#the name his parents gave him not his weird alias

[petrichor-idyllic]

Hi hello! Can I request a Minho x Reader oneshot where the reader is working for WICKED but is like an undercover agent and actually tries to give out info for the Right Arm or whatever and she helps Minho when he gets taken back to the facility(like trying to find ways to free him or at least bring him food or smth when he's not being... yk tortured to death and all- it can be whatever) and she helps in his escape and they all go tho the safe haven where they live happily forever after- ok I'll stop now, thank you. Also I'm in love with your Minho oneshots!

Omg yesss this is such a good request and I can actually do so much with this.

I got really into this one so I'm sorry for the variation in my writing quality lmao. This might be my longest piece yet, so sorry it took so long to get out.

Due to the pronouns used in this text I am assuming it is Fem!Reader. I am also assuming this is based on the films because those events do not take place in the books.

WARMTH IN COLD PLACES PT. 1

MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST

PART 1 | PART 2

SUMMARY: See above. Minho x Fem!Reader. Movie based fic. Instead of Jorge knowing about the Last City and where Minho will be, you provide that information.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, violence, guns. WICKED being WCKD because movie. I'm assuming you know the rules of the card game Black Jack. This is also time inaccurate because TDC takes place over a couple of days but here you're getting weeks worth of events. VERY long.

You joined the Right Arm as a child, maybe ten or eleven- you can't really remember. You'd lost your parents to the Flare on separate occasions, escaping to a refuge camp after your father started showing symptoms and forced you to flee without him.

You can't even remember losing your mother. You were too young.

After moving from camp to camp, each one being safe until some Crank snuck in, or someone joined unknowingly suffering from the disease.

After the forth move, you met Vince. You tried stealing some extra bread for a girl who was sick (she had pneumonia, not the Flare). You got caught but put up a hell of a fight. Vince introduced himself, and you kind of became his adoptive daughter.

So, when he gave you an alias and a fake ID, sending you on a private mission to interfere and spy on WCKD, you were shocked to say the least.

But it made sense. Vince had been protective and secretive about you, making sure that he kept you away from WCKD's watchful eye. Sure, you're pretty well-known; but only by name. There's several rebellious attempts attached to your name, mainly spread around groups of activists.

But not your face. You were the perfect candidate for an undercover gig.

It took months to go through WCKD'S training, pretending to be older than you were with a name that wasn't yours, but it worked.

And then, even your fake name and life didn't matter- you simply became Guard 175.

It's been two years since you took the job.

Your time in the Last City was unlike any other- mainly stealing information and providing intel.

Until strict message from Vince on your smart watch tells you to keep an eye out for an Asian boy called Minho.

You knew of Minho- of course, you did. Vince and his new allies had been looking for him for the past six months. After the events in which Teresa betrayed you all, you were in the Last City. The Guard job you had required you to stay at WCKD's Headquarters at all times, since you were guarding the building. Even in events where WCKD needed more bodies.

All you could do was try and warn Vince, but by the time you found out what was happening yourself and managed to find a private place to send the message, it was too late.

So, now everyone's focus is on trying to find this random boy you've literally never met for ex-WCKD workers/prisoners. It's been a weird six months.

Much to your dismay, the only information you could provide were the routes the trains would be taking and that Minho might be on them.

Which got messed up, but not thanks to you. You told them the location, but which carriage Minho was on would be random based on where the Guards forced him to sit.

You were still unable to leave your post.

Vince had suspicions that they were bringing Minho to the main WCKD base, especially after you told them the documents stating the destination. It was really the only other option since they didn't save him. So, you're now under strict orders to keep an eye out for him.

You know what he looks like. You have an earpiece and a high-tech smart watch, both of which you keep hiden under your Guard's uniform. These were used to tell you what you had to look for. So, when you broke into WCKD's system, searching for Subject A7- information that was provided by some keen-eared boy called Newt -you knew who you were looking for.

"Miss Agnes," you jog, catching up to Teresa as she struts down the scary clean white walls of WCKD HQ. You hate it here. It's worlds away from the chaotic but cosy environment you spent your life in- from the small town that got plagued by the Flare to the Right Arm bases you helped run. It's too bright; too clean.

Part of your mission is to befriend Teresa. She's Ava Paige's personal lapdog, and if she likes you, you've got an in- and someone with power that will defend you. She seems to be fond of you, probably because if a lowlife peasant can like her, then maybe she isn't so bad.

You, obviously, despise her.

Your job wouldn't have become so complicated if it weren't for her, and you'd probably have a lot of people safe and sound in the Safe Haven. Your job was long, but it was originally to get as much information as physically possible and then flee, providing the knowledge to free more people and completely disrupt WCKD's plans. Now it's "tell Vince if you find this random kid."

"Ah, 175," she doesn't even know your fake name, "I was wondering where you'd got to."

"Yeah, well, you know how it is- busy guarding and all that." She scoffs. She's always found you funny; that might be why she likes you.

"Yes, well, as much as I'd love to chat, I've got to get to the labs." You're glad the mesh masks of your uniform shields your face because that means you can hide your panic.

"Sorry, uh, before you go- I heard one of the cargo trains was intercepted," her face visibly hardens, "I was wondering if that had anything to do with your old friends; the ones you told me about?"

She clears her throat, "I'm afraid so. I just-" she sighs, "Thomas thinks he's doing the right thing. He thinks that this is what's best for him- but I'm trying to do what's best for humanity. It hurts that they don't understand that. But it's fine, because we prevented the Right Arm from getting our most reliable cargo."

"Oh?"

"I can't tell you much, I'm not allowed," she throws a sad smile your way. "I wish I could, though. You've been a great friend. So, let's just say one of the most impressive and consistent subjects is still in our possession."

She walks away, leaving you to huff and puff in the corridor. It made you sick how they spoke about people like they're objects. It's hard to believe the boys you're helping used to hold her so highly.

You return to your room. It's basically a box room that's big enough for a bed, but it's the only place that offers you any privacy. You yank your mask off, tossing it to the bed and pressing your fingers to your earpiece.

"Yo, Vince, you there?"

There's silence, followed by a sharp static. "(Y/N)? Did Teresa tell you anything?" You flop onto your bed, letting yourself move your hand away from your ear now the connection is stable.

"Not really, but she did mention about precious cargo being still intact- and an important test subject. The records I told you about before our raid said the train was coming here- we can only assume that this subject-"

"-Has to be Minho," Vince sounds stressed, groaning slightly.

"V? Everything alright over there?"

"Not really," he sighs, followed by the sound of a squeaking chair, "WCKD's jets have been snooping around base and Thomas, Newt and Frypan have gone AWOL- Brenda and Jorge left earlier to go and find them. But I doubt they're going to bring them back."

Honestly, you'd never spoken to any of these people, but you knew the names well enough to tell who they are.

"What are they going to do then?"

"What do you think?" You sit up on your elbows, processing what he's implying. "You might be having some company real soon."

"Does that mean I'll be able to leave?" Vince snorts a laugh. You've asked him that every single call since you started this gig.

"It might, actually," though, this is the first time you haven't gotten a no. "Keep an eye out for Minho. He should be arriving there within the next twelve hours. If not, he's somewhere else and you're going to have to do more snooping whilst I try to contact Thomas."

"Okay. Speak soon." The connection dies with a hiss.

This was going to be shit.

Not even two hours later, you hear the call off of your walky-talky that Guards are needed at the cargo entrance to transport Subjects. You flew at the opportunity, rushing into the crowds of your colleagues.

Joining the other members at the doors to the carpark, you watch as buses full of innocent people in handcuffs pull up- all in the depressing WCKD garb they're forced to wear. Some faces are familiar from browsing files, some new- all looked terrified.

You stay away from the front, dipping between masked personnel and observing from a distance. You knew exactly what you were looking for- Asian, dark-hair, well built, about eighteen-ish, good-looking, and probably angry. That was offered by some dude called Frypan. You doubt that's his real name, but you really hope it is.

You watch, processing faces and people as fast as you can as Guards grab the Subjects, holding one of their arms, which are handcuffed together in front of them, and leading them into the building. This could be the perfect opportunity to do something, but by the time you spot Minho, someone has beat you to it.

It's definitely him. His image and description match him perfectly, even if his hair is a little bit flatter. You silently curse as you try to make your way over to him, only for another Guard to force him to walk forward.

Okay, new plan- grab someone close and stay nearby.

You don't get to use that plan either when Minho suddenly lashes out. He slams his foot onto the Guard's, making the masked man yelp and let go. Minho takes the opportunity to spin around, kicking the guy in the chest and sending him flying.

Another Guard comes to help, but Minho has got a hold of a pair of keys from the previous guy, just about unlocking one of his wrists before dodging.

Shit.

This is bad. There's no way Minho is going to be able to escape the building under these circumstances. It's brutal and dangerous and he's going to get himself shot.

You act fast, breaking away from the colleagues waiting for their turn and being affected by the bystander effect. You watch as a Launcher is pointed at the boy, as another Guard tries to wrestle him. The guy gets kneed in the groin and you dive in from behind.

Minho seems to sense you're there, spinning around to punch you, but you grab his fist, catching him by surprise and giving you a second to react. You'd done a lot more than basic WCKD training. Vince has been teaching you to fight since you first met him.

You launch your heavy boot into the bottom of Minho's shin at the front of his ankle, causing his foot to bend awkwardly. Taking the opportunity to spin him around, pulling him in front of you. You're quick to switch your grip to his wrist, forcing his arm behind his back. Kicking the weak spot on the back of his knee, he hits the floor with a thump as you hold him in place.

Minho is physically stronger than you, easily. But, you have years of practical and strategical training over his head.

"Not bad, 175," you freeze as Janson's grating voice hits your ears, "do us all a favour and take care of that delinquent- he's unfortunately important."

"Yes, Sir." He stands at the front of the room, watching as the Subjects filter past him. "Come on."

You yank Minho up, forcing him back onto his feet, he groans, anger visibly seething from him.

You hold him close to you so you can lean into his ear and whisper. "Listen man, I don't wanna hurt you but there's no way you're gonna survive here if you keep pulling shit like that."

"Why should I listen to you?" He spits. His voice is scratchy and hollow, full of hatred and aggression.

"You'd rather listen to these assholes? Trust me, I do that pretty much daily, and it's not exactly an ideal lifestyle."

He scoffs. It's dry and very clearly forced. "You think I'm gonna be your friend just 'cause you don't like your coworkers?"

Unfortunately, you have to be vague. If someone overhears and you tell him you're an ally to the Right Arm, then you're a dead man. If they think it's just dumb workplace drama, then they probably won't bat an eye.

"Quite frankly, I don't give a fuck what you think about me- I'm here to do my job. Unfortunately, my boss wants you kept kickin'." That's subtle enough to not bring concern, but intruiging enough that Minho looks over his shoulder at you.

"175," you're moving through the corridors now, having left the parking area and moving to Subject dorms. Your attention diverts to behind you as Janson touches your shoulder, having left his observation of the transfer. "Come with me. Subject A7 has a private cell per the request of Miss Paige."

"Yes, Sir."

This could be good. Minho has his own room away from the other victims, which means you'll have easier access to him.

You follow your "Boss", making no attempt to communicate with Minho in such tense circumstances now.

"That was quite the stunt you pulled," Janson speaks, making you cringe under your mask. "I don't remember many Guards being taught much hand to hand combat- we mostly focus on arms training. It's impressive."

"I excelled in the brief lessons we had, Sir. I knew some beforehand since I had to look after myself in the Scorch- fighting Cranks is no easy task." You keep your voice calm. A lot of people have similar life experiences, and if you haven't lost absolutely everything, you're classed as lucky. So, it's no shock when you casually mention hardships, giving a plausible explanation to your skills.

"I suppose so. You've come a long way, you should be proud of yourself- from street rat to WCKD agent. That's quite the accomplishment."

"Thank you, Sir, but I'm just trying to survive- just like everyone else."

"Humble, too," you can hear the smirk in his voice, "no wonder Teresa likes you."

Shit. Minho physically tenses at the mention of her name. If Janson knows that you're friendly with Teresa, then it's not really a jump in logic for him to think you're up to something.

"I'm honoured to be held in such high regard, Sir." Janson seems satisfied with this response, humming slightly.

Minho is quick to notice how different you spoke to him vs. Janson. It's very clearly a front, but he can't afford to question it.

He leads you to a small room away from the group Dorms, opening the door with a key card and revealing it. It's pretty much the same as your room, which probably says a lot about the people you're pretending to work for.

"Okay, Minho," Janson addresses the boy, condescending and irritating, "no more little stunts, okay? Your friends and the Right Arm can't reach you here. It's better you just give up and help us save humanity." He looks at you, jolting his head towards the room.

You grit your teeth, but follow the insinuation, throwing in the boy as guilt washes over you.

○ ○ ○

"I've found the boy," you pace your room once you returned, immediately contacting Vince.

"So he's there? Do you have access to him?"

"Not really- I know where he is but only higher level personnel have access to it- like Janson." You did a brief sweep of the key card requirements before you left- you're not Hugh enough ranked.

"What about Teresa?"

"Yeah, she'll probably have access."

"Okay, you can work with that, surely."

You sigh, running your fingers though your hair, "Sure, yeah, I guess. But what do you even want me to do now? Break him out? Release his file to you? Both of us escape?"

"I want you to keep an eye on him."

"Seriously?" Your face twists into a frown. "Is that it?"

"We can't risk anything. You're a one man show and one of our best resources- Thomas and his group are probably already making their way to you. God knows what their plan is, but they have more chance with you inside."

"How are they even gonna get into the City? It's on lockdown."

"I have a feeling they'll find a way," Vince huffs, clearly tired of your pressing. "Just a little longer, kid, make sure Minho is alive and okay- I don't know what they're gonna do to him, but I need you to make sure he's still breathing. Am I clear?"

"Yep," you pop the P.

"I also need you to keep quiet about your position, even to Minho."

"What, why?"

"We don't know what WCKD are going to do to him. If he says anything about our operation or you, we've done all this for nothing."

"I guess- alright. I'll sort it," disconnecting and sighing, you lay on your bed. You need to rest. These next couple of days are going to suck.

○ ○ ○

You wake the next day, and immediately start your hunt for Teresa. You have a hunch she'll be dealing with the Minho situation, or at least observing it.

The problem is that the WCKD HQ is huge. And you don't know where the experiments will be taking place. Since your job mainly just consists of walking around and keeping an eye on things, it's not like you're raising any suspicions. Especially since you helped out yesterday.

You turn a corner, spotting Teresa and Ava Paige talking, looking into a lab room with a glass window- one of the several open testing rooms found in this part of the building. You slow your pace, watching from a distance.

Teresa seems to be distressed; her fists are balled and she swallows uncomfortably, almost like she's hypnotised by what she's watching but wants to look away. Ava is unfazed, but she brushes her prodigy's shoulder as she walks away, offering some kind of sympathy.

The sound of clicking heels fade, and you make your approach. Going to speak, your breath catches in your throat as you witness the gruesome scene.

Behind the glass, Minho is strung up to some kind of contraption. Screens surround him and wires come from all over his body. He's stood upright, a foot above the floor and held in place as they start the machine again. One of the screens shows brain wave patterns that indicate high levels of stress.

"He's dreaming." Teresa speaks without pulling her eyes away.

"Dreaming?" You question. This looks anything but peaceful to you.

"Induced dreaming- they're forcing him to experience high stress situations to see how it affects the Kill-Zone," her words are shakey, and you latch onto that.

"You don't sound like you approve." She looks at you, even though she's never seen you without your mask, your voice and the numbers sewn on your sleeve tell her enough- she could tell its you from a mile away.

"During my time in the Maze- and the Scorch -Minho was brave. He's one of the most courageous people I've ever met. I can't tell you how many times he threw himself on grenades to protect us." She smiles, almost fondly as she looks back at the glass. "One time, when we were escaping the WCKD lab after being saved from the Maze, he ran full force and kneed an armed Guard. Completely knocked him out in one go; still probably one of the coolest things I've heard someone do."

"He sounds like he meant a lot to you," she lets out a sad chuckle.

"They all meant a lot to me but... I don't know. I made choices they don't agree with. They refuse to see the bigger picture, and I don't think they ever will."

"Why don't you try talking to him? Maybe visit him in his cell? Even if it's just to make sure he's okay." Come on, if you can get her on this line of thinking, you're more likely to get into Minho's cell.

"I'm too busy- besides, I doubt he'd want to see me. He hates me."

"Ah, yeah, that's a problem," she laughs dryly.

"Would you do it for me?" You tilt your head at her, exaggerating your confusion.

"Do what for you?"

"Look after Minho? Janson says you handled him easily yesterday, so there's no worries about him escaping or causing problems."

"I can't- I don't have high enough card access to enter the cells." She looks at you, thinking for a second.

"I'll get your card access upgraded. I trust you to take care of him- he deserves as much."

And just like that, she'd played into your hands. You're mainly relieved your hours of talking to her had actually paid off in some sense, that much was proven when she found you later that day- presenting you with a new key card.

Heading towards Minho's cell, no one even batted an eye when they saw you slide the key down the lock and the light flashed green.

Minho's sat on the floor, back resting against the bed frame, his legs bent and head in his hands. He doesn't even react to the sound of the door opening or closing.

"I brought you some decent food."

Still nothing.

Cautiously, you walk over to him, crouching and placing the dish on the floor. He looks at it out of the corner of his eye, which is kind of an improvement.

You cross your legs, sitting next to him but facing him. Silence fills the room and you let it. Minho is going to have to talk to you on his own terms if he's going to talk to you at all.

A good five minutes passes.

"You're not gonna leave, are you?" His voice sounds dry and is barely a whisper compared to the aggressive boy you'd tackled not even forty-eight hours prior.

"Nope."

"Did you at least get me a shuckin' drink?"

"...I'll be back. What would you like?"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"I'm asking, aren't I?"

"...Anything alcoholic?"

"No."

"Juice then."

You return ten minutes later with a glass full of orange juice, taking the sitting position that you had previously.

To your surprise, he's now sat with his legs crossed, holding the tray of beef, mash, gravy, and veg that you stole from the dining area on his lap.

You gently place the glass next to him, and he anxiously looks at it. "Not poisoned, right?"

You sigh, lifting the bottom on your mask and taking a sip, returning it to it's spot. He still hesitates, glancing down at his plate. So, you reach over, picking up a small piece of meat, struggling slightly to put it in your mouth under the mask.

He seems to accept this. It takes him a second, but he slowly starts eating- mainly picking at the food and taking slight sips of his drink, but progress is progress.

"You should count yourself lucky- the others aren't getting this quality food."

"Is that meant to make me feel better?" You guess that comment was a bit insensitive.

"Sorry, but you need to eat. You need the energy."

"What? So I'm strong enough to be tortured?"

You hesitate, feeling genuinely bad. "I'm sorry that-"

"No, you're not!" He snaps to face you, eyes full of fury and for a second you think he's going to attack you. "175, right?" He glances at your sleeve, "You stopped me from escaping."

"I stopped you from getting killed."

"I had it under control."

"Didn't look like it." His jaw tenses, staring down at his meal. "WCKD's Guards are trained with guns and weaponry- you're important but not nearly enough for them to risk you ruining their whole operation."

"You mean your whole operation."

"Whatever," you spit, determined to follow Vince's request, "I saved your ass, whether you appreciate it or not. I didn't know what they were going to do to you, I'm only here because-"

"Because Teresa wants you to look after me?" You blink at him, even if he can't see it. "Yeah, I saw you, even if I wasn't conscious. I knew it was you- same height and everythin'. You're helping that shuck-faced shank 'cause she feels bad that she's a shuckin' traitor that sentenced all her friends to death. Betraying little-"

"Okay," you cut him off, "I get it. I don't agree with it- do you seriously think I'd be here if I was just doing this because some bitch who doesn't even respect me asked?"

He looks at you. He really looks at you, like he can see straight through your uniform and into your soul.

"What other reason do you have?"

You shake your head, sighing through your mask. "Finish your food. I need to get rid of the dish- I'll get in deep shit if they find out I'm giving handouts to prisoners."

"The traitor didn't tell you to feed me?"

"Nah, did that all on my own." He snorts, kind of like a forced laugh, but he seems to relax a bit.

The remainder of your interaction is in silence. Minho finishes his food quickly, picking up pace once he gets taste for it. He finishes his drink, passing the glass to you instead of just putting it on the ground.

You stand and leave without saying another word. Minho doesn't attempt to change that.

This is going to be harder than you first thought.

Thomas better work fast.

○ ○ ○

You desperately try to avoid Teresa the next day, and you missed Minho for breakfast since they already took him for another round of glorified torture.

Your avoidance did not work.

"175." You've been guarding the entrance of the building for the last seven hours and you think you're starting to hallucinate. So, when Teresa actually approaches you, probably to leave for the day, you kind of wish she wasn't real.

"Hey," you greet her, for some reason smiling even though there is literally no point. "You okay?"

"I was wondering how Minho's doing?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" You attempt to joke, but when her face drops, you realise you've miss-stepped. "He's fine. As fine as you can be in this situation." You lie, mainly just wanting her to leave.

"Okay," she nods her head, accepting this, "thank you for this."

"It's no problem, Miss Agnes."

"Please, call me Teresa," she offers you a genuine smile and for a second you understand why Minho's so hurt.

"Okay then, Teresa." She flashes another smile before walking through the doors. Of course, WCKD scientists get high-end apartments away from the building.

The second day of your new routine starts. You bring Minho food- and you remember the juice, though it does make it harder to open the door.

This time, he's lay on the floor. Not the bed, the floor.

"Uh, you good?" The question even sounds dumb leaving your lips.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" He grumbles, eyes fixed on an invisible spot on the ceiling.

"Yeah, fair point." You sit on the edge of his bed, putting the food next to you but still holding the glass so it doesn't spill. Having a sticky orange juice covered bed would not improve his day. "I've brought you chicken wings and some fries, they were out of the healthy option."

He reluctantly sits up, shuffling across the floor and using the bed as a table as he sits in front of you. You pass his the drink and he sets it on the floor.

"If you're not doing this for Teresa, why are you doing this?" He asks between struggled mouthfuls of food.

You shrug, playing off your intentions. "Wanna pretend I'm a good person."

He scoffs, "No one who works here is a good person."

"That's why I said pretend."

You like to think you're doing a good job at keeping up the act. And maybe if Minho wasn't so exhausted and in pain, he might pick up on something not being quite right.

Though, you have to at least provide Vince with some kind of intel. Teresa said he's dreaming to stress the Kill-Zone part of the brain, but what's the point?

"What exactly are they doing to you?" He pauses for moment, clearly not wanting to think about it.

"Torture."

"I mean, I gathered that." Unfortunately, you have to stay stoic. Fortunately, you've basically been trained your whole life for this.

"I don't know- they put me in some weird trance and I see all the horrible things that's happened mixed with, like, a remix of traumatic things I've gone through- like they're using my shuckin' memories against me to make new ones or some klunk."

Well, that offered nothing, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It's weird. It feels so real and I can't tell it's fake when it's happening. But I'll be getting chased by Grievers down concrete corridors, or be back in that mall being hunted down by Cranks, except it's warped and keeps changing and I can't find the way we escaped. It's like being back in the shuckin' Maze, except they can control my entire body and make me do whatever they want. It's the Maze without being safe in the Glade at night, and I don't actually know how to survive."

"Huh," now, this is interesting.

"What? What is it?"

"They're trying to gain similar- or better -results as they did for the Maze trails. Except the Right Arm knows the location of all the Mazes, and pretty much all WCKD facilities so they're being forced to use psychological torture and hallucinations to mimic it instead. Since the City is on lockdown and no one can access it."

He pauses completely, blinking at you.

"What? I don't get it- why would torturing a bunch of immune teenagers help anyone."

"Because they want to cure the Flare."

"So?"

"So, Munnies and normal folk have the same structure brain, except the Kill-Zone area, the part of the brain that's damaged by the Flare, is left unaffected in those who are immune. The Kill-Zone reacts under extreme stress and produces new results and hormones that could, in theory, be used to create a cure."

Minho stops completely, the fork he's holding clattering onto the plate as he just stares at you.

"What?"

"How the shuck do you know all this? You're just a Guard but you know the biology behind all the science?"

"It's kind of common knowledge," you bluff, "the Flare's been plaguing humanity for a while- everyone knows the basic science behind it. I don't know what they expected, really."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know the Flare is man-made, right?"

A beat passes, horror crossing Minho's face. "What?"

"When the Solar Flares hit, millions of people died, but half the world was pretty much left kinda intact. But, it meant we lost half the globe's worth of supplies and important necessities, so the growing population issue grew tenfold. So, for some fuckin' reason, the big bosses of the World thought it would be a smart idea to make a deadly virus to use as population control. The virus was too strong, spread too fast- those geniuses didn't think to make a cure just in case things went wrong. And, well, the rest is history."

You're actually shocked that Vince, or even WCKD didn't tell them this, because Minho seems genuinely dumbfounded.

"Shuck it," he rests his elbows on the bed, head in his hands. "Why am I not even surprised? Trust some random WCKD shank to be giving me a buggin' history lesson."

"Kinda figured someone woulda said something."

"Yeah, well, they didn't. Some shuck-face shucked up and now I'm being literally tortued to fix it. Brilliant."

"Bummer," he snorts at this.

"Yeah, you can shuckin' say that again."

"Why do you talk like that?" You decide to ask him more questions, mainly because you are genuinely confused.

"Like what?"

"Like that? Yanno, shuck, shank, buggin', klunk- you talk fuckin' weird."

"It's just how we spoke in the Glade. Don't really know how it started, but it's engrained in my vocab now."

"That's kinda cool," he raises his eyebrow, starting to eat again, "leave a bunch of teenagers to fend for themselves and they start makin' up words. It's just interesting."

"Yeah," he hums, "guess it kinda is."

○ ○ ○

You fell surprisingly easily into a routine. You talk to Minho, inform Vince of the current WCKD methods and then go about your job.

It's a lot of effort, but Minho is starting to be less reluctant to talk to you. He fondly retells stories of the Glade, like how he and Thomas survived a night, how bad Frypan's stew was, and that one time Zart accidentally burnt down a hut and Gally didn't talk to him for a month. It sounds like they were genuinely happy there, and it breaks your heart that Minho seems to wish he was back in that trap. Especially when he tells some of the darker stories.

But now there's a problem. Vince had always been touchy and strict about relationships. He didn't want you distracted or upset over some boy, so relationships were forbidden. And considering he's the closest you have to a father figure, you obeyed. Though, that means you've never been romantically involved with a boy through your entire teenage years.

And the first time you've ended up spending long amounts of time with a boy is with the torture victim you're trying to comfort whilst simultaneously convincing him you're the reason for his capture. A very good-looking boy who seems to be warming up to you.

A very good-looking, strong boy who listens to what you tell him and seems to be taking an interest in you and is very passionate about his opinions. Opinions that, unbeknownst to him, align perfectly with yours.

Oh no.

"I don't even know your name." You and Minho sit on the floor, playing Black Jack with a pack of cards you managed to sneak into his room. He's slowly being worn down. His features are more sucken, his skin pale and his hair dishevelled and messy. None of which you can really help. "Or what you look like."

"You don't need to know my name, or what I look like, to get your ass handed to you at Twenty-One last time I checked." He rolls his eyes. He acts like a completely different person around you than to the other Guards. It's hard to watch the empty shell of the person he normally is in this room be pushed around.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it."

"No can do, sweetheart," admittedly, you want to take your mask off because it makes seeing the cards harder. But it does mean you don't have to worry about your pokerface.

Pet names had become an interesting topic. You used to endearingly call members of the Right Arm things like sweetheart, or doll, or hun- something you picked up from your father. Something that has bled into your relationship with Minho.

Not that he complains.

"C'mon," he groans, "how am I meant to be friends with a faceless freak?"

"You think we're friends?" You ask, genuinely as you take another card off of the deck, cringing as it's the ten of clubs which takes you to twenty-five.

"Well," he shrugs, "what else am I meant to call it? Stockholme Syndrome?"

"Wouldn't be that wrong of a diagnosis. You taking another card?"

"Are you?" You shake your head. Minho reveals his hand, showing twenty on his cards, and you dramatically throw yours down, showing your loss.

"God dammit!" He barks a laugh at your reaction. "Why am I so bad at this?"

"You're just playing against a master," you galre at him, "I had plenty of practice in the Glade."

"It's a game based on luck- you can't master it."

"That's what you think."

○ ○ ○

Maybe you got too used to your routine- too comfortable with Minho and the situation you're in, but when Teresa told you she'd finally gained enough courage to speak to Minho, you knew it would end badly.

Teresa enlisted you to guard the room, but with the door closed and your colleagues discussing lunch next to you, it's kinda hard to hear what's going on.

That's until Minho screams the word "Traitor" followed by a loud slamming noise.

Shit.

The other Guards scramble into the room, knocking into you and halting your progress. You burst in, panic swelling in your chest as one of them holds up a buzzing taser. Darting forward, you grab the Guard's arm, placing one arm on Minho's back to at least play it off as the shocked masked man lets go slightly.

"Stop!" You snap. "He's subdued! We don't need to inflict unnecessary pain!"

"It's protocol to-"

"175 is right," Teresa comes to your defense, controlling the atmosphere of the room. "Subject A7 has been through enough- he's in no position to cause any further harm. Return him to his cell and only act if necessary."

Without words, you yank Minho up by the back of his shirt, cringing at the 'PROPERTY OF WCKD' printed on the back. You undo the cuffs from the table and reattach them to his wrists. He makes no effort to resist. He knows he's safer with you than he is with any of his other options.

You walk him down the halls. The rage seeps off of him, his skin under his shirt is warm and his cuffed hands are balled. Unlocking the door to his cell, you push him in, probably a little bit too aggressive. But you tell yourself it's for show.

"What the fuck was that?" You hiss, stepping into the cell. Minho immediately turns to face you, his nostrils flaring, jaw tense and for the first time, you realise how scary he really can be.

"You're shucking kidding, right?" He shouts, causing you to immediately panic and try to shush him. "I'm here because of her! Everything we did- everything we went through- is because of her! And you expect me to be calm about this klunk? Just because you can act like an apathetic shuck-face, doesn't mean I can!"

He slowly walks towards you, throwing his words at you. You back away, not realising how close the door is until you hit your back against it. Minho towers over you, still in cuffs, leaving very little space between you as his chest rises and falls.

"I'm sorry-"

"Sorry? You're helping them! You are keeping me here! Why? You clearly don't like them and have some morals deep down- but you're still bringing me to this shuckin' cell!"

"I have no choice!" You finally shout back, making him flinch. "I don't want to watch this shit- or hurt you or anyone! But I can't help you if I'm fucking dead, Minho! You can get away with this shit because they need you! They don't need me! If I step too far out of line- then I'm dead!"

His features soften as he steps back, giving you more room to breathe.

"What exactly do you want me to do? Trust me, if I could, we'd be long gone from this hell-hole but I have no way of doing that without at least me ending up in a body bag." You huff, crossing your arms across your chest. "And what use would I be to you then?"

The bed squeaks under Minho's weight as he sits down. His legs are spread, elbows resting on his knees, head in his hands. Neither of you say anything for a couple of minutes; you take the opportunity to compose yourself.

Until Minho sniffs.

"Minho?" You push away from the door, cautiously making slow steps towards him. "Minho? Are you okay?"

"I can't do this anymore," his voice breaks as he speaks, shattering your heart in the process. "I can't- I don't- how am I meant to keep doing this?" He groans, frustration mixed with a sob shakes his whole body.

You make the bold move to sit next to him, being closer to him than you've ever dared before at the bed sinks under your weight, you shoulders bumping slightly.

"This is so much worse than the shuckin' Maze- at least I had some control in there. But here? My body- my mind- I- fuck! I have nothing. I-I feel like I'm dying. I can't live like this. Teresa said that I'm saving some kid by being tortured. But what about me? What about all the other shanks they're putting through this klunk? How is this fair? For a shuckin' maybe? They don't even know it's gonna work- how can you justify this?"

You choose to ignore the final comment, even if it stings. Gingerly, you put your arm around his shoulders, rubbing small circles into the top of his arm. He doesn't pull away, his arms dropping to between his legs.

"It's gonna be okay," you sooth him, "we're gonna get out of here, okay?" He scoffs, shaking his head.

"How am I meant to believe you? I can't even trust you."

You know he's right, but it doesn't hurt any less. You wish you could tell himself everything. About the Right Arm and why you're here- everything that Vince told you to keep to yourself.

"I know," you sigh, "I'm sorry." He looks at you, his tear stained face and puffy eyes sending a new drive of determination through you.

To your shock, he rests his head on your shoulder, allowing you to hug him further, resting your head on top of his.

"I hate you," he whispers, more like he's trying to convince himself than he is telling you.

In all honesty, Minho probably had started to develop some liking towards you. And that's what he hates. He thinks you're the enemy, that you're the reason he's here- but he doesn't have anyone else. He's completely on his own until you come into his room. He doesn't even know who you are, but he's already getting attached to you.

"Yeah, I know. Want me to take your cuffs off?"

"Please."

○ ○ ○

You slam the door to your room, immediately throwing your mask across the small space, hearing it thump against the wall. You connect to Vince, fury coursing through tour veins.

"(Y/N)?" The line connects in your ear, "You're not meant to be calling at this-

"Vince," your voice is sharp and concerned, "I need to do something- Minho is on the verge of a complete mental breakdown and I'm starting to regress in progress." You refer to his words instead of his actions- things are already complicated enough.

"Look, I'm in contact with Jorge. Things should start moving soon; Thomas and Newt have made a deal to get into the City. Stick to the plan and be prepared. I need to go."

"What? Vince-" the line falls dead, leaving you alone in your room.

The tests increase over the next couple of days. You've barely seen Minho, and Teresa completely vanishes for nearly an entire day, which raises alarm bells all over the tower- but she returns seemingly unharmed.

Until the alarms start blaring not even hours later.

Fuck.

"175!" A masked Guard bursts into your dorm, scaring the shit out if you not even seconds after the blaring starts. "There are intruders in the building! The Subjects have been released!Come on!"

He runs off, giving you absolutely no time to process what's happening. Diving under your bed, you pull out guns and weaponry you snuck into the building, straping them around your black turtle neck you wear under your uniform before hiding them with your jacket.

You burst out of the room, pulling your mask on and joining the hoards of Guards flooding through the building.

You break away. You know that Minho will be in the testing area since he won't have been with the other Subjects. So, that's where you go.

The tower has fallen into complete chaos. People are shooting at each other and Guards are running around like headless chickens.

You can't get distracted though.

You break into a sprint, staying away from everyone else as you rush to make your way up to the lab where Minho can normally be found. The lab area is surprisingly quiet, probably because you decided to take the stairs for the most part. Using your endless training for Vince to run up the multiple flights of stairs.

You do give up and take an elevator for the last few floors though. You're not superman.

Bursting onto the floor, several scientists seem thrilled that help is here, and are met with disappointment when you completely ignore them. Sprinting down the halls, you skid to a halt.

One of the lab rooms has the door thrown open. A man in a white lab coat is lay on the floor, blood pouring from his side as others seem to be knocked out and scattered across the room.

"Fuck!" You exclaim. If you had any doubts that Minho could handle himself, you definitely don't now.

"175!" Two Guards stand at the end of the hallway. "Subject A7 has escaped! We need to find him. Come on!"

You're left with little choice but to follow them. You all jog down the corridors, the opposite way to which you were originally planing on tracking Minho's footsteps.

You can see Minho, and assumingly Thomas and Newt hugging beyond a room that's walls are all glass. One of the windows from the far room is completely shattered, and you can see a knocked out Guard on the floor.

"Hands up!" The Guard on your left shouts, catching the three boys off-guard. "Drop your weapons!"

Judging by the fact none of the trio move, you're assuming that they've ran out of ammo.

One on your left, the other on your right, you whip your gun out, pointing it at your unsuspecting allies.

It's now or never.

Minho's face drops at the realisation it's you. Was everything you said a lie to make him more compliant? Despite the uniform, he's gotten completely used to you based on height and the brown army boots you wear- different to the black owns adorn by the rest of WCKD employees. It's a subtle difference implemented by Vince just in case. But Minho doesn't know that.

"Seriously?" He snaps, making the other boys exchange glances. "After all this- everything that's happened- you're still with them?"

Newt and Thomas look completely lost, looking back at Minho, who is staring directly at you, hands still at his side.

"Please," you scoff, "I was never with them."

Without warning, you slam your elbow into the stomach of the guard on your left, using the shock to slam to end of your gun into the side of their head. The other one goes to shoot at you, but you rip your Guard's jacket off, throwing it at them.

It engulfs them entirely, making them stumble back. Pointing the pistol at them, a loud bang fills the room as the bullet finds its new home through the fabric and in the Guard's head. Their body hits the floor in a heap and you make no attempt to retrieve your jacket.

Minho steps back, stunned. His hands go to his hair as the other boys lower their arms.

"It's nice to finally meet you, (Y/N)." Thomas sounds surprisingly calm, Newt looks between him and Minho, the cogs setting in place.

"Likewise," you grab the bottom of your mask, pulling it over your head and letting it fall to the floor. Finally revelaing yourself to Minho, you feel slightly insecure about what he'll think of your face, but you don't show it. Not that it matters because he's staring at you in some form of awe.

"What? You guys know- what? What is happening?"

"I'll explain later- we need to move." The boys all mumble in agreement as you join them, hearing footsteps and Janson's irriating voice not that far away.

You all start moving, you taking the lead with more of an understanding of the building.

"What? I don't understand what's happening? How do you know her?" He asks Thomas as your eyes land on Newt. You've seen their files, a long time ago, but you can tell who's who.

Newt's skin is pale, his eyes dark and he glistens with sweat. He's infected. And you're not immune. This could end badly.

"She's with the Right Arm- Vince's secret weapon."

"Sorry I didn't tell you, hun, but I was under strict orders to keep my mouth shut. Let's just get out of here alive and I'll explain everything," you try to hurry them along. "Tommy-boy, fill me in on what's going on."

Just as the words leave your mouth, static connects in your ear. Vince.

"(Y/N), I'm on my way to the City- what's going on on your end?"

"I'm with the boys," you respond, completely confusing the trio even more. Voices behind you and footsteps make you all break into a sprint. "Here! Come on!" You pull them into a room, they barricade the door as you continue talking.

"We're tryna get out but it's not looking good."

"What now?" Newt asks as you all examine the room. "Is there another way out of here?" He asks you and you simply shake your head.

The drilling sound of a mechanical saw fills to room.

"Any ideas?" Minho shouts, backing away from the door.

Thomas turns around, examining the window. "Maybe."

It take the three of them to pick up a metal container, presumably full of anaesthetic gas through the window. It shatters on impact, sending shards and the cannister hundred of feet down into the water.

You all stand on the edge, looking at the boy as he seems to be questioning himself. "Okay, it's doable- just need a little running start."

All three of look at each other like Thomas is losing his mind. But you still all follow him further back into the room, standing by his side. You stand between Minho and Thomas, taking a second to think about how you life has led you to this.

"You sure about this?" Minho asks him, and it's obvious these boys are going to follow him to the ends of the Earth.

"Not really."

Well, that's brilliant.

"Nice pep talk." Minho sarcastically states, his wit still prominent as ever.

"Yeah, we're all blood inspired."

At least the feeling is mutual.

The door bursts open with a bang, all of you turning to face Janson breaking into the room before Minho grabs your hand, dragging you with him as you all break into a sprint. Jumping at the last second, you all plummet out of the window.

"Thomas!" Minho yells.

"Oh shit!" Thomas responds.

You're submerged in the water, just managing to hold your breath last second. It takes all of you a moment to rise again, all panting and all stressed.

Gasping for air, you and Minho look up, catching Janson standing at the edge of the window.

Thomas puts his middle finger up at him.

Kind of iconic.

Swimming to get to the ledge, you make sure they reach them first, taking Thomas' hand as he pulls you out of the water.

"You four, don't move!" You all immediately turn to face to group of WCKD's armed men walking towards you. Thomas takes the front as Minho grabs your arm, pulling you protectively behind him.

He seems to have forgiven you pretty fast, at least.

"Take it easy!" One of the masked men shouts. Hidden by Minho, you pull another gun out of your weapon holder that's strapped around your middle. Thomas also reaches for a gun.

"Ah-ah! Don't even think about it! Get on your knees with your hands in the air!"

One of the Guards suddenly turns around, shooting the other three that are standing with him. Minho immediately steps back, reaching for you and finding contact with your wrist.

"You son of a bitch!" One of them groans, the electricity from the Launcher leaving them useless.

Your savior approaches, taking his mask of and revealing... some dude. Though the others seem shocked.

"Gally?" Minho gasps, and you snap to look at him, returning to his side.

"Minho." The boy simply says. "You guys are nuts." He looks at you. "(Y/N) (L/N), big fan." You blink at him.

"Thanks?"

"I'll explain later," Thomas playful pats his friend on the arm whilst Minho is having some kind of internal meltdown. He's going to be enlightened by the time everyone's told him everything.

The other boys walks ahead and you look at him. "I thought you said you..." You trail off, completely at a loss yourself and remembering what he'd told you about Gally.

"Yeah, me too."

You both connect back to the group, awkwardly ducking and crouching whilst you run through the City.

Trying to hide from helicopters isn't easy.

"Well, they're definitely pissed," Gally states as you hide behind some planters that some trees are in.

"How far are the tunnels?" Thomas asks the new boy.

"Uh, maybe twelve blocks from here." Newt coughs, and you look at Minho, who is very clearly in some serious distress. "We can make it."

"Newt, how you feeling?" Minho crouches in front of his friend.

"Terrible," the boy responds honestly. "It's good to see you though." He pats his friend weakly, and you remind yourself to stay at a safe distance.

Minho joins the other boys whilst you stay with Newt. "He's one lucky shank," Newt tries to laugh.

"What?"

"Havin' you around- some badass chick lookin' after him whilst we couldn't. Pretty, too." You scoff at Newt's attempt at small talk.

"I don't know if he'll agree with that."

"Hey, Newt, we gotta get you up. Gotta get goin'." You help Thomas pull up the sick boy, who nearly falls flat on his face whilst Minho and Gally exchange some words.

Minho takes Newt off of your shoulders, sensing your slight distance from the boy.

They start struggling to carry Newt through the City, when a load explosion and bursts of flames from the walls stops you all dead in your tracks.

"We're supposed to take down WCKD, not the whole damn City," Gally stares into the flames, and you have no idea what's going on. But that's not good.

"Gally, c'mon," Thomas say, yanking them both away whilst you stand with Gally, waiting for him to move. Sirens fill your ears as you start to follow him.

"Tunnels are right up ahead. Shit!" You move round a corner, following Gally's instructions, only to come across a battle field. "Stay low! Stay low!"

"What are they waiting for?" Minho asks as you all hide once again. Unfortunately, he's answered as another round of explosions courses through the streets.

Violence erupts. "We gotta go! We gotta go!" The boys struggle moving Newt again, and you stay behind Gally. Desperately trying to not get hit, you hold your gun in your hands, ready to kill anyone that gets too close. Your job now is to protect these boys.

You retreat to a nearby building, where Thomas contacts Brenda over the radio. You can't make out what they're saying over the static and gunshots. You're too busy trying to shield Newt and Minho.

Though you do make out a clear. "I'm coming to you."

Vince.

You pick up again. "We're almost there," Gally pushes forward, taking the lead as you cover the back.

"Just leave me," Newt grumbles before a truck explodes, sliding across the roads.

A Berg flies overhead, giving you some glimsp of hope. But with Newt is his current condition, you can't keep moving.

"Minho," Thomas looks at his friend, "you run ahead, grab the serum, and get back to us as soon as you can." The boy hesitates, looking at Thomas. "Minho. Go."

"He's right," Gally states, "I can cover."

"Me too," you add.

"No, you're staying here, you could get hurt," Minho tells you, showing you that he actually might not hate you after all.

"I'm coming with you." You're more definite, putting your foot down and leaving with no choice.

Minho caves, going to stand until Newt grabs him. "Thank you." Black drool covers his chin, and his eyes are bloodshot and shifty. He's not gone just yet, but it's not far off. "Thank you, Minho."

"Hey, just hang on, you hear me?"

The three of you make your move. You and Gally cover the faster boy, both of you using your expertise to let him make a run for it.

Teresa's voice rings over the loudspeakers. Her voice trying to pressure Thomas to return to her. But you, Gally and Minho can't afford to stop and listen.

Running at full speed, you reach the Berg, not taking any time to acknowledge your father figure you haven't seen in nearly two years.

"Where's the serum?" Minho yells at a girl with short hair- you're assuming Brenda.

She makes a run for it. Bolting through the City and you're all hot on her heels, a new boy, Frypan, joining the mix.

The four of you get stuck in a tunnel during a shootout, using a car for cover as Brenda keeps going.

"Shit," Minho hisses from next to you. You look at him. "You should've told me."

"I couldn't," the poor Frypan clearly has no idea what either of you are talking about. "You know I couldn't."

"I could've- we could've- shuck it!" He lashes out, kicking a piece of debris that's in front of him. "We need to help Newt. This can wait."

He's mad at you. It's weird- he's protective but furious. He doesn't want you to get hurt but that might be because he wants to hurt you himself.

"Come on!" Gally shouts, "We're clear! Let's move!"

And with that, you're all on your feet again, dodging bullets and flying through the City to try and return to Thomas and his sick friend.

You slow to a jog as the people in front of you slow, spotting Brenda motionlessly standing in an empty pathway. You once again stay back, just about joining them as you watch Minho hit the floor.

His body crumbles in front of Newt's corpse, a knife sticking out of his chest. You stand next to Brenda, observing the distraught washing over the group. You've known Newt for under half an hour, but you can tell he played a huge part in these people's lives.

You suck in a deep breath, approaching Minho from behind. "I'm sorry," you murmur. "I'm so sorry, Minho."

He pulls his eyes away, looking at you instead as you rest your hand on his shoulder.

"You really couldn't have done anything, could you?" He's sincere, all of his anger washing away for a second. You shake your head.

He's on his feet in seconds, throwing his arms around you, knocking you back slightly. His entire world as he knows it is crumbling, but he's seeking comfort in you.

You hug him back, your hand coming to the back of his head, holding him steady as his body trembles. "We can't stay here," you whisper. "We need to move."

"She's right," Gally agrees, overhearing, "it's dangerous. We need to get back to the Berg."

"What about Thomas?" Brenda's voice breaks.

"We'll find him," you pull away from the boy. "But we have more chance of doing that from the Berg."

They all agree, leaving Newt's body and returning to the perilous task of making your way through the City. You take control, being the only person in sound mind to do so.

It takes a lot, but you get there, making sure everyone enters the Berg before you.

"(Y/N)!" You turn as Vince makes his way over to you. "You did it!"

"Vince!" Throwing your arms around him, you allow yourself to relax. You both pull away, emotions of the past two years of your life finally starting to spill out. "We lost Newt."

He sighs. "I'm sorry. But you did everything you could."

"No," you sniff, "I didn't. I could have done more- figured something out. Done literally anything else- I- I could've saved him."

Unbeknownst to you, Minho is watching and listening from a distance. He's known you as stern and in control this entire time, but watching you fall apart in Vince's presence reminds him that you're just another kid that's been put through hell.

He wasn't mad at you anymore. Seeing Newt's corpse and the sympathy you possessed showed him that. But now he pities you. He doesn't know anything of the sacrifices you've made.

"That wasn't your job- it was meant to just be a simple intel gig and it all went wrong. I shouldn't have put that pressure on you." Vince's words do little to make you feel better.

"We have to find Thomas," you compose yourself, returning to your normal stoic form in the blink of an eye.

You make your way onto the Berg, Vince not too far behind you. You make eye contact with Minho, but you don't have time to deal with that right now.

"Miss (L/N)," (you're assuming) Jorge approaches you, a grin on his face, "it's an honour to meet you." He holds his hand out for you to shake. "Ha! You're a living legend, hermano. In the flesh."

"Don't go praising me so soon, dude, this shit ain't over yet." He follows you like a lost dog as you travel further into the ship, "Have you got Thomas' location?"

"The signals weak and the building's burning- but he seems to have returned to the area of WCKD's tower."

"That's where we'll head then."

"Wait," Vince stands behind you as you ignore the stares from the Berg full of people, "the City's being destroyed- I don't know if this is a good idea."

"We can't leave him- we wouldn't be here if it weren't for him he deserves a chance at a happy life and we've already lost too many good people. We're saving Thomas, V. I don't care what you say." Vince looks at Jorge, who has a faint smile creeping across his and returns the stare.

"I'm doin' what the girl says. Kid's got fire; can tell you raised her." Jorge winks at you, making his way to the cockpit.

"You've changed, huh?" You don't even bother looking at Vince.

"It's been a rough couple of years. Let's just get this over with."

The Berg starts up, and you join Brenda, Gally, Frypan and Minho at the open doors, examining the City and the surrounding area of the burning tower.

"So," Gally starts, "everything they say about you? It true?"

"Depends what they're saying." You don't pull your eyes away from the ground as the Berg moves in large, circular motions.

"A lot of klunk about causing WCKD problems- apparently you were the one that convinced Thomas to release WCKD co-ordinates to Dr. Cooper."

Minho looks at you, but don't meet his eyes.

"Yeah, I might've had something to do with that."

You finally raise higher, examining the top of the now fully inflamed tower.

"There!" You shout, "That's them!" Thomas is clearly injured, half being carried by Teresa.

So, he did return.

"What's wrong with him?" Frypan shouts and you shake your head.

"I don't know. Jorge! Get closer!"

There's a struggle as the Berg moves, your hearing turns to static as all you can focus on is reaching them. Qualms with Teresa aside, she's clearly helping Thomas.

Come on! Move closer! Let's go!

The same phrases are repeated as you slide further down the door, clinging onto one of the wire hinges so you don't fall and join them. You grab Thomas, along with the others' hands grabbing towards him, with the help of Teresa throwing him.

You manage to pull him on, and he immediately turns to Teresa. You go to reach out to her, but an explosion knocks her back, forcing the Berg to pull away.

A missile hits the building, and you all watch in horror as it collapses beneath Teresa, swallowing her into the darkness.

○ ○ ○

The next few hours are a complete blur. Thomas had been shot and was seriously bleeding out. With the help of you and Vince, you managed to slow the bleeding.

You didn't even get a chance to admire the Safe Haven when you finally landed because you were too busy trying to save Thomas' life. You got him to the medical professionals, and after several jarring hours, they confirmed he'd be okay. But he'd be asleep for a while.

Since then, you've been spending all your time catching up with Vince and reconnecting with the people you grew up with. It's very bittersweet, and you haven't had the chance, or the bravery, to talk to Minho yet.

You decided to give the Gladers some space. They'd been through hell and they need to process and talk amongst themselves for a while.

After a while, Thomas wakes up, and you watch his reunion with Minho from a distance.

Your feelings for Minho are complicated, and it's beyond clear, so are his for you. It wasn't ever going to be simple, but the events of him turning to you for comfort at least tell you there's more than his initial anger.

"You like him, don't you?" Vince's voice makes you jump as you lean against a wooden beam, observing from your safe space.

"What?"

"Minho? You like him."

You scoff. "I don't think it really matters. I don't know if it ever will."

"You protected him and saved him."

"I also held him captive and did nothing to stop the torture."

"You couldn't have done anything."

"That's not the point, and you know it."

He sighs.

"I thought you were against boys and shit, anyway?" You glance over your shoulder at him.

He shrugs, "You're clearly more than capable of making your own choices. And we're not permanently fighting for our lives anymore, so I don't really have a problem with it. You deserve to have a normal life, kid. You might finally get that here." He rubs your shoulder, slipping past and leaving you to think.

○ ○ ○

Night falls quickly. Vince finally gives a speech, earning rounds of cheers from around the bonfire as you hover behind him, staring off into the crowd with your hands in your pockets.

Vince reveals a large stone pillar in the centre of the sitting area, talking about remembering those we've lost and keeping their memories alive. You watch as Vince is the first, carving Mary's name into the stone.

To your surprise, Vince then immediately hands the chisel to you. You blink at it, before realising and taking it off of you.

People one by one, with their own tools, take the chance to add to the memorial.

You take your time, carving names into the stone, recounting the events of your life. You step back, smiling to yourself, admiring your own work. Even under the depressing conditions.

"Who are they?" You look over your shoulder, your body following you as you stand sideways. Minho's gaze is fixated on the stone. He looks a lot better now, clearly having a couple of days to recover.

"They're uh, they're my parents," you avoid his gaze, but answer honestly.

"You lost your parents?"

"I've lost everyone. My whole family, but I don't think there's enough space for them all," the joke is dark, and Minho doesn't laugh, even when you scoff.

"I had no idea."

"How could you?" You sigh, "You know nothing about me."

"Do you miss them?" The question makes you hesitate.

"I barely knew my mother- the Flare got her when I was young, so..."

"That's not what I asked," his tone is blunt, obviously still harbouring some negativity within the complications.

"...Yes. I miss them. I doubt there will be a day when I don't. My father used to say something that I think is still important- 'mortality doesn't ruin love; it only makes it stronger'."

He looks at you. For the first time, he seems to finally see the real person that's standing in front of you. "Does it ever get better?"

"Yeah, it gets better," you offer him a sympathetic smile, knowing what he's talking about. "The painful memories just become... memories after a while. It feels like it'll never get better, but it does. It becomes precious instead of hard to think about." You step towards him, handing the chisel to him.

He takes it, slowly, seemingly letting your fingers brush against each other on purpose. You go to walk away, but his voice stops you.

"Hey, 175," the number stuns you, making you spin on your heels, rage flooding your features. But it melts away the second you see Minho's dumb grin. "You're right. I don't know anything about you- but I'd like to. If you're willing to tell me."

You nod, smiling at him, "Yeah, I'd like that."

So, when you found Minho sitting on the sand later that night, sitting in front of the ocean, basking in the moonlight, you take the opportunity to approach him.

You silently sit next to him, and he looks at you, following your movements. You pull something out of your pocket, lightly shaking the small box that he immediately recognises as a deck of cards.

"Fancy a game?" He scoffs, turning to face you.

"Only if you actually talk to me."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"What's worth knowing?"

"Ah, well, that depends on what you deem important."

You fall into a surprisingly natural conversation with him. Both of you actually laughing at some of the things you tell him and the dumb stories from the Right Arm. You also somehow manage to finally win a game of Black Jack, much to Minho's dismay.

"So," you shuffle, brushing some of the sand off of one of your cards, "you still wanna be friends?" Originally, you said this jokingly, but Minho's hesitation makes you nervous.

"Not really," he says after a beat, and your heart sinks. "Shuck it," he laughs, "maybe I really do have, what was it? Stockholme Sydrome? Whatever. It sounds so dumb, but even if we were kinda stuck... I don't think I would've survived back there if it wasn't for you."

He seems almost flustered. "I don't know if my head's shucked or what, but is it really that weird to have a little crush on a kind girl in a mask?"

"No," you let out a content sigh, more satisfied with his strange confession than you expected, "but maybe you should talk to someone about that."

He playfully kicks you, making you feign an injury. "Yanno, I'd be lying if I said I didn't start kinda liking you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah- which is probably bad because we had a very unbalanced power dynamic." He snorts at this, shaking his head.

"So, what now?"

"Well, what do you wanna do now?"

He shrugs, leaning forward and picking up another card. "I don't think I want to do anything. I think I need to understand you more, and process everything I've been through. Everything I've lost. I mean, there's no rush, right?"

"Yeah. There's no rush," you nod. "For the first time ever, we actually have time to wait."

"You're willing to wait for me?"

"'Course I am. I've got to help run this place and work out my own shit too. I've got enough going on to distract me from pining over you." You exaggerate your tone, making him roll his eyes. "Seriously, take your time. I'm not going anywhere."

○ ○ ○

"You reckon they'll be okay?" Thomas asks Vince as the pair watch the both of you from a distance. Thomas smiles faintly as he watches you flick sand at Minho over losing whatever game you're playing.

"Yeah," Vince replies, finally peacefully watching the closest thing he has to family enjoy herself. "Maybe not now, but that's fine- they have all the time in the world to be okay."

Oh my God, this took me forever. But, I've got no other requests at the moment so I figured go big or go home. Seriously, this was such a cool idea and I loved writing it. Pieces like these take literal days to write, so don't be expecting them too often, but I do love more complex and indepth stories.

Also, I am so down to do a part 2 to this if you guys want to see more of yours and Minho's relationship in the Safe Haven- maybe some more developing relationship stuff, or even some spice if that is want y'all want.

Anyway, I just know no one is gonna see all of this because it's just so LONG. Literally, this thing is so big my Tumblr is lagging. But still, I hope you enjoyed :))

[moonlight-tmd]

how would the cons, bots, and elite bots react to the fact bee's parents are basically their gods

how would sari react too????

I love this au so much <3333 (it's funny af and has great potential for chaos)

Well, the others wouldn't really know they are gods since Primus and Unicron are not allowed to reveal themselves- hence the disguises and alias'. Bee knows they're gods but he's not allowed to speak about it either, he only refers to them as Sire and Papa anyway.

While Prisma and Unis know they are the gods, they speak about their god-names as if they were separate beings(mostly when they're arguing) to keep their covers- religion is a minority on Cybertron since the war began so it's rare to see someone speak about the gods so much. They are seen as religious to say the least.

When Unis shows up in earth he's wrecking shit up for fun and the autobots come to stop him- he does his gig with "you have no chance against me! I will destroy you!" before he notices the tiny yellow bot standing in the group and changes his attitude to happy-go-lucky, The others are very confused and alarmed when Bee runs towards te colossus, even more so but add shocked when he picks Bee up and starts baby-talking to him and Bee yells; "Meet my Creator!"

They are sceptical and wary of Unis cuz this mech just threatened to kill them and now he's acting all friendly and good. He straight up says he was gonna destroy the planet for fun but he can't do that since his beloved sparkling (and his friends) live here.

And so Unis is a "guest" in the plant for few weeks. He's like gremlin-mode Bumblebee but worse- he dubbed Sari an abomination when Bee introduced her to him, Unis was quick to clarify he likes her very much and insults are his way of showing affection(in a way). She was hurt at first but quickly got used ot this weird affection Bee's dad gave her. She likes to go messing around with them in the middle of nowhere sometimes.

He doesn'd do shit when there's something bad happening and the team has to go take care of it. In fact, half of the calls happen cuz he's causing trouble. He's also encouraging Bee causing mischieft and doing pranks and saying he's "going in his Creator's pedesteps".

Unis had bragged about being the strongest warrior in the entire reality known, he's detroyed planets single-handedly and wrecked thousands of soldiers that happened to get in his way. Team Prime has a reason to be wary of him, not just because he's a giant.

The Decepticons straight up skidaddle on the sight of him- he's triple the size of Blitzwing AND wielding a giant double-sided axe. One time Megatron got his servos on Bee and threatened the other Autobots that he'll hurt him, Unis seemed to just materialize out of thin air behind him and politely got his attention before he suplexed him with one servo. The 'cons are straight up avoiding the yellow mini now in both fear of what other fucked up abilities he has and because they don't wanna be pavement on the courtesy of his apparently Creator.

Sentinel is giving Bee all the respect and praise he "held back on" the moment Unis approaches him from behind while Sentinel is trash-talking Bee and excuses them both so they can go on the promised treasure hunt.

While Unis does seem like the strongest in the universe, he's not on either side of the war. He calls it stupid and says that he "spreads the chaos equally".

Then Prisma shows up. He drops from the sky and seizes Unis by his horn. He says few things to his "little sunray" and promises to visit soon before leaving thru a "space bridge" with his husband.

Bee then tells them that was his Sire.

If Ratchet was questioning how this colossus Unis managed to take care of such tiny Sparkling like Bee then now he's questioning how the frag Bee is so small if he got 2 literal giants for Creators- and he doesn't look like he was adopted by them.

And yeah, Prisma does show up unexpectedly like a week later- they find him sitting in the main room with Bee, he was recovering from an injury so they left him in base for the call and when they come back- oop, there's a fucking huge airplane just sitting in the plant. How did he fit in the room? None of them know!

Surprisingly, Prisma is very likeable and they actually get to be kinda friends with him instead of being afraid- well, they're still scared cuz he does clarify he'll send Unis to wreck chaos if something happened to Bee but he's not as aggressive as Unis. He's not even violent- physically at least. He's also on neither side of the war- he says it's a pointless tragedy and he's giving help to anyone in need.

Prisma is similar to Prowl actually, he's calm, respectful and the responsible parent- he doesn't let Bee cause any trouble (most of the time). He actually made Bee apologize when he called Prowl's documentaries boring; "Just because his interests don't align with yours, it doesn't mean they are any less than what you enjoy." He has said.

Now, the 'cons and Elite Guard are still scared shitless from Unis' visit so they also avoid him. Bee and Sari have the fun flying together in his cockpit and seeing stars and galaxies from the "projector"- it's like they were actually in space!

Prisma leaves and things have quieted down. But all of the eath transformers were traumatized enough to treat Bee with respect. His team still bosses him around a bit cuz he is a teammate but they certainly are worried of what might happen if they so much as insulted him. But the tension shrinks the further Bee's parents' visits were in the calendar.

Now i have few funny ideas with BlitzBee and "meeting the in-laws" that i vaguely mentioned in this post. But i also think ProwlBee would fit. Feel free to send questions about whichever you want.

[mimilind]

Hooded Stranger - Part 5

Gif source.

♕ ♕ ♕

Pairing: Aragorn x Reader

Rating: T

Chapter Word Count: 1050

Parts: [ < Previous Part ] [ Next Part > ] [ Masterlist ]

Full story: [ AO3 ]

♕ ♕ ♕

5. Village

Before leaving, Estel packed a few things, and donned his cloak to hide his bandaged leg and the crutches.

The village looked no more cheerful in daylight, and you felt a bit sorry for its inhabitants – who seemed to be almost exclusively male. 

“Where are all women and children?” you asked. 

“Further north, near the ruins of Fornost. This is only a ranger outpost,” he explained. “There are several places like this in the wildlands surrounding Bree and the Shire.”

“Weird that nobody knows about this,” you said. “Or do they, and I’m just ill informed?”

He chuckled, but then turned very serious. “We don’t advertise our presence; it’s not a good idea to draw the wrong people’s attention. There are evil powers at work in Middle-earth.”

You felt a chill trickle down your spine at his ominous tone. Seeing your expression, he added: “But there's still some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.” The way he looked at you made you feel included in that ‘good’.

“There certainly is,” you agreed earnestly. Your eyes met. 

He broke eye-contact first. “That building over there is the stables,” he said, a bit breathlessly.

When you entered it, you drew in the pleasant smell of horses and hay. They only had a few horses, and Estel explained they were mostly used for sending messages between the ranger settlements. 

“Is it alright if we share a horse? Otherwise I must lead the spare one back afterwards, and it’s a bit cumbersome.”

“Of course.”

Despite his injury, Estel had no trouble mounting the large bay he had chosen. Reaching down to take your hand, he pulled you up to sit behind, and soon you were off at a canter. 

A short way outside the outpost he stopped to remove his cloak, which was too warm for a summer ride. He gave it to you to sit on instead, since the saddle was only wide enough for one.

You bravely snuck your arms around his waist, pretending you needed it to remain seated, and leaned your head against his broad back. His stomach felt hard and flat under your palms. 

On horseback, it only took a few hours to reach your home. When you neared it, you suddenly wanted the journey to last longer. You did not want Estel to go.

“How are you celebrating Midsummer Day?” you asked. 

“Not much. Perhaps splitting a keg with the men. Why?”

“Well, now you had the trouble of riding all this way, perhaps I could invite you to our village feast? There will be plenty of food, dancing, games, all sort of things.”

To your surprise, Estel promptly accepted your offer. “That sounds fun!” Then he added: “But don’t tell them my name. Call me Thorongil.”

“What? How many names do you have?”

“Several. This is my alias. For safety.”

You shook your head amusedly, but agreed to do as told.

When you entered the main road, everyone stared at the horse, and even more so at the tall man in front of you. Your parents seemed a bit suspicious of your guest at first, but when you explained how you had helped him, and gave them the three silver coins, they instantly changed to become very friendly indeed.

He was even offered the only bedroom, forcing your parents to sleep with you and your younger siblings in the kitchen.

As much as you enjoyed being with your family after spending a year apart, you very soon got tired of their chattering and many questions, but Estel seemed not to mind at all. He answered everything readily, making up clever lies about who he was and why he had broken his leg. And thus both the evening and the morning after were spent amiably.

The next day was Midsummer, and the celebration lasted all evening. Estel could not join the dance or the games with his leg, of course, so neither did you. Instead you ate, and drank, and talked, and laughed, and had just about the best day of your life. 

The more you got to know Estel, the better you liked him. He smiled almost constantly now, and was so handsome your chest contracted whenever your gaze fell on him – which was often.

In the evening, you did like many other couples, leaving the feast area to take a walk in the twilit summer night. 

He took your hand, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to walk hand in hand with him. 

The sound of chirping crickets filled the air, and it smelled faintly of wild roses.  Around you, the trees were covered in the fresh new greens of Midsummer. 

"Did you enjoy your day?" you asked after a while.

“Much.”

“Me too.” Your eyes met, and this time neither of you looked away. 

Estel cupped your cheek. “I should not do this,” he admitted, and closed the distance between you to press a kiss on your lips.

He was right, you should not do this either. You should not respond to his kiss so fervently, and certainly not let your hands slip around his waist and explore his back and shoulders. You were a decent, orderly person; not a flirt like some inn staff. 

But right now you did not care about decency.

His lips tasted from the sweet fruit wine you had shared, and he smelled of pipeweed, and when your exploring fingers traveled under his shirt, his skin was warm and smooth. You loved all of it. He overwhelmed your senses.

As your kiss intensified, you felt his hands on your body too. Everywhere they went, your skin burned.

You paused to breathe. Estel’s face was flushed, and his eyes dark with want. Knowing that he could read the same emotions in you, you took his hand, pulling him down with you on the soft grass.

He spread his cloak, and you lay side by side, gazing deep into one another’s eyes. He kissed you again. In the heat of the moment, the surroundings faded, everything narrowing down to the two of you. Here, and now. Like you were alone in the world.

It was Midsummer; the longest night of the year, and you would make the most of it.

♕ ♕ ♕

Note: The next part is optional, and NSFW lol (pure smut).

Parts: [ < Previous Part ] [ Next Part > ] [ Masterlist ]

Full story: [ AO3 ]

[gay-cryptidz]

The Comfort Between Your Scars

Chapter 7

No TW here :)

It had been more than two weeks since that night in the break room. Mari had given him shit for getting hurt, of course, but Desmond was almost happy about it, he'd grown to like Joel and he probably never would've opened up to him so much if it wasn't for that fight and Alex forcing him to take the night off.

Joel had been at the bar a couple more times since, increasingly frequently, and Desmond found himself glancing at the door more and more, hoping he'd stop by. Maybe he'd see him again soon. But first he had to survive the worst event on earth, a thirteen-year-old's birthday party. Mari, birthday present in hand, rang the doorbell - 'Miller', the sign said - while Noah kneeled down and ruffled Jamies hair.

"Just remember we can leave whenever you want to. And if you need anything, you just ask, okay, kiddo?" Jamie nodded and Noah opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by the door opening and excited squeals and greetings. Jamie and Noah both flinched at the sudden noise before standing up to greet Mari's friend.

"Hey, you must be Sarah. Happy birthday! I'm Noah and this is Jamie"

The girl with the big, fluffy hair smiled at him excitedly.

"Nice to meet you! Mari told me a lot about you. Come in. You can leave your shoes on, we'll mostly be outside"

Noah looked around the house as the three of them stepped in. It was nice and so typically suburban, nothing like the shitty apartment complexes he'd spent his entire life in. There were picture frames and party decorations and balloons and he was glad Mari had been so welcome in such a loving home.

"Are your parents around? I wanted to thank them for all the sleepovers"

Sarah was already pulling Mari towards the backyard, where a few kids were already playing and parents chatting away.

"Still getting ready, I think. He's not very good at being on time", she grinned.

Noah nodded. Just as he was about to follow the two girls, someone walked down the stairs.

"Oh, there you are, dad! Mari just arrived, this is Noah and the small one is Jamie!"

Noah's polite smile fell and his heart sunk when he looked at the man. Shit.

Joel was equally surprised to see him, stopping on the stairs wide-eyed.

"Uh... hi", Noah said awkwardly, scratching his neck.

"Hi"

"I, uh, I brought wine. As a thank you. Y'know, for letting Mari stay here all the time"

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He could feel his cheeks heating up as Joel slowly stepped down the stairs and came to a stop in front of him.

"Uh, thanks, you really didn't have to." Joel's gaze seemed to burn him as the silence stretched on between them. Sarah was the one first one to speak again.

"Uh... do you guys know each other or something? You're acting weird"

"No, no", Noah blurted out.

"Sorta", Joel said at the same time.

Mari snorted and started pulling Sarah towards the backyard again, shooting him a glance, some inexplicable juxtaposition of knowing and curious.

"Come on, Jamie, let's give them some time to catch up." Jamie looked up to Noah for confirmation, then followed Mari after getting a small nod. Noah bit the inside of his cheek, still avoiding eye contact with Joel. Great, what the fuck was he supposed to say now?

"Noah?"

It felt weird hearing that name in Joel's voice, but at the same time it gave him just the smallest hint of relief. At least there were less secrets between them now. It didn't scare Noah quite as much as he thought it would, although the slight tremble in his voice when he answered seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Um, well, Desmond's just an alias I use for work and stuff, well, you've probably worked that out by now... I just- I didn't wanna tell you since I don't know you that well and I didn't exactly expect you to be the dad of Mari's best friend so I figured you wouldn't find out anyway and-"

A hand on his shoulder cut off his rambling.

"Sorry." Something between a whine and a whisper. The sting of guilt he felt surprised him. Why did honesty terrify him so much? With a shaky breath, he forced himself to look up at Joel, who looked more concerned than anything else, a gentle smile on his lips.

"Hey, it's fine. It makes sense that you wouldn't just give out personal details like that. Calm down, I get it"

A wave of relief washed over Noah and he even managed to offer him a grateful smile.

"And I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about. I should probably use your real name here but I'll keep calling you Desmond at work, yeah?"

Noah nodded. "Thanks"

"Alright. Well, let's go, before the kids start tearing up the whole backyard" This got a grin out of him. They could probably slip back into their usual ease quickly.

"This is gonna be horrible"

Joel answered with an affirming groan and set the wine bottle down on the kitchen counter before they stepped outside.

Noah was surprised at the sheer amount of people in the backyard. He'd known that parents and siblings were invited too but the several long tables, one of which was filled with multiple family-sized pizzas and chips and cookies and drinks, the many children running around and adults standing in small groups, chatting loudly, still overwhelmed him.

"You good?"

Joel had stopped a few paces ahead of him and Noah noticed only now that he was frozen in awe - and maybe a hint of terror. He hurried to catch up with him, now scanning for Jamie.

"Yeah, yeah, all good. Just didn't expect there to be so many people... Hey, do you see Jamie anywhere? Don't want him wandering off too much, this stuff can be kinda stressful for him"

Joel looked around for a moment before pointing to the very edge of the area where Jamie was sitting on a picnic blanket, along with Mari, Sarah, another girl who looked to be around ten and a man Noah estimated was a little older than him. To Noah's surprise, Jamie actually seemed like he was enjoying himself, talking excitedly to the four of them. Noah just watched them for a few moments, smiling.

"Just gonna check on him real quick"

They made their way over to the small group, Joel exchanging a few greetings with other parents on the way, and Noah sat down next to Jamie.

"Hey kiddo. You doing alright so far?"

Jamie nodded enthusiastically. In his peripheral vision, Noah noticed Joel whispering something to the man next to Sarah.

"Mari's friends are nice! I was just telling them about my favourite book!"

"That's nice, I won't bother you any longer then. I'll be around, if you need me you can just ask Mari to find me, alright?", he said, giving both Mari and Sarah an appreciative smile. Jamie nodded. Noah was just about to get up when the stranger stopped him.

"You're Noah then, nice to meet you. I'm Tommy, Joel's brother. Heard a lot about you"

"Oh! Likewise. Sorry, Joel's mentioned you a couple times but I wouldn't have guessed you're related", he chuckled, a little awkwardly.

"Wait! So you guys do know each other then?", Mari asked quietly, although Joel and Tommy could probably still hear her.

"Yeah, met him at work", Noah smiled. Mari looked at Joel like someone had just told her he's an alien who killed her dog. "Oh, no, not the- he's at the bar sometimes", he quickly added.

"Oh, alright. Geez, don't do that to me", she replied with small laugh. Sarah looked between them with furrowed eyebrows and Noah decided it would be best to flee the scene.

"Alright, have fun then, bye!", he said quickly, getting up and giving Joel a nod, signalling to please let's go somewhere else now.

<< Beginning | < Previous | Next >

[warfared]

— 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓.

name: Mikhail Antonovich Konstantinov

name meaning:

- Mikhail: Russian origin meaning “who is like god”.

- Antonovich: Russian origin meaning “son of Anton”

- Konstantinov: Russian origin meaning “son of Konstantin”

alias/es:

Primarily goes by Mishka (“little bear”). Also accepts the diminutive Misha, but prefers Mishka.

ethnicity: Slavic

one picture / icon you like best of your character:

three four h/cs you never told anyone:

1. Mishka struggles with some pretty severe intrusive thoughts. He only ever acted on them once as a child, when he shoved one of his friends off of the roof of a church they had climbed — the horror set in immediately the sight of a limp body and crunching bones. He’s carried to guilt of that ever since.

2. Mishka’s parents are alive, but they’re very estranged. Neither of his parents gave much of a shit about him growing up, being incredibly detached and absent. They wouldn’t recognize him now, though. He still struggles with attachment and relationship issues as a result of his upbringing.

3. Mishka, despite being a member of Konni, doesn’t actually believe 100% in Ultranationalist values, though he is aligned with them. He’s there for the sense of purpose and only really nods along with his comrades, which is just as bad as agreeing with them.

4. Mishka was discharged from the military due to psychological issues.

three things your character likes doing in their free time: 

1. Mishka’s a big bookworm and loves to read. You can usually find him tucked away with a book somewhere. He reads mostly Russian literature but usually sneaks in a German novel somewhere — he’s fluent.

2. If given the opportunity, Mishka can and will cook. He’s pretty good at it. King of self-sufficiency.

3. It’s something he’s not really open about, but Mishka is into insect pinning. He’s a novice at it and usually just finds common bugs to pin down for practice. He’d really like to pin a luna moth.

people your character likes / loves:

1. Merrick: (@nezemny) Mishka would gladly say that Merrick is his best friend within Shadow Company — which is a bit of a travesty, since he betrays Shadow Co. (and Merrick) via Rogue Arsenal. More than likely in love with him.

2. Nolan: (@nezemny) Nolan is Mishka’s commander and superior officer, keeping him in check during their time undercover in Shadow Company. There’s definitely something else going on, on a more personal level, not like either of them will tell. It’s complicated.

3. Makarov: Mishka’s boss and commander. Mishka holds a large amount of respect for him and admires Makarov, and would follow the man to the ends of the earth if asked. Mishka’s beliefs may not align with Konni, but he will always obey Makarov.

two things your character regrets:

1. As said above, Mishka’s greatest regret is killing one of his friends. It’s part of why he joined the military — to redeem himself in his own eyes.

2. Mishka has weird feelings towards his religious upbringing. He was the one who sought out the church and regrets ever doing so. It just made his life worse, if anything.

one phobia your character has:

1. Mishka is claustrophobic. He hates being in tight spaces and it freaks him out to the point of hyperventilating.

tagged by stolen from: @nezemny

tagging: you. if you’re reading this steal it.

[pluckyredhead]

Character Profile: Jennifer-Lynn Hayden and Todd Rice (Jade and Obsidian)

It’s time for another character profile, just in time for HankTodd Weekend! This time it’s a twofer, because Jennie-Lynn and Todd are twins, and doing two separate profiles for them would get really repetitive. Which means this is gonna be a long one. Sorry...or you’re welcome?

CONTENT WARNING: Child abuse, sexual assault, ableism, self-harm, and suicide.

Like Todd’s bestie Al Rothstein, Jen and Todd first appeared as members of Infinity, Inc., a team made up of the children and proteges of the original Justice Society of America. Specifically, they barge into a JSA meeting and announce themselves to be the children of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. His reaction will never stop being hilarious to me:

“I seem to dimly remember having sex once...but I can’t quite...”

In fact, none of the three are sure exactly how this happened. Neither Jen nor Todd knew they were adopted or had superpowers until recently. Jen had an idyllic childhood in a middle class suburban home until one day the weird green birthmark on her palm started to glow:

Then she abruptly turned green, at which point her parents confessed that she was adopted - and oh yeah, she’d had a twin brother in the orphanage, but they couldn’t afford to adopt two babies, so...sorry, Todd.

[Side note: it was later retconned in that Jen actually lived in an orphanage until middle school-ish and her powers manifested when she was molested by the janitor, but we’re going to ignore that because it makes absolutely no sense with the rest of her backstory and was just added to be gratuitously edgy.]

Todd, meanwhile, had a significantly less idyllic childhood, growing up in a working class family with an abusive alcoholic for a father. Eventually his mother walked out on them, taking Todd’s younger brother and leaving Todd behind in an act of truly phenomenal cruelty. Todd became the only available target for his father’s anger, but lucky for him, his powers manifested just in time:

Yeah, his dad kind of left him alone after that.

Jen and Todd are opposites in pretty much every way: she is bubbly and extroverted, and everyone she meets likes her immediately, while Todd is painfully introverted, pessimistic, and paranoid, with a tendency to lash out defensively at the slightest provocation. They adore each other instantly despite this. (There is a LOT to say about the frankly classist and ableist assumptions being made about what kind of upbringings lead to what kind of personalities, and even some good old-fashioned anti-Catholicism - Jennie’s idyllic family is Protestant, Todd’s abusive alcoholic father is Catholic - but we don’t have time to unpack all that dot gif.)

Their powers are also opposites: Jen is essentially a Green Lantern without a ring, and if you’re keeping track, YES, that DOES make her one of the most powerful characters in the entire DCU, and NO, DC has never noticed, because she’s a girl! It’s fucking infuriating!

Todd’s powers are a bit more complicated: he can turn into a shadow form, above, which can change shape, pass through walls, and fly. He’s connected to a realm called the Shadowlands (more on that later). He can also sense evil and force a person to see the evil side of their soul, which fucks them (and Todd) up severely and can even drive them insane.

Jennie and Todd also have a low-level psychic connection, which they use to find each other upon discovering that they adopted. Due to Jennie’s powers, they assume (correctly) that their father is Alan Scott. But who is their mother?

Well. Oof.

Their mother is a woman named Rose Canton, who has an evil personality that she can��t control called the Thorn. Rose fell in love with Alan and married him under a third alias, but when Thorn emerged and tried to kill him, Rose realized he would never be safe while married to her, and fled into the night. When she discovered she was pregnant, she ultimately gave the twins up for adoption.

She finally reconnects with them after they’ve joined Infinity, Inc. Thorn emerges and tries to murder Alan, Jen, and Todd:

(Yes, Todd’s costume is in fact HILARIOUSLY SKIMPY when he is powered down.)

Rose manages to kill herself in order to protect her loved ones from Thorn. It’s extremely upsetting.

But for Jennie, there are compensations: early in the II run, she starts dating her teammate Hank, aka Brainwave, Jr., the psychic son of a supervillain. They’re very cute. Todd, um. Doesn’t handle it well:

HI, THAT’S WEIRD. YOU’RE ALL BEING WEIRD. PLEASE STOP BEING SO WEIRD ABOUT THIS.

I TOLD YOU TO STOP BEING WEIRD!!!

Okay yeah, that’s not Jen, that’s Todd’s girlfriend Marcie, who is secretly a supervillain who can cast illusions. But like...why did she think this was the move? The vibes in Infinity, Inc. headquarters must have been so yikesy.

Anyway, Marcie eventually manages to cause the death of the team’s leader, Skyman, and Infinity, Inc. disbands. It’s all extremely sad.

Jennie and Todd disappear for a few years outside of the occasional cameo, but then Todd and his II teammate Al join the Justice League! I’ve written about this relationship in depth before, but basically: this is where Todd started to be written as very clearly queer, even if it’s not stated in so many words. (Though looking at letter columns from the 80s shows that fans had been asking for this for years.) He is actively, visibly, canonically pining over Al, but when Al asks him about it outright, he reacts angrily and defensively:

(No, Al doesn’t need him to put a label on it. They hug it out. It’s nice.)

This is also when Todd starts struggling with his mental health, although it’s couched in extremely over-the-top, comic book-y ways:

Al, I recognize that you are an optimist, but that isn’t depression. Bless your big dumb heart.

This all comes to a head when Al finds Todd attempting suicide, although luckily (?) Todd is so disconnected from reality at this point that he’s attempting to stab his shadow form to death, which...isn’t possible. Al insists that Todd see a therapist, but Todd freaks out when the therapist turns out to be female and refuses. Luckily (again, ?), Todd’s extreme decline in mental health turns out to be largely due to a crossover even in which the legions of Hell have been unleashed on Earth and the presence of so much evil is basically doing literal psychic damage to him thanks to his powers. Once the demons are vanquished, he goes back to his usual pessimistic but manageable equilibrium, at least for a few years.

During this era, Jen was appearing in a book called Blood Pack where she was training a team of superheroes called Blood Pack who were starring on a reality show called Blood Pack. It was exactly as awful as that description sounds.

Anyway, both books ended, leaving the twins without a publishing home, though Jen quickly became a supporting player in Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern book. Basically, she gives up on acting and decides to become a photographer instead, inexplicably, and also decides to move to New York, so Alan suggests she move in with Kyle. Because the Scott family is all lightly unhinged, neither of them says anything to Kyle about it, which means he arrives home to find a strange green woman in his shower:

Kyle, being an enormous pushover, lets her stay. Even though Todd shows up a few minutes later and attacks Kyle for “taking advantage” of his sister. Again, the Scott family? Not normal.

Further proof of this comes a little bit later, in the godawful Green Lantern/Sentinel: Heart of Darkness miniseries, when Jennie abruptly vanishes. Kyle tells Alan, who attacks Kyle about it (SCOTTS, WHY) before taking him to the...private asylum where he’s been incarcerating and basically torturing Jennie’s ex-boyfriend Hank??? I mean, Hank has become a villain since the Infinity, Inc. days, but it’s still a grotesque human rights violation which we’ll get into in the Hank profile, but which Kyle takes in stride for some bonkers reason.

Alan suspects Hank has abducted Jen, but Kyle’s like “No no, he’s obviously very busy being tortured, let’s go.” At which point Todd shows up to murder Hank, like you do.

“Medical torture is fine, but killing? I’m mildly disappointed in you, Todd!”

Todd’s erratic behavior turns out to stem from the same thing as Jennie’s abduction: the Starheart, which is basically a powerful sentient meteorite that’s the source of Alan’s powers, and thus, indirectly, Jennie and Todd’s. Todd, Alan, and Kyle are transported to what’s basically a Starheart dimension, where the Starheart, speaking through a possessed Todd, is like “These twins are my kids and I want them, fuck you Alan”:

The Starheart drains Alan of power, which leaves him suddenly dying of old age (even though running the numbers on this makes him about 80 here, which is elderly but not “you immediately DIE” old). In order to save her father and brother, Jennie accepts the Starheart’s offer of power - but then pumps that power into Alan, saving him and breaking its control over all of them. This also leaves her without any superpowers, because women should always have to sacrifice their power to save the men in their lives! Also she and Kyle are going to start dating soon, and he obviously couldn’t date a woman who was his equal. BARF. This miniseries is sexist and ableist and makes every character in it unbearable - Alan is medically abusing Hank, and none of the others care??? Throw the whole comic away.

Anyway. Kyle and Jen start dating. They’re cute!

Cute!

They date for a brief time, then break up, then get back together for a much longer time (a good three or four years). He gives her a spare Green Lantern ring for a few issues, then it disappears, then he tries proposing with a second GL ring like four seconds after they get back together, and she’s like “You’re so sweet. No. Gimme the ring, though.” Both times she has a ring, Kyle proceeds to extremely condescendingly train her on how to use it, as if she hadn’t had those exact powers for a decade before he debuted. ARGH.

Meanwhile, things were...less rosy for Todd. In that he was lured to the dark side (literally) by the Golden Age villain Ian Karkull and covered Milwaukee in darkness. You know, like you do.

Todd is specifically gunning for both his adoptive father, Jim Rice, and Alan, blaming them both for his troubles. He eventually winds up killing both Karkull and Jim Rice before vanishing into the Shadowlands, much to Alan’s dismay.

This storyline is also the first time Todd is given a specific, real world diagnosis: Alan says that Todd “inherited his mother’s schizophrenia.” I am absolutely not qualified to judge whether or not someone, even a fictional character, is displaying symptoms of schizophrenia, but from the (admittedly minor) research I’ve done, they include paranoia, delusions, irritability, and depression, all of which Todd has demonstrated almost since his debut. The symptoms would also have manifested right on track with the typical timeline for men, in Todd’s early to mid 20s. However, I suspect that’s just a lucky coincidence, and Geoff Johns chose schizophrenia because it was a “scary dangerous” mental illness and because of Rose’s multiple personas. Sigh.

A little while later, Todd teams up with more supervillains (Eclipso, Mordru, it’s a whole thing) and tries to destroy the world. This time Alan manages to talk him down:

(Please note Alan describing Jay and Joan’s inability to have children as “failing.” ALAN IS A TERRIBLE FRIEND.)

Anyway, Todd swoons into Alan’s arms at this mediocre profession of fatherly love, and the threat is over. And luckily, none of it was Todd’s fault at all, apparently!

“He was possessed so it’s fine I guess” - how Geoff Johns has resolved every heel turn he’s ever written. It’s still better than “his mental illness made him evil.”

Over in Green Lantern, Kyle briefly became the godlike entity Ion, which enabled him to reignite Jennie’s natural powers:

She’s Jade again! Hooray!

Shortly after this (and after Kyle gives up the Ion powers), Kyle’s teenage assistant Terry is beaten severely by gay bashers. Kyle is so deeply upset by this that he decides to leave the planet for a while until he hates humans less, and Jen agrees to go with him.

However, after a few months in space, Jen gets homesick and decides she wants to go home. Kyle stays in space, and is basically completely incommunicado, and Jen, desperately lonely, eventually starts dating another guy. Kyle’s...not thrilled when he gets back, to say the least:

This is complete character assassination meant to make us feel bad for poor betrayed Kyle, but like...he abandoned Jen for months. Even if she’d wanted to break up with him before dating this other dude, how could she? She had no means of contacting him! I’m not saying this is Jen at her best, but I am saying that it’s sexist writing and I hate it.

Anyway, they break up, obviously, but that doesn’t mean Jen is without a book, because she promptly joins the Outsiders! She doesn’t get to do a lot, plotwise, but she does eventually kick Nightwing out of the leadership position and take over for reasons of he’s being a dick:

Fuck yeah! (Roy continues to be the actual leader because he’s Judd Winick’s favorite, but it’s a nice thought.)

Meanwhile, Todd shows up in the supporting cast of Manhunter, dating a Los Angeles ADA named Damon Matthews:

Todd suddenly coming out in this very sweet, low-key way was a very big deal - queer characters were still extremely rare in the 2000s, and fans had been asking for this for 20 years. And look how happy he is!!! Yay Todd!!!

Of course, said happiness literally only lasted for a single issue, because the very next month, Jen was killed in the Rann-Thanagar War Infinite Crisis Special, of all things. You could not pay me to care about the plot of this but basically she goes to space and is zapped to death by giant hands made out of energy. IT’S DUMB, and this is even dumber:

The power was Kyle’s all along! Girls don’t get to have power, even if they’re born with it! They get to die tragically in their ex-boyfriend’s arms and then be cradled by their sad dad while the power that wasn’t really theirs is used to turn Kyle back into fucking Ion again! I hate everything about this, I hate it so so much.

Todd, of course, is very sad. Then he turns into an egg. Really:

That’s Alan holding him. The JSA doesn’t know it’s Todd, they’re just like “What’s up with this egg?” It turns out to be part of a convoluted supervillain plot to use Egg Todd to power a doomsday device and the whole storyline is idiotic, but this aspect is very funny to me so I’m sharing it with you. Todd later refers to it as “the crucible of my egg time.” It’s incredible

Anyway, Jennie came back about four years later at the end of Blackest Night, when a bunch of random dead heroes are resurrected for...reasons. She idles around in space for a bit before inexplicably crashing to Earth encased in part of the Starheart. This causes the Starheart to take control of Alan and turn him evil, and also merge Jennie and Todd into one being:

The JSA and JLA team up to defeat the Starheart and Jennie and Todd are...de-merged...but they can’t be in close proximity to each other or they will merge again, which Todd is extremely histrionic about. I don’t know how DC managed to bring back the weird incestuous vibes with these two when Todd doesn’t even like girls, but they did! Also, this had something to do with Swamp Thing somehow? Sure.

Anyway, Jennie winds up joining the JLA after all of this, while Todd stays with the JSA/Alan’s new alien kingdom he built on the moon (don’t ask), but it’s all moot because shortly afterwards, the New 52 came along, and Jennie and Todd were wiped out of existence.

See, the New 52 JSA was young and sexy (and garbage), which meant Alan was too young to have adult children. So presumably to make up for erasing a gay character, DC made Alan gay instead! And then LITERALLY IMMEDIATELY killed his fiancé! Truly a shit sandwich all around.

(There is a version of Obsidian in the New 52, who shows up only briefly. We never learn his real name, so we don’t know if he’s still called Todd Rice, or if he has any connection to Alan. He’s now Black (and a professional criminal, because no one at DC in the early 2010s thought about the problematic implications of anything for even two seconds before they wrote it down)...at least in his first appearance, because he is miscolored as white in every subsequent appearance. And he’s definitely supposed to be Black, because someone is racist to him in that first issue, so...yeah. The New 52 has so much to answer for.)

The version of the JSA people actually like was restored at the beginning of last year, which means that Jennie, Todd, and the crusty old version of Alan returned pretty much exactly as we left them a decade before, with Todd still dating Damon and everything. DC was smart enough to keep Alan gay, and we got a lovely scene of him coming out to his kids (well, officially - he’s clearly already discussed it with Todd before this):

Awwww I love them.

And that’s pretty much it! The whole family appears in Infinite Frontier, but nothing that happened there was super significant for them, and they recently showed up with the rest of the JSA as part of Dark Crisis. Hopefully DC will continue to use them, but it’s hard to say when they have SO many characters to choose from. For example, Alan and Todd had a very sweet story in the 2021 Pride anthology, but didn’t even appear in 2022′s because there are so many newer and/or more prominent queer characters to feature instead. Which is a good thing, mostly, but...I want to see this messed up family more!

Anyway, that's Jennie and Todd! Stay tuned for a Hank profile very shortly, and some HankTodd fic from me this weekend!

[scarletwitching]

Hello! Do you have any "real world" timeline of Wanda's backstories (particularly her origins). I know she was created in the 60s, and her first origin seems to have her as the biological daughter of two golden age American heroes. However most wiki pages only describe her latest "in-universe" history. Im curious to know how many actual real-world years she spent as a White American, German Jew, Serbian Romani, Mutant, Witch, Avenger, etc. Thanks!

I’m choosing to do this as a chronicling of backstory retcons (plus a couple of important firsts) because it would be too much to do the whole thing, and I’m going to include the various changes to Magneto’s backstory because they’re kind of necessary. The dates listed are release date, not cover date.

March 1964 (X-Men vol. 1 #4) -- It’s Wanda, no last name. She’s a mutant, part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She’s from Central Europe. She has an older brother named Pietro, and he promised their parents that he would take care of her.

March 1965 (Avengers vol. 1 #16) -- Wanda’s an Avenger now.

November 1966 (Thor vol. 1 #134) -- We learn that Wanda and Pietro, who are now twins, are connected to Wundagore Mountain and that there was a massive “blinding light” on the night they were born. This was maybe an aborted attempt to retcon them into not being mutants (their powers are referred to as “mutant-type” for some reason), but it goes nowhere.

May 1974 (Giant Size Avengers #1) -- Wanda and Pietro finally have a backstory. They are the children of US-American superheroes Madeline and Robert Frank (aka Miss America and The Whizzer). They were born on Wundagore Mountain, but their mother died and their father abandoned them. They were subsequently raised in the High Evolutionary’s citadel, but they ran away because it was weird being around all those talking animals.

June 1974 - February 1975 (Avengers vol. 1 #127-134; Giant Size Avengers #2 & 4) -- Agatha’s here, and she’s teaching Wanda magic. Wanda is now a mutant AND a witch.

December 1977 - September 1979 (Avengers vol. 1 #166 & 181-187; X-Men vol. 1 #125) -- Origin Story: The Good One. Wanda and Pietro are not the Franks’ kids and were not raised in the High Evolutionary’s citadel. They were raised by Django and Marya Maximoff, a Roma couple from Bulgaria (Transia, the town they’re from, will later become a country of its own), and it is implied that they don’t remember this because they suppressed their own memories. However, Django and Marya are not their birth parents. Their birth mother came to Wundagore Mountain, heavily pregnant, fleeing their father. She gave birth in the citadel, then left because she did not want to be alive anymore.

Meanwhile, Chris Claremont comes up with the idea for Magda, Magneto’s mysterious dead wife, but before the issue introducing her can even come out, John Byrne and some other guys go behind Claremont’s back and make Magda Wanda and Pietro’s mother. Which makes Magneto the husband their mother was running from and thus... None of the living characters know they are related, and it is editorial’s intention that they will never find out, though the connection is acknowledged openly in the letters column.

August 1981 (Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #150) -- Claremont begins the long process of turning Magneto into a hero, and with that, we learn Magneto’s backstory as a Holocaust survivor. Claremont continues to add to this for the rest of his initial X-Men tenure (through 1991), but crucially, he never has him say that he’s Jewish. You’re supposed to understand that he is, and most of the audience does understand. It is very, very obvious (we even get a trip to Israel), BUT he does not say the exact words, “I am Jewish.”

November 1982 (Vision & the Scarlet Witch vol. 1 #4) -- The characters aren’t supposed to find out they’re related? Forget that. They all know now. I would argue that this issue also makes it obvious that Magneto is Jewish, but whatever, he doesn’t say, “I am Jewish.”

October 1985 (Vision & the Scarlet Witch vol. 2 #5) -- This is the earliest reference I can find to Magda being Romani. It feels like that can’t be the first time that was confirmed, but this post needs to get done some time.

October 1987 (New Mutants vol. 1 #61) -- Another “earliest reference I can find” scenario. I think this is the first time Magneto mentions being from Poland. At any rate, it is a time he mentions being from Poland, and it gets retconned anyway.

July 1993 (X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #2) -- Due to editorial meddling, Magneto became a villain again in 1991, and according to comic book legend, editor-in-chief Bob Harras thought that Magneto being Jewish and a supervillain was proooooooblemaaaaaaatic. And if he can’t be both at the same time, one’s gotta go. Enter Gabrielle Haller, who is here to give a Ted Talk explaining Magneto’s new backstory. He’s Sinti Romani. That’s the change.

December 1997 (X-Men vol. 2 #72) -- It is revealed that the Erik Lensherr identity was an alias created by document forger Georg Odekirk in order to help Magneto hide from the authorities and find Magda... by pretending to be Sinti. Which, to me, implies that Magda herself was Sinti specifically, not Roma. Either way, Magneto says he’s not Romani, but once again does not say he’s Jewish.

September 2008 - January 2009 (X-Men: Magneto Testament #1-5) -- Magneto is officially, definitely Jewish. For real this time. No more ambiguity. He’s also German now, instead of Polish, and his name is Max Eisenhardt.

December 2014 (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #7) -- Rick Remender, who is clearly invested in Wanda and Magneto’s relationship, is forced, possibly at gunpoint, to make them not related. This is revealed via a spell going wrong and not affecting Magneto when it’s supposed to affect Wanda’s family, which is the dictionary definition of “plausible deniability.”

January 2015 - June 2015 (Uncanny Avengers vol. 2 #1-5) -- Wanda and Pietro go to the High Evolutionary to figure out what their brand new backstory is. Turns out that, according to the High Evolutionary, they are not mutants and got their powers from being experimented on by him as babies. Their birth parents were their adoptive parents Django and Marya all along, which would make them Roma (not Sinti)... but something is weird about this reveal because Vision finds out there is more to the story and refuses to tell Wanda what it is or that he discovered any information at all.

March 2016 - January 2017 (Scarlet Witch vol. 2 #4-14) -- Nevermind, Django and Marya weren’t Wanda’s biological parents. Django is her uncle. His sister Natalya is her birth mother and a witch, and “the Scarlet Witch” is now a legacy title. Wanda was born in Serbia, but how that intersects with the Chthon thing is not explained. And Wanda’s dad is... the guy who murdered her mother. Who? Doesn’t say.

December 2017 - July 2019 -- A bonus! Marvel gives up on pretending Wanda and Magneto are not related... but mostly outside of comics. The official Marvel website runs articles just... saying they’re related. Official merchandise says they’re related. The mainline comics don’t touch it, but things are very suspicious.

[knoxfms]

#𝚃𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙶𝙴𝚁𝚂      :      mentions   of   addiction   ,   alcohol   abuse   ,   drug   use   &   infidelity   .

*      𝙷𝙴𝚈   𝙰𝙻𝙻   𝚈𝙾𝚄   𝙲𝙾𝙾𝙻   𝙲𝙰𝚃𝚂   &   𝙺𝙸𝚃𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚂   hehe   .   the   name's   sydney   ..   i'm   a   twenty1   y/o   ,   residing   in   the   est   timezone   &   i   use   she   /   her   pronouns   !   it's   been   a   hot   min   since   i've   been   in   a   group   setting   ,   i   was   in   the   indie   world   for   quite   some   time   &   took   a   break   so   apologies   in   advance   for   the   piece   of   cr*p   you're   about   to   read      ⸺      fr   ,   don't   say   i   didn't   warn   ya   .   anywho   ,   let's   get   on   with   it      ⸺      down   below   ,   you'll   find   out   more   about   my   troublesome   son   ,   rafe   !

(   xavier   serrano  ,  cis   man  ,  he/him  ,  25   )    $$$   —    i'm  pretty  sure  i  just  saw  RAFAEL   '   RAFE   '   KNOX    headed  out  of  the  estate  .  it's  weird  though  …  i  didn't  see  them  with  their  HANGOVER   SHADES  .  i  didn't  know  they  left  the  house  without  it  .  i  feel  like  i  can  never  catch  them   ;   they're  always  so  busy  …  guess  that  makes  sense  since  they're  an  ACTOR  .  have  you  met  them  yet  ?  they  live  in  MAGNOLIA   LANE  ,  so  you  might've  missed  them  .  i  think  you'd  like  them  a  lot  ,  actually  .  i  swear  their  aura  is  RED  ,  and  that  seems  like  your  vibe  .  maybe  you'll  get  lucky  and  run  into  them  sometime  .  i  can  always  tell  when  they're  coming  up  the  hill  ‘cause  they're  constantly  blasting  THE   HILLS  by  THE   WEEKND  …  it's  pretty  much  their  anthem  at  this  point  ,  so  if  you  hear  it  ,  you'll  know  they're  around  .  y'know  ,  the  other  day  ,  i  saw  a  tabloid  with  them  on  the  front  page  that  said  "   TROUBLE   FINDS   HIM   YET   AGAIN   :   ACTOR   RAFE   KNOX   IS   IN   HOT   WATER   AFTER   ALLEGEDLY   ENGAGING   IN   BAR   BRAWL   .   “ …  do  you  think  that's  true  ?  guess  we'll  see  what  the  neighborhood  watch  thinks   !   (   zac   efron   +   paul   wesley   )  

*      𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀      .

full   name   :   alejandro   rafael   cotillo   .   nickname(s)   /   alias(es   :   just   goes   by   rafe   !   will   respond   to   d!ck   ,   manwh*re   ,   asswipe   .   age   :   twenty5   . zodiac   :   gemini   . date   of   birth   :   june   8th   (   bday   twins   w/   ye   )   ,   1997   .   nationality   :   american   . ethnicity   :   white   (   spanish   on   dad's   side   ,   sicilian   on   mom's   )   . height   :   6'2"   . gender   +   pronouns   :   cis   man   +   he   /   him   . language(s)   :   obv   fluent   in   english   &   d*mbass   ,   knows   some   phrases   in   italian   &   spanish   .   sexual   +   romantic   orientations   :   heterosexual   (   ?   )   +   aromantic   . occupation   :   actor   . career   claim(s)   :   zac   efron   +   paul   wesley   . character   inspo   :   damon   salvatore   +   silas   hybrid   ,   draco   malfoy   ,   james   kennedy   ,   sean   cameron   (   with   a   dash   of   craig   manning   &   jay   hogart   ,,,,   the   chaos   )   ,   sebastian   valmont   ,   tristan   dugray   .

*      𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱      .

family   ;   it's   a   touchy   subject   for   you   ,   isn't   it   ?   you   keep   your   private   life   separate   from   your   work   life   ,   often   waving   off   questions   that   pertain   to   family   or   rather   lack   thereof   .   what   you've   left   behind   in   the   past   .   documents   containing   any   personal   information   surrounding   your   true   identity   have   been   tucked   away   &   sealed   .

you've   got   your   father's   looks   ,   charisma   &   even   name   .   he   was   once   an   actor   ,   a   heartthrob   from   the   '80s   ..   turned   washed   -   up   after   hitting   his   prime   &   no   longer   receiving   any   work   .  this   caused   him   to   turn   to   alcohol   ,   drugs   ,   which   later   led   to   addiction   ..   he   became   the   laughing   stock   of   the   media   .

this   caused   issues   for   the   young   couple   &   would   become   the   topic   of   every   fight   ..   it   wasn't   until   carmen   moretti   ,   your   mother   ,   gave   him   an   ultimatum      ⸺      it   was   either   get   clean   &   sober   or   he'd   lose   his   family   .   he   chose   sobriety   ,   enlisting   himself   into   therapy   &   rehab   .   for   a   while   ,   he   was   doing   good   ..   he   even   started   getting   back   into   acting   ,   but   it   seemed   old   habits   died   hard   .   between   his   relapse   &   the   discovery   of   an   affair   with   his   sober   coach   ,   carmen   kicked   his   ass   to   the   curb   .

like   most   children   when   their   parents   split   ,   they   find   someone   to   blame   ;   you   blamed   your   mother   for   your   father   leaving   .  you've   said   some   pretty   hurtful   things   over   the   years   ,   things   you   can't   take   back   .   you   were   the   cause   of   every   relationship   that   she   had's   destruction   .   men   didn't   seem   to   stick   around   too   long   due   to   your   tactics   .   i   think   part   of   you   was   hoping   there   would   be   some   sort   of   reconciliation   between   your   parents   .

there   was   one   (   1   )   man   that   you   couldn't   manage   to   scare   away   ..   prescott   holbrook   ,   a   business   magnate   &   investor   (   think   el*n   m*sk   but   ..   tolerable   &   handsome    )   .   you   can't   remember   the   details   ,   but   apparently   ,   they   met   at   a   gathering   hosted   by   mutual   friends   &   it   was   love   -   at   -   first   -   sight   ,   v   much   giving   wattpad   story   vibes   .   anywho   ,   they   ended   up   eloping   after   a   month   of   knowing   each   other   &   just   last   year   ,   they   celebrated   fifteen   years   .   you've   never   seen   eye   to   eye   ,   but   you   can   tell   how   much   happier   your   mom   is   &   he   does   seem   to   care   about   you   ,   as   if   you   were   one   of   his   own   ..  

at   the   shy   age   of   seven   ,   a   casting   director   was   scouting   the   area   for   a   young   boy   to   play   young   simon   tam   &   plucked   you   from   the   crowd   .   you   were   said   to   be   a   natural   &   after   doing   just   that   one   project   ..   you   decided   that   this   is   something   you   want   to   do   for   the   rest   of   your   life   .

you've   done   small   roles   here   &   there   for   the   next   seven   years   up   until   the   age   of   fifteen   ..   when   an   opportunity   of   a   lifetime   came   ,   your   shot   to   fame   ,   your   breakout   ;   you've   been   casted   as   troy   bolton   in   the   upcoming   high   school   musical   trilogy   .

because   of   your   affiliation   with   disney   ,   it   was   difficult   getting   casted   for   roles   .   no   one   really   wanted   to   take   a   chance   on   you   ,   no   one   quite   took   you   seriously   as   an   actor   .   though   ,   luckily   ,   you   managed   to   prove   people   wrong   ..   17   again   was   your   first   movie   after   your   disney   departure   .   from   there   on   ,   you   slowly   grew   to   become   one   of   hollywood's   new   it   boys   .

 *      𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗻𝘀      .

rafe's   first   two   roles   were   left   uncredited   .   because   of   that   ,   many   seem   to   think   his   debut   was   summerland   .

he's   not   really   sure   how   rafe   knox   came   to   be   ..   i   guess   ,   it   was   when   he   realized   what   a   pos   ,   deadbeat   his   dad   really   was   &   he   opted   for   a   name   change   .   he   switched   his   middle   name   to   his   first   &   knox   seemed   to   have   a   ring   to   it   .

originally   auditioned   for   the   role   of   damon   salvatore   but   casting   felt   like   he'd   be   a   better   fit   for   the   other   brother   🤦🏻‍♀️   ..   (   why   ?   idk   idk   🤷🏻‍♀️   pester   j*lie   pl*c   abt   it   )   .   the   show's   first   season   premiered   in   the   winter   of   this   year   ,   they're   currently   wrapping   up   season   two   ,   which   is   set   to   air   in   the   fall   .   

 relationships   never   seemed   to   work   out   ,   not   because   he's   afraid   of   commitment   ,   but   because   he's   always   working   .   its   caused   quite   some   issues   in   the   past   ,   his   past   partners   have   mentioned   they've   felt   neglected   ..   which   is   why   he   tends   to   refrain   from   jumping   into   anything   too   serious   /   long   -   term   .   he   very   much   prefers   flings   ,   playing   the   field   .

biggest   fear   is   probably   ending   up   like   his   dad   ,   which   is   funny   (   not   really   )   because   with   the   rate   that   he's   going   at   ,   he's   slowly   morphing   into   him   .   this   is   actually   one   of   the   reasons   why   he's   estranged   from   his   mother   ,   he   hasn't   communicated   with   her   in   years   ..   he's   partially   embarrassed   because   he's   basically   his   dad   2.0   &   he   doesn't   want   to   face   her   ,   disappoint   her   . 

he's   never   been   keen   on   talking   about   his   feelings   ..   he'd   rather   bottle   them   all   up   ,   drink   them   away   ,   literally   do   anything   other   than   spill   his   guts   out   to   another   being   .   he   doesn't   like   people   seeing   him   vulnerable   ,   it's   encrypted   in   his   mind   that   it's   a   sign   of   weakness   .  

deep   down   ,   despite   what   the   media   /   tabloids   say   ..   rafe   does   have   a   good   heart   .   he   often   donates   to   many   organizations   /   charities   ,   usually   under   anonymous   .

rafe   does   have   a   scar   under   his   left   collarbone   ,   a   result   of   a   scuffle   between   him   &   one   of   his   mom's   past   boyfriends   .

while   he's   made   comments   in   the   past   that   could   be   considered   as   disses   ..   he'll   always   be   grateful   for   his   time   on   disney   &   hsm   will   always   hold   a   special   place   in   his   heart   .   i   think   a   part   of   him   was   embarrassed   back   then   but   he's   embraced   it   &   honestly   ?   he's   not   sure   if   he   would   be   where   he's   at   today   ,   had   he   not   have   gotten   the   role   of   beloved   troy   bolton   .

everyone   that   has   ties   to   disney   /   nick   seems   to   have   come   out   screwed   up   ,   whether   it's   dealing   with   mental   health   battles   ,   addictions   ,   etc   ..   rafe   ,   like   most   kids   ,   got   lured   in   &   did   drugs   during   the   hsm   era   .   he's   been   very   open   about   the   effects   of   peer   pressure   &   regrets   even   indulging   in   substances   .   he's   currently   on   the   path   of   sobriety   ,   but   it's   a   struggle   .. 

as   of   2021   ,   roughly   12%   of   the   world   is   a   leftie      ──      rafe   is   included   in   the   population   !

love   language   :   bullying   .

knows   how   to   play   guitar   ,   taught   himself   actually   .   he's   definitely   not   by   any   means   a   pro   ,   despite   saying   /   thinking   otherwise   !

*      𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿   𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲      .

firefly   (   2004   )   |   young   simon   tam   . ER   (   2005   )   |   bobby   neville   .   summerland   (   2010   -   2011   )   |   cameron   bale   . csi   :   miami   (   2011   )   |   seth   dawson   . high   school   musical   (   2012   )   |   troy   bolton   . ncis   (   2012   )   |   daniel   austin   . the   suite   life   of   zack   &   cody   (   2012   )   |   trevor   . high   school   musical   2   (   2013   )   |   troy   bolton   .   hairspray   (   2013   )   |   link   larkin   . high   school   musical   3   (   2014   )   |   troy   bolton   . 17   again   (   2015   )   |   mike   o'donnell   . charlie   st   .   cloud   (   2016   )   |   charlie   st   .   cloud   . new   year's   eve   (   2017   )   |   paul   . at   any   price   (   2018   )   |   dean   whipple   .   the   lorax   (   2018   )   |   ted   wiggins   (   voice   )   the   lucky   one   (   2018   )   |   logan   thibault   .   the   paperboy   (   2018   )   |   jack   jansen   . neighbors   (   2019   )   |   teddy   sanders   . that   awkward   moment   (   2019   )   |   jason   . we   are   your   friends   (   2020   )   |   cole   carter   . dirty   grandpa   (   2021   )   |   jason   kelly   . mike   &   dave   need   wedding   dates   (   2021   )   |   dave   stangle   .   neighbors   2   :   sorority   rising   (   2021   )   |   teddy   sanders   .   the   vampire   diaries   (   2022   -   )   |   stefan   salvatore   .

upcoming   projects   :   baywatch   ,   the   disaster   artist   ,   the   greatest   showman   ,   the   beach   bum   ,   extremely   wicked   ,   shockingly   evil   &   vile   ,   scoob   !   ,   gold   ,   firestarter   ,   tell   me   a   story   ,   roll   bounce   ,   the   oc   .  

[sinner-as-saint]

My Favorite Kind Of Night - 6.

Camboy!Bucky x CEO!Reader

Part 6 of this series

Run-through: On Friday nights, you are punctual to your virtual meet-up with your favorite camboy over a streaming platform, for your private stream session. You’ve known him for a couple of months now. He goes by the alias of ‘Winter Soldier’ on the platform, which is perfect for the kind of man he is; brawny and drop dead gorgeous. Over the past few months, he has become your favorite kind of night. And secretly, you became his as well. You two get closer over time, and things get interesting when your real, professional lives gets intertwined.

Themes throughout the series: sex worker!bucky, smut, phone sex, fluff, language, dirty talk

a/n: we’re here! This will be the final part of this series! Thank you to everyone who loved camboy!bucky as much as I did and thank you for always supporting my work!! I love you my babies!

“Hi baby!” Bucky said with excitement, his big and bright smile flashing on your screen.

You couldn’t help but smile back. “Hi Buck!” you sat up straighter in bed and inched slightly closer to your screen.

He had stopped livestreaming on the camming site since you both began dating about almost a year ago. And ever since then, you turned to video calling each other whenever you were apart. Especially when you were in desperate need of one another.

“I’ve got nothing to do without you here. What time’s your flight tomorrow?” Bucky’s voice came through your computer and you chuckled at the thought of him bored at home without you.

He moved in with you a couple of months ago. And it was the best decision you two had ever made;

 -flashback-

You laid your head on his damp, muscular and warm chest. Wrapping your arms around his broad and hard torso, you clung to Bucky like a koala bear to a tree. He secured his arms tightly around you and pulled you closer.

“What are you thinking about, baby?” he asked, tucking your messy hair behind your ear so he could get a good look at your face. He loved the glow you had on your face right after he had spent hours fucking you. And the hazy look in your eyes as you blinked, like a playful but sleepy, cute little puppy as you tried to reorient yourself after he fucked you into oblivion.

You blinked a couple more times and then looked up at him. “Move in with me.” You said, and he raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

“Jesus woman.” He sighed dramatically. “Now what, you’re gonna tie me to your bed? I’m gonna start having back problems if you keep this up, I-,” you cut him off by smacking his chest playfully.

“That’s not what I mean!” you whined and he laughed loudly.

“I know baby, I’m just messing with you.” He stopped laughing. “Okay then, what do you mean?” he gave you a kiss on the forehead.

You exhaled and kissed his chest before placing your ear right on top of his heart and listened. You closed your eyes and relished the feeling of him so close to you. “I mean, we’re always staying over at each other’s place. Wouldn’t it better if we moved in together?”

He rubbed his hand soothing up and down your back. “Hmm, very tempting.”

You smiled, knowing you were roping him in perfectly. “Think about it, I have a gym. And an indoor pool. A home theater. And-,”

He cut you off by lifting your head up and pressing his lips you yours. “There’s no need to bribe me for it. You know I’d do anything just to wake up next to you every morning.” He mumbled against your lips before he leaned in to kiss you again. “Yes baby, I will move in with you.”

-end of flashback-

 “I have an early flight in the morning. I’ll be back home before dinner.” You couldn’t wait to be with him either. “I miss you.” you pouted.

He fake pouted back. “I do too, babe. I wish you were back home already, with me. It’s been a long, lonely week. I miss you so bad.” He mumbled, giving you the best puppy dog eyes ever. A skill which you didn’t know he had mastered until recently.

Your pout morphed into a smirk. “Really? How much? Let me see.” you teased and sensually removed the robe you were wearing, exposing your newly bought, lovely black lingerie set. Bucky’s bit his lip for a moment trying to hide the smirk he had on upon seeing your almost naked body, then he shook his head with a faint smile on his face.

“Here I am, pouring my heart out and telling you how much I miss you and there you are, planning on using me to satiate your sinful thirst. Should’ve known you were only dating me for my body.” He shook his head dramatically.

You laughed. “Oh shut up…”

-

Minutes later, after he was done messing with you, you found yourself sat in bed, back against the headboard and a vibrator pressed against your wet heat.

You watched your boyfriend on the screen and how he touched himself; stroked his cock up and down, moaning and groaning shamelessly while at it. “Are you close, baby?” he asked, gasping as he stroked himself faster.

You whined and moved the vibrator around gently. Moaning loudly and wantonly, meanwhile Bucky was having the time of his life watching you. He caught each moan, each soft gasp, each whimper which escaped your lips. Fuck the things he would do just to be there with you…

“You look so good, you know? Legs just spread apart and touching yourself like a dirty little girl,” you heard his chuckled come through the other side and you knew he was enjoying himself. “Fuck… keep going babygirl, keep teasing that wet, greedy little cunt for me.”

You kept your eyes on his body as you set the vibrator on a faster setting and you immediately moaned as it teased your throbbing clit.

“Wish I was there, babygirl…” Bucky hissed in pleasure as he stroked himself faster, thinking about how much better it feels when you’re the one wrapped around him; your lips, your wet walls, your hand; he’d take anything you give him. “Wish I could taste you,” he moaned as he felt his release approaching, “and touch you and remind you that you’re all mine,” he groaned. “And tell you that I love you more than anything…” he growled as he fought back his pressing need to cum.

You whined upon hearing his voice, you were right on the edge and seeing him touch himself was not helping at all. The vibrator didn’t feel half as good as he did when he was deep inside you, filling you up so perfectly, stretching you out deliciously. Fuck you missed him.

“Baby… I’m gonna cum,” you whined, mind foggy and cloudy with lust.

You heard Bucky sigh and swear under his breath. “Cum for me babygirl, come on,” he threw his head back and moaned out loud. “Cum for me now!”

You whined and moved the vibrator around faster; taking yourself higher… and higher… until you came hard, mumbling Bucky’s name under your breath and gushing out all over the toy. You could hear Bucky pant and gasp just as hard as you were, trying to calm your racing hearts and recover from the previous orgasm.

You heard Bucky whine again, and you gave him your full attention. “What is it?” you asked softly, wishing with all you had in you that you could just wrap your arms around him and fall asleep to the steady sound of his heartbeats.

“I miss you.” he whined.

You gave him a weary chuckle. “I’ll be home soon, baby.”

 ---

 Bucky welcomed you home with open arms, and you hurried your way into his tight and warm embrace. He kissed the top of your head and held you close to him, right there at the foyer. He bent down a little and pushed his face into your neck, and inhaled your scent. Meanwhile you basked in his body heat.

“Fuck… I was going crazy without you, all alone in this big house.” He mumbled against your skin and you giggled at how it tickled. You pulled away and admired your man.

His long dark hair was down, and he had a light stubble and those stormy ocean blue eyes looked down at you in pure adoration.

“Hmm, maybe we should get a dog.” You suggested and began walking towards the spacious living room. Bucky kept his hand around you and walked beside you, nodding in agreement.

“I think we should. We’ll be great dog parents.” He said and watched you as you sat down on the couch to take off your heels. And hopefully actual parents one day, he thought. And his mind went straight to that second drawer in his closet where in a small, black velvet box, carefully tucked in, rested a diamond ring.

Bucky was planning on proposing to you sometime soon. But he couldn’t decide when or how to do it, so for now, he waited. Should he just ask you tonight? Or should he do it over a date night? Or is that too cheesy?

“I think so too.” You agreed, thinking about the dark blue velvety box, safely stored in your bedside table, which contained a simple gold ring.

You planned on asking Bucky to marry you, because you loved him more than anything. But you couldn’t figure out how to ask him, or when. So you just waited for now. Perhaps on date night, this weekend? You were nervous just thinking about it.

You stood up from the couch and faced your boyfriend again. “I should shower, and then we’ll order something for dinner. Sound good?”

Bucky nodded. “And I should join you in the shower.”

 --

Throughout dinner, you noticed something was weird about Bucky. He was quiet, overthinking. You tried to get him to talk but he would give you bland replies. And you were having none of it, you had just spent a whole week without him and this silent treatment was killing you.

“Okay, out with it.” you turned to face him while you two were doing the dishes, initially in complete silence which was now ruined by your question.

“Huh?” he gave you a puzzled look.

You sighed and looked down to see that you were both wearing the same kind of fuzzy socks and PJ bottoms, and you almost broke into a smile. “You’ve obviously got something on your mind. What’s going on? Was it something I did?” you were anxious, awaiting his reply.

“What? No, babe I just- I’ve been…” he exhaled loudly. “I’m just thinking about something. It’s nothing too worrying, it’s just… eating away at me.” He confessed.

You hated seeing him like this. “Well, whatever it is, I’ll fix it. Okay? I’m worried, Buck, you’re never like this. Maybe you could just tell me, and I c-,”

He cut you off rather abruptly, just blurting out, “Will you marry me?”

You were frozen in place. Did he just-

You opened your mouth to answer but before you could he shook his head and looked away. “Sorry, I just thought- I was meaning to ask you soon and it sort of just slipped out. It’s not the right place, I-,”

Then you cut him off by reaching up and grabbing his face with your cold, damp and soapy hands and leaned in to press your lips to his. He was shocked for a brief moment, then he reached out and cupped your face with his cold, damp and soapy hands as well; kissing you back.

You poured it all through the kiss; all the love you had for him, and he did the same. Then you pulled away and looked up at him, not bothering that the soap from his hands was dripping down on your shirt. “Yes, Buck. I will marry you.”

He gave you a big smile and leaned in to kiss you again. His kiss was more heated this time, he walked you a couple of steps back and pushed you onto the counter, spread your legs and stepped in between them. His one hand held your face as the other quickly slid your shorts down your legs, followed by your underwear.

He didn’t pull away from the kiss as he lowered his pants just enough, and slowly filled you up; stretching you just how you liked it. Your body was still a little sore from fucking in the shower just an hour or two ago, but it welcomed him in just as it always did. He chuckled at how wet you were already. “Always so ready for me, huh?” he whispered against your mouth before kissing you again as he started rocking in and out of you. You felt all of him, each vein, each stroke and every inch of his skin.

You moaned and whimpered through the kiss, and Bucky grunted as he gripped your hips tightly while he slammed his cock into your entrance repeatedly.

“Fuck babygirl…” Bucky groaned. “I love you and your greedy little cunt so much.” He chuckled darkly in your ear before speeding into you again. Your head fell back as you moaned at his words, he leaned in and nibbled on your bottom lip as you gasped.

His hand moved up to your throat. His long fingers wrapped around your throat and made you open your eyes to look into his. He fucked you relentlessly; earning more and more moans out of you each time his cock stroked your walls.

Bucky growled against your lips. “You feel so good around me, babygirl…” he murmured, voice low and hazy in pleasure. He moaned and gasped as he felt your walls milking him and squeezing him just right. “So good…” You cried out as he kept rocking into you, speeding up with each thrust. “You’re all mine, you hear me?”

Your senses couldn’t focus on anything other than him; the warmth of his body, the lust in his voice, the passion behind his actions, and the love he had for you being reflected in his eyes. “Fuck…” you moaned, your mind getting foggier and foggier with each passing second. He slammed in and out of you continuously, moaning and grunting in the process.

He growled and pushed his face into your neck, “Go on babygirl, cum for me.” He bit down on your shoulder and sped up even more. His thrust violent and animalistic. You moaned loudly and gushed out around his cock; gasping and whimpering.

He moaned out loud when he felt your walls pulsating violently around him. His thrusts became irregular as he came right after you as well, shooting his load at your walls. He didn’t pull out even after the two of you came. He just kept his throbbing cock carefully buried in you.

He pulled away to look at you with a faint smile on his face. “I love you so much.” He whispered and leaned in to kiss your forehead. You smiled and basked in his body heat and scent.

“I love you more, Buck.” you whispered back and he heard, and smiled.

He chuckled against your skin, then pulled away to look at you. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He confessed.  

You smiled up at him, wondering how you got so lucky to be able to call him yours. You whispered back, “You’re the best part of my life too, baby.”  

Out of all the ways you two had been planning on proposing – popping the question while doing the dishes wasn’t one of them, but you wouldn’t have it any other way. This was perfect. Disorganized, and a little messy and impromptu – but perfect nonetheless. 

Life would come with its ups and downs, you both knew that. But you also knew that no matter what, you’d both be each other’s favorite part of this long and blissful life together.

 Fin.

[secretmellowblog]

Another weird thing I’ve noticed in Les Mis is how names are used as a symbol of power/powerlessness.

Fantine never gets a “legal birth name” from her parents that we see on-page. She lives on the street as a childn and gets nicknamed “Fantine” because it sounds like “enfantine,” or “childish.”

Her other nickname is “the blonde,” which Tholomyes calls her, and it’s also a nickname that she doesn’t seem to have chosen herself.

@everyonewasabird​ pointed out in this great post that the other grisettes are a lot more skillfull about managing/manipulating the way people see them and choosing their own nicknames, but Fantine is a lot more sincere and can’t build a false persona the way they do.

The other women are controlling the narratives around them, protecting themselves, making choices about how they’re perceived. Fantine is 100% what you see in front of you, with two names that seem to have just landed on her.

Then you contrast that with Valjean, who has 2000000000000000000 names, one for every one of his 20 million false personas!

But like Fantine, Valjean’s names often aren’t a reflection of himself, but a reflection of how other people see him-- Monsieur LeBlanc, for example, reflects how Marius sees him. Madeleine reflects the saintly way Montreuil sur Mer sees him. Ultime Fauchelevent reflects how Fauchelevent sees him as a brother. etc. These names give him access to parts of Respectable Society that his original name doesn’t allow him to access-- but they also are names he takes out of obligation, because he CAN’T live under his original name without being sent to prison.

And Valjean is obviously paranoid about keeping his original name a secret, because he is a wanted man and revealing it would send him to prison/render him utterly powerless.

Valjean also loses his name and becomes Prisoner 24601 when he’s sent to prison, and having his name stolen from him represents how his humanity is stolen from him.

It’s also interesting to compare this with Javert too (ugh yes im talking about the bastard again). I need to research this more; but children born in circumstances like his would basically become wards of the state. The name the state gave them was also often deliberately chosen to make it difficult for their birth families to reunite with them, intentionally severing that bond and making the child belong to the state alone.

And that concept’s really interesting too, because.

Valjean skillfully manages 20000000 aliases in his effort to escape prison. He rejects the names the state tries to give him (Prisoner 24601, Prisoner 94360) and also skillfully hides his true name whenever it’s too dangerous to reveal it.

Javert only has one name, and it’s the name given to him by the State. He has accepted that name and refuses to go by any other. 

When someone asks for Javert’s name at the barricade, he doesn’t act like a normal spy and use an alias-- he just announces that “I am JAvert! here’s my identification card the government gave me that says “this man’s name is javert”

And agh, is this like...a parallel between Fantine and Javert?  Is their weird sincerity and lack of artifice, their unwillingness/inability to construct false personas, the way they’re 100 percent what you see in front of you, something they have in common?

Valjean has an entirely different kind of angst than they do. Valjean is very skilled at artifice and insincerity and constructing false personas, and very willing to employ it at all times. And he HATES himself for it.

He has so much pain and self-loathing about using aliases because he feels that all his identities are utter lies and he doesn’t deserve to use the names he uses. He refers  to what he does as  “stealing names,” turning himself into a living lockpick, breaking into the houses of honest people. When he confesses his past to Marius, he says this very Sad Thing:

“In spite of the fact that Fauchelevent lent me his name, I have no right to use it; he could give it to me, but I could not take it. A name is an I. (....) I have read a little, although I am a peasant; and you see that I express myself properly. I understand things. I have procured myself an education. Well, yes, to abstract a name and to place oneself under it is dishonest. Letters of the alphabet can be filched, like a purse or a watch. To be a false signature in flesh and blood, to be a living false key, to enter the house of honest people by picking their lock, never more to look straightforward, to forever eye askance, to be infamous within the I, no! no! no! no! no! It is better to suffer, to bleed, to weep, to tear one’s skin from the flesh with one’s nails, to pass nights writhing in anguish, to devour oneself body and soul.”

Valjean insists that it’s better to cause yourself horrific violent self-harm than go under a name that isn’t “true,” even though he spent most of his post-prison life living under aliases. And then you have characters like Fantine, who don’t necessarily even have “true names” at all. I’m not really sure what all this Means, but it’s like. ahhh ;_:

[daily-douma]

Demon With No Name

An analysis on Upper Moon Two: Douma

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba spoilers!!

Hello! ❤ I wanted to discuss the significance on Douma’s real name never being revealed to us in the KNY story.

I'd love it if you guys could share your thoughts on this with me please!

Before I start:

Disclaimer: I do not speak Japanese at all, I’m basing all quotes off of the first manga site i could find. Translations may vary depending on the source. Also I may not be aware of alternate meanings of words that may have been lost in translation for the most important quotes! So please forgive me if I misinterpret something!!

A lot of the demons in KNY’s story are either nameless, or go by an alias that isn’t their real name. Examples of the former include most minor demons, such as the Temple Demon, Swamp Demon, Older brother/sister, Mother, and Father Spider demons, etc. Examples of the latter are mostly are more relevant Upper moon demons-- Daki, Akaza, and Kokushibou, whose real names are Ume, Hakuji, and Michikatsu respectively. The other upper moons, Nakime, Gyokko, and Hantengu, however, don’t have their human names revealed, along with Douma. However, these 3, did not hold as much story significance as Douma.

Then in addition to that, there are some demons who go by their human names still, such as Rui and Kaigaku. I assume it is because they are young enough relative to other demons age that they haven’t forgotten it (or maybe they just like their human names lol).

(I don’t know if Gyutaro’s name is his actual name or a fake name and, if it is a fake name, I don’t remember if his real name is actually given, which is weird because his sister’s was. But that’s a topic for another day.)

However, Douma, who holds the rank of Upper Moon 2, is one of the most relevant demons in the story, yet his real name is never disclosed. Even in the Kimetsu Acadmeny chapter extras, is stated that his AU version’s real name is unknown.

So, why is that? Douma even said so himself that he has great memory. He remembered many details of his life but he failed to ever disclose to us his name. Was that one thing he did forget? Was it not important to him? Did he simply not have a real name before becoming a demon? (Maybe his parents thought he was above having a normal human name?) And most importantly, was this intentionally done by Kyoharu Gotouge?

Before I continue, first we should know the meaning behind Douma’s name. His name is officially 童磨. According to the Kimetsu no Yaiba wiki,  童 ( dō ) means “child,” and 磨 (ma) which can mean “polishe,” “grind,” or “improve.” (Someone also said it can mean magic but I don’t have the source im sorry :( ) Based on these, Douma’s name has a meaning somewhere along the lines of “magical child” or “polished child.” This is most likely to reference how his parents thought he had divine powers at his birth.

For most people, your name is one of the most significant aspect of one’s identity. It’s the first bit of information you to give to anybody upon introduction. However, Douma’s unknown name is a demonstration of his own lack of personal identity.

If we take a look back at Douma’s childhood, he’s been put on as the figurehead of the Eternal Paradise cult from the day he could even sit up. His entire life he was put on a pedestal for an identity he did not make for himself, but one manufactured and forced onto him by his parents. In chapter 142, Douma admits that he can’t speak to the Gods or have any spiritual connections that his parents believe he has. In fact, he doesn’t even believe in any of it. If that’s the case, why does he seem so fixated on the idea of bringing his troubled followers to “paradise” as his sole reason for being born?

Earlier I mentioned that one large aspect of identity is our name. However, another important aspect in defining our identity is the personal relationships we have around us. Who we value and surround ourselves will shape our own individual perceptions of ourselves. However, Douma, who has admitted to having limited capability in feeling emotions, is unable to form meaningful bonds with people around him. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is story where most, if not all, the main themes revolve around love, family, and friendship being the main motivators to drive characters in the pursuit of goals. However, here we have a character who serves as a direct antithesis to of all these themes. He has nobody he loves and nobody who loves him.

In chapter 157, Kanao calls out Douma in their fight, telling him she can see through the fake persona he puts on. She then proceeds to question him: “Why were you even born?” (damn....) Douma gave clearly visible cues that he was not pleased with what she had to say. The important observation to take from this scene is Douma’s reaction. The man who was just revealed to not feel any emotions, who is usually unbothered by harsh words thrown at him from demon slayers and other members of the upper moons alike, showed an emotional response to the cutting words of a child questioning his existence.

Based on this reaction, I think there is reason to believe Douma has an innate dissatisfaction with his own identity, or moreso his lack of identity. From his childhood, he’s been more than aware of how he cannot feel emotions the same as others. Even in his dying thoughts in chapter 163, he thinks back on how he was “always been this way.” He thinks about how human emotions to him were nothing more than  “mere dreams.”

I think should we take a close look at the word choice used here. He could have simply said something along the lines of “I’ve never felt emotions;” however Gotouge specifically phrased it as a metaphor comparing it to dreams. This word choice conveys a sense of longing associated with the idea of being able to experience emotion. This suggests that there is a chance he did wish for a better understanding of emotions. After all, like Kanao said, what’s the point of living if one can’t truly indulge in all of life’s pleasures associated with the emotional bonds we build with one another?

However, what does all this of this have to do with Douma not having a name? Douma not having a name is symbolic of his entire character. He is a man with no true identity of his own. He was unable to maintain any close, meaningful, interpersonal relationships with anyone around him in the hundreds of years he lived. He lived every day with a false persona knowing deep down inside of him knowing he was different from everyone else around him, but not in the “spiritual way” that was expected of him. And in his own Nihilistic opinion, he felt his own life was pointless. But as a direct contradiction to those beliefs, he continues to lie to himself, telling himself the people need him to save them. It’s ironic--Douma, the man who mocked demon slayers’ efforts to do whatever they can to achieve their goals, is doing the most to do whatever he can to mask the emptiness he feels inside. His boastfulness of his cult, his over-acting of emotions, and his insistence of friendly and polite conversation even in the face of insults and attacks from opponents all demonstrate this. While he may not be able to process and understand emotions like most people, there is one thing that Douma appears to have in common with many people: wanting a sense of purpose and meaningfulness in life.

While Douma’s reason for becoming a demon is never explicitly disclosed in the manga, I think we have reason to suspect him of becoming a demon for the purpose of finding an identity to call his own. Muzan Kibutsuji is notorious for taking advantage of humans who are at their lowest points in their life. They have lost everything that mattered to them and have no one else to turn to. However, it was a different case with Douma--a man with no loved ones, no purpose, no real identity--already had nothing to lose to in the first place.

Despite all Douma thought he though he “dedicated [...] to people and made contributions to the world,” in the end, his choice to become a demon never brought him the sense of identity and purpose he sought out by the time of his death. Unlike even other demons, who had family members they could happily reunite with in death, he would simply be forgotten from the rest of the world. Sure, maybe the demon slayers will remember him as Douma, one of the strongest demons. However,there was not a single person who knew the real Douma, the real name behind the man who served as Upper Moon 2 under Muzan. He will just continue to remain nameless even in death. A cruel reminder of how any way Muzan’s involvement in any other demon’s life did nothing to improve any of their lives, if not worsen it.

I don’t think I worded this well but I hope it still makes sense to everyone 🥺

[bittybattybunny]

Good day it’s a new au time cuz BRAIN ROT BRRRRR

Anyhow it’s a “MCU” but not kinda au

big thanks to @doodleimprovement for dealing with my word vomit over this au lol iamsosorry

Ru is a tech company CEO giant with his daughter Harriet (his business partner is his former wife who wants nothing to do with their kid) and adopted the recently orphaned Kaya Solaria after she helped stop a mugger in the alley way (well. Spider King did but her mask got hit off by a bullet and Ru saw it was just a kid and stepped in)

Working on running a company, raising his 6 year old as well as a super powered 15 year old (Kaya actually has Spiderman’s powers, King came after the fact and is tied to how she lost her dad) he ends up getting injured on a business trip after he was taken captive. Upon return he decides to try and ‘be a hero’ as a means to get his eldest to stop sneaking out (she has guilt over her dad dying so tries to be a hero to make up for it despite Ru asking her to wait until she’s 18 at least)  he figures if he can get the world (or at least their city) safer, she can rest at ease (cuz he’s a good dad and just wants her to... be a kid. not try to be more than a kid) he uses the Alias “Thorned Snatcher” (as his last name is Thatcher)

Vanessa however wants his new tech as she thinks its the key to a new weapons future and nearly kills Ru when she rips the reactor from his chest. Thankfully he had his old model still and his secretary (Eclipse) and daughters get home in time to help him. he knows if he doesn’t stop Vanessa things will be even worse for his family.

During their fight, he’s knocked down and nearly stops there to tired, but hears his daughters crying for him, specifically for the first time since he adopted her Kaya calls him “Dad”. He knows he needs to keep to his goal and if Vanessa is left free he failed a father.

He manages to get up with the Help of Eclipse who joined the fight, having stalled Vanessa hand to hand despite Vanessa’s weapon suit (sus eclipse is sus) and he’s able to fight again and put an end to her.

he gives Kaya a stipulation when they are waiting on the cops, he’ll let her fight crime, but only when he’s with her.

and thats the first part of this au eve (second bit deals with miss secretary past. A woman who is able to give Kaya a sore hand with a high five despite kaya can stop some extensive things (likepeterstoppingbucky’sfist) and went toy to toy with Vanessa with just a hub cap. Hrm. Cap. Cap. Captain...?)

I actually wrote up when Ru met Kaya. It’s a lil fast pace but I did it on purpose.

“If ya just hand ova ya wallet and yer valuables, you and yers can get out of here with a scar on your little faces.”

Arulius sighed as he heard the mugger and moved an arm to push his 6 year old behind his back. He gently gestured to his watch with a finger, to which she tapped a button on to call their bodyguard, Florence. 

“I’m afraid I really don’t have time for this. Harriet has a dance recit--” Arulius clicked his tongue when the gun was pressed up into his neck.

“I’m bein generous, man.” he pressed it further, pulling the hammer back.

“That’s not very polite! Did your dad never tell you not to stick your shooter in people’s faces?” Came a laughing voice. The mugger gasped when black webbing stuck to his back and pulled him to the ground. 

Standing perpendicular to the wall was the dark-suited figure, glowing white eyes and jagged smile laughing.

“D-Dad! Dad, it’s Spider King!” Harriet giggled as she hung onto her dad’s leg. He scowled and went to step back.

“YA FREAK!” The mugger tried to fight against the restraints, the primed gun going off in the hero’s direction.

There was a hiss as the masked figure fell off the wall with a solid thud. Arulius scooped Harriet up, only stopping when he saw the vigilante's face, the bullet having knocked her mask off.

“A… A kid?” he grimaced. Why was a CHILD attacking a mugger? Before he could open his mouth to speak there was a hissing.

“N-No King don’t! I’m fine! I’m fine!” the teenager gasped as the black claws she had tore off in slimy chunks, lunging at the mugger. She winced with the crunch as his hands were removed and she paled some, shaking.

Arulius shielded his daughter’s eyes.

“BOSS!” The red head came barreling down the alley, a bit too late when Spider King tried to grab her mask. 

“Stop.” Arulius ordered her. She looked up with frightened gold eyes. The tentacles retracting up her sleeves, “wait a moment.”

“Oh gross!” Florence shuddered as she moved to get the mugger up, the man an incoherent mess, “you do this?” she asked the teenager whose temple was bleeding.

She said nothing and gripped her arms as she tried to process. She blinked when tiny hands went to her cheeks.

“BIG SIS IS SO COOL!” Harriet giggled. Her father was talking on his phone.

“I-I’m.. No…” she looked away ashamed, “Y-You… I’m… I just… wanted to help…” she began to sniffle, “I-I didn’t mean for king to…”

“He hurt Sol. Bite back.” The snake-like creature peeked from the girl’s collar.

“I-I told you no biting h---” she placed her hands over her mouth and scurried to her feet, violently vomiting into a trash can. She panted some. Tensing when a hand rubbed her back gently.

“Yes. yes. He shot his own hands off in his confusion. Must be high.” Arulius was standing near her now as he spoke on the phone, “My guard was able to restrain him. Yes. yes I’m fine as is my daughter and the teen he was attacking. Mmhm.”

She flinched when he scowled and tilted her head up, “scratch that, looks like the teen got a bit hurt, but we’ll treat her. Yes. yes. I’ll leave my guard here.” hanging up he shifted his phone to his pocket before licking his thumb and wiping the blood away. She winced.

“O-Ow don’t! That stings!” she whined as tears pooled in her eyes.

King hissed and went to bite him but stopped when the girl sniffled. He nuzzled her cheek as Arulius let go. 

“Come on.” he pointed towards the black car that pulled around, “let’s go and then I’m calling your parents.”

She gripped her arms and stood firm, “T-Thanks for calling the police b-but you better f-forget you saw me, Mr. Thatcher.” she chuckled nervously, brushing black hair from her face.

“You know who I am?”

“O-Of course I do! Who wouldn’t?! Thatcher tech is my dream job!” she gasped, “I-I was a-at your summer program--” she covered her mouth.

He clicked his tongue, “the one for highschoolers?” he asked. She whined and moved to run but bumped into Florence who huffed.

“Give me your parent’s number.” Arulius sighed.

“I… I don’t…” she chewed her lip. She was quiet.

“Where do you live at least? I’ll drop you off.” he shook his head.

“PARK!” King chirped.

“Hush!” She fretted.

“The park? You live in the park?” Harriet asked as she stood near the teenager’s legs, “That’s not fun!”

“W-well i-I couldn’t stay at m-my apartment…” The teen frowned. She winced when she was pushed towards the car. Whining and trying to deflect she found herself sitting in the back. Harriet crawled in and grinned as Arulius sat in the passenger’s seat.

“No parents. No house. Now I get why a damn kid is running at muggers.” he rubbed his temples with a groan, “name?”

She was quiet.

“I’m not calling you ‘spider king’ name.” he asked a bit firmer.

“S-Solaria…” she mumbled, “K-Kaya Solaria…” she wiped the tears with the back of her gloves, “A-Are you going to turn me in?? I-I don’t mean any harm Mr. Thatcher! I-I promise! I-I normally do fine!!!”

“How old are you?” He opened the window and put a cigarette in his mouth and leaned out as he lit it up. “Under 18 if you were at the company summer program.”

“I… I turned 15 last month…” she admitted ashamed. 

“You’re a few years older than me!” Harriet beamed, “I’m 6!” she grinned.

“I’m more like a decade older…” Kaya chuckled nervously. She looked at the tech company CEO. he had pulled a laptop out and made another annoyed click with his tongue. She winced.

“Your father…. Gabriel Solaria?” he leaned back, “the journalist?”

She nodded.

“Damn shame. He was a decent guy. His stories were interesting.” he flicked through the news reports as Florence got in the driver’s seat.

“Done with the cops?” he asked, “stop by the courthouse.”

“Huh?” she started the engine, “courthouse.”

“P-Please! D-Don’t turn me in! I-I’ll b---”

“I need to grab some adoption papers.” he gave a smirk and looked back at the crying teen, “Since it seems Harriet's getting an older sister. But no more crime fighting.” he shifted to cross his arms and put his feet on the dash. “15… fucking 15. You know what I did at 15??”

“Built a rocket engine that was able to lift a treadmill?” she stated with a small smile.

He blinked and snickered, “okay, yes but I was also just. Going to sch--- do you go to school?”

“I-I’ve been attending school still.” she scratched her cheek, “Um… Subcon Public high…” she sank back in the seat. She jumped when Harriet sat on her and protectively put her arms around the younger girl. She shifted her seat belt around her as well when Florence pulled into traffic.

“Well you’ll have to transfer. Is that an issue?”

She shook her head, “U-Um mr. Thatcher… what… are you planning?” she asked softly.

“Adopting a lost child, and making sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.” he snickered, “Any school you want to attend?”

“I… i you can’t! Y-You just met me!” she gasped in shock, “I-I’m a freak! I’m an accident! I-I have an alien!”

“Meeee” king stated proudly with a cackle.

“Yes but you know what I see? I see a scared kid who’s trying a little too hard.” he scoffed as she stared, “and we’re going to grab adoption papers, then I’m ordering pizza. Any allergies?”

“EAT EVERYTHING,” King laughed.

“Perfect then.” Arulius huffed, “and you can call me Arulius. Since I guess calling me dad off the bat would be weird.” he began to type on his laptop.

She sat there in confusion. She’d simply gone to help someone. And now her idol was adopting her. Her. a mutant spider freak with a parasitic alien.

She reached and pinched her cheek and whined.

Arulius caught this in the rear view and began to cackle loudly.

“Sorry kiddo. You’re awake.”

“B-But why are you just adopting me and not turning me into a lab or something?!” she asked fearfully.

“Dad’s nicer than he looks~!” Harriet giggled, “Can you shoot webs?”

“Mmhm.” Kaya shifted her gloves off and removed the cuff under her sleeve, “its um. An artificial webbing actually, unless King is the one shooting it. He has a gooey webbing.” 

Arulius peeked and reached a hand back. She frowned before handing the cuff to him.

He turned it over in his hands with an impressed whistle, “you construct this?”

She nodded, “I-I like engineering and I figured it’d be useful when king’s tired, i-it’s bio degradable too! But really strong!”

“That's how you swing around right?” Harriet asked with sparkling eyes, “What else can you do?!”

“Well I can walk on walls.” Kaya sighed, “I’m pretty strong too? I can lift a car if I focus. I can move fast?” she frowned, “I’ve never really… tho-- STOP THE CAR!” She gasped.

Florence slammed on the brakes as the truck at the intersection sped by.

“There’s um that. Normally I can semi tell something can happen.” Kaya frowned, “s-sorry for yelling.”

“No, by all means!” Florence laughed, “So. Spider King huh?”

“W-well it’s cuz I’m spider-esque and then King.” she pet the alien who chirped.

“What’s his deal?” Arulius asked but got silence, “alright another day then.” 

Florence parked the car as Arulius got out.

“Wait here,” he stated and Kaya just gave a nod. He threw her web shooter back and she caught it with wide eyes, “You’re grounded from crime fighting until you’re 18, but I won’t take your web shooters.”

“Ah… okay…?” she blinked as he shut the door and headed up. She leaned into the seat and just sat there. Very confused.

“Can I call you big sis? Or kai??” Harriet asked the older girl.

“Oh… um… I guess you can call me whatever….”

“Kaya’s a cute name.” Florence chuckled, “Crime fighting though. What a hobby.”

“I… I just wanted to help people…” she admitted softly, “I have these abilities so I thought I needed to…”

“Can you swing with me when we get home? We have a big tree in the yard!” Harriet giggled, “can you sign my daily bugle of you??”

“I’d rather not…” Kaya chuckled.

“Sleepy.” King huffed.

“Exhausted,” Kaya admitted as she shut her eyes. She barely registered she’d fallen asleep.

After a bit Arulius returned with the needed paperwork. He blinked and smiled as he looked in the back seat. The superhero passed out, his daughter sleeping against her.

Kaya’s arm rested around Harriet, and even King was putting his head on the girl.

“Well, not the oddest thing I’ve ever dealt with.” he spoke softly as Florence started the car once more. He flipped through the papers, “seems people had no idea she was on her own. Thought her uncle had her but turns out he lied and was just taking the financial support.” he grumbled, “there’s some messy hearings but I think I can just. Pay it off.” he looked back and gave a smile, “hey free babysitter.” he snickered.

------

He tapped his foot as he crossed his arms with a huff.

“Kaya.”

She looked away ashamed.

“What did I say?”

“No webbing in the house unless you’re watching.” she mumbled.

“And then why is the house covered in webs?” he asked with a twitch of his eyebrow.

“I-I was just playing with Hattie!” she defended. She huffed and he smirked. She seemed a bit more settled in if she was copping an attitude, “I-I’ll clean it up! I promise Mr. Thatcher!”

“Arulius. I told you, use my first name. You’re my kid now you know.” he sighed and headed inside.

She stepped aside and rubbed her neck, looking at the floor, “I-I can’t just… call you your name… that’s rude…”

“You’re my kid now, it’s weirder if you keep calling me “Mr. Thatcher” I’m not asking you to call me dad but.” he chuckled.

“THOT!” king sang loudly as the teen’s face turned red.

“I-I didn’t teach him that! I swear!”

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Pairings: None

Word Count: 1,835 Words

Summary: Off to a chaotic start, I see. Bakugou gets dared to start a 1-A group chat. The beginnings, Shinsou gains a father figure, and the bakusquad is chaotic.

Warnings: Dead Body Mention, Death Mention, Cursing, Anxiety Attack Mention, Caps, Mental Breakdown Mention, Fire Mention, Choking Mention, Injury Mention, Murder Mention, let me know if I should tag anything else.

Notes: Shigaraki's alias in the group chat is Ren and Dabi's alias is Haruhi. ¥11,055 is about $100 and ¥110,550 is about $1,000 on the day I wrote this.

Usernames: Area 51   Ashido: aggressive chicken dance, Kaminari: pikachoo, Kirishima: ordained, Jirou: neko neko kneecaps, Sero: wine and cheerios, Bakugou: mother i crave violence, Shinsou: its a mental breakdown

Usernames: Emo Sanctuary  Jirou: tell tale heart, Tokoyami: eldritch peep, Todoroki: i love you 3000, Bakugou: knife tag, Midoriya: bitchasaurus, Shinsou: unhappy meal, Kuroiro: meth and deadamine, Shigaraki: depresso extra shot, Dabi: *sad kazoo*

Into The Group Chat We Go: Chapter 1

1:45 AM

Emo Sanctuary

i love you 3000: I require attention.

unhappy meal: is that so?

i love you 3000: Yes, it is, otherwise I wouldn't have said it.

unhappy meal: @bitchasaurus, your man is sad.

bitchasaurus: He's not my man, Shinsou. Pretty sure he's no one's man, actually. And it's not like I'd have time for a relationship anyway.

i love you 3000: True. I'm not in a relationship.

unhappy meal: regardless, get your friend. the man wants attention.

bitchasaurus and i love you 3000 are now offline

*sad kazoo*: I dare someone to start a group chat with 1a and say something weird.

knife tag: Would I get paid for this?

*sad kazoo*: I'll give you anywhere from 11,05 yen to 110,550 yen.

knife tag: Deal.

2:00 AM

Bakugou has started a group chat

Bakugou has added Hanta, Mina, Eijiro, Denki, and 15 others to the chat

Bakugou has renamed the group chat to Area 51

Bakugou: His body is ready to be taxidermied. It's what Shinsou would've wanted.

Sero: What the fucketh?

Aoyama: Quoi?

Midoriya is now online

Midoriya: You didn't add Shinsou, you ass.

Bakugou: Oops, fuck.

Bakugou has added Shinsou to Area 51

Shinsou: hi I guess.

Aoyama: So your corpse is not being stuffed by Bakugou at the moment?

Shinsou: I mean, he can always taxidermy me while I'm alive. it's not like I'd stop him.

Midoriya: He's not. Kacchan was dared with cash to start this group chat and say something weird. Goodnight, filthy heathens.

Midoriya is now offline

Ojiro: Wow, Midoriya isn't messing around.

Aoyama: I feel ✨insulted✨ being called a filthy heathen.

Ojiro: I mean, it is an insult, Aoyama.

Aoyama: Yes, Ojiro, I understood that.

Sero: Why on earth are you two awake?

Ojiro: Because I can't sleep?

Aoyama: I got hungry.

Sero: Well, go to bed.

2:15 AM

Emo Sanctuary

knife tag: It's done.

knife tag: chatscreenshot.jpg

*sad kazoo* has sent a money transfer to knife tag

*sad kazoo*: Your money's pending to whatever card is attached to your number.

knife tag: moneytransferscreenshot.jpg

eldritch peep: wow, you really sent him 11,055 yen?

knife tag: This man's out here fueling my savings since UA instituted the no job rule since the dorms went into effect.

unhappy meal: they instituted a no job rule!? that's why I got that paper!? I thought that was a joke!

*sad kazoo*: Better put in a two weeks, kid.

unhappy meal: I literally can't. if I don't work, I don't have a way of feeding myself!

*sad kazoo*: Can't you ask your parents to send you food money, Toshi?

unhappy meal: okay, Haruhi, I know you weren't here when we started this chat with just me, Katsuki, Shouto, and Izuku so you don't know but I literally don't have parents, man. I lived in an orphanage until the beginning of the school year and, after I got in, I began renting an apartment near the school so I could attend. which means I'll lose my apartment where my cat and dog stay and it has all my stuff in it too.

tell tale heart: He's having an anxiety attack, someone go get him. I don't know where his room is.

meth and deadamine: I'll check on him.

knife tag: On my way.

eldritch peep: I'm coming, hold on.

*sad kazoo*: I've finally become a father at 28. I knew this shit would happen eventually.

*sad kazoo* has sent a money transfer to unhappy meal

*sad kazoo*: That's your monthly allowance. Do whatever you want, kid.

unhappy meal: I'm gonna cry.

unhappy meal: moneytransferscreenshot.jpg

meth and deadmine: You got 110,550 yen!? Haruhi out here paying kids to exist.

*sad kazoo*: That sounds weird, don't say that. I'm here because I'm Ren's best friend and Ren is Izuku's brother. I've effectively adopted both Katsuki and Hitoshi, I'm not sending random kids money for no reason, they're my sons.

eldritch peep: Ignore him, Kuroiro likes making things sound weird. How does it feel to be a father, Haruhi?

*sad kazoo*: Fatherhood? Guess that means I need to shape up and be a dad, huh?

eldritch peep: Step the fuck up, Haruhi.

*sad kazoo*:  I am, I am. Toshi, kid, don't cry or whatever, everything's gonna be fine.

unhappy meal: thanks, dad.

*sad kazoo*: My heart hurts. Why does it hurt? What the fuck is this feeling?

knife tag: It's called pride. It's because you're happy.

*sad kazoo*: This child is mine now, I'm going to find a way to legally adopt you.

unhappy meal: that would actually be really cool if you did.

*sad kazoo*: Looks like I'm re-evaluating my life tonight so I can make it hospitable for a son. I'm gonna go see if I can figure out how to fix some shit. Night, kids.

knife tag: hitoshicryingabouthavingadadnow.vid

Transcript Begin

"Hito, it's okay." -eldritch peep

"I have a dad now, Fumi." -unhappy meal

"We know, Shinsou." -meth and deadamine

"I have a dad." -unhappy meal

"Time to sleep, Toshi." -knife tag

"Okay. Time to sleep." -unhappy meal

Transcript End

*sad kazoo*: I love my son. Take care of him.

8:25 AM

Area 51

Ashido: ALERT- MY ALARMS DIDN'T GO OFF, PLEASE STALL AIZAWA FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES

this message has been marked as an emergency

Shinsou: On it.

8:40 AM

Area 51

Ashido: What'd you do to distract him, Shinsou?

Shinsou: Oh, gave myself an anxiety attack.

Ashido: SHINSOU!

Shinsou: It was an emergency! You'd be in detention right now if I hadn't. plus I had one last night too so it wasn't hard to do.

Ashido: Shinsou, don't ever do that for me again but thank you. You're getting big bakusquad hugs at lunch.

Shinsou: It's not like it was difficult. I got lots to break down about.

Ashido: Me too, bitch.

4:00 PM

Area 51

Shinsou has changed their name to its a mental breakdown

Ashido: Oh my god, Shinsou.

its a mental breakdown: I figured while I'm at it.

Ashido: Speaking of at it.

Ashido has changed Kaminari's name to pikachoo

Ashido has changed Jirou's name to neko neko kneecaps

Ashido has changed Sero's name to wine and cheerios

Ashido has changed Bakugou's name to mother i crave violence

Ashido has changed their name to aggressive chicken dance

Kirishima: Could you not think of one for me?

aggressive chicken dance: More like can't decide.

Kirishima has changed their name to ordained

pikachoo: You're ordained, Kiri?

ordained: Yeah. I got ordained for my moms' wedding in a few months.

pikachoo: So cool, dude.

ordained: Oh, Shinsou, dude, you said you had an anxiety attack last night, you good, man?

its a mental breakdown: one sec.

4:05 PM

Emo Sanctuary

unhappy meal: can I talk about it, Zuku?

bitchasaurus: Yeah, why not? Because it involves Ren? It's not a big deal, Hitoshi!

unhappy meal: just making sure, some people don't like their personal lives talked about by other people.

bitchasaurus: I don't mind, Hitoshi.

4:09 PM

Area 51

its a mental breakdown: alright. so we had a chat from right after the sports festival with just me, Midoriya, Bakugou, and Todoroki which became an emo chatroom when we added Tokoyami, Jirou, and Kuroiro.

its a mental breakdown: And then Midoriya got in contact with his older brother, Ren and added him and Ren's best friend Haruhi to the chat because he wanted to show off Ren but Ren didn't feel comfortable talking without Haruhi lurking in the chat.

its a mental breakdown: you guys probably don't know but I was an orphan from a really really young age because my parents died when I was young and my other family members didn't want me. and at the beginning of this year, when I got into UA, I moved out of the orphanage, got an apartment close to campus and all, I'd had a job for two years prior.

its a mental breakdown: and last night, Haruhi gave Bakugou 11,055 yen as a dare to start this chat. then Bakugou and Haruhi were talking about the no-job rule because of the dorms and I'd thought it was a joke when I got the paper so I didn't have anything saved up and I don't exactly have parents I can ask for money if I need to buy food and I'm definitely not asking my friends and bothering them.

its a mental breakdown: I mean, I have enough I could coast for a month or two without pay but I feel like Aizawa would kill me for not eating right.

its a mental breakdown: anyway, I had my anxiety attack, Haruhi sent me money, Kuroiro made a sentence creepy like always, and Haruhi called me and Bakugou his sons. him, Jirou and Tokoyami joked about him being a dad for a bit and then he actually told me when I went back online that he wanted to legally adopt me.

mother i crave violence: Thus why I didn't wake up Pinky this morning. I was busy in the Gen Ed dorms with my new brother.

its a mental breakdown: I will have another breakdown, don't tempt me.

ordained: Shinsou, man, that's so awesome! You have a dad! We should have a party for Shinsou getting a dad!

its a mental breakdown: if it makes you guys happy then go for it but if you go crazy with the party again. we already had the incident on my birthday, we're not having another.

Asui: What incident, kero?

its a mental breakdown: Kirishima's hair got set on fire at some point, Sero got tangled onto the railing of my balcony and was hanging from my fifth floor apartment's balcony railing, Mina choked on a piece of burnt tofu, Kaminari slipped in the bathroom and fell into the full bathtub where he then electrocuted himself, Bakugou got his face shoved into the cake and sat in the corner pouting while my cat Ume and dog Anzu tried to eat the cake off his face for the rest of the night, Jirou got lost inside my apartment building, and I hit my head on the counter and had a concussion for a week.

Hagakure: Why is your friend group so chaotic?

mother i crave violence: I like to think I've cultivated a well-functioning group of chaotic demons. At least if one of us is doing something dumb, usually the rest will either follow or do something dumb of their own.

neko neko kneecaps: I'd like to plead innocent as well as shift majority blame to Midoriya's friend group because I just know those idiots could and would collectively kill and hide a body and nobody would ever know it was them.

Midoriya: Bold of you to assume we haven't already.

neko neko kneecaps: Yeah, hi, mom, pick me up, I'm afraid of Midoriya again.

Midoriya: You can run, Jirou, but you can't hide.

neko neko kneecaps: You can't kill me, Bakugou would be sad!

Midoriya: You may live...for now.

neko neko kneecaps: Oh, thank the gods.

Taglist: @lgbtforeverything @rin-tanaka

[thehollowsoldat]

Jakob Lee

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓 ――   Repost, don’t reblog;  

tagged by @/griim

tagging:

[A lot of this is similar to Bucky’s because of how they are. But, since there’s a number of differences, we’re getting real deets]

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒 ――

FULL NAME.  Jakob Lee [Barnes]/Yakov Balabanov (verse depends. If he's Yakov, he'll at some point change to Jakob)

NICKNAMES.   JL. Call him Jake and he'll cuss you out.

ALIAS(ES).   WS-2, Wolf Spider, Winter Scout

SEX.  Male

SIZE. Full height will be 5′9′‘ (616), 6'0" (MCU)

AGE.  19, age dependent on verse

ZODIAC.  Sagittarius  

SPOKEN LANGUAGES.  Speaks without an accent, Moscow, or American (Midwest). Russian and English are his first languages. Programming gave him the laundry list of German, French, Arabic, Spanish, Farsi, Dari, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese. “I can tell you to die in 12 languages~”

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ――

HAIR COLOUR.  Brown, initially crew cut. Prefers mid-length. Sometimes to his shoulders. Wavy/curls. Wears it loose or in a ponytail when long.

FACIAL HAIR: Clean shaven or stubble.

EYE COLOUR.   Dark Brown (616), Blue (MCU). Tends to wear eye makeup.

SKIN TONE.   Pale, tans.

BODY TYPE.   Athletic/muscular. Not done growing. If he was a normal college kid, you'd think he's pretty built for his age. Compared to the Soldier, he’s scrawny. Tends to wear baggy clothing, especially a big black hoodie.

VOICE. Feral. Talks quickly and a lot, uses slang and an irreverent/bratty way of talking. Cracks when nervous or scared. Every other word is a curse. If he calls you “sir/ma’am,” 9/10 times it’s 100% disrespect. 

DOMINANT HAND.   Right hand but ambidextrous

POSTURE. Slouch, hands in his pockets. Saunters.

SCARS.  Quite a few from gunshot and knife wounds (slashing and stabbing), cigarette burns on his foot soles.

TATTOOS.  None

PIERCINGS. Time is complicated. Fresh out of the Red Room, he has none. Gets simple earrings to start, about a year out of there.

Will eventually get several earrings (multiple lobe and helix, industrial), nipples, belly button, septum, lips (shark bites but usually wears as snake or spider bites). "What do you do to belong to yourself? Stick holes in you." He'll usually wear studs in his lobes and leave the rest out on missions.

BIRTHMARKS.   None

MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURES. Eyes - pretty, angry, too old for his face. Face and voice are very expressive unless someone’s making him be serious/mission mode. Then, he’s focused and cold.

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ――

PLACE OF BIRTH. [REDACTED] Russia

HOMETOWN. [REDACTED] Russia

SIBLINGS.  Red Room recruits. "What d'ya mean you want actual relationships? Ugh." Specifically Faina/@khakerskayavdova and Antonia Dreykov (MCU).

As a Clone: Bucky Barnes (Brother), Rebecca Barnes (Sister)

PARENTS.  Unknown (Standard Red Room acquired at birth) or Winter Soldier (genetic clone/donor)

A𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ――

OCCUPATION. Adventurer. Trying to get the idea of what he wants to do.

CURRENT RESIDENCE(S). Hobo/Street "kid" or a Red Room facility. Freeloads at several apartments and safe houses in New York City. House in Shelbyville, Indiana. Doesn't own these things, they're Bucky's.

CLOSE FRIENDS. "I don't have friends." Sure. He’s weird about normal kids. Not sure how to deal with them so he ignores him.

FINANCIAL STATUS.  Freeloader or Urchin when he’s not an Asset.

DRIVER’S LICENSE. Yes, plus motorcycle, aircraft, and boat training for traditional and combat roles.

CRIMINAL RECORD. "What do you think?"

VICES. Anger, impulsiveness, recklessness, smoking, drinking, fighting

𝐒𝐄𝐗 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ――

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Bisexual.

PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. Flirtatious cocky son of a bitch. “Who do you want me to be?”

PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE.  Switch

LIBIDO. High

TURN-OFFS. "What’s a turnoff?" He has them but refuses to answer the question.

LOVE LANGUAGE. Words, Gestures, Cuddles.

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. "Emotional connection? I don't know her!!" Tends to go for ‘hurt people before they hurt him’ approach. Drives them away so they don’t see that he’s really hurting under all that anger. Kid needs therapy, not a ‘Relationship’. He’s really touch starved and needs love but “Any attention is good attention.”

𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒 ――

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley

HOBBIES TO PASS TIME. Training, Piano

MENTAL ILLNESSES. Complex and Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), Anger issues, Depression, Depersonalization, Anxiety.

LEFT OR RIGHT-BRAINED. Irrelevant

SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL. High.

[silvermoonartworks]

Hayatama Island and Crest

Hello, I’m back again talking about Hayatama Island, a island where my Fire Emblem Three Houses’s OC came from. This time, I;m going to talk about Hayatama Island as well culture on there.

As you can guess from the island name and also when you reading all the information on my previous post, Hayatama Island is heavily based on Japanese culture. From the culture to the government, me and my friend decided to base them from there.

As you see from this map, Hayatama Island is located between Foldan. Almyra and Morfis. They relative small island and very isolated at first due to very big incident in the past. Involving the dead of their island patron, a pair of Nabatea named Izanami and Izanagi.

Hayatama Kingdom Banner and Amber Phesant’s Banner

As I previously mention. Amber Pheasant ‘s symbol is a pheasant bird. According to Hayatama’s history, this type of bird has help the first ruler of Hayatama finish his quest and receive the crest of Izanami, that become the sole prove that some one is a member of Imperial Family, the monarch who rule this Island.  

Original crest for this Headcanon, from right : Izanami, Izanagi, Hirume, Yugetsu, and Muto

Before we get into the original Crest that me and my friend made for this head canon. I want to explain about this island constitution state and the line of succession.

This place ruled by pair of Emperor/Empress and Shogun. Both of monarch succession as well other Noble family that lived in this island is base on their : crest -> Their birth mother status -> lastly their birth order, the eldest got to be crown as the successor (I don’t know how to translate them in English. I’m sorry).  

For Example with our four noble kid :

Takuto born with a minor crest of Izanami, she born as youngest daughter from Fujiwara family and born from official wife of her father. Her elder brother, possessed the major crest of Izanami, so he become the crown prince instead of her.

Yukiie born with major crest of Izanagi, he born as youngest son from house of Matsudaira but crown as Matsudaira heir because his mother is the only official wife of his father. All of his older siblings from is out from favor to be successor because they either born with a minor crest or being born form a concubine.

Saiko from house of Hasiba, born with major crest of Hirume. She born as eldest daughter of her mom, the current head of Hasiba Family with her official husband. Because of that, She been crown as the heir of Hasiba Family. 

lastly, Tadamori born with minor crest of Yugetsu, he born as eldest son from his mother, the official wife of his father. But he soon out of favor as successor line because his younger brother, born with a major crest.

I hope the explanation wasn’t weird, I get really struggle explaining it in English. Now I’m going to explain about each crest patron and little bit history why these Nabathean could live in there.

Long time ago, the goddess Sothis visit the island of Hayatama. Thru her kindness she help the people who live in the island to prosper. The people who lived in the island respectfully call her as ‘Okami-sama’ and build a temple under her name. Before she left, she gave birth to several Nabathean to help island people, including the pair Izanami and Izanagi who eventually become patron foundation of Hayatama’s kingdom establishment.

Now let me give insight about the each patron,

Crest of Izanami - The Crest from Izanami, originally came from Izanami. She gave the first Emperor her crest as thank you for helping her husband, Izanagi at war. She granted him to create Hayatama kingdom for humanity prosper . 

Crest of Izanagi - Izanagi is the patron of this crest, a blood knight who enjoy a good fight. He gave it to the first Shogun, his best buddy because she’s dying on the battlefield. Just like his wife, he grant permission of Hayatama Kingdom creation for humanity prosper.

Crest of Hirume - Hirume is the eldest daughter of Izanami and Izanagi. She knows every single island culture and festival by heart because she helping her parents to create them. The Patron of the Hasiba temple and family, she along side her brothers sometimes giving their opinion and order to emperor and shogun.

Crest of Yugetsu - Yugetsu the second son of Izanami and Izanagi. when Hirume know every single culture, he record and preserve every single history of Hayatama in his roll like diary. The patron of knowledge and education of Hayatama as well the Owari family. He often pretend to be human lecture of Hayatama school under alias ‘Mochizuki’. Had beef with the Hayatama’s scholar.

Crest of Muto - Muto, the youngest son of Izanami and Izanagi. He likes to travel around Hayatama island after his parents death. The patron of youth and Genke family. He currently settle back to Genke family to help taking care the current heir.

Aside five crest I mention above. There’s actually one more crest that we personally call, a lost crest of Matsudaira. I didn’t mention right in here because we haven’t finish creating the story for it.

I think thats all I can share about Hayatama’s culture for now. I will continue to talk about the character in next post.

[alexiessan]

Never alone - Chapter Eighteen - Soulmate AU

AO3

Previous - Here - Next

Master List

Marinette was at Kim’s house with her two childhood friends the day after Christmas. They exchanged gifts like they did every year — new headphones for Nino and a sports watch for Kim — and played video games while drinking hot chocolate and eating Mrs. Lê Chien’s famous gingerbread.

She was in the middle of beating Kim at UMSIII when she noticed that Nino seemed down. He wasn’t as happy as usual and was withdrawing from them a little.

She decided to ask him after the game was over.

“You ok there?”

Nino looked up at her and Kim looked at his friend too, frowning at the DJ.

“Yeah, you’ve been acting weird the whole time.”

The bespectacled boy sighed, fidgeting a little.

“I hate that I can’t hide anything from you guys.”

He played with his cap, a nervous tic he had ever since he started wearing caps.

“Something happened. Something huge, and I don’t know what to do.”

Kim and Marinette were silent, waiting for Nino to find the courage to tell them what he needed to.

The fashion designer had an idea about what happened, though.

“I… I met my soulmate,” he said. “You know how my soulbond is that I get things that my soulmate lost? And vice versa? Well, a while back, I lost my favorite cap, and the other day, I saw a girl wearing it.”

She heard Kim silently gasp next to her.

“So I went to her and asked how she got it and she told me that her soulmate lost it. When I told her it was mine, she was a bit skeptical, so I told her about things I got from her and… Yeah. She’s my soulmate. Her name is Léa.”

They were silent after that, not knowing if they should congratulate him or not. They knew that Nino loved Alya, but a soulmate changed everything.

“Is it romantic or platonic?”

Their friend looked at them, his eyes so sad it broke Marinette’s heart.

“Romantic,” he answered.

The fashion designer hugged him close to her.

“Have you told Alya yet?”

She felt him shake his head no. Releasing him, he said:

“I thought that I would wait until we got back to school to tell her. I… I have a lot to think of, and I love Alya with all my heart, so I don’t want to end things on a bad note. So yeah, I need to think very carefully about the way I’ll tell her.”

Nino looked at her then, almost pleading.

“Can you not tell her, please?”

The Eurasian girl smiled sadly at him.

“You know I won’t. It’s not my business to tell.”

She took his hand, squeezing it a little.

“I know you’ll do your best to not hurt her too much. And, you know, I think Alya saw it coming. She’s been having a bad feeling for a while now.”

“Yeah, I know, she told me.”

Kim patted his back.

“I’m sure the two of you will still be friends after that.”

Nino let out a strangled laugh, tears coming out of his eyes.

“I hope so.”

Marinette didn’t realize that she has missed Gotham until the plane landed. While Paris was a beautiful city full of art and history, she was born there and has seen everything.

Gotham was different. There was so much she hadn’t seen there, so much she had yet to learn about this city.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be there long enough to visit much, but there would always be next time!

It took a long time to find her suitcase and people around her were eager to get out of the airport and were pushing her out of the way, so she decided to let them get their luggage first so she wouldn’t have to deal with them.

Rude, really, but she could understand how they wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

Suitcase retrieved, Marinette looked for Damian, as he promised that he would pick her up. She smiled as she saw him, a sign with her name on it. He was next to a man in his sixties-seventies and recognized him instantly even if she’s never met him. It was Alfred Pennyworth, the man that was a grandfather for the Wayne boys in everything but blood.

She hugged Damian, kissing his cheek in greetings, and turned to Alfred.

“Hello, mister. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

She extended her hand and he took it, shaking it.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I’m Alfred Pennyworth. You may call me by my name.”

“Alright, please, call me Marinette too!” She smiled at him.

She felt Damian take her suitcase from her.

“Is it all you have?” He asked.

“Yeah, I packed lightly,” she said.

He took her hand, leading her to the exit.

“Come on, Jason has been exciting to finally meet you. He wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“You’re shorter than I think you would be.”

Jason — or Red Hood, as she had known him under his alias until now — has always been teasing her during her video calls with Robin, and she always gave back as much as she got, but she wasn’t expecting him to tease her about her height.

She knew she was short, alright? She wasn’t the shortest, but she wasn’t tall either, and, yeah, standing next to Jason, she felt ridiculous.

No, really, anyone would laugh at them if they saw them standing next to each other. She could only imagine Alix standing next to Jason, it would be even more ridiculous.

“Excuse me? I can’t hear you from all the way down there.”

She heard Tim laugh somewhere behind Jason, but she couldn’t see him. Really, the second son of the Wayne family was huge.

Jason laughed at her, ruffling her hair.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, munchkin.”

“Ha. Ha. Nicknames about my size, don’t you have anything original?”

She smiled, though, not offended at all. She always got those kinds of nicknames from Kim, anyway. The guy was way too tall for his own good too.

Speaking of tall people — or tall and huge things in general — the dog that was running toward her was huge too. And it wasn’t stopping.

Before she could understand was happening, she was on her butt on the floor, a huge Great Dane licking her face.

“Titus!”

The designer laughed.

“Now, I like this kind of welcome.”

She petted the dog for a bit before getting up with Jason’s help. She greeted Dick with a smile and started a conversation with Tim, happy to see him after almost two years.

They spent the whole afternoon talking, and she did her best to fight the sleep, being jet-lagged. She wanted to wait until after dinner to sleep though, she was having such a good time with Damian and his brothers.

She met Bruce at said dinner since he had an emergency at Wayne Enterprises.

“It’s good to properly meet you, Marinette.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mister Wayne. Thank you for sending help in Paris.”

“Of course, we couldn’t just let it happen.”

Dinner was pleasant, and she learned more about Damian while observing his family. Dick was obviously the more outgoing among them, and seeing as Bruce didn’t express himself much, she could see how Damian struggled with his emotions.

The food was delicious, Alfred was a great cook and Marinette couldn’t remember eating a better meal in her life.

She would never tell that to her parents, though. But they were still the best when it came to dessert and baked goods.

It was the next day, lying in bed next to Damian trying to sleep that she decided to confront him.

Just like Nino a few days ago, Damian was acting weird and anxious, to the point that she could feel it from him, making her unable to fall asleep.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked at her then, and she could guess the frown on his face. Whatever it was that he was thinking about, it was not good.

“I have something to tell you.”

She moved, choosing to sit so she could face him instead of lying down.

“Okay. Should I be worried?”

“It’s not about us, per se, it’s about me. About things that I haven’t tell you yet.”

She relaxed a little, relieved that it wasn’t about their relationship.

“Okay,” she breathed. “I’m listening. Take your time.”

She heard him move and suddenly, there was light coming from the lamp on his bedside table. Good, it was less awkward now that she could properly see him.

“It’s about my past. I never told you about my mother, right?”

She shook her head no.

“I’ve been living with her until I was ten. Then I was living with my father and I’ve only seen her once since moving in with my father.”

He paused, looking for the right words.

“My mother is not a good person. Neither was my grandfather or anyone I knew back then. I wasn’t a good person either. Can’t say I’m a good person now, though.”

She opened her mouth to protest but he stopped her.

“Don’t  misunderstand. I’m a much better person than I was back then, but I’m not quite there yet. But I will be.”

She thought that he was already there but didn’t see it yet. She hoped he would see it soon.

“My mother and grandfather raised me… trained me to do things… bad things. Really bad things. And I never thought twice about it. I did everything they asked of me, and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. It was normal for me.”

Damian didn’t say the words, but she had a good idea of what the bad things were. She felt cold suddenly and had to take a deep breath.

“The things I did…”

“Ssssh.” She interrupted him. “I know. I don’t want to hear it.”

He looked hurt at her words and she cursed herself. She took his hand, squeezing it.

“Hey, hey. That’s not what I meant. It’s just, sometimes, you don’t need to hear some things. I think I know what you’ve done, and I don’t need to hear more. I just need to know one thing, though.”

He nodded, the hurt was gone now, and she knew that he understood what she meant.

“Those bad things… Do you still do them now?”

“No, my father made sure I wouldn’t anymore.”

“Okay,” she breathed. “You don’t do it anymore. But do you want to?”

“No!” He exclaimed. “No, I don’t want anymore.”

“That’s all I needed to know.”

She kissed him, then, so he could understand that she didn’t think of him any differently.

“Are you feeling better now that it’s off your chest,” she asked.

“Yeah, I do.”

He kissed her, softly, and gave her face and neck a lot of kisses.

“I…” he took a deep breath then, as if what he was about to say caused him physical pain. “I love you.”

Marinette swore that she felt her heart stop at those words. Those three words she’s been dreaming of hearing for months now. She was so happy she could cry.

Damian’s face fell, and she realized that she was taking too long to answer. She gave him the brightest smile that she could and stroke his cheek lovingly.

“I love you so much,” she whispered.

She didn’t know who leaned in first, but their lips met in a passionate kiss. He pulled her closer to him, their chest touching, and his hand took untied her hair from the ponytail they were in.

Her hands were moving up and down his torso, and soon, his shirt was on the floor instead of his person. Her shirt soon followed and when Damian pulled away, she almost whimpered.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he panted. “Are you sure you want to go there?”

She pulled him to her, kissing him once more but he broke the kiss once again.

“No, I’ll need your verbal consent, here.”

She smiled, appreciating his concern.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

And this time, when she pulled him to her, he didn’t resist.

Tag List:

@bigpicklebananatree​ @animegirlweeb​ @crazylittlemunchkin​ @northernbluetongue​ @cutechip​ @justafanwarrior​ @iloontjeboontje​ @resignedcatservant @maribat-is-lifeblood​ @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff​ @toodaloo-kangaroo​ @mikantsume​ @dast218​ @amayakans​ @zestyzealot​ @lunarwolfspn​ @corabeth11​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @olynix​ @aestheticnpoetic​ @hot-neighbour-nextdoor​ @thehufflepuffranger-blog​ @k-poplunardreams​ @tis-i-beanbandit​ @bluesimani​