#this is gonna be. a slow walkie. taking our time kind of walkie

[steviewashere]

hello!! steddie and 38 for the kiss prompt?? 💕

Hey, hey! <3 As a heads up, you might hate me for this. Everybody might hate me for this, lol. But here we go <3

Number 38: "Because they're running out of time."

CW: Eddie Munson Nearly Dies Here Tags: Season 4, Canon Divergence, Childhood Friends Steddie, Friends to Strangers to Friends?, Eddie Munson Loves Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington Loves Eddie Munson, Love Confession, Near Death

🕰️—————🕰️ When they structured the plan to go back into the Upside Down, Nancy had suggested that Eddie and Dustin team up for the demobats. Now, Steve loves Nancy—not in that way—but he thought that that was one of the dumbest things he’d ever heard come from her mouth. And she’s incredibly intelligent, like mad scientist level intelligent, surpassing everybody on this earth kind of intelligent.

“Dustin should go with Lucas and Max,” he argued, “and I’ll stay with Eddie.”

The room had fallen silent. Until, Robin piped up, “But we’re going to need your pitching arm, Steve. That—We need somebody to throw the molotov cocktails.”

He scoffed. “No, you don’t. Robs, you used to play softball before getting on the soccer team. You two will be perfectly fine without me. And, besides, if things go haywire—Abort. Walkie on your channel, and we’ll fucking take our losses and replan all this bullshit.”

While the room had erupted into an intense argumentative cadence, Steve held his ground. Looked to Eddie. To his panicked eyes that had not once calmed since they met—again.

Steve knew what he was getting into when they found Eddie. They hadn’t been friendly and sweet on each other since middle school. Since being little kids, but that didn’t mean Steve wouldn’t at least try again. That he wouldn’t put up a fight and demand to be put in Eddie’s corner. So he held onto this, held out on this change in plans, because Eddie looked back on the sofa. He looked to Steve with something like…longing. Like he wanted to reach out and take Steve’s hand. And if the room hadn’t been full of people that just wouldn’t understand, Steve would’ve taken the plunge. He would’ve indulged.

He should’ve indulged, now that he’s kneeled on the ground in a pile of limp demobat bodies. Eddie is in his arms, blood soaked and babbling. And Steve wishes they could start again.

“Keep looking at me, Eds,” he pleads, “look at me and…and tell me one of your stories. You’re good at that. Can you do that?”

For a moment, Eddie’s breath catches. And in those grave seconds, Steve thinks it's over. He brings his hand, which was laying over Eddie’s waist, and places it on his chest. On Eddie’s slow beating heart and his rattling lungs. And he presses. As if, by his touch alone, Eddie would continue to live.

Steve wants him to live. Wants to get him out of here. Get him to safety and hold him and clean his hair and go swimming in Lover’s Lake like they did as kids over the summer. Take Eddie by the hand and go hiking through the woods, turn over every rotting branch to look at worms, and be gifted with rocks Eddie deems cool enough. Ride their bikes until their legs ache and their stomachs are sick and they’re craving lemonade and cookies. Wants to love on him forever because he was a fool; gave it all up for…what…popularity?

Eddie gasps wetly. Coughs up blood from the back of his throat, it drips sluggishly down his chin. Instinctively, Steve cradles his jaw and wipes it all away. Until it’s tacky and red on his own skin. Then, Eddie’s eyes sweep over to him. He blinks. Cries silently. And states, quiet enough for only mice to hear, “’86 is going to be my year, Stevie.”

“Yeah?” Steve prods, breathless and on the verge of crying himself. He thumbs at Eddie’s tears. “Tell me, Eds. Tell me how it’s gonna be your year.”

Another rattling, wet breath. “Graduate,” Eddie mutters, “and…and play with the band. I was—G’nna go to y’r house. Give…Give you a sunflower. You…My S’v’ie likes flowers.” He stares up at Steve, but Steve doesn’t feel very looked at. Like maybe Eddie’s seeing something beyond him, above him. He bites his lip and cradles Eddie’s jaw again.

“I do,” Steve whispers, “I loved when you gave me flowers, Eds.”

He sniffs and tries not to think about the dried petals of flowers he kept over the years. Ones that he stashed away in old books given to him by Wayne. That reside in his dresser drawers and in a cardboard box in his closet. Tries not to think about taking Eddie home with him, after all this is over, and showing him all the things he kept.

How, in moments where Steve felt lost, he pulled out the rocks and books and other trinkets, and wondered. Where Eddie was. What he was doing. Why he forced himself away from the only friend, sans Robin, that felt real.

“S’eve?” Eddie weakly calls.

He only hums, pressing his thumb deep into the going cold skin of Eddie’s right cheek.

Eddie reaches a clumsy hand up to Steve’s face, but doesn’t quite reach. So Steve ducks closer. Lets Eddie pull him in towards his face. Wipe away his own tears. Caress the few moles by his ear.

“I love you,” Eddie breathes. Inhales with a gurgle and Steve sobs in turn. “Love you, S’eve. Wanted…Been wantin’ you for forever.”

“Eds…”

In one fell swoop, Eddie pulls Steve in all the way. Noses along Steve’s. Then, with the strength of a newborn deer, he presses his lips to Steve’s. They’re slick with blood and drying tears. Chapped, split at the corners. He moves slowly while Steve tries not to devour. Eddie’s hand drapes over the back of Steve’s neck, neither grasping nor safe anymore. But he kisses. Like…

Like it’s the last time he’ll ever do it.

Maybe it is, Steve realizes in those few seconds. Because Eddie’s breath grows shallower, raspier between them. He gurgles blood into Steve’s mouth. And that’s tasted on Steve’s tongue, metallic and sweet and harmful. Maybe it doesn’t need to be.

Steve forces them apart. Lets Eddie try and drag him back, but doesn’t go back to that kiss. “Save…Save it, Eds,” Steve begs, “Save it for when we’re home and—I can show you how much I love you, too, okay? Can you—“

“Can’t,” Eddie slurs, “I…S’v’ie.”

He presses another soft kiss, this time to Steve’s thumb, where it’s still close to the split corner of his mouth. But he doesn’t look back.

“S’v’ie, love you.”

“I love you, too, Eds,” Steve murmurs meekly. “I’ll take you home, okay? I can—“ He takes a sharp gasp, sobbing through an exhale. “—Kiss me tonight. You stay with me and kiss me,” his voice wavers, “kiss me like we were never apart.”

“‘M’kay.”

“Okay, Eds,” Steve sighs, crying softly, “okay.”

Though it pulls on all his injuries, Steve hefts them up off the ground. Grimaces at Eddie’s pained yelp. And moves one foot after the other. They can’t be running out of time, Steve tries to digest.

Because he just got his boy back. They can’t be. I can’t be, Steve believes, hefting Eddie’s nearly limp body through the portal. I won’t.

🕰️—————🕰️ Kiss Ask Game <3

[middle-name-queer]

I feel like creating art but also there's something wrong with me

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Welcome To The Pack

Full Moon Run

Summary- 7.3k Alpha!Steve x You. Next day is the full moon run, a ritual important to bonding of wolf packs. Steve learns a bit more of what you dealt with. Warning- Violence and mentions of abuse.  

A/N- Mood Board made by @omega-nicole Thank you babes! Its beautiful and perfect ❤🐺

Chapter One  / Pack Master List

Steve was gone before you even made your way out of bed and in the shower. But the scent of coffee had your nose lead you to the kitchen, and there was a handwritten note set under an empty mug, words scribbled on it in a rush. 

‘Make yourself to home Y/N, be back sometime tonight for the run. ~Steve.’ 

Simple and to the point, your finger brushed over the letters and they were well dry. He's been gone some time, the coffee has a bit of burnt smell from being on the brewer for a while. It didn't matter, you got to indulge a bit. Who would have known something like a ready-made cup of coffee would make you excited. 

Your little wolf lolled on her back and stretched her legs out, twisting her body back and forth like she was scratching her back. <Because you weren't allowed these basic things before Y/N> 

I remember, trust me I haven't forgotten. You thought back as you lifted the mug to sip the black coffee, and searched out for a sugar bowl. Once you found it, you scooped in enough for a taste and looked around the cabin. Alone once again, you smiled to yourself. Honestly, this kind of life you could get used to. Morning coffee out on the deck, have the freedom to be in your human side or wolf side. Not have your old alpha breathing down your neck, controlling all your movements. Your hand absently came to an old scar on your shoulder, rubbing at it as it started to ache. One of the many bites you've been issued from your old pack. Although never properly claimed, you would never lose any of them. 

Shaking it off, you popped open the door and came out to see that The Compound was bustling, trucks coming and going from the large garage at the other end of the clearing, a bunch of kids were herded into another vehicle, and across the lot, Sara headed over with a greeting, a wave of her hand before she got close enough to speak. “Hey, I was heading into town, you wanted to come? Can hook you up with some clothes and such.” 

You look down at your outfit. Wearing a woman's named Wanda's shorts, and wearing the oversized tee that you had a feeling belonged to Steve, knotted at your side so it wouldn't fall almost to your knees. “I would but... well I didn't come with anything. I don't have any cash or such.” You tried to shrug off your situation and Sara dug in her pocket pulling out a card. “Steve dropped this off to me this morning, and we know Alphas don't take no for an answer. Might as well come along and get what you want.” 

“I don't know...” You started, rubbing at your arm. “Steve didn't exactly say I could leave the grounds. And I don't want to upset the Alpha already.” Sara frowned and shook her head, smiling. “Trust me, Steve isn't like that at all. He won't mind, I know he wants you to have what you need while you're here. If you want, I can call him? I know Sams got his phone on him, and they went up together to the lot.” 

You finally give in, and finish off the last swallow of your coffee. “Okay, I trust you. Give me five and I will be ready to go.” You pop back in the house and Sara comes up the steps, following you in to wait. Going to the bathroom, your finger brushes your hair, glancing around to see if Steve happened to keep a comb or something. Probably in his room, but you weren't risking that again. 

<Chicken shit> your little wolf snickered, and you rolled your eyes at your reflection, muttering under your breath. “your such a bitch.” 

<Sure we are> sharp yips echoing in your mind as laughter. Deeming yourself looking fine, you come back out, lifting the back of your shorts back up as they slid down a bit, scowling. “Clothes are desperately needed. These are just too big.” 

“That's the spirit” Sara loped and arm through yours, and ou two headed out of the cabin and to a vehicle that Sara dug keys out of her back pocket. You two headed out of the compound, and you couldn't help a bit of the panicked feeling, which Sara must have picked up on. Your breathing and heart race both lifting slightly. “Hey, I promise he's okay with this. Giving a nod, and taking a deep breath, your little wolf shook out her nerves before settling back down. 

<Steve won't hurt us.> Stated so sincerely and with conviction, you let yourself agree, and settled in the seat, taking in the scenery and Saras talking about how she and Sam met. You couldn't help but smile to yourself listening, it was apparent how much she loved her mate. For the first time in a long time, you just did something as normal as hanging out and shopping. You were happy, as well as your little wolf, although there was the occasional pining for Steve, which you promptly continued shutting that down with frustration. If you don't stop, I'm throwing up the maze for you to work through... 

<You got enough, let's go home.> prancing in places, her tail wagging at the idea. You couldn't help but smile at how happy your wolf side was now. There wasn't cowering aggression constantly rippling through you anymore. Soon, we will head back to the cabin. 

<Home.>

Maybe home. Were not sure yet. 

<After tonights run, it will be home.> you're yanking a shirt off over your head, retorting back. Its been a whole day, and who knows if we're still being hunted? You are so damn ready to bond with this male, and then what? That's it. This is where we will always belong.

<What's wrong with that?>

Before you could even answer your wolf, or pause Sara at the dressing room door since you were distracted between the two simultaneous happenings at the same time, the door open. "So I thought this color- oh sweetie" she gasped at your back. Grabbing the shirt you had just pulled off and holding it to your front, trying to spin out of sight, but this is a dressing room, and there was no hiding from all the mirrors behind you. 

"Are you okay?" Sara is sure to close the door and you still clutching the shirt. "Who did that to you?"

"It doesn't matter.... " shame floods your face and your little wolf whines while wrapping around herself, a soft quivering ball in your mind going down your spine. "Please... Don't say anything, I don't want anyone knowing." I don't want Steve knowing. 

Sara breathed out and her gaze went from the mirror to your face, that looks of sadness just bringing more shame. Her hands came up to cup your face and make you look at her. “I won't say anything, it is your story to tell. But if you want to, I'm right here. Steve too, he would want to know.” You wolf whined at his name, the feeling of yearning rolling through your chest, to have him see you and not turn away. But your last Alpha deemed you useless to mate, to marked with bites to bond with anyone. Why being collared and sold was your only option. 

“Thanks Sara... I think I'm ready to head back.” You say softly and go to pick up your shirt and slip it back on, all the memories and feelings slipping back darkly in your eyes. 

Sara gathered up the clothing you had picked, worried features pinching her face. “Let me just ring these up sweetie and we will head on home.” 

Miles away Steve stood to survey the damn delimber they used to clean the logs, arms folded over his chest until he lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, cursing. Sam, he's underneath it, hands up in the machine, looking at parts. 

“Mmmhh, Just as I thought, they stuck that oversized pine into it and jammed it all up. These parts are gonna take at least a couple weeks to replace.” He rolled out from underneath and stood, brushing off his backside. 

“Standstill?” Steve asked, his headache starting to form at his temples. Not that they would be financially strapped, but there was a large order coming in, and they had won the bid to fulfill it. Steve always made sure to deliver on time, and this set back might be pushing that back, in any business, it was all about the name and word of mouth. Something he had worked fucking hard on in the years he's been Alpha. 

“Not quite, gonna be a bitch though. Clean them up by hand, it will be slow though.” Sam stated honestly, and rubbed the back of his neck, a slight bit of hesitation in his voice. “Or, you can contact Stark, see if he has the parts on hand. I know you've been wanting to drive up there to discuss Nat and Clint coming back from there internship in New York.” 

Steve remained silent, staring at the broken piece of machinery, willing it to be fixed. <If you study that thing any harder, you are gonna give us a migraine.> His wolf huffed, impatient. The beast didn't like staying still, studying, thinking. Wanting action, to do something, anything besides just staring. Well what do you think we should do, wait on the parts, or ask Stark Towers for help? 

<I think you should just get done this crap and let's go home to our mate. I bet shes back now, and just as ready to see you.> The wolf stated smugly, is no help in his current predicament. 

You know what... So am I. Checking his watch, he decided it was time to just call it a day. All of this, well it would be a problem to deal with in the morning. Maybe that would bring him the answer he needed. “Let's pack it up Sam, it's getting late, and I can think about which we should do.” 

Sam broke out in a relieved grin, grabbing some of the tools he had used, and tossed them in the back of the pickup. “I'm not gonna say no to that. Sara sent me a message that she was done shopping with Y/N, and they were headed back.” Grabbing the walkie off the passenger seat, he pushed the button, hearing it crackle then turn to a hollow soft hum, he spoke telling everyone they were knocking off early and shut it all down. The woods slowly stopped humming with the sound of machines miles away in another lot. Another cackle with a “Sure thing Wilson” and it went silent. 

Hearing that You had spent a day out shopping made Steve warm, blossoming with soft happiness swirling from his stomach and up to his neck, turning his ears red at the thought of you twisting in a mirror to see all of you. Now he wished he was there handing you the clothes, have you model for him, see the way your eyes would light up and your cheeks bloom pink with his compliments. Of course his wolf appreciated the visual image, pressing for more control, making Steve get behind the wheel with Sam and drive just a bit faster back. 

When is the last time we've been excited to return home? Steve considered, fingers thrumming on the steering wheel as they pulled off the logging road to Route 2, speeding along to The Compounds entrance. 

<It's been a while since life's been this good.> The large wolf shook himself out, itching for the little wolf at home. <Full Moon run we will get to see her set free for the first time.> 

That made Steve smile more thinking about getting to see you shift. Having only seen you once, your wolf had been a beauty to him. Long-legged for swift travels that wolves in the south typically had. You were still smaller in size next to the northern packs such as there pack was, with a long slender muzzle that ended in a pointed nose. Large eyes that at the time were fearful. This time he hoped to see the joy in them. 

When Steve and Sam parked the truck, the two men stepping out and discussing tomorrow's plans for the crew tomorrow, Steve inhaled your scent, and whipped his head around, searching. Upon the front porch, both You and Sara are lounging in the deck chairs, feet kicked up on the railing, and a glass of iced tea in each of your hands, laughing together. Neither of you realized that that the men were back, but as they approached, Sara dropped her feet and jumped up to lean over the railing, see them. “Well look what old mutts finally arrived back! we've been waiting for you.” Sam paused and his hands went to his hips. 

“Woman, you gonna come say hello, or am I gonna have to come up there and drag you down?” A wide grin flashed her teasing, and she skipped down the stairs and raced over to him, jumping in his arms to give him a racy kiss and playful ones all over his face. “Missed you Stud.” That just made Sam grin, and let her fall back to her feet, her arm wrapping around him. Steve in the meantime walked up the steps, and you to had come to a stand to welcome the Alpha home. 

<I can tell you how to welcome him home. Look at him! He wants you to be all his like those two.>

Please give it a rest! You plead as you take in the sight of Steve coming up the porch steps, his hair a mess, they tee clung to his chest where he must have sweated at some point. Yes, yes he did, cause that just barely hit you too. Normally someone's scent would make you pull back a bit, but not his. It warmed through you, screaming MAN in your mind. Healthy and strong, your Little Wolf appreciated it, rumbling out. <Alpha, even in human form. He certainly wouldn't tire easily...> Teasing lilt to her tone. 

God your really a bitch.

Steve was looking you up and down, once he saw your outfit, his gaze seemed pleased at the choice you made, and although simple, nothing more than a pair of denim shorts, and still that men's tee tied in a knot just a few inches above the top of your shorts, he seems to fully approve of the relaxed look. “Do you want me to go get you a beer? Or make an iced tea like Sara and I are having?” 

“No, I got it. I heard you went out with Sara. I hope you were able to get everything you needed?” 

“Oh yes, thank you... you didn't have to do that Steve. But I appreciate it.” his wolf rumbled happily hearing you, and although the two of you weren't touching, you were close enough that Steve could just reach out, brush fingers along the curve of your face, grasp your chin... Enough! 

<Shes close, see the way her eyes are taking us in? She sees were strong and would protect her. If you would just make the first fucking move!>

“It was not a problem Y/N, nothing I wouldn't do for anyone.” and your eyes seemed to shut off a bit, pull back at Steve's words, leaving his wolf growling and snapping at Steves behavior. Giving an awkward nod as he reached for the door, Steve escaped inside, and you breathed out a held breath, a bit taken aback from his comment. 

Your Little Wolf paces now unsettled, nuzzling into you as she knows your upset feeling. <He cares, he's just afraid of pushing you.> so calmly said, you sink into your thoughts. I don't know, maybe I misread the situation. Besides, this is what I wanted. Nobody special, I'm just a member of this pack. You glance at the closed door. <No you haven't! Just wait, the run will prove it. I feel his wolf calling to me. Why do you keep lying to me?> You have nothing to respond with, and turn your attention to Sam and Sara coming up on the porch. Sam sat in Sara's previous chair, and Sara perching on his lap, falling right back into conversation with You. You make yourself pay attention, ignoring Steve's comment from earlier. Or trying to. 

On the other side of the door, Steve leaned against it, cursing under his breath. “Son of a fucking bitch, why did I say that?” he pulls away and tugs off his dirty shirt, balling it up and as he went into the bedroom, he tossed it with frustration at the hamper, still mentally cursing himself out for the sheer awkwardness that made him up. 

<I don't know either, I mean you just let me take over, your mate wouldn't be out on the stoop now trying to figure out your mixed fucking signals.> 

Opening his closet door, Steve grabbed a plain grey tee and tugged it on. And what do you know about any of this? She's here for protection, not to be my next anything. He snapped back as he headed into the bathroom, and ran the water to let it warm up. Soaping his hands and scrubbing vigorously before cupping to splash water in his face. <Well I know enough not to let her think she's not wanted> The large wolf roared back in frustration and as Steve dried his face, and looked up in the mirror, he stared back at yellow eyes staring back at him, not his usual blue. The wolf was pissed off, and threatening to finish taking control. Grasping the edge of the sink, he let his head dip so he didn't have to see it anymore, dragging in air deeply and letting it out slowly. The next time he glanced at himself, all was normal. The wall he slammed up in this mind would control his beast... for now. 

On his way back out, he grabbed two beers from the fridge and stepping out on the porch, he rejoined the three of them, handing Sam the beer before leaning back against the railing. The two women were animated talkers, telling Sam all about there shopping trip. Steve admired how your hands would wave in the air, and your head would tip back, long tresses of hair falling down your back as you laughed. The anger he felt dissipated in your presence, and you would look up at him with a grin, and what he wouldn't do to be the one making you feel this way. 

“And here we are.” Sara leaned back against Sam's chest, taking his beer bottle and taking a drag off it. “Y/N, how you feeling about the run tonight?” The Little Wolf pranced joyfully to be able to run in a pack again, and you hug around yourself for a moment, Steves eyes flicking to see the defensive move you made, even your scent changed slightly to him. Tinged with fear, although your smile remained on your face. “Excited, it has been a while since I've been able to do something like that. A long while... “ You drifted off and picked up the iced tea glasses. “Excuse me please.” You dipped inside and Steve pushed off the railing, taking another drag of beer. 

“Meet up with you two later?” Steve went towards the door, and Sam picked up on what he was saying, tapping Sara's thighs. “Come on Baby, how about you come to show me what you bought.” The two of them standing, Sara bit her lip and looked towards where you had disappeared. “Steve....” Sara drifted off, and Steve looked over his shoulder with an arched brow at the woman. She waved it off suddenly and went down the remaining stairs. “See you later.” Taking Sam's hand, the two-headed off. 

Weird... Steve popped open the door and went inside to see you remaking more teas. “They headed on back home till later tonight.” He let his elbows leaning on the counter while you paused. “Don't worry, I will take Saras.” Reaching out to take it, you chuckle just as he took a swallow and winced. 

“I haven't put the bit of sugar in it yet Steve.” Chuckling as you took it back and sprinkled some in. “I would have said goodbye if I known.” 

“You will see her again in just a bit,” Steve started and watched as you finished making yours. “Y/N earlier when we were discussing the run, were you okay?” The wolf perked back up at this, his ears straining towards the woman, silent though. They were both vividly aware of her nervousness at the question. 

“Sure Steve. Wh-Why do you ask?” You are not looking at him, seeming to avoid his gaze, watching with interest at the glass before you, the spoon spinning the liquid around and around. Steve reached forward once more and took the glass from you, and set it aside. 

“Y/N, please look at me.” His voice was different this time, and Steve could see the inner battle crossing your face. A bit stubborn? You have been nothing but compliant since you've arrived, and this surprised him a bit. <Tell her again, we have to find out what's wrong.> Steve tilted his head though instead and tried to catch your gaze, his tone sterner this time. This was absolute. Your Little Wolf wouldn't let you disobey him anymore. “Y/N, look at me?” This time he saw your features smooth and you did look up at him. “because you smelled of fear, If you are afraid to do this, You don't have to.” Pushing off the bar, he instinctively circled the counter to stand near you, a hand lightly touching your arm, hoping that you would be able to answer him. 

“Sorry, yes, I'm very excited about this. I haven't... I haven't been allowed to run with a pack in over a year.” You tried explaining, and Steve frowned at this. Being denied to run with your pack? It was everything a wolf craved, the closeness, working together. Steve had never thought of denying any of the packs the right to run together, and his wolf growled with a bristle of fur along his spine. <What kind of Alpha is this? He doesn't lead a pack with honor, denying his wolves the run.> Steve let it sink in that you've been semi-isolated as a wolf. 

<We need her to tell us everything that this Alpha is doing, selling wolves, denying the run... what else could the Alpha have done to her?> 

We will see if she tells us. 

“Y/N, why would he deny that to you?” Steve asked and you wrinkled your nose to keep from letting your emotions take over. Picking up your glass and taking a swallow, you set it back down, your nails tapping against it. “Because I was to be collared and sold. I was kept away from the pack with the other unmated wolves. That way we wouldn't find a partner in the run. He would lose his income.” You wipe at your face and ask softly. “Please... can you release me? Let me look away.” 

It took a minute till it clicked for Steve that you were serious, your eyes big and round staring at him, shining with held back tears, he suspected now from being forced to listen. “Of course, you can do whatever you want Y/N, you don't have to look at me anymore.” And you lost the rigid attention, seeming to sink in on yourself. Head bowed, shoulders dropped a bit with a shudder. Taking your glass of iced tea, you skirted around Steve, keeping your voice low “Was there anything else you needed right now Alpha?” 

“No... no. We will come to find you for the run in a couple of hours.” How hard did he restrain himself from reaching out to touch you, give comfort at your unease. But you didn't seek it, and he wasn't going to force it on you. Promptly you disappeared to your room. Once you were out of sight, Steve didn't look away from your door, processing everything he had just learned. 

<Her free will had been taken away... She would have obeyed us if we told her to harm herself.> His wolf whined out, ears pinned back against his skull at the unease of the situation.  

Why we will not use that on her again if we can help it... and it's time to find out more about this pack. Pulling out his phone from his pocket, and sent a text to Bucky explaining what he needed to be done. He received a simple text back with a “Done” and set his phone aside. It also reminded Steve he needed to get back with Stark about his wolves on an intern with him. If the twins Natasha and Clint were back, he would have sent them. Glancing outside, Steve noticed the moon starting to edge over the lake, and he found solace in that. At least he could be the one to give her the first run in over a year. And tonight's moon looked like a Super Moon, large glowing orb that would recharge them. Tonight will be a good night... 

Later you heard a knock on your door and you stirred in your bed. “Y/N, it's time... “ Steve poked his head in and flashed a grin of excitement that made him almost child-like. Swinging your legs off the bed, you can't help but catch that excitement, and stretch out any kinks in your back. Your Little Wolf started hopping and slapping her front paws in anticipation, just feeding your mood. 

“I'm kinda nervous” You breath out as you pass Steve, and head for the door, you're biting your lip as you look over your shoulder at him, grinning. Any discomfort from your earlier conversation just seems magically gone as both of you slip more into the wolves personas. As you opened the door, Steve came up behind you, tickling along your hips. Laughing, you sprang out of reach and leaped off the porch, and spun on your feet in the soft grass to face him, smirking as you looked up at him tugging off his shirt to toss it aside. Your breath sucked in, and fingers flexed wanting to drag your hands across his pecs, through the hair dusting down beyond his slightly softer stomach. Even your Little Wolf stopped her exciting dance, licking her muzzle with a sweep of her tongue, whimpering. 

<Y/N....> whining out and you whimpered yourself inwards, taking a teasing step back from the Alpha who started to stalk you playfully down the steps. Trust me, I see... You bolt away before he can even reach you, racing down the path where you see other people similarly playing with each other, Steve was quick to catch you, and swinging you up where he grasped your waist, your feet kicking out and laughing. Prying at his fingers, you growled at him with flashing wolf eyes. “You don't seem too nervous right now Y/N, growling at your Alpha,” Steve stated against your ear, inhaling deeply against your neck while setting you down, and your dancing away from him, your legs stretching and twisting, making you itch to shift. Your breathing was coming out in rushes at being so close, pressed against the wall of his chest, his scent having washed over you and making your body ache for so much more. 

<You can have more if you let him. I told you he wanted you.>

He's caught up like I am in the full moon, that's all it is. The Little Wolf snaps a bit at you in frustration.  

Steve pulled up quick to admire you dancing through the moonlight, your head tipped back to be washed in the light, your eyes shimmering in the wolfish way as they reflected the moonlight when you looked back at him. <Shes so beautiful Steve, this is the way she's supposed to be. Your mate, dancing in the moonlight.> And Steve really couldn't rebut the Wolf's observation at this moment. “You haven't given me a reason to be.” You turn and say simply, and before he could respond, Sara came jogging over, Wanda in tow. “Were stealing out girl here!” Sara sass's while booking an arm through Your arm, and Wanda takes over the other side, smirking at Steve, who's folding his arms over his chest. 

“Oh really, and what if I say no?” Steve retorts. Leaving Sara snorting at him, the two women already dragging you away. “Since when do we listen to you?” Slight amount of panic races through you. <He didn't say we could go Y/N, you have to go back before he gets angry!> and you're about to pull away from the women to return to the Alpha. 

Steve watched as Sara and Wanda started to lead you away when he saw your back tense up and the way you glanced at him over your shoulder. Even your scent was once more tinged with fear, now picking up that sharp sting in his inhale that mingled with your usual honeysuckle softness. Before his wolf could point out the obvious to him, he nodded at you, letting you know it was okay, you were safe to go. It was immediate, the change of relief, and you turned back to follow along with Wanda and Sara to join other women, as was how their pack started to run. 

Breathing in deeply, it surprised Steve how easily he was able to follow you, easily picking you out of the other mingled scents that made up the pack, and content that you were safe, excited and he would be seeing you within a few minutes, he decided it was officially time to start. Not bothering to go down to the lower field where the males were showing off moments of bravado and boasting as large groups of the male species did, Steve lost the last of his clothing and started to let the wolf take over. Although uncomfortable, it was fairly quick for shifters. Their bodies melding from human to wolf. When he opened his eyes again, the world was different, the night now belonged to him and he was more than ready to claim it. The silver beast tossed his head back and paid homage to the moon, officially starting the pack run. Answers called back, some as sharp yips and others as low dragged out songs. 

You had never met Wanda, but her scent was familiar as the borrowed clothes. Just as with anyone you've met so far aside from Bucky, she introduced herself and that was it, you were her packmate and she treated you as if she's known you for years. “We better be quick.” She states as she lets you go and starts tugging at her clothing, yanking it off without any hesitation, and the others around you are doing the same. A bit more tentative, trying to keep your back hidden you start doing the same. Tossing a shirt and dragging down your pants, already Sara has shifted, a sleek black wolf and Wanda is right behind her, and red wolf stretching out with long front legs stretching behind her, head was thrown back to the moon. Sara tilts her head towards you waiting as Steves howl starts. Soon you're surrounded by howling wolves, and your own Little Wolf is pushing to join. 

Releasing her, she was quick to take over and your howls are dipping right in with the rest. A ripple went through the pack, as haunches coiled underneath and a wave of wolves leaped forward, moving into the forest beyond The Compound. Sara waved her tail, and you to stretched out to run alongside her, brushing up against her as the two of you worked in sync, soon passing others on your left and right. It's not long before the larger males join, weaving among the females, snapping at them in play, out of the corner of your eye, you can see Sara pull up, and twist into a mottled brown wolf. Recognizing Sam from the day before. She leaped at her mate, brushing up against him and nipping under his chin. The pair weaved around each other, fondly biting each other's ruffs and showing affection in the way wolves do. 

Your fast run slowed to a jog, letting your nose lead you now. Once in awhile another wolf would brush up against you, enticing you in play. Slapping front paws against the pine needles, tail high in the air, waving above you like a flag before you two would charge at one another. This, this is what you missed when with your previous pack. How your Little Wolf leads you two through the night with fleeting bursts of speed. Your howl, rang clear as a bell being struck through the night. 

Steve cocked his head listening to the wolves' cries, picking you out right away, the large Alpha spun in place, his nose high in the air, seeking... until he found you. With a loose jog, he followed the tail like bread crumbs, his tongue lolling out to taste the air, and a swipe over his muzzle like a beast getting ready for dinner. Finally he saw you, teasing another packmate with leaps and bounds, back and forth chasing one another through the brush. You twisted away from yawning jaws and snapped back in play till you saw Steve. Shaking out your fur vigorously, your ears perked at him, yellow eyes flashing in the darkness at him. Rolling forward into a lope, you packed up to him, and lowered to your belly in submission to your Alpha, sidling up underneath his chin, and licking nibbling at him. The wolf softened, and nuzzled back, gentle as he bit the top of your muzzle, accepting that you now belonged to him, his packmate as well.

So easily the wolves accepted each other, now if only the humans could as well.  

Once he let go, you nipped playfully at his ear, tugging it and brushing alongside, the two of you bounding off as a pair, soon catching up with the rest and bypassing them as well. The only other pair matching you two was Sara and Sam, long-legged leaps eating up the ground, you couldn't pass up the challenge that the two of them gave, and with a burst of speed, you pulled away from the large silver wolf matching you, your legs stretching and claws barely grazing the pine needles before they flew out again, Sam huffed at being beaten watching your tail whisk at him with a laughing bark from you. 

The Alpha had never seen anything quite like it, Sam had many years ago earned the nickname Falcon for his speed, but here you were, outpacing him easily. Your sleek fur brushing back, and your muzzle sharp and streamlined you. Like a bird of prey spiraling into a dive, you twisted in the air once you got to the border, paralleling yourself along no man's land, the rest of the pack came up from behind. Soon you eased up, falling back to pace with Steve, your nose low to the ground, tracking the border scent. Half the pack weaved out to the right, the large group ominous to any that might challenge them. Steve relaxed into your touch every time you weaved back into him, your scents now intermingling, becoming as much as an imprint on others as it was on you. You were now officially part of the mountains, losing the scent of your old pack life. 

It was early hours when the pack returned to The Compound, weaving among each other, tiredly pacing with each other. Adults carried pups from the scruff if they were small enough, heads hanging low enough that the pups backsides would bounce a time or two off the soft grass, even Steve is carrying one back, the pups yawning, and blue eyes blinking sleepily up at him, licking at his chin before his head flops down to give a tiny snore. You follow along next to Steve, chuckling at the dangling pup. Soon his mother comes and collects him, bounding off towards home. 

Home... what a thought for you. You never really expected any place to feel like home, but as you pause going up the wooden steps, Steve not far behind, you watch as the rest of the pack settle down wherever they were content. A few stayed outside, circling one another in mismatched pairs, tucking head over another's back, and giving a sigh. Some returned home, Sara and Sam trotted past, still playfully nipping at one another and giving a yip in greeting before they went towards there own cabin. Steve brushed past you, mouthing your ear with affection before he went inside, you right behind, and to your room. The human persona edging for control again and a leap sent you into bed. 

You were laying there, right on the edge of a deep sleep when a hand muffled over your mouth and a sneering face loomed over you, whispering. “Make a fucking noise, and your throat is ripped out before I die.” Your eyes go wide in panic, and your hands go to claw at his chest, trying to push away. Where was Steve?!?! Your Little Wolf is snarling, pushing to shift but to exhausted from the run earlier, and your body ripples in the frustration and pain, causing you to tell out before your back to your human self. Outside you hear loud snarls of wolves fighting each other and the man cursed, that's when it clicks it's the Tracker on your trail just a couple of days ago. Grabbing you by the arm to drag you out. 

Steve is sound asleep when his senses tingle. <Intruder... someone is in the house.> His eyes shot open, and quiet as he moves to get up, yanking on a pair of sweats near the bed. Soft steps send him to the door, and his wolf is bristling in silence, honed in for any noise that might be made by the individual. It certainly wasn't anyone he knew but did carry your old scent. That's when he heard the scramble in your room, and he burst into the hallway, your scream of pain making his fist slam against the door. The door was thrown to embed into the wall, and the man had his arm fisted around your neck, wrenching your head back, you're trying to connect a fist or foot at him to release you, and Steve takes this all in a glance before he's tackling at the man, ripping him to release you, where you fall to the ground, trying to drag air back in your lungs and coughing. 

Now Steve has the upper hand, dragging the man from his house, his oversized hands wrapped along the back of his neck, ready to snap it with a twist the other fisted in his shift to haul him along. Kicking his front door open, outside was a whole other scene. Bucky must have caught the second intruder, the lookout outside the cabin as he was returning home from his time in the town. Blood streaked down his white chest and along the side of his muzzles, the wolf at his feet dead. Steve snarled in the man's ear. “You better start fucking talking or that's going to be you in five seconds.” Fingers digging in threat along the back of his neck just above the spine, the man tried twisting in his hold at an attempt to save his life. “NOW TRESPASSER" 

“She's not yours! My brother and I were told to bring her back to our Alpha. He didn't release her, you cant lay any kind of claim to her. “ The man's voice panicked, eyes rolling up at Steve looming above him. “It's our job, our Alphas command.” Just as he's saying this, you step out onto the porch, tears streaming down your face. You knew this was what would happen, Pierce never let anyone get away from him, not unless it was with death or from a sale. Steve happened to see you, and lowly growled out. “Go back inside Y/N....” But you took another step forward to descend the stairs. His anger at the situation left Steve roaring out. “Right Now" and you had to listen. Your wolf couldn't disobey her Alpha, and you raced back inside, the door yawning open to show the darkness of the interior. Now that Steve was sure you were away from the men, the pack coming out to gather around, Sam racing up alongside Bucky to kneel near the dead wolf and inspect him. 

“I have a message for your Alpha, the only reason I'm not killing you,” Steve growled out as he twisted his hand, strength making the man cry out. How easy would it be to snap his neck right now. “Tell your Alpha if he wants her, he has to come to get her from me.” Tossing him away to sprawl against his dead brother, Bucky snapping right at his face, spit and blood scattering across the man's face like splatter, leaving him blinking in shock at the white wolf. Steve snarled out. “Get out of here, and be sure to haul your brother away to. Count yourself fucking lucky. If you come back, I will rip your throat out.” Sam and a few others ready to escort them right out of town. Bucky sighed almost wearily as they marched away, and Steve dropped a hand to his friends back. “Thank you Buck.” The white wolf eased away, leaving Steve alone. 

Inside your panicking, your chest aching and pacing around. Steve came in to find you wide-eyed, his shift hanging loosely whipping around you as you snap back and forth between the kitchen and living room, there wasn't much space in between so if you went like that for long, sure to wear a hole in the floor. 

<Go to her... she needs to know it's okay, that you are here to protect her.>

“Y/N... “ Steve starts, but you snap out instead. 

“I knew, I knew this would happen. I didn't go far enough, I should have gone further north. He's coming, he's coming to destroy you all and drag me back. I can't fucking believe I caused this, Fuck fuck fuck, Steve I'm so sorry I brought this on.” 

Before you could continue, you twist to go the other way and slam into Steve's bare chest, his hands wrapping around you. You are momentarily struck into confusion, pulling away, but his voice is soft against your ear, calling you to attention. “Hush, you didn't do anything wrong, and nothing is going to happen to us. Let him come... the man needs to be removed from what he did to you what he is doing.” Your panting as your forehead least against the center of his chest, and he loosens his hold now that you are not fighting him, keeping it loose around you. 

“I shouldn't have brought it to your doorstep, Steve.” You cry out softly, unable to hold it back anymore. Warm tears fall on his chest, and he rumbles softly. 

“I'm fucking glad you did Y/N.” He allowed himself to let his head drop to press a kiss at the crown of your head. Let them try to claim you...  

<Oh yes... please let them try.> The Silver Wolf grinned in the darkness of his mind, wickedly curved canines flashing white, just waiting to be used. 

Tags- @what-is-your-plan-today @p8tn0lish @official-and-unstable-satan @kimisama1989 @stardancerluv @patzammit @princess-evans-addict @alexakeyloveloki @ayamenimthiriel @irishflutiegirl @fallenoutofrose @caffiend-queen @southerngracela​ @bigandprettyyyy @djeniiscorner​ @irespostthingsiwanttoseelater  @rinkashirikitateku

[cyberfairyblog]

Caves of Qumran prologue

Jason, Whit, Connie, Eugene, Katrina, Regina, Calypso and Vanessa go to Qumran to rescue Jason's former colleagues. Jason x OC, Eugene x Katrina, rewrite of the cartoon. The dialogue is wonky I know ;_;

Deep within the caves of a tiny Middle Eastern Country, a pretty blonde haired woman wearing a red shirt and green shorts walked down the caves reading the runes with her torch. She looked around sensing something - or someone - in the same vicinity and contacted her partner.

"Stanley Stanley are you there?"

From not far away,a tall brunette man in a business suit answered back. "I read you Sarah I'm just trying to navigate - WHOAH-" He yelped as he fell into the shallow pool.

"Stanley I don't think we're alone," Sarah voiced her concern.

"Don't tell me you're developing a case of the creepy crawlers." He saw a bunch of cobwebs and proceeded to freak out. Blinded by fear he ran smack dab into the wall and fell.

"Stanley what's happening?"

Stanley got up and sputtered "nothing just taking a little breather," he replied hoping she didn't catch that embarrassing pickle.

The two partners went back and forth, Sarah arguing that they needed to stick together, Stanley countered back claiming her fears were unfounded.

"We shouldn't be wasting our time chasing after a shadow," Stanley said. The inappropriately dressed explorer was too busy talking up his own bravery that he stepped on a brick, that sunk into the ground very slightly but the effect was devastating.

Stanley was just getting up again when the walls disappeared from behind him. Alarmed he tried to see what was going on, but then he heard footsteps approaching him.

Stanley screamed.

By then Sarah was too far into the tunnel to hear her partner's distress. Even through the walkie-talkie he was pleading saying that she was completely right there was someone not in their group in the caves hunting them down. But she didn't listen. She arrived in a small room filled with crates and gasped at the labels some of them bore.

Dozens of ancient artifacts strewn all over, and a table upturned as if there had been a fight. Sarah saw an older woman laying on the floor.

"Professor?" The blonde gasped. The professor's eyes were closed and her body was still like ice.

"No you can't be dead!" The blonde woman shouted in fright, collapsing to her mentor's side to check her pulse. To her relief she was alive but her skin felt cold. They needed to get out of there. Taking out her walkie-talkie she contacted Stanley.

She got her answer when Stanley dropped right in front of her, tied up with rope. "My god what happened?!" Her suspicions were sadly confirmed as another person showed up but they were shrouded in complete darkness.

"No stop, let us go please!" Sarah begged but her desperate pleas echoed with not a single soul to care...

It had been a long slow day at J&J Antiques so it didn't surprise Vanessa in the least bit when she saw Jason asleep on the desk in his office. Smiling she took the time to remove the papers trapped under his face - he would hate having them ruined by a cascade of saliva - and sat them aside.

"Jason," she whispered in his ear. "I'm gonna go ahead and close up shop for you."

The ex-agent only muffled a response. Wow he must've really had a rough day, no doubt because of that woman, Vanessa mused internally. She spent the next several minutes stowing things away and turned on the neon closing sign. By then Jason had woken up and dragged himself into the main room. "Did I miss something?"

"No, just me doing your job," the novelist said with a tease.

Blue eyes glanced at his watch. "Wait it's past seven already? Crap!" Jason exclaimed with a frown.

"Don't worry there hadn't been a customer, you were pretty knocked out though," she replied now feeling concerned. "That's a sign you need a vacation."

Jason was surprised at how clean the main room was, and guilty he fell asleep on the job. That rarely happened even during his time at the NSA and that job required doing paperwork *shudder*. In gratitude he wrapped his strong arms around the plush woman, and they gazed into each other eyes. "What would I do without you Nessie?"

"Oh I don't know, missing, dead, forced to perform at some gangster's kid's birthday party," Vanessa said all that with a shrug. Jason chuckled before pecking her on the lips. They stayed that way for a while until the phone rang. Grumbling at the loss of intimacy Jason trudged over to answer it. Meanwhile Vanessa went to sanitize the counters. She could hear him perk up at the other person on the line.

"Professor Janet it's good to hear from you, how's the expedition?" They talked for a good while and then Jason mentioned something about moving. "We hope to get them by the end of this week! Nice talking to you Professor!"

"Who was that?"

"That my dear was Professor Janet, we used to worked together back when I was a missionary," he explained. "She's sending us gifts from her latest expedition!"

"Oh? That's neat!" Vanessa clapped her hands. "Our museum does need some new items!"

"And the best part is they're entirely free! No payment whatsoever!" In excitement he scooped her up again and kissed her. "Trust me our museum is going to flourish!"

So that was how, almost a week later, a moving van arrived outside the manor house and its drivers unloaded beautiful artifacts of times long passed. According to Jason they came from a tiny middle eastern nation called Qumran.

"Are you sure it's a good idea having those things here?" Calypso asked while watching their progress. "I don't want to have to deal with a curse!"

"Come on Callie you know there's no such things as curses," Regina nudged her on her arm.

The Greek woman crossed her arms. Something smelled fishy about the whole thing.

One of the drivers, who wanted to be cheeky, held a vase out for Dylan. "Here kid catch!" The driver sneered before throwing it. Dylan tried to catch it in time but the poor thing crashed into the ground in a bazillion pieces before he could reach it. Vanessa's face drained and she slowly approached the pile of shards. Before anyone could response the van drove away leaving the black woman to pick up some of the pieces. She was almost in tears.

"They looked like they didn't care," Vanessa grumbled. "I oughta call out to their bosses and give them a piece of my mind!"

"We'll get our justice soon," Jason patted her on the shoulder. "What kind of employee does that to rare artifacts?!"

His father hummed. It did seem odd a professor would hire such careless folks. But at least the other items were in tact.

Little did they realize there was a lot more beyond ancient history behind their new gifts. Something that could lead to an exciting adventure away from Odyssey!

So I'm rewriting the episode "The Caves of Qumran" with Jason and my OCs inserted because I'm in a self indulgent mood. Unlike the OG episode Dylan won't be in this - I like him an all but he wouldn't really fit. Besides I want to see how my OCs would act in an episode. I'm not copying dialogue word for word a lot of it is my own. Also the main couple is Jason x Vanessa (my oc, obviously) as well as Eugene x Katrina. Professor Janet is an OC and an important one in this story. This story has a strong message particularly parodying Hobby Lobby and its recent controversies so that'll be fun! Leave some comments and remember: don't forget to tip the servers!

[tloujm]

Part XI: Are We OK?

Author’s Notes: As mentioned in the first paragraph, this takes place a month after the last chapter. Speaking of the last chapter, this one was kind of difficult for me to write as well. Trying to tap into that vulnerable, emotional Joel, when we really didn’t see that until TLOU 2, wasn’t as easy as I thought. And Naughty Dog barely gave us that side of him before they killed him off so...I’m down for straying away from canon, but I wish there was more Joel material to go off of. Maybe if we cry loud enough, Naughty Dog will hear us and we’ll get a DLC with more flashbacks in like 7 years. I already got it planned out, the next chapter will have a new genre, HORROR, just in time for Halloween, then I’ll get back to the smoother-you-with-romance Joel x Reader. 

Genre: An order of Joel Miller, heavy on the angst, with a side of fluff, hold the smut.

Summary: You and Joel find out if the two of you are expecting. Jackson is introduced to a strange newcomer

Ship: Joel x Reader

A month and some change had gone by which meant that you were late. Life had gotten particularly busy, so you didn’t notice how fast time was flying, but Joel did. He knew you were late, but he wanted to see if you would bring it up first. 

“How you feelin’?” Joel asked, gently nudging your shoulder as the two of you walked together.

“I’m fine.” You answered. It was your default answer, but after realizing that he was still looking at you, reading your face, you understood what he meant. Throughout the month he would dote on you a little extra to make sure you weren’t feeling faint or nauseous. “I really am fine, Joel. I haven’t gotten my period yet, though.”

“Ok.” He said as he breathed out. He looked forward with those doe eyes.

“That doesn’t mean anything yet. My periods were never really consistent in the first place. Let’s just wait a little longer and see.” What you said was true, but you also weren’t sure if you were ready to admit to yourself the possibility of having a life inside you. 

Joel took your hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “Ok.”

One day while out on patrol, Joel convinced his group to make a detour and check out a small plaza. It had a boutique, veterinary office, post office and, most importantly, a pharmacy. While the others started at the boutique to find new clothes, Joel snuck off to get a head start at the pharmacy. He secured the location before pacing up and down the aisles. His eyes bounced around the shelves as his hands randomly skimmed the items on them. They have to be here, he thought. It's not like they were in high demand during a pandemic. Soon enough, he’d found what he was looking for and stuffed his bag with a few boxes just as the group was catching up with him. Joel explained away his departure with ease and joined in scavenging for medical goods. 

As soon as they’d passed through Jackson’s gates, Joel bee lined it to your house. He let himself in as he usually did and called out your name. He wasn’t sure if you were home but he was too anxious to try and track you down. Luckily, your footsteps were heard from the other room. He waited as patiently as he could for you to meet him in the living room. 

“You’re back!” You exclaimed. “What happened out there? I thought you were going to be back in time for lunch.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. We stopped at some small plaza. It was off-map.”

“I hope you guys found some good stuff.” You commented while throwing on your jacket.

“Yeah, we did.” He quickly replied before furrowing his brows. “You going somewhere?”

You nodded. “I was gonna go help Wendy out again today. You can come too, but It’s ok if you’re too tired. I know you just got back.”

“(Y/N),” He began, leaving your name to hang in the air with suspense. He slid his backpack off of his shoulders and dug around for the contents that he found at the pharmacy. 

“What’s wrong?” You noticed the strange look on Joel’s face. Mind racing, you grew afraid of what he was going to pull out. You watched as he placed three narrow boxes on your coffee table. You took a step closer to inspect them.

“There was a pharmacy there, so I figured why wait and see when we can know now.” His voice was as casual as ever, but he gazed at you with those pleading, doe eyes that you were still growing used to. Your own eyes bounced between him and the items on the table. You read the single word on the face of the boxes with its pretty, pink font, “Pregnancy”. By the picture of the stick, you already knew what it was, but the “P” word was unavoidable. 

“Joel,” You started softly. “I started my period. I didn’t notice until after you left this morning for patrol.”

“Oh.” He looked between the tests and your shoes, avoiding eye contact.

“It probably just came late because of stress; you know living in this world ain’t a piece of cake.” You awkwardly chuckled to lighten the mood. “A cycle could be thrown off because of a change in diet. Different foods affect hormone balances. Or...or...um...when women spend time around each other, their cycles link up. I know it sounds weird, but it’s true because...um science.” You ramble on, trying to fill the silence.

He stopped you before you could speak again. “It’s ok, (Y/N). Guess we don’t need these.” He picked one of the tests up and inspected it before throwing it back in his bag. 

Joel focused on his actions after you told him the news. He didn’t want to seem disappointed. He’d be lying to himself if he said that he wasn’t, though. It was probably for the best, he thought to himself. He couldn’t imagine outliving another child or losing his love during childbirth. He scoffed at his own thoughts as he wished that storks delivering babies on doorsteps were a real thing. Maybe the two of you could share a pet. Joel made a note to put effort in befriending a stray cat or dog the next time he came across one.

You were more worried about Joel’s feelings than your own when you saw the dark red stains on your panties that morning. Neither one of you were explicitly against having a baby together, but you were afraid that he would get too comfortable with the idea of you actually being pregnant. You offered to stay in with him, but he declined and insisted that you go. He left out the door behind you and walked silently by your side until it was time for him to turn down his street. His eyes were focused on his front door, wanting nothing more than to walk through it and sink into the couch. Suddenly, he heard a voice speak up on the walkie-talkie. He had forgotten to put it back after patrol because he was so anxious to see you. The voice belonged to Dean, a watchtower guard and he sounded frantic as he called for help at the gate. Always having a radio on him, Joel knew that Tommy would have heard the message as well. Joel quickly turned on his heels and jogged up to the main gate of Jackson just in time to meet the other people who heard. Dean explained from the tower that there was a little girl on the other side of the gate covered in blood. She was unresponsive when he questioned her. Dean didn’t know whether she was the bait in an ambush or just a lost little girl who needed help. Maria made the decision to open the gates. She stepped through first, followed by an armed Tommy and Joel. The two brothers kept their eyes peeled for signs of anything suspicious in the distance. Maria approached the child and tried to talk to her herself. She appeared to be in a catatonic state. Maria deduced that she had just experienced something extremely traumatic. Joel watched as Jackson’s leader gently reached out to check her body for any wounds, having been unsure if the blood was hers or not. The girl only looked past her, but didn’t flinch when touched. Joel holstered his gun before taking off his jacket to wrap it around her. Maria mouthed a thank you in his direction before ushering her into the settlement. 

Joel and Tommy decided to stay with Dean at the watchtower as a precaution just in case anyone was following her. Maria immediately walked the girl to the daycare center. She wanted to try again, but if there was anyone who could connect with a child, it was Wendy. 

You were bringing snacks into the play room for the kids when you heard faint voices coming from Wendy’s office. You slowed down as you passed in front of the cracked door. You recognized Maria’s voice. Wendy’s tone was soft and gentle which made you assume that a child was in there as well. What would Maria want with one of the kids? Did one of them get in trouble? You finished handing out the snacks when Maria entered the playroom.

“(Y/N).” Maria called out from the corner of the room. She gestured with her head for you to meet her. “We got a newcomer in today.” She began to slowly shake her head. “I don’t know what to make of her. She won’t talk to anybody. Wendy is in there currently trying. You’re trained in first aid right?” She asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not like I’m a nurse or anything.”

“Our only doctors are operating right now. You’re all we got.” She looked at you with pleading eyes. “I did a once over on her before bringing her in, but I’d appreciate it if you could look her over and make sure she’s alright.”

You looked back at the kids peacefully eating. “Let me get one of the older kids to look after them and I’ll go back there with you.” Maria nodded before watching you go outside to pull one of the big kids off the playground. 

“This way.” Maria guided you back towards Wendy’s office. You grabbed the basket full of uneaten snacks since the office was on its way to the kitchen.

“I’m assuming she’s a child.” You stated to which Maria nodded. “She showed up by herself?”

“As far as we can tell. Joel and Tommy are currently on lookout to see if she was followed. Dean said he found her approaching the gate covered in blood.”

“Jesus.” You exclaimed in a whisper. “When was this?”

“I just brought her over here from the gate.” Maria said before opening the office door for you.

Wendy was crouched down in front of the little girl, speaking to her in her softest tone. She remained standing after ignoring the older woman’s offer of a chair. Wendy turned to the two of you when she heard the door open. She seemed at a loss after making no more progress than she did when Maria left. You recognized the jacket wrapped around the child’s small frame and you expressed a tiny smile at the thought of Joel’s generosity. His clean, warm jacket was a stark contrast to the blood and grime covering her body. You walked up to her and sat the basket of food down at her feet. Silently, you picked up half of a grilled cheese and held it out for her to take. For a few moments, she did nothing but stand there. Her eyes were glued to some object past your head. Finally, she glanced down at the still warm sandwich in your hand and weakly reached out for it. She brought it up to her mouth and took a little, mousy bite. To help support the sandwich, she brought up her other hand to hold it, revealing that she was missing the last two fingers on that hand. You could tell by the redness that they were severed fairly recently. You would need to take a closer look, but it didn’t seem infected so far. You watched her for a moment before stepping back, giving her space to eat in peace. When she finished, she wiped the crumbs with the back of her hand and reverted back to her prior stance. Tenderly, you removed the jacket and circled around her to get a better look at her body. She was really skinny; probably nearing malnutrition. It made it difficult for you to estimate an age. Especially during developmental years, the lack of proper nutrients could stunt the growth of a child. Seeing how docile she was with the others, you confidently picked her up and sat her on a table that brought her to your height. There you took off her exterior layers to get a better look at her skin for wounds. Like Maria, you guessed that she had been traumatized. Seeing a child that you could only assume was born after the outbreak be put through so much was heartbreaking. After a more thorough check, you determined that none of the blood was hers. You were relieved to see that, but at the same time wondered what situation she had to have been in to get all of that on her. 

“You’re ok. You’re in a safe place, now.” You finally spoke to the girl. She made eye contact, but did not verbally acknowledge your words. “How would you like to get in a nice, warm bath and relax? I’m sure you came a long way to find yourself here. We can make you more grilled cheeses to eat when you get out.” You pleaded. Again, she was silent, but as if on cue, her stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear. As if embarrassed, she looked down at her feet.

“I’ll get right on those grilled cheeses.” Wendy said, leaving her office. You took the girl’s hand and led her out as well. Maria followed you two to one of the bathrooms. You sat the girl on the toilet seat before Maria beckoned you to meet her at the doorway.

“I’m going to go check on the boys at the gate if you’re ok here.”

“Yeah, me and Wendy will be fine.” You glanced back at the little girl. To your surprise, she was watching you.

“Okay, good. Let me know if you need anything.” Maria said before stepping out.

The girl watched as you ran the water into the tub. Bubbles formed and steam floated off the surface of the water. It was enticing, even for you, especially since it was still winter. You helped her out of the rest of her clothes and walked her into the tub. You watched her face flinch as she adjusted to the temperature. 

For the next half an hour, you gave her a sponge bath and washed her hair. She was good as new by the time you were done with her. Before you brought her back into the office, you cleaned and bandaged the stubs on her left hand. Wendy brought the grilled cheese and tomato soup in so the girl could eat in peace. 

“It would be so much easier if we just knew what to call her.” Wendy spoke in an almost whisper as the two of you sat in the office with her. 

“Yeah.” You sighed. “It’s getting late and she’s probably tired.”

“Oh, I bet she is. She probably walked very far to get here. I’ll take her home with me tonight. We have that extra bedroom now and I think she’ll get along nicely with Kevin and Marnie. They’re about her age.” Wendy spoke about her adopted children. “Maybe she’ll feel more comfortable with someone her own age and open up with them.”

“Yeah?” You genuinely questioned.

“Worth a try.” Wendy shrugged, not knowing what else to do. “She just needs some time is all. She’ll see we’re good people soon enough and she’ll be playin’ with the rest of ‘em.”

You took her plate when she was done and checked on the rest of the kids before calling it a night. Your feet were accustomed to the path that took you to your house, but you really wanted to see Joel. Walking up the driveway, you noticed that all of the lights in the house were off. Still, you entered the house and called his name. You followed his voice and orange glow to the living room where he was sitting by the fire. You sat next to him on the floor and leaned your head on his shoulder. It was a cozy feeling. 

“I heard you were in the watchtower today.” You began.

He exhaled. “Yeah, me and Tommy and Dean. So you know about the girl?”

“I fed and bathed her. Maria brought her over to the daycare so I could take a look at her.”

“How was she, nurse (Y/L/N)?” He playfully asked.

“None of the blood was hers. No cuts. There were some bruises though. I hope she feels better now that she’s all cleaned up.” He grunted in approval before falling silent. “Are we okay?” You spoke up.

“’Course we are. Where is this coming from?” Joel asked.

“Well, when I told you I wasn’t pregnant---”

“It’s ok, (Y/N). I meant it when I said it wouldn’t change anything. I love you.”

You smiled. “I love you too and listen, I would be honored to have you as my baby daddy,” He chuckled. “But I don’t think I’m ready now. Are you?”

He gently nodded for a moment. “I think so, yeah.”

“You think you could wait for me? ‘Til I’m ready?”

“This is something I want only with you, so I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Oh is that so?” You teased. “I’ll be sure to remember that.

“Bet you will.”

[forlornmelody]

Impulse Control--Why Startling Poison Ivy Is A Really Bad Idea

Rating: E (Smut with some plot, for flavor.)

Fandom(s): DC Comics

Ship: Poison Ivy/Kate Kane

Linkage: Ao3

Summary:  To find Harley, Ivy must make an uneasy alliance with one of the more notorious (and notoriously attractive) members of the Batfamily. A simple, easy in-and-out. But nothing is so simple or easy, is it?

Note: Commission for @rookie009. Dude, thank you so much for commissioning me again. And indulging this weirdness.

->->->

Pam-a-lamb,

I’m doing bad stuff but don’t worry ‘bout it. 

--Harley xoxo

“It’s completely unlike her, right?” 

Jason leans against the doorway, one boot braced against it and the other flat on the floor. He holds Harley’s unfolded note in his gloved hands, narrowing his eyes at it as if the answer lies in the creases. “You know her better. What’s your gut telling you?” 

“She--” Ivy sighs, rubbing circles between her eyebrows--a futile gesture against her impending headache. “--She doesn’t leave notes. Harley just goes . Maybe she texts me while she’s out somewhere because the color of someone’s jacket made her think of me.” Waving her hand at the note, Ivy meets Jason’s eyes. “This…” 

“...is planned.” Jason rotates the note, flipping it forward and back. “You sure it’s her handwriting?"

Honestly, Ivy doesn’t know what to think. “It...doesn’t look any different.” She coughs. “It smells like her.” Like buttered popcorn and Chinese food. Remembering cuts right into her sternum. 

Jason puts a gloved hand over hers. He’s the only Robin who ever dared to touch her. “You’ll get her back. I know you will.”

She watches him step back towards the door. “Not we?”

“Sorry, Red. I can’t help you.” Jason shifts on his feet. To be honest, Ivy kind of expected this. She can still see the scar running down the side of his face, where a crowbar had bashed his head in, and where a coroner had sewn it back shut. Funny how the Lazarus Pit didn’t remove it when it brought him back. “The Outlaws and I have work in Markovia.” Ivy’s teeth grind together at the blatant lie, but before she can speak, he continues,  “But if it’s a gun you need, I’m not the only one in the Batfamily who can handle them.”

“Who--?”

“Don’t worry. She’ll find you.”

He shuts the door behind him so softly Ivy almost doesn’t hear it. The gears in her mind clicking into place drown it out.

You better be joking, Kid. 

 -----

Jason was not kidding. Ivy enters her greenhouse lab, and finds Batwoman herself leaning against a drosera glanduligera . “I’d give Frankie some space if I were you. He finds unannounced guests quite delicious and full of nutrients.”

Batwoman quickly puts distance between them. Frankie’s tentacles sag with betrayal. “Red Hood told me you needed a favor?” Her crimson-stained lips wrinkle with distaste. 

“Harley’s missing. Jason Todd told me you’d help.” It’s an exaggeration of his promise, but Ivy isn’t leaving anything to chance. 

It’s hard to tell with the cowl, but Ivy swears Batwoman’s eyes widen just a little before narrowing into slits. “That depends. Am I aiding you in a crime?”

Ivy turns around, pretending to ignore her as she prunes a mutated rosa gymnocarpa, one that will fire its thorns at will. She’s thinking of naming it Lucy. “Depends on what you consider a crime.” Before Batwoman can answer, Ivy continues. “Is hacking government systems a crime? Is kidnapping?”

Batwoman steps next to her, and nearly fingers the rose petals, but thinks better of it. “You think government agents took her somewhere?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time. But I want to find her before someone worse does.”

Ivy’s desk seems like a safe enough place, and Batwoman perches there. “You’re not worried I’m going to turn you in?”

That gets a chuckle out of her. “You’re certainly welcome to try.”

The suggestion rolls off of her like rain on a window pane. “Oh, like Batman hasn’t turned you in several times before?”

Ivy licks her lips. “Only when I wanted him to.”

The vigilante rolls her eyes. “Look. I owe J--Red Hood a favor. So I’ll look into it and--”

“No. I’m coming with you.”

“Why?”

“I have to make sure you’re not giving me bad intel.” Before Batwoman can protest, Ivy continues. “You don’t want to disappoint Jason, do you?”

Is it Batwoman muffling her grumble, or is it her mask?

“This  can’t be the Batcave.”

“It’s not. It’s a safehouse. One I will be relocating after this.”

Ivy snorts, eyeing a piece of ancient weaponry, a Roman shield by the looks of it. It seems neither of them trusts the other. She’s fine with that. Not once has Ivy ever appreciated having someone depend on her. Well. There’s always an exception, isn’t there? But that exception is off doing fuck-knows-what, and Ivy’s relying on a godamn hero to help find her. “Nice place,” she murmurs. 

“Don’t touch anything.” Batwoman says quickly, sitting down at her desk, bracing her chin on her elbows in front of her keyboard. It’s so... candid of her that Ivy catches herself staring. Apparently even superheroes let their shoulders roll forward sometimes. Ivy wonders what Batwoman looks like when she finally removes her cowl for the night. The red hair most definitely is a wig--real hair would never hold curls like that. Her hair is short underneath--putting it up would take too much time when an old lady needs help crossing the street. But other than the fullness of her red lips--Ivy has no idea who the woman is underneath. It’s going to drive her crazy--just like it did with her male counterpart. “CIA says she’s been “acquired for a black ops mission out of Bell Reve. But anything beyond that we’ll have to access on si--Are you even listening?”

Ivy shakes it off, pretending to examine her nails. “And why can’t I touch anything if you’re moving?” She’s trying to remember why Bell Reve sounds so familiar. 

“I would like to keep some of it. I like the way it looks. And I don’t want your pheromones on everything.”

Then it clicks. “ Beautiful View. Is that another prison?”

Batwoman presses her lips together, then nods. “Blacksite.”

Fire roils in Ivy’s veins. “Of fucking course it is.” No accountability. No oversight. Whoever kidnapped Harley can do fuck-all with her and get away with it. And Ivy (and Batwoman) have barely scratched the surface.

“Doctor Isley?” Batwoman says, her voice rising and tense.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay? The vines in my spider plant look about ready to strangle me.”

Ivy glances over at the chlorophytum comosum, whose children are quickly inching towards Batwoman and her slender neck. “She says you’re smothering her and her babies with the constant watering. And she prefers the name Billie.” Waving her hand, Ivy watches as the spider plants retreat back towards their home, leaving their caretaker well alive, for now. 

 ------

The “site”  is a nondescript cubicle-laced hell in the basement of a social security office. Neither of them can go through the front door--well, Batwoman could if she’d take off her goddamn cowl, but that isn’t happening any time soon. So they pop open a basement window while the mailroom workers are on their lunch. They meander through the maze of modular walls and humming towers, dodging the occasional wayward paper crumble. “Our info should be in that corner office.”

It doesn’t look like much, just an otherwise empty desk with a computer that has dust gathering on its keyboard. The room lacks widows, and Ivy wrinkles her nose at the musty air. It could use a sathiphyullum or two to freshen up. Batwoman leans over the desk, firing up the computer and clacking at the keys. “Almost there….”

Ivy smells them before she hears them--donuts, coffee, and the musk of unwashed skin. Security. “Bats---”

Batwoman doesn’t even deign to look up. “Keep ‘em busy.”

“Poison Ivy?” The first guard fumbles to keep his walkie-talkie in his hands. 

“Good afternoon,” she says neutrally. Batwoman gives her a steel look. “Work here often?”

His mouth hangs open, his thumb still glued to the talk button. He means to ask what she’s doing here, but all that comes out is: “Are you seeing anyone?”

Ivy snorts. “Maybe if you set that radio down, Casanova.” 

As soon as he complies, the radio hisses with static. “Sending backup, over.”

“Ivy!” Bats hisses, glancing over at her. 

She scoffs, listening for the tell-tale thunder of boots down the hall. “You know, this would be a lot easier if you weren’t hung up about property damage.”

“No one can know we’re here, Ivy.”

For the love of pete. Her heart already races out of control, and fuck if Ivy can slow it down now. Harley’s calming techniques be damned. “Well, you’re not going to like this either.” 

“Like what?” Bats says flatly, in the middle of a download. 

“You’ve only two other options, Batsy.”

“Enough with the nicknames, already.”

The backup pours into the room, and the room flashes white, and Ivy swears her eardrums explode with the noise. Her body reacts before her brain can, and the air’s filled with a dusty haze. Shit. Shit. Shit. 

“Sex or murder?” Ivy calls out over the coughing militarized guards. Who the fuck guards a building with a SWAT team? Harley, what have you got yourself into this time? 

“What?” Batwoman yells back, coughing too. 

“SEX OR MURDER???”

“...Sex, I guess?”

Ivy holds up her hands, seeing half a dozen sights aimed at her chest. “It’s gonna be sex with me. You okay with that?”

Batwoman doesn’t look up, but she does stop typing. “Is this hypothetical or…?”

“Not anymore it isn’t.” 

“Are you going to kill me otherwise?” 

Ivy pinches her nose. “ NO. For crying out loud. But we don’t have time to get arrested.”

“HANDS ON THE GROUND.” Ivy and Bats comply. What else are they going to do while they hash this out?

The vigilante rolls her eyes. “Ugh. Fine.”

“Wait, really?”

“ Yes, Ivy. But only if it’s not around these idiots.”

“If you insist.” Ivy waves her hand as subtly as she can, letting the pheromones escape her skin like a fine mist. 

“Uh, boss?” One of the sights drops to her hand. Shit. 

Five more join the first. “Hey! None of that. ”Pigs never were known for their subtlety. 

Ivy plasters on her most repentant expression. “Too late.” And she’s not lying. She can already see the green mist being pulled into the HVAC system. Which is another problem, but one she’s not going to worry about just yet. 

“Plant Lady! Get that shit out of the air!”

One. 

“No can do. Sorry.” Not sorry. Not one bit. 

Two. 

“I mean it, Lady. Or I’ll shoot!”

Three. 

“ Lady, I swear I’ll--”

One piggy turns to the other. “Hey, Frankie?”

“Not now, Mitch.”

“There’s something I gotta tell you, Frankie.” Mitch takes his hand, fingering the clasps on the other man’s armor. 

“Mitch? What hell-- mm. ”

Batwoman holds her flash drive in her hands, stunned by the site of an entire SWAT team playing tonsil hockey with one another. Ivy grabs her by the cape. “That’s our cue!” And she drags her to a cubicle by the stairs. 

“Wouldn’t it be easier if we just left ?” 

“‘Fraid not. Unless you packed an antidote to my new toxin with you.” 

“Actually.” Batwoman fishes around in her utility belt. “Shit.” She turns on her, jabbing a finger in her face. “You were supposed to be on your best behavior.”

Ivy folds her arms, leaning against the cubicle wall. “Wasn’t expecting them to send the SWAT after us.” 

Batwoman takes a deep breath. “So, how does this work, exactly?”

Licking her lips, Ivy answers. “There’s an antidote in my saliva, but it’s the most potent after I’ve had an orgasm.”

“Then why does it have to be sex?” Bat’s candor is refreshing, if not unexpected. “Why not jill yourself off and get it over with?” 

“It’s not so simple,” Ivy chuckles. “My DNA is too dissimilar to yours--”

“But if you have my DNA, aka my saliva , with it--”

“An effective antidote.”

“An effective antidote that won’t cause you serious side effects.” She steps towards Bats, holding out her hand. “Any other questions before we start?”

Batwoman quirks her head at Ivy’s clinical tone. “Will Harley be okay with this?”

Ah. There’s the question of the day. Ivy closes her hand, examining her nails as she shrugs. “She’ll be alive . And free.”

Black gloved hands take her bare ones in their own, squeezing them gently. “You love her, don’t you.”

Ivy swallows, feeling as if the ground is moving beneath her boots. “I’d--” do anything for her , she means to say, and give Batwoman the vantage over her.

Batwoman seals her mouth over hers, muffling her reply. And to think this woman had the more ruthless reputation over her male counterpart. Her slips are soft and full, and the gloss slides between them and tastes like dark cherry. Intoxicating. Ivy dares to dart her tongue between them, and taste that poison just that much more. 

Her pheromones work quickly as they enter Batwoman’s system. Her professional silence slips into wanton moans, and her hands work into the top of Ivy’s bust. She shivers, leaning into her touch, whispering encouragement. “Go ahead. Touch me everywhere you’d like.” 

Nearby, an officer lets out a guttural cry, “Please, baby. Gimme more.”

That pulls Batwoman’s attention away, and Ivy drags it back with the drag of her nails across the material of her uniform. “Shh. Don’t mind them. They can’t even hear us over the sound of their own sex.”

Batwoman’s voice is husky as she pulls the top of Ivy’s corset down. “You sure?”

“Mmhm. Happens all the time.” Batwoman laughs at that, and moans as Ivy’s hands dally around her utility belt. “Now, aren’t these things booby trapped?”

Nodding, Batwoman whispers. “Security disengage: Code Sappho.” The utility belt snaps open falling into her hands. 

Ivy laughs. “Oh my god .”

“Laugh all you want. I’m changing it as soon as this is over.”

Setting the belt aside, Ivy runs a finger down to Batwoman’s crotch. She drinks in the hiss from her lips, adding more pressure and more fingers, drawing heat between her legs and hopefully a little wetness. “You like that, don’t you.” 

“Nn, fuck.” Batwoman leans into her touch. She’s a goner. 

Ivy loves this part of the game, taking the most stubborn partner and watering their desire until it breaks them apart like tree roots in a sidewalk. It’s different from when she makes love to Harley. This is less like romance and more like chess. How many moves until she queens her king? “That’s it. Tell me what feels good.”

Batwoman’s knees go weak, and Ivy shoves her into a rolling chair. She presses the heel of her hand into her groin. “Oh g-- . Mm.” Gasping, Bats grabs Ivy's hand and shoves it into her own pants. 

“Mm, demanding, aren’t you?” Ivy bites her ear lobe. “I like that.”

“Just get it o --oh. ” Bats leans into Ivy’s skillful touch, and she plays her like a violin, basking in the melody ringing from her lips. But Batwoman would never let a bad girl win, now would she?

Teeth graze Ivy’s neck, and the gasp slips from her mouth faster she can stop it. 

“Oh fuck. Fuck yes. Right there.” It no longer registers which goon is saying what. They could all be chanting in unison for all Ivy knows. And she doesn’t care. 

Batwoman licks the red line she’s created, and she squeezes Ivy’s breast through her uniform, just on the edge of too hard . She knows exactly what she’s doing. Check . Ivy catches her mouth, tasting her, drawing quick, tight circles around her clit. Just as Bats quakes in her arms, Ivy pulls back. “Oh come on, ” she groans.

“You get tied up a lot , don’t you?” Ivy glances at the zamioculus zamifolia, potted at the opposite desk corner. “You must enjoy it, then.” Batsy’s eyes widen as the vines stretch towards her. “Why else would you keep going to work?”

“It’s annoying as fuck--” The vines halt their progress, and shudder, and the Bat licks her lips. “--On the job.”

“That’s more like it.” The vines curl and twist around Bat’s wrists, binding her to the chair. Two more bind the chair, albeit loosely, to the desk. Let her move her hips, without letting her roll away. Once she’s in place, Ivy sways her hips, slowly undoing the zipper in her one piece suit. She lets it slide down her skin, and Ivy presses her bare breasts into Bat’s face, and just for a moment her mark closes her eyes, breathing her in. 

Ivy frowns. This won’t do. This won’t do at all. She whisks the vines away, and Batwoman stares at her. Pulling back again, Ivy kicks her suit past her ankles, and tosses the keyboard aside. She sits on the desk with her legs spread wide. “I’m gonna need you to bed over, darling.” 

“I’m not your darling.” Bats turns her chair around, leaning down, and breathing in Ivy’s musk. She barely remembers to tie her up again. 

It occurs to Ivy that she hasn’t let anyone other than Harley get this close in a very long time. Usually Ivy leaves her marks to die after they get her pheromones in their system. There was that one time with Selina when one of their capers went sideways. While Ivy swore up and down, Catwoman pulled her goggles away from her eyes and kissed her full on the mouth. And things escalated from there. But that was before Harley. 

Batwoman takes her sweet time tasting her, and Ivy finds herself gripping the desk with white knuckles. No. She won’t let her know how nice this feels-- oh. Oh God. “ Fuck.” 

And then Batwoman pulls back. “Has Harley been gone that long?”....Did she say that last part out loud?

“Fuck you.”

Tilting her head to the side, Batwoman asks, “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

Oh, but Ivy wants to wipe that coy smile off that face and replace it with her pleas for mercy. “Almost. Do you prefer to be teased or penetrated?” Ivy leans forward with her breasts pressed together, her words clinical and her grin anything but. 

Bats dares to look her over, drinking the sheen on her skin. Her mouth never quite closes. She licks her lips, almost panting as she asks. “Must I choose?”

Ivy takes Bat’s chin in her hands. “Greedy, aren’t you?”

Whatever Bat’s snarky reply is, it’s lost in Ivy’s mouth as she claims her once more. This time neither of them hold back, devouring each other sloppily and noisily. Ivy trails kisses down Bat’s neck, and she summons another vine. The tiniest, softest leaf brushes across Bat’s clit. Batwoman cries out sharply, straining against her bonds. 

“Ready?” Ivy pulls the vine back, examining the wetness dripping down its stalk. Oh, she’s ready all right. But Ivy wants to hear her say it. 

“Ivy .” 

Digging her fingers into Bat’s chin, Ivy nearly growls. “ Beg for it. ” The vine teases her clit faster, not harder, never quite getting her where she wants it. No, needs it. 

Goosebumps run down Batwoman’s arms. “ Please.”

How fortunate that one of the cubicle dwellers has taken to growing a ficus ginseng microcarpa as a bonsai tree. Ivy draws out one of the aerial roots, sculpting it into the right shape. She slides a condom on it, safety first, of course, and lets the plant do the rest. It enters Bats slowly, slowly filling her up. Her eyes bulge as it pulls back, and pushes back in. No sound spills from her mouth, but her hips shift, thrusting with the plant as it fucks her. 

Fuck, but Ivy’s mouth is dry. Her thighs twitch, rubbing together hungrily as she watches. She wants to touch herself so bad but she won’t give Batwoman that satisfaction. She won’t. She...

Batwoman’s face twists, and her mouth pinches shut. Her back arches and the chair squeaks across the floor. The groan rasps out of her mouth as her jaw drops into the perfect Oh. 

“Not bad.” Ivy picks some lint off of her arm, releasing Batwoman from her bonds. “The antidote should be working now. Thank you for the view --” 

The vigilante charges forward, gripping Ivy’s arms and pressing her back into the desk. Ivy watches the monitor crash to the floor. “I’m not done yet.” Batwoman’s signature lipstick has smeared across her chin in a very un-Batlike fashion. Her gloved fingers poke at Ivy’s clit, and she hisses. “Still sensitive, aren’t we? Still unsatisfied?” Her voice drops low and teasing, and fuck, Ivy won’t tell her to fuck off now . 

Those same fingers that cast batarangs and grip grappling hooks dig into her, twisting and pulling. A chorus of cries ring out in harmony with her own, as Ivy lifts her hips off the desk, thrusting into Batwoman’s touch. “Yes. Yes.” Bats grins into Ivy’s mouth, drawing out her moans. Harley would do the same thing, but Ivy doesn’t want to think about her right now. She doesn’t want to think about anything at this moment. She draws up a vine, letting it coat itself in its own juices. Nice and easy , she tells herself, pulling away from Batwoman so she can look her in the eyes. 

The vine slithers between her butt cheeks, small end first. Batwoman raises her eyebrows, but she doesn’t stop her delicious torment. In fact, she licks her lips a little. “Ah, fuck. Fuck. ” Her hand works in tandem with Ivy’s vines, pushing and pulling her hips back and forth like a rubber band. She chuckles into Ivy’s mouth, claiming it again, tasting it again. Only chuckling louder as Ivy begs and begs for release. Batmwoman clenches Ivy’s hip with her free hand, digging in her fingers so she feels that much more used . And fuck her, Ivy loves it. 

If the pigs nearby are still fucking, Ivy can’t hear them. 

She doesn’t even hear herself moaning into Batwoman’s ear. She only hears the slick as she’s fucked from both sides. And oh , the fullness of both . Ivy grips Batwoman’s shoulders to keep from shaking apart, and she bites the skin of her neck as she explodes with the heat of the sun.

Ivy stretches as the vine and Batwoman pull back, and she hums with satisfaction. Batwoman watches her with molten eyes. “Should we go agai--”

Ding! The computer chimes nearby. 

Ivy sits up quickly, shaking off the last vestiges of her afterglow, slinking her one piece on and zipping it up the back. The zipper gets stuck, and before she can weigh the pros and cons of asking , gloved fingers finish the job for her. “Transfer’s done.”

“Finally.”  Ivy grabs her boots, marching to the office barefoot. 

Batwoman clicks a few keys, and whistles . “Mission’s already done. She’s at Metropolis General.”

“She’s hurt !?” A branch snaps in a horrid crack behind them. 

“She was, but she’s being discharged today. Better hurry.”

Batwoman doesn’t need to tell her twice. 

Ivy pauses to don her boots in the hallway. Nearby she hears the sound of a half-a-dozen special response officers zipping up their flies. “Ah, fuck. I lost a button. Anyone see the button to my uniform?”

“Fuck off. At least you’re not missing a contact lens.” 

“Hey! Who stole my gun?”

“Ah shit. Mine too.”

Leaving them behind, Ivy chuckles. The green always knows how to take good care of her. Soon she’ll return the favor.

------

Room 23. The hospital stretches on in an endless maze. Ivy forces herself not to run, to carry her empty clipboard like she’s a doctor making her rounds. Just act like she belongs there and no one will notice. So far so--

Ivy’s heart soars when she spots the room number. 

“Harley!”

Harley shoots up in bed, swaying a little, but her shit eating grin tells Ivy everything will be okay. “Pretty girl!”

Ivy sits on the bed, planting a shy kiss on Harley’s lips. “I need to tell you something.” She explains the events of the past 24 hours, and Harley’s eyes go wide. Twisting her hands, Ivy waits an eternity for Harley to reply.

“Was she good? Do you think she’d be down for a threesome?”

“Harley!”

[britishchick09]

help! livewatch

to kick off my beatleversary, we’re taking a look at my fellow beatle fan (aka my dad)’s fave movie from the lads... help! i’ve only seen 15 minutes of ‘a hard day’s night’ because it was a bit boring and ‘yellow submarine’ was fantastic, so i hope this falls right in between. let’s go get some help!

...why are we back to the end of return of the jedi?

sacrifice WHAT’S HAPPENING

OMG the sacrificial ring!!! :o

wait does ringo have it?

people: “ring ring ring ring!!!” john in ob-la-di-ob-da-da anthology: “a ring!”

and it goes right into ‘help!’ clever one lads ;)

the movie is in color yet this is in black and white like it’s on tv. coolio! :D

‘help’ is a bop! :D

you’d think the credits would play over them but nope :/

eyyy called it! :D

CALLED IT AGAIN!!!!!!

♫ won’t you pleeeeeease please

me!!! :D 

this guy keeps throwing darts on the screen and it’s so weird:

OMG lester like phil lester???? ;o

tribe chief: “we need to find the ring!” guy: “has nobody looked in the washbasin?” lol :D

so the guy is only finding the ring for himself and not the tribe?

cool they live at 221b! :D

lady: “still the same they was before they was!” grammar much?

pretty house! :D

JOHN YOU SNEAKY LIL BISH

he’s reading it in a hole how nice :)

george is using fake teeth to mow a lawn inside their house how epic :D

and paul is playing the organ! :D

ringo: “me finger’s stuck in the door” no rongles it’s “I HAVE THE DOOR IN ME FINGERS!!!!’

OMG RINGO SCREAM LET GO LADY!!!!!

also his hair is a hot mess

john: “that’s immature of you, son” says you

ringo thought the lady thought his fingie was a sandwhich lol :D

ooh light :o

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! :o

ringo just fell off the bed lol :D

john sleeps in the hole lol :D

why does john have a phone in the hole lol

he’s calling george and paul who are in the other rooms WHY CAN’T YOU JUST TALK TO THEM

and all he did was say ‘hello’ JOHN YOU DORK

the guy pronounced beatle ‘bee-ah-tle’ lol :D

guy: “they all look the same!” me before a year ago today

yo like harrods the store? :o

they keep saying ‘shilling’ why

ooh title!

groovy!

ringo to john: “what was it that first attracted you to me?” WOAH LENNSTARR???? john: “you’re very polite aren’t you?” yes that’s true thanks for not making it sarcastic :)

OMG MAGNETS!!!

john: “ah HA HA!!!!” op there’s the sarcastic bish!

two lads walking 0.2 feet apart in a 2 BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT BI!!!!

why are ringo and john saying the same things at the same time chaotic lads!

john: “what’s the matter?” ringo: “oh there’s no matter. OW OW OWWW!!!!” i think there’s a matter....

‘65 beatle girls: *swoon!!*

also don’t tell the lady she sucked up the wrong hand...

WELL THAT ESCALATED FAST

george keeps going ‘oh ho ho ho!!!” and i love it :D

they’re playing ‘you’re gonna lose that girl!’ :D

and it goes from not as clear film audio to clear recording audio which is weird

cool shot! :D (and beatle girls probably thought this was so hot)

ringo cig WHY

they have to do it again WHY IT WAS PERFECT

awww ringo’s dancing a bit :)

OMG :o

john: “you naughty boy!” don’t say that plz why :/

OMG THIS GUY’S GONNA CHAINSHAW WINGO :(((((

lady: “please flee!!!” ringo: “ok” lol :D

indian music! (you think this is how george started liking it?)

they’re seeking enlightenment! :D

ringo: “does this ring mean anything from you?” british guy: “freemason?” senpai wants your number

george is asking everyone if the blood rushes to them lol :D

OMG SOMEONE’S KILLING EVERYONE

guy: “could you pick this up for me please?” *knocks the chef out rapunzel style* lol :D

awww the lady wants to save ringo!

lady: “that’s the sacred ring!” paul: “say no more!” lady: “i can say no more!” lol :D

awww ringo is john’s best friend :)

oh no they have until 5 until a new victim is closing! :o

why is there a ticket in the soup

ringo: “that’s a season ticket!” john: “i love me a good seasoning” *puts it back in his soup* lol :D

ringo: “i got it from this eastern bird... lady” ;)

ringo can’t take the ring off!

george *about his soup*: “there’s footprints in here!” wut

THINGS ESCALATE SO QUICKLY IN THIS MOVIE!!!!

jeweler: “some problems are matrimonial” john: “eh heh heh” ;)

john wtf

the ring can’t be cut and it’s breaking the tools like rapunzel’s hair! :o

john: “you’re a failure, aren’t you scientist?” shut up plz

scientist: “voltage, up, up!” paul: “up up up up!!!” awww :)

scientist: “made in america you see!” john: “this is english” lol :D

john: “how do you feel?” ringo: “i used to use me hands” john: “he used to use his hands” lol :D

OMG I REMEMBER SEEING THAT WHEN I WAS A BABY FAN!!!!!

paulie likes it ;)

oh no the lady has a gun!! :o

the ‘brain drain’!

beatle logic: sing a song back home ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD PROBABLY BE TAKING CARE OF THIS SERIOUS RING PROBLEM????

it’s ‘you’ve got to hide your love away’ so that’s cool :D

she’s not impressed :/ (but i am!)

john said the lady had ‘filthy eastern ways’ SHUT UP JAWN >:(

the lady wants ringo to shrink his fingo! :o

wait what

ooh intermission! :D

this is so random lol :D

PART 2 WAS JUST A LADY WASHING SOMEONE WTF WHY

that was random af and very family guy!

ringo’s allergic to penicillin like my mom! :D

OMG THE BAD GUYS ARE ATTACKING!!!!!!

my fave show! :D

JOHN IS ATTACKING IN THE HOLE ATTACK IN THE HOLE!!!!!

aww finger guns! :D

ringo’s crying at his suit having red all over :(

WHY IS THIS FIGHT SO CHAOTIC

ringo: “how can i get the ring off with me hands held up?” lol :D

ringo has a voice crack when he said ‘look!” :D

JOHN GON KILL U!!!!

john’s ‘get out’ is so good omg :D

oh no the scientists really want the ring now! :o

they’re in the snow for ‘ticket to ride’!!! :D

me lol :D

what a giffable shot! :D

:D

ooh music notes! :D

penny lane much? ;)

oh no the guys are watching them... ;)

the lads are saying ‘oh ho ho ho’ WHAT HIGH DORKS

OMG RINGO!!!!!!

he says ‘ouch ouch ouch’ when rolling down the snow lol :D

*OH HO HOS INTENSIFY*

evil snowman... >:)

the bad guys have a curling bomb and one of them keeps saying everything he does lol :D

george: “hey it’s thingie! a fiendish thingie!!” lol :D

guy: “useless! what rubbish!” *THINGIE BLOWS UP A SECOND LATER* lol :D

snowman battle! :o

guy: “in the name of kindness, stop! stop!” the lads: *don’t stop*

HOLY FRICK THEY’RE BEING FLAMETHROWERED

paul running into john at the train station... ;)

ooh sherlock holmes reference!!!!!! :D

:)

ringo: “they have a different religion... i think” lol :D

the scotland guy is mimicking ringo and ringo’s not impressed lol :D

why are the bad guys playing indian music in the phone booth WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE

999 is 911! :D

OMG IT’S MY FAVE HELP SONG ‘I NEED YOU’!!!!! :D

wowza editing in person! :o

paperback writer much? ;)

:D

‘she’s a woman’ from past masters is playing on a walkie talkie! :D

the chief thinks it’s shocking and hates it lol

chief: “take this hastily scribbled note hastily!” lol :D

motorcycle go brrrr

guy: “they shall not pass!” gandolf who

‘the night before is playing!!!! :D

:D

what a cool shot!

‘she’s a woman’ interrupted it no!!!! :/

OMG TNT

good ‘night before’ is back! :D

the lip syncing was kinda off tho

the bad guys are in camoflage and it’s like we’re in ww1!

the song ends ON A BIG AF EXPLOSION WTF

OMG THEY’RE USING MACHINE GUNS THIS IS SERIOUSLY WW1 NOW TH  FRICK

i came here to watch beatles NOT THE WAR

oh no john fell! :o

ringo: “get up johnny! get up for me, baby!” lennstarr tho ;)

so many explosions I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS

guy: “MISSED you naughty boys!!!” ...plz dont call them that :/

victory music is playing did the bad guys win???

wtf is going on THIS ISN’T THE GREAT WAR IT’S THE HELP! WAR

buckingham??? :0

i swear if john is in nothing but a sheet-

not your lockie’s palace ;)

ringo: “IT APPEARS i need one card. IT APPEARS i need to chuck one in” IT APPEARS that you need to emphasize that for some reason...

them playing cards is so domestic :)

ringo: “i don’t just use my drumstick for drummin’” paul: “well what else is it for?” ringo: “i use it!” OH GOD WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT RONGLES

john: “we’re risking our lives for the most useless member!” is that fingo or ringo

ringo: “let that be an end to it, END TO IT” same ringo

omg the palace is haunted! :o

OMG QUEEN REFERENCE???

OMG SOMEONE’S SHOOTING

the guards are tripping over each other!

the scientists are the guards!!!! :o

they made time slow down! :o

someone sprayed that red paint and the lads yeeted out of there! :o

they’re in a bar DRINK DRINK DRINK EVERYBOOODY!!!!”

paul to ringo: “you’re a rat underneath aren’t you?” OHHHHH ROASTED!!!!!

paul used to wink at paul... mcharrison has sailed! :D

OMG TIGER ROAR WHAT

ringo’s alone with it no! :o

thanks for the clarification?

lady to ringo: “don’t move!” ringo to ‘a tiger’: “don’t move, that’s what she said!” lol :D

why is she whistling the 9th symphony

they’re all singing it to make the tiger calm and ringo’s like “ok!!”

A WHOLE CROWD IS SINGING IT WHAT

this is legit abbey road! :o

ooh bahamas!

i love how george is taking pics of everything :D

i didn’t think cameras sounded like static back then tho...

oh no THE CHIEF IS THERE TOO!!!!! :o

BOI WHY DID HE SLAP A GUY

no the scientist is there too! :o

prepare for the beatle bahamas battle lads...

idk what pc is but they all the soldiers all named that

ooh ‘another girl’! :D

i heard it was cold when the lads filmed the movie so rip to their arms :/

CAKE

so much purple! :o

hey john! :D

george: “let’s play a game it’s called peep peep peep peep-“ yup THEY SO INCREDIBLY HIIIGHHHH

THEY’RE SAYING ‘OH HO HO HO’ AGAIN WHY

the lady said ringo’s getting ‘disembowled’ and john’s like “keeps ye busy eh?” like the lil’ bish he is

ringo: “i don’t want to knock anyone’s religion but-” *runs away*

bike lads! :D

they keep saying ‘let’s go back and get ‘em!” yep they hiiiigh

a triumphant one of ‘i’m so happy to dance with you’ is playing!! :D

OMG ONE OF THE BAD GUYS IS SKYDIVING

wtf bro

paul’s explaining things cryptically and george is like ‘why tho’

:D

paul: “there’s the temple and that swimming pool and... i’m lost” lol :D

ringo: “read on” B)

OMG ISSA TRAP!!!!

george: “typical!” lol :D

WHAT DOES ‘KAILI’ MEAN

RINGO GO UNDER!!

omg he’s in the orange blanket! :o

ringo: “HEEEEELP!!! help me!!!” title drop roll credits! :D

dere he is! :D

i remember seeing that before i was a fan and thinking it wasn’t beatles lol

john: “he’s got a plan” paul: “a really famous plan!” john: “a plan superintendent...” superintendent: “you see i’ve got a plan!” ...i think he has a plan

:D

OMG ‘HARD DAY’S NIGHT’ IS PLAYING SO TRIUMPHANTLY

the plan is baseball?

#spon

smoooosh

everyone’s calling for ringo and george is beating his chest lol :D

THE SCIENTISTS GOT WINGO NOOOOOO

scientist: “dust in the generator. gets everywhere” and it’s rough & coarse too...

the lady is saving ringo!

the scientist doesn’t need the ring now that he has...’nobel prize juice’?”

they keep saying ‘eastern’ as the language.... :/

ringo: “i can’t swim!” lady: “what do you mean you can’t swim?” he means HE CAN’T SWIM LADY!!!!

oh no THE SACRIFICE!!!!

the sacrifice involves a horrible, inaccessible name... voldemort?

he’s free!!!! :D

ringo: “i don’t subscribe to your religion!” lol :D

‘help’ is playing again! :D

and the chief has the ring now... >:)

;D

...what does that have to do with anything tho

and with the trippy credits came the end of the movie! the only help i’ll be needing is why it was more weird than yellow sub but i had such a fun time with it (especially the snow scene and ‘i need you’)! what a great movie! :D

[wistfulcynic]

Operation Emma’s Christmas

Merry Christmas to @kitsunewingstar​! If I calculated correctly this should post in the afternoon of Christmas Eve for you, (very) early in the morning of Christmas Eve here in the UK/Europe, and Christmas Eve Eve in the US. It’s been lovely chatting with you and I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family! 

You requested something sweet and Christmassy, so I hope this delivers! For the purposes of the story, we’re assuming there was no Christmas under the curse (since we never saw/heard about it on the show) and that S7 and its timeline is not a thing. 

Thanks to the @cssecretsanta2k19​​ for organising this event!!

SUMMARY: What with curses and monsters and trips to Camelot, and a distinct lack of quiet moments, the residents of Storybrooke have never really celebrated Christmas. Now that he has a child and a wife who misses the holiday, Killian is determined to change that. 

He just has to figure out how. 

(Set post-S6 in a world with no S7)

Tagging all the folks from the last tag list, PLEASE do let me know if you want to be added or removed. @kmomof4 @shireness-says @snidgetsafan @darkcolinodonorgasm @snowbellewells @stahlop​ @mariakov81​ @courtorderedcake​ @jonirobinson64​ @tiganasummertree​ @ohmightydevviepuu​ @shardminds​ @jennjenn615​ @superchocovian​ @teamhook​

On AO3

-

Operation Emma’s Christmas:

Killian Jones has been alive a very long time, and seen many strange and wondrous things. But none of them, from the spice markets of Agrabah to the snow-covered mountains of Arendelle to the hold of the Jolly Roger when it’s brimming with loot can, in his opinion, top the astounding treasure that is Google. He is awestruck by the notion of being able to ask any question he likes and having the answer appear within seconds. Emma tries to explain how anyone can put stuff on the internet and he can’t believe everything he reads, but he brushes her off. He knows how to separate fact from opinion and how to identify a reliable source, he tells her patiently. Among the many things they teach you in the Royal Navy. 

With the aid of the oracle Google, Killian learns all about this extraordinary realm he now calls home, enough so that he no longer finds himself adrift on a foggy sea when Emma and Henry make references to things he’s never heard of. He finds lists of movies he should watch and books he should read and the most influential songs of the 20th century, and he sets about watching and reading and listening to each one, with all the studious dedication of the keen young lieutenant he used to be, oh so many years ago now. 

“It’s kind of a shame we don’t do Christmas in Storybrooke,” says Emma wistfully one afternoon in mid-December, as they sit on the floor with their backs resting against the sofa watching Hope crawl around the living room. “Now that we have a kid. I mean, I had Henry before and we did Christmas in New York and in our fake memories, but… it’d be nice to do it here.” 

Killian is already on his phone consulting the oracle on the subject of Christmas. An annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world, he reads. He clicks on Images and scrolls through brightly decorated evergreen trees, houses draped in twinkling lights, giant-sized stockings hung above fireplaces and a very fat bearded man dressed in red. He makes a mental note to do more research when he gets back to the station and in the meantime looks up at where Emma and Hope are now playing patty cake. 

“Why can’t we?” he asks.

“Why can’t we what?” 

“Celebrate Christmas?” 

“Oh. I don’t know, I guess we’ve just never done it in Storybrooke.” Emma pauses, laughing as Hope leans in to pat her cheeks. “Because of the curse, I suppose.” 

“But knowledge of it is presumably part of this curse download that your family and all the residents who were brought here by Regina had, correct?” 

“I suppose so.” 

“Well, that surely means that they would wish to begin a new tradition, one that includes this festival?” he presses. 

“Oh, I don’t know, Killian.” Hope crawls into Emma’s lap and she cuddles the baby close. “I don’t want to make a big deal about it. It doesn’t matter.” 

But if there’s one thing Killian doesn’t require Google’s assistance to understand, it’s his wife. This Christmas business is clearly very important to her, and he intends to see that she gets the finest celebration of it that he has in his power to provide. 

—

Killian’s first step in Operation Emma’s Christmas is to enlist the aid of Henry and David. The prince to help him procure all the materials he needs, the lad to come up with a name better than “Operation Emma’s Christmas.” 

David comes through like the noble royal and loving father (in-law) that he is, but Henry, to Killian’s great chagrin, loves Operation Emma’s Christmas. “Straight and to the point,” he says. “Perfect.” 

Killian sighs, frowning at the back seat of David’s truck where his stepson sits typing something on his phone. The lad is so much more prosaic now that he’s discovered girls, he thinks, when really the opposite should be true. 

“Are you sure you can’t come up with something better?” he grumbles. 

“Nope.” Henry doesn’t even look up from his screen. Killian sighs again. 

“Don’t worry, Hook,” says David. “The operation will be a success, the name doesn’t matter. Actually, I’m really glad you thought of it. I’ve been intending to get a Christmas tradition going around here since Neal was born, but what with one thing and another—” 

“Never a quiet moment,” says Killian. “Aye.” 

“Well, we’ve got one now and we’re gonna make the most of it,” says David, pulling the truck over to the side of the road. The three of them get out and Killian catches his breath at the sight before him. They are standing above a wide, snowy valley, extending as far as the eye can see, liberally dotted with lush green fir trees. 

“Take your pick,” says David with a grin, pulling a large saw from the back of the truck. 

“Lad, I’m going to need your help for this,” says Killian. 

“Oh yeah,” says Henry. 

—

Once the trees are procured, their next stop is Regina’s house. She doesn’t look particularly pleased to see them, even less so when they explain their mission. 

“Christmas decorations?” she says in that scathing tone that still gets Killian’s hackles up, even though they’re technically friends now. 

“Yep,” says David, crossing his arms over his chest and giving her what Emma calls his ‘stern Dad’ look. “I have to assume that we never had Christmas in Storybrooke because you didn’t allow it under the curse. Am I wrong?” 

“No.” Regina has the grace to look abashed. “You’re not wrong.” 

“Well then. Don’t you think it’s time you rectified that?” 

“So you want me to what, just magic up some ornaments so you can decorate a tree for Emma?” 

“And for David and Snow,” says Killian. “And anyone else who wants one. I mean, decorations for the whole town would be best, but if that’s beyond your scope…” 

Regina sneers. “Let’s start with yours and Emma’s,” she says. 

—

Snow White is well known for her inability to keep a secret, and so they elect not to bring her in on Operation Emma’s Christmas. Instead Henry is tasked with distracting both her and his mother while ornaments are hung and lights strung at the respective Jones and Nolan households. David and Killian requisition walkie-talkies from the station and have far too much fun strategising and organising their decorating battle plans while Hope gurgles and Neal babbles mostly coherently in the background. 

It takes perhaps longer than it should, neither of them having any actual experience to draw on and needing to consult the oracle frequently, but in due course everything is ready and Killian sends Henry a text with the all-clear. 

He fidgets as he waits for Emma to return, fussing nervously with Hope’s tiny Santa hat as she gums at the pacifier stuck on the end of his hook—a red one for Christmas. He double-checks that all the lights are on and the ornaments hung just so, and all the parcels are stacked in a pleasing way beneath the tree. When he hears her at the door he snatches up the baby and positions them both in front of it all. 

“Killian, I’m—what the—” Emma’s face is a picture as she takes in the sight before her. The huge tree that Henry selected fills nearly half the room, and is covered in shiny red and green ornaments and sparkly lights, with a bright silver star at the top. Beneath it piles of presents sit wrapped in glossy paper and festooned with ribbon bows, and lined up along the mantelpiece are four huge stockings labelled Hope, Henry, Emma, and Killian. The effect, Killian hopes, is festive in the extreme, merry and jolly and everything Emma missed out on when she was growing up. 

“Merry Christmas, love,” he says. 

Emma turns in a slow circle, eyes wide and mouth agape. “But it’s—it’s only the 20th!” she says. 

“Aye, rather late. Google informs me that some people decorate their homes as early as the first of November. But we still have time to enjoy it, apparently the custom in many households is to leave the lights up until the sixth of Jan—oof!” He exhales sharply as Emma throws herself at him, one arm wrapping around his neck and the other cradling Hope’s head as she kisses him.

“I can’t believe you did all this,” she says, peppering his face with kisses. Hope gurgles indignantly and Emma kisses her as well. 

“Henry and your father helped. And Regina, as a matter of fact.” 

“But I bet it was your idea, wasn’t it?” She gives him a knowing look. 

“Aye, I confess it was.” 

“Because I mentioned in passing that it’s a shame we don’t do Christmas in Storybrooke?” 

“It was the way you mentioned it.”

“The way I mentioned it,” she echoes. 

He nods. “Aye. I sensed it was something you missed out on in your youth, and that you wanted Hope to have the experiences you lacked.”

Emma brushes her fingertips across his cheek, a soft smile on her face. “You sensed all that from me saying it might be nice to have Christmas here?” 

He grins and pulls her closer, shifting Hope so she is snuggled between them. “How many times must I tell you, my love, that you are an open book to me?”

She returns the grin, letting her forehead rest against his. “At least once more, I guess.” 

“As always.” 

-

[karenninaaa]

Iron Dad Bingo #1

AN: wheew! glad to finally cross out something after staring on that bingo card for days! i love this au so much so i took the liberty to play with this idea. also i love tony stark interacting with kids! there would probably be a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies but whatever.

Unbeta-ed Chapter.

enjoy!

Summary: In which, instead of Mr. Harrington, Mr. Stark was the head of the Decathlon team at Midtown Tech. 

(alternate events of Spider-Man Homecoming and Tony never recruited Spider-Man for Civil war. Though CW still happened (lets just fit everything within the timeline :D)) 

For Irondad Bingo:  Au: Teacher and Student

--

Chalk and Rebel

Peter could feel Mr. Stark’s piercing gaze at him. The science teacher and the head of the school’s Academic Decathlon Team remained quiet when Peter had broken out the news to his teacher that he couldn’t go to Washington for the Decathlon competition. He was sitting adjacent to Peter and arms crossed on his chest.

“Can’t you take one weekend off?” Finally, Mr. Stark asked sitting up straight. This time, he settled his one elbow on the desk. “It’s nationals. We’ve been preparing for this for weeks.”

“I-I’m sorry. I really can’t, Oscorp internship is really strict and-”

“If you were interning for Stark Industries, things like this wouldn’t be a problem.” Mr. Stark said shaking his head.

“W-wait, what’s happening?” Cindy, one of their decathlon teammates, asked. She was sitting behind the desk on the stage.

“Parker is not going to Washington because apparently, the internship was more important to him,” Flash said who was sitting at the far behind with his feet propped on a chair. He was holding their reviewer booklet.

“Flash,” Mr. Stark called in warning not bothering to look at him.

“You can’t really go, Pete?” Abraham asked who was sitting next to Cindy.

“Really? Right before the Nationals?” Liz was standing behind a podium. Dismay was evident in her voice.

“He already quit the marching band and robotics club.” Michelle piped in from the corner of the stage. All heads turned in her direction.

“I’m not obsessed with him, just very observant.” Michelle defended.

“Flash, you’re in for Peter.” Liz glanced back at Flash.

“Oh, I don’t know, I have to check my calendar first. I’ve got a hot date with Black Widow coming up.” Flash answered looking down at his booklet.

Abraham rang his doorbell. “That is false, right Mr. Stark?”

“I’m not quite sure about that, I haven’t seen Widow in a while and why did I tell you about abusing of the bell?” Mr. Stark said then turned to Peter. He relented. “Fine, you may not go but it would be such a shame that you wouldn’t be with us. This kind of competition just happened once in a while you know.”

Peter’s eyes wandered on the stage where his best friend sat. Ned Leeds was looking back at him. Ned was the only one who knew the real reason why Peter couldn’t go to the competition.

Three days ago, Spider-Man discovered a group of robbers stealing in a bank one night. They were using weirdly looking and enhanced weapons. Unfortunately, they got away after Spider-Man chose to save Mr. Delmar’s bodega that had been hit by the said tech. However, they might have gotten away but a piece of tech fell out from that weapon. Ned was holding that tech for safekeeping since his best friend was the only person who knew his gig as Spider-Man. And now, Peter was going to use the weekend to track down those robbers. The whole Oscorp internship was obviously a lie because he quit the internship months ago when he had gotten so busy being Spider-Man.

Peter felt bad for lying to Mr. Stark. After all, Mr. Stark was the coolest teacher he ever had. He remembered freezing in his seat when Mr. Stark casually strolled into the classroom and introduced himself as their new science teacher. He remembered feeling giddy, because the person he had been idolizing his entire life, was standing in front of him and whom he could now see every day.

--

“Can’t you just ask Mr. Stark about the glowy thing? Maybe he can help you out or something?” Ned whispered to Peter as they walked through the hallway full of students milling around.

“I just couldn’t bother him with that,” Peter glanced at Ned. “He’s probably so busy being a teacher, Iron Man, and an Avenger.”

“It’s just that, he’s always feet away from you most of the time. He’s got a lot of resources. You could probably ask him for tips about this whole superhero-ing.”

“But, I got you,” Peter smiled at him. “My guy in the chair?”

“Oh stop that,” Ned waved his hand at him in dismissal, though he was visibly pleased with the title.

“See you later okay? Same time?” Peter said.

“Fine and bring some chips on your way to my house later,” Ned replied.

“You got it.”

--

In all honesty, Peter had a lot of questions.Often times, he would find himself faltering on his way out of the classroom as everybody had dispersed out and he was the only one remaining standing next to the desk. There was one time when Tony Stark was erasing the writings on the whiteboard and Peter was dumbly standing there. He should be leaving but the things that he wanted to ask Mr. Stark left him rooted to his spot, things that he didn’t know how to voice out loud. Tony turned around and paused when he saw Peter was still there.

“Mr. Parker.” Tony put down the eraser on the table. “Is there something wrong? Or do you have questions about our earlier lesson?”

How do you deal with bad guys and still looked cooler?

Where are you getting that huge amount of courage when facing life-threatening situations? Cause I still get scared most of the time.

How do you deal with failure when things had gone wrong in a mission? Have you ever failed? Cause you looked like someone who did things in perfection.

How to be a great superhero like you?

“N-nothing, Mr. Stark, t-the lesson was great, I learned a lot today.”

“Well, that was the goal.” Tony sat on the edge of the table crossing his arms. “And because of that, I expect you to be ready for our quiz tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

Tony nodded. Peter was about to walk away when he paused once again. Instead of asking the questions that had been swimming in his head, he asked a different one.

“Mr. Stark?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you suddenly become a teacher?”

“I need a change of pace.” That was all his teacher had said. He glanced at the window. Rays of sunlight were seeping through the window making Tony’s brown eyes appeared to be lighter. For one second, Peter could see his teacher’s tired and worn out eyes. There seemed to be more wrinkles on the side of his eyes. He looked sad and resigned. Another question popped in Peter’s head, a question that would probably stay unanswered.

--

“I told you they’re gonna come back!” Spider-Man was swinging through the buildings chasing a gray truck zigzagging on the street.

“Yep, but the cops are moving too slow. Your bad guys are quick and smart. Are you closing in on them?” He heard Ned answered through the Bluetooth earpiece under his mask. His phone was on the pocket of his red hoodie, his improvised costume. Well, not everyone was as reach as Tony Stark to make cool superhero outfit. Meanwhile, Ned had a walkie-talkie that was intercepting the signals of other walkie-talkies used by the cops. That was how they were able to get some news from NYPD.

“I am!” Another web shot out from his webshooter. It hit the wall of a building nearby. Spider-Man made a great swing like a pendulum and landed on the rooftop. He ran and used his web to leap off another building. “And I would never let them get away. They were our only shot on knowing the source of their weapons.”

Spider-Man had been chasing the same robbers who were using enhanced weapons. They successfully robbed another bank. They immediately fled before Spider-Man could even reach the scene. When he was sure that no one got harmed on the scene, he switched to plan B and the chase was on.

As Ned had predicted, the robbers lost the cops. Spider-Man continued to tail them until they reached an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the borough. The truck went into the warehouse as he quietly sneaked in by crawling on the wall. The robbers, seven in total, climbed down the car whooping in joy because of their successful heist.

Spider-Man crawled in closer to them but not close enough that he would be noticed.

“This is awesome!” Robber no.1 guffawed. “I can’t believe those idiot cops fell for our bait.”

“But of course,” Robber no. 2 piped in. “This wouldn’t be possible without our babies.” He patted affectionately the weapon he was holding. It looked like a shotgun but bulkier and instead of bullets, it was shooting off a laser beam that could cut through almost anything. Spider-Man had witnessed how it worked earlier.

Another roar of laughter echoed among them.

“Hey, have you heard that boss is going to Maryland for another heist?” Robber no.3 said to Robber no.4.

“Is that at Crain Highway? I’ve heard some of them talking about it.” Robber no. 4 said. “It would be fun if we could join that heist. It is going to be one of our biggest heists so far!”

“Maryland huh?” Spider-Man mused as he crouched on the steel frame of the ceiling looking down at the robbers.

“That was too far,” Ned said.

“But not too far from Washington,” Peter supplied.

“I think I know what you’re thinking,” Ned replied.

“Yep, we can’t let these bad guys pulled off another heist,” Peter said. “But first off, let’s web these people up.”

And so Spider-Man leaped in action.

Soon, patrol cars surrounded the warehouse. The cops had found the robbers webbed up in different areas of the warehouse. Another cop had found a letter from Spider-Man webbed on the wall, letting them know that they were the robbers from the earlier heist.

--

Peter jogged towards the bus that was parked on the school grounds. Their bus wasn’t your ordinary yellow school bus. It was a private air-conditioned bus owned by Tony Stark. Once Tony had a full look of the bus they’re going to use for their future out of town decathlon competitions, it only took three seconds for him to decide to replace the school’s old and cranky bus with a luxury one, with built-in speakers and fully automated system run by Tony’s very own AI, Friday. His decathlon teammates were lounging next to the bus with their luggage.

Tony Stark climbed down the bus clapping his hands and calling the attention of the students. “Alright guys, it’s time-”

“Hey, it’s Peter!” Abraham cut in and pointed at Peter. Everyone looked in his direction

Tony Stark turned and saw Peter approaching them. He smiled at the teen.

“I-I was hoping I could rejoin to the team. . .” Peter said.

Flash walked up to him. “No way! You can’t just quit on us and strolled up and be welcome back.”

“Actually, he can,” Tony butted in. He patted Peter’s shoulder. “Welcome back, Pete and Flash you’re back on being the first alternate. Come on guys, let’s all get into the bus.”

When they reached their destination, the group walked through the lobby of the hotel where they would stay for the night.

“Wow, this place is huge!” Charles marveled looking around.

“Kids, stick together,” Tony instructed as he talked to the facilitators of the event sitting behind the desk.

Soon, Tony gave them their keys to their designated room. Ned and Peter were roommates and retreated to their room. Later that night, Peter suited up. He wore another hood and jeans to hide his suit.

“Just ring me up if something happens,” Ned said who was sitting on the bed. “Be careful.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best to be back before the competition starts.” Then he headed out of the room. “Keep the glowy thing safe. That would be our evidence.”

Ned nodded picking up the purple glowing stone on the table.

Peter closed the door behind. He sneaked through the quiet and dimly lit hallway. He made another turn around the corner. “Shit!” He cursed under his breath. He backtracked immediately and hid behind the wall.

Peter slowly poked his head from his hiding spot. Tony Stark was walking towards his direction. Thankfully, Tony hadn’t seen Peter yet since he was looking down on the phone on his hand. Peter leaned back on the wall and took a deep breath. He looked at the railing on his left. He took a few steps back. Then he ran straight to the railing and jumped off. Web shot out and stuck on the railing. Gravity took over. Peter twisted around and swung towards the floor below. He safely landed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark paused and looked up. He blinked on the empty hallway.

--

Peter hitched a ride on a car carrier truck towards his destination. At first, he thought that he had gotten lost along the way. He reached his destination and jumped off the truck a while back and was walking along the darkened road. He stopped at a gas station and crawled towards the roof of an abandoned bodega.

Peter looked around and muttered. “Is this really the place or the Google maps is wrong?”

It was then that three trucks came lined up together. Suddenly out of the sky, something with huge wings came down. Thanks to Peter’s enhanced senses, despite the darkness of the area, he easily figured out that it was a human with mechanical wings harnessed to him.

“Oh, that’s the boss!” Peter straightened up, more alert.

Big Bird anchored himself to the truck that was on the rear. He dropped down and disappeared inside the truck leaving his wings strapped to the roof of it. Peter swung towards the truck to investigate.

He also dropped on the roof and looked closely. The roof had gotten a rectangular hole thanks to the small stones placed on 4 corners.

“Woah cool, this looked like some kind of a matter phase shifter!” Peter said in quiet awe.

When the masked man emerged from the hole, he dropped the bag on the roof to retrieve the stones. That was Peter’s opportunity to web up the bag pulling it towards him.

“Hey, Big bird this doesn’t belong to you!” Spider-Man quipped.

Big bird turned to him with green glowing eyes. He growled at Spider-Man.

“Oh, god,” Spider-Man said, a bit startled by his eyes.

Big bird attached himself to his wings, retracting his strap anchors. He flew towards Spider-Man. Spider-Man ducked down and stepped back. He shot Big Bird with his web but the latter dodged it. He charged at Spider-Man again, taking the bag from him with his feet claws. There was a tug-of-war between them as no one wanted to let go of the bag. Then, Big Bird kicked the bag and letting it go. Spider-Man toppled backward and into the hole. He fell with a thud inside the truck. He immediately stood up and was about to jump off the hole again but ended up banging his head unto the concrete metal roof.

Spider-Man blacked out.

--

Ned Leeds was already dressed and pacing back and forth in his room. It was already morning and Peter was not yet back. He tried calling him but Peter wasn’t answering the phone. He was worried about Peter’s status and also about what alibi he was going to tell the team, especially to Mr. Stark about why Peter was missing.

“Ned? Peter?” Liz knocked on their door. “Come on guys, we’re gonna be late!”

“Y-yeah! Coming,” Ned stuttered. He quickly grabbed his bag and the glowy thing on the bed and headed out.

--

Peter woke up with a dull pain on his head. He guessed that he had a mild concussion from hitting his head earlier.

“Ugh, my head?” He groaned and observed his surroundings. He was surrounded by metal cages containing junk techs. “Wait, where am I?” The gears on his brain started to turn. “Wait, they must have hijacked the truck and had taken it to their evil lair.”

“I must find a way out of this one.” He briefly stared on the wall ahead. He squared his shoulder and ran straight to the wall. With his superhuman strength, the wall broke. Spider-Man rolled on the ground. He stood up in a fighting stance.

Spider-Man blinked. The place didn’t look like an evil lair. It looked like a huge storage warehouse with rows and stacks of huge container boxes in it.

“W-where am I?” He turned around to get some clue as to where he was. He paused. On the wall, there was a huge DODC-VO5 written.

“DODC?” He muttered. Then it dawned on him. “Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Am I in a Department of Damage Control facility now?”

--

Tony Stark gathered his student in the backstage. Any second from now, his students would be called to be on stage and the competition would start.

“So, guys,” Tony said to them. “No pressure, alright? Just enjoy the competition.”

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Abraham said. “If we win this one, pizza is on you, yeah?”

“Sure,” Tony said without missing a beat. “We’re gonna have a celebration party if you win.”

That seemed to boost up the team’s morale as they cheered upon hearing the news. He looked at everyone and noticed something.

“Ned,” He called a certain teen. The teen was hiding behind Charles and was quiet the whole time.

“Y-yeah, Mr. Stark?” Ned answered peeking from Charles’ back.

“Where is Peter Parker? You two are roommates.” Tony asked.

All the team’s attention was now on Ned who was fidgeting with his yellow coat.

“I-I don’t know, Mr. Stark. . .” Ned answered.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tony frowned.

“He sneaked out last night, said that he was going to study in the business center and he didn’t come back.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?!”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. . .”

“The next team that will participate in this year’s Decathlon competition is from Midtown School of Science and Technology!” They could hear the emcee speaking from the stage.

The team was quiet and seemingly didn’t know what to do about their teammate’s sudden absence.

“Flash, you’re up on Peter’s place.” Tony finally decided.

Flash punched the air in delight.

“Come on guys, Go on stage.” Tony forced an encouraging smile on them. “Go kick some butts!”

He continued to smile at them as the team disappeared on the stage. That was when Tony’s smile slipped off. Peter Parker was many things. He was hella smart for his age that sometimes, Tony couldn’t help but to remember his youth when he was Peter’s age. He was aware that the kid had potentials, potentials that could take him anywhere he wanted. Yet, it was the same potentials that were giving Tony Stark an incoming headache.

--

Peter’s first thought when he reached the 246th sequence trial on overriding the time lock of the storage vault was, he wouldn’t make it to the Decathlon competition. He still didn’t know how he would explain it to Mr. Stark and not get into any trouble. He tried calling Ned earlier but a secured facility like this; he should have known that the signals would be jammed. Though, getting in trouble with his teacher was for later problems to brood over, when there was an even bigger problem before him. He just couldn’t wait for the vault to open up later or for who knows how long, so he took it in his own hands to find a solution.

Somehow, he managed to find a way to navigate through the wirings of the time lock. He used his scientific calculator and wired it to the circuit to control the system. He needed some sort of password to open up the vault so far, he was on 246th combination of the code and probably counting.

“Right, here’s 247th trial. . .” He punched in the codes on the calculator.

To his surprise, the door slid up and opened.

“Oh my god! It worked!”

--

The Midtown tech team cheered as they exited the auditorium hall. They won the national, thanks to their group effort, especially to Michelle Jones who gave the answer on the Sudden Death Round. The group was taking pictures when Ned checked the phone that was given back to him after the competition. There were 5 missed calls from Peter. Then his phone rang. Peter was calling.

“Peter!” Ned hissed walking away from the group. Unknown to him, Tony Stark was looking at him.

“Where were you?” Ned continued when he reached an empty and short hallway. “You completely missed the decathlon, we won! We’re still here at the building.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I got locked up at the Damage Control facility-”

“What?”

“Yeah, long story, I’m just gonna tell you afterward. I’m on my way back there. How’s the glowy thing?

“It’s safe, it’s in my pocket-”

“Hey,” A voice came from behind Ned.

Ned turned around putting down his phone. There were two unknown guys standing before him. They were tall and bulkier and had a menacing look on their faces. And when Ned looked down, he could see a gun peeking out underneath the jacket of one of them. Though, Ned was sure that both were armed. How did they get in despite the security, he didn’t know.

“Ned?” Peter was still on the line. Ned dropped the phone on the ground.

“Where’s the gem?” The guy with long hair and cap asked stepping forward.

“W-what gem?” Ned stepped back.

Long hair dude raised a small rectangular machine. There was a red and blue light on it and it was beeping. “This thing is reading high energy signatures from you. You have the gem.”

It must be the glowy thing, they were after. Ned thought. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ned continued to step back.

“Alright, you die or you’re gonna give us the gem.” The other man, the bald man, fished out his gun and pointed it at Ned.

Ned was frozen in his spot in fear.

“Hey!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening shockwave that momentarily paralyzed the two men, even Ned. Then there was a blinding light. Ned got yanked away by someone, away from the men.

When Ned returned to his senses, he looked up and saw Tony Stark was dragging him away.

“M-Mr. Stark!”

“Who are they and why they were after you?”

Before Ned could answer, gunshots echoed. Tony and Ned ducked down. People around them started to scream in panic and ran away.

“Shit.” Tony pushed Ned into the corner, into the safety. “Stay there!”

Tony stood up and tapped his chest twice. Blue light glowed in his chest as the detachable arc reactor underneath his shirt activated. Nanites seeped through the fabric and spread around his body. His nanite mask covered his face, eyes glowing blue.

“Fuck, that was Iron Man!”

“Hell yes, that was me.” Tony flew towards them, his hand repulsor aimed at them. However, to his surprise, the bad guy whipped up his weapon and shot off a purple laser beam. Tony raised both his arms shooting off a similar laser beam. Two laser beams collided. When the energy of collision was too much, it exploded throwing both parties away. Though, Iron Man immediately regained his stance. There was thick smoke everywhere. The fire alarm was blaring. His students were still there and could be in danger. A lot of civilians could get hurt

So Iron Man flew straight to the smoke, using the smoke as a cover. He knocked down the weapon from the bad guy’s hand. Then he grabbed hold of the two of them and went straight to the nearby window. The glass shattered as Iron Man flew out of the window. He dropped the bad men unto the lawn and aimed his repulsor at them again. The two men remained laying on the ground as Iron Man hovered over them.

“So, why you guys are after a kid?”

Friday was doing a facial scan on them but none of them were on FBI’s wanted list, which confused Tony even more.

They remained quiet even though, fright was evident on their faces.

“Oh, so we’re playing bad cop and good cop here? I don’t have all day.” Iron Man fired his repulsor above their heads.

“W-we’re after the gem! The kid has it!” The bald man replied hastily, shaking in fear. “Please don’t kill us!”

“What gem? What is it for?” Iron Man asked.

Before Iron Man could get anything from them, there was an explosion from the building where they had come from. Iron Man glanced back at the building. There was smoke coming out of it and a huge chunk of wall was starting to collapse from the third floor. There were civilians down below right where the wall could drop and crash them.

“Fri, what the hell happened there?”

“An exposed Chitauri core has detonated,” Friday said. “A section of the wall was about to fall off.”

“I’m not done with you.” That was all Iron Man said as he flew away from them and towards the building.

--

As Spider-Man reached the building where his teammates were, all he could think was, his best friend was in danger, because of the glowy thing he entrusted him with. He webbed up his backpack somewhere as he ran towards the auditorium hall. They must somewhere near there. He used the Fire Exit staircase to reach his destination. He was on the second round of stairs when he heard a gunshot.

He froze. Then he started to imagine the worst. He swung his way up faster.

The Fire Exit door burst opened. People ran for the stairs against Spider-Man’s direction. Spider-Man fought his way against the tide. Then there was a sound of an explosion.

“Excuse me, coming through!” Spider-Man shouted dodging people left and right.

But then when he reached the floor, Smoke was everywhere and Iron-Man zipped past him holding two men towards the window and out of it.

“Holy shit, what the-!” Spider-Man was flabbergasted.

“Spider-Man!”

He turned to see Ned running to him.

“Ned! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine!” Ned answered which was to Peter’s relief. Then Ned fished out the glowy thing from the pocket of his coat. The glowy thing was brighter. Ned continued hastily. “There were two guys who were after this. I don’t know, they were able to track this thing. Then Tony Stark came and saved me.”

“I know,” Peter said. “I’m sorry, you almost got in danger because of that and because of me. Give me that.”

“It’s alright.” Ned gave him the stone. “Wait, is just me or the glowy thing was hotter than usual?”

Peter accepted the stone and Ned was right. It felt like the stone was burning in his hand. His glove was started to blacken. Ned looked at Peter in panic. It mirrored Peter’s expression.

“Get back!” Spider-Man shouted. “All of you get back!”

“W-what are you going to do?” Ned asked stepping back. Some of the people listened to Spider-Man as well and some were even more confused as to what was really happening.

Spider-Man turned around. He threw the stone to the wall next to the shattered window and webbed it up. He coated it with a lot of webs until it looked like a white cocoon.

“This better works,” Spider-Man muttered.

Soon, the cocoon glowed purple. Spider-Man stared at it and so were the civilians and authorities who were on the scene. As if all of them were anticipating on what was going to happen next.

Then, there was a blinding purple light that they all had to cover their eyes. Afterward, there was another sound of an explosion. People screamed.

The light was gone. And when Spider-Man looked up there were cracks on the wall, quickly spreading out like a web. Moments later a huge chunk of the wall started to fall off outwards. Spider-Man webbed up the wall. With all his might, he pulled it in. He couldn’t let it fall back when there were civilians down below.

He pulled harder, his feet sliding on the floor. Suddenly, the chunk of wall moved inward easily without even Spider-Man’s effort.

“What?” Spider-Man let go of the web as the wall fell on the ground with a thud.

Iron-Man was floating right outside the hole. Everyone cheered.

--

Tony Stark had enough as he watched the news of the earlier incident in Washington on the holographic screen in his lab at Avengers Compound. Fortunately, no one had gotten hurt from the incident. Thanks to Iron Man and Spider-Man’s immediate rescue. The news believed that it was rogue shooters who just wanted to wreak havoc in the place. Their faces were now on the wanted list and the authorities were searching for them.

Then he gazed at another holographic screen where the feats of Spider-Man showed. He should have talked to that young vigilante sooner. He should have come to Peter Parker before he got himself killed in one of his adventures.

He knew for a while that Peter Parker was the one under the mask. After all, he was keeping tabs on people with potentials who could be trained as an Avenger.

Peter Parker was the reason why Tony Stark chose Midtown Tech to teach, so he could keep an eye on him and see for himself what the kid was like when he wasn’t playing hero.

Well, what he had discovered about him exceeded all his expectations.

Peter Parker was the kind of kid who refused to pick up a fight with his bullies. Instead, he avoided it when he could have easily won the fight because of his abilities. He was this bright spirited boy who could easily be awed by simple things. There were so much wonder and curiosity dancing in his eyes and who was so eager to know more about the world. He was this kind of kid who would not hesitate to step forward and help when no one would and could. There were just so many things ahead of him and Tony could see all of that.

That was probably why he hesitated to recruit him for Avengers.

There was a future waiting for him and Tony didn’t want to steal it from the kid. So he remained quiet and watched from the distance instead.

But he couldn’t watch now when he discovered, thanks to Ned’s phone he hacked down earlier when the kid was on stage competing, that the kid was actively chasing criminals that used junks from Chitauri’s as weapons. Peter had disappeared last night to do another chase. Tony was also aware of Peter’s lie about Oscorp’s internship, but he initially didn’t know why the kid couldn’t join. And for whatever reason, he came back and Tony learned the reason why later on.

Tony reached for his mug of black coffee on the table and sipped. He was about to put it down when a hand reached for his mug instead.

He looked up to see Pepper smiling down at him.

“Hey, hon.” Tony smiled back.

“You’re watching him again,” Pepper noted as she sat on the armrest of the chair Tony was sitting on. She sipped on the mug and blanched at the bitter taste of it. His fiancée was the type who put lots of cream on her coffee.

“I swear, that kid is gonna kill himself sooner or later.” Tony leaned back on the chair. Pepper leaned on him as she put her arm on the top of the backrest of the chair. She crossed her legs resting the mug on it.

“I told you, you should mentor him so he would know how not to kill himself with his little adventures,” Pepper said.

Tony looked up. “Do you think I’d be a good mentor?”

“You are a teacher now at his school, do you really need to ask me that?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“That was different,” Tony argued.

“Oh, how different?”

“Being a teacher was easier because you’ll gonna spout things that came from a book but mentoring someone to be a hero? I don’t think I have the right qualifications for that. You knew I screwed up far more many times that I could actually count on this superhero business.”

“Oh, Tony,” Pepper put down the mug on the table and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. Tony leaned into her as he rested his head on her stomach.

“Yes, you screwed up a lot of times but you are also the type of hero that always fights for what was right and doing your damn best to protect this vulnerable place. And I think that was the most important thing of all. So get your ass up and just mentor the kid, the kid needs someone who could guide him, that job will suit you.”

Tony closed his eyes and smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that Pepper stood up. “I’ll just be in my office.” Then she paused when she had noticed the papers and notes laid haphazardly on the table. “What are those?”

“That, my love, is my lesson plan for next week and test papers that I haven’t checked yet. But first off, I have to be somewhere.” He stood up.

Soon, Iron Man flew into the night sky.

Iron Man set his course to Peter’s apartment. He wasn’t even nearing his destination when Tony saw something he truly didn’t expect nor imagine happening.

Tony didn’t expect to see Peter Parker on the way, falling from the sky, a hundred feet to the ground and falling at a speed that could totally kill him on impact without something that would slow down his descent.

There was a screeching sound from the sky. Tony looked at the source of the sound. His night vision scan could see a man with mechanical wings. Tony had a lot of questions as usual, like how the kid had gotten himself in the air and been thrown down by a mechanical devil out of nowhere. But questions could wait; he had a spiderling to save first. After all, spiders couldn’t fly.

Tony dived down towards Peter’s direction increasing his thrusters. As he neared him, he could hear Peter screaming.

Iron Man zoomed in and grabbed Peter before he could hit the lagoon. The mechanic teacher made a loop in the sky before changing his flight course towards the Avengers Compound instead.

--

“So, uh, you knew the whole time that I was Spider-Man?” Peter asked in a small voice as he played with his mask. He was sitting on the couch of Tony’s lab.

Tony was looking down at him with arms crossed on his chest. “You know that wasn’t the issue right now, you could have gotten died! What-why are you even up in the air?!” He threw his hands in the air.

The kid, again, was a lot of things and one of them was giving Tony a consistent migraine, vertigo, aneurysm and all other kinds of headache. The mentoring wasn’t even starting and Tony’s hair was starting to turn gray quickly.

“The guy with wings threw me down. I was chasing bad guys then he swooped in and dropped me on a hundred feet.” Peter explained.

Tony took a deep breath. “That’s it! I am going to mentor you if you’re so sure about this career path and please remove that onesies, you’re going to have a new suit.”

And all Peter could say was, “W-what?”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned around. “Friday, unlock 16-A.”

At the far end of the lab, the wall shifted and slid open. A big glass transparent cylinder emerged. Inside the cylinder was a new Spider-Man suit. Tony walked to the cylinder. He glanced at Peter who remained frozen in his seat with wide eyes staring at the suit.

“Your new suit.” Tony knocked on the cylinder for emphasis.

Peter finally stood up as he walked in a daze towards the cylinder, still staring at it.

“T-that’s mine?” Peter asked stopping in front of the cylinder.

“I just said that,”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!”

What surprised Tony, even more, was when Peter hugged him. He froze on the spot while the kid squeezed the oxygen out of him.

“This is so cool!” Peter exclaimed pulling away. “I have a new suit and Mr. Stark is going to mentor me! You’re not just going to be my science teacher. This is the best moment of my life! I have an awesome mentor and dope suit. Oh my god!”

And with that, Tony had a fleeting thought that maybe mentoring this kid wasn’t going to be that bad after all.

[atlantisking]

( this is all i have to show for it, - i blurred my name out - but tbh i’m a wuss and after signing a contract on not leaking things, i didn’t want to lift my camera high enough to people to even have the doubt that i might be taking photos because i don’t want to be sued by WB thank you very much... the second photo i posted before, but the significance of the corner of that white tent is that it was literally the tent where Gal was changing from scene to scene. our little open tent was right next to hers where we could sit if we wanted and we had a monitor, that’s pictured, where we could watch what the actual scene looks like filmed, but most of the time we’d rather walk to the side of the set to watch it live )

anyway... so this will be vague and spoiler free because what’s fun about already knowing some big twists before you’ve even seen it? okay like i don’t know the biggest twists either, but we were shown some definite spoilers. the only person i talked to about this in fuller detail was husband, because i trust him not to tell anyone, but tbh even to him i said things where he said ‘i didn’t want to know that!’ so yeah i’ll be vague.

if you don’t know what my job is, this is probably weird, but for those who do, they probably understand why i got so lucky to go to the set. so my morning was really crap as i’m sure you’ve seen from my post, i had to be at the studio by 10am, so i actually picked a really early train that would get me there just after 9 so i’m definitely not late. but life wanted to fuck with me, so when i got to the train station they immediately cancelled the train i needed to take, and then shortly after the train that was half an hour later as well to make sure i definitely don’t get there on time. so immediate stress at 7 in the morning. but i wasn’t gonna give up, so i went to the other train station in town to get an alternate route. i live about 40 minutes outside of london to the south west, whereas the studio is on the north of london. so through my alternate route i got to london by 9 but by train getting to the studio would’ve been another 1,5 hours, so i sprinted to the taxis and jumped in the first one and wow that’s expensive and let’s never do that again (at least i can claim it back from work), but the guy at least got me there by 9:57 so... success. although i left my hat in the taxi but fuck it...

i was given passes for myself and my fellow visitors, who arrived not long after me and we went inside a place that i think they call the war room, but i might be saying bollocks anyway, this room is full of pictures categorised by the main themes and chapters of the film, all having photos that you probably have seen and many that you haven’t. even to us they blocked out the last few chapters just so we still get a lot of surprises when we watch the film. what can i say, once again everything looks gorgeous. after that we were given the contracts to sign so yeah i keep repeating i won’t say anything even remotely spoilery here...

our next stop was the costume department, we actually saw lindy hem.ming for a very short moment where she said hi before we were given a tour from another member responsible for the costumes. the room we were led to had some of the main outfits on mannequins with accessories next to them spread out on a table and pictures of the costumes in action behind them. obviously the first one was the iconic ww costume, redone for this film, as we have already seen it’s a lot more colourful and we got to touch it and wonder tbh at the fact that it all looks like metal but the materials they work with are super light. the inventiveness for replacing materials is really cool, we have been given many examples that are more spoilery. fun fact, because of wear and tear, the main costume they have made about twenty of. i have seen the outfit from that image of steve tre.vor with the fanny pack and the black jogging outfit, and some outfits of pedro pas.cal’s character, and some bar.bara mine.rva things but i won’t go into detail. we were in awe already tbh and then we had a short visit to the workshop where they create and mould some of the armours and weapons.

then we were moving on to visiting some of the sets, we walked past some extras already dressed up in full on 80′s style, the attention to detail is amazing but i could say that every two seconds, like you can get why it takes so long to make a film, because they really think of every small bit that you might never notice because it’s gone in a second, but it’s there. so we visited the set of diana’s workplace which i can’t remember if it was revealed yet so i won’t say it, but because they weren’t filming there, the light were taken to somewhere else so it was literally pitch black, we had to use our phones to light our way. but when you walk onto set, it’s like you just travelled through time and space and you find yourself in a different world... we also got to see diana’s office there. you could look through her bookshelf, see what she’s working on, some artefacts lying around... it’s indescribable. then we went onto see her apartment! fun fact, the actual apartment they found in the US but then they built the interior in the WB studio, so in the film when you’ll see her out on the balcony, that’s in the states, she walks inside and suddenly she’s in the UK in that studio. once again we could walk through her rooms, see some files she’s been working on left on the coffee table... it was really cool, i’m just fangirling really. fun fact, because there’s only one shot in her bedroom (i don’t think that’s a terrible spoiler), they actually didn’t build the right wall so we walked through there.

we then saw some stunt doubles doing a fight scene with the cgi dots on their faces so later they can add the actors’ faces. saw some scenes where people were slammed through walls and such, very intense!

then came the even more surreal part, got in cars to drive to the back lot, our cars just slowed to a stop when a woman ran across the road towards a set nearby, we only saw her back but we already knew it was pat.ty jen.kins. so we walked up there and were introduced and once again sorry, won’t describe the scene but film sets are the coolest... of course there are massive blue screens around, as far as the street scene goes, they create the perfect atmosphere for a foreign country. then walking on the set, ready to film was suddenly gal... so tall and beautiful, full of smiles and a nice word for everyone, she is a literal sunshine like her energy is absolutely infectious i can’t even describe but you can’t help but for in love with her at least for a few seconds. she was in full hair and make up, wearing the tiara but with a purple dressing gown because it wasn’t that warm so she would freeze to death running around in that tiny costume otherwise. then the filming began and i have to say, it might seem glamorous but it’s the slowest process and you need real patience for it. we saw really small scenes being filmed without dialogue, but even these moments that won’t be longer than 5 seconds in the film, take hours to create. every scene has to be set up, so pat.ty sat up the angles and what she’d like to see, then they rehearse with the extras a couple of times, every single time they have to reset cameras and rearrange the terrain and make sure everything looks the same as it was at the start of the take. then with simple scenes the actor comes along and again they do the take at least five times or until pat.ty is happy with the result. we saw a scene filmed where it was literally just diana walks into the shot, looks around, looks at a tv then runs off. and that over and over again.

then if it includes some kind of stunt, same process, but they first test it with stunt double, they rehearse with her for like five times to perfect the shot and then gal comes along and she does it however many times it takes. in this case it was just her doing a running jump, involving a harness and cables as she leaps up into the air. but once again you can’t not love her... the way she laughs and has fun take after take, like you can’t fake that, but i don’t want to gush.

we had lunch sometime inbetween takes, the whole massive maze of a set is so impressive and surreal, you have all these extras in full costume and make up, then all the set team members with their walky talkies looking very important, but let me say everyone is so damn nice. the amount of people it takes to create these scenes is insane from people who rake the terrain to the assistant director to the camera man to the five dudes to push and pull the camera for dynamic shots to people who operate these big construction vehicles to put lights and blue screens in place... i kind of suddenly really wanted to be a part of this massive family, but at the same time this is literally their life, up like 5 in the morning and not stopping until who knows how long...

then gal was whisked away to a different set for further hair and make up, but the sight of wond.er wo.man with the beautiful flowing hair and tiara, dressed in a grey tracksuit is pretty weird and hilarious. so then for a while we watched a scene being filmed with just extras a crowd scene that’s all i’m saying. then at that point it was very near 4pm so... it’s been a long day, but before we would leave, we were invited to walk over to another set not too far away, and suddenly we were once again in a different country, a different street. dry ice has been working like crazy to give the street a misty look and a handful of extras were practising what direction to run in and when. gal was there once again, being her lovely self, waiting as they practised, and at one point i turned around, i don’t even know why, but i saw a black car half to a stop and saw this tall blonde man get out of it, and the realisation came that it was ch.ris pi.ne and tbh by that point everyone was pretty chill about being around gal, you get used to it, but then suddenly everyone was star struck once again just watch him walk up to us and say hi and casually chatting while two people started to wire him up for the scene so they can record his dialogue, so... it’s hard not to stare at least a little when they’re hiking his trousers and t-shirt up to place these wires........... then when they were ready we watched one take of that scene, can’t describe it, that’s probably the most spoilery out of all of them and then it was time to go home.

seven hours we spent on set and it was damn amazing, even if it’s tiring to just sit around and watch, trust me it is, it’s lot better to actually do something, it’s really hard to let go and leave. not one part was disappointing, everyone was so lovely and nice and i can’t wait to see these scenes on the big screen and think ‘I was standing around in the background when they shot those!’

tbh once again on my way home my day had to be framed by crap because kings cross tube station was closed because of fire, so i had to walk to euston where suddenly the crowd was insane because everyone from kings cross moved over there so travel was not straightforward, but the memories i made......... i still really wanna work on a film set now........

[bxcketbarnes]

Strange Occurrences | Part Two

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Author: @ninja-stiles

Words: 4304

Author’s Note: Hello hello, again. I’m going to be completely honest here. This part is lonnnnnng, but cute? I think it’s so adorable cute and Steve is a big ole cutie, so yeah. :) I hope you guys enjoy it and as always, my ask box is open for requests! Tagging @honeymoonmuke because she told me too when I posted this xD

I sat on my bed after getting dropped off, my mind preoccupied with the strange events that happened tonight and Steve. I’ve heard that he was an asshole and then he changed when he dropped his “friends”, Tommy and Carol. I grabbed my school bag, taking my sketchbook out and a pencil, beginning to mindlessly draw.

I bite my lip when I realized I was drawing Steve, blushing a bit, glad that no one could see me because that’d be embarrassing. Haven’t even known him for that long and you’re already falling for him? Who am I? After finishing the quick sketch, looking at it, smiling to myself. I placed the book on the desk next to my bed before sliding under the covers, switching off the lamp as I try to get some sleep.

Rapid knocking on my door jolted me from my sleep, sitting up quickly as I squinted. Sunlight shone into my room, running my fingers through my hair as I got out of bed, cracking my door open, seeing my sister standing on the other side of it. “What is it?” I asked groggily, rubbing my left eye.

“There’s a boy outside asking for you,” Audrey smirked, wiggling her eyebrows as my eyes widened, closing the door quickly before running to the other side of my room. I whipped open the curtains, seeing Steve standing outside the front door, standing with his hands stuffed in his pockets, something I’ve noticed quite often.

I opened my window, “Steve?” I called out and he looked up, giving me a small wave and smile upon seeing me. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand, seeing it was almost noon. I looked back out the window, jumping slightly as Steve climbed up to my window. “Oh, hi… I-I apologize. I didn’t realize I slept so late.”

“It’s okay. I just got here. I kind of woke up late as well. Dustin will understand, I’m sure.” He chuckled, leaning against the window frame.

“Let me, uh, get dressed real quick and I’ll meet you out front,” I told him and he nodded, jumping down. I leaned out the window, seeing him dust himself off as I let out a sigh of relief. He’s crazy.

I opened my closet, pulling out a maroon sweater and a grey tank top, placing them on my bed before grabbing a pair of light denim jeans from my dresser. I quickly got dressed, slipping on a pair of white socks, going into my ensuite, brushing my teeth and such. I tied my tennis shoes before heading out the door, telling my parents I was going to a friends house.

Steve and I walked to his car, driving towards Dustin’s house, my hands clasped together in my lap as music softly plays in the background. “Did you sleep well… knowing all this information?” Steve asked me, glancing over at me for a split second before returning his gaze back to the road.

“Uh, not really hence why I woke up late.” I chuckled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I ended up drawing for a couple hours before finally getting to sleep.” I smiled, recalling the fact that I ended up drawing him.

“You draw?” He asked, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

“Yeah, it’s a hobby of mine. I usually end up drawing if I’m bored or can’t sleep.” I glanced out the window as we pulled into Dustin’s driveway, seeing the excited young boy run towards the car, quickly getting in the BMW.

“Finally you guys are here. Did you guys like end up losing track of time while making out or something?” He asked and both Steve and I glanced back at the curly haired boy, our eyes widened.

“W-We didn’t… What? No. Where the hell did you get that idea?” I asked, my cheeks flushed a bit.

“Yeah, we both woke up late… in our own houses.” Steve corrected, glancing at me as my eyes were on the middle console of the vehicle.

“Sure. I’ll believe that.” Dustin laughed as Steve started the car, rolling his eyes. I sat forward, keeping my eyes on the road as I tried to get my body heat to drop. Me making out with Steve? Like that'll ever happen.

Steve parked the car on the side of the road where the train tracks begin, the three of us getting out heading towards the back of the car.

Dustin’s friend Lucas, I think, finally got back to him, the two of them talking over the walkie-talkie as Steve took a book bag out of the trunk, his trusty bat poking out of it as he placed it on his back.

“Just meet, Steve, Y/N, and I at the old junkyard,” Dustin mentioned as Steve handed me a pair of gloves.

“Steve? As in Steve Harrington?” Lucas’ voice came through the walkie and I chuckled, shaking my head as I grabbed the gloves out of Steve’s hands, our fingers brushing against one another’s.

I glanced up at him, giving him a small smile as I slipped them onto my hands, as I grabbed one of the buckets filled with cut meat.

“Alright, let's go,” Steve mentioned, the three of us heading down the track, the two boys walking in front of me.

I dropped a piece of meat every ten feet, admiring the woods around me, hearing Dustin and Steve talking in front of me.

“Alright, so let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl… who you just met?” Steve asked, confused as he threw another piece of meat on the ground.

“Alright, that’s grossly oversimplifying things,” Dustin stated, throwing down a slab of raw beef.

“I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?” Steve asked another question. I walked a bit faster, catching up to Steve as he walked a bit behind Dustin.

“Maybe she’s into it.” I joked, tossing down raw food.

“See! She gets it. An interdenominational slug is awesome, dude.” Dustin glanced back at us, a huge grin on his face as I smile at the young child.

“Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn’t, I… I just… I don’t know. I feel like you’re trying way too hard.” Steve cleared up, tossing meat behind his shoulder before glancing down at me. “Don’t you think?” He asked for an opinion.

“I mean, I don’t know. It's kind of sweet I guess? If I was into interdenominational slugs I’d be down for it.” I divulged and Dustin turned around to give me a high five. I laughed, clapping our hands together as Steve scoffs.

“Well everyone can’t have your perfect hair, Steve,” Dustin said after he turned around. I glanced up at Steve’s hair, tempted to run my fingers through it, but decide against it since I’m wearing meat covered gloves and it would be weird…

“It’s not about the hair, man. The key with girls is just acting like you don’t care.” Steve disclosed and I frowned, throwing meat on the tracks. That’s not it at all.

“Even if you do?” Dustin asked, glancing at my saddened expression and Steve just nodded his head.

“Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts.”

“Or it gives off the vibe that you don’t feel the same way and they try to move on and end up with someone, so how far does that really get you?” I explained, rubbing my nose with the inside of my arm.

Steve’s mouth opened and closed, looking befuddled. “Uhm, okay, good point.” He muttered, narrowing his eyebrows.

“So, if you act like you don’t care, then what?” The young child asked, glancing back at us.

“You just wait till, uh, you feel it.” Steve hit Dustin’s shoulder lightly with the back of his hand.

“Feel what?” Dustin and I both asked as I’ve become intrigued by his logic of girls.

Steve threw down a couple more pieces of meat before answering our question. “It’s like before it’s gonna storm, you know?” He paused, glancing at the ground. “You can’t see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh… electricity.”

“Oh like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere-,” Dustin begins to get all sciencey when Steve cuts him off.

“No, no, no, no, no. Like a… like a sexual electricity.” He clarified and I rolled my eyes, thrusting meat to the ground, glancing between the two of them as they bonded, if you could call this that. “You feel that and then you make your move.”

“So that’s when you kiss her?” Dustin asked and my eyes widened, muttering an “oh Jesus,” as Steve reaches his hand out.

“No, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo.” Steve laughed, glancing over towards me since I’ve been quiet this entire time, basically. Dustin apologized quietly as Steve continued his thought. “Sure, okay, some girls, yeah. They want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a lion.”

I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying not to laugh as I shook my head. Girls are fucking crazy. What’s wrong with us? “Is that how you are, Y/N? You like it hot and heavy?” Dustin asked me and I blushed a bit, not expecting this kind of question.

“Uh…” I trailed off, pretending to think about it as I felt Steve’s eyes staring at the side of my face before shaking my head. “N-No, I like it slow.” I muttered, embarrassed a bit since I haven’t had a “real” boyfriend. The one I had in elementary school doesn’t really count apparently.

“See, that’s another one! Slow and stealthy like a ninja.” Steve mentioned and I nodded in agreement.

“So, what’s Nancy?” Dustin asked and I looked up at Steve, seeing his face drop slightly. I frowned, realizing that they might not even be together anymore as he answered.

“Nancy’s different. She’s different than the other girls. Kinda like Y/N.” My lips parted slightly as I stopped for a moment, the two continuing as I threw a piece of meat, continuing forward as my mind tuned out the conversation, thinking about what Steve had said. I’m… different? He thinks I’m different?

I was so entrapped in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed them stopped, running into Steve’s back, putting up my hands to stop myself when I prick a couple fingers on some of the nails on his bat. “Ouch,” I muttered, taking the glove off and glancing down at my finger to see it bleeding a bit, but not too badly. “Sorry…”

“Jesus, are you okay?” Steve asked, taking my hand in his after sliding one of his gloves off and he ran a finger over the wound. I nodded my head, feeling my heartbeat pound against my ribcage. “Gotta be careful. Don’t get too lost in that pretty head of yours.” He laughed as the three of us continued walking again.

My cheeks flushed, feeling the warmth of them as I swallowed thickly. “Okay,” I whispered, sliding the glove back on.

We reached our destination of the Hawkins junkyard, Steve sliding his glasses off as he looked around. “Oh yeah, yeah, this will do.”

He walked towards the bus as Dustin and I stayed behind a bit. “So, do you like Steve?” The young boy asked me and I groaned.

“No, Henderson, I don’t,” I muttered lying to him and myself as I walked after Steve. I laid a few more pieces of meat down as we got towards the middle, the three of us dumping the rest into a pile.

“I said medium-well.” A young voice called out and the three of us looked up, seeing what I assume to be Lucas and another teenage girl with him as they walked towards us after waving.

“Who the hell is that?” Steve and I asked at the same time, glancing towards each other for a few seconds before I look back at the two kids.

Steve, the random girl, and I began getting to work as Dustin and Lucas chatted behind an old vehicle.

“Steve, can you help me with this?” I called out, not being able to move this giant metal object that’s blocking what we needed.

“Yeah.” He answered, jogging over to me as I stood to the side, watching and slightly admiring him as he moved the thing with ease. Steve placed it down next to a washer machine, turning to face me as he wiped his hands off. “Impressed?” He grinned, using his charm as I chuckled, shrugging my shoulders playfully.

“Maybe, I don’t know. I’ll have to keep an eye out for when you do more impressive things.” I grinned, taking the metal roofing and bringing it to the bus, laying it on the outside. I went back over towards Steve, crouching down to grab a few more metal slabs as he looked around.

“Where the hell are the other two?” He asked and I pointed towards the old rusted vehicle. Steve scoffed, heading towards the two youngins, smacking a metal folding chair against the car. “Hey, dickheads! How come the only one helping me is Y/N and this random girl?” He asked and I laughed, shaking my head as I brought the metal to the bus, letting out a huff of breath, resting my hands on my hips, watching their interaction. “We lose light in like forty minutes. Let’s go.” He muttered beginning to walk off, continuing to yell, “let’s go, I said!”

The two kids yelled at him, following as we begin to place the metal onto the bus, creating a bunker for when the night comes, setting our trap. Steve took the gas can, pouring a trail of gasoline from the pile of meat to the doors of the bus. The random girl, Max, taking the ladder into the bus, shoving it through the emergency exit that’s on the roof of the bus.

As dusk came around, the five of us got into the bus, Steve closing the doors behind us as I sat down on the ground, playing with my fingers. Steve sat down next to me as we sat in silence, watching the sun continue to set, darkness settling over.

The charming older teenager began playing with the lighter, Dustin pacing around in front of us as Max speaks up. “So you really fought one of these things before?” Steve nodded his head, his other hand brushing mine lightly, my cheeks flushing. “And you’re, like, totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn’t a bear?” Max asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Shit. Don’t be an idiot. Okay? It wasn’t a bear. Why are you even here if you don’t believe us?” Dustin asked, quite rudely, as I frowned and her eyes went wide. “Just go home.” He muttered, walking towards the end of the bus.

“Geesh. Someone’s cranky. Past your bedtime?” She asked, getting up before heading up the ladder to sit on the roof with Lucas, who’s keeping a lookout.

“That’s good. Just show her you don’t care.” Steve mentioned and I frowned, even more, looking towards the young boy.

“I don’t,” Dustin admitted, looking down at us as Steve winked at him, a small laugh escaping my lips. “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.” He mumbled, sitting down on one of the old tattered seats.

I sighed, pushing myself off the floor as I stepped towards Dustin, sitting in the empty spot next to him, laying a hand on his back. “You okay?” I whispered, leaning my head down a bit.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked me and I gave him a small smile.

“Because I saw the way you looked when she showed up with Lucas. Listen, I don’t know much about relationships. I mean, I haven’t had a boyfriend before, only in elementary school, but apparently, it doesn’t count.” I mumbled, clasping my hands together as he looked towards me. “Girls like it when you show them that you care. I know Steve’s had much more experience and some girls probably eat that “don’t care” shit up, but I think Max is the type of girl who likes a guy who cares.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m pretty sure she likes Lucas, but thanks for the advice.” He smiled and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, giving him a tight hug.

“You’re alright, Dustin.” I grinned, rubbing his back. His arms wrapped around my torso as my eyes glanced towards Steve, his already on me.

“You too, Y/N.”

After talking to Dustin I walked back over to Steve, sitting down next to him as he kept his eyes on me. I glanced up at him, rubbing my hands together as it was getting a little cold on the bus.

“You’re really good with kids.” He mumbled, running a hand through his hair. I shrugged my shoulders, leaning my head against his shoulder.

“I have a younger sister. Plus it’s weird to see him so down when he’s been giddy the past couple days I’ve known.” I muttered, feeling the warmth radiate from his shoulder. Steve wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me a bit closer.

A loud screech or growl echoed throughout the area, making me jump as I gripped Steve’s arm, all three of us getting up to look out the gated window.

“You see him?” Dustin asked and Steve shook his head.

“No.”

“Lucas? What’s going on?” Dustin yelled, looking up the ole in the roof for a second before looking back out the window. My heartbeat picked up rapidly, my hands becoming sweaty as my breathing quickened.

“Hold on,” Lucas called out as we looked around the foggy junkyard. “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock! Ten o’clock!”

I squinted, seeing a small figure that’s on all fours and I backed up a bit, hitting the ladder behind me. “Holy shit...” I muttered, resting a hand on my forehead.

“What’s he doing?” Dustin asked.

“I don’t know,” Steve answered as they continued to stare out the window. “It’s not taking the bait. Why isn’t it taking the bait?” He asked the youngin.

“Maybe he’s not hungry.”

“Maybe he’s sick of cow,” Steve muttered, stepping back as he looked like he just got an idea. He began walking towards the front of the bus as I stepped up.

“Steve? Steve, wait, no.” I called out, placing my hand on his arm as he stopped, turning around to face me. “Please don’t do this.”

“It’ll be okay. Just get ready.” He tossed the lighter to Dustin, stepping down towards the door as he glanced back at me, nodding for me to open it. I shook my head, getting a little teary-eyed as he walked towards me. “Hey… I’ll be fine. We need to lure it in somehow.” Steve whispered, one of his hands softly rubbing my arm.

“Just… come back, okay?” I breathed my hands on his torso. He smiled, nodding his head slowly and before he could turn away, I pressed my lips against his in a short kiss, pulling away after a couple of seconds.

Steve’s lips parted, looking down at me in surprise as I tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “I’ll definitely come back alive if I can kiss you again.” He mumbled.

I giggled, fumbling with his denim jacket as I nodded my head. “You can kiss me after you come back safely.” I opened the door to the bus as Steve grinned, stepping out into the open as he swung his bat around.

I closed the door, heading over to stand next to Dustin as Max came down the ladder. I could hear Steve mutter to himself, walking closer to the pile of meat.

“What’s he doing?” Max asked.

“Expanding the menu,” Dustin responded and I frowned, nibbling on my bottom lip.

The demodog began to get into sight, Steve eyeing it carefully. “Steve! Watch out!” Lucas yelled from up top and my heart stopped. “Three o’clock! Three o’clock!”

I looked towards the direction three o’clock would be in, seeing a few more demodogs jumping onto some old vehicles. “Oh no…” I muttered, the color draining from my face as he spun in a circle noticing more of them around him. I ran towards the front of the bus, opening the door. “Steve! Come back! Come on!” I yelled desperately.

One of the demons darted towards him as he swiftly moved out of the way, rolling across a rusted hood. Another leaped towards him, which Steve swung the nailed bat in its strange face before making his way back towards the bus. The kids were encouraging him on as he dived in and I closed the door. Steve’s arm laid against my legs, placing a piece of metal slab against the door before pressing his foot against it.

I couldn’t concentrate on anything anyone was saying as my breathing became heavier, on the verge of a panic attack. The bus began to shake as I held on to the seat tightly. “S-Steve…” I muttered, my heart beating against my chest.

“It’s okay. Just breathe, alright? I’ll keep you safe, I promise.” He muttered, grabbing my hand as we stood away from the door. I froze when I heard loud footsteps stomping on the roof, looking up through the opening seeing the demodog. I let out a scream as it opened its mouth, Steve pushing me out of the way. “Get out of the way, Y/N! You want some? Come get this!” He yelled at it and it screeched down at us before his attention was brought somewhere else, taking off in the direction of the woods.

I furrowed my eyebrows together in confusion, my hand gripping Steve’s jacket as I let out a sigh of relief. The five of us quietly made our way out of the bus, seeing one last demodog running off in the distance.

“What happened?” Lucas asked, glancing around. I stepped off the bus, leaning my hands against my knees, taking deep breaths.

“Steve scared them off?” Dustin questioned, not sure what happened either as I ran my fingers through my hair.

“No,” Steve muttered, turning around, bat resting on his shoulder. “They’re going somewhere. Alright, let’s get back to my car. You three,” he points towards Lucas and Max, “follow where they’re going. I’m going to drop Y/N off home since she’s seen quite enough.”

I hugged myself, feeling Steve’s hand resting on my lower back as we dispersed. We walked quickly back to his car, taking about ten minutes. The two of us got into his car, driving back towards my house as I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking.

Steve reached over, grabbing my hand, intertwining our fingers as his thumb rubbed the back of my hand. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re going to end this.” He told me, glancing over at me for a few seconds.

He pulled into my driveway, turning towards me as I stared forward, my mind racing with the events of tonight. “I don’t know how you guys… those kids can handle this.” I muttered, rubbing my hands on my face, looking over at the charming man in the driver's seat.

“I know. I don’t know how they do it either, but they’re strong kids.” Steve told me.

“They are…” I trailed off, leaning my head against the headrest. “Has anyone told you that you have incredible hair?” I asked, smiling softly as he chuckled, nodding his head.

“Actually, yes.” Steve grinned, running his fingers through his lovely hair. I bit my bottom lip, reaching my hand over running my own fingers through his hair. Holy shit it’s soft. “Having fun?” He asked, laughing a bit as I nodded.

“It’s really soft.” I giggled, looking into his eyes before he leans down, pressing his lips against mine. I laid my other hand on his cheek, moving my lips against his as I wrapped the other around his neck, playing with the tiny hairs.

Steve pulled away from me, resting his forehead against mine as our breath hits each other’s lips, his fingers softly tracing my cheekbone. “Can I call you tomorrow?” He asked me, and I nodded my head, smiling softly.

“Yeah, definitely.” I got out of the car, leaning against the window as he opened it, smiling at me. “Goodnight, Steve.”

“If you have trouble sleeping tonight, don’t be afraid to call me,” Steve smirked and I glanced around, licking my lips slightly.

“I mean… you could just stay over, so I don’t have to call you. My parents are out with some friends and my sister is most likely asleep. You won’t have to climb up to my window.” I mentioned and he turned his car off, getting out, locking the doors before we head to my house.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Becoming The Mask

Chapter 1: Discovery

I gave in and started a Trollhunters fic, in large part because nobody else I could find was writing a “Jim is a Changeling and knows about it instead of getting caught off-guard in the fic’s premise” story, (other than, arguably, the “Jim is a Changeling-human hybrid with amnesia that blocks out his early human life” series, which I do recommend but which is very different from what this is).

Changeling Jim enjoyed his cover. Human food was far better than troll food. Dr Barbara Lake was an affectionate mother, but absent often enough that his duties to the Janus Order went unnoticed. The neighbour Toby was acceptable company and kept Jim from looking suspicious for having no friends his apparent age. Once in high school, he could slip reports directly to Stricklander along with mundane homework.

And then, of course, Merlin’s Amulet just had to choose Jim as the next Trollhunter.

Also on AO3 and FFnet.

Human food was, in Jim’s opinion, exponentially better than troll food.

That didn’t stop him from eating empty cans or burnt-out lightbulbs, but it did inspire him to experiment. Today he was making French toast for his mother’s breakfast and meatloaf sandwiches for her, his, and his friend Toby’s lunches. He had some regular toast while checking the recipe, and ate the eggshells while mixing the eggs with milk and just a touch of cinnamon.

Barbara was sound asleep, glasses still on and pushed to an awkward angle by the pillow. At least she’d kicked off her shoes. He put her breakfast on the dresser and slid her glasses off, polished the lenses, and placed them by her meal. Jim tucked his mother’s blanket around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

“I love you, Mom,” he whispered.

No, it wasn’t sentimental or weird. It was good cover. If Jim kept up the act even when there were no witnesses, he was less likely to slip up when there were witnesses.

He checked on his Familiar, Jay-Jay, while brushing his teeth. The original James Junior, unaging in his cradle, sucked his thumb and slept peacefully.

Jim had been Jim for over fifteen years and his Familiar had only been Jim for three months, and the Lake parents hadn’t even stuck with just one nickname until after Jim was planted. ‘Jay-Jay’ and ‘Jim’ and ‘Jamie’ and ‘Junior’ were all used interchangeably in the first year before gradually settling on ‘Jim’. The human might have had it first, but Jim was the Changeling’s name now.

He hadn’t had a name before this assignment.

Jim took care of the various household needs, packed up his backpack, and left for school. The trash bin was overturned. Raccoons or goblins? He huffed in annoyance.

Toby was there, worrying about being late for school. Jim tried distracting him with food. If all went as planned, Killahead Bridge should be rebuilt within a few years, maybe even this year. Jim wanted the humans he knew to enjoy life while they had the chance.

“I can’t eat this. I’m on a diet.”

“It’s healthy. Protein, fiber, vegetables, and it’s actually got flavour.” Jim waggled the bag temptingly.

“I shouldn’t …”

“Come on, you’ve been on a diet for fourteen years. You’re fifteen!”

“Long-term goals.” Toby tucked the lunch into his backpack and got back onto his bike. “My body’s still changing.”

They rode for the first few blocks in panting silence.

Jim liked Toby. He wished he could think of some excuse why they ought to keep Toby alive when Gunmar returned to devour humanity. The boy had an interest and extensive knowledge of geology for one of his species, but nothing compared to a troll. None of Toby’s other interests or skills would be relevant in Gunmar’s world.

The closest thing to a solution Jim had come up with so far was that, if Gunmar wanted to keep eating humans long-term, then they would need to be farmed. Toby’s propensity to put on weight might make him desirable breeding stock.

But humans tended to view the ‘breeding stock’ concept as horrific and degrading and traumatizing when applied to sentients, and besides, with artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization being a thing now, that might only keep Toby alive for a few years while his sperm was harvested and preserved.

At least Jim had a reason Barbara Lake should be spared. She was a doctor. Barbara would be more useful alive, keeping the livestock humans healthy, than killed as food herself.

Stricklander said Jim had developed a sentimental attachment to his Familiar’s family. It was common for Changelings fresh out of the Darklands. Jim’s retort was that he would have no qualms at all about James Lake Senior being eaten.

“It’s eight o’clock!” cried Toby. “Late, late, late, we are so late!”

“Let’s take the canals.” Jim veered off the road into a wooded area. “It’ll save us five minutes.”

“Not the canals!”

“Live a little!”

“It’s living that I’m worried about!”

There was a pile of gravel under the bridge. Jim wouldn’t have paid attention to it if it hadn’t called his name.

“Jim … Lake …”

He slowed and circled back around.

“What up, Jimbo?” asked Toby. “Wasn’t the shortcut to save time, not waste it?”

“You go on ahead, Tobes, I’ll catch up.”

“Jim … Lake …”

“Wait, what was that?” Toby looked around the sun-drenched, empty canal and called out in challenge, “Who’s there? Who said that?”

Jim spotted a blue flash in the rubble.

Was that …? No, it couldn’t be … He got off his bike and dug it out.

“Whatcha got there?” Toby leaned over his shoulder.

“Pocket watch, maybe,” Jim invented. “Or, some kind of high-tech walkie-talkie.”

There was a loud ring.

“Final bell!” Toby gasped. “We’re so late our kids are gonna have detention!” He climbed back onto his bike and raced away. Jim followed, the Amulet of Daylight tucked in the pocket of his sweatshirt.

Thank everything holy and unholy that he had History first period.

“Jim, you seemed distracted in class today.”

“Yes! I – actually, I was hoping I could talk to you about that, at lunch, or, after school. About some,” he lit his eyes for a moment, “extra-credit work.”

Mr Strickler’s eyes shone gold and red in return. “Of course, Jim. You know my office door is always open to my students.”

Jim went to Mr Strickler’s office at lunch. He plucked the amulet from his pocket and placed it on his teacher’s desk without preamble.

“I found this on my way to school this morning.”

Stricklander went pale, then stern. “Did anyone else see you take it?”

“Tobias Domzalski, but he doesn’t know what it is. We were cutting through the canals. There were no other humans around. I didn’t see any living trolls, but if they found a dark enough shadow then I couldn’t have spotted them in this form. It was pretty sunny.”

“Mm,” said Stricklander noncommittally. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Jim. I’ll take care of it.”

A more ambitious Changeling would have argued, wanting credit for their part in any undertaking. Jim took the chance to exit, wanting nothing to do with anything that had to do with the dreaded Trollhunter.

At least, that was the plan.

With a puff of light, the amulet vanished off of Stricklander’s desk and reappeared in Jim’s hand as he reached for the door. He dropped it, startled. Both Changelings stared at the unassuming little silver trinket on the floor.

Stricklander spoke slowly and precisely.

“Is there anything else you ought to tell me about your discovery of this amulet?”

“It said my name,” he admitted. “When I was biking past – that was why I stopped and went to look and picked it up.”

Stricklander sat down and pointed to the piano stool. Jim gave the office door a dirty look for not having a lock, and left the amulet on the floor. It teleported onto his lap when he sat down.

“This suggests you have been chosen as the next Trollhunter.”

“That’s impossible.”

“So I too would have thought. And yet, here we are.”

“You really think the amulet can just pick the next Trollhunter on its own? I mean, I get that it’s magic, but still. It’s an inanimate object.” He looked at it thoughtfully. “Semi-animate at most. Some of this looks like clockwork.”

“What tomes I’ve acquired of troll lore claim that the amulet chooses the Trollhunter. There should be an incantation inscribed. Try to summon the armour and we’ll know for certain.”

“Or, if it’s really sentient like you said, it’ll kill me for being a presumptuous Impure.”

“Don’t call yourself that.”

“What, presumptuous?” Jim asked cheekily.

Jim turned the pocket watch-like device in a slow circle. The runes around the edge were trollish, of course, which he could read but not well. Literacy had not been prized as a skillset or hobby in the Darklands. There wasn’t much available to read unless one wanted to risk Dictatious’ wrath for touching his precious collection. On the second revolution, the words on the amulet helpfully translated themselves into English.

He made a face at what he would have to say. May the Pale Lady forgive him.

“For the glory of Merlin … Daylight is mine to command.”

He really should have stayed standing.

Jim floated into the air, his stool knocked back, blue light surrounding him and pushing its way into his body. Frightened, he switched forms – he wasn’t much bigger trollish than he was humanoid, but he had tougher skin that way. He crashed to the ground in oversized armor. It shrank to fit him.

“Jim! Are you alright?” Stricklander demanded.

“… Wow.” Jim examined the gauntlets; felt the breastplate; turned to examine how the armor accommodated his short tail; checked the helmet that still left his horns exposed. “I mean, I always figured Bular would kill me someday, but I thought it would be in a fit of misdirected rage, not for an actual reason.”

He tried switching back to his human form. Again, the armour adjusted itself. There were metal horns on the helmet now. They felt longer than his; maybe they were the shape his horns would be once they grew out.

“This could actually prove useful.” Stricklander twirled his pen. “If the trolls accept you as the new Trollhunter, that means we have a spy in Trollmarket and need no longer fear the Trollhunter will interfere with our plans.” He put the pen down decisively. “You leave Bular to me. I’ll find a way to make that brute cede to logic.”

“If he doesn’t just come snap me in half tonight for the bragging rights of killing two Trollhunters in twenty-four hours.”

Stricklander stood and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Leave Bular to me.”

Changelings were taught to spy and lie and manipulate. Stricklander was an especially good actor when he played the role of a caring mentor. Jim knew Stricklander was a Changeling, just like him, and yet part of him still insisted that the reason Stricklander played the role so well was because it wasn’t just an act.

The armour dissipated. Jim caught the amulet as it fell from his heart.

Stricklander let go of him and spoke briskly.

“Our best option, I think, is to assume that you were seen finding the amulet and allow the trolls to believe it chose a human. The unprecedented nature of this should cover for any inconsistencies in the magic’s behaviour and your own ignorance of troll culture.”

Jim scowled at being called ignorant, glared for it being true, and felt an unpleasant twist in his stomach for how badly he wanted to change that.

Troll culture had been his culture, once upon a time, before he’d been taken and altered and become what he was.

He didn’t remember anything from before. He was too young when it happened. Every Changeling was. He certainly didn’t have enough memory scraps to truly say he missed it. But part of him still wanted it back.

Which was foolish and treasonous and beside the point in any case.

“That’ll be easier than trying to craft a troll persona and explain why they’ve never seen me around Trollmarket before, especially if I still look too young to be out on my own. Might still get me killed, but this thing’s a death sentence on its own, isn’t it?” holding up the amulet.

No, Jim didn’t know much of troll culture, but he suspected their reaction to a human Trollhunter would be only slightly better than their reaction to a Changeling Trollhunter – namely, a quick death to pass the mantle down to a real troll rather than pausing to torture him for information first.

And he also knew that Trollhunters, particularly Trollhunters living in the same city as Bular, had notoriously short lifespans compared to the average troll.

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Blinky and AAARRRGGHH find ‘Master Jim’)

[farklelucas]

listen…. @biwheelers made me do this. they said ‘i have a headcanon’ and i said ‘when should i write the ficlet.’ (that’s a dramatization but you get what i mean.) this is also on ao3 because there might be a sequel already in the works??? sue me. anyways…. here’s wonderwall.

–

Mike Wheeler was a beautiful mess.

He danced like no one was watching when everyone was. He said the wrong kinds of things a little too loudly. He protected his friends like he was the only one who could. He didn’t care what people thought, unless those people were his friends, in which case, he cared way too much. He drank and he grew out his hair and he played the guitar.

And Will Byers was in love with him.

He had been in love with him for, approximately, 4,000 days and a few hours. Loving Mike Wheeler was an unstoppable force, that way - once you started, you really couldn’t stop. So was kissing, touching, holding Mike Wheeler; but he found all of that out a little while later. 4,000 days of loving Mike Wheeler can teach you things like that, when he feels the same way. Or, at least, Will was pretty sure Mike felt the same way. They shared clumsy kisses in bathroom stalls, held hands at Dungeons and Dragons meetings under the table, and talked far too late into the night on the walkie talkies they still had. Will was, at least, 75% sure that Mike Wheeler loved him back. He just… hadn’t found the courage to say it yet.

Will broke himself from thought with a shake of his head, and looked out the window of the Wheeler’s basement. It was dark out. Everybody else had gone to the dance - Lucas and Max, and Dustin and El (purely as friends). They all felt bad, too, as their friends waved goodbye to them from their front step. It was okay, Mike and Will had said. Go on without them, it was fine.

But Will could tell that Mike didn’t think it was fine. Not at all.

So Mike got drunk, and Will let him. Usually, he would say something, like to watch himself. But Will was more than willing to let him have this one - he was upset, Will could tell. Mike drank, and Will watched.

He was talking about… something. Will had zoned out; he hadn’t meant to, but Mike is a social drunk, and since Will was the only person there, all of it was focused on him. Usually, he liked all of Mike’s attention on him; but Mike didn’t seem to be talking about what he really wanted to talk about, so it was mostly just unfiltered nonsense. Will felt like the worst boyfriend.

“… and roll again,” Mike was saying, pacing back and forth in front of the staircase. Karen and Ted had gone to bed long ago, and Nancy was away at college, so Will didn’t worry too much about anyone hearing him rambling, drunk out of his mind. “But El rolls another twenty, which is, just, impossible. So Dustin, justly, accuses her of cheating, and then Max yells at Dustin -”

“Mike,” Will said quietly. Mike, almost immediately, stopped and turned to face him. “Come sit with me.”

Mike must not have been that drunk, since he joined Will on the couch in three long strides. Mike had only gotten taller since they were kids, but he was the perfect height for Will to lean his head on Mike’s shoulder, so he did. Then he interlaced their fingers, so that Mike could feel his heartbeat when they were wrist-to-wrist. Mike dipped his head to lean on Will’s, and Will sighed, mostly out of content, but also out of worry. “What’s wrong?” he asked, and it came out as more of a whisper.

He felt Mike shrug, his shoulders moving tiredly. “It’s nothing,” he said, and Will just squeezed his hand. There’s a long pause. “It’s dumb.”

Will squeezed his hand again, but this time, as more of a reprimand. “Nothing you think and feel is dumb,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me, but I’m listening.” Of course he was listening; Will was always listening.

“It’s just…” Mike trailed off, and Will waited, as Will always did. “I’m just sad. I’m just tired of… not being able to hold your hand in public. Or look at you without being afraid someone is watching. I want to go to the dance with our friends and kiss you and not be afraid of someone hurting one of us. Or dance with you, even.” Mike laughed humorlessly, and raised his head to look down at Will. Will lifted his own head, frowning back. “Is it too much to ask to kiss you in public?”

He didn’t want to answer, because Mike already knew the answer. There was nothing wrong with them, and they both knew that, and yeah, maybe they should be able to kiss and dance and hold hands like they wanted to. But maybe it was a bit too much to ask the town of Hawkins, Indiana. Maybe it was a little too much to ask of any town in Indiana. So Will swallowed and looked down at their hands, still locked together tightly. “One day,” he said, because he believed that, at least. He believed that, one day, they’d be okay. They had to be.

“One day soon?” Mike said hopefully, and Will knew that Mike was just as afraid of the answer being no as he was. So Will said nothing, just smiled sadly.

Mike sighed and disentangled their hands, standing and moving away from the couch. He shuffled over to the radio Nancy gave him last Christmas and turned it on, catching the tail end of some catchy pop song. The radio announcer came on, then, and told them cheerfully that this next song was from a boy to his girl. Mike shook his head, still annoyed, and listened as the song faded in. Drums, he could tell, and Will wasn’t quite sure what the song was, but it seemed as if Mike knew. He turned to Will and grinned, holding out a hand. “Dance with me?” he asked, and Will scoffed.

“You’re drunk,” he accused.

Mike shrugged. “Maybe a little.” He wiggled his fingers as some other instruments set into the song. “C’mon,” he said. “It’s not like anyone can see.”

Will didn’t know quite what it was about Mike Wheeler that could get him to do just about anything, but in the end, he agreed.

They met in the middle. Mike put his hands on Will’s hips, and Will managed to reach up and wrap his arms around Mike’s neck. Mike didn’t exactly tower above him, but if he moved forward a few inches, his lips would connect directly with Will’s forehead. Will smiled up at him, and Mike smiled back as the words set in.

I hear the drums echoing tonight,

But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation.

She’s coming in, 12:30 flight;

The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation.

They swayed gently to the rhythm, and Will stepped a little closer to lay his head on Mike’s shoulder. Mike hummed, happily, and held him just a little tighter.

As the next words set in, Mike sang along, gently.

It’s gonna take a lot to take me away from you;

There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do;

I bless the rains down in Africa;

Gonna take some time to do the things we never had.

Will laughed, nuzzling further into the crook of Mike’s neck. “God, you’re a dork,” he murmured, and Mike laughed too.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But I’m your dork.”

As they swayed to the music, Mike continued singing along, Will groaning in embarrassment. But he loved it - he always loved it when Mike sang, even though he didn’t do it often. And there was something about this song - maybe because it was the first song they’d ever danced to, or maybe it was because they were so devoted to each other that not even a different dimension could tear them away from one another - that made it even better.

Hurry boy, he’s waiting there for you.

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you;

There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do;

I bless the rains down in Africa.

Will grinned and pulled away, looking up at Mike, who let his singing fade away and replaced it with a gentle smile. “Hey,” Will said.

“Hey,” Mike replied.

Just for a moment, Will felt something. Bubbling up in his chest, sliding up through his throat and into his mouth - at that moment, he was so consumed with love for Mike Wheeler that he thought that he was going to burst. So he did. “I love you,” he said softly.

For a moment, nothing happened. The world was frozen, and all there was was Will Byers, whose heart was caught in his throat, Mike Wheeler, whose face was blank, and a cheesy love song blaring over the radio. In one moment, everything was frozen; and in the next, it wasn’t.

Mike’s smile was so slow, it seemed as if it melted all over his face; his cheeks were rosy, mouth was wide, eyes were bright. “I love you too,” he said, and leaned closer. “So damn much.”

Mike Wheeler was a beautiful mess. He talked too much when he was drunk, which he was far too often for a boy of only sixteen. He wanted too much from a world that didn’t care about him enough to give it all to him. He told his friends he was okay when he was anything but. He danced and he sang and he kissed like he was hungry and Will was the only thing that could satiate him.

Will Byers was in love with him. And Mike loved him back.

I bless the rains down in Africa

I bless the rains down in Africa

I bless the rains down in Africa

Gonna take some time to do the things we never had.

[cutegirlmayra]

Hello Mayra! It's been so long since I left the Sonic fandom and now I'm back! Are u still taking requests? Because I'm always looking for the Boom!Team discovering Amy and Sonic's secret relationship. Sadly, I didn't find any of these. I'm a big fan of your work and I hope you can write this! 😉😍

(x) Permission given by the artist! Please support them! (Author’s note: If you or your art friends are willing to let me credit your art for ‘preview images’ to my prompts, I would be deeply appreciative! Please feel free to message me if you have conditions or terms, I’m willing to follow any requirements for credit links!)

Welcome back~

I’m honored and proud to have you come to me for this mighty need. I’m always open to prompt requests, yes! :D Thank you for thinking of me, my friend!

Prompt:

Sticks stared long and hard at Sonic and Amy…

Tails was busy with buying some half-off spare parts for different ‘mini-projects’ he had been working on before examining two of them and paying her no mind.

“….Hey, Tails…” She squatted, keeping her arms down in front of her as she continually watched the two interact.

In the distance, Sonic was helping Amy shop, or rather… he was to ‘comment’ on each thing she tried on or pointed too.

She couldn’t help but notice how… ‘giggly’… the two were around one another….

“I think something’s off with Sonic and Amy. Steve isn’t this good at mocking a laugh.” She narrowed her eyes more, ducking her head like an animal stalking it’s prey from a few feet away. “And… I’m pretty sure he can’t clone himself either…”

She folded her arms and shot herself upright, startling Tails out of his ‘happy place’ as he turned to her, half annoyed.

“At least you’re not raving about something paranormal…” he sweat-dropped, before turning to also stare at Sonic and Amy.

Sonic leaned over a counter, and pointed to something for a change, which drew Amy’s immediate attention as she seemed to excitedly hold it up and over him, as if seeing if the clothing worked with him or not.

He proudly put his hands to his hips, before she shook her head and put it back, pulling out something else and making him look disappointed and annoyed.

“Seems about right.” Tails nodded, and turned with a kind smile to Sticks, though skeptical of her perception skills. “Amy’s still pulling Sonic around the market, and he’s still not any help when it comes to her decisions.”

“Not that.” she took a hand to his chin, pulling him to look harder at the two. “THEIR FACES!”

“H-huh?” Tails was even more uncomfortable now, before actually… seeing what she meant.

The typical act of the duo suddenly subsided as Sonic spun off and came back with something actually decent, and Amy held the article up to herself and smiled, before excitedly lifting a leg slightly up and moving some of her hair.

“….Amy…?” Tails raised an eyebrow, and Sticks let go of his chin, seeing he had finally caught on.

“It’s not just her- Sonic’s got the loonies too!” She pointed back, as Tails put down his gears and other robotic pieces to place a hand over to his forehead and shield the blazing sun from his eyes.

Having clearer vision, he suddenly stepped back in shock when he saw Sonic actually acting as if he was ENJOYING helping Amy out!

“Woah! That IS weird!” Tails worried, “We have to warn them!”

“But who’s the impostor, and whose our friend?”

Tails had to stop a second and think that one through, realizing he couldn’t just run up and say that Steve- or Morpho- was one of them.

He put a hand to his chin. “W-well… just cause they’re acting nice to each other and not arguing doesn’t exactly mean-”

Suddenly, as if on cue, Knuckles approached the scene.

“Hey, have you guys been watching Comedy Chimp lately? Haha! His new episode had Amy dating Sonic! Hahaha! As if!” he fanned out a hand, “Everyone knows she’s too in love with adventure and kicking butt to think about that!”

As he billowed a laugh, Sticks and Tails shared a confused expression, before Sticks looked back with hand-binoculars.

“Uh oh.”

“Wh-what now?” Tails put his hands up to his chattering teeth, as if biting his nails in suspense.

“If they’re actually falling in love for real this time… T-that means they’re going to ditch us for each other! And it’s worse cause we’re friends with BOTH of them! that’s like… losing two friends in one catastrophe!”

Tails panicked, seeing Sonic ditching him for Amy, or vise-versa, and having delusions of lonely scenarios play through his mind of them having fun without him.

He huddled down a moment, whimpering at being left behind…

“Pull yourself together,… wait! Cower in terror! She just hugged him!”

“That’s nothing new. Phew.” Tails wiped his forehead, getting up as Knuckles looked concerned, still not sure what was being discussed fully.

“-and he returned it!”

“-WHAT!?!?” Tails bumped his head against the roof of the shelter.

“That’s it!” He flew up away from the two.

“W-where are you going?” Knuckles inquired, scratching his head. “I thought we were still narrating Sonic and Amy’s every move.”

“I’m going to find Eggman! If anyone knows where Steve is, it’s him!” he flew off, “Keep me in tabs!”

“Roger that.” Sticks saluted, suddenly moving two fingers over her cheeks and having war-paint on.

She slowly slipped down and then reappeared up on top of the adjacent marketer’s roof.

“Knuckles!” she whispered, and then started making code-signals with her hands.

“…Uhh…” he looked confused, before shrugging. “The governments found their lost puppies and my lamp has fallen and can’t get up? OH NO! Lampy!” he suddenly darted off, “Don’t go towards the light! Even if you’re made of it! Ah-haha!!!” he cried in shrieks as he raced off in a frenzy, while Sticks just face-palmed herself and continued to watch.

Tails was heading to Eggman’s place, destroying the ‘guard robots’ on the way while Sticks continued to play secret agent.

“Fox tails, we’ve got an update. Over.” Sticks spoke into a walkie-talkie, fully in her army get up.

“Roger that! What’s the status? Over.” Tails pulled out his communicator on his wrist, and waited a moment as he hid from more guard robots behind a large rock formation.

“They’re still giggling…” she drooped her eyes in annoyance, watching Sonic and Amy sitting and eating Meh Burger, before Amy seemed to get a little shy with Sonic and they both looked away from each other. “It’s growing worse… awkward tension is building and I’m sensing a detonation in three.. two… -”

Amy suddenly suggested that Sonic sit on her side, and although he hesitated a second, he scratched behind his head and came closer, scooting up to sit beside her on her side as the two continued to laugh again.

Sticks spoke rapidly into the walkie-talkie.

“I REPEAT. PERSONAL SPACES HAVE BEEN BREACHED! They’re… ugh… I dare not say. Sitting right next to each other!”

“Oh no! If Sonic’s Steve, then Amy will be heartbroken if she finds out he’s been playing her! Or yet, it could be Amy who’s Steve. In which case, Sonic’s not gonna hear the end of it from me…” he snickered at the last bit, before he suddenly shivered a moment, “Also, that would mean Steve has a weird fetish with cosplay…”

“No time to contemplate that now!” Sticks watched as the two got up, and Sonic offered her his arm. “They’re continuing to cross barriers! You’ve gotta do something!” she called into the walkie-talkie, speaking urgently, and pulling it straight up to her mouth. “LIVES ARE AT STAKE!” she rolled to hide in a bush, where Dave walked up with some trash, looked around, and dumped it in it.

He whistled, rocking on his heels and turning his back to it, before tossing the empty garbage bag, dusting off his hands, and walking back to ‘work’.

“Ohh~ Free stuff!” Sticks could be heard, her tone sounding genuinely excited.

Tails worried once again, sweating as he dashed into the fray without a second thought, taking out robots before rolling into the slow-dropping entrance door to Eggman’s lair.

He pulled a ‘Indiana Jones’ as he reached back for his lucky wrench before the door closed.

Eggman was laughing with Morpho, who was in turn, playing Fuzzy-Puppy buddies with him.

“I never knew a game with like- so much simplistic and adorable feel could be like- my true passion in life, man.”

“Right!? Not only does it get the blood boiling in rage at seeing your own cute, little fuzzy buddy getting destroyed! But you also get the undying bragging rights over a sensational assault on someone ELSE’S cute, little fuzzy buddy!” he truly seemed evil with every word…

The two laughed as Tails rolled in, looking serious and worn for wear, before seeing Steve and suddenly looked shocked.

“Steve!?”

“Ugh, like, Morpho… it’s like.. retro, but not too nostalgic with no real-time feel man.” Steve shook his head, gesturing his hand with his description as Eggman seemed to nod with his logic.

“Yeah, yeah… although, Steve is a classic.” He shrugged.

“For who, man?” Steve looked insulted. “I’ve only been here for like- 22 minutes! And those were different days!”

“I think that just shows how memorable Steve is.” Eggman squinted his eyes and leaned forward just a bit, but with his glasses on, it only looked like his eyebrows narrowed down a bit on his glasses.

“T-then… whose playing Amy or Sonic? Which one’s the phony!?” Tails put his hands to his head, as Eggman lifted a knowing hand up.

“Don’t you know?”

“K-know what? As if you know anything!” Tails accused, before looking away.

“Ohhh~ Look at the hotshot. Thinking he’s already lost his best friend to love. Can’t even picture that the two of them already worried about that and so formed a secret truce of silence to date behind everyone’s back, huh?”

“W-wa-wa-wait, what?” Tails shook his head rapidly.

“Tails! We’re done for! All is lost!” Sticks’s voice suddenly came on, as Tails looked down to his wrist.

“They’ve… they’ve… uhhhh… the unthinkable.”

“Brah… you don’t think…”

Suddenly, Steve and Eggman both got out of their chairs, growing curious about the transmission.

“N-no… they wouldn’t have… they couldn’t have have! … could they?”

“Have had have????” Steve’s face spoke a thousand words.

Eggman withdrew his hand to his mouth, biting his nails.

Steve looked excited as suddenly they all in unison said-

“KISSED?” - “MARRIED?!” - “NOSE NUZZL-….oh.”

The three all looked at one another.

“Oh, Steve.”

“MORPHO, DUDE. And who just kisses a girl he first married?”

“No!” Tails shook his head, “STICKS!”

“Worse!”

They all held their breaths.

A dark, underlying groan was suddenly heard.

“Cuddled…”

Dramatic shots of each of Tails, Eggman, and Steve-o’s faces were shown in pure shock, terror, or loss of hope. One showing Eggman on his knees, looking up from the darkness into light as Tails pulled the sides of his face in anguish and Steve took the pose of The Thinker.

The cast all met later as Amy and Sonic sat on a couch… looking to each other before sighing and looking at their friends- and Eggman- all gathered together in Sonic’s hut.

“We think we owe everyone an explanation.”

Sticks’s had two patches over her eyes. “You’re telling me.” she ripped them off, before banging her foot on the floor from the agony of striping them off.

“Uhh… brahs? I know this is like- a family matter or whatever? But can I come in too?”

“We’d also like permission to-” Orbot tried to lift himself up to the window as Steve pulled some of the blinds away.

“I mean, I- the mighty Morpho, feel like after 22 minutes I’ve really become like- part of the shindig and-”

Knuckles was given the nod to walk over and close the blinds even further down.

“We all know you’ve had a lot of questions lately…” she put a hand to Sonic’s, who seemed nervous as the team all waited for his response.

“Sonic..?” Amy leaned her head down towards him, as he nervously fidgeted.

“W-well.. um… uhhhh… yeah.” he looked away, before finally swallowing his pride and looking back at Amy’s hand.

He… hesitated… but put his own on top of hers.

Gawking in amazement, the four all had different reactions. Eggman was having a fiesta behind the couch while Sticks went wild with ‘I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!’ and Tails looked a bit hopeless while Knuckles looked confused at everyone’s reactions.

“What are we all reacting too?” He suddenly grabbed a pot and smashed it against his head. “Haha, I don’t care. Any excuse to act wild and crazy is okay by me! Wooo!!” He crashed and broke the couch. “Furniture wrestle!” He tapped out the couch.

“Tails…” Sonic looked down at his buddy and moved away from Amy, kneeling by his side.

“…But this means… you’ll ditch us all.” Tails turned his head away. “I thought we were bros for life…”

“And you’ll always be my bro, Tails.” Sonic tenderly, with some sensitivity, held a hand to Tails’s shoulder, before turning to the others acting crazy too.

Amy was talking to Sticks as the couch seemed to have somehow pinned Knuckles down, Eggman calling a fowl and then tweeting things online about Sonic and Amy.

“I… was… so… right… AlphaShadamy4550! HMph! SEND.” he snickered evilly. “Now to crush the other hopeless saps dreams!” he clenched his fist up before Amy took the phone, dropped it daintily, and smashed it with her hammer.

“Just because Amy’s my girrr… my girrrrrllllffff….FFFFFFF….Ah, you know. Doesn’t mean we won’t hang out with you guys!”

“Yeah! I can’t stand Sonic 24/7 anyway.” Amy rolled her eyes, as Eggman picked up the pieces of his phone and then ordered-

“ROBOTS-!!!!”

And the old, daily routine was back on again, as if nothing changed.

Sonic hung out with Tails, finishing up the last of the robots, as Tails took the X-Tornado and him for a spin.

“So… what made you suddenly change your mind?” Tails smiled up to Sonic, reassured that his friend wasn’t going anywhere.

Sonic, arms folded, shrugged and then looked off into the distance on his side of the plane.

“…I don’t know… she kinda just said we were, I guess.” He scratched the side of his head.

“W-wa-wait, you never actually asked her out?”

“No. Come to think of it. She never really asked me out. We just… started… how would you call it?” he looked deep in thought.

“BREACHING…BARRIERS…!!!”

The two looked down.

Sticks was holding a megaphone and a device to hear voices miles away on her forehead, a dish-like receiver, and a Meh-burger’s trash cup on her ear.

“Eh, I put treasure to good use.” she winked to the camera.

Author’s notes:

This was fun. I wanted to be creative at 5 in the morning and this is what you get xD Tails worried about being abandoned, Sticks’s end triumphant (it’s a must, honestly) and Knuckles not realizing he’s always wrong or out of the loop. Eggman and Steve were fun to write! I just enjoyed showing the drama of increasing terror from Sticks and Tails, the ones truly seeing what’s what, but not what’s what. haha. I don’t know, but I think I like this one :)

[mirajens]

Lauren

rating: t characters: jellal, seigrain, mystogan, anna, acnologia, erza genre: family, humor accompaniment to Seigrain in Lutalica

“Lauren is not a thing, mom, she’s an alligator snapping turtle and she has feelings.”

“Hey, Jellal.”

Jellal turned his head from the selection of pastries in the refrigerator and came face to face with two boys who looked just like him, sounded just like him. Everything was odd, or maybe just because they looked alike, from the devious smiles on Mystogan and Seigrain’s lips, the excited gleam in their eyes, the manic energy eking from their flesh. Jellal’s face took on a cautious, almost scared look. His brothers liked to drag him into the trouble they find; Mystogan unconsciously and Seigrain aggressively consciously.

“What? You’re not gonna make me eat all the Gummyvits again, are you?” Jellal asked. He remembered how mad mom had been, and didn’t want a repeat.

Seigrain rolled his eyes. “No. And shut up, you didn’t even get to eat five because you were too slow!”

Mystogan shook his head. “We have something to show you but you can’t tell mom.”

“Why not?”

“No, you have to promise first or we won’t show you and it’s awesome.” Seigrain insisted.

“Okay, fine. What is it?”

Mystogan lead the way up to the third floor bathroom the three of them shared. Seigrain entered first, his grin wide and scary. He stood by the bath tub and gestured grandly. Jellal was almost afraid to look. It might be a dead body like in that gore flick they watched in secret.

He was right to be afraid. Jellal didn’t know what he was looking at. The water in their tub was murky and it held an ugly creature that looked like Freddy Kreuger. Jellal shivered. Mystogan came to stand beside him and smiled upon the thing.

“What is that?” Jellal asked.

“This is Lauren.” Seigrain replied. No one offered any more information, as if that was sufficient enough. Jellal looked to Mystogan questioningly.

“Lauren is an alligator snapping turtle. I found her in the back yard near the tomatoes.”

“Alligator?” Jellal squeaked. It kind of looked like an alligator, just in the sense that it looked mean. It didn’t look like a turtle at all.

“Mmhmm. So be careful with your fingers. Lauren bites. She bit me here so I learned my lesson.” Seigrain said, brandishing his bandaged palm.

Jellal gasped. “Evil!”

“Nuh-uh!” Seigrain scowled. “Lauren is not bad, that’s just the way she was made. Animal In-sinks.”

“Instincts.” Mystogan corrected.

“Right.” Seigrain nodded. “Lauren didn’t mean to hurt me. She loves me. She doesn’t know any better and we have to love her for who she is.”

Easily convinced, Jellal nodded, mirroring his brother. He was always quick to placate. “I get it. I’m sorry, Lauren.” Jellal crouched beside the bathtub and watched Lauren swim and felt himself get enamored faster than a crash. “What do we feed her?”

“I read that we can feed her worms and bugs when she’s still this small. But she has to keep a balanced diet so I’ll have to procure more sustenance for her.” Mystogan pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Same as the other two boys, his eyes followed Lauren swim across the bathtub as if they were hypnotized by a pendant. “Lauren is probably about seven years old, judging from her size. I’ll have to measure her more accurately and read up on it some more.”

“When do you think her birthday is?” Jellal asked.

Mystogan shrugged. “We should just make it today. Lauren deserves a birthday.”

Seigrain’s mouth fell into an awed o and his eyes shone. “Happy birthday, Lauren.”

“I’ll get her a cake!!!” Jellal shrieked as he ran downstairs, back to the refrigerator.

In the end, Jellal chose a large square of chocolate chunk brownie and Seigrain found an old birthday candle in his cabinets. They watched Mystogan demonstrate the proper way to handle Lauren as he took her out of the bathtub and set her on the floor in front of the birthday brownie. Seated around their beloved with their legs in pretzels, they sang Lauren a hushed birthday song, lest mom hear and get too curious.

.

.

.

The peace did not last long in the Fernandes home. It only took Anna 4 days after Lauren’s birthday celebration to find the boys’ dirty (really dirty) little secret and call her husband in hysterics.

“There is a- a thing in the boys’ bathtub!” Anna cried into the phone.

“Lauren is not a thing, mom, she’s an alligator snapping turtle and she has feelings.” Seigrain said with his arms crossed, having missed the memo that when mom was upset, the children hung their heads and did not talk back. All the fight died in him when Anna aimed a sharp look at him.

“An alligator snapping turtle, apparently.” Anna corrected. She could hear Acnologia sigh over the line. “Are those legal here?”

“Call pest control, amor. I’ll be home in an hour and then I’ll deal with the boys.”

Anna hung up, then turned to her sons. “Dad says get rid of it. I’ll be calling animal control.”

On cue, the boys unleashed their meltdowns. Anna heard a lot of shrill NO or PLEASE and sobbing that she could tell was fake. Three pairs of arms grabbed at her, one encircled around her waist, one around her ribs from behind, one around her legs. A contingency attack of cute against the parents, tried and tested for the best results.

“PUH-LEASE, MOM,” cried Jellal on the fakest sniveling ever recorded in the history of snivels. “WE’LL TAKE CARE OF LAUREN.”

“Ohana means family!” Mystogan said, his thin arms doing a good job constricting around her ribs. “Nani didn’t take Stitch away even though Stitch was worse than Lauren.”

“Mom, PLEASE DON’T LET THE ANIMAL GUYS KILL LAUREN.”

Jellal’s head snapped back from where it was burrowed into her belly. “YOU’RE GONNA LET THEM KILL LAUREN, MOM?”

For nine year old boys, their shrieking was still considerably high pitched. Anna sighed when their panic rose, and wondered why her children were so dramatic. Acnologia said it was because they were half Latin.

“No one’s killing Lauren!” she said in an exasperated tone. “But we can’t keep her, boys. This can’t be legal. You can’t keep animals in bath tubs.” Another thought occurred to her. “Where have you been showering?” The boys’ bathroom didn’t have a shower separated from the tub and all the other bathrooms in the house were unlocked just for guests.

“Seigrain still has dry shampoo left from summer camp, and we asked Jamima for baby wipes.” Mystogan gestured to the can of powdered shampoo and large pack aloe vera wipes on their counter.

Anna felt herself die a little inside. “So you’ve been housing a snapping turtle and not showering?”

Jellal knew his mother’s angry tone when he heard it, and he almost wept for real for it. “We’re sorry, mommy! It’s not Lauren’s fault! She’s not bad, she was just made that way! She’s a good girl!”

“The best girl.” Seigrain said. “We’re sorry, mom. Mystogan has been reading up on houses for Lauren so we can shower again.”

“It’s called an outdoor habitat.” He uncoiled his limbs around his mother and stepped back. “We can save our lunch money and make it ourselves. I’m talking to someone on this forums and he’s telling me how I can make an adequate pond habitat with just a kiddie pool or a large basin.”

“We’ll be responsible!” Jellal translated.

Anna would not be swayed. “We can’t keep Lauren. She’s dangerous. I’ll wait for your father to get home so he can call animal control. No more playing with Lauren, especially touching her. If someone loses a finger, you’re all grounded.”

She wriggled out of their constraints and told them to drain the tub before she left.

.

.

.

Acnologia found them just before dinner time. The bath tub was clean and Lauren was in the sink. Seigrain and Jellal flanked Mystogan as he fed Lauren worms they’d dug up from the compost. Acnologia’s heart jumped when he heard the snap of its beak and prayed fervently that all of his sons’ fingers were still intact or else all his hard work on his wife would be out the window.

“Is this Lauren?” Acnologia asked when he finally stood near enough to watch the feeding process. His pulse raced yet again when Lauren’s head moved slow in the way predators did, just before clamping down on the stick of zucchini Mystogan offered.

“We’re trying to spend all the time we have left with her.” Jellal told him. “Before you take her away and we live a life of loneliness.”

Acnologia barely resisted rolling his eyes. He placed a hand on the crown of Jellal’s head. “Ay, hijo, you are too young to be talking so morose.”

“Jellal isn’t talking morse, dad, you need a walkie talkie to do that.” Seigrain said.

Mystogan scoffed. “Morose means sad, Seig.”

“Smarty-pants.”

“How do you know Lauren is a girl?” Acnologia interrupted before the back and forth could escalate.

“What do turtle dongs look like?”

“Jellal, don’t say dong.”

“Sorry, dad, I meant penis.”

“I checked the underside of her shell. You can tell the difference by the shape of it.” Mystogan explained. He reached for another wiggling worm and dangled it in front of Lauren. Acnologia tried not to grimace.

“We’re you boys honest with your mother when you said you would be responsible?”

Seigrain, always quick to see the hard resolve of his parents crack, turned to face his father so fast he felt dizzy. “We can keep Lauren?”

Acnologia held a hand up. “We can talk over dinner about the extent your duties to Lauren. She will be your pet, not your mother’s, not the maids’, not anyone else’s. Pets are not something you acquire when you’re bored and cast away when you decide is it too much responsibility for you to handle.”

Mystogan gasped. “We would never cast Lauren away! We love her!”

Acnologia managed to keep his groan internal. “I want you to commit to taking care of Lauren. We will help you, but only when we see you taking initiative. When you stop being responsible, we will cease to help you and you’re on your own. The animal police will come for you, you know?”

Seigrain puffed out his cheeks. “Why’re you only looking at me, dad!”

Acnologia blinked. “No, I wasn’t. I was talking to all of you.”

Jellal cut in, “WE GET TO KEEP LAUREN!” His brothers’ excited yelling rebounded in the tiled room. Then, three small bodies were jumping and running around before Jellal put the tub’s drain plug back and opened the tap and Mystogan grabbed the sides of Lauren’s shell and lifted her Lion King style.

Acnologia hoped he wouldn’t regret it, but he was pretty sure he would someday. Maybe when he was in the ER with at least one child for a snapping turtle bite.

He told the boys to calm down and come to dinner, but he was ignored. Bemused, he left to join Anna downstairs, thinking that his sons were way too young to be ignoring their father in favor of a girl.

.

.

.

Bliss persisted even a couple of years after Lauren’s acceptance into the Fernandes household. The habitat the boys made for her was not too shabby even though they did take a lot of the plants and rocks from the front lawn’s landscaping and dug a shallow pit for the thick basin right in the middle of the back yard. Anna helped them make an animal proof fence from chicken wire and wood and Acnologia bought them minnows to keep in an aquarium to feed her.

Anna disliked Lauren. It brought her just a bit of shame to admit it because her sons clearly loved the ugly creature, but there was just something menacing about Lauren’s face. She could tell Lauren knew she didn’t like her, too. Lauren wore a smug look on her beak when the boys flocked around her and ignored Anna.

One night, when the boys were asleep, Anna padded down to the kitchen for the moist chocolate cake she’d been saving since lunch. All three kids and her husband at some point have asked her for it but she’d been firm that it was hers and that her wrath would be uncontested if she found even a bite out of it. The cake was reserved for her downtime when everyone was in bed and she could look at her empty house and imagine that aliens had taken her family and she could eat in peace, preferably with three glasses of wine.

Anna selected Chianti from the wine fridge and made her way to the cake. Movement by the corner of the island counter made her stop in her tracks and a scream bubble up at her throat. Lauren stood just by the doors of the refrigerator, her mouth open wide to show a fleshy mouth ready for devouring whatever appendages it would get to bite off Anna.

They stood there in a bad imitation of a Mexican Standoff, Anna radiating disdain and fear while Lauren basked in her smugness like the evil demon that she was.

“Hey mom, did you seeꟷ There you are, Lauren.” Mystogan came into the kitchen and picked Lauren up by the shell. Lauren closed her beak and retracted her extended neck in a less threatening demeanor. “Sorry, we were watching Harry Potter in the library and I must’ve fallen asleep. I’m gonna put her out now, but you should be careful in the night, mom. You might step on Lauren or something. Good night!”

Anna couldn’t quite reply as she watched her eldest go out through the back door and sweet talk his pet as he set her down in the turtle pen. She wondered if it was too dramatic to say that Lauren was tearing her family apart.

.

.

.

The time came for Lauren to be liberated when the boys were fourteen and Lauren had clearly outgrown her tight habitat. Anna was adamant that they could do no expansions in the back yard and Acnologia agreed.

“We can donate her to the butterfly farm but that’s 20 minutes from here. Or we can set her free by the creek. At least she will be nearby.” Were the options given to the boys who were devastated. Lauren walked by Mystogan’s legs.

“I’m sorry, boys, but we can’t keep her and stunt her growth. It would be cruel.” Acnologia said. “When you care for someone, you have to do what’s best for them, even if it’s not what you want.”

Mystogan blinked burning eyes. “You’re right, dad.” He turned to his brothers. “The creek? At least we’ll be able to see her from time to time.”

So they released her to the creek. None of the three identical pairs of eyes were dry as they watched Lauren make the slow trek into the rocks, then settle into soft mud. Soon, the sun went down and they could see her no more. Seigrain sniffled one last time and clapped a hand on each brother’s back. “It’s for the best.”

Jellal asked, “Do you think we’ll see her again?”

“Hopefully. But if not, we can be secure in the knowledge that Lauren is in a safe place nearby.”

They went back to the main house, not excited for the prospect of cleaning up Lauren’s old home and face old memories.

.

.

Seigrain stewed over his dinner as he watched Jellal lean close to Erza and whisper something that made her laugh. He’s had such a bad day with his car breaking down and having to walk back home and then getting a ride back to the car to tow it to the garage. He didn’t need to see this.

He was just about to snap the classic “get a room,” when the back door burst open and Mystogan came in, panting, glasses askew, color high on his cheeks.

“Come outside. Lauren’s back.”

“Back?” Jellal echoed?

“Who is Lauren?” Erza asked, but no one answered; Seigrain and Jellal bolted for the back entrance.

She got up and followed them outside and found three heads of blue hunched over a mound of… something. Erza approached and tried to figure out what she was looking at.

“Uh…” Was all she could say.

“Holy fuck,” Seigrain whispered in awe, his voice watery.. Was he crying? Erza squinted to check.

“Oh my God, Lauren.” Jellal said in an equally choked voice. “How have you been, sweet girl? How long has it been?”

“It’s been almost two years.” Mystogan, too, sounded touched. It was probably the first time Erza has heard him speak with feeling. “Look how big you are.” He tried to lift her by the shell and grunted. “Heavy, too. Pretty girl. Look at you.”

Erza felt it was time to speak. “What is Lauren?” A mistake, probably. She looked like a turtle but… wrong.

“Lauren is the best girl ever. She was our pet but we had to set her free because she was getting big.” Love shone in Jellal’s eyes and Erza could say she’s never been the recipient of such a look.

“She’s Jellal’s first love.” Seigrain teased with a grin.

“All of ours, probably.” Mystogan said with his own smile.

“Lauren is an alligator snapping turtle.”  Jellal finally said.

“Oh, okay. I’ve never seen one before. Does she have a different diet than a normal snapping turtle?” As in, was Lauren a carnivore?

Erza was ignored. The boys had their phones out, taking all kinds of commemorative proof of Lauren, who was clearly satisfied with all the affection. At some point, Mystogan made another run inside the house and came back out with some vegetables and a long metal kebab. He put a bunch of grapes on one end and waited. The boys cheered when she snapped her beak shut and crushed the grapes.

Jellal stood up. “I’ll go find some lizards inside.”

“Wh- Lizards?” Erza squawked, still ignored as Jellal was already sprinting halfway to the house.

“It’s okay to feel the way you feel, Erza.” Seigrain said, finally putting his phone back in his pocket after sending his parents a picture of the prodigal pet and slung an arm around Erza. “It’s normal that you’ll feel inferior to the first love. If I were you, I’d preserve my dignity and break up with Jellal first before he can.”

“You’re nuts, Seigrain.” Erza huffed, shaking his hand off her shoulder.

“Nuts, sure. I can classify as ‘rebound’, too, if you like. It’s okay to find comfort in someone else in trying times like this.”

“Hilarious.” Jellal said, finally back with a can. Erza hoped there wasn’t actually a lizard in there. “You classify as ‘barking up the wrong tree’, too. I couldn’t find a lizard but I took dad’s worms.” The superworms Acnologia kept for his prized arowana.

“That’s fine. I can buy some fish tomorrow before school.” Mystogan said.

Lauren was gone come morning, but no one was too sad with the promise of another opportunity. If Lauren came home once, she’d do it again.

Lauren visited every few months, more commonly during the rainy season, much to the ecstasy of her fans. They kept earthworms nearby, just in case.

.

.

.

“Mom, over here!” Seigrain called from the creek on the edge of their property near the crops Anna kept. “I’ve been here forever. Can you take a picture of me and Lauren?”

Seigrain jutted his chin towards his phone on the rocky ground, his hands full holding both ends of Lauren’s shell.

“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” Anna asked as she picked up the phone and took a picture, close enough that she was distracted from her son’s beautiful smile by Lauren’s beastly face.

“Girls like it. And when they see me holding Lauren, too, it looks super badass.” Seigrain answered. “Lauren gets me a lot of numbers. She’s a great wingwoman. Totally ride of die.”

Anna didn’t even pretend to understand what the modern slang meant. “Good for you. Put your shirt back on and help me with the vegetables. Lauren and I are too old to be impressed by shirtless men.”

He set Lauren down near the shallow water but not before dropping a kiss on her shell.

“Gross, Seigrain. Don’t do that.” Anna groaned.

“Lauren is always impressed by me, mom.” Seigrain watched her waddle into the muddy water before turning to his mother.

.

.

“Are we going far, daddy?” Sofia asked. Her hand was in Seigrain’s as he led her to the creek marking the end of his parents’ land.

“No, we’re close. It’s gonna be worth it, I promise.”

During lunch, the gardener told Seigrain that he spotted a familiar visitor by the vegetable garden. Seigrain had asked Sofia if she wanted to meet an old friend of his and the little girl agreed. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he imagined how she would react to Lauren.

He could hear her before he saw her. The crunch of leaves by the tomatoes was reminiscent of her shell dragging over the surface. Seigrain saw her spiny back and nudged Sofia, directing her attention towards the turtle.

“Don’t come too close because she bites sometimes, okay?” Seigrain cleared his throat for show. “May I introduce Lauren?”

Sofia’s jaw dropped. “Hello, Lauren.” She couched low to be eye level. “She’s so big, daddy. The biggest turtle I’ve ever seen!”

“Did you know Lauren was my best friend? She was your uncles’ best friend, too.”

Sofia beamed. “Can I have a snappy turtle, too, daddy?”

Seigrain wilted. “Ah, not like Lauren, baby. Why don’t you just come over and visit her?” He couldn’t imagine keeping a snapping turtle in his two thousand dollar tub in his modern apartment.

Thankfully, Sofia nodded, smitten just as quickly as Seigrain had been back then.

note: @erzadragonborn and I talked about how the triplets keep a lot of weird/ugly pets and give them the most vanilla human names. Lauren was my favorite among them because my sister had a snapping turtle named Ne-yo that we released into the creek by our farm and he visits us once every few months and then goes back to the creek.

[thewitchandthebeasthimself]

The Witch and The Beast Himself: Chapter 10

Seeing something as incredible as Celty and her neighing motorcycle, plus knowing that I was about to ride with her to my apartment was absolutely dreamlike.

I followed her out of the apartment and watched as she looked up towards her unit. I looked up with her as her black motorcycle raced down the side of the apartment from the top with lightning speed and stopped in front of her to give her a short, otherworldly snort.

[This is my horse, Shooter] she typed to me.

[He's disguised as a motorcycle so that we can be able to get around in a modern way]

“That is so cool, Celty!” I said excitedly. “Thank you so much again for taking me to my apartment.”

She seemed to look at me for a second, then typed into her phone:

[Not a problem at all, (your name)]

[I like you, and I wouldn’t mind to help out when you need it since you’re Shizuo’s girlfriend]

I smiled. “Thanks a lot.”

I truly am thank that most of the people I’ve met here so far have been so nice to me and willing to help out. It does give me some hope that this thing with Izaya won't turn out so bad, especially now that I know that I don’t have to deal with it on my own.

[So where are we going?] she asked. I gave her the address to my apartment.

[I know where that is] she typed.

[Let’s get going]

Celty held out her hand, formed a helmet that looked just like hers but in all black and handed it to me. I put the helmet on my head, and climbed onto the back of her horse with her. Once I was on she wrapped shadows around my waist to keep me secure, then took off down the street with speed and somewhat, grace. I couldn't help but feel that besides my time with Shizuo this would have to top my list of exciting things I've done since I’ve moved here.

About halfway back to my apartment I felt a sudden dark energy gaining on us. I focused on this energy for a minute until I caught sight of a group of Blood Diamonds in a red van, armed to the teeth and bobbing through traffic in attempt to catch up to us.

I groaned then warned Celty, “We have Blood Diamonds gaining on us!”

She summoned her phone, typed into it with one hand, then showed it to me: [Are you serious?!]

Suddenly I felt the energy of one of them preparing to fire a gun at us.

Fuck!

I breathed in, imagining a energetic shield covering us from behind, then breathed out, allowing the energetic shield to take form behind us, shielding us from the gunshots.  

“I’ll try to get them off our ass!” I yelled to Celty as she swerved through traffic. I knew that my shield wouldn’t be able to cover us for long, so I needed to come up with something to get them off of us quickly. I turned sideways and held out my left hand towards the van. I form a finger gun with my hand and took a deep breath in, imagining electricity zipping up through my body and focusing it into my formed hand, directly into my pointer finger and middle finger. I aimed my hand at one of the front tires of the van. Finally, on the exhale, I fired and released the zapping, electric energy from the tips of my fingers. I watched as the shot broke through my shield, causing it to disintegrate, and crashed into the front tire of the van. The tire I shot at popped, making the van spin out and crash into the side of a brick wall across the street as Celty and I sped further and further away.

Holy shit, I just did that! I thought in excitement and somewhat alarmed by my own actions.

Celty stopped in the middle of the street, nudged me to look at her and held her phone up to me: [Why the hell did you do that?!]

[Now the cops will be all over us!]

“Shit Celty, what was I supposed to do?! The Blood Diamonds were chasing after us with guns! At least I didn’t kill any of them!”

[We could’ve gotten away from them on our own if you could’ve kept your shield up a little longer!]

“It wouldn't have been able to hold for that long!”

We suddenly heard the sound of police sirens coming into our direction. I felt Celty freeze up somewhat in fear, then quickly put her hands on the handlebars and sped off down the street, Shooter neighing and revving like an engine. For the first time I was actually able to sense something from her. Not energy, but emotion. She was absolutely terrified of the cops. As they gained on us I could understand why; they emitted an energy much darker and terrifying than a group of Blood Diamonds could. It almost felt… evil.

She typed with one hand into phone then showed it to me: [I’ll have Shooter take some of the back roads so that we can evade the cops.]

[Hang on tight and let me handle this.]

“Fine,” I held up my hands as if to surrender to her. “Do your thing.”

We sped through the streets, weaved through traffic, and passed through alleyways all across Ikebukuro to avoid the cops. But somehow they continued to stay on our tail, popping out in front of us on the street as we passed through alleys and following us on police motorbikes.

“This is Officer Furutani, I have the Black Rider and it’s passenger in sight! I need the fastest units to respond asap, over!” I heard one yell into their walkie-talkie as we passed them.

“Come in, come in! This is Officer Kano, the headless rider and it’s passenger are heading westbound on Yurakucho Line, I need the fastest units to respond asap, over!”

Eventually we got on a freeway bridge called the Yurakucho Line to the Shinjuku district in attempt to put distance between us and them. As we entered the bridge, one cop that we kept bumping into gained on us on a motorbike. He had very oddly distinctive facial features and an energy that stuck out amongst the other cops that chased us; he wore a cop uniform but included a red ascot. He had an upside-down, cross-shaped scar on his cheek, and a huge malicious smile plastered on his face. His energy was also absolutely the most terrifying; his energy felt about the same as Shizuo’s energy felt when he’s angry, but this energy seemed to be focused on entirely one thing. It felt as if he was the direct one that fueled all of the other cops’ raging dedication to their police force.

He sped up to our side in an attempt to spin us out, but missed. He swerved a little before regaining control of his bike and catching back up on our side.

“Your days of running around this city without any consequences are over, monster!” the cop yelled at Celty. In an almost wicked tone, he added, “Who’s the hostage you have there, is it some innocent girl that you’re bringing to that gang you’re involved in?!”

“No I’m not!” I yelled at him in Celty’s defense. “Leave us alone, we haven’t done anything!”

The cop laughed. “If you haven’t done anything then why are you running?! What kind of involvement do you HAVE with that thing?!”

I felt Celty nudge my arm to get my attention. I then looked up and ahead of her to find that at the end of bridge into Shinjuku our path was blocked off by cop cars and road block hurdles. A few cops stood in front of the roadblock as if they were expecting us.

“I’ve got you now, monster.” sneered the cop behind us as we neared it. He then pulled up his walkie- talkie and spoke into it. “All units, this is Officer Kuzuhara. We have the black rider and it’s passenger cordoned off of Shinjuku freeway. I repeat, we have the black rider and it’s passenger cordoned off of Shinjuku freeway, over.”

“This is Chief Akiyama. Understood, good work, Kuzuhara, over.” a voice buzzed in over the walkie talkie. The cop let out a soft smirk at his accomplishment. I felt myself becoming petrified. Celty slowed down as we got closer and closer to the roadblock.

This can’t be happening , I thought. I’ve never been to jail before, not even in the states. And Celty’s allowing us to get busted. Fuck, what am I going to tell Shizuo? What would he do one he finds out we were busted by cops on the way to get some shit from my apartment?! And on top of this they’re gonna catch me because they’re also looking for me. This is fucked, absolutely fucked.

I felt Celty unwrap her shadows from my waist. Then unexpectedly, Celty revved Shooter up and sped up to the roadblock. I gripped onto her waist to keep myself from flying off the horse bike. The speed also caused her helmet to pop off, revealing her severed neck and the black smoky shadows coming from it.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled at her. She said nothing as she sped up to the roadblock and had Shooter jump completely over them. Their cars and the other cops attempted to shoot tasers at us as we jumped over them, missing every shot they took at us.

Holy shit, we’re gonna get away from them! I thought to myself as I realized what she was doing.

As we passed over the road block and landed on the ground to speed away, I took a deep breath in and prepared to make a road block of my own to keep the cops from following us. I visualized frigid ice coursing through my veins. Celty wrapped her shadows back around my waist as if she understood what I was about to do. I took a minute to allow the freezing energy to move up and collect into my hands. I turned around and held the palms of my hands up to the cop cars behind us. On the exhale, I forced the cold energy from my palms and my fingers and raised an icy wall along the back of the cop cars, the ice gripping onto the railings on both sides of the one way freeway and completely blocking them from following us.

“They shouldn't be able to follow us now!” I yelled to Celty.

She typed into her phone: [Okay, good. We're gonna take a few alleyways underneath the freeway back to Ikebukuro so the cops can't find us.] As her horse revved up and turned around to take the alleyways underneath the freeway, she typed to me again:

[Man, those cops really freak me out. I hope we don't run into them again.]

“I hope we don't either,” I agreed. “I'd really hate to be arrested here.” I also shuddered at the thought of them wanting to find me for questioning because of the video of me on the news.

“That was crazy!” I said aloud as I processed what just happened. Celty said nothing to me in response as we made our way back to Ikebukuro.

Once we got back to Ikebukuro we began taking the main roads again, thinking that the cops were no longer going to be on our tail unless we did something drastic to attract them. Finally, once we reached my apartment, Celty stopped along the side of the street and unwrapped her shadows off of my waist to let me off of Shooter. She formed a new helmet in her hand and covered up her neck with it in place of her old helmet that was knocked off during our encounter with the cops. Her actions reminded me to remove my own helmet, which vanished from my hands after removing it.

[I'll wait out here.] Celty typed to me.

“Okay, I won't be too long.” I hopped off of Shooter and ran up the stairs to unlock my apartment door. Along the way I looked at the apartment door next to mine.

I wonder what Anri’s been up to? I thought as i looked at her apartment door. I never see her outside of her apartment when I'm here. After this blows over I'm gonna do something nice for her since she brought me cookies on my first day here.

Once I unlocked my door and stepped inside, I immediately sensed a familiar cunning and manipulative energy… INSIDE my apartment. The energy came from directly behind me, and felt as if it planned to attack me as soon as I stepped inside.

Goddammit, what is he doing here?! I sighed. This is actually getting very annoying . I took a deep breath in, and passed flaming energy throughout my body. Once I gathered enough energy into my left hand to form a ball of fire, I spun around and tried to shove it on him in attempt to scorch him with it. He quickly jumped out of the way and into my kitchen. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small flick blade, pointing it at me.

“Ya know, you should learn how to supress your energy, especially if you're going to attack in me in my own home.” I said aloud to him in English. “Now get the hell out of my apartment before I burn your ass.”

“And then risk burning down your own home and having the cops find you? You really don't want to do that.” Izaya replied in English with a smile on his face.

“I don't give a shit, I'll do what I have to to protect myself.”

We stared at each other for a minute, preparing to fight in my once nice and cozy little apartment.