#wish id worn different shoes but oh well. i managed

[coffinbutch]

Spent like 5 hours deep cleaning and overhaul organizing the other location of my job bc there was like water/pests/weird stuff, and there were some different toys and things where the packages had superficial damage that made it nonsaleable, and my coworker talked our manager into letting us each keep a packer that they weren't gonna be able to sell. So now I have a packer!

[nameless-shrimp]

BLOODLUST [PART 2] || SATORU GOJO

A continuation from this one-shot.

Pairing: Vampire!Gojo Satoru x F!Reader

Type: One-Shot (may turn into a fic, idk)

Warnings: Mentions of blood/murder, swearing, and slight mentions of sexual themes.

Notes: This is probably really bad, lol, I'm tired.

Dead bodies weren’t supposed to be heavy, but this one in particular was, and Satoru was managing his way through the alleyway as he dragged the corpse in one hand and twirled the hand knife he had in the other one.

He was thankful that he kept his Infinity on at this time. Satoru was frustrated at himself for letting blood get on his clothes last time. However, he was tired of the fact that he had an endless lecture from Yaga about his blood intake and that was why Satoru lost control of his vampiric techniques, which was rare, though. Satoru was well-mannered—to a certain extent, at least—and he knew how to keep his vampiric techniques in control, he always had.

But what one weakness Satoru had was his stubbornness and his refusal to drink human blood. Occasionally, he’d drink it, but he wasn’t trying to drink it like it was a fine wine at a restaurant. And with one sigh, looking up at the sky as he clutched onto the dirtied shirt of the corpse below him, he knew that he needed to drink some blood soon.

Satoru glanced down at his black watch on his wrist, sunglasses nearly slipping off the bridge of his nose. He checked the time and it had only been a few minutes since he last met with the recent vampire he had just killed.

(It didn’t take long for one deathful stare from Satoru’s eyes for the vampire to be twisted into unbearable knots, though).

It was exactly two in the morning, he noted.

“For a bastard that just turned, you’re fucking heavy,” Satoru commented, looking at the disfigured corpse in his hands. He knew there had only been a few more steps to go, but Satoru knew that the job was too messy.

Nanami always scolded him for this, too. No matter what mission either he or Nanami were assigned to, Satoru would have to make sure to clean up the mess somehow, and after killing the vampire that they were assigned to, the body has to be disposed of. (But, it wasn’t fucking easy, and Satoru knew this. It was difficult knowing that the endless trails of blood were never-ending and that the evidence of murder wasn’t going to fade away from the public).

As Yaga always told Satoru, it was more important to keep vampires hidden from society as much as possible. Throughout the country, rapid cases of indescribable murders have been increasing, and Nanami always pointed it out when the two would wait around in the lounge room together.

(“Thirty more cases of victims drained of blood,” Nanami spoke the other night, staring at the television screen as he fiddled with the remote in his hands.

Satoru stared at him, tilting his head. “No newspaper?”

“For once I listened to you and I went along with the news. Besides, it helps me see how the public is reacting to these ca—”

“Wait,” Satoru interrupted. “You actually listen to me?”

“Starting now, I will stop.”)

Satoru reached the bridge that was connected to the roads that he had just been traveling for quite some time. He turned around, sighing at the obvious sight of blood that trailed to the moment where he had stopped; with snow on the ground, it wasn’t helping that the blood was more painfully obvious.

He knew that if Nanami came around, he’d get a never-ending glare from him for leaving a mess, but at least Satoru was disposing of the body.

Satoru picked up the dead corpse and quickly tossed it over the bridge, watching the body fall until it hit the surface of the water. With one big splash, Satoru turned around, wiping off the excess dirt on his hands, and decided to leave the scene as soon as possible before anyone would’ve been able to witness it.

He thought of different possibilities that he could go on for the rest of the night. Perhaps, he and Nanami could watch a movie together after so long and maybe Satoru could actually shut up for once, but for some reason, Satoru wanted to be alone. He usually wanted to hide in his own head whenever he knew he had to drink blood for the night.

Satoru murmured a swear underneath his head and then placed his palm on his forehead, sighing at the thought. It was never fun being reminded that you were a monster and Satoru had to deal with these uncontrollable thoughts of his; he knew he could control them, but he believed that they were the truth, after all.

Even though he never murdered a human for the sake of his hunger.

His phone began to ring in his pocket and he sighed deeply, already aware of who it could be that was calling him. Satoru reached for his phone and then looked at the caller ID, realizing that Nanami was trying to reach him.

Satoru cleared his throat, throwing a wide grin on his lips, not minding that he was in an opposite mood a couple seconds ago. “Hello Nanami, have you finished your pa—”

“Yes, I’m just calling to see if you did yours,” Nanami interrupted, a slight groan from the other line.

He sounded exhausted. Though, Satoru couldn’t blame him.

“Ah, I did. Shall we go out for a night stroll?” Satoru asked, even though he preferred to be alone.

“No, thank you,” Nanami responded blandly, which was why Satoru even asked because he knew the answer already. He might as well pretend to be in character. “Don’t forget to get rid of the body.”

“Already did it,” Satoru stuck his tongue out, still making his way down the street in front of him. He looked up at the flickering street lights and glanced at the dim-lit windows of the apartment buildings to his left. “Did you think I was that forgetful?”

“It’s you, after all.”

“That hurts.”

“I’m hanging up now since our business here is done.”

“Not even a ‘goodnight’?” Satoru pouted before he heard the end of the other line go off.

His smile slowly faded as he went back on his phone, staring at the messages he was receiving from Yaga about his new watch. Satoru checked back on his watch, realizing that only twenty minutes had passed since he last checked, and it wasn’t long from now until the timer would go off to signal that he needed to feed.

Satoru didn’t bother to bring any blood bags with him, because why would he? It would’ve been a bad move on his part if he dropped any on accident during a battle in public. Most of the time, he’d drink in the infirmary room and bring up small talk even though it pained Satoru deep down to taste a red liquid that was so sinister yet so delicious and can be devoured easily from an innocent bystander.

It didn’t take him long to make his way to the small town in front of him and he ignored most of the ‘missing’ posters that were stuck on the walls of the worn-down buildings next to him. Satoru didn’t want to pay attention to these papers; he already knew these faces, anyways, and they’re all dead—vampire or human. Regardless, these incidents would’ve been happening if vampires hadn’t existed—if Satoru didn’t exist himself.

He made his way past an alleyway until he heard low growls coming from near him. Satoru raised his eyebrows, glancing down at a matted stray down near his feet, and he noticed that the puppy was gnawing at his black leather shoes.

He furrowed his eyebrows, watching the puppy chew on his shoelaces as it kept on growling at him. For some reason, the animal looked familiar to him and—well, he wasn’t sure why it was hitting him as if the animal was something important.

Regardless, Satoru couldn’t help but smirk and chuckle at the obvious failure of the puppy clawing its small paws on his shoes. He bent down, watching the small animal continue to chew on his shoelaces. He tried to reach out a hand to pet it, but of course, the puppy pulled back, untying his shoelaces in the process.

Satoru gasped, staring at the animal with a displeased look that he was purposefully showing off. “Hey now!” Satoru retorted playfully with a pout growing on his lips. “I just bought these”—and he really didn’t, he was just messing around with a small animal as if it was an actual human child—“and now you’re ruining them.”

There were only growls as a response.

“That’s not very nice,” Satoru muttered, raising his hand closer to the puppy who still kept its distance from him. “You don’t wanna be my friend?”

More growls.

“I’m not that bad of a guy,” Satoru chuckled jokingly. Well, he was half-joking.

Yet again, more growls.

“Alright, you wanna go?” Satoru scrunched up his nose and held his fists up, pretending to be in a small fighting stance against the puppy that was still chewing on his shoelaces. “This is the wraith that you’re gonna face once you mess with Gojo Satoru’s sh—”

“What are you… doing?”

He was stopped in his sentence and he turned around to face you.

Out of all the people to run into him in this weird sight, he ran into you. And—oh, now everything began to click to his tiny brain eventually. He remembered running into you about a week or so ago and—oh yeah, this dog was close with you, or something.

He kind of remembered.

“Uh, nothing,” Satoru grinned awkwardly, hoping that the awkward silence would fade.

“A-Ah, you’re that one guy…” you muttered quietly into your dark scarf, slowly making eye contact before you eventually pulled away from his gaze despite the sunglasses blocking the view of his irises.

“And you’re that one girl,” Satoru chuckled, standing up finally before he pointed down at the puppy. “And this one’s a feisty one.”

“Meeko.”

“Uh, wh—”

You interrupted, “that’s his name.”

“Oh, right.” As if Satoru would remember that. “So, is he your dog? I’m assuming he is.”

“No, he isn’t,” you responded shyly, trying to force yourself to make eye contact with him but it was odd enough that he was wearing shades when it was super dark outside. “I wish he was though. I enjoy taking care of him.”

“Oh?” Satoru tilted his head, placing a hand on his hip. “Why don’t you take him to a vet and get him some vaccines or something? You can adopt him then unless he belongs to someone.”

“I take him once in a while,” you explained, sighing. “The vets think he belongs to me but he really doesn’t. As far as I know, he doesn’t have an owner, and—and it seems like just a stray,” you spoke quietly, looking down at your feet. “B-But I can’t really have a pet at home.”

Satoru blinked at you. He didn’t know who you were but he decided to not pry with questions any furthermore. It was best that he didn’t have any close interactions with humans, anyway.

And, sure, once in a while, he knew he would be messing around with some girls here and there, but he’d assure himself that he was a one-night stand man and that he wasn’t looking for a committed relationship—he can’t, he knew it, and he knew that because of what and who he was.

He shook his head off his thoughts as you made your way past him and then picked up the puppy that was busy messing with his shoelaces. “S-Sorry about your shoes,” you spoke quietly, picking up the small animal before making your way into the dark alleyway.

What is with alleyways nowadays? Satoru sighed, wondering why people always ended up getting themselves lost in such dark and uncomfortable places. It was dangerous, especially with the current murders that were occurring and—

Shit, you were really walking down there.

“Hey!” Satoru shouted, cupping his palm to his mouth. “You do realize that you are walking into a pretty sketchy area, right?!”

“Yup,” you responded, raising your voice a little.

“What the hell?” Satoru’s eyebrow twitched, unsure of why you’d risk yourself going into someplace so risky, especially with all the murders going around. He would think you’d be more cautious, especially with the shy personality that you portrayed right off the bat.

It wasn’t his business, but he didn’t want another person to endanger themselves.

However, it still wasn’t his business—but he decided to follow you, anyway.

“Are you crazy?” Satoru questioned as he raised his voice, hoping that you’d knock some sense into yourself.

“Maybe a little,” you responded to him, not minding that the light was slowly fading out as you walked past a wall lamp. “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

“Yes it does, silly,” Satoru sighed, placing his palm on the back of his neck. “It does matter when you risk yourself in dangerous situations like this.” He wanted to mention the rising case of unexplainable murders but he’d figure that you were aware of what was happening anyways.

“I prefer to be outside than inside, really,” you responded to him, smiling down at the puppy that was resting in your arms.

“I guess,” Satoru pursed his lips. “But whether you like it or not, I will walk you home.”

He wasn’t sure why he said that but the words had slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them from falling out.

You stopped on your feet, not moving a single muscle until you looked up at him. He looked at you with an odd stare; he wasn’t sure why you randomly stopped moving. And right as he was about to ask you what was wrong, you spoke, “I think I can walk myself home. It’s best if you, uh, don’t walk me home.”

“Huh?” Satoru had a deadpanned look on his face and he shook his head. “Look, I get we don’t know each other, but I’m not letting you just walk home in the dark at this—”, he glanced down at his watch, “hour.”

“I’m used to walking home this late.”

Satoru straightened his posture, looking down at you as you continued to walk down the alleyway, puppy in your hands with an uncomfortable look on your face. He tilted his head, looking at your features, and it wasn’t hard for him to take note of how you looked. With his Six Eyes, he was able to sense anything that was going on around him, and if Satoru had to find a positive outlook to being a vampire, it was that he was capable of seeing in the dark.

“That’s really dangerous, you know?” Satoru commented, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah.” You spoke, not wanting to continue on with the subject, and Satoru caught onto that.

Satoru cleared his throat, trying to initiate another conversation. “So, um, what’s your name?”

“Um,” you licked your lips, looking hesitant before you decided to speak, “Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you,” Satoru smiled, wondering if you’d ever try to make eye contact with him. “Gojo Satoru.”

“Ah, so—”

“Satoru is fine,” he grinned cheekily, not getting a reaction out of you. “I don’t mind if you call me by my first name. I prefer it.”

“Alright,” you said, finally making eye contact with him as you cocked your eyebrows in confusion. “So, uh, why do you wear sunglasses at this hour?”

“Ah, these things,” Satoru stuck his tongue out playfully, initiating his child-like personality in hopes that you’d find yourself being comforted by his silly behavior. However, he tried to ignore the fact that you didn’t really show any reaction to it and just continued to stare at him. “Well, I like sunglasses. What can I say? I like to look stylish at night.”

“Sure, I guess.”

“It’s better than a blindfold.”

You pursed your eyebrows, clearly looking puzzled. “You wear a bl—blindfold?” You questioned.

Satoru caught on that you stuttered quite frequently, and perhaps, you were just nervous around his presence. Yet again, how could anyone not, as to his arrogant and charming bastard-self. “Sometimes,” he spoke so casually as if wearing blindfolds in public and sunglasses past midnight were a normal thing—and they were, to Gojo Satoru, at least. “I just like to be that cool guy, you know? I wanna stand out.”

You shook your head, sighing. “I can tell you are an idiot.”

And Christ, you were acting so blunt out of nowhere. “Eh, that’s a bit rude to say to someone you just met, don’t you think?” Satoru made a displeased look.

“I mean, you don’t seem offended.”

“I’m not, because you are actually right,” Satoru snapped his fingers. “It doesn’t mean I can’t act offended.”

Much to his surprise, you couldn’t help yourself but shoot a smile to him. Your lips curved up into a small twinkle and he was taken back by it. You haven’t really shown a lot of cheerful emotion, even from when you first met him to walk with him down a dark alleyway; you didn’t know who he was, let alone, Satoru had no idea what was your deal or who you even were. However, that small beam of a smile made his face flush into a deep blush and—he really wasn’t sure what made him react that way.

“You’re funny,” you commented before turning away, meeting the gaze at the end of the alleyway in front of you.

“I aim to please,” Satoru chuckled, smiling back at you before he looked ahead with you.

“I can walk home from here, you know?” You said, reaching the end of the alleyway and you were met with street lights above the both of you. “I-I appreciate you walking with me though.”

“Well, I didn’t want you walking all by yourself,” Satoru shrugged his shoulders as you held onto the puppy tighter. He smiled at the sight, wanting to hold his hand out to touch it but you seemed to be enjoying yourself in the comforting moment. “But I really can walk you home.”

You looked up at him, wondering what eye color was beneath those sunglasses. “It’s okay. I-It’s best if you don’t,” you shyly spoke. “Thanks anyway.”

“Yeah, uh, how far do you live?”

“Just a few more blocks.”

“I mean,” he tilted his head. “That means you’ll get to spend a few more blocks walking with me.”

“I, uh—” you clench your teeth, hoping to fight back a blush from rising your cheeks. You turned away, hiding your face in the scarf and Satoru’s eyes widened at the sight. He wasn’t sure what it was; maybe he was tired, or maybe he felt blood-starved—no, he wasn’t. He didn’t go for a long period of time without feeding unlike last time, and instead, he was finding himself to feel a heartwarming, fluttering feeling in his chest at your reaction.

He smirked to himself, keeping his hands in his pockets as he thought that your reaction was cute. He wasn’t surprised that a good amount of girls and young women would react the way you did. Because, it was Gojo Satoru, after all.

“I won’t kill you!” Satoru chirped, a smile beaming on lips. You didn’t look very amused at all. “Seriously,” his tone changed as his grin faded away. “I don’t think it’s safe for a young woman like you to walk home at this hour.”

“Yeah, um, I appreciate that, but—” you turned around, looking frightened for a moment. This gave Satoru all the more reason to offer to walk you home and then both of you would part your separate ways. It was such an easy task, but he didn’t blame you for being so skeptical. “It’s best this way.”

“Alright, I won’t argue with you,” Satoru gave in, huffing out a breath. “But be careful, okay? Seriously. I don’t want you and your little guy to get hurt,” he said, eyeing down at the puppy in your arms with its eyes closed.

“I appreciate that. Thank you,” you smiled at him.

You gave a confused look; it seemed as if you were unsure if you wanted to speak up about something, but Satoru didn’t bother to question it. It was better off that he’d let you be in your own mind and not pester someone that he just met with any questions. He knew better that vampires aren’t meant to have serious relationships with humans, unless it were his students or anyone at the school—though, all of his one-night stands didn’t have any meaning to him, as it should stay that way for him.

“So yeah, I guess it was nice meeting you,” you broke the silence between the both of you for a moment. It didn’t last long but to Satoru, it felt like forever.

He blinked at you before he let out a forced chuckle. Satoru wasn’t sure why he was so determined to walk you home but he wasn’t going to fight against it—and it definitely was because he didn’t want you to be walking home so late at night. Because, yeah, that was definitely the reason.

“It was nice to meet you too, Y/N,” Satoru smiled and he looked down at the puppy in your arms. “It’s nice of you to take care of it even though it doesn’t have a home.”

“I do my best to take Meeko to the vet as often as I can,” you explained, eyeing the small furry animal in your arms.

“Meeko is a cute name,” Satoru responded, a smile still glued on his lips. “Maybe one day he won’t be so vicious to me any—”

“Satoru,” you interrupted him, catching him off guard.

“Eh, yeah?”

“Why were you bloody the night I met you?”

His eyes widened, suddenly remembering that moment when he held your wrists up against the wall and he was so starved of blood, he was lacking in his techniques—which was very rare for him, but it wasn’t impossible even for someone so experienced to mess up every once in a while—and he had his Infinity off the entire night. He remembered it all; the blood on his clothes, your feared face as he pinned you up against the wall, and his near moment of falling into a bloodlust state—the memories washed over him too quickly, and he even gasped at his own thoughts.

Satoru didn’t know how to process the words out of his mouth. He wasn’t going to talk about how he was a vampire hunter, let alone a vampire, and he couldn’t just spit out that he was a murderer or anything—all options were terrible. Even if he lied and mentioned that he was part of a cult, a gang, or whatever, all options fucking sucked. He was at a loss now.

“I—fuck, I promise it isn’t what you think,” Satoru retorted. And seriously, this was the best he could come up with, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The words slipped out. “I’m so sorry for scaring you that night.”

You stared at him, not phased by his reaction nor were you showing off any specific emotion that captured his attention. In fact, he was surprised by this, and as he tilted his head, he gave off a puzzled stare.

“I don’t understand what you did,” you murmured, looking down at your shoes that were wet from the melted snow. “I don’t know if I want to know.”

“I’m sorry. I really am. Honestly, I forgot about that ni—”

“Is it because you’re so used to what you’re doing?”

“I—” he stopped himself from speaking. He had no idea where your words were coming from, but your emotionless reaction wasn’t showing off much. For some reason, Satoru wanted to see that small smile you had again, and he wasn’t sure why, but it made him feel less of a monster.

“It’s okay,” you licked your lips and sighed. “You just scared me.”

“I know. I am really sorry about that.”

“Do you kill people, Satoru?”

What the fuck were you even saying and—he was not expecting these questions to come out of your slightly chapped lips but he was actually hearing these words. Satoru clenched his fists, not wanting to answer your question and he only turned away. He had a million different answers in his head, some lies and some were actually the truth, but he didn’t mutter out a word.

You caught onto his reaction and then shook your head. “Nevermind then,” you said, gritting your teeth. “I know you won’t hurt me, though.”

“What?” Satoru whipped his head, facing you, and he was completely baffled by your words. At this point, he wasn’t prepared for such surprises. “Y-You don’t know me, Y/N.”

“I know,” you closed your eyes, clearly hiding your face in the scarf you wore. You opened your eyes slowly after a few seconds to look down at the animal in your arms. “But you didn’t hurt Meeko. Y-You were being nice to him, weren’t you?”

“I—” Satoru cleared his throat before continuing, “of course. I wasn’t going to hurt him.”

“I remember you were talking to him but I didn’t know what you were saying. I just—I was just happy that you didn’t hurt him,” your voice lowered as you kept a fearful look on your face. “You’d be surprised how many people would hurt those that matter to them.”

Satoru blinked as he looked at you, unsure of how to respond. His experience with you drastically changed into something a little bit darker than he’d imagined, and he never really had these types of conversations with anyone—it was mostly educating his students on vampire hunting or annoying Nanami to death as he smacked him with a rolled up newspaper.

“Satoru,” you called out his name, catching his attention as he was off in a daze. “Can I ask you two questions?”

“Sure, Y/N, I guess,” Satoru responded, still baffled by the whole conversation the both of you were having.

Your bottom lip quivered and Satoru noticed your eyes water up slightly, clearly you looked like you were in a serious emotional state. For some reason, Satoru wanted to raise a hand to you, if that would comfort you somehow, but he didn’t. Again—he’d tell himself to avoid maintaining strong relationships with humans outside of school. It was better off that way; for Gojo Satoru, it was better off for anyone.

“M-My first question…” your voice trailed off as your bottom lip quivered more.

“Y/N…” he spoke softly, his stare turning into a more concerned look as his voice died down to a more disquieted tone.

“If—if someone asked you to kill another person, would you do it?”

Satoru’s jaw nearly dropped.

Where the fuck was all of this coming from?

Now wasn’t the time to stand there gawking in confusion. He parted his lips at the sudden question but he closed them tightly right away. Satoru held back a laugh too. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been doing that for so long now—from training to become a vampire hunter and to be one of the strongest—if not, the strongest—vampire hunter, let alone, he was one himself. Sometimes he’d laugh at the irony.

However, he wasn’t laughing now.

“I don’t understand why you’re asking this,” Satoru responded, shaking his head. “I’m not going to answer that.”

“Can you answer my next question then?”

“That depends. Are you gonna ask something crazy?”

“Kind of. I-It’s crazy to me.”

Satoru sighed and waved his hand around. “I guess I won’t know unless you ask.”

You closed your eyes, taking in a deep breath and you looked up at him, meeting his gaze beneath the sunglasses that rested on his nose. “Do you want to be friends?”

He blinked, unsure of how to respond to that question. Of course he can’t—he refused to make close relationships with anyone outside of the vampire hunting business, and it was better off that way so humans were protected from him. Satoru bit his bottom lip, he couldn’t just say no but he really wanted to.

“I get it if you do—”

He interrupted you, without hesitation. “Ah, no, that’s not what I’m trying to go off as! I just don’t think you can keep up with me!”

You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. “What are you, um, talking about?”

“Weeeell,” he fought back a chuckle—and he figured he could just casually say that he drinks blood and has murdered numerous vampires and even humans in his past but—nah, that wasn’t going to get him any friends. “I’m annoying.”

You stared at him for a moment before closing your eyes and you sighed. “You really are an idiot.”

“Yep!” Satoru chirped, a grin forced onto his lips in hopes that you would be on your way home. Yet a part of him hoped that you’d ask for him to walk you home—for some reason. “I’m pretty damn annoying. You’ll get fed up with me.”

You shook your head, sighing deeply once more. “You’re weird.”

“I know, aren’t I?” Satoru’s grin grew larger. “You’d really hate me.”

“If you don’t want to be friends, you can ju—just say so.”

“No, that’s not it!”

You turned around, making your way down the sidewalk in front of you. “Maybe we can meet again and you’d want to be friends,” you spoke out loud, raising your voice a little, and then you continued to walk further down.

Satoru didn’t say anything; this was good. It should be this way. It was safer for you—or any human in this case—to avoid any relationship with a vampire, unless the human was supposed to be a vampire hunter or something. Whatever. You were leaving, not wanting to look back, as it seemed, and it was best to bid a farewell this way.

Satoru watched you make your way further down the sidewalk and you made a quick turn to the left, not bothering to glance back at him.

For some reason, he wished that you did look back.

[swimyghost]

Snazz's Birthday Bash

TODAY IS @holyfandomsnazz 's birthday today! EVERYONE WISH THEM A HAPPY B-DAY!

@self-insert-nonsense @wickedhellagoodtime ARE HERE TOO!

The heat was getting to everyone. Even though the region was known for its cooler summers compared to the rest of the country, the wave of moist warmth was ruining the entire Roomies' day.

"Swimy," Snazz said, their blonde hair frazzled and covering their weary eyes, "did you pay the goddamn rent for the electric bill?"

"Unfortunately, until I get my ID, I'm still a minor in the eyes of the law," the recently made adult replied, pulling their blue hair away from their sweat covered brow, "so, no, I didn't pay the fucking electrical bill,"

"Well, couldn't you have gotten your ID earlier!?" Snazz shouted.

"I wasn't eighteen until three days ago, genius!" Swimy fired back.

Formerly lounging on the couch, the pair were now locked in a fierce glaring match with both of them looking like they were ready to fight each other.

"You're the adult here, why didn't you pay!?" Swimy yelled.

"Because I haven't been paid yet!"

"Neither have I!"

"Enough!"

A pink-haired figure stepped out into the living room with a tired, yet annoyed, look on their face. In her hand was a paper bag with the name 'SIN' scrawled on the forehead which was dotted with sweat stains. Their floral patterned shirt was just as ruffled as Swimy's hoodie and Snazz's gray shirt. Putting both hands on their hips, the eldest member of the roommates frowned at the duo.

"Do you want us to get another noise complaint?"

"No," Snazz grumbled, leaning back into the couch.

"But Dawn-" Swimy started.

"No buts!" Dawn interrupted, "it's already hard enough to find a four-bedroom apartment in our price range, I don't need you guys making it harder,"

Snazz raised their hand, "Technically my room is a former closet,"

Dawn turned their gaze away, clearly embarrassed, "It still counts,"

"Why can't we just ask your boy toy to help us out?" Swimy questioned.

"Karamatsu is just as much in a financial struggle as us and you know that," Dawn said with an even deeper frown.

"What's the point of a man if you can't even get him to pay your rent?" Snazz muttered.

All three went silent for a few moments before Dawn sighed, "I get my Patreon money at midnight. When is the latest we can pay?"

"The sixteenth," Swimy replied.

"And what day is it today?"

"The fourteenth,"

"Okay, so tomorrow I need to-"

"Oh shit really?" Snazz said, their eyes wide.

Both Swimy and Dawn blinked in confusion. "Is that a problem?" Dawn asked.

"No, no, it's not that," the blonde waved their hand nonchalantly, "I just... Well... It's my birthday tomorrow,"

"What?!" Swimy exclaimed, "I didn't know your birthday was in the same month as mine!"

"I- We're siblings how did you forget!?" Snazz said with their nose scrunched up.

"You know I'm bad with dates!"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Dawn asked, ignoring Swimy's outburst.

"Hey, I forgot it myself," Snazz raised their hands defensively, "besides... It's not like we celebrated it much anyway,"

The oldest and youngest of the Roomie siblings glanced awkwardly at each other as an uncomfortable silence fell over the group. Several moments passed before Snazz stood up with a grunt. "I got commissions to finish. I'll pay the rent with that next time. Later,"

Dawn reached out to grab hold of their sibling, but they managed to dodge their grasp and entered their room swiftly, closing it with a soft thud. While the apartment was dead still, Dawn and Swimy rushed over to one another and began talking in hushed tones.

"How could you forgot Snazz's birthday!?" the pink-haired singer whispered angrily.

"You forgot it too, don't you try and deny it!" Swimy countered back in an equally low voice.

"Well... Did you get them a present?" Dawn asked anxiously.

"I forgot that Snazz's birthday was even this month, did you really think I'd get them a gift?!"

"Well, I don't have anything either!"

The two sighed, but their emotions were still running high. They had under twenty-four hours to purchase a gift for their sibling with the little amount of money all of them had, all while a desert-like heat filled the region in its unbearable cloud of misery.

"Alright, get your shoes on and try to get Sam out of their room," Dawn ordered, referencing their other sibling.

"What for?" Swimy asked, already reaching for their shoes near the old front door.

"Because we need to go out and get Snazz a gift before it's too late! They already probably think we're a bad sibling so we need to hurry and get something they like!" Dawn explained.

"Alright, alright, keep your voice down!" Swimy hissed, glancing over at Snazz's room.

Dawn nodded and began putting on her shoes while Swimy rushed over to the third oldest Roomie sibling. They grimaced at the yellowing paint on the walls as they swiftly knocked on the door.

"Sam. Sam! I know you're in there and we need you!" the blue-haired teen begged.

"...Go away," a muffled voice stated tiredly.

"Sam, we forgot about Snazz's birthday! All of us need to go find a gift for them!"

"...I'll search online for something. I'll Venmo you some money,"

"Ugh! Why won't you just come out!?"

"...Too hot. Too bright,"

"...That's fair,"

"What did they say?" Dawn asked, all ready to go. Swimy walked over to them with a huff.

"They said they'll look online for something," Swimy complained.

"Let me guess, it's too hot for them?" Dawn guessed.

"Bingo,"

"Well," the eldest sister sighed, "we don't have time to argue. We have a birthday to save!"

"Alright! Let's do it!"

---

"We're not going to be able to do it!"

Dawn looked down at the completely worn-out Swimy, watching as sweat rained down off their body onto the asphalt road as they were uncomfortably hunched over. Their blue hoodie was completely ruined hours earlier and had been tied around their waist in a desperate amount to stay cool, revealing a Mothman T-shirt underneath the read "Eat. Sleep. Lurk.".

"C'mon, one more store," Dawn said with exhaustion seeping into her voice. Her floral pattern blouse and her skirt were completely soaked in sweat and her skin was beet red. Still, determination held strong in her green eyes as she tried to pull her sibling up.

"No! No more stores! We've been into too many stores!" Swimy whined, resisting their sister's efforts.

"We need to find a birthday present!" Dawn argued.

"And I need to find a new therapist but you don't see me spending nearly four hours walking in unbearable heat to find one!" Swimy growled, motioning towards the setting sun, "besides, I think Snazz is starting to think our "double date" excuse is a little suspicious,"

Dawn sighed, "I know... But we need to prove we care about them. Just one gift will be enough,"

Swimy's eyes darted to the side, "I care too... But don't you think that maybe I caused Snazz's forgetfulness? That I'm the one to blame?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean," Swimy looked uncomfortable, "I was the youngest and born literally four days before their birthday. Snazz's birthday has always been overshadowed by me, the "baby" of the family,"

"Swimy-"

"What if... What if I'm the reason Snazz forgot? That I've been a terrible sibling this whole time and I've been blissfully unaware? That I've been able to happily celebrate my birth while they've been forgotten,"

Dawn, nothing tears welling up in their eyes, pulled Swimy close, "Don't talk like that. I doubt Snazz blames you for your birthday or the fact we never celebrated theirs as much as kids. If anything, they should blame Mom and Dad for that. You have nothing to do with this,"

"But... We if they do blame me?"

"Then we have to show Snazz the perfect gift!" Dawn gave her young sibling a tight squeeze, "What do you say? One more store?"

"...Yeah, one more," Swimy looked up concerned, "but how are we going to find one that-"

Suddenly, Swimy's phone went off with a loud buzz. Startled, the pair broke apart while Swimy awkwardly fumbled around with it. There was a single text sent by Sam:

I'm making a pie. I also found something Snazz will most definitely like.

Attached was an address to a nearby store. Sin blinked in surprise after she looked it up.

"It's a weird occult and true crime store. What does this have to do with a birthday present?"

"Who cares!?" Swimy proclaimed with a big grin, "we have a lead! And you said we needed to look in one more store!"

Dawn, still looking unconvinced, simply nodded, "If you say so,"

With that, the pair took off, ignoring the shouts and glares of passerby's. Dawn and Swimy managed to weave their way through tight alleys and crowds with ease with their newfound energy. It wasn't long before the two were situated outside a dark-colored store with black tinted windows. Crystals and occult symbols were carefully hung visibly through the glass. While Swimy appeared eager, Dawn seemed less than sure.

"You okay?" Swimy asked.

"Yeah just... It's creepy," Dawn shivered.

"...I'm married to Death's ferrywoman, Dawn," Swimy lifted their hand, showing off their black and silver wedding ring.

"That's different!"

"It really isn't,"

"Fuck off!" the pink-haired girl shoved Swimy into the store.

Inside was surprisingly bright which went against the darkness of the clothes, books, and crystals. The wood made a hollow thud with every step. Shelves were spaced in rows that carried various occult items. Walls were lined by clothes and posters containing demons or hard-core metal bands to-

"Is that Al Capone?" Dawn pointed at a poster.

"Yeah... And that's Haurkichi Yamaguchi," Swimy motioned to another poster, referencing the creator and former head of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza organization.

"Ahem,"

The Roomies siblings turned and, across the store, was a teenaged Japanese cashier. She had a combination of boredom and exasperation as she parted her black hair from her eyes. "Welcome to Crimes and the Concealed, a true crime and occult experience where there is something for everyone," she waved her hands less than amused for a supposed to be dramatic effect.

"Uh... Thanks," Dawn replied, nudging Swimy forward.

"If you buy one poster, the other is 15% off,"

"Thank you! But we're looking for something else!" Dawn hastily shoved Swimy into the back of the store, away from the prying eyes of the cashier, who seemed equally glad not to deal with them.

"That was rude," Swimy glared

"Sorry! This whole shop gives me the creeps," Dawn whined.

"I'm never taking you on a double date to the Underworld," Swimy muttered, blissfully unaware of the sound of the store door opening.

The siblings went looking for something buy, pouring over the many candles and strange objects as the setting sun remained a looming reminder of their limited time. After looking at the fifteenth crystal necklace, Dawn was about to give up when Swimy let out a gasp. Dawn instantly turned and was stunned to see what was hanging in the corner of the store.

Body pillows. Over a dozen body pillows of famous gangsters and criminals from Billy the Kid to Calogero Vizzini to Pablo Escobar, the rather morbid idea of placing known men that went outside the law for their evil deeds in alluring poses made the two shiver. But the one that caught their eye was the lone female in the mix. Long lavender hair matched her dazzling amber eyes. She donned a pirate outfit with a black corset that complimented her figure. Black boots with gold accents that reached to her knees, similar to how her all-knowing smirk reached across her face.

Dawn reached out and touched the pillow, "That's... Snazz's girlfr-"

"MY WAIFU!"

Suddenly, two large men shoved past the Roomie siblings. One had thick-rimmed and lens glasses with a greasy ponytail and sweat and grease-stained shirt that showed a bunch of underage anime girls in tight clothing and the other looked similar but had shorter black hair with glasses that blocked out his eyes and was slightly skinnier than his friend but still wore questionable attire.

"Oh my dear waifu, how I've looked for you for so long!" the ponytail man wailed, almost crying on the pillow.

"Hey! We had our hand on it first!" Swimy said, shoving past their older sister and glaring at the men.

"Eh!? What would two normies want with this?!" the smaller of the two gasped, his green jacket fluttering with the sudden movement showing that he had two anime girls sitting on their knees with one only wearing an open suit and fedora and the other an Italian suit with a cigar in her mouth.

"Did you use normies unironically?" Swimy muttered with disgust.

"You two don't get it clearly!" the larger man snorted, "If you were real fans of Chibi Wakai Gyangu No On'nanoko, you'd understand how rare this pillow this is!"

"Chibi Young Gangster Girls?" Dawn repeated the title, confused.

Both men turned their attention to Dawn. The ponytail man spoke first, "It's an anime where all the famous gangsters are turned into cute little girls! But the modern-day pirate mob boss can't be added because she keeps targeting the animation studio anytime they try!"

"I wonder why?" Swimy rolled their eyes.

"Quiet pipsqueak!" The jacketed man yelled.

"Easy, Kurai," the larger man leaned into Swimy's personal space, "those this one look like Al Capone-chan?"

Kurai blinked then let out a small smile, "She does, Terro! All she has to do is change her hair and-"

"It's 'they' and you stay away from my sibling!" Dawn shouted, pulling Swimy behind them.

"Shut up, pinkie! You have no right to judge since you're cosplaying that Sin idol!" Terro shouted.

"Their boobs are clearly fake! They're such a fake cosplayer she can't even get her most noticeable features!" Kurai pointed out.

Dawn gasped and wrapped her arms around her chest. Swimy leaped forward and practically hissed at the two, "We're taking that pillow and you're going to leave us alone, or else!"

Terro sneered, "Or else what?"

With the snap of their fingers, a bright blue beam of blue particles swirled around Terro's head. He tried to swat them away, but the blue solidified and turned into a dense water bubble around his head that spun like a cyclone. He tried to scream but inhaled a bunch of water instead. Kurai immediately went on the defense and tried the grab hold of Swimy. Dawn, realizing that talking wouldn't be successful here, stepped aside as Swimy leaped backward and willed her hand into a fiery blaze. With a primal scream, she slapped him full force, sending both him and his glasses flying in opposite directions. A bright red handprint was left on his face. A sudden gasp alerted the siblings that the water bubble had burst. Before they could react, Terro was on top of Swimy and trying to hold them down.

"You crazy bitch!" He screamed, trying to land a hit on the smaller person.

Swimy used their free leg to deliver a swift kick to the stomach before headbutting him off them. He groaned in pain and rolled onto his side. Dawn took this opportunity to light her foot ablaze and slam it down right onto his crotch. He howled in pain as his pants and his manhood were burned by the attack.

"Get the Hell out of here before we do worse!" Dawn ordered, readying their fists with Swimy following close behind.

Whimpering, the two took off running, leaving behind Kurai's set of glasses and several clothes that had fallen during the scuffle. Tired, Swimy grabbed hold of the body pillow and trudged towards the register. The cashier trembled as they set it down.

"W-Will that be all?" she stuttered.

"Yeah," Swimy replied bluntly.

The cashier nodded and quickly rung up the pillow. She practically shoved the item into Swimy's arms and nearly dove under the counter. Dawn rested a weary hand on Swimy and sighed.

"C'mon, let's get out of here before the cops arrive. We have a birthday to save,"

---

All Snazz wanted to do was sleep. Not only had they remembered that their birthday was a thing but they had spent the whole night trying to finish commissions in an attempt to forget it again. Even though their body was worn out, their mind was rushing with memories of all the birthdays that were forgotten of the years.

It's like they never cared Snazz thought.

They rolled onto their side for the hundredth time that night, trying to force sleep to come. What they didn't expect was their door to suddenly slam open and a large weight crashing onto their side.

"Oof! What the fuck-!"

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Time to have the best day you've ever had!"

"...Swimy?" Snazz looked up, seeing the smiling face of their youngest sibling looking down on them. They had thick eyebags that hung from under their eyes that balanced out their high amounts of enthusiasm radiating off them.

"Do you know another blue-haired bitch that's related to you? Now come on before I drag you out!" Swimy exclaimed, pulling on Snazz's shirt sleeve.

"I'm still I'm my pajamas and I haven't even showered!" Snazz argued, trying to resist their pulling.

"You also haven't cleaned your room in two weeks but you aren't worried about that!"

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck yourself!"

With the help of both their powers and natural strength, Swimy managed to help drag Snazz out of their bed and made them cover their eyes.

"This is stupid," Snazz grumbled.

"You're stupid but I love you anyway. To the kitchen!" Swimy shoved Snazz forward.

After several near attempts of Snazz crashing into a wall and one toe snubbing, they made it to the kitchen with Snazz less than amused.

"This better be good,"

"It is! Now... Open!"

Snazz did so and gasped. Not only was their favorite pie, chocolate coconut perfectly sat on their rickety table, but a large wrapped present was sitting beside it. Snazz and Sam, wearing their infamous multi-colored gradient mask, stood there with birthday poppers and wide grins.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SNAZZ!" all three siblings shouted, pulling the poppers and sending cheap confetti everywhere. Instead of being excited, Snazz stood there motionless with a blank expression. After a brief pause, Sam leaned over and whispered into Swimy's ear.

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Swimy whispered back.

"Swimy," Sin said sternly.

"I didn't! Honest!"

Sam crossed their arms, "Well why are they-"

Wails exploded from Snazz as fat tears ran down their face. Immediately, all of their siblings rushed over and began to comfort them.

"Is it the pie? Is the pie not good enough?" Swimy asked nervously.

"I made that fucker by hand! It's perfect!" Sam yelled.

"Well if I have to be blamed for something so do you!" Swimy yelled back.

"Was it the poppers? God, I knew they were a bad idea!" Dawn nearly pulled their hair due to stress.

"You wanna go?" Sam snarled.

"Yeah, let's go!" their blue-haired sibling smirked, readying their fists.

Snazz grabbed all three of them and pulled them into a tight hug pile on the floor. Still crying, they managed to choke out a few words.

"I-I'm so happy! Y-You did a-all of this fo-for me!"

"Of course we did! We love you Snazz!" Dawn said, flinching as Snazz began to cry harder.

"C'mon, open the gift!" Swimy said, pulling the present down to the group.

Snazz didn't hesitant into tearing it open. They gasped in shock when they saw what it was.

"Is this my girlfriend? On a... Body pillow?"

"Don't ask how we got her," Dawn butted in.

"I-"

"Don't. Ask."

"I- Alright. Thank you. It's a lovely gift," Snazz said, setting it aside.

"Let's eat the damn pie already. I spent all night working on it so let's put it to good use," Sam said, standing up.

"I'll get the plates!" Sin called over her shoulder.

"Lemme get the forks and knives!" Swimy started to rush over to the drawers.

While the three started to gather everything for their meal, Snazz watched them fondly. They grabbed ahold of their new gift and squeezed it tightly.

Whatever being rules this hell of a universe... Thank you for my siblings... And thank you for this birthday.

[marvelslut16]

Too Much

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x reader

Part 2 of A Helping Hand

Synopsis: Months after Billy admits that he wants to be better, shit hits the fan and (Y/N) realizes him and his attitude may be too much. Throw in an abusive father who has come to visit and Neil treating Billy like shit, making everything harder for the two before they finally blow up at one another.

Word count:4153

Warnings: Blood. Violence. Domestic violence. Swearing. Bullying. Shit fathers. Angst. Use of the word fag and other insults.

A/N: Thank you to the four lovely people who requested/asked about a part two: @speedmetalqueen​ @strangerfictions​ @noshi-chan​ @jojokoko0717​​ I originally had no interest in making this, but I got inspired. Also I’m thinking about making a part three, which would take place in the future. Let me know what you guys think about that.

“I can’t do this anymore Billy,” your eyes fill with tears. “I really thought you could be different.”

In the months following Billy’s plea for help, he really tried. You would give him that much. But as summer grew nearer, Billy grew tired of your little arrangement. While he was super nice to you, and a decent human being when you were around; he was still an ass when you weren’t. He still threatened Steve, constantly making his life a living hell whenever you weren’t in sight. He still booked nerds in the hall, threatened people that would look at him the wrong way, and fight the ones that dared to talk back. 

And if that weren’t enough, your dad found out where you were living and came for a visit, citing your upcoming graduation as the cause. Your stepdad threatened him with a louisville slugger and the terms of the restraining order your mom has against him. Your father left, but you knew from the look in his eyes that he’d be back and you’d regret sending him away in the first place.  

And boy were you right, on your way home from the video store, you were picking up a movie that Carol wanted to see, when you saw him again. He didn’t approach you, just watched you. You hurried back to your car and drove home, checking every once in a while to make sure you weren’t being followed. 

You knew that you should have told your mom and stepdad as soon as you got home, but you didn’t want to worry them. And, there was a part of you that didn’t want to seem weak, and immediately complaining would make you seem weak in your eyes. So you stay silent, hoping he will just leave on his own. 

A few days later you and Steve are babysitting the party, the two of you sneak off to eat some cold pizza while the kids watch the movie you picked up for Carol. It was Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that you and Steve had seen in the theater together. Some of it may be a tad inappropriate for the kids, but Dustin already swears like a sailor and the shit they’ve already faced, what's the point in pretending that they’re so innocent? 

“Dustin said that he’s known Carol since they were kids, but you moved here freshman year,” Steve states more than asks, leaning against his kitchen counter.

“Our moms have been friends since they were kids. My mom moved away in high school, but they kept in close contact over the years. They used to come visit us often when we lived in Illinois. After the divorce we moved around a bit before Claudia convinced my mom to move back here, and this is where she met my stepdad. So we stayed.”

“I bet you’re happy you moved here, you got to meet Billy,” Steve frowns, insinuating that there’s something going on between you and the boy with the mullet. 

“I’m just trying to help him be a better person, that’s all. He asked for help, and who am I to deny him that?” you frown at Steve. You just want him and Billy to get along, they’re more alike than either would like to admit. 

“I just think-” you cut Steve off before he can bad mouth Billy.

“That we should be studying for our math test? Great idea!” you head over to your bag and pull out your textbook before he can change the subject back to Billy. 

--

In the following days Billy grew more distant, and you heard in the hushed whispers of Hawkins High that he had been getting in more fights than he had in ages. The worst news of all was that Billy had befriended Tommy H and Carol again, something you had heard around school and eventually seen. He had originally agreed with you that they were bad influences on him, and that they only encouraged his erratic and terrible behavior.

In those days where Billy purposely, and obviously, ignored you in school and out of it; your birth father had been following you obviously. Your mom had the restraining order and you didn’t, which he used to his advantage. Everyday the same busted up silver car would loosely follow you everywhere you go. 

Your father was keeping his distance, until one day he followed you to a park. You needed a breather, needed to think about Billy and how long helping him could go on when he didn’t seem to be making any real progress in weeks. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” his acid voice dripped with sarcasm. 

“What do you want?” your voice surprisingly doesn’t break. But maybe refusing to turn and look at him is helping with your strength. 

“To take back what's mine,” his voice grows closer. 

“And what's that?” you whip around and face the man that had left you for dead on your kitchen floor all those years ago.

“My favorite punching bag,” he seethes, face inches from yours. You can smell the strong scents of bourbon and tobacco mingling to create the naeusating scent that is your father. 

“Go find someone your own age to torture,” you glare at him.

“Don’t talk to me like that,” he grabs your wrist tightly, causing you to twitch in response. He laughs like a maniac when he sees how easily he can still hurt you. “I saw you with that blonde boy by his Camero at school the other day, I don’t think he’s a good influence on you.”

“Leave him out of this,” you try to sound strong, but it comes out as a desperate plea. 

“Aww, are you his little whore or something?” his grip gets impossibly tighter. 

“No,” you try to yank your arm away from him. His nails dig into your skin and are sharp enough that they leave cuts in your skin. “He’s just some guy in my science class.”

“Don’t lie,” he leers at you before his palm connects with your cheek

“I said no, and I meant it,” you blink back the automatic tears that come with being slapped. He ignores you and yanks on your arm, pulling you into a public restroom that's in the park locking the door behind you two. 

“It looks like I have to teach a little slut a lesson,” his fist connects with your side. You don’t even bother trying to fight back as his fist connects with your gut and your ribs repeatedly. There’s no use, you’ll never win. The moments start to get hazy and blur together as he pulls out a switchblade. He runs the point over your arms, causing small cuts to appear and bleed onto the ground.

You fall onto the hard concrete underneath you as he sweeps his legs through yours. He sticks the blade into your leg deeper than on your arms. The knife cuts through your denim jeans and flesh like they were a mere piece of paper. Your legs starts to bleed profusely, he steps on your arm as you go to put pressure on the wound. 

“He won’t want you now,” he laughs loudly, kicking your ribs as hard as he can one last time before leaving you on the dirty floor alone. 

Your pretty new top has splotchy crimson stains scattered on it, blood drips down your arms and there’s a gash on your left leg from his knife. You manage to pick yourself up and somehow drive yourself all the way home.

“(Y/N), where have you been?” Carol’s yelling voice greets you as you walk through the door.

You ignore your sisters calls and slide down the door after you close it behind you. A loud sob shakes your entire body as you finally feel safe enough to cry. Two sets of feet coming running towards you, but you can’t be bothered to stop crying. Your body and soul hurt too much. 

“(Y/N),” Carol gasps. “Oh my God, MOM!” she screams, running off to the kitchen. 

Your eyes follow the shoes standing in front of you, up until you see the red headed girl staring at you in shock. “Don’t tell anyone,” you hiccup between sobs. Max quickly nods her head, not knowing what to say

“(Y/N),” your mom breathes in horror when she sees the small puddle of blood coming from your wounds. 

“He’s been fo-foll-following-ng me-e. He c-c-corn-nerd me at a p-par-rk. S-s-sai-id he-e mis-ssed hi-is f-fa-favorite-te pu-pu-punching bag,” you sob out.  

Max was sent home after promising she would never breathe a word of what she saw or heard, even if she wanted to tell Billy. Carol was sent to her room while your mom cleaned you up and your stepdad gave your leg stitches, his military background coming in handy. After convincing your stepdad that he couldn’t go kill him, you decided to sleep and pretend that the events at the park never occurred. 

--

It’s unseasonably warm in Hawkins Indiana this spring, you’re the only one still wearing long sleeves. You have on one of your striped turtlenecks and a pair of well worn overalls, it successfully hides every inch of your body. 

There's a group of kids standing in a giant semi-circle in the hallway you walk through to get to third period. Kids are murmuring so quickly all you pick up on are the words Harrington and Hargrove, causing you blood to run cold. You push your way through the crowd, and instead of complaining like they normally would, your peers parted like the red sea as soon as they saw it was you. 

“Billy!” you gasp, when you come face to face with him pushing Steve into the lockers. Your heart drops to your stomach as your last little bit of faith you have for Billy disappears. You wished that you heard the kids wrong when you were making your way through the crowd, but now your worst fears have been confirmed. 

It seems like the men in your life just keep disappointing you. At least you have Steve; trusty, dopey, kind hearted Steve. Who apparently did something so bad that it warranted he get beat up for it?

“(Y/N),” Steve mumbles, still trying to get air back to his lungs from Billy’s shove. 

“I can’t do this anymore Billy,” your eyes fill with tears, ignoring Steve and looking straight into those blue eyes. “I really thought you could be different.”

“(Y/N)-” he reaches out for your wrist, but you quickly move out of his grasp.

“It’s too much,” your voice drops to a whisper. “You’re too much.”

“Like I need you anyway,” he laughs viciously as the crowd that was gathered around him and Steve now laughs at you. “You’re just a pathetic little freak.”

“I’d rather be a pathetic freak than be as miserable and lonely as you are Hargrove,” you frown as words you don’t even mean tumble out of your mouth. “What happens when we graduate and your just another has been bully that peaked in high school? At least Steve and I have potential in our futures.”

You grab Steve and pull him out of the building, needing to put as much space between you and Billy as humanly possible. The fresh spring air hits you as you hear the muffled sound of the bell ringing from inside the school. You’ve never skipped school, but there’s a first time for everything. 

Steve’s wide eyed gaze on you makes your brain process what you just said in the hallway. A traitorous sob leaves your mouth as you fully comprehend how rude you were to Billy. And how rude he was to you. 

“Hey, hey,” Steve pulls you into a hug, running his hand over your hair to calm you. “It’s going to be okay, but for now let's get you home. I’ll pick Carol up from school later when I get Dustin.” 

Steve helps you into his car and drives you home, your too empty home. Your mom and stepdad are on vacation celebrating their anniversary, leaving you home with Carol. Normally you would love it, but with everything that's happened lately you hate it. Granted, you had insisted they still go last night, you didn’t plan on being home alone. 

“I just wanted to help,” you whisper to Steve. “He wanted help and I wanted to help him.”

“I know, and you're an amazing person for it,” Steve says lightly, and you pull on your sleeves that started to rise up during the commotion with 

--

Loud knocks on the door pull yours and Carol’s attention away from Tom Selleck running around in a pair of short shorts on your tv. You quickly mute the episode of Magnum P.I. and head for the front door. “Stay there and don’t make a sound,” you warn Carol. 

You look out the peephole and see a mop of red curls pacing the length of the porch. “Max?” you question as you throw the door open.

“Billy came home from school fuming that he ruined everything. He was listening to his music too loud when Neil got home and he started screaming at him. Billy screamed back, saying that it was Neil’s fault that he can’t be normal. It’s so bad (Y/N),” Max’s voice breaks. “It’s never been this bad before. I’m scared he’s going to kill Billy.” 

Max’s mouth continues to move, but you can’t hear anything after the words kill and Billy. Your heart rate picks up quite substantially as you run out of the house in slippers and just your keys, no jacket, no drivers license, no anything. You see Max and Carol watching from the doorway as you back out of the driveway and speed down the street. You don’t care how fast you’re driving, if Max believes Billy is in serious danger he probably is. 

You whip into the Hargrove driveway, not caring if you hit Neil’s car. You run to the door finding it strangely unlocked. As you get closer to the door you can hear Neil screaming so loud you can hear him clearly through the closed door. His voice becomes impossibly louder as you throw open the front door and enter uninvited or that you're in a Hawkins high basketball t shirt and plaid pajama pants. 

“You. Stupid. Fucking. Fag,” you hear skin loudly hit skin between every word. “You. Ruined. Your. Own. Life.”

“Get off of him!” you scream as soon as you see Neil straddling Billy. Neil was randomly switching between smacking and punching Billy randomly. You wrench Neil off of the beaten Billy with strength you don’t know you possess. Adrenaline you suppose.

Neil’s anger quickly switches to you, and he slaps you across your face, just like your own father. You can feel the familiar sting from flesh on flesh. 

“That all you’ve got?” you antagonize him, trying to keep his attention away from the broken boy that you love.

Love? Now is definitely not the time to have some emotional breakthrough. You’re newly discovered feelings need to be put on the back burner, all that matters is getting Billy out of this house alive. 

“This is the worthless whore turning you into a pussy?” Neil laughs loudly as he turns back to Billy, who is now sitting up. “Max’s friends older sister? She must be damn good in the sack.”

“Don’t talk about her like that!” Billy screams. He gets up quickly and pushes Neil into the wall so hard that the picture frames rattle, and some fall to the ground and shatter on impact. “And don’t you ever lay a hand on her again!” Billy winds his arm back to punch Neil in the face, but you grab his arm to stop him. 

“It’s not worth it, it won’t make you feel any better in the long run. Take the high road Billy. Please,” he looks at your desperate face and the adrenaline that helped him stand immediately dissipates. 

He falls into your arms, the only thing keeping him standing is you. You wrap his arm around your shoulders and snake your arm around his waist. You glare at Susan, who has stood in the corner quietly watching the entire thing. Neil gets between you and Billy and the door. 

“Don’t test me,” you seeth, getting ready to lean Billy against the wall so you can hit his father. Screw being the bigger person, this man is really testing your patience. “Move before I kick you so hard where the sun doesn’t shine that it’ll be coming out of your mouth.” 

Neil's about to make some smart ass remark until he sees the fresh bruises and cuts littering your arms. You narrow your eyes at him and he silently, and reluctantly, moves out of the way. You quickly help Billy into your car before speeding back to the girls.  

He’s bloody and bruised, worse than you’ve ever seen before. And he’s crying, something you weren’t even sure was possible coming from Billy Hargrove. 

“What happened?” you whisper when you’re stopped at a red light. The obnoxious red illuminating his slightly bruised face. Props to the abusive fathers for choosing hideable places to really bruise their kids. 

“I want to be normal,” his voice comes out quiet, far from the confident cocky boy that you’ve come to know. “He’s why I can’t be. Every time I’m happy he finds a way to hurt me, and then I take it out on kids at school. 

“You need to find a coping mechanism,” you advise as the light turns green. “Maybe you can practice basketball more? ‘Cause I’m sure you don’t want to write your feelings down like I do.”

“The only other woman I’ve ever loved in any capacity abandoned me. No one I have ever loved before has ever stuck around. And I thought it would be easier to push you away rather than you realizing I’m not worth it. That’s why I fought Harrington earlier.”

“Love?” you're bewildered by Billy’s confession. “You don’t love me Billy, if you did you wouldn’t have hurt my only friend to make things easier for you.” You pull into your driveway, neither of you making any move to exit the car. 

“My mom left me with Neil so she could have a better life. I’m worthless to her, I’m worthless to everyone,” Billy admits quietly. “I just didn’t want you to see me like that too, so I found a shitty out.”

“You aren’t worthless Billy Hargrove,” you say softly, hoping he believes you. “And even though we aren’t friends anymore, you and Max can stay here as long as you need.”

This time you make an exit from the car, quickly walking away from Billy and the tangled webs of your feelings for each other. Max and Carol are waiting for you at the door, eyes wide as they land on Billy who’s walking up behind you.

“Carol, go get the first aid kid,” you give her a look that says stop staring. She scurries off and you bring Billy into the kitchen. Her and Max hover quietly as you clean Billy’s cuts and bandage him up. You must have been concentrating really hard, because it feels like some sweat is trickling down your leg. 

“(Y/N), you’re bleeding,” Max sounds worried as the blood seeps through your pant leg. 

“Shit,” you breathe out quietly. “Not another pair of pants,” you whine, taking a seat next to Billy.  

“I’m calling Mom,” Carol exclaims nervously. 

“No you’re not,” you sigh at your little sister. “I probably just popped a stitch, which I can fix myself.”

You gingerly roll up your pant leg to see that you have indeed popped a few stitches. You give a long dramatic sigh as you reach for the needle and thread, but a large thick hand beats you to it. You meet Billy’s eyes and you can see the silent rage burning in them, wanting to beat the shit out of whoever did this to you. 

“What happened?” his voice as soft as yours was in the car. He carefully pulls your bleeding leg up to rest on his lap, his fingers gentle as he caresses your skin before threading the needle. 

“My dad,” you whimper at the confession, and not the needle sliding through your skin. “He’s been following me for days, yesterday he cornered me and beat me up.”

Once Billy’s down sewing you up, he aggressively paces the kitchen like he wasn’t just beat up himself. 

“Billy you need to calm down,” you say gently. “There’s no need for you to get worked up over it.”

“Damn it (Y/N)!” Billy pulls at the ends of his hair. “I’m in love with you! And nobody hurts you and gets away with it.”

“You hurt me!” voice far louder than you intended. Max and Carol’s wide eyes move between the two of you. “More than I ever thought possible. You pushed me away in every way you knew that would mentally hurt me. That’s not love.”

“I was giving you an out-”

“No, you weren’t, “ you cut him off. “You hurt me in order to save yourself pain down the road. Well newsflash, the only one that abandoned someone here is you.” 

“I’m scared!” if you didn’t know any better you would swear that there are unshed tears shining in his eyes. 

“So am I! I realized that I loved you when I was, quite literally, saving your life,” words are once again leaving you before your brain can process what you’re saying. “Hours after you started a fight with Steve for God knows what reason. It’s hard and scary being in love with the Billy Hargrove, the infamous ladies man. Especially when he’s too embarrassed to truly be my friend when we’re at school.”

“You love me?” Billy sounds stunned. Max has a small smile on her face as Carol gaps at your confession. 

“No?” you squint, hoping you can pinch yourself and wake up from this pain pill induced dream. But you aren’t that lucky. 

“I want to be better for you,” he gently grabs your hand, pulling it up to his face so he can kiss the scratches on your arms. “I’ve never felt this way before and I got scared. I wanted to really be friends at school, but I knew Tommy H. and Carol would rip into you.”

“Two broken people don’t make a whole one,” you whisper your last line of defense. 

“But they can be there for each other with love and support,” Billy’s words surprise you. He pulls you into his arms. “I’ll never hurt you (Y/N), never lay a finger on you.”

“I’m sorry,” you rush out. “For what I said at school. It was rude and uncalled for, I was lashing out because it hurt.”

“I’m sorry too, for what I said and did,” he sighs before continuing. “I’m even sorry I pushed Harrington into those lockers.”

“You have to apologize to him,” you push lightly on his chest so he looks into your eyes and not at your lips. 

“Whatever you want,” he leans forward, finally capturing your lips with his. His lips are softer than you imagined, him being such a heavy smoker and all. Typically the smell of tobacco is a turn off for you, but with Billy it’s an inviting smell. The kiss is over too soon, you pull away as Billy goes to slip his tongue in your mouth. There was no way you would go that far in your kitchen. 

Whoops coming from Max and Carol make you extremely glad that you didn’t let the kiss get any deeper. The girls don’t need to see that, and you don’t know how far you two would have gotten before you remembered you weren’t alone. You laugh lightly before placing fingers to your slightly swollen lips. 

Max and Carol say their goodnights, winking at you tow before running off to your sisters room. You lead Billy up the stairs, the energy from both of you draining as you come back to Earth and realize just how tired everything you've gone through has made you two.

“I love you Billy,” you carefully snuggle closer to his chest. 

“I love you too (Y/N),” he gently runs his hand over your hair. 

It may not be conventional, but Billy Hargrove is undoubtedly the love of your life. Both of you have been dealt some pretty shitty cards, but it helps you understand the other better. As you lay in your bed with Billy, you and him make a plan to leave this dangerous city and move to California after graduation. For the first time in a long time, you fall asleep truly happy wrapped up in Billy’s bruised but strong arms.

Permanent tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen​​ @rexorangecouny​​

[pilot-boi]

Shouting In Cafes: Chapter Two

Downsides Of Revenge

If possible, second impressions go even worse. And this time, he doesn’t even have the excuse of being hungover. As much as he wished he was.

AO3 LINK

Neptune laid in bed, phone on his chest, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. His hangover had finally worn off and he was starting to regret everything. Why had he initiated anything? He should’ve just acted passively annoyed and let the guy - Sun right? - figure out how much of a dick he was being by himself.

Why the hell did he tell him he had nice pecs?

He wasn’t in his right mind when he was hungover. That was apparent.

So, now he was debating whether he should actually call this girl and get one last blow in. It was a shady move. Using a girl for petty revenge. Was he really that kind of guy? What had Sun really done to him?

Neptune considered opening the bottle of replacement-wine he’d just bought.

No. Stop. He needed to stop. He wasn’t using a girl to get back at a guy he met once who kind of pissed him off. He needed to sleep. He needed to get his shit together.

He’d take care of it in the morning.

“Well, hello, sunshine.” Jaune greeted a drowsy, rumpled Neptune with a broom in his hand and a flower from one of his sisters stuck awkwardly into his blonde curls.

Morning light streamed through the windows of the empty coffee shop, the smell of fresh coffee and Jaune’s careful sweeps across the tile floor the only indication that the building was open. Neptune checked his watch. 7:05 AM. They didn’t get customers until around nine. They had some time to kill.

Neptune rubbed at the bags under his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Do I look that bad?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.” He shoved his card into the slot to clock in with a little more force than needed.

“Not enough sleep?”

“I went to bed at like nine but kept waking up in the middle of the night.”

“Nightmares?”

“Stress dreams, more like.”

“Are you still trying to be mad about that guy?”

“I’m not trying! And no. I don’t know.”

“Did you get your revenge?”

“I’m not going to sleep with somebody’s girlfriend out of spite. Even if she’s dating a douche. She seemed pretty nasty herself.”

“Hm. She did give you her number while she was on a date, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you even know her name?”

“No.”

“Well then, that settles that!” Jaune plucked the flower from his hair and tucked it behind Neptune’s ear, poking his friend in the eye in the process. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll never see either of them again, anyway.”

Jaune’s soft smiles were one of the only things that could warm Neptune’s heart. He tried not to show any emotion other than general annoyance whenever he could, but Jaune never failed to see right through him. He appreciated that sometimes.

But right now, Neptune couldn’t tell if he wanted to be annoyed by Jaune’s optimism or not. He settled on giving him a soft smile. He tried harder than most people he knew. “Thanks, Jaune.”

“No problem. You’re on register today.”

“God dammit, Jaune.”

The day was slow. Slower than usual. By three in the afternoon, they had only had five customers. Neptune caught himself falling asleep a couple times while standing up, which could not be healthy. Had he done his homework? God, he didn’t remember. All he remembered doing last night was staring at his phone and contemplating whether he wanted to be an asshole or not.

No homework then. He could do it before class. After work. How much longer did he have?

The door opened. Shoes smacked against the floor.

“Welcome to The Daily Grind. What can I get for you to-”

It was the dickhead. And his girlfriend. Again.

Neptune took a breath. Cleared his throat. “Welcome to The Daily Grind. What can I get for you today?”

The guy- Sun? -hunched his bare shoulders up to his ears. He was wearing one of those tank tops that had nearly the entire side of them cut out of them so you got a healthy dose of chest no matter what angle you were looking on from. They were nice shoulders. He didn’t deserve nice shoulders.

Thankfully, his expression took away from his body. Cocky and whimsical and snarky, like he knew everything you didn’t. “What? Not hungover today? No sleazy remarks?”

God, he commented on how nice his pecs were yesterday, didn’t he? No. God, no, of God why. Why would he let him have the upper hand like that? Bad move, bad move. Wine did bad things to him. Never again. Or at least he’d settle for never that much.

Embarrassment flooded to his cheeks and he tried to choke it back down. “Could I please take your order.”

Sun forced his palms against the table, winking and flashing a toothy grin. “What? No guts now that you don’t have some booze in you?”

“I’m working. Please keep your voice down.” Neptune let himself wonder if Sun could ever be quieter than a jackhammer.

“You were working yesterday, too! But that didn’t stop you from saying that my pecs were nice!”

Neptune leaned forward. “I like complimenting a handsome man when I see one, but no matter how nice your body is, your personality reeks of frat boy and beer.”

Sun’s date appeared beside him, grinning at Neptune from ear to ear. Sun’s face melted into pouted lips and a worried brow, like Neptune had actually offended him. Neptune felt victorious for a moment, before more heat rose to his face.

He was at work. All three of their other customers were staring at him.

Neptune coughed and picked up some cups and a sharpie, staring straight at the plastic. “What will your orders be today?”

“Grande white mocha and a plain cappuccino,” Sun said.

“Right.”

There was a silent exchange of a credit card and a receipt. Neptune’s blush was finally fading away. Just as Sun and his date were walking away, Sun turned back around and asked, “Are you gay?”

Neptune tensed, mouth slack in shock. Finally he managed to stutter out, “Your order is almost ready, Sun.”

They stared at each other for a moment more before Sun spun on his heel and walked away.

“He asked me if I was gay,” Neptune said in a hushed voice, fingers pressed to his temples, head bowed to the floor. “Is this real life? Did someone just ask their fucking barista if they were gay?!”

“Were you acting gay?” Jaune asked.

“Jaune!” Neptune hissed, sounding scandalized.

“It’s a genuine question.”

“I said I liked complimenting handsome men. I kind of implied that he was a handsome man.”

“That’s pretty gay.”

“That’s not the point!” Neptune nearly yelled before gathering himself. “You don’t ask your barista if they’re gay! What?! No! You don’t do that. Who the hell does that? This guy, apparently!”

“Neptune.”

“I’m sorry, dude, but honestly what the fuck. I can’t believe this. Who acts like this?”

“Neptune, I understand, but calm down. Take a breath.”

“I have to retaliate.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I’m texting his girlfriend.”

“No, you’re not.”

Neptune pulled out his phone. “Then tell me what I’m doing right now.”

“Oh my god.”

He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the crumpled straw wrapper, plugging in each digit into his phone. He thumbed the text icon and typed out a message.

Ocean Man: Hey this is the barista at the daily grind. I never caught your name.

“Sent it,” Neptune said and waggled the phone in front of Jaune’s face.

“I can’t believe you,” Jaune sighed.

“I’m probably going to regret this later.”

“You definitely are.”

They both watched as Sun’s date sipped her coffee, set it down, and looked at her phone. Sun was too engrossed in his own storytelling to notice the smile that pulled on her lips or how fast her thumbs typed on the keyboard.

A few seconds later, Neptune’s phone buzzed. Neptune puffed out a sigh. Guess he was doing this.

No Contact: Aria. And you?

Ocean Man: Neptune vasilias. Nice to meet you aria. Quick question. Why are you going out on a date with that guy? You dont seem to like him.

No Contact: He’s hot and he asked me out. Quickly finding that his personality sucks. You’re cuter. Wanna hang?

Neptune gave his phone a sour expression. No matter if the guy was a dick, you should at least finish the date before setting up a new one with someone else.

Jaune read over his shoulder. “Yikes.”

“Yeah.”

Neptune looked up and across the cafe to find Aria looking over her shoulder, smiling, and waving at him. No.

And Sun was glaring straight at him. No.

Was this what he wanted?

Sun stood up, nearly knocking his chair over backwards as he stomped back to the bar.

“Is this what you wanted?” Jaune asked, echoing his thoughts.

“What do you want exactly?” Sun questioned, pushing a finger into the middle of Neptune’s chest. “To piss me off? Is that why you’re flirting with my date in front of me?”

“Look. You might be an ass but she’s the one who gave me her number while you two were here yesterday. You might want to find someone who actually likes you.”

Neptune could hear Aria squeak in outrage from the other side of the cafe.

“Fine! But that doesn’t explain why you actually texted her!”

“I think I wanted to make you mad.”

“What the hell!”

“You asked me, your barista that you don’t know the name of, if I was gay!”

“You were acting pretty gay!” Sun exclaimed, as if that explained everything.

“So what?!”

“I dunno! But you obviously aren’t because you’re flirting with my date!”

“Why do you still care? She doesn’t like you!”

Jaune stepped to the side of Neptune. “Dude, you might wanna stop.”

Neptune didn’t stop. “I’m not having the best time right now! I got dumped two days ago, got painfully drunk and hungover and have had to deal with you repeatedly!”

“Neptune,” Jaune warned.

“You’re just a shitty frat boy! Why the hell are you in a tiny coffee house on a date at three in the afternoon?”

“I get free coffee here!” Sun yelled. Not that it made a difference, his only volume setting was yelling.

“No, you don’t, you id-”

“My mom owns this place!”

Neptune went quiet. He stared at the fury burning in Sun’s eyes, white teeth bared, flimsy tank top threatening to fall off.

For once, he had no words. Well almost no words. Thank you Mama Vasilias, for your words of wisdom for these troubling times. Words that had helped him through many hardships before. Words straight from the old country.

“Merda,” Neptune muttered, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open.

[ginnranger]

A Strange New Student

Summary: 

Ginn is a new student in a prestigious London private school. It’s pretty obvious she is not the type to be in private school, but is that going to stop her? Honestly, she doesn’t even know the answer to that one. 

But she does have a pretty good guess, when she meets Alex, Martin, George, Louise, and Elsie. They are pretty different from her. They seem nice enough, but will her past lessons allow her let them in? Another good question. 

Word count: 6542

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

The large, stone hallways of Churchill high school were a lot less busy than Ginn’s old public school back in Liverpool. She guessed that was because barely anyone was able to afford the tuition to actually attend this school. How she got in was a complete miracle, sparked by some pretty unfortunate events.

The biggest understatement of her life.

Ginn was not used to anything that she had already faced in this new school at all, and she had only been in the building ten minutes. The students hanging around in the hallway before class were well behaved, milling around and chatting instead of running and fighting. The floors and lockers were clean, free of graffiti and chewing gum. The uniforms were the weirdest part; everyone wore it neat and proper, the boys’ ties being evenly tied, their shirts neatly tucked into their trousers, which were not sagging halfway down their butts, and their blazers free of burn holes and glue stains. The girls’ skirts were closer to the knee than the butt, their blouses also neatly tucked, and their cardigans neatly buttoned. Everyone’s shoes were perfectly shined, not a scuff in sight.

Every student had neatly styled hair, not a strand out of place. They all had perfect posture, shoulders squared and backs straight, the girls tending to keep their feet touching each other. Their faces shone with happy, satisfied smiles. There was no anger, hunger, or sadness in these people’s lives. Very different to what Ginn saw back in Liverpool. It was obvious these teenagers knew their place in the world. So did Ginn, and it was not surrounded by these people. They made that clear with their odd looks.

She stood out for many reasons around these people. For one, she was the only girl wearing trousers and a tie. Ginn flat out refused to wear a skirt, and the rules said trousers could not be worn without a tie, so she was stuck in the unflattering, unfitted, too big boy’s uniform. Her tie was relatively neat, but she had not buttoned the top of her shirt, and pulled the tie down slightly to accommodate the room the lack of a top button provided. her blazer sleeves had been rolled up slightly to accommodate her shorter arms. Her shirt was tucked in, but it was not neat. the sides of the shirt were bunched up, as she had tried to angle it in a way it was more fitted to her feminine frame. It was not working, but she felt comfortable. When Ginn stood, she leant on one leg, arms crossed, and her feet obviously not touching. Her shoulders slumped, and her hands folded into fists, no matter whether she was walking or standing. When she walked, her back curved forwards slightly, and her eyes shifted between everything that moved, glaring into every pair of eyes she met. Ginn had to be aware of everything that was happening around her. Just a little compulsion of hers. Her hair was cut short, mostly jar length, with layers getting shorter as they went up, and a fringe cut in line with her eyes, parted favouring the left side, and whilst that was not abnormal for girl, it was expected that she would make an attempt to calm and style her messy mop of ginger hair. But she didn’t. She liked it messy. It gave her an excuse to have her fringe covering her left eye. You see, Ginn had heterochromia. Her right eye was a bright, electric blue, whilst her left eye was a shining light brown, almost orange when the light hit it just right. Ginn preferred to cover her left eye with her hair, as it blended in with the orange strands better than the blue did. That, and the brown colour was not the genetic colour. Her mother had blue eyes, and her father had green eyes, so brown was definitely not a family eye colour.

Ginn could tell people were looking at her as she wondered the fancy hallways towards the administration office, though she couldn’t tell if this was because of her rough, stand-offish appearance, or the fact that it was early November, and she was a new student entering year 10. Honestly, Ginn didn’t care which one it was. She didn’t expect to form relationships with these people.

She managed to reach the administration office, where she was expected to pick up her time table and ID card, after a few minutes of cluelessly wondering around, following strange signs written in the worst font for someone like her; cursive. How is that acceptable, you may ask? It honestly isn’t, but this school had an aesthetic to stick to. Ginn was dyslexic, so anything that wasn’t block letters or her own handwriting was torture to read. As she reached the old looking, oak wood door, she straightened her back and readjusted her backpack, forcing her face to change from confrontational to neutral. This was the face she preferred to show in front of adults, as they could never figure out what emotion she was feeling so they struggled to ask her questions. She opened the door and walked up to the desk, waiting for the old woman sitting, typing on her computer, to look up at her. She did quickly, luckily.

“Hello there! What can I do for you today?” Her voice was far too perky and high pitched. It irritated Ginn’s ears. Ginn forced her face to remain neutral, pushing down her natural, uncomfortable reaction, so she could respond as quick as possible.

“I’m the new student. I was told to pick up my stuff here.”

“Ahh, yes! Ginn Ranger, am I correct?” The woman squeaked, smile never faltering.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Ginn avoided eye contact, uncomfortable with her full name being announced.

The woman rooted around the organised mess that sat on her desk, until she found the right envelope that held Ginn’s ID card and timetable. She handed it to Ginn and asked her to sit down for a moment, as the headmaster wished to speak to her before classes started. Ginn forced herself to swallow a groan as she nodded and took a seat next to the desk, facing the door to the headmaster’s office. Her leg bounced quickly as she stared into space, trying to concentrate on her thoughts rather than the loud world she lived in. She slouched in her seat after finding a comfortable place in her imagination to rest. Sadly, it only took two minutes for her to be called into Headmaster Windsor’s office.

“Hello, Miss Ranger.” Mr Windsor was far more serious. much more pleasant to Ginn’s ears. “It is a pleasure to finally have you here.”

Ginn only forced a smile as she sat awkwardly in the chair. Her eyes quickly scanned the room, taking in every detail she could. the shelves behind Mr Windsor mostly held the textbooks this school studied. Two of the four shelves held the textbooks. one held a collection of frames, some holding pictures of what Ginn assumed to be Windsor’s family, other holding certificates. One was a certification of first aid, one an inclusivity certificate, another being Windsor’s degree in teaching. The inclusivity certificate intrigued Ginn, as she knew for a fact that this school was pretty exclusive.

‘Guess it’s for everything except class.’ She thought to herself.

The final shelf held folders, ordered by category. The first was labelled ‘Enrolment’. The second was labelled ‘Disciplinary Reports’. The third was ‘Human Resources’. The fourth one was what Mr Windsor pulled off the shelf and flicked through. It was labelled ‘Inclusive Support’. Yay.

“So, Miss Ranger-” Ginn interrupted Windsor.

“Call me Ginn.” She said quickly and sheepishly, shoving her hands under her legs to avoid her usually gesturing that annoyed so many adults. “I prefer just Ginn.”

“Ok then.” Mr Windsor peered over the top on his reading glasses, unhappy with the interruption. “Ginn. Your old school transferred us your files and records last week, and I feel we must discuss some things before you head to classes.”

Ginn bit her lip and nodded. She had always gotten pretty good scores in lessons, but she was by far the favourite student to any teacher she ever had. She had a tendency to speak her mind, even when out of terms. Especially then, actually. She also did not have the best track record when it came to peer relations. Most of her past incidents were not her fault, but she had to claim some as her own doing. What could she say? She knows how to stick up for herself.

“These records say you are a very smart young girl, you could thrive in an academic environment, if provided with the right resources. This is why our scholarship program chose you to be our first representative of the… less fortunate.” Windsor hesitated with that last part. He really needed to brush up on his appropriate language book.

‘Just say I’m poor and move on.’ Ginn thought to herself.

“However,” the dreaded sentence conjunctive. “You do have a worrying amount of negative peer relations reports. I must tell you, Ginn. Fighting is strictly prohibited on the campus of this school.”

Ginn let her voice take the lead. “What’s your stance on fighting in self-defence? Mine is that is fine to fight, as long as you don’t start it. Pretty sure those records say that’s what I did.”

Oh dear. She really should have thought before speaking.

Windsor looked exasperated. Ginn was clearly not the first wise crack he had dealt with. “I believe anything can be sorted with the right words. As long as it is reported, it will be dealt with.”

“What about the times it can’t be reported?” Ginn’s voice deepened as she became serious. “That’s what happened in my experience. I couldn’t report it, and if I could, nothing happened, so I sorted it myself. Sure you wont have to worry though. This doesn’t exactly seem like the place where fights happen.”

Windsor chuckled and nodded. “You are an interesting young lady, miss- Ginn. I’m sure you will fit in with the class I have placed you in. All of your teachers have been informed of your mental heath and learning difficulties, as per your request.”

Ginn hated how that was phrased, but she thanked him anyway. ‘Gotta try and be polite’, after all.

“I have assigned a young man to help guide you around school as you settle in.” Oh no. forced interaction. “He should be outside now.”

as Windsor finished his sentence, the phone device on his desk beeped, and the voice of the receptionist through the door sounded out, saying ‘a Mr Peterson was here to see Headmaster Windsor.’ Windsor told the receptionist to send him in, and the device buzzed, causing Ginn to cringe. That sound was horrible!

Before she could fully recover, the door opened behind her and a boy around her age walked in. He had pale white skin, with bright blond hair, shaved at the sides and combed over, the parting favouring the right side of his head. His eyes were cornflower blue, shining and bright. He had a small, wonky smile on his face as he greeted the headmaster and took a seat on Ginn’s right side.

“This is Alex Peterson. He will be, what we call, your class escort.” Windsor introduced the boy to Ginn, and the boy turned to Ginn and smiled, offering his hand to shake, which she just looked at nodded to him. Windsor broke the awkward tension between the two and continued. “He will show you around until you are comfortable with your surroundings.”

Ginn hated this idea. She could see why they implemented it, many people would want it, but she was not one of those people. She would much rather just figure it out on her own, even if it meant being late to all her classes.

“The bell is about to ring. You two should head off now.” Windsor gestured to the door, and the two teens picked up their bags and walked out.

 “So…” The boy, Alex, said, drawing out the ‘O’ sound. “Can I see your schedule? Just so I know for sure where you are?”

Ginn wordlessly shoved the piece of paper into Alex’s hand, still avoiding eye contact with him. Alex shot her a strange look, realising this was going to be so much harder than he originally thought. He did think she would be quiet, being new and all, but dang.

“Cool, you’re in mine and my friend’s form.” he handed back the paper to the new girl and started walking, being closely followed by her. “You’ll like Mr Caxton, he’s fun.”

Ginn hummed in response. God, she was not making it easy for Alex.

The bell rang and Ginn tensed, her shoulders squaring, and her fists clenching. Another loud, irritating noise. This school was just made to make her uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, Alex had noticed her reaction to the sound. “You ok? It’s just the bell, no need to worry.” he chuckled.

“Fine.” Ginn grumbled through gritted teeth. She started storming off down the corridor without a plan, and luckily Alex jogged to catch up to her before she reached the turning point.

Alex desperately wanted to break the awkward air between them, but did not know how. This girl seemed tense, understandably, as she seemed quite strange to the standards of this school, so he did not know how to approach anything with her.

“So… where you from?” Alex asked, trying to study her body language. She walked like she was trying to look tough, as well as be silent in her steps. She succeeded on both aspects as she definitely looked intimidating, and her steps barely echoed around the halls.

Ginn subtly looked Alex up and down, figuring out his motive, in both the question and with helping her. He stood straight and proud, taller than her by a good few inches. Although, that wasn’t hard, as Ginn was only 5”3’. She estimated him to be about 5”9’, and she guessed he still had room to grow. He was looking at her expectantly with a small smile, his blue eyes shining in curiosity. She could see no malice in his wonderment, so she answered.

“Liverpool.” She said, bluntly. To be exact, she lived in a small terrace house, in Roscoe Street, very close to her primary school, Pleasant Street Primary. Ginn had hopped around several high schools in the past four years, so she couldn’t say how far she lived from them. She did not live in a great area, but it was close to the city centre, and she always felt safe there with her parents. She missed Liverpool.

Alex nodded, biting the inside of his mouth in mild frustration at Ginn’s refusal so converse. “Cool. Good city. What brought you to London then?”

“Family stuff.”

The two sighed, knowing that conversation was not going to happen right now.

 The two arrived at the classroom after everyone else had arrived and sat down. Alex greeted the teacher with a cheerful ‘good morning’ and he sat down on a table for four, with two other boys, whom he greeted and immediately started chatting and laughing with. The boy sitting next to him had slightly more tanned skin than Alex, but he was still quite pale. He had neat, honey brown hair, with a full fringe that was cut just under his eyebrows, the top of head was thick with hair facing forwards, and what Ginn estimated as one inch clipped shaving around the rest of his head. His eyes were forest green, thoughtfully staring at Alex as he spoke, but also at someone on the other side of the room Ginn couldn’t locate. The other boy had his back to Ginn, but from what she could see, he had dark, sun kissed skin, and the only messy head of mahogany brown hair she had seen in this school. Well, there was an order to this mess, unlike the mess that sat on her own head. His hair was methodically spiked up, then brushed forward. He appeared to have every portion of his hair cut to a similar length, apart from the front.

Ginn heard her name and she turned, seeing the teacher beckoning her towards his desk. she walked over, head down.

“You must be Miss Ranger!” Oh god, he was perky. “Now, I like to ask before I start teaching new students, if you don’t mind, what would you like me to call you, and what pronouns shall I use for you? And are they the same in class, privately, and in front of other adults?”

Ginn blinked at the sudden questions as she let her mind catch up with her ears. “Just Ginn, thanks. Female pronouns, all the time.” She said quietly.

“Perfect.” Mr Caxton smiled softly at Ginn, then continued. “I have been told of the support you require, so don’t be afraid to approach me any time!”

Ginn felt extremely awkward, biting her lower lip, and nodding, avoiding eye contact. She always hated it when her personal stuff was brought up by other people. She knew they were only trying to help, but it never helped Ginn. all she did was nod.

“Ok, so everyone in this class has their seat. I had everyone choose to sit somewhere at the beginning of the year and that is where they sit for the rest of the year. The only available seat is across from your guide, Alex. Go sit down, and we’ll start up, ok?”

Ginn glanced over at the table of three boys. She would be sitting next to the dark-skinned boy. He looked like the more energetic person in the trio. Freaking fabulous. At least the seat was on the left side, so she wouldn’t be bumping elbows with the seemingly right-handed boy.

Ginn had nothing against boys. Truly, she didn’t. She was just very insular, and teenage boys tended to be pretty rambunctious. She also didn’t exactly have a perfect track record with relations. Not just with boys, girls too. But, well, Ginn’s short, slim stature was not a good match up when she fought with boys. Luckily, she is quick, so at least she has that going for her.

She sighed and walked over to the table, unslinging her bag off her shoulder and sat down, immediately leaning on her hand and staring at the floor. She dazed, and started thinking about what she could draw. She thought of characters from tales she enjoyed, and she started moving her finger on one spot of the table, mimicking drawing. This was something she did when uncomfortable. Actually drawing is much better, but she hated showing others her stuff, so rarely drew when sitting at a table with strangers. Or classmates, as she should call them.

the three boys had noticed Ginn sitting down, and turned to her to smile and greet her, but she was avoiding all eye contact. Alex shrugged, realising this was going to be his week. Boy to Ginn’s right decided to break the awkward silence by introducing himself.

He went to speak, nudging her first to get he attention, but before he could speak, she jumped at the sudden touch, tensing her shoulders and clenched her fists, straightening her back and gasping lightly. Her duel coloured eyes stayed locked staring forwards, and she took a few breaths before she snapped her head to look at the boy and growl, “What?”

Now she could see his face, she took in his features. He looked nervous, likely due to Ginn’s aggressive nature. He had warm, russet brown eyes that where currently wide in shock. He was handsome, with a square jaw, and strong cheekbones. His mouth was tight in shock at her reaction. Luckily for him, he recovered quickly. His eyes softened into a more relaxed form, and his tight mouth morphed into a cool side smile.

“Hey,” his voice was smooth and joyous. Enjoyable to Ginn’s ears. Wait what? “I’m Martin Williams. This is George Groden, and you’ve met Alex. It seems like we’re desk mates!”

Ginn struggled to relax her muscles from the sudden touch. She swallowed and forced her hands to open as she shoved them under her thighs. Her voice was failing her, so she just looked back at the table and nodded, humming ‘mm hmm’.

The boy, Martin, made eye contact with the other two, concerned by the reaction. He decided to pry a little, tying to get Ginn out of her shell. “Ginn, right? Interesting name, never heard it before. Where’s it come from?”

Ginn was shocked by the question. Usually when people found out about her name, they made a joke about alcoholic parents, or threw out guesses as to what it was short for. Her name was Ginn. Not Ginera, or Ginevra, or even Geneva, shockingly. This question made Ginn happy, and her vocal cords decided to work.

“It’s a combination of Gill and Finn.” Ginn kept her head down but was smiling lightly for the first time in a while. “Gill was my mum’s mum, and Finn was dad’s dad. They wanted to honour both of them, so it was either Ginn or Fill, and Ginn was pretty gender neutral.”

She huffed in amusement at that last bit. the story of her naming was always interesting to her, especially when you think of the whole story of a young pregnant woman and her husband staring at each other, trying to make the other back down, until they came to the compromise of combining the names.

“That’s cool!” Martin said, enthusiastically. “You have such an interesting story! I’m just names after my grandad!”

Ginn smiled, amused by the boy’s excitement.

Before they could continue, the teacher cleared his throat and started the lesson. It was English. This was not the best subject for Ginn due to her dyslexia, but she had a creative mind, and enjoyed story telling, so it wasn’t so bad. Well, unless they were reading old stuff, like Shakespeare or Jane Austen, they were utter torture for Ginn’s brain. Sadly, that is exactly what they were doing. Romeo and Juliet, to be exact. They started the lesson reading the play, the characters being assigned to a random assortment of students. Ginn struggled to follow along as they worked, not understanding anything they were saying. The words were floating around the page, lines and letters flipping and swapping place, it was giving her a headache. It didn’t help that the most dramatic character in the play, Mercutio, was being voiced by Martin, who was slowly becoming more and more dramatic in his reading, his movements rocking the table, making reading even harder for her.

After they had finished the first four scenes, Mr Caxton instructed the class to discuss them as a table. Ginn was thankful for this as she could finally rest her eyes for a minute. She rubbed her eyes and led her hands up to brush her hair up out of her face, letting it fall how it wanted, which was apparently not in front of her eyes. She looked at the trio of boys expectantly, waiting for a conversation to start, when she noticed they were all staring at her. Alex looked shocked, staring curiously, eyes switching between each of her eyes. George seemed curious, one eyebrow raised, and a small smile spread on his lips. Martin was far too excited for Ginn’s taste.

“Woah!! You have heterochromia?!” He said far too loud. “That’s so cool!”

Ginn quickly dipped her head and brushed her fringe over her brown eye, feeling her face flush red.

“If you say so...” She muttered under her breath.

This conversation was clearly going nowhere, much to the dismay of the three boys. Ginn was obviously not a conversation person, and the boys were not interested in discussing Shakespeare, so decided to further press.

“You don’t think so?” George questioned.

“Let’s just say it’s not my favourite thing about myself.” Ginn grumbled, shooting them a sarcastic and awkward smile. The boys shared a look, all expressing different thoughts and emotions. Martin locked eyes with his friends, then looked at Ginn quickly, and back at them, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking. The boys shot him warning looks, but he ignored it, turning around to look at Ginn, leaning his elbow on the table and putting his head on his hand, wearing his flirtatious, lopsided smirk.

“Well,” He said, making Ginn look us at him. Once she saw his face, she huffed, rolling her eyes, and looked back down at her work. “I think they are beautiful, completing the gorgeous image you hold all over.”

Ginn felt panic rise in her chest. She had never been complimented like that before from the mouth of someone who... had little to no obvious ill intentions. This boy did not seem to be particularly threatening, but still, Ginn could not be help but be wary. She clenched her fist around her pen in panic, as her defence mechanisms snapped into position.

“Say anything like that again,” She turned and glared at Martin through her hair. “And I break your hand.”

Martin tensed up, squeaking in fear as his arm slipped off the table in surprise. Ginn did not break eye contact, however, needing to maintain her tough exterior.

“Well ok then.” He squeaked. Pleased with herself, Ginn looked back down at her work, deciding to do the work herself. The boys fell silent and just did the work, quietly discussing Shakespeare out of fear for their hands.

At the end of the class, after a long lesson of awkward silence between the four tablemates, the boys packed up and met with Elsie and Louise. Ginn had rushed out of the classroom a lot quicker that the others, so Alex had already failed at his job of making sure she was ok. This was going to be a rough day.

 The final class of the day was P.E. Luckily for Ginn, sport was something she excelled in. Unluckily for Ginn, she had to get changed in front of other people, which was less than ideal.

Alex instructed her to follow Louise and Elsie to the girls’ changing rooms. Ginn kept her head down and shuffled along with the other girls as they chatted, complaining about the lesson they were going into.

“P.E. sucks, I hate it so much!” Louise groaned, dramatically. “I mean, I like exercise, but the structure of P.E. is so messy, and its so boring!”

“I know!” Agreed Elsie. “It’s even worse right now, doing those weird drill things.”

Ginn perked up at that comment. If they were anything like the ones she used to do in Cadets, she was golden! She didn’t look at the other girls, but she did smile and huff in satisfaction.

“You like P.E., Ginn?” Said Louise, sounding surprised. The girl looked Ginn up and down quizzically. She did not exactly fit the typical description of a fit girl. She looked very skinny, but Louise guessed that was mainly due to her oversized uniform.

Ginn hesitated with her answer, wondering how to answer without sounding weird. “Yeah, kind of. I like exercise, and I’m used to pretty strict sessions, so nothing really bothers me much anymore.”

The other girls seemed satisfied with her answer luckily.

After only moments, the three girls had reached the girls’ changing room. As the tried to find a free section of bench to place their bags and clothes, Ginn was silently praying that no one would pay attention to her so she could change and slip out unnoticed. She utterly hated changing in public. Sadly, her prayers were not answered, as the only available space was on a bench in the middle of the room, with a group of chatty girls surrounding it. Perfect. The three set down their bags and started undressing, quickly swapping from blouse to P.E. polo shirt. Ginn was particularly mad about their easy method of swapping from skirt to shorts without presenting their underwear; slipping the shorts on under their skirts, then taking off the skirt from above. Ginn, wearing trousers, had no such luxury, so had to take advantage of her too big shirt and take off her trousers, hoping they would cover her behind as she slipped the shorts on. Now for the bit she dreaded: changing from shirt to polo. She wanted to do this as quickly as possible, but struggled due to her ever growing anxiety. She slipped off her tie and unbuttoned her shirt, then readied her polo shirt to be the correct way to slip on as soon as she rid her back of it’s professional cotton attire. Quickly, she took off the shirt, and immediately heard what she feared.

Louise and Elsie had gasped, quietly. They had finished changing and lacing up their trainers, and were waiting for Ginn to finish changing so they could walk out together, and happened to glance up when they saw her take off her shirt. The two girls were sitting on Ginn’s right, so they could see what Ginn was worried about clear as day. Right across her back, from the bottom of her shoulder blade, creeping up to the top curve of her right shoulder, were two long, pale, jagged, and bumpy scars. They looked awful, and the two girls were certain that they were from a horrible incident from a long time ago. This scared them, as they worried about Ginn’s safety and current situation.

Before they could say anything, Ginn tugged her polo shirt over her head, hiding the scars before anyone could ask questions, or, god forbid, anyone else saw them. Louise opened her mouth to speak. She was not sure what she would say, but it was instinct. Before she could make a sound, however, Ginn shot her a warning glare, her blue eye shining like a lightning storm, her amber eye shimmering like a raging fire. Her lips were tight and eyebrows knitted in a tight V-shape. Her ginger hair had fallen before her face, blocking the light from reaching her face, only making the looming pit of aggression in Ginn’s aura stronger. Her fists were tight. Louise only just realised the new girl’s flat and scarred knuckles. Louise immediately shut her mouth. She offered an awkward, slightly scared smile, but Ginn just straightened her back, slipped on her battered old trainers, and started towards the door. Louise and Elsie shared a concerned look, then darted up and dashed to keep up with Ginn, who had suddenly developed a quick, strong stride.

Once all of the students had gathered in the sports hall, the P.E. teacher, Mr Dullan, called registration and introduced the aim of today’s class. The class knew they would not like this lesson. Mr Dullen was clearly in a bad mood, he was completely stiff and glaring at everyone who made eye contact with him. Ginn was not happy when he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to face him when she marched into the hall, so he could interrogate her about who she was. He seemed satisfied after a full 30 seconds of comparing her to the ID picture that was on his register. But, this was a respectable school that definitely would not accept her doing what she wanted to do at that moment, and tuition was far too expensive for her to be kicked out on her first day, so she let it go.

“Ok, everyone!” Mr Dullen shouted, making a huge, distracting echo ring around the room. Ginn knew she would barely be able to understand him immediately. “I don’t want to deal with teaching you all today, so you’re just going to do run laps around the school grounds all lesson.”

The entire class groaned and started quietly complaining to themselves and their friends. Well, all except Ginn, who enjoyed running. Also, the echo in this room was getting to her, and she was finding it hard to concentrate. She silently thanked every deity she knew of that the run was outside.

“Alright, alright, quit the complaining!” Mr Dullen yelled, making Ginn bunch up the hem of her polo shirt in her hand to squeeze. She found early on that this was a better coping mechanism than her automatic reaction, which was covering her ears and gripping locks of hair and pulling. Distractions from bad noises are always oh so fun. Mr Dullen carried on, interrupting Ginn’s thoughts, “Everyone get your butts outside!”

The crowd of grumbling students headed towards the doors leading to the yard so they could start the run. Before Ginn could disappear into the crowd and go off to enjoy her run, Louise had grabbed her wrist and started to speak.

“Hey, are you ok? We should talk abo—”

“Do not touch me!” Ginn growled, ripping her hand away from Louise, immediately marching off in a strong, quick pace.

As soon as she set foot on the outside area of the school grounds and witnessed part of the crowd all heading in the same direction, she started her rounds of the school with a light jog, preparing her body and lungs for a long, pleasant run. She really needed to calm her mind, after everything that had happened today, especially in the last few minutes.

 Louise was incredibly confused by that reaction. She had noticed Ginn tense up and ball her shirt in her fist, and she knew Ginn had not calmed down from whatever emotion she was feeling after presenting those scars in the changing rooms.

“What was that about?” George said, the four friends walking up to Louise so they could walk the laps of the grounds together.

“She’s seemed pretty tense all day.” Alex offered. “Maybe you just scared her and she reacted.”

She definitely has something she’s hiding.” Elsie said, as the group wondered outside and started walking. “She had two huge scars on her back. She got real tense, more than usual, when we saw them.”

“Let’s go find out what’s up with her.” Louise said, determination in her voice. Then, she sounded unsure. “If we can catch up to her...”

Ginn was no where to be seen as they walked their round. They knew this because Ginn was extremely noticeable in the crowd of students, being one of the only people in the school with ginger hair. She was even more noticeable because her hair was messy and choppily cut short, and her P.E. kit, like her uniform, was too big and looked it. They walked quickly around the grounds, talking and looking around. Ginn was nowhere to be seen.

“She must actually be running.” Martin shrugged. “That girl is an enigma.”

“An enigma you’re crushing on!” Alex said teasingly, elbowing his friend in the side and laughing.

“Shut up!” Martin pushed Alex to the side, a crimson blush rising in his cheeks. “I am not!”

“Then what was that comment in the changing room about?” George smirked and raised and eyebrow.

“Ok!” Martin’s dramatic flare revealed itself as dramatically waved his hand in the air and pointing at nothing in particular. “You have to admit, she is quite pretty!”

Martin stared a the group, waiting expectantly for their response, to which he got a couple nods, but mostly just looks of ‘my dear boy, calm yourself’.

The group continued to walk around the school grounds, giving up on searching for the strange new girl, she was far gone and they could not see her at all. The lesson went by relatively quickly, the group only lapping the school once and only going another 20 yards before Mr Dullen blew his whistle and called everyone into the changing rooms five minutes before the final bell rang. The five friends wondered back into the school, avoiding the stares of disapproval from Mr Dullen.

Louise and Elsie were slowly changing out of their kits when Ginn finally appeared by their side. She was sweating slightly, despite the November chill outside, and her breaths were long, quick, and laboured. As expected, she did not greet the girls, she just started changing, first preparing her shirt to be quickly thrown on after she removed her polo. Louise and Elsie tried not to look at her, feeling her haste and discomfort with being around people after what happened earlier. However, Louise is a pretty stubborn girl, so waited for Ginn to finish changing before she confronted her.

“Hey, where were you all class?” Louise tried to keep her voice perky and welcoming, rather than the interrogating tone she almost used. “we were looking for you when you ran off.”

Ginn let out a small growl of annoyance. “Ahead of everyone. Just needed to run.”

She removed her shorts, her shirt covering her underwear, and slipped on her trousers, then sat down to put on her school shoes. She never looked at Louise. Not that that was expected. This girl is so strange.

“You must be quick then!” Louise laughed lightly. Ginn just hummed. “It’s pretty impressive, running is pretty hard.”

This made Ginn’s head snap up, shooting Louise a confused look. “How is it hard?”

Louise and Elsie shared an amused look. Elsie laughed lightly and said, “You know, keeping pace without losing your breath, stuff like that.”

Ginn hummed thoughtfully whilst finishing up lacing her shoes. Once she was done, she stood and picked up her bag, just in time for the final bell to ring. Ginn attempted to supress her cringe at the sound, but her efforts were in vane, as the other two girls noticed. Luckily for Ginn, all they did was share a look and stand with their bags.

“Not sure I follow, but ok.” Ginn broke the silence, starting to walk out alone. However, Louise and Elise had other plans, both speeding to catch up to her and standing on either side.

“You’re a real enigma, you know?” Louise chuckled. That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Ginn glared at her, a quiet and low growl echoing from the bottom of her throat. Her eyes raged, like a fearsome lightning storm and a blazing fire. Even though she is a very small person, Ginn knew how to make herself look large and terrifying.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Erm... well, I... I just meant that you, well,” Louise stuttered and squeaked, as if she were learning how to speak again. “I just mean that you’re, you know, pretty mysterious...”

Ginn grunted and said something like ‘that’s the point’ as she stormed off, out of the building and around the corner towards the front gates, not to be seen again that day.

“Well, you kinda fucked that one up, huh?” Elsie chortled anxiously.

“Thanks for helping there Els. Come on, let’s just go find the boys.”

Alex, George, and Martin exited the boys changing room a few minutes later. The girls explained what happened as they walked out of the school and back home. The only thing they could all agree on when it came to Ginn: She would be very difficult to befriend.

[silly-nonny-fics-are-for-fandoms]

Halloween hauntings

Bakukami week day 6 (Part one) : Fall Nights @officialbakukamiweek Summary: Halloween parties are just excuses to sneak in alcohol, get fucked up, and wear stupid costumes. Bakugo had never liked the holiday before, but a cute devil was quickly changing his mind Read on Ao3

Halloween was never Bakugo's preferred holiday, despite the free rein to scare the crap out of little kids.

He honestly preferred Christmas, or at least the idea of it, if only it weren't for the cold. New Years, Valentines, White Day; he liked all of them, except Halloween. He hated that everyone used it as an excuse to get drunk, wear costumes of things which should never be sexified, eat a bunch of candy and complain about getting scared.

What was the point of it, really?

He'd never enjoyed trick-or-treating since his mom and dad had always insisted on picking out his costumes and hand making them. Don't go crazy, don't get it dirty, and don't rip it. Problems of having fashion designer parents, he guessed. His mother got way into it every year, doing family costumes together with them and going out with Izuku and his mother.

He usually also had to match Izuku, since their moms enjoyed the holiday and it was easier to find them if they had matching costumes.

And as he'd grown up, his Halloweens changed. His parents started holding parties once he'd decided that he didn't want to trick-or-treat anymore, another excuse for Inko and Mitsuki to hang out together on their second favorite holiday. Those two had been friends since they were in High School. He couldn't understand why they were both insufferable. The parties had gotten louder and louder the older he got, parents and teenagers using the holiday as an excuse to drink. Someone always brought the booze from the adult's side of the party to the teenager's side, or the teenagers would have to take the younger children out to trick-or-treat. It sucked if you got stuck with that.

When he got into UA, his parents asked if Halloween was a holiday that they'd be home for. Aizawa had responded no. And with the introduction of the dorms, UA had been forced to do something. They'd announced a Halloween party to their students by year. The first year party was going to be chaperoned by Midnight and those she chose. Present Mic would be joining her, as well as three other pro heroes which had not been announced. Aizawa had been reserved for watching over his Daughter, Eri, as she went trick-or-treating for the first time.

This would be the first year he didn't have to match Midoriya or his parents; where he could pick his own costume and do whatever he wanted.

He wanted to stay at the dorms, studying or training. Nothing good would come of the party, especially if it was going to be as loud as he expected it to be.

His friends tried to convince him, Kirishima especially persistent in his efforts. Apparently, he was going as a half-dragon shifter thing, since his red riding hood costume, which he'd worn as a joke the previous year, had been denied by both of his mothers since they needed to remake it; he'd grown since Middle School.

"But Kaminari and I have already made plans next year to match! We're gonna do Oni's next year!"

"Kirishima. Your point?" Bakugo glared. "Also, who the fuck prepares that far in advance?"

"Kaminari and I, obviously! And, yeah. You should totally go to the party with us! It'll be so much fun!"

"Absolutely not."

"C'mon, man! We're all going, and who wants to sit in the dark, alone, on Halloween? That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie!"

Bakugo rolled his eyes.

"I don't like Halloween."

Kirishima's eyes widened, placing his hand on his heart in shock. "How can you not like Halloween?!"

"If I fucking go to the shitty party, will you not ask?!"

"Yessir!"

Bakugo only realized what he'd agreed to after he saw the grin on Kirishima's face, recoiling from how bright and sunshine-y he was.

"You're way too fucking happy about that, Hair for brains."

"Well, now we can all hang out at an awesome, manly party! Why shouldn't I be excited? Any ideas for what you're gonna be?"

"I'll kill you in three seconds if you don't get out of my room."

Bakugo had learned long ago that hanging out around a single one of his dumbasses for any length of time was too mentally draining for his comfort, and Kirishima understood that despite being an extrovert.

He did have to think about what kind of costume he wanted, though. Something which made sense with his personality.

On the night of Halloween, October Thirty First, Bakugo reconsidered going. His costume, a werewolf, looked amazing and it was comfortable, but he didn't honestly feel the need to go other than he'd told Kirishima that he would.

Kirishima and Sero went to get him ten minutes after they said they would, Mina in tow.

"Bakugo! We match!!!" Mina exclaimed her own werewolf costume a pretty impressive display. Shorts, a tail attached to the belt in the same fashion as his own, her pink ears high and proud. The crop top she had on likely wouldn't be allowed on any other day, looking at it.

Kirishima wasn't looking bad either, red scaled tail coming just above the floor and fire red horns matching. He'd managed to put patches of scales on his cheeks and down his neck, on his arms and part of his exposed chest.

Sero, however, was hilariously creative. A spiderman mummy. He'd managed to place his tape so perfectly that his elbows were almost completely hidden by the material, in fact.

"Where's Sparky?" Bakugo asked, looking at the three expectantly.

"He's finishing up; he'll meet us downstairs, so come on!" Mina grabbed Bakugo's arm, pulling him along with her to make it down to the first floor.

"Everyone else has already headed out," Sero explained, as to why they were late.

"We figured you wanted as little to do with Midoriya as possible," Kirishima grinned. He was right, of course. After years of spending the holiday with Deku, Bakugo wanted nothing to do with him. Especially not tonight.

Once they got to the main floor, Mina dragged them over to the candy bowl she'd set up with Sato, waiting for Kaminari.

Three minutes ticked by slowly, the four of them conversing lightly about what the party would be like. Would it be a dance? Would there be games? The possibilities were endless, really. They knew that each year was given a location, the first six floors of one of the four pillars of UA, while the fourth one was left locked, save for the first floor where Recovery Girl's office and the lecture hall was.

The front left had been reserved for the third years, front right for the second years and the back left for first years. For everyone's safety, the windows would stay locked as well as the upper floors. School IDs were to be kept on everyone's person at all times, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to get into the dorms or the building. All other school rules applied, which hadn't made Hagakure too pleased.

The main difference between the party, it seemed, is that quirks would be allowed during the event so long as it wasn't in a destructive manner. No school the day after, either, so they could stay up as long as they wished.

"Hey, you guys ready to go?" Kaminari's voice broke through the narration, the four of them turning to face him.

Bakugo's face went a gorgeous shade of crimson, Sero and Mina whistled, and Kirishima fist pumped the air.

"Looking good, man!" Kirishima said, grinning,

"Get it boy~!" Mina winked, her voice peppy,

"I have no idea how you're walking but I like it!" Sero chuckled.

Bakugo didn't know what to say.

Kaminari had walked downstairs, tight wine red pants clinging to those long legs of his, a blood red silken shirt adorning his top, partly undone to expose his chest. A smooth cherry vest trimmed with obsidian topped it, showing off his wonderful waist and leading into a swishing devil's tail, which likely was moving through some animatronics. His pitch leathery colored wings curled to hide behind his shoulders, though Bakugo was sure they had some form of a motor in them as well. In his hand was a metallic raspberry trident, long and strong enough to withstand his weight. He had reddish black horns upon his head,

What killed him was the shoes, however. Leather, black and sleek, lace up and coming to his knees with five-inch dagger heels. Kaminari walked as if those weren't killing his feet to wear, even swinging his hips with a smirk.

He knew what he was doing.

"Well, what are we waiting around for? There's a party to go to!" Kaminari smirked, the devil in him coming forward.

If Kaminari would dress like this every Halloween, Bakugo might be able to learn to love this holiday.

Bakugo did hate the holiday. Oh, how he hated it. They'd arrived at the party, the dancing and partying was taking place on the main floor, food was on the second floor, the third floor was reserved for movie watching and the other three floors were reserved for games. Someone had proposed the idea of a test of courage, only for Midnight and the other faculty members to shoot it down due to the anxiety and memories such a game might hold for the hero course students.

'We are not in the business of giving people anxiety attacks,' Midnight had said, 'You are free to play pranks and the like, and hold a test of courage in everything but name; if you play Murderer in the Dark, you're more than welcome to hold some scares as well.'

Jack 'o lanterns lit the halls of the upper allowed floors, setting the mood for frights. The first and second floor, blissfully, was fully lit for proper sight.

After sitting on the second floor for a half an hour, Kaminari and the rest of his friends had dragged Bakugo into a game of Murderer in the Dark on the upper three floors. As much as he had intended to leave them be, he found himself staring into golden eyes full of excitement, blushing cheeks and blonde hair which glowed in the light, and he heard himself say okay before he could stop himself.

So, they'd been given ten minutes to hide among the three floors, and they'd scattered. He'd lost track of his friends and remembered exactly why he hated Halloween parties.

They'd started on the sixth floor and made their way downstairs. Bakugo had made it down to the fourth floor by the time a small scream came, registering pain and he saw lights from within a classroom.

He opened the door, slipping in carefully.

"What the fuck?" He asked into the darkness of the room, the lights coming again from the corner.

In this classroom, the music room he realized, was a cabinet wall at the back of the room. He heard buzzing from that corner, realizing exactly who was there.

"Sparky, what happened?" He knelt down to his friend, who sat against the wall with one leg out, the other pulled in close. Electricity buzzed around him, Kaminari hissing and tearing up.

"I. Fuck this hurts." He hissed, and Bakugo raised an eyebrow.

"Do I need to carry you to recovery girl?"

"Can you help me get my boots off first?" Kaminari's voice was wavering, pained and he was on the verge of tears.

Bakugo obliged him, unlacing one of those knee-high boots carefully while Kaminari did the other. Fuck, those look as good as the fabric feels, he thought.

As soon as the boots were off, Bakugo saw the issue. Even through the socks, he could tell that Kaminari had definitely damaged his ankles. They were swollen, certainly, and Bakugo assumed he'd tripped on those dagger heels.

"How the hell did you fall? You were fucking fine before." Bakugo hissed, glaring at the little devil.

"I was running, man!" Kaminari winced, "This dude from class E has been following me around since the party started, I saw him, and I bolted." He choked on the end of his sentence, "I didn't know what to do!"

Bakugo reached over, slipping one arm under Kaminari's knees and the other under his shoulders, lifting him up.

"Well, they're gonna have to fuck off. I'm bringing you to Recovery girl, you're going to have to fucking deal with it."

Kaminari moaned in pain, holding onto Bakugo with one hand, the other holding the boots which had been the cause of his pain.

When he walked out of the music classroom, Bakugo spotted Kirishima as Kaminari's electricity started dying down.

"Oi, shitty hair!" Bakugo said, Kirishima turning around in a panic.

"Oh, hey bro, can't- Is that Kaminari?"

"Yeah, I'm taking him to Recovery girl. Tell the moderator to fuck off or I'll kill him."

Kaminari was getting redder by the second as they Bakugo brought him to Recovery Girl, trying to attract as little attention as possible.

Recovery girl healed him up, gave him ankle braces for his feet, and told Bakugo to escort him back to the dorms to change into supportive sneakers. If Kaminari was going to go back to the party, he wouldn't be allowed to participate in any of the physical activities, so he'd be stuck on the second and third floors.

The fall air was crisp, cooling and refreshing to their lungs. The leaves crunched beneath their feet, neither one of them talking, instead appreciating how beautiful things were. The trees were gorgeous, amber, umber and hues of red mixing together. The smell of Pumpkin filled the air, sounds from the party coming through the building as they made their way back.

Fall was the kind of season which made people want to cuddle up together, ushering in the icy breath of winter some days, summer heat lingering in others. It was nice, the best of both seasons. Under his green coat, Bakugo as more than warm enough to combat the cold breeze, but Kaminari wasn't the same.

Thin silk shirts weren't exactly resistant to the cold, after all.

The warmth of the dorm, with its heating and lack of open windows, was welcoming.

Bakugo and Kaminari made their way to their individual dorm rooms in silence, unknowingly to do the same thing. Change back into their pajamas, then go down to the common room and watch movies while binging on candy.

Kaminari had changed into a pair of cozy sweatpants, and one of the sweaters he'd stolen from Mina accidentally. A dark burgundy, embroidered in wool with the word 'Snuggle' on it in white. Comfy.

Bakugo changed into sweatpants and a black-skulled sweater, heading back down and turning on the television. Kaminari made his way out of the elevator, sitting next to him on the couch as the television illuminated the room. Scrolling through the movies available, Bakugo chose the Halloween movie and leaned back, Kaminari snuggling against his side, to which he moved one arm over the injured blonde's shoulder.

Somewhere around ten thirty, Kaminari fell asleep to the beating of Bakugo's heart, the warmth radiating off of the other teen a wonderful protection against the natural cold of a fall night.

Bakugo silently amended his thoughts from earlier in the night. If Kaminari dressed like this, staying cuddled up with him and falling asleep while they watched old movies, he may start to like Halloween and even look forward to it.

[otaku-daydreamer-4673]

Short Story #3

Defect

  Perfect...is a relative term. Everything is clean cut and precise; flawless without any abnormalities….but then you could also argue then that it’s lacking anything unique. Innovative, inspiring, creative...those words were a mystery to me, as well to half the Earth’s population. Looking down at my grey uniform, it was no different than any other high school student within a mile of me. The adults were no different, wearing one of three colors to voice their status. Grey, blue, or purple; grey being the lowest in terms of hierarchy. Purple being the highest, for the government and law makers.

  Each day was the same, repetition, repetition, like an assembly line. School, work, home, repeat the next day. Democracy? No, more like a dictatorship. There was hardly any greenery here, just lots of concrete. Just a single tree on every other corner. I looked over my shoulder at the massive electric fence separating us from them. We called them Zenites; don’t ask my why. I didn’t come up with the name. We weren’t allowed to talk to them, or associate with them in any way. Anyone who did ended up missing. Now of course that was always a rumor, but rumors originate from somewhere don’t they? The fence was 100 feet high, see through, but electrified. Here on the Western part of the world, at least we had clean clothes, food in our stomachs and a place to call home. But you couldn’t say the same for the Zenites; who lived on the eastern part of the world. You’d see them passing by from time to time, eyeing us from the other side of the fence. And if I was being honest, they really weren’t that different from us. Well...give or take some differences. Such as their clothes, which weren’t in the best condition. They were often dirty, for whatever reason. If you looked hard enough you could see makeshift houses from whatever materials they could find. They had less than what we had, but there was something they had that we didn't. Freedom, identity and happiness. Where laws were ancient history, and each person had their own individuality. ...Something that no longer existed here.

  Walking out of school; prison as I liked to call it, a passerby collided into my shoulder, they apologized and went about their business, but the interaction knocked off my ID tag off my shirt. I sighed frustratedly as I bent down to pick I up. “Dammit...” I put it back in place on my uniform shirt and frowned at the engraving that I was forced to wear everyday. X01519; my ID, what I was known as, and essentially my name. There were no such things as names anymore on the Western side of the fence, just ID numbers. But...that wasn’t the case for the Zenites. At the thought, something that used to depress me, now brought me  small sense of joy, as I quickly made my way to my secret spot. Being wary, not to catch the attention of the guards and security in this area. Because against my better judgement, I had been actively doing something illegal for the past three months. Something that would spark some truth to those rumors of missing people. I had unintentionally made a friend, from the other side of the fence.

  Jogging past civilians, and sneaking my way past security check points, I came upon the fence. The sun was setting, and this has been the usual time we would meet. But I couldn’t see her. Looking over my shoulder to be sure I wasn’t followed, I cupped my hands over my mouth as a called for her in a loud whisper. “Renee? ...Renee…?” I heard footsteps approach, as worn out shoes toppled over the partially dead grass. And then she came into view, and truth be told the sight of her made my heart skip a beat. Blonde hair and brown eyes, with freckles surrounding the area around her nose and cheeks. Wearing a simple pink T-shirt with ripped overalls. I frowned when I saw she had a scrape on her knee today, but she didn’t seem to think much of it. Her laughter brought me out of my thoughts, as I looked up to see her smiling at me.

  She pulled her hands out of her pockets, and smirked at me as she crossed her arms. “Hey Zane!”

  I blushed, and ran my hands through my hair nervously. “I’m still not used to you calling me that.” I admitted sheepishly, “I’m just so used to my number.”

  She waved her index finger at me from the other side of the fence, a small frown on her face. “I hate that number that they gave you, that’s why I gave you a name.” That comment only made me blush harder. What she said was true, when we met three months ago and introduced ourselves all I had was a number to go by. So in that moment, she gave me a name. Something secret between us.

  I scratched the back of my head and laughed nervously, “Yeah you’re right. I’ll do my best to go by Zane.”

  She smiled at me, and her whole face lit up. “By the way, were you able to get it for me?” She asked excitedly, her eyes shimmering in the dim lighting.

  I arched my eyebrow in confusion for a moment, before I remembered what she was talking about. I smiled and reached into my pocket, “Oh yeah!” I pulled out a candy bar and placed it on the floor. She beamed, which warmed my heart, as she knelt down to pick it up. In our secret meeting together, we’ve dug a small hole in the to pass things to one another; careful not to get electrocuted by the fence. Once she grabbed her prize she jumped up and down and squealed excitedly, and I had to shush her, putting my index finger to my lips. “You idiot, quiet down..!” I whispered harshly, there’d be no telling what would happen if we were caught talking to one another. I noticed a blush across her cheeks in the dim lighting, and I forgot how to breathe for a moment. She looked….pretty. I groaned and held my head in my hands, what was I thinking. Simply talking to her was illegal, I couldn’t see her as anything more than an acquaintance….or friend. Right?

  She tore the wrapper off, and moaned in delight. “Oh this is amazing! I wish we had chocolate over here.” She was an odd one. She was always hyper, and loved to tell jokes. It wasn’t what he was used to, but...you guess you could say that’s what drew him to her. She was...different. She ate the chocolate bar quickly, and had a smudge of it on the corner of her lip, and it made Zane swallow a lump in his throat. If only he could... No! No thinking like that dammit! Damn these hormones and these….urges. It wasn’t his fault marriages were assigned on the Western side of the fence, so there was never a need for him to have a ‘girlfriend’, as Renee put it; whatever that was.

  Renee was licking the excess chocolate off her fingers when she looked back at Zane. “Thanks again! I owe you for next time.” She got close enough to the fence to be closer to him, but not close enough to get shocked. She looked at him, as she cocked her head to the side, her expression sincere.

  Her gaze made Zane feel a little uncomfortable, “W-What is it…?” He asked, stuttering; an obvious blush across his face.

  This only seemed to make Renee giggle. “You know what Zane? ….I like you.”

  Okay, that for sure stopped Zane’s heart for a minute there. “You….You what?” He asked, both shocked and confused. “W-Why…? You hardly know anything about me.”

  He stared at her in awe and confusion, while she just continued to smile at him. “I know enough to know I’ve gained feelings for you.” She smiled, before turning around to grab something behind her. She came back with a shovel and planted it in the ground by the hole they had made. “Come with me.” She said with pleading eyes, as she looked over at him. “Come over to this side with me.”

  Zane paled and took a step back, making Renee’s expression turn sad. “I can’t...” he whispered, swallowing a lump in his throat.

  Renee’s expression grew pained, “But why not…?” He opened his mouth to answer when suddenly a siren went off, and bright light was shining down on him.

  Zane clenched his jaw, “Shit! They found us!”A helicopter flew overhead as a loudspeaker went off “X01519, step away from the fence or we will shoot!” Warning shots were fired off by his feet, and he stumbled back and fell on his butt as he scooted backwards, will his back was an inch from the fence.

  The sound of shovel hitting dirt interrupted his thoughts as he hesitantly looked over his shoulder to see Renee hurriedly shoveling away dirt desperately trying to make the hole bigger. “Zane, dig!” Her expression scared him, he’s never seen her make that face. So….desperate.

  More warning shots were fired at him, as a red beam starting making its way up the floor onto his shirt. “I’m gonna die….” he whispered to himself, beads of sweat coming off of his brow.

  “Like hell you are!” Renee shouted shoveling away like her life depended on it. It may not have been her life, but she was going to save his. “Zane, come on dig!” She repeated, managing to get the whole to be twice the size it was. “Please, I’m begging you! I won't let you die, you hear me!?” She began to cry, as tears ran down her cheeks. That once happy smile gone….and that about broke his heart in two.

  He nodded wordlessly and began to dig. His fingernails scraping dirt and rock; he hissed in pain as the rock cut his skin, but he kept going. Another shot was fired, and Zane screamed in pain as a bullet went through his leg. “Fuck…!”

  Renee just became more desperate, “Climb underneath Zane! It’s big enough now!” Zane groaned but did as she said, and crawled underneath. The edge of the fence caught his shirt, but Renee grabbed him and pulled with all her might until he was on her size of the fence. The helicopter rounded the area, but didn’t go farther than the fence. “We made it!” Renee said, tugging Zane closer to her. “Come on, I know someone who can heal that wound.” As Renee tugged Zane up to his feet, he looked to the other side of the fence, that has been his home for 19 years. It was no longer that anymore. He looked up at Renee, and despite the pain he was in he smiled. His new home was with her now. ...At least he’d be with someone he cared about. The same could be said for her. A place with the Zenites. A place to truly be himself...