Twenty Years Later: Joel Miller x F!Reader - Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten: September 26th, 2003
Plot: There are very few tragedies in life that come with warning.
Word Count: 12.8k (longest chapter yet)
Warnings: tlou ep.1 spoilers, language, canon-typical violence, gore, blood, guns, death, loss of a child, injuries, implied smut (16+)
A/N: Well, we’ve arrived at that fateful chapter…this took so long to even be emotionally able to write. There are so many small details that I hope people catch, and plenty of things to remember for future chapters.
As always, this series is 16+ and I will not be adding anyone to the taglist unless your age/range is specified in your bio. Gotta look out for younger eyes 👀
I hope y’all enjoy this one, and thank you so much for all the kind words, theories and general love I receive throughout the week 💞
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September 26th, 2003. Austin, Texas.
There are very few tragedies in life that come with warning.
Families of the terminally ill are given a vague timeline of when they’ll lose their loved one.
Soldiers are told before marching into battle that they may lose their life.
But a car crash does not announce itself before causing the collision.
A heart attack doesn’t prepare its victim before it steals their breath.
Nor did Cordyceps feel it owed the world any notice before it arrived.
On the morning of September 26th, Y/n was awoken by strips of sunlight coming through the blinds of Joel’s bedroom window. She was the early riser out of the two and she never minded, it gave her more time to admire the handsome lump weighing her down.
Y/n brushed a strand of hair off her boyfriend’s forehead and pressed a feather light kiss to it. Joel didn’t wake easily, but she liked to say she at least tried the sweet way before having to go nuclear. She gently rubbed his back, running her palm up and down the warm skin, but it only made him settle deeper into her chest. Y/n smiled and shook her head, knowing that in mere seconds….
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
It truly was miraculous how deep Joel could go into his rest. Y/n rolled her eyes and tried to reach across the pillows to switch off the clock, her fingers wiggling in the air as she strained. With his arms firmly wrapped around Y/n’s body, Joel didn’t even budge.
Finally, salvation came in the form of Sarah banging on the bedroom door, jolting Joel awake.
“Alarm,” the girl called, raising her voice the second time, “Alarm!”
“Thank you,” Y/n called back.
Joel rolled over, barely aware of his surroundings, and switched off the clock. He pushed up on one arm and turned back to his girlfriend, watching him with a smirk.
“What?”
Y/n shook her head, “You must be great in emergencies.”
Joel rubbed at his eyes, “Maybe I’m a little tired because someone wore me out last night.”
“Oh, don’t blame me for this,” Y/n laughed, “A year and a half and I’ve never seen you wake up when your alarm goes off. Not once.”
Joel looked down at her, squinting from the sunlight, a small smile playing on his lips, “Maybe I hear it, but there’s a more compellin’ reason to ignore it.”
He slipped back down into the sheets, resting his head once again on Y/n’s chest.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Y/n began to shimmy out of his arms, “We gotta get up.”
Joel tightened his hold around her torso, “My birthday, I make the rules.”
“No, it’s your birthday and Sarah and I make the rules,” Y/n corrected. Joel had never been one for celebrating the day, meaning it was up to Sarah and Y/n to make the day special, “What you want actually ranks very low on the list.”
Joel was paying very little attention to his girlfriend’s words, trailing a line of kisses up the chest of his t-shirt she was wearing and across her neck. “Five minutes,” he mumbled against her skin.
“No,” Y/n denied, her pulse speeding up the further his lips travelled.
“Yes,” Joel ignored her protests, making his way up to where her jawline met her ear.
“No,” Y/n laughed, her words not lining up with her reaction as she ran a hand over Joel’s hair.
“Say it again, honey,” Joel whispered against her ear, “And mean it.”
Y/n was teetering on the edge of letting him take what he wanted, but her loyalty to Joel’s daughter won out. “Sarah’s cooking you breakfast,” she said, slipping her hand between their chests, “And I’m not gonna be the one to tell her that her dad missed out on her efforts because he was horny.”
Joel snorted, dropping his head and laughing against Y/n’s chest.
Y/n pulled his face up to hers and laid a kiss on his lips, “Happy Birthday.”
“Just another reminder I’m gettin’ old,” Joel grumbled.
“True,” Y/n smiled, taking his scratchy cheeks into her palms, “But you’re my old man.”
Joel chortled, running his hands over Y/n’s body one last time before reluctantly rolling off of her. Their day had to begin, whether he wanted it to or not…
The two got dressed for work, while Y/n hadn’t officially moved in with the Millers, it was her second home. She kept practically one of everything in Joel’s room because of how often she slept over.
Y/n was the first of them down the stairs, landing in the kitchen where Sarah was already laying strips of bacon in a pan, “Can you take this so I can get the eggs?”
“You got it,” Y/n responded, switching places with the girl.
Sarah opened the fridge doors, getting a whiff of the inside, “When was the last time we cleaned this out?”
“Uh, two weeks ago, I think,” Y/n replied.
“Well, something died in it recently,” Sarah stated, grabbing a bowl to whisk the eggs in.
Sarah and Y/n’s relationship had stayed as steady as her and Joel’s. She’d expected some sort of pushback eventually, Sarah had just hit the teenage years, but it had yet to come. Y/n theorized it was because the young girl was just happy to have a woman in her life, but she felt like that was giving herself too much credit.
With the protein cooking on the stove, Sarah started searching through the cabinets. Joel had just come downstairs, still buckling his belt.
“Where’s the pancake mix?” Sarah asked her dad.
Still groggy, Joel scrunched his brows. “Oh, I was-” he’d forgotten the trip to the store he was supposed to take the night before, “Yeah, I was. Sorry.”
“I was gonna make you birthday pancakes,” his daughter complained, marching to the fridge and muttering to herself, “I swear…”
Joel ignored the smell of the food cooking and headed straight for the coffee pot, “You know, I don’t really like pancakes.”
“I know you don’t,” Sarah replied, pouring a glass of orange juice, “It was for my and Y/n’s benefit.”
“We’ll survive,” Y/n said, working on the eggs while Sarah was away, “Though pancakes are a weird thing to not like.”
Joel bristled at his girlfriend’s remark, turning around and facing Sarah with the glass of juice extended towards him.
“Vitamin C,” she explained.
For as much as Joel took care of his daughter, the roles were beginning to shift the older they both got. Sarah could spot his bad habits and tried to fix them wherever she could, the biggest one being his lack of actual nutrition. The man existed on coffee.
Joel took the glass from her, setting his mug down and humoring Sarah with a sip.
Y/n chuckled as she watched his expression turn sour, “Look more enthusiastic. I dare you.”
Joel grimaced, proceeding to pick up the coffee as soon as Sarah was back at the stove.
“You get your, uh, homework done?” Joel asked Sarah, waiting for her smile when she turned around, “Fractions?”
Sarah laughed, it was fact not only that she was ahead of her classmates, but Y/n was her tutor when it came to math. Joel wanted nothing to do with the subject.
Y/n and Sarah plated the feast and the three of them sat down at the table, as they did most mornings. Between Y/n and Joel’s work schedules and Sarah’s extracurriculars, it was the only guaranteed time they had each day to spend together.
“How old are you again?” Sarah asked her dad.
“Thirty-six,” Joel answered with a mouthful of egg.
“Gonna have to start wearing diapers soon,” Sarah joked, her tone remaining remarkably even.
”Who says I don’t already?” Joel replied, it wasn’t hard to track where Sarah’d gotten her humor from. He proceeded to pick something out of his teeth, looking to his daughter, “Shell.”
“Calcium,” she said, grinning wide with a mouthful of eggs on display.
“Lovely,” Joel muttered, looking over at Y/n as she laughed, “You’re encouragin’ bad table manners.”
Y/n shrugged and held her coffee mug to her lips, ”I see it as supporting a potential future as a comedian.”
The truck engine in the driveway signaled that Tommy was there to pick his brother and Y/n up for the day.
“Is there enough for Uncle Tommy?” Joel asked Sarah.
“There would’ve been,” Sarah grumbled into her plate, still bitter about the lack of pancakes.
“I can whip him up something, if we’ve got time,” Y/n offered.
Joel shook his head, “Nah, we gotta get going.”
Tommy entered through the garage door, the most carefree of them all. “Ay,” he clasped Joel’s shoulder, “You’re still alive, you old fucker.”
“Language,” Y/n chastised, she’d been trying for months to curb Tommy’s soldier’s mouth around Sarah. It wasn’t working.
“Aw,” Sarah cooed to Joel, “He loves you.”
“He’s dependent on me,” Joel watched his brother begin to raid his kitchen, “Not the same.”
Sarah shrugged, “I think it’s the same.”
“It’s definitely the same,” Tommy said, examining the countertops for food, “I thought we was havin’ pancakes.”
“The age started to take his memory last night,” Y/n’s tone turned serious as she pressed a hand to Joel’s bicep, “We’re meeting him where he is.”
Joel’s smirk contradicted the glare he shot his girlfriend, letting her hand stay on his arm through the teasing. “We’ll pick you up somethin’ on the road,” he addressed Tommy, “Concrete guys gonna be there?”
“Yeah, they said maybe,” Tommy replied as he opened up the fridge.
“‘Maybe?’” Joel echoed, “We can’t frame until we pour. We’re not gettin’ paid until we frame.”
Tommy started sniffing through various leftovers, “Well, we could bring someone else on, get the job done faster.”
“No, no,” Joel shook his head and cut up another bite of eggs, “I’m not splittin’ this job, I barely wanna split it with you. We could work a double.”
Sarah and Y/n both turned to him.
“Literally?” Sarah asked, “Today?”
“Joel, come on,” Y/n agreed, “Not today.”
“I know,” Joel was quick to remedy the moment, “I’d be done by nine,” he called to Tommy, “By nine, right?”
Sarah gazed across the table to Y/n, the two of them sharing a disbelieving look.
“I’ll bring back a cake,” Joel looked between the girls, “I promise.”
Y/n sighed, holding her coffee cup to her chest. Joel had been pulling double shifts more and more recently. She’d been meaning to talk to him about it, how she and Sarah had been missing him, but she was in no position to stop him from working. Money was tight and contract work was never a sure thing.
A news broadcast broke up the top 40 station Sarah had turned the radio on to while cooking. “Continued disturbances in Jakarta…” the voice announced, the clinking of silverware against plates breaking it up, “But are advising U.S. citizens-“
“Jakarta?” Joel repeated, “Where is that? Middle East?”
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Tommy shook his head, holding a coffee cup, “It’s definitely a country. Or maybe a part of Asia?”
Y/n smiled and tilted her head at Sarah, who was already prepared to answer.
“Jakarta isn’t a country,” she interjected, “Being a part of Asia isn’t mutually exclusive with being a country and in fact, it’s the capital of Indonesia.”
“That’s my girl,” Y/n said proudly.
“Shit,” Tommy grinned, “Hope for us yet.”
Joel took a final sip of his coffee before slapping his hand against his bare wrist, still expecting his broken watch to be there. He, instead, dug into his pocket checked the time on his cell phone.
“All right,” he announced to his daughter, collecting his and Y/n’s plates, “Finish up quick. We’ll drop you off.”
“I’m still eating my eggshells,” Sarah said.
“You got seven minutes,” Joel replied, dumping the dishes in the sink for later.
“Your t-shirt’s inside out.”
Joel looked down, deflated at the trip he now had to make back upstairs, “Shit.”
Sarah waited till he was out of the room and cocked a suspicious eyebrow at Y/n.
“Pop that thing down, missy,” Y/n pointed downwards, “Your dad just pays shockingly little attention for someone who works with power tools.”
Tommy smiled over the wings he’d taken for himself, “He’s losin’ it.”
Y/n laughed and nudged Sarah’s leg, “C’mon, finish up.”
Sarah scooped the last bite of egg into her mouth and handed her plate to Y/n, who brushed past Tommy on her way to the sink. She reversed a few steps to get a whiff of the chicken.
“Found the smell,” she called out to Sarah, patting Tommy’s shoulder, “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“Stomach of steel,” he replied, setting his plate on the edge of the sink and planting a kiss on Y/n’s cheek. The two of them had become as good as siblings.
Y/n climbed up the stairs and down the hall to Joel’s room. He emerged just as she approached, brushing his hand across her hip as they passed one another. As much as they both loved pouring out the fullness of their affection, the casual intimacies were their favorites.
Grabbing her keys and wallet off Joel’s dresser, Y/n peeked out the window and waited till she saw Joel outside with Tommy. “Sarah,” she called down the hall.
Sarah tiptoed her way in, just to be safe, “Good?”
“Yep,” Y/n nodded.
Sarah found the assigned drawer, digging through Joel’s possessions to pull out his broken watch. She’d developed the plan to fix it as a birthday present last month and had gotten Y/n in on it.
“You’ve got the money?” Sarah checked.
Y/n flipped through the bills in her wallet, “Should be enough.”
Sarah thumbed through Joel’s cash and pulled out a few extra, smiling mischievously, “Now we can be sure.”
“Sarah! Y/n!” Joel called from the truck, Tommy was honking the horn.
Slipping the watch into her backpack, Sarah and Y/n quickly left the bedroom and headed down the stairs. Y/n hung back to make sure the coffee pot and stove were off before exiting out the front door. From the porch, she could see Sarah was in conversation with Mr. Adler next door. Or rather, dodging conversation.
“Make ‘em happy,” Joel encouraged, passing Y/n to grab another load of tools.
“I could come by after school, but just for like, a little bit,” Sarah offered.
“She’ll take what you got,” Mr. Adler replied as he fed his elderly mother-in-law, “Y’all can bake or whatever. Speakin’ of,” the man held up a plate, “We got a lotta extra here, y’all want some biscuits?”
“Dad,” Sarah masterfully tossed the ball to Joel, “You love biscuits.”
“I do,” Joel replied cheerily, “But Y/n’s got me on Atkins.”
Y/n snorted, watching the exchange go down from the bed of the truck.
“On what now?” Mr. Adler asked.
“It’s uh-“ Joel stopped himself, “You know, we gotta run but Sarah’ll be by later. She’ll stay as long as you want,” he smiled genuinely to his neighbors and smugly to his daughter, “Tell you all about Atkins.”
“Great, I’ll let Connie know,” Mr. Adler called back as Joel took Y/n’s hand and led her around the truck, “Hey, Y/n, you’re invited too.”
She peeked over the truck’s flatbed, “I’ll be working, but I’ll come grab Sarah on my way home.”
“Thank you,” Sarah smiled at her dad’s girlfriend, glaring at her father himself, “Solid.”
Joel held the door open for them, smirking at Y/n. “Thirty minutes, then you can rescue her,” he instructed.
“I never suggested Atkins,” she replied, sliding into the backseat beside Sarah.
“Can’t tell you how exciting it was listenin’ to that fuckin’ conversation,” Tommy commented, his speech molding around the cigarette between his lips.
“Put that out,” Joel said, a second before Y/n could form the same words.
Tommy flicked the smoke out onto the driveway, “Happy birthday to you.”
The truck pulled out into the cul-de-sac, carrying each of them off to their separate days.
Once Sarah had been dropped off at school and Y/n at the hardware store, Joel and Tommy headed across town to their construction site.
“Y’all got plans for tonight?” Tommy asked as they rode.
“If I don’t bring a cake home, they’re gonna string me up,” Joel answered, “Other than that, nothin’.”
His brother chuckled, “Least they gang up on you together. I got a buddy who just brought his girl home, his kid can’t stand her.”
Joel wasn’t an idiot, he knew how lucky he was that his girlfriend and daughter got along. No, they did better than just get along. They were practically inseparable. He’d take as much shit as they could give him, so long as they did it together.
“When’re you gonna marry that girl?”
It wasn’t the first time Tommy had asked that question. It had been increasing in frequency over the last few months. After they’d passed their one year anniversary, it became a thought consuming more and more space in Joel’s mind. It had taken enough time to sort out his thoughts and fears on the subject of going into marriage again, but it had been something that week that had settled him on the matter.
Monday night, Y/n had dropped by after her shift to help Sarah with homework. Joel had been at work, but when he got home, he expected to see them waiting for him at the kitchen table. Finding only silence, he climbed the stairs and peeked into Sarah’s room. Y/n was sitting against the headboard of Sarah’s bed, the young girl tucked into her shoulder, the math homework spread across their laps.
In the seemingly meaningless display of affection, Joel saw so much more. He saw the rest of his life. He could finally give Sarah a crucial piece of happiness that she’d been deprived of. He could have the love he’d craved and denied himself for so many years. The three of them, a family.
He was going to ask Y/n to marry him that weekend.
“I was gonna head to that place in the mall tomorrow morning,” Joel replied, his fingers rubbing together in anticipation. The last few weeks of working double shifts would pay off if he could find the perfect ring.
“Oh, shit,” Tommy grinned, “You’re actually doin’ it.”
“No reason to wait,” he said, staring ahead as if he could see his bright future.
“Think she’ll say yes?” Tommy asked, practically bleeding from the daggers Joel shot at him. He heartily laughed, “You get Sarah’s blessin’?”
A small smile stretched across Joel’s lips, “I know I already got it. But yeah, I’m gonna show her the ring, ask her officially.”
“Girl’s not gonna say no,” Tommy replied, making a turn onto the street the construction site was on, “She’s as crazy about her as you are.”
Joel couldn’t see any reason why Sarah would reject Y/n, she liked her better than she did Joel half the time. But he’d still never make such a big decision without consulting his daughter.
“You fucker,” Tommy chuckled, smacking Joel’s chest, “Won the damn lottery.”
Joel smiled out the window, he knew it too.
——————
Y/n’s day went by as slow as possible. She kept moving around the hardware store, helping employee and customer alike with anything they needed. All she needed was to stay busy until 3PM when she’d clock out an hour early, pick Sarah up at the house and they’d head downtown to the watch repair shop.
She absentmindedly spinning down one of the aisles, passing Melinda, one of her co-workers.
“Head outta the clouds, kid,” she chuckled.
“I’m on the ground,” Y/n replied, doing another twirl, “I just need this fucking day to end.”
Melinda went back to hanging inventory, “You and Joel got big plans tonight?”
“I was gonna grill us up some steaks,” she shrugged, “Cake. He’ll get squirmy if Sarah and I spoil him too much.”
“I got a question,” Melinda rested her arm on a shelf, “And if it’s too personal, you tell me. I won’t care, but you can tell me.”
Y/n giggled, “Okay.”
“Are you two ever gonna get married?”
Y/n’s movements came to a stop in the middle of the aisle. She’d been thinking more and more about what it might look like to marry Joel. It wasn’t like she was daydreaming about meaningless details like what dress she’d wear or what color roses would serve as centerpieces. She thought about waking up in Joel’s arms every morning, cooking breakfast for Sarah, being there for every moment, big or small. That was what she cared about.
Joel had eventually opened up to her about his ex-wife and what her abandonment had done to both him and Sarah. Y/n knew it was a scar that was as healed as it could be. She would never rush Joel into making a decision about their future, but she’d have been lying if she’d said she didn’t want to eventually wear his ring on her finger.
“I’m not sure,” she answered honestly.
“Well, he needs to lock you down,” Melinda pointed towards Y/n with a hammer, “My cousin, came in last week, got one look at you, he’s been asking me for your number all week.”
Y/n laughed, “Ring or no ring, I’m locked down. This is it for me.”
The women turned their attention down the aisle to a man, taking sloppy steps down the aisle. It was barely two in the afternoon, a little early to already be drunk, but Texas took the rules of happy hour very loosely.
Melinda groaned, “Ugh, you want me to take him?”
“No, I got it,” Y/n put on her cheery voice and walked up to the customer, “Can I help you find any-“
The man spun to face her, snarling, and took a swing at Y/n. She jumped back just in time.
“What the f-“
Growling, he charged towards her again, this time using her shock against her and tackling her to the floor. Y/n screamed, shoving her hands against his chest in an effort to push him off of her.
“Fuck!” Melinda yelled, pulling at the guy’s legs, “Help! We need help!”
Y/n stared into the man’s eyes, they were glazed over entirely, filled with pure, animalistic rage. He snarled and bit at the air before wrapping his hand around her neck. She used all her strength to push him away, her breath stuck in her throat. He lunged to burrow his face where his hand lay, Y/n couldn’t get him off her, but she kept him from getting any closer.
The manager, Don, sprinted down the aisle with a few other guys and pulled the attacker off of Y/n. The man fought back, growling and clawing relentlessly at her. One of the employees dropped him on the ground and sat on him, ensuring he didn’t go anywhere.
Y/n scrambled to her feet, Don came to embrace her.
“You okay?”
She was fighting to catch her breath, “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“I’m callin’ the police,” Melinda announced, rushing off to the phone at the front desk.
“What happened?” Don asked, moving to hold Y/n’s arms.
“I-I don’t know,” she ran a hand through her hair, “He came down the aisle and just lunged at me. I-I just offered to help him.”
With the man still fighting to break out of his hold, making sounds that made him seem possessed, Don pulled Y/n out of the aisle.
“I’m sorry, Don,” Y/n apologized, her voice still trembling.
“You got nothin’ to be sorry for, sweetheart,” he quickly shook his head, “Men gotta learn they can’t go gettin’ rough on a woman just cause they’ve had a bad day.”
The police arrived within ten minutes, running down the aisle and cuffing the monstrous man. Y/n stayed far away from her attacker as he was dragged out of the store, residing between Melinda and Don. She’d been asked if she wanted to press charges, but she declined. She just wanted the whole thing to be over.
“Take off now,” Don offered after the officers left.
“No, I-I’m okay,” Y/n smoothed her apron down with shaking hands.
“Don’t even try,” Don shook his head, “Get on out of here.”
Y/n took the first breath she could actually feel, wasting no time in dashing back to the break room and grabbing her purse out of her locker. She wanted to be as far away from anything about the afternoon as she could. Plus, it would mean she could pick Sarah up straight from school instead of the Adlers.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Y/n bid her co-workers farewell on the way out.
Don rasied a hand alongside Melinda, “See ya tomorrow. Wish Joel a happy birthday from us!”
The mention of his name got a smile out of Y/n, “I will.”
With Joel and Tommy having dropped her off, she had to call a cab to take her back to her apartment. She held in her tears until the front door was locked and she knew she was safe.
Why hadn’t she fought back? Fought harder? She was great with her words, but she’d never been able to physically defend herself. In the world they lived in, it was becoming more and more necessary for a woman to be able to throw a punch. Y/n felt weak for not fighting for her safety with the ferocity that Joel or Tommy would have. It just wasn’t in her nature to be violent, even if her own life was on the line.
She managed to collect herself, drying her tears and heading back down to her car. She was determined to put the incident behind her and not let it ruin her day.
Y/n parked directly outside the front of the school so Sarah couldn’t miss her. She waited against the car door, tapping her heel against the asphalt until a barrage of kids came pouring out of the building. Sarah clocked her just before she headed for the bus.
“I thought you were picking me up at home,” she called across the street.
“My shift ended early,” Y/n explained, excluding the reason why.
Sarah opened the passenger side door and jumped in, “Can we grab ice cream or something after?”
“Nice try,” Y/n started up her car, “I’m dropping you off at the Adler’s after this.”
Sarah let her head fall against her seat, with a small groan.
“Half an hour and then there’ll be some big birthday emergency,” Y/n offered, turning onto the next street over, “Seatbelt.”
It was these small domestic moments that showed just how good of a parent Y/n would make. She still didn’t believe she was doing anything exceptional, but the smallest acts of care meant the most. Making sure Sarah walked on the inside of the street, making sure she’d eaten enough, helping her with homework…all of that equated to Sarah knowing she had someone else looking out for her.
They made it downtown to the jewelry-clock repair shop within minutes. Their part of Austin was small enough that everything was five minutes away.
The owner at the front counter examined Joel’s watch, “Twenty.”
“That’s it?” Sarah asked, surprised.
“Okay,” the man smiled, “Thirty.”
“My little negotiator,” Y/n looked down at Sarah, smirking, “Let’s stick with twenty.”
“It’s a spring,” he explained as Sarah pulled out the twenty she’d taken from Joel, “I’ll do it right now.”
Y/n put an arm around Sarah’s shoulders and tugged her into her side, the two of them absentmindedly hugging as they glanced around the store. Behind them, a line of police cars followed by a fire truck sped down the street. It pulled Y/n back to an hour before.
“All day, I swear,” a woman emerged from the shop’s back room, switching between speaking in English and Arabic, “We’re closing.”
“It’s 3:15,” the owner responded, “We close at 7.”
The woman anxiously stood at the window, staring down the street. She lapsed back into Arabic as she addressed her partner, before putting her hands on Y/n and Sarah’s arms, “I’m very sorry, he cannot finish.”
“I already finished,” the man replied, holding out the boxed watch to his wife.
She pressed the box into Y/n’s hands, “You should go home.”
“W-wait,” Y/n stuttered as the woman rushed them out of the shop, “Wh-“
“Go home,” the woman urged, staring into Y/n’s eyes with a desperation a child could never understand.
She shut the door on Y/n and Sarah, flipping the ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’ after and pulling the blinds.
“That was weird,” Sarah muttered.
“Yeah,” Y/n watched as the woman continued shutting the blinds in the windows.
Successful in their quest, Y/n and Sarah loaded themselves back in the car and headed home. On the way, they passed four more police cars and one more fire engine. Austin had its fair share of crime, especially downtown, but this was out of the ordinary.
“What do you think’s going on?” Sarah asked at one point.
“No idea,” Y/n answered, pulling them into the driveway of Joel’s home and unbuckling, “I’ll check the news. Go be a good person.”
“I’m timing you,” Sarah said firmly.
Y/n smiled, “Go.”
Sarah dragged herself and her backpack out of the car and trudged across the Adler’s lawn. Y/n watched her lovingly, she had the biggest heart of anyone she knew, it was just butting heads with teenage hormones.
Y/n let herself into the Miller’s house, her body relaxing as soon as the door shut. She kicked off her sneakers and headed for the living room, switching on the television. She changed the channel to the local news station, expecting to see a fire or mass shooting. All the anchors said was that there had been reports of heightened violence throughout the day and that citizens should avoid going downtown. That lined up with what Y/n had experienced at the store, apparently the city of Austin was acting like a collective asshole.
Satisfied, Y/n busied herself with laundry and taking care of the dishes from breakfast until she scanned the clock, seeing it was ten past the time she said she’d pick Sarah up at.
She went outside, crossed the shared lawn and knocked on the Adler’s front door. Connie was the one to open it.
“Well, there she is,” the woman exclaimed, “Come in!”
They entered into the hallway, which smelled like cookies and mothballs, and Y/n spotted Sarah sitting in the kitchen, bag packed and a barely concealed frown on her face.
“I’m sendin’ you two home with some cookies,” Connie said, bustling around the kitchen for a Ziploc, “They’re raisin.”
“Oh, yay,” Y/n feigned excitement, following her in and stroking a hand across Sarah’s hair, “Those’re Joel’s favorite.”
Sarah fought the laugh caught in her throat, Joel would’ve rather died than touch anything with raisins in it.
Connie handed Y/n the bag and took her other hand, “You tell him happy birthday from us.”
“We will,” Y/n smiled before they headed down the hall and to the door.
“Wait,” Sarah mumbled just as they were walking out. She stopped to see Mercy, the Adler’s dog, whining at Nana Adler, seated in her chair as usual.
“Dogs are super tuned into their owners,” Y/n explained, “Some studies suggest that they can sense if their person’s in pain.”
Sarah hummed and accepted the answer, exiting out the front door with Y/n. “You were late,” she stated.
“I was doing your laundry,” Y/n replied, dipping her hand along Sarah’s through a lawn sprinkler, “So I’d say we’re even.”
The sun was just setting, a warm pink taking over the sky as night’s opening act. Kids, home from school, were playfully screaming a few houses down. Everything felt perfectly in place.
An overhead thundering encroached on the peaceful scene, drawing Sarah and Y/n’s attention skyward. Three fighter jets in formation blew over their heads, flying in the general direction of downtown.
“Air Force base isn’t too far from here,” Y/n commented, it was the only explanation that made sense.
Sarah didn’t seem too concerned, cutting ahead across the lawn and up to the front porch.
Inside, Y/n busied herself with cooking dinner while Sarah sat at the table finishing up homework. The steaks she’d bought a few days prior had gone bad, and she was searching the fridge for anything she could turn into something special.
Pressing her forehead to the appliance’s cool steel, she admitted defeat.
“You know Dad’s not picky,” Sarah tried to comfort her.
“Yeah, well, I wanted to do something nice for him,” Y/n replied, kicking her foot lightly against the fridge, “But I suppose ordering Chinese is just as special.”
“We could always run by the store,” Sarah suggested.
“Mm-mm,” Y/n shook her head, digging through the takeout menu drawer, “No one’s going anywhere while there’s all those cops on the road.”
They ended up ordering enough for themselves, Joel and Tommy, if he decided to stay for dinner. As the night went on, the food grew cold, and by eight o’clock, Y/n and Sarah grew too hungry to wait and sat on the couch with their cartons.
“If he’s home by nine,” Sarah thought the next part of her sentence over carefully, “I’ll give you a whole week off of helping me with my homework.”
“Doesn’t feel like much of a win,” Y/n shrugged, picking at another piece of orange chicken. They were coming up with bets for when they thought Joel would actually return home, “I don’t mind being on homework duty.”
“Okay, fine, um…” Sarah continued drafting, snapping her chopsticks together, “I’ll do the dishes for a week. Every load.”
Y/n waved a chopstick at the girl, “Done. But if he’s home past nine, I will…get him to learn one of the Halican Drops’ songs,” she tilted her head, “That’s a win for you and will definitely cost me.”
Sarah laughed, “Deal.”
They spent the evening talking and watching tv, the later hours eventually tiring them. Sarah leaned up against Y/n, lost in a magazine while Y/n read a book she’d left on the coffee table. The television played lightly in the background, though they’d stopped paying attention long ago.
Eventually, five after ten, a pair of keys jingled in the front door lock, signaling Sarah had won the bet.
“You locked the door this time,” Joel said, addressing his daughter, “Good job.”
“Yeah,” Sarah switched off the tv and sat up, “Y/n reminded me.”
Y/n scooted over to give Joel a spot on the couch, he flopped down on the cushions, digging his palms into his eyes.
“It’s 10,” Sarah said what they were all thinking.
“I know,” Joel groaned, pulling back up to take off his boots, “They…gave us the wrong size for the headers,” he looked over his girlfriend to Sarah, “That doesn’t mean anything to you, barely means anything to Y/n. I’m sorry.”
Y/n’s fingers walked across Joel’s leg, “And dessert would be…?”
Joel slumped forward, “Shit.”
“Come on, man,” Sarah bemoaned.
“I’ll get us one tomorrow,” Joel promised for the second time that day.
“Swear,” Sarah replied, “Or you don’t get your present.”
Joel turned, brightening up adorably fast. “You got me a present?”
“Swear,” Sarah continued.
Y/n smiled, eyeing her boyfriend with the same loving frustration as Sarah.
“On my life,” Joel swore.
Deeming it an acceptable answer, Sarah rotated and dug behind a pillow. Joel slid his hand over Y/n’s, flattening it down against his knee.
Sarah presented the box, holding it out to her dad.
“Wow,” Joel said, making a theatrical face before opening it. He hadn’t expected what was inside.
“Fixed it for you,” Sarah beamed with reserved pride.
Joel ran a thumb over the watch and held it to his ear, furrowing his brows, “Did you?”
“What?” Sarah reached for his hand.
“I don’t hear anything,” Joel continued.
“It was working four hours ago,” Y/n exclaimed, adjusting herself to sit up and examine it for herself.
The two girls barely had to raise it to their ears before they could hear the strong ticking. Sarah groaned and lightly shoved Joel, who was heartily laughing.
Y/n rolled her eyes, “Screw you, man.”
“That was lame,” Sarah smiled, “You’re lame.”
“Yeah, I know,” Joel chuckled, taking another second to admire his gift, “Where’d you get the money for this?”
“Drugs,” Sarah answered, “I sell hardcore drugs.”
“It’s better than what I do,” Joel slipped the watch onto his wrist.
“It was only $20, which I stole from you.”
“Which I had,” Y/n interjected, “If you’d have given me two seconds...”
“I could have stolen $60, but I put the change back,” Sarah defended herself against Joel’s parental stare, “Because I’m an honest thief. Besides, it’s the thought that counts. And you were never gonna do it for yourself, so…”
Joel, never one to be selfish, looked on lovingly at his daughter and co-conspirator, before turning his head downward. “Thank you.”
Sarah smiled, looking to Y/n victoriously. “Oh, there’s one more,” she dug behind the pillow once again and retrieved a DVD case, “Borrowed it from the Adlers.”
Joel wasted no time in taking it from her, it was Curtis and Viper, the guiltiest of all guilty pleasure movies. “Oh, this is the one with the deleted scenes.”
“Yeah, imagine how bad those have to be,” Sarah commented, “Come on, pop it in, while it’s still your birthday.”
Y/n got up alongside Joel, “I’ll go heat up dinner and brace myself for the cinematic masterpiece I’m about to experience.”
“I showed it to you a while back,” Joel called out to her, “Remember?”
“I remember,” Y/n swung into the kitchen, “And yet I’m still with you.”
Joel smirked to himself, setting the disc in the tray and jogging off to join Y/n. “Chinese?”
“There was going to be something home cooked,” Y/n scooped some food onto a plate for Joel, “But the grocery gods were conspiring against me.”
“Kidding? This is great,” Joel replied, coming to hold Y/n’s hips and move around the kitchen with her. He settled his chin against her head, “Thank you. For all of it.”
Y/n leaned back into Joel’s chest, “I don’t see how crappy Chinese food and aiding your daughter in thievery deserves thanks but,” she twisted her neck to plant a kiss on his cheek, “I’ll take it.”
Joel absentmindedly ran his hands up Y/n’s arms, gazing down at her skin. His eyes drifted to her exposed neck, the glow of the microwave illuminating a purple splotch across her throat.
“What’s this?”
Y/n was watching the timer, “Hm?”
Joel pulled back the rest of her hair and lightly ran a finger over the skin, “Where’d you get this?”
Y/n pulled away, confusedly grabbing a spatchula out of a drawer and relfecting it back on her. Sure enough, there was a large purple bruise developing where the psycho in the hardware store had choked her.
“Hm,” Y/n thought, she hadn’t intended to ruin the levity of the night, “Uh, are we sure you didn’t put that there?”
Joel bristled at the idea, even at his most passionate, he wasn’t rough like that, “I’d never do this to you.”
Y/n sighed, pressing the ‘stop’ button on the microwave before it could beep. She pulled Joel’s food out, set it down and leaned up against the counter.
“A guy attacked me today at work,” she said softly, not wanting Sarah to hear.
Joel’s eyebrows raised two inches, his voice got low, “What?”
“He came down the aisle and just,” Y/n gestured suddenly to herself, “Tackled me to the ground. It took three of the guys, plus Don just to get him off of me.”
Joel surged forward, hovering his hand over Y/n’s neck and examining her, “How bad is it?”
“I’m okay,” Y/n gently took Joel’s hand, bringing it down to his side, “Headache from smacking my head on the floor, little sore, but fine.”
“Please tell me you called the police and pressed charges” Joel asked, fully in protector mode.
Y/n shook her head, “I didn’t wanna drag it out, I just wanted the whole thing to be over. The cops took him, they can deal with it.”
Joel braced himself against the counter to Y/n’s side, halfway-caging her in. “And you weren’t gonna tell me about it?”
“It’s your birthday,” Y/n smiled softly up at her boyfriend, “I just wanted to come home and have a normal evening with you guys. Forget it ever happened.”
Anger swelled in Joel’s stomach for whatever freak had gone after her, but his gaze stayed soft. Her pain was his pain.
“Wanna know what the worst part was?” Y/n asked, looping a finger through Joel’s and smiling sadly, “I could have fought back…but I just laid there. I tried to push him off but…”
There was no need for her to finish the sentence. Joel’s mind flashed back to the night they’d met, when that creep had laid his hand on her and she hadn’t fought back. It was one of his deepest worries, that one day someone would come at her and he wouldn’t be there to protect her.
“Can you please,” he begged, “Enroll in a self-defense class?”
“Yes,” Y/n agreed, saying whatever she could to get the night to return to normal, “I think there’s one down at the community center.”
Joel’s shoulders rose and fell with his sigh, cupping the back of her neck and drawing her into his body. She wrapped her arms around his middle, digging her face into his pec.
“I hate the world sometimes,” Joel said over her shoulder.
Y/n scoffed, “You and me both, bucko.”
They stood in each other’s arms a moment, letting the stress of the day melt away.
“Your daughter’s waiting,” Y/n smiled into Joel’s chest, “And she’s been waiting all night.”
Joel broke from her, stroking a thumb over her cheek. He was looking forward to revealing the reason for his late night hours.
With dinner in hand, Joel and Y/n headed back into the living room, where Sarah was waiting with the remote. Joel settled down in the middle of the couch, giving him room to be surrounded by his two favorite people.
“Don’t fall asleep,” he warned, as Sarah snuggled into his shoulder.
“‘Course I won’t,” she said, “It’s too riveting.”
“I make no such promises,” Y/n replied, hanging one of her legs on Joel’s knee.
Both of them were out cold within an hour.
Joel couldn’t complain even if he tried. With Sarah passed out on his leg Y/n tucked under his arm, it was the happiest he’d been the whole day.
While watching the movie, Joel’s mind kept spinning around proposal ideas. If he got the ring in the morning, he could do it that night. Or did he need to spend more time, crafting some elaborate idea involving doves and roses and all the movie shit? Y/n wasn’t fancy, she probably wouldn’t care if that was missing. All he cared about was that she said ‘yes’ and that the ring was something she could cherish the rest of their lives.
Joel gazed down at his daughter and soon-to-be fiancé, fast asleep on him. A lifetime of that was a thought he could get used to…
The vibration of his cell phone broke Joel out of his daydream. He reached forward, trying not to wake either girl, bur Y/n stirred enough to come to.
“Sorry,” he whispered, picking up the call, “Hello?”
“Joel, it’s me,” Tommy’s voice cut through, Y/n’s head was close enough to hear the call, “Uh, I’m okay.”
“Yeah?” Joel asked.
“But I’m in jail.”
Y/n sat up groggily as Joel arched back into the couch, rubbing his eyes in stress.
“Wasn’t my fault this time,” Tommy was quick to defend himself, “I was at the bar, some guy goes crazy, starts swingin’ at waitresses, I stepped in, knocked him out, cops showed up-”
Joel and Y/n shared an exhausted look, both from true tiredness and Tommy.
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Tommy hurried, “You gotta bail me out.”
“Now?” Joel hissed.
“It’s Friday,” Tommy said, “You don’t get me out, I’m in here all weekend. It’s a fuckin’ madhouse, Joel. I gotta get out.”
Y/n rubbed the sleep out of her eye, and lowered her voice, “I’ll go get him.”
Joel’s hand shot out across Y/n’s legs, “No,” he switched conversations, “Well, which jail. Travis County?”
“Yeah, on 10th,” his little brother answered.
“Damn it, Tommy,” Joel shook his head.
Tommy took a breath, “I’m sorry…please.”
Joel waited before answering, “Okay,” he hung up his cell, “Fuckin’ idiot.”
“Joel, just let me go,” Y/n offered, gesturing to Sarah using his leg as a pillow, “You got him last time.”
“I don’t want you out this late,” Joel shot down the idea a second time, “Especially in that part of town. I’ll be back, hour tops.”
Carefully, Joel eased Sarah off of him and lifted her into his arms. He carried her upstairs to bed while Y/n stayed on the couch, trying to get her bearings.
Joel came back downstairs, grumbling to himself as he collected his wallet and keys.
“We do all this,” Y/n gestured to the empty dinner plate and gift box, “And Tommy’s still gotta one up us.”
“Yeah, well,” Joel muttered, throwing his cell phone in his pocket, “I shoulda just left him in there.”
Y/n looked up amusedly at her boyfriend, “Yeah, like you’d ever do that.”
Joel’s instinct was to protect, he couldn’t have left his brother to rot for the weekend if he tried.
Y/n got to her feet and slid a hand up Joel’s chest, bringing his restlessness to a halt. She wrapped her other hand around the base of his neck, rubbing at the permanently tense muscles.
“Happy Birthday to you,” she sleepily smiled.
Joel leaned forward to connect his lips to Y/n’s. In an ideal world, he’d carry her upstairs and they’d fall asleep in each other’s arms. But after rescuing Tommy, they’d have the whole weekend for that. Still, he poured as much love as he could into his kiss.
Neither of them knew it would be the last one they shared.
“Be safe,” Y/n told him once they broke apart.
“I will,” Joel replied, heading for the front door, “Go to bed. Be back soon.”
Y/n nodded, her eyes following him till he was out of the house. In her stupor, she wasn’t thinking of how packed the streets had been earlier in the day with cop cars. Or how the news had said there’d been increased violence in the city. Or how the story Tommy had recounted sounded eerily similar to hers. She was just tired enough that all that made sense to her was climbing into Joel’s bed and going back to sleep.
Slowly climbing the staircase, Y/n made her way down the hall. She paused outside of Sarah’s room, poking her head in to make sure she was settled. Joel had thrown a blanket over her and she was rolling over. Satisfied, Y/n pushed off of the door frame to leave.
“Mom?”
She froze in her tracks, she’d barely moved out of sight before Sarah had called for…someone. Not her. It couldn’t be her. But who else? She had no memory of her birth mo-
“Mom?”
Y/n’s chest fluttered, it could only be her. She hesitated to answer, “Yeah?”
“Where’s Dad?” Sarah asked, her eyes were still scrunched but she was looking to Y/n’s silhouette.
“He had to run by Uncle Tommy’s,” Y/n answered, saving the full answer for the morning, “He’ll be back soon.”
Sarah seemed to accept the response, nodding a little and settling back into her pillow.
“Goodnight,” Y/n wished, her hands awkwardly fidgeting against her chest.
“Night,” Sarah mumbled.
Slipping against the nearest wall, Y/n’s breath trembled with joy, shock…she couldn’t tell. Sarah had made up her mind as to what Y/n was to her…and what she was was a mother.
Feeling like she was floating, Y/n made her way down the hall to the bed that was as good as her own and slid underneath the sheets. Her smile stretched so wide, she thought her cheeks might split. She couldn’t wait to tell Joel when he got home….
—————————
First came the sirens.
Then came the choppers.
Then the car alarms.
And the flares.
Y/n was the first to wake, the sound of helicopter blades and the sensation of the house rattling waking her. She reached over in the dark for Joel and grasped air. The clock read 2:15AM, he’d left at 11.
That was enough to wake Y/n the rest of the way up.
She rolled out of bed and went to the window, peeking through the blinds to see flares being shot into the sky. Though her vision was blurred from sleep, she could see the smoke cloud in the distance. It was coming from downtown.
“Dad?” Sarah called down the hall, “Y/n?”
“In here,” Y/n said, still watching the sky as another round of helicopters flew over their neighborhood.
Sarah came through the door, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Y/n answered, her stomach twisting in confusion, “Go check if your dad’s downstairs.”
Sarah left, calling for Joel as she descended the staircase. “He’s not here,” she yelled up.
Y/n’s chest sank, anxiety beginning to creep its way up her throat. Was this some kind of invasion? It had barely been two years since 9/11, was something of that scale happening in their backyard?
“Y/n!”
The urgency in Sarah’s voice got Y/n moving out the bedroom and down the stairs as quick as she could. “What is it?”
Sarah had switched on the tv, the emergency broadcast signal was on every channel, delivering an ominous message to stay indoors and wait for law enforcement.
A thud against the window had Y/n pulling Sarah to her chest, the girl wrapping her hands around Y/n’s wrists. Mercy, the Adler’s dog, had his paws against the window and was trying to get inside.
“Stay here,” Y/n told Sarah, heading to unlock the front door. She crouched down on the porch and the dog leaned against her legs, whining. “Shh, Mercy, shh…”
“Is he okay?” Sarah asked, right behind Y/n.
“I think,” Y/n answered, clueless as Mercy panted furiously under her touch. She looked across the street, finding nothing out of the ordinary visually. Audibly, there were car alarms coming from all directions and the chopper was making another circle around the subdivision. Something felt very, very wrong.
“Stay here,” Y/n told Sarah, “I’m gonna take a look around.”
“No, I’m coming with-“
“No,” Y/n’s tone firmed up, “Take Mercy inside and stay-“
Mercy started barking as if he knew he was being discussed. Y/n knew nothing she said would get Sarah to listen, she was out of options.
“Let’s get him back home,” she said.
Sarah led Mercy by the collar across the lawn and onto the Adler’s driveway. Once he realized he was back at his house, Mercy began to whine and pull away from Sarah.
“C’mon, Mercy, please,” Sarah begged.
Mercy pulled one final time, the collar unclipping and letting him loose. He took off into the night.
“Mercy!” Sarah called, he was too far gone to hear her.
“It’s okay,” Y/n quickly tried to smooth Sarah’s heartbreak over, “We’ll find him. But first, we’re going home and-“
Clanking from inside the Adler’s home drew their attention.
“Mrs. Adler?” Sarah called, receiving no answer, she looked to Y/n to decide their next move.
Y/n was torn between following the noise and running back home to call Joel.
“Stay behind me,” she decided, placing herself in front of Sarah as a barricade.
They crept up the Adler’s porch, letting themselves in through the ajar door. The carpet runner was scrunched up, something the meticulous Connie would have never allowed.
“Connie?” Y/n announced their presence.
“Mrs. Adler?” Sarah repeated, the two of them frozen in the hallway.
Another loud sound from the kitchen, followed by a distant gunshot and chased by a car alarm.
Y/n tried to inhale steadily, but the trembling came anyway. The long stretches of silence broken up by what sounded like war were creating a steady pit of fear in her chest.
She reached backwards, pulling Sarah closer to her body. The girl was already holding onto Y/n’s hips. They took soft steps through the hall and to the kitchen.
“Con-“ Y/n held on to the room divider as she stumbled, looking down to see the slippery substance across the floor.
Blood.
Sarah and Y/n’s breaths caught in their chests as their eyes followed the trail of crimson through the kitchen…to Mr. Adler, laid against the cabinets.
“Help me,” he whispered, a particularly gory wound to his neck oozing blood down his body.
Y/n moved to help him but was yanked back by Sarah, who already had eyes on the next terror.
Nana Adler was hung over her daughter, her face burrowed into her neck.
Y/n eased Sarah back, making no sudden movements, as the elderly woman slowly looked up to them. There were strands of something springing from her mouth, it was something out of a horror movie.
Nana rose to her feet, her movements choppy and careless, and Sarah wrapped her arms around Y/n’s torso.
The woman, animalistic, shrieked and ran towards them.
Y/n shoved Sarah back towards the door, racing out of the house and onto the lawn. She was pulling the girl toward their house when the roar of a pickup truck came barreling down the street.
Tommy’s truck.
Tommy pulled the truck up onto the curb, Joel jumped out before it had even stopped.
“GET IN THE TRUCK,” he yelled at Y/n and Sarah, “RIGHT NOW!”
With Sarah in her hands, Joel grabbed Y/n and pulled them to the vehicle, “Move!”
Nana Adler came screaming out of the house, Y/n and the Millers watching the bones in her body violently crack under her skin before she fell to the ground. They waited in anticipation until she startled back to life with a gasp, stumbling to her feet and charging towards the family.
“What are we doin’, Joel?” Tommy yelled, his rifle pointed at the grandmother.
Y/n wrapped Sarah in her arms, shielding her body from any harm, but not her eyes.
Joel wasted no time in making the decision, it was either her, or the women he loved. He slashed the wrench he was clutching into Nana’s head, the life leaving her as she dropped.
After, he turned to Y/n and Sarah, their tearful eyes widened in horror. He rushed to them, bending to cup Sarah’s cheek.
“You killed her,” the girl said, unable to form a deeper thought.
Joel pulled his daughter and partner into his arms, “Baby, I’m sorry.”
“Joel, we gotta go,” Tommy warned.
“Joel,” Y/n shook, “What’s going on?”
“Listen to me,” he looked to both his girls, “It’s not just the Adlers,” he took Sarah’s cheeks into his hands, “But we’re gonna be brave, and we’re gonna get out of this.”
A flash of green to their left and Joel was covering them with his arms. The transformer at the end of the block had exploded.
“Hey,” Tommy rounded the truck, “Let’s go. C’mon!”
Joel and Y/n hurried Sarah in front of them, “Get in.”
Y/n stopped before joining her, gripping Joel’s arm, “Joel…”
“I don’t know,” he shook his head, posessing no more answers than she did, “I don’t know.”
Y/n dove into the truck, pulling Sarah into her arms the minute she was seated.
Joel slammed the door shut, his neighbor calling his name out in concern.
“Denise, you get back inside the house,” he yelled, “You lock your doors! Now!”
“C’mon, c’mon, get in,” Tommy urged.
The second Joel’s door shut, Tommy was already pulling them around the cul-de-sac. As he rounded the turn, Mr. and Mrs. Adler came across their lawn and into the street, in the same possessed state as Nana had been.
“Get your seatbelt on,” Joel told Tommy.
“Hold on,” his brother said, accelerating the engine and ramming into the Adlers head on.
Y/n tried to pull Sarah’s head into her shoulder, but the girl was too quick, already looking out the back to see Mrs. Adler on her feet.
“You take 70-“ Joel began to give directions.
“71,” Tommy finished, “I know.”
A line of police cars blew down the opposite lane, speeding towards more chaos they didn’t even understand.
Sarah’s breath had steadied enough where she could speak clearly, “Daddy-“
“We don’t know,” Joel cut her off.
“They’re saying it’s a virus,” Tommy explained, “Some kinda parasite.”
“What parasite does that?” Y/n asked, knowing none of them had an answer.
“Is it from terrorists?” Sarah asked, her voice getting watery.
“We don’t know,” Joel repeated himself, watching his brother as he drove.
“A-are we sick?” Sarah’s panic was growing.
“No, we’re not sick,” Y/n answered immediately.
Joel fiddled with the radio, getting static back in return.
“Why did things blow up?” Sarah asked.
“No cellphone, no radio,” Tommy mused, “Minute ago, newsman wouldn’t shut up.”
“They were broadcasting emergency signals on the tv,” Y/n recalled, as if it made any difference now.
“How do you know?” Sarah kept up her questioning.
“What?” Joel acknowledged her.
Sarah couldn’t hide her tears any more, “How do you know we’re not sick?”
Y/n stroked her hair, offering what little comfort she could while also sharing Sarah’s terror.
“They’re sayin’ it’s mostly people in the city,” Tommy explained, “That’s why they got the highway blocked off.”
Joel craned his head to meet Y/n’s eyes, “This what happened at the store today?”
“Yeah,” Y/n answered, flashing back to 12 hours before. Her attacker hadn’t had the strange strands hanging from his mouth, but he’d had the same animal-like rage.
The car fell silent again as they passed a house, the whole structure consumed by flames.
“It’s Jimmy’s place,” Tommy said as they drove by.
“The Adlers would take Nana into the city,” Sarah continued to try and solve the puzzle, “To the hospital for stuff.”
“That’s right,” Joel agreed, “They would. That’s probably why.”
“But…” Sarah’s brain worked double time, “You’d have to go a lot…right?”
Tommy shook his head slightly, “We’re fine, trust me.”
Through the dashboard mirror, Y/n’s worried eyes met Tommy’s. He was saying a prayer rather than stating a promise.
On the side of the road, a car was pulled over, a family standing outside it waving their hands wildly. “Here! Right here!”
Tommy began to slow down, drawing Joel’s confusion. “What’re you doin’?”
“They got a kid, Joel,” Tommy gestured to the family.
“So do we,” Joel said firmly, “Keep drivin’.”
The father panicked as Tommy followed orders, screaming for them to stop.
“We could put them in the back,” Sarah offered just as they passed them by.
Y/n’s heart sank as the father’s cries echoed in her ears, her eyes drifting to the back of Joel’s head.
“Somebody else’ll come along,” he said to the car, but mostly to himself.
Sarah, trying so hard to remain calm, let her tears fall silently. Whatever shred of reality they could make of the chaos around them was starting to sink in on Y/n too. She pulled Sarah deeper into her arms, feeling the girl’s sadness land on her skin.
Tommy sped down the lane, trying to get on the freeway, and meeting the sea of likeminded cars.
“Fuck,” he exclaimed, “Everyone had the same fuckin’ idea.
Panicked drivers were speeding towards them, the little white lines on the asphalt ceasing to matter.
“I can’t get through this,” Tommy said, dodging the cars.
“All right, all right,” Joel tried to remain calm, “Let’s think it through, we’ll think it through.”
“Tommy!” Y/n cried as another reckless driver nearly clipped them.
“All right, take the field,” Joel directed, “We’ll cut across and pick up on the-the west side.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Tommy’s breath shook, “West, west, all right. All right, hang on.”
Sarah held onto Y/n a little tighter, bracing herself as Tommy went off road into the tall grass. The truck dipped and bounced with the land, until they met smooth dirt…giving them a view of the freeway. The military had already set up shop.
“Shit,” Tommy exclaimed, “Fuckin’ army!”
“Isn’t that good?” Sarah asked
“It’s good for them” Tommy said, “But that’s the highway we’re tryin’ to get to.”
Joel’s brain was spinning with roads, “All right, keep movin’. Head north.”
“Could be a lot of people,” Tommy pointed out.
“Well, we can’t go south, we can’t go east, we can’t go west,” Joel replied, “Hell else we supposed to go?”
Tommy hesitated, his hands nervously gripping the wheel.
“Tommy, come on,” Joel yelled, his own anxiety beginning to show itself.
Listening, Tommy turned the truck north, leading them towards the distant light of a small town.
“Yeah. Yeah, I know that place,” Joel said, “This can work.”
“Joel,” Y/n spoke up, “What then? Where are we going?”
He didn’t know, he barely could remember the numbers of the highways. All he knew was he needed to get his family to some sort of safety. “I don’t know, Mexico,” he blurted out, “Just far, far as we can,” he looked to his brother, “How much gas?”
“Three quarter tank,” Tommy answered, it was enough to make it to the border.
“Go through town,” Joel began to list off directions, “Golf course by the river, straight across, we pick up the highway on the other side of the blockade…” he exhaled, “Then we’re out.”
“Maybe it’s everywhere,” Sarah theorized, trying so desperately to make sense of what was happening, “Maybe there’s nowhere to go.”
Joel and Yn’s worried eyes met in the dashboard mirror, they were both wondering the same thing. Illnesses didn’t stay quarantined to just one city in one state, they spread like vines, reaching for any life they could. What if this parasite worked the same way?
A loud roar began to encroach on the truck from above.
“What the fuck?” Tommy exclaimed.
Sarah and Y/n shielded their ears from the noise, looking up through the roof’s glass top to catch a low-flying plane directly above them. There were a line of three more trailing the sky behind them.
“Shit,” Y/n whispered, her facade for Sarah was fading.
Down the road, the red white and blue lights of a police car became a stumbling block. “Son of a bitch,” Tommy complained, “Gotta go around. Grab somethin’!”
Joel reached an arm back, both to brace himself against Tommy’s seat and give Y/n something to hold onto. Sarah held fast to Y/n as Tommy made a hard right down the next street. The town they’d turned into had descended fully into chaos, its residents running wildly through the streets, either screaming for help or attacking one other.
“All right,” Joel talked his brother through the roads, “Keep goin’, keep goin’,” he looked to his left to see a truck barreling towards them, “Shit, Tommy!”
The tire screech had Y/n flipping Sarah’s body over hers, making herself a human shield. Thankfully, the crash never came.
The next street Tommy turned them down was even worse. People were beating each other senselessly in the street, the screams of the wounded piercing their ears.
“Tommy, you can’t stop here,” Joel said as his brother slowed the car.
He gestured to the crowds, “I can’t drive through ‘em.”
“Are you serious?” Joel yelled, “Just keep goin’!”
Up ahead, an explosion shattered the windows of a building, eliciting every person inside to run for their lives, all headed towards the truck.
“Go, go, go,” Joel urged, smacking the dashboard a little harder with each utterance, “Back, back, back, back, back, back, back!”
“I’m tryin’!” Tommy yelled back.
Y/n caught the faces of people as they ran past, the terror, the confusion in their eyes. One woman had blood streaming down her chest, the deep red turning her white blouse deathly crimson.
“Tommy, go faster,” Joel berated, “We gotta go!”
“I’m tryin’, there’s nowhere to fuckin’ go,” Tommy said, maneuvering them backwards.
“Tommy,” Y/n couldn’t stay quiet, “Fuck, anywhere!”
“Find an alley!” Joel added.
“What alley?! There’s people everywhere!”
“Roll the fuck over them,” Joel ordered, “We gotta get off this street.”
Sarah had shifted out of Y/n’s arms and was staring out the back, watching as the humanity was sucked out of her city. In the sky, she could spot bright, blinking lights headed straight for them.
She blindly reached for Y/n’s hand, “Dad?!”
Y/n and Joel both turned, their eyes falling on the same sight. One of the planes was headed straight towards them.
“Fuck,” Y/n uttered breathlessly.
“Move…” Joel managed to say, “Move!”
The plane completed its nosedive into the road behind them, exploding in a fiery inferno. Joel reached back to grab hold of Sarah, Y/n shoved her down into her lap.
None of them saw the piece of debris heading for the truck.
—————————
Joel was the first one to wake up. He struggled out of his seatbelt, dropping to the roof of the flipped truck and looking into the back.
Y/n and Sarah were out cold.
Sarah’s leg was elevated, her foot caught in some part of the truck. Y/n lay in a terrifyingly still ball.
“Sarah…Sarah…” Joel weakly called, tugging on her free leg and startling her awake, “Stay right there. Don’t move,” he looked to Y/n, “Y/n, wake up.”
No response.
“Rosebud,” Joel urged, his voice betraying him and turning to a whine, “Honey, get up.”
“Y/n,” Sarah disobeyed her father, fear-stricken, and stretched her arm out to shake Y/n.
Y/n gasped, waking up the same way she’d passed out; panicked.
“Joel,” she cried out, “Sarah?”
“We’re here,” Joel reassured her, a hand to her arm, “We’re here. Tommy? You okay?”
Tommy grunted, trying to free himself, “Yeah, I’m okay.”
With a pounding headache, and the feeling of air hitting small cuts across her face, Y/n struggled to her knees. Nothing felt broken inside her, just weak.
Sarah’s breathing began to pick up, turning her body to stare out the busted window. Twenty feet away, someone was heaving over a body, draining it of blood the same way Nana Adler had.
“Sarah,” Joel moved to the back of the truck, “Don’t look. You look at me or Y/n, okay?”
Y/n was at Joel’s side instantly, gently holding Sarah’s calf so he could free her leg. The girl winced as Joel worked.
“I’m sorry, baby, I know, I know,” he apologized profusely, letting her leg drop into Y/n’s hands.
“Come here,” he urged his daughter, “Put your arms around me. Come here, come here,” he pulled Sarah into his embrace, “I got you.”
Y/n was crawling past, into the driver’s half of the truck, “Tommy?”
Tommy was already out, kneeling down at the window, “Come on, take my hand!”
Straining to reach him, Y/n slapped her palms against his and he dragged her out. She could feel the glass scrape against her skin, trying to hold her cries in for Sarah’s sake.
Tommy and Y/n pulled each other to their feet, Tommy reaching for his rifle after. Joel and Sarah had made it out on the other side. Y/n rushed around the wreckage of the truck to reach them, grabbing them both, “What’s wrong?”
“My ankle,” Sarah strained.
“We gotta get off the street,” Tommy urged, a fast approaching siren sending him diving for the asphalt, “Shit!”
A police van slammed into their truck, creating a fire between the two vehicles. Joel and Y/n shielded Sarah from the flames, “Tommy?”
Y/n wrapped her arms around Sarah, trying to take some of the weight off her ankle and freeing Joel.
“Tommy!” Joel screamed again.
Separated by the two totaled bodies, the brothers found each other.
“Head to the river,” Tommy shouted, “I’ll find a way!”
Joel hesitated to leave his brother behind, regardless of his competency.
“Get ‘em out of here,” Tommy insisted, “Go, Joel!”
It was the mention of Y/n and Sarah that snapped him back, he immediately turned and bent down to Sarah’s eye level.
“We can’t leave him,” she argued.
“Joel-“ Y/n began.
“He’ll be fine,” Joel said, “Can you both run?”
“No,” Sarah said as Y/n nodded.
Joel bent over and swung his daughter into his arms.
“You keep your eyes on us,” Joel half demanded, half begged Sarah, “Okay?”
“Okay,” she breathed.
“And don’t look anywhere else,” he finished, his panicked gaze moving to Y/n, “Don’t let go.”
Y/n locked one arm around Joel’s shoulders, the other under Sarah’s legs, needing one hand on them both.
The three of them rushed through the street, lost as to how to get to the river. Joel stopped in fear when they found a grouping of bodies, groaning, writhing, devouring one another on the ground. He guided Sarah’s head back into his body, but she’d already seen too much.
One of the monsters popped up, eerily fast.
Y/n and Joel’s hearts collectively stopped, anxiety kick starting them to run for the back door of a building. They dove inside, Y/n running ahead to bang on the locked door.
“Move,” Joel cried, kicking down the wood and pulling them through it, “Get ahead!”
Y/n jumped in front of them, racing down the length of the diner. She could hear the frantic footsteps and growls of the monster chasing them.
Slamming her body into the second door, Y/n cleared the path for Joel, the two of them sprinting away from the encroaching death nipping at their heels. The monster snarled as it came after them, too quick for Y/n or Joel even at their fastest-
BANG!
A shotgun fire silenced the animalistic sounds, Joel spun around to see the creature laid out in the grass, blood spilling from its head.
“It’s okay, baby,” he assured Sarah, “You’re safe.”
Y/n’s hands dropped to Joel’s arm, resting her head against his shoulder in an effort to catch her breath.
“C’mon,” Joel urged, turning around for the way of the river.
A searchlight hit them.
“Don’t move,” a stern voice commanded, through the light, Y/n and Joel could make out it was a soldier.
“My daughter’s hurt,” Joel explained, “Her ankle.”
“Stop right there,” the soldier ordered, they’d barely moved in his direction.
Y/n and Sarah both trembled, in shock at the sight of the rifle pointed at them.
“Okay,” Joel backed down, taking them the slightest step back, “Easy now. We’re not sick!”
The soldier reached for his radio, reporting into it, “I got three civilians by the river, one of ‘em injured,” he waited for a response, “Ankle.”
“What about Uncle Tommy?” Sarah looked up to Joel.
“We’re gonna get you somewhere safe first,” Joel panted, “Then we’ll go back for him, okay?”
“Okay,” Sarah accepted.
Y/n rubbed a hand over Sarah’s uninjured leg. The horror still had yet to be named, but they were so close to asylum from it.
An impatient Joel took a step forward, earning another up and close look at the rifle’s barrel.
“Hey,” the soldier shouted, “No one told you to move.”
Y/n trembled against Joel’s arm as they waited, why was it taking so long?
“Yes sir,” the soldier said into his radio, his voice having shifted and making Y/n and Joel’s stomachs tighten.
The gun came back up.
“We’re not sick,” Joel echoed, knowing what was about to happen.
“W-w-wait,” Y/n’s lips began to shake, she held out a hand to the soldier, “We’re not sick.”
“Sir,” Joel urged again, his voice rising with every second of silence, “We are not sic-“
Bullets rained down on the three of them, the force of the lead sending them rolling down the hill.
Joel pushed himself off his stomach, a harsh light on him drawing him onto his back. The soldier was mere inches from him, his rifle trained on Joel’s chest.
“I’m sorry,” the man said, he almost sounded genuine.
“Please don’t,” Joel begged, raising his hands.
Y/n had rolled farther than Joel, already weak from the crash and now with a pain radiating in her side. One of the bullets had definitely grazed her. She was able to push up onto her arms, dragging her gaze across the dirt and spotting the position her boyfriend was in.
“JOEL!”
The soldier was thrown forward, a bullet from behind lodging in his chest. Joel looked up to see Tommy, marching forward with his rifle still trained on the dead soldier.
Joel hurried to sit up, running a hand his side, a bullet had scraped across the skin.
Y/n let out a breath as she watched Joel move, her eyes scanning around her for Sarah.
“Oh, God,” Tommy breathed.
Frantic breaths could be heard, closest to Y/n and furthest from Joel.
Y/n froze at the sight.
Then she was rising, racing to the spot.
Joel was right behind her. “No…” he mumbled, “Oh, no.”
Y/n made it to Sarah first, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes ran over her body. Her attempts at breath were wracking through her violently.
“No, no, no,” Joel shushed his daughter, pressing a hand to her neck, “Okay, you’re okay. You’re okay, move your hand, baby.”
“Sarah, move your hand,” Y/n rubbed the girl’s cheek, “We gotta take a look, babe.”
Sarah let her hand drop to her side, revealing the blood that covered her entire lower abdomen.
Joel felt his heart drop into his stomach.
Y/n felt her entire body lock up.
Joel was the first to move, slipping an arm under Sarah’s shoulders. She let out the most heartbreaking cry, pain flooding her body as she reached to push her father away.
“I know, baby, I know,” Joel agreed, “I know, I know, I know. I know it hurts.”
Sarah’s breaths came quicker, groans accompanying them as she strained to take in air.
“Eyes on me,” Y/n urged, taking her face into both palms and rubbing her thumbs across the skin, “Don’t look down. Look at me.”
Sarah struggled to move her lips, barely pressing them together and humming. She was trying to say something.
“Shh, shh,” Y/n tried to keep her calm, “It’s okay.”
“Come on, baby,” Joel soothed as he examined her wound, “You’re okay, you’re okay.”
Another wave of unbearable pain hit Sarah as Joel pressed down on her wound, trying to slow the bleeding.
“I know, I know, I know,” the panic finally reached Joel’s voice, “I know, baby. I know, I know. I know this hurts. You’re gonna be okay.”
Sarah’s breaths grew ragged.
“You’re okay,” Y/n fought back the relentless tears, keeping her hands on Sarah’s cheeks, “You’re okay. I promise. You’re okay.”
“All right, baby, baby, baby,” Joel tried to talk over and in between Sarah’s noises, “Listen to me, I gotta get you up, okay?”
Sarah shook her head, her eyes widened with terror she couldn’t physically put into words.
“Babe, we have to get you up, okay?” Y/n continued, “It’s gonna hurt like hell for a second, but it’ll be alright.”
“All right,” Joel couldn’t wait any longer, “You come on.”
Y/n moved around to help lift Sarah’s back, her and Joel working as a team to raise her. Sarah groaned and wept as they shifted her body.
“I know, baby,” Joel was on the verge of tears as Sarah strained to help herself up, gripping his neck. “I know, I know, I know,” his voice rose in fear, “I know, I know, I know.”
Joel turned to where he’d left his brother, “Tommy, help me!”
Tommy didn’t move, “Joel…”
Sarah’s body stopped shaking under Y/n’s hands, her chest went still.
“Sarah,” Y/n begged, “C’mon, babe.”
“C’mon, baby girl,” Joel whimpered, moving frantically to loop an arm around her, “I gotta get you up. Come on. Come on, we’ll get up.”
Rising on her knees, Y/n hung her head over Sarah’s. The girl’s eyes were blank, her lips were parted.
“Come on,” Joel sobbed, his pleas dropping off as reality began to invade his blind hope, “Come…please…”
It was too late.
Joel took Sarah fully into his arms, wrapping around her so tight, he thought he might be able to physically put her back together.
Any air Y/n still had in her chest left her body, her hands resting in midair as if she was still holding the child.
She crawled to Joel, covered in blood, rocking Sarah’s body and sobbing breathlessly over her shoulder.
It was real.
“Sa-“ Y/n whispered, tears starting to flood down her cheeks. Her voice dropped to a whimper, “Sarah.”
If the universe could grieve a human being, it was Sarah Miller’s passing that brought it to tears. No part of the Earth would be spared from the chaos that had claimed her. No corner of the planet would ever bloom and flourish as it had when she was alive. When she ascended, she took humanity and all of its beauty with her.
And the souls of the two people cradling her corpse, screaming into the night, went with her.
——————
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I'm in the mood for...
Aug 8th
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1. Could you recommend me a list of the saddest fanfics of mdzs?
I need a trigger to uplift my reading slump. Thanks^^
🔒 salt to the sea by starmins (M, 31k, WangXian, WWX & JYL, Modern AU, Grief/Mourning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Road Trips, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note, Canonical Character Death)
Across the street to another life by danegen (M, 99k, WangXian, Modern, unleashed au, Family Fluff, Set in America, Hurt/Comfort, Past Child Abuse, Addiction, Crime, Amnesia, Ableist Language, another fridged mother, POV Alternating, past wwx/ofc, past wwx/omc, Medium parent YZY, A-Yuan is wwx’s biological son, Musicians, Happy Ending)
grave goods by luckymarrow (E, 28k, WangXian, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Modern AU, mortician!wwx, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Marriage Proposal, abrupt tonal shifts, Tragicomedy, Comedy, Romance, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Adoption, Implied/Referenced Abuse, for lan parents, it’s not described and is all backstory, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Married WangXian, brief daddy kink, the barest hint of consensual non-consent, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, BDSM)
Meet Me At The Corner After Dark by Omen1991 (M, 21k, WangXian, Modern, Ghosts, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Character Death, but he's already dead, Injury, Concerns about self-harm, no actual self-harm, Panic Attacks, Office, Tears, Sad with a Happy Ending, Reincarnation, kind of, mild romance, POV LWJ, Ghost WWX, Neurodivergent LWJ, Amnesiac WWX, Siblings who love each other, Autism, Autistic LWJ, Translation Available)
to the act of making noise by words-writ-in-starlight (WordsWritInStarlight) (G, 19k, LSZ & LWJ, LSZ & WWX, WangXian, Grief/Mourning, Father-Son Relationship, inquiry, LSZ is the best of boys and I will not hear debate, Music, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, [Podfic] to the act of making noise by Ceewelsh, flamingwell, kisahawklin, Rionaa) This is basically Lan Yuan growing up with Inquiry as a lullaby (and seeing LWJs grief through his eyes). It has a happy ending, but I couldn't get through this without a box of tissues. If you want the emotions dialed up even more, listen to the podfic version with music
ius in bello by Lise (T, 2k, JC & JYL & WWX, Canon Divergence, Tearjerker, Sad Ending, Heavy Angst, Grief/Mourning, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Not A Fix-It, POV JC, [Podfic] ius in bello by flamingwell) WWX doesn't survive Qiongqi Path, told from Jiang Cheng's perspective
dormiveglia (in between sleeping and waking) by comforting_monachopsis (M, 13k, WangXian, XuanLi, Diary/Journal, Golden Core Reveal, Canonical Child Abuse, Canonical Character Death, YLLZ WWX, Oblivious WWX, Protective WWX, WWX Needs a Hug, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Sort Of, Dysfunctional Family, Family Issues, Thirteen Years of WWX’s Death, Dead WWX, Angst and Tragedy) where wwx doesn't come back but left a journal behind and everyone has to live with it
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2. itmf wangxian dating in cloud recesses study arc?
🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 828k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)
Just Say Yes Series by edenwolfie (T/M, 338k, WangXian, Matchmaking, Pining, Getting Together, Canon Divergence, POV Alternating, Fluff, First Kiss, Declarations Of Love, Humor, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Good Uncle LQR, Engagement, Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It)
it’s just (aah) a little crush (crush!) by sweetlolixo (T, 9k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Romance, Fluff, Pining LWJ, Humor, Courting Rituals, Teen Wangxian)
🔒 in the shadow of moonlit flowers by Reverie (cl410) (T, 56k, WangXian, LXC/NMJ, cloud recesses, NHS & LWJ friendship, developing relationship, LWJ pov, minor injuries, autistic LWJ, implied/referenced child abuse, aka YZY warning, genius WWX, light angst, hurt/comfort, WWX protection squad)
💖 Hoards and treasures by apathyinreverie (T, 21k, WangXian, Siblings, Family, not particularly Jiang friendly, YZY Bashing, slightly darker Gusu Lans, LXC being the best brother, Some manipulation, But with the best of intentions, and not between wangxian, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Smitten LWJ, Fluff, perfect happiness, adorable WWX, Romance, Some worldbuilding, courting)
30 Days of Secret Marriage at Cloud Recesses by starandrea (T, 43k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Bunnies, Gusu Lan Forehead Ribbon, Accidental Marriage, Coming Out, Falling In Love, supportive family, Fluff, Happy Ending, the whole story is happy)
A Wedding of Choice by scifigeek14 (T, 17k, WangXian, Everyone Lives, Marriage Proposal, Episode Related Canon Divergence, POV Third Person Limited)
You Are My Euphoria by orphan_account (M, 17k, wangxian, canon divergence, fluff, making out, 5+1, pining)
loveliness by orphan_account (T, 1k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Pining, Teen Romance, Getting Together)
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3. ITMF any fics where there is a focus or moment where wwx knows lwj can and will spoil the hell out of him and give him money for anything. kind of like the "it's not my money anyway" moment in the drama. preferably set in canon time period, but won't say no to a modern au if it has a good plot! thank you!!
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4. I was wondering if anyone was aware of any fics that are dark!LWJ but the relationship between him and WWX isn't toxic or dubcon? Something like a mafia, a/b/o, or emperor au, but without the more non-con like elements that are often found in those fics. I would love to read more dark!LWJ, but the tag is full of the more toxic stuff that I personally can't handle (no judgement here, I wish I could lol), so any help is much appreciated! (ITMF ask)
🔒🧡 Rule Number One: Never get attached. by KizuKatana (E, 130k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O, Criminal underworld AU, Fluff and angst, Crime boss LWJ, Rouge criminal genius WWX, Explicit Sex)
Crown Jewel of the Hoard by xFourLeafCloverx (E, 29k, WIP, WangXian, Dark WangXian, Organized Crime, Gun Violence, Consensual Non-Consent, Omegaverse, Shifters, bunxian, dragonji, killing as foreplay and postplay, LWJ is So Whipped, Intersex Omegas, Disfigurement, Blood and Gore, Sugar Daddy LWJ, Jiang Family Bashing, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering) Got mafia and wangxian being together without one of them being forced into it
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5. itmf deaf or hoh wei wuxian please
misunderstood 'verse by sysrae (M, 7k, WangXian, Modern, College/University, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, getting hit by cars, Past Child Abuse, Friends to Lovers, Abusive YZY, Caring LWJ, Injured WWX, partial hearing loss, the real OTP is everyone x therapy)
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6. ITMF fics where Lan Zhan and/or Wei Ying smoke/get high (not drunk) can be weed or harder drugs, also okay if it's just Lan Zhan feeding Wei Ying drugs. @thehappyyellow
a constant satellite of your blazing sun (i obey your law of gravity) by Ariaste (M, 26k, JGY/LXC, WangXian, JGY & WWx, Madam LAN/QHJ, Modern, Slice of Life, Established Relationship, Family Drama, Flashbacks, HOAverse, Marijuana, Nice Lan Boys Marry Gremlins, (bass boosted) NICE LAN BOYS MARRY GREMLINS, OC(s), (sort of), OC Death(s), (but like it's already in canon so you know about it already)) this is part of the HOA series, but does feature wwx and lwj (among others) getting high. Not entirely sure if it can be read as a standalone, but the entire series is hilarious and absolutely worth checking out.
2am on a saturday by detectorist (E, 11k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Recreational Drug Use, (no sex happens while drunk/high!), Humour, Pining, Getting Together, Blow Jobs, it's about the yearning, somehow a harmonica gets involved, the lz/mm/jzx best friends agenda)
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7. Itmf the juniors being protective of WWX?
Rotten Work by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 63k, WangXian, WWX & JL, Post-Canon, Protective WWX, Protective JL, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, Reluctant Matchmaker JL)
🔒 The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli (T, 19k, WangXian, In-Universe RPF, Romance Novel, LJY’s sense of justice, OYZZ’s sense of romance, Featuring a surprise appearance by WWX’s oft-absent sense of shame, Look the ducklings just want their sort-of dads to be happy okay?, And it’s not like WWX or LWJ are doing a good job of ensuring their own happiness, LJY rejects canon reality and substitutes his own, highly relatable actually, Post-Canon Fix-It, primarily drama-canon with cameos from novel-canon, Podfic Available, Russian Translation Available)
🧡 the stone-filled sea by yukla (T, 9k, WangXian, LSZ & WWX, Post-Canon, senior wei defense squad, a study of the way prejudice and injustice and anger trickle down from generation to generation)
bespoke by cafecliche (G, 3k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Fluff, LSZ is a very good boy, which is specifically a tag for the fic but also just true in general, mostly novel-compliant but could easily be CQL-compliant too)
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8. hello! for the next itmf, i would love to see fics where wwx does empathy with lxc and/or lqr and find out how mistreated he is. could be during his youth or post-sunshot, either one. thank you!
And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together) I'm not sure if these are quite what the requester was looking for but Lan Xichen uses Empathy (and is traumatized by it) to see a past timeline
❤️ All will be well when the day is done by abCEE (T, 76k, LQR & WWX, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix It, Not Jiang Family Friendly, JFM & YZY Bashing, YZY Bashing, Definitely not YZY centric, Fix it for our main characters, Time Travel, Butterfly Effect, Madam Lan Lives, No Sunshot Campaign, Artistic License, Unreliable Narrator, JC Bashing, non-yunmeng WWX, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Good Uncle LQR, OOC, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, WWX gets the love and care that he deserves from the very beginning, Mainly CQL but has elements of the novel as well, WWX Isn’t Adopted by the Jiangs, verbal and physical (c/o Zidian) abuse from YZY) and Lan Qiren uses Empathy to learn who a sick child Wei Ying is and learns about Wei Ying's abuse in his past timeline
Rise of the Divine Oracle by BlakSalt (T, 291k, WangXian, Boy Love, Hurt/Comfort, Romance)
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9. Does anyone have any Sizhui-centric fics where he learns about or pieces together his past with wwx and the wens before wwx comes back? 🥺 Like 'Would You Come Home?' By s6115, that was so good I need more fics with that concept. 😭 Please and thank you 🙏
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10. Hi I wondering if you knew any fics similar to: A Corpse Called by Name by jaemyun👀 thank you so much for your hard work?
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11. rogue cultivator wangji PLEASE
doesnt matter if its like post wwx's death or before the cloud recesses study arc i just have a NEED for rogue cultivator lwj if no one can find any i'll just write it myself i swear
🔒 And Miles To Go Before I Sleep by Glitterbombshell (T, 23k, WangXian, JC & LWJ, LSZ & LWJ, LXC & LWJ, Heavy Angst with a Happy Ending, LXC is not really a good brother in this sorry, Canon Divergence, rogue cultivator LWJ) This one is good & has an interesting impetus for LWJ leaving (the Jin find out LSZ is a Wen) but sadly hasn't been updated in almost 4 years. BTW please write a rogue cultivator!LWJ fic - this is an insanely underutilised trope considering the obvious story potential
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12. Hey! I’m in the mood for any and all fic where Lan Zhan marries into the Jiang sect with Wèi Ying. Thanks! @shapeshifters-anon
The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou (E, 66k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Injury, Injury Recovery, Blood, Respiratory Illness, Major Illness, Fever, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hunger and food scarcity, Surgery, Fix-It of Sorts)
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13. Hey, I'm looking for (and really need) a good story where WWX has had enough and just becomes a villain (+100 to interest if he goes back in time and is evil from the beginning) (+10 if WWX is a genius and uses his inventions to manipulating, getting what he wants and/or establishing his position so that no one can hurt or take advantage of him).
e.g. after destroying his new home and killing all the Wen, WWX destroys the seal and goes back in time, but instead of trying to fix everything and make it better he says "f*ck it" and simply stops being a good boy. He will be the same as the rest of the world... or something like that :)
Just... WWX as a villain <3 @ethealia
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14. Hello! I am looking for fics where Meng Yao / Jin Guangyao is wholly nice and good (and not secretly scheming and villainous and such). Any au or era, I just want to see him happy and safe and supported by friends. Thank you so much!
what builds a home by Stratisphyre (T, 45k, WangXian, MY & WWX, Canon Divergence, Adopted WWX, POV Multiple, warning for JGS behaving exactly as expected, child endangerment, Brother Feels, Minor Character Death, [Podfic] Cold read of "what builds a home" by Stratisphyre by KeriArentikaiPods (KeriArentikai))
Debts of a Child Part 2 by Hauntcats (M, 111k, WangXian, YZY Bashing, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Angst and Feels, lots of anger, JC Bashing, not Jiang friendly, Angst with a Happy Ending, Content warning for icky spiders in later chapters., hurt no comfort for Jiang siblings.)
a micro utopia born as the overture plays by tardigradeschool (T, 18k, wangxian, JGY/LXC, fix-it)
Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association Series by Ariaste (M/T, 119k, WIP, XiYao, WangXian, Modern AU, Established Relationship, xiyao and wangxian are both already married, Family Feels, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Slice of Life, Discussions of Past Trauma, wwx's canonical kinks, HOAverse)
结局难更改 (the ending is hard to change) Series by PorcupineGirl (G, 50k, WangXian, Time Travel, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivators AU, Canon Divergence, Time Traveler WWX, discussion of canonical character deaths, conveniently localized fires, Discussion of Canonical Suicide Attempt, mostly happy but slightly bittersweet ending, Reincarnation, LWJ POV, Established Relationship, Aromantic JC) Not JGY centric, though.
Peony to Lotus series by Deriliarch (T, 65k, JYL/JGY, wangxian, canon divergence, arranged marriage, demisexual character, demiromantic character, fix-it, slice of life, angst)
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15. ITMF Jiang disciples trying to actually get Wei Wuxian out of the Jiang sect or keep him safe from the main Jiang family for his own safety
Just go forward like you mean it by tawaen (M, 101k, WangXian, WWX & WN &WQ, WWX & JYL, NHS & WWX, Canon Divergence, WWx does not attend the Wen indoctrination, WWX saves Lotus Pier, Inventor WWX, No Golden Core Transfer, Sect Leader JYL, JC Has No Golden Core, Bad Parents JFM & YZY, Not JC Friendly, but he gets a happier ending than canon so don't look here for bashing) There's a small scene where WWX decides to leave & a disciple helps him sneak away
Dispersing Clouds by dreamingofcake (E, 283k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Abusive YZY, Canonical Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Eventual Sex, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm (Background Character), Background Character Deaths, child deaths, Canon JC, Good Uncle LQR, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Cultivation Sect Politics, Homophobia, Heteronormativity, Feelings Realization, WWX is Not Oblivious) This might count? WWX leaves the clan himself, but there's a scene later in the fic where JFM & YZY are on trial & the Jiang disciples rebel & testify against them over WWX's treatment
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16. May I ask an ITMF for wwx having a pet/befriending/encountered avians like cranes, songbirds, crows, etc. please? I read a fic where wwx has an army of mischievous ravens and I'd like more recommendations if you have any!
A Long Road by Vathara (T, 187k, WangXian, Fluff and Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Scheming NHS, Necromancy, Fire, Ghosts, Accidental Child Acquisition, is it an accident if the ghosts keep bringing them?)
We Meet at the Thousandth Step by Admiranda, Rynne (T, 316k, WangXian, CSSR/WCZ, Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign, CSSR & WCZ Live, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Different First Meeting, Night Hunts, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Plot, Romance, Drama, Fluff, Strangers to married, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Everyone Lives, Developing Relationship, Minor Violence, Case Fic, Mystery, Flirting, WWX’s Canon-Typical Flower Flirting, Arson, There Was Only One Bed, Getting Together, First Kiss, Meeting the Parents, Resolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Romantic Tension, WWX Is a Good Big Brother, New Relationship Bliss, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Blood and Injury, Yiling siblings, Married WangXian, Honeymoon, Wangxian’s Baby Fever) Wei Ying and Lan Zhan befriend and save a Zhenniao (a mythical bird) in chapters 41-44
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17. ITMF fics where Wei Wuxian is the Yiling Laozu but, like, he is established as such prior to or external to the events of canon? As in, WWX isn’t raised in Yunmeng and he doesn’t do the canon Gusu Lectures arc or Wen Indoctrination arc and such, instead he is already in Burial Mounds with a scary reputation. Usually this plot crops up in arranged marriage or war prize aus where Lan Wangji is given to the big bad Yiling Laozu to gain favor, kind of like in 山水盆景 (Shānshuǐ Pénjǐng) by meicairoubingfan where the Yiling Laozu is an immortal who the sects appeal to to intervene in the Sunshot Campaign conflict. Does this description make sense? Thank you!
what price is duty, what cost is love by thunderwear (G, 18k, wangxian, canon divergence, WWX was never adopted to Jiang, war prize, YLLZ WWX, pining, first kiss, first time, falling in love, angst w/ happy ending)
💖🔒 love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, YLLZ WWX, Arranged Marriage, political scheming, Gratuitous Domesticity, Mutual Pining, EXTREME SLOWBURN, the inherent eroticism of the forehead ribbon, The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known, neither wwx nor lwj want to be Perceived, but sorry kids! it’s gonna happen!, rated E but the the NSFW stuff doesn’t begin until chapter 19!, bottom LWJ in chapter 20 and 27)
Old Foreshadows by protos_metazu_ison (M, 15k, WangXian, YLLZ WWX, BAMF WWX, War, Universe Alteration, Sunshot Campaign, Rated For Violence, Timeline What Timeline, Mojo's post)
🔒Fated Series by LtLJ (G, 31k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Post-Apocalypse, Magical Apocalypse, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Canon Diverted via Volcano, YLLZ WWX, Badass LWJ)
🔒hold me fast, fear me not by cicer (M, 16k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fairy Tale Elements, Ballad 39: Tam Lin, Mpreg, Bottom LWJ/Top WWX, YLLZ WWX, brief reference to abortificants, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, may be interpreted as noncon by some)
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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***
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