#she is cautious and flighty at worst anyway so

[codevanish]

just a little side note (i plan to update my slides over the next week with info specifically regarding her aliases) but people do not generally know josephine as josephine acker rather she has many personas+aliases but most commonly used in a post-2010 era are —— charlotte matieu, daisy o'connor, este middler and offhandedly she does and will introduce herself as josie without giving any other context as the only person in her life to ever call her josie was her mother back in the early 1900's. for the sake of cohesiveness you can default to your muse knowing her under the name josie if it is not otherwise specified and/or upon first interaction as josephine, when applicable, would simply explain it away as a middle name she is fond of should the need for explanation ever arise.

[lemonz-and-limez]

The Car Accident Permutation

A/N:I posted this like a week ago on FF.Net and forgot to post it here. Whoopsies. A dear friend of mine actually convinced me to finish this story after I said it was a lost cause. Thanks, babe. 

It was one of those rare occasions where Sheldon was home alone. Leonard was spending the night with Penny, Amy had to work late, Raj and Howard were doing… whatever they do on a Friday night. And Sheldon found himself alone in his apartment with an evening free to do whatever he pleases.

At first he thought about playing a video game, however, the paper cut he gave himself earlier in the day rendered his thumb useless in the face of combat. He was caught up on all of his shows, plus it wouldn’t be nearly as fun without someone there for him to spoil the ending. Ultimately, he decided to get some work done on his computer. Write a couple of emails, edit a paper he was looking to publish, mundane work that Sheldon would typically reserve for his assistant who just so happened to be on vacation.

He worked peacefully in the quite for about a half an hour before the sound of his phone ringing jerked him from his concentration.

He could tell the call was local from the area code, but the number was unknown to him. At 9:30 PM he doubted it was work, plus the number would probably be in his contact list if it was. Deciding that it was just some undergrads pulling a prank on him, he ignored it.

He returned to his work briefly before his vibrated once again. Whoever was calling him decided to leave a voicemail. Sheldon didn’t even want to give them the light of day, however, if it was a prank call maybe he could use it against them at some point later on. Despite his better judgment, he swiped right on his phone to listen to the voicemail.

A female voice carried the through the speaker.

“Hello, Dr. Cooper, this is the Huntington Hospital emergency department calling on behalf of one Amy Fowler. She has you listed as her emergency contact, so, I was just calling to let you know that she was involved in a car accident this evening. She’s ok, just a couple of broken bones and some bruising. We’re going to release her here in about an hour and we just wanted to make sure she had someone to escort her home. I’m going to try calling her other emergency contacts, however if you get this message, please call back at (626)-798-5000. Thank you.”

Sheldon barely waited for the message to finish before rushing out the door and across the hall. He was sure that Amy had Penny down as her second emergency contact, third if she came after her mother, however, based on the commotion he could hear coming from 4B he assumed that Penny was indeed back up. Sheldon was just about to pound on the door when it swung open to reveal a very disheveled Leonard and Penny.

“You didn’t answer the phone, you dingus?!” Penny shouted at him, jabbing a finger his direction.

Sheldon shrugged as she moved around him towards the stairs. “I thought it was a prank call,” Sheldon defended, scrambling after his blonde neighbor as she flew down the stairs.

Sheldon all but chased Penny down the stairs, Leonard trying to keep up behind them. It wasn’t like Sheldon to feel so panicked. He usually reserved freak outs for being late to the movies or if Barry Kripke was within 100 feet of him. But there was something different coursing through his blood that he wasn’t used to. He’d felt it once, when his father had a heart attack and Georgie had to drive Sheldon and his sister to the hospital. It felt like something similar to that but more intense. A soul-crushing fear that made him want to just be paralyzed, but at the same time an adrenalin rush that pushed him to get to Amy as quickly as possible.

He didn’t know what that nurse was hopped up on, but a couple of broken bones and bruises was not nothing. At least not to him. So, for the first time in his existence, he did not tell Penny to slow down or be cautious of traffic laws. The only thing he could feel was an overwhelming desire, need, to get to Amy.

Later, Sheldon would blame that need as to why he jumped out of Penny’s car before she came to her screeching halt.

“Sheldon!” He briefly heard Penny call after him, he couldn’t care, not when he had a singular focus.

Through the sliding glass doors he ran, searching for the receptionist who snapped his head up upon Sheldon’s arrival.

“Name?” The receptionist asked politely, poising his hands, ready to type.

“I’m here to see Amy Fowler, I’m her emergency contact,” Sheldon rushed, out of breath.

The man behind the desk nodded his head in a silent form of understanding before typing quickly on his computer. “Sheldon Cooper?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I need to see ID before I can let you through.” The young man behind the desk looked almost apologetic as Sheldon huffed in frustration, but pulled out his wallet anyway.

As the receptionist checked his ID, Leonard and Penny came up beside him. “Where is she?” Penny asked, a wild glint glazed over her eyes.

Before Sheldon could respond, the man handed Sheldon back his ID. “Room 14, through the double doors,” he said, pressing a button on his side of the desk, opening the large metal doors to his right.

Sheldon briefly thanked the man before pushing off the desk and running through the new opening. His eyes quickly scanned the new surroundings, looking for the aforementioned room 14. It was chaotic, typical for an ER. Constant beeping, nurses swirling around, briskly moving past him as if they knew he was going to be standing there. Despite the chaos, Sheldon could not find room 14.

He stopped a nurse who was carrying a wad of blankets into the room directly on his left. Room 1, where an elderly man was laid in the bed with his wife firmly holding his hand. “Where is room 14?”

The nurse turned to look politely up at him. “You must be the Sheldon Cooper Miss Fowler won’t stop talking about,” the young woman pondered, looking over him once and then twice. It startled him that the nurse not only knew his name, but that Amy talked about him enough for her to easily identify him. She chuckled slightly and maneuvered the linens in her arms to one side. “Go all the way to the end of the hall, turn left, room 14 is there on the right.”

“Thank you,” Sheldon uttered before blending in with the chaos. He too began to brush past nurses without casting a second glance, twisting and turning his way through the maze of the emergency room.

He could feel Penny standing too close to him as he slid the glass door of room 14 open. The curtain was drawn, protecting the security of it’s occupant, he bombarded his way through that too.

And there sitting on the bed was his girlfriend, peacefully scrolling through her phone. Upon the trio’s arrival, Amy dropped her phone to her lap and extended her right arm out towards her boyfriend. Sheldon made no move to get closer. He stood rooted in his spot at the doorway taking in Amy’s appearance. Her left arm was wrapped in a thick cast, paralyzed in a sling. Even through the thin white hospital gown, deep, dark purple bruising was visible near her ribcage. There was a small cut near the top of her head that had been stitched up and bandaged. She was a mess.

He heard Penny groan behind him before she rushed around him and to Amy’s bedside. “Ames, sweetie, what happened? Are you ok?” She asked as she gently took Amy’s uninjured hand in her own.

“I’m ok,” Amy responded, her voice shaky and uneven. “Now at least,” she mumbled, lowing her head back to the pillow.

Penny climbed into the bed next to Amy, ever so gently, wrapping her arms around the brunette’s shoulders. “What happened?”

“Guy ran a red light, hit me head on, on the driver’s side. Worst part is, he stayed to see if I was ok,” Amy paused to look spitefully at her injured arm. “Then when I mentioned that we needed to exchange information, he got all flighty and left.”

“Wait, so it was a hit and run?” Leonard asked from the corner of the room.

“Technically,” Amy shrugged, wincing in the process. She turned her eyes to Sheldon who was studying her carefully from the foot of her bed. “The crash wasn’t hard enough for the airbags to deploy, so I guess the guy thought he got off lucky.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sheldon announced, finally breaking his silence. “You leave the scene of an accident without following the proper protocols given by the state, you’ve automatically incriminated yourself.”

Amy gulped as Sheldon piercing blue eyes bore into her. “I know and that’s exactly what the police said. Thankfully, the accident happened at an intersection, so, they’re going to pull the footage and see if they can get a plate.”

Penny pulled Amy closer to her, hugging her tightly to her chest. “I’m just glad you’re ok, I mean, it could have been much worse.”

Amy grimaced at the thought. “Yeah.”

With that a silence fell over the foursome, only the sounds of chaos from outside echoing into the room. Various machines beeping from patient room 16 next door, and the distant screaming of a lady in the waiting room. Typical sounds of the ER on a busy Friday night. Yet, still through it all, Amy and Sheldon found each other’s eyes once again. Piercing blue met striking green. Amy had never seen Sheldon look at her the way he looked at her from the end of her hospital bed. Not the night on the train, or the day of prom had Sheldon’s gaze consumed her whole. There at the end of her bed, he took her in, scanning every inch of her body. Looking for any cut he hadn’t seen before, any bruise he missed. Behind the deep gaze of worry there was love, the deep, all-consuming love, he hadn’t shown since prom. The love or the worry had him trembling, of which she was not sure.

Amy turned her head up to Penny. “Can I have a minute with Sheldon?” She asked quietly, her eyes basically pleading with her Bestie to comply.

Penny disengaged from her and squeezed her hand. “Of course. We’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

Sheldon watched Leonard and Penny disappear behind the curtain and the sliding glass door before he turned back to Amy. He bowed his head toward the bed, shuffling from one foot to the other. “Social convention dictates that I ask if you’re ok,” Sheldon said after a minute of silence.

Amy tilted her head at him. “We don’t follow social convention and you know it,” Amy said, not with an accusatory tone, but it was enough for Sheldon to look away from her. “Come sit with me.” She patted the bed where Penny had just vacated, motioning for him to join her.

Hesitantly he sat next to her, careful not to touch her, and not for the normal reason. He didn’t want to cause her anymore pain than he already knew she was feeling.

Amy on the other hand craved and needed that physical contact. The car accident had left her shaking, and even after the paramedics wrapped a blanket around her, the warmth of the wool couldn’t supply the comfort she needed. Even still, hours later, Amy could still feel that every nerve in her body was on high alert, she needed Sheldon to help ground her. To be her 0000. Bring her back to equilibrium.

Through the haze of medication and the lingering pain, Amy tugged on Sheldon’s shirt to bring him closer. She expected resistance from her physicist of a boyfriend, however, he came to her easily. They were now touching, but still Sheldon made no move to hold her.

“Sheldon?” she beckoned him. “Isn’t it also social convention that the boyfriend complies to the girlfriend’s wishes in her time of need?”

Sheldon furrowed his eyebrows. “I thought you just said we don’t do that?”

Amy shrugged with her good shoulder. “I did, but you’re not one to turn it down if I point it out to you.”

“Curse you,” Sheldon replied, jokingly. “And what would be my girlfriend’s wish during her time of need?” He asked, keeping up his playful façade.

Amy leaned into him, playfully nudging him with her good shoulder. “Well, according to the relationship agreement, when one party is sick and or physically impaired the other is required to take care of them.”

He raised his eyebrow, playing along with her. “So?”

“And at this moment I find myself craving human intimacy and physical contact.”

Sheldon knew what she was refencing, his outstanding memory wouldn’t let him forget; but if she was about to offer what he thinks she was about to offer, he was going to call her doctor to come get her a brain scan. “Amy, if you’re suggesting that we-“

She interrupted him before the words could leave his mouth, “I just want you to hold me, Sheldon,” She pleaded, her good arm outstretched for him once again.

He recalled that night, where she had been saddened by Penny and Bernadette’s callous actions and she got him to cuddle with her. At the time he said he was strong-armed into it; however, he would be lying to himself if he didn’t look back on it fondly. That was different, he reasoned with himself. He wasn’t in love with her then, and she didn’t have bruises painted all over her body.

The way she looked at him, begging him with her eyes to be held, tore at his heart. Her pain reflected onto him and without hesitation, he shifted to lie next to her. She adjusted herself as well, putting weight onto her good side so that he could cradle her body in his arms. One arm went under her head so she could use it as a pillow while his other hand rested at the dip of waist. Amy settled into him, sighing contentedly as she took in his scent.

Sheldon could feel the way her muscles relaxed under his fingers as she tried desperately to get as close to him as possible. Pulling Amy’s head to rest on his chest, his hand intertwined in her hair trying to detangle the mangled mane.

Amy eventually fell asleep, but Sheldon wouldn’t budge. Nope, there was no way in hell he was moving from his spot. Even if he wanted to, she probably wouldn’t let him considering she had him in a death grip.

Just as he was reaching for the remote to turn the light above the bed off, a soft knock came from the sliding glass door. Sheldon held up his finger to silence Leonard as he entered the room.

His roommate smiled at the scene. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know, they’re going to release her soon,” he said quietly, coming to stand next to Sheldon.

“Ok,” Sheldon whispered, barely audible.

“We’ll be out in the waiting room if you need anything,” Leonard said, retreating back to the door.

“Wait,” Sheldon stopped him. “Can you run home and pack me an overnight bag? I want to stay with her tonight.”

Leonard smiled again, proud that Sheldon was going to such lengths to take care of his girlfriend. “Of course.”

With that, his roommate made his exit and once again he was alone with Amy. It felt like liquid relief was washed over him now that he knew she would be ok. If only she knew how worried he was. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight now.

He watched her sleep like it was the most mesmerizing thing. He noted how his mouth hung open slightly, little puffs of breath being released against his chest. Every so often the fingers in her cast would twitch against his side, tickling him slightly. Sheldon was so relaxed he almost drifted off as well, but he shook himself awake. Wanting to make sure nothing could hurt her.

After a few minutes, Amy began to mumble in her sleep. Mostly incoherent thoughts that he couldn’t really follow, until the faintest of whispers escaped her lips. So quiet he almost missed it. “I love you, Sheldon.”

He pressed his lips to the top of her head, gently so as to not disturb her head wound. He mumbled his promise into her hair, and even though she couldn’t hear it, it solidified it for him. “I love you too. I’m going to take care of you, I promise.”

A/N: It’s cheesy, I know. Sorry guys

[giraffles]

Hellbent

iiiit’s day two! I’ve actually been working this for a while, but finished it up for this week. \o/ today’s prompt is “favorite battle” so how about a BATTLE OF CONFLICTING EMOTIONS. it starts silly but gets feels-y, sorry. 

prompt that inspired this is here and from the lovely @writing-challenges-and-prompts​

this is set in the modern AU/Lights Will Guide You series!

Hellbent - (Young!Harlock/Warrius Zero)

"We're just friends." Harlock deadpans.

"Friends don't kiss." Kei counters, and she's not entirely wrong.

you can also read it here on AO3! 

"We're just friends." Harlock deadpans. "Friends don't kiss." Kei counters, and she's not entirely wrong. "Some friends do. Like the kinds with benefits." Kei is not amused. It shows in the way her dark eyes glare at him, and the unusual force she puts into organizing the papers on her desk. If he didn't know her better, he might have thought her jealous; but Harlock is very, very aware of her preferences for partners, and they don't include sulky ex-Navy men. "I don't trust him," She says at length, "I don't trust any of them as far as I can throw 'em." In some ways that's a roundabout compliment. Kei Yūki may look sweet and possess a slight figure, but he's seen her take down fighters twice her size. And while outnumbered. So really, she could throw them all pretty far, Zero included. And she's not a force to be taken lightly, like a storm at sea, waiting to sink ships and sink hearts. The two of them aren't related by blood, but sometimes he wonders if she isn't another long lost sibling. Kei is overly cautious from being burned one too many times. He can't say he blames her. The world is already cold and cruel, and it's done a number on all of them. She doesn't often share what happened to her in the period between running away from home and meeting up with the Arcadia crew, and he's not one to press her for details. But he knows enough to realize it wasn't pretty and it wasn't kind. So Kei has good reason to be suspicious of anyone who hasn't gained her respect, and it's a hard thing to earn her trust. The only reason she's here in the first place is because Harlock asked her to be. "Tori likes him," Harlock mentions, "I'd say that's a good litmus test." She shoots him an incredulous look. "That's a terrible example. That bird doesn't even like you." "He likes me enough," Though really, that was only because he fed the dumb parrot, "That totally counts." "What on earth are the two of you arguing about?" Marina materializes out of nowhere, a startling and all too common habit of hers. She comes armed with what look like case files, petty grievances they'll need to take care of if they want to keep their jobs. Before he can come up with an excuse for her, Kei is already counting mutiny. "Someone has been kissing the commander in the fire escape." When she put it that way, it made it sound like they were a couple of teenagers skulking around for kicks. Which, maybe wasn't that untrue, but that didn't mean she had to tell Marina of all people. The one person there who had known Zero the longest, who wasn't often found far from his side, and who always managed to look stunning regardless of the situation. Delivering mission briefings or breaking noses, she never faltered or lost her composure.  "Oh, is that all?" Marina's voice rang true and calm, yet there was an edge of ice to it, "Anyway, look into these security breaches. We need to know how deep they've gone." Then Marina sweeps away, leaving without another word like a receding tide, barely sparing them a glance. Kei throws her hands up. He shrugs. "You trust me, don't you?" He counters, knowing it's a little unfair to pull that card, because she's never been anything less than devoted, "I know what I'm doing. Relax." Kei grumbles something along the lines of 'I don't know why any of us bother with you', and his phone pings that a new email has come through. It's a very specific notification, reserved for anything from the government server they're all wired into, and he frowns when he sees it's from the same M. Oki who was just talking with them. She's also only a few yards off, there's no reason she needs to be messaging him when she can communicate in person like a rational human. He flicks the email open. It's a curt correspondence, no introduction or signature, just her name attached to the top and his in the receiving field. <If you hurt him, there will be consequences.> Few people can get away with threatening Harlock so openly. There are fewer people who legitimately terrify him. Marina is very close to the top of both lists. "What is it?" Kei asks. "It's nothing," Only quite possibly the shortest and most direct shovel speech he's ever gotten, "We should be working." "You never want to work." She points out, but lets the subject go. He doesn't dare look in Marina's direction. Really, he's not sure how much of a secret it all should or shouldn't be; Zero can be so prickly on a good day, to the point that it's hard to decipher between the officer's normal personality or if he's being an ass on purpose. He's so flighty for someone with a reputation for being loyal and steadfast, shying away even behind closed doors and hidden from prying eyes. He's not even sure where the two of them even stand at this point, if there should be labels involved or it's better to keep it off-brand for now. (Fraternization laws probably don't apply in this case, even if they did, he'd ignore them anyway, because to hell with that.) And yet kissing him is so good that Harlock couldn't resist catching him by the back door that morning. Which of course was when Kei wandered by, nearly choking herself to death on her coffee when she saw them. He's probably lucky Zero didn't pitch him out the nearest window for that one. It's not like it had been on purpose, and they were all bound to find out eventually. It's impossible not to, when they're working and living in such close proximity to each other. And they're glorified experts in espionage, for crying out loud, he could find out everyone's favorite color and childhood pet in twenty minutes if he put his mind to it. If he was really determined, he could probably find every dark and embarrassing secret of every person in a five mile radius, and the whole city if Kei and Ishikura helped. So how were they supposed to keep a relationship of all things under wraps, under the noses of individuals trained to sniff out deceptions and half-truths? Only an idiot would try. Or, someone so stubborn and deep in denial that they ran the risk of drowning. Fucking Zero. Harlock had taken a calculated risk with him, when he had asked for his handler to be the same agent who had spent years trying to bring him to justice, but he hadn't expected this. Because, maybe, he hadn't planned on an infatuation, or half jokingly flirting with him, which  may have turned into whatever it is that they've been avoiding talking about. It wasn't Harlock's fault that he was stuck living with someone who was so accidentally attractive. (Except, it was his own damn fault, and now he had to deal with the consequences.) It started as just a way to pass the time, an exercise in seeing how he could get under his keeper's skin, and now he's fallen. Hard. This wasn't part of the plan. None of this was part of the plan. Not that the plan had been fool proof, or even fully baked by the time Harlock had put it in motion. Its still a vague sort of idea, floating about with loose strings he's tying together on the fly, but it had worked out so far. Mostly. Present situation not included. But the plan comes first, it always come first, because he'd die before he'd let a vow go unfulfilled. Even if it was hard to come to terms with the fact that they would eventually be jumping ship, slipping back into the sea once they'd gotten what they came for. What Arcadia members are on this team may not know exactly what's going on, but they're smart enough to realize they're all acting the parts the government wants them to until they're ready to bail, a deception and treason of the highest order. He never said he was an honest man. Harlock sinks low in the office chair.   This would have been easier without lingering attachments. And yet had made them anyway, like the idiot he was, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. You would think he would have learned by now, but there was still that stubborn part of him that was a hopeless romantic. At least it would be good while it lasted. Marina couldn't kill him if she couldn't find him. 

On his way to the vending machine, Zero ambushes him. Which would have been great if it was for some midday fooling around, but instead Harlock has a snarling totally-not-a-boyfriend to appease. "Who did you tell?" Zero growls. "I didn't tell anyone!" "Bullshit." This is it. This is how he dies. In a back closet of an undisclosed office somewhere within the greater-Boston area. There are worse ways to go, and Harlock always knew he'd kick off young, but it's a little disappointing that it won't be in a blaze of glory. It really isn't fair. "I swear to god it wasn't me," He pleads, "If anything, it was Kei." She probably doesn't deserve to be thrown under the tracks like that, but at the same time, she had started it. If he's going to die then he's not going down alone. And technically he hadn't breathed a word of anything; that had been other people's doing. Zero looks both indescribably livid and so very tired. "I hate you. I hate you both," Zero bites out, "You're the worst." Before Harlock can come up with a defense, or a snappy reply, Zero is kissing him. It's not where he expected things to go, but he's not going to complain either. Zero is hellbent on taking every piece of his being and spinning it upside down, even if that defies logic, because it's alway been Harlock who's taken people on rides. Although, none of those had worked out very well in the end, so maybe it's just as well. This is better than any of them anyway. His hands curl in the front of that dumb Navy jacket Zero was always wearing so he can pull him closer, to cut his tongue on teeth. It's so easy to fall like this. It won't be easy to leave.