelica: I’m so proud of you baby. I know you are going to do great things. Try not to forget me along the way. 

Young: Never.

Everyone can’t be as lucky as Young to have known love at such a young age. The moment his eyes rested on Angelica he knew she would be his. They went from acquaintances (she did not care for him at first), to friends, to bestfriends, and then there was the kiss that started it all. They both knew when their lips touched on that day things would never be the same. 

Every time she giggled. 

Every time she batted those big beautiful brown eyes. 

Every.

Single. 

Time. 

He was powerless.

Angelica and Young started dating the summer of his senior year before he headed off to college. They figured his school was close by since it was only a 3-hour drive. They agreed he would come home on the weekends and the two of them would be just fine. Everything seemed like it would work out.  

She expected to still be treated like and to feel like his Queen. He intended to give her just that...

After 3 hours on the road and talking extensively about what it would be like when they saw Theo, they finally arrived on campus. When they arrived, there were Student Guides all over the campus, dressed in official school colors with the mascot displayed proudly across their chests’. They were all pretty much giving the same speech.

“Hello! Welcome to the University. We’re so happy to see you.”

BrisQuo rolled up to the Student Guide standing closest to the car on the nearby street corner. After the initial speech mentioned above, the Student Guide said, “Please go to the annex to pick up your agenda and keys. If y’all need anything feel free to give me a holler.” 

“When do we have to pay by?” Russ asked as he pressed the automatic window button down so the Student Guide could see through the tint. 

“Great question! You have until the end of the Orientation to pay your fee. That will be 250.00. Cash, check, and all major credit cards are accepted.”

“Oh ok. Thank you.” Russ responded as he rolled the window back up.

They parked at the annex then everyone got out and did their long car ride stretches and yawns. Young was surprised Russ hadn’t paid for Orientation yet. He had a job and was sensible with his money.

“Russ?” Young said.

“What’s good bro?” He replied.

“Why haven’t you paid yet?”

“Nigga I ain’t paying for this shit. 250 bucks for something they made mandatory? Naw nigga. I aint paying a dime. I’mma just do whatever y’all do and tell them to write me down as present.” He said as he wrote an imaginary check in the air.

Young definitely felt where he was coming from. Since it was mandatory, Young felt the exact same way as him. 

Why do I have to pay for something I am being forced to do? 

Russ’ plan was ingenious. 

“So where you gonna stay?” BrisQuo asked.

“I’m staying in y’all room.” Russ replied.

“Bro its only two beds in there.” Young said. “How you gonna manage to do that?” 

“Yeah nigga! And you always snore loud than a bitch. Nigga you wasn’t gonna tell us you was staying?” BrisQuo interjected.

“I’ll be fine on the floor. I’ll make a pallet on the floor AND BrisQuo leave me, and my snoring, out of this. You know I gotta condition!”

When they got to the annex, the line had already extended out past the front door. Everyone and they Mama was at Orientation. Each Orientation was held for incoming students. 6 or 7 generally were held throughout the summer, depending on the number of incoming freshman. They decided to go to the 4th one because that one worked best with each of their work schedules. 

The annex was huge. The building had high ceilings; lots of windows, and people were packed in like sardines. It was a hot day outside, in the 100’s once again. The air was being blasted full power but that didn’t matter. It was too hot and too many bodies in that one building.

When they walked in they got in line behind the other people waiting for keys and agendas. 

“Hey Young?” BrisQuo said in a low whisper.

“Yeah what’s up?” He replied.

“Don’t that look like them Niggas from that dinner that was sitting with them bad chicks?”

“What y’all talking about?” Russ asked.

“Shhhhh Nigga damn!” BrisQuo said in an excited utterance. “Look.” BrisQuo said as he nodded his head in the semi-familiar crowds general direction.

“Yeah I think that is them.” Russ whispered. “What y’all tryna do?”

“What you mean what we tryna do? I’m tryna get these keys so I can go lay down. They not flexing on us so we shouldn’t flex on them.” Young said sounding irritated.

��Relax nigga. We just got here so we don’t have no time to be making enemies. Trust though, if we see them acting weird out in public we gonna handle that.” BrisQuo said triumphantly.

“Hell yeah.” Russ replied bouncing his shoulders and rubbing his hands together like was putting on too much hand sanitizer on.

You could tell the University prepared for the event because it took them less than 30 minutes to get to the front of the line. When they got to the front, none of them could believe who was up there waiting to get a roommate. Young recognized that voice from over a thousand Chick & Strip drive-thru orders...

“Which one of these guys is your roomie?” The student helper asked Theo.

“Shit not these niggas.” Theo shot back. He wouldn’t even look at them when he said it he just waved in their general direction.

The student helper looked at Theo with a puzzled expression on her face. 

“So wait, you aren’t with these guys?”

“Naw man. I don’t know them. They don’t know me. This my roommate right here. This guy right here. Uhhhhh, what’s your name?” Theo asked as he wrapped his arm around the stranger’s shoulder.

It was clear that Theo just grabbed the closest person to him that wasn’t one of the fellas he was supposed to ride with. The kid he grabbed was a small white guy with plaid shorts, a white tee, and flip-flops. He looked absolutely terrified when Theo touched him. The guy could tell Theo looked angry though and didn’t want to get on his bad side. 

“My name is Tommy.” The stranger mumbled.

“Is this gentleman really your roommate?” the student assistant asked. 

The guy looked at the Dallas Troop. Then looked at Theo. Then looked back to the woman. Then gave everyone a once over one more time, and finally replied, “Yeah. This is my roommate.”

“Here are your keys. Here are your agendas.” The woman said as she handed them their items. “If you need anything or have any questions feel free to ask myself or any of the other student assistants.” Theo and Tommy thanked her for her help and then walked off together rolling their luggage behind them.

BrisQuo and Young were next up. Russ, sensing it would be awkward when he was the only one not getting a agenda and key, got ghost until they came out. He was leaning on a pillar outside texting when BrisQuo, Soulful, and Young walked out of the building.