#like Jack and Alicia are both right there

[olivethetiger]

“Danny gets a sudden growth spurt because his dads side bla bla bla” ok but consider JAZZ getting all the Jack Fenton absolute buff as hell brick wall genes

[disillusioneddanny]

The Story of Us - Prologue

Danny smiled as he rocked his feet back on the swing, slowly making momentum for himself as the swing swung higher and higher. His parents were in Gotham City for some kinda convention and they had dropped him and his sister off at the park to play! The eight-year-old was having the time of his life swinging and playing on the slide!

If only he could get Jazz to join him, then it would be perfect! But no!  Jazz was sittin’ under some tree reading her book instead of playing with her little brother. She was the worst big sister in the entire world! 

Danny let out a laugh as he started to swing higher in the sky, any minute now his toes would touch the clouds! He was swinging so high! It made for the most perfect jump ever. 

The little boy swung a few more times before he held his breath and let go of the chains, vaulting himself into the air! He bent his knees like his Auntie Alicia taught him and landed on the ground right on his feet!

“Wow!” A little voice said in awe. Danny looked over to find a little boy staring at Danny in shock. “That was so cool!” 

Danny laughed as he took in the little boy. He was in a pair of nice pants and a button-up shirt with a sweater vest. He didn’t look like a little boy at all! He looked like a tiny adult! And his hair was all slicked back and silly looking. 

“I’m Danny! Who’re you!” He said, wiping his now sweaty hands on his jeans. 

The little boy smiled, a small, shy smile that just barely showed he was missing a tooth. “I’m Bruce! My butler Alfred brought me to play at the park today,” he said and held out his hand. 

Danny stared at the appendage for a moment and then looked at Bruce and frowned. “What’s wrong with your hand?”

Bruce laughed and shook his head. “You’re supposed to shake it, silly,” he said and held it out further. Danny frowned and took Bruce’s fingers and shook them along with his whole arm. Bruce stared at him for a moment and laughed. “We can work on it. Are you from here? No one is ever at the park at this time.”

Danny shook his head. “Nope! I’m from Illinois! My parents are here for a meeting and they dropped me off here!” He said with a small smile. He pointed at his sister sitting under a tree, still reading her book. “That’s my sister, Jazz! She’s babysitting me.”

Bruce tilted his head. “Is she old enough for that?”

Danny shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, but she watches me all the time,” he said happily. “Now, wanna go play? I can push you on the swings ‘till you go that high if you want?”

Bruce looked between the swings and the spot where his butler sat watching the boys and smiled before he nodded his head. “Definitely! That looked fun!”

That was the beginning of what soon became a beautiful friendship. The boys played at the park for hours until eventually, Alfred the Butler had said that Bruce had to go home, apparently, he had classes he had to attend. But they could come and meet up the next day to play! And they exchanged phone numbers so that they could talk whenever they wanted! It was amazing. 

Their friendship only grew from there, Danny and Brucie played at the park every single day until it was time for the Fentons to drive back to Illinois. Their goodbyes had been tearful, both boys promising to call the other every single day. 

From there, though, their friendship only grew until the worst day of Bruce’s life happened and Danny and his mom found themselves driving back to Gotham City, this time for a funeral. Danny had thrown the biggest fit, demanding that Maddie or Jack took him to Gotham so that he could be there for his best friend. He had to support him and give him all the hugs he could. 

Upon his arrival at the funeral, Bruce had launched himself at his best friend, sobbing heavily into his chest as Danny held his best friend tight, whispering that everything would be okay. The adults stood close by, murmuring quietly to one another and Alfred thanked his lucky stars that Bruce had a friend like Danny, he only wished that the boy lived closer. 

Maddie and Danny had spent a week with Alfred and Bruce and Danny had done everything he could to make his best friend happy, to bring that smile back to his face. He held him close, listened to him cry, and did everything he could to be a good friend. 

Little did he know that in just seven years, Bruce would be doing the same thing for Danny. A fifteen-year-old Danny found himself standing at the entryway of Wayne Manor with two duffle bags full of clothes and the rest of his things as he waited for his best friend to answer the door. Bruce had been the first person aside from Sam and Tucker to learn about his ghost powers, he had also been the first one to know when Danny had said his reveal to his parents had gone badly. 

His parents thankfully hadn’t tried to experiment on him or destroy him molecule by molecule but maybe that would have been better than what they had done. 

Danny had told his parents he was a halfa, that he was Phantom, the ghost they had been hunting for a little over a year now and what had they done? They had told him to leave. They had looked him in the eyes and told him to leave and never come back. They didn’t say the words but Danny knew what it mean if he did come back. 

So here he was, in Gotham City about to move in with his best friend and his butler because there was nowhere else safe for him to stay. Bruce had simply pulled him into his arms and allowed him to sob, to cry like he had been holding it in for days now. He was just so tired. 

The years went on like that, Danny and Bruce grew up together, learning and growing together with Danny taking his best friend on flights around Gotham. When suddenly the time changed and things changed for both of them. 

It was their sophomore year of college. Nineteen years old and off getting degrees in medicine together. First, it had been Danny who had gotten news of a war in the Infinite Realms. Apparently with Pariah Dark locked away once more, there had become a huge war in who was going to rule in his place. Danny had denied his right to the crown as he had only been fourteen when he had defeated the ghost. But now the runners in the war had been Dorathea and Walker, both with large followings ready to fight until the end of time to decide who would rule. 

It had been Danny’s fault that it had led to a war and the ghost part of him was demanding that he go and join the war, to do what he could to make sure that Walker of all people didn’t get the crown. At the same time, Bruce had decided it was time for him to go on his own journey, to finally get revenge on the people who had taken his parents away from him. 

And so there they went, two separate paths ahead of them, a story for each of them to find the end to. Somehow neither expected their roads to lead them where they did but soon Bruce found himself as the Batman. 

The protector of Gotham, the one who stalked the streets fighting crime. 

And at the same time, Danny had found himself to be one of the best healers in the Infinite Realms, helping ghosts and the living alike. 

Neither expected their paths to cross again, but thankfully, fate has a way of bringing paths together again. 

check out the master list here for all chapters <3

[elizabethemerald]

Son of the Red Hood: Part 5

Master Post

Jazz pried her unwilling eyes open. Her face was gritty and sore from crying herself to sleep after the call from the Foleys. She groggily looked around to see that she had passed out right there on the floor where she had collapsed. She tried to force herself to rise, to at least get up off the floor. She had so much to do. 

But her brother was dead. 

She needed to call Aunt Alicia. The police probably wouldn’t be able to get a hold of her for weeks if she left it to them. She needed to email her professors and her advisor let them know she wouldn’t be in class for a while. Would she even be back in time for exams? 

Her brother was dead. 

Maybe she should just drop out. Danny had been the whole reason she was trying to race through her degree. She wanted to be able to provide for him just in case their parents couldn’t or wouldn’t any more. She was even paying through the nose for an apartment by herself so Danny could live on her couch if he needed to. 

But her brother was dead. 

He had insisted, again and again, that he would be safe there. He only had a few more months until his eighteenth birthday and he was crowned the High King of Ghosts. Then he would move full time into Phantom’s Keep in the Infinite Realms. She had been counting down the days, just waiting until he was safe. After the last time their parents had caught him as Phantom and started to cut him open, Jazz had been terrified that it would happen again. Last time it had only been luck that she had managed to come home for the weekend and rescue him. 

But her brother was dead. 

She honestly wasn’t surprised her parents were dead. In fact she would bet the entirety of her afterlife on the explosion being their fault. She had already gone through the process of mourning her parents for their stupid mistakes when she was eight and Jack blew up the first version of the GAV. Her parents had both been in the hospital for three weeks. They remembered to ask about their children at the end of the second week. Up to that point she had been taking care of Danny and herself as well as she was able and had thought they were dead. 

Now her brother was dead. 

She felt for the connection she’d had to him ever since his accident. Deep down in her proto-core from her heavy exposure to ectoplasm from her parents’ experiments. She had always been able to feel where Danny was even if he was invisible. If he was in the Ghost Zone she would still feel him, it would just feel fluttery, but their bond was strong enough to cross the veil. She searched for that connection in the direction of Amity Park and felt…

Because her brother was dead? 

She could still feel a connection. Could it be to Ellie? No, she was never as close with Danny’s clone as he was despite her best wishes to the contrary. Where was it? It wasn’t in the direction of Amity, then where? 

Her brother was… her brother was… alive? 

As soon as that thought had processed she sat up and focused. The connection to Danny still existed. It didn’t feel like he was in the Zone, so he must have managed to escape! He could be injured and scared somewhere! She was immediately up on her feet. She snatched her half charged phone and her emergency bag and was out the door. 

Her brother was alive. 

Jazz raced to her car, throwing her bag into the back seat. She didn’t know if she had enough gas to get to wherever Danny was, but she would keep going as long as she had to find her brother. She peeled out of her apartment’s parking lot and started driving south down the East Coast. 

Danny was alive.  

Hold on Danny. Your sister’s coming. 

.

Diana hated Gotham. It represented everything she had always been told of the corruption of the world of men. The rampant crime and wealth inequality made the search for the child king hidden in the city even harder. 

She couldn’t search the city as Wonder Woman. Too many people would be calling to her and she wouldn’t know which one to follow. Plus the Rogues in the city would be a problem. Bruce’s rogues were always a specific shade of awful to deal with any time they left the city and she didn’t want to draw Bruce’s ire by fighting them. Also she was certain some of her own trouble makers would target her and the city if they knew she was there. 

Diana also couldn’t dress down like she usually would while in DC. She knew she looked like a younger, affluent, and beautiful woman. Every mugger, trafficker, and cat-caller in the city would be harassing her every step of the way. In any other city the fact that she also looked like she bench pressed cars for fun would have given her a level of immunity to the dregs of man’s world, but in the most crime ridden city in the world people were either desperate, or stupid enough to push their luck. Bruce would certainly kick her out of his city if she broke the fingers of every man who cat-called her. 

Instead she asked Alfred for some of Bruce’s most tattered and oil stained clothing before she left the manor. She ended up in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that Bruce must have used to change the oil on the Batmobile. Alfred was almost offended that she would go out in something so filthy, but it worked to keep people’s attention off her. Though Bruce’s hoodie was so short on her it was almost a crop top. 

With a proper disguise she walked the streets of Gotham. She saw the homeless on the streets and the muggers in the alleyways. It pulled at her heart not being able to help. Of course she stopped any crimes she saw, then disappeared quickly, but it was all so overwhelming. 

The fact that Bruce could face this every single night and not fall into despair showed just how strong he was. And that pulled at her heart even more. However she knew he would always be more dedicated to his city and his mission than any partner. That was the biggest reason she and Bruce hadn’t become an “item” as Shayera would say. 

Diana sighed in frustration. She had spent the past few days wandering through the city, street by street, and she had yet to find anything, nor had she heard anyone call her. She was sure she had understood Lord Clockwork’s words correctly, and expecting immediate results may have been foolish, but it was still frustrating. Somewhere in this twisted and dark city was her soon-to-be protege and she needed to find them. 

A scream of fear echoed through the city streets from around the corner. She jogged forward to help. She would probably head back to the manor after this, return Bruce’s clothes. Diana allowed herself a small smile, if she hurried back she would arrive before Bruce donned his costume and left to begin his own patrol. He would probably spit out his coffee at the sight of her wearing his clothes, especially with how short his hoodie is on her. 

.

Danny can float through walls. 

Jason was not freaking out, thank you very much, even though it would have been perfectly reasonable to freak out a little at his kid being able to pass through walls as if they weren’t even there. How was he supposed to ground his kid when he grew up if doors and walls were just a suggestion? Was this normal for kids exposed to the Lazarus pits? Would Jason fall through the floor one of these days and end up in the center of the Earth? What about Cass and Damian? Oh gods, he had to call them to make sure they weren’t stuck in the core of the Earth. Bruce would have to update the floor plan of the cave or else they would all fall through and…

Jason was definitely not freaking out. 

When Danny started floating and flying around the apartment, Jason could accept that. Danny seemed perfectly happy bobbing along as he ate or playing with his toys on the ceiling. Hell, more than half the JL could fly in some manner so it was easy for Jason to make some rules for Danny of when it was safe to fly and when it wasn't. But now Danny could float through walls. And Jason did not know what to do. 

He took a deep breath and took a moment to center himself. Danny was currently on the ceiling drawing a picture. He was even keeping it mostly on the paper. He wasn’t sure how he would ever explain the crayon lines on the ceiling so he was thankful he owned the building he lived in. Though he had been considering more and more moving so Danny would have more room to play and use his powers. 

“Hey, Danny? Would you mind coming down here so we can talk?” Jason called up to his boy. Danny turned to look up (down? Why does his kid have to sit on the ceiling of all places?) at him with a smile. 

“Just a minute Jay! I’m almost done!” Danny said happily. 

Jason nodded and settled on his couch. Danny had, thankfully, been pretty good so far about doing what he was told, as long Jason took the time to explain why he wanted Danny to do the things. And when he got upset, he was at least easily bribable with cookies. Now maybe some parenting books would say not to bribe his child, but those books weren’t written for parents with super powered kids. 

After almost exactly a minute, Danny floated down with his picture in his hand. Jason was struck once again by just how graceful this kid was. Once he was a little older Jason was going to have to take him to either Uncle Dickabeth for gymnastics lessons or Aunt Cass for ballet lessons. Probably Cass cause she wasn’t a no-good cop. Fuck cops. 

“What did you want to talk about, Jay?” Danny said with his big ol’ cute eyes. Jason felt the fire inside him burn even brighter at how god-damned cute he was. 

“Y-yeah.” Jason would deny that his voice cracked until his dying day. “We’re going to work together to make some rules for your powers, ok?”

Danny nodded and settled comfortably on the couch. 

“Ok, first of all. Do your powers hurt you?” Jason asked. 

His kid took a moment to think about it before he shook his head. 

“Good, good. If your powers ever do hurt you, I want you to tell me ok?” Jason waited for another happy nod before he continued. “Does it hurt to not use your powers?” 

Danny tilted his head to the side and Jason wished he had his phone in hand so he could take a picture. 

“It doesn’t hurt… but… sometimes it feels itchy.” 

“Itchy?” 

“Yeah, like when you got a really big burp inside you and you can’t let it out because you’re eating at a really fancy place. I don’t like that feeling.” Danny rubbed his chest, not quite over his heart, but more centered. 

“Thanks for telling me, bud. If you ever get that feeling I want you to tell me. And you can use your powers as much as you like here in the apartment. However when you are going through walls I want you to stay in our apartment. I don’t want you to scare the neighbors, ok?” 

Danny laughed like a chiming bell, rolling back onto his back before floating up above the couch a little. 

“I don’t wanna scare people either! I always hated it when people were afraid of me!” 

Jason didn’t know quite what to make of that incredibly worrying statement, so played it off with a joke. 

“Yeah, the neighbors aren’t as brave as your old man!” 

“Jay! You’re not old! Unca Dick is way older than you!” 

Jason threw back his head and laughed before grabbing Danny and tickling him. The two of them laughed together for several minutes before Jason remembered the drawing Danny had been working on. 

“By the way, what were you drawing kiddo?” 

Danny sat up excitedly and showed off his drawing. Jason could recognize himself with his black and white hair with his Red Hood helmet under his arm, and Danny with black hair. There were two extra people in the picture, one looked like a second version of Danny, except with longer hair this time, and one with long red hair who was even taller than Jason in the drawing. 

“See this is my family.” Danny said, pointing at the picture. “This is Dani, and this is Jazz, and this is if you were my dad!” 

Jason had to stop himself from crying as tears burned in his eyes. Danny drew him as his dad. Gods it was going to kill him if they found out Danny had a loving family out there somewhere. Plus the drawing revealed that the mysterious Jazz, Danny’s missing sister, was a red-head. That should help narrow down the nationwide search Tim was engaged in to try and find her. Though why were there two Dannys in the picture? Maybe his son was transgender? Before Jason could ask any questions Danny continued, pulling a second sheet out from behind the first. 

“And this one is all my aunts and uncles! Here’s Unca Dick, and Aunt Cass and Aunt Steph and Aunt Bab.” The next picture had several stick figures with different hair, including one with red hair in a chair. Danny had drawn Steph’s hair really long and Dick really short, the shortest in the picture other than Barbie who was sitting.

“Do you mind if I take a picture to send to your aunts and uncles? I’m sure they would love to see your art, then we can hang the pictures on the fridge.”

Danny proudly displayed his drawings and Jason took pictures. He took a few close ups to show off the art and a few further back to show off his smiling kid with his big ol’ shining green eyes. Once the pictures were taken he allowed Danny to float back up to the ceiling to continue drawing. He texted the group chat with the others. 

“Updates on Danny. Good news: he drew me as his dad in a picture. Neutral news: we now know Jazz is a red-head and apparently taller than me. Bad news: He either has no memory of his parents or at least no positive ones.” 

He sent the first pic, then after the others were done cooing over it sent the other. 

“Also according to Danny, Dickwing Duck is both the shortest of us and really old.” 

He ignored the following texts from Dick crying about how his nephew didn’t respect him.

[ilyasorokinn]

leo pettersson's great all-star adventure ― elias pettersson

note, the first of my all-star works because i'm slow so idk when the svech fic will be out but i'm working on it. also, this fic is part of the "home with the petterssons" series. check out this masterlist for more. summary, leo pettersson has the time of his life at his first all-star game. warnings, kids/children word count, 1327 words

you and elias had been to all-star games before, but this one would be different. leo and alicia were coming along with you. leo was excited but alicia was still too young to understand, but she did understand she was going on vacation which was exciting.

brock volunteered to tag along on your trip, which you accepted. he got dragged from disneyworld to fla live arena with you. he even entertained both kids on the plane while you and elias took some alone time and crashed on the 3-hour plane ride.

"we really owe you for this one," you commented as you got alicia dressed for the skills competition day, and he got leo dressed.

elias had already left, so brock being there really helped, "i get to spend time with my favorite little petey's. that's all the reward i need."

"still, you could partying it up in aruba or something, and you decided to spend it with my children in florida. i appreciate it, we both do."

"you're my family." you both shared a smile.

when you arrived at the arena, many fans stopped to take pictures with brock, which you had expected, so you made your way down to the tunnel where the locker room was and where you knew elias would be.

"uncle bo!" leo jumped up and down when he saw bo horvat. he hesitated when he saw bo wearing an islanders logo.

"hi, buddy." bo bent down and greeted him, "how was disneyworld?"

"fun." leo then went on to tell bo every single detail of your trip from when brock accidentally ordered 10 bottles of water to when elias got on a ride without you all cause he thought you were following him.

"wow, sounds like you guys had fun. did aly have fun, too?"

"yeah, she got to ride all the kiddy rides, but i rode all the big kid rides." leo boasted.

"whoa, you're a big boy now." bo's eyes widened.

"why're you wearing that?" leo's nose scrunched.

"well, you see," bo looked up at you nervously, "i got traded."

"traded?" leo asked.

"yeah, the islanders." bo nodded.

leo frowned, "but you'll still come visit, right?"

"of course." bo nodded, the smile finding it's way back onto his face.

you hummed, "that was easier than i thought it would be."

"i'll see you guys out there. by aly." he ran a careful hand through alicia's hair before heading down the hallway.

you waited a little longer for elias to come out and luckily, players were coming out, and mitch marner came out and started talking to leo, distracting him.

he even signed a puck for leo, which leo clutched to his chest like a prized possession, "will you keep it safe for me, mama?"

"of course." you nodded, slipping it into your bag and showing him the spot so he knew it would be safe.

elias walked out in the retro canucks jersey and a canucks hat, "papa!" leo exclaimed, rushing over to his father.

"hi, leo." he greeted, bending down and picking up leo, "were you good for mama and uncle b?"

"i met mitch marner and he gave me a puck!"

"wow, really?"

"and i saw uncle bo."

"did you?"

"he got traded. did you know that?"

"i did, yeah." elias nodded, nervously.

"but he promised he would come and visit us." leo added.

elias nodded, "now, do you wanna sit in the stands with mama, aly and brock or do you want to stay with me down on the ice?"

"will i get to sit next to hughes?" leo asked.

you and elias laughed, "yeah, i'll see what i can do."

you found your seat very easily due to brock waving you down like a madman the moment he saw you. you sat down and your eyes darted around the ice, trying to find your son.

"he's over there." brock pointed to the bench where leo was sitting happily in between jack hughes and andrei svechnikov, elias standing in front of him, wearing a hockey helmet, pads, a jersey, and hockey pants.

"oh, dear," you muttered.

leo spotted you somehow in the crowd and waved to you like crazy. you laughed, waving back, and waving alicia's little hand back at him, which made him giggle.

"look who it is, aly." you looked down at her face, before looking back up at leo.

"leo!" she squealed.

while sitting over on the bench, leo got to meet tons of new players. he got to sit next to gunner and all hi favorite players, "papa." leo called out to his father.

elias skated over, "what?" elias smiled.

"i met sid and mackinnon." the smile on his face was so big, it warmed elias' heart.

"wow, that's so cool." elias' eyes widened as he listened to his son's recap of his day so far, "i'm so glad you're having fun." he leaned over the wall of the bench and kissed leo's head, both of the completely unaware of the various cameras on them, taking photos.

as the night dragged on, leo found himself on the ice, playing with few of the other kids, amongst them were little ovi, who stole the show, one of taresenko's kids and a few other kids.

leo watched excitedly, pausing his game with the other kids, to watch elias. elias got ready, taking his stick before skating up fast and shooting the puck.

he skated in a circle before checking his score. 100.8 mph. he looked over at leo, who gave him a big smile and a thumbs up. elias gave him a thumbs up back before getting into position for his second shot.

he skated up to the puck and shot it into the net. it took a second for the numbers to pop up, but when they did, a collective gasp could be heard around the arena.

103.2.

and he was hard to beat. the other guys went after him but missed him by only a little. once he was crowned king of the challenge, pk pulled him aside for a quick interview.

halfway through the interview, leo skated over and hugged his dad's leg. elias let out a laugh as he stumbled forward a bit, but continued what he was saying, "i just wanted to beat that today, so yeah, very happy with it." he ran a hand through leo's hair, glancing down at him.

pk smiled too, "last question, how do you shoot 103? what's your secret?" he asked.

"i lay all my weight into it, so yeah." elias smiled.

"all right, well it's a lot of weight. congratulations." elias nodded before pk turned back to face the camera, "elias pettersson, hardest shot." elias beamed happily as he bent down to pick up leo and hold him.

"what'd you think?" elias asked.

"so cool." leo answered enthusiastically.

the next day, you were seated in the stands, leo sitting inbetween you and brock while alicia sat on your lap for the all-star game tournament.

leo and alicia were both repping the retro canucks jerseys with their last names and their dad's number. as well as their number '40' beanies.

"from the vancouver canucks, elias pettersson!" leo stood up in his chair and clapped.

"that's papa!" leo hollered, jumping up in his seat.

"that's right." brock smiled.

the firt period was almost up. there were less than 3 minutes on the clock and puck was down on the other side of the ice. fiala shot it out and got it away from the net.

fiala got it, skating further away from the net and shooting it up to elias who was further up the ice. elias skated forward, then passed it to bo.

bo skated right up to the. net and looked like he was gonna shoot it. he, instead, passed it over to elias, who was by his side and shot it. leo started cheering while you and brock shared a sad look.

-

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[whumpasaurus101]

i NEED alicia pinning somebody up against a wall and just purring into their ear with a gloved hand wrapped around their neck as their face turns purple and their vision slowly fills with black spots and she's just laughing and drops them and kicks them when they're barely conscious mhm

...you know an ask is good when it pauses your scheming of starting a new story-. ive stared at this ask alot DHUIDKDHD SAY LESS ANON I GOTCHYUUUUUUUUUUU

The whump is a slow starter BUT I PROMISE THERE IS JUST STICK WITH ME HDUIHDKDH or just scroll to the end- you do you HUIDHD

Cw: Beating, alicia being a creepy bastard HUIJDHKD

---

Alicia smiled, looking adoringly with sparkling eyes as she looked Jack over, straightening his tie, “Just perfect,” She smiled, her velvet-red lips curving perfectly. Jack smiled, a light blush filling his face. Alicia brought her hand up, cupping Jack’s face as she brushed her thumb along his cheekbone, “Just perfect,” She hummed, smoothing Jack’s shirt down. 

Jack couldn't even hide his smile, he was so lucky he had Alicia. Alicia treated him so well, made him feel special! Alicia’s fingers gently carded through his hair, her finger gently dipping behind his ear as her maroon painted nail scratched his skin gently, just how Jack liked. Jack closed his eyes with a smile, leaning into the touch. 

Alicia chuckled, looking at her pet with a gentle smile, “My love,” She beamed. Suddenly there was a bang on the door, Alicia chuckled as Jack flinched, “It’s alright, baby, just Rodger.” Jack stiffened, watching Alicia fix her hair in the mirror, “Ro-Rodger’s coming?” Alicia hummed in response and Jack nodded, “I-Is Asher coming too, the-then?” 

Alicia chuckled, topping up her lipstick, “Oh that mutt? Nah, I think he pissed Rodger off too much- think he’s locked in his room for the night.” Jack gulped but nodded. Another bang on the door, this time louder but Alicia just rolled her eyes, taking Jack’s hand in hers before guiding them to the door.

“You know, normal people would use a doorbell, jackass.” 

Rodger smirked, “Well I guess I’m not normal, hm?”

Alicia rolled her eyes, walking past him and bringing both her and Jack to the car, “Far from.”

The car was.. practically a small limo. A driver sat in the front, eyes staring straight ahead with an earpiece in. Alicia opened the door and with a gentle hand on Jack’s back, she guided him inside the car. The back of the car was open. Three seats with a mini fridge either side of the row. Alicia sat at the furthest seat, bringing Jack to sit beside her as she gently played with his hair, whispering gentle words to relax Jack.

Rodger sighed, slumping down into his seat, “Dang, I need to get myself one of those.” Alicia smirked against Jack’s cheek, “Get what- a limo or a well-behaved pet.” Rodger almost choked on his water, laughing as he wiped his mouth, “Both.”

Jack scooched slightly closer to Alicia, catching Rodger’s attention and the car started moving, “You're lucky to have such a broken pet.” Jack flinched slightly, making Rodger’s grin grow even wider. Alicia just hummed, scratching behind Jack’s ear with her nail, “He’s an angel.” 

Roger rolled his eyes, chugging the rest of his water before throwing the bottle on the floor.

As Alicia and Rodger broke into conversation, Jack’s eyes didn't leave the bottle, he bit his lip before slowly bending down to pick it up. A tight grip on his wrist soon stopped him right before he could touch the bottle, “And just what are you doing?”

Jack yelped out quietly, his eyes slowly raising to Rodger’s, “I-I was just go-gonna pi-pick-” 

“And are you being paid to pick it up, hm?”

Jack’s eyebrows furrowed as he gulped, “N- uhm no, si-sir…” Alicia chuckled, gently running her finger along Jack’s spine, “Oh come on, leave him alone, dude.” But Rodger’s burning eyes never left Jack’s. “You see, people actually are getting paid for cleaning up after me. And if they have nothing to clean and they’re taking my money? Then I’m being robbed.” Rodger’s second hand moved to grab Jack harshly by the chin and forced his face close to his, “And you don't want me to be robbed, do you?” 

Jack’s eyes widened, “NO! N-no, sir, no-not at all!”

“That’s what I fucking thought.” And with that, Rodger let go, leaning back in his chair with a chuckle. “You’re so mean,” Alicia giggled. “He makes it too fucking easy,” Rodger grinned.

Once they arrived at the restaurant, the three of them sat at a table. Jack was grateful to be allowed to sit at a chair this time. He didn't mind the floor but at places like this, people tend to stare. Alicia’s palm rested against Jack’s knee, she knew Rodger made Jack nervous which quite honestly humoured her.

“Rodgerrrrr!!!” Came an unrecognizable voice, “Shit man, it’s been ages, how have you been??? Rodger’s eyes widened as he grinned, standing up and doing a handshake with the other, “Quinn mc-fuckin-crae, how are you?” Alicia looked Rodger up and down for a moment before his eyes widened, “Shit- yeah, sorry, Alicia, this is Quinn. Him and I went to college together.” Alicia smirked and held out her hand, “A pleasure to meet you.”

Jack watched as Quinn’s eyes widened, smiling at the sight of Alicia. He gently took Alicia’s hand and to her surprise, he bent over and placed a kiss against her knuckles, the pleasure’s mine, darlin.” Jack had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Alicia’s smirk widened, “Care to join us?”

“Ah I-I wouldn’t want to interrupt.”

“I insist!”

Rodger dragged a chair over and Quinn let out a sigh of content as he slumped in the seat, “Rodger, you didn’t tell me you had a missus,” he grinned, swatting Rodger playfully against his arm. Rodger’s eyes widened, “Nono! Hah, she’s not- we’re not- we’re just friends I swear.”

Quinn burst into laughter, “Alright mate, take it easy,” His eyes then roaming to Alicia, “That's good to know though.” Alicia’s eyes closed as she laughed, “Hmmm, I’m flattered.” Her hand trailed up to Jack’s hair as she gently traced circles in his hair. Quinn’s eyes flickered to Jack and he raised an eyebrow, “Any who might this be?” 

Alicia smirked, “My darling. His name is Jack, Jack, say hello,” She cooed. Jack gulped, blinking a few times before speaking, “G-good evening, sir.”

Quinn's eyes widened, his eyebrow slightly quirking up, “Well fuck me, if I hadn’t thought of getting one of them myself, I’m seriously considering it now.” Alicia smirked, her eyes falling to Rodger, “Yeah, he seems to have that affect on people.”

Half an hour later they were served their food, Jack looked down at his food, unsure how his stomach felt. He didn’t like the feel of Quinn. Not one bit. Alicia looked over at him and smiled, gently swirling a fork in Jack’s pasta. She gently cupped his chin, her thumb brushing along his skin gently as she brought the fork to his mouth. Jack smiled before slowly opening his mouth, letting Alicia feed him.

Alicia smiled gently, her nail gently scratching at Jack’s skin as he chewed. Quinn watched the admiration glimmering in Alicia’s eyes, he couldn't help the burning fire that roared in his chest. Jealousy. He knew it well. He shook his head and continued into his meal.

As time passed by, conversation continued. Jack listened as Alicia continued to feed him. Quinn’s English accent was thick, lacing each word. Jack’s eyes drifted closed, his mind at ease as he relaxed into Alicia’s touch. He felt eyes on him but ignored it for now- his focus only on Alicia, where it belonged. 

Alicia’s eyebrows furrowed as the back of her hand brushed against Jack’s face and she sat up slightly. Jack looked up at her as her hand brushed against his forehead, “Sweetheart…you’re burning up…”

Jack bit his lip anxiously, “‘m o-okay, I’m sorry there’s… there’s just a lot of people here and-and I-”

“Hey, baby, don't apologize, do you want to get some air?”

Jack nodded fast, blinking hard, “Ye-yes please, ma’am, tha-thank you s-s-so mu-”

“I can take him outside, no problem!”

Alicia paused for a moment, considering.

“Oh come on, I come here practically every week, I know my way around here!”

Alicia’s eyes squinted in thought but she nodded, “Alright, alright fine…” she raked a hand through Jack’s hair and smiled, before kissing him gently, “Feel better soon, baby.”

Quinn stood up quickly, rubbing his hands together before walking to Jack, “We’ll get you better, sprout, no problem.” Jack had a bad feeling about this from the start but his head was spinning and he needed air, quickly.

Quinn gently placed his hand against the small of Jack’s back, causing the other to shiver. “Nice and easy, sprout, we’ll get you out in just a second.”

He was led out a back door, practically stumbling over his feet. “Christ, you really are an anxious one, huh?” Quinn snickered. Jack just gulped hard as they continued walking. The second the door was open and the cold air met Jack’s face, he suddenly felt human again. He gasped and let out a shaky breath.

“There we go,” Quinn cooed, running his hand through Jack’s hair, gently rubbing circles against his scalp, “Deep breaths, sprout, good job.” Jack couldn’t help but lean into the touch, his breaths slowly calming, “Tha-thank you.. Mmthank you, sir.” He let out a final sigh, his lungs feeling full once more.

Quinn’s emerald green eyes shone in awe as he watched Jack close, gently brushing a strand of hair that rested over Jack’s eyes, “You're a pretty one,” he smirked. Jack blushed and looked away, “Can…can we go inside please…”

“Oh no darling, not quite yet,” Quinn practically purred against the shell of Jack’s ear, warm breath fanning over cold, pale skin. A whimper caught in Jack's throat as he tried to lean away, “I-I want to see Alicia… pl-pease…”

Jack flinched as Quinn chuckled, closing his eyes as he savoured this moment, “Christ, you're just perfect, aren't you? Begging before I even cut skin.” Jack’s eyes widened, “Nonono, do-don't hurt me… Ali-Alicia.. She- she’s-” A gasp escaped his throat as he felt the familiar feeling of a cold blade resting against his skin, a threat.

“Alicia’s not here though, is she?” Quinn smirked.

“Ohhhh, but she is.”

Jack’s eyes widened as he heard her voice. Alicia! It was Alicia!

Quinn spun around, quickly pocketing the knife, “Alicia! He just had a little itch, thought I would help him,” He smirked. Alicia stepped forward, arms crossed, “Let me set something straight for you, Quinn; I don't like people touching my things,” She hummed, making a show of putting on her leather gloves, “And that right there,” She smirked, jutting her chin at Jack, “Is my angel. And no one lays a finger on him unless allowed.” She had managed to back Quinn against the stonewall of the building, knife in her hand, her favourite knife. In a sudden, her hand shot out and she grabbed Quinn’s throat, slamming him hard against the wall as she leaned in close, this time whispering into Quinn’s ear, “I believe you have something to say…”

Quinn shuddered, his breath stuttering “I- I’m sorr-” 

“Ah ah ah,” Alicia’s hand squeezed tighter, making Quinn gasp, “Not to me, hun, to him.”

Quinn swallowed his pride before moving his eyes to Jack’s, “I-I’m sorry, Spr-” He coughed as Alicia’s grip grew tighter, “GUH- I-I’m sorry, s-sorry, Jack.”

Jack shrank back slightly dipping his head.

Alicia smirked, stroking her thumb gently against the side of Quinn’s neck, soaking in every heartbeat she felt against her thumb. Each thump like a scream- a cry for help. 

“Good boy,” She cooed, feeling the other shudder. She trailed the blade along each of Quinn’s ribs, relishing each short gasp, “Not so cocky now,” She smirked, slowly digging the knife in, “NH-” He cried out but Alicia’s hand squeezed his throat tighter. He couldn’t breathe.

“Oh, this is my favourite part,” Alicia murmured, “The pleading eyes. You look so weak right now, pathetic,” She spat but with a smile, “All control in my hands, your faith literally in my hands!” She giggled, “Oh, if you could see yourself right now…”

Quinn squeezed his eyes shut, his body shook as it desperately hunted for air. “Nonono, open your eyes, honey, I want to see you.” 

The blade slashed across his side and he choked out a scream, eyes bursting open. Alicia chuckled, “Muuuuch better. I’d say you’ve got another ten seconds before you fall unconscious at my feet,” She smirked as she felt him whimper.

“I’m only going to repeat myself once,” She whispered, causing the hairs at the back of Quinn’s neck to stand, “Never ever touch him unless I allow you to, am I understood?”

Black spots swam in Quinn’s eyes as he shook, slowly nodding. The pressure lifted and he dropped to the floor, choking on gasps as he coughed and spluttered, clawing at his throat for more air.

Alicia chuckled, “Fucking pathetic,” She drove her foot back before kicking Quinn once more- full force into his stomach, making the other cry out. She turned to Jack quickly, pocketing her gloves as she cupped his face, 

“Let’s get out of here, baby. I’m glad you're feeling better.”

---

THANKIE FOR READINGG <333

Taglist -lmk if you wanna be added or removed <<33- : @likeit-or-whumpit @milk-carton-whump @yesthisiswhump @appy-polly-loggies @happy-whumper @hold-back-on-the-comfort @tears-and-lilies @whumpkinpie @happy-little-sadist @scribbelle @whump-queen @whumpdreamz @thelazywitchphotographer

[satureja13]

Jack and Saiwa arrived in Moonwood Mill. They decided to care for the animals first and show Tyalindo and Lunatic where they can stay while they roam in this world. Noxee seems to like Lunatic ^^'

Noxee: "Greg drove a few of his cars out to make space for the horses." These are Greg's cars? It seems Greg and Jack have more in common than it seems ö.ö

Noxee: "We will have a good time here, right?" Saiwa: "We will! Right, Jack?" Jack: "Sure..." Two vampires, two crazy horses and two crazy werewolves plus the goats are going to have a good time at the Wolves of Letters Bunker in Moonwood Mill...

Saiwa and Jack share a room since Greg lives in the other room. Noxee and him need both their own space. Noxee's room there is no place for a werewolf anyway ^^' And Saiwa won't let Jack sleep alone. He still suffers from PTSD and his other mental issues. Saiwa: "Jack, I know you hate him. But try to appreciate what Greg did for us. They let us stay here. And it also cost him a lot of his powers to guide you in the other world. He tries - so you try too, ok?" Jack: "Ok..."

Saiwa: "I'm going to help Grexee in the kitchen. Come over when you're ready."

Noxee: "We will be fine, right?" Greg sighs: "We will." Noxee: "It will all be well in the end. You will see."

There is the present Kiyoshi gave Saiwa before he left! Is Saiwa really Kiyoshi's fated mate? Why did Saiwa get a present from Kiyoshi and not him? Jack can't resist to take a look inside...

Why? Why would Kiyoshi give this to Saiwa? That's too much for poor Jack.

Jack: "But what does Kiyoshi want from me then?" Armadillo: "..."

Eventually Jack was able to go over for dinner but he wasn't able to take part in their conversation. Something about Strawberry Cake Fashion and stuff. The Pizza soothed his raging heart. If only for a bit(e).

Before he went to bed, he saw this book on the drawer. He's sure he never read it but it seems oddly familiar... (It's the book Greg read for him when he was in his coma.)

Jack's daily message for Ji Ho. As promised. Maybe caring and worrying about Ji Ho helps Jack coming back to a certain stage of sanity.

That kinda loving Makes me wanna pull down the shade, yeah! That kinda loving, yeah Now I'm never, never, never gonna be the same I go crazy, crazy Baby, I go crazy You turn it on, then you're gone Yeah, you drive me crazy Crazy, crazy for you baby

Crazy - Aerosmith (Another MV I highly recommend. Starring Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. She was also the actress of Arwen from Lord of the Rings).

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest

The 'Disbandment of the Group' Chapter from the beginning -> here

[appalamutte]

hi i used parvuls’ new writing prompt generator to write this small little thing

trope: enemies to lovers setting: lighthouse word: potato

“I see you’ve finally taken to the bed.”

Mr. Zimmermann nods over to the wrinkled sheets on the bed, setting the crate of produce and bread on the small table in the middle of the room.

Eric rolls his eyes. “Yes,” he says begrudgingly, crossing his arms, “you were right. The bed was much needed once the frost came in. Though it’s still a pity sight for sore eyes.”

With his back turned, Eric can only hear Mr. Zimmermann’s hum, though he’s sure Mr. Zimmermann’s mouth is twitched in that subtle way of pride. “Very well,” is all Mr. Zimmermann says, and when he turns Eric can find no such trace of pride left. Not that he looks very hard, though.

“There are a few sacks of grain and flour in the jolly,” Mr. Zimmermann continues, briskly crossing to the door, “and a satchel of potatoes from Londonderry.”

“Londonderry?” Eric asks, following him down the stairs.

“Up in New Hampshire,” Mr. Zimmermann says, and how he says it flares Eric’s chest with anger, like how he always says it when Eric thinks they may just be past their animosity. He says it like Eric’s just another senseless Southerner with no meaning to be in Massachusetts after the war, even though Eric’s family fled to New Haven at the first word of Fort Sumter and spent years donating as much of their monthly earnings as they could allow to the Union’s troops.

It’s always been like this, though, for as long as Eric’s been the keeper at Cape Samwell. The Zimmermann’s own a swath of lighthouses up the coast, all the way to Maine, and at first Eric had thought he struck gold when he was accepted for the position. Robert Zimmermann is one of the few businessmen Eric’s met who values well-being as highly as profit, and his wife Alicia vows as much to pageantry as she does to goodwill. They’re not perfect by all means, but they regard Eric’s family with the respect most others can’t seem to give, and for that Eric is happy.

Then he had the misfortune of meeting Mr. Zimmermann’s sole heir, who wouldn’t even shake Eric’s hand the day they met. Jack Zimmermann is a breathing contradiction from his parents, callous and cold and not at all charismatic. It’s just Eric’s luck that Jack asked to personally deliver the monthly supplies to Eric’s lighthouse, supposedly doing so as soon as Eric was hired, no matter that he’s never done so for any other lighthouse before. It’s a selfish demonstration of how much a nuisance he is, something he won’t even admit, and—well, Eric is able to send his parents his earnings, which makes it bearable.

They reach the bottom of the stairs and Mr. Zimmermann all but shuts the door in Eric’s face in his haste to get outside. “Well, Mr. Zimmermann,” Eric says once he’s standing atop the stoop, cheeks surely red in distaste, “Thank you for your family’s continuous generosity. You can just leave the grain and potatoes here at the door.”

“Nonsense,” Mr. Zimmermann says from the dock.

“I like to believe it’s in both of our best interests if you did so.”

Mr. Zimmermann lifts two sacks of flour, the seams of his sleeves pulling taut around his arms as he does so, and carries them back to the stoop with near grace. He stops short of Eric, one step below him so that they are almost of the same height. “I cannot deliver these to your quarters with you in the way,” he says.

Eric doesn’t give a reply. His mother would surely have his rear with the impoliteness.

Mr. Zimmermann raises an eyebrow, and for a moment it is only the salty breeze ruffling his hair, the sea reflected in his eyes, the dry pink of his lips that draws Eric’s unwilling attention. It’s no secret Mr. Zimmermann is handsome, be it that half of Boston’s daughters have been vying for his hand in marriage ever since he turned of age, and sometimes when he gets near enough like he is now, Eric feels this pull high up in his stomach near his lungs that he never likes to acknowledge.

That is, until he remembers this is Mr. Zimmermann, and the pull dissipates as quickly as it comes. How unfortunate it is that such an ugly-acting man can be so beautiful.

“Fine,” Mr. Zimmermann suddenly says, dropping the flour to the wood and turning, “I shall let you see to it these make it up to your quarters then.”

He retrieves the rest of the grain and the satchel of potatoes, and it’s only when they’re all sat at Eric’s feet and Mr. Zimmermann is halfway to his jolly that Eric finds his words. “Thank you again, Mr. Zimmermann. Please send my gratitude to your parents,” he all but yells.

Hoisting up the first bag of grain, Eric maneuvers himself to shoulder open the door to the stairs, wondering in the back of his mind why his stubbornness always wins out. The grain is always heavier than he remembers it being, and the stairs are always longer, and yet every time Eric can’t fathom the thought of Mr. Zimmermann being in his quarters longer than necessary.

“It’s Jack!”

With the door nearly shut behind him, Eric quickly leans back and peers back outside. “Pardon?”

Mr. Zimmermann is still at the dock, his jolly yet to be unmoored. “Enough with the formalities, Eric,” he yells. “My name’s Jack!”

Eric will haul his body over the coals himself if he were to ever openly refer to Mr. Zimmermann in such an informal manner. It’s undeserving and, frankly, far too intimate. He still politely smiles, though, and yells back, “Safe travels, Mr. Jack!”

The door shuts behind him, and as it latches Eric thinks he hears Mr. Zimmermann laugh, but the wind plays tricks on his ears all the time.

As if Mr. Zimmermann knew how to laugh.

[flowerfan2]

I can't believe it's Halloween... I haven't written anything new for spooky season, much to my dismay. But I offer up for your reading pleasure this lovely Halloween fic from a few years ago.

Love Is Kind of Crazy (With a Spooky Little Boy Like You) M, 28 k. Jack/Bitty.

Jack is contemplating what to do after retiring from the NHL, so he and Bitty take some time off to enjoy autumn in New England. They hadn’t counted on the scary stuff that would happen, both of the Halloween variety and of a more personal nature.

Chapter 1

Bitty spreads newspaper on the kitchen island, and carefully lays out their carving tools and his second best knife. Jack is going to be home any minute from a Halloween event with the Falconers, and he had promised to bring home two of the best pumpkins for their own carving session.

It’s been a difficult time for Jack lately. Ever since deciding to retire from the Falcs, he’s been at loose ends. He had never fully recovered from a knee injury in his fourth season that kept him off the ice for six weeks, and after limping (literally) through the rest of the year, he had come to the conclusion that he would never recover fully enough to play professional ice hockey again the way he wanted – needed – to be able to play. 

Bitty remembers with a wry grin a conversation over drinks with Bob and Alicia, outside on a warm summer night in the backyard of their Montreal home. Jack had been so worried about the whole discussion, his hands clenching nervously in his lap.

“This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, Jack,” Bob said, glancing quickly at Alicia, who nodded in agreement. “I know you have interests other than hockey, much as you might try to hide it from the world. Now you can spend more time on something else.”

Jack looked helplessly at Bitty, who laid his hands over Jack’s and gave them a squeeze. “That’s what I keep telling him,” Bitty said encouragingly.

“I just don’t know where to start. I’ve been getting calls and offers ever since the news broke. It’s…”

“Overwhelming,” Alicia said. “I remember those days. Isn’t Melinda helping you?”

Melinda was Jack’s agent-slash-assistant; when Jack came out, he had enlisted her help, wisely realizing that it might be of use to have someone not on the Falcs’ payroll helping him navigate the shark-infested waters of the media. She’s been called in on various occasions ever since.

“Yeah, but she wants to know what I want to do so she can narrow it down. And I don’t know what to tell her.”

“You don’t have to decide right away, son,” Bob said, leaning over to refill Alicia’s glass, which had been drained rather quickly.

“I know, I told her I’d let her know by the end of the week. But-”

“A week? That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Bob replied, a smirk growing on his face.

After further discussion, Jack and Bitty had decided that he would take six months, more or less, before committing to any other long-term obligations. So Jack had continued to help with Falconers publicity events, sat in on board meetings of various national organizations, been a guest coach for hockey leagues large and small… and still didn’t know what he wanted to do. Lately Bitty had been sending away for brochures for masters’ programs in history and photography and teaching and leaving them lying around their apartment, and while Jack accepted them good-naturedly, he hadn’t expressed any interest in finding out more information.

Bitty doesn’t want to rush him, but he thinks that Jack’s indecision itself is starting to upset him. He really hopes something strikes Jack soon, before he worries himself into a complete inability to make up his mind.

“Honey, I’m home,” Jack calls out, a smile in his voice as he shoves open the front door with his hip. He’s carrying two gigantic pumpkins with ease. His knee doesn’t bother him much most days, at least if he doesn’t push himself too hard. Jack sets the pumpkins down on the kitchen island before accepting a hello kiss from Bitty.

“Lord, those are big boys,” Bitty says, and flushes when Jack winks at him. “Shush, you. You know I meant the pumpkins.”

“Fine.” Jack presses Bitty up against the counter and kisses him again.

Bitty winds his arms around Jack’s neck, happily obliging. Jack seems much cheerier right now than he has of late, and the words pop out of his mouth before he can stop them. “What’s got into you, sweetheart? Weren’t you just carving pumpkins for hours with elementary school kids?”

Jack laughs and steps back. “Yes. But all the way home I kept thinking of you, getting ready to draw your pumpkin face for the year, that little frown crumpling your eyebrows…”

Bitty regards Jack curiously. “You were thinking of me while playing with the kids?”

“After I was done playing with the kids. And yes, I was.” Jack leans in for another kiss, prim this time, and then motions to the counter. “So, which one do you want?”

Bitty considers his options. “This one.” Bitty points to the slightly narrower pumpkin. “I want to do a scary face this time, and this one seems scarier.”

Jack doesn’t question his decision, although Bitty has no idea why that pumpkin seems scarier to him. “Okay.”

They get to work, cutting around the stem on the top of each pumpkin and scooping out the insides. Bitty gathers up the seeds for toasting; he’s going to use them in a pumpkin seed granola recipe he found online last week. 

“How was today’s event?” Bitty asks, as he searches for a better pencil with which to sketch his design.

“Same as last year. Except they had a different story for me to read.”

“Oh?”

“Yup.”

“What story?”

Jack pauses with a paring knife in his hand, and looks at Bitty. “Any chance you know what the origin of ‘Jack O’Lantern’ is?”

“Um, who’s the history nerd here?”

Jack makes as if to flick a pumpkin seed in Bitty’s direction, but continues. “There’s an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack. He invited the devil to have a drink with him, but didn’t want to pay. Things went downhill from there-”

“I can imagine.”

“And so when Stingy Jack eventually died, the devil wouldn’t let him into hell. Instead he sent Jack off into the night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish took to calling him ‘Jack of the Lantern’ or ‘Jack O’Lantern.’”

“Well, that’s not a very nice story to read to kids.”

Jack harrumphed. “I know, right? But I guess the idea is that people started to carve scary faces into turnips and potatoes and eventually pumpkins, and put them in the window to frighten Stingy Jack and other evil spirits away.”

“So the kids all made scary pumpkins to scare Stingy Jack away?”

“Exactly.”

“Still sounds like a bad story to read to kids.” And not a very nice story to make Jack read, either. He’s no evil spirit, whether he quit the Falconers or not. Bitty can’t imagine that the Falcs publicist meant anything by the choice, but he still doesn’t appreciate it. And he has the feeling Jack doesn’t either.

Bitty looks at the pumpkin in front of him and starts to rub off the pencil lines. “I changed my mind. I’m making a happy face this year.”

Jack doesn’t say anything, and when Bitty looks up at him, his eyes are wet. “What?” Bitty asks. “I can change my mind.”

“I love you, Bits,” Jack says, his voice low.

Bitty puts down his knife, wipes his hands on his apron, and takes Jack in his arms. “Love you too, sweetheart. Always."

Read the rest of the chapters on A03 here.

[striveattemptfail]

The snow's coming down, I'm watching it fall | Zimbits, G, 2k

Summary: It was because of this growing love for the holiday that Jack agreed to throw a Christmas party at his and Bitty’s place.  At first it was just inviting Coach and Suzanne for Christmas, so they could spend time up in Providence with Bits until New Year. Bob and Alicia always did the same. But then they started inviting old teammates, turning the family dinner into a full-on party. So many loved ones visiting them during one of Bitty’s most favourite times of the year, so of course Jack wanted to spend it with Bitty too. Read on Ao3

A/N: For the OMGSP Secret Santa Exchange. Takes place after Jack and Bitty are married. I hope you enjoy it, @peanutdoodler~!

Title from Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) originally by Darlene Love. Thank you to @atlasthemayor for the quick beta and sweet comments<3 Any other mistakes are mine.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—❄️—❄️—

i.

Bitty loved Christmas.

Jack loved Bitty.

So Jack liked Christmas now too.

When he was younger, he usually dreaded the season. It meant that both Papa and Maman would be even busier than usual with games and dinner parties and shmoozing with stuffy people Jack hated talking to.

He’d much rather stay at home, watch tape, and drink hot cocoa.

Bitty grew up a lot differently.

The holidays meant seeing family, baking even more somehow, genuine laughter and joy around the house. He loved the decorations, the music, the spirit.

When they finally got together, Bitty’s happiness was infectious.

And Jack grew to love Christmas.

It was because of this growing love for the holiday that he agreed to throw a Christmas party at his and Bitty’s place. At first it was just inviting Coach and Suzanne for Christmas, so they could spend time up in Providence with Bits until New Year. Bob and Alicia always did the same.

But then they started inviting old teammates, turning the family dinner into a full-on party. So many loved ones visiting them during one of Bitty’s most favourite times of the year, so of course Jack wanted to spend it with Bitty too.

He thought about this as he packed up after his last game for the month, the irony of how ready he was to return home and help his husband out with a party.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

ii.

Bitty was in full swing setting things up for Christmas day.

Jack was out finishing the last leg of his roadie before coming home for the holidays, meaning Bitty had a lot to prep for.

The decorations had been set since Cyber Monday. The menu was decided two weeks ago so he had time to pick up groceries as the big day drew closer. Over the past week he started setting ingredients aside, pulling dishes and trays together to speed up his process so he didn’t have to go searching for them. Yesterday, he already began chopping up the vegetables he needed to prep for cooking all day on the 24th.

Bitty was in His Zone.

He checked his phone for a quick update, about to text Jack that he was going to be buried in their kitchen for the next few days and to let himself in, when he decided to call his husband instead.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

iii.

“Hi, sweetpea!”

“Hey, Bits.”

“How’s the roadie?”

“Good. You watched the game?”

“Of course! Nice hatty there, Mr. Zimmermann.”

“Hah. Thanks.”

“You’ll be here by the 23rd right?”

“Mhm. By the afternoon if weather allows it.”

“Hopefully a bit earlier! I want you to taste test a few things before I go wild and actually start cookin’ up for Christmas.”

“Haha, okay. Anything particular?”

“Testing a new pie recipe.”

“‘Swawesome. So I—huh? Marty? Oui. Mm. D’accord.”

“Gotta go?”

“Yeah. Marty says the bus is loaded up.”

“Okay, travel safe! Miss you, honey.”

“You too, Bits.”

“Talk soon?”

“Yeah.”

“Bye, I love you!”

“Love you too.”

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

iv.

[Approx. 24 hours later]

Bitty hung up the phone, finally letting out the slow sigh he’d been holding ever since Jack told him that he would be coming home later than they planned.

It truly was a series of unfortunate events: a popped bus tire, plane issues, new flight plans... Jack had sounded so defeated when he relayed the news to him. Bitty expressed that he was disappointed by the delay, but he knew that things happened, none of it Jack’s fault, and he didn’t want Jack worrying about him.

So he told Jack that he could manage with Shitty and Lardo to help him out for the Christmas party.

And they did. The two were as boisterous as ever, making an early drive to their condo to help. They bickered with Bitty all while they assisted him with the extravagant Christmas meal he had planned for.

Then Jack texted him that his connecting flight got delayed by weather. And then that his baggage got lost.

Bitty kept up his spirit for Shitty and Lardo with every update Jack gave, though he doubted he convinced them that he was just fine, y’all, now get! You two need rest before the realchaos starts tomorrow morning!

(Lardo had let out a low groan while Shitty barked out a laugh. Then they said their good nights and retreated to the spare room.)

He had wanted this Christmas to be extra special since it was the first big celebration he and Jack were hosting.

And he was determined to keep it just as special, even if Jack only made it for half the day.

Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t wait up for his husband on the couch, passing the time by scrolling for miles on Twitter, instead of looking at the door and hoping that Jack finally walked through.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

v.

Jack was late.

He was so very late.

It started just after he got off the phone with Bits. The bus was loaded up and ready to go, just as Marty said, but less than a mile after they left their hotel, the bus popped a tire.

Which would’ve been fine, since the team usually flew on charter, but apparently their plane had a major mechanical issue, so they were told to either spend a day (maybe even two) to wait for it to get fixed, or to each catch a regular flight home.

After a quick discussion, everyone agreed to fly back individually, simply wanting to get back to their respective hometowns. The single guys were upset, but not as much as the guys with kids and partners they had to break the news to.

Bits was much more forgiving than Jack expected.

“I thought you said you wanted me to taste test things?” Jack had asked, unable to help his disappointed pouting.

“Oh, sweetie, don’t worry about that,” Bitty had reassured him. “I can call up Shitty and Lardo to make their way here a bit earlier. They can help out.”

He then sighed, swiping a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Bits.”

It didn’t help that he missed his single connecting flight because of a sudden snowstorm, and that his luggage got lost in transit because of the delay. Then when he finally landed in PVD, the taxi line was long as all hell because apparently everything happening in Jack’s life wanted to go wrong.

Which meant that instead of arriving home in the afternoon of the 23rd like he wanted, he actually got home past 11pm on the 24th, sneaking into his own condo quietly like a thief in the night. He unceremoniously dumped his bags by the door and kicked off his boots. Trudging over to the living room to take a seat on the couch, he decided to gather up a bit of energy before disturbing Bitty, who was probably asleep in their bedroom.

He was surprised to find himself proven incorrect. Instead of an empty living room, he found Bits lying on the couch, hand on his phone like he fell asleep while scrolling through it.

(Jack smiled, because he probably did.)

He tiptoed over to where his husband was sleeping soundly to kiss him on the forehead.

“Joyeux Noel, Bits,” he whispered.

At this, Bitty stirred awake, blinking up at him with a sleepy smile.

“Welcome home, sweatpea. Merry Christmas.”

The fatigue of the past 30 hours immediately melted away, and Jack figured Christmas could be a lot worse than coming home to the man he loved most, greeting him warmly with a soft kiss.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

vi.

Bitty vaguely recalled the night before—he knew that passed out on the couch after he sent Lardo and Shitty off to bed—but for some reason he didn’t wake up in the living room like he thought he was going to.

Instead, he woke up in bed, Jack snoring quietly next to him.

He suddenly remembered the door clicking open, the soft thump of bags hitting the floor, and being awoken by familiar lips pressing onto his forehead.

Jack was home.

Even though he’d coached his friends through his intricate meal plan yesterday, he had still been stressed and upset that Jack had missed out. But now, all the sadness he’d suppressed melted away, leaving only a deep warmth and satisfaction that Jack was finally here, with him, just in time for Christmas.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

vii.

Despite the delays he faced, Jack managed to spend Christmas at home. Lardo and Shitty greeted him with a big smile and a crushing hug respectively, and before long Bitty whipped everyone into a well-oiled machine to prep for the Christmas party ahead of them.

Yes, Jack included.

Bitty did give him the chance to bow out, considering his hectic travel, but the hours he spent with Bitty in bed (clothed, completely asleep) gave him enough energy to lend a hand.

He still wanted their first Christmas party in their home successful, after all.

And to spend it with his most favourite person in the world, along with some of his other favourite people?

There was nothing more Jack could really ask for.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

viii.

[Several hours of cooking later]

The party was in full swing, food and presents laid out just in time, friends and family mingling and laughing all around their home. Somehow, he and Bits managed to catch a moment together, Jack corralling them to stand by the entry to the hallway.

Then he grinned to himself.

“You know,” he said conspiratorially, “we’re under mistletoe right now.”

Bitty looked up at him with a smirk. “You planned this on purpose, didn’t you, Mr. Zimmermann?”

Jack could only smile even wider, pulling Bitty close by the waist, and kissed him.

“OOOOOH!” Shitty hollered from across the room, as he often did. “FOOOOOINE! That’s a big fine right there, Jack!”

The room erupted with laughter, half the crowd agreeing with Shitty, the other half wolf-whistling. Somewhere, Jack could hear Suzanne and Maman cooing at them.

Jack flipped everyone the bird, deepening the kiss against Bitty’s smiling lips.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—❄️—❄️—

[BONUS: The day after the party]

i.

Suzanne and Coach Bittle go out to explore Providence since it was their first time visiting the city in the winter, Maman and Papa going along with them, so he and Bitty decided to spend the day out together too.

Unsurprisingly, they made their way to a frozen pond, skates in hand. Bits said it was deemed safe a few days ago, and there were a few people already skating around by the time they arrived.

Since it was just the two of them, they couldn’t play shinny, but a quick skate date wasn’t out of the question.

They passed the hours in the freezing cold, filled with smiles and laughter as he and Bitty skated around the pond with their hands locked the entire time.

When they left, flurries began to float down from the clouds.

—❄️—❄️—❄️—

ii.

He and Jack headed back as fresh snow fell around them. After checking his phone, they found out that their parents were still out, so he and Jack grabbed a few supplies from home before going back outside to mess around with the newly fallen snow. They built two little snowmen, one a little taller than the other.

“That’s adorable!” a voice called out.

Bitty turned around to find a young boy looking down at their creation. He was bundled in a yellow jacket, wild curls tucked away from his face with earmuffs covered in sunflowers.

“Do you mind if I take a photo?” he asked, looking up to beam a gap-toothed grin at Bitty.

He snuck a glance at Jack, who nodded.

Bitty couldn’t help but smile back. “Sure, honey!”

The boy squealed out a Thanks! before snapping his photos and leaving. He and Jack then took their own selfies before heading back home once again.

Later, when their parents returned from their day trip and Bitty regaled what he and Jack had been up to, he considered it a wonderful day well spent.

[ladylynse]

Chapter 10 [FF | AO3] of Revision: Maddie can’t deny it any longer. If ectoplasm can become blood, there’s more to this story than she ever realized.

Beginning | Previous

-|-

Time stretched.

Stopped.

Snapped back into place.

Slowed again.

At some point, Maddie realized that Alicia had given her another cup of coffee—already sweetened—even though Maddie couldn’t remember drinking the first. A piece of rhubarb crumble sat in front of her, heaped with an extra helping of the caramelized sugar and oat topping. The plate by Alicia had been pushed aside in favour of the local newspaper and was empty but for a few streaks of sticky pink, the odd rolled oat, and her fork.

Maddie wasn’t aware that she’d made any sound, but Alicia glanced in her direction. “You holding up? You can talk to me if you’re ready.”

“I’m fine,” Maddie said, but even as the lie passed her lips, she was reminded again of how often she’d heard that from Danny.

Had she gotten the habit from him without realizing it?

“I’ll be fine.” The correction didn’t have as much strength behind it as she wished it would. “I’m just….” She let the sentence die, but Alicia nodded.

She still understood Maddie better than Maddie understood her. Or Danny. Or Jazz.

Maddie licked her lips, but her entire mouth felt dry. She took another sip of coffee. “So you know about Danny. And…and Phantom.”

Alicia folded the paper and set it aside. “Saw it with my own eyes. Didn’t ask for an explanation; didn’t really need one, even if there had been time. My priority was to help them, not question them.”

“Right, of course. But you….” How could she say this? “You always thought the same as Mom and Dad. That I was throwing my life away by studying the paranormal.”

Alicia arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you go putting words in my mouth. What you did with your life was always your business as far as I was concerned. I was happy for you when you got accepted into that program of yours, you’ll recall. So was Mom. She didn’t burn that cake on purpose.”

“But you still…. You never used to believe in ghosts.”

“People are allowed to change what they believe.” The response was dry, but Alicia had a hint of a teasing smile on her face. “Or are you gonna try to tell me that you believe exactly what you believed about ghosts before any of this happened?”

“I’m not, I just—” Maddie raked a hand through her hair. “Vlad’s the same way. He’s like Danny, I mean. There was an accident back in college, something that had Vlad in the hospital for months. You might remember me telling you about it. Jack and I had known it was bad, and we’d tried not to take it to heart when Vlad said he didn’t want to see us, but—” She shook her head. “We didn’t realize what had happened then. We didn’t realize what happened to Danny when it somehow happened again. I don’t know about Danielle, but—”

“But you know now,” Alicia interrupted, “and you’re acting accordingly. You’re changing your approach based on what you’ve discovered. Scientific method, isn’t it?”

Maddie gave her sister a weak smile she wasn’t really feeling, though she doubted it was enough to fool Alicia. “Yes, I’m trying, but this entire thing with Vlad— He says Danny won’t accept him as a mentor, so he’s been playing the part of the villain to help Danny learn the things he needs to know. Danny’s never liked Vlad since they met. Jazz was pragmatic for a while before she dropped all sense of subtlety about it, too, and I know it has to do with the enmity Vlad has fostered between them, but I don’t—”

“Take a breath. We’ve got time to talk.”

Maddie did as instructed, taking a moment to try to organize her thoughts. “I don’t know what came first. What sparked the animosity. Danny’s worry about Vlad is real, but I don’t know if there’s more behind it than what Vlad told me. I wanted to talk to them both going forward, to help Jack and I learn, but Danny’s reaction to that bug—”

He’d recognized it as Vlad’s technology as readily as she had, and he hadn’t even had the luxury of seeing it intact.

It begged the question of how often he—or possibly Tucker—had dismantled or straight up destroyed something similar.

“Ask him once he’s back. That’s the simplest.”

“He wanted to leave Vlad out of it.”

“That was before he knew how involved Vlad was.”

“But I don’t know—”

“And you still won’t have a hope of knowing until you hear both sides of it,” Alicia cut in. “If you ask and Danny decides to tell you, then it should be a little easier to figure out then, don’t you think? Since Vlad’s told you his side, now you need to listen to Danny’s, not just Jazz’s version of it. You might not be the only one he’s keeping secrets from. If he was so ready to be open about all of this, he might have told you and Jack everything before this ever happened. But he wasn’t ready, and he didn’t, so here we are.”

If only Danny had told them, if only she’d known, if only she could turn back the clock and make another choice—

But he hadn’t told them when he’d had the opportunity—because surely, at some point, there must have been even a single moment where he’d considered telling them; the thought that there hadn’t been only made her feel ill—and she hadn’t stopped what she’d been doing when she’d had Danielle in the lab with her even though she’d had the opportunity.

Maddie swallowed, but she knew Alicia raised fair points. What ifs aside, it was highly unlikely that Jazz knew everything, and if Sam and Tucker had been able to fill in the missing pieces, wouldn’t they have at least told Jazz once Danny had disappeared?

There were still things she didn’t know.

There were things she might never know.

“You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Now eat your crumble or you’re cleaning out the spittoon Jasper uses when he’s over visiting while I eat your crumble; maybe that’ll keep you out of your own head for a bit.”

Maddie snorted, but she picked up her fork and let the sweetened tartness of the crumble fill her mouth.

-|-

Danny had told her to punch in the date of their parents’ wedding for the override code, but he had failed to tell her which format to use. Jazz cursed under her breath as she started for a third time, this time putting the year first. If she went through all this and it turned out that Tucker had used the wrong day….

The computer let out a series of beeps but didn’t light up. That was more than it had done before, but it wasn’t any proof that the override was working. Jazz tapped her Fenton Phone to switch the transmitter back on. “Tuck, if I’ve got in your override code, is there any easy way to bring up the display?”

There was a beat of silence before, “Wait, you only tried the override now?”

“Yeah, because it’s something you forgot to tell me about. Danny told me.”

“You spoke to—”

“—heard from—”

“—Danny?”

Jazz wasn’t entirely surprised Sam had jumped into the conversation. “He’s okay. So is…our cousin.” The words felt like a lie, and it had been so long since she’d had any reason to lie to Sam or Tucker. “Sorry, I was going to tell you after I got this going. He’s not in the Ghost Zone, but Dad still is, and Vlad’s definitely pulled something. I just don’t know what. That’s one of the reasons I need to break everything he’s trying and you need to keep your eyes peeled.”

They’d want to keep asking her questions—how could they not? She would if their situations were reversed—but they knew enough to focus on the task at hand first. Tucker took a bit of time to collect himself and then started talking her through things. She had to get him to clarify whenever he described something she didn’t see, and then she’d have to tell him what was in front of her, and the process was not short.

Still, she didn’t realize how long everything was taking until she heard Vlad’s voice coming from directly behind her. “Got a little lost on your way to the kitchen, did you?”

Jazz’s shriek was not dignified, and the pained hisses in her ear from Tucker and Sam meant it had sounded entirely too piercing to them, but it had been a rough couple of days. They wouldn’t blame her. “Don’t act like you’re surprised,” she groused. She’d leave the transmitter on in case Vlad decided to try something else; might as well give Sam and Tucker as good an idea of what was happening to her as she could. “Danny’s secret is out, your secret is out, Mom and Dad will figure out what the truth means sooner rather than later, and suing you for patent infringement is the least they’ll do once the restraining order is in place.”

Vlad let out another world-weary sigh, and he moved to put the plate of omelet he was holding onto one of the work benches. Jazz kept her back to the computer and braced herself against the console with both arms, wanting to make his touching it as inconvenient as possible even if he tried to sneak around her with an invisible clone. As long as she was wearing the Spectre Deflector, he couldn’t stand in the same place she was occupying any more than he could overshadow her.

That was assuming he hadn’t already been countering everything she’d done before ever making her aware of his presence, of course, and it wasn’t an assumption she was sure she could make. For all she knew, he wouldn’t even have needed to use the same console to override her. She doubted Vlad did much without having a backup in place—Danny was too good at destroying his first attempts for Jazz to think he hadn’t learned if it wasn’t something he’d been doing all along—and even with Tucker talking her through things, she wasn’t confident that she would have noticed Vlad doing something right under her nose.

Not that she’d bother accusing him of this. She wouldn’t even get any satisfaction out of it. He’d deny it, just like he denied everything else, and she wouldn’t believe him because he hadn’t given her any reason to believe him.

There was absolutely no part of her that trusted Vlad, and that was not going to change.

That ship had sailed even before she’d pretended to run away to him and he’d tried to have her fight her brother to the death.

Of course, he wouldn’t necessarily have needed to counter her right now as long as he’d stood there and watched and listened long enough to figure out what she’d done.

She might have shown him enough of Tucker’s override for him to work out how to undo everything the moment she walked away. If he found a way to counter it, Tucker would have to start from scratch, and whatever Vlad had sent after Danny and his friend, after Maddie, after Jack—

“Just for a moment,” Vlad said without flinching under Jazz’s steely stare, “let us entertain the notion that I really am as terrible as you think.”

“Sure, since you are.”

“Do you truly believe your parents would win a court case against me?”

“Seems pretty open and shut to me. We’ve got multiple records of original blueprints that you stole, Danny will have ample proof of—”

“Beyond a reasonable doubt is a higher bar to clear than you think, I suspect, and—quite frankly—I would be able to invest more in my case than they could in theirs. You aren’t the first person to threaten to take me to court—”

“No surprise there. I’m not convinced you’re half as good at managing your business as you pretend.”

“—and I know the system. If I wanted to—and if you were somehow able to convince your parents of your delusions about me to the point that they were foolish enough to follow through—I could easily financially destroy you.”

“Do you seriously think any of this is helping your case right now?” With any luck, Tucker had figured out a way to record this. Vlad’s words wouldn’t be loud, but he was close enough to her that Jazz hoped her mic would pick him up.

“I’m not saying I would—”

“Except you would. Without hesitation or remorse.”

“Jasmine, please. I’m merely pointing out that doing something so drastic would be a mistake.”

“And that doesn’t sound like a threat to your ears? You’re further gone than I’d thought.”

“None of this is a threat,” Vlad said, his voice flattening into something more of tried patience than anything else. “Now are you going to keep making baseless accusations or are you going to eat your breakfast?”

“Let him think he won for now,” Tucker’s voice whispered into her ear. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and he won’t figure out what you did.”

Jazz wasn’t about to bet on that, but she swallowed back her protests nonetheless. Baseless accusations, my foot. More likely than not, Vlad was betting that she’d figured out some way to record their conversations and was trying to appear all nice and sane instead of showing his true colours.

This was not paranoia.

Not when Vlad was involved.

Jazz held her glare for a beat longer before moving away from the computer console and picking up the plate Vlad had left for her. The food looked like it had come straight out of a restaurant—not something she’d put past him, frankly—and smelled heavenly. The plate was surprisingly warm in her hands, so she knew the omelet wouldn’t have gone cold in the meantime, but— “How do I know this isn’t drugged?”

“You would have known if you’d come to the kitchen when I’d made it instead of sneaking back to my lab to try to sabotage my search and rescue efforts,” Vlad said dryly, “but if you prefer, I can eat a few bites of that one or you can make your own.”

Jazz scowled. “Let’s just go back to the kitchen.”

She might not have done any good, but she’d tried. If she could at least keep her eyes on this Vlad, even if she couldn’t track his clones, hopefully she’d have done enough to help Danny.

-|-

Danny’s return was almost as unexpected as his leaving.

Alicia had coaxed Maddie into baking cookies—not that it had taken much coaxing, even after Maddie had realized Alicia’s pointed suggestions were more to ground her sister than to give her nephew something sweet to eat. Still, being otherwise distracted, she’d yelped when she’d turned to grab a bit more flour and saw her son standing by the fridge, watching her in silence. Maddie took some small measure of comfort in seeing her sister pointedly relax and roll her shoulders; Alicia had been just as startled by Danny’s appearance, whatever she might pretend.

If acceptance of, well, all of this, meant there was a bit of a learning curve even though you pushed through it, it gave Maddie some hope that this might not all be too little, too late.

“They’ll be chocolate chip,” Maddie offered with a nod at the bowl.

“Cookies aren’t going to fix this, Mom.”

The words hurt more than she wanted to admit. “I’m not trying to fix everything with cookies, sweetie. I…. I know it won’t be that easy.” She was afraid to call this a peace offering, even if that was what it had become, for fear that he wouldn’t touch them once they were baked as a consequence. “They’re just cookies.”

Danny shrugged instead of answering and moved to sit down at the table by his aunt.

Maddie swallowed and plunged her hands back into the cool dough, churning in the chocolate chips as if making the perfect cookie were indeed the start of fixing this mess of her own making. “Was everything all right?” The cheerfulness in her voice sounded false even to her own ears. “Nothing unexpected?”

“Vlad hasn’t found us yet,” Danny said flatly. “Doesn’t mean he won’t, but Dani’s still safe for now. I didn’t find anything else around here when I looked, but that’s not a guarantee there isn’t something. Jazz is going to try to keep him at bay, though.”

Jazz.

Meaning he’d spoken to his sister.

He hadn’t done so earlier; she was sure of that. Maddie wasn’t convinced Jazz would have contemplated going to Vlad at all if she’d had an inkling of Danny’s true whereabouts.

Well.

That wasn’t quite true.

It was entirely too likely that Jazz would have pointed her in one direction and gone to confront Vlad on her own.

Maddie swallowed and picked up the ice cream scoop in preparation of placing perfectly sized balls of dough onto the cookie sheet. Alicia, aside from an interested hum that meant she was listening, was once again doing her best impression of a lump on a log. She might be talkative enough when it was just the two of them, but she was perfectly content to let Maddie tackle this conversation with her son on her own.

“Are you willing to tell me what happened between you and Vlad?”

Danny snorted. “What didn’t happen between us? He’s messed up. I’ve known that since we met at your reunion, and that first impression has not improved. It’s actually gotten worse. Look, whatever Jazz said, whatever you think, the truth is worse. I haven’t even told Jazz everything he’s done. I never figured out how to tell her. Even Sam and Tucker….” Danny shook his head, and Maddie’s heart sank.

Danny had stopped confiding in her and Jack, but until recently, she’d hoped he was at least confiding in his friends.

Having confirmation that he’d stopped before now—

No. She could be methodical about this and not jump to conclusions before she had all the facts. She’d been doing too much of that of late as it was. “Could you give me an example?” She kept working as she talked. Three evenly spaced balls of soon-to-be cookies stood proudly in a row across the short end of the tray. Maddie grabbed another spoonful of dough, rolled it between her palms, and started down the long side.

Danny glanced at Alicia this time before looking back at Maddie. “You’ve already seen the best example I can give you.”

The tracking device, he meant. Maddie grimaced. “I really don’t like the idea that you know Vlad’s technology from its parts.”

Danny blinked. “What?” The question sounded almost reflexive. Then, “Oh, right. Yeah. Not the first time I’ve seen one of those things. Probably won’t be the last. He chased us through time using one of those.”

He’d what?

“It’s just….” Danny leaned his head back to stare up at the ceiling. “You remember that time it was just the two of us and we ended up by Vlad’s cabin in the woods?” He looked over at her again and must have seen the recollection of the time on her face because he continued, “That wasn’t bad luck or happenstance. I mean, I would’ve hoped that the gift baskets gave him away, but in case they didn’t? He orchestrated the entire thing. And that stunt is on the tamer side of what Vlad’s pulled.”

“He said—” She broke off at Danny’s sharp look, but Alicia was right. She needed to know both sides of this. “Vlad knows you don’t like him.”

“So?”

“He said that’s deliberate on his part.”

Danny frowned. “What, him being a creep?”

The dough she was rolling squished flat in her hands, and she had to start again. “No,” she said carefully. “He said you wouldn’t accept him as a mentor, so he’s taken up the role of villain to do what he can to help you learn how to handle everything.”

Danny laughed.

It wasn’t the gentle, carefree laughter it should be.

It was bitter, broken. Hard.

“Even if that’s the line he’s going with,” Danny said when that horrible laughter had died away, “anyone with sense would look at what he’s done and say he’s gone too far.”

Maddie opened her mouth to ask what exactly Vlad had done that Danny meant—the tracking device was unnerving, admittedly, if that was all it was, but it may not be unwarranted if it was more along the lines of an emergency transmitter than a tracker—when Danny added, “Did he say anything about Dani?”

“He said she wasn’t stable and that he’d tried to help her but couldn’t.” Wasn’t that what Vlad had said? Danielle had been to his lab, Maddie could remember that much for sure, and if she was still unstable, then it must mean Vlad hadn’t been able to help her.

“That’s a rich way of saying trying to melt her down didn’t get rid of her.”

Even Alicia couldn’t hide her sharp intake of breath at that. What had poor Danielle gone through before Maddie had captured her? Maddie could imagine a number of setups that might serve to force a ghost to shift form, and it wasn’t a stretch to think that something could be modified to force destabilization, but Danielle wasn’t simply a ghost.

The amount of energy that would have been needed to destabilize her human cells to the point that it mimicked melting—

It wasn’t something that would be accidental.

Mistakes could be made, of course. She knew that. Still, it wasn’t like Vlad to mess up his math, misread the power meter, or get his wires crossed (literally or figuratively). Of the three of them, he’d never been exceptionally careless. She’d gone over enough of his calculations in the past to know that he took pride in being precise.

Maddie picked up the ball of dough that had fallen back into the bowl and placed it onto the cookie sheet without perfecting it first. “Are you—?”

Danny levelled her with an icy glare, and the words died in her throat. “I’m sure.”

“But there could have been—”

“Mom. I know what I saw.”

She swallowed, nodded, and put the last ball of cookie dough on this tray.

She had to listen to him, not argue with him.

Whether or not there was still some mistake or misunderstanding or misremembered exaggeration could be cleared up later; as it was, Danny’s beliefs about what had happened couldn’t be clearer.

It made Maddie feel sick.

“Can you tell me what exactly happened?”

He shook his head. “Not until I talk to Dani. I don’t know how much she wants to tell you, and that would get to a point where I can’t be vague anymore.”

Alicia moved to stand by Maddie long enough to grab the full cookie sheet, replace it with an empty one, and murmur, “Since he’s talking about Vlad, ask how it started.”

Alicia had the cookies in the oven and the timer set before Maddie found her voice again. “How did everything start with Vlad? You said at the reunion—” She broke off. Jazz had also told her this had begun at that reunion, and she was starting to think she and Jack should have never attended. It had been so nice to catch up, but if Vlad—

If Danny—

“If you knew he was the same as you,” she started again, “wouldn’t that spark friendship and not animosity? I’m not trying to criticize your choices, really, I’m not, but having a mentor—”

“He doesn’t want to be my mentor,” Danny said, the fierceness in his voice enough to stay her hands from picking up a fresh scoop of cookie dough. “I mean, yeah, sure, I guess he technically does, but what he really wants is to have Dad out of the way. You have no idea how many times he’s asked me to renounce Dad and accept him as my father. Which is why the fact that Dad’s in the Ghost Zone right now is bad. Aside from the fact that you guys aren’t the most popular people in the Ghost Zone, Vlad has ghosts on his payroll. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

She knew what he was implying. She’d have been able to figure that out even if Jazz hadn’t expressed similar worries. But— “Vlad said he doesn’t have the resources—”

“Vlad lies,” interrupted Danny sharply. “Can you just take a minute and get that through your thick skull?”

“Tone,” Alicia said quietly, and Danny huffed out a breath.

“He lies,” Danny repeated, anger and frustration still tightening his words. “He will tell you what he thinks you want to hear and blithely deny whatever accusation you throw at him. He will take a situation and find some way to spin it so he doesn’t come off looking as bad as he is. I might not know what he was like twenty years ago, but I know what he’s like now, and I know that way better than you do.”

“I don’t mean to say that you don’t, but—”

“But you don’t want to believe me because I’m just a kid? Because he was your friend and you don’t want to think he’s this big of a creep? Or because he’s always really nice to you?”

Maddie sighed. “I’m still trying to understand, that’s all. I know it might not seem like it right now, but I’m trying.”

He didn’t glower at her and spit out so try harder.

He didn’t say anything at all.

She kept making cookies, hoping he’d break the silence.

In the end, she broke first, unable to take the building pressure of everything that was unsaid between them. In as neutral a tone as she could manage, she asked, “If you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, do you see even the possibility of truth in Vlad’s words? That he’s fostered this dislike—”

“Hatred.”

“—loathing, then, in a misguided attempt to help?”

Danny stared at her for a beat and then drew an invisible line in the air at his knees. “This right here? Where the line would be if someone was actually trying that. With the floor being normal people who don’t do that. Vlad?” He drew another line as high above his head as he could reach without getting up from his chair. “And that’s a conservative estimate. I mean, I’m not saying I didn’t learn a lot of my powers on the fly. I did. But Vlad doesn’t get credit for that when I’d been doing that before I met him.”

“Even if—”

“Mom.” He could put so much weight into that word. “I can put this a different way for you, okay?”

She nodded, grateful that he was willing to try.

“You know what you did to Dani.”

Ice filled her chest, her entire being, and brought her to stillness.

Danny’s words weren’t accusatory this time. They weren’t lobbed at her with enough force to make her crack, nor were they diamond hard or sharper than her scalpels. There was no poison in them. No promise of retribution.

Instead, they were a simple statement of fact, spoken with as much gravitas as Danny saying he was going to have cereal for breakfast again.

That made this worse, somehow.

“You didn’t know until after. Vlad knew from the very beginning.” The edge had crept back into Danny’s voice, bitter and building to blistering. “Would you go back, do that all again, and say it was to help her?”

“He wouldn’t have—”

“He. Knew.”

Maddie did not need Alicia’s warning look to keep her silence.

She wasn’t sure her mouth could form any words right now even if she had an idea of what she wanted to say.

Vlad had said that Danielle had come to him for help, but he hadn’t said what sort of help he’d given her.

She hadn’t asked.

She hadn’t thought their definition of help would differ that much.

“Just—” Danny blew out a breath. “Even if you don’t believe me because you think he’s fooled me—when you’re the one he’s fooling, by the way—don’t trust everything he says. And don’t trust him with anything important anymore. Can you at least do that?”

Maddie nodded.

There was no other answer to give.

-|-

see more fics | next

[mlobsters]

supernatural s14e8 byzantium (w. meredith glynn)

totally forgot about that alicia witt episode. is someone gonna burn up some soul for jack?

JACK Can you tell him… it's okay SAM Tell him yourself. He'll be back in a minute.

see i think i don't have a lot of lingering trauma from my dad dying when i was 16 from cancer, but like. they say this and all i can think about is my mom making me tell my dad, in his last days, unconscious in a hospital bed in our house, that it's okay. so, imagine that, but a hundred fold for all these memories associated with that. and then going through it again with my mom, so a new batch to add on to the existing set that still fucks me up. not many things poke at it, but when they do...

DEAN I can't. It's not right, Cas, you know? It's just-- It's not-- CAS What? It's not fair? I know that. But he needs you.

suck it up, fuckhead. okay i don't know if that's actually in character for him but i gotta believe he would understand that and not walk out. certainly not if he thought he was that close to dying. whatever, more opportunity for angst over not even being there when he passed. hospice gave us a list of signs that someone is gonna die soon. doesn't account for rapid decline due to loss of archangel grace though i imagine

(while i look for the post [13x17 apparently] where i talked about some music reminding me of bloodfest by brian reitzell and whether it was the same just now, reminded as they stand in this hallway, where are all the fucking apocalypse world people)

spn 14x08 / hannibal 3x6 / spn 13x17

didn't come to any great conclusion. similar technique. nothing nearly as interesting or pretty as brian reitzell's, but it's not a fair comparison. both the spn episodes the music was christopher lennertz, this episode it was with philip white as well.

and fuck whoever made the decision to cut from the big emotional moment of dean coming into jack's room after he has died with basically a jumpscare to the title card with the flapping wings.

and then basically a jumpscare to thinking sam is leaving to go do something monumentally stupid.

come on, not even a hug? group hug? something? if you're going to put me through this, at least throw me a fucking bone

not sure i can do this. small break because a montage of them having a mini wake basically, drinking, reminiscing set to licensed music. done having my buttons pushed.

well. that's one way to disconnect me from feelings, jack in heaven with..... the empty cg goo flooding in

spn 14x08 as lily sunder / alien (1979) veronica cartwright as lambert

hey, now that's a recognizable voice

DEAN We're talking about that kid's soul. SAM Not all of it. DEAN Oh, okay, then. Tell me you're not cool with this. CAS Don't you think Jack should decide for himself?

using jack's own soul to sustain the magic for his body, didn't see that one coming. and yet another spin on the merry go round of bodily autonomy arguments. if heaven wasn't busted, i imagine he'd want to stay. which might be more interesting. and visiting kelly, buh. thought i was done crying this episode.

the empty shadow guy crashed heaven just to get jack? hokay

SAM Lily, I-- I know you're upset, but you can still do the spell. LILY That wasn't the deal. I've got to go. SAM We have nothing to offer you, noth-- nothing to say, but… He's our kid! LILY I'm sorry. DEAN You know what I think? Burning all that soul? You're not even human anymore, not really. SAM Dean-- DEAN Otherwise, how could you ever, ever let anyone go through what you went through? The pain of losing a kid? Don't do this to us.

continue to be surprised whenever they textually acknowledge jack as their kid. it's a good thing, and dare i say a smidge subversive with their non-traditional family structure. it's nice.

and for this ridiculous anubis thing, maybe her helping them can tip the scales more in heaven's favor.

COSMIC ENTITY Castiel, you know how this goes-- the good souls here, the bad souls there. The angels are mine. CAS Enough. COSMIC ENTITY Stop interrupting! Start paying attention. I'm taking him. And where I'm taking you is worse than Hell… because at least Hell is something. Ohh. Ohh, God, they look scared. Does that hurt you? Good… because I want it to.

the manic bitchy weird thing they're doing with the empty thing is ... weird.

COSMIC ENTITY: Deal. Oh, but not now. No, no, no, no, no. No, you see, I-I meant what I said. I-I want you to suffer. I want you to go back to-- to your normal life and-- and then forget about this and forget about me. And-- And then, when you finally give yourself permission to be happy and let the sun shine on your face, that's when I'll come. That's when I'll come to drag you to nothing.

huh. ok.

JACK Why? Why did you do that? CAS Because I made a promise. Because I love you, Jack. And Sam and Dean-- they love you. And they are fighting for you at this very minute. I hope that… They don't need to know what happened here. What I did-- I'm-- I'm-- I'm at peace with my choice. I don't want them to worry. JACK I won't tell them. I promise.

so he gets to sacrifice himself and sam and dean don't get to know about it so they don't have the chance to fix it. ok

and as i expected, lily got her happy ending in death too. sacrifice and family reunions all around

lol naomi giving out michael's location, ok sure. cas oh so smoothly bypassing questions about why she'd give them that :p

DEAN And we know where Michael is. Not quite sure how you pulled that one off. CAS Well, we, uh-- we still don't know where Dark Kaia is or the spear.

laughed because even he made it sound like what he was saying was goofy. anyway. i think i'm finally warming up a little more to cas. making him vaguely consistent in characterization and not making horrible decisions all the time apparently helps. and just plain being around and participating in things

hopefully we're done pushing my real life terminal illness buttons because it's exhausting and miserable.

hope dean leaves mary another voicemail giving her an update that in fact jack is not dead anymore

[kotos-lotos]

Here’s my twisted wonderland Oc Alicia Rosehearts !

She is the twisted version of the white queen and a former RSA student! Alicia is a first year but she takes second year classes, she is Riddles cousin and the daughter of a well known fashion designer ! Alicia’s got two older siblings, Liam (twisted from Oslo) and Emily(Twst from one of the white queens members of the royal court)

Alicia is a first year member of heartslabyul and Riddles cousin. She takes advanced classes and pretty well known amongst the first and second years for her personality and UM.

Her mother, Avery (twst from the white and red queens mother) is a fashion designer in the rose kingdom but has a PhD, her father, Noah (twst from the white knight) is a bartender and owns his own pub in the kingdom. She also has a pet ! She’s got a bloodhound named Jack.

Her UM allows her to turn the battle field into a chessboard, and depending whose side she’s fight on, the chess board will either enhance a persons power based on her power or heal injuries ! Ex: If someone is standing on a Black tile (I looked on Google but if anyone understands chess terms pls lmk !) their injuries are healed and if someone is standing on a white tile then their power is enhanced ! She’s a member of the NRC equestrian team, she’s a fan of show jumping events and absolutely despises dressage. She’s a fan of horses and horseback riding so Riddle suggested joining when she transferred to NRC.

Alicia is friends with everyone but some of the third and second years. She’s close with Riddle/silver, Trey, cater, chen’ya and Ruggie. She is acquainted with Jamil and Kalim, Vil, Lilia, Jack and Epel. Her best friends is Ace and someone she has a brother and sister relationship with, is Deuce !

Leona and Malleus freak her out and Sebek annoys her. Alicia has the BIGGEST crush on ace and can be found learning card tricks from him and playing cards with him in her spare time.

Unlike riddle, she isn’t extremely brash or a stickler for rules. She’s kind/stubborn/easily flustered/a little self centered sometimes, blunt and ignorant. She’s also really brash and stubborn around Ace. Like he flusters her so EASILY to the point that she shoves her hand or whatever’s in her hands at that moment in his face before PROFUSELY apologizing.

Here is her voice over announcement ! She is voiced by Saori Hayami !

Some ship art of Ace and Alicia after they graduate ! Or in a modern AU ! I believe im Ace having either an Irish or English accent. Alicia would have a Scottish or Irish accent !

For the picture on the right, it is a Fanmade event I created ! This event is called, “down to wonderland !” And it’s a Fanmade event similar to the previous events surrounding a characters home ! In this event, the characters learn about the history of the queen of hearts and wonderland while meeting Alicia’s family. They get taken down a rabbit hole and go through a bunch of large underground towns and villages to get totheir destination, the mad hatters tea party’s. Aka a destination known to the Roseheart and Clover family, in other words, this destination is a place of meeting for both families to gather have a tea party. When the group awakens their outfits are changed into more….appropriate attire. One that suits wonderlands liking.

———

⚠️Please do not repost my art ! Or claim/trace/roleplay/shift as my Oc ! ⚠️

©️Alicia and her family belong to me ! Kotos_lotos !

©️twisted wonderland and its characters belong to- Yana Toboso

[taelovesjohnny]

Time traveled and fell in love ( the outsiders ) protect

Alicia's pov:

"Alicia time to get up or you will be late for school sweetie!" my mom yells from the kitchen. I groan and cover myself with my blanket. It's not that I hated school, I just dreaded to get up. After a few minutes I toss the covers off of me and get up. I splash water into my face to wake up, then put some make up on. I put on a baggy sweatshirt and a skirt, to be honest I never really had a style of clothes. Some days you will see me with baggy ripped Jean's and a tank top, other days you will see me with a crop top and a short skirt. I brush my hair and then put it up with a hair clip. I get my backpack and stuff, then go downstairs to the kitchen. I let out a yawn "hey mom". She looks at me "hey sweetie, did you not get any rest?". I mumble "guess not". I then sit on the table to eat some breakfast. My mom hands me a plate of pankakes. I eat them fast and then start to open the front door. "Bye mom, love you", "love you too honey!". And with that I start walking

Not long before I start walking in see my friend Jocelyn, she was holding her stomach and I knew that her dad or mom had hit her. I knew not to worry about her, but it made me sad to see how she was treated. I always tought to my self that I was really lucky to have loving parents, and I wished jock did too.

"H-hey Alic”she said stuttering, I knew she always had that stutter but It didn't bother me or anything

"Hey jock" I said giving her a smile and we started heading to school.

When we arrived I was about to say something to her because some boys were always bullying her, then she took out her phone, "I-ill call y-you d-dont worry" she told me.

I laughed "you know me well jock" then we separated to go to our classes, it sucked that we didn't have a lot of classes  together, only English witch made it okay. I had a bad feeling that something was gonna happen to jock so I stayed close for a bit. No one really decided to mess with me surprisingly not even those stupid boys that bullied jock. Anyone knows that if someone decides to mess with me, I will beat up their ass.

And sure enough I heard jocks voice and her stupid bullies. It was stupid how Jack wanted jock to be his girlfriend even tought he basically was bullying her every single time. I run and make my way there and see that Jack was forcing jock to kiss him.

"Hey get off of her!" I yell, and sure enough they all run away, I run up to her and immediately hug her.

"Are you ok?" I ask her

” n-no, he kissed m-me I don’t like him!” she said.

I could see that she was almost in tears

” I’ve got you, next time I’m beating his ass I promise” I said and hugged her

” thanks Alic your the best” she said

“ I know” I replied

We both went to first period. After it was over I headed to English class. Me and jock both really like that class. I really enjoy reading more than writing. I was really excited since we were going to read the outsiders book. My favorite character is and forever will be is dallas winston. I just immediately fell in love with his character and can never get him off my head. I know that he is fictional but I dont fricking care and will never care. I saw jock coming in and I waved at her

” Hey I’m so excited” I said

” M-me to!” she sai

I watched as the teacher came in and  take a seat  as she grabbed her own copy of the outsiders.

” Okay class open you books to page one” said the teacher 

I was already in page one, I really loved this book and couldn't wait to read it.

” I’m going to call on people to read, so pay attention everyone” said the teacher

I was gonna pay attention like this depended on my life. But then after I started to feel dizzy and my vision was a bit blurry. I had no idea what was happening and I was kinda freaking out. I heard a thud and then everything went black.

"A-Alic wake u-up” I heard a voice and recognised that it was jock right away.

I  groaned and got up, I looked at jock and she had a bit of blood on her head.

” Where are we?” I asked confused on what was going on.

“I-i have no c-clue” jock said

Suddenly I saw that she was picked up by someone.

“ Hey baby wanna come have a good time with us” one of the guys said

”N-no thanks” jock replied

 "Hey you leave her alone!” I yelled

Suddenly I hear rushed foot steps and jock was pulled away by the boys.

” Leave her alone!” One of the boys said.

And they start to beat the other guys up, wait a minute, it suddenly just hit me, they were the Curtis gang! I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment, me and jock look at each other shocke.

“ Hey are you okay?” Ponyboy asked jock.

Jock nodded her  head yes, and walked over to me.

“ o-oh my g-god he talked to me” she said

I was too stunned to even speak.Then they motioned us to follow them and we did. Jock stayed behind I knew she was starting to get shy around them, but I made her walk with them, we ended up at the Curtis house. We all walked in, it was a really nice house.

” A-Are you okay, are y-you cold?" Johnny asked jock

”i-I’m okay, and a-a bit” She told Johnny

I smirked at jock, I knew that he was her fictional crush. She  looked down and blushed a bit, then Johnny placed his Jean jacket around jock. I smirked even more.

“ You pretty girls can take a seat we don’t bite” Dallas said smirking

I then turn red and me and jock both sit down. 

I look at all of them and think to myself if this is real or if I'm just dreaming or going insane. They look to real to be fake I think. Then I slightly pinch my arm. Yup I'm awake. I tought that I was gonna pass out or die. I couldnt believe that this was actually happening. I look at jock and see that she was still blushing from Johnny giving her his  jacket. I see that she was also too stunned to speak or do anything.

"So are you two gonna tell us your names?" Two bit says while chuckling. I always tought that he was funny and always put a smile on everyone's faces. 

I hesitate to say my name, I look at jock and she was looking down too shy to say anything. I then knew that she wasn't going to say her name first so I did, I tried my best to keep myself calm and not freak out.

"My name is alicia" I say to everyone

"Pretty name" dally says looking at me, smirking. I look down and blush a bit

I then look at jock and whisper "c'mon jock, atleast tell them your name" 

She hesitates for a bit then finally gives in. "M-my name i-is Jocelyn" she says still looking down.

"I-I like that n-name" Johnny said quietly but everyone still heard. I look at jock and smirk a bit. I see her turning even more red, she just nodded as in saying thank you, too shy to speak.

"Well we should probably introduce ourselves too" Darry says. I try to hold in my laugh while thinking 'you dont need to we already know', but I just nod.

"I'm darry and these are my two brothers" he says pointing at ponyboy and sodapop

"I'm ponyboy" ponyboy says a bit shy. I smile at him, starting to feel a bit more comfortable. 

"Lovely name ponyboy" I say, he smiles at me. I was basically freaking out of excitement. I look at jock she was still looking down.

"I'm sodapop, but you two can call me soda" he says giving us his movie star smile.

I nod and so does jock a bit.

"I'm Steve, sodas best friend" he said. I smile at him a bit, to witch he returns.

"I'm two bit and I love watching mickey." He says. I cant help but chuckle a bit. 'Oh I know' I think to myself. 

Johnny looked at both of us shyly. "My n-name is Johnny" he says. Jock looks up a bit at him and blushes and nods. I wanted to laugh ag jocks reaction, since was basically speechless, and looked up a bit when johhny introduced himself.

"I'm Dallas, but you two pretty girls can call me dally" dally says looking at us. I immediately look a bit down and blush. I didn't want him to see me blush. Me and jock both just look down.

[doggernaut]

19 & 20!

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Hahahahaha. I'm pretty much an All Zimbits, All the Time writer. It's not that I don't want to explore another pairing, but ... no, you know what, I really don't want to explore another pairing right now! I love Bitty and Jack too much, and I have so many WIPs I want to finish (or start). There are other OMGCP pairings--canonical and wishful thinking--that I enjoy (Bob/Alicia, Shitty/Lardo, Ford/Tango) but would I write about them? Possibly, but it's more likely that they'd be background pairings in a Zimbits fic.

That said, I have a WIP from Alicia's POV and a WIP for another fandom (Black Widow) in the works that I hope to finish next year. They're character studies, though, and any shippy content is incidental.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

This question doesn't specify if the work has to be from this year or if it can be any work of mine I've reread this year. I wish ao3 kept stats of self-rereads in our history! (Does it? I don't think it does but maybe I'm overlooking something!) None of these are from this year but I haven't reread a lot of the work I've published this year (most are short little one shots, so it's hard for me to get lost in them). If we're talking fics not published this year, it's probably one of these three:

Home Like Apple Pie

Merry Christmas, I'm Yours

Happily Ever After, After All 

These fics are all very different but I consider all of them comfort reads. Home Like Apple Pie and Merry Christmas, I'm Yours both hit that sweet spot of pining and angst yet are (I think) so soft and full of love, and I think Happily Ever After, After All is just a good time. It's about staying in love for the long haul and raising teenagers and there is so little of that in this fandom, why not reread my own fic when I crave that content?

Thank you for the asks!

(master list of questions is here)

[canonicallyginger]

I hate how ppl interpret Jack and Holster's relationship. They are friends and they're also both absolutely bitches to each other because they know how to push each other's buttons and they have poor restraint bc its turned into a competition (and they're both ridiculously competitive). Holster is Jack's type except he's obnoxious on purpose bc its funny. Jack is Holster's type but that doesn't matter bc Jack chirps him too much. Holster likes to think he has a thick skin, but Jack proves him wrong and he hates it. He'd do almost anything for Jack, but that's also true of all his friends (with the exception of Ransom, for whom its not an almost). He and Ransom canonically filmed Jack's ass without permission, and Jack was probably like "what is wrong with you two" and left it at that. R&H are connoisseurs of Jack x Parse fanfic, likely unaware that there was anything to that relationship for real. Jack will never let Holster live down whatever happened with Esther, but only bc Holster has moved on in every way except for this chirping. Holster can never tell if Jack is affected by his chirps bc Holster is awful at reading expressions and Jack doesn't emote as obviously as other people do. They hooked up once but both of them have forgotten abt it somehow. Holster is aware that he's Jack's type, but it doesn't matter bc they aren't friends (even though they are). Jack has never flirted with Holster on purpose and Holster would never flirt with Jack directly bc its easier to talk about his ass to other people than to admit he cares about Jack. He sometimes dreams about dating Jack and wakes up irrationally angry at him. Jack sometimes dreams about Holster but it's always competitive. One time he had a dream where they were contestants on Jeopardy, but he woke up before finding out who won and spent the whole morning smugly proud of his history knowledge and annoyed at Holster's pop culture knowledge. Jack would probably have hooked up with Holster for the first time again if he'd asked, but Holster is proud of himself for never having tried to hook up, even if he sometimes thinks about how he probably wouldn't know how Jack's body fits against his, or the texture of jack's skin, or how long Jack lasts. He dismisses these thoughts because he would remember sleeping with Jack, right? How could someone forget that? Holster once told Jack that if they were trapped in a timeloop, Jack could rely on him. Jack has no idea what the hell that means. Ransom is the only person who knows about the JackHoltz hookup. Shitty probably thought it happened more than once, but is completely wrong about when it would have been. Jack and Holster originally thought theyd bond over being jewish, but Jack speaks hebrew in a quebecois accent and Holster can't stand it. Alicia Zimmermann sometimes asks Jack about the "nice jewish boy on the team" and Jack hasn't put together that she means Holster. Holster is a better singer than Bitty but his taste in music is a lot of showtunes, and Jack doesn't understand. Jack once punched Holster in the nose by accident and Holster was low-key turned on by it. Jack didn't learn most of his teammates' first names until a couple months into his sophomore year, but Holster is the only one who knows. Holster thinks Jack should dress a little more slutty, but he's only told this to Bitty (who agreed wholeheartedly). Ever since Jack proposed to Bitty, Holster exclusively calls him Mr. Bitty bc he knows how much Jack loves tying his identity to the man he loves

[jam-heathen]

Zimbits and song #9 for the Wrapped ask meme!

Ty for the ask! So, number 9 on my Spotify Wrapped is Baby Hoop Earrings and it took me a hot minute to think of how Zimbits would apply but! I feel like it got long, so below the cut

Jack's known for as long as he can remember, his father's lucky cuff-links are gold. Bob had told him once they were lucky because Jack picked them out as a baby (Jack's not sure he did much, compared to his mother, but it's a nice thought). He'd help Alicia pack them as a child, learned about superstitions in hockey, hoped one day maybe they'd be his lucky cuff-links.

Until he didn't. Until that was too much weight. Until it was unfathomable to have another point of comparison in his mind. And it does get better! Things get talked through, and it's no longer a pain point like it once was, but Jack still doesn't wear gold cuff-links.

In the future, when Jack and Bitty are planning to have a kid, there comes a point at which that means processing their relationship with the concept of parenthood, right? Like not just their parents as people, which they've both had to work on, but like the expectations with the concept of parenthood. And they're both equal parts excited and scared and working through that together-- with a lot of help from their parents, actually.

But still, the night before they get to bring their kid home, Jack manages to find those stupid little cuff-links. And they’re not stupid, but they are; they don’t hold any power over him, but they do. It’s a kind of everything and nothing feeling all at once that he ends up explaining to Bitty all in a rush, only kind of (a lot) freaking out.

And they figure it out in the end! Jack and Bitty work best as a team, and that's still so true. They figure out what works for them! This kid is so incredibly loved. And by the time Bitty brings home a tie— a good luck charm of Jack’s own, matching the hideous yellow shoes he still wears— insisting that their toddler wanted him to have a gift… Well, Jack feels a little complicated about the whole thing, but it’s a good kind of complicated.

Also! It's so important to me that we all agree Shitty at least once refers to this household here as "Jack, Bitty, and Itty Bitty"