#sorry this is a ramble i’m just throwing ideas into the void to see what sticks

[anachronistic-falsehood]

OK i still don’t think it’s a DID situation going on here with qcellbit and fcell (at least i hope it’s not) but i am thinking. maybe it’s a sleeper agent kinda thing. winter soldier type beat yk??? and if it IS then IMAGINE THE IMPLICATIONS of the federation doing this to him and having control over when he acts that way i’m going to go feral

[delightfuldevin]

Can I bother you for any lore on your Mario S/I? Does he have any In-Universe backstory or does it all stem from White Void?

SCREAMING AND THROWING MORE HEART EMOJIS AT YOU

Ahem sorry anyway

My S/I entered the Mario universe at around age 8, so his backstory there starts at that time!! My first game in the series was Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, but at the time, I didn’t follow the game too well cause my cousin owned it and I only got to play it when I saw her so I lost a lot of the information. Then she lost the game before I could beat it ;^; By the time I got the game for myself 4 or so years later, all I remembered was a vague memory of the part of the game that takes place in the forest. So, this translates as my S/I having entered the world through the forest and meeting Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser while they were in the middle of a “Bowser kidnapped the princess” moment.

I’ll put the rest of this under a cut cause it did get a lil long jdbdvkjgvhgvg

So I, being the goody two shoes I was, did not like villains at all as a kid and Bowser was no exception. As a matter of fact, for the first year or so, I didn’t even remember his name most of the time hcbxjcbsj. Whenever I did remember it, I thought it was “Browser”. I stuck to the bros and Peach like glue and just sorta ignored him entirely.

However, as I started to play more games in the series, he started sticking out to me more. I thought his final boss fights were really cool in the New series. I thought his lines were fun and goofy in the games with dialogue, and I enjoyed his almost tsundere personality in the rpgs. Learning about the existence of the Koopalings made me like him more too cause him being a dad just made him so endearing to me. The Koopalings were actually my first comfort characters before I knew what that was.

(Fun fact: My very first S/I was actually the Koopalings’ sibling! I liked the idea of them being my siblings and hanging out together. However, despite me seeing them as Bowser’s kids, I never saw Bowser as my dad and it actually made me uncomfortable for some reason. What led me to realize I liked Bowser romantically was that as I got older, I started seeing the Koopalings as my kids and I thought “well what does that make Bowser to me?” I thought about it long and hard and realized I had a crush on him djbcsjbcs)

So in terms of my S/I, I imagine that Bowser had a crush on me from the start and all the times I was ignoring him in the past, he was doing these things to try to get my attention. He would take any opportunity to show off his power, he would say whatever came to mind just to make me laugh. When my S/I met the Koopalings and befriended them, they played matchmaker to get us together (King Boo was a big player in that too).

In terms of his abilities, he obtained manipulation over lightning from the Lord of Lightning, the dragon from Super Mario Odyssey! It was an accident that almost killed him, but he was revived by a 1-up mushroom and when he woke up, he realized he had control over lightning. He was in his late teens (17-18 ish) when the accident happened. There’s a whole one shot for this I haven’t posted yet,, That’s also where the demi-dragon form comes in! Because his powers came from a dragon, he sorta becomes one himself by proxy when he uses them!

He’s always had the ability to conjure fireballs and his whole glowing/catching on fire thing since he first arrived to this world. It’s kinda a jokey/silly reason for why, but it’s because irl I used to be compared to the sun when I smiled as a kid so I thought “haha what if my S/I is part Shine Sprite” and then cause I have depression I compared that to the Angry Sun from Super Mario Bros 3 so yeah jdbcjsbcsjhcb. I’m not sure if he actually is part Shine Sprite or not. It’s just fun to think about sometimes.

So anyway, that’s it for the main stuff! I didn’t include how I met Rosalina and King Boo cause I wasn’t sure where that would fit in this lil ramble? Also, I know you mainly asked about my S/I’s story, but I don’t know how to talk about it without talking about my ships too fhbfjxhfgch

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ENABLING ME I AM STILL THROWING HEART EMOJIS AT YOU

[thebibliosphere]

So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!

I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.

I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.

I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.

There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.

Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)

So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.

When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After. 

But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.

And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)

There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.

I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.

Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.

(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)

And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.

“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”

Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.

Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting. 

To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom. 

Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man. 

Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms... 

If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.

This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful. 

----

*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.

** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.

*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual. 

[illicitlimerence-writes]

close friends | t. holland

pairing: tom holland x fem!reader word count: 3.1k warnings: some language, some angst if u squint. otherwise it's just fluff and tom being tom. didn't proofread this. a/n: so tumblr decided to be a little bitch and deleted this t w i c e. so i had to write this t h r e e times. this came up in my head after i got like three notifications that tom posted something on his ig story, and then it turned out he deleted them. as always, english isn't my first language so i'm sorry if this gets confusing bye. also, i was listening to cardigan by taylor swift as i wrote this.

my masterlist

so we all know tom sucks at instagram. that's a surprise to literally no one. no matter how many times you tried to teach him he still doesn't get it, and it was only a matter of time before he finally posted something he shouldn't have.

it was just one of those days, you missed him like hell. he was away filming the third spiderman, and you had to stay behind because of work.

naturally, you relied on face time and texts to survive and fill the void he left behind. you loved talking to him, listening as he rambled on and on about his adventures on set. a love-struck look on your face as you tried your hardest to stay awake despite the urge to close your eyes.

eventually, sleep took over you, and you drifted off with the sound of his voice lulling you to sleep. he stopped talking abruptly when he didn't hear your soft chuckling in reply to the story he was telling.

instead, he saw your sleeping figure, long steady breaths moving your chest up and down. and he cursed himself for making you stay up so late for him. he took one last look at you, taking a screenshot of your sleeping form.

he quickly hung up the video call and opened instagram instead, uploading the screenshot to his story,

'missing my favorite girl, thank you so much for everything you do for me. x @yourusername'

the next morning you woke up to the sound of your phone buzzing. at first, thought someone had died as one notification after another filled your screen. most of them came from instagram, so you opened that app first.

thousands upon thousands of mentions, tags and new followers. you frowned, and suddenly a text from your friend popped up at the top of your screen.

'omg just saw his story. so happy for u both'

who's story? what was going on?

you refreshed your timeline, and tom's icon appeared, a colorful circle around it. an odd feeling sank in your stomach. you tapped his icon and suddenly your screen was full of... you.

a picture of you, sleeping. tom's smiling form in a small rectangle on the bottom right corner.

oh god. you read the words he wrote, over and over again. your heart pounding in your chest, and a sudden wave of fear ran through your body. but then you read his words once more, and all you could feel was love. pure, unconditional affection.

sure, your families and closest friends knew about you, but you hadn't talked about making your relationship public yet, but there was nothing you could do now.

you sighed, leaning back on your pillows. a small chuckle left your throat.

you grabbed your phone once again, quickly facetiming tom. you knew he had an early call today, and you hoped you could catch him while he was still in his hotel.

it ran once, twice, and then you saw him, hair all over the place, bare chest. hands rubbing sleep off of his face.

"mornin', darling." he said, his raspy morning voice making you smile.

"hi, baby. did i wake you?" you asked, sitting up and crossing your legs.

"yeah but it's fine, princess. i did keep you up last night so it's only fair."

"i'm sorry about falling asleep on you, that was a really nice picture you took last night," you lifted one eyebrow, and watched as he smiled at you sheepishly.

"i thought you looked really pretty, you always look pretty," he said, grabbing the water bottle on his nightstand and taking a swing.

"thanks, i hope the whole world thinks so, too," you declared. leaning your chin on your fist, watching him expectantly.

he did not react like you had expected him to.

his breath hitched as he sipped his water, and suddenly all you could see was the cream-colored ceiling, as you heard him spitting out and coughing.

"tom! oh, my god! are you okay?" you asked, getting on your knees and holding your phone up to your face, "tommy?" you repeated when he finally stopped coughing, you could now hear his heavy breaths.

at last, you saw his curls appear from the bottom of the screen.

"wh-what did you just say?" his voice was rough, his chest heaving.

"are you okay?" you asked again.

"ye-yeah i'm fine. babe, what did you mean by 'the whole world'? did something happen?" he asked, frowning. you echoed his expression, watching him for a second.

“you posted a picture to your story,” you repeated, and he nodded.

“yeah, i posted it to my close friends, i-” he stopped mid-sentence, eyes growing comically wide. “oh shit, did i-” he caught himself off as he threw the phone to one side, you heard him fumbling around for his laptop and you snorted. “shit, baby, don’t tell me i posted it… fuck!” you couldn’t keep it in any longer, you broke out laughing.

“of course this is how the world finds out about us!” you continued giggling until your stomach hurt.

“fuck, princess i’m so sorry, i didn’t mean to, i swear i- why are you laughing!?”

“tommy, tommy! it’s okay, baby, don’t worry. i’m not mad,” you stopped once you noticed his pouting. “it’s fine, my love, i don’t mind. sure it’s unexpected, and a little sudden but i wouldn’t have it any other way. i knew what i was getting into when we started dating,” you told him honestly, wishing you were there to give him a hug and kiss him all over.

“darling, i’m really, really sorry. i swear i thought i tapped the green button like you told me to” he continued his sulking, nervous eyes glancing back and forth from his laptop screen to you.

“i know, baby, i know this is not your forte, and i really appreciate the sweet gesture, honestly. i love you so much,” you told him as you bit your lip. folding your legs to your chest, wrapping one around them.

“god, i love you. i swear i’ll make it up to you,” he ran his hand through his hair, giving you a quick peek of his bare chest.

“i’ll hold you to it,” you chuckled, you glanced to the clock on your nightstand, sighing when you saw the time. “i’ve gotta go,” you said as you stood up and stretched. a wicked idea ran through you head. “i’ve got like five meetings today, so i’ll probably be busy most of the day. just in case i don’t reply or something,” you made up you lie quickly. grabbing your laptop and opening a new tab.

“oh, okay. i’ll be on set until like 1 am, so we’ll talk tomorrow?” he asked, eyes bright. you nodded, biting your lip.

“definitely. i love you,” you blew him a kiss. he smiled, and you felt your heart swelling.

“i love you, too. good luck today!” he said as you reluctantly hung up the call.

you immediately got to work, calling your assistant and telling her you were taking a few personal weeks, and to email you in case of emergencies. next, you texted harry, asking him to call you once tom was busy on set.

you waited for the page to load, and once you had bought your one-way ticket to atlanta you hurriedly threw some pre-planned outfits into two suitcases, just in case. your phone rang and harry’s face popped up on your screen. you quickly answered the call, and let him know of your out-of-the-blue plan. he agreed to meet you at the airport and drive you to set. and because of your recent and sudden rise to fame, he suggested you wear all black and a cap. you followed his advice, throwing on some sunglasses as well, as you had seen tom do many times before.

once you reached the airport and checked-in, you bought some coffee and breakfast, as well as some food for the flight. you opened instagram, seeing all the messages and comments. you had seen how the fans reacted when their favorite celebrities announced a relationship, and you knew to expect the meanest comments, and even death threats. for your own sake and peace of mind, you allowed yourself to scroll until you read three of those, and closed the app.

once the plane took off, you tried to catch some sleep, preparing for the inevitable jet lag, but your mind kept buzzing from one scenario to another. so you took out your book and tried to read some chapters, putting in your earbuds, music playing quietly.

when you finally, finally landed, you stretched your legs and grabbed your bags, putting on the cap and sunglasses again, you spotted a familiar head of wild curls. you quickly approached harry.

“what happened to all black and a cap to go unnoticed?” you asked as he took one of your bags in his hands.

“think about it, two kids wearing black, a cap and sunglasses? people would think we’re up to no good.” he gave you a tight hug, you’d missed him almost as much as you’d missed tom.

he caught you up on everything he and tom had been doing these past months, you shifted in your seat in excitement, the sleep that was slowly taking over you on the plane had now disappeared from your body.

in what was probably a 15 -but to you felt like five- minute drive, you got to the hotel to leave your bags and take a quick shower. harry left you alone in tom’s room, making his way to his own room next door. he said he’d order something for you to eat whilst you got ready to see tom.

you took the quickest shower ever known to humankind, and when you walked out of the bathroom after using tom’s shampoo and conditioner, -you’d missed his smell all over you. the few forgotten hoodies and shirts that were once drenched in the smell of his soap and cologne, were now very faint.- you wrapped a bathrobe around your body, rummaging through tom’s clothes until you found one of his shirts.

you pulled it close to your face, sighing at the familiar scent you’d missed so much. you got dressed quickly, grabbing your now fully-charged phone and the key to tom’s room that harry had left on a coffee table. you knocked on harry’s door and he let you in.

“i just texted tom, he says they’ve got like three hours left.” you sat next to him on the couch, the table in front of you filled with food waiting to be devoured.

“my poor baby, they overwork him,” you pouted, reaching for one of the plates.

“it was his idea, said he’ll do anything that helps finish filming sooner.” you stopped chewing your food.

“wait, really?” you asked in disbelief, you knew tom loved his job, and you found it odd that he wanted to cut his time on set short.

“yeah, it’s been rough for him. not having you around, i mean, after he spent months with you. he’s been pretty distracted lately. messing up lines, he’s been waking up late and missing early calls...” your heart sank at the words. you ate the rest of your food with a knot in your stomach, cursing yourself for not getting there sooner. soon enough, you were back in the car, your leg bouncing up and down. you fell asleep on your way to set, waking up when harry parked the car and nudged your shoulder.

you stepped out carefully, your head turning back every few steps you took, in fear that tom might catch you. once you reached the stage where tom was filming, you flashed the visitor badge harry had given you to the guard and he let you both in. you walked in as you leaned down, your forehead against harry’s back, shielding you from the curious stares. harry told you to hide behind a giant box where they kept some lights whilst he spoke to the director.

although the box was big and tall enough to cover you completely, you crouched down, straining your ears for nearing footsteps. you heard two sets of feet approaching, your heartbeat racing.

you were met with your accomplice, a friendly-looking man behind him. you stood up as they approached you.

“this the girl?” the man asked, and harry nodded, “nice to meetcha, i’m jon.” you shook his hand, “okay, so we’ve cleared tom’s schedule for one week, we’ll need him back fully recharged and ready to work like it’s his first day on set, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like, if it means he’ll work better if you’re here you can stay until we're done. i really don’t mind, i just need my guy back.” you blinked at his words, nodding slowly. “we’ve got a couple hours left tonight, i’m all up for some cheesy reunion, but it’ll have to be when we’re finished, i can barely keep him focused as it is.”

with that he left, and harry led you to tom’s trailer, where you caught some sleep while you waited. like that morning, you woke up to your phone buzzing. you reached for it, sleep leaving your body as you read the text.

‘just finished filming for the night, i’m exhausted. miss u, love you. x.’

all rational thoughts left your head, you opened the door to tom’s trailer and sprinted out of there until you reached the set. your eyes finally, finally met his figure, and tears filled your eyes.

your legs moved on their own accord, you mumbled apologies as you crashed into people, but you didn’t care. tom had his back to you, and even though he wasn’t wearing the spiderman costume, you’d recognize that ass anywhere.

“tom!” you called out, stopping a few feet away from him. you saw him whipping his head around, eyes scanning the sea of people. you made your way up to him, “tommy!” you repeated, and he finally turned around.

his mouth wide opened in disbelief, arms twitching, feet running towards you as you did the same. you crashed into each other, your legs wrapping around him, arms around his neck, fingers curling on his soft hair. his hands running all over your back, your hair. pulling you as close as humanly possible.

whispers of ‘i love you’, ‘god, i missed you’, ‘never leave me again’, and ‘i promise’ were exchanged. you tightened your hold on his hair, pulling back to look at him.

“hi,” you whispered, your nose brushing his.

“hey,” he replied, burying his face on your neck again, pressing small kisses anywhere he could reach. his hands settled on the back of your thighs as he spun you two. you giggled, sniffling as a few tears escaped your eyes.

you could not care less about the people around you, all you could think about was the boy wrapped all over you, your favorite boy. tom led you back to his trailer, where you finally untangled yourself from him. he settled you down and you immediately wrapped your arms around his waist, pulling him close to you again.

you had been starved of his touch for so long, there was no way you were letting him go anytime soon.

after many kisses, touches, tears, promises and more kisses, you left for the hotel. harry had already left, getting a ride from another cast member to leave you two alone. at that moment you swore you’d make him godfather of your firstborn child.

as you waited for tom to step out of the shower -you would’ve joined him, but three showers in a day seemed kind of excessive-, you laid down on the bed, throwing the covers over your body, tom's scent engulfing you. you breathed in happily. you tapped on your phone, replying to some work emails when you received a text from harry.

‘i believe the ball is in your court. you’re welcome.’

next, you received a picture of you and tom. harry must’ve taken the picture when you and tom were too lost in each other to even notice anyone around you. in the picture, your legs are around tom, bodies pressed closed together, your noses touching as you stare lovingly into each other’s eyes. it was a beautiful picture. and the black and white filter harry had applied to it made it seem like one of those old pictures of wives reuniting with their spouses after the war.

you smiled, heart swelling with emotion as you contemplated your options. you hummed quietly, tapping the instagram logo and waiting for the app to load.

you quickly uploaded the picture harry sent you tagging both him and tom and adding a quick caption before you shut down your phone. you were drifting off to sleep when you felt familiar arms around you.

you leaned into tom’s touch, your back resting against his chest, legs tangling with his as he interlocked his fingers with your own.

“thank you so much for being here, my love. i love you,” tom whispered into your ear, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

“i’ll be here whenever you need me. i’ll always come back to you.” you turned around, facing him. you kissed the corner of his lips, and he cupped your cheek, his lips meeting yours in a slow kiss, filled with emotion. your fingers played with his fingers as you moved to straddle his waist. “i love you,” you broke the kiss reluctantly. as much as you both wanted to make love that night, you’d made it your top priority that tom took his time off to rest as much as he could, and that included that first night.

you gave him one last kiss, going back to your previous position. the familiar and comfortable weight of his arms around you, the feeling of his lips on your neck, his chest rising and falling against your back, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

the peaceful environment you had created suddenly burst like a bubble as tom’s phone pinged over and over again. you heard him grunting, arms reluctantly leaving you.

tom chuckled, putting his phone on do-not-disturb and throwing it somewhere on the bed.

“you’re perfect for me, my favorite girl.” you smiled, leaning into his touch as he kissed you all over. sleep quickly taking over both of you.

tom swore his heart stopped when he’d seen the picture you posted. you’d never looked more beautiful than when you were staring up at him, your bottom lip between your teeth. the words you wrote as a caption were the last thing on his brain as he finally succumbed to sleep.

‘i said, “i bet you can’t keep this a secret for five months.” he said, “darling, i won’t make it past three.” @ tomholland2013 it’s been 10 months, who won?’

edit: i just saw henry cavill's ig post and omg what is my life. pls respect celebrities' privacy and relationships.

[muffindaddystyles]

Keep holding my hand.

Harry was in an emotionally abusive relationship before y/n, something happens that makes his insecurities float back.

Impetuous reel of dithery thoughts rapidly bustles on the wall, Harry stares at it blankly – he stares and stares and stares ..... yet it does nothing for what he wishes.

His stomach fills with acid and his mouth burns with foulness with each painful beat his heart gives realizing maybe this's the end ---- he doesn’t spare a glance to the dinner wafting off he cooked with much happiness looking forward to tonight.

Where did I went wrong?

Did I hurt her in any way? What if she didn’t like me popping up at her studio that day to remind her of tonight

Well Keat didn’t like it ..... She used to hate it Infact,

No! She’s not like keat —--

But, then why isn’t she picking your phone? She knew, promised and she still didn’t came tonight?

What if she’s sick? Fuck, then I should go to her.

He shuts his screaming conscience down, shoving the heels of his palm against his pop-sockets wearily to make him feel something --- to escape the hurt that’s looming around him, crushing and squeezing him to death.

He blows off the candles, melted to their base from being sorrowfully lit from three hours atleast --- mocking him and his sincerity.

You deserve this.

Why did y’think ye' deserved anybody’s love?

She doesn’t love you anymore --- just like keat....

The corners of his glossy eyes prickles with pearly tears and it drops down his clavicles, with blurry vision he dials her one last time and it goes straight to her voicemail alike past three hours.

Hiya, Y/N here! Leave a message ‘cos I mighty be busy or maybe lazyin' round the farthest corner of my home .......

He tosses and turns, does it manifold times --- his sleep betrays him too and he’s angry soaring with venom, if he could scream from a cliff and throw stones down the pound furiously he'd instead his eyes runs droopy.

His shuddering breath sulks to tranquillity, all he could hear’s a screech of wind that’s hitting the window and his guts.

His body jerks at the chirp of voice he’s oh so familiar with —- other days he'd be submerging in the honeyness of it but at the moment he bites down his wrist to keep him wrenching his empty stomach out.

“Happy anniversary, bub!” His brows clinches down into a grumblish frown and he presses his hand between his thighs turning his back upon hearing the careful steps treading in.

The creaking stalls and she stands at his doorway with heavy heart, her throat —-- uff her throat feels like as if someone punched it several times.

Not letting her tongue to utter any word —- anything that’d assure him and her, everything’s alright --- it’s not a big deal.

Ofcourse, it is!

Little things matters most to him – told you —- he .. — he told you himself and you hurt him, you hurt him just because you couldn’t stand to your boss.

She wanted it to be perfect for him, for them — winded up the work her boss hoarded on her mercilessly last minute demanding her to wrap it up in an hour --- felt giddy and motivated to do it speedily looking forward to their celebration. Bought his favourite chocolate moose cake standing in the line of his favourite bakery, since he doesn’t like any other flavour.

She stands at the side bed looking down at him, heartbreaking in million pieces seeing him torn, all teary cheeks and this stoic for the first time they’ve been dating.

“’M sorry -- I –- my boss trapped me and – ‘n I really wanted to call you —-- then it took me forever at your favourite bakery, I’m so sorry baby.” She rambles nebbish-ly and catches onto his shoulder when he tries to face away from her.

He mutters, “Forget bout it. Go back home ‘s getting late.” Though, his heart lurches forward to embrace her and shower her in kisses telling her “it’s totally fine.” And that “how bout we celebrate now,” but being an emotionally sensitive person has it's very cons and one of it is requiring space and time to recover for better thinking.

His eyes slips into abyss and he holds back a sniffle when he feels the mattress dip behind him, she sighs, coos in the softest voice she only keeps it for her lover, “Oh baby .... you’re my home.” She's well aware of the anxiety he goes through. He feels like everything crumbling but she's there to catch him and she rubs his back.

The many many reassurances he needs from his lovie to keep going for them, the praises for him for treating her like the most precious daffodil —- because he never got praised before; even though how much of the world’s luxuries he'd lay at his ex's feet was never assured that how much she loves him (because she never did).

Y/N would never want his insecurities to float back and sting his scars, she'd never want him to ever go through from what he did in past —-- to be used like a toy and manipulated, might sound weird and whumpy of her but she’d kill many dragons to keep him protected at any cost.

He sleeps with her body cocooning him from behind and his erratic breath syncs to her calm ones.

..

His dreams full of suffering, void and darkness violently clashing and swirling against eachother as the ugly creature takes Y/N away from him, leaving him in prison of his own pathetic head.

Fear of loss —- he fears loosing her and does it make him toxic? He was snubbed so many times – being told his behaviour was toxic that he’d hesitate before doing anything precisely very fondly caring —- but then Y/N came in his life and she'd tell him how much she appreciates him, how he’s like the best sundae in hot summer and he felt like she’s the sunshine he was waiting for in the never-ending rainy days.

Y/N stirs from her light sleep on hearing the broken whimpers, the valley of her chest moist as he cries into her and she cups his cheeks gazing down at him concerned, “What happened sunny .... baby talk to me ...” Her voice groggy and on verge of tearing.

She sits back a little with him still between her legs and wipes his tears away gently, “I’m so sorry ...” He mumbles –-- eyes bloodshot and she shakes her head pulling him closer, if she’d be able to cradle him in his lap she'd but apparently he’s too big.

Queasy hiccups, “f – fo'--... d —- dou...” sad sniffles and hiccups that tightens his chest.

She tenders his wobbly lip kissing his temple, “shhh. shhh, puppy I should be the one apologising yeah?”

“no .. I didn’t gave another thought before doubting --- that –-- that you’re about to leave, no person in right mind does this – I —-,” His body trembles with blue sobs.

“Harry ...” she tries to gain his attention and when he still doesn’t listen, “I know I don’t deserve y'n – ‘n maybe you don’t want me anymore —--” she raises it a bit, “Harry!” he falls quiet --- nibbling the corner of his cheek to hold back hiccups.

“Look at me puppy, yeah? Shh hold my hand and take a breather.” She smiles. Takes his sweaty hand and aligns his palm to her mouth for a deep kiss – then squeezes it.

“Keep holding it baby, keep holding my hand, you’re going to be fine --- we – see us here,” she points between them with gleamy eyes and he nods timidly wiping his nose with his sweater paw, “we are fine baby –- we are okay..”

How could someone be this dreamy? This gentle and sweet? What did I do to deserve my lovie?

“Better?” She inquires. Little worried that he'll fall back into rabbit hole and tucks his head under her chin, keeping him warm against her chest and he clutches the hem of her shirt nuzzling into her.

“Did you really think, I’d leave you and that on our first year anniversary? Sorry to tell you .... ‘m stitched to your hip for life time, there’s no exchange policy puppy how much you grump.”

She grins. Happy to earn a feeble chuckle from him and scratches his head, looping his curls around her fingers.

“I love you.” She startles when he speaks hoarsely after the longest time and it’s not like he's saying it for the first –-- but it still doesn’t fail to engulf her in warmth, so much of it.

“I love you too, you’re my only puppy and very loved one.” His eyes crinkles prettily at that and she kisses the tip of his nose.

“You want to rest? We could eat the dinner you dearly made for me and oh we got moose cake in fridge too, what a coincidence!” She giggles. The room fills with wet treacly noises of smoochy kisses she’s patching on his cheeks and his jaw.

Without a word he holds her finger and leads her to kitchen, she creates proud noises of “ooh!” and “ahh!” trying to sneak a glimpse from over his shoulder but he'd shoo her away as he heats the food; she gets out gorgeous smiles from him she cherishes so much.

“You did all of this for me?” She gasps sweetly, hand over heart to accentuate the love she's feeling and walks towards him when he nods timidly rubbing his socks feetsies one over the other.

His cheeks blazes peach and she giggles pinching them, “You’re so cute aren’t you?”

“Okay then. Let’s eat!” she claps her hands together and pecks his lips before pulling her chair beside him rather than opposite to him and his heart flutters at that --- each pore oozing with deep love for her and every insecurity and anxious ideas completely drains out of him when she pats his seat and wiggles in her own --- anticipated to taste what he made.

“Hmm. This tastes so good, H! Your hands are really magical, huh?” She passes him a smirk pecking each of his knuckle to make him feel better about himself and his lips quirks up softly, “Thank you – d’ya w'na umm eat the moose here o'in bed?” Her face beams at that, him speaking more than two words and looking forward to spend the night with her.

“On bed, please –-- would you like tea? Think ‘m running out of if —- proper jello ....” She cleans the table and raises her brows when he gazes her adorningly as she’s the nymphs of stary oceans.

He shakes his head, nose twitchy as she nudges him teasingly and he takes her off-guard --- hugging her by waist and kisses her soft tummy.

“Nothing just love you bleedin’ much.”

..

[fktonofwhatnow]

ok hold on. acomaf is my fave book out of the whole series (it's mostly out of emotional value, i read it when i was younger and didn't have a real understanding out trauma and abuse only that i saw a character i loved getting out of a bad situation and getting happy) so obviously i didn't mind feysand being endgame and the development all of the characters had. i can accept tamlin turned out like that is realistic due to his trauma, i can accept feyre had to flee because it wasn't right for her, but the thing is after acofs i see no point to feyre leaving tamlin when rhysand ends up doing everything they told us tamlin was evil and unredeemable for. hiding the risks of her pregnancy, putting on shields on her, having feyre need to compromise over it. i honestly felt so betrayed by that. i'm not saying feyre and tamlin were good for each other, but it doesn't feel worth it to dismiss the potential they had for what we got with feysand.

also, sarah learn to treat "ugly" trauma with respect challenge. no they don't need to learn to physically fight to fight it. no they don't need a love interest to overcome it. yes the behaviors acquired from trauma and abuse aren't pretty but that doesn't mean a person is undeserving of kindness and compassion.

i think i had a point somewhere but i can't get to it. so hope you don't mind my rambling. anyway i loved your meta about tamlin i think he deserves better too

HOLY SHIT THIS ONE IS SO GOOD OK IM SO EXCITED

Bro you are so fine, I'm the one who doesn't make any sense and I totally get what you're trying to say. (Acomaf was actually my favorite book in the series too ngl)

BUT FUCK YEAH LETS TALK ABOUT RHYSAND.

I don't think it's a secret that Rhysand is one of my least favorite characters in media, probably ever? (How do I even put this into words) He is a bad character and to me, laughably so. You know how if you've ever written a character, there's that little phase that's like "what if people don't like this character' and then you're sad for a little bit? That's how Rhysand feels to me. He feels like SJM looked at this character and thought "I can't stand the thought of people not liking this character because I love him so much" and then did everything in her power to make sure we know how great he is.

Idk if this is just me screaming into the void, but I get to this place with my characters where like, especially if they are a little more morally gray or their decisions have negative impacts, I understand that I don't need the audience to like my main character. they can stand on their own, they can own up to what they do and they can grow from it. Thats what a good character does. That's how you keep your audience rooting for them. You gotta knock them over sometimes.

SJm doesn't knock Rhysand over. She doesn't push him to make mistakes, apologize, own up and move on. Rhysand has never made a decision that ended poorly for him. Everything goes the way he wants it to, because SJm wants us to know how cool and great he is. People who are cool and great don't make bad decisions! SJm doesn't let Rhysand fail, and she doesn't let him suffer his own decisions. Everyone else suffers his decisions, not him.

Rhysand's reputation as a good person hinges entirely on the audience liking him and/or thinking he's hot. And then what happens when the audience thinks neither of those things? Ya get a rly long post like this by a lil enby who is mad all the time. Rhysand loses all credibility when you look at him through a critical lens. Not a single thing the man does makes any goddamn sense. Here I thought acosf would give us a different perspective on Feysand and I was desperately hoping that Nesta would tell us what she really sees in them and how people around them really feel, I hoped that SjM would throw us for a loop and tell us that hey, she does know that Feysand are fucking toxic as hell and ruin the lives of people around them and she wants to show us that from an outside perspective but noooOoOOOoOoOOOO...

Instead we get Nesta hating herself because Rhysand told her that she shouldn't tell Feyre that Feyre could uh die in childbirth. Hey what the fuck.

Now I don't actually ship feylin, I kinda always sorta knew, even without spoilers, that it wasn't going to work out. Tamlin isn't sjm's idea of a good partner because he's not charming and witty and dark and handsome ya know? We met Rhysand and I knew that I was going to fucking hate this romance. Which sucks because I found Rhysand so intriguing in the first book. Ngl all the time spent in the spring court was kinda boring and every time Rhysand showed up to throw dead faeries at Tamlin I was like "oooooo" and I wanted to know more about why Tamlin, this awkward, blunt and kinda shy dude had beef with this super duper sly and shady man from another court.

I don't know if I've ever said this before, but SJm doesn't let her love interests grow. Rhysand doesn't change over the course of the story because he was already a good guy and his motives were for Feyre's sake I swear, the same goes for Rowan in TOG. SJm doesn't give Rhysand room to change. She needs to get to the part where they fuck make sure everyone knows that Rhysand is a good guy and actually he was good all along so that we like him more than Tamlin. It backtracks on everything bad Rhysand has ever done because you know... He had a good reason! It's fine!

I know it's probably just because SJm doesn't actually know how to write a good character growth arc but... Like can you imagine if Rhysand stayed the bad guy? Or at least remained the bad guy through acotar and acomaf? And then when Rhysand comes to take Feyre for his bargain it really was only to spite Tamlin? What about Rhysand, taking Feyre to the night court with him once a week every month for a long time, if only to see Tamlin's eyes grow darker and emptier every time he goes, and then he really starts to fall in love with Feyre. He's been a monster all this time, angry and cold and cruel and then he actually starts to fall in love. And then to get Feyre to stay he really does try to change, he stops antagonizing Feyre, he stops throwing dead faeries at Tamlin, and he stops harassing the Spring court. He starts spending genuine quality time with Feyre, he starts to learn about her and all the things she likes and he stops trying to get her to come with him just so Tamlin will be mad. He starts asking her to come with him because he wants to be around her and he prays that someday she'll want to be around him too. What if SJm let him grow.

But nahhhhhh instead we have a character who always knows the right answer to things, and he always knows how to fix every issue, and he is always so innovative and outside the box except that he isn't. We get a character who does the same shit as Tamlin but it's ok because he had a good reason not to tell Feyre that she could very well die in childbirth. Uhhhh don't know what that is but uhhh I know he has his reasons because all he has are his reasons.

It would be so easy to hold a mirror up to Rhysand and say "look at this. Look who you are. Do you not look just like Tamlin right now?"

But nooooooooOoOOOo Rhysand doesn't get to be wrong. Rhysand doesn't get to look like Tamlin because Tamlin is evil and Rhysand is definitely NOT I SWEAR.

But yeah I think the point I'm trying to make is that Sarah thinks so highly of Rhysand that he could never do wrong. He could never be like Tamlin, despite the narrative literally telling us the exact opposite.

Like you said, we lost the potential of what feylin could have been if SJm didn't suddenly decide that her audience needs to love Rhysand as much as she does. I think feylin could have been slow and sweet and a story of true healing and learning about one another. I think it would have been kind and steady and lots of "are you ok"s and "I'm sorry"s and "talk to me"s. Everything about Feysand feels rushed and hard and fast and the rest of the world doesn't have time to catch up. It's fucking exhausting to read it ya know what I'm saying.

(also can we talk about Rhysand like dying and Feyre finding the suriel and learning he's her mate and then instead of being like "k let's put a pin in that and fuckin save his life first" she like throws him around and everyone is like "wtf woman" and she's like I neeD tO Be alOnE these people have no idea how to prioritize)

Truly, I think it's innocent to a degree. There is absolutely no harm in wanting people to like your character. The harm comes when you destroy another character with no reason or explanation other than you want people to like a different character. Villain arc? Completely out of left field. You gotta build to that shit or like... Make it so that when you look back you slap your forehead and yell at a wall "OF FUCKING COURSE I SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT"

anyways, SJm treat "ugly" trauma with respect challenge SECONDED.

WELL IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME WEEKS YO WRITE IM HAVING A HARD TIME I know it probably doesn't make any sense I can't find my braincells BUT thanks for the ask @xelly

Tell me all your acotar things I love yo hear them !!

[bluefirewrites]

Hc - Luke gets in trouble at school and forced to join the drama club latest production and try out , where he ends up getting the lead along with Julie (who they know of each other through there moms friendship. But the more they spend time together even outside school the more they fall for each other. And finally get together (sorry for the rambling sometimes have trouble writing what i want to say )

I had this whole response typed out before my computer crashed and it got lost in the void. 

I’m gonna mince some details just in case it happens again, but I love this concept. 

Luke’s a bad boy on campus. It’s hard to get him engaged in anything school-related, but the teachers just know that he’s got untapped potential, especially Ms. Harrison, the theater teacher. 

The band is on Luke’s mind all day every day. And he gets in trouble at school a lot because of it- borrowing the instruments from the music room for a quick jam session, pasting their gig posters over Carrie Wilson’s student body president ones, parking their band van in the teacher’s lot (it’s a lot closer!). 

But Luke’s latest scheme lands him in hot water with the principal. 

He thought it was a great idea to hijack lunchtime and turn it into an impromptu Sunset Curve concert. He and the boys hid on the stage over looking the cafeteria and they even bribed the sound tech to help them out. 

And in the middle of lunch, they burst through the curtains and started jamming out for everyone. 

And Luke may have gotten carried away. 

He may have jumped onto the nearest lunch table, treating it like his own personal runway, hopping and skipping over people’s lunches.

He may have miscalculated the space and so when he slid into a power stance, he may have spilled orange juice onto some poor girl’s homework.

He didn’t have time to apologize to the fuming girl before he’s up and running, inciting the now crowd of students into a riot with his music. 

Let’s just say that tables were tipped over, food was everywhere, and Principal Lessa was not happy. 

It was a success in Luke’s eyes. 

But then Lessa pulls him into the office and oddly enough, for Luke, Ms. Harrison is present. That’s where they give him the ultimatum: they suspend him and the boys for their little stunt, or they have to audition/ partake in Ms. Harrison’s spring musical. 

And Luke bawks at the idea. Because they’re a rock band! They don’t do show tunes!

But he takes the deal, mainly so his parents don’t get any more pissed at him. 

The boys all show up to auditions, and apart from Alex, the rest of them aren’t super into it. 

He sits down in the auditorium, waiting of his turn, when he notices the next person up for audition- Julie Molina.

He sorta knows her. Their moms are in book club together. When she auditions, Luke notices two things- 1) her voice is killer and 2) the script she’s holding is stained with orange juice. 

Whoops. 

She hops down the stage and catches his eye and she glares at him. And given the round of applause and Ms. Harrisons’s praise- Julie Molina seems to be the queen of the theater department. And Luke managed to have pissed her off. 

Great...

Then he goes up to audition, all ready to half-ass it because really doesn’t want to be a part of the play. So when it’s his turn, Luke doesn’t take it seriously- he purposefully flubs the words, he doesn’t act from the script- instead reciting a monologue from the Simpsons that made everyone, but Julie, laugh. 

Ms. Harrison only nods, and notifies him that the cast list would be put up at the end of the day. 

Luke, thinking he tanked it, doesn’t bother to stop in front of the cast list posted like everyone else does at the end of the school day. But when he tries to pass, everyone’s eyes are on him, including his friends’. 

“Um... Luke,” Alex says from his spot in front of the bulletin board, “You might wanna see this,” 

He pushes past the crowd until he can read the cast list. 

Oh no. 

He made the lead. 

Luke’s confused. He thought he put on the worst audition ever?

“Congratulations,” he hears from beside him and he sees Julie, arms crossed, not the least bit happy. 

And that’s when he reads the rest of the cast list- Julie’s the other lead. 

They’re going to be love interests. 

When it’s time for rehearsals, it’s an utter disaster. Luke’s never been in any production ever, so being part of a team, that’s not just him and the boys, is throwing him off. 

He can sing yeah- but he dancing? Acting? Not his forte. And Julie knows this, and gets so frustrated with him whenever they rehearse a scene together. 

But when it comes time to the duet- oddly enough, they sound great together. Amazing even. Luke wants to say that ever since hearing how their voices complimented each other’s, Julie eases up on him a little. 

Some weeks go by, and slowly but surely, Luke and the boys are warming up to theater culture. Alex, Reggie, and Bobby seem to be having a good time learning their parts and making new friends with the cast and crew, and pretty soon Luke and Julie form a tentative truce. 

One day, Luke closes his locker and gets spooked by Julie leaning beside him. 

“Hey,” 

“Hi?” They don’t talk during school. Only at rehearsal. So this is new. 

“How much of the songs have you memorized?” Okay, right down to it, Luke thinks. But it’s Julie- theater is her life. 

“All of them, don’t worry,” 

“And your lines?” 

“...” 

“I thought so. You called my character by Kayla’s character’s name. Do you even know what this play is about?” 

“Of course I do,” 

“We’ll see about that,” Julie then scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to him, “My place. After school. We will be running lines,” 

Luke starts going to Julie’s almost every other day to go through lines, and also because he needs all the help he can get when it comes to acting. 

Some days are good, others- well, are left to be desired, but Luke tries to get Julie to loosen up and he coaxes her into taking breaks and going out to eat during their one-on-one sessions. And he starts to find himself actually enjoying her company, and she with him- even if she’s reluctant to admit it. 

But over time, Luke starts to get a schedule down, now invested in the musical, he makes sure he gets to school on time, gets through his classes, rehearse, and days when he’s not rehearsing- he’s with Julie, working on their stuff. 

Luke’s mom notices a change in him, and even though it’s more music stuff that he seems to be getting up to, she doesn’t mind. And when Luke sees that his mom smiles every time he mentions that he’s off to see Julie, he knows their moms have definitely been talking to each other. 

When he would get to the Molina’s, he would pass Rose, greet her, and say that he’s going to be running lines with Julie. 

“Right,” 

“We are,” he insists, one time, after catching Rose smirking. 

“It’s just, I’ve been in theater myself when I was younger. I know what ‘running lines’ mean,” 

And to say that Luke shows up blushing to the garage where Julie was waiting was an understatement. 

But as much as Luke and Julie are killing it in their performances, there’s one part that trips Luke up. 

There’s a scene where their two characters confess their love for each other, following a group musical number, but Luke can’t get into it. 

He throws the script in frustration at the couch, “This is hopeless.”

“No, you’re doing good. It’s just missing something,” Julie says, pulling him closer to her, “You’re reading the lines. You’re not saying them,” 

“What does that mean?” 

“You need to channel the character. His thoughts and feelings in the moment, and you embody that. You show the audience that,” 

“So what do I need to do?” 

“You need to look like you’re in love with me, okay?” 

“Okay,” 

They run it a couple of times before they do it at rehearsal the next day. And after he and Julie go over their love confession, Luke inwardly curses himself because he couldn’t focus and he was worried he messed up in front of everyone during such an intimate scene. 

But once he concluded, Julie is looking up at him with an expression he’s never seen before, in surprised awe, and he could see a faint blush on her cheeks. And she ends up stammering into her part- something the Julie Molina never did. 

Everyone in the production applauds them- Reggie, Alex, and Bobby look at Luke, wide-eyed. 

Flynn comes up to them to show them the footage she captured of their rehearsal and Luke is stunned to see that his acting isn’t as terrible as he thought. In that moment, he really looked like he was in love with Julie as he said his lines. 

And then it hit him. 

The reason he couldn’t focus is because he had been too busy staring into Julie’s beautiful brown eyes, relishing the touch of her warm hand in his- and he didn’t even try to act, he said the lines as he normally would if he was talking. 

He didn’t look like he was in love with Julie. 

He was in love with Julie. 

It gets awkward between them since then, and they haven’t been able to recapture that same spark as their previous performance. And now that they have gotten their parts down, there’s no need for Luke to keep visiting Julie any more, and they only see each other at rehearsals. 

And then it comes- opening night. 

They run through it without a hitch earlier before and everyone’s all excited for how it’s gonna play out. 

Luke sees his parents out in the audience, chilling with the Molinas, and he stomachs his nerves before walking out and to perform. 

The production is successful, only minor mishaps occur (aka Reggie’s props keep falling apart, so he had to make due with invisible ones for the time being). 

And then it comes to the finale, the big scene. Luke goes in and delivers his lines, staring into Julie’s eyes and tries to channel the same feelings as before.

But when it’s Julie’s turn, she starts ad-libbing. She says her lines, but then she’s throwing in references that certainly aren’t relevant within the time period in which the musical takes place (”when you gave me your last strawberry for my frozen yogurt... I knew... I knew you were the one for me”), it makes the audience laugh but the heart was still there. 

Luke’s confused until he realizes. It’s not Julie’s character confessing her feelings for Luke’s anymore. 

It’s Julie confessing her feelings for Luke. Right there on stage. In front of everyone. 

She went off-script for him...

After curtain call, and everyone is riding that post-opening night high, Luke catches Julie before she could go meet her family out in the hallway. 

“Hey,” 

“Hi,” 

Luke pulls out his script, “Run it with me one last time?” 

“Luke, what-”

“Humor me, please,” 

Julie scans the script he hands to her. He’s circled their love confession scene, and when she reaches the bottom of the page, her eye catches a new, messily scribbled in stage direction. 

“’And they kiss...” Julie reads, a smile slowly growing on her face, “...hopefully??”

They both laugh at the latter words, and Luke looks at her sheepishly. 

“I mean... if it’s in the script, we gotta do it, right?” 

“You’re such a dork,” Julie says before pulling him in for a kiss. 

They pull away, and Luke has the audacity to smirk, “I believe this is what you call a ‘showmance’,” 

Julie quirks an eyebrow at the new vocabulary, “Someone’s been paying attention.” 

“I’ve learned a few things,” He nuzzles her nose against hers, “I had a pretty good teacher.” 

“I have plenty more to teach you,” 

“Oh really?”

“Like, for instance, how the warp party at Denny’s is a must,” She takes him by the hand and leads him out of the theater, giggling “Come on!” 

They dash through the hallways until they come up on their friends and family, who were proud of their performances. Luke looks up from hugging his mom in time to see Ms. Harrison grinning at him and giving him a thumbs up. 

‘Thank you,’ he mouths to the teacher. 

Maybe theater wasn’t that bad of an idea after all...

[chasingthepoguelife]

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but don’t forget ankles

Got to my first request! The next few will be coming this week. Thanks for requesting and being patient. I love you all!

Summary: Y/N has been a pogue for only a few months. Keeping up with the pogues meant spending time with JJ and knowing all about his hook ups all around the island. JJ and y/n had no trouble admitting the other was attractive, but left it at that. It isn’t until JJ notices something on y/n  body that surprised both of them.

A/N: I apologize again for the terrible writing. I’ve only started writing again after a few years. I’m sorry if you don’t enjoy it, I’m trying. Also not my gif! Credit is under the gif.

Warnings: smut, a bit of angst, swearing, un safe sex ( wrap it up kids), jewelry kink

Hanging out with the pogues came with a lot of advantages. You were always doing something fun and crazy, always in the know of everything going on around island. Keeping up with the pogues seemed liked a full-time job most days between all of John B’s spontaneous adventures and Pope freaking out about what you guys did the next morning. Sometimes you’d get a nice break when the boys would throw parties at the bone yard. Pogues, kooks, and tourons would flood to drink and have fun, especially with JJ Maybank. If it had a pulse, JJ would swarm to add that person to his body count. Kie had filled you in on each of the three boys when you met the group a few months ago, and almost everything she said has been proven right. JJ’s adventurous life style made it hard not to know where he’s been and everything he’s done. Whether you overheard conversations between him and John B, or the touron girls giggling in town over what they let JJ do to them the night before, you knew pretty much everything he was into. The list ranges from daddy kinks to choking, but nothing compared to the night you were trying to sleep on John Bs couch and you had to hear JJ pretending to be a vampire for over an hour. Your crush on JJ had been put to a stop after a few weeks of just listening to him talk. There was always some sassy banter between the two of you, with the occasional civil chats. You had no trouble admitting he was beautiful, but after knowing about every encounter, you decided you didn’t want to be another body count to JJ.

        The pogues spent all say setting up for Pope’s surprise party. After all the shit he’s been through, JJ knowing the most, it seemed like the least everyone could do for him. For once, something was going right and smoothly for the pogues, not a trouble insight. Everything was ready to go until the power had gone out at the chateau.

“Can’t we have one nice thing?” Kie screamed into the air.

“It’s not that bad,” y/n said. “We have a few hours till the party. If we get a holder that is big enough and lots of ice, we can keep the food and drinks cool until we make it onto the beach.”

“Easier said than done,” JJ mumbled.

“Do you have a better idea?” y/n yelled in JJ’s face.

“Ok that’s enough you two,” John B interfered. “If one of you messes up Pope’s big night I’m dumping you at the Crain house and you’re walking back. Kie and I will head out for the supplies, and you two will stay here and get your shit together before Pope arrives.”

John B was the voice of reason in this group, and you hated it when he was right. You’ll just have to wait until he leaves to get a few good passes at JJ. Kie and John B had left 30 minutes ago, and with no AC and no breeze from the beach, the chateau was burning up. JJ was already shirtless, sitting on the floor, sweat droplets already running down his abs. JJ and Pope had a nice mid-section on them, but no other abs in the OBX can compare to JJs.

JJ was about to absolutely lose it. It’s a billion degrees in here and he’s stuck with y/n. Just when he thinks he’s starting to like her she has something to say. He’s found her arrival into the group difficult. This is not what he had in mind when Kie said she’s be brining a new girl into the group. He was busy daydreaming when he noticed y/n in the corner of his eyes. She was down to nothing but her bathing suit now. He’d seen her in her suit plenty of times by now but as he watched her shift, his eyes landed on her ankle.

“Is that new?” JJ’s mind asked him.

His eyes grew wide on that shiny material wrapped around y/n’s ankle. It looked so right on her thin ankle, connected to long tan legs. JJ had eyes, he knows y/n isn’t exactly ugly, but something went off in his head seeing her leg pointed up as she laid on her bank, keeping his eyes on her ankle.

“Hey-y y/n?” JJ stuttered. “What’s that on your ankle?’

“This?” y/n pointed. “It’s an ankle bracelet, you know a bracelet that you wear on your ankle.”

Normally this kind of response would’ve riled JJ up, but this time it went right over his head.

“Have you always worn that? It looks different? Does Kie or Sarah wear one because I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one before,” JJ rambled.

“You’ve had to of seen dozens on all your touron girls,” y/n snapped.

“I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed on before, but if you must know, I’m not really looking there most of the time,” JJ smirked.

“We live on an island, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen one before JJ.”

Without warning JJ scooted over and sat down in front of you.

“I know what it is y/n, it just looks different on you,” JJ said as he began to play with the piece around your ankle.

“I like it on you. It’s different,” he said softly.

“This is another one of your weird kinks isn’t it?” y/n asked in disgust.

“Y/n, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were jealous,” JJ said.

“If I was jealous, I could’ve had you from the moment I met you,” y/n said confidently.

The room was now quiet. JJ hadn’t said anything else, which made the tension worse. He was just staring at you, up and down. He started to move, lowering his head to your feet.

“W-what are you doing?”, y/n asked.

“Proving you right, that you could’ve had me from the start,” JJ said.

JJ grabbed your ankle and began kissing on and around your bracelet. This was definitely a first for you, but there was something about the feeling of the cold metal and JJs lips on you. He paid more attention to your ankle and began working his way up to your inner thigh. Your hands made their way to JJ’s hair as he licked up and down your things. JJ’s head was in between your legs and you couldn’t fucking believe it. In just your swimsuit bottoms, you could feel JJ’s breath close to your core.

“JJ,” y/n whined.

“I know baby, me too,” JJ smirked.

JJ’s hands were circling all around your stomach and core. You made the deepest eye contact with him than you ever have before. It was a sweet moment between pogues in the midst of all the sex. You could feel his hand inching closer into your swimsuit bottoms, giving him the nod to proceed. JJ’s hand landed on you, all soaked and trembling. You knew JJ was skilled from all the chatter, but you can’t believe how much he’s affected you with so little.

“If you must know y/n, I never spend this much time,” JJ said as he kept his hands on your core.

“It’s always a quick tap and bounce. I never take the time to get them this worked up.”

“You know what the say JJ, hate sex is great sex,” y/n whined.

As JJ was working his hands and tongue all over your body, he still couldn’t believe that you were under him like this, that after all the name calling and bickering fights, a tiny ankle bracelet connected the two of you like this.

“I’m going to have to declare John B’s no pogue on pogue macking rule void for now, I need to be in you y/n”, JJ whined.

With both you fully naked now, there was only one thing to left. Both JJ and y/n could feel the sweat of each other, feel the hot air only made hotter by your activities, and especially JJ’s hot breath as he whispered into y/ns ear.

“I always thought you were beautiful. I was so excited when Kie brought you into the group, and then it all went downhill. I think we all know you threw the first insult so you have to continue to make it up to me baby,” JJ commanded.

So close to your entrance, something didn’t feel right to JJ.

“Not so fast baby. I’m going to need you to lift your left ankle up and keep it on my shoulder. Don’t move it until I tell you,” JJ ordered.

Upon placing your ankle on JJ’s shoulder, he slammed right into y/n, causing her to moan louder than JJ had ever heard before. Her nails were tearing up JJ’s back and shoulders as he was tearing into her.

“Every, thrust, is -for -all -the- times -I- wish, you were nicer to me,” JJ said in between breaths.

JJ was on cloud nine. Between your moans, letting him control you, and the sound of your ankle bracelet on his shoulder every time he thrusted harder, this has been the happiest he’s felt in a long time.

“JJ!”, y/n yelled, Y/n really didn’t know what to say. JJ was so rough but caring at the same time, lasting more than you thought. He was really taking care of you, unlike that random kook that was your first time a few months ago.

“Oh god y/n! I don’t know how much more I can last. I need you to finish with me!” JJ yelled as he brought his hands now to your clit.

“JJ my god, please don’t stop,” y/n yelled into the crook of JJ’s neck.

Before either of you knew it, JJ was spilling into you, your release onto his cock following. Pure, raw JJ has been in you in several ways today, dare you say your soul as well. Still in disbelief even after JJ pulled out of you, you stared into each other’s eyes as he laid on top of you.

“I’m not just saying this y/n, but that blew away every touron that I ever laid eyes on,” JJ complimented.

“You should know that I never hated you JJ. Moving here and not knowing anything about the future was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It seemed easy to hate you because then at least I knew where you stood. Although I’m not sure what to think about that ankle bracelet kink,” y’n laughed.

“Well I hope we can change things between us,” JJ said cupping your face.

“I’d really like that,” y/n smiled into JJ’s neck.

“And I’d like it to” a feminine voice was heard from the back.

JJ and y/n turned around bright red to see Kie and John B by the door, grabbing each other’s faces.

“I’d like it to, so much,” John B said to Kie, clearly making fun of his friends.

“But seriously, we’d like it if you would put on some clothes, just imagine if it was Pope that caught you, “John B said.

Both you and JJ laughed at your friends reaction, getting dressed and following them out to the beach, into the first night where you and JJ wouldn’t hate each other.

[sirowsky]

The Flowers Always Know

Description: When a mad scientist uses you as an experiment while you’re on holiday, the Heroics only just manage to save you. And in your recovery you become very close to the leader of the group. (Slow burn)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Language + severe triggerwarning for victims of domestic abuse.

Link to Masterlist

Comment: House-hunting, mole-hunting and Anita-hunting (sort of). And this chapter is like 95% conversation.

Chapter 32

  “Are you serious?”

  “What?”

  “That is way too big… What would we even do with all that?”

  “Hermosa, we fill the space we have. That’s not a euphemism, just a fact. If we have four rooms, we’ll fill those, and if we have twelve, we’ll fill those too.”

  “Who the fuck needs twelve rooms?”

  “It only has eight rooms.”

  “And there are only four of us.”

  “So, that’s it? No room to grow further?”

  “Honey, just how much are you anticipating this little family to grow? That’s a totally serious question, by the way. How many kids would you actually like to have?”

  “If your weird-ass body permits – like… four.”

  “Hey, who are you calling w…… did you just say four?”

  “Yup.”

  “What… including Missy, or… an additional four?”

  “I’m not picky. If we end up with just the two little miracles we have, I’ll still be the happiest man alive, but I wouldn’t mind having a bunch. Five, six, however many our love can create, I’ll be more than happy to nurture and raise and love all of them unconditionally, even when they inevitably pee on me.”

  You had no idea how to answer that, so you just stared at him. But he knew how ambivalent you were about all things concerning family, so he didn’t pose the question back to you, and instead just smiled while he watched the cogs in your mind struggle to fit together.

  “S-six… you’d be okay with another… six kids?”

  “Mhm.”

  “Fuck, Marcus, I’m struggling to even get it into my head that we’re gonna be joined by a tiny fragile infant in about 7 months, how are you already contemplating another five?!”

  “Relax, preciosa, I’m not actively contemplating it, I’m just answering a question. Saying I wouldn’t mind something, doesn’t mean I’m aiming for it.”

  “But you’re looking at houses with eight rooms…”

  “Like I said: we fill the space we have. Rooms have endless usages, it’s not like we have to make all of them bedrooms. We can have home-offices, a separate play-room, a separate dining room.”

  “Yeah, I get all that, it just seems excessive.”

  “Sweetheart, all I’m saying is, we’re looking for a home for life. If our family grows more, I don’t want to have to move again. I want the place we pick to be one that can take anything we weirdo’s throw at it.”

  “Okay, fine, I’ll look at the big-ass house.”

  “Thank you.”

  He handed you the phone and you scrolled through the different images, seeing things you liked and things you didn’t. But when you got to the master bedroom, your eyebrows shot up. The room looked ordinary at first glance, but when you took a closer look, you noticed that it had some special features.

  “Marcus… is this why you’re so interested in this house?”

  “It’s not the only reason…”

  “Who the fuck owns this place - Stormy Daniels?”

  “No, just some accountant.”

  “The bedroom is soundproofed.”

  “Which is convenient and useful for all kinds of people, but especially parents.”

  “Hard pass.”

  “We could just go and look at it before you dismiss it completely.”

  “Nope. Not happening. Move on.”

  “Why? Seriously, what’s so bad about it? Missy wouldn’t have to wear headphones every other night, and we wouldn’t have to worry about her overhearing stuff.”

  “Yes, those are good points. But: what if something happens to one of us, and the other needs to shout for help? What if something happens to Missy, and she tries to shout for help and we can’t hear her? What if someone breaks into the house, and we don’t hear it? I mean, I’m pretty sure you have super-hearing, but I don’t, and you’re not home every second of every day. I want to live in a house that speaks to me. You know, the way our house used to creak in the mornings when the sun warmed it, and settle again in the evenings, when it cooled. And if we are gonna have a bunch of kids, I sure as shit wanna be able to hear every little thing they get up to.”

  He looked ridiculously pleased at how you’d thought that through.

  “Got it, hard pass on all soundproofing. But can I ask you another serious question? One you might not have such a clear answer for?”

  “Sure.”

  “Our house… why did you send the whole thing over there? Why not just Prince and his machines?”

  “There wasn’t any thought involved with that, just instinct, and at the time, the house didn’t feel safe. I walked in and it was like entering a tomb. And I honestly don’t know if I could’ve ever walked in to that house again without having that feeling.”

  “I can understand that, mi amor. And I hope you know that I’m not asking because I’m in any way upset with you. I saw the look in your eyes in those moments, and I know how scared you were. To be able to utilise your abilities with that kind of precision and delicacy right then, was down-right miraculous.”

  “Let’s just hope I never have to try and repeat that miracle. Now, what’s next on your list?”

  He tapped away on his phone, blinking a few times at the wetness in his eyes, before handing it back to you.

  “Wow… this is even bigger.”

  “Same number of rooms, just a bigger kitchen and more garage-space.”

  “Oh, I like the yard.”

  “Check out the backyard.”

  “Holy… that’s huge! And a pool. We’d need guardrails around that, or I’d be perpetually terrified for the baby to fall in. Are those trees on the property as well?”

  “Yes. That whole little patch of woods is.”

  “Really? I mean, a pair of swings in those trees…”

  You were so engrossed in the phone that you didn’t see Marcus smile wider as he watched you fall in love with the place.

  “Oh, I love the kitchen. And there’s a fireplace! Those are beautiful floors. Holy shit – I could swim in that bathtub…”

  “Sooo…… you like it?”

  “I do.”

  “Enough to go have a look?”

  “Definitely. But Missy has to come too.”

  He beamed. You’d had a few long conversations about the house-hunting before you actually started, and after a meeting at the bank, you’d found out that your credit was basically more than big enough for anything you might want, which was an odd thing to try and get your head around. Not that you wanted a life of luxury, but it was sort of strange to realise that you actually could have practically any kind of life you chose, in terms of housing.   The two of you had settled on a firmly planted roof of expense that you were willing to extend to the purchase. And even though this house was huge and renovated to the nines with modern upgrades, that still managed to float seamlessly into the older stem and feel of the house, it wasn’t really particularly near that roof.

  “I’ll call the realtor and see if they can fit us in later this week.”

  “It’s a nice area. A little out of the way, but a good neighbourhood, and Missy wouldn’t have to change schools. Our commute to work would be a bit longer, but on quieter roads. And there’s a fence around the property. We could get a dog, or two. Or even a frickin’ pony with the size of that backyard.”

  Marcus just stared at you with that giddy smile firmly planted in his whole frame, while you rambled on, completely lost in your own thoughts, until his silence eventually made you snap out of it and look at him.

  “Oh, crap. I’m already moving in, aren’t I…?”

  He just laughed and hugged you.

  “I’m definitely on board with the dogs. But I’m gonna need my phone back if I’m gonna be able to call the realtor.”

  You quickly handed it back to him, just as there was a careful knock on the door.   You were in Marcus’s office, sitting in one of the sofas, perfectly naturally just sitting next to each other, for once. It had only been a week since you were released from medical, and he was still a little worried about getting you worked up, so you hadn’t been together yet, and it was creating something of a space between you. Not a wall, nothing that exclusive, just a little void that was a bit hard to reach across.   He called for the person to enter, and Will stepped in, immediately shooting an apologetic glance at Marcus. He still hadn’t quite recovered from seeing Cujo that time, even though Marcus had apologized for scaring him.

  “Hi, sorry, I was told I could find you here.”

  You smiled warmly at him to ease his discomfort.

  “What’s up, Will?”

  “Uh, Miss. Timmons is looking for you, she needs your help.”

  Oh, for fucks sake…

  “Let me guess; she screwed up her paperwork, again?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Damned it, Izzy. Wait, why’d she send you to get me, you’re not an errand-boy, she couldn’t have picked up the phone?”

  “She did go looking for you in your office, but when you weren’t there, she got a little… desperate. She knows that she’s messed up too many times already, and I think she’s genuinely scared that you’re gonna fire her. She started crying outside your office and I was just passing by, so I offered to go find you for her.”

  “If I had the authority to fire her, I would’ve already done it.”

  You sighed and got up to leave, but Marcus caught your elbow.

  “You’re not gonna go back to work, right? We talked about that.”

  “If I know Izzy, this won’t be solved by correcting a few clerical errors.”

  “So, let someone else do it.”

  “No one else can, honey. That’s why I still have my job despite the number of sick-days I have.”

  “Preciosa… it’s dangerous. Prince’s people are in this building, and if he was obsessed with you, or us, then so are they. None of us can afford to be distracted right now.”

  “I know, but we still have to live. We’re still the same people, and neither one of us are the type of person that’s just gonna stand by when someone needs help. If the team needs you, I expect you to go and help them, not just because that’s your job, but because that’s who you are.”

  “Just don’t let yourself get too engrossed. Stay alert at all times. We have no idea who’s a friend and who isn’t.”

  “I’ll check in with you every hour, okay?”

  “Every half-hour. And just until you’ve sorted this mess out, then you come back and find me, you don’t start on another three problems you discover along the way.”

  “Are you giving me orders now, Team Leader?”

  He grabbed your hips and pulled you in close, so that your bodies were only millimetres apart and his nose was brushing against yours. It was more than enough to heat you up after six weeks of inactivity, but the tremble of emotion in his voice when he spoke next, pushed the desire aside, to make way for compassion.

  “I can’t lose you again. I’ll do anything…”

  You closed your eyes and rested your forehead against his. How many times had you lost each other already? Your ability made it so easy for you to feel like it was your job to save others, like it was what you were put in this world to do, and especially where your family was concerned. So, you had to start reminding yourself that while you would probably always be able to absorb anything bad that happened to them – you’d also always hurt them by doing that. Your ability came with a terrible price, and you were only lucky to have survived everything you’d been through thus far.   Marcus was right, you had to be more careful.   You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and nestled your nose into his neck. His arms closed around your waist and held you to him, strong and sure, and you felt like you could just stand there for the rest of the day.

  “I promise I’ll be careful, and not take any risks. I love you.”

  “Te amo, querida.”

  Will had moved to stand outside the door after Marcus started talking to you, but he fell in behind you when you walked past him.

  “So, where is she, and what has she done?”

  It felt really good to get back into something familiar and achievable again. To do something that generated an immediate response and result, and within fifteen minutes you suddenly understood why Marcus had been so worried. You got lost in the task in no time at all.   You sent him a text while you waited for a lawyer to call you back.

  [You’re right, I’m already cheating.]

  [How bad?]

  [Two other issues already solved, while I’m waiting to work out Izzy’s.]

  [Why are you waiting?]

  [Because lawyers always have something better to do.]

  [Fine. But as soon as it’s dealt with, you come back to me. I’ll be at the control centre.]

  [Promise. What’s going on?]

  [Just two small countries deciding to go to war over the quality of their chocolate.]

  [Well… I suppose there are worse things.]

  [They’re hurling missiles at each other over fucking candy…]

  [Wow… Where’s Máma when you need her?]

  [Don’t you worry, she’s right here, so this should be sorted out by the time you get here.]

  [Oh, in that case, I am so calling her Chocoreno from now on.]

  [Please don’t…]

  [Only if she doesn’t solve it.]

  [*sigh*]

  After another eight phone calls and a lot of grovelling to people you really didn’t like, you finally managed to set things straight, and went to find Izzy to give her a piece of your mind - again. But when you got to her office, she was on the phone and turned away from the door, so she didn’t see you come in, and you accidentally overheard the end of her conversation.

  “No, of course not, I’ll be straight home from work. Why would I make any stops? --- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you… --- No, baby, don’t… I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise. --- Anything you want, name it. --- Yeah, that sounds.. nice. I’ll be home soon.”

  Shit.

  She turned around, looking absolutely terrified, and then she saw you by the door and quickly tried to adapt a neutral expression. She was good at it too, within half a second there was no trace of fear in her face. You only got that good at hiding your feelings if you knew that showing them meant terrible pain.

  “So, everything’s taken care of, no harm done.”

  “Really? Oh, thank you. I’m so sorry, I swear I don’t mean to mess up the papers, it just gets to be too much sometimes.”

  “Izzy, if I ask you a personal question, will you answer me honestly?”

  A trace of fear re-emerged in her features, but she nodded carefully.

  “Is it work that gets to be too much… or is it home?”

  You could see the internal struggle. The need to be free of the fear and the pain, and that same fear making it almost impossible. All the irritation and frustration fell away from you with the realisation that she wasn’t incompetent at all. She was being smothered.   How many times had you added to her stress and general feeling of inadequacy, by barking at her for constantly missing or screwing up doing things? Why hadn’t you seen the signs sooner, you knew every single one of them?

  “I’ve been where you are, Izzy. I should have seen this. I’m so sorry.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, honestly, I’m fine.”

  “Show me your arms and your stomach. If they aren’t bruised, I might believe you.”

  She squirmed where she stood, and her head dropped in defeat.

  “When was the last time you didn’t have an injury somewhere? When was the last time you could move without feeling pain somewhere?”

  She just kept staring at the floor, shaking her head, trying to will it not to be true, so you walked up to her, pushed your energy around her, and healed her.   The amount of energy that it drained from you, told you everything you needed to know about how injured she was, and you quickly reached into your back pocket to retrieve a pill from the small box you kept with you at all times these days.   Izzy stared wide-eyed at you, while you fumbled with a paper-cup at her water-cooler, hands shaking with the sudden loss of strength. Then she suddenly sprung to life and came to help you fill the cup and down the pill.

  “Jesus Christ, girl, how were you even standing with all that damage?”

  “I… got used to it over time. He didn’t… start out that bad.”

  “They never do.”

  “Thank you. So much.”

  “Thank me by letting me beat the living hell out of that guy.”

  “You’d better not. But… maybe… you could ask one of the guys on the team to… talk to him?”

  “Are you serious? You wanna stay with him? No, honey, no amount of talking is gonna fix him.”

  “No, I meant like… talk him into not killing me for leaving him.”

  “Oh… Yeah. That I could probably do. Just give me his name and address.”

  You downed another pill, and started feeling better, while Izzy scribbled on a note for you. You took it and read it, and stuffed it down your other back pocket.

  “You should stay here tonight, just in case he decides to try anything. And call me if you need anything, Marcus and I are still living here, so we’re close, okay?”

  She seemed to hesitate about something.

  “What is it?”

  “Um… do you know Jack Daven?”

  “Who?”

  “He’s a kid who interns at the science division.”

  “Oh, Jackie. Yeah, unfortunately I do know who he is.”

  He was the kid you threw head-first into a wall.

  “I just… I think he might have something to do with your mole situation.”

  “What? Why would you think that?”

  “A while back, he came to me saying that science had sent him with some paperwork that needed to be signed, but when I looked at it, I realised that it was actually for research, and I told him that. And he laughed it off saying that he’d just made a mistake, but that didn’t seem very likely, because the forms he had were for release of testing materials. They wouldn’t send an errand-boy to retrieve those, they’re too dangerous. At the time I figured that maybe he’d been sent with an escort, for learning purposes, and that I just never saw them. But, now with the investigation, I think there might have been more to it than that. I was just too scared to... I didn’t know who to trust with it.”

  “You can always trust me. Thank you, Izzy, I’m so sorry that I ever thought of you as incompetent.”

  “Forgive me and I’ll forgive you.”

  “Done.”

  You ran full speed back to Ops, and almost collided with the automatic door to the control centre. Marcus was working at a station to the left, and smiled without looking up as he heard you. Anita was at the centre console, with her back to you.

  “Damned it, why do all automatic doors move so fucking slowly?”

  “Ah, I hear my future daughter-in-law has entered the premises.”

  “Shut it, Chocoreno.”

  “What did you just call me?”

  “Choco-reno, the clue’s in the name, máma.”

  “Ay, loco, today’s not a good day to test me.”

  “Why, does máma need a hug?”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Fine. How about some nice chocolate instead? I hear there might be some steep discounts on a couple of brands.”

  “Mujer… did you burst in here for a reason? Because if not, I’ll burst you right back out.”

  “Hah, I’d like to see you try.”

  She huffed.

  “As you wish.”

  You caught a glimpse of Marcus’ expression as it shifted from bemused to genuinely worried, when Anita turned and came towards you.

  “Mooom…”

  She ignored him and tried to grab you, but your ghost hands caught hers before she could make contact, and they were much stronger than your physical hands.   She definitely had super-strength, that much was obvious right away, and she wasn’t holding back. You could feel your strength begin to drain, so you changed tactics. You flooded the room with energy, and then drew it back to compact it all around yourself, creating that same kind of barrier that the Inventor hadn’t been able to break through, despite his genius belt-modification.   And then you just stood there, perfectly still to conserve energy, while she tried in vain to push you out of the room.

  “Mom, stop it, right now!”

  As her focus momentarily shifted towards Marcus, you saw the smile that played in her features. She was just having fun, testing your strength and flexing her own, whilst getting some frustration out of her system, knowing full well that you could take it.   Feeling certain she wouldn’t kill you for it, you grabbed the opportunity.   You let the wall of energy disappear as she was leaning against it with all her might, and as the barrier fell, so did Anita – right into your arms.   It was a bit like trying to catch a running bull, and the impact was certainly painful, but you ignored it and just hugged her to you.   She scrambled out of your grip, but you just smiled at her, because you knew she enjoyed every moment of it.

  “I have to say, I’ve never had to fight my way into a hug before.”

  “That wasn’t a hug, loco.”

  “Yes, it was, and you know it. Do you feel better now, or do you need another?”

  She was actually contemplating another round, which prompted Marcus to step in between you.

  “Do I have to remind both of you that you’re pregnant, hermosa? Playful or not, you’re not fighting each other again, now, tell me why you were moving so fast that the doors were too slow for you?”

   Oh, for fucks sake, why where you so easily distracted?

  “Right… We should probably talk in private. Considering the fact that it’s only been two hours since we sat in your office looking at houses – a hell of a lot’s happened.”

  He led the way towards the door, and you shot a look at Anita, over your shoulder.

  “Raincheck on that hug?”

  “I’ll boogie with you anytime, loco.”

  “That’s how you boogie? And you call me ‘loco’.”

  “Oh, yes. You’ve earned that one, many times over.”

 Authors’ Note: I love criticism, don’t be shy to let me know if there’s anything you like/don’t like/have questions about.

@blueeyesatnight​ @farfromjustordinary @allmyspideys @hrk-fic-recs @strawberryperegrine @lucrezia-thoughts @computeringturtle @sarahjkl82-blog

[toloveawarlord]

The Little Vampire (Ch. 2)

You can find my masterlist in my bio!

Characters: Nell, Levi, & Satan

Tagging: @plumpblueberry​ @starry-starry-night24​ @gay-noodle-clan​

A/N: Day 3 of the 12 Days of OCmas! He is already so attached to his little vampire. Who should she meet next? 

Being summoned had turned into a complicated, scheduled event. Levi began to enjoy his trips to visit the girl, bringing her snacks and playing board games. She intently listened to his ramblings about Ruri-chan without judgement or teasing. He honestly had more fun with her than anyone else.

He looked forward to visiting, despite being confined to an empty bedroom.

Except today was different.

It was late, but he was up watching a new anime that was finally available in the Devildom when he was tugged through the void and into the human world. They weren’t scheduled to meet again until the end of the week. “Nell? What’s this abo-” His words trailing off.

The room was empty, and the circle at his feet poorly drawn as if done in a hurry. He’d never come without her being here, and never had the door been left open. The demon wasn’t sure that she left the room at all. Nell never told him about her life here, only asking that he keep her company and play games with her.

“L-Levi!” A shout from somewhere else in the house. Her voice shrill and desperate, hoarse like she’d been yelling for hours.

The layout of the house unknown to him, but the stench of humans drew him down the staircase. There were more than he’d expected, and all quite surprised at his sudden presence. As for Levi, his mouth gaped at the scene before him.

“Levi! Help me!” Nell cried out from where she was held down on the coffee table, a human on either side of her writhing body. A makeshift beheading block. She managed to get an arm out, helplessly reaching towards him.

The large human with the axe stuck his foot against her head, his boot cutting into her pale skin and drawing blood. “Stop squalling, you monster.” His hate-filled eyes turned to Levi. “This doesn’t concern demons so move along!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Levi spat out, demonic power erupting from his body. His transformation enough to send fear rattling through the pathetic human’s fragile forms. Golden irises were overflowing with absolute rage. His voice inhumanly deep and commanding. “That little vampire belongs to me.”

Although the leader tried to be strong, his limbs betrayed him, trembling like leaves in the presence of someone so powerful. “What does a demon want with a-” No words could form with his back against the wall, gaze unable to look away from the demon towering above him. The man completely paralyzed.

Levi’s head tilted to the side, assessing his prey with muted interest. Humans were so weak, and yet they pretended to be at the top of the food chain. “It won’t matter to you. You hurt someone important to me.” His tail slithered up to the man’s throat, wrapping gingerly around it....

With one squeeze, his head popped off, splatting against the floor.

The others scattered but none were able to escape. Angering a demon, even one without his strength was a death sentence. No one did so and lived to talk about it.

“Nell?” Levi regained control of himself, scratching his bloodstained cheek awkwardly. He found the vampire quivering in the corner of the room, violet eyes sweeping over the mess. A wave of guilt flooded over him. He must have frightened her so much with his anger.

He glanced around, finding her stuffed dinosaur under the coffee table, likely from when she’d dropped when they were throwing her around. He knelt down in front of her, reaching out and offering the stuffed animal to her. “I’m sorry- oof-”

The girl threw herself into his arms, the force knocking him over. Her cheek rubbed against his chest as she sniffled but smiled. “I knew you’d save me!” A mixture of emotions bubbled over. Nell was crying out of happiness and relief. “If you hadn’t come... they’d of--they’d of- hic.” The fear of almost dying turned into a sobbing mess. She tried to wipe them away with the backs of her hands.

Levi patted his hand against the top of her head. “It’s alright. You don’t have to worry about them anymore.” Mostly because he’d killed them, but he had another reason. He produced a golden band from his pocket. “Check this out. I had my brother help me get it. It’ll let you come back to the Devildom with me. It’s like a super rare item!”

At first it was too big to fit around her dainty wrist, but it shrunk in size once it touched her skin. “Woah. You’re giving me a rare item? Like...” Her brows furrowed as she dug through her memory. “Like the Silver Lion sword in that dungeon game we played?”

“Yeah! Just like that! And it’s all yours! I mean... if you want to come with me.”

Her small arms locked around his neck. “Yes! I wanna go now. Can we go now? Before the others come and lock me up again.”

More humans? Levi cast a glance around at the carnage. He didn’t have the energy to face any more of them. Better to abandon this game than continue to fight. He’d gotten his prize anyways.

Nell nearly fell when they were transported back to his bedroom. She spun on the ball of her foot, throwing her hands up. “That was so cool! It was like poof and we were here!” Her spinning only stopped when she got dizzy, teetering around as she laughed.

Levi collapsed into his gaming chair, all his energy drained. Traveling between the two realms was a big enough strain, but also using so much demonic power only made the demon exhausted. With his elbow propped up on the arm, he rested his chin on his palm.

“Is this where you sleep?” Nell pushed her hands against the edge of the tub to see it better but slipped and fell headfirst into the pile of pillows. Her legs kicked in the air before she flipped upright.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Levi asked, nervously turning his gaze to find Henry in the large aquarium. Only normies slept in beds. His tub was the perfect size, and he could cuddle his Ruri-chan body pillow without any issues.

The girl hummed, brushed her white hair out of her face. “No, it makes sense.” She grinned at his surprised expression. “Besides, it’s comfy. Can I sleep here, too? I’m really tiny so we can both fit.”

“S-sure.” He hadn’t thought this far ahead. The situation had turned out to be more dire than he’d realized, but even without it, the demon didn’t have anything in place for her once they’d arrived here. Levi racked his brain for his next move while the girl continually dove into the pillows and then popped up on the other side of the tub and repeated.

The only thing he did know was that Lucifer couldn’t find out she was here.

“I see the item worked for you.”

Nell slipped back under the pillows, peeking out between them to spy on the new demon in the room. His green eyes flickered to where she hid but quickly moved to Levi. Which one was he? She’d heard about all of them.

“Although, I’m not sure that keeping a human as a pet is a good idea.”

“I’m not a human!” The girl sprung up, haphazardly knocking the pillows out of the tub and onto the floor. Her index fingers tapped against her two large canines. “I’m a vampire. See? Fangs!”

Levi rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do next, but think you can keep her a secret? If Lucifer finds out, he’ll punish me for sure.” His shoulders dropped in dejection. And who knows what he’d do to Nell. “Nell, this is my brother Satan.”

“Oh, the one that likes books and is a cat.”

“A cat?” Satan blinked at her in confusion. He wasn’t not like a cat, although he didn’t think that would be a bad thing. She certainly didn’t say it as a negative, so it was possible that it was meant as a compliment.

The vampire climbed out of the tub and approached the fourth born brother who was deep in serious thought. Her hand tugged on his sleeve, violet eyes that of puppy’s. “Please don’t tell the bossy one I’m here. I want to stay with Levi.” Her gaze fell away, distracted by the mountain of games and toys around her. “If I have to go back, the humans will kill me.”

Satan chuckled at her reference to the eldest as the bossy one. “Your secret is safe with me.” He ruffled her hair and smiled softly. She was quite cute, and it would be entertaining to see how long Levi could keep her hidden.

“Nell, no!” Levi chastised. His tail wrapped around her waist, hauling the girl away from his brother. Her fangs grazed against Satan’s wrist but didn’t actually sink in. He held her in the air, sighing. “You can’t bite him. Actually, you can’t bite anyone. No biting.”

Her index fingers poked together as she gave Satan a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry.”

“Levi, you do know you have to feed her, right? Vampires survive on blood, and if she’s willing to bite a demon, then she must be starving,” Satan said, observing the two with curiosity. He’d never seen Levi so invested in something 3-D.

“I know. I’ll figure something out.” He set her down but didn’t release his tail’s grip. Procuring human blood in the Devildom would be difficult. And if he bought it online in bulk, Lucifer was sure to notice. Levi gritted his teeth and rolled up his sleeve. “For now, you can drink from me. Just be quick.” His head turned away, not wanting to see his own blood.

Nell stared at his bare skin, tongue gliding across her teeth. She hadn’t properly drunk in a while, and it was oh so tempting. “Are you sure? I can control myself... maybe.” She would do her best to abstain.

“Yes. I’m sure. It’ll be like in that one episode where Ruri-chan’s best friend was turned into a vampire and needed blood so Ruri-chan sacrificed herself for them to not suffer! A true inspiration!”

Her soft giggle drew his attention back to her. “You’re so funny, Levi. I bet Ruri-chan would be super proud of you.”

Tears welled in his eyes. If that were true, he could die a happy demon. “Alright, let’s do this! Ahh- ouch!” Levi whined as her fangs pierced his skin. It was nothing at all in Ruri-chan! It stung and burned. He clenched his fist and bit his lip. He would not back down.

But damn did it hurt!

Nell drank enough to feel full and then collapsed forward onto his lap with a happy sigh. “You have nice blood,” she whispered, eyelids too heavy to stay open. With a full tummy and the adrenaline of the day wearing off, the little vampire fell promptly asleep.

“I’ll do some research on where you can purchase blood. In the meantime, be sure to keep her in here where none of the others will find her,” Satan said. Once Mammon or Asmo got a hold of a secret, the entire house would know about it in a matter of minutes.

“Thanks, Satan. I owe you,” Levi said, reaching a hesitant head out to pet her white hair. She was kind of like a pet, like Henry, but more hands on. He lifted her up and climbed into his tub with her. She’d been right, they both could fit in here comfortably. For the first night ever, he didn’t need his Ruri-chan pillow.

But keeping her a secret would turn out to be much harder than he’d imagined.

[miraculous-mare]

Hi everyone! I'm Imbri, I made this sideblog earlier this month when I got super into MLB and DCU from a more fanfic-esque perspective and wanted to try my hand at fic writing. I've since been pretty sick and I'm only just getting better, so I wanted to throw some possible story arcs and headcanons on here so I could preserve them somewhere and hold myself accountable for writing them. If this gets long I'll make separate posts but for now enjoy my tired ramblings

1. To All the Vigilantes I've Loves Before (TALTBILB AU)

We're starting with a fluffier one bc I'm in that kind of mood. You know how in To all the boys Lara Jean writes her letters when she has a huge crush? To her, the letters are a way to immortalize that feeling, to preserve it forever. She locks her love away until she wants to acknowledge it again, preserving it and ensuring her feelings are never tainted by the reality of these people. I don't think Marinette would do that. No, Marinette gets too caught up in the rosy side of love, especially when she's younger. She doesn't need a constant reminder of the good things about her crushes, she needs to be reminded of the bad, of the harsh reality of these people. Young Marinette dives in too deep too fast with Adrien, ignores his character in favor of her fantasy, and she never forgets how much it hurt. So in a moment of clarity, when he tells her not to stand up to Lila and abandons her, she writes him a letter. It's not mean, or attacking, and she doesn't intend to send it (she still addresses and stamps it, of course, because she's extra like that, and makes sure not to seal it so she can reread it, but she plans to keep it locked away). It's just an honest reflection on how he's not who she thought he was. How her affection for him was toxic, how she can't go back to being the Marinette who's obsessed with him, but he will always be the first boy she ever loved. Loved, past tense. And she intends to keep it that way.

Luka is the next one to get a letter. She writes his in the middle of the night. She couldn't sleep, had randomly decided to design a new stage outfit for him, and was quite impressed with her work until she found herself coloring his eyes green and his hair blond. She stops herself before she adds black cat ears, but the damage is done. Mari realizes he had always been a distraction for her, that she was trying to use his affection to bounce back from heartache. She rereads her letter to adrien before taking out a clean sheet of paper. Luka's letter is about how she can't hold on to love or the idea of a relationship so as to ignore her feelings and her hurt. She writes about how she was lucky to make new friends when her class turned her back on her, but she was trying too hard to pretend nothing had changed. Luka was filling the void Adrien had left, and marinette knew that she couldn't fall back on her unhealthy habits. She mentions that she still loves Luka, of course she does, but not like that, never like that. The next day, she tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he means a lot to her, really, and she doesn't want to lead him on, but he's honestly just a friend. Luka smiles and hugs her and tells her that's fine, and they remain close.

Chat noir gets his own letter when she starts to see herself with him but he won't stop flirting. She writes that as much as she can get caught up in the daydreams of their superhero power couple, he never wants to give her space or let her figure anything out. When they defeat hawkmoth and she finds out who he is, she pens an short paragraph about how hypocritical it was of him to tell her to back off Lila and let things work themselves out while being so insistent in his relationship with ladybug. She puts all three letters into one envelope and seals it. She knows now she can never love Adrien, that she will never look at him the same. She's learned her lesson, and she wants to leave this chapter in the past.

As Marinette grows up, finishes high school and her Guardian studies, as she gets her business degree, the pile of letters only grows. But Mari has become too hurt, too cautious with her heart. Her letters, once testaments to her growth and maturity, are now filled with excuses. Too scared to let anything develop into more than a basic crush, she pens a letter every time she lets her guard down, every time she feels even a sliver of non-platonic affection for anyone, and stashes it away with the rest of her unresolved feelings.

When she pins Kim down for a second too long during one of their sparring matches, she writes that she cannot jeopardize their friendship. They train together less frequently after that.

When she finds herself laughing too hard at her seatmate's whispered jokes in Intro to Business, she reasons that they're probably a player and sits somewhere else from then on.

On a visit to Paris, she loses herself in Kagami's eyes and her letter is about how stupid it is to even try long distance. So on and so forth, until her letters are nothing but quick notes and her reasons become meaningless.

This post is too long so I'm gonna rush through the next bits I'm sorry. She finally moves to Gotham, opens up a little boutique, and ladybug accepts an invitation to join the League. Soon after, she meets the Robins (it's hard not to come in contact when everyone enjoys jumping off the same rooftops in the dead of night), and she has a new, albeit secondary, team/family (because of course they know each other's identities).

At this point, Marinette has over twenty letters, all wrapped in twine and stuffed into a small box she keeps at the back of her closet. Her kwami try to push her to date again, insist this terrible habit needs to be broken, but she insists she's fine alone. Most are okay with this, but Plagg and Trixx? Not so much. One day, while she's down in her Atelier in the middle of a fitting, they rifle through the box, pick out a single letter, and convince kaalki to (begrudgingly) open up a portal straight into someone's PO Box (p sure Plagg used cataclysm by himself once so it's possible. If not let's ignore that and pretend it is lmao). Tikki is not impressed, but she doesn't do anything to stop them either.

It's three days later when Marinette finds out it's missing, a flirty encounter with red hood sending her rifling through her stash for Jason Todd's name. She needs to remind herself that he's too much of a bad boy, too flirty, too dark, that she’s too close to the bats to ruin it with feelings. She decides she misplaced it until Jason stops by her flat two days later, letter in hand.

Now, Jason technically comes over to confront Marinette, but he’s not sure about what, exactly. she seemed to have liked him at some point, but was convinced it wouldn’t work out. Part of him wants to prove her wrong, part of him is wondering why she’s so mistrusting to have written him off so soon. Marinette, upon seeing her letter, panics, but she ends up having to explain everything. Jason isn’t sure if he should be more concerned that literal gods have decided to take her relationship into their own tiny hands or that she’s so scared of loving she’s got this stash of letters about nearly everyone in her life. Eventually he convinces her to pull them out, and Jason is so shocked by the sheer number of them that he almost wants to wrap her in his arms and show her that love isn’t all bad. Instead, he slips and offers to help set her up on dates, and before they know it they have a contract: he’ll plan a new blind date for her, with anyone from one of the open letters, every two weeks. She promises to go in open-minded and do her best to actually make it work. In exchange, he’ll model for her newest line (something she’s been begging him to do for ages). When she says the contract is all in her favor, he throws in that she can be his date to the Wayne Christmas Party at the end of the year. They shake on it, and the pieces begin to fall into place.

Cue six months of a heavily pining Jason setting Marinette up on dates she progressively wants to go on less and less. Cue them meeting for fittings and clothe designs in Marinette’s atelier and grabbing coffee together. Marinette starts to open up to the possibility of love, but with Jason, who’s obviously not interested or else why would he still be setting her up on dates? it’s all incredibly messy and complicated and a little angsty but just a ton of fun.

Idk I feel like this idea low-key sucks now that I’ve written it out so uhhh let me know what you guys think? I have other ideas but I’m gonna put them into other posts bc this is too long as is. 

[delaneytveit]

Satellites Part 13

WHOOOOO we’re halfway thereeee! OOOHHHHH (Actually we’ve been a little bit more than half way for a bit) but don’t worry, there’s still A LOT of story to get through. If you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider buying me a coffee! 

Oh and I’m on twitter! if you want to give a follow, or watch me scream into the void about Lance in tactical gear, that’s the place! 

Twitter - sfw -> @/spacemom_laney | nsfw -> @/15_agentwash

ko-fi - ko-fi.com/delaneym_15

 ( Part 12 ) ( Satellites Master Post ) (Part 14) 

The team left at 0800 the next morning. Allura had convinced, after quite a long time, Blue to let her pilot. Though it was clear that Blue was not happy about it. The only lion that was missing was the red one.

Keith had chosen to stay behind, to much confusion of the team. Though Lance could vaguely guess why. He felt guilty. Keith had been the one to bring into question Lance’s ability to complete missions, and even though that wasn’t his intention, he knew that it still hurt Lance.

Their relationship was rocky as it was. Neither of them really knew where they stood with the other, what they were to each other, and it seemed that the present situation had complicated things even more so.

Lance was refusing to talk to Keith, and it hurt. He hadn’t meant to indirectly ground the sharpshooter. He had only wanted to voice his concerns to Allura, positive that she would be able to do something for Lance that he couldn’t.

Normally, the only kind of confrontation Keith would be willing to face was violent, but he didn’t want to fight Lance. He wanted to apologize. To take responsibility for what was happening to Lance. He owed him that much at least.

It wasn’t hard to track the Blue Paladin down. He had locked himself in his room since breakfast. It was a good thing Keith knew the code by heart.

Punching in the code, he was relieved when the door whooshed open revealing Lance sitting at his desk. Keith could hear the volume of the headphones from where he stood, which made him cringe. The EDM music that Lance listened to was loud enough, didn’t anyone warn him of blowing out an eardrum?

Keith knocked twice before taking loud steps towards the boy, hoping that they would be loud enough to let Lance know that he was there. Lance’s anxiety had spiked dramatically since his return and it took one accidental sneak up by Pidge to inform the team that it was vital for Lance to know that you were coming, so as to avoid a swift punch to the face out of panic.

“What do you want, Keith?” Lance sighed as he removed his earphones. He swiveled his chair to look at the red paladin, arms crossed as he leaned back in his seat.

This was it, Keith had been rehearsing his apology for hours now, trying to make it sound as genuine and coherent as possible. Though at the very moment, what ever award winning speech he had come up with beforehand had vanished as those hard blue eyes stared into him.

“I’m sorry.” he blurted out, cursing himself for his lack of grace.

He immediately dropped his gaze, eyes staring at the floor. There was only a tense silence between them, and Keith begged his mind to come up with something, anything to put an end to this crushing feeling.

But of course, his mind, nor his mouth could seem to work correctly.

It was Lance who broke the silence instead.

“For?” he asked, the question forcing Keith to look up and face the boy. Blue eyes met his once more, a questioning brow raised as Lance waited for Keith to answer.

He could do this.

“I shouldn’t have told Allura about all of this. I- I didn’t know that she would take you off of missions. I should have talked to you and voiced my concerns to you, you didn’t deserve what Allura did to you and it's my fault that it happened. And I am so, so sorry for that.” He was rambling, he knew he was. How did people do this? How did they apologize?

He was only stopped when Lance held up his hand.

“I appreciate the apology, I really do. And to be honest, I’m glad that you told Allura. I don’t think she would have found out if you hadn’t. I’m not mad at you Keith.”

“You’re not?”

Lance chuckled a little, running a hand through his hair.

“I mean, I am a little bit. But I think I’m more pissed at the situation in general.” Lance leaned forward, perching his elbows on his knees. Looking down at his clasped hands, Lance spoke “You guys are right, I’m not okay. I haven’t been for a while and no matter how much I pretend that I am, I’m just hurting myself. I’m not getting better.” he sounded so...broken. Lance never really talked about himself, at all really. Superficial things, sure. Like how he got barely any sleep, or that he missed his mom’s cooking. But he never really talked about things deeper than that. Keith hadn’t really noticed until now, but Lance had been hiding a big part of himself away this entire time, and it only came out at his most vulnerable times at night.

A year ago, Keith would have thought of the way that Lance talks about himself as vain, but now he knew that it wasn’t really the case. Lance has been putting on a mask this whole time.

“But we don’t have time. The universe doesn’t have time for me to get better. It's a long ass process that Voltron can’t afford.”

He was right, of course he was right. Lance was vital to Voltron, even if he didn’t really see himself that way. He still knew that Voltron needed him. It was even more present today with Blue’s little tantrum about having to take on Allura as a pilot.

“But is the universe really more important than having you here?” That was what Keith was most afraid of. Lance had always been the self-sacrificial type. He couldn’t argue that he himself was any better, but Lance seemed to take it to a whole new level. The paladin would miss sleep and meals to make sure that everyone else was taken care of. He would jump in front of a bullet in a second to spare the others. On one occasion Lance had bounded into a burning building to save a few children stuck on the third floor, that had been the worst as it only reminded Keith of how he lost his father. He couldn’t lose Lance too.

“Keith-”

“No, Lance. Listen to me. The universe is not worth you throwing yourself away like that. What you need time to heal, what you went through was fucking terrible. It's no wonder you have PTSD from it.”

“We are the literal Defenders of the Universe, I can’t just not do my job!”

“I’m not asking you to stop being a paladin! I’m asking to for once in your life put yourself first. We need you, I need you! You need to let yourself heal from all of this because there is no Voltron if you continue to let your own health fall by the wayside!” Keith meant every word of it. They needed Lance. They needed him to come back, to be the best he could be, and as hard as he was trying right now, this wasn’t it.

“I’m worried for you, Lance. I can’t lose you too.” Keith’s voice was so small, he himself almost didn’t hear it. But he knew that Lance did, as the boy stood up from his seat and walked over to Keith, instantly wrapping his arms around the shorter one.

“You won’t Keith, I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

Keith breathed in the scent of ocean and sandalwood of Lance’s detergent, and thanked whatever higher being was there that Lance had insisted on buying his own detergent all those mall trips ago. The pompous asshole had good taste in soap, and it comforted Keith easily.

“Just promise me you’ll at least try.”

He felt Lance take a deep breath.

“I am trying, Keith. I’m trying every day.” If Keith felt the shaky breaths or the wetness on his shoulder, he said nothing. It was clear that Lance needed this as much as he did, maybe even more. “I never wished I was Shiro, more than I do right now. He’s been through everything and he’s able to handle it all so easily.”

Oh, absolutely not. There was no way in hell Keith would let Lance talk about himself like that.

He pulled away from their hug, to much of his own dismay, and held Lance at arms length. Violet eyes bore into icy blue ones. The eyes that he could get lost in, but now as not the time to think about that, Keith.

“Lance, you said it yourself. WHat Shiro went through and what you went through was completely different.”

“But-”

“No. You really think that Shiro would be in any better of a state than you are now after being treated the way you were? I have no idea the extent of what they did to you, but I do know that it had to have been absolute hell. You don’t get to compare your pain to others, just because they seem to be doing better than you. Your pain is your own, so stop being an idiot and just acknowledge the fact that those guys are assholes!”

Keith was most definitely not expecting a chuckle from the Blue Paladin, but he assumed it would be better than the alternative.

“That was good, Mullet. You come up with all that yourself?”

Keith rolled his eyes. Of course, leave it to Lance to make a joke about a serious conversation.

“As a matter of fact, I did. And I’ll say it again. As many times as I need to for it to get through your tiny brain.”

“Hey! I’ll assure you my brain is of average size. Some may say it's even above average!”

It was Keith’s turn to laugh.

“Yeah, I’m sure it is.” he joked offhandedly, letting his grip on Lance’s arms finally fall.

Lance fixed him with his characteristically famous smirk that Keith knew could only mean trouble.

“Want to know what else is above average size?” Lance waggled his eyebrows knowingly as Keith facepalmed.

“Oh my god, Lance. No!”

[bessmarvins]

So, you guys got a preview of this thanks to the challenge that @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld tagged me in. It’s been sitting in my drafts for months almost finished and I think it’s rambly and just ajgwjaoig i’ve been debating on whether or not to even post it but I don’t want to put anymore energy into it. I just want to throw it out into the void lol so here ya are: another chapter of my lil ficlet series (first installment here) ok thank you goodnight happy belated birthday @ladylindaaa 

Nancy rubbed her eye, leaning over her case notes on the floor of Frank and Joe’s room in the sleeping car. She twirled a thin lock of her red hair around a long finger and titled her head, staring intently at the letter Lori had given her. She had to squint in the dim light of the bedside lamp, her slightly unkempt brows furrowed. She trailed her pencil across the paper, following every line, silently mouthing the letter word for word. 

Frank noticed all of these things. He noticed everything about her. He noticed the pea-sized beauty mark next to her eye, he noticed the chipped maroon polish on her nails, he noticed the way her breath sped up and slowed back down again as she tried to decode the letter. He was trying so hard to stop noticing. He couldn’t help it. Something kept his eyes glued on her, from the moment they met at Union Station.

The truth was he had noticed her long before that. He had always had a crush on Nancy, not that he’d admit it to anyone. Especially not Joe, who caught on fast and teased him mercilessly for it. He was always eager to answer her calls, excited to talk through her cases with her. He loved hearing the awe in her voice when she figured out a clue and the gratefulness in it when he and Joe (somehow) managed to be of help to her. 

She was so god damn smart. Frank could hear the gears turning in her mind over the phone. He was convinced she didn’t need him and Joe--she could have called anyone to use as a sounding board for her ideas and figured it out on her own. She usually chose to ask their opinions anyway, and Frank was more than happy to oblige.

But since they met for this case, it’s begun to feel less like just a crush. He and Nancy (and, admittedly, his brother) had formed a sort of bond. They quickly found their rhythm together working the case and Frank thoroughly enjoyed their dynamic. It was exhilarating: their first case with Nancy Drew on an old train chugging along through the Colorado desert.

Maybe being in such a dreamy atmosphere was clouding his mind. The romantic backstory of Jake and Camille certainly didn’t help. But the more time he spent exploring and investigating with Nancy, the more he gravitated toward her.

He was sure she had noticed him staring by now. He could usually keep his cool over the phone, but being here, in person with her, able to see her bright blue eyes, touch her soft arms and smell her perfume when they hugged at the train station...it was wearing him down.

They hadn’t seen each other in two years, their last encounter at Joe’s high school graduation party. He recalled their earlier meetings, in the midst of puberty, when his crush had first formed and he stumbled over his words in front of her. He felt like that 15 year old kid again, stuttering and mumbling around her, begging Joe not to embarrass them. Not much had changed.

In reality, Joe’s antics on this trip were probably charming her more than anything, and Frank was just making things awkward. 

Luckily, Nancy was just as excited to work with him-them-as he was to work with her. She was beaming when they met at the train station early that morning. She ran to them with every clue she found on the train, eager to put all of their brains together.

If Frank wasn’t so insecure he’d notice Nancy’s eyes lingering on him more than Joe when the three of them huddled in the dining car. He’d interpret her compliments on his abilities and intelligence as more than just friendly observations of a fellow detective. He’d realize she admired him in more ways than one. Nancy was usually the oblivious one, but for a semi-professional detective, he was being incredibly obtuse.

Then again, she wasn’t exactly being as upfront as she would be about anything else. Nancy was nothing if not blunt, but she couldn’t very well treat Frank like a suspect. She had no issue confronting everyone on this train, but confronting her feelings? That sounded like a nightmare.

She was also all too aware of the ethical reasons she couldn’t, or shouldn’t, tell Frank how she felt. While they weren’t exactly talking at the moment, she knew Ned was waiting for her at home. She knew he’d eventually apologize. She wasn’t even sure what he’d be apologizing for. She was always the one who needed to say sorry.

She hadn’t seen the boy in two years--so what if her crush had resurfaced? Was it worth risking a solid relationship for a fleeting desire? She had something real, something tangible. Frank Hardy was always just a guilty pleasure of her imagination; a fantasy her mind wandered to when she wanted to get out of her own head, out of River Heights.

But wasn’t that the life she craved anyway?

Joe had fallen asleep already, his steady, quiet snoring trailing down from the top bunk. Nancy and Frank sat close on the floor below and kept quiet. Frank was leaning against the bottom bunk he had claimed, Nancy sitting cross-legged a few inches in front of him. The dim light of the lamp on the bedside table shone warm and yellow on Nancy’s skin.

About an hour had gone by without either of them uttering a word, sitting in comfortable silence together. Admittedly, Frank had spent the better half of that hour looking at or thinking about Nancy rather than the case.

“Can you make heads or tails of this?” she asked him, waving Jake’s letter at him. “I thought I cracked part of it but I might just be sleep-deprived.”

Frank yawned and took the paper from her. He stared at the old parchment paper, the fading black script swimming in front of him. Calico, Silverado, blah blah blah...He wiped his hand over his face and handed the letter back.

“Nance, it’s been a long day. I think it’s best to just look at it with a fresh set of eyes in the morning.”

Nancy looked disappointed as she took the letter back. She made no moves to get up, just resumed flipping through her notebook. As tired as Frank was, he didn’t want her to leave, so he pretended to be looking at his own notes and tried not to fall asleep. He rested his head against the bed behind him. His eyes fluttering shut. He’d just rest his eyes for a moment...then he could spend more time with Nancy...

He jolted awake when he heard himself snore. He jerked his head up and looked at Nancy, who wasn’t looking at him, but still immersed in her notes. Thank God, he thought.

He wiped the corner of his mouth surreptitiously, in case, god forbid, he had drooled during his nap. He couldn’t have been out for long, she probably didn’t even notice...

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said, smiling slyly as she kept her head down. Frank blushed, admittedly enjoying the sound of that coming out of her mouth.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day, I guess it just..caught up to me. I-”

“No, I’m sorry, I’m probably keeping you awake.”

“Oh, no, I mean, obviously I can fall asleep sitting straight up with you here, so...” He smiled, embarrassed.

“I just...feel a little weird in my room. It’s where Camille used to sleep, apparently, and before you say it,” Nancy looked at him pointedly. He smirked. “No, I don’t believe in ghosts now. But I think John Grey has been pulling tricks to make people think Camille’s spirit’s roaming around here, and I don’t want to be a target.”

“If you say so, Drew. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Joe you’ve suddenly become a believer.”

She shot him another look.

“I do say so. After what Lori pulled on us, who knows what else we’re in for.”

“You have a point,” he conceded.

“I always do.” Nancy smiled playfully, and Frank’s stomach knotted. He was in awe of the way they fell back into this groove every time they worked on a case together. The light teasing, bouncing ideas off one another.

“Plus, Tino said something about ‘going over our notes together,’ which I think means he just wants to see what I’ve found out so far, and I don’t want to be there if or when he knocks on my door. I’d rather just avoid him.”

“What a sleazebag.” Frank scoffed. “He’s been so condescending this whole trip, and he wants to take credit for your work. Let me know if he says anything else. I know Joe is just looking for an excuse to deck him.”

Nancy shook her head. “No no no, Frank, really, it’s okay. I can handle myself.”

Frank backtracked. “I know! I was mostly kidding. I-I wasn’t saying you couldn’t, or-”

“Besides, I really don’t want you to get kicked off of this trip.” She put her hand on his tense thigh.

Frank softened immediately. “You’re right. I wouldn’t actually hit the guy, you know. Joe might, though.” Nancy breathed out a laugh.

He kept talking to keep his mind off of her hand on his leg. “You can stay in here as long as you want. I mean...I’ll even sleep on the floor, if you want to take my bunk.”

“No, I couldn’t do that to you!”

“Nancy, please. As you can see, I’ll fall asleep anywhere.”

She stayed silent, reluctant to accept his offer, but inwardly groaning at the thought of sleeping on the floor of a train car.

“I’m not taking no for an answer.”

She smiled graciously.

She scooted over to lean against the bed next to him, her arm dangerously close to his.

“You’re the best.”

Frank cracked a toothy smile and he felt a flutter in his stomach.

“I’m so glad you invited me. I was really excited to hear from you,” Nancy gushed, but instantly cringed, wondering if she was coming on too strong.

“I’m glad you decided to come,” Frank’s deep voice and sincere tone sent a shiver down Nancy’s spine.

Their hands, propping them both up on the floor, were nearly touching. Nancy shifted hers so her pinky grazed his thumb.

“You know, I missed you guys, a lot.”

Frank turned to her when she said this to find her facing him, her nose just a few inches from his, her ice blue eyes gazing at him. He had never seen that look on her face before, and he was trying to pin down what it was when she whispered, “Especially you.”

Nancy’s lips curved slightly. She hoped he finally caught on. A girl could only drop so many hints.

Frank thought he might be imagining the signs due to fatigue, but in that moment he didn’t even care if he made a fool of himself. His eyes flitted across her face before determinedly, but slowly, leaning into her, giving her plenty of time to back away. She didn’t.

He hovered a centimetre from her, the end of his nose touching hers. They sat suspended in time, delaying the inevitable. Their eyelids slipped lower. Frank held himself there, thinking that as long as this was all that happened, they weren’t breaking any rules. There was nothing wrong with this. Nancy might have had the same thought. He dared to move a little closer.

Nancy closed her eyes but did not move, allowing Frank to capture her lips in his. Her lips tingled, the sensation traveling down her body, between her legs, down to her toes. Her breath caught.

Once she finally regained control of her body, her lips began to move in sync with his. 

Frank’s hand moved up to the side of her face, his fingers tickling her ear and just below her jaw, and another jolt ran through her. She placed a light hand on his chest, noticing his firm muscles below his soft t-shirt.

As the hand on her cheek slipped into her hair, Frank moved his other hand to her waist and leaned further into her. Her skin seared where he touched her. She broke away for a millisecond to breathe a shaky breath before reconnecting with him, leaning further into him, applying more pressure.

Her tongue had just found its way into his mouth when a particularly loud snore from Joe made them jump apart. Nancy’s eyes widened and pointed upwards where the younger Hardy boy rustled.

Frank held his breath until his brother stopped stirring, watching Nancy’s face shift from startled to embarrassed. She blushed, but had a mischievous twinkle in her eye. They caught eyes and awkwardly chuckled.

He felt like he was in high school again, almost caught by his parents on the couch in the basement with a girl. That was usually Joe, though.

Nancy bit her lip and looked at the ground. Frank cleared his throat to break the silence. The moment was gone.

“I think it might be time to get ready for bed,” Frank whispered, gesturing to his brother. 

Nancy laughed silently and pushed herself up off the floor, brushing off her soft white shorts. 

Frank grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste and headed out of the room without a word. Nancy blew out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and sat down on the bed, leaning against the wall and trying one last time to decipher the letter. Anything to avoid thinking about what just happened.

When Frank walked back in a few moments later, Nancy forced her eyes to stay focused on the paper in front of her, but she could feel her face heating up.

Frank shuffled awkwardly, unsure what to do next. Were they supposed to talk about it? Pretend it never happened?

He was just about to ask Nancy to hand him a pillow from the bed so he could make up his sleeping arrangement on the floor when she perked up.

“Wait, I think I figured something out. Look at this,” she beckoned to Frank and he sat next to her on the bed, looking over her shoulder at the letter. 

“The oven in the dining car has some symbols on it that I saw on the scale that opened the door to Jake’s projector room. Do you think that’s what he means by a warm place?”

“It definitely could be. Either way, it sounds like the oven is significant.”

She turned over her shoulder and their eyes met. Again, Frank lost all rational thought and fought sleep away, forcing his eyes open as he grabbed his notebook again and leaned into Nancy to continue looking over the letter.

The two of them pored over the notes again in silence, this time on the small twin bed. Frank was suddenly wide awake, alert and aware of every sensation. His temperature rose every time she shifted and their arms touched, but she was clearly unruffled by the whole event. Leave it to Nancy to act like nothing had happened five minutes after the fact.

Eventually, Nancy’s eyes began to droop and her head lolled to the side, hovering above Frank’s shoulder. He shifted so her face met his arm and she could rest on him comfortably. She jumped awake at the contact.

“Ugh, now I’m falling asleep.” She smiled sheepishly at him. He chuckled.

“It’s okay, we can just go to bed and take another look in the morning. It’s late.”

Frank moved to slide off the bed when Nancy timidly grabbed his wrist.

“You don’t...have to sleep on the floor, Frank. I-I mean, it’s so uncomfortable, I don’t want you to be in pain tomorrow.”

Was she implying they could share this small bunk bed? After what had just happened? His stomach was twisting--he wanted desperately to lie down next to her, both for the comfort of an actual bed and the contact it would allow. But that would make things even murkier.

She had a boyfriend. His brother was in the room, just a few feet above them.

Frank turned to her and wished he hadn’t, because it crushed any resolve he had left in him. Her bright blue eyes were glossy with fatigue, and something else. Something he couldn’t say no to.

“Are you sure? It’s really no problem...” he said, noncommittally.

She nodded, pulling the blankets down. Swallowing hard, Frank leaned over to turn the dim lamp off and lay on his back next to her, being careful to keep his body as far from hers as possible. Although in this twin bed, even that meant he could feel the static in the space between their arms.

Nancy yawned and turned her head to the side, gazing at the outline of Frank’s profile in the dark. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch his face, to trace his hard jawline speckled with stubble. She closed her eyes and tried to just enjoy the weight of his body next to hers. In an instant, she slipped into slumber.

Despite his racing mind and pounding heart, it didn’t take long for Frank to fall asleep either.

Not much later, Frank was awoken by a sudden pressure on his chest. He opened his eyes to a mass of red tresses just under his chin, shining in the moonlight spilling through the room’s small window.

He sighed as he realized his arm had instinctively wrapped around Nancy when she sidled up next to him while they slept, her leg draped over his and her dainty hand gently lain on his collarbone. His heart sped up to the point where he was afraid it would wake her.

Slowly and carefully, Frank shimmied them both deeper under the covers and tried to slide them closer to the wall in an attempt to obscure their sleeping position should Joe wake up.

He told himself he didn’t want to remove Nancy from his chest because he didn’t want to wake her. Any other reasons, he shoved deep down. He closed his eyes tight, willing the guilt away and trying his best to ignore the warm, glowing feeling radiating from his entire body.

After another hour or so, Frank was again awoken, this time by Joe climbing down from the top bunk. Panicked, Frank turned swiftly onto his side, facing the wall, forcing Nancy onto hers and shielding her from sight. She stirred in her sleep, her hand mindlessly rubbing up and down Frank’s abdomen. 

Christ. This isn’t helping.

She didn’t wake, even when the door slammed shut behind Joe as he went, presumably, to the bathroom. By the time he came back to the room, Frank’s and Nancy’s legs had tangled further together and Nancy’s hand had slithered up onto Frank’s face, her thumb grazing his cheekbone.

She really moves a lot in her sleep. Frank’s half-conscious mind wandered. She’s probably a blanket hog, and rubs her cold feet on whoever she shares a bed with...Frank could get used to it.

Frank held his breath until he heard his brother lay back down above them, hoping he hadn’t seen the extra mass beneath his blanket. He really didn’t feel like answering Joe’s questions, or being the target of his poorly-veiled jabs in front of Nancy and everyone else for the rest of the train ride.

We’re not doing anything wrong. She needed a place to sleep. Cuddling up next to a warm body is a reflex, it just happens. We weren’t even conscious. The excuses rolled through his head on a conveyor belt. He tried not to think of whom Nancy usually cuddled with, hogged blankets from and bothered with her cold feet. He again fell into a comfortable sleep.

Frank would have been annoyed at being woken up for a third time that night, had it been anyone else. When he opened his eyes, Nancy was crawling over him, her long legs stretching carefully to avoid stepping on him. She gracefully slid onto the floor and adjusted her shorts.

A quick glance at the clock on the wall told Frank it was 6 AM--there was no way Joe was up yet. Nancy tiptoed toward the door and slowly slid it open. When she turned around to close it she locked eyes with Frank, realizing he was awake.

He felt embarrassed that he was caught watching her, but she grinned at him in a way he hadn’t seen before, like there was a secret between them. He realized the look in her eyes was the one he’d seen last night. Her gaze lingered on him a moment as he rubbed the sleep from his eye and smiled back. She slid the door shut and Frank dropped his head back onto the pillow, still feeling her warmth on the mattress next to him.

Nancy strolled back to her own room in the quiet of the morning, soft blue light flooding the train car. Too disoriented to recognize any potential consequences, she couldn’t stop smiling.

[stinkyratshadowgod]

My Apex Theory about Rev and the Shadowfall Dimension

[Apex Legends Story Quest spoilers, beware]

So basically, i think Revenant, in this storyline, it’s going to win and then achieve godhood and then create another shadowfall-like dimension

Keep in mind that this is just my theory and honestly i think that i may go bonkers in some places, but idk i just felt like sharing this with the fandom (also sorry if i break my english, it’s not my first language)

Okay so basically i believe that Revenant it’s going to win the treasure hunt and then become a shadow god, and i’m gonna tell you why:

1-Voidwalker:

I wanna start by saying that i believe that the Shadowfall dimension (gonna call it dimension SF) is actually the storyline dimension (SD dimension) but in a future time, now you might be asking on how is that possible and my explanation

In the voidwalker trailer, we see a diferent dimension Wraith coming to help our Wraith, and we can belive that VoidWalker Wraith has mastered her void powers, while our Wraith have not, now you might see where i’m getting at: V-W Wraith came from another dimension AND TIME to help past wraith to escape.

Now you might say that this isn’t possible (and i would believe you cuz you would be more knowledgeable than me) but what i’m trying to say that the only way that our wraith could’ve have escaped was with the help of a more experienced Wraith, that with her maestry of the void powers, achieved the ability to travel throught space and time. 

One of my point being that VW Wraith couldn’t helped Wraith more than getting her out of the facility and giving her a portal timer(?) (for example, giving a piece of technology to control the void) is because VW Wraith doesn’t use a special tech to control the void because it’s not tech (even tho she uses a fancy futuristic suit) and even the dimension arm counter doesn’t control the ability, it just tells VW if she can use the portal, not precisely controling the ability, thus showing us that even the ability to time travel, VW Wraith still have to trully master her abilities (thus setting the unknow capabilities of the void powers)

You may be asking where i want to go with this information: I am trying to say that a diferent dimension where it takes hours-days-weeks-months-years in the future/past is possible, and that after some weeks in the Storyline dimension the Shadowfall dimension will become reality

2-Storyline dimension is not our cannon timeline (where i go the most bonkers)

You might be asking what i mean by that, and before i answer you, ask yourself? “If the Apex Games has this crazy tech of bringing dead boxes back to life and having multiple legends at once INCLUDING WATTSON (and Tom confirmes that it’s possible, but i can’t find the tweet, if someone find it, dm me) even tho in the lore shes in critical state, then where is the Apex Games and their crazy healing tech? Cuz i do believe losing a legend would be bad for business and would make a lot of her fans sad.

I know your response would be for gameplay reasons, but it’s really strange that the Apex Games doesn’t just heal her with their crazy tech, well my theory is that our Wattson is doing a-ok while Storyline Wattson is with boo boos. (Now this is just my headcanon of my theory, but Storyline Apex Games is not so technogically advanced like our Apex Games, and SL Apex Games does less matches than our Apex Games, with my point being that in the SL Apex the legends have whole days to do their casual stuff [evidence being the whole chapter 3]).

Another point for my theory is the presence of Prowlers (the creatures) on King Canyons. When you think about it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for having these creatures in KC, sure in WE we have the trials, but in not a single moment there was an explanation on why there are Prowlers in KC (no event, no map change, etc). Heck, it doesn’t even make sense the presence of Prowlers on the Shadowfall KC. My explanation is that at some point when Rev took over King Canyons, some corporation (The IMC, Hammond Robotics, the Syndicate or another faceless faction) tried to re-take KC, and did some experiments about the supernatural changes made by Rev, and so they brought Prowlers as test rats, but they were quickly destroyied by Revenant and his army of monsters (Thats also my headcanon)

3-Why Revenant will and should win (Pls hear me out first)

You might be asking me why? ...Do you want my personal reason or the lore reason? Well i get to choose because i’m the one writting the theory (thats why it’s so bonkers)

The lore reason is because that would explain the Shadowfall event, think about it, every event had an explanation on why it’s happening (Christimas event - Mirage opens a new flying boat bar and due to his popularity hes set to organize the christimas event; System override - Hammond robotics starts to take controll of the Apex Games; Grande Soirée - Pathfinder throws a party; Old Ways and Voidwalker - Events related to a new piece of lore introduced, with Old Ways being Blood’s origin story and Voidwalker explaining Wraith’s past; Battle armor - Hammond [i assume] introduces a new type of armor to the Apex Games, the Evo shield; I don’t have a exact explanation for the “Iron crown” and “Legendary hunt” so let’s just say that it was the Apex Games idea to do these events). 

The personal reason is that i love Revenant with all my heart, and honestly i would enjoy seeing the antagonist winning at the end (without them turning good or getting killed seconds after their victory)

Also i believe that in the lore and outside of the game (and by that i mean PC/PS4/XBOX), Revenant is the strongest between all the legends, cuz not only he’s the strongest phisically (agile metal body and being build with the whole purpose of being a killing machine) but he also have supernatural powers (that doesn’t have a lore explanation, which makes me sad, so let’s assume that it’s a supernatural emp that works for both machine and flesh) and he can’t die, so hes basically unstoppable, and now that he knows about his godhood in the alternative dimension, how would the legends stop him

That was my TED talk, thanks for reading throught all my mad ramblings, if there is something you would like to ask/add, let me know

[oscar-piastri]

the hating game | part two [ben hardy x reader]

title: the hating game

pairing: ben hardy x reader

summary: working with Ben is complicated, especially since you can’t stand him but the cast gets tired of your dumb fights

words: around 2k

part one

taglist: @borhapparker @luvborhap @coldmuffinpartycloud

You woke up with the worst headache you’ve ever had, you had no idea what time it was but you only wish to stay in bed a little bit longer, as you rolled into the bed to hide your face in your pillow. You felt the blankets on your naked body, and you quickly changed to a sitting position, covering your naked chest with the blanket. And you clearly remembered what happened last night.

You remembered dragging Ben inside the small bedroom, as you were taking off each other clothes, you remember his lips attached to your neck, leaving a trail of kisses until he reach your breasts. You remember moaning his name, as your hands got lost in his hair. You remember everything, and what was upsetting was that you loved it and he wasn’t here when you woke up, he didn’t even left a note. You knew he had to leave, but after the night spent together, a small note would have been nice.

Looking around the room, you noticed your phone on the nightstand. Your view was a bit blurry but you could still see the many texts from your boss, and after a few minutes, you adjusted your eyes to see clearly the digits from the clock, showing that you were already late to work. You ran to your bathroom to quickly take a shower and get dressed, you skip the breakfast part to avoid being even more late. You were already on the edge of losing your job, you couldn’t afford any more mistakes.

You arrived in the costume trailer, completely out of breath from the sprint you just had, and let’s say that all eyes were focused on you.

“Sorry” you muttered, putting down your stuff to get ready to work.

“I told you to be careful” you boss whispered in your ears 

“I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s okay, they told me about your little night out” he said, handing you a cup of coffee. “I forgive you because you made peace with Ben” 

His words made you freak out a little, because you didn’t know if the cast and crew knew about the night you spent with Ben.

“You’re okay?” He asked when he noticed the worried look on your face. 

“Y-yeah… Just hungover I guess… Ben walked back with me and I just collapsed on my bed” you lied, hoping he didn’t already knew the truth.

“Yeah, Ben told me you were pretty drunk last night. See, he’s not that bad, he made sure you came back safely” You shyly smiled and excused yourself to find Lucy who was calling you.

Later that day, after trying to find Ben for hours to talk, you managed to find him sitting alone. Crazy how when you’re trying to find him he was nowhere to be found, while when you didn’t want to see him, he was everywhere. Ben was on his phone, and you made him know you were here by clearing your throat.

“What do you want?” He asked, pushing a button to lock his phone and put it away.

“I think we need to talk” you told him, a little bit embarrassed about this situation.

“Yeah you’re not wrong” He said, and seeing him so serious was actually scaring you a little bit.

“So I-”

“I think it was a big mistake” Ben said right away, and his words hit you like a hammer. “We were clearly drunk, I barely remember it but I know it was a mistake. One that we shouldn’t make again” He continued, and each word felt like a knife in your heart, but refusing to show any feelings, you tried to keep a straight face. 

“Yeah… Having sex with you was clearly a mistake, and I wish it never happened. I’ll see you at lunch” you mumbled before storming out of the room. You couldn’t believe Ben’s choice of harsh words, you spent the night with a gentle Ben, but just a minute ago, you were facing that asshole Ben you’ve always knew. It was painful to see that Ben wasn’t sharing the same thoughts about last night, and it was clearly gonna make things even more awkward and hard to be around him now.

Lunch came pretty quickly, and as usual you sat at the cast table to be with your friends, and you picked a seat far away from Ben’s. Everyone was chatting, but your choice was to eat in silent, as you were hit with flashbacks from last night every time you’d close your eyes.

“Oh, Benny, who are you texting?” Joe asked, curious to see why Ben was spending his time on his phone.

“A girl I met last night” Ben answered and the picture of Ben kissing your neck was replaced by Ben dancing with that girl. You hold your fork a little bit tighter to avoid planting it in his phone. “If I didn’t had to bring her” he said pointing at you “I would have spent the night with the girl”

That was it, you’ve had enough and once again, his words made you switch and you snap.

“Fucking asshole!” You yelled, getting up from your seat. “Liar!” you continued, throwing the water from your glass at his face. “You’re a pig” you added, throwing him your fries.

The whole room stood up, surprised and shocked by your action, but only Gwil and your boss were the one who ran to you to drag you outside the room while you were still yelling at Ben. They stopped in front of the trailer, where Gwil advised you to take some day off, before he left to check on Ben.

“Gwil is right. Production is going on a week break at the end of the week. Take the rest of the week off, enjoy your week free” you boss began 

“Thank you” you started, before your boss cut you

“But don’t come back after that. I can’t stand having you around acting like that. You’re fired” He continued, his last words echoing in your head. Staying put, you watched him leave, letting you alone with your tears.

Today was the day where the production was back on, but you were back home. The last few days made you a mess, and you couldn’t even find the courage to call your friends from the cast, to tell them that you weren’t going to be on set anymore. You were blaming yourself for getting fired, but you were also blaming Ben for being the triggering factor. 

You couldn’t believe that after sleeping with you, he went on and acted like a total douchebag once again. Hearing him talking about this girl only a few hours after you had sex made you jealous and lose your self control. 

Later that day, you received many texts from Gwil, Rami, Joe and Lucy, but you decided to ignore them, not ready to see what they wanted to tell you. 

But only two days later, as you were going outside to meet some friends, you were surprised to have someone knocking on your door. You had to restrain yourself from slamming the door to his face, but his hands were holding the door pretty tightly.

“What do you want?” You asked after letting him in and inviting him to have a sit in your living room

“I looked for you on set, I asked everyone where you were, until your boss told me he fired you. I came to apologize” Ben’s voice sounded so serious, you didn't feel a inch of lies or joke in his sentence, and by reading the look on his face, you knew he was honest.

“I got fired because I couldn’t control my emotions. That’s on me” you pointed out, mumbling.

“I feel really bad about it. I’m not apologizing to make me feel better, I’m apologizing because I’m really sorry for my attitude towards you the last few months.” He explained

“I like where this is going” you joked, making Ben crack a soft smile.

“I realise I’ve been pushing you too far, and I realised too late, that you cared about the night we spent together. I was a dick who just wanted to mess with you in the morning, making you jealous. I didn’t know it would have ended up like that. I’m sorry for the past few months, for the last years. And I really want that truce to be real” Ben apologized, starting to ramble, letting out everything he wanted to say.

“Ben, I..” You started, but Ben wasn't ready to let you say anything.

“Sorry, I’m not finished. I just… I need you to know everything.” He interrupted you. “You’re haunting me. I swear, I just… When I close my eyes, I picture you, your body pulled against mine, I picture the moment where we were finally on the same page” he continued, and you felt your cheeks burning a little, remembering Ben kissing your bare skin. “And I just… I don’t know, I feel like a void now that you’re not here. I wasn’t showing it at all, I’m well aware of that, but I enjoyed having you in the same room, you just have this energy that I love, and I guess I loved it more when I was driving you crazy” it was really touching to see Ben allowing himself to say the truth, his action made you happy because it felt like somehow, you meant something for him.

But even though he apologized, there was something that you’d struggle to accept, and you had to let Ben know.

“Ben… I want you to leave” you said in a cold voice, which surprised Ben, he clearly wasn’t ready for you to turn him down like that 

“Excuse me?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I- I don’t want to see you.. I… I need time” you muttered

“No! I came here, I left the shooting for a few days, I apologize, I even told you that I miss you, that I li-... I regret everything rude I did to you. And that’s how you treat me?” He asked, raising his voice.

“I know I haven’t been soft with you and I apologize, for everything wrong I did..” you began 

“I forgive you, now let’s move on” Ben cut you off, making it harder for you.

“It’s not simple, Ben! I forgave you, I did! But God knows I’ve tried to forget, without being able to do it. And you telling me that having sex with me was a mistake, made me feel so awful about myself, and it just reminded me how you ruined high school for me, how you were daily annoying me and how you had a part in me losing my job.” You explained, as you watched his confidence slowly leaving his body

“But you said-”

“I know what I said. I can’t forget what you did, and it’s gonna take me a while, I need time” you told him, leaving him speechless for a bit

“Do you believe me when I say that I want to make peace, have a fresh new start?” He slowly asked, a little bit afraid of your answer.

“I do, and I can’t accept it right now, I need to be away from you, away from the negativity you’re making me feel” 

“Y/N..” He was having a hard time seeing you declining his peace offering.

Deep down, you knew you wanted to accept that, start a new friendship with Ben, but you felt like something was blocking you. You couldn’t handle trusting him, only to see him miss with you again. And even though he looked completely honest and sincere, you couldn’t stop that doubting feeling.

“Just go, please…” you begged, before he nodded and left his seat to exit your place. You followed him to the door silently, hating yourself for rejecting him but having a mixed feeling as you were still proud of yourself of making the decision you thought was right at the time. You carefully closed the door behind him, hoping he would be understanding and not too mad about it.

[spaceiplier]

SPACEIPLIER: Crooked Man

“I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry,” Jack muttered over and over again, mostly to himself.

He and Ethan were sitting outside the infirmary, watching as Kathryn and Amy helped Mark stand and look over his rapidly-healed injury. The cut had been deep, and it had left a nasty-looking scar down the center of Mark’s torso. Jack had been staying with them for the past few days while the medical pod did its work, but the machine could only heal so much.

Ethan hadn’t said a word to him since he had arrived. He didn’t say a thing to Jack or any of his crew mates. He simply made sure the pod stayed running, and sat quietly next to Jack. There was no emotion on his face but stubborn determination to save his friend, and confusion at Jack’s insistence that he didn’t mean it.

“He’ll be okay,” Ethan finally said to Jack. “Mark is fine.”

The spines on Jack’s arms rippled with unease. He knew Mark would be fine. The pod had healed him, and the only sign of Jack’s stupid mistake was scarred across his torso. It wasn’t Mark’s injuries he was worried about.

It was how much he was going to hate Jack now.

“I know,” Jack mumbled. He jumped as the infirmary door slid open behind them. Amy smiled sympathetically at Jack. She was supporting Mark, who was still half asleep from the med pod.

“Heeeey Jaaack,” Mark slurred. “You still heeeeere?”

Jack nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, not trusting his voice.

“Coooooool. I want to taaaalk with yooou about thaaaat…. Whateverrrr that thing waaaaas. Don’t go hoooome,” Mark insisted.

“You need to sleep first,” Amy said gently, saving Jack from having to respond. “C’mon, let’s get you to our room.”

Mark nodded and yawned, “You’re preeeeetty.” Amy smiled and rolled her eyes, guiding him slowly down the hall.

“See? He’s fine,” Ethan said, gently elbowing Jack in the arm.

Jack flinched and shuffled a few inches away from Ethan. The android frowned, but covered it up quickly.

“Do you want something to eat? I don’t think I’ve seen you eat anything since you got here. If you want, I can make something for you.”

“I’m fine,” Jack started to insist, but Kathryn came out of the infirmary, arms folded.

“We’re getting food,” she said. “You’re still healing, and you haven’t eaten anything in three days. Come on.”

Ethan smirked, sharing a what can you do? look with Jack, and got to his feet. He held out his hand, offering Jack help. Jack reached out, but when he caught sight of his own hands, he hesitated. He pulled back, getting to his feet without Ethan’s assistance.

“Okay,” Jack said, avoiding making eye contact with Ethan or Kathryn. “Hope you have meat.”

.

.

.

Jack stood in front of the crew of the Barrel. They sat before him on the couches, staring at him. It felt like he’d been standing there for years, all of them giving him their undivided attention. All of them. Staring at him. Waiting for him to talk. His throat felt dry, and he couldn’t decide if the room was too hot or too cold. He forced his tail to stay still instead of betraying how anxious he was, but they probably already knew.

“Take your time,” Mark said gently. Jack was taking his time. He’d been taking his time for the past fifteen minutes. Ethan’s leg was bouncing almost as fast as Jack’s heart rate.

“I… I, er… I don’t…” Jack took a deep breath, forcing his voice to steady. “I don’t know how to start this. I haven’t told anyone about this… this thing… in years.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I- I didn’t think I’d have to. Meeting you guys… becoming so close to you guys… that was never the plan. I knew this would happen eventually, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I knew that I would end up hurting one of you. Of course it ended up being Mark, you fucking hero.”

“Hey!”

“I’m not safe,” Jack said, ignoring Mark’s protest. “I’m a ticking time bomb.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Tyler suggested, his usually stoic expression relaxed and gentle.

Jack swallowed hard and allowed his tail to twitch nervously behind him. “Okay. The beginning.” Thinking back on dumb, newly-off-of-Varellex Jack, he wanted to go back and shake him. Tell him not to throw himself into dumb situations. Tell him that he would be safer without an AI. Tell him that he was safe with friends. Too late now, though.

“I don’t really know when exactly I had the idea first, but it was some time after getting my eye replaced and probably after one of Chase’s breakdowns. I had heard about people getting AIs installed in cyborg parts, but Robin said that they usually ended up with something going wrong.” Jack flinched as he watched the Barrel crew slowly all realize where the story was going. “I thought I could do better. Dumb, right? The guy who can’t even program a fucking robot right thought he could make an AI.”

They didn’t say anything. Just let him talk. Jack didn’t know if that was better or worse than someone breaking his rambling.

“I stayed up for days programming him. I hardly took a single break.” Jack decided to refrain from telling them he hadn’t taken any break. “He had some base coding already, but I had to do a lot of work to make sure he would work like he was supposed to.”

Mark looked like he wanted to ask something. Jack wanted him to ask it, but Mark stayed quiet.

“I had to route the installation through Sam, but it worked,” Jack continued. “I had an AI installed in my eye. Everything was working. Everything was fine. I thought I didn’t have anything to worry about, and for a while, I didn’t. SEAN-I was perfect.”

“SEAN-I?” Ethan broke the silence, earning a shove from Kathryn.

“It’s what I called him. My AI. Safeguard Engaged by Automatic Neural Interface,” Jack explained. “He worked really well for a while. Whenever I was in danger and couldn’t get myself out of a sticky situation, I’d take a backseat and watch as SEAN-I got me and whoever else out of there safely. I really liked him. We- we all really liked him. Chase, JJ, Henrik, even Robin started to come around to him. One day, though, I don’t know what happened, but he snapped.”

Jack’s breathing stuttered. He felt like there was a weight on his chest, and the world was spinning. He hated remembering that day. The stench of blood and gore. The tearing, clawing, and killing he had woken up to. The fear in Chase’s eyes.

If Jack could forget, he would.

“Chase and I, we were cornered by a ton of GLE officers, and I let SEAN-I take over to help get us out. I- he- he usually let me see what was happening when he took over. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t do anything. It was like I’d been knocked out of my own body. I was stuck in some black void. The back of my own fucking mind while he rode front seat and destroyed everything. He killed all of them. He- he-” Jack froze as he forced himself to not cry.

Mark stood and walked over to Jack, pulling him into a hug. Jack didn’t move. He couldn’t. He was forcing every part of his being to not completely break down. Mark hugged him tighter.

“It’s okay, man,” Mark said. “We got you.”

The rest of the crew appeared around them, their own arms joining the tangle of hugs. Slowly, Jack’s breathing calmed down and his hands stopped shaking.

“It’s okay,” Ethan said.

“Just breathe,” Amy murmured and patted his back while Tyler patted his shoulder.

“Take your time,” Kathryn added.

Jack slowly pulled out of the group hug as his body stopped shuddering. He still felt like shit, but he was no longer on the edge of a panic attack. “Thanks,” he muttered.

“You’re our friend,” Mark said, smiling. “We’ll always be here for you, no matter how bad it gets.”

Jack twitched a smile and stared down at his feet. “I- he got worse after that,” he continued, trying to ignore the warm feeling in his heart. “He took over with almost no warning except for a splitting migraine, and ended up destroying Jackie’s original head and half of his internal pieces when he was still being built. Jackie ended up being ANTI’s counter.”

Ethan opened his mouth, but was shushed by Kathryn.

“Automatic Neural Terror Interface,” Jack explained. “Whenever he took over, Chase and JJ would go with Henrik into his office, and Jackie would fight off ANTI until he knocked m- knocked him out. Eventually I built the safe room and got ANTI mostly under control. I learned ANTI’s signals. Headaches, an itchy feeling in the back of my head, things like that. I learned how to slow him down. I had him under control. At least, as much as I could. Then I just had to go and fuck it up.”

“I’m fine,” Mark insisted, but Jack shook his head.

“I know ANTI. I should have known that he would attack you. This is all my fault.”

“Hey,” Mark started to say, but Amy cut him off.

“Jack,” she said. “We don’t hate you. None of us do. It was an accident, and all we can ask is that you learn from it. Mark is fine. We’re all fine. We just want to make sure that you’re fine now.”

“I mean, I guess I’m okay,” Jack said. “At least, I’m okay as I’ll ever be. It’s hard to be completely ‘okay’ when you’ve got a homicidal AI constantly trying to take control so that you’ll always be ‘safe.’”

“At least his sense of humor survived,” Ethan snorted.

Jack smiled back, letting himself relax slightly.

“Thank you for telling us,” Tyler said. “We’ll make sure to take more precautions in the future.”

Jack flinched internally. He didn’t need more people taking precautions around him. He already had to take precautions around his own crew, and that hurt. It just confirmed that he wasn’t safe. He was a stupid, terrible, dangerous monster.

None of them noticed. Mark patted Jack’s back, smiling as he passed by him on the way out. “We got that new game, if you’re interested in sticking around for a little while longer?”

“Maybe some other time,” Jack said apologetically. “I still need to fix Henrik and make sure Chase hasn’t broken down again. JJ’s probably going to freak out at me when I get back, and I don’t want him to break down too.” He hesitated for a minute. “I have a new project I want to get started on too. For you guys.”

“You don’t have to,” Mark tried to argue, but Jack waved his hand.

“I want to,” he insisted. “Just let me have this, okay?”

Mark nodded with understanding. “We’ll see you later, then.”

Jack nodded and watched the Barrel crew all leave the room. He sighed, letting all the tension in his body leave. For a moment, emotion started building up in his throat, but he pushed it down again. He left, walking quickly to his own ship. Mark meant well. They all did. They just didn’t understand.

Jack wondered if they ever would.

.

.

.

“Welcome back!” “Long time no see!”

“We were starting to wonder if you’d ever come back.”

The Barrel crew all welcomed Dark back as he stepped onto the docking bay. He gave them all a tense smile and adjusted the pack on his shoulder. He looked just the same as usual, if not slightly healthier and more filled out. The red and blue stripes running down his face were more vibrant, and he walked with confidence and purpose.

“Good to know you’ll still have me,” Dark said smoothly. Mark winced. There was that ringing in his ears again. “I was afraid you wouldn’t need me anymore.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Mark scolded. “I told you before you left that you’re family, and that’s still true. We’d never turn away family.”

“You’re too kind.” Dark set his bag down on the docking bay floor, looking a little surprised all of a sudden. “I just remembered, I picked things up for you all. Mark, would you help me grab them? They’re in my kitchen.”

Without waiting for a response, Dark slipped back on board his ship. Mark hurried after him, giving Amy a thumbs up as he stepped inside. Dark’s ship was just as pristine and orderly as before. If anything, it had gotten cleaner. Mark followed Dark into the kitchen. A few bags were stacked on the counter next to a small septic tank holding a Velm eye. Something felt familiar about it, but Mark didn’t have much time to think on it before Dark handed him a couple of the bags.

“No peeking,” Dark said, his teasing words coming out completely monotone.

A chill ran down Mark’s spine, and the familiar ringing noise returned.

“Got it,” Mark said, taking another bag. “I’ll put these in the common room, then.”

Dark nodded and turned to face the rest of the bags. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

Mark got off of the ship as quickly as he could. He had missed Dark around the ship, but now that he was back, Mark remembered just how unsettling he was. It was probably just how his species were, but the emotionless words and the weird presence he brought with him everywhere made Mark’s skin crawl.

The rest of the crew had already dispersed back to their own rooms. Mark passed Tyler in the hall, taking the dogs to eat.

“Hey, Tyler,” Mark said, readjusting his grip on the bags. “Can you tell everyone to meet in the common room? Dark got us gifts.”

Tyler raised a rocky eyebrow and nodded. “What are they?”

“I didn’t look,” Mark answered, mocking looking offended. “They’re gifts.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll feed the dogs and send everyone down.”

.

.

“I know gifts are usually wrapped, but I’ve never wrapped anything before, so I hope the bags are okay.” Dark looked nervous as he handed the crew each a bag.

“It’s fine, Dark,” Mark said. “We didn’t expect you to get us anything, so this is great.” He waited for Dark to sit down before opening the bag in his lap. It was a camera, similar in style and size to Jack’s robot, Sam. This one, however, was black, with a red-orange iris.

“What is it?” Mark asked, turning the ball around in his hands. It was heavier than he expected, feeling solid.

“A security camera,” Dark answered simply. “It should help keep an eye on things around here. If you rub the iris, it should turn on and register your face and finger prints.”

Mark followed the instructions and looked up in surprise as the camera floated slowly into the air. The pupil dilated and contracted a few times and then floated over to Mark’s shoulder. It remained there, humming quietly.

“Uh, does it have a name?” Mark asked, poking it. It moved slightly, but floated back to the same position.

“Why would it have a name?” Dark asked in return. “It’s a machine.”

Ethan winced, glancing over at Kathryn, then back at Dark. His hands tightened around something in his palm. His present. “I’m going to my room. Tha… thanks for the present, Dark.”

“Of course,” Dark said, apparently unaware of Ethan’s discomfort. Kathryn made a move to follow him, but Dark interrupted, “You haven’t opened your gift yet.”

She started to pull the gift out of its bag while Mark stared after Ethan. Dark had lived before the android revolution. Did he even consider Ethan alive? Or was he just a machine to him? A tool to be used and thrown away. Mark didn’t know where Ethan had come from, but he knew there were some heavy secrets in his past.

He should check up with Ethan afterwards. Make sure he was doing okay.

“Do you like it?” Dark asked, gesturing at the ball floating by Mark’s shoulder.

“Um, yeah,” Mark answered, pulled out of his thoughts. “It will be handy to have another thing to keep an eye out around here. I think I’ll call it Barry. Tiny Ball Barry.”

Dark looked puzzled and frustrated for a moment, then shook his head. “If you want,” he said. “It’s your camera.” He turned to the others still in the room. “Do you all like your gifts?”

Amy looked a lot less enthusiastic about the necklace she had received since Ethan left. The gold chain and blue gemstones shimmered in a way that looked almost artificial. Kathryn held up her own silver and green necklace, comparing it to Amy’s. Her nose wrinkled as she held the chain up to her neck. Tyler held a snow globe depicting his home planet. The snow drifted slowly, and didn’t need to be shaken.

“They’re great, Dark,” Amy said, smiling kindly. “It was very considerate of you to get us such nice gifts.” Tyler and Kathryn both nodded in half-feigned agreement. Dark looked satisfied.

“Excellent,” he said, clasping his hands. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have some business to attend to.”

Dark left the room without another word, leaving the rest of the crew in an uncomfortable silence.

Mark looked over at the others. “I’m going to go check on Ethan.”

Kathryn winced. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go?”

“If you want, but I want to make sure he’s okay myself. He’s my friend too.”

Kathryn nodded, and Mark left. Barry continued to hover at his shoulder, buzzing in his ear. It was going to take some getting used to. Mark walked down the hall until he reached Ethan’s room. Knocking, he slowly slid it open.

“Hey, you okay?” Mark asked.

Ethan was sitting on the floor, legs crossed. He tossed a little chip back and forth in his hands, staring blankly ahead as Mark stepped inside the room. “Do you know what Dark got me?”

“What?” Mark asked.

Ethan held up the chip. “A replacement chip for a personality core. He thinks I’m defective because I can feel things. He wants me gone.” Ethan sniffed, drawing his legs to his chest and hugging them. He stared at the chip, numb fear and sadness stirring in his eyes. “Just another machine. Just a mindless, useless tool.”

Mark sat down next to Ethan and took the chip from him. It looked expensive. Blue and yellow designs ran all over it. A proper replacement chip. Dark had gone to lengths to find something so expensive.

“You are not a robot,” Mark said quietly. “You are Ethan. You have emotions, and thoughts, and that’s okay. You’re a person, Ethan. I don’t think Dark understands that, but that just means we can teach him. I’m sure if you just talk to him, you could get something sorted out.”

Ethan snorted, “Right, like how we tried to teach those anti-android protestors on Kell? Or those brutes that tried to take me apart and sell me on Masyna? What about all those restaurants that kicked us out because I was with you? What about…” Ethan’s voice choked. He clenched his hands so tight, the metal caved slightly. “What about my creator, huh?”

Mark flinched. Ethan never talked about his creator. Never. Mark had attempted to bring it up several times, but stopped when Kathryn cornered him and threatened bodily harm if he ever made Ethan talk about his past. All Mark knew was that it wasn’t good.

“Dark’s not your creator, Ethan. He’s not those protestors, or those brutes, or any of those restaurants,” Mark said, placing his hand on Ethan’s. “He doesn’t know any different. This” — Mark held up the chip — “is all he’s ever known. Dark didn’t like me at first because my dad was Ir’al. He learned to accept me. I’m sure he’ll do the same with you.”

Ethan huffed, not saying anything.

“I’ll get rid of this,” Mark said, tucking the chip into his pocket. “And you don’t have to go on any missions with Dark, if you don’t want to. I’ll talk with him.”

“Thanks, Mark,” Ethan said softly, his voice muffled by his sweatshirt sleeve.

“Of course, buddy,” Mark reached around the android, pulling him into a tight hug. “Want me to send Kathryn in?”

Ethan hesitated, then shook his head. “I’m fine. It just… I didn’t expect someone on the crew to give me that.”

“Neither did I,” Mark said. “Don’t worry, I’ll work it out with Dark.”

He gave Ethan a pat on the back and then stood up to leave.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Mark requested as he stood in the doorway. Ethan gave him a thumbs up, and Mark slipped out into the hall with Barry close behind.

.

.

It didn’t take long to find Dark. He was in his ship, sorting through papers at the table in his kitchen. He ripped one into pieces, tossed it into a trash can, and picked up another. Mark knocked on the door frame, but Dark didn’t look up. Instead, he just folded the paper in his hands neatly and set it aside.

Next to the papers was a turned off monitor, Dark’s jacket, and a few bottles of liquids that Mark really hoped were juice.

“What are those?” Mark asked, stepping behind Dark and leaning over his shoulder. Dark’s neat fold crumpled suddenly as he jumped in surprise.

“Ah, Mark,” Dark said, flipping the top paper over so it covered the rest of the stack. “Just some personal documents. I’m getting rid of the ones that are out of date. Being dead for over forty years has destroyed my documentation system.”

Mark reached towards one of the folded ones, but Dark grabbed his wrist before he could take the paper. “They’re private,” Dark said kindly, but there was a tense strain in his voice.

“Oh, right,” Mark said awkwardly. He took his hand back. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. Did you need something?”

“Actually, yes,” Mark said, straightening up. “Why did you give Ethan that personality replacement chip?”

Dark raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I simply noticed a few malfunctions in his programming. He is quite attached to things he shouldn’t be, and I have noticed his programming is simulating emotions. His fear of fire, as well. He is a machine. He should follow orders, regardless of any ‘fears.’ Also his hyperactivity and forgetfulness are contradictory to how a machine should function. I hope the chip is the correct sizing. I only managed to see a few of his programming codes before leaving.”

“Ethan is an android,” Mark said. “He’s supposed to feel.”

“Androids are robots. They’re built as tools.”

“Maybe forty years ago, but now they have rights,” Mark explained. “They are recognized by the GAAP as citizens, and are given the same right to emotions, free will, and thought that we are. Giving Ethan that chip wasn’t okay. Insinuating that he needs to replace himself because of his personality was hurtful.”

Dark looked stunned. “I- I’m sorry,” he said, sounding genuinely regretful. “I didn’t realize. I assumed- I thought he was just broken. I see my mistake now. I shall apologize to him. Is there any way I can make it up to him?”

Mark hesitated. “Just give him space. Ethan has had a rough time with anti-android groups in the past.” Mark decided to forgo telling Dark about Ethan’s past. That was for Ethan to say. He handed Dark the chip. “And get rid of this.”

Dark frowned at the chip in his hand, and then with a sharp CRUNCH, shattered it with his bare hands. He brushed the shards into the trash bin. “Done.”

Mark blinked. How strong was this guy? Those chips were meant to be practically indestructible.

“I shall apologize tonight at our meal,” Dark said, turning back to his documents. “I do have to finish this, however.”

“Yeah, I’ll… I’ll see you later.” Mark left Dark to his papers. He was surprised to see Ethan in the docking bay when he stepped off Dark’s ship. The android looked anxious, and he was fidgeting with his hoodie strings.

“What’d he say?” Ethan asked, looking behind Mark.

“He said he was sorry,” Mark answered, placing his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “He didn’t realize his mistake, and he promised to give you some space and apologize personally to you later. He destroyed the chip, too.”

Ethan didn’t look convinced, but his shoulders relaxed slightly. “Okay. Thanks, Mark.”

“Of course. Do you want to go blow off some steam? We can go play some video games, and I think Jack is free.”

“That sounds great,” Ethan said.

.

.

.

Jack wasn’t free, but that didn’t stop Ethan and Mark from playing Galaga for a few hours. They only stopped when their communicator began to beep loudly at them, signalling an incoming distress call.

“What is it, Tyler?” Mark asked his comms as he and Ethan rushed to the docking bay.

“Ship near us. I can’t quite make out what they’re saying through all the static.” Tyler said back. “Something about pain and hurry.”

“We’re on our way,” Mark said. “Send the location to our ship.”

“Right,” Tyler said.

As Ethan and Mark reached the docking bay, Dark stepped out of his ship. “What is going on?”

“Distress call,” Mark answered quickly. “They’re near us, and they need help.”

“Do you need me to come along?” Dark asked, looking concerned.

Mark looked over at Ethan, who started to shake his head, but then stopped halfway and nodded with a frown. “Uh, sure,” Mark said, looking back at Dark. “Hurry, though.”

Dark pulled on his jacket and followed Ethan and Mark onto the pod. “Just let me know what you need me to do.”

“Just strap in for now,” Mark said, climbing into the pilot seat and flicking it on. “Ethan, get the med packs ready.”

“Roger,” Ethan said, climbing into the back of the ship as Dark sat behind Mark.

.

.

.

The ship was badly damaged. Large pieces of metal floated around it as they approached. Docking was impossible as the port was mostly missing. Dark and Mark got into space suits, leaving Ethan to navigate the pod nearby.

“Stay in contact,” Ethan said, giving the damaged ship a nervous look. “Whatever destroyed that might still be around.”

“Will do,” Mark said as he and Dark leapt out of the airlock, speeding towards the damaged ship with the boosters attached to their suits. Barry floated a short distance behind.

Reaching it, Dark managed to pry a piece of ship, making a big enough hole for the two of them to slip inside. It was dark in the ship. Not even red backup generator lights glowed to give a little bit of visibility. Just dark and silent.

The artificial gravity and oxygen had both been damaged, so Dark and Mark floated down the halls in heavy silence with flashlights on as they tried to find the source of the distress call.

“Ethan, scan the ship for heat signatures,” Mark said.

Dark peered into another room, shaking his head when he found nobody.

“There is a heat signature ahead and on your left,” Ethan replied after a few moments. “Just keep flying straight for a bit.”

Mark grabbed a wall and pulled himself forwards, propelling himself down the hall. Reaching the last doorway, he looked inside. It was empty.

“Ethan, are you certain there’s a heat signature here?” Mark asked, floating into the room.

“I swear, there are three heat signatures in that room, including you.” There was a sound in the background as Ethan typed something out. “Maybe it’s just not coming through correctly? Are there any running engines in that room?”

Barry zoomed around the room, beeping when he stopped above a desk.

Mark leaned over the desk. He jumped as he saw two aliens huddled underneath, holding each other. Their spacesuits were dirty, and they both looked terrified.

“I found them,” Mark said to Ethan. “Get ready to open the airlock when we get back.” Ethan made a noise of confirmation. “It’s alright,” he added to the aliens. “We’re here because of your distress call. That was you, right?”

The one on the left nodded. The feathers on her face were matted, and as she started to stand, Mark noticed blood staining her suit in a few different places. Tape was crudely stuck over several places on their suits where blood seemed the most intense.

“That was us,” she said, voice like a chirp. She was holding onto her companion tightly. “We’re the only ones left here. We were left behind when there wasn’t enough room on the escape pods.”

“What happened?” Dark asked, appearing behind Mark.

“They got left behind,” Mark replied, gently guiding the pair towards Dark. “They’re both hurt badly too, so we need to move carefully. And quickly; I don’t think there’s much air left in those tanks of theirs.”

Dark nodded and started leading the pair towards the exit. Barry zoomed past Dark, leading the way out with his glowing eye.

“What are your names?” Dark asked, sounding a little unsure of himself.

“Sae, and they’re Gispi,” Sae replied. “Thank you for rescuing us. We thought we were goners. What are your names?”

“Dark,” the Xanhull replied, “and he’s Mark.” Dark gestured to Mark as he appeared beside them.

“Are you brothers?” Gispi asked quietly, wincing when they spoke.

“No,” Mark said quickly. “Well… no. We aren’t. He just… it’s complicated.”

Sae nodded and squeezed Gispi’s shoulders. They reached the exit, and Dark managed to pry it open just a little farther for the injured pair to go through. Dark placed his hands on the backs of the couple, pushing them slowly towards the pod.

Mark moved to follow. Staying a little ways behind them, he watched Dark and the two rescued aliens move towards the ship. As they moved, Dark kicked off of a piece of debris. It moved faster than Mark had expected and slammed into him before he could get out of the way.

The air flew from his lungs as he was shoved backwards. The debris pushed them both back against the damaged ship, pinning him there as several rods embedded themselves into the metal.

“I’m stuck!” Mark gasped as he sucked in a desperate breath.

“What? How?” Ethan asked anxiously over the comms. The voice fritzed slightly. Damn, his comms had gotten damaged.

“A piece of the ship got pushed into me,” Mark said, attempting to get out. He was seriously stuck. “It had some rods in it that got stuck in the ship, so I can’t get it off.”

Mark thought he heard some static from Dark’s comm, but it was impossible to tell. Barry whizzed up to his face, staring at him before floating to his shoulder. What a load of help this thing was.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Dark said, sounding very much not panicked about the situation. The apathetic calm was making Mark feel more distressed than calm himself. “I have to secure Sae and Gispi first.”

“I’m not telling you to hurry, but I am also telling you to hurry the fuck up,” Mark said.

“You should go back for him,” Sae said, sounding frantic. “It’s probably still out there.”

“What is? What is out here?” Mark asked, looking around in a panic. He hated being stranded in space almost as much as he hated the ocean. He loved space, but not when there were potentially dangerous monsters that could rip the wings off of a ship.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” Gispi coughed. “It just tore through the ship.”

“Ethan, scan the area,” Mark ordered. He continued to push against the metal pinning him down. No use.

“For what?”

“Everything!”

“Don’t yell at me!” Ethan shouted as typing sounds filled the comms. “Faint heat signature… faint light signature... uh, there is a huge radiation signature nearby. It’s moving a lot.”

“Radiation?” Mark managed to pry one of the rods free. One down, too many more to go.

“Yeah, and it’s strong radiation too,” Ethan said quickly, clearly trying not to panic. “It could kill you just to touch this thing.”

“You need to go back for him!” Sae begged Dark. “He’ll die!”

“We’re almost to the pod,” Dark insisted. “He’ll be fine a moment longer.”

“But—” Sae started to say.

Mark interrupted, “You two are the highest priority. Just fucking hurry up already.”

“KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Everyone froze.

“What… what was that?” Ethan asked.

“Look out!” Sae screamed.

Mark turned and ducked as much as he could just as a claw tore through the metal right where his head had been only moments before. Gaping at the giant creature, Mark felt his heart drop. Its giant mouth was open, revealing a dark void. Two solid fins protruded from its head. Several glowing yellow eyes searched the area and locked onto Mark’s wiggling body. The entire beast glowed an ethereal blue and white, with a trail of luminescent white trailing behind it.

“What is that?” Dark asked, sounding more curious than afraid. More than was appropriate for the current situation.

“Who cares? Just get back and help me!” Mark yelled.

Mark could see Dark help Sae and Gepsi into the pod, Ethan guiding them on board. He could have sworn Dark hesitated before turning around and flying towards Mark.

“Feel like helping?” Mark asked Barry.

Barry only hummed.

“Uh huh, great,” Mark said, managing to wiggle out another rod. “Can’t you move any faster, Dark?”

“I don’t want this thing to notice me, too,” Dark said flatly. “Unless you want to draw its attention some more with your flailing.”

“Not really,” Mark grunted, shoving against the debris one more time before going still as the beast wove its way around the damaged ship.

“Then don’t whine.” Dark said, carefully maneuvering around the debris. “I’m doing my best.”

The creature screamed again. Another piece of the ship sheared off as the beast passed through it with ease. The white trail followed it and enveloped Mark. Immediately, all of his systems started failing. Air, comms, boosters, everything that kept him alive.

“Oh, fuck,” Mark muttered. Barry gave a little “wheee” before his lights blinked and his eye went dim. He started to float away, but Mark grabbed him, holding the little robot close to his chest. He had enough air to last him a few minutes before things got deadly. “Okay, calm down,” he mumbled to himself. “Panicking will only use the air up faster. Just even breathing. Even… breathing…”

His heart, beating faster and faster, was beyond his control. Where was Dark? The white residue was covering most of his vision. It was like a cloud of light, obscuring everything from view. All he could hear was the occasional screams of the beast as it flew overhead.

Suddenly, there was a hand reaching through the light. It grabbed the metal, and began prying it away slowly. At first, Mark thought it was Dark, but the suit was too dirty and damaged. As the light faded, Sae’s face appeared.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mark asked, even though Sae couldn’t hear him. She pulled at the metal, getting yet another rod free. It was almost loose enough for him to get out. Just one more.

With their energy combined, Mark and Sae managed to pull the metal piece free. Mark squirmed out, grabbing Sae’s hand and pushing off the ship just as the beast crashed through it again. They spun out into space, hurtling towards the pod. Only a few more moments of air. They had to make it.

Suddenly, Sae started spasming next to him. Mark looked over to see her clutching at her throat. Her tank was out of air, and she was dying. Mark frantically looked around for the next chunk of debris to push off of. They were so close. Just a few more pushes. Mark’s head was going light at his own lack of oxygen. They had to make it, but it was so… far… away…

Suddenly, Dark was in front of him, attaching one of his air pipes to Sae’s. He nodded to Mark and began to pull Sae forward. Mark desperately grabbed onto her, and the three of them rushed towards the pod. The moment they reached it, Sae grabbed Mark and shoved him through the airlock.

The door slammed shut behind them, the one in front opening and air rushing into the room. Mark yanked his helmet off, gasping and coughing as his lungs filled with full air.

“Get us out of here,” Dark yelled at Ethan. The pod rumbled as it took off, away from the beast that continued to tear at the damaged ship.

“Where,” Mark rasped, his throat dying. “Where the fuck were you?” He stood up straight, glaring at Dark. The Xanhull frowned, opening his arms diplomatically.

“I was coming. I lost sight of you after the creature swooped so near to you.”

“Then how did Sae find me, and not you?” Mark was furious. “She almost fucking died because you didn’t come find me. Where were you, Dark?”

“I don’t know how,” Dark said, his tone still flat. Mark’s ears were ringing with fury. “I only know that I tried my best to find you. You should be glad I met you halfway. If I hadn’t, you’d both be dead.”

Mark wanted to shove Dark against the wall to yell at him more, but Sae began coughing, blood spattering into her hand. Mark shot Dark one more angry look before helping Sae to her feet and into the back of the pod for medical attention. Ethan followed him a moment later.

Mark let Ethan take over helping Sae and Gispi, and leaned up against the wall. He was absolutely livid, and the ringing in his ears had come back even louder, which only irritated him further. He wanted to throw something. If he saw Dark again, he probably would. He was half tempted to go back to the front of the ship and toss Dark out of the airlock. See how he fared with limited air and his stupid weak lungs.

Instead, Mark pulled up his personal comm and called the Barrel. Amy’s face appeared, looking worried.

“Are you alright? Did it go okay?”

“It’s fine,” Mark said, finally allowing himself to collapse into a chair. “Everything is fine. We saved them, and everyone is okay.”

“Everything doesn’t sound fine,” Amy said, frowning as she looked Mark over. “You’re sure you’re okay? You sound terrible.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Mark huffed. “No thanks to someone.”

“Wh-”

“He almost let us die!” Mark snapped, trying to keep his voice low. He slammed Barry onto the desk, the dead robot rolling around. “I was stuck, asking for help, and he didn’t come.”

Amy was quiet as Mark summarized the mission, angrily spitting out Dark’s name as he explained how he had left him pinned to a collapsing ship being attacked by a giant space… whatever that thing was. As he finished, Amy sighed.

“That’s really shitty.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“But,” Amy started, and Mark glared. “Just hear me out, okay? I’m not the biggest fan of Dark. You know that. But remember when Jack hurt you? You knew that it was an accident. It wasn’t his fault. I don’t know if this is the same, but maybe give him the benefit of the doubt? Just this once.”

Mark sighed, “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” Amy smiled. “Although…” She hesitated, biting her lip. “I’ve been noticing Dark has been more… intense since he got back. I don’t know if that has something to do with it, but keep an eye on him, alright?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Mark huffed, glaring at the door to the front of the pod. “I’m not letting him out of my sight.”

.

.

.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Mark looked up from running his hands through Chica’s goop and pulling out a few loose bits of metal she’d picked up in Amy’s workshop. Dark was standing in the doorway of the common room, hands deep in his pockets.

“Did you what?” Mark asked, tossing a scrap of metal into a bucket.

“Did I do something wrong?” Dark repeated.

Mark hesitated. “Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been… distant,” Dark said slowly. “Ever since we got back from rescuing Sae and Gispi.”

It had been roughly a week since they’d gotten back to the Barrel. Dark had fixed Barry, but Mark now realized he’d never thanked him for that. He was still a little irritated with Dark for almost letting him and Sae die. It wasn’t like Dark had done anything to help Mark’s irritation. His apathetic and logical approach to everything was setting Mark’s nerves on edge.

“Oh, have I? I didn’t notice,” Mark said, sarcasm dripping from his words. “Kind of like how you didn’t notice me dying.”

Dark sighed, “Are you still upset about that?”

“Of course I’m not,” Mark huffed, flinging a piece of metal towards the bucket and missing by a lot. “Why would I be mad about that? It’s not like the person we went to fucking save almost died because you couldn’t find me. Which, by the way, is what we do when we save people. We find them, and we save them.”

Dark flinched. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I did try my best. I didn’t even see Sae leave the pod.”

Mark didn’t respond, just flung another piece of metal. He kept missing, and it was only making him angrier.

“You’re so emotional,” Dark muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, “Is there any way I can restore your faith in me?”

“Don’t let me almost die like that ever again,” Mark snapped. “Have my back, like you promised.”

“Of course,” Dark said, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

“Good. Now go bug someone else,” Mark said, turning his back completely on Dark. He listened to him walk away, footsteps fading down the hall towards Amy’s workshop.

.

.

Dark avoided Mark almost entirely for the next couple days. He spent most of his time on his own ship, and only came out for dinner. He apologized to Ethan, but Ethan still avoided the docking bay as much as he could. Kathryn had grown colder towards Dark as well, sitting between him and Ethan whenever Dark came to meals.

Mark felt awful. He had been mad, but now Dark was avoiding them, and no one seemed to care that he was drifting away. Mark wanted to help. That’s what he did. Dark was with them because of Mark, so it was his responsibility to make sure Dark was comfortable with them. They were the only family Dark had, and now they were just pushing him away.

Amy and Mark were in her sculpting room. Mark handed her pieces of wire as she twisted them together. Henry slept on the floor in the corner, curled up into a little peanut with his metal legs sticking out. Barry floated lazily over Mark’s left shoulder.

“Do you think Dark hates us?” Mark asked absentmindedly, not really thinking as he spoke.

Amy paused wrapping the wire and shrugged. “I don’t think so,” she said, giving the sculpture a once over. “You were a little hard on him. Maybe he’s just afraid he’ll make you mad again.”

Mark sighed, twisting a wire around his fingers, “Yeah. I just couldn’t shake this feeling that he was going to leave me. I don’t know, maybe it was just the adrenaline.”

Amy opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment a knock was heard at the door. Looking up, they saw Dark’s face through the windowpane. Mark got up and let him in.

“Sorry to intrude,” Dark said, avoiding eye contact with Mark, “but considering how badly I feel that I have failed you, I prepared a sort of apology meal. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked, but I think it turned out alright. I understand if you reject the offer, but I feel I must try and mend my mistakes.”

Mark smiled, reaching out and grabbing Dark’s shoulder. He looked up and met Mark’s eyes. “Of course we’ll accept,” Mark said softly. “I’m sorry too, man. I was angry and probably a bit too harsh.”

Dark brightened visibly, the lines running down his face creasing upwards as he smiled. “Perfect. I have the meal ready if you wish to gather your friends.”

He turned on his heel and hurried away. Mark looked back at Amy, who was smiling proudly.

“See?” she said, coming next to him and knocking her hand against his. “He just felt bad.”

.

.

Dark took his seat after pouring everyone’s drinks. Each drink was a different color, specifically mixed for each person. The food spread out across the table smelled amazing, each plate appearing perfectly prepared. Kathryn gave her plate a suspicious sniff before taking a bite.

“This is delicious, Dark,” she said, looking surprised. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

“You find things to do when you’ve lived for so long,” Dark said, smiling pleasantly. “I’ve learned to cook many things in my different bodies.”

Mark took a bite of his own meal. It melted in his mouth, coating his tongue in a perfect variety of different flavors. It tasted like all of his favorite foods at once, all mixing harmoniously. Chicken and dumplings, sushi, several different cheeses, and a few other foods all mixed in what appeared to be a plate of stuffed pasta.

“I don’t know what you were worried about,” Mark said through a mouthful of food. “This is amazing!” Feeling something cold, Mark looked under the table to see Chica nudging at his leg. She whined, and Mark pointed towards her bed. “Go lie down, Beeka.”

Tyler grabbed his own food, digging in. The only one missing was Ethan, who refused to join them. Henry had decided to join him, while Chica laid under the table.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Amy asked, glancing at Dark’s full plate.

He shook his head. “I’ll eat later,” he said. “I don’t need to eat as often as you do, and digestion slows me down.”

Chica continued to nudge at his leg. Mark groaned, “Come on, Beeka. Go lie down. Down, girl.” He got up, grabbing her collar and guiding her to the bed. Chica whined, staring up at him with big sad eyes. “You can’t eat with us, girl.”

Mark took his seat again and gave Dark an apologetic glance. “What are the drinks?” Mark asked, glancing at the multicolored liquids swirling in the champagne glasses in front of them.

“A home blend,” Dark said eagerly. “It’s different every time, but always ends up absolutely delicious. It’s a perfect palate cleanser.”

Mark lifted his drink towards the center of the table.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” he said, glancing around at his friends. “We’re all family here, and I think we should be grateful to have Dark as one of us.” He paused as the others nodded their agreement. “To Dark!”

“To Dark!”

They all lifted their glasses towards the center and clinked them. Just as Mark was about to down his drink, his chair shuddered and then toppled, taking Mark and his drink down with it. He yelped, his fall only slightly cushioned by Chica underneath him. The drink still spilled all over both of them. The glass hit the floor and shattered, sending shards flying across the kitchen.

“Don’t move!” Amy leaped up, running for a vacuum. Tyler moved slowly away, careful to not step on anything. Kathryn hopped up on her chair, while Dark watched with a strangely blank face.

“What happened?” Tyler asked.

“Chica pushed me!” Mark huffed, looking down at the green Dulcosi, who panted happily while glass stuck out of her goop. “Chica, what the fuck?”

Amy rushed over, starting to clean up the smaller pieces while Tyler gathered some of the larger shards.

Ethan appeared in the doorway. “What happened?” he asked, looking around at the chaos. “Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re fine,” Mark said. “Chica just pushed my chair over and a glass got broken.”

Ethan squatted down and looked over the drink that had managed to reach the floor. At first he started picking up glass, but then he touched some of the liquid. “Good thing she did,” he said, dipping his finger into the drink with one finger, then sticking it into his mouth. “She probably saved your life.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark asked, glancing between Chica and Ethan.

“This drink had alcohol in it,” Ethan said shortly, glancing up at Dark. “A lot of alcohol.”

“Is that a problem?” Dark asked innocently. “You have alcohol on board. I have seen several of you drinking.”

“Mark can’t have alcohol,” Tyler said, helping Mark stand. “It’s super toxic. Shouldn’t you know that? You have his DNA.”

“I cannot get an entire read on the species’ DNA that I have obtained,” Dark said, sounding regretful. “The minute details of it often escape me. I have never had Ir’al DNA before.”

“It’s fine. It was an accident,” Mark said grumpily, staring at the stain running down his shirt. “This stain is never going to come out, is it?”

Ethan grabbed Mark’s arm and dragged him out of the room while still staring at Dark with a frown. “Come on,” the android huffed. “I know some tricks to get that clean.”

Mark let Ethan take him out, but called out behind him, “Thanks for the meal anyway! It tasted great!”

Dark nodded, flashing Mark a tense smile right as he left.

.

.

The next few missions the Barrel took on all seemed to end with cuts and bruises. Mostly on Mark, who threw himself in front of anything coming to hurt his teammates. However, it was getting harder going on mission after mission. Each one seemed to end in near scrapes with death. After Amy’s cyborg arm got severely damaged stopping an avalanche of rocks from killing Mark, he was starting to reconsider his career choice.

“Are we cursed?” Ethan groaned, picking some leaves out of his hair. “I don’t remember almost dying this much before.”

Mark slapped another nano-bandage onto a cut running up his arm. “Maybe I’m just bad luck,” he suggested, passing the container of bandages to Dark, who placed a couple on his face and collarbone.

“We’ve just hit a rough patch, is all,” Amy said, attempting to stay optimistic. Everyone could still hear the strain in her voice. “Things will get better. They always do.”

Tyler grunted, lying on the ground with an arm thrown over his eyes. “Can we take a break? Go on vacation? I don’t care, I would just love to have one day where I’m not carrying someone out of a fire, or out of an earthquake, or off a collapsing ship, or…”

“Okay, we get it,” Mark snapped and tapped Tyler in the side with his boot. It didn’t seem to bother the Graeldur, who continued to grumble under his breath. “I think we all need a break.”

Kathryn hissed, ears going flat against her head as she cleaned a cut on her tail. “Somewhere warm, please. I’m sick of all these cold planets.”

“Agreed,” Amy said. “Maybe Jack knows about some warm place to go…”

“He is a Velm,” Dark said, standing and offering Mark a hand. “Coldblooded. Probably knows of a few desert planets.”

Mark took his hand, getting to his feet and helping the others. “Let’s call him. See if there is anywhere we can take a few days off.”

.

.

“You realize I’m probably the worst person you could have asked, right?”

Jack voice came from off camera as he tinkered with something he wouldn’t show the Barrel crew. Chase shrugged apologetically at the screen, handing Jack parts as his hand appeared. JJ sat nearby, sitting cross-legged in a chair and reading a holo-book. Dark leaned forward, hands clasped behind his back as he watched parts disappear off-screen.

“What are you building?” Dark asked. “Those parts seem…”

“Shut your yap!” Jack snapped as his head appeared in the bottom left corner of the screen, glaring at Dark. “It’s a gift, and it’s supposed to be a surprise. Keep your weirdly specific knowledge out of it.”

“My apologies,” Dark said quietly, backing away but keeping an eye on the screen.

Jack huffed, then ducked back under. “You could always try Wustir, but they’re having their rainy season. Also, it’s a safe haven for bounty hunters. Maybe Ju’edairl? Just avoid the western markets and you should be fine. Yurdinia is always nice, but- no. If they find out you know me, you’ll be shot on sight. Naineo is nice but- well, not unless…”

“Do you know any place where we won’t die while we try and have a good vacation?” Amy asked, stifling a yawn.

“Well, if you don’t mind rain and bounty hunters, I think Wustir might be your best bet,” Jack said, cursing loudly as something hit the floor and, presumably, his foot. JJ’s head snapped up, and he glared at Jack for a moment before going back to his book.

“Well, thanks, I guess,” Mark said.

A hand appeared again, waving. “No problem. Oh, this, er… this thing will be done soon. I can come drop it off within two-ish weeks, right?”

“Of course,” Tyler said. “We’re excited to see what you’ve been working on.”

“We’ll see if it works,” Jack muttered, mostly to himself. Louder, he said, “Alright, catch you later, dudes!”

Chase waved as the screen flickered and turned off. The crew glanced at each other with uncertainty.

“Well, how does Wustir sound?” Mark asked, spinning his chair around to face them all. The others stared back blankly, covered in scratches and bandages.

“Fine,” Amy sighed. “Let’s go.”

.

.

“I hope you’re waterproof,” Mark said, looking over at Barry, who only hummed in response, hovering diligently next to Mark’s head. Mark shoved a couple more pairs of pants into his suitcase.

The plan was to park the Barrel on one of the outer moons and take a pod down to Wustir’s surface. They’d stay at a hotel in one of Wustir’s largest cities and spend a week just touring the streets and relaxing. Hopefully the downpours wouldn’t stop them from enjoying their time off.

“You ready?” Amy yelled from the bathroom.

“Just about,” Mark called back.

Suddenly, Barry began beeping quietly by Mark’s ear. He’d never done that before. Mark took the camera in his hands and looked him over. His iris was flashing blue with each beep, and they seemed to be getting faster.

“Uh, Amy?” Mark called out. “Did you do anything to Barry?”

“No?” Amy leaned out of the doorway. “Is something wrong with him?”

“He’s beeping and flashing blue,” Mark said curiously. “It almost sounds like—” Mark froze. It sounded like a bomb. Barry only beeped faster.

“GET DOWN!” Mark yelled, tossing Barry into the corner as the beeping reached extreme speeds. He dove at Amy, causing them both to tumble into the bathroom.

For a second the beeping stopped, and Mark wondered if he was overreacting. Then a flash of light and heat exploded from the room, accompanied by a loud BOOM.

They laid there for a second, staring at each other with shock. Mark’s ears were ringing, and his vision swam as he stood up. Their bedroom had been blown into disarray. The bed had tears and burn marks running across it and was flat up against the opposite wall. The area where Barry had been thrown was a giant scorch mark, and pieces of shrapnel stuck out of the walls.

“The fuck…” Amy muttered, carefully moving towards where Barry had been thrown. Red residue was left over, staining the floor and walls. There was nothing left of the camera. “What happened to him?”

“He just started beeping. Do you think he malfunctioned?” Mark walked up behind her as she looked over the room, knocking the back of his hand against hers.

The door crashed open, slamming into the wall and staying there. Tyler, Ethan, Kathryn, and Dark all forced themselves into the room at once. Ethan yelped and toppled over, jumping back to his feet instantly.

“What happened? Are you guys okay?” Tyler rushed over to Mark and Amy, looking Mark over for injuries, while Kathryn did the same to Amy.

“We’re fine,” Amy assured them. “Mark recognized the warning signs just in time. We’re both alright.”

Dark approached the corner, kneeling and carefully picking up a piece of shrapnel. “How did you escape the blast radius?”

“I was in the bathroom,” Amy answered. “Mark just jumped and pushed us down. It’s lucky he’s so fast.”

“We are cursed,” Ethan said, throwing his hands in the air. “Everything is trying to kill us! Even Barry tried to kill you!”

“I’m sure it was just a malfunction,” Mark said. He glanced over at the destroyed bedroom covered in scorched marks. “Not like we’ll ever find out, though.”

“How much did Barry cost?” Kathryn asked Dark, eyeing him suspiciously.

He didn’t meet their gazes, continuing to look around the destroyed room. “I unfortunately was unable to get the model I was going after. This one must have been shoddily made. You are lucky.” Dark looked up at Mark. His eyes were cold, and for a moment they flashed blue and red.

“Usually am,” Mark joked.

Dark stood up suddenly, a piece of shrapnel held tight in one hand. Dark’s breathing was heavy, and the shard cracked.

“Yes,” Dark said through his teeth. “Lucky.”

Tyler stepped between them, ushering Mark and Amy out of the room. “We still have reservations down on the planet. We should get going. We can clean this later.”

“What about our things?” Mark asked, trying to duck under Tyler’s arm to get to his broken suitcase.

“We can buy stuff on the surface,” Kathryn argued, following them out of the room. “We were planning on going shopping anyway.”

They walked out. As Mark looked back, he saw Dark still staring at him with a tight smile. The shrapnel he’d been holding was in shattered pieces on the ground.

Dark had weird ways of showing concern.

They all grabbed some things along their way to the pods, the others’ suitcases packed and ready to go. Amy’s things had survived, since they were in the bathroom at the time of the explosion. Henry, still shaken by the loud noise, stayed close to Amy.

“Mom Amy safe. Mom Amy safe,” Henry muttered repeatedly, growling when Dark walked past. “Dumb Mark stay near Mom Amy. Mom Amy safe.”

“It’s okay, Henry,” Mark murmured soothingly. He knelt down next to Henry and scratched behind his ears. It calmed him slightly, but the moment Mark stood again he began muttering again.

“Is everyone ready?” Tyler asked, looking over their belongings.

A general mutter of agreement rose from the crew.

“Watch something else explode,” Ethan said. His mouth dropped open in horror. “What if I explode?”

“You’ll be fine,” Mark said, grinning as he grabbed Amy’s backpack. “Besides, we've got luck on our side.”

Henry barked suddenly, making Mark turn around just in time to see Dark charging towards him, two long knives in his hands. For the first time, Dark’s entire face was twisted with anger and hate. Mark was frozen in shock, pulled out of the way just in time by Amy. The knife slid past his cheek, barely grazing his skin.

“What the fuck, Dark?!” Mark stumbled away.

“You…” Dark turned around, his breathing fast and shaky. His eyes were alive with hate. Mark winced, clapping his hands over his ears as the ringing grew louder.

“Mark!” Tyler tried to move between them, but Mark motioned for them to move away. His crew backed off, keeping a watchful eye on Dark, who snarled at them.

“How long do you really think you could protect them? And from me? If I wanted you all dead, you would be. You. Just.” Dark swung again, punctuating each word with a stab as Mark dodged. “Keep. Surviving. Through. Luck. Fucking luck! You miserable gret. Why can’t you just give up and die, already?!”   

“What are you doing?” Mark yelled, jumping back as Dark charged him again. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’ve been waiting patiently,” Dark hissed. “You just always get lucky, don’t you? Lucky to be born, lucky to survive, lucky I haven’t killed you yet. You know how long I have wanted to kill you? How long I have wanted to tear your throat out? How long I have wanted to tear the life from your pathetic body? You believe you’re so kind-hearted, but you’re just a mistake. You are a disgrace to who you are!”

“What are you talking about?!” Mark asked desperately, crying out as one of Dark’s knives connected with his arm. Tyler made a motion to step forwards again, but Mark waved him off. Better to keep Dark’s attention on him. “I’m a half-breed! I thought we were past that! I don’t get your problem.”

Dark stood before them, his back to the ships as the crew watched him snarl at them. “You know nothing, gret.”

Mark felt something welling up inside him. Something vicious and angry. Mark’s hands clenched, feeling hot with fury as he let the anger spill out.

“I’ve given you nothing but kindness ever since you got here!” he snapped, pointing at Dark with a shaking finger. “You would have died if I hadn’t let you in. Ethan gave you medical attention when you were falling apart. Tyler watched over you. Kathryn fixed your ship. Amy protected you. We gave you a fucking home! I gave you every single chance. I thought you had changed. I thought you were actually warming up to us! But no. You just wanted to get close to us so you could kill me for no fucking reason!”

For a moment it was just Mark and Dark staring at each other. Then Dark laughed. He slipped his knives back into their sheaths. “Oh, so attached, aren’t you? Attached to your pets. Your ship. Your so-called ‘family’. That girl. You have so many feelings, and you care so much. That’s your problem, Mark. You feel too much. You care. Pathetic.”

Mark stared, watching Dark laugh and laugh. He felt the anger slipping away, turning to cold resolve.

“Why do you hate me?” Mark finally asked, his voice low and dangerous.

“Because you shouldn’t exist,” Dark snapped, his laugh ending abruptly. He walked slowly towards Mark, gesturing with hands that could crush him. Mark pushed the others behind him, staring Dark down resolutely. “You’re a mistake.”

“I am not a mistake,” Mark growled. “I have just as much right to exist as anyone else in this fucking universe.”

Dark was only a few feet away, still walking towards him with intent. His hands flexed, as if itching to wrapping them around Mark’s throat.

Mark took a step forward. “Now get off my ship.” Just to prove his point, Mark shoved Dark with both hands.

Searing pain shot through his palms. It engulfed his hands, and Mark screamed as everything burned. The scent of burning flesh flashed between them. Dark was burning hot, his chest scorching Mark’s hands. Dark blinked in surprise, stumbling back from the force of the push as Mark reeled back in pain.

Mark looked down at his hands through tears that had begun forming in his eyes. The skin on his palms was red and bubbling. The pain and shock were too much, and he collapsed onto the floor of the docking bay. Looking up, Dark smirked at him.

The pain was overwhelming.

Mark gasped through the pain as Dark made a move to finish him off, but then he looked up and frowned. “Your family seems to care about you, gret,” Dark said.

The last thing Mark saw before his vision went black was Dark running away, Kathryn and Tyler chasing after him, and then Amy’s worried face, her hands coming to cup his face a everything faded into nothing.

.

.

“They’re going to have scars,” Ethan said apologetically, holding Mark’s hands and showing them to him. “I’m sorry, the burns were too deep. I can’t fix this.”

“It’s fine,” Mark said, looking down at the bandages on his hands. He looked up and smiled sadly at Ethan. “You did all you could.”

Ethan smiled tensely back. “Hey… are you okay? Mentally, I mean. Dark said some pretty fucked up stuff to you.”

Mark shook his head, confused. “I just… I wish I knew what he meant. I don’t get it. I mean, I do get it. Purists are horrible, fucked up people who can’t see past their biases, but still… I really thought he’d changed.”

Ethan turned off one of his machines. “Yeah, so did I, for a while. Those kinds of people don’t change easily. Hate is hard to get rid of.”

Mark looked back down at his hands. Something still felt wrong. What Dark had said… It didn’t just feel like a purist attitude. There was something else. Something obvious that was just out of reach.

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Ethan said comfortingly. “He’s gone now. You don’t have to worry about it right now. Just go hug Amy or something.”

“Good idea,” Mark said, pushing himself off the examination table. He winced, the flesh still sensitive on his palms. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem,” Ethan said, continuing to pack up the rest of his medical equipment.

Mark wandered through the halls until he reached the common room. Amy was pacing back and forth, the dogs anxiously watching her from their beds. The moment Chica saw Mark, she rushed over, jumping up and covering his face in licks.

“Hey, Beeka,” Mark laughed, hugging her. Standing, Amy rushed into his chest. She pulled him close.

“It’s okay,” Mark said, hugging her back and running his hands through her hair. “I’m okay.”

She laughed, the sound tinged with choked tears. For a moment, they just stood there. Just holding each other, knowing that the other was safe. They were alive. They would be there when their eyes opened again.

“Next time there is a racist on board, I’m kicking them off into the nearest star,” Amy muttered into his chest.

“Deal,” Mark chuckled quietly.