#sobbing. i had whats her name-cassy?? and she got so pissed at me

[arcadequeerz]

Anyone else just the worst w companions d:(

[albionscastle]

I Will Carry You

One shot! Ray Levine from Stay Close x Reader

You are Ray’s best friend and have been in love with him for years. When Cassie comes back into his life you realize you can’t watch him destroy himself any longer.

I may have gotten a tad carried away.

*NSFW

Fic Masterlist

I Will Carry You by Ruelle

“So anyway, this arsehole had the gall to expect me to pay for his meal because I wasn't ‘what was advertised,’ you grumbled, taking a swig of your beer. What the fuck does that even mean?”

There was no reply from either of the men at the bar. Both Ray and Fester were completely in a world of their own, even though it was Ray who had suggested you go for a drink after your disastrous date.

"And then I thought that later, I might take off all my clothes and walk down to the boardwalk to go skinny-dipping.”

A chuckle from Fester, but nothing from Ray.

"What's wrong with him?' you whispered.

“Cassie's back.”

You felt a cold chill run down your spine, and your chest tightened like a vice. That was the absolute last thing you had been expecting. Just a few weeks ago Fester had told Ray that Cassie was dead, which ended with you half carrying Ray home, drunk as a skunk and sobbing into the cushions of his couch. The absolute devastation in his voice as he had called out her name had broken your heart. Thankfully he had passed out quickly and as you had laid a blanket over him and left his flat, you cursed the Bitch.

“The fuck do you mean, Cassie's back? I thought she was dead, you told us she was dead.” you hissed, looking over to Ray who was still off in his own little world.

You watched as he swallowed down a whole bottle, swaying on the barstool, barely keeping himself upright. He looked completely defeated, what little wind he’d had in his sails had left him and only a shell of a man was left. He signaled for another drink, the only clue that he still resided in the real world.

“Nah mate, you’re done.”

Ray narrowed his eyes at his friend, trying to intimidate him into giving in. You were honestly surprised he could even see straight, the state he was in.

“Fine then,” he growled. “I’m going home, at least I can get a fucking drink there.”

“You do you mate, I’ll call you an Uber.”

“Whatever.” Ray didn’t even bother to pay before he stumbled out the door.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” you asked, wondering if you should make sure he got home ok.

“Tonight? Yup, I called the ride thirty minutes ago, it's already waiting out there. Other than that I don’t know, I mean he hasn't been ok for a really long time.”

“And now she’s back to fuck him over some more?”

“She wants nothing to do with him, actually. She’s only come to light now because of Green and those other guys that went missing from Vipers.”

“Isn’t that where she used to dance?” you couldn’t disguise your derision at the mere mention of her.

“Yup, and apparently she’s some kind of soccer mum now, kids, house in the suburbs, fiance and all. Turns out she was only living two towns away all these years. She’s somehow involved with the disappearance of this Stewart fellow from way back, mainly because she was involved with the man.”

“At the same time she was involved with Ray?” you felt sick when Fester nodded.

“Why did you tell him she was dead?”

“Because I wanted him to move the fuck on, I mean look at him. He’s a fucking mess because of what that bitch did to him and he just can’t get past it.”

You couldn’t disagree with his logic, you had seen the mess that was Ray Levine many, many times for yourself.

“Listen love, I’m going to offer you some advice.”

You glared at Fester, knowing what was coming next. You had heard it all before, and you wouldn’t admit to it even now. Denial had been key for the past decade.

“He’s likely never going to see past Cassie, darlin. I know you’re just ‘friends’.” The air quotes pissed you off. “You deserve better than dating assholes while you wait for Ray to get a clue.”

For the first time you really couldn’t fault Fester’s words. While it was 100% true that you and Ray had never been more than friends, it wasn’t for a lack of hoping on your part. Fester had always known, but he was nice enough to never call you out on it, at least until now. Ray, of course, was completely oblivious. With a sigh you paid your tab and Ray’s and turned to leave.

“I’ll give it some serious thought.” you nodded and walked out into the night.

It was the first time you had admitted, in a way, that Fester’s suspicion might be true. You had gotten so good at hiding it that you were certain he had forgotten, but Fester noticed and remembered everything, he would have been brilliant working for MI5, if he wasn’t a self-admitted sloth. But what he really was, to you, was a good man and a true friend.

Deep down you also knew he was right. Ray was never going to move past Cassie, she was an obsession now. You wished she really had died, at least then he might be forced to at least accept that she was never coming back to him. In that situation, at least, you knew that you didn’t have to be the same. You could have a life where you didn’t have the weight of him on your shoulders. It wasn’t as though he would notice either way, you thought bitterly.

Opening the door to your flat you threw your keys on to the kitchen table and flopped down on your couch, screaming into the pillow in frustration. You were smarter than this, always swearing you would never be one of those women you lost themselves over an inaccessible man. It was pathetic, and yet here you were, all your good intentions flying out the window the day you met Ray Levine. Bastard. Even if it wasn’t his fault, you were still angry at him. Sipping on a coffee you thought back to that day when this whole shitshow had started for you.

It had been ten years ago and you had arranged a lesson for a couple of your art students who had expressed an interest in photography. You were familiar with his work then, even having his book on your coffee table, which you flipped through often. His work had been atmospheric and evocative. He was a brilliant photojournalist and when you had found out he was local and taught classes, you had jumped on it. You found him to be an engaging and hands on teacher, responding eagerly to your students and they to him. The shaggy hair, beanie and tattoos you had not been expecting, and they clashed with the images you had seen of him in Iraq. But by the end of the first class the whole grunge rock thing he had going on was growing on you. When he had taken your hand to shake, a tingle had run down your spine and when he flashed that smile you were a goner.

You should have walked away right then. Instead, you booked more classes and once a week you allowed yourself the luxury of watching him at work. He towered over all the students, his presence easily filling the entire space, but he was never really aware. The kids were his only focus during those times, and they ate him up. For your part, you just tried not to react every time he accidentally brushed past you. In those early days you had only seen him in the context of lessons, still seeing only the Pulitzer winning photographer. Glimpses of the man he used to be. You were starry-eyed, giddy as a teenager and half in love with just the idea of him within weeks. So, when you started to talk outside the lessons, it seemed like such a natural progression of things. If you only talked about you, you didn't really notice, at least not for a while. When school was out you simply sat on the boardwalk feeding the gulls and discussing shit like politics and global warming.

Your first glimpse of the real Ray Levine came after a few months of you waiting for him to make a move. Sitting at Festers bar, you and Ray were having a great time and you thought for sure it would be then. He'd had his hand on your knee half the night and kept leaning in to whisper nonsense in your ear. Then in a heartbeat it had all changed. Someone in the bar had called the name 'Cassie' to greet a friend and you had never seen Ray whip around that fast. The brief look of hope in his eyes had baffled you and when he turned back to the bar the Ray you thought you knew was gone. The apologetic look Fester had shot you had said it all.

That night was the first time you had taken drunk Ray home to his couch. When he grabbed your wrist and pulled you to sit beside him a tiny spark of hope had ignited. That spark died as it all spilled out of him, Cassie, Vipers, the missing man. How he had proposed and she had walked away without a word. It was as he put his head on your lap and wept that you realized it was too late. You were already in love with him.

As dawn broke through your kitchen window you decided Fester was right. This had to stop.

For a month you made sure to see Ray only during the weekly lessons. He was distracted and disheveled, barely even noticing you were there. Fester kept you appraised, he'd seen Cassie again, she still had the plastic ring, she had kissed him. You felt sick. Then he was questioned, a suspect. Arrested for murder. He only wanted to see Cassie, it was as if you had never existed. After that, it was easy to make your decision. You applied for a teaching job in Edinburgh, receiving a positive reply within a week.

Ray was innocent of murder, you'd never doubted that for a second, but what he had admitted to had shaken you to the core. The Ray you now knew was a drunk, yes, but he was also the most gentle person you had ever known. The kids over the years had never heard a negative word or a raised voice from him. He had been there with a shoulder to cry on after every bad date, when your sister had died. You called him your gentle giant and he laughed every time.  Not one time had he ever put his hands on you in anger, even when you were drunk and unreasonable. Not even when you slugged him after a particularly dickish dig at your lack of a love life.

You decided to go and see him, to tell him yourself that you were leaving. No way you would walk out on him the way Cassie had, that would be the cruelest thing you could ever do. Just as you wouldn't disappear from his life, you would stay in touch, you just needed space and time to get over him.

The moment he opened the door to his flat and looked at you with so much relief in his eyes, you knew this was going to be harder than you had hoped. He looked like shit, his hair unwashed and straggly, eyes red and swollen, face drawn and pale,  it was as though he had aged ten years since you last saw him. Glancing down at the coffee table, you saw the empty vodka bottle sitting among half empty take-out containers, beer bottles and dirty clothing.

"Are you drunk Ray?"

"Not as drunk as you think." He smiled that lopsided smile you loved so much and put his arms around you for a hug.

For just a moment you let yourself sink into him, taking a deep breath and...

“Christ Ray! You smell like a brewery. you pushed him away, moving to stand in front of the window.

“I'm sorry." he mumbled, looking at you like a puppy you'd just kicked. I'll go get cleaned up, don't go away.”

“I'm not going anywhere, we need to talk.”

You didn't acknowledge the way his shoulders slumped when you spoke, you had to be strong enough to get through this without feeling guilt. It wasn't his fault you felt the way you did, he had never encouraged you after that night. It was all on you and even though you knew you had to do this, you still felt like shit for leaving him. He was a broken man and you would be willing to spend the rest of your life fixing all those broken pieces. That was why you had to go.

Ray came back into the room, freshly showered by the looks of things, looking a little more human than he had. He still took your breath away when you looked at him, even after every way he'd hurt you. Taking a deep breath, you locked the part of you that wanted to stay and fixed him with a stern look.

“How much have you had to drink today?"

"Probably too much." he shrugged.

You stomped into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee, not willing to have a proper conversation until he was at least a little sober.

"Are you afraid of me now?? he asked softly, flopping onto the couch, watching you over the rim of his mug.

“Of course not.” You sighed, sitting down beside him.

He looked truly worried.

“Ray. Look me in the eyes.” You waited until he looked up, his blue eyes red, watery and full of uncertainty. “There is no scenario on this planet that could ever make me afraid of you. Understand?”

You cupped his cheeks in your hands, forcing him to look at you when he tried to look away.

“Understand?”

“Yeah.” He whispered.

His skin was rough under your hands, he desperately needed to shave, but then you had always liked him with the scruff. Mainly because you had never seen him any other way. He was still looking at you, almost strangely, his eyes flaring and he made no effort to pull away. In response you gazed at him, subconsciously committing every part of face to memory. You were going to miss him.

He moved before you even had a chance to react, his mouth pressing against yours firmly, hands coming up to tangle in your hair. Before you could tell yourself that this was a very bad idea you leaned in, opening for him with a sigh. Ray was ferocious in his response, hauling you over to straddle his lap, his lips bruising yours, tongue sliding over your teeth.

Electricity coursed through your body, and you ground against him as years of longing came down to this moment. You couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t get close enough to him. You wanted every part of him, ached for his hands on your skin, for your hands on his. He obliged, his arm wrapping around your back so he could flip you beneath him on the couch. Alarm bells started ringing in your ears, but you ignored them, tugging his shirt out of his jeans and sliding your fingers beneath to touch the warm skin of his back.

Ray’s fingers were under your sweater, leaving you shivering as he traced patterns over your skin, wedging his hips between your thighs. Moaning into each other’s mouths you moved together. He was rock hard and you arched up to meet him for every grind of his hips, a low growl escaping his lips.

“Cassie.”

You went still for a moment, not believing what you had just heard. Then it hit you like a bucket of icy water and you shoved him off you with all the force you could muster, leaping from the couch.

“I don’t fucking believe this.” you muttered to yourself, pacing the room.

“What’s happening?” Ray honestly looked confused. “I thought we were having a…thing?”

He gulped as your eyes flashed with anger. You hoped that he couldn’t see past that to the hurt that was cutting you deeply.

“God, you really have no idea, do you?” Tears stung your eyes.

“I don’t, please tell me what’s wrong.”

He looked lost and for a split second you just wanted to hug him. Until his whisper replayed in your head.

“You said her name!” You couldn’t stop the tears now. “Her name, Ray, you were thinking of her when you were with me. I’m some fucking consolation prize that you can pretend is someone else.”

Understanding dawned and he looked horrified.

“It was just a reflex, with everything that’s happened recently, it just popped out. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“That’s horse shit Ray and you know it. You never stop thinking about her, that’s the problem.”

“I don’t! I swear I don’t.” He reached out to you.

“Don’t touch me Ray.” his hands drew back as if you had slapped them. It's bad enough you did it, don’t make it worse by denying it.

He put his hands in his lap, looking contrite.

“How could I have been so stupid?” You wiped at your eyes furiously. “I actually thought…”

Taking a long deep breath you forced yourself to calm down so you could say what you came here to say.

“For ten years Ray, I’ve watched you destroy yourself over that woman and for what? She left you, let you wonder for 17 years! And she didn’t spare you another thought, did she? She just fucked off and got herself a whole new life. You disposed of a human being for that bitch! Then she’s back, and you’re dancing like a puppet again, just the way she wants you to.”

Ray started to protest, but you shut him down with a look.

“You’re doing it now! You can’t see past your own misery to see how she’s manipulated you. She didn’t care about you enough to even check to make sure you were ok, did she? Who was it who dragged your drunk ass home? Night after night, who cleaned you up when you threw up on yourself, helped you to bed? I stayed every time you begged me to, listened while you sobbed for hours about how much you loved her, missed her. She was never here, Ray, never. She never cared. I did! You couldn't see past her, you never saw anyone but her. The woman destroyed your life and you just let her.”

You sucked in a breath, needing to get to the point. He was at least looking at you while you talked.

"Do you even know how I feel about you? Not even an inkling? I love you!

That made him pay attention.

“I never expected you to love me back, never asked anything of you. I realized, when she reappeared, that I would never compete. So I made a decision to leave."

“Wait, what? “

“I'm moving away, Ray. I took a job in Edinburgh, I leave tonight”

'You can't!"

"Yes I can Ray, and I will. I came over today to say goodbye, and so you knew I would never just up and leave you the way she did. Then, for a moment I thought that... But you said her name not mine, and that's broken my heart. So I won't change my mind.”

Taking a step toward him you leaned down, brushing his lips gently.

"I really hope you can let yourself be happy one day, Ray.” You whispered.

Without giving him a chance to respond you turned away and walked out the door.

Later that night and completely sober, Ray sat at the bar and told Fester everything that had happened. If he was expecting a sympathetic ear, he was sorely mistaken.

“I've known for weeks that she was leaving, Ray. You didn't even notice that she hasn't been around?"

"I was a little busy.' Ray muttered.

"Yeah, that's the problem mate. You were always a little busy.”

Ray didn't like the way he was feeling, after so many years of abject misery, guilt was an unwelcome new companion. He knew he'd fucked up, he never should have kissed you in the first place, but he wasn't in his right state of mind. The whole thing with Cassie finally unraveling, the whole fucked up mess had left him feeling vulnerable and more lost than ever. Now he had hurt his friend, and royally screwed up the only good thing he had in his life.

Rubbing his face with his hand, he tried to make sense of it all. He was so tired, fed up and ashamed. “ I honestly had no idea mate.' he sighed. "She never said anything."

“Why would she? You always made it perfectly clear that you only cared about Cassie, it's not like you returned the sentiment. Right?”

That was it there. He didn't know. Admittedly he liked having you around, you were always so comforting. But did he feel anything else? Was he even capable of it? Fuck, he was so confused. He did know that the moment you told him you were leaving, a cold stab of fear had run through his body. The one thing he hadn't thought of at that moment was Cassie. Why he had said her name when he was kissing you, he honestly didn't know.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?"

“That's a conversation that would take all night. But, in a nutshell, you're a self-loathing, obsessive drunk who didn't see what was good for him, even when it was right in front of him.”

"Tell me how you really feel, why don't you?”

"How about this, then? Tell me the first thing that comes to mind, yeah?”

Fester sounded suspiciously like a therapist, but the smile on his face showed just how much he was enjoying Ray's misery.

“What were you thinking when you kissed her?"

"Relief, I guess. I wasn't really thinking.”

“So your immediate subconscious reaction to her telling you she wasn't afraid of you, was to kiss her?"

“Ray shrugged.

“Ok then, your immediate gut reaction when she told you she was leaving? Go!”

Fear, betrayal, loss, agony. His chest had tightened, he'd felt like he couldn't breathe.

"And what about when she said she loved you."

Hope.

“I've really screwed things up, haven't I?” Ray's head was in his hands.

"You called the woman who loves you, by another woman's name while you were making out with her. A woman who, I might add, abandoned you, used you, tried to sell you out for murder, manipulated you and didn't think about you for 17 years.”

“Yeah.”

'Why?”

“I don't know, I feel sick about it.”

"You don't even love Cassie, you know.” Ray's head snapped up. "Think about it, you loved her back then, but for years it hasn't been that at all. You just couldn't separate what you'd had from what you did. Think about it Ray, you destroyed yourself for and because of this woman. Then you go and do this. You need help, mate, professional help.”

Ray wanted to be angry, wanted to defend his love for Cassie, but he couldn't. Deep down he knew Fester was right. It had stopped being love the moment he threw the body in the river. He equated his feelings for Cassie with betrayal, fear, self-loathing and obsession. They had overwhelmed him, especially when he dreamed. He had started drinking so he could sleep without dreaming and from there he had spiraled out of control. He couldn't believe he had missed his own true feelings. Now sober and coming to terms with all that had happened, things were a lot clearer. His feelings for you were so different than he had realized, affection, security, tenderness, warmth. With you there were moments that had been close to happiness. There was heat too, if that morning was anything to go by. He had been completely blind.

"How the hell am I going to fix this?” he sighed.

"Get yourself clean for starters and get some fucking therapy. And only when you are 100% sure that Cassie is cut out of your life forever do you go anywhere near that girl. If you can't do that, then leave her alone and let her get over you.”

Ray had a lot of soul-searching to do.

Six months later.

You unlocked the front door to your flat and managed to get in just before the sky opened up. With the rain came the damp cold and you shivered as you walked through to your bedroom to change. Edinburgh was a beautiful city, but it really did rain a lot. Still, the job made it worthwhile and you really did love it here. Checking your email, you saw a message from Fester and smiled. You made sure you kept him appraised of how you were doing, and he had agreed to never talk about Ray.

The process of getting over him had been a lot harder than you had anticipated. You thought about him every day and your heart didn't ache any less for it. Fester would have told you if there had been any trouble so you knew he was ok. But you missed him, so much it still hurt. You even missed the nights where you dragged him home. It had only mattered to you that you were with him. You guessed that made you pretty pathetic in the eyes of others.

It didn't matter anymore, anyway, you had to move on or you would end up just like Ray.

It was dark early, thunder booming as the rain poured and you started a fire in the fireplace, choosing not to turn on the main lights. Some nights you just needed to brood a bit and try to convince yourself that you would eventually get over Ray Levine.

A knock at the door startled you from your thoughts. Who on earth would be here at this time of the night? Shuffling to the door, you made sure the chain was on before opening the door a crack.

"What the hell?”

Ray stood there, looking nervous, his small umbrella barely keeping him dry.

Stunned at the sight of him you could only stand and gape for a few moments.

“Umm, would it be ok if I came in for a moment?”

His voice startled you back into reality.

“Oh my God! I'm sorry, Ray. Of course you can come in.” Stepping aside, you took off the chain, took his umbrella and closed the front door behind him.

He took off his shoes and coat and stood, silently, looking as awkward as you felt. Motioning him into the living room to sit, you stood in front of the fireplace, waiting. Your heart was hammering in your chest, your hands were shaking. Proof positive that after six months, you were not an iota less in love with him. It was taking everything in you not to jump over and wrap your arms around him.

“Why are you here, Ray?” You made your tone as flat as possible, not wanting him to hear the agitation you were feeling.

He swallowed hard and looked at you with eyes clearer than you had ever seen them.

“I wanted to say I'm sorry.”

You didn't say a word, waiting for him to continue.

“I'm sorry that I hurt you. I honestly didn't mean to, and I have no excuse for it.”

"Ok.” You sighed, sitting down on the coffee table to hide the way your knees were trembling. 'Is that all?”

'No.'" he took a deep breath. “I stopped drinking. Actually I stopped that day. Umm.”

You nodded to let him know you knew exactly what day he meant. Keeping your face an expressionless mask you felt your heart swell with pride that he had taken such a huge step.

“I was fucked up, love, I still am if you want the truth of it. Fester says I'm a work in progress.” he smiled wryly. “But, I've been going to therapy and AA meetings, I… It took you walking away to wake me up to the damage that Cassie had done, and the hurt I caused.”

His fingers were fidgeting with a fray in his jeans, you could see he was struggling with what to say next.

"I didn't realize how important you are to me until you left me. I know it's a fucking cliche and I sound just like any other asshole male.”

You smirked. He wasn't wrong.

He leaned forward, reaching for your hand and looking into your eyes intently.

"I was so caught up in myself that I was blind to everything going on around me, especially you. When I said her name, I wasn't thinking about her, for the first time in years I wasn't. It was a reflex and I'm not making excuses, but that's all it was. I was just so happy that you were still my friend despite everything I did. When I was in that room with Cassie, she looked at me as though I was nothing, she believed I had committed murder for her and she still looked at me like that. It was that moment that I started to realize how completely fucked up everything was. It took a pretty intense talking to from Fester to see what was really there in front of me.”

He paused, searching for the words he needed. You could feel your eyes filling and you blinked before he could see you cry.

“Once I removed my ridiculous obsession with Cassie out of the picture everything was so much clearer. I let it go, it was killing me, and then I started to rebuild. And there you were. You were always there and I was too blind to see it."

His thumb grazed over the back of your hand. You forced yourself to stay still and breathe, needing him to say everything, hope taking hold and blooming in your heart.

'I'm not stupid enough to expect you to forgive me after everything I've done. But I needed you to know, I'm clean and sober, in therapy, starting new work, and I love you. I knew it the moment I realized I was more upset about you leaving than I was about anything to do with Cassie. With her it was all about self-pity, I ruined myself over her. But with you, it felt like someone had taken a vice to my heart, I couldn't breathe and instead of wallowing, all I wanted to do was become the man you deserved.”

Tears spilled down your cheeks unchecked, you could see the truth of his words in his blue eyes. A wry, half smile appeared on his face.

´It's my own fault, I know, All of this. Even when I was at my worst, I never wanted to hurt you, and I'm so sorry that I was. I should have known, why else would you have stayed my friend all these years if you didn't love me? I destroyed all that, and I’ll regret that for the rest of my life, but I won't ever go back to the man I was, I promise you that..."

'Ray?' you interrupted him before he could go on.

You had already forgiven him everything a long time ago. The moment he had said he loved you, you knew you weren’t going to let him go.

"Shit, you're crying! Dammit I never wanted to make you cry.” he sounded angry at himself as he instinctively cupped your face, his thumbs wiping the tears away.

“Stop, Ray.” your fingers wrapped around his wrists. “Please, stop talking.”

Oh God his face was that of a rejected puppy. Pain was etched deeply in his features. You couldn't stand it.

"I need you to listen to me for a moment." you said softly.

His pulse sped up under your fingers and you watched him visibly prepare himself for your rejection.

"You did hurt me, Ray. You called me another woman's name while you were on top of me. I was angry, hurt and sad, when I left. I know that you never intentionally hurt me, I do. You need to know that I understood. I just couldn't watch you slowly kill yourself any longer, because I couldn't help you. And honestly Ray, that broke my heart. Nothing you could have would have stopped me from loving you, nothing. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?”

There was a spark of hope in his eyes when he looked at you and you saw the moment when realization dawned and you smiled softly.

"You love me?'

“Yes. Ray. I do love you, I never stopped. I tried, I really did, but I guess you're a little difficult to get over.” you said, reaching out to run your fingers along his jaw. With a sigh, he leaned into your touch, turning his head until he could press his lips against your palm. You shivered slightly, your breathing turning ragged. Time had only made your want of him stronger and more acute. He dropped to his knees in front of you, hands on either side of where you sat. Your breath caught us he leaned forward, eyes open to rest his forehead against yours. He rubbed his nose against yours, nuzzling your face, his mouth a whisper away from yours, his breath warm on your skin.

"Ray." you whispered his name in a quiet breath.

Time slowed down to a crawl and the rest of the world disappeared until there was nothing that existed but your heart pounding in your ears and the feather-light brush of his lips against yours. Your blood sang in your veins as he tilted his head, his mouth covering yours firmly, his large hands cupping your head to hold you against him. He growled deep in his throat, your name the sound that passed his lips. The sound of it sent a shiver from your scalp to your toes and he took advantage of your sigh to slide his tongue past your lips and against your own. Your arms wrapped tightly around his torso, pulling him closer, parting your legs to accommodate him. You didn't care about breathing, you just never wanted him to stop kissing you. He pulled away and you whimpered at the loss of him, sliding as close to his body as was physically possible.

His eyes, dark now with blown out pupils, took you in, from your heaving breaths, hooded, heavy eyes, to your flushed cheeks and swollen lips. Your fingers moved to tangle in his hair, pulling him back to you, his whispered ‘I love you’,  washing over you as you both dove in. His teeth worried your bottom lip, his tongue smoothing the sting before filling your mouth. Your legs wrapped around his waist, causing you both to hiss as your core pressed against his hardness.

Without taking his mouth off yours, Ray pulled you up to stand, palms sliding down your back to your rear to hold you against him. He carried you as though you were weightless, grunting as each step he took brushed you against his erection. You managed to pull off your jumper while he carried you, tossing it somewhere in the dark. Passing through your bedroom door you reached out to flip on the light, leaning back against the frame and giving him an eyeful of your breasts, covered in nothing, but thin delicate lace. He twitched against you, groaning as he steadied you against the wall. His eyes were fixed on your chest as his fingers traced the outline of your bra, your eyes watching him lick his lips as he slid the straps off your shoulders. Your hands went to the zipper of his red hoodie, opening it so you could slide it and his flannel shirt off his shoulders. Using his hips he pinned you to the wall, freeing his hands to shrug off his garments, pulling his t-shirt off over his head as well. You barely had a moment to take in the view of his broad, muscular chest before he clutched you against him, plundering your mouth with his tongue, his fingers deftly undoing your bra and sliding it off your body.

Gasping into his mouth as your nipples grazed the hair on his chest, you couldn't think straight. All you wanted now was his mouth and hands on you, his cock buried inside you, everything you had ached for, for ten long years. Desperation was rising in you both, his hips rolling between your thighs, your kisses now messy, rough and demanding, your hands touching every available inch of bare skin on one other that you could reach. Hefting you higher, he latched onto you, sucking your nipple into his mouth, flicking the tip of his tongue over it, smiling around you as you threw back your head, a cry escaping your throat, a hot sting of pleasure shooting from his mouth to between your thighs where it settled in a wet, throbbing ache. You needed him, now.

'Ray.' you were panting his name as he switched from side to side, alternating between licking, sucking and biting, each sending almost overwhelming pleasure coursing through your blood.

He hummed around you, his hands sliding under your upper thighs, fingers meeting in the middle, tracing over your core through your thin pants. Your fingers tugged on his hair, your body shuddering and jerking, your hips rolling against his touch, wanting more.

"Ray, please.” you gasped as his thumb found your clit and began a frustratingly slow rhythm.

He pulled his mouth off you with a pop, hissing as you tugged a little too hard on his hair. Your head fell forward, his face lifting up so he could kiss you again, his fingers still causing havoc between your legs. You unwrapped your legs from around him, forcing him to let you slide down his body to stand. Biting his lip, your hands moved to impatiently work at his belt buckle, slithering it through the loops of his jeans until it fell with a clunk onto the floor. He grinned against your lips as you made short work of his button and zipper, your palms sliding down his hips pushing his jeans down. Ray wiggled his legs and stepped out of them, kicking them to the side. He growled low in his throat as you reached between you to cup his erection through his boxer briefs. It was his turn to shudder as you stroked him through the cotton, dragging your tongue along his in unison. His hands furiously pulled down your pants and underwear to also be kicked aside, as well as his briefs, a pile of discarded clothing forgotten on the floor. Without breaking your kiss he hoisted you up again, pressing you against the wall, his fingers moving immediately to drag through your wet folds.

You whimpered against his tongue, your own fingers tracing featherlight over his balls feeling them twitch and draw up, his body shivering. He actually cried out, shaking when your hand wrapped around him, stroking his length with just enough speed and pressure to drive him mad. Your thumb dragged through the liquid leaking from the tip of him, the way he rocked his hips against you making you very much look forward to repeating your touches with your mouth later on.

Two long fingers sliding into you made you lose your train of thought as a wave of pure lust took you over. He hissed us your hand tightened around his shaft, making you repeat the gesture with each push of his fingers inside you. You were so close, you could feel your body tightening like a bowstring. He pulled his mouth from yours, pulling back to look down with a groan between your bodies. Doing the same you could see his cock sliding through your fingers, his fingers disappearing between your legs, his thumb sinking between your folds, stroking you.

Ray's breath was hot in your ear, his voice low and rough as he spoke.

"Tell me what you want, what you need right now."

“I want you.” you panted, your body trembling.

"You already have me.” he purred, twisting his fingers, stretching you open.

“God dammit Ray you know what I mean.” you moaned loudly, bearing down on his fingers as he found that magical spot inside you.

To think this man had been hiding  under all that drunken misery. The thought flew through your mind, leaving you wondering for a brief second how the fuck Cassie could have left this man behind.

You arched your back, letting go of him as you jerked, his hand going still.

"I want to hear it, I need to hear it.” he caught your eyes, and beneath the desire burning there you saw the vulnerable Ray, the one who was afraid that you wouldn't want him, just like Cassie hadn't.

You allowed all the love you had for him to shine in your eyes, looking at him as though you needed to memorize every line, every feature of his face, each more beautiful to you than the last. You had never been good about vocalizing during sex, always feeling ridiculously self conscious. But for Ray, you would push through it, even though your cheeks flamed and you found it hard to meet his eyes. You clasped your hands around the back of his neck, grunting in his ear as your muscles clenched around his fingers, his length twitching against your thigh as you whispered hoarsely.

“I've wanted to feel you inside me for ten years, Ray. Please don't make me wait any longer and just fuck me.”

You couldn't believe the words that had come out of your mouth, not that they weren't true, but they certainly had the desired effect. Ray's teeth were on your neck, his fingers sliding out of you, replaced by the heated, blunt head of his cock, bearing down minutely at your entrance.

“Open your eyes and look at me. Please.” he begged, circling his hips, enhancing the desperation you felt for him to just push into you.

You did as he asked, watched his face as his mouth moved around the shape of your name. A strangled whisper as he surged forward, impaling you on his length, the air pushed out your lungs, as his body pinned you against the wall. He was still for a moment, forehead resting against yours as you panted heavily into one another's mouths. He felt almost impossibly large as you stretched around him, your every nerve ending focused solely between your thighs. Your body trembled as you tentatively squeezed yourself around him, drawing a long moan from his lips. His body shook from the effort of holding himself back, one hand gripping your hip tightly, the other on the wall beside your head.

“Ray.” his name was barely a whisper on your lips, but it was enough. With a low, long growl he pulled back, leaving you aching at the loss of him, then with a grunt he filled you again. He felt incredible as he quickly set a ferocious rhythm, you saw stars every time he pounded into you. Your arms wrapped around his shoulders, nails scratching over his back as they grasped for purchase on his sweat- slickened skin. There was only hunger and desperate lust as his body slammed yours against the wall over and over. He grunted with each thrust, rutting like an animal and sending you closer and closer to the edge.

You cried out as he pounded harder, faster, every scrape of his length against your walls sending arrow shots of pleasure from your core, through your body and back again. You could feel your orgasm building, could hear only his grunts and the sound of wet skin slapping as he fucked your harder than anyone ever had before. It was almost too much to handle.

“So close.” you managed, barely able to breathe.

Ray groaned, pulling back far enough to slide his hand between your bodies, the rough pad of his thumb sliding your clit, your body jerking from the added sensation.

“Good girl, let me feel you come around me.”

He growled your name with every thrust of his hips, tilting you slightly so he could sink that little bit deeper inside you. That was all you needed, you felt yourself start to ripple around him as he stilled, your orgasm catching you off guard with its intensity. You felt as though your body had exploded into stardust as burning pleasure radiated through you. The feeling of him steel hard in you, as your muscles clenched, took your breath away. You writhed on him, hips rolling, fucking yourself on him, prolonging your pleasure, his name screamed into the air. There was no chance to come down, his thumb rubbing you kept you flying as he started pounding into you again.

His name was a litany chanted as your head rolled against the wall, pleasure bursting like fireworks  in your blood with every thrust.

“God! I'm almost there. You feel you fucking good, so tight.”  he grunted and groaned, his movements becoming more erratic the closer he got. 

Then with a roar he slammed hard into you, holding you still against him as he twitched and jerked, his whole body shaking as he spilled into you. The knowledge and sensation of him coming inside of you was enough to send you over the edge again, shuddering and gasping as your body clamped around him tightly, causing him to let out a strangled moan as he spurted one last time, your body milking him as you both tried to breathe.

His legs must have given out as you slid down the wall until you were sitting on his thighs, trembling and shaking. Ray's lips moved over your shoulder, gently kissing and nibbling your wet skin. Your arms were wrapped tightly around each other, neither of you wanting to pull away. He whispered endearments as his lips traveled up your neck, telling you he loved you, making sure to speak your name over and over so you knew you were the only one he was thinking of. Then he kissed you with the sweetest kiss you had ever experienced, his tongue barely touching the tip of yours before he pulled it back. Finally, he leaned back enough to look at you, your chest still heaving and red with a flush that traveled all the way to your scalp. He was red from exertion, his eyes full of satisfaction and affection. He looked proud of himself and you figured he had every right to, no man had ever made you come like that. In fact, until this moment and this man, you had been more content with toys than a real man. Ray had just changed all that, you were never going to stop wanting him and your heart soared as your fingers traced the planes of his face and love shone from his eyes.

"I love you, Ray Levine.”

He smiled sweetly, leaning in to kiss you, softly.

You knew you would never leave him again.

[prof-venturer]

The Story of Cassie

It was a few months before Equestria got its magic back. I had just come back from the bar, wasted as hell. I was so drunk that once I made it to my front door, I pissed all over it thinking it was a toilet. I entered my apartment, made a beeline towards my bed, threw up a couple times, and finally went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I had a headache. I was hung over. I headed towards the bathroom mirror and stared at my own reflection: bags under my bloodshot eyes. Vomit on my chin. A five-o’-clock shadow. I didn’t even take my morning pill that morning, I just trudged back to my room. But when I got there, I saw the most unexpected thing I had ever seen before, laying on the very bed I slept on.

It was pink. I thought I was so drunk that I stole a pink blanket without knowing what I was doing. So I walked up to it. But then I stopped in my tracks when I got a closer look. It was the size of a pony. That’s because it was a pony. Furthermore, it was an earth pony. And it was a mare.

I heard so much about the earth ponies. Based on what I heard from the boys at the pub, earth ponies were bloodthirsty savages who spared not a single soul. I stood there lost in that thought, not realizing she was waking up. And when I came to my senses, it was too late. She was wide awake and looking at me dead in the eye.

This time, I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do. Should I scream? Should I report this to the authorities? Would she try to stop me? I was pondering my next move when I saw the look on her face: she was just as frightened of me as I was of her. I slowly walked towards her, but she tried to back away. She had tears in her eyes when we were both standing two feet away from each other. I finally picked up the courage to say something.

“H-hello.”

She sat on my bed frozen. She must’ve been more afraid of me than I was of her. I tried talking to her again:

“It’s nice to meet you.”

Again, no answer.

“My name is Alfred Venturer. What’s yours?”

“Cassie,” she finally responded.

“Cassie? That’s a beautiful name,” I replied. “And you have a beautiful voice.”

Her pupils dilated. She must’ve started to realize I wasn’t as bad as she thought I was. But I could the she was still unsure of me.

“So, what brings you here?”

Then she started to sob. “I-I’m sorry!” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you! I was just trying to get to know you!”

“It’s not that,” she said. “I just don’t feel like talking about it right now.”

“Oh,” I said. “Mind if I hug you?” She shook her head no.

We sat on the bed hugging each other for thirty minutes. When she finally stopped crying, I asked if she felt better. She nodded. Then my stomach started to growl. It was already 10:30 in the morning. I was hungry. “Whoa! I’m hungry! Want me to make you something to eat?”

“Yes, that would be nice.”

And that was the beginning of something special.

----

Day by day, we began to trust each other in our secret relationship. I rarely ever went back to the pub. In fact, it had gotten to the point where every time I’d pass by the pub, I’d flip both of my middle feathers at the place. Cassie mostly stayed in my apartment, but when she did go out, she’d wear a pair of fake wings that I had crafted myself using my superior art skills. (They honestly didn’t look that good, but she told me that I should take pride in my work. Besides, they seemed to have worked surprisingly well.)

Soon, she finally told me why she came to Zephyr Heights in the first place: Apparently, she had been the victim of an abusive husband. Every time she made one little mistake, he’d slap her in the face. But the way she saw it, it was like he’d do it every time she moved a muscle. It had gotten to the point where he’d slap her multiple times. Then one day, she actually peed herself just because she accidentally broke a plate doing the dishes. She ended up receiving twice as many slaps as she’d gotten before. At that moment, she had decided that enough was enough. She shoved him out of the way and ran out the door crying.

She didn’t feel like Maretime Bay was safe anymore. She wanted to get as far away from her husband as possible. So she set out on a journey for some other civilization. She didn’t know where, she just wanted to get away from Maretime Bay as soon as possible. She told me that the journey was horrible: she had to live through harsh weather, hot temperatures, and pesky bugs. But when she arrived at Zephyr Heights, it was nighttime. It took her five hours to scale the mountain. But when she reached the civilization, she tried to find the closest, safest place she could find, which just so happened to be my apartment.

I told her not to worry. As long as we were together, she was safe. She smiled and hugged me. I hugged her back.

Just then, I felt something. It was flowing through my veins. I felt powerful. Suddenly, I had the urge to flap my wings, so I did. I flapped progressively faster and faster until I felt myself being lifted off the ground. I was… flying?! Cassie looked up at me in shock. Then she rushed over to the TV and turned it over to the news. I wasn’t the only one flying; the other pegasi were flying as well! Magic seemed to have come back. “CASSIE, PINCH ME!!!” I shouted. She did. It was real. Magic had actually returned. We both cheered in pure excitement. Then I picked Cassie off the ground and took her out flying in celebration.

We flew for several minutes. We flew past the Jumbotron, around the palace, and three laps around the perimeter of the city.

Then I got a little carried away and flew to Maretime Bay to thank the five heroes who brought back magic.

When we finally found them at the then-destroyed lighthouse, I told them everything that happened. I told them about us flying (Cassie was still disguising herself as a pegasus) and how we got to reach heights we’ve never reached before. They congratulated us and welcomed us to Maretime Bay. But then, suddenly, we heard a loud, rough masculine voice shout, “HEY!!!” We all turned to see a reddish-brown stallion with a faded blond mane and a wrench for a cutie mark step towards us with a five-o’-clock shadow and a golden tooth. He came up to me and shouted, “What are you doing with my wife?!”

“Who?” I asked without thinking.

He bitch-slapped me and said, “Don’t you play stupid with me. You know damn well that’s my wife behind your…” He noticed her fake wings and growled, “What did you do to my wife?”

“Nothing,” I replied.

“BULLSHIT!!!” He shouted. Then he grabbed ahold of my throat and stared to strangle me. Then the yellow stallion, Hitch, tackled him and started punching him. “What the heck is wrong with you?!” He shouted.

“HE FUCKED MY WIFE, THAT’S WHAT!” he screamed.

“HEY!” I shouted. I was about to defend myself when Cassie stepped in.

“He didn’t do a thing to me, Buckley,” she said. “He fed me and took care of me. Unlike you did.”

“Nonsense. I took care of you, too. I put meals on your plate–”

“You beat me and slapped me every time I made a single mistake!” She said with tears in her eyes. “You call that caring?!”

Hitch asked Buckley, “Sir, is this true?”

There was an awful long silence. Then he finally let out a long, heavy sigh and answered, “Yea. I slapped her. But I was only kidding.”

“Well, your so-called wife didn’t see it that way,” Hitch said. He then slapped a pair of hoof-cuffs on him and said, “You’re under arrest for domestic abuse.”

Then the short one, Pipp, pointed out, “Wait. Cassie’s a pegasus. How could she have been in a relationship with an earth pony?” Cassie then remembered she still had her wings on. She then took them off and said, “I was never a pegasus in the first place.” She then officially broke up with Buckley as Hitch escorted him to the station.

Later that night, Cassie and I were walking down the streets of Maretime Bay. We talked about how her whole life had changed since the day we met. I told her that I still can’t believe I could fly. She chuckled. We were passing under a street lamp when she stopped in her tracks. She then went on to tell me that I had changed her life forever. That she now had a reason to live. It was a miracle. I told her that my life had changed, too; thanks to her, I quit drinking. We both smiled at each other. Then, we both leaned forward and kissed each other. It was our first kiss ever.

Needless to say, ever since that very moment, the street lamp we kissed beneath still shines twenty-four hours a day.

It turns out, the boys at the pub were way off about the rumors. Not only were they wrong about earth ponies, they got the rumors themselves mixed up. The common rumors about earth ponies was that they were incredibly stupid, while us pegasi were the savage ones.

Life in Maretime Bay was great. I decided to move in, Cassie and I bought a house nearby, and we both got jobs. Because she had a thing for foals, she decided to become a preschool teacher. I was feeling rather smart, so I decided to hit the books and start studying. In addition, I developed a passion for curiosity and mystery, so I visited the library and checked out a bunch of crime novels. I also purchased a few puzzle books and a Rubik’s Cube to test my wits. I even went as far as to start playing–and get hooked on–the Professor Layton series. I was later inspired by the games to become a puzzle maker myself.

When summer rolled around, we hired a gardener named Bushy Twee. While he would work, we’d talk about stuff like memes, YouTube, politics, etc. He would later become my best friend, paying me visits just because he could. We’d joke around and watch SMG4 every Saturday and Wednesday. We’d play video games (mostly ROBLOX), we’d share memes we made/found online, and we’d do little roleplays. It was nice having him around.

I began to feel like I could contribute to our relationship. I told Cassie that I would like to be a college professor in critical thinking. She told me it doesn’t really work like that. I can’t just magically become a college professor; I hadn’t even gone to college. She also told me that there are no critical thinking classes in college. “I mean, sure, some classes do teach critical thinking,” she said, “but there aren’t any classes that teach critical thinking as a subject.” But I just passed it off, saying, “Then I’ll just get a job there and teach it myself.”

She then responded with, “That’s gonna require a few degrees, you know, including a master’s degree. And how do you plan on doing that?”

“You’ll see,” I answered. And the next day, I signed up for college and, eventually, got enrolled.

Six years into college, Cassie had a huge surprise waiting for me. When I came home one day, I found Cassie covered up, curled up on our bed. But she wasn’t asleep. And she was looking at me with a tired smile. When I asked her what was going on, she told me to lean forward. And what she whispered in my ear really tickled me pink:

“I’m pregnant.”

I was ecstatic. It was music to my ears. We were having a baby! I ran out the door cheering. Everyone congratulated me when I ran past them. It was a miracle.

The baby came eight months later. She remains to be one of my greatest treasures of all time. Her name is Winter Heart.

----

After I had officially earned the title of Professor Venturer, I decided it was time to take our relationship one step further. I purchased a beautiful crystal ring from Bridlewood. Then I arranged a date with Cassie for that night. She accepted and hired Bushy to take care of our then 2-year-old baby. After that, we were off on our date.

We went bowling, tried out an escape room, played laser tag, and won a contest, among other things. We had a blast. We eventually arrived at a park in Zephyr Heights. We laughed and joked around while we walked together. We decided to stop at a gazebo and take a few selfies, and post our photos on Facehoof. But then, my phone died just when I was gonna post my favorite photo. I felt a little down. “Aw, don’t feel bad, Ventie! You still got me!” she said.

I looked up at her and said, “You’re right. It doesn’t.” Then, I dropped to one knee, took out the ring, and asked her if she could be my bride.

With tears in her eyes, she accepted. It was wonderful.

The next day, we went to the Crystal Brighthouse and told the Mane Five the news. We told them that because magic had returned eight years ago and the three races were reunited, the two of us were happier than ever. We then told them that we were now engaged. They all got excited, especially Izzy. Because almost immediately, she decided it was time to throw a party. I was delighted to know we were going to get a party, but was a little concerned that we were throwing a party this early. I was about to say something when it was already too late; the first guest had already arrived. And then another. And then another. Soon enough, there were guests left and right, including Bushy and even Buckley! What else could I do but have fun?

We played games. We told stories. We danced. We sang. There was cheering, laughter, and joy all around us. I felt like a soldier who had just returned from war. And when it was all over, Pipp shared a toast: “These two may not be entirely special, but they’ve actually done a lot for our society, teaching us all very interesting things. Thanks to Cassie, our foals will grow up to have fresh and intelligent minds, and thanks to Alfred, our community will use what they learned to solve even the toughest problems. So, here’s to a successful future for both of them! Cheers!”

“Cheers!” We all shouted. It was the best day of my entire life.

But even so, all good things must come to an end, as the very next day would be forever etched in history as the first day of the Livestream Incident.

----

You probably know the story. But for those of you who don’t know, Pipp essentially went insane and killed Izzy for revealing Pipp’s deepest insecurities during a livestream. Anyway, the first stream started out pretty normal, as you would expect. Pipp talked about the party Izzy threw for Cassie and I the day before, and how we all had a good time. And then Izzy came in and started talking, and soon the antics ensued. When I watched the first livestream and saw what Izzy did, I didn’t think much about it. I just thought it’d be over the next day. That everypony would forget about it the next day. But I was wrong.

The next day, Pipp streamed again, and I tuned in. It started off with Pipp apologizing apologizing about what happened in her previous livestream before she went on to talk about what’s been going on. It went pretty well, but then I noticed at the live chat before Pipp did. I will admit that some of the Pipp jokes were actually pretty funny, and I laughed a lot harder than I should’ve at one particular joke. But the humor stopped when I saw the look on Pipp’s face: utter horror. Before we knew it, the livestream ended. To this day, I feel ashamed of laughing at Pipp that day.

Time went on, and there was no sign of Pipp anywhere. Not on ClipTrot, not in Maritime Bay, nowhere. Cassie and I started to get worried. We wondered if she had gone missing, or worse, killed herself. We asked everyone in town if they knew where she went. We asked different pegasi in Zephyr Heights if they knew. But we never got an answer. We went to the Brighthouse to tell the Mane Five–or should I say Four–about the results of our search. We were going to declare the mystery unsolved when my phone blew up with notifications. Everypony found Pipp.

She was wearing a white cloak and a pair of sunglasses to disguise herself, right in front of the Canter Logic building. Apparently, someone accidentally stepped on the hem of her cloak, revealing the mysterious mare herself. I could see tears swelling in her eyes. Next thing we knew, she flew off again. The videos I saw may have shocked me, but the very next livestream really caught us all off guard that night.

That night, the entire town was talking about what we had all witnessed when we all got the same notification: a new livestream. We all clicked on it and were stricken with horror. We all saw Izzy lying on the floor next a baseball bat wrapped halfway with barbed wire. We then saw a furious Pipp Petals yelling at us for making fun of her that day. I can’t really say exactly what she said because I can’t remember it all, so I’ll give you the gist: she said we were all horrible ponies for not caring at all about her insecurities. She called us twats because we knew she didn’t want to be called out for her height or weight and made fun of her anyway (I didn’t know anything about it until Izzy pointed it out in the first livestream, so how was I supposed to know?) She finally shouted that we all deserve to burn in hell. Just then, Sunny interrupted the stream and freaked out when she saw Pizza’s corpse lying in the middle of the floor. The last thing we heard was Pipp’s malicious giggle before the stream ended.

We were all terrified. Some of the foals started crying hysterically, while other ponies spazzed out. We all knew what this meant. Pipp was now criminally insane, and we all had to protect ourselves and our loved ones from her bloody grasp. It was wild.

A week after the Incident, Cassie and I got married. Not very many ponies attended, since they were all afraid of Pipp. Only a few ponies came, including Bushy and a few of the boys from the pub in Zephyr Heights, as well as a few parents whose foals attended Cassie’s preschool. Not even my own family came. But the wedding had to go on. In fact, we did manage to have a little fun. We danced a little and played a few games. It was okay. And soon, the ceremony was over. We went back home. Cassie and I were about to go to bed when I realized I left something important to me at the site of the wedding, so I decided to go fetch it before it was too late. But this is where things went from bad to worse.

I was walking down the streets of Maretime Bay to try to remember where we held the wedding. Suddenly, I heard a whooshing noise behind. I turned but saw nothing. I figured I was in trouble, but for some reason, I stood there trying to remember where we held the wedding. Then, a tin can fell over behind me. This time I felt my body quaking; I was terrified. I looked all around me to see if anypony was there, but I couldn’t find anyone. Suddenly, I remembered the location of the wedding: right outside Posey’s house. But before I could do anything, something grabbed me by the muzzle from behind and covered my face with a rag. I blacked out not long afterwards. I had been chloroformed.

When I woke up, I looked up to see Pipp giving me a slasher smile. My heart sank. Could this really be the end of me? I asked her why she had me.

“You were alone at night,” she answered.

“What do you want to do to me?”

“Torture you, of course!”

I started to bawl. I pleaded mercy , as I had just gotten married that day. I didn’t want to lose everything I hold close to me.

“Aw, tough luck.” She raised her bat.

“No, please! I’ll do anything for you!” I shouted.

She froze. “Anything?”

“Anything.”

She lowered her bat and put her hoof on her chin. “Well…” she pondered. “I do suppose you cloud help me out on a few… chores…” She then explained that she didn’t think that she was scary enough, so she considered starting an ask blog. Problem was, she took her email for granted for so long that she forgot the password. So she forced me to start a blog using my email. It was a matter of life and death, so I had no other choice but to do what she asked. And that’s the story behind the Ask Pippamena  blog.

So, I might’ve escaped, and society might be on the verge of collapse without a ruler to guide us, but is my life bad? No, it isn’t. I have everything I need here. I don’t need anything! All I need is my beautiful, lovely Cassie.

[buckybarnesthehotshot]

iii: i hate you but i need your van (bucky barnes x reader)

i hate you but masterlist

summary: bucky and y/n can’t stand each other, but y/n needs help with her sister’s kids (enemies to lovers au)

word count: 2115

warnings: swearing, arguing, death, and this is not proofread

taglist is CLOSED

A/N: I forgot to mention this when I first uploaded this but the one line in russian means “I will take all your knives and shove them up your ass if you don’t” but then again idk since I just used google translate lmao

       “Miss l/n, while Ethan and Olivia are being questioned, do you want to meet Jackson and Allie for now?” Elise questioned as y/n got back to the waiting area. y/n’s eyes grew wide at the question; was she ready to face her sister’s kids in the state she was in? Was she ready to meet the niece she’d never met before?

       “There’s no time like the present, I guess,” y/n smiled, earning a nod from Elise as she led the h/c-haired girl through the police precinct and to a green door with a frosted glass window.

       “They’re in this room,” Elise smiled before twisting open the doorknob.

       “—fly like the superheroes do, Allie!” Jackson’s high-pitched voice was the first thing y/n heard as the door swung open. There, she saw Jackson holding up an Iron Man action figure over the head of a much younger girl. God, she couldn’t have been over 2 years old.

       With the creak of the door, the pair turned their head to where y/n and Elise stood and Jackson’s eyes grew wide in excitement.

       “Auntie y/n!” Jackson exclaimed, throwing the toy on the ground and running towards y/n as quickly as his short legs could take him and he wrapped his chubby arms around her leg. y/n froze up at the feeling of it all. She couldn’t believe that her 5-year-old nephew—who she hadn’t seen for 2 years, still remembered her.

       “Hey, buddy,” y/n smiled as she broke herself out of her trance. She leaned down to return the hug Jackson was trying to give her before pulling away and tousling his hair.

       Allie, at the lack of having her big brother near her, began to wail loudly, her cries echoing off the walls of the colorful room.

       “No, no, Allie, don’t cry,” Jackson cooed, rushing to his little sister’s side and instinctively wrapping his arms around her tiny frame. The toddler wrapped her arms around her older brother as her sobbing began to cease slowly. y/n smiled; she saw so much of Cassy in the kids.

       “What are you waiting for? Talk to them,” Elise smiled at y/n, motioning towards the kids.

       “Allie, this is auntie y/n. She’s mommy’s sister,” the young blue-eyed boy smiled down at his sister as the toddler, out of curiosity, crawled towards y/n. It was the first time she got a glimpse of Allie’s e/c eyes up close. Damn, Allie was a mini Cassy and that thought itself scared her.

       “Auntie!” the toddler babbled, reaching up as if to ask y/n to carry her. Of course, to y/n, it sounded more like “OTIE!”

       She hesitantly pulled the toddler up, one arm supporting Allie’s weight and the other resting on her back. Allie, with her big e/c eyes, looked up at y/n and giggled, pulling a smile from y/n.

       “Auntie y/n, mommy know you visiting?” Jackson questioned, ditching the toys altogether and standing beside y/n. y/n’s heart clenched; of course, Jackson didn’t know about his mother’s passing. Elise sent y/n a look of sympathy before mouthing ‘we told him she’s on a trip’ to her.

       “Yeah, she does. Your mommy told me to take care of you while she was on her trip,” y/n smiled warmly at the young boy, holding in her tears as she noticed his face fall.

       “Why mommy not bring us on her trip? Does mommy no love us?” Jackson frowned. y/n, Allie still in her arms, got on her knees so she stood at the same level Jackson did, and shook her head.

       “Your mommy loves you very very very much, Jackson. She didn’t take you with her because she knows Auntie y/n misses you,” y/n smiled as Jackson wrapped his arms around her.

       “I hate to break up this moment, but they’re done questioning Ethan and Olivia,” Mike interrupted them as he entered the room. y/n nodded, heading out the door with Jackson and Allie before getting interrupted by Elise.

       “Miss l/n, take them away as quickly as you can. I don’t think it would be good for Ethan or Olivia if they stayed here any longer than they should,” Elise requested, earning a nod from y/n. They followed Mike back out to the waiting room and there sat two familiar faces.

       When it came to seeing Jackson for the first time, y/n could instantly recognize him. After all, he’d only aged two years since she’d last seen him. Olivia and Ethan however, those two were a different story. Since they were part of the population that didn’t turn to dust after the effects of Thanos’ snap; the two were unrecognizable.

       To them, it had been seven years since they’d seen y/n. Ethan, who was a shaggy-haired ten-year-old the last time y/n had seen him, was now a tired-looking seventeen-year-old. Olivia, who was a starry-eyed eight-year-old when y/n had last seen him, was now fifteen; a young woman with a sad smile as she reassuringly held her older brother’s hand.

       “Ethan, Olivia, this is—,” Elise began only to be harshly cut off by Ethan.

       “Agent y/n l/n. The same one who hasn’t visited us for seven years. Why is she here?” Ethan scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. y/n sighed sadly. What was she expecting? Did she really think all of Cassy’s kids would welcome her with open arms after she stopped visiting?

       “From now on, she’s your legal guardian. You’re going to be staying over at her place for a while,” Elise explained carefully.

        “Of all the people mom could leave us with, she left us with her? Why?” Ethan scoffed, shooting up from his seat. Olivia rolled her eyes before speaking.

       “I trust mom and if she decided leaving us with Aunt y/n’s what she wanted for us, I respect that decision,” Olivia flashed y/n a tired smile as she got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around y/n. y/n, shocked from the action, just stood there, frozen in place.

      “Yeah, Ethan. Auntie y/n’s nice,” Jackson smiled, holding y/n’s hand.

       “Ethan, I know you’re probably pissed off at me, but I also know you don’t want to stay here, so can we just go?” y/n huffed, already feeling exhausted from the hell of a day she had.

      “Fine,” he huffed, motioning for y/n to lead the way to her car.

       “Miss l/n, we’ll take care of the documents for now. We’ll contact you if we need anything else,” Elise smiled before letting y/n leave the precinct. y/n, using her handprint, unlocked the doors to her modified Aston Martin coupe (one of the benefits of being an Avenger) as she motioned for everyone to get in the car.

       She handed Allie over to Olivia before getting into the driver’s seat and driving to the Avengers compound.

       “Auntie y/n, where we going?” Jackson questioned, peeking over to the front seat.

       “I’m going to the Avengers Compound. I need to go get my bag, and then we’ll go to your house too,” y/n responded as she took a turn.

      “Am I gonna meet the Avengers?” Jackson’s eyes lit up with excitement.

       “Sorry, buddy, my teammates are on a mission, they aren’t in the compound. Maybe after a week or two we can visit them, okay?” y/n lied, not really wanting to explain to her teammates how she became the legal guardian of two kids and two teenagers.

       “Promise?” Jackson questioned.

       “I promise,” y/n chuckled.

       A few minutes later, they stopped at the gate to the compound. y/n rolled down a window and pressed the button on the intercom system.

       “FRIDAY, unlock the gates,” y/n requested, only to get a loud beep in response.

       “Name?”

       “Agent y/n l/n,” y/n spoke into the intercom, only to get yet another beep in response to her words.

       “My apologies Agent l/n, but Sergeant Barnes is restricting your access to the compound,” FRIDAY responded as y/n’s nails began to dig into the leather of the steering wheel.

       “Redirect this channel to wherever Barnes is,” y/n commanded, rolling her eyes in frustration.

       “Oh, hey, y/n,” Bucky spoke nonchalantly from the other side of the intercom. y/n swore she could hear his smirk from the intercom.  

       “Hey, prick, maybe you want to remove the restrictions you put on my access,” y/n huffed.

       “Yeah, no,” Bucky sassed.

       “Я возьму все твои ножи и засуну их тебе в задни��у, если ты этого не сделаешь,” y/n threatened him in Russian since, well, she had kids in her car and she wasn’t supposed to be threatening people or swearing around them.

       “Well, you could try,” Bucky chuckled.

       “Barnes, I don’t have time for this!” y/n exclaimed as she now held the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

       “Jeez, no need to get so riled up. FRIDAY, remove all restrictions on Agent l/n’s access to the compound. She’s not secretly a HYDRA agent,” Bucky huffed as the gates to the compound swung open and y/n drove into the parking area of the compound.

       “I’m going to leave the AC on, but stay in the car. I’ll just grab my bag from upstairs and we’ll be good to go,” y/n explained before walking back into the compound and heading straight to her bedroom.

       There, she pulled away a compartment from her closet to reveal a black suitcase filled with enough of her clothes to last her two weeks. Ever since that surprise vacation Tony took the team on—where y/n did not have any of her belongings packed on time—she hid the suitcase away just in case.

       “FRIDAY, lock my door,” y/n requested. The light outside y/n’s door flashed from green to red, meaning the door was locked and nobody other than y/n could bypass FRIDAY’s systems or command FRIDAY to unlock her door.

       y/n, with the heavy suitcase rolling behind her came to a realization. A realization that there was no way in hell she could manage to fit her suitcase, the kids, and the kids’ suitcases in her car without leaving it cramped or making two trips between her apartment and their house.

       y/n sighed knowing damn well what she had to do.

       “FRIDAY, can I have a location on Barnes?” y/n requested, stopping in her tracks and awaiting a response.

       “Sergeant Barnes is in the kitchen. Shall I let him know you require his presence?” FRIDAY questioned.

        “No, thanks,” y/n responded as she made her way to the partially burned down kitchen area where she found Bucky fixing himself a sandwich on one of the ash-covered countertops.

        “You here to burn down the kitchen again?” Bucky raised a brow at y/n, his eyes fixated on the suitcase she trailed behind her.

       “Sam already told you he was the one who burned the fucking kitchen down, bitch. I need something,” y/n paused, tapping her fingers against the countertop.

       “If you’re going to ask for tips on how to go on the run, you’re going to need a less obvious way to carry everything you own because that suitcase is only going to raise suspicion,” Bucky chuckled, motioning to the suitcase.

        “That wasn’t it, bitch. I need your van,” y/n crossed her arms impatiently.

       “My van? Don’t you have that car Stark gave you? You know, that fancy sportscar you drive around on undercover missions?” Bucky raised a brow at y/n.

       “You don’t even use the damn thing! It’s literally rotting away in the fucking car basement. Plus, you prefer using your motorcycle! I’ll give it back, I swear,” y/n begged, facing Bucky with her best e/c puppy dog eyes.

        “No,” Bucky smirked.

       “Barnes, I swear, I’ll fucking give it back!” y/n exclaimed, letting go of the handle of the suitcase and shaking Bucky’s shoulders dramatically which pulled an eye roll from him.

       “Damn it, I don’t know why I’m actually agreeing to this, but fine,” Bucky huffed, walking away from the kitchen and disappearing into his bedroom for a quick moment.

       When he reemerged, he set his van keys on to the counter and returned to making his sandwich, acting as though y/n wasn’t in the room—y/n was used to it, though.

        She snatched the keys from the counter and headed off to the parking basement where she swung the door of her car.

       “I just realized we aren’t going to fit in this car when we go fetch your things so we are going to be using a different car,” y/n explained, earning a nod from Olivia.

       “Irresponsible,” Ethan coughed out as y/n pretended not to hear him. Instead, she just promised herself to be more prepared next time she had to deal with these kids—which she knew would be all the damn time now that she had custody of them.  

a/n; i have no idea what im doing im just trying to get to the plot point i actually planned which is next chapter because i’m too excited

i hate you but taglist: @sarcastic-britt​ / @kmuir1​ / @shower-me-with-roses​ / @justab-eautifulmess​ / @thomasthetankson​ / @x-abi-sharp-x​ / @intovert-gone-wild​ / @brittanymcsharry​ / @leaving-the-past-behind​ / @xoxabs88xox​​ / @mylifeiscrazy0423​​ / @howliebucky​​ / @i-cry-so-much​​ /

 Forever tags: @spatium-viatorem​​​ / @sxphiiwrld​​​ / @strangersstranger​​​ / @nerdy-bookworm-1998​​ / @cutie1365​​ / @valeriiaaass​ / @adorkably​

MARVEL TAGLIST: @captainamerica-is-bae​​

BUCKY TAGLIST: @missmidnightxo​​ / @tinymalscoffee​ / @howliebucky​ /

[plasticnightmaredoll]

So, this is a drabble I’ve been sitting on for a little while, mostly because I wrote it while in a “mood” and thus it’s kind of personal. However, I do still like it and want to share it.

It does involve Erron Black and Cassie Cage from “Mortal Kombat,” so if you’re familiar with them then kudos, I suppose. If not, then it’s no a big deal. You don’t need to know all about them to understand what’s going on in this drabble. 

I didn’t tag this writing with anything Mortal Kombat related because it’s kind of...bashing BlackCage (Erron Black x Cassie Cage) and doesn’t paint Cassie Cage in the best light. I don’t want the drama and bullshit that could result so I am keeping the MK tags far away from this drabble.

Now, this fic DOES involve Arkham Knight Riddler, so it’s a crossover, and I am 100% ok with tagging him and Scarecrow (Yes, he’s in it, too, sort of). Neither of them are portrayed in a way that would piss people off. 

Now, the fic is very personal to me and technically it’s a self-insert, but I refrained from using my real name or my alias, and has just referred to myself with pronouns. Why? Because I’m kind of shy and weird like that. Plus, it’s super personal and emotional to me, this drabble, and I just don’t feel comfortable directly attaching my name -- or even my alias -- to it right now.

This isn’t on AO3 for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, and I am honestly ok with any feedback on this, be it positive or negative. Seriously, if you have thoughts, then share. If you happen to be a BlackCage fan and/or Cassie Cage then feel free to send me hate -- no anon hate, though, as I have turned off anonymous asks.

I will warn you now, the drabble deals with self-esteem issues, and the ending, if you are familiar with Scarecrow (and if you’re reading this, I sure hope you are), the ending is kind of.....dark. Nothing actually happens but it is heavily implied someone is in for a traumatizing time.

Volunteer

“I don’t know what I did wrong,” she said, sounding as defeated and drained as she looked. “I tried my best yet I still only managed to be in the friend zone. He said it’s not that I’m not good enough, but that he had liked her for a while and she finally said ‘yes’ to going out with him so…”

“What does this girl look like?” Edward asked, displeased with the situation.

“Hang on.”

Edward had to admit he wasn’t shocked by this news. From the start, he knew Erron Black was that type of guy, one of those dim-witted pretty boys who had no sense or reason. However, Edward didn’t say anything to her as she was an adult and could make decisions on her own -- even if they were the wrong ones. Besides, she was so smitten by Erron that Edward suspected she wouldn’t have listened to or believed his warnings anyway.

She searched on her phone and found the (infamous) girl’s Instagram profile and then handed it to Edward. Looking through Cassie Cage’s photos, frowning, shaking his head, he found himself unimpressed. This was the woman that got Erron’s attention? Honestly? She was a spoiled, bratty, self-centered blonde with the IQ of a donut! 

Clearly.

Although, seeing as how Erron’s IQ was clearly no higher than that of Cassie Cage, Edward figured birds of a feather flocked together...one dodo for another.

“Ugh, I’ve seen enough,” Edward said, handing her back her phone. “She’s a social media brat who has fluff for brains and probably uses her looks to get what she wants. There’s no way she’s actually an intelligent, fascinating person. Anyone who takes that many ridiculous selfies is, without a doubt, an idiot.”

Edward noticed she didn’t appear to be relieved by his words, so he quickly thought of something else to add, hoping it would provide some sort of window to clarity that she desperately needed for this situation.

“So, this Cassie fits society’s shallow and pointless standards of beauty,” Edward said. “She’s an absolute bore, I tell you! She’s got a pretty face and an attitude, probably only is successful because she’s relied on her parents for everything.”

She still looked upset, and maybe even more so.

Ok, Edward, think! thought the criminal genius, chewing on his lower lip as his anxiousness grew. There’s got to be a way to get this through to her. This is a waste of her time!

“I mean...I wouldn’t want to spend time with her,” Edward said, placing a hand on his chest. “I’d probably lose my mind after listening to whatever pointless drivel would inevitably spill forth from her mouth. As for her looks, well, let’s be realistic here: they won’t last, and then what? She’ll be stranded with her own deflated ego and nowhere to go.”

Edward could tell that she was nearly crying now much to his dismay, and she kept her head down to hide the tears gathering under her lashes. This was absurd, he thought. Why did she feel so hurt by a guy who was a complete moron and a girl who looked like every other blonde girl out there? It was a waste of time, energy, thought, and emotion to dwell on such people. Why couldn’t she see that?

“I understand what you said,” she said, sniffling. “I agree with a lot of it but...it still hurts, maybe more so now that I realize how much of a bimbo Cassie is. And Erron chose her? I’m not blonde...is that what he wants?” She gripped her phone tightly. “Do I need to start acting like an obnoxious brat, taking selfies and posting them online for attention?” The grip was now threatening to crack the protective outer case of the phone. “I did all I could to be a good friend to him, was there for him, listened to him, treated him well….and yet, I’m still not good enough to earn his...his love? He waited a long time for Cassie...well, I’ve waited even longer to stop being rejected because I’m not good enough!”

Not wanting her to injure herself, he reached out and placed a hand over hers, watching her fingers loosen around her phone.

“I don’t feel good enough,” she said softly, finally crying. “I’ve never been good enough. I don’t know why...I don’t know...I try and I try but it’s never enough...”

Edward watched her sob quietly to herself, unsure of what to do but his internal panic was growing worse. This wasn’t exactly his area of expertise, and he still thought she was wasting energy on two idiots. However, there was nothing he could do about that, not right now, not when she was still overwhelmed by emotion.

So, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling a little awkward doing it but it was all he could think of at the time.

“It’s going to be alright,” Edward told her. “I promise.”

A few weeks later….

Edward was typing away at his computer as she sat at a table nearby working on one of her custom dolls. With her headphones on, she drowned out the world around her, entirely focused on painting the face of the doll. Because of this, she didn’t notice him get up from his chair to “greet” the ignorant Neanderthal standing outside under the security camera mounted on top of the main door.

Edward opened the door to see a worried Erron Black standing outside.

“What do you want?” Edward asked in an exasperated tone. 

“Have you heard from her?” Erron asked. “She hasn’t responded to my texts or calls, and it’s really botherin’ me. I wanna know if she’s a’right.”

Edward crossed his arms, sighing in annoyance.

“Yes, I have seen her and spoken to her,” Edward said. “And it’s her right to ignore you if she chooses to.”

“I...I know that but…” Erron rubbed the back of his neck. “I...I want to speak to her...there’s somethin’ I got to say. I...I just...I need to see her and talk to her, face to face.”

“Haven’t you done enough?” Edward demanded. “No, you can’t speak to her. You’ve done enough damage to her psychological state with your puny, insignificant brain.”

Erron looked taken aback but said nothing as guilt consumed him further. As much as he hated Edward’s callous words, the cowboy wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight.

“Now, run along, Little Cowboy,” Edward said. “Go back to your vapid Selfie Queen where you belong.”

With that, Edward closed the door in Erron’s face, smirking triumphantly. Why that idiot thought he could just walk on back with his tail between his legs and beg for forgiveness, Edward had no idea. Then again the other man was too selfish to realize the error of his ways, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise he tried that.

As Edward made his way back to his computer, he suddenly got an idea; a beautiful, incredible, ingenious, devious idea. Taking his phone out of his pants pocket, he searched for and dialed the number he had in mind for this situation.

“Hello, Crane,” Edward said, smiling wickedly to himself.

“Ah, Edward,” said Jonathan, who was fully expecting to be hit with Edward’s ego. “I am surprised to hear from you. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I’ve got something, or rather someone for you.”

“Oh?”

“You said you were working on a new variation of that fear toxin of yours, am I correct?”

“Yes, and it’s nearly ready. Perhaps just another day more and it will be finished.”

“Great! Then I have a candidate you can test it on.”

“Oh, yes, do tell. I am always looking for ‘volunteers,’ as you know.”

Edward gave Erron’s name and description to Jonathan, his smile turning into a malicious grin as he did so. As much as Edward wanted to teach the dumb cowboy a lesson himself, he also thought it wasn’t worth the effort and Scarecrow loved having ‘volunteers’ for his silly little gas...

“I will have my men apprehend him right away,” said Jonathan.

“Just don’t leave any permanent damage,” Edward said. “Otherwise...have at it.”

“I would never do such a terrible thing,” Jonathan said, chuckling darkly. “I take good care of all of my ‘volunteers.’”

“Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“Before I go, may I ask why you are recommending this man to me? Is he one of your henchmen? Did he steal from you? Fail to complete a job?”

Now this caught Edward off guard. How was he going to explain this? He couldn’t even fully explain his feelings about this -- about her -- to himself. Yet, he didn’t want to deny Jonathan an answer, either. It was a perfectly valid, logical, albeit nosey question.

“This man, he…” Edward began, his words catching in his throat for a moment. “He, um...he...damaged something...something very valuable to me. And...and as much as I want to discipline him myself, he is too far beneath me for me to waste any of my precious time dealing with him further.”

“Ah, I see,” said Jonathan. “I must be going now, but thank you, Edward. You are too generous.”

With that, Edward hung up and made his way over to her, lightly tapping her shoulder. Turning around, she smiled up at him and removed her headphones.

“Hi, Eddie,” she said. “Did you need something?”

“No, no,” he said with a charming smile. “I just wanted to get a closer look at what you’re working on. It looks impressive so far.”

“Really?” she looked delighted, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. “It’s not done yet but...thank you! You have given me a little confidence boost.”

“And you deserve it,” Edward said, patting her shoulder. “I look forward to the final result.”

Back at his desk, Edward continued working on code for upgrades to the Riddlerbots, humming to himself contentedly. Maybe what he did was a bit much, but the cowboy needed to be put in his place. Men like Erron -- people like Erron -- always did. Besides, she would forget about the fool in time. Edward was certain of this because that was the nature of things: you forget about what no longer has any meaning or purpose in your life, and seeing as how she wasn’t at all interested in conversing with Erron anymore...well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the conclusion.

“Just dance,” she sang softly to herself. “Gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm...”

Edward nodded to himself upon hearing her, smiling.

Yes, it’s going to be ok, My Dear, he thought. It’s all going to be ok…

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

And that’s the drabble....Now, think of this: Riddler could fuck Erron Black up. I mean, he has a goddamn robot army. And Riddler is a criminal genius -- well, even without the “criminal” part, he’s still a genius. Erron is....he’s not. No offense but he’s not. 

In this drabble, Eddie is aware of all of this, but -- and this is where the self-insert part comes in so forgive me -- he does have strong feels for myself (which sounds weird but, like I said, this is a self-insert type of thing and I self-ship with this Riddler so......), as I’m the only friend he’s got (only friend he’s probably ever had, really). So, he’s very protective. 

I can see Arkham Knight Riddler being this way if he actually cared for someone. They’d be special to him for a lot of reasons and he wouldn’t want them to be hurt. He’d be devastated because he cares for them, they care for him...it’s the last the he’d want, for them to be hurt in any way.

And we know Riddler isn’t above getting revenge, and this is personal. 

Yes, I know Batman pissing him off and humiliating him over and over is personal, but I think this sort of situation would be even heavier for AK Riddler for the reasons I already mentioned. 

Some idiot dared to make his one and only friend, the only person who has been both kind and respectful towards him despite his flaws, feel awful about themselves and for no good fucking reason? 

A guy who reminds Eddie of the bullies he had to deal with growing up (I do think AK Riddler was bullied growing up -- it seems to be implied, and with how poor his social skills are, I think he would have sadly been a target for bullies in school)? 

A guy who is so beneath both Eddie and his dear friend, that said guy doesn’t deserve to walk away from this without paying a price?

But Edward isn’t a master of mental torture like Scarecrow is, and we know Scarecrow’s fear toxin makes people hallucinate terrible, terrifying things, including their worst fears and possibly any traumas they have endured in life. Erron Black didn’t have the best childhood based on his intros with other MK characters. It seems like he grew up in an abusive household, has trouble being open with anyone, has trouble forming serious relationships, chases cheap thrills over and over like he’s filling some sort of void....

Something tells me Erron wouldn’t have a good time under the influencer of Scarecrow’s toxin, and while Eddie doesn’t know about Erron’s unpleasant childhood, he...also doesn’t and wouldn’t care because, AGAIN, of the reasons I have already mentioned. In Eddie’s mind, he’s getting revenge for his only friend, the only person he actually cares for, and he’s getting it in a very fucked up kind of way. 

Phew...that was a real fucking ramble. I apologize but I have a lot of feelings about this drabble and its subject matter.....

And let’s be fucking REAL, Bitches: Erron should be glad we’re dealing with Arkhamverse Riddler and not Telltale Riddler. If it were Telltale Riddler.....omfg Erron would probably beg for the fear toxin.

Because Telltale Riddler doesn’t fuck around. 

[multifandomimagin3s]

Babies - Mortal Kombat Preference

Johnny Cage

Johnny didn’t really know how Cassie would react when she found out you were expecting a baby – his baby. He knew his daughter had always hoped that her parents would get back together, like they were when she was little, but seemed to slowly warm up to the prospect of her Dad re-marrying.

But as soon as she saw that little face, she – like everyone else who encountered the little one – were completely in love.

He may have cried a little – a lottle – when he held them for the first time, but will most likely deny that; “Nah, there was just - something in my eye.”

When it came to deciding baby names, he had his heart set on Johnny Jnr, for a boy. As for girl names, he was a lot more flexible.

Surprised you with a mini version of one of his ‘JC’ tracksuits. As nice as it was, there was no way that your kid would be wearing that…unless he dressed them (he put it on them one day when you were out, and you just didn’t have the heart to take it off.)

Spoils them immensely. As the daughter/son of a famous actor, companies jumped at the opportunity to send you free stuff – the living room was no longer habitable due to the sheer mass of freebies you’d accumulated.

Regardless of whether this is young!Johnny or older!Johnny, I can see him proudly carrying the little one in his arms, no matter who’s company he’s in, because hell yeah you guys made a cute baby!

But if anyone gets too close for his liking – whether that be the paparazzi, or someone more sinister – he’d quickly shield them away from prying eyes. He flat out refuses to divulge too much information to the press because the last thing he wants is for you to be bombarded.

Erron Black

Holy shit. Holy shit. It has literally just sunk in that he’s a Father, and he’s shook.

Can’t stop staring at their little, peaceful face. It’s clear who their parents are, even without having to take a second look – they have the perfect blend of your features mixed with his. They’re the most precious thing he’s ever seen.

Once they fall asleep in his arms, that’s him for the night. He’ll try not to move too much because he doesn’t want to want them up.

He’d make a solemn vow to be a good Dad. He didn’t have a good relationship with his parents and refuses to follow in their footsteps.

I think he’d be a lot more conscientious of the jobs he’d take; he must think not only of himself and you, but also of little Black-(Y/L/N). He would try not to stray too far from you both if anything should happen. If you don’t know how to defend yourself already, he’d insist that you learn – he’d probably teach you himself.

He’s not too fussed about names, providing it’s not a name he deems ‘stupid.’

He struggles to be soft – doesn’t do baby talk, since it makes him feel stupid, but he’ll have a much softer tone to his words. That paired with his accent makes your heart melt, and your baby clearly loves it too (who wouldn’t.)

The Black Dragon will never know of his child’s existence. Ever. He’ll be damned if they get dragged into that shitshow. Kano will never meet them, nor will any other member of the gang.

His guns are either kept on him, or out of reach, for obvious reasons. When they’re old enough he’ll teach them how to shoot, but until then – no touchy.

 Kabal

The world around him seems to screech to a halt , as soon as he sees that little face poking out from the blankets. It’s as if everything has come to a standstill, and there’s only you, the baby and himself in the world.

When they grab his finger in their tiny hand his heart just melts. When they coo at him, his eyes go all misty and soft and it’s adorable.

Insists that their name begin with a ‘K’ to mirror his own.

Like Erron, he’d make sure that Kano the Piss Goblin will never know that the baby exists. Whether that means he’ll have to leave the Black Dragon, potentially having to change his name as well as taking you and the baby as far away from them as possible – he’d do it in a heartbeat.

I think he’s a man who loves his Mom dearly, so of course he’d want her to see her Grandchild. She’s just as taken with them as he is and pulls you both into a congratulatory hug. She probably will knit them stuff such as baby socks, or little blankies with their name on it, which never cease to warm your heart.

He loves it when they fall asleep on his chest. There is nothing in this world that he loves more than having you tucked into his side with your little baby sprawled out across his chest, snoring away.

Even though they probably can’t grasp concepts other than food and who their parents are, he’ll watch movies with them, pointing out the good ones and the bad ones. He won’t even subject them to the Ninja Mime franchise, but just shows them the DVD cases like “These are the ones that Daddy hates, when you get older you’ll understand why…”

Pre-Burn or Post-Burn, he’d love them unconditionally. Post-Burn would be anxious that his mask and or appearance would scare them, but when they smile their gummy smile at him all that worry just dissolves.

 Hanzo Hasashi

This isn’t his first rodeo, so he’s very helpful during labour. There’s something sadly reminiscent of his previous experience which means he might need to talk a walk during, but he’s there for you.

Tries not to cry when he sees the baby – fails miserably.

Holds them to his chest, pressing soft kisses to their fuzzy head, whispering in his native tongue. You don’t really know what he’s saying but judging by the misty look in his eyes and how much love is pouring out of him, it was clearly something beautiful.

To him, this is the promise of a fresh start. He’ll not let history repeat itself and will protect both you and his child to the ends of the Earth.

Their baby clothes are mostly the typical colours – cream, mixed with shades of baby blue and or pink. However, Shirai Ryu colours will slowly mix in with this, but you don’t mind that much – the little yellow baby-grow is gorgeous.

The only people who know of the baby’s existence are yourself (obviously), Kuai, Takeda, Jacqui and Cassie – Johnny knows too but only because Cassie told him.

Tries to be the strict parent but he’s a softie at heart. Unless they do something outlandish, there is virtually no discipline in the house.

If their first word is ‘Dada’, he’ll be in awe. Grandmaster Grumpy Face has a heart but only for the select few.

 Kuai Liang

He’s composed on the outside, screaming on the inside. It’s a good thing that Hanzo happened to be around when you went into labour, otherwise he would be essentially lost.

He sits outside the waiting room with Bi-Han and Hanzo, trying to not panic at the sounds of your pain – he got sent out by the nurse because he looked ready to pass out, the poor soul.

Rushes through the door as soon as he hears the baby cry.

Holds them in his arms – he can’t stop looking at them, they’re so perfect. Bi-Han claps him on the back, congratulating his brother, as well as you. Hanzo looks over you and Kuai with a look that’s reminiscent and vaguely emotional.

Doesn’t want everyone to know about the newest addition to your family. Hanzo and Bi-Han are the first to know since they were there, but other than that there are few who know.

Has no problem with doing the late-night/early-morning feeds. As Grandmaster, he’s up early every morning, so this doesn’t change his routine much; plus, it lets you sleep more so win-win.

His cool body-temperature is calming for the little one – Cryomancy genetics and all that jazz – so more often than not, they’ll crash out in his arms. These are the some of the moments he loves dearly, their little chubby face smushed against his shoulder, sleeping peacefully.

The embodiment of the ‘Don’t speak to me or my son again’ meme. Johnny has been warned on countless occasions that if he swears around the baby or tries to share his bad influence with them, he’ll get his ass kicked.

If the babies’ first word is either a curse word, or some variation of ‘Blueberry Ice’, Johnny’s getting frostbite.

  Bi-Han

Everything needs to be in shades of blue – he put his foot down on that detail. The baby would most likely be a Cryomancer, so it’s important that they rep the Lin Kuei colours.

He’d probably be hoping for a son – ‘cause tradition and all that jazz – to carry on his legacy, but if he had a daughter he would be wrapped around her little finger.

I could see him rocking one of those baby carriers whilst simultaneously teaching. No-one questions him, since he’s the Grandmaster – plus the baby is adorable, so there’s very little confliction.

Thinks up cute snow / ice / cold related nicknames for the little one, which probably will evolve into their code-name when they get older. He still calls Kuai ‘Tundra’ when they’re not in front of their students, so that playful nature is still there under that stern façade.

Doesn’t want to shove the fact that his kid is angelic in people’s faces but – look at his angel baby. Look at them! They are perfect! Those eyes! That little button nose! But don’t touch the baby. He will cut a bitch.

“Let’s go see Uncle Kuai”

Uncle Kuai has little to no experience with babies but he’s gotta learn! He’s only ever met young Lin Kuei members when they were just exiting the toddler stage, so seeing a baby this small makes him a bit more cautious.

The sight of you with the baby makes him feel at home. And he’ll probably want another…

  Kung Lao

For all his confidence during your pregnancy, this man is basically hopeless when you go into labour. Like, he tries to be as supportive as he can be, but he’s white as a sheet and looks as if he’ll faint at any given moment.

He’s very gentle when he holds them for the first time, as if he’s scared that he’ll break them. He remembers holding Jin when he was an infant, so the experience isn’t knew to him, but knowing that the baby in his arms is his – it blows his mind.

He manages not to cry until they open their little eyes, peering up at him in wonder. Then he almost sobs.

From day one, he’s the Over-protective Parent. Upon learning about his fate in the Coliseum, he’ll maintain a watchful eye over your baby, at all times. He’s taken them to class a couple of times, which granted him a few stares but otherwise was unmentioned – they were just grateful he went…

Keeps his hat out of there reach – his worst nightmare is that they cut their little hands on the blade.

He’ll probably want his name incorporated in their’s. If it’s a boy, he’ll want to name them after him to keep with tradition, but if it’s a girl he’ll be happy with it as a middle-name.

Isn’t the biggest fan of having other people hold them; the only people to have had the go ahead, other than those within the temple, are Raiden and Cassie. He’s constantly afraid that they’ll drop the baby, and so would rather hold them and let the person fawn over them that way.

[elisaphoenix13]

Far From Home Ch.4

Peter screwed up. He screwed up bad. He only knew that because MJ had been there during the fight with the fire elemental and had picked up whatever it was that Peter had webbed and slung into the alley. It happened to be part of a drone that brought up holograms and the holograms happened to be of the Elementals.

It was all a lie. Quentin Beck was full of crap and Peter had trusted him. That was one of the reasons he even handed over the EDITH glasses in the first place. Sure, his dad would be pissed, but they were better off in someone's hands that wouldn't send a drone attack on someone. He had been wrong though. Beck would probably send drone attacks on purpose. He had to fix this.

So he hopped on top of a train to Berlin after asking Ned to tell that teachers some bullshit about Tony wanting him in Berlin (or whatever the other teen could think of that was believable), and Nick Fury coincidentally picked him up as soon as he arrived. Peter thought nothing of it as he got into the car and the ex-director drove toward their base, thinking that Fury might have kept eyes on him in case the vigilante changed his mind.

The moment they were behind closed doors with Maria Hill, Fury spoke up. "Is there anything you want to tell us about your girlfriend?"

"He's talking about EDITH." Hill explains.

"Look, I already know I screwed up, but he isn't who you think he is. He's a liar. He has some sort of illusion tech that created those monsters." He pulls out the projector that MJ had recovered and slides it across the table toward the two. "It's a projector. I pulled it off the fire elemental in Prague."

Nick leans forward as Hill moves over to the window. "So all the death and destruction was caused by this?"

"I think he's using drones too." Peter adds.

"If this is true, Beck is a dangerous man..." Peter's attention turns onto his spider senses when they start acting up. Now that he knew that Beck was not who he made himself out to be, he knew to stay vigilant. "...who else knows about this? Stark?" Fury calls for his attention but the teen just glances up at him from under the mask of his stealth suit. "Stark!"

"It's Beck. He's here."

Peter pulls down his eye piece just as the illusion of the building fades away (along with Hill) and leaves a barren garage. His senses warn him of a threat coming from behind him and he narrowly avoids a blast from a drone, only for Fury to get hit. Peter gets hit by the second shot and he goes flying through some glass and down to a lower floor. He groans when he lands on his stomach, almost sure his ribs were at least bruised, and coughs as he moves to his feet.

"Wow Peter...wow. I thought we were close." Beck's voice echoes through the building.

Peter looks around and webs at the drones surrounding him and targeting him with green lights (much like snipers used). "Stop hiding Beck!"

"I'm trying to help you walk away."

Another illusion forms around him and his stealth suit is replaced by his older suit. The one Tony had made him after they first met. Then the nightmares started. Mysterio popped up in front of him and when Peter tried to web him, the green mist came out and Mysterio faded away, just to reappear behind him. The teen throws out a punch and groans when his fist connects with the fishbowl helmet, only to realize that he had punched a support beam. Peter hisses and shakes his hand until a familiar voice reaches his ears and his heart drops.

"Help me!"

"Cassie!" Peter yells as he runs to the source. He barges through a door, sending it flying down to the ground far below as he stops himself from going over as well.

"Peter? What's going on?" Cassie asks from a couple feet beside him. Those damn glasses. They probably showed Beck what she looked like.

"I know this isn't real!" Peter shouts.

"Do you now?" Mysterio says and forms into being as he grabs the illusioned girl and chokes her. Peter knew it was an illusion but it still hurt to see. When Beck drops her off the building, he couldn't help but jump after her.

Only to collide harshly with the ground. Peter groans and holds his head and Beck puts him through one illusion after the other. His surroundings may have been fake but the teen felt every punch, every shard of glass he was thrown through, and every bit of emotional pain that came either through words or the illusions themselves. The illusions stopped momentarily when he fell out of the building and landed on a parked car below, but had started up again when he rolled off of it and had gotten back onto his feet. Large shards of glass surround him, reflecting his image back to him and he slowly reaches out toward it.

"I mean...look at yourself." Beck disembodied voice taunts. Peter's fingers barely touch the glass before his reflections jump out and start to beat him from all directions. "You're just a scared little kid in a sweatsuit!"

He starts yelling about why he created Mysterio and Peter again narrowly avoids an attack from the man when he appears, and after jumping around to avoid more attacks, he shoots some webbing at him and pulls, only for it to be another illusion. Peter rolls out of the way of the metal supports he had accidently pulled down, jumps out of the way of more attacks until Mysterio cuts through his webbing when he tries to swing away, and covers himself when the fist of a broken statue falls down on him. When the large piece of concrete faded and Peter looked up, he almost sobbed at the sight that was waiting for him.

It was Tony and Stephen. Weak and broken. Whether from wielding the infinity gauntlet or physically and mentally drained from endless magical battles.

"If you had been good enough...maybe Tony wouldn't have to live with a hindrance. Maybe the good doctor wouldn't have to worry about your safety..."

The illusion (though he was beginning to forget that it was one) of his parents rush at him with anger in their expressions, and Peter yells out as he scrambles away. He turns once he manages to get back to his feet, and runs into an invisible force, falling back again. Things come rising up around him and when it settles, he finds himself in Mysterio's helmet. Just as the man pulls off the fishbowl helmet and drops it, the illusion shatters and Peter watches with heaving breathes as Beck collapses from a gunshot wound. Fury walks over to the teen from behind the fallen body as cars drive in and agents get out to swarm Beck.

"F-Fury." Peter stammers as he stands from the  pile of small rocks he found himself on.

"Beck's people are trying to find everyone who could expose him. Who'd you tell? I know you told someone so just tell me."

Peter's arms flail a but as he tries to catch his breath and he links his hands behind his head as he looks down. "Okay, um..."

"Who else did you tell?!" Fury shouts.

"Just Ned and MJ from my class. Maybe Ned told his girlfriend Betty, but that's it!" Peter looks at Fury incredulously when the man folds his arms and chuckles. "What?"

"You...are so gullible."

"What?!"

"You're smart as a whip...just a..." Fury fades out and turns into Beck. "...sucker. Now all your friends have to die."

Peter shuffles back with a gasp of disbelief as drones create another illusion around him. He backs away as Beck approaches him while avoiding the falling objects around him.

"It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves." Peter continues to back away until Beck finally stops. "But for what it's worth Peter...I really am sorry."

Before Peter can even open his mouth and call the man a liar, the illusion shuts off again and Peter looks down to find himself on some train tracks. He looks to his right just the split second before he gets hit by a train and he weakly crawls up the side of it as it goes through a tunnel. With bloodied hands he makes his way to the nearest compartment door and stumbles into one of the empty cars, limping to a seat where he immediately passes out as soon as he collapses into a seat.

_____________________

When Peter woke, he found himself in a holding cell with a few other men who had been kind enough to cover him with a t-shirt. When he mentioned how nice that was of them, their next words had his head spinning.

"Welcome to the Netherlands."

Peter stares at his cell mates. "I'm in the Netherlands right now?"

He jumps to his feet, ignoring every part of his body that was screaming at him, and shouts for the guard. When the other men tell him that the guard is on break, Peter reaches through the bars and breaks the padlock, and rushes out of the building (of course backing up a bit to find the guard wearing the mask to his stealth suit). He pulls on the bright orange shirt the men had given him and he asks a man at a stall outside if he can use his phone, the man kindly handing his cell phone over, and Peter thanks him as he stares down at it.

Who did he call? His parents were the first that came to mind but with how royally he screwed up, he didn't want another lecture or worry them needlessly so Peter settled on his next option.

Happy.

He calls the head of security and almost cries out with relief when the man picks up. "Happy? I screwed up bad. I need a ride." Peter pauses. "Where am I? Uh..." He asks the owner of the cell phone and when the man tells him a name the teen can hardly pronounce, he holds the phone out to him so he can tell Happy himself before bringing the phone back to his ear. "Did you get that? Okay--NO! You can't tell Dad! Please!"

After finishing the call, Peter returns the phone to the man with a thank you and makes his way to the tulip field nearby to wait. Happy had told him to find an open area and then sit and wait, so that was what he did. Peter only had to wait a few hours for Happy to show up in one of Tony's private jets and as soon as he saw it land, he limped over until Happy stepped off and started approaching the teen.

"Wait!" Peter says as he stops and holds a hand out, the other holding his injured leg. "Is it really you?"

"What? Of course it's me! What's going on kid?"

"Tell me something only you would know!" Peter asks desperately.

"Uh...when we went to Germany, you pay-per-viewed a movie in your room. The bill doesn't show titles but the price made it obvious that it was an adult film. Your Dad thought it was hilarious by the way--"

"Okay! Okay! It's you! Stop!" Peter stumbles the rest of the way to the older man and hugs him tightly. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Peter...you're going to have to tell me what the hell is going on here."

Peter nods and Happy takes him into the jet and the teen stumbles a bit. He turns to find a chair to sit in and freezes when he finds Stephen standing in the middle of the aisle.

"You never said anything about not telling your mom." The bodyguard says as he enters the jet after the teen.

Peter broke and his lower lip quivers. "M-Mom."

Stephen rushes forward when a tear slips down the teen's cheek and carefully pulls the boy into a hug that Peter reciprocates instantly. God he needed this. He was hurting, he was tired, and he was overwhelmed.

"Peter, you look terrible. What happened?"

He buries his face into the sorcerer's collarbone and inhales the soothing scent of tea leaves and incense. "I got hit by a train."

"WHAT?!" Both Stephen and Happy shout, making Peter cringe.

Stephen pulls the teen away and leads him to an empty seat. "Happy, get me the first aid kit please."

Peter rests his head in his hand as Stephen tends to his injuries when Happy brings him the first aid kit, and breaks the silence after a few minutes. "How pissed is Dad?"

"He's not." The doctor says simply and Peter slams his hand down on the table.

"How is he not pissed?! I just gave away a pair of multi million dollar glasses that he gave me. I don't know what I was thinking--"

"Cub." Stephen says softly, effectively interrupting the teen's rant. "I asked FRIDAY and Victor not to give him any updates about you so he would rest. He has no idea about anything. If anything happens to you, or in this case, that and the fact that you handed over EDITH, they tell me."

Peter slumps. "I guess I should be asking how pissed you are."

"I'm not. Upset? Maybe." Peter hisses as Stephen finished stitching him up, and the sorcerer draws his focus away from his hands, the trembling starting up again. "You know what you did was a mistake though so my question is...what are you going to do about it?"

Peter stands and moves out into the aisle to pace. "He's going to kill my friends and half of Europe if I don't do something! I can't call them because he'll be tracking their phones..." Peter looks back at Stephen when an idea comes to mind. "Mom, give me your phone."

Stephen raises a brow but says nothing as he pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it over to his son.  Peter types in the man's password and navigates to Flash's live stream, and quickly finds out that his class trip was once again redirected somewhere else.

London.

"Okay! They're in London!"

"Peter." The teen makes eye contact with the sorcerer. "I'm staying here until the end. Just promise me that if you need help, you tell me."

"I promise...I need a suit though." 

Happy stands up from his seat that he had taken earlier while Stephen was helping Peter. "I can help with that."

He moves to the front of the jet and pushes a button that opens the back of the jet to reveal a mini lab. Stephen gets up and follows the teen into the lab as he pulls up blueprints and holograms for his Spiderman suit, and Peter brushes the man's hand away when he starts fingering what's left of the boy's stealth suit.

"You should keep this." Stephen says with a smirk. "I'm sure Cassie will enjoy seeing you in it."

"You know too?!" Peter exclaims. "Oh my god. Please tell me Scott doesn't."

"He doesn't know." The sorcerer confirms as he puts on some music for the teen to work to.

"Oh! I love Led Zepplin!" The vigilante says with a grin and laughs when both Stephen and Happy give him a look of disbelief. "I'm kidding! I know it's AC/DC!"

"I'm telling your father you didn't know." Stephen grumbles.

[missmartian369]

Endgame

*IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN AVENGER'S ENDGAME DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER! IT CONTAINS SPOILERS DURING THE SECOND HALF!* But if you have already seen Avenger's Endgame or if you haven't and don't care about spoilers or aren't even interested in seeing it, go on ahead and read lol. I hope you all enjoy! 

It was a Saturday night, and the team was on their way to the Metropolis movie theater to go see Endgame. Having gotten their tickets the week prior, they were all excited to finally see the movie that had everyone buzzing.

“You guys I’m so stoked that I’m finally seeing this movie!” Virgil told his friends. “Everyone at my school literally cannot stop talking about it.” He added.

“I know what you mean, it’s the main buzz at my school, too.” Jaime said.

“Literally when people are talking about it everywhere!” Traci exclaimed. “I had to put in my headphones when a group of kids started talking about it at a table next to me while I was reading at the library the other day.” She added.

“I had to leave the table when my friends started talking about it during lunch. I ended up walking a lap around the lunch room.” Cassie added.

“Did y’all end up deleting social media like I did?” Virgil asked. Everyone but Bart nodded their heads.

“On top of that, I made sure to mute my TV and cover my eyes when Endgame TV-Spots started playing.” Jaime said.

“Oh wow we did a lot to avoid spoilers for this movie.” Traci said, laughing.

“I’m just wondering if this movie will give me as much anxiety as Infinity Wars did, because that movie gave me so much anxiety.” Cassie said.

“I just hope that this movie is as good as Infinity War was.” Jaime said.

“Oh it’s even better than Infinity Wars.” Bart said. “In fact, this movie has a mark in history as one of the greatest movies of all time!” He added.

“Well you would definitely know with you being from the future and all.” Virgil said with a smile.

“Darn right!” Bart said. “You guys are going to love it! In fact, I can’t wait until we get to the scene when-!”

“NO SPOILERS!” Virgil, Traci, Jaime, and Cassie yell.

“Hehe….oops.” Bart said, sheepishly.

“Ok did you guys remember to bring your own snacks to sneak in?” Virgil asks.

Everyone nods.

“And we’re still in agreeance that absolutely none of us are to get anything to drink? Virgil asks. “Because we can’t miss not one minute of this movie.” He adds.

Everyone nods again.

Eventually they reached the movie theater. Once inside, they saw that the line for the concession stand was completely packed.

“Wow good thing we’re not getting anything.” Traci said

Everyone nods their head in agreeance. They scan their tickets and walk towards their assigned theater. Once inside they take their seats and talk with one another until the previews start to play.

-

After a three hour and one minute movie filled with laughter, cheers, and cries, it was over. The ending credits scrolled as people began to exit the theater, but of course a lot of people stayed to see if there was and end credit scene, the team being a part of those people. There wasn’t one, and only then did everyone else leave the theater…….except one.

The team was walking down the walkway that led to the doors to the theater when Cassie paused. She looked to her friends around her, turned to look back in the direction that led to the theater, and began walking back that way.

Jaime, Bart, and Traci excited the theater room.

“Wow………..I…..I’m literally speechless right now.” Jaime said. After that movie, he was literally a loss for words.

“Did I tell you or did I tell you?” Bart said

“Dude…..” Jaime said, high-fiving Bart, “That was the best movie ever! You were right it was better than Infinity Wars.” He added.

“Ha-ha yep!” Bart said.

Jaime looked over at Traci, who was hiding her face with her hair.

“Trac are you okay?” Jaime asked her.

“I…..I’m fine.” Traci said, wiping her eyes.

“Are you still crying?” Bart asked. “You’ve been crying since like halfway through the movie. Like since we saw Nat die.” He said.

“No!” Traci exclaimed, turning to look at them, eyes tinted red from crying. “No! That was Cassie! I only teared up when Nat died because I was pissed! Those were tears of anger! I started outright crying once Tony died! Because…..because why?! Why did this movie have to be so good, but so sad at the same time?!” She asked, tearing up again, wiping her eyes again.

Jaime laughed and put his arm around her, giving her a hug. Traci gladly returned it.

“Whelp we have another positive review.” Jaime said, looking at Bart.

Bart smiled and then looked around, finally noticing that two of their members were missing.

“Hey where are Cassie and Virgil?” Bart asked.

“We’re coming.” A voice called out. The three looked towards the door to the theater room they were in to see Cassie walking towards them dragging a dazed Virgil by the hand.

“Sorry I had to go back and get Virgil. He didn’t get up from his chair once everyone else left.” Cassie said.

“Wow and I thought that the movie left me speechless.” Jaime said, looking at Virgil, who still looked absolutely dazed.

“Tha…..that….was….was…..” Virgil whispered.

Bart looked over to Cassie, who, like Traci, had red tinted eyes.

“Cass you okay?” Bart asked, laughing.

“Listen don’t judge me right now!” Cassie said, pouting. “I didn’t expect the movie to have me this emotional okay!” She added, wiping her eyes. “Why did they have to kill Nat like that? I mean it’s not like I wanted Hawkeye to go over the cliff but I definitely didn’t want Nat to go over!” She asked.

“I don’t know!” Traci exclaimed. She removed one of her arms from around Jaime’s torso and extended it out to Cassie. Cassie gladly walked into Traci’s embrace. This left Jaime in a slight three-way hug, with Traci in the middle, as he looked on awkwardly at his two friends weeping over this fantastic movie.

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” Virgil exclaimed, stunning his friends at his sudden outburst. “Did you see how awesome they looked in those quantum realm suits? And how Cap basically kicked his own ass when they went back to New York during the first Avengers movie?! But I truly lost my shit when everybody came back! Technically we should have known they were back because Banner’s snap worked, but I didn’t even think of it until all of those portals opened. I literally shouted ‘Wakanda Forever’ when the Wakandans stepped out for war!” Virgil word vomited, doing the Wakanda Forever salute with his arms.

“We know bro we screaming and shouting with you. Hell the whole theater was.” Bart said, putting an arm around Virgil.

“Dude you were right! This movie will be one of the greatest movies of all time! I just know it will! Especially after seeing it!” Virgil exclaimed.

“See I told you!” Bart said. “So is anyone else hungry? Those snacks did enough to hold me for the movie but now I’m starving.” He added.

“Bart it’s 10:00pm what place is open at this time of night?” Jaime asked.

“Bibbo’s is still open. It’s a 24 hour diner.” Cassie said.

“Oh that’s right it is.” Jaime said.

“Well what are we waiting for? Come one guys let’s get going! There’s Bibbo’s burger that’s just screaming my name right now!” Bart said, heading towards the theater entrance.

Everyone laughed and followed him out the theater, further discussing Avenger’s Endgame as they headed over to Bibbo’s Diner.

Ok some of the reactions are exaggerated a little bit, but mostly the reactions that team have after seeing the movie are reactions that I had when I saw the movie. I literally teared up when Nat died and was mad when it happened. I then cried tears of joy when everyone came back and you know how Virgil yelled 'Wakanda Forever' when the Wakandans walked onto the scene? Yeah that was me in the theater lol. And then I was sobbing when Tony died.

I also got inspiration from a friend of mine here on tumblr, @toastedpastry. She saw the movie before I did and she said that she was crying like hallway though the movie until the end, and after I saw it she told me the part where she started crying was at Nat until the end.

I hope you all liked this chapter! Feel free to leave a comment on your reactions to Avenger's Endgame! :):):)

FanFiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13268013/1/The-Team-and-Their-Shenanigans

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18737131/chapters/44444542

[foxydivaxx]

Bad Blood Chapter 1

Originally, this was meant to be connected to Young Justice: Demigods Arising but I have decided to tweak it a bit and make it the true Demigods Arising story of sorts. This is connected to the Osiris fic and whilst it is kinda Cassie-centric, it also focuses on other characters too. 

"Any news about Cassie?"

"Nah. No one has found her yet."

Tim sighs. It has been a month since Cassie disappeared after her humiliating defeat to Vanessa for the Wonder Girl title. Part of her regrets that decision to have said duel take place. She made that decision not considering what Cassie was going through then. The poor girl lost her then boyfriend Conner Kent and later got dumped by him. Sure, Conner returned but their relationship soon turned toxic to the point where the two engaged in a physical altercation in the School Hall that caused Cassie to get suspended for two weeks. As a result of this, Diana decided to punish her not taking into consideration Cassie’s physical and mental exhaustion at that point. According to Tatiana, Cassie overtrained herself and that led to Cassie’s humiliating defeat.

And now it is too late, Cassie has gone and would never return and if she ever returns, the girl would have joined the Dark Side which should not surprise anyone given her heritage and the negative influence of people like Ares. As if that wasn't bad enough, Cassie's younger twin sister Tatiana also followed suit. 

Adding more to the Cassie mystery is that she immediately deleted all her social media accounts on the same day as her defeat. That alone alarmed everyone as it is a well-known fact that Cassie loved taking selfies and playing around on social media and often talks to fans on there. But now that her presence is no longer felt, many began to panic, feeling that the poor girl might have committed suicide. This naturally led to the #JusticeForCassie campaign and #WonderWomanCancelled movement.

Please let Cassie not be dead.

Meanwhile in her room, Barbara was going through some files that she managed to dig up about HIVE case. So far she had managed to find some leads. Heck she can even say that she is far more competent and smarter than the entire Team as they are all a bunch of little kids. What was Batman thinking of putting little kids on a superhero team? Ok they are young kids, but they still could qualify for a wannabe superhero team since they all wear stupid outlandish costumes and use silly codenames, themselves and the so-called adults that call themselves Justice League. Seriously, what the fuck is that fucked up shit? Worst of the bunch as far as she is concerned is none other than Wonder Woman's little sidekick Cassie Sandsmark better known as Wonder Girl.

That girl is such a tragic trainwreck and a bitch. What did Tim and Conner ever see in her? What really pisses her off about the brat is that the girl reminds her of the stupid alien that Dick dated years ago. What was her name again? Oh yes Starfire. More like Hofire. Both of them are disgustingly beautiful. Starfire is a bit better because at least she can kick some ass. Cassie is completely useless that one forgets that she is supposed to be a fucking demigoddess yet someone like Damian can whoop her ass. She should even be able to go toe to toe with Supergirl and give her a nasty beatdown but nope, she gets her ass handed to her. Plus she dared to steal her Dickie from her.

Where did Diana find this child again? Oh yes, Diana did not find her instead the child fucking inserted herself into the Wonder Woman narrative just like Damian forced his way into the Robin title and never once earned nor deserved a single shit till recently. When will those brats learn? No wonder some people wished for Vanessa to take over as Wonder Girl. Ironically said girl is now Wonder Girl now how hilarious.

And alas, poor Cassie has disappeared and is nowhere to be seen. Well GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE! Barbara cackles evilly as she still plays around on her system.

Meanwhile at Gateway city, Tatiana was in her room with tears in her eyes whilst Donna comforts her. Cassie disappeared immediately after that defeat. One could understand why because that sort of defeat is very humiliating especially when the very girl that caused most of the unneeded drama in your life is responsible for it.

Making matters worse is the fact that many thought that Cassie was an irresponsible person and therefore unworthy to be Wonder Girl. This has been an ongoing debate for the past couple years. Sure Cassie has a temper but she can actually control said temper for the most part. The only reason that said rage has become more pronounced is as a result of Ares’ evil manipulation of his sister; something Diana and Zeus himself warned Cassie about. 

Cassie naturally took the bait since she had lost her powers during that time, not like anyone could blame her. Still the fact that many people bashed her for this, Diana included was horrible. Now after years of hypocrisy on the side of the heroes, no one should be surprised if Cassie suddenly and openly denounces them and exposes all their secrets or even goes all Superboy Prime on them or worse commit suicide.

Donna sighed. Sure Cassie has some shortcomings but Diana herself is a hypocrite, in fact everyone has been hypocritical when it comes to Cassie. A lot of the criticism being leveled upon the girl might as well be applied to other heroes as well like Conner or Tim for instance.

Ironically said hypocrisy has been thrown at Amon aka Osiris several times which is why said boy has distanced himself from the superhero community recently. Black Adam openly lambasted the League and everyone else for that and rightfully so. 

I hope you find happiness and peace Cassie. 

Just then Donna’s phone rings. She checks the phone and discovers that it is Kori calling her. She then answers the call. “Hi Kori.”

“Donna....you have to come down here quick!!”

A couple miles in New York, Cassie is standing on top of a rooftop, preparing to throw herself down and commit suicide. Now one would find it laughable since she is meant to be a demigoddess, until they realize one disturbing detailing: Cassie lost her powers yet again during the duel and has remained powerless ever since.

The rest of the Team bursts through the door. “CASSIE DON’T!!” Conner shouts. Cassie turns around with tears in her eyes. The others begin to feel guilty for making her feel that way.

“There is nothing left for me here. You have all made it clear that I do not belong here. So why waste my time when I can just elsewhere and find peace. Heck even Hell is more peaceful than here. I cannot stay with the gods because of they are going through their own drama and are killing each other anyway.” 

She takes a couple steps back. “Cassie I understand why you are mad at us and you have every right to hate us. But I want you to know that there are people that still love you regardless.” Kori says in the most gentle way possible.

It was at that moment that Cassie literally explodes. “LIES!! PURE UTTER LIES!! IF YOU ALL REALLY CARED, YOU WOULD HAVE ALLOWED ME TO PROPERLY EXPLAINED MYSELF!! YOU WOULD NOT HAVE ENCOURAGED TIM OR ANYONE TO BE ABUSIVE TO ME!!! YOU WOULD HAVE STOPPED BABS WHEN YOU SPREAD HER FILTHY GOSSIP ABOUT ME AND ALL OF YOU JOINED IN TO SLUTSHAME ME FOR YOUR PLEASURE!! YOU ARE AS BAD AS THE MEDIA!! PURE UTTER HYPOCRITES WHO ONLY CARE ABOUT HOOTING THEIR HORNS!! NOW I CAN SEE WHY PEOPLE LIKE JASON TURNED THEIR BACKS ON HUMANITY AND CHOSE TO DO HARDCORE JUSTICE!! YOU MOTHERFUCKERS ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM THE VERY FOOLS WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FROM YEARS!!”

Everyone keeps quiet. Cassie clearly had been waiting for this moment and she has now gotten an audience. “Oh and speaking of failures, how many times have we been supposedly, not I used supposedly in quotation marks here because that shows how stupid you all are, were ahead of the bad guys only for them to outsmart us and somehow win?”

Dick and Kaldur exchange looks. “You know, had it not been for my father, I would have rotted in jail. Oh and special shoutout to the Black Adam family, the only family that ever truly cared about me. Plus of course Donna and Tatiana. The rest of you can go fuck yourselves and leave me be!!” She turns her back to them and ignores them as she walks over to the edge.

“Cassie wait...”

She stops and turns around as Vanessa walks in. “Cassie, listen I know you are mad. If you want to lash out. Take it out on me.” she says calmly, hands raised. Before anyone could say anything, Cassie stomps towards her so-called rival and aims a punch at Vanessa who does nothing to stop her.

Fortunately for her, Cassie stops mid-punch and drops to her knees and begins to break down in tears. Vanessa bends down and hugs her predecessor. “Listen Cass. No matter what anyone else says, you will always be Wonder Girl. In fact you are way better than I am. I do not like the great divide that Diana has created. There are other ways this could have been done.” she says. Cassie simply sobs, feeling very bad for lashing out.

“I...I’m so sorry...”

Vanessa smiles softly. “You do not have to apologise. We are both victims in this. Besides, I told Diana that I quit.” Cassie stares at her in disbelief. ”You did not have to.”

“Yet I did.”

Cassie shakes her head. “No. You remain Wonder Girl.” Cassie then smiles. “Besides, you earned it anyways.” Vanessa giggles and hugs her back. Everyone heaves a sigh of relief.

Osiris who had just arrived makes a slow descent next to them. “Cass, I understand you hate everyone and whatnot but if you throw yourself down there, chances are you might end up worse than Todd the moment they choose to bring you back from the dead. Or if you choose down a dark path now, you might end up the way Adam did years ago.”

The girl simply nods. “ I might as well go clear my mind of things for a while.”

He comes closer to her. “You know, you could have simply asked and I would gladly take you home with me so that you can get some breathing space since quite frankly, you need some of that.’ She rolls her eyes. “Fine. Let’s go.’ She wraps her arms around his neck with him wrapping his arms aorund her securely and together they fly away.

“Wait....that was it?“ says Garfield, earning a smack across the head from Raven. “Oww!!” he grumbles. Tim meanwhile stares up at the sky with jealousy in his eyes which is funny considering his relationship with Stephanie. 

So she has choosen him hm? This whole shit was a setup to make that announcement.

[itsthenerdwonder]

Avengers: Endgame

So I just saw it again. I should’ve done this the first time I saw it. The audience was amazing. The laughs and gasps and cheers and tears! We were into it. There were a couple tops of heads bobbing across the bottom of the screen of people needing to pee, but overall a great experience with my roommate. 

But my parents wanted to see it too, so my dad bought tickets for an 11:30 a.m. showing yesterday. Earlier is better, but that means we don’t get the kids or teens who love this series. Just the adults who are taking off work. That might not have been bad, but it’s a dine-in theater (so people were constantly moving around in my direct line of sight) with one kid running up and down the stairs (I get you need to pee, but if you stomp one more time I will snap you out of existence) and people talking (if you want to whisper, that’s fine as I constantly whisper through movies, but even my mom talked loudly because she needed me to hear from 4 seats away) but not cheering. Come on! That was an amazing shot! He did the thing! We won! Clap! Cheer! Something!

I also didn’t bring my notebook to write down my immediate thoughts, so I’m going to basically give a play by play as best as I can. Mostly memories of the first showing, as I’m sure you guys would prefer. On with the review!

So the movie starts immediately with the death of the Barton family. The logo hasn’t even started, but here we go! Death and pain await us. 

Once the logo starts, we switch to Tony and Nebula on the...ship. I kinda wanna say Millennium Falcon, but that’s not even close to accurate. *googles* The Benatar. ...yeah, I’m not calling it that. Anyway, Tony’s teaching her how to play tabletop football, and it’s adorable. He’s teaching her how to be softer and she’s letting him eat the last food and he’s fixing the ship and she’s fixing his body and it’s...it’s just so nice. I mean, we have Tony doing a voice over of how they’re going to die which isn’t as nice, but their bond at being the last ones on Titan is just...I love it. We’re barely 5 minutes in and I’m about to cry.

And then we get a Carol ex Machina. Yay? Anyway, they get back to Earth (side note: the end scene of CM was apparently not in this movie, but it probably got cut due to time constraints) and Steve is the first one there. He’s the first one to Tony, the first one to try and help him, the first to hear his regrets, the first to offer sympathy and I don’t ship Stoney, but DANG! That’s how you do it! And then Pepper is there and she and Tony are kissing and hugging and it’s adorable even though we just cut out Steve and he looks a little awkward.

Cut to inside and the death toll rolling and climbing and Tony loses it. He’s still mad at Cap for Civil War. Still pissed about how everyone jumped down his throat for Ultron when he was doing his damnedest to prevent this exact situation where everyone died. And like...no. I still disagree with your idea that it was better to put a “suit of armor” around the world than protect everyone’s “precious freedoms,” but I understand what you’re saying. Dad didn’t back up Mom and now our kids have been murdered by a drive-by hitman. I get it. I’m still not supporting you, but I understand why you’re pissed. 

But, Nebula knows where the purple cockroach scuttled off to and Carol is a fucking tank, so let’s go. But the stones have already been destroyed. ...I’m sure this will have no lasting consequences, especially since the Ancient One said “these things create our understanding of time, reality, space. if you take one away...you risk catastrophic disaster and alternate timelines.” BUT NOW THEY’RE ALL GONE because some fuck boy decided to play with things he didn’t understand to “correct” a problem he didn’t understand and had no business messing with. Thor cuts off the gauntlet and then his head before walking off into an increasingly blurry image and we roll the title. 

FIVE. YEARS. LATER.

Steve’s leading a support group (ONE GUY SAYS THE WORD MAN INSTEAD OF WOMAN ABOUT HIS DATE SO NOW WE HAVE LGBT REPRESENTATION YAAAAYYYY! fuck this) and Natasha’s leading the remaining Avengers. Carol says “I’m busy dealing with other worlds besides Earth, so piece out bitches.” Rocket and Nebula...I’m assuming are doing the same thing. It’s not really clear. Okoye is...here for some reason to say there’s an earthquake, but there’s nothing we can do. Um...rescue teams? We can’t do anything about the earthquake, but if you’re reporting it, I’m sure it caused some mild damage or something? No? You’re useless. Rhodey reports that a cartel in Mexico has been slaughtered by Clint and we’re not supposed to be okay with that. I mean, wouldn’t be the first time he was a bad guy, and he’s more anti-hero/rogue vigilante than bad guy, but you do you.

Then Steve comes in, sees Nat trying not to sob because Clint’s bad and the world is bad and she’s stressed, and tries to cheer her up. But, DING DONG! Scott’s not dead. See, a rat in San Francisco pushed the right button and spit Scott back out into a storage area. After walking home with a little red wagon and finding Cassie, now age 13-15, and getting the 411 on the last 5 years, he got the La Cucaracha van out of storage and drove it all the way to upstate New York. So now he’s jittery and weird (probably because he spent 5 years hours in the quantum realm and he went a little cuckoo) and saying they should try time travel to get the stones back so they can undo what Thanos did. 

It’s just crazy enough to work. LET’S ASK TONY! Who has a child to show that time has passed. The daughter is wearing an iron mask that Tony says is for “mom” so we aren’t confused when Rescue shows up later. Not that anyone would know her name is Rescue outside of comic book fans, but who cares because Tony is an adorable father. But then the plot shows up and says “get in, loser, we’re going time heisting.” Tony’s all like...you’re kidding, right? And so is the audience, but weirder things have happened in comics and Tony always loved a dramatic entrance, so whatever.

Then we have Professor Hulk, as he is apparently called. And...in my opinion, this is the worst scene in the movie. We’re in a diner and the food is in bowls bigger than my head and Professor Hulk gets talked into helping with the time heist. Sure, fine, we need the plot to move forward. We have a nice explanation how Hulk and Banner are one and it’s Hulk’s body with Banner’s brains because they did some soul searching and are better now. That’s nice. I like that. That is a good part of this scene. But then we have some weird kids taking a picture with Hulk/Banner (you know what, I’m just going to use whichever one I want and you can fight me) and Scott says, “do you want one with me? I’m Ant-Man.” And thus begins the longest 5 minutes of the entire movie. It might not even be that long, but it actually feels a little longer. The kids don’t want a picture because they’re Hulk fans instead of Ant-Man fans. That’s fine, that happens. And they don’t know who he is, which...this is New York and he’s over in San Francisco. Plus, no one sees Ant-Man. Giant-Man/Goliath? Sure. But not Ant-Man. And Scott sees it and immediately retracts his offer to keep it from being weird. But Hulk, to be nice, pushes the issue, which makes it weird. And I’m like, if you want to push it, ask if they want Cap’s or Black Widow’s? But no, we have to have the kids smiling but clearly not wanting too and Scott seeing that and being a little hurt but understanding he’s not an A-lister and Bruce being “kind” but about as intelligent as Hulk. We have time for this? The movie is over 3 hours long? We kept this? Why? Did test audiences love it? Cut it!

And back to Tony who shows us a picture of him and Peter goofing off (don’t make me cry yet, save it for the hug or the Simba/Mufasa moment) and thinks that maybe he can have hope again. We don’t know how long he works on it, he just says “one last time before bed and I shut it all down.” But then...“SHIT!” “shit.” Duh! Knew that was coming. Kids say the shittiest things. But it’s okay because she loves him 3000. That’s going to be a knife wound that won’t heal anytime soon. Anyway, he tells Pepper that he figured out time travel. Because that’s something you can just do. And because he knows that if he continues down this path, he’ll probably unretire again. He won’t stop helping because he can’t stop and he doesn’t want to stop. He’ll become Iron Man again. And Pepper says, “but will you be able to rest?” And, if you guys remember back in IM3 how Tony couldn’t sleep? It would probably be like that. It might not be visions of Thanos’s ship, it would probably be Peter asking why he couldn’t come home. So...yeah, mull on that for a bit. 

The next day, Banner, Steve and Nat test out time travel on Scott. But he becomes a kid, an old man, and a baby because “instead of pushing Lang through time, you essentially pushed time through Lang.” Also, Tony’s here! He got a little “I told you so” moment, but he and Steve are definitely on better grounds than the last time we saw them. (Tony’s porch doesn’t count because that was mostly Tony and Scott with a little bit from Steve to say “pretty please with a cherry on top?”) And then Tony asks if we’re getting the whole team.

Rocket and Nebula show up in the ship and blast away the insides of Scott’s taco. “Rhodey, be careful on reentry, there’s an idiot in the landing zone.” *CLANK* *Scott drops the taco shell in fear* “Sup, Regular-Sized Man?” It’s so funny followed by Hulk sharing two tacos with Scott to replace his. Adorable. Anyway, so Hulk and Rocket go to pick up Thor in New Asgard. No idea where this is. I think it was in Kansas originally, but Rocket, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Looks more like coastal Maine or something. We meet up with Valkyrie who informs us that Thor is doing a bang-up job leading his Asgardian subjects in their new home. Also that she’s weirded out by Professor Hulk, which is fair. Me too, although I can look at him while my roommate said she couldn’t, but she’s a weirdo so whatever. 

Anyway, Thor’s holed up in his house with Korg and Miek playing Fortnight and Thor threatens a child for being an ass. By the way, Thor’s fat now. Yeah, after watching everyone he ever loved die plus failing to prevent the deaths of quadrillions, he’s wallowing in a drunken stupor and eating carbs. It’s played for laughs, but like, sheesh. It’s pretty rough. This is Thor! A literal god! This is the guy who’s been stabbed multiple times by his brother and continues to love and care for him. He can bounce back from anything...right? Hulk tries to convince him to come back, but he doesn’t consider it until Rocket says they have beer on the ship.

Now to pick up Hawkeye. To Tokyo we go! Hawkeye Ronin is chasing this guy who’s probably Yakuza or some other mafia guy. Clint kills him, which is kinda cool in a visual and choreographic sense, but not super profound. Nat says we might be able to bring your fam back. “Don’t give me hope.” “I wish I could’ve given it to you sooner.” And now we test the time travel thing. Clint goes home (space=check) and grabs his sons’ baseball mitt before hearing the voice of his daughter (time=check) and being pulled back with the mitt still in hand (probably accidental, but return with objects=check). Now we figure out when. Previously on Thor the Dark World...on Guardians of the Galaxy...on Infinity War...on Avengers...on Doctor Strange: Infinity Stone montage. This montage marks the start of hour 2. We are now getting interesting. 

Cap, Scott and Tony to Avengers with Bruce tagging along for five seconds. Thor and Rocket to Thor: The Dark World. Nebula and Rhodey to Guardians and Clint and Nat to Infinity War, but at the same time as Guardians. Natalie Portman’s back and being stalked by a rabbit. Rene Russo’s back and being stalked by fat!Thor. Tilda Swinton’s back and explaining magic to Bruce. Robert Redford is back and being an ass to past!Tony while present!Tony tells Scott “lightly kill me.” Come and Get Your Love is back and cutting out so we can laugh at Chris Pratt. Hugo Weaving is back and just as unhelpful as ever. That one shot of Avengers is back and showing up the framing of this movie. (seriously, I want a good shot of A-force or all of the “avengers.” Apparently the Russo’s don’t understand screenshots.) Also, discussion of America’s ass is a thing (I love it) and MCU!Cap quotes Comics!Cap by saying “Hang glider” (I hate it.) But apparently Tony forgot about Hulk’s mini-freak out over the stairs (should’ve let one of the fliers go down the stairs instead of Hulk) so in the middle of their heist, the case flies open, Loki grabs the tessaract and gets the heck out of Dodge. ...I’m sure it’s fine.

Now Steve and Tony go back even further STAN LEE CAMEO! RIP! and Scott, being new here, doesn’t understand that Mom and Dad are finally on the same page and now is when you just sit back and watch in awe as they do their thing better than you ever could. So they go back to 1971 and Steve sees Peggy and Tony runs into Howard. We’ve switched to old Howard, not the one from First Avenger/the Agent Carter series. And Tony and Howard bond over being dads (he was still shitty. Just because he wasn’t horrible all the time doesn’t excuse his emotional and [at least in the comics] physical abuse) while Steve dreams for 5 seconds before tricking Michael Douglas out of his office to grab more Pym Particles for them to get home. 

Meanwhile, Nat and Clint fight on a cliff while Red Skull sits back eating popcorn or some shit. Why are they fighting? Well, who’s going to die, of course. Because Clint feels guilty over becoming a vigilante and Nat has nothing else to live for? Okay, pros? Clint has a fam. Nat is managing the Avengers. Cons? Clint went a little crazy for a couple years, but he was doing what he thought was helping, so...??? Nat has red in her ledger, but she’s been trying to wipe it out since day one, so...? They basically do that thing where one person gets up and the other person trips them as they go by. Eventually Nat dies and it’s pretty sad. But...now we have all the stones! Yay?

Oh, and Thor and mom had a heart-to-heart where Frigga said “you’re a failure and that’s okay because we all fail. Now, look on the bright side, find your hope, and start eating better.” Then Thor grabbed Mjolnir (I’m sure there were no implications there, unless Cap gave it back with the Aether) and was super happy because he was still worthy. Even fat and a failure, he’s still worthy of wielding Mjolnir. So sweet. So nice. Anyway, it’s rabbit season duck season rabbit season duck season and Rocket and Thor skedaddle and meet up with everyone else at the same time, but without Nat. They mourn, but Thor says “knock it off, she’s not dead.” Which, considering how many times Loki’s died plus he’s wielding his destroyed hammer with the destroyed Infinity Stones ...yeah, that’s fair. But “she can’t come back” because her contract’s up and she doesn’t wanna.

And now we enter hour 3! The best part, in my opinion. We have the stones. Tony’s made an Iron Gauntlet to hold them. Thor wants to do it so he can finally feel useful and like he did something right, but Tony won’t let him because he’s not in the right mindset. Fair, Thor’s probably still drunk as a skunk, but the guy needs a win. You should understand that, Tony. Hulk says “I’ll do it cuz I’m bigger than you, and Thanos was big and his arm got turned into a chicken wing, extra crispy.” So he puts on the Iron Gauntlet and screams in agony. That’s what happens when you use subpar materials. Probably should’ve gone to Nidavilir instead of using Earth tech, but whatever. Hulk snaps and then birds are singing and Mrs. Barton is calling her husband like...where did you go and where’s all the food? We probably won.

But, uh oh, apparently Nebula has a network (...sure?) and they forgot to put her on airplane mode when she went back to 2014. So the broadband was crowded and Nebula kept making the dial-up sound. Thanos took present!Nebula in 2014 on his ship and past!Nebula takes her gold plating and puts them on top of her blue plating (...no, but whatever) and she goes back to the future instead of present!Nebula. Now that past!Nebula and her continued obsession with getting daddy’s approval are in the future, she can bring the entirety of Thanos’s ship with her. I guess Thanos replicated the Pym Particle? Or Maw did? Whatever, we need a final battle, so here we go.

Just as Clint is gaining hope and Scott’s saying “ooh pretty” to the birds and Tony’s trying to keep Hulks arm from turning grey, Thanos says “surprise, muddafucka,” and drops a single nuke. Rhodey, Rocket and Hulk are all trapped together with rising water and Hulk keeping the building off of them with one arm. Scott’s running as fast as his little legs will carry him to help, although it’s probably good that he’s so small in the continually collapsing building. Clint has the Iron Gauntlet and is running away from those ugly things from Infinity War. You know, the Mieks that kill themselves at the Wakandan border? Yeah, gross. And Tony is joking with Steve and it’s nice even in this scary time. Thor suits up with a cool braided beard, Thanos says “I’ve changed my mind. Forget wiping out half, let’s start from scratch,” and it’s time to start fighting for another 45-50 minutes.

Thor, Steve and Tony go at it. Combo moves and team ups and Thanos is getting beat up, but not going down. Then he throws Iron Man away. He flicks Cap off of him. He grabs Stormbreaker and starts to do the thing that Thor does to his future self last movie. And a girl in the audience just starts shouting, “Come on, Thor! Come on, Thor!” And internally I’m right there with her, but then THE AUDIENCE. LOSES. THEIR. SHIT!!!! I know there were more people screaming than just me, but I probably contributed about 50% of the collective volume. STEVE ROGERS IS WIELDING MJOLNIR! YES! We’ve been waiting for that since Ultron! Probably my favorite part of the whole movie. I’m totally going to find that video on YouTube and save it for myself because FUCK YEAH! 

Meanwhile, Hawkeye has been playing keep away with the evil Mieks and past!Nebula shows up to grab the Iron Gauntlet. Present!Nebula convinces past!Gamora they’re on the same side and we can kill Thanos. They start by saving Hawkeye from past!Nebula and kill her. ...I’m sure it’s fine. 

Thanos kicks America’s ass. He calls down the 4 uglies we killed last movie plus more armies. I guess his ship was there on Earth while he was dicking around on Titan? Otherwise, how did the the triangle ships get to Wakanda? Whatever. We have a gorgeous shot of Cap in the high ground backed by white walking down to face Thanos with the low ground backed by darkness. And then...“Hey Cap...Cap, it’s Sam. Do you copy?...On your left.” And a magic wormhole opens up and Okoye, T’Challa and Shuri all walk through and nod at Steve for a whole minute before Sam flies through. And then, all the circles show up and everybody walks through. Valkyrie on her horse; Spidey thwiping behind the Guardians; Wong and his sorcerers; Wasp and Bucky; Scott growing big and saving Hulk, Rhodey and Rocket; it’s a who’s who of the MCU. “Is that everyone?” “You want more?!” (yeah, actually. Where are my Defenders?) We’re all eating it up. Clapping and cheering and then Cap raises Mjolnir and says, “AVENGERS...assemble” and they charge and the audience goes wild. I personally think the assemble shouldn’t have been so quiet. Like, how did they hear him and know to charge? But it’s fine. I don’t care. KICK THE ANNOYING GRAPE’S BUTT! And they do.

In between the fighting, we get several nice moments and call backs. Rocket and Bucky fighting side by side again, although Rocket doesn’t make a prosthetic joke. Scott and Hope start up La Cucaracha van to take the stones back in time and Hope calls Steve “Cap,” because “that’s what we call him. If you’re a friend.” Iron Man and Rescue are fighting back to back and I love this power couple so much. Doctor Strange gets sidelined taking care of a burst damn (guess he’s too powerful and we can’t have him showing up the og Avengers) but Tony’s like “Is this the one where we win?” Strange is all “if I tell you what I wished on the birthday candle, it won’t come true,” which I guess is as good an explanation as any. Hawkeye’s getting overwhelmed and T’Challa says, “Clint, give it to me,” because he doesn’t know his name is Hawkeye since he introduced himself as “We haven’t met. I’m Clint.” “I don’t care.” Spidey takes it and tells Karen to “turn on Instant Kill” because this is a time where it definitely qualifies. He then gets rescued by Mjolnir and Cap telling him “Hey, Queens, head’s up,” which is adorable. And then Tony hugs Peter because he loves him but also “That’s not a hug, I’m just getting the door for you. We’re not there yet.” Past!Gamora saving Quill and when he sees her and caresses her, she knees him in the balls. “Seriously? Him,” she asks. Present!Nebula replies, “It was either him or a tree,” which is fair. Drax isn’t interested, she’s like his murderous little sister and Rocket is...no. We’re having so much fun.

Wanda shows up in front of past!Thanos and says “You’ve taken everything from me.” “I don’t even know you,” which is fair. But then she’s like, “You will.” And dang! If that’s not a badass line, I don’t know what is! She and he go at it and it’s awesome and then he’s pressing down on her, but she smiles and destroys half of the dual sword, making him effectively fucked. And she’s got him. He’s a goner, until he cheats again. He cheated with Vision and he cheats here. So what’s important is while Iron Man or Thor or Captain America are super powerful, Thanos can easily take them on in hand-to-hand combat. But Scarlett Witch? She’s too awesome! He can’t beat her playing fair! The cheating prune has to call for air support to get her off of him. Screw everyone and everything else, get this powerful witch off! And it works, but luckily, the sorcerers put up shields to protect people from the falling nukes. And then...they stop and point up...oooooh BABY! LET’S GO! I mean, it’s totally a Carol ex Machina, but I love seeing her just tank everything. 

She takes out the ship, allowing everyone a second to breathe and Peter to slightly uncurl and hold the Iron Gauntlet. “Hey, I’m Peter Parker.” Sweety! Use your made-up name! “Hey, Peter Parker, you got something for me?” And it’s confident and badass, but you know what’s even more badass? FUCKING A-FORCE! “Don’t worry. She has help.” FUCK YEAH! Every single female in the MCU (minus Widow)! I love it so much. I wish we could’ve had a single frame where all of the ladies are visible, but it was still so awesome. And Captain Marvel is charging towards La Cucaracha van and is about to win until the purple toad throws the other half of his big sword into the back of the van. Jerk. Doctor Strange takes a hand away from dealing with the water (which...isn’t doing anything. Yay?) to tell Tony, “1.”

Now we get to play keep away on a smaller stage. Thanos vs Carol is badass. She doesn’t even flinch when he headbutts her. So fucking awesome. But then he cheats and pulls out the power stone (that hurts to hold but not the blue stone in infinity war? okay) to punch her. That does it and takes her out, then Thor and Cap try and team up but he throws them off and give Steve a massive headache. He puts on the glove and is about to snap his fingers--but Tony swoops in at the last second. And we know he’s no match. We’ve seen him lose to the purple gorilla twice! So what’s he gonna, oh. Nanotechnology to the rescue. Unfortunately, the suit was not designed to hold 6 Infinity Stones, so while Tony stays conscious enough to spout a great one-liner “And I...am...Iron Man,” and snap his fingers, that’s it. Thanos and his entire army are dust. ...I’m sure it’s fine. Like, get fucked, but...time travel? Anyway, Tony is...he’s done. He’s only human. Thanos is...a big alien. Hulk is...a big monster. Stark is...Iron Man. It’s at this point my roommate is sobbing into my arm. And I can hear sniffles in the theater until the end of the movie. 

Rhodey finds Tony first, and I thought he was already dead, not going to lie. Tony can’t do anything. He can’t move, blinking isn’t happening, his eyes are very unfocused. One might assume he was dead. But then Peter comes in and, oh! If you weren’t already crying, now we have Peter telling Tony “we won” like Steve did all those years ago. But now it’s...it feels like Simba at the death of Mufasa. “HEEEEEELP! SOMEBODY! Anybody. Help.” And so Pepper comes to the Rescue (sorry, you’re right, not the time) and tells him, “it’s okay. We’ll be okay. You can rest now.” I don’t know if “we” is Pepper and Morgan, the Avengers, Earth/the galaxy, or the MCU, but man! This thing that Iron Man started 11 years ago is...it’s come into it’s own. And saying goodbye to Tony Stark, the man who’s been in almost as many MCU movies as Stan Lee, to RDJ, the man who is Tony Stark in his early trials and path to redemption, to Iron Man, the superhero who gave us hope in a world of bad Marvel movies, is hard. 

And then we have a funeral because we really needed it. Tony gets a last speech of “if I die, I still love you.” WE LOVE YOU 3000! And then we get everyone standing around for the funeral for Tony and no one else. (Black Widow? Gamora? Loki? No? Why not?) Pepper lays down a wreath with the “Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart” and we have a tracking shot of pain. Pepper, Happy, Morgan and Steve. Ant-Mans and Wasps. Gaurdians of the Galaxy minus Gamora. T’Challa, Okoye and Shuri. The Barton Family. Bucky, Falcon and Wanda. THAT KID FROM IM3! Maria Hill and Gen. Ross. Captain Marvel. And then Nicholas J. Fury with Coulson standing behind him. And Morgan wants cheeseburgers! And Happy’s gonna give them to her!!!!! DON’T MAKE ME CRY AT CHEESEBURGERS, RUSSOS! 

Thor gives Valkyrie kingship over New Asgard (which is awesome) and dicks off with the Guardians. Barton retires, for good this time. And Cap’s going back in time to put all the stones back. I don’t know if that means the stones are still gone or back or what because...The Ancient One said something about we need all six to exist or catastrophe, but Thanos is an idiot so...idk. Anyway, Cap goes and gives the stones back and then decides to live the rest of his life with Peggy Carter because apparently he’s still not over her. I thought he kinda was. He started dating Sharon or something, right? You know what, it’s cute and adorable. Anyway, Steve’s old now and passes on a fixed shield to Sam. Bucky’s perfectly okay with it, and I am too. Captain Falcon and Bucky? I like it. Might not be the dynamic duo that Captain America and Bucky were, but still good. And then the credits roll and the og Avengers sign their names and we’re all clapping and cheering and crying and it’s so beautiful.

This movie...you know. If you’re reading this, you’ve already seen the movie, so you know. You know how good it is. It’s not perfect. The beginning is slow, some of the jokes don’t land and some people don’t like where the Russos took certain characters. “Steve shouldn’t have gone to live with Peggy!” “How dare they kill off Tony!” “They fridged Natasha! It should’ve been Clint!” “I don’t like that they made Thor a joke! FAT PEOPLE AREN’T FUNNY EVER!” “Ronin was stupid!” “I couldn’t look at Hulk!” “Captain Marvel needed more screen time!” “Captain Marvel had too much screen time!” “TIME TRAVEL!” SHUT UP! 

Look, the movie isn’t perfect, but if you want to constantly bitch about this movie, go watch CinemaSins. This movie is great. Not perfect, but great. It is epic. It is grand. It is a finale for the ages. We the fans have seen the movies, made the fanfiction, bought the merch and just enjoyed the heck out of this massive franchise for the past 11 years. We wanted an ending of monumental proportions and that’s what we got. I’m not going to defend their take on how Thor was funny because he was fat. I’m not going to say Steve should or shouldn’t have married Peggy. I’m not going to say who should have died or not died. I am at peace. Because this is a great movie. Not a good one, a great one. It ties up so many plot points and character arcs from Iron Man and brings it back for us to enjoy. We love this movie because they loved us. And if you disagreed with something, Archive of Our Own is always taking new fanfic. We’ll read it and enjoy it, but right now, I want to enjoy a cup of cocoa to drown my sorrows in. This has been a journey of epic proportions, but my tears are still coming and I’d like to read some happy fanfic. I’ll see you on the flip side, nerds, for a new live blogging series. Later.

[happily-lost-in-oc-writing]

Broken constellations, Chapter 3- desperate mistakes

Jessica's POV

"Why." She says, looking at me, with something like desperation,

"Why..?" I glance at her, before realizing what she's asking. .

"Why do you all torment me? What did I do to you to piss you off so bad? This place is hell enough without you- and your- bullshit...." She trails off, looking away.

My hands tighten on the steering wheel and I take a breath in as I park, and I want to tell her that I have a good reason. I want to tell her I'm sorry and I would've never gone along if I knew her but I don't know her and I don't know what to tell her.

"I see." She says, Angry and hurt. I move my hands to say something but nothing comes, and she storms off. I turn off my car and slam my head into the dash, fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. DAMMIT!

I get out of the car and go after her, hoping I can compose the words to explain I am a horrible human being who deserves to burn in Hell?!?

I rush in and Amber smiles, pulling me to our group. Rex frowns at me, and Erika smiles falsely.

"You ran off last night-"

"Why don't you shove Erika in it. You didn't mind doing that when I was upset last night." I snap, and Amber frowns.

"Happy V-Day!!!!" Amber smiles, tossing little Valentine's out. I see Quincey Addams passing- she's a cute girl. Nice. She's got bright blue short hair in a curly pixie cut, a pink beanie and a pink hoodie with a jean jacket and skinny jeans with boots. She's carrying a basket of baked goods and smiles at me, I take the chance to ignore Erika and Rex and smile back.

"Happy valentines, Quinn!"

She blinks and smiles really wide,

"You too Jessica!!! And uh," she leans in and whispers, "congrats on Cassie-" she giggles and runs off- I feel myself turn pink before looking at Amber.

"Happy V-day Am." I smile at Amber and notice Cassiopeia arguing with teddy at the vending machine. I pull back until she goes inside and walk in with the group, ignoring Erika and Rex, Amber stands between us to ease the tension. All I can focus on is the situation, and how Cassiopeia was the only person who asked about it. And she had some solid advice. And how I've been nothing but absolutely horrid to her just because I could. I sit down and give her a smile, at some point in that blur of a morning.

Amber and I go to math, and I see Cassiopeia curl over in her seat, conflicted. I want to walk over and tell her it's okay and I'm sorry and that I want to know her, but I find myself lacking the confidence and the words. She hands Amber three sheets of pictures, and I take two, writing down a note.

I need to talk to her.

I might go crazy if I don't.

•T•i•m•e•s•k•i•p•

After school I hurry to my car, Amber following me. Erika starts Getting in and I turn around and glare.

"Don't." I bark, feeling my breath get quicker and angry.

She rolls her eyes and puts her hands up like she's surrendering and strolling away. Amber gets in, biting her lip.

"I'm sorry- you found out like that."

What.

"Excuse me?!? You- you knew?!?!?" I whip around to Amber and feel my heart break a little more.

"I- I've known since last summer... I was gonna tell you- but- you both seemed so happy and I didn't wanna mess anything up." She smiles sadly, and I drive silently.

"Are you- Okay.... Jessie...?" She looks at me, and I keep looking ahead, no Cassie. Dammit. I drive to her house in silence. Teddy lives over here, so does Erika. I pull up to her driveway, and she hugs me.

"I know you're not okay. I should've told you. I just didn't want to lose you guys. You're all I have anymore. You've seen my home. It's a war zone. I don't want you guys to be one too. I love you too much." She leaves that to linger in the air as she leaves the car, and I sit there, feeling my lip tremble and my eyes sting and I sob, my throat burns as I fail to compose myself. Why does it hurt so much?? I knew he didn't care about me but I also thought he loved me. Or maybe I wanted to think that...  I wanted him to be true. I wanted to have it with him. I wanted him. And now I've just got this- this empty pit in my gut that's burning and hurting and I want it to stop and I want the pain to go away, I want it all to stop. I haphazardly drive home, calming my shaking hands just enough to get back, and check the note on the fridge.

I cant breathe, every breath burns going down and rips it's way through my lungs and my stomach is on a tower of terror- it goes up and down and drops over and over again and I can't help but think of how much everything hurts right now. Everything is causing so much pain and I can't even see the damn wound. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. It makes me want to forget the day for at least a minute.

"Went out for the week, Doodlebug. Love you. Be back Friday."

I tear open the liquor cabinet and down the vodka, some tequila, and enough brandy to forget the next twenty four hours. I stuff my face with cold pizza and I sit on the kitchen floor, sick of emotions

"Cassieeeee" I remember I need to talk to Cassie. Yes. I need to do that. I want to talk to her right now. She makes the blurry shit clear. Yes. Rex is a dick and Cassie is warm.

With Rex being a dick, and Erika being a backstabbing bitch, and Amber being an emotional mess, Cassie is clean. Cassie is neat and comforting.

I get up and check the time: woah. It's 12:39 am. I stumble over and knock on the door . I keep knocking until she opens the door tiredly, in shorts and a hoodie that falls over her thighs.

"Jessica... what the fu-"

"Cassie we need to talk!" I hug her and pet her hair, hoping she'll listen. It's soft like it looks and fluffy, and she's warm. She's super warm. I wonder what her hugs feel like. "We need to talk like. I said in the note you read I saw you read it and. I wanna talk to you."

"Dear god you smell like a bar." She takes me up some stairs to her room: it's baby blue and there are fairy lights, a pastel day bed with a princess canopy around it, a white dresser and stuffed animals.

That's when it all got fuzzy.

And I woke up to Cassie's back, her in a bra, and curled up under the covers.

Fuck.

Cassie's POV- 12:39 am last night.

I had just finished watching a movie to get the day off my mind, a long walk home and getting chewed out, all I wanted to do was relax and recharge.

But my life has gone to hell, so you know that didn't happen.

There's banging downstairs on the back door, and i go to tell whoever it is to fuck off, when I see a very intoxicated, very exhausting Jessica "Jessie" Smith.

Joy.

I open the door, very much done with this grade-A, amateur fan fiction type bullshit.

"Jessica.. what the fu-"

She cut me off with incoherent slurs, saying my name and then trailing off. She stumbles into me and starts running her hands in my hair, mumbling "note-talk-we-yes"

"Dear god. You smell like a bar, you need to go home."

"Nn-Nnh!" She Shakes her head no- she probably won't remember half of this when she wakes up. She keeps insisting herself closer to me and I give in, bringing her inside and locking the door again (for safety), I push her up the stairs and to my room. I go to pull the mattress out of the closet when she just flops herself on my bed, I sigh. I'm so done with this,  I swear to god. She's the last person I want in my house, nevertheless my life. I sit down on the side of the bed and put my head in my hands, a headache forming. This- whatever this was, was something I would have to clean up in the morning. I groan and try to lay down, its better than having her drunkly crying or whining or something. I turn on the fan and lay down, taking my hoodie off. I think about the last two days, and part of me is happy I'm not alone.

But most of me wants to kill myself.

Jessica's POV- 5 am.

Cassie starts sitting up, sliding her hoodie on, and she shakes me. I sit there in shock, with a major headache. I can't remember last night. Cassie nudges me again, a little less gently.

"Get up. My dads gonna come here to wake me up soon. You need to be gone."

Shit. That's right, we have school. I sit up and get up, stumbling. She hands me my shoes and ushers me out.

I turn pink, and the thought crosses my mind and I have to know-

"Did we- you know...." I look at her,

"What-?!? No! Jesus, Jessica. Of course not. You came here drunk and crying and refused to leave." She whispers, rolling her eyes and pushing me out the back door.

"Ill.... see you at school...?" I ask, smiling awkwardly.

"Maybe." She says, shutting the door. I stand there for a second before making my way back to my place, shutting the door. I slide down it, and text Amber.

Jessie 🖤: hey Bichhhhhh. Feeling sick. Won't be in today. I love you, Amb. XOXO.

Amber 🤪: Okay, stay safe. I really hope we can work this out, Jessie. I don't want you guys at each other's throats.

I log onto my dads computer and shoot the school and email, before  going back to bed.

Cassie's POV: 6 am.

My dad opens the door, and I groan, curling up. He looks at me, and I frown.

"Dad, I feel sick. Can I stay home today?"

He frowns, and walks over to feel my head. He looks at me for a long time, before nodding yes.

"Cass, I love you. I don't know what's going on in your life- but you know you can talk to me. I'm your dad. I love you kiddo." He Walks out, and I lay back down, curling up and falling asleep. I wake up to a series of texts from teddy.

Teddy: where r you

We need to talk.

R you avoiding me?

Cassie this isn't funny.

We need to talk, Cass.

Are you at home?

I'm gonna drop by.

Answer me, Cassiopeia.

We need to talk about yesterday.

Why r you not answering me?!

Hey.

Ugh. I'm not entertaining him. After what he did yesterday the thought of seeing him makes me sick. Maybe he thought I was making an excuse or trying to get out- which I was, but I'm bisexual with a preference for women, and he needs to respect that.

No means no no matter what.

I go downstairs and see no one else is home, my mom probably went to the store and everyone else is at school, so. I have some much needed alone time.

I scrounge for the cold pizza and blueberry Soda, turn the TV on to the channel playing friends, and sit down with my junk food. After a few episodes, I clean up my plate and I hear a knock at the door. It's probably teddy, and I decide I better answer it than ignore him.

I walk and open it up, seeing the tall blonde with an uncharacteristic solemn look.

"Theodore." I say, closing the door and crossing my arms.

"Cassie. Don't do that. You know I care about you-" I roll my eyes as he talks. "What?"

"You care so much." I look up at him, a bit upset. "That's why you basically told me it was a phase. Really good friend, someone comes out to you and you insist that you can cure their gayness."

"That's not what I meant and you know it. You've been leading me on, if anything!"

" leading you on? I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're forcing your emotions on me and you're upset that they're not mutual. I don't want to see you right now Teddy." I turn around and he grabs my wrist. I ball my fist.

"Let go of me right now."

He moves his hands to my waist and pulls me to him, rough. Moving down my hips to-

"No!! Not until you see that-"

I turn around and punch him in the face, ripping my body away from him , I walk inside and lock the doors, I wait until his footsteps retreat and slump down it, feeling... wrong.

I curl up in a ball and cry.

I want my life back.

[cassidydanvers]

Coffee and Contemplation || Solo

She never really knew how to deal with anniversaries. Not like birthdays or weddings; not the fun stuff. The harder stuff. There were two of them now. April first marked one full year since she got here. Since the merge from Ashford to Ashkent. How exactly were you supposed to mark something like that? Involuntary relocation, whatever you were supposed to call it. Ignoring it was an option, but that felt weirder somehow. Hey, maybe this kind of thing called for a stack of pancakes, a cake, maybe bring out the sparklers. Make a day of it. Interdimensional travel should really come with a how-to manual she mused wryly with a sip of her coffee.

Out of those options she was camped out at Flopped like she started out with her back to the last booth at the back with full view of the room. Just a regular day. Or as close as she could get to it researching ghosts. After the mess at the hospital it became all the more apparent that she really needed to get her act together before some other catastrophe got there first.  There was also the small matter of That was a whole other issue she’d have to deal with a little later, but with that in mind she pulled out her notes from the books back at Scribe Headquarters and got to work with her highlighter and a small notepad to list down anything she was going to need on a practical level apart from salt and scribbled down a quick list with a sheet from her notepad:

Basil

Sage

Angelica

Lasagna That vegetable pasta stuff - switch out sauce for pesto?

Garlic

Bay Leaves

Chalk/Chalk pen

Salt

Something Iron Something borrowed something blue

Graveyard dirt find alternative.

Looking at those last ones again this was stacking up to being the weirdest grocery list in a while.

Cassie pushed the plate to one side and pulled out and opened her laptop and took out a solitary post it note with some hurriedly scrawled writing from inside her bag:

Mydiumspace

?????

Helpful, Cass, real helpful. She unstuck it from the back of the piece of paper it was attached to and smoothed the strip across the top left hand side of her laptop and typed the name into the searchbar, looking for something that wasn’t a link to some computer game or obscure tv show when she found it on the second page of results. Hoping for something along the lines of ‘Welcome to intro to ghosts 101: tools tech and tutorials’, or something along those lines she filled out her details, creating a throwaway email account and logged on. A welcome message flashed up on screen and she clicked on the first most recent post to see what she was dealing with exactly.

 New User has joined the forum – Welcome New User: Cassper

General Chat> Encounters>Positive Encounters>”Stories welcome”

Ramblinman: I just got back from taking a case out by the subdivision. I just saw a former tenant  stop a client’s child from taking a fall down some stairs. Moving the guy on didn’t feel right so I just left it. At least for now. I told the owners he wouldn’t be bothering them and left it at that. Has anyone else had anything similar happen?

DarkandStormyNight: For me there for every hostile one I’ve had there have been three to tip the scale back. Some of them do just want to be heard. To be helped.

Allcatsaregrey: It’s the other way around here. There’s been maybe one or two that haven’t lashed out. As soon as they get wind of me for most of them I get hit with projectiles and freezeouts.

Icydeadpeople: Yeah and I bet if you are extra nice to them they don’t go ape shit when whoever they’re after snuffed it twenty years ago or Great Aunt Sally moved to Argentina. They tend to get friendly with the kitchen utensils around then. Don’t let them fool you.

NELSONAR345TY:If I have to I just call in one of the cleaners. They are my go-to to get rid of anybody violent, but those people give me the creeps. Stone cold some of them. I saw one of them waste some poor SOB. Brutal stuff.

DarkandStormyNight: The closest I get to anything like that is the occasional  banishment. Only as a last resort.

Banishment? She was already in over her head. At that moment it felt something akin to those nightmares she had once or twice about being given a test she didn’t study for a class she didn’t even know you were even taking. Some kind of improv class or interpretive dance usually, when her mind really wanted to torture her. Cassie bookmarked the page for later including a few posts about book recommendations and came out of that page and moved onto her next project. She had a name and a location, should be enough for something useful to come up. Sure enough a quick search on google returned a few newspaper articles. Cassie opened up the first link.

Black Ice causes Fatal Bridge Accident

A fatal road accident on the Landon Road bridge yesterday claimed the lives of two local residents. It is understood that the pair were returning from Ashkent General Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning of March 29th when they hit a patch of black ice on the road leading the car they were travelling in to verge from the road onto another oncoming vehicle.  Scott Landon, thirty two, had been driving the vehicle when it lost control was pronounced dead at the scene. His sister, Maya Landon, thirty five was treated at the hospital but later died of her injuries.  The family declined interview but made a statement wishing for privacy but thanking everyone involved in their aid.

Moving away from the page to a quick cursory glance over a Facebook account she came up with a profile that matched Maya’s brother on the search engine. A hesitant click took her to a photo pinned to his page of him crouching beside a pleased looking golden retriever, a carefree smile across his face. He had that look of someone who was the heartthrob next door in just about every teen drama growing up. Sandy Blond hair, Henley and a plaid shirt. Just a regular guy. It suddenly didn’t feel right snooping. Exiting out of the site she sat back in her seat and watched for a moment as a small group of people passed by to take one of the booths a little further forward from her. Now at least she knew who to look out for. Narrowed it down a little.  Another coffee refill later she packed up her stuff, started up the car and made her way back across the river to Callahan Cathedral, or what was left of it, as promised.

The cathedral was perhaps not the smartest location to have picked for a meetup, especially not a long abandoned one. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, but considering the events that even led her to being there in the first place she’d have said she did okay all things considered. Hard to be rational when you were being chased down by a half dozen or so pissed off ghosts. Which on the subject were also a topic of conversation for some sort of churchyard tour going on a few yards away from where she waited.

“…and here is where Obadiah Smith has been reported as being sighted right next to this marker,” the speaker stopped by a toppled grave marker, his hands clasped in an attempt to look solem.“Several psychics we’ve had out here tell us that the disrepair of the graves and the surrounding grounds have made these formerly peaceful souls angry. We set up a donation page and ten percent of our book sales and a small percent of our ticket fees go towards our funs to restore the site and we appreciate every penny you can give, now if you’d like to follow me to…”

Cassie watched them go and turned her attention ahead again and closed her jacket over as the wind cut through her clothing and stuffed her hands into her pockets as she waited.

I wasn’t long before she felt what was quickly becoming a familiar sensation of pins and needles down her back. She followed the feeling and looked over towards the grass, expecting to see Maya, the former- was that the right term?-nurse. Instead there was a trio of ghosts headed her way. Any worry about being approached by any of them were thankfully snuffed out. Seemed they were more interested in trailing what she realized then had to be some kind of ghost tour party going on and watched as a small group followed along slightly behind them.

“This guy’s full of crap,” one of them huffed as they passed nearby. “Most of these you can’t even read the names. You could feed them any old shit, what a load of bull,” he kicked out at one of the markers and passed through it, trailing after the others leaving Cassie alone with her thoughts again.

After checking her watch a few times and wondering why she hadn’t picked somewhere less cold and creepy, like Del’s or one of the fancier places. Somewhere, anywhere warm when her guest finally appeared. As she approached Cassie had been close for a moment to asking how she wasn’t in the least bit cold in just her scrubs like that before she realised her mistake with an inward roll of her eyes. “Hey,” she called over tentatively, taking careful steps past what was left of several grave markers dotted along the grass turf.

As she approached Maya tucked her hands into the pockets of her blue nursing scrubs, shoulders turning inwards, almost hesitant behind the nonchalant expression on her face, “I didn’t think you’d show up.”

“Says the person who’s late,” Cassie countered with a not unfriendly shake of her head. “Right,” back to why she was even here, “so, I did a little digging. Got a picture and um, some background,” she looked away, “with, you know, what happened…I’m sorry.” She tumble that last part out, “but, um, remind me again, why can’t you just tell him yourself again?”

“Any time I get near he’s out of there,” she moved to stand beside Cassie, ankles crossed and leaning against the cathedral wall. She let out a sigh, looking out towards the rest of the grounds. “I can’t get within a mile of him,” she turned to look at Cassie, meeting her eyes, “I just want to see him, set the record straight.”

“And you think he’s going to listen to me, to some random over you?” That seemed likely.

“It’s better than nothing,” Maya’s gaze focused on the ground and into her own thoughts.

There was a lull in the conversation after that. Cassie shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat, “okay, not promising anything, but I can try.” For the moment at least that seemed to be something.

“About the other thing,” Maya folded her arms, “I want them, the rest of them gone. That stunt back at the General-“ she bit at one of her nails, letting out a huff, “I’m done. Anything?”

“Oh,” she was hoping the first thing would be enough, that maybe Maya would have forgotten she’d even asked about it. No such luck. “Right. About the other thing, Working on it,” not a total lie, “but that’s going to take a lot more work. I wouldn’t even know where to start with that stuff. Might take some time, not sure how much I can get hold of, but I’ll…I can try. Time for a change of subject, “oh,” she pointed her finger, “before I forget, for future reference if I ever need a distraction do me a solid and give me a heads up on the game plan first,” she looked over towards Maya, one eyebrow raised and what she at least hoped passed as slight a teasing smile considering the cold.

“Noted.” Maya gave a slow tilt of her head, “and thank you,” she added after a beat.

“Okay, ‘s fine,” she shrugged it off. She hadn’t done anything yet.

Tracking Maya’s brother down was the least of her worries. Keeping ghosts out might be one thing, but getting rid of them was a whole other thing and a route Cassie wasn’t even sure she wanted to go down. Unless she didn’t have to, maybe she could find somebody who could. One thing at a time.

[yuniesan]

Girl Meets Season 4 - Episode 20

Girl Meets Season 4 - The Continuing Saga of Riley and her friends as they tackle their Sophomore year in High School. The ups, the downs, and everything in between. What will their sophomore year be like? Read and find out.

Episodes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

A/N: When I started writing this chapter.... well I didn’t know where it was that I wanted to go but two things happened. I watched the episode referenced in this chapter, and I listened to Linkin Park’s new song Heavy and thought that I should do something to tie this into this chapter.... you’ll understand once you read the chapter.

20. Girl Meets Fight

Everything in Riley’s life was going back to normal, and it made her happy because everyone is happy where they are in their lives. At least that’s what she wants to be happy about. In the end Riley knew that when everything falls into place something else falls apart. That’s how life is, it’s not a constant string of happy endings. Every once and a while it throws you a curve ball.

Of course on this particular day, she was let out of cheerleading practice early and went looking for her best friend. When she reached the art room she saw Maya’s bag on the floor next to her latest painting. It was a mirage of colors the images hidden in the art, just like when she painted a purple cat at the beginning of freshman year. Riley walked into the room to wait for Maya to finish so that they could meet their friends at Topanga’s to study.

On the way in she didn’t notice that the tarp had been raised off the ground and tripped over it, knocking over the tray of paint that had been left uncovered by Maya’s painting. All the paint spilled onto the painting before it fell to the ground. Riley’s hands were covered in paint as well as her uniform, but she started freaking out about the fact that Maya’s painting had been ruined.

The door on the other side of the room opened revealing her best friend. “Riley what the hell,” Maya screamed rushing over to the painting she had been working on.

“I didn’t mean to,” Riley said but as she started to explain herself, Maya started yelling at her.

“Riley this was supposed to be my entry into the city wide art contest, it was supposed to give me a chance at an exclusive summer program at NYU and you freaking ruined it. You can’t let me have anything can you, you have this need to ruin everything I’ve ever worked for.”

“But Maya,” Riley tried again but Maya was fuming at her.

“No buts, get the hell out of here,” Maya said looking at her ruined at piece. “I don’t want to see you right now.”

Riley didn’t move, she knew that if she left their friendship would be ruined, instead she watched Maya huff around the room in shock. Wondering if Maya was right about her ruining everything, but it hadn’t made any sense. Riley would give up everything for Maya, she would give Maya everything in the world. She had already gotten a father because Riley had meddled in her mother’s life.

“Maya,” Riley said but the blonde took a cup full of black paint and poured it on Riley’s head.

“Get the hell out now,” Maya said.

Riley got up and started crying trying to get to her best friend. “Ring power, Maya,” she said trying to get her best friend’s attention, but Maya only glared.

“No,” Maya said before grabbing her bag and rushing out of the room.

Riley couldn’t do anything but sit there and cry. Another incident in the last few months where no one listened to her side. Only this time it was from the person who had defended her last time. She didn’t want to go to the café anymore, all she wanted to do was go home and cry until Maya came over and talked to her. They were best friends and like everything in their lives this will be fixed. Instead she stayed behind and started cleaning the art supplies, and pulling Maya’s painting off the ground to see the damage.

Maya couldn’t believe it, Riley had the audacity to ruin something she had been working on for weeks. She needed this chance because she would never get into a good school without help, and Riley ruined it in one minute. She walked into Topanga’s without thinking, her feet had lead her there.

“Hey Maya,” Farkle said looking up at her. “Where’s Riley?”

“How the hell should I know?” Maya said lashing out at the mention of Riley’s name.

“Because she was supposed to be with you, she got out early today and went to surprise you,” Zay said looking at her.

“She wanted to walk with you, she was really excited about it,” Cassie said to her. Maya felt like the Hispanic girl was replacing her, and it made her even more angry.

Maya knew that she really wasn’t but in the end she wanted to direct her anger at anyone. Lucas stood up and walked over to her, only to pull her out of the café.

“What the hell Ranger Rick?” she said as they stood outside.

“What happened to Riley?” he said looking directly into her eyes.

“You don’t scare me,” she said pushing him aside.

“Maya, I’ve never been too angry with you about anything, but Riley is always trying to make your life 100% better no matter what,” he said keeping her in place. “She was excited about seeing you today because you’ve been so busy lately dating Josh, and painting for that competition.”

“So,” was all she said to him.

“Even while she’s been my girlfriend she has made time for you a priority, and I have understood that. So again, where is she?”

“Fine, she’s probably home washing out the paint that she threw onto my painting, and the black paint I threw on her.”

“Do you think she did it on purpose? Riley?”

“I don’t care, just leave me alone,” she said pushing him aside.

Before he left he looked back at her, “I want you to think about something,” he said to her. “Would Riley ever do something to hurt you?”

With that he left her alone with her thoughts, and it only pissed her off even more because he was right. She had let her anger get the better of her.

  Lucas knew that whatever had happened was big, because Maya was angry, but he also knew Riley and instead of heading to her house he went back to school. When he found her, she was standing in the middle of the art room cleaning up the mess around her. She was trying to wipe away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks but it only made her smear more paint on her face.

“Riley,” Lucas said from the door way. She looked over at him and gave him a sad smile.

“Hi,” she said making him frown. He had known that Riley would still be in the art room, she was the first person to try and fix something even if it was an accident.

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her, the moment she was wrapped up in his warmth she started crying. “I messed up did I,” she said before her body started heaving from the sobs that broke out from her mouth. It only made him hold her closer, he knew that this was an accident, it was the only way that Riley would have done anything to Maya.

“Can you tell me what happened?” he said when she had finally calmed down.

“I came to get Maya,” she sniffled a bit as she said it. “The tarp thing was bunched up and I didn’t notice… so I ended up tripping on it and I knocked over the paint trying to grab onto something to break my fall.”

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he said feeling like it was a reflex because she always fell, not so much since they got to high school but he still worried.

“I might have a cut on my knee because the paint stings there,” she said. “And possibly a bruise on my arm… I can’t really tell.”

“Come on,” he said pulling away, his clothes stained in paint. “Let’s get you home and cleaned up.”

“Let’s clean up first, I want Maya to have a clean work area when she gets back.”

“Okay,” he said helping her.

  Maya stood outside the room listening to them, she had thought about what Lucas had said before he left, and she let her anger get the best of her. She wanted this chance so badly that she was blinded by finishing, so when she saw what had happened she had just let her anger take over.

“Feel like apologizing yet?” Mr. Matthews said from behind her, making her jump. “I was here when you started yelling at Riley, and well knowing Riley it was an accident and you just freaked out.”

“How do you know me so well?” she said turning to the man who had been her only father figure until Shawn came along.

“Well you and Shawn are alike, you get angry and storm off, only to come back to find a way to fix everything.”

“You have a story to go with that?”

“I have several but the one that I remember the most isn’t mine to tell, but I’ll tell you anyway,” he said pulling her over to the bench in the main hallway. “After I got married, Shawn was trying to find his mother, only to find out the woman who he thought was his mother, well she wasn’t, and the one who gave birth to him didn’t want anything to do with him. He was distraught and well made a horrible decision to get completely drunk, he pushed me away, he pushed everyone away, even after my parents told him that they would adopt him. They really care about him.”

“I know the feeling,” she sighed, feeling like she had been so blinded over something so ridiculous.

“Well we only ever lash out at those we love the most, because the ones who deserve it aren’t around. Maya I saw the painting, everything you put into it has to do with the stuff your father missed out on, so of course your real anger is directed towards him and not Riley.”

“So… um… what did Shawn do after well you know?”

“Well he talked to his dad, well he went to his grave and talked to him, of course I was there for him like I have always been,” he sighed remembering the memory of that day. “When he came back, he told my parents he didn’t want to be adopted, he wanted to become closer to the only family he had, his brother. But he asked my dad to yell at him like he yelled at his own kids because he never got that growing up.”

“So my anger is for my real father,” she sighed thinking about how good her life had been in the last two years and yet the man who had abandoned her as a child still played a role in her life. “Even with Shawn around my biological father is still there in the back of my mind.”

“Remember how I made you all do that forgiveness project?”

“Yeah,” she said looking down at her hands.

“Maybe you and Shawn can do it together this time, he needs to forgive his mother, in the same way you need to forgive your father, you don’t have to actually talk to them but you have to forgive them in your heart.”

She nodded thinking about what he was saying and for once, she knew that she needed to get over what had happened in the past. Her life had become a million times better since she met Riley. She got up and walked over to the art room.

“Thanks, Uncle Cory,” she said smiling before walking into the room and seeing Riley and Lucas standing there waiting for her. Maya ran up to Riley and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry,” was all she said.

“For what, I’m the one who tripped and messed up your painting,” Riley said. “I should be the one to say sorry.”

“No,” Maya stopped her. “I needed this to happen because I need to take a better look at the happy times, and not the sad ones. So you have given me a clean slate.”

Riley looked up noticing her father smiling in the doorway before looking back into Maya’s blue eyes. “I think you should pick bright colors, and paint about the love you get from your friends.”

Maya nodded, she told Riley and Lucas about what she had been feeling while painting, she told them about her conversation with Riley’s father. Riley understood, and the two of them laughed and hugged, saying their apologies to one another.

That night Maya took out a piece of paper and wrote to her father, telling him that although she couldn’t see him because it brought pain, she wanted to let go of what they once had and be happy with the life her mother and her adoptive father had given her. She told him that maybe one day they could meet again, but only after they write to one another, and properly talk without biting each other’s heads off. Real letters, not emails, no phone calls. For now this was the only way she was comfortable talking to him. She told her mother and Shawn about it and told Shawn that they both need to move forward from the past. Shawn agreed with her, but he told her that he had already sowed those demons, it was now Maya’s turn to deal with hers. She mailed the letter the next day, hoping that he would read it and write back.

She received a letter from him a week later, and that’s how she began to repair her relationship with her biological father.

[a-smilethat-explodes]

Chapter 32- She Walked out

She finally returned a few minutes later, still looking annoyed and smelling faintly of cigarette smoke. She clocked back in after chucking her purse down on the counter and then repeated in a testy voice, "I said I don't want to talk about it, bring it up, and I'll walk off my shift, I don't give a damn," she turned away and began rearranging movies.

"You shouldn't do that when you have a child to support." I shot back flatly.

"Gee." Aidan added seriously. I almost smiled… the little guy was just trying to put in his two cents.

But my smile didn't happen as I watched her shoulders tense as she suddenly stopped fixing the movies. She turned around; eyes cool, opened her mouth to say something, and then exhaled sharply as she walked back into the stacks to put away some movies. "I know what you're trying to do," she said over her shoulder coldly. "And I'm still not talking. It's my life. You want my sob story? Buy the book."

"Hey, look, you just drop little parts of your life and then retract them when I get curious. I'm tired of it." I shot back.

"Is it my fault that sometimes I say too much?" she snapped back, rearranging movies. "I said drop it," she stalked back over to the counter.

"How is life like that?" I demanded of her cynically. "Living a secret... how does that work?"

"I don't live a secret, I just like my privacy," she snapped back. "The only way you could possibly understand that is if you were me."

"Well why don't you try to explain it?" I shot back.

"Because the only way to really understand my fucked up life is to actually be me," she shot back. "You think I really expected to get pregnant at 18? Do you think I was jumping up and down in excitement?" I let her talk. "Because frankly, it sucked, but I wouldn't give anything in the world not to have my daughter. She just came a lot sooner then I expected," she began counting the cash in the cash register angrily and then stopped, slamming the drawer shut angrily. Aidan whimpered. "Damn it, I've said too much!" she shouted, mostly at herself.

"Could you try not to swear in front of the kid?" I asked her, annoyed. Jake would undoubtedly get blamed for that one too even if it was Alexandra's fault.

"You know what, I'm so over this. I quit," she grabbed her purse and clocked out.

"Wait, come on-" I began, anger slipping, as she stalked to the door.

She stopped, hand on the door, and turned back. "Look, I have a private life that you don't need to know about. You all seem to think that I'll open up if you gently, or not so gently in your case, prod with questions but guess what: I'm not and I'm gone," she stalked out the door.

It occurred to me that the last bit probably hadn't been meant just for me.

I sighed and sat down on the stool, pulling out a pad of paper. I jotted down for Paul that Alexandra had quit and then popped in Finding Nemo for Aidan. It wasn't like he understood what was going on in the movie anyway but I figured he'd keep still for a little bit.

The store remained empty until the door finally opened at 5:15. Jake ambled in, looking tired. "Finally." I grumbled, standing.

Aidan reached out to Jake at the sight of him and Jake took him, mumbling, "Hey buddy," and then dodged the finger that Aidan tried to jam in his eye.

"The diaper bag's at your feet." I told him, shutting off the movie. "You owe me." I growled at him.

"Yeah." Jake grunted, leaning over to grab the back. "So where's the girl?" he asked as he straightened back up.

"What girl?" I asked.

"The blond… Adam told me about her, said she worked here, I've been meaning to ask you about her. He said she was unbelievably hot," he replied, hoisting Aidan up higher on his hip.

"She just quit." I answered flatly.

"Damn," he muttered, looking disappointed. "They always take off right before I get here."

"That's just your luck, huh?" I smirked in reply. He mimicked me back. "But… sweetie, that means we can continue our relationship." I said sweetly.

"I know, honey, I was just teasing you," he sang back as he backed up into the door. "Oh by the way, we're out of groceries, so we're going to need to go out tomorrow."

"We just went!" I shot back, annoyed.

"That was then. This is now," he answered solemnly, pushing open the door. "Later, dude."

"Bye." I replied, popping in a new release to amuse myself since I didn't have my books with me.

I unlocked and then opened the apartment door. Jake was on the couch, asleep, Aidan in his lap, watching TV with rapt attention. He grinned at the sight of me and waved. "Hey buddy." I smiled back.

That woke Jake, who jerked and picked up his head, smacking his lips together sleepily. "Hey dude," he said thickly.

"Working hard, I see." I said sarcastically.

"Up! Up! Up!" Aidan yelled, lifting his arms up to me. I picked him up and he grinned at me.

"Yeah well… I was just taking a quick power nap." Jake shot back with a smirk, eyes on the TV.

"Luckily he didn't get off your lap and go stick his hand in an outlet." I answered dryly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grunted back and then looked up at me. "Would you watch him?" he whined.

"No, dude, I watched him all day." I replied, setting Aidan back down on his lap.

"He's been terrorizing me." Jake whined.

"He terrorizes everyone, Jake, that isn't news." I replied breezily as I walked into our room. "I need to study." I tossed over my shoulder before shutting the door of our room.

I grabbed my books with a sigh and opened them. For the first time that day, I had a free moment, and my thoughts immediately went to… Christine. I sighed, staring across the room at Jake's Bob Marley poster, and recalled the morning events. I still couldn't believe that it was over before it had started.

I shook my head, pushing away all thoughts of her, and opened my books. I knew that Ana ran from her problems, it was one of her faults, but I just avoided thinking about them. Usually they either got resolved eventually or they just went away.

But I couldn't get Christine out of my head.

My phone went off, jarring me. I dove for it, hoping wildly that it was her. Ana. "Hello." I answered, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Don't sound so excited." Ana shot back, sounding a little surprised. Apparently I hadn't tried hard enough.

"Yeah well…" I began and then trailed off, shrugging even though she obviously couldn't see it.

"What's wrong?" she asked, changing from surprise to concern.

"A lot." I answered vaguely.

"More stuff with Cassie?" she asked sympathetically.

"No. I got dumped." I answered.

"By who? You were dating someone?" she demanded, sounding surprised again.

"Well yeah basically… Christine and I-" I began.

"Wait, Christine? I thought that was Ben's girlfriend." Ana interrupted.

"They broke up." I answered.

"Oh," she answered. "Is she still acting like a crazy bitch?" she asked bluntly.

"Anastasia." I barked.

"No need to use my full name, Erik, I just remember last time we discussed her, she was a crazy bitch." Ana replied testily. She hates being called her full name, which is why I only use it when I'm pissed off at her.

"She's not a crazy bitch." I snapped back.

"All right… chill…" she soothed quietly. "I'm sorry. Yes, Christine, what about her?"

I wasn't one to hang on to personal shit so I just ignored it and moved on. "Well we've been seeing each other a lot lately and we finally decided we were a couple," she muttered something of a okay so I went on with, "But her dad doesn't like me and…" I balked at what I had to tell her but went on anyway, "He kinda found me in her bed this morning and-"

"WHAT?" she shouted. "ERIK!"

"Don't have a hissy fit, nothing happened!" I shot back.

"Yeah, try again, buddy, you were in her freaking bed-" she retorted.

"We fell asleep after…" I squirmed. "After making out-" ugh, I couldn't believe I had just said that to my SISTER.

"Ewwwww!" she yelped, clearly not thrilled with the admission either.

"Look, I didn't nail her, okay? It was relatively innocent!" I shot back at her, getting up with a sudden burst of energy. "Well her dad reacted like you did when he found me in her bed and threw me out of the house… she broke up with me this afternoon." I began absent mindedly cleaning my room.

There was a pause and then she asked kindly, "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." I replied gruffly.

The door flew open. I jumped up, dirty shirt in my hand, feeling like I'd been caught in the act. Jake was standing there, Aidan in his arms. He looked at me and then demanded, "Are you CLEANING?" looking aghast at the concept.

"You're CLEANING?" Ana shouted on the phone.

"I got bored!" I exclaimed.

"Take him." Jake dumped Aidan into my arms and then left the room before I could get out a protest.

"You're cleaning." Ana repeated, sounding like the word was foreign to her.

"Yeah well I had a lot of energy and…" I shrugged again, forgetting again that she still couldn't see me. Aidan squirmed in my arms so I set him down on the floor, crossing the room to shut the door so that he wouldn't get out and the guys wouldn't eavesdrop on my conversation.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" she asked me.

"Well I was studying before you called." I shot back, watching Aidan toddle around my room. I slid off the bed and down on the floor. He grinned at the sight of me so reachable, bounced over, and threw himself down into my lap. I grunted and then said, "Hey buddy."

"Who are you talking to?" Ana asked curiously.

"Aidan." I replied.

"Awww!" she cooed, she thinks Aidan's adorable.

"You're going to be quite the lady killer when you grow up." I told him solemnly. He nodded, even though I'm sure he had no idea what I'd said.

"He definitely will be." Ana cooed.

"How are things with Andrew?" I asked, tired of talking about myself. I grunted as Aidan slid off of me and went back to toddling around the room.

"Fine," she answered, sounding like she meant it. "Izzy continues to be herself…"

"Meaning crazy?" I asked wryly.

"Indeed," she agreed.

"Who's the new boyfriend?" I asked, well aware of the fact that Isabella went through boys like water.

"His name is Kevin," she spat out his name.

"I gather you're less then fond of him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's an asshole," she answered, sounding annoyed. "You know Izzy's shitty taste in guys."

"Yeah… though the last one seemed all right." I replied seriously.

"Did you meet him?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"At the mall, randomly." I replied. "You were with Andrew."

"Oh," she replied.

Aidan picked up one of my dirty t-shirts and offered it to me seriously. "Thanks, buddy." I took it from him and tossed it on top of the already overflowing hamper.

"What did he do?" she asked.

"He handed me one of my dirty shirts." I replied.

"Eww, he's in your room?" she demanded, sounding grossed out. "Get him out of there, it's probably not sanitary!"

"You've never been in my room!" I shot back.

"Um hello, I've been in your kitchen and living room with the designated stacks of dirty dishes," she shot back. "I can only imagine what your room looks like."

"Shut up." I grumbled back.