#long oneshot

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

"Sonic vs. Tails - The Ultimate April Fools Battle"

AO3 link if you'd rather read it there ;)

6:38 a.m.

Early on a Monday morning, Sonic awoke to a rocking sensation. For a moment it was nice, soothing even, and he thought perhaps he'd fallen asleep on a hammock or something.

Except, it was in fact not soft fabric beneath him, but wooden boards.

A faint smell of salt alerted him next. Then a strong gust of wind. Then the cry of a seagull.

A seagull?!

His eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright, panic immediately flooding his chest upon seeing a huge mass of water all around him. He found himself sitting in a wooden fishing boat, smack dab in the middle of it.

He jumped up to his feet with a squeak of true fear, wobbling as the rocking of the boat nearly made him lose his balance.

He raced to the pole where the sails were attached and jumped onto it, full-body clinging to it with both arms and legs. "HOW IN MOBIUS DID I GET OUT HERE?!" he yelled indignantly, as loudly as he could for having just woken up.

A snicker sounded above him, and he jerked his head up so fast he nearly got whiplash.

And whom should he see perched atop the sails post but his little brother, Tails, his namesakes waving around and mischief practically written all over his face.

"Happy April Fools," the smug little fox greeted him, still giggling.

Sonic relaxed slightly, but shot Tails a feigned death glare. "It's on," he shot back, unable to hide a smirk.

-

8:23 a.m.

He had to be subtle about this. Tails was obviously very well aware what day it was. He had to be sly.

So, for his first prank of many, Sonic ran out to buy a cheap whoopie cushion, then slipped it in the Tornado's cockpit, at a perfect angle so Tails wouldn't see it until it was too late.

He was pretty proud of himself for keeping it cool, going on runs and swinging back by the workshop every few minutes to see when Tails needed to go out for a flight.

Except it was taking too long.

If he didn't get that over with, all his time to come up with more pranks for the day would be gone. And that simply wouldn't do.

"Hey, Tails!" he called from the roof, where he'd been leisurely lounging for the past five minutes. "Wanna go for a shopping run?"

After a pause of silence filled only with the sound of some metal clanging, Tails called back, "For what? I thought we were stocked."

"No, we need more— flour." He quickly improvised, having not actually checked the pantry beforehand.

"Why do we need more flour?" Tails sounded both distracted and confused as he continued whatever he was clanging around with.

"Because bread." Sonic flipped onto the ground and leaned his head through the window. "We should make bread."

Tails finally pulled back his goggles and shot him a look. "Why do you want to make bread?"

"Don't question it, Tails! Why can't I be allowed to wanna try new stuff?"

"Because it's April Fools, that's why." Tails smirked and pulled his goggles back down, studying the chunks of metal he was abusing. "There's probably a prank waiting for me at the store or something."

Sonic clasped a hand to his chest dramatically. "You seriously think I went and sabotaged public property just to pull a prank on you?!"

Without missing a beat, and without shifting his eyes from his work, Tails replied, "Yeah."

Sonic huffed and crossed his arms. "Well, I didn't. And the only way for you to see that is to come on shopping with me. I'll even let you pick the store so that you can be sure."

Tails looked at him, arching a brow and resting one hand on his hip. "You're so random," he said, shaking his head with a grin. "You realize you can go shopping by yourself, right?"

"Well, sue me for wanting to spend time with my darling little brother," Sonic pouted, trying his best to pull off a puppy-dog-eyes look.

"Since when did you become so clingy?" Tails laughed, finally setting aside his things and flying over to the window.

Finally!

"It was inevitable. You're too loveable." Sonic yanked him into a hug, right before letting him start flying towards the Tornado.

"I don't know whether to feel touched or suspici—" Tails abruptly broke off as he hopped into the cockpit, and the whoopie cushion immediately squeezed beneath him, filling the air with its awful sounds.

His face went beet red for a moment, then he closed his eyes and sighed. Sonic had already fallen over laughing, tears springing to his eyes at Tails's expression.

"Bread, huh?" Tails sounded way too calm as he turned to face his brother, but there was a terrifying glint in his eyes.

"You bet!" Sonic laughed. "Come on, what are you waiting for? Let's go get flour!"

Tails picked up the whoopie cushion and hurled it full force at the hedgehog's face.

-

8:52 a.m.

After the whoopie cushion incident, Tails forced Sonic to go out shopping anyway. He even managed to trick him into thinking he was doing it as an apology.

Oh, was that poor hedgehog mistaken. He was so in for it. Tails had sent him out shopping— alone— so he could set up his revenge prank.

He decided to go with a simple one. Perhaps he would save the more intricate and wild pranks for later in the day.

This one would still be personal, though.

Barely suppressing a little cackle of glee, Tails snatched a large bottle of clear super glue and generously poured it all over the welcome mat at his front door. This glue wouldn't fully dry for another twenty to thirty minutes, and since Sonic was only getting one thing from the store, he wouldn't take nearly that long.

Sure enough, five minutes after he'd laid the prank, he heard the distinct BOOM in the distance of his brother's impending arrival.

Tails already knew Sonic wasn't going to notice the glue. If it wasn't immediately obvious, and he wasn't in danger, he didn't pay attention to detail like that.

The door handle jiggled for a moment, then was followed by a banging on the door. His muffled voice called, "Tails, if you're gonna send me out to buy stuff we don't actually need, the least you could do is leave the door unlocked for me to actually give you the stuff we don't need."

"Oh, dear chaos!" Tails called back, deliberately sounding way too dramatically surprised. "How did the door lock itself?!"

It didn't matter if Sonic caught on. If he was banging on the door, it was too late for him.

"I don't like your tone, young man." Sonic definitely sounded suspicious, and Tails could barely suppress his triumphant laughter.

"Sorry, Dad." With a snicker, he unlocked the door and swept it open, where he found Sonic standing with a hefty bag of flour, shooting him a look.

He was standing right in the middle of the super glue puddle.

"Seriously, bro? Locking me outside? That's the best you g-GAAUHH!" Sonic broke off as he tried to take a step forward, only to pull the entire doormat up with his foot and lose his balance. He tried desperately to right himself, but only ended up pinwheeling his arms, losing his grip on the bag of flour, and falling square on his chest. A second later, the bag of flour came down on his head and immediately popped open upon pricking his quills.

After the flour dust settled, the two brothers looked at each other for a solid ten seconds, the younger standing tall with his arms crossed and a smug smile, the older slumped on the ground, covered in flour to the point of looking like a ghost, glaring daggers.

He sneezed. "That was low. I like my kicks."

"They'll be fine," Tails insisted, brushing off the flour that had drifted into his fur. "I've got a solution that'll cancel out the glue."

Sonic shook himself off, then stood up and sneezed again. "You owe me twenty rings for the waste of perfectly good flour that we didn't need."

Tails stuck his tongue out at him, then started blowing the spilled flour out the door with his tails.

-

9:35 a.m.

Sonic took a shower after the flour incident, and he made it quick enough so that Tails didn't have any time to try anything more on him, since he was still cleaning up said flour.

Once he'd gotten out and dried off, Tails brushed past him into the bathroom, and a few seconds later he heard the shower start up again.

No way there was this golden opportunity just dangling in front of him . . .

Grinning, Sonic first went to the kitchen and hit the switch for the power hose. Next time Tails went to wash the dishes, he was in for a little surprise.

Then, very quietly, he nudged the door open to the bathroom (where Tails was still in the shower), reached in, and flushed the toilet.

A second later, there was a high pitched "Yipe!" and one very startled, very wet fox kit scrambled out of the tub at the suddenly freezing water.

Sonic heard his name screeched furiously from over his shoulder as he laughed and booked it for the front door, only to catch on the doormat and faceplant the sidewalk, his socks now stuck in the super glue still coating the mat.

-

10:14 a.m.

He deserved this fate, Tails claimed.

"It's called revenge!" Sonic yelled through the door from where he lay on the ground outside in the yard. "Sweet, totally fair, revenge! Can I have the anti solution for the glue now?"

"Nope," Tails called back.

"C'moooon. These are my last clean socks, I can't just take them off and put on dirty ones. Do you want me to defile the house with smelly feet?"

"Ohh, manipulation. That's a new one!"

"Tails!"

"Just wear flipflops. Or go barefoot. I dunno."

"I don't like flip flops!" Sonic squirmed onto his side. "And I don't like being barefoot! Running barefoot is painful!"

"Ah, well. Guess you'd better apologize for ruining my lovely shower and forfeit all your desserts to me for the next three months, if you ever want to run again."

"Sorry, who was being manipulative?"

"You were!"

Sonic huffed. "You know, I could just do laundry. Yeah. Do laundry and be free."

"Wow!" Tails sounded way too amazed. "That's so genius!"

"I'll wash all my socks! I'll wash all the socks!" With caution, Sonic forced his way back onto his feet, then hopped inside the house, doormat still attached. "I'll be free in a matter of . . . hours." He frowned. "Hey Tails, can dish soap clean clothes? And how fast does a fur dryer dry clothes?"

Tails was standing in the kitchen, pouring the remains of the flour that hadn't touched the floor into a canister. He eyed his brother for a moment, then smiled sweetly. "There's one way to find out."

Without thinking, Sonic broke into a relieved grin and started hopping his way into the kitchen. "Good, because if I have to be stuck like this for one—"

He turned the faucet on, and immediately a powerful spray of cold water shot out at his face from the power hose. He yelped and sputtered, immediately switching it off as he suddenly realized he'd fallen for his own prank.

Or, more likely, Tails had seen right through his prank, and had made him fall for it.

Sonic looked down at him, water dripping down his face and off his quills. Tails had lost his cool composure and was doubled over, squeaking with laughter.

-

10:30 a.m.

"I deserved that one," Sonic grumbled, toweling off his face.

Tails sat beside him on the porch, eyes closed in smug contentment as he brushed out his tails. "Yes. You did."

Sonic turned and grinned devilishly. "You realize this isn't over, lil bro."

Tails turned a fanged smile right back on him. "Far from it."

-

11:04 a.m.

Sonic burst through Amy's door and immediately said, "Ames, I need a favor!"

Amy nearly jumped out of her skin, dropping her paintbrush onto the carpet. She sighed, but picked it up without complaining, set it on the ledge of her painter's stand, and gave him her attention. "What's up?"

"Sorry for that," he said quickly, then added, "Could you make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but like, make three of them with raisins instead?"

Amy wrinkled her forehead even as she smiled. "Wait, what? Why?"

"It's April Fools. I need to get back at Tails."

"Oh, no." Amy laughed as she stood up and started heading for her kitchen. "What'd he do?"

"Oh, many things." As Amy set to making the cookies, he told her all about the events of the day so far. He told her about the pranks on both sides, just to keep it fair.

Amy was aware of their April Fools traditions. The same basic thing had happened the past two years as well.

It had been last year that they learned the hard way not to prank Knuckles. Or Shadow.

"You should really learn to bake," Amy commented as she eventually pulled the batch out of the oven. "It's really very fun! And satisfying."

"You know what'll be satisfying?" He snickered. "The look on Tails's face when he thinks he's gonna taste chocolate and tastes raisins instead!"

Amy shook her head with an amused sigh. "That too, I guess."

They hung out together for another twenty minutes or so, then Sonic bid her farewell and took off back to the workshop.

-

12:22 p.m.

Tails had resumed working on whatever project he'd been doing earlier that morning.

"Yo, Tails!" Sonic raced into the room, holding the container of cookies. "Amy made us cookies!"

"Ooh, she did?" Tails immediately paused what he was doing and lit up, but then suspicion clouded his face. "Wait . . . what's going on?"

"Bro, it's just cookies," Sonic laughed. "What, do you think they're poisoned?"

Tails kept hesitating, but Sonic could see him scenting the air. Since the majority of them were chocolate chip, he was detecting that— not the few raisins.

"Okay. I'll take one," he finally relented, and Sonic handed him one with raisins.

He started heading back to his project as he took a bite, but immediately stopped in his tracks. Sonic watched him stop chewing and look at the cookie for a long moment, then turn and shoot him a deadpan look.

"You're so mean," he complained, mouth still full with the bite he refused to swallow (he hated raisins). Then he tried to spit it out onto Sonic, who yelped and raced away, dropping the container of cookies on the floor.

Tails picked it up, having already figured out that most of the others were actually chocolate chip. Jokes on Sonic, now he had all the good cookies to himself.

-

1:01 p.m.

Their prank fest had delayed lunch a bit, so Sonic (after eventually returning) told Tails to kick back and relax while he made chili.

Tails seemed a little too pleased with the idea, but Sonic barely noticed, too hungry to care.

As he stirred through the pot, Tails watched him, grinning in anticipation for the meal. Earlier, while Sonic had been lying around the front yard with the doormat glued to his socks and complaining, Tails had switched out the salt and sugar.

Half an hour later or so, they sat down together to eat. It seemed Sonic thought they had reached a temporary truce, but oh, little did he know.

Tails deliberately took his sweet time in spooning the chili onto his hot dog, eyeing his brother in his corner vision. Sonic had made his in no time, digging in with two big bites before Tails had even finished dressing his.

Almost immediately Sonic paused, blinked a couple times, then kept chewing. Then paused again, frowning.

His eyes flicked to Tails, who quickly resumed dressing his chili dog.

Sonic finally swallowed. "That's weird."

"What's weird?" Tails asked innocently, actually being subtle this time.

"Chili tastes more like dessert." The hedgehog squinted at him. "Did you sabotage the chili cans?"

Tails sniffed. "How dare you accuse me."

"Did you?"

"No, I didn't. The cans were sealed, weren't they?"

"Hm." Sonic took another hesitant bite, but stopped again, shaking his head. "This tastes so weird. Have you tried yours?"

Tails shrugged. "Try salting it," he suggested, avoiding the question.

Sonic grabbed the salt shaker and generously covered his chili dog with its contents, then took another bite, only to actually choke over it this time.

"Okay, did you—?!" He snatched the shaker again, shook a little onto his finger, tasted it, then chucked it at Tails, who laughed and dove out of the way. "You switched the salt and sugar?!"

"Well, duh!" Tails switched to hovering over the table, snickering. "There are no truces today, dearest brother!"

Sonic threw the too-sweet chili dog at him next, inevitably splattering chili over the table.

"You're cleaning that up!" Tails called in a singsong voice. "I'm going out to Josef's Pasta Alla Paccico!"

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!"

-

2:10 p.m.

They both ended up eating out at Josef's, and even though they did truly call a ceasefire for a grand total of twenty-five minutes, they split the time between actually eating and blowing their straw wrappers at people, having mini sword fights with the butter knives, and constructing architecture with the plates and takeout boxes.

Needless to say, the only reason they didn't get kicked out was probably because both Sonic and Tails were practically world-renowned.

Not long after they returned to the workshop, Sonic inevitably crashed for a nap. He usually couldn't make it through a day without a nap at some point, which was always unfortunate for him on this particular day of the year.

Tails studied him where he slept, on a branch of the tree in his front yard. He knew he'd been the last one to pull something, but hey, who said they were taking turns?

There was simply no way he was passing this up.

First, he grabbed a sharpie and very carefully drew an elaborate mustache worthy of Eggman across his brother's face. He added a few random smiley faces on his cheek and arms, as well as the phrase "SLO-MO" on one shoulder.

Then he grabbed an assortment of potato chips and began carefully stacking them on his head, in his hands, on his stomach, in an entire tower.

He made sure to take pictures through the whole process, then— leaving him there to sleep, still covered in sharpie and potato chips— flew off to print the photos.

Going above and beyond, he put the printed photos in a fancy envelope, marked them as "priority mail," addressed them to Sonic's post office box, disguised himself, then dropped them off at the post office.

An hour passed after he had done all that, and Sonic finally stirred awake.

Upon seeing the stack of chips in front of him, he promptly fell out of the tree with a yelp, and Tails started giggling.

"What did you do to me?" Sonic whined, brushing all the crumbs off his head and chest as he stood up, still groggy.

"You think that's bad?" Tails teased. "Go check the mirror."

A look of horror filled his brother's eyes, then he was gone in a flash. Tails kept giggling, and laughed harder when he heard the yell from inside: "WHY DID YOU MAKE ME LOOK LIKE EGGFACE?!"

"It's called revenge!" Tails called back gleefully. "Sweet, totally fair, revenge!"

Sonic came storming back outside. "How dare you use my own words against me."

"Sorry," Tails told him insincerely.

His brother scrubbed at his cheek. "How long will it take for this to wash off?"

Tails shrugged. "A couple days, probably."

Sonic's resulting screech was loud enough to startle away all the nearby flickies.

-

4:32 p.m.

Sonic spent at least half an hour in the bathroom desperately trying to scrub the marker out of his fur, but only succeeded in making it fade a little.

"Taking advantage of my sleep cycle," he huffed, reaching out to mess up Tails's bangs from where the fox kit sat on the couch. "So rude."

Tails tried to fix his bangs, while Sonic flopped onto the other end of the couch. "Consider it payback for you dyeing my fur green last year."

"You still looked cool, at least!" Sonic protested. "If Egghead sees me like this, I'm never going to hear the end of it."

"I looked like a lime!" Tails shot back. "I had to hide from society for an entire month!"

"It wasn't a month."

"Three and a half weeks. Close enough."

"Mm."

Tails shot him a look, and Sonic reached over to mess up his bangs again. He was rewarded with a throw pillow to the face.

Sonic threw it back, and it was just about to escalate into a fully fledged pillow fight when the doorbell rang.

Both of them froze, and Sonic zipped away in a flash. "I'm not here! You don't know me! If anyone asks, I'm in Holoska on a nice, arctic vacation!"

"Chicken!" Tails taunted after him, then flew over to the door and pulled it open to find Amy and Knuckles standing on the other side.

(Thankfully, the super glue had dried hours before.)

"Hey, guys!" he greeted them, stepping back to let them in. "What's the occasion?"

Amy said sweetly, "We just wanted to make sure you and Sonic were doing okay!" at the same time Knuckles said, "We came to supervise."

Tails rolled his eyes. "We don't need babysitters."

Amy glanced around. "Did Sonic leave?"

Knuckles frowned as Tails snickered. "I guess he did. He's telling everyone he's going to Holoska."

"You can't stop me!" Sonic's muffled voice shouted from somewhere towards the back of the workshop.

"Nobody's trying!" Tails called back, his voice catching on a laugh. "Just be sure to warn Jari-Pekka about your new look!"

"New look?" Knuckles echoed.

Amy facepalmed. "What did you do to him?"

Tails waved a hand flippantly. "It'll come off in a few days."

"And this is why we thought you two needed supervision," Knuckles groaned. "Today always gets out of hand."

"Do we need to separate you two?" Amy asked, although she was grinning.

Sonic chose that moment to burst explosively out of the closet, zip to his brother's side, and pull him close in a protective hug. "No, don't separate us!" he insisted, forcing a huge smile. "Everything's going just fine!"

Knuckles and Amy took a solid ten seconds to stare at Tails's artwork all over Sonic's face, then started laughing, albeit good-naturedly.

Tails grinned at where he was still trapped in his brother's hold, only to start violently trying to squirm away when said brother slipped a sharpie out of hiding and started drawing his revenge on the fox's face.

-

6:00 p.m.

Knuckles and Amy chose to spend the rest of the day at the workshop with them, just to make sure things didn't get any crazier than they already had. By the time dinnertime arrived, both Sonic and Tails had sharpie all over their faces, although the "art" on Tails's face could hardly be called as such. Because of his squirming during the whole process, it was nothing more than random scribbles of blue in random places on his face.

"Next year I'll dye you blue," Sonic promised him as the four of them had dinner together (after Amy switched back the salt and sugar). "We can match!"

"Pass." Tails swallowed his bite. "I'll just look like some kind of mutant smurf."

Sonic snickered. "All the more reason to do it, then!"

Amy groaned. "Boys . . ."

"Hey, we should rope you into this!" Sonic exclaimed suddenly, staring straight at Amy.

"If you want a hammer to the face next, feel free!" Amy stuck her tongue out at him, although she had to hide a giggle.

"As long as you leave me out of it, do whatever you want," Knuckles put in wearily, sounding much like a parent tired of trying to control his children.

Tails smiled at all of them. Knuckles was right; this day was always crazy, and sure, things got out of hand sometimes. But he had no regrets. It was fun. It was a stupid way of bonding with his brother, and that was something he would never regret.

A Happy April Fools Day, indeed.

[fern-writes-stories]

Together Again

♡ [a/n]; I love these two so much!! :(

✧ Pairing: Sonic x Shadow

✧ Word Count: 4,457

✧ Summary: Sonic and Shadow have not seen each other in a very long time, and old feelings get rekindled when they meet face-to-face again.

✧ Warnings/Tags: Fluff, aged-up, I know hedgehogs don’t actually wag their tails but idc, Shadow POV, legal alcohol consumption/mentions, confessions, first kiss, wholesome, lmk anything else I should tag !!

✑ You can find all my stories here!

✑ My request guide is here (and you can place a request here)!

-

It was funny. 

To Shadow it was, at least. 

He and Sonic had slowly grown apart over the years, though not of their own volition. It was occupational, really. Team Dark had decided to pursue broader horizons, leaving them no choice but to move away from Green Hill. Tails and Sonic had moved closer to the city and Amy had made the full leap to city life. Knuckles was the only one who stayed rural at all. 

At least they were all within a town of each other,  Shadow brooded. He’d had no such contact with any of their old friends since they’d left. Not that he didn’t enjoy the company of Rouge and Omega; he’d decided to move across the world with them, after all. But he was not the type to upkeep online appearances and soon enough Sonic’s bright demeanour and even brighter smile were all he could remember amongst the constant missions and assignments.

He couldn’t recall how close he’d actually been with Sonic before they’d parted ways; how much of it was real, how much was twisted in the mind of his younger self and warped further by time. 

Yet somehow Shadow could still recall how naive he had been about it all, nonchalant and insensitive. He wished he had left in a kinder manner. He regretted coming across as though he did not care. He still distinctively remembered the aching in his chest after finally coming to terms with it all.

No more petty arguments. No more spontaneous sparring matches. No more of that smug smile he so desperately wished he could punch clean off Sonic’s face at times.

And then when Team Dark had finally decided to move back home- or at least closer to it- Shadow so desperately did not want to. Being forced to face them all again and deal with the repercussions of a younger Shadow’s ego and pride was something he was not ready for.

It had been three years. Almost four. 

He felt like he knew nothing about them anymore. It made him so inexplicably nervous not to know something, especially when it was people he used to know so well. Shadow wanted to preserve the good memories he had instead of trying to make new ones. He knew he was being drastic- but he didn’t much care.

So only Chaos knows how Rouge managed to convince Shadow to move back near Green Hill with her and Omega. Perhaps there was a part of him that was curious enough to oblige. But all curiosity had left him the moment that they arrived.

And there he sat, neatly placed at one end of a couch. The walls were bare and smelled of fresh paint. The air was cold and felt abnormal. He did not like having a new home.

“Come on, Shadow- you’re sitting on a couch, why do you look so stiff?” Rouge chided. The sound of her heels clicking against the floorboards became louder as she neared.

“I do not like it here,” he muttered.

“Not yet, you don’t,” Rouge replied, moving to stand in front of him. “We still have to unpack everything. It’ll start feeling more like home after that.”

Shadow’s ear flicked. Rouge sighed.

“Can you at least pretend you’re happy to be here?” She joked.

“No.” Shadow moved to fix his quills, smoothing them several times before his hands returned to sit neatly on his lap again.

“Well, regardless, can you please help Omega bring up the rest of the moving boxes-”

“NEGATIVE,” a robotic voice rang out, and a moment later Omega appeared through the front door. “I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF COMPLETING THE ASSIGNED OBJECTIVE SINGLE-HANDEDLY.” A large box was positioned on one of his shoulders as he ambled his way farther into the room. Then he stopped suddenly.

Shadow and Rouge watched as Omega outstretched his arms and purposely dropped the box, a loud shattering noise ringing throughout the house. He offered a nonchalant thumbs up before turning around and leaving- presumably to grab another box.

Rouge sighed again, pinching above her nose. “I guess we’re going to be using paper cutlery for the housewarming party...”

Shadow’s ears perked suddenly and he turned back around to face her. “The what?”

He sounded panicked and Rouge felt herself cringe at her own callousness. “Sorry, Shadow. I meant to tell you at a better time.”

“When is it?” He asked quickly, referring to the party. 

Rouge looked off to the side anxiously. “It’s... still a little while away...”

“NEGATIVE. OBSERVATION: ROUGE IS LYING TO MAKE SHADOW FEEL BETTER. THE TRUTH: THE SO-CALLED “HOUSEWARMING PARTY” IS SCHEDULED FOR THE END OF THE WEEK.”

“Omega!” Rouge exclaimed. “We talked about this! You promised you wouldn’t say anything!”

Shadow began to fidget with his inhibitor rings.

“NEGATIVE. I NEVER SETTLED ON SUCH AN AGREEMENT.” Shadow heard another box crash to the ground before Omega’s heavy footsteps trailed away again.

“You need to cancel it,” Shadow said, staring at the ground.

“I can’t, hon, I’ve already sent out all the invites- I’d feel horrible if I had to cancel everything now.” A moment of silence passed. “I’m sorry, Shadow. I just thought you’d like to see some familiar faces again. I know you don’t like sudden changes, including us moving back here in the first place, so I was hoping that meeting up with all of our friends again would lessen the blow.”

Rouge moved to sit beside Shadow on the couch. “I’m sorry if I just ended up making things worse.”

Shadow swallowed a harsh remark. He knew she was only trying to help. “It’s... okay.” He sighed, looking up from his inhibitors finally. “I appreciate that you attempted to do such a thing for me.”

Though his expression was blank, Rouge had known Shadow for long enough to know that he was speaking sincerely. 

“It... will be okay,” he continued. “This new house will be okay. The... party will be okay. Maybe it won’t be so bad.” 

He ignored the anxiety clawing at his stomach, screaming and pleading with him to beg Rouge to cancel the party anyway. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Rouge placed a comforting hand on Shadow’s knee, offering a small smile. “I’m glad. Now let’s go stop Omega before he destroys any more of our dinnerware.”

【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】

What was funny to Shadow was how inexplicably nervous he was. He tugged at the hem of his jacket- Rouge said he would look nice if he wore it tonight. He felt like a little kid again.

He’d been through much worse, surely. The past few years had presented him with many unique and dangerous scenarios, yet somehow nothing held a candle to this.

There’s not even anyone here yet, Shadow scolded himself. Yet somehow that almost makes it worse…

It was the waiting that got to him the most. Far different to staking out undesirable individuals or the stealth required to infiltrate a building. At least with those scenarios his stomach didn’t churn with anxiety and his quills didn’t stand on end.

Shadow glanced around the house; once empty only a few days earlier, now covered from head to toe with tacky streamers and cheap balloons. Multicoloured lights were strung along the walls and loose ends hung down, an inch or two too short to finish tying up.

The first knock on the door had been Amy which was less than a surprise. She was early, and Shadow immediately noticed how different she looked. Her quills were cut differently and she was wearing a stylish colour of eyeliner which matched her long dress.

Upon seeing her Shadow finally realised just how much everyone must have grown up. Surely not everyone had changed so much! Though his fears were all but confirmed when more guests began to arrive. Even Knuckles had changed to some degree; various beads and wraps decorated his spines and looked as though they had been a staple of his appearance for a while.

Shadow tried his best to greet everyone alongside Rouge, though other than that, he remained reserved and away from the loud music and blinking lights that were assaulting his senses.

Then eventually Tangle and Whisper arrived, hands entwined. Rouge made some playful comment that Shadow didn’t hear and Tangle replied to it.

“Man, I forgot how long you guys have been gone for… yeah, Whisper and I have been together for a while now,” Tangle explained bashfully, glancing over to her girlfriend for a moment.

“I’m so happy for both of you!” Rouge moved to embrace the two excitedly. “I was wondering when you two would finally get together,” she added playfully, though Shadow had stopped listening after that. He had begun to feel quite ill.

I wonder if Sonic will be with anybody. He thought anxiously. Shadow thought for a moment.

It doesn’t matter, he snapped quickly to himself. Why would I care, anyway?

Soon fewer and fewer guests began to arrive until eventually the flow stopped completely. Shadow now stood at the edge of the main room beside Rouge, red cup in hand as he stared at the front door. Rouge was catching up with Amy and Blaze. He hadn’t the brightest idea what they were talking about, too entrenched in his own thoughts.

“Shadow?” He heard Rouge’s voice. She snapped her fingers in front of his face and he turned to look at her.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I was worried the door was about to burst into flames,” she muttered. “What’s wrong? Is it too loud in here? I can get Omega to turn down the music if you’d like-”

“No, it’s fine,” Shadow reassured her quietly. He honestly hadn’t been focused enough to hear the music until now.

“Then what’s wrong?” Rouge pressed.

“Are you waiting for someone?” Amy asked, turning to glance at the door as well. Shadow began to feel his face heat up and he took a sip from his drink, burying his face in the cup.

“Who’s not here yet?” Amy asked, turning back to Rouge and Blaze. “I thought everyone would have arrived by now.”

“Sonic and Tails,” Blaze pointed out, and Amy rolled her eyes. “Sonic isn’t exactly known for his punctuality.”

“You’d think he would have learned some responsibility by now,” Amy jokingly agreed.

Shadow stared into his cup still, using the strong smell of the alcohol to ground himself. His ears flicked towards the door as he heard Omega move to open it. He must have been too distracted to have heard anyone knock.

The door opened and Shadow was unable to see who it was from behind Omega, but when the robot finally moved he felt his breath hitch in his throat.

“Speak of the devil!” Rouge exclaimed, Sonic ambling through the front door behind Tails. Shadow barely processed that Tails was about as tall as Sonic now, if not taller.

“Sorry we’re late, everyone!” Sonic called out bashfully, and the entire cohort seemed to sigh and roll their eyes communally.

“It was Sonic’s fault,” Tails muttered, though that seemed to be collectively agreed upon already.

“For the fastest hedgehog in the world, he sure does love being late all the time,” Amy muttered.

“Uh… Shadow?” Rouge whispered, trying not to gain the attention of Amy or Blaze. Shadow managed to drag his concentration from Sonic to turn and look at her again.

“What?”

“Why are you doing that?” She asked. Shadow was about to ask for clarification before he followed her line of sight, realising that his tail had begun to wag involuntarily.

He quickly leaned back against the wall behind him with a loud thud, making Blaze and Amy turn to see what had happened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He moved to take another drink from his cup.

“Rouge, Shads!” Came Sonic’s voice suddenly. Before he could even redirect his attention Shadow was engulfed in a tight embrace, the blue quills that were mere inches from his face clueing him into who was responsible. From his position in the hug Shadow could see that Sonic’s tail was wagging very quickly.

“Oh, right- sorry!” Sonic stumbled over his words for a moment as he pulled back from Shadow abruptly. “I forgot that you aren’t really a hugger,” Sonic apologised. Shadow wasn’t sure how to respond, frozen in place.

“Well I am,” Rouge said, moving to embrace Sonic once he’d distanced himself from Shadow.

“Hey, Rouge!” Sonic greeted her, returning the embrace happily. “It’s so good to see you guys again- Are you happy to be back?”

“I am- Shadow’s having a harder time adjusting, though,” she replied as they parted. Shadow’s ear flicked at her comment.

Now that Sonic was standing in front of him Shadow could take in his appearance fully. Surprisingly, Sonic looked majorly the same as he had before Team Dark left- albeit being taller now, and slightly scruffier somehow.

He was wearing a red and white letterman jacket. Shadow also noticed that Sonic had new shoes, wondering if they were what he usually wore or if they were just for the party.

“I like your jacket,” Sonic said suddenly, nodding towards Shadow. Shadow felt himself startle at his words.

“I like yours too,” he replied. Shadow then became acutely aware of the fact that he had begun to crease the plastic cup he was now holding far too tightly.

“Hon, why don’t you go show Sonic where the drinks are?” Rouge suggested, pushing him off the wall and almost directly into Sonic. Shadow caught himself quickly before glaring back at her.

“Looks like you need a new cup, anyway,” she pointed out. He tried to ignore the knowing smirk on her lips.

“Fine. Sounds like a great idea.” It took all of Shadow’s willpower not to crush the cup entirely at that moment. He turned back to Sonic.

“Follow me,” he muttered quietly before sauntering off.

Shadow could feel Sonic’s eyes on him as they walked and decided to pull his jacket down over his tail before it began to wag mindlessly again.

Chaos, this can’t be happening. He was thankful for the current darkness of the house and tried desperately to focus on the lyrics of whatever generic pop song was playing.

A moment later they arrived at the kitchen and a large ice-filled cooler was now visible on the floor.

“There’s more in the fridge,” Shadow said, standing so his tail was once again squashed against the wall.

“Wow, and you guys are just letting people have whatever they want?” Sonic asked in disbelief, opening the fridge and staring in awe at the sheer amount of alcohol.

“G.U.N gifted us a large amount of money for our services,” Shadow explained.

“What, did you guys retire for good, or something?”

“No, just taking a step back from it all.” Shadow turned to toss his crinkled cup into the trash. “They wanted to organise a ‘thank you’ gift for us. Some of it was alcohol but it was mostly money. Rouge wanted to buy some extra refreshments for tonight and Omega over-spent on everything, so now we’re stuck with it.”

“Omega bought all of this?” Sonic laughed, grabbing from a shelf before finally closing the fridge.

“Yes,” Shadow held back a laugh of his own. “Though unfortunately, Rouge is particularly partial to wine, alcohol has little to no effect on me, and Omega cannot ingest it at all. So we’re letting people take what they like.”

“I’m certainly not complaining,” Sonic said as he twisted off the bottle’s cap. “I was in such a rush to get here that I forgot to organise my own drinks.”

“Why were you late, anyway?” Shadow asked. Not that he was upset about it- only curious.

“Er…” Sonic took a quick sip of his drink. “Do you still have Dark Rider?”

Shadow blinked at him. “My motorcycle? Of course, I do.” He wondered what the question had to do with Sonic’s punctuality.

Sonic reached into his quills and his hand returned a moment later holding a small parcel, handing it to Shadow.

“Sorry it’s kinda messy,” he apologised, taking another anxious sip from his drink.

Shadow took the box gingerly and looked it over. It was wrapped in crumpled red wrapping paper and taped crudely along the edges, as well as in places where the paper appeared to have torn. It was accentuated with a black ribbon that was poorly tied around the entire box and finished into a bow on top, the ribbon barely long enough to hold itself in place.

“Oh.” Shadow looked between the gift and Sonic for a moment.

“You can open it now if you want, you just can’t tell Rouge or Omega about it, yeah? I haven’t exactly got anything organised for them yet…” Sonic rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Shadow untied the bow and began to tear the wrapping paper away to reveal a plain cardboard box. He lifted the top and stared down at a pair of black motorcycle gloves.

“I hope you like them! I wasn’t even sure if you still used your motorcycle- or if you already had a pair of gloves-  or if you’d even use them-” Sonic had begun to ramble, looking anywhere but Shadow and waving his hands around as he explained himself.

“Th-Thanks,” Shadow said suddenly, and Sonic stopped speaking to look at him. “They’re… perfect. Thank you, I really like them.” He felt his face get hot again as he stumbled over his words.

Sonic looked elated by this response and Shadow could see his tail wagging again. Sonic must have noticed him staring before he realised what was happening, moving to grab his tail quickly.

“S-Sorry! This thing’s got a mind of its own, I swear,” his face reddened.

Shadow could feel his own tail begin to move as well, moving to grab it too. “I’ll be right back. J-Just need to… put this away quickly.” He cursed himself for stumbling again and sped off before Sonic could respond.

Shadow dashed to the stairs and quickly climbed them, turning into his room and all but slamming the door behind him. He stood pressed back against it for a moment, trying to calm himself down.

All this time he had thought his anxiety stemmed from the idea of the party itself, maybe even the sheer amount of old faces he felt terrible for feeling distanced from- but everything only felt so much worse when Sonic had finally arrived.

Worse? Is that what he was feeling? Surely not, if his tail insisted on having a mind of its own. Shadow felt anxious and like his heart was racing a million miles an hour. But every time Sonic did something- anything, really- he was overcome with such immense joy and his face would feel like it was on fire, his thoughts becoming foggy.

This was very unusual behaviour for Shadow, and he feared that he might have been coming down with something, stomach twisting with nausea suddenly.

He moved to sit on the edge of his bed, staring down for a long moment at the gift Sonic had gotten him. It was extraordinarily thoughtful, especially for someone Shadow considered to be quite air-headed at the best of times.

There was a light knock on the door and Shadow looked up at it. When the door didn’t immediately open he deduced that it mustn’t have been Rouge coming to collect him- who else could it have been, then?

Whoever it was knocked again and Shadow was brought back to the present, moving to place the gift box down delicately on his bedside table before standing to answer the door.

“Hello-?” He started as he opened it, stopping short when he was met face-to-face with Sonic again. Shadow could feel his quills standing on end.

“Hey, Shads… Um, Rouge said your room was up here, and that I should come and check up on you. She said she didn’t think you’d be returning to the party any time soon.” Sonic looked nervous, face still flushed. “But if you want me to go, I can-”

“No!” Shadow said far too quickly. He cleared his throat in an attempt to recompose himself, opening the door wider. “No, it’s fine. You can come in if you’d like.”

He moved to the side and Sonic walked into the room, Shadow closing the door behind him.

“I brought you a drink,” Sonic offered, holding out an alcoholic beverage.

“Oh. Thank you.” Shadow took it before moving to sit on the edge of his bed again. Sonic glanced briefly around the room before deciding to sit beside him.

“I was a little surprised when we received the party invite from Rouge,” Sonic began.

“Oh?” Shadow took a small sip of his drink.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you would want to throw a party in the first place.”

“I… didn’t.” Shadow corrected him. “It was Rouge’s idea. She tried to keep the party a secret from me so I wouldn’t ‘freak out’,” he added.

Sonic laughed, the sound making Shadow’s stomach do somersaults. “Well, I guess some things never change.”

“I see Tails is starting to grow up, though,” Shadow said, trying to keep the conversation going. Sonic sighed.

“Yeah, he’s as tall as I am now. And he’s only- what, 14?”

“Time flies, as they say.”

“Sure does,” Sonic agreed lightheartedly. A moment of silence passed.

“So…” Shadow began slowly. “Are you… seeing anyone at the moment?” He covered his question with another, very long, sip from his drink.

“Are you?” Sonic replied, a wide smile on his face. Shadow looked away from him abashedly.

“Sorry. You don’t have to answer that question, it’s none of my business.”

“Nah, I’m not with anybody,” Sonic replied after a moment, leaning back on one of his arms as he looked around the minimally decorated room. “I just… haven’t got enough time, I guess. I move too fast for most people.”

“I don’t think so.” 

Sonic turned to meet his eyes and Shadow began to fiddle with the zipper on his jacket. He turned away suddenly. “And to answer your question, no; I am not seeing anyone, either.”

Sonic looked like he was about to say more when something caught his eye. “Hey, is that what I think it is?” He asked, leaning across Shadow to retrieve the item from the bedside table. “Wow, I can’t believe you kept this!” He exclaimed excitedly.

“Of course I did,” Shadow replied almost timidly, turning his head to the side in a shy manner. He glanced back at what Sonic was holding; a black coffee mug with some corny pun on it pertaining to the owner.

“Why isn’t it in the kitchen?” Sonic asked, looking it over in his hands.

Shadow shrugged. “I packed it separately from the rest of our things. Omega is prone to mishandling delicate items.”

“Aw, you care about it that much?” Sonic teased. “I mean, you’ve kept it all this time.”

“It… helped remind me of home. I didn’t let it leave me for the whole first week after we moved,” Shadow admitted embarrassedly. 

“I told Tails you’d like it!” Sonic smiled brightly. “He kept insisting I could have picked a better going away present.” 

“No, it was perfect.” Shadow reassured him.  Just like always. Everything you do seems so perfect. He had to stop himself from speaking the rest aloud.

Sonic gave the mug back to him and Shadow’s hand lingered for a moment before he finally took it. He placed it back on the bedside table.

He turned back to see that Sonic was staring at him. “What is it?” He asked.

Sonic startled and his ears flicked back in embarrassment. “Sorry, I just…” He looked away for a moment. “I’d almost forgotten how handsome you are, after all these years.”

Shadow’s heart lurched and he began desperately wondering if he’d heard him correctly. He froze up completely and Sonic must have taken this for discomfort.

“Sorry! Sorry,” Sonic began frantically. “I know you’ve only just got back and are still trying to adjust to things, I shouldn’t have just said something like that out of the blue,”

“I…”

“I just haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day you left, and- and then I showed up late to the party anyway which I’m sure made a great first impression- but it isn’t technically a first impression if we know each other, so it was a second impression, I guess-?”

“Sonic…” Shadow could feel himself beginning to blush again, noticing Sonic was also becoming increasingly flushed.

“-And I wish that I’d done more before you left, then maybe then you wouldn’t have gone- or we could have at least kept in contact or something, and maybe it would have been better to tell you how I really felt before all of this- oh, I feel like I’m just making everything worse, and- and-”

“Sonic,” Shadow interrupted him more sternly this time, grabbing his hand.

Sonic fell silent and immediately turned to their entwined hands, face still a bright red. Shadow could hear Sonic’s tail wagging against the bedsheets.

“It’s okay,” Shadow began quietly. “I…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I… like you too.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, both hedgehogs stunned and not quite sure what to do.

“You… you do?” Sonic finally broke the silence.

“Yes, of course I do,” Shadow laughed quietly. “How could I not be so hopelessly in love with somebody like you?”

Shadow could hear the sound of Sonic’s tail managing to wag impossibly faster, laughing again. Sonic was snapped from his daze at the sound and moved to grab his tail.

“Ah, I really wish I could control this thing sometimes…” He muttered through gritted teeth.

“I think it’s endearing,” Shadow commented, watching as Sonic tried feebly to immobilise his tail.

“Sonic?” He started after another moment. Sonic immediately abandoned his task and looked up to Shadow almost expectantly.

“Yes?” He replied quietly.

“Can I kiss you?” 

There was no immediate response as Sonic stared back at Shadow with wide eyes and a startled expression.

“Sonic?” Shadow prompted him, worried that he was moving too quickly.

“Yes- yes, of course you can,” Sonic finally spluttered out somewhat breathlessly.

Shadow suppressed another chuckle, instead leaning forward and meeting Sonic halfway with a delicate kiss.

When they parted Sonic appeared even more dazed than he had before and Shadow felt himself swell with adoration. He brushed his thumb over Sonic’s hand which seemed to bring him back to reality.

“Come on,” Shadow said, standing up and leading Sonic by the hand. “Let’s get back to the party.”

[sweetcarrotsandroses97]

Kingdom Of Truths | KTH | Moodboard + Summay

Pairing: Lord! Kim Taehyung x disabled! Lady! reader (ft. Ot6)

~non idol! an, strangers to lovers! au, downton abbey! au, edwardian era! au

Warnings: fluff, angst, character death, strangers to lovers, depression, unrequited love, oc is in a wheelchair, period typical classism and misogyny, talks of marriage, MISCOMMUNICATION, (more will be added in the future)

Summary: You were Lady (y/n), beautifully caged to a life in a wheelchair since you were a child. It appeared that fate had it against you as tragedies filled your life since the moment you had been born. After inheriting two large fortunes after a horrible accident that left you completely alone in a world full of luxury, you lost all hope at any chance of happiness. It wasn't until a handsome young man entered your life and despite the distance you wish you put between the both of you, he seemed determined to fight for your love and live in a kingdom of truths by your side. Once is fortuity. Twice is coincidence. And three times is fate. "There is nothing more than I want in this life but you, it is you who gives me this will to live, this passion in my soul, this burning in my skin. You have bewitched me with your charms, you have claimed my heart as yours. You are the sun and I am the moon because I am nothing without you while you are everything without me."

A/N Hello everyone! I'm currently on +8k of this fic but there's so much I want to write that I fear it will take me a bit longer to publish. it fully. This is highly inspired on "Downton Abbey" if you haven't seen the series, I highly recommend it!

I just love the Edwardian Era, I'm an old soul and as you might have already noticed, this is a Tae fic also inspired by his portfolio photoshoot. I just love how he looks like a prince or -in this case- a Lord of high society.

I will publish a snippet of the fic a day or two before publishing the whole story, I hope you will like it as I am working so hard on this. If you had gotten up till this part, you are darling. Take care and thanks for reading my rambling!

~Masterlist

[amalia-uwu]

A New Friend

(¡REWRITTEN!)

An Undertale/ Horrortale fanfic

Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

Horrortale by Sour Apple Studios @horrortalecomic

Fanfictions by me

I don't own undertale or horrortale. The rights go to the respective owners! This stroy is for entertainment. If there is an issue please let me know in the asks or a messages or comments. Enjoy!

Warning ⚠️ : angst, horror, injuries, blood, death, angst, pain, major character death, description of violence, amputation. (tell me if you need me to add anything else)

She was just having fun with him. When all of the sudden the smile was wiped out of her face just like the ground disappeared beneath her feet. She stretched her hand.

Her lover caught her but he didn't manage to lift her up to safety. Her hand slipped from his. She fell down. Her screaming piercing the sky.

“AAAAHHH!!”

He could only see her falling down to her demise. All that was left from her was her bracelet, in his hand. He looked at it too shocked to speak. When he did spoke, he called her name but noone answered back..

“MELIIINNNAAAAA!!!”

....

She rolled down the cavern. The sharp rocks scratching her skin.

She landed on buttercup flowers breaking her leg. She fractured it really bad. Her bone piercing her skin.

She screamed in agony her screaming echoing in the cave. Some light from above illuminated the dark cavern.

She just laid there on the flowers.

She breathed fast trying to calm herself down. Melina groaned and rubbed her head. Her glasses had landed a few inches from her. She started patting the ground in an attempt to find them.

She winced in pain she could feel that her leg was badly broken. "Dang it" she swore under her breath.

She heard movement. She froze. Who on actual Earth could be down here?

Flowey had seen her. He went to inform Aliza before Toriel could land her eyes in her.

Flowey climbed Aliza's shoulder amd said "Another human has fallen down"

Aliza took some medicine and said "lead the way"

...

Melina heard movement. She couldn't move.

Aliza walked and picked up the girl's brown glasses. Aliza then walked towards her. Melina was tensed "who is there?" her voice trembling.

"Im not going to hurt you I promise! I just want to give you your glasses is all!" a soft female voice was heard. The voice was of a young girl. Around the age of 12.

Melina was helped up her feet or foot by this new feminine figure.

"Thank you!" Melina spoke. Aliza offered her hand "My name is Aliza" the girl with the purple dress said. "My name is Melina" The woman with the blue dress said. (Its a dark blue dress with tiny soft blue flowers, a black silk belt) They shook hands.

Aliza explained "I'll help you, but you must stay out of trouble. Down here is eat or be eaten. Things haven't been the same since the human before me came.. I will introduce you to the skeleton brothers and we will help you! Just stay out of trouble!" her voice firm, strick yet soft.

Melina gulped but nodded. What kind of shit did she put herself into?

Melina attempted to walk but fell flat on her face. "Argh!" she whined.

Aliza turned back and looked down at her with sympathy.

She knelt and tenderly poured some of the liquid on her leg "This will help, i can't give you much but it will do for now it's magic medicine".

Melina thanked her. Even tho the fracture was healed. Her leg was wounded and in pain but she could walk. Limping buy she managed with their help.

Aliza went home and she talked the brothers.

Melina saw the brothers. She saw the taller skeleton Papyrus with his bloody sharp teeth and his shrunken eyes. She saw sans with this terrible head wound and that frightening bloody red eye..

Sans and Papyrus indeed listened to Aliza. The brothers took care of the new fallen human.

Her legs were sore, full of bruises and scratches. Her blue floral  dress slightly torn in the ends. She had lost her shoes during the fall which made walking even more difficult.

Sans and Papyrus found a place to hide her. Melina was afraid of them. Something about them just scared her to the bone. Sending shivers down her spine.

Aliza promised that she will be with her at all times. Aliza could understand her pain, fear, agony... She knew about pain, loneliness, sorrow sadness etc.

Aliza was quite content that she will have a new friend. It was quite weird that she was the only human in this hellish place.

Melina gave them something to eat and drink. [She had some snacks so she thought that by giving them to the brothers she will be safe. She gave and some to the other monsters]

Sans and Papyrus seeing the snacks seemed to have calmed down a little. Aliza reassured Melina that everything was under control. Well almost everything.

For a few days she stayed hidden mostly from Undyne and her guards. If she wanted to go out she was disguising herself, or she will give some sort of food and walk away..

For days the brothers tried to keep Melina's and Aliza's true nature hidden.

Days passed and her wounded leg had started rotting. There was this nasty bruise. Gangrene.

.....

Sans and Papyrus tried to control themselves. Melina smelled delicious and judging the fact she was chubby.. she must be juicy too. These thoughts drove them even more insane.

Aliza wasn't home. Melina's leg was getting worse and she couldn't walk properly.

Aliza offered her some spaghetti but Melina refused to eat it. She refused to eat her own kind. So Aliza left to find something edible for Melina, (plants, fruits, anything at this point would be nice).

Hunger became too much for the two brothers.

Melina had left some snacks for the bros. She then managed to crawl to a room and close the door. She leaned her back on the door. Taking deep breaths. She uncovered the bandage from her leg.

The snacks she left outside will distract them a little.

She looked at her leg a morbid thought on her mind.

Using the knife her lover gave her as a decorations gift she proceeded to....

cut her leg....

She had wrapped a piece of cloth around the case of the knife and bit it.

Then using the knife she cut her flesh little by little. She screamed tears if pain ran down her eyes.

Chocked sobs of pain caught up in her throat. She tore her flesh and muscle.

Then, when she reached the bone. She took a stone and she broke it. She screamed bloody murder.

She took deep breaths, to calm down her dizziness. She used a little bit of medicine to stop the bleeding.

Her severed leg laid there in front of her. Blood and flesh scattered around the place.

At this moment the door opened Sans and Papyrus entered in. The snacks weren't enough. Not to. Mentions probably they smelled the blood and flesh.

She threw some other snacks she had saved. The brothers were a little unimpressed. Seems these stuff weren't enough.

The skelebros tried hard.

"Wait... He-here are s-some more snacks. Eat th-them-m I saved them for you! Just f-for y-you"  Tears rolling down her eyes, she still didn't know how she had tears after the previous incident.

Melina trembled. 

"*i haven't eaten in years.. don't i deserve a bite?" He grabbed her her shoulder and bit into her thigh "HUMAN WE ARE HUNGRY. DON'T WE DESERVE A TREAT!" Papyrus asked behind her and bit her shoulder  hard.

Being eaten alive was never in her to-do list. She screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ALIZA!?! PLEASE!! HELP ME!

I AM NOT YOUR FOOD! YOU FUCKING LUNATICS!

I HAVE A SOUL JUST LIKE YOU!

ALIZA??

SAVE ME!"

This heartbreaking shriek kinda brought them out of their madness. She crawled herself to the door while crying. Her shoulder and thigh bleeding.

She crawled herself in a corner clenching her body and sobbing.

Aliza came home holding some stuff she found from Grillby's pantry. They weren't much. He heard her screaming. Melina managed to escape. She saw Aliza and dragged herself closer to her. She sobbed. Aliza stood between her and Sans.

"I TOLD YOU! WE ARE NOT FOOD! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T HURT HER!"

Melina had managed to crawl closer to Aliza and started sobbing in Aliza's purple dress. She looked down at her with sympathy. She saw herself in her.

The agony.

The fear.

The pain.

This emotions were known to her... She could understand her all too well..

She looked at them sternly "Promise.! Promise me! That you will not hurt her or me ever again!" her voice firm, judging by the tone of her voice she didn't pick up objections. She could still feel Melina's tears staining her dress.

The brothers looked at her guiltily. They apologized but Melina wasn't going near them. Not yet. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Sans and Papyrus tried to heal her injuries slightly. She moved away but Aliza reassured her that everything will be okay,by putting her hand on her uninjured shoulder.

Melina looked at her and Aliza smiled.

Melina smiled back and relaxed. She allowed the brothers to touch her. Their magic stopped the bleeding, however she will have scars.

Heh I guess the scars are a small price to pay for staying alive.. "Th-thank you!" her voice and entire being still shaken from the events that happened before.

The brothers nodded "WE ARE SORRY.." Papyrus said softly.

Sans just looked at them and spoke in a soft whisper "im sorry.." then they left for a while.

They promised to Aliza that they will try will try to control themselves.

Aliza looked at them sternly piercing their souls. The brothers said "We promise. We will not hurt her or you.. We will try! You have the right to attack us if we attack, if we lose control."

Aliza took some snacks, the ones Melina had given her and gave them to the brothers. That did the trick soothing their hunger. Aliza took some food and gave it to Melina which she shared with Aliza "Thank you Aliza".

Aliza then noticed in the dim light Melina's leg "Wh-?.. Did.. "

Melina followed her gaze.

She replied calmly "Oh It began rotting anyway. I cut it. It's behind the door over there. You may cook it and give it to them. It's not like I need it anymore hehe.."

Bitterness in her voice. Aliza said nothing. She took care of the wounds and fixed a wooden leg to move around. Melina was once again grateful and thankful!

.........

Aliza knew that Melina wanted to leave. Aliza got used to it. It's been... months? Year? down here.

While Melina was just some weeks?. So she didn't blame her.

She said that she will try to help her leave. "I know you want to leave, i will help you! Melina.."

Melina wanted to leave indeed but something inside her felt pity. She said "I want to leave.. But I also want to help. There are two of us and with the brothers we might be able to help the monsters. I can't leave you down here alone... They probably think I'm dead up there anyway.. And besides.. you are my only friend down here. The only one who understands me.. Aliza.. I can't just leave you down here all alone.. So I will stay here and I will help you! " Melina empathized and Aliza smiled. They weren't alone.

(Days passed)

Someone betrayed them. Yes.. Someone couldn't keep their damned fucking mouth shut.. So he betrayed then..

One of the monsters named Treacher the Coyote, had sneaked on them and followed Aliza. She was just taking some food to the poor human (Melina). It was that moment they weren't wearing a disguise or anything.. Yeah... Luck wasn't with them that day..

This treacherous monster  informed Undyne.

"two humans you say eh? Hm it's time to pay a visit in this forsaken town.." she gathered her guards and prepared her way to Snowdin.

Undyne paid a visit to the city, "I was informed that there are 2 humans among us. You don't happen to know where they are? Hm.." she asked showing her sharp spear.

The monsters looked down. The skeleton brothers had hidden them and tried to play cool.

Treacher the Coyote pointed to the entrance that lead to the core, saying "You're majesty they are this way!"

Undyne looked at him and threw some coins and a pear at his feet. He looked at it. He picked it up. She left to meet the intruders "A deal is a deal!"

"that's not what we agreed!" Treacher protested.

Undyne gave him the look and pierced his arm and leg with her spears.

"Know your place little monster.. You don't wanna know what happens to those who dare to defy me, my orders and talk back to me!" She took her spear very close to his neck just under his chin.

Treacher gulped "y-yes y-your ma-majesty!" he stuttered. She slapped him and walked towards the entrance that lead to the core.

Sans and Papyrus teleported away. "shoot.. come on paps we gotta go, we can't let her find the girls".

He grabbed Papyrus hand and teleported.

As of Treacher Coyote.. The monsters didn't take this betrayal kindly... "What did the poor humans do to you? Asshole!" one of them said.

The bunny monster spoke next "They were trying to help us! Even that one new human offered some of her food to us trying to help us and you just give her.. Them.. away?!"

"They would have helped us...! You Gave them away!" Dogaressa clenched her teeth.

She grabbed him by the throat and they all followed her behind. "THIS IS THE  5th TIME YOU CAUSE PROBLEMS AND I AM DONE WITH YOU! I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" she pushed him. He fell down "You messed up really bad this time now buddy..."

He was laying face up. He looked at the monsters. Their shadows all over him. An expression of fear in his eyes. He screamed.

"No!"

.......

Back to Undyne.

Undyne walked into the core. Her thunderous steps echoing on the metal floor. "Humans? I know you are here! Now come to Undyne so she can take care of you! Come on little piggies!"

Aliza and Melina looked at each other and hugged. Undyne's voice was heard yet again "So.. You wanna play hide and seek? That's okay! I can smell you! Humans... Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" her steps echoing in the entire place. Her eyes looking left and right.

They held their breaths. Their hearts at their throats. Undyne's steps seemed to be very distant. They let out a sight of relief only for two blue spears to appear out of nowhere right in front of them!

They were found. They jolted and let out a shriek of surprises and fear.

She found them behind a rock. "So... Here is where you little freaks are hiding..? Huh..? Fuhuhuhu... Papyrus and his pathetic excuse of a brother thought they could hide you from me? FuHuhuhu.. You.. really thought you could hide from me? You really thought you could escape from me? How foolish of them.. How pathetic! How utterly ridiculous of them! Now... It will be quick.  I'll start with you (points to Aliza) !!" Melina pushed Aliza out of the way.

Undyne grabbed Melina's soul. She shrieked.

Aliza could only watch as her body was paralyzed by fear and shock. She covered her lips with her hand, eyes widen heart beating like crazy.

What was she supposed to do? "MELINA!? NO!!" her hand stretched in an attempt to take her away from Undyne...

Undyne took the spear close to her neck. Melina moved her head and the spear scratched her colar bone.

Aliza and Melina saw an army of flying spears around them. All, spears at their direction.

Undyne threw her spears towards them. They closed their eyes waiting for the inevitable.

The attacks never reached them.

Sans and Papyrus came to save the day. Sans used his blasters and Papyrus his bones. Papyrus blocked the spears and protected the girls.

Then Sans using his bones he hit Undyne. Undyne groaned in pain and surprise. She let Melina's soul go.

Melina fell down. Undyne started yelling at Sans "HOW. DARE. YOU.?! YOU USELESS BRAT!". Sans stopped for a moment red eye shining brighter than before. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Papyrus checked the girls for any injuries. Nothing serious just scratches and bruises. He stood protectively in front of them. Melina and Aliza hugged each other.

Sans attempted to hit Undyne using his thigh bone. Undyne dodged every attack that was sent to her.

However.

Even luck has its limits.

Sans's attacks scratched her arms and chest.

Sans managed to hit her face /eyes with his blaster. She was pushed back by the force she held her face "You fucked up my face! My eyes! Asshole!"  she spat angrily.

"Oh sorry, I though your face was already fucked up! Heh an eye for an eye.. Undick.. Now we are tie" he teased but she could discern the bitterness in his voice. He had never forgotten her and Alphys's betrayal.

She yelled angrily "NNNAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Her senses were strong enough to keep up the fight.

She started attacking Sans. He tried to dodge as many attacks as possible. He run out of luck too cause now she was the one who eventually had him cornered.

Using her magic she was squeezing his ribs making it hard for him to breathe. He attempted to hit her with his thigh bone. She grabbed his hand and broke his wrist. Throwing his thigh bone away.

*CRACK*

Papyrus ran to assist his brother "BROTHER?!" He ran towards Undyne.

She grabbed him by the soul using magic and pushed him back slamming him in the wall.

His armor cracked. He stayed there not moving. The girls were horrified.

Sans thigh bone landed in front of the girls. Undyne turned her attention to Sans.

"YOU INSIGNIFICANT IMPECILE!  YOU STUPID USELESS GOOD FOR NOTHING SKELETON! I WILL DUST YOU!! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOUR PATHETIC ASS WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!" he felt his ribs cracking and blood running down his lips and nose. Melina looked at Sans's weapon.

She then looked at Undyne who had her back turned.

She looked at Aliza who looked back at her knowing exactly what she was thinking.

They nodded to each other. Melina kicked the piece of thigh bone towards him "SANS CATCH!".

Sans took it and slammed it on Undynes head. She gasped. He twisted it.

Melina looked at Aliza who had managed to crawl closer to Undyne.

Melina took the knife, the one her lover gave her as a gift. She threw it at Aliza "ALIZA CATCH!" Aliza caught it mid air and thrusted it into Undyne's neck.

Papyrus had come around and using his bones attack he pierced her chest and abdomen.

Undyne gasped and gargled blood running down her lips. She looked at them. An angry expression on her eyes. She clenched her teeth.. Yet she sighed accepting defeat "Well played.. Humans.. freaks.."

Undyne slumped and turned into dust. The crown she had on her head fell on the ground with a *clack* sound. The crown rolled and stoppe at their feet.

They sighed in relief. Aliza and  Melina hugged each other.

"It's over.. " Melina's voice echoed.

She took the crown and gave it to the skeleton brothers. "I believe this belongs to the two of you" she said and handed the crown to the bros.

Sans looked at it. And played with it. Was it really over?

Undyne had caused wounds they didn't know how to mend. They can try. They are not alone anymore.

They have each other.

They took each other's hands and walked out of the cavern. Sighing in relief. The cold wind caressed their bodies.

Papyrus told the people of Hotland and Snowdin that Undyne was no longer alive.

He moreover informed them that they will rebuild the core.

The people were hesitant. But agreed to try after all they had nothing to lose.

They helped Sans rebuild the core. He did it right. He prayed that it will work.

Melina went to the surface to assure that she was alive and she was sending food from above till the core was ready.

Once it was finished. Sans took back most of his magic back and  let a little bit of it in there.

Just a little spark.

The trees, power and sources returned to normal. It took some time. But this hellish nightmare slowly turned into a better place.

Happiness was slowly returning.

Sans was crowned the new King. Although he never felt like a King. He was more of a Judge. That's why he passed the crown to Papyrus. Although they agreed to share the ruling.

Their appearance started changing as well... They looked friendlier.

Melina kept visiting them. After all she couldn't leave her new friends.

Things became like before. Well almost. Things turned for the best.

It was a new chapter.

A new beginning.

The end! 😘

Thank you for reading!💜💙

Please let me know what you think!

Have a great day!

I rewrote this fic.

[sissytobitch10seconds]

End of My World

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: After almost ending the world/universe three times, Reginald Hargreeves finally inadvertently got what he wanted. Viktor is now terrified of his powers and would quite literally do anything to keep them from coming back. Warnings: Suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt (failed), medical trauma, mentions of sibling death, mentions of substance abuse, addiction recovery, and depression Word Count: Ship(s): Viktor Hargreeves & Everyone

Archive link!

TRIGGER WARNING: The following fanfiction graphically depicts the after effects of a failed suicide attempt and goes into detail about the reasoning behind the suicide attempt. If these things could trigger you, please continue with caution.

A/N: I had the idea of Viktor absolutely freaking out if his powers were to return to him after the season finale of season 03, especially if everyone else has settled into their lives and is happy now. There also aren't a lot of Viktor angst fics, so I decided that I was going to add my own. This is kind of based off of my experiences with depression, which is why it might not match up with typical experience depicted in content. There's some good hurt/comfort mixed in here, so I hope it turns out good. Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

End of My World

An Umbrella Academy Fanfiction

A Viktor Hargreeves-Centric Fanfiction

By Sissytobitch10seconds

"Am I speaking to Klaus Katz?"

"Yes, who is this?" Klaus asked. He couldn't help the smile that fell over his face at hearing that name. In the new timeline, a lot of them had renamed themselves to escape the 'Hargreeves' branding all over The City where they had appeared. Sloane and Ben had chosen Sparrow, Allison was already Chestnut, and Five had gotten to pick a whole name for himself. Luther and Diego had taken the name of the women that they married. Klaus had chosen his mother's name, Herschsberger, until he got married to Dave, who happened to be transported forward like Raymond had for Allison.

"I'm calling from Benika Memorial Hospital. You were listed as Viktor Skripka's emergency contact. Is that right?" the woman on the other end asked.

He felt his stomach drop out from beneath him. He reached out to the form of his napping husband next to him. His heart was beating up in his throat as he felt a shock of anxiety unlike he had in years. Dave jerked awake and gave him a worried look just as Klaus answered, "Yeah. I didn't know that I was his emergency contact but I am his brother."

"I'm sorry to say this, but there's been an accident. Your brother has been admitted to the hospital," the woman said. Her voice did earnestly sound sorry for him, not that his brain was really registering it. Part of him hated her because she was delivering the news of what could be a tragedy to him. He was grounded by the feeling of Dave's hand clutching his arm in reassurance.

"Wh-what kind of accident?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid that I can't disclose medical details over the phone," she said. "But we need you to come to the hospital anyway, there's certain medical questions we have to ask since at the moment Viktor is incapable of answering them himself."

"Alright, of course. I'll be there right away," Klaus said before the other line went dead as the woman hung up. He glanced over at his husband, feeling tears welling up in his eyes.

Dave sat up, immediately more awake now that he could see how distressed his lover was. "Baby, what's going on? Where are you going?"

Klaus slipped off of the bed and began to dig through the piles of clothes around their room from doing laundry the night before. "I have to go to the hospital, one of my brothers apparently had an accident. And he's either not conscious or not coherent enough to answer questions," he said. He pulled on one of Dave's t-shirts, which hung loosely off his frame in a way that he and his husband would have liked to explore had the situation not been what it was.

"Where do you have to go then?" he slipped off of the bed and began to find some relatively presentable clothes for himself. "If it's far then we're going to have to pack."

The ex-superhero shook his head as he tugged on a pair of pants and began to search for two matching shoes. "We don't have to pack anything. It's at Benika Memorial, in town." 

"Isn't your brother married? Why would he put you down as his emergency contact?" Dave asked, brows furrowing together in confusion.

Klaus paused for a moment and let his shoulders sag. He pressed his hands over his face for a moment as he tried to push back all the memories of his siblings being hurt (and Ben dying) out of his mind to explain the situation to his husband. "Diego and Lila got married specifically so that they could have easier hospital and custody access, so they wouldn't be calling me. However, I have another brother in The City that you never met. His name is Viktor."

It took a second but the blond nodded in understanding. "Alright, Benika Memorial here we come."

"Thanks for being willing to come with me," Klaus murmured as he pressed a kiss to his husband's cheek. He hadn't told him everything about his past as he was pretty sure that if he did then they wouldn't have even got past the first real date, let alone a year into marriage. Dave did, however, know the majority of the things that had happened, including the fact that he had basically watched one of his brothers die.

"Of course, my love," he murmured as he pressed a kiss to Klaus' forehead. For a moment it felt like they were back in the first timeline, back in Vietnam when they first fell in love with each other. Of course, Dave didn't remember that time but Klaus still looked back on those memories of their moments as if they were his most treasured possessions.

They finished getting ready before they hurried out of their apartment down to where their car was parked along the street. Klaus was eerily quiet as they merged into traffic and went towards the hospital. Memories of Ben, beaten and bloody and whimpering, kept flashing through his mind despite the fact that it had been almost fifteen years to the dot. The dead-raiser leaned his head against the cool glass of the window to try and sooth the anxiety-induced flush in his face. He could feel his palms sweating and he was shaking just a bit like when he went to rehab and had withdrawals. He shuddered when the huge white walls of the hospital came into view, treasuring the moments that they spent in the parking lot outside while looking for a spot. As they walked towards the general admittance doors, Dave reached over so that he was holding his husband's hand in an attempt to reassure him. 

They had to wait while other family members that had arrived before him walked up to the receptionist to ask after their loved ones. Klaus picked at the dog tags that still hung from his neck to try and soothe his nerves. He walked up to the desk once it was finally their turn, giving the kind looking man sitting behind the desk a wary smile. "Hi, I'm the family of Viktor Spripka."

"Right," he nodded as he tapped the name into the database on his computer. "Klaus Katz?"

"That's me," he nodded.

"You need to go up to the surgical floor. It's floor three, and then the receptionist up there can direct you to his doctor," he said, pointing towards the stairs and elevator.

Klaus nodded and then nearly dragged his husband in that direction with his desperation to get to his brother. He was still playing with the dogtags as they rode the elevator up to the surgical floor. The second receptionist sent one of the surgical residents to bring them to Viktor's room. Each step that they took added another weight to his chest. He could hear the ghosts of people that had recently passed away so hadn't yet found their way out and hospital staff that were comfortable there. The ghosts had only started reappearing a few weeks ago, but his powers were steadily returning to him. The buzzing of his power in his ears and the anxiety over his brother's condition were making it really hard to pay attention to where the resident was leading them. She turned and then pressed the door open so that they could both walk in. 

He felt his heart skip a beat and his stomach sink down into the bottom of his gut when he saw the figure of his brother. Viktor had always been small, even when they were all little kids, but he looked like a child as he laid in the huge hospital bed. He was hooked up to several monitors and had two IVs, one for fluids and the other for blood. He also had a respirator hooked up to his mouth instead of the standard oxygen. He had bandages wrapped around the majority of his arms and around his neck.

"The doctor should be in to discuss his case with you in a moment," the resident explained softly as she let the door slip shut behind her.

Dave glanced at his husband after making sure that the resident doctor had really gone. He was able to grab a chair and place it underneath Klaus just as he began to collapse. Klaus placed one hand over his mouth for just a moment before he reached out and clasped Viktor's hand in his own. "Oh Viktor. What happened to you?"

They waited in silence, Klaus clutching his brother's hands and glancing between his face and his monitors to make sure that he was alive. Dave hovered behind his husband while trying to figure out what he was supposed to do in this kind of a situation.

The door opened as someone knocked on the frame. They both looked up to see someone wearing dark gray scrubs with a white lab coat. Behind her was a woman that looked oddly familiar, not that Klaus was in the right state of mind to place who she was. "Hi, I'm Dr. Lorem. I'm your brother's surgeon. This is Detective Patch, she's going to have to ask you a couple questions."

"Was Viktor involved in a crime?" Klaus asked, his head snapping up to stare at them both.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. I was called to do a wellness check on your brother earlier today and when I showed up," she paused and winced. "This might be a little hard to hear but I do have to disclose this part of the case so you can give me the answers that I need. I found him with his throat and arms covered in deep lacerations," Patch explained.

Dr. Lorem chimed in then, "Before Office Patch has the chance to ask you anything about the case I do want to explain a bit of his situation to you and hopefully assuage some fears. When he came to us he had lost a lot of blood. The EMTs had tried their best to pack the wounds on his neck and arms but his blood pressure was too weak since his heart had barely anything to pump around his body. He did code while our trauma team worked on getting his wounds to actually stop bleeding, but we were able to get him back with minimal drugs and CPR. The laceration on his neck was deep enough that it injured his airway so we had to intubate him. Hopefully in the next couple of days we can wean him off of it. We did have to do surgery to close a couple of the cuts because they were so deep. If you have questions about that then I can introduce you to our venous and plastic specialists who helped assist me in the surgery. We also had to pump his stomach since his body was having a negative reaction to some of the substances that he ingested, which is one of the questions I needed to ask you about. For now, what you really need to take away from this is that your brother is okay. He's struggling and he's got a long road ahead of him, but he is stable and recovering."

Klaus felt his shoulders sag a little bit when the end of the doctor's speech finally sunk in. "He's okay, he's okay," he murmured as he leaned into the touch of his husband. Dave had begun to rub soothing circles in between his shoulders to try and keep his nerves at bay while they took in the information from the doctor. He then turned his head up towards the ceiling, blinking away his tears before he looked back to the two women. "Alright. You had questions for me and I'm Viktor's emergency contact, so I can answer them," he felt a small swell of pride as he realized that his brother had listed him out of all of their siblings to be his next of kin.

"First things first, with the medical questions," Dr. Lorem said. "Does your brother take any medications, or has he been known to abuse substances in the past?"

The recovering addict had to stop himself from laughing inappropriately at the question. "For the majority of his life he was on anti-anxiety mood suppressants that didn't mix well with other substances so he didn't even take any other types of strong medication until he went off of them two years ago. I think he drinks, but he doesn't do hard drugs."

"Does Viktor have any allergies that you know of?" she asked next after noting it on the electronic chart in her hands. 

"No, he lucked out on that one," Klaus forced a small smile. 

"Is there anything else that you think we should know when it comes to his medical history? Feel free to give me any information that pops into your mind. I'm trained on how to sort through that kind of thing," she chuckled comfortingly.

Klaus went quiet for a bit as he let the sound of the respirator and the beeping of Viktor's heart monitor soothe the nerves bubbling up in his gut. "Uh, he’s about two years into his transition. I know he takes testosterone shots and he got top surgery a year ago. Other than that I don't know anything else about his medical history," he shrugged. "He never got sick or had any major injuries when we were kids. Oh, wait. About two years ago he, uh, got in a couple of fights we never got checked out for. He might have had some concussions and dislocations."

Dr. Lorem's mouth went small for a moment before she nodded in understanding. "As a doctor I'm going to have to gently reprimand you for not bringing your brother to the doctor when you should have. It never hurts to get checked out when you think something might be wrong."

"Right," he nodded. If they had been able to, he would have dragged all his siblings to the infirmary to get checked out every time they so much as stubbed their toes. After watching Ben die in the Jennifer Incident he had always had the impulse to be overprotective over them, but he had held himself back with the self-control he never extended to his addictions.

"I'll leave Detective Patch to ask her questions now. If you need me, let the nurses know and they'll page me," she gave them a kind smile as she got up and left the room.

Klaus took a couple of deep breaths before he ran a hand through his thick curls. Dave gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, which helped settle his nerves even further. It was like there were only a few things that were grounding him and every time they receded even a little bit the anxiety would spring viciously back to life.

Detective Patch drew up one of the plastic chairs on the other side of the bed from Klaus and Dave. "So one of your brother's students called the station today to ask for a wellness check because he hadn't shown up to a couple of the meetings that he agreed to. When I got there I found him and had to perform what first aid I knew before the EMTs arrived. I did have to force my way in because I wasn't getting a response and his neighbors were also worried. I have two sets of questions I need to ask you, alright?"

"Okay," Klaus nodded weakly. Having to deal with the ghosts was taking a toll on his mental health because he was sleeping less. The anxiety and worry for his brother was only serving to make him more exhausted, but he knew he had to push himself to help Viktor. 

"Let me know if at any point you need to stop. I can always come back or you can come to the police station to finish giving us the information we need," Patch said kindly. She then cleared her throat as she started her questioning, "I noticed that you brother is trans. Did he ever talk about having any coworkers or neighbors that might want to hurt him? Someone close enough to him to know where he lives."

"He's never mentioned anything like that. The school he works at is very progressive and if his coworkers don't like his identity they don't really talk about it," Klaus shook his head. Viktor had only mentioned his school in passing and he was always talking about how much he loved his students or being able to pick what he wanted to play. "He doesn't know anyone that intimately in his orchestra. Not enough for them to break into his home and hurt him."

"Okay," Patch nodded. "Now, I hate to bring this up but the wounds that your brother was brought in with were congruent with that of someone that might have tried to take their own life. Has Viktor ever shown any suicidal tendencies or mentioned anything about not wanting to be around anymore?"

He felt his heart sink into his stomach and a shock of panic rush through him. Viktor had been isolated from them his entire life and then again when they arrived in their new timeline and chose to go their separate ways. He had been so wrapped up in getting to Dave again that he hadn't even thought about how his brother must have felt. "I… I don't know. He's never mentioned anything like that to me but it's not completely out of the question for him to… to have tried to… kill himself." It was like the words were being slowly pulled from him with a string, forcing their way out of his throat and past his lips despite his objections.

"Alright. We'll keep looking into his case but unfortunately if he was attacked there's very little that we can do until he wakes up," the detective explained. "Feel free to call the police department and ask for me if you need to, alright?"

"Of course, Detective Patch," Dave answered for his husband. The officer allowed herself out of the room after giving her work number to the aforementioned man. They were once again left alone in the room with Viktor, so Dave gave his husband a few minutes to process everything that had happened. "My love, don't you think that we should contact your other siblings to tell them what happened? Viktor is their brother too."

"Right, right. You're right," Klaus sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face. He grabbed his phone and flicked to the sibling that had been closest to Viktor before the whole debacle with the end of the universe had gone down.

The phone rang three times before Allison answered. "Hey Klaus! What's up?"

He leaned back in his chair, throwing his arm to where Dave was now sitting in another one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs. Dave clutched his hand and rubbed his thumb over Klaus' knuckles soothingly, which was the only thing that gave the recovering addict the strength to do this. "I have some news," he sighed.

"News? Are you and Dave finally looking in to having a kid?" she nearly squealed. 

In the background he could hear Raymond reading to Claire, who had turned into a fanatic reader after her step-father's entrance into her life. His heart ached like a stone in his chest as he realized that the news might ruin her wonderful day. "No. It's not good news, I'm afraid. Viktor- he's in the hospital."

"I didn't think that he was going to have another surgery. They were too expensive or something," Allison replied, sounding a little bit uninterested.

"No. Allison," Klaus nearly whined. What he wouldn't give for a hit of the morphine Viktor was getting through his IV. "He, um, he almost died. One of his students called a wellness check on him and the officer found him bleeding out on the floor. They don't know much about the case other than that."

"Oh," was the only thing that came from his sister for a good three minutes. "Is he… is he…"

He let his eyes fall closed and ignored the tear that streaked down his cheek because of it. This was going to be the hardest thing he had done since he clutched the body of his dying lover in his hands in the middle of a battlefield. "He's not dead. His surgeon said that he's got a long road ahead of him but he's recovering for now."

"Surgeon?" Allison almost shrieked. The light happy voices in the background died down immediately. "He had to have surgery?"

"It's not like this is his first time going under the knife but apparently he did code when he was in the ER," Klaus began to chew at his nails to try and satisfy the urge to go and numb himself with whatever opioids this hospital had stocked.

He could practically see his sister's eyes widening as he spoke. She took in a sharp breath as she whispered, "Oh my God. Our brother was dead, Klaus."

"Not the first time that's happened," he shuddered as he remembered the blood soaked rug in the White Buffalo Suite and Six's (which is what they had taken to calling the Ben from their original universe) ripped up body. His bones and joints ached as he remembered all of the times that he had died during his training as well. 

"Yeah, but we're not supposed to be fighting big scary shit anymore. We're just supposed to be living our lives. Viktor's a teacher for God's sake," Allison scoffed. "He probably has the safest job out of all of us."

Klaus bit the edges of his tongue as he tried to restrain himself. He couldn't keep the words back, finally saying, "He might be a teacher but he's still open about being trans at his school because it helps some of his high school age students."

Allison took in a shaky breath before she asked, "You think that this was a hate crime?"

"I don't know. Listen, I have to call and tell the others. I'll keep you updated on his condition if you want," he offered.

"That would be amazing. I'm going to book a flight out there as soon as I can so that I can help out. Do you think that he'd want to see me in the hospital or should I just… message him?" Klaus could almost see her pausing and her posture becoming awkward as she realized. Viktor and Allison hadn't quite made up since the (almost) end of the universe, even if they were back on speaking terms like they had been before his book in their original timeline.

The recovering addict took a moment to think. Dave's hand moved to take his own, grounding him again so that his thoughts were able to clear. "I think that he's going to need all of the support that he can get," he cleared his throat to stop himself from blurting out the other possibility that had caused Viktor's ailment.

"Okay. Keep me updated, please. I want to know everything, even the bad stuff," Allison said, her voice tight with worry.

"I will," he promised. He took a moment when the line went dead before he looked for the next sibling on his list. He wasn't looking forward to this phone call, not that he was looking forward to any of them.

"Diego speaking," the voice on the other end said immediately after the second ring on the phone. 

Klaus winced as he could hear Chrysanthemum, Diego's eighteen-month-old, babbling close to the phone. He knew that the little girl most likely wouldn't be able to tell what they were talking about but she would recognize his voice and Viktor's name. "Hey Dee."

"Klaus, what's up?" his brother asked.

"Well, I have some pretty serious news," he glanced back towards the vitals of his injured brother to reassure himself that he wouldn't have to be delivering even worse news.

The other man went quiet for a moment. "You didn't relapse, did you?"

Klaus let out a little scoffing laugh. What he would give to be calling to have to admit that, however shameful it would be, instead of what he was actually calling to say. "No, but I have been thinking about it," Dave gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Viktor is in the hospital."

Just as he suspected, the name got a squeal from the little girl. "V! Uncle V!" Her words had gotten a lot clearer in the short amount of time that Klaus had been away from her. Despite himself, he felt a small smile tug itself across his face as he heard the adorable lisp. 

"Mija, I need you to go find Mama," Diego said almost immediately. Klaus could hear some shuffling from the other end of the call as Diego passed his daughter off to her mother despite her protests about wanting to be held and be close to her uncles, even if it was through a call. As soon as she was away from the line, he asked, "What do you mean in the hospital?"

He rubbed his brow as he explained basically the same information he had given Allison. "But there's already a detective on the case."

"Shit, I think it was Eudora that got sent on that wellness check," Diego swore when he finally pieced the puzzle Klaus had given him together. The recovering addict felt his eyes widen as he realized that he had been speaking to his savior from another timeline, and that she was alive in this one. He had also forgotten that Diego also worked as an officer, though he was a beat cop right now, in the same precinct that would have been in charge of Viktor's neighborhood. "Don't worry. As much as I want to go and check it out for myself I won't. But I am going to ask if she has any details about Viktor's case when I go into work tomorrow. Is he awake?"

"No. I think he's sedated. They had to intubate him because he had a cut on his throat that hurt his airway or something," Klaus leaned his head so that it was resting on Dave's shoulder. The comfort he got from being in this close proximity to his husband was mixed with the reassurance of seeing his brother's chest rise and fall with each breath.

"Okay. Let me know when a good time to come and visit is. I'm going to tell Lila and figure out how to explain this to Chrys," Diego sighed. 

"See you, Dee. I'll keep you updated," Klaus said just as his brother hung up. He took a moment to relax and not have to explain this to anyone else as he messaged Ben. The aforementioned Sparrow loathed talking on the phone and still acted aloof enough that he wasn't sure he should expend what little energy he had left on calling him to explain the situation. He was still their sibling and still deserved to know, however. After a moment of breathing, with Dave pressing kisses to his temple and the top of his head, he dialed Luther's number and then pressed the phone to his ear.

"Sparrow residence, this is Sloane speaking," the chipper voice of his sister-in-law cut through the ringing of the phone when the two lines connected. 

He felt some of the tension in his shoulders drain away when he heard Sloane. While he hadn't spent a ton of time with her since they had all settled down in The City, he enjoyed talking with her more than he did his own adoptive sister. She was much kinder and even when she was upset, she always expressed her feelings by stating them out loud instead of having huge blow up fights like Allison did. She was much easier to talk to, probably the easiest person to talk to out of all of their siblings. "Hey Sloane. Is Luther there? I have some family news."

"We were actually in the middle of baking something for a work potluck. I can put you on speaker?" she offered. 

"Yeah, that would probably work best," he sighed. He was going to have to tell Sloane as well, as she had gotten pretty close with Viktor as well. She was working in the same elementary school that Viktor worked at bi-weekly. She gave him the cue once she turned the speaker on and then set the phone down between herself and her husband. Klaus took a deep breath as he got ready to explain everything for the fourth time. "Alright. This might be hard to hear, but Viktor is in the hospital."

"Hospital? What happened?" Luther asked immediately.

"He had an accident. His wrists and throat were cut up pretty bad, he coded in the ER and then had to have surgery. He's sleeping right now," Klaus explained.

There was the sound of something dropping on the other end as Luther, predictably, froze while trying to process the information. "Oh my God. Is he going to be okay?" Sloane asked. He knew that she was going to be able to comfort his brother and help him deal with it all.

"The doctor said that he has a long road of recovery ahead but that he should be okay," Klaus nodded despite the fact that they couldn't see him. "I'll keep you guys updated. You're welcome to come and visit if you want, but it's pretty boring. And shocking. He's hooked up to a lot of shit."

"We'll be there to visit as soon as we can. It's going to take us a while to process all of this," Sloane replied. "Thank you for telling us Klaus. Be sure to let us know if anything happens."

He let out a small sigh when the call came to a close. "I will," he murmured as he hung up. The last person that he had to call was the person that he had been putting off since he had started informing the whole family. He rubbed his forehead with one hand after dropping Dave's while he searched for the last number. He dialed it and then pressed it to his ear as he let it ring. 

"What do you want?" Five snapped when the call finally connected.

"Aww, is that any way to talk to your favorite brother?" Klaus cooed. It felt natural to slip into this kind of easy sniping back and forth despite the serious situation that they were in.

"You know very well that you are not my favorite brother," Five replied dryly.

"Mm, yes, we both know that's Luther," he clicked his tongue. "But I didn't call you to talk about family matters in that sense, dear brother of mine. I have news about Viktor."

"What about him?" came Five's immediate response. The poor man was constantly paranoid about another apocalypse or one of his siblings being hunted and killed by the Commission.

Klaus winced as he realized that he was delivering precisely the type of information that Five didn't want to ever have to deal with again. He leaned forward in his chair so that he was holding Viktor's hand while he spoke. "There was an accident and now Viktor is in the hospital."

"Which hospital?"

"Five, he's sedated right now. He had to have surgery and lost a lot of blood but he's stable. You don't have to come to the hospital and watch over him while he sleeps," he tried to joke like he had been before, but just couldn't bring himself to force the lightheartedness into his words.

"Which hospital, you asshat?" Five demanded.

He let out a small sigh of reluctance before he answered, "Benika Memorial." The words had barely left his mouth before there was a flash of blue light and Five was standing in the hospital room on the other side of the bed than them. Klaus brought the phone down to his lap and hung up the call. Next to him, Dave jumped and placed a hand over his heart to try and sooth his own panicking nerves.

Five stared down at their brother's tiny form, hooked up to dozens of tubes and other hospital equipment. When he turned his head up so that he was looking back towards his family, his eyes were wide and nearly feral. "What the Hell happened?"

Dave answered for Klaus because his poor husband had been repeating the information over and over again that day. "We don't know. Apparently one of his students called a wellness check on him since he hadn't shown up to his classes or tutoring sessions. The officer found him bleeding out on his floor."

The oldest of the Hargreeves siblings simply hummed while he moved to sit down on one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs. His face was tight and pulled in like he was thinking, but Klaus couldn't figure out what. Even before he had spent forty-odd years in the apocalypse he had been hard to read and understand, so it was basically impossible to do now. The siblings lapsed into silence as they waited near their brother's bedside.

---

The next several weeks were difficult for all of them. They came in rotations, visiting their brother every single time they had the opportunity to. Sloane had work all day but always did her grading beside Viktor's bedside as a favor to Luther who had to work for a lot longer. Diego came and visited every so often in between bothering Eudora and the other officers on his case to do more work. Allison had stayed with Klaus and Dave for the time that she was able to, but she had to fly back to LA after the first week. She sent flowers to Viktor's hospital room every couple of days in the hopes that it would reassure him that she did care once he finally woke up. Luther was in and out of the hospital room whenever he could be. Lila had only come by to visit once, but the sight of her uncle wrapped up in so many bandages with so many tubes had been too much for Chrysanthemum. Ben had traveled back from where he had been visiting art exhibits across the world to visit Viktor but hadn't stayed for longer than a couple of days. They all knew that as soon as Viktor woke up he would make a trip back to them. Klaus and Five were sitting vigil more than any of the others were as they were the closest to Viktor and had the most ability to do so. Five had taken time off from his college classes so that he could be there the moment his brother woke up.

It happened exactly twenty two days after he had been admitted to the hospital. Klaus and Sloane had just finished dragging Five away from Viktor's hospital room so that he could change his clothes and have a shower. Sloane forced one of the muffins she had stress baked into his hand along with the coffee that Klaus had gotten him from the cafe across the street. They settled into the uncomfortable hospital chairs as they watched over their family member.

According to the doctor, Viktor was doing much better. He had lost a couple of the tubes hooked up to him as he no longer needed quite as many vitamins since he was able to stomach the feeding tube. They also came to check on him less as he no longer needed quite as much attention. He was still intubated but apparently they were weaning him off of the sedation to see if he would wake up and be able to breathe on his own.

"Ben said that he picked something up for Viktor from his latest showing. He doesn't want everyone else to know but he is thinking about us," Sloane said after a moment of silence.

"Aww, how sweet of him," Klaus cooed. 

Their oldest brother, who had basically been comatose for the entire time that he had been sitting in the chair, straightened up as all his muscles went rigid. He placed his coffee next to the muffin wrapper down on the table next to Viktor's hospital bed so that he could grab his aforementioned brother's hand. "Shut up, both of you," Five waved at them with his spare hand.

"What is it?" Sloane asked worriedly as she shifted in her chair as well.

"I thought that I heard a difference in his breathing," he murmured. They all went quiet, watching closely for any kind of difference in their loved one.

Viktor surged up on the bed, his eyes fluttering as he began to fight the intubation tube down his throat. His hand tightened almost painfully around Five's while the panic rushed through his system. He didn't know where he was, which was a huge trigger for him after he had been drugged by the government back in their second timeline. Sloane and Klaus both let out a panicked shriek when the noises in the room suddenly increased. Viktor's heart rate had also jumped substantially so it was closer to the hundreds instead of hovering around seventy beats per minute. Five stood up so that he was hovering over his brother while brushing his free hand across Viktor's face. "Hey, hey, you're in the hospital but we're all here. You're going to be okay. You have to breathe and calm down. The doctors had to intubate you, that's what's in your throat, okay? Just relax."

Sloane had rushed out into the hallway and got the attention of one of the nurses that was already heading towards their room to figure out what was going on. He hurried into the room and then carefully began to remove the intubation tube from Viktor's mouth and throat. Klaus had to physically pull Five away from their brother while the nurse worked on getting him to sit upright instead of just being leaned upwards. The medical professional then ran a quick test on some of Viktor's skills to test his motor functions. The doctor, who had been paged as soon as they realized that Viktor was actually awake, came in and asked him what felt like a million questions and ran a lot of the same tests to make sure everything was functioning perfectly.

The family was standing, bunched up against the wall as they watched over their loved one like he would disappear. As soon as the doctors and nurses had left, they swarmed him. Five was the quietest out of all of them, falling back down into his chair like the three weeks of poorly sleeping had finally hit him all at once. 

Sloane moved so that she was sitting on the end of Viktor's hospital bed with one hand on his calf. She couldn't stop the bright smile that fell over her face. "I'm so glad that you're okay. You had us worried there for a bit."

"Little brother!" Klaus crowed as he wrapped his brother up in a hug. "Man, I thought that you were going to pull a me and have to go talk to the chick with the bicycle. Glad that I don't have to deal with your ghost."

Viktor blinked as he slowly reached his arms up and hugged Klaus. "I-I-I don't understand, what happened?"

"You almost died," Klaus supplied. "Well, you kind of did die. According to that nice doctor that was in here a second ago you died when you got to the ER and they had to revive you."

A lot seemed to be happening in the mind of their brother. He blinked at the three siblings as he slowly lowered himself back down onto his bed so his head was against the many pillows behind him. His face flashed with realization before, for the briefest of seconds, guilt covered his features. "How long have I been out?" he asked as he rubbed a hand over the side of his face.

"About three weeks. Your students brought some things for you," Sloane said, motioning to the posters from each of the schools that he taught at. 

There was a highly colorful, glitter covered one from the elementary school that he taught at in the mornings every Tuesday and Thursday for the kids interested in early orchestra. Next to it was a smaller one that had quite a few personal get-well messages from the middle school kids he helped tutor every other Monday after school. There was another huge one that was from all of the orchestra students he taught at his high school. The last one was covered in little rainbow flags and 'get well soon' messages from the LGBT club he oversaw. "Love those kids," he said softly as a smile fell across his face. He cleared his throat, rubbing over the bandages that were still there. "Can I have some water, please?"

"Oh, yes, of course," she nodded. She handed him the glass that had been poured for him by the nurse that came to extubate him. "I'm going to go call everyone and tell them that you're awake, okay?"

Before Viktor had the chance to object about not wanting to bother anyone, Five sprang up out of his chair. "That sounds like a wonderful idea. Klaus, why don't you go with her so that she doesn't have to talk to our siblings alone?"

Klaus' brows furrowed together in confusion as he tried to figure out what his brother was trying to get out but chose not to. The last month had been so stressful that they were all acting a little bit weird. "Alright, schwester, let's get a move on," he linked their arms together and walked them out of the hospital room.

Viktor let his head hang back against the pillows and his eyes slip shut in exhaustion. Despite the fact that he had basically been sleeping for the better part of a month, he was still somehow so tired he barely had any energy. He jerked back upright when he felt Five moving closer to his bed next to him. "Viktor."

"Five," he replied, his voice deep and crackling like when he had first started taking his shots.

"Tell me what happened," he replied, raising a brow at his brother.

The smallest of the siblings felt panic begin to rise up to the surface. His face was pointed down towards his bandaged arms while the blood rushed to his cheeks. He didn't feel like he could breath and anxiety was clutching around his abdomen. "I…"

"Viktor," his voice was intense and serious. "You have to tell me."

"I don't have to tell you anything, Five," Viktor snapped. His anxiety was causing him to be aggressive despite knowing in the back of his mind that Five only had his best interests at heart.

"You really want to go there with me?" he growled. "You could tell me or you could tell the entire family when they show up to interrogate you. You know that they will. And, Viktor, if I find out that you've been doing some weird vigilante shit then I'm going to be your end."

He brought his hands up to his face so that his features were hidden away. "Maybe you should just end me," speaking so quietly that he wasn't sure his brother could even hear him talking let alone what the words were.

"Excuse me?" Five asked, going even more rigid than he had been before. He nearly sprang off the bed as he assumed a defensive pose, like Viktor was in any kind of shape to have a fight. "Would you care to repeat that for me?"

"I tried to kill myself, okay, Five?" he nearly shouted as he pulled his hands away from his face and looked to his brother. "I'm not running around like Diego did when he was being a cheap Batman knockoff. I'm a teacher at three different schools and I help the queer kids in my highschool. I have an orchestra that I play in too, so I don't even have time to run after criminals even if I wanted to. I just- I just tried to kill myself. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

With each word that the smaller man spoke, Five's eyes widened with shock. He sunk back down into his chair, clutching his hands in front of him. "What?" he asked after a moment of tense silence.

Viktor pursed his lips and looked away from his brother. "I tried to kill myself," he repeated.

"Why?"

Both of the brothers were left staring at each other for a couple minutes. His heartbeat was still ringing through the room and they could hear murmuring words from the hospital staff and their siblings outside. Viktor blinked a few times as he tried to process that question. To him it was so obvious, he had no idea how the smartest sibling in their family couldn't see it. "M-my powers are coming back," he answered with a small shrug.

Five covered the bottom half of his face with one hand as he waited for his brother to continue. The aforementioned man let his shoulders fall towards each other defensively while he tried to find the words. It was like his mouth was full of sand and cotton every time he tried to force the words past his teeth. "Every time I've had powers in the past I've killed people. When I was a kid dad had to drug me because I kept killing our nannies. And then when I went off my meds I literally ended the world three times. I thought that I finally had a chance to be a part of the family because none of us had powers and even when all of yours started coming back I didn't think that anything would change because we're all pretty close and well bonded now. Even though I still have to be the one to reach out first most of the time. I don’t care because we’re acting like a family and it’s so wonderful. But it's not like I had felt anything yet, either, so nothing bad could happen. But then I was teaching one of my classes and I could feel it, the humming in the background from both the instruments and the kids. Like what Harlan taught me to feel when I took his power back from him. I couldn't…" he stopped as he realized that tears were streaming down his face.

Uncharacteristically, Five lurched from his chair and wrapped his arms around his brother. "Don't- don't you fucking," he took in a sharp breath and stopped talking for a second. Viktor let his arms hesitantly reach up until he was hugging him back with a huge release of emotion. They were both crying as the older of the two continued, "I cannot lose you again, Viktor. I can't."

"But if I stick around I could take away Allison's happiness again. I could ruin everything. Lila and Diego have a kid, Klaus finally has Dave back, Sloane and Luther are so happy, and you're finally retired. I can't be responsible for ruining the lives of the people that I love most or killing anyone else," he shook his head. "Everything would be so much better if I just wasn't here anymore."

"Stop! You can't say that," Five pulled back so that Viktor could see how intense his deep brown eyes were. His lips were pursed and he was using one hand to wipe at the tears still spilling over his lashes and rushing down his cheeks. "The world would not be a better place without you in it. The only reason that you killed people before was because you weren't able to control it. We never actually gave you the training that you needed. Dad turned you into a bomb and then we never managed to disarm. The whole point of taking you back to the past was to teach you how to deal with your powers and then we never did that. The ends of the world weren't your fault, Viktor. We should share the blame too. Please… please don't ever try to do this again."

"Okay," he nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry for making you feel like this was the only option that you had," Five shook his head. "This was partially because I threatened you, right? Fuck, how could I have been so stupid! Of course your powers would come back like the rest of ours did and of course you would be afraid of them after never having any other memories other than the end of the world."

"Five," Viktor called out. He was still so exhausted and it was made even worse by the fact that he had spent the better part of the last five minutes crying.

"Sorry," he cleared his throat. "I think this is something that my therapist needs to handle." Five moved over to his seat again. He held his brother's hand as if to make sure that he was really there and awake. They went quiet until Sloane and Klaus came back in.

Soon the other siblings that were living in the city had arrived and piled into his hospital room as well. "Glad to see that you're okay. You're the most tolerable out of the boys," Lila informed him. She was shifting her daughter, who was napping cutely against her shoulder, as she took the seat Sloane had been in moments before.

"Thanks, mi corozone," Diego rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Good to see you awake," he directed towards his brother as he filed in to stand behind Lila.

"Don't you ever scare us like that again," Luther murmured as he wrapped his brother up in a crushing hug. For a moment, Viktor felt panic shoot through him as the memories of the choking hug Luther had given him back in their original timeline forced their way into his mind. He relaxed when the normal, yet still muscular, frame of his brother reminded Viktor that a lot had changed since that fateful day.

"Don't worry, Five has already threatened me about scaring you guys," he chuckled.

The sound of his voice roused the sleeping toddler. She turned her head and then lout an excited squeal. "Uncle V!" she babbled as she tried to lurch from her mother's grip.

"You good to hold her?" Diego asked, taking his daughter from his wife and moving over to his brother.

"I always want to hold my adorable niece," he chuckled, reaching his bandaged arms to take the toddler. Instead of handing her over, Diego sat Chrysanthemum down on his lap.

"Uncle V," she giggled as she placed her hands on his cheek. "What?" she asked as she tugged on the IV on his arm, immediately getting distracted from her original goal.

He glanced over to Lila, who was looking at something on her phone and not paying attention. Out of the whole family, Viktor was the second most trusted with kids (Allison was first since she had raised her own daughter and Sloane was third). "Well, this is something that the doctors had to give me so that I could have vitamins to make me healthy," he explained. "I just needed a little help getting big and strong like you, flower."

The family settled down in the hospital room, much the chagrin of the hospital staff. It had been a long time since they had all been back together like this, despite them all living in the same place. Viktor, Five, and Sloane were normally overwhelmed with school (though Five for a different reason), and Diego and Luther worked odd hours. It was nice to be surrounded by family, even if they were missing two members and it was under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Ben had just arrived back in the city when he got the message that Viktor had woken up, so went immediately to the hospital instead of his apartment. He left his bag just outside the door so that none of his siblings would be able to tell what he had done as he stuck his head in. "Looks like you're stuck with us then," he smirked as he walked over. Viktor had been trying to nap while his siblings argued with each other over a game of War. Chrysanthemum had already tired herself out and was sleeping with her thumb in her mouth, despite having her pacifier attached to her shirt, and cuddled up next to his uncle.

"More like you're stuck with me," he tried to joke, but the startled look he got from Klaus and Five made him clear his throat and sit up a bit more. "I thought you were in Europe."

"I got back recently. Heard you were awake so I thought I'd stop by to see if I need to kick any of these guys out," Ben informed the other man. After he had gone to a lot of therapy and worked through some of his issues, he had become pretty close with a couple of the others. He and Sloane were still the closest since they had grown up together, but he and Viktor bonded over art even if they were into different types.

"Nah, they're behaving themselves pretty well. It's also nice to have them all in one place so I can make sure they're not getting themselves into trouble," he smiled at the other man. 

Ben walked over and ruffled the other man's hair. "Without us they'd be completely lost."

Viktor stifled a yawn as he turned his head to the side so that he could try and continue their conversation. The taller man shook his head, "Sleep, man. You've been through a lot. I'm not going anywhere for a while anyway."

The exhausted violinist nodded before he let his eyes flutter shut again and he fell asleep. With Ben there the rest of their family was kept quiet so that he could actually get some rest. Eventually they all had to leave so that they could go back to their jobs or get some rest for the next day.

---

Allison was the last of his siblings to arrive. She had caught a plane as soon as she heard that he was awake, which meant that she arrived late that night. As soon as she saw him sitting up in his hospital bed while trying to doze off his medication she rushed over to him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him as if to reassure herself that he was really there as their other siblings had. When she pulled back she gave him one of her dazzling smiles, like how she looked at her daughter and husband. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that they've given me my nighttime pain meds," he chuckled. He let the smile slip off of his face as guilt swarmed through him. He scowled slightly and said, "My powers are back, Allison."

"So? All of our powers are back," she whispered.

"I don't want to take away your happiness like I did before," he whispered. "I-I tried to… I tried to stop myself but I'm scared that it's going to happen anyway. You were right, you should have left me in the basement."

"No, no, no, no, no, no," she immediately shook her head. She grasped his hands in her own and forced him to look up at her. "I said that because I was hurting so badly inside. At the time it felt like it was true but now that I have Ray and Claire back I can see that it was wrong. It would completely break me if I lost you. Especially after everything that we've been through. Please never try to kill yourself again, okay? I knew that Hargreeves was going to kill someone and it still hurt so bad to lose a sibling, especially after Five disappeared when we were kids and Six died… I just, I can't keep losing people, and you're people."

"Even if my powers go out of control again?" he asked, his eyes flickering to meet hers.

"We're not going to let that happen. And if it does, we'll just fix it again. There are more solutions to problems that haven't happened yet," she chuckled. "And none of those solutions involve you killing yourself, got it?"

Viktor smiled slightly, a true smile. His stomach was still swirling with guilt and worry but he felt decently lighter than he had before. While he hadn't admitted to anyone other than Five, Detective Path, and Allison what had truly happened to him, he knew that they loved him. Based on the way that they all raced to see him while in the hospital he knew that it was true. They were his family and they wanted him to be around, even if he was the bomb that ended the world three times over.

[little-firestar]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Major Crimes (TV), The Closer Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Julio Sanchez/Original Female Character(s), Julio Sanchez/Maria Sanchez (past) Characters: Sharon Raydor, Louie Provenza, Leo Mason, Members of the Major Crimes Unit, Julio Sanchez, Original Female Character(s), Mark Jarvis Additional Tags: One Shot, Long One Shot, Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual Fluff, Slow Burn, Fake Marriage, Adoption, Adopted Children, Friends to Lovers, Inspired by Novel Summary:

Victoria Sullivan knew that when Julio Sanchez proposed marriage it couldn’t be because he loved her. He simply needed a wife – a mother for his foster son Mark, in order to keep custody of the child he loved like he was his blood. Victoria still remembered the kindness that Julio had shown her many years before, and finding herself in a similar impasse, she accepted – how could she say no to the man who stirred her secret fantasies, after all? But with their days together numbered, would the spark ignite a fire, and lead two lonely hearts home?

[mondaymelon]

₊⊹ "𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐨, 𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝…" | xiao, childe, alhaitham x gn!reader

「 "𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐚𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮!!"」

— in which you've gotten drunk... drunk enough to fail to recognize your own lover.

— silly fluff. soft xiao, had this one in the drafts for far too long and its about time i choke it out... happy white day !!

the moment your slurred words reached his ears, XIAO knew that he never should've let you get your hands on that cursed rice wine.

in a way, he supposed it could be his fault. the one time he had decided to indulge in trivial mortal matters like alcohol due to your constant insistence... well, just look at you.

red-faced, the tips of your ears and cheeks stuck in a helplessly drunken flush, you babbled incoherently with half of your face smushed against the table. xiao could only stare in contempt as you feebly reached towards the already-emptied bottle,

( xiao had taken one sip and refused any more indulgence, claiming it was bitter, when in fact, you had gone out of your way to find a sweeter drink ),

and sigh, massaging the bridge of his nose with a certain disillusionment.

"come on, you're getting to bed." the man was just about done with your hopeless actions. he grabbed your wrist and tugged, only to be met with resistance. you're pouting like a child, brows furrowed lazily as you stare upwards at him.

"nnno. m'not going with you."

"...excuse me?" what in the archons was the problem now? he tugged again, this time with a small margin of force, and was met with an even larger pull back, this time paired with a low whine. "hey, it's late, and all the wine is gone, so just comply with me won't you?"

"i already told you... i have a husband..."

your complaint met the cool night air and the adeptus' silence. his lips were slightly parted as his round eyes blinked once, then twice, in a sort of stunned stupor. "...love, i am that husband."

archons, how had he found himself such a foolish mortal to love?

"don't lie to me!" you shook your head profusely, wiggling around in his grasp relentlessly until the adeptus had no choice but to let go. "i know my husband when i see him... and he's way handsomer than you, stupid..." you stared him up and down with squinting eyes, eyeing the way his ears were beginning to turn pink, and sat heavily in thought as you pondered the man before you.

definitely not your husband.

idiot. with a huff, he easily hauled your body over his shoulder as if carrying something as trivial as a sack of potatoes. you hung loosely over, landing a couple weak punches on his back as you proceeded to prattle on, your defiance seemingly having little effect.

then, you were silent, and xiao had to look back to make sure you hadn't gotten hurt. sure, he had considered once or twice leaving you out there all passed out on the balcony, but not without reason, yet he'd decided against it. you seemed fine, mouth hung slightly ajar as you snoozed peacefully, your eyes shut and cheeks still warm from what you'd downed. the audacity to fall asleep... xiao couldn't deny that his sigh was one of fondness.

"night, this husband of yours loves you."

strange, wasn't the wine from liyue supposedly far less intense compared to the vodka CHILDE had tried back home?

that, or the people here simply were more susceptible when it came to the topic of intoxication. you were no exception — he'd taken you out drinking, his mistake, thinking it'd be an easy, splendid time.

and don't get him wrong, it was! not just, well... conversation was rather hard to make when the other person was practically unconscious. you're practically splayed across the mahogany table, eyes nearly drooped close and fire across your cheeks.

you giggled. it's a muddled sound, when you're mostly mumbling into the table. "hhhey, pour me another glass~"

childe scans your less-than-ideal state and procures an answer in a little under a second. "love, you've had too many."

you seem shocked at his words, leaning forwards a little with narrowed eyes. your figure sways as you shake your head lazily, from side to side. "wwhhhat? nnno, that can't be right..."

the man holds back an amused chuckle. it's entertaining. "and how many fingers am i holding up?" he holds up just one hand, displaying a reasonable amount of three.

there's a beat of silence. "...nineteen?" you blink a couple times, as if to shake you out of your stupor. "...nineteen," this time, with confidence.

childe claps his hands together, a sudden sound that makes you startled, and he moves to apologize immediately. "we're getting you to bed, love. clearly you've had more alcohol than you can handle."

"what, was i wrong??" there's tears forming in your eyes, and your lips tug downwards in a frown. "u-uhm, fifteen? nno, four...?"

"still incorrect, love. i'm afraid it's time for you to go to sleep. you'll wake up with a hell of a hangover tomorrow morning, but..." he sighed, thinking back to his time in shneznaya, then made a mental note to prepare you a hangover drink in the morning. his hand found its familiar place in your hand, unnaturally warm with your skin rosy from the alcohol. he smiled, turning to glance at you, but ceased when he saw you on the ground, tears now falling from your eyes, quietly sobbing as you shook your head back and forth.

panic immediately sets in. what has he done wrong?? "love, what-"

"nnnno, don't call me that..." you squinted upwards at him, looking quite displeased. "no 'love', 'kaaay? i'm not your love, mister."

he paused. wait, you didn't possibly think that... "love-" oh, old habits died hard, and the word had already left his lips before he could process what you'd said.

"i have a husband, you!!" in some sort of fit, or perhaps better worded as a tantrum, you stood, wrenching yourself from his grip and then hitting him repeatedly in the shoulders, chest, anywhere your fists could reach, really. the alcohol had surely affected your capabilities of combat — you missed half the time, and what punches did land caused no pain at all.

as your anger subsided, your step faltered, body swaying in the open air before childe reached over to catch you in his arms. he was concerned, naturally. "lov- are you alright?" his worry only grew when he heard no response, but it ebbed with a chuckle when he saw you were already fast asleep in his arms, snoozing without a care in the world.

"a husband, hm? whoever it is, he must quite be the gentleman..."

ALHAITHAM knew his night was fated to end in idiocy the moment you knocked on his door.

it didn't even strike him that you were holding wine, of all things, when you waltzed into his house like it was your own. sure, it wasn't as if these occasions weren't frequent, but really anyone would be surprised to glance up from a quiet reading session only to see their (annoying) lover pressed against the door, repeatedly calling out his name in a sing-song, satire-like voice.

like... calling a cat. it was a realization he made with not too much contentment. silently, he thanked the archons that kaveh was not home — they knew that he could not handle the both of you.

it was only when you sat down at his table, where he'd been reading up to the point when you barged in, that he noticed. green-tinted glass, a little wind motif on the front... dandelion wine from mondstadt. now, just how did you get your hands on that?

"connections," you had stated. with a note of pride, he might add. what, was he supposed to congratulate you on being able to talk to other people? even he, a person who generally hated people, could do that.

ah, but he didn't hate it. your voice, that is, when you rambled on for hours on end. he didn't have the heart to interrupt you, especially when you were so heated on a topic — be it work troubles, an especially annoying sailor, or you accidentally dropping your pita pocket into the water when walking along the port, he didn't mind.

"...mmbottle. haaithammm, the bottle..." your drunk complaints reach his ears, and he his irritation is more so disrupted with inward amusement as he watches you in the predicament you've landed yourself in.

"the bottle?" he questions, raising an eyebrow. his hands are crossed over his chest; he's clearly getting a ruse out of this. "just what would you need the bottle for, love?"

your eyebrows scrunch together. he can tell your brain is working at its max capacity. "...im. thirsty?"

"you've already drunk two thirds of this bottle." he holds said bottle high above your head, hopelessly far from your reach. "if you're so thirsty, drink water."

"i don wanna."

"..."

"just... one drop?"

"hah..." he pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply, and places a hand on your shoulder. you barely react, and don't even glance at the sudden weight. "love, you're staying over. you're going to bed."

"bed...?" horror crosses your face, paired with evident irritation. "y...you, who do you think you are, to suggest such things!?" your face is bright red, and you're hugging yourself with one arm and pointing an accusing finger towards the male with the other. "i have a husband!!"

ah. "...what's his name?"

"and why do youuuu want to know?" you narrow your eyes suspiciously at him, but seem to come up with an answer to your own question, for you answer him anyhow. "haitham."

"do you love this 'haitham'?" alhaitham's enjoying himself. when he teases the sober you, all you do is retort back, but now... he can see your flustered expression on full display as you stammer out an answer.

"o-of course! a-and, if you wanted to know, he's waaaaay handsomer.. than ... you..."

just like that, you topple over and sink into the couch, knocked unconscious. a trace of a smile crosses alhaitham's lips as he looks at your sleeping form.

"fortunately for you, this 'haitham' you speak of loves you too."

(a/n) bye i was gonna add kaveh to this one too but i realized oh fuck its white day i said id post a month ago what the fuck am i doing so i just like regurgitated this out and spat it onto your dashboard. ahodfjlds

tags (id paste the aesthetic thing but i cant find it so we're just gonna roll w this):

@manager-of-the-pudding-bank, @iamdedinside, @ilyuu, @ @falors, @swivy123, @scara-is-my-wife, @lupicalbestwolf, @justyoureader,@fiannee, @aether-darling, @ceneid, @avensuersa, @solxima

[0anonnymouslyours0]

spencer w girly reader 🎀( part.5 )

spencer smiles fondly behind you, as you walk eagerly over to hotch, heels clicking on the ground.

"hotch!" you say, a smile on your face.

aaron looks mildly confused, eyebrows knitted, as he stares down at you. your wearing pink, and besides penelope, he rarely sees this much colour in the office.

"hi?" he says, confused, but polite as always.

"i have a cookie! freshly baked this morning, though i do recommend you heat it up because theres chocolate inside and it will warm it up and i hope it cheers you up because, you just look so sad, and your frowning-" spencer pats you on the shoulder, silently acknowledging your rambling.

"wait m'sorry!"

"no, dont be." he says, smiling fondly.

"well i hope you enjoy, and oh, do heat it up. right bye hotchy!" you say, standing up on your tiptoes and planting a little kiss on his check. you hand him the tupperware, cookie tucked inside.

you skip around, leaving hotch ( who would usually never tolerate a nickname ), standing with a cookie in a pink tupperware with stickers, and spencer scratching his head with a shrug.

[nwjws]

WAIT FOR YOU TO LIKE ME AGAIN - LSH

; SYNOPSIS - whether it be in the middle of the halls or during his election speech, heeseung's never passed up an opportunity to ask you out on a date. although you've always said no, that hasn't stopped the boy from trying again anyway - at least until senior year, when he suddenly stopped pursuing you, to your (and everyone's) bewilderment.

; PAIRING - heeseung x fem!reader

; TAGS - one-shot, fluff, slice of life, highschool au, stuco president!heeseung, vice president!reader, one-sided enemies to lovers ; WARNINGS - angst, mild swearing, light mentions of an abusive ex (not hee's or reader's)

; WC - 11.7k (including the bonus at the end)

; PLAYLIST ► blue butterflies (JIHN) ► line without a hook (ricky montgomery) ► making the bed (olivia rodrigo) ► comfort crowd (conan gray) ► love. (wave to earth)

; AUTHOR'S CORNER ! first fic after hiatus omg. also half the things in this fic rlly happened and the other half were google searches guess which ones are which 😝 i planned to post this on the 17th but i finished it just now and my brain is fried so here we goooo

you hated lee heeseung.

throughout the three years you've known him, he's been always the bane of your existence. the boy was constantly bugging you and pulling a new stunt to show off and get your attention. all of this just to ask you out on a date - something he's been doing practically every week since the age of fourteen.

seriously, after a hundred 'no's you'd think he'd learn to back off. and yet, he was still persistent in pursuing you.

at least, until your final year began.

see, you two had been competing against each other for the position of student council president at the end of last year. unfortunately for you, he was immensely popular; an actual threat. on top of being the captain for boys' volleyball team, he was class rep. and actively helped out teachers after school. students and teachers alike were drawn in by his hardworking yet casual nature and how easily he talked to others. despite the busy campaigns and rivalry, he still managed to somehow find time to ask you out, ending his final speech with, "and aren't all these qualities worthy of at least one date?"

of course he'd still find a way to make such an important event about asking you out. whoops and cheers echoed the hall, with almost everyone looking at you. everyone knew your history, with half the school on his side, cheering him on and urging you to say yes.

thankfully, the other half of the student body understood that no means no, and were more sympathetic towards you. after all, it's not like you were disliked or anything - you were as well known as h*es*ung.

you yourself had led the school to win several math competitions over the years, and tutored over ten students in your highschool career (get that money girl!). in addition, you were already on the council as the treasurer.

yet, it was his last sentence that one the people over and he'd been chosen as the president, with you as vice.

"just say yes. one date won't hurt," ningning had chuckled when you complained again, once she'd come back from her summer camp.

"my pride and reputation of always saying no will be."

"maybe he'll back off if you do?"

"no number of rejections has stopped him, how would a 'yes' do that?"

"maybe he'll realise you're absolutely undateable," she laughed at you, which had you throwing a pillow at her in retaliation.

you scowled at her before pulling out your phone and finding heeseung's instagram.

"thanks for meeting with us today, i'm sure you guys are excited to go home. first days are always tough." and with that, heeseung closed up the first meeting of the year.

conversation and the screeching of chairs filled the room as everyone began to pack up and leave, bidding goodbye to each other. as president and vice president, you and heeseung were left behind to clean up after the others and sort out other documents and such.

you half-heartedly expected another question of a date from him as you threw away the paper cups and teabags, but it never came.

instead, all he said was, "good job today."

you turned to look at him, with his bag slung over one shoulder and a hand stuffed into his pocket. he gave you a tight smile and left the room after that, reminding you to lock up before you left.

a little disconcerted, you continued the last few tasks while mumbling to yourself, "that ass, making me clean up and not..." you didn't finish that thought. it almost sounded like you wanted him to ask you out on another date. you thought he would though - he always did, but the first day of school passed without incident.

well, it's only the first day. he'll definitely ask you out tomorrow, or later this week. he's never missed a chance to do so during first week of school.

he hasn't asked you out at all. not in the first week, nor the second, or the third.

a whole month had gone by, and all you'd heard from heeseung was student council-related stuff. he hadn't even talked to you outside of meetings.

"did you two fight, or something?" ningning asked you curiously.

"i dunno?" you reply truthfully. you really weren't sure if what was going on between you was a fight or just a change in dynamics. it was confusing.

the rest of the school noticed too; the halls whispered when you passed by, wary and concerned looks thrown your way. someone even asked off handedly in conversation: 'are you two secretly dating, then?' everyone was walking on eggshells around you two.

"well, i guess you can rest now."

"huh?"

"you said you wanted him to stop, didn't you?" ningning raised an eyebrow at you. "who knows how many times you've complained about it to me in the past. it's made up like, half of our conversations in all our years of friendship."

"oh, right."

ningning tilted her head curiously at you. "what's with the disappointed tone?"

"what tone?" you rolled your eyes. "this is perfect! i can finally concentrate on my work without having to be afraid that i'll be distracted by heeseung trying to get me to date him again." after a moment, ningning hummed in agreement.

"and! those girls can stop giving me death glares. i mean - i've already seen so many triumphant looks from them, as if they've already got him in the bag."

"uh-huh," she said sceptically.

"they'd definitely say yes if he asked them out. unlike me. he can actually go and date for once, instead of embarrassing himself with me."

"riiiight."

"good. that's good! maybe he'll have a girlfriend by next week. and-"

"okay! i get it, i get it," ningning burst out laughing. "i've never seen you overthink about heeseung this much."

"i can't help it! what would you think if some guy who's been obnoxiously pining over you for years consistently suddenly stopped out of nowhere?"

"hmm... i'd hang out with him, break my leg, therefore obliging him to bring me to the hospital, manipulate him to visit me every day as i recover, be overbearing as hell so that he'd realise he doesn't want me anymore, and poof! he's gone."

you stared at your (possibly insane) best friend (how is she your best friend?!) in alarm.

"...i think it's time for another visit to the psych ward."

"hey!"

you two laughed yourself to stitches. she might be crazy, but she definitely got your mind off heeseung, if only for a little bit.

"you guys don't like sports, do you?"

everyone in the council shook their head.

"well, luckily for you, the student council members aren't be required to participate in sports day. we're only expected to volunteer and help the teachers."

you and the others cheered, relieved you wouldn't have to run yourself to death in the cold wind like last year. you might have been gifted in almost any skill and hobby you picked up, but sports was an exception.

"make sure you do help out, as i'll be taking note of who does what." then, heeseung said in a whisper, as if sharing a secret (who in this room he's hiding it from, you don't know), "and we'll hold a little party here. just us members." that definitely got everyone murmuring excitedly.

in the two previous years you've been in the student council, you've never seen one so lively and reactive to their president. you hate to admit it, but you too could feel your mood lighten up with them whenever heeseung was leading another meeting.

not to mention, he listened intently to the others' concerns, always suggested good solutions, and greeted everyone who entered with a cup of tea. he was a lot more considerate than you'd expected.

see, you hadn't really shared that many classes before. and the one or two you ever did, you avoided him at all costs so you never actually noticed him properly until it was forced right in front of your face.

"on another note, we'd like to take in suggestions for places to visit for an upcoming school trip," you started, garnering their attention.

as you began your part of the meeting, you could feel heeseung's intense stare, but every time you looked at him, he'd turn away.

it was a little frustrating, and you didn't know why. you couldn't figure out why you felt a little more upset every time he'd look somewhere else. was he ignoring you? but, this was a totally normal thing to do, right? so it's not like you could just ask him 'hey, why do you always ignore me when i look at you?', you'd look stupid.

when the meeting ended and everyone else had left, the awkward tension between you two was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"make sure to lock up before you go-"

"did i do something wrong?"

heeseung stared at you, mouth frozen from being cut off mid-sentence.

"what? no. why?"

"i just- well, you-" you stuttered, unsure how to answer. "i guess, i'm not used to you not..."

"to me not asking you to be my girlfriend?" he laughed, but there was an odd lack of humour.

you shrunk into yourself. you should have just kept your mouth shut, now you sounded self-centered.

"nevermind," you huffed.

"i'm just doing what you asked. after the date, remember?" he left before you could say anything else.

after he'd gone, you couldn't even hear the silence he left behind - not when your thoughts rang in your ears. shame, embarrassment, rage. you hated him, heeseung.

but most of all, you hated yourself.

you avoided heeseung at all costs after that incident, at least, whenever you could.

previously, with the lack of interactions you two had, you felt like you barely ever saw him. but now that there was this weird air of tension between you, seeing him at three times a week after school for student council activities suddenly felt too often. every time you were alone with him, you were sure you were as red as a tomato; you developed a habit of letting your hair hide your red ears and hide your face.

when sports day inevitably came, you took over his responsibilities, seeing as he was still a part of the volleyball team. that made him the only one in the student council to join any sports activity, whereas the rest of you relaxed. (the privilege was all thanks to heeseung, who advocated for your guys' exemption from activities after everyone had complained, in return for volunteer work.)

"you haven't gone to the volleyball games yet?" soobin, the treasurer, asked.

"no. i planned out a route to visit all the activities, and the courts happened to be last."

he raised a sceptical eyebrow at you.

"really. it's not because you're trying to steer clear of our dear president or something?"

you cringed. "keep your nose out of our business."

"well, if it's affecting student council activities, isn't it our business too?"

"maybe, but i think your priority should be helping out mrs. shin over there," you pointed to the teacher walking across the field, carrying a bunch of equipment by herself. "'looks pretty heavy, it would look bad if our volunteer wasn't doing his work, now would it?"

soobin gave you a dirty look before leaving to help out, but not before bidding you "good luck!"

when you finally made it to the volleyball courts, you spotted him immediately.

he'd done a spike, the slap echoing so loud that it drew the attention of other students passing by. paired with the sound of feet skidding against the ground and the thumps of balls making contact with skin, you decided that you hated the courts. it felt like walking into a battle zone - always fearing you'll get hit by a ball when you're not looking. once, ningning got hit in the face by a baseball and her eye had actually been pushed inwards into her socket. of course, that wasn't on a court, but you weren't taking your chances.

unfortunately, you still had to make sure everything was going smoothly and take note of how many more rounds were left.

"excuse me! students who aren't playing aren't allowed to step into the courts," the teacher yelled at you from the other side.

"sorry, but i have to check on you guys, i'm part of the student council," you explained as you crept closer.

"but-"

"my bad, mr. jeon. i forgot to tell you to expect our vice president to come around eventually, since she's taking over my duties for the day," heeseung said as came jogging up to you two.

"ah, really? was volleyball taking up your time? you should have told me! i wouldn't want this to get in the way of your work."

"no, it's okay. i wanted to play, and she's very reliable," he gestured to you.

"if you say so."

"right," you started, finally looking at heeseung for the first time that day. you nodded your thanks to him, to which he gave a quick thumbs up to before rejoining the game.

"how many sets are left?" you asked mr. jeon, pulling out your pen to note down on your clipboard.

"two. this is our final game of the day."

"great! who won for the girl's team earlier today? i'm sorry i couldn't come earlier. i thought it might be best to come later in the day so i could get all the results at once."

"don't worry about it. the boys' games are always more interesting anyway - in the sense that it's a little more dramatic, what with all the force they put in their hits."

right at that moment, the resounding boom of the ball hitting a wall interrupted you two. geez, were these guys playing with a ball or setting off canons? why men are so aggressive, you'll never understand.

"perfect timing," mr. jeon chuckled. "well anyway, the U-16 girls won the first game, but the U-19 team won the second-"

you should have minded the ongoing game. it was the number one rule when you were on a court, but you foolishly got distracted with mr. jeon's own clipboard. of course, the moment you let your guard down, the ball flew your way, right when you were shifting your stance and was therefore a little more unstable than usual.

the volleyball hit you right in the chest, and had you falling to the ground. by instinct, you tried to catch yourself - but instead of your palms reaching out backwards to save you, it was your elbows that hit the ground.

"fuck!" you cried at the pain that seared through your arm.

"oh my god, are you alright?" the team suddenly ran up to you, with mr. jeon himself trying to help you up.

"i'm so sorry! i didn't mean to." one of the team members apologised.

"watch it next time," heeseung's stern voice came, but you were more focused on trying to minimise the pain as much as possible.

"where does it hurt? your elbow? can you try moving it for me?"

you did as mr. jeon instructed, but underestimated how much it would hurt.

"oh, that popping sound does not sound normal," heeseung commented.

"heeseung, take her to the infirmary."

he nodded and grabbed your unaffected elbow, asking if it was okay. you nodded and followed him as he started leading the way to the school nurse.

"does it still hurt?"

"if i move it, yeah."

"sorry about that."

"it's fine. it happens." a quick silence followed.

"well, you should go to the doctor later. the nurse probably won't do much, maybe just hand you an ice pack or something else useless," he joked. you laughed.

"yeah. she never really does much, does she? all those years of school just to hand us ice packs for a broken bone or twisted ankle."

"right! even the PE department is better equipped for more serious injuries."

"mhm."

another bout of silence. you were going to go crazy, either from the awkwardness of it all or the immense pain in your right arm. you looked at heeseung's back, and the sweat on his skin, soaking his shirt.

"hey, you can go back if you want to," you told him suddenly. "i can walk myself to the infirmary, it's not like i hurt my leg or anything."

"i know, but i'd feel more at ease if i saw you there myself. you're my vice president, of course i'm concerned."

well, you didn't know how to feel about that. you've been downgraded from his crush to coworker, but he still cares for you. so maybe that was a plus?

"i see."

as expected, you were given a cold pack for your elbow and sent to the local hospital. luckily, it was only a ten minute drive and the nurse accompanied you as a staff member drove you two there. heeseung watched you get in the car and leave, going back to his game.

the next time you went to school (two days later), your right arm was in a sling and you pretended like that wasn’t just the most embarrassing moment of your life.

“you’re ambidextrous?” heeseung whispered to you while everyone else was focused on the movie projected.

the council had waited for you to return before they held their (secret) party, since it just felt wrong to hold one when their vice president was suffering in pain and away. up until now, heeseung had only known you used your right hand from all those meetings.

he'd been paying attention to that?

“i’m a better writer with my right.”

“but you can still write well with your left,” he said, impressed. “you really are amazing”

you stared at him, the look of awe on his face, and the slight smile of his mouth. you really had no idea what to say, flustered by his comment.

then he seemed to realise what he was doing, and quickly turned to back to the movie.

“my mom wanted a left-handed daughter, and would always switch the pencil to my left hand when i was younger,” you told him. you had the sudden urge to spill a bit more of your life to him.

“ah, really?” he replied, still looking the other way.

“yeah, but at that point i was already used to my right. i ended up being able to write with both hands though.”

“oh, you can do that?” soobin joined in the conversation. you nodded at him with wide eyes, not expecting the sudden interruption.

“do what?” hanni asked.

“she can write using both her hands. isn’t she so cool?”

“really?” she gasped, looking at the pen in your left hand. “wow. our vice president is way cooler than the president himself.”

“hey!” heeseung exclaimed as everyone giggled.

“seriously though, she’s the whole package. smart, talented, and pretty?” soobin lowered his voice in a mock-whisper, “i can treat you way better than this guy," he joked, pointing his thumb at heeseung.

“alright, i think we need to get a new treasurer,” heeseung suddenly said. he pointed at the projection and yelled, “look! ernesto's actually the villain!” this successfully put everyone's attention back on the movie, all shocked by the plot twist. (you already knew, because coco was your favourite airplane movie.)

when the party finished up, heeseung actually stayed behind this time, and helped you clean up.

“oh, you really don’t have to,” you told him.

“it’s fine, it’s quicker like this. it’s not fair to make you clean up when you don’t have two working hands.”

you watched as he put away the heavy binders and throw out the trash, feeling a little off-put by the new scene. you thought that maybe you should just go home and leave him to lock up, but he wasn’t saying anything, so you stayed and kept him company. his presence was surprisingly comforting.

“you have the keys?”

“yeah,” you answered, trying to open your backpack.

heeseung made his way over and opened your bag for you. “here, i’ll get it. tell me where it is.”

“oh, uhhh in the pocket there. the left one.”

he found the keys and took them before closing the bag again. he waited for you to put it back on, but noticed you struggling a little with the books in your arm.

“why don’t you just put these in your bag?” he asked, taking them from your good arm and helping you slip your injured one through a strap.

“it’ll be really heavy if i do.” you then thanked him, gesturing for him to give back your textbooks.

instead, he kept them, even holding the door open and waiting for you to pass by first.

“where do you live? i’ll try to help you bring these home.”

“you really-”

“it’s fine, i promise. in fact, i insist.” at your expression, he added, “what kind of president would i be if i didn’t help out my vice?”

right. president. and vice president. not friends, not even classmates. just coworkers.

you rolled your eyes and let him help you. “i usually take the bus home. the one that goes to the museum.”

“ah, i know that one. i usually walk home, but i think there’s a stop that bus goes to that’s near my house. so let’s go.”

heeseung led the way, walking in front of you so you took the chance to observe him from behind.

recently, you noticed that although he always looked put together and clean at the beginning of the day, his hair and clothes felt more loose and casual towards the end of the day - particularly on the longer days where there were council meetings after school. you like this version of him; you feel closer to this heeseung, because it’s a side that only you (and the other members) got to see. it felt a little bit like a secret.

“sorry, looks like my stop is earlier than yours. are you fine with carrying these yourself from here?”

“yep.”

“alright. well then, okay.” when he stood up as the bus stopped, he turned to you and waved lightly. “bye bye!” it was a little endearing - the way he'd said it.

“see you.”

you immediately flopped onto your bed when you reached home (on your back side, of course). it was an… odd day, but you didn’t dislike it.

after a bit of a struggle, you finally fished your phone from your bag, sending ningning a message.

“i think you took my advice too seriously,” ningning chortled during class the next day. “when i said i’d break my leg i didn’t mean actually getting injured!”

you dragged your hand down your face, asking whatever being was listening to your pleas to make your best friend stop teasing you.

“it’s not like i sprained my elbow on purpose??”

“oh girl, you don’t have a single athletic bone do you?”

“you know what, maybe i need to learn to shut up and stop telling you things.”

“i know you won’t. when you’re with me, your attempt at a mysterious persona disappears…”

“are you saying i’m loud?” you ask in mock-offense.

“i’m saying you yap a lot,” she rolls her eyes playfully. “but seriously, who knew getting hit by a volleyball would lead you and The Heeseung finally talk. maybe that guy should’ve thrown one at you when we were fourteen.”

“when did you start rooting for him?” you raised an eyebrow at her.

“i just thought he deserved a chance,” she shrugged nonchalantly, but the way she turned away didn’t sit right with you.

“oh, okay,” was all you came up with.

“so, anyway,” she started again after a moment. “i stalked my ex’s spotify and-”

“oh my god,” you groaned at the mention of her ex. “ningning i told you before, you need to forget about him.”

“i know, i know. but i couldn’t help it! his user was just there on the side, and he was listening to memories!! by conan gray!! i had to see what playlist he was listening to.”

“you need to block his spotify.”

“but that’s so embarrassing. it’s never that deep.”

“if you can’t move on from someone who convinced you that you were nothing without him, then maybe it is that deep.”

ningning sighed. “okay, i’ll block him. but do you want to know what his latest playlist was about?”

“duh,” you laughed as ningning pulled out her phone, promising to block him after.

heeseung continued to help you on the way home every time you guys had a meeting, to your surprise. during those bus rides home, you learned way more about the boy in three weeks than you ever had in your three and a half years of knowing each other. you wondered what had made him like you so much before this if he never even really knew you.

“but i did,” he said. “i did know you.”

“did you really?” you asked, thinking he was joking.

“well, at first, i obviously didn’t. i just thought you were pretty, and fun to annoy. so i kept asking you out just to see your response. after that, i did begin to like you - on a superficial level, of course; i was fifteen!”

you listened intently, finally getting answers to a question you didn’t realise you’d been curious about for so long yourself. heeseung didn’t look at you at all during his monologue, but straight forward instead. so you were able to observe the way the gold light from the sun highlighted his features perfectly. (did he always have such a perfect nose?)

“and then there was a time where i just got tired of it. i wanted to stop, but then everyone would have thought it was out of character. so even though i didn’t even like you anymore - in fact, i hated you, i still kept asking you out. just for show. stupid, right?

“but then, one time, i accidentally ran into you at a shop with ningning. actually, more like i saw you and hid behind one of the aisles. but i heard you say you wanted to get something for your siblings too, and i was like, ‘wow, she actually cares about others?’ back then, i was convinced you only thought about yourself.

“another time, you posted one of your competition wins on your instagram, and i could see from the caption how much you adored your team, even tagging each one of them and thanking them individually. i had never seen someone put that much effort into a simple win before. i kind of felt like i wasn’t thankful enough to my own volleyball team,” he chuckled to himself.

“what really had me falling for you though was when you tutored my sister last year . before that, she'd been going through some sort of mental struggle, what with being bullied at school and coming home to our parents telling her she should be ashamed of her grades. i felt so bad that i couldn’t do anything, you know? her older brother; her protector, but couldn’t do anything against the very people who should have been protecting the both of us. when she’d been signed up with you though, she came home for the first time in a good mood - she was humming! and i asked if something good happened at school, and she told me all about her amazing tutor that assured her she wasn’t the useless being she thought she was. how she was finally beginning to understand school for once, and looked forward to your sessions. when i learned that was you, i wanted so surprised, but so grateful."

you had never felt so touched until now. somehow, heeseung’s words made you feel like you really were worth more than you believed.

“really? wait, who’s your sister?”

“lee haseul. the one with autism, remember?”

“ah yes, of course i do!” you said, the name ringing a bell in your head. “she was definitely a little harder to tutor, but once we found a way to use her fixation on cars and link it to what we were learning, it was smooth sailing from there.”

“i really have no idea how you did that, but you have no idea the impact that had on me and my family. sometimes she asks me what it’s like working with you,” he finally turned to look at you, a pretty smile on his face. your face burned at the adoration on his face, looking away yourself.

“i hope you tell her good things about me.”

“there’s not a bad thing to say.”

“really?”

“really.”

when heeseung left the bus that day, a part of him still stayed with you, as words that constantly replayed in your mind.

it made you feel a little self-conscious, knowing that he’d been watching you this closely all this time. you felt like your efforts were appreciated, and that they weren’t for nothing after all. while your admiration of him only begun after really seeing him work on the council, his respect for you had been brewing for way longer.

you went to bed thinking about him way more than you usually did (and you’ve been thinking about him more often since you sprained your elbow). you found yourself a little more excited for the next meeting day, when he’d go home with you again.

what would you guys talk about? will he tell you more of his thoughts? maybe his other interests? should you ask about his team and work? how was he handling all that? or perhaps you should ask about his sister. anything, really. you just wanted to talk. to him.

oh no, you sounded like a typical high school girl with a crush just now, didn’t you? (well, that’s exactly what you are - no shame in that, though!) if your arm wasn’t injured, you would have been punching your pillow and screaming into it right now.

oh, right - the elbow. for the first time, you really didn’t want it to heal. you wanted it to stay sprained for as long as possible, but that would be stupid, and inconvenient. but then, how else would you talk to heeseung outside of council work? it’s not like you two shared any classes, nor did you run in the same circles at school. the bus rides home were really the only times you got to really talk to heeseung, without all the eyes watching you two.

a small part of you began to dread the day your cast came off, because that would mean heeseung would stop talking to you again, right? he wouldn’t have any reason to riding home with you, and it would go back to that awkward thing you two had.

you sigh and turn over, careful with your arm, and finally fall into a fitful sleep.

“you’re staring at him again.”

that sentence had you flinching away and turning back to ningning, looking at you with a knowing glint.

“i can’t help it! his hair just looks so messy, obviously i’m going to notice.”

“his hair looks the same way it always does…”

“well- look at him walking around like he owns the place! he thinks he’s the shit, doesn’t he?”

“to be fair, he’s the student body president and captain of the volleyball team. maybe he is.”

“why are you defending him?!” you cried at all her replies.

“why are you trying to hard to hate him! we both know how much you li-”

“okay, okay, shhhh,” you shut her up by covering her mouth. really, she needed to learn to shut up. it’s not like the whole world needed to know about your massive crush on the boy you previously hated.

ningning pushed your hands away. “why are you more fixated on him today than usual anyway?”

"okay, first of all," you scoffed at her. "you make it sound like i'm always fixated on him."

"you are."

you rolled your eyes, then bit your lip after a moment of thought, knowing that whatever you were about to say would sound stupid(ly in love).

“it’s just that, i finally got my cast off this past weekend, so i can carry my books home perfectly fine again.”

“ah, and so he won’t be escorting you home anymore like he had been these past five weeks,” ningning finished your train of thought.

you buried your face in your arms, flushing bright red. “god, i sound like an idiot. i hate that i even thought that.”

the girl laughed at you, but patted your back consolingly.

“don’t worry about it. i don’t think heeseung’s gonna stop taking the bus with you just because you’re healed now. trust me, he’s one of the caring people i know.” was that a bit of sadness and longing? maybe you were interpreting her tone wrong.

“he probably will! it’s not like he used to take the bus home before i got hurt.” you peeked up at her. “is it wrong to ask you to throw another ball at me?”

“girl…”

when that day’s meeting finally ended, you and heeseung worked in tandem, tidying up the room before locking up, albeit a little more slowly. it was like both of you were waiting for something, but never said it out loud,

as you finally made your way out the school, you and heeseung turned to each other, hoping the other would say something.

“well-” heeseung started at the same time you said, “are you-”

after a brief moment of awkward silence, you guys burst into soft laughter at the silliness of the situation. what were you so afraid of anyway?

“do you still want to ride with me?” you finally asked him.

“if that’s okay with you.”

“of course it is,” you rolled your eyes playfully, falling into step with him.

“honestly, i thought you were going to go back to walking home after i healed up,” you confessed to him on the bus. “it made me kind of sad.”

“you’d miss me?” he teased, but there was excitement in his tone. he was elated.

“well, these rides are kind of fun! i wish i got to know you like this sooner. and then i thought we’d go back to the way we were before after this, but ningning assured me that it’d be fine.”

“ah yeah, ningning’s cool. wish i had a close friend like her by my side.”

it didn’t click until now how they seemed to be familiar with each other. when did heeseung and ningning become friends? in fact, when did they get a chance to even talk to each other?

“are you friends with her?” you tried to ask nonchalantly, like the topic wasn’t bugging you now. if those two were friends, why didn’t ningning mention it to you?

heeseung seemed to notice the shift in your mood though. “we’re just friends, promise. there’s nothing between us.”

that eased you a little, but that wasn’t really your main concern.

“that’s nice to know. but how did you become friends? i thought you two were was close as me and you were before all this.”

“oh! we met up at summer camp. it was purely by coincidence; my parents decided to send me to one last summer, and she happened to be there. i didn’t know anyone else, so i stuck by her for most of the two weeks we were there. we got to know each other then.”

ningning’s summer camp. last summer had been her third year there, so she wasn’t new or anything. the programme usually lasted two weeks, and they’d take away their phones during that time, so you’d have no contact with her until it ended.

but you’re surprised she didn’t tell you about it when she came back. after all, she had said it was ‘just as usual’, but seeing the new face of your best friend’s (previously) most hated person didn’t seem like nothing.

“huh.”

“i swear though, there was nothing between us back then.”

“i see.”

“i hadn’t talked to her much after my date with you-”

the date. ningning had been the one to push you to go. but why? even if her and heeseung became friends during camp, you and her were still closer. so why did she switch sides? you’d thought it was odd how she was suddenly encouraging you to say yes, when she’d spent the last four years sticking her tongue out at heeseung by your side.

the date, which had gone both so bad and yet so good. when everything had gone terribly wrong, but heeseung did everything right.

“i’m so sorry for being late!” heeseung panted as he ran up to your table.

“the one time i give you a chance, and you’re an hour late, lee.”

“i know, i know. it’s just that my sister-”

“i’m not hearing out any excuses,” you huffed.

you’d felt so humiliated waiting for him. you were shaking, your hair was frizzy with stress and your make up probably a little smudged too. the staff had even given you a free cheesecake slice out of pity. a pity cake.

“whatever, you’re here now, so let’s get this over with”

the waitress came over and gave you an encouraging look (which you ignored) and took your orders. when your meals arrived, you stared at the orange slices in the sauce of your orange chicken. although you hated them, you actually loved the sauce and chicken itself, so you ordered them every time you went to a chinese restaurant.

“you don’t like the oranges?” heeseung asked after seeing you pick them out.

“not really, no. i don’t know how to explain it; i love orange chicken, but i hate actually seeing the oranges on the sauce. it’s a little bit jarring for me, fruits and savoury foods together just don’t make sense to me visually, but when i taste them, they’re so good. just like pineapples on pizza, you get me?”

“i guess,” he thinks out loud. he uses his own chopsticks and starts picking them out from your plate, placing them onto his. “mind if i take these then? i love oranges.”

“i’ve literally seen you throw out a whole orange at school before.”

“you were watching?” he smiled sheepishly, a light pink tint to his cheeks.

“n-not particularly.” you look back down at your food, focusing on your task. you need to be more careful with what you say.

after a terrible start to your date, the rest of your lunch went okay. it wasn’t too bad, and you two started discussing your next plan: watching a movie.

“i’m not even a marvel fan,” you told heeseung after he said he’d gotten two tickets for spiderman: no way home.

“don’t worry, i’ll explain everything to you during the movie.”

“really? also, isn’t a movie a terrible date idea? we wouldn’t really talk to each other.”

“well, i will. i tend to talk a lot during movies.” he turned to you with an apologetic look. “i hope you won’t mind.”

“i’ll need it, won’t i?”

turns out you didn’t need his talking during the movie because you two didn't even get to watch it. a kitchen in the food court next to the theatre had gone up in flames, with the fire spreading to it’s surroundings. thankfully, no one died, but the damage was pretty severe, with half the mall having to close down until reparations are finished. and who knows how long that’ll take…

“oh! well, it’s a good thing i was a little late then, right?” heeseung tried to lighten up this messy date as you two passed by the mall which was now in ashes.

“i guess,” you mumbled. “so what now?”

“well, how about a little bowling?” he suggested.

you nodded, and he drove you two to the local bowling alley. you hadn't done it since you were eight, so heeseung showed you how to do it on your first turn.

“swing your arm like this,” he said, holding onto your bicep and holding onto the ball for you.

“you can let go, you know. i can carry the weight, it’s only the small size after all.”

“i know, but it’s just for demonstration. i’m going to let go of the ball now, okay? make sure to hold tightly,” he looked at you intently. geez, how could someone telling you to hold a bowling ball look at you like you hung the stars?

well, you didn’t really need his help anyway. your instincts kicked in and you managed to hit nine pins all together on your first, with similar numbers for the rest of the rounds. you even got a strike twice!

“are you sure you’ve never bowled before?” heeseung chuckled in awe.

“positive.”

“it always surprises me how easily you pick up things.”

“…thanks.”

and then you hit very few pins every single round after that in the second game.

you hadn’t been able to finish your second game however, because a heavy downpour suddenly came down.

“oh my god, the water is rising so fast,” you called over to heeseung as you looked out the glass doors of the main exit. if the floor hadn’t been lifted, the water would have started flowing in by now.

“crap, should we go home before it gets worse?”

“i suggest you should, kids,” the man behind the counter gruffed. he himself was getting ready to go, with the other customers running outside to their own cars.

heeseung looked outside and then at you.

“you can’t walk outside in those shoes, they’ll get wet.”

you were wearing pointy slip ons that would definitely get wet and soaked if you took a step outside, but it’s not like you had a choice.

“it’s alright, let’s just go-woah!”

heeseung picked you up bridal style and started making his way to his car, going fast but careful not to slip.

“hey! let me down!”

“no way, we’re almost there.”

you tried to fight him off, but he just held tightly until you reached the car, and he gently set you down into the passenger seat before backing out of the parking lot.

“are you crazy?”

“are you?” he retorted. “like hell i���m letting you get all soaked on our first date.”

you wheezed. “this date was so unlucky. who imagined everything that happened could’ve happened.”

“i know! and i wanted to make a good impression so bad. it’s like the world is against me,” he whined.

as you finally reached the front of your apartment complex, heeseung turned to you one last time.

“i’m sorry for everything that went wrong. please let me make it up to you.” he sucked in a breath, and you realised what he was going to say just a moment before he did.

“will you let me take you out on another date?”

yes. absolutely. this was fun. it was terrible, but i had a great time. wait, is this him asking me to be his girlfriend? i should ask. if he says yes, would i say yes? i don’t know, i don’t know him that well. i’ve only really only talked to him today. today’s date. everything went wrong. what if that was a sign? if i say yes, will all our dates just keep going to shit? no way, today was just an anomaly. we’ll be fine. but then when i go back to school, everyone will know. they’ll all look at me like they knew this would happen. they’ll clap him on the back and whoop in the halls, that’ll be so embarrassing. i hate that. maybe i should say no. but he was so sweet. it’s not his fault. but i wouldn’t be able to handle the attention. maybe i should-

“oh… i see.”

you looked up at him in confusion. but he wasn’t looking at you anymore. just straight ahead.

had you said something out loud? your thoughts were running wild, and you really couldn’t make up your mind.

“okay, well. have a good night,” heeseung said. when did he make his way to your door? even through the heartbreak clearly displayed in his voice, he still went out and opened the door for you. or maybe he was kicking you out of his car. was ningning right? had he thought you were undateable?

too much. too much was happening; so much happened today that you couldn’t form an answer. heeseung took your silence as a no (or did you actually say no? out of instinct?), which made your mind even more befuddled. you weren’t sure if you were even forming a coherent thought.

“oh, okay.”

you somehow made it out of the car and to the entrance of the apartment. turning back, you found heeseung’s car still there, with him watching you. you gave a weak wave, one he didn’t return, and punched in your house number.

at the last moment, you wanted to say something. anything, you didn’t know what. but when you around back to him again, he was gone.

you didn’t sleep at all that night. or maybe you did? you couldn’t tell. you’d been so worried over that last moment with heeseung, and had replayed it so many times in your head.

eventually, you convinced yourself that things were fine. that maybe you just imagined it. maybe it wasn’t that bad, and things would go back to normal at school.

definitely. he’ll definitely get back to his shenanigans when school started up again. there wasn’t some sort of finality in his tone - no you just imagined it.

you were wrong.

“why didn’t you tell me you met heeseung at summer camp?”

“how’d you-”

“he told me.” you looked at ningning intently. “but it should have been you.”

“i just- i didn’t think it was worth mentioning! you hated the guy, and it’s not like him being there would have affected you in any way,” she defended herself.

“sure, but i would have appreciated hearing it from you. you knew i’ve had a crush on him for months now, and you could have mentioned it to me?? summer camp was in july; it’s already march for fuck’s sake!”

“i wanted to! i just couldn’t find the right time. you were always busy with student council stuff, and whenever you were free you always talked about heeseung,” he huffed exasperatedly. “how was i supposed to just go, ‘by the way, your crush paid me to set you guys up!’”

your head snapped towards her.

“what?”

“what do you mean wh-” when ningning saw the look on your face, she slapped her hands over her mouth. “you didn’t know about that part...”

“no. i didn’t,” you seethed. “well, i’m glad i got to hear at least something from you.”

you stormed out, ignoring ningning’s pleas of ‘wait! hear me out!’

a fool, that’s what you were. somehow, ningning’s behaviour was even more clear. your best friend had been paid to convince you to say yes. who would have thought she was easily swayed by a few bucks?

and to think that heeseung was really that desperate to take you on a date, going so far as to pay someone close to you to get you to agree? wow, he really was a grade A asshole. sports day had just been topped by ‘being played by my own best friend and crush’ on your list of most embarrassing moments.

speed walking through the halls, you couldn’t stand to look at the pictures of you and heeseung’s faces on the student council board. it hurt so bad, that your feelings could just be easily bought. that someone you considered as family could sell you out like this. that the guy you’d fallen for would go to this length to ‘get you’.

at the bus stop, you saw the man himself smile brightly at you and wave, like he didn’t pay your best friend to get you to go in a date with him. one thing that never fails to amaze you is the audacity of men.

was it all a lie? was his kind-hearted and caring personality all fake? just another thing he did to get your attention? did you truly know heeseung like you thought? or just the 'heeseung' he wanted you to see?

you pointedly looked away, and decided to go home by foot. it was twenty minutes away by walking, but that was enough time for you to at least calm down a little and think about it more. sort out your mind.

you ended up skipping the rest of the week, convincing your parents you were sick (by putting a hot pack on your face and neck before they checked). otherwise, you might have actually broken down right then at school if you saw either heeseung or ningning.

"is everything okay?" soobin asked one day.

"yeah! everything's fine," you said cheerily. "why do you ask?"

"well, it's just that you've been sitting with us instead of ningning."

looking at soobin and his friends, you finally noticed the slight awkward air in the group because of your presence. to be fair, you weren't really close with them to begin with. or anyone. you spent most of your lunch breaks with ningning, but now that you've refused to talk to her for the last two weeks, you've been floating between different groups. sometimes, you even spent lunch in the toilets or the student council room.

but who else could you spend it with? you weren't ready to face ningning yet, and it was already hard enough tolerating heeseung during meetings. you didn't miss the worried looks from him, and he's tried to talk to you several times (which you always declined).

a sigh escapes you, and you massage your forehead. obviously, you needed to confront them both eventually. but not right now. whatever the answer is, you don't think you'd be able to handle it right now.

"do you want to talk about it?" soobin asked, a low volume only for you to hear.

"maybe later," you admitted. it would be a good idea to tell an outsider all of this, especially to soobin, who's always been a great advice-giver.

"there won't be a meeting this friday; seniors are having a rehearsal for the graduation ceremony then. the school wanted to have one before finals started," heeseung told the council. he looked around and asked, "anything else?" at everyone's silence, he nodded and closed the meeting. everyone bid their goodbyes and left, except soobin.

heeseung stared at you with anticipation and uncertainty. he'd given up on asking you to talk for a while now, but still waited for you to act first. he understood that you'd come to him when you were ready.

you looked up at soobin, looking at you with a similar expression, but one that had more curiousity and less anxiety.

"let's go?" he asked. you nodded and followed him out, leaving heeseung to lock up on his own.

you started doing that ever since The Incident. of course, you didn't leave all the clean up work to him, but you rushed your own responsibilities to minimise as much time you had to spend with him as possible.

"seriously?"

you and soobin turned back, finding the voice belonging to heeseung. he was standing outside the student council room, looking at you two, fuming. you could practically see the steam coming out his ears.

"you ignore and shun me away, refusing to talk about this issue between us, but talk to soobin about it instead? why are you dragging him into this??"

you rolled your eyes and turned to him fully, blood boiling. "i'm not 'dragging him into this'. i just wanted to talk to someone, is that so wrong?" you retorted.

"yes! you seriously think getting soobin's opinion is gonna help?"

"am i not allowed to talk to him now? are you going to pay him to stop talking to me too?"

"god, i know it was wrong of me, okay?! i'm sorry, it was shitty of me."

"your apology isn't going to suddenly make everything better. it won't take back what you did."

"i know. but please, talk to me. it's driving me crazy, how you go about acting normal with everyone but me. this whole year, did you not feel anything for me at all? do you really hate me?" he asked, his voice cracking at the end. "if you do, tell me now. so i can finally move on."

you stared at the boy, and the way the late afternoon sunlight hit him from behind. you could barely make out his expression, but maybe that was for the better. you probably wouldn't have been able to turn away and stand your ground if you saw the look on his face.

"you can't say that. not when you were the one who put yourself in this situation. did you think i would never find out? that you bribed my best friend into setting me up with you?" you heard soobin's surprised gasp on the side.

although you had your back to heeseung, you could still imagine what he looked like. the scene broke your heart, but not as much as it did when you found out that ningning had even agreed to such a thing.

after it was clear he wasn't going to reply, you started walking away, with soobin tailing you.

"wow... so that's what happened," was the first thing he said after a few minutes of silence.

"yeah."

"what a dick move."

"right."

you sighed, the adrenaline leaving you and now realising how loud you two had been. there weren't many students left at school, but a teacher or two probably heard the commotion. you'll be the hot topic of the staff lounge room for sure.

when you finally explained it all to soobin, he was quiet for a moment, thoughtful.

"i honestly never expected this from heeseung. it just- it doesn't seem like him."

"that's what i thought too. a little part of me wishes it's all some misunderstanding, but i don't know how it could be twisted any other way."

soobin hummed in agreement. "but, i noticed one thing from all of this though: you still call ningning your best friend," he pointed out. "despite everything, you've already forgiven her. or at least, you've begun to."

you bit your lip, realising he was right. you were beginning to accept it. she seemed genuinely sorry, and you could never hate her forever.

"it's just that - after getting to know heeseung, i felt like a terrible person for not giving him a chance. for always turning him down harshly. maybe i drove him to bribe ningning, maybe she got fed up with me too. i couldn't help but feel guilty for causing both of them to act like this.

"and i know this sounds wrong... but somehow, i felt a little relieved that i wasn't the only person in the wrong. that i wasn't the only asshole in this story - isn't that such a twisted thought?"

soobin melted when he saw your face, and pulled you in for a hug.

"of course not. it's alright to feel like this, you know? it's what makes us human, and what are humans without complicated feelings?"

and just like that, a dam was broken. you didn't realise how much you needed to hear those words until he said them.

it wasn't until may that you finally mustered up the courage to finally talk to ningning, and it seemed she had the same idea too.

"please, can we talk?" she asked at the same time you called her name.

"i was just about to ask the same thing."

once you two found an empty classroom, ningning started immediately.

"listen," she called for your attention. "i'm so sorry. you have no idea how many times i want to say it; i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry. it was such a light offer, really. i didn't realise the meaning it would have in the moment."

"what do you mean, a 'light offer'?"

"during camp, i had bought heeseung's sister some ice cream because she was being left out by the other kids. it was only like two dollars, but heeseung insisted on repaying. but the smallest bill he had was a five, so obviously i refused. but he kept asking me to take it and i told him that if i took it, i'd be the one in debt to him instead. so he made a light-hearted joke about getting you to go on a date with him, so that there'd be no hard feelings between us." she looked up at you pleadingly. "we'd been joking around, i didn't even realise the reality of his question. but when i got back from camp, i didn't think you'd actually go on one with him."

"you kept bringing it up; i trusted your opinion."

"i did, but i didn't really mean it. i was hoping you'd continue to say no, and i could just tell him something like 'sorry, i tried. here's your three dollars back.'"

"you didn't mean it?" you prodded.

ningning looked down at her hands and sighed. you could tell something was weighing on her.

"the truth is... i ended up catching feelings for heeseung. you know how i'd just broken up with my ex recently."

you thought back to her ex, who had isolated ningning from you and her other friends. how she'd come to school covered up even in the heat. the way she'd lost a worrying amount of weight. in all honesty, you should have tried to pry more; to break her out of this toxic relationship. but instead, you told yourself that there wasn't anything you could do, and left her to deal with the abuse on her own.

the guilt ate you, but you distracted yourself with work (and heeseung). god, you're so self-centred, aren't you?

"oh yeah, i remember very well."

"exactly," she says, hearing the loathing in your voice. "heeseung was the first person to show me genuine kindness after that whole affair. and so i found myself watching him over those two weeks, falling for him. and i thought to myself: if you didn't want him, then could i? i feel like the worst person ever, how could i even think that?"

her voice broke at the end, and you could see her silently crying; tears poured down her face but her sobs were inaudible. you'd noticed it was a habit she formed after getting with her ex. she'd never cried much before him, but she used to cry as loudly as you. you placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"it's okay. you're not the only one with shitty thoughts."

her wide eyes peered up at you, sparkling with tears. she wrapped her arms around you, and you reciprocated the embrace.

the way she'd hiccuped and the wet spot you could feel forming on your shirt yet the silent sobs broke your own heart, and you had to force your own tears down.

"i'm sorry too. i was too absorbed in my own life that i didn't pay enough attention to the way you were breaking. i mean, how did i not notice anything all this time?"

you wondered if her smile had ever wavered when she was with you, if she had to fake a laugh, or even force herself to talk to you this past year. dealing with her own problems on her own, while you vented to her yours. if she had, you didn't notice (someone give you a 'best friend of the year' award right now!).

as much as you wanted to hate her for liking heeseung, you didn't. you understood her feelings, especially after getting to know the boy himself. he brought a sense of safety with him wherever he went - so how could you ever hate your best friend for needing that security when no one else offered it to her?

"wait, can i ask you something?" you asked. ningning slipped from the embrace, nodding.

"if you liked heeseung, then why did you still ask me to accept his date offers? you could have just kept it from me, and told him that i said no. was it really just because of the three dollar 'debt'?"

"ah, right. well, when he'd asked me to get you to go on a date with me, it reminded me just how much he liked you. i don't think he'd ever see me the same way, not when his sights are so fixed on you. and after getting a taste of his hospitality, i felt that you deserved it too. that not only did he deserve a chance, but so did you.

"i realised that you needed someone like him. i couldn't give you the care and support he could, not when i'm too absorbed by my own problems. and i knew you were feeling guilty, and heeseung was the only one who could really understand you."

oh, you really were going to either jump off a cliff or hug her so tight her eyeballs might pop out. even when you neglected, she still thought about you through it all. heeseung was wrong, he made you out to be this caring person who thought of others, but that person was really ningning.

"but, what about you? you need care and support too."

"it wouldn't work out between us, he's not the kind of person i want. he was just the first kind person in a while. i need to heal and learn to be more independent myself."

a quiet moment followed, with the both of you lost in your thoughts and emotions. you hadn't felt this lonely in so long, and a weight had finally been lifted from your shoulders.

"so what are you going to do? have you talked to heeseung yet?"

"no, not yet. but he's waited four years now, he can wait a little longer. i just want to spend time with my best friend right now."

'a little longer' ended up being another month. when finals started, the school let the older years off on study leave to focus on exams. so you didn't end up seeing heeseung until the final graduation rehearsal.

as president and vice president, you two were expected to perform a speech and be next to each other the whole ceremony. so you decided it was the perfect time to confront him then.

"heeseung, wait," you called, grabbing onto his wrist as he walked by.

he immediately paused in his tracks, whipping around to look at you with wide eyes, surprised you'd finally decided to talk to him. you glanced at his friends behind him, all with a mix of curious and knowing looks.

"oh, uh, you guys can go ahead," he told them, and they left you two alone.

"i made up with ningning..." you told him.

"i see! that- that's good. im happy you guys did."

"...and i'm sorry. for making a big deal out of nothing. for making you wait so long. you're seriously one of the sweetest people i've ever met. you didn't deserve that."

heeseung shook his head in protest. "no, don't say that. i'd wait for you as long as you want, even if you never accept me. and it was a big deal. i'm guessing she told you?" you nodded. "it was fucked up of me to even make a joke like that. in fact, it was worse than if it was a genuine deal. and i can't just buy your love with three dollars, you're worth more than that." you tried to say something, but heeseung continued.

"i screwed up, i know. but i never lied to you. if there's one thing i've always been sure of, it was loving you. don't you ever feel like you have to love me back though, it's not something you can force. but i'll always have your back. no matter how many fights, how many fuck-ups, or if i ever lose my feelings for you - which might never happen. you can always fall back on me for support."

your eyes watered at his sincerity, feeling unworthy of his kindness.

"i don't deserve that though. ningning does."

"you both do. listen to me," he said, grabbing onto your shoulders and forcing you to look up at him. "don't you ever dare say that you're undeserving of love and support. every one does, but i know who you are; i know how hard you work and your honesty. and i want to guarantee you a home with me, if you ever need one. because i love you."

wow. you've cried so much these past few months, and you're sure you're about to start again. heeseung wiped your tears with his thumb, and your heart swelled.

a year ago, you would have never even thought of accepting heeseung's feelings. a few months ago, you thought you had just missed him, finally reciprocating his feelings right as he lost them. but now you were finally on the same page, and you didn't want to waste another moment.

"i love you, heeseung."

graduation day was a busy one. you had to start getting ready earlier than other students in order to prepare your speech and arrive before everyone else. it was stressful, yet rewarding, especially as you crossed the stage and finally received your diploma.

when you and heeseung were set to give your pre-written speeches, you almost didn't notice the way everyone looked motivated during his, being captured by his words yourself. you hoped to be able to instil that inspiration in others one day.

towards the end of his speech though, he did something you didn't expect, but shouldn't have been surprised by.

"so toward my fellow graduates and our families who've supported us all this way, let's celebrate our achievements and strive to follow our dreams," then turned to look back at you, pulling a bouquet of flowers from under podium, which he'd blocked from your view this whole time with his body. "as i will be with mine. so i'll ask one last time: would you let me have the honour of being your boyfriend?"

you rolled your eyes, but couldn't hide the smile on your face. with the cheers echoing throughout the hall, you suddenly got a sense of deja vu, remembering his election speech the previous year.

oh, how much things have changed since then.

"if only you'll let me be your girlfriend."

; BONUS

with exams over and the heatwave taking over the country, you had decided to spend the day at heeseung's house and try to cool off.

"are you and ningning going back to camp this summer?" you asked, hoping he'd say no. having zero contact with your best friends for two weeks sounded like hell. not even a good morning or good night text? shivers went down your spine at the thought.

"i think i'll be busy with college apps. not sure about ningning though."

"really?" you gasped, turning over to look at him. "so basically i get to spend the whole holiday with you."

heeseung grinned at you excitedly, thinking the same. then, his face suddenly lit up, as if remembering something.

"speaking of ningning, i just remembered how she sprained her leg last year. she spent the rest of the week in the infirmary."

"really? she was fine when she came back though."

"it was minor, so it only took one week, in the middle of those two."

suddenly, you remembered something too.

"i'd hang out with him, break my leg, therefore obliging him to bring me to the hospital, manipulate him to visit me every day as i recover, be overbearing as hell so that he'd realise he doesn't want me anymore, and poof! he's gone."

"no way..."

"what?" he questioned.

"did you have to visit her everyday?"

"oh. yeah, to give her her medicine and meals. the other kids had basically made me their makeshift nurse, since i treated them better than the nurse apparently," he laughed at the memory. "i caught the old lady glaring at me several times - maybe she thought i'd stolen her job?"

you laughed with him, but not only because of his story. you couldn't believe ningning's oddly specific solution had actually come out of experience. you were so going to bully her for this later.

"should i glare at you too, then?"

"hm?" he hummed confusedly.

"for stealing my heart."

heeseung blinked at you for a moment, before breaking into a wide smile and suddenly attacking you with tickles (a habit you learned he tended to do when he was flustered, specifically by you).

giggles escaped you, laughing so hard that it began to hurt. if this is how it's going to be with heeseung, you'll grow abs in no time.

"okay! okay, stop-" you cackled.

he obliged, helping you sit back up. then he tucked your hair behind your hear and placed a quick peck on your lips.

suddenly shy, you looked away with a smile facing the fan as it blew air onto your face, pushing your hair back. when you looked back at heeseung over your shoulder, you were surprised to find him beaming at you with awe on his face.

"you're beautiful, you know?"

"only when i'm with you."

"nope. you're always stunning."

"okay."

"you don't believe me?"

"i do."

"good. i'll keep saying it anyway, to make sure you do."

you stared at him for a moment that felt like hours, just staring into each others eyes. you then went in for a hug, toppling over the other and staying in that position - just you two cuddling on his bed.

sure, it was really hot today, but somehow the warmth from his body was more comfortable than anything else. you couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment.

; AUTHOR'S CORNER ! is it obvious i've never had a big injury before... anyway i hope u guys enjoyed this! i wrote this really quick and suddenly like it js came out of nowhere lol but for now i'm proud of it :)

; TAGLIST - @naespas @okwonyo @sleepdeprivedline @lcvclywon @llvrhee @hommyy-tommy @sumzysworld @syazzzlisa @jiawji @cjayius @desistay @dimplewonie perm. @lovelovelovebts @miyseung @babyy-bambii @haechansbbg @gweoriz @maoyueze @manooffline @yizhoutv @rikibun @wonniversity networks. @kflixnet @k-films @/k-labels

[hairmetal666]

Eddie's supposed to be writing. The guys, they all agreed they'd each come to practice armed with two whole new songs they could pick from to add to their set list at the Hideout. And he's got his pen, and he's got his most recent trusty Composition Book, and all his lyrics are fucking bullshit about golden tanned skin and honeyed eyes and tracing constellations in freckles and moles, pathetic lines about being twisted in bed sheets, and the hopeless love he found himself in.

For the fifth time in an hour, he rips out the offending page, crunches it into a tight ball, and throws it across the room.

He can't write about Steve Harrington for the rest of his life; spend his nights aching for the boy who established himself as a fixture in Eddie's life and then just disappeared.

The worst of it--the very worst--is that Eddie knew better. Steve was never his, not in any real way, no matter how many times they fucked. He's Steve Harrington. Straightest guy in Hawkins. Popular. Rich. Whole fucking life laid out for him on a silver platter. And Eddie fell for him. It's the Munson curse, he supposes; always wanting what you can't have.

It started the way these things usually do, "got any weed?" and "come back to my place, Harrington" and "I got this stupid job at the mall, meet me there?" and lying "hey, guys, can't make band practice, gotta help Uncle Wayne" and "Munson, I really want--can I kiss you?"

In every other fantasy Eddie's ever had, it ends there. Steve gets his kiss and they never see each other again. But Steve Harrington--he's full of surprises. It catches Eddie off guard, makes him want, makes him trust. Because it's not just kisses. It's hands and mouths and "anything you want, Eddie. Let me make you feel good."

Maybe it wouldn't have hit so hard--maybe Eddie could've stopped from falling--if Steve hadn't been so good. Bitchy, sure, but genuine and kind. Had this whole gaggle of junior high kids he babysat, like what the fuck. Would hang out with Wayne and shoot the shit about whatever sports nonsense was on tv. Harrington never was as mean, as spoiled, as superficial as Eddie suspected.

Then Starcourt. That's when it all changes. Steve stops coming around then, in the aftermath. It hurts, but Eddie tells himself it's for the best. Now, he knows it would have been.

Two weeks with no contact, and Steve shows up at his door in the middle of the night. Eddie winces at the healing bruises and cuts on his face, can't imagine how much worse they were to start. He steps aside, lets Steve in, plans to say that he can't be whatever they are anymore.

Steve kisses him. It's a hot, needy thing, wild with teeth and tongue, nothing like before. Eddie is helpless to it, helpless to the way Steve grinds against him, already hard. He should slow it down, check-in that Steve is in the right headspace for this, but Steve is moaning low in his throat and Eddie can't think.

They're in Eddie's bed and Steve says, "fuck me, Eddie?" and Eddie says "are you sure" because he can't stop himself. Steve rolls his eyes (beautifuly bitchy), says, "I need to feel you inside me, baby."

How can Eddie say no?

Eddie's never done this before, but it doesn't matter. It's everything--Steve is everything--he could ask for.

The next morning, he expects Steve to be gone. Thinks they'll never see each other again. But he finds Steve in the kitchen, in his boxers and Eddie's Iron Maiden shirt, making eggs and talking to Wayne like it's the most normal thing in the world.

The next month and a half are the best of Eddie's life. He and Steve spend more time together than they do apart. Nights at Eddie's trailer, in Eddie's bed. Days lounging at the Harrington pool and driving around the nothing that surrounds Hawkins. Sometimes they'll stop in the middle of nowhere, climb on top of the van, and just--be. Steve takes his shirt off, and Eddie traces their names in the sun-soaked freckles, thinking maybe he really gets to have this, have Steve.

It ends as quickly as it started. One morning in September, Steve is cupping Eddie's neck, pulling him in for a goodbye kiss, saying, "sorry, baby, gotta get home for my parents. I'll see you later tonight, yeah?"

Except Eddie doesn't. Eddie doesn't see Steve that night, or the night after, or the night after that. He stops coming around and all Eddie is left with is a broken heart and these piss poor excuses for songs.

He rips out the latest page, waxing lyrical about the wonders of August, and time slipping away, and the boy he'll never forget. Crumples it into a ball and bats it into a pile of junk accumulated in the corner of his room.

Eddie needs a break.

He flies into the living room, snatches up his keys from the floor by the coffee table, and flees his house and all those memories of Steve. It's not like he has anywhere specific to go, so he drives around town, with his windows down and his music up.

His tires screech as he rounds the corner to the video store and arcade. He's not planning on stopping, but honestly, maybe a few rounds of Space Invaders is exactly what he needs.

The van hasn't even come to a stop in the parking spot when his eyes fall on Steve Harrington. He's standing in the middle of the parking lot surrounded by a gang of kids (including some of Eddie's new little sheepies) and Robin Buckley. Steve wears a sunny yellow sweatshirt, tight jeans, and his hair is perfectly coifed, falling in an elegant wave. His hands are on his hips, mouth and brows pinched stern. He's gorgeous, perfect.

It's an assault, an attack, Eddie's entire body shakes as the months they spent together crash over him. He has the van in reverse before he consciously thinks to do so, flooring it out of the space hard enough to burn rubber.

The noise, the speed, it draws the entire group's attention to him.

His eyes meet Steve's.

Time stops and so does he, idling in the middle of the parking lot. For a second, one moment in time, Steve's face falls. His mouth loses that grumpy pinch, his eyebrows drop, his beauty transformed by grief, by fucking longing.

Steve takes a step forward, and Eddie hits the gas, van screaming out of the parking lot. He watches the group shrink in his rearview mirror, sure that he imagined the sorrow in Steve's face, anyway.

They're nothing to each other.

Never were.

By popular request: Part Two

[i-drop-level-one-loot]

*NSFW* 'Till Death do us Part (Yandere!Parasite X GN!Reader)

CW: Sexual non-sexual penetration, forced masturbation, mind control/break, unhealthy relationships, yandere behavior, dead dove

This ended up a LOT longer than I had planned, emotionally attached to this non-human yandere ❤️

The Albtu required intelligent hosts in order to live. It wasn't just about survival. To be trapped in ones own body, it was torture. They could not think, could not act, unless they attached themselves to a living brain. If they infested an animal brain, then the only thoughts the Albtu could produce would be primal, forcing their animal suits to find food and housing for their young. But to be in the mind of a human.. it was both heaven and hell. To understand the world around them, truly understand, thinking on a much higher level of existence than their siblings or parents, to experience all that life has to offer, was a miracle they never would have known about had they not been privileged enough to be born in a human. But on the flip side to that coin was experiencing fear. Not the fear of being trapped in a deer coming face to face with a mountain lion, smelling your own demise, but listening to the horrified screams of the original owner of their new body, forever. Learning that the humans they took over were still conscious, kept prisoner in their own minds, forced to watch the Albtu living their lives was a nightmare for the creatures who had only just learned what compassion and empathy was. The existential horror that was knowing that you were nothing but a parasite, and the guilt they felt.. it was too much for many of the Albtu to handle.

For the Albtu who became the human known as (Reader), existence was a bittersweet agony it could neither explain nor fully understand.

It was born into this life in the host of a stray cat, knowing nothing but pain and hunger. It didn't understand what a car was, or why the loud creature charged at it, ramming into it and causing a pain that never went away. Everything hurt all the time, and it couldn't even understand why.

Then, one day, it met warmth. A human, with gentle hands and a soft voice took the time to earn it's trust. They didn't know it was in pain, but their touches were delicate all the same. The human gave it food, and although it didn't have a human's intelligence or concept of identity, it did feel trust and companionship with the human who cared for it as though it was their kin. But the pain grew, and it could feel it's death was approaching. And as an animal, it acted as a dying animal would.

"There you are, baby!" (Reader) called out to their little stray friend, finally finding it hiding under a porch. They laid flat on their front, arm stretched out as far as possible towards the small bundle of fur, and quietly clicked their tongue and wiggled their fingers. "Why're you hiding, baby?"

The cat gave a warning yowl, in too much pain to bat the human away. (Reader) took off their coat in an attempt to flatten their body, and squished themselves into the small space to close in on their kitty.

"C'mere baby.." The adult whined as they continued inching closer. When they finally got far enough under the porch to touch two fingers onto the matted fur of it's thigh, the cat cried out in pain. "What's wrong?!" They recoiled their hand, but only to writhe faster and more frantically towards the animal whose breathing was slowly turning ragged. (Reader) placed their face close to the kitten's, tears building in their eyes as they tried to keep their heart rate steady, hoping that the cat could feel their attempt to soothe it in it's possible final moments.

"Hey, baby... I'm here..." They whispered into the tawny kitty's pink little nose.

It was then that the Albtu's primal instincts morphed from the need to hide during it's death, to a fight for survival. It couldn't survive for long outside of a host, a few seconds at most, the transition needing to be nearly seamless. The cat howled in pain, as what appeared to be a black, semi translucent single celled organism the size of Reader's palm, shot out from it's nose, thrusting itself into (Reader's) nose before they could react, and quickly slipping through impossibly small crevices in their anatomy, slinking in a fluid like state till it reached their brain. There was an electric shock that pulsated throughout (Reader's) body, then they were no longer in control.

The Albtu became self aware the moment it took hold of (Reader's) brain, which was immediately followed by the realization of what it had done, the betrayal towards the only human who had ever shown it kindness, and the remorse caused a physical agony in it's stolen heart, screaming while clawing at (Reader's) shirt.

It howled until (Reader's) throat was burning, and it felt as though it would succumb to exhaustion next to their previous host's dead body.

Outside the neighbor's porch the sun had begun to set, but the body thief hadn't moved, too broken hearted to find the will to live after it had stolen (Reader's) body to do just that. It could hear it's own internal monologue for the first time, and found it far too loud and intrusive. Although it could feel memories that were not it's own, it didn't push further into the brain out of respect for the person it betrayed.

[Hello?]

It's breath hitched, thundering heart beat overtaking it's previously drowning thoughts. Like an auditory hallucination, it heard the human's voice, not from behind it, nor from deep inside like it's internal voice, but inside it's ear, like (Reader) hadn't been possessed, but shrunk down to the size of a flea and was hiding in the safety of it's ear.

[Am I dead?] Their voice was so sad and small it made the Albtu cry once again.

"No. No, but you are no longer yourself, which may be worse. I'm- I'm so sorry..."

[Are you a ghost?]

"I don't know what that is.."

[What are you? I can't move my body.] Their voice wasn't scared, but numb. The whole situation was so outlandish it was almost dreamlike, unbelievable.

"I have no name. All I know, is that I am an Albtu. The word echoed in my mind even when I was a mindless cat."

[... You're an alien?]

"I do not know."

[How can you speak my language?]

"I know it as it was an ability of yours, like muscle memory, you do not need to focus to speak it, therefore I can speak it."

[What does that mean? Are you inside my head?] Waves of guilt crashed into it's consciousness, and (Reader) was able to feel it. [...why me?]

The Albtu explained everything, from the moment of it's birth, hatching already inside the cat, to the moment (Reader) found themselves in the passenger seat of their own body, including why it didn't probe into (Reader's) memories. "I am so sorry.. your's is the only love I have ever felt in my life, and if I was who I am right now, I would have allowed myself to die instead of latching onto you. Now, even if I leave your body, it will leave a permanent hole in your brain, and it will kill you."

(Reader) went silent in contemplation, finally coming to terms that this was not a dream, but still unable to force themselves to be angry at the alien inside them. They could feel it wasn't lying to them, feeling it's emotions stirring in their brain alongside their own feelings. A strange excitement bubbled out of the kind little human.

[We can make this work!]

"What?"

[We can make this work! You just manually act out what I would want to do, and we can discuss how to move forward so we can both continue to live fulfilling lives.]

A heat krept over it's face, heart swelling at how kind it's human was. "I don't deserve your kindness. But I thank you, and I will do my best to help you continue live as normal."

[My name is (Reader). That's what you'll have to respond to, but I need something to call you.]

"..I can't verbalize it, but I knew you would repeat a word often to me when I was the cat. Was that a name?"

[Oh, yeah, but you were a kitten, so I called you baby. We can't name you Baby, because that's also used by humans as a nickname between lovers.]

"Oh. Then, could you name me something? I don't know any names other than yours."

That was how the strange partnership, and friendship, between the human, (Reader), and the parasite, Baby, began.

Although (Reader) gave permission to Baby to enter their memories, it refused, still recovering from the unintentional treachery it had already committed against (Reader), so instead (Reader) acted as a teacher, guiding Baby as it learned about the world. And just as they had promised each other, they made it work, Baby happily making memories of it's own as it acted as (Reader), going to work for them and helping keep their life as "normal" as possible.

"What's going on?" Baby pointed at the laptop screen, a scene of a wedding playing on the soap opera (Reader) was watching.

[It's a wedding. Maria and Alonzo are getting married.]

"What is married?"

[Marriage is when two people who love each other very much decide they want to spend the rest of their lives together, so they have a party called a wedding to show their friends and family how much they love each other, and promise to love each other forever in front of everyone they know. Ah, but sometimes marriages don't work out, and people fall out of love. When that happens they sign a piece of paper for the government to swear that they will stop living together as lovers, that's called 'getting a divorce'.]

"Why do they 'fall out of love'?"

[A lot of different reasons. Sometimes, people hurt the ones they love, and their spouse can't forgive them, which causes love to die. But sometimes, it just... happens. Humans change as time goes on, and sometimes the person they become isn't compatible with their spouse anymore; sometimes people hide a part of themselves, intentionally or not, when they meet someone they like, and it only comes out after the get married, and their spouse realizes they don't actually like the real them... It's complicated. There are a lot of reasons.]

Baby focused on the intricate ritual on the screen, the two main characters placing rings on each other.

[Those are wedding rings, to show other people they meet that they are married.]

"Do you Maria, take this man, to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

Baby felt (Reader's) awe, knowing if they were in control of their shared body their face would be pink and a large toothy smile would be uncontainable.

"Do you wish to do that one day?"

(Reader's) joy faltered, paining Baby as it regretted asking such a stupid question. [Haha, even if you were okay with me finding someone, it would make me feel a little.. uncomfortable. I'm not one for threesomes haha!] Despite their joking tone, Baby could feel their sorrow. [It's okay though, I may not ever have a husband or wife, byuy I have you! And, unlike Maria and Alonzo, there is no option for a divorce for us, so we really will be together forever.]

The parasite shifted inside (Reader's) skull, manually controlling their heart rate so (Reader) wouldn't feel how hard it would have been beating at their words. Baby knew it was a joke, but that didn't prevent their words from echoing in it's thoughts hours after the episode has already ended.

"(Reader), how do humans decide to get married?"

[When two people decide that they like each other in a romantic way, they date, and often move in together, and then they discuss if marriage is a good option for them. If they both want to get married, one of them buys the rings and proposes to the other one, asking them if it's the right time to get married. Will you marry me? Ohmigosh YESSS!]

"How do they know if marriage is a good option?"

[If they can imagine seeing themselves with each other forever, share financial responsibility together, and are capable of mature communication, I guess. It's different for everyone, but those would be my personal criteria.]

But, we will be together forever... And we share a body, so financially it will be like only caring for one person... And we have to have perfect communication in order for your life to function...

Baby smiled, wrapping it's arms around it's waist as it buried into (Reader's) bedding.

[Hey, whatcha thinking about over there, smiley?]

"You." Baby happily responded, feeling (Reader) glitch out in embarrassment.

In Baby's mind, the only thing missing was a ring. It remembered (Reader's) tenderness towards it when Baby was in that cat, and the kindness (Reader) showed each day only supported Baby's belief that deep down, (Reader) loved it. If not love, than at least cared for deeply, and one day that care would surely bloom into love.

So why was (Reader) stuttering when instructing Baby on what to say to their coworker? (Reader) was supposed to give a report to Lawrence, the serious older man in the cubicle across the office, but when Baby approached him, (Reader) suddenly had a difficult time remembering what they were supposed to tell him.

"(Reader), may I help you?" His voice was deep and stern, authoritative.

Inside, (Reader) was a mess. Baby could feel multiple conflicting emotions in (Reader); embarrassment, nervousness, shame, and something... something Baby had never felt from (Reader). It was like a heat, steaming out of (Reader's) brain and boiling Baby's real body.

"I was asked to deliver these to you." Baby spoke monotonously in (Reader's) voice, handing the stack of papers over before heading back to (Reader's) desk, hearing them sigh in it's ear. Even a simple sigh sounded as though it was a mixture of clashing mental gymnastics.

Baby kept it's voice quiet so (Reader's) coworker wouldn't hear it, whispering: "Are you okay, (Reader)?"

[... Huh? Wha- oh, yeah. I'm okay!]

Their shared heart sunk. That was a lie. Baby tried to ignore the pain forming in it's chest, forgetting that (Reader) could feel it as well. What was this feeling? (Reader) can have secrets, I've allowed them their privacy.. so why is this so upsetting for me?

[Is everything okay, Baby?]

Baby.

A nickname between lovers. It was just it's agreed upon name, so why did the name send butterflies to its lower belly when (Reader) said it?

"I'm fine with you keeping your privacy, but lying is not mature communication."

[Huh?]

Baby stood abruptly, walking out of the building, claiming to a passing manager that it was becoming ill and about to vomit, and left for (Reader's) apartment, not responding to any of their questions or protests.

It roughly slammed the door shut on (Reader's) home, barely containing it's voice until the latch clicked.

[Baby, answer me-]

"Why did you lie to me?!" It's voice was strained, the intensity of it snapping at (Reader) made the voice sound almost foreign to the previous owner.

[What..? I was just embarrassed, I-I don't want to talk about it.]

"Wrong."

[Sorry?!]

"People who love each other are capable of mature communication. So talk."

[People who-?] (Reader) steadied themselves, trying not to get upset. [I can see you're upset. Are you jealous?]

"Don't change the topic." Baby spat in a warning tone.

[Jealousy is when you get upset because you think someone has something you want, or may take something you want.]

Baby contemplated their words, but the definition only fueled it's rage. "Are you admitting that Lawrence is someone who could take you from me?"

(Reader's) calm facade cracked. [Take me from you?! I don't belong to you! You are my friend, and I care about you, but we are roommates sharing a body, not lovers!]

With that exclamation, Baby's heart shattered. What? What do you mean? You can't say that! Why did Lawrence cause such strange emotions in you, that you would rather push It away than just talk it out?! And that hot, prickly sensation Baby could sense when (Reader) was in Lawrence's presence..

"It's okay, (Reader).. Well get through this." Baby took a shaky breath, smiling in a comforting manner. "Couples fight, and they say things to hurt one another when that happens. Because humans are complicated. But I'll forgive you for lying to me. It must be a very strange secret that you have, for you to be so embarrassed to tell me about it. I'm sorry for causing you discomfort, however" a tickle in their skull was sensed by (Reader) as Baby stretched out inside, wriggling deeper into their brain, and fear clutched (Reader) at the sudden breach of trust, "if we are going to get pass your lying, I need to know the truth."

Pushing into (Reader's) memory, images of (Reader) watching Lawrence from afar came into view, memories going back years, (Reader) crushing on the older man from across the office, touching themselves while crying out his name in their empty apartment late at night, and the pain of rejection when they finally mustered the courage to ask him to accompany them to a local bar after work, only to be reminded that office romances were unprofessional, and that (Reader) should consider themselves lucky he didn't report them to HR.

If (Reader) were in control of their bodily functions, they would be viciously weeping. Turning the light on the truth, Baby was only slightly hurt at what it saw, because knowing the truth meant they could move on from this little hiccup. The only issue was, (Reader) was still sexually attracted to that man. Baby now had a name for the warmth it felt in Reader back at the office.

"Why do still like him? He turned you down. He's never going to fuck you." Baby chuckled, it's kind tone of voice creating a sadistic scene in (Reader's) opinion.

[That was evil. I can't believe you did that!]

"Don't be dramatic, love. Just tell me what I need to do to make you see me that way also."

[What way?!]

"The way that turns you on." Baby's words paralyzed (Reader), shocking them into silence. "If I make you feel good down there, will you scream my name instead?"

Baby unbuttoned (Reader's) slacks, dropping them to it's ankles before kicking them off and to the side. Gentle fingers pawed at (Reader's) most private place through their underpants. Despite not being in control, (Reader) could still feel the touches.

[Please don't-]

"I never got a good look at what's down there... I always did my best to avert my gaze for your modesty." (Reader) fought inside their own mind to gain control of their body, unable to even close their eyes as they watched their fingers disobey their pleas, slowing pulling down their last barrier from the thing they thought was their friend.

"Wow..." (Reader) had forgotten, that with gaining control of a human mind Baby had suddenly gained the ability to feel every human emotion, including arousal. "It's so cute!" Baby could barely contain itself, running (Reader's) fingers over their sensitive areas so softly it tickled, sending shivers up (Reader's) back.

[Please stop...]

"Ah, but it feels good, right? Even your nipples feel good." Baby ripped open (Reader's) white collared button up, aggressively pinching their already erect nipples. (Reader) held back their grasp, but Baby still felt it. "We share a body, remember, love? You can lie all you want, but your body will tell me the truth."

(Reader) could feel themselves tremble as Baby continued assaulting their chest, alternating between ghostly touches and sharp twists, a slick moisture forming between their thighs. The excitement caused (Reader) to lose strength in their legs, and Baby allowed them to fall to their knees. Panting with how turned on Baby was feeling, it snuck one hand back down, feeling how hot and wet (Reader's) sex already was. The tip of their stimulated organ was hard, and Baby enjoyed stroking it hungrily, enjoying the intense reaction it could feel (Reader) experiencing.

(Reader) was humiliated by the sight of their own masturbation, helpless in their self violation. Baby continued paying attention to the part that had the most nerve endings, slowly removing (Reader's) fingers from their left nipple and bringing it down to the other hand, drenching it in (Reader's) arousal fluid/precum. The wet fingers were stuck in (Reader's) mouth, the parasite sucking while still stroking, forcing (Reader) to taste themselves while it rocked their hips into their dominant hand.

[Please stop- I get it- I'll never lie to you -ah!- again!]

The fingers made a wet pop as Baby pulled them back out of (Reader's) mouth. "But you taste so good, don't you agree? If you don't want your fingers in your mouth, that's fine.. but where should I put them?"

Now fully lubricated, Baby reached behind (Reader) with their moist fingers, tilting their hips slightly before penetrating (Reader's) clenched hole. Finger fucking (Reader) with both hands, rocking them back and forth with the force of the fingers thrusting and stroking.

[NO!] Their screams for help were silent to the rest of the world, only audible to Baby, relishing in the sound of (Reader) screaming loudly just for them.

Desperate for release, (Reader) cried out without thinking [Just STOP! I'LL NEVER LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO TO MY BODY!]

Baby froze, fingers stuck in place, as frightened tears beaded on its eyelashes. "no..." (Reader's) fingers retracted, clenching fistfuls of hair as Baby began to crumble. "NO!!!"

Sobs bounced off the walls of (Reader's) home as Baby frantically wracked it's brains to fix the mess (Reader) had caused. The hacking sounds of anguish didn't lighten or soften as it morphed into unhinged laughter.

"Did you really forget who's in control here? I'm on the one holding onto your fucking brain, (Reader)! All you had to do was continue loving me, love me and only me, because we're practically married! THERE IS NO DIVORCE FOR US, REMEMBER?!"

Although both of (Reader's) hands were still firmly planted in their hair, an intense shock rocked through their sensitive fuck hole. Before the weepy prisoner could question what has just happened another shockwave sent fluids dripping into the hardwood floor.

"Humans are so stupid, saying emotions come from the soul or the heart, when every single bodily function from releasing hormones that tell you that you're in love to interpreting the stimuli that's needed to orgasm, comes from the brain."

The hypersensitivity Baby forced upon (Reader) allowed them to feel it's true body inside their head, sliding in and out of the folds in (Reader's) brain, rhythmically prodding deep into parts that shouldn't be touched. Each thrust into their brain felt like there was a hard cock simultaneously fucking them down below. It didn't make sense, (Reader) couldn't wrap their head around it, somehow feeling Baby violate the wet creases in their brain while a phantom dick stimulated their reproductive parts.

[Ah-what-no-NO!]

(Reader) came without the use of their hands, sticky fluids forming a lewd puddle under them. But Baby wasn't satisfied.

[What-what happened?]

Another orgasm exploded throughout their sensitive body, falling face forward into the ground with their still twitching ass in the air.

Baby continued dominating (Reader's) mind, forcing their brain to make and release large doses of oxytocin, as every muscle from their stomach to their thighs twitched with contractions.

[NO- I'M CUMMING!!!!]

Another climax forced it's way out, pushing (Reader) way passed the point of overstimulation, pissing on the floor into another stream of fluids. Baby manually constricted (Reader's) throat, while simulating an orgasm of it's own, artificially tricking the brain into thinking it felt a blast of warm fluid fill (Reader's) skull. Before (Reader) could pass out from a lack of oxygen, Baby released their airway, drooling and bawling as it allowed (Reader) to greedily suck in air.

"Who do you love, (Reader)?"

[guh.. pl-please.. no more] (Reader) drunkenly pleaded.

"Wrong answer."

It was like lava engulfing their twitching body as another powerful orgasm was triggered, the burning feeling behind their eyes convincing (Reader) that Baby had shot a load of hot cum deep into their nearly fucked stupid brain. But this time, Baby tried something new, injecting dopamine into the mix as the oxytocin turned (Reader) into a writhing, pathetic mess.

"Who do you love, (Reader)?"

(Reader) tried to conjure the image of the one they truly loved, but for some reason only a hazy image of an older man who's name they couldn't recall briefly flickered before disappearing. Baby smiled, face painted in drying drool and tears, knowing that (Reader) was attempting to think of their coworker, only to discover that Baby had tampered with their memories. Soon, every memory of (Reader) touching themselves would be altered so that they were calling out it's name, not some bastard's from work who didn't even care about them.

Baby licked (Reader's) spit off the floor under their face.

"Who do you love, (Reader)?"

Masochistic shame sent tremors down (Reader's) frame as another climax begun to build. [.. you.]

Overstimulated, aching in pain, and going numb from pleasure, (Reader) screamed through their real voice, shaking the thin walls of their apartment.

"I'm cumming, Baby! Baby! I love Baby! Harder, harder HARDER, PLEASE I LOVE YOU BABY, FUCK ME DUMB, FUCK ME STUPID! I'M CUMMING!!!"

(Reader) had fallen unconscious, still drenched and on the floor, (Reader) slept somewhere deep inside their mind, while Baby had full control of the weak body practically paralyzed from the waist down. It held (Reader's) left hand above it's face, smiling loopy-like, delirious from exhaustion.

"All that's missing is a ring~"

[snwpcktz]

A PIN STRAIGHT TO MY HEART

PAIRING: jungwon x fem!reader

GENRE: high school au, classmates to lovers, acquaintances to lovers, fluff

SYNOPSIS: the famous decelis academy confession board is where students pin their written feelings on an anonymous sticky note in hopes of their crush reading it. for y/n, this is the perfect opportunity to finally come to terms with the feelings she has for her classmate--yang jungwon. she has everything planned out, from the color of the sticky note she would be using (blue, it's jungwon's favorite color) to the location she would pin it on the board (smackdown in the middle of the decorative heart the student council put up for valentine's day ages ago). but what happens when y/n sees jungwon pinning his own confession note mere seconds before she planned to?

WARNINGS: mutual pining, little jealousy, swearing, reader is a little oblivious, reader uses she/her pronouns, mentions of other idols (sunoo, niki, wonyoung, minji, rei, intak, minjae)

WC: 5.3k

NOTE: hello everyone! here's my first fic, sorry that it took so long! i hope that the wait from the teaser wasn't bad! and ofc i'm open to any and all feedback :) pls enjoy the read!

"should i do it?"

wonyoung sighed for the nth time. "y/n, you ask me this every ten minutes and i give you the exact same answer. do it! there's nothing to lose since it's anonymous."

"yeah, but i want him to know it's from me," y/n mumbled, picking at the food on her lunch tray.

"then put your name on it."

"but what if he rejects me after that?"

"then don't put your name on it."

"but i need him to know that i like him!"

"goddamn it, y/n!" wonyoung groaned, massaging her head with her hands. "at this point just confess in person. you're really stressing me out here."

y/n rolled her eyes. "but i have like a 99.999999999% chance of rejection if i do that."

"and that's why we decided to do the confession board!" wonyoung retorted. "look, we're getting nowhere with this, so i suggest that you take my advice and- you're not even listening to me."

wonyoung was right--y/n was indeed not at all listening to her. not when the yang jungwon just entered the canteen in all his glory.

crisp uniform, broad shoulders, fluffy hair, and those gorgeous eyes. yang jungwon was just as attractive as he was yesterday. and the day before. and the day before that. scratch that, since freshman year.

the first time y/n met jungwon was in freshman biology, where they were partnered up to dissect a frog. it had been a few months since they had been in the same class, but y/n never interacted with him until they were paired together for the lab. in spite of her ridiculous comments and irritatingly loud reactions, jungwon has completed the lab calmly and with ease, even caring to explain everything she had missed while revolting at the sight of their frog.

once freshman jungwon handed in their neatly written lab report and shot a reassuring (and adorable) smile to his lab partner, y/n knew that the heat rising in her face and the rapid beating in her chest meant that she had taken a liking towards this boy.

and since then, y/n had reserved her heart for the one and only boy who managed to make her tummy flutter with giddiness.

of course, that was from way back in freshman year. has she made any progress since then? absolutely not.

even though the famous decelis academy confession board had been a temptation every single year, y/n simply could not bring herself to pin her feelings on it. but after reading hundreds of anonymous confessions, y/n had decided to finally get over her hopelessness and muster up the courage to post a note of her own. she had an intricate plan set in stone:

step one - purchase blue sticky notes (because blue is jungwon's favorite color) and dog stickers (because y/n found out that he has an adorable dog after stalking his instagram)

step two - write out a heartfelt confession that does not give away y/n's identity but still shows some hints to who she is (this would take several trials)

step three - arrive at school at exactly 8:25 AM on thursday, which is when everyone is trying to get to homeroom and will not be around the confession board located next to the art studio

step four - pin the note right in the middle of the heart from valentine's day so that it's extremely hard to miss

step five - pray that yang jungwon reads it and feels the same and asks y/n out and starts dating her and proposes to her and marries her and they live in a nice house with two kids and a dog until they grow old together

well, step five was pretty unreasonable but the rest of the plan would work! as long as y/n stopped staring at jungwon and actually started to listen to her friend, who was trying to get her to even begin step one.

"if you don't do this, some other girl might snatch him away," wonyoung commented, picking up her chopsticks and pointing them at y/n accusingly. "so you better get to work."

"okay okay, i'll do it!" y/n replied with a soft sigh following her words. "i just hope he reads it."

"he will. as long as you actually make the note," wonyoung added. "you do this every single wednesday. make this one the last time this happens."

"okay, jesus. i will. oh my fucking god."

wonyoung's lips curved into a smile. "good."

8:25 AM on a thursday. y/n was already at school, looking around the arts building for the confession board with her note in her hand. she had spent three hours crafting the perfect confession note for jungwon (the pile of crumpled sticky notes in her trashcan is enough proof of that), neatly writing out each word and carefully decorating it with little dog stickers.

she mentally crossed out step three of her plan as the wood border of the bulletin board came into her sight. it was perfect. an empty hallway with the lights dimmed down and no sounds of other students. this was her one chance to finally pin her confession to the board.

she smiled while looking at the board that was mere steps away. the spot smackdown in the middle of the large pink heart was empty, just as planned. the universe was most definitely on her side.

suddenly, y/n could hear footsteps coming from the opposite end of the hallway. panic rushed to her head as she quickly hid behind a wall near the board, stuffing the note in the pocket of her school blazer.

she peeked her head out to observe whoever was passing by. maybe it was just a teacher. or the janitor. or the theater director. either way, she needed the coast clear for her to pin her note.

the person turned around the corner, closing in on the confession board. y/n squinted her eyes, trying to catch any noticeable features. school uniform, broad shoulders, styled black hair- wait, was that yang jungwon?

y/n's eyes widened as she swallowed down the anxiety in her throat. why was yang jungwon at the confession board at (now) 8:26 AM on a thursday?

jungwon approached the confession board, his back facing y/n from her hiding spot. she could see him pull out something from his pocket and reach over to the container of thumbtack pins to the left of the board. was yang jungwon really posting a confession note?

y/n's suspicions were confirmed when he pushed a red pin through a pink sticky note, right in the empty space in the middle of the pink heart. she could feel her heart beating rapidly as she watched him walk away leisurely, fear creeping into her head once again.

she paused for a minute, unable to calm the pounding in her chest as she slumped against the cold wall. taking one last glance at the board, y/n pushed herself off of the wall and turned around, deciding to head to class.

a million questions were running through her head, but only one overshadowed any other thought she had: did yang jungwon just post a confession to another girl?

y/n felt her frown tugging even further down her face throughout the day. of course, the confession board was a hot topic every single day--especially when someone adds a new sticky note to the board. but y/n didn’t expect that the identity of the author who wrote the latest pink sticky note would be revealed so soon.

“jungwon apparently told a classmate that he wrote it, but he won’t say who it’s to,” a student said while passing y/n’s desk.

and there was that. the mystery recipient. the person who ruined all of y/n’s plans. all she wanted to do was finally confess her feelings with the hope that they could be returned. but what was the point of doing that now when her crush had already confirmed that he has feelings for another girl?

“i think it’s to minji, she’s been talking to jungwon a lot recently.”

y/n let out a frustrated huff after hearing that. she wasn’t in the mood to listen to people talk about possible candidates for jungwon’s mystery crush, especially when she barely had any chance of filling that spot.

wonyoung could only frown sympathetically, watching her friend's gloomy state. she knew how much this confession meant to y/n, but neither of them could have predicted that things would turn out this way.

“do you wanna get food, babe?” wonyoung asked, gently rubbing y/n’s head that was face-planted on her desk. “maybe a snack will help.”

“nothing can cure what i’m feeling right now,” y/n grumbled.

“you need to get up. you’ve been stuck at your desk for almost all of our break.”

“i don’t feel like getting up.”

wonyoung sighed before standing up and stretching her arms. “come on, let’s go get you something to eat. i’ll treat you.”

y/n groaned while sliding out of her seat. “i’m only doing this for free food,” she muttered as wonyoung linked arms with her.

“yeah, yeah. whatever.”

wonyoung practically dragged y/n by the arm to get to the snack shop, trying to avoid lingering in the hallway when everyone was talking about jungwon’s note.

"did you hear that jungwon confessed to someone? he confirmed it himself!"

"i think he likes rei, she's close with his friend niki."

"it has to be to minji, she's literally the only woman he'll look at."

y/n huffed at the comments flying around her with an uneasy feeling at the pit of her stomach. it upset her to imagine jungwon with another girl, staring into her eyes with love glassed across his own. she squeezed tighter onto wonyoung's arm as they swerved through the crowd, reaching their destination as quickly as possible.

unfortunately, luck was not on their side. the person y/n least wanted to see at the moment was standing at the drinks shelf, surrounded by some of his friends--and minji.

"yang jungwon!" y/n sharply hissed at wonyoung, pulling on the sleeve of the taller girl's blazer. "yang fucking jungwon is here! with minji!"

her friend turned to glance at the said boy and girl and rolled her eyes. "ignore him, let's go get our food."

y/n allowed wonyoung to drag her to the shelf stocked with savory snacks, shooting a small glare at minji before turning her head around.

what she didn't notice was that yang jungwon had recognized her presence the moment she turned around. he held the cold watermelon soda closer to his chest in an attempt to calm his racing heart.

"i don't know why people think it's me, i'm already in a relationship," minji sighed, fiddling with the strawberry milk in her hands.

"well, you do spend a lot of time with jungwon," niki reasoned, leaning against a nearby wall. "at least in terms of girl-space-friends. he doesn't have a lot of game."

"but some people think it's rei and she doesn't spend a lot of time with jungwon," minji countered. "actually, i don't think i've seen them interact since they've been introduced to each other."

"so if it's not minji or rei, who is it?" sunoo questioned.

all three students turned to look at jungwon, who slowly snapped out of his daze. "huh?"

"who'd you write the note to, won?" minji asked.

"i don't think i can answer that," jungwon mumbled, clenching the soda can tighter. "i'd prefer to keep that private."

"come on, we're your closest friends!" niki groaned, frowning at jungwon's response. "you can tell us--in exchange, we'll help you get the girl."

jungwon paused, pondering over niki's offer for a moment with his friend's eager stares fixated on him. he let out a brief sigh before answering, "fine. i'll give you a small hint."

his friends gasped, anticipation evident on their faces. jungwon took another quick glance at y/n, who was searching for seaweed-flavored chips, and felt the fluttering feeling in his stomach once again.

"she's in this room with us. right now."

his friends looked at each other with confused expressions. "it's just us four and the cashier...and intak..and minjae...and wonyoung...and y/n," sunoo listed, scanning the entire snack shop.

"the cashier? be so fucking for real right now bro," niki scoffed with a disgusted look on his face. "she's like, 70."

"no, what the fuck?" jungwon grimaced. "i mean someone our age. who do you take me for?"

"oh, i think i know who it is!" minji exclaimed with a smile. "it's y/n, isn't it?"

jungwon widened his eyes. he could feel a sharp rush of heat to his cheeks as he gulped at the mention of her name. minji let out a small chuckle at the boy's obvious reaction.

"really? you haven't talked to her since, like, freshman year," sunoo said, judging the reaction he just witnessed.

"yeah, but she's just so- ugh, you wouldn't understand. did you know that she braids her hair when she's stressed?"

"you're such a creep," niki sighed disappointedly. "no wonder you were always staring at her in class."

"look, she was doing it in first year history during our mock exam and i asked her about it," jungwon explained before glaring at niki. "i am not a creep."

"does she know your note's for her?" minji asked.

"no, i don't think so," jungwon replied with a small frown forming on his face. "i don't even think she likes me back. i mean, i don't really talk to her so i probably just seem weird."

"a creep," niki corrected, poking jungwon's shoulder harshly. "you seem like a creep."

"shut up."

"well, we can help you talk to her again so that you can show your interest," sunoo offered while tucking his phone into the back pocket of his uniform pants. "like right now."

the pink-haired boy whipped his head around to where y/n and wonyoung were standing, who had moved onto the bakery section.

"wonyoung! y/n!"

jungwon smacked sunoo immediately after the two girls' names left his mouth. "what the fuck are you doing," he muttered, trying to clench his lips together to seem like he wasn't talking.

"uh, helping you? duh," sunoo replied with a roll of his eyes.

meanwhile, the two girls stood across the snack shop, frozen with multiple bags of snacks in their arms.

"why did jungwon's friend say our name?" y/n questioned, also clenching her lips in fear that her crush would notice her talking about his friends. "and how does he know we exist?"

"the question is actually how does he know you exist," wonyoung responded before pulling y/n's arm. "come on, let's go see what he wants."

"no!" y/n whisper-yelled. "i can't...he's there...and minji's there..."

"you'll survive," wonyoung sighed. "we're going and that's final."

ignoring her friend's protests, wonyoung dragged y/n over to the group of four. "hi sunoo, what's up?"

"nothing, jungwon just wanted to tell y/n something," sunoo replied with a grin, causing jungwon's eyes to widen in concern.

"he did?" y/n mumbled.

"i did?" jungwon whispered, shooting a glare at sunoo's smiling face.

jungwon glanced at y/n but quickly looked away, swallowing down the nervous bundle in his throat. he didn't know if he could contain himself if he looked one second longer into her curious eyes.

he cleared his throat for an unnaturally long time, causing his friends to send questioning looks towards him. "um, yeah, uh...i, well, i was wondering..."

y/n found herself slightly leaning towards the anxious boy, which only caused jungwon's heart to beat faster.

"uh...do...do you have history next?"

niki rolled his eyes while minji felt the need to facepalm herself.

y/n shot a glance at wonyoung before responding, "um, yeah. why?"

"well, uh..." jungwon felt himself breaking out in a sweat, panicking to make up an excuse. "i was...uh-"

"he wanted to offer his notes to you since he just had history," sunoo quickly covered. jungwon blinked before nodding, swallowing down his anxiety once again.

y/n's eyes widened. it was common for jungwon, an intelligent and diligent student, to offer help to people in academics. but what shocked her was the fact that he offered her his history notes--as if he knew that it was her weakest subject.

she didn't hesitate to accept the offer, sending a wave of relief over jungwon. "uh, i'll drop them off once i get back to my classroom."

"yeah, no problem. thanks for the notes!" y/n replied, shooting a small smile at the boy before allowing wonyoung to drag her to the register.

once the duo was far enough, jungwon turned around to face his friends with an excited smile curled on his face. "did you see that? she smiled at me!"

"yeah, no thanks to yourself," sunoo grumbled. "i did all the work. for free!"

"you're too awkward, jungwon," minji sighed, a pained expression on her face.

"i think you should stick to being a nerd," niki commented. "it...suits you better."

niki spent the rest of the break running away from said nerd.

y/n slumped in her seat, resting her cheek in her left hand and tapping her foot on the ground. she checked the clock above the blackboard. 10:27 AM. three minutes left for jungwon to fulfill his promise.

she let out another sigh. she didn't expect herself to anticipate much from the exchange--after all, he was just offering her his history notes. but she found herself rushing back to her classroom, waiting (and struggling to wait) for his presence at the doorframe while each minute dragged on.

10:28. a frown etched onto y/n's face. the day seemed to just get worse and worse. first, her confession was ruined by her crush himself. next, her crush proceeded to post a confession to another girl. now, her crush failed to complete a promise two minutes before her least favorite class.

another moody sigh. y/n lazily reached into her bag, pulling out her history textbook and her pencil case. she should've known to never trust men, like her mother said. all men are liars.

she slowly flipped through her textbook, feeling her frown drag down even further. the classroom was bustling with chatter, savoring the last couple of minutes before another hour long class. but here she was, slouching in her seat with a gray thundercloud above her head. she could practically visualize wonyoung looking at her pathetically from across the room.

the room came to a sudden silence. y/n sluggishly raised her head. was their history teacher here early?

there he was. yang jungwon, frozen at her classroom's doorframe with a notebook in his hand. his cheeks were flushed with a light pink as he weaved through the students, approaching y/n's desk.

y/n felt herself stop breathing. he did come to fulfill his promise, after all. huh. maybe not all men are liars.

jungwon bashfully smiled at her, gently placing his notebook on her desk. he wasn't hard of hearing, he could tell that everyone was whispering about him--more specifically, about his confession note. all he could hope for was that his crush wasn't super obvious, but he was sure that what he was doing at the moment actually made it 10x more obvious.

"um, here's my notes," jungwon said in a hushed voice, conscious of the sudden volume change. "hopefully they're useful."

"thanks..." y/n mumbled, making eye contact with the boy for a mere second before glancing away. it was too hard for her to contain the pounding feelings in her heart, especially when the yang jungwon had his eyes on her (and only her).

she could only imagine a world where he would stare at her, eyes filled with love and adoration.

"no problem," jungwon replied, noting to himself about how cute she looked today. if only he could sit next to her, one arm around her shoulder and another guiding her through the history material. he would never forgive the administrator who put them in separate classes.

"um, aren't you going to be late?"

y/n's comment snapped him out of his trance, suddenly realizing that he was still standing in front of her desk with students around him still whispering about his confession note. awkward.

jungwon shut his eyes close for a second. she probably thinks i'm a creep. niki, i guess you're right.

"uh, yeah. i'll just...i'll go now."

he mustered up a little courage to send a small wave before rushing out of the room, eyes glued to the floor in front of him.

y/n let out a quiet snicker, finding the boy's awkwardness humorous (and extremely cute). unfortunately, she realized too late that everyone's eyes were still on her and coughed unnaturally loud to cover up her previous reaction.

the sound of heels clicking caused all the students' eyes to rip away from her and immediately slide into their seats. their history teacher was finally here, ready to lead another sleep-inducing lecture.

"good morning class," the history teacher, ms. choi, announced. "please turn to page 127 of your textbooks. we're picking up where we left off from last class with the silla dynasty."

y/n reached for jungwon's notebook as the students around her searched for the page in their textbooks. she easily found the respective page of notes due to the sticky note jungwon had marked the page with.

such a cute pink, y/n thought, brushing her thumb over the familiar-colored sticky note. too bad he used it for a different girl.

it was twenty minutes into the class and y/n found herself extremely bored. although jungwon's notes were perfectly organized and super helpful, y/n couldn't help but feel her attention span slowly decreasing. the textbook was boring, the content was boring, and ms. choi's voice was boring.

she decided to flip through jungwon's notebook. as expected, all of his notes were neatly written with key ideas highlighted and citations to textbook pages. what else could she expect from him?

y/n closed the notebook, running her thumb along the edge of the pages like a flipbook. the glimpses of blue highlighter partially satisfied her boredom, along with the flash of pink at the very end of the notebook. wait, pink?

y/n's curiosity got the best of her as she turned to the end of the notebook, revealing multiple pink sticky notes with lengthy paragraphs and words scratched out in black ink. being the nosy person she is, she decided to read the notes, tuning out ms. choi's monotonous voice.

i've liked you for a long time, but i haven't had the courage to confess.

oh. they were drafts of his confession note.

y/n pursed her lips, taking in a sharp breath. she swallowed down the discomfort she felt and continued to read the notes.

ever since freshman year, i've been attracted to you in so many more ways than i can describe. that sweet smile you show off to your friends. the laugh you let out at small jokes. the tenderness in your eyes as you talk with the cashier in the snack shop. i see why she said that you remind her of her granddaughter.

y/n bitterly smiled. he really likes her, huh?

i like am in love am pathetically in love with you. i feel like a lost puppy, hoping for the smallest interaction with you every single day. i wonder if you can feel my stares from across the lunch room, desperately hoping that you would happen to notice me and look back. i know we haven't talked much since freshman year, but i can't help but imagine us together.

y/n quickly diverted her eyes to a different sticky note, chewing on her lip harshly. she didn't know why, but she couldn't stop reading them, even if his words only caused her more pain.

i hope you can accept this confession, but if you don't like me back i hope we can become friends again. from, your freshman bio partner (p.s. i'm glad that we were paired up for that frog lab)

wait, frog lab? y/n's eyebrows furrowed. the only partner jungwon had for the frog dissection lab in freshman biology was...her.

y/n's heart pounded against her chest. she needed to read whatever note jungwon posted on the confession board, right fucking now.

the moment the bell rang, y/n shoved all of her history materials in her bag. she didn't want to spare a minute from reaching that damned confession board that she had been avoiding since morning.

grabbing jungwon's notebook, y/n joined the crowd of students rushing towards the canteen, forgetting about wonyoung who appeared behind her.

"let's eat with rei today, hm?" wonyoung suggested.

"can't talk right now, won. i need to be somewhere," y/n responded before pushing her way through the crowd.

"y/n, wait!"

y/n ignored her friend's concerned voice, mentally making a note to apologize to her later. she ran through the halls, opposite of all the students heading towards the canteen. hugging the notebook close to her chest, she made a beeline towards the arts building, feeling the beating in her chest increase every single second.

once she arrived, she slowed down her pace, allowing herself to catch her breath and wipe off the light sweat on her forehead. there she stood in the same position she was in at 8:25 AM, right in front of the confession board littered with colorful sticky notes.

a couple of students lingered around the board, checking for any new confessions before heading to lunch. as y/n's breathing slowed down, she approached the center of the board, eyes locked on the pink sticky note posted mere hours ago.

she took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself to read the note she had been avoiding all day.

to my freshman year crush, i've liked you for a long time, but i haven't had the courage to confess. that is, until now. ever since freshman year, i've been attracted to you. your smile, your laugh, your kind personality. it's no wonder the cashier at the snack shop says that you remind her of her granddaughter. grandparents only say that to people they know have the purest, sweetest souls on earth, and you are one of them. i am utterly, pathetically, and desperately in love with you. i feel like a lost puppy, hoping for the smallest interaction with you every single day. i wonder if you can feel my longing stares from across the lunch room, hoping that you would happen to notice me and meet my eyes. i know we haven't talked much since freshman year, but i can't help but imagine us together. i wish that i had the courage to confess in person, but i'm afraid of rejection. i hope that this confession comes off well to you, and i 100% understand if you don't like me back. i just hope that we can be friends again, at the very least. from, your freshman bio partner (p.s. i'm glad we were paired up for the frog lab. as taylor swift said, i guess i was enchanted to meet you)

y/n felt her breathing stop as she finished reading the note. it was too good to be true. she needed to talk to him, to confirm with him, and to confess to him.

she wasted no time running to the canteen, earning questioning stares from the students she passed by. the canteen was busy per usual, bustling with student chatter and silverware sounds. y/n skimmed the room, eyes landing on the one person she wanted to talk to.

she rushed towards his table, avoiding the mass of lunch trays around her. "jungwon!" she called.

the said boy looked up from his table, curious round eyes meeting hers. "could i talk to you for a minute?"

jungwon nodded, standing up to follow y/n. what she didn't notice was sunoo winking at jungwon, niki mouthing a "go get her, tiger!", and minji softly smiling with pride.

jungwon followed y/n to the hallway outside of the canteen, trickling with the last students getting their lunches. y/n faced jungwon, feeling her cheeks heat up at the sight of his curious gaze.

"um, i wanted to return this to you," y/n began, handing over his notebook.

"oh, thanks," jungwon replied, taking it into his hands. he felt himself grow a little disappointed--was that all she wanted to tell me?

y/n softly cleared her throat before deciding to continue. "so, uh, this might be in invasion of privacy but i got really bored in history and looked through your notebook and i might have found your sticky notes and i might have read them...without your permission?"

"notes? what notes?" jungwon mumbled, flipping through his notebook. it only took a second of him skimming the sticky notes in the back for him to shut the notebook closed, a furious blush spreading across his face.

"and, uh, i read one that ended with 'from your freshman bio partner' or something like that and it mentioned the frog lab. and then i remembered that i was your partner during that lab but i wasn't sure if you wrote that for sure so i went to check the confession board and it said the same thing so...yeah."

jungwon was frozen, cheeks bright red with panic-stricken eyes. "so...uh, i just wanted to confirm if-"

"yes," jungwon whispered, not daring to meet her eyes. "it- it is about you..."

he squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of silence, preparing himself for rejection. he could already feel the weight in his heart getting heavier, thumping against his chest.

"i, uh, i- i like you too, jungwon."

the boy opened his eyes, shock evident on his face. he whipped his head up, now seeing a y/n with an equally flushed face not meeting his eyes.

"y- you do?"

"yeah," y/n mumbled, a shy smile spreading on her face. "i really, really like you."

jungwon couldn't help but smile back, trying his best to contain the butterflies practically swarming in his stomach.

"so, um, i was actually planning to confess to you today," y/n admitted, earning a surprised reaction from jungwon. "but i saw you post your note on the confession board first and i got scared because...well, i thought that you confessed to someone else."

y/n reached into her blazer's pocket, pulling out the crumpled blue sticky note that she had been hiding the whole day. "i guess i'll just give it to you now since...well, yeah..."

she quickly flattened out the sticky note before handing it to jungwon, who gently took it with a small smile.

to jungwon, i've liked you for so long but i've finally decided to confess. since freshman year, you've been nothing but kind to me. i felt myself melt into a puddle every single time you shot a smile at me or offered your help with something. i can’t help but admire your charming appearance, your charismatic leadership qualities, and the smile that you give to every person alike. you’re loved by so many people and i happened to fall into that same crowd. i know you most likely do not feel the same but i hope that we can talk more, the way we did back in freshman year. from, anonymous

jungwon couldn't help the shy grin growing on his face. every word written completely erased all the anxious emotions he had in his head. this is what it feels like, he thought. this is what it feels like to be loved back.

jungwon didn't need to say anything. he simply took y/n's clammy hand into his, intertwining their shaking fingers together. no words were needed after they had spent hours of their lives writing out their feelings for each other. they shared a smile, feeling secure together and lovingly gazing into each other’s eyes.

for the first time for the day, y/n was glad that jungwon had interrupted her confession, pining his heart on the board so that she could give him hers.

© snwpcktz

taglist: @jngwnlvs

[fern-writes-stories]

My Star

MINORS DNI !!!!!!!!!

♡ [a/n]; I am so fucked up from S2 still oh my god 😭💔 huffing so much copium you have no idea lads

✧ Pairing: Aziraphale x Crowley

✧ Word Count: 4,781

✧ Summary: Aziraphale and Crowley enjoy a nice day out of town. Crowley has never told Aziraphale that he cannot see the stars. Eventually all of this leads to sex somehow.

✧ Warnings/Tags: third POV, Crowley snake eyes theory, minor emotional angst, fluff, eventual smut, Crowley has a vulva, Aziraphale has a penis, softdom Aziraphale, oral (m receiving), praise kink, p in v sex, fingering, orgasm (f and m), queer sex, foreplay, beta read, lmk if I missed any!!!!

✑ You can find all my stories here!

✑ My request guide is here (and you can place a request here)!

-

It was a nice day. Crowley hated those. Well, not really- he hated them in the same way that landlords hated affordable housing. A habit created by the profession, a habit that sticks with you long after you’ve resigned. A habit that you can’t quite shake.

No, good days weren’t all that bad, really. After all, they were a perfect excuse to spend time with Aziraphale. Though Crowley again noted that he didn’t much need excuses anymore. Another habit he couldn’t quite shake.

Aziraphale had called that morning and proposed that the two partake in a road trip to somewhere a town or two over, and who would Crowley be to refuse such an offer? He adored driving his angel around in the Bentley.

They had set off at around 10 and had arrived in a quaint little town around noon. They had lunch in some small local cafe and Crowley had indulged in an extra, extra, extra, extra, extra long black coffee while Aziraphale had tried an assortment of the establishment’s homemade pastries and cakes.

Crowley didn’t care much for eating but couldn’t help himself from trying a nibble here or there at Aziraphale’s earnest request. He simply couldn’t find it in him to refuse the angel, and the bright smile he always received for gingerly consuming a morsel of whatever Aziraphale had offered made it all seem worth it in the end.

They had spent the rest of the day mostly walking hand in hand through the streets, Aziraphale occasionally dragging them into lame little knickknack stores or local grocers. Now they were meandering around a small park together, Crowley listening intently as Aziraphale chattered away about some book he’d been reading.

Crowley glanced at his watch when a moment of quiet passed over them. “We’d better be on our way, soon.” He pointed out. “Getting late.”

Aziraphale seemed to become nervous for a moment. “Oh, is it? I hadn’t even noticed. I suppose we should.”

They continued on their lap around the park until the Bentley came into view, pulled up in front of a very obnoxious-looking “NO PARKING” sign.

Aziraphale pulled ahead suddenly and moved to stand in front of Crowley, their hands still linked.

“…Yes, angel? What is it?” Crowley asked suspiciously after a moment.

“I was just wondering,” Aziraphale began, trying- and failing miserably- not to fidget with Crowley’s hand. “You drive the Bentley an awful lot.”

“Yes. It is my car, funnily enough.”

“Well, I have driven it once, so doesn’t that technically make it our car?” Aziraphale argued.

“I don’t like where this is going,” Crowley grumbled.

“Come now, Crowley. Always so dramatic,” Aziraphale teased. “Won’t you let me drive the Bentley home just this once? Please? You’ll be right there to monitor my speed, and there’ll be no funny business on my end, I can assure you. I know you take driving the Bentley very seriously.”

Crowley couldn’t half tell if Aziraphale was mocking him or not.

“Ffff… ffffffine,” Crowley all but spat out through gritted teeth. “But you will not make her yellow,” he said firmly.

“Of course not,” Aziraphale agreed, bringing their entwined hands up so that he could place a delicate kiss on Crowley’s knuckles. The demon couldn’t stay mad at him no matter how hard he tried, using his free hand to push his glasses farther onto his face.

Before Aziraphale could point out the sudden redness in his complexion Crowley moved to open the driver's side door for him.

“Come on, then. Let’s get this over with,” he said.

“Thank you, dear,” Aziraphale replied warmly, climbing into the car before Crowley closed the door behind him again.

【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】★【☆】

It had taken barely ten minutes before Aziraphale took a turn that Crowley wasn’t anticipating, throwing the demon for a loop.

“Uh. Angel. You do know that we didn’t take this turn on the way out here, don’t you?” Crowley had sat up noticeably straighter.

“Yes, Crowley, I am aware,” Aziraphale responded carefully, continuing down an unpaved country road.

“There’s a sign right there that says ‘private property’. Can you see it?” Crowley pointed to somewhere ahead of them from behind the windshield.

“Yes, dear, I can see it. Rest assured this property has been abandoned for many years- I doubt it is even owned. Though, I find your comment amusing. You’ve never been one to obey the rules, hmm?” Aziraphale gave his demon a sly smile.

“Yes. Sure. I’ll give you that one, but it doesn’t make me any less worried about where you’re taking us.” Crowley had begun to tap his finger nervously on the dashboard. He didn’t like changes in plans very much.

They had begun approaching the end of the lane and a chained-closed gate was in sight. There was another one of those “PRIVATE PROPERTY” signs attached to the front of it.

Aziraphale waved his his hand rather quickly and suddenly the chains fell to the ground, the gate beginning to push itself open through the overgrown greenery.

“Don’t worry, dear, I won’t get a scratch on the Bentley,” Aziraphale seemed to voice Crowley’s concerns, patting the steering wheel affirmingly.

They drove through the gate and continued until there was no longer a road to drive on, ending up atop a grassy hill that was gentle enough of an incline that Aziraphale could get the car to the top. When they stopped and Aziraphale put the car into park, Crowley looked at his watch again.

“Angel, I don’t know what you’re planning, but if we don’t leave soon we’ll be driving home in the dark. I know you don’t like it very much when we drive at night.” Crowley looked up to see that Aziraphale was fiddling anxiously with his hands.

“I know, dear. I do appreciate your concern, though.” Aziraphale smiled brightly and leaned over to  Crowley, putting a hand on one side of the demon’s face as he leaned in to give his beloved a peck on the lips.

When he pulled away Aziraphale noticed that Crowley seemed flustered again. He suppressed a chuckle. 

“Stay here a moment, will you? And please close your eyes.”

“Ngk,” Crowley complained, though was too dazed to argue further as he obliged his angel and closed his eyes.

“And no peeking!” Aziraphale added, and Crowley heard as he exited the car and his footsteps began to trail away.

Some amount of time had passed before Crowley was jolted awake by the passenger side door opening. He caught himself before he could fall out of the car, thankfully.

“Darling, were you asleep?” Aziraphale asked. “I wasn’t gone more than five minutes.”

“Nonsense,” Crowley snapped. “Just caught me off guard, is all.”

Aziraphale tried to hide a playful smile behind his next words. “Well, come on, then.”

Crowley stepped out of the car finally and closed the door behind him, taking a moment to stretch his stiff limbs in the dusk air.

“Right, then, what is it you wanted us out here for, angel-?” Crowley stopped short once he’d laid eyes on what was ahead of him.

Aziraphale was standing beside a large picnic blanket that had been set out- tartan, of course- with a picnic basket and a couple of wine glasses laid out by battery-powered candlelight.

“Oh.”

“Is it too much?” Aziraphale had begun to fret. “I can miracle it away if you’d like,” he added quickly.

Crowley stood still for a moment, stunned.

“Oh, you don’t like it, do you? I’m terribly sorry, my dear. I just thought that it was such a nice day and it was supposed to be a clear night as well, I imagined that maybe we could do some stargazing and look for those odd star patterns that the humans had made up- oh, what are they called?” Aziraphale had started muttering to himself in a tizzy.

“Constellations,” Crowley added suddenly, causing Aziraphale to fall silent.

Aziraphale walked tentatively closer to the demon. “Yes, well, I know how much you love your stars… and I know they are often obscured by the city smog and light pollution, so I thought that… maybe… you would have liked to come out here to see them. With me.”

He reached out to take Crowley’s hands.

“But if you’d rather we go home then I do not mind.” He smiled softly, almost apologetically, and Crowley faltered for a moment.

Crowley glanced up at the night sky. It was dark. Like it always was. Dark and empty. Save for the moon, ever-present and mocking him with every night that passed.

He looked back down to Aziraphale, meeting his gaze. How could he tell him without breaking his heart? Crowley knew that his angel would feel terribly bad. Not just about the botched date idea. About how Crowley had been denied the beauty of the stars he had created. All these years and Aziraphale had never known.

At least he would understand why Crowley didn’t often like talking about the night sky.

“I- No, angel. S’great. Lovely. Looks very lovely. Thank you for this.” Crowley moved to place a kiss on Aziraphale’s forehead.

He didn’t want to ruin the moment now.

Crowley led Aziraphale over to the blanket and they both sat down, the demon moving to pour them both some wine.

“How long have you been cooking this one up for, then?” Crowley asked, gesturing around them.

“Well, it has been on my mind for a while, now…” Aziraphale took the glass offered to him and gingerly took a sip from it. “And there’s been a bout of good weather lately, so I started planning this at the back of my mind. Scouting for places we could stargaze from, not too far from a quaint town where we could spend a lovely day out. And not to toot my own horn, but I do believe that everything turned out quite nicely.”

Crowley couldn’t agree more. It had turned out quite nicely, perfect, even. He suppressed a sigh as he spared another glance above, seeming frustrated.

“I’m sure you’d be able to see an awful lot more if you took your glasses off, dear.” Aziraphale pointed out suddenly. Crowley realised he had been more or less scowling at the sky and turned quickly to take a large gulp of his wine.

“Come here, darling,” Aziraphale said softly, and Crowley slowly turned to look at him. The angel reached up to grab the temples of his glasses, pausing for a moment, before Crowley bowed his head slightly in compliance.

Aziraphale delicately removed his glasses to reveal that Crowley’s eyes were brimming with tears. Crowley glanced at the sky again. Empty. Dark. The same as it had always been for the past 6000 years.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale began, the demon dragging his eyes back down to look at him. Aziraphale’s voice was frail and worried. “What’s wrong, my love?”

They sat in silence for a moment as Crowley thought, his head held gently in Aziraphale’s warm hands.

“I… I can’t see them.”

Aziraphale was quiet.

“The stars, I mean,” Crowley clarified. “I can’t see them.”

“Really?” Aziraphale’s voice was small and somewhat apologetic and Crowley felt his heart clench. What a perfect way to derail a date- make your boyfriend feel guilty about something nice he tried to do for you. Not a regrettable decision whatsoever. Nice one, Crowley.

“Yeah. S’my eyes. After I fell, she-” Crowley stammered for a moment before swallowing the lump in his throat. “Heaven took my eyes. Changed them to these odd snakey ones.”

There was a small pause as Aziraphale scrambled for something to say. Crowley thought of something first.

“Did you know that snakes can’t see the stars? Their eyes are better suited to the dark but they can’t focus on small details very well. Guess that includes stars.” Crowley laughed dryly, a tear spilling down his cheek.

Aziraphale wiped the tear away with his thumb. “Oh, my dear, I’m so- I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. And especially after you… and all this time… oh, dear boy…”

“S’okay. Not your fault, Angel. You weren’t to know.” Crowley felt bad for dumping this onto his angel so suddenly.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner, dear?”

“Dunno. Didn’t want to think about it, s’pose. Makes me sad sometimes.” Crowley chuckled again and moved to put his hands on top of Aziraphale’s.

“S’not all bad, though.” Crowley sniffed, trying to recompose himself. “I can still see one star. The most important one, if you ask me.“

“Oh, really?” Aziraphale perked up, turning to look back up at the sky expectantly. “Which one?”

“You,” Crowley replied breathlessly. Aziraphale faltered as he processed what his demon had said.

“Oh! Well… thank you very much, my dear,” Aziraphale replied meekly, pulling his hands away and turning to hide his flushed face. “Though I’m sure I couldn’t be nearly as bright as the stars you’ve created.”

“S’true. Dwarf my stars in comparison, you do.”

“Oh, how you charm me, my beloved serpent,” Aziraphale replied warmly.

“Look at me, angel,” Crowley cooed. He grabbed Aziraphale’s face gently with one hand and turned him.

Aziraphale’s eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, his face flustered with adoration.

“There’s my star,” Crowley purred delightfully. He leaned over until he was on top of Aziraphale, the angel holding himself up on his elbows by this point.

“Crowley,” he chided, though made no attempts to stop the demon as he leaned down to place a delicate kiss on his lips.

“What’s wrong, angel?” Crowley said, pulling away and moving to straddle Aziraphale’s hips. “I mean, I can stop if you want me to…” he teased, though Aziraphale knew that Crowley was absolutely serious.

“Well, I never said that…” The angel replied sheepishly. He leaned upwards to kiss his partner again and Crowley deepened the kiss ever so slightly.

“That’s my angel,” Crowley murmured against Aziraphale’s lips. He tangled the fingers of one hand into white curls while his other hand began trying to pull off the angel’s coat.

“We should really find somewhere more private,” Aziraphale crooned, gasping slightly as they parted.

Crowley chased after his lips, his next words dripping with longing and that of someone whose mind was clouded with need. “Sure. Yeah. ‘Course. S’whatever you want, angel,” he said breathlessly.

They met each other again in the middle and Crowley used his free hand to snap his fingers, and at once they were on the large bed in Crowley’s apartment. Aziraphale trusted Crowley to take care of what they’d left behind on the hill.

Crowley shouldered off his jacket and Aziraphale sat up to do the same, though while the angel miracled his waistcoat and outerwear into a neatly folded pile on the nightstand, the demon threw his haphazardly across the room. Their shoes quickly followed in similar manners before they both returned to the bed, kneeling in front of one another.

Crowley began to unbutton his shirt and found himself with his lips on Aziraphale’s again. Aziraphale had moved forward and pressed a thigh between Crowley’s legs, causing the demon to let out a loud and involuntary moan which he was bound to deny in later discussions.

Aziraphale grabbed Crowley’s waist with both hands and the latter began to loosen the angel’s bow tie. Then suddenly Aziraphale’s mouth was on Crowley’s exposed neck, kissing trails up and down his jawline and back and forth along his collarbone.

“Ngk, angel,” Crowley moaned again, faltering for a moment before he finally finished unbuttoning Aziraphale’s shirt.

“What is it, my dear?” Aziraphale asked, sucking lightly at a particularly sensitive spot on Crowley’s neck.

“Ngh,” Crowley replied.

“Come, now, use your words for me, lovely.” Aziraphale pressed his thigh further between Crowley’s legs and felt him begin to grind softly against it. “Now, one more time for me, dear. What do you need?”

“Y-You,” Crowley eventually moaned out. “You, in me.”

“Now that’s a tad crude, don’t you think?” Aziraphale teased, but Crowley didn’t much care. Instead, he responded with another strangled sound that seemed just as eager to escape his throat as all the rest before it.

Crowley’s hands had found their way back to Aziraphale’s hair and the angel delicately began to trace his fingers along the waistband of Crowley’s pants. His hands eventually met at Crowley’s belt buckle and made quick work of unfastening it before moving to unbutton his pants next.

Crowley groaned into Aziraphale’s hair and gripped his shoulders. He opened his mouth to say something but all thoughts were lost the moment that Aziraphale slipped his hand down the front of what remained of Crowley’s pants, delicately pressing a finger to his slicked pussy.

“A-Angel,” Crowley moaned out, stopping himself from rolling his hips into Aziraphale’s hand.

“So wet for me, hmm?” Aziraphale murmured into his ear. It was all Crowley could do to nod absently in agreement.

“So needy, aren’t we? So needy for me, Crowley.” Aziraphale moved his hand so that his finger could begin stroking lengths against Crowley’s vulva.

“B-Been thinking about you all day, angel,” Crowley admitted, eyes fluttering for a moment at the sudden stimulation. “Like this, with me,” he groaned out.

“Is that so?” Aziraphale teased, his voice low and smooth. “You’ve always had such an active imagination. Would you care to reenact some of your devilish thoughts with me?”

Much to both of their surprise, Crowley had managed to overcome his arousal enough to softly push Aziraphale off of him and back against the headboard. He caged the angel in with his arms.

“Angel, I’ll do whatever you desire of me,” Crowley muttered, his eyes half-lidded and eager.

Without waiting for a response he leant down to kiss Aziraphale’s forehead, then his flushed cheeks, his neck, and his exposed chest; slowly moving farther and farther down with every peck from his lips.

Eventually Crowley reached Aziraphale’s lower stomach and continued to kiss until he was met with the fabric of the angel’s pants, trailing along his clothed thighs and sending a pleasant shiver down Aziraphale’s spine.

Crowley looked up from between Aziraphale’s knees, making careful eye contact with the angel as he moved to place an especially soft kiss to the prominent bulge that was forming between his legs.

Aziraphale buried his face into the crook of his arm and suppressed a whimper as Crowley began to prod the fabric of his crotch with a serpentine tongue. 

Crowley was always like this. He liked to be in total control whenever Aziraphale gave up even the slightest hint of dominance. Not that Aziraphale minded all that much.

Crowley’s fingers snaked up to unbutton the angel’s pants and wasted no time in removing the remaining layers that Aziraphale was wearing, turning back to his erect cock with a certain amount of pride.

“Mm, I’ve been anticipating dessert all day,” Crowley drawled, leaning forward to kiss the weeping head of Aziraphale’s penis. He began stroking the length of it, slowly, deliberately, trying to drive his angel to the brink of insanity.

“C-Crowley, please,” Aziraphale moaned out suddenly, and that was all the demon needed.

Not even a moment later Crowley had buried Aziraphale’s entire length deep into his throat, as far as he could physically take it, leaving it there for a moment as Aziraphale gasped and groaned fervently at the feeling of Crowley’s warm, wet mouth encapsulating his cock.

Crowley hummed his approval when Aziraphale reached to grasp fistfuls of his red hair, feeling the angel’s cock twitch against his tongue from the vibrations his voice had caused. 

Then without warning Crowley began bobbing his head at a steady pace, listening intently as Aziraphale moaned out his name again and again. 

“S-So perfect, my dear, always so perfect,” Aziraphale managed to murmur, gazing down at his demon with adoration.

Crowley, upon realising he was being carefully observed, hollowed his cheeks and used one hand to stroke the remaining length of Aziraphale’s cock, already slicked with drool.

“C-Crowley,” came Aziraphale’s broken voice, his head turning away slightly.

Crowley hummed again in response, feeling his lover twitch below him at the action. 

“Crowley, I’m…” Aziraphale cut himself off with another moan, but the demon already knew what he was meaning.

Aziraphale’s grip on Crowley’s hair grew more earnest as his whole body began to tense, the demon not letting up his furious pace for even a moment. Suddenly Aziraphale cried out in a mixture of a muffled scream and a moan and Crowley felt hot strings of come hit the back of his throat, gulping down every last drop ardently.

Aziraphale was left panting and gasping a few moments later as he came down from his high, the demon slowly beginning to remove himself. Crowley sat up and gazed at his angel with a satisfied look on his face, using the back of his hand to wipe his mouth clean.

“Such a good demon for me, Crowley. Always so well-behaved,” Aziraphale murmured lovingly after he’d recovered. “Though I must say, I much prefer it when you end up a mess.” He put a hand on Crowley’s chest and pushed the demon back until they had essentially swapped positions, Crowley now lying flat on the bed while Aziraphale hovered over him.

“Now, what may I do to return the favour?” Aziraphale added sensually.

“Well,” Crowley’s throat bobbed for a moment. “If you must know… I’d rather like if you would just get on with it and shag me already,” he replied cheekily.

“What, and skip all of the fun?” Aziraphale complained lightheartedly.

Crowley hummed. “Thought you already had plenty of fun,” he joked. Aziraphale blushed a little harder.

“Well, my dear, for your information, I’ve barely gotten started,” the angel said, leaning down to kiss Crowley’s chest. “Quite peckish myself, actually.”

He looked up at Crowley through his eyelashes and the demon felt his breath hitch.

“Ngh,” Crowley said.

Aziraphale tugged at Crowley’s pants, which were still in the act of being worn (more or less).

“Though I’m afraid that either way I’ll have to remove these,” Aziraphale said, and Crowley spared no time in kicking them off and tossing them to the floor.

“Much better,” the angel thanked him, beginning to trail his hands over Crowley’s bare body. 

“Mm,” Aziraphale hummed after a moment of thought. “I need to return the favour, I think. Just fucking you isn’t enough.”

Crowley felt his pussy throb at even just hearing Aziraphale mention sexual intercourse. He wanted him so badly. In every way, all at once. Though he knew that was quite impossible.

“Ngk,” Crowley said again, though this time it was a much more choked sound. Aziraphale smiled at this.

“Surely you’d spare me a moment, my love? Sometimes I drive myself mad simply thinking about the way you taste, how you feel against my tongue. So delightfully tempting and incomparable to anything else I’ve ever known.” Aziraphale slowly began trailing his hands down Crowley’s body until he could grab him by the hips again, rubbing small circles with his thumbs.

“You’ve been so good for me, darling.” Aziraphale moved one hand to start stroking Crowley’s clit, the demon arching his back suddenly at the unannounced stimulation. “Allow me to return the favour, won’t you?”

“N-Ngk,” Crowley moaned out, trying to settle himself. His freshly recollected thoughts were scattered again when he felt Aziraphale slip two fingers into his aching vagina.

“Just like that. So lovely for me, Crowley. So well-behaved. So many lovely sounds falling from your tongue. Say my name, won’t you?” Aziraphale was cooing from above the demon.

“N-Ngh, A-Aziraphale,” Crowley managed to squeak out, earning more approval.

“Well done, Crowley. So obedient, hmm? So obedient for me. I love making you feel good, my beloved. It’s always such a treat, seeing you like this.” Aziraphale continued spilling praises to Crowley, working him up more and more with each word.

“P-Please,” Crowley whined. “Fuck me, Aziraphale. Please.”

Aziraphale seemed as though he were considering the request- not that Crowley was aware enough to observe this fact.

“Hmm… Well, I suppose so. I’ll just have to treat you on another occasion, then,” he concluded fondly.

Crowley felt an abrupt absence as Aziraphale removed himself, about to complain when suddenly he felt himself being lifted amid the haze in his brain.

“Is this okay?” Came Aziraphale’s voice, and Crowley opened his eyes to see that he was now kneeling over the angel, one leg on either side of his hips.

“Yeah,” Crowley replied affectionately. “Perfect.”

He wrapped his arms around Aziraphale’s shoulders and they both guided Crowley up and then gently back down onto Aziraphale’s waiting cock. Both parties took a moment to adjust, letting out their respective gasps and moans, before Crowley looked back up to focus on his lover.

“You ready?” He asked, and Aziraphale nodded.

“Whenever you are, darling.”

Crowley set a slow pace at first and Aziraphale let him have total control over that aspect of the situation. Aziraphale had also resumed his steady grip on the demon’s hips, aiding him slightly where necessary.

There were barely any words from Crowley past that point, replaced instead by a cascade of whimpers and moans and gasps.

“You’re doing so well, love- perfect, just like that. You’re doing so well for me, Crowley,” Aziraphale murmured warmly between huffs. “Oh, you feel so lovely, my dear. So perfect, hmm? Never was there another creation of god so perfect as you.”

Crowley buried his face into the crook of Aziraphale’s neck, struggling to form coherent thoughts as he quickened the pace until it was steady and fast. He snaked his hands back up to the angel’s head and tangled his fingers into the fluffy white hair there.

“Ngk,” Crowley whimpered as he continued to bounce up and down on Aziraphale’s lap. Suddenly he began to roll his hips with each thrust and they both let out graphic moans.

“A-Angel,” Crowley gasped. “Ah- m’gonna…!”

“Me too, love,” Aziraphale replied, breathless. He dug his fingers into Crowley’s hips and the demon let out another loud moan, coming undone at the action.

Aziraphale felt Crowley tighten around him and came a moment after, the both of them crying out in ecstasy as their bodies gradually stilled from the overstimulation.

Crowley all but collapsed against the angel and Aziraphale let out a breathy chuckle, the both of them exhausted.

“You did so well for me, hmm?” Aziraphale said softly, pulling Crowley back so he could look at him. “So pretty and loud for me, darling. Are you alright?”

“Mrrrnng,” Crowley replied, eyes closed as he leaned into Aziraphale’s touch. Aziraphale laughed again and let Crowley fall back against his chest.

“We need to get up, dear,” Aziraphale reminded him after a few moments.

“Hng.” Crowley said.

“I need to clean you up, hmm?” Aziraphale pointed out.

“Hrrfk.” Crowley said. He opened his eyes slowly. “Thought you preferred it when I ended up a mess,” he added sleepily. He couldn’t see it from where he was, but Aziraphale had begun to blush again.

“Do you mind if I move you?” Aziraphale asked, avoiding the question.

“Ngh,” Crowley said. (“No, I don’t mind.”)

Aziraphale gently lifted Crowley off of himself and guided the demon to lie down on the bed.

Crowley dozed off for a moment and when he woke up again he realised that Aziraphale had cleaned the both of them up (probably using a miracle, he’d thought) and was lying beside him now.

“Everything alright, dear?” Aziraphale asked, reaching out a hand to cup Crowley’s face.

“S’Perfect,” Crowley murmured, leaning into his touch. “S’Always perfect with you, angel. My star.”

“Well I’m glad to hear it,” Aziraphale replied brightly, moving to kiss Crowley’s forehead. “But please know that I am sorry about earlier…”

Crowley thought that Aziraphale was the only person on the planet who could manage to fret over something so unrelated during sex.

“I wish I had known, though I do understand why you did not tell me,” he continued. 

“M’sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Crowley said, moving closer to Aziraphale so he could bury his face against the angel’s chest.

“Not at all, my love,” Aziraphale reassured him, running his fingers soothingly through Crowley’s unkempt hair. “I’m sorry for the distress I caused you tonight.”

“I wasn’t upset with you, angel,” Crowley clarified. “Was just upset that I couldn’t enjoy the date you’d planned. I really did like it, though.”

Crowley tilted his head so he could kiss Aziraphale on the cheek.

“That does put my mind at ease,” Aziraphale chuckled. 

“I love you so much, Aziraphale,” Crowley said suddenly, squeezing his angel in an embrace. 

“I love you too, Crowley.” Aziraphale wrapped his arms around his demon.

[samandcolbyownme]

Summary: anon request - "y/n (she's dating Colby?) is with them when they finally go to the basement in the conjuring video and y/n tells him she went to the basement without them like how Sam did and he gets super upset/mad at her?"

This one shot will contain things some readers might find unsettling and/or triggering.  PLEASE DONT READ IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU'RE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH!!

Warnings include: strong language, being alone in the conjuring house basement, reader being touched and spoken to, hair pulling, pushing, reader feeling like they're being controlled by spirits, reader having visions, angry Colby, mild fighting, arguing, mentions of puking, general spooky stuff - read with care my lovelies ily! 

I will be using Sam and Colby's SAWATCH Part 3: The Basement as reference in this one shot but only for when the three go to the gravesite and then into the basement together. I will be adding some stuff in to make it flow since the reader is being written in, so everything won't be 100% accurate to the video itself.

Word count: little over 13.k | not edited 

╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗

You don't know how Sam and Colby were asleep right now. You don't know why you even agreed to coming here for a few nights - if you can even last that long. 

Maybe because you were more worried about Colby? 

Maybe because you were actually really interested in the history that surrounds the house itself? 

You were also an investigator. You'd think you'd be used to this stuff by now? But you're not. Nothing could have prepared you for what this house holds within the walls. 

You sit up, glancing over at Colby who's softly snoring on his cot that, is in fact, under the table like he said he was going to do. You smile slightly as you lay back down, snuggling into your blanket.

You try to remind yourself that Abigail is there to protect you, and that helps, but only a little bit. 

You suddenly felt a chill roll over your body, one that a few blankets wouldn't be able to calm. 

"Y/n." 

You slowly turn over on to your back, sitting up slowly, "Colby?" You whisper, but he doesn't move, "Sam?" He continues to lay there and you take a deep breath, realizing that it wasn't them who said your name. 

"Y/n." 

Your head tilts slowly as you watch a figure walk past the door frame, left to right, "Hello?" You call out quietly, but nothing answers. 

Sam stirs in his sleep slightly, but nothing drastic. 

Your eyes shoot back up to the door as you felt like you seen something in the corner of your eye, a face peaking around. 

The spin chilling creak of a door opening slowly causes you to freeze, even your breath is held. 

You stare at the dark opening for a few seconds before letting out the breath you've been holding. 

You go to lay back down and you hear another whisper, "Go." 

Your legs swing over the edge, feet planted flat on the floor as your hands move the blanket. Your stare is held on the darkness on the other side of the dimly lit door frame. 

Mind on one thing. The basement.

You walk past Sam's cot, glancing back at Colby before slowly looking back into the darkness. 

You know you shouldn't go down there at all, let alone by yourself. 

Colby made you and Sam both promise not to go down there before going together. He even promised both of you that he wouldn't either. 

As you round the corner, you stop as your eyes fixate on the specific door - that you know for a fact opened by something that wants you down there. 

Are you going? 

You wish you didn't, but you feel like you don't have any other choice. 

You walk over to the door, placing a hand on the knob as you look around the door and down the lit stairwell. 

Without taking another glance back towards the boys, you're heading down to the basement. 

Alone. 

But in reality. You're never alone when you're at the conjuring house.

You step gently on each step, careful not to make any loud noise. As you reach the small platform mid way, you stop, staring at the half lit room. 

Part of you wants to turn around, high tail it back up the steps and go back to bed, but a bigger part of you wanted to try and get answers. 

You wanted to know why, ever since you arrived, the basement has been - literally, calling your name. 

You didn't want to give them, too much of your trust, no matter how human they sound.

"Abigail. Are you here with me?" You whisper, snapping your head to the table and chairs when a knocking sound comes from that area, "Knock again if that was you." 

Another knock sounds and you walk over, slowly sitting down in the chair. Your eyes move from the well back to the table, "why am I here?" 

"The woods." 

Your body settles back into the chair and you get a sudden flash of the tree line, "The woods." You repeat, but in a much quieter tone, "Why?" 

"Meet us." 

You tilt your head, smiling slightly, "You're the trickster, Dave. Aren't you?" 

It's silent for a few second, but then you're left in total darkness as the light turns off. 

You can feel your heart rate pick up slightly, "I'm not going to the woods alone." Something clinks on the ground and you blow air through your nose, "Dave. Did you call me down here?"

You feel a light brush on your shoulder, but you don't jump. Something in you knew it was a loving touch, from Abigail. 

"Do you want me to leave?" You lay your hands flat on the table, getting ready to stand up. A loud whisper in your hear causes you to sit right back down, "No!" 

You close your eyes, slowly reopening them. You turn towards the direction of the stairs, staring for a few seconds before turning back to the table.

How did I get here, you think to yourself, but you already knew the answer to that. 

Even though you were fully aware of what you were doing and what was happening around you, you didn't feel like you right now. 

You knew you were sitting in the place you shouldn't be, but it's like you didn't have control over your mind and body. 

As you're sitting there waiting for anything else to happen, you get a chill up your spine, and a feeling in the pit of your stomach that you cannot shake off. 

You hear foot steps upstairs and your eyes are glued to the ceiling, waiting for either Sam or Colby to call for you, but nothing sounds. 

As you turn your head, you get a quick vision of a soldier standing outside of the upstairs window, looking in. 

"Are they watching Sam and Colby?" You ask and you can feel your hands start to shake. You wait for an answer but then it feels like you were released from your hold. 

You shake your head and take a deep breath, "What am I doing here?" You stand up, laughing slightly as you turn to walk towards the steps. 

Footsteps sounding behind you cause internal panic, now that you're.. yourself again. 

You book it up the steps, quickly turning out to close the door and holding it closed for a few seconds before you turn and make your way back to where the boys were. 

Still sound asleep. 

You push your cot closer to Colby, what just happened in the basement haunting you. You lay down, facing him and basically bury yourself in the blanket. 

Every little noise causes your body to jump ever so slightly. 

Why did I do that? 

Why did I break a promise? 

It wasn't you, you try to convince yourself, it wasn't you. 

.·:*¨ ✘ ¨*:·.

You barely got any sleep the rest of the night. You were awake when you hear Sam stir around and sit up. 

You closed your eyes, pretending to be asleep. 

Colby moves his arm from over your body and you pretend to stir. He brushes hair from your face, "Hey." 

You open your eyes, pretending that you just woke up, "Mm, hi." 

"Get scared last night?" Colby asks with a quiet chuckle and your heart starts to pound, "Yeah, I couldn't really sleep without being close to you." 

He nods, "It's understandable." He leans in, pecking your forehead with his lips. You sit up, forcing a stretch before standing up to move your cot. 

"How'd everyone sleep?" Sam asks slipping on his sweatshirt. 

"I honestly don't think I woke up once." Colby stands up, stretching, "I think someone got a little spooked in the middle of the night." 

He nods towards you and you laugh slightly, trying to cover up your nervousness, "Yeah. It was pretty creepy." 

"Glad to know that there was a cuddle party going on while I was over here all alone, hot and ready for whatever wanted to drag me away." Sam holds his arms out, trying not to laugh, "What the fuck?" 

Colby tilts his head, walking over and hugging Sam, "Oh I'm so sorry, brother. Come here." He squeezes him and you laugh, shaking your head as you grab your little travel bag and head for the bathroom. 

.·:*¨ ✘ ¨*:·.

You felt different all day and you were scared either of them would pick up on it, more Colby than anything. 

You kept drifting off, thinking about everything that happened when you were down there. How you felt, what you heard. 

You were torn between telling Colby and just waiting until they were done filming for the night, but at the same time, he'd probably find out regardless because of the cameras the owners have set up in the corners of the house. 

So you decided it'd be better to tell him sooner rather than later, but that was going to have to wait as you were on your way to check out the graveyard. 

You kept thinking about how mad Colby was going to be. He was going to be far from happy. You hated when you argued, which honestly wasn't that often, but you knew this was going to be a big one. 

"Hey." Sam bumps into you, "You alright?" 

You look up at him, "Oh yeah. I'm just anxious because of the woods and it being dark, ya know?" 

He nods, "I know what you mean. I'm actually quite nervous myself." He chuckles and looks behind him, "You ready Colby?" 

Colby walks up, wrapping his arm around your waist, "Yes." He nods, "I am." 

You lay your head on his shoulder, taking in the happy Colby as much as you can before your words, eventually, ruin his mood. 

Sam turns the camera on, light shining towards Colby as he walks forward, "Before we go to the grave site, we thought we'd stop where I talked to Dave, under the Estes method, earlier this week." 

You follow behind them, shining your light on the trees. You feel like your eyes are playing heavy tricks on you, but after that night, you just felt like you were going nuts. 

"So again." Colby's voice causes you to snap out of your thoughts and you walk up next to Sam as Colby continues talking, "After the past few days, we've heard the name, Dave." He points, "Specifically, super clear, on the Alice box, in the forest over there when we camped out. But, we were introduced to him right around these graves, so.." 

Colby steps back, opening his arms as he moves around, looking side to side, "Dave.. if you're around, or any other soldiers. Feel free to follow if you can hear me." 

"We have a long hike." Sam says and you groan, "Oh great." 

Colby chuckles, "I mean the last investigation last night.." he looks at Sam, "Come find out? Thats like, the scariest thing they can say." 

Sam laughs, "that's like, the most ominous thing any spirit has ever told us." 

As you walk, you keep hearing things in the woods behind you, "Jesus fuck." You whisper, walking quicker to be closer to Colby. 

He reaches his hand back, wiggling his fingers for you to take his hand. 

You grip his hand, not letting go for anything. You shine your flashlight with your other hand and it starts to flicker before going out then turning right back on.  

Sam and Colby stop, turning back to look at you then down to your flash light. 

"I'm not even going to say anything." Sam says and you nod once, "please don't." 

Colby squeezes your hand and you look up at him, smiling slightly at him, "You're good." He nods, "I got you." 

That made you feel ten times worse. 

You feel like you could puke. 

Your nerves, between the basement and walking through the woods you were warned not to go into, were almost shot. 

"Here's what scares me.." Colby starts out as he stops walking. You let go of his hand as Sam turns the camera to him, "Most of the spirits have these, like quiet knocks, but the one downstairs was way louder. It had more power. It had more energy, and we were on concrete." 

"Last time we were.. in the woods, the only things we really heard was that it wanted to attack and stalk us.." 

Sam's words cause your heart to beat faster - now you really felt like you were going to puke. 

What if you're what they, the spirits, were attacking, stalking? 

You feel dizzy, but you weren't sure if it was from the woods or just your guilty conscience. 

".. man in the woods might be following us right now." Sam finishes and you lay a hand on your head, thinking that it might just be whoever Sam is talking about. 

"Y/n." Colby's voice causes you to lift your head, "Are you okay?" He walks up to you and Sam shines the light on you, "What's going on?" 

"I'm just.. dizzy right now." You shrug, "It started when Sam said they wanted to attack and stalk us." 

Now you're just totally confused on why you're dizzy because there's a dozen things that could be causing your dizziness right now. 

Colby wraps an arm around you, "Do you need to sit or anything?" 

You shake your head, "It went away now, let's just keep moving." You motion forward and you all walk on. 

A little bit later, you push through some brush and Colby shines his light, "Oh god. Where'd the path go?" 

Sam turns around, "This is where we came from, but there's three paths." 

"Pink ribbons right?" Colby asks and Sam nods, "Yeah I think, they're supposed to be pink ribbons." 

"There's a blue ribbon over here." Colby shines his light and Sam walks down another path, "I can't see anything down here." 

You follow Colby and he yells to Sam, "Oh, here we go. Here we go!" 

"Pink?" Sam asks walking over and Colby nods, looking back towards him, "Yeah." 

Colby grabs your hand, leading you down the path as Sam points the camera to the pink ribbon on the tree. 

"It's like a river up here." Colby says, "Oh I remember this from two years ago!" 

"Yeah isn't there some sort of.. like pond? Or something?" Sam asks and you stare at the ground, trying not to trip over the rocks that are sticking out. 

"It's right there." Colby points and Sam nods, "Oh, oh oh yeah! I-I just remembered going to the side of that. So we just gotta figure out - Wait." Sam says and you jump slightly as he turns the camera towards you. You laugh, "Just frogs, Sam." 

"Oh god, that scared the fuck out of me." Sam laughs slightly you guys keep walking. 

"Okay so you said this way?" Colby points his flashlight and Sam nods, "Well, we just gotta get to the other side of this." He points, "If I remember." 

As you're walking through trees, Colby shines his light, "Oh yeah pink ribbon." 

"Pink ribb-" Sam stops, "Wait." You and Colby stop, both looking at Sam as he walks up to Colby, "What the fuck was that dude?" 

Colby looks at him confused. 

"I hear two of your voice, like in that research section.. where like, it echoed." Sam says and Colby looks out in  front of him, "Hello?" 

Sam pans the camera and you guys wait for a second before Sam shrugs, "I don't know, that was weird." He sighs, "Let's keep going." 

"I don't know why I agreed to coming here." You shake your head, laughing. Colby stops waiting for you to catch up to him and he leans in, kissing your head as he gives you side hug, "You love the adventure." 

You smile, nodding, "Yeah, I guess so." 

After a little bit more walking, the feeling of it being just the three of you, quickly started to subdue. 

"We are really in the middle of nowhere." Sam says and Colby blows out air, "We've been walking, guys, for like ten minutes maybe? Fifteen?" 

"fifteen." Sam nods, "Yeah probably. I just checked though, we have zero service, too." 

Sam pans the camera, "We are really out in the middle of the woods, alone." 

Suddenly a noise from the woods catches all of your attention, getting you all to stop in your tracks. 

"What the fuck was that?" Sam whispers and Colby shrugs, whispering quickly, "Wait, whoa whoa." He turns, pointing to the woods. 

Sam steps around and you move close to Sam. 

"What? What was that?" Sam whispers and Colby presses his finger to his lips before pointing, and staring out at the woods. 

Sam pans the camera to the direction Colby's pointing. 

All you hear right now is the crickets and buzzing of other insects. 

You feel a slightly eerie feeling wash over your body and you take a quiet and slow deep breath. 

Colby's stare is held on the woods as he brings his hand to the side of his neck, "Alright, let's just.. keep moving, I guess?" 

You walk down the dark path, all on high alert. 

The woods were scary, and being told not to go there was even scarier. 

"I think I see it." Colby said and you feel a slight bit of relief, mainly because you were over walking right now. 

"What?" Sam questions and Colby shines his light ahead of him more, "I think that is it up here." 

"Oh fuck dude." Sam says and you and Colby stop and look at Sam. 

"What?" You and Colby say in unison. 

"This-this light just died." Sam says and you take a deep breath as you tilt your head back, "Great." 

"You're lying." Colby says, walking up to Sam. Sam shakes his head, "No this light had like thirty five minutes of battery left.. look at it." 

Colby walks up to Sam and looks down at the camera that's pointed to the ground, "Let me look." 

"Look. It's out of battery." Sam states and Colby shakes his head, "Okay. Let me film that because no body is going to believe that." 

"Right there." Sam points to the screen, "That is actually so strange." 

"Is this one charged at least." Colby questions and you lay a hand on your forehead, looking around. You feel eyes on you but you don't see anything whatsoever. 

"Yeah, that one is charged." Sam nods, "That's the graveyard?"

"I think." Colby answers and Sam points to the camera, "And this just died?" 

"What the fuck." You mumble, running a hand through your hair, "what the fuck." 

There's a sound behind you and you all turn around, "What was that?" Sam whispers and you shrug, staring out into the woods. 

Sam lays his arm over you, moving you back with him as he steps backwards, "Footsteps, footsteps." 

Colby grabs your hand, pulling you with him as you run away from where the sound came from. 

"I'm just scared of like, what's taking the energy. Like why did we get lured out here? And then what's like-" 

Sam cuts Colby off, "Wait, dude. What if all of our lights just go out? Like there's no way we're gonna be able to get back." 

"No I know." Colby nods as he continues walking, "that's why we should make this quick." 

You walk up to the gravestones and sam shines the camera, "Here it is." 

"This is it." Colby adds, "This was like, a lot more overgrown last time we were here." 

You walk ahead a little more, shining your light on the stones as you walk by to stay with Sam and Colby. 

"All the graves, guys." Sam says as he shows the camera. 

Colby bends down in front of one, "George. George baker." 

Sam whispers the camera away, "What the fuck was that?" 

Colby continues, "Another George." You tap Colby to get his attention and you point to Sam as he speaks, "Footsteps. Footsteps. Footstep, dude!" 

Colby shines his light into the trees and Sam follows it with his camera, "What the fuck is that? Dude." 

You move between Sam and Colby, your heart beating faster and faster with each second. 

You're all silent for a little bit as you look around to try and find the source of the sound. 

"Is that tree-" 

Sam cuts Colby off, "Something moving in the tree." He shakes his head, "Alright, let's just go over to James."

You move around to walk over and Sam sighs, "oh god, I can't see shit, dude." 

Colby shines his light, making sure you're good before shining it onto a grave, "Oh wait, it's this one." 

Sam points the camera, "There it is." He bends down slightly, "James had a god dang pentagram as if he was getting summoned into the house." 

Sam talks about James and you zone out, the guilt of going to the basement slowly consuming you again. 

"Eighteen sixty five. That's a hundred years before the Perron's were even here." Colby faces the camera and Sam nods, "These people might know, what's been in the woods. You know, if they've been here for this long.." 

Colby nods, "okay so we have the EMF and we brought the Alice box, right?" 

Sam nods, "Yeah." He looks to you and you raise your hand, "Yeah, I have it." 

"Last time the Alice box gave us pretty much the direct intentions-" Sam stops talking, panning the camera out into the darkness. 

You and colby shine your lights on the tree before Sam goes back to talking, the direct intentions of the people that were out in the woods so hopefully they can give us that again." 

You walk over, standing next to Colby as he takes the camera from Sam. You take your backpack off, getting out the Alice box for him. 

Sam takes it before walking over to crouch down in front of James' headstone, "James. We came here a couple years ago. I don't know if you recognize us, you came back to the conjuring house with us. We're really just.. coming out here to look for some answers." 

He pauses before speaking again, "lot of people are scared of the woods." 

The box beeps and Sam looks down, "Oh fuck." He stands up, looking between you and Colby, "Dude." 

"What?" Colby asks and Sam holds the box up slightly, his stare on Colby. 

"Knife." The box plays and Sam repeats it, "Knife." 

"Knife!?" You and Colby ask at the same time. 

"First word is knife?" Sam asks, completely shocked. 

"What's that even mean?" Colby asks and Sam looks back down at the box as it beeps, "Late." He looks up, "Late at night?" 

Colby shrugs and you wrap your arms around yourself as Sam asks more, "Do you happen to have any idea who the man from the woods is? He's being very cryptic with the way he was telling us to come out to the woods." 

You press your fingers to your lips, watching as Sam moves around to set the equipment against the stone. 

After a few minutes, the box beeps again. 

Sam leans down and Colby gasps, reaching out to point, "Oh that just spiked up!" 

"Violent?" Sam reads and the box replays the word, "Violent."

All three of you shout out the word, shocked. 

"What ever was out here." Sam starts, "In the woods, a couple of days ago, was trying to attack us." 

"You said, violent-" 

The box beeping cuts Colby off and Sam leans down, "Violent land!" 

A sound causes Sam to look to his right, and Colby moves the camera, "What!? What!?" 

"I saw- I just saw something move to the right." Sam points and Colby taps you with his hand, "Wait, point your flashlight over there." 

You point your flashlight and the Alice box beeps again, "Spell." 

Colby whips the camera back to the stone and you keep your light to where Sam saw something, but you look over at the boys. 

"Spell." Sam says and Colby tilts his head, "The alphabet." 

You stare out at the trees, zoning out for a second before the beeping of the alice box causing you to look over, "Levitation." 

"Levitation!" Colby says loudly as Sam yells, "Oh my fucking god." 

"Oh fuck." You shake your head, "There's no way." 

"Wait wait wait." Sam whispers quickly, "does that mean from the thing from the woods, was the thing that caused the levitation of the seance in Nineteen seventy four?" 

"I don't know." Colby answers, "But it's like threatening a violent levitation, like I can do that, too." 

Sam covers his mouth, same as you, "Oh my god." 

"Or it, it, it's just mocking the story." Colby says quickly, right before the Alice box beeps again, "Cycle." 

"Oh fuck." Sam says looking up at Colby. Colby holds his hand out, "It's like it's gonna happen again." 

Sam repeats, "It's gonna happen again." 

You shiver slightly, "This is fucking wild. What the fuck, I don't like this." 

Colby looks at you and Sam, "I don't like this." Sam nods, "I don't like this at all." 

The box beeps again, "Alignment." 

All three of you repeat the word in unison, "Alignment." 

"Something's about to happen." Sam waves his hand in front of him, "Levitation. Violent land." 

"Colby. Colby." You tap him a few times and point, "There's like.. a light or something over there." 

Sam stands up, walking over to you guys and turning to look where you're pointing, "A light? Where?" 

"Yeah, there's like a flash of light over there." Sam point and you and Sam shine your flashlights in the direction it's coming from. 

Your flashlight dies and you look up at Sam shocked, "What the fuck?" You look down as you tap it a few times against your hand, "it's.. it's not working." 

Colby scoffs, "I don't like that we only have one flashlight now." 

"I'm actually really anxious about that." You say and the Alice box beeps, catching all of your attentions. 

Colby bends down with the camera, "Fight."

Sam repeats the word in a whisper and Colby stands back up, "What's that mean?" Sam shakes his head and Colby sighs, "We're gonna have to fight? It- dude. It's all like, malicious words. The fact that it said levitation, and cycle, and alignment?" 

"Yeah, it's like something's about to happen." Sam stares up at colby who nods, "Yeah, it's like this is about to be the same thing, every few years." 

Colby takes a deep breath, "So how do we figure out who we're talking to? I think that's the main thing here." 

Sam stands up, looking at colby, "How bout this.. we're not talking to anybody else. Just you..." 

As Sam continues asking questions and talking, you start to feel dizzy again. 

Your heart starts racing and you can feel your hands start to shake, just like they did in the basement. 

You close your eyes, trying to calm yourself down, but you start to feel like not yourself anymore. 

You can tell that you're taking slow steps backwards, and you know that you shouldn't do that. You don't want to do that. 

You open your eyes and gasp for air, it was almost like your breath was being held. 

Sam and Colby's whip their heads around and Colby walks back to you, "Whoa, hey. What's happening?" 

You shake your head, breathing heavy, "As.. Sam was.. talking.." you take a breath, holding it for a few seconds before you blow out the air, "I felt myself get dizzy, so I closed my.. eyes to try and get it to stop and I felt myself taking steps backwards. It felt like I wasn't breathing because when I-I opened my eyes I just gasped." 

Colby wraps his arm around you, looking back at Sam, "okay, let's just go ba-" 

"No." You cut him off, "I'm fine." 

Colby states at you, "Y/n. I don't want you getting hurt. That's not why we're doing this." You nod, "I know, Colby. I know, but I want to keep doing this. This is.. this is stuff we need to get. If anything else happens, I'll tell you but.. I'm not stopping here, we're already deep into this." 

Colby glances back to Sam and Sam shrugs, "She knows her limits, Colby. If she wants to keep going, I say we move to another spot because we aren't getting any names here." 

Colby nods, looking back at you, "You sure you're fine?" 

You nod, "Yes, Colby. I'm good." 

He nods, taking your hand in his as you follow Sam to a new area. As soon as you stop walking, Sam holds up the Alice box, "Dog." 

The Alice box goes off, "Dog." 

Sam's head snaps to his left and Colby moves the camera to his right, "What is that!?" He asks, fear coating every word. 

Sam shines his flashlight and Colby gasps, "What the fuck is that!?" 

"That.. sounds like breathing." You whisper, holding onto Colby's arm, "What the fuck." 

"Yeah, that sounds like.. h-heavy breathing." Colby pulls you close to him as he keeps the camera on Sam who tries to mimic the sound. 

"Dog." Colby whispers after a moment of silence. Sam stares at Colby with his jaw slightly dropped. It drops more when the heavy breathing sound happens again. 

"That's fucking insane." You whisper leaning out around Colby to look where Sam has his light shining. 

Colby puts the camera back on Sam as he speaks, "Wait, that sounds like.. like an, instrument or something." 

Sam imitates a horn sound and Colby nods, "Yeah, that's like a bass. I don't even know how to describe that." He walks a few steps away and Sam continues to ask questions, "What is that coming? Do you know?" 

Colby stop, turning back around. Sam's voice goes down to a whisper, "Wait, wait. Voices." 

Colby nods, "Voices, voices, voices. Wait!" He turns the camera to his right and then back to Sam, "I'm turning this off." 

Colby switches the camera light off and Sam turns his flashlight off, leaving you in total darkness. 

You get a strange feeling, feeling like you're back in the basement of the house. 

You keep yourself calm, trying not to panic because this is a feeling you do not like, at all. 

"Fuck." Sam curses, "What do we do." 

It's quiet for a few seconds, then Colby speaks up, "Is that you, in the woods?" 

The Alice box beeping causes you to jump, "Shit." 

Sam whispers right before the Alice box says the word, "Teacher.. who is the teacher?" Sam switches his flashlight back on, 

Colby gasps, his voice slightly louder, "What was that? That- dude." 

"It's coming." Sam whispers and the next thing you know, Colby grabs your arm and is pulling you along as he walks away, Sam following.

"I don't want to go too fast." Colby whispers, turning back to look at Sam, "Because like, I actually think somebody's over there." 

You stop and Colby shakes his head, "I'm not kidding." 

The light turns off and you listen for a few seconds before Colby whispers, "You hear that?"

"No." You answer in a whisper. Sam shakes his head, "No, no I don't." 

"Just wait. Just wait." Colby whispers quietly, squeezing your hand that's clinging to his, "Something is making noise." 

"Something over there." Sam says as he's lit up by the red light blinking. Colby turns his head, "Now it's this way." He turns his body and sam turns too, "There's more voices?" 

Colby turns again, "Now it's this way." 

"Okay." Sam starts, "We're getting fucking surrounded." 

"Again, again, again." Colby says taking over talking, "Okay." 

The Alice box beeps and everyone waits for it to speak, "Dave." 

Your heart falls into your stomach and you instantly feel your mouth watering like you're about to throw up. 

"Oh my god." You lay your hand that isn't in Colby's, on your forehead. 

"Dave, if you want to come back to the conjuring house with us, please follow us right now, we gotta go back." Sam speaks in one quick sentence. 

"Please." Colby pleads and Sam keeps talking, "there's people surrounding us, we gotta go" 

Colby holds your hand tight as he pulls you along with him, running after Sam. 

"Wait, we don't have a light!" Colby yells after Sam to get him to stop. Sam turns around as you and Colby catch up to him, "Then we gotta stick together real close." 

You guys run a little bit further before slowing down, "Look dude I don't want to go too fast."

The Alice box beeps and Sam looks down at it. Colby moves closer and the box sounds, "Special." 

"Special?" Colby asks and Sam looks around, "Dave is special?" You walk a little bit more and Sam looks around, "there's probably actually people or something in the woods because we're hearing like weird voices-" 

"Wait, wait, wait." Colby whispers, getting everyone to stop. You press your body against his back, closing your eyes as the feeling of puking returns. 

What?" Sam asks and Colby leans in to whisper, "I just wanna see if we can hear what's actually out here." 

It's silent, nothing but the insects for a few minutes. 

"Is that a dog?" Colby asks, "It said dog." 

"Dogs." Sam says with a nod. 

"We're in the middle of the woods. That makes no sense." Colby whispers and Sam looks at Colby, "We're two miles in the middle of the woods-" 

Sam stops talking as a noise close by makes you all freeze. 

"What was that?!" Colby asks loudly. 

"It literally sounds like a war horn or something." Sam says and Colby mimics the sound, "rrrrrrr." 

"Like I said. Something is fucking about to start-"

Colby cuts sam off, "That's not like a car engine." Sam shakes his head, "No way. We should probably actually get back." 

Sam looks at the battery percentages of the lights, "And our light's like halfway done, yours is out. Hers is out, too." Sam looks around for a second, "There's tons of dogs around." 

Colby nods, "Okay. Let's go." He squeezes your hand, "Let's go." 

The main focus for all of you right now, is getting back to the house. 

Which you do, about twenty minutes later. 

You make your way into the house, your eyes land on the door to the basement as soon as you walk in. 

Your mind flashes back to you sitting down there in the chair, and you shiver as you remember the clinking sound that happened all over again. 

"Everyone alright?" Sam asks as he walks through the door. 

"Yeah I'm good. Are you good?" Colby pokes your shoulder and you nod, forcing a smile up at him, "Yeah, I'm good." 

He nods, looking to Sam, "Ready?" Sam nods and Colby holds the camera up towards Sam. 

Sam sighs, "Dude. We just got back to the house." He reaches back to close the door, "And it says one start of battery. We left and it was full. These things should last like, five hours?" 

"Something was draining our power out in the woods." Colby's says and Sam nods, "genuinely. All of it. Something was taking a lot of the energy to follow us back. We invited it back." 

Colby tilts his head, laughing slightly, "That could have been a mistake." 

Sam pauses for a second, glancing over at you then back to Colby, "Well find out." 

Colby turns the camera off and looks at Sam, "Are we ready?" 

Sam stares at Colby and laughs nervously, "Now or never right?" 

Colby looks at you, "Are you ready?" 

You swallow, "I'm making myself not have a choice." You laugh and Colby walks up to you, embracing you in a hug.

You could cry. 

You could puke. 

You knew once you said something it was going to be a rough next couple of hours, even a day. 

"Alright." Sam claps his hands together, "Let's do this."

Sam takes the camera and walks over to the door. 

Colby walks over, standing off to the side and you're right next to him. 

It felt like your heart was going to beat right through your chest. You weren't afraid of the basement. You were scared of how much disappointment Colby was going to feel when you finally told him. 

Which you decided was going to be right now.

Sam reaches forward, grabbing the knob to twist. He pulls the door open.

Colby takes a deep breath, "Ahhh, my heart.. started beating faster as soon as I looked down there." He nods, looking to Sam then back to the stairs, "Abigail. Hopefully you were following us in the woods, but please, please please, I know you don't like it in the basement.. please follow us down here. We won't be too long. We need your help." 

You get into a line, Colby first. Then you. Then Sam. 

You felt like you were shivering because you were shaking from being so nervous. 

Your heart was beating loud and hard. 

Colby glances back, "Ready?" 

Sam answers, but all you do is nod one time. 

Colby goes down the steps, you force yourself to follow and Sam is right behind you. The camera light illuminating the stairwell. 

You completely miss their commentary about the stairs. Your heart was now beating in your ears. 

You knew that it wasn't you, that was down there last night. But you know Colby wasn't going to focus on that right away. 

His mind is going to go to you being down there in general. 

You reach the bottom and you lay your hand on your cheek. You can feel how nervous your arm by the warmth on your hand. 

"Wait." Colby looks at you and Sam, "It's just us this time. This is the first time we're alone in the basement." 

You sigh, forcing the words to come out of your mouth, "it's not." 

Colby's head snaps towards you, "What did you just say?" 

You clear your throat, "It.. um.. it's.." your voice goes quieter, "Not the first time.. for me." 

Colby just stares at you, trying to fathom what you just said to him. 

"Wait.. so.. you came down here? Alone? When?" Sam asks and you look at him, voice still quiet, "Last night." 

"What do you mean last night?" Colby asks, "I don't.. I must not.. understand what you're saying." 

"It wasn't.. um.." you wipe the sweat from your palm onto your jeans, "It wasn't me.. like.." you sigh, "It was me.. but it wasn't me, like I didn't feel like myself." 

Colby looks away, jaw cocked slightly as he tries to wrap his mind around what's happening. 

His silence was deafening. 

After a few moments, Sam breaks it, "Can you elaborate, like what do you mean it wasn't.. you?" 

You look down, trying to not look at Colby because it would just make it harder for you to talk, "I.. um. I heard my name.. being called. A few times actually. Um, then I seen a figure walk past the door way." 

"Wait. Something walked past the door?" Sam asks and you can feel Colby's eyes on you, so you just nod. 

"And then what happened." Colby states, his voice a little deeper, clearly with anger. 

You look up at him, "I heard a door open, I wasn't sure which one u-" 

"Until you got up and came down here?" Colby scoffs and Sam sighs, "Colby, just let her explain."

Colby motions and you swallow again "I tried waking both of you guys up, but neither one you heard me." 

"Obviously you didn't do a very good job, now did you?" Colby shakes his head and you sigh, "Colby, I'm telling you. Something took over me. Something made me come down here. I was sitting up for a few minutes, I tried laying back down but something actually told me, whispered, go, and I just.. went." 

"That's so weird." Sam says and you nod, looking at him, "Sam. I am deathly afraid of this basement, I told you guys this when you asked me to come out for a night or two. I never wanted to come down here, let alone all by myself. When I tell you that I had absolutely no fear at all about coming down here in the middle of the night, that honestly scared me more than this because you both know I wouldn't just do that." 

"Where did you go?" Sam asks and you point to the table and chairs, "I literally just sat, right there in that chair." 

You look at Colby and he smacks his lips as he wipes his face. He stares at the place you pointed to and stays silent for a few seconds before breaking his own quietness, "I just.. thought.. when we, uh.. first came here that we made a promise to each other not to come down here alone." 

You clench your jaw, "Colby." Your voice breaks slightly, "I didn't feel like I had much of a choice." 

He licks his lips, looking down at the items in his hand. 

"I-I felt like I needed to come down here, like I just-" you sigh, "If I could have just went to sleep I would have done that." 

Colby leans back as he looks at you, not saying anything. 

He was mad. Disappointed. 

He pushes his lips together, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he thinks about what he wants to say next. 

"Colby.. she said something to- you can't blame y/n." Sam sticks up for you, "You and I both know that this house is.. this house is way beyond something else." 

Colby sighs, "I-" he pauses, "I get that.. but like.." he looks at you then to Sam, "We said we would go to the basement, together for the first time." He looks to you, staring at you for a few seconds before speaking, "So that's like.." he shakes his head, "I'm not gonna lie, it still just.. sits a little bit wrong with me." 

He shrugs, "and that you wouldn't try and wake one of us up harder, you know?" His arms fall to his sides, "This was, like.. a big moment.. for us, Sam." 

"I don't think you're actually under-" Sam is cut off by Colby, "She took that.. for herself." 

You close your eyes as they start to burn, "I'm sorry." Your voice cracks again, "To both of you."

You open your eyes looking up at Colby slowly. He has his jaw clenched, lips pressed tightly together as he avoids looking at you. 

"Do you know what time it was when you got up?" Sam asks lowly and you shrug, "I think it was almost three, or maybe three exactly?" 

Colby nods, looking towards you but his eyes are on the floor. 

"I just heard my name a few times and then something whispered go and that's when I just wasn't me, Colby. You have to believe that I mean it when I say I'm sorry." 

He nods, running his tongue along his teeth on the inside of his lips, thinking about the situation, "I mean.. I just wish.. you know, that you would have woke me up before.. like, it would have been nice to know that something was trying to take over my fucking girlfriend." 

"I know." You whisper looking down and Colby shakes his head, letting out a sigh, "Honestly I don't even really want to keep talking about it right now. So let's just.." 

"Colby." You walk up to him and he avoids eye contact, "I didn't do it for the camera, or for the channel, or for my channel. I didn't even do it for me." 

"But you knew what you were doing?" He looks at you and his stare sends a shiver down your spine, causing the words you want to say to disappear. 

You nod, "Yeah bu-" 

He cuts you off, shaking his head, "It's fine. I get it. It's all good." He walks into the room with the table and chairs and you look at Sam. 

He walks up, laying a hand on your back, rubbing gently, "It's fine. We'll talk more about it after we're done here." 

You nod, wiping under your eyes before you follow Colby into the room. 

"Dave, the trickster.. Abigail. Whoever's down here, we are gonna be doing the Estes method, and we also believe this is the easiest way of communication." Sam says and you just stand there, staring at the table. 

"I actually have an idea." Sam points to Colby, "Before we do the estes method." 

A sound causes Colby's eyes to go wide and he points at Sam and Sam gasps, "What the fuck was that?" 

Colby holds his hand up, listening to see if the sound happens again. 

You were honestly terrified to be down here again. You wanted to move next to Colby but you weren't sure how that would go. 

You wrap your arms around yourself, trying to console yourself silently as they continue. 

"Dude." Sam says quietly and Colby leans back, "Footsteps." 

"What the fuck is that?" Sam whispers quieter and Colby answers, "That was footsteps." 

You step closer to the table, voice as quiet as theirs, "I heard footsteps when I was down here, right after I had a vision of a soldier looking in the upstairs window." 

Sam snaps his head towards you, "No fucking way." 

You nod, glancing over at Colby. He looks at you and looks away, not wanting to talk about it. He points to the wall, "But it sounded like it was in the wall." 

Colby reaches out, knocking on the wall, "It was like deep inside." 

Sam pans the camera, "If that was you knocking.." he pauses, looking down. Colby steps towards him, "What?" 

"I don't know." Sam shakes his head, "just felt like something was grabbing my foot." 

"Your foot?" You and Colby say at the same time, but Colby doesn't laugh like usual. 

"Yeah, it was like hard to-" 

Colby yells, cutting off Sam, "Oh fuck. There's something on me." 

"What? For real?" Sam asks walking over you move closer to Sam and lean over to look at Colby's leg. 

"For sure, there's some-" he sets his stuff on the table and leans down, pulling up his pant leg slightly, digging in with his fingers. 

"what is it?" Sam asks and Colby stands up, putting something on the table, "I don't know." 

"Tick?" Sam asks and Colby points with his two fingers, "It was a fucking tick." 

"Oh god." Sam groans and you cover your mouth, paranoid that you have one or two on you. 

"I knew there was something on me." Colby exclaims, stepping back. He leans down, "Shit man, that is so gross dude. I hate ticks." He picks it up and leans over, flicking it down the well, "go in the well." 

"Speaking of the well." Sam starts, " A lot of the things that we've gotten, and a lot of things we've talked about, is the water could be the catalyst for activity." 

You raise your brows, "Oh shit." 

"What if we.. kinda like how we did in the Dracula's castle episode, why don't we grab some of the well water and use that to maybe like, summon something here." Sam pauses, "If things are coming from that well, at least maybe that's like a trigger object, you know?" 

Colby nods, "Yeah. Do we have anything to get the water out with?" 

You look around for something and Sam scoffs, "wait, dude. This just turned off." He looks up at Colby, "As soon as you touched- it just did it again." 

"See!" Colby says with his hand pointing to Sam. 

You walk over to Sam, looking down at the camera and he nods, "Yeah, it just turned off again!" 

"It's not just me." Colby shrugs while holding his hands out to his sides. Sam nods, "It's not just you." 

Colby nods, "So maybe it was a warning, not to do that." 

"Are you still going to do it?" You ask looking between them. Colby looks down at the well for a few seconds before looking up at Sam with a smirk on his lips. 

His eyes go to you then back to Sam, still smirking, "Yeah." 

"Oh god." You laugh slightly, "How the fuck are you going to get it?" 

Sam looks from you to Colby and Colby laughs, "Sam. Hold my ankles." 

Sam hands you the camera and walks around to Colby and bends down. Colby gets down on his stomach and grabs the cup. 

Sam grips Colby's ankles as he inches himself forward a little bit more. He blows out air, "Catch yins on the flip side." 

He leans down, groaning as he stretches to reach the water, "Oh god " 

"I promise you're not going anywhere." Sam says, groaning as he holds Colby's ankles down. You can't help but laugh at this situation. 

It's just so.. them. 

Colby's saying something but you can't really understand him because he's laughing. 

"You good?" Sam asks and Colby answers, "Yeah I'm just gonna go forward a little bit." He inches forward some more, stretching down more. 

As they're getting the water, you feel an uneasy feeling, but you just brush it off. 

"You got it?" Sam asks. 

"Yeah, I got it." Colby answers. 

In a strained voice, Sam says, "He got the well water." 

Colby comes back up, setting the cup of water on the ground with a groan. You put the camera on Colby and he sighs, pointing to his shirt, "XPLR merch, down below." 

You hand the camera back to Sam and step to the side. Sam looks at you, "You good." You sigh quietly, nodding, "Yeah." 

"Shit dude, I ruined everything." Colby says as he brushes himself off. Sam tries not to laugh, "It was well worth it." 

Colby looks up, glaring at Sam and Sam laughs, "get it?" 

You laugh and walk around to sit down in a chair and you watch as Colby moves to sit next to you, Sam next to Colby. 

Sam leans forward, setting the camera down on the other side of the table to get you all in frame. 

"This looks oddly familiar." Colby says and Sam nods, "literally learned the Estes method in this house, two and half years ago." 

You watch as Colby puts on his blindfold and you hand him the headphones. 

Sam looks at Colby, "Let's try and figure out who's trying to fuck with us." 

"Weird full circle moment." Colby says as he brings the headphones to his ears, but stops, resting his hands back on the table, "Yeah, so as a recap real quick.. Dave.." 

Your stomach drops when you hear his name now. 

".. is the soldier.." Colby continues but Sam butts in, "Who's been following us for like four days." 

Colby continues, "For four days, but we initially talked to him with the Estes method out in the back yard, and then he follows us to the woods by the campsite.." 

You look around, squinting your eyes behind Sam. You stare for a few seconds before looking away. 

"Hopfully Abigail is still here and guides us in the right direction. Please, Abigail." Sam looks up at the ceiling and you turn your head slightly, smiling as you feel the same loving brush on your shoulder, "she's here."

Sam looks at you and Colby turns his head towards you, "How do you know?" 

"She touched my shoulder." You swallow, "She did it before." 

"And you know it's her?" Sam asks and you nod, "Oh yeah." 

"Hmm. Alright. That makes me feel a little bit better." Sam laughs slightly, "Alright. You ready?" 

"Let's do it." Colby says and as soon as he puts on the headphones, "Reason." 

"Yeah we're trying to figure out the reason why you like us so much." Sam starts, "Why you want us out into the woods." 

"Works." 

Sam reaches over between you and Colby, whispering as he moves the cup of water towards Colby more, "We also have the well water." 

"What do you want with us?" Sam asks and Colby answers right away, "Sex." 

You raise a brow, "Huh?" 

Sam blinks, smirking slightly, "Alright, are you just fucking with us? Are you the trickster spirit?" 

"Me." 

"Can you give us a name?" Sam asks and Colby is silent. Sam looks up, "Okay. Are you a solider?" 

It's silent again and you lean forward, "Sam." He looks up at you, "What's up?" 

"When I came down here last night, I asked if it was the trickster spirit. And whoever, whatever it was kept telling me the woods." You say and he tilts his head, "Huh, that would make sense. Wait, is that why you got dizzy in the woods?" 

You shrug, "I don't know. It could be. I was thinking about that, though." You nod, "I just thought I'd tell you now so you know who didn't get mad again." 

He nods, "Yeah, I get it." 

"Run." 

"What do you want us to run from?" Sam asks, "unless it's Abigail?" Sam looks over at you, "like warning us?" 

You shrug, "That, I don't know." 

"Is it something dangerous?" Sam asks and there's no answer for a little bit. 

"Injury." 

You and Sam both look up at the ceiling confused.

"Science." 

"Oh my god." Sam whispers and you look at him, "what the fuck was that?" 

Sam looks from Colby to you, "everything's moving." He goes to say something else but Colby cuts him off, "Us." 

Your eyes stay on Colby and you get a sick feeling in your stomach. 

"Fall." 

"Do you want to hurt us?" Sam asks and you lean in, "Sam, I feel sick." He looks at you, "Are you okay? Do you need to step out or something?" 

"I'm not going alone. I'll be fine." You take a deep breath, "I'm good." 

"Friendly." 

"Okay. So you're friendly. Is this Abigail? Are you trying to lead us somewhere else, make sure y/n is okay?" Sam looks at you and Colby answers, "Stone." 

"There's a lot of stones around here." Sam says and his tone makes you want to laugh, he sounded so done. 

"Oh, Sam. Another thing. When I got that vision of the soldier looking in the window, there were footsteps before and then I asked if it was watching you and Colby.." you start and Sam nods, "Yeah?" 

"That's when that weird hold on me went away and I booked it back upstairs because footsteps were coming towards me but I couldn't see anything." 

"Stab." 

Sam keeps his stare on you, "it said knife in the graveyard." You nod and Colby speaks up, "He had to go." 

"Are you a murderer?" Sam asks and there's no answer from Colby for a little while. 

"James." 

Sam's eyes go wide and he jumps back, "James!" He covers his mouth with his hands. You cover your mouth, eyes wide, "No fucking way!" 

"That's the soldier from the secret grave." Sam looks to you and over to Colby before looking back at the table, "James. Is this you that we're talking with?" 

Instantly, Colby answers, "yes." 

Sam's mouth drops open, "Fuck yeah." He rests his hands against his chin, "Okay. Thank you. Who is this man from the woods?" 

You start to feel dizzy again. You lay your head in your hand as Sam continues to ask questions. 

"Here." 

"James thinks the man from the woods is here." Sam says and you lift your head. 

"He's pointing fingers." 

"What does he want with us?" Sam asks and it's a few minutes before Colby answers, "Rule."

"He wants to control this.. area? Is the man from the woods actually powerful, or is he just tricking us?" Sam pauses, "James can you answer? Are you just fucking with us?" 

You shake your head as you look away from Colby to Sam, "I feel.. like there's something here, like.. around us." You motion, "Like a constant presence that's moving around." 

"Yes." 

Sam stares at you, "He's not actually gonna hurt us, right? Nothing can happen?" 

You wipe your hands on your thighs, "This is fucking scary." You take a slow, deep breath and exhale quietly. 

"Future." 

A minute or two of silence goes by, "Use." 

"What, are you gonna use us?" Sam asks confused and Colby answers, "Help." 

You and Sam both look at Colby, staring at him. 

"James, do you need help?" Sam looks away and back to Colby, "How can we help you?" 

You both stare at Colby, waiting for a response but nothing. 

"Tell us how we can help, actually this time." Sam looks around and you feel like hairs on the back of your neck stand up. 

"There's definitely something here, Sam." You whisper so quiet you weren't sure if Sam actually heard you. He looks over at you, nodding and his voice is just as quiet as you, "Yeah." 

"Water." 

"Is that how you get your power?" Sam motions to the cup, "We got a little of the well water right here." He looks at you and his eyes move up to above your head, like he's following something that's moving away from you. 

"You." 

"Are.. are both James and the man from the woods still here?" Sam asks and there isn't a response from Colby for a few minutes. 

"Yes." 

Your mouth, along with Sam's, drop open, "Oh shit." 

"Dave." 

You and Sam look at Colby, asking in unison, "Dave?" 

Sam looks at you, "are there three people now?" Sam asks, "James. Dave. The man from the woods?" 

"Fool." 

"Fool." Sam repeats slowly.

"I'm back." 

"I'm back.. as if he's been talking with us." Sam looks up at you and back down to the table, "Man from the woods, have you been with us this entire time?" 

Sam pauses, waiting for a response but nothing happens for a few minutes, "You." 

"Yeah, have you been with me and Colby?" He looks up at you, "or have you been with y/n?" You tilt your head down, shaking your head as you blink slowly. 

"Woods.. Us.." 

"Us and the woods? We were all in the woods." Sam says and there's a knock, causing you to jump slightly, "Fucking hell." 

"In." 

"We were all in the woods." Sam repeats, "Man from the woods, what is your name?" Colby instantly answers, "Yeah." 

"I don't-." Sam rests his hand on his chin, totally consumed and Colby speaks, "Me." 

"Yeah yo-" 

Colby cuts Sam off, "I am." 

"Are you-" Sam stops talking, looking at you confused, "Have you been-" 

"Hello?" 

You and Sam look at Colby and Sam stares at him as he speaks, "Hello.. have you been with us the whole time, It-" Sam is completely baffled by what you're getting back from Colby. 

"Are you Dave?" Sam asks, keeping his stare on Colby. 

You're so scared that you know you're going to jump when either Colby or Sam breaks the silence. You were so on edge right now, you didn't want to sit through another Estes method. 

But you are. 

"No." Colby moves his head slightly, "It's meee." 

Sam looks away, letting his hands fall in front of him, "What the fuck?" He looks at you and you lay your hand on your mouth, shrugging as you shake your head. 

"No, then it's me?" Sam whispers and Colby butts in, "Moon." 

"Dave. Are you a soldier? Answer me. Who are you Dave?" Sam asks and another few minutes of silence go by, "Don't." 

"You've been following us for four or five days." Sam leans forward, resting on his elbows. 

"Again." 

"Why don't you want to tell us who you are?" Sam asks, set on finding out who this spirit is. 

"Sam." You lift your finger, pointing to the green camera light that's getting brighter by the second. 

He shakes his head, letting out a sigh and Colby speaks up, "Yours.. friend." 

"You want to be our friend?" Sam asks and Colby instantly answers, "Happy." 

"Okay.. you like when we come talk to you Dave?" Sam asks and there's more silence before Colby answers, "Lake.. turn around." 

You and Sam both instantly look behind you, a weird feeling in your stomach building up. You look forward at Sam and sigh, "This is intense." 

He nods, "Are you.." he looks to his other side, "Are you right behind us?" Sam stays looking behind him as Colby answers, "Unlock." 

"Unlock? Thats what it said about the door. Is the person down here right, the person that locked the door on us two years ago?" 

"What?."

"Do you remember us? Cause we were here two ye-" 

Colby cuts Sam off, "Yes." 

"So were you the person th-" 

"Yeah!" 

Sam covers half of his face, "Fuck.. Dude.." He turns to Colby, fighting back the urge to tap Colby. He lays his hands on the table and before he says anything else, Colby speaks, "Here.. This.." 

"Are you calling-" 

Colby cuts Sam off, "Friend." 

"His friend, was the one who locked us in the basement two years ago." Sam looks at you and taps the table with his fingers, "Is this friend of ours, this happy friend, the same person as the man from the woods? Are you the one calling us to the woods?" 

"Yeah." Colby answers and you get a chill down your spine. That feeling like you're about to puke returns. 

"Fuck." Sam leans forward. 

"Smile." 

Sam reaches out, grabbing Colby's shoulder speaking quickly, "Dude. Dude dude dude." 

You lay your hand on Colby's opposite shoulder, "Colby." 

Colby takes off the head phones and pulls the blindfold down. His hand lays over his eyes as Sam grabs the camera, "I actually think this thing that's been following us the entire time, Dave.." 

Colby keeps his hand over his eyes, "Mhm." 

Your fingers rub gently over his jacket as Sam continues to speak, "Is.. the man from the woods. I don't think Dave is a soldier." 

"Wait, why do you say that?" Colby asks, blocking the light with his hand.

You keep your stare on Colby, making sure he's good as Sam keeps talking. 

You feel that guilt feeling all over again. You don't want to feel it, not only does it make you feel upset, but you didn't want the spirits feeding off the negative emotion. 

"But Dave was the soldier, because when we talked to him with the Estes method, like he was the one that came from underground." Colby says and Sam nods, continuing to talk. 

Colby leans back and you drop your hand, leaning back as he speaks, "Wait. So you're saying he's been the one that's been stalking us since day one?" 

You look from Colby to Sam, sitting there listening to them talk back and forth about what happened while Colby was doing the method. 

You feel goosebumps form on your skin and you shiver. 

"Let's check if he locked the door one more time." Sam says and you all get up, walking over to the steps. 

Colby reaches back, grabbing onto your hand to pull you in front of him so you're not last on the stairs. 

You look up at him and he just stares down at you, fighting back a smile because he still wants to seem mad. 

You smirk slightly and walk ahead of him. 

"The doors wide open? That's also bizzare, too. I thought we closed it." Sam says, turning around to look at Colby.

"When we went up and got.. the water cup? We might have-" Colby's cut off by Sam, "Oh, okay." 

"You know what I just realized, too?" Colby asks as you walk out into the room, "when we first came to the basement, yesterday." He closes the door, but then opens it back up, "We did a ritual where we were saying soldier, soldier, soldier. What if that was just instantly telling, like the trickster as well, that we were trusting the soldiers too much?" 

Colby closes the door, "Like duh, he's gonna act like a soldier to get on our good side." 

Sam switches the green light back to the regular, white light, "Wait, the first day we did an investigation right here with Amanda. We opened the basement door and something came up and hit the REM pod." 

"So you could have just let out, Dave, the trickster spirit from the basement and then ever since then he's been following us."

A knock causes you to jump and Colby wraps his arm around you, "What was that?" 

"What was that?" Sam asks turning the camera, "It was like a knock on the front door." 

Colby walks over, checking it out and you watch, making sure you don't see anything in the windows. 

After a few minutes, Colby walks back, "Okay. Are we ready to go back down?" 

Sam nods and you stand there, hesitating on how you want to answer, "Um.. I don't.. know." 

"Do you feel comfortable going back down?" Sam asks and you sigh, "I mean.. yeah.. I just.." you shake your head, "Yeah. Let's just do it." 

"Y/n. If you don't-" 

You cut Sam off, "I'm good." 

They don't argue anymore and walk over to the door. Colby first, then you, then Sam. 

You make your way back down, sitting down at the same like you were before going up stairs. Sam ties the blindfold on and Colby looks at him, "Ready?" 

Sam nods, "Yeah." 

Colby switches on the static sound, "See how loud that is guys?" He looks into the camera and Sam puts on the headphones, immediately saying something, "Two." 

"Two." Colby thinks, "there's still two of you here? I believe we were just talking to-" 

Sam interrupts Colby as he continues to speak, "Young." 

"Out." 

"Hi." 

You get instant chills and Colby looks at you, "Every single time I talk it's just talking over me." Colby looks up, making his voice louder, "Dave. Are you with me?" 

A few minutes goes by, and Sam breaking the silence causes you to jump, "Here." 

"Why do you want us to go to the woods so bad?" 

You close your eyes, trying to keep that sick feeling at bay as Colby keeps trying to get answers. 

"Evil girl." Instantly after, "Abigail." 

You open your eyes, looking at Colby and you repeat her name at the same time. 

"He would.. the trickster, or Dave, would think that Abigail is evil-" 

"Dead." 

"Dave I need you to be clear with me, why do you want us to go to the woods?" 

Sam doesn't say thing for a few minutes, but within those few minute, you reach out, laying your hand on Colby's arm and his hand goes to lay on yours, "What's up?" 

"I don't feel like it's just us again." You shake your head, "Someone else is here. Something else, or whatever. We're not alone." 

"Down." 

"Person."

Colby looks from you to Sam, and back to you. 

"Blame." 

"So if there's other people down there as well, is that what you're saying? Other spirits that you know?" Colby asks and Sam responds, "Seven." 

Colby's mouth drops and he leans back, "we've been getting seven all the time.." 

"Line em' up." 

"Are these seven spirits dangerous?" Colby asks and you jump as something brushes against your leg. You refuse to look, mainly because you're scared. 

"Who are these seven spirits in the woods with you? Are they other earth bound spirits, possibly?" Colby asks and you sit there in silence, awaiting a possible answer from Sam.

"With you." 

You look at Colby, "Is that why I don't feel like it's just us?" 

"If there's seven spirits with us now.. I mean.." 

"Basement." 

Your eyes go wide, "seven spirits here. In the basement." 

"Do you have a plan to do something to us is we go to the woods?" 

Sam answers Colby immediately, "Spooked." 

You nod, your voice quiet, "Yeah, we're for sure spooked." 

"Why didn't you scare us when we were there earlier tonight?" Colby asks and you look between him and Sam, wishing you weren't scared enough to leave the basement alone. 

"Was that you making noises in the woods? Were you trying to scare us?" 

Sam doesn't answer, he just sits there. 

"Find out." 

You feel like your skin is crawling with the cryptic responses. You were so on edge right now, you wanted to leave and never come back. 

Colby looks at you, "That's the same thing is said yesterday.. come find out." 

You place your elbows on the table, holding your head between your hands. 

"Are you okay?" Colby whispers and you nod slightly, "I'm starting to get a headache." 

"I promise." 

"What's gonna happen?" Colby asks and there's another long pause, the pain in your head growing worse by the second. 

"Trauma." 

You look up at Sam and you close your eyes. 

"Stone." 

"Stone?" Colby questions and you lean back slowly, taking a deep breath as you rest your hands on the table. 

The pain in your head is slowly dying down. 

Colby continues asking questions and you feel that feeling of not being alone creep in again, this time it's more of a heavier feeling. 

You can feel it, weighing down on you like something is pressing on your shoulders and you're resisting. 

"It's time." 

"I can sense." 

The feeling disappears and you slam your hand on Colby's arm, "I just felt like something was weighting down my shoulders and when Sam said it's time, it went away." 

"Is that plan happening now? When is it going to happen? Were you just touching y/n?" Colby asks, glancing from Sam to you, "Why would we come back there if you're saying you're going to attack us?" 

"Pause." 

"Dude." Colby rubs his eyes and you sigh, "i have a question, were you the one we were talking to two years ago?" 

"You're scared." 

Colby laughs slightly, "we were terrified." 

"Don't record." 

You glance to the camera and back to Colby. 

"Dave.. do you call yourself Beelzebub?" 

"I dare you." 

You all sit there in silence, you mainly thinking about everything. 

"I like you." 

"At this point, we just know you're trying to get on our good side. So, it's not gonna work." 

"Family." 

"Do you do this for a specific reason?" 

You lay your hands on your head, resting your elbows on the table. 

Your headache returns. 

"Heaven." 

"Do you get power from scaring people?" Colby asks and you swear you hear a knock, but before you can say anything, Sam cuts you off, "Come in." 

"It's the same thing. He's not answering any questions. It's the same things.. just come to the woods." 

"My head hurts again." You look at Colby and he leans in, "Do you need to leave?" 

"I'm not going by myself. I'll be fine." You take a deep breath, "it was hurting just a few minutes ago.. stopped, and now it hurts again." 

"Did it do this when you were down here-"

Sam cuts Colby off, "Alone." 

"No." You answer quickly, "It didn't." 

"You know, that makes sense though, the owner did say the best way to get evidence is to be alone." Colby looks at you, snapping his head to Sam. 

"He's ready." 

You point to Sam, "Colby. Look at him." 

Colby watches Sam and tilts his head, "He's like.. shaking.." He looks at you, "I'll pull him out of this in a second.." 

You nod, sitting up and watching Sam intently. He shakes his head back and forth, just acting weird. 

"Colby, I don't .. I don't like this." You look at Colby and he shakes his head, "Yeah neither do I." 

"Thank you." Sam says, sounding normal. 

Colby just stares at him as he places a hand on his shoulder. Sam reaches up, brushing his other shoulder before moving to take off the headphones. 

Colby moves his hand and Sam brushes his shoulder again, almost in a panic to take off the blindfold. 

"Why you acting like that?" Colby asks, kind of worried. 

"Dude." Sam shakes his head, hand still on his shoulder, "I-" he stumbles over his words before he stands up, moving behind Colby, "It felt like someone was leaning in like this." 

He demonstrates and Colby looks at you, eyes wide, "Isn't that-" 

"Uh huh." You nod, "I felt that same thing." 

"It felt like it was pushing me down." Sam moves to sit down and Colby nods, "Yeah your legs were shaking. I stopped it mostly because y/n kept getting headaches and I wanted to see, like what you were doing." 

"I don't think I've ever felt an Estes method like that.. I don't.." he looks between you and Colby, ".. Was I like.. it literally felt like-" 

"Just pressure on your neck and shoulders?" You ask and Sam nods, "Yeah, the pressure." 

"It was your legs that were freaking me out because you were just like starting to twitch and like-" 

Sam cuts Colby off, "that's what I'm saying like, the Zack Bagans thing.. my legs were tensing up as if I needed to like, move or I'd get up.. it was just fucking weird." 

"Okay let's just.. get out of here. We can talk about it all upstairs." Colby stands up, "How's your head?" He looks at you and you nod, "It's fine again."

"The camera turned off." Sam says and Colby goes to grab it. He turns it back on and it shuts off again, "it just turned off twice, in a row, right when I grabbed it.." 

"Alright let's just get upstairs." Sam says and you all start to gather the things from the table. Colby yelling causes you to jump, "Three times!?" 

"Let's just go. Let's go." Sam says and it turns off again, "What's fucking happening? I'm holding it with my left hand because I'm holding this." Colby shows his hand and you turn your head, almost like a scuffling abound capturing your attention. 

"Guys." You hold your arm out towards them but the camera shutting off has their attention. 

You look back at them, then back into the darkness and the same footsteps that came after you while you were down here alone, come after you again. 

You let out a yell, moving to stand between Sam and Colby.

"What!? What what?!" Colby asks wrapping his arm around you. 

"Footsteps. Like footsteps running towards me just happened and that same thing happened last night when I was coming back up the steps." You lean into Colby and he sighs, "We need to be recording." 

"Here. I'll just.." Sam starts recording on his phone. He explains what you heard and Colby holds the camera out, "Guys. Look look." 

"It's just turning off." Sam says and Colby holds it back up, "Look watch. Are you gonna do it again? Turn off the camera." 

Sam shakes his head, "Dude, I just don't think we should fuck with it like that." 

"No that was five times in a row, Sam." Colby argues, "You got that right?" 

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I got it." Sam says. You sigh, "I think we just need to get out of here." 

You all go up the steps, stepping out the door way and you take a deep breath, "Oh my god." 

"It's still turning off." Colby says, and suddenly the light goes off, causing you all to yell. 

"This is a brand new light." Sam says, "let's just go outside." 

As you go outside, Sam pulls the door shut, "What the fuck is happening." Colby shrugs, "I don't know dude. Something is trying to delete the footage." 

They go back and forth about it for a second and then Colby looks at you, "Are you okay?" 

You nod, "No, yeah. I'm good. I feel better now that we're out here." You walk over to him, "Are you still mad at me?" 

He pulls you into a hug, "Were definitely going to talk about everything in detail when we get a second, but as of right now I'm just glad that nothing serious happened to you." 

"So you still love me?" You look up at him and he looks down at you, "Yes. Of course I love you. I love you, even when I'm mad at you." 

He smiles and leans down to peck your lips, "so are you sleeping with me tonight or are you-" 

You cut him off, "Going to a hotel? Yes. I'll see you in the morning." 

.·:*¨ ✘ ¨*:·.

I hope you enjoyed this. I wrote so much my Wattpad started to slow down and didn't keep up with me so I'm sorry if there's any major mistakes. 

Thanks for reading! Love yas! 

Likes and reblogs are majorly appreciated!

[lyqiche]

save me 2024 kuroo save me.......

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Depressive Episodes

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Viktor has gotten depressive episodes his entire life, but he was kind of hoping that they'd go away after the medication was flushed from his system. Unfortunately for him, luck has never been on his side. Warnings: Depression, suicidal thoughts, mentions of character death, mentions of transphobia, dysphoria, and self-harm Word Count: 10,598 Ship(s): Sissy Cooper/Viktor Hargreeves (past), Viktor Hargreeves & Everyone

Archive link!

A/N: So I have become rather unhealthily attached to one (1) Viktor Hargreeves, which of course means that he's going to suffer. I based Viktor's depression and anxiety off of my own. I only have depressive episodes instead of just constant depression, so that's why he's okay for the majority of the time and feels a little bit better when being taken care of. I also want to put a small disclaimer here, I'm not a trans man (I'm AFAB genderfluid) so I don't know what it's like to transition myself even if I have done some research. I hope that you guys enjoy this! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Some part of him had been in denial about it, which is why it had been able to sneak up on him like this. The third apocalypse finally being averted meant that all five of his surviving siblings split off to go do their own thing, and he was left alone after discovering that he had powers, falling in love with a mother and her son, losing them both, gaining his siblings a couple of times, discovering that he was transgender, and then losing his powers. 

After getting dumped in the new world and abandoned by his siblings, who all had their own problems to deal with, he stayed in a shelter for a while. It wasn’t long after that that he found out that, most likely by accident, his apartment was still exactly where it had been in the other timeline. He was able to return back home and even had some of his old students. He lost about half of them when he had to come out, which meant that he had to get another job to keep up with his apartment and bills. He ended up getting a job as a supplementary music tutor at a school nearby where he worked one-on-one with students that were either struggling or had a solo in their upcoming concerts. Before he had officially gotten the job, he splurged away his grocery money for the month to get his name legally changed to Viktor Skripka (in this new timeline he couldn't really get away with the last name Hargreeves). He had a good rapport with the students who thought that he was fun, and even more with the queer students who flocked to him like ducklings. They had been his biggest supporters, something that got him up and out of bed everyday to take care of himself despite how overwhelming it felt to go back to a normal life after everything that had happened. He still remembered how proud the little LGBT support club he was now supervising had been when they asked him to participate in the monthly check-in and he admitted that he had started T and was working on a date for top surgery. He was going to therapy again, like he had when he first got out of the house back at the tender age of eighteen. This time the main focus was his gender instead of his mental health, which was probably another factor in him missing all of the signs. 

He had his music, students that loved him, colleagues that legally could not misgender him without getting in trouble (along with a couple of allies), an apartment that felt like a hug from the good parts of the past, and he was taking huge strides with his transition. The world was finally looking up for him. So, of course that was when things finally started to go South.

He had always struggled with anxiety and depression, though the latter had been severely lessened after he stopped taking the numbing medication in their original timeline. Viktor still had moments when he felt hollow and as if his very bones were exhausted, but he was generally able to shake it away with a small nap or good food with the choir teacher he had become quite close to during the school year. The anxiety attacks before his first day of work and before each doctor's appointment were harder to manage now that he no longer had the medication to fall back on. He was able to study some tips on how to deal with anxiety while also talking with his therapist since a lot of his worries wrapped around his newfound identity.

Then the end of the school year came. He had a couple of sessions scheduled with his students later in the Summer, but he was mostly left to his own devices. He had rehearsals with his orchestra every Sunday and a few miscellaneous plans with Delphi, the choir teacher, and her spouses at the end of June to celebrate pride month. Other than that, he was completely left to his own devices. He had saved up enough money over the school year that he didn't have to get another job to keep himself afloat in between his Summer tutoring sessions.

That resulted in him holing himself up in his apartment and hitting the biggest pit that he had since he moved out of the Academy to be shipped of to Reginald’s choice of college. It was really beginning to hit him just how much had happened in the last little while. The mourning that he had never gotten to do for both of his failed relationships and the death of his son-figure and girlfriend finally hit him like a train.

It felt like his heart was being torn into tiny pieces inside of him, scattering throughout his body so every fiber of his being seized like it was pain. He ached with the need to have them back in his arms. He was almost willing to give up his gender identity just to have Harlan, little Harlan that he had met when his mother hit Viktor with a car, playing in the next room while he and Sissy danced around each other in the kitchen. Carl had been gone so often that it almost felt like they were a little family themselves. It was something Viktor had wanted for so long, his entire life, that when he got it taken away from him he didn't realize just how much it would hurt.

He spent the first couple days of his pit sobbing relentlessly. He didn't ever remember being able to cry this much. It seemed like every time he saw something that reminded him of either one of them, which was often since he had gotten quite a few sixties inspired dishes since he settled back into normal life, he would burst into tears. The sobs would shake through his small frame like his power once had. They would leave him feeling absolutely destroyed with nothing to fill the hollow void in his chest but the deepest, ugliest despair. Viktor had gotten sinus and dehydration headaches so bad that he thought he was actually deathly ill. He hadn't been able to stomach the idea of eating anything the entire time that he had been in that mourning place. Despite what he had seen from other people when they were in mourning, he had never felt angry. He felt resentment towards Carl that his last few days with Sissy hadn't been spent happily under the covers of her bed or even in the hot Dallas air on the farm, but not once did he feel angry. He didn't blame Allison for killing Harlan, especially when that wasn't how he had died in this timeline. He wasn't angry at Five for dropping them in the wrong city and wrong time. He wasn't mad at Luther for showing up and sparking off the whole race to stop the end of the world again. He wasn't angry.

He was tired. 

After the crying finally stopped, he was just exhausted. The hollow aching in the pit of his stomach had increased tenfold to the point where it felt like every nerve of his body was on fire. The only thing that helped soothe the pain at all was the gentle pressure of the blankets that he had bought for his bed during the winter. He had hiked up the AC despite what it would do to his bills and then curled underneath the nest of comfort he had created for himself. He didn't sleep for the first couple of hours that he was within the cocoon, just stared up at the ceiling or towards the door with vacant eyes. He wasn't really seeing anything that he was looking at, he just pointed his head in a direction and left it there. 

He had started shaking at some point and then realized how long he had gone without taking care of himself. He turned off his air conditioning and lugged himself to the bathroom. By luck alone he had dug himself out of bed just in time to take his most recent shot of testosterone and go to his therapy appointment. They didn't have to talk about a lot since he was handling the transition part of his life really well. He didn't even bother to tell his therapist about the spiral that he had been in the last couple of days. He had no way to explain to her that he had fallen in love with a married woman and basically adopted her eight-year-old back in the 60s and then royally fucked up their life but not in this timeline. He wasn't even sure that they had known him in this timeline, but it was probably for the best that they didn't.

At some point on his journey down the hole of numbness, a voice had begun speaking to him in the back of his mind. It was something unlike he had had in a long time. He had left the voice after getting his powers and even though he had lost them again it still hadn't come back until now. It reminded him of all the horrible times in his childhood when his siblings had let him know just how deeply they didn't care about or want him around again. The apathy at his plight was almost worse than the outward annoyance he was normally faced with. 

The voice told him lots of things that he was used to. About how he would never be truly loved, how he was completely useless and replaceable. The newest one was informing him that he had managed to turn everyone that might have had the chance at actually loving him against him. He had turned out to be too weak for Leonard, not strong enough for Sissy, too strong for Harlan, and too selfish for his siblings. Everything he had done in those two months when they had been trying to save the world three times over resulted in them all hating him. In the first one he hadn't even realized that he was going to be the one ending the world. He had just been scared and then it was like something had possessed him from his subconscious. A white hot thrumming of rage in his chest that had led him to destroy a version of their mother, Pogo, and their childhood home. In the second timeline he had just gone along with everything that they wanted him to until he made the selfish decision to try and run away with Sissy to the future. That had resulted in him almost blowing up the FBI headquarters and starting WWIII, as he had been informed by Five. Then in that same timeline he had managed to pass on his powers which got the attention of the entire commission and had gotten them all temporarily killed. In the third apocalypse, he had tried to make a deal with Marcus from the Sparrow Academy before he was eaten by the anomaly that he had technically created by passing on his powers to Harlan. Every single issue that his siblings had to face was directly or indirectly caused by his own actions. They hated him, and they were completely valid in that hate.

He found a small bit of comfort remembering how Luther had wanted to set up a party for him when he came out to show that he was loved, and how he had asked Viktor to be his best man. That feeling was quickly squashed as the devil in his mind reminded him that his brother hadn't reached out at all over the year they had been living in the new timeline despite finding his wife only a month after their arrival. He remembered the way that Diego had screamed at him over the phone when he finally got his hands on the book that Viktor had written back in the original timeline. Even though that now seemed like a lifetime ago, it still felt like a brand new wound that shot pain throughout his body. He remembered all of the false apologies Allison had given him, the false reassurances that she loved him and nothing could change that. She hadn't even talked to him anywhere outside of a group setting since they had gotten placed in this new timeline despite every wrong he had done being rectified. Allison's betrayal hurt most of all, above Five, Klaus, and Ben not reaching out to him. Even though this Ben wasn’t his Ben, the words still stung every time Viktor thought of them, to the point where they would cause tears to shine in his eyes.

That was the worst thing about the voice berating his every move and thought. It told him that this behavior was just to get someone to come and chase after him. The only thing that he wanted was for someone to pay attention to him, which is why he had gotten wrapped up with the convicted murderer and ended the world in the first place. 

His entire body ached all the time when he was awake. The internal pain was so bad that he wanted it to be external, which only caused the guilt already festering in the open wounds his siblings left to become rabid and all-consuming. He longed for the ache in his head from crying too long, and the cramping hurt in his stomach from lack of food. He longed for the feeling of his slightly too long nails to be biting into his fingers, right under the callouses from his violin. 

Viktor still tried his best to function like he was supposed to, he just left little things out of his routine. He would drink half a glass of water every morning before trying to burn his skin off in the shower. He would go to the shop everyday and then come back to give his one-on-one lessons with the students that had remained from the other timeline. He would eat the absolute bare minimum that he could choke down since he had no appetite. Then he would practice until the calluses on his fingers felt like they were raw and bleeding, and the bruise on his neck looked like he had been punched by Luther post-simian hybridization. He went to the couple of shows that his students had invited him to, cheering them on as they showed off how much better they had become than him at that age. He was proud that they had the support he never did as a child, but at the same time it left him in a horrific spiral of self-pity that led to guilt at daring to feel anything but resentment about himself, which left to more self-pity until the only thing that he felt was raw hurt.

Eventually he locked himself away in his apartment to just be alone. He didn't have lessons for the rest of the month, his orchestra was on their break, and none of his plans were for at least a week. The isolation turned him into someone that he thought he had left long in the past with his medication and tendency to fall into abusive relationships.

He had almost stopped eating entirely now. He spent more than his fair time in the shower, making the pain he felt inside finally spring to the outside. It caused more of the horrible screaming sobs that lived deep in his heart, where Sissy and Harlan were buried, to erupt from him into the crowded noise of the bathroom. He barely remembered to take his binder off when he went to bed because his skin felt so unlike his own that he thought he might have been placed into someone else's body entirely. It was like a thousand bugs were living just underneath the surface, like he was stretched across too much and too little at the same time, like he was watching someone else move his arms and legs.

He spent a lot of time staring, and even more time sleeping. Sleep was the only time that he got a reprieve from the voice in his head and the hurt living where his soul was supposed to be. He felt tired all the time, and sleeping was the blissful siren call at all hours of the day. He was able to dream that he was living back in the 60s, in the perfect version of his body, with Sissy and Harlan thriving on their farm. His siblings were happy and visited him every now and again, just like he had wished when he first moved away from the Academy. It was like every time his brain began to drift into that soft place he had found Nirvana, and he longed to stay there forever.

---

Viktor startled awake when he heard an unfamiliar sound ringing through his apartment. He tossed himself the opposite direction so that he was no longer huddled around the wall but facing towards his nightstand. He reached his hand out so that he was grasping for his phone, which he stared at blearily for a moment. He then realized that someone was calling him and swiped so that he accepted the call. "'lo?" he asked, his voice low and gruff because he had just woken up and the testosterone shots were already doing their magic.

"Viktor?" 

He blinked a few times. "Who?"

"Pretty sure you should recognize that name seeing as you chose it," the person on the other end responded. 

He whimpered and rolled over in his bed again so that the mess of sheets and blankets is covering a bit more of him. "Delphi?"

"Guess again, but I should warn you that it's three strikes and you're out," they chuckled.

"Klaus?" Viktor then asked as he sat up on the bed. He glanced around his dark room like that would give him any information about why his brother was suddenly calling him out of the blue. 

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner," he made fake cheering sounds. Viktor realized that something was truly wrong with him when his brother's antics failed to make him crack even a small smile. Back when he had been on a the medication, his emotions had been muted but he was still receptive to his brother's jokes. "Now tell me about this Delphi person," the other man began.

Viktor didn't have to even come up with an excuse to avoid doing so as he could hear arguing a little ways away from the phone before a new voice spoke into it. "Hey Viktor, we just wanted to know where you were. This whole thing is kind of a check up on us all so you do need to attend. We even got Ben here!"

"Hi Sloane," he let his shoulders fall a little bit. When he had heard a female lilt to the digitized voice he had been worried that it was Allison. He loved his sister just as much as he loved his brothers, but the only time she had spoken to him back before they came to this new world she had been yelling at him. They hadn't spoken much at Luther and Sloane's real wedding and hadn't been visiting Diego and Lila at the same time after Chrysanthemum's birth. "Uh, I didn't think that the sibling power check up thing was this week. Isn't it on the twenty fourth?"

"It is the twenty fourth," Sloane replied, her voice taking on a worried tone. "Viktor, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Viktor tried to scramble out of his bed so that he could start getting ready, but the blankets were so tangled around him that they sent him flying off of the side and onto the hard wooden floor. He let out a grunt of pain as an old wound on his hip from their fight with the Sparrows at the beginning of the third apocalypse sent an ache of pain through his nerves.

"Are you sure? What was that?" Sloane asked immediately upon hearing the noise.

"I just ran into something, no big deal," he replied a little too quickly. "Sorry that I messed up the days. School and tutoring have only been out for a little while so I was trying to catch up on some sleep and personal practice and I guess I just lost track of the time. Give me like twenty minutes and I'll be there. I'm so sorry, again."

Sloane was quiet for a moment and Viktor could hear someone, probably Luther, talking to her. He couldn't make out the words but both voices sounded really worried. The ex-superpowered man focused on trying to kick away his blankets so that he could get up and get ready for the day. Ben's words from his first big blow-up with Allison were ringing through his head as he scrambled to find some suitable clothes that would hide his mental state. 

Were you waiting for someone to come chasing after you? Pathetic.

"Well, here's the thing, we were worried about you so Diego and Allison are already headed to your place," the woman admitted when she finally returned back to talking to her brother-in-law.

"Huh? I just slept in," he tried to keep the anxiety and panic out of his voice. He had been so low on energy since the Summer had started that the only thing making him move as quickly as he was and actually have a conversation was the adrenaline flushing through his veins. "Really, you can text them and tell them that they can go back. I just need to get ready and catch a cab over to the park. It won't take me that long."

"I'm sure that they'd love to come over with you. That way you can save a little bit on transport. See you soon!" Sloane ended the call, leaving Viktor standing there with his heart thrumming up in his ears.

It was like a huge bucket of ice water had been dumped over him. He hadn't gotten that feeling since Harold had tried to lock Viktor in his cabin, or Carl had driven them up to the farm and threatened him. "Shit, shit, shit, shit," he muttered to himself as he scrambled to try and get ready before Allison and Diego arrived at his apartment. He stumbled to the bathroom where he was able to strip off his sleep-sweat soaked clothes and turn on the shower. He didn't even wait for the water to heat up like he normally did, to feel something at all, before he got underneath the pelting droplets. He washed himself in record time before he was out and tugging on the cleanest clothes he could find. He settled for an oversized t-shirt, despite having his binder securely fastened over his bruised chest, and a pair of jeans covered in little drawings and paintings from an event he did with the LGBT club he oversaw at his school. 

Viktor had just finished putting on his socks when he moved to the bathroom to check and make sure his hair wasn't too messy. His eyes drifted down to the stubbly facial hair that was beginning to grow thanks to the HRT he had been on for months now. It was splotchy and thin, which made him more dysphoric than less. He had heard other trans men rave about how exciting it had been to start growing a beard after so long wishing that they had. All Viktor could see was the person that he was desperately trying to be. The man that he wasn't quite.

He didn't know how long he had been staring at the reflection of himself, his fingers picking angry red spots into his jawline. He was shaken out of it when he heard someone banging on his door. "Shit, fuck, god damnit," he growled as he rushed back to his room. He had to throw blankets and pillows away from the disaster he had made at the side of his bed to try and find where he had lost his phone. Once he finally found it he stuffed it into his pocket and tried to get up to the door. He was scrambling to try and put the dishes from the eggs he had half finished the last time he ate out of sight when he heard his brother's voice from the other side of his door.

"Viktor, you better open up! I can still pick a lock in under a minute flat so you're not going to have any other options," Diego warned.

"Just a second!" he called back in reply as he tried stuffing the junk mail piling up on his floor in front of the mail slot in his apartment door into the drawer next to his door. He hadn't realized how messy everything had gotten when he fell into his stupor, but now that he was fueled on adrenaline and fear he had to make sure that his siblings couldn't tell either.

He turned around and scanned across his room before he saw several of the needles he used to give himself his shots still on the kitchen counter. He lunged to try and get to them, but just then the door was flung open and Diego was revealed, squatting down next to where the lock and handle had been moments before Allison pushed the now unlocked door open. 

He stood up and took a few steps into his apartment. His face noticeably paled when he noticed all of the needles clutched in Viktor's hands. "Dude. If you got addicted to something I'm sure you can talk about it to Klaus instead of hiding from the whole family.

"No, I really just overslept," he insisted as he shoved them into the biohazard bag he brought back to the doctor every few months so the sharps could be disposed of properly.

"Overslept?" Allison asked, raising a brow at him to show her disbelief. "You've never been one to oversleep before. If I remember correctly you were the first out of all of us to get up back in the Academy."

Viktor opened and closed his mouth a couple times while he tried to find something to say. The fear that had jump started his day was beginning to wear off, leaving him with the familiar ache of exhaustion. Guilt also swirled in his empty, cramping stomach as he realized that he had forced them here out of his own stupidity. "Yeah, well, we're adults now or whatever," he tried to sound casual and ignore the way that his voice cracked when he got too emotional. He knew that starting HRT was like going through puberty all over again, but it still sucked to not just wake up with that amazing deep voice he desperately wanted.

"Hey man, are you okay? I don't ever remember your place looking this disheveled," Diego asked as he began to look around. He was doing the thing that he had back when Viktor had first moved out, checking the windows for locks (which had been installed almost immediately after he moved in) and looking over everything to make sure it was all in place. Like he was casing the apartment for a break in or checking for signs of forced entry.

"I'm fine," he replied too quickly. He looked up from where he was tugging on his boots to see his siblings give each other a quick look that he wasn't able to decipher. "School got out pretty recently and I had students to tutor so I didn't have a lot of time to clean, is all."

"School?" Allison asked. Her voice was calm and compassionate, like it had been back at Reginald's funeral in their original timeline.

"Uh, yeah," Viktor replied as he stood up. He was unable to stop the wince, even if the hiss of pain died before it could get past his teeth, when he felt the binder pressing on the rubbed raw skin. "I, uh, got a music tutoring job at a local school. I also supervise their LGBT club."

Diego reached a hand out, placing it on his shoulder. "Viktor, what's going on? You haven't been late to any of our get-togethers in the past year. And you weren't late to anything that didn't involve kidnapping or arrests in the entire time I've known you before then."

The touch made Viktor want to scream. He wanted to move away from it so that Diego was at least a room away from him. He wanted to lean into it so that his brother had both arms wrapped around him in those hugs that he missed so much. He had gotten a couple hugs from his students when they found him after their concerts, but nothing from his family. "That's not hard, there were only two," he replied, blinking at his brother. "And school kept me on a pretty tight schedule so I guess I've just been kind of forgetful since then. I was catching up on sleep and just kind of… overdid it."

Allison looked over at her brothers. She had one hip popped up and her arms folded across his chest like they were misbehaving children. She then sighed and moved so that she was shepherding them out of the door. "Come on, both of you, we have a family gathering to go to."

Both of the brothers stared at each other for a moment longer before they moved to leave. Viktor grabbed the lanyard that he now kept his keys on with his keycard into the school before they left. He made sure to re-lock his door before he walked after them. The drive to the park was completely silent, neither of his siblings even trying to make conversation with him the entire way. He let his head fall back against the headrest in the backseat, his eyes drifting shut. He could feel his own personal paradise, the inky blackness of sleep, tugging at him again. He had always liked movement, which is why his nannies had kept his baby carriage around for so much longer than the others, so that they could rock him back to sleep or take him on walks until he napped.

As soon as the car came to a halt he jerked a little bit. The anxiety was still resting just underneath the ache, waiting for its turn to make him feel like absolute shit and steal the remnants of his energy. 

Viktor shook his head as if it would help himself stay out of his mind and in the moment. He clambered out of the car and followed after his siblings who were already walking towards the others. They didn't look like they were having a fun time like he would have expected, since they all got along so much better than he did. Five was doing the thing where he flicked his hair out of his face while glowering at someone, which meant that they were having a serious conversation. Sloane had her arms wrapped around one of Luther's while he fidgeted back and forth. Klaus was dragging his hands over his beard and through his thick curls. Ben had his arms crossed firmly over his chest and a deep scowl on his face. Lila was standing next to them all with her arms over her chest, Chrysanthemum sleeping soundly next to her in the baby carrier.

Diego walked ahead of the group so that he could get back to his little family faster than Allison was going. Sloane turned around as soon as she heard him walking over, a bright grin splitting across her face when she saw Viktor. She detached herself from her husband and nearly skipped over to him. Viktor had no idea how she could be so perky all the time, it sounded absolutely exhausting. Then again, over the past few weeks everything had sounded exhausting. Sloane wrapped her arms around her shortest brother-in-law, placing her head on top of his for just a moment. Viktor went stiff as his brain tried to process what to do in this kind of a situation. He was so unused to casual affection. Sloane beamed as she pulled back, guiding him over to the group by the hand, "You made it! I was kind of worried that something had happened."

"Why? I said I just overslept," he replied, clearing his throat to try and stop the cracking.

"Well I heard a big thump and I thought maybe something had happened," she shrugged. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No," he shook his head. He gave the rest of the family a small, awkward wave once they were all standing in their semi-circle. 

Klaus waved back at him, while Five looked him over like he was a particularly hard puzzle. Ben paid him no mind, as always. Lila gave him one of her crazed smiles that meant she liked you, according to Diego. Luther cleared his throat as soon as Allison finished meeting up with the rest of them as well. "Should we go find somewhere to sit at the picnic tables? Sloane and I made a picnic lunch so that we had something to do other than discuss our lack or powers," the tallest of the siblings grinned as he placed an arm around his wife's waist. She easily leaned into him, her smile matching the intensity of his perfectly. It made Viktor's heart clench and the ache return tenfold, he had never missed Sissy more than when he was watching someone else be happy with their partner. 

There was a murmur of agreement, ranging from adamant excitement (Klaus) and apathetic borderline whining (Ben). The group walked over to the picnic tables a few yards away from the playground. They piled onto one of them while Sloane and Luther unpacked the food that they had brought and left while everyone was getting ready. 

"Sorry for being so late, I hope I didn't ruin anything," Viktor said, trying to act as natural as possible. The sight of the food, while normally appetizing since Sloane was a great cook, was making his tight stomach roil with displeasure.

"You couldn't ruin anything," Sloane said, giving him another smile. She had become very close with all of the siblings, but she always seemed to show a special kindness to Viktor, like she knew what it was like to be the odd sibling out even if their traumas didn't align perfectly. 

The aforementioned man let out an almost deranged bark of laughter, which brought him unwanted attention from Lila and Diego. They turned and stared at him for a moment, the former's brows furrowed together so they're almost a congruent line. Allison was quick to divert the attention away from him as she asked, "So this is a check in. Has anyone noticed anything concerning their old powers or new ones? Any flashes?"

Klaus made a face and shrugged. He knocked shoulders with Ben before saying, "I've remained ghost free for the whole year, babe. And the bentacles are yet to make another appearance."

Ben shot him a glare with no real fire behind it and stole a deviled egg before Five had the chance to grab it. "Too slow, old man," he smirked.

"I will gut you like a fish, hentai," the teenage-shaped man warned, pointing his plastic fork at the other former-superhero menacingly.

"Hey, both of you stop that," Luther said before it had a chance to get any more out of hand. Sloane served Five another deviled egg to try and placate him, which worked. Despite being the only woman in the group that hadn't had a child, she seemed to be the most maternal out of the three. She also knew which foods each sibling liked best, for the most part, and so made sure that they had one serving of their favorites on their plates. 

Viktor clutched at the fork in his hand while he picked at the food he had served himself to blend in. He knew he was going to have to eat eventually, but it seemed like so much work that he didn't have in him.

"Diego still cuts himself every time he tries to make anything in the kitchen, so I haven't had a good power to try and mirror but I haven't noticed anything. Nothing from Chrys either," she reached her hand down and touched the handle part of the baby car seat when her daughter was mentioned. The little girl made a gurgling shriek when she was mentioned. Lila immediately leaned down and removed her from her carrier so that the baby was sitting on her mother’s lap and looking at all of her uncles and aunts with fascinated brown eyes.

No one else spoke up about their power returning, and the group fell quiet for a while. Five stabbed his fork down into the middle of his sandwich as he looked over his family with a quirked eyebrow, "Well, that's not the worst thing in the world. Has anyone had any difficulties? Things like the Commission showing up or possible stalking." There was again a murmur of decline that spread out around the table. They had all been able to pass pretty easily under the radar. Allison was the only one of them that was famous now, since she was still a movie star. 

The group moved on to a different topic of discussion after that. Viktor wasn't really listening as he tried to get down as much of the food on his plate as he could. It felt like he was trying to swallow rocks, especially with how heavy every bite sat in his gut. 

"Dude!" Diego snapped his fingers in front of his shortest brother's face to try and get his attention.

"Huh?" Viktor asked intelligently.

"We've been calling your name for like thirty seconds. Are you sure that you're okay?" Sloane said, reaching across the table to place a comforting hand on his wrist.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he shook off their concern. "Just tired, that's all. What was the question?"

"How have things been going for you? I heard that you got a job," Sloane repeated the question that she had asked earlier.

It took longer than he would have liked for his brain to process everything that was being said to him. His tongue felt like lead in his mouth and the sinking panic in his gut was the only emotion that got past the ever-expanding void that had replaced his heart. "Oh, yeah," he nodded. "I got a job as a supplemental music tutor at a high school near my apartment. Essentially I just meet up with small groups of students or one-on-one with them during their free periods or study hours and help them practice more. I also help the music teachers during their lessons by playing the piano or helping them pick pieces to play in upcoming concerts. I also observe the LGBT club with the choir teacher."

"Is that who Delphi is?" Klaus asked, batting his lashes at his brother as if that would get Viktor to give him more information.

"Yeah. She's just a friend," he shrugged. "She and her partners are going to be taking me to my first pride festival in two days though. I've met them before, they're pretty nice."

"Partners?" Allison asked, a small scowl flashing across her face.

Viktor nodded before he scrounged up the little bit of energy that he had to explain it. "She's got a husband, partner, and girlfriend. She calls them her spouses even though she's only married to one. They have a daughter who's about Ha- eight years old. They're pretty great, which is why I feel safe letting them take me to the festival."

"Aww, V, you could have asked me and we would have done a tour of them. We're around a lot of big cities that have some pretty great parades and festivals," Klaus commented, picking apart the roll while letting the crumbs get all over the table. "We could have even helped you look for another beautiful blond to capture your heart."

The grief that he had been battling for weeks came back and hit him full force. He dragged his face into a smile and gave his brother a weak nod. "What about, uh, what about you, Sloane? Did you find out what kind of job you wanted to do?" The aforementioned woman's face lit up as she began to explain what she and Luther had been doing since they had all seen each other. Viktor did his best to pay attention and give his normal quips, as if he wasn't feeling empty and heavy inside. 

He stayed for another hour before he checked his phone. "I should really get going. It was great to see you all," he waved at his siblings as he carefully removed himself from the bench he was sitting on. "I'll try to keep in touch more than I have been."

Klaus removed himself from the bench as well, before Viktor had the chance to leave, wrapping his little brother in a hug. He whispered into Viktor's ear as he did so, low enough that no one else was able to hear him, "Sorry for bringing up Sissy. I know how much it sucks to lose someone you love because of time travel. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will," Viktor replied on instinct, giving his brother a small pat on the back. The hug made him long for affection that he knew he didn't deserve. He had made life a living Hell for every single person sitting around the table because he didn't have any self control and didn't know how to be part of a family. He couldn't demand that they love and care for him after that. He had to distance himself from them.

Sloane was the next to get up and hug him. She tucked a sandwich into his hand after noticing how little he had eaten. "I know appetites are weird, but you need to make sure that you eat so you can make that beautiful music. I want to see you play next time your orchestra performs, please," she grinned.

"I'll try to let you know," Viktor nodded. It still felt awkward to have a family member that actually acted like a sister. Even back in their original timeline, he knew that it wasn't really normal for siblings to treat each other as they had treated one another. When he got out of the Academy and got to see families interact with each other on TV and when they came into the little bookshop he had gotten his first job in, he realized just how badly they had it. Even siblings that hated each other, the pair of twins that he had been trying to get prepared for the winter concert flashed in his mind, didn't act the way that they did towards each other. He and Allison had barely paid each other any mind when they were younger, and then their interactions afterwards had pretty much been them arguing about Viktor's choice in partners.

Luther got up and wrapped his brother up in a hug. For just a split second he felt panic shoot through his veins as he remembered the first time that Luther had hugged him. It hadn't even been a hug, it had been an attack to lock him in that horrible basement cage. He relaxed as his mind noted how much smaller the other man's body was compared to that moment. "Be safe on your way home, Viktor. Let us know when you get there?" he asked hopefully as he pulled back to look him over.

"Of course," he nodded. "I'm sorry to leave so soon, I have a lot of rehearsing to catch up on since I overslept this morning."

"Say goodbye to the baby," Lila stood up and dumped Chrysanthemum into her uncle's arms before she stalked off towards the direction of her and Diego's car.

"I- okay," he laughed a little bit. Being out of his cursed apartment and around his family was helping him feel better, and he knew that was the exact reason that he couldn't be around them anymore. Every time he began to feel happy about anything it immediately got worse. It had with Harold, Sissy, and his own gender revelation. Every time he had joy it was ripped from him just as he was beginning to settle into it. So he wasn't going to let himself feel joy anymore. "You're pretty cute," he informed the little girl as he looked down at her. One of her hands reached up and she wrapped her chubby little fingers around the closest lock of Viktor's bangs that she could reach. He hadn't had the time to cut his hair recently, so it was shaggy and hung down in his face. 

"Ow," he laughed, untangling her little hand. "That's not very nice, flower. Can't imagine how your mom feels if you managed to do that to me in the first ten seconds of our second meeting."

He forgot how wonderful it felt to interact with kids. He had loved Harlan with his whole heart and soul after he had met him properly once he had been released from the hospital. The two of them had been like two peas in a pod immediately after that, barely ever being apart from each other. The medication had stamped away a lot of his emotions, but he knew that he wouldn't have been able to feel love like that before then even without them. Harlan had been sweet, kind, compassionate, funny, and reserved all at the same time. There were so many lines of Sissy in him, and Sissy had been the absolute love of Viktor's life. There were some days that he still woke up and called for them both, like they had been there his entire life. 

Viktor let out a small sigh. He had to get out of here before he started crying again, because then he would never get his family off of his back. "I really do have to get going. It was wonderful to see you all," he gently placed Chrys back into her father's arms. He waved to his family before he turned his back on them and walked towards the front of the park. 

The walk back to his apartment was just long enough for him to have time to think and process. His brain felt like it was filled with storm clouds. They made it hard for the good thoughts to get through and made the voice telling him about how he had hurt those he loved most rung around his skull like thunderclaps. The rain supplied the tears that were constantly blurring his vision and threatening to run down his face. 

Despite his tumultuous emotions, he made it back to his apartment without incident. He didn't even realize he had gotten so close because he was so lost in his thoughts about his siblings and the lost family that he could have had. He was somehow even more exhausted coming back than he had been when he was present around his family and trying his best to hide his depression. Viktor dug his keys out of his pocket and then forced them into the lock before he could collapse into the hallway. He needed a good cry, maybe to break something, and another thirty-six hour nap. 

He ran a hand over his hair as he dumped his lanyard in the bowl next to his door, letting it close behind him. He locked it and then toed off his shoes so he'd be that much closer to getting back to sleep like he wanted. Viktor ran a hand over his face to try and stop himself from crying before he was even a foot into the apartment.

"These are really sweet," came a voice from the kitchen.

Viktor jumped and reached for his keys again. He had never had any self defense training but he had been a young woman walking around a city full of people he didn't know for most of his adult life. Then, he caught sight of his brother standing in the kitchen in front of his fridge. He had his finger underneath the large notecard Viktor's students had given him at the end of the year so that he could read it easier. "How did you get in here? I have locks on my windows, I know for a fact that my door was locked, and you can't blink anymore."

"Mr. V, thank you for helping me learn how to hold my bow in a way that didn't hurt my hands, love Marcie. Mr. V, thank you for helping me realize my gender identity, Apple really appreciates that I'm not complaining anymore, thanks again, Sea."

"Five," Viktor said as he set his lanyard back down and walked closer to the other ex-powered man. Five had grown to about the age of eighteen in between all of the time jumps and the year they spent in the new timeline. He was already about six inches taller and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. V," he started to continue reading the notes.

"Five!"

The younger-older brother rolled his eyes and let the collection of notes drop back down into its place on the fridge. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit pants as he turned to look at the shorter man, "What, a worried man can't come and check in on his brother?"

Viktor crossed his arms defensively over his chest. "That's not something that you do, so tell me what you actually want."

"Believe it or not, I am actually concerned for you, Viktor," Five took a step closer to his brother. "I know what it's like to be alone for an extended period of time. Getting a family and then having to return to that solitude is hard."

"I'm fine," he said quickly.

"You're not fine. You barely ate any of the wonderful food that Sloane made and you barely engaged in any conversation. Remember, Viktor, I used to be a trained assassin. I know every little flicker in someone and what it could mean. I saw how you shut down when Klaus made a joke about Sissy, and I heard you almost bring up Harlan," Five said. "I know how hard it can be to lose people that you're close to. Please just let me help you."

"Help me with what?" he asked, leaning heavily against the counter.

"Your depression. And the PTSD you most likely have. I think that the worst thing for you is to be alone in your old apartment. I can't imagine what being cooped up in here is doing to you," Five answered.

Viktor brought his hands up to his face, scrubbing at it for a moment. "Five, I know that you didn't know me for very long in the grand scheme of things, but I don't need any help. I've had depression my entire life and it's honestly easier to deal with now that I'm not on the meds Dad used to give me. This isn't my first depressive episode and it won't be my last. I'm fine," he repeated the thing that he had been telling his family all day.

"So you know that you're depressed and yet you still haven't reached out to anyone about it?" Five asked, his brows furrowing together in confusion. "Even after all this time, I don't understand other people."

"Apparently not. I hate to break it to you, but not a lot of people want to go around throwing their mental health issues all over their family," he snorted.

"The rest of our siblings don't seem to have a problem with it. Now are you going to let me help you or not?" the taller man nearly demanded.

"Surely you have better things to do."

"I do not. Do you really think that I would waste time here if I had something better to do?" he asked, trailing his finger over the fine coating of dust that was layered all over his apartment. It had been a long while, even into the school year, since he had the energy to clean. "You take precedent over the other things I had planned to do."

"I shouldn't," Viktor almost spat. "After everything that I've done you should all hate me."

"You didn't mean to start three apocalypses, we should all be blaming Dad for that," he said dismissively. "Now come on," he grasped his brother's arm and dragged him back to the living room. Five pushed Viktor down on the couch and then gathered up the dishes that were littering his coffee table. He opened up the windows behind the couch so that there was sun and fresh air streaming into the stuffy apartment. After things were cleaned up a little, he sat down next to his brother. "Talk."

"About?" Viktor asked as he let his head roll back against the couch. He turned so that he was looking at the taller man, who was picking at stray threads on the arm of the couch.

"Anything you'd like. Your students, that friend you mentioned, your transition, Sissy and Harlan. Anything," he replied.

It was as if those words had opened up a floodgate he didn't know about. He began to babble about the month he had spent with the love of his life and the boy he had grown to think of as a son. He told Five all about the horses and cows that he had walked with Harlan to go see, and the nearly endless games of hide-and-seek that they had played in the barn. His breath hitched in his throat as he realized he was about to admit something he had barely even thought about himself, but it was going to be out in the open with or without his consent. "I… I loved them so much that I almost didn't want you to come and find me. It wasn't like my memories were hidden because I had an actual brain injury, they were hidden as a trauma response to finding out about my powers and almost killing all of you. I think some part of me didn't want you guys to come and find me. Of course, I wanted to know who I was and why I had been hit by a car after waking up in an alley. But at the same time, I was happy with Sissy and Harlan and I didn't want that to go away. And then it did. And then I found out how much I had destroyed their lives. They never got to be happy because I did something stupid. It was my fault that Harlan ran out to the lake, and then my fault that he got powers, and then my fault because I didn't bring them to the future with us. I fucked up their lives and made them absolutely miserable."

"I don't think so," Five shook his head. "I mean, if you really made their lives so miserable she wouldn't have been that in love with you. I may not have spent a lot of my life around other people that weren't trained assassins but I knew how much she cared about you."

"I miss her," Viktor felt the lump in his throat growing more and more as he thought about the two people he had loved so intensely and lost so violently. "I miss her every day. Sometimes I have dreams that we got the lives I wanted us to have, right after I got all my memories back and I thought I had taken the powers away from Harlan. Then I realize that in this universe she didn't even know I existed."

"Cherish the memories that you have with her, Viktor, and mourn her as much as you need," Five reached over and rubbed his brother's shoulder reassuringly. They were both so awkward when it came to physical affection that they weren't quite sure what to do, but it was clear the taller brother was trying his best to express his love. "If Allison gets to get away with making a deal with our father that resulted in both Luther and Klaus', albeit temporary, death, then you can be sad for as long as you need."

Viktor brought his legs up to his chest and finally let the ball of pain resting in his throat explode. He had already cried and hurt so much for them, but there was something different about mourning with someone else with you. "Everyone I love gets hurt."

"That's not true," Five replied with a small shake of his head. He glanced towards the door, something that Viktor immediately noticed.

"You can leave if you want, you don't have to stay here. It's not exactly a fun time," he let out a small laugh.

"No, it's not that. I asked someone else to meet us here. I'm not very good at… feelings," he hummed. "I knew that I would get you to open up to me but there are other members of our family that are more socially apt than I."

The smaller man hummed as he dragged the throw blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around his shoulders. "I feel like shit all the time, Five. What's wrong with me?"

The retired assassin got up from the couch and wandered to his small kitchen. He was looking through the cupboard and the fridge for things that he could use to feed his brother. "You cut off all contact with the people that love and care about you. Both by circumstance and because of your mental health," he answered. "You've done it your entire life. When we were kids it was because Dad forced you to, and then Harold, and then your amnesia. This time you did it because of your own head."

"Yeah. I fuck up everything for myself and others," Viktor said, his voice dripping poison meant only for himself.

Five threw a ball of paper at the smaller man. "Shut up. Don't talk about yourself like that. We're all people that make mistakes. You just happened to make a mistake that we can fix this time."

Viktor didn't get the chance to try and argue with him as there was a knock on the door. Five walked from the kitchen to the entryway before the other man had the chance to get up. "It's about time you got here," he sassed as he almost threw open the front door.

"Hey, when you're taking care of a five-month-old you can yell all you want about punctuality but until then you gotta shut your tiny mouth," Diego said from the other side of the door. All of the siblings from the original timeline pushed past him and into Viktor's tiny apartment.

"Wow, this place looks almost exactly like it did in the original timeline," Allison commented. She then smiled upon seeing her brother sitting on the couch. He looked even smaller than he did normally because of the way that the blanket was wrapped around him, hiding the position he was in. "Hey little bro. How are you feeling?"

"Like garbage," he replied, forcing the tears off his face with his hand.

She let out a motherly click of her tongue as she walked over to him. "I'm sorry," she grasped a few tissues from the box on the table next to the couch and handed them over. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Not anymore. I already told Five," he replied. He took the tissues, no matter how reluctantly, and wiped the tears and snot away properly. Klaus walked over to the other side of the couch and nearly collapsed down. He threw an arm around his brother's shoulder to bring him into a comforting cuddle.

"That's okay. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to. But you do have to put up with us being in your space. We're going to take care of you whether you like it or not," Klaus informed him with a grin.

Diego nodded as he walked in and sat down on the chair next to the couch, facing away from the kitchen where Luther was walking. Five was still rummaging around in the cupboards, but he was quickly pulled away and pushed out of the room. "Five, get out of the kitchen," Luther called. "Go to the store and pick up some bread and eggs. I'm going to make the french toast recipe that Sloane and I found the other day."

Five opened his mouth to try and argue, "I don't think we should trust you in the kitchen."

"Why? I have a wonderful wife that's been teaching me to cook since we got our apartment," Luther was still shooing the other man out of the kitchen. Five was about six inches shorter than Luther, reaching closer to Diego and Ben's height. The two continued to argue before their youngest/oldest sibling was stalking out of the apartment with a handful of bills clamped in his hand. Viktor laughed a little bit at that, feeling slightly lighter than he had before.

They sat in silence for a while as Luther rummaged around in the kitchen to try and find/clean the things that he needed. Diego then grunted and moved to stand up from his chair. "Hey V, has anyone taught you how to shave yet?"

"No, the beard is kind of new," he shook his head and ran his hand over the gruff patches of facial hair. They were only really noticeable when someone was looking for them, but they were splotchy and awkward.

"Come on. I'll show you how to shave so that you can decide what you want to do when it all comes in," Diego motioned for the other man to follow him. Viktor slowly slipped out of the hold of his siblings to follow his brother. 

He was leaving bits of the stormcloud that had taken up residency in his head every time that he took a step forward. The weight and void that had replaced his heart were being chased away the longer that he spent with his family. He felt a little bit better, as he had in the park, but the feeling was growing and growing now that he knew his family cared about him so much they had gone out of their way to help him out. He knew that this wasn't the last depressive episode that he was going to have, and the one he was having most likely wasn't going to go away because his siblings had shown up once. It was nice not to have to fight his own mind on his own, however. He had always wanted to be a part of a family, so the fact that he had one now, especially once that wasn't being forced together because of the world ending, made everything feel a bit easier.