#so they moved outside student housing and are now rude and loud around a bunch of people struggling to pay bills

[cuntwrap--supreme]

I don't think my pothead neighbor actually knows how to smoke weed. He's out on his porch with a blunt and is straight up hacking his lungs up. He sounds like he's severely ill. But nope. This is just the morning routine. Wake up and inhale that pot smoke in, apparently, the most painful way, tears in his eyes, SoundCloud rap in his (and everyone else's because goddamn does this guy not understand he lives in an apartment) ears, hope in his heart. Or something.

[uzumaki-rebellion]

“Black Boys Bloom Thorns First: Volume 4, Chapter 38″

Need to catch up? Masterlist HERE

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"Isn't it a shame this ain't a movie? Then you could rewrite my every line I'll take all the blame, yo baby, I'm sorry But I didn't like the way you were, so I had to make you mine

Baby I just can't stand to see you happy More than that I hate to see you sad Honey if you left me I just might do something rash What's this strange relationship-ship-ship-ship?"

Prince – "Strange Relationship"

She was late.

Disa left the radio station a few minutes early and walked the long way to the New House building to avoid the drizzle of rain across the M.I.T. campus. She ducked into a coffee shop to grab a cappuccino before venturing back out to meet up with her homegirl Jennifer, the Graduate Resident Tutor at New House. She would be there waiting for Disa with Yamilet and Tatum before they headed off to a new semester mixer in the common spaces there. The campus was a whirl of excitement and new student business. Fresh faces eager to fit in were all around her.

She arrived at New House with not too much damage done to her make-up from the precipitation outside and her once flat-ironed sleekness had shrunk into a riot of curls. She dipped into a restroom and fluffed out her tresses to give them a semblance of put-together cohesiveness. Studying herself in the mirror, the rain had done her a favor. Her hair actually looked better curly with the dark top she had on. She adjusted her bra straps to lift her breasts higher, used a lip brush to freshen her tinted lip gloss, and dashed out of the restroom to find her friends. New House was abuzz and crowded with loud freshman and rowdy seasoned upperclassmen.

Surveying the first floor, she glimpsed Jennifer's twenty-seven-piece maroon pixie hair. Yamilet stood near her and Disa plowed her way past the whirring bodies. A tall, nutmeg-brown-skinned student blocked her path toward her friends. The dude wouldn't even move out of her way, just stood there like a big ass bump in the road. She pulled back her lips in a half snarl as the annoyance of her momentum being blocked agitated her.

"Excuse me," she said.

"Huh?"

"You're blocking my way," she said, annoyed.

The obvious newbie simply stood in there with big puppy dog eyes and a lopsided grin on his fleshy lips. She honed in on those lips. They were a distraction. Her friends called to her in the distance. Disa stomped around the youngin and he stepped back in front of her, blocking her way once more.

"Rude ass," she muttered.

"Are you Buttafly?" he blurted out after her.

"What?"

She placed a hand on her hip and that lush-lipped pouty mouth of his worried her a bit. They parted, and she noticed two gold slugs on his lower canine teeth. Sharp and dangerous like a wild cat.

"Are you Buttafly? The radio DJ? I listen to you all the time."

Her eyes softened.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Disǎ!"

Jennifer, Yamilet, and now Tatum were impatiently waiting for her.

"Sorry to hold you up. I just wanted to say that I enjoy your work. You know music, even the obscure stuff..."

The young man rattled off a bunch of praise for her radio show and her encyclopedic knowledge of music history from several genres.

"Thanks for listening to the show. I'm glad you enjoy it. I need to get to my people," she said, pointing toward her girls.

His eyes narrowed for just a second, and his lower lip raised up, turning his mouth into a haughty pout. Beautiful lips. He had beautiful lips. Kissable, pillowy lips. The third time Disa had ever seen Erik in person, she had forgotten about how sexy his lips were as they flashed peeks of his menacing slugs. Yamilet had to remind her of how succulent they were when he first came to her house in Cambridge, but that very first time, she admired them and they lured her into remembering the feeling she got from wanting a mouth like that brushing across her own plump lips. Hindsight brought clarity as Disa walked toward Erik's new palace office. The rain had slowed her down back then so that she could meet him. It was a flash of what was to come. He tried to hold her there with him, but her life had other things to enjoy besides being stopped by a very attractive man. She walked away from her future fate with an annoyed bounce in her step. But that man kept coming back to her. Always.

The West Palace was a massive enterprise with over eight hundred people working in just that one building alone. Half that number worked inside the East Palace. Offices, meeting rooms, housing for staff, dining rooms, ballrooms, public tourist rooms, and elite guards roamed the halls of the structure. It moved at a brisk pace and Disa was happy that her office was higher in the building, away from the hustle and bustle of the lower floors. Erik's new office was several floors higher than hers, and she took a private elevator to drop off his Ogum figurine. She kept the priceless gift years after she left him, and had always been tempted to mail it to him, but feared he would take that as an invitation to dip back into her life. Three times she offered to mail it to his grandfather, but Dante refused to take it. Even Marisol refused to take it back. Disa knew Erik stayed in touch off and on with his extended family, and every single person she knew would not take Ogum away from her. They all hoped it would be the beacon to bring them back together. Ironically, she ended up taking the totem back to him herself.

Every floor of the palace was expansive, and Disa loved roaming through them. She had been living in the double palace for months and still only saw a small portion of its regal splendor. It was like living in a posh museum. Art, architecture, and history flowed up and down every inch of the twin structure. There were still things there that made her gasp with wonder. It was her home. Her child's home. She would officially become a dual citizen in time for her birthday and for the first time, she actually felt like a Wakandan. The ease with which she shed all pretense of being an American was a welcome relief. Unlike most Black Americans, she had somewhere outside of the American Farce to call home. Africa, the entire continent, meant so much to her people. Of course, they always romanticized it as the motherland, but the connection was always there. Most Black Americans her age could look at continental Africans now as mere foreigners, and not long-lost cousins with an automatic fictive kinship floating around them. This was unlike her father's generation, who grew up on Pan-Africanism and glossy eyes full of hope of visiting the Motherland one day. But Disa grew up a world traveler and had great affection for the continent the way her elders did. Living in Wakanda taught her that the old heads were right in longing for a reconnection with their ancestors. Continental Africans may have forgotten them too, or even brushed off their connection as the fate of a slave/colonial past, however, Disa stayed rooted to the ancient land and wanted Joba to grow up fully Wakandan and fully present with her Black American heritage too. No more lost tribe vibes. Found tribe realness was the order of the day. Erik would remind Wakanda of that soon.

She knocked on the door of the new office, and a gorgeous steely-eyed woman answered. Her curious gaze dragged over Disa's form with a touch of disdain until she recognized who it was.

"Lady Abdullah," the woman said.

"Yes. You are?"

"Tlotliso Qhobel."

"The new intern?"

"No, I am Prince N'Jadaka's new lady—"

"Excuse me?"

"Inenekazi elilindileyo… mmmm… lady-in-waiting… personal assistant."

"Oh. I see. Glad you cleared that up," Disa said.

Tlotliso smiled and there was a coolness there that Disa detected behind the shiny white teeth. The assistant also held herself in the doorway like she was deliberately trying to block Disa from coming in.

"Is the prince here?" Disa asked, glancing over Tlotliso's shoulder.

Erik's new assistant pushed the door forward to block off access.

"He is not here right now. I can take a message for him."

Disa grew miffed at the frosty reception.

"I'd like to leave something for him. A personal gift that he once cherished."

Disa held up the silver gift bag she packed Ogum inside of.

"Is there a reason why you are denying me entrance?" Disa finally asked with a curt tone in her best formal Wakandan.

"I am sorry, Lady Abdullah, I was told by Queen Ramonda not to allow anyone in yet, not until the prince had arrived and inspected the office himself. I want to follow her directions and not upset Prince N'Jadaka. It is my first day on the job and I want to make a good impression."

Tlotliso lowered her gaze, giving deference to Disa. The woman seemed nervous, and Disa knew what it felt like to want to start off right with a powerful boss. Despite having a hand in designing the interior, Disa hadn't seen the entire set-up put together all the way. She and Yani had looked over holo designs and blueprints, but never had the opportunity to savor the final product. Erik was also easily irritated if orders weren't followed on his behalf by people. No sense in getting the woman in trouble. She held up the gift bag.

"Please make sure Prince N'Jadaka receives this. It is very important and belonged to him a long time ago. He would be angry if he didn't get this hand delivered the moment he arrives."

Tlotliso took the bag carefully.

"I will do so," Tlotliso said.

"Thank you. I'll be off then. Have a great first day."

Disa took three steps, then turned back around.

"Here's a little friendly advice, Tlotliso. Do not upset Prince N'Jadaka. Get on his good side early or else he will eat you alive."

At last. That bit of coolness in the assistant's eyes faltered with Disa's words. She sashayed away from Erik's office and wondered how he would act around that icy exterior Tlotliso possessed.

T'Challa cradled his forehead in his hands. Court papers, unanswered messages from diplomats outside of Wakanda, and daily palace inquiries from heads of staff sat unanswered on his cluttered desk. His personal assistant Uuka wandered in from time to time with his comm tab at the ready, waiting for the king to give priority to selected memos and requests for an audience. His office manager, Fundiswa, brought in a tray of refreshments for him to drink and snack on to help him regain his energy. Her tender, smoky eyes showed him pity, and she didn't bother him with her usual office banter to give him some peace.

The press conference went well. He had nothing concrete to give his people, but his father encouraged him to speak with a bold throat to at least give the illusion that things were under control.

Things were not under control.

Despite offering his apology to Mosa Dlamini, she refused to accept it until he cleared her mother's name and brought her home. She truly believed T'Challa had her mother in custody somewhere. The accusations about his father kidnapping citizens to quiet them wreaked havoc on his mind. Intense rage that brought his hand across Mosa's face settled in his chest and all the doubts he carried from the time Zuri confessed to what his father had done to Prince N'Jobu surfaced like sour bile in his throat. The urge to vomit was ever present the deeper he fell into the rabbit hole. What had his father truly done?

T'Challa sent some of his office staff to research old edicts in the royal law library where there could be clues and a historical record of King T'Chaka having a legitimate complaint against dissenters and naming them in old court documents.

"Your Highness, the coroner is here with her report," Uuka said.

"Bring her in, please," T'Challa said.

He took a sip of calming tea and stared at the pink color of the liquid to settle his mind. Dr. Mxenge slipped in quietly, clutching a folder in her hand.

"I prepared a hard copy for you, King T'Challa," she said.

"Sit," he said, pointing to the seat in front of his desk.

Dr. Mxenge was a handsome woman of fifty with twenty years of experience under her belt. Whatever she found must've been important for her to hand deliver a report in person. T'Challa took the hard copy and placed it on his desk. Dr. Mxenge touched her kimoyo and brought up a vid screen that displayed the body of the bomber on an examination table, fully nude.

"This man is Chuma Inam. He is a member of the River Tribe. A welder who lived in Birnin S'Yan. He used the corrosive and highly disfiguring sap of the khosoti tree to burn away his original tribal markings. Khosoti trees are only found in the Border Tribe territory. His hands were completely covered in the explosive powder residue that matched what they used at all the bombing sites. The corrosive nature of the material singed his fingers, leaving nerve damage that would have become permanent had he lived. He is forty years old and his tattoo has been on his skin for at least twenty years. From his personal records, we found he has a history of hostile behavior towards co-workers and his own family members who work in various jobs that are supportive of the royal family, from the military to the palace hospitality staff. Chuma has been estranged from his immediate family for the last three years, often taking trips out into the Border Tribe territory to vacation. He was in good health and had a fiancé, but the engagement ended soon after the civil war."

"What about his social life outside of the fiancé?"

"Very few friends, but he enjoyed spending most of his time at a private gentleman's club called The Oasis. We have dispatched a team to investigate that club further to question his associates. His family has been very forthcoming and is distraught that we have tied him to this case. From what we have gathered thus far, he was a bitter man with a chip on his shoulder. His former fiancé had a restraining order placed on him."

"I would like her questioned further and please keep me informed of the findings with The Oasis. General Okoye and the heads of the elite units will examine the Border Tribe territory. We may be able to flush out his accomplices once we reveal his picture and name. I will inform the public of the identity of the bomber tonight. Perhaps it will put fear in others working with him and they will slip up. Thank you, Dr. Mxenge."

Dr. Mxenge hesitated before she stood up to leave.

"Yes?" T'Challa asked.

"I have a bad feeling about this, King T'Challa. We have never had anything like this happen in our country before. To think there are others willing to do this out there. It frightens me."

"I am doing everything in my power to protect all of us. With your help, I have the information needed to solve this."

Dr. Mxenge nodded and quietly slipped out of his office. Fundiswa walked soon after and held her comm tab up for him. It glowed bright neon blue.

"King T'Challa, one of the border security agents has an urgent message for you," she said.

"Patch him through," T'Challa said.

He swiped his vid screen, clearing the information Dr. Mxenge shared with him. A dark orange secured link popped up, and the king tapped it. A youthful-looking lieutenant gazed at him with serious eyes and a rugged-looking beard.

"Your Highness, we have a private transport trying to enter the border from the Canaan side. They request permission to enter."

"Lt. Thela, no one can come through, you know this—"

"It is me, Your Highness."

T'Challa's eyes became wide like mobolo plums.

"Nakia," he said in a breathless whisper.

"I apologize for seeking your permission to enter Wakanda. I learned of the attacks from my father and I had to come home. May I please be allowed through?" Nakia said.

"Lt. Thela, escort her to the palace immediately," T'Challa said.

"As you wish, ukumkani."

"See you soon, Nakia," T'Challa said.

T'Challa swiped his screen and walked to a side door in his private suite. He passed by his gym and dining room to get to his spa room, where he showered and changed into fresh royal robes. He smoothed a hair oil onto his curls and rubbed his beard, debating about shaving it. It had become thicker, but he liked the look. It brought maturity to his face, which appeared stunning on TV.

Nakia had been in America for nearly three years, working in Oakland and along the coast of California, cultivating community centers and making inroads into local U.S. politics on the West Coast. Unfortunately, their plans to influence the lives of Black Americans were daunting. The U.S. government didn't like anything set up specifically for Black people, and other non-Black marginalized groups, namely Asians and Latino communities, complained that they wanted the benefits of Wakandan resources too. Some groups fought Wakandans through legal action, suing them for discrimination, while others blocked them from buying property in Black areas so that they would have to set up shop in more affluent areas that catered to white Americans too. Any properties they sought to buy suddenly became unavailable for purchase or were bought from private entities and taken off the market.

Nakia had become disillusioned with Americans, but she kept trying to help N'Jadaka's people. The goal was to make California the blueprint that they could duplicate worldwide. The message became clear. Wakanda was welcome to do good in America. Just not for Black Americans solely. White protesters, along with non-Black PoC's who felt slighted by the attention given to the Black community, picketed in front of the five community centers from Oakland to San Diego with signs that said "We Are All Americans", and "Support All Americans". T'Challa suspected that the FBI, CIA, and the President funded the protesters to put pressure on Wakanda to become neutral on the needs of Black people. The GOP and their supporters accused T'Challa and his people of trying to brainwash Black Americans into socialism and satanism, even though they knew nothing about his country. There was even a "Go Back to Wakanda" campaign that used insidious images of monkeys and cartoons of grossly exaggerated African features online to encourage Black Americans to repatriate to Africa.

The U.S. government wanted to control how and who Wakanda supported with their resources. Already hyper-visible because of poor race relations in the country, Black leaders became cautious in dealing with Nakia and the Wakandan team that worked for her in the country. They withstood the adverse publicity and public scrutiny. There were only a handful of Black women leaders who ignored the controversy and eagerly sought to work with Wakanda. Black male leadership waffled too much, afraid of white backlash and a lessening of their control over their communities. Nakia called white men, white women, and Black men the weak links of progress for the Black community. All other groups stood aside and watched with knives and forks, ready to feed off of the labor of Black women who moved progressive ideas forward with Nakia.

T'Challa sat in his meditation room near his small gym and stared out of the window. Birnin Zana looked the same as always, but it would never be the same. Too many things had changed. He pondered his leadership abilities and remembered how his father had handled things with such finesse and confidence. But underneath all of that polished exterior, had King T'Chaka betrayed not only his family but his own countrymen too? For what? What had been so egregious that he had to act in ways that Mosa claimed he did? Was there a death threat? A secret assassination attempt? He didn't want to believe the heresy. However, a man who could kill his own blood was capable of far more if his mind was set to crush a rebellion against the Udaku throne. Where the hell was Sita? For forty minutes, he watched the skyline for a transport aircraft to shuttle Nakia to him.

"King T'Challa, Lady Galiber is here to see you," Uuka said over the intercom.

T'Challa strode back out to his office and found Yani sitting in front of his desk.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

She was still dressed in her work uniform.

"I was given the rest of the day off from my supervisor. N'Jadaka had a long visit with her and she rewarded me with time off to come home early. I wanted to know from you how things were. With everything going on."

"I am dealing with a lot, but there's no need for you to worry. I will give an update tonight. Go home and relax. You can spend time with Riki and Sydette soon."

"Erik will take them for today. I am free until I call him. You look drained."

"That bad?'" he said, touching his face.

He had hoped the shower and fresh cologne would perk up his appearance, with Nakia being on her way. T'Challa tapped his fingers on his desk.

"You need a good meal and some sleep," she said.

He sat down across from her.

"I force myself to eat, but I will not sleep until I apprehend everyone involved with this crime. Three lives were lost, and there are citizens recovering in hospitals because some entity wants to destroy the monarchy. The wicked do not rest and neither shall I."

Yani stood up and walked to his side of the desk. She placed a gentle, warm hand on his cheek.

"As a medical professional, I advise you to take a few hours off for yourself to recharge and rehydrate fully."

He closed his eyes and touched her hand.

"I thank you for your suggestion and I will consider it later, but now—"

"King T'Challa."

Nakia stepped into his inner office with quiet footsteps and her hands folded and resting on the front of her thighs. He jumped up and glanced at Yani for a moment before stepping away from his chair.

"Nakia," he said.

His first love's midnight velvet skin sparkled with a hint of gold make-up along her cheeks and chin. Her hair was shaved on the sides with tightly coiled puffs at the top, twisted into a thick bun tied up with a black netting that lined the start of her hairline. Shimmery blue lipstick traced and colored her luscious lips that gave him a hint of a smile. Her stunning beauty trapped him in a bubble of confusion as he realized how much time they had been apart once she left Wakanda after N'Jadaka was put into cryostasis. T'Challa kept word of his cousin's return a secret from her until she witnessed N'Jadaka's speech from the palace over the Wakandan intranet that stayed closed off from the rest of the world.

Yani gave him a slight grin when she heard his voice go all fluffy and off-key. Nakia lowered her head slightly in the presence of another person. Her gimlet eyes took in Yani's closeness to him physically and her attire.

"Nakia, this is Lady Galiber. The mother of Prince Riki and Sydette."

"Hello," Nakia said, with a cautious tone. "Was I interrupting something important?"

"I was leaving," Yani said.

She glanced at T'Challa and wagged a finger in his face.

"Please nourish yourself and take at least a thirty-minute nap. You need to be at your best," Yani said.

Nakia stepped away from Yani politely and watched the other woman leave his office.

"That is Killmonger's woman?" Nakia asked.

"One of them."

"Until she spoke, I thought she was Wakandan. She's built like a Merchant Tribe woman."

T'Challa pressed his lips together.

"You two seem rather close," Nakia added.

T'Challa leaned against his desk in front of her. He folded his arms and couldn't hide the smile that spread open his lips.

"She is a gracious person."

Nakia tilted her chin higher.

"Why did you allow him to live? Everything that he did to you and our people… unforgivable."

"There are things happening here that go beyond what N'Jadaka tried to do."

"Is he a part of these bombings?"

"No. This is an old grudge that came long before N'Jadaka and I were even born. Our fathers too. I am happy to see you, Nakia."

"I am happy to be home, but not under these circumstances. I am here to offer my help. America is not going the way I had hoped, so I would rather be here helping my own people."

"Will you go back to the states when we fix the problem here?"

Nakia plopped herself on a chair and touched the side of her face.

"Americans are exploitive and predatory. I went there thinking that all the resources and open arm energy we brought would make them appreciate the effort. The people we try to help are thankful and work hard to build bridges with us, but their local and federal government handling of our presence is too suspicious. Very reactive."

She closed her eyes and exhaled the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"I was naïve. Killmonger… he was wrong for coming here the way he did… but… I am understanding the rage in him. In that country, the rich and powerful smile while they slit your throat and then place the knife in your hand, pretending not to know why you are slowly bleeding to death. There are only the haves and have-nots. They also pretend that the ills of their society are not purposely systemic. I don't know what to do anymore. I am tired of trying to convert them to our way of thinking. How do they live like that and not go mad?"

"We must keep trying. You have not been up and running that long. Two years is not enough time to see results."

Nakia glanced around his office, then stood up and moved closer to him. He smelled her perfume, and the oils used to twist up the bun on her head.

"I am here to work. You can tell me what is going on now or…"

She touched the side of his temple with the knuckles of her right hand.

"… after you get some rest. Lady Galiber is right. You are exhausted. It shows in your eyes."

T'Challa reached for her hand and held it to his lips. He kissed a knuckle and then picked up a file folder on his desk. Handing it to her, he then walked over to a wall-sized vid screen and pulled up images of the bombing and aftermath. She walked over to the screen and watched all the intel they had available. He shared the autopsy report of Chuma Inam and every bit of vital information she would need to get up to speed.

Nakia took in all the intel and looked over the reports with a keen eye for detail.

"I will go after Chuma Inam's associates. He is a member of my tribe," she said.

"That may be tricky for you. You are the niece of Bhira. People may be afraid to talk to you knowing your uncle is on the Council of Elders."

"You forget, T'Challa. I was once a War Dog. I know how to hide in plain sight. This man has brought shame to my people's good name. I will not tolerate a terrorist among the River Tribe."

"This is a dangerous mission."

"No more dangerous than what I have encountered before on the outside. I will find his co-conspirators and bring them to justice."

She transferred the digital files to her kimoyo then turned to him.

"I will go visit with my uncle in his office downstairs and then check in with the head of strike team," she said.

T'Challa tapped a comm tab embedded in his desk.

"I will get you clearance now," he said.

An awkward silence permeated the room when there was nothing else to say to one another.

"I will see you at the debriefing before your next press conference," she said, then headed to the door.

She was gone before their mutual discomfort became unbearable. He touched his chest. His heart did beat faster, but he pretended it was because his blood sugar was low and he needed more fluids to pump his energy back up.

Fundiswa walked back into the room with a new pitcher of cool ice water and a bowl filled to the top with ice cubes. The grin on her lips annoyed him.

"Wipe that smile from your face. She is here to work on uncovering evidence," T'Challa said.

He poured water into his empty glass and drank his fill. Fundiswa gazed at him with a ridiculous expression plastered on her face.

"Fundiswa, please."

"King T'Challa, I have not spoken one word about you and Nakia flirting with one another."

"We were catching up on this case, not flirting."

"Mmhmmm."

"Leave," T'Challa said in a gruff tone.

"Eh, eh, do not snip at me just because your face tells the complete story."

"There is no story. Do you not have work to complete out there?"

Fundiswa sucked her teeth and took her time leaving his office. T'Challa turned to face the images of the case sliding across his vid screen. He had one of his best spies back in the country, and it made him breathe easier.

Chapter 39 HERE.

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[fanficimagery]

The Imprint Saga pt. 1

Summary: Imagine finding out the supernatural exists. You manage to keep a level head and even give the whole Imprint business a go, but your poor wolf had no idea just how stubborn you could be when you felt he or anyone else was in the wrong.

Words: 8.2K Warnings: This is absolutely ridiculous. I wrote it, loved it, edited it, and now I hate it. But I wrote three goddamn parts (currently writing pt. 3) and I refuse to delete any of it. With that said, the Reader gets a bit confrontational with those she doesn’t like and punches someone.

Moving to Forks for the start of your Junior year was not ideal, but your mom was in need of a better paying job and it just so happened that Forks General Hospital had a few open positions that needed filling. So after she gave you a week to pack up your room, the house, and have your high school transcripts transferred, your mom hired a moving truck to follow you over two hundred miles to your new home.

Everyone was curious about you and your mom, and it seemed like everyone knew everyone else's business so it was only a matter of time before the waitress at the local diner told everyone what she learned when she had made small talk with your mom. The town was also pretty dreary, but the beach in the next town over made up for it.

The first day of school has you waking up earlier than usual so you can drop your mom off at work before taking the car for yourself. Then after checking in at the main office to get your schedule and a slip of paper that needs to be signed by every teacher before being turned in at the end of the day, the day starts off exactly as you expected.

Every stare is immediately on you as you park your car, the murmurs starting as soon as you exit. Glancing around, unimpressed, you put your arms through the straps of your backpack and secure it snugly to you. Then pulling up the hood of your jacket, you head straight for the double doors.

Only halfway there, a student jumps out in front of you and snaps a picture of you. "You're Y/N Y/L/N," he grins, fiddling with his camera. "I'm Eric Yorkie, the eyes and ears of this place."

"Cool," you deadpan.

"Anything you need?" He then asks, clearly excited to be talking to you. "Tour guide, lunch date, a shoulder to cry on?" You can only blink in response and he readily continues on. "I'm on the paper and you're news, baby. Front page."

The clearly excitable and gossip go-to are people you tend to steer clear of, but something about this boy has you cracking a grin. He takes notice, practically shaking with excitement. "So long as you never call me baby again, I'll let you run whatever story you come up with."

"Yes!"

"And you have to dial down the eagerness from about a thirteen to a three. Take a breath, dude. I'm not that interesting."

"Nice." He tries so hard to seem cool and collected, but it's clearly not working. "Can I use that as a headline."

"Whatever." Eric keeps staring, almost like an eager puppy, and you sigh. "I'm gonna go. I want to acquaint myself with my locker and make sure I know how to follow this map. See you at lunch with those questions you no doubt are going to ask for that paper of yours." He seems like he's going to ask you something else, but you make a quick escape and leave him behind.

Finding your locker is fairly easy so long as you follow the numbers, but it's the classes that are a bit tricky. You're used to having all the classes in one building, either upstairs or downstairs, but the classes here are located in various buildings that make up the entire school.

You're not sure exactly sure which exit to take to find building E since apparently one side of the map ended up being cut off, so you walk up to the first couple you see standing by their lockers. The guy is pretty burly and the girl is ridiculously pretty for being a high school teenager. "Hey," the two teens tense, but you pay it no mind, "sorry to bother you, but can you tell me which way to go for building E? My map was cut off," you explain while showing them said map.

The burly boy blinks owlishly at you and the girl glares, but the only thing that pops into your head is that they have the most exotic eyes you've ever seen. "Oh. Uh sure." The boy takes the map from you, turning around to place it against a locker and finishes the map for you. As he hands it back, he says, "Just keep walking straight and take a left. Building E is that way."

You offer him a tired smile in return. "Thank you." Then glancing at the girl, your gaze falls to her feet. "Huh. Nice boots." Her glare softens, but you don't see it before you take your leave.

Classes then proceed to go exactly as expected, you getting your slip of paper signed before each class and then giving your name, the place you moved from, and a random fact for each teacher that asks you to introduce yourself to the class.

Lunch rolls around and you find an empty table, happily setting your tray down and tearing your hamburger to bite size pieces before eating them. That's where Eric finds you, Angela Weber in tow. The girl is someone you're most likely to befriend with her soft spoken nature and laid back personality. They ask questions about where you've moved from, your family, and your hobbies. You easily answer them, tossing in a crass joke or two that has Angela snorting milk from her nose and Eric taking a picture of the aftermath as you smirk at the poor girl.

Lauren, Tyler, Mike, and Jessica make their appearance at your table then, and you immediately dislike them. They're loud, rude, and obnoxious. The girls clearly have jealousy issues of some sort and the boys are only interested in what your dating life is like. But through them you learn about the Cullen clan.

"Oh my god," Jessica suddenly muses. "Don't look now, but Alice Cullen is staring at you!"

You frown when you realize she's addressing you. "Who?"

"Alice Cullen? Don't you know who they are by now?!"

"Uh no?"

Lauren smirks, leaning forward in her seat as if she's preparing to tell you the juiciest piece of gossip. "The Cullen and Hale twins are pretty much royalty around here, even if they don't give anyone the time of day." She gestures to the table in question and it's then you realize two of the so-called royalty are the couple you approached earlier that morning. "They've all been adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife since she can't have any kids."

"Wow. Okay one, rude. All you had had to say was that Dr. Cullen and his wife adopted them. There is no need to tell anyone about Mrs. Cullen allegedly being infertile." Lauren, Jessica, and the boys gape at you, but Angela hides her smile behind her cup. "And two, why should it matter if they're staring? Are you really that starstruck over a bunch of teenagers?"

"B-Because they're the Cullen’s!" Jessica practically whisper shouts. "They're like together-together- Rosalie and Emmett, and Alice and Jasper- and they never pay attention to anyone, and- oh god, now Edward is looking over here!"

Jessica is on the verge of swooning and you roll your eyes, sighing. "Jesus Christ," you mutter. "You really need to pull yourself together. They're kids like you and I, albeit better looking, but still kids nonetheless. It's like you're desperate for their attention."

"Well yeah," Lauren scoffs. "You should feel lucky they're even looking in your direction."

"Gross," you utter. Jessica and Lauren are now looking at you in disbelief and annoyance, and the boys have clearly busied themselves with gossip of their own when the Cullen’s were mentioned. Lightly clearing your throat, you stand up and pick up your tray. "Well it was nice talking to you, Eric and Angela. I'll see you around. Maybe."

You dump your tray and then make your way out of the cafeteria building, easily finding your next class since Emmett Cullen had fixed your map. You then proceed to have a class with Edward Cullen- he nodding in greeting when you catch his gaze, a nod which you return- and a class with Alice Cullen who is practically bouncing in her seat when the teacher sits you next to her. She's a little too perky for your likes, so you merely grin before immediately pulling out your spiral notebook and taking notes from the board.

Your last class of the day is your history class which you end up sitting next to Jasper Hale. He's very tense and quiet, and seems both interested yet terrified of your presence, so you don't pay him much mind after nodding at him when you take your seat.

All in all, your classes are decent and you've literally only spoken to one person in the entire that you can find yourself wanting to spend time with outside of school. Angela.

It doesn't take long for the teens of Forks High to realize you're not afraid to speak your mind when they annoy you, and you found yourself only ever seeking out Angela. And out of all the Cullen’s it's Alice who seemed most interested in befriending you, but you weren't really interested. You were polite when she approached you, but you never really offered to hang out with her or take her up on her offer to go shopping. And while every other student found it offensive that you've turned her down, her family found it rather amusing.

Jasper eventually slightly warmed up to you since your teacher had partnered you up with him for a project, so you found it rather easy explaining to him that you weren't really the type of girl Alice needed in her life. He chuckled at your explanation of cheery people not being your cup of tea, but that you didn't have the heart to tell Alice yourself, and promised to let her down easy for you. You sighed in relief, thanked him, and then got back to taking notes.

Fortunately for you, Bella Swan came to Forks and Alice found a new girl to set her attention on.

It's the weekend, and you and your mom are feeling up to spending a day on the beach. And since it's chilly out, your mom makes a few phone calls to La Push to make sure that you won't be getting in trouble if you were to make a fire on the beach. So after purchasing a small shovel and some easy to light wood that would keep your fire going, she drives the two of you down to La Push Beach.

You find the perfect place to have your fire, next to a rather large piece of driftwood that appears as if it'd make the perfect backrest. You dig a shallow hole while your mom makes a teepee of wood before lighting it, and then the two of you plop yourselves down and just breathe in the salty ocean air.

"So how are you liking school, darling?" Your mom asks as she pulls forward a bag of snacks and drinks. "We haven't really had time to sit and talk."

You shrug. "School is school. Met a few people I can actually call friends."

"That's wonderful!"

"But I also made more enemies, so.."

"Y/N," she groans and you laugh. Eventually she grins at you. "What'd they do?"

"They were either too chipper for me to handle or they let their insecurities get the better of them which turned them into snarky assholes."

"Anything in particular you didn't like?"

"Oh. Loads," you say, "but I would rather not get into it. It's done and over with, and I'm perfectly fine with having Angela and Jasper as my only go-to friends."

"If you say so."

"I do. How's the hospital?"

"Oh I love it," your mom suddenly gushes. "I honestly think this might be the place we finally settle down. The only complaint I have about the hospital is that the staff is ridiculously obsessed with Dr. Cullen and his good looks."

You snort. "Seriously? Everyone at school, some teachers included, are freakishly obsessed with Dr. Cullen's adopted children."

Your mom giggles. "Are they pretty too?"

"Very pretty," you sigh. "I'm on pretty decent terms with all of them. Jasper, however, is the only one I tend to seek out if I'm in need of sitting in silence with someone. He's quiet, but he's got a wicked sense of humor when he's comfortable enough to show it."

"Oohh. Do I sense a future boyfriend?"

"Oohh," you tease back, "no." Your mom frowns and you laugh. "Dr. Cullen's children are all seeing each other," you then admit. "Jasper and Rosalie Hale are Mrs. Cullen's niece and nephew, and Edward, Alice, and Emmett were adopted by Dr. Cullen. Jasper and Alice are dating, as are Rosalie and Emmett. Edward's got this weird thing going on with the other new girl Bella."

"Oh. Um that's a bit-"

"Weird? I mean yeah, but they're not actually related so it's legal. I think." You chuckle, shaking your head and tossing a pringle at your mom.

The two of you lapse into silence, you eventually retrieving your polaroid camera from the car to take a few pictures. You both decide to dip your feet into the ocean water, squealing not even a second later when it proves to be too cold. Then when you and your mom have finally had enough of the beach for the day, she starts gathering your trash while you prepare to turn out the fire.

But before you can throw the first batch of sand on it, a voice calls out to stall you. "Wait! If you're done with the fire, do you mind if my fiancée and I use it?"

You turn around to find a rather tall, muscular and tan individual. The woman at his side barely comes up to his shoulders and she smiles timidly, her hair hiding some pretty fresh facial scars. "Not at all." You dump the sand off your shovel, smiling in greeting. "We just put some wood on, so it should still burn for a bit."

The man smiles. "I'm Sam. This is Emily." The woman waves, a wave which you return.

"Y/N. And the crazy lady who has yet to speak up is my mom [enter mom's name here]."

"Hey!" You smirk, glancing over your shoulder as your mom joins you. "I'm not that crazy." She winks as she joins you, introducing herself to Sam and Emily.

"So you guys new to town?" Sam wonders.

"To Forks," she says.

"Yeah. We moved here about two months ago now. But I love the beach, so we decided to make a day of it." Sam and Emily nod in understanding. "But we should be going now. You guys have a fire to enjoy. It was nice meeting you."

"You as well," Emily softly says. "I hope we run into each other again."

"You will," your mom says. "I swear Y/N was a mermaid in another life. She loves the ocean."

"Either that or a wild animal. I'm kind of drawn to the forests around here. It's.. peaceful."

"They can be," Sam says, "but they can also be very dangerous. If you go hiking, go with a friend. A group is better."

"Duly noted, my dude."

"And on that note," your mom says, "we really should be going. Hope you two have a nice night."

"You as well," Sam replies as you and your mom take your leave.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months.

Your friendship with Angela had ended up leading you to being introduced to Bella, and you surprisingly found yourself with someone else you could call a friend. She doesn't tend to gossip or talk about anyone's insecurities, and she somehow manages to pick up on your moods pretty well. So when your mom can't make it to your beach trips, you tend to take Bella and/or Angela.

And on the days you go alone to the beach or your with your mom, Sam and/or Emily manage to find you.

The start of your Senior year is exciting and you're already looking forward to graduation. But not even two months into your Senior year, the Cullen’s decide to move away. You're sad to see Jasper go, but you completely understand and tell him and Alice to send postcards or knick knacks from wherever they make stops at. Healing crystals are your favorite just because they're pretty and you like to line them on your shelves, and Alice promises to send some really pretty ones.

Bella, however, seems to take their absence really hard. No amount of talking to her helps, so you give her some space. And in distancing yourself, you find yourself visiting La Push Beach more and more, and spending time with Emily.

It's there with Emily that you first meet Paul Lahote, Sam's newest friend.

"Hey Em, Paul and I are going to grill some burgers. You need anything from the market?"

"No, honey. I'm good."

"Y/N?"

Looking up from the crackling fire, you say, "Yes, Samuel?" Sam's friend snorts and you turn glittering eyes on him. "Hi. I'm Y/N."

Sam's friend looks right at you, his posture and expression going lax by the second. Your expression falters, even as you do your best to keep up a smile. Sam notices, frowns, and then smothers laughter as he elbows his friend. "Oh. Um, I'm Paul."

"Nice." You look back at Sam, grinning. "Can you bring some hot Cheetos?"

"Sure thing." Paul seems perfectly content looking at you, so Sam has to grasp him by the shoulder. "Let's go, Lahote. If Y/N doesn't get her hot Cheetos soon, she'll get cranky."

You don't deny his statement, only grinning wider and shrugging a shoulder. Paul huffs a laugh, but joins Sam, and you refocus your attention on Emily who's smiling a little too wide. "What?"

"So Paul, huh? Was it just me or did he seem a little too interested?"

You roll your eyes, chuckling. "Do all Quileute boys look like that? Because if so, I'm in trouble."

"I'm surprised you didn't bite his head off for staring."

"It's La Push, Em, I'm telling you," you chuckle. "There's just something about this place that makes me feel at peace. I feel.. connected almost, if that makes any sense."

"It does," she grins knowingly. "Believe me, it does."

Eventually Sam and Paul return to Emily entertaining you with changing the color of the fire by tossing driftwood into it, and they grill up some burgers on a small portable grilling pit. Sam and Emily are side-by-side, laughing as you suck in air between clenched teeth because you ate too many hot cheetos yet again. Nearby, Paul looks torn between laughing or getting you something to drink.

You can't explain it, but you immediately get on with Paul. He's talkative, which normally annoys you, but you find yourself relaxed around him. He's sort of a touchy-feely person, but you don't mind and even relax when he sits next to you and slings an arm around your shoulders when you end up laughing a little too hard at one of your own jokes. You don't see it, but Sam and Emily stare at you and Paul with fond expressions.

The night soon comes to an end and you leave the beach with a few new polaroids to hang on your wall, some of which you having departed with because Emily and Paul wanted them.

Another few weeks pass which leaves you looking forward to Christmas vacation after the shit day you've had at school. Your mom's already been informed of the altercation which took place, and after spending all day in In-School-Suspension since she couldn't leave work to pick you up you're more than ready to go home and nap the rest of the day away.

However, when you get home, you're all too aware of the grumpy mood you're slipping into when you're left alone with your thoughts. You feel mentally drained, you wish you didn't, and all you want to do is get away. So after tossing and turning in the comfort of your bed, you grab your cell phone which was lying next to you and scroll down to Emily's name.

The phone rings a couple of times before she picks up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Em, you busy?"

"Not at all. How are you?"

You gulp. "I've been better. Today was a shit day and I just- I need to get out. You busy this weekend?"

"Nope. What did you have in mind?" She chuckles.

"It sounds pretty juvenile," you say, "but I was wondering if you were interested in a girl's weekend? Starting tonight preferably? Obviously Sam will be there because we'll be at your house, but I much rather deal with you and him than anyone here in Forks."

"That sounds wonderful," she says. "Will your mom be okay with that?"

"Yeah. She understands how I get sometimes and she'll be happy that I'm taking the initiative to put myself in a positive atmosphere rather than sulking over what happened for the next three days."

"That bad, huh?"

"Not necessarily."

"Tell you what. Paul is actually in Forks on a job for Sam. I can call him and have him pick you up if you want to leave the car with your mom."

"That sounds perfect, Em. Thank you. I'll call my mom right now to let her know what the plan is."

"Okay. See you soon."

After hanging up with Emily, you call your mom. You tell her that you need a breather and that Emily's offered to let you spend the weekend with her starting tonight. Your mom agrees to the plan and assures you that she has a ride home after work so she doesn't need you to wait for her to get out or for you to drop the car off.

Your mom ends up keeping you on the phone a little longer than expected to talk about what went down at school, so you've only just hung up with her and made it downstairs to the hall closet to search for a duffel bag when there's a knock on the front door.

Opening the door, you're met with a rather sheepish Paul. "Hey, Lahote. You got here fast."

"Yeah. I was already done with my errand when Em called."

"Oh good. I haven't packed my bag yet, so come on in."

Paul enters your house and you shut the door behind him. "Emily mentioned a girl's weekend starting tonight. Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"Yeah about that," you chuckle nervously as you lead him upstairs, "I'm actually suspended tomorrow and have been instructed to cool off over the weekend."

"Suspended?" Paul snorts. "What the hell did you do?"

"Shoes off at the top step or you wait there," you quickly inform him. "The whole top floor is carpeted and I don't like shoes on the carpet." Paul hesitates, but he kicks off his shoes in the end. "And I might have punched Bella Swan."

Paul barks out a quick laugh as he follows you. "What did Bella Swan ever do to you?"

The whole upstairs level is a loft which your mom gladly let you have and you've fixed it to your liking so you're not hesitant to let anyone see it. You move to your dressers to grab three sets of comfortable clothes to lounge around in, underwear, and then grab a pair of jeans from your closet. "She, uh, she's been hanging out with that Jacob Black kid that keeps going on and on about Sam being in a cult," you say while setting your clothes into the duffel bag.

You walk over to your bathroom, quickly grabbing your toiletries and carrying them out to drop on your bed. "I don't know how she knows we hang out, but she had the goddamn nerve to tell me that I needed to stop hanging out with you because you and Sam were bad news. I laughed it off at first because she's a friend, but she kept pushing and I just- I snapped."

You plop down on your bed and when you look up, you find Paul standing in front of your book shelf which houses only two shelves of books while your healing crystals take up one shelf and geodes of various colors on another. "You really like rocks, don't you?"

You shrug. "They're pretty and most of those are from a friend who just moved away. I don't actually believe they have healing abilities, I just like the aesthetic of it all." Paul picks a couple up, examining them. "I was gonna learn how to make a necklace with some of the smaller ones, but then I got lazy. Maybe I'll learn soon."

As Paul moves on from the crystals to standing in front of the polaroids stuck to your wall, you smile and fix the contents of your bag. "Sam and Emily are in a lot of these," he says while grinning over his shoulder.

"Because I like them. It feels like I've known them for ages rather than a few months." Just as you've pulled the blanket from your bed to fold and take with you, Paul plops down on the edge of the bed. "No, no, don't!" Paul freezes and then his eyes widen, and you sigh. "Don't you dare get comfortable, Lahote."

"Jesus Christ," he groans. "What is your bed made out of?" He scoots up your bed, laying back fully. "If we ever get to that point in our friendship where we have sleepovers, I'm definitely sleeping in your bed."

You snort. "Keep dreaming."

"Oh I will." You're thankful his eyes are closed because his words make you blush.

You quickly get yourself under control, and once you have everything Paul takes your bag while leaving you to take your blanket and pillow. He easily slides his feet back into his sneakers and you follow him downstairs where you put on your own shoes. Then outside, Paul opens the passenger door for you before handing you your bag.

"All set?"

"Yep. All set."

Paul shuts the door, smirking, and you roll your eyes at him as he saunters in front of the truck to get to the driver side door. He chuckles as he settles himself behind the steering wheel and your thoughts the entire way to La Push are centered around how screwed you are if Paul keeps up with the flirty behavior.

Thursday night at Sam and Emily's proved to be exactly what you needed. You had attempted to help her in the kitchen, but she pushed you into the living room to find something on tv. Sam and Paul had left to run some errands, so instead you made yourself comfortable at the kitchen table and kept Emily company while she cooked.

The boys had reappeared with a friend in tow, all shirtless and barefoot. You were introduced to Jared who couldn't stop smirking at you and Paul, and you only had to threaten him once when he made a crass joke directed at you. It almost sounded like a growl had come from Paul, but Emily had distracted you soon after.

When Sam and Emily had found out why you didn't have school on Friday, they seemed rather amused but it was Emily who had lightly scolded you about violence not being the answer. You assured her you knew and that your mom had already gotten on your case about it, and then proceeded to help Emily around the house and do a bit of grocery shopping since it seemed she fed not only Sam, but also Paul and Jared. Then Friday night you and Emily watched movies as the boys ran some more errands, and the two of you barely complained when the boys crashed it.

Saturday morning, you and Emily had been making some breakfast when Paul showed up. He had greeted Emily with a kiss to her cheek and when he turned to you, you raised an eyebrow at him. He had huffed, but gave you a brief side-hug before joining Sam at the table. Then just as you were taking the coffee to the table, a heart stopping howl had ripped through the air. You shuddered, Sam and Paul perked up, and Emily attempted to distract you.

But before she could, Sam spoke up. "There's nothing to be scared of. The wolves don't go anywhere near our homes."

You had startled at the hand Emily laid on your shoulder and then realized you had frozen when you heard the howl. "Oh. I'm not scared." You had set the coffee down and then took a seat. "I actually like wolves. I just never heard one outside of a wolf sanctuary."

Paul choked on his bite of food. "W-Wolf sanctuary? You've been to one of those."

"Yeah." You had started to make yourself a plate when you explained. "When I was younger, I was really obsessed with wolves. Before my dad passed, he would take me every summer to the sanctuary. I visited so much that one wolf in particular remembered me. She would knock me down to greet me and then follow me around for as long as I was there."

Not long after you had shared that memory, Jared rushed in through the back door and Emily made him sit to have breakfast before he whisked Sam and Paul away. Then before Sam had left, he had told you and Emily to dress warm because there was a bonfire with Quileute Elders that he had wanted you to attend later that night. Paul had become apprehensive at that, but your interest had been piqued immediately.

Then later that night after you had dressed warm for the beach, Sam had driven you and Emily. Paul was waiting for you at the beach and you noticed he seemed almost nervous, so when he reached for your hand you let him take it without a word. There were a handful of people on the beach, sitting around a fire, and you smiled and shook hands with everyone Paul introduced you to.

Eventually, Harry Clearwater called for everyone's attention. He spoke of the Quileute legends- of the men long before their time and spirit warriors who chased away threats. Everyone listening was hanging off his every word, and you found yourself enthralled with the tale of the Cold Ones and the Quileutes magically shifting into wolves who hunted the Cold Ones down after one slaughtered half their village. He spun a beautiful tale that you left shivering when a woman sacrificed herself for her husband and something about the somber atmosphere afterward left you feeling off. It was almost as if everyone present believed in the legends.

Harry went on to explain that the Quileute legends were passed down from generation to generation, and that it was of the utmost importance no outsiders hear them. And that- that confused you because you were the very definition of an outsider. Yet it also didn't slip your mind that everyone you had met welcomed you with warm smiles.

Back at Sam and Emily's, Emily has instructed you, Sam, and Paul to take a seat at the table while she whisks up some hot chocolate.

But your earlier thoughts are still sticking with you. "Not that I don't appreciate being invited out tonight, but why was I?" You hesitantly ask. "I'm clearly not of Quileute blood."

Paul's gaze immediately darts to Sam. He and Paul share a look, the elder man nodding. Paul promptly stands and heads out the back door, and you frown as you watch him go. "Special circumstances made it so that we were able to bring in you in on the secret."

"Secret?" You wonder. "Your legends are really that secretive?"

"They have to be," Emily carefully explains as she makes her way back to the table, hot chocolate forgotten. "If not, the wolves would be hunted down."

"The wolves?" You quirk an eyebrow, grinning, but your amusement falters when a howl pierces the air. You gulp and your eyes immediately dart to the back door. "That was a coincidence."

Another howl echoes back. "Should someone go get Paul? That sounded awfully close."

Emily smiles sadly and you find yourself climbing to your feet to follow after her. Sam follows behind and you can't help the sharp inhale when a large gray wolf stands in their backyard. "That's no normal wolf," you mutter, shocked at the sheer size of it.

The wolf seems antsy, whining as it shifts it's weight from front paw to front paw. You can't take your eyes off it, nor it you, and you find your chest aching with how hard and fast your heart is pumping.

"The wolves protect our lands from the Cold Ones. Vampires," Sam says and you flinch, startled. "The Quileute legends were just that- legends that we were told growing up. But then a coven of Cold Ones settled in Forks and their proximity started to trigger our shapeshifting abilities."

"O-Our?"

Sam smiles sadly before walking off the porch and towards the gray wolf. Your eyes widen and you reach out for him, but Emily pulls you back. "It's okay," she tells you. "Watch."

From one moment to the next, Sam bursts out of his clothes and in his place is an even larger black wolf. You choke back a sob, your mind trying to wrap around what it is you're seeing. Emily tucks you under one of her arms, but you hold yourself tense. "I- I don't- what?"

"They're our protectors."

"But- but how?" You shakily point at Sam, then towards the gray wolf. "And who?"

Emily squeezes you a little closer. "I think you know who, sweetheart."

The gray wolf whines and takes a step closer, but the black wolf lowly growls at him. Your mind is going a mile minute and part of you is wanting to go searching for Paul. But surely if Paul had heard the howl, he'd have come back or called or something. And then it clicks. "Paul?" the wolf whines louder and lowers itself to its belly. You exhale harshly, breath stuttering as you try not to freak out. "I- I need-"

"Shh," Emily shushes you. "Let's get you back inside and-"

"Home. I need to go home," you say as you start walking backwards. The gray wolf whines louder, standing up and running towards the woods. The black wolf watches him go before looking back at you and Emily, huffing once before sprinting after the wolf himself.

"Come on, Y/N. I'll get you home."

You collect your belongings in a daze, meeting Emily by the kitchen. She smiles sadly at you, a smile which you return, and you follow after her to Sam's truck. Just as you've set your bag and blanket down, and are about to hop into the truck, a heart shattering howl rips through the air. You freeze and turn towards the woods, your heart aching at the sorrowful howl.

The drive is silent with the exception of the static-filled airwaves and all too soon Emily is parking outside your house. Your house is empty with your mom being at work, so you're in no rush to get out and Emily is in no rush to kick you out.

The seconds seem to drag on until eventually you ask the question that's been nagging you since Sam let the wolf out of the bag. "Why me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why me, Em?" You sigh and turn in your seat to stare at the woman. "What were the special circumstances that Sam deemed it appropriate for me to know all this?"

She fidgets in her seat. "This is something you should be really talking to Paul about, Y/N."

"But I'm asking you. I don't- I need time. But I also need to know why you guys let an outsider in when it's clear outsiders aren't welcome."

You stare at Emily long enough that she finally caves. "The wolves have something that they call Imprints. Long story short, imprints are the wolves' soulmates. They live, they breathe, and they'll do anything for this one person."

"Okay..?"

"I am Sam's imprint," she breathes out a little too quickly, "and you-"

"And me?" You ask when she trails off. She looks at you, almost as if pleading with her eyes to not make her say it. Your chest aches with realization. "And I'm whose? Paul's?" At her hesitant nod it's like all the air is sucked from your lungs. Your eyes tear up and a noise that's a mixture between a laugh and sob escapes you. Emily continues to stare and you shake your head, sniffling. "I think I should go."

"Y/N."

"Please don't," you mutter. "This is a lot to take in and I just need-"

"Time," Emily finishes. "I understand."

As you grab your blanket and pillow a little tighter in one arm, you grab the strap of your duffel bag with the other. Getting out, you then stand by the opened door. "I'll talk to you soon, Em. I will," you assure her. "I just need to sleep on it."

Just as you're getting ready to shut the door, Emily stops you. "I know it's a lot to take in. Believe me, I know," she huffs a laugh. "And when you come back around, remind me to tell you all about how Sam and I first started out."

"Do you- would you mind telling me now?" You meekly ask. "My mom will still be gone for a few more hours and in all honesty I would rather learn of everything from a fellow imprint."

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then. I'll just call and leave a message for Sam."

Shapeshifting wolves, Imprints, and Cold Ones. It's a lot to take in, especially learning just who the Forks coven was, but a lot easier to digest coming from Emily. Hers and Sam's story was heartbreaking, but watching the love and affection she held for him eased your mind and heart some.

You had Sunday all to yourself, not doing anything at all but lounging in bed and watching the cheesiest rom-coms you could find on tv. Your mom had lured you downstairs with some meatloaf and gravy, and then you had proceeded to shower and get in bed early for school the next morning.

Monday morning had a good morning text and an apology from Paul, and you did your best to pay attention in school. People were still talking about how Bella got her black eye, but they were let down when you and Bella ran into one another and all you did was nod before moving on. She was still in a slump since the Cullen's departure and it took everything in you to keep from telling her you knew about the Cold Ones. But you figured in doing so, she'd want to know how you found out and you couldn't tell her about the wolves. So you kept quiet and tried to figure out exactly what you were going to do about Paul.

Emily had explained that the relationship between a wolf and his imprint wasn't necessarily romantic, but more often than not that's how it usually played out. She tried her best to not persuade you into anything, so you assured her she had nothing to worry about. Things between you and Paul weren't exactly normal, but you were comfortable enough with whatever you and him had going on.

Then by Monday night the loneliness started to kick in and you couldn't hold back for much longer. So Tuesday morning, after dropping your mom off at work, you decide to skip school and head down to La Push.

It's not long before you're parking in front of Emily's house. You've only walked up the steps when the screen door opens and Paul steps out. His expression is stoic, hands tucked into the front pockets of his jean shorts.

"Can we- can we go for a walk?" You ask. Paul nods and you turn to head back down the steps. He follows after you and you cross your arms over your chest as the two of you walk down the road. "So wolves," you drawl. "And imprints."

Paul huffs, smothering his amusement. "Yep. Emily told us she told you everything."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I just figured it'd be easier to hear from her rather than anyone else." You kick a stray rock, sighing.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Hmm? Oh. No. I just wanted to see you."

Paul stops and you continue a few steps more before turning around to face him. When you meet his gaze, you roll your eyes at his smug expression. "So you're not going to freak out?"

"That's what Sunday was for," you tell him. "And then I moped around a bit on Monday and caved this morning."

"So what are-"

"We?" You finish for him. He nods. "I'm not sure. I was just hoping we would take it day by day. If something happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. So what do you say?" You ask, holding a hand out for him.

He glances at your hand, grinning. "Sure. Why not." Taking up your hand, you and Paul then head back towards Emily's.

Christmas came and went, you spending the day with your mom since she had the day off. Then New Years came and you spent the day on the Rez since your mom had to work. You learn about the pack dynamics since more wolves had started to phase and then raised the question about why they were phasing if the Cullen coven had moved away. It was Paul who reluctantly admitted that they didn't know why.

Then Jacob Black joined the pack and Bella fell back down the slippery slope into a state of depression. But something about this time around seemed different and you just knew it was going to be bad. And sure enough you were right. Mostly.

You're finishing up an English essay when the doorbell rings. You ignore it since your mom is downstairs, grinning when you hear her greet Paul. She had met him on Christmas Eve and if you hadn't called dibs, you were pretty sure she would have jokingly tried. Your mom stalls Paul for just a little while and then you hear him climbing the stairs just as you cross your last t's and dot your last i's.

"Hey there, smarty pants."

You smile and close your binder, capping your pen and turning in your seat. "Hey, wolf boy. Done with patrol?"

"Yeah. Sam gave me the night to cool off."

"Cool off?" Paul sheepishly pads barefoot over to your bed, falling in and scooting towards the wall. You get up, clicking off your desk lamp and plugging in the fairy lights above your bed. "What did you do?" You ask, falling into bed right next to him.

"Black got around Sam's gag order and that leech lover of his found out about us."

"Leech lov- Bella? Bella knows about the Quileutes?" You ask, eyes wide and voice lowered.

"Yep." You finally settle down, head pillowed on his outstretched arm while you drape an arm across his abdomen. "Bella punched me and-"

"She punched you?!"

"Yes." He chuckles at your outrage. "And I shifted in front of her. Jacob and I got into a fight, and Bella was let in on everything. Turns out that redheaded leech is after her because her leech killed her mate and now she wants to return the favor."

"Jesus Christ," you groan. "Bella's a magnet for them."

"Yeah. So until we get a handle on the situation, please be careful. Don't do any unnecessary wandering in the woods and definitely don't go anywhere with Bella fuckin' Swan."

You snuggle deeper into him, snorting. "Aye, aye, captain. You staying the night?"

"Yeah. Your mom wants the car in the morning because she has to pick up a friend. I'm taking you to school and picking you up."

"Sounds good."

And within minutes, with Paul idly tracing patterns on your back, you're fast asleep.

Waking up the following morning, however, is a lot harder when Paul's cuddling you. You have to drag yourself out from under his arm and then grumble unflattering words at him as he snuggles down with your pillow while you get ready for school.

There's coffee waiting for you downstairs courtesy of your mom and a note of thanks from her to Paul for not defiling you under her roof while she was sleeping downstairs. Paul's cheeks turn red and you giggled the entire drive to school.

The staring reminds you of your first day of school, but this time it's because of Paul. You roll your eyes at the females who seem a little too interested and scoff at Mike and Tyler who frown as you pass by. One stare in particular, however, catches your attention.

"You can let me out here," you say. "I wanna talk to Bella real quick."

"About?"

"Girl stuff." You grin at Paul, quickly rattling off the time you get out of school. Then when you hop out, you make your way towards Bella who's standing by her red monstrosity of a truck. "So I hear you learned about the boys on the Rez."

She blinks owlishly before jerking her head in a nod. "Yeah. You knew?"

"Yep. Since before Christmas."

She frowns. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Excuse me?" The nerve of this girl really grates on your nerves and your hand tightens its grip on the strap of your backpack. "Because it wasn't any of your business." She opens her mouth to no doubt explain her right in knowing, but she wisely shuts her mouth right away when she notices your white knuckled grip. "A word of advice, Bells, you touch Paul again and I'll blacken your other eye. Are we clear?"

Her eyes widen and when you quirk an eyebrow at her, she gulps and quickly nods. "Y-Yeah. Crystal."

"Good. Now let's get to class."

When you turn around, your curse under your breath when you realize Paul is still sitting there in his truck. He's smirking right at you and you just know he's heard what you told Bella. So after quickly flipping him off and grinning when you hear Bella snort in amusement, you and your sometimes friend head towards the school buildings.

You do your best to tune out those who would call themselves your friend, ignoring the questions about your mysterious morning companion. Bella, when around, had smirked through it all and only shrugged when the questions were then directed at her, she only telling them he was a guy from La Push.

Then when school lets out, you and Angela are walking side by side. She's going on about an upcoming article she's going to write when Paul catches your attention, he leaning on the tailgate of his truck. But when he catches sight of you, he pushes off and stalks towards you. You grin, Angela trails off when she realizes you're no longer paying her any attention, and Paul smirks just as he comes toe to toe with you.

"What are you doing, Lah-" Hands cup your jaw and feverish lips press against yours. You gasp before your eyes flutter shut, your hands grasping the front of his shirt as you lean up on the tips of your toes to press back against him. Angela giggles from beside you and you only pull back when a whistle pierces the air. You fall back so you're flat on your feet, gulping before licking your bottom lip. "So, uh, so we're doing that now, are we?"

"You started it when you threatened to blacken Swan's eye."

Angela snorts as you purse your lips to keep from laughing. "Whatever. Paul, this is Angela. Ang, this Paul. My.. Paul."

"Smooth," he chuckles, then glances at Angela and nods in greeting. "Hi. It's nice to meet one of Y/N's friends. She doesn't like to introduce me to any of them."

You punch his shoulder. "Not true. Most of my friends are your friends. Angela is the only one outside of La Push that I consider a friend and this is the first time you've literally come here. Don't be a dick."

Paul merely grins down at you, bringing you to his side and turning you so his arm drapes along the back of your shoulders. Angela smiles. "You two are adorable. No wonder none of the boys here caught your attention."

You roll your eyes, biting back a smile. "Yeah, yeah. This idiot had me hooked early on. No one in Forks even stood a chance."

"And on that note," Paul muses, far too smug, "we really should get going."

After telling your friend you'd see her tomorrow, you follow Paul to his truck where he proceeds to open the door for you. Then once he's settled behind the wheel and starts to carefully drive out of the school parking lot, he holds his right hand out in between you and you barely glance at it before grasping his hand with your own left. "So we're really doing this? No going back?"

He grins. "No going back."

[awxward]

Potential

gen // 3.7k words

I had the idea of Juza hugging Kumon and his mom, crying bc he was finally able to audition/get accepted into theatre, and then I wrote this.

read on a03

gift for @xxxbookaholic

Juza had told his mother and brother about his dreams of being an actor a lot. They supported him through it all. He went to auditions for the school plays and was turned down immediately. In his first year of middle school, he stopped going to auditions. What was the point if he was only going to be turned away in the end? Juza had long since given up hope on his dream, yet now, just a few years after he had given up he got to see his cousin on stage. Muku who had always been anxious and shy was standing boldly on stage and being a new person. Juza wished he could do that. To stand on stage and be someone that people would be afraid of or start fights with. He wanted a place to escape. After the play had ended, Juza got up to leave, he didn’t want to embarrass Muku by showing his face backstage, besides Mom was back home with Kumon who was sick with a fever and could probably use some help around the house. A small flyer caught his attention. He wasn’t sure why he grabbed it, he just knew he had to keep it away from his family. He had long since given up on his dream to stand on stage, he hadn’t auditioned in years, he hadn’t been to a theatre in years before tonight, and still, he found himself folding the paper into a small square and shoving it in his pocket.

Mankai Company is looking for actors for the new Autumn Troupe. Auditions are going to be held tomorrow, August 28, at 9 am in the Mankai Theatre.

When Juza got home he kept the paper in his pocket so it wouldn’t be found and put his jacket on his bed. All auditions ended the same for him. He knew he’d be turned away at the door. If he didn’t tell mom or Kumon, well it’d just keep them from feeling sad for him. He went to check on Kumon who was sleeping, and made his way back to his room to get ready for bed. He fell asleep to thoughts of standing on stage.

The next morning, Juza got ready quicker than normal. He didn’t want to be late to the auditions. Better to be early so nobody else could see him get turned away as soon as he walked in. He checked his jacket pocket and sighed in relief, the paper was still there so nobody knew. He checked on Kumon, who was still sleeping and feverish, before hugging his mother and telling her he’d be back a little bit later.

Juza would have been on time had it not been for the punk Banri following him and trying to pick fights with him every other minute. Now, because he had to spend so long trying to ditch Banri, he was late and would have to deal with the embarrassment of everybody seeing him turned away at the door.

He looked at the theatre sign. Maybe he could just walk away now and forget about all of this.

“Excuse me, are you here for the Autumn Troupe auditions?”

Juza turned around, very surprised at the sudden voice next to him. It was a shorter man with glasses and a really bad sense of style.

“Don’t be shy, come on in!”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Isuke Matsukawa, the manager at Mankai. The director is inside with the Summer Troupe and a couple others who just walked in. Would you like me to show you to the stage where the auditions are going to be?”

Juza was confused. This short man, Matsukawa, was offering to show him to the stage for auditions? Was he really not going to be turned away? Would he actually have a chance? For the first time since he saw the paper, he wished he had mentioned it to his mom and brother. They’d be so happy he’d get to actually audition.

“Thank you. That would be nice, sir.”

“You can drop the sir part, it makes me feel old. Anyway, follow me!”

Matsukawa led Juza into the theatre where he had been the night before, watching Muku shine on stage. Today he saw the summer troupe in casual clothes and two boys who were chatting with everybody there. In the middle of the group was the odd one, the only girl. She had long brown hair that went down to her waist and Juza thought her eyes looked like they were the same color as caramel.

“That’s Izumi Tachibana, the director. She’s doing the auditions today!”

Juza suddenly felt his heart drop. Girls tended to avoid him or run away from him and if she was doing the auditions, she probably wouldn’t take him seriously, if she even let him up on stage at all.

“Director” Matsukawa called out and Izumi looked up and smiled. “I found someone interested in auditioning!”

He led Juza down to the group, and suddenly he was standing next to Muku.

“Ju-”

Juza slightly shook his head. He didn’t want them to think any less of Muku because they were related. It’d be best if Muku didn’t talk to him casually.

“What’s your name?” Izumi asked as Matsukawa made his way outside.

“Juza Hyodo.”

“Hi, Juza, I’m Izumi Tachibana, the director of Mankai Company. The summer troupe is here helping with auditions!”

“I’m Muku Sakisaka.”

“Kazunari Miyoshi, my dude! Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Yuki Rurikawa. Yes, I wear dresses and yes, I am a boy. Hack, just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean you happen to be exempt from introductions!”

“I know that! And I’m not a hack! Tenma Sumeragi, Summer Troupe leader.”

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiii! I’m Misumi! Do you like tri-tri-triangles?”

This was a weird bunch of people. “Nice to meet you all and triangles are cool I guess?”

The purple haired one, Misumi smiled at him and shoved something in his hands. “Here’s a Mr. Triangle for you! He’ll give you good luck!”

“Misumi.” Izumi called out. “We’ve talked about this. You have to ask if it’s okay to give them a Mr. Triangle.”

“Because people may not like it being shoved at them and I need to wait for an answer?”

“Exactly! I’m glad you remember it, but you should apologize and ask if he wants to still hold it, okay?”

“Okaaaaaay.” Misumi turned away from Izumi back to him. “Sorry for shoving a Mr. Triangle at you. I should have asked if you wanted to hold him before giving him to you, because it’s rude to randomly shove things at people and I should have waited so you could answer. Do you still want to hold Mr. Triangle?”

Juza smiled at him. “If it’s okay with you, I’ll hold him. Thank you.”

Misumi smiled. “Yay! Juza likes the Mr. Triangle!”

“Alright boys, if you’re auditioning I want you to line up in front of the stage! Summer Troupe, you can sit down along the first row if you want.”

Juza made his way to the stage next to two others. A man with brown hair and a scar on his chin and a boy with red hair. They both smiled at him and he smiled back.

“I found another one interested!” Matsukawa burst in and Juza felt his heart drop as he stared at the face who was beside him, Banri Settsu.

“I didn’t say I was interested, asshat! I was looking for someone to fight!”

“What are you doing here?”

Banri noticed Juza standing there. “That’s my line, asshole.” He took a step forward and Juza followed suit. Red hair looked like he was trying to solve a puzzle. Brown hair had a look on his face that Juza couldn’t read.

“Well, this isn’t very peaceful.” Brown hair spoke up.

Suddenly Red hair’s face lit up. “I know you, Juza! You go to my school!”

Banri shot off another insult and Juza fired one back. They kept this going until a voice cut through.

“Will the both of you stop with the shouting! If you don’t wanna be here then leave. The only fights that should happen in theatre are stage fights!”

Juza and Banri both froze to see a blonde man standing in the doorway with a very serious look on his face. Juza stepped back beside red hair. Banri stood on his other side. Izumi’s face lit up. Juza noticed Muku looked scared. If he learned that the blonde man had somehow hurt Muku, he would fight him right here.

“Thank you for coming! I didn’t think you’d make it!”

“Wait, Sakyo was the other person you scouted for Autumn?”

Juza filed this information away. If Muku knew the man’s name was Sakyo and looked scared of him, something might have happened and Juza was ready to throw punches if he learned of any incidents.

“It’s the Yakuza.” Green hair said, Juza thought they said their name was Yuki, but he couldn’t remember.

And then his full line hit Juza as red hair spoke up. “Y-yakuza?”

“Now, now, looks can be deceiving.” Izumi spoke up. “Sakyo has watched over the theatre for years. He knows and loves this company more than anybody else here. I think he’s a necessary asset to us.”

“So he’s not just a scary debt collector?” Tenma asked.

“Can we stop with the idle talking and get on to acting? I have other things to do today.” Sakyo spoke up.

Izumi nodded and gestured for him to join the line and then passed lines to everybody. “When you boys go up on stage I want you to introduce yourself and tell us your experience with acting, then recite the lines I gave you.”

Brown hair went up first. “My name is Omi Fushimi, I’m a uni student at Yosei University, and I’m in the photography club. I’ve never acted before.”

Juza thought Omi did well. His voice was loud and clear, even if he didn’t know how to move. He finished and Izumi gestured for him to join Summer Troupe in the front row.

Red hair walked up. “My name is Taichi Nanao, and I’m a second year at O High! I’m a total newbie to this as well!”

For being a total newbie, Taichi did amazing. His voice was loud and clear, and his actions were a bit clumsy, but you could tell what he wanted to show.

Izumi pointed at Banri and he went up. “Banri Settsu, Hana High third year. Never been on a stage before.”

Juza hated to admit it, but Banri was good. He had good timing for pausing and expressed his emotions clearly, his voice was loud and clear. He was even better than Taichi had been.

“Are you sure you’ve never been on stage before?”

“Yeah, but it ain’t no problem for me.”

“Alright. Can you come join the others on the front row? Juza, you’re next.”

Juza was terrified. “I’m Juza Hyodo, a third year at O High. I’ve never acted before.”

He went through his lines and when he was done he looked into the audience seats. Summer Troupe looked intrigued, Omi had a sad smile on his face, and Taichi gave him a thumbs up. Banri started laughing.

“You are the worst, Hyodo, I swear-”

“Banri, if you are going to bully Juza or anybody else you will not be allowed to join this company do you understand.” Izumi had a steely look on her face and Juza imagined that if she got really angry she’d be scarier than the Sakyo guy.

“I want to join the theatre, please.” Juza ignored Banri and bowed as low as he possibly could.

“Stand up, Juza. You can join.” Izumi smiled softly at him.

“Really?”

“Of course. Go sit in the front row.’

“How do you plan to improve Hyodo’s acting?”

“Izumi makes training regimens for each actor so they can work on the things they struggle with! They’re really fun and the others are always happy to join you if you want them too! They helped me be less anxious!” Muku spoke up. Summer troupe nodded.

“Yeah, Sakuya, the Spring Troupe leader, said that she’ll adjust the regimens as needed!” Tenma added on. “She does her research and thinks about what would be best for each actor to develop and grow, both on and off stage!”

“So he’s really going to join?” Banri seemed like he was trying to convince himself it was a joke.

“It’s better to have someone with little talent and lots of passion than someone with some talent and no passion. If you don’t like it, you can leave, the door is back there, boy.”

“What’d you just say to me, you old man?”

“Alright, both of you, stop it. Juza is joining and that’s final. Juza, you can come find a seat down here.”

Juza sat beside Misumi and pulled the Mr. Triangle out of his pocket. “Do you want your triangle back?”

Misumi smiled at him. “You can keep him! He’s going to bring you good luck!”

Juza smiled at him. “Thank you, Misumi.”

Sakyo walked on stage. “I’m Sakyo Furuichi. I work with the Ginsenkai Family. I acted as a kid, but I haven’t been on stage since.”

Though he said he hadn’t been on stage since he was young, Juza could tell he remembered the basics. His voice was clear and smooth, and his actions were clumsy like Taichi’s but he was able to cover up some of the clumsiness by changing his actions.

“Welcome, boys, to the Mankai Company Autumn Troupe! Now, for some smaller details now that you’ve joined. Mankai company has dorms that are available if you want to stay there. If you are a minor, I will need to call and talk to your parents to get their permission. If you don’t want to stay in the dorms, or you are unable to, you can still travel between the theatre and your house.”

The other four boys volunteered to stay in the dorms and after some phone calls Banri and Taichi were allowed to join Omi and Sakyo in the dorms.

Izumi turned to Juza. “Would you like to stay in the dorms? Moving day is next Saturday.”

“Can I talk to my family first and talk to you about it later?”

Izumi smiled. “Of course. Sakuya from Spring Troupe is usually here practicing, but the others come in often as well, so stop by here and someone can lead you to the dorms to talk to me, okay.”

Juza nodded. The boys all went their separate ways.

Juza felt like he was in a dream his entire walk home. For the first time in his life, he was able to audition and he got accepted in, even though he was so bad compared to everyone else. He opened the door. “I’m home.”

“Welcome back, Juza!” His mom poked her head around the corner. “Juza, baby, what’s wrong?”

“Huh?”

“His mom wiped her thumb across his face. “You’re crying. Did something happen? Are you hurt?”

“I- actually, is Kumon awake?”

“Yeah, his fever went down a bit. He’s been waiting for you. Let me check you for injuries.”

“Mom, I’m not injured, I swear, but I need to talk to you and Kumon together, so I’ll bring him to the couch, okay.”

“If you insist you aren’t hurt, I’ll believe you, but if you are lying to me, you’ll be in trouble.”

“Understood.” Juza smiled and made his way to Kumon’s room. He knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

“Hey, Kumon. Are you feeling better?”

Kumon beamed at him. “Yep! My fever went down a bit! Are you crying? Is everything okay? Did you get hurt? Does mom know?”

“Kumon, I’m not hurt.”

“Pinky promise?” Kumon held up a hand, pinky extended.

Juza linked their hands, “Pinky promise.” Kumon smiled. “Good.”

“I do need to talk to you and mom together. Are you feeling well enough to go to the couch?”

Kumon nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

Juza stayed by his side as they made their way down the hall to the living room. Kumon sat on the couch and tried to catch his breath. Their mom walked in and handed Kumon a glass of water before sitting down next to him. Juza sat across from them on the other couch.

“I didn’t tell you where I was going today.”

“Yes, you did leave that detail out when you left.”

“I found a flyer last night. For auditions for a theatre troupe.”

Kumon looked up with wide eyes and his mom smiled at him gently. “Is that why you were crying? Did you get turned away again?”

“No, they let me audition.”

His mom and Kumon froze for a moment before smiling like crazy.

“What happened, Juza?” Kumon was vibrating in his spot.

“I got accepted into the theatre company.” Juza was aware that tears were falling down his face again, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care as his brother and mother ran over to hug him.

“Which theatre company did you join?”

“Mankai Company.”

“I’ve heard of them somewhere.”

“Auntie and Uncle mentioned them. It’s Muku’s theatre troupe.”

“You’ll be acting with Muku!”

“No, Mankai is split into four sub-troupes based on the seasons. Muku is in the Summer Troupe. I am in the Autumn Troupe.”

“That’s amazing!”

“There’s more. They have dorms. The director wanted to know if I’d be interested in staying there. Moving day is next Saturday, and she’ll need your permission to allow me to stay there.”

His mom smiled at him. “Do you want to stay in the dorms?”

“I do. There are other actors there I can learn from and I want to stay close so I can get along with my troupe mates.”

“Then I give my permission.”

“I’ll visit often, I promise.”

“Juza, what’s in your pocket?”

Juza pulled out the Mr. Triangle. “When I first walked into the theatre one of the Summer Troupe boys, Misumi, shoved it in my hands. He said it was a Mr. Triangle for good luck. He also told me I could keep it.”

“That was very kind of him.”

“It must really have good luck in it! You get it and then you can audition for the first time and you get accepted into the same troupe as Muku!

Juza smiled. “I think you’re right, Kumon.”

“When can I talk to the director about you staying in the dorms?”

“She said that tomorrow there’ll be guys in the theatre who can take us to the dorms to talk to her.”

“I wanna go too.”

“If your fever is still there, you’ll be staying in bed. If it’s gone, you have baseball practice.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Don’t worry Kumon. I’m sure you can stop by to visit the dorm sometime.”

“Okay.”

The next morning Juza wove through the streets with his mother until they were in front of the theatre. Juza opened the door.

“Citron, I don’t think that prop can be used as a sword1” A pink-haired boy was frantically trying to take a prop away from a man in a foreign looking outfit, who was laughing as he swung the prop around. The pink-haired boy looked up. “Oh, hello! I’m Sakuya, leader of the Spring Troupe! Can I help you?”

“I’m Juza Hyodo, this is my mom. I auditioned yesterday and needed to talk to my family about the dorms. I was told I could come here and someone would be able to bring me to the Director?”

“Nice to meet you, Juza! Nice to meet you, ma’am!” Sakuya smiled and jumped off the stage, the other one (Citron?) following close behind. “Just follow us!”

“Hi! I’m Citron!”

“Hello. Thank you.”

Sakuya and Citron led Juza and his mom down the road until they were in front of a large dorm building. Misumi was laying on the ground with a boy Juza didn’t recognize from auditions. Kazunari and Yuki saw Juza and made their way over.

“Hey! It’s Hyodle! What’s up, my dude? You here to talk to the director?” Kazunari was bouncing with energy.

“Hyodle?”

“Sorry, Friendly McExtrovert here gives everybody nicknames like that. I’m Yuki, in case you didn’t remember my name. There were a lot of names to remember yesterday.”

“We needed to talk to the director. Sakuya and Citron brought us here.” Juza looked around and realized the two had disappeared.

“They probably went back to the theatre. If they brought you here then they probably went back to clean up and lock up the theatre. They’ll be back soon.” Yuki turned and waved for them to follow.

Inside was chaotic. Several boys were running around. A couple of boys were arguing in the corner about something. Izumi stepped out from the hallway and all the boys froze.

“Please keep it down, I’m on the phone with Sakuya. He did well on his history test so he gets to choose what dinner is tonight.” She looked up and smiled at Juza and his mom. “I’ll be with you two in a moment, please, have a seat.”

Several boys finally noticed Juza and his mom standing awkwardly off to the side. Izumi stepped back into the room. “Would you two like to talk in the courtyard outside? Or maybe the kitchen?”

“The kitchen would be fine, dear.”

Juza and his mom followed Izumi back.

“Your name is Juza Hyodo, right?”

Juza nodded.

“Great! I wanted to make sure I remembered it properly.” She sent a smile to him and directed her attention to the side. “Are you his parent?”

“Yes, I’m his mother.”

“I’m assuming you’re here to talk with me about whatever decision you’ve made regarding the dorms.”

“You would be correct, dear. I wanted to let you know I’m giving permission for him to stay here.”

“That’s great! Saturday is move in day and we’ll decide roommates then too! Do either of you have questions about anything?”

“I have a few for you, dear.”

“Okay, ma’am. Juza, if you don’t have any questions you are more than welcome to go introduce yourself to the spring and summer troupes and explore the building.”

Juza nodded and got up.

This would be the start of a new Juza Hyodo.

[fallingstarnovel]

Chapter Three

That Monday, when he got to the lecture hall, he glared at Aliya for the entire time. She was visibly avoiding his gaze, tugging down her hair so she wouldn't make eye contact with him.

After it ended, he quickly walked over to her, coughing loudly from behind his fist.

"So. Judas comes to face his crimes."

Aliya turned and gave him a pitying look. "I'm really sorry! I completely forgot I had a revision session in the morning and I had to prepare for it. I felt so guilty."

Evan glared at her for another second – before rolling his eyes with a smile. He was a benevolent kind of person when he wanted to be. "It's fine."

"You sounded like you had a good time," Aliya teased him. “Your texts were indecipherable.”

"Uh. I think I did." He pulled a face as he failed to remember literally anything about how he got home. "It’s all kind of a blur. There was this girl..."

Aliya's eyes went wide. "There was?"

"Ah, shut up, she just said a bunch of stuff at me and then... Hm. I don't remember much after that, but clearly nothing weird happened since I got home safe and fully dressed."

Aliya tutted. "This is why I don't drink. Sounds kind of scary."

Evan opened his mouth to say something like "you get used to it", but then he remembered that he was trying to be normal and closed his mouth again. "Yeah. Haha, a little. I'm not sure you would have enjoyed the party. It was loud and everyone was off their faces."

"Maybe. I'm glad you were okay, though. And you got home safe."

Evan smiled. By now, they were long outside the lecture hall and were walking through campus. Students were rushing from building to building, or walking in groups and chattering away together. So many people who were meant to be here. They all looked like they were right at home.

There was a flash of black in the corner of his vision. Evan turned his head automatically, only to see the black cat from a few days ago sprawled across a wall. It was staring at him with green eyes, unblinking and imperious.

"Oh, it's the university cat," he said to Aliya. "Look."

"Aww. I'm more of a dog person," she said bluntly.

The cat's eyes narrowed in disgust.

Evan was about to go over and pet it when he heard someone say his name over his shoulder. He looked behind him, only to see a boy with curly blond hair and an angelic smile. He was looking at the cat with a strangely intense gaz, before snapping back to smile at Evan.

"Ruth!" he said. "Hey!"

Ruth waved. "Hello again. You look like you've recovered from Friday night."

Wait. Wait a minute... Evan squinted at him, before feeling his face flush red. Was Ruth there as well?! He didn’t remember seeing him at all!! He laughed awkwardly. "I am. So sorry. I don't remember a lot. I was... very drunk."

Ruth nodded. "I was. I thought you might have difficulty remembering."

Aliya's eyebrows inched up her forehead, right into her hijab. Evan realised that he had been quite rude, and quickly introduced her. "This is my terrible friend from Astro. She invited me to the party and then left me to die."

"I'm Aliya," she said, elbowing him in the stomach subtly.

Ruth gave her a polite nod, before turning his attention back to Evan. "I hope you don't mind that I let myself into your house. You seemed very worried that I was going to harvest your organs."

"You were the one who took me home?!” Evan yelped, feeling the blood rush all the way to the tips of his ears. “Oh, haha, what? Haha, so weird," Evan said, feeling himself dying of mortification again. "Thank you so much. I don't mind at all. That was really nice of you. Usually I just stumble home by myself, you know? God, sorry, I must have been so annoying to handle."

Ruth shook his head, his hair tumbling around his ears. "You weren't annoying at all. You were very sweet, like a well behaved child."

Evan wanted the ground to swallow him whole. "Haha, that's good. Still, I'm so sorry. Thank you. Augh."

How was he so bad at this?

An idea occurred to him. He quickly started rummaging in his pockets. "Wait, wait, I think I owe you a coffee for saving my life twice now. I don't have a lecture for a while, so..."

Ruth looked at him in surprise. There was a yawning moment of silence in which Evan questioned everything that made him ask that question and wondered if it was too late to change his name and move to Mexico.

But then Ruth smiled. "I think I owe you one instead. You spilled yours last time."

"In that case, I'll pay for yours and you pay for mine, and we can call that even," Evan laughed, feeling relief flood through him.

There was a polite cough from behind him. "Well, I have a study group to get to, so," Aliya said, shooting Evan a knowing smile. "I'll let you two go have fun. See you, Evan."

Evan felt a little bit guilty at accidentally muscling Aliya out of the conversation. He waved her goodbye and turned back to Ruth, and all his guilt was forgotten. Ruth's smile was blinding. There were two little dimples in his cheeks. Wow, he didn’t know anyone in real life with dimples.

"Let's go," he said, inclining his head in the direction of the coffee shop, and off they went.

Evan watched Ruth over his coffee while trying to look like he was doing no such thing.

Ruth was fascinating. He had a very handsome face, with eyes that could have been carved into one of those old statues they kept in the museums of Rome. His movements were all graceful and deliberate, from the way he stirred his coffee to the way he unwrapped his blue scarf from around his neck.

He was also tall. Evan wasn't short – okay, he was kind of short – but Ruth made him feel like a god damn manlet.

"So," he said, because he felt the need to fill the silence with something, "what course are you on?"

"Actually, I'm a part time student."

"Eh, no way. I didn't know you could do an undergrad part time!"

Ruth smiled and shrugged. "I have a job on the side. It takes up a lot of my time. I suppose the university understood I had other commitments."

Evan blinked. "Wow. Must be an intense job."

"You have no idea," Ruth said, something steely glinting in his grey eyes. "But it's rewarding."

"Is it why you skip so many lectures?"

Ruth nodded. Evan couldn't hold back his curiosity.

"Then what is it?"

Supermodel? Secret agent? Government official? What was important enough that the university would let him mess around with the schedule like this?

Ruth just winked at him, and Evan immediately upgraded all his guesses. Eldest son of a mob boss. Heir to the CEO of a huge corporation. A superhero in disguise as a student.

"That's fine. I didn't want to know anyway," Evan lied. "I bet it's something boring like business management."

Ruth ran his finger along his cup, his eyes flickering down to the table. "In a way, I suppose you're not far off."

"So... why astrophysics?"

"No reason, really. I just felt something pulling me here. That's all."

Wow! Such a free spirit! This guy was definitely some kind of billionaire. Only a rich person could afford to come to university on a whim and then spend half his time doing something else instead. Evan, who thought coffee was a fancy treat, tried to contain his jealousy and failed.

They drank their drinks in companionable silence. Evan was full of questions, but he didn’t want it to seem like he was interrogating his new friend. He was just curious!

“Do you... go to a lot of student parties?”

Ruth shrugged. “Not generally.”

“Oh. Aside from last night, I guess. Um... actually, about last night... I was wondering about what exactly happened.”

Ruth went still. “Yes?”

“Was I... alright? When did I go home?”

“I found you upstairs in someone’s bedroom with a few people. It looked like you were playing some kind of game that involved kissing,” Ruth replied. “You seemed very uncomfortable with the situation. Did I misread that?”

A kissing game. What the hell. Evan hadn’t played one of those for years. He wondered who he was smooching when Ruth discovered him. So deeply, horrifically embarrassing.

“I have no idea,” Evan replied with a shrug. “I don’t really remember if I was comfortable or not.”

There was a faint frown colouring Ruth’s pleasant smile. “Then I’m glad I was there regardless. There should be no room for doubt with things like this.”

“Hah, in an ideal world. In my experience, there’s always doubt. You just kind of have to move on afterwards.”

Ruth’s throat bobbed, but he didn’t say anything else. His coffee was steaming so much that it fogged up Evan’s glasses, and he took them off with a chuckle to clean them. “Wow, look at that,” he said, desperate to change the subject. “It’s that time of the year where I go blind every time I enter a warm room. You don’t wear contacts, right?”

Ruth, still speechless, shook his head. Oh, this was awkward. Evan got the horrible feeling that he had messed up somewhere.

“So lucky. Well, hah, look at the time. I should start heading to my next lecture.”

He didn’t have a next lecture. That was a lie. But he really didn’t want to hurt the poor guy’s feelings. He started gathering his stuff slowly, trying not to look like he was rushing out of there. Ruth let out a deep breath, before reaching across to lightly touch Evan’s wrist. His skin was very hot from where it had been holding his coffee cup.

“The next time you go to a party,” he said quietly, “take me with you.”

“Sorry?” Evan said, certain that he misheard.

“Take me too. I, ah.. I’m actually quite nervous around people. And I find it difficult to go alone. It would be... nice to have a friend to go with.”

“Oh, dude, me too,” Evan said, giving him a reassuring smile. “I have mad social anxiety. I actually don’t get invited to a lot of things like that anymore, but if I do, I guess I’ll text you and see if you’re free?”

Ruth nodded, his hand slipping off Evan’s wrist.

“Thanks.”

“It’s no worries. We can be anxious buds together.”

With a slow incline of his head, Ruth signalled that he would like that, and Evan felt some of his nervousness settle somehow. It was a surprisingly soothing gesture.

“Well. See you at the next one.”

“See you then.”

And then Evan rushed off to hide in the library for a couple of hours so Ruth wouldn’t see him walking around campus when he was supposed to be in a fake lecture instead.

Evan was getting out of the shower when he noticed something black flash in the corner of his vision. He whirled around, rubbing shampoo out of his eyes, visions of getting murdered by some opportunistic shower murderer running through his brain.

However, when he looked around, there was nothing there. He swore he saw something, though. Something in the reflection of the bathroom tiles near his back.

When he was done, he stopped by the mirror in the hallway and checked his body just in case the black thing had been a huge house spider or something. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had a spider fall on him in the shower. Usually they washed down the sinkhole, leaving Evan shivering and feeling strangely violated, but what if this one managed to cling onto his naked skin?

There was no spider. Instead, sprawling across Evan’s lower back like a trampstamp was a sprawling, intricate black tattoo, formed from archaic lettering and symbolism that he couldn’t read.

“Hey, what the fuck,” he said into the empty house.

Having no housemates meant that he couldn’t run into anybody’s room and ask them to read whatever the hell it now said on his back. He tried rubbing at it, but nothing happened. It didn’t even feel weird or raised. It just felt like skin, and it didn’t budge.

Not even soap or nail polish remover got it off his back. It was like ink had sunk into his skin and stuck there overnight.

Evan was, understandably, more than a little freaked out.

> HEY UHHH SO > sent: image_5473843.jpg > ???

wow, that’s a really interesting tattoo!! when did you get it? <

> well you see that’s the thing aliya. i didn’t. > i do not know where this tattoo came from. ummm > i am freaking out a little!!

wh??! < you mean it just....??? appeared?? <

> yeah?? i literally do not remember getting any tattoo there??! ever?

you do have a lot of tattoos... are you sure you didn’t forget about one of them? <

> you don’t just forget about a tattoo!! > okay actually. sometimes you do. BUT NOT THIS BIG. THIS IS A TRAMP STAMP > I WOULD NEVER GET A TRAMP STAMP > oh god what if this happened while i was drunk at that party

ok calm down do you want me to come over and look at it? <

> no, it’s fine. i’ll just. ???? hhhhhhhhh > wait, there is something you can do! can you get me the numbers of uhh. fuck what was their name uhhh Tree. Branch > ROCK > and there was this girl who dressed like a goth, they were both at the party, can you ask your netball friends if they have their numbers? they might know what happened?? i guess? help?

i’ll ask around babe x sorry about this maybe go to the police? <

> they’ll just say i was drunk and there was nothing they could do. but thank you anyway i really appreciate this. sorry for bothering you

no need to apologise at all xx hoping you’re okay xx message me whenever you like <

Evan examined the tattoo in the mirror again. Now that the shock had worn off... well. Aliya was right. He already had so many tattoos. Most of them were already stupid ones he got on a whim. So even if he didn’t ask for this one... it was okay, right? It wasn’t so bad.

It was even kind of cool, in an old-school, mall goth kind of way. Spidery webbing and dots of red ink in what he thought might have been flowers of some kind. He tried to take a photo with his phone, but his hands kept shaking, so he just kept getting blurry pictures of his ass. Not ideal, honestly.

With a sigh, he stretched out on his bed and examined his older tattoos. His favourite one was still the navy outline of a falling star stretching down his inner arm towards his hand. It was his first proper one that he got done at a real tattoo parlour. A lot of the earlier ones were... well, the less said about how close he got to a skin infection, the better.

With a sigh, he tugged on a long sleeved shirt from his closet. Until he could work out why he suddenly had that black monstrosity on the back of his hips, he wasn’t sure he wanted to accidentally keep catching glimpses of it in every reflective surface.

Wait a minute. There was someone else there at the party. Someone who might have seen something that could help.

He opened up the messages from the unknown number and prayed that it was who he hoped it was.

> heyyy ruth i hope this is you!! haha hi

The reply came back about half an hour later, which was just long enough for Evan to overthink everything that had ever happened to him.

It’s me. Rest assured. :) <

Oh god. How to word this?

> well i’m doing good actually i’m you know. chilling! > actually there was something i wanted to ask you > please excuse the ass in this photo!!!!!

The what. <

> sent: image_5473843.jpg

Who did this. <

> funny question! i don’t know > i was hoping you could help???

I’m coming over. <

> no, i meant like do you remember seeing anyone at the party with a tattoo gun or a stick and poke or something?? you don’t have to come over sorry i don’t want to be a bother

You’re not a bother. I’m coming over. <

Well. Fuck. Evan panicked and threw on a pair of sweats and a hoodie, and then felt stupid, because presumably Ruth was going to come and look at the tattoo. Maybe he should wear nicer clothes? Did he have time to tidy his room?

> are you sure haha i don’t want to inconvenience you!!!

I was in the area anyway. It’s okay if you don’t want me to come over. But I have an idea about what happened. < Sorry. I know this must be alarming. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. <

Evan thought about it. Well. It was the only lead he had.

> sure why not come on over

I’m outside. <

The doorbell rang.

***

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[atlafan]

Hii ok u dont have to write this if it doesnt inspire u but I’ve been watching Selling Sunset on Netflix & I’ve been waiting impatiently for the 3rd season cuz it’s just so good lol but i was wondering if u could write something about rich real estate agent H? Maybe helping the MC buy her first home and they hit it off? Ur the only 1 who writes these diverse Harry’s & I can’t stop thinking about real estate H showing her expensive houses & like doing NaughtyStuff with her in an empty 1 lol xx HC

a/n: this has been in my inbox for a while and I’ve been wanting to get to it, so here it is! there is smut, but it’s more tame than you requested. Hope you still like it! 

Sold

You weren’t sure how you were able to do it, but you finally had enough money for a down payment on a home. You scrimped and saved for years as best you could, you paid off the majority of your student loans, you built up your credit, and now you felt ready for this very adult step. 

Your parents weren’t sure why you weren’t content with just renting. “What if you meet someone?” They’d ask you. “Then they could just move in with me, or we’d find another place. It’s an investment!” You’d reply. They had this vision in their head that you’re supposed to buy a home with a partner. It was the twenty-first century, you didn’t need anyone to help you...or so you thought. 

The pre-approval process at the bank was lengthy, but thorough. They’d need to see your W2′s from two years prior, they needed to know how long you’ve been at your current job, and basically just how much money you had altogether. The mortgage specialist at the bank was very kind. 

“So, you’re doing this all on your own?” 

“I am.” You smile.

“Have you got real estate agent yet?”

“No.” You shrug. “You don’t really need when you’re the one buying do you? I can just call whoever’s showing the house and work with them.”

“Maybe in small towns, but in larger areas like this you’ll want a realtor, trust me. It doesn’t cost you anything either way. They can top shop, help you negotiate, all those kinds of things.”

“They also like to show you houses out of your price range.” You scoff. 

“Not the honest ones. I get it, at the end of the day, they’re out there to make a quick buck, and the more the house is, the larger the cut they get. But I know a guy, he actually helped my son buy his first home. He was absolutely wonderful, and he’s a shark.” She goes through the many business cards on her desk. “Ah! Here it is, Harry Styles, he works for Greenfield Real Estate.” 

You take the card from her and scan it over.

“Don’t they sell, like, really nice homes? They work with people looking for mansions.” 

“Just give him a call, and tell him I sent you. You won’t regret it, trust me. Your pre-approval is only good for ninety days, so you’ll want to contact him soon.” 

//

Your head was swimming, but you knew she had a point. Half the houses you favorited on realtor.com or zillow were sold already. It was a seller’s market for sure. Maybe you would need someone to help you negotiate...but did it have to be a man? Couldn’t you find a female realtor? You spent years becoming the strong, independent woman you came to be, and now it felt like you’d be surrendering to some stereotype. 

However, after perusing on the Greenfield website, you see a picture of Harry. You bite your bottom lip, swallow some pride, and dial his number. 

“Greenfield Real Estate, this is Harry.” You weren’t expecting the British accent, or the deep voice and drawl that came with it. “Hello?”

“Um, hi! Yeah, Doris at Hills Bank gave me your card...I’m a first time home buyer.” You want to smack yourself for how stupid you sound. 

“Oh, I love Doris! I’ve worked with her a bunch. I actually helped her son buy his first home last year.”

“That’s what she told me.” 

“Right, so, picking a realtor is sort of like dating, you wanna make sure you pick the right one. Why don’t we meet up for coffee somewhere locally so we can get to know each other a bit.” 

Pushy, he was already wanting to meet you. Probably to have you sign your life away to be his client. 

“Sure, we could do that.”

“Are you local? There’s a place on Bleaker Street that has great coffee.” 

“Is it Monte Alto?”

“Yeah! That’s the one. When are you free?”

“I could meet you Friday during lunch my break.”

“Sounds great, I’m assuming noon?”

“Correct.” 

“By the way, you didn’t tell me your name.”

“It’s Y/N.”

“Alright, Y/N, I’ll see you Friday at noon at Monte Alto.” 

You take a huge breath after you hang up. 

//

Friday rolled around, and you weren’t able to step out of the office until nearly 11:50. It would take a little more than ten minutes to get there, and you hated being late. You were happy you had at least looked up what Harry looked like so you’d be able to spot him once you were there. 

Once you’re there, you see a man sitting on one of the cushioned chairs, looking out the window. It had to be him. 

“Harry?” 

He looks over at you and smiles. He stands up to shake your hand.

“Y/N?”

“Yes, hi, sorry I’m late, I’ve had meeting after meeting this morning. Fridays aren’t usually this busy.”

“No worries at all. Tell me, what’s your order?” 

“Oh, I can get it myself. I’m gonna grab a bagel too.”

“Good idea, I’ll do the same. Now, what’ll you have?” 

“Really...I can-”

“I know you can, but I invited you here, it would be rude to have you pay. Do this with all my perspective clients.” 

“Well, don’t I feel special.” You say sarcastically. He chuckles softly as you both get in line. 

You both order your drinks and food, and wait awkwardly for your names to be called, then you sit back down. 

“Thank you.” 

“You’re more than welcome. So, tell me, what’s your dream home?”

“Oh god, um, nice big kitchen, I love to cook when I actually have time. A room for entertaining. I’m usually the one to host friends. Two stories, a garage, three bedrooms would be ideal, but I’ll settle for two-”

��No settling.” He smirks. “Go on.” 

“Um...well, so, three bedrooms, ideally I’d like a master with an en suite, but who doesn’t?” You watch as he makes notes on a little pad of paper. “I’d like a yard, but it doesn’t need to be huge. Bonus points if there’s a deck or patio, maybe even a pool, but I can live without those things.”

“And you’re buying this just for yourself, correct? No husbands or boyfriends I need to know about?” 

“You know, I could have a girlfriend.” 

“Shit, I’m sorry you’re right, um-”

“Relax, I’m teasing.” You chuckle. “But to answer your question, I am doing this alone. I feel like I’m ready for a house, so I want one.” 

“Thought I put my foot in my mouth for a second there. I need to learn to just say partner.” He picks up his drink to take a sip, and that’s when you notice he has perfectly manicured nails. Interesting. “So it seems like you know how to be realistic about what you want, and you also have a dream list. What about projects, do they scare you?”

“I’m good with painting or even having to put new flooring in, but I’d like to stay away from any major reno.” 

“Gotcha.” He makes another note. “And what price range are we working with here?” 

“Let me just make a note on my phone, I’d rather not say out loud in case someone tries to rob me.” 

He smiles and nods. He squints at your screen and makes a note. 

“Great, good for you. What do you do for work?” 

“I’m a physician, I work at a doctor’s office not too far from here. I’ve been there for two years, and I love what I do.”

“That’s great. So, Doris talked with you about balancing a mortgage and paying down your student loans?”

“They’re mostly paid for, actually. I got a lot of scholarships for my undergrad, and during med school I was awarded a pretty decent grant.” 

“Perfect.” He scribbles some more notes and then puts his pad and pen down. “What do you want to know about me?” 

“How long have you been a realtor for?” 

“Six years, been with Greenfield since I started.”

“What made you get into it?”

“Love seeing people happy.” 

“What about when someone buys below the asking price?”

“Doesn’t happen with me, not when I’m selling anyways. However, when I’m helping someone buy a home, well, let’s just say I’m pretty good at negotiating.” He smirks. “You’d be in good hands with me, but if you wanna shop around some more I’ll understand.” 

“Do you work with first time buyers a lot?”

“Sometimes, it depends. I know a lot of them like to work with me. They’re usually young, I’m young. Makes for a more relatable experience.”

“Okay.” You look outside and think for a moment. “I think I’d like to work with you.”

He smiles big at you.

“Are there any homes you’ve had in mind that you’d like to start looking at? I can definitely see what open houses are out there too. People tend to make offers fast, but don’t let that scare you. The home has to feel right, if you want it, I’ll make sure you get it.” 

“There were a few I’ve seen on realtor...” You take your phone out to show him. “I’d like to not have a super long commute either if I can help it.” 

“Are you looking to grow into this home or is it more of a starter space for you?” You give him a funny look. “I just mean, like, would you be open to a condo or something like that.”

“Only if it was detached and didn’t have a high HOA.” 

He nods and looks at some of the other homes you had favorited.

“So what I’m gonna do is go back to my office and run a few searched. Then I’ll text you a link to the home I find, and you can tell me which ones you like. Don’t be afraid to tell me you hate them either. Then if there’s a couple you wanna see, we’ll set up a time that works for you, and then I’ll contact the other realtor, sound good?”

“Sounds great.” 

You shake hands again before leaving. As you make your way back to the office, you feel relieved. You had someone you could ask questions to, and someone basically on your side. Harry was nice, a salesman at heart, but nice.

//

Saturday morning you get a text from Harry.

Harry Styles - Hi Y/N, it was great meeting you yesterday. Here are some places I think you might like. Let me know what you think! 

You liked how formal he was. You tap the link he sent you. The first couple were duds, but there were a few on here that actually peaked your interest. 

You - Could we three of the home? The bottom three on the list. 

Harry Styles - Sure! When would work for you? 

You - I don’t work on Mondays, so that would be easiest. Timing doesn’t matter. 

Harry Styles - I’ll contact the realtors and see what we can put together. 

You - Thanks so much!

You felt really excited. You wondered if maybe you should invite your parents to come look at the houses with you, but maybe you would save that for a second look through once you actually find something. A house can look much different in pictures than it does in person. 

//

Monday morning, around 9:30, you meet Harry at the first location. His car was parked in the driveway. He gets out when he sees you pull in. He had two coffees in hand. 

“Morning.” He says to you. “Got you a coffee, I remembered your order.” 

“Oh! Um, thanks.” You take it from him. 

“I’ve already gone in and unlocked the doors and turned the lights on. The other realtor isn’t here, which is perfectly fine. Take your time, feel free to walk around outside before heading in too.” 

You smile and nod. The front was beautifully landscaped, and there was a gate leading to the backyard. He follows you out that way. You listen as he explains when the home was built and why the people were selling it. There a nice deck that had been recently put on, no pool though, but there was room for one. You go up the stairs of the deck and go in through the sliding glass door. 

“Kitchen was recently renovated within the last five years. All appliances come with the place.” 

“It’s beautiful.” You run your fingers over the nice granite counter tops. 

As you scope out the rest of the house, you’re not as impressed as you were with it when you first walked in. The bedrooms were small, and barely had any storage. The basement wasn’t in the best condition either. 

“Definitely a no, but a good first experience nonetheless.” 

Harry looks down at his watch as he nods. 

“Wanna follow me to the next place then?”

“Sure.” 

Same thing happened at house number two and three. You just weren’t wowed. You sigh heavily as you lean against your car. 

“Don’t get discouraged, Y/N. It’s better to know what you don’t like. We can keep looking. When I go into the office tomorrow I can run another search. Maybe we can look at some condos.” 

“That might be good. Maybe somewhere with people my age? It would be cool to be in a little community.”

“Definitely.” 

“Thanks...I hope I haven’t been a pain with the things I don’t like.”

“Not at all. This is a really big purchase, you should get what you want.” 

//

It took three more weeks of meeting up with Harry on various days to find a place you liked. On a Saturday evening, he brought you over to a condo that was detached, had a garage, a community gym and pool. It had three bedrooms, and two and a half baths. One being an en suite for the master bedroom.The kitchen was gorgeous and flowed into a dining/living area. You were thrilled. 

“Harry...” You look at him. “It’s perfect.” 

“Really, you like it?”

“I love it!” You squeal and hug him without thinking. “Sorry.” You blush.

“It’s fine, it’s exciting.” 

“I’d like to put an offer in. The price is rate and the HOA is reasonable. It’s not too far from work. I’d be able to entertain, the backyard is fenced in. There was even security at the gate! This is my home, I can feel it.” 

“Fantastic. The paperwork can take some time. Would you wanna fill everything out over dinner?” 

“Um...sure...” 

“Plus, it gives you a chance to see what places nearby are like. We passed some nice restaurants on the way here.” 

You follow him to a nice pizza place a couple of miles away. He bring a large packet of paper and a couple of pens in with him.

“On the way here I called the other realtor to let him know an offer was coming their way.”

“Thanks.”

You both get seated and are given some water. He takes the papers out and explains what you would need to sign, and what your offer would mean. Harry said you could definitely low ball the sellers, so you asked for about $15K less than the asking price. 

“They probably won’t accept, but most people don’t on the first offer. This just gives us a good starting point.”

“And you think the six grand in closing costs is good?”

“Yeah, totally reasonable. That’ll be about half of it. Sometimes, you can get more money off after the home inspection. Once a price is settled, you’ll want to schedule that right away. I have some names of some great home inspectors.”

“Would you be there for that?”

“I would. I’m there for all of it. The other realtor will be there too.” 

“Okay good. I’d feel better with you there.” 

As you begin to sign the documents, a waiter comes over. 

“Good evening folks, can I start you off with anything to drink?”

“I’d love a glass of rose please.” You say. 

“Just a Corona for me, thanks.” 

The waiter nods and leaves you be. 

“Did you want to just split a pizza?” Harry asks looking down at the menu. 

“Sure, what do you like? I usually just get green peppers and mushrooms.”

“Works for me. Would you mind this cauliflower crust?”

“Not at all! I prefer that, actually.” 

‘Perfect.” He smiles. 

When the waiter comes back, Harry orders your pizza. He watches as you finish up all the paperwork. He checks over everything to make sure you signed everything. 

“I’ll get this all scanned and sent over tomorrow.”

“Do you ever take a day off?”

“Yes and no. The realtor world is funny. Sometimes I’m in the office all day and then I wont hear from a client until 8PM. I’m not helping someone buy, I’m helping someone sell. I’m always busy.”

“Sorry to take up your Saturday night...”

“No, don’t be. I’d just be home working.” He shrugs and takes a sip of his beer. “It’s your Saturday night I’m more worried about.” 

“Oh please.” You laugh. “My friends know I’ve been busy with this, they understand. Besides when I showed them who you were...” You stop yourself from finishing the sentence. 

“No, please, go on.” He smirks.

“They just, they saw your picture on the Greenfield website, that’s all.” You blush. 

The waiter comes over with the pizza, and thankfully it breaks a bit of the tension. You each take a slice and dig in. 

“This is delicious.” You say. 

“Yeah, never been here before, I’ll definitely have to come back.” He takes another sip of his beer. “Once that condo is yours, I fully expect an invite to your house warming, by the way. I like to know my clients are good to go.”

“I definitely won’t be a stranger.” 

When you and Harry are done, he walks you out to your car. He gives you a small hug goodbye as well. You felt like you just had a date, but there was no way you did. 

//

After going back and forth twice, your offer was accepted. You set up a home inspection with one of the names Harry had given you. He meets you at the house when it’s time, and you’re able to meet the other realtor. A woman, who was a little too delighted to see Harry. You felt jealous when they hugged. However, he stayed close to you and took notes while the inspector was talking. 

You made sure to ask a lot of questions. There were no major things that alarmed you. All of the information was just a lot to take in, and you were feeling slightly overwhelmed. You should have brought your parents, or another friend. Was Harry a friend at this point? As the inspector was putting together a full report for you, and getting your email, the other realtor was talking to Harry.

“So, I thought you were only in the selling game right now.” She smirks at him.

“Once in a while I take on a buyer.” He shrugs. “It’s good commission.”

“Yeah, thanks, can’t wait to split it with you.” She rolls her eyes. “But I do love when our paths cross.”

“Mhm.” He looks over at you and then back to the realtor. “The previous owners took great care of this place.”

“Yeah, they did. The only reason they moved is because they’re daughter had a baby and they wanted to be closer to her.”

“Ah, classic.”

“Are you doing anything later?”

“Um…well…Y/N is probably going to have questions and stuff, so I’ll probably be busy with her for a bit.”

“Okay, but, like, tonight, are you free? We could grab a drink.”

“I…”

“Harry?” You say, walking over to them. “Everything’s all set. He said I should have the radon and water tests by next week.”

“Perfect. You’ll be able to make a final decision and add anything to an addendum then.”

“It was nice to meet you.” You shake the woman’s hand.

“Same to you. Look forward to hearing from you soon.”

“Y/N, I took a lot of notes, is there anything you want to go over?”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

“See ya Margaret, we’ll be in touch.” He shakes her hand and leaves her standing there, shocked.

Harry walks with you outside, and you agree on a bar to meet up at. You both grab drinks and Harry goes over his notes with you. He gives you the name of a good plumber since you mentioned you’d want to update a few fixtures.

“What about a painter? Know of anyone that can help with that?”

“You don’t need to waste your money on a professional. Painting’s not that hard.” He chuckles.

“Well, I am not very skilled when it comes to that kind of stuff. Plus, I won’t really have the time to do it myself, and I’d wanna get it done before I move.”

“You could get all done in a couple of weekends no problem, you just need some friends that know how to paint.” He puts a toothpick in his mouth and fiddles with it. “I know how to paint.”

“You do?”

“Sure.” He shrugs. “Sometimes sellers need to fix up their houses quickly. I’ve come to the rescue on more than one occasion.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“I don’t make any money if I don’t. No one wants to be an ugly house.” He takes a sip of his drink. “I guess what I’m saying is, I could help you paint. You’re about to have a mortgage payment on your hands.”

“Pending the inspection report.” You smirk.

“Right.” He smiles.

“Did you offer up the same service for Doris’ son?”

“No.” He says smugly. “He already knew how to paint.”

“That other woman before, what was her name? Margaret?”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“I heard her ask you out…”

“She didn’t, she wasn’t…uh…” He scratches the back of his neck. “Sometimes we go for drinks if we end of working on the same house. Nothing more than that really.”

“So, you’re not, like, seeing her.”

“God, no. That would be a major conflict of interest.”

“Do you always go out for drinks with your clients?”

“Sometimes…I know some people have clients over to their home to do paperwork, but I didn’t think you’d feel super comfortable coming over to some guy’s house you barely know.”

“How considerate of you.” You giggle.

“Did it bother you that she asked me out tonight?”

You nearly choke on your drink.

“What? No, why, uh, why would it have bothered me?”

“Because…if someone had done the same to you in front of me I would have been bothered, but to be fair, I’m a pretty jealous guy.” He finishes his drink and orders another one.

“How many times does this happen?”

“What?”

“You hitting on your clients.”

“Is that what I’m doing?” He fake gasps. “And no, I don’t usually do this. I’m a little embarrassed, actually. Not very professional of me to have a crush on your client.” Your eyes widen and your jaw drops slightly. “Sorry, I hope I’m not making you uncomfortable.”

“No! I…I’m just a little surprised that you’re into me, is all.”

“Why? You’ve got a great career, you’re super independent, and you’re really funny.”

“How do you not already have a girlfriend?”

“I’m really busy, like, all the time. I’m able to take vacations here and there, but you see how much I work. Any time I date it doesn’t last because people don’t understand the job. You’re a doctor, you get it. You must be busy going to classes trying to stay up to date on everything.”

“I am, I’m definitely busy a lot…but I make time for friends.”

“So do I. My friends don’t get offended if I have to cancel or reschedule, or they at least don’t take it personally.”

“I get what you’re saying…dating is hard when you have a demanding job.”

“Exactly.”

“So…are you going to ask me out?”

“Can’t, not until this is all done at least. Conflict of interest.”

“Oh.”

“But when I do, are you saying you’ll say yes?”

“I guess we’ll find out when you ask, won’t we?”

//

Harry helped you go over the inspection report once you got it. You asked for some money towards getting the furnace serviced, and the previous owners thought it was a reasonable request. You were able to close a couple of weeks later. Typically the realtor comes to the bank with the buyer on the big day.

“Harry!” Doris squeals as she hugs him. “Great to see you.”

“Same to you.”

“Love when we get to see each other like this.”

“Same here, how’s your son?”

“Oh, he’s great. Y/N, have a seat. We have lots of things to sign.”

You sign what you need to. Doris gives you a gift bag with some wine glasses. Harry hands over a bottle of champagne to you as well. It was very exciting. You were officially a home owner.

“Thank you so much.” You shake Doris’ hand before leaving the bank.

Harry grabs your wrist once you’re both outside.

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks, I literally couldn’t have done it without you.” You give him a quick hug. “My parents are gonna meet me there soon so they can check it out. I think they wanna take me out to eat to celebrate.”

“That’s great.” He clears his throat. “What, uh, what are you doing tomorrow?”

“Continuing to pack.” You laugh. “But, um, I could make myself available in the evening.” You smile.

“I’m having a little pool party tomorrow. Bunch of my friends are coming over, I’d love to have you over too, if you felt comfortable.”

“That sounds amazing! Can I bring anything?”

“Just your beautiful self.”

//

Your parents were very impressed with your new purchase. You did well. Saturday morning you continued your packing adventure, trying to make sure you properly labeled your boxes. You needed to make sure none of your medical journals got lost.

Even though Harry had offered over and over to teach you how to paint, your parents offered to pay for a painting crew for you, just to make things go faster. Once that was done you’d be able to move. You search your dresser for a suitable bathing suit. You weren’t sure how much skin to actually show.

“Ah ha!” You find your green, strapless one-piece that had a cute cut out in the upper part of the stomach. You’re also able to find a cute cover up dress to throw on over it.

In the latter part of the afternoon, you drive over to Harry’s. You were impressed by the neighborhood he was able to live in. All of the houses were huge. When you pull up to his house you wonder what he needed such a big house for. Maybe he entertained a lot too, just like you did.

You – just pulled up!

Harry Styles - come right around back!

You walk around to where you can hear music playing and people laughing. There were plenty of people already in Harry’s large in-ground pool.

“Y/N!” Harry waves over to you.

Damn, he has a lot of tattoos. You think to yourself.

“Hi, Harry!”

He comes over to you and kisses you on the cheek without really thinking.

“Glad you could make it. Make yourself comfortable. Plenty of food, plenty of pool.” He chuckles.

Harry’s friends were really nice and welcoming, you didn’t feel too out of place. His eyes couldn’t help but scan over your body the second you took your coverup off. Turns out Harry was a master on the grill. He made sure to pay attention to while still being a good host to his friends. It was a fun party. As the night dwindled you wanted to make some sort of move.

“You know, I’ve seen your entire backyard, but I’ve yet to be given a your of your home.”

“You’d like that?”

“It’s only fair, you’ve seen mine.” You wink at him.

He leads you inside.

“Well, you’ve seen the kitchen, obviously.”

He takes you through the first floor and then leads you upstairs. He explains that he has all the extra rooms so his family has their own space for when they come to visit.

“And this is my room, but you don’t have to-“

“No, let’s see it.” You smile.

He smiles back and opens the door. Your jaw drops when you see how much space there is. There were two closets, both filled with nice clothes.

“Come check out the bathroom. I had some work done to it last year.”

“Why do you have a double vanity?”

“For guests.” He blushes. “My last girlfriend actually, she liked having her own sink. Apparently I have too many products and they can get in the way.” He clears his throat. “Anyways, I had everything redone last year. I know a great bathroom guy if you ever wanna update anything.”

“You have a guy for everything.” You giggle. “And you do have a lot of products, two sinks makes sense.” You walk out and back into the bedroom. “So…”

“So…”

“What date number would you consider this to be?”

“Legally, the first…not legally…” He grins. “Think I’ve lost track.” He steps closer to you. “My friends liked you.”

“I liked them.” You wrap your arms around his neck. “And I like you.”

“I like you too.” His hands move to your hips. “And I really like this bathing suit. Haven’t been able to take my eyes off you all day.”

You both smile and continue to make eye contact. Harry looks down at your lips and leans in. He presses his lips to yours, and you find yourself grasping at him to pull him closer. You couldn’t remember the last time you were intimate with someone, but it had definitely been too long. You were ravenous. You open your mouth him and he groans into you. You both shuffle back to the bed and fall on top of it.

“If this feels too fast, just let me know.” He breathes as you move to straddle him.

“Harry, I want you.” You cup his cheek and he moves to kiss your palm. “But, if it feels too fast for you, we can cool it.”  

“I want you too, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t feel pressured or anything.”

“I don’t, but thank you.”

You lean down to kiss him again. His hands move to the back of your bathing suit.

“Gotta get this off you.” He grunts.

You get off him to stand up.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Seems to be our little theme.” He smirks.

Harry stands up and takes his trunks off. Your eyes grow wide when you look down at his hard cock. He steps towards you and helps you out of your swim suit.

“I have a fun idea.” He says as he kisses down your neck. “We’ve been in the sun all day, let’s go hop in the shower.”

You smile at him and nod. He leads you into the bathroom and gets the water in the shower going. He yanks you inside and gets you under the warm water. He backs you up to the wall and press you against it. His hands roam your body as his lips find yours again.

“I’ve thought about this so many times.” He says.

“You have?”

“Mhm, there were so many times in the houses I showed you that I just wanted to take you right then and there.”

He nips at your jaw as his hands knead your breasts. You wrap your arms back around his neck. You feel his hard cock press against your hip and it makes you whimper. One of his hands slides down your stomach. He looks at you to make sure it’s alright and you nod yes.

Your head rolls back against the tile as his fingers slips between your legs. His thumb works your clit while he works two of his fingers inside you.

“Oh my god.” You gasp and grind your hips toward his hand. You reach for his length and start to pump him.

You both were panting. You have to let go of him to clutch onto his shoulders as you release around his fingers.

“Please.” You moan. “Fuck me. I have an IUD.”

Harry kisses you and hooks one of his arms under one of your legs so he can push in at a better angle. You bite down on his bottom lip, causing him to groan loudly.

“You’re so fucking sexy.” He says into your ear as he thrusts in and out of you.

“You feel so good, Harry, fuck.”

He pulls out of you, turns you around, and presses back inside. His chest was flush with your back. You claw at the tile as he rocks in and out of you. One of his hands snakes around to rub your clit and the other works one of your breasts.

You feel a flood of things wash over you, but mostly it was another incredible orgasm. You could get used to this.

“Shit, I’m gonna come. Where do you want it?” He grunts.

“Inside me.”

“Jesus.” He groans and releases inside you. You moan out at the warm feeling.

//

“This is the softest robe in the world.”

“Glad you like it. You can wear it anytime.”

You both were cuddled up in his bed, munching on some fruit while watching TV.

“Do you have parties like this often?”

“Only when I’ve finally told a tougher home.”

“You were working with someone while working with me? How did you find the time?”

“Babe, I was working with like six other people.” He smirks.

“Doris was right, you are a shark.” You laugh.

“Gotta be able to afford this place, right?” He tucks some hair behind your ear. “You’ll stay tonight? I’m a cuddler.”

“Of course.” You giggle. “I’ll have to have you over for my next game night, you can meet all of my friends.”

“Like I said, I fully expect to be invited to your house warming.”

“That too.”

“But I’d be happy to meet your friends. Are they doctors too?”

“A couple of them are, yeah. We met in med school. Wouldn’t have made it through without them.”

You two stay up for hours, legs tangled in each other, telling each lots of things about one another. It was easy to talk to Harry, it had been since you met. He felt the same about you too. You both knew it wouldn’t be so easy to just get together. Harry’s schedule was unpredictable, and your days were long and tiring. But, neither of you really cared because you both felt like you found your person.

Harry loved game nights with your friends. He was a tad competitive, but it just made for more laughs. You both liked having your separate spaces, but you enjoyed when he could actually spend the night, or when you could spend the night at his place. Neither of you took it personally when the other was too busy or too tired either. Once you felt truly settled, you wrote Doris a thank you note for setting you up with the best realtor and the love of your life.

[clockworkgraystairs]

KEEP IT DOWN || Jurdan - Hogwarts AU

Written super super late for Jurdan Week 2020 by @jurdannet​ Sorry for the delay!!

Crossover Day || Harry Potter  

Prompt submited by @mysweetvilllain​

Rating: M

Summary: Quidditch day was no normal day at Hogwarts. And Ravenclaw’s head boy, Cardan Greenbriar, knew it very well. 

Tags: @slightlyrebelliouswriter23​ @demydreamer-otaku-and-book-lover​ @aesthetics-11​ @thesirenwashere​ @hizqueen4life​ @duarteegreenbriar​ @judexcardanxgreenbriar​ @nite0wl29​ @althekingshorses​ @thewickedkings​ @b00kworm​ (if you wish to be tagged or untagged [or if my dumb brain forgot to tag u] just let me know!)

My masterlist

Hogwarts was always a battlefield on a quidditch day, and today was not the exception. Not in the final game of their Championship. So far, Cardan had broke up two discussions and dissolved a duel challenge between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin.

To be honest, he would have prefered to stay back in his dorms. His book about Asian Myths and History was way more interesting than keeping the students safe. Specially from themselves. But as Head Boy, there was little he could do against it. 

That evening Slytherin had won the match, and boy had it been a hot-blooded one. Brooms had flown through the rain at unimaginable speed. The seekers, entwined in a fierce battle for the golden snitch, almost crashing with each other on several occasions. If his memory was correct, at least three players had fell from their brooms either from crashing or bludgers. The crowd’s roar almost left him deaf when Slytherin’s seeker finally closed her fingers around the snitch. When she’d flown down and paraded it around, the noise became even worse. Her chestnut hair had come loose at some point of the match, and mixed with her smudged eyeliner she gave a feral image that send tickles down his spine.

Back in the castle, he could see silver and green flags everywhere. People ran and cheered. Only Gryffindors and some others walked back to their dorms in silence, or anger, he couldn’t say. Ten points from the Hufflepuff boy who tried to hide the bottle of alcohol in his robe. With a sigh, he pulled out his wand and vanished the whiskey back to the kitchen’s shelves.

After another two hours of prowling around, he decided to call it for the day.

Cardan had almost made it to the stairs when a loud commotion snapped his attention back to the Great Hall. He peered inside, more than ready to continue with the points slaughter. That’s when he saw her again.

Jude Duarte. Slytherin’s captain and seeker. Crowned a legend after today’s victory. Her strategy abilities had made her team practically invincible. She sat on top of one of the tables, surrounded by the rest of the team and a few more students. Her damp her already starting to curl again. Apparently the party wasn’t over for everyone just yet.

Cackles died gradually as he approached them. All eyes turning to him. 

“Hello there, Ravenclaw. Are you lost?” He could practically feel her purr on his stomach, her gaze trailing down his body. A girl named Lilliver snickered from her seat.

“Oh, not at all.” He shrugged. “But you’re being quite loud, and I must ask you to keep it down.”

Jude slid down the table and stood in front of him, a cheeky smirk playing on the corner of her lips. “That’s a little rude, Head Boy, why don’t you join us and forget about noise rules for a while? We’re celebrating.”

“I can see that, and I appreciate the offer.” He conceded. “But as it is my duty, I insist, unless you’re looking to make your house lose some points. I suggest you go back to your dorms. Have a pleasant night.”

That said, he flashed her a polite smile, turned back to the Hall’s entrance and left, vaguely hearing several scoffs dancing along the group.

~

When Jude Duarte left the Slytherin dorm it was already past midnight. At last, the rest of the team had fallen asleep along the living room. She didn’t feel tired though, with the rush from the game still in her veins keeping her wide awake. 

Some nights, she enjoyed going out after curfew to take a stroll. There was something uncanny relaxing about it. No one rushing between classes, no one she needed to talk about quidditch or the usual nonsense people usually asked. Just silence. 

By the end of the corridor, she stopped in front of the now familiar room. Jude glanced around her once, making sure there weren’t any curious eyes and went in.

Jude suspected the chamber was an old meetings office that no one used anymore. Since the first time she’d found it, the same squared table rested in the middle, surrounded by three or four chairs. An old settee, and a mostly empty bookcase filled the rest of the small space. Nothing seemed different tonight. 

The dim moonlight coming from outside was the only thing that allow her to see around. 

She’d almost reached the settee, when something slither behind her. She spun around, reaching for her wand with all the agility she’d learned from duel trainings. 

Jude knew it was too late when she heard a husky voice whispering. “Incarcerous.”

She gasped as her arms folded behind her back. A scratchy rope securing them.  

In less than a second, she was pressed back against his hard body. One of his arms snaked around her waist, the other one buried on her hair and arching her neck, granting him access.

“I thought you weren’t coming.” Cardan mumbled, spreading hot kisses down her throat. When he reached the base he sucked a little, sending hot streams down her veins. 

“Well you’ll find out that it’s quite difficult to get rid of a bunch of people who are high on adrenaline.” She pointed out, leaning her head back to his shoulder. “I might have slipped a few sleeping pills in their juice.” 

“You tricky witch.” He pressed harder against her backside. Letting her feel the effect she had on his body. Without being able to stop it, a breathy whimper left her lips. “Seems to me that I’ll have to take some of Slytherin’s points after all.”

“Don’t you dare.” She hissed, struggling inefficiently against the ropes. 

He just chuckled. His wicked hands now roamed under her Slytherin green hoodie, leaving goosebumps on her bare skin. “You might be captain on the field love, but you should realize you’re not the one in control here.”

In a swift movement, he turned her around and pulled the hoodie over Jude’s head, leaving it hanging from her tied arms. The fresh air made her shudder, she could feel her nipples hardening under her crop top. Before she could say anything else, Cardan crashed their lips together, his kiss fierce, tugging at her lower lip in a clear message. Mine. 

Jude didn’t realize he’d been moving them backwards until she bumped with the table. He helped her sat on top of it, settling between her thighs, grinding their bodies together.

She broke the kiss for a moment, breathing against his mouth. “You’re going to be in so much trouble when I’m off this ropes.” 

“Am I?” With no so gentle hands, he pushed her back against the table, his mouth curled in a predatory grin. “But you’re not now, are you?” 

Without her arms to help her up, Jude just glared at him. She realized how ragged her heartbeat was. The way he looked at her send a pulse through her core. Her bound arms twisted again, looking for a way out, but the rope didn’t waver. She could do nothing but lay there, at his mercy while he peeled her pants from her. 

No answer from her was expected, Cardan’s low chuckle floated in the room. “I thought so.”

He leaned and barely grazed her lips, pulling back when she tried to capture them and slid down her body. Leaving trails with his lips on her jaw, the base of her throat, the swell of her breasts. He lingered a moment on her nipples, circling them over her top with his tongue. Jude’s breath came out in shuddering whimpers, her body writhed below him trying to get some friction. Cardan took his lips lower, along her well toned torso. Her hips twitched as he found a sensitive spot next to her dagger tattoo, and sucked on it. 

At some point her knickers came off too. She swore at the feeling of Cardan’s teeth nibbling her inner thighs. He made a disapproving sound with his tongue. “From this moment Jude, for every sound leaving your lips, I’m going to take a point from your house. Am I clear?” 

Jude stared at him wide eyed, angrily biting her lip to avoid spilling all the curses that danced in her mind. He knew how seriously Slytherins took winning. Everything. The House Cup one of the most desired prizes. Fuck he knew how to play her. 

Without breaking eye contact he leaned down again, positioning himself barely centimeters away from her center. Something between dark and amused tainted his features.

“Congratulations on winning your game baby.” At that he closed the distance to her aching folds, tasting them with a long, ravening lick.

The last coherent thought on her mind was how lucky they were that she’d cast a silencing charm on the room when she arrived.

The House Cup could very well rot in hell.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I was really really excited to do this since it’s the first crossover i’ve ever written. 

I’m not planning any particular story with this, buuut I’m not against writing more of this AU if I ever see (or any of you send) prompts that could fit *wink*

I hope you like it!! 

As a little extra, and since I’m becoming obsessed with doing this things, here are a couple of aesthetics for Slytherin!Jude and Ravenclaw!Cardan, just because I think they’re cute.

ciao!

[unaccomplishedwriter]

THE HERO YOU NEED

Draco Malfoy x Reader

Prologue here

Chapter One

Decisively locking herself into her compartment alone, (y/n) sunk down into her seat with a loud plop. Clutching her wand, she rolled the violet amethyst handle between her fingers, a habit she’d adopted ever since her first year at Ilvermorny. She could feel the tears starting to cloud her vision as she stared out the window to her parents standing on the platform. Though she wanted to cry, she refused to let them fall. Her parents wouldn’t care anyway. This was the most determined they’d been to have her do something in her entire life.

To (y/n)‘ s bitter frustration, she hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to her friends and beloved professors. Her parents sprung the frightful news merely a few days before she was due for the new school year in America; gave her a few days to get come to terms with starting a new life elsewhere. She’d never resented their job more, even when it had them disappearing for months on end.

And even more frustratingly, they refused to tell her why. But the cold conviction in her father’s eyes and the shadows of something darker and more uncertain — in her mother’s, (y/n) couldn’t find it in herself to disobey them either.

So yet here she sat, on some godforsaken train in some godforsaken robes making sure not to spill these godforsaken tears.

Life couldn’t be worse for her right now.

And as if to mock her, the loud sound of the door handle rattling startled her from her melancholy staring contest with her parents. To top it off, the train had finally jerked into motion, her heart along with it. Shaking from sheer surprise, the blood rushed to her ears, nearly drowning out the arrogant alohamora from the other side of the door.

A tall blonde boy sauntered into the compartment, a sneer on his face.

“How dare you take my compartment, you filthy—,”

The words died in his throat as his eyes landed on the girl in the corner. Her eyes were glassy and her nose was red, giving her (s/c) skin a flushed glow. Normally he’d take the opportunity to mock them further, but his jaw refused to move. Not liking being gawked at, (y/n)’s voice filled the silence.

“You were saying?” She snapped.

Whatever it was, it was going to be rude. A glare made its way to her face as she angrily blinked her tears away. Using this time to take in the boy’s features, (y/n) couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised. He was rather handsome, with fine blonde strands of hair falling into his face. He had clear grey eyes that reminded her of her overcast skies, which she rather liked. The green and silver Slytherin crest was proudly displayed on his chest, and her preconceived notions about Hogwarts’ houses set in just a bit more.

“I—I—Um, are you new?” He stuttered dumbly. The stupid look on his face was enough to wash some of her irritation away, and she relaxed her shoulders a bit. Furrowing her brows, she stared at the door until the boy got the hint and closed it behind him. It wasn’t until he was sat across from her and their eyes were locked again before she bothered to answer his question.

“I’m not a little first year, if that’s what you’re asking. But... yes, I am new. I’m a fourth year.”

He nodded his head, continuing to stare at her. She started to feel a bit put off before he opened his mouth again.

“Not from here, either. You an American? What’s your name?”

“I am American. I’m (F/n) Hightower.”

His eyes bugged out of his head, and (Y/n) couldn’t help but giggle. He was rather entertaining...and cute, if she’d had to admit.

“Hightower as in one of the oldest American Wizarding families? Your family practically helped pioneer the entire setup of the American Wizarding World,”

He exclaimed. A throb of annoyance fell upon her, but (y/n) brushed it off. Her family name meant she had a fuckton of expectations placed on her shoulders, and she didn’t particularly want them to carry over to her new life at Hogwarts.

“And your name?” She asked. He sat back proudly, a smug smile gracing his face. A smirk soon mirrored it on (y/n)‘s; she’d always liked seeing self-assurance on others.

It made her wish she had some for herself.

“I’m a Malfoy, of course. Draco Malfoy,” he reached out with his hand, before freezing and pulling it back quickly. The embarrassed laugh that followed made (y/n) laugh as well. She’d heard of the Malfoys, and so far this Draco boy aligned with most of what she’d learned. Perhaps a bit more charm, though.

They talked animatedly about their families for a while, finding familiarity in the pressure of a high-profile background.

“So which house do you recommend?”

Perhaps it was a stupid question, but she enjoyed the way his eyes lit up following it regardless.

“Slytherin, obviously! We’re the best at everything and have the most house cups under our belt,” he bragged. “The other houses are full of losers, but if there were a house I’d definitely stay away from it would be Gryffindor. They’re a bunch of self-righteous freaks,” Draco huffed, crossing his arms. His childish comment and posture eliciting an eye roll.

“Forget I asked,” she joked. (Y/n) explained a bit of how Ilvermorny’s sorting process went about, hers in particular. The subject seemed very interesting to the blonde haired boy and she found herself gradually reddening from the attention.

But she’s (Y/n) freaking Hightower, and she does not get flustered by boys.

“I knew the moment I saw you that you were different,” he boasted. “I’d have remembered seeing a girl like you around before—,”

“A girl like me?” She cut in, making him falter. As if just realizing what he’d said, Draco’s face turned red, and he recoiled back into his seat.

“I meant— you— you’re from a good family, is all.” He stammered. With a raised brow, (y/n) leaned forward, invading some of his space.

“Family isn’t everything you know. You’re only what you make of yourself... not to mention, outside of the Wizarding World, we’re not much. The muggles have accomplished loads without magic, I’d say that’s something to applaud on its own.”

He gaped at her for a moment, jaw hanging. Feeling self-conscious, she drew back a bit. She suddenly remembered the clear division between muggles and wizards here in Europe, and felt stupid for bringing it up.

“Who cares about muggles? They’re even worse than the mudbloods — at least they can do magic, no matter how poorly,” he sniggered, a glimpse of the initial nastiness she saw when he’d first entered her compartment.

A scowl now adorning her face, (y/n) stood up abruptly.

“I grew up alongside muggles, you know. Their technology can make life very convenient,” she hissed. Muggles were a sore subject for (y/n) amongst her magical friends; though not as bad as Europe, the American Wizarding world still practiced some degree of separation from muggles, which fostered some less-than-kind mentalities amongst some of her peers back in America. She assumed it would be worse here, but coming face to face with it from a boy who’s company she otherwise enjoyed was decidedly unpleasant.

Draco stared up at her, taken aback. “Well, they—they just don’t belong with us,” he exclaimed, standing up as well.

Her face officially hot, (y/n) marched past him and threw open the doors of the compartment.

“If that’s what you think,” she hissed, “you can leave.”

For what seemed like the thousandth time since they met, Draco once again gaped at her. Face twisting, he strode past her.

“Didn’t take a Hightower for a blood traitor,” he spat, slamming the door behind him.

Furious, (y/n) slammed herself back into her seat before promptly shutting the blinds in her window, darkness encasing her cabinet.

Welcome to Hogwarts, she moaned.

*

As she gazed glumly at the gaggle of first-years in front of her, (y/n) couldn’t help but curse her parents to the high heavens for the millionth time that day. Going through the bated torture of just one house sorting three years ago was quite enough, thank you. She never thought she’d be here again, experiencing this again. Hogwarts and Ilvermorny unfortunately did not have some sort of house equivalency, thus her recent move meant she was forced to be sorted once again like some sort of anxiety-ridden eleven year old.

Well, she wasn’t. She was an anxiety-ridden fourth year, and for Merlin’s sake, this stupid hat was by far the most tedious being she’d ever bore witness to existing!

It spent a good twenty minutes on some students, and heavens knows how long this event would actually last. She didn’t even want to be here anyway.

But as another child was sorted, the thunderous applause of Ravenclaw house deafened her ears yet again and she couldn’t resist the small smile that crept along her face. At the very least, Ilvermorny and Hogwarts had one thing in common: comraderie. She’d heard gossip about how intense the house rivalry of Hogwarts was, but for now, it was nice to see a bit of community shown in order to drown out her lonely anxieties.

It was another thirty minutes before her name was called, and the Great Hall descending into a suffocating silence. A good two heads taller than the first-years, she stood out like a sore thumb. But if (y/n) was to be deemed as anything, she wanted it to be confident, so she sauntered up to the platform without delay. Her face was the picture of calm, but she couldn’t resist tightening her grip on her wand as she felt the inumerable amount of eyes on her. She’d thought about which house she’d prefer to get sorted into beforehand, but had doubts.

(Y/n) was 100% sure her personality aligned best with Slytherin, but the house’s propensity for dark magic and prejudice didn’t bode well with the kind of wizard she wished to be. Gryffindor seemed the next best choice, but the tact and levelheadedness of Ravenclaw house was something she’d surely advantage from.

She considered all of these options, but when the hat descended on her head, there was only one house actually in her mind.

“Oh-ho-ho! A Pukwudgie! A special one at that! Looks like we have future Wizarding royalty in our presence. Though, you lot’s preferred way of sorting is quite boring though, innit? Well, I’d say at least. Of course, a Pukwudgie there makes for anything you’d like here, special or not. You’d do particularly well in Slytherin, it seems... but it looks like you’ve made up your mind? Careful love, it isn’t too good to believe everything you hear. You’d be proud to be in any of our houses, I’d reckon! But, still? Are you sure? Well, okay —

Hufflepuff for the yankee!”

Maybe it was because she was clearly not a first-year and therefore more interesting, but (y/n) could have sworn Hufflepuff’s cheers were a bit louder than for those before her. Either way, she couldn’t help the wide smile that bloomed on her face as she rose from her seat. As she stood, her gaze landed squarely on two piercing grey eyes staring directly at her. Across from her was the Slytherin house, the house that she’d might have been part of in another life. Time seemed to have stood still in this split second, and she felt something stir in her chest. A small twang of regret? Or, guilt even?

But that was impossible, what would she be guilty of? And as her gaze landed on the lips underneath those eyes, which were now twisted into a familiar sneer, (y/n) promptly turned away and pranced over to her new home away from home.

Even if Slytherin had that handsome, rude boy, she was sure Hufflepuff had better in store for her.

Author’s Note: Leave a comment or an ask in order to be added to the tag list ☺️

[lawdtl]

BeChloe - Betty

so here’s that bechloe fanfic based on taylor swift’s song; betty..it’s best if you hear the song first for all the feels, so enjoy peeps, i hope you guys like it :)

Beca didn’t like the fact that she had to move in with her dad, didn’t like that she had to move to a whole new state for her last year in high school, she didn’t like the fact that she has to meet new people and have to introduce herself again to a bunch of strangers who she was only going to be with for a year, she also did not enjoy the fact that she has to go to summer class just because the school she was going to attend  required her to do so.

On her first week of summer class, all she did was sulk, I mean who even wants to wake up 7 am in the morning for a stupid class on summer she thinks to herself, none of this was appealing, and suddenly a red head with ocean like eyes came on the second week, she sat beside beca, smiling wide like somehow summer class was something enjoyable for her, the teacher asked her to introduce herself and it turns out she was already a student from the school, and her name was chloe, she had just returned from an important family matter making her miss the first week of summer class

When chloe sat down again, beside her, of all people, she introduced herself to beca, scooting a little closer, offering her hand for a handshake, grinning wide, it’s like she was an over sweetened cereal as a person who forgot what personal space meant

“hi I’m chloe”

“yeah I know you just said it in front of the whole class”

“yeah well, what about you, what’s your name? I haven’t seen you around school before, are you new?”

“beca, and it’s none of your business”

“oh come on, I know it’s summer class but doesn’t mean we can’t have fun”

“fun? In summer class? I should be at home relaxing, not giving a shit about how I dress and what time I wake up”

“same, but we gotta make the most out of this right?”

“Whatever red”

Chloe was always friendly, sometimes a little too friendly, she had lots of friends from school and she was a cheerleader too so usually when people see her, they already know her from somewhere, going to summer class was never on her plans, but she failed a subject, so what else she can do about it, might as well just do what needs to be done she thinks to herself, she had to come in late though because of some family stuff but when she entered the room on the second week of class, what she didn’t expect was to see someone that will interest her, the girl was staring at her, but not in a happy way, she walked past the empty seats in front and decided to seat beside the girl with furrowed brows and moody attitude, she hadn’t seen her before but somehow she wanted to get to know her

Weeks passed and slowly beca and chloe got closer, somehow the redhead managed to break beca’s walls and got her to open up more, they hang out a lot after class, had lunch together and always sat together during classes, most of the times beca didn’t even try to listen to the teachers, she had no interest in paying attention so chloe always helped her with her notes and even forced her to study, the two of them fell into a friendship they didn’t know they needed, and although beca was still hesitant sometimes, she had grown close to chloe,

And just like their friendship something unexpected happened, beca had fallen in love with chloe, had fallen in love with how she laughed, with how she made her feel all flustered,  with how every time beca made her listen to her music, chloe gave her honest opinions and showed real appreciation, she fell in love with their small conversations and their silly inside jokes that no one could ever understand, she even loved how they can message each other all through the night about nonsense things that they both just enjoyed talking about, and with that beca suddenly felt scared, scared that she might lose chloe if she ever act upon her feelings, so she kept it all inside

All summer long they were inseparable, even after summer class they still managed to hang out, doesn’t matter when or where, they always seemed to have a good time, never running out of things to do together, chloe always went over to beca’s house, they didn’t even live far from each other, they’d order pizza and watch movies all day, but on the week before school started, they were hanging out at beca’s house, just like a normal day, chloe just had to know, just had to ask something she couldn’t keep herself from knowing the answer to

“becs can I ask you something?”

“hmm?”

“do you uhm, do you like someone?”

“huh? What are you talking about?”

“nothing, just…curious is all”

“I don’t like anybody”

“oh, well..what do you..like?..in a person”

“I don’t know chlo, can we drop this”

“well do you like me?”

“what do you mean?”

“do you..like,..like me?

“I don’t know where this is going chloe”

“okay don’t get mad, but just before summer classes ended, someone from our class told me that you liked me, and that it’s obvious and I need to know if it’s true because”

“get out”

“beca, come on”

“no get out, now”

“can we at least talk about this”

“just go chloe, please”

Chloe headed out with a heavy heart, eyes filled with tears ready to fall any minute now, she rode her bike on her way home feeling like an idiot, thinking that maybe she never should have opened it up, she should have just shut up about it, because now she’s losing beca, and she never wanted that to happen

When school started beca saw chloe from afar, she can feel chloe’s eyes watching her, clinging to her as if they were touches, but beca ignored them all, she ignored her on Monday, on Tuesday, Wednesday  and even on Thursday when both of them were at the gym while their favourite song played on the speakers, she watched chloe as she practiced with her cheerleader friends and she envied them, envied their closeness, and when chloe’s head turned to her way, they locked eyes, suddenly pain and longing coursed through beca’s veins, so she turns away like nothing has happened, she glanced over just one more time and sees chloe dance with some tall guy and felt her heart break into a million pieces, jealousy sinking in,  and on Friday while beca was inside the toilets, washing her hands, chloe came out on one of the stalls, their eyes met on the mirror and felt the whole world stopped moving, beca hurriedly dried her hands and just before she was about to leave, chloe speaks up

“beca, I’m sorry..i never wanted you to feel“

“it’s okay, I don’t need your apology, just…it’s not your fault”

Beca walked away feeling broken, like something inside her just died, she was scared, scared to confront her feelings, she never felt like this before, never felt this kind of love before, she goes straight home after classes and as she rode her skateboard on her way home she passed by chloe’s house, and it’s like she couldn’t breathe, memories of them during the summer filled her thoughts, she shakes her head and forced herself to forget it all, to act as if it was all some stupid dream

Once she gets home she sees a message from chloe, asking her to go to her house tomorrow “there’s a party at my place tomorrow, please go, I would love to see you, please, can we please talk about this” beca stares at the message, hoping that it’ll erase itself, she lies down on her bed, imagining all the scenarios that could happen if she does go, what else does she have to lose with chloe, she thinks to herself, they’re already ignoring each other, so maybe, just maybe, a talk with her won’t make things any worse than they are now

Beca stands in front of her mirror, wearing jeans and her favourite shirt, breathing slowly and continuously asking herself if what she’s about do, is the right decision, she looks at herself on the mirror and she closes her eyes, trying to calm herself, psyching herself up to whatever may happen on this Saturday night, she heads outside to grab her skateboard on the way to chloe’s house, heart beating fast, and hands shaking, she stands in front of the door at chloe’s house and rings the doorbell, it’s going to be fine, everything is going to be fine she tells herself over and over again until the door opens up and she sees chloe, standing in front of her, with those beautiful eyes and her little smile, but before she could even say a word, chloe grabs her hand and drags her to the back in the little private area on the garden

“I know how much you hate crowds, so this is the next best thing to private…what changed your mind?”

“to what?”

“to talk to me”

“well, I guess I have nothing else left to lose, so..yeah, here I am, what do you want to talk about”

“about us”

“what about it”

“do you like me?”

It was like beca’s whole world stopped again, there’s that question, “do you like me” it’s as if her whole life depended on the answer to that question and by the look at chloe’s eyes she felt the same, it’s time to be honest she thinks to herself, she owes chloe that much

“what if I said yes”

“then we can talk about it”

“talk about?”

“well, I’ll you that I like you too, and that you asking me to go before I could say that to you was rude”

“you like me?”

“ever since that first day”

“why didn’t you tell me”

“why didn’t you tell me?”

“you, you actually like me?”

“yes beca, I do, I like how you make me laugh with your stupid jokes, like how you make me feel special, love how when you talk to me it’s as if no one else mattered in the world but us, so yes, yes I do like you”

“I wanted to tell you but I got scared, scared of rejection, scared that you’ll leave”

“and yet, you left”

“I know, I was afraid chlo”

“I’m afraid too, I never wanted anyone so much until I met you”

It was all too surreal, beca thinks; everything was happening so fast, the loud music in the background, people’s voices, the smell of smoke and liquor clouding the whole area

“so what does this mean”

“this means I love you beca”

“I..i love you too chlo”

Everything was perfect, never in her wildest dreams she thought she’d get the girl in the end, they pressed their foreheads together,  eyes closed, not wanting the moment to go away, and just as chloe brushes her nose on beca’s to reach her lips, the lights on the garden lit up and people could see them, but this didn’t stop chloe from finally kissing her, and when they kissed, anyone in the party didn’t matter anymore, all that mattered was chloe and her.

[calumbringbackthewatermelonshirt]

Hiraeth (C.H.)

Hiraeth: a homesickness for a home you can never return to, a home which maybe never was. 

a/n: welcome back. please enjoy this entirely too long calum hood boarding school au. I did my best, but if there are any discrepancies PLEASE send me an ask and tell me!!! I included the women of 5sos for more character diversity and I low-key kind of love it! this is about the first 10 pages and theres dozens more to come that are already written! come hell or high-water, I am committing to finishing this wip, please feel free to send me thoughts and questions!!!

“Crap.” Sierra muttered under her breath when she noticed the sign on the old RA’s door. Even though she wouldn’t have considered them friends, Sierra was at least comfortable enough with the old RA to go to her when Sierra needed to get into her room. She really had to start keeping track of her keys better.

Stalking back down the hallway, she went to go find Kaykay, knowing her roommate would definitely have her keys.

….

“A new RA?” Calum sounded skeptical over dinner the next day. “It’s kind of late in the school year for that.”

“What do you care, Hood?” Michael rested his weight on his elbows on the table and smirked at Hood over his sandwich. “Afraid of a little competition?”

“What competition?” Luke looked up from his latest novel, some clunky old thing he was reading in french.

“Competition for the best RA, duh.” Kaykay kicked her feet up onto the table, only to have Hood shove them back onto the ground. Hood never let her have her feet on the table when they were eating but that didn't stop her from putting them up there. One day, one day she would be able to keep them up there for the entirety of the lunch. It was like her white whale. “Maybe this one will let us play poker on her floor.”

“Yeah, well, she’s not off to a great start. I got locked out earlier and had to find Kaykay to let me into our room.” Sierra was still a little bothered by that. Even though rationally she knew she should cut the new RA some slack, her blisters were making it kinda hard to forget her trek.

“Come on now, Si. A little walking never killed anybody.” Michael gave Sierra a grin that stretched wide across his face, but if there was anyone who could resist it, it was Sierra.

“You’re not the one who had to walk all the way across campus.” Sierra was grumbling into her food, but it was still audible to Kaykay, who smothered a snicker.

“Give her a chance, Sierra. The new RA was probably still moving in. Be nice.” Crystal was palming orange slices into Luke’s hands as he read, who was robotically eating them. Kaykay, on the other hand, was blowing her straw wrapper at Luke’s face, cheering when she hit him. Luke didn’t seem to register either one of them.

“Coach says we’re getting someone new on the soccer team. Maybe it’s also the new RA?” Kaykay picked at her food absentmindedly, as if contemplating the odds of it being the same person. Kaykay was pretty good friends with everyone on the team, but she was on JV and the coach said the new girl would be on varsity.

“Maybe. Everyone finish up. Curfew’s in 15 minutes, and you all need to be back in the dorms by then.” Hood didn’t seem like he put much thought into the conversation that had gone down at the table, more concerned with corralling his bunch into following the rules. It almost never happened, but Hood still tried.

“It’s not like it’ll matter much. Sierra and I don’t have anyone there to tell us we're late.” Kaykay was still playing the cat and mouse game with Hood, her doc martens gracing the table with their presence once more. Hood, to his credit, pushed them off not even a minute later.

Crystal stood up, dragging Luke with her. “Yeah, but we do.”

….

“Do you think she’ll be nice? Or like super strict? God, I hope she’s not super strict. Maybe we’ll get super lucky and get someone like Hood. Michael and Luke are so lucky.” Sierra was kind of nervous. She always got like this when she was gearing up to meet new people. Yet, her rambling subsided when she heard voices echoing down the mahogany hallways.

“No, you cannot set their rooms on fire. I don't care that they replaced your lip gloss with jelly, arson is not the answer. Please just shave their eyebrows like normal students. And go late at night so you don’t get caught. If you get caught, I’ll have to play dumb and that’s kinda hard for the valedictorian.” Kaykay and Sierra watched as two sophomores ran giggling down the hallway, armed with freshly acquired shaving cream and devious new plans.

Sierra and Kaykay locked eyes then spoke in unison. “Definitely cool.”

They took the short walk down to your doorway, where you were leaning and watching the two girls run off. You wore casual clothes, white school t-shirt, blue plaid men’s boxers, and mix-matched socks, one short with an avocado on it and one tall with mini corgis. You were chugging iced coffee through straw like your life depended on it. Sierra took it all in, deciding she liked you by the time her eyes made it up to your metal straw.

You took one look at Sierra and Kaykay, almost studying them. “You heard nothing.”

Sierra was quick to reply, already wanting your approval. “Not a peep. I’m Sierra, and this is Kaykay. We’re on your floor.”

“Ah. Cool beans.” You introduced yourself, looking at Kaykay a second longer than Sierra. “You’re on the soccer team, right?”

“Yeah.” Unlike Sierra, Kaykay clammed up around people she didn’t know, and she was still quiet around the ones she did. “Are you the new girl the coach told us about?”

“I am indeed. I start practicing with you guys tomorrow.” You glanced at a notification that popped up on your phone, scrunching up your eyes a bit to read it. “It’s kinda late. Shouldn’t you two youngsters be asleep? You’ll need it if you wanna grow up big and strong.”

“Yeah, yes, of course. We promise we won't set anyone’s room on fire either.” After a withering glance from you, Sierra grinned. “Not that we would ever do that. Where would someone even get an idea like that?”

You smirked right back at them. “You know where I am if you ever need anything. But be warned, I’m not a morning person.”

With that you turned and shut your door, leaving Sierra and Kaykay standing in the hallway right outside your door.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sierra’s smile was as wide as her face allowed. She had a devious look on her face, one that only a person who had illegally downloaded thousands of shows on her laptop could have.

“I never am. I’m pretty sure no one ever is.” Kaykay was skeptical, knowing that whatever was going on in that genius brain of Sierra’s could not be good. Sierra had a nose for sticking her nose in other people’s business.

“Her, plus Hood, equals literally the most perfect couple in the world. Maybe to ever exist.” Oh, she could already see them together, holding hands, you making Hood laugh for once in his life. Him cheering you on at your soccer games. You cheering him on at his if the gang could force him to have fun. Oh, this was perfect. Beyond perfect.

“Are you sure? We probably shouldn’t meddle in other people’s love lives. It might be kinda rude.” Kaykay scrunched up her nose, allowing Sierra to drag her by the wrist back to their room. Kaykay wasn’t a particularly nosy person.She was a big fan of giving herself rules to not get attached, such as ‘hey, don't insert yourself into other people’s love lives.’

“Oh, hush, I’m literally the best cupid. I even have the wings for it.” Sierra was jogging a little now, so many plans already rushing through her head. Sierra had always considered herself a bit of genius, but she had outdone herself this time.

…

“Hello, my darlings!” Sierra was buzzing with excitement. This was a big moment for her. Her scheme was about to be set into motion, and god, was she excited. Hood was stuck in a floor meeting for Lincoln house, which meant you were, too. She took the timing of the meeting as a sign from the gods that this was meant to be. “Listen up please. I have news.”

Sierra remained standing as the others gathered round and took their seats. She waited until everyone sat down and was too busy with their food to interrupt her.

“So. Kaykay and I have met the new RA, and let me tell you, she is amazing.”  Sierra grinned leaning forward on the table. Her words all came out a teensy bit rushed, as they were prone to do when she was excited.

“Weren’t you just hating on that chick yesterday? What changed your mind?” Michael was halfway through his eggs, and three-quarters of the way awake. Sierra could be loud when she got excited, and he wasn’t looking to be all the way awake yet.

“Hush, your leader is speaking. Anywho, she is not a chick, she is a queen. She is also perfect for one pseudo dad floor advisor we know.” Sierra was swatting at Kaykay, who was barely awake, trying to get her to pay attention to her all-knowing speech. Kaykay to her credit, hummed in agreement, albeit with her eyes closed.

“Wait, perfect as in like dating?” Luke looked almost disgusted at the idea of two people in a relationship. Crystal almost let Luke catch her smiling, but hid it at the last second. Crystal guessed he was still in the ‘girls have cooties’ phase, and it amused her to no end.

“She’s pretty cool.” Kaykay's words were soft with sleep, but there was enough of a lull in the conversation from everyone to hear her. “She’s on the soccer team with me.”

“As the most responsible person here, I cannot condone this and will not partake in any scheme you may or may not dream up. However, I also know I can’t stop you. Please just don’t do anything too stupid.” Crystal was sipping a glass of tea, trying not to look bemused by the idea of Hood in a relationship. Even though he was only a year younger than her, she reminisced on her own young love. It would be good for him, Crystal thought to herself. Plus, she had seen you around the library quite a bit. The two of you had chatted, and Crystal already liked you. Maybe she wouldn't have an active role in the forging of the relationship, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t support it.

“I dunno. I’d have to meet her before I could make a judgment on whether she’s good enough for Hood.” Even though Micahel didn’t care to admit it, Hood was the dad to their little group of misfits. Michael didn't want him to get hurt, especially if it would be their fault.

Sierra was grinning her ‘I’m a genius and this is genius’ grin again. “Oh, trust me. She is.”  

…

You were lying on a couch in the commons when their gaggle found you, chewing forbidden gum and texting on a forbidden phone. You had seen them approaching, but still didn’t care enough to put your phone away. You hadn’t taken either of the girls you met last night as a snitch, and from the looks of the girl in the against dress code denim jacket, you were probably right to assume the same about all of them.

“Sup kiddies.” You didn’t even glance up at them. If they weren’t screaming, it wasn’t an emergency. And if it wasn’t an emergency, it wasn’t worth looking up from your intense game of 8-ball for.

“We require assistance.” Sierra was acting as the pseudo leader of the group, speaking up before the others got the chance.

“In what form? We talking ‘hide a body’ or ‘I got locked out’  kind of assistance?” This time you looked up, taking in seven sets of eyes upon you, including Crystal and a different senior you didn’t know. Immediately, you were suspicious. Why would two seniors be needing your help?

“More of the second one, but also not.” You sighed and stood up, stretching as you did so. Nothing like a second-day, midafternoon crisis to get your blood flowing.

“What’s up?” You introduced yourself to the rest of the bunch and gave a quick nod to Crystal. “You’ve got me for 20 minutes and then I have a soccer practice. Actually, you do too, Kaykay.”

“This won’t take long. You have extra library privileges since you're a RA, right?” Sierra took off as soon as you stood up, the rest of the group following, clearly already knowing whatever plan they had formed. You stayed silent, waiting for them to explain more before you promised to be able to help. It was a bit confusing why they needed your help since Crystal actually worked in the library.

“Moving on. We wanna rent out a study room for a little bit this evening and...,” there was a pregnant pause as they all made eye contact between Sierra’s words, “study.”

“Yeah, I’m still not seeing how any of this involves me.” You were near the back next to Crystal, noting Sierra’s wild hairstyle and purple lip gloss, and Kaykay’s various piercings. The group didn’t exactly seem like the rule following type, which made you even more perplexed for their need for you. What could they be getting at?

“We need you to persuade the librarian to bump one of the study room spots open. They’re all filled.” Ah, finally, the truth came out. Luckily for them, you had made good with the librarian after spending most of your free time with her. Being the new kid, plus the pressure from your parents to keep your grades up, equaled having you living in the library. But none of them knew that except for Crystal.

The need for your help in the library made you pause for a second. Crystal worked in the library. She could definitely be of more help than you, and you were pretty sure everyone in the group knew it.

“They like you. They just don’t know how to ask to hangout with you in a normal way.” Crystal lowered her voice, almost whispering. She loved her little band of misfits, but their methods were...unique sometimes. Crystal still tried to support them as much as she could, even if she had to spoil their dramatics sometimes.

“Ah. I see.” You nodded thoughtfully. Crystal was a level headed person. But you could tell she definitely had a fun side, too. “Follow my lead?”

After a smirk and a quick nod, you tried to act thoughtful for a second.

“I dunno. Ms. Robins is a real rule follower. It’s gonna be a hard sell to get her to bend the rules our way. I might need some incentive to help me want to risk getting caught.”  And just like that you had a scheme of your own.

“What are you saying?” Michael, he said his name was, was eyeing you. It was pretty clear he didn’t trust you. It wasn’t your problem, but you figured you should try and look approachable as a new RA.  After all, it was kind of your job.

“Just that. Like, if someone was to offer to buy me a coffee as a thank you, I would be much more willing to take part in your little scheme.” Luke, the young one, opened his mouth as if to deny your calling what they were doing a scheme. “Don’t even deny it, boyo. This is most definitely a scheme.”

The younger kid huffed out a ‘fine,’ easily defeated.

“Back to the matter at hand. What’s in it for me?” You smirked back at them, adrenaline buzzing through your veins.

You could have sworn you heard Kaykay mutter ‘a boyfriend.’

Sierra covered, not that you were sure anything was actually said. “Ashton has a car. He can take you to town and stuff.”

You made eye contact with Ashton, the one who allegedly had a car. It was a bit tempting. Really tempting. There was a coffee shop on campus, and you had a keurig in your room, but it was nothing compared to the taste of mass-manufactured Dunkin Doughnuts coffee. Plus, off campus meant no uniform. That was a win enough.

“Well, then. I think we have ourselves a deal.”  You could already taste the coffee.

…

God, these kids were not slick. You were chatting with Ms. Robins about nothing in particular, not even broaching the subject of the study rooms. You knew Ms. Robins would bump one if you asked, but it was way more fun to do it the hard way. It was kind of funny to watch the little group you were with try to be slick and spy on the conversation without getting spotted, but not one of them was successful.

“Hey, is the room for RAs empty?” There was a study room set aside for RAs when they needed a break from the typical chaos on the floors of the dorms. You wouldn’t call it secret, per say, but you could agree that not well-known was a fitting term.

“Of course dear. It’s all yours if you want it. Do you need the key?”

You said no and thanked the kinder older lady. It was like you said, sometimes it was more fun to do it the hard way.

Everyone gathered around as you walked back to where Crystal and Ashton had been sitting and chatting.

“Bad news. Robins wouldn’t budge.”  You sighed and leaned on the table suppressing a smirk. You had to draw them in first to have a big reveal.

“Damn.” Ashton swore under his breath.

“But…” You raised your finger and cocked your head, finally allowing a grin to cross your face. “I know a secret room.”

“A what?” You finally had Kaykay’s attention, at least. Probably the secret part of your sentence.

“A secret room. Follow.” The floor advisor study room was at the very end of the hallway and had the overhead light above the door flickering, which only added to the “secret room” illusion.

Michael reached the door first, shaking the older knob, which did not open. It was locked, after all. “What now?”

They all looked at you expectantly, but you had come prepared.

“Step aside, peasants.” You whipped out your student I.D., sliding it into the gap between the door and the frame. With a quick swipe and twist of your wrist, the door opened with a click.

Sierra looked like she could hug you, Luke was already in the room, and Michael nodded his head approvingly. Ashton and Kaykay both gave you a high five, though.

“You gotta teach me how to do that!” Kaykay was practically beaming at you, as if you were the coolest person she knew.

“Uh, no. There’s no telling what you would do with that knowledge.” Crystal crossed her arms, but she winked at you as she crossed the threshold into the room.

“Alrighty. Kaykay and I have to get a move on lest we want to run laps til we puke. Enjoy don’t destroy kiddos.” You shut the door behind you and Kaykay, grinning at your little rhyme.

…

“So?” Sierra was excited, and for good reason. She was right. You were perfect, both in general and for Hood.

“Alright, Si, you got me. She’s pretty cool.” Michael was letting his features transform to a smile, ready to hear out the rest of Sierra’s plan. It was official. He was now an accomplice.

“I like her. She’s...fun.” Ashton was studying the corners of the room, finding it up to his posh standards. There was no way this was just a “secret hidden” room, but he didn’t particularly care to give up their new friend’s ruse. “But I’m with Crystal. I’m not going to be a willing participant.”

Sierra gave him her best puppy dog eyes. She had already planned up to step twelve of your and Hood’s relationship, and they would need Ashton’s help if they wanted to get past step five.

“Fine. I will not be an active participant.” They were relentless. Ashton knew that if he didn’t agree now, he’d end up caving later. Might as well agree now on his own terms.

“I think she’s cool. You don’t meet very many people who know how to pick locks any more. Hey, did you guys know that that specific type of lock is actually-” Luke was starting to spiral into obscure facts, as he did sometimes.

“Good, so we're all in agreement.” Sierra was ready. It was time to tell everyone the first few steps of operation “lovebirds.”

The name was a work in progress.

….

You had been adopted. Well, in a way you were. The group from the library had adopted you as one of their own, but you had already adopted all of them as your children. Minus Crystal and Ashton, of course. They had also adopted the younger kids, Crystal in a maternal way and Ashton in an uncle sort of way. But a fun uncle.

You had been eating with them at meals, walking to and from the various buildings with each other, even turning the lounge you had broken them into into your own little hangout. It was kind of nice to be a part of their own little family.

That’s exactly what it was. A family. There was just one piece missing. The “dad”.

“Hood”.

Pretty much all the younger kids did was talk about him, making it clear that he was basically their dad. And that he was a “super cool person if you didn’t count the stick up his ass,” according to Kaykay. You had yet to find out his name. Well, his real name. Apparently, he was the RA to your own brother dorm in Lincoln house and you had still yet to meet him. He was clearly a huge part of this group, though. That just kind of added to your puzzling view of him.

He most definitely was a mystery.

Whenever you brought him up to the group, all they did was look at each other and do a poor job at hiding their smiles. You ignored it for the most part, though. If you were destined to meet Hood, you would. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t.

Still you couldn’t help but wonder about him. Who he was, what he watched on Netflix, what he looked like.

You were in fact thinking about these very things in your morning elevator ride up to your first class of the day. You were still kind of out of it, only on your second cup of coffee and still in your zombie mode.

But, you were awake enough to hear a voice calling out to stop the elevator. And lucid enough to stick your hand in the doors a second before the closed.

Into the elevator rushed a guy about your age, taller and definitely cute. His dark hair was kind of shaggy, but that only added to his appeal for you.

“Thanks.” His voice was deep, but still soft. If you were any more awake, you’d ask for his number.

“No problem.” Instead of laying on the moves, you resigned yourself to taking another long slurp of your coffee, relaxing back against the railing of the elevator.

“You, um, you have something in your hair.” You looked up at him, cocking your eyebrow. Of course you had something in your hair. With the cutest guy you've met at this school thus far staring at you. Yet again, the stranger burst into your thoughts. “Can I get it for you?”

“That’d be great. I’d hate to walk around looking like an idiot all day.” You gave him your most witty, charming smile as you turned to face elevator guy.

“Got it.” You gave him a smile in lieu of a thanks, trying not to embarrass yourself any further. It was unlikely, but hey, worth a shot. It was then elevator guy chose to mutter something under his breath.

“I’m sorry?” With all the muttering that was happening lately you were starting to contemplate getting your hearing checked. It’d be a worthy investment. You were under the impression that private school kids would be a bit more poised and able to speak a touch more clear. You were wrong yet again.

“Um, your hair smells nice.” Elevator guy was now a bright shade of red. Like a cute tomato. You looked down at your shoes, rolling your lips into your mouth but smiling. Yeah, definitely still smiling.

“Thanks.” You were smirking at him now. You kinda liked having all the power in the elevator, considering elevator guy looked like he was ready to die at any second now. “I’d repay the compliment but I’ve yet to catch a whiff of your shampoo.”

“I’m Cal.” He stuck out his hand, as if suddenly remembering he went to private school. A handshake, like you two were CEOs of companies or something. It was endearing. You took another sip of your coffee, maintaining eye contact, before you reached your hand out and joined it with his.

You had just finished the last syllable of your name when the elevator pinged, announcing your arrival on your floor. You walked out of the elevator without another word, knowing that Cal’s eyes were following you the whole time.

[sweet-xoxo-thatcares]

1st dream I ever had of JA together was right after I started my new job at the tax spot, and Jay was texting me about a house they wanted to rent and was looking for a roommate to help cut the cost. They showed me this brown house with an upstairs and downstairs, but it was like near the Northside kinda...but near Kettering. I remember looking at the map thinking dang it look kinda rough in the neighborhood, but 800 something month sounded good split between 3 ppl.

The dream that night was us in this small looking house in the forest, but we were happy until we actually went outside towards our backyard and there was the trees. Pine trees to be specific. We started running towards it because we were playing a game,, idk if it was tag or hide and seek...all I know is that it felt like we both were playing, me and Jay running with Ayunna nearby running too, and then all of a sudden we had to start running back to the house cause a bunch of peopl started coming out of the woods chasing us, before we even hit the trees.

We ran for our lives, at almost full speed, but I don't remember who hit the house first and no they didn't look like zombies. It was just a burst of a bunch of people covered in black, from head to toe chasing us, going as fast as we were. I remember when I got to the house I couldn't find everyone and I told my lil sister (idk why she was there) to go check downstairs and low and behold Ayunna was whispering, calling someone on the phone as she was in the living room and I was peeking in on her through the kitchen. She said my name and said it sort of alert, but kept it on hush hush like a teacher calling a student's parent. She said "Kylee's shaking and freaking out about it."

And I think she meant it like I was ready to go home. I thought she was calling her mom, cause I didn't plan on telling my mom about moving out with them at the time.

Because I was scared and paranoid about being far away from home with strangers chasing us from the woods. I didn't see Jay when she made the phone call, Interestingly enough. I remember there was a closet filled with supplies with like an orange kayak, some sports gear, some oars, and some other stuff. I don't remember what I was looking for in the dream, I was just trying make sure nobody from outside got into the house.

Crazy right? And this was in 2019. Had I said anything, I'm sure they would have just thought it was a bad dream. The house in the dream didn't look Nothing like the house Jay had shown me. It looked sorta different, because there wasn't no carpet on the floor except in the living room. The house in the ad had carpet everywhere.

Also, as gross as I'm willing to admit....the 1st sexual dream of Jay happened in January right before we got let go of that bookstore temp job....

Jay was grinding on me fully clothed and kept grunting the words "respect it" with each ride/hump on my..... I woke up wet and confused because I didn't understand why Jay would have said that to me, hovering over me, starting with a serious face, one hand over my left shoulder, the other between my right arm and right side of my body. As if I was supposed to be scared or something....like wayyy too rough.

Now that I see it, I think Jay wanted me to respect their privacy and their body. Because around that time, I was questioning if I was even gay and how I could possibly even like them when I didn't even know if they had a dick or not or nothing at all....I was concerned and confused because Jay was taken and why was I thinking about it so damn hard for like a solid week I didn't see them at work and it drove me nuts not to know, but I couldn't ask cause that's rude. I kept trying to prove myself wrong with counteraccusations like "how can you know you're gay, when you haven't even kissed a girl? We don't know if she or they has boy parts?"

I felt really guilty about liking Jay, someone out of the spectrum and not my normal type....cause they weren't normal. They were like an alien to me, I usually could observe people 1st before talking to them and trusting them to see if we would even be a good fit or so....but in Jay's situation....i needed to do some research before I was the curious George asking too much information that I shouldn't have been interested in knowing but still wanted to know for my own sake. Like how to address non binary ppl, how to say they and use the pronouns, and xr./xrs. or etc...but Jay wanted to be called Mister later on.

I made sure I knew alot more than my coworkers to be prepared for conversation matters so I didn't come off like an ignorant associate who didn't bother to Google it before saying it out loud. Cause with anything new, I always google 1st and look on reddit for unfiltered personal opinions about stuff.

Which is still the reason why I think Jay could actually want to date/have sex with men in the future. after taking hormones so many ftms said once the dysphoria felt like it was gone and they were comfortable being themselves, as a man...they started opening back up that door they once closed towards men. Some even went girls only, to bisexual, to just gay (dating men). And there were a bit more reddit asking why there isn't as many straight ftms and why is there more ftms turning gay after transitioning....which sorta sucked to hear but I needed to know in case I had another panic attack again from being shocked from any more unexpected, extreme news from someone who always acted like they were anti-dick. Even to go as far as declining dick offers from sugarmommas they told me about.

It was gross to hear that they offered me up to that same random sugarmomma without even asking me if I was comfortable or even wanted to have sex with another stranger. Cause I sure as hell didn't. They just offered my name up to her, like they were selling me off as some hoe-sub. Being petty cause I started looking for an actual commitment on tinder.

I hated them for doing stupid, inconsiderate, uncomfortable shit like that, thinking Imma just go along with everything just because I liked them.

I'm still mad about that too. That jealous pig. Man whore themselves. They've slept with more ppl than me and had the nerve to call.me a "bedhopper" when you're the one getting yourself emotionally caught up and cheating on your girl by breaking rules she told you not too. Petty, angsty, stupid bitch with man issues. Didn't want nobody checking them about they behavior cause I guess they thought they were being overdominated.

This idiot thought I was tryna challenge their dominance (red flag #142🚩lol) when I said sarcastically "I wasn't gonna buy you none, anyway" when Jay interrupted me with "oh I don't want any candy." after I said as we waited in the avengers movie line "I should have gone to the dollar party to get some candy, had I known it was gonna be this long of a wait." They thought I was being hostile....when noooo I was just stating the candy wasn't for you, and why should I give a fuck? Lol 😆 I always do that with my sisters and parents at home. That's how we talk to each other, sarcastic assholes and smart jokes. I asked Jay is your masculinity sensitive after they called me out about making that comment that I thought wasn't offensive...but I guess it rubbed then the wrong way?? But like how, cause it was about candy and I wasn't mad at them when I said it.

They took that candy comment way too seriously. Cause even ayunna agreed with Jay that I was challenging their dominance? Like wtffff how can I challenge someone's dominance without even being aggressive, pushing a button, or getting in your face?

I think they thought I was just the nice girl who never talks back. Bullshiiiiittttt I have a mouth. I'm allowed to speak 🤣😅 fucking idiots and they thought I was the sensitive one. Jay sensitive too. Any time they felt less like a man, they took it out on us, like a lil crybaby, like a punk. But I didn't say anything....cause it seemed like anything I said to defend myself they would get into my head too about how it don't make sense.

Truly I think we just came from 2 different backgrounds, one where I was taught to obey but speak my mind. And Jay was taught that control and making others controlled by fear, while they got to be enabled to do so...was their life at home being the oldest. I never like even my own manager for doing that, controlling, poking, and bitching about stress then then taking it out on us because he has anger and commitment issues at biglots.

Jay came from "I'm the man, you're supposed to shut up and be quiet when I say it." I came from a house that woulda whooped yo ass for saying shit like that to my own momma. We don't play that shit around here and I grew up in the south, and southern raised folk. You always respect women just as proper and equal as men too. Yes sir, thank you ma'am, and do you need some napkins, that southern hospitality and respect for other people, friends, and family I was taught that. Jay must have not been taught manners and stuff like I did. My momma and daddy a mind even teachers made me be nice and be a good listener, and a good student always ready, alert, paying attention. You got off task, you fall behind in school, so always pay attention. Dad always was hard on me reminding me to do my best and treat people the way you want to be treated.

[goldensunflowers98]

Aurelie | l.h. |

O N E

Nestled in the small corner of the wood just off Primrose Path and by a constant, babbling brook sat Aurelie Stone's cottage. With the drive lined with cobblestones, the walls covered in ivy, and just off the outskirts of her small village, it was quiet there with only the sounds of the tiny, woodland animals and nature callings being her friends.

She was content with that; the lack of human interaction. She only needed the quick chat with the bakers downtown when she waltzed inside to pick up her favorite bread flour for the week and that was it. She enjoyed being secluded, her only daily interchange being with her three year old cat, Clover, and her six month old kitten, Cotton. She wouldn't have moved into the quaint cottage when she turned twenty-three if she didn't.

She was used to being alone with her mother being dead and her father making sure he was so swamped with work that he didn't think about his wife's early death. When Aurelie was fourteen, her mother found a lump on her breast and after a trip to the doctor, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a long and rough battle, lasting over two years, and the already introverted Aurelie sunk further into her shell the day when the heart monitor stopped its repetitive, slow beeps and the final breath escaped her beautiful mother's lungs.

She was "the loner" at school, nose always buried in a thick novel in the corner of the library. She sat in the back of class, never raised her hand to answer questions and her face would flush bright pink when she was called on, her blonde hair falling forward to curtain her overwhelmed, blushing face.

It got to a point where the teachers didn't even call on her anymore. The jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the musical teens, and the punks and greasers would walk past her like she didn't exist and she wasn't the least bit upset about it. She actually enjoyed being invisible. She could be in the midst of an angsty teen, mental breakdown and no one would be the wiser.

The only person she really spoke to high school was the librarian, Mr. Hopper. He was an older gentleman with a warm, relaxing tone that reminded her of her grandfather and had a head full of snow white hair. He lived on a farm just off the village and adored dear Aurelie, the only student that would come in to visit the library when they didn't have a school assignment making them do so. So, when she graduated college and didn't want to stay home with an absent father, she jumped at the chance when Mr. Hopper told her about the small cottage at the end of his land.

With being so quiet and secluded, rumors were ought to start pouring from the bored, young adults mouths. She laughed at the one where people thought she was a thousand year old witch who lived off the blood of children to stay young and she found the rumor that she killed her own mother to be despicable.

She never let them bother her though and she took a job at the local veterinary clinic as the secretary. She didn't need to speak much as just handed a clipboard with paperwork for patient's owners and the animals didn't mind her silence as long as they got belly rubs and ear scratches in the meantime.

She was happy with her quiet life, lonely at times, but she never was able to give into the urge to go out. So, in her spare time, she baked pies from the fruit trees and shrubs around her little home, gardened and pruned her flowers, or read a good novel with a cup of piping hot earl grey tea - with just a hint cream and sugar - in her hands.

She also enjoyed taking long strolls along the towering garden walls that were littered with pink, climbing roses and she had to stand on her tiptoes to see over them and get a glance at the Hopper's farmhouse way across the fields. The way the sun glinted off the old window panes giving a golden haze and how the bright red shutters contrasted the white washed picket fence was breathtaking. Her small cottage could never compare to the dreamy farmhouse across the way.

Now, she stood at her small stove, two fresh eggs straight from Mr. Hopper's chicken coop cooked slowly in the pan in front of her. Two slices of bacon sizzled in another skillet next to it while a piece of bread toasted nearby.

She wipes her hand on her white apron as her baby blue skirt brushes across her ankles as she moves. Her golden blonde tresses are halfway pulled back in a lazy braid with the rest laying limp against her shoulders and her silky, white blouse feels soft against her skin.

Hearing the toast spring out from its fiery confines, she hums as she picks it out with the tips of her fingers and smoothes butter over the top of it. With a tiny, disgruntled noise in the back of her throat, she makes a mental note that this was the last of her bread and she needed to make her weekly trip to the village bakery for her favorite bread flour.

Finishing up her cooking, she is quick to scarf it all down, her stomach now full and content. With a quiet slurp, she finishes her morning tea and lets out a long sigh as she places the cup against the wooden countertop.

Her fingers drum against the wood and with a annoyed sigh, she blows a tendril of hair away from her face. It was her day off and she didn't wish to spend it with other humans in the village, but she did need to eat to live.

Feeling something soft circle her ankles, she looks down to see her two cats brushing against her lovingly as if to say, 'good morning, favorite human.'

She is about to lean over and pet their soft fur when she suddenly hears a ruckus outside and a melodic whistling outside her window. "What on earth?" she starts to say, heading straight for kitchen screen door. Peering through it, her eyes widen as she spots a boy -well, man- with golden curls on his head, a white cotton shirt, brown trousers, and brown suspenders completing his look. He's tall and lanky, his skin a bit sunburnt, and blonde, coarse hair covers his cheeks and chin, making his baby face look at bit older.

He is beautiful, a bit too beautiful to be real, but why is he in her yard and why is he carrying an axe, Aurelie wonders. He looks up when she swings the screen door open with a loud creak and she nearly stumbles when he gives her a glistening white, beaming smile so bright the sun was nearly put to shame.

"Hello," he gleams with respectful nod of his head, resting his weight on the axe. "Mr. Hooper said you liked a fire in the fireplace most nights and that you were running low on wood, so I took it upon myself to make sure you had some. Ladies like you don't need to be cold, especially with the chill coming next fortnight."

"Oh," her gaze turns towards the growing pile of wood next to her house before turning back to him. "Thank... Um, thank you... I'm sorry," she babbles, shaking her head and tucking her hair behind her ear nervously. "Who are you exactly?" She winces as she knows she sounds quite rude but there was a gorgeous man in her front yard with a sharp axe and she needed some answers.

"Oh, right!" He lets out an adorable laugh as he steps forward and reaches his hand out. "Lukas Hemmings at your service." She pauses for a moment, rubbing her sweaty, nervous palm against her skirt before she gingerly reaches out and his large palm overtakes her own. "But, most people just call me Luke." She barely is aware of him speaking as she oddly enjoys the feel of his callused fingers against her own.

It's a long moment before she snaps out of it, snatching her hand back quickly as she realizes she was shaking his hand way longer than necessary, but by the smile on his lips, he either didn't notice or was too sweet to say anything.

"You know," she looks up at him under her lashes as he begins to speak, amused. "When people tell you their name, it's polite to introduce yourself as well"

Her face blanches as he grins boyishly down at her and she bunches up her skirt with her fists. Idiot, she inwardly curses herself. "Aurelie," she chokes out. "Aurelie Stone."

"Well, it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss. Stone," he says as her eyebrows furrow in confusion. 

"What do you mean finally meet me?" She says puzzled, her toes curling against the soft grass under her bare feet.

"Mr. Hopper speaks of you fondly from time to time. He told me you lived at the cottage, but being his farm hand is a lot of work and time, so I've never been able to introduce myself... I wish I would have come sooner though because you are certainly breathtaking, Miss. Stone."

Her mouth drops in a perfect 'o', everything now making sense before she processes his last sentence, her face flushing instantly. "Oh! Well... I'm sorry for disturbing your work," she stumbles backwards and he watches with an amused smirk as she nearly tumbles over her own feet. "Um, thank you for the wood. Okay, alright, I'm leaving now. Bye."

She nearly falls as she scrambles into her home, slamming the door behind her. She breathes heavily, overwhelmed with her encounter with the beautiful man, and leans over to take one last look at him through the window. He is laughing to himself amused, shaking his head, before he wipes his sweaty brow and walking back over to the pile of wood.

She only watches his back muscles and biceps bulge for a mere second as he swings the axe before she pulls back the curtain, eyes wide. "No man should be that pretty. It's a sin," she mutters to herself as her two cats make their way back over to her.

Finding this human interaction to be enough for her today, she decided to go to the bakery tomorrow before work and hides in her house for the rest of the morning. When she hears no more noise from the Greek god outside and the beaming afternoon sun finally sets a bit, she pries open her front door, breathing in the cooler, fresh, afternoon air.

With an impish, excited smile, she shuts the door behind her and bunches up her skirt a bit before taking off. She loves the wind breezing through her hair as she runs, her bare feet in the soft, spring grass, and the sweet smell of honeysuckle fills her senses.

She follows the babbling creek, her feet hopping from stone to mossy stone, before she finally reaches her destination. If you follow the brook long enough, you'll find the hidden treasure at the end, a brilliant, glistening, blue lake where geese and swans graze the surface elegantly and fish fly out of the water as if to show off.

Her feet hit the wooden pier with a loud slap and she twirls a bit as she runs down it.

Standing at the edge, she closes her eyes and inhales deeply, loving the way the sun felt on her skin. She loved this lake, her perfect hideaway. No one else really knew about it or didn't bother to show up and she could be finally be alon-

"Miss. Stone, what are you doing out here?"

Her eyes pop open with a startled squeal and she loses her balance. She tries to catch herself, arms flailing, but the last thing she sees before she plunges into the cool water is a worried Luke Hemmings rushing towards her.

So much for being alone.

[cyborgsquirrel]

Sanctuary: Chapter 8

Pairing: Wolfstar

Summary: The epic tale of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, from their first meeting until their happily ever after.

Link to Prologue

Link to All Chapters

Saturday, 4th September 1971, 8:43 am

Remus was on his way down the Grand Staircase for breakfast when a giant blue squirrel startled him by dashing past him up the bannister. He spun around to watch its progress as it continued climbing. The strange creature didn’t seem to have any fur, and its skin had an odd shine to it. If forced to guess, he would say it was made from rubber. Weird. But what else would you expect in a magic school?

As he continued to descend the stairs, the sound of yelling, laughter and running feet reached his ears. He was almost at the ground floor when three Gryffindor second-years darted around the corner and passed him to run up the stairs. They were howling with laughter, and moments later an enormous, orange leopard with pink spots rounded the corner and leapt after them. Remus wondered if the animals were connected to his dorm mates sneaking out of the room the night before. They had been giggling loud enough to wake him up when they returned two hours later.

He reached the entrance hall and flattened himself against the wall. It was chaos. At least a hundred students were crowded into the space. The entrance hall was vast, so this normally wouldn’t be a problem, but there were also hundreds of the strange, technicolour rubber animals bursting out of the Great Hall. Animals that were naturally small were inflated to several times their usual size. While bigger animals, like the deep purple elephant that was forcing its way out through the doors, were normal-sized. There were rubber birds in the air, dive-bombing squealing students, and rubber primates swinging from the light fixtures to land on people’s heads. No one seemed to be able to enter the hall to eat, though several students were still trying.

Remus spotted Professor McGonagall attempting to herd the students back to the staircase, and Professor Dumbledore was standing off to one side watching the chaos unfold with a twinkle in his eye. The sea of students parted, and the tip of a hat bobbed its way down the path heading towards the main doors. A giant rabbit floated ahead of it, trapped in a bubble of faint yellow light. When the rabbit reached the doors, they swung open, and the light bubble vanished. The rabbit bounded away towards the forbidden forest and the watching children cheered.

‘Attention, students,’ Professor McGonagall said, her voice magically amplified to be heard over the commotion. ‘It will take some time to clear the Great Hall. Please return to your common rooms. Breakfast will be served to you there shortly.’

Remus stayed put while he waited for the entrance hall to clear of people. As the students left the area and made room, more animals spilled from the Great Hall. The entrance hall was almost empty of people when Remus heard a series of loud thuds and looked up in time to see the four house tables, led by the teachers’ table, gallop out of the hall. They charged through the throng of balloon animals, knocking them out of the way, and out into the grounds, where they pranced around on the grass, seeming to enjoy the sunshine and freedom.

Remus chuckled and batted his way through the balloon animals towards the kitchens. The prank had been impressive for a bunch of first-years. The balloons were obviously store-bought, but he had no idea how they had animated them. He reckoned he could do better though. A good prankster needed one thing if they didn’t want to be caught. Allies. And preventing your fellow students from eating was not the way to win them. Also, he would do it all with his own magic. He wouldn’t cheat by using store-bought items.

Remus felt a thrill of excitement. After breakfast, he would hit the library. He was bound to find something useful.

-o-o-o-o-

Sirius, James and Peter crouched in the corner of the entrance hall under the invisibility cloak with their hands over their mouths, trying to contain their laughter as they watched the house tables stampeding out through the front doors.

‘I forgot the tables would animate too. This is brilliant,’ James whispered.

‘I know,’ Sirius whispered back. ‘We should get back upstairs though. The teachers will be trying to find out who did it.’

They stood up and stepped away from the wall, but Sirius flung his arms out to stop them when he spotted someone else peeling themselves away from the wall.

‘Wait. Is that Remus?’ he said, pointing. ‘Where’s he going?’

They watched as Remus crossed the hall and headed down to the dungeons instead of up.

‘I dunno, mate, but we can’t follow him now. We need to go,’ James said.

Sirius knew James was right, but he was intrigued and decided he would follow Remus another time. The boys made their way to an alcove where they could remove the cloak without being seen and raced back up to Gryffindor tower. Well, Sirius raced James. Peter sort of just huffed along behind, arriving at the common room a good ten minutes after Sirius and James and finding them already settled in a corner with plates of sausages, bacon and eggs and a bowl of cut fruit. James insisted on the fruit, saying it was, “important to keep one’s body healthy.”

‘Do you two have to run everywhere?’ Peter huffed, sitting down at the table with his friends.

‘Yes. Yes, we do.’ Sirius said, nodding.

‘Don’t complain, mate. If we hadn’t, you wouldn’t have any bacon. Look.’ James pointed at the long table that had appeared in the middle of the common room, laden with food. ‘They’ve already run out. But we got some for you because we’re the best mates in the world.’

Peter picked up a rasher of bacon with his fingers. ‘You’re right. Thank you for running ahead so I could enjoy this delicious breakfast meat, oh wondrous friends of mine,’ he said, before stuffing the entire rasher into his mouth and chewing with a blissful smile on his face.

James laughed and slapped Peter on the back, ‘That’s the spirit.’

The common room was crowded and noisy with the whole of Gryffindor house present and trying to eat. Someone had coaxed a balloon lion through the portrait hole, and the inflated big cat prowled the room, pouncing on anyone who wasn’t paying attention and making them squeal with surprise. Sirius kept an eye out for Remus while he ate, but he never returned from wherever he had gone. He hadn’t eaten for two days now, and Sirius wondered if he should tell an adult, although that went against everything he believed in.

A sudden silence descended on the room, and Sirius looked up from his plate to see Professor McGonagall standing in front of the entrance and every student in the room staring at her in shock. The inflated lion was creeping up behind her, and Sirius gulped. Before the lion could pounce though, Professor McGonagall seemed to sense the impending attack and spun around. With a swift flick of her wand, she cast a spell at the lion, encasing it in the same pale yellow bubble that Professor Flitwick had used on the bunny in the entrance hall.

Turning back around, she glared at the packed room. ‘Misters Potter, Black and Pettigrew, you will come with me.’

The boys stared at each other.

‘How does she know?’ James whispered.

‘No idea, mate,’ Sirius said, standing up and eyeing the furious professor. ‘We better go though. She looks mad.’

‘Follow me,’ McGonagall said when the boys reached her. She flicked her wand again, and the lion floated out of the portrait hole ahead of them. They followed her down several flights of stairs to the first floor, and when they reached McGonagall’s office, she waved them inside before striding over to the window. She opened it, directed the lion through, floated it to the ground and released it to join the hundreds of other balloon animals bounding around the school grounds.

‘Sit down, gentlemen,’ she said, moving to stand behind her desk.

The boys took seats in front of the desk and looked up at her. She made eye contact with each of them in turn, making them squirm in their seats.

‘I’m sure you’re wondering how I know that the three of you were responsible for the chaos this morning?’

Peter nodded.

‘Thank you for that confirmation, Mister Pettigrew.’

Sirius and James glared at him.

‘The Fat Lady informed me that the three of you requested entry to the tower at a quarter to three this morning. Since nobody else was outside of their common rooms after curfew last night, it was a simple deduction. I am very disappointed in all of you. Why you thought disrupting breakfast in this manner was a good idea, I will never understand. It was not only disruptive to the student population on the first weekend of term, but also caused a lot of extra work for the house-elves. It was extremely rude and inconsiderate. Thirty house points will be taken from each of you, and you will each receive two detentions. One for the disruption you caused and one for being out after curfew, to be served with me.’

She turned to glare at Sirius.

‘Mister Black, you have been at school for less than three days and have already earned yourself four detentions. I think that might even be a school record. I want you to attend a meeting with me tomorrow afternoon to discuss your behaviour. Be here at half past seven and do not be late.’

She turned back to the others.

‘Do you have anything to say for yourselves?’

They all stared at their feet and shook their heads. Even James wasn’t brave enough to talk back to McGonagall.

‘Very well. You may go.’

After leaving the office, James grabbed Sirius and Peter by the arm and dragged them down the corridor and around a corner before stopping and bursting into laughter.

‘Oh my Gods, did you see her face? I thought she was going to explode!’ he got out in between snorts.

Sirius stared at him dumbfounded that he could find getting into so much trouble that funny, but the laughter was contagious, and he was soon overcome with his own uncontrollable giggles. The three of them staggered back to the common room, clinging to each other in an attempt to stay upright and trying to regain control. They were still breaking out into the occasional giggle when they climbed through the portrait hole.

-o-o-o-o-

The library was quiet and peaceful, and it smelled of dust and parchment and ink. Remus adored it. He took a deep breath through his nose as he entered the sanctuary and sighed with contentment. He felt so at home in this space. Finding a secluded table in the corner of the transfiguration section, he set himself up ready to take notes and wandered down the aisle to browse. He had some idea of what he wanted to do but needed to do some research to find out if it was possible.

As he scanned the book titles for something useful, he thought back over the events of the last few days. Specifically, his dorm mates. Despite the way Sirius had treated him on their first day, he liked the other boys. Their mischievousness matched his own, and none of them had been horrid to him since. There was also the mystery of the spontaneously appearing sandwich. Had one of his dorm mates left it there for him? And if they had, why? The most logical explanation was that they had noticed his absence from the Great Hall and wanted to make sure he got something to eat, and that was kind—thoughtful even—so maybe he should give them a chance.

Sirius had attacked Snape in Potions class, though. But after what Snape had done to him in the owlery, he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He felt the heavy weight of shame at that thought. He really should care about the unprovoked attack on a student.

Should he extend the hand of friendship? Metaphorically of course, he couldn’t actually touch them. Or was it too much of a risk? Sirius was observant, always watchful of his surroundings and the people near to him. He had the air of a hunted animal about him, and someone like that posed a grave danger to his secret, but was he more dangerous as a friend, or would that make him safer? A friend might be more likely to keep his secret if they discovered it, but they might also be more likely to discover it in the first place.

Huffing with annoyance at his own indecision, Remus scowled at the books on the shelf in front of him. A dark red volume caught his eye. The title of the book was etched in gold on the spine.

“Transfiguration en masse”

It sounded perfect. He pulled the book down and returned to his desk with it. Opening the book to the contents page, he ran his finger down the list.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Theory

Chapter 3 - Focusing your mind

Chapter 4 - Channelling

He turned to chapter two and scanned until he found what he was looking for.

“Unlike instant transfiguration, which is dependent, to a certain extent, on the size of the caster’s magical core, delayed transfiguration is only limited by the amount of time the caster is prepared to expend. By channelling one’s magic into a container to be used later, a witch or wizard can increase their transfiguration ability infinitely and without risk.”

This was exactly what Remus was looking for. He flipped to chapter three and read through the information carefully. It seemed his months of meditation were about to pay off in an unexpected way. The complicated technique necessary for the spell to work wouldn’t be a problem for him, while it would take months of practice for someone who had never meditated.

He scanned through the information in chapter four, just to get an idea of what channelling his magic into a container would involve. To his relief, it didn’t sound too hard. The technique was similar to channelling into a potion, but harder because of the need to keep focusing on your target and your intent at the same time. He felt confident that he could manage it though.

His plan was coming together, but it wouldn’t be successful unless he could delay the transfiguration until a specified time, after the magic was transferred to an object placed in the container. He needed a timed activation charm and a way to combine it with the delayed transfiguration spell. With this in mind, he strolled over to the charms section of the library and didn’t take long to locate a book called Timing Your Talents. A quick flick through the pages revealed the spell he needed, and it had a low difficulty rating so he should be able to cast it with a little practice.

Remus was pleased with the afternoon’s work, but he still needed to combine the spells. He searched the library for another hour but found nothing useful until he reached the section on spell creation. Maybe he could devise his own method. He removed several books from the shelves and returned to his desk to study them.

Another hour later, Remus had three sheets of parchment filled with scrawled notes, equations and diagrams. And a functioning spell to combine the transfiguration with the charm, or so he hoped. Now he just needed somewhere to practise. He packed up his things and returned the books to their homes—he had no wish to annoy the librarian and get banned from the library—before grabbing his bag and leaving to search for a suitable location.

Remus climbed the stairs to the fifth floor, and it didn’t take long to find an empty classroom. He decided to practise each element separately before attempting to combine them and began with the delayed transfiguration spell. Pulling out an empty potion bottle from his bag, he scanned the room for an object small enough to fit inside it. He couldn’t see anything at first. The room contained nothing but dusty furniture. Some old desks, a few chairs, an empty bookcase and a blackboard hanging on the wall with rude words scrawled across its surface.

Eyeing the desks, an idea occurred to him. It was disgusting. Really gross, in fact. But needs must. He bent over and looked underneath the nearest desk. Yes. What else would you expect to find on the underside of school desks but used gum? That is so nasty, Remus thought, as he scraped off a wad, but it would be simple to transfigure, making it kind of ideal for the first attempt.

He placed the hardened wad of gum on the desk next to the potion bottle and pulled out his wand. Closing his eyes, he conjured up a mental image of the gum and, while holding that image in his mind, he pictured a second image, a perfect cube of gum, at the same time. Next, he pressed the tip of his wand against the potion bottle and tried to locate his magical core inside himself. In doing so, he lost focus on his mental images. Dammit. He opened his eyes and glared at the gum in annoyance.

Trying again, he located his magical core first and began the channelling process before conjuring up his mental images. He muttered the incantation under his breath and continued to channel for several seconds to be sure there would be enough magic stored to complete the transfiguration. It was a tiny object, and he was only altering one aspect of it, so it wouldn’t take much. He would need to do some careful calculations before the actual event, though, to make sure it worked as planned.

Finished, he picked up the gum and dropped it into the opening at the top of the bottle. He was delighted when it instantly changed shape into a perfect cube. He tipped it out and scraped a second piece of gum from the underside of the desk and repeated the process. This time focusing on an image of a perfect sphere of gum and channelling magic for twice as long into the container. Remus dropped the first piece of gum in, and it changed into a perfect sphere. Now to test if the effect would work on a second item as intended, or whether the magic had all been used on the first item. He dropped the second piece of gum in and it changed just like it was supposed to. Remus was thrilled. He hadn’t expected to have so much success so fast.

The coming moon was already affecting him; he could feel the pull of it, and his energy levels were dropping, but he wanted to finish the preliminary tests today so he could move on to practising on larger items after his transformation. If the combining incantation he had put together didn’t work, then he would need to return to the research stage, and there was a high possibility of it not working.

Recalling the incantation for a simple gouging charm, he tried it out on the desktop first to make sure he could do it and then cast it with the timing charm, setting the activation for five seconds. He waited the five seconds, and a deep gouge appeared on the desk, right where he had cast it. With both elements of his spell working, he now needed to test them in combination.

He went through the process of channelling and conjured his mental images of the current gum spheres and the perfect cubes he wanted them to become. With all the elements in place he spoke the words of the timing charm followed by his combining incantation and finishing with the delayed transfiguration spell. He continued to channel enough magic for two transfigurations. With the spell complete he dropped the two pieces of gum into the bottle, nothing happened. Good. Remus tipped the bottle up to empty them back out onto the table. The timing spell was set for midday, so he sat down while he waited. He was exhausted.

At exactly midday, the two pieces of gum on the table transformed into perfect cubes, Remus smiled at the sight. Moments later his eyes drifted closed, and he fell asleep.

-o-o-o-o-

After their dressing down from McGonagall that morning, Sirius, James and Peter had returned to the common room. There had been some talk of getting homework done, but James had shot the idea down and suggested playing a few games of exploding snap instead. Sirius had never played before. His parents believed card games to be a waste of time, but he got the hang of it fast and was soon winning every game. While they were playing, Sirius noticed two red-headed boys watching them. They looked old enough to be seventh-years, and they were identical.

‘Don’t look around, but we’re being watched. Two seventh-years. They keep staring at us and whispering.’

‘The ginger twins?’ James asked.

Sirius nodded.

‘Yeah, I noticed them looking at us when McGonagall came to get us earlier. Maybe they’re impressed.’

‘Or they’re planning something,’ Peter said.

‘Could be. We should watch our backs.’ Sirius said.

After lunch, James suggested they explore the castle a bit. Sirius agreed because he hadn’t seen Remus since that morning and it worried him. Wandering around the castle seemed like an excellent way to find him without it being obvious he was looking. Peter was as enthusiastic as he always was for anything James suggested. The boy had a serious case of hero-worship.

The three boys set out wandering the corridors with no particular destination in mind, poking at oddly shaped bricks, pulling at light fixtures and speaking to portraits and statues. They were on the second floor when Peter found something, quite by accident. Meandering down a deserted stretch of corridor, Peter had caught his foot in the bottom edge of a tapestry that was a little too long for the wall it was hanging on. As he tripped, the tapestry was pulled back, revealing a hole in the wall behind it.

Peter went crashing to the floor at the same moment that James yelled, ‘Hey, you found a secret passage, Pete!’

‘Dunderful,’ Peter said. ‘I bit my dongue.’

‘Shake it off, mate. You found the first secret passage. Let’s see where it goes,’ Sirius said.

The passage was dark and dusty, and smelled faintly of cabbages. The only light was filtered through minute gaps in the walls on either side. Sirius wrinkled his nose but led the way in. Peter took the rear, carefully pulling the tapestry back into place behind him. They followed the path around several twists and turns, and up a few flights of stairs, before reaching what appeared at first to be a dead end. The passage was blocked off by a smooth slab of wood; they pushed against it, but it wouldn’t budge.

‘Feel around, see if there’s some kind of button or switch to open it,’ James said.

They all fumbled around in the dim light for a few minutes when Sirius announced he had found something.

‘I think it’s a rune, like the ones on our desks in Potions.’

‘Tap it with your wand then,’ James said.

Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped it against the carved symbol in the top-left corner of the wooden barricade. The wood slid to one side and revealed an abandoned classroom, thick with dust. Sirius walked in first and jumped out of his skin when he spotted a slumped figure sitting in a chair.

‘Remus!’ he gasped, before hurrying over.

Was he sick? Hurt? He had to find out. In his haste to reach the boy, he knocked into a table. It was just his luck that it was the only table in the room that had anything on it. The glass potion bottle fell over when the desk was jostled, rolled and tumbled to the floor where it smashed with a loud crash. Sirius was just reaching out his hand when Remus leapt out of the chair.

‘Don’t touch me!’ Remus screamed as he stumbled backwards, knocking over the chair he had been sleeping in seconds before.

Sirius, startled, jumped away. Remus stared at him with wide, frightened eyes, before grabbing his bag from the floor and running from the room, slamming the door closed behind him.

Sirius looked at James. ‘What the fuck?’

James shrugged. ‘I don’t know, mate. That was weird.’

‘What was he even doing in here?’ Peter said. He studied the broken glass on the floor. ’Do you think he took something?’

‘Maybe,’ James said. ‘I’ve heard about potions that make you feel good. When they wear off, they can make you angry and paranoid. Do you think he’s an addict?’

Sirius frowned. ‘Fuck. That’s even worse than the last theory.’

‘Do you think we should tell a teacher?’ Peter asked.

‘Not until we know something for sure. If we’re wrong, he won’t thank us for accusing him,’ James said.

‘That’s true,’ Peter agreed.

‘Let’s just keep an eye on him for now,’ Sirius said.

-o-o-o-o-

Remus paced back and forth in the owlery where he had taken refuge after running from his dorm mates. Rieka was perched on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek to offer comfort. He felt like an idiot for reacting so violently, but he had been terrified waking up to find Sirius bent over him. So close. His hand reaching out to touch him. Infecting the Black heir would have been the end of his school career, and he’d only been there three days. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, trying to decide what to do. Judging by the darkness, it was approaching curfew, and he would need to return to his common room soon, but he really didn’t want to face the others. His reaction had been extreme, and they were bound to tease him about it.

‘What would you do, Rieka?’

The owl whistled softly.

‘I know, I should go back to the common room.’

Rieka hooted in agreement.

‘Okay, okay. I’ll go. Hopefully, they’ll have gone to bed or something,’ he said, not really believing it.

On arriving at the Fat Lady, Remus took a deep breath before giving the password and climbing through. The common room was busy with students relaxing, and the noise was deafening to his sensitive ears. He scanned the room but didn’t see his dorm mates anywhere. Despite wanting to put off the confrontation with them as long as possible, he knew he wouldn’t be able to bear the noise of the common room this close to the full moon for long. Hunching his shoulders and drawing his arms around him, he hurried across the crowded room and up the stairs, taking care not to touch anyone along the way.

Remus pushed open the door to his dorm and stepped inside. The noise from the common room cut off the moment the door closed behind him. The dorms must be charmed to keep out external noise. Good to know, he thought. Sirius, James and Peter were sitting in a circle in the middle of the floor playing a card game that involved three decks of exploding snap cards, a generous bowl of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and an assortment of socks. Remus didn’t want to know.

‘Remus!’ Sirius said, jumping to his feet. ‘Mate, I am so sorry for scaring you earlier. When I saw you slumped in the chair, I panicked. I thought you were dead or something.’

Remus blinked. That was not what he had expected at all. But an opportunity should never go to waste, and he needed to make sure nothing like that happened again. What if he hadn’t woken up in time?

‘It’s okay. It’s just, I don’t like to be touched. It’s a phobia, you know? Like some people don’t like spiders.’

Peter shuddered. ‘I know exactly what you mean,’ he said, glancing up at the top of the walls as if checking for potential eight-legged company.

‘Oh Merlin, I feel even worse now. I really am sorry. I hope you can forgive me,’ Sirius said. ‘We noticed you weren’t at dinner, so we bought some food back for you. A peace offering?’

Sirius produced a plate of cold meats and potatoes from the cupboard next to his bed and handed it to him. Remus had been too upset to go to the kitchens for dinner and he was starving. His stomach rumbled at the sight of the food. He took the plate and thanked Sirius before sitting on the end of his bed to eat.

‘We brought dessert too,’ Sirius said with a grin, pulling out a fat slice of triple-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and strawberries on the side.

Remus licked his lips. He could almost feel his face light up just from looking at the delectable plate of chocolaty deliciousness.

‘Now that,’ Remus said, reaching out for the dish, ‘is an apology. Thank you. Thank you very much.’

‘You're welcome. And your preferences have been duly noted,’ Sirius said, handing it over with a wolfish grin.

‘I added the strawberries,’ James said, shrugging. ‘Thought you should have something healthy too.’

Chapter 9 

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers X (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: How was your Christmas? Hopefully, it went better than Y/N’s day on this chapter lmao don’t forget to leave feedback! <3

Words: 4,947

Warnings: Injuries and swearing, feelings and stuff.

Previous chapter // Next chapter

Today I’m gonna tell you a little story about how I’m full of shit. Delicately divided into three parts for your enjoyment. 

It’s pretty much all the same, the only thing that changes is the person.

Alex. 

Josh.

Let’s start with the first part, shall we? Which is called:

Confusion.

Before the nuke, my life was as normal and sad as any random teenager would have it. I was a student with good parents who didn’t really understand me, but they tried. A sibling, friends, likings and feelings. It was the latter what caused me trouble.

Alex and I met in elementary school. He sat down next to me and we shared our undying love for Adventure Time and Treasure Planet. During years our friendship consisted on knowing all of our embarrassing stories, coping our answers on every test and a bunch of firsts. He was there when I got my first period, and I witnessed Alex’s first drunken night with friends. 

It was when I talked to Maya that everything kind of started to fall apart.

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My ears are buzzing, I feel my eyes dry and irritated. I know I passed out although I don’t feel like I slept, if anything, I’m more tired than before. I try to push myself up but my wrist hurts and I’m not strong enough. I fall against a thin pillow and only then I look around. 

There’s nothing but cages with teens, I recognize some from school. Judging by the smell, we are in Hoyles’ fabric. I was right, this was Baron Triumph’s home.

My hand pulsates as a reminder of how screwed I am. 

‘Is it broken or is it just sprained?’ The light sucks in here, I can’t really tell how it looks so I inhale sharply, ‘Okay, then...’

I move my wrist slowly to one side and then the other. I feel pain, lots of pain. But I can move it, so chances are is not broken. As long as I don’t move, I’ll be fine. I struggle to sit with only one hand as support and notice my skates are missing and my knee has a huge bruise on it. 

I know I’ll die. 

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We were thirteen at the moment. It wasn’t like I knew right away that I liked Alex, I just got slightly upset every time he would hold hands with Amy and sad whenever he would cancel plans to hang out with her. You can imagine how betrayed I felt.

“You’re just jealous,” Maya sighs, laying upside down on my bed.

“Of who?” I ask in amusement, “I already told you, I don’t want a boyfriend.”

“You want Alex.”

I laugh, kicking her leg playfully.

“That’s a lie. And dumb,” I reply matter-of-factly, “he’s just my friend!”

“Exactly. Please, you’re too shy to admit you like him but we all know.”

“Liar,” I sing, “Alex and Amy are cute together and all, just annoys me that he doesn’t want to spend more time with us.”

“That doesn’t sound like you’re crushing at all,” She rolls her eyes, smirking.

“Shut up!” I complain, “that doesn’t mean I like him!”

It didn’t... right? I started to recapitulate all of our time together. Alex was a great boy. He was good to me and my family loved him, why was so weird to consider him as a possible love interest? Maybe Maya was right. I did like him and this was my way cope with it.

“Maya,” I say under my breath, “what if I do like him?”

“Oh my god,” She stands up abruptly, “you do!”

“What do I do?” I ask in horror, “I don’t wanna ruin it! He’s my best friend!”

“Who cares?” She replies, “It’s time you do something about it!”

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Something falls inside the bucket in front of me and I stand (with huge difficulty, since I only have one good hand and knee), when I get closer and grab a handful the smell grows stronger, so I drop the flakes on the ground in disgust.

“Am I supposed to eat this?” I ask out loud, “I’ll rather starve”

“You will,” Says a voice above me, “don’t be dramatic, Y/N. Eat up.”

I feel something close to panic when I recognize the voice.

“Maya?”

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After that I tried to understand what the fuck was going on. I couldn’t do anything until I knew my feelings for Alex.

You know how that turned out. 

Nothing made sense, what was our friendship but something magical brought to me in order to end up with true romantic love, right? Well, I had opinions on that.

Our friendship was old as hell, Alex was constantly changing partners so you can tell why I was so against dating him. I decided that if my first love was going to hurt me, it would be anyone but Alex murphy.

Which takes us to the second part that I call:

That definitely isn’t love.

Let me tell you something, and I don’t mean to say this in order to make you sad, I do it so you’re not scared of going through the same thing (if you ever find yourself in a situation like this) and you can handle the shit like a champ.

Life will go on. Seriously, it hurts and oh, how tragic it is to lose someone so dear to your heart! But really, things like that will pass, and you’ll get through and life won’t even stop its course. You wanna know why? Cause it’s all so small, our tiny little lives won’t affect how the world moves outside our houses.

I know, that may sound awful, but to be honest, it’s also relieving. No matter how many mistakes you can make in your life, it won’t stop moving. That’s great, it means you won’t stop growing, you’ll get out of that hole sooner or later.

The feeling I got from that simple, chaste kiss with Alex confused my brain and got me all kinds of anxious about nothing. The only way I felt was guilty. I wanted to erase that moment from existence.

Okay, it was my fault too. I kissed him back, I didn’t know that was wrong until it was done! I told you already, I was confused as hell.

I had to quietly make my way out and go back to the way it used to be. 

Then he broke up with Stuart and started to ask me if I wanted to go back to the old routine of watching movies together, or going to the mall only the two of us, just skipping school to spend time together... I happily accepted, thinking it was all platonic. The apocalypse came on the worst timing, we were part of a group that day by day became smaller until it was only the two of us.

I wanted to find my sister so badly that I left the thought aside to work with him as a team, then he had to ask me to leave town with him, start a new life together...  Alex was holding on to an illusion that I knew it was bound to fail, so I put a hard stop to it. One that ended our friendship as well.

And that’s the reason why I ran away from him. My feelings couldn’t be reciprocated if I wanted to survive on this hell.

Sacrifices must be made when you’re facing the end of the world.

Then something amazing happened: I lived. I created a new life on my own, where I could do things my way and didn’t need any other person around. With the new life, my old wishes vanished, and so did my feelings for Alex, or anyone else who belonged with old, naive Vinchi.

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

Which brings me to the present, where I’m on big denial about one little thing: I may not be the same girl, but I still have the same heart, along with the same feelings, memories, and grudges.

“You still won’t talk to me?”

“You still trying after three hours of ignoring you?” I scoff, “leave me alone, Maya.”

“You’re acting like a child! I thought you understood why I left you and Alex to join the Cheeramazons”

“I understand that we weren’t important to you in the first place,” I reply bitterly.

“God, Y/N. It’s not like I did it to get away from you. I wanted protection and to learn some badass skills. The Cheeramazons offered both and to be honest, it was worth it.”

“If they were so good at protecting their people, then why are you here?”

“I went out looking for adventure. You know me, I was never one to enjoy routines.”

“Sure.”

“You’re on your own?”

“On this cage? Yeah... In general? Well, I’m with some kids... remember Wesley Fists?”

“What?” I hear her snicker, “How did you two end up together?”

“It’s a long story... all Josh’s fault.”

“Little Josh with the big truck?”

“Uh, no. Wheeler. I did a project with him once, you know? He used to wave at me in the halls whenever we passed by..?”

“I don’t remember him at all.”

“I figured,” I sigh, “Where are you anyway?”

“Judging by where your voice sounds... I think I’m above your cage”

“Well, don’t get too attached to the sound of my voice, I’ll be out of here soon”

“Why, you’re actually planning on starving?” She inquires, “Did your brain turn Ghoulie?”

“Look, I have a sprained wrist and a swollen knee, I’m not going anywhere on my own... but I have a backup. If Josh and Wesley weren’t caught...”

“What happened with Alex? Is he with you too?”

“None of your business, quitter.”

“Come on, Y/N...”

“You left us. I’m not engaging in any fun chats with you. You weren’t that interest to be a part of our group since the beginning so I don’t even know why I’m mad about it, it was a matter of time”

I know I sound too hard. She was supposed to be my friend, though. Never looked back when she got bored from our little group like it was all child’s play. Now she acts like it’s all cool? Nothing is cool. Nothing at all. I’m about to get eaten!

“Look, I’m sorry-”

“Shut up”

“Don’t be rude, I’m trying to-”

“Shut up! Can you hear that?” I lean closer to the cage’s door and stay silent, Maya following my advice and listening to the hurried steps coming from the hall.

“You know where the keys are?” A voice that I know well emerges from the dark, “Where are we going?”

“Josh?” I stand up surprisingly fast, “Is that you?”

“Y/N!” I hear him rushing towards me and suddenly his face is inches away from mine, barely illuminated, “You’re here! I only saw Wesley when I woke up and I thought you were taken by the Jocks”

“How did you get out of your cage?” I ask with incredulity, “Who are you talking to if it’s not Wesley?”

“A girl got me out, I drop my tweezers and she found them”

“Then get me out!”

“I can’t, they’re broken,” He apologizes, “but I’m going to get the keys and I’ll get you out, I promise.”

“On your own? You’re gonna get killed”

“Triumph just left, I have time,” He points at my leg, “How’s your knee?”

“It hurts. I also hurt my wrist but I don’t know if that happened after the grenade or when I fell,” I wanna act like I’m not scared, but my anxiety is eating me alive, “Josh please don’t go alone, please don’t do it”

“I’ll come back,” He insists, “but if I don’t, I wanna tell you... you became someone important to me, Y/N. Please don’t blame yourself if things go wrong, it was my turn to help you, I owe it to you.”

And without giving me time to reply, Josh leaves.

“Josh Wheeler,” Maya speaks up again, “I remember him now. Blue eyes and a funny smile, right?”

“Yeah,” I frown, still looking at the hall where he disappeared “that’s my stupid Josh.”

“Your Josh?” She asks in a suggestive voice, “alright, I get it now.”

“You get what?”

“He’s your new Alex. I bet you’re always doing nice things to keep him in a good mood and he never gives back cause well, he doesn’t have to. Why would he? When you keep on giving things away for free. See, that’s the sort of stuff the Cheeramazons teach you to throw away, you don’t need boys to survive,” She states.

“He is not Alex,” I correct in irritation, “and I learned that on my own, thank you. It’s funny, you forgot to mention that I also did a lot of things to keep you happy.”

“Is that supposed to help your case?” She sighs, “I know you’re hurt for what I did to you but you won’t stop having your heart broken if you keep doing the same things”

“Joke’s on you, I already fixed that shit up,” I keep my eyes fixed on the hall, “Josh is just a friend.”

You and I know that isn’t true. Yet, is not a lie either. 

Josh is just a friend, I have it under control. All I need is to keep it to myself, no accidental kissing or falling into each other’s arms anymore. I don’t have feelings fighting to come out. I’m not thinking about how Josh said I was important to him. 

Which takes us to part three:

Why don’t you just kick me in the face? It hurts less, thank you.

Ah, the pleasure it brings us to finally be free from inner guilt.

This part doesn’t have a flashback, cause you already read this part. I told Josh the story. Alex and I weren’t right together so I let him go. It hurt like a bitch but now he’s far away and I can be at peace now. I control my life.

How? For starters, if I meet a cute, nice guy like Josh, I step back and stay as friends and Boom! Problem solved. I figured my life out, I have nothing to be afraid of. I conquered.

...

...

You know I’m lying, don’t you?

You know what, there’s no way I’ll get myself out of this. I’ll let the action roll.

“I think your buddy Josh got eaten by Triumph,” Maya mentions like she’s talking about the weather, “it’s time you accept it.”

“Honestly, it’s time you stop talking,” I reply with indifference, “you don’t know him”

“And I never will,” She snorts.

I’m about to reply when I hear screams coming from the entrance and I finally see Josh sprinting back towards the cages. Triumph is following him, when he gets closer I realize is not Hoyles.

“Principal Burr?” I inquire in mild disappointment, but calmer than before “okay then, Josh can totally survive to that”

“Don’t be so sure about it, Vinchi,” Maya adds, “Burr is not a common human anymore.”

“Shhh! I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

Josh is trying to convince the principal to let us go, he walks towards the tubes in the middle of the fabric and I can’t see what’s going on. Burr is not touched by the speech, he says he didn’t kill Sam, and my heart skips a beat.

“Sam Dean?” Maya asks above me, “she’s dead?”

“It happened two days ago,” I whisper, “that’s the whole reason why we came, cause Josh wanted to avenge her death...”

“Why would he do that?”

“He was dating her.”

“Oh,” A second of silence, “really? Him?”

“He’s not that bad,” I retort immediately.

“Sure, whatever you say...” She mumbles.

I say something under my breath that is mostly an insult, then an idea comes to mind.

“Maya, you can see what’s happening?”

“Kinda”

“Where are they?”

“Inside the big tubes...”

She narrates the whole thing while I also half-listen to the argument they’re having. She stops for what it feels like an eternity and the kids around us start to scream.

“Kill him!”

“Kill him!”

“He’s gonna do it,” Maya murmurs.

And I don’t know what to feel, cause I never thought Josh would get this close to his goal. Although now it’s different, Burr didn’t kill Sam. Would he kill him anyway? I’m not defending Burr, by the way! He still ate a bunch of kids. Just saying that If he does this, he will certainly disappoint Wesley. 

He would be saving tons of children, though. In my opinion, he could cut him in half and still be a good person. 

I hear Josh scream and the sound of his sword against metal.

“Holy shit, is he dead?” I ask.

“I don’t... I can’t tell- he’s moving a lot...” Maya complains.

A few others seconds of silence, then Burr’s voice.

“You missed.”

“Holy shit, he’s alive,” I gasp. 

And with that, I mean both of them.

“No. I didn’t,” Josh replies.

The machinery starts to work all of a sudden and I feel my stomach tensing with fear. 

What are they doing?

“Where are they?” I ask urgently, “Tell me!”

But just as I finish the sentence I hear steps... and the sound of keys being shaken in the air.

“He got the keys!” Maya screams excitedly, “The son of a bitch did it! We’re free!”

“What about Burr?” I question.

“He locked him up inside the tubes!”

The sound of chains falling and doors clicking is like music to my ears. I hear Maya running out of her cage only to see her appearing in front of me with a wild smile on her face. She hasn’t changed that much, her hair is shorter and her clothes are not the same, but she’s still the hyperactive girl I used to know.

“Good to see you, Vinchi.”

“Hi,” I reply, “be good and get me out of here”

She calls over to the kid that is opening cage by cage and I’m finally free. Maya gives me a tight hug that I return unsure.

“This is great! You can come with me now, become a Cheeramazon!”

“What?” I pull away.

“I can see you’ve toughened up these last few months, they’ll definitely take you in!”

“I don’t want to be a Cheeramazon,” I frown. 

I’m still barefoot, but I’m hoping I can find something to wear before I leave.

“Y/N it’s the best choice,” She replies, “come on, we can be part of the same tribe just like before! You and I, the classic duo we used to be...”

“I’m tired of old times,” I answer, “I'm a different person. I don’t do duos anymore.”

“Vinchi...” She pouts. 

There, another friendship that dies.

Maybe I could’ve tried to convince her to go with me instead. However, I never got to finish that conversation, cause right at that moment, I heard Josh’s voice.

“Y/N?” He asks loudly, “Y/N, where are you?”

“Josh!” I limp as fast as I can towards his voice, “Josh, I’m right here!”

“Y/N?!” His voice gets clearer as I walk further into the mass, “Where are you?!”

He’s standing right in front of me, a few feet ahead. I run over to him, ignoring the way my knee feels about it. Josh turns around just in time to catch me when I jump in for a hug.

“I’m with you!” I say breathless, trying to keep my wrist away from any harm, softly supported around his neck, “You did it! You saved us!”

“I promised, didn’t I?” His smile is as big as mine, and we’re so close I can see the freckles the sun has left on the bridge of his nose.

He pulls away and turns slightly, pointing at something hanging from his hip.

“I saw them out there...” I look down and I see my skates, all clean and looking good as new, “thought you might want them back”

“What the hell?” I exclaim, “You’re the best!”

Impulsive as usual, I go for another hug, this time kissing his cheek in the process. When I notice my mistake I pull back but Josh keeps me in place, now I’m self-conscious and probably all red.

“Am I a shitty partner still?” He smirks.

Someone accidentally hits my hand and I whimper, hugging it tightly against my chest.

“Crap, I forgot...” 

Josh’s smile vanishes immediately changing to a worried expression.

“Let’s go back to the mall, you need help”

“And I’m starving”

Josh chuckles, nodding.

“And will get you something to eat”

He gives me the skates and I hold them with my good hand, walking towards the exit. 

I start to feel a bit hopeful about what the future could bring to us, Josh and me. I can’t lie to myself after this, you saw the whole thing, right? It’s obvious. Josh is not my new Alex for one simple reason: I don’t have a crush on Alex anymore.

I am, however, totally crushing on stupid Josh.

Just when I decide to come into terms with my new realization, it happens:

 Someone walks in front of me and immediately catches my eye. How couldn’t, when I thought I would never see that back again for the rest of my life?

“Alex..?”

I drop my skates, an urgent need to run away as far as I can winning over my common sense. This can’t be happening, this can’t be Alex. He's gone. He’s supposed to be away in New York living his best life or something.

But the boy turns around and it’s the same eyes I’ve known since I was a kid.

“Y/N?” He’s not totally glad to see me. The frown on his face tells me he is just as stunned as me, few terrible seconds pass where we don’t know what to do.

 Josh is the one who talks first.

“Hold on,” He turns to me, “is he..?”

“An old friend from Highschool, yes,” I look at him with wide eyes, pleading ‘Keep your mouth shut!’ “like Maya.”

“Maya’s also here?” He asks loudly, and since I’m the luckiest girl alive, Maya is nearby to hear us.

“That’s me,” She sees the boy in front of us, “oh my god, Alex?”

“Maya?” Alex’s eyes light up, “You’re okay!”

“How did you end up here?!” She walks up to him and gives him a tight hug.

“Uh, Y/N,” Josh whispers beside me, “What is happening?”

“I think I died when that grenade exploded,” I respond overwhelmed.

“I came back like a month ago,” Alex replies, hugging her with the same animosity, then he looks right at me, “I left some unfinished business behind.”

Oh, that’s great. First, everyone leaves and now they all want to make up for it. To go back and be the best friends we used to be. Well, I’m sorry I think I lost the part where that was my problem.

“We can help you!” Maya assures him, completely misunderstanding his comment, “Vinchi and I, like the good old days”

“Vinchi?” Josh questions.

“Y/N,” Maya looks at him with a judgy expression, “you’re her friend but you don’t know her nickname?”

“No one calls me that,” I cross my arms, wincing after accidentally pulling the muscle in my wrist, “not anymore, at least. I never told him.”

“But you love it,” She frowns, “everyone calls you that.”

“Everyone who used to call me that is gone,” I say, “you two are the only ones left and I’m kindly asking you to not include me on your mission. I have to go back to my friends.”

“We are your friends, Y/N” Alex replies.

“I meant my most recent friends,” I pick up the skates from the floor and nudge Josh, “let’s go, Angelica must be worried.”

“Y/N, are you sure?” Josh asks under his breath. When I don’t reply, he grabs me by the shoulder and turns my body to face him, “listen I know you feel like you have to stay because I told you we needed you, but you’re free to go with them if you want. They’re your best friends after all and I know Alex... I know how hard it was on you to be alone.”

I can’t tell exactly what he’s thinking right now and that frustrates me. His expression tells me he’s hurt, I just don’t know if it is because he thinks I’m seconds away from leaving or because he’s nervous that I’ll blame him if I stay.

“I don’t want to go, Josh,” I reach for his hand with the one that is holding my skates and brush it lightly, “I tried to leave before and something always stopped me from doing so. That has to mean something, I feel like my place is at the mall with all of you.”

“Y/N?” Maya speaks up, “You’re coming?”

“No,” I turn to face her, “I’m going with Josh.”

“Josh?” Alex looks at the boy next to me but he doesn��t seem to understand that I’m talking about him, “gay Josh or other gay Josh?”

“My Josh,” I point to my friend, “just... Josh.”

“Alright then,” Maya scoffs, “then we go too.”

“What?” I ask in alarm.

“Josh was telling the rest of the kids to follow him,” She smirks, “I hope you don’t mind, Vinchi.”

“Really?” I look at Josh, clenching my jaw. I’m unable to crush his arm with my hand since it’s injured and the other is occupied. He tries to apologize without speaking, but puppy eyes won’t work on me today, “We better get going then”

“Yeah,” He looks at me, begging for forgiveness, “we should... uh- your hand needs to...”

“Just move,” I grumble, walking past Alex and Maya with Josh calling out Wesley’s name to join us.

Full of shit I am, cause during all the way back I avoid looking over to Alex and Maya, despite saying I was over my past. 

I’m full of shit when Josh asks me if I need help and I tell him no, even though I’m barefoot and I keep stepping on rocks on accident cause it’s too dark outside. Without mentioning I just admitted to myself that I’m crushing on him and now I don’t know what will I do to keep it a secret when Angelica looks for any excuse and watches me closely to see if she’s right. 

And Josh? Well, he avenged Sam’s death... kinda. I don’t know if that’s enough to calm his nerves or if he’ll keep going until he’s done killing every bad guy on Glendale, which are too many to count. I don’t even know if he’s interested in me the same way I am. 

What am I saying? Of course he’s not! He spent six months of his life on this goose chase and I’m expecting that suddenly he feels something for me just because I saved his life once? Ugh, I'm not even sure if I’ll actually stay permanently at the mall...

“Hey! We’re home!” Josh exclaims as soon as we step inside the mall, “So I brought some friends... Cool if they crash here?”

“Fuck to the no!” I’m surprised to see Eli outside of his side of the mall, “How many times do I gotta say-?”

Angelica puts a taser against his neck and electrocutes him on the spot, pushing him so he falls flat on the ground. 

“Yeah. It’s cool, I guess” She replies.

“Angelica!” I blurt out, walking towards Eli, “Don’t do that ever again!”

She ignores me, already rushing over to Josh and Wesley to receive them with a hug and excitedly welcome the kids that surround her. I’m happy for her, this must be nice considering how she spent most of her life alone.

“Your hand is bad,” Crumble states, kneeling beside me, “worms won’t fix it”

“I know,” I sigh, turning Eli face-up with my good hand and Crumble’s help, “I’ll fix it, don’t worry”

“Let me do it,” Alex crouches down and carries Eli to the bench behind us, laying him there.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

“It’s alright,” I can see by the corner of my eye that he’s looking at me, “listen, I came here to apologize. Things shouldn’t have ended that way between us. We were best friends...”

“Yeah, we were,” I punctuate, “you don’t have to be sorry. I’ve changed, I don’t need your words, I have a new life.”

“I see,” He looks away for a moment, his eyes finding Josh and Wesley, “How did you end up forming a group with them?”

“Accidents happen,” I shrug, “Josh brought me here. To be honest, I was doing fine on my own but I... I don’t know, I like it here.”

“I see that too,” He smiles, but it has a bitter undertone in it, “don’t worry. I’ll leave again tomorrow.”

“Stay,” I sigh in defeat, “it would be selfish to ask you otherwise, the mall belongs to all of us”

“You’re okay with that?” He frowns.

“Do it for the good old days,” I give him a small smile, “What’d you say?”

“It’s fine by me,” He nods, smiling back.

I don’t know how to end the conversation and I don’t have to think a lot about it, because Josh soon appears holding a stack of bandages.

“Hi,” He smiles openly at us and points to what he’s holding, “time to take care of you”

“Okay,” I raise my eyebrows, “sure...”

“See you later Y/N,” Says Alex, then he nods to Josh, “Wheeler...”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @hollywaterpls​

[pofcroyalfanfiction]

Chapter Four - Poison Ivy

Ivy House, Marlborough

Early evening, September 1st  

By the time the clock on her laptop had struck five, the last of the parents were driving out of the parking area behind Ivy and leaving their daughters behind. Some had just come back from cosy family farewell feasts in town, whilst some had to stay behind a little longer to console a few of the younger girls who were already feeling homesick.

Ellie sat on her bed with her window open, listening from her third-floor bedroom to the sounds of those coming and going down below. It was a welcome distraction from the chaotic mess of plans that she was trying to get her head around, which was proving immensely difficult despite the vast array of lists and charts that she had spent the last few hours preparing.

Weekly timetables packed with sports and club meetings in every free period, with even more sports and clubs squeezed in between them. Lists of the girls that she knew in Ivy, colour coded to signify what cliques they were in or what clubs they were a part of.

Purple for Field Hockey, blue for Football, orange for the Swim team...

These were all distractions too. Hours ago, Ellie had intended to head downstairs and join the rest of the house in the common room, a time to mingle and reunite with friends for a few hours before the evening where, as was tradition, there would be a 'Welcome Back Ivy' party. Normally she would skip it, or quietly head off back to her room after half an hour when nobody was looking. As with everything to do with her school life this year, this night would be different.

Once her parents had left, she stripped off her school uniform and flung open each of her suitcases to piece together a dozen different outfits to try on. Each one she laid out on her bed, beside the large mirror that sat on her pillows and leaned against the wall, allowing her to get ready for the evening from the comfort of her fuzzy purple bedspread.

Yet it was somewhere between brushing her hair and doing her eyeliner that her eagerness started to drop and her bravery started to fade, when that little sting of self-doubt crept in and slowed everything down. With her parents there, with everyone's parents there, the girls of Ivy House were friendly and welcoming. Parents had a way of dampening that typical school atmosphere of popularity contests, bullies, peer pressure and hormones.

With the first day excitement blanketing over everyone it was easy to forget incidents like the one with Ruby Brower the year before, who got locked out of her room when she came back from the showers and earned the nickname 'Ruby Cheeks' for the rest of the year. Then there was Florence Hutton, a sixth form girl who passed out in the common room during Ellie's 2nd year, smelling of vodka with her panties around her ankles and her eyebrows shaved off. She was expelled from the school for indecent behaviour, but everyone knew she wasn't the sort of girl to get blackout drunk.

The girls of Ivy could be brutal, vindictive and petty. Everything Ellie needed to have a horrible evening of socialising.

The makeup on her bed vanished under dozens of different coloured pens and highlighters, the dresses and jeans that she had picked out were crushed beneath piles of drawing pads and notebooks.

Her frustration grew as the hours passed, each club that she found conflicting with another, each giggle or snippet of chatter that she heard from the corridor as girls headed downstairs to the party. Each minute that passed without her leaving her room, with every one being a reminder of how easy it had been to talk to people just hours before. Every moment she would curse herself for being stupid enough to think Marlborough could schedule every activity it had available without any of them clashing.

How could they? There are hundreds!

Every time she shuffled her notepads more club leaflets would fall out onto her bed, each reminding her of something she'd already signed up for that she'd have to work into her schedule.

If I can ask to get out of Maths five minutes early, I can just about get to Tennis tryouts on time and hopefully those finish before Shakespeare Society starts at four o'clock, but then I can't do Drama club on Sunday afternoons, at least until the Hockey season is over. Maybe if I ask Mrs Moon to move the meet to Fridays instead, but then that would mean...

Thump, thump, thump!

Ellie shoved a heap of notepads, bras and makeup out of her sight, sending them all clattering onto the floor just as a dozen loud knocks drummed against her door. The noise caused her to jump, sending more of her things across the room and making her clutch her chest to stop her heart from bursting out.

Three of four girls lingered outside her door, laughing and chatting between themselves as they delivered the same drumming to the other bedroom doors along the corridor and clearly having all the fun in the world.

"Screw it." Ellie tossed the rest of her notebooks aside and picked up her eyeliner again. "I'll figure it out tomorrow."

She spoke aloud to herself, willing herself forward. Ivy may be a jungle, full of hidden enemies and lethal predators, but she definitely wasn't going to be their fearful prey. She wanted to push herself this year and she wasn't going to fail on the very first night by keeping out of sight with her nose buried in inconceivable timetables.

The corridors were eerily quiet when Ellie stepped outside of her bedroom, except for the distant chatter of the common room downstairs and the quiet mumbling of girls in their rooms who were deciding to stay put. She immediately felt the nerves freezing her in place, making her feet feel like lead weights that lazily dragged along the carpet.

The risqué black mesh top that she'd decided to wear was already beginning to feel like a mistake, along with the more pronounced cats eye that she'd drawn on her eyes and the slightly darker shade of lipstick that coated her lips.

Keep going. It'll feel even worse if you turn back now.

Ellie tip toed her way forward, wanting to make as little noise as possible as she made her way past the doors of her neighbour's rooms. She listened to hear if anyone was in the rooms around her, curious to see who was inside, what they might be like and wondering if they were just as nervous as she was about socialising.

The room across the hall seemed strangely quiet and empty, but her next door neighbour was definitely there, rustling around inside her room and apparently unpacking something heavy. Ellie couldn't help but stand outside the door, looking at the moving shadows at the bottom of the doorframe and smirking as the girl inside clearly hummed a tune from the latest Wither Sisters album.

"That's a good sign." Ellie whispered quietly, pondering what other bands they might have in common.

The humming stopped abruptly, the girl's shadows freezing in place beneath the door and making Ellie's heart drop to the pit of her stomach. She could feel the girls stare burning its way through the wooden door, then the shadows started moving again, growing larger and larger, then the door handle started to turn.

Ellie sprinted away, desperate not to be caught in the act of spying on her first night back, especially on her next door neighbour. She ran around the corner and out into the main hallway where more girls were leaving their rooms and heading downstairs, then she hid behind the open door of the girls' bathroom. She heaved a sigh of relief when a door opened and closed back down the corridor without anyone coming around and looking for her, and when the coast was clear she quietly and gracefully made her way towards the stairs, desperately pretending she wasn't so flustered.

Awkward encounter number one is now out of the way.

The common room was absolutely packed when she arrived, since it was the first time that day that everyone was in the same place and doing the same thing without parents or unpacking to worry about. At least sixty girls squashed together, piling on to the dozen or so sofas and benches that were scattered around the room or huddled in groups around ten circular tables that were each painted a different colour. Some were still wearing their uniforms while most had clearly had the time to get changed into their best outfits. On top of the hundreds of different conversations and reunions going on, party music was booming out of large speakers around the room and forcing everyone to yell loud enough to be heard over both the music and each other.

One of the Ivy prefects, the pristine looking fifth year girl called Dana Cook was shepherding a bunch of first year students through the crowd and trying to be heard over the music. "First years, follow me, we have to finish orientation!"

Ellie ducked out of the way just as some of the smaller girls spotted her and decided to separate from the orientation group and head towards her, but Dana roared at them to come back and they meekly complied. Ellie always did her best to avoid the first year newcomers at Marlborough, those who weren't yet prepared to think of her as a normal student. She wasn't going to be rude and not say hello, but school was hard enough without people ogling her and following her around.

Alex waved at her from a table at the back of the room where she was happily talking with two of her friends from the third year, a pudgy brunette called Laura Houghton and Bella Stokesworth, a girl even smaller than Alex who tied her black hair into two thick braids that ran down her back. Together they were sharing a table with about six second year girls, who all watched Ellie closely as she sat down and immediately started whispering amongst themselves when they thought she wasn't looking.

"Didn't think you'd come." Alex said to her as she entwined their arms.

"You know I've been wanting to change that." Ellie said irritably as she looked around the table. Laura and Ashley had continued their conversation about trying out for the Fencing team, whilst the group of second years were whispering so loudly to hear each other that they didn't realise Ellie could hear them.

"Does she ever come to these things? I never saw her last year!"

"She came to the meetings but never the parties!"

"What?"

"She came to the meetings!"

"What?"

Alex turned in her seat so that she blocked the second years view of her. "Don't worry about them. Relax a little, sis."

It was easy for her to say. Alex had adapted to boarding school like she was any other normal girl, especially not one who had spent the years before being home-schooled and hardly having a social life. She had jumped at the opportunity whilst Ellie had sat and stewed, only occasionally getting her feet wet and testing her comfort zone when it came to making friends.

I don't want to wait anymore, I'm ready.

Alex was right though, it really wasn't so bad. Sitting at the table and talking with her sisters friends was a pleasant experience, she always knew it would be, but the struggle came with getting used to it. Her interactions with other students felt so few and far between, even with all the classes where she sat side by side and worked with girls and boys her own age, she had never opened up to someone enough to make a friend.

That's my goal.

"All right girls, settle down, settle down." Mrs Moon spoke over a microphone and then waited for the music to be turned down before she continued. "We need some more even groups here. Jane, why don't you go over there with Sadie. Hannah, why don't you guys join Trish's group down here."

Girls started shuffling around, frowning as their conversations were broken up and they were forced to find new friends for the evening. "Ah, Ellie, nice of you to join us."

Oh lord.

All the girls in the room rapidly twisted and turned around in an effort to find her. Like spotlights searching for a target, at least sixty pairs of eyes settled on her. Ellie raised her hand, smiling shyly and hoping for the attention to move elsewhere before she exploded. Alex reassuringly bumped her shoulder, letting her know she was nearby.

It's okay. You're used to people staring, aren't you?

"I'd say there's too many of you over there. Ellie, come and join Ashley and the girls at the front here." Mrs Moon beckoned her over, with each wave of her hands acting like a crane which slowly lifted Ellie out of her seat. She was just as comforting and friendly as she always was but this time, at least to Ellie, it felt a little evil.

Ellie's eyes darted around as she made her way to the front of the crowd, weaving between tables and avoiding looking at the girls around her who followed her every movement. She heard Alex's voice behind her, loudly pointing out that Sasha White quit the Fencing team last year and left a spot open, which thankfully restarted her friends conversation along with every other conversation that seemed to have stopped when Ellie's name was called. Using the noise as cover, Ellie hurried the last few steps around a few tables and sat down in the empty seat that Mrs Moon pointed her too.

Happy to be out of the limelight, she hadn't taken the time to look at who she was actually sitting next to. At first the girl didn't look at her, only briefly glancing at her arm with an offended look on her face, as if Ellie had no right to sit next to her, but when her large, doe-like hazel eyes looked up at Ellie her expression quickly changed to an eagerness.

Oh, that Ashley.

Ashley Mills had a big reputation among the fourth years of Marlborough College. Her family was one of the wealthiest around and seemed to be top of the pile when it came to the rich kids of the school, everyone looked up to them, some even feared them. In a school where almost everyone came from money and powerful families, reputation meant everything and was the difference between popularity and social exclusion. Ashley's older sister Sarah was also the Head Girl, and the expectation was that Ashley would be following in the same footsteps.

The Mills family held onto power with an iron grip and held almost as much influence over Marlborough College as Ellie's family did, if not more. Ellie knew that if she was going to make any progress at school this year, she would have to deal with Ashley Mills.

Ellie decided to speak first, knowing that most girls were afraid of even sitting next to a member of the Mills family and that perhaps that was something she could relate to. Ashley wasn't known to be a bully or mean, just someone that held a lot of power among the students, particularly in Ivy House.

Maybe Ashley herself wasn't so bad, maybe it was her family that was the villain that everyone was afraid of. A powerful family could cast a very large shadow over someone's life, something Ellie was very familiar with.

"Hey." Ellie said, acting confident and making herself comfortable in her seat. She wanted to show Ashley she wasn't afraid of her and it seemed to be working.

Ashley's eyes were twinkling, her mouth slightly open as she watched her. Ellie could tell she was thinking, analysing her closely and pondering what to do with her. Ashley's speech was friendly, her words like honey and nowhere near matching the family reputation. "Hey, don't see you at these things often."

"Yeah." Ellie answered nervously, distracted by the openness that came with sitting at the front of the room. "I normally skip out after forty minutes or so, but I'm planning to try a bit harder this time."

She watched Ashley, hoping that she'd said the right thing and not ruined her chances of friendship already. On the contrary, Ashley seemed almost impressed with her answer. Lucy Morello and Lauren Beattie, Ashley's closest confidantes, both moved their chairs closer so that Ellie was squeezed in amongst them and the rest of the room was shut out.

"Well, you aren't missing much so I don't blame you. It's not really much of a party with all the kids around." Ashley turned her head and looked at all the first year girls that were gathered together nearby, all them quickly averting their gaze and pretending they weren't just looking at her.

"So why do you stay?" Ellie asked.

"Mrs Moon expects it of me, at least to stay for the quiz. Something about my influence and being a role model." Ashley explained nonchalantly. She leaned in closer to Ellie and hid her lips from the view of everyone but their table. "The girls and I were going to hang out in my room after, if you wanna join us?"

"Don't you want to relax with the rest of the house?" Ellie said, matching the whisper. She could feel girls around her leaning in and trying to hear her.

"You don't want to make friends with them." Lucy piped in, surprising her. Up until then it had seemed like only Ashley was allowed to talk.

"You were wise to avoid everyone." Lauren added.

"Yeah, Ellie." Ashley looked suspiciously around the room once again. "You're maybe not aware yet, but you should know most of these girls are Scheming. Little. Bitches."

Her words were vicious and harsh, directed at everyone around her and clearly coming from a girl who had been on the wrong end of several of these schemes. The whole of Ivy suddenly felt much more hostile and made Ellie appreciate the safety of sharing a table with Ashley Mills, a girl who was quickly revealing how difficult it was going to be to make real friends.

The quiz ended up being incredibly easy, the questions were aimed at the first years as a way to help them socialise and make friends whilst the older girls were allowed to sit back and only pretend they were taking part. Ashley, Lucy and Lauren made a conscious effort to involve Ellie in their conversation, even if it jumped from various girls, boys, classes and sports that she was yet to meet or take part in. Ellie could ease herself in, just as she had hoped to do. Her confidence was growing, as well as the sense that she was becoming part of something.

The girls even huddled around her protectively and gave the group stink eye to Rhiannon Wakefield, a Sixth Form girl who accidentally bumped into Ellie's chair.

It was startling to her how much being part of a group and having friends around her could change her perspective, allowing her to sit and be herself, to enjoy what she was doing without being worried about everyone else. She could look around the room and stare into the eyes of girls she had never spoken to before, girls who she would normally shy away from when she'd first come downstairs.

This included an older woman, tall, intimidating and well-toned, standing in a dark corner of the room and looking directly at her with her arms crossed. She looked too mature to be a student but too young and uncomfortable in the crowd of girls to be a new teacher, her body language was stern, stand-offish and almost as suspicious as Ashley was. She kept her eyes on Ellie as she left early with her new friends, her gaze so unsettling that Ellie had to rush the others to leave the common room even quicker.

She tried to put it out of her mind, focusing instead on the heavily decorated door of Ashley's bedroom.

"So what about you guys?" she asked vaguely as Ashley unlocked the door and led them inside.

"What about us?" Lucy asked back, casually slumping down on Ashley's bed.

"You said everyone down there is a scheming bitch, so what about... you?" Ellie was tentative and avoided looking at their reactions, instead focusing on the walls of the room which were already covered in photos of Ashley with her friends. Popular kids from all across the school were easily recognisable, making Ashley's status as Queen of the school even more obvious, as well as the fact that she was unfairly efficient when it came to unpacking.

"We're trying to save this place." Ashley commanded her attention again and pulled her onto the large queen size bed to join them. "Ivy used to be the best house in school, we had the best sports teams and we always won the House tournament. Now it's just filled with bullies and cliques while the rest just want to transfer to New Court or Elmhurst."

"Me and Sarah are doing our best, trying to make sure Ivy gets back on top, but the bad sort are still getting in and dragging us down. You know all about that though, right?"

The atmosphere inside the bedroom very quickly shifted as the three girls watched Ellie closely and silently, waiting for her to respond. Was she implying Ellie was the bad sort?

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ellie, feeling insulted.

"Just that you must be used to your fair share of fame hunters and leeches, Princess." Ashley gave her a knowing smile.

"Yeah, you're from the biggest family around. You have more power than anyone in England, let alone Marlborough. You're friends with movie stars and celebrities, just last week I saw you in OK! Magazine hanging out with Taylor Swift." Lucy added in an adoring tone that Ellie was very familiar with, yet her knowledge of the private lives of royals was worrying.

"Okay, chill fan girl." Ashley scolded her friend with a judging stare and looked warmly back at Ellie.

"There aren't as many as you might think, but yeah." Ellie said, moving on. "It's gotten a lot worse after Granny died, people coming out of nowhere and claiming we share a family connection."

It took them a moment to realise who Granny was, but that wasn't unusual when she was talking to people outside of the family. Ellie waited for the inevitable chorus of "Ohhh!" and smirked when the girls provided it.

"We should really stick together Ellie, your influence would really help get us back on top of the tables at school. Can you imagine what we could do with you on our side?" Ashley and the girls looked between her and each other, excitedly thinking about the prospect.

"Well I've been signing up for more clubs than I can count, and I've got more team tryouts this week than I've had in my entire life. What do you need me to do?" Ellie spoke honestly, she couldn't think of much more she could be doing to help make Ivy great again, and in truth she wasn't that bothered about it.

But if helping them means I can make some friends... why not?

"Oh, don't worry about tryouts. Ashley can get you on most of the squads easily." Lauren casually brushed aside her worries.

Ellie looked disbelievingly at Ashley, who was taking out her phone and nodding at her smugly, as if it was completely obvious that she had that level of power. "Do I have you on Facebook?"

Ah, great. I figured this would come up.

"No, no. I don't have a public Facebook account." Ellie knew if anyone gained access to her private account, there would be hell to pay when her parents found out. Private pictures were one thing, but when those pictures could then easily be stolen and sold, that was a risk nobody in her family could take.

"Well girly, that's gonna have to be our first order of business!"

They ended up making an entirely new profile for her in order to keep her family and photos private, despite repeated questions from Lauren and Lucy asking why her family's privacy was so important. Ashley was more respectful, and Ellie guessed she often had similar interactions with people wanting to befriend her. It was nice to have someone who could understand her, as well as reign in the girls when they got too curious.

"You just don't want us to see all your celebrity friends." Lauren sighed at her, pretending to be hurt.

"I don't have that many, actually." Ellies account was tiny compared to Ashley's, who had hers loaded up on her laptop to be an example for Ellie. She was more embarrassed by the fact that she had no friends her own age, while Ashley boasted over two thousand.

"Don't worry about that. You can easily make everyone in this school worship you." Ashley was looking at her like she was some sort of science project or ancient artefact, urging her to unleash her power.

"Ashley, I mean real friends. Like this." Ellie jealously gestured to Ashley's friends list.

"Like that." She pointed with her eyes to the walls, covered in vast amounts of photos of dozens and dozens of friendships. "What I don't want is people worshipping me, people pretending they're on my side. I want to make friends from shared experiences, from going out, from partying, from being together!"

The words were well rehearsed, spoken dozens and dozens of times in her head over the summer. Her voice had grown louder as she spoke, angrier even. Her cheeks were warm and flushed, and the girls looked at her, half in shock and half in awe as she sat and stewed in her frustration.

"There's only one place to start." Ashley squeezed in beside her, pressed their cheeks together and stuck her phone out in front of them. "Smile!"

Hours passed by late into the night as they took more and more photos together and started populating Ellie's new profile with her likes and dislikes, her favourite bands, her favourite hobbies and all these new profile pictures. The friend requests started pouring in when Ashley added her as a friend, making her phone buzz so often that it turned into one constant vibration. Lauren and Lucy delighted in re-doing her hair and makeup and gushed over how proud they were to be the stylists of a Princess. Ashley meticulously picked out outfits for her to wear and oversaw every style choice the other girls made with Ellie, clearly enjoying being able to thoroughly turn her into one of them.

Ellie was starting to feel like she belonged, but even more so, she was starting to feel like she had been claimed.

With all the photos she was uploading with her arm around Ellie, looking fiercely at the camera and daring anyone to try her, it was clear that Ashley wanted Ellie to be well and truly one of her girls.

"It's honestly so hard to stay friends without social media." Lauren told her when she was starting to hesitate over accepting the friend requests on her phone. Lucy accepted five more for her and then dragged her into another photo of them dancing on the bed to a Disney song.

Ellie decided she would take her time. She would only add people in her year, people she knew she would be seeing in class regularly. It was easy at first, adding a new friend between trying on different outfits from Ashley's wardrobe and posing with each other, but things were different by the end of the night, when she was heading back to her room at three in the morning wearing another girl's jeans and feeling better than ever than she'd ever felt at Marlborough.

Over six hundred requests were waiting for her, from new kids in school to sixth formers who were in their final year. Ellie's restrictions had gone from her year only, to people on the teams she was hoping to join, to the years below and above her, to then finally all of the school. She was adamant that it wouldn't go any further than that.

As she made her way up the stairs to her floor and practically skipped through the corridors leading to her room, she reassured herself that the people on her page could only see what she wanted them to see. Ashley and the girls had been eager to upload every photo they had with her with captions like 'Look who I met' alongside others like "My new best girlfriend", but they had at least asked her each time whether she was happy with them.

It'll all be fine. They're all nice photos and it's all secure within the Marlborough network, it's good. You're good. The Palace won't find out.

She swung around the corner into the small off-shoot corridor where her bedroom door was waiting, but a tall, intimidating and well-toned blonde woman stood blocking her way. She was wearing all black skinny jeans and a long sleeve top despite the time and had clearly been waiting for her to show up.

Ellie almost fell over in her eagerness to stop. The woman crossed her arms and looked irritable, like a mother who had been forced to stay up late until her daughter got home.

"Your Highness, are you all right?" she asked in a Pennsylvania accent. Aunt Emma's influence in the decision making was now clear. Ellie's spirits immediately dropped.

"Oh, you..." Ellie mumbled, failing to hide her disappointment. She had easily forgotten after the night with Ashley and the girls.

The woman blinked, obviously a little hurt by the less than friendly greeting. "My name is Jennifer Jareau. I'm here as your in-house protection officer, Ma'am."

Ellie winced. Being called Ma'am was like a spear through the chest after the night she had just enjoyed. "The one sent by my grandparents, yeah." She couldn't help but sound snide.

"They had a hand in my appointment, yes, but I'm here fully at your service and that means knowing where you are at all times." She was clearly growing more annoyed.

"Isn't it your job to find out?" Ellie took on an aggressive stance, her arms crossed to match Jennifer. "I've been here three years and I haven't needed to tell anyone where I am or where I'm going."

"With respect Ma'am, things will be different this year." Jennifer gritted her teeth, her words curt and sharp.

"Oh, will they?" Ellie pushed past her, wanting to get away from Jennifer before all of her good vibes were crushed. "And don't call me Ma'am, not here."

She turned to her door and ignored the woman, but only when she tried turning the handle did she realise that in her nervous rush downstairs hours before, she had forgotten to bring her keys. Ellie pulled on the handle several times and each time the door stood firm, leaving her lingering with her back turned to someone who was quickly becoming, at least to her, the worst person at Marlborough.

"Here." Jennifer sighed, going into the bedroom opposite Ellie's and grabbing a spare key. She inserted it into Ellie's lock and opened her door.

Ellie mumbled an abrupt 'thanks' and slid back into her room, quickly closing the door in Jennifer's irritated face.

[darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts]

Deadlines Alt End 2

Masterlist

---

Deadlines Alternative End 2: Mitsunari His POV

What is that sound? I don’t know how long it had been since I began reading my current book but it had apparently been long enough for Hideyoshi to no longer be next to me. I blinked as I removed my reading glasses pinching the bridge of my nose as I stretched my shoulders. There was a note on the table in front of me. “Gone to class. Remember you have work tonight. Remember to get something to eat as well - Yoshi” I smiled at my friend’s thoughtfulness.

There’s that sound again. I decided to investigate whilst I took a break. I had nearly forgotten the girl from before until I saw her crouched down by a shelf surrounded by books lying at her feet. She was sobbing. Was that the noise I heard? I’m sure I know her name but for the life of me, I can’t think of what it is. I decided to ignore my own forgetfulness and instead opted to bend down and help her gather back up the fallen books. As I did she looked at me with big wide eyes, her face was red. Is she is feeling well?

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realise anyone else was still up here. Did I disturb you?” Her voice had a tremble to it. I wonder if there is something I can do to make her feel more settled.

“No, not at all.” Smiling I moved forward collecting more books from the floor placing them neatly next to her. “Forgive me but you appear to be in need of help. If you like you could talk to me and maybe another person could help you with whatever it is that is upsetting you.”

“That is very sweet of you but I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble. I mean we just met you have no reason to bother yourself with a complete stranger.” She was so genuine the way she spoke. I found myself curiously drawn to her.

“Please don’t say that.” I took hold of her hand nearest me. I saw her eyes flick down to where our hands were touching before they found mine again, searching for something. “I wouldn’t have offered if I was not willing to help. I seriously would like to help you if I can.” ‘What are you doing Mitsunari? You can’t just touch a girl without permission.’ I heard Yoshi’s voice in my head. And then the connection between her expression and our hands suddenly clicked and I quickly released my grip. “My apologies that was ill-mannered of me and very rude. I shouldn’t have touched you like that.”

“No, it’s ok.” She quickly replied wiping her eyes with the back of her hand while trying to smile. “I’m just having a really bad day and this” She indicated all the books that were once scattered on the ground. “Well, it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“That must be quite the bad day. Typically camel’s can carry a lot of weight, the Bactrian camel can carry up to 1000lbs and the Hybrid variety can carry somewhere in the region of 880 to 990lbs. Oh, but the Dromedary camel can carry roughly half of what the Bactrian can and…” I stopped talking. Interrupted by the pealing laughter of the girl next to me. Her whole appearance had changed as she crumbled into joyous laughter. She’s really… my heart feels like its aching. I wonder why.

“Haha, I’m sorry. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to use trivia to cheer me up before.” She looked at me with her beautiful eyes. I read so many books and I am at a total loss for words to describe her. 

“Trivia?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to do anything really was I? I mean I was just doing what I usually did and drew on information I had read somewhere.

“It doesn’t matter. Besides that thank you, you really helped.” Picking up the stack of books she stood up and began to move away. 

“I really hope so.” I spoke honestly before thinking of something. “You know I do a part-time job tutoring some of the students here in some classes? If you would like I could help look over your notes, see if there is anything I could suggest to help you.” Please let me help you, I want to help you. Rely on me.

Time had passed faster than I had been aware of. [Name] had let me assist her, although to be honest there was very little I could have suggested. Her notes were meticulous it was a pleasure to witness such dedicated and deliberate research. We said goodbye and I wished her luck with her exams as I left to return to the dorm. I still had some time before I had to go to my job so I decided to head back to get changed and grab my books. Perhaps I could grab a cereal bar, Yoshi did tell me to eat.  I smiled as I walked thinking about the events of a rather strange day.

---

As Mitsunari left the university library he had failed to notice that he had captured the attention of someone who was sitting on a chair outside a small coffee shop across the street. Mitsunari leaving the library is not something that was unusual. What was unusual was the fact he was with a girl, and they both appeared to be interested in each other.

“Now that is interesting.” The witness muttered as they took a sip of their black coffee. Lips twisting up into an amused smile.

---

It was the end of exams and with it came the seemingly nearly endless list of invites to house or dorm parties. Do I really know all these people? Their names flashed up on my phone and I was drawing a blank. I’ve never been good with names at all. Whilst I lamented my own failure in basic social skills I noticed a new message. “Thanks again for all your help. I think the exam went great in the end. - [Name]”  

“What’s with the creepy grin?” A voice drew my attention and I realised some of the others had joined me in the room. I didn’t notice them arriving I wonder how long they have been here. 

“Creepy grin?” I tilted my head confused. Ieyasu sighed.

“Yeah instead of that gormless annoying face you usually pull you have a creepy smile on your face now.” Saying this Ieyasu poked my forehead.

“I was not aware of it. I’m sorry.” I apologised.

“Ignore him Nari everyone else does.” Masa’s voice came from the door as he entered the room and walked right over to us.

“I wish they did. Nothing would bring me more pleasure than to be ignored by you Masa.” Ieyasu pulled a displeased face sounding grumpier than usual.

“Nothing would bring you more pleasure? Dude you seriously need to get laid.” Masa let out a loud laugh as he lunged and began tickling Ieyasu’s sides. I’m so pleased to be friends with such a lovely bunch of people.

“Hey come on you two I’m trying to eat over here.” Yoshi spoke up from the sofa after the playful pair had bumped into the back of it. He had half a sandwich in his hand and his e-reader in the other. 

“Why would that be something that Ieyasu would need to do?” I felt even more confused than before. If he is tired I agree he should go and lay down. 

“Glad you asked that lad. Now…” Masa released his grip on the fluffy haired blonde and moved closer to me lowering his voice a little as if he was about to pass on some top secret information. 

“MASA!” For some reason Yoshi raised his voice and shouted at Masa. He quickly put down his piece of tech and grabbed Masa from behind, causing them both to fall over the back of the sofa in a heap. It’s always so lively around here. I found myself smiling more.

“Ouch! Ok I give, I give. Dammit Yoshi you could have hurt my head.” Masa grumbled.

“That’s ok it is not as if there was anything of great importance in that head of yours, to begin with.” Ieyasu irritably retorted. 

“Hey!” Masa exclaimed before bursting out laughing.

“It would seem that Little Nari has himself a girlfriend.” Mitsuhide’s conspiratorial voice rang out as he entered from the hall with Nobu. “From what I saw the other day they were very close.”

“The other day? Where were you?” Yoshi moved towards Mitsuhide questioning him. They really are such close friends.

“Here and there. It appears you are missing the point. Little Nari here was with a girl.” Deflecting Yoshi masterfully Mitsuhide smiled shamelessly.

“You mean [Name]?” Admittedly I was a little lost during the conversation. I couldn’t think of anyone that Mitsuhide might be referring to but for some reason, her face popped up in my mind.

“Oh, she has a name?” Masa seemed very interested. I wonder why.

“Well, of course, she has a name, people usually do.” Ieyasu snapped back.

“Settle down this is easily cleared up.” Nobu who had finished pouring his drink from the coffee maker turned around fixing me with his crimson eyes. “Mitsunari. Is [Name] your girlfriend?”

“Yes” There wasn’t a hint of hesitation as I answered.

“WHAT!?” The collective outcries from my friends in the room almost seemed to reverberate. Did I say something wrong?

“Well, she is a girl and my friend… is that not what you meant?” The volume of my voice dissipated as I realised by looking at the faces of my friend around me that I might have made a mistake. Was that the wrong wording?

“You idiot.” Ieyasu said in an exasperated tone as he gave me a shove on my shoulder. 

---

After a lengthy discussion where the other guys explained to me that I had not understood the original question and then kept asking me details about [Name] and what I thought of her. I left to head to my last tuition job of the year feeling even more confused than before. I really don’t see the issue. She is a nice girl and I would like to think she is my friend now as well. Was that really so strange? I went to the cafe on the corner to get a latte to go. My stomach rumbled as I was waiting for it to be made reminding me that I had forgotten food again. 

“I’m sorry could I also get one of those as well please?” I pointed to flapjack bar in the display unit. The member of staff smiled putting it in a bag handing it to me along with my coffee.

“You know if you’re hungry you should try to eat more than just that.” A familiar girl’s voice came from behind me. I bumped into her as I turned around nearly spilling my latte in the process. Her hand covered mine as she helped me steady the hot drink. “Careful. Hehe, looks like it’s your turn to bump into me here this time.” She giggled and flashed the most disarming smile I’d every seen. It really is her. 

“I’m terribly sorry I wasn’t paying attention.” I quickly apologised. 

“That’s ok no harm done. Were you in a rush?” Her friendly exchange made me feel happy. She really is such a friendly person.

“Well I...oh excuse me a second.” I was about to tell her I was on my way to work when my phone chimed and I saw I had received a cancellation text from the student I was on my way to see. I know I should question the timing or be a little upset but I just can’t. I’m really happy for some reason. “Actually no I’m completely free now. Erm… if you are alright with it would you like to go for a walk? The park is lovely this time of year with all the trees changing colour.”

“That would be lovely. Let me just grab my drink to go and I’ll join you.” She ordered an apple and cinnamon tea and we laughed and talked as we made our way through the park. It was so pleasant and I found I was really happy to have the opportunity to see and talk to her again. Such a curious feeling. I wonder what it is.

---

They watched with smiled on their faces from the cafe in the park as they saw their plan work. Mitsunari and [Name] had arrived in the park and were walking together through the trees following the path. It was obvious to them what was going on even if their clueless friend had yet to work it out. But now the real work would have to begin. 

“I’m sorry were you waiting long?” A first-year student asked with an arm full of text books.

“No, not at all. Sit and let's see what we can do to help you.” Mitsuhide shifted in his chair for all the world looking very happy with himself. The student put all the text books down with a light thud on the table. Masa cracked open a can of soda, Nobu sat looking disinterested as he perused the local news paper.

“He so owes us.” Ieyasu leaned in to whisper to Yoshi.

“Hush. Let’s just focus on getting this job done.” Yoshi smiled warmly as he watched the couple. Thinking that it would be nice to see one of his friends be happy.

---