#that's probably why he hatched THAT specific day actually

[cave-monkey]

This is how that exchange went, right?

[illuminatedquill]

All Mine

A Sabine Wren & Ezra Bridger Story

Story Summary: A mission for the Ghost crew takes an unexpected turn when Ezra Bridger reunites with a childhood crush, Shana Tavorri. Sabine Wren, his close friend and partner, must deal with newfound feelings of jealousy - and possibly more - over their relationship.

For Sabezra Day 2024, @sabezraweek

Prompt: Confessing

Bright Jewel System, Mid-Rim Territories

"Look lively," called Hera from the Ghost's cockpit. "Just picked up the Phantom II signal."

Sabine was sitting with Ezra in the Ghost's communal area, playing a game of dejarik. At Hera's call, Ezra sighed and turned the game off. "Well," he said regretfully, "looks like duty calls, Sabine."

She smirked at him and replied, "Lucky for you that it's calling. I was about to bulldoze all over your pathetic defense there at the end." Sabine knew that she had him on the ropes at the game's end. Much as she respected her friend's prowess in battle, Ezra never was much of a tactician.

But, then again, his powers as Jedi certainly did give him options that weren't available to an average combatant. His strategies tended to fall outside the usual box of combat thinking, as Captain Rex - a veteran of the Clone Wars and no stranger to Jedi tactics - put it mildly one time.

It's probably why we work so well together as a team, Sabine reflected. She was one of the only people who could keep up with whatever crazy plan Ezra developed on the fly.

Ezra scowled at her. "My defense was solid, thank you. I was actually about to achieve victory. You're the one who is lucky."

That elicited a laugh from her. "Whatever makes you feel better, goober."

He opened his mouth to further argue the point but was interrupted as Hera emerged from the cockpit followed closely by Chopper. Sighing at the sight of them bickering, she planted both hands on her hips, her expression exasperated.

"Come on, you two," she said. "Let's be good hosts and greet the guest."

Ezra threw Sabine a 'we'll settle this later' look and followed Hera towards the Ghost's stern where the Phantom II had docked. Sabine replied by cheerfully sticking her tongue out at him, as she fell in step behind.

This 'guest', as Hera put it, was a Rebel spy part of the Fulcrum agent network. Three days ago, the Ghost crew had received a transmission from an unexpected source: Princess Leia Organa, the daughter to Senator Bail Organa. She had asked them to rendezvous in the Bright Jewel System where this spy had requested backup to make a trade with an Imperial informant for a data disk containing crucial information to the Rebellion on the nearby planet of Ord Mantell.

Being familiar with the Ghost crew and their capabilities, Princess Leia had requested them specifically for this mission. Once they arrived in system, Kanan and Zeb had then piloted the Phantom II to secret coordinates in deep space to transport the Rebel spy onto the Ghost from an undisclosed location.

As they approached the Phantom II docking bay, Zeb was the first one to disembark, the hatch hissing open to make way for the Ghost crew member. The big Lasat stretched as he emerged, wincing at the crackling noise his joints made. He greeted everyone and, upon seeing Sabine and Ezra, asked with a big grin, "Who won the dejarik game?"

"Me," said Sabine at the same time as Ezra. They turned to each other with bemused looks as Zeb guffawed at their expressions.

"I'll take that to mean that Sabine was about to win it then," Zeb chuckled.

Ezra pouted. Sabine grinned but gave her partner an affectionate pat on the back.

Hera sighed again. "Kids, please behave," she said.

Kanan's voice drifted out from the open hatch, speaking softly to someone. "Watch your step here," he advised, his hand outstretched to the guest.

The Rebel spy stepped through. She was young, around Sabine's age. Lustrous black hair that fell slightly past her shoulders and a beautiful, statuesque face that belonged in holo-dramas. Her eyes were a light gray that shone with a cool intelligence, taking in the Ghost crew with a swift look. The white combat suit she wore was Rebellion standard uniform but, somehow, looked perfectly tailored to her slender body. The holster on her belt had a mean looking blaster tucked inside and judging from the marks on the weapon, it had seen use plenty of times.

Beside her, Sabine heard Ezra take a deep breath in surprise. Frowning, she looked to him - and noted the look of dumbstruck recognition flashing in his piercing blue eyes.

Before she could ask him what was up, Kanan introduced the spy to the crew. "Everyone, this is the Fulcrum agent we've been assigned to escort. Her name is Shana Tavorri."

She nodded in greeting. "Hello, everyone. Pleased to meet you all. I'm grateful for the assistance in this mission. Princess Leia has given you the highest of recommendations."

Shana smiled as her gaze fell upon Ezra. "Especially you, Ezra Bridger."

Sabine narrowed her eyes at Shana. There was an intimate familiarity with how she said Ezra's name . . . and, for some reason, it bothered her.

Ezra took a cautious step forward. "It really is you," he said in amazement. "I can't believe it."

Sabine crossed her arms and leaned against the bulkhead. There was an odd, pinched feeling emanating somewhere inside her chest. Grimacing, she watched her friend practically float towards the new arrival.

Shana's smile widened into an easy-going grin. "Been a while, Ezra. You've certainly grown up from the little street thief I remember back on Lothal."

"You know Ezra?" asked Kanan in surprise.

Shana nodded. "We go way back. Our families were close, and we were childhood friends . . ." Her expression turned sad. "That was before the Empire took over. Ezra - did you ever find out about your parents?"

Ezra went still, a pained expression briefly passing over his face before smoothing into a neutral look. "They died some time ago," he said.

Shana's face fell; she reached out and gripped his hand in sympathy. "Oh, Ezra. I'm so sorry. I was always hoping that they met a better fate than my own family."

Ezra looked down at his feet. "No such luck, I'm afraid," he said. "It's okay. They died helping people."

"It's not okay, Ezra. It'll never be okay. Look - come here," she said and suddenly pulled him into a deep hug. Ezra's face went red in surprise, and he glanced at Sabine with an odd look - like he was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.

She just frowned at him and felt another uncomfortable twinge in her chest. Sabine rubbed at the spot, wondering why she felt this way looking at Ezra and his old friend embracing - and became aware of Hera, looking directly at her, with an amused look on her face.

I don't like this, Sabine thought. I've got a bad feeling about this.

She coughed loudly, interrupting the tender moment between Ezra and Shana. Stepping forward, she stuck out a hand at the Rebel spy. "I'm Sabine, by the way," she said. "Sabine Wren. Ezra's partner."

Shana released a flustered Ezra from the hug and turned towards Sabine. The Fulcrum agent's gray eyes glinted with amusement as she took in Sabine's blunt manner and colorful appearance.

Shana replied coolly, "I've heard all about you, Sabine Wren. You have quite the reputation." The spy took Sabine's hand and gave it a tight, yet amiable squeeze in acknowledgement. Her grip was firm and steady, Sabine noted; her hands, while looking delicate, were calloused. It meant that Shana was not unaccustomed to hard work, despite her model appearance and elegant demeanor.

Normally, that would have impressed Sabine. But, for some unknown reason, it made her dislike the spy even more.

"Good or bad?" asked Sabine as they shook hands.

Shana gave a polite smile as she responded. "Depends on who you ask."

Hera clapped her hands together. "Right. Well, seems like our guest and Ezra have some catching up to do. Ezra, you'll have the honor of giving Shana the tour. Kanan and Zeb, you can go rest. I'll punch in the coordinates to Ord Mantell and get us on the way. And Sabine . . ."

"Yes, Hera?" She was staring at Shana who had already sidled away to speak with Ezra.

"Go freshen up your room. Shana will bunk with you for the night."

Sabine felt her stomach drop out from her abdomen. "Seriously?" she asked. "She's in my room?"

Hera arched an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

Sabine gritted her teeth. "No," she replied. Shana had slipped her arm through Ezra's and was walking with him towards the Ghost's communal area. Ezra said something to her, and the young woman let out a peal of laughter that rang through the corridor.

Sabine felt her heart twist viciously as she watched Ezra give a shy smile at Shana.

"No problem at all," she said and went to clean her room, doing her best to ignore the turbulent feelings buzzing inside that were saying something else entirely.

Hyperspace, Mid-Rim Territories

It had been a long day, despite the relative lack of activities, and Sabine was ready for bed. Ezra had given Shana an in-depth tour of the Ghost at her insistence; at the end of it, Sabine had the amusing thought that their guest now possibly knew the Ghost's interior better than any of them. Once finished, Ezra and Shana had lounged in the Ghost's communal area, chatting about various things that had happened in their lives while they had been apart.

Sabine had spent that time lurking nearby, working at a nearby computer station - or, at least, pretending to be working. She was trying to get a better read on this mysterious Shana Tavorri; a Fulcrum agent, after all, was a notable position within the Rebellion, especially for someone so young. There were many of them, she knew, scattered throughout the galaxy performing various missions of critical importance to the Rebellion. The only other one she knew personally was a Jedi Knight, much like Kanan and Ezra, named Ahsoka Tano.

Shana was clearly no Jedi, but she definitely had exhibited skills that the Rebellion deemed worthy enough to put her in the same position that a Jedi had previously held. That made her dangerous.

But Shana's conversation with Ezra failed to disclose any of those potential skills, despite Sabine's best efforts to listen in. She was, however, embarrassed by her response whenever she did hear her name mentioned by Ezra, which came up more than a handful of times in their discussion; a warm, fuzzy feeling that left her feeling pleased.

After a while, both Ezra and Shana wrapped up their chat with a hug (Sabine felt her jaw clench so hard that she could hear something creaking) and retired to their respective bedrooms for the night. Sabine finished her work at the computer station half an hour later and followed suit.

Checking a nearby chronometer, she registered the lateness of the hour and stepped inside her room, deciding to spend some time maintaining her weapons before sleeping -

Only to find Shana laying in the top bunk, reading something on a data pad. Sabine winced, having forgotten that she wouldn't be alone for the night.

"Don't mind me," said Shana amiably, almost as if reading Sabine's thoughts. "Just pretend I'm not here."

Gladly, Sabine thought. But she said, "Hope I didn't disturb your reading."

Shana chuckled. "You didn't. I was just finishing up, actually." She rolled over in the bed to get a better look at Sabine. Her gray eyes took in Sabine's casual appearance, glittering with an almost feline interest.

Sabine, uncomfortable with her gaze, settled down at her desk and reached for her blasters and maintenance tools. "Anything interesting?"

"Oh, plenty," replied Shana. "I was reading about this superweapon developed by the Empire called 'The Duchess'."

Sabine froze, her hands twitching on the grip of her blaster. Her heart began to hammer away, a thousand beats per second. Slowly, she turned towards Shana, finding her sitting at the bed's edge, her feet dangling. There was a slight, polite smile on her face, but her gray eyes flashed again with that cool intelligence.

"You have led quite the life, Sabine Wren," remarked Shana. "Tragedy after tragedy. Does anyone in this crew know about any of that?" She cocked her head at Sabine. "Does Ezra? What would the gallant Jedi think of his friend if he really knew her?"

It was a thought that had kept Sabine up through the night on several occasions.

She crossed her arms and stared at Shana. "You've been reading up on me."

Shana shrugged. "On everyone, really. Princess Leia recommended you all so highly, so I couldn't help but take a peek at your files and histories. Quite the achievements you've pulled off for a crew so small."

"I've been reading up on you, too," replied Sabine coolly. Shana arched an eyebrow in surprise, eliciting a rush of satisfaction - clearly the spy had not been expecting that. "You ran with Saw Gerrera's crew for five years before working directly under Princess Leia. Did he kick you out, I wonder? What does it mean if you're too extreme even for someone like him?"

Shana dropped down from the top bunk and leaned against the bulkhead; her arms crossed in a similar fashion to Sabine. She wondered briefly if it was intentional, to mimic her. "Those files are available only to the top brass of Rebel Command," she murmured. "You hacked into the Rebellion's encrypted database at that old computer station? I assumed you were just skulking about, trying to listen to mine and Ezra's conversation."

Sabine shrugged, hiding her humiliation at having been clocked so easily by the other girl. And here I was thinking that was discreet, she thought. "I'm clever like that," Sabine retorted.

Shana grinned. "Your reputation precedes you, Sabine. Gifted prowess in combat, especially for a Mandalorian, and notable demolitions expert - but everyone seems to overlook that you are a child prodigy. I suspect your rough, blunt demeanor disguises that fact well. But you are, without a doubt, an enormous threat against anyone that chooses to go against you."

Sabine rocked back mentally at Shana's high praise of her talents. But all she said was, "Thanks, I guess."

Shana nodded in acknowledgment. "I can't say the same for Ezra, however." Shaking her head, she added, "I'm surprised he's survived this long."

"What do you mean?" asked Sabine.

"He's hopeless," said Shana in an exasperated tone. "I mean, yes, he's a Jedi now - or so he claims. I understand they're in short supply of capable students but to recruit him into the fabled Jedi Order? Desperate times, I suppose. He could barely tie his shoelaces together when I left him last."

"Ezra Bridger," said Sabine hotly, "is more than capable in any situation. Not because of his Jedi training, but because of who he is. He's saved all our lives - and many others - countless times over."

Shana eyed her skeptically. "You don't have to pretend to me, Sabine. I was just like you before. He's a loyal pup to be sure and good for a distraction I admit, but it's a stretch to say that he's capable on his own." She sighed. "I understand that this crew needed a mascot, perhaps, to cheer them up during these dark times but I think it's irresponsible to take someone like him - "

Sabine struck her with an open hand so hard that the other girl's head bounced off the bulkhead. Before Shana could recover, she shoved her against the wall, pinning her with a well-placed forearm. Sabine, through the red haze that obscured her vision, dimly noted the cut lip on the girl's face but found that she didn't care.

"Do not insult Ezra Bridger in front of me ever again," she said in a voice that was barely recognizable. It was a harsh rasp that Sabine didn't know she was capable of. "Do you understand?"

Shana tapped on Sabine's arm, gasping for air. It took a few moments for her to realize that the other girl couldn't reply due to the lack of air. Sabine relented, feeling her heartbeat pulsing rhythmically inside her skull; she looked down at her hands and found them shaking from the rush of adrenaline, now subsiding.

Yet on the inside she felt calm, as though a stream of ice water were flowing through her veins. Many things from Shana had unnerved her tonight, but it was her insults toward Ezra that had pushed Sabine past the edge.

Doubled over, wheezing, Shana gave her an amused look to Sabine's surprise. "So, you do care," she said.

"You didn't answer my question," Sabine said quietly.

Shana nodded. "I understand. You've got this emotional wall up, you know that? Hard to see through - except when it comes to Ezra Bridger." She wiped at her lip, noting the blood. "Nice hit," she observed.

Sabine reached into her desk and took out a first-aid kit. "Patch yourself up," she said, offering it to her.

Shana accepted it with a nod of gratitude. "I hope you don't take what I said about Ezra seriously. I just needed to know where you stand with him."

Sabine sat back down at her desk. "You don't actually think that way about him?"

Shana shook her head and leaned back against the wall, opening the kit. "Not at all. I know Ezra. We used to scavenge together back in the old days on Lothal. Hit up Imperial patrols for food and water. He stuck his neck out for me plenty of times, at risk to his life. I know what he can do. And that was before he became a Jedi."

Sabine watched her apply medicinal gel to her lip, thinking over what she said. "You care about him."

Shana blew out a breath. "Deeply. He was the only bright spot in my life during that time. I think I loved him."

Sabine felt her heart stop at Shana's words, hearing the depth and sincerity of emotion within them. Feeling her stare, Shana looked over at her with a knowing gaze. "You know what I mean, don't you?"

Deflecting the question, Sabine asked, "So why did you leave him? How did you two get separated?"

Shana sighed. "One of our little scavenging operations went sideways. An uppity Imperial lieutenant wanted to make an example of us for humiliating him in front of his troops. The chase was exhausting; Ezra led most of them away but the lieutenant caught up to me. I thought I was dead."

She closed her eyes, reliving the memory. "Saw Gerrera was there. Don't ask me why or how; he never explained. He killed the lieutenant and offered me a choice. He was impressed with my skills, you see. So he said that I could come with him and pay back the Empire for what they had done to me."

"And if you didn't?"

The girl smiled grimly at Sabine. "He would kill me. No witnesses. Apparently, he didn't want the Empire knowing about his whereabouts, should they find and interrogate me afterwards."

Sabine snorted. "Not much of a choice."

"Indeed," Shana agreed. "So, I went with him."

"And left Ezra? You never went back for him?" Sabine didn't mean to, but there was an accusatory tone to her questions.

Shana eyes glazed over with sadness. "I couldn't. He was just a kid. I didn't want to pull him into danger. I could tell Saw was dangerous, even if he was fighting for the Rebellion. The moment I had an opportunity to do so, I jumped ship. Princess Leia found me and offered a new path. I took it."

Sabine was silent for a moment, thinking about Shana's story. Finally, she said quietly, "Ezra would have followed, if you had asked. He would have gone with you anywhere."

"I know. He's silly like that."

"Loyal," she corrected. Shana cocked her head and smiled a little sadly at Sabine.

"Just like you are to him. Is it typical Mandalorian stubbornness? Or something more?"

Sabine did not want to have that conversation with Shana. Or with anyone else, for that matter. She stood up abruptly and said, "Good night, Shana."

Shana's smile became, somehow, even more sad. "A word of advice, Sabine?"

Sabine was already standing at the door, about to step out. But something in Shana's tone made her pause.

"Don't wait to tell him how you feel. You won't get a second chance. Especially in this galaxy."

She considered Shana's words for a long moment before replying, "Whatever you think our relationship is . . . it's none of your business. That stays between us."

Sabine left before the other girl could respond. Her mind still buzzing with what happened, she wandered aimlessly through the corridors of the Ghost before running smack dab into someone.

"Sabine? What are you doing?" Sabine blinked at the person speaking - and almost groaned out loud.

It was Ezra. Dressed in his sleep wear, holding a mug of his favorite beverage, hot chocolate. His eyebrows were raised in an expression of concern. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Sabine very desperately wanted to be anywhere else right now. Her face was flushed in embarrassment; her heart was thudding a steady tattoo into her ribs at Ezra's proximity. She felt exposed, like a raw nerve, her inner turmoil and feelings threatening to spill out the longer she stayed in front of him.

Racking her brain to find some last second excuse to get out of there, something caught her attention: Ezra's fingers were bandaged. Her fears momentarily vanished as she asked, "What happened to your hands?"

Ezra fumbled his mug, trying to hide the evidence but it was too late. Sighing, he said, "I was working on something."

Sabine arched an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "Working on what?"

Blushing, Ezra said, "Promise not to laugh?"

A small smile curled on her lips. "Nope."

Ezra groaned but led her to the communal table where his "project" laid. She noted immediately the disarray of colored paper strewn about on the table, half folded in various attempts into a familiar shape -

It clicked. "You're trying to make a flower out of these?" she asked. Ezra sat down and nodded glumly.

"Ezra Bridger," she said, placing a hand on her hip. "You've been holding out on me in terms of artistic abilities? That come with your Jedi training?"

He gave her a despairing glance. "I wish. Been up most of the night trying to figure this out."

Stifling a laugh out of pity, she surveyed his work. "It's not half-bad. What kind of flower are you trying to make?"

Ezra rubbed the back of his head, not looking at her. "It's supposed to be a - well, a Lenora flower."

Sabine's eyes widened in surprise. "A Lenora flower? From the fairytale?" Princess Lenora and the Starboy was an old fairytale that she was familiar with - in fact, it was one of her most treasured stories. Memories of her father reading it to her when she was younger, were still vivid in her mind. The flowers from that fairytale held deep symbolic meaning that marked them as her favorite.

"Yeah."

"I see." Sabine studied Ezra's work some more, looking to see where he went wrong - and then felt her stomach sink, as a horrid thought came to her.

"It's for Shana, isn't it." The words tasted rancid in her mouth.

Ezra looked at her, surprised. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then - oddly enough - a small, relieved smile appeared on his face. He answered in an innocent tone, "Sure. It's for Shana."

There was a part of Sabine, operating from a recent frame of memory, that wanted to sweep the contents of the table onto the floor and stomp on them. She struggled to control her wayward feelings, however, and took a deep breath.

"You want some help?"

Ezra's expression turned amused. "You sure?"

Sabine sighed. "Yeah. I'm sure." He needed her help. Like always.

And she could never turn him down.

He patted the seat next to him. "Thanks, Sabine."

Despite the situation, Sabine managed a smile at her friend. "Anytime, goober."

Ord Mantell City, Ord Mantell

Ord Mantell City was a bustling acropolis, teeming with all manner of people far flung from the distant corners of the galaxy. Tall spires loomed over the city center; a sprawling mass of mis-matched architecture that spread far as the eye could see. Rumor had it that the infamous criminal organization, the Black Sun, operated out of here - a rumor that the Empire was desperate to quash, as it clashed with their image of retaining control over the entire known galaxy. Despite being a haven for ill-gotten gains and profit, it was certainly a far cry from the pits of villainy and scum that other planets were, and the citizens enjoyed a relatively peaceful life despite the tense cold war between the Empire and the criminal organizations that inhabited their city.

The Ghost had arrived mid-morning with time to spare before Shana had to make contact with her Imperial informant. After taking the time to do a quick survey of the locals to ensure that they weren't being watched, Shana revealed her plan to the crew: a simple trade made in the market square and then she would be shuttled off in a separate transport nearby with another Fulcrum agent who was waiting on stand-by. The Ghost crew would act as her escort, in case things got hairy.

It was a reasonable enough plan - except for one, glaring flaw that Sabine immediately noticed.

"Why is Ezra the only one going with you for back-up?" she asked, trying to keep the heat out of her voice. "I thought we were all going with you."

Shana shook her head. "My informant would scamper at the sight of a group approaching. Two is more than sufficient to handle him, I assure you. The rest of you will wait back here, in the Ghost, ready to assist should we need it. The market square isn't far from the landing pad."

Sabine looked to Kanan and Hera. "Please tell me you disagree with this," she said.

Kanan stroked his beard, thinking. "Hera?" he asked. "What's your opinion?"

Hera answered, "She knows the area better than we do. And I know Shana and Ezra can handle themselves in a fight." She glanced at Sabine. "It's her plan, Sabine. And we'll be nearby in case something goes wrong."

"Which it won't," Shana said reassuringly. "I know this informant. He won't be a problem."

Sabine glared at her, then turned towards Kanan. "Kanan?"

Kanan let out a deep breath. "I'm with Hera on this one. We'll leave it to those two. This information is important. We don't want to risk spooking her informant."

Zeb grunted in assent. Chopper whomped his agreement, as well.

Sabine gritted her teeth, preparing to launch an argument -

Ezra interjected before she could open her mouth. "Sabine."

She looked at him. He gave her a serious look and said, "It'll be fine. Trust me."

Sabine blew out a frustrated breath. "Fine. Leave your com-links on, though. I want to hear everything being said. The moment something goes wrong, we'll know."

Shana nodded. "Agreed." Turning to Ezra, she said, "Let's be off, Master Jedi."

Ezra bowed gallantly at her and said, "Lead the way, my lady." They began to make their way down the boarding ramp.

Sabine rolled her eyes. Shana paused at the entrance and turned around to face Sabine.

"What?" asked Sabine.

"He'll be safe with me," said Shana. "I promise."

And she left without another word. Sabine watched her catch up to Ezra, turn a corner on the street ahead, and then vanish into the crowd.

An hour later, they returned triumphant with the data disc in hand. Sabine bounded down the ramp, almost colliding into Ezra. She had been pacing inside the Ghost, listening to the tense conversation exchanged between Shana and her Imperial informant, expecting it to go sideways at any given moment - but it never did.

Shana did her job as expected. Ezra checked in a few minutes later to let them know they were on the way back, and that he hadn't spotted - or sensed - anyone following them.

"Huh," said Kanan. "That's a first for us. A job that didn't have any complications."

Hera glanced at Sabine knowingly. "Well, for most of us, anyway," she remarked.

She bit her lip and double-checked her friend for trackers, despite knowing there were none.

Shana said, "I'm fine, too, in case you were wondering."

Sabine threw her a glare and finished her inspection. "No trackers on you, far as I can tell. All clear."

Ezra raised an eyebrow at her. "That was a very . . . thorough inspection on your part, Sabine."

She punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Shut up, goober."

He grinned briefly at her and then turned to Shana. "I guess this is farewell," he said quietly.

The other girl shook her head. "Don't say it like that, Ezra. I'm sure we'll meet again - "

Ezra interrupted her. "Just say it this once. Please. For me."

Shana looked taken aback for a moment and then smiled sadly. "Good-bye, Ezra Bridger."

And then she leaned forward, giving a soft kiss on his cheek. Sabine looked away.

"Good-bye, Shana," he said softly. He turned back towards the Ghost and walked up the ramp without another word. Which left Sabine alone with Shana.

Sabine gazed at her, not sure what to say. Shana, however, merely smiled and offered her hand. Incredulous, Sabine gripped it and gave a firm shake.

"This has been an . . . experience," she said. "I'm still not sure what to make of it."

"Can I tell you something, Sabine? I'm rather jealous of you. Ezra clearly cares for you deeply."

"And what makes you think that?"

"He didn't say good-bye to you when he left with me. He just asked you to trust him; trust that he would come back." Her smile turned melancholy. "I don't think he'll ever say good-bye to you, Sabine Wren."

Shana's com-link sent out a chirping noise. She checked it and said, "That's my ride. I should be going shortly."

"Well, safe travels. And good hunting," replied Sabine. The Fulcrum agent nodded and turned to go - but paused for a split second and turned back towards her.

"Yes?" asked Sabine, cautiously.

"Remember what I said. About not waiting." She looked thoughtful for a moment and then added with a sincere smile, "And take care of him, will you? He's all yours now."

And then she took a few hurried steps and disappeared into the crowded streets of Ord Mantell City.

Hyperspace, The Way Home

Later that night, getting ready for bed, Sabine came across Ezra sitting alone in the Ghost's communal area. He was studying something gripped in his hand, his expression lost in thought.

Sabine took a step closer and felt her eyes widen in recognition: it was the paper Lenora flower that he had made the night prior.

"You still have that?" she asked.

Ezra jolted slightly in his seat. "Oh, hey. Didn't see you there."

"Shana didn't want it?" Sabine asked. She couldn't imagine the girl refusing Ezra's present. Just the thought of it alone made Sabine wish she had hit Shana harder when she had the chance.

Ezra smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it wasn't for Shana in the first place."

He abruptly offered it to her. Sabine felt her jaw drop in surprise.

"It's for me?"

He nodded. "Hera told me that you were feeling a little neglected since I was focused on spending time with Shana, so I decided to make this as thanks. I appreciate you giving us the time and space to catch up."

Sabine took the flower gently from Ezra's hand. "How did you know to make this one? It's my favorite."

Ezra smiled at her. "You might have mentioned it a time or two during a conversation. It's from your favorite fairytale."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Try that again."

He winced. "Okay, I snuck into your room one time and saw the book laying on your bed. It wasn't for weird reasons, I promise! Zeb ate all my snacks, and I knew you had some stashed away, so I went looking while you were out."

Sabine snorted. "I believe you now." She rolled the flower between her fingertips, admiring the work Ezra had put into it.

All for her.

"You know what this flower symbolizes, Ezra?" she asked suddenly.

He thought about it. "Unwavering loyalty and dedication, right? I can't quite remember the whole story."

And love, she thought.

"Anyway," Ezra said quietly, "I just wanted you to know that . . . well, you're the only one for me, Sabine. No one will ever replace you."

Sabine's eyes snapped to Ezra; she could hear her heartbeat, pulsing loudly in her ears.

"As a partner," he added hastily. "I mean - well, you know - "

She smiled. "I know what you mean, goober."

Don't wait to tell him how you feel. You won't get a second chance. Especially in this galaxy.

He's all mine now, she thought. All mine.

"We should probably head to bed now. Separately. But you knew that." Ezra's expression became increasingly mortified at what was coming out of his mouth. He looked like he wanted to very badly disappear in that second.

Sabine just laughed. "True. It's been a long day."

He shook his head, his expression flustered. "Good night, Sabine. See you in the morning." He began to walk down the hallway towards his room.

Don't wait.

"Hey, Ezra," she called. He turned around.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum," she said softly.

Ezra cocked his head in an inquisitive manner. "Is that a Mandalorian saying?"

Sabine nodded.

"What does it mean?"

"A literal translation is 'I will know you forever.'"

Ezra mulled over the significance of what she said. "Nothing's certain in this galaxy, Sabine," he said. "But I hope that's true for us."

"Me, too," Sabine replied. She followed him down the hallway to their rooms.

"Does that phrase have another meaning?" asked Ezra. "I get the feeling it translates to something else."

I love you.

Sabine smiled at him. "It does have another, more famous meaning. I'll tell you about it someday. When this war is over."

"Ah," said Ezra dryly. "Well, that won't be too much of a wait, then. Between you and me, we've got the Empire on the ropes already."

Sabine laughed.

"Promise me you'll really tell me what the other meaning is?" asked Ezra. "You won't leave me hanging, right?"

Sabine looked at him, gazing deeply into his eyes. How blue they looked, she thought. How they shined like sapphire gems under the right lighting.

"I promise, Ezra Bridger," she said. "No matter what. If the galaxy tries to separate us, I'll find you and tell you."

[dearweirdme]

Hi anon!

I'm not gonna post your ask for obvious reasons, but here goes what you asked me. An explanation of why I feel Jk has not been dismissive of Tae.

To me this is a fandom thing and not something that exists in reality. It's basically the opposite of shipping, but it's not by definition more real. But I think at the bottom of it lies an urge to find something that 'excites' people. Shiping can do that, but finding animosity between members can also do that. Both things keep people engaged and 'searching' for some sort of proof. It's not a thing that's specific to Tkk or BTS, it happens in more fandoms... just like shipping does. The referall to being more rational is an odd one, because we are all dealing with the same amount of information here. To me seeing a continuous dislike from Jk towards Tae is the least rational one, since there's so much that actually goes against that. Why would Jk choose to spend as much time with Tae as he did if he didn't really want to? We haven't seen him spend that much time with any other member, does that mean that he likes them even less? Or do we take the 'it's all fanservice' route? But wouldn't that mean we have to consider that to be true for any members interaction? People don't call Yoongi/Jimin fanservice this way, or Jimin/Hobi, or Namjoon/Jk. So what makes Tae and Jk interacting different? It's only the Tkk of it all that's different... and that mostly boils down to people feeling all sorts of awkward/uncomfortable for whatever reason they have (and those can be several, not just the homophobia..).

People riding the "Jk doesn't like Tae" train have picked some moments they feel were odd and keep their focus on those moments while mostly passing by the many moments where Tae and Jk are obviously fine. This too is very much the same as some shippers like to focus on only a few moments that fit in the way they see their ship. It's how some Jkkrs send me clips like that of a few days ago that doesn't actually show Jm being hurt by Tkk Tkking.. it's not there and yet they absolutely believe that it is. Admitting that you are wrong is a hard thing to do for some... so instead of that people will often just choose to double down.

I don't really care whether people believe in Tae and Jk as a couple or not. None of us actually know anything and in the end it all comes up to how you interpret what you see. But what I do feel a bit touchy about is when I see people talk about them disliking each other, or that vulnarable Tae is the victim of bad guy Jk. A friendship is spotted much more easy than a hidden relationship, so I can understand not seeing the relationship part... but I don't understand not seeing the friendship part. People don't even seem to differentiate between Jk not liking the shipping and Jk not liking Tae, while to him those things would absolutely be different in any case.

People are super selective. Those who say Jk doesn't like Tae only focus on those few moments they feel are odd. They flip past Tae and Jk at the Dream premiere, using Jk's live afterwards as an example of him being down after having spent time with Tae... when the real reason for him having been down is probably way more likely to do with something aside from Tae. People hatch onto Jk doing a live on Jm's face and not for Tae as him not caring for Tae, when Jk's own scedule was completely different at both times. People say Jk went to do a live after Inkigayo to set certain narratives about Tae being there straight, when it is quite obvious that he went live to fill time while his laundry was going (as if that is not a very Jk thing to do) and he only talked about Tae there when asked about him. It's always stuff like this... people take a tiny bit of something that happened and go wild about it.

When you look at the entirety of Jk and Tae's interactions all throughout last year and als before that.. you see two people who enjoy spending time together. They look at each other with kindness (and more if you ask me), they interact casually without boundaries they touch each other easily, they stay in each others space for a prolonged time with ease, they talk about each other with kindness, they choose to spend time together outside of business. Like.. their friendship isn't hidden.. it's a very obvious one even.

[castorfell]

I have a thought about the Trolls babies, so we see Tiny Diamond born and he is already walking and talking, later in the same movie we see this with a country Troll born and immediately doing chores, we also see Cooper born already walking talking and his iconic laugh.

originally I thought that these three trolls were exceptions to the rule with baby Poppy in the first movie as the baseline rule of she can't walk she barely talks and acts like a regular human baby BUT

What if Poppy was an early baby, like for Trolls an egg has been in the hair long enough for a fully matured hatch where they will be able to walk and talk even if they still have baby tendencies (as seen with Tiny Diamond) So Poppy may have been a pre-mature hatch which is why she was more like the regular babies we as humans know.

Yknow what I actually completely forgot about like, every other instance of baby trolls that weren't Tiny and Poppy so I rescind any previous statements n opinions abt trollings. This franchise has a surprising amount of characters being born on-screen.

So yeah I guess most baby trolls really DO just hatch out the egg already sentient and cognitive and able to do chores and sing and dance, it's just POPPY who was different. She came out the egg still mushy brained.

It would explain why she doesn't remember Viva. Viva says that she was there when Poppy was born. The word "born" being used specifically here is a bit confusing because I'm not sure if it referes to the moment a troll egg physically manifests from what I assume to be the sheer force of love felt between more than one troll (Guy Diamond excluded, that's a discussion for another time) or the moment a troll egg actually hatches. Viva also comments that compared to current Poppy, baby Poppy the last time she saw her was "teensier and weensier" which is either just how Viva describes baby trolls in general (she fun like that) or a literal comment about how baby Poppy was possibly smaller than other baby trolls. Maybe both. Probably both.

Her birth likely happened close to the day of the last Trollstice and pop village escaping Bergentown since Chef was already aware of her existance.

Tldr; Poppy was a pre-maturely hatched baby, that's why she looked ugly (affectionate). Do with this information what you will.

[ruthlesslistener]

📓📓

Alright, since there's two here and I've got Thoughts(tm) on Lurien and Soul Master rivalry again, here's a couple fic concepts that have been living rent free in the back of my brain:

1.) Longfic, rough Ao3 summary:

The new head of the Soul Sanctum had always been an ambitious sort, pushing his way up the ranks with his charisma, ambitions, and overflowing pockets- even Lurien was aware of his infamy, though he had long ago put his schooling days behind him. When he rose to power as headmaster, none were surprised. But what was once an unsavory rumor quickly became an unpleasent reality for the Watcher as the conniving bug set his sights ever higher- by openly announcing his desire to court Lurien himself, drawing the eyes of everyone rich enough to run within his social circles. Even his reputation for reclusion and his mysterious power can't pull Lurien out of this one.

But the Watcher did not earn his title for talent alone, nor is he entirely incapable of trickery in turn. And the longer he plays into the Soul Master's plans, the more horrors lie in wait.

My summary: an au where the Soul Master tries to gain power in the Pale Court by announcing his desire to court and marry Lurien in a party of bored rich assholes with their claws in lots of funding projects. Lurien, trapped by social conventions and political intruigue, has no choice but to accept. However, he's not entirely powerless, and decides to play the game back at him so that he may gain insight into what the Soul Master wishes to achieve. What follows is a long game of fake courting where each tries to win the other, the Soul Master so that he may blind Lurien to the experiments he wishes to commit, and Lurien so that he can figure out his secrets and expose him as a power-hungry maniac. It's enemies fake-dating but instead of them going to lovers, they remain enemies and a lot of murder and blackmailing happens on the side. Also Palewatcher is the endgoal relationship with this one.

Would probably earn an E title for coercion, possible sexual content, and explicit violence (I planned to have Lurien lure SM in by pretending he was receptive and then used that lapse in judgement to kill him). PK luckily was oblivious to this entire mission, otherwise it would have turned into an even greater bloodbath

2.) Shortfic (1-3 chapters or very long drabble), rough Ao3 summary:

Songstress Marissa was not one for tempting fate. She came to Hallownest because she heard of the sore lack of singing talent present in the depths, and profited off said lack where she could get it. She never forgot her humble origins, or how far she wandered before she found her fortune.

So when her dresser-bug goes missing after a concert at the Soul Sanctum, she turns to the most powerful authority that her fame can buy- the mysterious Watcher Lurien.

My summary: Is exactly how it sounds- one of Marissa's team members vanishes after a concert at the Soul Sanctum, and even though she's terrified of him, she decides to use her newfound fame and pretty wings to sneak in a high-priority appointment with Lurien. Her assumptions that he's some omnipotent godlike being (driven by city myths) are, however, quickly shattered once he actually opens his mouth.

Most of the appeal for this fic was honestly just having Lurien meet Marissa, bc Marissa was the reason why I ended up sticking with the butterfly headcanon for him, and I thought it would be funny if they ended up as awkward immigrant buddies bc their species is so rare in Hallownest (Lurien's parents having fled there before he hatched, Marissa arriving herself bc she needed a job and her family's caravan reached a bad streak). The revelation that he was a butterfly would probably come from him recognizing her wing-fluttering patterns as butterfly-specific courtship behaviors (that Marissa used only bc beetles were oblivious and just thought Wing Pretty) and then messing up the deflecting so bad that any doubts he misinterpreted it or was interested in women just flew completely out the window.

[yellowskarmory]

glamrock bonnie finds a cat

here's another short one shot that feels like a better tumblr fit than an ao3 fit, though i'm planning on making a drabbles fic on ao3 to fit together all my random unconnected drabbles (i will still post short stuff to tumblr though)

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

Someone's cat was in the Pizzaplex. The animatronics had been instructed to give updates on the location of it – who knows why Fazbear Entertainment actually cared, probably so they didn't get dragged into a lawsuit over someone dying of a cat allergy in their complex, but they did.

It had last been seen on the third floor by Freddy, nearby El Chip's. He had sent that message out to all the animatronics, but he also specifically messaged Bonnie because of his current proximity to the cat, being in Bonnie Bowl at the moment.

Bonnie was not thrilled to be directly rounded into the hunt for the cat, but at this point, he didn't have a choice. The company might not care enough to check up on the animatronics' performances in catching the cat, but Freddy would not be thrilled if he knew Bonnie never even tried to help find the cat.

As such, he patrolled the bowling alley – it was a slow day, and there was a human employee. He notified them about the situation and the fact that he might have to leave the bowling alley; the employee seemed relatively uninterested, eventually waving him away.

So, Bonnie began his search. He figured the open areas of the bowling alley were a no-go – someone would've seen and reported it by now – but there were plenty of nooks and crannies the cat could have crawled into.

Finding nothing behind, or worse, caught in the pinsetters was a relief. That was about the only positive experience he had while scanning Bonnie Bowl, however. There were zero signs of the cat anywhere, less than the one patron who yelled at him for "not doing his job". After picking up no allergens on his sensors in the elevator, he decided to mark the bowling alley as clear.

He decided to go down the elevator and do a cursory scan of some other areas on the third floor – not much, but hopefully enough to find the cat if it was wandering somewhere relatively open.

The cat might still be around El Chip's if that was where it was last seen, so Bonnie decided to check the restaurant out first. A few children tried to grab at him on the way, but the third floor was relatively empty, and he was able to get to the restaurant without much issue.

Shortly after walking in, Bonnie heard a quiet "mew". His ears perked up – nobody else seemed to have heard it, which was expected given how advanced his hearing was, even compared to the other animatronics. Another mew followed, and Bonnie tried to pinpoint the location the mews were coming from.

Eventually, he managed to track it down to the Superstarcade, and found it in one of the vents. Currently, a mini music man toy was "guarding" the vent, and the cat clearly didn't know whether to be curious or scared, repeatedly entering the vent only to jump back out in fear.

Bonnie heard Freddy's footsteps rumbling in the arcade, and he sent him a message that he had cornered the cat and was about to capture it. The footsteps grew louder and sounded like they were coming towards him, so he assumed the bear had gotten his message.

The cat had just jumped out of the vent again. Bonnie opened his stomach hatch, and grabbed the cat. It hissed, clearly unhappy to be picked up, but Bonnie was an animatronic and was quite strong, and was pretty easily able to store it in his stomach hatch. He'd hang onto the guy there until he could get over to security.

The cat made a bid for freedom, but Bonnie noticed and shoved it back inside, actually closing the hatch this time. What he hadn't realized is what Freddy had seen.

"Bonnie, did you just eat the cat?" Freddy questioned.

[autisticlancemcclain]

just so you know, it's 4:30am and i blame you for making me discover hiuythn's work and i'm reading "there, nestled against his pulse" and it's making me feel things and chapter 12 absolutely destroyed me ok so thank you because this is absolutely magnificent but also i'm holding you responsible for my emotional distress

really the only thing that keeps me going is the #happy ending

right they’re so good!! and i’m not sorry everyone should read that series 😌😌 i was going to write you smth fluffy to make up for the pain i directed you too, but actually i think it’s more fun to not do that!! enjoy 😈😈

—

Just because he was expecting Lance’s anger didn’t mean it was any easier to deal with.

“What the hell was that, Kogane?” he demanded, furious.

Damn. He couldn’t even wait for Keith to get down the ramp — the second he was visible from Black’s hatch, Lance jumped right in.

“You left us vulnerable! You ditched, and you fucking promised you wouldn’t!”

Keith grit his teeth. “I had something more important to check out, Lance,” he said shortly.

He grimaced internally as soon as the words left his mouth. He probably could have gone without the adjective.

To his great shock, Lance didn’t explode about priorities and how Keith has his all fucked up. He didn’t yell about Keith’s complete lack of communication skills, he didn’t angrily remind Keith that he was no longer able to play the lone wolf. That he had a team to lead.

Instead, he took a step back. It almost looked involuntary, like his body wanted to get the hell away from Keith before his brain could even approve the movement.

“‘More important’?” he asked quietly. “Abandoning us to try and fight a Robeast alone — that was a necessity? Running after Lotor in a wild goose chase specifically invented to frustrate and distract you was more important than fighting with your team? Making sure we were safe?”

The worst part was Lance’s voice — he didn’t sound angry. He didn’t even sound shocked, anymore. He sounded betrayed, but resigned about it. Like he had looked into Keith’s mind and seen — what? Why did Lance look like his worst fears had been confirmed?

“That — that was a poor choice of words,” Keith said carefully.

Lance raised a brow, mocking. “Oh, please go on then. Use another set of words to explain why we aren’t good enough for your backup.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Keith responded, incensed. Is that what Lance thought? “Is that really what you think of me? Some emotionless asshole who could watch his teammates die and not bat an eye?”

The hurt expression hadn’t dropped from Lance’s face, but it was twisted into something angry, now. Something shaking; furious and hurt and accusatory.

“I don’t think of that of you. Well, I didn’t.”

Keith reared back, shocked. He had accused Lance of thinking that… but never in his worst nightmares did he think that Lance would genuinely believe that about him. He and Lance… they had spent hours together, talking and confiding in each other. He knew Lance’s worst insecurities, his terror of being replaced, being forgotten. And in return, Lance knew all of Keith’s baggage. He knew that Keith had grown up with people consistently and baselessly assuming he was some callous, heartless monster, incapable of love, and how Keith had begun to convince himself that it was true. Lance had been the one to reassure him, his earnest claims of Keith’s concealed softness reassuring Keith on his worst days. Lance was always to one to check on him after tough days, the one to remind him that he loved and was loved.

But now, for Lance to denounce that, to spit on everything he’d said… Keith doesn’t think he’s felt hurt this potent before. Not even when they lost Shiro, did he feel this empty. This betrayed.

“And I don’t want to think this of you, because deep down I don’t believe it,” Lance continued. His chin trembled, and moisture began to gather in his eyes. Keith felt his own heartbreak reflected in those brown irises. “Because I know you. I know the Keith that sat with me when I was getting over the pain of Allura’s rejection, the Keith who reassured me every time I doubted that I was a valuable part of this team. The Keith who helped me get out of bed when I wanted to give up. The Keith who checked on me and knew something was wrong when everyone else thought I was fine. I know you. You are brave and caring and you love with your whole heart.” The tears finally fell from Lance’s eyes, and Keith felt his own tears drip down his face.

“I love you, Keith. I’m in love with you. With the man who cares about his family more than anything else in the universe. Which is why I’m so confused —“ he choked on a sob — “I’m so lost, Keith! This isn’t like you! I don’t understand why you’re forcing yourself to be distant, why you’re acting like we aren’t important to you anymore. Is Lotor really worth this? Is Lotor worth abandoning your family?”

Lance sniffled, pressing his hands to his face, and Keith cracked. He pulled Lance into his arms, unwilling to have this distance between them. Lance went willingly, burying his face in Keith’s chest.

“I’m so sorry,” Keith choked out. “I’ve been… struggling, again, with Shiro’s disappearance. And Lotor’s taunting isn’t helping. I let it get to me. I let him get to me, let his bullshit and my own anger cloud my vision. You guys are my family, Lance; you’re my family. You are my home. And I haven’t been acting like someone you all deserve. Someone that you deserve, Sharpshooter.” He pulled away slightly, tilting Lance’s chin up so he could meet his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I’ll be more careful from now on. I’ll stick with you guys, communicate better again. I’m sorry we had to get to this point for me to get my head out of my ass.” Lance let out a wet laugh, and circled his fingers around Keith’s hands, that were cupping his face.

“I accept your apology,” he whispered, “but I’m not the only one you need to apologise to.”

Keith exhaled slowly, nodding. A smile turned up the corners of his lips. “I will. There’s something more important I have to do first, though,” he hedged.

Lance raised a brow. “All that talk about prioritizing, and there’s still something you have held in spot number one?”

Keith grinned wider. “It’s a new thing, actually.” Lance tilted his head, indicating for him to continue. “You see, there’s this guy I like,” he said. His tone was light, conversational, but there was a wicked gleam in his eyes. Lance’s brow furrowed, confused at what seemed to be a completely random subject change, but then it dawned on him. He own words came crashing back to him, and his eyes widened.

“Oh my God, I told you I was in love with you,” he rushed out, reddening. Keith threw his head back and laughed. “Keith! Don’t laugh!” Lance admonished, slapping lightly at his chest and trying to pull away. Keith moved to loop his arms around Lance’s waist, tightening his grip. He bent his head back town, pressing it to Lance’s forehead.

“I’m in love with you, too,” he whispered. Lance moved his hands up to Keith’s neck, tangling his fingers into the hair at the base of his head.

“Well, then, Samurai,” he whispered back, “what are you waiting for?”

Keith wasted no time, pressing his lips gently to Lance’s.

They still had more work to do. Keith needed to earn back Lance’s trust; the trust of his whole team, really. Lance had to learn to work with him again.

But for now, they kissed, and they held each other, and everything else could wait.

[queen-scribbles]

Weird Idea of Fun

First Kina/Rass fic, the result of me wondering how many of those teasing dialogue prompts I could fit in one fic. (The answer, in their case, is three)

---- 

It was a trap.

Of course it was a trap. Everything was a trap these days. Kina had walked into despite strong suspicions because Shae was an ally and asked for help and Kina had promised to do what she could and the chance for intel was too good to pass up--

On the bright side, it meant she got to work with Rass again.

On the less-bright side, that meant he fell into the same trap she did.

Literally fell. And it was not a pretty landing, with them caught off-guard as they were. They rolled and landed in a tangle, and any benefit to not being the one on the bottom was negated by the fact beskar armor was hardly any softer than the ground.

“Well, that was fun,” Rass wheezed as she rolled off him.

Kina snorted and rubbed a banged elbow. “Weird definition of fun you’ve got. Still in one piece?”

Rass sat up and shook his head. “Feels like it. You?”

“Think so.” A few things ached as she got to her feet, but nothing was broken. She offered him a hand up, then stumbled when the weight made her feet sink into the sandy ground.

Rass caught her arm to steady her. “Careful. You see where my helmet got to?”

Kina shook her head. “Prob’ly the same place as my blaster,” she muttered. She’d dropped it on the initial collision with the ground.

“Great.”

They set about looking for the missing gear, but Kina was quickly distracted by examining the surroundings. There were metal walls, despite the sandy floor. Openings four or five meters overhead--couldn’t tell if they were windows or holes--let in enough light to see. Sort of. And another meter above that was the ceiling and the hinged grate that had dumped them in here.

There was a muttered oath in Mando’a from across the space, followed by something more successful-sounding before she could ask Rass how it was going. “So, there’s good news and bad news, which do you want first?”

Not my favorite sentence. Kina pivoted to face him. “Surprise me,” she deadpanned.

“Good news, found our stuff,” Rass said, holding out her blaster as he joined her. “Bad news, if the state of my helmet is anything to go by, that probably doesn’t work right now.” For emphasis, he held up his helmet and shook it, a fine rain of sand falling out. “It’s all jammed in the visor and everything.”

Fan-kriffing-tastic. Kina looked over her blaster, blew off grit, tried to fire it into a sand bank. Nothing.

“Damn,” she muttered as she returned it to its spot at her hip. She’d need a workbench, and probably time to completely strip it down, to get it working again. “Guess we should work on gettin’ outta here.”

“Yeah, got any ideas?” Rass brushed sand out of his hair as he looked over the space.

Kina glanced at him. “Jetpack?”

“Busted on landing.”

“Of course it did. “She sighed. Shae owes me big for this. “Then we start looking for a door.”

“Right.” They’d only been at it for a minute or so when Rass broke the silence again. “So, d’you think this was for us, specifically, or just a general ‘no peeking’ kind of trap?”

Kina snorted. “Assumin’ Shae’s intel was good-”

“Jekiah double-checked it himself.”

“Right. Then they’re actually here and our landing was way too easy.” She rapped on the metal wall. Solid, no echo here.

“So why wasn’t there an alarm when we hit it?” Rass countered, running a hand over the wall a few meters away. “Or Heta or Ri’kan or whoever’s in charge here waiting to gloat?”

“Could be a silent alarm,” Kina said, pausing as her fingers caught a seam where there shouldn’t be a seam. “Or maybe we just missed hearing it in the bustle of, y’know, falling. They might be on their way right now.”

“All the more reason to get out of here. Be really fun to catch them off-guard,” he grinned.

“On that note, I think I found something.” The misplaced seam traced out a square. Not a full door, but a maintenance hatch maybe. Big enough to climb through. If they could get it open.

“Let me see.” Rass joined her and after a minute of looking, they were able to determine there were no controls on this side. He studied it an extra moment. “Should be an access panel...”

“Maintenance hatch for the maintenance hatch?” Kina said glibly.

“Something like that,” he laughed. “Place this remote you gotta be prepared, right?” The panel popped open under his hand even as he spoke. “Gotcha.”

It only took him a couple minutes’ fiddling before the hatch hissed and popped open a fraction.

“My hero,” Kina teased, nudging the hatch to widen the gap. 

“I’ll accept accolades once we’re free and clear,” he riposted. peering into whatever lay on the other side of the opening. “Huh, dark in here...”

“Need me to hold your hand, Hero?” she smirked.

“Only if it’ll make you feel better, Spike,” Rass shot back with a grin. “Doesn’t appear to be anyone lurking, though, so let’s give them a little mystery of their own.”

Kina climbed though the hatch to keep an eye out while Rass set the wires right and closed the access panel before joining her. She pushed the hatch closed until she heard the lock engage as he crept a few paces down the hall--tunnel?--to scout out the intersection.

“You have anything besides that?” he asked softly, tipping his head toward her jammed blaster. 

“I mean. My scattergun, assumin’ it’s not busted. It’ll do in a pinch, even if it’s not all that quiet. Why, d’you have eight extra weapons hidden in your armor you can share?”

Rass huffed a quiet laugh as he peered around the corner. “Three, actually, and not sure how hidden, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.” He flashed a grin, the amusement in his brown eyes visible despite the dim light as he tugged something free of his boot and passed it to her. “I can hear voices; better you have something a little more versatile than a scattergun.”

“Thanks.” Kina palmed the holdout blaster--probably a little small for him, but a good fit in her hand--and briefly considered making a smart comment about Mandalorians and sharing weapons. The only reason she didn’t was picking up on those voices he heard.

They were moving closer, a patrol most likely. Or someone coming to check what they caught in their trap. Kina and Rass pressed further back in the shadows, an awkward-fitting niche between the wall joint and an equipment shelf, weapons in hand though using them would be a last resort. Better to leave no sign they were here as long as possible.

“...said the alert tripped, so they fell for it.”

“He want us to check on it?”

“Not yet. They aren’t goin’ anywhere, and he  wants to arrange a surprise in case they try anything when we open the door.”

A snort as the patrol--Varad by their armor--passed. “Prob’ly the smartest thing he’s done yet. Say who we caught?”

“The Alliance commander and one of the brothers.”

Another snort. “Of course. Stars forbid Shae Vizla get her hands dirty when her lackeys can do it for her. Still, more than we expected to catch. I see why Joram wants to be prepared...”

They moved out of hearing without noticing anything amiss.

Some patrol, Kina thought with a dark smile. She lingered, pressed in the small niche with Rass--playing it safe, obviously. They didn’t even pick up on two people hiding a meter and a half away. At least between the patrol’s ease and the conversation it seemed their escape was unnoticed. So far. No one was on alert.

“I vote that way,” Rass said in a whisper, gesturing down the tunnel the patrol had come from as he held her gaze and eased out of their niche. “I think we’re good, Commander.”

“Right. And I second the route choice.” Her fingers curled around the blaster grip and she scanned the tunnels. “We should see if we can find a security hub or somethin’.”

Rass nodded. “I’d kill for a layout of this place, and that would be our best bet for finding one.”

“Not gonna find anything if we stand around,” Kina said, rolling her shoulders and starting off cautiously down their chosen tunnel.

They got lucky--not far down the dank passageway was a short flight of stairs up to what was clearly a security office. It was empty and dark, not in use by the Hidden Chain for whatever reason. It was also secluded enough Kina risked turning on the lights.

Rass tried to start up the computers, to no avail, and glared frustration at them for a moment before handing Kina his blaster rifle. “Hang on a minute...” 

She stuffed the holdout in the back of her belt in order to take it.

Rass disappeared under the desk and a few second later she heard the unmistakable sound of someone hotwiring electronics.

“Is that even gonna work?” she asked.

“Should, there’s just a couple bad--ow!--connectors. Probably why they aren’t using this room.” He was quiet, focused, for a moment, then, “Can you check the wires and try turning this one on? Should be good go.” A hand reached up to slap the far right end of the desk.

“Sure.” Kina rested his rifle on the desk, one hand loosely curled around the barrel as the other checked wires and powered up the computer.

The flickering light of it coming to life distracted her just long enough she didn’t pick up the flash of red and white armor outside until just a little too late. She kicked Rass’ ankle in warning even as the Dar’manda scout stiffened at the sight of someone in a room that was supposed to be unoccupied.

He burst in, blaster raised.” Weapons on the floor, now!”

“Alright, alright, what’s the rush?” Kina flinched as if caught off-guard, then made a show of sliding the rifle on the floor and kicking it away--out of sight behind the desk, where Rass could reach it.

“And the pistol!” the scout barked, taking a step closer for emphasis.

Kina glanced down at the blaster on her hip and gave an exaggerated shrug.  “Thing is, that one’s sentimental, and it’s busted right now.” She paced sideways a couple of steps to keep his focus on her. “I’d just as soon hang on to it, if you don’t mind.”

Rass shifted carefully, quietly, to reach for his rifle.

“Thing is, I do mind,” the scout said, a sneer in his voice. “Field Marshal might want you alive, but I will shoot you if you don’t drop it and kick it over, now.”

“Oh, fine,” she sighed, and made a show of slow and exaggerated movement to withdraw the blaster and set it on the floor to kick over.

The second the scout’s gaze dropped to the skidding blaster, Rass rolled out from under the desk and shot him.

“Good aim,” Kina said with a grin, eyeing the trio of center-mass kill shots. 

“Thanks.” Rass accepted the hand up she offered, then nudged the dead scout with his boot. “Looks like that’s another one you owe me,” he said, singsong, through a crooked smile.

“However shall I survive this debt I’m racking up?” she deadpanned, unable to fight a smile of her own..

“With my help, apparently.” Rass was still grinning as he moved to the computer terminal and started looking for the schematics they needed.

“Hey, I saved your ass from Ri’kan,” she shot back, retrieving her blaster. “We’re square on one of ‘em.” She grabbed the dead scout’s arm and dragged him out of easy view. “We’ll hafta work out something to settle this one.”

“Guess we will. Ah, there you are.” Rass pulled up and downloaded the layout.  “Guess we’re also on a tighter count before they realize--”

The dead scout’s comm crackled. “All patrols report in! The maalraas slipped the net, we need to lock them down immediately and locate their ship!”

Kina and Rass looked at each other.

“Time’s up.” Rass pushed away from the desk.

“Yeah.” Kina couldn’t help a faint smile as she watched him close down the computer. There was dust streaked on his face from crawling under the desk, combined with still sand-tousled hair. It was kind of adorable.

He turned abruptly enough to catch her staring. “What?”

She shrugged and winked at him. “You’re cute when you’re all disheveled.”

“Heh, thanks.” Rass passed her a copy of the schematics. “I’d say the same, but you actually aren’t all that disheveled.”

“So... I’m just cute?” Kina teased with a grin.

He just cleared his throat and arched a brow as he headed for the door. “Think they’ll find the shuttle?”

“We did land a good bit away,” she said, letting the other topic slide. “But if they know we’re here and are determined... fifty-fifty odds?”

“Yeah, that sounds right.” Rass checked the schematic. “We should see if we can find out what they’re after here, if there’s any hint to Heta’s new base, so we’re not leaving empty-handed.”

“Intel’s better than nothin’.” Kina started down the steps, gaze fixed on the doorway they needed, watching for any other patrols. “But they’re gonna be on the lookout for us now, so it’s gonna be harder to do unseen.”

“You know I love a challenge,” he said with a laugh.

“Don’t all Mandalorians?”

“Good point.”

They’d reached the door and lapsed into silence as they stepped back back into the tunnel. There was no sign of any patrol, so after a confirming glance at the schematic, they continued along that path. A left turn at the next intersection had them skirting the heart of this place without getting too close until they needed to. In theory, anyway.

“Looks like the comm room is near the front entrance,” Kina murmured, keeping her voice low despite the empty tunnel.  “Check there for any intel like flight routes or shipping records, then if we think there’s time we check out what what they’re doing?”

“Right behind you, boss,” he returned, just as quiet, gaze back the way they’d come.

“Not the boss,” she said. “We’re partners.”

Rass whipped around to face her, and she caught the flash of his grin in the dim light. “I’m touched,” he teased in a whisper.

Voices around the curve precluded any snarky response from her. There weren’t a lot of options for hiding here, especially since the Hidden Chain was on alert, so they each pressed against a protruding wall joint on opposite sides of the tunnel and waited.

“...can’t get far, not with how many we have.”

“No? Look how well they did on Ruhnuk. How long they went unnoticed.”

“But we’re on guard, and Joram’s got double watch on comms, doors, anywhere they might go-”

The pair drew level with where Kina and Rass waited and barely had time to register their presence before a blaster shot each made them not a problem. They dragged the bodies--Varad, again--as out of sight as they could before pressing on.

It was good they had the warning of overheard conversation--there were two Dar’manda outside the comm room and four inside. Not a hard fight, but definitely one that went better prepared.

“Get lookin’,” Kina waved Rass toward the console as she pulled out a medkit. She scowled at the scorch marks on her duster and tugged free a bacta patch to slap over the blaster burn grazing her thigh. Bastard put holes in my favorite coat.

“You alright?” Rass asked at her quiet hiss of pain as the bacta kicked in, half-turning the watching the comm search.

“Yeah. This won’t even slow me down.” She stuffed everything back in the kit, stowed it at her belt. “Just stings setting in. Anything good there?”  There was the faintest hitch to her step as she joined him and she really hoped that went away quick.

“Y’know, it’s weird, there isn’t a lot.” Rass gave the slowly scrolling data his full attention again. “You’d think they would be in touch for updates or something at the least, but there’s barely any outgoing transmissions. Almost like they were trying to hide it or not doing anything worth sharing, which doesn’t fit the intel we got on this place.”

“Hmm.” Kina had to agree; the paltry amount of information scrolling by didn’t match the intel profile. A kernel of unease  settled in her gut. “Maybe it’s something Heta doesn’t want the Hidden Chain knowin’ about til it’s done?”

“Maybe.” The skepticism was plain in Rass’ voice.

Even as they tried to puzzle out an explanation, the floor trembled with a distant, muffled explosion. Both heads instinctively swiveled toward the sound before sharing a look.

“That would be them findin’ our ride,” Kina sighed.

“Probably.” Rass tossed her a grin. “Even when you’re not behind the controls you’re a menace to shuttles.”

She rolled her eyes and lightly punched his arm. “Least I didn’t crash this one. You gonna download what ya found or not?”

“Hardly seems worth it...” His brow furrowed as he looked at the data again. “I guess we should. In case it’s one of those things where it seems useless until you pair it up with something. Like a cipher.”

“Do it fast, then. Now that they’ve destroyed our shuttle, they’ll be lookin’ even more in earnest for us now. We gotta check out the core to see what the hell they’re doing”--even more of a mystery with the underwhelming logs--”and then find the hanger.” A smirk. “Assuming you’re up for a bit more space piracy?”

Rass laughed. “Always.”

The schematics showed a maintenance crawlspace where they could get eyes on the main rooms while being safer from discovery. And there was a hatch in a room just down the hall from them.

“I’ll fit better, gimme a boost,” Kina whispered when they reached it, studying the small grate half a meter over Rass’ head. “You can keep an eye out for trouble, since we’re attractin’ that like mynocks today.”

He nodded and squared up to give her that boost. “Watch out for sensors, they’re paranoid enough have ‘em in there.”

It took a minute to work the grate off--checking for surprises as she did--and another half of one to scramble in without making too much noise. She’d memorized the route before coming in, so the only thing that slowed her was keeping an eye out for sensors or mines. She had a nifty gadget courtesy of Oggurobb’s team that could blank them out, but she had to spot them in time.

She wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted her when she reached her goal.

There was nothing remarkable in the room she could see. No equipment, no cache of artifacts being catalogued, no mad scientist’s lab turning out super soldiers or juiced up beasts. Just a mostly-bare room with small pockets of Varad and Dar’manda settled in the corners like predators, and a raised walkway around half the perimeter supporting a few more. 

Alarm belles went off in the back of her head. This didn’t add up. Something was up here, something the intel missed. I have a bad feeling about this...

That bad feeling crystalized, the pieces clicking when Kina shifted to the next grate and took in the other room that was allegedly the heart of the operation. It looked much the same as the first, but she could make out the telltale edge of maglock floorplates, and the Dar’manda on the walkway had a trio of the sonic disruptors like Ruhnuk.

Oh, Caraya’s kriffing moons. Kina scuttled backwards enough to get turned around and head back to Rass. She didn’t risk comms until well away from the grates. “Rass? Start working up a quick route to the hangers, it’s time for that space piracy and a daring escape.”

“I need a minute!” He sounded out of breath and the blaster fire in the background made Kina pick up her pace--much as she could, anyway.

Still, by the time she made it back, silence greeted her rather than the cacophony of a gun battle. “Still alive?” she hissed over comms, and her heart did a weird little skip at the brief delay before an answer came.

“Despite their best efforts. You back?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, gimme a second...” There was a grunt and the access grate swung free, Rass’ head framed in the opening. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“I know, small galaxy,” Kina said drolly. “Help me down?”

“Sure.” She didn’t miss the way his jaw tightened as he did, though. Or the half dozen extra blaster scorches on his armor. Or the dead Varad and Dar’manda in the doorway.

“I see what you mean about best efforts,” she muttered. “You okay?”

“For the most part,” Rass said with a shrug. 

Kina saw the pair of blaster burns along his bicep and snorted. “That being the exception? C’mere, it’ll be faster if I patch it up.”

“What’re you in such hurry for all of a sudden?” he asked, sitting without protest to let her take care of his arm.

“This is a trap,” Kina said. She dug out a medkit and scowled at his arm. “Stars, one of them got you good.”

“It’ll be fine. And, I mean, we hit a trap in the first thirty sec-”

“No, the whole thing is a trap,” she cut him off. She shared what she had seen as she smeared bacta and smoothed synthskin over his wounds, concluding,  “There’s no operation, no deeper purpose to this place. Somebody planted intel--someone good if they managed to fool your brother--to make this look too juicy to pass up and sat back to see if they snagged Shae or some of her highly trusted allies.”

“Would explain why the comm logs were so light,” Rass mused, one corner of his mouth twitching as she smoothed the last edge of the synthskin. “Thanks “

“Welcome. Also explains why we’ve only seen Varad and Dar’manda, doesn’t it? Since they’re the muscle and the cannon fodder.” Kina shot a pointed look at the bodies on the floor.

“Bet there’s an Ashaad in charge.” Rass pushed to his feet. “Or maybe Ha’rangir if they want the glory.”

“‘Cause that would go over well with Varad,” Kina drawled, moving to check the dead for anything useful.

He snorted. “Look who’s gettin’ a head for Mando politics.”

There’s two words that’ll never feel like they belong together.... She finished her investigation--handful of credits and a spare blaster pack--and cocked her head to watch him study the schematic.

Rass finished just a few seconds later. “Okay. Got a good route to the hanger. But you realize that’s prob’ly the most heavily guarded part of the whole place. They know we have to go there to get out of here.”

Kina’s grin in return was sharp, dangerous. “But I’m a sneaky little chakaar. I’ll figure somethin’ out, soon as I see what we’re up against.”

“Oh, this I gotta see,” he said with an even bigger grin as they started along the route.

They didn’t run across any patrols on their way, and Kina wondered if that was just luck or the full force being pulled to guard the hanger. There wasn’t any evidence of the latter, when they reached their goal; there was a healthy scattering of Varad and Dar’manda, but not an overwhelming force.

Rass nudged her with his elbow and nodded toward the control room, where a beefy figure in gold armor stood at the window. “Ha’rangir,” he mouthed, arching one brow significantly.

Kina nodded in return and tugged him back. “There’s enough shadow I think we could sneak to that one,” she whispered, pointing to a shuttle two-thirds of the way down the far wall. Unlike some of the others, the ramp was down. “Should be able to get it fired up and outta here before they can stop us.”

“Good plan. One problem--I didn’t pack my stealth belt for this trip,” Rass said with a shrug and half-smile.

She clicked her tongue in mock reproof and grinned. “Lucky I’m here, then. Given how much my line of work relies on sneakin’ around, mine’s souped up. Haven’t tested yet, but I’m pretty sure if we maintain contact and don’t stress it too much, it could hide both of us for a trip.”

“Pretty sure, huh?”

“What’s life without a little risk?”

He huffed a quiet laugh. “Better than nothing, I guess.  You thinking piggyback ride? Holding hands?”

Kina smirked. “Latter would prob’ly work better. Or you could just hold on to my arm. Long as we’re touching it should work.”

“And if it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure we can take these guys.” Rass shot her a grin and then rested his hand on her arm, loosely grasping just below her elbow.

Kina grinned back and toggled on stealth. It took an extra second to hide them both, and she could feel the generator hum against her hip with the strain. But it worked. And it held when they moved, very slowly, through the doorway and toward their goal. The stealth field flickered adjusting to the shadows and Kina bit her lip.

It was a strange balance; the urge to go fast and get this over with so they didn’t stress it too long versus wanting to move slow so they didn’t stress it too much. They crept past a pair of Varad, a Ha’rangir, a Dar’manda.

Kina’s boot caught on the edge of the boarding ramp and the resulting stumble almost broke their connection. The heat of the overworked generator seeped through her clothes. The second they were were out of sight aboard the shuttle she flicked it off. She’d almost swear it let out a whine of relief as it powered down.

“Hardly believe that worked,” she muttered.

Rass back a smile as he headed for the cockpit. “No confidence in your gear, Commander?”

“Oh, plenty, or I wouldn’t have made the suggestion. I just also know its limits and we were pushing pretty close.”

He tilted his head in acknowledgment, gaze on the controls as he fired up the shuttle. 

Or, tried to. “Haar’chak!”

Kina turned at the softly growled oath to give him a questioning look.

“It wants an authorization code to begin startup,” Rass said with a grim smile. “Three guesses where we’re likely to find that.”

“Over with tall, gold, and beefy?” she deadpanned, looking toward the control room.

“That’s be my guess.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, dislodging a fine rain of lingering sand. “No way we get over there without fighting everyone in the hanger.”

And that would give time for an alarm to be raised, bringing more troops from other parts of the trap. “So we don’t.” Kina started for the for the ramp. “I’ll go solo.”

“You sure that’s  good idea?” Rass cleared his throat. “I know you’re good an’ all, but-”

“I’m not plannin’ to fight them, Rass,” Kina grinned. “Though it’s sweet you care. ‘M gonna sneak in and then...” she checked her bracer. Two left. “I have a tranq dart with Goldy’s name on it.”

Rass smirked but there was definitely a flicker of relief in his eyes. “Nice.”

“For the record, I could take tall, gold, and beefy in a solo fight, but I think swipin’ what we need from under his nose and makin’ a daring escape will hurt more.”

He nodded. “You’re not wrong. Better go quick, before they start wondering too hard why they haven’t seen us for a while. Be careful.”

“Right.” The stealth generator was still a touch warm, but didn’t offer serious complaint when she fired it up just for her.

Kina made her way down the ramp, across the hanger, and up to the control room. She did have to dodge clusters of troops as she went, mostly Varad with a sprinkle of Dar’manda. The walkway up to the control room was guarded by a large group of Ha’rangir and she all but held her breath edging past them.

Goldy was alone in the control room, now seated with an eye on the computer panel, a wicked looking vibroblade across his knees. Kina was pretty sure she glimpsed a krayt dragon tooth fragment hanging off the hilt. The urge to put a scattergun round in the man’s back was overwhelming but she restrained herself. A tranq dart to the neck would have to suffice.

She waited until he finished a conversation demanding status updates before firing the dart. It struck true and a moment later Goldy was slumped in his chair, out like a light. Kina shuffled through the computer files until she found the code they needed.

She transmitted it to Rass, got a hissed ‘Great, but I’m not starting up ‘til you’re back’ in reply, and made her hasty exit just as Goldy started to stir. She probably moved a little faster than was wise on her return trip, made movements or noise the stealth field couldn’t completely hide. Still, nobody noticed her until the last pair of Varad between her and the shuttle.

Kina heard the grunt of raised suspicion as she slipped past and picked up the pace. Even if it made the stealth field fuzz out. She darted up the shuttle ramp.

“I’m in, go!” she hissed toward the cockpit, then spun to watch the door while Rass got the shuttle moving. The first attempted boarder get a chest full of scattergun rounds. The second got a blaster shot to the throat.

The shuttle rocked as it lifted off and Kina flung a thermal detonator at the knot of Hidden Chain headed for the ramp. The explosion--and their attempts to avoid it--cleared things enough she could close the door and retract the ramp.

“Gonna want to strap in!” Rass hollered and Kina scrambled for the nearest seat as the shuttle spun to head out the gaping cliffside hole that was the hanger  ‘door’.

They cleared the opening and Rass almost immediately jerked the shuttle left to avoid a turbolaser bolt, then back on course to avoid the cliff face.

“You crash this thing, I am never letting you live it down,” Kina warned with a gloating smile. And she’d have fun with it, too.

“All the incentive I need,” Rass shot back as the shuttle leveled out. It dipped to dodge another turbolaser bolt, then they were clear and he started punching in hyperspace coordinates. It wasn’t until starlines stretched into hyperspace that either of them relaxed.

Kina moved up to slouch in the co-pilot seat. “Well. That was fun.”

Rass snorted a laugh. “You have a weird idea of fun.”

“Makes us a perfect match,” she teased. “Oh. Here.” She held out the holdout blaster. “Thanks for the loan.”

“Welcome.” He took the blaster, stowed it back in place. “Glad I had it to offer.”

“Heh, me, too.” Kina chewed her lip in thought a moment. Hers would be a pain to fix, but that was a problem for later.  “You think there’s anything worthwhile in those logs you grabbed, or was this whole thing a bust?”

“We can let Jek and Mandalore figure out if the logs are worth anything,” Rass said with a shrug. “But either way, I wouldn’t call it a bust.”

The grin he tossed her made clear why, but Kina had never been one to let a golden opportunity pass by. “Yeah?”

“You owe me one now,” he smirked.

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t fight a smile. “Not for long, way things’re going.”

“You planning on making it two?”

This time she punched his arm. “I meant we’ll prob’ly wind up even again sooner rather than later, and you know it.”

They may have fallen into a trap, but on the bright side, they’d worked together well getting out of it.

That was a win in her book.

[wrienne]

My Cheating, Amnesic Fiancé

Chapter 13: New Lodging

“What’s happening?”

A male voice whispered almost directly behind you. You hadn’t noticed Jungkook rising and having approached you, and you almost bumped into him as you whipped about in surprise. You reacted at his shadowy shape instinctively, though fortunately, his reflexes were quick enough to get him out of harm's way.

“Do you always have to punch things?” he asked indignantly after he had dodged your fist.

“Don’t you know better than to sneak up on me?” you parried. “I gave you a nosebleed when we were on that Halloween event a couple years ago with our parents and you scared the living crap out of me.”

He furrowed his brows. “I don’t remember that,” he said.

His tone wavered only slightly, but it was enough for you to understand that the continuously rising fear he felt at not being able to recall something was tearing into him again. You pursed your lips, reprimanding yourself at your lack of tact, then shook your head. “I have pictures, I think. I can show you them later.”

“What’s outside?”

Your eyes narrowed in anger. “Paparazzi,” you almost spat. “An army of them.”

“Why are they here?”

“I’m not sure, though I do have an idea.” You went to your phone and made a specific Google-search with keywords like “Jungkook” and “accident”. You shook your head at the headlines that popped up, then muttered, “Your accident has been publicized. All the news sites want to know the juicy details about the Bangtan Boys’ ‘Golden Maknae’.”

Nobody had written about amnesia. Yet.

“‘Bangtan Boys’?” echoed Jungkook, raising his brows. “‘Golden Maknae’?”

“That’s your group and you, in respective order,” you said overly cheerily as you began pacing back and forth, trying to hatch a plan of action. You and Jungkook needed to get away from AMC as soon as possible, before more than just journalists would cluster the area. If curious individuals or zealous fans would start flocking there in addition to the press, you and Jungkook could be stuck for who knows how long. Not to mention, the two of you together wouldn’t conjure a particularly suitable image. The rumors surrounding you were obnoxious and annoying enough - especially considering the truth they once had posed - and now that he had cheated on you with Park Yi-Jae, you really did not want to be associated with Jeon Jungkook in any romantic way.

And of course, the most important part - the idiot was amnesic.

“Why ‘Golden’?”

“Don’t ask me,” you answered, perhaps unnecessarily harshly. “I mean, I don’t know. Nothing that rings a bell?”

“No.”

“Great,” you said sarcastically as you continued your brooding.

“Shit,” murmured Jungkook while peering through the blinds just as you had, albeit a bit higher up. He really had grown tall. “Why are they so many?”

“Didn’t I tell you this yesterday? You’re the biggest Kpop group at the moment. Everyone wants a piece of you.”

“It cannot be. I don’t believe it.”

There it was again. The fear. The fear of what had been, what he couldn’t wrap his mind around, what he didn’t know, yet affected him altogether. It flared stronger this time, changing Jungkook’s expression, voice - his whole demeanor, actually.

You couldn’t stand seeing him like that. Vulnerable, and so very alone.

“Get ready,” you told him as you began texting Jong-Yeol, then deleted everything you had written, deciding instead to call him. “We’ll be out of here soon.”

Jungkook looked at you, his features solemn. He had managed to restrain most of his dread, but you saw it brewing, struggling to break free again underneath his guise. And his eyes couldn’t lie to you. “Where are we going?”

“To our place,” you replied, your phone squeezed between your shoulder and your ear as you got into your boots. “My parents and yours are in Osaka at the moment, which probably is the reason why you haven’t been able to call yours. Though…” You frowned suddenly as you remembered what your parents had told you the day before. “...I think they might be within the borders. At least they were trying to find plane tickets back since yesterday noon.”

But where were they? Shouldn’t his parents already have gotten to the hospital by now? You might need to swallow your pride and hurt and call your parents later in the day in order to find out.

“Anyway,” you went on, redialing Jong-Yeol since he hadn’t answered you before the answering machine caught. “It also means we should have until Saturday to figure out where else you can live. Your parents don’t have a steady place in Seoul, right?”

Jungkook had been tying the laces of his brand boots when he looked up, a light frown tugging at his countenance. “Why can’t I just stay with you?”

“As much as it would make things easier,” you said, trying your best not to consider the sliver of warmth in your chest at his question, “I honestly think we might kill one another if we stay together at the same place for too long. Too long, meaning more than a day or two.”

“Want to make it a challenge?”

You regarded him closely, but his expression was unreadable. “Don’t want to sleep by yourself, do we?” you tried, curious of what reaction your taunt might produce. “Are you scared of the dark or something?”

“It’s not that, I--” He interrupted himself and averted his gaze. “Never mind.”

“No, tell me,” you insisted, though as softly as you could. You straightened and tried to catch his eyes.

He stood and inhaled deeply. “It’s just that--”

“(Y/F/N)?”

You regrettably had to hold up a finger to silence Jungkook. Did Jong-Yeol really have to answer his phone just when you thought you might hear something important about Jungkook, and from the source himself?

“I’m at Asan Medical Center,” you said as you turned away from Jungkook. “Could you be ready to pick us up outside the Starbucks just south from here? By the crossing you cussed out a taxi driver, who almost drove into our car? We’ll be there in ten.”

“‘We’?” repeated Jong-Yeol bemusedly, his tired voice immediately sharpening. “What ‘we’?”

“Jungkook and I,” you said while shrugging on your jacket. “The media have gotten hold of the accident and are just outside the hospital doors. We need to get him home, unseen, before the situation worsens”.

“Got it,” he said. “But I hope you’ve spoken to your parents about this.”

“Of course,” you lied.

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

After gathering all your stuff, you went to discharge Jungkook at the front desk with help of the documents you had signed yesterday. You asked the nurse or administrator - or whatever her job title was accurately called - where you could find a more discreet way out of the hospital. She wouldn’t help you, eyeing Jungkook suspiciously, and the two of you found yourself stuck in the waiting room of AMC. You considered finding Doctor Lee, but found that her working hours ran from midday to late evening that day from a passing nurse. It wasn’t until you returned from a quick bathroom visit when you ran into the cleaning lady, who had kindly helped you dispose of Jungkook’s fried chicken. She helped you and Jungkook get out of a staff-only door at the side of the building, and you thanked her dearly. Soon you found yourself jogging down the street toward the Starbucks you had in mind, away from Asan Medical Center, with Jungkook by your side.

“Where’s your jacket?” you suddenly wondered as you noticed Jungkook wearing only the clothes you had brought him. It was really cold outside, probably below zero degrees Celsius, and you saw his skin pale in the chilly atmosphere.

“I don’t know,” he said. Both of your breaths escaped in white puffs. “Amnesic, you know.”

“I would have offered mine,” you began, “but it’s probably a bit small.”

“No, keep it,” said Jungkook in a neutral tone. “I wouldn’t want you to get a cold because of me.”

You snorted, even though you felt your heart rate increase. Though that might simply be because you were exercising, an act you tried to convince yourself to do more often. “What a gentleman.”

“Anything for you,” he said sarcastically, though a slight smile blunted the impact his tone would have had.

Even though you were aware that it was a joke of the simplest, most basic nature, you couldn’t help but smile back. And though it should have felt wrong, so very wrong in all kinds of ways, it didn’t. You didn’t know what that meant.

But he really shouldn’t say things like that.

You had spent your whole life in the heart of Seoul, and knew it well enough even around Asan Medical Center to be able to find the Starbucks. Also, in an emergency case, there was something as easy as Google Maps. Jong-Yeol found the two of you freezing by the time he arrived outside the shop, four minutes after you. You had offered Jungkook your gloves and a scarf you had stuffed into your purse, but it hardly helped against Seoul’s relentless winter gales. He was still pale and shivering in the car, though by the time you two reached your parents apartment, he at least didn’t look like a corpse anymore.

“I need to shower,” said Jungkook immediately as he took off your gloves and the scarf and placed them on a tiny bench you had in the hall. “I feel disgusting.”

“Be my guest,” you said while taking off your jacket and boots.

“I--”

“The first door to the left,” you told him.

Jungkook chuckled. “You waited for that,” he said.

“Not at all.” You saw a pile of canvas bags with his shoes and the body bag you had stuffed with his clothes occupy the hallway. You had instructed Jong-Yeol to merely dump them at your place yesterday, and now you needed to figure out where to put it all. Your parents apartment was expensive, needlessly expensive to be fair, and though it was spacious, it only had two bedrooms. When your parents had bought the place two years ago, the other two bedrooms had been refurnished and remodeled at your parents command into an extra office space and a relaxation room for your mother.

While pondering where Jungkook could put his stuff, you hadn’t noticed him not moving for a while. It wasn’t until he murmured something that you found him staring at himself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors lining the western wall of the hallway.

“Is this really me?”

Jungkook was touching his face hesitantly, his brown, familiar eyes rounding in surprise as his fingers trailed the shape of his mouth, cheekbones, forehead and finally, jawline. He blinked, hard, but seemed just as surprised as before when he spotted his reflection. You couldn’t even imagine how it must have felt, seeing oneself after five years of blankness. He had grown up to be a good-looking guy, you couldn’t lie about that. And his years within the appearance-obsessed music industry had made him take extra care of his looks, melding him into the lean, beautiful youth you had witnessed on stage the day before yesterday.

You fleetingly wondered how it felt to touch his face.

“Yeah,” you then replied nonchalantly, approaching him. You managed to stop from blushing, but only barely by the time his gaze darted to you as you slowly entered his line of sight. “You grew up to become really ugly. Sorry - oh, and welcome to the club.”

“At least I have a big nose,” he said with a smile as he checked his profile. “And I grew.”

“You’ve always had a big nose,” you said, then frowned. “Didn’t you go to the bathroom even once in the hospital? How could you not have seen yourself before this?”

“They were changing the mirrors, I think,” he said. “All of them were removed.” He pulled slightly at his cheeks, and then his earlobes, which were adorned with silver earrings. “I didn’t think I would look like this when I grew up.”

“You can admire yourself later,” you told him, moving past him to get to the kitchen. The screen on the microwave said 6:19, which was around the normal time you rose every morning. “Get out of the shower in eight and I might have some oatmeal to share with you.”

“Oatmeal? Really?” You heard his smile bleed into his voice. “How old are you?”

“The same age as you,” you said grumpily as you rummaged your cupboards for the necessary ingredients. “Which means, if it’s sufficient for me, it’s sufficient for you.”

“Not really. But since you’re making me breakfast, I guess I have no choice but to humbly agree.”

You snorted. “That’s right.”

You thought you heard him chuckle again as he disappeared into the bathroom. Abruptly, you realized you hadn’t seen him smile, least of all heard him chuckle with you… ever. Okay, that might be a bit of a cruel estimate, but you frankly couldn’t conjure to mind the last time he hadn’t been absolutely infuriating or just straight up rude to you. As much as you hated to admit it, a small part of you couldn’t help but like the amnesic version of Jeon Jungkook more than his real self.

The self where he had cheated on you.

You were done with the oatmeal and had poured up some juice for both of you by the time you heard the bathroom door unlock. You placed each of your servings onto the island overhang and was just about to sit on the bar stool closest to you when you heard naked feet pad into the kitchen.

You frowned. When had Jungkook had the time to change? And how did he know his clothes were in the body bag?

“How did you know--” you began as you glanced over your shoulder.

And then you choked.

Because Jeon Jungkook had just walked into your kitchen - practically naked.

[lucky-starling]

So, I was quite stupid in high school.

That's not true. A lot of the people I know say I'm really smart. I have certain, specific topics that I am really, really good at. I got like 95%-100%s on every test I *actually* studied for.

But I graduated high school with a 1.7 GPA.

I mean at least I graduated?

I was... going through a lot in high school. (I truly don't think I'll even feel sad whenever my dad does die.) It's not just that I was sad. We were poor, and i wasn't getting enough food. I was also disillusioned because he kept telling me school didn't matter and was fascist or whatever, and scared of the world he was leading me to believe laid beyond childhood, full of satanic cannibals and pedophiles. I also just could not pay attention. I dont know why. It never clicked with me that I should. Not that I was *supposed to*, I understood that, I just never saw a reason *why I should*. It didn't interest me.

I guess when I list shit out like that, it makes me feel better that I am as functioning now as I am.

Anyway. I spent all of my classes sleeping (and spent every night binging TV until 4am), socializing, or making up little stories in my head and doodling. I learned very little.

Now I'm 25, and... I want to see what I missed! In my adulthood (and newfound stability), I want to learn! I don't really have an objective, like, a college or career path, I just Want. To. Know!!! For myself! For fun?

So I am!

I didn't know where to start... probably the 4 core subjects is my best bet? There's nothing I want to specialize in..I. yet! Maybe something will grab my interest!

I've got some textbooks. I've got The Penguin History of The World, Openstax's ap Biology (I probably retained enough to start with ap at 26, haha...), The Art of Problem Solving's Algebra 1, and... no English (I was always pretty good with English)... but I've got some open source Spanish 1 text book, which I've already gotten a decent way through! (¡Puedo comer vidrio, no me hace daño!

Then I'll branch out to more specific parts of history, like certain times or countries, Geometry, Algebra 2, eventually Calculus (which I don't think I ever even took? The state I went to HS in is 49th in Education....), and introductory chemistry and physics.

And then I'll teach myself college level things!

I'll also probably delve into things like psychology, philosophy, sociology... I love, y'know, *people*.

Of course, this is very embarrassing. Two days ago, my boyfriend taught me how to multiply and divide fractions by canceling. I'm 25. That's, like, mortifying to admit.

But at least I'm doin' something about it instead of never admitting it and then continuing to not know forever!

Grifjejf. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but. I'm really looking forward to this journey tbh. Learning is fun to me now! I want knowledge. Yay.

[toasty-owoasty]

hi! i'm coming for your ace attorney/homestuck aus. you cannot hide in the tags. talk about them >:3

(only if you want ofc, no pressure, just a lot of interest)

lmao well if you insist~

(also shout out to my good buddy @jayljester / @jaylillustrates for being the main person I bounced ideas off of for this back in like.. 2020/2021 you should check them out their art is phenomenal)

so as I said before, there's actually three days. in order from least to most developed they are:

-attorneystuck

-turnabout alternia

-ace legislacerators

attorneystuck is your classic "what if x characters played sburb" story. have not thought much of it past that

turnabout alternia is a theoretical case wherein normal phoenix wright (and probably some other characters idk) get translated to alternia and have to defend one of the trolls (probably karkat) in a trial. I have no other details on this but terezi is probably either the prosecutor or the weird girl. think turnabout storm but instead of horses it's Homestuck.

ace legislacerators is the most developed & my favorite of the three. the idea behind it is sort of a rewrite of the ace attorney story line but on alternia? specifically an au alternia where humans and trolls live together. the impacts of this in society include reforms such as murder being actually illegal and frowned upon due to human influences, adults staying on alternia, trolls having actual family units, jobs such as legislacerator not actually being limited to one caste, etc etc. these changes are not pretty recent, probably being first implemented around/shortly before the tgaa era.

I feel I should also mention that by no means is the caste system gone. lower castes are still widely treated like garbage, and higher castes are still treated very well

for fun, here's a list of castes for the characters as I remember them bc again I have barely thought about this au in years :p (under the read more bc this post is already long)

Phoenix: indigo blood/human hybrid, explains why he's hardy enough to be able to withstand all the stuff he does

Edgeworth: Violet blood, he fishie :)

Larry: token human. just a normal guy.

Gumshoe: olive blood. I mean his jacket is already the perfect color

Von Karma: the von karma's are all teal bloods! they also hold the idea that as teals they are "natural hatched legislacerators" (aka Manfred is hemophobic despite not even being in that high of a caste)

Godot: as Diego Armando, he was a rust blood. but when he was poisoned they ended up filling him with teal blood! so diego=burgundy, godot=teal

Apollo: Apollo is a rust! he has normal horns AND hair horns so some people think he's a gold and get scared of his supposed psionics.

Gavin: If I recall correctly, the Gavins are both purple bloods. clown Gavins teehee. (klavier is probably more into the messiahs than kristoph, but I think both of them are very low-key about it)

Trucy: I don't actually remember trucy's caste but I *think* she was a burgundy? would make sense given. events. as well as her outfit as a kid being red.

Athena: She's an actual gold with psionics :) I never drew her, but my design concept for her involved her having four eyes, one for each color of the mood matrix.

Blackquill: I don't actually remember having one for him. Uhhhhh.. Ummm. Cobalt? yeah sure cobalt. taka is his "lusus" (even though lusii aren't actually parental figures anymore in this universe, they're more like pets but still have parental instincts)

Judge: purple blood. clown judge lol.

FEYS/KUHRA'IN ROYAL FAMILY:

so they're a special case. all people capable of spirit channeling or descendants of spirit channelers are a secret 13th caste... lavenders! in terms of hierarchy, lavenders would fall between violet and fuchsia (yes they are sea dwellers), but are generally unknown due to being mutants and also being a very very small caste. only some lavenders can channel spirits, just like how only some cobalts can mind control, only some burgundies have telekinesis, & only some golds have psionics. so yeah. all the feys are fish ladies :) (to explain why dahlia was able to cut ties from the feys, she simply just faked being a violet, shrimple as that)

[too-many-rocks]

In the interests of not writing an essay in @utilitycaster‘s comments, I, uh, created a CR sideblog. This is a normal thing to do I think!

Other folks have covered a lot of the issues I had with last night's episode in smart ways, but I've been thinking about the Otohan encounter all day and I have some frustrations to shoot off into the ether.

First: I don't think that critique of the structure of this encounter is an attack on Matt as a DM. I think he's a really good DM and generally I have a lot of fun watching Critical Role and a lot of respect for him as a player and a DM! Saying that this encounter was not great from a DMing perspective doesn't invalidate that. People make mistakes, especially when they're trying new and potentially interesting things. It seemed like Matt was trying something different with this encounter and it didn't work. I have suspicions about what that different thing was but it's hard to say for sure until next week.

In general, I think the Otohan encounter didn't land in large part to how it was set up and how the escape hatch was structured. That is a DM issue -- you can talk about how the players didn't catch hints or direction that were offered to them, but dang guys, they tried a lot of stuff, and none of it worked, and their party kept getting stabbed. Like, I think Laura at one point explicitly said "I give in", and Otohan's response was to turn around and attack Laudna three times. There was enough confusion on the players' part, especially Laura's, as to how to get out of the encounter that I have to attribute that to the encounter design. It felt like Matt was fishing for something extremely specific from Laura that she kept not quite delivering, despite trying both RP and fighty solutions -- I will probably go back to pick that apart more when there's a transcript available.

Because of how highly constrained the encounter was, losing at least one PC in retrospect seems kind of inevitable. If they apparently weren't allowed to run, and Otohan kept playing whack-a-mole with the folks who did stick around, eventually someone was going to take enough damage and fail enough death saves to be dead. This especially in the last round or two when Otohan got particularly vindictive and started stabbing downed folks.

That feels not great from a viewer perspective. Yes, this is the kind of game where no one has plot armor and PCs can be permanently killed. But being cornered into a fight where they didn't have any good options and couldn't escape and couldn't stop it feels like a bad way to lose a PC. It's fine (...I guess) if a PC death results from player choice, but this didn't feel like player choice. It felt like DM fiat that they were going to stick around and take it until someone did exactly the right thing.

(Sidenote: I did see on Twitter that the cast enjoyed the session. Great! I'm glad! From a viewer perspective I don't actually care though. They're not playing a home game; they're streaming to an audience of hundreds of thousands of people. I will argue that while their enjoyment of the game matters very much for the continued success of Critical Role, the viewer response is also relevant. Otherwise why stream?)

On a meta level, I've been seeing folks say that Matt and the cast's reactions didn't line up with folks who were saying goodbye permanently to their characters, which indicates that there's some sort of plan for bringing back the downed PCs. I tend to agree -- there was no reason Otohan had to escalate to finishing off unconscious folks except to add extra pressure on Imogen, which they could have done just as well without. That just seems so bad, though. This is another thing that's really tricky to evaluate before we see the consequences of Dark Imogen next week, but man, it's hard to come up with a way to rez Fearne and Orym, and potentially Laudna, that feels satisfying.

I hope next week we get a great follow up that makes this episode make sense, but as it stands, the second half did not make sense to me.

[1358456]

Pokemon Crystal "Free to Play" Run Part 1

Time to give this a try. I remember very little about the specifics and the hidden secrets of Generation II, so... um... this may be a doomed run. We'll see.

Here we go. No glitches, no catching any Pokemon whatsoever, and no buying Pokemon either. Free to play.

Once again, I don't have enough spaces, and don't have access to numbers so... FTP again.

... Who the hell is this? Her daughter is adamant about becoming Prof. Elm's assistant? ... Was that ever brought up in Pokemon Special? Hmm. I can probably use this in an upcoming Short.

There's some asshole looking into the lab and no one ever notices him. ... This lab has one entrance, and an assistant who wanders around that only entrance doing literally nothing else. How did this asshole get in and steal a Pokemon? ... I guess through the window??

Heh. Unlike Prof. Rowan who just stares at you, this dude begs you for help. "Please, we're drastically understaffed because we can't afford any helpers! You're not getting paid for this either!"

"Partner" my ass. ... Oh wait, Free to Play run. ... Er... Yes. Very important. Especially considering the later parts... Taking Cyndaquil for now and will deeply regret my decision at the end of this post.

So this is what a battle looks like from an outsider's perspective. ... So... how do the battles in my Yellow version runs look? "That dude's Pikachu is... er... blue."

Why does my character have a blue Pokeball? Did I merge a Pokeball with a Squirtle already? And this asshole's arm is... kind of messed up. Either his hand is as long as his forearm, or his arm can reach past his knee.

"My name is ???" ... Sure. I didn't ask for his name or his life aspirations, but I guess he's lonely. Well, f*ck him.

Er... I think there's a dude named Ricky in here who wants to trade you an Onix for a Bellsprout. But that requires me to CATCH a Bellsprout, so... nope.

... Huh. That's actually a thing. I thought the mandatory Trainer's School was given that name in Pokemon Special only. I guess the "orphanage" part is new. ... Orphanage... I miss the kids in Morning Glory...

... Where is the teacher? Did he f*ck off and abandon the class? There are like 12 seats here and only 4 kids, 2 of which are playing Pokemon games in the back. ... Wait, what?

I thought there was a path around the dollar sign. But I guess that's HGSS only?

Your dad's "cherished bird Pokemon" are just random sh*t he found in the Viridian Forest.

Nope. F*ck off. ... Oh wait, Free to Play... er... I mean... Yes!

Hey, this is guy who, back in the days, everyone thought was referring to Pokerus that you can only find in the grass around him. ... Back in those days, people also thought that shiny Pokemon were extremely rare variants that appeared in specific places. ... I found Pokerus in my actual Gold version. And Ruby. ... And then I spawned it in Silver! See my GSC Joy Run posts for that shenanigans.

... Sheesh. Sorry for being broke. There's a reason why this is a Free to Play run...

Hey! A gift Pokemon! I wonder what's inside? It better be good! Because I am very lacking in the Pokemon department!

This is Bill's mother. And... So Bill's father is a gambling addict? Hmm. Did I know that already?

Another "gift" Pokemon! It's like a quest delivery weapon/armor in Skyrim or something. As long as I don't complete the quest...

... It's a "gift", but... it ain't good. But... well... I effectively robbed this guy. I can't exactly complain about the quality of the stuff I stole. At least it can use Fly probably. Oh, it has mail. ...

Whoops. My bad. I do not work for the post office, so this is not my responsibility.

... I have to face Whitney very soon. And without a Geodude/Graveler for once. A Spearow and Togepi/Togetic do not help me against that. So... er... this Odd Egg had better hatch into something good!

... ... ... ... -_- ... ... ... ...

Odd Egg? Never heard of it. I only ever had my starter, Togepi Egg, and the "gift" Spearow. ... I just can't get away from that li'l abomination...

I guess Quilava has to solo Whitney... through Attract and Rollout. ... Hmm...

It's cheese time.

Just like Misty's Starmie, Whitney's Miltank is no match for this finely curated, moldy, nasty-ass fromage. Now there should be no more problems!

... So here I am in Ecruteak. And... This is it, huh? ... The first Water Stone you can get is in Cerulean Cape, so... I physically can't progress past Olivine City. Nothing here gets Surf. ... Um... so... I guess I absolutely needed to have picked Totodile at the start of the game. This run was doomed the moment I picked Cyndaquil. "Truth is, the game was rigged from the start."

... F*ck. This is like those very old text based adventure games where you could have f*cked yourself over at the start of the game and wouldn't find out until like... 10 hours in.

Well then. Part 1 is a proof-of-concept run. I'll restart with Totodile for Part 2. And looking at this right now, my team by the end is going to be...

Feraligatr (Surf, Whirlpool, Cut), Fearow (Fly), Togetic (Flash), Espeon, Dragonite (Waterfall), and... something other than Pichu from that Daycare random egg. I wonder if Togetic can learn Fly. If that's the case, I don't need the Fearow and I can replace it with a Hitmonlee/chan/top. ... If I remember where Tyrogue is, anyways. Might be that cave right next to Ecruteak...

Well, next time.

[lolita-lollipop]

Royal siren erasermic family? They like adopt you after you hatch from an egg bc they found you or something idk and take you back to the castle and make you their little princess or something cute and fluffy like that.

YANDERE SIREN ERASERMIC FAMILY X BABY PRINCESS READER

Shinso was just out and about, swimming through some forbidden areas he wasn’t supposed to be in, avoiding sharks, when he found an iridescent little ball under some rubble of a shipwreck, it made his gills tingle at the sweet aura that it emmited, he knew, that this creature, was something to protect. It was up until he saw something moving inside that he thought it was just some ancient treasure that would’ve died with this ship, he examined it closer, squinting his eyes, that’s when he realized, it was a Siren. A baby one at that, usually they hatched out of boring white eggs, the royal family’s were gold, but a shiny color changing white that combated the finest of jewels? Never, this little pip was special, he could feel it.

So he brought it back home, through his “balcony window”, debating wether or not he should tell his parents. As you know, he was somewhere where he was not supposed to be, and they would throw a fit. Then again, whatever this thing was, he couldn’t just keep it to himself, something was living inside it, and he wouldn’t know if something was wrong, so he has too. When he did, it came as a suprise that his parents weren’t mad, they jsut kindof stared at the orb, inhaling the addictive scent it gave off, the three huddled around it, aizawa carefully picking the Small thing up, it was only about the size of a pumpkin, extremely easy to pick up, yet he could still feel the heartbeat of a creature inside, it just had to be one of the sirenfolk , there isn’t any other explanation. He stared at it in confusion, noticing the small cracks staring to form.

Then a little hand popped through, and scared the shit out of all of them.

———

As it turned out, you were in fact a siren, a rare subtype of them, thought to have gone extinct long, long ago. The opal-looking scales that littered your arms and tail showed proof of it, this species were intensely more fragile, and weaker, that’s why they went extinct, as they couldn’t hear, and a small crabs pinch could cause major bone breaks, they were just too weak, yet so beautiful. That’s why they were coveted among the royal family. It only helped their growing obsession taht you were so cute.

It might’ve been an act of I’mpulse, but they just needed to have you as their own, of course, their word is law, so they could’ve just kept you, but they felt the need to make it official, they’d already had two pips, you’re just their third! It was simple, of course, you specific species could be born into sirenfolk families, it was just so rare that it had only happened once. You were just so cute, so fragile, just something so breakable, they just

H a d

To protect this tiny lil thing, it was instinctual to feel a protective pull over their little pups, and boy were they feeling that right now, you were special, not just any baby, but you were theirs. Their special little pup, nothing would ever lay a hand on you, ever. It had only be a few days, and word spreads through the underwater kingdom like a wave, from the servant maid who showed them how to take care of you, to the head maid, to a citizen, to the fisher, and eventually, by the end of the week, the whole kingdom was eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of their new princess.

And boy were they shocked to find out it was an opalite, the most rare of rare sirens in the world. Immediately after they had shown you to the world, sitting in a large clam as it was pulled by sharks, the citizens fell in love with you, maybe it was the fact that you were related to their beloved royals, maybe because the royal family would intensely glare at anyone who made negative comments, maybe it was the fact that a few of those people went missing, but who knows right?

You still hadn’t been able to open your eyes yet, and you won’t be able to hear them for a very long time, your hands were about the size of aizawas eye, and you looked closer to a fish than a human, as you hadn’t even developed your face yet, another plus to being the endangered species, note the sarcasm. And guess what? They found it so adorable, just their cute little baby, their little pup who can’t even protect themselves from the water around them. They just loved every part of your little body, from your tails, to your tiny little hands, to your shiny gills. It was all just so perfect- you were so perfect, and you were theirs, they were gonna protect you at all costs.

So of course they did, you were just so tiny right now, they knows practically anything could hurt you, so they opted to be around you all the time, only leaving to hunt for humans that would suffice for their tastes, drawling them in, determined because of that little smile of yours. You motivated them to do it, they were doing this for you. It have them all a sense of pride to have you feel safe with them, to rite them you. On their own terms.

Eri was constantly around you, being that she was a young one just like you, and you were her little sister! So she wanted to always be around while you made those echoing gurgling noises, or flapped your hands around in the water, she didn’t have responsibility in the kingdom yet, unless being cute is a job, so she can be with you jsut as much as she wants. Always sitting with you while you played with the floating pearls that they had arranged over your play area, watching you feel new things, holding you while you dozed off with adorable little bubbles, she always was with you.

Like now, she’s been with you all day, giving you little snacks, glaring at the guards at the door who always had their eyes on you… creeps. The sun was almost setting, and when you’re low down in the ocean it goes pitch black after a little while, and that’s when the jellyfish come out, tonight was one of the most special days out of the year in the northern oceans, the jellyfish festival, the one night a year when the rare white jellyfish would come out to say hi, leaving trails of shimmering sparkle behind them, painting the upper levels of the ocean a shiny silver. It just so happened that it occurred on your first birthday, a very small increment to sirens, as they live almost a billion years, but still a big accomplishment in their eyes. Look! Their little baby girl is turning one! How amazing!

“Do you see them hon? Look, they’re just starting to appear” Aizawa asked both you and eri calmly, swishing his hand through the salty water to pint at the new appearance of white and purple blobs, slowly flouncing their way overhead. Eri smiled up at it, her pointed teeth displayed in full view, her eyes shined at the view, not only of the huge jellyfish, but also at you, who was placed delicately in mics lap, sat up against his chest. Little bubbles escaped your mouth as you blew raspberries into the water, just making the family laugh.

“Mm-hmmm! Look! Look! How pretty! I wanna touch em! Can I touch em!” She yelled at her parents, excitedly pointing towards the jelly’s floating towards the surface, her hair floated behind her as she swished around, shinsho just chuckled, knowing that she eventually would try to touch them, and get zapped, again, like last year, and the year before, and the year before.

“No hon. Don’t do that to us again, you wanna wish your sister a happy birthday? She’s probably really exited!” Mic cheered, distracting his daughter from touching the jellyfish, yet again, meanwhile, you were happily bouncing up and down on his lap, enjoying the freedom of your arms, swishing them all over the place, grabbing the beads around your neck, jsut anything.

“But dad! Why not! It’s not like it’s hurt me or anything I’ll be fi-“ she begged, throwing her hands up in a small tempter tantrum, clearly forgetting her previous events of pain, and idiocy.

“No- nope no no, we aren’t doing this again, please honey, just please, remember last time, we had to clean up your wounds OUTSIDE-of water, you hate going to the surface remember? “

“Yeah but-“ she started speaking, but was soon cut off with a loud giggle, resonating through your lips, kindof rare for you, you hadn’t been very vocal outside of a few gurgles here and there, so it had each and every ones heads turning. That’s when they saw it, your beautiful eyes, shin sing in reflection to the jellyfish. Those beautiful little eyes of yours mesmerized all of them, a pitch black (for protection from the salt), with a shiny silver-like pupal, immediately after they opened, a burst of color filled your vision. You giggled and clapped your hands together with a small toothless smile, watching as the floaty creates went overhead, glittering with the light.

The absolutely gorgeous splash above was admired by the family form their own viewing post, the blues and whites combined to make a heavenly display. You could feel the cool sprinkles of light they emmited hitting your skin, smiling at the feeling, you splayed your hands out and flailed them against the water.

“Ohhhhhh- oh wow. Honey! Honey look! Her eyes opened! Look at taht! Aren’t you just so magical! Look at you, my little pup.” Mic smacked Aizawa over the chest multiple times, pointing at your clearly opened eyes, you just remained oblivious, staring up at all the new things around you, like.. everything! He turned you around to face him, letting you actually see his face for the first time, taking in the long yellow hair, the (also) black eyes, the ethereal face dotted with shiny yellow gills, him, you could see him!

“She’s developing smoothly, I’m glad. Awww, that’s pretty cute.” Aizawa replied to him, holding in his emotions, as soon as he met those new eyes of yours it’s like everything else disappeared, like the world itself didn’t exist, outside of him, and his fmaily. You took his breath away, or what you could call breath, so cute and innocent, such a small thing, that brings so much joy. Your little tail swished back and forth as you stared up at them happily, taking in the features of the people you’d learned to recognize by touch. Blowing raspberries out of your lips with a stream of bubbles.

“Awwwww! I’m gonna cry, she’s growing so fast! Soon she’ll be swimming in her own! In like 200 years! Too soon, way too soon. Comers baby- mm hmmm” mic spoke, knowing full well that even if he did cry, his tears would get sucked in by the ocean. He pulled you close, moving your head I’ve this shoulde is it would rest in the crook of his neck while he hugged you, eventually, the others joined in, eri practically flopping ontop (with careful regard for you of course).

They all stared at you, while you stared up at the “sky”, oblivious to their stares, to the ways they would growl at anyone who came close, to how they kept you from seeing anyone other than what they personally approve. After all, you are jsut their little pup, of course you wouldn’t notice! Their little pup… feels right to say that, it isn’t like you have any family waiting, they aren’t ever gonna come here.

And if they ever did?

Then, well, a few mermaids are going missing

———————————————————————————————————

Thanks for requesting, this was fun to write!

Have a great day today! Goodbye.

[quaranmine]

The Babysitting Game

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, Grian doesn't have a child but he does have an egg and a village. That’s basically the same thing, right?

Grian acquires an egg. His friends help him.

No romantic relationships or content warnings. Mainly fluff! Hermits: Grian, Mumbo, Pearl, and Scar. My first publish fanfic since 2016 and my first hermitcraft fanfic :D ao3 link and some inspirations to be linked in a reblog

Words: 2862

•·················•·················•

"What if I touched it really quick?" Scar asked.

"No, don’t-don’t touch the egg," Grian said seriously. "Look, I even made a sign! It specifically says ‘Do not touch.’" He gestured to the sign in question, but Scar ignored him.

"Can I rub it?" he said. The man leaned over it, studying the object carefully. Grian hadn’t known where to place the egg when he got it, and it was just sitting on an anvil for the time being. He didn’t even have a starter house yet, but clearly he was going to need something soon if he was going to protect the egg from some of the more . . . mischievous residents of their Boatem village.

“No, don’t touch the egg! Scar-” Grian walked closer, hands outstretched, just in time to see Scar reach out with his hand and pat the egg.

Vworp!

The egg disappeared into thin air.

Dragon eggs had a tendency to do that. It was a survival tactic--Grian didn't really know how it worked, but just as endermen could teleport away from danger, so could the egg if it were touched. Now whether or not Scar was dangerous remained up for debate…

Scar giggled. "Oh, where did you go?" he sang, hunting around the area.

Well, he COULD be pretty scary sometimes.

"Scarrrr," Grian whined, helping him look. "I told you not to touch it!"

"It's over here!" Scar shouted, finding the egg at the bottom of a small slope nearby. "Just one more time…." He reached out again.

"No!" Grian said, slapping his hand away. "Look, you've got to pick it up the right way." He demonstrated, carefully lifting the egg and placing it in a pouch slung over his back. He had hurriedly stitched it together not too long ago, worried that transporting the egg normally might break it. “If you do it roughly, you’ll scare it and it’ll teleport away again.”

"I see!" said Scar.

"Now, please, don't touch the egg.”

"Oh," Scar said. He straightened. "You're really serious about this."

Grian glared. "I am."

"I'm sorry, I just thought it was funny!"

Grian sighed. "It's okay, Scar. It's just--this thing is a baby, it needs to be handled gently! You can't just go around scaring it! What if it falls into a hole or something?" he hissed.

"Oh my god," Scar laughed, "you're its mother now!"

"No, no, I'm not!"

"You are!" Scar cried. He suddenly stopped. "Oh no, didn't you kill its mother?"

"Well it doesn't know that!" Grian snapped. "Truthfully I didn't realize there would be an egg! And I couldn't just leave it, you know! Here, look at this." Grian gently withdrew the egg from its pack, and Scar moved closer. He held it up to the sun. "Look at that."

The sun shined dark red through the deep purple shell of the egg, making it glow within. In the middle, the silhouette of a curled up creature was illuminated. Blood vessels radiated outward, and at the bottom there was a blank space that Grian assumed was air. The egg’s shell was too thick for any detail to be made out, but the processes happening within were clear. Grian was enchanted with it.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

"Wow," Scar breathed. "There's actually a dragon in there! What're you gonna do with it after it hatches?"

"Well, I haven't exactly thought that far--I just want to worry about keeping it safe first. I mean, what do you even do with this thing?" Grian put the egg back in its satchel, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I suppose you keep it warm and safe but, like, I don't know what else-"

"I could help!" Scar said.

"You were just playing with it!"

"Hey," Scar said defensively, "that was before I knew more about it!"

Grian rolled his eyes.

“What are you guys doing over here?” said Mumbo, wandering over. Grian just knew he’d been up to something, and sure enough, there was a new tree next to his little collection of chests. Grian wasn’t very bothered by it, because he already had a plan to get Mumbo back for it.

“Grian is just showing me his new baby!” Scar teased. “He’s a mom now.”

“I am NOT its mother,” replied Grian tiredly, but he smiled at the sight of the other man.

“A baby?” Mumbo asked, choosing to ignore the rest of Scar’s statement.

“A dragon egg,” Grian answered. “I found it in the End.” He paused for a moment, feeling almost bad. “After I killed the dragon.”

“Grian! You’ve orphaned it!” Mumbo sounded scandalized.

“Why do you all keep bringing that up!?” he defended, glancing between Mumbo and Scar, who both gave him disapproving, albeit playful, looks. “I know you’re Mr. Peace, Love and Plants this time, but we’ve always killed the dragon in every new world!”

“Well, I guess that’s true, but it is a little sad isn’t it? You’re taking care of it but only because you killed its mum.”

“Yeah,” was all Grian said. The dragon always needed to be taken care of in each new world they visited, and while it was always a bit of a shame, he’d never really contemplated it that much. After all, he normally wasn’t the one who fought it--that last time in Evo aside. He didn’t really know what he had gotten into but he felt deeply like he needed to protect this egg. It was like a tug in his chest, drawing him into the egg and telling him not to let go.

“Show him the egg!” Scar said.

“You just want to see it again,” Grian replied, but pulled the egg out of the satchel again anyway for Mumbo to see. The surface of the egg wasn’t smooth, like a chicken’s egg, but bumpy. The purple spots almost seemed to glow, and occasionally little violet particles drifted off of it. Grian felt like he could stare at it in awe all day, and apparently his friends felt the same.

“How’re you going to keep it warm?” asked Mumbo after a moment of admiring it. “That satchel isn’t going to be enough, and to be frank, I don’t see you spending any time sitting on it, even if the mental image is pretty funny.”

Grian rolled his eyes at the comment, but thought about it. How would he incubate it? He may have had wings, but he didn’t know anything about eggs, other than that it was a safe bet to assume it needed to be kept warm. “I'm not sure, actually.”

“Hey, let me design something for you!” Mumbo said excitedly. “I could probably use some redstone and make an incubator of some sort for you.”

Grian smiled. “I’d really appreciate that.”

Asking Mumbo to create a contraption for him--what could go wrong?

•·················•·················•

“I’m not wearing this thing, you know.” Grian said, holding the contraption while Mumbo wheezed with laughter in the background. The design that Mumbo had come up with was essentially a backpack with heating elements strung through it, except for one thing . . .

“You-you wear it in the front,” Mumbo choked out, wiping a tear from his eyes.

“Yes, I see that,” Grian replied, unamused.

“Like a swaddle!”

“Yes, I see that.”

Mumbo laughed harder. Grian had to begrudgingly admit that it was well designed, however. It would fit the egg perfectly, keep it warm, and most important it was mobile to ensure that he could take the egg with him. It was thoughtful, especially since Mumbo knew Grian was quite protective of it.

“I’m not wearing this thing,” Grian repeated. “I’m not going to let you all laugh at me while I walk around the server with an egg swaddled to me!”

“I thought you’d say that,” Mumbo chuckled. “Here, you can switch the straps around and turn it into a backpack.” He unclipped the straps and moved them into the new configuration.

“Thank you, Mumbo,” he said gratefully. “This will certainly do the trick.”

“Glad to hear it mate,” Mumbo replied. “Now, while you’re here, may I ask why there is an incredibly tall tree on top of my camper?”

“Sorry, got to go!” blurted Grian, snatching the backpack from Mumbo’s arms and flying off in a burst of feathers.

“That’s unfair, I don’t even have an elytra yet to go chase him down with,” muttered the man as he watched Grian disappear.

•·················•·················•

Grian sat in the grass in front of his starter home and rubbed his eyes wearily. He was exhausted. Is this how all parents feel? he wondered. Was he just uniquely unqualified to be one? After all, this was only an egg! It hadn’t even hatched yet and he was already tired of keeping up with it.

Carrying it in the backpack was heavy, and Grian tired out quickly. It was hot on his back, and Grian found himself having to take breaks to avoid overheating. It was also cumbersome, and he found it difficult to build with as it shifted his weight. He almost fell off the roof once while building it! Of course, having wings meant that Grian could catch himself easily, but it had still given him quite the scare. Dragon eggs were pretty sturdy, and would teleport themselves out of danger if possible, but he was still so paranoid about breaking it. And now there was the Boatem Hole to worry about--what if it teleported itself into the void? These things kept Grian awake at night.

But if he left it...well, just like Grian had a tendency to lose items in his chest monsters, he also had a tendency to forget where he placed things. He had been forced to go back and rescue the egg from some place he’d left it more than once, which he wasn’t exactly proud of. What sort of parent forgot their child?

. . . He was definitely not admitting to being its parent.

Oh God, what did I get myself into?

“Hey Grian, what’re you up to?” came a voice, interrupting his thoughts. He looked up and saw Pearl standing over him. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and her hands were in her hoodie pockets. She took a seat on the ground next to him, and followed his gaze overlooking the Boatem village. “What’s on your mind?”

“This--this egg,” said Grian. It sat next to him in its backpack, still radiating heat. “I don’t know what to do with it. I’m just so tired of carrying it around!”

“I have to admit,” Pearl said, “I didn’t expect you to immediately adopt a baby dragon the very next time I saw you.”

“Yeah, well, it was an accident.” Grian groaned. “I don’t know what to do with it now, let alone when it hatches!”

Pearl thought for a moment. “You know, the rest of us are all here for you. The other hermits would be happy to help out, I’m sure.”

The other hermits . . . well of course they would. If it was one thing they were all good at, it was supporting each other. Scar had already taken a particular interest in the egg, although Grian was still a little suspicious of him scaring it again. Mumbo had specially designed an incubator for it. Pearl was visiting him to check up on him and offer help.

All Grian had to do was convince himself to let it go. To let them help.

“I know that but . . .”

“But what? Have you had any reason to believe they wouldn’t?” Pearl asked.

“Well, no.” He thought for a while. He thought of how his friends would lend materials when needed, or how they’d help replace someone’s armor and items if they were lost. He thought about the days where they all teamed up and chose one hermit to help out, and he thought about all the things they did for the good of the entire community without even being asked.

His desire to protect the egg was strong, and putting it into the hands of another person almost felt like simultaneously a betrayal of the egg itself and the biggest leap of faith he could take. But the hermits were good at leaps of faith, because someone was always there to catch you.

“You think it’d be okay?”

“I know it’ll be okay,” Pearl replied. “I haven’t been here very long but from what I’ve seen, I know they’d all help. They wouldn’t hurt it. They might be a little mischievous sometimes,” she said, glancing at Scar’s house, “but they know how important it is and would be happy to help. They helped you before, didn’t they?”

Pearl was right, of course. Nobody on the server had any desire to hurt the egg. He trusted that. If there was anyone that he could trust, it was them.

But how would he get them all to essentially sign up for babysitting?

An idea struck him, and Grian scrambled to his feet. “Pearl, you’re brilliant. Thank you!”

She blinked, a little startled. “Always happy to help.”

•·················•·················•

Grian stood back, admiring his work. A near perfect duplicate of the egg that was currently sitting in the backpack slung around his shoulder, but at a much larger scale. It was built out of obsidian blocks and crying obsidian for the spots, and if Grian was pretty proud of how it looked.

If Grian knew anything, it was that his friends loved minigames. And Grian was not above gently exploiting that fact to get a little help--just like barge game from the last world, where he managed to get his friends to help mine out the stone from next to his mansion. Just slap the title of “game” on something and you could get a hermit to sign up for anything.

“Now . . . I just have to write the signs on the inside.”

The game Grian had come up with was officially called Tegg--he needed to stay on brand with his tag games in every world--but he’d mentally been calling it “The Babysitting Game” for a while now. Because that’s what it really was--each hermit who signed up would also sign up to watch the egg and keep it safe. He set to work outlining the rules.

RULE ONE: Protect the egg and keep it safe.

RULE TWO: Keep the egg incubated or it’ll die.

RULE THREE: Keep a close eye on the egg.

RULE FOUR: Call Grian if it starts to hatch.

Satisfied, he wrote out the rest of the instructions. Because it was a game, he wanted to make it fun for the hermits too, so he’d decided to make it like a scavenger hunt. People were allowed to take the egg, provided they adhered to the rules, and were encouraged to hide it and keep it safe. Otherwise, someone else who wanted to have it could get it. The safer the egg was, the less likely for someone else to find it. The winner was whoever had the egg the longest when it finally hatched. Grian didn’t know how long that would take, but he didn’t want to miss it either, hence rule four.

Yep, totally outsourcing his babysitting onto his friends.

Grian squinted at his wall of signs, before placing one final sign at the bottom: Grian will track the game and has final say on points and rules!

“That should do it,” he mumbled. He still wanted to keep an eye on the egg, to make sure that he knew who had it and how many people’s hands it had gone through. After all, he was the one ultimately responsible for it.

Grian pulled the egg out of the backpack and carefully placed it on the ground. He’d somehow made a habit of just speaking to it every now and then--he had no idea if the little dragon could hear anything in there, but he liked to think that it could. “Hey there,” he whispered, and stroked the top of the egg. “Some new people are going to start taking you pretty soon, but it’s okay. They’re going to give me some help and make sure you’re safe.”

He paused, taking in the little room he’d made and the wall of signs he’d written with meticulous instructions for the egg’s care. It may have been the first thing he’d built for this egg, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be his last. A baby dragon was a commitment and for the first time Grian really let himself think about what that meant, beyond just an egg that he had to carry around. Would he house it? Train it? Let it stay by his side? Would he love it?

I think I already do, he thought.

He thought of the hermits--their mischievousness, their pranks, their hard work, their friendship, and their goodness at heart. They were his family, now. What was one more addition?

“It’s okay,” he whispered to the egg. “I trust them all with my life, but more importantly, I trust them with yours.”

[husbandomail]

Oh my god, I love your Guzma writing!! 😭♥️ Could you do headcanons for him with a trainer who also adores bug-type Pokemon?

well I'm glad to hear that bc I adore Guzma actually and I love writing for him fghmjhgfd. I hope these are okay!!

The big bad Guzma was never popular— and only partially because of his attitude. Even before he befriended his precious Wimpod, his interests leaned towards the creepy-crawly. He was constantly coming home with Spinarak clinging to the back of his clothes, and faint dustings of Butterfree scales in his hair. Add that to the long list of scoldings.

So many people are scared of bug-types, or think they’re gross little things that shouldn’t be trained. His mother would screech whenever even a Caterpie made its way indoors; Pineco were considered a local menace, eating Berry farms until nothing grew; Dewpider and Araquanid dripped lakewater everywhere, often tainted with tufts of fur and other unmentionables. And that’s exactly why Guzma was so drawn to them— like all other Pokémon, they were doing their best to live their own lives, an unknowing piece of something much bigger. And yet, despite that, they were hated. Feared. Cast aside. An awful lot like a sad little boy he knew too well.

By the time he’s an adult, obviously Guzma has embraced his love for the unloved, reaching beyond bug-types and extending to other unwanted children. That doesn’t mean his mindset has completely evolved, though— people continue reacting badly to his bugs, and he can’t tell if it’s because he or Golisopod is the scary one. He’s gotten used to rolling his eyes and stomping his feet whenever someone complains about Surskit’s oily little footprints, or Spinarak’s sticky webbing— so when your first reaction is to coo at his little babies and reach to pet one, he’s stunned. He has to actually stop his rant about “they’re not gross!” to take in what you just said.

When you reveal your own team to him— with a notable amount of his beloved bugs— Guzma is thrilled; he has to catch himself from shouting in excitement, because he does have an image to keep up. To him, your willingness to work so closely with so many loathed pokemon speaks volumes— if you’re willing to accept them, maybe you’ll get along with him as well. Granted, he feels all of this more than he thinks it; Guzma has never been the type to point at others and call them friends, and he’s sure not starting now. You will notice, though, that he’s quick to throw his arm around you— this close up, he’s definitely as intimidating as his Pokémon— and drag you to the nearest cafe for a mug of tapu cocoa. He wants to talk, and you’re gonna listen.

He wants to know everything about you. Where are you from? What kinda bugs did you see growing up? Why’d you choose these specific ones for your team— hey, Grubbin, get out of his salad— and are there any others you’ve raised? When Guzma really gets going, he has trouble stopping; at some point, in the middle of a sentence, he slams his mouth shut and forces a harsh glare onto his face. He’s absolutely said too much— why can’t the big bad Guzma just stay quiet?

But you answer his questions freely. You ask some of your own. You’ve got treats for your Pokémon that you’re more than willing to share with his. Golisopod eats right out of your hand, Surskit nestles onto your shoulder, Grubbin tries to climb into your pockets. Now that he’s past his initial adrenaline rush, Guzma is definitely more guarded, but he’s also not uncomfortable either. You can easily work him open to talking again.

You probably hadn’t expected to make a friend that day, and even though Guzma’s too shy to say it directly, you are one now. You know he’s serious about keeping you in his life when he presents you with an egg he was very careful about obtaining— the day it hatches into a Larvesta for you, he’s just as giddy as you are about the new life. That way, you’ve got something precious that will always remind you of him— the unloved boy who built his own family.