#yes I wanted an excuse to draw the girlies again- I love the them <3

[tragedy-peanut-gallery]

The daughters in law of Myriah and Daeron in different period clothes!

All the poses were made using sewing patterns as bases, references are below the cut!

[splendidshinobi]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 21-25

almost halfway done lads how we feelin'

episode 21: the red glow

ah yes barry

"i'm alphonse elric!!!!!" yes u r baby!!!

who just popped over the wall

scar im assuming

"i kill therefore i am".....barry spouting descartes rn

it was scar haha

um

hi greed

thought i saw you earlier

WHY DID THEY DRAW HIS ARMS THAT LONG

ope he found the chimera crew...

jerry jewell's evil laugh gets me every time lmao he's so great

ed has deep philosophical talks bro

also ed is chaotic but his personal morals are unshakeable

who are these prison guards gonna release

oh hey kimblee

oh hey squad

ed take out ur pokeball

um wth is that

OH MY GOD TUCKER WHAT

EW

I THOUGHT IT WAS A GIANT YODA OR A SWAMP MONSTER

he looks FUCKKEDDDD

bro of all the things i was not expecting him

oof ishval flashbacks

young scar why is your hair brown

why is it white now

WHY IS HE NAKED

whos her

lust 1.0 im assuming

ew omg tucker is literally so fuckin nasty lookin idk

idk why but he's worse than rod reiss titan for me

wait a damn minute

wait a damn fucking minute

goddamnit

what is GOIN ON

i need tucker to stop whispering he sounds like fucking voldemort on the back of quirrells head

jesus

episode 22: created human

hughes' pajamas look like armin's futon from aot junior high

the bad place???? was that greed's prison gluttony was lookin at?

im still shook af over tucker and tbh its been like 24 hours since i watched episode 21

STOP WHISPERING TUCKER

driving me up a wall

my poor son looks so tired :(

those moral principles at it again

bradley.......

ewww the way tucker walks STOP

hi envy!!!!!

so all of those prisoner guys gonna get flattened by some alchemy

hey kimblee!!!

so did greed escape with the homies???? cause i feel like he would have made his presence known already....

i feel like im missing a lot because im a ding dong

musty prison kimblee is kinda...hot....physically speaking..oops..personality wise obviously there's MUCH to work on

so envy knows hohenheim

ED BABY

he won't do it

oh no alphonse

oh god memory implants

al's identity crisis CONTINUES

they wanna become humans??? huh....doesnt really make sense for their characters...(maybe envy but more on that at 11)

is ed gonna kill these guys for al

some1!!!!!! hold!!!!! me!!!! im so stressed

is he pretending to do it and he's got another plan up his sleeve!!!!????

honestly he's so depressed i cant even tell

those unshakable moral principles at work again i see

the red water can turn ed into a god???? wtf ed doesnt want to be a god he wants to punch god

oh theres the greed squad! i found them!!! is kimblee joining up with them

maria girly!!!!!!!

THE HOMUNCULI IN THEIR STUPID UNIFORMS I--

who's the lady. i need 2 know.

episode 23: fullmetal heart

alphonse is destroyed again

poor kid

"edward sir" brosh pls!!!

oh excuse me--- ***Bloch

The Ross Slap™

winry <3

pinako takes no prisoners

ed didnt you JUST tell brosh and ross they might be right that you needed to trust adults with more shit and now youre blowing off hughes

ed's DRAWINGS im-

hi sig hi izumi!!!

al is so sad over there in that corner

poor baby son

sometimes i feel like hughes and mustang are ed and al's divorced dads

the little arakawa avatar cows in the back im CRYING!!!!!!!

“bean”

snappy al

ooffffffff

omg hughes plz

elicia is precious though we love her

"dad's friend the bookworm" omg sheska

awwww gracia made edward a cake!!!!!!!

god catch me cryin in the club

CONGRATULATIONS

"whatever" al im crying he's so sad

AL MADE BROSH OR WHOEVER CARRY HIS DESTROYED ARMOR TO THE ROOF IM ACTUALLY YELLING

"you goof"

yes winry you are correct boy is a goof

sir you are being so dramatic

give that baby a hug

"so called brother"

so we all know that was a knife through the heart for ed

al just jumped off a FUCKING ROOF and ED TRIED TO FOLLOW

so im crying

i liked this better when they HAD A CONVERSATION ABOUT AL'S FEARS AND MADE THE FUCK UP

episode 24: bonding memories

guess we're gonna play w my emotions again

sometimes like....one bit characters talk...like villager b ya know? and im like who are you i know that voice

so the nasty military has come to ruin some lives again

and barry for some reason

aww poor al

youre real you are!!!!!!

i just feel like people would know people that wear sunglasses in the rain would be ishvalan

but what do i know

obviously they dont have the white hair thing in this version

poor ed is so sad

these boys need a hug 

let me just *pulls out adoption papers*

well if scar doesnt have queen mei to adopt in 03, he’s got this little toothless boy

dont lie al you do care

ew i dont like her

the drama of this boy

so the nasty military has come to ruin some lives again part 2

apparently they are *mercenaries??? excuse me

i have some questions regarding this kid’s mom

well you know i can see why this kid feels this way about his mom

it does look like she ran off...

al and scar dream team up

HEY ED!!! HEY WINRY!!!

bout time

yall gonna have this talk now????

barry STOPPPPPP

brotherhood barry is the true king there i said it

damn scar you baddie

barry like....you already knew him

anyway

WHAT THE HELL

NO RICKKK!!!!!!

someone save this boy!!!!

oh good his mom “saved” him

ah damn thats pretty tragic

she didnt know they were right in front of her

ow

well my questions were answered

so she attacks with grape fanta. thats one way to do it

ed looks like such an angry gremlin right now this is a heartwarming moment sir please

why are ed and scar being so civil right now this is so weird

bye scar

we’ll see him again

see you later scar

episode 25: words of farewell

maes who let you buy that awful pink suit 

gracia please it better not have been you

mustang ew please

dont open the door lookin like that

what the hell are you doing in here 

so hughes WASNT in ishval here?

i think that takes a lot away from his character but anyway

bradley hangs around like a creep at every possible instant

why would bradley care about ishvalan refugees like hughes cmon

“unspeakable crimes” BRADLEY YOU LITERALLY CANNOT TALK

juliet douglas is this lady’s name

only took me 1000 episodes to figure that out

ED AND AL??? NOT DEALING WITH DANGEROUS THINGS??????? dont make me laugh assholes theyre lying thru their teeth

izumi time lets go

wow we’re still going to rush valley? wasnt really expecting that tbh

elicia i LOVE you!!!!!

ew kimblee “hi”

how did he lightning himself like that

if i were ishvalan i would not go to the south....yet ANOTHER war torn region of amestris but ok

okay

an amestrian desert biker gang rolled up to wreak havoc

HUGHES AHAHAHA 

tbh i wouldnt want to tell roy anything either stupid bitch

anyway

um why do i feel like its hughes’ death episode

he would not be shown tucking elicia in to bed otherwise 

please im not ready to be hurt again

oh no

yeah he just learned something about our girl juliet

ive been waiting for this information 

he’s gonna die before we learn anything helpful

yupppppp

hey lust figured you’d show up sooner or later

i too wish i could look that sexy pulling a kunai out of my forehead

SLOTH????????

did girly just say SLOTH

i- nothing about her seems particularly slothy but ok

u know what!!!!!!!!!!!!

ENVY HEYYY

DUMBASS ROY JUST HAAAAAD TO LEAVE

haha famous last words

oof it hurts every time

not the FUNERAL scene no!

time for me to go 

peace out homies im dead inside

yes my brigadier general 

NOT THE RAIN

COME ONNNNNN

hughes is sneezing six feet under

was ed supposed to be looking at hughes’ ghost

um....right

[binnieboi]

Apprehension

part one

  Apprehension. noun noun: apprehension; plural noun: apprehensions anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen. > word count: 1k

tw//: mention of probable panic attack, hate speech genderfluid reader x kai huening note: I am genderfluid, and i experience these feelings (slight dysporia) if you are genderfluid and do not experience these, please don’t bash me as everyone feels differently. also, there’s a HUGE lack of lgbtqia + content in the x reader world (especially non fem readers) so i thought i’d make this blog. ~~ “Evie?” The voice of your boyfriend calling you got you out of your thoughts. You turned to him, tilting your head. “Yes, Kai?” “It’s your turn to draw a card.” He said, shifting his position on the couch. You looked down at your hands, the uno cards specifically saying you had to draw one. You swallowed, shooting him a goofy forced smile. “You’re right-” You chuckle, drawing one. Draw Four. “You’re like in another planet-” He giggles, putting a card down. Sighing internally, you agree with him. You feel like you’re in another planet, and from another one as well. “I guess.” -- “Are you okay going back home now? I don’t want you driving home so late, I’m sure the guys will understand you staying over-” Kai commented, concerned with you being out so late. You shoot him a look, slipping on your shoes at the entrance of the dorm. “Hyuka. I’ll be fine, I only live half an hour away-” He sighs, wrapping his arms around you as you’re bent over from tying your shoes. “I know-” he whines, pouting. “I just don’t want you to go, I’ve barely seen you-” You swallow, chuckling nervously as you try to get him off you. “But we see each other so often-” Lies. You’ve been ignoring him. Kai does a bigger pout, crossing his arms. “No. Evie, I miss you.” Putting on your sweater, you shoot him a pitiful look. “Kai, you know i’m still in school. You already finished, and you know how high school is-” You sigh, poking his lip. “Lose that pout, baby.” He stops pouting and uncrosses his arms. “I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be up your ass like that.” You shoot him a small smile, pecking his cheek, though guilt eats you away inside. “It’s okay. You know I love you.” He blushes slightly. “I know. Have a safe trip back home.” “Tell the boys I’m sad I missed them being home-” You hum, opening the door and blowing Kai a  kiss. “I will, bye~” He blows you one back, closing the door once you slip out and locks it. -- The second you get into your car you rip off your shirt, tearing away at your bra and throwing it to the back, breathing heavily as you take a hair elastic and tie up your hair, high up and out of the way. Still trying to catch your breath, you drive away and stop a few blocks away from the dorms, praying in your mind that you don’t get a panic attack here in the car. You put the car in park, shakily leaning across the driver’s seat to reach the glove compartment- opening it quickly and taking out a piece of clothing. Shrugging it on with some difficulty and wincing in pain as it scratches against a cut, you finally have your binder on- sighing with relief and passing your hand over your chest to feel how flat it is. You pull on your sweater, the feeling of panic starting to subside. Taking out a hat and tucking your long hair under it, you sigh happily. A sound from your phone startles you, grabbing it quickly to see who texted you.

Hyuka <3 Are you home yet? >3< A small cute chuckle leaves your lips, quickly texting back. Me No not yet, I just got into the car ten minutes ago xD Me dummy >w< Your phone buzzes again and you smile. Hyuka <3 Ohh :’> okayyy Hyuka <3 Text me when you get home, okay baby? :< Me Ofc, you silly. ilysm <33

You toss your phone into the back, switching on the radio and blinking when it starts to play Cavetown.

“Are you fucking..” You hold back a laugh. “How fitting.”

Jamming out to Lemon Boy, you drive back home, texting Kai when you get there.

--

The next day, you’re dressed the same. Except this time, the skinny jeans are replaced with loose ones you stole from your guy friend (which one of all of them? You have so many people would start to think you’re a hoe) and the girly sweater is replaced with a System Of a Down longsleeve- it tucked into your jean with rolled cuffs, because yes- you’re bisexual.

Making your way down your apartment building, you’re calmly vibing to some music playing in your earbuds when you feel a tap of your shoulder.

Turning around, you remove your earbuds to look at the person who tapped you.

And once you see, you promptly freeze.

“E-evie?”

You can’t even form words.

YeoNjUn??????!!!!?!?!?!??!/1//1/1/1/1/

“I-”

He looks you up and down and you shrivel inside. He’s judging you. He thinks you’re disgusting. He-

“Can we head up to your apartment to talk?” He asks softly, holding your shoulder. You close your eyes, pocketing your buds slowly.

“Okay.” You reply, quiet and panicking- though leading him up to your apartment.

--

The minute you close the door behind you, you blurt. “I can explain, um- this-”

Yeonjun takes a deep breath. “Okay, because I was hoping you would. Evie- are you transgender?”

You turn red. “NO-” you say a bit harshly, and Yeonjun flinches slightly. You clear your throat.

“I um- I’m not trans…” You say clearer, though the anxiety in your chest rises. “I’m uh-”

“I’m genderfluid?” It comes out like a question.

Confusion is written all over Yeonjun’s face. “You’re whaT?”

Your heart drops. You didn’t expect him to react like this. You knew he knew what it was. “Genderfluid.” You repeat, quieter.

Yeonjun looks away, disbelief in his voice. “Wow. So you’ve been lying to Kai all this time?” You flush. “What? No! Yeonjun-” you step forward, but Yeonjun steps back, looking at you weird.

“Don’t try to excuse yourself, Evie. What the hell?” He winces. “I get trans people but- genderfluid? Evie, the fuck?”

You feel like you’ve been punched in your gut. Yeonjun, one of your bestest friends- why is he acting like this?

“Yeonjun, please try to understand-”

“I’m not. You’re a fucking weirdo.” He spits, pushing past you and running out. You turn, staring at him as he exits.

You’re in shock.

This is not how you wanted to come out.

But then you realize- you realize Yeonjun could tell Kai.

You’ve never talked about the LGBTQ+ community with Kai.

They’ve never mentioned it in their careers- their music, anything.

You don’t even know if your boyfriend supports it.

Heck, your own boyfriend doesn’t even know you’re bisexual.

You drop on your couch, sitting in shock.

What’s going to happen now?? And again, you feel like you’re going to have a panic attack.

~~

[suckerforsmylex]

I Think I Made You Up Inside My Head - Pt. 6

“I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes, they roar back again. I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. (I think I made you up inside my head.) “- Sylvia Plath, Mad Girls Love Song

The phone buzzes again, waking you out of your stunned stupor. Joker’s message blinks again, reminding you that his eyes are on you somehow and you suddenly realize that you’ve been shirtless this entire time and grab a button up and throw it on.  The thought that he may have been admiring your tits from afar makes you blush and you think to yourself, how is it that I am angry and turned on at the same time?

Closing the closet doors and sitting down on the bed again, you look around for a hint of how he may be able to observe you.  You search for cameras and bugs as if you were in a spy flick, but after about ten minutes, you realize that you don’t have time to investigate.  It’s much more important to try to recall who you got yourself into this mess in the first place.  The knife he dropped when he cut through your baby doll top, is still on the floor so you reach down to retrieve it and examine it closely.  

It is entirely made of gold and very sharp with a beautifully ornate handle.  It’s apparent that this knife is a specially made killing apparatus.  You indulge a strange urge to put the knife to your tongue and begin grinning again but you don’t know why. The confusion you feel is simultaneously exhilarating and frightening and suddenly it feels like an intense headache is coming on as another involuntary memory flashes back to you uncontrollably.

The Joker had just been committed after a plea of “not guilty, by reason of insanity.”  The sentence seemed appropriate as he was clearly insane. Throughout the trial, he tormented his own lawyer to the point where he resigned and The Joker had to be represented by a public defender.  When the sentence came down that he would be committed to the loony bin that is Arkham asylum, he smirked, winked at you and stroked the bulge in his pants.

By now, you had grown used to his vulgar displays of affection in the court room and you secretly enjoyed them.  Mid-trial he had to be restrained because during a court recess your earring came off, and when you bent down to get it, he tried to lunge and bite at you while spouting off all kinds of filthy things.  They put him in a muzzle and you became so stirred by the public display, that you had to excuse yourself to the restroom to “relieve yourself.” As you touched yourself, you thought of his eyes on you and how intense his glare was.

When they took him from the court room, you knew that there was a chance that you would never see him again and you decided at the last minute that you would actually take the nutty blonde up on her offer. Yes, you had gone out for a smoke earlier, after a particularly disturbing testimonial from a witness to a Joker murder. You didn’t smoke regularly but did under periods when you were stressed out.  You were sitting on a bench when she approached.  She was a bizarre girl and you couldn’t stop looking over as she was making her way up the court house steps.  She was singing a strange tune as she made her way up, skipping over and introducing herself abruptly.  “Hiyah!  Are you Y/N?”

You nodded suspiciously and she grabbed the cigarette from you, took a drag and then threw it behind her head which pissed you off because you had just lit it. “Hey! I just lit that!”  She suddenly stuck her hand out to shake yours.  “Harley Quinn. Pleased to meetcha’! Wow, Mistah J said you were cute and boy, was he right!”  A slight pout came across her face, but she quickly replaced it with a huge grin.  “I’m gonna’ make you an offer you can’t refuse honey bun.” The smiling blonde was freaking you out and you decided you would walk back into the court room after all.  Harley screamed out in desperation.  "Face it, you’re just like me!  A certified nutso and hopelessly in love with a murderous, psychopathic clown. Tell me you don’t want to break him out of the joint?”  

You spun around on your good leather heels.  “Are you talking about The Joker?”  You looked into Harley’s wild eyes and she smiled a crazed smile.   “Mistah J, sugar or Puddin.”  But you have to earn that last one! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”  A slow smile spread across your face and Harley clasped her hands in delight. “Show me what I have to do,” you squealed.  Harley’s excitement was rubbing off on you.  That and the lack of your medication.  You’d stopped taking it during the trial.  The Joker’s madness made you feel liberated and you decided that you would just live that way, without any help from medication to balance you out.  It was the freest you’d felt in a long time. “Meet me tonight and wear this. We’ll meet about a block from your apartment.  I’m so happy to have a girlfriend to go shopping with!”  

Harley tossed a silky red fabric at you.  It was a hood.  You’d heard of the Red Hood Gang, but only just then realized that you’d joined it.  No one knew how the Red Hood robbed all the banks they did, but you realized that it was a collective of criminals, of varying importance, all pledging their allegiance to The Joker. Harley was his second in command and you were proving yourself as a suitable number 3 with your sights on learning more as her apprentice.  

Harley had her heart set on robbing Nordies, the expensive department store with the beautiful Christmas displays every year, so you went in as a sort of a test to your commitment to her and the Joker mafia. You came out with the Gucci dresses she asked for and a couple of extras for yourself.  “Naughty, Naughty! Wheee!  Wahoo! You are amazing, girly,” Harley exclaimed.  You handed her the bags and kept one for yourself:  A tight black jumpsuit, black heels and a cologne you picked out just for J.            

In that very moment, you decided that you were going to break The Joker out of his cell.  Harley was still hatching a plan but you wanted to go without her. She loved him but you wanted him to know that you loved him more.  You baked him a cake with a phone in it for his birthday and sent it in to the Asylum and The Joker texted you back to let you know when Arkham was at its best to break him out. You took the keys to the purple Lambo and left the apartment to break The Joker out of the crazy house. After parking and posing as one of the guard’s wives who was in to visit and bring him his lunch, you put the men to sleep with a solution The Joker had given you the recipe for.  

The Joker came out of his cell and strolled right over to you with his straight jacket still on. He planted a rough kiss on you and you presented him with the cologne. He smirked, growled in your ear, and then you released him and you both fled to rob a jewelry store later in the night. This is where you remembered the knife from.  This is where you remembered the diamonds and the gold jewelry from.  You realize that you are hiding the entire stash in your closet for him.

You decide to dial Frost.  He answers and he’s all business as you figured he would be.  “What do you need?  Mister J said you might be calling for something.”  You’re bubbly when you answer. Something about his stoic reactions draws the silly out if you. “Hi, Frosty!   Where’s J,” You rasp out. Frost is un-phased.  “He’s taking care of something. Do me a favor. Only call me if there’s an issue,” he responds and hangs up abruptly. You look at your phone again and start scrolling through your contacts again.  HQ.  HQ! It doesn’t stand for Headquarters! It’s Harley Quinn!  You decide to call the number.  “

How’s my favorite little squirrel? Still trying to get that nut,” Harley answers with a giggle.  “Is this Harley,” you ask tentatively. She’s silent for a moment and then she answers in a rising chuckle. “Wow, Mistah J was right doll, you’re really a mess!  Yeah, dummy, it’s Harl!  No fair!  You broke Mistah J out of the clink without telling me. I don’t know whether to kick your ass or kiss ya’, but I’m in big trouble and he’s here to help so I guess I’ll have to deal with you later.  Mistah J is helping me clean up a mess ova’ here, but hold tight honey, he’s on his way back to you.”

[fyeahcodegays]

suzalulu fics for when ao3 isn’t enough

a couple of gen mixed in, but if you have rose tinted shades they’ll work fine

btw these aren’t necessarily exclusive to ffn; some authors have imported their works between sites and thus you might come across something you’ve read in ao3 already.

I may or may not have been depressed that I can’t find fic recs besides this one (which has a lotta good fics, I thrived here) and the lj rec lists dont even load so yeah.

on another note, in the midst of making this, I also found this fic rec (the best playground for my angst loving heart tbh) so I decided to remove the overlaps I found.

i’m personally a fan of dark fic (more like unhealthy codependence) so there’s that I guess

1. In Birdcages | toujourspret

Escaping is only the illusion of freedom when your wings have been clipped.

2. Guileless | J Plash

“Stay with me,” Suzaku whispers, and pretends he doesn’t see the lie when Lelouch says “okay”. Because Lelouch can’t be Zero, not again. All the evidence proves it. And Suzaku couldn’t love Zero like this. 

3. To Err Is Human | tastes-like-ciel

All Zero had to do was string together a few words to bring the knight to his knees. Suzaku never stood a chance and Lelouch never saw the betrayal coming.

4. The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend | tastes-like-ciel

Zero and Suzaku call for a truce in order to defeat a common enemy in their never ending war for Lelouch’s affections. Their enemy’s name? Gino.

5. Excused Absences | YamiPaladinofChaos

Maybe Zero’s meeting with his secret lover?“ The Black Knights discuss their leader’s absence.

6. Scarred But Not Stronger | YamiPaladinofChaos

Suzaku always makes Lelouch stand up again, even when neither of them really wants it. Nunnally and Suzaku, after Kaminejima.

7. Abandon Thyself | Sanjuno

“The strongest soldier cannot balance long upon the blade that does divide his honor and his heart, and whatever way he falls, the cut will kill him.” ― Susanna Kearsley, The Firebird

8. Sleeping Beauty | tastes-like-ciel

And so the brave and noble Prince Suzaku rescued the lovely Princess Lelouch and, in doing so, created a fairytale bound to be told long after they were dead and gone. AU. NOT a Genderswitch.

9. Battleship Grey | tastes-like-ciel

On the day of Nunnally’s kidnapping, Suzaku was absent because of military duties. With no one to aid him, Lelouch was forced to face Mao on his own.

10. Leading Moves | elarielf

Lelouch may be the “girly” one and the “uke” in the relationship, but the whole world knows who wears the pants in his and Suzaku’s relationship.

11. Just Another Game | elarielf

Lelouch takes Suzaku to one of his chess matches, only this time Lelouch loses. The other player orders Suzaku to screw Lelouch over the chess table while he watches.

12. Higame | elarielf

Suzaku thought that all the times Lelouch went out to gamble with Rivalz they were really having sex.

13. Retribution | spare

But somewhere between grabbing Lelouch by the collar of his shirt and shoving him against the wall and glaring into his eyes—one violet, the other glowing red even in the dim light, Suzaku had miscalculated.

14. Get Your Hands Off My Girl… Er, Guy… | elarielf

AU, in which Suzaku and Lelouch go to a club with Rivalz and a guy starts to flirt with Lelouch… So Suzaku gets angry, and at the end they start to fight for Lelouch.

15. Walk On In | Tainted Ink And Paper

Lelouch had an odd habit of taking strays… especially unwanted ones. Suzaku, the Japanese biker who waltzes into his home without permission, comes with more baggage than he can handle… like the Black Knights, like Zero.

16. Mismatched Yarn | Cat In My Fridge

Because in the end, when everything else had been stripped away, there was still one thing Lelouch had to give: himself.

17. All That Remains | LawliPop

Something terrible has happened.

18. Forever, With You | VirtualDraconium

They thought Zero Requiem would be the end of their problems. However, due to unexpected events a considerable amount of time later, the two are brought together once more. Very post-turn 25.

19. Requiem | LawliPop

It was the word on everyone’s lips. A quiet murmur that steadily grew louder with each passing second until it evolved into a celebratory chant.

20. Pure Hearted Love | DnKS-giRLs

What if, instead of waging war against Japan, Britannia sought after an alliance by arranging a political marriage between them? What if the two parties involved was Lelouch vi Britannia and Kururugi Suzaku?

21. Snapshots | DnKS-giRLs

A collection of one shots following the event of Pure Hearted Love. Some mere snapshots portraying the live of Lelouch vi Britannia and Kururugi Suzaku as the royal couple of The Holy Empire of Britannia.

22. Juicy Footage | Coral Blush

Gino thinks Lelouch is sexy, and Suzaku wonders if it’s possible to break his friend’s fingers when no one is looking.

23. In My Memory | KiraxMomo

When all you have are memories, you cling to them. When those memories start to fade, what do you do?

24. Twisted | pretense

“Protect Lelouch and Kill Zero… Well isn’t that just grand?”

25. Mosaic | abovethenightsky

Through the years, the pieces fall into place. It takes Lelouch and Suzaku a little while to learn, but eventually they do. Follows the dynamic duo through R1 and R2, and cycles of fluff, angst, and forgiveness.

26. Revision |  DnKS-giRLs

After the regicide, Zero found himself walking to Emperor Lelouch’s bedroom with fear in his heart. Yes, this is a CRACK fic.

27. The Royal Command | Seto’s Darkness

After defeating Britannia in a bitter war, Suzaku Kururugi is the Prince of Japan who takes a liking to the purple-eyed prisoner, Lelouch.

28. At The World’s End | Seto’s Darkness

Lelouch has always copied Suzaku, the stronger of the two of them. And Suzaku will always protect Lelouch, no matter what.

29. The Moments Between | Zure96

After Charles erases Lelouch’s memory of Zero and Nunnally he has another plan for him before sending him back to Ashford to draw out C.C. Placed in Suzaku’s care, will the newly appointed Knight of Seven abuse his power? Or will he do his duty?

30. Windowless | ucco

Euphemia may hold the title of being Suzaku’s girlfriend, but she’ll never own his heart.

31. The Elegy of Suzaku Kururugi | Coeurlito

The Zero Requiem was not the end. For Suzaku Kururugi, it will never be the end.

32. Thunder and Lightning | Jynova

Thunder and lightning. Two different words denoting the same entity. Two parts of the same phenomena, separated only by the expanse of time. Lelouch Vi Britannia/Lelouch Lamperouge/Zero/99th Emperor of Britannia/Emperor of the World, strikes so brightly. Suzaku Kururugi, plain and simple in his thundering justice.

33. Wrong | faecree

After Euphie’s confession to him, Suzaku simply felt wrong. And, when something feels wrong, isn’t the best way to properly remedy the situation to counter it with something “right” instead?

34. Safe and Sound | Lovelily Lion

In a different world they were ordinary boys caught in a dystopian society bent on watching them lay down their lives. Lelouch grieves over the lover he never had and Suzaku finds a way to get back to him at all costs.

35. Ariadne’s Thread | anlaaria

It could have been perfect. Inception AU.

36. the disloyal order of sunflowers | tenshiplz

Marianne’s eldest son—eight years old and proud of it—the eleventh Prince to the Britannian throne, had attempted to escape three times in the past two days over that wall, but this fourth time was the charm.

37. Fanfic ABCs | Cat In My Fridge

Turning lesbian seemed like the logical thing to do when Suzaku and Lelouch kept being MIA having sex in yaoi fanfiction. At the time, anyway.

38. Retrograde | Libek

At the end of R1, on a whim, Lelouch receives a very different punishment for his actions. Now everyone must deal with the consequences. Themes of “white” slavery, and yes, he does now technically belong to Suzaku.

39. A Friendly Chat | Vermillion Lies

Emperor Charles and Suzaku have a brief conversation regarding memories.

40. Behind Those Wonderful Double Grand Doors |  DnKS-giRLs

That day, the four ladies of Ashford Academy heard some very interesting things behind the closed door of student council room. And what part exactly does aloe gel play in that?

41. Selfish | shimo hyozan

If he was just given the chance, he would’ve been selfish.

42. In Loving Memory | Strawberry Scented Paperclip

An accident has left Suzaku with no recollection of the past two years. He doesn’t mind much, but who’s that dark haired stranger haunting his dreams, and why is his girlfriend acting so distant?

43. The Emperor’s Waltz | realms of fic

Empires may grow and crumble, but music plays forever. 

44. Seeing Double | elarielf

Two Suzakus teaming up against Lelouch, Rock'n'Dolless’s Kiss doujin style. Consensual; semi-public outdoors. …because there can’t be too much Suzaku?

45. Absolution | ficshun

Suzaku must make a choice when confronted with the truth of Zero’s identity.

Bonus Round: cgkinkmemeii fill personal faves

Lelouch is alive with a code, sex with Suzaku ensues

Lelouch turns to Refrain, dubcon

Lelouch switch between good au and canon

Suzalulu RP as each other 

Photographer!zaku

Decayed by rex_sun sidestory (by rex_sun)

MMORPG pk Zero

Student Council/table-kun

Continue? [Yes/No]

Lelouch has fujo fangirls

Cold!lelouch, Passionate!zero

Conflicted!zaku after R1

eyes are windows to the soul

post-R1 non-con

ghost!lelouch

[365daysofmchart]

Reflecting on McHart: 3x01

Long time no see! But just thought I’d make some little (as it turns out) incredibly lengthy remarks about McHart-related things that stood out to me in the season 3 premiere of The Good Fight! May or may not do more of these throughout the season--let me know if you’re feelin’ it. Obviously 3x01 spoilers below!

1. Them holding hands, (and her leg slung over him which we couldn’t really see in the scene but did in the promo) and THAT CHIN GRAB, and him indulging her, oh my! (BUT WHY WOULD HE TEMPT FATE LIKE THAT SAYING “WHAT COULD GO WRONG?” DAMN IT, KURT!)

2. I had been planning to make a clever remark about how I had so been looking forward to seeing what a home/bedroom that was truly both of theirs would look like... and then (once seeing it in the promo/promo pics) that apparently it looks exactly like a Diane bedroom, lol (which is sweet in it’s own right too, I suppose, him just letting her run with it... or perhaps her insisting they do it together but then she vetos like 95% of his ideas so then he just gives up). But then I saw the gun case with more than a dozen firearms in it so actually a Diane/Kurt bedroom seems to be a Diane bedroom with an abundance of guns. ...Which honestly kind of surprises me, especially given that they’re not really locked away. Wondering how those negotiations went between the two of them. ...Are the guns in the bedroom going to become relevant in a later episode??? So many questions. 

But anyway, further on their bedroom, THAT THING IS FREAKING MASSIVE. I know that they want it to function as sort of a catch-all space for the season so that they can get away with shooting every single McHart home scene in that one space and so it has to serve a lot of functions, but good lord, I think an entire apartment could fit in there? And HOW MUCH SEATING DO THEY NEED? They’ve got enough for--no exaggeration--more than ten in there. That’s insane. Are they planning to have a freaking soiree in there??? HA! ...It is gorgeous though, props to Beth!

3. The domesticity of their morning! He’s shaving (with a shaving brush OF COURSE and probably a straight razor) in a towel in the bathroom and her unpacking his stuff as they talk (or holler, rather) back and forth, just kind of hanging out while doing their own things to get ready for the day. THEY’RE MARRIED. My heart! 4. Diane’s increased knowledge of his guns and his preferences despite the fact that he has probably like 50 of them. How much time does he spend talking about guns and she sits there and lets him and listens, probably mostly because she just loves watching him in his element... and also because THEY’RE MARRIED and idk, I guess you do stuff like listening to your spouse talk about things you’re maybe not totally into when you’re married?

5. He called her (at work vs. her cell) while she was on her way to work, after she had just left him, but we never find out why. WHY???

6.HER HELPING HIM PACK. Ans it’s because she “saw airplane tickets on our account.” On “OUR ACCOUNT.” Something tells me they hadn’t merged much of anything before (including their lives), but they have now and it warms my heart!

7. I actually love the way they handled the hairs/her suspicions.To start with, I think it’s natural that after everything, even if they have moved forward and are starting over, even if she has worked though everything and trusts him, I think it’s perfectly realistic that certain feelings might creep up given certain circumstances. Of course exploring this in the show could’ve easily gotten into “drama for the sake of drama” territory and been incredibly messy and destructive, but it wasn’t. 

She wasn’t looking for reasons to be jealous, wasn’t looking to catch him in a trap--they honestly were “just there.” She then handled it so well, asking him reasonable questions, went on with her day, then maturely confronted him about it at home that night. (And honestly, I don’t think she actually thought he cheated, just that he was hiding something perhaps a little less than seemly that had to do with one of his “Fox blonds.”)  And then when she does approach him about it, she starts by telling him she loves him! She’s diving into this situation knowing it could be messy/hurtful but wants to preface with an “I love you” cause they are so IN THIS. Oh, also, ya know, he was being dishonest with her/lying to her, so her suspicions were totally valid. ...And on that note, DID KURT REALLY NOT LEARN HIS LESSON ON BEING HONEST WITH HER?!?!? Like he’s the most honest guy with literally e-ver-y-one else... but his wife. I think it just comes from loving her and not wanting to upset/hurt/lose her, but COME ON, MAN.

8. “I’m being paid. I don’t have a job, I’m hiring myself out...” “They pay me, Diane; it’s money. I’m not doing it because I like them!” “I’m being paid! I’m working!” That. Job. Though. His excuses are such a cop out because they obviously don’t need the money by any means. But I think it really speaks to Kurt and his pride--he loves his wife dearly, loves her strength, will always support her and is genuinely okay with her being the primary breadwinner. ...But he also still feels the need to pull his weight--to have a purpose and to contribute something financially. To “be a man.” (But again, as much as he may feel the need to play a traditional male gender role, he also has zero expectations that Diane do the same!) Because he could always volunteer in some way, take on smaller jobs, wait for the right long-term, paying position... but he’s taken that one. Because pride (which apparently trumps integrity? LOL!). (Throwback to season 2 of TGW!) Oh, Kurt... BUT ALSO SHE SEEMS TO GET THAT, because yes, she’s definitely upset about it and judges him for it, but she doesn’t even begin to try to talk him out of it, just, “Nope, you’re right. You have to do what you have to do.” She knows it’s important to him and respects that it’s something he feels he has to do! (They’ve come so far from 5x06!) As he respects that she has to do what she has to do. Like she just walks out on some kind of vague mission and he just stands there, a little confused, but like, “...Okay? Well, you do you, I guess. I’ll be here.”

9. THEIR TEASING, I LOVE IT SO MUUUUUCH. Honestly it’s been so long since we’ve seen them relaxed and playful together that it almost felt out of character for Diane for a hot minute and then I thought back and was like, “oh yeah, never mind, this is just what they’re like together when they’re not being put through the wringer by the writers!” Gasp! ...But like oh my God, they’re so freaking cute and yes please I’ll take more wise-cracking-sarcastic-sasshole Diane EVERY EPISODE, PLEASE!!! And let’s be honest, Kurt loves it. He looks at her with heart eyes and that little smirk that he can’t quite master because he’s just so in love with her even especially when she teases him. But then “Come on, come on. A little hug, please.” Like it’s not even a kiss or sexual in any way, she’s just missed him and just wants to embrace him for a moment. And given their history in regards to physical intimacy and that we can be quite certain that their sex life is still plenty vibrant, I think that a hug actually means more than tearing into each other, you know? They’ve always had that physical draw, the hug is more a product of an emotional one. (THOUGH I WOULD HAVE ZERO COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEM TEARING INTO EACH OTHER) And then, from the slightest wince she knows something is wrong and presses him on it!

10. The entirety of the “They shot you!” scene was pure GOLD. Every line, every delivery. And then her concern followed by her frantic ire and demand to know who did it, and his trying to calm her but then getting riled himself... UGH. I love it. All of it. Every bit of it. But especially... (And some lines I’ve highlighted at the bottom!)

11. Idk, but I just really love when he shows her the ointment? It just feels SO [OLD?] MARRIED COUPLE. Like, “Yeah, I did go to the hospital and they gave me this stuff to put on it, see? Here it is. Do you want to look at it?”  (And her just automatically taking it from his hand!) Honestly I clearly can’t adequately put words to why this in particular stands out to me, but it just gets me every freaking time.

12. Moment of appreciation for their bathroom (the one room that’s actually lit properly, lol) and alllll of her products and their matching toothbrushes in the middle, then that lil red car on his side (’cause they have sides, guys!). Dying to see their bedroom reasonably well lit at some point during the season (we hope) to see more of these little details! (...Also why are their towels hanging in their washroom area where it would appear that there is only a toilet???)

13. “You’re not fit to kiss my husband’s feet--a truthful man, uncomplaining, never passing the buck, never punching unless he’s punched. When did he become the exception?” After everything, after it all, after the lies and the hurt, she still believes that this man is the greatest man to walk this earth. Perhaps she now knows that he’s not perfect... but I think she believes he’s the closest any man will get. She just loves him SO. DAMN. MUCH. And then just gently resting her arm over his waist while careful to keep her distance from his wound cause she just wants needs that connection... I CAN’T WITH THEMMMMM.

14. Also, ummm... can we please get shirtless Kurt in 3 scenes in every episode??? 15. Diane uttered like 2 “husband”s, 2 “wife”s, and one “married” in this single episode... clearly the writers are as committed to defining them as MARRIED AF as we are.

And just a few other lines that stood out to me:

“I’m happy. ...Am I ridiculous?” “You like narrating your life.”

“But mean it.”

“...And it reeked of cologne, or mousse, or something, and I know that you’d rather die than use girly products...”

“...Then which of you Fox blonds is it?” (”Fox” did not sound like “Fox” upon my first watch/listen, haha!)

“You call him Eric?” “Oh, God...”

“DIANE, you’re scaring me!”

“My God, my poor husband. What have they done to you?”

“That’s why they delayed the trip, they SHOT you!”

“I can do the ointment.” “No you can’t!”

“The most important person in my life...”

Alright, as per usual I got ENTIRELY carried away, but anyway there ya go. Hope at least one of you gets amusement out of it, lol! And feel free to comment/"Ask” your own thoughts!

Happy “More McHart is only 25 hours away!” -E

[hanistarxx]

Against Elysium - Chapter 3

A Modern Greek Mythology AU with Fem!Hades & Fem!Persephone

Summary: All Omisha ever knew was death. She has never felt the warmth of the sun or the breeze of a stormy wind. She has never seen beauty in her kingdom of desolation, or heard the soothing music of assurance. Seraphina wanted to change that. All in the name of love. And Gods forbid anyone who dared to separate them. For if anyone did,a war is what would become of it.

Pairings: Zoe Kravitz x Adria Arjona (Fem!Hades x Fem!Persephone)

Warnings: None, Slight mention of murder

Word Count:  3.4K

Against Elysium - Masterlist

“ABSOLUTELY not!” 

Seraphina yelled at her friend who had nothing but a cheeky smile on his face. They had only been driving for 5 minutes and she felt sick to the stomach already. 

“Fina, this is the one time you get to go out. Of Bronxville! The next time your mom gets high and lets you off the hook again, will be in another 300 years. Do you really want to live in your floral shack for another three centuries?” Jacob chuckled. 

“You call my mother a druggie one more time Kingsley and I will cut you.” Seraphina grabbed on to the seat belt, the material clutched tightly in her hands. She looked as if she saw a ghost, wide-eyed and mouth agape. 

“You can’t make me lie to Mama, Jacob. I’m a terrible liar!” she hissed, small beads of sweat dripping down her face. 

“Look we’re going to Illyana’s and then Xander’s. And then we’re going somewhere else. You can just tell your mom that we went to the first two. You don’t have to tell her everything,” Jacob replied, his grin wider than before. 

Seraphina squinted her eyes at him in anger. She was not about to get into trouble. If her mother found out she lied, her chances of ever going out again were implausible. 

“Technically speaking, omitting the truth, isn’t lying - “ Jacob said. 

“Yes it is!” Seraphina exclaimed.

Jacob jumped slightly at her outburst but laughed nevertheless. The one time his friend was given the opportunity to roam around the city, and she decides to spend her time panicking. 

“Will you at least tell me where we’re going?” she asked, twisting her head to face him. 

Truth be told, Seraphina was flooded with adrenaline. Sure she was given the green light by her mother, but going to some place that was not allowed of her, made her feel invincible. It excited her. 

Jacob hushed her, telling her that it was meant to be a surprise, one she would never forget.  

“You’ll see. I think you’ll like it.” 

---------- 

“THE portal to the Underworld is in Manhattan, New York?!” 

Seraphina pressed her face against the car window, in hopes to get a better view of the metropolis outside. She watched tall skyscrapers piercing through the clouds pass by. All her life, the tallest building she had ever seen was the five-story church at the corner street of Bronxville. 

She awed at the sight of the city. It was modern, advanced and nothing at all like she had imagined. She turned her head to face forward and noticed Jacob driving them into an underpass. 

As they slowly descended into the tunnel, she realised there were no other cars in front of them or following suit behind them. She stared ahead, taking notice of a slightly transparent veil. It shimmered, expressing a little bit of gold. Seraphina squinted her eyes as the veil came closer to them. 

The car sped through the veil. The metal surfaces of the regular Manhattan underway passage slowly morphed into brick walls with statues of gargoyles protruding out. Each of them carved with rose-coloured stone and marble. 

Seraphina undid her seat belt to move forward, anticipating the view that was always described by others but never seen for herself.

“Welcome to the Underworld.” Jacob brought the car slower than usual, as it drove away from the passageway. 

They drove through a windy dirt road, between a forest. Large green pine trees encompassed them, with dead brown leaves bunched at the bottom, around its roots. Light misty clouds seen through the leaves above.

Seraphina brought the windows down to gain a better view of the dark naturistic world. The sun was neither glaring down on them, nor was it completely hidden. The dirt below seemed wet, with puddles every here and there. The breeze as the car continued, was cool and serene, causing her to close her eyes in content. 

She opened her eyes when she felt the car bump. She looked down to see the dirt beneath had turned into a stone path. They were no longer between pine trees but instead, dead willow trees, its enormous roots, resembling the skeleton of a human hand.

She faced forward and that was when she saw tall gates, the colour of the night sky, stood between high brick walls. It’s metal framework showcasing a visible ‘M’ on either side of the gate. Vines and moss covering at its seams, and the entirety of the walls. 

Behind the ancient wrought-iron gates were rows upon rows of crumbling gravestones, their engraved epitaphs bathed in light split from an auriete sun. She let out multiple gasps of shock and amazement as they passed by a series of ancient mausoleums, porous trees hunched over most of the void, casting them in a healthy shadow. Cobweb covered grecian statues stood proudly among the sea of the dead. 

Seraphina noticed the plants and flowers among the tombstones. Dark flowering vines wrapped around the mausoleums. She frowned as she gazed upon them, wondering how something so morbid, can appear beautiful at the same time. 

“There it is. Morrigan Castle,” Jacob said. He drove them through another clearing, away from the cemetery. 

She had seen pictures of Moerani Manor, courtesy of Jacob. It’s elegance and class renowned for its crystal marble floors and white chandeliers. But Morrigan Castle was the total opposite. It allured curiosity and mystery and she wanted nothing more than to step foot on the obsidian floors of the home. 

The old castle stood like an old man of the hill, the sunlight shining on it, its windows dark and gaping. Moss clung in the shade of the ancient walls like a scraggly beard. Grey stone rose from the land, unapologetic and bold. This was more than a castle; it was a home to everyone living in these parts. 

Both of them exited the vehicle and Seraphina suddenly found herself hesitating to enter. Under her fingers the stone was rough and it left her skin cold, drawing dampness into her bones. 

They strolled among the empty hallways outside the castle, Seraphina occasionally gazing up to the ceiling to admire the finer details of the architecture.

“This place is amazing,” she whispered, in awe. 

“Pretty cool huh? It’s a lot darker than Olympus but you can’t say Omisha ain’t got style, even if it’s old,” Jacob replied. 

“It’s definitely not how I imagined it to be.” 

“Sorry to disappoint you then,” a sudden voice said. 

Jacob and Seraphina screamed as if their terrified souls unleashed a banshee from within. They turned around and found Saskia, all decked out in black, her halberd by her side. 

“Speaking of disappointments,” she continued, her gaze focusing on Jacob. 

“Right, yeah, no one comes into this realm unannounced,” Jacob solemned. 

“Good, you remember,” the Fury replied, “So why the hell do you keep coming unannounced?” 

Jacob scoffed at the blatant remark. He thought of an excuse but knew that if he lied his way through, his head would come clean off, with the way Saskia was holding on to her deadly contraption. 

“I’m a messenger-” 

“What up mailman?” Kiara hollered from behind him, happy to see the Kingsley man. Accompanying her was the youngest Lin sister, Thana. The both of them were similarly clothed in black and weapons tucked into their scabbards, attached to their hips. They walked towards the front, joining Saskia. 

“A MESSENGER!” Jacob shrieked, in a little girly voice. 

“As I was saying, I forget things sometimes, with all the messages I have to freaking pass around everyday,” he spazzed, his arms flailing around. 

Seraphina tried to control her giggle, while the sisters just looked at him blankly. 

“Just get a phone like the rest of us. You know those things exist right?” Thana remarked, her tone laced with sarcasm. 

Jacob rolled his eyes with a disgruntled sigh. 

“I know that but the old man insists on formalities,” he said. 

“Or maybe he’s just too old to even try and use a phone. I can’t blame him, he’s got a tiny brain,” Saskia seethed. 

Seraphina glanced back and forth between the girls and Jacob, thinking about who they were referring to as ‘old man’. 

She quietly raised her hand and spoke up, “Are you guys talking about Mr. Moerani?” 

Jacob pressed his face into his hands while the Erinyes’ stared at her incredulously. 

“Mister? Sweetheart are you lost?” Thana asked. 

Seraphina shook her head, the frown between her eyebrows increasing. 

“We don’t call him mister down here. That man doesn’t deserve an ounce of respect from us, not after what he did- ” 

“Saskia.” 

At the sound of a velvety yet powerful voice, Seraphina turned around to find its source. She found Naya Corvus and standing beside her, in all her royal glory, was Omisha Morrigan. 

The Erinyes’ dropped down on one knee, their heads bowed with respect for their Queen. With a hum of approval and a wave of her tattooed hand, she commanded them to stand.

Seraphina tried to break her gaze away from the Goddess but to no avail. She took notice of her raven hair tied in braids, loosely let out over her shoulders. She saw tiny freckles, barely visible, spread over her nose and her honeyed-brown skin that basked under the filtered sunlight.

She focused on her eyes which were curiously gazing back at her. They were a deep brown, like the color of the earth after a torrential rain. But there was something else in them, glistening like an old copper penny. They held secrets, the same way a pot holds deep soil because it is essential to keep the plant safe. The roots are held in place, the same way her dark eyes held so tightly onto her secrets. 

Omisha who held a curious frown towards the younger Goddess, turned to Jacob for an explanation. Having guests in the Underworld was a common idea but she had never met the hispanic beauty, standing in front of her now. Seraphina’s luscious brown curls and her soft hazel eyes, paired with her glowing caramel skin made Omisha wonder in enamore. 

“Misha, my girl!” Jacob started, his words stuttering out of his mouth, due to his nerves. No doubt he had been reprimanded more than once about visiting the Underworld without her knowledge. Omisha never liked anyone coming to her home uninvited or uninformed. He was afraid today she might as well send him to Tartarus for forgetting again. 

Omisha’s glare was the only message he needed. Her gaze fell on him like an act of violence and he visibly trembled for a second. He was about to speak up again before he was interrupted by her. 

“You girls can leave. Bring her with you,” she said, commanding her Erinyes’ to take Seraphina on a castle tour, far away from her, as she needed to discuss private matters with Naya and Jacob. 

The sisters nodded and with gleeful smiles, invited Seraphina and went on their merry way. Seraphina hesitated at first, looking back at Jacob who merely winked and nodded at her, encouraging her to explore the grounds with the girls. 

Jacob sheepishly shrugged his shoulders at Omisha, who rolled her eyes in reply. 

“Why are you here?” she asked. 

“Moerani wants you to know that he’s working on the murder cases. The police mortals have confirmed that they are indeed a series of murders, by poison.” 

“That’s why they all looked like they died in their sleep. The damage was internal,” Naya concluded to herself. 

“Yeah, and the victims were all infected by the same poison,” he replied. He pulled out his tablet, showing intel that he retrieved from the police investigators - a serial killer was on the loose.  

“Israel’s working on an antidote right now, but we’re still unsure of how this poison was administered and how long it takes to fully affect humans. He hasn’t gotten a prophecy or a vision as to who the murderer is though, ” he continued. 

Omisha walked between her advisor and her friend, nodding her head, her brain reeling in brand new information. 

“You know, you could have just sent a text to Naya about this,” she said, amused that the God of Travel came all the way to her abode, to spew a little murder mystery. 

Jacob nodded, “Yeah, that’s not the only reason I came down here. Moerani wanted to give you this too.” 

He dove his hands into his satchel, retrieving a sepia-coloured envelope, with her name written in cursive. She tore it open and took the card out, revealing an invitation to a grand party in Moerani Manor, in celebration of his and Genevieve’s wedding anniversary. 

Omisha let out a bitter sigh, “You’d think they’d get tired after throwing these parties for 500 years, but no.” 

Jacob laughed as Naya contained hers. Jacob reminded her that her presence at the party will be gratefully appreciated. Omisha did not reply with words but one look from her grouchy face, she meant to tell him ‘no promises’. 

It was Naya’s turn to speak up, her topic directing back to the young floral Goddess that accompanied Jacob. 

“Was that Isabela’s daughter that you brought here?” 

----------

“SO you live on Earth?” 

Seraphina nodded, balancing herself on a stone ledge. The sisters had given her the ultimate Underworld tour; from skipping around the graveyard to watching them train in the Arena. All she knew was this realm was far more magnificent than her friends described it to be. 

“What’s it like up there?” Thana asked. 

“I wouldn’t know. I rarely get out of the house. My mother doesn’t let me out,” she replied. 

“So you snuck away?” Kiara imposed. 

Seraphina jumped off the ledge to sit on it. She let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. 

“No. I kinda yelled at her for being unfair to me and I guess she felt bad, so she let me follow Jacob the whole day, to apologise, I guess.” 

“What about your dad?” Kiara asked again. 

Seraphina was taken back by surprise. No one ever asked her about her father before. She did once but only because the first time she brought the topic up, her mother made her vow to never ask about him again. She had always wondered why but knowing how her mother can get when no one listens to her, she’d rather stay in the dark. 

“I don’t know who my father is actually. I’ve never met him. I asked Mama about it once and she seemed dubious about it,” she shrugged. “I never asked again.” 

“Damn,” Saskia started, “Isabela Narvaes had a scandal with one of the Gods.” 

Seraphina shook her head, wanting to disagree with the beautiful Chinese girl in front of her. 

“Oh my Gods, that’s possible,” Kiara insinuated. 

“But which one?” Thana asked, her face displaying a sickening smile. 

As the sisters immersed themselves into the discussion of Seraphina’s supposed father, she stood up and quietly snuck away. Of course, she would like to know who her paternal figure was but she wasn’t quite ready to handle the hard truth, especially not in the Underworld. 

She found herself roaming around the hallways of Morrigan Castle once more. There was a vibe coming from the establishment that pulled her, like a bird to its nest. As she strolled along, she brushed her hands on the rough stone walls, electricity flowing through her veins. The tiny hairs on her hand stood, not out of fear, but out of misplaced belonging to the castle. 

She kept on walking and admiring the many paintings on the walls until she reached the end of the hallway, and laid her eyes upon a beautiful landscape. It stood right smack in the open center of the castle, an attraction displayed for its grandness. 

The Underworld was no doubt a place that reeked of death and despair but right in front of her was a square garden, filled with flowers and plants, even she had never seen before. She climbed down the few flights of stairs leading to it, her eyes never moving away. She walked in twisted bends around small trees, a different spring flower in sight at every corner. 

Through the maze, she reached the center of the garden. There stood a tree, standing at attention, its leaves forming a canopy slightly above her, shading her from the setting sun above. Its bark swirled like water, as if it had flowed from the earth rather than grown there. She followed the eddies and curls, half expecting them to move. She reached out to feel it upon her skin and felt her next breath go in a little deeper. 

Her gaze wandered up only to notice the extravagant fruit it bore, each branch spread out as if so proud of the bounty they held and the sweetness given within each one. Red and round, similar to apples but she knew they were anything but. 

Her hand moved gracefully from the bark of the tree towards it, ready to pluck it. Her fingers were inching closer and her fingertips were already brushing on the leathery rind of the fruit when her wrists were caught. 

She felt the cool pressed sting of metal rings on her bare wrist and she recognised from the tattoos on the hand that caught hers, that it could only belong to one Goddess of the Underworld. 

She trailed her eyes to the owner and for a moment she feared for her dear life. Omisha burned her gaze into Seraphina, literal embers of orange that could only represent fire, contrasted again obsidian black, had replaced her dark brown eyes. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, her voice, far from the velvety rhythm Seraphina heard merely an hour ago. She sounded terrifying, demonic even. 

“I was just looking,” Seraphina replied, her words stammering out of her mouth. She looked around and noticed Jacob, Naya and the Erinyes’ all looking at her with worry. She stopped her gaze at Jacob, silently praying for his help. 

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from this garden and from this place,” Omisha grunted, her fingers still tightly wrapped around Seraphina’s tiny wrist. 

“You’re hurting me.” She tried to pry her hand away from the deadly grasp, tears falling down her cheeks, calling out for Jacob along the process. 

Jacob hurriedly went to her side, as Omisha let go of her. He ushered her to walk back to his car, wanting to bring her home immediately before anything worse could happen. Omisha frustratingly turned away and was confronted by a disappointed Naya. 

“Its her first time here. She doesn’t know anything about this place,” she stated, crossing her hands in front of her. 

Omisha disregarded her and turned her attention to the Lin sisters.

“I thought I told you to look after her,” she breathed out, making her way to them. The sisters audibly gulped. “You know what happens if anyone eats that cursed fruit.” 

They all but nodded, bowing their heads in regret and shame. 

“She didn’t know, Omisha,” Naya stated again. 

“Why are you defending her?” she muttered, slowly turning her head towards the elder Goddess. 

“She’s innocent.” 

“Exactly,” she hissed. “If she ate that fruit, she’d be stuck down here like the rest of us. I don’t know that girl, but I know she doesn’t belong here. She won’t last a damn minute.” 

With her final word, she dispersed, heading back to her office. She wasn’t about to argue with her friends over her actions towards a floral dress-wearing Goddess. Truth be told, Omisha was afraid. She was afraid of the very same mistake occurring again, resulting in another innocent soul to be sealed to the Underworld, without a choice. 

As the car drove back towards the tunnel leading back to her realm, Seraphina rubbed her wrists. The pain from the grasp was still very prominent and she could see the red outlines starting to appear. 

She was a mixture of emotions. Sadness, anger, fear all wrapped up inside her. But there was only one question that played on her lips. 

“What the hell was that fruit back there? Why was she so protective of it?”��

Jacob sighed and closed his eyes momentarily. 

“It was a pomegranate,” he said. 

“And she wasn’t protecting the fruit. She was protecting you.” 

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tag list: @futureauthor-mabye​ @artwriteanimationinspo​

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Chapter 4 (COMING SOON)

[fightevilandthengetblownup]

FIC: In Midnights, In Cups of Coffee

—

Day 495

“Who are you, the Cooler King?” The question cut through the room with a soft chuckle immediately after it at the sound of the double thumps as the baseball bounced against the iron floor, then the iron wall before getting caught in her mitt. Bobby rolled his eyes as he carried the tray with their lunch over to the desk while Jo continued to throw the ball in an even thudding pace.

“Well, my dad always reminded me of McQueen so maybe just a little?”

“Just don’t try to tunnel your way out of here any time soon, girlie, I don’t want to have to redo my slabs due to tiny holes.”

Jo caught the ball as it returned to her and turned to pin the older hunter with a speculative look before she pushed herself up to her feet and dragged the small spare chair over towards the desk to sit down. Bobby had the armchair and she never made the move to suggest otherwise, no matter how angry she’d been with him at times. Pulling her own sandwich plate onto her lap, Jo raised an eyebrow again at him as she took a bite of her sandwich.

“‘Ave oo ‘een ‘alken wuh Gruh?”

“What was that Joey? Can’t speak Mouthful unfortunately.” Bobby responded with a smile, cracking open a soft drink for the both of them and pushing hers towards her. Sipping to help swallow her mouthful of turkey, cranberry and rye, Jo smiled a little in return having noticed that since she’d stopped fighting so hard, Bobby had begun taking care to provide things he knew she liked more than his usual choices.

“I said, have you been talkin’ to Grey?”

“What gave you that idea?”

“The tiny holes comment.”

The older hunter gave a non-committal shrug of his shoulder as he began on his lunch as well. From there, lunch was generally a quiet affair and as they both finished and wiped their hands on the tea towel he’d thought to bring with him, Jo found herself being pinned under a curious yet concerned look from the older hunter.

“How are you holding up, Jo? I know this has got to have been hard-”

“More than half a year in a confined space? What would give you that idea?”

“Not needing your sarcasm, girlie, just checking in with you. Your calls seem to have been getting better.”

Jo smiled a little at that, nodding her head gently. They had been getting better. Things had been feeling better lately, more normal for her. More safe and calm and like she could breath in the small space. More like she was where she was going to be for the foreseeable future. More like being back in the cave and having her routine planned out days and days in advance. More normal again.

“Yeah, it’s going okay. I’m just glad I managed to get one of these this time-” She held up her mitt, shifting to return to her spot against the edge of her bed and tossing the baseball at the exact same spot she had before.

“This time?”

“Oh you know, I lost my last one. Some werewolf broke in and took it - I guess it wasn’t so fun for it down here without something to do.”

“What... what werewolf?” There was a strain to his voice that Jo wasn’t familiar with, and flicking a glance over at him as she threw the ball - hands moving to throw and then catch blindly on reflex as the ball’s arch followed the same trajectory as the last - to see he was rubbing a hand over his beard and staring at her with that same concerned look to his face. She didn’t quite get the need, it wasn’t like she didn’t know how to handle herself down here. She just had to remember to mark the day out on the wall at some point. Just to keep track.

“Oh don’t worry Bobby, it’s long dead. They don’t take shit from me without gettin’ dead a second time, you know.”

“Right. Jo, girl, where do you think it went?”

“Why it just died, Bobby. It’s what we all do in Purgatory after all.”

—

Day 1-3

All of Dean’s words had not prepared her for what it felt like to feel someone else slide into your very self. And unlike him and her original plan, Jo had twice the sensation. She found herself glad that she couldn’t hear either of them and that standing in front of the portal that opened upon her approach, that she had not been misled at all.

The travel through the portal was rough, and it felt at a few points like her arms were drawn back towards Purgatory while the magic tried to expel the rest of her - almost trying to tear and shear her apart with the drawing forces of both Purgatory and Earth battling over where she belonged. Jo was not sure if sound travelled in the space, but she knew her mouth was open and her lungs were screaming raw into the passage between before there was a twinge and she found herself plummeting face first into the hot, sticky asphalt below her.

From there, even if it was with two extremely painful, throbbing masses in her arms, it was an easy enough process to travel back to where the second of the shadow’s had met his grizzly end. Slicing through her right arm and bleeding onto the replaced carpet where his stolen body had oozed out and the shadow’s own mass had tried desperately to claw it’s way out before shrivelling upon the floor in the few places he’d managed to pull a tendril free; Jo had almost groaned in relief as the pressure slipped out of her arm. It felt like her arm was lighter than it had even been.

“You… you here?” Jo asked aloud quietly, eyes dancing about the room trying to locate the shape of the monster to confirm whether or not the spell had managed to work even without a bod to replace like she had been told was the process with Dean and his vampiric friend.

There was a long, drawn out silence in the hotel room before she heard the response, a soft whisper of an answer, “Yes sweetie. You really will strive with things impossible won’t you?”

“What can I say?” Jo shrugged as she continued to look around the space trying to locate him but frowning when she realised that he would be staying out of sight for whatever reason now. “I truly love achieving the impossible.”

“You better go release the runt, sweetie, it’s very cramped in your tiny, tiny arms.” If Jo didn’t know better, she would think he was being nice and not just flirting; but rolling her eyes she nodded to herself at his words. She did so desperately want to get Grey back.

“I’ll catch you around, aye?”

“Only if your luck holds out, sweetie.”

After that, it wasn’t hard to drive herself to the forest that had once housed the two cannibalistic Wendigos and had been where she’d dug a full sized grave behind constant tears. It was hard however to locate the exact spot that the other had fallen - the burial site of the nasty man he had been riding about in unnecessary but the exact place he had succumbed.

Finally, Jo had found in the dirt the discarded lighter she had used to face down the second wendigo, and it was a few moves of reflection to have her standing at the right spot before slicing her left arm through. Nothing appeared to happen and the pressure was still there under her skin. Frowning, she moved a foot over and repeated the step again, and then again, and again.

By the time she finally sliced a mark through her forearm and felt that painful pressure suddenly disappear, her arm looked truly horrific and blood was dripping off and down over her whole hand - tacky and sticky with the dried blood, clinging to each bend of skin and coating her silver ring with the dark red colour. However, the very light scratches needed would heal quickly and should not impact on the clarity of her white ink tattoo once they healed up.

“What the fuck have you done to yourself?!” The pitch was so loud in the quiet forest, drowning out the soft bird song that had surrounded her with the panic and concern etching through his voice as Grey formed to her side. “Jo, how could you mess up so badly? Your arm looks dreadful! You need to take care of that immediately, do you have a med kit or do you need me to get it for you or-”

“Grey, hun, focus. Tis but a scratch, I’ll be fine!”

“Don’t you go quoting Monty Python at me like that will get you excused.”

“It usually would!” Jo laughed in response to his energetic worry, eyes soft and the sound of her laughter spreading out like a warming blanket through the forest. It was the first true, real and honest laugh since she’d last been standing there, and she felt her hands twitch with the desire for him to be in a solid form again right there and now.

But that would come soon enough, for now, she had a trek back down to the car, and he had an equally long trek to find a form he was comfortable with again. Turning on her heels, Jo smiled, a light pink in her cheeks, as she headed back down the mountain and could see the same grey shadow shape take his place at her side.

—

Day 365

“...be still my foolish heart, don’t ruin this on me..” The last word was practically whispered through the line and Jo turned her back to the lounge room turned study where she could see the curious, concerned or just outrightly frustrated looks on the faces of the three other hunters glancing towards her.

She’d demanded the chance to call that day, being a year since she’d flashed through that scary and disturbing passage that brought her back to the world from the faded, washed out world of never-sunlight. Bobby had looked hard and long at her before agreeing to allow it - but only from the bank of phones in the kitchen where he and the two Winchesters who were over for some case help could keep an eye on her.

And an ear originally, as Dean had lent up against the door frame beside her with a cocked brow while she dialed the number half expecting it to be disconnected at this point or the other end not to pick up to the unknown number.

She had heard the voice croaky and tired sounding, exhausted in a way Jo had not remembered ever hearing him since the day so very very long ago as she’d disarmed the bomb under his seat. The sound and memory had her sliding down the wall and tucked in upon herself, old phone cradled tightly against her cheek as she’d spoken the first words to him in over one hundred days.

From there, Jo had heard it immediately. The brightening, the lifting of spirits and the desperation streaming through his every word just as sharply as she could hear it in her own. Dean had snorted harshly at the first words from her being “I love you”, and the hunter had moved off to join the other curiously ‘not watching’ pair within minutes.

The conversation had flowed, and flowed, and mostly been Jo trying not to cry and Grey trying not to ask her to see him. Half finished words, unsaid sentences hanging in silence, and quiet hiccups gulping down air like a drowning man. When she’d heard the sound of a bark in the background, she’d lost it - the sheer distance between her and her little family cutting deep - and when she’d been able to focus again on what was being said, she almost cried again hearing the words being gently sung through the phone to her. He’d always said he would hear it and think of her when they weren’t together.

“Sorry, sorry hun. I..”

“Jo, I know. You don’t need to apologise to me ever.”

“I do though, for so so much.”

There was a groan on the other end of the line, and she found herself biting down on her lip rather than add any more. They went round and round in circles in that loop, and Jo just wished that she could end the circle how she usually would with her lips on his muffling down any more objections or corrections from him. Pressing her own fingers to her lips instead, Jo added quietly, “Other than how much this sucks, how are you doing? How’s Nana?”

“Things are things. I know that... that Nana misses you so very dearly, Jo. Misses you more than anything.”

“Does she now?” She felt the corners of her lips twitching upwards at the tone running through the other’s words, aware that this could sound innocent enough to anyone else if they heard but the underlying meaning clear. “Well, I miss her too. I miss just spending time with her.”

“I’m sure she misses you more, Jo. She...” There was a pause as Grey seemed to think over the words to say, and Jo felt a lump forming in her throat in fear of what he was going to say next. That she may have to deny something yet again, and on the first time they’d been able to speak to one another since she was dragged and vanished from the house. “She misses you so much, Jo. I’m sure she wants to see you, just for a minute, just for one little minute-”

“You know-”

“I don’t care, Jo. I still don’t care. This is fucking torture being away from you-”

“I know-”

“No! No you don’t know!!” The shout down the line surprised her, and jumping slightly in her seat, she could see the three different heads in the other room jerk about to look at her as she moved the phone to her other ear and twisted away from them. This was what she didn’t want to have happen, but clutching the handset in her hands, Jo swallowed thickly as Grey continued, “This is utter torture, Jo, and you don’t have to keep doing this. Please just... just come home, come home to me. Why can’t you just come home? I don’t...I don’t care what you do, just please come back to me.”

“I..” She struggled over the words for a moment, before she finally reacted. Pushing herself to her feet and squeezing her eyes shut, Jo quickly continued, “I love you, hun. I’ll be home as soon as I can” before she slammed the handset into place and stalked downstairs. She couldn’t handle the looks she’s sure she had left in the other room, she couldn’t handle the begging tone, she couldn’t handle this much longer but she’d have to. If she lasted 82 years, she can last however long she has to to have him back again.

—

Day 90

“Shada, hey! Long time no see.” Jo greeted the other girl brightly as she opened the door at the knock, smile firmly in place as she waved her in. “Grey’s in the lounge and I’ve heard that Gray’s planning to stop by and catch you.”

“Really? Both brothers here at once without bloodshed?” Shada asked incredulously, smiling widely in back as she moved into the house while Jo shut the door. “That’s a miracle! How did you manage it?”

“I think it’s got somethin’ with death re-establishing a previously unknown maturity level or maybe just my beggin’ them not to kill one another.”

“Well then, you’ve got some kind of super power, cupcake, cause I’ve never managed that at all.”

Jo laughed a little at that, following the other into the lounge a few steps behind as she watched brother and sister both embrace quickly in a tight hug. Shada began speaking in some language that Jo couldn’t quite follow, and Grey appeared to match in kind without a second thought. Smiling at the clear affection and happiness in the other woman’s looks at seeing her brother back alive and well, the blonde turned about and moved about collecting a tray of drinks for the three of them before adding a spare beer for the one shadow that had yet to show up.

Shada appeared to stare at her brother more and more as the afternoon dragged on while they all talked. It was like she was trying to dig under his surface or something, but Jo shrugged it off as she tucked in on Grey’s lap on the small armchair together.

It wasn’t until the other shadow appeared, suddenly appearing by the front window and giving his sister a sharp nod of greeting compared to the ruffle of Jo’s hair as she’d approached with the cold beer for him that all hell broke loose.

Shada’s voice had reached an earsplitting level as she jerked straight from her chair, one hand pointed towards Jo and the dark lines of her shadow snagging upon Jo’s own before flinging her up against the closest wall. “What the fuck did you do, you foolish human??!”

The next second, both other shadows were on their feet and snarling - one’s shadow stretching out to drag and push back at his sister’s harshly using their own tricks and powers to affect the younger shadow. The other had thrown himself physically at her, silver flash of his razor out and pressed against the girl’s neck in threat and intention as he snarled down in her face; the size of his new frame providing intimidation on top of the weapon and the other shadow’s own shifts.

“You bloody idiots, let go of me and open your fucking eyes!” Shada shrieked the words out, twisting and pushing back against Gray’s tight and sharp grip as she dropped the control over Jo’s shadow, eyes fixed on the dark brown ones staring down at her. “Brother, can’t you see what she’s done to you?!”

“What the fuck are you on about, sister?” The words were hissed between the two of them, and Jo found herself trying to listen in over the concerned and worried check up she was getting as she’d dropped from the force against the wall and into Grey’s waiting arms.

“You’re both Stained!”

A pin drop could have been heard in the room as if it were a gunshot by how silent it fell at that announcement. Gray dropped his harsh grip upon his little sister, stepping back several steps and jerking his head about to look between the pleading look on Shada’s face and the distraught and slowly comprehending look on Jo’s own face as the woman’s words sank in. She felt Grey’s own grip tighten around her arms, and almost pull her into him as he stared across at his brother hatefully - as if somehow he was responsible for this happening to the both of them and it wasn’t Jo’s idea and choice that drew this upon them.

“What…”

“How the fuck do you figure that, sister?”

With a flip of her hair, Shada stepped off of the wall and pinned Jo with the most fearful look she had ever seen from the girl shadow. “How about we ask your precious cupcake how it happened, hmm? How exactly you escaped Purgatory the lot of you?”

“I… there’s a spell and I carried them in my arms out.” Jo stumbled over the words as all three faces turned to look at her, and she found herself blinking in confusion as to how she could have done anything like tearing into their Vice doing such an action. The only time she had heard of such a thing happening had been when Grey was practically torn apart supposedly, and she certainly had not hurt either of them at the time. “I’m not sure how it works, Dean told me about it.”

“You… You carried them in your fucking arms? You realise that was in your soul!” Shada hissed the words out as she stalked forwards towards Jo, only to be stopped by Gray’s hands reaching out to stop her with a sharp pull. Slashing at his grip with her forearm, the girl shadow snarled. “You have completely covered them with your being, you foolish, stupid human! You’ve marked them both, more thoroughly than that horrible demon ever did! This is so wrong!!”

“Don’t talk about Jo like that, Shada.” The way he snarled at his sister, so unusual for Grey to do so, made Jo shudder as she looked between the determined yet hard look on both brother’s faces, she realised how accurate the lone woman shadow’s words were.

Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

—

Day 33

“Hey, have you ever seen this before?” Jo asked, a wide smile on her face that she knew had been there all morning and was showing no signs of dropping away. If she’d been more poetic, Jo’d have possibly said that she was glowing when she’d caught her reflection a few times throughout the day thus far.

There was a rise of an eyebrow in response at her as he stepped over the threshold and followed after her along to the lounge room, looking more at ease in the space than she had ever expected he would. “Seen what?” Gray asked as he tilted her head at the DVD in her hand curiously.

“American Psycho? It’s a movie.”

“Nah, don’t spend much time watching trashy girly crap.”

“That’s American Sweethearts, you idiot.”

“Comme ci comme ça?”

Jo laughed at that, shaking her head as she waved the case at him. “Definitely not! I’m almost positive you’d like this.” She turned her back to him, moving to stick the DVD into the player with a flourish and a wave of her hand at him to make himself comfortable. “I mean, your brother hates this movie, so I hardly ever get to see it.”

“A runt-unfriendly movie?” Gray asked sharply, and when Jo shot a glare over her shoulder at him, he held up his hands in surrender with a shake of his head. “Fine, fine. I’ll take your word for it and make no other comments.”

“Good, cause I look forward to tellin’ you I told you so.” She smiled a little as she got the system set up and made her way across to the couch beside where the shadow had already made himself comfortable. They’d only hung out like this a few times in the last week or so, usually on opposite ends of the couch and typically some kind of action flick when Grey was out feeding, with a bowl of popcorn next to Jo’s hip giving plenty of a boundary between them. Gray had already taken his jacket off and draped it over the back of the spare seat, and had one foot resting on top of the coffee table, stretched out languidly and relaxed in a way he never seemed to be when he’d first show up to visit. “If you think this movie sucks, then I’m going to question your taste forever.”

“Don’t you already?” He quipped back, smirking slightly as Jo bustled about and disappeared to grab a drink for each of them. When she returned the DVD’s main screen was on and flashing ready to play. Pressing the start button, Jo found herself stepping over his stretched out leg cautiously before sinking down on the couch beside him in the centre rather than the far end as the opening credits started without thinking about it. There was a slight cough from beside her as she passed him his own beer, before Gray asked inquiringly, “So, where is he today?”

“Out feeding.”

“Didn’t he do that like… two days ago?”

“Yeah-”

“That’s a pretty quick turn around, isn’t it? Thought he usually took more than two days to need more from that crappy diet of his.”

Jo felt her cheeks flushing red as the other kept asking questions before shaking her head and hiding a wicked smile behind her  hair. “Well, usually, yes.”

“So? What’s happened that used up all that second-rate monster juice?” Gray quipped back, one arm spreading along the back of the couch behind her shoulders without a care as he used the other arm on the arm rest to take the odd sip of his beer. He quirked a brow at her, tugging on a piece of her hair behind her neck when she didn’t reply. “Come on, sweetie, what’s sent him off so quick?”

“Well, it was my birthday yesterday, so uh things were a little more exhaustive than usual.” She knew she was blushing uncontrollably as she looked out the corner of her eye at him, a small smirk growing when she could see a disgusted look followed by something she couldn’t quite place flash across his face before she got a laugh for her comments.

“That’d do it then. Alright, movie time now, right sweetie?”

Nodding, Jo grinned to herself and settled in comfortably to watch one of her favourite movies without the usual groans of discomfort and distaste she had gotten the one time she’d asked the other shadow to watch with her. As the men compared their business cars, she found herself sinking to the side, pressed up against her enemy-turned-friend’s side and her head resting in the crook of his shoulder and chest without a thought.

By the time the ATM was begging for a cat, they’d both finished their beers and Jo had already heard the approving rumble in the other’s chest at several points throughout the film. As the woman screamed about witnessing the psychopathic Bateman pressing a cat towards the card slot, there was a disgusted noise from the doorway.

“Fuck sake, really? This movie again, Jo?”

“I like watchin’ it when you’re not around to complain.” The blonde quipped back, shifting upright from her previous position causing the arm wrapped around her shoulder and down her arm to drop down behind her as she turned to smile up at the new arrival. “It’ll be over in like… twenty minutes?”

“Fine, I can handle twenty minutes of this-”

“Can you two shut up, I’m trying to watch this.” Gray hissed quietly, eyes focused upon the screen as the woman started running through the halls screaming. Jo rolled her own eyes, but frowned slightly to herself noticing the way he pulled his arm from behind her back over to his lap and his other hand gripped the armrest tightly. “If you’re watching, sit down and watch quietly.”

Jo raised an eyebrow but shifted as the other shadow moved about to sit as far away as possible from the other on the other end of the couch without another word, but a slight glare to his face as he looked across at her.

Shrugging to herself, the blonde shifted her own weight to lean to the other side and resting her head in Grey’s lap without another thought. Shifting her hips a little, Jo tucked her feet in underneath the other’s lap on the other end of the couch and settled in with a smile to enjoy the end of the movie - glad not to have to defuse any fighting for once.

—

Day 172

She kicked the car door shut with the back of her heel, bag held tightly between her hands as she made her way over to the motel’s reception. Getting a room was easy, the flickering VACANCY sign out the front seeming like it was the type of place it never flashed NO before it. Jo shrugged the bag strap over her shoulder as she fumbled her key into the door and made her way inside, tossing her pack on the solo bed and shutting the door behind her quietly.

From there, it took no time at all to be back in the swing of setting up her room and getting prepared for the leg work of a hunt. Her printed pages were spread out on the wall methodically if a little erratically to anyone else’s eye but hers. Files were spread across the bed cover alongside the odd books she’d brought with her, and her knives and two main guns were set out on the rickety table top alongside her laptop. Her phone was plugged in and charging after the thirteen hour trip from Duluth to get into this little town in the middle of nowhere. She was sure she’d be getting a call from Harry shortly about Nana if no one else.

Flopping down on the bed with a bounce as she grabbed one of the books and flicking through the pages held above her head, Jo jerked up with a strangled scream at the voice that cut through the quiet room. “What are you doing out from behind your iron castle, sweetie?”

“Fuck! You tryin’ to give me a heart attack!?!” Jo shrieked, dropping her book beside her as she shifted to sit upright, staring across at the doorway where the voice had come from. It did not surprise her one bit he was the first one to find her - he’d always been better at locating her than most, and it had barely been any time for him from the times he was popping up and stopping her from splattering some crappy motel room like this one’s walls with blood and brain matter.

Gray pushed away from the door but drew short of getting within five feet of her, his arms crossed tightly over his chest in a way that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. There was something different to the last times she’d seen him, but given it had been over two months, that was to be expected. He was getting back to normal. Jo mentally kicked herself for the slight pang the idea that they would be going back to normal shot through her.

“You shouldn’t be out at the moment, sweetie. There’s monsters out here looking for you, did you know?”

“Here I thought I was the one out hunting monsters.”

“You’re not wrong there, but you’d better watch your back.” His voice was quieter than usual, smooth as silk and making her remember that dangerous pulse from the last time they’d spoke. The heavy look he’d shot her before she’d ignored him in favor of his brother as she’d closed the door on the relaxed relationship they had been developing. Gray seemed to consider stepping closer before taking a short step back instead, a grimace on his face as he looked towards her. “Not all of us want this situation to get fixed. You’re lucky, sweetie, that I appreciate the situation and want to rectify the issue.”

“Of course you do. Me too, by the way.”

“Unfortunately for you, you’re the only one when it comes to the runt though.” Gray’s eyes ran around the room and Jo wasn’t surprised to see him turn away from her and head towards her make-shift pin board, flicking at the papers. She’d noticed his habit of reviewing her work in past - as if the whole concept fascinated and appalled him - and didn’t fight the smile that seeing him brushing over her carefully developed work got. When he turned back to her, Jo was surprised however to see the flash of that previously inconceivable look upon his face, her own smile dropping slightly until his had passed. There was a beat before he added almost too gently, as if teasing at trouble with it, “You better watch your back before he shows up wanting you on yours. I at least want to get better, he just wants you.”

“I..”

“I’ll catch you around, sweetie.”

Jo felt herself smiling at that, and didn’t miss that look coming to his face again as she replied in kind - “Only if your luck holds out.” - before he smoked away.

She considered laying iron across the door and the window of the motel room at that point, but given how often she was in and out over the next two days, it had slipped her mind and the hunt itself had taken centre stage for her thoughts and concerns. It was a skinwalker, that much was obvious, but she was having a bitch of a time working out exactly where it was hiding and what form it was taking at this point.

Tomorrow would be the day she caught it, she told herself as she locked the door and changed into her pyjamas - one of the old hoodies that had been tucked away in the drawers at home from before that still smelt so clearly of home - before shutting out the lights and sliding into bed. Tomorrow would be the day.

When she woke it was to heavy breath on the back of her neck and an arm around her waist that made her freeze. The door had been locked, nobody should have been in here with her.

“Shhh, it’s just me.” Those words were enough to settle her nerves immediately, the soft, deep tone washing over her like a calming balm. His arm tightened slightly around her as she shifted to press back against him sleepily. “I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, hun.” Jo murmured back tiredly, one hand covering his and entwining their fingers as she settled into his arms as if they’d never been apart. She felt herself drifting off quicker than she had in months, the feeling of love and home washing over her as she turned in his arms and the press of his lips to her forehead was the last thing she remembered that night.

—

Day 261

Rolling over in her bed, she stretched out languidly like she was a cat in a sunlight stream, toes curling and hands pressing harshly against the headboard. Beside her she heard a chuckle and turned to raise an eyebrow across at him. “Oh fuck you, that wasn’t supposed to happen and you know it.”

“Fuck you, huh? Don’t mind if I do again, pretty one.” Grey whispered the words into the skin of her neck, kissing along her neck paying special attention to the ancient scars on the one side, as he shifted to rest above her as she rolled up towards him in response. Her hands traced over his chest, scratching here and there before her nails dug into his shoulder blades like a fan as he thrust inside her for the third time since the night before. She shuddered and rocked her hips up to his as he murmured into her ear, “I’ve missed you, so so much.”

“We shouldn’t be-” Jo bit off the words with a moan, wrapping her arms around him again as the feelings of being together again washed over her. It had been impulsive the night before when she’d had a few too many drinks and had spotted the brand new sketchpad and pencil set she had bought earlier in the year for that very day. It had been leather bound and gorgeous, and she’d had it hidden in the bookshelf of her study for months. Before all of this came to light. The choice to rip up the iron on the front door had been foolish, but as soon as she’d messaged him, he’d been there on the door step and the night had been a blur of touches, kisses and moans from there. Much as the morning was shaping up to be as the reasons this wasn’t right and that they shouldn’t and why they weren’t supposed to disappeared in his hot lips and hands.

Wrapped up together afterwards, Jo could feel the warmth of the sun beating in through the gaps in the window on them as if burning them both for their misdeeds before it had risen fully. Condemning their actions and branding them for still being curled around one another now that the 14th had come.

“Hun.. we can’t keep doin’ this.” She whispered the words as if she said them quietly enough they could pretend a little longer that they weren’t true and could stay like this. He let out a quiet laugh, a harsh painful sound when she looked up to catch his eyes, that desperate look still deep within them - desperate for them to stay like this, for things to be how they were, to be together. “You’re still-”

“I’m still yours. I know.” His nose brushed up against hers gently, bringing a sigh from the both of them before he pressed his lips to hers so gently Jo felt like crying. Grey stared into her eyes gently as his fingers traced over the skin of her shoulders. “I’ve always been yours though, Jo, and I always will be. So why does it matter?”

“It matters, it matters so much. I can’t… we can’t be like this.”

“You mean that you can’t be like him, right?” Jo sucked in her breath at the words, eyes going wide before his lips covered hers and practically pulled the words from her mouth. “Rest assured, pretty one, you’d never ever be like he was. We could be like this for the rest of eternity and it’d make no lick of difference if I was marked as yours or just yours in words alone.”

“Grey…”

“Oh you two have got to be kidding me right now.” The third voice shocked the pair of them, not springing apart but both sticking their mussed heads up from below the covers to see the furious looking other shadow at the end of the bed with the yapping dog bounding about her feet and then jumping atop the bed itself. “What part of your fucking Stained did not resonate with you, brother?”

“Shada, fuck off would you.” Grey remarked in response, shifting to sit up more but tugging the covers to keep Jo covered and concealed from the other woman’s angry glances. He growled a little in response as the other shadow made to tug the quilts away herself, hands holding tight. “This has nothing to do with you any more. You are the one that’s forcing us apart, and I’m sick of it. I want Jo, I want to be with Jo, and I am going to be with Jo. So just fuck off if you can’t agree to what makes me happy.”

“Brother…” Shada’s voice was so deeply tired and sad as she stared down at her brother, and Jo could see the worry and concern etched across the other’s beautiful face as if she had aged an eon in the last few months since this had come to light. The other woman sighed, rubbing a hand over her hair before adding, “Fine, if that’s what you want, that is fine. But I’ll talk to the one of you who is a rational adult instead then. Jo-”

“Don’t talk to her.”

“Jo, you need to take responsibility for what you’ve done! Get dressed, we’re going.”

“Wait, what?” Jo jerked herself up, clutching the covers against her chest as she stared at the other woman’s remarks in confusion. She felt Grey’s hand reached for her back, rubbing gentle circles with his thumb against the base of her spine. It was so warm and comfortable and made her feel so much better. Shaking that thought from her head, she shifted slightly to the side, looking between the two siblings in confusion. “What do you mean we’re goin’?”

Shada tutted at her, and Jo could hear the sound of her foot tapping from behind the end of the bed. The dark haired girl tossed her hair back in frustration and flapped a hand towards the pair still in the bed, where Grey had sank to lean back against the bedhead with a few pillows behind him and as Jo caught her eye she felt that tingle of something along her spine, the hairs standing up on the back of her neck. She found herself licking her lips slightly before a cough from the other woman dragged her attention away again. “See that right there, cupcake, is why we need to go. You? Are going to your Uncle’s house to stay in that big scary room of his - willingly or not. Brother can keep the house under control until he is better since he seems so comfortable where he is.”

“You aren’t taking her against her will, Shada.” The other shadow growled deeply, that deep voice rougher and darker than his other had ever gotten as he lent forward a little, a threat clear in his movements as Jo shifted off of the bed with the sheet tugged out from the end to hold against herself. “Jo is mine and always has been, and you will not take her.”

There was a long pause as the two shadows stared one another down from each position, the girl not moving at all and her face refusing to shift from the cocky snarl she’d had in place the whole time, while he had started shifting to get off of the bed, without any care to his current state of undress compared to keeping the other from Jo.

Next second, Shada was gone from the end of the bed, and Jo let out a squeak at the feeling of a hand on her elbow and just heard the parting words before the bedroom and Grey’s distraught yet furious face disappeared; “You want to bet, brother?”

Between blinks they went from the bedroom to the dank basement in her friend’s house, and Jo clutched the sheet about her, tugging for it to cover her back as well as front as she saw the older hunter lurching to his feet from a seat before the large iron door.

“What the hell-”

“I had no time for her to get dressed. I’ll get some clothes for her once she’s in.” Shada responded to the gruff sounding question as she poked and prodded Jo forward while the hunter shrugged in understanding and span the locking mechanism open. Jo struggled to stop being pushed in before the shadow disappeared from before her and popped up behind her with an unexpected shove - sending her propelling and tripping forward and into the panic room.

Behind her was the sound of the door slamming shut as she got her balance under her feet, spinning around to see the two bars move to close with a hard clink. Rushing to the door and bashing her fist, holding tight to the sheet with her other, Jo found herself screaming to no response.

—

Day 4

Jo had fallen asleep waiting up for him.

She had gotten home just after midnight, a minor detour on the way back to pick up their baby from Bobby’s had delayed her a little such that she half expected him to already be back and waiting for her - but instead she’d gotten back to a house just as empty as it had been after that fateful hunt so, so many days ago by her standards. If it weren’t for the bandages around her forearms and the clumps of Purgatory dirt still clinging to her hair that she had yet to shower away, Jo would almost think it was a dream.

She’d fallen asleep sitting on the couch waiting for him, and scratching at her dirty, sticky and mucky skin; Jo finally decided it was time to engage in the one feature she had truly missed - indoor plumbing and hot water.

Her teeth had taken forever to clean and get the horrible taste of years of grime off of them. Her hair had been a matted mess of tangles, twigs, mud and knots that took almost an hour of tugging through with a hair brush, the hot water running along it, and slathers of conditioner to detangle and gleam again. Her finger nails were a lost cause and were clipped off low and scrubbed to red before the dirt was all gone.

She had just finished balancing precariously against the cold tile and keeping as much of her as possible under the hot water flow to complete shaving her legs for the first time in 83 years when she heard a voice outside of the shower screen. The voice was rough around the edges, and moved more fluidly between deep, rough and raw pitches and up to higher, cracked notes on the emphasis. “So, this is where you got to…”

Jo let out a scream, slicing a thin cut down her leg as she dropped the razor and span about in the shower space, jerking the shower screen open to get a visual on whoever was in her home now. Blinking the still pouring water out of her eyes, she shank back against the tile behind her.

“Jo! Oh no, no, I’m so sorry! I thought you heard me coming in, I called out for you - I’m so so sorry.” The stranger reacted immediately, hands held out in a calming motion and confusingly bright eyes (were they blue, were they grey, were they green or hazel or what) staring at her. Jo felt the cold jolt of the tile behind her forcing her back forward under the hot water stream as she stared in confusion and slight fear at the other. Blinking her eyes as she realised what he was saying, the words sinking in for her as the water poured down over her head and washed out her ears, the blonde let out a shaky breath that matched the shaking hands of the other man. “Did you… you didn’t hurt yourself did you? You cut yourself! I’m so sorry for surprising you, it’s me.”

“Grey?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I forgot that.. I thought you heard me.” The dark haired man’s face shifted through emotions so quickly and smoothly that Jo found herself blinking under the stream of hot water and seeing a different look every second. Shifting a little forward, she wiped at her eyes and blinked as she looked over the other in much the same fashion she could tell he was doing her own battered, bruised and slightly emaciated form from so much time fighting for survival and the natural tan of her skin faded to a pale from so much time without any real sunlight. For her part, Jo found herself biting her lip as she took in the jaw line behind the slight stubble, the mussed hair that was just begging for her fingers and those damn eyes all within an extremely handsome face. He might not have looked the same as before, but she knew if she’d looked into bright blue eyes again it would just send her back to that moment every time; and leaning slightly closer out of the stream of water, Jo found herself very much appreciating the choice this time. “I couldn’t believe I was home, I’m just so happy to be back I didn’t think.”

She lifted a finger to his lips, shaking her head and tilting to one side as Jo looked over the worn and tired clothes he had on, clearly what whoever it had been’s choices rather than his own from the sight of plaid sticking out under the green jacket. “Grey, it’s fine, I just didn’t hear you. I’m so glad you’re home too.”

There was a brief second that she worried it might not have actually been her man in there, in whoever it was that seemingly had had a rough life matching the struggles her own clothes in a pile by his feet had seen; right up until the groan she heard at her touch and the dark hunger that had filled his eyes as Jo noticed him running a longing look over her and he opened his mouth to speak behind his finger, “I’m so glad to be home with you, pretty one.”

A sharp tug had him in the flow of water with her, hands frantic between the two of them to shed the various layers as quickly as possible and relearn each and every spot to one another after so long.

—

Day 51

The moment she’d pulled the car into the driveway and saw the shift of the front window’s curtain, Jo had felt the tears starting up. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the way the shadow beside her flinched - his joining her on the drive purely “to make sure you don’t drive yourself into a tree”, or so he claimed - and the next minute the seat was empty and he’d disappeared leaving her to this alone. It figured.

She could see the front door opening and the first of her tears started down her cheek as she got out of the car and found herself flinging herself into his waiting arms with a sob.

“Wha… Jo, Jo, what happened? Are you okay?” Grey’s voice was that same rough tone she had gotten used to, the lows it could achieve when he was serious so surprising yet somehow soothing to her ear at the same time. There was a pause as she could feel his hands pause in their strokes over her hair and a shift in the way he was holding her as he seemed to bury his nose into her crown for a moment. The next he spoke there was ice in his tone, but he still didn’t release the comforting hold around her, “Jo. What did you do?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?”

There was a long tense moment as she tried to cling onto the feel of her face tucked against the warmth of his chest and his arms around her the way she fully expected to never happen again. She’d fucked up and fucked up so badly after all. Clinging onto it for a last second, Jo pulled back a little bit so she could look up at him and tried to keep her lip from trembling as her wet eyes met his cold ones.

“It wasn’t… I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just did.”

“I’ve heard that before, Jo.”

“And I mean it, Grey. You can look, you can look if you want, look and see I didn’t mean it to happen. I didn’t mean to do it - I was goin’ for a hug and the cheek and then one thing led to another and-”

His finger was over her lips, pressed tightly and silencing her immediately as she felt another round of tears start to silently fall. It hurt so much to think what she had done to him, to them, with just one little mistake. There was no taking it back, and as she stared up into his clouded eyes, she tried to prepare herself for the words - for him to say they were done, it was over, she disgusted him and how dare she ruin this for them forever; that he couldn’t stand to look at her, and that she was all of the things that had run through her mind on the tense drive home. That she was a slut, spreading her legs for anyone and how dare she do that when he was so so good to her. Jo tried not to move her lips under his finger but struggled to keep from letting it quiver in anticipation.

“Jo, why did you do that?” His voice was sharp in some ways, cracking into that higher pitch to the deep, gruff tone she was used to now, that always made it clear he was struggling to contain himself from doing something more. What she didn’t expect was for his hand to shift, smoothing to hold her cheek and wipe the tear marks from her skin with the gentleness he had every other time she had cried before him. “Why him of all people?”

“I… He… I’m…” Jo stammered over the words, eyes watering again but she blinked rapidly to stop them from falling. It was too cruel, it was too mean and too real if she kept crying over it; crying over what she knew was going to be the loss of the most pivotal and important thing in her world. What she’d waited decades for she’d ruined in one mistake. Shaking her head and dislodging his hand, Jo swallowed thickly before whispering quietly. “He saved me from myself.. He’s why we’re here right now.. I just feel different around..” She couldn’t quite finish her thoughts, the feelings that had been percolating for seemingly so long since that night in the alley way and put on ice for years as she hid away before being dragged into the light over the last few two months jarred and cut away at her for their very existence. Denial was so much easier.

“I see now.” Grey’s voice was so soft she almost thought she’d misheard him as he stroked his thumbs over her cheeks, and Jo felt her eyes widen at the movement and the acceptance she could see radiating out of his expression.

“What..”

“We can get past this.” He murmured, pulling her back in against him but careful to avoid touching or moving the hair that covered the dark bruise on her neck, drawing her back into the house with an unexpected kiss to her forehead. Her eyes were blown wide in shock and confusion as he guided her about, each gesture feeling so like normal but completely unnatural for what she’d just done. “I love you, Jo. And loving you comes with complications sometimes.”

“This isn’t right.” She mumbled the words to herself as he moved them towards the couch, feather light touches from him, as she sank into the fabric with a shake of her head. Something was not right but she had no idea what.

—

Day 11

There was a knocking on the front door - a strange noise Jo still hadn’t quite adjusted to remembering - as they’d sat down for breakfast that morning. She had actually jumped at the sound, hand clutched tightly around the small butter knife ready to strike out as she jerked her head around looking for the source until the calming hand slid over hers.

“It’s just the front door, Jo.” Grey said softly, his thumb rubbing against her knuckles as she slowly released the tight grip. “I’ll go see who it is, okay?”

“Okay..” Jo let out a shaky breath as she set the knife back down and waited until he’d stood up and moved to the door to pick up her toast, chewing one bite of her Nutella covered piece before the sounds of a loud shout had her jerking from her seat.

Running out the kitchen towards the front door, she was surprised to see Grey standing dead set in the middle of the doorway and blocking entry to the stranger on the doorstep.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Despite the change of body, one Jo had definitely appreciated and enjoyed over the last week, the tone was still so clearly the same as Grey snarled at whoever was outside. He was glaring up the very slight height difference at the tall, muscular man waiting outside. “How did you think showing up here was okay?”

“Oh fuck off, runt, I’m not here to cause trouble.” It took a moment for the words to sink in and recognise who the stranger must be, the dark, silky voice cutting jarringly with the way she was used to hearing the derogatory name sounding like. Jo moved along the hallway, toast still in hand and eyes darting between the sneer on the newcomer’s face and the way Grey’s shoulders were tight and firmly in place - a hand to either side of the door way blocking the entrance completely. “I just wanted to talk to sweetie.”

“Don’t call her that in front of me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Jesus Christ, the both of you.” Stepping closer and chewing around another mouthful of her breakfast, torn off in her teeth and staring in exasperation at the pair as they’d started their typical process of posturing and stepping-up to one another like they were in the centre of an MMA ring, Jo snapped in exasperation. Both heads swung to look at her immediately as she reached Grey’s side, looking between them. “Hun, I’m sure he’s just by to say thank you or somethin’. Not that big a deal right?” Her free hand rested on his shoulder, rubbing gently at the tight knot of muscle there as he slowly dropped the arm from blocking the door on her side. “Nothin’ to go get riled up about, aye?”

“If that’s all he’s here for, then yes.” Grey growled the words out, his hand lowered from the door frame but immediately going around her waist and tugging her against his side with a sneer towards the other shadow. “And he can say it right here, now, quickly and then fuck right off.”

“I thought I said not to tell me what to do.” Jo blinked a little at the other’s tone, and looked over the heated glare that the pale hand splayed around her waist was getting from him. Gray’s choice in body seemed more expressive than the last, arms crossed tight across his chest with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his fists clearly clenched tightly. As she looked up at his face, there were dark circles under his eyes and a sallow look to his skin that she didn’t think seemed like it should be there - despite the cocky yet angry look he was giving his brother. His eyes didn’t even move to meet hers as he remarked quietly, “But yes, I wanted to say thank you for getting me out of there.”

“You’re welcome, Gray. I see you’ve got yourself back on your feet pretty quick.” She found herself smiling up at him, lifting her toast for another bite as she catalogued the new face in her mind so she wouldn’t be surprised running across him in future. Jo tilted her head to the side when he still wouldn’t look at her, prodding at him with her next remark and a laugh. “You doin’ okay? Your not looking too crash hot.”

She wasn’t lying either, aside from the dark rings under the eyes and the washed out complexion, his shirt was rumpled and looked like he’d been unable to get comfortable in either it or his new skin and he didn’t seem to have the same energy to spare keeping up the cocky bravado against his brother’s glare that was usually so easy for him to conjure up. Gray seemed like he was ill, which made no sense since he’d said he was fine just over a week ago when she’d brought him back.

“I’m fine, sweetie.” The words were growled out in that deep voice she was still surprised to hear but seemed to match his new face well. “Just need to get back into the swing of things again.”

“Oh, you only just getting back to fucking floozies and causing carnage?” Grey snarled the words out, his grip pulling firmer upon Jo’s waist as she moved to take a step forward past him towards the other shadow. “Would have thought that you’d have been at it within minutes, or you still all sad about having died?”

“Fuck you, runt,” Gray snarled back, but it lacked some of the force Jo was used to behind it, and peeling the other’s hand off of her waist as she moved forward onto the stoop, she looked up at him curiously as he continued to avoid looking at her. “I’ll have you know that there will be another five mysterious disappearances to be investigated already.”

“Oooh five whole people, huh?”

“You want to make it six?”

“You don’t have the balls to try it.”

The sniping back and forth made her want to laugh, right up until the way Gray’s face shifted from a smirk into one of surprise at her hand on his arm and the savage sounding hiss she heard behind her. Jo tilted her head to the side looking at him curiously as he looked at her straight on for the first time the whole conversation, eyes wide and hungry. She thought she almost saw something like fear flooding across his face as he seemed to shift unconsciously towards her, leaning down towards her like a plant towards sunlight, before the next second she was holding air and he’d disappeared.

“Well, guess he got his thanks in, huh…” Jo mumbled the words, blinking in surprise herself at the sudden disappearance before stuffing the remains of her chocolate-spread toast into her mouth, turning back to Grey with a confused shrug.

His face was just as confusing for her as the other’s had been, an almost dark and fearful look piercing through his eyes as she moved back to his side and he slammed the door shut. Jo found herself jumping at the sound before her back was pressed against it and she pushed any thought about how bad Gray had looked from her mind at the lips to her neck and hands to her waist.

—

Day 100

“Please.. please don’t do this, Jo.” His voice cracked at the start as Jo could see him moving up the steps of the front stoop, gentle and slow as if to avoid spooking her and make her nail the last strip of iron down across the entry way any quicker than she already was moving. It felt like a nail through her back hearing it, and Jo kept her eyes downcast rather than look up to meet what she was sure were a desperate and wet green-blue. “You don’t need to do this to us. This doesn’t change anything between us, you know it, you know it. Please don’t do this.”

“Yes, yes I do.”

“No, no no, Jo, pretty one, please no. You don’t have to do this at all.”

Jo merely shook her head at that as she lost her grip on the hammer for a moment at the term of endearment harshly whispered at her from where she knew he’d dropped to her height in front of her. She didn’t trust that looking up into his endearing and pained face that she’d have to stomach to drive the last few nails in. “I do need to do this. You’re sick, hun, and it’s all my fault.” Shaking her head again, she readjusted her grip on the hammer before hitting in the next nail in line with her shaking hands. “You both are, and you both need to heal.”

“Really sweetie, you and our bitch sister are making too big a fuss out of this.” The words were dangerous. Jo knew that now, she remembered now just how dangerous that one could be when he wanted to be. She’d forgotten under the gentle but harsh touches and care when she was further gone than she’d ever been before. She’d forgotten after years of other dangers being faced and defeated, a cockiness born from the fading of time. She’d forgotten up until the woods and the hard tree trunk behind her just the influence he had over her. And now he was reclining up against the side of the door frame staring down at her with that same dangerous glint in his eye that made her shake at the memories. “Both me and the runt don’t care, it’s not that big a deal.”

“And if you weren’t currently affected and mind addled, you’d completely agree with me that this is that big a deal, you dick.” Jo growled the words back, glaring up at the cold look he was giving her. There was that shoulder shrug again that made her want to reach out and hit him with the hammer, but instead slammed the head down on the next nail - catching her own under it’s force as well with a hiss. “Fuck, fuckity fucking shit!”

“Jo!” The gasped name made her look up as she shoved her aching finger into her mouth, sucking harshly down on the sore nail that had just taken the brunt of her anger, and regretted it immediately. Grey’s face was right by her’s, not even a foot of distance between them as he crowded as closely as he could to her with the metal between them. She could see his hands twitching to reach, to touch, to reassure and help; and it just made everything hurt as much as her nail did right then. “Are you okay?” That hurt even more, watching as he laid a hand on the iron barrier, trying to get closer.

“God it’s just a hammer, Grey, get your hand back.” She hissed the words out harshly as she pulled her finger from her mouth and tried to keep from leaning forwards towards him in return. The next second he had his hand back against his chest, and Jo felt the stab of discomfort realising it was due to his compulsion to make her happy than his own choices. Jo flinched, moving to hit at the last nail as the disgust at herself ran through her - who knew how much of the last few months was due to his, and the other’s, own wishes and how much was her own. How much damage had she already done to each of them. Thinking back, she couldn’t even remember what she might have said or demanded of them that other than that she’s sure there would be something. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“Don’t worry about it Jo. Please don’t worry, just.. Let me make it better.” That got a shudder running through her, eyes darting up to meet his almost grey in the current light, before flinching again and moving to suck on her still sore finger again rather than reply or give into the pleading, desperate look. Grey’s fingers twitched as if to reach out again, and then he moved in sync with her to his feet now the metal was in place and not able to be moved any time soon. He shifted, crowding against the door way, staring and hands wrapping around the wood as Jo reached out for the door itself with a shaking hand. “Jo, please. I need you, please don’t shut me out.” His grip tightened and there was an audible crack of the wooden doorframe as she began to swing the door closed, his face twisting in a way that made her core ache to have caused. “It doesn’t matter to me about the mark, I love you regardless this doesn’t change anything. Please, let me make this okay.”

“You can’t though.” She shook her head, pulling the door almost all the way closed, already blocking her sight of the other one looming off to the side with an extremely angry look to his face, and running her fingers just millimetres from his own before sighing sadly. There was a flash across his face as she moved her hand back - a dark, dangerous and obsessive flash that she’d not seen on this face of his before - for a second as the wood closed and blocked him out from her sight with a quiet click of the latch. “No one can make this okay.”

—

Day 290

There was an actual knock on the door that day which had surprised her. Typically Bobby would come down and hang out with her for a few hours each day as well as just bringing her down something to eat as and when necessary. She’d begged to be allowed out and throughout the house as long as there was iron down - but her arguments against Shada’s demands that Jo could not be trusted still given the last time she was left to walk free around an only-ironed house - though that had been shut down entirely.

So far that month she had gotten to leave for bathing and bathroom breaks, and one time Bobby had both Sam and Dean over so determined that between three of them they could keep her in line. As if she was a wild horse that refused to be broken and would bolt at the first sign of freedom. As if she was a child that needed to be watched, and cared for, and kept from drinking the colorful bottles under the sink. As if she was a danger to anyone but the shadow. Most of the other days and hours had bled into one another, filled with reading text book upon text book from Bobby’s extensive library collection learning more in a month than she had in her first three years of hunting combined, doing an array of exercises after Bobby had brought an old punching bag into the room for her and a yoga mat for the middle of the floor, and whining for even just an Easy Bake Oven to be brought down to her eventually.

That there was a knock suggested today was something different than usual, and not bothering to check if her shirt was a new one or one that she’d worn for the last week or if she’d brushed her hair yet today or not, the blonde bounded over to the room’s one door expectantly.

“You’ve got a visitor. The girl approved it as one you’re allowed out for.” Jo tilted her head curiously at Bobby’s gruffer than usual tone, the sound of distaste dripping off of every word and that made no sense at all to her. Bobby and Shada were in this together, they’d formulated some fucked up plan without asking her and there was no reason for him to sound so angry about something the girl shadow would have agreed to. “She said somethin’ about your boy not showing up while they’re around, so lets see if her theory holds. Don’t come out of the basement though, I don’t want you disappearin’ on me, girlie.”

“Sure thing?” Her head tilted to the other side curiously as the hunter gave her a stiff nod, a brow raised up as she watched him shuffle out of the basement without another look back at her. Their relationship had been strained after she screamed about how he wasn’t her father - he wasn’t anyone’s father - and he had no right to do this to her on day fifteen right as her period had arrived. Jo hadn’t quite found it in herself to apologise yet as he had yet to apologise for keeping her cooped up either.

Jo looked about curiously, moving around the basement slowly and tiredly as she enjoyed just having some different surroundings for the first time in quite a while. She was flicking open and closed some unfinished curse box when she heard footsteps along the stairs behind her and then the last voice she expected, “Well, well, well, you’ve never looked worse.”

Spinning, Jo ran a speculative eye over him comparing to the last time they’d talked just under four months earlier. He seemed to be doing well compared to what she remembered on hid brother’s face when she’d seen him for the first time in months - Grey’s had been sallow and sickly and appeared to come back to health the minute he’d touched her - and his own had been much the same if a little better condition in the motel room but was now looking absolutely fine without any such requirements. Gray was definitely dressed for the weather outside for once it seemed, with both a coat and his normal suit jacket over the white shirt compared to the relaxed style from earlier in the year when they’d hang out over a movie in Summer. December was definitely upon them, and from the slight dewy look to his coat, she figured it was raining if not snowing outside most days now. The panic room had started to get cold.

“Never? You remember the alley right?” Jo quipped back, folding her arms petulantly under her chest as she stepped back to lean against the bench behind her. That got her a dark look as the shadow appeared to stalk right up to her, closer than she’d  been to anyone except Bobby and Shada in almost a month, a snarl on his lips in response.

He gripped her chin in his hand firmly at that point, turning her face to either side under the rough speculation. She’d expected this, him to snap back to mean and rough and not nice to her at all after what she’d unintentionally done to him - a violent kickback to the caring he’d done for her after the alley and then the almost domesticity they’d engaged in for a little while there, curled up together for the odd gory or psychological movie afternoon - and Jo let out a quiet, resigned sigh as his thumb rubbed her jawline roughly.

“You aren’t far off of it, sweetie. When was the last time you got a bit of sun on that skin of yours? Brushed your hair even? Please tell me you’ve been keeping your oral hygiene up.”

“Why? Not like it matters to anyone else.”

“I doubt the runt’s going to want to kiss you when your teeth have all fallen out is all. I’m sure the blow jobs’d be good though.”

“I’d have you know, mine are great as they are.”

“I’m sure you think so, sweetie.”

The bickering felt strangely normal for them, normal in the sense of the last year of his life, and Jo’s eyes widened as she looked up at him to see a bemused smirk on his lips rather than anything sinister or cruel as she’d expected. There was a moment when she saw he’d finally noticed her looking back at him, and his lips curled up a little wider, a little more amused still.

“Really though, when was the last time you looked in the mirror - you look a frightful mess. Imagine what the runt’d say seeing you-”

“Well, I’m not goin’ to see him for quite a while so I guess that doesn’t matter.” Jo snapped the words back, turning her head to look away from him petulantly. At that moment, something struck with her and jerking her head back and running a hand over her hair, Jo gaped up at him. “Are you back to normal?!”

“By normal, do you mean I’m no longer filled with an agony at your not being around and the unending desire to do whatever you say?” Gray’s voice filled with that dangerous tone, soft and silky and washing over her, as his hand moved from her chin to her neck - tilting her head up towards him as if judging the boundaries with her. “Then yes, I’m back to normal. All that…Joanna spread on my Vice is gone.”

“Do.. Do you think he’ll be back soon?” Jo found herself asking quietly, almost as if ripped unbidden from her throat as she looked up at him pleadingly. It would be a dream come true for the other to be okay so soon.

That got a dark chuckle however, as Gray dropped his hand from her skin and took a step back from her with a shake of his head and something she thought looked familiar - that unknowable and indecipherable look he got for a while - cloaked across his face as he looked back at her. “Not by a long shot. You and I? We weren’t as… entwined as you and the runt.”

Jo flushed at that phrasing, her eyes darting back away from him immediately with a scowl. “Yeah, well, that was one time and it was a mistake.”

“Oh undoubtedly. It was a mistake for sure to give you a go at what you’re missing out on being with the runt.”

“Fuck you, that’s not at all what I meant.”

“If I recall, you already did recently too, sweetie.” Gray’s laugh was just as dangerous as his words could be, and Jo found herself shaking her head in response to him before the sound stopped. “But you’re right. It was a mistake and I look forward to now being able to go enjoy some much more fun, less prudish and freaked out girls than yourself now that little issue is fixed up.”

“If I asked you not to go killin’ them, I doubt you’d listen, right?”

“Too right.” He stepped back towards her as Jo had rolled her eyes on her previous comments, and found herself rolling them again as he tweaked her nose with a smirk. “However, since you’re so miserable, I may just hold off on killing all of them. Misery loving company after all.”

“Then you’re goin’ to be in the very best company.”

—

Day 45

“This really is too big for one hunter, Jo, and you know it.”

“Oh my god, no it’s not!”

“I hate to agree with him, but he’s not wrong sweetie-”

“Are you fucking shitting me?” Jo found herself growling out the words from her spot in Grey’s lap on the couch, slamming her journal shut with a dissatisfying thud as she looked between the two men with a scowl. “It’s just a little vampire nest, it’s really not that hard or much for me.”

“A… a little nest, huh? Then why did Bobby say it was looking like ten vampires, hmm?” Grey snapped back, his arms moving to wrap about her waist as she made a move as if to get up in a huff. “That sure doesn’t sound like a little nest to me. Does it sound little to you, dickhead?”

“I don’t think he-”

“Oh I definitely agree, that is not just a little nest you’re going after there. You’re going for a full blown, three or more hunters type set up there and you know it, sweetie.” Gray replied, picking up on the slack from the other shadow’s line of commentary, giving a short nod of agreement from where he was standing near the front windows, looking out onto the street. “I figure you’re going to need to call in those Winchester buddies of yours for this.”

“Last I heard, Dean broke his foot and is out of commission for another month.” The other jumped in as Jo opened her mouth to agree and then brush off the concerns with a little white lie or two - she could have taken just Sam and they’d still be fine for the most part, five vampires each shouldn’t be too hard between them. “And Sam’s off on some demonic omens down south so they’re out of the picture.”

“Have you been listenin’ in on my calls?”

“Can’t be listening in when you just talk so loudly, Jo.” Grey smirked a little and Jo found herself cursing mentally that that looked far too good on his current face. “So, guess you’ll need to palm it off on someone else cause I’m not letting you go through all that hard work with… with getting me out to go get yourself turned into a vampire-snack.” She might have been feeling sour and glared at that term, but his hand was stroking through her hair and it was smoothing away the lines of her frown quickly.

“I mean..” Jo felt Grey’s hand freeze, right behind her ear, as the other spoke up quietly from where he was standing. Turning her head slightly, she saw Gray was fiddling with his sleeves awkwardly, pushing them up and then pulling them down again, before he added with a curious lack of emotion to the words. “Well, one of us could always accompany her if there were no other options and sweetie was absolutely determined to complete this… hunt.”

There was a long strained silence following that word. Gray seemed to turn his attention back out the window, as if disinterested in the topic in general himself. Grey on the other hand appeared to be staring, borderline glaring, across at the other as if trying to work out exactly what the other had meant by bringing up such an idea.

And Jo was looking down at her journal in her lap, head tilted forward as her mind flashed to the last time she had gone on a hunt with someone else. It had been such a sunny day and it had been so nice after they’d left the cave with the burnt out remains. She could almost feel the sun on her cheeks and the way he’d slipped the flowers into her hair with that carefree look as they trekked back down. She could almost feel the life drifting away under her fingers as the pulse got weaker. She could actually smell the metallic scent of blood in her nose, clogging up her senses and throwing her mind straight back to that point, as her teeth had bit down hard enough to draw blood on her bottom lip - stuck in the memory of it.

“Not Grey.” She croaked the words out, hands gripping onto her journal tightly as she blinked her eyes back into reality rather than reliving that moment - so so long ago for her but still so so fresh to her - to see two extremely concerned faces staring at her. There was a second before a flash of understanding crossed the named shadow’s face and he had his forehead pressed against hers in a blink, calm tones behind whispered to her as his arms rubbed her back now. “You… you can’t.”

“I won’t, I promise Jo. I won’t go and it won’t happen again.” Grey murmured quietly, pressing his lips to her forehead before glaring across her crown to the other, hissing sharply, “Look what you did.”

“Well, then I’ll just have to fix it and tag along with her, won’t I?”

—

Day 320

Jo had actually started looking forward to the days she’d get these visits.

Not just because they were the few days that she got to sit about in the lounge room and stretch her legs. Not just because she would get to bake in the real oven and would spend over five hours just relieving the stress she couldn’t quite work off in her normal slashing ways. Not just because they were the days that she got to have windows open and sit with her face in actual sunlight hitting on her.

But because they always included a boundless amount of false perkiness from the other woman as she tried to conceal how things were going. How things were taking forever to heal - in a way that even Crowley’s influence hadn’t taken. How the siblings were no longer on speaking terms - something that Jo knew would be cutting the girl deeper and deeper every time that she went to check on her brother - except for any messages that the girl had to take back from Jo herself. How the other had ironed himself into the house despite the burning to simply avoid the other shadow - and how both Winchester brother’s had been called in together and separately almost a handful of times to remove the offending elements and try to speak to the angry, agonised man.

Shada tried so hard to conceal the stress, but Jo could always tell when something had gone poorly. It was usually evident from the sheer amount of shopping bags the woman brought with her, the more bags, the worse it was going.

Today there were over fifteen shopping bags with items ranging from the latest designer fashions for the shadow herself, to a selection of warm clothes and blankets and throws for Jo in her little buried tower, to books that Jo had expressed an interest in getting her hands on for reading that weren’t just books on lore and monsters, to what she thought were supposed to be knick knacks to “brighter up” the panic room and “girl it up” compared to the stark walls and sketchy calendar that Jo hadn’t bothered to take down just yet.

“And so this really cute guy was like ‘Can I get you an aspirin? Cause it must have hurt when you fell from Heaven’ and like... thought that was a good pick up line. On me of all people too!” Shada flipped her hair over her shoulder with an exaggerated flounce and pout on her face, the dark plum lipstick for today part of some trend Jo had spotted as up and coming in the last fashion magazine the other had left with her. It seemed that the shadow was taking Jo’s imprisonment to really be more a captive audience to get Jo into fashion and designers like the shadow was - and Jo had found herself slowly becoming interested out of sheer boredom, not that she’d admit it. The other woman rolled her eyes as she lifted her pineapple juice to her lips taking a dainty sip before shrugging her shoulder. “At least he was cute.”

“Oh yeah, they gotta be cute or it’s just tacky.”

“I know right?” There was a pause and a slightly wistful sigh from the other which had Jo raising her brow in questioning response. “I wish more of the cute guys I know would be interested in talking to me.”

“If you’re-”

“Relax, I know my brother is in a very good looking man at the moment, but I know. I meant possibly more one of your so called brothers.” Shada held up her hand to shut down the objection Jo always found popping up in defence, or perhaps it was in possessiveness, of the other shadow. Jo spluttered a little on her sip of her soft drink at the shadow’s words, the other brow raising in surprise as the other rolled her eyes. “Mother, you are so judgey for someone who wanted to go there herself.”

“Nah, more just surprised you have crossed paths enough-”

“Once is more than enough to acknowledge cuteness, cupcake, and you know it. But they’ve both been very helpful dealing with brother-”

“He been locking himself in again? Has he been feeding enough? Is he okay? How’s Nana? Did you see Amon last time you were there? Did Bobby and the boys keep his list updated? I can get some more cases if he needs.”

“Whoa there,” The dark-haired girl held her hand up with her forcefully placed smile cracking slightly under Jo’s onslaught of questions. It was always the same and she would feel bad for doing it to the other if it weren’t the gnawing feelings inside that she absolutely needed to know the answers. She had to know he was okay, that he was going to be there when she finally got home. She felt the prickle starting in her eyes as she sucked in a nervous breath waiting for the other to answer, always stuck waiting for someone else to answer her what was going on in her own life now.

Shada appeared to pause before shrugging in lieu of answering, her hands wrapping calmly around her juice glass and the dark purple manicure with her black sparkly hearts seemed just right for the time of year. It would be Valentine’s soon, or perhaps Jo had missed it - she’d gotten lax at crossing off days on her pin-up calendar and would need to ask someone to tell her the date later, not that the calendar was even the right year any more. If she remembered to ask.

“Fine, don’t tell me.” Jo snarled the words out, glaring out the window and eyes darting about the small section of salvage yard she could see from there. Maybe if she looked hard enough or was lucky she’d spot the messy dark curls, if she was very lucky. Sighing sadly, she sunk slightly down in her chair as she spotted the back of the older hunter’s head instead as he weaved throughout the yard, asking quietly instead in the hopes of finally getting an answer to something. “How much longer is this going to last..”

The other shadow merely shrugged again in response, her eyes not meeting Jo’s own and she found herself sighing again. Waiting wasn’t particularly hard any more to her, but the waiting without an end date was killing her slowly inside every day.

—

Day 400

“Okay, this had better be really fucking important.” The remark floated down the stairs ahead of him as Jo had been sitting in the centre of the panic room, door wide open and no one between her and her freedom. She barely noticed the words, nor did she notice when the man turned around the corner of the stairs to see straight through to where she was. Jo had barely noticed anything for the last 36 hours other than the book held tightly in her hands against her chest, clutched against her like Leo to the door. “Ah. That does seem important. Sweetie is just sitting like an idiot, clearly something that needed my assistance.”

“Just shut up, she’s been like this for two days now.” The other shadow snapped the words back at the taller one, hand wrapped tightly around his wrist and refusing to let go as he tugged to turn and leave. Jo is sure that Shada had not expected the fight with her other brother to go as poorly as it had done - Shada couldn’t understand the significance of some silly celebration about one’s existence starting, shadows shared their creation day with many many of their siblings - there was nothing special about it worth getting her throat crushed and a threat to be drained before the older hunter had loosed an iron round into his brother’s shoulder. And then for Jo to appear almost catatonic in response to some little book of drawings made no sense at all to anyone but her. Only one person could possibly have some insight, and it had taken hours to convince him to return now that he did not have the stain. “Do freaking something to fix this!”

“Have you thought to, I don’t know, give her the runt?”

“Something helpful to fix it. No wonder they call your a dickhead.”

“You’d know all about my old one, sis, want to give this one a go?”

Shada had flushed in response to that, and had scurried away under the pretence of avoiding his “gross suggestions” leaving the responsibility to “fix cupcake” to her brother.

Jo didn’t notice at all until the tennis ball hit her in the head that there was anyone outside the room, frowning slightly to herself as she released her grip of one hand and reached up to rub at her temple gently. She froze noticing the man standing just outside the panic room door - his sleeves rolled up and sans jacket, meaning the weather must be nice outside or he was trying to be more approachable for her.

“Sweetie, what have you gone and done to get everyone so worried?” The question came out gently, like someone trying to coax a feral animal out from it’s den, but the smirk on his face was anything but nice. She’s sure this would be thoroughly amusing to him. “You want to come out and tell me all about it.”

“Is that a request or a demand?” Jo’s voice sounded rough, dry and harsh from the lack of use recently, as she shifted awkwardly in her spot, hands pressing the sketchbook tighter against her chest. “I haven’t done nothin’.”

“Oh, I absolutely believe you’ve done nothing, sweetie. I think that is what they are all freaking out about.”

“So they want me to do something? The something I want-”

“Sweetie, I can already tell what you want. Now, get up, brush those legs off and come over here so we can talk proper.”

The words made her blink in surprise as she looked between the confusing look - that damn look - on the shadow’s face and the dark leather book in her arms as if trying to toss up which would comfort her more. She’d been pouring all of her need for comfort into the black book filled with drawings that both helped and hurt her - drinking them in like she was in a desert in need of thirst - but so far it had not helped the gnawing, gaping hole she’d not felt since she first entered the forests of Purgatory with a game plan and mission in mind. So far, that hole had begun to open again the longer she spent away from him, from the original cause of that pain that had almost healed before this separation tore the healing, fragile skin open again day by day.

“Come on, Jo.” The gentle prodding was all she needed to set the book down reverently upon the bed she had been using for months now and step out of the room, over the iron boundary that was what separated her from who she really wanted to be comforted by. She knew that it would revile the man in front of her to be thought of as second best, but as she approached, she felt her feet moving faster until she was pressed into his chest and let it out finally.

She could feel his discomfort spilling out of him as much as her tears were spilling out of her and into his shirt front. She could feel his arms stiffen to his sides for the first minute as if expecting her to release him quickly. She could feel one of them wrap around her shoulders and his palm spread across her back, a hot brand against her numb-cold. She could feel the other begin to stroke over her hair uncertainly, an attempt to mimic what he may have seen or what he’d done in past or just what seemed to feel right, but all it did was cause her to cry harder. If he’d been the right person then he’d know exactly what to do. He’d know to press their foreheads together, to stare her down and stroke her tears away with his thumbs, to kiss her so sweetly she’d forget all about her tears.

Instead it took almost half an hour for her tears to finally dry up, the beginnings of a headache dragging at her temples and her cheeks feeling sore and dried out from the salty substance that had coated them. She might have been a mess the last time they spoke, but Jo knew it had nothing on the way she would look now as she finally shifted back a little to look up at him. Gray’s face was pure disgust as she sniffed at her blocked nose, wiping across it with her sleeve.

And for the first time in ages, Jo found herself laughing.

—

Day 23

“Seriously why the fuck do you keep showing up here?” Grey snapped the words out from where he sat against the back door to the kitchen, arms crossed and legs stretched to cover the entry as if it was a barrier to the whole space. “It’s not like we want you here.”

“Oh, so you speak for the both of you now, do you runt?” The response was ground out between his teeth as Gray stood against the bottom banister of the steps with a frown. “Didn’t realise sweetie had lost her voice.”

“Fuck you-”

“Guys! Please!” Jo jerked herself to her feet from where she’d been reclining along the steps, her foot had been pressed up against Gray’s calf and one hand rested back across Grey’s thigh originally.

It had been something of a strangely tense point of topic for the last week as a whole - that the other shadow had been hanging around more, first just lurking outside the house like a bad smell, and then catching Jo as she’d gone about her day in increasing frequency. It had been driving Grey crazy each time he spotted the pair of them near one another, and had started following Jo about as she’d throw the ball with Nana or increasingly coming up with ways to keep her busy inside. Or exhausted as one day had.

“Hey, he started it!”

“Me?! I was just here to say hi-”

“Oh right, because you spending over an hour talking is just ‘hi’.”

“Maybe you just don’t say ‘hi’ properly. What, only take you two minutes, runt? Doesn’t surprise me you wouldn’t have the stamina for a proper.. hello.”

Jo stamped her foot loudly on the bottom step at that point as the shadow near the door had thrown himself to his feet, hands outstretched towards the other at that last remark. Her foot made a loud cracking sound on the weathered wood below, almost snapping it into two.

“That is enough!” Glaring between the two shadows, neither appearing to be stepping down from the aggressive feelings towards one another, but at least Grey’s hands were down by his side and Gray’s had slipped out of his pocket where he stored his razor without removing the silver weapon. That was a start. Stamping her foot again and throwing her hands out between them as Jo shifted to block their paths to one another, she first turned towards the taller of the pair, eyes pleading. “Gray, God, just stop starting shit. I know you don’t want to admit you like comin’ around here, but if you keep this up, you’re not goin’ to be welcome much longer. Please don’t make this any harder than it is. Just leave him alone for fucks sake; don’t piss your brother off for no fucking reason.”

“I..” Jo frowned slightly as she watched him appear to seethe with anger, eyes focused above her head where she could feel the other looming, before her face changed to surprise. The shadow appeared to let out a shaky breath, hands going back into his pockets and his head bowed slightly in a nod to her, eyes dropped to her face instead of the one she was sure was glaring down from above her, wide and clear and full of something she couldn’t quite pick. “I… Can do that. But only for you, sweetie.”

There was something to the look she was getting that seemed strange on the other, the slight incline of his head and the way he seemed to almost shudder when her hand touched his shoulder. The somewhat hungry and something else look in his eye as Jo smiled at him, shocked to see one come back at her in return. Shaking her head as she dropped her hand and turned back around towards the other, she couldn’t help thinking that he was such an asshole for picking that face.

“Hun…” Jo could see the fire hiding behind his greenish-blue eyes as she turned back to Grey, hands going straight to either side of his face, fingers brushing just into his hair as she moved to the next step up and attempting to draw his eyes to look at hers instead of glaring holes into the other shadow. There was a second when she thought he wouldn’t be able to pull away from the hatred to really listen to her, before he was pining her with a look instead. She sighed heavily as she stepped up the next step to be on the same level yet still always shorter and looking up at him. “Grey, he doesn’t mean any harm. He took care of me when..” Jo felt her throat tighten for a moment, her thumb stroking over the cheekbone that didn’t match the ones she had dreamed of for years but that had become so familiar in just three weeks as it was. “When you weren’t able to. He cared for me, he saved me. And I had to save him too, you know this. And now? You need to accept that we’re friends. You have to accept that, and stop tryin’ to stop me spend time with him just cause you don’t like him.”

“Jo..” The word was a whined tone, Grey’s eyes darting between each of her’s and then staring over her head down where Gray was kicking a foot out towards the battered bottom step as if not wanting to hear or acknowledge anything that Jo was saying. She could see the pull to shout and disagree, but leaning up, Jo pressed her lips to his softly before pulling back with a quizzical quirk of her eyebrow, inquiring if he would acquiesce to her request. There was a heavy sigh before she felt his hands wrap about her waist and his head dropped onto her shoulder with another sigh. “Okay.. Okay Jo, whatever you want.”

—

Day 450

Their phone calls had become more frequent in the last month, something shifting in the way their conversations wouldn’t always end with him asking her to come home or in how her heart didn’t end up twisted around itself at having to refuse him something they both so definitely needed. She couldn’t pinpoint when it was that they had changed so much, but she’d found herself laughing more often than not and hearing his own tone filled with amusement instead of just longing.

“And then when Aziraphale gave him the flask of Holy Water-”

“In the plaid little flask! Yes! Oh I so love the 70′s vibes in that part.”

“You would not have liked the 70′s, Jo, all the women- wait, no you would have loved it. Bra burning and jeans being all the rage.”

“Hey!” Jo laughed down the line as she swung up onto the back two legs of the kitchen chair she was sitting on, swallowing down her giggles at the look she was being shot from the grumpy older hunter in the other room. She was absolutely certain she’d over stayed her welcome more than five months ago, but it was his fault for teaming up with the foxy little minx to drag her here. He could deal with her actually having an enjoyable conversation for once. “I’ll have you know, I wore a bra two separate times this week!”

“Two times, huh? What colour?”

“What?”

“What colour, Jo?”

“I...  We are not discussing that on this line!” Jo could feel herself flushing more and more at his questions, rubbing her other cheek with one hand as she let out another giggle. He could hear his own rough, soft laughter in response from down the line under the slight static of the old phone line. She decided she loved that laugh of his the most in that moment. “And I won’t tell you what fabric either.”

“I bet they were black and lace, maybe even no fixed cups.” There was something in his tone that made her squirm and stand up out of her chair, pulling the phone cord and chair around into the hallway out of the other hunter’s sight. She was not going to have that happen in front of Bobby of all people. “Did the panties match?”

“God, have you been talking to your sister or something? You realise she is the source of all my clothes at the moment-”

“So it’s all black and purple and more than a little revealing for your body type?”

“Yeah pretty much. Pretty sure Sam got an eyeful last month and he hasn’t looked me in the eye since.” Jo chuckled slightly, shifting so she could lean back against the wall if she tipped the chair just right, balancing on the back legs and crossing her own as she kicked her feet in the air. “I cannot wait to get into my own wardrobe again.”

“I can’t wait to get you out of your own wardrobe.”

“Seriously? I’m on a landline and Bobby’s in the next room, hun!”

“I bet you’re bright red right now.” Grey’s laugh came through the line again, and Jo let out an indignant noise in response, scrubbing at her cheeks as if that would make it disappear. There was a pause before she felt herself calming down from the embarrassment at his next words, “But seriously, I can’t wait until you get to come home, Jo. I’ve really missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

“I.. I think I’ve been getting better. It.. hasn’t been like knives painful but just-”

“Longing painful?”

“Exactly.” There was another pause, and Jo could practically visualise the way he would be scratching at the back of his neck, trying to decide if he wanted to say what must be running through his mind or not. Whether or not it would upset her, if it would end up with her crying or not. “I think I’m almost better, Jo. I mean, it’s hard to tell cause I’ve always loved you this much, but I think it’s changing back to normal? I mean, I’ve been thinking about going and beating the dickhead into a pulp more and more lately-”

“That’s.. really not the best way to decide if you’re healing, is it?” Jo let out a laugh hearing that though, shaking her head as she imagined just how furious he was going to be once the mark was gone. “But maybe it is. Let me know the moment you plan to attack him and come attack me instead?”

Grey appeared to suck in a breath at that, and she wasn’t sure what it was about but then there was a long quiet pause. Waiting another second, Jo let out a laugh. “You know I can’t hear you noddin’, hun.”

—

Day 48

“This… this was wrong.” Jo mumbled the words out, hands shaking slightly as she moved to button up the front of her flannel shirt as quickly as she could to stave off the cold night air. “I shouldn’t have-”

“Sweetie, it takes two to tango, stop taking all the blame.” The silky tone as his fingers pushed a strand of her mussed hair back behind her ear was just as dangerous now as it had been as soon as the last of the vampires’ heads was removed from their body. It was a dangerous, dangerous sound, and Jo could feel her knees buckling slightly all over again. “If you must, you can tell the runt I manipulated it again, like the last times.”

There was the sound like a whip crack through the quiet night as her hand slapped across his face, glaring up at him from where she was still crowded up against the thick, rough tree trunk. It felt good to slap the self-deprecating look off of his face, as well as shut down the possibility that he thought so little of her to do that. Jo dropped her hand down, rubbing at the slightly pink surface of her palm with a frown.

It had not been planned or expected at all.

The tracking had been easy enough, and Jo had almost been surprised by how well they worked together through it all. It felt strange to work in tandem with someone who already knew off the bat how she worked, as well as adjusting and adapting the both of them to one another’s strengths and weaknesses. If he’d been a regular hunter, Jo’d have been asking when they could work together again in future. Instead, she’d moved to give him a celebratory kiss to the cheek and a joke about his making a fine hunter for something that deserved hunting. That plan however fell into ruins when he’d turned to face her as she’d tugged on his jacket to pull him down towards her level.

From there Gray not slowed down or moved back for one second as he’d pressed her back against the closest tree of the band of trees they’d been walking through. Jo had not expected it at all, and she’d really not expected the reaction from herself to be to pull him in closer rather than to push him away. It had been a blink of the eye in some senses and a decade in others that they’d moved from kissing to his teeth biting down on her neck like the monsters they’d just destroyed and her moans echoing through the trees. Everything after seemed like a blur to her, hands places they shouldn’t have been, clothes fumbled with and reverently opened. Kisses trailing over her skin with words whispered she couldn’t quite hear but seemed so familiar yet so different. Gentle touches followed immediately by harder ones, and despite the coarse bark at her back and the rough way he’d pushed into her after she’d been good and ready for it, the whole experience was black and white to the last time so long ago it had happened between them.

“Don’t you ever, ever accuse me of that type of thing ever again, you asshole!”

“What the fuck?!” Gray shouted back at her, his clothes righted and hand still in her hair beside her cheek, a frown on his face as his eyes stared down at her - black as the night sky above them and filled with something she was really starting to understand and wished she didn’t. “I was giving you an out, sweetie. Giving you a way to keep the runt from screaming blue murder and just make me hate him same as always. He can’t really dislike me any more than he already does.”

“By lying!” She practically screamed the word at him, shoving his arm away from her and stalking past him with a stubborn set to her jaw. Her fingers twitched to draw out her machete and just slash something to get rid of some of the tumultuous feelings rushing through her. Jo knew this was bad, this was going to be so very very bad; but she wasn’t going to make it worse by hiding the truth. “I would never lie to him like that.”

Shaking her head, Jo found herself thinking quietly as she trudged onward through the small woodland towards where her car was parked on the side of a dusty back road. She could hear his heavy footfalls keeping time with her, but none of the ragged breathing she was doing - clearly more comfortable than she was about everything. Her mind was whirring through what had just happened though, and raising a hand to her lips behind the curtain of her hair, Jo could feel the soft and almost tender way he’d kissed her still on her swollen lips.

“Hey, so what was all that about anyway?”

“What was what about?”

“All the, uh, well everything.” Jo found herself struggling over the words, dropping her fingers from her mouth and tucking them into her pockets as she stepped over a fallen log gracelessly. Her lips twitched into a scowl as she watched his longer legs step over it fluidly without the awkward trip she had done. “That was really different to before.”

“What can I say, death makes one re-evaluate how you behave, how you act and what’s important.” His voice was soft in the quiet night, but Jo could hear him crystal clear and found herself frowning deeper at the almost wistful, longing tone in his words. That couldn’t be possible though. Shaking her head, she almost sighed in relief when he spoke up again, words a little clearer and louder. “So… You’re going to tell him the truth, huh?”

“Why? Scared?” She quipped back, ducking under a low lying branch and smiling a bit as Jo saw him have trouble doing the same with the same graceful motion that stepping over an obstacle had been.

“For me? Never.”

Jo’s eyes flashed at that, looking over her shoulder as she trudged on, lips curling into a confused look at the other’s qualifier and the studiously blank look her gave her in return as he moved quickly with his longer legs to catch up with her. For all intents and purposes, he did not look like he’d just done anything wrong. And really he hadn’t been the one to.

—

Day 301

"I swear Bobby, if I don't get something else to do than read these fucking books again or bash that punching bag, I will fucking deck myself."

There was a weary sigh from the older hunter at that, and Jo would see the stress she must have been causing him starting to wear him down. It didn't feel good at all. Bobby was the closest thing she had left to a father, and being the cause of more grey hairs and wrinkles for him than she wanted to think about really hurt her.

However, he was still insisting on keeping her locked up like some princess in a fairytale. Granted it was a fairly fucked up one now - girl meets monster and falls madly in love after a lot of denials, monster is killed in her arms. Girl goes back in time and lives in a cave in a monster infested sunshine-less to free monster and his brother, causing a marking on him that compelled the monster to do her biding. Girl gets locked up in an underground iron bunker where monster cannot save her from her captors who love her too. If it was made into a movie, Jo would call it a Twilight Wannabe and opt for Beautiful Creatures out of that genre but she couldn't really do that with real life.

"Joeygirl, you know as well as I that you agree with what we're doing."

"Just cause I agree doesn't mean I don't want my freedom!"

"From what I hear, your being allowed your own choices when it comes to it is to allow that perversion to continue."

"Not... Intentionally. " Jo felt the words roll off her tongue and knee that the other would pick them up as the omission they really were. That while she might have not intended for things to end up as they did on the previous year, that there was absolutely no way that her taking the iron from the door was not going to end with the pair of them as they did. "I mean, I just wanted to give him a birthday present."

"Uh huh, sure thing. And that couldn't have been done with the iron separating you, why?"

He had her there. She could have just handed the sketchpad over and said what she felt needed to be said - that she loved him and missed him and wished they could go back and never go after those god forsaken wendigos together - but that would have been cruel and painful with the metal barrier between them. But saying them without was always going to end up the way it did.

“Oh stop being so right, goddamn it.” Jo snapped back, crossing her arms as well as her legs as she slumped down childishly on the rickety cot that had been her bed for nights upon nights. “God it’s like you’ve decided I’m on a prison sentence in this place.”

“I got you that fruity little toy last month-”

“Yeah cause not gettin’ me a Christmas present would have been completely inhumane on top of this all.”

There was another sigh from the older hunter as he shifted on the armchair he was resting in. The door was open for once and Jo could feel the fresh yet musty air coming in from the basement - not so much fresh nor any different to the clean and replenished air of the panic room, but just different smells to that of iron, drying salt and the scent of burnt crumbs from the bottom of her little pink oven in the last month - but Bobby had positioned himself between her seat on her bed and the door itself.

“Look, Jo, I get this is hard on you-”

“It’s like the Roadhouse and Mom all over again!”

“-hard on you, but you care about your... guy right?”

“Of course.”

“So, you need to be strong enough to stand all this. I can’t pretend to understand what’s gone and happened to you these last two years since you dropped that dog off year before last-”

Jo felt a shudder run through herself remembering how that had been the last time she saw the older hunter - her hair still matted and coated on the ends with the dried blood of her lover, her hands scrubbed but not clean and the haunted look that had been etched on every single inch of her face as she asked him to “look after her” as she handed him the leash for her baby and was gone within minutes - before her arrival still covered in mud and muck from Purgatory with two blood covered arms but what she was sure was an almost deranged grin on her face. She had been in touch, she’d talked frequently and kept the hunter updated as needed before she’d gone back, and had done much the same once she was back - but she had not stopped by to see him to assuage any of his fears.

“-but you seemed to be doing okay for a while there before y’all realised what foolishness you’d gone and done.”

“You’ve been talkin’ to Shada, haven’t you?” Jo’s words were a question, but they sounded more like a statement of fact in the air between them.

The other hunter took his baseball cap off with one hand and ran the other over his hair underneath and then stroked through his beard, clearly uncomfortable with how easily Jo could pick up the unexpected development between hunter and monster. “She’s a good source of information. Especially about how to scare that boy off when he shows up.”

“So that’s why you’ve not let me wander the house, huh?”

“Girlie, he’s here at least once a day.” Bobby’s voice sounded pained in some way, as if the stress wasn’t just from her own end and dealing with her own actions. That he was dealing with Grey’s appearances and whatever that shadow could throw at him made her clench her jaw and swear to herself that she would try to be less painful for the older man.

“I’d say this whole... stain thing is a horrifying experience on his end, but I remember him just appearin’ over your getting nibbled on. Pretty sure you’ve been stained and coated all over him from then, even if you both deny it.”

—

Day 398

The first thing she noticed that morning was shouts outside of the door to her room. That was unusual enough as it was, very rarely did anyone come downstairs to talk unless to talk to her, let alone get into all out screaming matches that made her remember her and her mother’s old ones when she was younger.

The second thing she noticed was that the panic room door was shut completely when she’d had it open slightly to let in a breeze overnight when she went to sleep. Getting out of the bed and tugging the hoodie down over her bare legs, Jo moved to check the door and felt a flood of panic realising it had been locked from the outside. Someone had locked her in there for the first time in months.

The third thing she noticed was exactly the context of the shouts and who’s voice it was.

“It’s her fucking birthday! I am not leaving until I’ve seen her.”

“Brother, don’t you dare take that tone with me! I’ve spent so long trying to help you-”

“Help me? Help me?! You have done nothing but ruin everything, Shada, now let me see her!”

“No! Not after last time!”

Jo frowned slightly as she tugged at the door handle, as if she pulled it enough that it might be able to dislodge and open the heavy door with just her sheer force of will. She thought over the words, frown deepening as she realised that she’d lost track of time again. She’d lost track of the day, and when did it become April after all, and had forgotten that she had her birthday coming up any time soon. She had hoped she’d be home by then - pushing the date back further and further mentally to give them more time, more time to be together for her birthday, to be home for it not trapped in some iron, salt prison cell.

Shaking her head, she could hear the screaming was continuing but she could understand none of it from then on either due to language or context, she couldn’t understand what they were flinging at one another other than it was designed to hurt. It was in that horrible language that grated on her ears and hurt to listen to for too long. Occasionally there would be a jab in English - about how fucked up the situation was, about that foul demon, about how long she thought she could control others to ignore her own failings, about not being able to trust one another any more. About sacrifices that were made for one another. About being left behind in Purgatory. About foolish humans ruining everything. At least on that point she agreed.

She gave the door a sharp slam with her fist as the screaming continued - surprised when suddenly both voices stopped and Jo could almost feel him with how close he was now. She knew she couldn’t really, but it felt nice to pretend. Sometimes pretending was the only way to get through a day.

Slamming the door again one more time, Jo let out an exhausted laugh before she moved back over to her cot and pulled the thick dark blue comforter that the girl had brought her last week over her head. Maybe now the yelling had stopped she could fall back to sleep and sleep away the day instead of acknowledging that she was another year older and spending the day trapped in her buried tower.

She didn’t wake up until the room was practically in pitch black, what little light filtered from outside already gone. As she sat up and spotted a tray with a plate of sandwiches sat out on her desk to await her, Jo thought perhaps she had slept the whole day through and could pretend it never happened. Right up until she’d lifted the plate and noticed the leather bound sketchbook she had gifted six months earlier when she’d last seen him.

The rest of her night had been spent flicking through the pages, water marks forming on each and every page as she turned them, tears splattering and stretching out a line here or a shading patch there of the hundreds of small sketches - sketches of various flowers or landscapes, of the city skyline of their home town, sketches of their baby in the sun or playing or napping, sketches of the demonic wolf prowling or glaring or snarling, sketches that seemed to be self-studies of his new eyes, his new profile, his new hair texture, his new smile, his new tears.

And then there were the sketches from memory tucked everywhere, every corner of each page was filled with something she recognised - her face, her eyes, her hair, her pack, her legs, her necklace and her scars, her necklace, her smile, her frown. Every page was drenched in her and in some places covered over and over and over, as if obsessively, irrationally, uncontrollably needed to be released from his mind. As if putting it on paper would take the images from his mind and let him heal any quicker.

As if putting it on paper would hurt any less for the both of them.

—

Day 14-22

The oven was beeping the timer behind them that the cupcakes would be ready and probably starting to get overly brown on top. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear it and the little voice complaining that they’d be too dried out if they stayed in much longer, but that was shut down immediately with a breathy moan as their hips shifted together tightly. Her hands held tight to the edge of the counter top as his mouth sucked harshly on the pulse point of her neck and they both groaned together. By the time they were done, the cupcakes would be black on top and thrown straight into the bin without any sort of regret.

Showers were still the most amazing feeling for her after so long without one, and Jo had found herself spending upwards of thirty minutes basking under the hot streams of water each day without even considering it strange. Somehow after nine straight days of indulgence since finally getting home it had still not gotten old for her, and she could still find dirt under her nails or a piece of her hair she felt hadn’t fully returned to it’s golden shine. While alone she could enjoy the water pressure and cleansing feeling, as she felt his hands running through her hair and chest against her back - somehow hotter than the water itself or maybe that was just the flush - Jo knew that she’d be in it for an extra long time that day.

The scent of bacon coming up from downstairs woke her up first, and Jo shifted about with an audible crack to her back while she scrubbed at the sleep crusted in the corners of her eyes. As she moved to throw the comforter back, she jumped in surprise hearing the command of “No, Jo, stay in bed.” Her eyes had blown wide in surprise and pleasure as she watched Grey walk carefully into the room, a tray held precariously between both hands as Nana weaved around his legs, before it was rested across her lap with a kiss to the forehead. She nearly cried at the sight of bacon, eggs, pancakes and syrup, coffee and juice, and the single peony rested across the top of the tray as he reached about to pile pillows behind her back with a gentle smile.

Jo was exhausted and ready to collapse, even needing a supportive arm around her waist as they made their way up the stairs. She had lost count before lunch the number of times she’d gotten off, and lost track of time by some point in the afternoon as a whole. It wasn’t even her birthday, as she’d said more than ten times throughout the day, but it had been two weeks since he’d been back according to him. And he intended to thank her for every single day at least once before her head touched the pillow that night. He’d definitely achieved that as it was, and rolling onto her back Jo had let out a tired laugh at the still lust filled eyes that looked down at her before her hands had grabbed his hair, pulling him down to her yet again.

“Oh what a good girl, yes you are!” Her voice rang across the yard as she fished the drool covered ball out of the dog’s grip before throwing it again across the lawn, letting out a loud “Fetch, girl!” There was a laugh from behind her as she made a disgusted look at the sticky drool still on her hand. “Jo, you knew what’d happen when you came out to play with her-” “Doesn’t mean I enjoy it!” She laughed along with him then as she wiped her hand off on her jeans and lent back into his arms, her clean hand not used for throwing covering the both of his where they were pressed over her stomach as they watched the fluffy dog root about under the bushes in the back corner for the bright green ball. She didn’t need to look to know he had the same smile on his face as hers.

Jo smiled to herself as he twisted under her, a hand pinning his wrists to his sides gently, the whispered remark to stay still more keeping them down than any force of her own as she released them and moved to unbutton his shirt, his hands not moving one inch once they were free. “You know what this is, hun.” “Yes, yes I know what.” “On the headboard this time though.” That got a groan in response as his hands moved to grip the top of the headboard tightly as she moved her way along his body. The lack of marks and scars she knew but replaced with taunt, clear skin was almost unfair but Jo smirked as she made her own marks wherever caught her attention as she made her way down his chest and stomach. At a gentle brush of lips to his sharp hip bone, Jo let out a laugh at the ticklish response, eyes crinkling as she caught his look of frustration. “Oh fuck, you’re never going to stop now are you?” “Now that you’re ticklish? Never.” Sucking sharply on the spot again, Jo trailed across the jut of it before getting back to her real mission for the night with a smirk.

She’d complained for the last three days about a sore muscle in her back that wasn’t leaving and wasn’t surprised he’d decided to take it upon himself to resolve the issue. “C’mon I don’t like them, they’re boring.” “Jo, a good soaking is what it needs though-” “But it’s boring sitting in there alone.” There was a heavy sigh from him, and the bemused look on his face made her grin cheekily as he tugged her closer. Slipping his fingers under the hem of her shirt and pulling upwards, Grey smiled before saying, “Fine, I’ll sit in here and we’ll talk okay?” “You goin’ to sit in with me?” That got a growl in response and then a sharp shake of his head, rubbing his hand carefully over the sore muscle in question. “No, cause then we’d just hurt it more wouldn’t we? Instead, I’ll sit down next to you and we’ll talk about when we’re going to go see the next Star Wars movie, alright?” Jo had nodded in agreement, smiling as she sank into the water a minute later and noticed the faint smell of her favourite vanilla shampoo and bath wash already in the water.

“Shh, pretty one, just stay relaxed, okay?” “Mmkay.” His voice was so rough and sent shock-waves through her the same as the previous one had, goosepimples breaking out along her skin waking her up slowly as the sun was only just breaking through the edge of the curtains. “Good, you deserve to relax and enjoy your beauty rest. My beautiful, pretty Jo.” She made a quiet, tired sounding groan in response as she relaxed back into the pillow nest she had made at some point during the night, eyes shutting and his warm hands rubbing over her skin lulling her back towards sleep. Next minute, Jo knew she would not be falling back to sleep as his tongue flicked across her and she writhed under his hands and mouth. There was a sound of birds waking up outside but inside all there was were her gasps and the dark, dangerous sound of his laughter as he worked her awake for the day.

“I’ve got the popcorn!” Jo called out loudly as she balanced the large bowl precariously on top of the two soda cans and made her way carefully back towards the lounge. “Fuck! Did you get a big enough bowl there, Jo?” Grey asked, laughing a little as she could feel his eyes on her as she shimmied her way carefully and blindly around the couch towards the coffee table. He grabbed the bowl off the top of the cans with another laugh before setting it down and tugging her towards the couch. “Well, you know how much I love popcorn with a popcorn flick!” “True, you do love your movie snacks and this one is what… three hours long?” Jo nodded her head, sinking into his lap and cuddling up against him between the arm rest and his firm body. “Yep. I didn’t get to see it yet either-” “Well good we both don’t know how they fix the snap then. Now, you comfortable?” She smiled, tucking her head into his neck with a soft sigh as they settled in for the movie, a rush of contentment flooding her at being home again finally.

–

Day -1

“Alrighty, so from my calculation he should be here in the next thirty minutes or so.” Jo said, huffing quietly from the log she was sitting on, eyes fixated on the open field she’d been waiting at almost four months earlier. The whites around her irises were all that was visible again, her charcoal and mud smeared face and hair almost as dark as the shadow-covered trees and bushes surrounding her. “And then from here it’s about a three hour hike northward.”

“And then we can go home instead of continuing on your foolish, stupid plans, right?” The words were hissed, forced above a whispered volume level in a way that none of the other shadows despite years around her had quite achieved in the natural form yet, from the grey-colored shadow of a man’s shape sitting beside her.

There were some hisses from around them, a general buzz of her shadow troupe communicating in the language she had never quite learnt. Some seemed to be in agreement with the shadow beside her; while others appeared to snip in close near him, hissing angrily and snapping jaws of the shapes they were pulled into at that point. Jo watched as Grey jerked slightly in his position away from the more aggressive young shadows who then began swirling around her end of the log with supportive calls.

“Ignore big brother, sister-” “Yes, yes, yes, ignore him. He is just angry you are so smart.” “Grey is just impatient to go home! Earth is so wonderful, isn’t it sister? I wish I could go!”

“Fucking Purgatory, Jo, can you stop corrupting my siblings against me?” The words would have sounded like a snarl if she didn’t know better to hear the slight sound of amusement underneath it all. While Grey had been snappy, snippy and sometimes downright mean as they’d waited the arrival of the other in the months since he’d arrived back - as the days had grown closer and closer to their leaving date, he had gotten less sharp and nasty and had started teasing her more again.

“Sorry hun, Shelda and Ellis just prefer me over you, clearly!”

There was a werewolf, three vampires and two shifters that appeared to come through the dumping ground before there was suddenly a black shadow spat out onto the ground in the centre of the clearing. Jo bit down a smile behind her cloth bandanna as she stood up and made her way into the clearing to a strong sense of deja vu.

“So, how were those violent delights?” Jo called loudly as she broke through the dark woods gloom and out into the clearing into the bright not quite sunlight. She didn’t hide the smile this time at the way the shadow seemed to jerk about in surprise and snarled loudly towards her until she pulled the bandanna down to her throat. “Pretty violent end that was, wasn’t it?”

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“She’s here to save our asses, dickhead.” The grey shadow beat her to responding, and Jo found herself smiling as she noticed the shape of a snake slithering through the dried grass beside her while the other appeared to swing it’s attention between her and the form by her feet. “Now, say thank you Jo, and we can get on our way back out of this forsaken place.”

“Here to… why are you still here though? You’ve been dead for months, runt, why is she still here?” “To save you too, dick. For no clear reason but stupid human sentimentality. Now… say thank you.”

Jo shook her head as she stepped forward, pulling the bandanna back up over her mouth and cheeks as a rugaru was spat out six feet from them and seemed to stare her over hungrily. “Sic ‘em.” She hissed out the words as the female rugaru appeared to lurch towards her, before the creature was swarmed by five small black shadows, feasting and draining it dry before it had made more than two steps towards her.

Smiling under the cover of the black fabric, Jo looked back where the grey snake and what now looked to be an equally grey elongated and terrifying humanoid shape appeared to be facing off. The size differences might have seemed heavily lent towards one over the other, but the blonde found herself merely shaking her head and stalking off northward through the middle of them well aware that sizes and looks could be deceiving. “I don’t need any thanks, let’s just get going towards the exit before anything else comes through, aye?”

She didn’t bother to look behind her, but by the time she was breaking through the dense undergrowth of the other side of the clearing’s edge, she could hear both voices snipping and snarling at one another as they began the trek towards the exit. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the hulking form to her right as well as the dense black shadowy movement she recognised as her swarm under foot, while to her left was the typically human shape Grey had usually taken for her comfort since they’d been reunited.

It would be a long walk, but Jo had been prepared for decades for this journey and knew she’d spend the entire walk ignoring the nasty battle of wills happening behind her back while she spent the trip mumbling the spell requirements and words under her breath. They had the one shot left at this, and Jo would not be the one to cause a failure now.

–

Day 531

There was some kind ruckus upstairs from the thudding noises happening. Jo’d been able to tell when Sam and Dean were around as they tended to park near where the air vent was so she could hear the roar of the engine, but she hadn’t heard that this morning. Whoever it was, it might be someone who didn’t know about her and her situation, so instead of moving to investigate since Bobby had begun leaving the door open more and more and encouraging her to get out and move about the house more freely than before, Jo laid back down on her cot with a battered copy of Pride & Prejudice she’d found in some cupboard upstairs.

Lizzie had just derided Mr. Darcy for asking for her hand in such a deplorable mode of declaration when the door to the basement was flung open with a loud crash and Jo jerked upright, staring out the door of her room as she tried to see who was making such a fuss.

The next second, her book was dropped onto her bed and her feet were driving her down the stretch to the foot of the stairs before her mind had even caught up with her eyes as to who it was standing at the bottom looking about curiously.

She hit into him hard, her feet not having caught the message to slow down on the approach just barrelling forward as quickly as possible in case someone tried to take her away again and this was all the time she would get. Jo heard a small grunt of pain from the other as she practically bounced off of him, kept grounded against him only by her arms around his waist and then his own wrapping around her back and pressing her close. Jo found herself sniffing loudly as she burrowed against his chest. He smelt like home.

“Hey you.” She felt herself shuddering as he spoke into her hair, his fingers wrapping through the tail ends of her rats nest of hair gently, as if trying to de-tangle what she was sure was going to take another two weeks of continuous work to get back to her normal style, just as it had when they’d gotten home before. Getting home.

Jo knew she’d had water recently, she’d just been having a sip while she’d been reading after all, but suddenly her throat felt drier than it had in ages and she felt herself struggling with what to say other than to bury deeper into him, her cheek pressed tightly to the soft fabric of his tshirt and hands digging into his back tightly. “Grey... Are... Are you okay?”

“Of course, of course I’m okay.” He murmured the words into her ear gently, and Jo could feel him rubbing over her back for a moment before they tangled to either side of her face. “I’m all good again, I promise.”

“Yeah?”

Grey’s eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled at her, and he lent forward, his forehead pressed against hers and Jo practically sagged into him as his eyes stared into hers reassuringly. His thumbs moved to stroke across her cheeks, the gentle brush making her shudder and smile gently as they brushed away the first few tears she didn’t even realise had fallen. And then he kissed her and everything felt right for her again. His lips, his hands, his scent... it all felt like she was finally home again.

---

[friendlyneighborhoodborg]

Marc Appreciation Week 2019| Day 6: Collab| “Working Together”

Okay, this is actually late.  It is past midnight, technically Day 7.

I am actually posting Day 7 later today, hopefully before the week is out.

Anyway here’s the 6th day, and the only chapter in the dumpster fire to actually follow the prompt given.

Disclaimers were in Day 1.

Chapters:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

AO3 Link

(~3200 biddling words.  Why do I do this to myself?)

           Marc didn’t know what he was.  Today was weird: he didn’t feel girly anymore after last night, but at the same time he didn’t think the “he” suited him today.  He realized this must have been what Alix was talking about before, about non-binary gender.

           Being something that wasn’t a boy or a girl was trippy.  Marc had felt it before, probably, but knowing what it was (which felt obvious now, considering… well, everything he was currently feeling) made it… something.  For all the words he knew, he couldn’t peg one for the experience.

           It occurred that he ought to have been surprised by how quickly he had taken to reconsidering his pronouns.  But then, that’s what his gender did, didn’t it?  Didn’t he always know that his gender did that?  Hadn’t that been such a large source of his anxiety for years?

          And now he was just rolling with it.

          That morning, he had glanced at himself in a mirror, per his usual routine.  His old adjectives, “Not him again” and “Could be worse” were absent this time.  Instead, he had felt heavy.  Overdressed, perhaps, only in his own skin.

          But he could live with that.

          It still stank, because French didn’t have a third-gender pronoun.  That meant that, regardless of his actual self, he had to use male pronouns.

          So, he comfortably got dressed, did up his face in a way he thought would suit him, and left for school.

          Something was different that afternoon.  Alix wasn’t in for some reason, which automatically meant the art teacher (he still kept forgetting his name) was more relaxed.  Juleka and Rose were separated, for once.  Rose was sitting in a corner, feverishly scribbling down notes in her pad.  Juleka was in the opposite corner, reading a horror novel, and her ankle was shackled to a protruding pipe.

          He approached Juleka cautiously, eyeing her restraints warily. “Did, uh…” He glanced up at the teacher, making sure he wasn’t listening.  “Did Alix tell you?”

          “Yeah, she got your text.”  Juleka glanced up meaningfully at her girlfriend, by herself in the corner. “Lucky someone in this club has their head on straight.”

          Marc chuckled.  “I don’t know if we can say that, there’s like one straight person in this club.”

          Juleka smiled for a second, then went back to reading her book. “And where was she, huh?  Crazy overworked, fixing up stuff our last class rep neglected.  Notice she couldn’t drop by all week?”  She calmly flipped the page she was on.  “Once again, Chloé got us into another fine mess that Marinette’s gotta pull us out of.  Again.”

          “What?” said Marc.  “No, I meant… wait, Marinette’s straight?”

          The musician shrugged.  “So she claims.  It is impolite to assume.”  As normal, her expression and tone betrayed little.

          “Biggest shock of my week,” was Marc’s jested reply.  “But I was talking about Nathaniel.”

          “Hm?  Oh yeah.” She pulled up one hand to do finger-quotes.  “‘Straight.’  That’s definitely an adjective that can describe him.  Marc, have you seen the way he draws Chat Noir?”

          “Of course, what about it?”

          “Well, maybe you’re both blinded by the superhero’s skintight leather, but the boy is not that ripped.”

          Rose hummed loudly.  Juleka glanced up at her.

          “I’m not trying to push anything, unlike some people,” she protested.  “I’m merely pointing out that he should have already noticed by now, in a manner he will not pick up on for purposes of dramatic irony.”

          “What’s going on?” he asked. “And what’s with you two?”  He looked at the chain.  “And… that?”

          “She’s on probation,” explained Juleka.  “Until she realizes what she did was wrong.”

          “Probation of what?”

          “Getting to run my hands through that soft, dark hair,” Rose replied for her, rubbing her fingers over the pages of her lyrics.  “Holding her close to me, closing my eyes and breathing in her clove-scented perfume.  Feeling the warmth of a heart matched beat-for-beat with mine.”

          Marc looked back at Juleka.  She was nose-deep in her book, but her forehead was sweating, her knuckles were white, and she refused to look anywhere near where Rose was sitting.

          “Is that why you’ve chained yourself to this pipe?”

          Juleka whimpered a little before answering.  “It’s funny, in a tragic sort of way.”

          “So, what’s holding Rose back?”

          “Pity, mostly.”

          “This isn’t about the makeup thing, is it?” questioned the writer.  “I don’t blame Rose for anything that happened.  I mean, it worked out, sort of.”

          “Yeah, no thanks to me,” sniffed the poet. “If I’d have known…”

          “Hey.”  He approached her and offered his hand.  “Hindsight is 20/20.”

          “Still.”  She rubbed the brimming tears from her eyes.  “I was such an idiot, and you had to go through all of that because of me.”

          “You’re still the first one who listened.  Let’s be honest, that could have gone a lot worse.”

          “I overreacted.”  She looked down and continued to write, though it was mostly an excuse to avoid Marc’s eyes. “I thought I knew what was happening, and I thought I could help.  I was wrong to try and do it by myself without seeing a second opinion.”  Sniffing, she closed the notebook.  “I’m sorry.”

          “Oh…” groaned Juleka.  “So close, Rose.  Come on, I know you can do it.”

          “Do what?”

          “We aren’t be allowed to touch each other until she figures out exactly where she went wrong.  She’s got most of it, but I’m not allowed to tell her the last one.”

          “Okay, but why are you doing,” he gestured wildly at both girls, “this?”

          “Because I don’t have the key and Rose is really trying, bless her.”

          He looked between the two of them a few times, both of them equally miserable.  “I get the feeling this wasn’t your guys’ arrangement.”

          “It was Alix’s,” admitted Juleka.  “We both went along with it.  The chain was my idea, though.  It’s the cruelest and most elaborate punishment ever devised, who do you think dreamt it up?”

          “I mean,” Marc disputed, “I wouldn’t have pegged her specifically.”  Particularly not after their little heart-to-heart yesterday.

          “Never tick off someone with a small body-mass-to-temper ratio,” Rose advised.  “Especially if everyone in her family is an ancient history buff.”

          “What’s that got to—”

          “Look, she knows a little something about torture.”

          “Ah,” Marc commented, thoroughly confused and only pretending to understand.  “You two look like you’re busy, I’ll leave you to it.”

          He quietly took his seat at the back of the room, leaving the two to sort out their issues in peace.

           All things considered, life was pretty good.

          So why was Marc still feeling so anxious?

          Nathaniel crept in through the door with his head down, answering the question.

           “Nathaniel,” Juleka said.  “Unlock me.  I need to go use the bathroom.”

           “Sure thing.”  Nath approached her, holding something else up.  “Brought your headphones, too, you left them in class.”

           “It won’t work.  She’s stuck in my head.”

Rose cast a saddened, dramatic gaze towards the writer in the back. “Pray you don’t become like us, Marc.”

           Marc blushed.  Of course Rose figured it out.  She probably told Juleka, too.

           Yet another thing to watch out for.

           ‘Wait, so is Nathaniel straight or not?’

           Nathaniel joined him at their usual table once Juleka had been freed.  “Hey.”

           “You know,” Marc bet, “one has to wonder if that’s some sort of metaphor for something.”

           The artist burst out laughing, but quickly shut himself up when he realized he was making noise.  “Yeah,” he confessed.  “Probably. But they’re good for each other. Rose helps Juleka’s self-esteem, Juleka keeps Rose grounded.”

           “Yeah.  They really are kinda fun to write.  Speaking of…”

           “Right!  Back to work.”

           “If we end off our comic there, Rose is never going to forgive us.”

           “I know,” expressed Nathaniel, glancing over at the person in question.  She was the only other student who hadn’t gone home yet.  Volume up high in her earbuds, she wasn’t even looking at them. “But this story is way too interesting for one issue.  With a cliffhanger like that, she’ll keep breathing down our necks to make more.”  He blushed, realizing he had gotten ahead of himself.  “I mean, if you’re okay with… I’ve really liked working with you and I want to—”

           “Yes!” Marc blurted with a blush of his own.  “I mean, um, yes.  I would… I would love to keep working with you.”

           “Okay.”  He turned his attention back to the work.  “So, if we end the issue with Princess Fragrance’s reveal, then that’s going to take a full-page panel.”  He drew a border inside another blank page.  “Right, so we’ve got that planned out.  Now to just get cracking on those last few pages.”  He surveyed the pages of blank boxes in front of him, each with a little note of what went in each.  “And we know what has to be said at each bit, so if you want to edit specific dialogue, now’s the time to do that.”

           “Cool.  I’ll get on top of that.”

           Marc’s brain suddenly took a dive, and he hastily tried to delete the previous sentence from his brain.

           Each of them had the plans for everything, so they didn’t see a reason to talk much, a silence Marc respected even if he himself wasn’t comfortable with it.  If it made Nathaniel more comfortable, he could swing that.

           His brain needed to stop it immediately with the double-entendres.

           The two of them worked for another few minutes, with only the sound of their pens scratching their paper.

           Nathan, surprisingly, was the one who broke the silence.  “So… last night you were a girl.”

           Marc exhaled nervously.  He wasn’t wrong, but it still felt weird to acknowledge the elephant in the room.  “Uh, yeah.”

           “Earlier yesterday you were a boy.”

           “Yep.”

           “So…”  Nath bit his lip, which Marc had to avert his gaze from.  “I don’t want to just assume, in case I get it wrong.  What are you now?”

           Marc had been stewing this over while he worked. Truth be told, he found he didn’t actually care as much today.  He knew he wasn’t a boy, and he wasn’t a girl, but… he wasn’t really much of anything else either.

           “I don’t think I’m anything right now.”

           “Really?”

          “Nothing, right now.”  He shrugged.  “I’m just… nothing.”

          “How does that work?”

          “Search me.”  He shrugged once again.  “I don’t have much of a gender today, I guess.”

          “So…” Nathaniel paused.  “It’s like there’s no… asterisks.”

          “Asterisks?”

          Nath winced.  “Sorry. I was trying to be poetic, y’know, like you?  You have this great, flowing… your words are just, they click.  Does that make sense?  It probably doesn’t make sense, forget I said anything.”

          Marc smiled at the compliment, going back to his journal.  “They’re just words.”

          “They’re not, though, alright?” he declared.  “They’re not just words, they’re you! The way you get words to line up, only you can do it that way.  You’re so… smart, and creative, and… your writing style is just great.”

          “Th-thanks.”

          “I mean that.”  Nathan looked away, holding his arm sheepishly.  “You’re great, you’re really…”  He shut his eyes.  “Forget it.”

           Marc blinked.  “What was that?”

           “Never mind.  Where you at?  Panel 9-g, the security guard is revealed to be possessed, Ghostlight comes out, and we need a good, punchy line to start the fight with.”

           “No…”  Marc closed his journal.  “This can wait.  What were you going to say?”

           “Nothing important.”

           “I doubt that.”  He reached over the table and took his hand.  “Nath, whatever it is, it’s important.  You want to say it, say it.”

           Nathaniel blushed.  His mouth opened and closed, flopping like a fish, and he started to sweat.

           Marc looked down and realized oh wait, he was actually holding Nath’s hand.  He instantly let go, which seemed to shock Nath back into coherency.

           “I can’t,” he told him.

           “You can’t?”

           “No,” he restated.  “I’ll just mess it up, just forget it.”

           “I’ll listen.”  This gave the author pause.  “I’ve been keeping up with you for the last week.  I’ll understand what you’re trying to say.”

           His face had determination etched into it. He opened his mouth and began.

           “Oh!” Rose said suddenly, breaking his momentum. “Look at the time, I have to… go make an excuse.”  She scooched off of her seat and sashayed out the door.  “I’ll leave you two alone,” she called back, leaving the door ajar.

           Both collaborators stared after her.  The art teacher glanced in her direction, then he, too, left the room.

Nathaniel and Marc were alone.  Nathan, only a little deterred, summoned back what little courage he had left.

“You…”  He stopped. “You’re my friend, right Marc?”

           “Yeah,” was the immediate, nodding answer.  “I hope so, anyway.”

           “And… I’m your friend, right?”

           “Of course.”

           “You… you’re so much of a better person than I am.” The boy gulped.  “No matter… who you are.  And today, it’s like… I’m so glad I get to see you happy.”

          “Uh…”  Marc nodded again in appreciation. “Thanks.”

          “I mean, look at you, you’re happier, even if you’re still the same person who’s come in to help me with this stupid thing—”

          “Nathan, it’s not stupid—”

          “It is, though, and sometimes it feels like we’re the only people here who care about it.  Only now you’ve changed, and you’re so much more relaxed now, and… And it’s good for you, right?  You get to be so much more confident.  Like just now, when you said you had no gender, you said it and you were sure.”

          “I’m still not really sure.”

          “You sounded sure, and that’s better than I can do.  With pretty much anything.  I’m not strong or witty, but you are. There’s just so many little things, here and there, and I can’t concentrate right.  There’s just so many things about—”

          The sudden halt from the speed at which Nathaniel had been talking gave Marc whiplash.

          Marc looked at him, expecting him to finish what he was saying.

          “I can’t…” he mumbled.   “Just… that’s it, then.  I don’t know how I was going to end that.”

          “You feeling okay, Nathan?” queried Marc.  “I don’t think I’ve heard you talk so much in one go.”

          “It’s…nothing.”  Nath took a deep breath.  “I’ve been trying to… think of things I wanted to say—”  He got out of his seat, turning away.  “Never mind, it’s stupid.”

          “No,” Marc stated, standing up behind him.  “You’re not.  If you need to say something, just say it.”

          “I think—”

          “Go on.”

          “I think you’re—” Nathaniel swallowed his tongue and hunched over, covering his mouth.

          “Nath!”  Marc rushed to his aid.  “Breathe slowly, okay?  Are you alright?  You look like you’re going to puke.”

          “I didn’t say anything, just…”  Nath’s voice broke.  “Please, just drop it, I don’t wanna…”

          Marc couldn’t believe it.  Nathaniel, whose creativity knew no bounds, was censoring himself.

          That could not happen.

          And Marc needed to know.

          “What if I don’t want to drop it?”

           “Marc, please…”

           “What if I don’t want you to be afraid to talk to me? What would you say if you could talk to me?”  He looked into his icy-blue eyes, piercing through with his warmth.  “What if you were about to say what I thought you were going to say?  What if it’s that important that I hear how that sentence was going to end?”  He snatched Nath’s hands from where they had covered his mouth and cradled them in his own. “And what if, by some miracle, I cared about how you felt and what you thought?”

           Nath stared back at him, and both of them reeled from the shock of Marc’s outburst.

           Then Nathaniel slowly started shaking his head.

           “Don’t do this… don’t do that to me,” he murmured. “Stop doing that, you’re going to just regret it.”

           Marc tightened his grip.  “Just say what you wanted to.  Stop putting up all these filters in your head.”  He grasped at something.  “Do the thing about the asterisks.  What did you mean by that?”

          Nath took a deep breath and tried.  “Well… right now, you’re… no gender.  No asterisks.  No added stress.  You’re just… Marc.  Pure Marc.” He scowled.  “I mean… that’s not good, is it, that’s not clever.  Cause you’re not just genderless, are you?”  He wrenched his hands from Marc’s ironclad grip. “Look, you could be a girl and I’d… you’d still be you.  Same for if you end up a boy.  You just get to be you.  And… I like it when you’re you.”  He stopped, looking to Marc for criticism.

           After a moment, Marc smiled warmly.  “That was pretty poetic.”

           “Y-you do it so much better than me.”

           They both smiled.

           “C-can I—” Nath gulped, shutting himself down.

           “What?”

           “N-nothing.”  He shook where he stood.  “Forget it.”

           “No chance.”  Marc wasn’t sure where this courage was coming from, but he didn’t shake it away.  “You don’t have to filter yourself.  I won’t judge anything you say from here on out, you hear me?  It’s the least I can do for what you and Alix have done for me.”

           Nathaniel drew closer suddenly, his hand touched Marc’s cheek, and their lips barely touched.  For a single half-second, their lips brushed against one another, and then Nathan drew back like Marc was a burning stove.

           Both creators were left in a state of shock.

           “Oh… my… God.”  Marc gaped.  “You…”

           “Cute,” Nathaniel muttered.  “I was gonna say cute.  Before.”  He looked down.  “I’m… sorry, I’ll just…”  He made his way to his bag, tripped on a chair, and started to bolt for the door.

           Seeing Nathan start to panic and run away triggered something in him.  He suddenly found a good reason to raise his voice.

           Nathaniel had given him strength.  Now he had to return the favor.

           “Hey, get back here!” Marc called out, and the artist stopped. “I’ve had a crush on you for over a full month now.  You get a do-over.”  Marc surged forward, turned him back around, and kissed him again, this time much more solidly.

           A few seconds passed and they separated.  “You have a crush on me?” Nath said, confused.

           Marc laughed a little at his expense.  “There were times, even just this week, where something you did just completely killed me, stone dead.”

           Nath blinked.  “Do you want to go out sometime?”

          “You see, this is what I’m talking about.”  He pulled him close and hugged him tightly.  “Son of a gun, yes, but don’t give me heart attacks like that.”

          Nath’s arms awkwardly returned the embrace.  “I, uh… I’ve never had a… an actual date before. What’s the, uhm… protocol, here?”

           “Are you serious?”

           “Half-serious.”

           “Well don’t worry.  It’ll be a learning experience for the both of us.”

           We have always belonged together!

           Nathaniel tore away from the embrace, turning sharply towards the door.  “Rose, what the hell!?”

           The little pink devil held the phone up high, volume turned all the way up.  We will always belong together!  Just keep moving on!

           “Sorry,” Rose giggled.  “My hand slipped.”

           The collaborators looked at each other.  Nodding a silent agreement, they chased after Rose together.

Okay.  I don’t have much else to say right now, so... *shuffles away*.

[theartificialdane]

Galactica, part 242

In this Raven throws the warmup party at the year, as she celebrates a night all about her!

Thank you @veronicasanders @samrull and @toriibelledarling for cowriting <3

“Violet!” Pearl kicked Violet’s door, her hands filled with her computer. “Can I borrow your charger, Turbo just chew through mine, the little assholem and I have a fucking deadlin-” Pearl almost tripped over Frida, the woman not looking up as she was desperately trying to save the file she was working on. Pearl looked up, the breath getting knocked out of her. “Wow…”

Violet was standing in front of her mirror, a ruby dress hugging her body, the long sleeves covering her arms while her shoulders were out, Violet’s delicate collarbones on display, a slender gold chain decorating her neck, and Pearl felt her jaw hit the floor. Violet looked breathtaking.

“Pearl, hi.” Violet turned around, her hair done in the soft curls she had worn for the Vogue Fashion Fund, her lips the most kissable dark red, and Pearl flushed, the whole situation beyond embarrassing. “Did you want something?”

“What? Oh. Right.” Pearl felt like a schoolgirl, unable to focus on anything but Violet’s louboutins. “Can I borrow your charger?”

“Sure.” Violet bent down, quickly going through her Chanel before she pulled out the charger, handing it to Pearl, their hands touching.

“Thanks..” Pearl grabbed it and left, not looking back, her mouth dry.

***

"I can't wait for the party!" Raven sing-sang as she walked around her living room one more time, drink in hand, making sure everything was perfect. It was still a few hours until she had invited the guests, and the TV crew was going to come running any minute. Raven was practically vibrating with excitement, her party something she had looked forward to for weeks.

“Calm down, princess.” Raja smiled and took Raven’s drink from her, making Raven pout.

“Raaaj, you’re so mean.”

“I’m not mean, I’m trying to keep my little event planner sober until her big night actually starts.”

“Fiiiiine.” Raven sat down, Raja putting her arm around her and kissed her fiance's head.

As much as the woman made fun of each other, they were both incredibly detail oriented and meticulous whenever they threw any kind of happening. Even though Raven could have hired an event planner for her party, she wanted to do it all herself. Raja loved how secretly domestic Raven was, and how much she enjoyed entertaining their close friends in their home. For Raven, event planning gave her an excuse to obsess over every tiny detail. She had spent two weeks coordinating the charger plates with the floral arrangements when Fame had thrown a dinner, and for baby Grace’s christening, Raven had ruled it all with an iron fist. Jaslene had even asked Raven to help plan her wedding because of her taste and the care she put into planning everything.

Raven heard the doorbell, and jumped excitedly from Raja’s arms, running forwards the door. Raven had spent all day making sure that everything would work out, that the appetizers were in fact perfect, that her over the top Venetian hour dessert spread was beyond anything anyone had ever seen, and that the drinks matched up as they should. That and keeping track of the messages therapists, the nail technicians the spa personnel were all there and ready to work. All in all, this was  to be a lovely little girly party and Raven couldn't wait to begin.

“Hey, so where can we put all this stuff?”

Raven sneered as the camera man in question just walked straight into her home, the man barely wiping his shoes before he stepped onto her Pierre Frey carpet.

“Did your mom drop you as a baby?”

Raven was just about to go off, when Raja came into the hallway, her fiance grabbing her jacket from the hook before she leaned down to kiss Raven.

“Are you sure you’re not going to stay?”

“There isn’t enough money in the world.” Raja laughed, and Raven pouted, the two kissing again.

“Say hi to everyone from me?”

“I will.”

***

“Hey…” Courtney leaned on Bianca’s shoulder from behind, Courtney dressed up to the nines. “So I was thinking… Maybe I can some with you tonight, instead of to going to Raven’s…”

Bianca turned around and kissed Courtney’s cheek, lacing their fingers together. “Sounds good to me.”

“I wish,” Courtney groaned and peeled herself off Bianca, getting ready to go.

“What’s the matter? I thought those drunk bitches were your new BFFs, and hasn’t Raven been good, too?”

“Yeah, everyone’s been cool.” Courtney shrugged. “It’s her friends I don’t trust.”

“Well, they’re jealous, baby. I mean… You’ve got everything they want.” Bianca flashed her dimples.

Courtney laughed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know, I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”

Bianca kissed her neck. “Luck has very little to do with it…”

Giggling, Courtney slid her arms around Bianca’s shoulders. “To be honest, those cunts are probably a safer bet than Fame and Raja anyway.”

“That’s...accurate.”

***

"Ravey baby abre la puerta!" Jaslene yelled in Spanish from out in the hall where she had just been let in by a very confused cameraman.

"Raaave, where are you? We have the juice of your homeland!" Celia laughed as they dumped into the livingroom.

"Heeey!" Raven greeted as the two women enveloped her in a crushing hug.

"It's Ravey's bachelorette party!" Jaslene sang as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Yay Rave!" Celia squealed as she held he Russian woman tighter.

"I can't breathe," Raven wheezed out before Celia and Jaslene let her go, allowing her to take a deep breath. "Thank you."

"No problem," Celia chirped brightly with a brilliant smile, "We can't afford to have you pass out, and then endure your wrath for messing with the flow of your party."

"Because we all know how Raven is about her events." Jaslene said.

Raven laughed to herself, Celia and Jaslene looking around for the first time.

“Shit… You really outdid yourself this time Rave.”

The entire apartment had been transformed. Cascading waterfalls and lush floral arrangements lead the way to the bedrooms, where a rack of plush robes and slippers announced a full day spa with a nail salon, masseurs, and all kinds of beauty treatments.

The livingroom was a club/lounge with dance poles (governed by the one and only Mariah), a DJ, and a bartender mixing signature cocktails.

And in the dining room, three master pastry chefs were creating the most elaborate and divine desserts anyone had ever seen. Raven’s sweet tooth and grandiosity combined to form the greatest Venetian hour in history.

“Aww thanks Cece!” Raven beamed as the trio walked further into the room.

“It looks like, super professional.” Jaslene laughed, just before they heard the doorbell ring, more of the guests slowly arriving.

“You two go and get some snacks or a pre party facial,” Raven said brightly, “enjoy yourself, but most importantly, remember to enjoy Raja’s money!” ***

“Hey boo hey!” Jujubee greeted as soon as Raven opened the door to her home, the small asian woman smiling brightly.

“My little Juju!” Raven sang, giving her friend a big hug. “Hey Kelly belly,” she added as Kelly come into view, the teen looking mightily bored with the whole situation.

“Oh my god,” Kelly groaned as she hugged Raven before stepping into the condo. “Don't you think I've outgrown that name?” She whined pitifully while handing Raven a pink and gold gift bag.

“But you had such a cute little baby gut.”

“Wait, are those cameras?”

“Oh, right!” Raven smiled and grabbed the paperwork next that was laying on a little side table. “Courtney is filming Housewifes tonight, so you have to sign this.”

“Awesome!” Kelly reached out, ready to sign, but her mom grabbed her hand.

“Don’t even think about it Kelly Sanderson.”

“But moooom-”

“No.”

“Fine.” Kelly rolled her eyes, clearly displeased, but she gave up quickly, finding the beauty treatments on offer much more exciting.

“She gets it from her father,” Jujubee replied easily, putting her hands on her hips, easily signing the form herself.

“Ah, right...the other host of the evening. I wonder how he’s doing…” Raven chuckled to herself.

***

“The baby is finally sleeping,” Fame announced. “And now I think I understand why you invited us here, De.”

“That’s unfair. I invited you to celebrate Raja’s last few glorious days of singledom and reunite the group, all of us, …” Detox looked around and raised his glass, a smile on his face. “To Raja, and to the upcoming holidays.”

“Hear hear!” Sutan called, raising his beer bottle. Even though he and Raja were Muslim, he still absolutely loved christmas.

Patrick kissed Fame on the cheek and she leaned against him happily. Bianca rolling her eyes since she still hadn’t totally forgiven Patrick yet.

“So are you actually going to grill for us, or should I have a Postmates order ready to go?” Bianca asked, sipping her beer. They were all sitting in the livingroom, surrounded by toys and kids drawings.

“Oh ye of little faith!” Detox cried.

“Yeah, I feel like I literally just said I have no faith. None.” Bianca cackled, everyone laughing together. They could have gone out to celebrate Raja, but honestly all of them just wanted to stay in and spend time together, instead of going out and dealing with the public and the paparazzi.

Raja laughed and slung an arm around Bianca’s shoulders. “Let’s give him like an hour,” she said. “If there’s nothing edible by 7:30, then we can go for delivery.”

“Look, I had to give the monsters their dinner first, okay?” Detox smiled, Julia and Owen tucked up nicely in their room with Disney Channel on, the two beyond excited with the juice boxes and candy they got to share. “It’s done, so now I can fire up the grill!”

“You know it’s December, right? I’m just really skeptical of this whole plan.” Bianca dunked her beer, making Raja laugh, the woman clearly enjoying her friends’ argument.

“Let him do his thing, B. Stop being such a control freak,” Fame said.

“Oh I’m a control freak?! Said the bitch whose entire home is white.” Fame huffed and rolled her eyes while Patrick smirked, the state of their home and Fame’s choice in colorpalette often something their friends made fun of.

Suddenly two small creatures flew into the room and hurled themselves at the sofa.

“Holy shit!” Raja almost fell back as she was tackled, her arms filled with tiny twins, their mouths blue from their candy.

“YOU MADE A CURSE!” Julia giggled, pointing at Raja.

“How did you ever get used to that? I just got the wind knocked out of me!” Raja gasped.

“Oh, you never do.” Detox shook his head, easily picking up one of the twins, Owen settling down on his lap, the little boy looking around with wide eyes as Julia settled down on Raja’s lap.

“Bibi, where’s Courtney?” asked Julia, smiling at Bianca.

“She’s at Auntie Raven’s.”

“Oh. Where’s Auntie Raven?” Julia titled her head, looking at Bianca like she was trying to figure out a puzzle.

“She’s having another party. None of us are invited. It’s not for kids and it’s not for older people.”

“Isn’t that where Mommy is?” Julia said.

“Yes.”

“But she’s an older people.”

Sutan snorted, clearly entertained by Julia.

“She’s fun, though.”

“Oh yeah.” Julia laughed. Owen looked up.

“So you guys are having the boring party, and they have the fun party?”

Bianca reached for the little girl, tickling her. “Yes, exactly. Welcome to the boring party.”

***

“So remember, you’re supposed to get both of them to drink,” Jane instructed, as the sound guy strapped on Courtney’s mic pack.

“Yes, Jane.”

“A lot.”

“Yes, Jane.”

“We need a light, fun, turnt-up party sequence.”

“Got it, Jane.”

“But like, if they get emotional or cry or throw drinks, that’s awesome too.”

“Yes, Jane.”

“Basically, you know, the usual.” Jane winked and sent Courtney off towards the elevator, where she joined Adore, Alaska and Jinkx. Ramona and Sonja were still getting their mics placed, laughing and flirting with the cute sound guys.

“Jesus,” said Alaska. “Is she always so...”

“Yes,” Courtney sighed.

“You alright?” Adore asked.

“Yeah!” Courtney flashed a smile. “I’m always a little nervous with Raven et al… You know.”

“I thought you guys were like besties now?” Jinkx wondered.

“Well...I mean, yeah. But now her whole squad will be there, and the cameras. Those girls just love drama and they all blame me for Bianca firing her even though I had nothing to do with it - I actually still don’t even know what happened. But I did get Tati the job. And then there was all that drama at the Galactica show, which made it into the tabloid, and...but I mean, no, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Adore put an arm around Courtney’s shoulders. “Look, we got your back, babe. Plus, we’ll just drink heavily and try to get Sonja to go insane..”

“It doesn’t take much,” Courtney laughed, stepping out of the elevator and ringing Raven’s doorbell.

“Exactly!  Then the cameras will focus on that!”

“/Jane…/” hissed a voice over the walkie.

“/Yeah, Jeremy, I heard it./”

“/Want me to go start some shit with the models?/”

“/Of course I do, Jeremy./”

“/Copy that, boss./”

“Adore darling!” Raven greeted as she leapt at the younger woman as soon as she opened the door.

“Mother Russia!” Adore replied as Raven crushed her face in between her boobs as she hugged the shorter girl. “Your boobs are smothering me,” she wheezed out.

“Oops,” Raven said as she let Adore go. “Sorry, I just didn't think you were coming since I didn't hear from you,” She continued happily as she looked Adore up and down, “you look good, has your butt gotten bigger?”

“I texted you! I hope my plus two isn’t an issue,” Adore laughed.

“Of course not, the more the merrier. Hey, ladies, welcome,” Raven greeted Alaska and Jinkx with air kisses, and gave Courtney a hug. “Come see this,” Raven winked, leading them inside.

*

Violet pushed the door to the kitchen open, sneaking inside, a breath of relief leaving her as she found the kitchen blissfully empty besides the waiters who were thankfully ignoring her. As soon as Violet had walked into Raja and Raven’s apartment, Frida dropped off downstairs at Sutan’s, she had been cornered by a production assistant, the man bothering her with a photo release that Violet had refused to sign right away. There was no way in hell she was going to end up on TV, no matter how much Courtney and well... Bascially everyone around her seemed to think it was a good idea. Violet opened the cabinet and grabbed a glass of water, filling it with ice cold water. It was going to be a long, long, long night at the Amrull Petruschin household.

*

“Holy shit…” Adore breathed.

Raven laughed, putting an arm around Adore. “I decided my theme would be ‘Raven’s Favorite Things’...you know, like Oprah…”

“I mean, even for you, this is over the fucking top, dude,” Adore said, looking back and forth between the dance floor, the waterfalls, the pastry chefs, spa services...she snatched a crabcake piled with caviar from a passing tray.

“Thank you,” Raven fluttered her lashes in mock humility.

“Courtney, I think we found your homegirls…” Alaska said, gesturing to the dance poles, where Sonja and Ramona were drinking white wine and twirling around with no rhythm, accompanied by a beautiful black woman. She appeared amused by their antics though, holding a martini and laughing with them as they gyrated wildly.

“Courtneyyyyyyy!” Sonja screamed, pulling the younger blonde in for a hug.

“Hiya!” Courtney said, looking back at Adore and Alaska with a look of terror on her face, the cameraman in the corner of the room catching her expression perfectly.

“Come dance, baby! This gorgeous bitch, Mariah, is teaching us all these greaaaaat moves!” Sonja slurred.

“I think I need a drink or two to catch up,” Courtney laughed.

“I think I’m gonna go get a massage,” said Jinkx, turning around to leave the dancefloor as Courtney was dragged away.

“We can’t leave her!” Adore said, a whine in her voice.

“You can stay and get turnt with the ladies who lunch. Imma get a massage.” Jinkx kissed Adore on the forehead.

Alaska blew Adore a kiss and followed Jinkx. “Sorry, Lil’ Bear. You’ll understand when you hit your thirties…”

Adore rolled her eyes and grabbed two cocktails from a passing tray. “Here Courtney! Drink this!”

*** “Are you sure Raven wants me here, Allie?”

“Of course.” Allison smiled, her and Tatianna taking their jackets off, Allison quickly brushing a bit of snow out of Tatianna’s long black hair. “Everyone loves you.”

“If you say so.”

Allison took the releases they had been given. “So... Are you going to sign?”

“Do you think Sutan would forgive us if we didn’t?”

“Not really no.”

“Give it here then.”

Allison laughed and handed Tatianna a pen.

***

“Celia, right? And Jaslene?”

The girls looked up from their massage tables at the squirrely-looking man holding a clipboard, flanked by two cameramen. “Yeah…?” Celia said sweetly, with only a slight tinge of suspicion. She wasn’t going to be overtly rude even though she could tell this man had shady intentions. Screentime was screentime, after all.

“I just wanted to ask you about some history you have with one of our cast members...Courtney Act? She mentioned you in a confessional.”

Jaslene narrowed her eyes. “Oh really?”

“Well, she mentioned that her friend Tatianna knows you. Apparently Tatianna said that you were rude to her at a fashion show because Courtney had gotten her a job that you thought she’d stolen from the guest of honor? Is that true?”

Jeremy cocked his head as Jaslene looked at Celia. “Is that bitch Tati still talking about the fucking Galactica show, even after Allie has taken her under her wing?! And whining to Courtney about it? Who repeats it? I swear that bitch has no fucking sense.”

“Raven was right about her from the beginning. I can’t wait until Bianca dumps her basic Britney wannabe ass.”

Jeremy smiled, nodding to the cameras to keep rolling as he slowly backed away.

***

“See, I told you you’d like it!” Raven laughed. “Peachy crystal pink is the perfect shade for you!” Raven wiggled her fingers, her own nails filed and ready to dig into Raja’s back the moment she got the chance to jump her fiance.

Courtney giggled and spun around, finishing her drink. “You’re so lucky you can have long nails all the time.. These french tips look bitching on me.”

Bitching? Courtney was really drunk. Raven took her hand back, admiring the color. “Well. What can I say, it’s all part of life as a princess.”

Courtney’s mouth opened in an adorable O, the woman clearly ready to make it into an argument that Raven would love to pick apart piece by piece, but just then Adora came running, pulling Courtney away.

“Lighten up, bitch! Keep drinking!” Adore cried. “This is our song!”

“Fine, fine, fine!” Courtney laughed and got up, following Adore onto the dance floor that was filled with people that Raven knew, some better than others.

Raven leaned back in her chair, pulling her phone up to send Raja a picture of the makeup and hair the makeup artist had done on her.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!”

Raven looked up, confused at Celia that had just sat down next to her, the blonde whispering to her and ruining her selfie session.

“Thanks, girl!” Raven replied, slightly puzzled, handing her a glass of champagne. “Cheers!”

Celia toasted her and then backed away, shooting an ice glare towards the dancefloor. Raven had no idea what was going on, but Raja had just viewed her snap, and that was all that mattered.