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ellewritesathing · 4 years

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Infernal IX

Summary: In your sleepy little town of Greendale, nothing ever slept for long. And ever since October, everything felt like it was waking up. Everything except for you, that is. One teensy trip to Hell (and an infuriatingly cute guy) later and suddenly you felt wide awake.

Word-count: 2k+

Masterlist Prev. | Part 9

A/N: sorry for dropping of the face of the earth!! i’ve been super overwhelmed with uni but here we are 💕 enjoy the angst

When you went to her for help to face the Absolute Dark, Lilith had told you that you could feed on the dark and absorb its power. Even after unbinding your powers, you were left with more power than ever before. You were warned about the dangers of power, but no one told you how consuming it would be. There wasn't a moment that went by that you didn't draw on the Darkness, and almost all you could think about was testing the limits of your power. Every day was a new attempt at mastery, sometimes in the form of controlling a jerk who went too far and other times by tearing through the pages of a grimoire. You'd missed school. You hadn’t talked to your friends in days. For the first time in your life, you were selfish.

You thought Caliban would have liked the new, rebellious version of you better - Lilith certainly did - but he’d been acting strangely ever since the incident at the Paramount. He was more closed-off with you than before, more hesitant with what he said or did to you. At first, his concern for your safety was amusing, but now it just infuriated you. You felt watched and alone even when you were with him.

If he didn’t trust you anymore, then Caliban should just leave.

The flame on the wick exploded, and you cursed as you shook out your burnt palm and scowled at the ruined ritual in front of you. Exploring the Celestial Realm would have to wait.

“Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound upon a wheel of fire.”

“That mine own tears do scald like molten lead.” With a sigh, you lowered your palm to your side and turned to face the familiar voice in the corner of your room. “King Lear.”

Caliban’s mouth turned up into a smile. “You’ve been reading.” He leaned easily against your doorframe, seemingly forgetting how your last interaction had blown up.

“I’ve had time,” you said. You crossed your arms over your chest as you walked closer. “What are you doing here?”

Caliban shrugged and stepped closer. “Quiet day in Hell. I thought we could talk.”

“And what do you want to talk about today?”

Caliban reached a hand out to the side of your neck, but you didn’t move. His touch was frosty. “Theo says you haven’t been at school. He was worried about you.”

Your voice caught in your throat. The Darkness stirred at the idea of your friends talking about you behind your back. “I didn’t know you two were so close.”

“Well, since Rosalind is dating Huckleberry Finn, so Theo is my favorite…” Caliban sucked in a breath when you didn’t respond to his joke. He dropped his hand and looked down for a moment. “Have you given any more thought to my offer?”

“Your offer to fix me?”

“That isn't what I said.”

“But it’s what you meant.” You poked his chest angrily. “Because you think there’s something wrong with me.”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you.” Caliban’s easy sense of calm faltered as he reached for your hand. He wasn't used to being vulnerable or trying so hard. “Please, will you just listen to me for a moment? This much Darkness is dangerous. It’s changing you.”

“Have you ever thought this is how I’m supposed to be?” You stepped closer and lowered your voice. “I’m Lilith's heir. I’m made of darkness.”

“This isn’t who you are.”

“Yes, it is!”

The candles behind you reignited, their flames exploding to touch your ceiling. You ripped your hands away and stumbled back. Even with all the arguing you'd done and all Darkness in your veins, you’d never yelled at Caliban before then. You breathed heavy, unsteady breaths, trying to get your heart to stop racing and your hands to stop shaking.

Despite his furrowed brow and stormy eyes, Caliban was rooted to the spot just in front of your door. His hand twitched to help you, but he didn’t make any other movements.

“There is nothing wrong with me, do you understand? I’m not broken.”

Caliban’s lips parted, but lightning cracked in your room before he got the chance to speak. The candles were snuffed out in the blinding light, and for a moment, the room was deathly still. The hair on your arms stood on end.

Lilith’s cry brought you back to reality. She clutched her ginormous belly in one hand and clung to one of the minions with her other. When she opened her eyes, instead of explaining, she zeroed in on Caliban. “What is he doing here?”

“He was just leaving,” you said before he could answer. As angry as you were with him, you weren’t going to let your mother hurt him.

Caliban smiled, but it wasn’t as warm as before; his smile was something rueful and tight-lipped. He bowed, twirling his hand as he did, and said, “As you wish,” before disappearing in Hellfire.

It would have hurt less if he stuck a dagger in your chest and twisted.

Lilith screamed again as she crumpled to her knees. Glaring up at you, she forced out, “Something’s wrong with my baby. Take me to Zelda Spellman.”

---

Growing up, it had always been you and your dad. He taught you how to tie your shoes, tried an awfully intricate hairstyle for your first day of school, and read you a story every night before bed. As much as you loved him, it always felt as though your family was missing something. Having long given up on your mom ever coming home, you asked him if you could have a little brother. He promised that one day, when you’d probably forgotten that you asked in the first place, you’d get a little brother.

It was an easy lie to get you to stop asking about having a family - except, as you held the sleeping lump in your arms, you realized that your dad never lied to you. This perfect, troublesome little lump was all you’d ever wanted.

“What do you want to name him?” Lilith asked. You turned away from the window to face her as she pulled herself into a sitting position. She winced slightly as she did, more out of annoyance than pain.

“What?”

Rolling her eyes, she repeated, “What do you want to name him?”

“I don’t know,” you said quietly. Looking down at his face, it was hard to believe he came into this world without a name. It was hard to believe that you’d only had him a few hours at most. “Michael?”

“Less angelic,” Lilith critiqued, taking a long sip from the healing elixir Hilda had given her. Her disdain for herbalism was clear on the look of her face.

You huffed, rocking slightly on your heel to keep him sleeping. “His name is Adam.”

The words tumbled out of your mouth before you thought about it, sounding offhand but packing a punch. Lilith’s grip on the glass turned her fingers bone white. After an icy second, she repeated the name to herself. A wicked smile covered her features. “Adam,” she hummed. “I could agree to that, on the condition that-”

A knock sounded at the door and Lilith froze. Whoever was outside knocked again and you heard Zelda mumbling as the door handle turned and Lilith told them to come inside. She pulled you and Adam closer to her side. Uncharacteristically patient for her, Lilith waited for the witches to shuffle inside and explain that the Lords of Hell were asking to pay tribute to Adam.

The Uninvited had been the Darkness' family. When they were trapped in the alternate reality of Sabrina's dollhouse, the Darkness had lashed out with a white-hot fury, pushing angrily at your ribs and trying to break out. The thought of Adam being taken away from made the Darkness just as angry, but the scary thing was that it made you even angrier.

“Pay tribute?” Lilith scoffed, reaching to take Adam from your arms. Reluctantly, you let her take him. “They are here for one reason and one reason only: to kill my baby.” Before either of the Spellmans could respond, she added, “The baby you just delivered, Zelda Spellman.”

Zelda knotted her hands together. “Very well. Let’s give them the welcome they deserve.” Turning to the witches, “Ladies, if you’ll follow me.”

“Actually…” you stepped forward and tilted your chin up. “I’d like to have a word with them.”

Zelda faltered for the first time in all the years you’d known her. She might have known about your powers, but it must have been difficult for her to process that the child that brought her dandelions each spring was a demon. “Alright,” she said with a nod. “We will be right beside you.”

With a nod of your own, you led the way to the Academy gates. Your chest buzzed at the idea of being one of these witches, butterflies fluttering through the Darkness with all the excitement. Standing in front of the Lords, you clenched your tingling fingertips. They were as unpleasant to look at as the day you met them.

“What do you want?”

They looked at each other for a moment before one of them nodded and the other said, “Word has reached the Infernal Palace that a babe was born of Lucifer’s concubine, Lilith. We come bearing gifts?”

“Aren’t there supposed to be three of you?” With each word, you took a step down the gates. Pointing a finger at the gifts in their hands, you asked, “With gold, frankincense, and myrrh instead of these … trinkets?”

The other one pulled the box close to himself. Asmodeus, if you remembered right. “Bite your tongue, you insolent child. We come at the Dark Lord’s behest.”

You tilted your head to the side. Letting the Darkness seep into your veins, you told him. “Bite your tongue.” He frowned, blinking slowly. “I said: Bite your tongue, and because you didn’t do it right the first time, now I want you to bite it off.”

His voice rose, but all that came out were a few strangled noises before Asmodeus’ eyes glazed over, the box fell to the ground, and blood oozed out of his mouth. He spat his tongue into his hands, coughing and trying to speak, as Beelzebub cursed you.

He didn't get very far before Darkness tinged your vision as you turned to him. You didn’t have to speak this time to control him, just wave a hand and watch him fall to his knees.

“We will not leave-” he grit his teeth as he struggled against the weight of your will “-without the babe.”

Bending down, you grabbed one of the horns on the top of his head to pull his face up to meet your own. “No.” You smiled. “No, I don’t think you’ll be leaving here at all.”

You threw his head to the side and took a step back, watching Asmodeus choke on his own blood and Beelzebub writhe. The Darkness filled your body, and the world grew so still that your heart didn’t dare disturb it by beating. In a cold, distant voice, you recited your most familiar spell.

“Ater ignus, fusce fume.” Beelzebub yelled. You clenched a fist to force his mouth shut. “Te evoco ut potentium tuam monstres.” A spark ignited, right between each of their shoulder blades. “Cupidibus flammis hic veni.” The flames licked their backs, growing taller and darker by the second. “Caelo sub isto, harc arborem consumo.” The puddle of Asmodeus’ blood caught alight, illuminating his wretched face as it burned. “Lucem tenebrasque tuas monstra. Impetuum tuum evoco ad devorandum.” Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and let the Darkness consume all three of you. “Hanc arborem ac omnes hospitas devora.”

The flames erupted in front of you, blinding your eyes and knocking you off your feet. You were dimly aware of the witches screaming your name and the rush of heels against cobblestones as something sticky and cold dripped down your face. Not tears. Or blood.

Only Darkness.

Tagged: @caliban-is-my-girl @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @music-movies @miss--moose @marrypuffsstuff @harryscarolinaa @igorsbby @foji2000 @hxlalokidottir @artaxerxesthegreat @thxmagic @luquincy @strawberriesandknives @xealia @hotmessindisguise @acciomaximoff @reheated-coffee @olivia-west-allen @sweetrogers @shelby-x @perseny-blog @millie-753 @luneerius @shizzybarnaclee @lettherebelovex @drrramaaaqweeen @throughparisallthroughrome @ietss @thebookwormlife @mechanicalanimalz @mariamermaid @nqbmf @roxytheimmortal @shephard17895 @andie-kathleen @clockworks-world-to-fandoms @blondeeee-e @piensa-bonito @supportstudies @bookishaficionado @perfectlysane24 @sophia-of-sass-gard @insomniac-nerd-posts-things (struck through wouldn’t tag)

#Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #caos #caos rewrite #Infernal #Caliban #caliban x reader

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sarahreesbrennan · 4 years

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Could you speak about Nick's heroic moment that impressed you? You mentioned Sabrina's heroic moment that impressed you (Lupercalia) and Harvey's heroic moment that impressed you (saving the witches) so I wondered if you had a Nick moment!

Buckle up kids, it’s time for me to get emosh about Nick Scratch!

Yes I do have a Nick moment, and I am happy that you asked about him! (Apologies for taking so long to reply to this and other CAOS questions I have in the queue, life has been a frenzied whirligig.) I know the rules of love triangles, and one must play fair.

(It has been interesting writing a proper love triangle, which I hadn’t before, and seeing the many reactions to it. I have one friend who was for Harvey in book 2, but in book 3 she switched to Nick. I have one friend who still loves Harvey and was mad he only got one POV chapter in book 3. I have my father, who is scandalized by the thought of love triangles and wishes for people to Commit to Each Other, and is firmly Team Nabrina and Harvalind without knowing either of those ship names! I Cannot and Will Never tell my father about the sex demons.)

I think everybody noticed the moment where Nick Scratch sacrificed himself to Satan to save Sabrina and also the world. It’s such a big moment and a big sacrifice that it instantly makes many forgive him for all his mistakes. And it’s the very end of that part, and I’ve noticed with Netflix binges even more than with usual TV, the end is the bit that sticks most with people and leaves the deepest impression. You can’t just click on the next episode. You have to sit with what happened.

That moment of heroism wasn’t overlooked. But early in Part 3, we see inside Nick’s mind in hell, and after weeks of torment he’s still fighting. Wrestling the fallen angel, as Jacob wrestled the angel, and saying no, he won’t give up. The kind of heroism that struggles on, and on, even when it’s tough and thankless, is more difficult than impulsively going down in a blaze of glory. It’s hard to feel good about that kind of fight. It isn’t glorious, it isn’t flashy, and it takes bedrock strength and rare courage. I was so impressed by that moment, and I did worry it would be lost, since Nick’s wild acting out from trauma and satanic possession follows. That inspired Nick’s plotline in Path of Night--to think about how Nick was tormented, and how and why he was able to resist the Dark Lord.

Writing Nick’s POV in hell in Path of Night was tricky, as I couldn’t save him and I knew he would be in a dark place even after being saved! Had I been told people would be reading about a fan favorite character being trapped and tormented while stuck in their homes due to pandemic... I don’t know what I would have done. (I mean, I would have asked the time traveler giving me these tips to give me lottery numbers, please.) I hope I would have been brave and written him the same way I did.

Book 1 (Season of the Witch) is the family-focused book, because Part 1 is about family coming through for Sabrina, and ends on her toasting them at home. Book 2 (Daughter of Chaos) is the romance-focused book, because Part 2 has many people starting new relationships and exploring what relationships mean to them, and ends with Nick coming through for Sabrina. Book 3 had to be the friendship-focused book, as Part 3 had Sabrina on missions with her friends, who were coming through for her by going to hell and fighting monsters and knowing what was up with her at last.

It couldn’t be about Sabrina and Nick’s romance, any more than Book 1 could really be about Harvey and Sabrina’s romance, because I was foreshadowing a breakup in both books. Both relationships were loving, but terribly damaged by lies (for which I blame Satan!). And all of these people need to find out who they truly are.

A character who only works in a romance isn’t a good character, and I think Nick is a good character. So when you’re examining a character on their own, you have to pose and answer these questions: who IS this person? What do they care about? How can they be taken apart, and put back together? Consent in CAOS is a big and thorny theme, (and a big and thorny subject generally!), and is discussed extensively in Daughter of Chaos, and that plays out in Path of Night, where Nick has his selfhood stripped away from him and has to try and claim it.

The epigraph for the book is a Dostoevsky quote: ‘Hell is the suffering of being unable to love.’ Nick says himself in Part 1 that Satan doesn’t want his servants to love, and hell is Satan’s kingdom, a place of utter loneliness. What do you do, in a book about friendship, with the plotline set in hell?

The truly lost are those who don’t realize they are lonely in hell. Lilith is ruling hell but missing Greendale, because Lilith underneath it all is a team player--she tried to be on Lucifer’s team for millennia until he made it clear there would never be any reward for her work, and in Part 3 she tries to be on Sabrina’s team, and goes to Zelda for help as an ally. There’s hope for Caliban, because in his reaching out for Sabrina, we see he can be lonely in hell. And what about Nick, in the lowest point of that lonely place?

I like someone who’ll do epic things for their love, but I don’t like when a character only cares about their love--I think that’s small-hearted. Fortunately I don’t think Nick’s that kind of character at all. He undoubtedly loves Sabrina dearly, but he also had a breakdown about being expelled from school, and even under Satan’s dire influence he found a nice white shirt and came to a magic ceremony because he wanted to be part of it: he cares about community. But his is a community in which caring is forbidden, so caring about that community is a paradox in itself which many of the witches have to deal with, forcing them to lie to themselves and each other. (Zelda and Prudence, very much caught in this trap.) Nick and Prudence both project an air of confidence, but Prudence was literally willing to be consumed in order to matter, and Nick willing to be consumed in order to be loved. (But what is there to love, if you’re consumed?)

Nick’s acting out under the influence of Lucifer in Part 3 is like Harvey being impelled to his father’s violence by Lucifer, though it goes much deeper: that influence brings out the specific dark impulses you DO have, while you might never have acted on them. A lot of Nick’s dark impulses are based on insecurity and his terrible coping mechanisms for dealing with that insecurity: he was gutted when expelled because he doesn’t have a home to belong to. He was raised (and abused) by someone possessive and murderous, who told him as abusers do that only she could love him, and then tragically his community’s ethos confirmed that belief for him. He mentions in Part 1 that he envies mortals because they can love. He’s told by his community that what matters is Satanic power, so he’s instantly made insecure by Caliban Prince of Hell, but he’s also insecure about Harvey because of the idea only mortals can love and be loved, and he’s afraid he can’t be loved by Sabrina as she loves this mortal. Of course, that worry itself makes it plain to us Nick is fully capable of love and of being loved, but that is anything but clear to him.

The witches are starving for love, and that’s love in all senses of the word. Sabrina does a ton to save and help Nick (to the point of overlooking her own pain and betrayal), but she can’t do it on her own because nobody can: everybody needs a net of community to catch them.

I mentioned that Book 3 was about friendship because it sets up Part 3, in which friends come through for each other. Nick’s part of that. Sabrina isn’t the only one who comes for him in hell: the mortals came too, and that’s important. Nick’s the witch who is always talking about and interested in mortals, and it was interesting to explore in Path of Night how that came to be. He’s also protective of the mortals--all the witches know mortals die easily, it’s why they call them that--but Nick came to protect Harvey in Part 1, and in Part 2 argued with Sabrina that mortals shouldn’t be fighting Satan as Sabrina planned to fight Satan. Obviously he cares about Sabrina more than he cares about them, but he worries about the mortals in the same way you’d be much more concerned about a toddler toddling into battle than a ninja, even if you were in love with the ninja. It says something about a person, when their impulse is to shield the vulnerable rather than target them.

In Path of Night it was interesting to explore the potential for friendship with the mortals for Nick. Roz and he have a lot in common, as the big readers of their groups, and were open to being charmed by each other in Part 2. Theo would be an amazing friend for anyone, as he’s ride-or-die for his friends, and also very clear-eyed about them. (Not being romantically interested in them helps with that.) It would obviously be good for both Nick and Harvey to start seeing the other as a person rather than an avatar for their own insecurity. And at the end of Part 3, when Sabrina was off in hell and he certainly wasn’t trying to win her favor, Nick showed up when the mortals called, stayed for them, and fought for them. In another time, he died for them. They came for him, and he came for them. Showing up is a good start. I always love a character who shows up: Sabrina constantly, Ambrose and Hilda and Zelda fighting their god for love, Harvey squaring his shoulders and going in to shoot his brother, Theo hurling his own body at the gates of hell.

But the mortals aren’t Nick’s friends yet: they don’t really know him, and Harvey is triggered by lies, which Nick has had to live by. There is someone, though, who does know him. The big romantic plotline of Path of Night is Prudence and Ambrose coming together on adventures far from home, and the thread about friendship there is that Ambrose is working out whether Prudence likes Nick romantically, or Ambrose himself. In Part 1, Prudence is spiky with Nick because he just dumped her and her sisters (as told in book 1). In Part 3, she’s mad at him and tells Sabrina they don’t work as a couple because she has no time for men who betray women, and Prudence is mad at him in Book 3 too. But in Book 2 and Part 2, she’s helping Nick, hanging out with him, and talking him up to Sabrina. It’s Ambrose, the oldest of the coded-young characters and one of the few with a loving home, who sees and names Prudence’s feelings for Nick, for whom she has a pet name. It’s complicated, in their world and with their respective pain, but he is her friend. She’s the one he opens up to at the end of Part 3.

But Nick doesn’t know Prudence is his friend. Lucifer, known as the Father of Lies, systematically takes apart Nick in Path of Night, to get him to the place he’s in when we hit Part 3. He has to convince Nick that what Nick always feared is true: nobody cares. There’s the physical torture element, which I touch on lightly but enough to be clear it happened, but wrestling with inner demons means more. To quote Faulkner, ‘the only thing worth writing about is the human heart at conflict with itself.’ Nick imagines sleeping a lot throughout Path of Night, imagines peace (another epigraph for a Nick chapter is Dante’s ‘Peace to your hungry soul’), but he’s not really sleeping and there’s never any peace--I deliberately made him more and more tired as the story goes on. Not only tired, but sick at heart as the devil tempts him: he’s offered books, a return to childhood and his mother, a return to school, the story of epic romance he wants to be the hero of, mortal acceptance and affection, and finally Prudence as a friend he trusts to tell him the truth. When he uses his sharp mind to discern flaws in all Lucifer’s illusion he’s shown just enough reality to hurt him. (Harvey and Sabrina have much pain and history to work out and there’s love there, as shown by the two names on Sabrina’s candle, but Sabrina and the Fright Club are all risking their lives to save Nick, and Lucifer sure doesn’t want Nick to realize that: Lucifer’s trying to induce despair.)

When we see how someone is tempted we also see what they value. In Nick’s case it’s his mother’s love, his mother’s books, a home, romantic love from Sabrina, mortal connection, friends, his school and the opportunities for relationships and knowledge it offers. Then we see everything Nick wants stripped away from him, exposed as illusion. To quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of CAOS’s forebears in the genre and because I love Buffy, ‘Take all that away, and what’s left?’ The answer is ‘Me.’ When all that’s left is you, then you just might be enough. Even if you always feared you wouldn’t be.

At the end of Path of Night, I couldn’t have Nick be saved, or even have Nick realize he was worth saving, but I wanted the ending to be as happy for him as it could be, by showing my audience that there was hope for him to be found, in all senses of the word. I wanted the reader to feel they’d learned more about who he was, gained understanding of his flaws, that there was greatness in him despite said flaws. Sabrina and the mortals ARE coming to rescue him. Prudence DOES care about him. And saying no, in that loneliest and darkest place, meant something.

So. That’s Nick’s hero moment for me.

#chilling adventures of sabrina #caos #nick scratch #nabrina #sabrina spellman #prudence blackwood #harvey kinkle #theo putnam #roz walker #zelda spellman #ambrose spellman #hilda spellman #path of night #caos books #lilith #prince caliban

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buffyversefanfiction · 3 years

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Slayer of Slayers

Warnings:I do not own, nor do I claim to own any of the copyright or characters within the Buffyverse which includes but not limited to the television shows Buffy and Angel, as well as the Darkhorse comics series’ continuation.

15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft.

M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

PART FOUR LINK HERE

Part Five - Parental Guidance Advised

Theo Frey, the slayer of slayers, was now a vampire, a vampire unlike any other before him, one that sired themselves, and along with his new undead status, he found his slayer strength, speed, and healing, was now matched with his vampire side making him even more powerful than ever before, all working towards Drusilla’s grand plans which were created after she had a vision of the vampire/slayer hybrid bringing about the end of days.

Drusilla and Theo traveled to the outskirts of New York, in the middle of nowhere, located deep within some woods, arriving at an abandoned asylum which Drusilla had claimed to be her home for many years now, the first place she took Theo after his parents died, the place in which Theo first met the love of his life, Tobias. “The future is a funny little thing not once did I see the death of my darling Tobias in any vision and now it’s the first and last thing, I see every day.” Drusilla sadly revealed to Theo, as the two walked down a hallway within the abandoned asylum late at night. “Well, it would have been good to get a whole heads up about becoming a vamp myself before it actually happened, but I guess I was not on a need-to-know basis with that one.” Theo slyly snapped at his fellow vampire. “It was you and Tobias who chose to go off on your own create your own paths and become number one targets for all slayers,” Drusilla replied. “Everything was meant to happen the way it was for you to become the best version of yourself, a version strong enough to kill your birth mother.” “Did Tobias always know? That I’d one day become a vampire?” Theo could not help but wonder, as he began to wonder whether falling for Tobias was all just a part of Drusilla’s plans. “No, he did not…you two were truly destined to love each other it is with great sadness that your love story with my beautiful Tobias has come to an end but sadly it does not surprise me either,” Drusilla revealed to him, before going on to say. “Buffy will stop at nothing to slay us all, yet where was she to slay the monsters who took the ones that raised you?” “Buffy and Angel will pay for abandoning me in fact I am already putting a plan into action for them both but let me make myself clear when I say I will not be waiting as long to take revenge for Tobias,” Theo promised her, much to Drusilla’s delight. “Now why do I still feel the same?” “Well, another little hitch has occurred it seems you still have your soul,” Drusilla answered him, both looking as shocked as the other. “I do not know why that pesky thing is still in place, but I am not worried about it, some of the biggest monsters in the world still have souls after all…now please do tell mummy what you have planned for other mummy and naughty daddy?”

After being M.I.A from the slayer world as well as her friends, loved ones, and all real-world connections, Buffy Summers had taken to a cabin in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, the perfect place to get lost and forget about the rest of the world, and for one whole year she had uninterrupted bliss as she attempted to get over the loss of her son, but as she sat on the steps of her cabin porch and felt a sudden change in the wind nearby, she knew her perfect isolation was about to be intruded and after a blast of lightning struck the nearby grounds it became abundantly clear that her best friend Willow had found her. “I told you not to come looking for me I told you when I was ready, I’d come looking for you,” Buffy told the red-headed witch after Willow appeared from out of the ripped air that the lightning strike had just caused. “But it is good to see you again Willow…I’ve missed you.” “We found him, Buffy…” Willow said with great sadness, knowing the story she was about to tell her friend would only cause her more hurt but also knowing she had to be the one who Buffy found out from. Willow sat Buffy back down on the porch, sitting next to her, and went on to tell her everything she knew about Buffy’s son Theo, the revelation that he was somehow a slayer like his mother, that he was seeing a vampire just like his mother, but that was where the similarities ended as she went on to talk about Theo hunting other slayers before being captured and possibly killed by Buffy’s former watcher Rupert Giles in self-defense. Willow made it clear that they had no idea who he was until it was too late, that despite not knowing who he was they fought hard for his redemption, and how she believed that despite it being unlikely, that Theo Frey had somehow survived and was still out there somewhere. She hugged Buffy as she cried, listened while she shouted, advised her while she tried to make sense of it all, and stayed with the blonde-haired slayer until she was ready to act towards the shocking revelations. “He’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time, living a life before our very eyes…god knows what he has been through, what I was not there to protect him from.” Buffy cried as she tried to come to terms with the news about her now fully grown son who was just born over a year ago. “And now he could be gone again…” “I have several covens working on locating him, Faith’s headed to Los Angeles to speak to Angel about it all and get him involved in finding him too,” Willow confessed to the slayer, trying to give her some positive news. “We are going to find him; I know he is still out there I just know it!” “Oh god, we told him his son was dead and now he might actually be.” Buffy realized as she felt the weight of lying to Angel for all this time.

Angel sat behind the desk in his office within the Hyperion Hotel looking through the books he had gathered through the years as he searched for information on the latest demon he and Illyria were hunting when he was surprised to hear the front door to the Hyperion Hotel being opened thanks to his advanced vampire hearing and so he rose out of his chair, grabbed a hold of a nearby knife and walked into the main foyer of the hotel where he was shocked to find Faith stood there waiting for him. “You can drop the weapon big man it's only little old me.” Faith said to the vampire with a soul, before the two walked into his office, as the slayer slowly began to prepare herself for telling Angel the truth, fearing it would change their friendship forever. “Thought you were held up at slayer rehab trying to mend the boy slayer’s broken ways,” Angel replied as he placed his knife back onto his desk table. “Do not tell me he’s already redeemed and ready to be put back into society.” “Far from it actually,” Faith answered nervously. “The thing about Theo is, well he kind of, sort of, turns out to be your long lost son, the miracle child you had with Buffy who we kind of told you was dead…there is no better way to say this than we kind of lost him through a portal last year and told you he died because well Connor…but he’s back all grown up just like Connor and sort of evil again like Connor.” “You guys told me he was dead, you told me he was dead!” Angel snapped at the one slayer he believed would never keep something from him, especially not something like this. “I help you capture him, we could have killed him, and all this time he was my son? How that hell is that even possible?” “Well, the good news is he wound up in the past and not a hell dimension.” Faith told the vampire reluctantly, feeling his fury over the lies that she helped tell, even if she believed it was for his best. “None of this is good Faith! You lied to me! You, Buffy, and Willow told me he died! I mourned the loss of my baby son, I blamed myself for not being enough to protect him, I blamed her.” Angel shouted in disbelief, infuriated to learn his son had been alive all this time. “Where is he now? Where is Theo?” “Okay do not get all murder and Angelus like on me but Giles sort of shot him multiple times then he swan dived out of a window into deep waters but hey on the plus side Willow is pretty sure he’s still alive…” Faith quickly responded, making sure she gave him all the information needed as she wished for this conversation, and for her friend’s anger, to come to an end, despite knowing this was only the beginning.

The several covens working on finding a location for Theo Frey through magical means had finally got some results, questionable results, as they informed Willow that the male slayer was in his hometown of Riverborn, of all places, Theo had headed home, and despite the gut feeling that this was most definitely some kind of trap, Willow revealed her covens’ findings to Buffy and the two best friends quickly headed for the Californian small town located rather close to their own hometown of Sunnydale, or where Sunnydale once stood. “This place is giving me all the wrong kind of Sunnydale vibes which only serves to convince me even further that we are walking straight into a trap,” Willow told her blonde-haired friend, as she and Buffy walked the streets of Riverborn, late at night, in search of the Frey family home, where Buffy’s son once lived. “I do not care if he wants to trap me or not the point is he wants us there which is a step in the right direction for me,” Buffy admitted to her, as the two stopped outside of an abandoned home, the tell-tale signs of its boarded windows, and the decaying build revealing it to be the former family home of Theo and his adoptive parents. “I hope this was a happy home to grow up in…I hope his life has not all been as twisted as the recent years we know about.” “Well, if it was not, it is not like I could have done anything, you know with the whole fact that I thought my son was dead this entire time.” Angel snapped at Buffy, appearing from behind the slayer and witch. “Angel…I can’t begin to apologize for everything I’ve put you through, that I forced Willow and Faith to put you through, so I’m not going to, not yet anyway.” Buffy told the vampire with which she shared a child, as his eyes never left the view of their son’s former home. Willow quickly informed Angel of the plan which she and Buffy had made while on their way to Riverborn, hoping to avoid as much awkwardness between the two as possible, as she revealed she would wait outside ready to cast any spells needed if Theo had not come alone so that the two could focus on trying to get through to their son, and after a few minutes of talking things through it was time to put their plans into action.

As Buffy and Angel walked through the front door of Theo’s family home and into the living room he once shared with his adoptive parents it became abundantly clear, by the photos in frames placed above a cozy fireplace, that the people who had raised their son truly loved him like he was their own, and for a brief moment, they found comfort in that knowledge, until their minds began to wonder what happened to them for this once loving home to become so empty and for their son to go down such a wicked path. “All I wanted for him was a normal life, a normal home, and to be safe,” Buffy told Angel as tears formed in her eyes, while the slayer and vampire moved into the kitchen where they found a sinister-looking Theo gleefully awaiting their arrival as he held a crossbow in his hands ready to fire at any given moment. “Before or after the monsters that you were supposed to slay took everything away from me.” Theo sarcastically replied to his mother, finally meeting her for the first time after all these years. “The blood-stained carpet in the living room is where I found my mother on my sixteenth birthday…oh the irony, and here is where I found my father.” “Theo I am so sorry!” Buffy cried, seeing nothing but hatred for her in her son’s eyes, beautiful eyes which he had gotten from Buffy’s mother, with his facial structure very much like Angel’s. “You seem different!” Angel stated to his son, realizing something had changed within him since the last time they met when he did not know Theo was his son. “So, the cat is clearly out of the bag about who I really am. That’s good it’s going to make this so much more enjoyable!” Theo declared revealing to them both that he knew exactly who they were and that he hated them more than anything else on this planet. “Theo, you have got to know I had no idea that you were even alive. I’d have stopped at nothing to find you otherwise.” Angel promised his son, hoping to explain his absence to Theo, that he was not to blame for not being in his life. “I thought I had lost you forever I had no clue where you wound up…I should’ve looked for you, but I hoped you were better off without me.” Buffy confessed as Theo kept the crossbow firmly pointing at both of his biological parents, seeming untouched by their words. “I do not want answers, you idiots.” Theo scoffed at them both. “Answers are what some lost boy looks for as he longs to be found but I’m no lost boy and I found myself a very long time ago. All I want is revenge!” Theo did not wait for either Buffy or Angel to reply before shooting two arrows in their direction, arrows which Angel managed to catch, one in each hand, before it made any damage towards him or Buffy as Theo quickly scurried out of the kitchen ready to play a game of hide and seek, a game he intended to not only win but to use as another trap for the two people he blamed for everything wrong in his life.

Angel took to the upstairs of Theo’s family home while Buffy went down to the basement, figuring if they took both options to where their son could have run to, then he would not be able to get away so easily, and as Angel reached the upstairs hallway, he found himself walking into Theo’s bedroom which looked like it had been kept the same way since he was last in it. Angel scoured the room where he found shelves filled with books, a desk filled with awards, and a picture by Theo’s bed of himself and a friend, which he did not know at the time was Ruby Moon, and as he continued to look around his son’s room he realized Theo once lived a happy life in this home, which is exactly why they were brought here because Theo blamed them for his happy life coming to an end. Although Angel’s search led to nowhere, Buffy’s search was going much better as she reached the bottom of the basement stairs to see Theo stood there, having ditched his crossbow, for a shiny blade. “I was hoping you’d be the one to find me first, mother and son, slayer versus slayer, you’re going to be my biggest kill.” Theo boasted to a horrified Buffy who was left unnerved by her son’s desire to kill her. “I do not want to fight you, Theo, you are my son and I love you,” Buffy replied cautiously, fearing she would have no choice but to go head-to-head with her own son. “I’m a vampire just like daddy now, did I forget to mention that? So, if you think you’re going to win against me then I have to tell you I’m a lot stronger than when I went up against your friends.” Theo confessed to a stunned Buffy, who realized her son had died before she even got a chance to meet him and at the hands of Giles, nonetheless. “You’re dead?” Buffy answered in complete shock, blaming herself for her son’s doomed fate. “But you still have a soul…” Angel announced as he appeared at the top of the basement stairs and began walking down towards Buffy and Theo. “I don’t know how it’s possible, how you are a vampire, and yet somehow you are still you but the fact that you’ve kept your soul is very much evidence that you are not as evil as you want us to believe.” “Or maybe my soul is so damned the devil himself does not want it?” Theo replied to his father, eager to debunk Angel’s theory about him. “I am the first vampire in history to ever sire himself I guess that means the rules are different for me and although there are two of you, I like my odds considering I am both vampire and slayer.” “I am not going to fight you!” Buffy repeated herself, refusing to lay hands on her son. “I will,” Angel stated before going on to say. “If I have to beat the good back into you then I will.” Theo charged towards Angel swinging his blade multiple times in his direction, Angel managing to avoid being cut before knocking the blade out of Theo’s hands leading to the two vampires going head-to-head in a brutal and bloody fight. Angel managed to hold his own against his son Theo for some time, but it was not long before Theo began to get the better of his father but not because of his new undead status but rather because Angel was holding back, and Buffy could see that, so as Theo threw his biological father to the floor Buffy rushed across the basement floor and picked up Theo’s knife. “Stop it now!” Buffy shouted at her son as she placed the knife against her son. “If you are so damned determined to kill your parents then start with me. “Buffy…” Angel muttered before being knocked out by a killer right hook punch by Theo, who left his father unconscious on the ground as he began to walk over towards his mother. “Do not think that I will not kill you right here right now!” Theo told Buffy as he placed his own hands on the blade pressed against Buffy’s chest. “Then do it! If it is going to make you happy then do it!” Buffy pleaded with her son as tears began to form in her eyes. “All I have ever wanted is your happiness…” Theo pushed the blade into Buffy’s chest ever so slightly, just enough force so she could feel the blade but not enough force to break the skin, and he stood there with a knife

to his mother’s chest for what felt like forever to Buffy but in likelihood was less than a minute, before Theo threw the blade to the ground, unable to kill his own mother. “I do not remember what happy feels like anymore,” Theo admitted honestly, his words making Buffy realize how truly broken he was, much to her own horror, and as he began walking up the stairs leaving both Buffy and Angel in the basement, Buffy could not help but feel responsible for her son’s fate, vowing to save him from himself even if it did lead to her own death.

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floralguccistyles · 4 years

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Hello all! While I am very happy to share this chapter with you, I am also aware that a lot of my social media feeds and timelines have stopped highlighting the BLM movement, which is so much more important. This fight is not over. It will not be over until there is justice for every single black mother, father, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle, friend that has been killed by police brutality and violence. Please don’t allow the people we follow to sweep this under the rug. If you do not have the means to protest, there are several other ways you can donate and raise awareness to this issue. Here is a Twitter thread of donations that still haven’t reached their goals. Here is a compiled list of petitions you can sign, numbers you can text, and causes you can donate to. Here is a Twitter thread of Youtube videos you can watch that gain ad revenue and donate all money made to the BLM movement. Please do what you can, especially my fellow non-POC users, to help with this issue. It is so, so incredibly important.

wildflower :: chapter two

...and stays up with you all night

There was a tradition between the Horan-Fairbrough clan that once a month, we would all try and get together and have dinner. It usually ended up with Greg’s son Theo falling asleep while I held him and Violet spewing on about something she learned in college before we all settled down to watch a movie. We had an ongoing rotation on who picked the movie, and this month it happened to be Niall’s turn.

Which was why I was so shocked that it was a horror film.

I didn’t like scary movies. And neither did Niall. But when he sat between Lily and I (on the floor since our parents took the couch while Greg and Theo took the loveseat), I realized his intention. Lily hated horror films even more than I did. And when the first jump scare came around, Lily hid her face in Niall’s side and squealed a little.

Smart boy, that Niall.

“You’re an asshole for picking this film,” I told Niall as I held the popcorn bowl between us. Niall and I hadn’t spoken since last Monday, when he’d dropped off his stuff at my house. Everything had been in a nice neat pile except for my necklace. When I had inquired about it, he had told me that he hadn’t seen it, but he would look again. I think the look of panic on my face told him how serious I was about that particular piece of jewelry.

“Why would I give up a chance to hold both my Fairbrough girls while they scream bloody murder?”

He wasn’t wrong. I found myself jumping right alongside with Lily whenever something frightening happened, so Niall just grinned at me, called me a baby, and then offered his hand for me to hold.

I gripped it like it was my lifeline.

The day had started off normally, waking up in Lily’s bed to her arm strewn across my neck, quite close to choking me. Though I may have snored in my sleep (according to she and Niall, I was still doubtful), Lily tried to kill me in hers. Her alarm went off approximately three minutes after I untangled myself from her comforter and I went to work on making us coffee and breakfast while she took a shower. I was expecting Niall to show up at around seven-thirty, since that was normally the time Lily was done taking a shower and I was expected to keep him entertained. When the door opened and I saw him in a salmon-colored dress shirt, I smiled.

“Morning,” I said, blinking against the bright smile he gave me. “Want a cup?”

“God, you’d be an angel.”

“I’m always an angel, what are you talking about?” I stuck my tongue out at him, but started to work on his coffee. The eggs were frying in the pan, so I quickly added some garlic salt to them (because I knew Niall liked it) before I poured his drink into a to-go cup. I watched him sit at the barstool, tossing his sunglasses on the counter as he watched me make breakfast. “So, it’s your pick for movie night tonight. Any contenders?”

He shrugged. “Hadn’t thought about it much, to be honest. I’ve been dealing with some stuff at work.”

Rummaging through some drawers, I found a Sharpie and uncapped it. “What’s up?”

He sighed. I didn’t like this look on Niall, the defeated kind of look that made him look at least three years older. He looked like he was carrying the weight of something heavy on his shoulders. “Hey,” I said quietly, reaching across the counter to grab his forearm in what I hoped was a comfort. “What’s wrong? Tell me.”

His other hand reached to grab my fingers, moving my touch on his arm to hold my hand. His fingers interlaced through mine, examining them for a moment. “One of my boys...a girl came forward and made a sexual assault claim yesterday.”

I tried not to freeze. I wasn’t sure if he noticed when my hand suddenly went limp, but his eyes were still locked onto our hands as if he were contemplating much more than just how large his were compared to mine. “Oh. Shit, I’m sorry, Ni. What...what’s happening?”

His nose wrinkled. “They’re getting him off the team, that’s what. I’m not going to have someone like that representing our team. He’ll go to the dean next week to talk about expulsion.”

“And the girl?” I asked softly.

“I don’t know, Rose. She’ll have to...Christ, she’ll carry this around for the rest of her life. I’ve assured her that his place on the team is nonexistent, but she didn’t look like she believed me.”

“So you didn’t think...she was pathetic or anything?”

“Pathetic? Jesus, Rose, no. I just feel like shit that she was even put in that position at all.”

I squeezed his hand tightly. He didn’t know why my fingers turned from a caress to a grip, but he squeezed my fingers back even so.

The truth was, his words meant more to me than he’d ever know. But it also made me sad. For the girl, for me, and for anyone else who ever had to deal with something like that. I knew I didn’t deserve to place myself on the same caliber as the girl Niall was talking about. She’d been assaulted, and all Kent ever did was corner me in his office to exchange a promotion for sex. Still, knowing how Niall felt about it made things a little easier. There was no question on whether the player would still be on the team. He would just be...gone. No questions asked.

“You’re a good guy, Niall,” I whispered softly.

“It’s not a matter of being a good guy or not. It’s a matter of being a decent human being.”

Lily appeared in the kitchen before either of us could continue with our conversation, which was probably for the best. “Morning. Smells good, Rose,” Lily commented, coming over to stand by Niall. She wrapped her arms around the back of his shoulders and gave him a squeeze, kissing his cheek. “You smell good,” she mentioned to him.

He didn’t blush, which was weird because Niall always blushed when someone complimented him. He just grinned and let out a little chuckle. “Thanks, Lil. You’re dripping all over me.”

Lily usually let her hair air dry while she ate breakfast and then ran the dryer over it. It locked in enough of her curls to make it stylishly wavy, but not dry it enough so that they straightened out. She had it down to a science. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, pulling away and lovingly wiping off a bit of water droplets from Niall’s shirt. The salmon color darkened to a burnt coral with the water, but it would be dry in a matter of minutes, so Niall didn’t look like he minded terribly. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Eggs, coffee, and I was going to cut up some of that fruit,” I announced, grabbing said fruit from the fridge. Lily usually kept her fridge pretty stocked with fruit, so she had several berries and a couple of assorted melon slices.

“Where’s the bacon?” Niall groaned.

“We have some microwaveable bacon, but I doubt you want that.”

He wrinkled his nose. If there was one thing Niall hated, it was the shitty pre-cooked bacon Lily bought. I didn’t mind the taste of it, personally, and appreciated its convenience. Niall was a firm believer that bacon should take time and love. “I’m fine with eggs and fruit.”

“That’s what I thought.” Cutting the fruit and not cutting my finger proved to be a task, but I accomplished it and put all the berries and melons on a plate. The eggs, which had been taken off heat during my fruit-cutting, were still warm, so I put them onto individual plates and handed them off to Lily and Niall. “Bon appetit.”

“A meal fit for a king,” Niall exclaimed. He was always too generous when describing my cooking. I wasn’t terrible and my food was almost always edible, but I wasn’t going to become a chef anytime soon. “Thanks, Rosebud.”

The morning continued on as usual, with Lily leaving Niall and I to keep each other company while she went about her morning routine. There was no more discussion on the girl that had come forward about Niall’s student athlete, but I could tell by the duller color of his eyes that it was still weighing heavy on his mind. Which was why when he was looking away and getting things situated for his day at work, I took the Sharpie and scribbled out “you’re a great role model for the students” with about a thousand x’s and o’s underneath it. He grinned and pressed a kiss to my hair when he saw it, and claimed “he’d keep the cup until the end of time, Rosebud.”

But Niall couldn’t hide his disappointment and sorrow. Which, in retrospect, might have been the reason that he had chosen a horror movie. It was probably a last minute decision.

I wasn’t sure what the title of the movie was, but it was some gory and bloody thing with demonic possession. Our families had varying reactions to the film. Greg was falling in and out of sleep, while his parents on the other side of him were cringing at the film. My parents, who had grown up with horror films, seemed to be genuinely enjoying it, letting out little ohs and ahs when something interesting happened. Violet just stared at the screen with the indifference of a Gen Z child, typing away at her phone whenever the plot got too boring for her to handle.

It was only about forty minutes into the movie when Violet nudged my foot with hers and gestured towards the kitchen with her chin. Things had been back to normal between the two of us, the vulnerable night of sleeping by her side long forgotten. I was honestly thankful for the usual attitude. If she started treating me like some frail thing, I might have burst into tears. I had always prided myself on being a strong person, and I was obsessed with Violet and Lily seeing me in the same light. So when we had woken up the next morning, Violet with drool down her chin and my hair in a wild disarray, I wished she would say something normal.

I believe her exact words had been “Jesus, you have bad morning breath,” before she had promptly rolled over to face away from me.

Still, I followed her to the kitchen, Niall’s eyes on me questioningly when Violet and I walked away from the family. I shrugged my shoulders, unaware as to what Violet wanted as much as he was. Unlike Lily and Niall’s apartments, my childhood home had a kitchen separated by a thick wall, so maybe Violet wanted some advice on Selma and Eric and needed privacy.

When we arrived to the kitchen, however, I did not expect the turn our conversation took.

Without saying anything, she walked to her purse and pulled out a slip of paper, handing it to me.

“Am I supposed to know what this is?”

“It’s the health specialist at my university. She has a practice outside of the school, so I asked for her office number.”

I stared at it, a little more than confused. “Alright. Cool. What am I supposed to do with it?”

“She’s a psychologist.”

The paper suddenly felt like a weight in my hand. I gaped at her, mouth open like a fish as she stared at me, almost daring me to give it back to her. Which I tried to do almost instantaneously. “I don’t need this, Violet. Save it for someone who actually does.”

“Seeing a therapist isn’t a bad thing, Rose. She can help with the whole Kent thing. She’s been helping me a lot and I really like her, so I think you will too.”

“I’m sure she’s a wonderful lady, but I don’t need to see her.” I crossed my arm over my chest, only after setting the unwanted phone number on the countertop. “This was a little invasive of you.”

“It wasn’t invasive. It’s me trying to help. You’ve got some shit you need to deal with, as do I, and she can help. I mean, she’s no miracle worker, but it would be nice to talk to someone about what happened.”

My mouth went dry. “Violet, nothing happened. People have had it much worse than I have.” I thought about this morning, about Niall’s defeated face when he told me about the girl at the college. “He didn’t...he didn’t assault me or anything. He just made some lewd comments. It isn’t enough to see someone over, trust me.”

“Rose, you’re nearly twenty-five and you have to sleep with someone else in the room.”

I knew deep down that Violet was coming from a place of love, just like all her other jabs and pokes did. But this felt too personal for me to brush off. I had opened up to her that night at Lily’s, and she was throwing it back in my face. “You didn’t have to come into my room that night,” I said defensively, and I wondered if she could tell my voice was ten times icier than it had been before.

“I’m not trying to attack you or anything—”

“That’s what it feels like.”

Lily must have sensed that Violet and I in a kitchen alone would stir some trouble. She came in only seconds later, raising an eyebrow at the two of us. “Having a party in here without me?”

“I gave Rose the therapist’s number and she’s refusing to take it,” Violet commented.

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed.

“You gave it to her in the middle of the Horan-Fairbrough family night?” Lily asked incredulously. I was happy that she seemed to be as confused as I was, but then her words actually caught up to me.

“You knew?” I asked, turning to face my big sister. “Did you tell her what a bad idea it was?” Lily looked at me, her lips pressed together in a thin line. When she didn’t speak for a few moments, I knew. Maybe it was stupid to feel the stab of betrayal, but I did. “You told her to do it.”

“She was mentioning how much her therapist has helped her with college and I thought it might be beneficial to you. I didn’t know she was going to give it to you during family night.”

Lily never went behind my back. About anything. She and I were always open books with one another. So hearing that she had gone out of her way to ask Violet do this made me feel like shit. “I thought you were fine with me staying at your place?” I couldn’t keep the childlike whine out of my voice. I had never thought that Lily disliked having me in her apartment, but maybe she did. Maybe she had asked Violet about this because she wanted to get rid of me.

“Of course I am, Rose! That’s not the point of this,” Lily was quick to assure me. “I just think talking about it might help.”

I felt like someone had just pulled the rug out from under me. They were asking me to see someone, like I was a giant burden. I would have expected this from Violet, who was always blunt and truthful, but I would have never expected it from Lily. Lily would have sat me down, brought it up, asked my opinions, and then let it go when it seemed like it was something I didn’t want. “Right. Well, I don’t think it will, so let’s drop it and go watch the rest of the movie.”

“Okay,” Lily said, reaching out to rub my shoulder comfortingly. “Yeah, we’ll go back out.”

“No,” Violet mentioned, her posture hard and defiant. “I’m not letting you walk back out there until you take the phone number. Lily may baby you about this, but I’m not going to.”

“Violet,” Lily chastised.

“You let her get away with so much shit, Lil. And then the one time we dare request she do something to help herself, you act like her word is final. You’ve got some serious shit going on, Rose. You need to let it out before it eats you alive.”

“Right now, all I need is to exit this conversation. A conversation, might I remind you, that our parents and Niall don’t know about,” I snapped angrily.

“What don’t I know about?”

Perfect. When I turned, Niall was standing in the kitchen, hip leaning against the counter with the empty bowl of popcorn in his hands. His hair was tousled, most likely from Theo running his fingers through it playfully earlier on in the dinner portion of the night, and he was wearing a flannel that looked soft to the touch. He also looked adorably confused at our conversation.

“Nothing, Ni,” Lily commented, sending a quiet look towards Violet to remind her to keep her mouth shut. Violet huffed impatiently, but luckily shut her mouth. “Need me to get more popcorn?”

“Yeah, Greg’s fat arse ate most of it.” Lily took the bowl from him and got another bag from the pantry, placing it in the microwave. “What are my favorite girls discussing?”

“Rose’s job,” Lily deflected, sending a blinding smile towards Niall, as if that was going to stop him from asking questions. “The hotel’s offering her a couple of free rooms and she was going to use them for our parents’ anniversary. She wanted it to be a surprise, so you can’t tell them, got it?”

“That’s sweet of you, Rosebud. I won’t tell them, promise.”

“Thanks, Ni,” I breathed out. Violet rolled her eyes.

I knew this conversation was far from over. Violet was glaring at me and Lily was looking at me like she was apologetically about to burst into tears, but all I wanted to do was curl back up on the floor and finish the stupid movie. I knew there would be no more getting scared tonight, due to the fact that I wouldn’t be paying attention to the rest of the film, so I was safe from any nightmares I might have had about a possessed demon child. But the tension hung from the three of us like albatrosses, and it continued as we slowly made our way back to the living room.

“Need me to hold your hand again, Rosebud?” Niall joked. I mustered up a small smile, putting the popcorn bowl between us again. I ignored my sister as they sat back down, Lily for once not cuddling up to Niall’s side. He stared back and forth between the two of us. “Something wrong?” he whispered towards me.

“Nope.”

“That wasn’t very convincing.”

“Drop it, Niall.”

He seemed taken aback by my shortness. His jaw ticked, a sure sign that I knew he was either embarrassed or annoyed, and nodded at me, leaning back against the couch. He didn’t look in my direction for the rest of the film, and while I felt shitty about being so snappish, I couldn’t bring myself to stop. My sisters had somehow ruined my night in one fell swoop.

There was a reason I didn’t talk about what happened at Barkley’s. On top of me being completely done with the situation emotionally, I was also incredibly embarrassed. How had I not noticed that Kent seemed to favor me simply because he thought I was cute? All of the times he had complimented my work ethic, made me feel like I was one of the best employees, and the consecutive months of being employee of the month (which wasn’t a feat because there were only three of us and the other three hardly made their goal sales), he had just been doing it because he wanted to have sex with me.

It made me feel useless.

And if there was one thing I hated most in the world, it was feeling useless.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Niall, trying to keep my voice soft so my parents wouldn’t overhear. “You caught me in a bad mood, and I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“No,” he agreed, “you shouldn’t.” But he held up his palm, an invitation. I relaxed immediately, threading my fingers through his and cuddling up against his side.

He didn’t let go the entirety of family night, his little reassurance that we were okay.

I was willing myself not to leave my bed.

Like usual, I had woken up about three hours after falling asleep. The apartment was quiet and a little chilly, so cuddling up next to Lily’s side would have solved all my problems. But my head continued to revolve around the conversation with Violet and Lily, and now I felt like I was just going to be a burden if I went into her room and bothered her.

The ride back to the apartment from the Horan-Fairbrough family night had been quiet. Lily had kept the volume low so I could talk to her if I wanted to, but there hadn’t been anything to say. Knowing Lily as well as I did, I knew she was feeling guilty. But I couldn’t bring myself to talk about the night’s events with her.

Now, sitting alone in my bed, I wished I would have.

I shifted my weight, moving so I was laying on my side and facing the door to my room. In the year that I’d been here, I’d made it my own. I had pictures and plants on my shelves, I had brought in a bookcase, and there was art hung on my walls with command strips so I wouldn’t have to put a nail through the wall. This room was my safe space, like nothing bad from the outside world could ever get me when I was in here.

Violet’s words rang in my head.

My hands were on my phone before I could really process what was happening. I scrolled through the Facetime app until I came across Niall’s information, clicking on the silly little photo I’d set as his contact photo. On bated breath, I waited for Niall to answer the phone call. I should have known better than to feel nervous. Niall was the type of guy to always answer, no matter what time of night it was.

Which was why I was staring into a grainy version of his bright blue eyes only seconds later.

“Rosebud,” he grumbled, groggy from sleep. His hair was mussed, his eyes half closed, and he was shirtless. I couldn’t see much because the blanket covered most of his chest, but I still grew a little warm. “What time is it?”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, shaking my head, feeling incredibly foolish. “I shouldn’t have woken you up.”

There was something in the tone of my voice that had him sitting up, eyes opening a little wider. A cute yawn escaped his mouth, but he looked more awake than he had when he had initially picked up the phone. “Don’t be stupid,” he said softly, “what’s up?”

“Has...has Lily ever talked to you about not being happy I’m at her place?”

Niall’s eyebrows furrowed. “No. She loves having you there.”

“You don’t think I’m a...a burden?”

“Rosebud,” he said, and his voice was so soft and sweet that it made me want to cry. “You could never be a burden. Where is all of this coming from?”

The tears came faster than I thought they would. I hated crying in front of people. I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I’d done it and all of them had been in front of Lily. Lily, who I knew wouldn’t judge me for it. Niall wouldn’t judge me either, of that I was sure, but I still felt like a stupid little kid when the first tear spilled over.

“God, Rose, please don’t cry. I can’t handle it when you cry.” At the look on my face, he let out a small laugh. “Not because you’re a burden, Rose. Just because seeing you cry honestly breaks my heart.”

“I’m sorry,” I managed to stutter out.

“Don’t be sorry, Rose. Just dry those big brown eyes and talk to me. What’s going on?” I couldn’t answer for a few moments, still trying to stifle my cries so I wouldn’t wake Lily up. I saw Niall start to move on his bed, before I heard his voice. “I’m coming over there.”

“No,” I said immediately, shaking my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t call to bother you.”

“When are you going to get it through that thick head of yours that you aren’t a burden to me?” he asked, rolling his eyes. “I won’t come if you don’t want me to. But I’ve got to know what’s going on, Rosebud. You’re worrying me a little.”

Once I calmed my tears a little, I sniffled so I wouldn’t look like a complete fool with snot dripping down my nose. “In the kitchen earlier, Violet made a subtle dig that Lily might not like having me here. Like I’m a burden to have. I just...I know you know her better than anyone, and maybe she felt like she couldn’t share her real feelings with me. So I wanted to ask you and see if she’d said anything. You know Lily. she wouldn’t tell me to my face if that’s how she felt because she’s too nice.”

“She is too nice. But she wouldn’t lie to you about something like this, Rosebud. I know for a fact that she doesn’t hate having you there, though. You’ve got to know that.”

I nodded hopelessly, rolling my eyes at myself. “And I just feel so stupid because I can’t sleep unless I’m with someone. That’s why I asked you to stay at your apartment. The idea of sleeping alone terrifies me. But Violet has me paranoid that Lily doesn’t want me here, so I don’t want to wake her up and bother her.”

“Lily won’t mind,” Niall said softly. He was leaning back against his pillows. Sometime during my crying, he had turned on his lamp and basked in the soft yellow light. No one looked good in that awful yellow light, but somehow Niall managed. “But I could stay on the phone with you until you fall asleep, if you want,” he continued.

“I don’t want you to pity me or think I’m pathetic, either.”

“Rose, I don’t think I’ve met anyone stronger. You take everything in stride and still have a smile on your face. It’s more likely that I’m going to be in complete awe of you.”

My breath caught in my throat, stuck in the center like I needed to swallow it down. His words filled me with the kind of reassurance and comfort I needed at this exact moment, and I sighed when the warmth of his words hit me. “You always know what to say, Niall.”

He laughed. “Not true. I feel like I’m a bumbling mess around you most of the time.”

Frowning, I shook my head. “You’re one of the most eloquent and well-spoken people I’ve ever met. I always value your opinions and advice.” I moved myself back against my pillows, laying on my side and propping my phone up on my nightstand so I didn’t have to hold it up while I conversed with Niall. “You’ll make someone a very happy girl someday.”

I saw the way his eyes softened, like he was lost in a memory. They were the color of the sky in the morning, right when the sun was rising and it was cast in a warm yellow glow. “I don’t know,” he said, raising a hand to the back of his neck. His cheeks, like they normally were when someone complimented him, were an endearing pink. “There’s...there’s really only one girl’s opinion I care about.”

I wanted to sit up straight and demand he tell me more, but I refrained. I knew that acting suddenly might spook him into not telling me. “I didn’t know you liked someone.”

“Like…” he trailed off, shaking his head and letting out a little laugh. It sounded like the word wasn’t sufficient enough for what he was feeling. “Yeah. Yeah, I like her.”

“Tell me about her,” I encouraged, my voice as soft as I could make it.

“You don’t want to hear about this, Rose.”

“I always want to hear about what’s going on in your life.”

He groaned, running his hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have even said anything.”

“Don’t make me pull the Fairbrough puppy dog eyes.”

“Not the Fairbrough eyes,” he gasped dramatically, clutching his hand to his chest as the both of us let out small laughs. Then, he sobered up, his smile turning a little more soft and caring. “She’s great. Driven, strong, stubborn. She’s got this crazy loyalty to her family, like no other. And she’s probably the most gorgeous fucking girl I’ve ever seen in my life.”

He was describing Lily almost perfectly. I felt the smile growing on my face. As Lily’s sister who wanted the absolute best for her, I knew that Niall was it. He was kind, almost to a fault. He would never hurt her intentionally. The way he revered her...it was how I’d always wanted someone to look at me. “She sounds incredibly special.”

“She is.”

The question was burning on the tip of my tongue, begging to be asked. But these things took time. I didn’t want to scare him away from his feelings for Lily by discussing them, so I let the subject drop. “She’d better get ready to be a babysitter for Horan-Fairbrough family nights. I think Greg passed Theo onto me the second I walked through the door. How that man became a father, I’ll never know.”

He laughed, but there was something off about it, like he was disappointed in the subject change. “Must be because you’re so good with kids.”

“I’m shit with kids. Greg’s just fucking lazy.”

That seemed to bring the smile back to his face and he let out a chuckle that sounded like melted chocolate and sunshine and everything else good in the world. Lily would never be lacking in the husband department when she and Niall got married (because let’s be honest, it was an inevitability). He was the entire package, gifted in every area. He would be the kindest, the handsomest, the funniest.

I didn’t expect the pang that went through me.

I’d always wanted what Niall and Lily had. The easy friendship and the fiery passion (I imagined there was fiery passion, I’d never personally seen it) and the desperate longing. I wanted someone to look at me the way they looked at each other and talk about me the way Niall talked about Lily now. It was how Patrick and Niamh looked at each other. It was how my mother and father looked at each other.

It felt so impossible, so far away for me, that it made my heart curl in my chest.

“Tell me what’s going on in that head,” he whispered, and he must have thought I had fallen asleep by the look on my face. I blinked, giving him a soft smile.

“Just thinking.” I heard another voice, something grainy and staticy and narrowed my eyes. “Are you watching TV? I didn’t know my company bored you so much.”

Niall shrugged. “It’s Dawson’s Creek, Rosebud. You’d do the same thing.”

I laughed, snuggling up further against my pillows. “What episode?”

“The one where Joey and Pacey kiss for the first time.”

“Okay, but the car kiss or the fireside kiss?”

“The fireside, obviously.”

“That’s not technically their first kiss,” I pointed out.

“It’s the one that matters,” he countered. “Can you believe there are some idiots who would prefer Joey with Dawson?”

“The horror,” I agreed, rolling my eyes. “Say some of the lines for me so I know what’s going on.”

“I’m not going to talk over one of the best scenes in television history.” He took one glance at my pleading face and groaned. “I hate you, you know that?”

“No you don’t. If it’s the fireside scene, I have this one memorized. You be Pacey and I’ll be Joey.”

He rolled his eyes, but turned back to the television. His voice came through just seconds after Pacey’s did. “The only reason that you don’t have the answers is because you’ve been too scared to ask yourself the right questions.” I recognized the line right away.

“What are you talking about?” I replied, grinning when he gave me a look, as if asking do I really have to do this?

“Look!” he suddenly exclaimed, making me laugh and stifle it into my pillow so I didn’t wake up Lily. “I know how I feel. You know how I feel. That much is obvious by now. But during this whole process, we’ve managed to miss the point. Because the point is not how I feel, it’s how you feel. So how do you feel?”

“It’s so obvious she loves him back.”

“Oi! If I have to do the lines, you have to do the lines too.”

“Awful!” I copied his exaggeration and heard him chuckle. “That’s how I feel Niall—”

“We’re supposed to be Pacey and Joey!”

“I’m adding flair! That’s how I feel Niall, I feel awful.”

“So do I. When I was kissing you tonight, I don’t think I’ve ever felt better and worse in my entire life. I mean, the very idea that...who should be Dawson and Andy?”

“Patrick and Niamh.”

He raised a brow. “Hopefully Niamh and Patrick aren’t cheating on each other with the two of us.”

“Just finish it!”

“The very idea that Niamh or Patrick could find out about us is killing me. It is tearing me up on the inside to have these feelings for you, but I can’t get rid of them. I can’t keep on kissing you, Rose.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean just that. I can’t keep on kissing you. Alright, I’ve done it twice now! I can’t be the one who’s always initiating this. I can’t be the one who’s always giving you all the answers. Look at me, Rose.”

“Shit I forgot the next line.”

“What a shit Dawson’s Creek fan you are. I thought you knew all the lines.”

“Shut up,” I laughed, pausing the Facetime so I could look up the exact scene lines. “I can’t,” I said dramatically, finding the lines easily and returning to the Facetime so I could see Niall giving me a deadpan look.

“Please,” he recited. I went to go find the script again but he protested. “You’re supposed to be looking at me! You’re not a very good Joey.”

“It’s your line anyway.”

“If you felt even one shred of what I feel for you...then we wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation.”

There wasn’t another line for me to reply with, as Pacey and Joey had finally kissed, so I looked at Niall with a grin on my face. He was staring at me, something unreadable in his eyes. I knew that our game of reciting lines was over in the way that his eyes burned and his mouth turned downwards at the corners. I wished more than anything that he was here so I could reach out and embrace him, reassure him that there was no possible way that Lily didn’t love him back. He didn’t have to be heartbroken anymore.

“Unrequited love is a bitch,” I said in a whisper.

“I thought you said it was obvious that Joey loved him,” he replied.

“It is. I just meant...in general. It’s a bitch. But we should still tell the people we love that we love them. Life’s too short.”

He swallowed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

It was silent between us. I didn’t ask Niall to recite any more lines and he didn’t ask me to join in. He just sat and watched his TV and I just sat and watched him. Eventually, my eyes slowly closed and I drifted off into sleep.

I heard him whisper a “goodnight, Rosebud,” before I completely fell.

I woke up, for the first time in the past year, alone in my bed.

When my eyes opened, I blearily glanced at my clock. If waking up by myself hadn’t surprised me enough for one morning, then I would have been surprised at how late I had slept in. Most days I was up around the same time as Lily, since I could never go back to sleep if she started making lots of noise. Looking at my clock now, my eyes widened a little bit when I saw it was just four minutes past nine, which meant Lily and Niall had already been at work for an hour.

I allowed myself only five minutes to stay cuddled in my blankets before I stood, rubbing my eyes and making my way to the kitchen. The coffee was still out, though it was probably cold. Since I usually didn’t eat much for breakfast, I just popped bread in the toaster and poured myself a cup, shoving it in the microwave to heat it up.

Since Lily and I hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk about what had happened, I regarded the little pink Post-It note with hesitance. I knew that she was apologizing. But I still felt a little sad. The betrayal and anger had left me last night, as I was falling asleep with Niall humming something in the background. I was still furious with Violet and probably would be for the foreseeable future, but it was hard to be mad at Lily when she meant so much to me.

Dinner on me tonight. We’ll hang out and talk. Stopping by the bundt cake place after work and getting white chocolate raspberry. Your fave!! Love you.

I set the note back on the counter and retrieved my cup of coffee. I didn’t have much to do today since it was one of my days off, but I felt too antsy to stay in the house. Deciding to get ready for the day and see where it took me, I headed back towards my room with my plate and coffee cup in my hand.

I wondered how Niall was doing. Today was the day that they were meeting with the dean to discuss the expulsion status of the sexual assaulter. Knowing him, he would be incredibly stressed and worried about the whole ordeal.

Which was why I found myself standing in the donut shop thirty minutes later.

“Rose!” The owner, Matilda, said. She was a larger woman with pretty dark skin and incredibly white teeth. “Nice to see you. Day off?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“You here for Lily and Niall’s favorites?”

“Just Niall today. I’ll get four of his favorites. He’s meeting with the dean at his job about a student and I thought he could use the pick me up.”

Matilda grinned at me. “You are too sweet. Niall’s lucky to have you.”

“I’m the lucky one,” I responded. And it was true. I was so incredibly lucky to have Niall in my life.

She walked back towards the display cases, grabbing a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting donut, sprinkled with coconut shavings. Niall could devour three of them in a minute. As she loaded up the to-go box with the donuts, she added in a maple bar for me. “How long have y’all been together?”

It took me a moment to process her question. I blinked at her, giving her a confused smile. “Oh, Niall and I aren’t together. He’s in love with my sister, Lily.”

Matilda’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “No shit? I could have sworn he was all moon-eyed over you. When you used to come in here with him back when you in school, he would stare at you with the most adorable look on his face.”

I laughed. “Knowing him, he was looking longingly at the donut I was holding. He and Lily are soulmates. Our whole family has a bet on when they’re going to get together.”

She handed me the box, accepting the tenner I passed over the counter. “You know, my David just got married. Nice girl. They moved to New York, so they’re too far away, but I just found out she’s pregnant.”

“Grandma Matilda. It’s got a ring to it,” I joked.

“I could have sworn he was going to end up with his childhood friend, Zoe. They did everything together when they were younger. They’re still super close. In fact, she and Clarissa, the new wife, hit it off. Zoe was the maid of honor.” I didn’t really realize the point of her story, but I didn’t care. I could listen to Matilda talk for ages. She was just someone you wanted to listen to. “If I had made bets on Zoe and David, I would have lost.”

“I might lose because of the timing,” I countered, shuffling with the change she handed me, “but they’re definitely getting together.”

Matilda shooed me out of the shop with a wave of her hand and a threat that if I didn’t come visit her soon, she’d drag me out of the apartment by herself. I just grinned and got another Uber to take me to the college.

Niall’s coworkers knew Lily like the back of their hands. They were always wondering who it was that Niall was taking out to lunch. However, they didn’t know me. Which was why when I walked into the athletics building of the college and asked to see Niall, the secretary looked at me a little strangely.

“Sure,” she said hesitantly, like she didn’t think Niall knew anyone else besides Lily. “Just fill out this sign-in sheet and let me print you out a visitor sticker.” I filled out the sheet and handed it back to her. The second she saw my last name, she understood. “Oh. Fairbrough. You Lily’s sister?”

“Guilty.”

“He might still be in the meeting with the dean, but feel free to wait in his office. If he is still in the meeting, it won’t be long. Ten minutes tops.”

Offering my thanks, I made my way through the building. It was decorated with sports jerseys from the college, as well as professional jerseys. I realized I had never been in Niall’s office before, so when I walked in, I was a little surprised to see how open and spacious it was. Obviously I didn’t think he worked in a tiny little cramped space, but there were large windows on one wall and his desk only took up a quarter of the room, meaning he still had a good amount of space for filing cabinets and things of the like. I sat in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the desk, admiring the pictures and little knick knacks that littered his space. Just like in his room, the frame he had next to his computer had pictures of he and his family and my sisters and I.

The door opened and slammed shut. Niall hadn’t noticed me yet, but he was pinching the bridge of his nose and looked like he had the headache of the century. I heard him let out a tiny curse before he opened his eyes and all anger melted away from his face, leaving only confusion.

“Rose?” he asked softly, like I was a figment of the imagination.

“Hi Niall!” I greeted cheerily, ignoring how wrong it felt when he didn’t call me Rosebud. “I brought donuts.”

He ignored the proffered white box, instead marching forward with purpose and wrapping his arms around me. A surprised grunt left my mouth, but he clutched me like I was a lifeline and I immediately wrapped my arms around his back. I let him cling to me, sensing it was something he needed. Honestly, I probably needed it too. It was nice to be held and know that Niall wanted to keep me safe from any harm.

“That bad?” I whispered into his shoulder.

“They had us talk to the girl afterwards. She had a meltdown. It was horrifying to watch.” His grip on my waist tightened.

“I figured it would be bad. I brought donuts,” I said again, weakly.

“Don’t need donuts,” he stated, “just need you.”

“I’m here.”

I couldn’t begin to fathom the moments we stood there, just gripping onto one another. Occasionally, his hand would move from my waist to my hair, tangling there and drawing me even closer, like he couldn’t believe I was there. My forehead pressed into his shirt, a pretty lilac color. One of the many things I loved about Niall was that he wasn’t afraid to wear color. The purple soothed me a little bit, even though I hadn’t come into his work wanting to be soothed.

Eventually, he pulled away. His eyes were red and he looked on the verge of tears. “What’re you doing here?” he asked gruffly, his voice low from emotion.

I reached out and grabbed his hand, not wanting the contact between us to end. He laced our fingers together immediately. “I knew today would be tough. And you were so supportive and...there for me last night that I wanted to do the same for you.”

“You don’t have to pay me back for last night, Rose. I wanted to.”

“And I wanted to help today,” I argued, shoving the box of donuts at him once more. He smiled and took them. “Matilda has threatened to come hunt us down if we don’t come in more often.”

“I don’t need to be seeing Matilda on a daily basis unless she wants to roll me out of the building.” He sat at his desk, across from me, and dug into his donuts. I wondered if he had been too nervous to eat anything that morning, despite the fact that Lily made them breakfast.

“I realized I’ve never been in your office,” I commented as he ate. “I love it. It’s bigger than I expected.”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty decent setup. I can give you a tour of the campus later, if you’d like.”

I nodded enthusiastically. Though I’d known Niall nearly all my life, I’d never really been around the campus he worked at. I’d been once or twice for a class that they offered when spots at my own college were limited, but that was it.

He reached into the box and handed me my maple bar, along with a couple of napkins so I wouldn’t get his desk sticky. We ate in comfortable silence, him looking over some documents and me just enjoying being in his presence. Once I had taken my last bite and he had shuffled his papers around, he cleared his throat and gestured towards the door.

“C’mon, we’ve got a pretty decent coffee place and I know the pot was probably cold when you woke up. Microwaved coffee is shit.”

“It was fine.” I shrugged. I hadn’t minded it that morning, more focused on my plan to comfort Niall.

“Bullshit,” he said, giving me a grin that for some reason did weird things to my heart. Holding out his hand, I laced our fingers together as he led us out of his office. The secretary’s eyes nearly popped out when she saw us together, leaning over to whisper something quickly to a coworker that was sitting at the front desk. It made me a little uncomfortable, but Niall pulled me along quickly so I didn’t have time to dwell.

The college was gorgeous. I could admit that. It was even prettier than the own college I attended. When Violet had been applying for colleges, this had been one of her main contenders because of how gorgeous it was. Ultimately, it didn’t have a veterinarian program like the college I attended. Therefore, she was at my alma mater. Still, as Niall pointed things out with the hand that wasn’t holding mine, I made sure to comment on how pretty the layout of it was.

“Hey, Mr. H!” I heard someone shout when we started walking towards the little coffee stand outside of one of the buildings. Niall blushed a little at being called “mister” in front of me; it was as endearing as every other time he blushed when he was complimented. The kid walking towards us waved his hand enthusiastically.

“What’s up, Jordan?” Niall asked, grasping Jordan’s hand and pulling him into that guy hug I’d seen him do many times before to his brother. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Styles’ class right now?”

Jordan was a muscular kid with shoulder-length brown hair and pretty dark brown eyes. “Nah, he cancelled today. My girlfriend and I were going to get some coffee and then see a movie. She’s technically got Payne in twenty minutes, but they’re just doing an optional extra credit quiz.” I saw his eyes wander over to me, wondering who the girl with Mr. H was.

“Jordan, this is my friend, Rose. Rose, this is Jordan. He’s probably one of the best baseball players this college has seen in a while.”

I didn’t know shit about baseball, but I smiled. “Nice to meet you, Jordan.” His hand engulfed mine comically when he shook it. “I’ll give you a tenner if you call him Mr. H again. He got so red.”

Jordan laughed. “We call him Mr. H until he tells our coaches to push us harder. Then we call him names behind his back.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Niall said, waving off Jordan’s comments. “What are you and Poppy getting? I’ll buy.”

“Mr. H, you don’t have to!”

“It’s pointless arguing with him,” I told Jordan, shrugging. “I usually just relish in the free stuff.”

Jordan laughed. “In that case, just a vanilla latte and a caramel macchiato.”

Niall didn’t bother asking me for my order, since he knew how I took my coffee. He stepped forward to the cart to order, leaving Jordan and I a little ways back. “So, what’re you studying?” I asked Jordan.

“Kinesiology,” he responded. I was impressed. I could never get into the big sciences. “You?”

“Graduated a couple years back with a business major and marketing minor.”

“Cool. You’re lucky to be such good friends with Mr. H. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met. Told me he’d give me a letter of recommendation for my masters program in the fall.”

“Sounds like him,” I agreed. And it did. Niall wouldn’t hesitate to help his athletes. Plus, I imagined for Jordan’s sake that a letter of recommendation from the athletics director of the school was nothing to scoff at.

Niall returned with our coffee, handing Jordan his two drinks. “We’ve got to take off, but come visit me sometime, yeah? Have fun with Poppy.”

“Thanks, Mr. H. I’ll see you later.”

Jordan walked off, leaving the two of us to enjoy our coffee as we made our way through the courtyard of the school. “You really make an impact in these students’ lives.”

He shrugged. “A lot of directors are removed from the teams. They let the coaches do all the work. I want to be involved in the careers of the athletes. Feel like I helped them in some way.”

I grinned, taking his hand and wrapping his arm around my shoulders. He squeezed me into his side. “You help everyone in every way. It’s pretty much impossible to meet you and not be affected in the best of ways.”

That blush came again and I smiled at the sight of it. “You’ve got to stop complimenting me. It’ll all go to my head.”

He wasn’t expecting the shove, but after he finished being dramatic about how I could have killed him, he wrapped his arm around me again and I caught him smiling.

I realized I hadn’t thought of the situation with Kent, my lackluster job, or my sisters once.

#wildflower #wf #1dff #niall horan au #niall horan fanfiction

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ohauras · 6 years

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EVENT 04 : good or evil, folks.... what’s it gonna be????

thoughts :

ur neighborhood pixie is definitely suffering a panic when everything starts going down, but trust me, she really does try her hardest to convince herself that this is what she wants

and welllllll.... it’s not, sorry not sorry — our lil disaster child is scared out of her mind, and she’s not sure she wants to suffer for people she barely knows.... u know, every monster for themselves out here :/

“haven’t i bled enough?”

a large part of her, like i said, is scared but also resentful of the fact that they expect her to stand her ground for them??? why should i??? what have they ever done for me??? basically: she likes to say people are good, but let’s be honest she’s a pessimist when it comes to ( human?? ) nature...

also aura is used to being punished pretty severely for her mistakes, so the minute metzger promises pain — she’s out, sorry fam

what about when she does leave?? well, of course she’s almost immediately relieved to remove herself from a stressful, panic-inducing situation but this fosters itself in a pretty unhealthy way??

by interacting with KANTA, she claims to be validated in abandoning everyone because her actions had a higher morality than cheshire’s??? but she’s forgetting that this was extremely selfish, and that her vices aren’t subjective?? so we’re fostering that self-serving trait of hers while also

shame.... lots of shame when the doors come down and the cryptids are being dragged out, she can’t even look them in the eye ( but why??? this is a new emotion for aura, and she’s going to struggle immensely with it throughout the event as an overarching theme, in tandem with general q’s of morality )

stay tuned for adventures in shame, regret, psychological torture, sneks, panic, inconsideration, repentance!!!! and many more!!!!!

timeline : open / closed plots

aura runs into [ OPEN PLOT ] just before shit hits the fan, and here she’s trying to hype herself up??? basically a huge shit post on metzger and the menagerie, so bitter friends — this is the plot for you!! maybe they’re giving aura a pep talk or maybe they’re planting those seeds of doubt... who knows??? this interaction will have an impact on aura throughout the plot, so she may find herself blaming your character for feeding her demons or become angry / relieved / etc?? with herself for not taking their advice to stand up for the cryptids

shit has hit the fan folks, and what better time for a reunion?? aura runs into NOAH, somewhat of a former friend, and she’s so relieved to see a familiar face that she gets very emotional??? she confides in him about her fears and ultimately, her decision to leave — and with his support, she can ease some of that anxiety and tension!!! poor bbies have suffered enough at the hands of other people, and aura won’t forget how he stood behind her, even in a decision that ends up being pretty problematic for everyone

well... nobody said she was mi:6 worthy.... ya girl has been caught!!! SHAHRZAD catches aura in the act as she’s trying to leave, but what do they do??? well, for starters — negotiation!! but when valiance fails and shazi feels aura slipping away, she’s willing to do what she needs to in order to hold this rebellion together, even if it means violence??? aura is deeply affected and hurt by this, ultimately slipping away with the use of teeny tiny pixie form!!!

see ya suckers!!!! pixie is homefree and it feels good??? but also, what’s this super negative emotion all of a sudden?? and cue KANTA, who kinda finds aura at her breaking point, very much torn and balancing between the point of regret and relief!! they talk through their decision to leave / not partake, and aura will use this convo to later condemn cheshire and defend her own actions... yikes!!! she’s convinced that at least she had a sense of loyalty where he has none, and she’ll exploit that to her benefit..... even if that’s wrong

la révolution est morte, sorry folks.... and as the doors of the train are being ripped from their hinges and the barricades are being broken down, LENNY is the first face aura sees!! and almost immediately the excuses she’s tried to hide behind fall away?? lenny’s one of the first people to reach out to aura when she arrives at the menagerie, and watching this sort of ideal vision of who she, herself, wants to be suddenly being dragged from the train really ignites this fury in the lil pixie?? she may have dodged punishment for the rebellion, but there’s gonna be hell to pay for the way she goes after the guards stupid enough to lay a hand on this selkie........

tent hopping time, ladies and gents!!! aura is gonna be moved around a lot in order for me to get in as many interactions as i can but first stop?? SOL of course!!! my actual mom will be talking with aura through her choice to leave and solidifying the validation in that decision she made to leave ( and not to her benefit either folks..... yikes!! ) — but aura ultimately decides that she... knows best... get it?? okay, whatever.... basically, our little pixie has opened her doors to pure destruction!!! but cue tent hop, no whispering allowed :/

ready to be roasted, aura??? CARTER is absolutely not here for aura’s shit, and he will not hesitate to yell at her for making an extremely stupid decision that has hurt everyone around her.... seriously he’s gonna chastise the hell out of her, buuuuuuutttt also while sympathizing a little bit with the fear she acted on — though, this interaction will mostly get that guilt cookin’ and encourage aura to understand selfishness as a vice, not a virtue ( even tho that’s like the total opposite of their dynamic lmao ) — annnnd another tent hop!!!

and just as redemption is on the horizon, OMARI and his beetle buds crash the party!!!!! aura feels comforted by seeing him again after shit has gone down, esp since she knows he stands behind her..... right???? noPE YOU THOUGHT WRONG!!! he’s gonna do a total 360 and guilt her imMENSELY for her decision to leave the train!! why would i do this?? because you told me to??? what do you mean no you didn’t?? what do you mean i’m a monster after all??? this thread is just going to be a general ouch :/

can i get a drumroll for the softest rabbit in the land??? time to hit up aura’s good ole pal THEO!!! right now, she’s kinda relapsing into panic, esp with the extremely negative emotions pushed on by omari, and so we’re falling back into justification territory!! so she looks to our white rabbit to support her in this ( uh oh!!! ) and in talking to herself so as to convince herself that she’s ultimately a good person even if she makes reallllly bad decisions, aura inadvertently corrupts poor theo with the idea that it’s perfectly okay to be self-serving..... whoops??? well.... u guys know what time it is....

mask on!!! MAL + aura have a run in, and here’s a chance for them to play off each other’s facades and convince themselves of their own self-image!!! aura falls deeper down the rabbit hole with this interaction, really latching on to this idea that it’s okay for her to be selfish because what’s wrong with a lil self-help??? yeah i hurt a bunch of other people..... who cares lol???? talk about an unhealthy dynamic... am i right or am i right???

u thought we could have nice things in this roleplay??? you thought wrONG!!! [ OPEN PLOT ] could seriously murder aura right now, and though she’s sitting on her high horse, they’re gonna knock her right back down again!!! how dare you??? what kind of cryptid are you?? maybe aura has indirectly put them or someone they care about in jeopardy, so feel free to bring on a roasting for the ages!!! or maybe just a general guilt?? your character is a total wreck and aura has to deal with the fact that she’s the one who caused that?? idk this plot is pretty open-ended, i just need to make aura a lil vulnerable again in time for...

the crown jewel of the night!!!!! aura kinda runs off, not prepared to be thrown in another tent with somebody who’s going to rake her across the coals or villainize her beyond the point she has already done herself??? but whoops, the guards are not about to deal w/ her shit and maybe she’s gonna get punished after all??? but nope!!! because in swoops actual angel EMME!!!! they hide out in em’s tent and talk over the night’s events before making it back to the train where.... oh shit, her train car is a total wreck??? aura is somewhat hysterical, trying to piece everything hopelessly back together as the guilt and shame and all these negative emotions really kick in; ultimately offering her train car up to emme to share until they can fix what’s been broken!!! and i end the night soft as hell for these two beans

and if you’re not really feeling these plots, don’t worry!!! i’m 100% flexible and i’ll do whatever i can to make sure i cater to anyone wanting to plot!!!

themes :

i will do this..... another time.......

general consensus :

mostly negative character regression..... but hey!! there’s at least some good stuff in there too????

update: new plots have pushed aura back onto the road to redemption!!!

#❛ event.#mrpg:plots #bless andy for inspiring me to actually est a timeline #what would i do without them truly #abuse mention #abuse tw #just to be safe!!#and pls tell me if i left anything out!!!#i did this pretty early in the morning :/

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reprobii · 7 years

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Can you tell I made this header image in 5 minutes with MS Paint?

Anyway, I hit 101 followers somehow while on hiatus. I’m not back yet, but I’m in a sappy mood and wanted to appreciate all of you who have stuck with me!

I don’t want to clog everyone’s notifications, so @ everyone who’s for some reason decided this blog was worth following, I want to let you all know I’m super glad you’re here and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy my (rare) content! Even if we don’t interact, I’m always open for ooc chat or plotting. You’re all lovely and I can’t believe this many people share my love for this bratty demon child! <3

some special mentions under the cut:

@mxlignxnt I swear one day I’ll actually act on our threads and the asks from you festering in my untouched inbox. Thank you so much for having the patience to deal with me and my many absences! I can’t wait for Amelia and Sitri to bond more over... serial killers. And cookies. Many cookies. If she ever wants a bodyguard against Jackson, she knows who to summon!

@gaeuul you, friend, have the patience of a saint. thank you for following me across blogs no matter how good i am at blog hot potato. We haven’t talked but I do remember you’re super sweet and I wish I was online more to bask in your warm presence <3

@mysaldate If I ever go to Germany, I swear I’ll hit you up! I’m still jealous that you live in a CASTLE. and actual castle! but anyway thanks for the follow! If you ever decide to rp a MO character on a blog lmk! sorry I’m such a bad conversation holder! But feel free to pop in my IMs anytime!

@solomonseal We haven’t talked much since I found you like. the day I disappeared but your portrayal of Solomon is A+ and I hope to interact more in the future! Keep up the good work!

@craveii/ @goldenvelleity My gosh, you’re one of my go-to friends in rp. From makeup advice to life venting to angst/fluff plotting, I love you and Janna (and sometimes Ignes) so much! Your writing is Quality and so is your portrayal! Janna is a fabulous character and I look forward to seeing you develop her more! I’m also warming up to Ignes, but that’s thanks to you and how you keep sending me pics of her cute af outfits. Thanks for sticking around... in inactivity and in prolificness. That’s not a word.

@aevyntyri @bruciared / @vetrorosa / @aigida Did I miss any??? HROKI u are my love and I will love you across time, between the gaps of our absences. I hope you’re doing well and being happy and loving life, wherever you are! You get my angst and you’re such a good writer? I gotta lie down to recover every few paras when I read your replies like god those metaphors. what a gem. i adore your muses and you, hroki!

@kapisola / @ara-memoriae ANGST FRIEND. We really need to stop making our muses suffer. Doesn’t mean we will though. Seriously, though, you’re an A+ mun with A+ muses. Literally I randomly think about your muses throughout my days sometimes. I will defend Nero to the end of time and love Allisae enough to emcompass galaxies. I love our plots so much and I love you more <3<3 I hope life becomes as beautiful for you as you are lovely. Also you are an A+ artist. mmm those Alli sketches. what a goddess.

@occultmisfortune / @therapcn CAE another love. My student friend, I look forward to the day we can talk and not be StuDying. I go to you with my awkward stories from school, OCs, problems, and you’ve somehow decided to not block me yet. Truly, I appreciate your presence in my life, both ic and ooc! <3 I know we don’t interact on this blog but... I would feel bad if I didn’t mention you anyway!

@desiderium-eden Suzu! You are a Gem. Honestly reading your writing makes me laugh every time, without fail. Plus you’re such a talented artist! Much jealous here. Eros is... 80% of Sitri’s impulse control and I love it. Let my boy fight someone. Something. Anything.

@blasianbutterfly what an actual sweetheart! I love Sam! She is so Soft and just... ahhghfhhfh I’d patronize her bakery just to get my daily dose of positivity from her. almost as Soft and sweet as you bby

@positivepianist I don’t even think we have a thread on this blog but again, whatever, I’ll take any opportunity I can get to love on you! You are honestly one of the kindest, sweetest people I have ever had the honor of knowing. Please have more confidence in yourself! I love your writing, love your portrayal, love chatting with you! I hope you’re doing amazing!!! Take your time with activity!

@tsundere-yurio gosh, one of my oldest rp partners from wayy back when I was just peeking into the rp community. even if we both have spotty activity, I’m super grateful to you knowing that I can disappear for a few months and come back and still have our threads intact, or at least the Ship with Isa and Yurio. Your threads are easy for me to write with and honestly are such good chicken soup for my writer soul, like your prose is somehow both easy to understand and vivid and ic? Minty, you’re the genuine article! I love to write with you and look forward to future interactions ic and ooc! <3

@embersiisms jack is... a pure Soft Boi and so are you! idk how you’re so active on here. it’s incredible tbh how one can be so quality? and so prolific? Unsolved Mysteries. i don’t like cake but Sitri will eat...all the cake. all of it. he will singlehandedly keep Jack’s bakery afloat... once he decides to cooperate with me as a muse.

@yurvtchka @blue-eyes-white-kaiba idk if you’ll see this since you’re on hiatus but! i will always be appreciative to you for being one of my first rp partners too! I’m still shocked that someone so Quality is still a mutual? amazing. your icons are beautiful and so are you <3 your writing is super captivating and i hope you’re doing great wherever you are!

@cruelseraph omg, you’re such a great example of the mun is not muse mantra! your portrayal of Michael is absolutely flawless, and yet you somehow are as nice and chill as Michael is... not XD. We haven’t talked in a while but I every time I see the little green dot next to your username I hope you’re doing well! If you come back, I would love to interact again!

@diaboliktheology Val was my third try at an rp blog, and honestly I was so not confident with my portrayal of him that if it weren’t for you, idk if he would have even been a main muse, short as the duration was! I love plotting with you and just chatting ooc! I consider you my tumblr rp Mom tbh, and your writing and blog is? goals? Yui is such a darling, and it’s easy to see why you write her so well - you’re just as kind as she is! I plan to return to Val at some point... even if it’s just for the Val-Yui friendship bc that’s.... pure, good stuff right there. I love it so, so much.

@inferno-principe/ @theo-cratic / @count-glenstrae you’re a super cool person with an amazing muse! Si is so well-developed and I love his sass tbh even if Sitri doesn’t. It’s admirable that somehow you can do both very interesting prose threads... and hilarious crack ones. I’m grateful for your follow and I look forward to future interactions!

@oshikakei yuuto is a Good Boy. I love your writing and your character, he’s very well-rounded and has a lot going for him! thank you for tagging me in stuff! can’t wait for sitri to get stabbed

@amorettos your muses are A+ like they have. so Much Backstory and yet are incredibly likable despite their flaws. as a mun you’re very approachable and also I envy the SoCal life based on pics of your food. somehow you can Art AND Write? unbelievable. anyway thanks for following me across blogs and! thank you for gabe

some more special mentions to the people who have stuck around! thank you for everything! your follow means so much to me!

@electorofhell @archxviste @shatteredtoxins @thepaganking @sclbstmord @vasilciix @imey-chan @pozbilind @noxiivs @backstagebaae @sunshowxr @grand---duke @otxme @g--cnocide @dxllisms @nocturnalbun @underhisdivinity @raguel-angel-of-justice @basicallyuriel @distortedfairytaledreams @thelambsofiscariot @of-rivia @locksfate @skullcrxsher @conseille @unladylikc

#//since I'm not popular - I'll put on airs!#//ooc #*sobs* i love all of you

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childrenofathoria-rp-blog · 7 years

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◆Out Of Character Information◆

Name/Age: Admin Raven, 24 Preferred Pronouns: She/Her Timezone: EST Desired Character: Eris McKenna

◆Character Information◆ (1) What pronouns will your character be using? Would you like to list their sexuality at this time?:She/her - Bisexual (2) Any changes or comments? Nope! (3) Why this character?

I always wanted to play a witch! Our entire lore surrounding them and their connection to the Fae is so interesting. I miss playing a character with elemental powers and I’ve yet to play one with fire abilities. Eris is one of the few gifted humans around with ties to dark magic and, to be honest, I’m like feeding my demon muse through her a bit. Her presence in-game would be refreshing and since she’s not in a clan, she has a lot of autonomy. She’s very different from Nita and while they both have anger issues, Eris is a lot more unhinged. Not to mention that Eris would be one of the first characters that I play that isn’t a warrior. (4) Interpret this character:

I feel like power is something that drives Eris more than anything. She isn’t interested in ruling or leading, I think she seeks immortality or perhaps god-hood, even. She believes that witches are the superior species between all others, but the one thing that holds them back is their mortality. Eris doesn’t think it’s fair that they were born with such abilities, but can only use them to extend their lives, not preserve them. The sorceress despises the limits placed on gifted humans by the Guild and hopes to do away with them one day.

I suppose the sins she leans towards most is wrath and greed. I plan to play her anger as something that can begin as a slow simmer that evolves into wildfire when agitated. She has little patience with meek or rude people and demands respect without having earned it. If she feels that her pride is threatened, she will not hesitate to retaliate. Eris can be quite haughty in nature and loves playing the seducer; she has no trouble with using her sexuality for personal gain. Eris’ name means “strife” and she’ll surely lives up to that namesake.

As cliche as it sounds, I headcanon that Eris comes from a prominent line of fire mages, but her father had an affinity for water. When her magic bloomed, she took to water magic naturally despite her obsession with fire. Through practice and hard work, Eris became moderately skilled in the fire elemental area, but knew she lacked the proper connection to truly master it. This was one of the factors that drove her to make her bargain with Xaphan. Her affinity for water faded completely after the deal’s conclusion. I think it’s ironic that she basically cheated her way to achieve power and it’s likely one of her biggest secrets.

I consider Eris to be a bit of loner, someone who doesn’t truly have friends, but allies. She’s not a good person and I’d love to see her possibly build some meaningful connections. I imagine she’d have some animosity toward the Mighty Oak coven, I headcanon that her mother had ties with them, but wasn’t exactly a member. A personal endgame I have in mind for her is to meet her end at the Guild’s hands, perhaps with assistance from the Mighty Oak Coven.

When it comes to other species, I think she’s extremely curious about the Fae and the creature who sired her mother’s line. After a bit of research I learned that her surename McKenna(which is Irish) comes from the old Gaelic name “MacCionaodha” which meant “child of Aodh’s love”. Aodh was the name of a Celtic fae god of fire. So I’d like to take this piece of real life myth and give it an Athorian spin by including that Fae in her lineage and possibly future plots. While she may feel some sense of pride for gifted humans, she looks down on those who limit themselves. She gravitates toward the like-minded mages of Leeds, rather than those who live in the forest.

Eris is very intrigued by vampires and wants to learn how they came to be. She is wary of them but has been known to take one to her bed every now and again. On other hand, she is quite indifferent toward werewolves and has no fear of the beasts. Eris is knowledgeable of Reapers and has yet to meet an Angel. She is greatly interested in Specters though and using them to connect to the netherworld they’re tethered to.

With Nate’s plans to expand Athoria, she has grown extremely wary of the crown and Nate’s ambitions. She still plans to seek out Lords like Theo to learn all that she can about the Athors. In addition to her penchant for divulging secrets, she has plans to finally gain access to the Ravenswood library. She knows there are spell books and tomes that might be beneficial to her goals.

The dark witch is a master fire mage and is a great conjurer, and is proficient with harnessing shadows. While she has knowledge of necromancy, she doesn’t practice it and leans toward blood and demonic magic.

Eris’ wand is fashioned from silver due to the corrupt nature of her magic. Wooden wands are easily reduced to cinder from even the most basic spells. Silver is a high level conductor of magic that carries energies instead of storing it. On each side of the wand are gems that act as conduits for magical energy. ◆ Interview Questions ◆

(1) Question One: Did you have any regrets about sacrificing your mother?

“I loved my mother, yes, but she and I never got along. She always asked why I couldn’t be more like my cousin – pious, quiet, and obedient. From the day my magic bloomed, she tried to quell that fire in me. A parent is supposed to accept their children for what they are, correct? All she did was try to change me, so that I could be what she wanted. And when she realized that I would not change, she attempted to force it upon me by trying to strip me of my magic. Instead of letting me walk my own path, my mother intended for me to suffer, magicless and empty, in this beautiful world. To take my magic would mean to take my soul; to take my soul means to kill me. So I gave her to my lord, Xaphan, and I have not regret it since.” (2) Question Two: Do you have a favorite type of fire spell?

“Elemental spells are definitely my favorite type. There is so much one can do with fire, it can be used to create, purify, or destroy…but I tend to lean towards the last, of course. If you want specifics, then my favorite spell is one called Nova Mortis. The user speaks the required incantation and kisses the victim on the lips, transferring a tiny ember into the body. Over time, the ember blossoms, cooking them from the inside out. It is a slow process, though and if you look closely, you can see the fire dancing in their veins. ◆Writing Sample:◆

Eris seemed to drift silently through the brush as she walked. At her flank, her mother, Minerva, lied in a shadow-forged cocoon. She trapped her in a stasis and bound her in shackles that nullified magic. All it took was a simple lie and some crocodile tears and she had her mother ensnared. She’d been so relieved to hear what she finally wanted — that Eris would give into her wishes and be the obedient daughter. Minerva hadn’t even sensed the potion in her wine, not until it was too late. Now, she was being lead to Eris’ den. The hide-out was a warded cave north of Grimsby. She needed to be away from Hallowed Oak, a place where the Green Man couldn’t listen and his hags would pry at the spike of demonic energy.

Once inside, she lowered her mother onto the stone altar. Everything was already in place. Candles lined the altar’s round edges, sitting at each point of the pentagram. In the arm of each star lied runes and sigils, written in blood. A few yards away from the altar lied the summoning circle that her lord would emerge from.“Céimnithe.” Eris uttered, dispersing the shadows.“Ardú.” She said, with a snap of her fingers.

Minerva jolted awake, mouth taking in air as if she’d been drowning. Her green eyes went to her daughter, an expression of betrayal in them. “Whatever you plan on doing, Eris, I beg you…do not to it. Please…”

The dark mage merely gave her a hateful glare, hands working a mortar and pestle. “Where was my mercy, Mother?” She sprinkled herbs and spices into the bowl, mixing in the blood of a ram and boar — Xaphan’s sacred animals. “You tried to kill me as well, you know.”

“I tried to banish your magi—”

Eris cut her off. “There is no difference!”

“You needed to be saved from yourself!” Minerva retorted. “I am your mother and I must protect you, no matter the cost. If you continue down this path, the Guild will have you killed. I cannot let that happen!”

“Who are they to tell me how to use my magic? My. Magic. We can bend the very energies of this world to our will and we must limit ourselves and shy away from power. They’d rather we live our mortal lives praying to the fae, false idols, and obscure gods. They’d rather we sit in a circle and sing to that fucking tree you call a deity!” It was fortunate that no one could hear them from the outside, otherwise all of Athoria could hear them argue. “My god is not bound to the earth, a true god breaks their chains…a true god is a being beyond this world.” Eris pressed a hand to her mother’s brow, the gesture almost loving in nature. “Fortunately, you will have eternity to comprehend his power.”

Her mother began to weep. It was as if she had finally realized how far her daughter had gone, that perhaps she pushed her to this point. “I love you, Eris. You are my daughter, my only child. Please…”

The woman’s hand moved to Minerva’s throat, squeezing. “You never loved me…not truly. Not the way you should. All I ever heard growing up was stories of our line, the Fire-Born beloved children of the Fae called Aodh.” She released her mother, allowing her to breathe. “I’ll never forget that look on your face when you saw me by the river those years ago, when you realized I was like my father. All that talk of the McKenna blood and legacy…and I was the imperfection. From the moment I was born you projected your expectations on me, wished me to be anything other than what I am.” A blissful smile colored Eris’ features. “Well now…I’ll be free of you.”

Eris didn’t bother to let her mother respond. With single word, the woman was silenced for as long as she willed it. The sorceress placed the bowl in the middle of the summoning circle and grasped her spellbook. Kneeling before the circle, she turned to the proper page, letting her aura loose. In an old, crude tongue she began to speak the incantation. The spell’s notes said the language was called Dimoori Sheol, the language of the damned. Every syllable tugged at her soul, sending pulses of dark energy through her frame. The process wasn’t nearly as taxing as the first time she summoned Xaphan. Her book indicated that the user’s first time would require a sacrifice of their life force, as a gesture of devotion. This time, Xaphan only required an offering.

The red witch’s eyes cast white as her head tilted toward the ceiling. Her spell shook the very walls and caused the candles in the space to flare. The ingredients within the bowl began to smoke and bubble until it overflowed. Her mixture disintegrated the dish and pooled to the circle’s edges. The boiling grew violent, the smoke thicker until it filled the space in a haze of brimstone. At the incantation’s climax, the ichor caught fire and from it, a form began to rise. The blue of Eris’ eyes returned and she gazed upon her lord with revere.

“Eris, my most loyal, you’ve come to bargain?” Xaphan asked. His form changed from one shape to the next, each appearance more horrifying than the one before.

“Yes, my lord, Xaphan.” Eris rose to her feet and turned to her mother. The poor woman had soiled herself in the demon’s presence. Her eyes were wide with fear as she trembled. “I have brought my mother, as promised. Her soul is yours to command.”

The demon’s laugh sent a shudder through her. “And what would you have in exchange?” He inquired, already knowing the answer.

“Power. I want the fire to be mine as it is yours. To ruin those who would stand in my way and wreak havoc in your name.”

Xaphan smiled at her reply, his form writhing against the circle’s bounds. “Then give her to me and your sacrifice shall be rewarded,”

Eris stood at her mother’s side, face softened by her impending sorrow. She couldn’t hear Minerva’s pleas for mercy, but she read them on her lips. Perhaps that was why she silenced her, so that she couldn’t be convinced to do so. Despite their turbulent relationship, Eris loved her mother, otherwise it wouldn’t be a true sacrifice. During her time with a coven of conjurers, she learned that nothing was gained without loss. Everything had a price and if one wasn’t willing to pay, then they didn’t deserve it. “Your death will not be in vain.” Eris said, raising a dagger of fire. “Chuid eile i tine.” She plunged the knife into Minerva’s heart, unsilencing her to hear the screams.

If she wouldn’t let her plead for her life, she could at least hear her die. Tears streamed down Eris’ cheeks as the fire engulfed her mother. While Minerva’s body burned on the altar, the light of her soul fluttered from the ashes. The ball of energy hovered just above Eris’ hand as she guided it to Xaphan, dropping to one knee. “I have done as you asked, she is yours my Prince.” She pushed Minerva’s soul into the circle and watched as the demon fed it through serrated teeth.

“It is done, my child. Do not weep, rejoice in your gift.” He said.

Eris then felt a burning in her chest. The pain was so intense, that she sank to the floor. For a moment, she thought Xaphan deceived her. Yet when she looked down, she saw her heart glow orange-red beneath her skin. The fire candlefire matched the pattern of her breath and she felt like the very sun lived in her veins. By the time she looked up, Xaphan was gone and only the crackle of fire remained.

#athoria accepted #lsrpg #supernatural rpg #magic rpg #medieval rpg

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buffyversefanfiction · 3 years

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Slayer of Slayers

15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft.

M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

PART THREE LINK HERE

Part Five - Buffy's Boy

Los Angeles, California, roughly one year ago.

Faith Lehane found herself running frantically through the badly lit underground sewer tunnels, her feet drenched by the sewer water as she held a new-born baby boy in her arms, Buffy Summers’s baby boy, wrapped up warmly in blankets as she rushed around a corner to find Willow Rosenberg stood there casting some spell in a language she did not understand as a large blue colored portal appeared from out of thin air, their way out of the sewers, and away from what they were running from. “Willow if we wait for us all to get through this portal of yours then those bastards are just going to follow us, we got to stop them following us somehow.” Faith told the redheaded witch, as she continued to hold Buffy’s child in her arms, fearing for the baby boy’s life, fearing they were not enough to protect him. “I’m going through first and I’ll place him somewhere safe then come back to help lighten the load here before we get Buffy through and only Buffy,” Willow replied to Faith as she took the baby boy out of Faith’s hands and into her embrace. “Then we keep the fight going for as long as we can, I’ve made it so we will not remember where they go so, they cannot find some magic way of getting it out of me but I’m sure Buffy will find some way to get in touch when things are less apocalyptic.” “You do you, Will.” Faith responded as Willow walked into the portal with the baby, before the slayer pulled out a wooden stake from her jacket pocket, as she heard fighting, weapons, and death, growing closer and closer. Elsewhere, Willow appeared in an alleyway in the middle of a dead night, knowing the baby and his mother would be safe in a past where the child had not even been born yet, as she looked for a nearby doorway to safely place the child just long enough for Buffy to find him once they got her through the portal too. “I’m sure not going to win any aunt awards anytime soon for dumping you in a dark alleyway like some awful woman, but I promise your mum will be right here and you will finally get to live a happy safe life without all these mean old monsters,” Willow told the baby as she gently placed him on the doorstep, not wanting to leave him but knowing that she had no other choice. The once sleeping baby began crying as if he knew he was being abandoned somehow, but Willow had no choice but to ignore his cries for attention as she ran back through the portal ready to help her friends survive a battle against hell itself and help Buffy reunite with her son. As she returned to through the portal and back into the underground sewers, she returned to see Buffy and Faith fighting side by side against vampires, demons, and all different kinds of creatures, all wanting Buffy’s child, and so she quickly summoned sunlight ball in between her hands before letting it loose on the warring crowd, instantly turning all vampires there to dust, giving the three of them the upper hand as they continued their battle. “Willow, the portal, where the hell did it go?” Buffy shouted at her friend as she broke through the crowd of monsters to find the portal, she was meant to go through was already gone. “Willow! My son…he’s gone.” And just like that, the portal, along with any chance of reuniting with her new-born child, had completely disappeared during a battle against evil, leaving Buffy truly devastated by the loss of her son, as she struggled to take in the shock of it all, the weight of what she had just lost, Buffy just stood there speechless… “It’s okay Buffy it will be okay Willow’s going to find some way of getting him back or re-opening the portal so you can go to him.” Faith said, attempting to reassure Buffy, as she, Buffy, and Willow now stood looking at a brick wall within the underground sewer tunnels with nothing around them except the corpses of creatures that did not turn to dust, bust into flames, or explode. “There’s no way of opening the correct portal not knowing where that portal even led to, I mean I can still feel the magic from the portal having closed so maybe I can try hijack that magic somehow and magically crowbar

it back open,” Willow responded with a saddened sigh, somehow knowing in her gut her plan would not work. “We will get him back Buffy!” Faith repeated as Buffy continued to stand there speechless with a look of pure heartbreak on her face and tears forming in her eyes, never seeing her fellow slayer as defeated as she was in that moment. “Maybe I could try a locating spell, but I’d have to that in several different dimensions if he is not in this one which I doubt we would have gone to all this effort to just teleport him halfway around the world.” Willow tried suggesting, but as she spoke, she realized that it too would not work. Many minutes passed as the three women stayed standing in the same place, staring at a brick wall which once had a portal there, Faith having given up her little words of encouragement and Willow having run out of ideas on how to find Buffy’s child, as Buffy realized, she had become a mother and lost her child within a handful of days. “Wherever he is now I can only hope he’s safer there than he ever was here.” Buffy finally spoke as she used her sleeve to wipe away her tears, attempting and failing to pull herself together as she realized, she may never see her son again. “This must have been what Angel went through with Connor…we can’t let him have to feel this pain all over again!” “B we will find a way to get him back!” Faith repeated herself one final time. “Stop saying that you do not know that and even if we do, he might not even be the same baby boy he was just moments ago…he’s gone…my baby’s gone!” Buffy snapped at Faith before she began breaking down and sobbing, falling to her knees, not caring about being covered in the sewerage water. “I was a fool to think I could ever be a mother while still being a slayer, we were fools to think we could protect him and still have him in our lives…he’s going to grow up in a strange world not knowing that I’d have done anything for him, that all I wanted was for him to be safe.” “I am so sorry Buffy I really thought this would have worked.” Willow cried as she knelt to hug her sobbing friend, knowing her apologies would not lessen her pain as she continued to hold her tighter and tighter, just being there was all she could do for her now.

Los Angeles, California, the early 2000s.

After having just escaped being burned alive at the hands of their beloved Angel, hurt and defeated Drusilla and Darla were walking through the streets of Los Angeles attempting to figure out their next move as they finally decided to give up on the idea of ever getting Angelus back when suddenly Drusilla came to a stop, confusing Darla in the process, as her fellow vampire began walking down a nearby alleyway, to which Darla quickly followed, wondering what her deranged fanged friend was up to now if she had seen another one of her visions or if she had just gone completely mad like she was ever not, and she followed her, Darla was left delighted by the sight of a new-born baby left on a nearby doorstep but as Darla proceed to walk towards it she was shocked Drusilla pulled out her arm to stop her. “No mummy this little baby is far too important to wind up as just one of our snacks,” Drusilla stated, denying a frustrated Darla her want for the innocent child’s blood. “I see a very powerful darkness within him, a bitterness which will only ripen as he grows up, and all the fabulous chaos he will inflict on this world.” “As good as all that sounds honey I’m hungry now!” Darla replied, not fully believing Drusilla’s latest prediction. “Silly mummy does not see who you are yet,” Drusilla told the little baby who awoke as she lifted him up in her arms, looking into the baby’s eyes with pure adoration, as the baby did not cry, nor barely make a sound. “This child will bring that girl down, something neither you nor me nor even Angelus could do.” “So, you’re telling me that the little brat you are holding will one day take out that peppy little slayer?” Darla asked her fellow vampire; her curiosity has now peaked. “Slayers do not usually last that long but if anyone is going to break that rule it would have to be her.” “Buffy will survive far more than anyone before her and anyone after her, but this child once fully grown will be the one thing she cannot beat, and hell will descend on earth once he discovers his true power,” Drusilla said with glee in her voice as she began rocking the baby back and forth, immediately besotted with the son of the slayer. “Well just in case you are right I suppose we can spare the little brat but the next baby we find is all mine!” Darla reluctantly accepted Drusilla’s decision. Darla was right to put her hopes in Drusilla’s special abilities proving to be true, but she would not see that day for her fate led her down a different path, leading to her becoming the first pregnant vampire and sacrificing herself so her own son could be born, her son Connor being Angel’s first-born miracle child and therefore Theo’s older half-brother.

Riverborn, California, 2016.

Theo Frey, a name chosen by his adoptive parents, was far from the twisted slayer of slayers he would one day become in fact he prided himself in being top of his class, volunteering at his local town library, and being something of an overachiever. Theo lived the perfect little suburban life with his doting parents, his best friend Ruby Moon, and his secret high school romance with Riverborn High’s favorite jock Lucien Knight. Riverborn was a small town located about 2 hours from Los Angeles and only an hour away from where the town of Sunnydale once was and from the age of baby until his sixteenth birthday, it was home to Theo Frey, a home he would forever cherish even after his spiral into darkness which led to him going down a path he could never return from. Theo awoke early the morning of his sixteenth birthday, ate breakfast with his parents, and unwrapped his birthday gifts before getting ready for another day at Riverborn High as he met up with his best friend Ruby and proceeded to walk to school together like they did every day before school. “So, tonight we are totally going to this party to celebrate your birthday, albeit we will be around a bunch of people who will probably not even know we are but hey it’s still a party!” Ruby informed her friend as she and Theo continued to walk through the streets of Riverborn, heading towards their school. “Are you kidding me? My parents want to celebrate my birthday the way they have done since I told them I was too old for kid parties…with a family game night because that’s the adult equivalent to them, that and the idea of me being at an actual party where I could have actual fun shakes them to their core worse than when I pick a horror on movies night.” Theo complained, knowing his parents would never let him go to a party until he was 18 as they previously stated to him. “Sixteen is the year of rebellion I mean your parents are just waiting for the day you rebel they were kids once too and I doubt their parents were as strict as they are,” Ruby said, suggesting to Theo to break the rules for once. “Your parents are nowhere near as strict as you are on yourself so let your hair down for once, your secret straight guy crush Lucien’s going to be there.” “Are you forgetting the part where you’re not supposed to know? How is nobody supposed to know? If I went to this party tonight and he acted like I did not exist then I do not know if I could survive it…or if I could keep seeing him after that, even though I know it would not be about me it would still hurt.” Theo reluctantly admitted to his best friend. “You have it bad for this one, don’t you? The first one’s always the one that hurt you most but when they do you move on and wind up loving someone even more than you loved the one before…eventually.” Ruby advised him. “Just come to the party Theo, I’ll tell my parents I'm with you, you tell yours the same, and we’ll head to the woods for one hell of a night! And if Lucien Knight is not ready to even acknowledge you then we will deal with that with the drink I’m stealing off my parents.” “Fine.” Theo sighed, giving in to his friend, knowing he could not argue with Ruby when she was determined to get her way, and deep down wanting a night of wild teenage fun, even if it ended in heartbreak for himself.

The infamous high school party was taken deep within the woods of Riverborn late at night, Riverborn being one of the towns to come to the realization that the supernatural exist later than most of the world as they held on to their ignorance and sense of simpler times for as long as they could. Theo was not exactly having the best time as he continued drinking from a plastic cup containing beer, Ruby having scampered off with a guy and a girl, a couple that she went to work on seducing the moment they got to the party, and although he had seen Lucien, and was not ignored by him, the two did not share many words until much later that night when Lucien and Theo had many more drinks and found the confidence to sneak away from the party themselves, going deeper into the woods. “I was not expecting you here tonight I mean I thought you were spending your sweet sixteenth with the parents,” Lucien admitted to Theo as the secret lovers continued to walk deeper into the woods. “I’m glad you did though, it seems like I never get the opportunity to see you recently.” “Well, that’s the thing about keeping everything secret sure it’s hot and everything but all the sneaking around is kind of hard work…not that I want us to be public or anything, not that I even consider us…oh god you know what I mean…I hope you do.” Theo replied nervously, wanting more from Lucien but too scared to be too honest with him. “I know what you mean,” Lucien said reassuring Theo, as the two stopped by a nearby tree, Lucien looking around to check the coast is clear before pushing Theo up against that nearby tree and kissing him passionately. “Right now, it’s just you and I and the rest of the world does not exist nor does its rules or expectations.” “I like the sound of that.” Theo gushed before continuing to passionately make out with his high school sweetheart, deciding to save the relationship talk for another night, another night that would never come.

Following a party than a fumble in the woods, Theo eventually began his walk home knowing he had stayed way past the time his parents went to bed and that he could easily sneak in with his house keys, go to bed, and then come up with a lie to explain his presence come morning time but sadly for Theo that night had other plans for him which he quickly discovered upon walking up to his family home, where he was shocked to see the living room was still on. Theo quickly walked up to his front door where he noticed it was ever so slightly open like it had not been closed right and the wind had blown it open ever so slightly, but as he walked into the foyer of his family home and made his way into the living room the heart-breaking truth was soon realized. “Mum…” Theo said in shock, as eyes couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing, his mother, the woman who had raised, and loved him, was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, blood that had soaked into the carpet as he stood there frozen in both fear and utter heartbreak for a few minutes before he was able to move. He then rushed over to his mother, picking up her head into his arms, as he noticed the marks on her neck, marks that were caused by a vampire, although he did not realize that just yet, as he hugged his mother’s lifeless body, sobbing while shaking her, hoping, and praying that she would wake up but knowing from the coldness of her touch that she was already gone. “Dad…daddy?” Theo shouted in an almost childlike voice, filled with innocence, as he laid his mother’s head back onto the floor, now covered in her blood, as he ran back into the foyer, and began searching for his father throughout the house, fearing he would find him in a similar state but hoping he was for some reason out of the house when his mother died. Theo’s search for his father ended in the kitchen where he found him spread across the kitchen floor similarly in a pool of his own blood just like he had found his mother, and it was right then the gravity of everything forced him down to his knees as he continued to sob uncontrollably, his family gone within a blink of an eye, his innocence lost forever, and the two people who had loved him more than anything were slaughtered by someone or something he could not even fathom. “Do not worry my darling baby boy I am here to ensure what happened to your parents tonight will not also be your fate,” Drusilla announced as she walked into the kitchen, shocking Theo by her sudden arrival. “I am going to make you strong…so strong that you will get your revenge for their loss, and then seek out revenge for everybody else who played a part in your awful birthday surprise.”

Many Years Later, Undisclosed location.

Theo awaked from what felt like an endless slumber wearing nothing but a pair of silk black boxers in the middle of what looked like the woods only to find himself laid on a large boulder-like lock, as he began having flashbacks of the last moments he was awake leading to him searching his body for the bullet wounds inflicted on him by Rupert Giles were completely healed, better than healed, there were no signs he had ever been hurt. “Finally, you are awake mummy forgot just how much you liked your sleep, but this was no usual nap, my darling boy,” Drusilla announced as she appeared from behind a tree and walked over to the man she loved, in her own way, like a son. “Did you…turn me?” Theo asked as he climbed off the rock and stood on his own two feet, fearing he was now a vampire, something he did not realize until that moment, he never wanted. “No, my, magnificent man I did not,” Drusilla replied lovingly, as she lifted her left hand towards Theo’s face and began stroking his cheek gently, relieved to be reunited with him once again. “You turned yourself…when I found you, you had lost a lot of blood just like a human is drained off the blood before becoming a vampire…then you died briefly and the very blood running through your veins, Angelus’ blood, turned you into a vampire, the first-ever vampire that sired themselves…and with the slayer strength also a part of you, your true destiny has finally begun."

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buffyversefanfiction · 3 years

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Slayer of Slayers

Warnings: I do not own, nor do I claim to own any of the copyright or characters within the Buffyverse which includes but is not limited to the television shows Buffy and Angel, as well as the Darkhorse comics series’ continuation. 15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft. M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

Part One: City of No Angel

After being away from Los Angeles for several years the brooding vampire Angel had been convinced to return to his former city under the advice of vampire slayer Faith Lehane who herself had been sent back to L.A. due to the witch Willow Rosenberg’s concern about a growing number of vampire slayers going missing within the troubled city that once had the evil law firm, Wolfram and Hart, pulling its strings. Angel, Faith, and old one Illyria arranged to meet at Angel’s old, haunted grounds The Hyperion Hotel which had once again become abandoned like it was when he first set up home in there with his friends who became like family, most of which were long gone now. After the unlikely trio consisting of a vampire with a soul, a former goddess in a human’s body, and a redeemed former rogue slayer, met up they soon discussed the facts of the mission which had brought them all together. “So, Willow’s big plan is for me to play the role I play best, the rogue slayer, thinking that whoever’s killing slayers is probably going to like the idea of teaming up with a slayer who kills humans or used to, obviously hoping they do not know any stories of all the things I’ve done while seeking some kind of redemption.” Faith informed Angel and Illyria. “I did the covert rogue slayer thing a while back for Giles and shit got pretty messy hence why I was not doing this one solo.” “If slayers are killing out other slayers, then maybe we should not interfere I mean after all there was only ever supposed to be one at a time whereas now you throw a rock and you have yourself some superpowered woman thinking themselves as something like a god insulting actual gods like myself,” Illyria complained while making it clear she was far from happy about the rise in the quantity over slayers over recent years. Both Angel and Faith did not bother to reply to Illyria’s choice of words having both got used to the way she speaks by now and how she viewed the world and despite her literal tough outer shell, the old one was always on their side without question having somehow become her friends. The three of them were determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious case of the slayer of slayers not realizing that this mission would change everything forever…

Elsewhere, in the city of Los Angeles, the slayer of slayers was eying their next target a Knight-haired vampire slayer looking something like Faith herself, as the girl believed she had the upper hand as she ran down a dark alleyway with a male vampire running after her, believing she was luring this monster into a trap not realizing that this vampire was luring her into one as part of his master’s own devious plan, to eradicate all slayers. “Unluckily for you, you seem to have no idea that I am not your average girl!” The young vampire slayer bravely stated as the male vampire closed in towards her with his full vampire face on display. The slayer wasted no time in charging towards her undead opponent as she pulled a wooden stake out of her black leather jacket during mid-run as she launched herself into the air, throwing her body into the night sky before launching her right clenched fist down towards the vampire, punching him with force across the face as her feet fell back onto the cold hard ground. The slayer continued to fight with the vampire each of them getting several good hits on the other before the young slayer eventually got the better of the vampire, kicking his body so hard the vampire fell to the ground as the slayer launched the wooden stake into the vampire’s chest causing the vampire to explode into nothing more than a big pile of dust. “They just keep bringing slayers to my city it’s like the big man no longer cares about his chosen daughters.” An unbelievably handsome man with short jet black said to the slayer as he too appeared from out of the shadows wearing a black fishnet t-shirt flaunting his chiseled abs with skin-tight black leather jeans that clung perfectly to his impressive body making this stranger look as sinister as he did sexily. The young slayer knew instantly whoever this stranger was, he was most definitely an enemy working alongside the forces of evil and so the Knight haired woman ran towards her next opponent not realizing that this opponent would be her last as it did not take long for the handsome stranger to quickly get the better of the slayer, punching her several times across the face before kicking her in the stomach with such force the slayer fell into some nearby bins amusing the man before her as she quickly began rustling through the rubbish as she pulled herself back up onto her feet defiantly. “You do not scare me, vampire!” She lied before charging towards this mysterious man once again, as she refused to allow her growing fear to get the better of her. “Not a vampire.” The man replied as he punched her once again before grabbing the slayer by her throat and lifting her up into the air into a chokehold. “You may know me as the slayer of slayers.” Before the slayer could muster any words while under the surprisingly strong stranger’s stronghold on her neck, he threw her across the street, her head hitting off a nearby wall before her body crashed onto the ground knocking the slayer unconscious in the process. “I swear you get sexier with every slayer you slaughter!” A short dirty blonde haired male vampire said as he appeared from out of the shadows eagerly making it clear to the two men knew each other very well. “Who would think little Theo will grow up to be the ruthless slayer of slayers?” “If only mummy dearest could see me now,” Theo replied as he walked over to the vampire with a seductive smirk on his face. “Killing slayers and sleeping with vampires.” The vampire, otherwise known as Tobias, pulled the slayer of slayers, otherwise known as Theo, in towards him until the two men’s bodies were grinding against each other’s as they began kissing passionately getting off on the carnage that Theo had just created.

After a rather successful night of Tobias hunting humans and Theo capturing a vampire slayer, the dangerous duo had retreated to a demonic dive bar that they owned together and often used as their headquarters for all their hellish operations, while their demonic and monstrous clients continued to drink and often join in when they were asked of by Theo and Tobias, fearing the two too much to even consider saying no to them. “I heard you’ve got yourself another slayer, is she on the menu tonight?” Asked one of the vampires that stood at the counter breaking up Theo’s kiss with his vampire lover as the two put their focus back on their customers. “This one’s going through a little processing right now before she gets served to our public no point drinking her blood while it's still poisoned now is there?” Theo replied with a sense of casualism that could only occur from doing what he did far too often. “Pretty messed up the things you do to your own kind Theo.” A demon with snake-like skin-colored red and a lizard-like tongue said to his bartender, laughing away in respect for the monster within the man in front of him. “I’m no vampire slayer, I am a slayer of slayers it's my destiny to eradicate them all and plunge this pathetic excuse of a world into pure and utter darkness it is just a bonus I get so much pleasure in killing each and every one of them,” Theo replied to the demon. “Besides slayer’s blood sells very well and who does not love money?” “My beloved Theo is unlike any before him, he not only lives in the darkness he thrives in it, and with him, on our side, the slayers will soon be nothing more than unfond memories.” Tobias chimed in while showing genuine affection for his lover. “My only fear of course is the one slayer who always defies the odds that perky blonde one who changed everything for her kind.” “Buffy Summers is more myth than truth Tobias, I have told you that before,” Theo said to the vampire, trying to reassure him that Buffy was nowhere near as much of a threat as she was in stories they had been told. “I would not underestimate the girl who killed Angelus and The Master not to mention that goddess who almost ended the world one time.” Another vampire at the counter said, adding to the conversation within the bar. “I have the upper hand when it comes to Buffy whether she is as fearful as they say she is still a woman, a woman who had seen love and loss in her time and will no doubt be thrown back to meet her only son.” Theo declared, revealing his identity as Buffy’s son to the shocked crowd within the bar, everyone except Tobias being stunned by the slayer of slayers’ admission.

The very next day Faith found herself riding on her motorbike down a somewhat quiet road on the outskirts of Los Angeles before pulling up on the middle of the road, climbing off her motorbike, and beginning to walk further and further into the hot desert, as she pulled out her phone from her jean pocket and dialed Willow’s number before putting her on loudspeaker while continuing to walk through the desert. “I know when you think dead bodies you reckon, I am the expert, but I was better at deserting them not looking for them in a bloody desert.” Faith said with her signature sense of sarcasm after hearing Willow answer her call. “This slayer got into L.A. not long before you did Faith, we’re not sure why any slayer would be rushing to Los Angeles these days but if we failed to safe her at the very least, we should try to find answers from her death to stop it happening again,” Willow replied to her. “I get it Willow, and I’m all for helping with the bigger picture but searching for a fellow slayer’s dead body before having breakfast is not all it’s cracked up to be.” Faith complained to the red-headed witch. “I will make you all the eggs on toast if you sort out the L.A. problem. You know you’re the main girl in action with Buffy being all M.I.A. since the incident.” Willow told her while trying to butter her up, only for Faith to be left silenced by finding the body of the young slayer who looked a little too much like her for Faith’s liking. “Looks like your right once again Will.” Faith admitted as she stood over the young slayer’s lifeless body all bloodied and wounded with injuries that told a tragic tale of torture. “Whatever’s killing us slayers seem to be taking real pleasure in it…I cannot wait to kill those bastards.” “Oh, goddess, this is far from good thank the heavens you’re not going solo on this one Faith,” Willow told the former rogue slayer. “I’ll call this in to the local authorities once you have got yourself a good distance from the crime scene, you should probably report back to Angel before going in undercover on this one… the last slayer we need showing up dead next is you.” “Thanks for the sentiment Will but this is even more reason for me to get my spy mode rolling!” Faith replied to the witch before hanging up the call to her. “Rather not wait around to examine the next dead slayer who happens to look far too much like me!”

Tobias walked into the bedroom of the apartment above the dive bar which he shared with Theo, shirtless and wearing a tight boxer brief as he willingly flaunted his tanned skin, muscular frame, and handsome body while walking over to Theo who was sat on the edge of their shared bed. “You know you anger me when you question my strength in front of the customers.” Theo, who was wearing just a pair of tight white boxer briefs himself, with the rest of his own impressive body fully on show, complained to his lover. “I am mainly looking out for you, fearing for you, worrying about you, like anyone who truly loved you would,” Tobias replied as he began softly kissing Theo’s neck. “I know you are capable of anything, but I cannot help but fear that we may lose everything we have worked so hard for.” “I love you too Tobias, but you have got to have more faith in the grand plan the last thing we want is for Drusilla to learn of your doubts,” Theo said through panted breath as Tobias began working his way down Theo’s chest, kissing lower and lower, slower, and slower, as he pushed Theo back onto the bed. “I would challenge the devil himself if his plans risked your safety!” Tobias promised the man he loved before he pulled Theo’s boxers down to his ankles, proceeding to take off his own boxers and climbing onto Theo’s naked body, their two bodies crashing against each other’s, kissing passionately, as they made love to each other.

The very next night Theo had taken himself just outside of the demonic dive bar he ran with his undead partner, to enjoy a quick smoke break as he stood in the dark alleyways smoking a cigarette only to be left stunned to find a Knight haired beauty appear from around the corner, clearly walking towards him, as Theo began to wonder if he had met this woman before, noting the similarity she had to the slayer he had recently murdered. “Don’t suppose I can steal a smoke from you?” Faith asked him, knowing damn fine that this man was the man she was looking for, determined to find out more about him so she could shut down his entire operation. “Here’s the thing love, humans do not normally come around this neighborhood unless they got a death wish that is,” Theo replied to her as he suspected this woman to be another slayer, another potential victim. “I’m not fully human, I’m a vampire slayer and even then, I’m much more than just any slayer I mean I do not mean to brag but I’m probably the most famous rogue slayer to ever live the original good girl gone bad although I was never that good.” Faith revealed herself, knowing no good girls made it out of this alleyway alive. “The name’s Faith, in case you did not already work that one out.” “Rumour has it you went back to the good side even helped Buffy herself destroy a Hellmouth along with her hometown,” Theo responded, clearly knowing a little something about the vampire slayer before him. “I hate rumors I’d like to get the guy spreading that lie and cut his tongue out!” Faith lied, ready to convince this man she was as evil now as she was back when she was evil. “Heard your part of this mission about killing all slayers and I’ve been trying that one long before you, in fact, I got pretty close to killing B until the bitch gutted me that is. However, a team-up could be just what I need to take her down once and for all.” “Well then Faith,” Theo answered with a smile on his face as he threw his cigarette to the ground eagerly. “How about a drink to discuss this potential partnership?” Faith had Theo exactly where she wanted him and he had her too, Faith being determined to take down his entire operation, and Theo wanted to test the theory of whether or not Faith was really the ruthless slayer she was claiming to be, neither of them liking the answers that would follow.

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