#need to find a copy first though but REST ASSURED when i play this game you will know

[amandabe11man]

gonna watch a longplay of Forbidden Siren and act like i'm the one playing, okay here we go

EDIT: i told my friend of my plight and she convinced me that i could indeed play this game on my own, and...... god help me, i agreed to do it. i'm gonna do it. fuck me

[sankyeom]

tattle-tale | l.sy

pairings: lee sangyeon x reader genre: teacher au, tooth-rotting fluff summary: in which teacher!sangyeon has a crush on teacher!you and anonymously leaves little gifts for you on your desk, only to one day be caught by your entire class word count: 5.9k series: sankyeom’s 2k followers celebration

masterlist

You loved your job, you really did.

Teaching little kids all day long was an absolute joy for you. But if you said recess wasn’t your favourite time of the day, you’d definitely be lying. “Finally,” you groaned as you took a seat on a sofa in the teacher’s lounge, a large cup of coffee in your hand as you closed your eyes.

Sangyeon, Jacob and Hyunjae – three teachers at your school that you considered close friends – shared knowing smiles. “Rough morning?” Jacob asked.

“I love my students,” you said, eyes still closed. “But they can be little devils sometimes.”

Hyunjae burst into laughter as Jacob and Sangyeon grinned. “They can’t be that bad?”

You opened your eyes to observe your colleagues. “It’s Emma’s birthday today. She brought cake for the entire class, and they ate the entire thing within the first ten minutes of first period,” you recalled in a monotone voice.

Jacob winced. “Sugar rush?” he guessed.

“You have no idea,” you complained, having flashbacks to your students running around the classroom and causing absolute chaos. “I would literally kill for some coffee. Or at least maim.”

Hyunjae pointed at your mug. “What do you call that?” he teased.

“Terrible teacher lounge coffee that hasn’t been warm for, like, an hour,” you observed as you took a sip of your coffee. Then, you winced and pushed the mug away from you. “I may be desperate for a good caffeine fix, but I’m not that desperate,” you mumbled as you got up to toss the contents of your mug down the sink.

Sangyeon’s eyes trailed after your retreating figure, a mindless smile on his face as he observed the way you glared at your, now empty, mug in disgust as if it had betrayed you. His gaze drew towards Jacob when his colleague cleared his throat, a knowing look in his and Hyunjae’s eyes as Sangyeon gave them an innocent smile. “Are you ever going to ask her out?” Jacob asked with a lowered voice.

Although he knew he had been caught, Sangyeon still made his attempt at playing innocent. “Ask who out?”

Hyunjae rolled his eyes. “Don’t pretend. You’re a really bad liar and you’re just way too obviously in love with Teacher Y/n,” he said, imitating your students when they call out to you.

Despite his best efforts, Sangyeon couldn’t hide the blush that appeared on his cheeks. As he opened his mouth to protest, you took your seat on the sofa opposite the trio, muttering to yourself about terrible coffee. Noticing the shift in atmosphere, you raised an eyebrow at your colleagues. “Did something happen while I was gone?” you wondered.

“No,” the three men chorused, which only made you more suspicious of them. With a shrug, you dismissed their odd behaviour, deciding that it was best not to pursue your curiosity. “So Y/n, did you ever find out who your secret admirer is?” Hyunjae wondered.

A small pout appeared on your lips. “No,” you sighed, clasping your hands together to rest on your knees.

For a few months now, you had been receiving little gifts on your desk when you stepped out of your classroom for your breaks or free periods. At first, they were just little things that lifted your mood in the middle of the day; sticky notes with funny faces and encouraging quotes, or small gummy and snack packets to give you energy at the end of your long day.

Then, the gifts started becoming a little more personal.

A gift certificate to your favourite coffee chain, packs of stickers or staples that you just so happened to be running out of, muffins from your favourite bakery, and even a beautiful leather-bound journal that you had mentioned you wanted to a few friends and coworkers.

You didn’t know who the gifts were from, but you desperately wanted to meet them.

Not only did they brighten your day every single time you got a new gift, but they seemed to be presents that were specifically purchased for you.

“Has anybody else been getting gifts?” you inquired.

“Not as far as I know,” Jacob denied, Hyunjae and Sangyeon humming in agreement. “Besides, aren’t the gifts all perfect for you?”

You nodded. “Most of them are things that I vaguely mentioned, or silently pined after. Sometimes they’re just little pick-me-ups like snacks, but they still seem to know my taste perfectly.”

Jacob smiled. “That’s kind of romantic,” he mused, causing Sangyeon to choke on the water he had been sipping. He coughed, leaning forward to place his mug down, and covered his mouth as he tried to catch his breath. You, Hyunjae and Jacob gave him looks of concern, which he immediately waved off.

“I’m good,” Sangyeon assured the three of you. “You-“ he coughed. “You think it’s romantic?”

“Of course!” Jacob said cheerily. “Gifts that fit her taste without ever revealing who sent them… A secret admirer. Super romantic,” he assured his friend, sending him a subtle wink when you weren’t looking.

“I just wish I could repay them somehow,” you sighed. “I feel like they make my days easier and I don’t even have a way to thank them.”

“I’m sure they’ll reveal themselves with time,” Hyunjae told you, probably in an attempt to cheer you up. “Maybe they’re just a little shy.”

“Maybe,” you echoed half-heartedly. The bell rung, indicating that recess was over and class would start again in five minutes.

“Coming?” Sangyeon asked, standing up to walk you to your classroom. Your classrooms were in the same corridor, even though Sangyeon taught fourth grade and you taught second.

You shook your head. “My kids have Gym right now, so I have a free,” you said. “I have some grading to do, so I’m just going to hang out here.”

“Not going to hunt for a better cup of coffee?” Sangyeon teased, copying the horrified face you made when you took a sip of the cold teacher’s lounge coffee.

With a laugh, you merely shook your head. “I’m too lazy to leave campus. Plus, I should probably cut down on my caffeine consumption anyway.”

“Right,” Hyunjae nodded. “I’ll remind you of that in three hours when it’s lunchtime and you’re completely worn-out from your seven-year-old students,” he said, saluting you in lieu of a goodbye. You waved to him, Jacob and Sangyeon as they left the lounge, taking out your bag to get to grading your students’ tests.

Since they were only second graders, the grading wasn’t exactly difficult, just time-consuming. By the time the bell rang to indicate Gym class had ended, you had just finished all of their maths tests. After stretching, you made your way over to your classroom so that you could be there before your students changed after Gym class.

Entering your classroom, you could already feel a bit of fatigue kicking in, and you cursed yourself for not getting a cup of coffee after all. Before you could wallow in your regret any further, you noticed the paper take-away cup on your desk. The bright blue sticky note on the cup instantly brought a smile to your face.

Don’t let the little devils wear you down too much. x

You picked the cup up, delighted that the coffee was still warm to the touch and relishing in the taste as you took a sip. “Secret admirer, you must be from heaven,” you muttered, grateful that your secret admirer had gone out of their way to make sure you were properly caffeinated.

“Teacher Y/n!” someone shouted, barreling into your classroom. Several students trailed behind, giving you similar greetings coupled with large beams.

“How was Gym?” you asked, putting your coffee down and listening to your students’ excited stories about who won the dodgeball game that day. “Well while you guys were having fun, I was working very hard to grade your math tests! Do you want to see how you did?”

Their cheers were enough for you to burst into laughter as you took their papers out of your test. “Teacher Y/n,” one of your students, Minho, raised his hand with big eyes.

The sight was absolutely adorable. “Yes, Minho?” you smiled.

“What did your secret Santa give you today?” he asked.

“Secret Santa is for Christmas time,” you corrected. “The person leaving me presents is just a nice friend,” you explained.

“Okay,” Minho nodded, eagerly absorbing your words. “What did your nice friend give you?”

“Something warm to drink,” you explained, pointing in the direction of your take-away cup before handing the seven-year-old his test back. “The teacher’s lounge has coffee but the coffee from my friend is from my favourite store.”

“Do we know your friend?” Sana, a little girl who always wore pigtails and a huge smile, asked.

“I think so,” you mused. “They work here at school.”

“Who is it?” she wondered. “Is it your boyfriend?”

You laughed. “It’s not my boyfriend,” you assured Sana. “I actually don’t know who it is yet. It’s a mystery.”

“Like Sherlock Holmes,” Minho piped up.

“Yes, like Sherlock Holmes,” you agreed.

“We can try and solve the mystery together, then!” the boy decided. “We just need to look at the clues.”

“Alright,” you allowed, having finished handing out the tests. “We can do that after we go over this test. Does anybody have any questions on the test that they didn’t understand?”

“That’s adorable,” Hyunjae laughed as you told him, Sangyeon, and Jacob about your students’ interest in your secret admirer. The four of you were sat outside at one of the picnic tables to enjoy the last few days of sunshine that autumn had to offer you. “Did they come up with anything?”

“They actually did,” you admitted. Sangyeon’s back straightened abruptly, curious about what your students figured out. “They decided that it’s definitely a teacher.”

“Really?” Sangyeon exclaimed, earning a weird look from Jacob and Hyunjae. “What makes them think that?”

“Well, I always get a little post-it note with all of my gifts,” you explained with a laugh. “And who uses post-it notes?”

“Teachers,” your three colleagues chorused.

“That’s pretty decent detective work,” Jacob complimented.

“My class certainly liked to think so,” you allowed, amused. “Anyway, my theory is that the admirer really is a teacher,” you added. “I doubt anyone other than other teachers have heard me talk about my favourite cafe, or which of my stationary is running low. I only ever talk about those kind of things in the teacher’s lounge or when I’m on lunch duty.”

“Sherlock Holmes indeed,” Hyunjae grinned, eyes crinkling at the outer corners. “Any theories on who it is?”

You sighed, shoulder drooping. “None at all,” you confessed. “Makes me feel kind of pathetic.”

“Hey, you’re not pathetic,” Jacob denied, putting his hand on your shoulder. “A little slow? Maybe. But certainly not pathetic,” you laughed, pleased at Jacob’s attempt to make you feel better.

“Teacher Y/n!” you heard Sana’s familiar voice as she ran up to you from the playground, her best friend Emma trailing after her.

“Hi girls,” you greeted. “Are you enjoying your lunch?” the two girls nodded.

“Emma, it’s your birthday today, isn’t it?” Sangyeon recalled from your rant at recess. The girl’s eyes lit up at his question, prompting her to nod her head excitedly.

“I’m turning eight,” she told him proudly.

Sangyeon beamed at her excitement, a fond look in his eyes. “Well I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Emma. You’ll have to tell me what presents you get when you come to school tomorrow,” he asked, which she immediately agreed to.

“I will, Teacher Sangyeon!” she promised.

Suddenly impatient, Sana crossed her arms. “Teacher Y/n, is Teacher Jacob your nice friend?” she wondered, pointing to where Jacob sat across from you.

“He’s a nice teacher friend, but he’s not the one who’s leaving me gifts,” you explained to the two girls. “Why do you ask?”

“We saw him touch your shoulder,” Sana explained. “We thought that meant he was your nice friend.”

“Sadly, you have the wrong guy,” Jacob said with a shrug. “But I’m going to try to help Teacher Y/n to find out who her nice teacher friend is. You guys already did a great job at helping her,” he added. Sana and Emma looked proud at the thought before they said their goodbyes, rushing off to grab the vacant swings before anybody else did.

“They’re so cute,” Hyunjae almost whined. “Why did I decide to teach sixth grade? Those kids aren’t cute anymore, they’re just savage.”

You grinned at the idea of Hyunjae being lightheartedly bullied by his twelve-year-old students. “You adore those kids, don’t lie to me,” you retorted. “And they’re still plenty cute.”

“They’re not that cute in sixth grade,” he denied, pointing in the direction Emma and Sana went. “And they don’t look at me with big, adorable eyes, or cling on to every word I say.”

“That’s just Y/n,” Sangyeon told them, smiling to himself as he dug into lunch. “My students are just two years older, and they don’t do any of those things to me.”

“You’re being modest,” you argued. “Emma looked at you like you told her she was the most special girl in the world when you remembered her birthday.”

“Maybe because it’s her birthday,” Sangyeon allowed, looking up from his food to smile at you. “But they look at you like that every single day. And it’s not just your students, either.”

His compliment made you blush.

The gifts started coming on a daily basis after the day you got a cup of coffee.

Almost every time you had a free period, a fresh cup of coffee would wait for you when you returned to your classroom, and sometimes baked treats from your favourite bakery would accompany it.

You tried staying in your classroom to see who your gift fairy was, but on days you stayed your admirer never came. It was almost as if they knew every move you were making; like they had heard it before or could somehow read your mind.

“Is one of you giving out my plans?” you questioned your colleagues one day.

Hyunjae simply raised an eyebrow at you. “Explain.”

So you did: “I feel like my secret admirer is always a step ahead of me,” you mumbled. “If I ever wait for them, they don’t show up, and if I send students ahead to wait in the classroom, they still don’t show up. I don’t know how they do it.”

“Maybe it’s one of us,” Jacob said, causing Sangyeon to send a small kick to his ankle as a warning. Hyunjae snorted, covering it up by pretending to cough. “Have you ever considered that?”

“I hadn’t, actually,” you realised absent-mindedly. “But if it was one of you guys then you’d just tell me.”

“Sure,” Hyunjae nodded. “Eventually.”

“Right,” you said, as if this was enough evidence to suggest it couldn’t be Hyunjae, Jacob, or Sangyeon. “So I’m back to square one.”

The bell rang, indicating the end of recess, and you stood up to go back to your classroom. “I love art class,” you sighed as you waved your goodbyes to Hyunjae and Jacob, and made your way to your classroom with Sangyeon. “It’s the only time they get to be rowdy and excited and I don’t have to make them calm down.”

Sangyeon laughed. “Sounds nice,” he agreed.

“What do you have next?” you asked.

“I’m free, actually,” Sangyeon said. “I always have a free after recess.”

“How come you’re always rushing off, then?” you wondered, since he had never sat with you in the teacher’s lounge during recess.

“I use it as my lesson-planning time, which I prefer to do in my classroom because I’m always forgetting little things that I need,” he admitted.

“Well you should hang out with me in the lounge some time,” you offered. “It has terrible coffee but I hear I’m pretty good company,” you joke, stopping at your classroom.

“I might take you up on that,” Sangyeon grinned, winking at you before he made his way to his classroom a few doors down.

You cursed yourself for feeling shy at his wink. Sure, Sangyeon was incredibly handsome. But you had enough to worry about with your secret admirer; you didn’t need a schoolgirl crush on one of your closest colleagues to top it all off.

You sighed. “Control yourself, Y/n,” you muttered to yourself, entering your classroom and starting to hand out the worksheets for the period.

You regretted ever saying that you loved art class.

After a sugar-filled recess, your class was more hyper than you had ever seen them and there was nothing that could be done to stop them. You had attempted multiple times to get them to listen to music or talk quietly, even going as far as to threaten them with staying on after lunch time to make up for the time lost during art class. You were about to lose your patience out of pure irritation and frustration when a knock sounded on the door of your classroom.

Sangyeon’s head popped in, a look of mild concern on his face. “Y/n, is everything okay?” he asked.

“Not really,” you admitted, running a hand through your hair in an attempt to curb your oncoming headache. “They won’t calm down. I’ve tried literally everything I can think of.”

“Mind if I give it a try?” he asked, earning an enthusiastic nod and a grateful smile from you. Sangyeon let himself in and stood at the front of the room. “Hi everyone!” he greeted loudly, causing your students to start to quiet down at the sight of a new face. “Thanks for waiting to start art class until I came,” he smiled, as if he was supposed to be there all along. “I’m Teacher Sangyeon from the fourth grade class down the hall.”

“He teaches big kids,” you heard Emma whisper to her desk mate. Cute.

“Teacher Y/n was just telling me how advanced and mature her second graders are. She even thought that I could come and teach them a little bit of fourth grade art since you’re all so far ahead,” Sangyeon complimented.

Gasps rang around the room, and you couldn’t be more grateful to him in that moment. “But you guys were pretty noisy when I came in. I’m not sure if you guys are really mature enough,” he trailed off, a look of concern on his face.

“We are!” Sana exclaimed, shushing her classmates with a stern expression. “We promise we are!”

“Well...” Sangyeon pretended to think for a moment. “If you guys can promise to be calm and good listeners, maybe I can still teach you like I teach fourth grade art. But only if you’re well behaved.”

In that moment, you were almost as entranced by Sangyeon as your students were.

Sangyeon took their silence as a promise and made his way over to your whiteboard, writing down his name and a few bullet points down. Then, he began to talk about being in the fourth grade and how different things would be from the second grade. He spoke with an air of confidence and kindness that made you realise why he became a teacher, and why all of his students loved him so much.

He was patient and informative without being condescending, and he took any questions and comments happily at any given moment. Sangyeon was definitely in his element, and it made him glow with relaxed joy.

You had always thought Sangyeon was attractive, but this was on a different level. He commanded the attention of all of your students and the way he just swooped in, giving up his entire free period to help you, made your heart swell with something akin to admiration. Sangyeon had your students giggling at his cheesy comments, and you found yourself smiling along with them, just as enchanted by him as your students were.

When he was done teaching, your students looked at him in awe and their eyes were dripping with respect and admiration. He dismissed them to lunch with your approval, and you practically leapt onto him when all your students left.

“Woah, what did I do to deserve that?” he wondered, wrapping his arms around you to return your hug nonetheless.

“Saved my class, and myself from a migraine,” you replied, sighing in relief. “Thank you, Sangyeon. Really. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this,” you acknowledged, squeezing your eyes shut to relish in the hug. Sangyeon tightened his grip on you and sighed back, butterflies fluttering around his stomach.

Maybe he should just tell you that he’s your secret admirer, he considered.

“Of course, Y/n. You know that I’m always here if you need anything,” he said instead, pulling away from your hug to offer you a genuine smile. He wasn’t ready yet.

“I do,” you agreed with a nod. “And I can help you out anytime as well. Thank you. Let me buy you coffee or something as a proper thank you,” you offered, grabbing your bag without letting him reply.

“Not everyone is as obsessed with caffeine as you are,” Sangyeon retorted, gently nudging you with his hip to tease you.

“Hey, until they start selling it in an IV bag, I’m going to have to get my caffeine the old fashion way. C’mon, coffee shop three blocks away. My treat,” you smiled hopefully, holding up your wallet to jokingly entice him.

Sangyeon broke out into a large smile, eyes shaped like crescent moons. “I would love that,” he agreed, starting to erase his notes on the whiteboard as you clapped.

You watched him. “Your handwriting is beautiful,” you complimented, seeing the letters disappear. “I feel like I’ve seen it before,” you thought aloud, wondering why it looked so familiar.

“Really?” Sangyeon said, eyes wide as he sped up his process of erasing his lettering. “Probably in the yearbook or something.”

“Probably,” you dismissed the thought with a smile. “Now let’s go get our coffee on.”

After Sangyeon saved your art class, and your head from a brutal migraine, he started spending more time with you during your mutual free periods. Usually, you sat in silence in the teacher’s lounge as you did any grading or class prep that needed to be done, but with Sangyeon’s presence, your free periods were much more colourful and laidback.

Sangyeon had a lighthearted way about him; everything he said was assuring kind, and didn’t fail to make your heart flutter. Usually, you only ever spent time with Sangyeon when Jacob and Hyunjae were around, but being alone with Sangyeon was a different situation entirely. You had always known he was handsome and considerate, but he exuded a different kind of energy when he wasn’t surrounded by your friends.

As he sat next to you at one of the tables in the teacher’s lounge before the school day started, you couldn’t help but admire his profile; he was practically flawless. He had a long, slender nose and high cheekbones that made Sangyeon look more angular than soft. His deep brown eyes and pillow-soft lips-

“Y/n?” you snapped out of your trail of thoughts, realising that you had been blatantly staring at your coworker. Sangyeon gave you a concerned look. “You okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine!” you promised, clearing your throat and adjusting your shirt to give your hands something to do. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

The bell chimed, indicating that the school day would begin soon. You and Sangyeon stood up from your chairs and started collecting your papers. “I was just saying that I can’t stay with you during my free, I have some errands to run,” he explained, giving you a wave before he ran off to grab something from his car before class started.

You rose an eyebrow. “I don’t have a free today,” you mumbled to yourself, making your way to your classroom to start your first period class.

Sangyeon grinned, lifting the flower bouquet in his hand to smell the fragrant flowers once more, relishing in their sweet scent. You had told him about a little flower shop nearby that you noticed the other day, but you couldn’t bring yourself to buy yourself flowers because it felt a little embarrassing. Since you had a free today, Sangyeon figured it would be the perfect time to buy you some flowers and give them to you.

Anonymously, of course.

As Sangyeon snuck past the teacher’s lounge, he saw your bag on one of the chairs and quickened his steps so that you wouldn’t spot him as he made his way to your classroom. Checking the hallway, Sangyeon entered your classroom as quietly as he could as to not alert any other classes of his presence.

As carefully as he could, Sangyeon closed the door behind him and let out a relieved sigh when it silently shut. Smiling, he turned around to put the flowers on your desk.

Only to be met with the little faces of your entire class.

Sangyeon’s mouth fell open in shock, his eyes widening simultaneously as he realised the situation.

“Teacher Sangyeon,” Emma exclaimed, waving excitedly at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Um, hi class,” Sangyeon greeted awkwardly, making his way towards your desk. “I’m just leaving Teacher Y/n a little surprise, that’s all.”

Minho gasped. “You’re her nice friend that’s leaving her presents!” he realised, pointing his little finger at Sangyeon.

Knowing he was caught, Sangyeon nodded, hurriedly pulling a blue post-it note from his shirt pocket and writing you a little message to go with your flowers. “Yes, I am. But I would really like it if you guys could keep it a secret between us?” he pleaded. “Since I know you guys are so mature and clever.”

He knew that appealing to seven-year-olds’ will to be grown up was a low blow, but he didn’t have much time before you would return to your class.

“Of course,” Sana nodded her head. “We’ll keep your secret. Teacher Y/n is looking for her bag, she’ll be back any minute now!”

Sangyeon thanked her for her warning, giving your students a little wave before he darted out of the classroom and rushed to his own.

That was close. And he was probably screwed.

“Okay class, thank you so much for being patient,” you exclaimed, entering your classroom with your bag. “I’m sorry I left you guys to grab my bag but I’m so proud of you all being so mature and understanding,” you buttered up your students, feeling guilty for running around school like a mad person trying to find your bag.

“Teacher Y/n!” Minho raised his hand as far in the air as he could. “We know who your nice friend is!”

You froze in place from where you were writing on the whiteboard, knowing exactly who he was talking about. “You do?” you echoed.

“Hey,” Sana cried out. “We’re not supposed to tell!”

That’s interesting. You knew that if whoever your secret admirer was had convinced your class to keep their identity a secret, it meant that your class trusted and respected them.

“I don’t care,” Minho retorted, crossing his arms. “We’re supposed to be Sherlock Holmes and help Teacher Y/n, remember?”

You smiled; those kids were truly too cute.

“Oh,” Sana seemed to be struggling with making up her mind. “Well, I suppose you’re right. We did promise Teacher Y/n first.”

“Was my nice friend here?” you asked, spotting the bouquet of flowers on your desk, accompanied by the usual blue post-it note you received with all your gifts.

“He was,” Minho nodded. “Teacher Sangyeon came while we were waiting for you and he brought your flowers.”

Something fluttered in your stomach, excitement at the revelation of your secret admirer making your heart pound just slightly faster. “He did?” you said, so quietly it was almost a whisper.

“And he wrote you a note with a blue post-it!” Emma added. “We were right! Your nice friend is a teacher.”

You smiled, picturing Sangyeon trying to convince your students to keep his secret. He must have snuck in because he thought I had a free period, you realised. “Well, you guys are very good detectives,” you complimented. “Just like Sherlock Holmes.”

When you dismissed your students for lunch, you couldn’t help but sit at your desk as they all filed out to admire the flowers. It was a beautiful mixture of white roses, pink peonies, and beautiful green and purple wildflowers. The post-it note must have been more rushed than usual, because it had a simple message that said he hoped you liked the flowers instead of their usual buttery, warm message of encouragement.

No wonder Sangyeon’s handwriting looked so familiar, you thought as you traced the letters on the post-it note with your pointer finger. The loops of his lettering perfectly replicated those that were written on the whiteboard when he helped you with your art class a few weeks ago.

After assigning your students their work for the last class, you couldn’t help your mind from wandering to Sangyeon, and how you should confront him about being your secret admirer. Making up your mind, you got up from your chair and plucked the flowers and post-it note from your desk before exiting your classroom and walking down the hall.

Knocking on the door of Sangyeon’s classroom, you waited patiently for him to greet you at the door. “Y/n,” his eyes lit up when he recognised that it was you. “Come in, you don’t need to knock,” Sangyeon ushered you in, opening to door for you.

“Thanks,” you smiled, stepping inside. “So, I got another gift from my admirer,” you told him, holding up the flowers. “If I can even call them an admirer.”

“Why shouldn’t they admire you,” Sangyeon said with a small shrug, moving to wipe his whiteboard.

“Say,” you began, holding up the post-it note. “This looks a lot like your handwriting.”

Sangyeon dropped the whiteboard eraser with a loud clatter, cursing quietly before apologising for the noise and going to pick it up. “Oh, um, really?” he wondered, panic rising in his chest.

“Really,” you confirmed, making your way next to him and holding up the post-it for you both to compare to the white board. “See? Your lettering is super similar,” you said, as if you didn’t already know that Sangyeon was your secret admirer.

“Huh,” Sangyeon hummed. “Weird.”

“Isn’t it?” you agreed, smiling. “These flowers are beautiful though, aren’t they?”

Feeling nervous, Sangyeon only gave you a weak smile. “As long as you think so…”

“They’re from that little flower shop I was telling you about the other day,” you told him, recognising the name of the shop on the ribbon that held the bouquet together. “Isn’t that ironic? That they got the flowers from there.”

“Well it’s only a few blocks away so I’m sure other people know about it,” Sangyeon retorted, pretending to go through the papers on his desk to act as if his heart wasn’t beating at the sound of a tuba.

“I also got coffee from my favourite cafe, pastries from my favourite bakery, and any piece of stationary that I complained to you about being low on,” you listed off the different gifts you had received.

Sangyeon opened his mouth to retort, but when he lifted his head to meet your eyes, he knew immediately that he had been caught. “You know, don’t you?” Sangyeon mumbled, red flushing the tips of his cheeks and ears.

“Minho ratted you out,” you confessed, not wanting to take credit for figuring it out.

Sangyeon laughed. “Tattle-tale,” he muttered, eyes gleaming with mischief. “So you were just having fun, teasing me as if you were figuring it all out right in front of me?”

“Hey,” you exclaimed. “I figured the handwriting thing out on my own.”

“Really?”

“No. I just connected the dots after Minho told on you,” you admit, shrugging your shoulders. Sangyeon chuckled, picturing your class telling on him as you lean back against his desk. “I’m glad it’s you,” you revealed, making Sangyeon smile shyly at you.

“How come?” he wondered.

“Well, you’re pretty cute,” you teased, earning an eye-roll from Sangyeon. “And you’re just… I don’t know. You’re really special. The way you interact with your students and how you never fail to give up your free time to help me, or keep me company…” you trailed off, noticing how a more serious expression fell across Sangyeon’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me that it’s you?”

“I didn’t know if you wanted it to be me,” Sangyeon said, tucking his hands into his pant pockets. “You’re one of the most loved teachers at this school, by the students and the faculty. You’re funny, and kind, and beautiful, and I thought you were out of reach.”

“I’m not out of reach,” you shook your head, moving closer to the brunet man. “Not at all.”

“And you’re really happy that it’s me?” he wondered.

“Hm,” you pretended to think. “Let me get back to you on that one,” you teased. “Yes Sangyeon, I’m really happy that it’s you.” Sangyeon beamed, pleased with your response. “That’s your cue.”

“My cue?” he asked.

“Yes, your cue,” you emphasised, trailing your hands up his chest to play with his tie. An understanding look filled his eyes and Sangyeon leant down to kiss you, closing his eyes as you felt each other’s breath against your faces.

The door to Sangyeon’s classroom opened noisily.

“Yo, we were just-“ Hyunjae’s shriek cut off Jacob’s words as the pair realised the position that you and Sangyeon were in.

“Guys, you can’t do that during school hours!” Hyunjae exclaimed, looking scandalised. “Jacob, I’ll cover your eyes and you cover mine,” he said dramatically, causing the two of them to flail about in an attempt to cover each other’s eyes with their hands.

You rolled your eyes, releasing Sangyeon’s tie and leaning back with a sigh. Sangyeon gave you a sheepish smile but cast your friends an exasperated look. “You guys are lame,” you accused.

Jacob laughed, releasing Hyunjae. “So you finally figured it out?”

“I wish. Some little tattle-tales told me all about it after catching him,” you motion to Sangyeon.

Hyunjae cackled. “Genius. C’mon, let’s get lunch. I’m starving,” he moved on quickly, uninterested in your new relationship with Sangyeon. “No kissing on school grounds, either. Let’s go,” he cheered, marching out with Jacob in tow.

You laughed, always amused by your coworkers and friends. “Let’s get lunch,” you agreed with Hyunjae, sending Sangyeon a smile.

As you moved away, Sangyeon caught your arm and gently pulled you back. “School hours are over in two periods,” he reminded you with a cheeky smile.

“Dinner?” you offered, earning a nod.

“I’d be crazy not to go,” Sangyeon exaggerated. “You’re paying, though. I’ve bought you enough food and drinks to last at least a few dinner dates,” he winked.

Laughing, you nodded, pulling him out of his classroom by his hand. “It’s a deal.”

note: the first fic in my 2k followers celebration event is up!! i’m so excited to see what you guys think about it, please let me know and thank you again for 2,000 followers 💛🌻

[fandomsonrequests]

dad!ateez: their dad instincts kick in

inspired by @latte-fairytaekwoon​ (thanks i have massive baby fever now :’] ) and those videos where parents bust out into ninja mode when their baby is about to fall or run into something

hongjoong:

“Okay buddy, just sit there while daddy works okay?” Hongjoong tells his eight-month-old son who was sitting across him on the soft couch of the producing room. His son only babbles happily, making his father smile. 

Hongjoong shakes his head in amusement and turns back towards his computer where he started working on his music. The first few minutes, he would occasionally look over to his son just to make sure he hadn’t wandered off or touch anything. And every time he sees him just playing with the toys that surround him. So far so good. 

But it didn’t take long for the little guy to become bored and for Hongjoong to become so immersed in his work. While he was busy, tapping away and finding some samples to use, his son started to stand. The baby held onto the back of the couch, walking towards the edge where he bounces up and down, his feet dangerously close to the edge. One wrong misstep and he would go tumbling off the side. 

Fortunately, at that moment, Hongjoong’s father instincts kicked in. Something just tickled in the back of his head to check his baby. And a good thing he did because the minute he turned, his baby slipped off the edge of the couch. The man immediately launched off his chair and grabbed his son by the arm, pulling him towards his chest and rolling back onto the couch.

The baby was stunned into silence, not comprehending what had happened before laughing and patting his father’s face. Hongjoong felt his heartbeat rapidly, a sigh of relief escaping him. He kissed the baby’s little palm and brought him over to his chair where he sat him onto his lap. 

“Maybe it’s best you watch daddy work.”

seonghwa:

“That’s it Hyonjin! Keep it up!” You encourage your four-year-old daughter from behind the camera.

It was her first time riding a trike so obviously, your husband, being the helicopter father he was, asked you to document the whole thing. Speaking of which, Seonghwa was right behind your daughter, jogging a little as Hyonjin speeds down the road. 

“There you go, angel! You’re doing great!” He cheered on. 

The little girl just giggles and pedals faster. But due thanks to the laws of physics, she was moving too fast— much too fast. And she didn’t see the mailbox on the side of the road that she was about to crash into. Luckily for you, Seonghwa started sprinting towards her, his arms outstretched. 

“Seonghwa—“ You call out to your husband when you realize what was about to happen.

And by the grace of a miracle, he grabbed Hyonjin by the waist, lifting her out of the tricycle right as it crashed into the mailbox. Your daughter who was blissfully unaware of what had happened just smiled down at your dad. But all color had drained from both parents’ faces, adrenaline rushing through you.

“Daddy! Did you see it? I was going so fast!” Your little girl says to her father, shaking her dad’s arms. 

Your husband smiles weakly but no less bright. “Yes you did angel, but I think you should slow it down a little.” 

yunho :

Eun-jung, your little six-year-old baby girl, squeals as she goes back and forth on the spring rider. You watch from the side with your newly born son in your arms. You, Yunho, and your two little rascals decided it would be fun to have a picnic at the public field nearby. You were just lucky there was a small playground built there.

Your husband laughs along with your little girl as he pulled her back on the spring rider. It was nice to see that he was having just as much fun as his daughter, their energies fueling each other. 

Eun-jung started to rock the rider a little, making it go back and forth a little more violently. Yunho grows a little more apprehensive at the rate she was going but lets her keep going- he didn’t want to ruin her fun after all. And that proved to be a good decision because the moment the spring rider tipped backward, the little girl loses her grip and falls off. 

You yell out to Yunho, your own instincts kicking in, but he was already moving. He held his arms out and caught her by the waist. The force from your daughter being practically thrown off practically sent the two tumbling to the ground. Yunho’s ninja mode flips on and he turns so that he lands on his back instead of falling forward, to avoid crushing his baby girl underneath his weight. 

When he realizes what happened, his eyes widened in excitement. “Aha! I told you bubba, your dad has Spiderman reflexes!” He teases his daughter. 

You roll your eyes in amusement but maybe he wasn’t exaggerating. 

yeosang:

“Doyun, stop moving. Your father is asleep.” You warn your son who was bouncing on his spot on the couch, Yeosang’s head being right beside your son on the couch. 

“Sorry,” He apologizes before returning your attention back to the television. The whole family, apart from Yeosang who was out like a light from working all day, decided to watch a film before heading to bed. Your younger son, Ji-ho, was sat on your lap while your youngest, Haneul, was sat beside you. 

Haneul was only a few months old but could already sit up. Her attention was turned from the television though, instead, focusing on the little insect that managed to crawl into your home. It was slowly making its way across the floor. And Haneul, seeing it skittle away, thought it was a good idea to follow it.

She scoots forward on the couch and fell off the edge. Your hand shot out when you saw her move to the corner of your eye but Yeosang was faster.

Yeosang magically woke up from his nap and his arm just moved on its own accord, pinning the baby to the couch. You grab her legs and gently lay her to the floor while your sons watch in amazement at what had happened. 

“Oh my God dad-” Ji-ho cheers. “That was so cool!”

Yeosang couldn’t help but chuckle, reaching over to pull Haneul and rest her upon his chest. “Thank you, kiddo. But that’s one of the reasons why they married me.” He sends a wink towards you, making you blush. 

“Just watch the dang movie, Kang.”

san: 

“Okay Nari, just let it out,” San cooes to his baby girl, her tiny body laying on his shoulder as he gently pats her back. He had just finished feeding her milk in the kitchen and it was now time for her to burp it out. 

He rocks her back and forth, traveling to the living room where your two-year-old daughter was watching the television. You were away on a business trip, leaving San in charge of taking care of your two little angels. Sooyun turned from her spot on the couch when she saw her dad approaching and smiled, reaching out to him.

“Dada!” She cooed and made grabby hands.

“Hey Yoonie, what are you watching?” He asks her as goes over, standing by the couch. 

“Pororo!” She answered and copied the cute penguin, making her father chuckle. She sees her baby sister in her dad’s arms and reached out to make grabby hands again. “Daddy hold please!” 

San smiles apologetically at her and shook his head. “Not now baby, Nari needs to burp-burp before you can hold her.” 

But the little girl wasn’t having it. She whines and reaches out again, leaning over the side of the couch and reaching up. San turned his torso away and kept telling her no. And in a last attempt to grab her sister, Sooyun jumped up over the side, making her fall over. San’s parental mode kicks in and he sticks his foot out, cushioning her head as she fell to the floor. 

“You okay?” He asks her and she nods her head. “Let’s keep this secret between us? Okay Sooyun?”

“Okay daddy.” 

mingi:

“Song Mingi be careful with Young-soo,” You warn as you recline back on the couch. You were suffering a sore back that day, so you were resting with a warm compress on your back. “That yoga ball you’re bouncing him on is old. It could pop.”

“Don’t worry baby, I have ninja instincts. He’ll be safe.” Mingi assures you as he bounces his son on the ball, making him release a joyous giggle. 

Young-soo squeals in delight as his father turns him around and maneuvers him so that he’s able to do a few front and backflips. Your husband laughs his deep but warm laugh when Young-soo poses like a character in a fighting game. And for a while, you decide that maybe it’s best to let them be. 

But just as you predicted- the ball bursts in midjump. You felt time slow down when you see the rubber fly everywhere, immediately straightening up despite the pain that shot up your spine. Mingi’s large arms grabbed at his son, pulling him up before his face could hit the floor. 

Young-soo starts crying from the loud noise and your husband hurriedly hushes him. “Don’t cry little guy, daddy’s here.” He says and wipes the boy’s tears. It doesn’t take long for Young-soo to calm down. Mingi faces you, a sheepish smile on his face when he sees your unamused expression. 

“Heh, told you,” He stammers. “Ninja instincts.”

wooyoung: 

Wooyoung looks into the pot full of mashed rice and banana pudding with milk- or in other words: baby food. He stirs the pudding, lowering the heat before looking over to his son who was sat patiently in his high chair. He played with his little rattle, keeping himself entertained with the object.

Wooyoung smiles at himself, proud that your little one was well behaved. He had definitely gotten it from you- or at least that what some of his friends and family say. He was left in charge of the house for the day as you were out at your older son’s kindergarten to pick him up.

“Your dad’s almost finished with the best baby food ever,” Wooyoung says proudly and turns off the heat from the pot. As he was busy transferring the pudding to the baby bowl and cleaned up his area as he waited for it to cool, his son starts to rock the chair, growing bored with the rattle.

The high chair slowly gains momentum, tipping over from side to side. Hearing the sudden racket, Wooyoung looks over to the baby, eyes widening at what he saw. He practically leaps over the counter as the high chair tipped over to the left, falling in that direction. 

Before it hits the ground, Wooyoung had slid over, dropping down to his knees and stabilizing the high chair. His son just looks curiously at his father, laughing happily and bonking his father over the head with his rattle.

“Okay, maybe you aren’t as well-behaved as I thought.” Wooyoung winces before chuckling to himself. “Now you got that from me.”

jongho: 

You and your husband Jongho thought it would be a good time to have a vacation at the beach with your twins. The beach resort you had booked had some beach activities for visitors to do- banana boat riding, speedboating, snorkeling, beach volleyball, you name it. It just so happened that one of the activities was ATV riding. 

And of course, your kids knew how well their dad was at driving the thing. So they asked if they could ride one themselves. Your twins were nine-years-old, so you and Jongho didn’t see any problem with letting them ride an ATV by themselves. Of course, he was going to supervise them but he’d rather they learn on their own.

“Alright Young-min, hold onto your sister,” He instructs them while you film from the side, a grin present. “Young-soon, remember this is the break and this makes you accelerate- BUT be easy on the acceleration, gently squeeze it- not press down on it, or else you and your brother will speed away.”

“Yes dad,” The two respond in unison through their helmets. Young-soon seemed so excited though as she was practically vibrating with excitement. 

“Okay kiddos, let her rip,” Jongho says as he steps away. 

The ATV slowly moves forward at a pace that allowed you and your husband to walk alongside it. They slowly gain speed but it was nothing that made you run after them. But your daughter, being so overwhelmed with adrenaline, accidentally squeezed the acceleration too hard, making them zoom forward.

“Whoa- whoa slow down!” You call out to them. 

Jongho’s paternal instincts kicked in and he automatically latched onto the metal part that jutted out of the back of the ATV, clutching onto it for dear life in an attempt to slow down the bike. Before they could crash into the changing shed nearby, he snatches the two up in one arm and pulled them off. The bike breaks to a stop, leaving you jogging up to the three. 

“I can’t believe I caught that in film.” You breathe in disbelief, making your twins look to you excitedly. 

“Can we see???” 

[marvelmusing]

Making Time

Mobius M Mobius x Reader

Part 2

My Masterlist

“1985, huh?” You say, looking up from the briefing Mobius has just handed you.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll spot a delorian?” He jokes, making a Back to the Future reference. You smile at him, remembering when you’d first mentioned the movie. You hadn’t been at the TVA long, to your knowledge.

You’re sat in one of the cafes, explaining something about the timeline to Casey, and you make an offhand reference to the movie. To which, Casey looks even more confused. You glance at Mobius, who’s been sat next to you, watching your teaching with a smile. You offer them both a small smile, at yet another reminder that you’re from somewhere very different from the rest of them.

“Neither of you have seen it have you?” Mobius shakes his head.

“Not a lot of chances for watching movies when dealing with the timeline. Should we get the chance, I’d love to.” It’s a few days later when you give him the chance.

“Honey, I’m home.” You hear Mobius call out, which brings a smile to your face. Whilst you had your own apartment, you much preferred staying with Mobius, like you did when you first arrived at the TVA. You hear him set down a pile of papers in the kitchen, before making his way into the lounge where you’re sat waiting for him. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“What’s all this?”

“Back to the Future. I went through my file, and managed to find a version that I watched that was uninterrupted. Then I isolated it, and copied it onto one of those cassette reel things, so that it’ll play on your mini projector.” You pause, before adding, “I probably put too much effort into this but, I thought we could have what my time considers a movie night?”

“A movie night?” Your face falls slightly, feeling embarrassed by your suggestion.

“We don’t have to-“ you start. He shrugs off his jacket and settles down next to you.

“Did I not tell you I wanted to watch it, should I get the chance?”

“Well, yeah.” He gestures to the projector.

“Let’s get this show on a roll.” You grin at him, before quickly pressing play on the projector. Mobius leans an arm on the couch and pulls you to his side. “You finally have clearance to access to your file, and you use it to watch Back to the Future?”

“What else was I supposed to do with it?” You joke.

You and Mobius head to the cubicle where you left Loki this morning. You spot him wapping against the desk with a magazine.

“Training going well?” You ask him. He leans back in his chair, attempting to look casual.

“Yeah.”

“Is that my jet ski magazine?” Mobius asks him. “Put it down. Gear up. There's been an attack. Let's go.” He hands Loki the jacket he’s been carrying. You set the briefing down on the desk, and follow Mobius. Loki trails behind you. “Put it on.” Loki shrugs the jacket on, adjusting the collar before posing.

“Nice.” You tell him with a smile.

“Good. Yeah, smart.” Mobius says distractedly. You soon reach the Timedoors, where a small group of hunters have gathered to wait. B-15 opens up the briefing.

“C-20 and her team went dark shortly after they jumped into the 1985 branch. All signs point to another ambush. We've grabbed enough temporal aura to know it's our Loki Variant. But which kind of Loki, remains unknown.”

“They're the lesser kind, to be clear.” Loki specifies. B-15 sighs,

“Let me see the back of that jacket.” Loki does a small turn, showing the group the back of his jacket, where the bright orange letters reading VARIANT stand out. Everyone is the group shares a small smile. You’re glad you don’t have to wear one of those anymore.

“Very subtle. Well done.”

“I don't want anybody out there to forget what you are.”

“Oh, your only hope of capturing a murderer?”

“No. A cosmic mistake.”

“That's enough.” Mobius interrupts.

“Lovely.” You hear Loki murmur.

“Here's the deal.” Mobius begins. “When we get out on the branch, we're not just looking for a Time Criminal. We're looking for a Loki. A variation of this guy. A type we should all be very familiar with, because the TVA has pruned a lotta these guys, almost more than any other Variant.” He skims through a few of the Loki Variants that the TVA have caught before. “And no two are alike. Slight differences in appearances, or not so slight. Different powers, although, powers generally include: shapeshifting, illusion projection, and my favourite-”

“Duplication casting.” Loki interrupts

“Illusion projection.”

“No, they're two completely different powers.”

“How?” You ask him.

“Illusion-projection involves depicting a detailed image from outside oneself, which is perceptible in the external world, whereas duplication-casting entails recreating an exact facsimile of one's own body in its present circumstance, which acts as a true holographic mirror of its molecular structure. But you already knew that.” He explains. You catch a glimpse of Mobius’s smirk before he says,

“Okay, take a breath. Noted. We're gonna break into two teams, including myself and Professor Loki.”

“Why?” A hunter stood beside you asks.

“Because whoever this Variant is, we haven't been able to find him. So let's bring in an expert.” Loki looks around at the group before adding a quiet,

“That's me.”

As the hunters prepare themselves, you hear Loki ask, “Do I get a weapon?” You laugh lightly,

“No chance.”

“Well, I'll have my magic back. Is no one concerned about that?”

“Of what?” Mobius asks.

“Me betraying you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You know that we’ll just catch you again.” You tell him.

“And how's betraying us gonna get you any closer to the Time-Keepers?” Mobius adds. Loki leans forward, his attention fixed on Mobius.

“An audience with the Time-Keepers is on the table?”

“Keep that focus.” Mobius tells him. The three of you follow the hunters through the Timedoor, and out into 1985 Wisconsin. Your group makes their way through the crowd of the Renaissance fair before entering a large tent. It’s dark inside, with only a few lanterns to light your path. You watch as B-15 bends down to grasp examine a helmet left abandoned on the floor.

“So he's taking hostages now?” She says, turning to Mobius.

“The Variant's never taken a hostage before.”

“Maybe he's upping his game.”

“Or he pruned her.” One of the hunters remarks, you frown at his callousness towards his colleague.

“A Loki couldn't have gotten the jump on C-20.”

“I think you underestimate, actually...” Loki begins.

“Fan out and search for her. And hurry up, we're at three units until red line.” B-15 orders. Mobius sets a hand on your arm, and the two of you head to the exit.

“Come on.” He says to Loki.

“Wait. If you leave this tent, you'll end up like them.” Mobius stops beside Loki.

“What do you see?”

“I see a scheme, and in that scheme, I see myself.” Loki begins to ramble about an old Asgardian saying.

“Two units. He is wasting our time.” B-15 interrupts.

“Okay. Come on, Loki, make a long story short.” Mobius encourages.

“We need to look for C-20.”

“That's exactly what the Variant wants you to do. It's a trap. He's waiting for you outside this tent.”

“Should I secure the reset charges?”

“No. He wants me. I'm the key to his plan. He knows that I'm stronger. And he rightly believes that together we can overthrow and rule the TVA. But that's not what I want. I have a new purpose. I'm a servant of the Sacred Timeline. And knowing what I now know about his tactics, I can deliver you the Variant, but I need assurances.” He says, looking to Mobius. You glance up at Mobius, frowning slightly. Surely he isn’t believing what Loki’s saying? His eyes catch yours and there’s a small twinkle in them. You hide your smile. Loki circles around Mobius.

“Yeah?” Mobius offers.

“Assurances that I won't be completely disintegrated the moment the job has been done.”

“Right.” Loki leans forward, before whispering,

“We'll need to speak to the Time-Keepers at once. They're in graver danger than we realized.”

“He's lying. Just playing games. There's no one out there.” Mobius calls out to the group.

“Reset the timeline.” B-15 orders.

“You had me for a second. My ears are sharp too.” He points at Loki’s chest. You follow Mobius out of the tent.

“Well that went well.” You remark, hearing Mobius sigh. He runs his hand over his face.

You’re tucking into your lunch when you spot Mobius. He picks out a drink and a salad before making his way over to you. You give him a small smile,

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“How did it go with Renslayer?” He sighs, leaning his head back, before getting comfortable in his seat.

“Well, our Loki hasn’t been deleted yet.”

“That’s good then?” You offer. He sighs,

“Yeah. Though he’s getting more and more talkative.”

“You did say he loves to talk. Where is he now?”

“I’ve left him with the archives, hopefully he’ll be reading for the next few days. Or at least long enough for me to finish lunch.” He begins to eat his salad. Just then, Loki scampers in looking like a manic puppy.

“I found something.” Mobius shakes his head, keeping his attention on his lunch,

“No, I said don’t bother me until you've read all the files.”

“I have.”

“Every file?”

“Yes.”

“Pertaining to the Variant?”

“The answer isn't in the files, it's on the timeline. He's hiding in apocalypses.”

“Which apocalypse?” You ask.

“Any time in history? There's, like, a million of 'em.” Mobius adds.

“Ragnarok. Are you familiar?”

“Yes. The destruction of Asgard and most of its people. I'm sorry.” Loki pauses looking down.

“Yes, very sad.” He immediately perks up again. “Anyway, it got me thinking. Nexus events happen when someone does something they're not supposed to do, right?”

“Well, it's a little more complicated, but, yeah.”

“Great. And then that thing they're not supposed to do, cascades into a whole range of other things that aren't supposed to happen.”

“And so on and so forth, until eventually, a new timeline branches. Yes?”

“Chaotic alterations of a predetermined outcome.”

“Exactly. So, let's just say...” He picks up the salad bowl from in front of Mobius.

“Mm-hm. What are you doing?”

“...your salad is Asgard in this scenario.” Loki continues.

“It's not Asgard, that's my lunch.” Mobius complains, the pouting clear in his voice. You lean forward, a hand on your chin to hide the smile at Mobius’s reaction.

“It's a metaphor. Just hang in there.”

“I want that salad.”

“And I could go down to Asgard before Ragnarok causes its complete destruction and I could do anything I wanted. I could, let's say, push the Hulk off the Rainbow Bridge.” He picks up a salt shaker and puts a large sprinkling of salt across Mobius’s salad.

“There he goes.” You say, feeling rather invested in this metaphor.

“The salt's Hulk?” Mobius asks, clearly not as enthusiastic as you.

“And I could also... Set fire to the palace.” He picks up a pepper pot and shakes the pepper across the salad.

“No, just stop. Don't set fire to the palace.”

“Okay? I can do whatever I want to do, and it would never matter. It wouldn't go against the dictates of the timeline because...” He sets down the shakers after nearly emptying them both. He heads to the table behind you. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, God!” Mobius sighs.

“You!” Recognising the voice you look up to see Casey looking very confused.

“Nice to see you. I just need this for a second. Thanks.” Loki picks up Casey’s carton of juice, before sitting back down at your table. “Because the apocalypse is coming. Ragnarok, Surtur will destroy Asgard no matter what I do.”

“No, don't do...” Mobius sighs as Loki empties the carton over the remains of the salad.

“There's the apocalypse.” You say with a sigh, offering Mobius your bag of chips.

“That's the apocalypse?” He asks, taking a handful of chips from you with a smile.

“Ragnarok obliterates the salt. Ragnarok. There it is.” Loki gestures to the ruined salad with a proud smile.

“What am I lookin' at?”

“Okay, it was a clumsy metaphor. But you see what I mean. It doesn't matter. It could be any apocalypse. It could be a tidal wave. It could be a meteor. It could be a volcano, a supernova. If everything and everyone around you is destined for imminent destruction, then nothing that I say or do will matter, because the timeline's not gonna branch. Hence, the Variant could be hiding in the apocalypse and do whatever he wants, and we wouldn't know!”

“Not bad.” You offer.

“Take me to a real apocalypse, to Ragnarok, I'll show you.” Mobius chuckles,

“Yeah. So you can run away back to your homeland? No.”

“No, I'm not going home. We can go anywhere.”

“I'm not taking you for a stroll along the promenade, much less an apocalypse.”

“Oh, Mobius, come on! What could possibly go wrong? We gotta properly test this theory.”

“Well, here's a fun theory. You lure me out into the field, and stab me in the back. And that's a theory I don't wanna test.”

“I'd never stab anyone in the back. That's such a boring form of betrayal.” He most definitely would stab someone in the back.

“Loki, I've studied almost every moment of your entire life. You've literally stabbed people in the back, like 50 times.”

“Well, I'd never do it again, because it got old.” You both laugh at this. Mobius looks at you, and you shrug.

“Might as well try it?” You offer. Mobius nods,

“Okay.”

“Okay, look, you don't trust me, you can trust one thing. I love to be right.” Loki adds. That certainly isn’t a lie.

Tagslist: @n0obmaster69 @mackycat11 @wibblywobblyjeremybearimy @boriqs @morganwilliams @greeneyedblondie44

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[becomewings]

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>

    BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 2 / 4

« pt. 1  |  » pt. 3

Introduction

JungKook’s and YoonGi’s stories are the first of the paid content in BTS Universe Story and are substantially more detailed than the episodes covered in part 1. As this led to longer summaries (4.2k and 3k), I have added “tl;dr commentary” at the bottom of the post after a section of additional thoughts. This commentary summarizes the parenthetical asides I made throughout the summaries and may be of interest as standalone reading to those who have already played the game yet would like to review its connections to the BU texts and MVs.

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

The Boy on the Threshold

In this story, SeokJin works to uncover the motivations behind JungKook’s nightly street wandering, instigation of fights with thugs, and decision to jump from the roof of a construction site. He was aware of the “darkness” within JungKook but never thought that he would give up on himself. SeokJin is determined to find a way to make JungKook think “I want to live” on his own.

In the afternoon on 11 April Year 22, SeokJin drives by the crosswalk outside Songju Jeil High School. Spotting a grim-faced JungKook, he gets out to greet him. JungKook visibly brightens and pelts him with question after question, finally finishing with, “But how come you’re here at school?” If the player chooses the response “I came to see you” rather than “I was in the neighborhood,” JungKook seems a little disbelieving due to the coincidental timing but nevertheless pleased. SeokJin offers him a ride, thinking that JungKook will not carry out that night’s actions from previous loops if he gets home right away. In the car, SeokJin reminisces aloud about the day they all met. On 3 March Year 19, all seven boys arrived late on the first day at Songju Jeil High School and were scolded outside by the Dean. (Aside from the absence of extra students, this scene looks very similar to the BTS Begins Middle Scene VCR, including the detail of YoonGi arriving last. This VCR predates official BU content.) When the Dean spotted SeokJin in their lineup, he reduced their punishment of community service for one month to just that afternoon. After classes, the boys cleaned the annex. The old classroom-turned-storage room became their secret hideout where they enjoyed various activities like dancing, playing the piano, and spending time with one another. JungKook appears happy as they chat about their school days, although in one path, his face falls after he remembers when he and YoonGi were caught in the annex. SeokJin is concerned, but JungKook insists, “It’s nothing.”

They say goodbye outside JungKook’s house, but SeokJin watches to make sure he goes inside. JungKook hesitates before ringing the bell at the gate. His mom answers, surprised and at a loss by his unexpected arrival. She asks him to come back later because his father’s relatives stopped by, and the intercom cuts off before he can answer. (His mother remarried, so this is really his step-father and family.) SeokJin wonders if JungKook has no one to lean on at school or at home and if this is why he wanders the streets at night. He asks JungKook where he wants to go now. “The beach… the one I went to with you guys,” JungKook answers, then says he’s kidding when SeokJin hesitates, thinking about the night ahead. SeokJin invites JungKook home instead, hoping to keep an eye on him before he needs to save NamJoon at the gas station.

In his bedroom, SeokJin hastily takes down the map and notes pinned on the wall of the boys’ incidents around the city. After letting JungKook inside, he shows him a box of photos from their time together in school. While JungKook browses, a notification on SeokJin’s phone reminds him of Songho Foundation’s inaugural ceremony that evening. Songho Foundation is a scholarship foundation funded by his maternal grandmother’s estate, and his father formally introduces him on this occasion. SeokJin also receives a call from his father’s long-time aide, a man he refers to as Uncle JunHo, who instructs him not to be late to the ceremony. Claiming it won’t take him long, SeokJin asks JungKook to stay there and wait for him to return. He is worried about leaving JungKook alone but also concerned that bringing him to the gas station after the ceremony will make him late to intervening in NamJoon’s incident.

In the lobby of the hotel hosting the Songho Foundation Inauguration Ceremony, SeokJin recognizes many important faces from around the city: Song JunHo, his father’s aide; Seo HyunJung, the city’s deputy mayor; the CEO of Youngjin Engineering & Construction Company; a professor from Munhyeon University; and the Jeil High School principal, Jo JinMyung. SeokJin doesn’t want to cross paths with the principal but is drawn into a conversation with him, the mayor, and his father, Kim ChangJun. “Assemblyman! Congratulations on the launch of the scholarship foundation,” Deputy Mayor Seo says to Kim ChangJun. “I hear that your son has been accepted to Munhyeon University? You must be happy that he’s attending your alma mater.” Kim ChangJun shakes his head. “He still has a lot to learn.” She remarks that everyone knows how well SeokJin has grown up and inquires about his career plans. The player is presented with three choices: “I haven’t decided yet,” “I want to become a good person,” and “I want to become someone like my father.” SeokJin’s father continues to look grim while the others chuckle in response to the first two answers, but his expression softens at the third, which SeokJin knew would not rub him the wrong way. Deputy Mayor Seo proposes to Assemblyman Kim that they establish a regular meeting to discuss community development, mentioning that it would be better if he could invite the city’s prominent citizens and give a speech. Assemblyman Kim agrees, telling his assistant Song JunHo to make note of it. The ceremony concludes, and the guests head towards the hotel’s restaurant. SeokJin is wary of his father’s watchful gaze but impatient to carry out the rest of the night’s plans. While his father is surrounded by other people, he informs Uncle JunHo that he has to leave to work on a group project. SeokJin slips out of the hotel and heads to NamJoon’s gas station.

While SeokJin is gone, one of the photos in the box catches JungKook’s eye. It shows the seven boys sitting on a wall with the ocean behind them. (This photo resembles the shot in Euphoria at 5’32” except that they appear to be wearing school uniform shirts and slacks.) A flashback retells the afternoon of 12 June Year 19 when the boys cut school early and visited the sea, trudging over 3 kilometers under the scorching sun to find a boulder that is rumored to make your dreams come true. (The date is not specified in the game, but the memory closely follows this set of entries in The Notes 1.) Everyone collapses in disappointment when they can’t find the rock at its designated location. JungKook is tired but not as disappointed as the others—just walking there with them is enough for him, even though he often feels uncertain of his place among the group. He gets up on the pier railing, reflecting: “I’ve always liked walking on the edge of walls or on top of lines. Focusing on centering my gravity means that I don’t really think of anything else, and the boundary—not quite a part of either place—always felt like where I should be.” Balancing precariously, JungKook walks until someone grabs his arm. YoonGi scolds him not to do this. JungKook assures him that he will not fall but privately thinks: “YoonGi would often grab my arm when I walked on railings. The others would look after me, too, after seeing him do that. I liked their helping hands. It felt like they were telling me that I should go to them. That this wasn’t my place. Maybe their hands were why I walked on the railings.”

The story returns to the present in SeokJin’s perspective. He rushes back to his room after saving NamJoon and finds JungKook asleep, leaning against the bed with the photos still scattered around him. Feeling both relief and regret, SeokJin quietly coaxes JungKook to lay down and sleep more comfortably. JungKook wakes up and says he should go home after hearing that it’s past ten o’clock. The game cuts briefly to SeokJin’s father in his study with his aide. Kim ChangJun asks Song JunHo to fetch SeokJin, as he needs to know what goes on for the foundation. JunHo says that SeokJin must be entertaining a guest for the group project because he spotted an unfamiliar pair of shoes in the entryway.

Back in his bedroom, SeokJin is startled when his father knocks on the door. It’s rare for his father to visit the second floor of their home, so he let his guard down while chatting with JungKook. “F-Father.” Stammering, SeokJin flinches and gathers up the scattered photos. “Did you leave the ceremony early to waste time like this? Even lying to say you were doing a school project?” asks Kim ChangJun. His cold and reproachful stare suffocates SeokJin. When his father’s eyes scan to JungKook standing awkwardly at the side, SeokJin is plunged into a childhood memory. On 10 October Year 9, 9-year-old SeokJin hid a school friend who was being chased by scary men in his bedroom. His father arrived and asked if the boy was Mr. Choi’s son, saying people had come to take him. When Kim ChangJun ordered him to “be a good boy,” SeokJin froze and was powerless to stop his friend from being handed over. The following day, SeokJin was told his friend transferred schools. (This event is also depicted as the first entry of The Notes 1.) In the present, SeokJin struggles to think of an explanation, smothered by that memory and his father’s pressuring stare. JungKook timidly speaks up. “I was only here to visit for a short while. I was actually about to head home. Hey, I’ll go now.” SeokJin knows he can’t leave him alone yet and finally forces himself to move. “Father, I… I’m going to go out for a little while.” He runs outside, but JungKook is already gone.

The story cuts to JungKook’s perspective as he arrives in a familiar alleyway. He is thankful that SeokJin was so considerate to him but feels that he shouldn’t have gone to his home since it made things more complicated for his friend. “YoonGi even got expelled because of me… Why do I always mess things up for the people around me?” JungKook thinks. The player is presented the choice to either text SeokJin or call YoonGi. In the first path, SeokJin calls JungKook while he is mid-text and says that he’ll come pick him up, but JungKook declines, thanks him, and hangs up. In the second path, JungKook fiddles with his phone, wondering if YoonGi will be annoyed or even answer. He remembers when they crossed paths a few days earlier. On 7 April Year 22, JungKook heard a familiar tune while roaming the dark streets and saw YoonGi playing piano through a broken window of a music shop. YoonGi stopped and eventually staggered out of the shop without noticing JungKook reaching out to him. JungKook tried to play the music by memory, and suddenly YoonGi returned—just like their days at the classroom. (Note: In his 7 April Year 22 entry of The Notes 1, YoonGi is drunk and stumbling by an empty construction site when he recognizes a clumsy piano tune that he’d been playing “not long ago.” But when he runs to the music shop and finds JungKook, the text does not indicate that he remembers this is his second visit to the shop this evening. Additionally, the Wings short film First Love seems to reference some of the events of this night—or evokes YoonGi’s distorted memories of it, mingled with a representation of JungKook’s later accident.)

In the present (11 April), JungKook wonders if YoonGi is doing well. He has thought about him since their chance encounter but doesn’t have the courage to call him first. (The narrative paths rejoin here.) JungKook wonders where he should go now yet doesn’t want to think about anything. He stops in the middle of the road, and a passing car’s headlights make him dizzy. SeokJin arrives in the distance and shouts his name, but JungKook just thinks, “One more step from here. Just one more step, and everything ends.” He steps in front of the honking car. SeokJin calls him in the distance, and JungKook feels everything slip farther away. The glass shatters and the loop resets.

Awakening once more on the morning of 11 April, SeokJin vows to protect JungKook until the end. The memory of arriving too late as JungKook threw himself in front of the car reminds him of how he was also unable to protect his childhood friend when he was 9. He needs to devise a new plan, since JungKook practically ran out of the house when confronted by Kim ChangJun. The story cuts to that evening, with JungKook looking at the photo in SeokJin’s bedroom. This time, SeokJin ignores his phone’s buzzing reminder about Songho Foundation’s inaugural ceremony. He asks JungKook where he’d like to get next and, when he doesn’t have any ideas, offers him a tour of the university campus.

JungKook seems happier looking around the campus, the cherry blossoms in full bloom. SeokJin uses this opportunity to ask him if anything is on his mind and if school is going well. JungKook answers nonchalantly, but SeokJin remembers how grim he looked at the school crosswalk that afternoon. He asks if JungKook still hangs out with the other guys. “HoSeok and TaeHyung are working part-time jobs. The others… I’m not sure,” JungKook answers, expression darkening. SeokJin wonders if he shouldn’t have brought it up but still presses him. “How come? You should talk to them from time to time.” “But it’s because of me,” says JungKook. “The reason why YoonGi was expelled… It was because he was trying to protect me.” 

SeokJin either responds “It’s not your fault” or “Don’t think that way.” Following the first choice, JungKook insists, “No, it’s my fault. YoonGi wouldn’t have talked back to the teacher if I wasn’t there.” SeokJin shakes his head. “No, you couldn’t really do anything given the situation.” JungKook replies that he should have at least apologized and that he never had the chance to tell YoonGi he was sorry. “That’s how you felt, huh… I should’ve done more. I’m sorry,” SeokJin apologizes. JungKook shakes his head with a smile, but SeokJin knows that he doesn’t understand what he really meant. (Per events in The Notes 1, it is technically SeokJin’s fault that the teacher found them in the classroom.) If the second dialogue choice, “Don’t think that way,” is chosen, JungKook questions, “How could I? When it was because of me.” “No…” SeokJin is not brave enough to say that he’s the one to blame. The camera (i.e. the animation) starts wobbling as though SeokJin’s vision is swimming. “SeokJin?” asks JungKook in concern. “I should’ve done more. I’m sorry.” The episode ends with the same dialogue and animation of JungKook shaking his head with a smile, except that in the second path the camera is still wobbling from SeokJin’s perspective. (This is the only episode I noted in the game that has a slight difference in endings based on the player’s final choice, although it is essentially cosmetic.)

Episode 5 opens with a more detailed memory of 11 June Year 20 from JungKook’s perspective. The high school was holding an open house for parents. Not wanting to stay in a classroom, he wandered off and heard piano music drifting from the annex. JungKook slipped into their classroom hideout and settled down to listen. YoonGi continued to play without acknowledging him. The music helped calm JungKook—it seemed as though YoonGi understood how he felt and was trying to console him. The sound cut off abruptly as the door slammed open. “You rascals! What are you doing here?!” the Dean of Students demanded. He slapped JungKook, knocking him down. A flurry of verbal abuse poured over his crumpled form. YoonGi shoved the teacher’s shoulder and stepped in front of JungKook. “Wow, look at this kid… You put your hands on a teacher? You better be prepared, Min YoonGi.” With that ominous threat, the Dean departed. JungKook spoke from the floor. “Hey, sorry for making you—” “It’s nothing,” YoonGi cut in. JungKook wondered why he helped him. It was the first time someone had protected him, and he believed that he would never forget the view of YoonGi’s back. YoonGi asked why JungKook was smiling. “I don’t know.” Still smiling, JungKook touched his throbbing cheek. YoonGi stared at him before breaking into his own smile and sitting down next to him. They sat there wordlessly for some time. The feeling of growing closer to YoonGi made JungKook feel giddy the rest of the day. But YoonGi did not come to school the following day, and two weeks later, he was formally expelled. (The encounter with the teacher and YoonGi’s subsequent expulsion are also referenced in JungKook and YoonGi’s 25 June Year 20 entries in The Notes 1.)

In a brief interlude in the present (11 April at the university campus), SeokJin reflects again that he does not have the courage to confess to JungKook the real reason why they drifted apart. He walks with his eyes trained on the ground until JungKook calls for him to look at the cherry blossoms floating in the wind. The scene cuts to 30 September Year 20 for another of JungKook’s school memories. He stood outside the school’s annex, reflecting that his friends probably didn’t know that he went there every day. Although school was a place he found awkward and unfamiliar, their hideout was a space for him that put him at ease. On that day however, only HoSeok was inside the classroom, gathering up the items they’d left behind. JungKook realized that the time they spent together was now a memory and would never return again. (This is also an entry in The Notes 1.) Back in the present, SeokJin notices that JungKook looks grim once more and tries to improve his mood by asking if they should go to the beach. JungKook privately wonders: “Do you think YoonGi would go? And no one knows what’s going on with JiMin. Will we really be able to go together like we did then?” Holding up his pink camera, SeokJin says they should take a picture to commemorate the evening. They’re both smiling in the photo, and he hopes that they’ll all smile together again one day. After their campus tour, SeokJin walks JungKook home, ignoring the many calls he receives from his father’s assistant JunHo.

At the crosswalk outside the high school the next day (12 April), SeokJin reflects that staying with JungKook instead of attending the inauguration ceremony seemed like a good choice. He prevented JungKook from jumping off the building and stopped NamJoon’s incident too. But SeokJin wants to keep an eye on JungKook for a few days. While he’s waiting, the principal Jo JinMyung approaches and greets him, asking what brings him to the school. SeokJin tries to excuse himself, but the principal brings up the ceremony. “I thought you’d be there, but you weren’t. Did something happen? Why weren’t you there?” Caught off guard, SeokJin either answers vaguely (“I had something important to do”) or honestly (“A friend had an emergency and I couldn’t attend”). JungKook joins them slowly during the exchange, and the principal seems a little suspicious regardless of the player’s choice. In the “honest” path, he adds, “Next time, think about what's truly important before acting.” The paths rejoin when the principal smiles pointedly and mentions that he should call the Assemblyman soon. SeokJin wonders if Jo JinMyung intends to tell his father that he was with JungKook. Kim ChangJun did not approve of the time SeokJin spent with his friends even in school. “Father thinks it’s useless to have human relationships that don’t help you succeed.” When he and JungKook are in his car, SeokJin notices that the principal ominously watches them pull away.

Later that day, SeokJin meets with his father in his office. Kim ChangJun looks exhausted. Though they’re similar heights, to his son he seems like a massive grey wall. “Why didn’t you attend the inauguration ceremony yesterday?” he asks. SeokJin either lies (“A professor asked me to do something last minute”) or answers honestly (“A friend had an emergency and I couldn’t attend”). The ultimate result is the same: Kim ChangJun speaks after a long moment of silence. “The one thing I want from you is for you to be a good son.” “Yes,” says SeokJin. “I don’t think it’s a difficult task. You may leave.” As he exits, SeokJin hears him call Song JunHo and worries that his flimsy excuse will fall apart. Running into the principal may have made matters worse too. Despite his uneasiness, SeokJin has no choice but to keep going and trust that everything will work out. While NamJoon and JungKook are safe for now, he wonders if he can be a person for JungKook to lean on for comfort whenever he needs it so that he will not resort to such an extreme decision again.

SeokJin visits JungKook after school every afternoon the following days. On 15 April, JungKook asks if it’s okay for him to come like this every day. SeokJin assures him, “Yeah. I come to see you because I want to.” He observes that JungKook still seems to take social cues from him rather than acting comfortably, so he encourages him to either pick what they do next or where they should go eat. On 19 April, however, JungKook does not appear at the school gates. SeokJin tries calling him, only to learn that the number isn’t in service. Someone shouts his name, and HoSeok emerges from the Twostar Burger across from the school. “I had heard you were back, but I didn’t think I’d see you here in front of the school.” HoSeok digs a piece of paper out of his pocket, explaining that JungKook stopped by earlier. “He said he’s switching schools.” SeokJin asks where, but HoSeok doesn’t know. This has never happened before in a loop, and SeokJin wonders if he caused it. HoSeok hands over the paper, which JungKook requested be given to SeokJin. It’s a drawing of the cherry blossom tree they saw together, with a thank you note written at the bottom. SeokJin hopes that his suspicions aren’t correct.

Hunting for clues to JungKook’s whereabouts, SeokJin visits Jeil High School’s administrative office the next day (20 April). He receives slightly more information if he acts like he knows the Director of Administration, but as the student records are confidential, the man only reveals that JungKook transferred to a boarding school. On 30 April, SeokJin is summoned to his father’s office. Kim ChangJun asks him to sit down and continues speaking with his aide, Song JunHo. He confirms an upcoming appointment with the Deputy Mayor before asking, “Oh, did you take care of that incident?” “Yes. Do you mean the one concerning the Jeil High student?” JunHo responds. “I’ve taken care of the issue with the student.” Heart racing, SeokJin realizes that his father was behind JungKook’s transfer and deliberately let it slip as a warning to him. On their way out, Uncle JunHo adds, “SeokJin. You do know how difficult it was because you didn’t attend the inauguration, right?” SeokJin promises that he’ll be at the next meeting. Back in his bedroom, he decides that he made the wrong choice in this loop. He wanted to be someone JungKook could always come to, but instead he pushed him farther away. HoSeok calls him at that moment. Voice wavering, he relays that JungKook has disappeared. Some of his classmates stopped by the restaurant that day, inquiring if anyone talks to him often.

The story cuts back to 25 April with JungKook in class at his new school. His mom likes the dormitory here, and he suspects that she feels more comfortable without him at home. School, home, the dorms—he doesn’t belong in any of those places. While pairing up the students, the teacher notices that they have an odd number now and asks JungKook where he wants to go. He closes his eyes and remembers a voice: “JungKook, let’s all go to the ocean.” He thinks, “I want to go…” The scene jumps to JungKook walking towards the ocean shore. The glass shatters.

SeokJin opens his eyes on the morning of 11 April. He wonders what caused the loop to reset and assumes something must have happened to JungKook after he transferred schools. Again, he could not keep his promise of getting them all to the ocean. The episode ends with SeokJin sitting atop the seaside observatory at sunset. (This is a key location on 22 May Year 22, recurring in The Notes and depicted in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film and Euphoria MV. It looks the same in the game.) SeokJin ruminates on what may have happened to JungKook and where events started going wrong. He thought he could be the person JungKook needed to lean on, but he failed. This arc concludes with him wondering: “Was my method wrong? Or is it not supposed to be me? Maybe… If the person who’s supposed to console JungKook’s scars and be there for him isn’t me… Then, who can save JungKook?”

The End of His Gaze

SeokJin’s main challenge in saving YoonGi is the unpredictability of his actions between loops. The opening of this story is no different. On 2 May Year 22, SeokJin chases YoonGi after he leaves his workroom with a heavy bag but loses sight of him in the streets. As soon as he picks the nearest motel, black smoke pours from one of its windows. (The sign matches the motel in YoonGi’s scenes of the I Need U MV.) YoonGi ignores the commotion outside the room’s locked door. Once again, SeokJin is too late, and the glass shatters, resetting the loop.

Waking in his bedroom on 11 April, SeokJin considers how YoonGi backs himself into a corner no matter how or when he tries to intervene. It’s different from the incident with NamJoon because no outside person or situation is involved. SeokJin realizes that if YoonGi’s struggle and variables that make his decision so unpredictable are within him, then the only way he can stop YoonGi is by truly understanding him. He takes out his old camcorder from high school, hoping its footage may reveal some clues. In the first video clip he plays, YoonGi is off in the corner of their classroom hideout drawing music staves but speaks up to tell HoSeok and TaeHyung not to play a prank on JiMin. SeokJin wonders if YoonGi still writes music and remembers the piano in his workroom. In the second video, TaeHyung quibbles with NamJoon, who is tired yet refuses to take a nap until YoonGi pushes some desks together and tells him to lie down. SeokJin focuses on YoonGi for the rest of the video, but he is either motionless or off camera. He finds a similar challenge within his photographs: he has less than ten solo photos of YoonGi, and though his face is visible in group pictures, he is never looking at the camera. Still perusing the photos, SeokJin overhears voices from the camcorder. “It being here is a secret. Okay?” TaeHyung whispers to YoonGi. “What’s a secret?” SeokJin in the recording asks. TaeHyung and YoonGi, standing by the piano, both whip around. TaeHyung dismisses it as nothing and shushes YoonGi when he asks, “Why are you hiding something like that?” In the present, SeokJin wonders what they hid in the classroom and decides that it’s worth investigating in case it can help him save YoonGi.

On 15 April, SeokJin visits their old classroom hideout at Jeil High School, which is still being used as a storage room. The player can choose from a total of four locations to explore, provided they select the piano last. SeokJin identifies his father’s name alongside the message “Everything started from here” on the graffitied wall (he first saw this note in his 25 June Year 19 entry from The Notes 1). Even after thoroughly examining the piano, he does not find YoonGi and TaeHyung’s secret or anything else useful. Uneasy at leaving YoonGi alone for so long, SeokJin leaves the school and parks in front of his friend’s workroom. YoonGi appears to be safely inside, so SeokJin browses through the old video files on his camcorder and finds one that continued recording after he thought he had pressed the stop button. Listening to his and YoonGi’s voices, he recalls a forgotten memory of the day they walked out of school together.

The majority of episode 3 plays through a memory of an afternoon that SeokJin and YoonGi walked out of school together (date unspecified; this event is also referenced in YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry from The Notes 2 and the similar Note accompanying Map of the Soul: 7). SeokJin receives a text summoning him to the principal’s office. The office is empty yet suffocating when he arrives. Principal Jo JinMyung arrives and apologizes for making SeokJin wait. SeokJin looks down, heart suddenly heavy. The scene cuts to YoonGi entering the storage classroom as he thinks about all the days he doesn’t feel like going home. It’s not a comfortable place for him, yet there’s nothing for him at the school either, except for the group’s hideout. He feels awkward in the oddly quiet room and puts some sheet music on the piano’s rack. But when he thinks about how no one is there requesting songs from him, he can’t bring his hands up to the keys. The flashback transitions back to SeokJin’s perspective following his meeting with the principal. As expected, the principal wanted him to report on YoonGi’s behavior. SeokJin spoke carefully so as not to tip him off about anything, but he hears internal whispers calling himself a hypocrite even when he’s laughing with his friends. Fretting over how much longer he can protect YoonGi, SeokJin runs into him at the classroom hideout’s door. He hopes YoonGi doesn’t notice how flustered he is, but YoonGi doesn’t say anything beyond confirming that he’s heading home. SeokJin tries to strike up a conversation as they walk out together, but the conversation awkwardly fizzles out whether he brings up food or the weather. YoonGi points out that his phone is buzzing, and SeokJin’s camcorder falls from his bag as he looks for it. YoonGi waves him off when SeokJin films him to test that it still works. He sheepishly lowers the camcorder and forgets to turn it off. YoonGi breaks the uncomfortable silence when they are almost across the field. “Is something up? You didn’t look very happy earlier.” Heart pounding, SeokJin tries to laugh off this sharp question with an excuse, but YoonGi stares straight at him. “You’re awkward too, SeokJin.” “What is?” “Your laugh.” YoonGi pauses before continuing, “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?”

The scene fades back to the present in SeokJin’s car (15 April). He can’t make out the rest of their conversation in the recording or remember what he answered. He wonders why YoonGi asked him that. SeokJin was always tense then, afraid that his friends would learn of his meetings with the principal. Did the others notice, too? While he’s lost in these thoughts, someone outside shouts, “Fire!” Flames erupt from YoonGi’s workroom. Realizing he should have focused on YoonGi and not the video, SeokJin runs into the building. As he tries to open the locked door, he hears the glass shatter.

The fourth episode opens on the night of 11 April with SeokJin watching JungKook and YoonGi walk away from the construction site and towards NamJoon’s container. A few days later, SeokJin spots JungKook on the sidewalk on his way to YoonGi’s workroom. When asked where he’s going, JungKook avoids his gaze and replies, “I was just… walking around.” SeokJin knows this is because he has nowhere to go. Not wanting JungKook to keep wandering and remembering that he was once close with YoonGi, SeokJin invites him along. The perspective switches to JungKook as they enter the workroom. It reeks of alcohol, and YoonGi is fast asleep among empty bottles. “YoonGi… will be okay, right?” he asks. SeokJin picks up the bottles without responding. A memory from their school days occurs to JungKook. TaeHyung chased him around their classroom hideout, trying to snatch his sketchbook and succeeding when JungKook found his escape unintentionally blocked by YoonGi standing in the doorway. JungKook was dismayed when YoonGi called TaeHyung over to the piano so they could look at it together, but then YoonGi deceived TaeHyung and threw the sketchbook to JungKook. In the present, SeokJin doesn’t want to waste time while YoonGi sleeps. He taps a lost-in-thought JungKook on the shoulder and says they should leave, but JungKook responds that he will stay until YoonGi wakes. 

Back again at the classroom hideout, SeokJin hunts further around the piano. He uses an old mop handle to fish out a piece of paper from underneath it. The hidden secret turns out to be TaeHyung’s abysmal math test. Dejected, SeokJin slumps to the floor. On this level, he notices a small handle on the piano’s lower panel and uses it to pop off the cover. Faded music sheets are wedged into the piano’s frame. A phrase on one of them catches SeokJin’s eye. (함께 라면 웃을 수 있다 : The Korean is not translated in game, but Google translates it as “if we are together, we can laugh.” This recurring phrase is instead translated as “we can laugh when we’re together” in The Notes 2. In YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry, he also reflects on finding the note written in the margins of the music scores he took from the classroom. The handwriting isn’t his own. Additionally, a similar sentiment is expressed in a line of You Never Walk Alone, which is the basis for one of the BU-inspired Graphic Lyrics books.)

This message reminds SeokJin of YoonGi’s question: “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?” “This moment is the answer to that question,” he thinks, initiating a flashback to 20 March Year 19. The boys gathered around HoSeok in the classroom, chattering excitedly about the new club he’s leading. TaeHyung jokingly called him “Mr. President.” HoSeok told him only members could call him that before asking YoonGi if he wanted to join. “I’ll allow you to join without an audition, but only you.” TaeHyung exclaimed that he was just trying to get YoonGi to call him president. “Oh, it was obvious?” HoSeok chuckled. “Acting up again, huh?” YoonGi spoke up from the corner. The memory fades, returning to a pensieve SeokJin. He clearly remembers YoonGi’s face as he laughed with the others. “When did we stop laughing? Did it start that day, when I ruined everything?” SeokJin wonders. “It’s my fault,” he says aloud, standing there with the sheet music in hand until the sun begins to set. (Note: the date of the memory may be a typo. On 20 March Year 20 in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard SeokJin in the classroom informing the principal of the trouble he and YoonGi had gotten into. SeokJin realized that NamJoon heard it but not TaeHyung, who remained hidden out of sight and then pretended not to know. It’s not impossible that this memory really occurred in March Year 19, but most of them had only met at the beginning of that month.)

On the night of 15 April, SeokJin follows YoonGi at a distance from his workroom to an alleyway bar. (It is possible but not entirely clear that this is the same day SeokJin found the sheet music at the classroom, which is why I did not specify the date earlier.) It appears that YoonGi visits this bar often since the owner asks him if he has money today. SeokJin sits at a table behind YoonGi and watches him knock back shot after shot. Deciding that he shouldn’t leave him alone any longer, SeokJin musters up the courage to join him. YoonGi doesn’t look surprised to see him. He smiles before looking down again. SeokJin attempts a natural conversation to catch up. YoonGi asks why he didn’t come along the night when everyone got together at NamJoon’s container. “It’s been awhile since we’ve all seen each other, and JungKook… Never mind. You were probably busy.” SeokJin apologizes and inquires how JungKook is doing, then turns the same question on YoonGi when he replies that he doesn’t know. “Anything new with you?” SeokJin presses when YoonGi avoids his gaze. “Well, as you can see.” YoonGi dodges a direct answer.

The restaurant owner brings them a second glass. They are quiet in a restaurant full of chatter. SeokJin brings up the past to break the awkward silence, asking if YoonGi remembers the day they walked out of high school together. “Why do you ask?” says YoonGi. SeokJin explains that he remembered what YoonGi said to him that afternoon. “I want to ask you the same thing you asked me then.” SeokJin is nervous but continues, not wanting to waste this opportunity. “When was the last time you genuinely laughed?” YoonGi is silent for a moment. “Who knows.” SeokJin encourages him to think about it. “What good is it whether I remember or not? It wouldn’t change things now, even if I remembered.” YoonGi’s refusal to express his feelings upsets SeokJin more than his indifferent tone. “I just wish he would open up to me so I could figure out… anything. If only I could tell him,” SeokJin thinks. His internal narration continues over a shot of him in high school looking at his phone: “Or maybe… If I went back further in time, mustering up the courage to protect my friends, and prevented YoonGi from being expelled. If I did, maybe now we’d be…” “What’s with that expression?” YoonGi’s voice snaps him into the present, and he stares at SeokJin the way he had when they walked home from school. “Nothing, just… I feel like it’s been a while since I last saw you and I’m wasting time with useless subjects. It’s nothing—” SeokJin tries to laugh it off, but YoonGi interrupts. “You’re the same as always… There’s something there in your expression, but you say that it’s nothing.” This remark hits hard, rendering SeokJin speechless.

YoonGi’s words echo in SeokJin’s head even after he arrives home later that night. How did YoonGi notice what SeokJin thought he kept well-hidden? He once viewed YoonGi as someone who was indifferent to the world and trying to distance himself from everything. It dawns on SeokJin that he is mistaken. He opens his camcorder, hoping to see something new with this changed perspective. A recording plays in which he, YoonGi, and JungKook are the only ones present in the classroom hideout. When YoonGi starts playing piano, JungKook gets up from the desk and carefully stands by him. YoonGi doesn’t seem bothered and continues to play. Suddenly, he stops. “You wanna try?” In the present, SeokJin wonders why he asks JungKook that out of the blue and replays the footage, feeling like he missed something. This time, he notices that JungKook begins chewing his nails before YoonGi asks him. “Can I?” says JungKook. “Why not? It’s not my piano or anything. You can play if you want to.” At YoonGi’s words, the color returns to JungKook’s face and his hands drop from his mouth. SeokJin watches a little more of the video. As the recorded YoonGi patiently corrects JungKook’s wrong notes, he realizes that YoonGi doesn’t merely ask JungKook to play on a whim but out of respect for him.

SeokJin turns his attention to his box of photos. The player can choose up to three to examine. SeokJin realizes that YoonGi is a little further behind the group and not looking at the camera not because he feels left out or is avoiding attention, but because he is always watching how they are all together. YoonGi knows us very well, he thinks. He stopped JungKook from biting his nails by asking him to play the piano rather than acknowledging it directly. He saw through SeokJin and recognized when his laughter wasn’t genuine, even after several years apart. SeokJin thought that YoonGi wanted to give up everything, would never open up to anyone, and experienced feelings that were impossible for him to understand. “But if we were the ones to make YoonGi laugh… It may be possible to save YoonGi,” SeokJin reflects. With more determination, he vows to save him. “I’ll save him no matter what, because we can laugh when we’re together.”

SeokJin visits YoonGi every day after their meeting at the bar, responding that he’s making time to see him when asked if all university students have this much free time. They grow more accustomed to each other’s company, but SeokJin’s glimmer of hope fades as alcohol and aimless wandering continues to fill YoonGi’s life. Since just visiting YoonGi’s workroom seems meaningless, on 24 April SeokJin decides to show him the sheet music he found in the hideout, hoping it will encourage him to resume songwriting. Upon seeing the music, YoonGi has a flashback to 25 June Year 20, the day he received the school expulsion notice. He ran immediately to the classroom and played the piano as though possessed. The anger refused to settle. He shoved all of his sheet music into the piano and vowed to never play the piano again. In the present, YoonGi asks, “Where’d you find this?” At his cold expression, SeokJin wonders what he’s done wrong and explains aloud that he just happened to find it in the hideout’s piano. The papers fall from YoonGi’s hand, scattering across the floor. “Leave,” he spits. “What? Min YoonGi, what’s going on?” SeokJin asks. YoonGi shoves him. “Just leave.” “Don’t do this, let’s talk for a moment,” SeokJin tries again. But YoonGi replies, “I have nothing to say to you.”

YoonGi avoids him after that. On 25 April, SeokJin calls him numerous times without any answer and finds only torn sheet music and empty bottles in his workroom. He remembers YoonGi’s last words to him and says aloud, “It can’t be. No way.” An ominous thought crosses his mind, but he forces it out to focus on recalling something from memory. The story cuts to him running down a street, trying to figure out where YoonGi went to set the fire in the last loop. (It is never clarified what SeokJin’s “ominous thought” is—it may refer to YoonGi setting a fire or possibly even a suspicion that YoonGi figured out SeokJin was involved in his expulsion.) SeokJin finds the same motel (the one with the sign like in the I Need U MV) and rushes upstairs in a cold sweat. Faced with a hallway of identical doors, he doesn’t know how to locate YoonGi’s room. Whether the player chooses for him to call out to YoonGi or “think of something else” (which results in him pulling the fire alarm), the result is ultimately the same. SeokJin forces open the last closed door with a fire extinguisher, but the room is empty. Filled with regret, SeokJin wonders what he has done wrong. “Like an idiot, I… I knew that the location and method of YoonGi’s attempt could change, and yet…”

“Fire!” someone yells. The motel across the street erupts in flames. “No! Please…” SeokJin begs, falling to his knees. “How can I stop this tragedy? … Am I not enough to stop it?” The story ends as he hears the glass shatter once again.

Additional Thoughts

For me, JungKook’s arc really draws back the curtain on SeokJin’s private life. It demonstrates SeokJin’s challenge to balance saving his friends and maintaining his own daily life, particularly fulfilling the duties that fall to him as a prominent assemblyman’s son. We see little of this side of him until The Notes 2, when his perspective has already drastically changed.

JungKook’s reflection about his habit of walking along the edges of walls is an interesting moment of self-awareness. This “tightrope-walking” is depicted frequently in the MVs.

The car accident and loop reset at the beginning of JungKook’s 4th episode suggests the possibility that the I Need U MV depicts JungKook deliberately stepping in front of the oncoming car rather than accidentally. (Maybe people have already interpreted it this way, but personally the thought had never occured to me due to how it’s shot and acted.) The car accident is a recurring theme in the loops for JungKook, particularly as he is struck the night of 22 May and comes to believe that it was SeokJin who hit him.

This internal dialogue of SeokJin’s from YoonGi’s arc gives me a lot to think about: “If I went back further in time, mustering up the courage to protect my friends, and prevented YoonGi from being expelled. If I did, maybe now we’d be…” SeokJin’s first experiences of the time loops are depicted in the Save Me Webtoon. At that time, he believes that 11 April is the date that he can begin fixing things, but it’s not clear if this ability granted by the cat-like creature truly gives him control over to which date the loop resets. (It is more obvious that he cannot control what triggers the reset itself.) Does he ever go back earlier? Only *ahem* time will tell, but if you want some more food for thought, please check out these interesting quotes that occur before 11 April Year 22.

As mentioned above, the following “tl;dr” commentary summarizes the parenthetical notes I provided in the summaries in case you want to review them on their own.

The Boy on the Threshold — tl;dr commentary

SeokJin’s flashback to 3 March Year 19, when all seven boys arrived late on the first day at Songju Jeil High School and were scolded outside by the Dean, looks very similar to the BTS Begins Middle Scene VCR (aside from the absence of extra students), including the detail of YoonGi arriving last. This VCR predates official BU content.

The photo in SeokJin’s collection that catches JungKook’s eye resembles the shot in the Euphoria MV at 5’32” (the seven boys sitting on a wall with the ocean behind them) except that they appear to be wearing school uniform shirts and slacks.

JungKook’s flashback to the night of 7 April Year 22 expands the context of his reunion with YoonGi, adding that he is drawn to the music shop by a familiar tune and through its broken window sees YoonGi playing piano. YoonGi doesn’t notice him when he staggers outside, and JungKook tries to play the music by memory. In his 7 April Year 22 entry of The Notes 1, YoonGi is drunk and stumbling by an empty construction site when he recognizes a clumsy piano tune that he’d been playing “not long ago.” But when he runs to the music shop and finds JungKook, the text does not indicate that he remembers this is his second visit to the shop this evening. Additionally, the Wings short film First Love seems to reference some of the events of this night—or evokes YoonGi’s distorted memories of it, mingled with a representation of JungKook’s later accident.

I mentioned in part 1’s introduction that every episode’s ending is identical regardless of the decisions made by the player, but the end of episode 4 is actually cosmetically different (a wobbling camera/animation effect) if the second path is selected for the last choice. The dialogue is the same.

The end of episode 7 depicts the seaside observatory. This is a key location on 22 May Year 22, recurring in The Notes and depicted in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film and Euphoria MV. It looks the same in the game.

The End of His Gaze — tl;dr commentary

The motel sign at the beginning and end of the story matches the one visible in YoonGi’s shots of the I Need U MV.

When searching the classroom hideout for clues on 15 April, SeokJin identifies his father's name alongside the message “Everything started from here” on the graffitied wall. He first saw this note in his 25 June Year 19 entry from The Notes 1.

Episode 3 presents a memory from both SeokJin’s and YoonGi’s perspectives of the afternoon that they walked out of school together. Although the date is unspecified, this event is also referenced in YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry from The Notes 2 and the similar Note accompanying Map of the Soul: 7.

On his second attempt at searching the classroom, SeokJin finds sheet music that was hidden inside the piano. A phrase written in the corner of one paper catches his eye: 함께 라면 웃을 수 있다. The Korean is not translated in game, but Google translates it as “if we are together, we can laugh.” This recurring phrase is instead translated as “we can laugh when we’re together” in The Notes 2. In YoonGi’s 2 August Year 22 entry, he also reflects on finding the note written in the margins of the music scores he took from the classroom. The handwriting isn’t his own. Additionally, a similar sentiment is expressed in a line of You Never Walk Alone, which is the basis for one of the BU-inspired Graphic Lyrics books.

SeokJin has a flashback of 20 March Year 19 in which the boys are excitedly chattering about HoSeok’s new club. However, given the larger context of this moment (both in the past and what prompts it in the present), the date of the memory may be a typo. On 20 March Year 20 in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard SeokJin in the classroom informing the principal of the trouble he and YoonGi had gotten into. SeokJin realized that NamJoon heard it but not TaeHyung, who remained hidden out of sight and then pretended not to know. It’s not impossible that this memory really occurred in March Year 19, but most of them had only met at the beginning of that month.

Did you learn anything new from these stories that I did not specifically mention? Let me know in the replies or tags! Please stay tuned for part 3, featuring JiMin and HoSeok’s stories.

[weskerluvr69]

Wraith with a platonic reader who plays hide and seek with him and his invisibility please?

sorry this took so long! I love mr invisible man tho <3

-

It's not uncommon for killers to give up when they see they're in Haddonfield. Some try to take the challenge and actually succeed, but most don't even bother and prefer to deal with the punishment from the entity.

You and your teammates look excitedly at each other after waking up in the familiar Myers house together–until you all hear a familiar bing bong behind you.

Confident in your own abilities, you decide to take the first chase with Wraith. Everyone else splits off to get out of your way and work on some generators while staying relatively close to the area; with Bill giving you an assured nod, silently telling you that if you run into trouble he's more than ready to jump in.

Wraith manages to land a hit on you when you try to jump off the balcony of one of the houses and it causes you to stumble forward, disoriented. You're not Nea, you don't know why you even tried that stunt, but you won't let the throbbing pain hinder you. You keep running and make it to a loop at the garage, when all of a sudden three gens pop at once.

You and Wraith both stop and look up, and you see his face fall in disappointment. Before you realize what's going on, he quickly bangs Azarov's skull against the bell and vanishes down the street.

You frown as you try to follow his shimmery image, but quickly lose him.

"Hey, wait!" you call out. You try throwing down the pallet and fast vaulting over it to get his attention, but to no avail. You run down the street and start looking for Wraith, but you can't see him anywhere.

Well, duh. He's invisible. You roll your eyes at yourself. How do you find someone who literally can't be seen?

You're met with a moment of clarity, it's like Albert Einstein blesses you with the gift of knowledge for just the briefest moment as you remember: Wraith snarls. When he's cloaked, he makes very subtle noises, even while standing still.

So, you stop looking with your eyes and start looking with your ears instead. You go around the corners of the map and perk up whenever the leaves rustle. Your searching leads you into the dreaded basement, and finally, you hear it.

Right by the already open chest, there's a faint pained breath.

"Wraith?" you ask. The shifting shimmer tells you everything you need to know. You grin. "I found you!"

Hesitantly, he rings his bell and reveals himself. He looks down at you, and makes no move to attack.

"I've been searching for like, five minutes!" you say, laughing. Ow. You should probably stop that, your ribs hurt and you're leaving puddles of blood everywhere. "You're really good at hide and seek."

Wraith's head tilts, and his features morph into that of confusion. He clearly doesn't know what you're talking about.

"It's a game where one person is trying to stay out of view, and the other person is looking for them," you elaborate. "Kinda like what we do in these trials, but a lot less pain and death."

Wraith nods, slowly.

"I know you don't wanna... Do that, anymore," you say, and wince as another generator sounds off in the distance. "So do you wanna play this with me until they finish?"

Wraith looks between you and upstairs, then nods again. His expression is neutral, but his eyes are lit up in a way that clearly show he's excited.

Or he has bloodlust and this is all just a sick mind game. You seriously hope it's the former.

"I'm gonna go hide, okay? Count to twenty then come look for me! And then you gotta tag me when you find me." To signify your point and sign your death wish, you poke him on the chest. "You're it."

You run upstairs and don't look back, because if you angered him this is going to turn bad quickly. You hide behind some barricades at the end of the street, chest heaving, and see Claudette working on a dull totem next to you.

"Hey," you whisper, slightly out of breath.

"Hey," she says with a smile. The bones crumble to dust once she finishes, and she gives you a look of concern. "You're hurt! How long have you been running Wraith?"

"Uh, a long time," you say distractedly, and peek out behind your hiding spot. You don't spot him yet, and you don't hear his breathing...

"Bill's gonna be proud," Claudette says.

You let out a small laugh but quickly cover your mouth when your eyes catch onto the warped space just outside of a house. Shit.

"Do you want me to heal you up?" Claudette asks, already getting her tools out of her medkit. You grab her wrist and look her dead in the eye.

"No, he'll hear it," you say quietly. Claudette looks terrified, and you actually see her lip quiver when the bing bong sounds off behind you.

Wraith materializes, then he extends Azarov's skull and copies your movement from before. He slowly pokes your chest, with a small smile on his lips.

As quickly as he came, he leaves, turning invisible and practically sprinting through the hedges.

"What just happened?" Claudette asks.

"No time to answer, I gotta catch him quick!" you say, and run off after Wraith. Claudette watches you go, confused but sure you know what you're doing, even if she doesn’t.

You don't manage to find him before Bill and Jake finish the last generator. You're upset, and at the exit gates, you don't leave with the rest of your team. You stand there, waiting as the clock ticks down, when Wraith finally shows himself.

He doesn't look upset, though. In fact, it looks like he's absolutely beaming at your sad demeanor.

"Yeah, yeah, some of us don't have the ability to go invisible on a whim!" you say sarcastically, and watch as his shoulders shake with silent laughter.

"Next time, you won't be so lucky," you promise.

He waves you off with his grin still in place, and then swings towards the exit gate. You leave, feeling more excited than ever to have another match against Wraith.

[livsoulsecrets]

Trust - Kit Herondale Fic

Summary: Kit is still adapting to his new home and Jem is there for him while he navigates his doubts of being deserving of happiness and a family.

It was a lazy Saturday night when Kit popped the question that had been surrounding his mind for the last couple of months. Tessa was putting Mina to sleep and Jem had resorted to organizing his music sheets in the living room while Kit sat down at the dinner table, his copy of the Cortex laying in front of him.

He hadn’t been able to read anything at all, so he assumed he could take the chance of catching Jem by surprise to get a honest answer out of the man he had been weirdly growing fond of.

— I just don’t get it, Jem... Why did you do all of this?

— What do you mean… What don’t you get? — The man questioned, frowning at Kit. He put the music sheets he was holding down, paying full attention to the boy now. Kit found that it was even harder to get his curious question across now that he wasn’t facing Jem’s back.

— Why you and Tessa would want to- You know... Do this. — He loosely gestures to himself, hoping to make it clear what he was talking about.

— And by “this”, you mean...? — The confused expression didn’t leave his face, which made Kit roll his eyes. He is not sure he wants to say what he’s thinking out loud, but since he already started, he might as well end it.

— I mean, taking me in. Doing all those weird stuff for me. — Kit could feel his cheeks blushing, uncomfortable with how shocked Jem looked with every word out of his mouth.

— What weird stuff are we doing, exactly? — Jem had sat down in the table in front of Kit at this point, his concern seeming to grow by the minute.

— Oh, by the Angel. Taking me into walks, giving me gifts, training me, feeding and clothing me, making me go to therapy and all. I just- Look, I know what you said to me that night, that I didn’t need to be like Will or anyone other than myself to be- You know-

— To be loved by us? — Jem completed when he noticed the words wouldn’t come out of Kit’s mouth.

Kit just nods, still weirded out by how easily Tessa and Jem said those words in a daily basis: to each other, as soon as they part ways (even if it is just for some minutes), to Mina, in soft whispers while she falls asleep, to their friends when they talk in the phone… Even to him, despite Kit never saying it back. He knows they don’t expect him to, the couple told him that right way. According to Tessa’s own words, they just wanted him to know, no pressure to respond.

— Yeah, that. And I get it, you’re nice people, loving everyone is your thing, I know. But how can you love me for me, just like that? You don’t even really know me. I grew up stealing and lying, like Johnny Rook taught me too. I can’t understand why you would let me stay here when I’m a risk. Don’t you see? I can end up being a terrible influence on Mina. And then, there’s the whole first heir thing, anyone could find out and come for me, putting all of you in danger. Putting Mina in danger. Why in hell would you and Tessa risk the life you have always dreamed of having for a random kid you barely know? Someone like me? You don’t own me anything just because I’m a Herondale. You don’t own me love just because of who I am.

Jem stayed quiet for a couple seconds and Kit realized he might never have said so many words at once to Jem in their whole time knowing each other.

— Kit, I know every bad thing that happened to you makes you think that, but I can assure you that love has nothing to do with owning anything to anyone. — Jem said, his tone surprisingly calm considering everything Kit had just dumped on him. — What I told you that night is true. We did not ask you to move in because you’re a Herondale. I thought I made myself clear on that. Let me say it again: You’re so much more than that, Kit. You’re so much more than just the kid Jhonny Rook taught how to survive.

— But-

— Do not try to tell me I don’t know who you are. — Kit closed his mouth immediately, which was something that rarely happened, but Jem had the unique ability to express his opinions in a firm but never condescending way, which often left Kit feeling compelled to hear everything he had to say, at all times. — I do, so does Tessa. So does Mina. You’re not a bad influence or a risk, you’re a kid who deserves a home and a family. You’re kind, smart and strong. You wake up in the middle of the night to hold Mina so Tessa and I don’t need to. You protect those you care about with everything you have. You love Mina in a way that only Tessa and I can understand and I can assure you she loves you back just the same.

Kit doesn’t know how to argue back. Maybe he doesn’t really want to. Maybe he wants to believe Jem, believe those people really care and that he finally has a place he can call home.

— You’re not your past, Kit. It’s a part of you, yes, but what you did to survive does not define who you are or how you live. That’s what Tessa and I saw when we met you. That’s why we asked you to come and be with us. We don’t own you anything neither do you own us. You’re not someone we are burdened with, kid, you’re someone we want, now and forever. As hard as that is to believe right now, Tessa and I will spend the rest of our lives trying to show it to you.

— I just- I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to handle you telling me you’ll stick around, because every single person who ever told me that left. — Kit whispers and he hates how his voice breaks, how he feels the tears burning his eyes, how Jem is looking at him with so much compassion it almost pierces right through him.

Before he can break down, Jem is up and going. He sits down next to him and slowly puts his arm around Kit’s shoulders. Jem waits to see if the boy will reject the hug or not, but Kit relaxes and shoves his face in his neck.

— I understand what you feel. It’s hard to trust it and that’s okay. But... Let’s look at the facts: you’ve been here for months now and I would dare to say you quite enjoy it, am I right? — He asks and Kit smiles a bit against his own will.

— I mean, the tv in my own room is pretty cool. — Kit murmurs, still hiding his tears in Jem’s neck. He feels more than sees the man laughing.

— I still don’t know how you handle all those buttons and channels, but, yeah, I guess it’s cool. — Jem complies. — Like I said, it’s been months and the world didn’t collapse yet. We’re all here, together. And in another three months, we’ll still be here. So, what do you think of just taking this slow? Give us another couple of months. Give yourself a chance, Kit. The angel knows you deserve it. I’m sure you’ll realize happiness is your right just as much as it is anyone else’s. It’s going to be though sometimes, Tessa and I won’t always do or say the right thing, but we do love you. So much.

Kit knows he means it, despite the catastrophic “what-ifs” going through his mind, despite his instincts screaming he should run and give up, despite even the darkest memories he has of all the times he reached for others and was left broken.

He trusts Jem. He trusts Tessa.

He would die for Mina without a second thought.

He does love his room, not only because of the tv, but because it’s his. He loves that place for the picture of him and Mina that Tessa framed and put on his desk, for all the memories of Tessa coming in to say goodnight even though he may be too old for that, for the light blue color Jem painted the walls the week he moved in.

He likes how the sun comes into the kitchen in the morning while they have breakfast and play another round of the endless “saw that movie, read that book” game. He likes how Jem always hugs him just for a bit longer than necessary when he has a bad day without Kit having to ask for it. He likes how Mina holds on to his finger when he comes around and doesn’t cry when he holds her, knowing she’s safe with him.

He fits in here, fears, past, risks and all. He had made the choice to stay before, but what Jem was asking now was different. It was not only living with them, it was belonging with them.

It meant putting his guard down, taking the love that was offered to him and accepting it.

Kit always assumed he wasn’t built for that, for happiness and family and homes. Still, Jem was holding on so tightly to him now, like he didn’t want to let him go ever again. He and Tessa had once said nothing in their house was as precious as Kit to them. He was becoming more sure by the second that they meant it.

— Okay. — He finally says and feels Jem letting go of a breath. The man messes with his hair despite Kit’s protests.

— Okay. — Jem repeats. — Slow it is, then.

— Right. Sorry for all of this, I wasn’t planning on bothering you and making a scene.

— Don’t worry about it. You’re not bothering me. If anything, I’m happy you’re talking more. — Jem reassures him. Kit nods as a way to thank him and they fall into silence.

Jem moves ever so slightly, probably assuming Kit had enough of hugs for the night, but the boy surprises himself by the fact he has not, indeed. Instead, he stays where he is and the hand Jem had moved away from his shoulder returns.

Kit doesn’t remember the last time he actually admitted he missed being taken care of, the last time he allowed himself to realize he wanted parents that were caring and nice.

He doesn’t say it out loud, but Jem stills seems to get it.

Without a word, he holds on to him and doesn’t question Kit’s actions.

— You’re so brave, kid. You’ll still see it like I do, someday. — He tells him.

Kit is starting to think that if he keeps listening to Jem saying those words, he might end up believing them too.

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 42

THE ROAD SO FAR

This chapter was a mess. But it's my mess.

FOUR weeks of Silence

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Veteran's Village

A peaceful Sunday meant that Roach, Alex and Soap were chilling at the house Samantha and Maxine were in. It had been 4 weeks since that Cuban incident and Francine had gone to therapy for her near death traumatic experience. If it wasn't for Soap, she would've been left out there for good.

France thought that it would be healthy to stay in a more domestic setup rather than the base so she took her time off duty to recover in the veteran's village. And ever since that day in Cuba, Soap and France's relationship was more expressive than ever.

"If we're having a barbecue tonight, we better head off to the meat shop." Alex peeked by the door, giving a heads up to the rest of the people sitting on the couch. Soap turned his head to Alex and tossed his keys as Roach stood up and came with Alex.

"Any other requests?" He looked at the group then to Maxine, who shook her head and laughed. 

"Just be back safe." She replied.

"Got it." Gary nodded and waved goodbye at them. Soap wanted to come along but France had been falling asleep on his lap for quite a while. And Maxine and Samantha noted that she hadn't had decent for days.

"Oh, Roach! Grab me a cigar maybe." He whispered, trying not to wake France up.

"Roger that." He nodded and made his way to Soap's jeep, where Alex was already waiting on him. He sat himself on shotgun and let Alex lead the way to their destination.

He turned on the radio as it played a song about driving. Roach was quick to shazam it and found out it was Automobile by KALEO.

"Now this is going to be on my playlist." Alex said as his head nodded to the music, taking him where the winds take him, far away.

"Agreed. Oh, Soap actually asked for cigarettes so we might have to stop by a convenience store on the way back." Roach informed as the song ended. 

"Okay. That's cool. Maybe add a few sodas for the girls. They probably haven't had those i  ages." He said as he turned the radio off and switched it to AUX.

"Here. Grab my phone and play that song again." Alex instructed as he drove through the streets, and Roach followed him. Playing the song again.

"Ah yes. This song is good." Alex sighed.

"Yeah. It's fire." Roach commented, making Alex raise an eyebrow.

"You know, fire… lit… slaps… Modern terminologies." Roach explained shyly as Alex chuckled.

"I'll never understand the young ones of today." Alex chuckled as he stopped by the parking lot, pulling his phone and leaving the car.

Dinner was the best part of the Sunday evening as the three couples enjoyed a hearty meal together, sharing experiences and funny stories like an extended family. Roach talked about his raccoon story once again as one topic led to another until such time that the inevitable topic was discussed.

"Speaking of fires, do you have any leads on Nero?" Samantha asked innocently as the men fell quiet, looking at each other. Wondering who would open up the topic.

"Well, uh… After his assault in New York…" Soap trailed off, his eyes went to Alex, signaling him to continue.

"Alex, it's your girl's question! Go answer it!" Soap complained as France laughed, wrapping her arms around Soap.

"He's gone silent." Alex muttered. Samantha was kinda sad she asked about it so she tried to make up by brightening up the mood.

The night continued on as the group played charades, girls vs boys. For an hour or so the soldiers forgot about their worries and acted like they're normal people living their normal lives outside work. It wouldn't hurt to pretend like that, especially when the baggage of guilt was hard to handle.

"So, Gary. I've been meaning to ask you something…" Maxine said as she assisted him in the kitchen.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"How are you… like mentally. You seem… off." She asked, Gary sighed and eased his shoulders.

"It's just… we almost lost a life back there… for nothing. Lannister hasn't said any useful information and as the days go by another assault might occur." he breathed out his worries, earning a back rub from Maxine.

"People have their limits. Lannister could break anytime. Let's just hope we're not too late." She assured him. It was a very negative statement but somehow it's actually helpful. Gary smiled and gave her a hug.

"Thanks Maxine." he said.

"Yeah. Don't ever think you're alone. I'm here for you. Actually, just last night. I had another memory restored. And it felt so important that you have to know it first. Before…" she said, her voice lowering down after every word.

"Before what?" Gary whispered jokingly. Maxine laughed and hit his chest gently.

"Nevermind that word. Back to my memory…

I…" she trailed off, looking like she was too shy and scared to finish the statement.

"You…?" Gary raised an eyebrow. Maxine took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"I had an ex-girlfriend." She blurted and paused right after saying it, bracing at what Gary's reaction.

"I- uh.. That's okay… There's nothing wrong with that, Maxine." He said like he meant it. Maxine was too shocked about his reaction. Maybe she thought about it too much.

"Like… does that change anything?" She asked.

"Nothing at all. Oh wait! Yes! It does." Gary announced and Maxine's smile almost dropped.

"It means that if I want to have you, I'll have to step up my game. I have more competition now." He realized and Maxime sighed in relief. This man was about to get some scolding.

"You worried me, you know!" He continued gently hitting on Gary's chest, giggling away all her fears. He still accepted her. This was great.

"My point's valid!" He laughed, defending himself from her hits,.like children playing house. This may seem like a simple event, but this was the beginning of something new for the two of them.

Task Force 141 Base - Interrogation Room

Price sat in front of Gabriel, they've been silent for about an hour now as Gary and Soap stayed on the viewing area to observe the interrogation. Alex was here thirty minutes ago but he left after he got a phone call.

"What kind of twisted play is this?" Soap asked, crossing his arms and looking at Gabriel.

"The bastard won't talk. Just cut off a finger or something." He scoffed. To Gary, it would make sense, but with all the cameras and the formalities, It wasn't allowed. Especially that Gabriel's alibi was that he got their first to investigate. Which was total bullshit.

"He still has his ace on his sleeve. As long as we don't find proof of involvement, he's going to be free soon." Gary commented, making Soap grumble some Scottish curses.

"It's pretty obvious!" Soap yelled as Alex entered the interrogation room, saying something to Price as they immediately left him alone. Whatever that message was, looked way more important than Gabriel.

"We've got a lead on Nero!" Alex said as he peeked on the door, making the two stand up immediately and head to the briefing room.

"Operation Eye of the Storm." Price announced.

"In 24 hours, Nero and his newfound friends will meet on a hotel in Prague. This intel was from one of the Resistance Leaders Alex once teamed up with. They reached out for help since Nero started to secure the whole city." Price paced back and forth on the big screen.

"The plan is to eliminate Nero and his allies. As simple as that. We have the element of surprise in our hands. Soap, I want you to position yourself on the clock tower, just by the hotel. A bullet to the head should work. Alex will be watching your six. Jack will be our eyes and ears inside the convention. He'll be signaling when they'll be out on the open. Roach and I will enter the building for cleanup. We only had one shot at this so let's make it count." Price briefed and everyone else murmured their thoughts, some were already thanking for a solid lead. This was it. The final showdown. The end of the war.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

Alex and Soap already left the resistance safehouse, they had to be at the clock tower tonight, using the concealment of the night and the noise of the rain for cover. The perfect opportunity to say under the radar. Meanwhile, Roach and Price stayed to defend the place as Nero's men once again ransacked the streets just to ensure his safety. The world may have announced that the war in US was over, but Nero still had some cities under his control. This minor setback was the reason he's planning for something new. And they're here to stop it.

"Alright, Roach. Your replacements here." Price said as he stood up from his spot. 

"Get ready for the big day tomorrow." He added as he nodded and left his gun for the next person to use. Tomorrow's battle is going to be tough, and even though he didn't want to admit it, Roach needed some rest.

Despite the occasional gunfire and screaming, Roach was able to sleep. He didn't mind the battle outside the building as his battle was with Nero. Once Soap shot him dead, he would also want to shoot him again, just to feel satisfied.

0639H 

Hotel Lustig

Prague, Czech Republic

Roach hid on the west wing of the hotel, while Price was on the other side. They were both clinging on to the walls as their entrance was at the small opening where Soap would shoot Nero. Roach eyed the convoy just below him.

"Convoy's up ahead. Nero should be in one of those cars." Soap muttered.

"Can't see shit through the lens. He could be anywhere." Alex added.

"Easy lads. We'll have a clear shot once they're in the balcony. Right Jack?" Price asked. Jack didn't respond, but maybe the signal inside was too weak.

"Jack? Do you copy?" Price asked.

"Da. I do copy, Captain Price. I'm just here to get my old prisoner back. I've had him in the gulag for quite a while but it seems this is our first time meeting face to face." A russian voice which everyone assumed to be Nero said in the most villainous tone possible.

"You're too predictable, Captain." he said as he clicked something, prompting an explosion on the clock tower.

"Get down! C4!" Price yelled as the two soldiers jump out, falling on to railings. Alex landed on a fruit cart by the tower while Soap landed on the car, crashing it as it alarmed.

"Roach! Go help them out!" Price ordered as Nero's men started to circle around the two while the resistance team helped them defend. 

Roach quickly pulled Soap up who was groaning in pain. Alex looked pained too but the look in their eyes says that they're still willing to end this today.

"Let's catch up with them." Alex said as a resistance member tossed them a rifle and quickly hid for cover, pushing their way into the hotel. At the corner of Roach's eye, he saw Price enter the building, loading his gun and ready to end this as well.

Next Chapter : THREE Bullets

Notification Squad my Beloved

@smokeywhalee @enderio @samatedeansbroccoli @whimsywispsblog @ricinbach @bumblingbee1

[cassandraclare]

Prologue and first chapter of Chain of Gold!

The prologue and first chapter of Chain of Gold are now available to read! You can check out the prologue below, in which a young Lucie Herondale makes a surprising discovery. The link to Chapter One is included at the end of it. Those of you who have seen the earlier chapter sampler may still want to check it out, as the prologue wasn’t originally included in the sampler, and changes have been made to Chapter One since the old copy came out.

Prologue

DAYS PAST: 1897

Lucie Herondale was ten years old when she first met the boy in the forest.

Growing up in London, Lucie had never imagined a place like Brocelind. The forest surrounded Herondale Manor on all sides, its trees bent together at the tops like cautious whisperers: dark green in the summer, burnished gold in the fall. The carpeting of moss underfoot was so green and soft that her father told her it was a pillow for faeries at night, and that the white stars of the flowers that grew only in the hidden country of Idris made bracelets and rings for their delicate hands.

James, of course, told her that faeries didn’t have pillows, they slept underground and they stole away naughty little girls in their sleep. Lucie stepped on his foot, which meant that Papa swept her up and carried her back to the house before a fight could erupt. James came from the ancient and noble line of Herondale, but that didn’t mean he was above pulling his little sister’s plaits if the need arose.

Late one night the brightness of the moon woke Lucie. It was pouring into her room like milk, laying white bars of light over her bed and across the polished wood floor. She slipped out of bed and climbed through the window, dropping lightly to the flower bed underneath. It was a summer night and she was warm in her nightdress.

The edge of the forest, just past the stables where their horses were kept, seemed to glow. She flitted toward it like a small ghost. Her slippered feet barely disturbed the moss as she slid in between the trees.

She amused herself at first by making chains of flowers and hanging them from branches. After that she pretended she was Snow White fleeing from the huntsman. She would run through the tangled trees and then turn dramatically and gasp, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. “You will never slay me,” she said. “For I am of royal blood and will one day be queen and twice as powerful as my stepmother. And I shall cut off her head.”

It was possible, she thought later, that she had not remembered the story of Snow White entirely correctly.

Still, it was very enjoyable, and it was on her fourth or fifth sprint through the woods that she realized she was lost. She could no longer see the familiar shape of Herondale Manor through the trees.

She spun around in a panic. The forest no longer seemed magical. Instead the trees loomed above like threatening ghosts. She thought she could hear the chatter of unearthly voices through the rustle of leaves. The clouds had come out and covered the moon. She was alone in the dark.

Lucie was brave, but she was only ten. She gave a little sob and began to run in what she thought was the right direction. But the forest only grew darker, the thorns more tangled. One caught at her nightdress and ripped a long tear in the fabric. She stumbled—

And fell. It felt like Alice’s fall into Wonderland, though it was much shorter than that. She tumbled head over heels and hit a layer of hard-packed dirt.

With a whimper, she sat up. She was lying at the bottom of a circular hole that had been dug into the earth. The sides were smooth and rose several feet above the reach of her arms. She tried digging her hands into the dirt that rose on every side of her and climbing up it the way she might shinny up a tree. But the earth was soft and crumbled away in her fingers. After the fifth time she’d tumbled from the side of the pit, she spied something white gleaming from the sheer side of the dirt wall. Hoping it was a root she could climb up, she bounded toward it and reached to grasp it. . . .

Soil fell away from it. It wasn’t a root at all but a white bone, and not an animal’s . . .

“Don’t scream,” said a voice above her. “It’ll bring them.”

She threw her head back and stared. Leaning down over the side of the pit was a boy. Older than her brother, James—maybe even sixteen years old. He had a lovely melancholy face and straight black hair without a hint of curl. The ends of his hair almost touched the collar of his shirt.

“Bring who?” Lucie put her fists on her hips.

“The faeries,” he said. “This is one of their pit traps. They usually use them to catch animals, but they’d be very pleased to find a little girl instead.”

Lucie gasped. “You mean they’d eat me?”

He laughed. “Unlikely, though you could find yourself serving faerie gentry in the Land Under the Hill for the rest of your life. Never to see your family again.”

He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Don’t try to scare me,” she said.

“I assure you, I speak only the perfect truth,” he said. “Even the imperfect truth is beneath me.”

“Don’t be silly, either,” she said. “I am Lucie Herondale. My father is Will Herondale and a very important person. If you rescue me, you will be rewarded.”

“A Herondale?” he said. “Just my luck.” He sighed and wriggled closer to the edge of the pit, reaching his arm down. A scar gleamed on the back of his right hand—a bad one, as if he had burned himself.

“Up you go.”

She grasped his wrist with both her hands and he hauled her up with surprising strength. A moment later they were both standing. Lucie could see more of him now. He was older than she’d thought, and formally dressed in white and black. The moon was out again and she could see that his eyes were the color of the green moss on the forest floor.

“Thank you,” she said, rather primly. She brushed at her nightdress. It was quite ruined with dirt.

“Come along, now,” he said, his voice gentle. “Don’t be frightened. What shall we talk about? Do you like stories?”

“I love stories,” said Lucie. “When I grow up, I am going to be a famous writer.”

“That sounds wonderful,” said the boy. There was something wistful about his tone.

They walked together through the paths under the trees. He seemed to know where he was going, as if the forest was very familiar to him. He must be a changeling, Lucie thought wisely. He knew a great deal about faeries, but was clearly not one of them: he had warned her about being stolen away by the Fair Folk, which must be what had happened to him. She would not mention it and make him feel awkward; it must be dreadful to be a changeling, and to be taken far away from your family. Instead she engaged him in a discussion about princesses in fairy tales, and which one was the best. It hardly seemed any time at all before they were back in the garden of Herondale Manor.

“I imagine this princess can make her own way back into the castle from here,” he said with a bow.

“Oh, yes,” said Lucie, eyeing her window. “Do you think they’ll know I was gone?”

He laughed and turned to go. She called after him when he reached the gates.

“What’s your name?” she said. “I told you mine. What’s yours?”

He hesitated for a moment. He was all white and black in the night, like an illustration from one of her books. He swept a bow, low and graceful, the kind knights had once made.

“You will never slay me,” he said. “For I am of royal blood and will one day be twice as powerful as the queen. And I shall cut off her head.”

Lucie gave an outraged gasp. Had he been listening to her, in the woods, playing her game? How dare he make fun of her! She raised a fist, meaning to shake it at him, but he had already vanished into the night, leaving only the sound of his laughter behind.

It would be six years before she saw him again.

Click here to read Chapter One over at Riveted Lit!

(You need an account to read, but it’s free to sign up.)

[mollymauk-teafleak]

The Bianca Nureyev Detective Agency

This was an anniversary present for my wonderful girlfriend @spiky-lesbian who is just the most wonderful girlfriend ever and I love her a lot!

Juno tries to entertain his and Nureyev’s daughter on a slow day in space...

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

Being a space pirate did sound good on paper. It sounded like a life full of narrowly dodged laser bullets, sprawling on beds of golden creds, witty one liners delivered to fallen foes in the smoking ruins of their empires that you’d just toppled and large, audacious hats.

And it was like that, about twenty percent of the time. But what they didn’t tell you was that the other eighty percent was a hell of a lot of waiting. It was a lot of snail crawling through deep space, killing days upon days worth of time in cramped metal hallways, eating stasis food and absorbing simulated sunlight. Planning your next big twenty percent could only take up so much time.

And it only got harder when you also had a three year old space pirate to entertain.

“Mamaaaaaaa,” Bee Bee poked her head up over the edge of the sofa, looking like some burrowing animal resurfacing, “I’m bored.”

Juno lowered the case file he’d been reviewing, eyeing his daughter with the tired amusement only a parent could muster, “Oh?”

Bee Bee scrambled up onto the family room’s busted old soda, sinking down beside her mama. She peered at him for a moment, taking note of the way he was sat, one ankle folded over the other and tried to copy him as best she could with her chubby little legs.

“Space is boring,” she declared, “There’s nothing to do.”

Juno set the files aside, silently accepting that he wouldn’t be getting back to them anytime soon, “Nothing? Nothing at all?”

“Nope,” his daughter gave a forlorn sigh, “Nothing at all.”

“Well then,” Juno shrugged, sinking down into the sofa so they were level even if it would be murder on his back later, “We’ll just have to think of something to do, won’t we, kiddo?”

Bee Bee giggled, “Yes. What was mama doing?”

“Oh,” Juno looked to the files he’d piled on the arm of the sofa, “Nothing interesting. Just looking into cases where other people have tried to do the same job we’re going to do.”

“And what happened to them?”

Juno winced. It wasn’t as if their daughter was unaware of the dangers they faced in their line of work. Pirates weren’t exactly famous for operating within the confines of the law, even in her storystreams. And since she’d been born, she’d seen her daddy at work, often getting a birds eye view of it all from a wrap slung across his chest.

“Well. Jail mostly,” he admitted, knowing he didn’t have to hide the truth from her even if it didn’t feel good to.

“Huh,” Bee Bee hardly blinked, swinging her legs, “Well, Auntie Buddy’s way way smarter than all of them. And Auntie Vespa is faster and Auntie Rita is better and Uncle Jet is cooler and my daddy is the best at stealing ever ever in the whole galaxy. And my mama’s the best detective. So we’ll do just fine.”

Juno grinned, reaching over and stroking back her curls, “Yeah. We’ll do just fine.”

“So can I help Mama? With being a detective?” her eyes sparked excitedly.

He knew that look, once her mind was fixed on something she’d follow it to the far side of the universe. She was like her daddy in that. But she wouldn’t exactly find much interest in going through old case files that somehow managed to make jewel heists sound boring. Though the tactics these failed thieves had used didn’t have an awful lot of pizzaz to them. Probably why they’d flopped, or at least that’s what Buddy would say.

“You know what?” Juno snapped his fingers like he’d just had a fantastic idea, “You’re just the kid I need for this very important case!”

“I am!” Bianca beamed, not a question. She had perfect confidence in her own abilities.

“It’s a classic head scratcher, kiddo,” Juno announced grandly, mostly to stall for time while he decided just what this case was going to be, “I’ve been at it for years and I’ve never been able to crack it but with your pluckiness and my brains we might just solve the case of...uh...the case of daddy’s missing glasses!”

Bee Bee gasped appreciatively, “Daddy’s always losing his glasses!”

“He is,” Juno snorted, “And we’ve got to go help him, right?”

“Right!” she jumped onto her feet, bouncing up onto the couch cushions and promptly tumbling, Juno just about managing to catch her. It didn’t seem to diminish her enthusiasm, as her legs windmilled wildly, “Let’s go!”

“Okay,” Juno grinned, “Well, first thing is to examine the scene of the crime and…”

“No, mama!” Bee Bee frowned, looking at him like he was profoundly stupid, “First thing is to dress up.”

“Of course. My mistake.”

Apparently no detective work could be done until Bianca was wearing her mama’s old coat, the one he’d hung onto for sentimental reasons even after he’’d been unable to really call himself a detective. And long after the leather had worn on the elbows and there were none of the original buttons left on it.

It needed to be rolled up quite a few times to even get the tips of her fingers poking out of the sleeves and the bottom of it looked like a mad kind of wedding train but Bee Bee grinned in delight and it was pretty good to see the old thing getting some use again.

“Now we go to the scene of the crime,” she declared, waving her arms, “Daddy and mama’s room!”

“Come on then, co-detective,” Juno laughed, “Lead the way.”

If Nureyev was surprised to see them burst through the door, it didn’t show on his face. He didn’t scare easily. He only smiled and tilted his head, quickly shoving the book on pregnancy he’d been reading far under Juno’s pillow. They weren’t quite ready to broach that subject with Bianca yet.

“Hello, my loves,” he hummed, “What adventures are we on today?”

“We’re playing detective!” Bee Bee toddled up, clambering on the bed to give him a quick hug before anything else, “Going to find your glasses.”

“Oh could you!” Nureyev smiles pleasantly, “It does seem I’ve misplaced them again, reading is something of a chore without them.”

Juno arched an eyebrow at his husband, “You wouldn’t possibly be deliberately reading that book without your glasses so you could claim you have while not retaining any information or looking at any of the diagrams?”

“An outlandish notion,” Nureyev flicked his fingers at him airily, turning his attention to Bianca who was now crawling around the bed, bent over so she could scrutinise every inch of the sheets like a bloodhound with a scent, “Please, dear little detective, will you take my case?”

“We on the case, daddy!” Bee Bee assured him, hurrying over to give him a hug, now just because she wanted to, “We’ll find the glasses.”

“You gotta question the witness,” Juno advised, “Build a timeline.”

Bee Bee nodded, looking up at Nureyev with a sudden fierce seriousness, “What is your timeline, daddy?”

He couldn’t help but smile down at her as he pretended to think, “Let’s see...well, I went to the kitchen for breakfast...then I had to collect some floorplans from Buddy’s office, I read them over in the family room with my wife...then I had an appointment with the physician. Then I came here to have a nap and do my assigned reading.”

Juno rolled his eyes at that last one.

“We’ll track 'em down!” Bee Bee declared, barrelling off the bed onto the ground. Again, her mama only just managed to catch her, “Come on, Detective Mama! Before the trail goes cold!”

Juno chuckled, pausing briefly to lean down and kiss Nureyev, before he followed his daughter, not needing to hurry too much, one of his strides matching about five of hers.

Their trail through the ship took them most of the rest of the afternoon, clattering through the winding corridors, the two of them making up wild twists and turns whenever suited them, inventing new characters, dastardly schemes that had happened off screen, speculating wildly on new threats. Buddy of course joined in enthusiastically, she was a regular and beloved playmate of Bianca’s. Just searching her room turned into a frantic search to disarm a bomb left by this mysterious glasses thief, a bomb that turned out to be in Buddy’s chest which could only be fixed by a hug from a plucky little detective.

Vespa was less willing, they caught her in the middle of disinfecting all of her scalpels. But even she wasn’t immune to Bee Bee’s charms, eventually playing her role with grudging grace. And Juno was able to get a quick whispered update on Nureyev’s check up, feeling a little better that it wasn’t just him and his husband who knew, that he had someone to offload all his anxiety on, the same anxiety he was trying to shield said husband from.

Even better, they ran into Rita in the kitchen and the game then swerved happily into the wildest corners of two vast imaginations, going off on a tangent that somehow involved werewolves, a falling moon and a galaxy wide ring of prolific glasses thieves (it turned out Rita had lost her pair too, though they did turn out to be perched on top of her head).

It was when Bee Bee was rolling happily around on the floor that she suddenly froze and squealed in triumph. She bounded up to the side table next to the old, sagging sofa, less than an inch from where Juno had been sitting earlier.

“Here! Here’s the glasses!”

Sure enough, there was a pair of cat eye spectacles on a silver chain resting there. Even Juno couldn’t raise much of a grump when he realised they’d been inches from their goal at the very start of the job. Some cases just worked out that way.

“We’ll have to take them back to your daddy, huh?” he panted, collapsing next to his daughter on the sofa. Somewhere along the way he’d picked up glitter on his black turtleneck, a rubber glove from the infirmary stretched over his head like a mad hat and one of Buddy’s scarves wound around his neck.

“Yes! And then get paid,” Bee Bee nodded, making Juno slightly nervous about what sort of payment she was going to demand. She’d asked to be paid in ice cream last time they’d played this game.

She plopped down next to her mama, leaning against his arm, adding more glitter to his favourite jumper, “Mama? I don’t think daddy is very happy right now. I think something’s up.”

Juno froze, “Uh...what makes you say that, kiddo?”

“Well…” Bee Bee wrinkled her nose, “He just seems...floppy. Always flopping on you and he looks pale and he doesn’t sleep good, mama. I think he’s sick.”

Juno tried to keep his face carefully neutral, “Your daddy’s fine, honey, I promise.”

“Hmm,” she replied, in that way she had that let him know she didn’t believe him in the slightest, “But it’s okay. Because we found his glasses and that’s gonna make him happy. And then we’ll help him more and we’ll do detective and find his happy.”

Juno relaxed, wrapping his arm around her, “Oh yeah?”

Bee Bee beamed and nodded, “Cos I’m the best detective ever! And mama helps!”

Juno sat back, laughing mostly to himself.

“You know what, kiddo? I thought I was pretty good but I think you really might be the best ever.”

[writingtoforgetreality]

Pancakes To Cure The Nightmares - The Devil´s Daughter Chapter Four (Lucifer Morningstar x Daugther!Reader)

[Lucifer-Masterlist], [The Devil´s Daughter-Masterlist]

Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

Summary: Your first night on Earth ended with you having this recurring nightmare again. To your luck, Dan was right by your side and calmed you down. He suggested you to come with him to work so his team could help you further.

Words: 1,914

Warnings: Lucifer Season 5 Part 1 spoilers, nightmares (flashback in italics), sassy reader (we´re getting there y´all), I know right now it seems like a Dan x Reader but I PROMISE it isn´t

If you like my work & wanna support me: a coffee would be highly appreciated ❤

Your night was peaceful. As peaceful as it had not been in forever. Though, at like 6 am, Dan was already in the kitchen, preparing the pancakes he promised you, he heard a piercing scream coming from Trixie´s room. Immediately, he left everything behind and sprinted towards you. When he opened the door, and thank God you did not lock it, he saw you writhing in the bed. Your face showed displeasure. Slowly, Dan made his way over to you, soft reassurances out of his mouth. Nightmares were nothing new to him. When Trixie was younger, she got them every now and then. The worst thing one could do was shaking the dreaming person awake. This could cause even more fear. Dan´s hands reached out towards your shaking frame, lightly touching you.

“(Y/N)? It´s me, Dan. You´re safe here. Nobody can hurt you. You´re okay.” he repeated these words like a prayer and after a short time you had stopped tossing. Your eyes shot open and you were faced with Dan right in front of you. The sight of him made you let out a small scream. Not because he was scary but because you kind of forgot that you were at his house.

“It´s alright, (Y/N). Nobody´s here but me.” his smile managed to calm you down. Your breathing was still irregular and your heart was hammering against your chest. Ashamed of what just happened, you averted your gaze from him. For a few minutes neither of you said anything. The only thing you could feel was a strong, warm hand rubbing soothing circles on your back.

“Sorry.” was all you could bring yourself to say.

“What are you sorry for?”

“Everything. For invading your house and now for screaming like a crazy ang-um person.”

“Last time I checked, I was the one who invited you in. As I said, it´s fine.” Dan´s statement made you grin. He was too pure for this world. God would take a liking in him for sure.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he tried.

“About what?” your clueless expression made the man next to you chuckle.

“Your nightmare?” he said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. To you, though, it sounded as if he wanted to get more information out of you. In your defense, you were not the best when it came to reading people. It was not like you ever really cared about that. Not until now at least.

“Oh...just a weird dream. One that keeps recurring every other night. Nothing to worry about.” your smile at the end made Dan drop the topic.

“Okay, um. I´m preparing the pancakes I told you about yesterday. Meet me at the kitchen when you´re ready, yeah?” he stood up and walked his way over to the door but not without looking back at you. A small smile was written over your face, one that he copied. Then, he was gone again.

~nightmare flashback~

Your chambers were rather quiet today. Everyone had canceled on game night. Apparently they were all doing heavenly duty. Whatever that meant. Another day all alone. What would you be doing today? Overthinking? Daydreaming? Something like that. Your thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on your door. This knocking technique did not sound familiar to you. When you did not have much to do you started noticing the small details. Like how Michael always knocked four times. How between the third and fourth knock was a longer pause. How Gabriel kind of knocked the words “Gabriel is here” on your door. Or how Raphael used his palm instead of his knuckles. Or how God did not feel the need to knock at all. So who was at your door right now? Another angel, maybe? Highly unlikely, though. Before you had time to process, your door was swung open. All you could muster was a blinding warm light that made your eyes squint. After a few moments, when you adjusted to the brightness, you could see a red-ish figure standing in the middle of your chambers. It had broad shoulders that did not match the rest of its body. itshead, in comparison, was way too small. But wait a second. Its head. Were these horns? You had to take a closer look to assure yourself that you were not hallucinating. Its face was deformed, almost like it had been burned one too many times.

“Daughter.” a deep, manly voice echoed trough the walls. No. No, that was not possible. It could not be. Michael had told you about the Devil´s appearance and it came pretty close to what was standing in front of you right now. Besides, Lucifer was in hell. He was hell´s ruler and if he was here now then it meant that hell was without supervision.

“You really think you can hide from your true self, (Y/N)? You are my offspring. A little Devil. More sooner than later you´ll be just like me.” his arms raised in a convincing way, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

“I AM NOTHING LIKE YOU.” your throat was burning by how loud you screamed.

“Your wings are meant to do great work. You and I, we would be a great team. Torture is in your nature, like it is in mine. Give in, (Y/N). We both know that you want it.” Satan came closer to you, grabbing you by your shoulders and pulling you towards your door. No matter how loud you screamed, how hard you fought, no one heard you and you felt hopeless. No, this was not you. You were not like your father. You did not have any torturous desires. You were an angel, not a torturer. Right before the Devil could push you through the door you had never been through, your eyes shot open. Breathless and shocked of the images that previously danced in your mind.

~nightmare flashback end~

In the bathroom, you tried to wash away the dark images by splashing cold water in your face. That seemed to work quite well. You were definitely feeling way better than yesterday. A look in the mirror reassured your thoughts. Today, you were more like yourself. Hopefully, you would not scare Dan away by your sudden change in behavior. He would most likely understand it, though. When you exited the bathroom you were met with a smell of what you assumed to be pancakes. This would be your first time trying actual breakfast. Sure, you had breakfast in heaven but it was not actual breakfast. You were beyond excited to say the last.

At the end of the hallway you came to a stop and watched Dan in the kitchen. How he flipped the pancakes in the pan like he had never done anything else. The sight of him made you smile widely. Before he could catch you staring at him, you made your way over to the kitchen as well.

“Are you sure you´re a Cop and not a professional chef or something?” this question made him look at you with confusion at first. Looked like you did need that sleep after all. Dan could tell you were way more comfortable today.

“Chef in the morning, Cop the rest of the day.” he matched your tone. “I already put some on your plate. Maple syrup is on the table. I didn´t know how much you wanted on your pancakes.” he pointed to the dining area. You sat down where a full plate was positioned. Unsure of how much syrup would be appropriate you waited for Dan to finish the last pancakes. As he sat down opposite from you with his plate, you noticed his wide eyes, how proud he was of these pancakes. He was cute, really. How he got excited over the small things in his life. Dan was the first to grab the maple syrup and poured a good amount of it all over his plate. After that he handed the bottle to you and you poured just as much all over yours. The first bite tasted heavenly. Did you really use that word? During breakfast, neither of you talked much. You simply thanked him for his efforts.

“Do you want a cup, too?” he asked as he poured himself a big cup of freshly brewed coffee.

“Yes, thank you.” the confidence in your voice hid the fact that you had never even tried it before. There was a first time for everything, right? The first gulp was kind of disgusting but the more you drank the more you liked it. After you guys finished everything, you helped him bring the dishes to the sink.

“I´ll do them later when I get home.” he motioned for you to follow him.

“So, (Y/N). I thought about something. How about you accompany me to work today? We have a great team that could help you out. How does that sound?” the man was in his bedroom, searching through his dresser to find something suitable for work.

“Sounds good. Not to be rude or anything but...do you have any other clothes? There´s nothing wrong with them, they just look rather scruffy.” you stated without a second thought. Suddenly you heard laughter erupt the room Dan was currently in.

“There she is.” he chuckled while exiting his bedroom with dark jeans and a grey tight fitting shirt that hugged his muscular body.

“Didn´t even notice your muscles last night. Working out a lot, I see.” by now your confidence had fully returned. A blush started to slowly rise up his cheeks.

“Aren´t you a bit young to flirt with an old guy like me?” his left arm came up the scratch the back of his neck.

“I´m not flirting, I just like intimidating others. So...about the clothes?” you quirked your eyebrows as you remembered him yet again of your unsuitable outfit.

“Right. Give me a second. I think there should be some of Chloe´s clothes around here somewhere.” Dan ran over to one of the dressers in the living room, opening various drawers to search for anything that you could wear.

“Chloe?” you questioned.

“Trixie´s mom. There you go, that should work for now.” Dan handed you a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a white basic shirt. Grabbing everything you walked over to the bathroom to change into the borrowed clothes. They fit you surprisingly well. Taking another look in the mirror you started gaining faith again. Faith in the future. Faith in Earth. You were finally home.

“(Y/N)? We should head out or I´ll be late for my shift.” Dan´s voice could be heard from the entrance hall where he was currently busy with tying his shoes.

“I´m coming!” you answered while jogging towards him. After you put your shoes on you opened the door and were met with a warm breeze. Hard to imagine that yesterday, you were freezing and today you were perfectly fine with a shirt only.

“Ready?” Dan asked you from the driver´s side after you put your seat belt on.

“I was born ready.” the smirk that followed afterwards made him let out a low laugh. He was glad that you felt better already. Yes, you were a sassy one, one that kind of reminded him of Lucifer, but the only difference was that he genuinely liked you. And he definitely liked this version of you better than the one he was met with yesterday.

~to be continued~

Next Chapter 

Published (09/14/2020) by Cathy

Tags: @fandomqueen2003, @natashaashleymarvelromanoff, @severewobblerlightdragon, @tenderlyunlikelyexpert, @zoseph, @comicbucky-s, @dad-ee-drea​, @xbarrjallenx, @marvelofwitch, @aceofspace95, @julessbrown, @thevelvetseries (let me know if you want to be tagged <3)

[the-breath-in-air]

Nicolò Patrol (Chapter 4: The Rescue) [text of a Twine fanfic]

[If you'd rather read the story with sound and video cues, you can do so by clicking here]

If the goal of the current mission weren’t so serious, Joe might have been caught up in the surreality of what was happening. He was sitting in the back seat of a teleporting sentient van who was following directions from a man in a leopard-print hotpants. The man in leopard-print hotpants was, in turn, taking directions from an electromagnetic spirit who lived in a man wrapped in mummy bandages. The man in mummy bandages had allowed himself to be kidnapped in order to lead the rest of the team to the facility of a secret government agency.

Most importantly, the facility was where Nicky was being held captive. So Joe turned his mind away from the surreal situation. He instead focused on the plan; he’d need to be at the top of his game. They all would.

After what felt like an eternity, Danny finally turned off the radio.

“We’re here,” Flex announced.

Danny had actually teleported them a few blocks away from the Bureau of Normalcy, so they wouldn’t draw any unnecessary attention. It was here the team split up. Victor, Jane, Rita and Cliff would cause a distraction by attempting to enter the facility to stage a ‘rescue’ for Larry. Meanwhile, Nile, Andy, Booker and Joe would actually infiltrate the facility through a back entrance Victor had conveniently hacked open for them. Danny was standing by as their getaway and Flex was managing communication between the negative spirit and each group.

Just as they were moving out, Joe heard Cliff through his earpiece. “Uh, guys, what if they’re keeping this Nicky fella in a different facility than where they brought Larry?”

Joe heard Jane and Rita respond, “Shut up, Cliff.”

Joe knew the answer to that possibility, though. If Nicky wasn’t here, they’d simply have to take an agent of the Bureau hostage and use them to get Nicky back. Whether that meant using the hostage as leverage, or interrogating the hostage for information didn’t much matter to Joe.

Andy and Joe hadn’t shared this contingency with their new allies; they weren’t sure how the others would respond to taking part in a kidnapping. If it came to it, Nile, Andy, Booker and Joe would simply have to enact that backup plan on their own.

“Stay focused,” Andy ordered them as they took up their positions.

There was silence over the comms as the Doom Patrol moved into place. Joe waited with the second team for the signal to access the back door. Joe took slow and steady breaths. This is just another mission.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of Robotman’s voice, coming through even with his comms turned off. “You Normalcy bastards better get the fuck out here right now,” Cliff shouted. “Release the Lar-bear! Give me my Lar-bear!” Next to Cliff, Jane had become Sun Daddy, a giant person with a sun for a head, and was throwing fireballs at the entrance to the base. Explosions punctuated Cliff’s vulgarities. “Fuck you, you absolute literal…” boom! “Come out here and…” boom! “FUCK!”

The distraction worked, and as the alarms on the base went off and personnel ran to confront the Doom Patrol, Joe, Nile, Andy and Booker quietly entered the Bureau of Normalcy’s headquarters. “We’re in,” Andy said over the comms.

Infiltrating an enemy’s prison was, in many ways, a fairly routine mission. Joe and the others had done this countless times before. Weapons ready, they moved through the hallways fluidly, appearing almost as a choreographed dance. This helped them cover ground quickly, which was necessary as the building complex was large.

It soon became clear why they had come across so little resistance as they made their way to the cell Victor had identified as Nicky’s via hacked security logs. Any guards who weren’t responding to the commotion outside the building, were stationed right outside the door to Nicky’s cell. The four immortals made quick work of the dozen, or so, guards. They never stood a chance.

“Victor you’re up,” Andy stated.

“Copy,” Victor responded.

Now that the team was standing at the cell door, Victor would need to remotely open it.

“Uh, Keeg asks that you hurry. Larry is being tortured,” came Flex’s voice over the comms.

“Copy,” was all Andy said in response. She was keeping it all business.

Joe wanted to point out that they were there to rescue Nicky as a top priority. He wanted to tell Flex that they’d find Larry after they saved the love of his life from whatever horrors the Bureau had been inflicting on him. But Joe said none of that. Andy was right to keep things professional. Plus, Joe really did want to save Larry from torture too. He just couldn’t prioritize that part of the mission right now.

The mechanism that locked the cell door audibly released, and Joe looked at Andy to confirm everyone was ready to breach the cell. She nodded back to him and he opened the door and rolled into the room in a fluid motion, weapon ready in case someone from the Bureau was in the room.

Joe saw Nicky strapped to a medical table, with a newly regrown arm. Relief flooded Joe as he saw that Nicky was alive. It was all he could do to keep himself from collapsing onto him. Then Joe noticed that a cleaner was standing near the medical table with a mop, washing away the blood on the floor. Joe cleared his head and returned to focusing on the mission. They weren’t out yet.

“Back away slowly,” Joe ordered.

Nicky spoke as the cleaner moved to the opposite side of the room, “Alex, here, was just about to help me escape.”

“Oh thank goodness you arrived,” Alex was saying. “I really wasn’t sure what to do. It all seemed so horrible. Like, worse than usual, even…”

As Alex babbled on, Joe swiftly moved toward Nicky and began releasing him from the table. They embraced briefly. It’s not over yet. Joe handed Nicky a firearm and Nicky nodded as he took it with his good hand. “Stay here until it’s safe,” Nicky said to Alex.

Joe and Nicky emerged from the cell and they silently greeted Nile, Booker and Andy, who had been keeping watch at the door. There’d be time for an emotional reunion after they had finished their escape.

“Flex, we have Nicky. Have you located Larry?” Andy asked.

“Down the corridor and make a right. Cell #247,” Flex replied.

By this time, the distraction from the Doom Patrol had stopped being useful as a distraction. Now it was just a fight. And Sun Daddy’s fireballs were proving to be more of a hindrance. “Jane, cease the fireballs,” Andy ordered over the comms as the team made their way toward Larry’s cell. “Just be glad she’s not Karen right now,” Rita replied.

When they arrived, Joe noticed that the cell was suspiciously unguarded. “It’s a trap,” Nile said. “Agreed,” Andy acknowledged.

Joe turned to Nicky to assure himself that Nicky was up for this. There had been a lot of blood in that cell, and Nicky’s entire harm had only just become usable again. Nicky silently patted Joe’s shoulder in reassurance.

With that, Andy gave the signal. It might be a trap, but they were immortal. Their biggest concern was making sure Larry didn’t end up collateral damage. “Relay to Keeg that Larry will want to duck if possible,” Joe said as they took up positions outside the cell. “Victor..”

“One step ahead of you,” Victor replied as the lock to Larry’s cell was released.

This time Andy breached the cell door first, with her labrys at the ready. Joe heard gunshots ring out as Andy tore through the guards in the room. Meanwhile, more guards poured out of the adjacent cells. “What’d I say?” Nile said as she met the onslaught. “When you’re right, you’re right,” Booker replied.

The resulting fight was brutal, but ultimately the team was victorious. Andy emerged from the cell with Larry slumped against her. Cliff, Jane, Rita and Victor came up behind the dwindling guards and cut through them effectively. “We need to leave. Now,” Andy said as the two teams rendezvoused. “On it,” Jane, or more accurately Flit, said as she stuck her hands out like she was ready for a football huddle. “Hands in everyone,” Rita said wearily.

By this point, Joe trusted this other team enough to believe that whatever was about to happen, it would aid in their escape. So he and the others all put their hands in. A moment later they were all standing outside the Bureau’s headquarters, right next to Danny and Flex. “Why didn’t you simply teleport us to the house?” Booker asked. “Actually, why didn’t you simply teleport us directly into the facility in the first place,” Andy added. Jane, who had again become Jane, simply shrugged. “Flit does what she wants.”

Quickly, both teams hurried into the back of Danny they instantly teleported them to Dr. Calculator’s mansion. Everyone climbed out of the van and stood aways from Joe and Nicky as they reunited. Danny turned on the radio to provide what they thought was the perfect soundtrack.

Joe was so shocked by what Nicky had just revealed to him, that he didn’t even realize what song was playing or see Danny’s message. But when he finally recognized the song, he burst into tears and collapsed into Nicky’s arms. The anger, fear and tension from the past few days was finally released. “I just got you back,” Joe murmured between sobs. The Origin of Love, indeed.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Nicky reassured him as he wrapped his arms around Joe. “Not any time soon.”

Joe drew a knife from his utility belt and quickly sliced open his own finger. The pain was familiar. What was not familiar was how long the pain lingered. He watched his own finger intently, waiting to see if it would heal as it usually did. A few seconds passed by and the blood started to drip down. It hadn’t begun to heal, though.

Joe’s sobs turned into quieter sighs as his worst fears were ameliorated. For a few brief moments, Joe had imagined the possibility that he and Nicky had been wrong about their destiny. That Nicky might die in a few brief decades, and Joe would be forced to continue on alone. “I’m going to need a band-aid,” Joe called out as his breathing returned to normal. “And Nicky needs to be patched up. A bullet grazed his side.”

On hearing the call for bandages, Danny turned off his radio and everyone gathered near the two of them. “You need what?” Nile asked in disbelief.

Joe held up his bleeding finger and Nicky lifted his shirt to reveal his wound. “It’s nothing serious,” Nicky reassured everyone. “We’re just going to die some day.”

“Well, fuck,” said Cliff. “Aren’t we all.”

[somegirl29]

Sherlock X reader- a romance to killing it (second chapter)

Synopsis: Sherlock falls in love with a girl, but what he didn't know was that she was a murderer sent by moriarty to kill him

Author's notes: this is a continuation of the first fanfic I wrote

initially it was to have a single chapter but my friends insisted that I continue

there will probably be 2 more chapters after this

I made a pun for the title because I couldn't think of anything better

I may have a spelling mistake because I am Brazilian and my English is not very good

if you haven't read the first chapter here is the link: chapter 1 

Feeling a little relieved, Sherlock can actually stop and think for the first time in the past few hours.

he couldn't tell if he was impressed, hurt or had admired the girl even more

sentiment was really something dangerous, that was the final proof he needed.

And he doesn't really understand who that girl who accompanied him for months was, and now he needed answers. 

he needed the truth

‘’ Tea? ’'The girl returns to the room where he sat and holds out his cup‘' I can assure you that I didn’t put anything unusual this time ’’

he takes the cup and (y / n) sits next to him, both keep silent for long minutes without much courage to start the matter but they both knew that an hour would be necessary.

‘‘How?’ 'He asks and she stares at him without understanding what he meant ’’ I need to know how I didn’t notice you’re a murderer, this is the kind of thing I would never let go of , and you know ‘'

'' Aren't you the amazing detective Sherlock Holmes? Solve my incredible crime '' she smiles at him defiantly '' Watch it coldly as if it were a game''She explains '' You don't pay enough attention to anything that doesn't benefit your work, or rather, anything that you don't think it benefits, that's your biggest flaw ‘'

‘’ I didn’t notice the game starting for the first time in my life ’’ he completes

‘‘Exactly, I think from that you can gather the information in your mind palace and decipher how it all happened’’

‘’ I could ..’’ he starts ‘‘but I want you to tell me, this between us is not a game, at least not for me ’’

She takes a deep breath and gives up thinking about what words to use to explain everything in a sincere way but without hurting him using then in the wrong way. One thing she and sherlock were very much in common was not understanding human emotions very well and ending up saying things that hurt others accidentally.

‘‘Ok I’ll tell you the truth, since you seem serious about it. It all starts with that murder that you unveiled when we first met, the clue that I presented that you had not seen before was the key to everything, for this not to be a boring monologue and to kill me with boredom say your guesses ’’

'' You came up with a clue, a hair that went unnoticed, it makes me think that you already had it and implanted it at the crime scene ‘'

'‘Once I heard the phrase ‘ Perfect crimes don’t make suspects ’ I have a different point of view about it, I think perfect crimes are those where there’s a suspect but not the real one‘'

‘’ Who is the man who was arrested after all? ’'

‘'An incompetent, I got evidence of his other crimes, the real ones that were much worse’'

‘’ You threatened him to take up his crime, he would be arrested in any case but assuming that crime the penalty would be less ’'

‘'And in the meantime your attention was diverted, you began to doubt yourself and at the same time to be instigated about me that I treated you as someone with average intelligence unlike everyone who idolizes you as a genius’’

‘‘ I look so predictable with you saying it like that ’'

'' This is how most people who speak to you feel every day, my dear ''

‘'So that must be the defeat feeling of being a normal person’'

‘‘ Don’t worry you don’t match other ordinary beings, playing with you was fun ’'

'' So much fun that it made you fall in love with me '' he plays with the cup watching the liquid spin in the glass

she looks at him with pity

'‘I don’t want you to feel used’

‘‘ You called it a game yourself ’” he points out

‘'And it was, in the beginning’’

‘’ And when did it stop being a game? ’’

'' In the moment I started to see you as a human being and not as something that I should destroy, that afternoon when you were so bored that you almost overdosed and I finded you almost dead, in for a moment I thought I was only concerned with losing the fun that would be killing you, but then I realized it was more than that, sentiment is  a funny thing isnt it ? ‘’ She laughs at herself

He sure remembered the overdose, they dated for two months, she had an appointment and he had no case to solve and John was working. She found him out on the floor when she got home and it was a matter of seconds before she called for help and he was put in an ambulance, he came very close to death that time.

He wondered if John had missed him in the past few hours, but he remembered that his best friend had finally made peace with his sister and went to visit her for the rest of the week.

Sherlock analyzes the place around him, it was a mansion decorated with dark furniture, everything had black and red colors, as windows were made of a material that made it almost impossible that you opened it from the outside by someone without the key and the door too, could be seeing dust everywhere and some cobwebs, it shouldn't come here very often.

‘'This is the house where I grew up‘

'' What? ‘'

‘'I saw that you were analyzing the place, everything is dirty and kind of old because I haven’t come here in the last five years‘

''And your family ?''

'' Dead '' she says without giving much importance

It was the first time they had talked about her past, and he wanted as much information as possible.

‘'If it isn’t too impolite, could you talk more about that?’’

"It is just a boring story, but if you insist on knowing I will tell you" he pays attention in detail to every word she says, it is rare that she talks about such things and it cannot be a missed opportunity "" at 17 I ran away I ended up meeting dangerous people, great criminals with incredible murderous skills '' she gets up from the sofa, placing the farm on a nearby table and starts walking around the room, standing still for a long time was something that bothered her '' I was tired of an ordinary life, I was about to go to college and just thinking about ending my days as a social ornament like my mother, or being an ordinary worker, made me anxious'' she takes a knife and analyzes it “With this knife I killed one of the men in that gang, it was a thoughtless and miscalculated act by a rebellious teenager, but it attracted their attention to me, and to my surprise they thought I had the skills, they trained me as a murderer and sent to kill other criminals ’’

'' What does this have to do with your family? ‘

'' Enemies found them and they were killed, the house and all my family's assets were given to me as an inheritance, I was practically rich, but it seemed like a futile and boring life and I, like you, run away from boredom, in some moment the group that trained me was dissolved and i followed the path of hired killer, but killing only big criminals, after a while you notice that these types of people have a lot of information about other dangerous people and with that information I had power, it was a matter of time before I met Moriarty ''

‘’ About Moriarty, what do you think about doing now? What's your plan ’’

‘'Killing Moriarty, getting a copy of his contacts if we have Moriarty’s data, we can serve terms in jail, and whoever comes along midway I’ll kill’’

‘'You talk about kill as if it were something common’’ (y / n) approaches him and looks him in the eye with an air of guilt

‘’ I’ve always believed that everyone I was sent to murder committed crimes as ruined as the ones who hired me committed, that’s until I met you and now I’ve started to question everything .. ’’

‘’ After your plan to kill Moriarty, what will happen? You are a murderer and I am a detective '' he stands up slightly by the wrist and looks into her eyes

‘‘ Mycroft ’’

''My brother? ’’

"Negotiate my freedom in exchange for all the information I have collected over the years and the information we are going to steal from Moriarty,we can also negotiate your freedom since at this hour they must have found a body in your house and due to his suspicious disappearance you may think that you killed him and ran away ‘'

‘'I hadn’t thought about that last part’'

"I kind of didn't give you much time to think today, it's a lot of information and you have emotional involvement, it's normal to be a little stunned, anyway the point I want to get to is ..." she holds his face affectionately and smiled '' even though part of a disguise solving crimes with you was one of the best things in my life, not everything was false, after the first crime the rest were not outlined by me, and maybe you still need my help ''

And he hugs her around the waist, pulling her closer and she kisses him deeply.

When they separate his foreheads lean against him and he says:

‘’ Your help will be helpful in getting my plan right ’’

‘'What plan?’'

‘’ The plan to keep you with me for the rest of my life ’'and upon hearing that she kisses you again

Perhaps that was the end of the life she had for all those years, but she would have him and a completely new life to explore.

And he would have a lifetime to discover everything about her that was now tired of games and disguises. She would never pretend again, at least not for him.

[theawkwardterrier]

Games We Play

Steggy Week 2k20, day 3 Prompt: Modern Day

Summary: Steve and Peggy’s new interest in their phones has the others confused and concerned.

AO3 link here. Thanks to @steggyfanevents​ for organizing!

Steve often sits up front to chat with Clint when he’s in the pilot’s seat. According to him, he used to do that during the war sometimes too, just shooting the breeze while being transported here or there. (Well, he actually said “shooting the shit,” which made Clint raise an eyebrow, but probably like him more than he thought he’d ever like someone who referred to “the war,” as if there’d only been one.)

It’s just the two of them today - unusual but they were the ones around - and yet Steve takes out his phone as they take off, fiddling around and muttering at it.

“You need me to drop you over the Apple Store on the way back?” Clint finally asks, trying to tease out what the issue is. He’s actually fine without a conversation, and Steve is pretty good at comfortable silence, but you take care of your teammates, notice when something’s different. Agent Carter might be around, understanding him in ways no one else can, but it can be good to get a new perspective.

“What?” Steve says, still distracted. “No, it’s fine.” He gives a final, triumphant tap to his screen, mutters, “How d’you like that?” and puts his phone into his pocket.

“Okay.” He leans back in his seat, crossing his legs at the ankle. “Now explain the appeal of NASCAR to me again.” So Clint does, and Steve still doesn’t get it, and Clint notices him continuing to check his phone the whole rest of the trip back.

“Morning, Aunt Peg!” Tony strides into her office as if Peggy’s assistant is a potted plant, and not even a particularly interesting one. Hugo is a bulldog with nearly everything, and had actually tendered his resignation in shame over his inability to stop Tony from doing what he wanted; Peggy told him that unfortunately this was a Stark feature that they would both have to simply learn to live with.

By which she means that Hugo can stand down and allow Tony entry without a fight - but that Peggy doesn’t have to give him a scrap of attention until she is ready to do so.

She doesn’t even glance up as he seats himself across from her, slapping a file folder against his palm. The gum he is chewing - actual bubble gum, like a child - is obvious from both the scent and the bubbles he blows to entertain himself as she continues to drag her finger across her tablet.

His patience, of course, runs out first. Doubtless he’d already been a little buzzy with energy if he’d decided to take a trip down with hard copy documents for her. “What are you doing there?” he asks, craning to see, but the glare from the window is too strong and a second later, she’s dropped the cover shut anyway and transferred her attention to her computer monitor.

“I think you’ve adapted too well to modern technology,” he tells her grumpily, watching the ease with which she switches between them. That actually makes her flick a laughing eyebrow upward.

“We use what we have and do what we must. I would certainly like to see you trying to get by in 1945.”

Tony shudders. “No bet. I’ve seen one of my dad’s old soldering irons from back then. Thick as a pipe. Totally without finesse.”

“Howard did manage quite a bit without your fancy tools, but there’s no shame if you couldn’t,” she says innocently, attention entirely focused on clicking something as he sputters in front of her. Typing a few final words, she finally turns toward him fully. “Now what was it you needed, or were you merely finding it dull in your workshop despite your precision soldering irons?”

“I’m starting to remember why I always regret coming down here,” he mutters, but flips the folder onto her desk anyway. “Just need your John Hancock by the arrows. Or Jane Hancock, I guess.”

She picks up the file, starting to page through it as she remarks over the top, “Oh, are we going to waste some perfectly good tea by tossing it into the harbor?”

“I think your Lipton is safe.”

“As if I would ever,” she says sternly, marking a large X across a paragraph she doesn’t like, turning the page and doing it again. Once she’s finished with the whole document, she drops it back onto the desk so it slides toward him.

“You must have known I wouldn’t sign that.”

“Worth a try,” he shrugs.

“Well, try again and see if it’s worth your while,” she says, just as her tablet makes a soft, insistent ding.

“Need to get that?” Tony asks, leaning shamelessly forward as she flicks the cover open.

She spins her chair, saying archly, “I do, actually. I assume you can find your way out?”

“Naughty pics from Cap, huh?”

“Yes, which leaves me to wonder why you’re so eager to catch a glimpse.”

“He’s a handsome man,” Tony says, seemingly unbothered, but when Peggy replies, “He certainly is,” he makes a retching sound and stands to leave.

“Bothered by a woman enjoying her sexual prime, are we?” she asks, and he beats his way out of her office, passing Hugo at a near-jog.

She chuckles quietly and applies herself back to the task at hand.

“I don’t think it has an easy answer,” Bruce says, “and we’ll probably be dealing with it for a long time yet.”

“It’s probably a good first step that it’s being taken on at all. Back—” Steve stops himself, takes a sip of his drink; he tends toward coffee on the whole, but when they meet up he usually joins Bruce in his search for the best chai in the city.

“You were going to say, “back in my day…” weren’t you?” Banner teases, gently delighted. “It’s okay, you still can. I won’t tell.”

Steve shakes his head. “Tony probably has some kind of radar for it.” He moves off the curb to let a couple pushing a baby carriage go by, then steps back up to walk the last block to the tower beside Bruce.

“How’s the latest alloy coming?” Steve asks, tossing his cup into the garbage by the reception desk. Bruce groans, even though it’s nice to have someone actually remember what project he’s working on.

“We’re getting close, but the fine tuning is a killer.” The elevator arrives and people start flowing out into the lobby. “What are you up to for the rest of the afternoon?”

“Not much,” Steve starts, but then puts his hand in his pocket, distracted by the vibration from his phone. “I’m just—I have to—”

“Are you coming?” Bruce asks, after he’s been holding the door of the empty elevator for a solid minute and Steve, engaged with the device, doesn’t even seem to have noticed. Bruce wonders if he’s read the research about changing brains based on screen use.

Steve waves a hand, attention still on the screen. “I’ll take the next one.”

“Same time next week for book club?” Bruce calls as the doors close.

“Yeah.” Steve actually looks up at him for a second, that familiar grin on his face. “This’ll all be finished by then.”

Bruce returns to his lab with the definite feeling that he doesn’t want to know exactly will be finished.

“There really aren’t any beaches like the ones over there. I’ve only ever been while I was working, and I still managed to have a good time,” Natasha says, finishing the last of her steak.

“We are planning a vacation,” Peggy says thoughtfully. “The middle of April, as long as no world-ending danger pops up between now and then.”

Nat smiles. “We’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Although you could always slip out before things get really bad and just forget to have your phones on.”

“Steve would never stand for it,” Peggy says, which is true, but they both know that Peggy herself wouldn’t either.

“Is everything…” Natasha hesitates. Uncharacteristic, maybe, but she still isn’t entirely used to the rules of having friends. “Are you and Steve okay? Because I’ve been picking up a little...something lately.”

“What? Oh, yes, everything’s fine.” Peggy takes a little sip of iced tea through her straw. “I have no idea what you might have detected.” And if Nat wouldn’t have said it with equal complete casualness, she might have believed her.

“Are you sure? Because--”

Peggy’s phone buzzes inside her purse on the table. She takes it out, pursing her lips as she looks at the screen.

“You’ve been on your phone a lot lately,” Nat says slowly.

With a laugh, Peggy taps one last time and slides her phone away. “Isn’t everyone these days? Terrible habit, but I’m sure I’ll break myself of it one day soon.” She picks up the dessert menu. “Now, what’s for pudding?”

Natasha orders the most deeply chocolatey thing on the menu; she figures she deserves it with whatever’s going on.

“A strong bout,” Thor says, clapping Steve approvingly on the shoulder.

Steve walks over to the bench at the side of the gym where they left their stuff. “You too, even if the whole ‘mythical god who can call down storms’ bit tilts things a little in your favor.”

“Your little disc stands up well to them!” Thor assures him earnestly, tapping the shield as Steve sets it down and picks up his phone. “But perhaps I can make it up to you.”

“Depends,” Steve says with a frown, taking in whatever is on the screen, “on whether you know anything about the game Scrabble and what to do with these letters.”

Thor leans over to look. “You use the letters to make words which intersect, I understand.” His eyes roam over the board and then he says tentatively, “Are there not gherkins on Midgard?”

“Huh?”

“Gherkins?” Thor forms a little shape with his large fingers in demonstration. “Small pickled cucumbers?”

A smile grows over Steve’s face. “You’re a genius,” he says, manipulating something on the screen. “A genius at storms and at Scrabble.”

“Well,” says Thor, clearly pleased but trying to be fair, “perhaps only very good at Scrabble.”

“You know what was really great? When you put down kinkajou,’” Steve says around the toothbrush in his mouth. He spits. “I had wanted to use that N but it was worth it.”

“It was,” says a satisfied Peggy from where she’s changing into her pajamas. “And I’d like to know where exactly you pulled ‘bezique’ from.”

“Churchill loved it. He tried to get me to play a time or two. I was just lucky the B was already on the board.” Flipping off the bathroom light, he comes over to the bed and pulls the covers aside for himself.

Between their combined salaries - well, after Peggy found out that Steve was still getting the baseline amount agreed to after he’d woken up and had negotiated an appropriate raise on his behalf - they’ve been able to afford not only a bed that they can sprawl in, but a bedroom that their new mattress can fit into. Lying down in it might be Steve’s favorite part of the day.

“Did you realize we’d been worrying everyone this week? They all think something awful has been happening or that we’re breaking up.” He stretches, shoving the extra pillow to her side (he can’t sleep with more than one).

Peggy snorts. “Amateurs. They should just be lucky that they didn’t see us after the poker championship back in—What was it, ‘44?”

“Just before - December of ‘43. I didn’t think I’d make it to New Year’s,” he recalls fondly as she climbs into bed and snuggles into him.

“I’d never have let that happen. You’re smart, moderately talented, and you play to win; it would be a shame for that to go to waste.”

He kisses her. “Good to know where I stand, I guess.” He kisses her again. “Maybe we’ll tone things down a bit but how about a new game tomorrow?” He kisses her a gentle third time.

“We’ve played every day since we discovered the application,” she points out. “Why should tomorrow be any different?” She kisses him this time, pressing him back into the pillow until he forgets all about competition or vocabulary or any of it.

(Eight and a half months later, she types “magnetizes” triumphantly into her phone - and on a triple word score too - as they wheel her up to the maternity floor. They don’t tell anyone else about that part.)

[allycryz]

Nerys Eluned: Canon Jobs

Background

Nerys spent her childhood with a community of Duskwight in the South Shroud until she was twelve. Her parents moved first to the Central Shroud, later to the East. Prior to ARR, she had never left the Shroud.

Her father handled her academic education with a bent towards reading and history. Her mother took on the more practical subjects: how to hunt, forage, stay out of trouble; where the Duskwight could move freely and where they should avoid. 

There were always chores and odd jobs for children, especially needed when they left the relative safety net of The Cavern in the South. By her fifteenth nameday, this turned into steady work. She excelled in mostly physical jobs for merchants, farms, and outposts.

Nerys off-and-on entertained the idea of becoming a soldier, but never felt called enough to take steps. Once she reached her 20s, she had two main goals: make enough gil to live and to have fun when she wasn’t working. Nerys broke up her share of bar fights and dealt with fending bandits off merchant caravans, so again the idea of being a soldier or Adventurer came up.

The catalyst is a rough break-up that also ends a lot of her friendships. It is not that becoming an adventurer is a solution to any of the problems she faced. But in the wake of this big change, she took a long look at everything and decided she wanted something new. That leads her to Gridania and the Lancer’s Guild.

Disciple of War and Magic

Lancer/Dragoon

Meta Note

FFXIV is my first MMORPG. Prior, I have always been primarily a “solo play on my own at my own pace” kinda gal. But my friend said it was really fun and I love the FF franchise, so there I went. I wasn’t sure what class to do, was thinking Fighter until I learned it was a tank class. 

My only other major online game experience was Overwatch where I was a Lucio main. That was a rarity for me: I tend to have a tougher time with caster/support classes and prefer playing as a rogue or sniper in most games. As rogue wasn’t an option, I asked my friend what she thought and she suggested Dragoon.

There were three options in Gridania: Conjurer, Archer, Lancer. Although Nerys later tried her hand at the other two, Lancer appealed her as someone who wasn’t afraid to get into the thick of things. 

She ended up taking well to it and her fellow guild members. The guild was very much “here are a few techniques, go out there and figure it out” which matched up with her way of doing things.

Nerys is still processing everything that happened with Foulques of the Mist; angry with his choices while also understanding what he went through as a fellow Duskwight. It is a bit of a relief when Alberic becomes her new mentor and she can get away from everything. Not to mention: Coerthas is a place she has always wanted to go to. Her father’s lessons included their sweeping history as well as their poetry and stories. 

Of course, things go sideways almost immediately. The Eye chooses her as the second Azure Dragoon and her first encounter with Estinien is anything but friendly. Things settle on that front for awhile and her primary concerns become the Primals and Garlemald. And having a small foothold in Coerthas is a boon when she, Cid, and Alphinaud travel there in search of the airship.

When Estinien suggest they partner together, she is hesitant given their previous encounters but feels drawn to help him. She agrees. That all comes crashing down after Nidhogg reveals to Estinien how Alberic’s actions lead to the loss of his family. Nerys has to step in to fend him off. The next time she sees him is in the Intercessory with Aymeric. Though he assures her he is not there to fight, she is on her guard.

She never expects that Ishgard will become the place she calls home. Nor that she and Estinien will become friends and then something more, eventually becoming lovers after he rescues her from Elidibus-Zenos. But it does and they do, and even when they both give up the title of Azure Dragoon, she feels called to protect and serve her adopted homeland. For the sake of the Fortemps and Aymeric and Lucia and Hilda and Ysayle, but also for people like Alberic, Estinien, and Heustienne who made her the warrior she is today.

Note About Armor: Nerys has her preferred aesthetics and the traditional Dragoon armor doesn’t quite fit. She prefers her own style and her concession is armor that pays tribute to the heritage of the position without being an exact copy (pictured, not her only armor set in canon or meta-wise).

That said, she is aware of when statements need to be made. Nerys isn’t a political creature in the way Aymeric and Alphinaud are but she understands that politics are a part of everything. 

For certain missions and meetings she garbs herself in the traditional manner: needing to remind the Alliance of her strong ties to Ishgard, making the Heaven’s Ward realise how badly they erred in imprisoning Aymeric when both Azure Dragoons show up.

Meta Note: 

Once I got to Level 15, I joined...all the Guilds in Gridania. And for a while worked on leveling Archer, Conjurer, and Rogue while also making progress with Lancer/Dragoon and MSQ. Eventually I switched gears because I wasn’t progressing fast enough in the story and focused almost exclusively on Dragoon. 

For story purposes, Rogue doesn’t quite fit into Nerys’ story though I think Thancred has definitely introduced her to that crew.

Archer

Archer never quite suited Nerys, as someone who prefers to get close to the action. She does have a great deal of respect for her fellow guild members and Lewin; and she remembers what she learned when ranged combat is needed.

Conjurer

Nerys’ aether control as a Dragoon is excellent. But for whatever reason, she could not quite translate those skills to conjury.

She kept on for some time because in her mind, a good warrior would have healing skills at her disposal. Eventually, a conversation with E-Sumi-Yan brought her to accept that she might better serve others in a different way.

What she did gain was an affinity for the element of air, likely tied to her role as a Lancer/Dragoon. This becomes vital when she saves Haurchefant at The Vault, although it does not go as well as she would have liked.

(She also had a foray with the Arcanist’s Guild that was about as long as Tataru’s.)

Meta Note: 

Disciple of Hand/Land: I have levels unlocked in all the DoH/DoL, the following four make the most canon sense and are the ones I have progressed in the most. 

That said, canonically she dabbles in everything because she is naturally curious and wants to be self-sufficient in all things. Most of the guilds know her. The following four know her the best and it’s where most of her focus has gone.

Disciple of the Land

Botanist

Nerys was drawn to the Botanists’ Guild because of her upbringing. She knew much of the Shroud and its treasures already. What she found–as she became an adventurer–was that these skills help immensely on the road.

It’s also a centering profession. Nerys needs activity to bring her out of her own mind, especially as responsibilities and dangers pile on. She can go lose herself in nature, either for her own needs or on commission (and often both).

Having grown up foraging ingredients to cook with, her Botanist career also ties into Culinarian role.

Disciple of the Hand

Culnarian

Nerys grew up cooking alongside her mother, so she had a base of knowledge going into the guild. Still, through Lyngsath and the rest she discovers a whole world of new ingredients, recipes, and techniques.

As a hunter and a Botanist, there is no end to the new ingredients she find to experiment with.

Leatherworker

Nerys fell into leatherworking when she was scoping out all the guilds in Gridania (around the time she took up with the Archers and Conjurers).  

It stuck for a few reasons: the resources were fairly easy to come by from her hunts; it is another centering activity; and she is a bit of a clotheshorse. If she has to wear specific gear as a Dragoon, she can add her own pretty details to the leather pieces.

Weaver

This is a culmination of the other jobs: uses resources from other things she does (botany, hunting, and leatherworking), a craft that pulls all her focus into one thing, and satisfies her clotheshorse desires. She knows she can put pretty details into her everyday armor/gear and make more formal clothes that make her feel good.

(Whenever she is dealing with A Thing, she will get her hair done. Of course she needs clothes that work with the new look, even if it’s a temporary updo.)

When it comes to leatherworking and weaving, there a plus to taking guild commissions: it has to be perfect and meticulous and good quality but it is not on the level of say...if you fail this task, a primal will temper all these innocents. Nerys is drawn to help people but it's nice to do that for something that is not saving the world. (Of course when she makes any type of armor or working clothes, she is sure to make them well so they protect the wearer.)

She is not advanced enough to make her own gowns for formal events held by the city-states or the Ishgardian High Houses. One day she would like to be able to do so. Until then, Eorzea has plenty of dressmakers ready to help.

Outfit Note: I ended up choosing a mix of the Scion and Best Man’s clothing, thinking of how you can never go wrong with a suit. It’s crisp, always in style, and she looks great in it! 

[lozzypoz321]

Steve Rogers| Shopping

Stevexchild!reader

(This chapters related to the 'Steve Rogers| Stutter' but it isn't exactly a sequel)

"I'm going out to get groceries, anyone wanna come?" Steve asked the room from the steps. "Yeah I'll  come" Bucky answered and stood up, "c- c- can I g- go t- t- t- too?" (Y/N) asked and looked up from the video game she was watching Peter play. "Yeah, come on Princess"

The girl pushed herself up and joined them at the elevator ready to leave. "D- do you have t- t- t- the li- list?" She stuttered then reached up to hold her fathers hand to steady herself, not really liking heights and being in a glass elevator wasn't really helping. 

"Yeah I've got it" he reassured, pointing to his pocket with the hand that wasn't holding a hand. "Better not get mine messed up" Bucky threatened to his friend but in a joking manner. (Y/N) looked out of the window apprehensively, feeling sick but got pulled out of her thoughts when her hand got squeezed comfortingly, looking up she saw her father smiling down at her.

"It's okay маленький солдат" Bucky assured from near the door while they headed down (little soldier). When they finally reached the ground floor all three of them exited the elevator, "a- a- a- are w- we walking?" The girl asked, to which Steve nodded his head and Bucky chuckled, humorously thinking of how long it's going to take them to get there with (Y/N).

"H- hey!" She defended herself, almost reading her godfathers thoughts "I- I- I'm not t- t- t- that sl- slow"

"Yeah you are"

Bucky was right, it took them ages to get around the corner, so long that Steve just decided to pick his daughter up and place her on his shoulders. 

"W- w- w- what are w- w- we g- getting?"

"Whatever it says on the list, you want to hold it (Y/N)?" Steve asked and offered the piece of paper to her, she nodded after thinking about it for a second and gently grabbed it.

List

Food- Tony

Wine- T.S

Beer- Your local billionaire

More wine- The best avenger

Pop tarts- Thor son of Odin, god of thunder

Jelly babies- Peter Parker :)

Orange Juice please. Suggested by Bruce

A voucher to get rid of these idiots- Nat

Bird seed- Clint

Energy drinks- Pietro

Coffee- Nat

Milk- S.R

Cheerios for (Y/N)- S.R

Sausages- Clint

20 Plums- Bucky Barnes

Sushi- (Y/N)

Pringles- (Y/N)

Pot noodle- Vision

Lemonade for (Y/N)- S.R

Popcorn- Wanda

TEA SIS- Peter :)

"T- t- t- this is a- a weird l- l- list" (Y/N) commented after scanning it but then added on "n- n- no d- disrespect to a- a- any of t- them t- though"

"We still have to get all of it" Steve told them both and picked up her the hand again so she wouldn't get lost in the many isles of the supermarket. "What first?" Bucky asked her then shoved his hands in his pocket, already slightly bored. "E- erm T- T- T- Tony p- put down F- F- Food"

"Next" Steve said, rolling his eyes at the billionaires 'humour', "H- h- h- he also p- p- put W- W- Wine". Steve once again rolled his eyes and Bucky huffed in annoyance, "ya know what (Y/N) let's just skip Tony's for now shall we, what's next?"

"T- T- Thor want's p- p- p- p- p- p-" Bucky looked over her shoulder as she struggled and helped her out "Pop tarts". "y- y- yeah, thanks”

So the three ventured over to the breakfast/ snack isle and picked up the pop tarts for the god then got Jelly Babies for Peter and Orange Juice for Bruce. Steve told (Y/N) to go get Pot noodles for Vision then to come straight back back to them, that would have happened but once she'd got the noodles the girl could no longer find her way back to her dad and godfather.

After 5 minutes Steve started to panic that she'd been kidnapped and once he shared that idea with Bucky he also started to fear the same thing. "Oh my god! I've lost her!" Steve ranted and paced up an down the empty isle "She's my daughter and I've lost her!"

The father got taken out of his thoughts when a sudden yelling was heard from the other side of the supermarket "D- D- Dad! U- Uncle Buck!", so immediately their instincts kicked in and they both ran to where the voice had come from. When the two best friends caught sight of the girl, Steve sighed in relief and Bucky said "Jesus Christ". Steve went up to his nearly kidnapped daughter, picked her up and hugged her tight. 

"God princess don't do that ever again" He whispered then put her down in front of him. "I- I- I- I- I didn't m- m- mean t- to" She stuttered out and gulped nervously, worried she would get yelled at. "No it's okay (Y/N), I know you didn't mean to"

"We just need to get lemonade, popcorn and... Tea sis?" Bucky told them, squinting at the last part. "I've never heard of that brand before" Steve said, then took a second to ponder what it could be, (Y/N) however knew what it was.

"I- I- It isn't a- a br- br- brand" the girl shared to the men, they looked up confused "I- I- I- I- I-". "Deep breaths princess"

"I- I- I- It's an o- online t- t- thing" the girl hardly knew herself but her tagged brother Peter had tried to explain it to her many times. "Right" the two soldiers said uncertainly at the same time, trying to gather their head around what the hell that could mean. 

So with that they finished the rest of the shopping trip and gathered at the counter, ready to pay. In the end Steve decided to just get Peter some tea anyway and get Tony one bottle of wine since that's what he wanted so badly.

"Oh and who's this little lady?" The cashier asked kindly and looked in your direction while her hands were scanning all the items. "My daughter" Steve answered proudly "her names (Y/N). (Y/N) say hi"

"H- H- H- Hello" she said, nervously but smiled at the nice lady all the same. "Hello dear" she greeted back, it was weird to Bucky that a stranger was being so nice and welcoming to the three without knowing them at all, so him being paranoid he brought over his goddaughter closer to both of the adults and held her hand incase anything was to happen. "U- U- Uncle B- Buck?"

"Yes возлюбленная?" Bucky asked, looking down at the girl with concern (sweetheart), "w- w- w- what ar- are we h- having f- f- for tea?"

The soldier chuckled, no longer worried that it was something important "Whatever you want ангел" (angel)

"W- w- what d- do you w- w- w- want U- Uncle Buck?" She asked him and raised up her arms so he would pick her up. "I just want what you want кукла" he replied then lifted the young girl up and turned her around so she could cuddle into his chest (doll).

"Awww" the cashier said upon the sight of the two, Steve gently smiled then handed the lady a fifty dollar bill. "I think she's asleep Stevie" He informed his friend.

"Your daughters adorable" the lady added while putting the money into the cash machine making Steve smile yet again, "yeah, she's my everything" the man expressed while Bucky lifted up a bag on the floor with the hand that wasn't carrying his goddaughter.

"Nice to meet you but we best be going" Steve told her and grabbed the remaining bags, she smiled at both of them before carrying on with her job. The conversations were a lot quicker on the way back without (Y/N), many would have appreciated it but not them. It felt as if it was missing something, you can easily say that they were happy when the conversation was interrupted by "w- w- w- where a- are w- we?"

"We're nearly back at the tower princess, you remember?" Her father asked her and looked over at the girl, concern filling his chest at the thought she may not remember what they'd been doing previously. "Y- y- yeah"

(Y/N) snuggled closer to her uncle, the weather getting to her. "I- I- I'm c- cold" 

"We're nearly there now кукла" Bucky told her and gently moved a stand of (Y/H/C) out of her eyes that was visibly bothering her (doll). "D- D- Dad, I'm h- hungry t- too"

"Okay sweetheart, we'll get you some food when we get back, what do you want?"

"Mac and cheese" was all she said with a tired smile on her face which made both the men chuckle. Steve was right, she is his everything.

Written by me. Wattpad; @Lozzypoz321 Tumblr side acc; @padfootbuckster Pinterest; @lozzypoz321

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