#this has the same energy as that sup bro head nod

[iwazumis]

@crowconquer​ liked for a starter ( kageyama ). 

' you got taller, huh. '

[haveyourselfacodychristmas]

Have Yourself a Cody Christmas - Christmas Day

THE FINALÉ OF HAVE ‘YOURSELF A CODY CHRISTMAS’ INTERACTIVE STORY

Michael Langdon X Jim Mason X Duncan Shepherd X Xavier Plympton X Y/N 

Warnings: Fluffy, a little non-sensical maybe, good Christmas fun, SMUT! Swearing! 

DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T COLLECTED ALL FOUR PRESENTS IN THE INTERACTIVE STORY. 

The smell of eggnog wafts over to you from your bedroom. You resolved to spend Christmas Day in your own bed, alone as did the rest of your family, so while there is no warmth you feel like you have an even playing field today. No jealousies, no bickering...that is if everyone kept to the same vow. Even though you aren’t the biggest eggnog fan, you know that it’s a tradition for Jim and sure enough when you tip toe downstairs you see him putting on the finishing touches of grated nutmeg.

’I swear this is how Washington himself did it.’ He boasts, sliding you a cup. 

‘It’s eight am, Jim.’ You laugh, watching him take a sip. ‘And you’re already on the alcohol.’ 

‘Eggnog can be drunk at any time.’

Duncan slopes into the kitchen, ignores the eggnog and switches on the coffee machine. ‘Even I can’t do that this early.’ He says, eying Jim’s foamy moustache. 

‘Why don’t you just get an IV?’ Jim quips, ‘Addiction will kill you, ya know.’ 

Duncan makes a face behind Jim’s back. You catch Jim on his way to the living room, wipe off his foam and give him a quick kiss. ‘Merry Christmas, bye the way.’ Jim calls to you both, sweeping his eggnog into his hands on the way. 

‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.’ Duncan calls to Jim, pulling you into his arms as the smell of freshly brewed coffee sings in the air. ‘And to you,’ He smiles, giving you a kiss on the tip of your nose. 

‘Home alone?’ You question, wrapping your arms around Duncan’s waist.

‘My favourite.’ He nods, letting you cling to him as he pours out the coffee into two cups, ‘Want one?’

‘Yes, I can’t do eggnog right now.’

He chuckles, ‘He never changes.’ 

You take note of the fondness in Duncan’s voice and rest your head against his chest. 

‘Urgh, get a room.’ You expect to see Xavier in the doorway, but Xavier never rises before 10am. Instead, your favourite Travelling Salesman stands in the doorway. You squeal, running over and throwing your arms around him. Jerome hugs you back, ‘Hey princess, couldn’t miss a Christmas with my favourite people.’

‘Your favourites, really?’ Duncan smirks, immediately getting a third cup out for Jerome. 

‘I’m still getting used to the new one.’ Jerome admits, ‘And I need to drop off my presents for my most favourite ones.’

‘Miriam and Jeffrey will be awake soon.’ You promise, ‘They always wake around eight thirty.’ 

‘I don’t mind assisting with the morning.’ Jerome volunteers and you want to hug him all over again.

‘That would be great.’

‘And where is our blessed Antichrist?’ The Salesman accepts his cup from Duncan and takes a long drink, hip leaning against the countertop as Jim re-appears.

‘I thought I recognised your voice.’ Jim grins, giving Jerome a fist-bump. ’Sup, man?’

‘Enjoying being a father, Jim?’

He nods, melting. ‘It’s…it’s so good.’ 

Duncan slips his arm around Jim, ‘He wouldn’t work for me, but I heard someone’s due a promotion soon?’

Jim blushes, ‘Wha…me?’

‘So I hear.’

‘Only because I read your bosses’ mind.’ Michael’s deep voice travels over to you all. He’s leaning against the doorframe, signature silk black pyjamas on. ‘Hello Jerome.’

‘Still creeping on people’s thoughts?’ You give Michael a look, but knowing what the two of you got up to yesterday, you’re not too mad.

‘Only when they have something interesting going on.’ Michael sidles into the room, ‘Which is not that often.’ 

‘Now everyone is here but Xavier,’ Jim glances around each of you, ‘Can we do presents?’

‘Why don’t you wanna wait?’ Duncan asks.

‘Cause he takes forever to rise.’

‘We’re going to wait.’ You decide, but you lead the way back into the living space and drop onto the couch. Michael joins you and you rest your back against him immediately right as the baby monitor picks up Jeffrey’s morning cries. 

Jim makes a face, ‘Like clockwork.’

‘I’ll go,’ Jerome volunteers. ‘I wanna spend some time with my God children before you all ruin them more.’

‘Heyyy.’ Jim gives chase and you can hear the bickering all the way upstairs. 

You turn to Michael and press a kiss to his chest, ‘Merry Festive Day.’

‘Merry Festive Day.’ He echoes, fingers running through your hair.

‘Did Miriam like her card?’ 

‘She did’ He murmurs, ‘I got the usual six am text from her.’

‘Six am on Christmas!’

‘Rises at 6, has six presents under the three and six candles always lit.’ 

‘I get it’ You smile as Duncan drops into his favourite armchair, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Duncan sleep in beyond six am any day but Christmas.’

‘Hey, I sleep in on vacation.’ He protests, crossing one leg over the other. ‘I’m not a total freak.’ 

‘When we were in the Bahamas,’ Michael points a lazy finger at Duncan, ‘You were up at 6am to reserve the sunbeds on the beach.’

‘Only because the Obama’s tried to steal that spot and it was perfectly facing the pool and the beach for easy access.’ 

‘Never change, Duncan.’ You laugh, watching the Media Mogul get flustered behind his coffee right as Jim and Jerome enter with the babies, closely followed by Xavier. 

‘Present time.’ Xavier trills, ‘Now we are all present, Jim says Medina is coming for dinner, so we can get started.’ 

Jerome deposits little Miriam in Michael’s arms, not daring to ignore the Antichrist making grabby arms. Now one year old, both Miriam and Jeffrey are interested in everything. Miriam latches onto Michael’s hair, tugging it out of his bun and watching the golden curls cascade. She bubbles a near laugh as Michael suppress rolling his eyes, ‘Again?’ He asks the baby who is nearly speaking small sentences.

‘Hair pretty.’ Miri insists, dropping into your lap and clapping her hands together.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey like his father is full of energy. The little boy is crawling everywhere, keeping both Jim and Jerome busy on the couch opposite. 

‘Well, I gave my gifts upstairs.’ Jerome announces, ‘You can see them later but lets just say-‘

‘Elsa!’ Miri beams. The entire room watches as an Elsa doll floats into the living space and into Miri’s arms. She hugs it tight, ‘Jerome!’

You can’t help a snigger as Jerome tries not to look too unsettled, ‘That’s very nice, baby.’ Duncan praises, far too used to Miri and her magic by now.

Jeffrey, not yet as advanced as his twin tucks himself into Jim’s side. ‘Well, that spoiled it.’ Jerome mutters, ruffling Jeffrey’s hair. ‘Maybe I do got a favourite one.’

‘Careful, Jerome.’ Michael smirks, ’I and my Miri can hear you.’

‘Presents.’ You decide, sinking to your knees and heading for the pile under the tree. You fish out Xavier’s first and pass it to him. Jim is kind enough to join you in handing out presents. 

You’re pretty sure you did well with your presents. Xavier’s already got an AirPod in one ear, Eurythmics coming faintly from his phone. Duncan’s engrossed in his planner, already writing with his Montblanc fountain pen from Michael. The two babies have joined you on the floor and found amusement in the pink tissue paper that contained bath and body products from Xavier to you. 

‘Here Michael,’ You hand him your present. ‘This is from me.’

‘Thank you my love,’ He murmurs, fingers running over the silver bow. You meet Jim’s eyes, the two of you watching the Antichrist. Michael, so unused to presents treasures every single one he gets. You watch him unwrap the present so delicately, smoothing down the wrapping paper and folding it to put aside for later. He reads your gift tag and gives you a smile that betrays his love of fashion upon reading Balenciaga. 

‘Hey, big spender.’ Duncan shoots you a wink, watching as Michael’s eyes rove greedily over the jacket. 

‘It’s perfect.’ His eyes shine with love, ‘But you didn’t have to.’

‘I did.’ You insist, unwrapping some brand-new underwear from Victoria’s Secret from Duncan. 

‘There’s something else in there you should…uh…maybe wait till the kids are in bed.’ Duncan coughs. You can’t resist a peek, spying a sleek black toy in the bottom of the box. 

You slip it back under the tree, ‘Yes, not a family-friendly present.’

‘Not a family-friendly man.’ He counters, now on his second cup of coffee.

‘Sure Dunc,’ Xavier gives him a nudge, ‘Married with two step-kids.’

You hand Jim his present as he hands his own over to Xavier, ‘Don’t go wild with it, okay? Jim says. 

‘Is it weed?’

‘Xaiver.’ You scold, side-eying Jeffrey.

He rolls his eyes, ‘They don’t know what weed is.’ 

‘WEED!’ Miri echoes, point to Xavier, ‘WEED.’

‘I’m no weed.’ Xavier counters back, ‘You’re the weedy one.’

‘Weed.’ She decides, settles beside her brother. 

‘It’s not weed.’ Jim bites out, ‘Just open it.’

‘You’re not gonna live that down now, Xav.’ You smirk.

‘Ayyy,’ Xavier laughs, taking out the skateboard and choosing to ignore you. ‘This is so rad, thanks bro.’ 

‘You’re welcome, weed.’ Jim shoots back, his grin playful as he opens your gift. ‘Is this…woah! Beach Boys, Y/N!’

‘Where did you get that?’ Duncan’s head snaps to the present, ‘I couldn’t find anything when I was searching.’

‘Secret auction.’ You reveal, gratification swirling through you as Jim looks deeply impressed. 

‘This is going in a frame on my wall where I can stare and never touch it.’ 

‘What the heck is the point of that?’ Xavier frowns, ‘You wanna be able to interact with stuff. Use it.’

‘It’s a poster though, babe.’ You laugh.

‘Collections show who a person really is.’ Jerome offers, ‘Be it Miri and her growing Elsa dolls or Duncan and his coffee cups.’ 

‘Hey.’

‘You’re on your third, Dunc.’ You point out, ‘You should slow down darling.’

Jim pulls you in for a soft kiss before taking over Duncan’s armchair. Finished with your present duties, you inspect your pile of presents. Along with the underwear and bath products, you have a new Chanel bag from Duncan, some surprisingly comfy slippers from Jerome, make-up and red nail polish from Michael, chocolates and an iPad from Jim. But it isn’t the presents that has you so content, it’s seeing you favourite people together and happy. You wouldn’t trade any of them for anything in the world. It’s times like these that you are truly thankful for Christmas.

‘Used my discount,’ Jim winks, clearly proud of himself. ‘Didn’t use the bank of Duncan once.’

Michael has enough new designer clothes to kit out his wardrobe, but he’s most intrigued by a spell book gifted by Jerome. He’s been pouring over it with Miri for the past half hour, his lips mouthing incantations. You’ve had to stop the Christmas tree from levitating twice now. 

‘Where did you get a spell book from?’ Duncan asks, taking a peek over Michael’s shoulder. 

The Antichrist, leans back and presses a kiss to Duncan’s cheek, ‘It’s very interesting. Both dark and light magic.’

‘Egypt.’ Is Jerome’s simple answer, 

‘Egypt?’ Jim echoes.

‘Or was it Persia?’

‘Persia doesn’t exist anymore.’

‘Or Rome.’

‘I give up.’ Jim sulks, ‘I’m gonna check where Dina is.’ He leaves the room, already making the call. 

Xavier sighs, ‘Well since I pulled the short straw I’d better get going on Christmas dinner. Jerome, you wanna help do potatoes?’

‘Sure.’ Jerome follows Xavier out into the kitchen, ‘Besides, I haven’t had a chance to properly grill you yet.’

‘Grill me?’ 

Michael beckons you over, nudging Duncan aside to make room for you. The Media Mogul has been lazily letting Michael run his fingers through his hair completely absorbed in Michael’s spell-book. 

‘I have one more present for you, the usual trinkets aside.’ 

‘You’ve already got me things.’ You say, dropping between the two men and sitting Miri on your lap. Her head falls against your breast as you press a kiss to the top of your head. 

‘I know, but I couldn’t resist making this for you.’ Michael murmurs. Duncan meets his eye and then collects Miri in his arms.

‘Come on trouble, you can help Daddy Duncan make some Christmas Bellinis.’

‘No alcohol!’ You and Michael both chorus before catching each other’s eyes. You laugh it off, snuggling a little closer to the Antichrist. 

‘You made something for me?’

Michael produces a long, thin black box. ‘I…’ He clears his throat, ‘I wanted to make it perfect and…we’ve known each other for so long that I…I wanted to stand out if you will. Ever since Duncan became your official husband I’ve…I can’t help but admit that I’ve felt the overwhelming need to give you something that is entirely mine.’ He plunges on before you can interrupt, ‘I’m not jealous. I’m not bitter or upset.’ He insist, eyes shining with the truth. ‘I love our family, everyone equally. But, we have Miri and we so much history I…well…here you go. Merry Festive Day, Y/N.’ 

He opens the box, revealing a blood red rose. Dew drops linger on the rose, frozen in time as you take it out of the velvet lining. ‘Oh Michael,’ You whisper, inspecting the de-thorned perfection. ‘It’s beautiful.’

‘It will remain in full bloom.’ He says, voice full of pride and eagerness. ‘So long as I love you, this rose will thrive. So in that instance, it is everlasting.’ 

You can feel tears coming as you kiss him deeply. ‘I love you so much,’ You whisper, ‘It’s the most perfect gift.’ 

‘Just that extra something.’ He smiles, ‘Display it however you like. It was this or…well I did mention to the boys whether I should round up your worst enemy and present them to you bound and gagged to do as you like. But Jim didn’t think you’d like it as much as this.’

You snigger, patting his thigh gently. ’No I much prefer this.’ 

‘Dinner help please!’ Xavier’s voice rings from the kitchen, ‘Jim’s burning down the apartment.’

You smirk and place the rose back in it’s box, ‘Will you keep it safe for me? While I put out the fires?’

‘What would Christmas be without a little fire?’ Michael tucks the box under his arm.

‘A perfectly ordinary and boring Christmas.’ You say, walking into the kitchen only to find the Ham half burned. Jim is downing a Bellini, while Xavier is caught up arguing with Jerome about the mashed potato. Duncan seems to be safeguarding the coffee machine, while the twins sit in their highchairs, two pictures of innocence. Miri turns to Michael and beams at her daddy, ‘Weed.’

‘And we’re nothing like normal.’ 

Thank you so much to everyone who has read and gone on this adventure with me. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This took a lot of time for me to write, put together and work on without a beta all on my own. A like or a reblog would mean the world so if you enjoyed, please do share this! 

Merry Festive Christmas!

[thewritingstar]

Until My Heart Stops Racing

Pairing: Mitch x Mike (or Bitch as I like to call them, ya know cause Believe x Mitch.....nvm lol) 

Fandom: The Powerpuff Girls 

Note: This was a commission for the wonderful @lisathefan who gave me the cutest prompt and I know she loves her crack ships. I hope you enjoy my dear and thanks to my beta, Faxx for helping me! 

Word count: 5538

---

The car whipped into the parking space, dirt flying around us and I felt my heart rate finally go back to its normal beating. I looked over to Butch who had a goofy grin and ignoring everything he just did.

“Butch your driving is terrible. Now I get why you fly everywhere.” I groaned as I finally got out of the car. “I swear if Brick saw how you drove this thing... actually I don’t want to think about it.” I thought that speeding was illegal but apparently if the cops can’t even see your car, it's a free pass. And being in touch with the puffs might be a bonus we all have.

Butch let out a laugh before locking the car. “Relaxe Mike, what Brick doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He shrugged and sometimes I wondered how he could even say that. Brick could kill someone with just a glance but when you are a superhuman, and his brother, maybe the effect doesn’t work.

Maybe I should ask Blossom about that.

The beeping of other cars brought me out of my trance as I followed him on the dirt path.

“Anyways, why did you drag me all the way out here?” I turned to see the lights and the signs. “The fair?”

In front of me was the entrance to what could only be deemed as a somehow legal way to make people shell out three hundred dollars on cheap food and even cheaper ride systems. Every kid wanted to go to the fair and, yeah, it was fun when you were five, but now that we had just graduated high school, it seemed more dangerous than fun.

“Yeah, why not?”

I glanced at him and he only smiled widely but something in his eyes had mischief written all over it. “What's the deal?”

He sighed and smirked.

“A little birdy told me you got heart eyes for a certain someone.” Butch threw his arm around my shoulder. “And as the king of romance, I’m gonna help you out.”

Theres always a small tinge of fear whenever Butch gets an idea. It either ends badly where someone gets hurt, usually him or bad in the way that we all get in trouble and the notorious Powerpuff Girls have to get us out of it. But this...this was much worse.

“Butch, what did you do?” I said through gritted teeth. He only laughed at me instead of answering and pushed up towards the gates.

“Relax. Look they are here.” He pointed.

I followed his sight and walking up towards us was Buttercup, Robin and Mitch. Butch let out another laugh, probably because he could hear my heartbeat. Fuck superhearing. Of course Robin opened her mouth. You tell a girl while you’re throwing up that you have the biggest crush on your best friend who wears dark leather, has piercings and makes your heart swoon and think that she can keep her mouth shut. But no, she can’t.

“Hey guys.” Butch waves to him before leaving me to wrap his arms around Buttercup and ignore the public by kissing her square on the lips. PDA is always gross unless you’re the one doing it, so I can’t blame them. Also it's funny to watch her smack his arm.

“Sup Mikey.” Robin smiles smugly. Little demon.

“Hey. Hi Mitch.” He gives me a wave and a nod of the head and I have to mentally tell myself not to blush. Stupid hormons.

“Come on you two.” Robin says and grabs my arm and Mitch’s and forces us towards the carnival’s entrance. “Lets go!”

One of the perks to being besties with the puffs is the mass amount of freebies. Buttercup swiftly pulled out a ticket for each of us and handed it to the ticket collector.

“Sweet, free entrance.” Mitch smiled at me and held up his hand for a fist bump.

I gladly returned the gesture and every time I did so, I wondered if he could feel the electric spark between us. God, I need to stop reading romance novels.

“Alright losers. We’ll see you all later tonight, meet up for fireworks at 9?” Buttercup said and apparently everyone already had a plan that I was not aware of.

“Sounds good to me!” Butch smirked. “BC and I are going to do coupley stuff no one wants to see and Robin said something about henna soooooo.” He looked at me. “Guess Mitchy boy and Mikey are on their own.” I didn’t miss his wink and before I could protest, everyone was walking away.

My mind was now racing as I tried to comprehend what was happening. I realized in this moment that the group had ganged up on us, well specifically me. Mitch probably didn’t even think twice as the group broke up but they were out of their minds if they thought something was going to happen.

“Wanna hit the rides?” He asked.

I take a breath before nodding. We turn into the direction of the ride area and I have to remind myself that he is just a friend. A friend. Nothing more, nothing less. I usually have my emotions in check but for some reason, they want to act up now. All I have to do is get through tonight without embarrassing myself or giving Butch the satisfation of him being the king of romance. As if that were possible.

The area is buzzing with so much energy. There’s little kids whining and screams coming from the various rides. The smells of corn dogs, popcorn and, oddly enough, waffles mixed in the air and I can’t tell if it smells good or not but I know my pockets are gonna be much lighter by the end of the night.

We get into the shortest line for the tickets and it's truly a scam that each ride is a separate cost.

“I don’t feel like dying tonight so I think two rides is good for me.” Mitch says and I laugh a little because it's true. Just watching the swings makes me feel like one of them unhinge and plummet to the ground but that's what I get for being a paranoid person.

“I feel you. How about the rollercoaster and ummm... the spinning ride?” I suggest.

“Sounds good to me.” He smiles and god fucking dammit, those damn dimples.

The line moves as we chat about the newest horror movie coming into theaters and how Mitch saw a certain pair of redheads making out in a car.

“Wait for real?”

“I swear to god dude.” He raised his hand. “Unless some other chick wears a big ass bow, it has to be them.”

“Interesting.” I smile and soon we get called next.

“Hi there boys, how many tickets can I get ya?” the older woman asks.

“Ten.” Mitch says and I reach into my pocket to grab my wallet, that may or may not have a photo of all of our friends and definitely not for the reason that I can see his face at any given time, but Mitch stops me and places the cash in the tin. “I got it.” he says casually and something inside me felt all warm and fuzzy as the row of blue tickets was handed to him.

“Have a nice date night.” The woman says as we walk away and I almost do a double take thinking I heard her wrong. But when I look over to Mitch, he seems unaffected by the words so I just let it slide.

The rollercoaster isn’t as grand or cool as the ones at the theme park, it doesn’t even go upside down but it has a good bit of hills and bumps to give some air time so i guess it will do. The only problem is that these workers don’t care and make Mitch and I sit in the same cart as these two younger kids.

After we get the bars onto us, the ride starts to go. In front of us the girl grabs the boy's arm and I give a small eye roll as we start to climb the lift hill.

“Babe I'm scared.” She cries and he wraps an arm around her shoulders and I’ve never been so jealous of middle schoolers before.

“These carts are so damn small.” Mitch complains. And it's true. The two of us squished in this together leaves no space for our arms. The pressure of our shoulders touching isn’t too bad but it's to the point it almost hurts. “Hold on.” He says and I feel him pull his right arm away from mine and throw it behind us. “Sorry this is better.”

“No, it's cool bro.” I say even though I realize that this boy really just made it ten times harder to breath now.

I can barely grasp my surroundings as the rollercoaster takes its first turn before the drop. I can see the ending of the track as we go down but the only thing my brain is processing is the fingers tightening on my shoulder.

“Holy shit.” I mumble hoping that Mitch doesn’t know how he's affecting me.

We let out screams and shouts as we go up and down, flying around on the track and I try to enjoy myself, I really do. Before long, it's over and Mitch reaches his hand out to help me up and I take it with silence.

“That was fun.” He smiles and I am really happy he ignored his moms protests and got that lip piercing. It suits him.

“Yeah.” Is all I can muster and he gives me a look before walking towards the next ride.

Luckily as we enter this ride, there’s more room. Only our knees touch as we buckle in the seatbelt and I feel myself being able to breathe better.

“Good thing we didn’t eat before getting on here.” I laugh as the lights start to flash.

He snorts and nods. “Robin would have blown chunks either way.”

The ride is a simple circular track with small hills. All it does is follow the path and goes around pretty fast. Simple but a classic. The music begins and soon we feel the cart shift. I'm sitting on the right while Mitch is on the left, next to the exit and he wiggles off his black beanie just for good measure. His light brown hair, slightly damaged from dying it black back in freshman year, is ruffled from hat hair and my god is it cute.

“Fucking love this ride.” Mitch smiles and it begins to pick up the pace.

Soon, we are at full speed, which is fine. Perfectly fine. Except for the fact that the gravity from the ride is pulling me towards Mitch and no matter how tight I hold on, I end up smacked against him. Shoulders touching and I can clearly smell his cologne. It's the scent of sandalwood and campfire and my god does it smell heavenly. Men just smell like nature and I am more than okay with that.

But Mitch doesn’t mind, because why would he? Instead he's laughing and truly enjoying the ride. I smile and laugh too because honestly, it's just fun to spend time with him. The ride is over faster than I wanted and we hop off, slightly dizzy and I walk a little out of line but he catches my arm and pulls me to him.

“Easy dude.” He chuckles and I nudge him playfully and ruffle his hair before he plops on his beanie. Goodbye cute hat hair.

All of a sudden, my shoulder is hit. It was a pretty hard smack and my body jolted to the side as Mitch grabbed me from falling.

“Look a bunch of homos.” I look up and realize that it's some assholes from our school.

Duke Jones and Mark Dalton. Some of the few people who actually try to be douchebags on the regular.

My eyes do heavy eye rolls and I want to scream at them but I've never been a confronting person. My voice is in my throat but Mitch takes a step forward, his hand never leaving my arm.

“And what of it? Really dudes? You think some lame insult is gonna hurt our feelings. You’re lucky I don’t just kick your ass, better enough I can call Buttercup in a second and have your bodies all the way across this place. Grow the fuck up and maybe don’t choke on your toxic masculanity.” He sneered and sometimes I forget that Mitch can be pretty intimidating.

Their eyes widened as Mitch pulled out his phone to show BC’s number. They mutter something before turning and rushing off in a hurry.

“You okay?” He asks me.

“Yeah.” I say. “Sorry you got caught in that.”

“It's not a big deal.”

But it is. It's not a secret that I'm out and proud. Yeah its cool and all to not have to be closeted, even Princess came out last year so its nice to know that someone higher up won’t pick on me, but even then, it sucks. No matter where I go in life, someone will be there with a flame thrower of slurs or anger for something I didn’t choose. As for Mitch, theres something about him being called gay and him not having a hissy fit about it that makes me feel safe. Uhh fuck.

I take a second to recollect myself and Mitch just pulls me from the herds of eyes that saw that fiasco.

“Lets go here.” He points to the hall of mirrors and for some reason it's beginning to get extremely hard to be around him.

But I take a deep breath and push those feelings to the side once again.

--

The hall of mirrors was by far the lamest thing the fair could have done. Sure, as a little kid it was cool and slightly scary but now, all of our heads could see just above the tips of the mirrors making it lose the effect. It probably would have been more fun if the others were there. Butch would hide behind the mirros trying to scare us before Buttercup sent some lasers his way causing them to bounce everywhere and making us duck and cover. Good times. However, it was just Mitch and me.

While Mitch was walking, I couldn’t stop thinking about those jerks just now. Of course everyone already knew about my preference but Mitch seemed unbothered by being referred to as gay. Probably because he's not some asshole that thinks it's a bad thing, I mean if he did, why would he be friends with me for all this time? He’s just a good person, that's all.

Not to sound like the coming of age kid, but I knew I was into dudes before I could comprehend the idea of love or romance, I just thought they were pretty to look at. Moving to a new city at such a young age was hard for me, not to mention the whole invisible friend that tried to kill everyone. But after everything was said and done, I did in fact make some friends.

The famous superheroes had become my pals and when Buttercup introduced me to Mitch, I think that's when it all went downhill. We became the dynamic duo and everyone always paired us as the best friends, which is true but...it makes me feel guilty.

He turned a corner and I stopped walking. All of a sudden I was lost and staring at a mirror. Just me in my beat up sneakers and the uncertain face I seem to be wearing a lot lately. There's always a time in your life where you stop and contemplate everything, question all your decisions and how nothing truly matters.

“Hey you stopped walking?” Mitch said to me and I looked at him with a shaky smile.

“Sorry. Lost in thought I guess.”

“Care to share?” He asked and leaned against one of the mirrors.

I laughed to myself thinking about what I could possibly say. “Yeah sure Mitch, why don’t I just tell you that I’m in love with you and how it pains me to wake up to know that you will only see me as just a friend. Why don’t I just rip out my heart and put it on a silver platter for you to squash or just confess and kiss you here, ignoring all the states and hopefully pissing off some people?”

“...What?”

My eyes shot open and my eyes met his. He looked at me with confusion and shock. His mouth hung open slightly and it took me a solid three seconds to relaize that my dumb ass had just blurted that all out.

Panic. That's all I could feel as he stared like a deer caught in headlights. I could feel myself on the verge of tears and suddenly the air was too thick as I turned and ran, not caring about the employee telling me I was going the wrong way.

Mitch’s voice echoed behind me but I couldn’t stand to turn and look towards him. To hear the pure rejection and probably the disgust. Throwing away years of friendship for some stupid feelings? What was I thinking?

After nearly hitting my head several times, I made it out and ignored the weird stares and glances people were giving me. All I wanted to do was find Butch and get out of here and hope that I can just pack up and move away for college. Maybe even change my name.

Instead I found myself pushing my way into the bathroom stall and biting my arm to stifle my sobs. I felt like my heart was about to shatter, that all my nightmares where coming true all thanks to my stupid mouth. I was a fool to think that someone like him would even consider me as something more, a complete and utter fool.

“Mike?” A voice called and of course the sneakers peaking outside the stall belonged to Butch.

“What?” I spat bitterly. “Go away.”

I barely heard his sigh. “Dude, I don’t know what happened but suddenly Buttercup saw you burst into here. Really dude, is everything fine? At least come out and talk to us. Plus it smells really bad in here and there's a line of dudes.”

There's some truth to the matter and I wiped my face and pushed open the stall with a little too much force but luckily he grabbed it and just nodded towards the exit.

Robin and Buttercup are standing outside and luckily, I don’t see Mitch.

“Wanna explain what happened?” Robin asks as she hands me a tissue from her purse.

“No. I just wanna go home.”

Buttercup looks arounds then back to me. “Where's Mitch.”

“Probably somewhere and never wants to see me again.” I mumble.

“What?” She asks and looks towards Butch then back to me.

Butch raised his brow. “Mike, did you tell him?”

“Tell him what?” Buttercup asked.

It was at that moment that Buttercup didn’t know that I was practically in love with her best friend. Maybe Robin and Butch planned this together but it didn’t matter, not anymore. I would be losing two friends after this. Great.

“Look. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t feel the same way.” My throat is dry and it hurts and there's no doubt that my face is red and flushed with tears. “I'm just gonna call my mom to come get me.”

“Come on Mike don’t go.” Robin asked and she padded my arm.

“You don’t get it, Robin.” I spat. “You don’t understand what I just did. Thanks to someone’s dumb idea, I now lost my best friend. And for what? Did we really think he would like me back? That he could even see me in such a way? I don’t even know if he’s gay or let alone into dudes. But who gives fuck? I don’t.”

Butch took a step towards me but my anger only rose. “C’mon Mike I'm sure-”

“This was a stupid idea Butch!” I yelled and at that moment I didn’t care what anyone thought. I was embarrassed and hurt. “I just want to be alone.” I pushed past him and the others, ignoring everything they were saying because it didn’t matter any more.

It didn’t matter that my friends tried to help something that shouldn’t have even been considered. It was just a stupid crush. Nothing more, nothing less. Hopefully by the new semester, it would be gone and out of my system…. hopefully. A stupid crush that I’d been harboring for years and titling on a scale of something more.

It wasn’t long until my tears dried and I found myself among the section of carnival games. All of the rigged and hard to win and if you did win, it would be a small sappy prize that you would toss into a garbage bag or try to sell for a nickel at a garage sale.

There were darts and guessing the weight of a small pig. The basketball tossing and hitting the giant hammer looked tempting but instead I walked to the game that no one had ever won. Ring toss. A game of chance and so incredibly rigged, it's a miracle if one prize is won in a year.

Without a second thought, I gave up a fresh twenty dollar bill and the girl working, who clearly hated her job, handed me the biggest bucket of rings. Enough to keep me entertained until I call my mom or muster up enough courage to ask Butch for a ride back like a dog with its tail inbetween its legs.

I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I could be okay with this. But I was stupid. Stupid to think that the boy I had a crush on, one of my best friends, would like me back, or even be into dudes for that matter. But no, instead of having my secret crush kept, ya know, a secret, the one person who shouldn’t know, did.

I tossed another ring into the sea of bottles, the high pitched clinking echoed for just a moment as another was tossed. Maybe this was pointless. Maybe trying to figure out feelings was a waste of time because in all honesty, I never knew.

Like the plastic rings people pay way too much for, you jump and you think you’ll land on that bottle, secure the prize and show everyone up. Prove that you can do the impossible.

But then you miss and reality comes back. The bucket dwindles down and soon you’re left with nothing but regret for trying and shorting eight bucks.

“Hey.”

I turned, of course he would follow me. Why wouldn’t he? He was probably here just to tell me to let it go and sweep it under the rug, and say it's not weird when it totally is. Or he was going to come out and say that maybe our friendship has come to its expiration date.

“Oh. Hey.” I threw another one, missing again.

I tried not to care as he stood next to me but I passed him the bucket and he took his own shot, missing, just like me.

“Have you been crying?” He asked and there was no way around it.

“Yep.” I popped the p and threw another ring. “Look Mitch, I’m sorry what I said-”

“Don’t be.”.

Oh

“Most guys would just push someone like me away if that happened.”

He hummed and tossed a ring, missing. “Well, I’m not like most guys and I thought that was pretty clear. Especially after those jerks. I value your friendship too much to get worried or upset.”

I looked over at him, and that in itself was a mistake, because it would be just my luck that the other carnival games with their bright flashing lights would surround him and make it seem like he was glowing. The lights soften his features, a small twinkle on the black orb of his earring and making those very so light freckles appear.

Almost like a painting hung up in a museum. You think the trip is boring, and for the most part it is. A few interesting things here and there but just as you are about to leave, you find a room you hadn’t explored. It could be nothing and you could leave, forgetting everything in the last three hours and moving on with your life.

Or it could be life changing. As if when you walked in there, the most captivating painting was on that wall and you wonder how you skipped it in the first place. You stare at it, taking in the picture itself and the meaning. Stepping closer and looking at the paint strokes, the time taken to make this is clear and it's full of questions and mystery. The small plaque on the wall fails to answer.

He picked up the last ring. It twirled in his fingertips unsure of where to go.

“I kept thinking, you know.” He said. “I remember watching a show, a random cartoon and an ad for a pride festival popped up. I thought nothing of it, didn’t know what it meant at the time but my father did. He was outraged and changed the channel, screamed and shouted saying that if his son ever was caught doing something like that…” Mitch paused and closed his palm.

I could see the hurt in his eyes as he sighed.

“Then he would have no son. So when I found out what it all meant and learned about myself....I thought it would be best to never act on it. No matter how much I wanted to look towards another guy, I couldn’t.”

“I’m sorry Mitch, I didn’t know.” And it was the truth. I wanted to mentally slap myself for not realizing that he was, in fact, gay as well. Way to go Mike, your gay-dar is broken. But then again, you can’t just tell a sexuality clear as day. I can’t blame him for hiding it, after everything with his dad.

He sighed again. “But when you told me that. Told me you wanted me, I think I started to realize that I would rather have something I want no matter what others think of me. I envy how you can just come out and be proud, as you should, but I wish I was that brave instead of a coward.”

“Mitch.” I slid my hand on top of his cautiously. He didn’t flinch or have any indication of pulling away. “I’m scared every day. Scared that someone might yell something offensive or even try to hurt me. Just like those assholes did earlier.But I can’t stop those things from happening but I can choose to not let them affect me. It's hard but you know you’re surrounded by people who care about you. Plus your best friend is an actual superhero.”

“I know, I’m sorry. You probably don’t want to date such a fuck up like me.”

Fuck up? Did this boy really think that?

“I would never see you as that.” I said honestly. “It's normal for us to have conflicting feelings when someone in our life isn't supportive. It's never gonna be a walk in the park or smooth sailing but when you're with someone who cares about you, it makes it easier.”

He sighed for the hundredth time. It was clear the gears in his mind were running at full steam and he looked at the ring in his hand then to the bottles.

“I guess you’re right Mike. I guess I was thrown off that the dude I've liked since kindergarten likes me back.” He looked towards me and tossed the ring, not bothering to pay attention. “I just hope you haven't changed you mind-”

The next thing I know, my hand is tugging on his worn leather collar and his lips are pressed to mine.

I never thought that my first kiss would be as enchanting as this. You always think it's magical and fulfilling but in reality it's probably a mess of lips that don’t move quite as well and somehow there's a tongue doing whatever it wants. I guess I can’t count this as my first kiss because Robin had peaked me on the lips in third grade, also giving me the clear sexual awakening of how I never want another woman to come near me again, but this was different.

He tasted like cotton candy which I should find gross and oddly weird but I didn’t mind one bit. At the beginning there was a bit of hesitation, or maybe he was caught off guard since I did interrupt him but I couldn’t help myself. Stupid hormones. He wasted no time kissing me back and I even felt a hand on my waist pulling towards him. Although it lasted only a few mere seconds, it was like a lifetime of waiting had lifted.

When we pulled apart, loud speakers and alarms went off above us. I looked towards the game, I noticed one single plastic ring was stuck on the bottle. The worker smiled at us before nodding.

“Wow, I can’t believe you made it, especially without looking.” She said and I looked to Mitch who just shrugged.

“What? You kissed me, I just threw it.” He smiled brightly and I hugged him.

“So what will it be?” I asked him and he turned towards the prizes.

“Well, what about that dinosaur?”

“I love dinosaurs.”

Mitch smiled. “I know.”

The worker used a ladder to climb and retrieve the massive blue dinosaur prize. As a kid, i used to dream of winning such a cool thing but know, I think I got something better. Mitch handed it to me with a blush and I looked at it with just as much pink on my cheeks.

“Ya know.” Mitch started. “I have enough tickets for one last ride. Maybe the ferris wheel?”

“That sounds good.” He reached out his hand and I took it. Before I could blink, I felt his lips press against my cheek.

“I don’t like to see you cry.” He said.

I simply hummed and we walked hand in hand to the ferris wheel before deciding to give the prize to some kids. He handed the tickets to the worker as we climbed into the cart and began to go up. He threw his arm over my shoulder like he did on the rollercoaster, but this time, I leaned against him and let those emotions I tried to keep at bay, run wild.

“I’m really glad Butch dragged me here.” I said honestly and Mitch only laughed and silenced me with his lips pressed against mine.

“Me too.”

When we pulled apart, a few questions still lingered in my mind.

“You mean, you’ve liked me this entire time? And you knew I was gay?” I asked hesitantly. It wasn’t a secret, the last part at least.

He scratched the back of his neck, a nervous tick he's had since he was little. “I mean I wasn’t hundred percent sure, I thought maybe it was a one time thing or just happened occasionally. But as we got older, more specifically high school, I think that's when it hit me.” He sighed. “All I knew was that I wanted to be with you until my heart stopped racing.”

His eyes met mine. I’ve always hated when people didn’t see the beauty in brown eyes. They think they are dull and lifeless, only one hue but that's far from the truth. Mitch’s eyes had spots of gold and a slight tint of green, breathtaking to say the least.

“I mean it’s a shame we spent our high school years just as friends.” My hand went on top of his. “But I’d rather have you as my friend instead of losing you so I understand. But what about your dad? Will be okay with us dating-or well I assume we should-”

“I don’t care about his opinion of us. Plus we would be idiots not to date at this point. If he doesn’t accept. That's his loss not mine.” His gaze went to the sky where a firework exploded.

The colors lit up in the sky and we realized we got lucky as our cart stopped at the very top. It felt unreal to be sitting next to my best friend and now, boyfriend. There's always moments in your life that you feel like were meant to be. Maybe it's the career you chose or the person you marry. Milestones that are already set in stone and fate just happens to bring you together, all that stuff. And as I looked at him through heavy lashes I thought that maybe, just maybe, the stars aligned on this one.

That or I would have to admit that Butch is the king of romance, even though he did literally nothing today and this was all me. Either way, Mikey boy’s got a man.

--

I hope you enjoyed love!!

[one-for-all-bnha]

Bakusquad Headcanons (mainly focused around Sero and Kaminari) I might do a Part 2 later

Okay so all of them (minus Bakugou) seem to be chill but certain things (or all the time) make them suuuper competitive

1. Mall shenanigans, going around and buying things for each other to see who had the best gift feat. An awkward Bakugou Katsuki who has to find something for Mina and he asks subtly

2. Sneaking out of the dorms to get food. It was Sero and Kaminari’s idea, Mina was in it because it was a wonderful night for a walk, Kirishima wanted a Bang energy drink and Bakugou only went along because “Knowing you dumbasses you would get lost before you even get there”

3. Kaminari realizing Bakugou has a soft spot for him feat. The BakuSquad all tell him that he won’t get mad if Kaminari breaks the news. They’ve awakened a demon. Kaminari claims that he has “Special Best Rights” and nobody corrects him but Sero does add “And the fact that you fear no god.” Mina and Kirishima both nod in agreement.

4. Playing Smash at 1am in the lounge room feat. Bakugou sucking miserably because he button mashes and has to whisper yell when he dies. Kirishima ends up teaching him some tricks. Sero ends up being the one who cackles and they are all quiet until they hear footsteps coming down the stairs, Mina stares at them all horrified. “Scatter.” They all run separate ways like roaches. Bakugou ends up hiding in a cabinet. Kaminari hides behind a fake plant, while Kirishima rushes to the bathroom and hides in the shower. Sero is the one who gets caught, Mina ends up hiding out in the kitchen. They have these competitions almost every Saturday because Bakugou refuses to stay up late on school nights.

6. Kitchen mayhem, Bakugou is visiting his mom since his dad is away so the group must fend for themselves. Kaminari ends up setting the kitchen on fire and meanwhile Kirishima is FaceTiming Bakugou when all of it is going down. While Bakugou’s home he feels like his group doesn’t need him so when he sees the chaos feat various screeches of “DEAR GOD PUT IT OUT”

“wHOS GETTING TODOROKI?!”

“God this smells like charred ass” Bakugou smiles and grabs his coat.

“Later old hag.” He heads to the door clearly he’s needed elsewhere. Suddenly feeling bad Kirishima waves his hands.

“It’s okay really we’ve got it. You don’t have to leave I didn’t mean to cut your visit short.”

“Oh please”, Bakugou says. “I’m clearly needed.”

He’s about to open the door when his mom shouts at him. “And where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“I’m heading back. My dumbass friends have set the kitchen on fire.” He can’t help but allow the smile to fall onto his face.

The anger could wait first he had a Kitchen to save. Because of this incident the Bakusquad aren’t allowed anywhere near the kitchen without Bakugou or somebody else being with them.

7. Kaminari initiates stress relieving cuddles 99% of the time. After a typically stressful day he’ll break into Bakugou’s room and just lay smack down on his bed. Bakugou pretends to be angry but at this point he just texts the group chat named Cracktivities by Sero and tells the squad to “get their asses over” they all end up watching a movie and fall asleep half way through. They’re covered in blankets and Mina ends up bringing snacks that at first Bakugou was against because “I SWEAR TO FUCK IF I FIND ANY CRUMBS IN MY BED ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD” but it holds no heat to it

8. The group all steal Bakugou’s hoodies cause he’s warm at first and it soon turns into all of them sharing clothes whether they mean to or not. One day Mina and Kaminari pass each other in the hallway and both nod before they back up and stare at each other. “Is that my choker?” She asks. Kaminari tried to look down but can’t. “Maybe? Is that my belt?” She stares down at the belt with a lightning bolt on it. “I think so?” Kaminari smiles. “Oh cool, if that’s the case it looks epic on you.” Mina beams. “Same to you! The choker really brings a new level to your outfit!”

10.Group therapy session. Mina paints their nails and Jirou puts on some calming music as they all vent about things that are going on in their lives. Kirishima puts on a face mask and gets Kaminari to do it to. He tries getting Bakugou to do it too by saying “Come on rejuvenating skin is manly bro.” Bakugou just smirks. “Remember my quirk works as a skin care routine in itself.” The rest of the squad wears face masks Sero sighs dramatically. “Oh to have flawless skin without breakouts.” Kaminari takes a cucumber off his face, “Oh to be cursed with natural beauty.” Bakugou doesn’t know how to handle that compliment so he just rolls his eyes and smiles. “Idiots,” he says staring down at Sero who’s dramatically sprawled out on the floor. They all smile at him while Mina corrects him. “Your idiots.” He cant even deny it as a fond look passes over his face. “My idiots.”

11. He has a sixth sense and knows when they are up to something. At one point he walks past Kirishima’s room and hears “Dont tell Bakugou” so naturally he kicks the door open and says “Tell me what.” He ends up looking between Sero and Kaminari only to find that there are kittens everywhere. “No.”

“Oh come on Bakugou, can’t we keep them?”

“Aizawa will kill you for this no.”

“No he won’t he loves cats.”

“Fine, I’ll kill you for this.”

They end up sneaking the kittens into 1-B’s class early before class starts. Kaminari and Sero give a tearful goodbye to each kitten while Bakugou is smirking ruthlessly while trying to keep the cats at bay and make sure they will have everything they need. When Shinsou goes into the classroom to find the kittens first thing in the morning it’s a good day. No kitten was harmed and they all got anonymously adopted by Aizawa. They almost get caught because the trio has to hide them in their school uniforms and on the way to 1-B All Might sees them. Bakugou pushes Sero and Kaminari to keep walking as All Might approaches.

“Good morning Young Bakugou, what’s in your coat?” Before he can answer one of the kittens meow, without missing a beat he turns to face All Might.

“Drugs.” He says and walks off before the hero can ask anything else.

12. I guarantee you at some point when him and Kaminari were sparring and Bakugou held Kaminari’s head down with his hand, Kaminari’s first reaction would be to lick his hand. It takes 0.2 seconds for the instant regret to kick in. Kaminari immediately throws Bakugou off and starts viciously wiping his tongue down. “Ew ew ew ew ew I got it in my mouth yuck.”

It takes a couple of seconds for Bakugou to just realize what the fuck happened and he loses his shit laughing. He follows Kaminari as he makes a mad dash to the kitchen and downs whatever is in the fridge. “Oh my god it burns!!!” He whines and quickly turns on the sink violently rubbing his tongue down in an attempt to get the taste off of his tongue. The Bakusquad ask them what’s wrong but between Bakugou laughing and Kaminari gargling dink water babbling “regrets regrets I have so many regrets” every chance he gets mingled in with a “yucky” or “disgusting, grosss” they have no idea what happened.

Kaminari just decides fuck it He grabs the dish soap and places it on his tongue scrubbing at it so his head is cocked so that he has the best angle to wash his tongue and then makes awkward eye contact with Aizawa who is watching in horror. Kaminari tries to be suave and waves to him “Sup Sensei” and Aizawa looks from Kaminari to where Bakugou is practically wheezing in a spinny chair for him to walk out while muttering “Fuck this class, should’ve retired when I had the chance”

Meanwhile the Bakusquad finally connects the dots as to what happened and join Bakugou in a laughing fit while Kaminari whines with his face pressed to the sink still. “Oh come on you guys it’s not funny.” But they can’t hear him over the sound of all of them laughing. “You’re an idiot what made you think that would work?” Sero asks. Kaminari starts gesturing wildly which only makes them laugh harder “it was a reflex okay?!” Finally when the burning calms down he looks over at Mina who’s googling what happens when you lick nitroglycerin “am I gonna die?”

Jirou suddenly stands beside him and places a consoling hand on his shoulder. “Yes.” And then she leaves causing the group to start snickering again. Kaminari brushes his hands down his tongue saying “Absolutely disgusting” before wiping it onto Bakugou’s arm. He shrieks and jumps out of the chair “What the fuck do you think you’re doing dunce face?!”

“Returning the nitroglycerin I licked ya nasty”

He reaches his hands towards his face. “There seems to be a bit more.”

“KAMINARI NO!”

He licks his hands. The moment Kaminari’s hands touched his tongue he knew he fucked up.

“GODDAMIT!”

He runs back to the sink.

That’s all I can think of so far, if you guys have anything else to add feel free.

[angelwithoutmywings]

Heroes

Please don’t copy my work. I spend a lot of time and energy on these. If you want to repost please talk to me first. Hope you enjoy the story!

Warnings: None

I flinch as I open my eyes, losing focus my concentration when I hear River's phone blaring in my ears. I look at my older r brother and he gives me a guilty look while holding up his phone. I huff and give him the most annoyed look I have.

"Seriously! You promised we could do this today! You haven't been able to help me since like a month ago. Can't your friends do it today?" I glare at the floor for a few seconds before getting up.

"You know that I have to go. It's my duty. You know that we're running short on hero's right now. After the last big battle half the guys won't be able to hero-up for another year or so. You know this." I sigh crossing my arms over my chest moving my glare to River.

"Why can't the women fight? A lot of the sisters and girlfriends of your friends have powers. Why don't you let the girls fight?" I look him directly in the eye. He squirms a little, becoming uncomfortable from my cold look.

"You know that women aren't allowed to fight. The council made that decision so long ago. They think women will let their feelings might get in the way of fighting. Also, if all the women got killed then no one would be able to raise the next generation of supers." He tries to reason with me but I let his words go straight from one ear and out through the other. I've heard it a million times. Always the same thing. Women are too fragile and need to help the next generation of superheroes. It's so stupid.

I roll my eyes when he finishes his statement. I walk past him back to the house making sure to shoulder him a little. I close the door right as I hear him activate his suit. I storm upstairs to my room slamming the door.

I collapse on my navy blue bed. I pull out my phone scrolling through a few apps before remembering what it was I wanted to do on my phone. I pull up my contacts and FaceCall Maylea.

"Hey! Whatcha doing? I thought you had practice with River today?" I smile seeing my red-haired best friend's cheery face smiling at me. My smile drops a little when she asks about practice.

"River had to go do his 'Super Duties'. We barely even got 15 minutes in." I make quotations with my hands as she giggles a little biting her lip.

"Awwww, that sucks. If you want you can come over and practice at mine." She offers without really looking at her phone. I watch her walk into her greenhouse.

"Maybe in a few." I tell her as she sets her phone to face her until she disappears from her screen, "What are you doing?"

"Give me a minute." She holds up one finger telling me to wait. That's what I do and a few seconds later she pops back into the screen. This time with a cute flower crown on her own head.

"I've made one for you too! You have to come over. If it's not for practice then it can be to try on the flower crown I made you!" She holds up a flower crown for me to see. It has flowers in shades of blue and purple with an indigo ribbon tied nicely on the back.

"It's cute! Is it ok if I head over now? I don't have anything else to do here since River left." I ask her while she starts fiddling with another crown.

"Yeah. I'll be here. My mom's at work and my dad probably left too." I hum to her while getting my purse and shoes. Lastly, I grab my keys petting Lexia, my cat, once before heading out... I get in my car after locking the front door.

While driving I listen to the radio news. They talked a lot about the different heroes and a few theories about them and whatnot. When the lady started talking about River or as he is known in the superhero world, Ripcurl. The lady started to talk about how she thinks he is cute... that's when I turned it off.

I knocked on M's door and wait a few moments for her to let me in. She appears at the door with a gentle smile on her face and a colorful flower crown on her head. She opens the door widening letting me inside chuckling while I do so.

"You still have plants everywhere." I make a sly comment about how obsessed she is with plants and that they have completely taken over her house.

"Leave me alone!" She huffs while rolling her eyes, "They help with my powers!"

"I know, I know. I'm just joking. Anyway, what do you want to do?" I ask following her to her greenhouse.

"I don't know. I was thinking that we could just hang out here." I nod and sit down in one of the bean bag chairs she keeps in the corner.

Time Skip

"Hey, I should probably head home," I tell Maylea looking at the time on my phone.

"Yeah, my parents will probably be home soon so I should get dinner ready." She agrees with a nod.

"I'll see you tomorrow right?" I ask talking about our next hangout. We're going to go to the headquarters with the boys. It's like they're mocking us. Showing us what we could have but we don't have. It's so stupid. They invite us to go to the hero quarters and hang out with the 'real heroes' but then poke fun at us telling us that we can't do what they do because we're women.

NEXT DAY BEFORE HEADING TO THE HEADQUARTERS

"Ready to go Coral?" I walk to the front door seeing River standing ready to go.

"Stay safe you two! Keep her safe River!" I roll my eyes pushing past River grabbing the keys to the car without him knowing.

"I don't need someone to protect me," I mumble under my breath getting into the car. I watch River pouts at me him wanting to drive. I smirk and start the car. He gets in and I start to drive. I start driving.

We don't talk through the drive. I'm still mad at him. He always leaves me behind. Everything is more important to him. His damn hero things. He always chooses the hero work over me even when he doesn't have to! They have a million heroes that could do what he does but he always has to go. He doesn't love me. No one in this family does. After all, I'm not the perfect child. River is.

When we get to the building I park and walk inside. I get to the giant glass doors of the headquarters and go in not even caring if River is behind me or not. I get in the elevators pressing the top floor button, the top floor is where everyone hangs out. I wait a moment before the elevator doors open. I see all the guys sitting on couches talking to each other their arms around different girls. I walk in and they all look at me not really saying anything.

"Hi Coral!" I smile seeing Maylea get up and run towards me tackling me in a hug. I hug her back before letting go. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards an empty couch. We sit down and I give her a smile. I ignore the dirty looks I get from the guys. The girls usually have to sit with the guys that they come here with, well more like being too. It's not a spoken rule it's always been like this. I hate it though.

"Hey, guys!" Maylea and I's conversation is interrupted by River greeting everyone. I roll my eyes before turning from Maylea to River.

"Hi, River! Sup River!" I hear from the different guys around the room.

"Hi, babe!" I roll my eyes while Maylea giggles at me. Opal runs up to River hugging him and giving him a kiss. I gag when they kiss making Maylea laugh even more.

"Coral! Come over here! Sit with me!" I give River a look before tossing my hair over my shoulder.

"I'm having a conversation with my friend if you couldn't tell." He gives me a glare. I smile knowing that I'm getting him mad. I turn back to Maylea trying to continue our conversation before I feel someone pull me up. I snap my head towards whoever grabbed my arm. It's River.

"Let go of me," I whisper to him through my teeth.

"Sit with me or I will tell mom and dad." I let out a sigh of defeat before twisting my arm out of his grip. I grab Maylea's hand squeezing it so she gets up and we talk while walking to the seats and sit next to Opal, River's girlfriend. River then walks over to us sitting in between the Opal and me. He puts his arm around the two of us but while Opal snuggles into his side I push his arm off of me and turn my back to him so I could talk to Maylea.

"Ok, I was talking to Sarah yesterday and she told me that Mayor Kelpen was trying to convince the school boards to..." I get cut off by Conan coming over to us.

"What's up River!" He says loudly. River stands and gives him a bro hug. I roll my eyes and look back at Maylea who gestures for me to continue.

"Anyway, she said that he was trying to convince the school board to make the high schools-" I get interrupted again by Conan.

"Yo, Coral. Come sit with me." I turn to Conan and give him a bored look.

"No thanks. I'm fine here." I turn my head back to Maylea swishing my hair with my hand so it hits him in the face.

"Come on." Conan grabs my arm pulling up so that I'm standing facing him.

"Let go of me," I tell him but he just grabs my arm tighter.

"Come on babe. Sit with me, then I can take you out to dinner after. Just the two of us." I resist the urge to use my powers on him.

"I'm not your babe. Get away from me." I pull my arm away from him, hard, and push him away from me.

"Oh come on. You're not going to find someone better. You have to get together with another hero. We could make some of the most powerful kids. Come on. Just give me a chance." At this point, everyone was looking at us. I see Maylea giving me a sad look out of the corner of my eye.

"I'm not going to 'just give you a chance' you don't deserve one. Also, for your information, I'm not going to have kids. I don't want any and have never wanted any. So leave me the hell alone Conan." I finish pushing him back again. I feel River stand up beside me.

"Just go with him Coral. Wouldn't it be cool if my best friend got together with my sister? Then he would be my brother-in-law." I look at River in disgust.

"See, you don't care about me. You never have." I turn to River ignoring Conan.

"Of course I care about you, you're my sister." I raise an eyebrow at him.

"No, you don't. If you did you would not force me to do something that would not make me happy. Also, did you hear how you worded your past sentences? Conan first. Everything first above your sister. You don't care. You don't even know me." I press my finger to his chest.

"Of course I know you-" Before he can finish I interrupt him.

"What's my favorite color?"

"Easy, blue." He replies. I let out a sigh.

"No. I have had the same favorite color all my life. What is my favorite sport?" I ask him again. I can tell he's getting nervous. All of his 'bros' around and I'm embarrassing him.

"I-I-I" He stutters before I interpret him.

"You cam too so many of my perfo- Oh wait. No, you didn't. Cause you had 'hero' stuff to do." He tried to talk again but I interrupt him yet again "Who was my most recent boyfriend?"

"You have had boyfriends?" He asks getting mad.

"Yes! All of which were non-supers because they seem to care and respect me more than anyone in this little 'club' does."

"It's not my fault-" He tries to defend himself but I let out a loud laugh.

"Yes it is. You know who knows all of that stuff. Maylea. Because she cares about me." I turn to Maylea who gives me a smile.

"May, what's my favorite color?" She gives me a little smirk.

"Halloween purple but you like blue because it goes better with your eyes, hair, and skin." I nod my head.

"What's my favorite sport?" I watch her stand and grab my hand.

"Dance. I've been at every show since you started." I nod again.

"Who were my boyfriends in order." I'm pretty sure she is the only one who actually knows this.

"Order as in who you loved the most or order that you dated?" I give it a second before answering.

"Both. Dated than loved." She nods taking a moment to think.

"You dated Jayce, then Nick, then Noah, then James, and you broke up with Jax six months ago." She paused and I gesture for her to continue.

"In the order that you love then, um, James first, then Nick, then Jayce, then Jax, and lastly Noah." I nod.

"She knows that because she actually loves me," I say turning back to River. Before he can say anything else I start walking towards the door. I start to let go of Maylea's hand but she just holds my hand harder walking next to me. I smile even more when she does this.

We walk out of the building to my car I get in the driver's seat Maylea hopping into the seat next to me. On the drive to our hangout place, we don't talk at all. I still haven't processed what just happened. What have I done?

I stop the car in front of the woods. We both get and walk towards the forest. I link my pinky with hers as we walk. After a few minutes, we get to the cliff. I go to the little hut/tent type of thing that we made. It's made of plants that Maylea grew in the correct shape and I furnished it for us. It has a giant window that looks over the city that we sit in front of.

"I can't believe I just did that. I just ruined my life. I challenged everything that I have ever known." I say. Maylea doesn't reply. She just keeps looking out at the city.

"And I loved it." I smile. I can't believe that I just did that! I just did something no one has ever done!

"I don't have a family anymore do I?" I ask Maylea who still hasn't talked or even looked at me.

"No, I'm still here. I'll always be here. I'm the only family that you need." I smile and lay my head on her should leaning against my bead bag. I feel my eyes start to droop as I slowly fall asleep.

I awake to an explosion. I bolt up and look around making Maylea in return. We both look at each other confused until we hear screams. We both look out to the city. It's being destroyed.

"What is happening?!" I exclaim as I run out of the hideout. I look at the city and see it's being destroyed.

"I don't know! We have to get down there!" May starts to go towards the car but I grab her arm.

"It'll take us forever to get down there if we go by car. Can you use the plants?" I ask her. She tilts her head for a moment before nodding. She lifts her arm making vines start to come from the trees below us. I smile when they form a staircase. We look at each other before we run down the stairs towards the city.

When we get to the center of the city we see the guys terrorizing the city. They are making the non-supers do things and are trying to control them. I run towards headquarters dodging things that are flying at and around us.

We get inside the building getting to the top floor as quickly as we can. We step out to see about 15 girls in the room. Everything is yelling and talking.

"What happened?!" I yell making everyone be quiet and stare at me. After a moment everyone tries to explain it to me at eh same time.

"STOP!" Maylea yells making them all quiet down.

"Opal! What happened?" I look at the girl and she stutters before explaining what happened.

"The guys got a call because a new villain had just shown up. All of the guys went leaving us here to hang out. Next thing we know the guys have turned on the city and are being villains! We don't know what to do!" I sigh.

"Willa. You know how to work computers right?" She nods and waits for further instructions, "Pull up a live feed of the city. I want to see any reports on what happening as well as the live camera set up around the city that show the guys." I walk to the screen wall and watch as the feeds pop up. I watch for a minute.

"Stop! This one right here with River!" Willa pauses the screen and I take a closer look.

"What do you see?" I hear one of the girls behind me say. I turn back to the group.

"River's eyes are normally dark blue. They've changed to white. Willa, pause middle right." I look at the middle right scene and see Neta.

"Aren't Neta's eyes usually a vivid green?" I turn to Maylea who is standing with her mother. They both nod.

"I think they are being mind-controlled." I stop and stare at the elevators as someone comes up. The doors open to reveal Darya she looks super beat up though.

"Darya! Are you ok?!" I ask rushing to her. She collapsed into my arms.

"I'm-I'm ok." I lay her down on the couch and everyone is crowding around us.

"What happened," I ask

"I was going to get Conan and when I." She stops to sit up, "I saw him standing next to this man in the middle of the city and it was weird because his eyes were white and when I went to Conan the man told me to stop walking and when I didn't he told Conan to attack me and Conan's eyes flashed a brighter white and he turned into a wolf and started to run at me and he attacked me. I had to turn into a cheetah so I could get her before he could attack me again." She starts to cry and I rub her back before looking at the girls around us.

"I think that man is controlling the guys. But I don't think that he can control females." I watch the girls' faces change into all sorts of emotions.

"What do we do Coral?" I look at them confused.

"Why are you asking me?" I ask them.

"You know what you doing!" I smile a little when Lilith says that.

"Ok, Do any of you have suits?" I ask them all kind of stare at the ground, "Like this one?" I ask twirling as my powers surround me changing into my blue and purple hero suit.

Everyone kind of looks at me with some type of emotion in their eyes that I can't place. A moment of silence happens before the girls all use some type of magic to get on a suit. I smile knowing that we were all prepared for this.

"Ok, I think we are all connected to a guy super somehow. I want everyone to go to your guy and contain them. If you're married to them go to your spouse. If they are your brother go to them. If you don't have a brother go to your father. Team up if you need to. Opal, I want you to go to River." I give them all directions.

"What are you going to do?" I hear one of the girls ask. I smile and look at the screen with the villain guy on it.

"I'm going after him," I say guesting to the man in the black hero suit. They all nod.

"Everyone ready?!" I ask when everyone gets outside of the building. I get a reply of excited yelling and shouting.

"Let's do this!" Everyone runs to where they think their guy is. I take off towards the center of the city.

"Coral wait!" I turn around to see Maylea standing behind me.

"What is it? Don't you need to go get your brother?" I ask. She doesn't say anything but she walks up to me and pulls me into a kiss. I'm stiff and shocked at first before I smile into the kiss and place my hands around her neck as she places hers around my hips. I lean into her popping one foot off the ground. I slowly pull back smiling like an idiot.

"Don't die ok." I giggle at Maylea's overprotective nature.

"I won't but you can't either." I start walking backward giving her a salute. She smiles before running off in the opposite direction.

I take off in the direction that I was going. I run past Opal who is sending earth shocks towards River. I smile continuing on seeing the different women battling with the guys.

I finally get to the center of the city and see a few guys standing around this one man. He's wearing a black hero suit with white designs on it. He's tall though.

"Who are you and what do you want with my city?!" I call to the man who turns to me with a smirk on his lips.

"Oh, a girl. I've never heard of a girl fighting." I stand opposite the man.

"Who are you?!" I growl.

"I'm The Master. And you are?" He walks up to me. We're face to face and he brushes a piece of hair behind my shoulder.

"I'm Coral. Now, I want you to leave this city and it's citizens alone!" I say pushing him away from me.

"Now, why would I do that when I can have 'your' city?" He has the most annoying smirk on his face.

"Fine. We'll do this the hard way." I smile getting into a fighting stance. I immediately punch the man sending him back. He stands up again and spits to the side. I watch him look at the two heroes standing by his side.

"Get her!" He tells them. Within a second I was getting attacked by Aither and Boaz. I feel one pick up the wind around me picking up the rubble and dirt as well. I turn around to try and find them. I can hear someone run around me and I try to follow the sounds only to get confused. I fall to my back and I feel myself getting kicked so I turn over on my stomach. I stand up and look at the tornado type of circle around me. I look around before jumping out of the circle. Once I'm out I see the two guys are standing across from me. They stare at me. Aither holds his hands out at me and I see Boaz ready to start running. I brace myself before I hear yelling. I open my eyes to see Alya and Flyta standing next to me. They both smile before running towards their brothers. Flyta tackles her brother and they start fighting to look like a blur. I see Flyta go towards her brother using the wind to lift herself over him. They start to fight and I go to help.

"Go! We got this!" Flyta tells me with a smile. I smile at them before turning towards The Master.

"Hey!" I shout to get his attention. He turns to me with the same look on his face. An annoying smirk.

"You really think you can stop me? I've got all the super's under my control. They'll do anything that I tell them to!" He tells me. I run at him and we start to fight. I throw punches and kicks at him. We go around the city fighting each other we end up in an outside area that's filled with fire. I stand across from him.

"You're water powers are useless here. Surrounded by heat you are powerless." I go to attack him before pausing.

"Wait, you think I have water powers?" I ask him. He also stops with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, your name is Coral, your family are water users, and your whole outfit is water-themed." I laugh after he finishes talking. His face grows more confused.

" First of all, I'm adopted. Second, I have fire powers!" I say before using the flames around him to restrain him. I smile as he struggles only to burn himself. That's when I realized that he controls them with his voice.

"Your voice hugh? That's how you're controlling them?" I say. He doesn't answer but I smirk knowing that I have my answer. I walk towards him before using my fire to make a muzzle for him. I put it on him and he looks down in defeat.

I walk the man to the tower. I hear clapping and cheering from the citizens and the other heroes. I smile and wave at everyone. I end up in a circle of the other heroes, the girls and the guys all standing together. I stand next to the man with a smile on my face. I take off my mask I see Maylea in the crowd smiling at me. I can feel my smile become wider as I look at her. Seeing everyone standing together all equal made my heart fly.

"Today is a new day. Today we have learned that we need each other. Today we unite as one! All superheroes are equal! We are all powerful and we are all equal! Let today be a reminder of what unity gets us! Unity gets us peace!" I say to everyone while throwing the villain on the ground. I listen to the cheering of the supers and civilians when I finish my speech. I let a wide smile grace my features.

"Thank you! What your name?" I hear someone shout from the crowd.

"I'm Fiery," I call to everyone.

"Are you dating anyone?!" I hear someone else shout. I facepalm while rolling my eyes.

"Yes, I am," I say back with a laugh. I walk through eh crowd until I get to Maylea. I grab her hands and look into her eyes. I give out a little chuckle before pressing my lips to hers. I move my arms around her neck as she puts her around my waist. When we pull away from each other we stay hugging each other. I smile at her before letting go of her. I continue to hold her hand as I wave at the crowd.

Hello Angels! Thanks for reading this! Leave a like and comment if you want, you don’t have too. If you want you could also check out my Wattpad at @AngelWithoutMyWings. Thanks for reading I hope everyone has a fantastic day, night, or whatever! <3

[jawnjendes]

the fog will clear up | shawn mendes

chapter 13/?, university au, shawn x goth oc

AN: sry its short and definitely a filler im sry its boring but it helps build up stuff thatll happen next ok ok im sry

*let me know if u wanna be added/removed from the taglist

masterlist | playlist

Annalise woke with a start. She was wide awake immediately. There was no room for sleepily rolling around the sheets, her eyes weren't heavy like always. She didn't know what dying and coming back to life felt like, but she was pretty sure it felt something like that. She had a weird urge to go for a jog.

Staring at the ceiling, Annalise reached towards the nightstand next to her, intending to grab her phone. Her hand touched the bottle, and she picked it up anyway, reading the prescription label.

Annalise Flores SERTRALINE 50MG TABLET Brand name: Zoloft

"You don't waste anytime, huh?" she murmured before setting it back down. Then, she grabbed her phone and checked the time.

8:47am. A new fucking record. Annalise rolled out of bed, unable to stay still.

In the 2 hours she had to kill before work, she tidied up the dorm, ate a decent breakfast, took a shower, and got started on the course work she had to make up. The energy levels were through the roof, she had never been so on edge and productive at the same time. Why wasn't she put on sertraline sooner? Sure, she felt hyperaware and borderline anxious, but that was apart of the process of getting on a new antidepressant. She was getting things done this way. Sure, she jumped when the lock on the door jiggled, but she was up and running anyway!

If she wasn't, she wouldn't have seen Stella entering the dorm. She was surprised to see Annalise on the couch, looking like a deer in headlights.

"Oh… I thought you were asleep. I'll, uh, I'll come back."

"No, wait!" Annalise sounded a little too frantic, but it did stop Stella from leaving. "Uh, come sit down! Please!"

Stella narrowed her eyes slightly as she went to the couch. At least she was willing to listen.

"I, uh, I'm sorry," Annalise began, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm sorry for what I said. A stupid guy isn't the only good in my life. I have you. You matter to me, and I'm sorry for making you feel like you don't." She really couldn't stop herself from rambling. "I miss you. I miss seeing you here between classes, and I miss your optimism because a bitch could use some of that. And, and I'm sorry for the negativity I've brought in here. I'm working on it now, I swear. Just… come back. Come home… because bro, you're my wife, dude."

It could have been funny, but there was nothing funny about the way she said it. Her eyes were wide and pleading, and she was rubbing her hands together. Stella merely blinked her hazel eyes, nearly overwhelmed by that string of words.

"Look at you, expressing your emotions," she said after a while. "I can see why you hold it back."

Annalise nodded rapidly. "It's my first day on a new medication. Got me all sorts of hyped up, but I'll mellow out in a couple of weeks. And I'm taking therapy seriously again!"

Stella was surprised. "Oh, I see. Well… I've missed you too. Bro…"

"Bro?"

"I'll come home too. Camila's bed is too small for the two of us."

"Bro…"

"I know. I have to update you on all that."

"Br-"

"Okay!" Stella broke out a smile and stood up. "Dame un abrazo, puta."

That was much easier than Annalise had anticipated. She stood up and hugged her best friend, relieved. Stella wasn't one to hold a grudge, nor was she as stubborn as her roommate. It was another person to cross off the list.

~

Shawn had social media mainly to get his music out there. Yes, he interacted with his friends on Snapchat, and some fans on Twitter. Most of the time, Shawn just tweeted when he had new music coming out. He didn't check any of his social media very often, not even to stalk Ann's accounts because she was rarely on her's. He didn't even have his notifications on, purely to keep himself from the possibility of getting too attached to the opinions of random strangers online.

That was why he woke up that morning to a number of texts from Camila.

"SHAAWWNWNN"

"SHAWN IM LKTERSLLY BALD RN"

"CHEKC UR TWITTER RIGHT NOW!!!!!!"

"YOIR FOLLOWERS!!! AAHSKSKSK"

"SKSKSK SHAWNMM IM SCRAMING"

So to Twitter he went. Shawn rubbed sleep out of his eye as he went to his profile. He had around 10k to begin with, that he built up on his own over the last couple of years. He nearly dropped his phone on his face as he read the new number.

50.2k

"What… the fuck?" he breathed out as he sat up in his bed. He scrolled through the list, making sure this wasn't a series of spam bots.

His mentions were just as wild, and it explained the sudden blow up.

@hollaestor: @shawnmendes hiii bella told me to follow you

@samxriv: @shawnmendes i am free to hang out on tuesday to hang out when i am free

@gisellenjh: @shawnmendes bella sent me here and im glad she did! loving your music!

And there were plenty more like that. There were so many tweets, Shawn couldn't even get through all of them. It was making his head spin. There was only one Bella he knew about too… He just couldn't spell her last name. Thankfully, her handle was just @bellasanti, and it was the first one to pop up when he typed it in the search bar.

Right under Bella Santiago's name and the blue checkmark were the two little words: Follows you. Shawn refreshed the page ten times before it sank in. This YouTuber, who has over 2 million followers, somehow found Shawn's music… and she liked it. She liked it enough to tweet about it… 3 days ago.

@bellasanti: underrated spotify artists: @shawnmendes. give him a listen. send him some love. truly talented guy💖

Shawn had only overheard Bella's videos when Ann was watching them in the other room. He never really watched any of her content. But he wanted to pass out at the fact that she took the time to listen to his music and tweet about him. He wanted to jump on the bed. He wanted to call-

He texted Camila back. "Wtf why did no one tell me sooner?? This is so crazy!!!!!"

"We thought you knew and you were keeping it from us!! LMAO congrats rockstar!"

He couldn't believe it. His follower count was rising. He was getting emails from Spotify saying his songs were being added to many different playlists.

@shawnmendes: @bellasanti wow thank you so much! Love you bella❤

He deleted the last bit before tweeting it. Holy shit. Shawn lied back down on the mattress, completely breathless.

How does someone like Bella Santiago find Shawn out in cyberspace? What Spotify rabbit hole did she go down that led her to him? How many of his songs did she listen to? How many songs did she save to her library? How many of those playlist emails were from her? Shawn had so many questions.

~

There were two things Annalise noticed when she was out on the courtyard after Biology. The first thing was a table on the side of the walkway, with a handmade banner hanging off the front. It read in big letters: Shawn Mendes: Live at The Cameron House. Brian, Alessia. and Camila were all sat on the same side at this table, talking to a student who was interested in the little display.

"The lounge called back," Annalise muttered to herself.

The other thing Annalise noticed was Patrick sitting under a tree nearby, reading a book. She went to him first.

The last time she had spoken to Patrick was when they cut up flowers together. He was never one to explicitly state when something has upset him, and he has seen Annalise in a depressive episode before. Annalise knew him well. Patrick kept his distance because he didn't like the negativity around her, and he couldn't afford any more of it himself.

"Hey," she greeted.

His blue eyes tore away from his book to meet her gaze. "'Sup?"

"Trying to be less fucked in the head," she told him.

Patrick nodded in approval. "Cool."

That was all that was needed for the two of them. Content, Annalise turned and went for the table. A small line had formed when she wasn't looking, so she waited behind the last person. However, with three people running the thing, Annalise got to the front fairly quick.

"Oh, she actually showed up," Brian chimed, amused.

"Meaning?" Annalise asked.

"Thought you were too pissed at Shawn to care about his show, that's all."

She swallowed the pit of annoyance, discovering that even more people knew about that. Brian is his friend, though, of course he'd know.

"Selling tickets or something?" Annalise turned her attention to the two girls.

"Yeah! Ten dollars a piece!" Alessia explained.

"Cool, I'll take one."

Just as she opened the flap on her book bag, Camila spoke up.

"Wait. I'm pretty sure Shawn said he wanted to buy you your ticket himself."

Annalise rolled her eyes. "Well, he's not here and I can do things for myself." She pulled out her wallet and paid her own goddamn ticket.

Camila breathed out a laugh. "Are you ever gonna let him do anything nice for you?"

None of your fucking business.

A new thought occurred to Annalise. "Why are tickets being sold for this show? Aren't his gigs usually free?"

"There's more production going into this one," Brian told her. "The lounge gave him the option to make it a ticketed event, and we need to make back what we already put into it. So now, it won't be a performance, it'll be Shawn's performance."

Shawn already knew how to make an audience his bitch, but…

"Alright then." Annalise shrugged and then accepted her ticket and receipt from Alessia.

The ticket alone was already quite extravagant. There were little red roses designed around the edges. This boy really loved his fucking flowers.

"I'm guessing rose petals will fall from the ceiling or something?" she guessed with a chuckle.

"I was given strict orders to not spoil anything," Brian told her, folding his arms.

The two had a mini staredown until Annalise shrugged again. "Whatever."

Then, Camila piped up again, suddenly excited. "Ooh, Ann did you hear? Bella Santiago followed Shawn on Twitter!"

"She what?" Annalise stupidly replied.

Camila practically squealed. "She gave him a shoutout too! He's blowing up on Spotify! Isn't that awesome?"

Annalise wanted to say something, but her brain wasn't quite caught up yet. So she just walked away.

The other three students watched her leave. Needless to say, they were confused.

"Is she ever gonna be happy for him?" Alessia wondered.

"I think she was excited?" Camila said tilting her head.

"I can't believe Shawn is going through all this trouble for that," Brian said with a scoff.

"I can still hear you!" Annalise called over her shoulder as she kept walking.

All three of them went red in the face, embarrassed. Brian would have made a comment about her being a vampire with supersonic hearing, but he didn't want to be called out again.

_______

taglist: @normalcyisoverrated-beyou  @ilsolee @mendesromano @1-800-khalid-mendussy @kitykatnumber @strangerliaa @iloveshawnieboi @goldenmndes @shawnvvmendes @shawnsunflower @shawmndes @ruinhoney @someoneunimportantxx @calyumthomas @yourdeflightfullyleft @havethetimeeofyourlifee @wronglanemendes @chillingbythesea @softmendesss @mutuallynotmutual

[phoenixhrt22]

Bros and Bartenders part 2

"Soo let me get this straight" "Obi you aren't straight and we all know it" "Ahsoka zip it" Obi-wan rolled his eyes, he was desperately trying to cover up the fact that 1) he was not the one flirting this time and it was getting to him 2)he was being flirted at by a hot man who was practically a stranger and 3) that he was becoming flustered, Cody was making it very hard to focus, firstly he had complimented for almost 3 minutes about his taste in music when he had put the radio on and then defended him when Anakin made an attempt to undermine Obi.

“Anyway as I was saying" Obi-wan continued "You don't live downtown, but why did you want to go there?" he looked over at Cody who was staring out of the window and humming. Obi-wan couldn’t look at his face properly but he could see a brief flicker of panic in Cody’s eyes in the reflection of the window, he decided to let it drop, it was probably for the best right?

However his instincts were nagging at him that something wasn’t right, ‘damn his investigative instincts’ he thought the for now was left unsaid but he knew he was thinking it subconsciously.

His trail of thought was broken by Cody’s phone ringing “Hey Baby” Obi felt his heart deflate, of course a guy this perfect was dating. “Very funny......yeah I’m heading back now......No I’ve got a lift..... it’s fine can you tell Dad that they are staying the night......one of them has vomit all down him and the other two have passed out in the back seat.......quit complaining......blah blah blah...... that is where I was going to put them......zip it.....you love me really.....just give Buir some forewarning.....alright bye.....alright......ok Jesus....bye bye bye bye bye” Cody hung up and grinned at Obi.

“Don’t expect any warm welcomes at my place, my brother is an arse when he’s tired” god his smile was beautiful was the only thing Obi could think until a ball dropped in his head, “that was your brother?” “Yeah one of them, my twin to be exact, and to help with your clear confusion I call him baby to piss him off cause he is like 15 minutes younger than he” Obi nodded at his words but didn’t have the courage to respond.

After another 10 minutes of silence they pulled up outside of a very large house, “here we are, I’ll go get my bro’s and we can get your friends out without killing them.” And at that he got out of the car and jogged down the driveway and into the house.

“Holy Shit!” Obi turned to see Anakin wearily looking at the house, it was huge, it was made of some yellow coloured brick, probably sandstone, it had 3 floors whic was unusual for a detached house, there were 3 large windows on the front of the house and a garage at the bottom of the driveway. Each window had a light blaring out of it he could see movement on all floors, suddenly two identical faces appeared at the second floor window but it was so brief they disappeared before Obi could get a good look at them, however he could of sworn that one of them had a tattoo on his forehead.

Cody reappeared with a blonde man by his side, and oh my god were they definitely related to each other, they both had the same coffee coloured skin, sharp facial features and dark eyes. However he was blonde instead of black, his hair was buzz cut and his face wore a serious expression, which was a harsh contrast to Cody’s, who currently looked like Christmas had come early.

Obi-wan got out the car and the blonde held out his hand which he took, “Rex Fett I’m this fuckboy’s brother” Cody cackled behind him and Obi-wan could see a familiar humorous look pass over Rex’s face. “I’m Obi-wan Kenobi” Obi returned the handshake “And in the car is my half brother Anakin Skywalker and his best friend Ahsoka Tano”

“‘Right lets get inside before I freeze my balls off...” Rex opened the car door and pulled Anakin out, in one fluent move he picked him up bridal style and carried him inside, Cody meanwhile got Ahsoka out and echoed his brother’s movements with Ahsoka. Obi-wan followed him into the living room where the rest of the family seemed to be waiting.

Looking alike must of been a Fett family trait cause everyone had the same face except everyone had a slight variation. “Obi-wan, Ahsoka, Anakin this is my family.” Cody introduced, Obi sat down next to Ahsoka on the couch. “Hi and um thanks for having us” Obi-wan said, all his remaining energy had just left him leaving him completely exhausted. Cody smiled and turned.

“This is my dad Jango” Cody motioned to the older man who stood by the entrance to the kitchen, he looked exactly like Cody just without the scar “Please to meet you and you are welcome to stay as long as you like” Jango gruffly replied.

“This is Jesse and Kix there two years younger than Rex and I” Obi looked to the armchair on his right where Jesse was sitting, he was bald but had a tattoo of what he thought was the Republic symbol, Jesse was fairly muscular and athletic looking, Kix on the other hand was lean but he was no less athletic looking, he was looking Anakin over and was clearing up the vomit, he had light hair that was silver hair, he had an intricate pattern shaved in his hair it was mainly composed of lightning bolts which probably had something to do with his name sake. “Oh Kix is a trainee doctor and Jesse is a security guard for the chancellor so your in good hands but don’t try anything funny.” Cody elaborated “‘Sup” Jesse grinned “oh and ignore Kix he’ll probably go full doctor mode on all of you, we just learn to role with it” Jesse moaned “I’m just checking Jess, better safe than sorry.” Kix fired back.

“Then we have Fives, Echo and Tup who are 4 years younger than me” Cody motioned with his other hand, Obi looked to his left to the other armchair. Fives was the one he had seen in the window, he had a goatee growing that was the same colour as his hair, which was cut into military style, and the number five tattooed onto the side of his temple, his build was a lot like Jesse’s but smaller. Echo was more like Kix, he was lean and quite short, he didn’t particularly look very athletic either. He had a pair of weird goggles on his head, his hair was shaggy like he had been running his hand through it continuously. Finally he looked at Tup who was perched on the edge of the armchair, he had long dark brown hair and a tear drop tattoo under his eye, he probably had the softest facial features which echoed his physique, he was tall, he had long legs and a fairly muscular upper body. “There triplets and Jesse and Kix are twins like Rex and I” Cody explained “Fives in joining the army soon, Echo is planning on being marine biologist and is going to Coruscant city science university and Tup is a semi professional dancer he’s going to the Royal dance school in the inner city” Cody clapped his brother’s back, Obi-wan could see the pride in his eyes. “Hi” Fives said looking at Obi-wan “awesome facial hair by the way” Obi smiled “cheers, it’s a pain to keep in check though.”

Cody cleared his throat too stop them from diving any further into that conversation. “Then Bly and Wolffe are two years older than us but they aren’t here, Bly’s working the nightshift at the police station and Wolffe is currently in Dorin city at a photo shoot.” Ahsoka looked interested my this point “Really what’s he doing at a photo shoot all they way in Dorin city?” She asked, “Ohh Wolffe’s a model!” Tup answered “No way!” Ahsoka looked excited “You guys got pictures?” They all laughed and a friendly chatter started up between all of them.

“We can show you tomorrow, right now we should all get some sleep” Jango offered “You three can fit into Wolffe and Bly’s room. Rex, Cody can you take them up” . Rex nodded and lead the way through the kitchen and up a spiral stair case. Obi went up the stairs and walked onto a hall which was dark at the moment, Rex walked straight forward and opened the door. Obi walked into the room, it had a large flat screen tv on the wall to his right, the room had two small double beds, one bed faced the tv and the other faced the door. The bed facing the door had dark grey covers on it and a dark grey wall behind it. The other bed was yellow with a matching yellow wall behind it, both beds had a matching chest of draws and several bookshelf’s.

Rex put Anakin down on the grey bed and helped get him out of his unclean clothes and into fresh ones Cody had gotten them, meanwhile Jesse had put Ahsoka down on the yellow bed and Kix had all bought them water and tablets for the morning. Cody handed Obi some clean clothes and guided his upstairs to the bathroom.

“Your welcome to shower if you like, or you can tomorrow morning.” Cody leaned against the door, Obi smiled “A shower would be nice” he replied, Cody nodded and prowled over to the shower, however he didn’t take his eyes of Obi’s form, he had a predatory look about him. “There that should be the right temperature about now.” Cody said adjusting the shower, then he turned and walked towards Obi.

He felt his throat go dry at Cody stepped into his space, then he reached up with his hand and....... held up soap?

His face broke into a grin “Wash up” he said before walking out and shutting the door. Obi-wan breathed out and decided it was best to wash up and ignore the fact that he was slightly aroused by Cody’s display.

By the time he got back to the bedroom, the lights were off and both Anakin and Ahsoka were fast asleep. Obi-wan got into bed with Anakin and closed his eyes trying to get some sleep but all he could think about was Cody. Luckily eventually sleep washed over him and he drifted off.

[veryloyalfan]

Somewhere Over the ‘Rainbone’

Soriel AU Month, Week 4 Prompt.

(RoyalBlue AU)

The queen’s forlorn sigh tore at the soul of her most loyal royal guard. He peered into the throne room to find her gazing out the window. It was hardly uncommon, but instead of looking out at the city, and her subjects, she was gazing up at the cavernous ceiling of the Underground, as though she might be able to peer through it.

Perhaps she was sad because she felt responsible, somehow, for the fact that the barrier was still up? He hesitated for a second. Whenever his brother got like this, he usually locked himself away in his filthy room and insisted that he just needed to be alone. BUT! On those days where the magnificent Sans’s perseverance paid off, Papyrus always got his smile back, and started acting more like himself. He wouldn’t try to force Queen Toriel to spend time with him… she was wiser about such things than his stubbornly lazy brother.

After the first faltering step, he strode forward with confidence, and bowed low. *IS THERE ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO FOR YOU, MY QUEEN?

When he peered up from the bow, she was looking down at him fondly. The sadness was still in her eyes, but her frown had already lifted into a warm smile. “Oh, I suppose I was just feeling like a silly, sentimental old lady.”

He tipped his head to the side in confusion, gazing up at her. *WHAT DO YOU MEAN???

She looked back out the window. “Sometimes, I let myself remember back to how things used to be… far back, before the war…”

Ah. So she was reminiscing. That was understandable. She sounded a little lonely, though. He’d wanted to ask, but this was the first time that it’d felt… right.  *WHAT WAS THE SURFACE LIKE?

She was quiet for a while, but it was a thought gathering sort of quiet. “During the day, everything is bright, and beautiful. There is more variety up there… one place can be as different from another as Hotland is from Snowdin. Perhaps even more so.”

He felt his eyelights getting larger in wonderment. *EVEN MORE?!?

She chuckled fondly. “Yes. And so much more room. And the sky…”

His eyelights were probably filling his sockets by now, just from her voice, and the beautiful, wistful smile on her face. *THE STARS???”

Another fond chuckle. “Yes. At night the sky is simply filled with too many stars to ever count… billions and billions.”

*ONLY AT NIGHT??

She covered her mouth with one paw, and looked at him in a way that suggested she wanted to scoop him into a hug. “The stars are there all the time, but they can only be seen at night, dear. In the daytime, the sun is too bright, and the sky is blue, and full of fluffy clouds, most times white and sometimes gray, and stormy, always changing, bringing shade, and rain, and snow, and hail.”

*WOWIE!!! THE SKY SOUNDS AMAZING!!!

She folded her hands neatly in front of her again. “Yes. It is quite amazing.”

*IS THE RAIN ON THE SURFACE LIKE THE RAIN IN THAT SPOT IN WATERFALL???

“It is… similar. I seem to remember that it is, fresher somehow. And on the surface, the rain comes and goes, in more than one place, and never staying in one area forever. And often, when the rain stops, there is the most beautiful rainbow in the sky.” She gave a sad, wistful sigh.

*A… RAINBOW??

She blinked down at him, as if surprised, and, saddened, that she had to explain. He felt a quick surge of guilt for asking, but she was very patient. “It is… an archway of different colors, that appear in the sky after it has rained.”

He tipped his head to gaze up at her. *DO YOU MISS THEM VERY MUCH?

She nodded, her smile still a bit sad, even as she reached down to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I wish for everyone to be able to experience the freedom surface for themselves, but, on a more personal level, I suppose I have always hoped to see a rainbow again.” She gave his shoulder-blade a pat. “Thank you for cheering me up.”

He watched her walk away, back towards her home. She didn’t LOOK all that cheered up, but he hoped he had helped a little. But… he wanted to help even more. He returned to his duties, pondering this new dilemma.

****

Papyrus was snoring on the couch when the door was suddenly kicked in and a familiar blue blur of energy zipped to his side. *PAPYRUS!!!

He lazily squinted one eye socket open. “sup, bro?”

Sans looked excited, and slightly panicked. *DO WE STILL HAVE PAINT LEFT???

Paint? “uh… yeah? i think so?”

The worry melted away. *OH, GOODIE!!! WHERE IS IT???

Papyrus sat up, scratching the back of his skull. “mmm, i dunno. used to be in the shed, didn’t it?

Sans tapped his foot impatiently. *YES, IT DID, BEFORE THAT BECAME THE CAPTURE ZONE! BUT THEN YOU MOVED IT. WHERE IS IT NOW???

The probably dried out paint that they hadn’t opened since decorating the house didn’t seem all that urgent, but it was obviously important to Sans, so Papyrus dragged himself off of the couch. “s’probably out back. hang on a sec, k?”

Sans was practically vibrating nervously. *OK… PLEASE HURRY, BROTHER!!! AND… DO WE HAVE ANY OTHER PAINT???

Papyrus headed out back to dig around his admittedly messy workshop, wondering what this was all about, but figuring that if he hadn’t already heard about it, Sans wasn’t going to expound JUST yet. He found the can, and teleported back into the living room behind his bro. “here it is.”

Sans spun around and snatched the can gleefully, then hugged him around the waist. *OH THANK YOU PAPYRUS!!!” With that, and a hearty *MWEH HEH HEH!!! he raced back out the door, leaving his older brother to wonder when he was going to hear all about this in great detail.

*****

Her darling little knight was certainly excited about something today. She wondered if the specks of paint here and there had anything to do with that, or something else entirely, as he led her through caverns in Waterfall. He grabbed an umbrella, and tried valiantly to hold it up over her head, but no amount of stretching or standing on his tiptoes could fix the difference in height. When she started to reach for a second umbrella, his eyelights dimmed, as if he had failed her somehow. The same was true when she hesitantly reached to take the umbrella he was holding. Feeling remorseful for ‘dampening’ the utterly cheerful mood he’d been in just seconds before, she thought quickly, and the solution was so simple, she was surprised she was just now thinking of it.

With an air of decisiveness, she scooped him up, giving him the height he needed to hold the umbrella for his queen. The little darling’s whole face lit up in a blush, as he tried to hold up the umbrella in the most dignified way possible. “Shall we continue?”

*I-IT’S JUST UP AHEAD, MY QUEEN.

She smiled at him, and continued walking until they got to the dark cavern that didn’t leak. The one with the excellent view of the palace, and the glowing ‘star’ crystals. *DO YOU LIKE IT???

She was at a loss for a second. And then she glanced towards the palace, and took in a sharp intake of breath. “Oh!”

There, in the dark space between them and the castle, was a glowing bone construct, in the shape of an arch, each layer of the arch painted a different color. She stared at it, then him, in wonderment. “You made this? For me?”

His face was glowing in pride, (and his cheeks were a bit flushed, too). *I KNOW IT’S PROBABLY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU REMEMBER, BUT IT’S A RAINBONE!!! MWEH HEH HEH!!!

She laughed delightedly as she cuddled him close in a hug. “It is… absolutely beautiful! Thank you, dear.”

[thatweirdmod]

Windowless Moviemaker Chapter 6: Race

Windowless Moviemaker

Chapter 6: Race

Kidney turns and leaves me sitting against the wall-- speechless.

My eyes slowly move over to Mitchol, whose slouching form is now cast in darkness by Kidney's shadow. I think, hollowly, that the blood drying on his face probably itches a little. Mitchol manages a small squirm in his ropes.

"Well?" Kidney demands irritably.

Mitchol's swelling, battered face jerks up to attention at Kidney. "W-what?" He dares to ask.

"You're up. Give me a plan."

"Oh," Mitchol says. "Er, I just expected-"

"Is there something you don't understand about your situation?" Kidney interrupts. "You don't get to expect anything. Now, the plan."

"Uh, well, I guess we need to get to their computers somehow. They probably ripped DVDs too. Redhand's a little old fashioned. We might also have to look out for tapes..."

Kidney crosses his arms, scowling. "If I kill these guys, then wipe their houses, am I gonna have to worry that I missed a spot because you couldn't point me in the right direction?"

Mitchol attempts to splay his hands. "Look, I know where my stuff is, but how am I supposed to know exactly where their stuff is?"

Kidney chews at the inside of his cheek angrily and walks over to the table to grab a notebook and pen. "Let's just start with addresses," he says, poising to write. "Redhand."

"He lives up in Tindle in those stained up white apartments. Er, I think the number's 46."

"Costriel." Kidney demands, looking up from his scribbling.

"He lives in an apartment too, and he's actually rooming with Nethandre." Mitchol says. "316, in the Fortitude Apartments."

Kidney nods his head.

"So, er," Mitchol begins. "What are you planning to do now that you know where these guys are?"

"You remember how I said you don't get to expect anything?" Kidney says patronizingly. "The same applies to asking. I, the one who is allowed to expect and ask, do not expect you to open your mouth unless I ask you something."

Mitchol swallows and shifts in his blood-stained bindings.

Then Kidney turns to one of the concrete walls, as if it called his name. He stands, staring at it silently, before asking another question.

"Did you... Did you give those videos to my uncle too?"

Mitchol's mouth quivers. "H-he, uh... he was the one who suggested that, you know, we needed some extra insurance on you in the first place. So yeah."

Kidney stands still, unanswering and unmoving, but I can see his jaw working slightly.

"But please!" Mitchol sputters. "Dude, I-I.. I totally forgot about that earlier-- when you asked who had the videos." His arms press up against the ropes, trying to shield his body. Kidney walks in front of him. "I wasn't holdin' out on purpose or anyth-" Mitchol is cut off by Kidney smacking him over the head with a closed palm.

"Just out of curiosity, Mitchol," Kidney says. "If I hadn't asked about Uncle Stoulfer just now, would you ever have "remembered" to tell me?"

"We-w-w-well I don't know." Mitchol trembles with his hands splayed open and his eyes wide. "Guess it's a good thing you jogged my memory man, ha..."

Kidney turns and paces slowly, shaking his head. "I never liked the way that old, crusty loaf looked at Krin, even at me. But for my own selfish reasons, I ignored it all this time." He scoffs lightly. "Just one more reason to be glad I'm out." He turns back and looks Mitchol dead in the face. "The blinders are off."

"So you're aaalll alone," I say from the corner.

Kidney's eyes shoot to me, surprised.

"What? You thought I'd be totally traumatized just from that?"

His gaze narrows hatefully.

"So some weird shit happened and you saw my dream. It prompted you to get the jump on us, but that was mostly luck. And that's probably as far as your luck will go in regards to picking useful kernels of information outta piles of brain vomit." I snort. "Even my thing was more useful, because I saw you in real time."

Kidney smiles. "Where did I see your dream?"

"Huh?"

"It was inside your mind. It had to have been, 'cause that's where they're all cooked up." Kidney says, tapping the side of his head. "The moon is almost full again. That has to count for something." He breathes in. "I can go further with this. But I'll make sure you stay at your current level. You'll be underground here where you can't touch the moonlight."

"You don't even know what the hell 'this' is." I say.

"Pretty smug talk for a guy who's about to lose everything," Kidney says, with his mouth turned upwards in a smirk that doesn't reach his stony eyes.

"What better time to be smug than when you're about to lose everything?"

His face contorts with all the nasty feelings that must be roiling around inside of him. "I told you I'd take everything from you, and this bullshit positive nihilism of yours will be one of the things. I'll make you understand how bad playing as the loser really is, even if the game has the same black ending for everyone."

He takes Mitchol's phone out of his pocket, then says, "Mitchol, you told me you could set Redhand up."

Mitchol breathes in. "Redhand's looking for a new place to do his snuff movies, so I'm thinking maybe I can tell him I found a good place, and you can catch him there?"

"Hmm," Kidney says, folding his arms. "Why does he happen to need a new location now?"

Mitchol explains, "He's been under some suspicion lately. His neighbors've been complaining about a smell, like rotten something, coming from his apartment."

I don't need to wonder what that smell could be. I watched a video where Redhand Heriolt cut a girl open with a sharpened can top. It'd probably taken a fair amount of practice to learn how to do, but he'd managed to keep his subject awake and alive while he pulled out part of her intestines, smeared the pungent brown contents over both of them, and pleasured himself.

I had thought, while clicking through Redhand's contributions, that cleaning up set after filming that kinda stuff would be way too much of a pain. Looks like Redhand thought so too. That filth and gore in the background really had been as caked-on as it looked.

Mitchol continues, "He even got, you know, reported to the cops 'cause someone heard screams. Redhand laughed it off, sayin' it was slasher flicks playing on the TV. They left after he promised to turn the volume down, and they never got a search warrant or nothin'. Still, better not push it, right?"

I nearly snort. Well no shit someone heard screams if he was doing that stuff in an apartment.

Kidney asks, "Where do you plan on telling him to go?"

Mitchol swallows weirdly, with something about him quivering. "That ghost town 40 minutes southeast of Grishee, the neighborhood has a bunch of abandoned old houses. I know a little white one has a basement too. I think I could convince him it's ideal."

A frown of skepticism sends Kidney's lips pointing downwards, but then he walks closer to Mitchol and loosens some of the bindings so he can move one of his hands. Just as soon, however, Kidney slips a pocket knife out of his back pocket and pops the blade out against Mitchol's neck.

Mitchol gasps sharply, but Kidney just places the previously confiscated cell phone into his newly freed hand. "Text him," Kidney says into Mitchol's ear, adjusting the angle of the knife. "Make it sound natural, and make sure he goes to that little white one."

Mitchol's throat bobs, as much of a nod as there was going to be. He goes to work on the keys:

"sup dood. te ghosted out hood in Caplum has som gud spots. white house wit te green dor has a cool basement."

And "SEND".

Kidney's mouth quirks to the side. "I know I said to make it natural, but are you sure he'll get that?"

Mitchol chokes, "Yeah, I mean, I text him like that often enough."

"I see," Kidney says. Then, the phone buzzes.

"R U THERE NOW?"

"Eh, what should I say?" Mitchol asks.

"If this is a test, you might not be able to answer follow-up questions confirming that you're there. You're at home, got it?"

"nah im chillin in my plce. u out?"

"NO. HOME RUBING1 IN BEEFSLAB+blood I BAWT.CANT HUNT BUT NEed it bad."

"lol. tis Caplum spot wil fix u up. no 1 evr gos der. wnna chekit out togetrr?? jst gimme a time bro."

"nightS YUNG.TERES TIME TO CATCHA WOMAN I LEAVE RN. BETHERE 1HR???"

"frige lvl cool dood XD"

"I didn't say you were supposed to go too," Kidney purrs lowly over Mitchols shoulder. "But, I suppose you can just be 'late.'"

He takes the phone out of Mitchol's hand and re-tightens the ropes. "I can handle Redhand Heriolt from here."

With that, he turns on his heels, clops up the concrete stairs, and leaves me and Mitchol to rot in the bunker.

I look at Mitchol. "Please tell me you just tricked him somehow," I say.

"Shh," Mitchol replies quietly.

A couple of little sparks flare up in my chest and head. If I had the energy, I'd click my tongue. Don't you shush me, bitch. I whispered anyway.

Black silence begins settling down between us, and I close my eyes. The concrete is hard against my body, and I can feel us becoming one via temperature as my warmth seeps away into its cold. I move my lips, and a barely audible, hoarse series of whispers spills from them.

"Mother Earth, Mother Earth, once again to us give birth."

Suddenly, a violent roiling upheaves my stomach, like Poseidon's stormy fist punching the sea in wrath and sending the waters booming and swashing. I projectile vomit all over myself and the floor. The deja vu from my dream hits me first, and then the disgust and embarrassment of real life.

Mitchol jumps, as much as he can tied up anyway. His face is tense with that look of distubia, shock, fear, and concern that I hate directed

at me. "Wha.. are you okay man?"

A suck in a stinging, bile stained breath and respond to him in stench coated words. "No. Fuck... we just... we need to get the fuck out of here."

I lick my lips, and regret pools inside my mouth as my tongue pulls foul bits and cooling, sour fluid back into it.

There's a book of religion that says god will not be mocked and is not to be tested. I suppose I couldn't rightly be of the wombs and births of two different mothers at my own convenience. I never considered myself a man of faith, but this stuff I've been touching-- it seems to be some part of a sprawling realm beyond scientific knowledge.

I look down at myself. The sight of me must be making Mitchol sick, but since I'm already like this... I allow the muscles in my bowels to unfurl like a relaxing kitty, and warm liquid soon soaks my jeans and forms a pool around me.

Yep, this is one thing they don't tell you, at least not often, about being kidnapped. I was living freely up until however many hours ago I was taken, and that meant that I drank coffee and expected to be able to reach a toilet when it made its way through me.

I sigh, and lean over to inhale the merging smells that had all been inside my body. Amazing, how humans are all so disgusting inside, but we act as if we're clean until it comes out. I don't bother to look up at my roommate as I contemplate going number two.

But then I catch my reflection in the puddle of urine, and decide that I have to cancel my reservations with Mr. Brown, because the Train of Thought just arrived, and it only stops at the station for 3 seconds.

The first thing I thought, or perhaps, was told, about Mother Moon was that she was a relayer of the sun's message. And gods... gods... I was just thinking about them. But what do I do about them-- what do humans do about gods? They... sacrifice and serve. Blood, lives... offerings.

"Angel of The Great Star, to you, I unbar. Birth me into the spacial assemblage. Through me, relay the message," I say.

Mitchol again looks at me like I'm insane. Indeed, I've done it incorrectly. If her light cannot touch me, it is pointless. I take in a deep breath, and begin fighting against the ropes around my body harder than I ever fought before. Just a bit, perhaps they're loosening.

If I can just get out of these, I might be able to find a way to force the bunker door open and get outside. And if Mother Moon accepts me, I will be raised above Earth and the Earthlings. I will be 3rd, and they will all be 4th.

In the clearing outside the bunker, Kidney faces the moon and spreads out his arms, letting the glow bathe his body. This pale light can be so many things: ethereal, comforting, serene, eerie... He'd never questioned whose mood it really depended on until recently.

"Mother Moon, Mother Moon..." Kidney trails off, his eyes closed in concentration. But concentration isn't quite right. The chant... the feeling isn't coming over him.

"Mother Moon." He says, more of a plain address than a mystical prayer. "I can see you here tonight, as always. Does it not please you to commune with me right now?"

Gazing up at the white ball suspended in the infinite black cosmos, he ever so slightly feels her grow closer for a moment. However, she remains silent and far.

"On your own terms, Mother Moon." Kidney submits, inclining his head in reverence. Despite everything that has happened, he still feels a little crazy as he walks back to his rental car. He might fit the definition of "lunatic" now.

Kidney drives down the rural road to Caplum. Thousands of spindly, bent trees slash endless shadows through the yellow glow from his headlights. If he were taking the Passage to Hell of the South and met Satan at the end, it might not surprise him. Fitting though, that such a road would be irritatingly monotonous. Bored despite his mission, he flips the radio on.

Unintelligible words and tunes grate through static on most of the channels. Then there's the twang of guitar and a longing voice that reminds Kidney of grass fields swaying under a golden sunset in the middle of a heaven set in nowhere. He never did like country music, so he twists the knob one more click.

A bold, smooth, male voice butters the speakers. "The quiet neighborhood of Green Shade has been shaken by the story of a local housewife. According to her, she was drugged and kidnapped from her home by two masked men, who broke in late at night."

Kidney's heart lurches inside of his torso, along with the food in his stomach. He gags, swerving into the wrong lane for a second. After everything they-- Jeeto-- had told her, Mrs. Horatay was still talking?

The deep voice coming through the speakers crinkles with static. "...underground bunker. They then proceeded to film themselves sexually and physically assaulting her. The woman reports that at various points during the hours-long ordeal, both of her assailants lifted the masks away from their mouths and exposed the bottom portions of their faces."

Kidney's head swims with nausea. He never saw so much as a coin for getting that damnable spasm closeup. The footage of the actual stimulation was cut, he was sure. He'd been the one to edit Mrs. Horatay's movie. But somehow it had escaped his mind that Mrs. Horatay could be looking down, drawing a sketch in her mind for the cops.

"Both attackers appeared to be young males, in their late teens or early twenties. She describes them to be of average height, the shorter of the two having a round face and lightly tanned complexion, while the taller male's face was square shaped. She noted no hair or distinguishing blemishes on either of their faces, however..."

Kidney's hands tremble on the steering wheel, but he forces himself to focus on driving. "Relax. There's gotta be a hundred guys that fit those descriptions around here," he mutters to himself.

After a small eternity, Kidney spots a sign that humanity had come here ahead of him. "SPEED LIMIT 45" in faded black over rusted white. He slows down, guides his rental car into the overgrown brush on the side of the road, then takes the key out of the ignition.

With the engine dead, it's so quiet out here. Kidney pulls on his new black burglar's mask before getting out, just in case. He gently pushes the door closed behind himself, then goes around to the trunk.

A bag of supplies he packed from Jeeto's house is inside, and he unzips it and pockets from it a syringe of animal tranquilizer and a switchblade. The weapon he chooses to keep equipped in hand, however, is the 16-inch machete he brought himself.

Kidney begins his stalk up the road. Even in this dark place with the shadows of the bushes staring at his exposed back, he can feel Mother Moon's light clothing him and guiding his footsteps. Krin's innocently smiling face in the sunset of his room... such a distant memory kept so close to his heart. He clenches the hilt of his machete. He will not be afraid.

Mother Moon's warmth and comfort begins to seep all through him, and he senses her closer than before. The neighborhood comes into view. So he stays low and hidden as he makes his way to the west-most side where that white house is supposed to be. He sees the car before the house. It's a van that only breaks creep convention for its having a green paintjob instead of a white one.

Suddenly, a something like a living memory possesses his mind, only, something is not right. He finds himself looking at himself from behind, his black, hooded form crouching down behind bushes. One of his meaty arms is outstretched, and the hand is holding something, shiny, cold, and heavy. It's a gun-- pointing.

The head that he has an intimate awareness of, but not a oneness with, turns furthur downward without command. He sees white hairs in the bottom of his vision, and the stomach below protrudes too far forward. It is covered with a green Hawaiian shirt.

Kidney gasps, and seems to be sucked back into his own mind again. "Stoulfer," he breathes. Instinctively, Kidney whirls around on his ankles and spins up from the ground. The blast of the bullet rings the air, and Kidney feels it whip past his head and break through the dry shubbery behind him.

The moonlight makes depthless pits of the bags under Uncle Stoulfer's eyes, and carves darkness into every wrinkle and pockmark on his skin. The hairs of his white mustache and goatee twitch.

The old man's deep, raspy laugh mocks him. "I always knew you'd end up givin' me trouble."

Kidney runs for one of the houses. He can hear the many voices of his uncle's mind echoing. The thoughts are so muddled, though, and examined all at once, they're like a wild drove. Irritation. Lust. Smugness.

But the foremost thoughts-- those are the thoughts of action. That is where Kidney puts his focus. The gun fires again, but Kidney knows where it has made its path, and dashes out of its aim just as the trigger is being pulled.

"Shit! Pretty quick on his toes," Kidney hears.

"Got lucky there," Uncle Stoulfer hollers.

Kidney crashes through the rotting, wooden front door of a house, and runs into a bedroom in the back. He stands to the side of the doorway and listens to the floorboards at the entrance creak. Inside, Stoulfer's thoughts sound like mumbling, for only weak, pale streaks of moonlight penetrate the dark building through broken windows and cracked roofing.

Kidney can sense with the stronger rays of light touch the old man's balding head, because those are the moments he can hear more clearly.

Uncle Stoulfer plans to check behind the kitchen counters first, then... Kidney clenches the machete handle and raises the weapon. When Stoulfer comes here, he will strike.