#they probably both held little torches for each other in school but never really did anything

[tsarisfanfiction]

Colour Prompt :)

#22 - purple: bruise, pain, mystery

For Scott & John (& Gordon?)

A Little Ruthlessness

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Family Characters: Gordon, John, Scott

First thing I've written in a good week and a half, and the longest thing I've written in... a while (thank you, rl, for hitting me hard enough to wreck my muses when I was planning on celebrating finishing my dissertation by writing lots). Also highly self-indulgent because why not.

So we have some Scott&Gordon&John, which is a highly entertaining combination and I loved writing this. I think I actually hit all three of those prompts with this...

Colour Symbol Prompts

“He’s late,” Gordon huffed, fog erupting from his mouth as he rubbed his arms to stave off the winter chill. “What’s taking him so long?”

Leaning against a nearby wall nonchalantly, bundled up in so many layers Gordon had laughed when he’d first seen him and poking at his tablet, John shrugged. If Gordon didn’t know his brother as well as he did, he’d think the ginger wasn’t worried at all.

There was an urgency to the way he was poking at the screen, though. John didn’t do big, flashy, displays of emotion, but when you knew what to look for, the deliberate placement of each digit as he manipulated whatever was on the screen screamed unease, and even a little bit of frustration.

Their brother was supposed to have met up with them an hour ago, as soon as he escaped the social gathering he’d been coerced into by what Gordon could only assume was an old flame from high school. For all that Scott was naturally charismatic and popular, it was an open secret in their family that he hadn’t managed to keep any of his old high school friendships. Teenagers were fickle things, and he’d been too busy raising four younger brothers to fill the social quota they’d expected of him at the time, let alone after they lost Dad as well.

Still, the high school reunion had called, and for some reason, Scott had answered.

He wasn’t supposed to stay there so long, though. Gordon and John had both determined that there was a high chance Scott would be leaving the reunion reminded of all the reasons why he hadn’t been able to keep those friendships and decided to make their own arrangements for the evening. Nothing outlandish – not when John was involved – but a trio of brothers hanging out without the stress of their otherwise busy lives hanging over them.

Not the usual trio of brothers that might be expected to hang out, but as much as Virgil would always jump to help Scott, where they had planned really wasn’t for their softer brother – and Alan was underage anyway.

Beating casinos at their own money-laundering game required just a touch of ruthlessness, and that was very much John’s area of expertise. Gordon found it fun, and Scott always enjoyed taking selfish rich snobs a peg or several. It also required enough strategic thinking and brainpower to cut off any unwelcome dwelling their big brother might otherwise land himself in.

That meant nothing if Scott wasn’t even showing up in the first place.

“Have you called him?” Gordon shot over at John, who was still poking away deliberately at his tablet.

“No answer,” the ginger replied, breath fogging in front of his own face. He didn’t even seem to notice – then again, all those ridiculous layers were probably doing their job to keep him warm. Gordon’s had failed him about half an hour ago. In his defence, he hadn’t exactly planned to be hanging around in the cold this long. “He’s not read any messages, either.”

If they’d gone to all this trouble to plan a pick-me-up for Scott after an expected downer of an evening, their big brother had better not have managed to find some entertainment and forgotten to let them know.

But that wasn’t like Scott at all – even if he had initially forgotten, a call or message from John would have reminded him instantly.

Gordon shivered again. Something didn’t seem right.

“So now what?” he asked instead, not because he didn’t have any ideas – crashing the reunion was an obvious one that sprung to mind – but because John was probably already enacting a plan or several of his own already.

“His phone’s location transmitter’s off,” John said by way of answer. “Actually, his phone seems to be dead in general.” The same phone John and Scott had both checked was fully charged on the way here so he didn’t lose contact with them?

Gordon’s eyes narrowed.

“So what have you got?” There was no way John hadn’t got something by now.

“His watch isn’t transmitting, either,” his brother reported. “But…” He trailed off, staring intently at something Gordon couldn’t see on the screen.

The temptation was there to prod him – verbally or literally – but unlike when John was a mere hologram that may or may not be transmitting, this time Gordon could see that he was mid-thought, still working, still doing something to figure out why their big brother had gone dark, and held back.

It didn’t take John long to finish whatever he was doing.

“I’ve got a location.” The astronaut kicked off from the wall he was leaning against and started striding forwards, long legs uncaring that Gordon’s were much shorter. It took a second or two to jog to catch up.

“What have you got?” he repeated.

A map of the area flashed up above the tablet; orange and yellow highlighted their own position, moving quickly down the street, while a flickering blue icon blinked in and out of existence unsteadily down a side alley four blocks away.

“You said it wasn’t transmitting?”

“It’s not,” John said shortly. “I triangulated all the signals within the appropriate parameters until I picked up traces of its electronic residue.”

Residue didn’t sound promising. Gordon resumed his jog, knowing that John was fully capable of keeping up with him, and mentally mapped out the shortest route to the weakly flickering blue dot. It was staying in the exact same location, not even a slight waver in position, and that, Gordon really didn’t like.

Scott wasn’t one for staying still.

Unconsciously, his pace hastened further. By the time the alley loomed ahead, visible in person and not just lines on a hologram, he was all but sprinting. John was a little way behind him, but that was fine.

Gordon’s instincts screamed for him to keep going, to charge straight into the alley and find out what was going on, but he reined them in, forcing his legs to slow to a walk, and then a stop at the entrance to the alley.

They had no idea what they were walking into, and despite all the signs pointing to not, Gordon really didn’t want to interrupt if Scott had simply found entertainment and forgotten about them. More realistically, he also didn’t want to charge into a hostile situation unaware.

There were no sounds coming from the alley. Nothing to tell him what was going on, but also enough to tell him what wasn’t. With one glance back to see how far behind John was – not far, only seconds out – Gordon slipped around the corner.

Alleys were always somehow gloomier than the surrounding streets. Lighting never seemed to work quite so well; John could no doubt explain it, but an explanation wasn’t important right then.

What was important was that, in the resultant gloom, something was slumped over on the ground. Something that Gordon approached carefully, glancing around to make sure nothing else was laying in wait with a nasty surprise.

Nothing appeared, even as he took the last few steps, and his rigid restraint snapped.

“Scott!” His knee protested as it hit the street sharply but that was insignificant in the face of the ragdoll impersonation his eldest brother was doing spectacularly well. “Hey, Scott?”

His cold fingers found his brother’s throat, pressing up against the pulse point. Scott’s skin was almost as cold as his own, but the steady thrum of his heartbeat beat reassuringly against his fingertips.

Hurried footsteps behind him announced John’s arrival.

“Give me some light,” Gordon ordered, not looking up at him. A blink later and a pale, holographic blue washed over the pair of them. Tablets didn’t have the best torches in the world, but it did the job.

Scott’s eyes were closed, although the lack of response had already implied their brother was out cold. One had a spectacular ring of colour around it, matching the blotches that covered every visible section of skin. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth in a way that had Gordon fearfully inspecting his lip in the hopes that it was just a cut.

The light quivered a little as John knelt down on Scott’s other side.

“His watch is smashed,” the ginger reported. It made sense, considering how difficult it had been to track, but their watches were IR standard. They didn’t smash easily. “Broken wrist, too. How’s his head?”

“Bruised, like the rest of him,” Gordon replied. “Looks like he cut his lip on his tooth, and he’s going to have a fantastic shiner.” He gingerly felt around. “Splitting headache, too. His head’s not bleeding but it’s taken a hard knock.”

“Try and get a response while I deal with his wrist,” John ordered. The tablet light moved away from Scott’s face, leaving it shadowed by alley-gloom, but Gordon could still see well enough to lightly tap a less-colourful portion of his cheek.

“Hey, Scott,” he coaxed. “This isn’t a great place for a nap, you know, bro.” Rustling indicated that John was deploying something medical. Gordon wasn’t even surprised he had something on him, although it was probably brought along just in case gravity got the better of him, and not because he was expecting to patch up their brother when they’d left home earlier. “C’mon, Scotty.”

The faint groan he got was music to his ears.

“That’s right,” he encouraged. “Really not a good place to nap.”

In the gloom, he couldn’t make out the exact moment familiar blue eyes edged open, but he heard the second, louder, groan, followed almost immediately by a sharp inhale that could only be pain.

“G’don?”

“Right here,” he confirmed, resting his hands lightly on Scott’s shoulders in case his idiot of a brother thought attempting to sit up was a good idea. “John’s here, too.”

He got a pain-smothered grunt in response. Muscles twitched under his palms, and then he was predictably forced to keep Scott still.

“Nope,” he chirped. “No moving for you just yet. How’s his wrist, John?”

“Strapped up,” the ginger answered. “How aware is he?”

“’nuff,” Scott rasped weakly before Gordon could reply. “W’ah-ow.”

“Hospital or home?” Gordon looked away from Scott to glance at where John was once again poking at his tablet, somewhat awkwardly as he was also holding Scott’s arm still with one hand.

“’ome,” Scott interjected.

“We’re closer to Thunderbird One than the hospital,” John agreed. “Once we reach her we can run a scan.”

And if the scan showed up something they couldn’t handle at home, Thunderbird One could get Scott to a hospital faster than an ambulance. Gordon nodded.

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, looking back down at Scott. “I’ll need a hand picking him up.”

“Ic’n-”

“Nope.” He overrode Scott’s protest. “I doubt you can even see straight right now. You’re not walking.”

The wordless noise he got in response told him he was right, and that Scott didn’t want to admit it.

John’s tablet vanished somewhere in amongst the multitude of layers he was wearing as the ginger left Scott’s wrist to kneel opposite Gordon instead. “How do you want to do this?”

Gordon considered his options, quickly realising that the one that would hurt Scott the least was also the one his brother would hate the most. With no idea what damage he’d taken to the ribs, putting any substantial pressure on his abdomen could spell disaster.

He drew Scott’s unbroken wrist up, to renewed protest, and looped it around the back of his own neck. “It’s not far,” he said. “Bridal’s safest.” Not the easiest, but Gordon was always up for a challenge.

“No,” Scott huffed, but John nodded, like he’d come to the same conclusion. He probably had.

Between them it took no time at all to get Scott loosely in position, broken wrist cradled limply on his stomach as Gordon and John slipped their arms beneath him and prepared to shift.

“Whenever you’re ready,” John said, and Gordon’s mouth twisted into a wry grin.

“On three. One, two, three.”

Scott wasn’t light by any means, but despite his protests he didn’t resist as between the two of them they got him into the air, suspended between them for a moment before John carefully shifted his grip until the battered body of their big brother slipped neatly into Gordon’s arms.

His shoulders protested at the weight, but Gordon ignored them in favour of immediately starting to move. He wasn’t Virgil; he couldn’t carry Scott around as though he weighed nothing, and there was a definite, short, time limit before his muscles gave out.

Scott gave a pained huff, the air brushing past Gordon’s jaw. “Ic’n walk,” he muttered again. Gordon appreciated that he wasn’t trying to prove it, because if Scott actually tried, he’d almost certainly end up dropping him and probably injure them both in the process. At least Scott was mentally aware enough to recognise that.

“Not until we know how badly injured you are,” John told him firmly. “One’s not far from here.” Gordon let him lead the way, trusting him to pick out the shortest route to where the Thunderbird was secured. They left the gloom of the alley for the better-lit streets, and Gordon almost wished they hadn’t. The bruising had been bad enough in the half-light conjured by the tablet; under the powerful street lighting, Scott looked even worse.

When Gordon found out who did this to his brother, they were going to regret it.

Blue eyes, one barely able to open, were regarding him worriedly, as though Gordon was the one that needed fretting over. The hand slung over his shoulder squeezed shakily when something made him stumble, and Gordon grinned down at him thinly once he regained his footing.

“Nearly there,” he promised, both his brother and his protesting muscles. In front of him, John had reproduced his tablet from the volume of clothing he was wearing and was tapping away even as he led Gordon around another corner.

Thunderbird One glittered in the darkness of the park, tucked away mostly out of sight. The stealth coating Scott rarely bothered to use since the Zero-X had done its job at preventing gawkers gathering around, although now John had turned it off it was only a matter of time before late night crowds gathered.

Gordon stumbled again as he approached, muscles burning, and Scott let out an almost silent hiss. A hum of a hover stretcher murmured its way into earshot, guided by John, and Gordon gratefully let it take Scott’s weight, slipping his screaming arms out from underneath him and ducking away from the arm slung around his shoulder.

True to form, Scott immediately started to sit up, but John was there with a gentle but firm touch. In his other hand, the medscanner flickered yellow.

Rubbing at his protesting shoulders, Gordon was reluctantly relieved to hand over responsibility to his older brother as John somehow managed to keep Scott laying down long enough to get the stretcher inside Thunderbird One. Gordon followed, just in time to hear John sigh.

“-broken foot, so no, you couldn’t walk, Scott.”

“So,” he interrupted before Scott found a reason why that wouldn’t stop him. “What’s the verdict, Johnny?”

“Don’t call me that,” John snapped back automatically. “Nothing’s flagging up as beyond our facilities, but I’ve sent the results to Grandma for final verdict.”

Grandma, Virgil, and their arsenal of medical equipment could handle a lot, so that by itself wasn’t completely reassuring, but it went a little way towards it.

“Do we know what happened?” he asked, rather than dwell on that for long. “Scott?”

“N’dea,” his brother mumbled. “D’n r’mber ‘thing ‘fter th’arty.” He sounded put-out enough for it to be the truth.

Gordon caught John’s eye and the ginger’s lips thinned. They’d find out who did it, one way or another. No-one messed with their family and got away with it, no matter how much that contradicted with International Rescue’s philosophies.

Sometimes, a little ruthlessness was necessary.

[super-secret-sick-fics]

hii i requested the last fic and i loved it very much! excited for pt 2 :D

OH and it wasn’t even out of character it felt like exactly how they would react! you write suna especially well aquarius twins

Thank you!! I’m so glad you liked it :) Here’s part 2!! I didn’t proofread this at all, so I apologize for any mistakes. 

I tried to make it so that they could each be read independently. Also I am bad at endings sorry lmao. 

Sick & Delirious: A SunaOsa fic (part 2 of Sick at School)

Pair: Sick Suna, Caretaker Osamu

Word Count: 3,028

Warnings: Vomit, panic attack, swearing & fluff 

Part 1 Here 

___________________________

“Rintaro, you poor, poor baby!” Osamu’s mother cried as soon as she showed up to the front office of the school.

Shortly after the nurse agreed to let Osamu go home too, Suna and Osamu were escorted (slowly and with a small bin in hand) to the front to await Miya-san. They sat down and Suna almost immediately curled into Osamu’s warmth. If he wasn’t so sick, he’d be utterly embarrassed at how clingy he was being. Their hands had been joined since they left the classroom and Suna squeezed Osamu’s every time a cramp rolled through his body.

Now Miya-san was there, her hands immediately cupping Suna’s face and brushing back his hair.

“Geez, Ma. Give him some space. Bet ya won’t be that nice to me and I know you’re not being that nice to Tsumu,” Osamu scoffed.

“Well of course not,” she deadpanned, “yer both idiots. Rintaro is much nicer to your poor mother than her ungrateful children.” Osamu scoffed again.

“Thank you for allowing me to stay with you, Miya-san,” Suna interjected, undeterred by the Miya’s usual show. She looked over at him again and smiled gently.

“Of course. I’ve spoken with yer ma and she’ll bring over some clothes for ya when she’s off work. Now let’s go boys.”

***

“Shit, Rin,” Osamu woke up from his nap when Suna started heaving beside him. He sat up and rubbed Suna’s back as he leaned over the bed and threw up in the bin beside it. The crinkling plastic and splattering sounds reverberated painfully in Suna’s ears.

“S-sorry,” he spluttered.

“Don’t be,” Osamu whispered.

This was the third time in the last two hours that Suna and Osamu were awoken by Suna’s stomach. When they got back to the Miya’s house, Suna was directed to the guest room. Osamu leant him some clothes so he could change out of his uniform and brought him some water, crackers, and a bin. When he was getting ready to leave, Suna grabbed his wrist and asked him to stay. He wasn’t good at being sick and felt much better knowing Osamu was around to help.

When the fit let up, he rolled back into bed and wrapped his arms around Osamu’s stomach. He was shaking again, but this time it wasn’t because of the fever.

Honestly, he wanted to cry. He was so exhausted and his stomach ached so badly. His migraine was relentless. His body didn’t know whether it was cold or hot and all he wanted was to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time.

It didn’t help that Atsumu had set up camp for himself in the bathroom that was shared between the twins’ room and the guest room. He said that he didn’t mind the sleeping on the floor as long as it meant he could flush the vomit away immediately, instead of having it sit mocking him in the bin beside his bed.

The two of them seemed to be on opposite cycles. Every time Suna thought he could get some sleep, he could hear Atsumu start puking in the bathroom. Then every time Atsumu had quieted down for a bit, Suna’s stomach attacked him. He felt bad, knowing that Atsumu felt just as bad as he did and had to deal with the same things. Never in his life did he think that he would ever feel bad for stupid Atsumu. His fever must be pretty high.

“Rin,” Osamu sighed. Whenever they were both awake, Osamu’s hands were on Suna’s body somewhere, comforting him with little touches and gentle pats. Suna’s favorite thing was when one of his hands was in his hair, the other moving, ghosting his fingers up and down his back. Right now, one of his hands propped him up in the bed and the other was lying dormant on Suna’s head.

“Rin, are ya crying?”

Suna nodded. Osamu sighed again.

Slowly and carefully, as to not jostle Suna’s stomach he was sure, Osamu wiggled himself into lying down and repositioned Suna so he was laying on Osamu’s chest. Then he started ghosting his fingers up and down Suna’s back and caressing the back of his head. Suna wondered if Osamu knew that was his favorite.

“I’m sorry, Rin. I wish I could help ya,” he soothed and something inside Suna squeezed. He whimpered pathetically and curled further into Osamu’s chest.

With that, the dam broke loose. Hot tears started soaking Osamu’s shirt as Suna sobbed quietly.

“I-I don’t f-feel good,” he cried. His throat hurt, from the bile or being ill in general he wasn’t sure.

“I know, baby. I’m sorry,” Osamu comforted. If Suna were more cognizant, he probably would’ve blushed at the pet name.

He was sure that he liked Osamu and that Osamu liked him back, but they had never addressed it. They were both content to let things happened naturally, not minding the little more-than-friend’s touches here and there or the less-than-platonic-flirting they did at practice and in class. Being in this situation though and having Osamu being the one to take care of him really solidified how Suna felt.

Osamu let him cry for a while before Suna started hiccuping dangerously again.

“Rintaro, yer gonna make yer self sick again,” he exhaled. As if on cue, Suna gagged.

“N-no,” he moaned. Osamu sat up, taking Suna with him and reached down to pick up the bin beside the bed.

“Ya gotta let it happen, babe.” He put the bin on Suna’s lap. Suna glared at it half-heartedly before he felt his chest tighten uncomfortably and a gag forced its way out.

“How is there even anything left?” Osamu lamented. Suna answered with a painful heave. He also wondered the same thing.

Suna’s stomach felt hollow and yet nausea continued to plague him. The room spun as he heaved. His throat was scraped raw. At this point, he was barely aware of Osamu’s presence behind him. Through the fog, he knew he was there though, and that was reassuring enough.

A gurgle came from his stomach and he moaned. Within a few seconds, a wet, crackling, burp brought up the blue sports drink Osamu gave him to try and keep him hydrated. A few more painful heaves brought up more blue tinted vomit before his stomach seemed to allow him a break.

He collapsed into Osamu’s side, panting.

“My poor Rin,” Osamu cooed, but it was muffled, like he was talking to Suna through a pillow. He pulled Suna into his side and kissed the top of his head. The movements were happening in slow motion though, and Suna was, for the second time that day, thoroughly confused.

“‘Samu?” He tried, but his tongue was heavy in his mouth and he wasn’t sure that he made any sound.

“Yeah?” Osamu asked, rubbing up and down Suna’s arm. And wow….no. He didn’t like that. It set all of his nerves on edge. He tried to squirm away from the unwanted touch.

“Rin?”

Suddenly, everything was Too Much. He pushed on whatever was wrapped around him. The soft fabric beneath his hand itched painfully.

“Rin? What’s wrong?” A loud voice boomed in his ears and he flinched away.

“Le’ go...” he gasped, his chest felt like it was on fire. He weakly pushed again. Whatever was encasing him did not budge. His eyes burned and his surroundings swirled alarmingly.

“N-no,” he choked on something hot and sticky.

Then he was released from the bindings holding him and he felt the world tilt forward for just a second. His chest landed on something and it stopped. He was forced upright, and his field of vision changed. A blurry figure appeared in front of him. Maybe a person?

Something captured his face on either side and his eyes blew wide. Cold. No. Scratchy? No.

“Rinta...he...loo..me...whas…ong?” The voice exploded through his brain again and he whimpered. What was happening? Why was he so hot. It was so hot.

“Ho-t…”

Why was he alone? Wasn’t someone helping him before? Where did that person go? He needed help.

“Shit,” a voice cut through his haze. Osamu?

“It’s….I’ve go….”

Too quickly, he was moving. Whatever caged him before was back around him and he tried in vain to break free.

“‘Samu?” A new voice. He whined.

“Move,” too loud too loud too loud. He was released from the bindings again for just a second before being captured again. This time they were hot. And wet. And they torched his skin. He wriggled in yet another futile attempt to get free. What was that roaring sound?

“Whas...on?” The new voice again. Closer. It hurt his head.

“Hi….feve...high…”

Suna was in a new space. Things were different around him now and the sudden change made him dizzy. He coughed and then his mouth was full. He dropped his jaw heavily and his mouth was empty again.

“Fuck!” A screech and he moaned in response.

He was moving again and then his entire body was being pricked with icicles. It put his surroundings a little more in focus.

“Cold!” He shrieked. He tried to get away from the ice, but was held down.

“Tsumu….sorr...ease..” Another force held him down. It wasn’t as strong, but Suna couldn’t get away from it.

“No no no no…” he repeated, his entire face felt heavy. Was that possible? He writhed in pain. It hurt it hurt he wanted out.

“I’m sorry, Rintaro, I’m sorry,” the first voice shook. It was clearer now. It still pounded in his skull.

“Please please please please,” he said and it hurt his throat.

“Rin, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” It was Osamu. He thrashed harder.

“I’m sorry, Samu, I can’t—“ oh that was Atsumu. One of the heavy things holding him down was gone. He fought against the last one. He almost won. It was gone for a second before there was a splash and something behind him grabbed him around his waist and held him down.

“No please it hurts please.” He begged. Someone was crying.

“Rin, it’s okay. Please calm down.” Osamu was behind him now. Behind him. Oh he must be what’s holding him down. Okay okay. That was fine. But why was he torturing him like this?

“Samu no…” he tried to push away. He was really really tired though.

“Yeah, Rin it’s me. I’m trying to help. Please let me,” Osamu said. But his voice was wrong. It was shaking and tight. Was he upset? He was trying to help? Okay okay. He trusted Osamu. He relaxed into Osamu’s hold. It got tighter.

Suna wasn’t sure how much time went by. He tried really hard to trust Osamu, even though the ice prickled and burned at his skin. Eventually, the pain lessened.

There was a soft whimpering sound and he couldn’t figure out who it was for a while. Then he realized it was him. Next, he felt the tears on his face and his entire body shivering.

Slowly, his environment came into focus. He was in the bathroom, more specifically a bathtub.

Finally, the fog in his brain cleared and he put two and two together. Osamu put him in a cold bath to bring his fever down.

“Osamu,” he said through chattering teeth.

“I’m sorry, Rin, I’m sorry,” Osamu said. His face was buried in Suna’s shoulder, but even still, he could tell hear his voice shaking from the cold. More than that, he sounded desperate. Almost defeated.

Suna hated it. He brought a hand up behind him and placed it on Osamu’s head, letting his own collapse back onto his friend’s shoulder. Osamu stiffened before whipping his head up.

“Rin?” He choked and Suna nodded lethargically.

“Can we please get out?” he whispered. Osamu nodded quickly. He got out and wrapped himself in a towel before helping Suna up. It was then that he realized he was still wearing his clothes. They clung to him and he grimaced at the feel. Osamu enveloped Suna in a fluffy towel and hugged him tightly.

Suna relished in the warmth for a second.

“C’mon, let’s getcha outta these wet clothes,” Osamu murmured and let Suna go. He lead him back to the guest room and sat him down in the desk chair. Suna’s teeth chattered noisily.

Osamu left, only to return a minute later with new clothes.

“Do ya need help?” he asked. Still unnaturally soft. It was starting to unnerve Suna. He nodded in response.

A little while later, Suna and Osamu were both sitting on the bed, dressed in dry clothes. Osamu sat in front of him, rubbing a towel over his hair, trying to get as much of it dry as he could. He was quiet. Suna was content to let things settle before he asked what was wrong. He knew Osamu would either talk to him when he was ready or if Suna pried a little.

His hands stopped moving and Suna was about to ask if he could lay down when Osamu bent forward and buried his face in Suna’s neck again.

Suna was a little lost, but put a hand on Osamu’s still damp hair anyway.

“Still too warm,” Osamu mumbled. He nuzzled his face into Suna’s shoulder. He was starting to get really worried and really agitated at Osamu’s weird behavior.

“Samu,” he demanded softly, “what’s the deal?” Osamu tensed in his hold then he sat up so abruptly it made Suna a little woozy. When the vertigo passed, he was face to face with a furious Osamu.

“What’s the deal?” Osamu seethed. Suna looked at him with wide eyes.

“Rin, you were gone!” Osamu shouted, making Suna’s head pound. Osamu stood up ferociously and started pacing the room. Suna wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

“Osamu, please I don’t feel good. Can you just be straight with me?” Suna complained. Osamu turned on him. His face was contorted and Suna was taken aback when he saw tears rolling down flushed cheeks.

“Osamu, what—“

“Rin, ya were gone. Ya were here but ya just weren’t. Ya didn’t know who I was or who Tsumu was and ya didn’t know where you were and fuck. It was terrifyin’. Ya screamed when I put ya in the tub. Saying that I was torturing ya and that ya were caged and shit,” Osamu sobbed. Suna’s chest twinged.

This was not his Osamu. He brought this man to this state?

“I was so scared and I didn’t know what to do. Ya kept throwin’ up but it didn’t seem like ya even knew it was happenin’,” Osamu continued. He fell to his knees.

“Yer fever was so high and it happened so quickly. Tsumu tried to help, but he’s still sick. My mom left to go get more medicine and I felt so helpless,” he whimpered before devolving into a fit of heart wrenching sobs.

Suna stared at the boy before him, shell-shocked. He eased himself onto the ground and crawled over to Osamu and hugged him. It wasn’t long before Osamu’s arms were wrapped around his middle and he started crying into Suna’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” he soothed, “I don’t remember a lot of that. I remember being confused and cold and feeling like I was being held down, but I don’t remember anything else. I’m sorry, Osamu. I’m so sorry.” Osamu nodded, but kept crying and that was okay.

They stayed like that a little while longer, Suna shushing Osamu gently. Eventually, Osamu pulled back and wiped his face. Suna smiled softly at him and he chuckled sadly.

“Sorry,” he sniffled. Suna shook his head.

“I really need to lie down,” he said. He was starting to feel really heavy and nauseas again and it was getting difficult to keep his eyes open.

Osamu nodded and helped him back to the bed. He lay down and Osamu quickly followed, enveloping Suna into his chest. Suna nuzzled his face into the soft fabric of Osamu’s shirt. He felt Osamu place a kiss into the top of his head and give him a little squeeze.

“I’m sorry again,” he mumbled, half asleep already.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad yer alright. I’m sorry I freaked out on ya.” He stroked his hand up and down Suna’s back.

“‘S’okay. I’m just that important,” Suna yawned. Osamu chuckled and it warmed Suna’s heart and calmed his mind.

“Ya sure are. Go to sleep. I’m not goin’ anywhere,” Osamu said. With his blessing, Suna fell asleep.

***

Later that night, Atsumu would show them a picture of the two of them cuddled up and drooling on each other that he took when he mustered up the strength to come check on things. Osamu yelled at him but Suna asked him to send it to him. He may have set it as his phone’s home screen.

By the next morning, Suna woke up to the sound of Osamu heaving beside him. It was unpleasant and made his stomach turn. Before he realized what was happening, he was sprinting to the bathroom and pushing Atsumu out of the way and emptying his stomach into the toilet.

“Sunarin, please,” Atsumu choked before turning to the bath tub.

Miya-san ran into the room and surveyed the situation.

“My poor boys,” she sighed, “I’m gonna go set up the livin’ room so I can watch all three of ya.”

And so Suna spent the next few days camped out in the Miya’s living room. Soon enough, Atsumu was well enough to help out his mom here and there. And when Suna was feeling up to it, he returned the favor and rubbed Osamu’s back as he puked disgustingly.

“Ya can go home if ya want,” Osamu panted between rounds. Suna shook his head.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than with you, stupid.”

Osamu smiled gratefully before his cheeks puffed out and he turned back to the bin. Suna laughed and kissed the back of his sweaty neck.

Maybe they didn’t define their relationship with labels, but Suna was pretty positive that he wanted to stick with Osamu for the rest of his life.

[forthehpfanboys]

Weasley’s Wild Ways

Pair: George Weasley x Reader x Fred Weasley; he/him.

Summary: You, a head strong Hufflepuff, stands up against Umbridge once and catches the twins attention, which most would say was a bad thing. What happens when they swap from sweet to sour and back again?

Warnings: Manipulation, abuse, swearing, probably more, god I’m bad at this.

Notes: Requested and I’m so sorry this took so long and it’s low-key cringy! And it’s super long, to be honest. I’ll edit it tomorrow? I’ve been having a lot of computer problems and second guessing myself on stories. I’ve been rewriting them at least once lately. 

~DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE~

-

You really should’ve noticed when they noticed you.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Umbridge’s classroom all but melted into ashes and smoke the day after you stood up against her and her squabbling little butler and got detention. It should’ve been clear when Draco and his gang apologized not even an hour after teasing you about your family, their faces covered in bruises and small cuts. 

You probably should’ve noticed how your friends held their tongues around you, how teachers avoided you and how two shadows seemed to follow you between classes, how your usual bullies left you alone and so much more. There was a lot you should’ve noticed, but with the pink toad and her helper turning Hogwarts into actual hell, you were far too stressed to focus on others. Stress on uniforms being perfect, staying 8 inches from the opposite sex, doing hypothetical school work instead of actual spells. 

While there was a bucket load of stuff you didn’t notice, there were a few things you did notice, like how the Weasley twins paid attention to you during your shared classes. Like the time you got called on by Snape for a potion ingredient and one of the brothers, you assumed it was George, but you didn’t like assuming, slid you a ripped piece of parchment stating the one you forgot, just about saving you from losing house points.

How you caught their attention, you weren’t even sure. You were a Hufflepuff, they were gryffindors, but everyone knew they should’ve been put in Slytherin, judging from the reputation they held up. In the end, it made sense, they were quite brave, especially since they could look Umbrigde in the eyes and cuss her out if she was doing something they weren’t fond of to friends or family. However, they did become fond of you.

They used to see you as a small, stereotypical, soft Hufflepuff but that changed when you stood up against the pink disaster. You caught their eye, you intrigued them and that was a feat in itself. Everyone, except you apparently, could tell the red-headed twins wanted you and no one exactly stopped them from getting what they wanted, which led to their next move.

You just entered the dining hall, text books in arms, and moving across to your yellow themed table to join your friends. You sat in the usual spot, and greeted them with the usual cheery hi and a bright smile. Your group nodded at you, casting a nervous smile and quick hello your way.

You watched the faces of your friends turn pale when the room grew ever so darker and they fled like cockroaches exposed to a light. You looked around at the now empty benches before turning around to check out what the big fuss was. What you say made your own reflection turn pale. Your eyes met red and gold robes before glancing up at two identical, freckled faces.

“H-Hi?” You stammered out, your voice shaky as you fiddled with your own robes. “Um- Can I um- help you?” Your brain was wracking over what you might’ve said to gain the attention of the Weasleys. Oh fuck, was it over what you said to Jordan Lee yesterday? “I-if this is about Lee? Because I was just joking!” 

The twins let out a chuckle at your panic before sitting, one on either side of you. 

“No, no, this isn’t about that. Lee can take a joke.” The one to your left spoke up. Your eyes frantically bounced between the two red-heads and it dawned on you that you couldn’t tell them apart if your life depended on it. 

“Besides, we’d never target you. You’re perfect. We’re just here to see you, dove.” Leftie spoke up, chuckling as he rested his chin on his palm. His blue eyes looked you up and down before glancing at his doppelganger.

“Oh thank Merlin!” You sighed out, your shoulders relaxing slightly. You couldn’t help but think their chuckles were actually quite charming. “T.. Wait, see me?” You could feel your body heating up. 

“Godric, I knew we picked a good one.” Leftie spoke up again as Rightie scooted closer to you.

“Hush, mate, don’t give us away that easily.” Rightie was chuckling close to your ear as he wrapped an arm around your waist, scooting you closer.

“Oh, come on, Georgie.” Leftie Fred stated as he also advanced into your personal bubble. “Have a little fun.”

“Just don’t wanna scare him, is all.” George shot you an easy smile. The room was starting to feel like an active volcano to you.

“Right, right, Hufflepuffs scare easily-” Fred’s voice was filled with sass. 

“We do not! Don’t you dare fall into that trap!” You pressed a finger into his chest, your face pulled into a sneer. “Hufflepuffs can be just as brave as Gryffindors. I’m sure Cedric and one Dora Tonks proved that very well, wouldn’t you say?”

“Ohhoo, feisty! I hit a nerve.” Fred was smirking now. You should’ve known he would’ve wanted a reaction out of you. Fred was like that; always pushing buttons, trying to piss people off and see the reaction. One could say it was his favorite thing above quidditch, but that might be a stretch.

“Fred, apologize. We’re not here to patronize him, remember?” George smiled, gently patting your head to try to get you to calm you down. 

“Alright, alright. Love, I’m sorry. Now between you and me, I don’t really believe someone’s house defines them.” The tall red-head leaned in close to you. Probably too close, but you could see the flicks of green in his eyes. You knew your face was turning bright red. 

“Fine. Whatever.” You grumbled out, pushing him back. You turned away, only now remembering the hand around your waist. “Oi, let go.” You gently bapped at his hand away. “And what exactly did you mean by ‘picked the right one’?” You shot Fred a glare.

“Don’t worry about it, muffin.” George grabbed your chin and made you look back at him. “You’ll find out soon enough.” With that, both the twins just.. Left.

They got up and left like they didn’t call you three couple-esc nicknames and fluster the shit out of you. You spent the rest of your lunch mulling over what just happened and barely eating. You were anxious for Potions class to happen.

You had every right to be anxious. Snape had changed everyones seats, mixing up the houses against his better judgement just to separate the two Weasleys. He was convinced that the two trouble makers managed to cheat, even with the none cheating quills and seperate seats during the test. 

Anyway, the dark glares the Weasley’s kept shooting toward Snape were terrifying to say the least. Snape had unknowingly moved them away from their price and away from each other. Fred was sat next to some sour Ravenclaw who was forced away from her friend while George was sat next to one of your Hufflepuff friends, who was literally sweating bullets.

You didn’t know the two were fuming with jealousy or feel them glance your way every now and then to make sure the Slytherin sitting next to you didn’t cause you problems or touch you the wrong way. Luckily, you managed to recreate the potion skillfully, even helping the Slytherin every once in a while. 

When class finally dismissed after what felt like forever, you gathered your books into arms and began to follow the crowd of students. You could barely get out the door, however. A hand grabbed your arm and pulled you from the crowd. You looked up to see one of the twins grabbing your arm while the other walked behind you. They couldn’t stand seeing you next to that green branded snake anymore.

“Guys?” You looked between them, once again losing track of who was who. When you didn’t get an answer, you spoke up again. “What’s going on?”

“We did mention how we picked you, right?” The one behind you spoke up while the other tightened his grip on your wrist. You nodded your head as the twin in front of you stopped walking. He observed the hall before opening a hidden passageway and dragging you in. “Now that we have privacy we can explain.” 

The passageway was dark, except for the few torches that lined the watts. The shadows of the twins loomed over the pale yellow walls, making you feel so, so small. You looked along the arched pathway, an audible gulp heard in the near silence. You jumped back a bit when they took a testing step toward you.

“But what about our other classes?” You stammered out, biting your lip as they took steps toward you. You took one step back for every one they advantage toward you until your back bumped against the wall. “We shouldn’t be late.” You looked back at the bricks your back bumped against, patting it with your palm to make sure you were, in fact, against a wall.

“We can just make up the classes, doll, relax.” One put a hand against the wall by your head, leaning over. “Just listen to us, will ya?” 

“Freddie and I have been watching you for a while now.” George spoke up as he leaned in a little himself. Ok, that isn’t creepy at all. “And we’ve decided, well, your ours.”

“..What?” You stared at them before shoving yourself between them and walking down the hallway a little bit. “Excuse me? I’m sorry- I’m yours now?” You put a hand over your chest as the red-heads glanced between each other. “Hold on, let me get this straight.” You clapped your hands together before continuing. “You have been watching me for the past couple of- well, who knows how long and have just decided, out of blue AND without asking me, that I’m just yours?!”

The twins glanced between each other for a second time, before nodding at each other, turning to you and nodding again.

“Yeah, Pretty much.” They spoke in unison, moving their hands in a so-so manner. A wicked grin appeared on both boys, causing you to feel uneasy.

“Hit the nail on the head.” Fred spoke up, turning to his brother.

“Should’ve been a Ravenclaw.” George crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Still, pretty sma-”

“You have no right to decide that!” You shouted, hands balled into fists at your side. Both twins snapped their heads to you, their faces barely lit under the light provided by the torches.  “I’m a person, ya know, with feelings and opinions and right now, I’m starting to think I don’t you should go fu-” You were cut off by Fred grabbing your neck and pushing you into another wall. You grabbed his wrists, groaning when your head snapped against the brick. He wasn’t squeezing your neck hard enough to choke you, but just to hold her still.

“Finish that sentence, dolly, and you may end up on our hit list.” Fred’s voice was deeper than you’d ever heard before and it was causing panic to flood inside your veins. 

“See, (Y/n). When we want something, we get it.” George spoke up, his head popping up over Fred’s shoulder. “And what we want is you.”

“Whether you come with us, be ours and do what we say is up to you.” The man holding you still let out a deep laugh. “And if we can’t persuade you with our.. Reputation, I recommend you just remember one thing,” Fred paused and leaned into your ear, “We can do a lot more damage than that pink toad can.” He gave your neck a squeeze while he spoke, causing your squeak to echo in the empty hall.

“So what do you say, love?” A sinister smirk was across George’s lips. Fred’s grip eased up, allowing you to take in a big breath. You wanted the thumping of your heart to not be in your ears.  

“W-Well- I- Uh-” You stammered out. Your brain was trying to figure out the correct response to ‘Hi, we own you now and if you fight back, say goodbye to your future-’. “I-I-I think, um-” Suddenly the hand around your neck was leaving and instead straightening out your uniform. 

“Where did our manners go, Georgie?”

“Your right. Mum would kill us for disrespecting someone so soft.”

How do they act like they aren’t threatening you all? How are they acting so calm when Fred’s hand print was surely on your neck?

“Reckon we should give him some time to figure out what side he’s on?” Fred finished fixing your uniform for you and backed up, putting his hands in his pocket.

How were they smiling like they didn’t hurt you?

“Sounds like a splendid idea!” With George ending the conversation, they both left the way they came, leaving you on the cusp of freaking out as they strolled to their next class. 

You slid down the wall, a shaky hand going to your neck to feel any kind of damage. You stared blankly at the wall. You mulled over words, sentences, expressions- everything. In the end you had several questions, just like earlier, but one stuck out the most.

Why you?

You weren’t sure what time it was when you left the hidden passageway and, frankly, you didn’t care. You strolled down the hallway, hand rubbing your sore neck as you walked to the Hufflepuff common room. You tapped the barrels the same way you had for the past 7 years and slipped inside. You immediately went up the winding staircase, to your dorm and plopped yourself down on the bed.

You didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. You mostly stared at the ceiling thinking over your options. It felt like you only had two. A; be their whatever and stay with them until they get bored and live in hell or B; say no and live in hell.

Either way, hell was coming for you. 

You stared out the window, watching the sun come up. You didn’t want to go to breakfast but you haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday and your stomach was deciding to go to war with your tired brain.

You dragged your body out of bed, heading to the bathroom to do bathroom things and got dressed.. Kinda. You ended up buttoning your shirt wrong and not even bothering with your tie, letting it just dangle awkwardly as you walked to the dinning hall. You were faarr too tired for this shit and it wasn’t even noon yet.

Your tired legs led you to the nearest empty seat at the Hufflepuff table. You shoved the plate away and opted for letting your skull thump against the table. You didn’t bother looking up when you heard a familiar chuckle, instead you just closed your eyes, ignoring the two warm bodies pressing into your sides.

“Aw, come on now, dove. You gotta eat.” A sickeningly sweet tone that you recognized as George’s voice whispered to you.

“I’d rather sleep, thank you.” You spat out, your lips pulled into a grimace.

“Wait, you didn’t sleep?” Fred spoke up, his mouth full, you could tell. “Why didn’t you sleep?”

“Fred, relax. I’m sure he has his reasons.”

“Just stress, guys. Please give me space.” You grumbled out. How the hell do they expect you to sleep with what happened yesterday? The hand print on your neck had faded, thank god, but still. You were surprised when they scooted away from you a smidgen. You should’ve noticed them sitting beside you. Of course they saved you a seat- or did they? Who cares. 

“Was it over our offer?”

“Offer? Was it really an offer? How the hell could you consider that an offer?” You lifted your head, shooting one of them a glare before sliding the plate back in front of you and biting into a slice of toast. 

“Still so feisty, especially for someone half asleep. Ow!” Fred rubbed his arm after George hit him. “Ok, ok.” Fred fiddled with his fingers before reaching out to gently caress your neck, causing you to flinch away every so slightly. “I’m glad it healed up some. I’m sorry I lost my temper yesterday. I didn’t mean to hurt my little dove.” 

“It’s, um.. It’s ok?” Of course your statement was more of a question. It wasn’t ok that he nearly choked you out against the wall, but at least he apologized. You couldn’t help but smile a little when he smiled brightly at you. You didn’t want to admit his smile was cute.

“So did you decide?” George spoke up, his head tilted when you turned to look at him. 

“No.. I.. I need more time.” You turned back to your plate, gulping quietly. You went back to eating, trying to get rid of the small bubbles of anxiety in your tummy. The flip flopping of the twins personalities had your head spinning. Maybe they were only being nice for appearances and would beat the shit out of you later. You ate as much as you could handle, hoping it would counter the sleep your brain was begging for, instead it only seemed to make you more tired. 

You let out a small huff when one twin wrapped his arm around you, pulling you into his side. He gently directed your head to lay against his shoulder, only confusing you more. You opened your mouth to question him, but he interrupted you.

“Nap. I’ll wake you up for class.” His voice was soft. Seriously, what the fuck? You licked your lips anxiously. You tried to fight it, but his warm body and your full belly dragged your eyelids down.

You were woken by loud chatting and someone shaking your shoulder. You blinked a few times, adjusting to the light before rubbing your eyes and stretching. You looked around, realizing you were in transfiguration, your first class of the day. You furrowed your brows before looking to your side and seeing George next to you. 

“Good morning, muffin. How did you sleep?” He smiled at you, patting down any stray hairs on your head.

“Good, I guess.” Your voice was rough and scratchy, showing how out you’d been. “How did I-”

“Georgie here decided it’d be better to give you a few extra minutes of sleep instead of waking you up.” Fred turned around in his seat, shooting you a classic Weasley Half Smile.

“Oh.. Thank you.” You casted the younger twin your own small smile just before McGonagall came in and started going on a long tangent to herself about students being inappropriate attire in the halls, making you question what the poor witch had seen.

Class mulled over as it always did, slower than a snail racer. While McGonagall was going on about the many uses of transfiguring a log into a tiny hut to hide from shelter, you were busy in your head. Suddenly the twins weren’t as bad as everyone said, but.. But at the same time they were worse. You were brought back to reality when Fred slipped you a note. When you opened the folded paper, you covered your mouth to stop yourself from giggling. It was a moving drawing of McGonagall as a cat, all fluffed up in the rain, running in a circle trying to avoid the droplets.

Before you knew it, you were in potions with Snape again, but it was different this time. Fred and George had done something, apparently, leading the three of you allowed to sit next to each other once again. George repeated instructions to you without judgement while Fred showed you the proper way to add the ingredients, and of course they made you laugh with cheesy jokes while doing it all. The three of you ended up making a pretty stable potion by the end of the hour.

The day went on relatively uneventfully after your classes finished up and you soon found yourself all but passing out in your dorm room after dinner. As days passed you grew closer to the red-headed beaters and soon forgot the mishap that happened when they cornered you all but a week ago. So you gave them your answer, not that you had much of a choice. 

The twins were nothing but sweet to you after that. Fred would carry your books between classes, even if you told him not too. He’d help you finish long assignments and take the blame for your failed potion projects if it was needed. George would leave small gifts on your pillow, usually treats they swiped from Honeydukes. He’d remind you that you are, in fact, human and need to rest after hours of studying.

Everything was going great! You three were giggling and joking, occasionally pushing each other, trying to knock the other off their chair, disturbing the piece in the library when it came to a halt. It came to a halt when a fellow hufflepuff girlie literally wiggled between you and one of the freckled quidditch players. She went on to ask for help about some magical creature care homework she’d gotten. Before you could answer, the twins swept you out of the library, grumbling about how their mom would give them an earful for hurting a girl, so Ginny would have to do it. 

“Oh, babe, no! Not again.” You spoke up, trying to pull your arms free. “Come on! No need to be jealous.” You giggled. Yup, the truly had you wrapped around their fingers.

“But dove, we’re just-” They spoke at the same time, turning to look at you.

“Trying to keep me safe, I know! She just wanted help!” You smiled at them, standing on your tippy toes to give them a short kiss on the nose. “Relax, guys. If I feel uncomfortable, I’ll tell you.”

“Will you?” George asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course! Have I ever lied to you before?”

“No.. Alright. We trust you, muffin.” Fred pressed a hand against your lower back, shooting you a sweet smile. “Now, how about you scuttle ahead, hmm? Head off to the Gryffindor common room; password is chalk dust. We’ll meet you right there.”

“Are you sure?” You looked between them but let out a tiny gasp when Fred gently pushed you forward with the hand on your back.

“Of course, (Y/n). We’ll be right behind you!” George spoke up, the usual sugar coated grin across his face. With that, you nodded your head, practically skipping down the hallway. You were oblivious to the dark glare the twins shot the Hufflepuff girl who awkwardly excited the library before heading to find their little sister. You should’ve noticed when Ginny came over to them with some bandaged knuckles and a small cut on her lip the next day, but you didn’t. You were too wrapped up in the sugar quills George gave you that night and the cute compliment filled note Fred left by your wand on your bedside table. 

Honestly, the Weasley Twins had you wrapped around their finger. They were wild individuals who always got what they wanted and no one could stop them. They had their ways, some painful, some humiliating, and no one fought against them, not even you.

[tothestarsandbackmoved]

Rant about interstellar

i have before but ill do it again!

interstellar touches me for many many reasons.

first off, the entire premise and setting and the world building in it. the dust storms, the failing crops. the protagonist does say at one point- "humanity was born on earth. they were never meant to stay here" and that just,,, hits me you know? presently we've seen the emergence of no human exploration besides the probes and the ISS. there are plans but the same curiosity just seems dead. interstellar stretches that and shows us what would happen when human curiosity and the desire to explore would die. we'd kill everyone on the planet and soon starve ourselves. the blights- the illnesses- the dead medicare- that's a very bleak future, but a very real one. the movie does both its part about scaring the viewer about it- as well as giving us hope about wormholes and quantum data and singularities and how we'd save ourselves. you can see that the old generation is talking about their days and how better or worse it would be. in the end, on the cooper satellites, you see the interviews being played- and it really breaks me. that was a generation that thought it was the end. the end of human life. the final descent and that was it. and then they see the five dimensions and getting lifted and their lives are essentially turned around. this isn't just the older people though. we see that the gen z then, like cooper's son have also mostly been brought up to *live*. we see that he tries to get into school and actually get into uni and find a job in one of the remaining sectors of the world which still offer something other than farm corn- raise family. You see that the teachers also say this? they teach them to fight blights and sustain crops because they’re losing more and more to disease each year. Humanity’s slowly being packed up and demolished and they aren’t seeing it coming. at all.

then there’s the quote which is recurring throughout the movie:

“do not go gentle into the good night”

the professor says this all the time. as they’re leaving- his last few dying words- as they’re preparing. and you know what? i’ll say it. this is where the next important theme comes in. Desperation. When he initially sends them out- he hasn’t solved gravity yet, and he knows he never will. Not without the quantum data from a black hole- something again, he can never get. Which is why he implies that there’s a Plan B and cooper can see murphy again (this is also very important- scroll down for this). He breaks all their trust- and he knows he’ll die before seeing the end of the mission- and you can’t die with guilt, not really. He knows that he can’t be held accountable because he’s dead. He’s well aware that his plan is a hail mary- and it wouldn’t have worked anyways. He’s counting on Plan B, and that’s all there is to it. He uses the quote as a reminder to himself- because he’s torn too. He isn’t inherently evil, at all. He’s the precarious thread the entire mission dangles by- but he’s willing to risk that too. He’ll be long, long dead before humanity dies- or moves- and this is his last try.

Now for the second part of this quote. As I talked about before- the quote feels more like a reminder to himself- and not actually something that inspires hope in the crewmates. But ironically, it ends up becoming what guides murph. As the professor is dying, she tells him “you’ve been doing this with both your arms tied behind your back”- that’s actually when she finds out about his whole plan. This is the failure of the professor- but at the same time, it becomes the moment he passes the torch to murph. The professor died, knowingly sending his own daughter into the reaches of space. He prioritized his need to save humanity over the love for his own daughter. But, murph isn’t like that. When she finds out about this, she remembers the promise her dad made to her.

“I’ll be back when you’re the age I am now”

and now, she knows he’s lied. But he hasn’t done it on purpose. and she understands that. She makes it HER goal that they don’t go gentle into the good night. She knows that this is probably futile, but she’s going to try. and she’s not going to try thinking that she’ll probably fail- like the professor did (in resignation for plan B)- she’s going to try to bring cooper back.

Third, coming back to desperation. A bold, bold act of desperation is what dr mann did. (I have some qualms about the actor playing estranged astronauts- anyways). Him sending out that sensor- knowing that it will bring humans back to him, while simultaneously jeopardizing the entire mission, and possibly the fate of humanity. He knows what he has done- but he has gone insane alone- and he’d betray his entire cause to see a human face again. This movie really says something about what humans are willing to do. On one hand, you have a woman who singlehandedly saves them all- for human love, and on the other, a man who is willing to commit genocide (that’s what i think it is, dont ask) to see someone else. He messes up everything, deliberately, and goes from “the greatest and bravest man to walk the earth” to a “cold and desperate villain”. This theme has a lot to do with what is happening right now too. Forgive the activism, but we do have people who knowingly exploit and burn and ravage the earth, for their own good- and they’re insane to the point that they genuinely can’t see right from wrong. Sure, you could argue that he was motivated by the need to preserve your own life. But if you give his cause *any* context, you see how wrong he is. This is flailing human desperation, pure and simple.

Now, approaching the themes that actually make it as good as it is. Dr Brand is easily my favourite character in the movie. We get to see her as a brilliant scientist initially, and her arc- is perfect, honestly. For example, take the wormhole handshake- as their going through interdimensional space- where time isn’t linear and your brain gets fried if you try to comprehend it- she recognizes a *being* in that space. If you recall that scene, she reaches out, and meets *them*- someone she knows is otherworldly and entirely above humans (we later learn it is Cooper in the matrix- and i have things to say about that too) and makes contact. She suggests, as both a human- and a scientist- that it may be love that transcends dimensions. She makes first contact with beings that may be their salvation- or destruction- and i think that is definitely the peak of human existence.

She argues that love may be what connected the crew to higher dimensions, and I'll dare to say that she’s right. Love is what made Cooper try to contact murph. Love is what made them dare to save humans. Love was what got her there. She tells them to go to Edmund's planet- not just because she loves him, but because she also makes relevant points AND her gut. It might be stretching it to say that was why she was right- but it is worth introspection. Dr Brand represents the best of humanity and she does carry it, doesn’t she? She settles on the planet for ‘the long nap’ in the end. She tries to save everyone- like on the mountain planet- and she loves. She hopes and she trusts and is unwaveringly honest and courageous. This could become a Dr Brand stan blog for all I care.

Moving on

We have the ‘them’. These are the mysterious threads that tie all parts of the movie together. A black hole to a little girl’s bookshelf. Worlds galaxies apart. A very important thing to note here is that the characters recognize that this is humanity, just very, very far out. And most importantly, wise. This is a civilization who has surpassed the ordinary dimensions, and *mortal* time. They could’ve easily saved all of humanity and given them the planet they were looking for. But their entire ineffable plan, and only putting things where they were needed- was what made them greater than just someone who helps others. Only being able to get binary signals through an intergalactic wormhole, building bookshelves that become a huge metaphor for humanity trying to claw at knowledge- and actually slowly pushing the books forward. The ‘them’ weren’t ordinary humans at all. They definitely hinted and gave me a brief, fickle glance beyond what humans could be- raw possibilities.

Then, we have cooper. This makes it hard to write for him- and do his character justice- but I will try. His character, essentially, is brought down to selflessness, love, a brutal, brutal sense of humour- and the courage- the heavy, heavy courage to sacrifice himself. He’s also the polar opposite of what Dr mann stands for. 

His first important point- in my opinion- is when the movie is starting. I didn’t walk in expecting this from him, not really. You see a dying earth- and this man is (alone in his fight, NASA doesn’t count yet) fighting the system alone. He fights for his son, tries for his father in law, and then the most important relationship- his daughter. He’s seeing an earth where not even *children* are curious, or willing, or interested in anything greater. He sees this in his daughter, though. Hence, the bookshelf- the gravity, and the plain curiosity. 

I’ll dare to say that at this point, humanity’s a dying, dying flame. And what he sees in his daughter, what we see in his daughter, is a rebirth of potential. She has the human spark, so to speak. He sees that, and he makes promises, and is willing to bring the world to its knees to protect her. And he knows he might not be there when Murph burns strong, and bright, and becomes the saviour of humanity- but he hopes.  An important element is the promise, which I mentioned earlier, but it defines their relationship. The promise that he’ll be back when they’re the same age. They both know that it’s not true. They can see the lie, but that promise also empowers them to do what they did when their paths diverge.

Cooper goes to Mann's planet with the vague hope that he’ll be back in time. Murph does most of what she does because she thinks that it’ll bring her father back. Even towards the end, when Cooper willingly jumps into gargantua, a supermassive black hole- which is the literal heart of darkness, he does it in the attempt to save his daughter, and hopes she can get the quantum data at the cost of his life. 

About Murph, we mostly see her through the eyes of Cooper in the beginning. A curious and lovable and stubborn tween who just wants to grow up with her dad and do their science experiments. Her perseverance is phenomenal- she loses her dad despite her warnings and asking- and realizes that her loss is something undefinable, but there. In a way, she grows to understand both her responsibility and her part to play, and why her father did what he did. The ‘ghost’ is another plot device- a mysterious figure who messes with the gravity and knocks her books down. And she sees a message there. She tells him about ‘don’t go’ and i can’t begin to describe how beautifully poetic and heartbreaking it is that they realize the significance of that at the same time, and how it ties together. It is hard for me to fathom that scene really- cooper is in an interdimensional matrix, inside a supermassive black hole, and he tries to tell his daughter two things. (a) trying to stop himself from going out and on the mission, which he knows is deemed to fail and (b) sending the quantum data, because that is what mattered in the end, anyways. The ghost comes full circle- and also says what he had to say, when it was most important. And for those who’ve seen the movie, i just really have to put this quote out there:

‘It was you. It was always you. You were my ghost, dad’

And in that, the movie completes itself. It talks about unfailing love, the peak and fall of humanity, and the potential of curiosity.

In this essay I will...

[hitsuackerman]

What in the World? (Akaashi Keiji x Reader) pt.12

a/n: it begins >:)

Akaashi’s lineup: @alluring-akaashi @oikawalmart-hq @extrasugafree @bbykiyoomi @apricotjihyo @awings @simpformiya @sayakaaaaaa @colorseeingchick @demursv1ogs​ @chrisrue15 @beanst0ck @something-that-idk (i have no idea why i can’t tag some of you :( huhu )

links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 13

Time flew by so fast in this dimension. Now that you were well adjusted and loving the new life here, it had not dawned on you that 7 months had already passed. Things were moving smoothly and pleasantly.

“Here you go.” Akaashi handed you a snack bar. The two of you (well maybe three if Bokuto is included) were practically inseparable. The team had finally managed to pin the both of you down and confirm that you two were indeed dating. “Did you sleep well?”

Walking to school was still a thing both of you did. Except this time, fingers were intertwined and barely any distance between the both of you. The only time you two let go was when the school gates were near. Still, walking down the hallways, Akaashi made sure to always brush his fingers with yours.

“I did!” You pulled him in to kiss his cheek. The small smile he gave you still made your stomach butterflies flutter. “I did have a weird dream last night. You and Bokuto-san switched personalities. Seeing you do his ‘HEY HEY HEY’ was just so wrong on all levels.”

“Is there a quirk that can do that?”

At this point in time, you barely relied on your quirk. The feeling of accomplishing things without it’s aid was much more satisfying. Of course, Akaashi still reaped its healing benefits and took note of how his stamina had improved.

“High chances. If we can have a washing machine as a pro-hero, then there’s bound to be a quirk swapping quirk.”

“A washing machine?” He brushed his thumb on the corner of your lip to wipe off a crumb. “Even now, your world still surprises me.”

“It’s great if you hear it.” Leaning on his shoulder, you tightened your hold on his hand. “Living in it is a completely different story. It’s been, what, 7 months since I arrived here and I am more than content with not having to rely on my quirk.”

“What about your combat skills? Shouldn’t you still be sharpening them?”

“I wish I could.” That was true, though. “I’m pretty much useless at 30%. Even if I wanted to lift boulders or shit, I have to maintain at least 40%. The difference is small but the output is huge. I don’t get my quirk’s logic.”

“Well, it’s still early.” The gates were now in sight but he refused to let go of your hand. “I’m pretty sure you can work on your quirk. The others won’t arrive within 30 minutes.”

“It’s been 5 months and you’re still curious to see how I fight?” You giggled.

“Yes.” He nodded. “If my girlfriend trained to be a hero, I’d love to see how you move.”

“Well, you made that sound sexy~” You nudged his elbow. “Think we can have a little action before we head to the gym?”

“It’s 6:30am, (y/n). It’s too early for that.” He teased. Yet his steps were a little faster than before. “But, I guess I can’t oppose the idea.”

The next thing you knew, your back hit the wall as Akaashi hungrily kissed you. With your legs wrapped around his waist, your fingers found themselves coming through his hair. Pinning you even more, Akaashi’s hand undid your ribbon and unbuttoned the first two. Letting go of your lips, he trailed kisses from your cheek down to the crook of your neck.

As he was softly sucking on your skin, you loosened his tie and undid the two buttons as well. Tugging his hair, you were face to face with him again. Lust filled eyes staring back into yours. Leaning in, you gently kissed his lips before returning the favor. Activating your quirk, Akaashi felt his feet leave the ground. Knowing what you were about to do, he could feel you turning the both of you around.

Skillfully placing the both of you on the floor, Akaashi leaned on the wall as his hands began to roam higher and higher up your skirt. Having you straddle him this early in the morning was rather pleasant in all aspects. Tilting his head a bit, he gave you much easier access and felt you sucking on his skin a little harsher this time.

“Make sure it’s hidden under the collar.” He managed to whisper. Hickeys were a common thing to have both your bodies. He smirked at how your only response was a nod.

Caressing your cheek, he admired the way your face glowed even more. Pulling you in softly for another kiss, he felt his stomach fluttering when you smiled.

“We should probably head to the lockers now.”

“Fine.”

“We can continue this in my room later.” He whispered before kissing you deeply.

“Counting the hours~”

Moments later, you were now pumping air into some volleyballs. Morning practice for today would only take an hour so there was plenty of time to freshen up before the homeroom. Now that the gym was packed with your boys, you rolled out the volleyball cart and positioned it beside the net.

Everyone was now used to having you as a ball girl. In fact, some of them even tried to challenge you by purposely hitting the ball too hard or too low. With your hero training, it was nothing but a walk in the park. You did notice, however, that your body began to sweat a bit more. The after effects of not using your quirk for a long time was showing.

Nothing bad happens, though. Just panting and sweating.

“Aghkaashe!” Bokuto yelled. “Can you and (y/n)-chan help with my math later?”

“I don’t mind. What about you, (y/n)?”

“Sure thing~” You approached your two favorite boys. “Bokuto-senpai, how well did you do on your previous quiz?”

The captain’s golden eyes sparkled.

“HAHAHA! Thanks to you both, I managed to get a 32/50! Whatdya think?!” He punched the air and grinned widely. When the both of you applauded he began to jump up and down while shouting his trademark.

“Calm down, Bokuto-san.” Akaashi tried to stop him from jumping up and down. His friend obeyed and gave a cheeky thumbs up.

“God, I love you both so much~” You giggled at their exchange.

“But you love Ahkaashi more, don’t you (y/n)-chan?” Bokuto added as he shouldered Akaashi. This time, his deadpan face was holding a soft smile.

“Of course!”

When Konoha’s alarm sounded, each of you began to clean up and prepare for the rest of the day. With how often you did it, it had now become second nature to you. Yukie and Kaori even admitted that you adapted much faster than they had anticipated. Once all of you were now freshened up, the gym was locked once more and each player looked forward for the after school practice.

“Exams are approaching.” Akaashi said as he let you step into the classroom first. “Have you prepared your notes?”

“I did. But, you do remember that the subjects you have here are way too easy for me, right?” Placing your bag on your desk, you took a seat and faced Akaashi. “Shall we study in your room or mine?”

“we can take turns.” Now that he was seated, he fished out one of his notebooks and placed it on his desk. Not that it was needed, it merely became one of his habits. Watching as you dragged your chair closer to him, he offered you a pen and flipped the notebook open.

“So, what do you want me to draw?” This had become one of your recent traditions. Before the start of homeroom, Akaashi noticed how you liked to doodle on his notebooks. Deciding that a special one was needed, he took the liberty of buying a blank journal for you to fill with whatever it is you saw fit.

“Hmm, I recall you saying that you designed your own hero costume.” He saw how your eyes lit up. “May i see what it looked like?”

Starting the sketch, you began to draw a figure and dressed it with your costume.

“So, my costume isn’t flashy unlike the others.” You explained. “A quirk like mine doesn’t really need a lot of support items so I went with mobility and comfort. I decided that simplicity was key. Just the normal jacket, shirt, pants, and boots. The only support item I had were my gloves.”

Sketching your gloves, Akaashi couldn’t help but adore just how focused you were. Tucking in a loose strand of hair, he felt the butterflies in his stomach churning once again as the corners of your mouth formed a smile and your cheeks turning a faint hue of pink.

“What do your gloves do?” They looked like standard fingerless gloves.

“The material was specifically designed to aid in manipulating my quirk. It concentrates the energy I release and wraps around my hand. Sorta like a human torch~” It was a bit difficult to explain how it worked knowing you didn’t listen to the man who gave you the item. As long as it aided you, it was fine.

“What were Todoroki-kun’s support items?”

“Shoto’s support items were mostly temperature regulators. Wristbands and a big one he wears like a backpack to help even him out.” You drew his support items rather well.

“Can you try to sketch Todorki-kun’s face?” Letting you draw your friends was something he wasn’t so comfortable with. Not for that reason of course. He merely assumed that it would be a sensitive topic knowing the circumstances of how you arrived in his world. When you giggled, he tilted his head.

“About time you asked~” Beginning to draw your childhood friend, you continued. “I honestly wouldn’t mind drawing my friends for you, ya know? There’s no way I can introduce you to them so sketching them would be the best alternative.”

“I’m sorry.” He held on to your free hand. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfy.”

“You never make me uncomfy. Keiji~”

It was a quick sketch of half and half but a good one. He squinted his eye when he took note of the scar. He had heard of Tokoyami and Mina, but this one merely showed a boy about his age with a nasty burn on his face.

“Shoto’s got one helluva back story.” Your thumb began to brush Akaashi’s knuckles. “That scar was given to him by his mum when he was around 5 or 6 years old. It’s sad but he grew to accept it and is now healing.”

“You were engaged before, right?”

“For a while, yeah.” You handed him back the pen and closed the sketchpad. The bell had now rung and right on time, the teacher entered the room. Just as she was relaying a message, you were rummaging in your bag for a notebook.

“Please introduce yourselves~” The teacher said.

“Bakugo Katsuki”

“Midoriya Izuku.”

- - - - -

a/n: sooo... what yall gonna do now? :’)

[henry-cavill-baby]

To Study (Insects) │ 1

Pairing: Clark Kent (MoS) x Original Female Character

Warnings: None 

Word Count: 3k~

Summary: Connie and Clark, two peas in a pod. She didn’t know if it was his soft blue eyes or his Mother’s sweet blueberry pie that had caught her eye, but boy howdy, was she caught. 

A/N: Nothing! Enjoy!

The best thing about living in Kansas was that nothing ever happened.

There was a mile wide sprawl of corn that was breathtaking to few; it had started out as nothing much but rows upon rows of dirt that now bore sprawls of golden richness that could truly blind any tourist with its beauty.  Most of it was picked and sold—Kansas was full of rural farmers and farmers markets, but some just stayed for show.

And the Farmers Market typically consisted of stay-at-home mothers trying to sell their overpriced sugary sweet lemon bars to any sucker who would pay seven dollars for four measly pieces.

Most of the teens at the local high school got rides home from their parents, but Connie Mayfield knew that you couldn’t pay her Father, Walter, to pick his daughter up from school. If he did, then he’d no doubt miss a rerun of Baywatch, and that simply couldn’t happen.

A tune that rivaled the airiness of a flute flew from the 14 year olds mouth on her long walk home. Connie Mayfield whistled a nonchalant melody as her uneven pace took her closer to home. 

The young girl had a lot on her mind; there was a test on Friday that was covering another form of division that looked to confusing to follow, and Alice’s birthday party was on Saturday and getting a gift for the little girl who had everything was harder than it seemed. The years of gifts consisting of dolls and bright hairbrushes were long over. Maybe she’d like a new bracelet or a set of earrings.

An irregular rock bumped against the tip of her shoe and she grinned, lobbing it off into the cornfield, a little thud echoing through the golden maze. 

It was tempting—the idea of taking the not so short shortcut through the tall stalks, if just to feel a little more free for just a moment, but the sounds of distress just up ahead had her little sneakers speeding up. She turned to the bend and grew furious at the sight of three boys throwing around her friend.

“Hey!” she bellowed, running closer before screeching to a halt in front of the teen holding up her friend by the lip of his shirt, “Leave him alone!”

Isaiah Matthews grinned with his fist still clutching the younger boy's shirt, “Oooo, is this your girlfriend, Kent?”

Clark Kent sneered up at the taller boy, fists clenching in rage. 

“Leave her alone,” he grit out, watching Isaiah sneer with confidence.

“I didn’t take you for a pussy, Kent, but I guess I was wrong.” He dropped Clark with a grin and sauntered to the near growling girl. 

“Connie, right? My dad says you Mayfield’s are trailer trash, and I can see where he gets that from.”

His eyes gave her a visible up-and-down, “No wonder only a freak would like you.” 

The words had barely left his mouth before Clark launched himself onto the back of the bully, pummeling him to the ground with hateful eyes. The two other lackeys ran, but Connie went and pulled Clark back before he did something he’d regret. The two of them fell away from the older boy, watching him with guarded eyes.

Isaiah spat at ground near their feet, “Fucking freaks.”

Connie waited until he was out of sight, turning to Clark and frowning at his disheveled appearance. “You know, I’m not always gonna be here to save you, Clark.”

He wiped away the sheen of dirt and sweat covering his upper lip, refusing to meet her eyes. “I didn’t need your help. I could’ve handled it.”

“Oh yeah, you totally had it under control,” she mocked with pursed lips.

He frowned at her sarcasm and picked up his dirtied school bag, looking down the path home. It was a quick walk to the farm, and mom had probably already started dinner, which is why it made no sense when he turned and muttered, “Can I walk you home?”

Her eyes went wide at his question, upper teeth nibbling on her pink lip, shrugging, “Sure, if you want.”

They both nodded and started a slow walk to the Mayfield’s. Connie’s fingers twitched at her side while different conversation starters nearly passed through her lips every few seconds. The urge to ask why he never fought back, why he let people call him a freak raced through her mind, but only silence hung between them. It was almost annoying that he never stood up for himself.

There was something mysterious about Clark that intrigued her 14-year-old brain; no one had ever let him live down that time he’d locked himself in a closet (and torched the doorknob till it was bright red). 

He was just the guy who kept to himself most of the time.  

And still she kept on eye on him the entire time, watching his own twitching fingers pick at the loose lining of his jeans, lip biting in a matter similar to her own, brows furrowing in thought, though they always did that. He looked cute when he was deep in thought.

Cute? I think Clark is… cute?

A deep redness flooded her cheeks and her lips pursed into a thin line, trying not to visibly speed away from the other boy, but Clark noticed everything. There was something keen about the way his mind worked; almost predatorial. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, the cute furrow in his brow deep as she faced him while willing away the redness of her juvenile cheeks. 

She nodded but didn’t meet his blue eyes. They were like oceans—I’d swim in Clark’s eyes if he’d ask—and her stomach always fluttered when he looked at her.

She expected them to fall back into silence, now halfway to the Mayfield farm, but Clark piped up, “Are you excited for the field trip tomorrow?”

A flutter of excitement rang through her veins, but she held back and simply nodded. “It’ll be a nice change from sitting inside all day.” Clark nodded along with her running words, “I heard the museum has a section on insects and their habitats, and I hope they have a butterfly display. Or—or maybe a real entomologist will be there.”

Now bugs- those were cool. Anything from crickets to butterflies to beetles, each one more interesting than the last…except arachnids. You could keep those eight-legged freaks as far away as humanly possibly.

Clark slowed their pace but kept his distance, “Is that what you wanna be when you grow up?”

She grinned and tried to slow the internal monologue of bug talk.

“I think when I grow up, I’ll leave this place behind and follow my dreams.” She said.

“And I guess those dreams do include insects of all types. They really do get a bad reputation sometimes. I think they’re just as delicate and interesting as humans.”

“Really?” Clark wrinkled in his nose, “My dad sprays the fields for bugs in the summer.” She hit his shoulder as he let out a snort, “I think I’ve squashed a few flies for mom too.”

She shook her head and couldn’t see Clark staring at her golden locks as they shined in the sun. “You’re the worst, Kent.”

The both chuckled and came to a halt in front of the Mayfield farm. It was more run down than the other houses in the area and the roof could’ve been mistaken for caving in, and she knew it looked worse on the inside. The moldy green color of the roof had seen better days, and the porch could barely hold the old rocking chair that her dad liked to sit on in the mornings. Clark would never know how the inside looked even worse.

“Do you know what you wanna be when you grow up?” She asked with a soft smile, taking no offense as Clark tried, once again, not to meet her eyes. The swoop of his brown hair was nearing the tops of his eyes, but she knew he wasn’t inclined to cut it. He didn’t buzz his hair like the other boys.

“I…” He paused, foot kicking the uneven dirt under his shoes. He bit his lip lower lip and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, met her honey eyes.

“Yes?”

He took a deep breath and lightly shrugged, “Sometimes, I feel like I don’t know who I am. I think I wanna figure that out first, ya know?”

No, she didn’t know but asking Clark to explain how he felt could feel like pulling teeth. Golden honey stared into the aquamarine sea, two sets of young lips wet and wanting, and Connie picked at her pants, nails bending with surprising force.

The door to the Mayfield hold slammed with a grotesque force, and the two teens jumped away from one another as Walter Mayfield grunted his way to them, to Clark.

“’Thought I told you to stay away from my daughter, Kent!” Walter bellowed, nearing the fourteen-year-old clear-eyed boy who showed no sign of backing down with his head held high and chest jutted out. 

“I don’t want you lookin’ at her, touchin’ her—“

Connie finally yelled, “Dad!” and stood between him and Clark, protecting her friend from the unjustified anger of her dad. She felt Clark’s fingers grip the back of her shirt and tug her closer, just as Walter stood over them with beady eyes and steam shooting from his ears.

“Get in the house, Connie.” Her dad growled, never looking away from Clark.

But she shook her head and pushed against her dad’s chest, ignoring Clark’s fingers still gripping the back of her shirt. “We weren’t doing anything, go back inside, please.”

A startled yelp left her throat as her dad’s strong fist lurched her forward by the front of her shirt, throwing her to the ground and out of Clark’s grip. The air left her lungs and the dirt felt dry under her fingertips, watching as Clark seemed to vibrate in place, glaring deadly at Walter.

“If I ever see you ‘round here again, Kent.” He spat, “I’ll make you wish you were never born. Are we clear?”

The threat hung between the adult and young teen, and Clark tightly nodded and stalked off down the dirt path, not once looking back at Connie, never seeing the tears in her eyes.

Walter stared down at his daughter with a sneer, “Get inside. I won’t say it again.”

The dried dirt caked under her nails as she scrambled to stand and bolt inside, not taking note of the woman asleep on the couch that she’d never seen before, or the beer bottles covering the kitchen counters. The stairs creaked as she fled upstairs and shut her bedroom door, clicking the latch in place. A heaviness sat in her chest as her backpack thumped to the floor.

Beaded tears fell down her thick cheeks and light cries sounded through the room.

“—I want that boy away from my son!” the mother of Peter Ross screeched from the Principal's office. “Am I the only one who understands the situation? That boy lifted a bus from a lake. A bus! What kind of monster are we allowing to walk with our children?”

The meek father of Alice pepped up, “But—But he did save them, right?”

“It doesn’t matter, Martin. I don’t feel safe with him here, and neither should any of you.”

Martha Kent hung her head and left the Principal's office, ignoring the calls from the desperate parents. There was nothing else she needed to hear from them, especially insults about her son. The door shut with a click, and her heels clipped the floor with each step.

She did her best to smile at Clark, but he’d always seen right through that. He sat up straight and looked her in the eyes, his soft voice rivaling his posture, “How did it go?”

She knew Clark had heard every word already and that lying would only make him defensive. “About as well as you’d expect, honey.” She patted his shoulder and ushered him to stand, “C’mon, let’s go home.”

The car ride was silent aside from the tapping of Clark’s blunt nails on the fabric of his jeans, and the shaking of his leg. He was such a nervous boy—her Clark—and it pained her heart to see him to try to hide how this whole thing was tearing him up inside. They normally played the radio, Clark usually flipped stations and rarely settled on just one, but silence was all they heard.

Jonathon Kent watched his wife pull up, and frowned as Clark bolted from the passenger seat and fled into the backyard. He stepped outside just as Martha shut off the car and gingerly stepped out, walking into her husband’s arms with a deep sigh. Exhaustion ran deep in her veins, and Jonathon wished he could take it away.

“That bad, huh?” He muttered into her brown locks, feeling her nod into his chest.

“Talk to him.” She begged, trying to keep the tears at bay, “I think…I think it’s time he…” They both turned to face the barn with heavy hearts, knowing this would be for the best.

Jonathon nodded and released Martha, shooting a thin-lipped smile her way as he made his way to the backyard. His heart thumped as he eyed his son, whose legs were hanging off the back of his pickup, shoulders hunched in his blue hoodie. As he got closer, he could hear the sniffles from his son.

“Clark.” His son turned and wiped away the wetness on his cheeks. “I just want to know what happened. I’m not mad, I promise.”

Jonathon sat next to his son and watched his boys lip quiver. His words came out with a thin veil of pain, “I wasn’t thinking, Dad.” A hiccup escaped his throat. “She was so scared… I just couldn’t let her die."

The water was rising too fast—it was cold and soaked the kids instantly— and Clark watched as Connie grew frantic in her efforts to open the window enough to crawl out, or maybe she was trying her best to keep the water from flooding the already half submerged bus. Cries and screams rang through the drowning bus, and Clark swam, trying his best to make it to Connie

“Connie!” He yelled, reaching forward to snag her shirt and pull her away from the stream of flowing water.

“Oh god, Clark! We’re gonna die!”  Her screams were shrill and almost hurt his ears, but the smell of her fear mixed with the smell of tears and piss coming off the other students had him looking for a way out.  

But the water was nearing the top of the bus, and all he could hear was her cries.

“Son, I thought we talked about this.” He started, patting his own thigh, “We have to keep what you can do a secret.”

“They were all going to drown, how could I have done nothing? They didn’t deserve to die.”

“Clark, I just—“ Jonathon paused, watching the sunshine across the cornfield that spanned miles upon miles. It was an array of reds that shined upon the old graying barn. 

“I just want to protect you, son. And sometimes, when people see something they don’t understand, they get scared and lash out. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.”

And finally, Clark asked the question that Jonathon had known would always come.

“Why am I like this, dad? Why am I so different from everyone else?”

Memories of finding their son, raising him to be the young man who sat at his side—through all the times he’d been different than the other kids, and knowing all of the hardships that were yet to come. It was almost enough to make him cry.

Almost.

Jonathon stood up from the truck and stood in front of his son, placing both hands on his small shoulders. “I’m going to show you something, son, and it may make things make a bit more sense. But no matter what—“ He pressed his palm to his sons chest and smiled,

“You are my son.”

Part 2

[raleighcarrera]

strategy

ride or die | colt kaneko x mc (ellie wheeler)

instead of trying to get a few hours of sleep after they get home from the rave in chapter 10, ellie and colt stay up all night. for @choicescocappreciationweek day 7 (ride or die)

~2.9k words | M (18+)

she was probably playing with fire. that much seemed pretty obvious, to both her and everyone else in the crew, ellie was sure. after all, ximena had called her out pretty blatantly at the club, and if she noticed the way colt stuck to her side like glue after their dance then everyone else probably had, too. 

but there was no way anyone could know about the two kisses they’d shared. those were just for her. 

despite the fact that it was dawn outside when they stumbled back to the shop, she was still bleary-eyed when they went inside, her jaw cracking with a wide yawn. the reminder that it was technically already monday was deeply unsettling and disappointing, to say the least. as everyone else slowly dispersed to go to bed, she waved logan off with a hand. “go ahead. i’m just going to stay up at this point or i’ll be a wreck -- or worse, sleep through my alarm.”

the break room would be empty, and with everyone asleep, it’d probably be pretty quiet. maybe she could sneak in a few hours of studying.

except that when everyone cleared out, colt was still standing there with her.

“aren’t you going to bed?” she questioned, surprised. 

he shrugged, very obviously trying to appear nonchalant. if she were anybody else, he might’ve succeeded. “nah. i’m not tired. a job like that always fills me with adrenaline.” his eyes slid slowly down her body, and ellie remembered what she was wearing all at once. her cheeks flushed. “the way you were dancing didn’t help much, either.”

“i didn’t hear you complaining.” she would have to remember to get changed before school, though, once logan was awake. he’d probably just fallen asleep, and if she went up to the loft now, she was likely to disturb him. of course that -- and not the way colt couldn’t seem to stop looking at her -- was the reason she didn’t move. 

colt had his hands in his pockets, and his posture, combined with the grin he sent her way, made him look boyishly adorable under the fluorescent lights of the garage. “probably ‘cause i don’t have any complaints,” he said. there was a pause, and then he offered, “i could stay up with you, if you want.”

her teeth dug into her bottom lip as she considered it. it probably wasn’t a good idea. she was definitely playing with fire, if she agreed. after so much overt affection sent his way today, the smart thing to do would be to put some distance between them, so that everyone else wouldn’t catch on to the way she felt -- so that the way she’d invited him onto the dance floor and indulged his little touches and sideways looks would eventually fade in everyone else’s memory.

but everyone else was asleep. so no one needed to know.

“that would be cool,” she smiled, following him to the break room. she dropped down onto the couch with a sigh. “you’re gonna have to help me stay up. i’m exhausted.”

“we could play a game,” he suggested, sitting down next to her and cutting a careful glance her way. colt still seemed to be pointedly avoiding looking at her too closely, but then his expression shifted into that irritating smirk he wore so well. “spin the bottle?”

ellie laughed. “why would we play spin the bottle with only two people?”

his shoulders rolled easily. “so we could make out.”

her face felt hot. somehow the way he flirted with her felt very different than the way anyone else did. “you don’t need an excuse to kiss me,” she said quietly, because it was true.

out of the corner of her eye, she saw his smirk widen dangerously. “then let’s make out.”

“someone could walk in.” that was definitely true. and would probably take ‘playing with fire’ up a notch, to ‘gambling with fire’ or even ‘juggling flaming torches.’ 

ellie’s eyes were drawn to where his fingers were tapping on his knee, over the fabric of his jeans. she thought back to what he’d said at the rave, about logan seeing them dancing. part of him wanted that -- maybe even a large part of him.

maybe part of her wanted someone to walk in, too. 

even though it wasn’t a ‘no,’ colt still sighed and said, “okay. how about ‘never have i ever?’”

she laughed. “are you sure? it’s going to be really easy to beat you at that.”

they each turned their heads on the couch at the same time, so that their eyes met in the short distance between them. ellie very nearly felt her breath catch as she noted the intensity in his gaze. there weren’t words for the way he was staring at her. 

“maybe,” he murmured, his voice low, “but it’s worth learning some of your secrets.” 

his uncharacteristic seriousness had her falling quiet, too. every time she thought she understood him, colt somehow managed to throw her for a loop without even trying. she was slowly starting to realize that there was more to him than she’d thought, making what was happening between them more than just complicated or unwise. 

it was a problem. because the way she felt...

ellie softly cleared her throat. “well, if you’re sure.” she swallowed, shifting on the couch to face him. her legs folded under herself like a pretzel and she pulled her shoulders back, holding up ten fingers. after a moment, colt mirrored her posture. “you go first.”

“okay.” his expression shifted into a familiar look of smugness. “never have i ever wore a thong.”

she rolled her eyes at him. “cheap shot.” the index finger on her right hand folded down. a beat of silence passed between them as colt seemed to consider the small shorts she was wearing and the fishnet stockings beneath them. ellie could feel her face flush again. “never have i ever... driven a motorcycle,” she rushed to say.

“if we keep playing like this, we’ll be done pretty soon.” his index finger folded down, too. one side of his mouth lifted in a lopsided smile. “never have i ever had sex outside.”

she didn’t move. thank god he’d used a qualifier -- she could skirt the topic of her virginity for at least a little longer, though the way his eyebrows arched at her made her embarrassment worsen. 

“i should’ve known,” colt hummed, “you’re such a goody two-shoes. i bet you’ve only ever done it in bed, in missionary, with the lights off.”

ellie glared at him. “that’s not true,” she insisted. technically, it wasn’t.

"sure.” the look on his face left her itching to tell him the truth, just to shut him up. she bet it’d be a nasty shock to learn that logan had been her first kiss. after a moment of watching her seethe, he reminded her, “it’s your turn.”

she stared back at him blithely. “never have i ever used sarcasm as a defense mechanism.”

the laugh he gave was probably too loud for how late it was. colt obligingly folded his thumb in, but pointed his other hand at her accusingly. “you’d better put that down right now. you’re right behind me and mona on the most sarcastic list.”

well... he had a point. “it’s not a defense mechanism, though. i’m just giving you back what you give me.”

“oh, i’ll remember that,” he promised, his eyes locked on hers in a way that left ellie biting back a shiver. “never have i ever been in the running for valedictorian.”

“never have i ever dropped out of college.”

colt laughed. “you’re such a brat.” he looked almost fond, his lips quirked up into a little grin. ellie smiled helplessly back at him. 

whether it was the quiet of the shop or the fact that they’d been out all night or how admirably she’d performed at the job, she was feeling pretty bold. “you like it,” she needled, because she was pretty sure he did, even if he’d told her just a few short hours ago that he didn’t actually like anyone.

colt shook his head, but he didn’t argue. despite his obvious efforts, ellie could see the corners of his mouth twitching. “okay,” he huffed, narrowing his eyes at her. “never have i ever kissed logan.”

ellie rolled her eyes at him, her pinky the last finger held aloft on her right hand. she felt... strange, about having been called out by colt -- like she’d done something wrong, somehow, by kissing logan before she’d ever known him, which was ridiculous but unsettling all the same. as thrilling as it was to know he was jealous -- that he wanted her -- she didn’t want to make him mad. or insecure. if he was even capable of feeling that way.

without thinking too much about it, she said, “never have i ever had a dirty thought about someone in this room.” then, she deliberately dropped her pinky down, clenching her hand into a fist. ellie held his gaze the whole time she spoke.

the silence stretched between them, heavy with tension. she felt unbelievably proud of herself, sitting there and watching a look of surprise start to take over his face. finally, she’d found a way to shut him up. 

colt’s mouth worked for a moment as he doubtlessly tried to find something smart to say. then, he rolled his eyes at her. “you’re ridiculous,” he settled on simply, before he leaned in and kissed her, crowding her against the arm of the sofa.

ellie wound her arms around his neck, sighing into his mouth as he pressed in against her. colt’s hands immediately found the stretch of bare skin beneath the cropped hem of her shirt and the low rise of her shorts, gripping her waist tightly before very deliberately pressing their hips together. he took advantage of her parted lips to deepen their kiss forcefully, his mouth firm and insistent against hers. his kiss was hot and desperate, a perfectly satisfying resolution to the way his lips had brushed the shell of her ear when he’d breathed been waiting to get you to myself all day while they’d been dancing. 

something that felt like it’d been coiled tightly within her all day was slowly starting to unwind, making her melt against him. she’d been waiting for this, too.

one of his hands slid over the side of her shorts and down to her thigh, the rough pads of his fingers catching in each loop of the fishnets she wore until he stopped them in their path and hitched her leg around his waist. ellie tugged at the collar of his shirt as he pushed in closer still, neatly slotting his hips into the space he’d created for himself and nudging in until she could feel him, even through the layers of fabric that kept them separated.

she gasped, pushing him away to catch her breath. colt tipped their foreheads together and stared at her silently, though she was starting to be able to read him well enough to locate the hint of a question in his eyes. “colt,” she murmured, fortified by the way the sound of his name made his eyes slip shut again, “i...”

“i know.” she watched him clench his jaw. “it’s complicated, right?”

“that’s not what i was going to say.” though her other points seemed unimportant, now that she could see the tension he carried in his face from up close. she lifted one hand to his cheek, waiting until he opened his eyes again to smile. “you know... you’re a really good kisser.”

that seemed to bring him back to himself. colt smirked at her. “i know.” his eyes dropped back to her lips. “you’re not so bad yourself.”

“really?” her expression twisted into one of disbelief. “you’re only the second person i’ve ever kissed.”

ellie froze as he pulled away, pushing himself back with the hand he had on the couch. “seriously?”

“um,” she started awkwardly, feeling her face flame red, “well --”

“now that’s a crime.” colt shook his head. “you’re so goddamn gorgeous. you should be kissed every day.”

she blinked. before she could say another word, he leaned in and caught her lips again, moving closer until they were back to being pressed together. she could still feel every inch of him against her, but she wasn’t as nervous as she’d been just a moment ago. 

he was pretty good at that, ellie realized abruptly, her mouth moving against his seemingly entirely on instinct. colt set her at ease in a way no one else she knew could seem to replicate. even her closest friends were hard to connect with lately, but colt seemed to trigger something within her that she didn’t have to force; he could get her to open up and be honest with just a look.

she really liked the person she was when she was with him. she liked having a role that fit so neatly into his life. his driver. there was something equally thrilling and alluring about the thought of the both of them putting plans together, side-by-side. 

colt’s hands wandered along her body, but he didn’t push her for more than she was comfortable with. ellie relaxed against the sofa as he lazily continued to kiss her, the occasional roll of his hips against hers starting to feel welcoming and bizarrely hot rather than the frightening uncharted territory it’d seemed to be before. emboldened by his obvious reaction to kissing her, she tentatively rocked her hips forward, too.

colt made a noise into her mouth that tripped a shiver down her spine in response. ellie bit down gently on his bottom lip and he pressed forward harder, breaking their mouths apart only to trail kisses over her jaw and down her neck instead. he caught the way her breath hitched when his lips slid over a particularly sensitive spot on her throat, and she groaned as his mouth stayed fixated there, working a mark into her skin.

her head swam with desire, making her feel dizzy. there was an ache between her legs that she could only recall feeling a few times before -- something she’d never had the guts to act on but now suddenly wanted desperately. 

when she used the hand she had cupping his cheek to pull his face away from hers, colt’s eyes were wide and dark. the wet line of his red mouth made her wonder what she must look like, to him, especially since she could feel the way her lips were swollen from kissing, tender and sore where his teeth had dug in. “colt, i --”

her phone went off in her pocket, blaring her alarm. ellie groaned as she struggled to pull it out, immediately slamming her thumb on the ‘snooze.’ it’d finally dawned seven o’clock in the morning, the time she’d usually need to get up and start getting ready to go to school. 

ellie sighed. “i have to go upstairs and get changed.”

he scoffed, snapping the waistband of mona’s fishnets against her skin. “what, you’re not going in this? you’d give those honor roll dorks a stroke.”

she laughed despite herself, pushing his hands away. “shut up.”

“you shut up.” before she could argue further, he leaned in and kissed her again. ellie sighed, winding her arms back around his neck.

in what felt like the blink of an eye, the time between snoozes had passed. her phone lit up between them, its alarm blaring again.

“colt,” she murmured between kisses, close enough that her lips brushed his with every syllable, “i’m going to be late.”

“who cares,” he returned, in an answering low tone of voice that sounded incredibly tempting, from where she was sitting, “just be late.”

“i can’t just --”

someone cleared their throat from the doorway. she couldn’t see who it was with colt spread out on top of her, but she shoved him away nonetheless, scrambling to sit up as she dragged the back of her hand over her mouth guiltily.

colt sighed heavily as he rolled to stand, pushing up off the couch. when he moved out of the way, she saw that it was only mona, and relaxed. mona eyed the both of them blankly. “logan’s awake.”

crap. ellie stood, too, shifting around on her feet, cutting her eyes first to colt, then to mona and back again. “i’m going to go get dressed,” she said awkwardly, rushing up the stairs toward the loft as quickly as possible. 

this was such a mess. she knew she couldn’t avoid addressing it forever -- sooner or later, she’d have to talk to logan. she’d have to tell him everything.

at least we don’t have to talk about it today, ellie said to herself, feeling relieved. she was too exhausted for that conversation. 

she brushed her teeth and slipped into the familiar comfort of her langston sweater, bouncing down the stairs with her backpack. if she didn’t hit any red lights on the way to school she’d probably be right on time. 

except that the sound of fighting drew her attention, and when she stepped into the garage, she saw logan and colt going at it, scrambling to get hits on one another.

so much for not talking about it today, she sighed, setting her backpack down and planting her hands on her hips. exhausted as she was, it looked like she was going to be late -- and not for a reason as pleasant as the one she’d been hoping for. 

[welcometothebookreport]

Weekly Wrap up: 12/20/2020 - 12/27/2020

It’s the end of the first week here at this blog, though technically it’s only the second day that we’ve been live. On Sundays, I’ll be posting weekly wrap-ups with what I’ve been reading all week, my thoughts, and hopefully a graphic that I’ve spent too much time on. At least that’s the idea. School may not allow for blogging much, but I’ll wing it when I get there. 

In case the graphic doesn’t load, everything is mentioned down here again so there’s nothing to miss! Keep in mind, there will be spoilers for titles mentioned below the line, and also please do not spoil me if I’ve mentioned that I’ve not finished it yet. :) 

This week I read... 

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (in progress)

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Rating: 5/5

Warnings: no hard warnings. This is a very light read. 

Thoughts about this book

I picked this book as part of my December box for Book of the Month Club and I almost didn’t read it this month at all. After finishing Serpent & Dove though, I decided that I really wanted some holiday cheer since I didn’t have any. It’s a good thing I did because this ended up being my favorite read of the year, and right at the final buzzer too. 

Our protagonist, Mae, ends up in a time loop when she makes a stray wish to the universe: Show me what will make me happy. I had my doubts about whether I would like the plot since it seems a little silly, and I wanted something with some substance. Pleased to admit that I was wrong about all of my thoughts at the beginning. Thing is, this book is silly. In fact, it’s downright hilarious and I laughed out loud so many times I lost track. It’s also serious in the right spots, but really it’s a tender story about getting your one true love. However, it’s not only a love story. 

It takes a while for Mae to throw caution to the wind. Approximately two return trips to the plane (with a courtesy whack to her brother’s face, actually) in, Maelyn Jones decides that none of this matters because she’s just going to start over anyway. In a fantastic outburst, she barks at her dad not to eat the cookie (he’s going to break his tooth on it), and a slew of other orders because she’s so fed up with it all. Then we see this woman start living when she hasn’t been, and to be completely honest, you don’t even realize it’s happening at first. 

She doesn’t realize it either. 

Andrew Hollis is the older brother of Theo (and Theo’s been carrying a torch for Mae, it seems) and also the brother Mae has spent years of her life pining after. They’re wicked close, wondrously hilarious together, and by the end of the book - No. By the time I was a quarter of the way through, I was pretty sure I was going to be in love with him too. Half-way in, I knew I was. 

I could go on and on about this book, but I’m going to spare you because a) I need to learn to be more concise with reviews and b) I really want you to read it and see if you love it as much as I did. 

The Funniest Moment for Me: 

I simply cannot pick one moment, but if I have to, I plucked the one out of my head that I thought of first. 

When they were kids, Mae painted their initials on the bottom of a mug. The full thing of MJ + AH and it’s adorable. Later, Mae admits it to Andrew, and he holds it up to the light in an equally adorable way and realizes that he can still see it, even though it’s been painted over. 

Favorite Scenes

I’d like to say the entire book, just for the record, but I can’t. Or can I? I kind of make the rules for my own posts, don’t I? 

Every single moment spent in the boathouse, even the ones that made my eyes water. They’re so perfect together, and I just love this couple, and this story so much I can hardly begin to explain it. 

What I learned from this story: 

Mae is stuck in a rut. In a job she doesn’t love, living with her parents, and without the love life that she wants. The shift in her is a dramatic one, and you have to root for her. I know I did because I saw too much of my own traits in her. A job I don’t love anymore, a position in life I don’t want anymore, the list goes on. 

Mae didn’t need the great love of her life to change everything, but she starts knocking down walls, and starts taking everything she wants. She tells the truth (that she has feelings for this man, that she hates her job,) and she tells Andrew. She quits her job in the twenty seconds of bravery that she’s always had, but has just unlocked. 

So, if there is something to take away from this, it’s that you’ve just gotta go for it. 

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

Rating: 3/5

Warnings: Therapist Sessions, Mention of Miscarriage, A Garbage Parent, Depression, and Anxiety. Please mind that these warnings are for mentions inside the novel as well, and not necessarily something that happens to either of the leads.

Thoughts: 

This one was part of my November box for Book of the Month Club! I decided to read this since NYE is right around the corner, and bam, this one happens to open on NYE. 

I enjoyed this book. It was a fun romance, but it was more than that too. Minnie Cooper believes in a New Years jinx that started the night she was born, when her mother helps another woman through labor and delivery, and this woman wins a prize for the first baby born. Not only that, this woman takes what was meant to be Minnie’s name: Quinn. 

Listen, the joke Minnie Cooper was funny for about twenty pages before I really began to hate it. The book is over 300 pages. It’s one of those things I could deal with, but never really got past because it annoyed me so much. Moving on! 

A chance encounter leads to the meeting of Quinn and Minnie at a birthday party on NYE. As you can guess, it’s a party for Quinn. There are several encounters between these two through the book, and each one of them left me wanting to get to the next one. 

The main storyline is told in a linear fashion, but there are flashbacks from both characters too. At first, you may not realize that these two have met before. Or maybe you do realize it and I’m just so oblivious it hurts. Probably that one. 

I liked the romance, but what really caught my eye was the issues raised within the book. One character regularly attends therapist sessions in an effort to help themselves, in an effort to get better. The terrible issue of miscarriage is brought up (but this does not happen to either of our leads, but is still important!) and then we are living through a year in the life of these characters as they try to find what makes them happy. 

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. It ranked as a ⅗ for me for a few reasons. I wanted more development. The romance felt a little lacking in some spaces, and I’m not sure if that’s because I had just finished In A Holidaze the day before, but it felt lukewarm to me. 

I appreciated the issues raised, and mostly enjoyed the way they were handled, but I wish some of them had been expanded on. I wasn’t a fan of brief time skips (where they could be a few months at a time) because it felt like a hole in the plot. 

Minnie Cooper. It’s hard to get into a story where I dislike the name so much. 

I just did not enjoy a part of the book that involved Minnie, her best friend Leila, and the proposal for Leila from her boyfriend that Minnie helped plan. It was meant to be funny, but it was more cheesy and it fell flat for me.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Rating: 5/5

Warnings: Misogyny, violence in parts, religious zealots (in case that’s something that makes you uncomfortable like it did me), derogatory slurs toward women.    

This one has been on my TBR for a long time, and I finally dug into it. From the first day of reading, I was not sure I was going to finish it. Religion plays a central focal point to the plot of the first book, and one of my friends told me to press on, because it’s not as prevalent in book two. I don’t know about that yet, because I haven’t read it. 

I have so many pages marked in this book for how much I loved it. Truly. Lou is witty, quick to snap, and Reid’s character development is something I’ve marveled at. Going in, I knew there would be a forced marriage, but I wasn’t at all sure how it would come into play. I have to admit, it was a pretty creative way to go about it. 

Watching these two characters orbit each other, with each of their harsher exteriors beginning to come down has to be my favorite part, and the main reason I pressed through the parts that creeped me out. 

Reading Reid say the word fuck was a highlight for me. I have so much to say about this one, but I’m planning to write a proper review, and to show my annotations, so I’ll save that for another day!

Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Warnings: None that I’ve seen yet. 

Rating: too soon to tell 

This is a book club read for my friends and I. It’s taken a bit for me to get into, but these are some of my notes up to where I was last night at page 93. 

It’s quite interesting, and books set in a dystopian world have never held my attention well. So, I’ve been struggling to really sink into it versus how well I fell into Caraval. 

The main character is beginning to grow on me more, and I’m curious to learn more about Cal and Maven. I’m certain that Cal is going to break my heart (don’t tell me if he’s going to) and also what will happen with Kilorn now that Mare will no longer be living in Stilts. 

I’ll finish it in the next couple of days, so hopefully I’ll have really grown to like it by next week’s post. 

What about you? What have you been reading this week? Sorry this is so long too. Eventually I’ll learn how to be more the point because nearly two thousand words is kind of embarrassing. 

[gothic-safari-clown]

The Mind’s Power Over the Body

Part Eleven: Exacting Revenge

Story summary: They only ever had each other. It had been that way since high school, ever since Elianna transferred to dreary Arlen and took Jonathan under her wing. They go separate ways for college, and when they're reunited at Arkham Asylum professionally, Elianna comes to find that they've both changed during their time separated. Can she look past the promise of danger and stay by Jonathan's side as they slide further and further into the darkness while she grapples to come to terms with the truth about herself? Can she accept what needs to be done in order to hold onto the only person who holds any meaning in her life? This is a very self-indulgent AU that draws from several different canons of the DCU and ignoring others, starting in the Batman Begins Nolanverse. This will follow the plot of the movie, although the timeline has been very slightly tweaked.

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten

Word count: 2606

Trigger warnings: Needles, drowning

I know that I've written Arkham in this story is very different from the movie; it's part of the AU. It's mostly for atmosphere and aesthetic. Sorry if it's confusing, I like the thought of them sneaking around; it's kinda cute, isn't it? Sneaky little monsters? Plus, like, in the movie, they just go through a door, and the whole setup is just...there???? Where anyone with a key could just stroll in? That makes no sense to me; I had to change it for my own edification.

The trick to staving off impatience is to make yourself forget about whatever you're waiting for. Or at least, that was what got Elianna through the week. She had pushed the plan so far to the corners of her mind that the day of, she had forgotten that it had finally arrived.

Of course, once it did resurface on her radar, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

Paperwork finished, and nothing left to do but wait, Elianna found herself bored, playing the pre-programmed solitaire on her desktop office computer. No one else was left in the facility besides the night orderlies, security, and the inmates, so when Jonathan knocked on the door, she buzzed him in without question, eyes still focused on the screen in front of her.

He came in, closing the door behind him, and when she didn't greet him straight away, he walked around to her side of the desk to see what she was looking at. She just needed a place for the three of spades, and everything else would fall into place, but she was about to give up on it when Jonathan reached over and took the mouse from her, finishing the board in a few clicks.

"I hate you." El put her face in her hands, annoyed at having missed the clear space for the card.

"Thank you. Are you ready?" She nodded and shut off the dinosaur of a computer and gathered her things.

"Is there anything I should know before we do this? Anything you need from me?"

"No, all you need to do is watch, but you can administer the serum if you'd like." He pushed his glasses up his nose as they stepped into the hallway.

"I think I'd rather watch you do it the first time, just to get an idea of what to expect. Where are we going?"

"Service elevator goes to the basement. And that's fine, just don't report me."

"I'm afraid you're stuck with me." El pushed on the door to ensure that it was locked, a habit she had developed to make sure that Zsasz couldn't be waiting in her office for her when she returned.

"Damn," Jonathan replied with dry sarcasm before, "ow," when she smacked him on the arm as they started walking for the service elevator. "If you're going to hit me, can't you at least pretend that you don't want to hurt me?"

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll be your bodyguard when people show up outside your apartment with pitchforks and torches."

"I'll hold you to that." He pressed the 'down' button to call the elevator and, once inside, produced a key to allow them access to the basement. "That woman from the DA's office, Rachel Dawes, seems to think I'm up to something; maybe you should track her down."

"You are up to something." El reminded him as the elevator began its descent.

"She doesn't know that. She just happens to be right." Elianna laughed softly and followed him into the dingy hallway when the doors reopened. He led her into the third closet on the left and shut the door behind them.

"Hey, this reminds me." She chimed up, and Jonathan squinted at her through the darkness. "If we don't start having sex, Harley is going to be really disappointed in us."

"Oh my God," he muttered, and she laughed as she followed him to the back of the closet.

"Yeah, that's basically what I said. I just thought it was funny. What are you doing?" Jonathan was pushing aside a stack of mattresses leaned against the wall, revealing a loose panel, which he removed and gestured for her to step in first. "Seriously?" He gave her a confused look, to which she sighed in conceit and walked through to the other side of the wall, muttering something about cliches. "Why is this even here?"

Well," Jonathan cleared his throat and stepped through after her, replacing the panel. "This place has been around for a couple of hundred years, and as you know, asylums used to be a place to shove people that society didn't want to deal with. They renovated a few decades ago but never actually got rid of these old chambers, just walled them off. In fact, they even had it soundproofed. I haven't been able to figure out why, but it's convenient. Believe it or not, I'm not the first doctor with cause to mistreat patients; I think whoever was in charge during that renovation probably wasn't the best person either." El nodded in understanding, and they went down a short flight of iron stairs, which took them around one last corner.

Elianna slowed at the tableau before her. Zsasz was strapped to an old transport dolly by the neck, abdomen, wrists, and ankles, clearly agitated by how he squirmed.

"How...how did you get him down here?"

"Well, those guards that were in the room with you that day felt bad about what happened and took the opportunity to make it up to you."

"The stairs?" She turned around and looked at them, then back at Zsasz.

"He was moved here on the dolly. It's my understanding that he didn't particularly enjoy being wheeled down the stairs." Jonathan put his hand on El's back and guided her all the way into the spacious...What would you even call this? A torture chamber?

When they came all the way into view, Zsasz finally noticed them. The way his voice washed over Elianna was all too familiar and reminiscent of something cold and scaley, like a dead fish, but this time she was able to brush off the sensation. She held the power here.

"Doctor Montgomery! Have you come to conduct our next session? I think we're really starting to make progress." The deranged man laughed as he struggled harder against the leather cuffs; as they approached, El could see that they were reinforced.

"Mister Zsasz, you'll be helping me with an experiment tonight. Doctor Montgomery is here as a witness, and I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from speaking to her." Jonathan interjected before El could say anything.

***

For the first time, Zsasz seemed uneasy, and his eyes followed Jonathan's briefcase as he set it on a nearby table, unlatched it, and then revealed a false bottom. "I do hope that you aren't uncomfortable with needles," he continued as he produced a syringe and a vial of stale-looking, yellowish liquid. "Usually, I would prefer to use a gaseous form of this compound, but I'm afraid I only have one gas mask with me, and Doctor Montgomery and I are both very interested in seeing the results of this experiment." Jonathan monologued as he prepared the syringe.

El moved to sit on the table next to the briefcase setup, and Zsasz made sharp eye contact with her, and she felt a chill run down her spine for the first time in days. She found that she had almost missed the feeling as she held his glassy stare with one of her own. A vision of him in a few minutes writhing against his restraints, screaming until his lungs filled with blood suddenly appeared in her mind, and the thought made her smile involuntarily.

Zsasz, on the other hand, hadn't been expecting for her to smile and frowned uneasily, making a more desperate attempt to wriggle out of the restraints as he returned his attention to what Jonathan was doing, which was to take a voice recorder out of his case, switch it on and begin speaking into it.

"Serum fifteen, experiment one. Subject name: Victor Zsasz," he spoke into the receiver before setting on the table and advancing on Zsasz, not bothering to sterilize the injection site. El leaned forward to watch the injection, fascinated to see what would happen next.  

Jonathan stepped away from the dolly, and already Zsasz was visibly shuddering and straining against the cuffs holding him in place. El got to her feet and slowly moved closer to examine the effects.

"How does it work?" She asked, observing the way Zsasz's eyes flitted about the room as his breathing intensified. Behind her, Jonathan smiled at her curiosity before explaining.

"The serum introduces higher glucose levels in the bloodstream. Once it reaches the brain,  the compound amps up the output of cortisol, glutamate, and adrenaline to the amygdala. In addition to that, the flower I told you about naturally produces a high concentration of a powerful hallucinogenic compound. Altogether, it causes the brain to go into a state of terror and hallucinate things they fear. The aerosolized version works faster, but you don't have a mask, so it should kick in any time now."

Just as Jonathan finished his explanation, Zsasz began screaming. Closer to howling actually, a haunting, inhuman sound that made Elianna furrow her brow as Jonathan spoke quietly into his voice recorder. El leaned closer to Zsasz's face to further assess his experience. His eyes shifted to her face with dilated pupils, and a look of horror overtook his face, all the while screaming and pulling at his cuffs so hard that she was surprised that he hadn't dislocated anything yet.

"What is he seeing?" El inquired, pulling away from the screaming, terrified maniac before her. Jonathan brought the voice recorder closer, now standing next to her.

"Mr. Zsasz, would you mind telling us what you see?" The howling and thrashing gave way to paranoid muttering and sudden, jerking movements as if he could catch the restraints off guard and trick them into releasing him.

"Get it out, get it out of here," Zsasz demanded in a desperate voice through gritted teeth, repeating it over and over. Jonathan frowned slightly, retreating to his briefcase and removing a burlap mask, at which Elianna couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"Was that Scarecrow, or do you still have a fixation on the one that was out on your property?"

"Where do you think Scarecrow came from, El?" He retorted distractedly as he removed his glasses and put on the mask, crossing back over to Zsasz. "Tell me what you see, Victor." He ordered again, looming over the scarred man.

"Get it out!" Zsasz screamed again in response.

"I can't take it away unless you tell me what it is," Jonathan's voice had become low and impatient; he must be trying really hard to keep Scarecrow back since I'm here. Zsasz looked Jonathan, or rather the mask, in the eyes—eyeholes?—and his breathing grew even louder as he ground his teeth.

"Don't you see it? The water! It's rising so quickly; you have to get it out if here, or we'll all drown!" The thought of drowning causes Zsasz to begin hyperventilating.

"Aquaphobia," El mused, leaning back in. "Does that stem from your parents' accident, Victor? They died on a boat if I'm not mistaken." The desperate screaming resumed, and El observed as it was interrupted by a coughing sputter, as though he were trying not to drown. That's interesting. Zsasz's mind had produced such a life-like delusion of rising water that his body was reacting as though it were really there, and all the while, Jonathan had taken the mask off and was speaking quickly and quietly into his recording device.

After only a few more minutes, Zsasz's gasping breaths and twitching slowed and eventually stopped as his head lolled to the side. Jonathan checked his pulse to assess whether or not he was dead.

***

"Subject has fallen unconscious at," Jonathan took a moment from his notes to check his watch, "twenty-five minutes." He switched off the device and turned to replace all of his equipment into his case, returning his glasses to his face.

"Twenty-five? Really?" Elianna took one last look at Zsasz's unconscious, vulnerable face. "Didn't feel that long."

"No, because you enjoyed it, you should have seen your face," Jonathan informed in a light voice as he relatched his case and tilted his head for her to walk with him back up the stairs. "Eyes all lit up-"

"Look who's talking. What's with that mask?"

"Some subjects react more strongly to it. It makes them more likely to cooperate."

"I guess that makes sense...hey, are we just leaving him down here?"

"The guards will take him back up when they see us leave; no one else will ever know." He reassured her and went first through the panel, pushing the spare mattresses back over it once they were both out. "Are you hungry? We can pick up something to eat on the way home." El hummed in response.

They emerged from the bowels of Arkham and were approaching the car when a sudden thought struck her. "Are you afraid of anything?" Jonathan looked down at her, face impassive, and opened the passenger door for her, moving to the driver's side once she was in.

"Just Granny," he finally replied after closing and locking the door.

"That's it?" She got a nod in response.

"In the early stages of the project, I hadn't figured out the system for test subjects yet, so I had to test it on myself. I had to learn to push down many things to record the results reliably, and eventually, I had done it so much that none of the other things even made an appearance anymore. I still get hallucinations of things that are traditionally 'scary,' but I get none of the accompanying physical symptoms."

"So, controlled, repeated exposure to the toxin can slowly start to eliminate your fear response?"

"It's either that, or it's possible to build up somewhat of an immunity to the toxin, which I think is more likely," Jonathan commented and finally started the car. They drove in silence for a few minutes, and Elianna found herself once again trying to make a life-changing decision.

"Do you think it would work on me?" The question catches Jonathan off-guard enough to tear his eyes away from the road for a moment to give her a look of surprise.

"Are you asking me to dose you?"

"I think I am, as long as you think it's safe." He sucked in a deep breath, his face stern, and Elianna fell silent to let him think.

"It could work, but we'll use the original formula just in case. It's the one I've tested the most, so there's less of a risk."

"Then let's do it." She said without hesitation. If there was one thing she had learned over the last week, it was that there was no use in resisting her impulses. Jonathan nodded slowly. Every day was becoming more interesting than the last with her around again, and he had the feeling that that wouldn't change any time soon.

[wafflebloggies]

Second Contact

[more of this]

They were building next door, again. Alan didn’t have any more idea what they were building than he’d had when they’d moved in, but the shuddering noises kept on and on and on, from behind the tall, bleak, green-painted steel wall around the perimeter of the place where the house next door had been. Alan lay awake and stared up at the ceiling, watching the lampshade sway in the pale slant of moonlight, jerking with each percussive thud. The noise usually stopped by midnight. His parents seemed to be able to sleep through it.

The lampshade jumped like a salmon. Alan jolted upright with a gasp. That one hadn’t even sounded like it came from next door. It sounded like something dropping onto the roof of their house, directly over his head.

He told himself to calm down, made himself lie down again. His imagination, it was just his imagination. It had to be. Nothing could-

The window creaked.

Alan was suddenly very aware of the space in the room, the night breeze stirring the curtains, the empty floor, every single hair that was trying to crawl right off his arms and the back of his neck. He'd never felt more awake in his life- he was pretty sure no other ten-year-old in the history of the world had ever been this awake, ever.

 His eyes were riveted on the window, where the moon shining against the curtains made a perfect backlit shadow theatre. The shape of Something- a slow, long, spidery, distorted Something- eased up the sash, and slid into the pool of shade under the window.

Into his room.

Alan wasn’t quite sure how he ended up out of bed, but he did it. Before the dark mass under the window started to move again, he had slipped out from under his bedclothes and into the recess between the bed and the wall. Directly in front of him, the tall obelisk of his wardrobe blocked the way. It was the biggest thing in the room- too big, really, for a room this small. It was right between him and the door.

The Something moved across the room. Flattened against the floor by the baseboard, all Alan could make out was the soft pad of footsteps on the rug under his ear. He couldn’t tell how many feet. He couldn’t even hear breathing. Very slowly, praying nothing would catch or shift or creak, he pushed out with his bare foot, felt with his toes under the wardrobe’s nearest corner for the heavy wooden knob of its front leg. The frail one, with the twist- the one his dad kept meaning to fix.

The Something stepped into the moonlight, into the centre of the room. Alan held his breath, shut his eyes tight, and kicked.

The wardrobe moved, but not much. At the horrible shifting creak it made, the Something turned suddenly, and Alan caught the flash of an eye and something else- something unearthly and inhuman that glinted like metal. He kicked again, terror giving an edge to his strength, and flung his shoulder against the back edge of the wardrobe. It was just enough.

The wardrobe toppled, the lower drawers sliding out as it went, thudding into the rug like a handful of giant’s dominoes. The Something let out a single shocked squawk before the whole thing went over, and before the heavy front had even slammed into the floor, Alan was moving, diving across the room for the torch in his desk drawer. He grabbed it and pumped it up, the whirring of the battery loud in the wake of the wardrobe’s settling crash. The strengthening beam of light swung wildly across the room, and Alan scrambled across the bed and peered down at the floor.

“Ow,” whined the Something. “That actually really hurt.”

---8---

“I mean you no harm,” said the alien.

It was a strange thing to say, considering. Most of the alien was sandwiched, firmly, under the bulk of the wardrobe. Alan, who was sitting on top of the wardrobe with his bare feet drawn up, to put as much weight on it as possible, shifted his grip on the mosquito whacker in his hands. He didn’t feel too confident, facing down an alien-robot-monster-thing with nothing but a two-dollar electrified tennis racket, but at least he wasn’t the one pinned to the floor.

He wasn’t entirely convinced by the thing’s delivery, either. The words were ‘I mean you no harm,’ but the way they were said sounded more like ‘you just wait.’

“Who are you?” he said, shakily. “What are you? What are you doing in my bedroom?”

He could feel it trying to pull itself free. It was hard to believe that the floor-shaking crash the wardrobe had made as it tipped had failed to wake either of his parents, but then, the three of them had been dealing with the horrendous construction noise from across the street every night since they’d moved in. Probably, by this point, his parents could have slept through an earthquake with very little disturbance. Alan didn’t dare get down off the wardrobe to fetch them, just in case his own relatively insignificant weight was the only thing preventing the thing’s escape.

The alien squirmed a bit, but seemed to realise it was well and truly stuck. It let out a long, impatient sigh. “Don’t freak out, okay,” it said, “but… I’m not from this planet.”

Alan stared. “Well, yeah,” he said, at last. “You’re an alien robot, I heard you landing on the roof.”

“I’m not a robot- you’re actually being very rude right now, you know? Just because parts of me happen to be inorganic-”

“Rude? You broke into my room!”

“The window was open!”

They stared at each other. The bedside lamp had been knocked over in the initial scuffle, and in the crooked slant of light Alan could see the alien’s eyes, very vivid emerald green and slightly reflective in its metallic face. It wasn’t a big creature. Given that most of it was under the wardrobe, it was maybe about the same size as he was.

“You know, this wasn’t the sort of welcome I was expecting at all,” said the alien. Its voice was loaded with accusation. “It took me a really, really long time to get here, I had a lot of majorly cool plans, and all that’s happened since I arrived is, people yelling at me, and refusing to listen, and now you actually attacked me, and I don’t- I don’t feel like you people are even taking me seriously at all! What do I have to do? Literally, what do you want from me, I’m the first contact you humans have ever had with an interstellar species, exponentially more advanced than your own, would it kill you to show me a little respect? I- I have a ship and everything! I… I…”

It stumbled over its words, and stopped. The silence dragged out for a little bit, and Alan was about to speak when to his astonishment and embarrassment he heard the alien make a noise like a stifled sniffle.

“Are- are you… crying?”

“No,” said the alien, furiously and damply.

Alan arrived at a decision. He put down the mosquito whacker and climbed down off the wardrobe, ready to dash back at any moment if the thing tried to make a move. He padded over to his school coat, hanging on the back of the door, went through the pockets and brought the alien a crumpled tissue, which after some hesitation it took, and blew its nose on.

“My name’s Alan,” he offered, sitting down on the rug by the alien’s side, against the wardrobe. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

It made a sound halfway between a hiccup and an incredulous sniff. “Hurt me? It’d take more than this stupid, flimsy little… uh…”

“Wardrobe.”

“…wardrobe, to hurt me. I mean, it’s kind of squashing me into the floor, but that’s no biggie.” Another nose-blow.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m- uh- well, my name is way too complex to translate into your primitive phonology. You can just call me, uh… the Captain.”

He posed, dramatically, or at least as much as he could, squished as he was between the wardrobe and the floor. He really didn’t look very comfortable.

---8---

“Cool! That’s great, Alan. Maybe you can start by getting this thing off me, how does that sound?”

Alan sat back on his heels.

“Actually, um, I’m not sure I can,” he admitted. “I don’t think I can move this thing by myself. Dad had to ask the guy next door to help us get it up the stairs. Mom says it’s genuine oak.”

“That’s nice,’ said the alien. ‘I’m glad I’m not having my spine crushed by some cheap knockoff.”

They tried, anyway. Alan braced his feet on the wall and pushed until he saw flashing lights, and the alien made a lot of straining noises without appearing to actually help much, but the wardrobe didn’t budge an inch. Giving it up as a bad job, Alan pushed his sweaty curls out of his face and tried to think.

“In movies,” he said, slowly, “kids always try to keep stuff like this a secret.”

“Which never works,” the alien pointed out.

“Yeah, it never- wait, how do you know?”

“Oh, I know movies,” said the alien, shifting under the wardrobe enough to rest his chin on his hands. “I’ve watched all of them.”

Alan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He was just beginning to say ‘what do you mean, all of them?’ when a sound from the direction of his parents’ room down the hall brought him sharply back to the problem in hand.

“I’m going to get Mom and Dad,” he said, standing up. “Don’t worry, they’re… uh… don’t worry, okay? Just try to look… harmless.”

The small alien-robot-kid stuck half-under his wardrobe gave him a look that was at the same time both overly patient and quite unreasonably exasperated.

“I’ll try,” he said.

---8---

Alan knew his ground.

“We can't just call the police, Mom,” he said. “We can't. We don't know what they might do to him. What if NASA decides to, to experiment on him?”

His parents looked dazedly at him, the alien, and each other. They had the shellshocked faces of two sensible, rational adults who really weren’t prepared to be dealing with this sort of thing at 3AM.

“Alan-”

“There's this thing they showed us in class that they can do to monkeys, where they cut it open and put its brain in a sort of dish of chemicals, and it's still alive, and they poke it and make the monkey react, and its body is still twitching around even though its brain is gone! What if they do that to him?”

“Alan,” said his dad, after a rather queasy sort of pause, “it's not our-”

“It IS our responsibility, Dad! Look at him! He's not going to hurt anybody! What if they torture him? What if they kill him, and next week, his whole family shows up and atomizes the planet? We don't know! We're the only people who can do anything now, while his brain's still on the inside!”

The alien had listened to all this with the aloof, dignified expression of somebody who didn't understand a single word. Alan's mother put a hand on his dad's arm, and drew him across the room to the window, where they started to talk in urgent, grown-up whispers. There was a lot of pointing and waving, mostly from his dad, who talked with his hands. Alan watched them, trying to make out what they were saying, but after a minute the alien poked him in the leg.

“What did you tell them?”

“Um,” said Alan. “Just, er, that you're very important and it'd be good for Earth if they helped you, probably.”

The alien nodded. “Very diplomatic,” he said, approvingly. “Tell them they can start by getting this wardrobe off me.”

[andimack-crack]

High school musical: Tyrus au

Part 1: Start of something new

The Sky mountain ski resort was bursting with life for the new year.

Well for some people at least down in the lobby Cyrus Goodman sat on a couch invested in a book some hopeless love story only for his mom to come and interrupt.

"Cyrus it's new years eve enough reading" she said taking away his book

"But mom I'm almost done and-"

"There's a teen party I've laid out your best clothes now come get ready" she ordered

"Can I have my book back?" He pleaded only for his mom to give in handing it over.

"Thank you" he smiled

In another part of the resort noise could be heard from the indoor basketball court as T.J Kippen trained with his dad his sneakers squeaking as he swiftly moved around the court.

"Keep working left Teej" His dad coached "Gotta guard in the championship game we're expecting. You'll torch em"

"By going left?" The blonde asked

"Yeah they go to the middle you take it down town"

"What like this?"

T.J dribbled the ball sliding left and shooting through the hoop with ease. His dad grinned happily high fiving his son.

"That's what I'm talking about I wanna see that in the game"

"Boys"

Both head turned to see T.J's mother standing in the door way dressed up all fancy but with a stern look on her face.

"Did we really fly out all this way just to play basketball"

"Yeah" they both answered

"It's new year's eve... the party?" She reminded

"The party" T.J's dad repeated

"T.J they have a kids party downstairs"

"Kids party?" T.J frowned

"Young adults now go shower up" His mom ushered him out the court.

T.J was right these 'young adults' looked like they were barley past the age of 14. He made his way across the room settling in a corner patiently waiting for midnight. Cyrus had also entered finding a space to sit and continue his book it may be loud but he was determined to finish.

The party had a karaoke stage as a boy and a girl finished their song they stepped off and a tall man jumped on stage with a microphone.

"Alright, alright" he projected into the microphone "who's next to come up here and rock the house for us?"

A spotlight wavered across the room to pick two people at random one landing on T.J who looked up startled another landing on Cyrus looking up from his book to be blinded by the sudden light hitting him. Cyrus was taken by the arms and put on stage looking like a deer in headlights as he crossed his arms and looked at his feet. T.J tried to protest as he was pushed towards the stage

"No guys I don't sing, wha- guys!"

Both boys stood in front of microphones looking at eachother but not directly in the eyes.

"Hey you know what some day you guys might thank me for this" the host said "Or not" he quickly added before leaving.

The music started unsure of what to do T.J started singing.

Living in my own world

Didn't understand

He cleared his throat

That anything can happen

When you take a chance

'This is hopeless' T.J thought to himself he turned to go off stage. But Cyrus had a sudden burst of courage seeing the other boy was just as nervous as him.

I never believed in What I couldn't see

T.J looked back having heard his voice the only thing he could was 'wow...'

I never opened my heart

(Oh)

T.J stood in front of his microphone again harmonizing with the other boy

To all the possibilities

Finally looking into each others eyes Cyrus felt his heart do a flip seeing how green they were. They both stood a little taller.

I know that something has changed

Never felt this way and right here tonight

This could be the start of something new

It feels so right to be here with you (oh)

And now looking in your eyes

I feel in my heart (feel in my heart)

The start of something new

T.J took off his blazer jacket as the crowd around them started to get excited clapping along with them as they sang.

Now who'd have ever thought that

We'd both be here tonight

And the world looks so much brighter

With you by my side

I know that something has changed

Never felt this way

I know it for real

This could be the start of something new

It feels so right to be here with you (oh)

And now looking in your eyes

I feel in my heart

The start of something new

T.J moved closer to Cyrus as they got lost in the music and each others eyes.

I never knew that it could happen till it happened to me

I didn't know it before

But now it's easy to see

It's the start of something new

It feels so right to be here with you

And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart

That it's the start of something new-

T.J had moved so close to Cyrus he didn't realise he was about to go over the edge of the stage the people behind him lucky pushed him back on.

It feels so right to be here with you

And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart

The start of something new (The start of something new)

The start of something new

The room erupted into applause but the two boys could only focus on one another at how seeing each other felt like love at first sight.

"T.J" The blonde held out his hand

"Cyrus" The brunette responded as the held hands for longer than they should of.

As the crowd began to chat again T.J and Cyrus made their way outside to talk in a quiter place.

"Seriously you have an amazing voice you're a singer right?" He asked

"No only in choirs I tried a solo once and I fainted"

"Really how come?" T.J wondered

"I took one look at all the people staring at me and the next thing I knew I was staring at the ceiling" they both laughed

"Well from the way you sang tonight that story is hard to believe"

"I know it was so cool I've never done anything like that before"

"We sounded great" T.J bragged

"What about you? You sound like you've done a lot of singing." Cyrus continued

"Oh yes my shower head is very impressed with me" T.J joked

The kids inside began to site in excitedly as the count down began.

"10...9...8...7..."

T.J and Cyrus look each other in the eyes. T.J was captivated by the sparkle in Cyrus's eyes occasionally looking toward his lips.

"6...5...4...3...2...1...HAPPY NEW YEAR"

The yelling and fireworks going off made them tear their eyes away from eachother. There was silence until Cyrus spoke up.

"I should... probably go find my mom and wish her a happy New year" he yelled over the crowd

"Yeah me too... I mean not your mom my mom and dad" T.J quickly said Cyrus nodded "Um I'll call you, I'll call you tommorow put your number in"

Cyrus nodded in agreement T.J took out his phone and pointed it at Cyrus the boy smiled as he took a picture they swapped phones T.J took a picture of himself and punched in his number. They handed the phones back.

"Here you go" T.J smiled Cyrus nodded in response and walked away.

"Just so you know" T.J continued unaware of Cyrus leaving "Singing with you is the most fun I've had on this entire vacation. So um where do you live?"

When T.J turned around he was gone he looked back down at his phone to see his bright smile in the picture.

"Cyrus" he said to himself.

He wasn't sure what this meant but he knew it felt right.

A/N: Hey I decided I really wanted to write a hsm au so I hope y'all enjoy :))

[turtlepated]

Pate I'm drunk I want PateDew HCs pleeeeease

@pastelnacht

Oh are you now? Lol, well I will do my best to provide! 

Let's see... PateDew is pretty open-ended so hows about I hit you with the half-formed vaguely self-insert WIP that’s been sitting in my Google Docs for weeks now: 

----

You’d been stressed out at work lately, stressed enough that two days simply wasn’t enough time to fully decompress. So when a couple of your coworkers invited you out for drinks after work, you decided to tag along. Why not? 

The Roadhouse bar was a bit more… rustic than you’d expected for a bunch of office workers like yourselves, but it seemed like the perfect place to lose yourself and unwind for an evening. It was loud, both from the rowdy patrons and the jukebox in the corner, smelled strongly of cigarette smoke and cheap booze and greasy food. Not somewhere you’d ordinarily venture on your own, but it was a nice enough distraction. 

After a couple beers you had a pleasant buzz going. Somebody at the jukebox set Don’t Stop Believin’ to playing and a cheer went up. Grinning widely you swayed back and forth in time to the piano overture and belted along to the first verse about the “lonely girl livin’ in a lonely world”, emboldened by the alcohol and the giggling of your colleagues. 

You spun around, startled, when another voice chimed in just as loudly behind you, picking it up with the “city boy, born and raised in south Detroit”, meeting a pair of brown eyes barely discernible under a mop of messy brown curls. 

And that was how you first met Dewey Finn, both of you belting along to the Journey favorite while other patrons booed and shushed you, pelting you with peanut shells while you both just laughed. 

It didn’t take long to learn pretty much all there was to know about Dewey Finn: he was easy going, funny and energetic and sweet, practically lived at the Roadhouse, and he loved rock music more than anything else. Even when sitting down he was always tapping his foot or thumping his hand against his knee, keeping rhythm with the song playing in his head. 

The two of you were fast friends and the Roadhouse became a regular watering hole for you. Dewey was fun and fascinating, so passionate about whatever topic happened to be under discussion that you couldn’t help getting excited right along with him. 

You bonded quickest over your overlapping tastes in music. While Dewey considered himself more of a purist (classic rock being the pinnacle of human achievement as far as he was concerned), few things seemed to thrill him more than sharing his music with you. The two of you sat across from one another in “your” booth at the Roadhouse, tipsy and giggly, having swapped phones to compare playlists. As expected, Dewey’s phone was full to bursting with AC/DC, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Guns n Roses, Rolling Stones. 

“Oh my God,” he laughed, turning your phone around to show you the screen. “Are you serious?” You flushed, embarrassed, covering your face with one hand. 

“Okay, look,” you began. “I didn’t get to have a Britney phase when I was a kid because I didn’t have any money to buy albums! And by the time I did Britney was considered cringey and I was too young to know that there’s no such thing as cringe! So I have to have my Britney phase now!” 

Your rebuttal only made Dewey laugh harder, his cheeks rosy and his eyes glittering both from the mirth and the drinks. He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Ah, I’m only messin’ with you! Though I’m impressed that you had like a whole defense just ready to go!” He turned his head, glancing around conspiratorially before leaning towards you over the tabletop, crooking a finger at you invitingly. Giggling, you folded your arms and leaned in on your elbows. 

“Not like Britney needs a defense,” he admitted, grinning, rapping the flat of his palm on the table between you to keep the beat as he started singing. “My loneliness is killin’ me!”

Without missing a step you chimed right in, “And I, I must confess, I still believe!” By the time you got to “Hit me, baby, one more time!” you were both almost incoherent from a fit of laughter, ignoring the vocal annoyance of the other regulars seated around you. 

Looking back, you considered that to be the moment you fell in love with Dewey Finn. 

If you were honest with yourself, that moment was probably when the two of you first sang along with Steve Perry, but you couldn’t help feeling a little silly and even cliched. The whole “love at first sight” schtick. 

In an ideal world, you could simply pluck up your courage and come right out and tell him how you felt. In an ideal world, he would tell you he felt the same way. The two of you might even exchange a tender kiss, if the romance in movies was anything to go on. 

But the world was not ideal. 

He did eventually tell you about the bizarre circumstances that led to his current job, which he so clearly loved and talked about constantly. Hearing the whole surreal tale, from start to finish, was a rollercoaster of subterfuge and deceit, plus a dash of identity theft and sprinkled with heartfelt personal growth. You joked with him that he ought to sell the story to a producer, get a movie deal. Jack Black would make a very believable Dewey Finn, you said, and he snorted into his drink. 

So many unexpected things had come about for him as a result of his improbable plan; not just a job but a career, one that he was passionate about, that excited him every day! Reveling in the talent of his students, their eagerness to learn and explore, seeing them progress and get better and better… It was a feeling that he’d only ever experienced before when playing a show, but now he got to feel it almost every day! In his wildest dreams, he’d never have even thought of where he was now in order to have wished for it. If the kids, his amazing, talented, face-shredding students had come as a shock, then their uptight, pencil-skirted, no-nonsense, secret rocker principal had thrown him for the biggest loop. 

It wasn’t until after the two of you had been friends for awhile (and after Dewey had thrown back a couple shots of tequila on top of his two and a half pints of beer) that he told you about Rosalie Mullins beyond “she’s my boss. Sort of.” 

Even Dewey was willing to concede that he took her out for drinks initially as a ploy to get her to agree to let him take his “class” to the band competition. The kiss that followed their conversation at the Roadhouse had been impulsive on his part, he hadn’t even thought about it at the time, there had been more pressing matters on his mind. In the aftermath of his unmasking; between the threats of arrest and homelessness, his adolescent band rallying his spirits and delivering a powerhouse performance; so many highs and lows in such a short expanse of time, it wasn’t until Rosalie Mullins grabbed his face afterwards and kissed him that it even dawned on him that there might be something to it. 

They’d gone out after things returned to normal, but after a few months of on-again-off-again they decided they were better as friends, as colleagues. Or rather, Dewey admitted a tad bitterly after finishing a third pint and another shot of tequila, Rose had decided they weren’t a good fit romantically and didn’t want to jeopardize their working relationship. 

“I really liked her, though,” he said with a sigh, slumping in the bench seat across from you and toying with the empty shot glass. “Smart, classy, beautiful.” You sat with your arms folded on the tabletop, trying not to let it show that each word struck you like a knife in the heart, wanting to be supportive in the midst of his disappointment because that’s what friends did for one another. Regardless of what you were feeling, it was clear he was still carrying a torch for the principal and when he showed you pictures he had kept on his phone you could see why. 

She truly was very pretty, very put -together, as stark a contrast as she could be in her perfectly tailored blazers and skirts to you in your jeans and T-shirts. You couldn’t help but feel ridiculous and petty, jealous of a woman you didn’t know, had never even spoken to just because the man you loved was still hung up on her. 

It didn’t matter anyway, because whatever your feelings may be, Dewey obviously didn’t feel the same about you, not when his heart was still set on Miss Mullins. 

You put it out of your mind, willfully ignoring it because at least you could still be his friend. No matter how heartsick it made you when his laugh or his smile made your heart swell and you wanted so much to kiss him but you couldn’t. You just couldn’t do that, it would ruin everything. 

As the weeks passed it got… maybe not easier to bear, but you grew used to the gnawing ache inside and you learned to ignore it. You barely even noticed it anymore. Things began to change when Dewey left you a very boisterous and excited voicemail, telling you to meet him at the Roadhouse after work because he had “huge, unbelievable, amazing news!” You had no idea what he could be talking about but whatever it was he met you at the door, practically bouncing like a puppy. 

In between corralling him into a booth and placing your drink orders with the waitress, you finally got him to calm down enough to tell you what he had to say.��

“Every year the country club crowd throws this big charity fundraiser for the city, and since a lot of em are Horace Green parents or alums, this year the school is hosting the charity and School of Rock is lined up to play the whole event! Isn’t that awesome?!” 

You beamed at him, his elation contagious. In the year since their formation and debut, Horace Green’s official student band (led by their music coach, Dewey Finn) had garnered a fair bit of publicity with their electrifying performance at the battle of the bands competition. Despite losing the contest, they had been the unequivocal crowd favorite and the school had enjoyed some very positive press in the midst of their growing popularity. 

But a gig like this would elevate the band to a whole new level, Dewey animatedly explained. You couldn’t help getting swept up in his mounting excitement, almost giddy to see him so wholeheartedly invested in the project. Naturally, you offered to be of whatever help you could to help him pull off such an important show. The band deserved it, and so did he. And if it meant you’d be seeing a whole lot more of Mr. Finn in the coming weeks, well… that would just be a bonus. 

[themonsterinsidethemind]

Pining Stenbrough

I suck at endings but enjoy

Bill frowned looking around at his group of friends.  Everyone had a partner but him. Richie and Eddie had been together since sophomore year of high school, Bev and Ben had been together since senior year, Mike and his girlfriend, Kelsey had been together since freshman year of college, and Stan, the love of Bill's life, had been with his boyfriend, Jackson since last year.  

Bill hated seeing them together.  He wanted to punch Jakson in the face every time he was around them.  Jackson was perfect for Stan. He was funny, good looking, and Jewish.  He was basically everything Bill wasn't. Bill HATED being around them.  

"Yo Billy boy, you gonna get your ass up and dance or are you going to continue to shred your beer label?  It's a party man. Come party with us!" Richie looped an arm around Bill's shoulders.  

Bill raised an eyebrow tearing his eyes away from Stan and Jackson laughing on the dance floor.  "God how much have you had to drink?" Bill asked his drunk friend.  

Richie shrugged.  "Way too many man.  Good thing you're driving us home huh?"

Bill nodded.  "Yeah. Also no I don't feel like dancing."  He went back to watching Stan.

"You should tell him man.  This whole pining thing has gone on way too long."  Richie flopped down in a chair next to Bill. "He likes you too ya know?"

"Beep beep Richie."  Bill muttered tearing his eyes away when Stan kissed Jackson.  "He doesn't like me that way. He lives with his boyfriend. They're probably gonna get married."

Richie laughed.  "Dude they totally fucking wont.  Jackson is a slut. He sleeps around on Stan.  Stan is too much of a coward to end it."

Bill's head shot up.  "That's not a funny joke."

Richie held up a finger and pulled out his phone.  He showed Bill texts between himself and Stan where Stan admitted to finding Jackson cheating.  "It's true Big Bill."

Bill felt fury fill his body.  He didn't remember standing and going over to Jackson.  He really didn't mean to punch the guy in the jaw but he definitely felt the pain in his hand as Jackson fell backwards at the force.

"What the fuck?!"  Jakcson yelled over the loud music.  Stan rushed to his boyfriend's side.  

"Woah!  Way to go Big Bill!"  Richie yelled out holding Bill's abandoned beer.

"You think cheating on my best friend is ok?"  Bill yelled out rushing at Jackson again. Stan jumped between them.

"Bill what the fuck dude?"  Stan looked furious with him.  

Bill stopped mid fury.  He stared at Stan. "Why do you let him cheat on you?  You deserve so much better than this piece of trash."

Stan stared at Bill as if seeing him for the first time.  "It was a mistake. We are all human William."  

Bill's whole body felt like ice as he watched Stan help Jackson up and they left the party.  

Richie looped an arm around Bill's shoulders.  "You feel better after hitting him? Cause that was one hell of a hit."  

Bill shrugged Richie's arm off him.  "No, I feel like shit now. He called me by my actual name.  He's never done that."

"He'll come around just give him time.  He's totally in love with you." Richie grabbed Bill's hands.  "Now you owe me and Eddie a dance."

Bill yanked his hands out of Richies.  "No, I'm going home. Get another ride."  Bill grabbed his jacket and left. He drove back to the apartment he shared with Eddie and Richie.  He flopped down on the sofa and texted Stan.

I'm sorry Stan.  I don't know what came over me.  Can we forgive tonight?

Bill stared at his phone for a good hour before he got a reply.

Forget my number William.

Bill felt his heart break.  He scrambled trying to think of ways to make this right.  The only way he figured to make it right was by apologizing to Jackson which was something he really didn't want to do.  He sighed flopping back against the sofa. He stayed there until he heard Richie and Eddie come home. 

"Billiam!  You're awake!  You ditched us, Kelsey had to drive us home.  She swears she's never doing that again." Richie yelled out.  Richie was definitely drunk.

Bill sighed.  "Take some advil and go to bed Richie."  

Richie giggled doing as he was told.  Eddie joined Bill on the sofa.  

"Why did you hit him?"  Eddie asked softly staring forward at the TV.

Bill dragged a hand down his face.  "I don't know ok? I just got so mad seeing that he was cheating on Stan."

Eddie nodded.  "I get that but.."  Eddie trailed off. "Stan's really mad Bill."

"I know that!"  Bill covered his face with a pillow.  

"He doesn't want to see you anymore.  He texted the rest of us asking us not to have you around him."  Eddie sounded sad. "I don't want that. You guys have always been friends."

Bill sighed again.  He removed the pillow from his face. "I don't know how to fix this."

Eddie shrugged.  "Maybe give it time?  Stan can't hold grudges.  He's not good at them."

It turned out Stanley Uris was better at holding grudges than anyone thought.  He didn't talk to or hang around Bill for the next three years. Bill spent the next three years stalking Stan's social media just to feel like he still had his friend.  He wanted his friend back and every text he sent or call he made went unanswered. He and Stan finally ran into each other when Bill and the rest of the group was helping Richie and Eddie move into their house.  

Stan looked around at the shocked group sadly.  "Hey guys.."

Bev rushed forward and hugged Stan. "Jesus we missed you."

Stan smiled.  "Thanks Bev."

Bill stood back rubbing at his neck.  "Uh..guys I should go…" He turned to head to his car.

"Bill wait!"  Stan yelled out following after Bill.

Bill turned around.  "Yeah?"

Stan rushed forward and hugged Bill tightly.  "You were right, I'm sorry."

Bill hugged Stan tightly.  "Huh? What do you mean?"

Stan smiled at Bill.  "Jackson was a real jack ass.  I never should have stayed with him much less married him."

Bill's  eyebrows rose.  "Oh um..congratulations.  I didn't know you got married."  He felt his heart break all over again hearing that Stan was married.

Stan held up his left hand no ring on his ring finger.  "Divorced actually."

Bill felt his heart soar for a moment.  "Oh I'm sorry to hear that.."

Stan chuckled.  "I'm not. You were right that night you know.  I did and do deserve better. So I divorced him and found better."  

Bill felt his heart drop to his stomach.  "Oh well congratulations are still in order I guess."

Stan grinned taking his phone out of his pocket.  He handed it over to Bill. "Can I get your number again?  I missed my best friend."

Bill put his number in Stan's phone frowning a bit as he saw Stan's lockscreen.  Stan and his new man on a boat looking so in love it physically hurt Bill.

As the years went by Bill and Stan talked but Bill never dated.  He still held a torch for his best friend. He stood by Stan's side as Stan married Jesse, a nice enough guy but definitely not someone Bill saw Stan with.  He was there for the birth of their first kid, all the birthday parties and he was there as Stan buried his husband too young. A drunk driver hit him head on.  Bill straightened his tie and laid a hand on Stan's shoulder. "I'm so sorry Stan."

Stan turned to Bill.  "Is it bad if I say I'm glad he's free?  I mean our marriage was in shambles and he was depressed as fuck."

Bill looked surprised for a moment.  "Um..a little fucked up but I don't know."

Stan smiled slightly.  "Yeah it is isn't it?"

Bill suddenly felt the urge to laugh.  He didn't know why but the whole situation just felt so fucked up.  Stan smirked at Bill before masking his face into grief. Bill felt envious as he watched Stan work the room perfectly and the grieving widower.  When the funeral was over Stan had the whole losers club over to his house after the funeral. Stan played the role of the perfect host. Bill cornered him in the kitchen.

"Cut the act Stan.  You're around friends. It's ok to fall apart."

Stan shrugged.  "I'm not gonna fall apart Bill.  I knew my marriage sucked. I stayed in it for my daughter.  I'm free now. Jesse wasn't a bad guy but he wasn't the one I wanted.  We both knew that."

Bill's mouth hung open.  "Who did you want?"

Stan raised an eyebrow.  "You're seriously asking me that?  You don't know how in love with you I am?"

Bill froze.  The whole room melted away as he only saw Stan.  "What?" He whispered terrified he was dreaming.  

Stan stepped forward and placed his hands on Bill's face.  "William Zach Denbrough, I love you and I've always loved you."

Bill felt his heart pound as he stepped forward and pressed his lips against Stan's.  Stan kissed back feverishly. 

Bill pulled away first for air.  "Fuck, I've waited so long for you to say that."

"You should have said it first dumbass."  Stan teased going in for another kiss.  

"Yeah I should have."  Bill mumbled against Stan's lips.  

"Finally!  Can we party now!"  Richie yelled out.

"Beep beep Richie."  Stan and Bill said at the same time holding each others hands.  

[celtics534]

We Run From Real Life Thoughts Tonight

Doom Days chapter 3 is here. Are you ready for it?

Read on FF.net or AO3

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Harry glanced over at Ginny out of the corner of his eye. She was staring straight ahead, hyper-focused on their task. After a quick moment of silence for their fallen friend, they had fled the scene, looting their enemies clean of anything useful. 

 As they walked, Harry’s mind kept replaying the scene. He saw Cedric’s body jerking as the bullet tore through his chest. He saw the look on his face as he slid down to the ground. Harry’s own hands were covered in shining blood. Then… nothing. He had frozen, unable to do more than stare, and Ginny had been the one to guide them away from everything. 

 If Harry was completely honest, he hadn’t heard a word she’d said for the first few minutes after the shooting ceased. His brain seemed to have shut down, unable to think about anything other than his dead friend. But when Ginny had moved in close… how was it that she smelled like Molly’s little patio garden? They were in the middle of an apocalypse, and there she was, smelling of fucking flowers. It was the same scent he’d noticed back in school, the same smell that would follow him into his dreams to that very night . That’s what had brought him back to reality, back to the painful real-life thoughts. Without her,fuck...  he’d probably still be back in the center of that village. Or dead.  

 The night was approaching fast as they made their way. By Harry’s understanding of the map, they should reach Lower Assendon before darkness completely overran them. 

 “What’s that?” Ginny broke the comfortable silence they’d had for over an hour. She was pointing towards the outline of a tree on a small rise, and yet… 

 Harry blinked a few times to make sure his eyes weren’t misleading him. Dangling from one of the higher branches were two humanoid shadows. They were connected by a thick rope tied  around where their necks would be. 

“Please don’t let it be what I think it is.” Ginny’s shoulders fell as they moved in closer to the hanging tree. 

 “Then it’s better if I don’t speak.” Harry took in a deep breath as they stood forty meters away. Without saying a word, they’d each decided to stop.“Fuck.”

 “We should cut them down.” Ginny reached for the blade clipped to her belt. Harry followed her as she strode up the short incline. 

 Once they were close enough to see the skin peeling from the woman’s cheeks, the first thing Harry thought of was the lack of smell. “They’ve been here for a while.”

 Ginny nodded as she stared at the couple. The longer they stood there, the more Harry noticed -- but what really caught his attention was their linked hands. 

 “They wanted to leave the world together,” Ginny spoke softly. He turned to see her looking at their hands too. “I’m guessing one of them was ill.” She swallowed hard. “I’m worried that Dad sent me away for the same reason.”

 Harry’s heart surged into his throat. The idea that Arthur was going to -- “No.” 

 His voice was so quiet he could barely hear it. Beside him, he felt Ginny shudder. Without hesitation, Harry took her into his arms, cradling her head to his chest. 

 She started to shake while Harry held her. He could feel the dampness of her tears on his shirt. “Ginny, I --” I’m sorry wasn’t enough. It pained him to watch her deal with all of… this. This motherfucking shit-show of a world. If he could, he’d have hidden her away from it all. 

 But that was impossible. 

 “I just hate that I can’t do anything,” Ginny said, her voice muffled by his shirt. Harry started rubbing small circles in between her shoulder blades. “Oh, Harry, you and I both know he won’t make it. Mum maybe had a few days, and they say --”

 Ginny choked back a sob. Harry pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Everyone knows how contagious you are during the last twenty-four hours you’re alive with Morsmordre.”  

 She nodded into his chest. “He won’t leave her side. The whole plant thing is a lie.” Harry’s mind whirled back to Arthur’s vague promise of a cure, of the mystical plant lying outside the city limits.

 “Did he tell you that?”

 “No, but if there was a cure, why hasn’t news spread? Why aren’t people walking around cheering about this Godsend of a cure?”

 Harry continued rubbing her back, and to his immense pleasure, her stiff shoulders slowly loosened. Her breathing was also taking on an even rhythm. He knew her question was entirely rhetorical. They both knew the answer. 

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 “We’re almost there,” Harry told Ginny as they walked down the old one-lane road. 

 “Do we know who we’re meeting?” Ginny asked. Even in the poor light of his torch beam, he could see that her eyes were still red-rimmed from the previous hour. After cutting the dead couple from their post, it had taken some time to move on from the hanging tree. Now the sun had fully set and they were relying on their torches for light.  

 “Ced --” Harry swallowed hard. “Cedric use to live here with Cho.”

 “The one who might be --” 

 Harry flinched. If Cho really was pregnant -- fuck.. He didn’t want that guilt on his head. The idea that he’d caused a child to lose their father before even getting to meet him...

 Ginny grabbed his hand and pulled him to a complete stop. “Harry, as sad as it is that Cedric died, it wasn’t our fault.” 

 “But --” 

 “No!” She slapped her hand down on his chest. Harry saw her face illuminated in the perfect light for telling a scary story; her torch was angled below her chin and shadows danced across her features. “We weren’t the ones who shot him, were we? No, it was those bastards! And now they’re paying the ultimate price.”

 Logically, Harry knew she was right. He hadn’t killed Cedric, but it sure felt like he had. “If we hadn’t --”

 “-- He could still have walked into an ambush and been captured and tortured in a month’s time.” Ginny shook her head. “Harry, do you believe in fate?”

 “I --” Harry pursed his lips. “I don’t know.”

 Ginny nodded. “Well, I do. I think some  things have to happen eventually, no matter how much it hurts. It shapes us into who we are.”

 “Are you saying Cedric had to die?”

 “I don’t know about dying, but I do think something was bound to happen. Don't get me wrong.” Ginny spread her palms in surrender. “I don’t think we should sit back and just let anything happen to us, but I do think there’s a general outline that’s already in place.” 

 Harry let her philosophy sink in. He had no idea if fate or destiny were real things, but she did have a point about certain events shaping him into the man he’d become. Without his losses and victories, who would he be?  

 “I --” He took a deep breath. “It still hurts.” Harry had never been good at sharing his feelings, something his secondary school girlfriend pointed out all too often. He could never articulate what was going on in his head when it came to emotions. 

 Ginny, however, didn’t seem to care that he couldn’t express himself. She gave him a small smile that he almost couldn’t see in the poor lighting. “I know.” She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “We best keep going.”

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 In Harry’s opinion, Lower Assendon was a horrible place to set up a defense post. The center of the village was a wide open area with what once had been houses and a few local businesses. There was no way to set a wall around the area, or at least not an efficient one. Harry couldn’t help but wonder how anyone felt safe in this neighborhood.

 Harry and Ginny walked right up to the only building that had any lights shining, the old bed and breakfast. 

 “I’m gonna knock,” Harry told Ginny quietly. “I need you to be behind my back and ready if someone makes a move at me.” 

 Ginny nodded, pulling her gun out of her holster and clicking off the safety. Harry stopped on the stoop, checking to make sure Ginny was ready. At her nod, he knocked. It took fifteen seconds for someone to brush the curtains aside to look at them. Harry could see a mane of dark hair before the window was covered again. Then a dark eye shone through a crack in the door. 

 “Who is it?” Though Harry hadn’t talked to her in years, he recognized Cho Chang. 

 “Cho, it’s Harry Potter.” Harry could hear her intake of breath. 

 “Harry? From Secondary?” Though she sounded more comforted, the door didn’t open. “I need you to prove it.”

 “How?” Harry glanced back at Ginny and saw confusion reflected back at him. 

 “Tell me something only Harry would know.” There was a pause. “Where did you walk in on me and Cedric?”

 Harry could feel his face heating. Oh, how he had tried to forget that scene. It had been hard enough for him to hear about the girl he fancied in a committed relationship, but to see it up close and personal had been… 

 “You were in the cupboard by Snape’s old classroom.” 

 From behind him, Ginny let out a derisive snort. “Not the most romantic spot,” she muttered under her breath. Harry had to hide his smile as Cho swung the door wide. 

 “Harry!” Cho gave him a hug. Apparently,  an apocalypse made people more willing to embrace friends from their past. “How are you? And.” She looked over at Ginny. “Fred and George’s little sister?”

 “Not the title I typically go by,” Ginny muttered, but accepted Cho’s hug all the same.  “How are you, Cho?”

 “As good as can be expected.” Cho took a quick look behind them. “You best come inside.” She gestured them into a small corridor and through an open doorway that led to a moderately-sized sitting room.  “How did you know where to find me?” 

 “We didn’t exactly know it was you who was living here.” Harry settled on the loveseat and was pleased when Ginny joined him instead of taking one of the overstuffed armchairs.    

 “Really?” Cho cocked her head to the side. “But then why --”

 Harry felt like a shiver go down his spine and his throat tighten. “I --” He took in a deep breath and looked directly at Cho. “Cedric had been leading us here.”

 “Oh, you’ve seen Cedric!” Cho beamed. “I’m so glad, I always thought you two would get --” She paused as confusion contorted her pretty face. “Wait… leading? He’s with you?” Harry’s chest started to constrict as she looked around the room as if expecting her boyfriend to be hiding in a corner. Cho met his eyes. “Where is Cedric?”

 “He --” Harry couldn’t do it. He couldn’t tell this woman that the man she loved had died helping him. 

 Thankfully, Ginny took the lead. 

 “Cho.” Ginny leaned forward and took her hand. Ginny’s voice was lower and comforting. “Cho,” she repeated, “I’m sorry but he -- someone shot him.”

 “No.” 

 The one word crushed Harry. Cho looked between him and Ginny as if waiting for one of them to tell her how it was all a joke and Cedric would be coming home with a bouquet of flowers. After a minute, Cho’s head fell into her hands as her body shook with sobs. 

 Ginny rose from her spot to crouch beside Cho and placed a gentle arm over the distraught woman’s shoulders, whispering words of comfort. Harry didn’t have a clue what to do. He had no idea how to console Cho. As she’d reminded him often enough, he was terrible with emotions. 

 “How -- Did --?” Cho tried to ask, but choked on her own words. 

 “He didn’t suffer.” Ginny rubbed her hand up and down the length of Cho’s arm in a soothing manner. “Cho, he was talking about how much he adored you before -- it happened.”

 Cho sucked in a shuddering breath as she raised her head. Harry could see the trail that her tears had taken down her face. “At least that’s something.”

 “Cho, are --” Harry cut himself off. Even he knew this wasn’t the time to ask if she was pregnant. “Will you be all right?”

 Cho blinked at him, sending residual tears down her cheeks. “I’ll have to be, won’t I?”

 Ginny shook her head. “No, Cho, you don’t have to be okay.”

 “I -- I need to be.” Cho rubbed at her dry eyes. 

 “Is that because of the baby?” Ginny asked gently. Harry had admired how smoothly she’d asked. He never would have managed that.  

 Cho’s neck snapped to look at Ginny. “How -- Did Cedric tell you?” 

 “He mentioned you thought you might be, and that he was excited.” 

 “Yeah.” Cho squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before giving Ginny a dejected look. “I missed my monthly and thought… but I got it yesterday. Cedric left to help Hannah two days ago. I didn’t get to tell h -” 

 Ginny pulled Cho tightly into her side when Cho choked on her own words.  She turned her attention to Harry. “Wanna go make some tea?”

 Harry stared at her feeling like a deer in the headlights, his mind unable to comprehend her words. 

 “Tea?” He finally parroted, feeling the cogs in his head turn. “Right. I’ll make everyone a cup of tea.” Harry hastily stood from his seat and exited the den. 

  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Harry thanked Cho as he closed the door to the room she’d presented. Never had a night dragged so long… Between Cho randomly breaking down into tears and getting his shoulder patched with more official supplies than Ginny’d had earlier, Harry needed sleep. His wound hurt and so did his head.

 He moved over to the large bed, surprised at how comfortable it looked. The last three years had been a blur of  lumpy mattresses or hard floors, but this -- this was paradise.

 Right as he was about to pull the covers out from their tucked areas, someone knocked on his door. 

 “Harry?” Ginny’s muffled voice came through the wood. “Can I come in?” 

 Harry strode over to the door and slowly opened it to reveal a bleary-eyed Ginny. She entered the room and sat on the bed. 

 “What’s up?” Harry unconsciously ran a hand through his hair. 

 “What’s the plan?” Ginny pulled her legs up onto the mattress, sitting criss-cross. The way she was looking at him… there was so much trust and respect in her gaze. It made him feel as if he could conquer anything.

 “I saw some old bicycles by one of the houses on the way here.” Harry took a seat next to Ginny, leaning his back against the headboard. “We can check to see if there’s air in their tires.”

 Harry could have sworn the smile Ginny gave him lit up the room more than the candle on the nightstand. “Harry, that’s a great idea!”

 “Thanks.” Harry hoped his face wasn’t turning red. He would spend all his days coming up with ideas if it meant getting Ginny to look at him like that. “It should cut time to Abingdon in half.”

 “More than half, I’m guessing.” Ginny moved so she sat beside him with her back to the headboard. “God, how has it only been a day? It feels like it’s been years.” 

 Harry had to agree. All the shit they’d already dealt with… well, that was enough excitement to last a lifetime, but they would have to go out and do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. 

 They stayed quiet for a few minutes, both lost in their own memories and thoughts of what they were going to have to do. Harry didn’t even notice when Ginny tilted herself so that her body leaned against his, her head resting on his shoulder. 

 This was his own Elysium. Just being able to sit there with her, not a worry on his mind. No, Harry couldn't think of anything better than this. 

 He could hear Ginny's breathing even out. Looking down, Harry saw that her eyes had closed. Harry loved how her mouth parted slightly, amplifying a cute little snore she had. 

 Gently, he slid her body down the pillows so she lay flat on the mattress. He held up her legs so he could work the blankets from under her. Once he had her completely settled, Harry rose from the bed to ask Cho where Ginny had planned on sleeping, but Ginny’s hand reached out, grappling at his side of the mattress as if looking for something. A little frown appeared on her lips. 

 Without realizing he’d done it, Harry had taken Ginny’s outstretched hand in his own. In a vice-like grip, the sleeping redhead pulled his arm towards her, almost snuggling it like a child might a teddy bear. Harry didn’t struggle. Instead, he slid himself down to lie level with her. 

 Harry’s heart pounded against his ribs as he looked at his sleeping companion. Clearly, she needed comfort. That was it. And his hand had simply been the nearest thing. The frown on Ginny’s lips had flipped into a smile that felt so out of place for what their lives looked like now. How could he deny her solace? Hell, how could he truly deny her anything?

 Not the time or place, Harry thought, doing his best to clear his mind of her as he closed his eyes. 

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Ginny woke feeling warm. Slowly she opened her eyes -- and was instantly greeted by the sight of dark bedhead and a cute nose. Harry slept soundly in front of her, his mouth agape, a little drool hanging out the right side. Never had drool looked so cute. She looked down at where their hands were linked.

 Damn, I wouldn't mind waking up like this every morning, Ginny thought...though, I certainly wouldn’t mind being snuggled up in his arms...

 She thought back to how she’d gotten into Harry’s bed. They had been planning, and then the comfortable silence had lulled her to sleep. After such an eventful day, it was no wonder that the moment there was the break she’d needed to fall asleep. 

 A knock on their door sent Harry into attack mode in the blink of an eye. He went ramrod straight, eyes locked on the door, one arm blocking her and… where the fuck had he pulled his pistol from?

 “Harry, I can’t find Ginny!” Cho’s panicked tone filtered through the wooden door. Ginny watched Harry’s shoulders slacken as realization registered. 

 “She’s in here with me.” Harry’s voice was rough, and Ginny thought it was due to more than just sleep. His survival instincts seemed to spread to every part of him.  

 “She’s in there with - oh!” Cho’s voice shifted from confusion to amusement. “Oh, I’m glad! I’ll -- um -- give you two a few minutes. I have breakfast ready in the kitchen whenever you’re -- um -- decent.”

 Ginny listened to Cho’s retreating footsteps, her eyes locked on the back of Harry’s head. After a minute, Harry cleared his throat and set his weapon on the side table. When he turned to look at her, his hand unconsciously ran  through his bedhead. 

 “Good to know she’s looking out for us.” Harry gave her a small smile. “How’d you sleep?”

 “Pretty well,” Ginny confessed. “Though, I was surprised about where I woke up.” 

 Harry, God bless him, blushed. “I didn’t wanna wake you.” 

 “I appreciate that.” Ginny pulled the covers off herself before rising. “Well, best not make Cho wait too long or she’s gonna think we’re on round two.” 

 Just like Ginny wanted, Harry turned a darker shade of red before muttering. “Right.”

 Ginny moved around the bed and kissed Harry’s cheek. “Thank you, Harry.”

 “Anytime, Gin.”

 She retreated to the door, pausing with her hand on the handle to look over her shoulder. “Oh, and, Harry.”

 “Yeah?”

 “Next time, feel free to sleep under the covers with me. I don’t bite.” With a wink, Ginny left for her designated bedroom, leaving a stunned Harry behind her. 

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 “So, tell me how long you two have been together?” Cho’s voice finally broke through the awkward silence that had surrounded them for the past ten minutes. They were having a simple breakfast of eggs; Cho kept chickens in a fenced-in area of the yard. Not a word had been spoken since Ginny and Harry had sat down. 

 Why she decided that would be a good ice breaker was beyond Ginny. She was about to deny it, saying she had just fallen asleep talking, when Cho spoke again. “It’s nice to see someone find happiness in this fucking twisted world.” 

 Again, Ginny was about to deny it... until she noticed the giant bags under Cho’s eyes. Clearly, the woman had cried most of the night. Ginny didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth and crush the only thing that had put a smile on Cho’s face. 

 She sent a quick glance to Harry and hoped he’d forgive her. “I agree. It’s important to be with the ones we love.” 

 Harry didn’t speak, but he did give her a confused look as if he were trying to figure out a complex puzzle. But the joy it seemed to bring Cho made up for Harry’s bewilderment.

 After they finished their breakfasts in a more comfortable atmosphere, Ginny offered to help Cho clean up while Harry went to check on the bikes across the street. 

 Ginny took charge of the dishes while Cho cleaned the rest of the kitchen. From her position by the basin, Ginny could look out the kitchen window where Harry was checking the tires of the bicycles. They were simple two-wheeled machines, one in green and the other in red. 

 “It’s so important to be with the one you love.” Cho came up behind Ginny, handing her a leftover cup from the table. She nodded her head towards Harry. “There just isn’t enough time.” The wistfulness of Cho’s expression broke Ginny’s heart in two.  

 She looked back out at Harry. Cho had a point. If something were to happen to Harry or herself and Ginny never told him… a  shiver ran down her spine. That wasn’t something she even wanted to consider. Ginny shifted her focus back to the dishes, but her mind wandered to all the horrible possibilities. 

 Once Ginny had rinsed the last plate, she dried her hands and headed out into the yard where… fuck. What was it about Harry tightening the tire’s screws that was so -- fucking attractive? Was it the way he put his whole body into his project, or maybe it was the lack of shirt presenting her with a great view of tight middle and dark chest hair...

 Either way, hot damn! 

 Harry looked up at her and smiled, which almost sent Ginny to her knees. “Gin, could you see if Cho has an air pump? Only one of the tires needs air.”

 It took a few seconds for Ginny’s brain to reboot after such a crash. She nodded and spun back into the house, her face feeling as if it was on fire. The only thought on her mind was how glad she was that Harry couldn't read minds. 

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Ginny looked around the scenic lane. Long grass rose on either side of the one-car road. She had always loved England for its beautiful sights, and oddly enough, this trip had allowed her to see more of the incredible countryside. In between gunfights, of course.   

 "So." Harry let out a long breath, his legs pumping at a steady pace to her left. "What did Cho tell you before we left?" 

 Ginny thought back on their departure from the cozy village. Cho had pulled her aside and handed her a few final items: An extra bottle to fill water into, a simple knife that would be perfect for protection, and some supplies... for the other kind of protection.

 “Uh -- you know so extra water and a nice knife.” Ginny didn’t think it was prudent to mention the rest of Cho’s care package to Harry, at least for now.

 “Oh, good!” 

 And there was the silence again. It wasn’t their usual comfortable silence. There was something to it that Ginny couldn’t quite place. Every so often, she could see his head turn in her direction. She couldn’t help but wonder if his mind kept drifting back to that morning. She wondered if he couldn’t stop thinking about how perfect it had felt to wake up with her, just like she thought of him. 

 Ginny cleared her throat, forcing her mind to move away from her fantasy. They continued to pedal across the countryside, talking in random intervals, helping to ease  whatever that tension had been. There was no set subject of discussion as they progressed across the land, no limitations. Ginny’s personal favorite topic was who’d had the worst first kiss. 

 “So, she really just started crying?” Ginny asked for the second time. 

 Harry grunted. “Look, it wasn’t my fault.”

 “I mean.” Ginny sent him a quick smirk. “I’ve never kissed someone and felt the urge to cry, so…”

 “She was mad at her ex.”

 Ginny pressed on the brakes, stopping in the middle of the road next to an abandoned Range Rover. “Wait. What?”

 Harry halted his bicycle, his feet skidding on the pavement. He stood from the seat and turned to look at her. “What?”

 “What do you mean she was mad her ex, and what does that have to do with her crying while kissing you?” 

 Harry sighed. He threw his leg over the center bar and hit the bike stand down. “I guess now’s a good a time as any to take a break.” He moved over to the Range Rover and leaned against it. “So, I was at this party with Ron and this girl comes up to me and like -- you know, starts flirting with me.”

 Ginny followed his example, getting off her bike and leaning her back against the SUV. “How old were you?” 

 “Um.” Harry frowned. “I’d say fifteen. Anyways, apparently her boyfriend had broken up with her and she was hoping to make him jealous.”

 “With you?”

 Harry nodded. “She took me into a corner and you know --” Ginny loved the way he blushed. It was adorable that a grown man was still so awkward talking about kissing someone. He swallowed. “Yeah, and so when her boyfriend didn’t come over and knock my lights out, she got upset. She started crying, and yeah.” He ended lamely.

 Ginny considered her options. She could be sympathetic or tease him a bit. If she knew anything about Harry, he was not the type of guy who wanted sympathy. “So, what you’re saying is your moves didn’t make her forget about the rest of the world.” She clicked her tongue.

 It took a few seconds but Harry’s lips twitched. “Well, to be fair it was my first kiss. My moves have improved greatly since then.”

 “Oh?” Ginny quirked a brow at him. “You think you got game?”

 Ginny could practically see the cogs in his mind working overtime. Then he gave her a teasing smirk. “I could... show you my game.”

 Looking back on the scene, Ginny would never be certain about who moved in closer first. Honestly, it could have been mutual. What she could remember was being close enough to see a little dimple on his left cheek that she’d never noticed. She also remembered how the rest of the world had come back into stark reality when an animal growled from the underbrush somewhere to their left. 

 She and Harry jumped apart, looking at the wild dog. The creature’s stance showed it was ready for a fight. Harry looked at her, then back at the beast. “We -- we’d best get out of here.”

 Ginny’s heart fell into her stomach, but she nodded. They moved quickly back onto their bicycles and sped away from the little roadside.

 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 Seamus thumped hard on Harry’s back. “Great to see ya, mate!”

 “You too, Shay.” Harry patted his friend’s back just as hard. When they separated, Harry turned to Ginny. “Seamus, you remember Ginny?” 

 “Ron’s little sister?” 

 “Not my preferred title,” Ginny muttered for the second time in two days. “But yeah.” 

 Seamus threw his arms around her as well. “Good to see ya too, lass.” 

 “Likewise, Seamus.” 

 After a quick kiss to the cheek, Seamus stepped away from her. “Well, come with me. I’ll give ya the tour.” 

 Ginny walked beside Harry as Seamus pointed out how they’d created the town's defenses. As they walked around, Ginny could feel the difference in the atmosphere compared to London. Every person they passed in Abingdon was smiling and talking to each other. In London, everyone kept their heads down, but here they acted… friendly. Then again, that could have just been because it was London.

 Seamus showed them to a building where everyone gathered for meals. “Tonight's supper is roast beef, so ya came at the right time.” 

 The final stop on their tour was a line of houses all different colors. Ginny would have guessed it had once been a high street. “And this is where I live.” He opened the front door to a small hall. “If you two wanna get settled, your room is upstairs. Dinner will be in a few hours. I’ve gotta go fix the bathhouse. If you get bored, go look for Dean.” He winked at Ginny. “I’m sure you remember him.”

 And with that, Seamus walked right back out the front door. 

 Ginny blinked rapidly. “Dean’s here?”

 Harry’s eyes took on a cool quality. “Like your last boyfriend. That Dean?”

 “I guess so.” Ginny shrugged, hefting her bag up her back. “Come on, let’s put these away so I can check your shoulder.”

“Right.” Harry ran a hand through his hair. “Right.” He paused. “Wait...did he say room?”

[the-walking-memelords]

Allegiances: Chapter 10

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 11

Series is rated M

Warning for Graphic Depictions of Violence

Word Count: 3605

The time has come for Clementine to fight for what she really believes in.

Read it on Ao3!

Read it on Wattpad!

“They had horses, an-and carts.” Ruby relayed to Clementine as they raced into the torch-lit yard meeting up with the rest of the scared teens.

“Probably to carry people away.”

The time had come and now they all looked to her.

“You all know what to do. If they get inside, fall back to the admin building while I distract them.” Right into their traps.

“Those fuckers won’t know what hit ‘em!” Aasim said confidently.

“Those duffle bags will break bones easily.”

“Just look for the ropes, we strung up a bunch.” Willy added.

Traps, set.

“Mitch, once I get their attention, plant the bomb under those carts.” Clem ordered.

“That’ll make it harder for them to carry anyone off.”

“It’ll work.” Mitch assured, looking over the device in his hands.

“I promise.”

Bomb, armed.

“I’m not going to let them hurt anyone else.” Marlon stepped up, a fire in his eyes.

“We end this tonight. Any way we can.”

“Brody.” Clementine said softly. The red-head was already pale and shaking.

“Stay with Tenn and Willy. Once you see an opening get them inside and find someplace to hide.” The poor girl could only give a weak nod in response.

Friends, ready.

That was everything, right? Lilly wouldn’t be planning on a fight. Mild resistance, maybe, but nothing like what Clementine had in mind.

They all have to die.

If even one soldier reported back, the boat might leave before she could sneak on board. If that happened, AJ would be lost for sure.

I can do this.

We can do this.

She wasn’t alone this time. She looked at her friends as they stood around her, afraid yet determined.

“Let’s kick some-”

Clementine’s words were cut short as the first shot of the fight rang through the air. She felt a whoosh of air as the bullet flew over her shoulder and ripped straight through Omar’s leg. The boy fell to the ground with a yelp as they all looked around for the sniper. Torchlight reflected off of the glass of a scope as Clem made out the outline of a figure perched in a tree just outside the walls.

Dorian.

“Go! Now!” Clementine yelled to the others as they dashed for cover.

All but one of them, at least.

Marlon and Clem both grabbed tightly onto Omar’s vest as they dragged him behind one of the picnic tables. The boy groaned in pain, blood staining his pant leg. Clementine looks frantically for her bow, spotting it sitting with its quiver of arrows a few tables down.

“J-Just go. Leave me.” The injured boy grunted, seeing her eye the distant weapon. A flash of fire flew over the tall gate as a molotov cocktail exploded on their side, setting the barricade alight.

“I’ve got him.” Marlon assured, gripping his knife as he peeked over the flipped table.

“There’s no time. Go!”

Clem nodded to the boys, turning on her heel and diving across the table to retrieve the bow. She slipped the strap of the quiver over her shoulder just as a loud crash came from the gates. Each slam that came next shook the metal bars, the barricades barely holding the intruders at bay.

“Knock knock.” The sickening voice of that demon woman sang as the raiders finally busted through their defences. The metal gates made a sickening scraping sound as they dragged along the paving stones.

That didn’t hold as well as I’d hoped.

“Clementine!” Lilly called out across the yard causing the girl’s blood to run cold.

“I know you’re out here.”

Clem bit down on her lip as she tried to steady her breathing, demanding her fear to fuck off. She could practically feel the confused looks of her friends burning into her without even seeing them. This wasn’t the time to cave in. Not the time for tears. It was time to breathe in, and take a fucking stand.

“Show yourself. That’s an order.” Lilly growled

You asked.

“LILLY!” Clementine practically screamed at the group of armed adults as she stood, drawing her bowstring and pointing the arrow right between that bitch’s eyes.

There’s only five of them.

Lilly with Abel at her side, another man and woman she’d seen before, as well as Dorian in the tree.

That’s right, look at me, motherfuckers.

Clementine kept her eyes trained forward as she watched the careful movements of Mitch and Willy sneak around the raiders.

We push on. We fight on. We look forward, never back.

“There you are.” The woman spoke to Clem as if she was talking to a small child.

“School’s out, Clementine. It’s time to come home.”

“I am home, Lilly.” Clementine tried to stop her hands from trembling.

“I’m not going to let you hurt these people.”

“No one will get hurt if they come willingly.” Lilly scowled.

“We’re not leaving without our new recruits and you are certainly not being left behind either.”

“I told you this would happen, Lilly.” Abel said matter-of-factly.

“The fruit’s gone soft.”

“That’s enough, Abel.” Lilly silenced him. She took a few steps forward, actually smiling at the girl.

“You don’t honestly believe you’re making the right call, do you? You say you want to protect these kids but you know fighting back is only going to get them killed.”

“Not if I can kill you first.” She hissed. Her knuckles turned white from her grip on the metal bow.

“You’re a fucking monster!”

“Shoot her if she moves.” She ordered the woman next to her.

Lilly’s sickening smile didn’t fade. It was as if she was staring directly into Clementine’s soul. Her throat began to tighten up as they stared each other down. She hated this. She hated the power this woman had over her. Forever ago, she had looked up to her like a big sister, someone Clem had trusted to keep her safe… but now?

Why do the monsters always outlive the good people?

“I’m a monster?” Lilly scoffed, seemingly finding humour in the suggestion.

“I think a monster is someone who abandons a little kid for a group of strangers. That is what you’re doing, right? Giving up on him so you can have a fresh start?”

No.

No no no.

Never… Never…

AJ…

“If that’s what Lee thought of you maybe he would have lived longer.” Lilly’s words were like a bullet to the chest.

“Fuck you!” Clementine finally choked out the words as her face twisted with rage.

“Oh, I’ll get him back. I’m going to get him back and I’m going to kill every one of you fuckers who tries to stop me!”

I’ll rip that compound apart before I leave AJ behind.

“Enough of this nonsense.” The woman sneered as she adjusted her grip on her rifle.

“Surrender now and maybe I’ll find it in my heart to forgive you for this little standoff. I promise it’s going to be a lot more painful if we have to take you by force.”

Clementine didn’t move. Her eyes darted from soldier to soldier, ready to drop to the ground if their trigger fingers got too twitchy.

Any time now, Mitch.

“We shoulda sent that red-headed chick instead of her.” Abel didn’t seem to be speaking just to Lilly.

“She actually knows these kids, woulda made this easy.”

“Ah, Minerva.” Lilly sang.

“She did say she had a girlfriend back here, didn’t she? And that little brother she misses so much?”

Shit.

“Where are they?” Tennessee spoke up as he slowly emerged from his hiding place.

“I just want them back, please.”

Fuck fuck fuck.

“Let me take you to her.” Lilly extended a hand to the boy.

“Don’t do it, Tenn!” Clementine yelled desperately.

“She’s lying. Don’t let her take you!”

“Lilly.” Marlon stared at the woman blankly as he approached with his hands raised.

“Just let him go.”

“Marlon, what the hell are you doing?” Clem begged to know.

None of this was going according to plan.

“We made a deal once.” The blond boy started, ignoring Clem.

“Maybe… Maybe we can make another one.”

What the fuck?

Was he… going to hand her over?

I can’t go back.

I can’t.

Fear started to cling to her once more before the former leader said something she didn’t expect.

“Take me, not them.”

What?

“You take me and I’ll fight for you, but you leave my friends alone.” The boy pleaded.

Clementine caught sight of movement on her left. She snuck a glance at the dormitory, watching Louis struggle to crawl out of his hiding spot behind the brick half wall as Violet held him back, one hand firmly clamped over his mouth.

Her attention was diverted back to the adults when she heard Abel’s guttural laugh.

“When the hell did you grow a spine?” he chuckled.

“I’d almost say you’re ‘brave’ but I have to go with ‘stupid’ since that is a terrible deal.”

“Maybe it takes a stupid person to pull off the bravest ideas.”

A loud hissing noise drew the raider’s attention behind them as Mitch and Willy rushed away from the bomb. The explosion sent the yard into total chaos as smoke and dust filled the area. Debris from the destroyed cart flew past the adults as they dove to the ground. The horses reared up as they tried to get away, still tied to the remaining carts.

Kill them all.

Don’t think, just move.

“Shit. Shit.” Lilly cursed as she scrambled to her feet, just to be tackled back onto the dirt by the knife-wielding Marlon.

A bullet ripped through Clem’s hood as she just barely dodged Dorian’s shot. Clementine let instinct take over as her first arrow landed in the thigh of a large man who tried advancing on Marlon. The other kids followed her lead, launching arrows at their attackers before making a break for the admin building.

Clem tried to get an angle on Lilly with her bow as the boy used all of his body weight trying to push his knife through Lilly’s chest. The woman struggled against him, Marlon may be strong but she had the size advantage.

Managing to get a foot under him, Lilly kicked him off and with one quick slash of her knife, Marlon was on the ground drowning in his own blood.

Time almost slowed for a moment as Clem watched wide-eyed as he went down. A pool of crimson gushed out of the deep slash in his throat spreading along the cracks of the stones as the boy twitched and gurgled.

“Kill who you have to! Take the rest!” Lilly let out a frustrated growl, before making sure Marlon would not be getting up again.

“MARLON!” Louis screamed as Violet tried her best to keep him behind her, wildly firing arrows at any raider who tried to get at them.

Clementine grit her teeth in a blind rage as she pulled another arrow from her quiver, sinking it into Lilly’s shoulder as she screamed for her friends to run.

Brody, Aasim, and the younger kids booked it for the admin building, Clementine bringing up the rear. They raced up the stairs just as Abel busted through the doors with two others.

“Kill the traitor.” Abel ordered them as he decided to hang back, blocking their way out.

“Brody, get the kids out of here!” Clem noticed she looked about as scared of her as she was the other raiders. She obeyed anyway, grabbing Tenn and Willy and practically dragging them down an empty hall.

Clementine had her eye on the limping man she’d shot outside. She pressed her knife against the rope of the trap as she waited for the right moment. Slicing through it, she watched the man let out a confused yelp before the brick-filled bag silenced him permanently.

“No!” screamed the woman as she watched the man fall, blood pooling under his broken skull.

Clem and Aasim took the stairs two at a time as the woman fired at them, each shot only missing by inches.

“The couch!” Aasim pointed, a plan in his eyes.

They both pushed it towards the stairs with all of their strength just as their pursuer rounded the last flight. Gravity took hold of the heavy piece of furniture as it slid down the stairs, slamming into the furious woman and pinning her firmly against the wall.

“Fuckin’ useless.” Abel growled as he decided to finish the job himself, a lit Molotov in his free hand.

“I told Lilly you wouldn’t cooperate!”

He tossed the flaming bottle at the two teens who jumped away in opposite directions. The bottle smashed between the two, flames bursting and blocking them from each other.

“Find Brody!” Clementine coughed, barely catching a nod from Aasim through the smoke before he sped down the hall.

Clementine’s lungs burned as she breathed in the smoke. She backed away from the hot flames into Marlon’s office, closing herself inside. She coughed out the rest of the toxic air from her lungs just in time for Abel to kick the door in.

“I always hated the soft spot Lilly had for you.” He scowled, approaching as she back away further.

“But Lilly ain’t around this time. So you and me are gonna have a nice little chat.”

He reached out to grab her, only for Clementine to slash her blade across his palm.

“Stay away from me you bastard!” She slashed her knife through the air, hoping it would be enough to intimidate him despite her small stature.

It didn’t work through. He only laughed as he lunged for her again, kicking her knee out and sending her to the floor. The knife clattered just out of reach. Abel took a fist full of her hair, a searing pain in her scalp as she was dragged to her feet by her loose curls just to be slammed against the wooden desk. The worn wood scraped against her cheek as her arm was twisted behind her back.

“Y’know, I always wondered something about you when we first found ya.” He didn’t have much trouble holding the short girl down.

“Weak, small, afraid, and still alive? I wonder how many folks died to get you this far.”

“F-fuck yo-u.” She struggled out. The answer was too many for her to think about.

A paperweight caught her attention and an opportunity was seen. She wedged her free arm out from under her and grabbed the lighthouse figure, stabbing it straight into Abel’s eye. The man let out an enraged cry as he stumbled backwards.

The second his weight was off of her she wasted no time landing a swift kick to his stomach, sending him sprawling against the glass balcony door. Clementine refused to give him time to recover before she tackled him right through it, glass shattering and raining down on both of them. The sharp crystals cut her face as they fell from her hair.

You die tonight, you bastard.

Clementine couldn’t stop. Punch after punch connected with his disgusting face until it and her knuckles were busted and bloody. She threw get weight against him as she fought, each shove bringing the bannister closer and closer to collapse.

“FUCK. YOU.” She screamed one more time as the bannister finally gave.

She took what she thought would be her final look at those different coloured eyes as she shoved him into the open air. But Abel wasn’t the type to go down without dragging someone down with him. His nails dug deep into her skin as he pulled the girl forward as well. The balcony below her feet disappeared as they flew to meet the ground below.

Clementine’s entire body ached as she sluggishly propped herself up on her elbows. The screams of the man that laid under her came into focus as she realized what -or who- had broken her fall.

Abel screamed obscenities into the air as he writhed in the pain of his very broken leg. His leg was bent wrong at the knee and blood squirted from where a bone protruded through his jeans.

Clementine didn’t have a chance to stand or crawl away before she was looking down the business end of a rifle.

Lilly stood over her “perfect“ soldier. Confliction in her features as the barrel almost touched the girl’s forehead. Blood stained the right side of her jacket, that arm hanging slightly limp.

“This should be easy.” The woman muttered to herself.

“I’ll see you in hell.” Clementine growled, exhaustion setting in as she was faced with her defeat.

It’s not that Clementine had been expecting to die tonight, but she certainly wasn’t surprised that it was happening.

“You’ll be there a good long while before I show up.” Lilly pressed the barrel directly against Clementine’s head. She focused on the coldness of the metal as the final sensation of life as she closed her eyes, waiting for it to all be over.

I’m sorry AJ.

The gunshot rang in her ears, but her body still ached and the stones below her still scaped her hands. Clem opened her eyes, shocked to find herself still alive.

Clementine found who had been her saviour. Violet scratched at Lilly’s neck with her nails a few feet away. The skinny girl struggled to maintain her grip against Lilly.

Clem grabbed at Lilly’s discarded rifle only to be pulled back by the somehow still awake Abel.

Are you fucking kidding me?

She frantically kicked back at the broken man, desperate to save Violet from Marlon’s fate.

An onslaught of barking came to Clem’s rescue as Rosie made an appearance, viciously tearing into her attacker’s arm. She mentally thanked the dog as she turned her attention back to her friend.

Violet let out a terrified shriek as the woman from the admin building dragged her towards the cages by her hood. She struggled to get her footing but the woman only threw her down each time.

Across the yard, Louis grappled for Dorian’s rifle. The sniper knocking him across the face with the butt of the gun. Louis wiped the blood from his nose before sloppily attacking again.

They need my help.

A split second. That was all the time she had to make a decision.

Violet or Louis.

Her best friend or her boyfriend.

She bit her lip and followed where her heart aimed. Clementine released the arrow, watching it sink into Dorian’s back.

Louis ran back towards the admin building once Dorian became more concerned with escaping than taking him.

Clementine tried to load another arrow but she was too late. Violet’s limp body laid on top of 3 of her other friends.

“We cut our losses.” Lilly announced to the remaining raiders.

“Fall back! Pull in and fall back!”

The three women managed to get the horses moving out just in time for the walkers to show up fashionably late.

Of course.

Of fucking course.

Several of the dead poured in, drawn from the gunfire. The flames catching on their tattered clothing causing the putrid smell of burning flesh to waft around the yard.

Clementine let out a frustrated scream as she quickly retrieved her arrows. Running on pure adrenaline alone, she rehomed each arrow into the body of a walker.

Ruby and Mitch quickly shut the gate once the coast was clear, sealing them away from what lurks outside.

Crackling flames and muffled sobs replaced the sounds of gunfire as the raiders disappeared with four of her friends.

Aasim, Omar, Brody… and Violet.

AJ…

Lilly took them all.

Clementine stared helplessly through the bars of broken gates into the dark woods beyond. Did they really win? Four of their friends were about to be forced into a war they wanted no part of, Marlon is dead, and AJ was in more danger than he ever had been before, and now… everyone knew her secret.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight as she roughly ran her fingers through her hair, wracking her brain for her next move. Clem didn’t have much time to think, however.

A sharp yank on her hood took the girl by surprise and she nearly lost her footing as she was thrown backwards. Her attacker wasn’t a stray walker as she expected, but a very angry Mitch.

“This is all your fucking fault!” Mitch yelled aggressively.

“You’re one of them. You’ve been one of them this whole time.”

“Mitch, please just let me explain.” She couldn’t really argue that he was wrong.

This was all her fault.

“You've done enough talking.” He hissed as he grabbed the collar of her denim jacket, receiving no resistance from the guilty teen.

“Marlon is fucking dead, not to mention the people who got fucking kidnapped because of you!”

All Clementine could do stand there as the rest of the kids surrounded her. Looks of shock, disbelief, and fear decorated their faces. She looked past them all. Her eyes were frozen on the freckled boy who kneeled in a pool of blood next to his deceased best friend. The look of utter betrayal and anguish across his tear-streaked face was more than she could take. Their eye contact was broken by the tears that blurred her vision.

“I’m sorry.” The girl whispered, her body felt heavy with defeat.

“It’s too fucking late for that.” No one stepped in when he swung at her. Clementine could barely feel the pain through the numbness. Not the punch that knocked her to the ground, nor the kick to her stomach that stole her breath. Tears silently rolled from her eyes as she succumbed to unconsciousness.

[shielddrake]

Rebel of Sky City Ch. 23

Wow, I am so sorry for the long wait! I wanted to post this ages ago! But work and school makes life difficult. Darn you, responsibilities!

 So, after reading this, I’m sure most of you will think there is only one more chapter left. Well, you would be incorrect. There will in fact be an epilogue after that chapter, so there are two more posts after this one. Hopefully I will be able to have them out sooner rather than later.

 Chapter Twenty-Three

“Hey Jesse! Check it out!”

Jesse looked over her shoulder. At the scene, she turned around completely with a smile. There stood Lukas, his bright blonde hair shining in the sun. He held up a beautifully crafted beacon in his hands. He placed it on the ground, letting the beam shoot up into the bright blue sky above. The only thing brighter than the beam was his own grin.

“I finally got the recipe right for a beacon!” he declared, spreading his arms out wide.

 “That’s so great, Lukas!” Jesse gave him a tight hug. “I knew you’d get it!”

“And an impressive beacon it is.” Isa walked up to the pair and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “This will make it easier for people on other islands to find us.”

 “We can keep everyone safe this way,” Jesse said.

“I’m glad you suggested changing the laws, Jesse,” Isa commented. She glanced around at all the people who were happily crafting whatever they wanted. “I’ve never seen the people so joyful.”

“But it’s good to have some supervision so no one gets hurt,” Lukas added. “Just not so much that it oppresses anyone.”

“Yeah.” Jesse closed her eyes and let the sun hit her face. “It’s good that everyone’s getting along now.”

“Too bad it’s too late for us,” Isa said all of a sudden.

 Jesse looked at her with raised eyebrows. “What do you mean, Mother?”

“Lukas and I,” the older woman answered. “We’ll never see this Sky City.”

 “What?”

“We’ve already fallen,” Lukas said.

The city around them vanished, along with the ground beneath their feet. Jesse watched as Lukas and her mother both fell away from her, down towards the darkness that was the Void. They both let out loud screams that echoed against the clouds as they plummeted.

Jesse wasn’t falling with them. Instead, she floated in the air like a bird, completely safe and unaffected by gravity. She reached out her hands, hoping against hope she would be able to catch them and pull them back up. Even as slow as her loved ones seem to fall, Jesse wasn’t quick enough to grab them.

“No!”

Jesse’s eyes snapped open. The chill of the stone against her back disappeared as she leaned forward, reaching her hands out like she did in her dream. She gasped and let out a small cough. Rubbing her eyes, Jesse tried to recall what happen. She heard Reuben oinking beside her, and she glanced down to see his worried face.

Panting, she slowly put a hand on Reuben’s head. “A dream. It was just a dream.”

 But she knew, it wasn’t a dream. Lukas really had fallen off the island, followed very shortly by Isa. Aiden has pushed them, all in the effort of taking over the city. And for what? Because he was jealous. Because of that petty emotion, Jesse had lost everything. Her mother, her boyfriend, her friends, her home, her freedom…everything was gone. Ripped away from her in a single day.

Jesse slammed her head against the wall behind her. How did I let all this happen?

 There was a bang and a shriek, making Jesse jump. Reuben let out a loud squeal and started running in circles, panic taking over his tiny body. Jesse stood up in time to hear the rumblings of another shriek.

 “Wait, I know that sound.” It wasn’t something she had often heard in her life. The first time she had heard it, as a child, she knew she would never forget it. “That was a ghast. What’s going on?”

In spite of his human’s comforting pets, Reuben could only give her a scared and perplexed look. Without any windows or doors, it was impossible to know what was happening beyond the dark corridor they hid in.

“We better check it out,” Jesse said in a whisper, and Reuben quietly oinked in reply.

 She walked over to a small doorway in the hall, covered by what she knew was just a portrait of something. Reaching out a hand, she paused. Being literally inside the walls of the palace was her safeguard. Isa had built these tunnels for this kind of emergency, to keep Jesse safe. No one else knew about them. The chances of Aiden (or anyone, for that matter) finding her in there were slim to none.

Jesse knew she couldn’t hide forever though, and she really didn’t want to. She had been locked up for nearly her entire life. Staying hidden away wasn’t so different, other than never seeing the outdoors or other people again. Her gilded cage had been bad enough.

She placed a hand on the wood of the portrait back. Despite these thoughts, part of Jesse didn’t want to leave the dark corridor either. Going outside meant she had to face reality, face the fact that she was alone in the world once again, only this time it was even worse. While before she had been ignorant, his time around she knew what she had lost. Lukas and her mother were gone, Ivor was gone, probably falling to his doom in the Void as well, and Reginald was captured. Who knew where Petra and the others were? Going outside meant facing what happened and dealing with it.

I don’t know if I can, she thought, letting out a deep sigh.

Never took you for a coward, Jesse. She could almost hear Lukas teasing her. To her surprise, this thought managed to bring a tiny laugh from her mouth.

 “Now’s not the time to be afraid,” Jesse told herself, and she pushed the painting forward.

 The palace halls were dark. There wasn’t anyone around to light any of the lamps or torches that lined the ceiling. No light came from the windows either. This normally would indicate the hour of sunlight, but Jesse was pretty during it was daytime now. She felt rested enough that she was pretty sure she had slept for at least an hour or two.

 Stepping out of the hidden passage, Reuben right behind her, Jesse made her way to the closest window. It did seem to be day, but the dark clouds and falling rain gave the sky a gloomier appearance. But even without the sun, Jesse could see what was going on, and she gasped.

 Many of the city buildings had crumbled to the ground. A few areas were on fire, in spite of the rain. Meanwhile, the communal pond had turned into a shallow lake and was running over the sides of the island. Jesse was so accustomed to seeing the sharp and pristine buildings and streets of Sky City. To see it in such shambles was a complete shock to her system. She stepped back to take a breath before trying to make out some of the details of the city.

 The heavy water droplets on the glass made it hard to make out, but Jesse could see a few small forms running around in clear panic. Although they were few and far between, the people were still being targeted by what could only be mobs that had been released from Benedict’s eggs. The white forms of ghasts flew around and spat fire at anything that moved, and zombies shuffled futilely after the fleeing people. A couple of spiders climbed up and down the remaining buildings. Creepers, meanwhile, hissed right before they exploded and created more rubble.

Jesse put a hand up to her mouth. Her home was completely in ruins!

“Aiden.” The answer of what had happened was obvious. She glared at a ghast that flew a little too close to her window. “He’s gone completely crazy!”

 Reuben squealed, both at his human’s outburst and at the sight of the monsters everywhere. He glanced at Jesse, wondering what she was going to do. Jesse was looking at her hands, glaring at them with narrow eyes.

“This is my fault,” she muttered. “I didn’t stand up to Aiden when I needed to. All this is because of me.”

Reuben let out a small cry and rubbed his head against her leg. It was a small comfort, but it seemed to snap her out of her self-pity. Jesse fisted her hands and looked out the window again at her city.

“No. I have to do something,” she growled. “Lukas wouldn’t want me to just give up. He’d want me to keep going, no matter what.”

She turned sharply to Reuben, and she placed her hand on his head.

 “And Mother was right about one thing. With her gone, I’m in charge of Sky City, and it’s my responsibility to protect my people.” Jesse straightened up, pulling her pickaxe out of her inventory. “Aiden’s going to keep hurting them until he finds me. I have to do something to stop him, and that means facing him head on.”

With a spin of her heel, Jesse began to make her way down the halls. “He’s going to be in the throne room. And if not, I can wait for him there.”

Before Jesse was able to take more than a few steps, the familiar feeling of a wet snout pressed against her fingers. Jesse looked down to see Reuben watching her with wide eyes. She shook her head.

“Sorry, Reuben. You can’t come with me,” she said. “Not this time.”

 Well, that statement didn’t sit to well with the pig. Reuben glared, crumpling his nose with a grunt. She kneeled down to him and smiled, a sad smile that didn’t reach her sleepy eyes.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she murmured to him. “You understand?”

 Reuben gave a quiet oink and a nod. He understood all too well.

“You’re all I have left, Reuben. If something happened to you…”

The little swine oinked again. He stepped in front of her, blocking her path, and stomped his front hooves. Like she said, Reuben was the only one Jesse had left. No way was he going to abandon her now. Friends didn’t do that. They stuck with each other through thick and thin, regardless of species difference.

 He stomped his feet once more, and Jesse actually chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I…Just…run at the first sign of trouble, okay?”

Reuben snorted in response. Jesse didn’t need to know about that little fib.

Jesse glanced at her stone pickaxe in her hand as she made her way down the halls to the throne room. This was the only weapon she had. Chances were Aiden and his goons had pilfered the weapons storage that Reginald kept for the Guard. Even if there was a single weapon left in there, what were the chances she could reach it without having to fight anyway?

 It was quite a choice. Either take her chances with her stone pickaxe against Aiden (and anyone else he had with him). Or take her chances of fighting more battles in order to reach the armory, which may or may not have anything she could use.

“No. No more waiting,” she said firmly. “I’m not going to let Aiden do any more damage than he already has.”

With that, she took the corner that would lead her to the throne room. Reuben galloped right behind her, his hooves echoing against the iron walls.

 It took very little time for the two friends to reach the throne room’s double doors. To Jesse’s surprise, they were already partly open. This allowed Jesse to peek into the room before she actually went inside.

Far to the right was Reginald, tied up and appeared to be unconscious. Benedict stood with him, flapping her wings and clucking. She seemed to be trying to wake him up, but to no avail. There was a black scorch mark on the ground, along with a few missing blocks from the decorated floor. Jesse immediately recognized these as signs of a creeper having exploded there.

That’s obviously Aiden’s work, she thought. Creeper eggs are one of the most dangerous to use.

Turning her head to the left, Jesse couldn’t help but drop her jaw at the sight before her. Locked together in one-to-one combat were Lukas and Aiden. The latter undoubtedly had the upper hand, pushing and slamming his sword against Lukas’ with strong blows. He was able to push the blonde against a wall, but Lukas was quick enough to dodge in time and roll away. He backed up a little, but Aiden immediately spun around and continued his assault.

“Lukas…” Jesse whispered, all breath having escaped her as she watched the blonde fight. “He’s alive…”

 Jesse felt like she could fall to her knees in relief. The possibility that she was hallucinating didn’t even cross her mind. Lukas was there! He was alive and breathing and moving!

And fighting with Aiden!

Aiden swiped his sword against Lukas, slicing him across his chest. Lukas fell to the ground and crawled backwards as he held a hand up to his bloodied shirt. He looked up as Aiden raised his sword, looking ready to bring it down.

“No!” Jesse’s voice was still raspy as she rushed forward, bringing her pickaxe to the front.

Reuben, however, was a faster runner than Jesse, and he reached the dueling men first. He released a battle cry (which really was just a loud squeal, but it was a battle cry for a pig) as he lowered his head and slammed right into Aiden’s stomach. Aiden let out an undignified grunt, lowering his sword and crossing his arms across his abdomen. This gave Jesse the opportunity to place herself between him and her boyfriend. She brandished her pickaxe and parried Aiden’s next blow.

 Aiden snarled as his sword was blocked, pressing hard against the sudden appearance of another rebel. Who would dare try to fight him, against the diamond sword he took, with something as pitiful as a stone pickaxe?

His answer came in the form of green eyes that burned like torches. “Jesse?!”

“You better back off, Aiden.”

 Without a second thought, Jesse shoved Aiden away with her foot. This came as such a surprise to him that Aiden dropped his sword. He looked up at her, as he lay sprawled against the steps at the base of the throne. She breathed heavily through her nose as she approached him, ready to stab him in the face with the sharp end of her pick.

 Aiden was not completely without something up his sleeve though. He gave out a loud roar as he tossed an orange and yellow-spotted egg at the ground. The shell blew apart, and with a puff of smoke came a floating yellow head and several yellow rods. The entire creature was engulfed in flames, and the heat of the room increased dramatically with its presence.

 Jesse had to step back to avoid the blaze’s flying tackle, allowing Aiden the opportunity to dash behind the throne. He took refuge on the small outcrop of land that stuck behind it, grabbing his sword on his way. Jesse growled.

“Get back here, you coward!”

 The blaze blocked her way, spitting three fireballs in her direction. Jesse rolled out of the way of the flames, and the two spun around to face each other. Thankfully, Jesse was much faster than the blaze. With a sharp bend of her knees, she was able to leap up and bring down her pickaxe onto the blaze, slicing right through it.

The blaze fell to the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Unfortunately, it was the final strike the pickaxe could take. It also vanished from Jesse’s hands, a small wisp being all that was left. Jesse cursed, but she immediately forgot about it when her eyes fell on Lukas again.

There was only a moment of pause before the pair immediately ran to each other, clinging to each other as tightly as their arms would allow. When Jesse pulled back, all she did was place her hands on Lukas’ cheeks. Upon seeing her glossy eyes, Lukas covered one of her hands with his own and pressed his lips against her palm. They shared a reassured smile.

“I thought you were dead…” Jesse whispered.

 “I thought I was too.” Lukas’ voice was just as quiet.

A sudden thought crossed her mind, and Jesse kicked herself for not asking about it sooner. “What about…Mother?”

 “She’s okay,” he answered. “She’s fighting the monsters in the city right now.”

 With another sigh of immense relief, Jesse pressed her forehead against his chest. She listened to his heartbeat, relishing in the fact that she could hear it.

Their moment was interrupted by the painful groan coming from behind Lukas. Jesse looked over the blonde’s shoulder, spotting Reginald as he started to rouse. Reuben and Benedict were with him, nudging him with their feet in an attempt to wake him.

 Jesse finally became aware of their situation again, and her back stiffened. She pulled away from Lukas, turning in the direction Aiden had fled in. She clenched her fists and started walking that way. She was barely able to keep her feet from stomping holes into the floor. Every fiber of her being told her to throw Aiden off the island.

See how he likes it!

A hand on her shoulder momentarily stopped her. Jesse almost wanted to snap at Lukas for keeping her even a moment from exacting some revenge on Aiden for everything he had done. Only her relief that Lukas was alive gave her enough patience to keep her from baring her teeth.

In truth, Jesse didn’t need to worry about Lukas actually stopping her. Rather, he held out his diamond sword to her. He pressed it against her palm, waiting until she enclosed her fingers around the hilt before he let go. Jesse looked up to see a confident smile on his visage.

“Kick his butt.”

Lukas backed up a step, out of the way for Jesse to head to Aiden. She took a deep breath and nodded.

“Will you check on Reginald?”

“Will do.”

With that, Lukas joined the oinking pig and clucking chicken as Reginald continued to groan and rub his head. That creeper explosion clearly took a lot out of him. Jesse watched her boyfriend go before returning her attention to the task at hand.

 Aiden was waiting for her on the bit of island behind the throne. He had built a few blocks of dirt out into the cloudy sky, creating a bridge leading to nothing. He held his sword lowered at his side. His face was pointed at the ground, but his eyes faced forward to look at Jesse from under his upper eyelids. She could see he was breathing a little heavily, which was odd considering he hadn’t exerted himself recently.

Jesse slowly walked forward, ignoring the rain as it soaked her hair and clothes. She had her eyes on Aiden and nothing else. In contrast to him, her breathing was slow and smooth, allowing her to keep a clear head.

Stay focused. She slowly breathed out of her mouth. This is just like in training with Reginald.

Once she was a mere three meters from Aiden, she stopped, giving Aiden one last chance to show some remorse for his actions. Just one bit. One little bit.

But it seemed that was not to be. Aiden looked up at her with a creased nose.

 “It wasn’t supposed to be this way, Jesse,” he barked, holding a clenched fist in front of him. “This was supposed to be our world. Together! I did this all for us! You and me, ruling together! And you ruined it!”

“Listen to yourself! That’s insane!” Jesse argued. “You got people thrown in jail! You tried to kill Lukas and my mother! You let your people release all kinds of monsters all over the city! Who knows how many more people have been hurt or killed?! Do you really think that would all be something I’d want?!”

 “Was it too much to ask to win something for once?!” Aiden hollered. “I was supposed to be the top builder in Build Club! I was supposed to The Founder’s right hand! I was supposed to win you!”

 Jesse couldn’t help but shake her head at his logic. “Aiden, this isn’t about who wins and who loses. It’s about what’s right.”

“Then I’m going to make it right.” Aiden pointed his sword towards her, a toothy smirk on his face.

Jesse lifted her blade as well. The two paused for an instant before Aiden narrowed his eyes and rushed forward. Jesse met him halfway across the dirt crag just in time to block Aiden’s sword as it came down towards her. He swung a second time with a long grunt, and then thrust the sword towards Jesse’s chest. It was painfully obvious that it didn’t matter to him anymore who his opponent was. Aiden wasn’t going to hold back in this duel.

 Jesse easily dodged to the side, which also put her in a clear position to block Aiden’s backswing that followed. She lifted her sword, flinging Aiden’s above their heads. This forced Aiden’s center of balance behind him, and he stumbled backwards.

Keep your feet spread, Jesse reminded herself. Solid footing. Remember training.

By the time Aiden recovered, it was Jesse’s turn to be on the offensive. She brought her sword over her head and then down onto his. He managed to block her attack, but rather than a full parry, Aiden’s blade was knocked to the side. She echoed his motions with a backswing of her own, forcing Aiden’s sword to go the other way.

With another overhead blow, Jesse was able to throw off his balance again. Aiden swayed on the bridge, barely missing the edge, and landed backwards on his rear. His eyebrows furrowed with worry, but he swiftly flipped back onto his feet and swung his sword again.

Jesse was on a roll. She blocked his next attack, along with the one after that, with nothing more than a flick of her sword arm. She didn’t even have to put much force into her blows. Aiden was so angry that it was distracting him from making meaningful strikes.

Wait for the right opening, she thought, her mind still flashing back to her practice with Reginald. Just like I disarmed him.

It happened almost with another thought. Jesse was able to press Aiden’s sword down towards their feet. With a flick, she used the momentum of Aiden’s sword against him, forcing Aiden to release his hold on its hilt. His diamond sword flew over his head while its wielder was pushed back to the ground, landing on his back. The sword itself shimmered in the rain as it fell from the dirt outcrop and plummeted to the world below.

 Aiden gasped, crawling backwards until he was at the edge of the ridge he had built. He looked up at Jesse’s narrowed eyes as she advanced on him, her sword still aimed in his direction.

“Wait, wait, wait! Jesse! Hang on!” He threw a palm out to gesture her to stop. “Hang on! I surrender! Just, please. Don’t hurt me.”

Jesse continued to frown at the young man. Did he really think she would spare him, after everything that had happened? He had talked so big only minutes before, and now he was groveling and pleading for mercy? She shook her head and huffed.

A coward. That’s all he is. Why did I ever feel threatened by him?

“You did it, Jesse!” She turned to see Lukas standing with Reuben, Benedict and Reginald. They all remained at the edge of the island, a safe enough distance from her. “Way to go!”

Jesse smiled at him before turning her eyes to Reginald.

 “Are you all right?” The concern in her voice could still be heard over the thunder in the sky and the shrieking ghasts in the distance.

 “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me,” Reginald replied. “But Jesse, we need to get out of here.”

“Yeah, we have to check on the others,” Lukas agreed. The screams of the Sky City citizens only punctuated this statement.

Reginald glared at Aiden. “What do you want to do with him?

 Jesse looked at the pleader out the corner of her eye. Aiden braved getting up from his prone position, though he decided it was in his best interest to remain on his knees with his hands in the air.

“Jesse…Jesse, please,” he begged with wide eyes. “This place is getting worse by the minute.”

“And whose fault is that?” Lukas disputed, crossing his arms over his chest. Reuben snorted at his side and started digging a hoof into the ground.

 Aiden cringed at his former friend’s words, but kept his gaze on Jesse. “Please, you can’t just leave me here. Take me with you!”

“Oh no! After everything you’ve done?” Reginald yelled. “I’m not sure you deserve that kind of mercy!”

 Of course, this echoed Jesse’s very own thoughts from just moment ago. However, though she still agreed with the sentiment, hearing it from someone else made the gravity of that option truly apparent. Could she really leave Aiden to the mercy of the monsters in the city? Even though it was his fault the monsters were there to begin with?

Aiden certainly didn’t like the idea.

“No! No, no, no! Come on! You can’t just leave me behind! If you leave me here, I’ll die! Would you really do that, Jesse?” The desperation in his voice almost made it break. At her silence, Aiden instead focused on Lukas. “Lukas! We used to be friends! You’d leave me to die like this?!”

“You haven’t been acting like a friend,” Lukas sneered. Reuben oinked in stern agreement. “You haven’t for a long time.”

 Aiden’s breathing quickened as he looked back at Jesse. He ran his hands through his hair, pulling hard on it before slamming his hands on the ground and ducking his head.

 “Please. I’ll do anything.”

 He really is pathetic, Jesse thought, slowly blinking her eyes as rain trickled down her face. This is the guy who tormented Olivia, teased Axel, got nearly all my friends thrown in prison, threatened Reuben, tried to kill Mother and Lukas…Kissed me against my will! Why on earth should I spare him?

But there was a nagging beat in the back of her head. It was the part of her who argued with her mother about how unfair it was to treat people poorly, how cruel it was to punish people for having different perspectives from you. Shouldn’t Jesse try to practice what she preached and treat others with kindness? And learn to forgive? Aiden was just a poor, jealous soul who just wanted people to appreciate him and like him. Was that really too much to ask? Of course, he went about it in the worst way possible, but did Jesse really want to be the person who didn’t show mercy to someone who clearly needed it, even if he didn’t deserve it?

 She sighed and looked at Lukas. “What do you think?”

He took a breath before answering. “I think it’s up to you.”

And there was the biggest difference between Lukas and almost everyone else Jesse had encountered in her life. So many people wanted to tell her what to do, how to act. Even if they had the best of intensions, like her mother, Jesse always felt like people only wanted to control her.

Lukas was nothing like that. He shared his views with her, certainly, but he never tried to force Jesse into anything she didn’t want. He was leaving it up to her and her own judgment to decide what to do. And considering what Aiden had done to him, it would be no surprise to Jesse if Lukas wanted nothing more than to throw him off the island as well. Perhaps it was the smallest bit of him that still cared somewhat for Aiden that kept him from voicing that opinion. But the fact that he was keeping that opinion, whatever it really was, to himself showed that he trusted Jesse to do what she thought was right.

She didn’t want to be the kind of person who didn’t know how to forgive, no matter how heinous the crime.

Jesse clicked her tongue. “Get moving, Aiden. You’re coming with us.”

She ignored his simpering thanks as she turned her back to him and returned to the cover of the throne room. It was about time to get out of the rain.

Reginald huffed, as Aiden passed him. “More than you deserve, frankly.”

 This sentiment was echoed by both Reuben’s snort and Benedict’s cluck.

Once they reached the throne room proper, Reginald grabbed Aiden’s hands from above his head and forced them behind his back. Taking the rope he had previously been bound in, he tied Aiden’s wrists together, ignoring the young man’s grimace when he cinched them tight.

Reginald looked down at Reuben and Benedict, both of whom were giving Aiden a disgusted look. Having become accustomed to living with both of these animals, he was surprisingly good at recognizing from their expressions what they wanted. And the looks the pig and chicken were giving him detainee were not pleasant at all.

 “Don’t even think about it,” he warned them when they took a step towards Aiden. “We still need to get out of here first. This fiend will get his just desserts. Mark my words.”

 His voice rumbled with these last words, and Aiden couldn’t help but gulp at the implication. He was sure he would prefer the animals’ punishment compared to the Captain’s.

 Reginald was about to lead his prisoner out of the throne room when he turned to address Jesse and Lukas. However, his plan to lead them out of the palace would have to wait.

Jesse had her arms wrapped around Lukas’ neck as she kissed him firmly on the lips. Lukas tightened one arm around her waist while his other hand carefully ran against her wet hair. One of Jesse’s hands ran up and down his arm. In response, he brought his matching hand up to hers, entwining their fingers together as they continued to kiss.

 Don’t really have time for that, but after what’s happened, I don’t have the heart to interrupt. Reginald suppressed a laugh. You better take good care of Jesse, young man. I’d really hate to have to run you through with the sharp end of my sword.