#the only thing that makes the wait bearable is that we meet stone so early. stone character of all time

[coquelicoq]

sorry for being obsessed with the sky copper royal clutch. as if it's my fault.

[ncssian]

A Favor: Part Twelve

Nessian Modern AU

Masterlist

a/n: this took so long bc ive been reading chain of iron and in general agonizing over things i cant control instead of being productive 🥴 that being said, absolutely none of the events in this chapter were planned in my outline, but here we are with something new!

***

December brings more snow and bone chilling weather, to the point where Cassian has to drag Nesta out of bed, either physically or by phone call, to get her to therapy appointments on time. 

She’s in the waiting room one freezing morning when, in her utter boredom, she musters up the nerve to turn to the girl sitting next to her. “What are you in here for?”

The girl blinks her large blue eyes, taking notice of Nesta for the first time. Nesta uses the opportunity to take in her freckle-painted face, a little wan but beautiful. Reddish brown hair hangs around her face and shoulders, creating a thick curtain from the rest of the world, and Nesta’s curiosity piques like she’s just found a shiny new toy.

It probably isn’t right to compare people to toys, but then the girl says, “This isn’t prison, you know.” Her voice is deep, almost sultry— completely at odds from her huddled-in posture and sickened expression. “I didn’t commit a crime to have to be here.”

Is she insulted by Nesta’s question, or is she poking a joke? Nesta decides to play it safe by murmuring, “Sorry, never mind.”

She starts to turn away when the girl says, “We’re trying a new type of trauma therapy today. I had to get here half an hour early because I couldn’t swallow my nerves.”

Nesta might lack many social skills, but she isn’t stupid enough to ask what kind of trauma the girl is being treated for. Instead, she nods casually as if she understands the struggle. “I’ve been coming here for weeks now and I’ve barely discussed shit. That’s mostly on me, but you know…” She actually doesn’t know where she’s going with her train of thought. “It sounds brave to do whatever you're doing,” she states finally. “I don’t think I’ll be able to open up that much about myself, ever.” 

The girl gives Nesta a weird look that she immediately recognizes. Nesta uses it every time she doesn’t know how to respond to someone who takes her by surprise.

The door to Lana’s office clicks open, and the woman herself pokes her head out with a plain smile. “Ready, Nesta?”

Nesta bites down on her frown. She has a feeling today won’t be as easy as her past sessions.

She’s about to leave without another glance at the girl beside her when that low voice speaks up. “I’m Gwyn.”

Nesta looks back at her as she gets up from her chair, and says the first reply that comes to mind: “Good to know.”

***

Nesta is contemplative hours after she gets back from her therapy session, bundled up in her bed with a coloring book. The repetitive motion of filling in the mandala drawing lets her mind wander, picking up and dropping different thoughts like she’s inspecting stones. 

She keeps her wrist light as she colors in with red. She finally said Tomas’s name in therapy today, though the action left a slimy feeling in Nesta’s stomach that lingers even now. She also spoke about her sisters, which somehow ended up leading to a discussion of her uterus. 

“How have you been dealing with the endometriosis news?”

Nesta shrugged. “I’m getting treated, and my last period was more bearable than usual—”

“I mean mentally, how are you doing? With how your condition could affect your future?”

Nesta narrowed her eyes. “Affect me how?”

“Have you never considered the impact it could have on your ability to bear children?”

“Not everything in life is about bearing children, you know.”

“We’re humans. It’s definitely something to consider.”

“Not for me. I’ve never wanted kids.” A mistruth at best. “I don’t care what endo does or doesn’t do to me on those grounds.”

In a way, Nesta told herself, the health risks were actually for the best. If she ever did, by some stupid loss of sanity, try to have children, then her body would act as a safety net from her decisions.

Lana only said, “You’ll never know how much you care or don’t care until you talk out your feelings.”

“Then I guess we’ll never know.”

Nesta lets the memory of that conversation drop like a stone on a shore. That’s not something she has to face for a good long while. No, right now she has to face her past. 

Her sisters, and her ex, and even her father— 

I wonder if I came off too strong with Gwyn today. 

Her hand stops drawing, and she switches out her red marker for an orange one. This thought she doesn’t mind inspecting for a little longer: she and Gwyn ended up leaving their sessions at the same time, which meant they were forced into stilted conversation on the way down to the parking lot. 

Not forced, Nesta self-corrects. She willingly initiated a conversation, and it didn’t go terribly. She wonders if making friends in therapy waiting rooms is a real thing.

Her phone vibrates beside her, breaking her hours-long mental bubble. Blinking dazedly, she answers the phone call.

“How are you?” is the first thing Cassian says to her. He makes sure to ask her that at least twice a day, like a gauging of her temperature. It makes Nesta wonder what she’s ever done in her life to call for such… attention to her well-being. 

“I’m good,” she answers honestly. “My head’s a little loud right now, but I don’t mind it.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No, I’d rather hear you talk.” She slumps back against her pillows, coloring book forgotten. “What’s up?”

“Ah...” Cassian sounds hesitant for the first time since their relationship started. “It’s just that I haven’t gotten my Christmas decorations up yet, and I was going to ask if you wanted to help.”

Nesta takes a moment to absorb his words. “It’s December fifth,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“You just seem like somebody who does their decorations the day after Thanksgiving.”

“Well, this year is a little different, with you moving out and being busy with school…” He pauses. “I was waiting to do it with you.”

When she doesn’t reply, Cassian adds, “I don’t even know if you care about Christmas. I know you and your family sort of ignored holidays. It’s fine if you don’t want to—”

“I’ll be over right now,” Nesta blurts. 

Half an hour later, Cassian swings open his door with a smug grin on his face; a vast difference from the stammering hesitance he displayed over the phone earlier. Nesta’s own lips want to pull up into a smile just at the sight of him, but she holds back and narrows her eyes instead. “What’s got you so worked up?” she questions as she steps into the warmth of the cabin and out of the freezing cold.

“The way you ran over here as soon as I asked.” He looks her up and down, still amused. “You didn’t even bother to change, did you?”

It’s true: she’s in the same sweatpants and long sleeved tee she wore around home, and her socked feet are shoved into slippers. 

“Get that smirk off your face.” Nesta flicks his nose before tossing her coat off. “If this is a competition about who’s got a bigger puppy-crush for whom, you already won when you delayed putting up your Christmas decorations for me.”

“Fair enough,” he grins. The words send an unexpected pang through Nesta, because it’s partly true, isn’t it? He cares more openly for her than she does for him. 

She looks away in guilt, not knowing how to fix the imbalance. Her eyes land on the living room coffee table, where their half-finished jigsaw puzzle sits. It’s been stored under the couch for the past few weeks, forgotten by Nesta and Cassian alike as they moved on with their lives, but now it’s sitting out again.

“Have you been working on the puzzle without me?” She raises an inquisitive brow, about to feel— hurt.

“Never,” Cassian promises, saving her from that irrational hurt. “I just brought it out because I figured we should get to finishing it one day.”

She pads over to the table, picking up a puzzle piece and turning it over in her hand. “I don’t know if you remember, but we had a terrible time working on this,” she scoffs lightly.

“Oh, I remember,” he says, coming up behind her and stealing the piece from her grasp. “I think it’s safe to say those evenings were the worst fights we’ll ever have together.”

Nesta leans back against Cassian’s chest and hums. “It made us a stronger couple, don’t you think?” She turns her head up and back to meet Cassian’s eyes, finding that he’s already looking down at her.

Hypnotized, she leans into his warmth. She only manages to land the smallest kiss against his lips when his hand squeezes her ass cheek. “You’re here for a job, remember?” He taps her butt before pulling away, gesturing to the Christmas tree in the corner of the living area with his chin. It stands bare. “You do tinsel, I’ll do lights.”

Tinsel is harder to work with than Nesta remembers. She only manages to get half the tree done before plopping onto the Persian rug, exhausted and covered in silvery material. She doesn’t mind laying there while Cassian continues working; it’s her revenge for when he napped on her bed while she moved in.

“You know the stair railings still need to be wreathed, Archeron.”

Nesta declines to respond, tilting her head on the carpet for a better view of her boyfriend’s ass instead. “All this decorating,” she starts. “Is it just for you?”

Cassian turns to her, surprised. “Well…”

She pushes up onto her elbows, catching her mistake. “Are we doing Christmas together? Or are your friends coming over?” She hasn’t bothered to celebrate Christmas in years now, and she doesn’t care much what Cassian’s plans are either way.

“I was hoping for both?” He sounds hesitant. “Christmas Eve is all the way over in Velaris, but I was thinking we could go together, open some presents, and come back and spend Christmas here.”

Nesta purses her lips. She doesn’t actually hate that plan. Both Feyre and Elain have been pestering her with the annual texts asking her to visit for Christmas, and for once, she feels like responding to them. The invitation is more of a formality than an actual request at this point; she doubts her sisters want her there after years of rejections, but… what’s the harm?

“Is that a yes?” Cassian asks at her unreadable face.

“Yes,” she states unflinchingly. She refuses to overthink the possible consequences of this choice and chooses to focus on the broad grin overtaking Cassian’s face. “Really?” he says.

“But there has to be rules.” Nesta sits up fully now. “No one can know we’re together, no matter how much you trust or love them.”

“We already agreed to that, baby.”

Yes, but Nesta knows the secret weighs on him heavier than he shows— even if he agrees with her that it's for the best. “It’ll be different when we’re together in the same room as everyone else,” she says. Cassian wears his beating heart on his sleeve, and she doesn’t think he’s ever had to hide it before.

“You’ll also be different,” she adds. “It’s a huge change of pace.”

Cassian drops the remaining strand of lights and smiles confusedly down at her. “What do you mean, I’ll be different?” He sits across from her, before the blazing fire. 

“You know how you get around your friends.” Nesta shrugs without a thought. “Like your personality readjusts to mirror the people around you. I used to find it a mix of sad and adorable, like a neglected puppy desperate for love, but now I— okay, I still feel the same way.” She waves a hand in a dismissive gesture.

By the look on Cassian’s face, he does not find her words so easily dismissed. 

Coldness curdles in the pit of Nesta’s stomach, the realization that she’s said something wrong. She can’t fix it until she knows where she fucked up, though.

“Is that what you think of me?” Cassian finally says lowly. His usually expressive mouth is drawn tight and narrow. 

“Um… What would you rather I think of you?”

His eyes widen in disbelief. “Seriously, Nesta?”

Nesta’s back stiffens, refusing to cower. “I only described what I’ve observed in the past.”

“And what you observed was a desperate puppy?” His voice is cold in a way she’s never heard before.

Okay, she’s starting to see how that might be offensive. She forges onward, “Tell me what you think about yourself in the presence of your family, then.” It’s a private victory that she says family instead of clown circus. But she’s not trying to turn this into a fight.

Cassian is silent, but his stare continues to rage at her.

“Tell me,” Nesta repeats.

His hands curl into fists on the rug. “I think I’m empathetic, easy to talk to, and easier to be around. Is it a problem if I’m likable?” Unlike you are the unsaid words.

Nesta inspects the space between them like it’s a chessboard. “And what part of yourself are you giving up to be so likable, Cassian?” she says quietly.

“Nothing.”

Nesta disagrees, if only because she’s been watching him out of the corner of her eye for years. “I think you base your personality off of those you love, and you lose a little bit of your true self every time you put others’ needs before your own.” 

She shuts her mouth, not having expected such honesty to come out of it. Cassian is taken aback, too, she can tell.

“And I guess it’s natural that you’d see all of that as a bad thing, considering your history of being closed off and self-serving to a fault,” he fires back with the flatness Nesta utilizes so often.

One for one. Fair enough. “We’re both right then,” Nesta says. “You work for your best friend because you have no ambition beyond serving your family, and I have no such family because I can’t bring myself to care about those things. Are we even now?”

Cassian furrows his brows, those defensive walls melting away as he realizes she’s completely serious. “What? No, Nes—” He shakes his head. “Okay, so maybe you’re right about me. Maybe I agree with you a little bit, but… If we see flaws in each other, then we should be working to overcome them instead of weaponizing them.”

Now Nesta’s the one shaking her head, quickly lifting a hand to stop him. “Relax there, sweetheart. I have no expectations from you or myself to go on some self-improvement journey now that we’re together. Talking about my feelings with a professional every week is hard enough.” Yes, agreeing to go to Feyre’s Christmas party is improvement. Slow, barely there improvement, but enough to wear her out for the rest of the month. For Nesta to fully let people into her life, to treat them as lovingly as she treats Cassian— that’s a long way away. She can’t envision it, doesn’t even know if she wants it.

Cassian must understand some of what she’s thinking, because he nods and backs off. He gets back up and returns to stringing lights, tossing a handful of tinsel at Nesta as if to say Get back to work. 

She stands and obeys, thinking their not-argument is officially over when Cassian says, “You’re wrong about one thing.”

She looks up from where she threads tinsel through fir leaves. He doesn’t take his eyes off his work as he says, “You do have a family. And deep, deep down, you care about them as much as I care about mine.”

***

Nesta catches Emerie’s eye as the dark-haired beauty walks into the pub. Raising a hand and waving, she gestures Emerie over to the booth she’s sitting in. 

“Look what I found,” Nesta says with a hint of pride, pointing to the redhead sitting beside her. “A third girl for girl’s night!”

“I was kidnapped,” Gwyn speaks up. “Jumped on the way to my car.” She’s out of her usual hoodie and in a tight-fitting blouse, looking stunning even while seeming out of place in the dim bar.

“She came here consensually,” Nesta retorts. “Emerie, this is Gwyn. We met at therapy.”

Gwyn offers Emerie an awkward smile.

Emerie slides into the booth across from them with raised brows. She looks between Nesta and the new girl and back again. “You invited her here? All by yourself?” she asks.

Nesta nods firmly.

Emerie breaks into a wide grin and reaches over the table to grab Nesta’s hand. “I’m so proud of you!” If Emerie were anyone else, she’d be squealing in excitement, but Emerie does not squeal.

Nesta waves off her friend’s praise, though a part of her wants to beam at it, too.

Gwyn glances between the two of them with slight amusement. “I mean, it’s not that impressive,” she says. “She came on a bit too strong, probably a five out of ten on the asking-someone-out scale.”

“‘A bit too strong’ is all you’re gonna get with Nesta,” Emerie says, lifting her hand to order drinks. “She’s all-or-nothing, and most people would pray she doesn’t give them her nothing.”

Nesta doesn’t know if that’s a compliment, but she supposes there are worse things that could be said about her.

“So, Gwyn, what do you do?” Emerie leans forward. “All our friends are law students and it’s starting to get boring.”

Gwyn goes off about her librarian job as Nesta orders their drinks, and Emerie rests her chin in her hand and listens eagerly. Christmas music plays softly in the background and snow flurries gently outside. Nesta thinks she can’t be doing that bad in life, if she’s managed to carve out this little slice of happiness for herself.

***

a/n: i promise shit actually happens next chapter! we're getting christmas with nessian and the ic in the same room for the first time

taglist: @ladywitchling @sjm-things @thewayshedreamed @drielecarla @valkyriewarriors @superspiritfestival @aliveahaahahafuck @cupcakey00 @sayosdreams @rainbowcheetah512 @claralady @thebluemartini @nessiantho @missing-merlin @duskandstarlight @lucy617 @sleeping-and-books @everything-that-i-love @cassianscool @swankii-art-teacher @awesomelena555 @julemmaes @wickedqueenoffantasy @poisonous-bloom @observationanxioustheorist @gisellefigue08 @courtofjurdan @theoverlyenthusiasticwriter @wolfiixxx @cass-nes @seashade @royaltykxx @illyrianundercover @queenestarcheron @monstrousloves-explodinggalaxies @humanexile @that-golden-lyre @agentsofsheilds @mercy-is-alive @cassiansbigwingspan @laylaameer01 @verypaleninja @maastrash @bow-dawn @perseusannabeth @dead-on-the-inside666 @jlinez @hungryreadingaddict @anidealiveson

[squeeneyart]

Breathe in the Salt - Chapter 20

AO3

Beta reader as always is @thesnadger!

Simon and Martin have a chat.

Martin accepts some advice.

When Martin passed the front gate the world behind him disappeared, replaced by cold, grey mist and stone.

Staring back the way he came only made it harder to remember what had been before, and his head felt the pressure of distance with no point of reference. Something deep inside him knew the perils of walking anywhere but the path leading him to the Fairchild house; to step anywhere else would see him tumbling out and away from the only landmark he had left.

Waiting for him at the front door was the woman who’d taken the sketchbook from him, this time without the veneer of professional courtesy. The hooded jumper, worn jeans, and disinterested wave announced to the world an interrupted day off. If his damp, miserable self was an affront to her sensibilities, she wasn’t showing it, so the wet jacket stayed on.

In his nerves he hadn’t really registered her appearance during their first meeting, too focused on getting rid of the evidence of his crime. She was older, maybe in her 60s, with long grey hair tied back into a low ponytail. He hadn’t seen her about town before, had he?

They walked inside without any chitchat, so Martin glanced about in silence. The interior felt right if his memory served, the same skinny halls and windows stretching from floor to ceiling. The most striking aspect still was the mural at the top of the central staircase. The rest of the house was dwarfed by it, as if the grand building was no greater than his hometown’s silhouette tucked into the corner of the canvas. 

Approaching it, the colors were more. More intense, more bold, all the brightness stolen from the world outside siphoned into an impossible sky. Maybe anything would look that much more  when contrasted with where he’d been. He was at the top of the stairs standing at its center wondering if there was any distance that could give him a proper view of the whole. 

From behind him the woman cleared her throat, though she didn’t seem irritated. He pulled himself away from the spot where he’d stopped to stare, leaving slippery footprints in his wake.

Glancing up at the mural, she only said, “Some things demand attention.”

She led him to the same room from his first visit with its outward wall of glass. Across the room sat Simon, his back facing those large, unbelievably clear windows that now overlooked the fog-covered landscape. Martin heard the woman’s retreating footsteps and the click of the door.

Martin breathed out, keeping a few feet between himself and the old man. He waved stiffly at the windows. “It’s a bit late. I was expecting this to happen last week.”

With that pleasant smile unmoving, Simon motioned for Martin to sit in the chair across from him. “Don’t be ridiculous. That event will be much more exciting. I wanted to put this meeting together, and needed a good mix of quick and fun.”

“Starting to question my understanding of ‘fun’,” Martin mumbled. He took the seat offered to him and crossed his arms over his chest, the rainwater he carried in seeping into the plush fabric. “It seems like I’m always on the losing side of someone else’s.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Simon hummed, leaning back comfortably in his chair. “So you’d prefer something more exciting in your invitations, so you’re not left out? Did my little errand turn you into a thrill-seeker already?”

“No.” A shiver ran through him, not of fear but of an awful, biting cold. The wet of his hair sapped the heat right out of him and pulled his ponytail down heavy onto his neck. “What do you want?”

“Oh, a bit moody today, aren’t we?” The smile was still sitting idly on Simon’s face. “Peter’s been around more often, I can tell. He does that to people, sucks all patience and goodwill out until they’re… well.” He flicked his eyes over Martin with something like pity.

Martin pressed his arms tighter into himself. “So what, you push people into the sky, and he does that?”

Simon laughed without a hint of shame. “Goodness, no. Peter is just like that, no strangeness needed. I’ve often left his company feeling completely drained and irritable, though I’ve found ways to ensure the feeling is mutual.”

“Good friends, then.”

“As much as he can have them.” Simon leaned forward, no hint of bitterness in his voice or expression. “A very close-to-the-chest type, I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

With a sharp exhale, Martin said, “Look, if you’re going to ask me for a favor I’m not-”

“Now, now, I’m not one to drag on a favor forever, and you’ve paid in full. Besides, Peter is much too jumpy right now for anything to be done.” Simon turned his gaze toward the window. “I’m afraid all any of us can do now is wait.” 

A jolt of disappointment shocked Martin to silence. All of this dramatic nonsense just to be told to wait and see? He hadn’t had any specific expectations, but deep down he’d believed Simon to be plotting something soon. That even if it was a horrible outcome Martin wouldn’t be left in suspense from every angle of his life. 

Whatever shoe was meant to drop, it hadn’t, and it wouldn’t for some unspecified amount of time.

Simon regained his easy tone and continued, “And I greatly dislike this weather, all of these things clouding my view. Soon I’ll be going weeks without a clear day, and it can feel so… so claustrophobic. So little to work with on a day like this.”

He wasn’t the one who needed to walk in it. “You’re not going to explain anything, are you?”

“No, I’m not. You know how these things are. Business.” Reaching into his pocket, Simon pulled out a small envelope. “Speaking of, like a pouting child Peter has been avoiding me, and as far as I can tell you’re the only person who actually sees him.”

With a deep sigh Martin leaned forward, elbows resting on knees. Not only was he getting nothing out of Simon, but- “This is all so I can be a messenger boy?”

“Just the one time, if Peter can be reasonable.”

“I don’t- Wait. Why not trap him like you did me? Just force him to your door.”

With a sudden laugh that made Martin jump, Simon replied, “Not everyone is as easy to find as you. And anyway, it’s not wise to do that to friends, is it?” 

It wasn’t a way to keep friends, no, and he took the message from Simon without further comment. On the other side of the room, the door opened to reveal that woman. Not needing prompting he stood, looking back one more time at the other man.

Simon remained seated and swung one more friendly smile in Martin’s direction. “You’ll be seen out, then. I must thank you for your previous help, Martin. The personal significance alone can’t be overstated. It’s not my only sketchbook, of course, but several of my best works had their beginnings in it.” Was that glint in his eye one of creative pride, or was there some joke Martin was missing?

The tiniest desire to stay and hear more itched at the back of his mind, but the dismissal was clear and he let the woman lead him back through the house. Once outside he saw the weather had taken a turn for the worse into a complete downpour. The high wind would certainly blow his hood down, making for a wretched walk ahead of him.

“Ah.” He’d been taken to the Fairchild house on an impossible route, but the way home was entirely real. “I have a long way to walk.”

“Inconveniences all around,” the woman said, shutting the door behind him.

Once he was alone he ripped the phone from his pocket and and bent over it to delete his dramatic messages before they could be seen, replacing it with:

Martin: talked with simon (didnt really have a choice), dont think anything will happen with him for a while

Martin: said all we can do is wait? really cryptic

Then he pocketed it once more and walked out the front gate into the reinstated town.

The greatest relief was finding other unlucky pedestrians doing their best to stay dry along with him. Even without the ability to stop and talk he felt the silent commiseration. It wasn’t joy in the suffering of others but rather the knowledge that other people were there at all to share in the cruddy weather. He could see where a person ahead of him was avoiding puddles, and found residual warmth in the lights of nearby shop fronts. It was the kind of melancholy atmosphere that could make rain a little more bearable.

The walk down the cliff however was designed to kill him, the slope slick with mud and abandoned by an early setting sun. No waterproof phone, glasses blurred and splattered with droplets, Martin made his slow way home in the cold, in the dark. More than once he stopped to make sure he hadn’t gotten turned around by forces supernatural or otherwise, but then the ground flattened and he could finally hear the sea over the rain beating against the ground.

He was late of course, but besides some comments about tracking water into the house and forgetting his umbrella his mother had left him well alone, and even took his word when he described the weather as unsuitable for her health. He was grateful. After the last few days anything worse might’ve sent them into a screaming match to surpass any bouts they’d had in years. Maybe the day had taken as much out of her as it had from him.

Instead, after a necessary change of clothes on his part, they ate dinner and watched television, her in her chair and him on the couch. It was some old game show he vaguely remembered, not something that aired in his childhood but that he’d experienced first as reruns, the saturated colors and fuzzy image granting it a multilayered nostalgia. Someone on the screen had just answered a question and was hoping their spouse would come up with the same response.

In his pyjama pants and old t-shirt he felt little, his feet tucked under him because he hadn’t wanted to waste another pair of socks. It was as if he’d just come out of the bath with his wet hair and drooping eyes and was waiting to be told he was up too late. As if he wasn’t responsible for watching the clock himself.

His phone vibrated in the middle of the program, but if his mother noticed she chose to ignore it. Tapping the phone awake, Martin saw a notification from the group message.

Tim: ok check-in time what the hell 

Tim: just saw this 

So they hadn’t seen his initial messages. He breathed out in relief and typed out a reply.

Martin: some weird stuff, but everythings fine. simon made it so i had to go talk to him

Martin: whatever simon mentioned before its not coming yet. seems like he isnt in control of when whatever it is happens? also peter is avoiding him so i need to give him this letter

Tim: weird but

Tim: good? more time for us

Sasha: one less thing to worry about. glad it went okay.

Tim: ^^

He’d successfully avoided any panic or weirdness that his original messages most definitely would’ve caused and patted himself on the back for a job well done. No one needed that as a distraction.

Martin: oh right weird topic change but jon mentioned it, do you really all use a cot at work

Tim: oh yeah lol love that thing

Tim: jon is on it right now actually will pass on simon info when hes awake

Martin: youre all still there??

Tim: oh martin dont you know weve Never Left

Tim: we should get going soon tho now that you mention, will drag jon out of the archives while passing on simon info

Martin: good idea

Tim: and keep those eyes down!

Martin bit his cheek and looked past his phone at the television screen. No doubt it was karma for his rash behavior at the lighthouse, having “just wait!” shouted at him from all corners. The universe was making itself very clear. Simon could’ve just been telling him to let something terrible happen, but even if that was true Martin wasn’t in a place to stop anything.

But it was a great quality of Tim’s, rounding them all up and trying to save them from regrettable decisions. The least Martin could do was make that job easier and stay out of trouble. It was also the most he could do, as much as it irked him.

Martin: dont need to tell me twice! 

And with that Martin pocketed his phone, accepting his fate of inaction.

When he finally put his mother to bed the goodnight between them was not warm, but it was closer to normal. If he’d been told that one of the most pleasant parts of his day would’ve been watching the telly after dinner with his mum, he would’ve… well, it wasn’t that strange. Really it emphasized how bad the rest of his day had been.

Meanwhile the most pleasant event felt fake, even when he checked his call logs to confirm it. What a strange start to a day, he thought as he laid in bed. At least it made up for Jon not being around that evening, that and knowing Jon was getting some sleep. The man clearly needed some prompting during an intense work period to take care of himself, and Martin silently thanked Tim for doing something about it when he couldn’t bring himself to initiate a phone conversation. He knew it was ridiculous for him to be so nervous about the idea, but…

But.

Hopefully Jon didn’t think he was rude. It was one thing to chat in person, but calling without a specific topic to discuss while the others were hard at work? Because he was bored? Best to let Jon reach out when he felt it necessary, even if it meant being woken up at odd hours on a work day and otherwise sitting on his hands. Eventually this would all be behind them and he could stop being racked with guilt over the thought of making a social call. 

Martin’s stomach twisted. Yes, things would be dealt with, and he would move on from this strange period in his life.

He moved to place the phone down for the night when it buzzed in his hand, with a message in another, private chat.

Sasha: we should talk more later about what simon told you specifically. if something big is coming having someone on the inside of things might not be the worst. not saying you should seek him out, he seems perfectly of capable of contacting you, but if it happens again it could be an opportunity

Martin: you think he could be on our side?

Sasha: i think letting people say their piece can lead to understanding, even if the other person is the worst. something is going on between him and peter lukas and the more we know the better

Martin: right…

Sasha: again not saying to run into anything. wait for us etc etc but trust your gut

Martin: so your opinion on staying put?

Sasha: sometimes you cant, thats all im saying

Martin: okay, i think i get it

Sasha: good. now get some sleep, weird things tend to drain you

Martin: goodnight

Sasha: night

Well, she wasn’t wrong. He didn’t believe that Simon was a good person, not with how he’d treated Martin thus far, but that didn’t make him evil, either. And his advice was the same as what everyone else had already been saying: stay out of trouble as best he could and wait for the right moment. Even Sasha still conceded to it being the best option for the present. If Peter told him to wait as well, then Martin would be truly lost on what to do, but until then he would follow the advice of all the people who knew more than he did.

And if Simon called him to his home again, he would try to be less… difficult. And he would buy a better jacket, just in case. 

--

The next morning, he listened to a voice message left shortly after he’d fallen into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

Jon’s groggy voice drifted from the mobile. “Hi, sorry I missed things. Wasn’t expecting Fairchild to be so forward, and my sleep schedule has never been- anyway, Tim convinced me to go back to my flat, but since I slept at the institute earlier I’m currently following a few threads to see if they lead anywhere helpful. I think I’ve reached something, but time will tell.”

He continued after a brief pause. “Seems you’re already asleep, as you should be, so I’ll let you go. Let me know if you have any questions about our other… shared interest. Good night. I hope things stay quiet.” 

[krispydefendorpolice]

Once Upon A Miraculous - Part 2

Ok before we even get into the story here’s yet another warning to think twice before you continue. Jason dies. He dies in a gruesome, traumatizing event and even though I think I went over it very lightly I still think it’s pretty fucking graphic. I’m the writer and I. Had. To. Fucking. Stop. And take a break before I could continue with the story.

Violence and the results it can have on the body ahead. Madness from the pit and angst from hurt feeling of being replaced ahead. For the last time. You’ve all been warned so read at your own risk.

I’m going to trust that you all know your headspace well enough and for those that choose to read anyways? Thank you for going on this journey with me. I hope the falls between here and the end are worth the river journey and the lake we reach at the end (yes those are f*ing metaphors. I’m feeling philosophical at the moment)

Previous Masterpost list

————————————

“It’s me Nettie. I’m alive”

****************************

Jason was 14 years old when he met the Batman. He came across an unwatched batmobile. The tires on it could be sold for more than the average car and he had the tools on him.

One last check and he got to work. He was already thinking about the things he could buy for himself and his street siblings that he forgot the number one rule. Always keep a lookout.

The Batman caught him red handed with three wheels off and the fourth half done. After being forced to return the wheels to the car Jason was taken to the underground batcave. He met Alfred and the unmasked Batman. Bruce “fucking billionaire” Wayne.

Less than a month later he’s living in the manor and has been “adopted”. He doesn’t trust it. Rich men don’t want son’s and there are too many kids with stories about the horrors that “nice family’s” hide behind closed doors. But he’s got a roof over his head and food in his stomach. If Wayne thinks that will be enough to buy him he’s going to find out how wrong he was.

Jason starts small at first. If he can just get the man angry enough to throw him out he won’t have to worry about being brought back. Setting all the alarms in the house and making them unfixable was a bit of a challenge. Seeing Bruce’s face when he changed the passwords was brilliant.

It continued that way for a few months until Bruce finally decided if Jason was gonna be a little shit he could learn to fight better instead. Jason decided that if he was going to learn to fight he would take over the abandoned Robin role too.

Dick was not happy. The first time Jason got to meet the man was after he was seen as Robin. He came to the manor and yelled at Bruce, saying he had no right to give his costume and name to someone else. Jason listened from the second story.

As angry as the two men got neither came to blows over it. Dick ended the fight by storming out and he put the older hero on radio silence for months after but neither had any injuries from their disagreement. If Jason had ever even looked at his old man funny as a kid he would have a black eye and welts on his back to show for it.

Maybe Bruce could be trusted after all?

****************************

At 15 years old Bruce is engaged to Selina Kyle. Their on again off again thing as hero and thief where they danced around each other had been driving Jason and Alfred batty. It was nice to see them actually settle into their thing as each challenged the other and kept them on their toes.

When Selina said she was going to be spending the summer with the daughter of an old schoolmate of hers Jason didn’t think much of it. He knew she had a legit degree she used to assess the potential spoils of her criminal activities.

He arrived at Wayne Enterprises a little early for their lunch meeting. Bruce had told him they’d meet in the lobby so after greeting the receptionists he looked for a place to sit. In one of the chairs facing the doors a small girl looked up at the windows before going back to her book and writing something. No she was probably drawing with long pencil strokes like that.

Curious he walked over to see if he could look at her drawing. He could see what looked like an image of the stained glass windows on the page but the lines through them gave it a softer, almost flowing shape. Which was weird cause glass wouldn’t follow those lines.

“What are you drawing?” He found himself asking her.

She jumped so he’d obviously surprised her. His thoughts were captured by her bright blue eyes. In the light coming from those stained glass windows she’d been admiring they almost seemed to glow.

She said she was designing a dress while she waited for her guardian and the fiancé to return. This must be Selina’s friends daughter.

Lunch was a fun affair where the girl shared she would be designing costumes for Jagged stone to wear during his concert tour this summer. She would stay with Selina in Gotham from Monday to Thursday while she designed and created clothes she would fly to whatever city Jagged was playing in from Thursday to Sunday to be on hand during the concerts for any costume repairs that would be needed.

Bruce volunteered Jason to show Marinette around the city since it wouldn’t be safe for her to be alone. Jason agrees because it’s summer break and he likes the Marinette he talked stained glass windows with and wonders what other beauty she will see in his dark city.

**

He is breathless by the beauty she sees all around her. The joy and happiness she shines as easily as she breathes. Everyone she meets becomes a new friend. Even the tamer of the Rogues and the Siren’s who meet her are enthralled by her smile and her charm.

Kissing her was a completely spontaneous action. He had thought about it for weeks by then but she had said there was a guy back home she sort of still had a crush on though she wasn’t happy with how they wanted to deal with the liar situation. So he was resigned to keeping his budding feelings to himself so that he could see her happy.

It had been the night of the last concert. Jagged had Marinette come on stage where he officially introduced her as his designer and the creator of all the tour costumes to the world. She had beamed with a smile so wide that when she threw herself into Jason’s arms after walking off stage he had just pulled back and placed a kiss on her lips.

He froze when he realized what he did. Marinette had stood on her tiptoe to start their second kiss.

For a week they were blissfully happy and free with their affection. Multiple paparazzi got pictures of them holding hands, kissing each other or just cuddling when they were waiting. Jasonette and the Sunshine of Gotham blew up on social media.

Saying goodbye to her was a really hard thing to do. So Jason went shopping for something he could give her to remember him by. They had decided they would try a long distance thing but he was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. If they did fall apart from distance he wanted something she could use to always fondly remember the summer fling they had.

It was perfect. He knew it might be impractical but he was convinced that it would be the perfect gift for her someday.

************************

They made it work. They had talked everyday and he spent every chance he could in France with her. He met her parents and they met Bruce as well. Marinette had her school situation resolved following her return.

He was proud of her for sticking up for herself when all her classmates seemed ready to abandon the liar just because Marinette had a connection they could use again. Nathaniel, Rose and Juleka were all artsy like Marinette and he could see how their creative energies inspired each other and themselves.

He was a week away from his departure to spend the summer in France with Marinette and her family when it happened. A false lead led to his capture by the Joker.

(Begin Angst)

The first break hurt but it was bearable. He had broken bones before. His bio dad had broken them frequently when he was still alive. The fifth hurt as bad. He also had a concussion and several burns at that time as well.

What felt like days, weeks, years... minutes?, passed in a haze as he jerked with every new hit. He was a mess from vomit, blood, piss and shit when his body couldn’t follow his commands any longer.

He held to the belief that Batman would come for him. That his father could still save him.

When the Joker left, Jason was lying on the concrete floor looking at the bomb countdown. He knew he had to get out of there, he pushed his battered body past the point he could feel pain and struggled to the door. He pulled on it but it wouldn’t open. The rattle of chains on the other side told him why.

He collapsed to the floor, tears streaming as he watched the numbers countdown.

10, 9, 8...

I’m sorry Alfred.

7, 6, 5,...

I’m sorry Bruce.

4, 3,...

I’m sorry Nettie.

2, 1,

I love...

(End Angst)

He was only 16. He would never see 17.

***************************

It was dark. It was small. It was hard to breathe. He was in some kind of box. He screamed and hit the walls around him trying to get out, trying to find some air.

It surprised him when cold pieces fell from above him. It had a new smell. He focused his determination on that spot. More of the new thing came down into his cage. He pushed it away from him and continued. There. Briefly a breath of clean, fresh air.

With new determination he pushed harder towards the life giving air. He was able to pull his head and shoulders out of the box. He rested for a moment swallowing greedy gulps of air into his starved lungs. When he was able to continue he pulled himself from the ground and looked around. As far as his eye could see were stones standing from the ground around him and beyond those trees and underbrush fading into shadows.

He picked a direction at random and began to walk.

**

It was familiar. Grab an item, run. The actions came without conscious memory. The streets were cold but he was big enough to scare off the worst of the predators. There were a few small people, kids, that came to him for protection from the bigger people. He did what he could but it never seemed to be enough he thought, as he stood over another small, broken body.

“I can give you a way to protect them.”

He looked up. She was beautiful but her eyes were cold. Empty and unfeeling. But she had promised to give him a way to protect the little ones. He was willing to try anything for that power.

What was his name? How old was he? He didn’t know.

****************************************

Jason.

He remembered his name as he lunged from the sickly green waters that Talia had led him to. He remembered Bruce, his father, but he didn’t save him from the Joker. He remembered the Jokers laughter ringing in his ears as he stood over another broken child on the streets. And the new shadow following the shape of the Batman when he was an amnesiac wandering the streets of Gotham.

He had been REPLACED!! He fumed. The anger and resentment over Bruces inability to save him, to avenge him and his replacing him as if Jason meant nothing, festered and boiled in his mind.

When he left the League of Shadows his only plan was to go back to Gotham and get revenge for his own death and to hurt his so called father as badly as he could. If Jason meant so little to him then he would show how little Bruce meant to him.

**

(Mild violence ahead)

Their first reunion was in a fight over drug dealers selling heroin to kids. Jason looked directly at the bat, pulled his gun and shot the dealers in the forehead.

(Violence over)

“These are my streets now. I won’t tolerate kids getting hurt on my watch.”

He disappeared before Batman could restrain him.

For weeks they danced around. Batman trying to catch him and Jason using every trick he learned from the Bat himself to avoid him.

Blood flowed freely from the wicked and the corrupt. He was a villain in his own right bringing judgement and execution down upon the criminals of Gotham.

Batman always appealed to the better side of him, to stop his madness. Didn’t he understand that part died? The child that trusted in heroes to protect the innocent died at the hands of a monster. A monster that his father couldn’t chase away.

The RedHood was risen from the pits and unleashed upon the evil of Gotham.

He was 18 years old.

******************************

Months of their back and forth dynamic between RedHood and Batman passed. The Batman couldn’t arrest the RedHood but the RedHood couldn’t stop tweaking his cape to get a reaction.

Didn’t he care? Wasn’t he going to stop him? He was doing everything wrong so why wouldn’t Bruce do the same for him that he did for all the other criminals in Gotham?

It was when Jason had the Joker at the business end of a gun that he got his answers.

“Don’t do it Hood,” Bruce pleaded. “It will change you beyond what you can come back from if you do.”

“I’ve already killed, B,” his words caught as he gasped, fighting back tears of rage. “My hands are dripping in blood.

He laughed madly then, “‘Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’ Who knew that bitch knew what she was talking about.”

“It’s the madness that’s done it Hood. You’ve barely held control before. But you’re fighting the killing urge and directing it to those that do deserve it.”

“And yes,” he interrupted before Jason could argue, “no one deserves it more than Joker for what he’s done to you. But if you do it then the madness will win. Please I can’t lose my son again,” he begged.

“WHY DOES THAT MATTER NOW?!” Jason screamed. “He killed me. I was dead in the ground and you let him walk. WHY COULDN’T YOU KILL HIM?! AM I THAT MEANINGLESS TO YOU!?!!”

“I COULDN’T!” Bruce yelled back. “If I killed him I wouldn’t be able to stop killing. It wouldn’t just be the Joker that died, it would be every criminal in Gotham who dared step out of line. I wanted to. I still want to. He took my son from me but I know that once I start I won’t be able to stop. I’m sorry that I’m so weak, but I couldn’t.”

The Batman, no Bruce Wayne, stood before him, head bowed in defeat as he admitted to his greatest shame.

Jason looked away before dropping the gun and walking away. He knew Bruce would take the Joker back to Arkham so he just needed to get away and think.

**

They worked to build their relationships anew. He couldn’t be the son Bruce remembered anymore, too much had changed, but he could be the son he was today. He could do what he could for the Replacement and make sure the kid didn’t get himself killed on the streets. The girl that joined them got the same measure of protection though she was better able to defend herself.

When he finally let go of thoughts of revenge he could think about a time when a stray spark of living Sunshine found its way to cold, grey Gotham. He finally looked up news of Marinette to see how she was doing. He broke down and cried when her wedding announcement to the son of a Parisian fashion house was the first thing to pop up.

Selina, Bruce and Alfred all encouraged him to take a trip to France anyways to get some closure, to say goodbye. But he refused, the smile in her eyes as she looked at her new husband in the picture convinced him that she was happy. And that was all he ever wanted for her, even if it couldn’t be him giving the her the world.

He was 19 years old when he made peace with his past.

****************************

He was 20 years old when news of the villain Hawkmoth and his defeat hit the international press. He was livid to realize that his beloved Nettie had been in so much danger just living in a city that should have been safe. That the Justice League had done nothing when the citizens pleaded for help.

It felt like the period after his revival in the pit as he stormed the halls of the WatchTower. His vision was in various shades of red and his thoughts just kept turning back to how Marinette might have been killed in one of the villain’s monster attacks. Hell, she probably did die once or twice only to be revived by the hero’s magic.

If he ever got to meet LadyBug he would shower her in appreciation for defending the city his Nettie lived in.

The door crashed and nearly fell off the hinges when he threw it open and stormed through into the Leagues council room.

“RedHood,” Batman said calmly as he stalked up to the table.

Slamming his hands down and leaning over the collected heroes he asked what he’d wanted to since the news broke.

“Who. Screwed. Up?”

“When footage of the attacks first reached the League, investigations were done. No lasting damage was left from the attacks so it was written off as a publicity stunt and subsequent messages were ignored,” Batman explained. “It was a phone operator that fielded these calls. They went based off the assessment done by the League and deleted them.”

“She could have died B. I was dead and couldn’t do anything but you should have been keeping an eye on her. You know what she means to me.”

Batman nodded, “I should have. The messages never reached me but I should have been keeping a watch on her regardless of that.”

“You’re going to make amends to those heroes for ignoring them,” Jason stated. “All of you are,” he added, including the other heroes in the room in his statement.

“Yes,” Batman agreed.

Jason jerked his head in a nod and left the room. Going back to the cave where he can do his own check and make sure Marinette was safe.

********************************

It wasn’t just the League that failed Marinette. Jason knew he was as much to blame. If he had gone to Paris? If he had seen her? If he had told her he was alive? Would she have suffered under Hawkmoth? If, if, if.

News of the divorce of up and coming fashion designer MDC and the son of the fashion mogul and former villain Adrian Agreste hit airwaves like lightning. In the beginning people claimed it was Marinette who left because of Hawkmoth’s identity. Adrian was fast to shut that down and own that he was the one to ask for the divorce for personal reasons. With what seemed to be an amicable break up the world turned its attention to the next sound bite.

He’d failed her again. Jason just sat by his empty grave as he cried when he learns about it. He argues with Alfred and Selina when they bring up him visiting Paris afterwards. This time Bruce supports his decision. He doesn’t approve and lets Jason know it, but he supports him.

Returning to the cave after patrol, Jason was the last to arrive. He didn’t know why everyone was gathered by the computer so he went to take a look. He didn’t hear what Alfred said as he walked over. Momentarily blinded by the helmet as he removed it, he froze when he finally saw what, no who, had his family’s attention.

She had grown since their first meeting, not in height but in maturity. She had traded the fun pigtails for an elegant braid, and jeans for a sundress obviously of her own design.

“Hi, Monsieur Alfred introduced the others but I haven’t gotten your name yet. I am Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she introduces herself as if she were meeting a stranger for the first time.

It hurt his heart that she would do that with him, though he realizes why she did. She didn’t know. She couldn’t know that it was him under the mask.

The words wouldn’t come though when he tried to find them and tell her. He finally settled for showing her, hoping she would believe her eyes.

After she gasped in reaction to his reveal he thought maybe his approach was a bit boneheaded after all. Nothing to do but go forward from there though.

“It’s me Nettie. I’m alive.”

Marinette teared up but instead of breaking down and crying she ran to him and jumped into his arms. Burying her face in his neck she just murmured “You’re alive” over and over.

“Yeah,” he admitted. He held her as tightly as he dared. A little worried he might hurt her by accident.

When she pulled away he reluctantly let her go but it was worth it.

She gave him the biggest smile and he saw it again.

He was 21 years old and the sun was shining in cold, grey Gotham once more.

————————————

So I really got into the structure I used for the first chapter and exuded to use the same for this one. They end at different ages because Jason’s a few months older and this happened in that in between time (the real reason is sections were getting too busy so I add another year to his story. How do I rationalize it? Well birthdays are a thing so there you go).

I hope everyone enjoyed this wild ride. I do plan to do an epilogue chapter but that will have to wait until next weekend. Anyone have any ideas you can send it to me.

@pepelachanel @mellownieice @kris-pines04 @zebrabaker @two-faced-biatch @vixen-uchiha @mandy984 @shamefullove @mycupisbroken @dawnwave16 @abrx2002 @mochinek0 @tbehartoo @fertileleaf @thanks-captain-obvious @ravennightingaleandavatempus @hinata3487 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @zalladane @dast218 @miraculous786 @18-fandoms-unite-08 @moonlightstar64 @mooshoon @ladybug182 @iggy-of-fans @legendaryneckjudgestudent @megawhitleycalderonpaganus @finallyaniguana @tog84 @mystery-5-5 @evil-elf16

[fvaleraye]

Echoes

Well well well, would you look at that, we got another chapter :> This one is the long awaited return to the gals- Leona, Velda, and Artemis This one is definitely longer than my other chapters, coming to around five pages worth of words. But I’m very happy with how it turned out... and I hope y’all like reading it ;w;

The hour was early, the sun was peeking shyly over the horizon. Pale orange and yellow hues bathed the earth, the colors highlighting the light brown paths among greenery of the wide open plains. It was all very vibrant, like something out of a painting. Beautiful. Not very many people were up early enough to see it, of course, but travelers got to see it all quite often. Though, the sight usually lost its luster after the first few dozen times. Especially when many of said travelers would prefer to not be awake- let alone travelling- at such an early hour. But such were the sacrifices of those who wanted to explore the expansive lands of Magna Terra.

The trip to Crystalbarrow was much the same as the one to Springford. Leona riding on the back of Artemis- not just because there were very few carriage drivers willing to transport a greatwolf from Springford- but because they were all taken. The carriages were all so busy, as they usually are during spring, and they were just too anxious to get going to wait any longer. So, the old fashioned way it was. Just a roadtrip with a girl and her giant wolf. The one difference from the last trip was the extra passenger. While Leona was- quite begrudgingly- awake, Velda was sound asleep behind her, resting her head on her back, arms around her waist. Her presence definitely made the long trip much more bearable than the last. Artemis was beginning to get a bit tired- a rare sight- but she pressed on, because she knew as well as her charges that Crystalbarrow was not far. Not too close, but certainly not far. She had been trotting along for ages… she could manage a bit further. It was just on the edge of the Outlands, bordering the sea.

Just a bit further.

After about an hour or so more of walking, the sleepy archer managed to rouse herself from her slumber, making her consciousness known with a big yawn, startling the tired warrior. She glanced at her from over her shoulder, and the two quietly exchanged a look. A moment later, she was back to resting her head, arms around her a little more tightly now.

“I’m shocked you’re so comfortable resting your head on my metal armor.” Leona mumbled tiredly, idly glancing at the road ahead.

“I’m never not comfortable around you…” Velda replied, her voice just dripping with lovey-dovey tones.

If it was a mystery whether or not a wolf could roll their eyes, Artemis would have solved it just then.

Eventually, as swaying grass and fertile land turned to grey, still earth, the sounds of waves started to echo out from the horizon. The coast was nearing. Their destination was nearing. Finally. The two had started to sit a bit straighter, look a bit more presentable. They weren’t trying to impress anyone, but Leona was going to visit a family friend. She needed to wake up a bit. Hopefully he still lives here...

The town climbed into view soon after, a fair portion the old wooden buildings nestled snugly in a sizable crater in the ground, the rest extending into the horizon. The ocean was in full view, a small dock off in the distance, sails being raised and lowered as sailors were either bringing in hauls or setting out for more. The town was a rather simple one, but not a small one. Still, its humble appearances hid its less humble origins.

After all, the town got its name from producing loads and loads of gems and crystals, whether found in the bountiful sea or mined from its expansive crystalline cave networks. It was the single largest producer of gemstones across the entire continent. But you wouldn’t tell just by looking at it. Well, unless you caught a glimpse of people pushing around wheelbarrows full of the stuff, of which there were a few right now. Just loading them onto carriages or into buildings. For now, though, the only thing on the girls minds was getting to the local inn- The Diamond in the Rough. A rather… on the nose name, but it fit, what with the town itself being in the middle of one of the more hostile environments on Magna Terra. 

Not the most hostile, but still. 

As usual, Artemis sat down outside while Leona went in to talk with the innkeeper for a room. Though this time she had the company of her lovely girlfriend Velda, who, unlike her, had actually got a decent amount of sleep the prior night. The two stepped up to the counter, and the kindly old lady there gave them a warm smile.

“Hello there.” She said, sounding a bit tired, but still welcoming. “Welcome to the Diamond in the Rough. Would you like a room?” The practiced ease in her voice was pretty comforting, especially compared to the last inn.

Leona just nodded, pulling up a barstool for a second. “Yeah, we’d like a room…” She replied, rooting around in her pockets for her money. “Us two, and a greatwolf, Artemis, if that’s okay.”

The woman leaned to her side to peek past her guest and out the window. Sure enough, there was a greatwolf out there. Big. But not the biggest she had ever seen. She let out a tired sigh. “Can you wait another half hour or so before letting your pooch in?” She asked, fidgeting a bit. “We’re sort of at capacity for the big fellas at the moment, but a few are about to leave…”

“Oh-! Of course!” After a moment, she produced a small pouch of silver and gold coins from her pocket. “How much? For the room, I mean.”

“Thirty-five silver a night.”

She breathed a sigh of relief at the quite frankly reasonable price. She was expecting to have to pick up odd jobs to make ends meet at this point. But no… her current savings should be just fine for now, thank the gods. She set a handful of silver coins onto the counter, and very quickly stepped back outside.

“Hey Arte…” She mumbled, giving the wolf a few pats on the head. “You’re gonna have to chill out here for an hour or so, but you can come right in afterwards, okay?” The wolf gave a tired little nod, clearly just thankful she’s getting any rest at all. “Okay, good… love ya, big gal. I’ll tell Velda to grab you when you can come in, I just… need a bed…”

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

It wasn’t long before Artemis could come into the building, and it wasn’t much longer after that before the duo fell soundly asleep, leaving Velda to her own devices. As much as she wanted to stay in the room and go to bed with her lovely girlfriend, she just… wasn’t tired. Not that that usually stopped her, but… she had a few things she wanted to do. Look around, mostly. This wasn’t a small town. While it wasn’t near the size of the cities, it was still one of the biggest towns she’d ever been in. There was a fair amount of ground to cover. And a lot of people to talk to. She had to start sometime, and there was no time like the present. Carefully tip-toeing out of the room, she stepped into the inn’s lobby. It was a bit empty, which was fair. It was still early. Most sane people were asleep. She gave the little old lady at the counter a wave as she wandered out into the streets of the Crystalbarrow.

It was a nice enough town, it generally had that rough, stocky look that most coastal towns had. All the buildings were of wooden make, with stone foundations lifting them a good seven or so feet off the ground for when the tides came in. A few of the older buildings here and there had barnacles growing from the sides, while others had plenty of scrape marks on the wood from barnacle removal. Everything had a vibe to it that could only be described as vaguely damp, salted, and well-worn, but still lovingly upkept; like a ship that had seen its fair share of the tides- and had its fair share of repairs as a result. It was surprisingly homey, even among the dreary and slightly depressing gray earth of the Outlands. Velda took a breath, the salty sea air making her pull a face, and started to wander the streets.

Most of the people out at this hour were workers. The workers in question were miners about to go to the mines, though there were a few idle early birds on the streets as well. Everyone was dressed in what you would expect, cotton shirts, pants, knee-high mud-covered boots… nothing really out of the ordinary.

At least, until a… figure, approached her.

They stepped up to her from the side, just barely catching a glimpse of them from her peripheral vision before turning to face them. They were tall, just under seven feet. An old, slightly rusted iron breastplate covered their chest, brown robes flowing from underneath it. It parted in the middle, showing the leather armor that covered their lower half. Their face was concealed beneath a hood, the top of which held a strange crown, and an ornate, but featureless, gold encrusted mask. Gaunt hands, covered in bronze gauntlets ending in sharpened claws, emerged from long brown sleeves, and in them a simple plate, which they held out to the woman.

After the shock of their appearance abated, she let out a sigh. They were a church missionary, and they were asking for a tithe. Of course. She shoved a hand into a pocket, and dropped a few pieces of silver into the plate. The missionary gave a slight bow, and left wordlessly. Her gaze followed them for a time, and she shivered. Gods damned were some of the people the church employed unnerving sometimes. There were always at least a few of the silent missionaries in towns this far out, to help keep the townspeople on the “right path” and away from religions that the church would consider unsavory. Which was most any religion that wasn’t theirs.

Kind of dick-ish, when you thought about it, but considering that most other religions nowadays were apocalypse cults, it was hard to blame them. Hard. Not impossible. They do overstep their bounds occasionally.

She continued to wander for a bit, looking for someone who wasn’t busy or currently under an oath of silence. Her search eventually led her to the docks. Of course the docks were busy, but there were a few workers who were just resting, evidently not having much to do. She nervously stepped up to the least intimidating one, a tired looking young man, probably barely over eighteen. His face seemed to lighten up at her approach, and he started standing a bit straighter. He gave a grin, showing off a few missing teeth.

“H-hello there.” She greeted, fidgeting with her stowed bow.

“Hey there, ma’am!” He greeted right back, running a calloused hand through his messy, damp hair. “What can ah do for ya?”

She was a bit caught off guard by the youth’s enthusiasm, but it wasn’t unwelcome. “Uh… d-do you know anything about the- uh- caves. A-around here?”

His smile dropped for a second, his expression shifting to a more confused one. “Uh… well, ah mean, ah got an idea…” He mumbled, scratching the back of his head. “Unc’s a miner, so’re my cousins. Ah know the names at least, if tha’s helpful.”

She gave a small sigh. Okay, that’s better than nothing. “Do you know where a cave called… uh, called Echo Cavern is?”

He flinched a bit at the name. “E-Echo Cavern, ma’am?” He parroted, tilting his head. “Y-yer probably not from around here, otherwise ya’d know that nobody- ain’t nobody- allowed in there.”

“Please. I really need to find it. It’s the whole reason I c-came out here.”

The boy cringed, and took a sharp inhale, glancing around at the other workers. He grimaced as he turned back to her, eyes still darting around. “Ya sure ‘bout this…?” He asked, his tone making it empathetically clear that he was already sure he was going to regret this.

“... y-yes.”

“Ya don’t sound very sure, ma’am.”

“Th-that’s just how I sound.”

“... I’ll take yer word for it.” He leaned a bit closer. “It’s on the north-east side, further inland. You’ll know it when ya see it, ‘s got lotsa crystals around it. And bugs.”

She blinked at the last bit. “B-bugs?”

“Ye, bugs. Bigguns, too.”

“Well… th-thanks.”

She stepped away from the dock, not wanting to sour the poor lads mood any more than she already had. Hopefully he wouldn’t get in any trouble. He seemed like a nice kid. From there, she just idly paced through the town for a bit. She should probably wait for Leona and Artemis to wake up, so they can all go together.

… but also, she really wanted to get to the cave. She really, really wanted to get to the cave. It was the only lead she had right now. And she really wanted to follow it. But it was probably dangerous- what wasn’t nowadays- and a bow wasn’t exactly the go-to weapon for spelunking in… bug-caves. Eugh. The thought of it made her skin crawl. She really didn’t like bugs. Bugs just made her… viscerally uncomfortable. Especially big ones. But she’s faced scarier… probably…

… I’ll just take a peek, and then go back and wait for Leona and Arte.

The Outlands were dreadfully oppressing, especially when walking on foot. She didn’t quite imagine the cave being this far out from the kid’s description. But who knows, maybe she had already passed it. The town was already getting kind of far away… and she really didn’t want to lose where it was. The Outlands were very same-y- gray rock and dirt as far as the eye can see. At least Crystalbarrow was a coast town, so she can just follow the coast and get there eventually. That is, if she hadn’t lost where the coast was already. Her sense of direction definitely could have been better... but it also could have been worse. She could figure out a way back, she could… she just had to push the anxiety down for the time being. If she didn’t find the cave within the next ten or so minutes, she was heading back.

Of course, it only took about two more minutes of looking to find it.

When the lad said that she would know it when she saw it, he wasn’t joking. It was… a big cave. Even from a distance, it was intimidating. An enormous, yawning maw of an opening, lined with crystals, giving the impression of the giant, toothy mouth of a hungry monster. It wasn’t exactly welcoming. But there were no bugs… at least, not visible ones. Not yet. Slowly, carefully, she stepped closer. The closer she stepped… the louder… something became. It wasn’t clear what it was. It was… deep. Bassy. Cacophonous. Like a choir of some sort. But it definitely wasn’t a choir. Not out here. That became more obvious the closer she came.

She peeked into the vast opening, the glittering crystals providing light a far distance down… but that just made it even more obvious how it just kept going. There was no end in sight to the tunnel, and she could swear it branched off at several points. The sight made her stomach drop. No. No way, no way was she going in there without Leona and Artemis. The noise was near unbearable this close… and it still wasn’t any more distinct. Just. Gibbering and jabbering, echoing out of the cave. She decided now was probably a good time to just turn around and head back. No way. Nuh-uh. She could not get back to town fast enough.

In fact, Velda was in such a hurry, she tripped right over something and fell flat on her face, a cry and ‘oof’ pushed from her.

She picked herself up off the ground, a hand reaching up to her eye. Yeah, that was definitely going to be a black eye for her troubles. And her arrows spilled all over the ground. Fuck off. She brushed the dirt and dust off her clothes, and started to pick up the arrows. At least she didn’t accidentally stab herself on any of them. That was nice.

The only thing that broke her bit of misery was the little chirping noise she heard behind her.

It was a little hard to hear over the cave, but it was… different. Enough to notice. She turned around, arrows clutched in shaky hands, and didn’t see anything at first… left, right… nothing. Then she turned down, and she saw it.

It was a bug. A big one, about the size of a small dog. But it was… different. She jumped back at first glance, but as she looked closer, she was almost immediately disarmed. It was… very round. Almost spherical. Its back was covered in a shining, sparkling, deep purple carapace. A small horn protruded from its forehead, sharp, but short. It had rounded legs, and what seemed to be a pair of small arms, ending in three little fingers. Its stomach, strangely, was not covered in a similar carapace, rather it was a bright, near-pristine white coat of fur, coating its belly, neck, and the lower half of its face. It was knocked on its back, chirping and squealing, struggling to right itself. The sight was a little sad. Her heart getting the better of her, she inched closer to the little creature, and gingerly picked it up. It seemed to panic very briefly, but seemed to take to it after a moment. She set it back down on its legs, and it looked up to her, making a little chirping sound.

“Uh… y-you’re welcome…?” She said, hesitantly giving it a little pat on the head. It trilled in response. “... you uh. Y-you have a good day, I guess.” She added, before turning on her heels and hoofing it back to town.

While she didn’t notice it immediately, the little creature started to follow her after a moment. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was attachment. Gratefulness. Who knew. But she had a little tagalong, whether she knew it or not.

[ghafahey]

@mdzswomen Appreciation Week 2: Day 5 — Repentance

Rated:

 G

Pairing:

Lan Yi/Baoshan Sanren

for you: repentance.

Lan Yi sits and waits, her knees cold and her mind a thousand leagues away with the one she loves, even after centuries.

i.

It’s so cold all around her that sometimes she forgets who she was, who she is, who she may never be again.

In the darkest nights, when all around her there’s nothing but a deep pit of emptiness, all she remembers is a pair of dark eyes and a mouth set in a determined line and the silent call to please stay, stay stay stay.

ii.

There’s Lan set into every single frame of his bones. Lan Yi can tell from far away before he even enters the cave she’s been stuck in for centuries. There’s a deep sense of duty, a commitment to justice, a grief that seems too old for his young body. The other one, laughter and smiles and teasing stitched into his skin, is so different that she can’t help but chuckle to herself when he falls into ice-cold water, emerging spluttering and soaked to the bone. But then, her great-great-great-great-something takes off his headband – the sacred headband no one is supposed to touch, well unless… - and binds their wrists together so they can approach her guqin. It makes her falter for a moment, her mind recalling, trying to reach out to someone – far away and still breathing and missing from her like a limb. She doesn’t think they realize the full extent of their fate which has been intertwined so irrevocably now.

  iii.

“Don’t you think,” Baoshan Sanren says, the comb halting on a particularly stubborn knot in the long dark waves of Lan Yi’s hair. Fingers brush her shoulders, clad in pale blue robes, shuddering from the touch. “It’s a bit ridiculous to need a piece of cloth to practice self-restraint.”

Lan Yi raises one eyebrow at her friend in the mirror.

(Friend seems, she muses, too little a word. Not nearly enough, not even right in her mind, no less on her tongue. There’s another, one dripping with a meaning that leaves her lungs empty when she thinks of it and so, she hasn’t dared to voice it just yet.)

(One day, she promises herself, she’ll look Baoshan Sanren in the eyes and tell her, drenched in all the heaviness of her heart. She’ll tell her: “You’re the one I was looking for before I even knew. You’re the one my soul recognized upon our first meeting, down in the forest so close to midnight, your mouth smiling around some fruit and my own tipping up involuntarily. You’re the one I know will understand my every word and doing because I would understand yours too.”)

(But not tonight.)

“I mean, simply, that if that is all it takes for you to practice restraint… does that not in itself deem you weak.”

The knot loosens. Lan Yi turns, eyebrows still raised, and mouth curled in amusement. Their shoulders knock and Baoshan grins down at her, her eyes two pools of mystery it could take a lifetime and more to decode. Their breaths mingle in the small space between them; growing smaller each time, Lan Yi notices, they’re together at night before both retiring to their respective beds.

“Maybe I am,” she muses, her voice a teasing whisper through heavy nighttime air.

Baoshan's eyes flicker, just for a moment, and her mouth twists as if there’s something else to say, something else to do. The moment passes. There’s still a handful of distance between them.

“Personally…,” she rises from where she's been sitting behind Lan Yi, stretching until the joints of her bones crack with a loud pop. “I would like to see you unrestrained.”

 iv.

It’s still cold. Not unbearably so. Not after centuries. But the ice has never been the problem. The problem is hundreds, thousands of leagues away, on a mountain, hidden by green and secret passageways and shrouded in mystery. Still alive, still breathing, still warm from the blood in her bones while Lan Yi herself is a shred of who she once was. Her power fades each day, drains and leaves her more and more a shell unable to reach out towards the mortal realm.

The problem is: there are so many things left unsaid.

The problem is: she had the chance to make a different choice but was too blinded by ambition to listen.

The problem is: the day Lan Yi went against her soul’s mate she left part of herself with her and never got it back. Until then, how will she find peace? Until then, does she even want to?

The problem is, the problem always has been: Baoshan’s laughter and the crinkles that come out around her eyes and her head thrown back in joy and the image of it branded like fire into Lan Yi’s mind.

  v.

He sits and reads and stares, frost between his brows, at the wall.

“We could carve him from stone and put him in a courtyard. He has the face for it.”

Sometimes Baoshan visits her. It’s a hallucination, of course, Lan Yi is a smart woman who doesn’t fall for simple tricks of the mind baked in hope and loneliness. She knows it can only be a hallucination because she hasn’t had the courage to seek her out herself. She makes excuses for preserving energy, for guarding the Yin Iron – yet she knows the familiar feeling of dread and shame pooling in her stomach.

Still, it’s nice to see Baoshan perched on the ice altar next to her guqin, much like the boy one of her disciples gave life to years ago now. In contrast to Wei Ying, no one scolds her for so carelessly sitting down next to the powerful heirloom. In fact, the sight is welcome. She looks exactly like the day Lan Yi last saw her, not a single wrinkle around her eyes or a grey hair in the waterfall of black flowing down her back. Maybe she hasn’t aged after all or maybe Lan Yi’s imagination just doesn’t like to be realistic.

“He is in mourning,” Lan Yi replies gently.

It’s a feeling she knows too intimately herself. But while the boy – a man now, not the young soul who stumbled into this cave years ago and bound himself without thinking, now hardened by war and loss and heartbreak – mourns for the love he lost to death, Lan Yi mourns for the love she lost to life.

“Tell me,” Baoshan says from her place at the altar, not taking her eyes off Lan Wangji and the stiff set of his shoulders while Lan Yi can’t seem to take her eyes off her. “Do those descendants of yours truly think sitting in an ice cave for unbelievable amounts of time will cure one of love?”

Lan Yi had gotten a glimpse of said descendant once, a man set in his principles and beliefs and pride dripping off his mustache. She’s also heard the story that the very same mustache once got shaved off by one of Baoshan Sanren’s disciples, the mother of the man being mourned in these halls. It would not surprise her if that man thinks solitary confinement in the hidden cave of a mountain, blood and scars on your back and your heart in shambles, was the cure to heartache and grief.

"They have not gotten much smarter with the centuries, I fear," she replies after a moment and Baoshan Sanren's lips quirk in a smile she misses more than sunshine on her skin and the smell of flowers. Centuries locked in this place seem suddenly bearable at the sight that once greeted her every day - sometimes mischievous, sometimes gentle and sometimes, dare she hope, loving.

"This one though, I think... he'll be fine." And then the smile dies on the hallucination's lips and suddenly, finally, her eyes meet Lan Yi's across the cave, her gaze so intense that for a few short moments she's fool enough to believe Baoshan is truly here. "He won't have to mourn forever."

  vi.

“Lan Yi,” a hand shakes her awake, not too gently. When she blinks her eyes open, morning light greets her first, then Baoshan’s furrowed brows. Her back and neck ache from the position she fell asleep in, her head on the desk between books and scrolls.

“Oh,” she winces when she straightens again, her back making a painful sound. Baoshan’s hand is still on her shoulder, gripping a little too tightly.

“You fell asleep over this again?” She eyes the contents on the table, then huffs out a breath. Her hand falls from Lan Yi’s shoulder and Lan Yi swallows down the sound of disapproval that forms in her throat. “I should have never told you about the Yin Iron.”

It’s not the first time they’re having this argument, not the first time Baoshan has found her in the library at an early hour, not the first time her eyes have clouded with anger and disappointment like that.

Lan Yi rises, shakes out her shoulders as if that could also shake off her friend’s glare and the cold grip around her heart at having disappointed the most important person in her life.

“I am simply researching a bit,” she says but doesn’t meet Baoshan’s eyes. “There has to be a way to neutralize the Yin Iron, to use it for good.”

Her friend is silent, maybe run out of arguments against her because they keep going in an endless cycle of back-and-forth, neither of them ready to budge, to admit they might be wrong. It’s been weighing on them for months now, slowly carving an abyss between them that has never been there before.

When once they would sit together at night, brushing each other’s hair, sharing stories and laughter and wine, now Lan Yi retires to the library instead and avoids Baoshan’s judging eyes and harsh words.

“Even if there is,” Baoshan admits after a moment, her voice lowered and no longer angry. When Lan Yi looks up she finds the other woman moving closer, her eyes pleading even before she reaches out a hand to grip Lan Yi’s elbow. “Have you even spared a thought to what it might cost you?”

She has. Of course, she has though she has pushed it all away to not be distracted from her goal. This has to work, has to go well, and earn her the respect among the other clan leaders she has always deserved. No matter the cost, she is willing to pay it, she thinks. Has to trust in her own abilities and mind to see this through and come out of it victorious and unscathed and a legend for the future generations to marvel at.

So, she raises her chin and stares Baoshan down. “I am willing to pay that price.”

Her friend swallows and as her eyes lower, so does her hand, falling from Lan Yi’s elbow and once again opening up the chasm between them she was trying to bridge with a simple touch. One that had once brought so much comfort.

“I am not.” She turns as if defeated though her words prove the opposite. “So I hope you will forgive me for praying every night that you never find the Yin Iron’s true location.”

 vii.  

Sometimes, when she curls around herself on the ground and lets the rabbits settle next to her as if she had a need for sleep, her mind flicks through memories like pages of a book. It stays on the good parts often enough, on laughter with wine on her lips, on the comfort of arms wrapped around her, on her name whispered against her neck one night when they had gotten too drunk and lost themselves; on the bright eyes of her disciples when she had instructed them, the girls especially, on the respect some had paid her; on days even longer past when she would be surrounded by her mother and father and brothers for dinner.

Most times it makes her relive the bad parts too, death upon death, insults whispered behind her back but just loud enough for her to hear, the sneer of men thinking themselves above her.

And then, Baoshan’s sword raised against her, the one thing she never thought to live through. It still hurts just as much as that night, no matter her intentions. She’s unable to say anything but her mind screams I thought we were bound for life and death. I thought you would never raise your sword against me. I thought we were destined to stand and fight and live side by side.

It was an illusion perhaps, a dream she had crafted of a reality that could never be true just to console herself that maybe, some version of them had gotten to that part they had always dreamed of.

They didn’t in this life.

In her dreams, which aren't dreams at all because she cannot sleep, a hand runs through her hair and a familiar voice whispers her name, followed by apologies she is so eager to return but can't because she has no voice.

When Lan Yi opens her eyes, still tired, her face wet from snow and tears, it’s to the same cold walls as the last thousand days.

  viii.

There is a wedding happening. Something tells her, maybe a whispered prayer or a flow of energy filled with a particular shade of happiness.

“You were right,” she tells Baoshan Sanren's illusion, who has her head in her lap and her dark hair spread out like a fan. Lan Yi cards her hands through it slowly, gently, savoring the moment that seems so real she feels it pricking behind her eyes. “He did not have to mourn forever.”

Baoshan looks up then and raises a hand to the corner of Lan Yi’s mouth, her thumb gliding over it like a kiss she never dared to press there.

“It was supposed to be us.”

  iv.

Her biggest regret, her biggest dream lives thousands of leagues away on a mountain, secluded and centuries-old and Lan Yi hopes selfishly that she has not been forgotten. That maybe Baoshan Sanren too wakes up sometimes and aches for the love they never spoke but knew too well, for the future they could have had if only, if only…

Locked away in an ice cave is as much repentance for playing at power, for not listening, for breaking the seal on an object that once more has caused so many deaths as it is for taking a knife to the thread that connected her to Baoshan and cutting right through it. She's sure she deserves this.

So, Lan Yi sits and waits and fades slowly and thinks that maybe, once she has gone from this world entirely, she’ll be given another chance.

I’ll get it right this time, she promises.

[therainroguefanfiction]

❉ 139 Dreams (Jinyoung Park) Elysium

📑 Table of Contents

Genre: Fluff, AU ☁

Word Count: 2,162 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Jinyoung ☁

World: Got7 ☁

Author’s Note: I wrote this for a good friend of mine and fellow writer, @prettywordsyouleft​. I hope you enjoy this ❤

WARNING: This fic is all about death, so read at your own risk.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

Your grandmother always used to say that love could come from the most unexpected placed and when it was least expected, but you never really believed her. You didn’t believe in the idea of fate, the idea that your entire life was predetermined before you were even born. You were strong and stubborn, and you believed that you made your own destiny. The choices you made in life were your own, not some fixed destiny. And though you had no desire to fall in love at your current stage in life, you felt confident that you could find it when you so desired.

Unfortunately, life did not go as you had planned. Perhaps it was some divine punishment for spitting in the face of destiny so many times, or maybe it was a simple mistake. You didn’t know, but it was honestly frustrating to you how your life had derailed so quickly and without the slightest bit of warning. At the end of the day, you knew you had brought it upon yourself. You had been far too wrapped up in your job, too focused on the list of items you needed to buy that day, too pre-occupied with the angry customer complaining to you over the phone.

You thought the sign was green, giving you the okay to cross the busy intersection, but you had only given it a fleeting glance before returning to your notepad, where you were jotting down the complaints of the woman on the phone, promising to make the appropriate changes as soon as you were able. People always say it happens so quickly, that it’s over in the blink of an eye. You weren’t sure if they were wrong or if you just got the short end of the stick but, for you, everything slowed down.

You could see the SVU heading toward you, the driver laying on the horn, but it seemed to be moving so slowly. You doubted it was going more than a snail’s pace. Surely you could just step out of the way, right? But when you tried to do so, your limbs moved even slower. Were you submerged in quicksand? It seemed so. You could hear people screaming – or maybe it was just the woman on the phone, angry that you had yet to answer her.

It seemed to take an eternity for the vehicle to finally reach you, slamming into your body. Paper flew into the air, fluttering in the gentle summer breeze. The phone fell from your hand, smashing into little bits on the pavement. Your body slowly flew backward, landing on the ground in a bloody heap several feet away from where the SVU came to a screeching halt. You became aware of your accelerated heart rate as it pumped in your ears, muffling the slowed sounds of the concerned onlookers.

A face blocked your view of the clear blue sky, but it was just a shadowy blur without features. You tried to piece together what had just occurred, but the memory was quickly fading from your mind as your body slipped into shock. An eery chill wafted over your body. Why didn’t you feel any pain? Even when the vehicle had struck you, you had felt nothing. You were no expert, but you were pretty sure getting hit by a vehicle was supposed to hurt.

Your eyes fluttered closed, just for a moment, and when you opened them again, you found yourself looking down at your battered and bruised body being lifted into an ambulance. Again, you were no expert, but you were pretty sure seeing your own unconscious body was a bad sign.

Footsteps echoed behind you and you noticed that all of the other sounds had faded away. “Y/N? Are you ready to go?”

“No, I am not ready to -” You whipped around, surprised by the young face that greeted you. As angry as you wanted to be, it just felt… wrong to snap at him. Instead, you asked who he was.

The man smiled, showing off a set of pearly white teeth. “Sorry, I should have introduced myself first, it’s been a long day. My name is Choi Youngjae and I’m one of the grim tasked with ferrying souls over to Elysium.”

And then it hit you, “I’m dead.”

His smile turned sad as he nodded, shifting his weight. He had done this so many times since he was given the job, but it never got easier to meet someone after their life had come to an abrupt end. “I’m afraid so. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I’m here to -”

“I want to see your boss,” you demanded.

“I… uh, what?” Youngjae had witnessed many different reactions over the course of his career, but no one had reacted quite like this, and no one certainly had never demanded to see his ‘boss’.

“Your boss,” you repeated, feeling frustration begin to bubble within you. “This is clearly a mistake. Let me talk to whoever is above you so we can fix this and get on with our lives.”

His lips tilted downward, but he didn’t have the heart to tell you that the grim did not make mistakes. He doubted doing so would change your mind, anyway. With a nod, he snapped his fingers, stepping back as a white portal opened up where he had just been standing. “Please, follow me.”

You didn’t think twice as you followed him through the portal. A blinding white light made you shut your eyes for a brief moment, but it quickly faded and when your eyes slid open again, you found your surroundings to be very different from the blurry grey you had just been standing in. To your left was a sprawling spruce forest, the trees towering toward the. Behind you was an open field filled with soft-colored flowers. To your right lay a mountain, the peak of which could not be seen beyond the fluffy clouds above.

Was this supposed to be some sort of afterlife? What people referred to as heaven?

A wave of calm came over you, pushing against the annoyance and frustration you felt, but those negative emotions wouldn’t be shoved away so easily.

Youngjae moved forward, approaching a long stone bridge that curved over a break in the land. A man stood by the bridge, eyes trained on a black book within his hands. “Jinyoung, hyung.”

Hearing his name being called, he lifted his head and smiled warmly at his younger brother. “Welcome back, Youngjae. How did your last job go?”

The struggle between the negative emotions and the calm came to a halt when his words reached you and suddenly, it was if the calm didn’t even exist anymore. You huffed as you approached him, fists clenched at your sides. “A job? You think someone losing their life is just a job for you people? Do you get paid to end lives early? Do you get a commission for each life you end?”

His dark eyes flickered to Youngjae before returning to you, his plump lips parting.

You didn’t allow him to answer, shaking your head. You needed to focus on getting out of here and back to where you belong, there was no time to waste arguing. “Look, there’s clearly been some kind of mistake or mix up. I have so many orders that are waiting to be filled, I have to get back home. Please figure out where you screwed up and fix it.”

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way,” Jinyoung snapped the black book shut before handing it over to his younger brother, who nodded and took up post by the bridge. “The grim do not make mistakes, nor do they have mixups. There are extreme measures in place to ensure this. It may be hard for you to accept, but it was your time to leave the Earth.”

You followed him across the bridge with a scowl, having to raise your voice over the sound of the rushing water below. “Says who? Who has the right to decide when I live or die?”

“The universe,” he answered simply. “Your kind often believe that a singular god determines the fate of man, but it’s far more complicated than that. Many factors are combined to determine one’s life expectancy, but even destiny can be altered by minute changes within one’s environment. For whatever reason, the universe determined that you were destined to arrive here today.” He paused at the steps leading up to a large hall, turning to look at you.

“So that’s it, then? I’m just… gone.”

“Your soul will remain here in Elysium,” he explained softly. “After one week’s time has passed, the rebirth program will be opened up to you. You lived your life without causing harm to others and because of that, you will be offered the opportunity to start again. A second chance, if you will. A brand new life, a new set of experiences, and challenges. Your soul will be merged with another to form a new soul and neither of you will remember your past lives, your death, or the time you spent here.”

Your brow furrowed as your head started to spin. He was feeding you too much information too quickly and you didn’t know how to feel about any of it.

“Jinyoung!” A tall blonde male came bounding over, a bright grin lighting up his face. “Hyung is calling for us. There’s a situation he needs us to handle.”

“I’ll be right there, Jackson.” He promised before turning back to you, his eyes meeting your own. Another, stronger wave of calm came over you, leaving you feeling a bit lighter than you had just a moment ago. “This is a lot to take in and acceptance doesn’t happen overnight. I promise you, Y/N, it’s not so bad here.”

You could only watch as the two of them headed across the bridge to collect their brother, disappearing within the mist that shrouded the center of the bridge.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

Two months had passed since you had first arrived within Elysium and you still hadn’t fully adjusted to life there, but you weren’t too fond of giving up your memories, either. The only thing that made the situation more bearable was the time you were able to spend with Jinyoung, whom you had gotten quite close to. You hated to admit it, but… he was quickly becoming a very important person to you, the rock that was keeping you grounded.

As you crossed the bridge, you took pause halfway, leaning on the railing and taking a moment to take in just how beautiful it was. A large waterfall poured from a break in the forest, the water flowing down into the large crack that separated the hall from the rest of the land. The spray from the water created a thin fog that covered the bridge. Seeing such a beautiful sight made you wish you had a camera, though you knew it couldn’t capture the beauty as you could see it with your eyes.

“Y/N!” Jinyoung sent you a bright smile as he approached you, the black book tucked under his arm. Seeing him filled you with warmth and send your heart spiraling.

‘Remember, Y/N, love can come from the most unexpected places when we least expect it,’ The words of your grandmother suddenly echoed within your mind.

Your brow furrowed. ‘Why did I just -‘ And then it clicked within your brain. The reason Jinyoung had become so important to you. The reason you were so reluctant to enroll in the program. You had fallen in love with the gatekeeper. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me…’ You pinched the bridge of your nose, repressing a groan. ‘I finally fall in love, and it’s in the afterlife? What kind of cliche novel is this?’

“Are you okay?” He questioned, gently bumping your shoulder with his own as he stopped beside you. “You seem more distracted than usual,”

You met his dark eyes, shimmering with concern and warmth. Your heart skipped a beat as you thought how beautiful this man was. ‘Shut up, heart. No one asked for your opinion,’ You cleared your throat, tearing your gaze away to stare back down at the water. “I’m fine,”

“Have you made a decision about the rebirth project?”

You were silent for several moments, wringing your fingers nervously. With a slow release of breath, you gave him a nod. “I have. I’ve decided to turn the offer down.”

“Are you sure?” Jinyoung asked softly.

As you looked upon his warm eyes, shining brightly under the sunlight above, you spoke from your heart. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,”

The smile he offered you was so full of warmth and happiness that it took you by surprise. His shoulder bumped against yours again and his voice was so soft, you briefly wondered if he had spoken at all. “I’m glad,”

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

📜 Read more by checking out my masterlist 📜

[thewritewolf]

Two Cursed Detectives in Paris Chapter 6: Case Closed

All four of our heroes hang out together, just before Eerie and Connor head back to the United States.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 (Final)

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3

“You know what? I think that’s enough English practice for today,” Connor said, throwing his controller onto the couch.

“Wow! Ten minutes and you’re already sick of losing,” Adrien replied with fake sweetness. “That has to be a new record!”

Connor slowly turned toward Adrien and narrowed his eyes. Wrestling the model boy to the ground as pay back was out of the question. Not just because Adrien was a lot more nimble than Connor, but also because Connor had already eaten an entire pizza and the box it came in. Sudden exertion right now wasn’t much of an option. Instead, he settled for glaring at his student.

“Can’t believe I fell for that sweet kid routine when I first met you.” Connor crossed his arms and shook his head. “You’re a little butt when you want to be.”

Adrien stuck his tongue out at Connor, leading the grown man to stick his tongue out right back, with even more vitriol. The next couple minutes were spent just trying to one up each other in an arms race of similar acts of maturity.

Eventually, Adrien asked, “Okay, as fun as this is, what are we actually going to do now? We still have a couple hours that we’re supposed to doing practices.”

“Hm…” Connor stared out the window for a moment. “Wanna go visit the girls?”

“I’d love to!” Adrien’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow! Does this mean I’ll finally get to meet Eerie too?”

“Huh? Oh, right. I guess you haven’t met her yet, huh?” Connor checked the time on his phone. “Yeah, her shift is still going. Although… shoot.”

“What?”

“She might be doing deliveries. Well, let’s head over anyway. Miss Eerie won’t stop talking about how good their pastries are and I want to get at least one… what are they called? ‘Pain au chocolat’?”

Adrien’s face lit up. “Hey, you got it right! Good job!”

Coming from anyone else, Connor might have glared at them for being sarcastic, but Adrien was nothing if not sincere. Occasional teasing aside.

“Of course I did. Now come on, let’s head out.”

The trip to the bakery only took them about ten minutes, enough time for Connor’s stomach to quiet down as he breathed in the scent of baked goods. After saying a few parting words to the Gorilla, Adrien joined him, practically vibrating with excitement. It brought a smirk to Connor’s face. Ah, to be young and in love…

Connor opened the door to the bakery and the first thing he saw was Eerie leaning on the counter. His smirk blossomed into a full-blown grin as she turned toward the sound of the bells above the door. A smile to mirror his own appeared on her face when she recognized him.

“Connor! I wasn’t expecting to see you until later. What’s up?”

“We finished early and wanted to celebrate with something tasty.” He stuck a thumb at Adrien, who was trying to catch a peek through the door that lead into the house part of the business. “This guy wouldn’t stop talking about his girlfriend though, so I thought we’d kill two birds with one stone.”

It was at that moment that Marinette appeared, cheeks flushed as she caught the tail end of their conversation. Her eyes flickered to Adrien, whose face was beet red.

“Connor!” Adrien whined.

The man in question simply shrugged. “What? It’s true.”

While Adrien sputtered indignantly, Eerie smacked Connor’s arm.

“Leave the poor boy alone! I think it’s cute.”

“I never said it wasn’t,” Connor grumbled as he stacked a few pain au chocolats onto the counter in front of a confused giant of a man. The man said something in French to Eerie that Connor couldn’t follow. She replied and a knowing smile crossed his face. He added an extra croissant to Connor’s order, free of charge.

“...What did you say to him?”

“He asked who you were, I said that you’re my partner.”

Marinette quipped something from behind Eerie and all of them laughed. Connor’s tail flicked back and forth - the only thing he caught that time was ‘petit dechat’.

“Don’t worry,” Adrien said, his laughter dying down. “It’s, um, it’s just a French term of endearment.”

“Yeah? ‘Little trash cat’ is a common expression, huh?” Connor crossed his arms and pouted. Before Adrien could respond, Connor asked, “I was kinda expecting you to be working, boss. What gives?”

“The Dupain-Chengs gave me the day off to explore Paris as a thank you for a job well done,” Eerie said proudly.

“Well, we don’t want to disappoint.” Connor smiled. “What does Paris have to offer us, then?”

Marinette perked up and started talking animatedly. The gist he was getting of the conversation was that she had a lot of places that she’d love to show them. After Eerie exchanged some cheek kisses with the two bakers, the four of them left to explore the city.

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

“...With her hair fluffed out like that, she scared the daylights out of those teens.” Connor smirked over his coffee. The cafe was one of Marinette’s favorites and Adrien could easily see why as he took a sip of his own beverage. “But after the first time, it’s actually pretty cute.” Nudging his blushing partner, he added, “Wouldn’t you say so, mon petite chouette?”

Eerie was covering her face in embarrassment. “Do you really need to tell them that story?”

“It was a great use of your powers! Why wouldn’t I?”

As the two began to playfully argue, Adrien grabbed his chin and narrowed his eyes in thought.

“Something up, Adrien?” Marinette asked in their native French.

“You don’t think… No it can’t be.” He dropped his voice to a whisper so only she could hear him. “They are dating, right?”

Marinette blinked up at him. “Well… yeah? Of course. They have to be. It seems pretty obvious.”

“Maybe we should ask, just to be sure.”

“Good idea, just try to be discreet about it. You don’t want to put them on the spot if they aren’t.”

“You got it.” Switching to English, Adrien asked, “Hey!” Connor and Eerie looked back at him, eyes still full of laughter from their banter. “You two are dating, right?”

Their pupils shrunk to pinpricks as they gaped at Adrien before glancing at each other, a furious blush mirrored on both of their faces.

“She’s my intern!”

“We’re not like- No!”

“I mean I guess we’re close but-”

“Just because we’re good friends doesn’t mean-”

Adrien held up his hands. “Sorry, sorry! I just wanted to be sure that's all.”

Hesitantly, the two went back to chatting between themselves and Adrien relayed what they said to Marinette.

Marinette winced. “Yeah, I heard the ‘good friends’ part.”

“Huh? You understood that?”

“Of course. After all this time, I can understand ‘good friend’ in four or five languages.”

“Wow! Why’s that?”

Marinette gave him a long, hard look, seemed like she was going to say something, thought the better of it and just gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. And don’t worry about them either - something tells me things will work out for them just fine.”

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

Eerie followed behind Connor and shakily took her spot beside him. Just like before, he had taken the window seat. It might not have been much to anyone else, but she was touched at how he did everything he could to make this seven hour flight bearable for her.

Like last night, when he tried his best to keep them both awake for as long as possible. By his reasoning, it was harder to panic at the flight when you were out cold. Unfortunately, the long hours they’d spent putting the pieces of the puzzle together had left her exhausted. They might have had the evidence to nail their forger to the wall, but she was fast asleep shamefully early because of it.

A creaking noise made her painfully aware of her talons and how they were starting to crush the armrests. It was enough to wake Connor up from his nap. While she had failed to stay up, he’d had no such problems, binging whole movies. Waking her up hadn’t done much beyond making her grouchy, but she was wishing now she’d given it more effort.

Blearily, Connor’s eyes moved from the armrest to her face. He yawned and held out his hand to her. It took a few moments of staring before she realized he was waiting for her to take it. In any other circumstances, she might have hesitated, but she was willing to take any scrap of comfort she could get ahold of. Literally in this case.

His gloved fingers intertwined with hers, his thumb circling the back of her hand in a calming motion. She wouldn’t say she was feeling good about the whole flying thing now, but she was at least feeling better.

Better enough that she was suddenly aware of how intimate the gesture was. Eerie had found out early on that the sensitivity of his hands made stuff like this very… personal. After that question from Adrien, she couldn’t help but ask herself if this was just comforting a friend or something more. She sat with eyes locked forward, biting her lip worriedly and wondering if she was looking too much into this.

Building up her courage, she looked over to Connor to ask him, only to see that he’d fallen asleep. His tail was cuddled up close to him as he drooled into it. Despite that, he still held onto her - gently but firmly. Enough to let her know he was still there. Her worries melted away as she looked into his serene sleeping face.

She was leaning forward before she knew it, but she stopped herself just short of kissing his forehead. She quickly pulled back, shoving an errant lock of hair behind her ear. What was she thinking?

Then she took another look at him, her heart softening as she watched him breath the slow and steady rhythm of those deep in slumber. She reached out her right hand, felt the fur of his raccoon ears under her fingers as she rubbed them. His blank expression turned into a blissful smile.

Pulling away, Eerie settled in for the long flight ahead, feeling more at peace than she ever had on a plane before.

[nerdy-bookworm-1998]

Snowed In

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Words: 1466

Warnings: mutual pining and swear words

A/N: If you want to be tagged in other works, send me an ask

The mission had gone exceptionally well, strictly recon, three days max. They were on their way home when an unexpected storm hit, buffering the quinjet every which way. Friday had told you that Tony had a private ski lodge in which you could wait out the storm which was getting bigger by the minute. Neither you or Bucky even had to think about it as you told the AI to take you there.

The jet touched down just outside the solid stone structure just half an hour later with you and Bucky grabbing your bags and making a mad dash up the front porch steps and into the lodge.

Inside, it was rustically furnished, with exposed wooden ceiling beams, a large stone fireplace and fur blankets over the back of the overstuffed chairs and sofas. The kitchen was state of the art, fitted with a walk-in pantry, stocked to the brim, and every appliance known to man. There was a small study with lots of bookshelves covering the walls and completely filled with books from almost every genre imaginable. There were a few separate bedrooms, each with their own bathroom and walk-in closet.

You and Bucky chose rooms opposite each other and went your separate ways to go clean up, before meeting back in the living room, the fireplace already roaring from the moment you stepped inside, thanks to Tony who thought it important to install Friday in all of his homes and safe houses around the world.

After a warm bath and changing into a comfy pair of leggings and a sweatshirt you felt much better. You set up the laptop and called the compound while Bucky wandered into the kitchen to make some food. Soon enough, Tony's face popped up onto the screen, along with the rest of your teammates. "Hey, guys! So I have good news and bad news; the good news is that the mission was a success; the bad news is that we got caught in a snowstorm and we don't know when we'll make it back," you inform them.

"We know about the storm, it's hitting here too, and Friday told us that you guys landed at the ski lodge. We're just glad you're okay, we'll see you in a few days." Steve says before anyone else can, earning him a very disgruntled look from Tony. Before anyone can say anything further, the video feed cuts out. "Steve? Guys?" she asks before groaning, "Dammit!"

"What's wrong?" Bucky asks, poking his head out of the kitchen. "The signal just cut out, because of the storm, we can't get in touch with the team, so we're on our own until it passes." She sits back, massaging her temples as the beginnings of a stress-headache start to emerge. He sits down next to her, patting her knee awkwardly. "It's not that bad, I can think of worse places to be stuck in, and the company makes it more bearable too." He gives her a shy smile which she slowly returns.

The truth was that this was sort of a dream come true for y/n, but she would never let anyone know that. She had been crushing on Bucky Barnes ever since he first set foot in the compound, he sometimes reminded her of a little, lost puppy, but at others, he could make a tomato blush with his flirting.

But right now, this was a nightmare, because he didn't feel the same way about her; because he had a girlfriend now. She plasters a smile on her face and says in a too cheery voice, "You're right, why don't you relax and I'll go finish dinner?" Before he even has time to respond she is already up and out of the room. He lets out a quiet sigh, "One day I'll tell her, one day..."

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening, y/n tried to avoid Bucky as much as possible. He seemed to sense that she did not want to talk, so he left her alone, going up to his room after dinner with a book he had brought with him.

Y/N lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep with her head full of images of a certain supersoldier sleeping in the next room. The digital clock on the bedside table told her it was 11 o clock. With a heavy sigh, she threw the blankets from her body and crept down the hall intending to make some hot chocolate to help her sleep.

But that plan flew out the window when she stepped into the living room and saw the very subject of her wayward thoughts sitting in front of the fireplace. She let out an involuntary squeak, but before she could flee, he turned around and gave her a soft, albeit sad smile. "I couldn't sleep," he says in his deep timbre voice.

"Would-would you like some hot chocolate? I was just going to make some..." she says nervously as she makes her way to the kitchen. "I would love some."

She gives a small nod then busies herself pulling the right ingredients from the cupboard while humming carols to herself. In the living room, Bucky smiles to himself as he recognizes the tune of Let It Snow.

She had just placed the finishing touches of whipped cream, cinnamon, and peppermint candy cane stirrers in the mugs when he silently came up behind her. "That's actually one of my favorite songs." The sudden voice startles her since she didn't hear him walking.

She turns around with a tight-lipped smile. "Mine too." After an awkward pause, she continues, "Kim probably misses you, it is your first Christmas together, after all. I'm sorry you're stuck here with me instead of being with her," she turns back to grab her mug, giving her the opportunity to discretely wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Actually, Kim and I broke up a few weeks ago," he says candidly to which she whirls back around, incredulous. "What? Why?" the words are out before she can stop them and she feels her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

He leads her over to the couch before saying, "She said some things that I didn't like and when I called her out on it she got insulting and defensive, so I told her to pack her bags and leave, I'm done with her. No one gets to talk crap about my friends and get away with it."

"Oh, Bucky...I'm so sorry." Her hands itched to hug him and tell him that everything was going to be alright, but she wasn't sure if he would be okay with that, so she clutched her mug tighter.

"It's okay, she was kind of a bitch anyway. It just took me way too long to realize it. Besides, I think the only reason I started seeing her in the first place was to distract me from my feelings for someone else, someone so wonderful and completely out of my league that I never even tried to give it a shot." he shrugs and it sent a shot of pain through her heart to know that this incredible man with a heart of the purest gold thought that a girl was out of his reach. It made her want to throttle this person and tell them to open their eyes to the angel right in front of them.

"Well, for what it's worth, that girl doesn't know how lucky she is." She gave him a sad smile to which he huffed out a laugh. "You don't get it, y/n, I'm talking about you, I'm crazy about you doll. I know that this is probably the worst time to tell you this, but I just had to let you know. I completely understand if you don't feel the same way, I guess I'll leave you alone now..." he stands to leave, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy stuck in the rain.

He had not gone more than a few steps before she cried out, "Bucky, wait!" Just as he turned around, she slammed into his arms and pulled him down into a soft, yet passionate kiss. His lips felt perfect against hers, as soft as she always thought they would be, yet firm and determined in their quest to melt their mouths together. When their lungs started burning with the heat for air they parted just enough to suck in the much-needed oxygen, yet they kept their foreheads pressed together.

"I'm crazy about you too," she whispered, her heart bursting with affection for the sweet man before her. Neither knew what the future held, but at that moment, with snow falling gently around the cabin, neither cared, all that mattered was the person in their arms.

Tags (open)

@spiderrrling @arrow-guy @mcdesij @interestedbystanderwrites @here2have-fun @bluefallstar @lukebalehiddleston @bvckys-doll

[hot-mess-choices]

Poison, Chapter 1 “Numb”

Pairing: Nathan Sterling/MC (Penelope “Penny” Curtis)

Warnings: toxic relationship, trauma, angst, sexual content in next chapters

Word Count: 1853 Words

Authors Note: Hello internet people! This is my very first published fanfic so I am really nervous about posting this. Given that English is not my native language, I hope you can overlook mistakes that were made, but be kind enough to educate me on them. 

Feedback and constructive criticism is of course greatly appreciate!

Before we dive into this I want it to be completely clear that I in no way intended to romanticize abusive relationships. I’ve been in one in the past and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. This is purely fictional and I‘d like to make it abundantly clear that this is not a Nathan redemption story, he’s still a villain, charming and alluring and irresistible, but still a villain. However, I found the ending of his and MCs relationship very anti-climactic and decided to let my MC suffer a bit more. 

With that being said, enjoy the story kids!

I’m still not used to coming home to a quiet and empty apartment. It’s been close to two months since Zack moved in with Grant. I’m happy for them; I really am and maybe I’d be able to deal with being alone during Senior year better if it wasn’t for this damn suffocating silence. Every time I have a few quiet moments to myself, away from my friends and their shenanigans, I- I remember. Last year’s events creep up on me. I hear distant sirens, air that suddenly reeks of smoke, temperatures rising, glass bursting and his cold gaze cutting through me. It feels like I’m still there. I have left a part of me in this dark past and have not yet reclaimed it. I exhale deeply as I set down my groceries on the kitchen counter. Absent-minded I turn on the TV, not caring for the program; it’s just about to serve as a constant background noise anyway. As I unpack my bags, I play with the idea of maybe inviting someone over for tonight. But I quickly dismiss it. Most of my friends are too busy nowadays to make plans on such short notice. They probably wouldn’t turn me down, but I’d hate to bother them. Besides, it was already half past eight. I could probably call David. The two dates we had were going decent enough, but I’d risk sending him some mixed signals by inviting him over to my place at this time of day. He's been admirably respectful of my admittedly slow pace so far, and I don’t want to get his hopes up. I shouldn’t have gone out with him in the first place probably, given my current situation. So maybe I’ll just go to bed early and call it a day. The second I made my decision, the doorbell starts to ring. Cautiously I walk towards the door and press the button on the intercom: “Hello?” “Miss Curtis?” a deep voice fizzles through the speaker. I know who it is even before he says it out loud and my eyes dart to the small calendar that’s hung next to the door. “Miss Curtis, it is Felix Hail, he… he requested your company for the night and has sent me to escort you, as usual.” Felix is a good person. I hate for him to be caught up in this… this… whatever it is. “I was there last week. We agreed on meeting once every other week.” I try to sound confident and dismissive, but I can’t fool anyone. Felix can probably hear my excited heart beat through the intercom, it’s that loud. “I am well aware, Miss. Nevertheless, he insisted. You know how he gets when someone denies one of his requests.” A cold shiver runs down my back. I do know. I know it all too well. Why else would I still be paying for standing in his way one too many times. I am also well aware that if I do not follow his invite, Felix will get the end of it. I can’t let that happen. “Wait by the car. I’ll be with you in five.” I let go of the button. Piercing blue eyes dance mockingly through my mind and I can already see his pleased half-smile. I grab my coat and close the door on my way out. Once again obediently following the call of none other than Nathan Sterling, I disgust myself. “Should I turn up the heat, Miss?” Felix asks as I climb into the back seat of the sleek Porsche limousine. He always sends the same. I know he has other cars, but I think he takes great pleasure in making things my routine and being in control. “I’m good. Thanks, Felix.” He gives me a sympathetic look through the rear view mirror and starts the car. My mind starts to drift off. How did I end up in this mess? I walked right into it, on my own accord, that’s how. I’m such an idiot. After last year ended with the horrific realisation that the guy I’d been dating was a cold blooded sociopath who wanted nothing but harm to me and my friends, I just wished for a tame summer to recover from all this hurt. But the summer ended up being everything but tame. I was called as a witness to the trials of all the Alphas. I did my best to highlight how horrible their actions truly were. And then I saw Nathan and how he couldn’t be bothered by any of it. His family’s lawyer, stone faced and I knew that he would do anything to get as close to winning this case as possible. I remember how they made this stupid deal that put Nathan under house arrest with electronic monitoring, limited access of communications, an approved list of visitors for private meetings and a sheer endless list of people who could visit with his parents present. What a laughable sentence. Being locked up in your millionaire mansion should not be considered punishment. I don’t know how, but somehow I ended up on the approved private visitor list and he invited me over. Invited is probably the wrong term here. He sent Felix, who told me that “my attendance at the Sterling’s annual end-of-summer charity auction was demanded by the young Mr Sterling.” I should have declined. I should have sent him the meanest, coldest and most hurtful turn down in the history of turn downs, so he would not dare to even think of me ever again, but… I’d like to think that it was my curiosity that lead me to follow this highly questionable request. It could have been the journalist in me, that wanted to know what this was all about. It could have been the strong and empowered woman in me, that wanted to spit in his face one last time. But it was really just the lovesick vulnerable college girl, Nathan still held all this power over. I thoroughly searched my past far and wide, but out of all the people I’ve ever had a romantic connection with, not one of them made me feel the way Nathan did. It’s this primal feeling of raw soul-crushing emotion he gives me. Like we are two parts of a whole, constantly drawn to each other and unable to let go. At least that’s what it feels like to me. I know deep down that this will end badly. I know that he just wants to see me suffer and make me pay for what I did to him. But I just can’t bring myself to leave. All my friends told me that I needed time. That I should take time to heal. Abbie suggested therapy. Kait and Zack joked about a rebound. But none of that seemed reasonable when all I wanted was him. I needed to feel his skin on mine. I want his lips all over me. His scent embracing me. I want his eyes to impale me with their gaze. They don’t understand. His poison is running through every inch of my being and being near him seems to be the only thing that makes it bearable. That day in late August, I just had to see him. I had to be with him. I had to. That’s why I dressed up and let Felix drive me to the Sterling’s estate. I could barely take in all the expensive cars parked out front or all the rich folks dressed in their finest evening attire. I didn’t even have time to feel intimidated. Felix led me straight inside. Up the stairs. To him. It’s been like that ever since. Every other week Felix appears on my porch to take me there. Every time I come with him. Every time I leave the next day, more intoxicated and addicted than before. And now? Will this become a weekly appointment now? And then? Every second day? Every day? Will I be his live in plaything? Will he eventually grow tired of me or will this go on forever? Can I live like that? Do I want to live like that? A cold shiver runs down my spine. I do, don’t I? Something inside of me was terrifyingly excited at that thought. I think I’m going to be sick. “Pull over Felix” “Miss, is everything al—” “Pull over!” Quick to follow my forceful tone, the car comes to a halt by the side of the road. I yank the door open and step out. Cold air fills my lungs as I take deep breaths. It’s almost December, the sun had sunken hours ago, and I should be freezing. Yet, the cold is strangely calming. “Miss, are you not feeling well, you seem awfully pale. Do you want to sit down? I could take you back home, if you desire to do so.” Felix has left his place behind the steering wheel and now stands next to me. I’ll never get used to how tall he is. What is he? 6’5? Damn. His broad shoulders cast a looming shadow onto the poorly lit street. In combination with his deep voice, he could have the potential of being one of the most intimidating people I know but his kind features beg to differ. I never asked, but I’d assume that he is in his late forties, maybe early fifties. His once brown hair is turning grey and his soft hazel eyes are surrounded by small wrinkles. I force a weak smile on my face. “I’m good, just needed some fresh air, that’s all.” He doesn’t even try to look convinced. He has been working for the Sterlings for too long to know how bad for your health they can be. “I can take you back and tell him that you weren’t home when I tried to pick you up.” Felix gives me a troubled look, clearly struggling to keep a professional distance between us. “He’d not be happy about that. I really don’t want him to be angry with you.” Might as well be honest with him now, right? He lets out a small joyless grunt. “Occupational hazard. I’m used to temper tantrums by now. I’ve been working for this family for twenty-eight years after all.” His big hand twitches upwards as if he wanted to pat my shoulder, but he reconsiders and takes a step back instead. “My apologies, it is not my place to speak ill of my employers.” His back straightens. “I won’t snitch on you, Felix. Let’s go, Nathan doesn’t appreciate it when people aren’t on time, right?” Pressing my lips together, I walk past him and get back inside the car. Before I slam the door shut, I hear Felix sigh something along the line with “Poor girl, where will this end?” I’ve asked myself this question far too often to care anymore. Self-pity is really not a good look on me and a real wast of time. I don’t care about what’s going to happen to me. Nathan can do whatever he wants. I’m numb.

Tags: @immortalmurphy

[occasionalfics]

The Ones To Go, 8 (Thor X Reader)

masterlist | the one to stay masterlist | the ones to go masterlist | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 | chapter 6 | chapter 7 | 

Summary: Thor just wants to go home. He’s lost so much already.

A/N: You know that post about how much Thor’s lost? I think about that post a lot. It hurts me - physically hurts me. So I tried not to make this too painful. Also I’m a huge sucker for romance and fluff so that’s what I give you, friends.

Also...there are only two more parts after this. I’m real anxious thinking about that for no reason at all.

Warnings: Thor...sad. 

Words: 2,055. Thor so sad I couldn’t even reach 3k for this one. That’s probably for the best.

He’d seen his friends die more than once now. Well, he’d been on Sakaar when the Warriors Three were killed by Hela, but he hadn’t really had much time to grieve them since. So, in some way, it felt like he’d witnessed their deaths first hand as he walked the camp, knowing exactly who had fallen in battle. He saw it all this time. Two of the bravest, most incredible men he’d ever met had fallen - he couldn’t even say their names without nearly breaking down.

He had to save that for the return to their kingdom. Thor reminded himself when he woke up, intermittently throughout the day, and just before he fell asleep just how lucky he actually was.

Thanos had not taken (Y/N). Not entirely. Not in the same way.

Thanos had not taken Loki or Brunhilde or Heimdall.

Thanos was dead.

The Infinity Stones were to be locked away - he’d forgotten where the remaining Avengers had agreed to take them. It didn’t matter to him, so long as they were far, far away from his kingdom and his family.

More than that, he was going to be a father. The Ice Woman had been right - his Queen was pregnant, and though the timing felt all wrong, there was nothing that could make him happier. He assured her, as the days grew on, that they would be ready for their child when they came into the world.

They agreed to stay in Wakanda for the funerals and wakes of their fallen peers. They borrowed clothing for the occasion with T’Challa’s permission, knowing that everything had some cultural significance or another. The Wakandans did their best to respect the traditions of each person’s home - the Americans were sent home in their coffins, for instance - and then a festival was thrown in the city proper. Shuri assured them both that this was all meant to celebrate the lives of the people they’d lost, to lift their spirits and - hopefully - send them all off with a new glance at the horizon.

Banners with the images of the fallen hung from the ceiling of the room the festival was being held in. Thor had to force himself in behind his wife, and then had to keep his eye down. He couldn’t bare looking at their faces - not so soon after their deaths at the hands of Thanos. (Y/N) clung to him all night - not tightly, so she was dragging him, but just gently enough to remind him she was there with him the whole time. She made being in that room bearable.

“Just remember,” she told him more than once, “that in the morning, Dr. Strange will send us home again.”

He nodded every time, attempting smiles regardless of how convincing he thought he was. The night passed off this way - Thor an anxious mess, (Y/N) his rock as they sat and watched the others dance and celebrate the lives they were now able to live. It all seemed too soon, and his wife agreed.

“We’ll grieve when we get home,” she told him toward the end of the night. “And then we’ll prepare a nursery to recover.”

He smiled genuinely at that. It was a sentiment that truly set his heart at ease and made him hopeful for the morning. He put his arm that was wrapped around her against her stomach and kissed her forehead, keeping her as close as he possibly could.

Their procession the next morning was much smaller than it had been when they’d come to Midgard. Doctor Strange was grateful - he wouldn’t have to hold the portal open quite as long - but Thor felt disheartened. For the first time that morning, he reminded himself that his close friends, his trusted family members were going home with him. Bruce, of course, would remain behind, but at least he was still with them, too.

They moved across space and time as if it were nothing, stepping out onto the field that welcomed them with a calming, warm breeze. They sent a guard ahead of them to announce their arrival, so her brother and sister-in-law waited to greet them at the doors of the palace.

Thor felt as though they’d been away for a year, when really it had been less than a week since he’d been back. It’d been less than a week since he’d come to collect the Queen for the war. That was all.

They greeted the Queen’s family with smiles and hugs, but he was too tired to do much else. They would resume their place on the throne tomorrow, after an inevitable court meeting that would, likely, be too early in the morning.

He tried not to think about that - or really, anything - as (Y/N) drew a bath. He watched her from the main part of their chamber as she tested the temperature, poured in salts and oils, and shut the faucet off when the large tub was full enough. She came back to him then, helped him undress - which he didn’t fight, given how much weight his body seemed to bear at that moment - then held his hand as she brought him into the bathroom.

Thor groaned when he slid into the tub. The warm water instantly lifted some of the tension from his muscles, and the scent of the room cleared his mind the way he wanted it to. (Y/N) didn’t get in at first; she moved around the room, grabbing soap and sponges, the heels of her boots clicking against the stone floors. She put the things in her arms on a table beside the tub, then rubbed more oil on her fingers before working the muscles in his neck in slow circles. She pressed her thumbs the hardest, pushing out tension and knots he didn’t even know he had.

“I’m not complaining or anything,” he said just before groaning as she pushed on an exceptionally tight muscle by his shoulder. “But you do know we have servants for this, right?”

She leaned forward so her lips were right by his ear, some of her hair falling into the water around his chest. “I like taking care of you,” she said in a low voice that sent tingles all over his body. “You made sure I was looked over when I was recovering from that fireball. And besides, I like being needed.”

He smiled and turned his head to kiss her quickly. She worked his other shoulder, eliciting more groans of pleasure from him as the toll of war started to physically leave his body. She’d moved onto his arms, stroking them carefully with soap and oil, when he decided the water was cooling too quickly. He wanted her with him in the water like usual.

He needed the normalcy.

“Could you finish that from in here?” he asked quietly, releasing his arm from her grasp only to take her hand in his.

She sighed and smiled softly at him before standing and removing her clothing. They held one another’s eye, even as she climbed into the tub and placed her body against his. It felt like it’d been another month since they’d been so intimate, when it had been only a few days in earnest. Once she was with him, cleaning his face and chest with the soap and sponge, he felt as though he could breathe again.

He’d think about it more later, but he loved the feeling of being at home here. When he’d come to this planet, he’d been angry, conquered, and powerless. Over time, he’d started to see what she’d seen of the place, and now...now it was even more his home than Avengers Tower ever felt.

“You’re going to allow me to care for you this way again, right?” he asked when she’d returned to working his arms. “Because soon, you’ll need all the care I can give.” He gently swiped fingers across her stomach, smiling all the while. The thought of their child growing inside her had been one of the few that had gotten him through the funerals, the festival, and the short journey back home.

She stopped her massaging, put the sponge on the table again, and leaned her whole body against his, throwing her arms around his neck. “Yes,” she said, pressing her lips against his jaw. “Although I’m sure there’ll come a time when you won’t even allow me to leave our chamber and I’ll have to have Loki sneak me out for a bit of fun.”

They laughed together for the first time in what felt like an eternity. The jovial emotion that spread from his heart almost felt foreign, but it was a comfort to know he could still feel it.

“I won’t keep you cooped up unless you need it,” he whispered, suddenly more serious, despite still smiling. “I just want to make sure you and the baby are well taken care of.”

She kissed him, and he was finally able to push out anything that existed outside of that bathroom. For a few more minutes, everything was just the two of them, the floral scent of the bath, and the baby.

When he pulled back to breathe, Thor ran a few of his fingers down her back, earning a slight hum from her. “I love you, (Y/N),” he said quietly, reveling in the smallness of his voice and the world around him.

“I love you more, Thor,” she whispered, putting her head on his shoulder.

He didn’t think that was possible, but he didn’t say as much.

They stayed in the tub until the water was cold, then she drained the tub and they went into the bedroom. They found robes to dry off in, then slid into the bed for the first time in what truly felt like a long time. He hadn’t slept in a real bed in too long, so he was grateful for the plush mattress and cool satin sheets.

He was comfortable with her arms around him, as if he didn’t dwarf her in size. But now that they weren’t in the tub anymore, his thoughts came creeping back. He tried to keep it together, shutting his eyes to the world in an attempt to force himself to sleep. But in complete darkness, he saw their faces. The face of the fifth mind control victim - the one none of them had been able to save. He’d had the trident, and he still hadn’t been able to get the disc to deactivate. He watched them die because he was unable to do his job - and then he’d watched his friends die for the same reason.

His eyes shot open and he breathed hard. (Y/N) was still awake, staring at him with questions in her eyes. But she didn’t ask any of them; she just stroked his cheek and blinked.

After a few minutes she said, “I can try to help you get some sleep,” as quietly as she could manage.

His breathing slowed when he shook his head. “I’ll be okay,” he said.

“Maybe one day,” she said. “But not right now. You need to rest, my King.”

He wished she were enough just the way she were, for this specifically. He wished her voice would lull him to sleep, to a dreamless place where he could escape the terror of War for a few hours. He wished he didn’t need her offering to use magic to get him there. He wished he could go back a few months, to before Thanos, when he was so happy just to follow her out into forest that he didn’t think of looking back.

He sighed and nodded, knowing this was best. For now. He wasn’t even sure she knew how to do it, but he trusted her. He knew she wouldn’t hurt him more. So he let her put two fingers to his temples - a thumb to one, the pointer finger to the other - and shut his eyes again as she concentrated. She didn’t make a sound, but he remembered that she hadn’t had to call forth her heatless light before, either. Maybe her magic was like Loki’s, he thought. He didn’t know if that put him at ease or made him more anxious, but he allowed it to pass anyway.

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[discordandglory-blog]

Cursed || Cat and Leo

Cat tries to keep her brother safe, but it seems fate has another idea.

The last thing that Cat had been expecting was contact from Leo. But gods had she missed him. She would even admit it. She had the perfect place for them. A small house by the lake that was hidden from view unless you knew exactly where to look. As she paced the deserted Garden of Bacchus, she tried to keep calm. The war had all but ground to a halt at this point with the effect of the curses all but crippling both the Greeks and the Romans. The Romans had come no closer to securing the cure to these curses and Cat worried that she wouldn’t be able to help her brother. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to settle on a bench and wait for her twin. Nerves usually resulted in her cleaning a weapon, but she thought that considering how things had been left that it might be better to just leave the weapons out of it for now. Finally she spotted him and rose to her feet, moving towards him cautiously she wondered if maybe this was some kind of trap and her paranoia started to kick in. With a hand checking her weapons she called out to him. “Leo?”

New Rome was not looking like the New Rome Leo knew. They really weren’t exaggerating when they said that there was a war going on. He moved as carefully and quietly he could through the city, not knowing when someone would be around. Getting to the Gardens with a small pack on him, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was closer to where Cat was now, though his hand didn’t leave the sword hilt that he had on his side. He moved as silently as he could, before he eventually heard Cat call out to him. “I’m here. It’s just me right now,” He said cautiously as he moved closer to her. It hadn’t been much time since he had seen her, well, seen her four years ago. That whole thing still made his brain hurt. She looked good though, healthy at least. “You’re good then? You said no curse, but you’ve been fighting a war.”

The closer that Leo got to her, the more that she was struck by just how much younger he looked. Cat knew that her brother had never exactly looked old, but he had filled out and broadened a little. The thing that really struck her was the face that was clear of worry. The last year hadn’t exactly been kind to them. Disaster after disaster had struck and now they were in the midst of another crisis. Without thinking Cat threw her arms tightly around him, she was much shorter than either of her brothers and so she literally had to jump to get to his shoulders, but damn it felt good. “You weren’t lying about a curse,” she said quietly as she took a step back to give him a proper once over again, “we will put things back to rights I promise.” At his question her mind flashed back to the various injuries that had been inflicted on her over the war and she banished them all but instantly. “Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself and the Greeks always underestimate me for my height.” She smiled at him again. How are you?”

It wasn’t as if Cat looked older than she was, but there was a certain way she held herself that felt different to Leo. She didn’t seem exactly as she did when he last remembered, though he imagined that he didn’t to her either. He held her close to him, not truly understanding the feeling of lose that had occurred between them, but understanding the need she had to hold him. “Tomorrow you’ll have to explain everything to me again, so I hope you’re ready for that.” He assumed that he was losing years rather quickly and he’d likely wake up younger again. Hopefully not six or seven years old though. He ruffled her hair with a slight grin,“You certainly made your height your greatest disguise. No one thinks you’re as badass as you are.”

Pausing momentarily, Cat almost told him off for messing with her hair, but then she remembered that this was her brother who had literally come back to her. At that point she decided that it was probably better if she were to avoid shouting at him over her hair. But the action took her back to the good old days when her father had taken her along to meetings with Leo. His friends would scoop her up and place a kiss on her cheek before mussing her hair. The memories weren’t exactly painful. Yet they weren’t the easiest things to experience. “I’m ready to do anything that you need,” she promised, “but we need to get going before someone else turns up. We’ll come back for Bobbi once you’re settled.” She took a deep shuddering breath, and considered telling him the truth. The worst that would happen is that he’d simply forget it anyway. “I’ve considered lining my trousers with stilts, but they’re a bit tricky to constantly walk around in.”

Leo didn’t doubt that Bobbi was telling the truth about him and his siblings, but it felt so hard to really believe it when he was so happy to see his sister. There couldn’t possibly be something that she could do that would make things so horrible between them. They weren’t people who could break so easily. Her words meant a lot to him, but he couldn’t help but think that he was quite the task to undertake at the moment. “I’m ready to go then, where are we headed?” He was rather sure that they had safe houses around the city, but he didn’t know if they were being used anymore. “It might be hard to fight in them as well, but it would be a cool skill to have.” Fiddling with his strap, he looked at Cat nervously. “How is everyone else? Jax, Bella, Gus, Ella?”

Pausing as she prepared to go and get on their way, Cat looked at Leo and it finally sunk in that he wasn’t lying. He didn’t know what had happened. He didn’t know that Gus was dead. A pit formed in her stomach and she considered lying to him but decided better of it. “Ella and Bella and Jax are all fine but I’ve got some bad news about Gus…” she sighed and pressed her fingers to her temple for a moment before taking a deep breath, “the long and short of it doesn’t exactly matter but he’s passed now. We built a memorial to him that I’ll show you when you’re better…” hot tears stung her eyes as she remembered her inability to save him. She just prayed he didn’t ask about Callum. Swallowing, she tightened her straps on her back before setting out through the city. “I’m going to take you through the tunnels, it’s the fastest way there. It’s a safe house even Dad and Jax don’t know about, I purchased it early last year, a little getaway just for me. But it’ll work. You’ll be safe.”

Leo felt all the air suddenly leave his chest. Gus was dead. He was a kid how did he even die? He didn’t even want to ask. He nodded, a little bombstruck. “That’s bad,” He muttered. “Let’s not tell me that anymore. Tomorrow let’s not tell me.” At least he had that, he didn’t haven’t rehear about it every day. Until he was better, if he was better. He hoped that he would be better soon. “I’d like to see it someday. How… How are you doing with that?” He could tell she was getting emotional, which made his chest hurt. “Does Jax know I’ll be staying there? He hasn’t really responded back to me.”

Pausing for a moment, Cat nodded. “Fine, I just … I didn’t want to lie to you.” She was trying to make things work, she really truly loved Leo even if he had betrayed her and broken her heart. Yet this Leo wasn’t quite that Leo. He hadn’t done anything to her and he didn’t even hate her like the other one. He didn’t think that she was a monster. Everyone had looked at her differently after what had happened to Callum. But Jax and Leo were the worst. She’d had no choice, why didn’t people understand that she was only doing what must be done. She got her hands dirty so that others did not have to. “Things aren’t easy,” she replied, “but we struggle on.” She found the grate in one of the corners of the garden and winched it up. Slipping down a ladder, she pulled out two flashlights and handed one to Leo. “I haven’t told him, I won’t unless you want me to. But I didn’t know what you’d want … so I decided to just keep quiet about it.”

“I get that. I just… I don’t think it’ll get easier as I get younger. I can’t imagine that at fourteen I’ll take it even remotely as well as I am right now.” Leo wasn’t going to lie, he wasn’t taking it great, he was basically ignoring the whole situation, but he supposed that it was the best he could do currently. “Hopefully things will be over soon. War isn’t good for anyone.” People were going to die and that was never good for anyone. Kids were going to die in a civil war. He nodded taking the flashlight, thankful that she giving him the choice in this. “I’ll let him know. He should know that I’m around.”

“I agree, this isn’t easy and we’ve got to do everything that we can to minimize the difficulty of this for you…” Cat paused and tried to imagine what having a fourteen year old Leo back with her would be like. She couldn’t imagine that it would be as fun as when she was fourteen too. Right now she would give anything just to have regular Leo back with her. Pausing for a moment as she set out into the tunnels, Cat was certain she heard a noise, but when she looked in the direction of the sound there was nothing but darkness. The beam of her flashlight cut through the darkness and led the way, and she followed through the twisting tunnels. She was glad that Leo was here, it made the journey more bearable. “Do whatever you think is right.” Pausing for a moment longer, she raised an eyebrow as she her the sound of something wet on a paving stone before whirling around to find nothing. “You don’t see anything right?” She was just being paranoid.

“At least, I’ll be real cute when I’m five again. Though, I was a really picky eater. When I get that young we probably shouldn’t even try to explain this right? It would be too much.” Leo couldn’t imagine that a five year old version of him would even understand the concept of curses or magic. It would probably be too much for a kid. He swept his flashlight back and forth, his eyes narrowing but not seeing anything noticeable. He shook his head,“I don’t see anything, but… I don’t know, something doesn’t feel right? Maybe I’m just paranoid because of the curse.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it I guess,” Cat replied really hoping that they’d have worked out a way to make this better before then. However she was starting to become more convinced that they weren’t the only ones down in these tunnels alone. There was no way that it could be monsters as this was New Rome, however with the curses flying around she wasn’t convinced that it couldn’t be something else out there in the darkness. “Come on, let’s just get out of here and then we won’t have to worry about this anymore,” she replied, spotting the ladder that would lead to the lake and then it was only a few miles to their location. “Gentlemen first this time,” she said indicating that he should take the ladder up first whilst she double checked behind them.

“Hopefully we won’t get to it anytime soon. I like being an adult. I can do things for myself which is definitely nice.” Leo told her with a slight smile. The ladder felt a little straight out of a horror movie, but Leo was pretty sure that was just him being paranoid. He never liked things like tunnels anyways, so it would make sense that he was just being hyper vigilant. He didn’t mind going first but he sent Cat a teasing look as he started to climbed,”Sure, now you wanna be super polite and let me go first.”

Laughing at his reply, Cat felt a smile tug at her lips. She hadn’t realised how much she had regretted what happened between the two of them, would they ever be able to solve their problems if things went back to normal? The meandering drip of water filled the background. As she watched Leo climb, she took one last look down the tunnel before stepping onto the first rung of the ladder and beginning to haul herself up towards the circle of light pouring into the tunnel, she was no more then a few rungs up when she felt something sticky wrap around her leg and tug it. Whipping her head around she looked down and spotted a thick pink tentacle wrapped firmly around her ankle. A second tug later and she went tumbling down towards the bottom of the tunnel, hitting the floor with a painful crunch. Fuck.

It was terrifying to think that somehow, Cat and Leo had become so broken that they weren’t speaking anymore. He had made his sister cry, she had made him cry, that had never broken them before. He couldn’t think of a world where either did something so wrong that they “hated” each other. He heard her go down and without hesitation, he was going back down the ladder to her. He pulled out his sword, whipping his head back and forth trying to understand what was happening. He saw the tentacle and swung at it, grazing it slightly. “Cat! Are you hurt?

As Leo’s boots squelched into the damp mud that ran across the bottom of the tunnel, Cat slowly rose and wiped mud from her face before grunting. “I’m going to have a really nasty bruise but I’ll be fine,” she reached to her belt and without hesitation her dagger and revolver were in hand and raised. Ready for whatever threats may come their way. Her nocturnal vision assisted her in seeing in the darkness, and without it she very well may have misestimated their opponent. They appeared to be some poor soul afflicted with a terrible curse. Their limbs had transformed into a mass of tentacles and their face was now a grinding maw of teeth that gnashed towards them. “However, I think we may have a bigger problem then my bruises.”

Whatever was in front of the two of them was nothing Leo had ever seen before. Monsters weren’t supposed to be around here, but this didn’t seem like a monster that he knew from myths. “What the fuck is that thing?” He growled out, swinging his sword out again as the monster whipped another tentacle towards him, his sword clipping it once again. “We put it down and then we go up, we don’t know if there are more of it down here.”

Normally Cat was a fan of caution, but when it came to Leo’s safety she wasn’t about to waste time trying to be careful when this thing was already threatening their way of life. “I think it is someone who has been cursed,” she said as she sprung to her feet and managed to smash the tentacles away from her for a moment. “I don’t want to have to kill someone who may be innocent, but it doesn’t look like we’ve got any other choice.” Grasping her weapon, she thought back to their training together and looked around their surroundings in hopes that there would be some advantage that would allow them to beat their enemy. “Any clever ideas?” she asked as the tentacle thing began to circle back around.

Leo frowned, the idea that this was someone who was cursed made him feel pretty terrible about the whole situation. Yet, they were faced with a pretty big decision; them or it. “Think you could knock it out, if I got you over the tentacles?” It was probably safer just to kill it, but there could be someone they know in that body, trapped deep down. He’d hate for them to die because of their decision not to try. “We could do our jump?” They certainly had quite a bit of combos between them, but it was fun and it made training more interesting.

Looking at Leo, Cat huffed and slid her revolvers back into their holsters before pulling a long dagger with a blunt pommel from her sheath. “Only for you,” she said with a frown like thunder as she prepared for the jump. “I’m ready whenever you are,” she said as the tentacle monster began making another pass at them, apparently having regained its composure. She thought back to all of the times that they had done this before and although it had been a long time since she’d fought alongside her twin, she was sure that it would feel just the same as ever. As he knitted his fingers together, she charged forwards and leaped at the monster, sailing clean over it for a moment before a tentacle whipped out and wrapped around her, sending her slamming painfully into the mud once more.

“Well, fuck,” Leo groaned as he watched Cat get slammed into the ground. He had really hoped that he wouldn’t have to try hurt whoever this poor person was. He didn’t enjoy killing anything, even a monster. Especially now that he had the idea in his head that it could potentially be a person inside that monster. He gripped his sword in his hand and resigned himself, any jovialness he had previously held, leaving him. It was like this in any fight he was in. He’d often fall into a seriousness that was unlike him when things got truly dire. “We’re just going to have to go for it then,” He told Cat as he grabbed the monsters attention again with far more threatening and fatal hits going for it.

“Yeah that wasn’t ideal,” Cat had managed to get over the monster, but now she and Leo surrounded it and the only way that they were going to get out of it was to deal with the monster and she wasn’t sure that they had a chance in hell of dealing with this non-lethally. Drawing her pistols, she took aim at the monster and fired a warning shot just above it, driving it towards the slopped walls. “I’m going to try and injure it enough that it won’t be able to fight, but that requires it to hold still that long and I’m far from convinced that is going to happen … so just watch my back and get involved when you feel like I need it. I trust your judgement.”

Leo shook his head at his sister,“I’m more of a close combat fighter. I should be jumping in there, distracting it and trying to hold it long enough that you can get a shot in.” He might not show it off often, to the point where people sometimes forgot, but he was an amazing hand to hand fighter. If anyone was going to get the monster to be still enough for a moment, it would be him, not Cat. Especially when her plan had her going in there and him trying to weave around her with a sword. More dangerous, but maybe easier with a bullet. “I’ll get stay away from that whole teeth situation and we should be good.”

“I know how good a fighter you are brother,” Cat replied with a roll of her eyes, “that is why I plan on standing back here with my revolvers and shooting at it whilst you, the big strong man that you are, take it down to pain town.” She winced at the cliche that had just spilled out of her mouth, but it was too late to take that back now. “Whatever you do,” she said aiming the pistol and opening fire, watching an imperial gold bullet cut through a tentacle with a sickening bang and hiss, “make sure that you stay away from the entire teeth situation because who the fuck knows where this things mouth has been.”

“Did you honestly just utter the words ‘pain town’? Embarrassing.” Leo teased her with a grin, before jumping back from a tentacle that sailed toward him. With impressive speed for his size, he managed to get out of the tentacles reach, though he was closer to the teeth. “Based on how it smells, at least one diaper has been in this thing’s mouth.” He side lightly, though his voice was strained as he started to attempt to wrestle with the monster. He needed to pinn or at least hold the thing still for a moment.

“Is this really the time Leo?!” Cat snapped as she suppressed the laughter that had bubbled in her stomach at her brother’s comment. Taking aim, doing her best not to hit her brother with a celestial bullet, she fired again and was rewarded by seeing more orangey-purpley gore splatter across the walls of the sewers. Wiping mud from her face, she took aim again, firing once more and wincing at the deafening echo of the gunshot ringing across the and around them. Swallowing, Cat tried to get a good look at the monster. “Can you stop playing with your food please?” she called to Leo.

The thing had muscles and even though Leo was tall and strong, it seemed whatever this thing was was stronger. “It’s the only way I have fun though! Why would they make things like goldfish if you weren’t made to play with it?” He replied back, though his breath was heavier as he finally got a good hold of the monster. His arms wrapping underneath where their arms had once been and behind the head to make the monster at least a little less wiggly.

Watching her brother fight filled Cat with a familiar dread which she inevitably felt whenever she had to watch someone that she cared about go into battle. That was one of the reasons that she limited her connections so much. You couldn’t get hurt if you didn’t have anyone who could hurt you. At least that was the working theory. “Whatever you say,” he said with a laugh before taking aim and hitting the tentacle monster with shots to the knees. “I don’t want to waste all my ammo on this thing,” she grunted as she drew a knife and approached, “do you want me to knock it out or kill it?” she asked, knowing that Leo had always been a bit more sensitive than her.

Leo understood why people loved fighting, adrenaline was a feeling that could not be described. Winning a fight was even better. “There’s a person in here, Cat,” He said, his answer seemingly obvious to himself. “I would prefer we don’t kill someone we could know,” He grunted in the effort it took to keep the thing still as it wrestled against him. “Please don’t shoot me though, I don’t need anymore scars.”

Grunting in irritation at Leo’s need to aspire to a moral absolute that was not necessarily objective. However Cat did not have time to debate ethics with her twin, in fact time was probably the single commodity that they did not have in abundance. Money couldn’t bring time to a stop anymore then it could stop the sun from rising in the East and setting in the West. “Just hold it still for a second longer,” she grunted before moving forward and striking the monster at the rough area that she expected the monster’s temple, “if this doesn’t work I’m killing it,” she said as she hit it again.

Leo knew that others looked at him differently because of his need to do what he thought was best. He was, he liked to think at least, a pacifist. Which was difficult considering he was, apparently, in a war. Still, life was precious, every life was precious. He tightened his grip, pulling the monster closer to himself to get it to still even further. “Fine with me, I just need us to try before we just kill it.” It wasn’t really fine with him, but he couldn’t argue his way out of this one.

As the stock of Cat’s revolver crunched into the side of its temple and it slumped to the ground in Leo’s grasp. “Fortunately,” she said wiping a muddy hand across her forehead and sweeping sweat away, “We weren’t forced to take lethal action against whatever poor soul has been afflicted with this awful curse.” Toeing the body of the tentacle thing, Cat looked at it disdainfully before taking a step and slowly climbing the rungs of the ladder. “Not too long now…” she said quietly as she hauled herself up to street level. Pushing a sewer cover off the ground and dragging herself onto the street, she took a deep breath of fresh air.

Compared to that, Leo didn’t think his own curse was that bad. Yeah, sure he could definitely end up losing all his memories, but at least he’d still be a person. He looked down at the body of the monster, quietly asking,“Do you think they’ll remember attacking us when the curse is lifted?” He couldn’t imagine what that would be like, how it would feel to have no control over yourself. He followed his sister out of the sewer, thankful for clean air. “I really hope this place has a shower, because we both need one.”

“Shower, bath, I considered including a hot tub,” Cat replied with a shrug, “but I hope they have no memory of what happened to them.” She could only imagine what it would be like to potentially kill someone with your abilities when it wasn’t your fault. When she had killed before, it was because she had no other choice. “Come on. We’re nearly there.” She smiled kindly at Leo before setting out for the safehouse.

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

We don’t wanna be like them - Us against the world

Number of parts: 3/?. Pairings: Human!Nine/Rose. Synopsis: "They were quite a lovely family on the outside, but they weren’t a family. It wasn’t only because of Rose. She was accepting Maxence and his help. So was Elliot. The real problem was Maxence’s family."

"Cause it's us against the world, you and me against them all." - Westlife.

A few months had passed by since Rose and Elliot had been taken in by Maxence. Life was easier for them now that they had someone watching over them and protecting them from everything bad that could happen to them. Rose had needed time – still needed time – to heal after her last encounter with Jimmy, and Maxence was nice enough to give her all the time she needed. By living together, they were getting to know each other better and the more they were getting to know each other, the more they liked each other. Maxence already was in love with her before they met properly, and now, he loved even more the young and strong girl she was. They were just friends though. They hadn’t crossed the line because Rose wasn’t ready to date someone yet. She still had nightmares about Jimmy Stone and she always found comfort in Maxence’s arms whenever it happened. Elliot was also plagued with nightmares. Learning what kind of man really was his father had shaken him badly. He had tried to be strong for his mother, but the images of the terrifying waste full of uncontrolled rage were haunting him along with the screams of his mother when he was beating her to death. He often woke up at night, screaming and crying, begging for the violence to stop. And every time it happened, he found comfort and safety in his mother’s arms or Maxence’s. Maxence wasn’t his father, but Elliot always wished he was, because he was just like the kid imagined a dad should be. He was taking care of the little boy very well and was always finding time to play with him and teach him new things. He had found a great school for him when Elliot had the good level to be with kids of his age. But it still was hard to fit in. They were quite a lovely family on the outside, but they weren’t a family. It wasn’t only because of Rose. She was accepting Maxence and his help. So was Elliot. The real problem was Maxence’s family. He had talked to the blonde about them and she had met them once or twice. They were really proud and cold people. That was what Maxence hated about his family. Their cold hearts. Their proudness. Their rules. Just because they were rich people, they thought they could only interact with the other rich people. They thought that the poor people were only trying to use them and their money. So when they had heard that Maxence had taken in a homeless girl and her son, they had been mad and had tried to make him change his mind. But he never did no matter how hard they had tried to convince him. Which had caused them to be in bad terms, much to Rose’s guilt. She had never wanted him to be separated from his family because of her. However, they never talked about it. Whenever Rose was trying to bring him back together with his family, he was pretending that he would think about it but never made the first step. Sometimes, he could be as proud as them and that wasn’t a compliment. They hadn’t made the first step either and if they saw each other by accident, they pretended nothing had happened so the medias wouldn’t have any suspicion and let them in peace. Maxence was already harassed enough for being the kind man he was because he had rescued a mother and her child and decided to be responsible for them. He had never given any information about Rose and Elliot. He was keeping them protected from the vultures the medias were, and with time, they had calmed down. They could live almost peacefully and Rose could go out and take Elliot to school with no worries. Well, almost. There still were threats above their heads after all. Maxence was a famous lawyer and his cases were always difficult and very opened to debates. He was working against the worst criminals, people rotten to the core, and ready to anything to get out of justice. Rose was always afraid for him whenever he was on one of those cases because he received a lot of death threats. He usually just laughed and pushed the subject away. He didn’t care about the threats. So far, nothing had been attempted against him. He was being very careful, and making sure that his place was safe for himself and for his protégés. He wouldn’t risk his life or theirs. If he ever felt any kind of danger, he would make sure they all were safe. He hadn’t talked to Rose about it yet, but he did have a panic room. Just in case. There was another threat they couldn’t ignore. Jimmy Stone. They hadn’t seen him since Maxence had brought Rose and Elliot back to his flat but the blonde was convinced that he was gonna come back when they would expect it the least. So, she was always looking around her to make sure he wasn’t there when she was outside. She knew Jimmy very well. She knew he would come back. Maxence believed her and had told some of his cop friends to look for him. The devil was well hidden. There was no sign of him, but they couldn’t let their guard down. Rose had lived in terror of him for years and she knew better than anyone what he was capable of. And now that he knew she was still in town, now that he knew he had a son, he would do anything to have them back. Or leave them for dead. Lately, Maxence had had a lot of work and wasn’t spending much time at all at home. He was leaving early in the morning and coming home late at night. And then, he was working even more to prepare the best defence speech possible. He was exhausted but every case was important. Especially the one he was currently working on. However, he was making sure to always leave the fridge and cupboards full of food so Rose wouldn’t have to go out much except for Elliot. He knew how scared she was of meeting Jimmy and he was making sure that wouldn’t happen. He had even offered to give her the protection of the police but she had refused because she didn’t want to draw more attention on them. Having a police officer following her everywhere would be more dangerous than anything. She was being careful, very careful, whenever she was going out. Today was Maxence’s last day on working on his current case. The trial was ending that morning and then, he would take a few days off to rest and relax. If he was winning that case, he would definitely go and have a drink with a few friends before going home. But he would let Rose know about his projects so she wouldn’t be worried about him not being back after his job was done. The trial was very covered. The news would talk about it and the reporters would jump on him and harass him with questions as soon as he would be out of the courthouse. A routine he had gotten a little bit too much used to over the years. Never meant that he liked it. That’s why he usually kept it short whenever he was being interviewed. The shorter, the better. The verdict was pronounced, and the relief filled him. He had won. His client hugged him and thanked him for all the work he had done to throw that lousy swine behind the bars. Soon enough, they were outside. Maxence was temporarily blinded by the daylight. He hadn’t seen it on days. It wasn’t a particularly beautiful day. They had said there would be rain. But who cared anyway? Maxence enjoyed the small second of respite before the reporters started asking him questions and almost knocking him out with their booms and cameras. He was overwhelmed with flashes, but he didn’t show anything. He only gave them a tired smile. “It has been a tough fight but we’ve finally come to the end of it. The acts of Mr. Dorneget were highly reprehensible in terms of the law. It was a real threat for our beloved country, a threat that never has been bothered by our forces of law and order because no clue has been found. Until my client found out about his boss’ illegal activities in the accounts of his society and reported it to the authorities, exposing himself to the dangers of dismissal, harassment, and worse, threats and intimidation. However, Mr. Peters never gave up and provided us all the proofs we needed to stop Mr. Dorneget’s actions and to arrest all his associates. Today, they will all be sent to jail thanks to my client, and peace will be back in our streets–” Maxence was cut short by a gun shot. After that, everything seemed to slow down. A few more gun shots resounded and the panic made people running away to put themselves to safety. There were screams and people falling and stuff given up. No one saw the shooter. It could have been anyone in the crowd. An investigation would be led later to find the responsible. Some people would never get back on their feet after that attack, and one of those persons was Maxence. He didn’t see it coming. That first bullet went into his left shoulder, ripping the fabric of his clothes and burning his skin. The sudden impact and pain caused him to stumble backwards and fall on his back on the steps of stone. All the air was expelled from his lungs and he found himself suffocating there while everyone ran away. To top it all off, it started raining and the drops of water were washing away the blood he was losing really too quickly.

×

When Maxence opened his eyes, he thought he was at home, in his own bed. He was comfortable and warm. Just like when Rose was sleeping next to him. So, his first reflex was to roll on his side. He knew it was a bad idea when the pain exploded in his shoulder, causing him to grunt loudly. He closed his eyes tight and clenched his jaw as a hand pushed him in the bed. He breathed slowly, waiting for pain to become more bearable. He wouldn’t be able to think clearly with such a pain paralysing his whole body and taking his breath away. What the hell had happened to him? He remembered being at the courthouse. Had something happened during the trial? He wouldn’t be surprised to have been attacked. Dorneget had threatened him a few times and he had enough money to buy someone to kill him, especially if he knew he was gonna lose. He was now able to listen to everything around him. There was a regular beep very close to him and someone turning the pages of some magazine. He could feel something burning his skin around his left shoulder, where the pain was the worse, and something was pinching his left hand. Farther, he could hear people coming and going, talking indistinctly. The smell of bleach and antiseptic was what confirmed him that he was in a hospital. He opened his eyes and turned his head toward the person sat by his side. He thought that it was Rose, but he should have known better. His family had obviously kept her away, and not in a nice way. She probably hadn’t had any news about him since he was there. Did she even know he was there? “Mother.” His father had most likely chosen to not waste his time in visiting his son while he was stuck in a hospital bed, but someone had to come over and see if he was still alive. His mother didn’t have much of a choice and she seemed pretty annoyed to be sat there. She hadn’t even looked at him yet. She was reading a magazine about the British finance. Not surprising at all. How to get richer when you were already rich was the only thing that mattered in that family. “You could have avoided this, Maxence.” “Sure. It’s so easy to avoid someone shooting you in the middle of a crowd.” Now that he was more awake, he remembered bit by bit what had happened to him. He had been shot while he was talking to the reporters after winning the trial. But nothing was proving that he was the target. It could have been anyone. His client could have been the main target, but it wasn’t logic to kill him after the end of the trial. Maxence was second on the list. Maybe a revenge? “It could have been the case of your career. You could have gotten all the laurels for throwing that threat behind the bars. Instead, you’re on the front pages because your client is dead and everyone thinks you are too. Nice advertising. We are overwhelmed with those vultures.” “Sorry for almost dying.” “Stop being so sarcastic, Maxence. There’s nothing to be proud of.” “You weren’t forced to come here if I am causing our family so much bother. I would have handled the situation very well on my own.” “Sure you would have. And that blonde slut…” “Don’t call her a slut,” growled Maxence. “… would have been there,” continued the mother. “She was the one you expected to see, right?” “I’m not having that talk again.” Maxence closed his eyes and clenched his jaw tighter. He hadn’t forced her to come there. She hadn’t even looked at him once since he was awake. She was just annoyed to be there when she could have been elsewhere. What a warm and comforting mother she was! “I told her not to come here. We don’t need more scandals around you. She has called every hour to know how you were doing until I told her to stop.” She let out an annoyed sigh. Amazing how insisting the woman could be. Since she wasn’t family, the hospital hadn’t wanted to tell her anything, but that wasn’t an answer the blonde accepted. Until she was rudely told to stay away from Maxence. “You haven’t just told her to stop calling,” Maxence accused his mother. “I asked her to stay away from you and to go back to her miserable life with the no-mark she had a kid with.” “You what?” roared Maxence. He sat up, ignoring the sting of pain in his whole arm and the ear splitting sound of the alarm coming from the machine measuring his heartbeats when the sensors were ripped from his chest by the sudden move. He was absolutely furious against his mother. She still wasn’t looking at him. As if she wasn’t caring about the fact he was in a hospital, about the fact she had hurt his feelings. “You had no right to do that! Absolutely no right! I’m an adult! I can take my own decisions and saving their lives by offering them to stay at my place was my right!” “She’s a pest to our family.” “That’s it?! That’s what you’ve told him when you threw him out that night?! That he was a pest to our family?!” “That has nothing to do with the matter.” “That has everything to do with the matter! You don’t like us to be different! You want us to go your way! But Tegan refused and you threw him out with nothing more than just the clothes on his back!” The pain forced him to stop there. Otherwise, he would have continued. He had so much anger in him right now. He was tired to always live by the Spitz’s rules. He wanted more. More than the cold heartless future he was promised to. His mother was gonna answer but a nurse came into the room at that moment. She forced Maxence to lay back down. The man was exhausted and breathless by the sudden effort he had made. “You can’t make so many efforts, Mr Spitz,” she lightly reprimanded him, putting the sensors back on his chest. “You don’t want us to suture you again, right?” “I want her out of here,” he muttered weakly. “I don’t want to see her in my room anymore.” “You sure?” “Don’t you dare,” the mother threatened her son. “Please.” The nurse nodded. She looked at the woman sat on the chair. She wasn’t happy at all with her son. For the first time since she was there, she had raised her eyes from her magazine. She was glaring at her son who was ignoring her. He had his eyes closed and was trying to catch his breath and make the pain disappear. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave this room. Mr Spitz needs all the rest he can get.” The mother glared at her son and at the nurse before she furiously got up and left the room refusing to let the nurse touch her. Maxence sighed and closed his eyes as the nurse was replacing the sensors on his chest and adjusting the pain medication. “How long have I been out?” he asked her. “Two days, sir. You’ve had surgery. They took the bullet out.” “Any damage?” “You’ve been lucky. It was close to your heart. But no complications. You’ll need some re-education, but that is all.” Maxence thanked her for her help and let her do her job. She checked on him, made him move his fingers and arm. It hurt and it was really hard to do it but it was moving. The nurse massaged his whole arm and changed his bandage. He didn’t look at the wound. He would see the scar later. A reminder that he shouldn’t be so confident about his safety. Right now, he had something else in mind. Someone to call. “Can you do something for me?” “Sure. What is it?” He gave her three names and two phone numbers with instructions. He would have called himself if his previous talk with his mother hadn’t left him so weak and exhausted. But the nurse would do it for him. She would reassure Rose and Elliot and call someone to keep them safe until he came back. Which would take some time.

×

Rose was helping Elliot with his homework when someone knocked on the door. She tensed. Lately, she had been on alert. But it was worse since two days, since Maxence had been attacked. She had learnt it through the news and had desperately tried to call the hospital to know how he was doing. Until Mrs Spitz clearly told her that she wasn’t part of the family and needed to stay away from her son. It hurt, but Rose had obeyed. She hadn’t called anymore, and had just worried alone in Maxence’s flat. She hadn’t told Elliot. She had just told him that Maxence’s work would last longer than expected and that he wouldn’t come home for a few days. To be honest, she didn’t know how long she would be able to lie. Elliot would see it at some point. She wouldn’t be able to hide it from him for too long. He would find out soon, but she wanted to be the one telling him. It would be easier now that she knew Maxence was okay. “Stay here, okay?” She kissed her son’s head and got up. She left Elliot’s room – Maxence had given up on his playroom for the little boy to have a real room – and walked to the front door. She took a look through the peephole. Standing in the corridor was a tall brown man rather handsome. He didn’t seem to be dangerous but Rose still was on alert. She couldn’t take any risk. Not with Elliot so close. “Miss Tyler? I’m Tegan Smith. My brother must have called you to tell you about me coming.” That was true. The nurse she had had on the phone had told her the same. Maxence wanted Rose to know that he was okay, that he was gonna have to stay a few days in the hospital. However, he was sending her someone to watch over her and Elliot. His brother, Tegan Smith. Someone he trusted with his life. She could trust him too. He would never betray them. Rose trusted Maxence and if he said she could do the same with his brother, she saw no good reason to not believe him. She just hadn’t expected the man to look so different from Maxence. The mystery of life and genetics. None of them looked like any of their parents though. She pushed the thought aside and unlocked the door. The man gave her a bright smile. He was carrying two full bags of food. “I’ve done some shopping. Unlike Max, I’m a very good cook,” he declared, walking in the flat. He went straight to the kitchen and started putting away the food he had bought. He checked his watch and decided that it was time to start cooking dinner. Rose closed the door and locked it again. She hadn’t said a thing yet and Elliot hadn’t moved from his room. But she was sure he was listening closely. Always keeping an eye on his mummy, him. “I heard you had a boy. What’s his name?” “Elliot.” “Max is wonderful with kids. Always have.” “Indeed. He could be a good father.” “Never found the good woman. Well, he seems very smitten when it comes to you.” Rose blushed. She knew exactly what were Maxence’s feelings for her. He had admitted it all to her after he saved her from Jimmy and from the streets. She had accepted them but couldn’t promise to be ready for another relationship anytime soon. She hated herself for making him wait for her that way. She had the feeling that she was using him and she hated that. She really liked him but didn’t know how to tell him or show him. The man was too gentle with her, keeping her safe and protected, making sure she felt loved. A real prince charming. “I now better understand why.” “He never told me he had a brother,” she said to change the subject. She didn’t want Tegan Smith – why did he have a different name anyway? – to know what her relationship with his brother truly was. She didn’t want him to think that she was just a whore using Maxence for his name and money, just like his parents thought she was. “That’s not surprising. I’m sort of the ugly duckling of that family.” “But he called you.” “Max and I are very close but we’re hiding it from everyone for our parents not to know it.” Now that she was thinking of it, Rose remembered that he hadn’t been there at Christmas, and no one had talked about him. What had he done to be excluded from his own family? For his brother to keep silent about him? He didn’t seem like a bad guy, but his parents didn’t need much to be angry at someone. Rose was very aware of that. “I’ll tell you the whole story later if you want. Go back to your little boy. I’m taking care of the dinner.” Rose just acquiesced. She was curious about Tegan’s story but she wouldn’t ask any question. It would be very impolite of her to harass him with questions when he barely knew her. He was gentle and nice though. Just like Maxence. Maybe a bit funnier. Oddball, in a good way. Getting to know him would be great. If he stayed around long enough for her to do so. It would be sad to have him leave so soon after she found about him. But it wasn’t up to her. She walked to Elliot’s room and came in. Like she had expected, Elliot had been waiting behind the door, listening to whoever was in the flat with her. He had run back to the desk as soon as she had started walking back to his room, and now, he was pretending to be working on his homework. But Rose wasn’t dupe. She knew how her son was. “How is that writing exercise going?” she asked. “It sucks,” replied the boy, looking up at his mother. “Who is it? Where is Max?” Rose sat down on the chair next to Elliot and took his hand in hers gently. She was gonna tell him the truth. Kind of. She was biting her bottom lip. It meant she was nervous. Immediately, Elliot knew something had happened to their protector, to the man he considered as his dad. Tears sparkled at the corner of his eyes, and Rose felt her heart break. She hated seeing him sad. “Is Max okay?” His voice was trembling and tears were threatening to fall. Rose was not surprised that her son had figured out so quickly why Maxence was absent. The real reason. Elliot was very clever and he hadn’t gotten it from his father. But she didn’t think he had gotten that from her either. She wasn’t that clever in her opinion. She was pretty stupid compared to Maxence and her own son. “Listen, honey, something has happened to Max while he was working and he was taken to the hospital.” Fear burnt in Elliot’s eyes. His worst nightmares were coming to reality. Was the Jimmy guy responsible? Had he hurt Maxence to get to them? Would he care for them? No, Maxence wouldn’t let them down. He would never tell the enemy where to find them. No matter what would be done to him. “He’s okay. He called me when you were at school. They’re keeping him a few days to be sure he won’t have problems and then, he will come back home. He said he would call tonight for the bedtime story.” “Who’s the guy in the kitchen?” “His name’s Tegan Smith. He’s Max’s brother.” Elliot’s eyes were still full of worries but a spark of curiosity and joy suddenly brightened them. He was curious about Maxence’s brother. Maxence had told him about Tegan once. It had just slipped out of his mouth while they were playing together, but he never said anything more. As if Tegan Smith was a secret to keep. A secret that would be clearer in the days to come it seemed like. “He’s gonna stay with us until Max comes back.” “Can we see him?” “He said not to go to the hospital. He promised to be back soon.” Elliot looked disappointed but he understood. Maxence wanted them safe. They had to keep living their routine without him. Until he came back. He hoped it wouldn’t take long because he already missed the man. But he was okay and Elliot was relieved about that. He kissed his mother’s hand and focused back on his exercise. He did it all the best he could with his mother’s help. When his homework was done, he took his bath and got ready for dinner. He immediately liked Tegan when he saw him. They got along as well as they did with Maxence. They weren’t brothers for nothing those two. However, Tegan was indeed better than Maxence at cooking and Elliot ate two plates of food. Tegan told them a lot of stories about Maxence, stories from their past, stories that showed them he had always been the way he was with them. Despite how harsh and cold their family had wanted him to become to fit their standards. Just like he had promised, when bedtime rolled around, Maxence called to tell a story to Elliot like he did every night. The little boy was already in bed after he brushed his teeth. He talked with Maxence for a while before he listened to the brand new story that would send him to sleep. Rose picked up the phone when her son was asleep and kissed his head. She left the room, leaving the door ajar. Maxence was still on line. “How are you doing?” “It’s hard without you but we’re holding on. You’ve got us worried.” “I know. I’m sorry. The decision wasn’t mine. I would never have let you in the dark.” “She really hates me, doesn’t she?” Rose noticed sadly. “She doesn’t want to see the amazing person you are.” “They’ve drugged you, heh?” “Nah,” he retorted. “Okay. Maybe just a little. I don’t sleep well because of the pain and… because I miss you by my side.” “I miss you too,” admitted Rose. “I’ll be home soon.” “I hope so.” “I hope my brother isn’t discrediting me and saying stuff he shouldn’t.” “He’s nice. Elliot likes him.” “And you?” “He’s kinda cool.” “Oi! Don’t play that game with me or I’m coming back, healed or not.” “Goodnight, Maxence.” “Goodnight, Rose.” Rose hung up the phone and pressed it to her heart, a smile on her lips. That man was so precious. She wasn’t very well to know that he was alone in a hospital room, suffering from the surgery he had gone through. She wished she could be by his side, tuck him to bed and take care of him like he had taken care of her all over the months. Especially after he had saved her from a certain death between the hands of Jimmy Stone. She wanted him there. She wanted to see his smile, his blue eyes. She wanted to feel his arms around her and run her fingers through his hair. She wanted to hear his heartbeats and fall asleep to their rhythm. But she would have to wait. And she felt sad for him more than for herself. She walked to the living room and put the phone down on its base. Her smile hadn’t left her lips. Tegan was still in the kitchen. He was putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and adding the needed tablet in it. He closed the door and launched the machine. His eyes drifted on the fridge. He hadn’t paid much attention to it earlier. Maxence used every available area to pin his documents to be able to work in every room he was coming in. But it wasn’t any professional document on the fridge. Nor anywhere else in the flat. The fridge was covered in kids’ drawings and pictures. School pictures of the boy, pictures of Maxence and Rose, a picture of them three. A real little family. It made him smile. Maxence looked really happy. He had never been into family stuff – because of how he had been raised – but he seemed to do well. And according to the smile on the blonde’s face, everyone was happy in that flat. “It was Elliot’s first time at the zoo,” explained Rose, pointing to a picture of her son, grinning in front of the tigers pen. “His first day at school.” Another picture. “This one was a week ago. Elliot insisted on adding a picture of the three of us.” “You look happy.” “I guess I am. Your brother is an amazing man.” “Always has been. You guess?” “It’s complicated.” “Everyone’s story is complicated.” “I’ve been in an abusive relationship which destroyed my self-confidence and trust in men. What about you, Mr Smith?” “Call me Tenny.” “We don’t know each other enough, Mr Smith.” “Let me tell you my story then.” Tegan put an arm around Rose’s shoulders. She flinched and he pulled his arm away, apologising to her. He followed her to the living-room and sat down on the couch. Rose sat down too, leaving a small space between them. She looked at Tegan. He was staring at an invisible point on the wall, gathering the right words to tell his story. He wanted to do it short, but well. “It’s a long story short. I’ve found out I was gay when I was around fourteen. I was afraid to tell my family because I knew how they would react. They have their own rules.” “Yeah. Maxence told me about the arranged marriages.” “Of course. He’s the favourite for those ladies. Handsome, gentle and clever.” “What happened for you?” “They reacted the way I thought they would.” He had a small sad laugh. “I don’t give you the details of that talk, nor the comments that have been made.” Nor the insults that were still resounding in his nightmares. “But they’ve kicked me out that night. Because I wasn’t fitting their standards.” “You were fourteen, how could they…” “You’ve met them. You already know.” “I’m an adult. You were just a kid.” “It didn’t matter to them. They threw me out with nothing else but the clothes on my back. It was hard at first but Max helped me a lot behind our parents’ back.” Rose didn’t reply. She knew exactly what the man had felt. She had gone through it too. She had left on her own will but she had been alone and scared. Living in the streets was hard, whether you were a twenty-four years old pregnant woman or a fourteen years old boy. She now felt more liking for the man. Just like her, he was a survivor, a fighter. How had he survived outside, alone? Who had saved him from the streets? Was it Maxence? “He has helped me the best he could but sometimes, he couldn’t. Anyway, I’ve met a woman while I was looking into the bins for food. Instead of throwing me rocks, she let me inside of her house and took care of me until I was able to get my A-levels. Even after. I got more support and love from that woman and her husband than from my own parents. They didn’t even judge me when they found out I was gay. They are extraordinary, brilliant. I felt really connected to them.” “They sound like great people.” “They truly are. They said they would have loved it if their children had grown up like me.” “You’ve met them?” “Unfortunately, no. They couldn’t keep them. They didn’t have the money to raise any of the children they had, but a wealthy family accepted to raise them. They couldn’t have children so they bought them.” Rose was disgusted by that way of acting. You couldn’t just buy a child whenever you wanted one. Those people must have been in a really desperate situation to give their children against a lot of money. But Rose was starting to get where Tegan was going. She understood the real story of Tegan Smith, and maybe the real story of Maxence Spitz. “This family, it was the Spitz’s, right?” Tegan looked at her, surprised by her words. She had figured it out quickly. She was clever. Really clever. He rubbed his face with his hands and sighed deeply. “Maxence doesn’t know it but yeah. We’ve both been adopted. Those people who took me in… They are our real parents. The Spitz, they were supposed to give them pictures of Max and I as we grew up. But they never did. The poor couple has waited for news they never got until I found out about the truth. They were really happy to see me, to have news from Max – other than through the news. They got a better situation from the money they were given, but they’ve always regretted the deal that has been made. They said they had felt that they weren’t good people. If only they knew the truth.” Rose felt really sad for him now. And for Maxence. He ignored the truth and was living in a family he hated. They sure had helped him to do the studies he wanted, to have a great job, to be sort of famous. But he wasn’t happy in his life. If he had been raised by the nice couple his biological parents were, maybe it would have changed it all for him. “I’m so sorry, Tegan. I’m so sorry for all you’ve been through.” “I’m happy now. That’s all that matters.” He couldn’t say the same about Maxence. Maybe he was a bit more now, but inside down, he still was hurt. Deeply hurt. Maybe Rose could heal that wound that had dug his heart over the years. If she couldn’t, no one would ever be able to fix the amazing man Maxence was. But Tegan had a feeling that she would be the perfect woman for his brother. “Will you tell him?” “I wanted to. But that’s not up to me. Joanne, our real mother, wrote a letter for him. I have to give it to him. But I don’t think it’s the right time to upset his whole life.” “You’re right.” Rose yawned tiredly. It was starting to be late but she was thankful that Tegan had honestly told her his story. She scooted closer to him and gave him a tight hug. Tegan hugged her back. They were both seeking comfort in that moment and that hug was more than welcomed. “I’m taking the couch,” she declared when they broke the hug. “You can have the room.” “No.” Tegan shook his head. “Maxence wouldn’t want me to take you away from his bed. I’ll take the couch.” “I can also sleep with Elliot.” “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be just fine here.” He tapped the couch with a smile. He was stubborn. Just like Maxence. She was no better, but tonight, she didn’t have the strength to fight him so she let him win. He was gonna sleep on the couch. She brought him a pillow and a blanket and put it down on the sofa. “Have a goodnight, Tegan.” “Goodnight, Rose.” The blonde kissed his cheek and left for the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and changed into her pyjamas. She went straight to bed, and curled up under the covers. She glanced at the empty place beside her. She imagined him there, laying on his side, a strand of hair across his forehead, a soft smile on his lips. He would cup her cheek with his large hand and stroked her lips with his thumb. She would push the strand of hair away from his forehead and smile at him in return. Slowly, she would come closer to him and snuggle up to him. He would wrap his arms around her and roll on his back so she could put her head on his chest. She would close her eyes and fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeats. But tonight, she didn’t have him. She had to sleep alone. Until he came back. She was counting the hours.

×

It took a week, a few re-education sessions and a lot of pain for Maxence to be allowed to come home. He had painkillers to take, and re-education sessions to go to but he was good enough to go home. Finally. Since he couldn’t drive himself, Tegan had come to pick him up at the hospital. He stopped at the chemist for Maxence’s meds and medical supplies, and went straight to Maxence’s flat. He helped him upstairs. “I have to warm you. The boy has missed you a lot.” “His name’s Elliot.” “He’s overexcited to see you again.” “I can imagine.” “Never thought you’d end up with kids.” “It’s more complicated than that.” “I know. I’ve talked with Rose.” “So you know everything.” “Everything she has wanted to say.” “And she knows everything.” “Yep.” “You’ve never known how to keep secrets, T.” Tegan grinned at his brother. He sure was the worst at keeping secrets, but there was one secret he was keeping away from Maxence. That secret would shatter his life if he knew. And yet, he had to know. Maybe he would be happier if he knew the truth about his origins. But now wasn’t the time. Now, he needed to take all the rest he could and get better. Later, perhaps. Rose had promised to help him with that. When the right time would come. Over the week, they had become good friends. Tegan understood better what Maxence was seeing in her. His pink and yellow girl. Tegan knocked on the door. A code to tell Rose that they were there. Elliot was the one opening the door. He smiled wildly when he saw Maxence and ran to him. He jumped in his arms and Maxence caught him despite his wounded arm and the pain. He hugged the boy, but his face was twisted with pain. He was making an effort not to make a sound and worry the boy. Tegan admired his brother’s strength to keep his pain silent. “I’ve missed you so much,” murmured Elliot in his neck. “I was scared.” “It’s okay. I’m here now.” Maxence stepped in the flat with Tegan’s help. It felt good to be back home. He was obviously off duty until he felt better. An inquiry was following its way to find out who had shot him. But no one had any clue at all. The shooter had vanished into thin air. Maxence had a lot of enemies with all the persons he has sent to jail and condemned to any other sentences with his skills of lawyer. He was good at it and the criminals hated him. There was a lot of people to see and interview. They would never find him or her. Maxence was very aware of that. “Elliot,” sighed Rose. She had come out of the shower as soon as possible when she heard them. “I’ve told you to be careful.” “I’m alright.” “You don’t look alright.” Maxence gave her a tired smile and sat down on the couch. He couldn’t be alright after a week in a hospital. He had had to go through surgery, pain, re-education and police interviews alone. And he had gotten angry at his mother. He hadn’t slept that well. So he was exhausted. But it would be better now that he was with his real family. Rose gave a nod to Tegan to thank him for taking Maxence home safely. It also was a silent way to tell each other what to do next. They didn’t need words. What they had to do was obvious. Tegan walked to the kitchen. Dinner was on him tonight. It would be a simple one. No one expected Maxence to eat much anyway. Rose sat down next to Maxence and forced Elliot to let go of the poor man. The little boy obeyed but stayed sat on Maxence’s lap. Maxence wrapped his non-wounded arm around Rose’s shoulders and pulled her closer. They all remained there, silent, for a long moment. They simply enjoyed that moment of them being together again. A little family like Tegan had said, maybe one day had replied Rose. If only she could get over the block Jimmy had created in her heart and mind. She wished she could make Maxence happy. She wished she could give him what he wanted. When Maxence leaned his head back and closed his eyes, Rose noticed his face was still twisted with pain. He was suffering. Silently, so they wouldn’t worry about him. She slowly ran her fingers through his hair and traced his hairy jawline. She kissed his temple softly. “Let me take care of you this time, okay?” Maxence didn’t protest though he felt bad to have her taking care of him when he had promised her to be the one doing it. Rose sent Elliot to the kitchen for him to help Tegan. The little boy wasn’t happy with that but he obeyed anyway. Rose helped Maxence up and led him to the bathroom. She sat him down on the toilet seat and left the room, only to come back with a pile of clean clothes and the bag full of bandages and disinfectant for his wound. She grabbed a flannel but he caught her hand. “If you don’t mind, I prefer a shower. I’ve had sponge bathes every day this week.” “Can you take it on your own or do you need help?” “I can try.” Rose had never seen him naked and he could feel that it was embarrassing her to see him naked right now. He had seen her whole body when he was bathing her when she couldn’t do it on her own after Jimmy had beaten her down. He remembered her thin body which now was getting beautiful curves since she wasn’t starving anymore. He knew what was under her clothes, but she didn’t know what was under his, and she was too respectful of him to take advantage of the situation. He took off the sling and put it aside. His T-shirt and shoes followed the same way. The wound was hiding under a thick bandage. He would keep it for the shower and change it after. He slowly pulled off his pants. All of that was pulling on the threads of his wound but he didn’t complain. Rose turned around when his boxers and socks were taken off. He stepped into the shower and turned on the water. He closed his eyes and let the water flow on his body. He had wanted that shower for what felt like forever. But when he tried to grab the shampoo, the pain brought him back to reality. He groaned and placed his hand on his painful shoulder. “You alright?” asked Rose, worried. “I don’t think I can do it,” he admitted. Rose didn’t hesitate. She could hear he was in pain. She took off all her clothes and grabbed the small plastic stool Elliot was using to brush his teeth. She stepped in the shower, keeping her eyes on his face. She put the stool down and gently forced Maxence to sit on it. He did, silently, almost ashamed, but she said nothing. She started massaging his head with some shampoo. Maxence closed his eyes and enjoyed her hands on his head. She rinsed his hair and her hands were now stroking his neck. Softly, carefully. If there was soap, he didn’t feel it. He was only feeling her hands on his skin. They now were on his shoulders and slowly sliding on his arms. Then, on his chest. He leaned his head against the glass wall and let out a small breath between his clenched teeth. His body was tensed and covered in goose bumps because of her touch but she didn’t stop. Her hands were rubbing his chest, brushing over his nipples and he bit the inside of his cheek when he felt himself becoming hard. He had to stay in control. Maxence didn’t move or say anything. He stayed still and breathed slowly until it stopped tingling him. He was playing with fire at that moment but he didn’t have much of a choice. Rose was the only one able to help him in that situation and she was doing it almost professionally. She didn’t stop when she faced his erection. She washed the bottom of his body just as softly and carefully as she did the upper part. He let out a muffled groan when her fingers brushed over his sensitive dick. She looked at him and met his blue eyes. He was staring down at her and his eyes were so dark with desire for her. She stopped for a moment; letting the water flow over them. “Rose,” he murmured, unable to say something else. “Shh.” She placed a finger over his lips to force him to silence. He was surprised but obeyed anyway. She was observing him, sitting there in the shower, completely naked – body and soul – and she thought that he looked beautiful. More beautiful than any other person she had ever met. She stroked his face and he closed his eyes, relaxing under her touch. He certainly hadn’t expected her lips on his, but he wasn’t gonna complain about it. He didn’t push her away, just kissed her back. His hands found their way on her hips, but the pain stopped him. Rose broke the kiss when she felt it. “Sorry,” she apologized. “Don’t be.” “Let’s get you out of here, okay?” She wouldn’t talk about that kiss. Not yet. He wasn’t in the right condition to talk about anything. So, she rinsed his body well and helped him out of the shower after she turned off the water. She wrapped herself in a towel and dried him off carefully before she helped him into clean boxers and shorts. Then, she sat him down on the toilet seat and took off the soaked bandage. She cleaned the wound and made a new bandage. She carefully helped him into his shirt. She combed his hair with her fingers and put the sling back around his neck. She threw his dirty clothes in the washing machine to take care of them later. “No staying up late for you. Dinner, meds, and you go to bed.” “Yes, ma’am.” “Good.” “Are we…” “No.” Rose dried herself off quickly and pulled her clothes back on. She brushed her hair and when she was done, she walked out of the bathroom with Maxence. They went to the kitchen. Dinner was ready, the table was sat and both Elliot and Tegan were waiting for them. Elliot smiled wildly when saw them back. He had saved Maxence the closest chair to him. Maxence sat down there and Rose took the last free chair. They shared the meal like a small family. And then, they all went to bed. Maxence found the strength to tell Elliot a bedtime story before he went to his own bed. Rose tucked him in and they both fell asleep, cuddling each other. No word was spoken that night.

×

Two days later, they still hadn’t talked about that kiss. Rose refused to even mention it. They were living the way they had been for months, except Rose was the one taking care of him and making sure he was recovering well. She was even sacrificing her nights when the pain woke him up to give him painkillers and keep him close to her until she fell asleep again. She would stay awake for hours just to be sure he wouldn’t wake up once again. She would just run her fingers through his hair until the morning came. It had been one of those nights. Two nights in a row. Even when he would be fully healed, the pain might stay. But currently, it was far from being healed. They had to change the bandage every day, several times a day, and Maxence couldn’t move his arm much so he needed help for a lot of things. But today, he was doing his things on his own. It was the beginning of the afternoon. Elliot was at school, and Rose was taking a nap. Maxence had wanted to take that nap with her but he had an appointment for a re-education session and a check-up. He hadn’t told Rose because she would have insisted for coming and he wanted her to rest. As soon as she was asleep, he slipped out of the room and got ready for his appointment. He left a note on the fridge for Rose to find it whenever she would wake up from her nap. Since he couldn’t drive, he took the bus and walked to the hospital. He was being careful, always watching around. It was stupid maybe to have refused the police protection. Nothing happened to him though. He could have his check-up – they removed the threads – and re-education session that took away all his worries to replace them with pain. It was still hard to move his arm and fingers, and they weren’t sure if he would get his full mobility back. He was quite concerned about it as he was heading back home. He had decided to walk. Walking usually helped him to clear his mind. Not this time. He was almost home when a heavy rock hit his wounded shoulder. The shock and pain made him lost his balance long enough for someone to catch him from behind and pin him against a wall. His head hit it causing more pain to him. He could feel someone’s hot breath brushing over his skin. The voice that followed made him freeze. “Lon’ time no see, Spitz! Ya don’t look good, mate!” Maxence clenched his teeth as the pain crushed through him. Jimmy Stone had definitely chosen his moment to come back in his life. He was pressing on his wound and the pain was irradiating in Maxence’s whole body and paralysing him. He couldn’t defend himself with his body pinned against the wall, his face pressed against the stone. “Ya bin lucky! I miss’d mah shot. Wanted ya dead, meh.” Obviously. Maxence was cursing himself for being an idiot. Of course, it had to be Jimmy Stone out of all the enemies he had. All of those months spent on alert because of him and when something happened, they completely forgot about him. He had taken his time to prepare his revenge. But he had missed his shot and now, he was taking another chance. “Where did ya hide’em?” “I won’t tell you.” “Ya gunna die!” “That was the original plan, right?” Jimmy put his hand in Maxence’s pockets and pulled out his wallet. He found what he was looking for: he read Maxence’s address on his ID and kept it in mind. He took all the money there was in and put the wallet back in Maxence’s pocket. He grabbed the man’s hair and banged his head against the wall. Maxence groaned at the pain and chose that moment to counterattack. He managed to knock Jimmy out and ran away. He went straight to his flat. He was dishevelled, his hair was messy, his eyebrow arch was bleeding and he was out of breath. “Maxence?” Rose called out, worried. Both mother and son were looking at him half surprised, half worried. Rose walked to him and put her fingers in the blood. The lawyer winced and gently took her hand. They had no time to waste. He grabbed Elliot’s hand and almost run to the room he was working in. He pushed one of his heavy bookcases full of law books and revealed a door behind it. “Maxence, what’s happening?!” “He’s found me and he’s got my address.” “Who?” “Jimmy Stone.” Rose went white at the name and Elliot clang to his mother’s hand. The name was terrifying them but knowing that he might come there to finish what he had started was worse. Maxence slid the door open and blocked the lift door. “I have a panic room. You’ll be safe in there.” “And you?” “There’s a phone down there. Call the police. I’ll keep him busy.” “I can’t accept that.” “I’ll come to you as soon as it’ll be done. Call the police. It’ll be alright.” He pushed the blonde and her son in the lift. Elliot gripped the sleeve of his jacket. He didn’t want Maxence to face Jimmy. Maxence knelt down at the boy’s height. “Remember the promise I’ve made to you months ago?” Elliot nodded. “I need your help this time. I need you to go down with mummy and call the police. You tell them my name and that the guy who hurt me is here. They will come. They’ll be here before he hurts me again.” “Promise?” “Promise.” Maxence hugged the little boy who went back into the lift. He took his mother’s hand and promised to protect her. Rose was about to hug Maxence but he let go of the door which closed. She just had the time to murmur him to be careful before the doors were closed and the lift started going down. She didn’t know Maxence had a panic room but she assumed that with the job he was doing, it was necessary. She just hoped that Jimmy wouldn’t hurt him too badly before the police arrived. But she could only wait now. Maxence barely had the time to slide the door shut and to push the bookcase back – which left him quite tired – that he heard the front door being knocked down. Jimmy Stone was there and he wasn’t discreet at all. He was yelling for Rose to come out and face him. But it was Maxence who came. Exhausted, in pain, but ready to protect Rose, to gain some time until the police was there. “Spitz! Where ya hidin’ her?!” “Once again, I won’t tell you.” “Better do!” “Better get out of here. You’re on my property.” “I don’t care!” If he had to fight the Spitz guy, he would do it. But the lawyer was clever and in his home. He would win easily. However, Jimmy was feeling brave because of the last shot of drugs he took. So he ran straight to Maxence who avoided the punch. He would make the junky run and miss him as much as possible. It was funny to watch him fail over and over again only to get back on his feet and try again. The man was determined, they couldn’t take that away from him. Nevertheless, Maxence was the first one to show his weakness. He had just a second of inattention and Jimmy took advantage of it. He punched Maxence’s shoulder. The wave of pain bewildered Maxence. He had lost his advantage. Jimmy had touched his weak point. From now on, he could only protect himself the best he could and take the blows. Jimmy was having fun obviously. He was laughing whenever he was feeling his fists and feet hitting Maxence’s flesh and groaning when he was hit. “Ya can’t win, Spitz!” “Don’t speak too fast, Stone,” groaned Maxence. “I’m not dead yet.” “Ya gunna be! Ya and dat bitch!” “What are you waiting for then? Do it!” Maxence knew he had no chance to win that fight. Not in the condition he was in. He kicked Jimmy’s legs and pushed him away from him. He crawled back until he felt strong enough to get back on his feet. He was surprised that Jimmy hadn’t counterattacked yet. He leaned on the wall. His whole body was hurting. He was in a need of painkillers and rest, but he couldn’t abandon. Not now. He heard Jimmy rummaging about in the kitchen and coming back. The end of the fight was coming. Jimmy faced Maxence. He was smiling perniciously and was holding a huge kitchen knife in hand. Despite his condition, Maxence had managed to ravage the little brat pretty well. He let him come closer, but as soon as he was close enough, the lawyer grabbed his wrist for the knife not to be used against him. He was cornered, and wouldn’t hold on too long like that. Jimmy was waiting for the moment Maxence would let go. His grip on his wrist was desperate, but his hand was wet with blood and sweat and it was slipping. Jimmy wasn’t very clever and his brain was completely ruined by the alcohol and drugs he was taking, but he knew how to wait for the right time. Maxence’s arm was trembling and the blade was getting dangerously close to his stomach. Where was the police? “Ya lost!” “Police! Let go of that knife!” Jimmy tried harder to stab Maxence but he was stopped by a sudden electrical discharge that ran through his body. His hand opened and the knife fell to the ground. Maxence kicked it away as Jimmy fell to his knees, floored by the shock. Two officers pinned his shaking body down and handcuffed him. Maxence sighed in relief and slid down the wall. He closed his eyes. That was over. Jimmy was taken away by the police and paramedics were taking care of the lawyer. That was really over. Finally.

×

The lift had taken them to some bunker underground. It was a real fortress with food, beds, a phone, meds and a CCTV that wasn’t working. Not that Rose could see at least. She had tried everything to make the screen work and show her how it was going on up there but nothing worked and she had stopped trying. Since then, she was laying on a bed, biting her nails to blood with how anxious she was for Maxence. Elliot was cuddling into her. He was also worried sick and the silence of their surroundings wasn’t helping their minds to think about something else. They could only worry and hope that Maxence was alright, that Jimmy hadn’t hurt him more. Or worse. They both refused to imagine the worst. It just couldn’t happen. Rose suddenly sat up when she heard the lift coming down their way. Her heart was beating painfully because of the fear clutching at it. Was it Maxence? Was he coming back for them? Was he gonna tell them that it was over? Elliot grabbed his mother’s hand and held it tight. They were staring at the lift’s doors, waiting for them to open and reveal the passenger of that travel. There was a beep when the lift finally was there and a sigh of relief escaped them when Maxence stepped out of it. “It’s over,” he simply said. Mother and son didn’t need more. They ignored Maxence’s bruises and cuts and ran to hug him. They were so glad to have him back alive. He hugged them back as they cried into his chest. Saying more was useless. Maxence being there was enough for them to understand. The threat Jimmy Stone had been taken down. They could start living again. They didn’t have to be afraid anymore. Finally, Rose and Elliot were safe and that was all they could ask for after so many years of fear and insecurities.

To be continued?

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[comehomeducklings]

More Walls | Part 1

Pairing: Thomas (Maze Runner) x OC

A/N: Some scenes from the movie will be altered and misplaced to fit the storyline. I hope that's not too annoying <3

My OC is catered to all races. She has no specific one so you could either insert yourself in her place or imagine how you would like her to look.

Word Count: +2k

~❀❀❀❀~

"Do you think this will help them along? You already sent Teresa down there."

Lab coats rush around me, some of the doctors place needles into my arm. I'm sitting on a stool with my white coat on my lap. The bright white lights are starting to strain my eyes. All this preparation is making me sleepy. How much longer do I have until they put me under?

"Thomas needs a little more of a push to find a way out. Since he would risk his life for you, I think you are the answer."

That would be true if they didn't wipe all his memories away. Only left with his name and growing curiosity. I was going to go into the maze but he volunteered in my steed. Always the hero. Now that I'm also going in, I'm not that hesitant anymore. There is nothing left for me here. My little sister, my only living relative left, passed away. If I couldn't save her, what makes them think I could save the world?

I look up from the ground into her cold eyes, "What will I be left with?"

She smiles sadly and plays with the ends of my hair. Her eyes almost looking sincere.

"Just your name, like everyone else." She paused for a few seconds, removing her hand from my hair, "I do wish I could do more to protect you. I promised your mother-"

I raise my hand in a stopping motion. I don't need a reminder of my mother, I already failed her by not protecting her other child enough. Thomas blamed himself. Claiming he could've done more to help carry the weight of my responsibilities. I couldn't let him do that. He had enough baggage for himself to deal with, he didn't need mine on top of that. Maybe that's why I agreed to go, to get another chance.

"You've done so much for me already, you know how I hate not doing enough for you."

"You have sacrificed more than you needed to. Proving your loyalty every day. Remember, WICKED is good."

"WICKED will save the world," I nod in confirmation.

The rumbling noise of the cage wakes me up. I open my eyes in a panic, my hair drenched in water. I look around at the claustrophobic walls.

Where am I?

Why am I here?"

Who am I?

How did I get here?

How am I getting out?

Suddenly the cage comes to a hard stop. The boxes and I got harshly shoved forward. My panic rises by the second. If I'm stuck in here I could potentially starve. From how hot it is I could easily get dehydrated. I crawl towards one of the boxes but before I could even attempt at opening it, sunlight pours through the roof.

The commotion surrounding my senses catches my attention. My eyes adjust from the sudden bursts of light.

"Another one? We had one more week until the new month?" I hear a British accent come from one of the many boys surrounding my cage. Inspecting me like I'm some sort of animal.

"I guess they decided to send one in early, someone go inform Alby."

A boy with blonde hair jumps into the cage near where I sat. The cage rattled from the heavy force. I started crawling backward as much as I could, getting the most distance this cage provided.

"What are you doing, don't come closer." I puff my chest out to seem stronger and bigger than I truly was.

"Sweetheart we need to get you out of the cage so we can load the stuff out. We won't hurt you, right guys." He raises an eyebrow and all the boys start nodding their heads quickly.

"My name is Gally, do you remember yours yet?" As soon as I start racking my brain for a name, a headache pounds through me. Nothing coming up.

My name...my name, what's my name? Why can't I remember? My name, my name, come on...name, name.

"Sounds like it hasn't come to you yet. Don't fret you'll remember eventually. Give it time."

Eventually? Why would it take time to remember such a simple part about myself? I stand up and walk towards the edge as I wait to be helped up. That never comes so instead I make eye contact with Gally and give him a look to help. I'm not about to climb my way out, I'm tired, hungry, and thirsty.

"Oh-," he eventually takes the hint and places his hands respectfully on my waist to lift me up.

"Yo Newt, bring her up."

The boy with a nice accent grabs my arm and pulls me up. With a surprisingly strong force, may I add, for someone with a lanky figure. As I step onto the ground I gaze towards the blue sky, no clouds in sight. The second thing my brain focuses on is the tall stone walls enclosing this space. I get out of little cage walls to a bunch of bigger ones, love that for me.

"Where am I?"

"Welcome miss, to the Maze."

❀❀❀❀

"Why is it called the Maze?"

The boy named Newt points his finger towards the walls, "Behind those walls lays a huge maze. In that maze is the exit to getting out of here."

Most of the boys have dispersed as Newt took me on a tour around the area.

"We all have jobs here, while I'm second-in-command, I'm also one of the Track-hoes. We grow all the fruits and vegetables and harvest for consumption."

"Do I get a job?" I look around to see what I could do around here. I'm not surprised that they make people pull their weight. It seems organized and successfully ran.

"Yes, Alby who is first-in-command will give you a role at the end of the week. You'll have one day at every job to see how well you can work. The best work you do in a specific job will most likely be where you continue to work for your remaining time here."

"When do I start?"

"Now, you will meet our leader later. He's busy currently. You'll be working with me for today."

That doesn't seem too hard, it could be worse.

"What are all the jobs?" Newt looks back at me while he hands me some tools.

"Well, there's the builders, cooks, slicers, med-jacks, runners, and the track-hoes."

I'll have to ask him more about the jobs so I can get an idea of how they run this place. With so many adolescent boys grouped together who knows how they do things around here. Especially the kinds of punishments you receive if you break any of the rules. Do they have rules set?

❀❀❀❀

Sweat glistened off of my forehead, the sun rays really working up my appetite. What I said before, about gardening seeming not "too hard." That was a complete lie. You have to work out in the sun for hours on end. Barely any breaks, if you do happen to get a break it's mostly making sure you don't blackout. There was no wind to even make the heat bearable. I have a newfound respect for these gardeners.

"Hey Newt, I heard the Greenie is working with you today?" A girl with a blue shirt and dark hair came jogging down to where we worked.

"Yeah, she's right here. Newbie, this is Teresa. She came 3 weeks before you got here."

Teresa sticks her hand out to shake my hand. I quickly wipe my hands on my pants before touching her hand because not too long before I was picking out weeds off the dirty ground.

"Nice to meet you, Teresa. I'm glad there's another girl here. I was starting to get worried"

"Me too, the runners should be getting here soon. Can she come Newt?" Teresa asks already taking my hand in hers and slowly moving backward.

"Yeah, we were already pretty much done for the day."

The runners, Newt told me about them. They went into the maze to find a way out. Finding new paths and seeing how the mechanisms worked. Since the walls move, actually move. Runners have to be fast, agile and have good stamina to pretty much run through there for the whole day.

Everyone started gathering around the entrance to the maze. Tension slightly thick in the air as everyone held their breath. Waiting for their runners to be spotted. As we all waited there patiently sighs of relief and ecstatic voices started rising throughout the group. I was in the back while Teresa was a little bit ahead of me. Most of these sweaty bodies were blocking my view. Finally, people started moving and dispersing with their friends.

That's when I saw him, he was smiling and receiving hugs from those around him. The sky was softly glowing with light as the sun slowly lowered. He was smiling and chatting with Newt and a boy I haven't met yet while Teresa talked with another boy that came out of the maze.

"Oh! Minho we got a new girl while you guys were running. She doesn't know her name yet."

This guy looks towards me while Teresa gestures for me to go introduce myself.

"Hi, Greenie. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. So you guys really run through that maze. Every day?"

"Yep, I give them a day of rest once a week. The maze isn't that bad, you'll see once you work for me for your one day."

The guy I saw a little bit ago comes up to Minho and slaps him on the shoulder.

"We heading towards the room today or not?" The guy asks, his voice scratching all the right parts of my brain. He was cute, before I could get caught lacking I force my eyes away from him.

"Nope, we got a new Greenie. So we're having that party later tonight."

"Party?" I asked furrowing my eyebrows. I wasn't told of any party going on.

"Yea, for you. We welcome all our newcomers with a party to hang out and let loose."

"I'm Thomas, me and Chuck over there can show you to where you'll be staying." Chuck, the little curly-haired boy Thomas was speaking to only moments ago. All these names are starting to make my brain hurt. I don't even know mine yet.

"That's me! I'm Chuck, Chuck is me, I'm Chu-"

"I think she knows now." Thomas takes his hand and ruffles the curly boy's head of hair.

"Ha, sorry I got a little nervous." He was honestly the cutest. I wanted to give him a huge hug.

"It's alright I didn't mind. Are you going to show me where I'll be sleeping?"

"Oh yes! You'll be sleeping near me, Teresa, and Thomas. I already made your hammock so that you could be prepared already."

"That's extremely kind of you Chuck, thank you."

I look back at the boy and held a sheepish smile on his lips, "Is there a party every time for a new person?"

Thomas looks up from the ground, "Every time. My tip to you is to not fight in the little arena with Gally."

"Who would be stupid enough to do that?" I ask innocently and Chuck laughs a bit.

"You're looking at him," Chuck's response made me chuckle a bit myself.

"You?!"

Thomas scrambles his head for anything to defend himself with.

"Okay in my defense I was new to everything. And at least I landed one on him!" He shoves Chuck slightly, "I got something out of it too, my name."

His name. When and how will I remember mine? At this point, I'll just make up a random one. Maya, Sarah, Jessica? Maybe even Joey.

"This is your bed. I have to catch up with a friend of mine. Thomas will take you to the party. I feel like we'll be good friends in the near future." Chuck gives me a huge gummy smile, one that could light up a whole room on its own.

"I think that too. See you later,"

Now it was just me and him. He won't stop staring at me while I check out my bed.

"How do I get on one?" I lift my right leg and try going headfirst onto the hammock.

It soon turns over quickly, catching me off guard. I'm about to fall over before Thomas catches my arm and lifts me safely off the death trap.

"What the hell is that thing. Who would want to make it so difficult to sleep."

Thomas laughs at this and brings you back to the bed.

"You have to slowly balance yourself onto it. Here hold my shoulder while you put half of your body first, then the other half."

I do as he says and slowly fix myself to get comfortable. Never letting go of his shoulder once, even if I didn't need it anymore. Still frightened I was going to fall and embarrass myself.

"There you go, you did good," he praises me. That stirs something deep in me, not that I noticed.

"You probably still need a little more practice but you're a fast learner. C'mon, it's time you make an appearance at your own party."

Thomas and I slowly make our way towards the bonfire. I'm in no rush as we quickly get along and get to know one another. He's extremely sweet and from only talking to him for a little bit you could tell his friends mean everything to him. Especially Chuck, he pretty much adopted that boy as his son. I mean, who wouldn't? That boy is the sweetest kid, hell I might even adopt him.

"Hey, uh, do you remember anything before here? Before you came here I mean."

Thomas steals my gaze with his own, "Not really, you sound familiar though."

"I do?" Confusion laces my tone. He knew me?

"Yeah uh-" Thomas coughs anxiously. "Just a little."

I rack my brain to anything that could link towards the boy beside me. The headache starts again until I hear something muffled. It's like it's at the very back of my head. Fuzzy noises going in and out.

"Ember"

"Ember"

"Ember"

"EMBER"

I cough out in relief. A whole wave of happiness coming over my body. My name finally being remembered. A part of a huge puzzle piece being unlocked.

"Ember, your name I'm guessing?" My name sounded good coming from him. Not like he'll ever know that.

"Finally, I waited all day for that."

"Well Ember, to new beginnings."