#totally forgot to shade the left arm oops

[yeuziu]

idk how the jacket stays on his shoulders don’t ask me

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Looks Like Someone Picked a Whole Bushel of Oopsie Daisies

Chapter Ten: Shades of Blue

As always, thanks to @edward-or-ford and @pacific-ship!

How can you leave me on my own? Desperate and destitute, these seconds feel like lifetimes without you.- New Years Day, My Dear

Mabel marked off February 1st in her calendar with an X in her pink gel pen with sparkles (was it really even a gel pen if there were no sparkles? Mabel’s opinion was firmly on the side of ‘no, absolutely not’).

Just two hundred and twelve days to go. She was counting the days, the hours, the seconds (okay, maybe just the days, she wasn’t that good at math) till her parents could no longer keep her from her soulmate.

Because on August 31st, 2017, Mabel and her super awesome brother-boyfriend-soulmate combo would be turning eighteen, and there was nothing their parents could do to keep them apart once they turned eighteen.

Their parents had insisted they were monitoring their texts, and that they weren’t allowed to speak under any circumstances.

Of course, Dipper had called Mabel from Grunkle Stan’s phone (turns out their parents had been total liars about that, too, and neither Grunkle Stan nor Grunkle Ford was in any way opposed to the whole soulmate situation) as soon as she got home, and they had both downloaded an untraceable messaging app where they could text, make phone calls, and send pictures.

As one might imagine, they sent a great deal of pictures.

And also videos.

They had a lot of phone sex and sexy texting time, okay? They’d only gotten to have actual in-person sex twice (twice!), so they had to compensate somehow.

In any case, there was nothing they could do about it before they turned eighteen, so they had to come up with workarounds.

Not that it could prevent the withdrawals that were likely to hit if another month or two went by without them seeing each other, of course, but it sure made the days go by easier.

Mabel wasn’t sure what her parents were planning to do once they hit the three month mark and the first of the withdrawal symptoms started. It wouldn’t be so bad at first, according to what Dipper had told her regarding the massive amount of research he’d done. Probably just more of the usual depression she’d been having since she watched him disappear behind their car, and then sleepiness, then headaches and body aches, and then things would get progressively worse until eventually, they wouldn’t be able to function at all anymore.

She didn’t know what their plans were for anything, really. She hadn’t spoken to them since they’d left Gravity Falls. She hadn’t said a word to them on the drive home; just put her headphones in and tuned out. She hadn’t said anything to them since, either. Her parents would try to get her to talk sometimes. Her mom did it more often. She had headphones on most of the time. She wasn’t even home very much.

She didn’t tell her parents when she was going to a friend’s house the way she had before. The first few times, her parents had called the parents of various friends until they found her. After awhile, though, they stopped.

She didn’t care if they were worried. They clearly weren’t worried enough about her and Dipper to let them be together, so Mabel didn’t see any reason to notify them or her comings and goings, despite their protests. Just because they wanted to cherry pick their concerns for her well being didn’t mean she had to let them.

Besides, she came home every few days, anyway. It was usually only for a night, of course. Then she’d go back out again. And yeah, that meant she was out on school nights, but her grades were good, and she always made it to class on time.

She wanted Dipper. She wanted to be in his arms again. She slept in the shirt she’d taken from him every night, and she hadn’t even washed it. It smelled more like her by that point than it did him, and not in a good way, either, but it made her feel a little better.

Plus, whenever she sent him pictures of herself wearing it (sometimes leaving enough of the buttons undone to where her cleavage was visible, other times leaving all the buttons undone), he got all possessive and sexy, and the night usually ended with them panting each other’s names into the phone as quietly as they could.

Mabel stared at the cheery pink gel pen in her hand. She wasn’t feeling particularly pink. She hadn’t felt pink in just over a month, as it happened. Which was strange, because Mabel always felt some shade of pink or purple.

But she could hardly remember what Dipper smelled like. She could hardly remember what he tasted like. What he felt like. If she couldn’t remember those things, she couldn’t make herself feel anything that wasn’t some shade of blue or other.

She hung the gel pen back up on her calendar, grabbed her overnight bag, and opened her bedroom door.

She had her headphones in and was looking at her phone, pulling up a playlist, so she didn’t notice her mother there until she spoke.

“Honey, why don’t you spend the night here? I’ll make your favorite, if you want, and we can watch a movie, and…” tears welled up in her mother’s eyes. “Please, sweetheart, I can barely remember what your voice sounds like.”

Well, Mabel thought, maybe you shouldn’t have decided to separate me from my soulmate, then.

With that in mind, Mabel shot her mother a glare severe enough to make her flinch, and pushed past her, her overnight bag bumping against the hallway wall as she did.

Her friends were waiting for her in their car outside.

Mabel loaded her bag into the trunk and ignored her mother watching her behind the curtains in the living room.

Squeezing into the only empty seat in the car, she grinned at her friends.

Kristin, Eva, and Julie had been total lifesavers. They knew about Mabel’s soulbro situation, and they were, like, super supportive.

“Your ‘rents still giving you shit?” Julie asked over her shoulder as she pulled out of the driveway.

Mabel sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping. “It’s not shit, exactly, just…” she sighed again. “They just, y’know. They won’t let me see him.”

“Yeah, that still doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” Kristin said, adjusting her black lipstick in a compact mirror. “I get that having an incesty-soulmate isn’t, like, ‘socially acceptable’ or whatever,” she did air quotes with her fingers, the motion seeming a bit off due to the tube of eyeliner she had in between her pointer and index fingers that she was using in lieu of lipstick. “But if my parents can handle me being bi, yours should be able to handle your soulmate being your brother.”

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Eva cut in, turning around to address Kristin and Mabel. “I feel like, if it were me, and they were my kids, at first I’d be all freaked out, y’know? Cause like, they’re your kids, and then it turns out they’re soulmates and have to bang a whole bunch or they’ll get all eeeeuuughh, right? That’d mess anybody up, I think,” she paused for a moment before continuing. “But the thing is, though, I feel like after that initial freak out, I’d be kinda relieved, honestly.”

“Relieved? Really?” Julie was so surprised she forgot to use her turn signal when changing lanes. “Oops, my b,” she said, half to herself and half to the driver who had honked at her. Not that he could hear her, of course.

“Why relieved?” Mabel wondered.

“Well, if you’ve got a kid, right, and your kid finds their soulmate and it’s some stranger you don’t know, how do you know your kid’s soulmate isn’t gonna hurt them, or be a terrible person or something?” Eva reasoned.

“That’s a good point,” Kristin agreed, shutting her compact mirror with a snap. “Soulmates aren’t exactly exempt from domestic abuse and shit.”

Eva nodded. “Exactly, so like, if it were me, I feel like I’d be cool with it once I got used to the idea, because I’d know my kids, right, so I’d know they’d never hurt each other.”

“That makes sense,” Julie said thoughtfully.

“Mmm,” Mabel hummed. “I guess. I dunno. They’re weird about it.”

“Wait a sec,” Kristin interjected. “Didn’t you say your parents mentioned something about their parents being, like, religious fundies or something?”

Mabel nodded. “I think my grandmother on my mom’s side might be. Which would make sense, honestly, since my mom has been so militant about keeping the Dipster and me apart.”

“Okay, first of all,” Eva had a haughty air to her voice, and Mabel raised an eyebrow at her. “First of all,” she said again. “It’s ‘the Dipster and I’.”

The other three girls groaned, and Julie took a hand off the wheel to swat at her half heartedly.

“Ommigod, shut up!” Mabel giggled.

“Whatever, you love me and you know it,” Eva said with a grin.

The others grumbled but did not object.

“FYI, Mabes,” Kristin put a hand on her arm. “You should send him a selfie real quick.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm,” her friend nodded sagely. “You look hot, and it’s a damn crime he doesn’t get to see it in person, so you gotta help a brotha out!”

Mabel smiled and snapped a few dozen pictures of herself.

“Okay, which one’s best?” she asked, handing her phone to Kristin, who scrolled through and inspected each one.

“No, no, no… meh, maybe… no, no… oooo, yes, love it, this one, totes send this one! Look at how much boobage you got in there, just fuckin’ go for it, man!”

Mabel grinned and sent the picture to Dipper, along with a short little miss you <3 text.

He responded with a miss you too and then, two seconds after, fuck you’re beautiful.

She giggled and showed Kristin his response. “Mhm, mhm, told ya.”

“Okay, so, confession time,” Julie said, pulling into her parents’ driveway.

“Spill it,” Eva immediately demanded.

“So you guys know Chad, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Kristin said with a grimace. The guy in question was a bit of a fuckboi.

“No, don’t say that!” Julie whined, getting out of the car. “He’s really sweet!”

”Of course he is,” Eva deadpanned.

“He is!” Julie insisted. “Anyway, so he asked me out.”

Mabel groaned. “Jules, tell me you didn’t.”

“I might have, yeah.”

“Ugh, ew,” Kristin said.

“It’s not ew!”

“No, it’s totally ew,” Eva pointed out, and Mabel nodded her agreement.

“If it helps,” Julie was saying sheepishly as she unlocked her front door, “he’s really, really good.”

“Of course he’s really good, numbnuts,” Kristin said with an eye roll. “He’s slept with half the school.”

“So have you!” Julie said defensively.

“Oooo, gotta point there,” Mabel snickered, pointing a glittery blue nail at her friend.

“Yeah, but I’m, like, discreet about it,” Kristin pointed out. “And I’ve actually dated people seriously, too!”

“Anyway,” Julie cut in. “So the consensus is ew, then, huh?”

“Definitely ew,” Mabel agreed.

“Why are Chads always such Chads?” Kristin wondered aloud, opening the door to Julie’s bedroom.

“They really are,” Eva laughed, plopping down on the bed.

“Soooo…” Mabel trailed off. “Cards Against Humanity, anybody?”

———————————————————————Her friends always helped push the separation anxiety to the back of her mind, but with the other three girls asleep, there was nothing for Mabel to do but wallow.

Her phone lit up the dark room, illuminating the air mattress Mabel lay on.

Dipper had sent her a message.

I want you.

Mabel unplugged her phone and scrambled up as quietly as she could, crossing the hall into the guest bedroom and locking the door behind her and turning on the light, typing out a quick okay in response.

She knew from experience that as long as she was quiet, nobody would hear her.

Now? he asked.

Now.

And then he was calling her, and she was hastily stuffing her headphones in her ears and hitting the little phone icon on her screen.

“Hey,” he greeted, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Hey,” she said back. It was always such a relief to hear him. “I miss you.”

“We’ve been texting all day,” he laughed.

“I know, but…”

“It’s not the same,” he agreed with the words she hadn’t said.

“Yeah,” her voice was soft, and she heard him sigh on the other end of their call.

“Can I see you?” he asked after a moment.

“Y- yeah, one sec.” They’d done this more times than she could count, but somehow, she was always nervous.

She stripped out of her shorts and unbuttoned his shirt to let it reveal her breasts, pulled her panties down a bit with her thumb and smiled into the camera.

She only had to take six or seven pictures before she had one she was satisfied with. Sending it over and promptly deleting them from her phone, she waited for it to arrive.

She knew when he got it, because he said, “Fucking hell, Mabel,” with a groan, and she could almost picture him stroking himself.

She’d only seen him do that a handful of times, when they’d gotten the chance to do this on the rare occasion she was at their parents’ for the night. She could have watched it for hours.

“You’re so perfect,” he sighed in her ear, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine he was there with her. He’d kiss her neck, maybe, and then squeeze her breasts and pinch her nipples. Mimicking the things he was doing to her in her mind’s eye, she trailed a hand down her body and stroked herself lightly through her panties, listening to the way his breath was quickening.

“I wanna see you, too, Dip,” she sighed into the phone.

A few seconds later, a picture came through of him holding himself, and when she saw him naked… well. She had seen him naked more times than she could count by that point, but it was always breathtaking each time.

“Are you wet for me, Mabes?” he murmured in her ear.

She nodded, pulling her drenched panties off and kicking them to the side, before remembering he couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“Show me.”

She took another picture, this time of a part of herself she didn’t really understand why he wanted to see, but he liked it so she sent it to him anyway.

“I wish I had gotten to taste you,” he gasped. “I think about that a lot.”

“O- oh?” How embarrassing. She knew she was blushing. She could feel it.

“Are you blushing right now?” Dipper asked. “I bet you are. You’re so cute when you blush.” She giggled a little, and he went on. “Will you touch yourself for me?”

“Mhm.” She brushed her fingers over her slit, dipping one inside slightly, just for a second, and gasping as she did so.

“Pinch your nipples, too, okay? I know you like that.” He did know, didn’t he? He knew all the things she liked. He seemed to know them intuitively. To be fair, though, he’d said she knew all the things he liked, too.

Pinching her nipple and brushing a finger lightly over her clit, Mabel whimpered.

“Does that feel good?”

“Y- yes,” she gasped out.

“I wish… mmmf,” he cut himself off with a groan. “I wish this was your hand instead of mine.”

Mabel squeezed her breast roughly, rubbing a finger back and forth over her clit.

“Me too,” she whined. “God, Dip, I want… I want you inside me so bad, I-“

“I know, Mabes. I know. I’d give anything to be inside you right now.”

She rubbed herself a little faster, and her legs were going to give out, she could tell they were, so she allowed herself to collapse onto the cold of the hardwood floor.

“You okay?” Dipper asked when he heard her fall to the ground, concern evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I just had to… ah!” she gasped. “I had to sit down.”

“Oh, okay,” he murmured, and it sounded like he went back to stroking himself.

“I need you.” She’d resorted to begging. She always did that when she was getting close.

“I know,” he groaned. “I need you, too.”

“Dipper, I- please, I need…” she rubbed herself faster, and her hips lifted off the floor an inch or so.

“I know,” he said again.

“I need you.” She couldn’t stop. It felt too good. “I need it, I want you so bad, please,” she begged. “Please give it to me, please Dip, god, I can’t-“

“Are you gonna cum for me, Mabes?”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, I’m gonna- fuck, I want your cum in me, yes-“ her wrist hurt, but she kept going. She was so close, so fucking close-

“Cum for me, I wanna hear you cum for me.”

“Dipper, ah, oh fuck, Dipper, I’m gonna-“ her body spasmed, and she fell limp.

A few seconds later, he followed her with a grunt.

It had felt so good, and Mabel felt so content for a split second, because she’d forgotten that Dipper wasn’t there with her.

The tears started to fall, and she began to sniffle. It usually ended that way. She couldn’t help it.

“Mabel,” he said with a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she hiccuped.

“No, no,” he assured her. “I just… I wish I could be there with you.”

“I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together,” she cried softly.

“I know,” he sighed again. “But we’ll be together soon, okay? I’ve got an idea.”

“An idea?” What kind of idea, she wondered.

“Yeah, but it’s a surprise, so until I’ve got everything worked out, just be patient for me, okay?”

“Okay,” she sniffed.

“I love you,” he told her softly.

“I love you, too.”

After a few seconds, he said, “and on that note, I need to clean this jizz off my stomach before it drips all over my bed.”

She giggled. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’ll text me tomorrow, right?”

“Uh, doi, when don’t I?” She sniffed again. It was hard to force the silliness that usually felt natural when she felt so blargh.

“Good point,” he chuckled. “Night, then. Love you,” he said again.

“Love you, too.”

After they hung up, it took several minutes for Mabel’s body to stop tingling from her orgasm, and then several more minutes before she could stop the tears and go back to bed.

Being without him was tougher than she’d imagined.

[rjalker]

[ID: six drawings of alien children, labeled with their names.

The first is pale blue, and has four legs and a humanoid torso and arms, but the dark blue eyes and mouth of an insect, and four long antenne, two that go upwards like ears, and two that extend forward from its mouth like tusks. Its name is Arros. It is crouched, turning to look over its shoulder towards the camera.

The second is green, with six legs and a humanoid torso attached to a blue, segmented, bug-like lowerhalf, like a centaur. The torso leans forward, and the legs face backwards and go up and then down, like a grasshopper’s hind legs. It’s name is Vanuldo. It has human eyes, ears, and a nose, and its mouth was not drawn.

The third is yellow and orange, and again shaped like slouching a centaur, but with only four legs, and a spiky abdomen instead of smooth. It has human arms, but the hands end in misshapen claws. It has a human nose, but four large brown eyes, with many spikes on the back of its head that trail down its spine, getting smaller until they stop where the bug section begins. It has bug shaped legs that end in human feet. It’s name is Keris. 

The fourth is dark blue and bright blue. It is shaped like a centaur, but the torso is more upright than Keris and Vanuldo. It has four strong legs. The back legs face backwards like a grasshopper’s legs, and end in claws, and the front legs face forward and end in human feet. Its arms are strong, and humanoid, but end in four fingers instead of five. Its bug half is covered by a pale blue carapace with gaps between each segment. Its name is R’thamkaz.

The fifth is yellow, orange, and brown, and has no arms. It has six brown legs with multiple joints, each ending in feet with three toes, with two in the front, and one in the back, like a bird. The back feet face the opposite direction of the front two sets. It has a yellow and orange covering over its abdomen all the way up to its head, which is covered in short spikes along the top, with eight yellow eyes, and two red tusks that extend out from its mouth. Its name is Ziriak. It has no visible human features.

The sixth and final has four legs, and is different shades of bright green, with a segmented upper shell almost like a turtle, and a long, short body. Its legs are shaped almost like a grasshopper’s, with stubby feet. It has human ears on its smooth, insect like head, and blue human eyes. Its name is Zataiya.

End ID.]

you know there are supposed to be seven of them but I forgot to name and draw the 7th the first time and I keep forgetting. I guess they’re invisible like their older sister. 

The babies, since I can’t find the original post.

Haven’t designed clothes for them yet but they wear clothes because they’ll need help regulating their body temperatures just like humans do. They’re part human after all.

They’re all science experiment babies because I’m adopting all the science experiment babies and they get to have parents who care about them.

oops you know I came up with a family name for them and I forgot it.......what was it...............................

*Spongebob narrator voice* one blog search later

Pollard-The-Thiramisse yeah. that’s their last name. because they have three parents. I’m gonna shorten it to Pollthemisse. 

well. three parents that are raising them. if you want to get specific they have like fifty parents.

I really need to design the seventh one. there’s eight kids total, nine if you count the one they accidentally left behind because they didn’t know he was alive. they thought he was a plant, for lack of a better term. but its okay some nice robots found him and raised him as their own, they’re very good parents.

they all make spore noises and they’re super cute. and you know what I haven’t decided how big they are yet..........that’s gonna be fun. They’re all different sizes and they’re all going to grow at different rates and require different things......oh boy

[wardenrainwall]

Words:  2,921 (18,110 Total) Pairing: Blackwall/Inquisitor Cadash/Cullen Rating: Explicit Summary: smut. nothing but smut.

“You’re certain?” Renna asked, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as she looked at Commander Cullen, stretched out at the foot of her bed, naked as the day was long. This was new territory for them. It had only been a few days since Blackwall and Cullen had approached her and with hands on her hips, she’d shook her head angrily.

 “I won’t choose,” she told them.

“We’re not asking you to.” 

“Yes,” Cullen said. Then Blackwall swatted Renna’s rump, and it was more sound than sting.

But Renna watched the way Cullen’s already half-hard cock flexed against his belly. Already naked herself, she padded over to the bed and stepped between his thighs.

“Alright, hold your legs up for me.” Cullen obeyed, reaching down as he lifted his feet up onto the edge of the bed, and then hooked his hands behind his knees and drew his legs back and spread them wide. Bearing himself completely. Renna ran her hands along his legs, from ankle to knee, then brushed her hands over his before continuing down along his thighs until she reached the dark blonde curls at the apex of his thighs. 

Moisture leaked from the head of his cock, and unable to resist, she leaned down and ran her tongue along the heavy vein to tease the slit. His groan brought a smile to her lips and she drew back, grabbed the bottle of oil, and with one hand drew his cock up, proud and hard and she felt her core tighten in anticipation. She knew how good it felt to have him inside of her. 

Tugging the cork free with her teeth, she spat it off to the side, and then with a wicked little grin, she rubbed the bottle along the sensitive head. Cullen hissed, straining against his self imposed restraint. “Fuck, Ren-”

“Cold?” she asked with a smile, then lifted the bottle and poured a hefty amount down over his erection, and her hand. The muscles of his stomach tightened and his cock flexed in her hand as he cursed again. But then she stroked her fist up his length, the oil quickly warming beneath her touch. 

Dripping more oil down his length, she watched it slip over his balls, down and soaking into the blanket beneath, oh well, she thought and started to set aside the bottle, but Blackwall took it, poured some into his own hand before wrapping it around his erection while he watched her every move. Shifting her free hand to curl around Cullen’s cock she slid her oil-covered hand lower and lower, cupping and gently fondling his balls before going lower still to the tight puckered hole.

Cullen pressed his head back against the bed, groaning and arching up as she teased and circled the ring of flesh with the tip of one finger, all the while her other hand slowly pumped his erection. Slick with so much oil, she easily breached his opening and was nearly to the second knuckle before he tensed. “I’ve got you,” she murmured. It had been several months since they had done this, but she knew his body nearly as well as she knew his own.

He was flushed, skin damp with perspiration, arching into her touch. Withdrawing her finger almost completely, she leaned down to flick her tongue over the head of his cock. “You’re so pretty,” she told him, the pink flush of his skin seeming to go a shade or two darker. “Beautiful like this.” Renna worked her finger inside, slipping deeper.

Cullen lifted his head enough to look at her, his gaze dark. “Such a good boy,” she continued, felt her own desire slicking her thighs as his cock throbbed in her hand. “Do you think you’re ready?” she gently scraped her thumbnail just below the head of his cock and Cullen let out a quiet hiss. “His cock his thicker than mine,” she murmured. “But the stretch feels so good,” she crooned. 

“Yes,” Cullen groaned, his knuckles white as he gripped his thighs. “Fuck, yes, please.” 

Withdrawing her hands, Renna glanced over at Blackwall, his gaze was fixed on the two of them, his erection rock hard as he stroked it slowly. With his free hand, he reached up, cupping Renna’s chin to angle her head up for a deep kiss that left her a little dazed. When they broke apart, Renna crawled up onto the bed beside Cullen. “Let go,” she brushed his hands from his legs and straddled his waist. 

Taking Cullen’s hands in hers, Renna shifted back until she felt the slide of his cock against her folds. Knuckles brushed against the curve of her ass and she glanced over and heard Cullen’s sharp intake of breath before she realized Blackwall had curved his big hand around Cullen’s length, lining it up with her slit. “Slowly,” it was a soft order and one that Renna would gladly obey. Lacing her fingers with Cullen’s she rested their joined hands on her thighs and sat up straight and felt the thick mushroomed head press against her opening.

“Oh,” her breath left her in a soft sigh at that first initial stretch. And for a moment she forgot herself, her lust addled brain wanted nothing more than to drive down hard, grind against him and feel him pound into her for every bit of his strength. The hard slap against her ass had her gasping in surprise.

“I said, slow,” Blackwall reminded her and she realized she’d already impaled herself nearly halfway on Cullen’s cock. 

“Oops,” she flashed him a grin and then turned her face to look at Cullen again. Sweat beaded on his brow and he gripped her hands tighter. She held herself still as Blackwall moved closer, the heat of his body against her back. Then Blackwall’s hands were on Cullen’s legs, positioning them just so. 

Cullen stared up at her, lips parted, eyes heavy-lidded and she knew the exact moment Blackwall began to push inside. His head punched back against the bed, and his cock seemed to swell inside her. “That’s it,” Blackwall’s voice was rough. Renna resumed her oh-so-slow descent and felt the shudder that ran through Cullen’s body. “You take my cock so well, Commander.” 

Renna nearly whimpered. She knew how Cullen liked the praise, and the more foul-mouthed the better. Blackwall had apparently figured that out as well. Fully seated on Cullen’s cock, Renna was trembling and didn’t know how the other two were remaining so calm, she felt as if she were a coiled wire about to break. 

She thought it might only take a few strokes of her clit to have her soaring and she was tempted  to pry her hand free from Cullen’s to do just that. But then Blackwall’s hips snapped forward and both men let out shouts of pleasure. Then Blackwall began to move, measured strokes, and Renna began to rock her hips as well, to ride Cullen’s cock languorously.

Releasing Cullen’s hands, Renna braced herself against his chest and he held her gaze, his fingers no doubt leaving bruises on her thighs as he lay beneath them. Leaning down lower until her breasts brushed against his chest she kissed him softly on the mouth. Tongues met, danced and she felt Blackwall’s thrusts gain speed. “Tell me,” she said, finally breaking the kiss to lick along his jaw to his ear. “How does his cock feel inside you? Better than mine?” Renna lightly scraped a fingernail over one of his nipples, felt it go taut so she did it to the other as well. “Tell me, Commander, I want to hear what it feels like to have his cock inside you.” 

Cursing softly, Cullen arched, his breathing was ragged and she didn’t think he’d last long before he came. “Better?” he rasped, swallowed, and moaned when Blackwall gave a particularly sharp thrust of his hips that had his belly slapping against her rump. “Different. Fuck, good. So good.” His arms banded around her, holding her tight to him. “Hot and slick, his cock and your cunt-” Renna clenched around him and he groaned. “Maker, don’t stop.” 

“Could you take us both?” Renna asked. “My cock alongside Blackwall’s buried deep inside you, stretching your pretty ass.”

The sound that escaped Cullen’s lips was one of almost desperation. Then his hand fisted in her hair and he yanked her mouth back to his and kissed her hard. “You could take us both,” he said when he broke the kiss, glancing past her, she saw something flit through Cullen’s gaze before he looked at her again. “Just think how well we’d fill your pussy. How hot and sticky you’d be after we came inside you.” 

Renna whimpered and felt Blackwall’s thrust speed up, become a little rougher. Then Blackwall reached out and caught her arm, tugging her upright so that her back was against his chest, and it shifted the angle of Cullen’s cock inside her. Her thighs ached from the slow restrained movement, but she knew it was worth every second of it. 

“Our beautiful Inquisitor told me about the war table, bending you over it and fucking you. How you begged for her cock.” Blackwall’s hand curved around Renna’s throat, a gentle pressure that while it wasn’t cutting off her breath made her feel dizzy all the same. “I want to hear it. Beg to feel her come around you, to spend yourself inside her. Be a good boy and beg for my cock. And if you do it prettily enough, you might get it all.”

Renna was lost to it all. She heard Cullen’s voice, caught snatches of words. Harder. Fuck me. Let me. Blackwall’s fingers were on her clit, his other hand still on her throat, Cullen’s hands found her breasts, and she felt each of Blackwall’s rough trusts as she ground down on Cullen’s cock. “Come for me, love,” Blackwall’s mouth was against her ear, but through her hazy vision, she knew that Cullen and Blackwall gazes were locked. “Come on the Commander’s cock for me, clamp down around him and milk him of every last drop of come.” 

It was as if they’d perfectly coordinated it. Cullen’s hips bucked up, while he caught her nipples between his knuckles and squeezed just enough to send a sharp pleasure pain straight to her core, while Blackwall’s grip on her throat tightened, his beard scraped against her throat, and the fingers he had circling her clit found just the right spot that had her vision splintering and a keening cry escaped her lips.

“That’s it, that’s it, oh, fuck,” Blackwall’s voice was distant, even though it was right beside her ear. “Good girl, fuck, Cullen-” hard trusts, and Cullen was pulsing inside her, warm and wet.

“Yes, yes, Maker’s breath, don’t stop, don’t stop-” His fingers were gripping her thighs again, hips lifting as if he could somehow get deeper, fill her more, then Blackwall’s thrusts stuttered and faltered and he let out a curse and a low groan.

Renna’s breathing was ragged as she felt herself being leaned forward, her cheek against Cullen’s sweat-soaked chest. He let out a low groan and turned his face to press a kiss to her forehead. Blackwall moved away from the bed and she was too exhausted and pleasure drunk to call out to him. She heard water splashing, rustling of fabric and then she felt big hands easing her off Cullen’s chest. 

Cullen let out a low hum and Renna forced her eyes open and watched Blackwall run the damp cloth he held up Cullen’s thighs and between, cleaning him up. She truly didn’t know how the man had the energy to still stand. Cullen’s hand was low against her belly, his knuckles absently rubbing the top of her curls. Blackwall glanced up from his ministrations and held her gaze as he, instead of using the cloth to clean Cullen’s cock, he lowered his head and took him into his mouth. 

Renna’s lips parted and despite the orgasm that still was sending shockwaves through her body, she felt the heat spreading again. Cullen cursed, his hand shooting down to fist in Blackwall’s hair as he arched up into the other man’s mouth. His cock spent, but seemingly desperate for more.

Blackwall spent a few moments, sucking and licking before releasing him, then he turned his attention to Renna. “Up,” he said, nudging her further up the bed so that she lay with her head on the pillows. Cullen rolled out of the way, watching, curious. Big hands spread her thighs, making room from Blackwall’s broad shoulders as he settled on his belly, and licked her from bottom to clit. Heat flushed her cheeks as she thought about the fact that Cullen had just come inside her. But Blackwall didn’t seem at all deterred, if anything, he seemed determined to lap her utterly clean. 

It was a slow build, Blackwall’s tongue and lips teasing her, stoking the fire of lust until she was panting and one hand tangled in his hair, the other in the blankets. Beyond the man between her thighs was Cullen, watching intently, his hand stroking his cock. Renna parted her lips, ready to beckon Cullen to her, eager to take him into her mouth, but Blackwall shifted on the bed. He drew up one leg at the knee and arched his hips. 

Cullen’s gaze immediately went to the other man’s ass, then back up to Renna’s eyes. “Yes,” she breathed and cried out as Blackwall wrapped his lips around her clit and suckled. “Yes!” 

Renna watched, not wanting to miss a single move, as Cullen slid from the bed and found the bottle of oil. He doused his cock, stroking it as it grew harder in his palm. Then he crawled up onto the bed. Oil slick hands cupped Blackwall’s bottom, spread his cheeks, and dipped between. She felt Blackwall’s moan against her cunt and rocked her hips against his mouth. 

Cullen poured more oil down the seam of Blackwall’s ass and rubbed his knuckles around the puckered hole. His cock throbbed hard and ready again. He pressed the tip of his oil slick index finger against the ring of flesh and pressed forward. It was so tight and hot, that Cullen didn’t know how he’d manage to fit his cock inside or move once he was there. He also imagined he’d likely come just from the joining. 

Renna was panting softly, one of her hands on her breast, the other in Blackwall’s hair as he fucked her with his tongue. Cullen imagined fucking Renna again, Blackwall an extension of his body. “No need to be gentle,” Blackwall tore his mouth away from Renna, glistening wet with come and saliva. “Put your cock inside me and fuck me like you mean it.” 

Cullen faltered for a beat, then watched the other man bury his face against Renna’s cunt again, her back arched and she cried out, her fingers tightening in his. He wanted to join in, be a part of that pleasure. So he leaned forward, grabbed a pillow to shove beneath Blackwall’s hips keeping them at the angle he wanted before he pressed the tip of his erection to that tight ring. 

He pushed forward, groaned at the slick tight sensation, he wanted to revel in it, savor each inch of his cock sliding forward, but Blackwall arched, pushing his hips back and Cullen found himself unable to help it as he thrust forward sharply, burying his cock to the hilt in Blackwall’s ass. The man beneath him let out a low primal sound, his arms curled around Renna’s thighs and Cullen gave into it. Pressing his hands into Blackwall’s waist, Cullen began to pound into him, just as he’d demanded. 

The bed shook with the force of it. “Oh, fuck!” Renna’s back bowed. “Harder, fuck, Ancestors, please!” She watched him, lips parted. “Cullen! Blackwall!” She cried out, thighs shaking, but Blackwall only seemed to redouble his efforts until she was sobbing through another orgasm. 

Cullen never wanted this moment to end. He leaned forward and though it limited his movements, his body stretched out along Blackwall’s back, he slid one hand up to the other man’s hair, fingers brushing against Renna’s. His other hand shoved down between the bed and Blackwall to curl around his length. Only a handful of thrusts later, and Cullen felt the tightening at the base of his spine as pleasure rushed through him with the force of a tidal wave. 

Beneath him, Blackwall rocked his hips several more times, thrusting against the bed and Cullen’s hand before he felt the pulse and then the spill of come on his fingers. 

Long moments passed before Cullen forced himself off the other man, Blackwall’s cheek rested against Renna’s spread thighs, his eyes closed. This time, Cullen got up, made quick work of cleaning himself up before dampening a cloth in the washbasin and returning to the bed to return the favor to Blackwall. 

Task finished, the Inquisitor tugged them both up on the bed so that they lay on either side of her as she lay on her back, still breathing a little unsteadily. Cullen propped his head up on his hand, looking down at her, while he rested his other hand on her belly. Blackwall’s hand joined his, their fingers just brushing and Cullen looked over at him and thought that this might be the best decision he’d ever made.

[pumpkinsandsuckers]

I think we should get together now

Catradora, BG Scorfuma.

Summary: Karaoke AU. The only thing is that Catra and Adora never met, and there was no war.  Scorpia and Perfuma host a (couples) karaoke night. Catra gets jealous. Between singing a song or be subject to a penalty? Fine, she’ll sing a stupid song.

AN: This has been heavily inspired by @ CambieArt 's tweet about which songs Adora and Catra would sing to each other during a Karaoke session. She makes good art too, so feel free to check her out! 

I also died from embarrassment writing this.

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The blinking of the traffic lights, the smoky, dusty street lights were something Catra was used to. The thudding of bass from bars blasting music, the edgier, grittier music she had grown up with.

But not now. She had been dragged into the heart of the city of Etheria. The fluorescent glare of neon pink and yellow dazzled her, and she scowled. Everything was so… poppy here. Even the bars! It was, as Lonnie would have called it, a “bastardized fusion of jazz and pop”. Catra was beginning to regret joining Scorpia.

But that was what friends were for. If Scorpia needed a wingwoman for her date, Catra would gladly accompany her. A bright blue hologram flashed up, an advertisement for some fizzy beverage from Dryl. Catra weaved past the diverse crowd, grumbling under her breath as she followed her communications pad. Scorpia had dropped her the venue address, but this district - well, everything nearing Bright Moon City was just so confusing.

The roads in the Fright Zone, and even Dryl, were crooked and winding, but so much easier to distinguish from each other. The layout in Bright Moon though, was repetitive, grids and grids of identical buildings and crossings.

Catra growled as she passed by a familiar statue of what looked like a tall, muscular athlete in a tight costume. She had a ponytail flowing behind her, frozen in this marvellous pose.  ‘Mara, Our Hero’ it read.

“Not again.” Catra sighed. It was the city probably. Navigational systems functioned poorly in areas of congestion. It was a bloody miracle how she made her way here.

‘I’m at the Mara statue. How! Do! I! Reach! The! Enchanted! Grotto?!!!?!’ She typed out a message to Scorpia, hissing when a beep alerted her of Scorpia’s rapid response. How did she even type with her claws?

‘ Whih? ’

Frustrated, Catra swept her hair back and sighed, looking around.

‘ w, there arr 10 Mara statuesd ’

‘You have got to be kidding me!!!’

‘ Whoopd, 20 Maras tautes ’

Catra clenched her fists and took a deep breath, finding a safe space to calm down. 20 statues around Bright Moon City?! If they were supposed to be landmarks, they had failed. If she had been winding around a single Mara statue, it would have been fine. But 20!? She could have been walking around the entire city and not realise it.

She switched to the navigational app. Curses. Her icon flickered and jumped from location to location, eventually settling in a blue blob marked as a lake. Her eyebrow twitched. She was this close to flinging her pad at the floor.

“Scorpia can handle it.” She grunted, as she looked around cluelessly, trying to find a sign, anything that could guide her to the Enchanted Grotto. She had never been to Bright Moon much. Seen it on her screens, yes. Seen more of it on Entrapta’s screens, yes. But Bright Moon was unfamiliar territory. She definitely wasn’t scared. Nope, just uncomfortable with how bright and loud everything was. Okay, she had to do this. It was simple.

Catra took a deep breath, patted her shirt and pants, and approached the first stranger she saw. A young girl with a bright pink shirt with ‘Kawaii AF’ smacked across, in even horribly brighter pink. She wore a skirt and black leggings, and had her hair tied in two buns.

“Hey! Where’s the Enchanted Grotto?” She asked, realising how small this creature was.

The creature blinked at her once, twice, then grinned. Catra thought she saw a creepily long tongue slither out. Probably not.

“I know where it is! I can lead you there!” She beamed, and Catra raised an eyebrow. Suspiciously bubbly. Eh, any help was appreciated.

“Heh. Great. Where to?” She followed the stranger from a distance, looking around for any other paths. She wasn’t going to be blindly led into an alleyway for a mugging. And even if she did, she would hold her ground. It would be a great tale to tell when she finally arrived at her destination.

“Uh, hell no.” A stern voice cut through them, and a hand extended, separating Catra from the small pink creature. “Double Trouble, cut this out.” It was a girl, and her body followed her arm, becoming a barricade between Catra and … Double Trouble?

“Aww, but I was having so much fun!” Double Trouble winked at Catra. “Maybe I’ll see you again, Kitten.” They slinked off, pink visage blending with the crowd.

“Whew, that was a close one.”

“What?!” Catra frowned, as the female in front of her turned around. She had blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. A white long sleeved shirt was partially covered by a half-sleeve red jacket. Grey pants accentuating muscular legs followed down, and Catra realised she was checking out a complete stranger. She brought her eyes back up, hoping she had not been caught.

“Yeah, Double Trouble doesn’t mean harm, they just like dragging people around Bright Moon like a tour guide. You’re looking for the Enchanted Grotto? I can take you there.”

“I could have handled that myself!” Catra spat out, furious. The adorable snort mixed with laughter from the girl killed her anger instantly.

“Of course you could. I’m Adora. I can bring you there.”

‘Oh. OH.’ Catra smacked herself. Adora. Relative of Mara. The Adora. The same Adora she had been stalking online. Seeing her in real life… was really different. A good different. Without filters and angled shots, Adora looked… real.

“Catra.” Catra stuttered out, and froze when Adora grabbed her wrist.

“I’m headed there too, what a coincidence.” Adora grinned, a real, sincere grin, not what Double Trouble had presented. “So, Catra, what brings you to the Enchanted Grotto? It’s a very niche place.”

Catra tried to focus on walking. ‘Left foot. Right foot. Adora is holding my wrist, fuck, fuck fuCK! Left foot? Or was it right?’

“Catra?” Adora turned around to check on her companion once they reached a crosswalk.

“Hnh, yeah.” Catra’s brain struggled to think of something, grasping at anything she could use to hide the fact that she totally did not hear what Adora was saying. Her eyes landed on yet another familiar sight.

“Hey Adora,” Catra squirmed internally as she almost purred out Adora’s name. That was not supposed to happen! “Why are there so many statues of Mara, they got me lost.”

Adora laughed, and used her free hand to point to where Catra had laid her eyes on. “That’s the Mara statue of Hope. I met you near the statue of heroism. There’s an inscription reading ‘Mara, Our Hero’. Each Mara statue has a similar inscription, except the statue of friendship. It reads ‘Friend Of Mara’. Mara actually looks towards different directions. It’s supposed to guide us around.”

“Well, it clearly didn’t work.” Catra muttered, and wished her fur wasn’t so sweaty. She swore Adora’s hand slid down for a moment.

“Oh, green light, we gotta go.”

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Catra’s communication pad had been silenced, but was vibrating furiously near her rear pocket. It had caught Adora’s attention as they walked from the bustling streets to a quieter pathway.

“Hey, your… butt is vibrating?” Adora cocked an eyebrow at Catra.

“It’s called a communication pad, genius.” Catra rebutted, and whipped the small device (modified courtesy of Entrapta) out, detaching her wrist from Adora’s grip. A regrettable decision.

“What?!” She answered, crankier than usual. Adora kept an eye on her, switching between several awkward poses to rest her now very empty hands.

“ Catra, where are you? Perfuma is going to show up anytime soon! ” Catra noticed Adora’s hands shifting from her hips to being folded, her biceps and triceps flexing with that change.

“Then let her! I’m on my way!” Catra hissed as Adora’s hands drifted back down, her fingers tucking into the belt around her pants.

“ But the surprise will be ruined! ”

“Surprise?” Catra frowned. “Scorpia, what do you me-”

“ Oops, I didn’t say anything! See you, Wildcat! ”

As much as that nickname brought a smile to Catra’s face, she rolled her eyes at Scorpia’s panic. A surprise, huh? She forgot all about it when Adora’s fingers wrapped around her wrist again.

“We’re almost there.” Adora stated as Catra slipped the block back into her pocket. “I’m really curious though.” Catra felt Adora’s eyes on her entire body. “I had no idea… Well, here’s the Enchanted Grotto.”

Adora waved at a group of people outside what seemed like a rundown, dead shop. The windows were pitch dark, but as they neared the building, she could make out some sort of weird singing and music blasting from speakers. Heh, the perks of having heightened senses.

“Hey guys!”

“Adora!” the group, consisting of three individuals waved back.

“I see you made a new friend.” The tallest of the trio, a boy with dark hair, a clean undercut, and a tight muscle shirt waggled his eyebrows. “I’m Bow, nice to meet you!”

Behind him was a shorter female, her hair dyed(?) a shade between pink and purple, seemingly glittering as the sole lamppost hovered above her. Clad in a loose, sleeveless outfit, she was engaged in a whispered conversation with another female.

“Perfuma!” Adora waved, trying to get her attention. “Meet Catra!”

“Catra?” Bow’s head could have snapped with that speed, switching between Catra and Adora abruptly. “Catra?”

“Yep, that’s my name.” Catra crossed her arms. “Got a problem with it?”

“No! Not at all!” Bow shook his head, hands in front of him in a defensive stance. Catra immediately pegged him down as a softie. Just like Scorpia.

“Bow!” Adora nudged her friend, and he shrugged. “Catra, these are my friends. Glimmer.”

The one with sparkling hair gave a curt wave..

Catra smirked. What an appropriate name. “Nice to meet you, Sparkles.”

“It’s Glimmer.” she corrected, and Adora released Catra’s wrist. Again. “This is-”

“Perfuma.” Catra and Perfuma said in unison, and relaxed their tense postures.

“Yes, you’re acquainted.” Adora mumbled, and Glimmer wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into the establishment.

“It is nice to see you again, Catra. I hope you will enjoy this evening.” Perfuma smiled, and Catra gave a generic response absent mindedly, eyes fixed on Adora and Glimmer.

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Inside the Enchanted Grotto, things were very different. They had stepped past a screen of magic properties, which had blocked out most of the noise coming from within.

The whole group seemed familiar with the place, waving to the staff and strolling in with a sense of confidence. Except Catra. She didn’t hate it, surprisingly. The decor was pleasant. The whole floor was dimly lit, save a few brighter bulbs along a separate corridor. There was a main stage, and a few tables scattered before it.

Instrumental music was blasting, and a man was belting out a cheesy love song on stage. He was practically wailing the high notes into the microphone, and Catra winced as she shuffled along to the brighter bulbs.

Bow was behind all of them, herding them towards a private room. The bulbs in the corridor led to a quieter, secluded lobby, different coloured lights hanging before different doors.

“The Red Garnet.” Perfuma squealed, and pranced towards the red light.

“You know, not everyone approves of this place. Some even disapprove of it.” Bow whispered to Catra, and she shot him a questioning look.

“The folk here are what some consider to be… different.” Bow explained.

Catra thought about Scorpia and Perfuma. Or Adora and Glimmer. Could it be? They were about to enter the room, and she wanted to get an answer from Bow.

“Is it because Bright Moon doesn’t support G-”

“Group Karaoke! You’re absolutely right!” Bow clapped Catra on the back, and she nearly fell over.

“Group Karaoke?” There was no time to process her thoughts and Bow’s statement, as she tripped straight into the private room.

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Of course, she regained her balance, turning an unsightly fall into a proper entrance. As proper as a very wide stride could get. Her eyes, luckily, adjusted to the lighting quickly, and she spotted Scorpia in the corner, Perfuma already by her side.

“Oh hey, Wildcat.” Scorpia had that look. THAT LOOK! Catra was familiar with it. Everytime Scorpia had something up her sleeve (an ironic phrase, as Scorpia wore sleeveless clothing exclusively), she had that look of guilt. She couldn’t hide it, and it was a telling sign.

“Scorpia!” Catra lunged forward, squeezing Scorpia towards Perfuma, and lodging herself in the corner. The couch rounded into a three-quarter, with Adora and Glimmer sitting on the other end. Bow found his spot between Perfuma and Glimmer, looking at everyone excitedly.

“You knew about this, didn’t you. I really overshare sometimes!” Catra hissed into Scorpia’s ear, and Scorpia laughed nervously.

“They’re friends of Perfuma!” Scorpia protested, as Catra narrowed her eyes.

“ She ’s a friend of Perfuma. And you didn’t tell me!” Catra gritted her teeth. “And they didn’t post pictures online?”

“They did! You just don’t follow Perfuma.” Scorpia pouted, and Catra gave up.

“Fine, my bad. Say, you never told me what’s going on.”

“Oh.” Scorpia looked genuinely surprised. “Oh.”

“GROUP KARAOKE!” Bow yelled, opening the wooden box in front of them, revealing 2 wireless microphones.”

“I thought he was joking!” Catra groaned, and buried her face into her hands.

“There, there.” Scorpia patted her with her heavy claws, and Catra choked.

“Alright, you know the drill, guys. Everyone has to sing a song.”

Perfuma cheered, and Bow continued, “No singing, and you get a penalty issued by all members present.”

“This is horrible.” Catra moaned.

“As we all know, we have two new participants joining us today! Perfuma’s girlfriend, the lovely powerhouse Scorpia!”

Scorpia waved as Perfuma leaned into her.

“And Scorpia’s friend, and also, Adora’s new friend, Catra! She appears in Scorpia’s feed so much!”

Bow was dragged down by both Glimmer and Adora, unintelligible muffles unable to be deciphered. Catra looked at Scorpia, who evaded her gaze, crossing over to sit between Perfuma and Bow instead.

“Wow, look at that, I’m going to sing first!” She reached for the microphone, aided by Perfuma. The rest cheered her on.

Catra sank back into the couch, training her gaze on Adora and Glimmer. Were they…?

Adora was leaning against Glimmer, who was patting her hand. The same hand that held Catra’s wrist.

“Ew! Adora, your hand’s all sweaty.” Glimmer complained, and Adora blushed.

“Sickening.” Catra muttered, her eyes refusing to leave them. Her ears however, had shifted to appreciate Scorpia’s amazing singing. Damn, she knew her friend could sing, but ever since she moved to Plumeria, she had not had a chance to hear her strong vocals. Scorpia was a completely different person in her element, full of raw confidence, charm, and even some cockiness as she winked in the middle of her song. Perfuma swooned and even Catra could see why Scorpia had won her over.

Bow was next, belting out a song about friendship, with Glimmer joining in. Catra however, was still focused on Adora.

The same Adora who held her hand and made her heart skip a bit, made her feel giddy. The same Adora who snorted in such a cute manner. The same Adora whom she had stalked online, with so much determination Scorpia had suggested Catra make a move. Catra had refused, of course, instead scrolling her feed of Adora’s pictures. The professional athlete, relative of Mara (effectively making her a princess of Etheria), was actually in the same room as her.

AND FLIRTING WITH GLIMMER, APPARENTLY! Catra growled at the last thought, causing Perfuma to look at her with alarm.

Bow ended his song with a deep bow, passing the microphone to Adora.

“Uh, not now.” Adora looked at Perfuma desperately.

“We all know I like to end Karaoke sessions with heavy metal.” Perfuma took the other microphone. “I think we should let Catra sing.” she smiled at the astonished girl.

“Absolutely not!” Catra pushed the microphone away.

“Penalty! Penalty!” Bow chanted, and Scorpia joined in.

“Catra’s penalty should be to go out on a date with someone we choose.” Perfuma clapped her hands together, and Catra balked at the suggestion.

“Penalty! Penalty!” Bow resumed, and Catra felt betrayed by Adora’s addition to the cheer.

“Fine, fine!” She snatched the microphone, and the controls. “I’ll sing a stupid song!”

Scorpia actually lifted Catra with her claw, shifting her to the middle of the couch.

“Urgh! Why are all the songs so old?!” Catra grimaced.

“That’s what’s so great about the Enchanted Grotto!” Bow gave her a thumbs up.

From the corner of her eye, Catra caught Glimmer whispering into Adora’s ear, and they both giggled, Adora snorting again. Alright, that was the last straw. A familiar song was an easy choice, although Catra barely remembered the lyrics. She only remembered her preteen self being fuelled with a sense of rebellious courage and the melody of the song.

“Oooh, bold choice.” Scorpia pushed Catra up, and she responded with an angry yowl. “Go get her, Wildcat! I mean, er, go get ‘em, Wildcat!”

The mini stage had a mic stand, which Catra ignored. A display in front of her lit up, the lyrics appearing with a countdown. Ah yes, those familiar words. Just like how she remembered.

As the background music started, Catra smirked, her usual confidence returning in a snap.

Hey! Hey! You! You!

I don't like your girlfriend

No way! No way!

I think you need a new one

Hey! Hey! You! You!

I could be your girlfriend

She saw Glimmer’s eyes widen, and Bow’s jaw drop. Heh. The lyrics were… more embarrassing than she remembered, but what the hell, she was already going with it. Perfuma and Scorpia actually joined in the background

Hey! Hey! You! You!

Catra smirked, looking directly at Adora

I know that you like me

Oh shit, she was mouthing the lyrics and staring at Catra

No way! No way!

You know it's not a secret

Catra turned back to the mini screen, glancing at the lyrics.

Hey! Hey! You! You!

I want to be your girlfriend

Oh god, what was her preteen self doing? Not looking at the lyrics, for sure.

You're so fine, I want you mine, You're so delicious

Not a lie.

I think about you all the time, You're so addictive

Don't you know what I can do to make you feel all right?

Her mind worked quickly as she changed the lyrics

Don't pretend, I think you know I'm damn precious

And hell yeah, you’re my mother fucking princess

Catra enjoyed how Adora’s blank stare evolved to a blush. Hell yeah!

I can tell you like me too, and you know I'm right

Glimmer let out a “whoo!”, fist pumping along to the beat. Heh, maybe it was her preteen anthem as well.

She's like, so whatever

You can do so much better

As the hook rounded to the chorus, everyone was cheering now. Except Adora. And of course, the adrenaline and defiance egged her on, as she took a step off the stage and towards Adora, practically stalking around her with the aura of a predator.

I think we should get together now

She looked at Adora with sultry eyes (Glimmer would describe it as bedroom eyes later), and Adora let out a strained gurgle. Catra pushed off, leaping back onto the elevated platform.

And that's what everyone's talking about

She repeated the chorus again, her preteen self roaring with pride. She licked her lips, deciding to strike again.

I can see the way, I see the way you look at me

And even when you look away, I know you think of me

I know you talk about me all the time again and again

She pointed at Adora, curling her finger towards her.

So come over here and tell me what I wanna hear

Adora actually nodded dumbly, almost rising from her seat.

Or better, yet, make your girlfriend disappear

I don't wanna hear you say her name ever again

Her steely glare at Glimmer was met with a bewildered look and a high pitched “I’m not?!”

Catra rolled her eyes, grinning triumphantly at that realisation. The next verse meant nothing, but she was way too pumped up.

Because

She's like so whatever

You can do so much better

I think we should get together now

And that's what everyone's talking about

She entered the chorus again, Bow joining Scorpia and Perfuma in yelling the alternate chorus verses.

Uh!

Adora wiped at her mouth at that sound as Catra started the bridge.

In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger

'Cause I can, 'cause I can do it better

Catra was now brimming with an absurd assertiveness, bending over the stage to meet Adora’s eyes.

There's no other, so when's it gonna sink in

She's so stupid, what the hell were you thinking?

Adora looked away quickly, her head turned but her eyes still darting back to the stage.

In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger

Adora yelped as her chin was grabbed suddenly, pulled back to look at Catra who was right in front of her.

'Cause I can, 'cause I can do it better

There's no other, so when's it gonna sink in

She's so stupid, what the hell were you thinking?

Glimmer joined in the chorus now, sliding beside Bow. Their fingers intertwined, raised as they sang the background vocals.

The chorus seemed to repeat itself forever, and Catra could do nothing but lean in real close to Adora while singing. As she approached the last verse of the chorus, she switched off the mic, leaving the ensemble chanting.

I want to be your girlfriend

She softly finished the song, her breath tickling Adora’s now bright red ear.

Hey Hey!

The rest finished, and the music died, slamming them back into reality.

Catra was now panting from her performance, and strangely, Adora was as well.

“Pee break?” Bow jumped up and nearly ran into the door trying to get out.

“Uh, right. Pee breaks. Be back in five.” Glimmer hugged Perfuma and Scorpia, and teleported out in a shimmer.

“Uh. Huh. Mmm.” Adora babbled, looking at Catra’s face.

“Oh my god, I’m an idiot.” Catra pushed off the couch, releasing Adora from that pin. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh no!” Adora stood up, grabbing onto Catra’s wrist again. “Don’t be?”

Catra realised it wasn’t her wrist and fur being sweaty all along.

“So, er, yeah.” Adora covered the bottom half of her face, doing little to hide her blush. Not that it was obvious with the lighting.

“Huh?”

“You want to be my girlfriend?”

“Oh hell yeah.”

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

Epilogue:

“I’ve actually been following you on some pages with my personal account.” Catra admitted.

“What? I’ve been trying to find it since forever!” Adora pouted, ruffling Catra’s short hair. “Catra! What’s your account name?”

Catra paused, giving into Adora’s pets and scratches near her jawline.

“Tell me~”

“Only if you kiss me.” Catra grumbled and Adora gave her a short, swift peck.

“That totally didn’t count.” Catra huffed, and Adora placed both hands on Catra’s cheeks. “Tongue and we’ll talk.”

“Is it AdoraFan01? Or WatermelonCrusher? Or TinyBaby4Adora?”

“Hey!” Catra yelled before Adora pressed their lips together, tongue sliding in with Catra’s gasp. Catra gave in completely, Adora licking her lips in victory when they parted.

“Fine.” Catra passed her her pad.

“You can’t be serious.”

Catra rolled her eyes and groaned.

“Yes, I’m ApplesauceMeowMeow”

[angelic-holland]

Fooled Around and Fell In Love // th x mom!reader

anonymous request: do you think you can do something like tom falling for a single mom? like she’s still good friends with the dad it just wasn’t like “meant to be” and when he meets her he just falls in love and same with her son. bonus if you would like the first time he slips and calls tom dad

Summary: Tom and you have been on a few dates when he finds out you’ve got a 2 year old son, despite you thinking he’d leave you, he sticks by your side. 

warnings: none, fluff

Feel free to like, reblog, comment, and follow for more content! I haven’t really written lots of fluff before so feel free to tell me how to improve!

word count: 2.3k

“This was really fun, thank you for walking me home,” you smile up at Tom as you arrived at your flat.

“Agreed, we should see each other again, if you want, I mean I know we’ve only been on a few dates in the past few weeks, but,” Tom starts to ramble when your front door opens.

Your babysitter looks at the two of you with wides eyes, blushing.

“Penny, what’s wrong?” you ask, your mind rushing towards the worst case scenario.

“Nothing, nothing, you’re just like an hour late and I’ve got an exam to revise for,” she says, giving you an apologetic smile.

“All good, here, let me pay you, go and study, Pen,” you say reaching into your purse and paying her, tipping her a lot, you hadn’t a clue that you were this late, being with Tom made time move so quickly.

She thanked you and left, waving at you as she ran down the front steps. You sighed, guess the cat was out of the bag. You didn’t tell Tom yet, didn’t want to scare him away like you did with so many other guys.

“Who was that?” He asks, thumb rubbing your hand.

“Promise me you won’t like freak out and run away.” “What? Why would I,” he starts but you cut him off.

“I’ve got a kid.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Okay, what’s their name?” “His name is James, he’s a little over 2 years old.”

“Cool.”

“Cool?” “Did you want me to run away screaming?”

You breathe a sigh of relief. Something about Tom, maybe because he was so carefree, because he seemed to care about you even though you’ve only been on a few dates, told you he wouldn’t run.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Dunno,” you shrug, “I should get back in, he’s probably asleep but don’t wanna leave him alone you know?”

“Totally, well I’d love to meet the little guy at some point.”

“I think he’d love that,” you smile, kissing his cheek before entering your flat, waving as he leaves.

****

You had a full day ahead of you at the bookstore, one of your high school employees called out because they had exams, apologizing but you totally understood, so you were going to pull an open to close. You were pushing James in the stroller, backpack full of paperwork and your laptop, you stopped in to grab coffee at the shop next to your store before unlocking the front door, locking it behind you. You had an hour before you needed to open and you wanted to do a little spring cleaning.

You set James up in his playpen behind the register and gave him a teething toy, he was walking and talking a little bit, his teeth coming in, so he’d run around in circles in the playpen. You sometimes let him out and he’d wander around the store with you if there weren’t any customers.

You grabbed the duster, moving around the bookshelves and dusting them all off top to bottom before turning towards James who was calling out for you, “Mama!”

The first time he ever said that, about a year ago, you nearly lost it, you cried, calling your mom, telling her you really felt like a mom then.

He hasn’t said “dad” yet, no matter how many times you tried to get him to when you facetimed his dad. You two didn’t end badly, he just didn’t see a baby coming, never intending for your one night stand to turn into an 18 year commitment. It was a stupid drunk hookup, Alex was studying abroad, you were just starting your bookstore, you never intended to contact him again until you found out you were pregnant. Jay, he’s a great guy, just didn’t want to be a father. His parents sent you money and child support each month and he would facetime the two of you every few months, he didn’t want to be a prominent figure in James’ life. Initially that pissed you off but you’ve come to accept his role in James’ life, although you wished James’ would eventually have a father figure.

You put the duster down next to the register, smiling at your son who was making grabby hands at you, indicating he wanted you to pick him up and get him out of the playpen. You chuckled, picking him up and settling him on your hip as you opened the shades, pulled out your laptop and unlocked the front door, deciding to open a little early.

You sat James down on the counter between your arms, taking your copy of ‘The Giver’ and opening it up. You would read him books that you read as a child or young adult, hoping he would pick up words faster that way.

You just read to him, giggling as his chubby fingers played with your hair.

The doorbell chimed and you set the book down, placing James back on your hip as you looked up.

Tom.

“Hey!” You greet him and he blushes, apologizing.

“Why are you sorry?” you laugh and James turns in your arms, staring and pointing at Tom.

“I just, I knew you owned this place just didn’t know you brought the little guy here, I would’ve checked in with you before I came if I knew,” he starts to ramble. Tom was really good at rambling.

“Hey, you’re fine, now’s a perfect time to meet little James here, say hi James,” you say, booping his nose.

“Mama!” He screeches and you laugh.

“I’m mama, this is Tom,” you say as Tom hesitantly moves towards the counter.

“Tada!” James says, pointing at Tom and you giggle.

“Almost little guy!” Tom says, leaning against the counter.

James reaches across the counter towards Tom and you watch as his hand reaches out and boops Tom’s nose, much like you do to his own, “tada!” he squeals again and you laugh.

Tom laughs, his eyes crinkling as James cuddles back against your side.

“Can he walk and stuff? I have no idea what age kids start to do stuff,” Tom says, hand rubbing his neck, cheeks red.

“Yeah, he loves to run around, still a little wobbly on his feet but if you let him he’ll run around this place.”

“Yeah? Cool,” Tom smiles.

“Run!” James shouts, trying to wriggle out of your grip.

“You wanna run?”

“Yes, run run run!”

“Okay buddy,” you say, moving from behind the counter and crouching down, letting James stand up, you hold onto his hands as he takes the first few steps so he can catch his balance. You look up at Tom who’s looking down at the both of you in awe. You blushed, laughing as James shook your hands off his own, walking on his own. He waddles towards Tom as you watch.

He stands right in front of Tom, who’s about to kneel down to say hello when James grabs his leg and wraps his arms around him, “hugs!”

Tom laughs, which makes James laugh, which makes you laugh. You’re all laughing as the door rings, someone walking into the shop.

“Hi,” you say, standing up and watching James stay hugging Tom’s leg.

“Hello,” the older woman says, “just going to browse.”

You nod as she disappears around the bookshelves.

“So this little guy spends the day with you at work?”

“Yep, my shop, easier than paying an arm and a leg for child care.”

“Smart,” He says as James finally let’s go of Tom’s leg, walking back over to you.

James smiles up at you, “books!”

“Yeah? Wanna read some books?”

“Books, read me books!” He says, looking up at you with puppy dog eyes, looking much like your own.

“Okay sweetheart,” you say, lifting him up again.

“I’m sorry to just barge in on you at work,” Tom starts before the woman who was browsing steps up to the counter.

“Find everything you were looking for?”

“Yes, thank you,” she smiles, as you make your way behind the counter, ringing in a copy of some murder mystery, she reminded you of your grandma, she always loved those murder mysteries.

You rang in the book, James babbling on your hip.

“Isn’t he just adorable, how old is he?” She asks, handing you cash.

“Little over two.”

“Two!” James repeats, his gummy smile beaming at the woman.

“He’s adorable, really, you’re the dad?” She asks turning to Tom.

You both laugh, an awkward chuckle which stops when James points at Tom, “dada!”

“He’s not his dad, never got him to say that word before though,” you laugh nervously.

Tom is still blushing as the woman chuckles, “kids say the funniest things.”

You give her change and she thanks you, waving at James who waves back.

“Sorry about that,” you groan, shaking your head at James as the woman leaves the shop.

“About what?”

“About him calling you dad, no matter how many times I tried to get him to say it to his dad, never worked. Given he’s only fucking Facetimed three times in the past six months but, oops, shouldn’t swear, with my luck it’ll be one of James’ few words he’s got right now.”

“Wait, his dad, he doesn’t see him? He doesn’t have partial custody or visit?” “No, he, uh, he’s from the states, I’ve got full custody.”

“Why doesn’t he even facetime? Doesn’t he want to see his son?”

“He, it wasn’t, James wasn’t planned. So when I found out, I told him but he was just here for spring break, when I found out he was back in the United States, all but forgot about me. He pays child support, but he doesn’t really want anything with James. It’s fine really, my dad’s been a big help, I handle it fine, now.”

“You’re, you’re so fucking brave Y/N.”

“For being a single mom? Thousands, probably millions do the same as me.”

“Still, you’re all brave,” he shrugs, laughing as James’ hand grabs his finger.

“Dada!”

“Oh my god, he’s never not gonna call you that now,” you say, blushing as James wriggles in your arms.

Tom shrugs, “wanna say Tom, James? Wanna try to say Tom?”

“Toe?” James says, trying to put together the letters.

“You wanna hold him?” you ask, “think he wants to get outta my arms.”

“Sure, yeah, I’d like that,” he says and you move back in front of the counter, handing James, who was practically bouncing out of your arms already, into Tom’s arms, who held him perfectly against his side.

“He really likes you,” you say, James mumbling and looking up with wide eyes at Tom.

“Tom?” He says and Tom grins, eyes lighting up.

“Yes! Tom! Awesome job buddy!” He says, bouncing James against his hip.

“Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom,” James says, laughing as you and Tom laugh.

“Well, now that’s his word of the day,” you say, smiling at the two of them.

****

You didn’t think any of this would work. You didn’t think a young man like Tom would want to be with you after finding out about James. But it’s been four months, Tom and you were going steady as you liked to call it when your friends, or god forbid your dad, asked. Your dates would include James often, picnics at the park, going to the playground. James was a lot more mobile, his vocabulary expanding every day. Tom would hang out at the bookstore with you and James on days he wasn’t working, often working his schedule so it didn’t conflict with yours.

You were amazed at how he treated both you and James, cared for you both, made you feel supported in every way you could possibly imagine. You weren’t afraid to admit to yourself that you were falling for him, falling for him hard.

It was silly, but he treated James as if he was his own, despite being young and that meant the world to you.

“You know, we should think about moving in together,” Tom says one night, you’re laying in his bed, his chest pressed against your back, hand running up and down your arm.

“What?”

“I mean, fuck, I’m sorry, I don’t want to rush you if you don’t want to but I mean, we spend the night at each other’s places, so I figured, why not make it easier on both of us and move in together.”

“I think I’d like that.”

“And I’ve got like a stupid crush on you or whatever,” he jokes, mouth ghosting over your neck.

You giggle, it was something you said when you first started dating, when he asked you if you wanted to be his girlfriend.

“I think someone else would like it even more.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Whenever you’re not there to read him ‘Goodnight Moon’ at night he lays there chanting your name as I read to him. Little shit likes you more than me.”

“Oh definitely not, but I think he’d like me enough to let me move in.”

“He loves you, you know?” you say, feeling yourself blush. You want to say it, that you love him. You’ve never told a boyfriend that before, but Tom, he made you feel safe, and that’s all you’ve ever wanted.

“I love him too, you know, since I first met him.”

Tom held his breath, he hoped he could convey what he felt about you in his words, trying to tell you he loved you, not wanting to say it too soon, scared to drive you away.

“Tom?” you ask, turning in his arms to look at him.

“I love you,” he blurts out at the same time as you.

You both collapse into a fit of laughter, “I’m so glad you said it too,” you say through laughter, his hand squeezing your arm.

“Been wanting too for a long time.”

“You’re such a sap, you know that.”

“Yeah, but I’m your sap.”

“Yeah you are,” you grin, kissing him softly.

[cowardcouch]

Give Me Love

Part 4

Author’s Note - I hope you guys like it!!!

Being cute and having a smart brain was what Taehyun was blessed with when he was born. He could sense the change in his surroundings. He had never seen his uncle so worried. The latter’s eyebrows were furrowed and his forehead was wrinkled. His starry eyes followed the figure of his uncle as he paced in his room. Thinking about this, he realized that he hadn’t seen the pretty lady in a long time. She rarely left her room. He doesn’t even see her in the morning. Had uncle made his friend upset? He had to do something.

“Uncle, did you hurt the pretty lady?”

Great Baekhyun, now even a nine-year old fetus knows you messed up! He wasn’t proud of what he did and he definitely had no intention of hurting Sae Ri. “I did but it was a mistake. She hates me now.” Baekhyun sat on the edge of his bed with his face buried in his hands. For some unknown and strange reason, Baekhyun felt the need to make the situation right as before. It worried him that he had ended up hurting someone, but the fact it was Sae Ri was somehow worse.

“Then apologize to her.”

“I am trying to but she doesn’t want to see me.”

“Then find a way to do it. Show her that you feel sorry and you won’t do it again.”

The nine-year-old was right. Baekhyun didn’t want to upset her anymore.

“You are right. How are you so smart?” Baekhyun lifted Taehyun and spun him around making the latter giggle. “It’s because I am your nephew.”

Being cocky runs in the family of the Byuns.

Sae Ri was distracted. She couldn’t concentrate on her work at all. Her mind was flowing with thoughts of self- hatred. It wasn’t Baekhyun’s fault that caused her to lose control, it was her fault. Her rationale listed all the reasons why she was wrong. There was no courage left in her to face Baekhyun. Apologizing to Baekhyun was on her mind but she knew she couldn’t do it. Why should her problems affect someone who is trying to be nice to her? Sometimes, she wished she didn’t exist. She has hurt people, good people who never left her side even when she turned into a monster. Her thoughts didn’t only add hatred to her own self but towards her parents also. Thanks to them this ‘accident’ was ruining others now.

Baekhyun was an idiot. He was usually bold when he had to meet strangers or talk to new faces. All his bravery vanished when he thought about Sae Ri. The ‘coward’ couldn’t even ask her to meet him or text her. Having no choice, he decided to wait outside her workplace. He had no inkling about her work schedule. He kept on waiting and waiting and that endless wait didn’t come to an end. The hour hand of the clock had traveled from seven to eight now and he still had no idea what measures to take. He decided to stay patient (which is obviously impossible for him) and wait for another thirty minutes. His eyes lit up when he saw a familiar figure walking towards him. “Baekhyun, what are you doing here?” Sae Ri was never not surprised by this man. He had a knack of doing the unexpected. “I wanted to take you to dinner.” This is the perfect opportunity for me to apologize, Sae Ri thought in her head. “Okay.” She simply answered not questioning Baekhyun any further. The latter was baffled by her straightforward response and held the door of his car open for the lady.

Baekhyun eyes were everywhere but on her. He still had not done what he had decided to do.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

Both of them blurted at the same time increasing the awkward tension in the atmosphere. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I should have been more careful.” Baekhyun continued the conversation and rubbed his nape. “I know I can be a total freak sometimes but I swear I won’t do it again.” He clasped his hands together as if begging her for forgiveness. Sae Ri wanted to giggle at how cute his apology was but when she remembered who was at fault, she heaved a deep sigh. “It’s not your fault. I was rude to you yesterday because of my own problems. I am sorry.” For the first time, she looked into his beautiful eyes which were the most beautiful shade of brown. Baekhyun didn’t know what to say. Why was he always rendered speechless when he was with her? He was a writer and yet he forgot the words of language when her eyes met his.

“I guess we’re even?” He chuckled and he swore he saw her smiling.

“Thank you for dinner.” Sae Ri spoke and turned on her heels to embrace her room when two little arms circled around her legs. “Pretty lady. I missed you.” Taehyun confessed making Sae Ri turn around and face him. “Hi.” She smiled at him, not even hesitant to show her happiness on seeing the cutie. “Don’t you ever leave me again,” Taehyun mumbled into her shoulder making her melt and kiss his forehead. Baekhyun who was observing the whole time was broken into pieces. He hated himself. Oh Sae Ri was precious. She needed someone and he wasn’t doing it the right way. He was hurting her and he wanted to stop. He had to stop but he didn’t have the courage to tell her. Not today, when she seemed so happy. He wanted to protect that smile.

“I want to play hide and seek!” Taehyun demanded and tugged the dress of Sae Ri. “I want to play hide and seek with both you.” Baekhyun and Sae Ri exchanged glances, their gaze holding undecipherable emotions. “It’s late Taehyun. Both of us are tired. We can play tomorrow if you want.” Baekhyun crouched down to the height of the nine-year-old and kissed his forehead but the latter wouldn’t stop crying. “But I want to play it now. I am leaving tomorrow. I want to play with the pretty lady before I go.” He started crying louder leaving both the adults with no choice but to adhere to his wish. Baekhyun looked at Sae Ri once for her confirmation. She simply shrugged her shoulders giving her consent.

“Fine but you are not getting any chocolates tomorrow.”

“I found you,” Taehyun shouted but was disappointed to see no one hiding behind the curtain. Luck was not being his loyal friend tonight. He was not able to find either of the adults. Usually, he won when he played with his parents. Today just wasn’t his day. Relieved to find Taehyun walking towards Baekhyun’s room, Sae Ri heaved a deep sigh and decided to walk towards her room. She was very careful with her steps but her clumsiness came in the way and she accidentally stepped on a toy which was lying on the floor. “Oops.” She whispered and panicked not knowing where she should hide. Her thinking was fogged right now and she closed her eyes waiting for Taehyun to find her.

Her chain of thoughts was interrupted when a familiar grip pulled her inside the storeroom. On opening her eyes, she was face to face with the culprit. “He won’t find you here,” Baekhyun whispered in her ear making something stir inside her. She was never been so close to someone. She could see the moles on Baekhyun’s face. She noticed the shape of his lips and his eyes which literally turned into crescents when he smiled too hard. The scent of his cologne entered her senses. Space was too cramped and small making their bodies touch. She could hear his heartbeat which was very pleasing, calming her down.

Baekhyun could feel the closeness of their bodies. The heat radiating from her body enveloped his frame making him comfortable. He unconsciously brought Sae Ri closer to him when he noticed Taehyun searching both of them in the room. Sae Ri heartbeat wasn’t slowing down making her concerned about her health. “He’s gone,” Baekhyun whispered in almost an inaudible voice and looked at Sae Ri. She only nodded her head and looked outside giving Baekhyun ample of time to admire her side-profile. He noticed how her wavy hair hid her face which urged him to tug them behind her ear but he fought it. His eyes fell on her lips, which looked so soft and red, his favorite color. His eyes landed on the scar on her nape making him furrow his eyebrows.

“How did you get this scar?” He threw this question at her the same time when his fingers traveled to her neck and traced the scar making her gasp under this touch. His fingers lingered there before he withdrew them when he realized the gravity of what he did. Sae Ri’s flustered expression was not seen by Baekhyun to her relief. She gulped her saliva and suddenly was too interested in the objects in the possession of the storeroom. Baekhyun mentally slapped himself and wished that the ground would swallow him right now. He needs to develop control over his impulses. He wished more than anything that Taehyun would find both of them.

That day, both of them couldn’t decide whether Taehyun finding them after half an hour made them happy or awkward.

[thejollyroger-writer]

Opening Day, First Pitch

Who asked for some “Love, Baseball, and Other Things?” backstory?! Literally no one, but you’re getting it anyway, since this is where they story went in my head. Oops. This part can stand alone, but it adds to the baseball-verse well. Need to read that? Find it here: Part One // Part Two

Thanks to @welllpthisishappening and @profdanglaisstuff for sending me the prompts that started this story, @ultraluckycatnd for giving it a quick once-over, and @kmomof4 for loving the first part so much I couldn’t not give her more. 

Also on AO3!  

WARNING: Since it takes place ten years before “Love, Baseball, and Other Things,” this is very much not Captain Swan. Killian is very happy in his current relationship with Milah, and Emma is with Neal. If that’s not your cup of tea, then maybe this isn’t the story for you. There will be a follow-up to this, hopefully by the end of the day. 

At 22 years old, Killian Jones is sure of three things:

Though he’s only been dating Milah for two years, she is the love of his life, the woman he wants to marry and grow old beside.

When he graduates at the end of the next semester with his degree in international journalism, he is packing up the little he owns and moving back to England, following in the footsteps of his brother once again, leaving America and all the trouble it’s caused him behind.

Though baseball brought him a lot of comfort through the pain that took over his life as a middle schooler, and continued through high school, he only accepted the opportunity to play through college for the sizeable scholarship they offered him — and it was not something he planned on continuing once he walks across that stage.

At 22 years old, Killian Jones is sure of three things, waiting impatiently on deck for his chance to finally make decisions about his own life and knock it out of the park.

What he isn’t ready for is the curveball that’s waiting for him.

“Milah, darling, can you read over this article for me? I need to type the final copy for tomorrow so I want to make sure we catch all the errors now.”

But Milah doesn’t budge from her seat on the couch, much more comfortable than the piece of ship Killian found on the curb for his old apartment — and one of the things she likes the most about the new one.

“You’ve proofread it three times since I got here, Killy,” she whines. “Besides, it’s only week three and your professors already think you’re the greatest writer to ever cross the pond, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Neither of this arguments change his mind. “Please, Milah? I didn’t do too well on the first essay for his class last week, so I want the article to be the best it can be.”

Though he’s not turned to face her, he can still see the way she runs her tongue over her bottom lip, shaking her head at him.

“What classifies as ‘not too well’ for a man like Killian Jones?”

Killian can feel the tips of his ears begin to redden, growing warm, and he brings his hand up to scratch behind one of them. “A B-,” he grumbles, his voice low with embarrassment, and she sees through him in an instant — she always does.

“You are, without a doubt, the biggest perfectionist I have ever met.”

“Aye, but you love me for it.”

“I never claimed otherwise, but if you leave that article alone for a bit and come over here, I’ll even prove it to you.”

This is an offer he can’t refuse; between his classes, his homework, his games, and her new promotion within her law firm, they barely get the time to see each other anymore, nevertheless partake in more enjoyable activities, especially now that he’s moved across the city. So he does just as she asks, dropping the pen from his hand onto the desk before pushing himself out of the chair and climbing over her on the couch, caging her in. She smiles up at him, slowly running her hand down his cheek before he lowers his lips down to find hers. Within moments, he is sliding his tongue against hers, the tips of his fingers teasing the small expanse of skin exposed between her jeans and her shirt.

Pushing him away from her with her hands planted flat against his chest, she pulls back just far enough to smile up at him, pressing a kiss to the top of his nose.

“Roll over,” she commands, and he is useless against her in this state, so he does as she asks, maneuvering them on the couch so that she can straddle him, almost immediately leaning back to pull her shirt over her head.

“God, Milah,” he growls, pulling her back down him so he can taste the skin she just exposed. “You’re so bloody beautiful, I don’t understand how I got so lucky.” He drags his teeth along her collarbone, pulling a soft moan for her lips, and they’re both so caught up in the moment — and the fact that his new roommate, David, left for work just over an hour before — that they fail to notice the sounds of the key sliding into the lock, turning just as Killian reaches around Milah’s back to unsnap her bra.

Slamming the door open, she comes in like a hurricane, already talking before she even looks into the apartment: “Remind me again why I took another class with that same pervert—” she starts, but her eyes grow wide when she sees them on the couch, frozen at the sight of her.

“Who the fuck are you?” Killian asks, and Milah finds her shirt from the back of the couch to try to restore at least a little decency.

“Oh, fuck, you must be Killian,” she says at the same time, her face darkening until it matches the bright red shade of her leather jacket.

“Yes, I am,” he responds, and though Milah begins to climb off him, he tightens the grip of his hands on her hips, keeping where she is. This is already embarrassing enough, and this stranger seeing the tent currently pitched in his jeans would only add to it. “That doesn’t answer my question, though.”

Shit, yeah, right,” she says, and his eyes dart to where she begins to run her thumb over her wrist. “I’m, uh, Emma. David’s sister? He gave me a key last year since I started crashing on his couch so I didn’t have to drive all the way back to Radnor and — shit, I’m sorry, I totally forgot that he said you just moved in.”

“He did say you might be stopping by, but he, uh — he never said you had a key.”

“Fuck, I’m so— I’m, sorry. I’ll just… I’ll just go, and keep this incredibly embarrassing experience as a learning moment. I’ll never stop by without checking if David is here.”

She holds her hand up to wave at him, but before he can even open his mouth to form a response, she’s gone, the door closed quietly behind her and deadbolt sliding into place.

Her statement is a lie, though. Sure, she remembers to text David during reasonable hours, but when her and Neal get into yet another fight and she has a few drinks too many at a bar just a few blocks from their apartment, she stumbles in around one in the morning, waking both Killian and David.

Killian comes out into the living room first, wearing only a pair of dark blue boxers and armed with one of his wooden bats. In the moment, Emma thinks this is one of the funniest things she has ever seen — but when she wakes up on the couch with a wicked hangover and her arms wrapped around this same bat, it’s a lot less funny.

She only has one night class this semester, so Tuesday nights are the night she spends on their couch, plus nights she stays after class to watch Killian’s games when it becomes a point of contention between her and Neal.

February turns to March. The cherry blossom trees around Independence Hall start to blossom, a light in Killian’s life as the stress of the end of his junior year piles on to the expectations of his coach: You’re one of the best I’ve ever seen, Jones, he keeps saying, especially when Malcolm Pan, another pitcher for the team, is within earshot. It’s not that Killian isn’t thankful for the compliment, or that fact that John Silver seems to despise Pan as much as he does — it’s that Killian doesn’t want to be the best pitcher he’s ever seen. He wants to finish out his degree, pitch his last pitch, and move home to England, bringing Milah with.

That’s all he wants.

Why can no one see that?

Because you’re a damned good pitcher, Killy. He hears Milah’s voice in his head, sitting across from Silver as he tries, once again, to convince him to find a minor league to sign with. The scholarship they offered him is the only reason he’s still here — the scholarship, his customized degree track, and Milah’s job.

At the beginning of March, after Killian’s first no-hitter ever, he decides to propose to her. At first, he plans to keep it a secret from the world, especially since Liam is the only friend he has.

Except that’s not true. In the three months since he moved in with David, they have become good friends. Add Emma to that mix, and her shitty on-again-off-again boyfriend, Neal, and they’ve actually started to become kind of like a family, going for meals together and spending weekends at their apartment.

Killian hates Neal. Almost as much as David does. But Emma seems to love him, even though they fight almost every day and break up every few weeks or so, only to go running back to each other.

So instead of telling no one, he calls Liam to tell him — and then tells Emma and David at the bar a few weeks later, a few too many beers affecting his ability to keep his damned mouth shut.

Except… they’re all really happy for him. He expects someone to be against the idea, to try and talk him out of it. That was part of the reason he didn’t want to tell anyone in the first place.

But they agree with him. That has to mean something, right?

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 41: It’s Mai’s Turn to Get Electrocuted

Hey guys, welcome to the Christmas Break.

It’s TV watching season, so lets watch some TV and over-analyze a 20 yo kid’s show, you in?

Odion, after suffering from a lightning strike and getting impaled by many pieces of that fake millennium rod he was holding gets dropped off in the only room on this blimp that has sheets. He also had the added shock of witnessing his brother morph into a somewhat evil-er dude with saiyan hair, which I dunno, I’d want to take a nap too, that’s a lot to deal with.

(And thanks to some reader input, turns out this Marik isn’t so much a ghost situation so much. I mean, I guess it’s more of a Season Zero --this is your deep down scary personality taking over-- type thing but it’s not like I really finished Season Zero so...We’re just rolling with it.)

Glad we have an actual hospital wing--confused as to why Bakura isn’t here.

But I guess lightning strike is slightly worse than having a bleeding stab wound for 12 hours. I mean I’m no doctor, maybe it is? Anyway, Odion is hooked up to all sorts of computers and life support although there aren’t any cords attached to him anywhere on his body. Not even one piss-yellow IV bag.

Check out the size of that IBM. This is what a widescreen used to look like.

The rest of the Yuge Crew are here although I’m pretty sure that’s not how hospitals work. Pretty sure you have to be related to drop on in directly after being put in intensive care but like, they are on a blimp so I guess it’s different up there. But also, this guy has abducted them once already and just tried to kill Joey for the second time, and now they are like “We’re basically on BFF family terms with this Odion guy, lets visit that bedside.”

Although, mind you, his real family is Marik and Ishizu, both of which have never said aloud that Odion is their brother. This family is sort of bad at life, TBH.

Since we’re barrelling right into a Mai arc we have to confront one of her 2 big Mai character conflicts--which is either “this is why I don’t get married” or “OMG I am going to die forever alone.” Which is interesting, because last time we hung out with her, we did whatever we could to keep her independent, while in this episode Mai mourns that being independent is the ultimate curse. Girl wants whatever she doesn’t have, pretty much.

Ah, Miss independent, never thought I’d get that song stuck in my head again. Thanks, Mai. Except in this version, instead of falling in love, Mai just makes weird friendships with jail bait teenagers. Why can’t she make friends with like, Roland? He’s her age. Or maybe this nice doctor? But whatever, age is meaningless on this show.

(read more under the cut)

Anyway, Joey has decided to tell us all about that dream he had but leaves out the parts where he dropped everything he owns, and then knocked himself over a desk onto his face, and then in the same dream Kaiba kinda walked in from off screen, dunked on him, and then walked directly off screen again.

Mai is deeply touched.

And then, because she is Mai, gets extremely offended immediately afterward.

I can keep hoping it’ll be Duke Devlin but like...as much as I want him to do more on this show, I really think the only people who remember Duke Devlin at this point are all the animators who were like “HOW many people are in this shot?! Why did we make a season where every scene is a freakin crowd scene!?”

*I know the shading on her ass was supposed to be attractive but it looks like nasty sweat stains*

(Also what the hell computer-machinery is supposed to be behind them in this scene?)

This one time where Joey doth protest too much is the first time we have ever, ever on this show seen Joey act less than vague towards Mai. During the dream episode he blushed, but I thought that was because of Serenity being there for her brother in his dream. I didn’t at all think that was over Mai at the time.

But I guess this is happening now? I mean people kept saying “yes, Joey and Mai will be a thing” and I was like “they better start building up to that because like...nothing is happening.” but this show’s version of building up to that was by just not being vague one single time.

Which in this show is a big deal, I guess. Because shortly after this event, Tea remembers that her character description sheet says “Is bossy AF” with red underline and was like “OMG I totally forgot and it’s been like 20 episodes since I did anything, I gotta hurry” and she just lost her lid.

I’m regretting more and more that joke I made that TeaxKaiba was way more reasonable than TeaxYugi, because sometimes when Tea goes ham she may as well be wearing a long spiky coat with boots leggings. Tea had two very different personalities way before she ever got possessed by Bakura. Like, Tea is kind of a monster actually, but we rarely get to see it because she gets completely distracted and cries a lot when it just feels like...the other half of her, the half that bit a guy once--like she legit bit a guy on this show--that side of Tea would just never cry over cards. Or cry, period. She sure wasn’t crying when she bit that guy!

This is mostly because I think the writers didn’t know how to write a girl like Tea since she’s a mix of a Season Zero Tea and this more old fashioned-’feminine’ version I think they were trying to turn her into for this series. It’s weird. It’s weird that this group of friends have nothing to say about these very abrupt changes in her behavior. Then again, it took them a while to notice the abrupt changes in Yugi.

Anyway, Joey isn’t done getting harassed by everyone he knows yet.

We have Marik trapped in a blimp in the sky and the entire Kaiba security force, why are we dueling him anymore? I mean I know why, we are contractually obligated to show lots of card content in this show to sell cards, but at this point I feel like maybe they should drive the blimp over international waters and resort to maritime law. Give Kaiba a gun.

Actually don’t do that, it would be bad. Don’t give Kaiba a gun. Give it to Duke or something, he seems stable enough. He seems like he’d be able to shoot somebody but not everybody, if you know what I mean.

And because it’s the Mai arc, we gotta have Mai duel next. There’s only 3 people left to go against: Ishizu, Kaiba, and Marik. I think. There’s so many people on this show. Tea isn’t playing, right? I mean I really do feel like like I’ve forgotten someone--maybe Shadi? Miho? So many people are on this blimp.

Whatever, I’ll just roll with it, if I forgot someone I’m sure they’ll show up at some point.

Mai sure is that girlfriend.

Anyway, lets see what Marik’s up to. Ah, he really is visiting his older brother after all.

That’s right--Marik has to play twice. I mean obvi the first Marik was Odion, but still, it just feels like it’s Marik playing twice.

Also can we please talk about Marik’s cargo pants obsession for a little bit? This arch villain is in CARGO PANTS. Like, they have puffy pockets. He figured out that the hoodie was a bad look, but then he was like “I’ll just cover my tum-tum, and then put on my khaki cargo pants with a sensible belt.”

It just sort of insinuates that Marik only owns cultist robes and cargo pants. Just those two things. Imagine if every pant in your closet was cargo pants. Just imagine with me. You’d go mad, too. Imagine you packed for a trip, a nice vacay on a blimp, and then you opened your luggage and you were like “oops! all cargo pants!” you’d fly home.

Marik looks like he’s going to Casual Khaki’s Friday at the office from about the stomach down, and then stomach up up he’s ready to join piccolo and fuse brains or whatever the hell goes on in Dragonball Z.

And Yugi and his friends are late to Mai’s duel because they are teenagers and also of course they would. This whole season was introduced with Yugi being chronically late to stuff.

The bathroom joke in this episode is canon, PS. I skipped a Season Zero episode where Tristan went to the loo and so Yugi held his spot in line and it took like 30 minutes before Tristan finally got back. Tristan’s epic poops have apparently been Yugioh canon since the very beginning.

I’m learning so much about the lore.

Now that Marik no longer has to hide who he is, he has decided that he’ll just use the Shadow Realm willy-nilly now. Although Marik did this without playing any cards at all, it doesn’t seem to register to Seto Kaiba that this is not a hologram. Maybe Kaiba sneezed when Marik summoned it and just assumed he missed a card play or something.

So now, for our gimmick!

Every time we fight in the Shadow Realm it feels like the rules are a little bit different, and Marik decided to make this duel a memory fight.

The Shadow Realm seems to eat on your greatest insecurities, and for Mai it’s feeling all alone. Not sure how that works once the duel is over--her friends will still be there, so like...she can just get a heads up on the one day they went camping that one time and then boom, friendship rekindled, I think. But for now, this is very scary for everyone involved.

But I mean at least she isn’t a playing card, or being thrown into a graveyard by being played as a card, or being devoured by gloopy blobs, or rapidly dying because of the exposure to the shadow zone. As far as Shadow Realms go this one seems kind of tame.

But I guess we shall see if somehow losing Tea will effect her story in any way.

Depends on which Tea, in my opinion, but if we’re going for the normal boring one that only cries wellllllll I wouldn’t notice if she were gone, just saying. Now, if it’s the fun Tea that bites people and yanks their ears off their face, well being forced to lose my memories of her is what the writers do to me basically every episode of this show. Let Tea bite more people in the arm. Let that girl rage.

But all that will be for another recap where we can all watch Mai get Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ed as if a memory wipe hasn’t happened at least once to every single person on this show with the exception of Mokuba. And Mokuba was a paper card for like I want to say about 10 episodes, so...

Anyways, if you just got here I do have these in chrono order from s1 ep1, here is a link.

[codylabs]

Chapter 14: Cabin in the Woods

Links: P 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

The hot midday sun beat down on two teenagers, who were working hard with their wire cutters and improvised prybars to clear off the top of the buried flying saucer. They’d set aside most of their armor by this point, just so that the heat wouldn’t kill them. They figured that since they were near the center of the clearing, nothing could sneak up on them very easily. And just in case, their weapons never left their sides.

Inch after inch of the small vehicle was revealed below them. Even past the barnacle-like moss and the dirt and the mud, they could see its hull remained smooth and seamless. Evidently, in all the thousands of years it had been sitting here, the drilling roots of the metal plants hadn’t been able to breach it.

“Say…” Wendy stood up with an exhausted sound, and scratched her armpit. “You don’t suppose this thing is still, like, working?”

“I don’t know.” Dipper set down the wire cutters, and put his hands on his hips. He looked down at the machine below his feet. “I doubt it.”

“That’d be cool though.”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.” Wendy considered the ship. It was about 60 feet in diameter, a bit bigger than a fighter jet, maybe the size of 6 RVs all parked side-by-side. Small enough to fly around. Small enough to take off and land on runways, in parking lots, sports fields… You could actually use it to get around. Wendy got an idea. “Dibs.” She said.

“Huh?” Dipper looked up at her.

“Dibs.” She repeated. “I just dibsed it. Now nobody else can take it from us. Now it’s ours. International maritime law.”

“You can’t dibs a spaceship.”

“Just did.”

“Maritime law doesn’t apply to spaceships.”

“Dibs. See? I’ll do it again. Dibs. It’s official now. Don’t worry, I dibsed it for both of us. We can share it.”

“Well… Huh?” He looked down at it. “What would we do with it?”

“Well… What do you want to do? We could abduct farmer Sprock’s mutant cows and put them on his roof… We could take it to the Woodstick festival… We could take it to football games… Everybody would freak out and it’d be hilarious… You can use it pick up chicks, I can use it to terrorize Thompson or Poolcheck or Stanley or whoever…”

“Pick… Pick up chicks…?”

“Or we could take it to the drive-in movie theater… Or we could use it to take vacations to… Like, the beach or something. Or… Or to Alaska if the beach is boring… Ooh! Or we could fly it real low over Washington D.C. or North Korea, and see if we can outrun all the missiles they shoot at us…!”

“UH!”

“Yeah, the last one was a joke. Kinda. But… I don’t know. If we could get this thing running again… Man, we’d be the kings of this place! Come on, man. You gotta admit, it’d be cool to have a spaceship just lying around.”

Dipper blinked. Wait a minute. He thought. That actually does sound fun. “You know what? Sure!” He laughed nervously. “I… Yeah, sure! I guess…Yeah! That would be… Well, we would have to be careful and everything, but…”

“But yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!” Wendy turned back to her tools, and began prying more plants up off the ship’s hull. “Now if we could just get inside the stupid thing…”

“Yeah…” Dipper bent down toward his own shadow, and began to work again. He felt the sun burning the back of his neck, but all over his body he felt the progressing aches of weariness. In his scrawny arms, the tools were starting to seem dull and ineffective. He began to move slower.

Wendy noticed his exhaustion. “Hey, didn’t Ford call you a while back?” She asked. “You should call him back and check in.”

“Uh…” Dipper stood up hesitantly. “Well, we still have to do this…”

“Oh, leave this to the lumberjack, bro.” Wendy took the wire cutters out of his hands. “Go talk to Ford. Tell him we found a UFO fixer-upper… And also that we dibsed it. It’s very important that we dibsed it.”

“…All right.” Dipper fished his phone out of his pocket. As it booted up, he walked over to the shade of a nearby tree, and wiped the sweat from his hair.

With all his might, Robbie gave the fully-loaded backpack one final heave into the back of his van. The rear suspension bounced just slightly. Now that the burden had been lifted from his shoulders, he sagged over with his hands on his knees, and took a deep, profanity-laden breath.

“Wow, funny words!” Mabel half-ignored him, and skipped over to the passenger-side door with her pig. “All right Waddles, you have to go in the back seat. No, don’t worry, it isn’t that long of a drive. You’ll be fine!”

As Robbie climbed in the driver-side door, he thumbed over to ‘maps’ on his phone. But with cell service so patchy out here, it took a long time getting an image. And even when it did, it just showed them as a blip in the middle of the forest. The logging roads weren’t on the maps. “Well darn.” Robbie growled at the phone.

“Well… There’s only one road…” Mabel shrugged toward their surroundings. “You don’t need a map if there’s only one road…”

“Yeah, well… Well… Yeah.” Robbie started the van, and attempted to turn around in the narrow area.

Suddenly, something jarred into place in Mabel’s own memory. “Oh darn-poopy-darn!” She slapped herself. “I forgot to turn on my phone…”

She’d killed it this morning because she heard that the robot predators could track electrical signals. Now, as the screen blinked to life, she was rapidly flooded with everything she’d missed: text message after text message pouring in from Ford, Stan, Grenda, Candy, and even one from Dipper, asking where she was, what she’d been doing all day, and with whom.

Oh dear… She probably should have made up something this morning before she stowed away. She felt a little bad about worrying them, so she should check in now… Who to call first? How about Dipper.

He picked up on the second ring. “Mabel?” His voice came through in a scratchy way, since they were both almost outside cell service. “I was just talking to Ford, and you’ve been gone all day! Why wasn’t your phone on? Ford was worried! Stan was worried! Soos was worried! Heck, the goat was worried! Where are you?!? Are you--?”

“Oh, I’m in Robbie’s van!” She blurted with a hasty smile. (She hadn’t had time to make up a convincing lie.)

There was silence over the line for a few seconds. Mabel glanced at the phone, wondering if Dipper had hung up, or if the limited cell service had finally given out. But Dipper hadn’t been disconnected, only confused. “…What are you doing in Robbie’s van?” He finally asked, and she could hear the bewilderment in his voice.

“Uh... Oops, uh…” She scratched her head, and realized that her story needed a little extra something. She racked her brain. “Well… Uh… We’re on a date!”

Dipper yelped. “WHAT?!?”

Robbie stomped on the van’s brakes, and brought them to a sudden halt. Then he spun to fix her with a death glare. “WHAT?!?”

Wendy scoffed from Dipper’s end. “What…?”

Miles away, Tambry’s head jerked up from her phone for no conscious reason. “WHAT?!?”

Robbie stared at Mabel incredulously for a few seconds. She stared at him for a few seconds. Then she held up the phone in one hand, a 5-dollar bill in the other, and whispered. “Make it convincing!”

Robbie growled and snatched the cell and money from her hands. “Yeah!” He said into the microphone. “Yeah that’s right, I’m dating your sister, punk! We’ve been making out for an hour now!”

“Eww! No!” Mabel covered her ears.

“Making out?!?” Dipper asked.

“…An hour…?” Wendy said.

“I’m, like, totally wigging out right now for some reason…” Tambry tweeted. “I can’t even.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Robbie continued. “Just kissing! Kissing as much as we feel like, because it’s romance or true love or, like, whatever! How you like that, bub?!?”

“Robbie you stay away from my sister!!” Dipper snapped.

“Yeah, well it was her idea!” Robbie snapped back.

“WHAT?!?” Dipper repeated. “Mabel! Why would you do this?!?”

“Well… Uh… He was the hunkiest guy!” She smiled.

“Mabel, he’s 17! You’re 13!”

“Yeah?!? WELL! That’s kind of a weird thing for YOU to say given certain recent events and certain people who may very well be standing very close to you and hearing the words I’m saying right noooooow!”

“Leave me out of this.” The sound of Wendy’s voice walking away.

“GAH! Wendy!” Dipper gasped. “Mabel you can’t just say…! Look…! Yeah…! I…! Look…! Mabel look, you can’t date him! He’s a minor antagonist! He’s like… My nemesis! He’s a jerk!”

“You dated Pacifica and she’s kind of my nemesis jerk! But did I throw a hissy fit?”

“I thought you and her were cool now!”

“We are! I thought you and Robbie were cool now!”

“Mabel!”

“Dipper!”

“Mabel!”

“Dipper!”

“Stop yelling my name!”

“You stop yelling my name!”

“Why are you doing this?!?” He demanded.

“Because it’s funny and I’m an impulsive person and opposites attract and Robbie is an edgy jerk and I’m an adorable glitter angel so we’re attracted and plus he was also looking kind of glum this morning so I wanted to cheer him up and also because we both wanted to spite you just a little or maybe more than just a little so THERE!”

Dipper tried to follow her logic, but he wasn’t used to using that side of his brain so hard. Finally he sighed. “Mabel.” He said. “I need to talk with Robbie for a minute, and it might get a little rude. Give him the phone.”

“Oh… Kay…”

Robbie took it while Mabel covered her ears.

“Step away from the van.” Dipper told him. “Some privacy.”

Robbie got out, and took a few steps down the road. “What?” He growled at the younger man, once he was outside Mabel’s hearing range.

Dipper was silent for a few seconds, while he gathered his thoughts and calmed himself. Then he sighed. “Robbie.” He said, as calmly as he could. “What’s actually going on?”

“I’m going steady with your sister. Just like we told you, you nosy snot.”

“…No you’re not.”

“Oh… Oh yeah? How do you figure that then, genius?”

“Well.” Dipper said. “First of all, it takes more than hunkiness to attract her.”

“No it doesn’t.”

“…Okay. Fine. You’re right. It doesn’t. But… But she did set you up with Tambry last Summer, and she would never think of undoing her own twisted creation. And secondly: I’m thinking of how I left Mabel at home today when we went on our expedition… Same as how we did with you…”

“Oh really?” Robbie frowned, feigning ignorance. “Oh yeah… That’s right… You did, didn’t you?”

“And so I finally put two and two together.” Dipper said.

Robbie glared into the distance.

Dipper’s voice dropped to a low, menacing tone. “You went to the metal forest today.” He hissed. “When you did, was Mabel wearing armor?”

Robbie glanced back at the girl’s cotton sweater. “No…” He shrugged.

“AND.” Dipper said. “Were you armed with a deadly weapon?”

“No… What’s it to you?”

“Listen to me very closely.” Dipper growled. “Mabel is my sister. She means more than the world to me, and more than she ever will to you. Do you understand that?”

Robbie had never had a sister, but he began to get the idea.

“Now.” Dipper said. “You’re obviously not romantically involved at all, but the thing is: I wouldn’t really care, even if you were. You can date, you can hang out, you can even kiss, and I wouldn’t throw a fit. But. BUT. BUT. Robbie. If I ever again hear that you’ve accompanied my sister into danger, and haven’t protected her… I will find you. And I will beat you up.”

Robbie took this in. He knew the kid on the other end of the phone line, and he knew how small and wimpy he was. But right now, he heard the tone behind the child’s voice, and strangely, he believed him.

He nodded.

There was silence for a moment.

“We didn’t do anything dangerous.” Robbie finally said. “We didn’t go very far in, and didn’t see anything cool even. Your sister… Took pictures… And… Played with all the robots she could find. That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

Robbie glanced at the backpack full of stolen live samples. “That’s it.” He lied.

They were silent for a moment.

“Okay.” Dipper said.

Robbie sighed. “Look.” He said. “I gotta be honest with you kid, I can be a real jerk sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Dipper agreed. “You can.”

“You need to suck it up and deal with it.” Robbie told him. “This is the real world, not some kindergarten fairy tale where you deserve to be treated like a dainty little gentleman.”

“Yeah…” Dipper sighed. “…You know, I can be a real butt sometimes too.”

“Yep.” Robbie agreed. “I hate your guts and I want to pound a nail through your skull.”

“Yeah…” Dipper scoffed. “Grow a set and come at me then. And in the meantime? Shut up.”

“Yeah.” Robbie sighed.

They hated each other in silence for just a moment more.

“So…” Robbie said. “Are you and Wendy, like…?”

“Like what?”

“Dating, or whatever?”

“HUH?!? No!”

Robbie nodded. “Oh.”

Dipper considered this. “…Earlier.” He said. “When I brought up the hypnotizing thing, you said ‘the winners write the history books’… Is that what you meant? You thought I ‘won’ Wendy?”

“Well yeah…” Robbie said. “Didn’t you? I mean, kinda?”

“That’s not the way it works… At all. She yelled at me that night too, and… Told me I was too young, and… Yeah. We’re friends now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Friends?”

“Friends.”

“Like… You sleeping with her?”

“Uh… Yeah, we slept in the hospital the other night. What does sleeping have to do with anything?”

“I mean--”

“OH! AGH!” Dipper realized. “DUDE! We’re not even married!”

The boy immediately hung up.

Robbie frowned down at the phone, then slouched back over to the van.

“Sooooooooo…” Mabel smiled expectantly, and took her hands away from her ears. “Is everything non-rude again?”

“Yeah.” Robbie growled.

“Did you both apologize and be cool? I mean, I want you to be happy and him to be happy and it would be too bad if he had a brother-in-law he couldn’t stand…?”

Robbie slammed the door a little too hard, and tossed Mabel her phone back. “We had a discussion.” Robbie said. “A heart-to-heart, the way guys do it. We’re cool now.” He stuck the transmission into gear, and started the engine again. “Now listen, kid. I have a girlfriend, and a concert tonight. So could you STOP with the phony romance thing and tell me where we’re going already?!?”

Mabel blinked her eyelashes slowly and adorably. “Phony…?? Was it really so phony, my love?”

“Where. Are. We. Going.”

“Alright alright…!” She giggled, and pulled out a map. “We’re going… Here! The woods by the Mystery Shack. There’s some… Equipment we need.”

“What kind of equipment?”

“Like, this sort of a… Cave. And it has tubes of… Cold? Yeah, tubes of cold. Big freezy-frozen tubes.”

Robbie searched his mind for some kind of translation. “You mean, like… Stasis tanks? Like a sci-fi game?” He clarified.

“Yeah, that’s it!” Mabel smiled. “Stasis tanks…”

“Hey Dipper!”

“What?” He put the phone away and stood up, eager to talk about literally anything else.

“I think I found the way in…” Wendy gestured to a small patch she’d cleared on the side of the ship’s hull. There appeared to be a circular seam in the glass surface, as if the section could slide open like a hatch. “But there’s something reeeeeeally weird going on here.” Wendy said. “Look at this…” She pointed to a certain part of the seam. There was a blackened burn mark, surrounding a place where the glass had been chipped. “It looks like somebody came through here and unlocked it for us…”

Dipper scratched his head, as he remembered seeing a similar blast mark on the male lion.

“You mean… There’s some kind of… Third party?” Dipper asked. “Something with laser beams?”

“Could be…” Wendy shrugged. “But something? Or someone?”

“Does… Does anybody else know that this forest is here?”

“Do they?” Wendy asked. “My dad knows, and my oldest brother, but that’s all… Who have you told?”

“…I don’t know…” Dipper ran through a mental list. “There’s… Mabel… Robbie… The Stans… And McGucket. I guess Soos and Melody too, but they’re… Oh, and I guess Bill knew ‘lots of things’ too, but we killed him…”

“Right… But does the government know about it? Or anybody who would use, like… Bombs? Or burning-hot death rays? Or…?”

“I don’t know…”

They glanced uncertainly about the surrounding trees. Of course they saw nothing, but that did little to calm their paranoia.

“Well…” Dipper looked back down at the vehicle. “Whoever broke this seal… Do you think they could still be inside?”

“No, they never opened it…” Wendy said. “See, in order to get a grip on this, I had to spend, like, half an hour cutting away vines and stuff. Plus there’s still plants growing across the seam, and undisturbed dirt. So all they did was get it started. They didn’t go in.”

“As if all they were doing is opening the way for us…”

“Almost like that, yeah…”

“…Think we should we go in?” Dipper asked uncertainly.

“I don’t know…” Wendy shook her head. “Should we?”

“Should we?”

“SHOULD WE?”

“Will we?”

“WILL WE?”

Dipper shrugged.

Wendy shrugged.

“Let’s go.”

“Why not?”

They got as good a grip as they could on the glass panel, and strained for all they were worth. Eventually something below them creaked, the surface shifted, and the left side of the seam spread apart by about half an inch.

A fine cloud of dust puffed up around the broken seal, and a few loosed clods of dirt tumbled down the dark crack, to thud and shatter on the floor below.

The teens put their fingers into the crack now, and Wendy braced against the other side with her boot, and they pushed and they pulled some more. The panel creaked and squeaked and eventually opened up to about 20 inches wide. Wide enough to fit through.

They paused to replace the rest of their armor, weapons, and protection. Wendy thumbed on her headlamp, and Dipper pulled out a flashlight.

They shined their beams down into the opening, and saw nothing but a small, round room.

Seemed harmless enough.

Wendy tied one of the metal vines around the trunk of a nearby tree, and then dropped the other end down the hole, so they could climb back up again once they were down there.

Dipper gripped the vine in his gloves, and lowered himself into the darkness, with Wendy right behind.

Their boots contacted the floor with a dull ringing noise, and raised 4 tiny clouds of fine dust.

The room was empty except for a few pipes and vents, and a cluster of confusing controls on one wall. Dipper opened the translation app on Ford’s tablet, and began to decipher the controls’ markings. “Outer door… Inner door…” He read. “Pressurize, depressurize… Emergency lockdown… Okay, it looks like we’re in the airlock right now… Maybe this will work?” He flipped a switch.

The airlock’s outer door hissed back shut above them, severing the vine and sealing them below.

Wendy scoffed. “If I had a nickel for every time I was locked in a tiny, dark airlock with you…” She mused. “I would have 2 nickels.”

“SORRY! Sorry, uh…” Dipper flipped the switch that said ‘inner door’.

The room suddenly sprang to life around them. The space reverberated with a shrill beep, and dim, turquoise lights flickered to life around the walls. An incomprehensible alien voice announced. “Stand clear of opening door!” In a language that was most certainly NOT English. And the wall next to the controls hissed and creaked open, and then everything immediately fell deathly silent.

In the larger room beyond, more turquoise lights came on. Only about a third of the lights were still working, and of these, about half were flickering on and off sporadically, like some cheap movie effect that the director threw in to make a place seem shabby, aged, and eerie… Well, it worked.

Dipper and Wendy stepped into this room slowly.

At first, it looked like the inside of a spaceship. There were a few flight seats beneath the dome in the ship’s center, surrounded by levers and controls. The room itself was circular like the ship, and there were computers, pipes, and cargo containers built into the walls.

But…

It wasn’t a ship.

There was a homemade bed tucked into one corner, its sheets tattered and pale. Something like a baby cradle sat next to it, and the two were separated by a curtain. On the other side of the room, pots and pans were stacked atop some manner of makeshift stove. Water pipes had been disconnected from the wall, and hooked directly into a shallow washbasin, which sat near the airlock. Wooden cabinets and chests were erected here and there, each one stacked with small items. Items like tools, utensils, bowls… Baskets… Photographs…

This wasn’t a ship.

Once, in some far departed time… This had been somebody’s home.

Wendy walked hesitantly over to one of the chests. It was made of alien metal wood instead of normal wood, but it wasn’t too heavy to pry open. Inside it, she found clothes. This one seemed like heavy pants, but too wide. That one looked like a light shirt, though too tall across the back. And these two must be socks… Right?

Dipper approached the bed. The bedframe was wood, but not earthly wood. The sheets were cloth, but not earthly cloth. The center of the mattress was stained with blood, but not earthly blood: oil and burn marks more like…

Wendy inspected a basket lying on a shelf. It was handwoven. Handwoven out of steel cables…

Dipper turned to the cabinet next to the bed, and picked up one of the small, framed pictures. It was blurry with dirt and grime, and almost entirely faded, but he was able to make out a faint silhouette: the shape of two people, standing together holding hands. One tall and wide, one short and wider… They had glowing red eyes…

He turned the photo over, and recognized the symbols.

ƉN::ᶌ and Ɖg@}Nᶌ.

Betty and Barney.

“Hey.” Dipper said.

“Huh?” Wendy turned toward him. “What?”

“Betty and Barney.” Dipper said. “They were… It looks like they were alien robots… I guess… I guess they lived here…?”

“Oh…” Wendy glanced at the bed, with its ‘blood’ stain. “So… What happened to them then?”

Without warning, the airlock door suddenly slammed shut, sealing them in the ship.

As one, they spun to face the door. Wendy pulled out her axe, and Dipper the magnet gun. They didn’t see anybody nearby who could have worked the controls, but that didn’t mean there was nobody there…

“Hey!” Dipper snapped. “Who’s that?!?”

“Yeah, come on out!” Wendy tried to help. “We just want to axe you a few questions…!”

“Ask.” Dipper corrected her.

“That’s what I said.”

“What you meant, maybe.”

“I meant what I said.”

“You said ‘axe’.”

“…I did?”

Suddenly, all the ship’s interior lights began to flicker and flash. Even the ones that had seemed fine before. Even Dipper and Wendy’s personal lights began to waver. Then, just to accompany the flashing, their walkie-talkies somehow turned themselves on, and began making scratchy, warbling noises. The sudden hubbub startled them both, and they found themselves back to back, with their weapons pointed in opposite directions.

“What’s going on?” Wendy asked.

“I don’t know!” Dipper said. Then he noticed something else: a few of the smaller items around the ship: the bowls, baskets, pictures and things on the cabinets, books and tools as well; all suddenly began to levitate. Then they began to accelerate, swirling around the room about chest level. “Maybe the ship’s coming back online?” Dipper guessed, as he ducked to the floor. “The gravity drive must have been engaged! Everything’s becoming weightless…!”

“Wait… No, no it’s not the ship!” Wendy ducked down low, to avoid a metal basket which would have hit her head. “I’ve seen this once before…”

“You what? Where?” Dipper frowned. “Oh… Wait…” He recalled a certain night spent in a convenience store… And a certain other night spent in a mansion. He looked down at Betty and Barney’s photograph, still clutched in his hands. The two silhouettes in the picture had vanished. “Oh.” He said. “Yeah… I’ve actually seen this twice before…”

They backed into a corner, and Dipper dumped out his backpack on the floor behind him. “Ghost stuff, ghost stuff…!” He muttered, and poked through the pile. He’d packed a magnet gun, a tablet, a radio tracker, a Geiger Counter, even a wrench set and a poster that said ‘this sentence is false’… “Dang it!” He hissed. “I packed all my sci-fi stuff today! Didn’t expect to run into magic…”

“So no ghost stuff at all?” Wendy frowned.

“No, no P.K.E. meter, no holy water, no silver mirrors…”

“Dang it!”

“Well. Guess we’re ghost-harassing the old-fashioned way then.” Dipper stood up suddenly, and removed his helmet. “Attention alien robot ghosts!” He bravely announced. (This was a string of words he never would have expected to say.) “We are human; native to this planet Earth!”

Wendy stood up too, and removed her own helmet. “We mean you and your kind no harm, and our intentions are honest!”

A small jar lifted off the floor, and accelerated right for Dipper’s head. He ducked just in time to save his skull. The jar shattered on the wall, and the broken fragments rained down around them.

One of the shards happened to scratch Wendy’s cheek. A single drop of blood fell from the wound, and dropped to the ground. Red, human blood.

As soon as the liquid touched the floor, all the lights in the ship suddenly turned off, all the levitating small items dropped suddenly and clattered to a stop on the floor, and their walkies fell silent.

“Ow.” Wendy said.

“What is it you want?!?” Dipper asked.

Then, at the other end of the room, a single computer screen winked to life; its soft blue glow the only light in the ship.

They hesitated for a moment, weighing their options. But, since there didn’t seem to be anything smarter to do, their curiosity won out and they cautiously crossed the room. Dipper picked up Ford’s tablet and the interface cord, and searched around the screen for a place to plug it in. Wendy glanced about the rest of the room, her eyes straying across the bed, kitchen, tub… All these relics of former life, now empty. Her eyes strayed over the walls too. The ship was haunted, and the invisible souls of the dead fixed her with their gaze. The souls of Betty and Barney?

Who were they?

Dipper found the terminal’s port, and plugged the tablet in. Its circuits thought for a brief moment, then began to spit out a long stream of text. Wendy bent down over his shoulder, and together they read…

-date: 13/20/2094-46’\

Hello.

My name is Ɖg@}Nᶌ.

As one of the survivors of the crash of colonial vessel 46.18’\, I am starting this journal to document our experiences on this planet. In the event that we are rescued, or survive long enough to reestablish contact, this log will serve as a record on our experiences. If you recover this and we’re not here to give it to you… Then I guess we’ve failed.

And this is our story.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Rewards of Losing:  Chapter 25

He’s very pink. Ryou considered this Michael Arclight that Shou brought into the medical tent. Michael wasn’t much taller than Shou but they were clearly about the same age. His clothes didn’t look like anything Ryou had ever seen before, though they were a little grimy, and he wore a bright red scarf around his left arm. Ryou had seen those on every Resistance member – and now Shou wore one as well, his tied neatly around his right arm. A badge o some kind, he guessed.

He would have to get one as well. He’d made his decision.

“Big brother, this is Michael Arclight,” Shou introduced him as soon as they stepped inside. “Michael-san, this is my big brother, Marufuji Ryou.”

Micheal raised one hand in greeting. Ryou could see the calluses of a sword-wielder there. He’d seen it a few times during his first stay in Heartland, and seen it on Mizael as well.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Michael nodded towards him and Ryou returned it. He sat up in his cot, stomach full of that very pleasant noodle dish Mizael brought him, one hand resting on Kei.

He’d never thought it would be so pleasant to just sit here like this. He could get used to it.

“Likewise,” Ryou agreed. “I hear that you and Shou have been getting along very well.”

Michael smiled a tiny smile. “That we have. He’s a very talented Healer.” He glanced at Shou, who turned several shades of red. “Which leads to a question I would like to ask.”

Strange. Ryou hadn���t ever seen Shou go from red to white that fast. He suspected he knew what Michael had in mind.

“And that question is?”

Michael’s gaze flicked between the two of them. “Do I have your permission to court your brother as my Healer, Marufuji-san?”

Ryou hadn’t truly felt like laughing in a very long time. That question made him chuckle. One eyebrow quirked upward. “And why do you ask me instead of him?” Though truth to tell, he had no idea of what real courting customs were in XYZ. He’d never worried about it before.

“To be honest, I have no idea of what your courting customs are in Fusion,” Michael told him. Huh. Ryou realized he should have thought of that. “I thought it wouldn’t hurt. You are his only relative here, after all.”

I’m his only relative anywhere. Their parents hadn’t lasted much longer after Shou started to attend Duel Academia. But he saw no reason to mention that right now.

“Normally there’s a battle of some kind against anyone else who might be interested and of equal strength,” Ryou recounted, vividly remembering the day that Yuuri had “won” him. Four Healers, their own plants turned against them, shredded down into mulch. Yuuri told him with great pleasure that he’d used them to nurture his favorite flytrap – the sire of the tiny one that he’d given to Ryou.

The one that also had died when Ryou frosted over the Garden. Ryou wouldn’t miss it.

Michael’s lips twitched. “I think we can skip that part.”

Ryou nodded, then glanced at Shou. “I think what matters is – do you want to court him, Shou? And be courted by him?” They weren't in Fusion any longer. They didn’t have to go by the old rules.

Shou flushed all over again. Ryou hoped that they didn’t have to call another Healer for him. He could see Mizael trying hard not to laugh and not doing a very good job of it. Then Shou forced himself to settle down.

“I- Are you sure, Michael-san? I’m not really that good.”

Micheal delivered a stern look all out of proportion with his size and pink-ness. “I think you’re going to be better than you can imagine. And you don’t have to call me “san”. You can just call me Michael.

Shou ducked his head, staring downward at the floor for a second before he raised his gaze again. “If you say so – and – yes. I’d really like to court you – and be courted by you.”

“Good. Since I already started by cooking you lunch.” Michael grinned, probably at the way Shou flushed even deeper and stammered out a few words about how delicious it was.

Ryou caught Mizael’s eye. “Is that a courting event here? Cooking for one another?”

Mizael made a quiet little sound. “Oh, something like that. Why do you ask?” He seemed to be making a point not to quite meet Ryou’s eyes.

Ryou found himself smiling. “The noodles were very good,” he murmured. What did Mizael like to eat, he wondered, and would he be able to get it? He would have to find out.

“Oh, you said you wanted to properly learn XYZ, didn't you?” Mizael asked, Ryou nodded, and Mizael grinned a bit more. “My friend Chris – Michael’s brother – he’ll be happy to teach you. You can meet him later. Their other brother Thomas will probably want to duel you too. There’s a long list of people who want to.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Ryou said, turning his attention to Kei, stroking one hand through the short, thick fur and hard muscles. He wondered if any of them were kith or kin to those that he’d carded before. He’d never bothered to remember the names of his previous victims and now he no longer could learn them.

He would have to make sure that he never did that again. It was the best that he could do.

“Kotori is your official Healer, by the way. Apparently I’m too close to you,” Mizael said, nose twitching. “But when she says you’re strong enough, we can get you training with Chris and whoever else wants to duel you. You’re never going to lack for sparring partners.”

Ryou nodded, glancing over to the two cards on the table. Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity. Both XYZ cards – and he could feel something about them, a sense of awareness, the same thing that he'd begun to feel about Cyber End Dragon. Mizael had indicated that meant they had spirits attached to the cards.

That was interesting and he looked forward to finding out more about them. But not now. Now he watched as Shou and Michael sat side by side and Shou told him what he’d been up to lately and promised that Asuka and Akane would be by to visit sooner or later. Healer Kotori wasn’t going to let him be overwhelmed by visitors and if she saw all of them there, she’d probably be furious at them.

Ryou didn’t mind. He’d always been a private person but now, he felt the need for a little companionship. Especially those who knew where he came from and didn’t care. He’d seen some of the looks that other Healers and visitors here gave him and he didn’t blame them. Not only had he been Fusion but if they knew what he’d done before the war -

Well, he didn’t know if Frostflames could be poisoned or not. He knew that Firestarters tended to burn out poisons before the toxins could really affect them. But no one he knew had ever tried to poison a Frostflame. Mostly because no Frostflames existed in Fusion.

Even if they couldn’t be, Frostflames were as mortal as anyone else. If someone tried to kill him, he wouldn’t be surprised. He wasn't going to let them but he’d not be surprised at the attempt.

He wanted to make up for what he’d done. But dying wasn’t going to accomplish that, and he’d always had a dream of having a duel so fantastic that no one would ever forget that he’d existed before he died. So far he hadn’t. But he wasn’t going to give that up. It might not happen until after the war – or it could be one he had going up against Yuuri. He didn’t doubt that they’d fight one another one day, and he genuinely looked forward to it.

Getting better took time and it took energy. For the first handful of days after he woke up, Ryou ate as much as he could, slept as much as he could, and slowly started to walk around again. Once he could do so without freeing the ground underneath him – he quickly learned that even when he did that, he never slipped on it. Frostflames didn’t slip, it seemed – well, once he learned that, Rio started to teach him how to be a Frostflame. It really wasn’t that difficult from being a Firestarter.

On the fifth day after he woke up, he formally met Chris and Durbe. They entered in the afternoon, settling in the chairs next to him and introducing themselves.

“If you want to learn to use XYZ, I can teach you,” Chris said, not wasting any words. “I’ve taught several people. Though I can’t say I’ve ever taught a defector from Fusion.”

Ryou shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything.” He suspected he was one of the first to change sides. He wondered who else back there might decide that the Professor wasn’t the savior they all thought he was.

“Then we can get started,” Chris declared. He gestured to Ryou’s deck. “May I?” With Ryou’s permission, he filtered through the deck, and started on Ryou’s first XYZ lesson.

Asuka poked her head into the tent, her expression brightening when she spied Ryou seated next to his bed, chatting with Kei, sorting through his deck.

“You’re looking a lot better,” she said, moving inside. A young woman followed her – that must be Akane. Ryou didn’t remember her much from the brief time they’d crossed paths in Fusion, but who else could it be?

“I feel better,” he admitted. Being reborn into the ice shattered every fear that he’d ever had. Now he was what he was – and what he was was a Frostflame.

Asuka nodded, coming over to sit in one of the bedside chairs. “What are you doing here?” She glanced towards the cards and blinked. “Is that XYZ?”

“Yes. I’m adding them to my Extra Deck.” Ryou touched one of them with one finger, admiring how he had enough control not to ice over the card. It hadn’t always been that way. But Rio’s instructions could be very precise and very thorough.

“I’ve been thinking of changing mine a little too,” Asuka admitted. “I sort of want to add Rituals to it, though.”

She’d always had a talent for those, even though most Fusion people considered them a second rate Summons method at best. But Ryou nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

He glanced at Akane. “What about you?”

The other girl leaped a little when he addressed her, dropping her eyes down. “I don’t know yet. I usually play a Rock-type deck. I’ve been looking at some of the ones they have here, to see if there’s anything that could improve my deck. I think – I like the Gustos. They’re XYZ.” She peeked up a little, as if looking for his approval. Ryou nodded.

“If it calls to you, try it.” Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity called to him. He listened.

Asuka added her agreement. “It won’t hurt to try a few different options. I hear there’s another Summons method – Synchro. You might try that, too.”

Ryou had never seen a Synchro Summons. He wasn’t sure if he ever would. He would have to stay here in order to help the Resistance, but maybe one day, after it was over. He wasn’t sure if he was being too hopeful that he’d see the end of the war, but he liked having something to look forward to.

“Do you think Shou might change his dueling style?” Asuka asked. “He’s been having a lot of fun dueling other people. I saw him just yesterday going up against someone. He won, too. It was close.”

“I wish I’d seen that,” Ryou mused. He’d always enjoyed seeing how Shou developed as a duelist. But he would have more time. They had so many duels ahead of them.

“Ruri!” Dennis chirped gleefully as he greeted Ruri. Ruri waved at him, her thoughts more on the duel she would be fighting later against that former fusion Firestarter Tenjoin Asuka. Shun would be watching, as he always did, and he would disapprove. As he always did.

Well, he would just have to learn to deal with it. She wasn’t going to stop meeting new people and having duels with them because he didn’t approve, and the more they got to know the people who’d left Fusion, the more they would be able to learn. Maybe one day they would use that knowledge to stop Fusion altogether.

Ruri looked forward to that. She hated everything that the war had started and had taken away from her. Her eyes still tightened up if she thought too much about her parents.

But now she put on a gentle smile and chatted with Dennis, laughing at his magic tricks, and counting the time down until she could leave. Something about Dennis always unnerved her – the way he was just too chipper. She’d offered to introduce him to Shun as well and he’d turned it down. That made her twitch a little as well. She didn’t know what he had against seeing her brother. It could just be that he’d heard enough tales about how Shun had been in school. It wasn’t as if Shun didn’t have a reputation.

It probably didn’t matter that much in the end. Ruri suspected they’d cross paths sooner or later, and she did hope that she’d be there to see it.

The Night Garden was still beautiful. It wasn’t quite the Night Garden anymore – enough replanting had happened so that it was just a Garden now. Those Healers who needed Gardens of their own had their little spots and many of them were rebuilding their personal areas – nests, as some people called them.

Mizael hadn’t decided where his new nest would be. The closest he’d ever come to having a true personal Garden was the Night Garden, plus a few plants in his apartment. Those now graced his tent, and seemed to have made the change gracefully.

Now, however, he had something other than the plants to think about. He admired Ryou as the other strode into view. Today he wasn’t wearing the Fusion uniform. Today he wore black from head to toe, including a black leather trenchcoat. The only splash of color on him was the red scarf that encircled his throat.

Just the sight of him in all of that, but especially the Rebellion’s mark, sent flashes of heat all through Mizael. He swallowed a bit, working to keep his head together, and not sure how successful he was about it.

Ryou smiled at the sight of him – a small upward tilting of his lips that Mizael treasured. “Well?” He raised one hand to the scarf. “Christopher gave it to me.”

“It suits you,” Mizael agreed. He glanced at the outfit again. “You have a thing for black, I see.” And oh, did it suit him. All of it did.

“They called me Hell Kaiser at Academia,” Ryou said with a shrug. “It’s a bit of an image. But I prefer this to that uniform.”

“It definitely suits you a lot more,” Mizael agreed. Together the two of them started to walk side by side, heading through the Night Garden’s deeper areas, the ones that were far more like the way it used to be.

He smiled after a few steps. “This is where we met,” he murmured. “Do you remember?”

“I remember.” It had barely been two weeks, really. Two weeks and a lifetime ago. Ryou’s lips twitched ever so briefly. “And we dueled that first time.”

Mizael definitely remembered that. He’d had to fight for that win – he’d never even heard of Fusion before that, at least not as something that people used. A historical thing, if it had been used at all. But now it was something so much other than that.

“I could never forget.” Mizael grinned. “And I won.”

“Not many people have that distinction,” Ryou told him. “I look forward to a rematch – a true one.” He rested one hand on the deck he carried. “I have a few surprises in here now.”

Mizael licked his lips, his heart-rate picking up. “Did you bring your duel disk with you?”

“I did.” Ryou caught Mizael’s eyes, blue to blue. Both of them slowly smiled at one another, taking a few more steps. Up ahead was one of the training areas, set a short distance above the rest of the Garden. Without a question passing between the two, they headed over there.

“This was the same one we fought on, wasn’t it?” Ryou mused, eyeing it. “I think it is.”

“You’re right,” Mizael agreed. A suitable place for a second match, they both knew. Something just between the two of them, something only they would see.

Mizael took his place as Ryou took his. Each shuffled their deck and drew their cards, ready to play. For the first time since the war began, Mizael knew he was going to enjoy a duel. Ryou looked more intense, but not as tense as he’d been that first time. And, of course, there wasn’t any Yuuri watching with smug superiority.

Monsters were summoned, spells cast, traps laid and triggered. Ryou examined his cards, then quickly summoned Cyber Twin Dragon, then canceled the fusion, resulting in two Cyber Dragons on his field. He examined them with a careful eye. Then his gaze flicked to a scrap of space, that might look empty to his eyes, but his heart told him contained something else altogether. Maybe he couldn't see it, but he saw Mizael’s smile and that was good enough for him.

“With my two level five Cyber Dragons, I construct the Overlay Network! From the deepest depths of space comes the new heart of my deck, the soul of my future! XYZ Summons! Appear, Rank Five, Cyber Nova Dragon!”

The End

Notes: Well, here we are at the end. Ryou has received his reward for his initial loss – he’s lost his world and everything he had there and will spend years fighting Fusion. With his brother, his friends, and his Healer-boyfriend. One day I will write a sequel but that day is not today. I will write more Ryou/Mizael in the future, in other Aus. I’ve learned to love them so very much.

[noscorpsaladerive]

Flo in Bordeaux!!!!

I wrote up mine and Emily’s experiences seeing Flo yesterday but the verb tenses are all over the place and this is REALLY LONG so it’s going under the cut I hope y’all enjoy :)

So Emily and I got to Bordeaux around noon but we couldn’t check in until 14h so we were walking around trying to find food that didn’t cost 20€ per person and we accidentally came across the theatre!!!  They had a couple posters with Flo’s face on them and I nearly died omg.  We saw a couple of vans outside and I’m guessing it was all of their equipment.

Skip forward a few hours and one mild freak out session that resulted in breathing exercises later, and Emily and I FINALLY head over to the theatre about an hour before showtime.  There are already quite a few people outside, which surprised me a little bit, but the age demographic was very strange.  Like there were a lot of women who were at least in their 40s and 50s and even a gaggle of preteen girls not that enjoying Flo’s music is limited to a certain age group but it was just an unexpected demographic (as Erin said it’s the same one as 50 Shades of Grey lol).  But anyway while we were standing outside I heard some music playing AND IT WAS FLO’S SOUNDCHECK.  I think he was playing J’attends encore but they just played part of it but it was still enough to cause a heart attack dear goodness

So we finally get into the theatre (and there was this whole drama about the staff holding onto my fancy camera during the concert because apparently photos weren’t allowed ugh but ANYWAY) and it like still hasn’t quite hit that I’m actually seeing Flo again??? I think part of it might’ve been the fact that we had to get up at like 4:45 in the morning to go to the train station but I was like scarily calm considering this is Flo we’re talking about.

The opening act was a band from Bordeaux called MO and they were actually really good!! I’d looked them up beforehand and their music seemed like French country and considering that I don’t like American country I wasn’t too excited but it was a little bit more soft pop than country and it almost reminded me of Diane’s music??  It was a very similar genre regardless.  They got the audience to do this like percussive song thing with them and it was really fun I’d definitely be happy to see them perform again.

Then after a good while where the crew moved instruments around and they adjusted the lighting one last time the band walked on stage and started playing some music then FLO WALKED ON STAGE AND I COULDN’T STOP GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT and they keep playing then he gets interrupted by his mom calling and he finally turns around and I see his stupid face and I’m gonna die just writing about this omg and he’s so damn cute and he’s now wearing a hoop earring (we were on Flo’s left so we had great views of the earring haha) and omg I’m still dying

Anyways after the fake phone call with his mom they start playing Se serrer la main which is one of my fave songs on that album but like i wanted to like stand up and jam along but no one else was standing??? Concerts that take place in real theatres stress me out idk if we’re supposed to stand or sit or what but ANYWAY

after that song ended he asked « Y’a des drôles de filles ici ce soir?? »/« Are there any drôles de filles here tonight? » (sorry I can’t think of how to translate drôles de filles rn) but I FLIPPED MY SHIT QUELLE DRÔLE DE FILLE IS SUCH A JAM (plus it’s my blog title lol) uhhhh idk which songs were next and I’m too lazy to pull up my recording rn to check but he sang a new song and damn it was such a jam and he was like noodling and dancing across the stage and i was struck by two things:  1) he seemed SO COMFORTABLE in his own skin and in his own body and i know he’s struggled with body issues before so it warmed my heart to see him so comfortable with himself and 2) he leaned backwards at one point (a mini-Rosenberggggg lean if you will) and I noticed his abs through his shirt???  And I was like wtf????  Are his abs just THAT well defined or is his shirt kinda see through??? Later on after I saw his nipples I was like YEP that shirt’s see through oops.  I knew his outfit seemed too normal I was getting suspicious. He also dabbed at the end of that song and you could feel half the audience groaning hahaha.

Uh I’m forgetting the song order but for Les Blessures qui ne se voient pas he started out a cappella and people were kinda singing along at first but everyone stopped and it was literally a silent theatre full of people listening to nothing but Flo’s voice and it was so beautiful and powerful I almost cried.  Oh I also almost cried when he did Te Ressembler because I wasn’t expecting him to do that song and it reminds me so much of the relationship I have with my mother and it just gets to me man.

After maybe like half an hour he started the whole bit where he tells us his life story starting with Canada which is a shame that he doesn’t start earlier because I would literally die to hear him perform some Lost Smile.  So he starts out the bit at a bar and he orders a rum and coke from the bartender (aka the guitarist who was wiping down his guitar with a towel as if it was a bar countertop lol) so the guitarist pours him a glass of wine and calls it rum and coke and Flo says « What kind of rum is this? » and the bartender/guitarist says « It’s Bordeaux rum! » and everyone screams since we’re in Bordeaux and Flo says that the best rum is from Bordeaux and everyone screams some more.

He talked about the friend he wrote « Alone » for then he performed said song and I nearly died I never in a million years thought I would ever hear him perform Canada songs live but also I feel like Emily and I were the only ones who knew the song???  The general feeling I got from the audience was confusion while I was jamming along having the time of my life.  The only other Canada song he performed was Mrs Mary which I don’t know as well as Alone but oh well.  

Next he did the getting a call to come audition for MOR and the fake audition and he was acting all cute and when the casting director aka the keyboardist asked how old he was he said 27 and like half of the audience squealed he was acting so cute then this motherfucker went and sang Bohemian Rhapsody which is ANOTHER song I thought I’d never hear him perform live and I just about died and cried I was a roller coaster of emotions last night okay?

Then he sang « L’Assasymphonie » and we all stood up and jammed and I’m pretty sure there was eye contact happening between us and I was living for it seeing Flo perform that song gives me life I have a video too but I’ll be uploading all my videos, pics, and recordings later.

Then he got a fake call from Dove (and I squealed really loudly when Flo mentioned Dove) and Dove said he’d had a dream about Flo with a big sword (ahem) and that’s how he introduced Quelque chose de magique and I died all over again it was like this really awesome rock arrangement and I was living for it @Dove why don’t you get Flo to do the arrangements for your musicals from now on at least that way you can’t tell him to chop all his hair off but I digress.  Tbh I’m really glad Flo did Quelque chose de magique because Mon combat is awkwardly just out of his lower range and Auprès d’un autre is just...yeah.  But it was so great to hear him sing LRA live again I was so pumped.

At some point during the musicals or just after Flo took another sip of the wine (which the guitarist had been drinking lol) and he said « Fuck that’s good I’m gonna need three or four more glasses » and tbh same but after the musicals they brought out a drum and let Flo drum for a bit and they did Sur mon nuage then he did Arrête somewhere in there???  Oh and the slow version of Je ne sais pas (which is the better version imo) which he apparently wrote about the girl who dumped him in Canada which I totally didn’t realize.

Then he was winding down the show and did that sped up version of Quoi de neuf which stresses me out because it’s so damn fast and he also kept switching up the lyrics in the chorus???? Like dude wtf I can’t sing along if you keep changing it!!!!

He left the stage afterwards but came back to do another new song whose name I forgot and he tried to teach us the chorus and was like « it’s really easy!! » but I couldn’t understand the words he was singing???? Oh well maybe he’ll release it on his next album whenever that’s happening (which he hasn’t even mentioned another album so I’m not holding my breath lol) then he ended with Qu’est-ce qu’un homme which is such a good song y’all it’s SO GOOD. But y’all when he had his arms around his band members to bow the Floobs were out they were really out there and idk how to process this information.

We headed outside to see about stagedooring and there ended up being two groups of fans at two different exits and we were kind of eying each other trying to figure out who was going to be right and if we needed to rush to the other side but all of the sudden everyone rushed to one of the theatre’s main doors??? So Emily and I rushed along and we were all penguin huddled together and no one really knew what was happening but we were all just waiting while the theatre staff opened the door and let a few fans in at a time.  We finally figured out that we were meeting Flo inside which I thought was nice since that way he wasn’t being crowded by a bunch of fans at the same time.

So Emily and I finally get inside except I’m getting loopy because of lack of sleep and we really hadn’t eaten that much that day either and I was SO CLOSE to deciding I was going to tell Flo I was disappointed he didn’t do any Lost Smile lol.  So the line of fans goes around a corner so we can’t really see what’s happening until we get up close and we can see the dudes that opened the show and we thought Flo would be after them but no you greet Flo first and that’s when my heart started beating real fast I wasn’t fucking ready y’all but we were doing it.

So I finally get up to Flo and he and a staff member are talking about how many people are still waiting and he didn’t quite see me at first when I handed him my ticket to sign and when they’re done talking I quietly say « hi » and Flo finally sees me and y’all he got so fucking excited I was so worried he wouldn’t recognize us but he did!!!!!!!! Even though it’s been almost two years!!!!! He asks us how we’ve been and he seemed so sincere and genuine and so interested like he really did want to know how we had been doing and as he’s signing Emily’s ticket I asked what his cat’s name was and he said he wasn’t saying right now but that he was going to announce it later.  But he did tell us his cat was super sweet and that he didn’t make too much noise in the morning and that he will play fetch like a dog and I was like omg my cat too!!! I’m also 95% sure at some point during this convo I straight up told Flo I love his cat but idk if he heard but he didn’t seem weirded out lol so that was good.  Flo took selfies with me then while he was taking selfies with Emily I said, « The concert was better than Harry Potter » (a reference to the classic « Song For A Lunatic ») and he was trying so hard not to lose it mid-selfie and I’m pretty sure it was the cause of the blep in Emily’s selfies it was so fucking great hahaha then the theatre staff fussed at all of us because we were taking so long but it was so worth it. He thanked us for coming and seemed really sincere about it like it wasn’t in just a « I need something to close this convo with fans » way it was like really genuine and this man and his sincerity will be the death of me.

Emily and I stayed calm until we got outside the theatre then we fucking lost it and screamed at Emily’s mom on the phone while she was at work because FLORENT MOTHE RECOGNIZED US and he had like a substantial conversation with us and he didn’t with the people ahead of us and he smiled SO MUCH in our selfies it was so amazing I feel so validated as a fan like one of my all time fave singers actually knows who I am and I’m dying.

I recorded most of the concert so I’ll post that recording and some pictures and videos later on!!  Damn this turned out wayyy longer than expected lol.

[imaginexxharry]

Hurt (part 2)

Where Y/N is in an unhealthy relationship, and Harry helps her realize and understand that she should be treated better. -

Part 1: https://imaginexxharry.tumblr.com/post/160635179209/hurt

Sneak Peak:

“ Let Harry know how good I can make you feel as I eat your pretty pussy.” He said as he licks your slit.

Suddenly the realization hit you on what Lucas was really doing. You quickly got out of his grip and pushed him away from you. While trying to pull up your underwear from your ankles.

“Is that why you came here?!” Your voice raised. “ To just fuck me while Harry was near, so he hears us?!” Lucas didn’t say anything.

“Did you even mean any of that apologizes or saying you loved me? Or were you just trying to get in my pants?!” The tears started forming and they wouldn’t stop.”

—

There will be apart 3. But I want to answer some questions you have about the story, because this story is really different from my others and I think it brings light on toxic relationships.

—-

You heart pounded as the uber came closer and closer to your apartment. You wondered how mad Lucas was going to be. Should you lie and say you were at your girlfriends house? Or should you just be honest. Nothing happened. You just watched a movie and fell asleep. That’s it. When you explain it to him he’ll get it.

You hoped.

You said thank you to the uber driver, and got out of the car. But as soon as he started to drive away you wanted to call him back and just run away. But you knew you couldn’t.

You looked at your phone and realized you had like two minutes before it’s 1:30 so you better get a move on.

You walked up the steps to your apartment and soon was face to face with the door. You looked through the window and saw that the lights were off. Maybe he fell asleep and you can just hop in bed, and he would be cooled off tomorrow.

You stayed outside for like 30 seconds before you finally opened your door.

It was dark and quiet. You slowly slipped off your shoes and hung your purse on the hook by the door.

You quickly made your way to the kitchen to get yourself some water to calm your nerves. As you drank it you wondered what Harry was doing after you left. Did he go back to sleep? Or is he now wide awake doing something. Deep down you wish you knew. Hanging out with Harry was the most fun you had in a long time, too long you thought.

After finishing your cup you made your way up the stairs to your bedroom. The hallways were also dark and when you got to your room you knew the lights were off too. You opened the door and scanned the room. You saw Lucas’ body laying in the bed and you breathed out a sigh of relief.

As you creeped over to your dresser you brought out some shorts and a t shirt to sleep in. You went to the bathroom and wiped off the bit of makeup you had and brushed your teeth as well.

Lastly made your way to your vanity and started taking off your jewelry. You touched your chest at the charm that was on your necklace. It was a little heart and on the back it had an L on it. Lucas gave it to you a year into your relationship.

You remembered crying because no one had every given you something so special before. And you were so In love with him then, but now you weren’t so sure.

You heard the bed move and you looked up through the vanity mirror. Lucas was up and he had no expression on his face. It was hard to figure out what he was thinking.

He got up and made his way to where you were sitting. You still haven’t looked him in the eye directly. You were just watching him through the mirror.

“Allow me.” He slowly traced his hands over your collarbones and touched your necklace. He just stared at it for a little bit not saying anything.

“I remember the day I got this for you. I wanted something special for you. But I didn’t know what, and then I saw this.” He aggressively grabbed the charm pretty hard that the necklace scraped your skin and you winced.

“It was so beautiful, like yourself and I knew it was the one for my girl.” His voice slowly became deeper as he talked and you knew he was getting upset.

“Thank you Lucas, I love it I where it everyday.” You tried to stop the tension in the room. But it wasn’t a lie you did where it everyday and you did like the necklace. It reminded you of a better time and those great memories you and Lucas had. You try to hold onto those but the new memories of your relationship were overpowering them.

He gives you a dark chuckle that made your stomach drop.

“Funny how you say that while your probably making out with some other prick with that necklace I gave you on.” His voice started raising.

Your eyes went wide and now you knew you were angry.

“What?! Lucas I would never do that, you know that.” You turn around to face his angry face.

“Who were you with tonight.” He insisted.

“I told you I was at friends.” You swallowed the lump in your throat.

“What’s there fucking name.”

“It’s um-” you didn’t know if you should tell him the truth or lie. If you lied you knew one way or another he would find out and get even more pissed. But if you tell the truth he would get even more upset. But you guys didn’t do anything. If you just explain that-

“I swear if you don’t answer me Y/N/-”

“I was with Harry.” You blurted out. “It was for work we had to watch a movie that was a book to compare them and write reviews for the bookstores website. So after work I just went over to do that.” You lied.

“And you came home at 1:30 at night, you really think I can believe that you weren’t fooling around!”

“I fell asleep! I swear Lucas. I didn’t get much sleep last night if you remember. So I accidentally fell asleep on his couch. I didn’t realize the time.” You tried explaining as quickly as possible.

“That’s bullshit-”

“Why is it such a big deal when I come home just a little late. But ever night you come home at like 3am so drunk you can’t even walk!” You suddenly got angry. You were sick of him being a hypocrite.

“That’s not the same-”

“Oh yeah you’re right. At least you know where I was. Half the fucking time you could be fooling around too. But I never question you-

“Shut up”

“So stop being overprotective for five seconds because my life doesn’t revolve around just you Lucas-”

“Just Shut the fuck up!” He yells as his fist slams onto the vanity making you jump. Your heart was pounding.

You could hear him taking deep breathes, as your eyes were closed because you didn’t want to be here.

You didn’t want him next to you. You just wanted to crawl in bed and sleep.

You tried to hold the tears in because you didn’t want him to see you cry.

“I’m picking you up from work from now on.”

“Lucas you don’t need to do that.” You tried to reason with him. Work was the only place that was separate from him and you liked it like that.

“Did I ask for your permission?” He looks at you with a hard expression and you just shake your head.

“Okay.” You didn’t want to argue anymore.

Lucas didn’t say anything else. He just got up from beside you and left the room, while he slammed the door behind it.

You cringed as you heard him downstairs throwing things. He did that every time you guys get in a fight.

You made your way to the bed and slide in. Your pillow was soon stained with tears and you couldn’t stop. Why was he always like this? You feel like everything you tell him he blows out of proportion and it was scary sometimes. You didn’t like it.

As you tossed and turned trying to get some rest your phone lit up. You grabbed it and your mood instantly changed when you saw it was a text from Harry.

“Did you get home safe?” It read. You totally forgot to text him because of the big fight you just had. You smiled at his concern.

“Yea,I’m home.” You sent.

“Good. Have a Good night sleep Y/N. Today was fun I hope to do it again.”

“ Me too! Goodnight Harry.” You sent and then put your phone on the side table.

You spent the next few minutes trying to doze off but you couldn’t. You kept replaying everything that happened today with Harry and Lucas. It was all too much to process. Your feelings for Harry, and how Lucas was treating you.

It was so confusing your mind was racing and keeping you up. But this has been a daily occurrence, every night your brain would never let you rest. You tried to remember the last time you had a good night sleep.

And all you could think about was how peaceful you felt sleeping in Harry’s arms.

———-

“Alright so there’s a book club coming In at 4 tomorrow to read The Great Gatsby. So we have to have 12 copies put aside for that.” Harry goes over things you have to do the rest of the week.

“Ok on it!” You went over to where those books were and got about ten copies in your arms before they started falling out of your hands. You bent down to pick them up. But Harry beat you to it.

“Slow your roll Y/N. Here let me help.” He took a few more books from your hands and took the rest from the floor.

“Thanks.”

You guys were in the back sorting out all the new releases that needed to be put on the shelf next week. You picked up a children’s book and set it in the pile not really paying much.

“Not again Y/N.” Harry said jokingly.

“What?” You turned to him and he was holding the same book you just put down.

“You put this in the adult books.” He smirked.

“Oops sorry.”

“So glad I caught that we didn’t want to have that situation again like last time.”

“Oh my gosh don’t bring it up again.” You covered your ears cause you were so embarrassed.

“I still don’t understand how you accidentally put 50 shades of grey in the freaking kids section!” At this point Harry is dying of laughter.

You covered your face to stop the redness , “ I was so exhausted I didn’t even realize. But the moms face when she came to the register to tell us.”

“Um I think you’ve made a mistake. My son should not be seeing this. This is unacceptable.” Harry mimicked the mother of a 7 year old boy who was seen reading it.

“I swear I couldn’t keep a straight face when her son said he wanted to buy it!” You giggled at the memory.

“Good thing you came up with the idea to give her a gift card because we for sure would of gotten fired.” Harry shakes his head while sorting out the books.

“I know right that was a close one.” You look back down to the pile of books you had and reached for the pen to check off the books you already did.

Your hand went for it at the same time Harry did and your fingers slightly touched. None of you pulled away at first.

It was quiet now in the back and Harry started to intertwine his hand with your own. He was soft and gentle and you didn’t stop him.

The bell rang indicating someone was ready to cash out. You both quickly pulled away from each other, and he cleared your throat.

“If it’s that old lady that takes forever again I’m not taking it.” Harry breaks the silence in the room making it feel more light.

“Fine. But if it’s that 80 year old guy that always hits on me you better take it!” You guys laugh as you both walked to the register.

“I swear Harry, we never have normal people come in here I think this place is cursed-”

You stopped talking when you saw who was at the register.

“Lucas?” There he was standing there but he wasn’t even looking at you. His eyes were fixed on Harry who was standing close behind me.

You went out from behind the desk to greet him.

“Lucas why are you here I don’t get off until 5.” You looked over at the clock and it was only 1.

But before you got an answer Lucas eyes was now fixed on you and he leaned down to forcefully kiss your lips.

He grabbed your waist to make sure you couldn’t wiggle away. You kissed him for a second but then became uncomfortable because you didn’t like kissing like this in public.

From the corner of your eye you saw Harry look away.

Finally you got out of his hold.

“I wanted to take you to lunch. Isn’t it your lunch break?” You could of lied but you didn’t want to explain to Harry why you did that.

“Yeah it is.”

“Good let’s go.” He put his hand on your waist but before you moved you called out for Harry

“Harry I’ll be back okay, I’m getting lunch.”

Harry looked up from what he was doing and nodded “I’ll be waiting. Have fun.”

You didn’t know why he said that. But when he did Lucas tightened his grip on your waist and walked you to the front.

“Can we talk first? Like somewhere private” Lucas said before you exited the store.

You looked at him a little worried. “Um yeah sure we can in the car or something-”

“We can just go in here.” He pointed to one of your storage rooms for books and you weren’t sure if that was a good place.

“I don’t know we can just-” Lucas wasn’t listening he opened the door and brought you in and locked it.

“Lucas what the hell. Why can’t we just talk in the car?”

“It can’t wait.” You started to get worried.

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry for the way I acted last night.” Your eyes widened. Was he apologizing he rarely does that.

“I was just jealous and scared that you were with someone else.” He frowned and held your hand to him.

“I shouldn’t of been so upset and I’m sorry.” You were in shock that he was saying all these things to you. He was owning up to his mistakes.

“It’s okay.” Even though you were still upset with him it’s good that he apologized.

He sighed in relief that you forgave him and he rested his head on the crook of your neck as he said he would never do it again. But you’ve heard that before and you knew he never kept his promise.

“I want to make it up to you because I love you.” He tells you.

“When? Is that why you came to get lunch was me?” This was the good side of Lucas that you wanted.

“Right here.” He started placing kissing on your collarbone and up your neck.

“Right now” The assaults on your neck just became more sloppy.

“Lucas…” you warned him. “What are you doing?”

“Making it up to you.” He said while holding you against the wall.

“We can’t do this here. This is my job.” You tried to get him to look you in the eye to see you weren’t playing around.

“No one will know.” His hand finds his way up your dress and glides over your slit.

“Lucas come on let’s just go eat first I’m really hungry.” Maybe if you both eat he would be too tired to do anything.

“I’m hungry too.” You sigh in relief alright now we can go.

“But not for food.” He drops down to his knees infront of you. “But something else.” You finally realize what he meant as he started to place kisses on your underwear.

“Just let me do this one thing. To make it up to you, baby.” He begged. But like before you never stopped him even when you wanted to cause you knew there was no use to fighting it if he was gonna do it anyways.

He slide your underwear down your legs and slowly licked your slit. You shuddered and held onto his shoulders for support. You hoped he would finish you fast because this location made you uncomfortable.

He swirled his tongue in you as he grabbed your waist to keep you still. Your breathe hitched but you tried to keep your mouth shut.

“It’s alright. Let it out. I wanna hear you.” He licks you again.

“ Let Harry know how good I can make you feel as I eat your pretty pussy.” He said as he licks your slit.

Suddenly the realization hit you on what Lucas was really doing. You quickly got out of his grip and pushed him away from you. While trying to pull up your underwear from your ankles.

“Is that why you came here?!” Your voice raised. “ To just fuck me while Harry was near, so he hear us?!” Lucas didn’t say anything.

“Did you even mean any of that apologizes or saying you loved me? Or were you just trying to get in my pants?!” The tears started forming and they wouldn’t stop.

“So you wouldn’t let me fuck you but you and Harry have probably fucked plenty times in this place!” Lucas was fuming now.

“Are you even hearing yourself! You sound crazy, Harry and I are just friends!”

“You didn’t think I saw the way you guys were looking at each other back there.” He started walking closer to you.

“You think your all innocent in all this. But all you are is just a fucking slut.” Lucas spat in your face.

Your heart felt like it was breaking into pieces. No matter how angry Lucas was with you he never had said such vile and means things like that.

“All you want is some dude in your life to stick there cock In your pussy.” He aggressively grabbed you there and you jumped.

“Because all you are is just a fucking Whore.”

All you heard was a loud noise and your hand started throbbing.

Lucas had his hand over his cheek and he was angry. Then the realization hit you.

You slapped him.

“Don’t you ever say that to me again. Don’t ever touch me again. Or I swear to god I will get people involved. I hate you! Your a manipulative, horrible, asshole! We are done!” You screamed at him.

You didn’t how you did it. But Lucas left, he ran out of there.

And when he did you let out a sigh of relief but then the tears never stopped. You slide down the bookshelf on the hard cold floor and just started sobbing. You didn’t know what to do all your stuff was in that house and you never wanted to see his face again. You had nowhere to stay and no one to contact. You were alone.

Which made you cry even more. The words and touch of Lucas was still with you and you just wanted to erase the memory of it all. You’ve never felt more broken, more hurt.

You couldn’t hear anything because of your sobs ringing in your ear. Warm hands touched your shoulders and you jumped ready to hit Lucas if he came back.

But it wasn’t him it was Harry.

“Y/N what happened? Are you okay?!” He looked at your face with tears streaming down your cheeks and your body shaking.

You could barely speak but you jumped into Harry’s arms and wrapped your arms around his neck and sobbed. He was taken back at first but then scooped you in his lap and held onto you. Letting you cry in his arms.

“It’s going to be okay Y/N. okay I promise you.” Harry told you as you leaned closer into him.

And somehow you knew that Harry wouldn’t break a promise

---- Part 3: https://imaginexxharry.tumblr.com/post/160710668819/hurt-part-3

[harukatomoe]

Perfect (Atsushi x Reader)

Perfect

"Ah~! How did I stumble upon a beauty like you?" You blinked a couple of times when long, slender fingers held your hand while the other hand of his, stroked the top of it. "It's so simple to say that you are beautiful, but!" He paused, throwing his head back, "there are not enough words to say, "would a beauty like you join me in a romantic double-"

Your eyes couldn't follow the man who was flattering you, as he went flying in another direction. You blinked once in realization, turning your head slowly, afraid of how and where he went.

"My deep apologies for our agency's disgrace." a blonde man commented before going after the bandaged man.

"It's no...problem...?" You dropped your head to the side a bit, bewildered by the situation that happened.

"I'm sorry for that," a voice laughed lightly, flowing in your ears like a little melody. You turned your head towards the source; only to see a boy around your age, smiling nervously down at you.

You felt your cheeks heat up slightly, observing every feature he had, carefully: his sunset-eyes, the way his silver hair framed his face in the slightest, and most important of all, his smile.

You didn't realize how long you were staring until your best friend shoved you, snickering to tease you. Little did she know how hard she nudged you, causing you to knock over your tea onto the poor boy.

"Oh, my god! I'm so sorry!" You shrieked, jumping out of your seat. Your head collided with his, which resulted to the both of you retreating in pain.

"It's f-fine-!" he cut his sentence short when he fell back, with you on top.

"(B-Best Friend's Name)-chan!" You exclaimed, both you and the boy's face red from the tips of your ears to your cheeks.

"Oops~" she winked as she blew a kiss.

You two made eye-contact afterwards, only to avert your eyes elsewhere. Both of you were on the ground, him on his butt and you on your knees. The awkward silence grew more and more as you two just stayed there.

Until, of course, he got up, lending a hand to help you up.

"Th-Thank you," you shyly took his hand. When he pulled you up, he introduced himself.

"I'm Nakajima Atsushi, n-nice to meet you..." Atsushi's cheeks were as bright as a red moon, flaming hot as burning matches. He swore, just by looking at you, he could pass out. To yourself, you were just an average looking individual, nothing special; to him however, oh boy, this weretiger could guarantee that it was love at first sight. You were a shooting star in the dark night.

Atsushi could feel something tingling in his chest, unsure of it he stared directly into your eyes, gazing. Though the moment he did, he was lost in your pretty (Eye Colour) irises. He was distracted; surely in the galaxy of your eyes, everything felt new.

"Atsushi? What an interesting name." You giggled, making Atsushi feel a bit light-headed from the kindness emitting from you. Interesting? He thought to himself, curious of what you meant. His name was just another, just another person in the billions. Though, by your small compliment, it made him feel giddy.

Atsushi soon found himself smiling as well, just on pure reflex. By your smile, makes him smile.

"I'm (Last Name) (First Name), it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Atsushi-kun." You didn't think it was possible to smile any bigger, but you did. You were intrigued by the fact by someone you just met, could make you smile so much already.

Both of you were definitely captivated by one another that you two totally forgot about your surroundings.

"Alright, lovebirds," (Best Friend's Name) started, breaking the endearing first sight of each other. "you two are starting to gross me out." She finished.

As soon as she finished her claim, the two of you snapped out of it, soon after turning away from each other in embarrassment. You gave her a death glare, her already knowing what it was for.

Yeah, I just ruined your moment. You could hear her saying in her head, just by the smirk she was giving you.

"Moment", we just met. She could hear you saying, by the scrunched face you were giving her.

Your best friend raised her chin and slung an arm over your shoulder, whispering words that turned your ever red face, an even darker shade if possible, "I saw the way you two looked at each other~" she breathed, "the adoration in his eyes, and the curiosity in yours~" she whispered.

"SOMEONE'S IN L-"

"AAAAAAHHH!" You yelped, slapping your hand over her mouth.

❣  A few days later  ❣

You found yourself thinking about Atsushi, the boy you met a few days before. Staring down at your pencil and paper, you couldn't think about what you were planning to write anymore under the question: Hobbies/Stuff you like to do on your free time?

Yes, you were filling out a job application. Being a graduate, you at least had to get yourself a job that could pay to support yourself whilst studying (Subject).

Though, your mind was filled with many thoughts, remembrance.

His hands were soft, gently touching your hand, you could still feel his grabbing yours. He was delicate, almost as if he was scared he was going to break me, your eyes became half-lidded, your chest clenched a bit. But, we just met. Why? You released a loud sigh, grabbing locks of your own hair, tugging.

"Gaaa! It's so frustrating!" You exclaimed, dropping onto your desk flat.

Upon hearing your complaints, (Best Friend's Name), your roommate came to check on you.

"Hm, (First Name)-chan, are you al-" she stopped herself as she didn't know what to make of your situation.

"Urgh...huuuuuuu." She watched as you wiped yourself all over your desk, back and forth, weird and awkward sounds being vocalized from you. Not too soon after, she witnessed you throwing yourself onto the floor. With a defeated look on your face, (Best Friend's Name) pinched the bridge of her nose and made an assumption.

"Let me guess," she paused, nudging you with her foot, "that boy."

"Yessssss..." prolonging the "s" in your response, you slowly started to slip under your bed.

"Alright, Juliet. Get out from under there." She grabbed your ankles and yanked you out with one strong pull. She let out a heavy sigh and patted your head. "Why don't you ask him out?"

You pouted, "I can't just ask him out, what if he says no?" Having the thought of him refusing your invitation made you even more confused. You felt your chest clench more than before as your pout turned into an unhappy frown. You weren't sure of this new feeling, love, you weren't very experienced with it. It was something you've never really felt, until you met him. That's when everything came like a present, with every mystery inside.

"Oh, come on. Have you seen the way he looks at you? He's basically head over heels for you! If you don't call this love at first sight, I don't know what will." She shook your shoulder gently, trying to gesture some sense into you. "But, (Best Friend's Name)-cha-" swiftly placing a finger on your lips, she silenced you. "Ah, ah, no buts. If he refuses, he doesn't know what he's missing out on," she smiled sweetly, "you're the prettiest girl I've ever met, (First Name)-chan. And the only."

You wrapped your arms around her tightly, letting out a squealed "aw". She hugged back, nuzzling against you as well. "But of course I'm lying, because I'm first."

"Pfft, (Best Friend's Name)-chan!"

❣  A week later  ❣

You approached the office where you received an application from, dropping off your resumé as well. A secretary came and picked it up, allowing you inside for a few moments before the agency would have their final answer. 

You stepped inside cautiously, not sure what to expect from your (may) soon-to-be colleagues. Though, the moment your eyes averted away from your feet, they landed on familiar sight.

Your breath became ragged, your heart clenched, your stomach churned but, your eyes couldn't stop looking. Seeing him again gave you a wave of emotions, any of which you could not describe.

Atsushi had noticed you at the same time you noticed him; what he felt was relief, he didn't know why. He didn't know why, but was so glad he got to see you again. Maybe due to the fact he longed to see you? Maybe just yes.

"Atsushi-kun!" The boy suddenly heard his superior whisper loud enough for only him to hear. When Atsushi turned his head towards the bandaged man, he tilted his head slightly, a small curious look on his face.

"Yes, Dazai-san?"

"Go talk to her!"

"Eh?" Soon enough, Atsushi realized what was happening, but was too late to react. Finding himself clinging to you like his life depended on it, all because Dazai couldn't help, but to want you two together.

Your cheeks burned with utter surprise, both of your eyes wide and staring directly at each other. It was embarrassing for the two of you, his arms wrapped around your arms and waist desperately as you stood their stiff as a board. In front of all his colleagues as well, but, none of you wanted it to end.

Unfortunately, the moment that thought entered you mind, it was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Once he pulled away, the little ounce of warmth from him left as well. Which made you a bit unsatisfied.

"Oi, brat." Another familiar person you've seen before pushed his glasses up, a brow raised at his subordinate. "What do you think you're doing to-"

"Kunikida-kun, did you know the more you push up your glasses, the more wrinkles you get?" Dazai interrupted, an arm slinging around his partner's shoulder.

"R-Really?" Ah...so gullible. You and Atsushi thought.

"Mhmm! You should write this down," Dazai waved cheekily, though out of the corner of his eye, he gestured his head in a direction signalling he was giving the two of you a chance to talk.

"...gives you wrinkles..."

"But I'm only kidding of course."

From behind the door you and Atsushi just closed, could hear the sound of Kunikida's pen breaking and a loud crash and bang with a screech saying "DAZAI!" in the midst of it.

"Haha.." you laughed quietly, looking at the door with an amused smile on your face. Atsushi laughed along as well, as quiet as yours- he wasn't laughing at the sounds though, he was laughing along with you, smiling because of you.

Once you turned your head towards him, both of you became a teensy bit flustered, staring at each other with a little surprise, cheeks red. Until you smiled softly at him, your kind eyes making his heart flutter. It was vice-versa as well.

"So.." Atsushi nervously rubbed the back of his neck, obviously wanting to say something. As his cheeks were still pink and the smile still on, you felt a bit light-headed just looking at him (in the greatest way).

"W...W-Would you like to go out on a date?" You blurted too quickly, covering your mouth instantly after. You hoped you said it too fast that he couldn't comprehend: "Wha..."

"U-Uh! Y-You don't have to if you don't want to, I completely-"

"Y-Yes!" And now it was his turn to cover his mouth and retreat a little. Your cheeks burned even more than before, even more than the time you two first met. God, who knew your second meeting was gonna be so interesting?

Of course Atsushi was a little embarrassed, him being the one to be asked instead of him asking? But, he couldn't ask for anything better.

"R-Really?" Your attention was now focused on your hands, unable to look him in the eye, you giddily started fidgeting. You heard an agreed hum, hands that felt familiar touching yours again.

"I really want to." That was it. That was the confirmation that couldn't make you feel any more...relieved.

"...I'm glad, Atsushi-kun..."

Little did you two know, ears were listening on in behind the door.

"Those two are..really something, aren't they?" Yosano laughed awkwardly.

"Hm~ Atsushi-kun and (Last Name)-chan are really inexperienced and awkward, but," Dazai paused, a smile rising on his face, "they're perfect for each other."

End

[subparatbestcomics]

Artist’s Commentary

Rather than a new page this week, I will instead be reviewing and providing commentary for the previous 10 pages published. For the most part I will be going over my own mistakes, as well as explaining some of the choices made, and whether or not they worked. Before we start however, I would like to note these pages are not complete, but more of a rough draft. There are several reasons for this. One major reason, is that it has been several years since I have drawn with any regularity. Producing a page each week will, I hope, shake off the rust. Additionally, neither my or my brother's hardware is up to the task of rendering RFO. One day, RFO may see an updated version that better fits our mutual vision of this project. And so, the commentary begins. RFO 1 -Jude Anderson lives in a poor neighborhood; identical row houses with unkempt lawns and no decoration outside. -My first mistake was leaving the sky blank. Its meant to be near midnight, but the bright sky and lack of shading imply otherwise. -Jude's front door and the paneling on it will change in scale just about every panel. Partly, this is because there was no consistent model. -Jude's house -interior and exterior- were modeled in Lego Digital Designer. -Jude's house number is 616, a less popular interpretation of the number of the beast. -My original attempt at this was painted in photoshop. The foreshortened fences were an absolute nightmare. I'm still not too happy about them as drawn now, but its still better than it was. -I forgot to shade the first floor window shutters. Oops. RFO 2 -Jude is whistling the ever popular 'Happy Birthday'. I’m not totally certain about the notation here, because I haven't had to read music since middle school. (side note: This song recently entered the public domain) -Jude's outfit was inspired by Back to the Future's Marty McFly. -I forgot to put a candle in the birthday apple pie. -You may notice Jude has no visible fridge in his kitchen. Jude cant afford a full fridge, or fit it in his kitchen. Instead, anything he needs cold is kept in a basement mini-fridge. -Jude’s facial features and hair take inspiration from Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers of Scooby Doo. -You may notice the quality of characters hands changing. Hands are still difficult for me, but I'm hoping to improve. -My brother pointed out that the carpet in Jude's living room looks like grass. I'm not really certain how one draws carpet. -The leftmost painting depicts two figures with an arm around the others shoulder. A third figure appears later, but there is no story significance, I just forgot what it was supposed to be. RFO 3 -The overly enthusiastic individual at Jude's door is meant to be androgynous. I feel I made them a little too masculine -The design on the handbag clearly denotes a christian denomination, although not any specific one. I wanted it to be generic, but evocative of several things. (a cross, a sword, an angel, a shooting star, etc) -While it was done primarily to help them stand out, the white outline around the stranger nicely implies a holy glow. -I'm most proud of this page, and how uncomfortable and annoyed Jude is by this stranger interrupting his birthday and asking about religion at midnight. -Several of these pages were first sketched in faint colored pencil. Its not meant to show up when scanned, but clearly that didn't work quite as advertised. -You may notice proportions are inconsistent, especially regarding head size. Like most of my mistakes, I did not notice until it was already too late to fix without starting the whole page over. -The handbag is unshaded in the last panel. RFO 4 -I'm not sure how I feel about these sound effects in retrospect. I'm still toying with how they work. -One habit I need to break is placing speech bubbles too close to the papers edge. The scanner sometimes cuts them! -As Jude gets more confused and frustrated by strangers popping up at or in his house, his hair gets wilder. -Jude's house layout is similar to several I personally have been in. RFO 5 -I'm not happy at all with the posing of the officer; they're so stiff and lifeless. While I could try to pass it off as part of the stranger's idea of how a police officer asks, the truth is that even when my skills weren't rusty; posing was never my strong suit. -Some panels have blank backgrounds partly due to laziness on my part, and partly so the paper could be held without smearing -The officer's nametag reads 'GATES'.This, along with his unusual badge and emblems, indicate that this is still the same person who was at Jude's door only a minute before. RFO 6 -I don't have much to say about this page, except that the officers uniform is visibly becoming simpler by the panel. This is because drawing those details was hurting my wrist. In the future I will try to be more economical with character design. RFO 7 -If the past ten weeks have taught me anything, its that I should plan out what I'm going to do more thoroughly. Jude's speech balloon was drawn first, and ended up over the other man's crotch. Now it looks stupid. -The officer (stranger) tends to be to Jude left, while the other man tends to the right. -The middle left panel is another I'm proud of, not for any major thing, but because tilting the head is difficult for me to do on purpose; especially when the part of the head where the jaw meets the neck is visible, but I think I did okay here. -The hard angles and edges of the final speech balloon show the officer is stern and serious. It is also shaped like a stop sign. RFO 8 -While the officer is still left of Jude (to the viewer), he is now right of the other man. Left positioning in RFO signifies benevolence, right signifies malice. It could have been the opposite just as easily, but sometimes you have to make an arbitrary choice for theming purposes. -The other man's hair forms horns on the sides and a tail in the back whereas the officer's (stranger's) hair is more flowing and wing-like. -Jude only owns one other jacket, as seen in his barren closet. -The officer's proportions in the bottom left are so off, I'm not sure why I thought it looked okay. -The other man's outfit and personality are meant to evoke a stereotypical used car salesman. Also Rodney Dangerfield! RFO 9 -Not much to say here. I will continue to simplify the style until an equilibrium is met between making things look good versus not destroying my wrist. -Also, the other man's sleeve in the first panel is missing its vertical stripes. RFO 10 -Jude's face in the last panel seems off to me. I don't quite know why, and I'm the one who drew it. -When I originally planned this page out, there was too much vertical space. It would have left me either having to draw their legs (which would been difficult with the furniture in the scene at leg height) or leaving a terrible amount of dead air above their heads. Instead, I tried to do something more visually interesting with that negative space, by making the last two panels more diagonal than horizontal.                                                                                                                                       Jacob Birmingham

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Rewards of Losing:  Chapter 10

Ryou sagged back onto the couch as Kei vanished out of the window, muttering something to the effect of Ryou being an utter idiot. At the moment Ryou wasn’t sure if he agreed or not. Only a short time earlier he’d been about as happy as he’d ever been. While he still wasn’t certain about bonding to Yuuri, he did want to spend more time around Mizael, and perhaps that could help him make a decision. Having the small scrap of wisteria pleased him too.

He wasn’t sure of where Kei was going or what he had planned. But he also knew what he needed to do – get home. He wanted to talk to the Professor and see if he could get both Kei and Mizael spared from what was to come. He wanted to believe that the Professor would listen to him.

It took no time at all to get back to Fusion – merely the act of strapping his Fusion-built Duel Disk to his arm and activating the signal. Light blinded him for a few seconds, and he found himself in a room he remembered – one where Fusion agents usually appeared when returning from a field mission.

It was late here, too. He’d learned quickly that the worlds ran on more or less the same amount of time. At least Fusion and XYZ did. He’d never visited Synchro or Standard.

The Professor always stays late in his throne room. Ryou wasn’t certain of why the Professor had a throne room as opposed to an office but it wasn’t his place to argue the peculiarities of those higher ranking than he was. Especially not when he needed their help to get what he wanted.

But before he went there, he had one other stop to make. Reaching his own personal quarters from the transport room took a scant ten minutes and he took another few to get into his proper uniform. He needed to look his absolute best for this.

In some ways what he wore now resembled the average Obelisk Blue uniform. In some it didn’t. Golden epaulets adorned the shoulders of his white jacket; his pants remained the same shade of deep blue, but made of finer material than student garb. His leather boots came to mid-calf with slight gold fringes. He rather liked it.

Though he did tend to wear more black when he was in XYZ. It meant less effort trying to pick out something to wear and he’d never been the clothes-horse that Fubuki had been.

Satisfied that he would now be presenting himself as his true identity as a Fusion solider, he headed to the Professor’s throne room. Two guards, both of whom he recognized from his own days as a student, stood outside the door. One of them regarded him.

“We haven’t seen you back in a while, Kaiser,” he said, recalling Ryou’s school nickname. “You’ve been busy, I hear.”

“Yes, I have.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And I have business with the Professor right now. May I enter?”

The guards exchanged a glance, then the one who hadn’t spoken peeked inside. “Sir? Marufuji Ryou is here to speak with you.”

Ryou could not hear the reply, but the door was pushed open a little further. “Enter,” the second guard told him. “But don’t take up too much of his time.”

“Of course.” Ryou briskly entered, hearing his boots click on the floor as he did so. The click ceased when he arrived at the carpet that led up to the throne. When he reached the proper spot, he stopped to bow.

Akaba Leo wasn’t that old – probably in his fifties at the oldest. His uniform wasn’t much unlike those of his students and soldiers, save for the purple color. Only Yuuri wore a similar shade, and most people took that to mean that Yuuri was his most favored one.

“It’s been a while since you were here. I’m glad that you received the message,” Akaba Leo said after a few silent moments. Protocol demanded that he address Ryou before Ryou said anything himself. “I trust you had more to do than simply greet me now that you’ve returned from your mission.”

Ryou drew in a breath. “Yes, sir. I’m aware of the invasion happening. There are, though, two people that I wish to have spared. They have been of – interest to me.” Interest was a good word for this. He didn’t know a better one.

“The duelist Healer Mizael and the Healer Cat Kei.” Leo said quietly. Ryou tensed at that. “I’ve heard of them already.”

Ryou fought to keep himself in perfect stillness. He dared not let himself show a real emotion. Real emotions could get him killed. “From Yuuri, I presume.” Of course it would have been Yuuri.

“Yes.” Leo bent his head. “I've given orders in relation to them already. The duelist may be permitted to join us, if he shows wisdom. The Cat, however, will not. Cats are forbidden.”

“Why?” The word fell out of Ryou’s mouth without a second of hesitation. “There isn’t anything wrong with them.”

One thin eyebrow raised. “They’re forbidden because they are incapable of understanding our goals. They will attempt to dissuade you from doing what is right. That one has already attempted, hasn’t he?”

As much as he’d not been able to deny Kei’s words now he couldn’t say anything to the Professor’s. He forced himself to shake his head. He wasn’t being drawn astray.

Leo’s gimlet gaze never left him. “I think otherwise. I think you’ve been in that world too long.” He tilted his head back, thinking. “While I am pleased to see you returning of your own will instead of having to send someone to get you, that world has changed you in unsuitable ways. Your mission there is complete. You have no further need to recall anything from there.”

It took Ryou a few seconds before he grasped exactly what Leo meant by that. There were plenty of rumors about what the scientists could do to one’s memories. The least terrifying was just to read them in general. That wasn't so bad; it could be very useful when it came to spies relaying what they saw on their missions.

But other rumors spoke in twisted whispers and dark murmurs about how the scientists could rip away every single memory that the victim had, leaving them an empty shell to be rewritten in any way that the scientists – or whoever they were given to – desired.

He started to take a step back, when two pairs of firm hands rested on him. He jerked his head around to see two strange guards there. Both held onto him firmly.

“Have him taken to Memory Lab Thirty-one,” the Professor ordered. “And someone send a message to Yuuri. He’ll want to assist in the reprogramming.”

“Yes, sir,” both of the guards replied. Ryou wasn’t going to let that happen. Fire uncoiled from the deepest part of himself, lashing out at the two guards and knocking them away, the scent of burning flesh arising sharply. Both of them stumbled, hands going to their new burns.

Regardless of what else they thought of him, he was still the most powerful Firestarter in Fusion, and Yuuri wasn’t there to hold him back.

“Marufuji! Stand down!” Leo snapped. For the first time in his lie, Ryou ignored his orders. He kept up a ring of fire all around himself even as he backed out of the throne room and headed away.

He wasn’t at all sure of where he was going. Only that it had to be not here.

Mizael. Kei. XYZ. He would have to tell them the full truth. He would have to apologize for the lies and secrets.

He would have to help them against Fusion.

A thousand other thoughts raced through his mind. Not all of them seemed to be in his voice, but he didn’t have the time to stop and listen to any of them. Instead he closed his eyes and concentrated, lashing out tongues of flame as far as he could, growing the flames faster and faster.

Beyond the roar of his fires he could hear the alarms ringing and a voice ringing out over the intercom system. He wasn’t sure about the words but he suspected the gist of them – rogue Firestarter, do not approach.

He had to go back to XYZ. He could see figures moving beyond the flames and the flames whispered warnings – moments before cold foam started to damp them down.

All right. If this was what they wanted. Ryou reached outward and licked his flames at the base of their clothes, those sentries who would dare try to take him to where he’d get his memories taken away – his self taken away.

They leaped back, yelping in fear and pain, and Ryou smiled. He’d always enjoyed tasting pain himself. It helped him know that he was alive and that he’d won. But extending it to others had a certain appeal to it as well.

Especially right now, when it got him enough space to tap his duel disk. In that same moment, something flicked through the fires and buried itself into his upper shoulder. Ryou had time only to utter one startled cry before everything turned black and the world quietly stepped away.

Soft fingers threaded their way through his hair. That was the first thing that Ryou became aware of again. After that came the fact he rested on something soft. He twitched a fraction. The hand continued to soothe.

Was it – someone he wanted? Ryou wasn’t sure. Everything fuzzed in his head. He’d been somewhere – somewhere he didn’t think he wanted to be anymore. There wasn’t anyone there he wanted to have around. But there was someone that he wanted. Two someones?

A flicker of gold flashed through his memory, muddled and fuzzy and indistinct and he tried his best to seize for it, only to have it fade away again. A breath later, another image, this time of cool gray eyes, regarded him, backed up by black fur.

Fur? That wasn’t right. Shou had gray eyes but blue hair, a lighter shade of his own. This – really wasn’t right. He twitched harder, and the hand in his hair moved downward to rest against his throat.

“Are you waking up?” A familiar voice murmured. Oh, yes, he knew who that was. He just knew that he didn’t want to hear it right now.

His eyes flew open to see Yuuri smiling down at him. Not one of those smiles that meant anything good, of course. But a smile that meant Yuuri was about to hurt someone and thoroughly enjoy it.

Ryou tried to open his mouth to rage. He found a breath later that he could not – some sort of vine wrapped all around him and set between his teeth kept him from speaking, let alone moving. Yuuri chuckled as soon as Ryou’s reactions revealed he noticed.

“You’re not going anywhere until I’m ready to take us back to Fusion,” Yuuri said, tapping him on the nose. “The Professor is very angry at you. But I managed to talk him into letting me deal with you. We're still going to bond. At least we are unless I find I like someone else better. But regardless, until that happens, you’re mine in every sense of the word.”

Ryou tried with all of his might to wriggle out of his bonds. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t get his flames to ignite at all. Yuuri chuckled in amusement.

“You won’t be getting out of that. I hit you up with a very special little drug after I got here.” Yuuri gestured around and Ryou realized they were in his own apartment in XYZ. The vines were from the flytrap, which was a great deal bigger than it had been. Yuuri must have pumped it full of energy to get it that big in the span of – not very long? He thought?

Yuuri tapped to get his attention again. “Perhaps you've heard of Firedamp?”

Firedamp. Oh, he’d heard of it. Firedamp neutralizes a Firestarter's powers for – I don’t know. It depends on the size of the dose. How much did he give me?

Yuuri kept on smiling down at him. “I guess you have heard of it then. So you’re probably wondering how much I put in you. Let’s say – you’re not going to flame again until after you’ve been wiped and I’ve put into your memories exactly what I want you to have.” He leaned closer. “We can start with absolute obedience to me.”

Ryou shook his head relentlessly. He didn’t want that at all! Nor would the Professor want it – he couldn’t! But Yuuri didn’t stop smiling. He at least thought he could get away with it.

“Now, while I was waiting for you to wake up, I found this.” Yuuri raised up something and Ryou recognized it as the silk-wrapped wisteria vine Mizael had given to him. “You got this from him, I see. I can feel his power in this.” His nose wrinkled. “You really have been disloyal to me.”

Ryou wanted to say that he hadn’t – that what he felt for Mizael was so different from Yuuri, that he hadn’t cheated. But the vines wrapped around him continued to keep him firmly in place. He couldn’t so much as voice a squeak in protest.

Yuuri slipped the vine into his own pocket. “I’ll take care of this, and him, shortly.” He regarded Ryou thoughtfully. “But what to do with you for now? I do intend to have that duel – and card him in front of you.” He tapped his fingers on Ryou’s arm. “You won’t protest, either. Even if you wanted to, you won’t. I can assure you on that. But we have time left until the duel. So what do I do with you until then? I’d rather not wipe your mind before then. It will be so much more entertaining to have you fully aware of who that Cat and Healer are when I tear up their cards in front of you.”

Ryou strained so hard that he tasted the vine on his tongue. Yuuri tapped him on the nose again. “Stop doing that. You’re not going anywhere. If I have to put you to sleep again, I will. I probably should.”

Now Ryou tried his best to shake his head. He didn’t want to be that vulnerable around Yuuri. But Yuuri didn’t seem to notice, or care if he did. Instead, he turned his attention to the sunlight starting to pour in through the window.

Kei knows. Kei’s probably already told Mizael. Ryou bit the vine as hard as he could and gasped out a pair of muffled words.

“They – know -” He tried to say more but the tine tightened at Yuuri’s stern look. Yuuri drummed his fingers in thought.

“They know. They know the invasion is coming?” He tilted one eyebrow a fraction. Ryou tilted his head the bit he was allowed, staring down at his bonds. Without his flames he couldn’t do anything to get out of this The vines wrapped around his wrists and ankles, keeping his wrists held firmly behind his back, and another vine tight around his throat. If he fought too hard, it would cut off his air.

Yuuri’s lips pressed together before a joyous smile broke over his features. “Then I’ll just have to do a little talking to them. At least to that Healer – who knows where that mangy Cat is.”

Kei’s not mangy! Ryou mentally snapped. He hated not being able to call the flames. Was this how people who weren’t Firestarters felt? There was such a huge swirl of emptiness inside of himself. Nothing felt right. His stomach was empty and his head stuffed with cotton and he wasn’t sure how much of that was because of the drug that knocked him out, the Firedamp, or who knew what.

Yuuri rose up. “This won’t take me long. And yes, I know where he lives. I took the liberty of checking the number he gave you already. He really shouldn’t have done that, you know.”

If Ryou had had any notion of what would happen, he would have made sure that Mizael didn’t do that. But he couldn’t stop it now.

“Keep a good grip on him,” Yuuri ordered the flytrap, giving it another surge of energy. “I’ve got plans for when I get back.” His eyes glittered a cold amethyst. “Very painful plans.”

He wiggled his fingers. “You be a good boy while I’m gone. I want you right where you are when I come back. I might thin the dosage a little if you do exactly as you’re told.” Yuuri shrugged. “But I probably won’t.”

Yuuri strolled out the door, closing and locking it behind him. Ryou glared; he’d set it up so only someone he trusted could have locked or unlocked the door. That had been Yuuri, not all that long ago. Now that led to where he was now.

He dropped his head back as best he could. Again and again he tried to get to his flames but they weren’t there. It wasn’t that they were there and he couldn’t reach them. It was as if they’d never been there in the first place. It wasn’t right.

This is going to last for days. Until after the invasion starts. That wasn’t what he wanted. He still wasn’t sure what he wanted, let alone what he would be able to get.

All of his upbringing and his logic told him that what he needed to do was get back on Yuuri and the Professor’s good side. To submit to having his memories wiped and become the good soldier of Fusion that he’d been just the day before – right until being a good solider of Fusion threatened to take away people that he’d never imagined were that important to him until they weren’t going to be there anymore.

You never know what you have until you’re going to lose it, Ryou realized. He hadn’t lost it yet. But it hovered between his fingertips and his grip was slipping fast.

To Be Continued

Notes: And now the real evil begins! Insert cackling here.