#you agree those people were putting on the play of their own volition

[worstloki]

it's actually really funny that no one accused Loki of forcing those actors to put on a play about himself after Thor 3 as if that's the only type of show they put on now, at threat of death. Thor 4 retroactively confirmed that the actors are passionate about their jobs and plain enjoy playing the characters but wild no one considered beyond 'he's a diva' or 'he was subtly funding the arts and improving cultural outlook on other races'

[kingscholar-archive]

an analysis of leona kingscholar and ruggie bucchi’s relationship | twisted wonderland

disclaimer: this analysis is a take on my own interpretation of the characters and their lore. if you agree and want to add on, feel free to do so! if you’re just going to argue without factual proof, i’d rather you save it for your own post instead. this is a safe space for both Leona and Ruggie lovers.

first, let’s start off with Leona Kingscholar. the second-born prince of Sunset Savanna, the one whose dreams are all dashed. Leona is clearly a very intelligent character; there’s tons of proof of this. i can go off on how mischaracterized Leona is, but i’ll save it for another post.

but in any case, Leona is smart. and that’s why he has Ruggie by his side.

to me, Ruggie Bucchi’s main goal is survival. and if he can get the easy life in addition to surviving, then why would he ever say no? Leona and Ruggie’s relationship is very much like a symbiotic relationship, where they both benefit off of each other. to Leona, Ruggie is a helping hand that can do a lot of the work he doesn’t actually want to execute himself, all for the price of a few thaumarks or a deluxe sandwich from the cafeteria or whatever Ruggie desires (that’s within reason, of course). meanwhile to Ruggie, Leona is someone who’s willing to provide for him as long as he puts in the work.

and it works for them! with Ruggie’s resourcefulness and Leona’s huge wallet, they both mutually benefit from their deal.

now i’m going to move on to book 2 and Leona’s Overblot. there’s quite a lot of arguments and hate directed towards Leona because “he almost killed Ruggie! he injured him! he’s a monster!”.

here’s the thing though: Ruggie quite literally kept badgering Leona. i’m not saying that Leona’s response was justifiable, but even Lilia says it; how Leona could never compare to Malleus (in terms of being king-like) because the way the latter reacted was like that of a child. he was acting like a spoiled kid because his dreams and scheme of taking down Malleus got exposed and ruined. and Ruggie, who probably didn’t think Leona would hurt him or even realized he was so close to Overblotting, was the closest person to Leona. so on top of him arguing with Leona about giving up, Leona’s already riled up about other matters. and again, while Ruggie didn’t deserve what happened, he’s also not innocent in the grand scheme of things. he was a willing participant in the plot to take down Malleus pre-comp.

and as i said before, i really think that Ruggie’s ultimate goal is always survival, even if it means he has to work a bit harder. he’s not stupid; Ruggie made it into NRC of his own volition and hard work. he didn’t even know Leona personally before NRC. it’s just that being at Leona’s side helps him a lot in many ways. if Leona was truly a danger to Ruggie, he’d scram. he wouldn’t put his life in jeopardy if he knew his chances of surviving were slim to none.

and in any case, as per book 6, those who Overblotted at NRC have all been checked and verified by magical professionals that ensured that they were okay, that their lives weren’t still in danger, etc etc. as such, Leona isn’t a danger to anyone anymore (at least, not any more than he was before). and Ruggie knows this. that’s why he still stays by Leona’s side, why he still chastises him without fear, why he still works for him.

additionally, Ruggie was well enough to play in Spelldrive matches during the tournament and was even after. he also continues to joke at Leona (especially laughing over Cheka’s “Unca!” entrance). so clearly, he’s not too fussed over what happened. he probably milked his injury to get stuff from Leona. and after book 2, they’re still seen together. i wish the writers for the game delved into this more (which leads me to another issue i have: how poorly written book 2 is. but that’s another issue for another post).

i know people will always have their difference in opinions on Leona and Ruggie’s relationship, but seeing Leona get so blatantly mischaracterized just never sat right with me. of course he’s not the only character to be mischaracterized, but i find that when it comes to the subject, his name often appears. you can accuse me of being biased because i love Leona, but honestly i could go on a rant about so many TWST characters and how mischaracterized they are by the fandom, because it’s not just Leona. i love Ruggie but even he isn’t the perfect angel compared to Leona. he also actively injured students to achieve his dreams alongside Leona.

these characters are all portrayed after villains, so they’re all going to do evil things!! so like,, please don’t act like certain characters are better than others morally when they’re not :,)

[xiyouyanyi]

JTTW Era: Pilgrimage and After

-JTTW novel-wise, the fillet was a symbol of external control on a mind that lacks self-control, and when SWK became enlightened at the end, the fillet also magically disappeared.

-However, one very similar fillet appeared in FSYY's Ten Thousand Immortal Formation arc, and was used on one of the Chan 12, Sage Huanglong (literally "Yellow Dragon").

-That fillet would not actually be the one given to SWK. But it would come into play in the far, far future...

-LBD, known as the Ivory Lady, made her last attempt at steering a mortal king onto the right track before going "fuck it" and pulling off a successful coup with the help of the Mayor.

-In this AU, he is also a pseudo-ghostly immortal: a middle-ranking general who died on the battlefield after being denied reinforcement by corrupt ministers, but had his souls grabbed and returned to his body by LBD, before the Underworld officials could show up and take him away.

-Post-coup, she had also established an alliance with the rogue Lunar Mansion, Kui Mulang, who agreed to conceal her project from celestial eyes in exchange for her aid in finding the reincarnation of his immortal lover.

-What was this project, you asked? Well, let's just say it's the prototype of what she'd go on to pull off at the end of S2, and involves mass human sacrifices, where each and every soul was consumed and broken down into their smallest components.

-She wasn't seeking out Tripitaka to eat his flesh, unlike the other demons. Rather, her goal was to possess him and make the holy monk, one who already had the merits and some of the six powers of an Arhat, into her perfect vessel.

-And when she was playing her con game on the pilgrims, she didn't just shift into a regular human girl and then, an old couple, but was possessing actual long-dead bodies.

-After Kui Mulang was dealt with, dragged back to the Celestial Realm to serve as furnace-fanning boy, his illusion on LBD's old kingdom also came down, allowing the rest of the gang to track her down, after she sneaked the imprisoned Tripitaka out of the dungeon of Baoxiang Kingdom in the chaos.

-I'd like to think they had an actual philosophical debate in the short time before Tripitaka's disciples kicked down the doors.

"Don't make me laugh. You are just prolonging the suffering needlessly, cutting away the shaft of an arrow while leaving the metal head inside the wound. Making it worse, in fact. Just like your master." "And your solution to suffering is inflicting more suffering, Shizhu? Putting out a fire with another fire? You blame this poor monk for prolonging the suffering, yet he only desires to sever suffering at its roots, release the restless dead from the cycle once and for all." "A cycle that will never end, for those who are not fortunate enough to receive your salvation! If the inherent order of this world is rotten to the core, you do not end suffering by showing people the exits. No, you raze it all to the ground, and build a perfect one upon its ashes."

-To seal her away securely, her souls were bound to one of the skeletons she was puppeting around, then locked up inside the coffin + tomb we saw in the show.

-Azure showed up during the Wuji Kingdom arc, on Manjushri's orders——who, while evaluating its king for Arhat-hood, saw an incoming drought, criticized the king for spoiling the Buddhist clergy and not using his wealth on more productive things, and got dunked into a canal for his troubles.

-Here, he summoned a storm to end the drought and became sworn brother with the king while in Daoist disguise, but the "murder the king and push him into a well" part was both out of his own volition (vegeneance on his master's behalf) and a decision that created a lot of doubt in him.

-Because he had gotten to know the king too well, to a point where he couldn't fit the man into his black-and-white worldview of sage kings and tyrants as easily, even though he justified the murder-replace with karmic laws.

-Much like in the novel, he was a good ruler during these three years, despite the guilt that resulted from the queen's distress at her husband's sudden change in personality and refusal of intimacy.

-He also knew that Wuji Kingdom was on the road of this...pilgrimage SWK was now a part of, and was hoping to learn the real reasons his brother and king joined their side——it had to be under force, or part of a cunning plan, right?

-When it broke into a fight, and all he saw in said fight was Tripitaka using the fillet in an attempt to reveal the transformed Azure, despite the pain it caused SWK, he'd have every reason to believe that SWK was essentially whipped into submission.

-Yet, if so——why wouldn't he answer, when Azure cried out that he could free him by silencing the monk once and for all? Has he truly turned his back on his brothers, accepted the offer and become another hound of the tyrant?

A giant tangent: On Zhao-an and its implications

Now, I've seen people asking "Why jump straight to rebellion instead of reforming it from within?" when it comes to Azure and his grievances against the Celestial Host.

Well, the sheer inertia of the dynastic system aside, do you know what "reform" and "working within the system" means for a brotherhood of rebels?

It means you submit to the throne, get enlisted to crush another group of rebels, watch most of your brothers die horribly in the campaign and then get poisoned by two corrupt officials. (Yeah, I just summed up the second half of Water Margins.)

This is called Zhao-an(招安), one of the classic approaches to a popular rebellion, where the imperial court went "Look, we are kinda at an impasse here. I don't feel like spending more resources on crushing you rebels when I have more urgent problems to deal with, you know you are at a disadvantage and can't possibly win once we get serious, so how 'bout we grant you a position in the bureaucracy and you guys fight for us instead?"

As great as the offer might sound on paper, what often happened was, the moment the throne no longer needed these ex-rebel fighters, they were fucked.

Depending on the circumstances, it could quickly turn from an amnesty into an euphemism for "crush you later", and the dynastic rulers would always be wary of these folks rebelling again, as well as the possibility of their leniency encouraging future uprisings.

(book!SWK getting appointed as Bimawen, and, after the First Havoc, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven? These are pretty textbook cases of Zhao-an, done by an emperor's minister.)

Now, if you are one of the major leaders of a rebellion, your brother and fellow leader is captured by the enemies, and when he came back, he didn't want to topple the tyrant anymore and is working for one of their allies?

Zhao-an would be the first thing that came to your mind. Not only had he betrayed you, it was very likely that he would have been sent against his ex-brothers at some point, and he accepted the deal anyways, just so he could live on with a sword hanging above his head.

To people who have that context, this is far from an unreasonable assumption. And such is the tragedy and dark side of your traditional brotherhood: loyalty is everything for the miscontent, and thus, betrayal is the gravest sin you can ever commit.

How can you say you are doing this for us? How can a wolf ever be trusted as a hound, without having to hunt its old packs down as a proof of loyalty? How dare you?

To reduce all that complexity and inherent tragedy to "Well, they must all secretly be power-hungry/delusional manipulators!" is, to me, the least interesting choice you can make for these characters.

Giant tangent over, back to the pilgrimage:

-Red Boy's Samadhi Fire awakened, seriously influenced his personality in a bad way, fought the Pilgrims, and was subdued by Guanyin and taken back to the South Sea. 

-This enraged DBK and PIF enough that, when the pilgrims passed the Flaming Mountains——created by one of the two fallen embers from Lao Tzu's furnance when SWK broke out of it, they had the same fight they had in the novels.

-SEM, even though he held no loyalty towards the Camel Ridge Trio nor their kingdom-building ambitions, was working under very similar assumptions and logic.

-But for him, it was less "How can you do this to us? How can you willingly serve a tyrant?" and more "How can you do this to ME? No, how can you do this to yourself? Become a mockery of everything that once made the Great Sage in Heaven?"

-As much as I'm an ardent novel liker, I have to admit: if SEM did the novel-accurate cannibalism thing, there was no way SWK would ever be okay with him being alive again, or letting him anywhere near his disciple.

-So in this AU, after Sha Wujing killed the imposter-monkeys in a rage, he just reanimated their dead bodies and used them as literal shadow puppets when SWK rushed back to FFM to fight this "shadowy impersonator".

"My, my! Out of everything, this is what finally sends you into a rage?" With a flick of his fingers, another reanimated thrall dropped out of a shadow portal. "Like you haven't been using your monkeys in the exact same manner! Puppeting them to their doom, then tossing them aside——tossing me aside!"

-An act that was sufficiently ruthless, spiteful, and would absolutely piss SWK off enough to deal a lethal blow once SEM's true nature was exposed and his glamour broken.

-His soul was dragged into the Underworld by the combined efforts of the newly formed Black & White Guards regiment, but not before gravely injuring one of their two commanders.

-Come the Lion Camel Ridge Arc, the pilgrim didn't actually pass by the kingdom on their journey; they went there because of the pleading of the old Lion Camel Kingdom's only surviving prince, whose entire family had been slaughtered by Peng in the aftermath of the kingdom's fall, and only survived thanks to the sacrifice of an old family servant.

-Which would both answer the question of "If LCR was just a haven for yaoguais, a kingdom for and ruled by their kind, why would the pilgrim destroy it?" and add some moral ambiguity to the whole situation, without making the trio into the man-eating demonic warlords they are in the original novel.

-Upon their defeat, not even their masters could save them from the consequences. They were dragged straight to the Demon-Vanquishing Mansion of the North Pole for judgment, then trapped inside the Memory Scroll, just like in the show.

-And it wasn't a mercy, but, from the POV of the celestials, more cruel than the literal tortures of the Eighteen Hells. Like, these punishments went on and on, but still had an end. You are able to reincarnate and start over, once the karmic debts are cleansed.

-Inside the Scroll, there is no such end.

Post-Journey:

-Basically, Tripitaka became a Bodhisattva by forsaking his Body of Benefit, Bajie reincarnated like any regular being since, like in JTTW canon, he never attained Enlightenment, Wujing did not become an Arhat but a guardian deity of Western Heaven, who could still be born into a mortal body when needed.

-Ao Lie died because of the Samadhi Fire, but not before using the last bit of his power to fly into the void of space and minimize the damage. Unknown to him, a tiny spark of it was passed onto his descendant.

-Why does it have such a negative effect on him? Naturally, dragons are Water-aligned and able to suppress Fire. However, the West Sea's element is Metal, which is weak to Fire if the concentration of the element is not high enough to start birthing Water. 

-This wouldn't have been a problem if his sub-power comes from a Water/Yin-aligned star, but the star that gives him the astral fire is none other than Yinghuo (Mars), and he was born while said star was intruding into the Heart Moon Fox's quarter of the sky——perhaps the greatest of ill omens in traditional Chinese astrology.

-True to JTTW, DBK had been arrested (and put into the Demon-locking Mirror) after Red Son was taken away by Guanyin. However, she soon discovered a problem: even though the pure elemental Water of her vase could suppress the Samadhi Fire and not let it unleash its full destructive potential, it is still slowly eating at the child's soul.

-Thus she summoned Tripitaka and the rest of the Pilgrims to actually remove it from Red Son's body and split it apart, to be stored securely inside three rings. What happened next was pretty much the same as canon, except it wasn't DBK holding Red Son at the end, but PIF.

-Because of the Samadhi Fire's damage, however, Red Son had no memory of his Red Boy years, nor did he remember Guanyin and the South Sea.

-Longnv was rather saddened when she sneaked out to visit her ex-junior brother during one of her homecoming trips, only to be met with confused stares and stern warnings from PIF.

-DBK was released because of the Demon-locking Mirror Incident, a.k.a. "Erlang and Nezha's drunken archery accident". These two would have been charged with recapturing him, if not for SWK stepping in and sealing DBK under a mountain.

-Because they didn't get to make up for their mistakes, however, they had to face JE's punishment: Nezha was ordered to guard the Samadhi Ring Map while reflecting on his mistakes, and Erlang no longer allowed to prolong his sworn brothers' lives with immortality pills, essentially sentencing them to death via old age.

-Lotus Lantern happened. At this point, Erlang knew very well that even if his uncle could not punish him directly, he could still do it through proxy, by subjecting his family and friends to a cruel fate.

-And that? That is why he fought his sister and put her under a mountain, despite her protest that the marriage had gotten a pass from the Celestial Host.

-fsyyDivinely ordained, you mean. Well, he'd seen what "Divinely ordained marriages" looked like during the War of the Investiture, and he'd die before he let his sister become another Deng Chanyu or Princess Longji.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Aurea Mediocritas - Chapter 2

Summary: Aurea mediocritas: one of the five latin mottos of the arcadist, or neoclassical movement. Literally translates to “golden mediocrity”

A series of glimpses into what life was after the events of Carpe Diem. Not all is resolved, but they’re getting there. On their own time, at least.

Notes: YEY Edmund chapter at last!!! Fascinating that this fic was what kicked off my love of this character and now he’s in Victoria and Johanna’s level in my heart (alas, no one has dethroned Kaisa yet). Hope you enjoy!

Content warning for transphobia, friends. Nothing violent, but it's still there. Take care

[Read it on ao3] [Read this verse's previous instalments]

Winters in the city were boring.

When she’d been living in the woods, it was one of the most fun times of the year. Johanna had all the snow she could want (and even more) all around her, ready to be turned into snowmen or squished into snow angels or used with snowball fights. The cold was an excuse to light up the fireplace more often, since their solar power boards didn’t make enough energy to get the house as warm as they wanted it. She got to climb the leafless trees and get a better view of her surroundings when she was at the top than when they had all of their greenery.

Now, it was Johanna’s first winter living in the city and she was having to come to terms with it having become just the time of the year at which most of nature was dead. She couldn’t even enjoy the snow that fell on the parks, since her parents didn’t allow her outside of the house alone yet, afraid that a little girl raised in the safety of the wilderness wouldn’t know how to navigate through Trolberg.

The keyword there was ‘alone’, though.

“Wait for me!” She shouted, and her older cousin grunted. It had been only a few weeks since they’d had their first real interactions. Trading five words at once-a-year family events didn’t count. Already, Johanna was feeling like she wasn’t exactly on her cousin’s list of top favourite people, but she was determined to get there. She supposed getting too close to pre-teenagehood would put a damper on anyone’s mood, anyway.

“Why don’t you stay here with the adults for once? I’m just going to go outside to get some air.”

“Because it’s boring and stuffy in here.” Johanna answered, struggling to put her coat and boots on at the same time as she approached the door that was being held open for her. “It’s a lot cooler out there.”

“‘Cooler.’” Her cousin repeated. “That’s an awful joke.”

In response, Johanna gasped and smiled brightly after half a second. “Oh gosh, I’ve made a joke!”

Her cousin gave her an eyeroll. She’d been getting many of those, truth be told. But it was beginning to look more fond than irritated, so she took her wins where she could.

“Let’s go, then. They’ll call us when dinner is ready.”

There was a park close by her aunt and uncle’s apartment, and when their families dined together, her cousin usually took her there.

Not by her own volition, of course. Lydia just always came to the conclusion that accepting that child as her shadow was less trouble than convincing her not to come.

As soon as they arrived, Johanna tried to invite her to a snowball fight, and gotten a very pointed “no” in response. The same happened with the offers to build anything out of snow, or to climb trees. Eventually, Johanna squinted at her.

“You always do this.” She said, sounding like she wanted to put Lydia under a magnifying glass. “Why come if you don’t want to play?”

Lydia had been pretending to pay more attention to the moss on the boulder she was sitting on then to Johanna.

“Because I agree with you. It’s stuffy.”

When her cousin didn’t say anything else, Johanna walked closer, the snow squeaking under her boots with each step.

“Tell me about it.” She said when she was close enough that Lydia could touch her with a slight extension of her leg. “You like the mould.”

“It’s moss.” Another eyeroll, but without as much energy.

“What’s the difference?”

That gave her pause. Lydia blinked, surprised to notice that she didn’t have a ready explanation to an answer she had found obvious.

“Well…” She said after some seconds of thinking, even though Johanna had already turned her gaze to a group of dark birds flying above them. “I think the thing is that mould is fungi, and moss is bryophytes.”

“Bryo what?”

“Bryophytes. It’s a type of plant. There are three other types like this.”

“You like plants too, then?” Johanna bounced on her heels, excited to know that there was someone around who shared her interest and who might talk about it to her and go out with her looking for different flowers when spring came. “I love them! Shame I can never keep mine alive.”

As if seeing Johanna in a new light for the first time, Lydia tilted her head. “Well, I do like nature, in general. I’m a big bug fan, but plants are pretty cool too. I could try to help you next time you want to keep any, if you’d like.”

“I would! What should I do if they start getting all brown and coily around the edges of the leaves?”

Once again having been caught unprepared, her cousin let out a pensive hum. As one usually does when they do not have a good answer for a question, she began going on about generalities of the topic, laying her knowledge out there and hoping it would satisfy the younger child. She’d just been talking about the importance of earthworms to the ecosystem when she realised Johanna was staring at her. Not like a kid looking at a teacher, but like a diviner looking into someone’s soul.

“What is it?” She asked, slightly creeped out.

“The adults make you uncomfortable.” She stated, and for some reason that made Lydia freeze more than the temperature. “You said it’s stuffy there, but you didn’t mean the heat, did you? I saw how you act around them and how you act when we’re alone. It’s different. You don’t feel well there, that’s why you come whenever you can.”

Feeling like her heart was very much going to beat out of her chest through her mouth, Lydia swallowed. She’d been in this position before, and it hadn’t been nice. But Johanna wasn’t looking at her like the bullies at school. Johanna was looking at her like a stranded person who found out there was someone else in their island to keep them company.

“I feel it too, sometimes.” Johanna continued, even though Lydia couldn’t tell if it was because she sensed her anxiety or because she was already going to, either way. “My parents get mad at me when I do badly at my tests, even when I study for it! And then dad keeps going into my room when I’m studying to check that I’m really concentrating, and it drives me crazy! Mum doesn’t like it when I bounce my leg, even though I do it without thinking sometimes, and holding it in almost hurts. And she puts me in so much itchy clothing, and gets angry when I don’t do a house chore. But it’s not because I don’t want it! I just… forget to, sometimes.”

Her cousin gaped at her in a way that made her afraid she’d messed something up, but Johanna didn’t give her time to let the shock wear off.

“And you feel like it too, don’t you?”

If Johanna had swung a bat to her cousin’s head, it probably would have left her less affected. The words “I-” and “Well-” tried to get past her throat, but seemed caught in an invisible spider web.

“Yeah.” She whined, promising herself that she would not cry, not in front of this little child who for some reason looked up to her. “Yeah, I do. I’m just not who my parents want me to be, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Taking another step forward and putting one tiny gloved hand to her tight, Johanna fixed her big brown eyes on her cousins. “For whatever is worth, you’re exactly who I want you to be. You’ve been the only good thing that happened to me since I moved here.”

It’s worth more than you can ever know, she thought, but didn’t say. Johanna continued.

“What can I do for you to not feel bad when we’re on our own?”

The feeling in her belly was what she supposed people called butterflies, but honestly, if it were up to her she would call them wasps. But even wasps were important, right? She thought she remembered reading about them at some point.

She swallowed a couple of times, at war with herself in her head about whether she should trust this seven year old who she had only began building a relationship with.

One look into her simple, kind eyes settled the decision.

“I don’t really like my name.” Her cousin answered, even though it was so much more than that. But they had to begin simple; how could one even explain something when they didn’t fully understand it themselves? “Could you call me another one?”

“Sure! Which?”

“Ed. As in Edmund.”

“That’s a boy’s name.” Johanna said without as much as blinking, and Ed took a deep breath. He’d gotten a lot of grief over that already, enough to know that the matter of fact tone in his cousin’s voice had no relation to any judgement, only with a child coming into contact with a concept for the first time.

“It is.”

“Cool. Anyway, what were you saying about the earthworms, Ed?”

Ed smiled, trying to recompose himself, and for the first time in his life, he felt truly safe.

…......

Johanna was studying during winter break.

All of her friends had discouraged her from it, claiming that High School had only just started, she should save energy instead of being overzealous, it would pay off to take time to herself.

But when had she ever listened?

She wasn’t behind on any subject, not that she could think of. It just felt like she wasn’t as deep into the topics as she could be, and either way, there was always studying ahead of time for topics that would still be taught. Every single minute she could use was necessary.

Taking a stretch after finishing a geometry worksheet, she’d just been popping her shoulder joints when her mother opened her bedroom’s door.

“Hey.” Johanna greeted, now trying to touch her toes. “Is it lunch time already?”

Her mother blinked, snapping out of her thoughts. “Not yet, your dad is still cooking. Have you heard from Lydia lately?”

Putting herself back in an upwards position, Johanna turned to face her mother. Here we fucking go again.

“Not really.” She lied. “We haven’t really talked since she moved away for college.”

As she stared fixedly at the ground, her mother nodded. It looked like images were flashing before her eyes as she faced the wood tiles, but Johanna could only guess what sort of image those were.

“She’s not coming for Christmas.”

“What? Why?” Johanna asked even though she already knew why. She’d stayed up late at night texting Edmund after it happened; for some reason she’d still been holding out hope that it wouldn’t reach her parents, and that things at her family would remain the same, just like they should.

“You know how she’s… changed since going to college.”

Oh, yeah, he’d changed all right. It tends to happen when you’re confined for so long and are presented to freedom for the first time. Not that Ed hadn’t been getting grief for “wanting to be a boy” his entire life. He’d presented as “tomboyish”, in their family’s words, since he’d been old enough to have a say in his appearance; people at his former school (and Johanna’s current one) had called him a butch lesbian even though he had exclusively dated guys. Their family was used to that already, even if they were never exactly pleased about it. Now, though, that he was living away and making some money of his own with research projects, the world was literally open to him.

And that was when the trouble began, because apparently you can only go so long without talking to your parents, even crappy ones, and it turns out that even crappy ones can recognize when your voice is inexplicably much deeper than it was last time you talked.

It had been a bold move on Ed’s part to start his transition without telling his parents, which spoke a lot about how much better it made him feel because Ed didn’t do “bold”. His parents had freaked out, Johanna’s parents had freaked out (even if they didn’t tell her), and Johanna herself had been watching from the backstage, biting her nails in anxiety over not being able to help her best friend.

“Yeah, I know.” She answered simply, hating herself for it. What she really wanted was to defend him. To make a scene and explain what was really going on, and how the people who were being irrational were, in fact, their parents. But she knew it would achieve nothing. All it would do was make her parents pay closer attention to her, wondering if “the queers were influencing her too” or something. Edmund himself had told her to let it be, I can deal with it on my own, don’t put yourself on the line of fire, please.

“Well… my sister is devastated, of course. She told me they decided they won’t be cutting her off. They still want her to get an education, of course, but they had a pretty big fight over this. It’s only generating conflict, and they don’t want this energy at the Christmas table. So she wasn't invited this year. I just thought you should know. Since you used to be so close and all of that.”

“I understand, thank you.”

Her mother nodded and quietly stepped out of the room, closing the door behind herself. Johanna walked to the box where she placed her phone while studying, and picked it up, opening her text conversation with Ed. The last messages had been sent approximately three hours before; he had sent her a pretty butterfly video from Twitter and she had reacted with a plethora of emojis, right before complaining about having to study maths.

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard as possible messages crossed her mind.

“Ed, you won’t believe this bullshit.”

“Ed, I’m so sorry.”

“Ed, what the FUCK?”

“Ed, are you okay??”

“Hey Ed, let’s pretend I didn’t just hear devastating news so please let’s talk about that show we sort of like that was cancelled for zero reasons.”

She sighed, and then groaned because a simple sigh didn’t feel like it was strong enough for that situation. All of those felt like poking the wound in a way that was either condescending or insensitive. It took her a lot of deliberation, but eventually she was able to press send. The answer came very shortly after, even though she didn’t see it because her phone had been back inside the Do Not Touch box and in silent mode.

You: Hey, I love you, k?

Cousin 🐛: wow you're SO obsessed with me 🙄🙄

I love you too Jo.

Truly.

Thank you

………

Edmund was officially losing it, and it was over lasagna.

He could cook. It was true! He cooked for himself and his cousin more often than not. But it was usually all practical meals, they weren’t meant to cause a good impression, much less dazzle. This one was, and he was having all sorts of insecurities over it.

Over pasta. Surefire way to know that he had, as the kids say, officially lost it.

“Do you think it doesn't have enough cheese?” He asked as he showed Johanna. “I’m wondering if it baked for too long. Would it be as good if I just put more Parmesan over it now? Maybe it would melt since it’s still hot.”

“Ed.” Johanna said firmly but gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s carbs and cheese. Everyone will love it. Don’t overthink this.”

He sighed and looked down at the tray in his hands, its temperature making its way to his skin even through the mittens he was wearing; the blush in his cheeks, which arose when he noticed how silly he must look, was only partially hidden by his stubble. “Yeah, I guess. I just want it to be as close to perfect as it can get, I suppose. It’s nothing.”

It wasn’t necessary for him to look up to know Johanna was smiling at him with a knowing expression. She had the annoying habit of doing that often.

“I did not have to listen to you rant about how perfection is a scam through my entire adolescence for you to pull this right now.” She quipped, and he knew it was only a joke to lighten the mood, because they both knew very well what this really was about. And it wasn’t about dinner. “I meant it, Ed. They’ll love it. You don’t have to put in any more effort.”

They’ll love you, was what she really said, and he could hear it perfectly. Come as you are. There won’t be any judgments tonight.

“Thanks.” He said, shoulders sagging just slightly. “Can you wrap this up with foil while I go finish getting ready?”

“Of course.” Johanna smiled at him and set to her task when he put the tray on the kitchen counter, and he went back to his bedroom to spray some cologne on himself and check that his hair was in place. Edmund wasn’t a vain person, never had been. But he could hardly be blamed for being anxious about the first family Christmas dinner he’d been invited to in eight years.

When he went back into the living room, Johanna was already waiting for him by the door, car keys on one hand and the fruit cake she’d baked earlier on the other. Their presents were already in the car trunk. After picking up the lasagna from the counter, Edmund followed her out, and they put the dishes on the backseats, hoping that they'd be safe during the fifteen minute trip to the Pilqvist house.

…......

“So, what’s the vibe there?” He asked while Johanna made her way out of campus. “What do they celebrate?”

“Funny you should ask, I asked Kaisa just the other day.” Johanna squinted, checking that it was safe to drive past an intersection since that part of the campus was dimly lit. “Kaisa is actually celebrating Christmas. Tildy celebrates Yule, but hosts this dinner four days late for her children, for tradition, and apparently because she’s obsessed with Christmas decoration. Kaisa said to expect a lot of it. Frida hasn’t settled on a religion or anything, so she just vibes with her family and eats too many cookies, but that might just be because my intel comes from her older sister. Also she apparently wants to wait for her prefrontal cortex to fully develop to decide if she’s going to choose any religious practices. This probably doesn’t tell you anything yet, but it’s a very Frida thing.”

Edmund hummed pensively. “Wait, you mean the elderly woman is neopagan?”

“Yes?” Johanna kept staring forward, but her cousin could almost sense the crease between her brows. “Why the tone of surprise?”

“I don’t know, just sounds very alternative for a lady of age.”

“Pft. If you knew Tildy, it wouldn’t. It’ll make sense, trust me.”

He fiddled with his fingers on his lap as they entered the highway, the luminosity instantly getting better. It wasn’t going to be a white Christmas; snow hadn’t yet come to them, but the atmosphere of winter all around them was still there. If he listened carefully, he might even hear the crackle of a fireplace, even though he’d never owned one.

“They sound nice.” He mentioned softly, and his cousin hummed in agreement by his side. “What will we tell them if they ask what we celebrate?”

“It’ll probably not be a problem. They’ll be too busy forcing us to feel welcome and eat delicious food.”

Edmund chuckled, pretending to be suddenly very interested in the buttons that controlled the car’s heating.

“I don’t know about you.” Johanna continued. She took his hand out of the car’s panel, holding it in one of hers while the other remained on the steering wheel. It wasn’t possible for her to actually look at him while they were on the road, of course, but they locked eyes through the rearview mirror. “But I am celebrating the people I love the most.”

Feeling a tightness in his chest, he squeezed her hand, and she squeezed it back. And, like it had always been between them, they knew what the other meant without ever saying it.

…......

It was well into the wee hours of the morning when Johanna drove Ed back to campus - which he thanked her for, since she didn’t need to. With it being the winter break, she could go to her parents’ home or stay over at Kaisa’s, but she sensed that he’d prefer to go back home and went with him to campus without any complaints. But when he did, it was with a gentle smile on his face, a festive sweater knit with his initials, which Tildy had given to all those in attendance, a new book on millipedes which Kaisa had bought him, and an unfamiliar sense of belonging he was sure he’d never known, because he never would have forgotten a feeling that good.

If he had to pinpoint where the feeling began, he would probably say that it had been at the beginning of the night, when he made a queer joke to Kaisa under his breath and, to his horror, she not only snorted loudly but also repeated the joke louder for her mother and sister to listen. They laughed along, and even though they didn’t know the quip had originally come from him, he had realised with a start that it wouldn’t have mattered. They would have welcomed him just the same. Tildy would still have given him the sweater with the correct initials, and Frida would still have gone up to him and made him questions about what it was like in the field of research.

It should have been an easier conclusion to come to since, you know, his cousin and Kaisa were embarrassing everyone under the mistletoe, but still. What you learn during your formative years tend to stick with you, but in that environment, he could drop that baggage down.

“I’m sorry I forgot your gift.” Johanna said sheepishly as they drove back, waking him up from the beginnings of a light sleep. “I knew exactly what to get you, so I could swear I had bought it.”

“Maybe you did. Maybe it’s just somewhere you didn’t find.”

“I hate that that’s a possibility. I��ll have to rummage through my bedroom now, and I might come up empty handed anyway.”

He shifted in the seat, trying to position himself more comfortably even though the ride would soon be over and he’d have no more time to rest inside the car. “Johanna, chill. I don’t need a present.”

“But you’re my cousin!”

“Exactly.” The corner of his lip twitched as he looked at her, knowing he’d be almost out of her eyesight. “I’m your cousin. And that is more than enough.”

[forever-rogue]

hey, you're incredible and amazing and I hope you're taking care of yourself 🥺💖 if you are still taking request, can you write something for Frankie o Marcus Pike? from promt list 1, number 1 "a wedding?" and number 65 "hold my hand dammit, we gotta make this look convincing!"

love you 💖

I went with Frankie and I hope you enjoy 💕🥺

Frankie x Fem!Reader ; warnings: slight language

Frankie Masterlist 

»»————-　♡　————-««

You almost bowled Frankie over as you threw open the door and welcomed yourself into his house. You had knocked and at the loud pounding he had almost dropped what he was doing in order to come and answer. Instead of waiting, you'd used your spare key to his house and let yourself in.

"Oh, hello there," he said as he closed the door behind you with an amused grin on his face. As soon as he saw the distressed look on your face, his own faltered, "what's wrong, Bee?"

"Everything, Francisco!" you groaned as you opened the fridge to grab out a beer. You made quick work of opening it and taking a large swig before sitting down at the counter, "I have once again single handedly fucked myself over!"

"You want to elaborate a little more on that?" he asked as he helped himself to a drink and joined you. He'd been busy preparing everything for your weekly movie night, hadn't been expecting you for a little while - not that he ever minded you being around. Sighing heavily, you rested your head on his shoulder, "what could possibly be so bad?"

"You remember my ex - Brad?" Frankie immediately groaned - for reasons both the same and different to yours. You nodded in acknowledgment.

"Ew, Brad."

"Yup," you laid your head on the table before letting out a long sigh, "well Brad is getting married. And guess who is invited? Me - and my boyfriend."

"You don't...have a boyfriend," he reminded you as you just threw up your hands in exasperation, “so…”

“I know, I know, I know,” you groaned as you took another drink, “it just came out - here he is all fancy and getting married and I’m just...not. I didn’t want to look like a total idiot and be all oh yes, of course I’m still single but would love to come to your wedding alone. So...apparently I have a boyfriend. I need to find a fake boyfriend or find a damn good excuse for why my boyfriend couldn’t make it at the last minute.”

“Shit,” Frankie couldn’t help but laugh at your little dilemma as you groaned at yourself. You just couldn’t keep your big mouth shut it appeared. When had it ever done you any good? Never. You should have learned by now. A few beats of silence fell over the two of you before he suddenly made a small sound, “I’ll do it.”

“Do what?” you raised your eyebrows as your heart started to beat wildly in your chest. Sure, you might have been in love with your best friend and have been for some time, but you’d never ask him to do such a thing. You’d purposely pushed that thought to the back of your mind as quickly as it had bubbled up. It would make things infinitely more complicated - and what if something happened and you slipped up and confessed your love for him? That was a situation you’d rather avoid all together if possible. 

“Come with you,” he grinned, clearly proud of his brilliant idea. He wondered if you could hear the loud pounding of his own heart; as soon as you’d mentioned the idea of a fake boyfriend he’d grown excited. Was this his opportunity to finally come clean and tell all the ways in which he loved you? Maybe, maybe not. But if he didn’t try, he’d never know, “I’ll be your boyfriend - fake boyfriend.”

“Oh Frankie,” you couldn’t help but smile at the sweet look on his face. Gods, how could anyone not fall in love with him? But reason quickly took over you and you weakly shook your head, “no, it’s okay. I couldn’t ask you to do something like that.”

“I want to,” he insisted with a soft ruffle to your hair before he could stop himself, “come on - what are best friends for, Bee? Besides its just a wedding...”

“I don’t know...I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to..”

“I want to,” he promised softly, “come on, it’ll be fine - you might even have fun! Besides - I want to see you break out some more of those amazing dance moves!”

“Frankie…”

“What could go wrong, Honey Bee? It’s the perfect solution!

I could fall harder in love with you. I could confess my love to you. I could make a huge fool out of myself. I might never get over you. 

“Okay,” you agreed before you could stop yourself. The excited look on his face was enough to make you melt as he just grinned from ear to ear, “let’s do it.”

»»————-　♡　————-««

“Wow,” Frankie’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw you, his megawatt grin enough to make you melt. He held his hand out to you, ever the gentleman, which you took as he pulled you in for a hug. You’d agreed to meet at the venue, and go from there; it probably would have looked more convincing if you’d arrived together, but you weren’t sure if you could handle anything more than what was needed. As soon as you spotted him, your heart started doing flips in your stomach, “you look absolutely beautiful.”

“What about you, handsome?” you ran a hand through his dark locks, unsure if you were doing it out of your own volition or you were playing the part of doting girlfriend, “you clean up pretty well yourself.”

“Thanks,” he whispered softly as a tinge of pink flushed up into his cheeks. He politely greeted a few passersby. You repeated the action, remembering a few faces from when you had dated Brad a few years earlier, “hold my hand Bee - we have to make this look convincing!”

Something came over you and you were quite sure what possessed you, but you took his hand in yours, lacing your fingers together, before leaning over and offering him a kiss. He hesitated for a mere fraction of a second, unsure of how to respond, but then offered a simple, saccharine little kiss. 

And it was electric - sending shivers down your spine as your whole body warmed up. People always spoke about seeing those proverbial sparks when they kissed the one. And this...this had to be it. 

Opening your eyes, you found Frankie looking back at you in awe and momentarily wondered if he had felt the same thing. A gentle expression softened his features as he looked at you in wonder. Maybe...maybe you’d both felt it...but no. Surely not. You wouldn’t flatter yourself with the idea that Francisco Morales fancied you like you did him.

“Gotta act the part, right?” you teased nervously as you started pulling himself in the venue, “come on, boyfriend!”

»»————-　♡　————-««

The rest of the ceremony was spent in comfortable silence as the two of you sat close to each other, but still leaving a small distance between your bodies. It was almost like the two of you could feel that something had shifted, even with the smallest of kisses. You were hyper-aware of his closeness to you the entire time, feeling his body heat radiate onto you, your entire being humming with excited, yet nervous energy. Little did you know that Frankie was feeling the exact same thing, all the while trying to figure out how to finally (finally!) tell you about his true feelings. 

His hand was resting on the wood of the aging bench, next to yours, but not touching. Both of you consciously, or subconsciously, kept inching your hands closer and closer until eventually they were touching. Frankie seemed to overcome his nerves and put his hand on top of yours before gently squeezing it as a sign of ressaurance, before lacing your fingers together. The smell gesture was enough to kickstart your heart and you were unable, or unwilling, to keep the smile off of your face. 

What was suddenly happening?

»»————-　♡　————-««

After the ceremony, a beautiful affair - even you had to admit - the two of you went to the reception, still buzzing happily, but unable to quite form the right words. Whatever was happening, it was coming fast, and honestly...it had been a long time coming for the both of you. Neither of you tried to fight it anymore, deciding to let whatever happened, happen. 

“Listen, Bee,” after you’d gotten to the reception and the bride and groom had cut the cake and had their first dance, Frankie finally gathered up the courage to speak. He reached for your hand and held it tightly, “there’s something I need to tell you -"

“Hey! You made it!” Brad wore a beaming grin he came over and still managed to steal Frankie's thunder; he tried not to let his expression falter too much, "you look great!"

"Wouldn't miss it," you said - only a small lie - before reaching down and grabbing Frankie's hand. Despite your initial hesitations, you were glad you came, and honestly happy for him, "and two make a lovely couple. I'm so happy for you both - really. You deserve it."

"As do the two of you," he grinned, grabbing Frankie's shoulder and giving it a squeeze, "the two of you! Can't say I'm surprised though...always thought the two of you had a little something going on. How long has it been official?"

"Oh umm…" you gave Frankie a look of surprise as you tried to think on your feet. He looked just as thrown off as you did, "a-a couple of years. We've been together for a...bit."

"Time to make an honest woman out of her, Morales!" Frankie's expression paled as your eyes widened in surprise. But he was quick on his feet and chuckled lightly, "I'm happy for you guys too. Who would have thought? I guess most of us did...anyway! Thank you both for coming and have fun - open bar!"

"Thanks," you both managed to weakly say as the groom bounced away to greet other guests. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you turned to Frankie and offered him a meager smile.

"Yeah...so I guess the whole fake boyfriend thing worked!" you cheered lightly, trying to keep the situation from turning any more awkward than it was, "we could...probably just leave honestly. Maybe grab a pizza and drinks and watch a movie?"

"Do you want to dance?" he completely changed course with his question, his voice nervous and almost cracking in anticipation. You paused for a moment before deciding that yes...you really, really wanted to slow dance with Frankie.

"I'd love you to," you whispered gently as he took your hand and led you to the lightly illuminated dance floor. 

And it was so easy - so effortless. His arms wrapped around you and yours around him as you melted into his body. He was so soft and warm and smelled heavenly; why hadn't you ever done this before? It felt so...right. As you swayed to the music, everything seemed frozen in time and nothing mattered but this moment - him. This was where you were supposed to be the entire time. Home was in his arms, home was Frankie. 

After what seemed like a small eternity, you pulled back and looked at him, his eyes searching yours as well. He stopped and his hands found your face as he gently traced over your features, a smile gracing his own. You put your hands on his wrists, trying to control your breathing as you stared at each other, lost in your little world.

Before you could talk yourself out of it, you leaned up and kissed him. And this time it wasn't some quick or rushed brush of lips - no this was slow and meaningful, every feeling and emotion poured it. It just felt so perfect, so right, like the two of you had been doing this for ages and ages, not the first time. You wished it would never end, that you could spend an eternity wrapped up in his arms.

"I am so in love with you," he whispered against your lips when you finally pulled apart for a breath of air, "and I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for years."

"I...I love you, Frankie," you grinned at him, "its always been you...I just never knew how to say it. I was scared...nervous."

"Sweet Honey Bee," he stole another kiss, this one sweet and saccharine, "how could it be anyone but you?"

"Frankie…" his name was a soft, reverent whisper as you melted into his touch, "I don't even know what to say…"

"I'm hoping you'll say yes to getting out of here and getting a pizza and some beers and relaxing back at mine? Just like usual," he suggested as you nodded eagerly, "there's one more thing."

"Anything."

"I want to kiss you," he grinned, "like a lot more. I feel like an idiot for not doing that sooner.

"That's a guarantee, love," you promised him, "kisses and a lot more than that."

"God, you're amazing," he grinned as you started to pull him away and to the exit, "I wish I would have told you years ago."

"We were both fools," you admitted, "but think of all the time we have to make up for! And besides - you're always worth waiting for, Francisco!"

He was awestruck as he just stared at you before running after you and scooping you up in his arms and carrying you bridal style. You wrapped your arms around his neck as you grinned at him like a lovestruck fool - which, you supposed, you were.

"I love you, Honey Bee."

"I love you, Francisco."

»»————-　♡　————-««

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[edasnest]

Might you have any Raeda headcanons you'd be willing to share?

Oh shit I didn’t see that you sent this to me until now oh man.

But you better believe I’ve got some Raeda headcanons >:D

[Spoilers for Eda’s Requiem and Knock Knock Knockin on Hooty’s Door! Also a little bit of a character study regarding those eps lol]

Raine is constantly in awe of Eda. Eda’s desire to learn every kind of magic and buck tradition and societal norms sometimes leaves them breathless. When they were young, Raine always admired Eda for the clever pranks she’d pull using different kinds of magic despite being in the potions track. They also admired Eda’s boldness when it came to standing up for herself and her sister.

Eda found Raine to be interesting considering they were in the bard track despite their stage fright, but once Eda watched them perform and saw how they’d lose themself in the music was, no pun intended, magical. They had a fierce grip on Eda’s heart and she didn’t know why; she was fascinated by Raine and made it her goal to be best friends with this oddly shy bard (which she achieved pretty quickly).

After Eda’s curse caused her to unintentionally disable her dad, she was terrified of what it would mean if she was caught off guard like that again. So she started putting up walls. No stressful situations, no hard conversations, no sudden bright lights or loud sounds that she wasn’t the cause of. If she could be in control of her surroundings, she could control the Owl Beast. The elixir she’d discovered that could keep the curse’s side effects at bay helped maintain her sanity and her chill demeanor, but Raine was able to tell she was always slightly on edge. Raine knew about the curse; after Eda had transformed on the Grudgby field the first time everyone had been talking about it, but they didn’t know the extent of it. Everyone just said she’d turned into a monster and then fled; but what kind of monster?? But every time Raine tried to get more information about it, Eda would brush it off and change the subject. It broke their heart watching Eda brush off something that was clearly bothering her, and eventually it all came to a head. She was lying more and more often to Raine and they just couldn’t take it anymore. What happened to their best friend??? Why would she lie to them????? It was maddening and all the frustration and aching in their heart became too much. They needed to focus on something other than Eda. They weren’t nearly as bold as Eda, even after all these years, so they joined the Bard Coven in order to start teaching and building a career for themself. They’d happily welcome Eda back if she’d just tell them what was going on. But it never happened. Burying themself into their work and then, eventually, into the BAtTs helped keep the heartache at bay, but only sometimes.

Eda and Raine caught glimpses of each other as the years passed. They’d spot one another in the market or Raine would see a flash of unmistakable ginger hair dashing around a corner; sometimes they’d hear Eda yelling at some Coven guards and quietly hope she’d make her escape. Eda would occasionally see posters advertising a performance starring Raine; she’d either buy a ticket or sneak in just to listen to them play again. She could never stay for very long though because listening to them play made her heart hurt so much she’d be at risk of turning into the Owl Beast. Raine grabbed one of Eda’s wanted posters and keeps it hidden under some other paperwork in their desk, pulling it out sometimes and going over every detail of the artist’s rendition of her. One day, a new wanted poster came out - this one with a weird skull dog now part of the image and the bounty having increased significantly. Raine would always smirk whenever they saw the new version, although they were alarmed the first time they saw her drawn with all-grey hair. When had that happened? They weren’t that old yet, right??

The day Eda saved the BAtTs and figured out Raine’s secret was maybe the best day Raine had had in years. Their best friend was talking to them again, helping them with their plot. Raine didn’t bother pushing Eda about the last 20 years; their last conversation proved enough that Eda didn’t like it when people pried. But Eda had become not just older, but so much more kind and open. To a degree that sort of shocked Raine. When they asked Eda if she had nothing to lose and Eda took their hand, it was like they’d gone back in time. As if they were both 20 again and daydreaming about a world they’d create for themselves where covens weren’t there to shackle witches down and stage fright didn’t exist; where Eda’s curse never happened and they could stay there on that hill forever.

Eda of course was warring with her own emotions during all of this; she was under the impression that everyone in her life was leaving her again. And not because she was pushing them away this time, but of their own volition. She got her big sister back only for her to go back home to their parents after just a few weeks. She overheard King talk about leaving to find his dad and her apprentice - the first person to ever break down all of Eda’s defenses and show her how to love again - was constantly working on ways to go back to her own home. Eda would be left with Hooty and Owlbert and absolutely nobody else and that hurt so much more than she cared to admit. So when Raine showed up in the town square with their BAtT mask on, using their magic to turn some coven guards into bumbling fools, Eda was a little shell-shocked. The first person to leave her of their own volition was right there in front of her and needed help. So she helped them. And when she became invested in their plots to free wild witches, she felt like she was a teenager again, plotting out pranks with Raine in her secret shortcuts room at Hexside, blushing at every interaction they had because even after all this time, Raine was still Raine. Her Rainstorm. It was like she was starting over, like the last 20 years had faded away, except they hadn’t. Because Luz and King were competing in a race that she needed to be there for. Her past and her present were all different types of painful but finding Raine like this again gave her so much hope! Until she realized she wouldn’t see the end of that race, not if it meant stopping Belos. And she was ready for that, ready for the pain to just stop already, but Raine wouldn’t let her.

Losing Raine again was so much worse the second time. But what they said stayed with her and Eda needed to get back to King and Luz. So when she got back and discovered they’d lost, of course her first thought was to help them. Anything to take her mind off of what she’d just lost. And when King announced that he wasn’t leaving at all, he was legally changing his name? She was “stuck” with him forever? That was too much and she just couldn’t hold it in anymore. Someone wasn’t leaving her. In fact he was legally binding himself to her. No one was leaving, at least not any time soon. Eda definitely still cried more that night after King and Luz had gone to bed.

In the future, Eda and Raine agree to start from scratch: Eda explains the curse to them in detail, all the things she’s learned about it over the years and specifically with Luz and King and Hooty’s help. She explains that Lilith was the one that gave it to her to begin with and why (Raine is appalled like???? Raine specifically worked with Lilith in that last year before they had been made head of the Bard Coven?? And Lilith showed maybe irritation at best at the mention of Eda, so like?? What the fuck???). Eda also explains how she’s come to accept the curse as something that’s part of her and the history the Owl Beast has that she got a glimpse of which is super intriguing to Raine. Also Harpy Eda was a thing which was maybe the most surprising part of it all.

Raine in the meantime tells Eda about their time working their way up the ranks of the Bard Coven, how they met each of the BAtTs and recruited them, the façade they had to maintain to stay on track to become the head of the Bard Coven (something that greatly impressed Eda given Raine’s history with being an awkward actor).

Eda introduces Raine to Luz and King to which both of them start shooting rapidfire questions at them and overwhelm them pretty quickly. Eda has to shoo the two away before Raine just bursts out laughing, saying something about how they’re definitely Eda’s kids (all of them blush while Raine is laughing). Luz is just as fascinated with Raine’s Bard magic as Eda was when they first met and the similarities between the two are striking. Raine tells Eda as much later on and Eda begins gushing about what a great apprentice Luz is and everything she’s done during her time on the Boiling Isles.

They fall easily back into dating once they reconnect properly and everything’s calmed down a little - Raine will still be humming a piece they’re working on and suddenly grab Eda and begin dancing to the tune, Eda laughing the whole time and making their heart soar. Eda will still play with Raine’s earring when they’re cuddled up together just chatting. Raine will start asking Eda again for her opinion on musical pieces they’re working on and Eda will make suggestions along with some jokes or snide commentary. They both still love watching the clouds overhead on their hill, sometimes playing music, sometimes just holding hands.

Raine loves watching Eda interact with Luz and King. They love watching how easily Eda loves them and how much she’s changed since they first broke up. Once they’re alone together, in a moment total admiration for how far they’ve come, Raine tells Eda they love her. Eda immediately kisses them and starts crying, repeating Raine’s words back to them and mumbling about how she’ll never let Raine leave ever again.

A canon Non-binary love interest to a main character that uses They/Them pronouns??? In my kids cartoon???? It’s more likely than you think.

Anyways I fucking love Raine and I love how much Eda and Raine love each other and I can’t wait to see what ends up happening with Them™️

[writingfromkitchenator]

Sirius ~ Ask Me

1,300 Followers Challenge!

Round 2

Masterlist

Requested by Anon

Words: 1,931

Warnings: Neutral Reader, neutral arsehole OC, fake dating, fluff, supportive Sirius, supportive friends, brief magic fight

“Sirius, can I talk to you for a second?”

Sirius, James, Remus and Peter looked up from dining table, finding you standing there, looking just a touch nervous.  If it had been anyone else, one of them would've made some sort of comment, but this demeanour was so unlike you, they all knew better.

“Yeah, sure.” Sirius said, standing and grabbing a slice of toast.

A look of relief crossed your expression before you lead the way out.  Behind you, James nudged Sirius, with a wink, and Sirius rolled his eyes at him, quickly following.

You led him away from the Great Hall and into the nearest classroom, quickly checking to make sure no one was around.

Inside, your anxious only seemed to increase.

Sirius threw what was left of his toast into the bin.  “Are you alright Y/N?  What's going on?”

You let out a shaky breath before meeting his gaze.  “I just want to start this by saying, I'll completely understand if you say no.”

He blinks, pink tinging his cheeks a little, but he nods.  “Okay...”

“I...” You sighed and wrapped your arms around yourself.  “Look, you've probably heard that Robin has been asking me out for a while now?”

It was no secret.  “A few times if I've heard correctly.”

You nod and start to pace the room.  “I keep saying no, I'm not interested, but for whatever reason they have it in their head that that means they can keep on trying.  It's getting to the point that I'm extremely uncomfortable and I don't know what else to do about this.”

“A good hex would sort them out.” Sirius said flatly.

“Yeah, and get me into trouble at the same time,” You frowned.  “Do you know how much shit my parents would get at work if I did that? They work together, and they aren't easy to get along with at the best of times.”

Sirius frowns.  “Okay, so what do you need me to do?”

Your hesitation was clear, and your hands wrung together a little.  “As I said, you can say no, but it seems the only to get Robin to stop to show I'm already with someone else.”

He stares at you, trying to keep his expression blank.  “You want to date me?”

“Unofficially,” You said quickly.  “We just...pretend that we're dating.  Just till Robin backs off.”

“Huh,” He said thoughtfully, still keeping his expression blank.  “And why would you ask me this?”

“Because James is already dating Lily, and Peter and Remus can't act for shit.” You said.  “You're the only one I trust with this Sirius.”

Sirius wasn't a fan of this, he knew it was probably a bad idea, but there was something about you saying you trusted him that made him chase all those other thoughts away. “Okay, I'll do it.”

Your eyebrows shot up. “Just like that?”

He smiled.  “Just like that.  Although, do me a favour?”

You nod, still stunned.

“Don't tell Remus he can't act.  He'll get most upset.”

The laughter felt good, and you shook your head, smiling.  “Not a word.”

News went around the school like wild fire that you and Sirius were dating.  Sirius Black, the local flirt, had finally settled in with someone.  The two of you played along with it, but both of you were aware that there was a furious glare often sent your way.

After a particularly bad Potions lesson, Sirius caught up to you and wrapped a friendly arm around your shoulders.  “You okay?”

“I'd be better if Robin hadn't been glaring daggers into my back all lesson.” You grumbled.  “I have no idea how I got through that lesson.”

Sirius hums thoughtfully. “Well, how about we head to Hogsmead this weekend?  Just the two of us.” He added quickly at your nervous look, knowing that you wanted to keep this as quiet as possible, it less likely to blow up in your faces then.

You sighed.  “I don't know Sirius...it could bring more trouble.”

He gives your shoulders a squeeze.  “That's what I'm here for.  Everyone knows trouble is my middle name by now.”

It took a little bit more convincing, but after Transfiguration was no better, you agreed, just wanting to away from him.

The Three Broomsticks was relatively quiet considering how many students were out and about, but you certainly weren't complaining, relaxing as you sat in the chair next to Sirius. You couldn't even begin to put into words what this was all doing to you, but you more than grateful for Sirius' support.

“Thanks Sirius,” You said quietly, earning a surprised look from him.  “I really did need this.”

He smiled.  “No need to thank me Y/N.  If that clod can't accept this, then there is something wrong.”

You sighed, leaning on yours hands.  “I do wonder if Robin knows.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “How? I certainly haven't said anything, and I really doubt you have.  We're the only two that know.”

“I don't know, it's just something about...”  You trailed off and shook your head.  “You're right.  It's not possible.”

Sirius does a look around the pub and sees more than a few students that spoke a lot to Robin, a cheeky grin coming to him.

He nudges you gently. “You know, there is something we could do that would get tongues wagging.”

You looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

Sirius’ grin widens, and he sends you a wink.  “We could make out.”

There was an awkward pause before you laughed, looking away shyly.  “No, I don't want a kiss.”

Sirius chuckled.  “You never know, you might like it.”

“While I'm sure your kissing is more than remarkable,” You said, purposefully looking at your drink. “It's not currently the most important thing on my mind.”

You felt him shift closer, his arm snaking around the back of your chair, his voice low.  “Something else then?”

Laughing, you glance at him, finding him grinning.  “You are terrible.”

Sirius shrugs, his smile not dropping as he moves comfortably back into his own.  “I must have something going for me, or you wouldn't have asked otherwise.”

You smile at him, feeling genuinely happy, more than you had in a while.  Then your smile dropped and Sirius quickly followed your gaze to the door.

Robin stepped inside.

“Oh, you've got to be kidding me.”

Robin strides over, looking smug.  “So, this is the happy couple is it?”

“Why can't you just leave me alone?” You asked, annoyed.  “I'm sure you have better things to do than plague my every step.”

“Oh, I do have better things to do,” Robin said, eyes on Sirius.  “Including putting this bastard back in his place.”

“I'd like to see you try,” Sirius said lightly.  “You aren't the only one with friends.”

Robin sneers.  “Oh, you look all alone here, little Black, and if this is the only one to win Y/N over, then so be it.”

“No one is winning anyone over,” You said coldly.  “Because I remain uninterested, no matter what you keep telling yourself.”

But Robin smirks. “Oh?  You haven't heard?  Little Black has been trying to earn your attentions here for a while.  It may seem like his crush has worked, at least a little, but I wonder just how much dark magic was involved in it.”

“None.” You and Sirius both said, Sirius' face going a little pale.

“I'm here of my own volition,” You said.  “And you better learn to respect that.”

Robin scoffed.  “Like you would know anything about dark magic. We all know that you ride the coattails of everyone else in class.”

Heat flared in your cheeks, but you didn’t get a chance to respond as Sirius stands, his hands shaking.

“Says the one who’s only in some classes because Mummy and Daddy paid the school.”

Robin’s face went incredibly pale, very aware that several people were now looking over.  “Like you would know anything about it.  Why don’t you stick to your waste of space of a family in practising dark magic?”

Sirius reached for his wand, but he didn’t have to say anything, four spells hitting Robin at once, knocking them almost immediately out cold, several screams from other students sounding.

“I suggest the rest of you stay out of this,” James said, wand twirling in his fingers.  “This prat had this coming.  When someone says no, they mean it.”

Sirius stared at him, Remus and Peter next to him, slipping their own wands away.  “What are you guys doing here?”

James grins and shrugs. “Seems like you needs a hand.”  He nods at you.  “Y/N too.”

Sirius frowns and looks at you, your wand still raised, breathing hard.  He smiles and gently takes your hand, pushing your hand down. “I think you can put that down now. Pretty sure Robin won’t be getting up for a while.”

You swallowed and slowly slipped your wand away.  “O-okay.”

“Hey,” Sirius brought your gaze to his.  “You didn’t do anything wrong.  That arsehole deserved it.”

“Damn right they did,” James was crouching next to Robin now, poking them with his wand.  “We’ll get them out of sight for you, and don’t worry, we’ll take the fall from the teachers.”

Remus snorts, helping James pick up Robin as Peter moves and opens the door.  “You mean I will offer an explanation that the teachers will mostly believe, but we’ll still all get detention.  Again.”

James chuckles.  “Come on Remus, you haven’t had a dull moment with us yet.”

You and Sirius watched them leave, Sirius letting out a low chuckle, shaking his head.  “They are terrible.  Can’t keep to themselves at all.”

“Does Remus really lie to the teachers that much?”  You asked, watching as the rest of the students started going back to their drinks, as if not much had happened at all.

Sirius grins.  “He is a much better actor than you give him credit for.”

You look at him, wanting to laugh, but still feeling in shock over it all, and not entirely sure what to process first.  “So…you’ve liked me for a while huh?”

His grin falters and he rubs the back of his neck, pink flushing his cheeks.  “I…well…maybe?”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”  You frowned at him.  “Why did you agree to help me?”

Sirius shrugs.  “I never thought you’d ever like me back, and I agreed because you’re still my friend.  My feelings aside, I didn’t like seeing you so uncomfortable and in trouble, and the fact that you trusted me enough to ask me…”

You stared at him for a long moment, Sirius carefully avoiding your gaze.  Slowly, you rested your hand on his.  “Ask me.”

He looked at you, frowning slightly.  “What?”

“Ask me.”  You gave a small smile.  “Properly.  Without the expectation of covering my arse from a douchebag.”

Sirius opened his mouth a few times, before his frown deepened.  “Technically you asked me that.”

You giggled.  “Well, now I’m giving you a chance.”

Slowly, his frown eased and he smiled, moving a little closer.  “Y/N…would you like to go out with me?  For real this time.”

Smiling shyly, you nod. “Yeah, yeah I would.  I’m sorry I put you through this.”

Sirius chuckled, his arm wrapping around your shoulders.  “Don’t be, I did agree, and if anything, we both learnt we can already play the couple really well.”

Giggling, you felt yourself relax into him, and while you were still worried about what the consequences of hexing Robin would be, with Sirius here, it all just felt a little bit better.

[writingstarling]

Comfort in You

Adrien needed to get out. He curled deeper into himself as the walls chased down to cage him like a determined hunter.

It was a trick of the mind, he knew. He knew his room was spacious enough to support a relatively large apartment. That it would be impossible for him to be closed in.

He knew. But his brain couldn’t process that.

Today wasn’t what Adrien would call a good day—and he certainly had better. Just thinking of it sent him into a spiral of his own thoughts.

The air in his room were lego blocks he's forced to inhale. Smothering his nostrils in full force. And was it just him or was the ground starting to sway?

“Breathe,” a voice brought him back to reality. Adrien didn’t even notice he was holding his breath.

He had to calm down. Gain his head back.

Breathe, Agreste. Just like the article said, 4 7 8. Inhale through the nose for 4. Hold it for 7. Exhale through the mouth for 8, Adrien did as so.

You’re alright, you’re okay. Just calm down and you can get out of here!

Somehow he had managed. His surroundings were clearing up. The walls didn’t look like they were about to collapse on him anymore. The air filtering through his nostrils lightened in weight.

He was fine.

“Fine” was an overstatement really. He was far from it as it is.

But in his situation and for argument’s sake, “fine” would fit in nicely.

Exhaling one last shaky breath, Adrien fixed eye contact with his furry companion and smiled.

“Thanks, Plagg. I needed that.”

The black cat rubbed his cheek against his chosen’s. Not for long though. Despite appearances, Plagg had a reputation to keep. He couldn’t let Tikki make fun of him!

Plagg did loops in the air before favouring a spot in front of his chosen. His flipper like hands poised on his waist and a sly smirk played on his lips.

“So, you ready to break out of this place?”

Adrien mirrored his smirk with a fresh new glint in his eyes, “Plagg, claws out!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life had been considerably unpredictable for Marinette. With her secret life as a superhero and the sudden debut of a supposed supervillain—or magical terrorist with the ability to grant people magical powers through the aid of butterflies, Marinette had thought that she was beginning to gain the capability to be unfazed by the unexpected. That with all the bizzare events in her life she became acquainted with it.

Apparently she was wrong.

Never had she expected for a certain cat—or perhaps Chat to be perched on her veranda. It rattled her at first. Chat’s last visit had been... interesting, to put it nicely. It wasn’t his fault per se, nevertheless the escalating events left a bad taste in her father regarding the cat themed hero. The bad blood died down, but finding the very person that broke your daughter’s heart on your balcony would certainly summon a very irresistible impulse to jettison him; and Marinette really didn’t want to explain to Paris why one of their heroes managed to become roadkill near her bakery (the suit would probably protect him, but Marinette did not want to take that chance).

That put aside, Marinette shuffled under her sole protector from peering—or in this case, Chat Noir’s eyes. A hand stationed at her trapdoor as her eyes spied on her partner.

His back faced her as he surveyed the city; his cat ears were flat on his tousled gold locks while he hummed a song Marinette became familliar with as “Little Cat on The Roof”. Her lips twitched into a knowing frown.

Being partners for so long they were bound to notice habits the other owned. At the moment, it was Chat’s occasional croons. Marinette recognised the song as Chat's solace. A safe haven achieved by focusing on the assortment of melodies the song offered. She came to the conclusion that her kitty was distressed; presumably due to family circumstances.

Marinette weighted her odds. It didn’t seem like Chat had noticed her yet—which was good. She hadn’t known what action to take. On the one hand, it would be wise to not nose around and let him solve it in his own time. But on the other hand, seeing him lack his usual jubilant and bright attitude sent a jab to her heart.

She wanted to help. To be of service to him like the terrible jokes and over the top shenanigans he did for her. No matter how stubborn she was to clung to her sour mood, he would do almost everything that came to mind to alleviate her spirits. She wanted to do the same for him.

“Marinette?”

The mentioned girl tensed before sighing internally. She knew she was bound to be spotted (HA!) somehow, though she did wish it would be from her own volition rather than a slip aided by Chat’s observation skills. Marinette didn’t loiter on that thought longer and pulled herself up. Red bloomed on her cheeks as the crisp autumn air caressed her skin while embarrassment added an even darker shade of red.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to spy,” she found great interest in the floor as her fingers busied themselves by connecting and disconnecting themselves, stealing peeks as she did.

She expected, hoped, for him to take the chance to chaff her of having an infatuation on him or alleging her of being stunted by his self-proclaimed dashing looks (Marinette has thrown herself into a spiral of denial), albeit begrudgingly. She had, because if he did—there lied a glimmer of hope that it would be easier to buoy her partner. Chat, however, had other plans in mind.

Chat offered her a smile. Impeccably centered and hollow like a well crafted porcelain doll, “It’s okay, it was rude of me to steal your balcony.”

Internally Marinette cringed at the sight. Her stomach wrapped itself in knots of discomfort. It reminded her of the smile Adrien would plaster whenever Chloe or Lila claimed possession of him. That night Marinette vowed that she would never let that smile abide on either boys ever again.

“It’s all right,” she spoke as her feet planted herself next to him.

A pregnant pause held them hostage. Both fearful of breaking the fragile semblance of peace between them despite the mutually felt inquietude.

“So,” Marinette threaded with rightfully earned prudence. Voice soft and light like footsteps on thin ice.

“...So...”

“I have some croissants.”

Finally a piece of her kitty came to light in the form of a grin on his lips and a glint in his eyes.

“You would indulge this poor stray to the finest pastries in the world? Truly, you are the most a-meow-zing purr-incess in the world!”

Marinette fought the giggle bubbling in her throat with no success before sending him a playful glare coupled by a smirk that flourished nothing but friskiness, “Careful now, those awful puns might just cost you.”

Chat’s hand sought his heart above the magical leather suit as an overly inflated gasp found freedom from his peach pink lips.

“How could you Purr-incess! My puns are widely ad-mew-tted to be fur-ry paw-esome,” he retaliated, voice brimmed with feigned smugness.

Snacks and chagrins were soon forgotten as they fell into an easy rhythm of banter. Jabs aimed to Chat’s puns would immediately be reciprocated with a flimsy defense along with an additional pun. Each one personally designed to perturb her further into submission. But despite it, Marinette couldn’t brush away the warmth buzzing through her entire body as they went back and forth. The once brisk air nipping at her skin replaced by a fervour akin to a hug from a dear friend.

After a particularly long laughter from both parties as Chat had finally managed to delivered a humorous pun - “EXCUSE mew Purr-incess, my puns are always funny!” - they settled in another lapse of silence. Consisted of feather lightness and melodic sweetness.

The city was exceptionally beautiful, they had agreed. Perhaps it was due to the occurrence of a full moon, offering the city a better lighting to its beauty; perhaps it was the fiery orange lining the streets with its playful gradient; or perhaps the most immediately discarded thought in their heads, the company they had.

It was a territory they never dared to venture. A land littered with minefields yet to be discovered, yet to explode with much more uncertainty and a set of emotions they were far too fearful to label. Because trying to label the unknown might shatter the bits of understanding of their emotions they barely possessed. Putting the hesitantly glued pieces into shambles; and as a teenager finding their place in the world, it was a risk they were walking eggshells on.

Neither allowed themselves to loiter on the thought longer than a second.

“I, I should get going.” Perhaps it was her imagination, perhaps it was reality how Chat’s ears drooped as he spoke.

“Uh, yeah, it's getting late...”

Chat took the initiative to climb the rails of her balcony, hunched and ready to set off. Baton in hand and his leather-covered thumb hovering over the button to extend it the moment he leaps.

Swivelling his head to face the pig-tailed girl, he gave her a smile, genuine and sincere. “Thanks Marinette, I’ll see you next time.”

For reasons unkown to Marinette herself, a giggle burst forth from her throat. Tickling the air around them with her bubbly laughter. All at once, the air felt warmer to Chat Noir.

“Sure thing, you silly cat.”

Marinette had expected for Chat Noir to make his way. However, still he was in his previous position, unmoving. Marinette was one breath away from uttering her worries when Chat Noir’s voice cut through the air in slight whispers timid and uncharacteristic.

“Can I,” he paused for a minute, but persevered nonetheless, “can I come here again?”

The question sounded child-like in Marinette’s ears. Like a shy little kid trying to make friends while shouldering a large fear of rejection. He sounded so small, so vulnerable.

Marinette took a breath to ease the tenseness she felt from Chat’s question. She needed to deliver an answer appropriate from her words down to her tone in order to fully put Chat at ease.

Gentle and fluffy, sweeter than all the candies in the world with a tone of loveliness, she spoke. “You’re always welcomed here, Chat.”

A weight could visibly be seen lifted off Chat’s shoulders. Shoulders once guarded and fearful of rejection came to relax for the first time that night. With a nod, Chat finally made his way back to his house.

The journey was something he didn’t desire, but he can’t impose Marinette with his overdue stay. At the very least, he came back with a new feeling better than anything he had in a long time. A feeling of warmth buzzing in his heart. Perhaps, he’s finally starting to remember the feeling of home again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HAHAHAHA SO-

I uh, I forgot about this thing’s existence and neglected it for 2 years...

Well so that’s also why the writing style is a bit screwed up but I tried and honestly I was too lazy to rewrite the whole thing so you can have this mess instead ❤️.

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

If Bella in a new moon entered the Volturis clan, what would her bonds with each member of the clan look like?

Alright, I think this can go several different ways depending on how, exactly, this goes down.

I’ll put down a likely scenario: Aro is generous, very much wants to do this favor for Carlisle, but Edward cannot be trusted to turn Bella.

Now, in canon, Aro was given Alice’s vision and thus a very good excuse to let them go.

Bella has only ever had two futures since Edward entered her life: either she dies relatively soon or she is turned. Namely, if Bella isn’t turned, then one day soon Edward will eat her. (I am not joking about this, this is what Alice sees in “Midnight Sun” she just... makes it sound very romantic and nice to Bella).

Bella will never make it to forty. Bella is simply fortunate in that, at least for now, this is the future she thinks she wants.

Regardless, when they get home Carlisle also makes it clear he’s stepping in. Bella is being turned after graduation whether Edward likes it or not, if Edward won’t do it personally, then Carlisle will.

As it is, Bella is in fact turned, we also just get this completely unforeseen event along the way: Renesmee.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Point being, given that Alice was there as well, while it was well within Aro’s rights to simply say “no, you know what, Bella is being turned here” and ultimately would have been better overall, I don’t see him making this choice.

Even had Alice not been there, and he insists Bella be turned in Italy, while I’m sure he’d make his offer for her to work in the guard after she’s a vampire, I’m equally sure he’d let Carlisle come pick her up in a few days after the transition is complete.

So, trying to imagine the world where Bella not only is turned right then and there in Italy, but does not follow Edward on to the next Cullen location...

I think the only way it would happen would be if Bella knowingly chooses without coercion to join the Volturi.

I subscribe to book Aro, who is a pretty classy dude. While he made an offer to Bella she easily turned it down and it was made immediately clear that there were no consequence to rejecting this. Aro was just throwing it out there (Edward is the one who goes off about making offers people can’t refuse). 

So, if Bella had agreed believing she would die otherwise, given Edward and Alice are right there, I imagine it’d have been made very clear very quickly that Bella did not have to say yes. She has to be turned, sure, but she can go party with Carlisle to her heart’s content once she is.

So, why would Bella say yes?

Bella would... have to undergo the mother of all character development within twenty seconds.

In New Moon, Bella’s in a surreal world she can scarcely believe. Edward is back, he’s back and exactly how he used to be. None of it is real, he surely doesn’t love her, but she so desperately wants to pretend he feels something for her. For the first time in months, Bella’s not in the black, endless, pit of depression and she’s bracing herself for impact while also terrified she’ll end up right back where she was.

Bella’s priorities, in the Volterra encounter, aren’t keeping herself alive, looking out for her own future, or anything of the sort. It’s watching Edward every second she can because the moment she turns her back he will disappear out of her life and she will be back in that pit.

Bella’s desperation to keep Edward, to avoid depression, indeed colors her actions for the rest of the series. Bella is utterly terrified he will leave her.

This means in Volterra, even when she was 100% certain that Edward was about to leave her again and this would be the last time she’d ever see him, she is not leaving of her own volition. Even if it means standing there and listening to Edward tell the kings of his world that he will not turn Bella into a vampire, that she is so despicable to him that he would risk not only his own death but that of Alice’s and the entire coven’s just so that she will remain mortal, she’ll do it. Bella leaves Italy clinging to Edward for dear life.

So, I think for Bella to have said yes to the Volturi, she has to have one of those pivotal, cinematic, life altering moments happen in the blink of an eye. I don’t think Bella will necessarily realize anything profound, certainly nothing about herself, but I imagine her just having this thought, “I can’t go back” or “I can’t stay here”. 

Bella believes Edward will leave her, it is a certainty to her, the culmination of everything she’s ever known or ever been. She goes back anyway, because she wants even those few last hours, but I can see something in her breaking in Volterra as Edward insists he will never turn her. 

Bella can’t go back.

And the easiest way to never go back is to simply take Aro up on his offer.

And so, in a haze of surreal depression, Bella leaves everything she’s ever known to join a group she knows nothing about and whose cause she doesn’t understand.

Which leads us to, her relationships with all the characters (what you actually asked for).

So, up front, Bella’s gift isn’t so much useful to the Volturi right now as it is vital to keep out of the hands of their enemies and to maybe have on hand for the next Jane and Alec. 

As a result, Bella really doesn’t have much to do, and I imagine becomes a sort of secondary bodyguard. She’s not as useful as Renata, but if someone like Edward comes by to visit (as he undoubtedly will given I’m sure his utter rage over Bella just up and joining the Volturi), she’s great to have on hand.

So, with that, and given how busy everyone else is (and to preserve my sanity with this too long post) I imagine Bella’s spending the most time with Renata, Aro, Caius, and Marcus.

Maybe Chelsea and Corin, since they don’t really get out much either, but probably not Felix, Demetri, Jane, Alec, or any of the others.

Renata

I’m sure at first Renata finds Bella the weirdest, saddest, person on the planet. For the first probably... year or so Bella will be a depressed lump who found the will to leave Edward and her human life behind, but what the hell is she now. This probably makes Bella come off even stranger than usual.

Renata also is probably getting major Uncle Luca vibes from Edward (and she’s absolutely right to).

So, I imagine Renata, being very sweet and working very closely with Bella, becomes determined to help Bella become an actual person. Probably with shoe shopping, because for no particular reason I’ve always headcanoned that Renata is a fashionista. 

I imagine it takes a while, but eventually the pair become close friends.

Aro

Aro probably unintentionally ends up playing Bella’s therapist. He has no idea what to make of this either. Somehow, it works out for them. Even if he has to try to find polite ways to describe why Edward is the way Edward is (there’s no polite way to say it.)

Marcus

Marcus and Bella are depressed buddies. They sit in the garden and stare at nothing for hours together. Marcus thinks vaguely about the time he once had a wife. Bella thinks vaguely about the time when she believed Edward liked her.

They such low functioning beings that they can’t even understand shitty Garfield jokes.

Caius

Caius thinks having Bella is stupid, that Bella herself is the weirdest and most useless vampire he’s ever heard of, but does see Aro’s point in having her around.

He fundamentally doesn’t understand Bella. At all.

I imagine he just insults her constantly and Bella just stares blankly back at him going, “Yeah, I am a stupid and clumsy vampire.” And he just stares back, because that wasn’t his point.

Eventually, he just stops insulting her, because how do you even work with that?

[maxineswritingcenter]

You Saved Me - Derek Hale x fem!reader part 22

-----------

As I parked in the driveway, I tried to think of a way to talk to Uncle Noah. It really just came down to my approach. And if he pulls a gun on me or not. I don’t believe that he would pull a gun on me just from the texts and voicemails I was getting. 

Getting out of the car was the next part of my plan. Alright, getting out of the car... Right now... Getting out... Of the car... Now. 

Finally, I willed myself out of the car and walked up the driveway to the front door. Should I knock or ring the doorbell? No, walking in seemed more casual, I need to be formal. Or maybe it would be better to walk in-

The front door opening interrupted my inner monologue. Uncle Noah stood in the doorway. He was in uniform, looking like he was heading into the station. We stared at each other for a while, not sure how to go forward with this. Maybe I should just start speaking? Yeah, because that worked out so well before. 

“Hey, uh... I just wanted to say...” My voice cut out before I could say what I wanted. The worst part was that he just kept staring at me, “Um, I wanted to say that I’m sorry for what happened at the station and I’m sorry for... What I am-” 

I was cut off by Uncle Noah pulling me into his arms and hugging me tightly. After the shock subsided, I hugged him back, gripping onto his shirt to ground myself. He was hugging me just like he would before he saw me as a werewolf. 

“Don’t ever apologize for who you are, sweetheart.” His voice was strained, “Nothing that happened was your fault. I know you would never do anything to hurt anyone of your own volition.” He kissed the top of my head, pulling away and looking me in the eyes. 

“You aren’t scared of me?” My voice was trembling.

“What? No, no, no. I’m not scared of you. I’m just worried about you. You’re still (Y/N).” He pushed some hair out of my face, wiping away some tears as well. Uncle Noah was someone who loved no matter what. All he wanted was for his loved ones to be safe and happy and that was what I loved so much about him. 

“We’re gonna figure this out. Being a...a”

“A werewolf.”

“Being a werewolf isn’t easy and we’re gonna figure out how it happened.” I smiled at him weakly. 

“There’s a lot I need to tell you.” 

We went inside, sitting in the living room. I was finally able to reveal everything and it was all from my memory. I could finally tell my story the way I remembered it. Uncle Noah listened to all of it, even if he didn’t understand all of it, he still listened. At the end, he sat back against the couch and blew out air. 

“That... That’s a lot, kid.” I nodded, sitting back beside him. He sat back up again when his phone started going off. 

“Crap.” He said, looking at the caller ID, “I gotta go to work.” He stood up, looking back at me, “You staying here tonight?” 

“Yeah, I’m making dinner.” 

“Great, I’ll see you tonight, maybe, hopefully.” He opened his phone and made his way out. 

-

Stiles and I were in the kitchen making dinner. It wasn’t often that the Stilinski’s had a home cooked meal, with Uncle Noah being at the station, it was quick or microwave meals that saved dinner. But tonight it was going to be lasagna, I had noticed that Stiles asked for a lot of pasta dishes. Probably for the carbs since he played lacrosse and had the metabolism of a giant. The kid could eat. As I was pulling the lasagna out of the oven, the doorbell rang. 

“That’s Derek.” I smiled, taking off the oven mitts and setting them on the counter, “Could you get the door?” Stiles took a deep breath but walked to the door and opened it. Derek stood there in nicer attire than usual. He had swapped out the leather jacket for a nice burgundy sweater, he had flowers in his hand. So I’m assuming when he saw Stiles, he was very confused. 

“Aw, you shouldn’t have.” Stiles fake-gushed. Derek’s jaw clenched and his brow furrowed. 

“(Y/N).” He called. Looking out at him, I grinned and wiped my hands on the apron I was wearing. 

“Hey!” I said cheerfully, taking the flowers. Roses and baby’s-breath, “How lovely.” I inhaled the sweet scent, ushering Derek inside. 

“(Y/N), can I speak with you privately?” Derek said through his teeth. After putting the flowers in a vase, I raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Yes~?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him. 

He titled his head to the side, “When you invited me to dinner at your house, I thought we would be eating. Alone.”

I smiled, “Why would I invite you over to my house when there’s a sixteen year old who actively lives here?” I poked his chest, “You were supposed to make the romantic dinner, remember?”

“That’s a little deceiving, isn’t it?”

“Oh?” I wiggled my eyebrows, “Were you expecting something a little spicier than lasagna?”

Derek gave me a sly smile, “Maybe-”

“Okay, enough of whatever you guys are doing.” Stiles butted in, “I’m hungry so can we eat now?” I was about to answer when the door opened. All of our eyes widened, and so did Uncle Noah’s. 

“Hey...” Stiles said casually, “Thought you uh... weren’t gonna be home for dinner.”

“I uh, I asked for the night off so we could have dinner together as a family.” He looked at Derek, then me, then Derek again, “Derek, are you uh... Like her?” 

“A werewolf? Yes, sir.” 

“Oh, oh, okay.” Uncle Noah smiled a little, “That’s okay. I fully support being werewolves. Just as long as you’re safe.” He said this awkwardly, but very sincerely. 

“So food’s done.” I smiled. 

-

The dinner was kind of awkward, just a little tense. An ex con eats dinner with the sheriff? It was like the start a of very bad joke. But everything went over well and now it was just Derek and I in my room - with the door open per Uncle Noah’s request- playing music softly and cuddling on the bed. My head was on his chest playing with his fingers. Derek had one arm around me, his fingertips dipping under my shirt hem. 

“I love this.” I hummed, “I never want it to end.” I looked up at him, “I had a question.” 

“Yes?” He kissed the top of my head. 

“When all of this started... Why were you so distant with me? Why wouldn’t you tell me about us knowing each other when I came to your house.” 

“Well,” He shifted so he sat up a little on the pillows, “I was respecting your father’s wishes.” 

“As if.” I smirked.

He chuckled, “You’re right.” He looked down at me, “But I thought it would hurt more for you if I expected something from you that you couldn’t give me.” He held my hand that was fiddling with his, bringing it up to his lips, “Those times when you were wanting to get close to me, I wanted to tell you. I wanted to try and break the spell but I didn’t know if I could or even if it would work.” 

“Derek...You suffered alone, I’m so sorry.” I ran my fingertips over his cheek. He nuzzled his cheek into my hand.

“I suppose, but it was like I got to meet you for the first time. Fall in love with you.” It was strange seeing this side of him. His heart was open and he was telling me everything. 

“You love me, huh?” I said, “Even with how stubborn I am?” 

He smiled, “Even with how stubborn you are. You never gave up on me. Ever.” 

Leaning forward, I pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, “I love you too.” There was love in his eyes, but there was something else. Something I couldn’t ignore, even though the nagging feeling in my stomach was telling me it was going to ruin the moment. 

“What is it?” I sighed, “Just tell me.”

“I can’t hide anything from you, can I?” 

“After last night? Definitely not.” 

“The alpha pack is here.” He paused and breathed out, “And I was hoping you would go to Scotland until this all blows over.” I sat up and stared down at him. 

“You want me to go to Scotland. With Michael. To the people who probably agreed to have my memories taken away. While you fight the alphas by yourself?” I scoffed, “Yeah, fat chance.” I got out of bed. Derek sighed, leaning his head back. 

“(Y/N), you don’t understand-”

“I understand everything perfectly actually. For the first time in six years, I can see everything. I remember the alpha pack and I remember what they did to Paige.” I stood in front of the bed and looked down at him, “I’m an alpha with two alpha sparks and I can fight just as well as you can...If a little out of practice.” 

Derek sat up, “I know, that’s why I want you to go. You’re an easy target to take the alpha sparks from and you know how they will take it.” I crossed my arms over my chest, tapping my foot on the floor. He was right, as much as I hate to admit it. 

“I know I’m right.” Derek said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to face me.

“Hey! Get out of my head.” 

Derek pried my arms from their crossed position and held my hands, “I know you want to be here to protect your people. I do too. But I would never forgive myself if they took you away from me, away from your uncle, away from Stiles.” He stood up and pulled me into his arms. 

“I can’t lose you.” 

“And I can’t lose you either.” My breath was shaky.

“You won’t.” 

“You can’t promise me that. You have been on death’s door so many times, it’s only a matter of time before he answers.” 

Derek pressed a kiss to my forehead, “I’m not alone anymore. I’m stronger than ever.” I knew that he would keep those I loved safe. But he had the hero complex, willing to do what was right no matter the cost. 

“Fine. But if I feel something happen, I’m on the next flight back and I’m gonna kick your ass.” I swallowed thickly, “And if you’re dead... I’m bringing you back and kicking your ass.” 

“I know you will.” He gave me a small smile.

-

I had barely been out of Beacon Hills before. Every once in a while there was an away game for lacrosse, but never out of state. I had never even been to the airport. Airports were weird. You get there like four hours early, sit for hours, then you get in a metal tube that flies in the sky. 

Stiles and I were sitting at the end of a row of chairs, Uncle Noah and Michael were talking across the room. Michael had dyed his blond hair dark brown and had been wearing brown contacts to disguise himself from getting caught by any cops who were still looking for him. 

"What do you think they're talking about?" I leaned over and whispered into Stiles’ ear. This was really just a way of getting him to talk to me. Stiles had been quiet the whole ride to the airport. 

“Probably his shitty dye job.” He said, hanging one arm over the back of his seat. 

I chuckled, resting my head on his shoulder, looking around. Derek hadn’t come with us to the airport. He thought it would draw attention to me and the alpha pack would follow. But it didn’t hurt any less. I knew that he was right. I would have liked to have seen him before I left though. 

“Are you mad at me?”

“No..” He sighed, “Last thing I need is to lose you to a bunch of werewolves with a god complex killing you for your alpha mojo.” 

“Alpha sparks. Plural.” 

“Yeah yeah. Just...” He looked down at him, “Let me know when you’re coming back.” 

“Hey, I’ll Skype you as much as I can.” 

NOAH

After feeling more comfortable talking with Michael, Noah had agreed to let Michael escort (Y/N) to Scotland as a part of the Lunar Circle. Michael had been nervous the entire time, hadn’t looked him in the eyes. Michael was rubbing the back of his neck. 

Noah narrowed his eyes at him, “What is it, you got somethin’ you’re not telling me?”

“N-No. I’ve told you everything.” His voice was shaking. 

"Slow down, breathe." Noah held a hand out. 

Michael sighed, running a hand through his hair, “I just want her to trust me and I don’t want to hurt her again. I need to make up for all the crap that I did, I gotta make things right.” 

Noah nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. While he would rather throw Michael in a jail and leave him there to rot, he didn’t understand the entire situation with mind control and werewolves, so he figured that (Y/N) could handle herself. 

“Listen, kid, she is gonna be a mess for the next few days. Since everything happened and all the responsibility on her shoulders, she hasn’t had time to properly mourn her parents. She won’t process that everyone is practically a world away until later - Derek and Stiles especially.” He looked over at (Y/N) and Stiles. Those were his kids. And he hated that one of them was going to be out of his sight and reach for however long. But at least she would be safe, “Her and Derek have their connection thing. But her and Stiles? They... I’ve never seen two kids love and care about each other so much in my entire life. With her powers, the safest thing for you and her would be to take her to a safe place and lock her up for the night. She might as well be a ticking time bomb. 

“Yes, sir.” 

(Y/N)

"Now boarding all passengers on flight two-nine-o-six to Edinburgh International." A woman’s voice called over the intercom. Michael and Uncle Noah came back over as I stood up and grabbed my carry on bag. 

“Well, that’s us-” I was cut off by a bone crushing hug from Stiles. And here comes the tears. Wrapping my arms tightly around him, I breathed out then pressed my lips tightly together. 

“I love you.” He said into my shoulder. 

“I love you too.” I sniffled and pulled away, rubbing the top of his head where his hair was starting to grow out from his buzz cut. Uncle Noah almost had to pry Stiles off to get to me then pulling me into his own arms. 

“I just want you to know that I’m proud of you.” He kissed the side of my head, “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” I pulled away, looking around, probably just to make myself even more sad. Derek wasn’t gonna come. 

Michael led me onto the plane and to my surprise, the Lunar Circle had paid for first class tickets. I would hope so since this was a thirteen hours flight with two stops. I put my headphones in and looked out the window. We were off to some new and possibly magical place - the ancestral homeland - to meet with a bunch of people that I kind of wanted to give a piece of my mind. 

I would rather be taking this trip with Derek where it would be atleast a little romantic but instead I was running from some crazy alphas. I wanted to start my life with him, a life that was significantly less crazy than it was now. I wanted to start a family. I thought Derek did too, he came from a large family. 

Maybe that plan was already in motion.

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

Read part 23 here!

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[owl-with-a-pen]

What if Nia had gotten so angry at lex after what happened with brainy, she went to go try and kill him? 😳 and brainy had to stop her. We’ve seen the dark side of brainy before but never in Nia really, discluding “reality bytes”

- Oooh, I like this idea a lot! I brought a few more characters into play for this as well, hope you don’t mind!

“I’m gonna kill him.”

Nia stormed past Kara for the third consecutive time, swivelling on her foot just shy of hitting the far wall so that she could continue pacing across Lena’s lab. Her hands were clenched so tightly together that her fingers were beginning to burn, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was ending Lex’s sorry existence once and for all.

“Nia,” Kara cut in, taking a placating step forward, “just think for a second-”

“You can’t stop me, Kara,” Nia snarled. She knew she’d gained something of an audience since Lena and Alex had returned from the recovery room, could feel their eyes tracking her every movement, but just thinking about who they’d been tending to, the state he’d been in when they’d found him in Leviathan’s ship, made the anger inside her chest that much more vitriolic. There was a pressure growing inside her skull, throbbing along to the beat of her heart. She stopped short, jerking her arm in the direction Lena and Alex had come from. “Look what he did to Brainy. Months of hurting him, putting him through god knows what!”

“And you have every reason to be angry,” Kara said gently.

Nia snorted, rolling her eyes. “Great, ‘cuz I was totally asking for your permission.”

“Nia-”

“No.” Nia turned to Kara then, jaw clenched tight. “Y’know what? No. You don’t have a right to tell me I’m wrong here. Lex kills people, Kara, did you think of that, huh? Did you think of who Brainy might have helped Lex kill? What Lex might have made him do?” Nia could feel tears burning in her eyes, could taste a thickness in her throat, but she forced every bit of strength into her voice regardless. “None of us stopped that.”

“None of us knew,” Alex muttered.

“And who’s fault is that?” Nia shot back, whirling on Alex accusingly. “Brainy’s? Or maybe, maybe the truth is, it was ours. I ignored my dreams and we all, we all ignored him!” Nia sucked air through her teeth. She knew she was trembling, but seeing those concerned looks on her friends’ faces did nothing to cool the fire welling inside of her. She swallowed hard, ignoring the iron tang in the back of her mouth, and drew out a slow breath. “But, most importantly,” she said carefully, “it’s Lex’s fault. This is all Lex’s fault.”

“I don’t disagree with you,” Lena said. Her expression had been especially still throughout Nia’s tirade, although something about it now looked distinctly uneasy. “But, Brainy was careful. I saw him-” Lena cringed suddenly, looking away.

Nia knew why, just as well as anyone else in the room did. Lena had known Brainy had been working for Lex – for months - and she hadn’t said a word. She’d kept his secret. No, no, she hadn’t kept his secret, she hadn’t cared about it.

“It was only brief,” Lena said quickly, glancing back to her, “but during that time, he promised me that no one would be harmed whilst he aided with Lex’s schemes. He wouldn’t have broken his code, Nia. Not even for Lex; I’m certain.”

“You killed him.”

“What?”

Nia stared at Lena coldly. “You shot him, right? You shot your brother in the heart and you didn’t think about it. Because it was justice.”

“It wasn’t justice-” Kara tried desperately.

“I’m not talking to you!” Nia gritted. She didn’t even spare Kara a passing glance. All of her attention was devoted to Lena. “Let her talk.”

Lena’s eyes were bright, shimmering things. Still, she didn’t look away this time. Instead, her lips twitched into sharp smile. “What do you want me to say?” she asked coldly. “That killing my brother was cathartic, that it closed old wounds that I thought might never heal?” She raised her chin. “No, you want the whole truth. That my actions stopped a threat that would have continued relentlessly unless someone had the nerve to take that shot. To leave his lifeless body to rot with the worms like he deserved.”

Kara made a pained sound in the back of her throat.

Lena glanced at her. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said plainly. “I don’t condone this. But, not because I don’t agree with her.” Lena turned back to Nia, her brow furrowed. “Nia, taking a person’s life is something you can never take back.”

Nia bared her teeth. “And yet, that’s exactly what the Anti Monitor did.” She gestured at Lena frankly, feeling wayward strands of dream energy snap and spark between her fingers. “Absolve you, or whatever.”

“I’d kill my brother again without a moment’s hesitation,” Lena said stiffly, lifting herself to her full height. “But, we can still stop him without resorting to that.” Her expression softened. “Even if we couldn’t, my actions, they aren’t yours. Nia, you don’t have the stomach for this. You shouldn’t.”

Nia clenched her hands again, feeling her energy pool into every digit. Vibrant blue light simmered against her palms. “No offence, Lena, but you don’t know anything about what I’m capable of right now.”

“Nia?”

Nia faltered, the shock of her power dimming as she half turned to meet the new voice behind her back.

Brainy was stood in the lab’s entryway, his shoulder pressed heavily against the wall. If the frailness of his expression was anything to go by, Nia was certain it was the only thing keeping him from keeling over.

His green skin was still far too pale to be healthy, and his blond hair clung to the side of his jaw with cold sweat, but he was awake. He was…

Why was he awake?

Between the two of them, Lena and Alex had been able to help along Brainy’s natural healing process using a cocktail of experimental drugs, the names of which Nia wasn’t even going to try to pronounce. But Brainy’s IV wasn’t present, instead she could see an angry looking bruise already beginning to blossom over the delicate skin on his left hand.

The dream energy dissolved from Nia’s hands in an instant, rocketing back towards her chest so quickly that she nearly choked. She rushed over to him, reaching tentatively for his arm.

This close, she could see the shadows that had sunk into his cheek bones, the red veins that still branched along the whites of his eyes. He held one arm protectively around his chest, clenched between the steady glow of his three life projectors.

“Brainy,” Nia said breathlessly, running her hand carefully along his arm, desperate to offer any kind of support she could. “You shouldn’t be up.”

Brainy clenched his teeth, lowering his head. “I-I overheard…” he managed.

It took her a second, but although his eyes were heavy lidded, Nia realised that Brainy was looking down at her hands, at the vibrant energy she’d summoned only moments ago. Something heavy settled inside her stomach at that look.

“Nia,” Brainy continued softly. “You- you don’t need to do this.”

A pained laugh caught in Nia’s throat. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

Brainy smiled tiredly, lifting his head with clearly more energy than he had to expend. Nia ached to do something for him, to take that hurt away, but the anger inside of her no longer burned like fire. Instead, it twisted deep in her gut, churning together with every bit of fear she’d been trying to hold down since the moment they’d gotten Brainy out of Leviathan’s clutches.

“Killing Lex…” Brainy said, meeting Nia’s eyes. “It will not take back what I did. I worked for him of my own volition, he didn’t force me into anything.”

Nia swallowed hard, closing her eyes.

“You have every right to be angry with me,” Brainy said earnestly. “But, please, don’t channel that anger into something this destructive. Lena is right. Taking a life is never worth it. There is always a better way.”

Nia’s eyes shot open at that. She blinked quickly, shaking her head. “I’m not,” she said. “I’m not mad at you.”

When Brainy only stared at her, Nia felt the twist in her stomach sour even further. She gritted her teeth, blinking back against the sudden burn in her eyes. “I- I don’t want to be,” she said weakly.

“It’s okay.”

Nia startled at the feel of Brainy’s fingers brush against her free hand. She clenched the one around his arm in response. “It’s not okay,” she gritted. “It wasn’t your fault. I-”

“From what I understand,” Brainy said, “emotions do not always make sense. But that does not make them any less real.”

For a long moment, Nia couldn’t say a word against him. Because, as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She was angry, so angry, but she was also terrified and sick and hollow. There was a bitter hole in her heart, one that had only continued to grow in the months since Brainy had broken up with her. He’d barely spoken to her since, had hardly stood to be in the same room as her at all. The closest they’d gotten was work-related interactions and even then, he’d been so distant, like a part of him hadn’t even been there.

And when she’d seen Brainy in Leviathan’s ship, every single piece of bitterness had surged to life in a united front to keep her grounded, to keep her away from every other emotion threatening to tear her apart. It had warped into a violent rage, an acrid burn inside her lungs, fuelling her on this fruitless pursuit to, what? Kill Lex? As though that’d make her feel better, as though any of this would make her feel better?

Nia couldn’t find it in her to say that all out loud. Instead, she sniffed hard, biting her lip. “You left me alone,” she said lowly. “And that killed me.”

“I know,” Brainy said, his voice pained. “It… it killed me too, and I know this isn’t enough, that it won’t take away the hurt, but I am so, so sorry, Nia Nal.” His eyes fluttered suddenly, and he closed them quickly, lowering his head. “I will always be sorry.”

Nia knew this wasn’t the right time to have this conversation. Brainy’s complexion was already losing the little colour he’d gained; his jaw was tight with discomfort, and as a harsh shudder ran up his spine, she watched as he lost the last of his composure, leaning his head against the wall with a weak grimace.

Nia wasn’t sure what she was feeling in that moment, but when Brainy’s legs nearly gave out, she didn’t hesitate. Her arms were wrapped around his back before she even knew that she was moving forward, burying her face securely into the side of his neck. His skin was sticky with cold sweat, but she didn’t care, she only hugged him fiercer, unable to keep a sob from heaving its way out of her throat.

“It will be enough,” she whispered, feeling as Brainy slowly began to relax into her embrace. “It’ll just take some time.”

There was more she wanted to say now. The words practically thundered inside her ears, clawing to be let out. Words like, how much she loved him, how she’d never stopped loving him, but how even that couldn’t take away the resentment she’d stored against herself, against him, for leaving her without a proper explanation, for making her feel like her feelings were unwarranted, unreciprocated.

But her throat was tight, and the only sounds she was able to make were the harsh gasps as her chest hitched and fell outside of her control. She could hear Brainy’s pulse beating away against her cheek, the moisture of his own tears wetting strands of her hair.

All she wanted to do was hold on and never, ever let go.

Brainy didn’t say a word, either. Although, for him, it was for a far more pressing reason. His breathing was already beginning to strain against her shoulder, and when he suddenly dipped dangerously in her arms, Nia strengthened her hold around him, leaning them both against the wall to support their combined weights.

“So, does this mean no one’s murdering anyone anymore?” Alex asked from across the room.

Nia’s chest clenched. She’d totally forgotten that her reunion with Brainy had been met with an audience. She lifted her head from his shoulder, blinking against the brightness of the room before turning towards her friends.

Alex was already on her way over to them, her eyes reviewing every inch of Brainy in both parts medical and familial concern. Kara and Lena hovered awkwardly together, seemingly aware that crowding Brainy right now might not be the best plan.

Nia met Kara’s gaze warily, offering her an apologetic wince. “I…” she began.

“It’s okay,” Kara said softly, her eyes creasing with a smile.

Nia sighed, shaking her head. “Okay,” she said levelly. “Maybe, maybe we don’t have to kill him. But the next cell we put that asshole in, he’s never getting out of.”

Kara’s smile widened into a grin. “Now, that’s a plan I can get behind.”

“First thing’s first,” Alex cut in, rousing Brainy enough that he was able to glance blearily up from Nia’s shoulder. She pressed the back of her hand against his forehead, narrowing her eyes at the result. “You’re telling me what the hell you did with your IV. Then, you’re going back to bed.”

Brainy nodded weakly, mumbling a quiet apology, although Nia knew Alex wasn’t looking for one. In fact, she was pretty certain she’d heard Alex forgive Brainy at least a dozen times over while he’d still been delirious from the radiation.

Nia chuckled, helping Alex manoeuvre Brainy’s weight back down the hall.

“C’mon Wildcat,” she murmured into his ear. “We’ve got you.”

Maybe they hadn’t had a chance to get everything out in the open just yet, but they would. 

Once Brainy was healthy and rested, they’d have all the time in the world.

[random-imagines-blog]

King of the Wasteland {Tech Boy x Reader}

Requested by: Anonymous Wordcount: 1745 Summary: Tech-Boy finds it hard to tell you how he feels. It’s a good thing you’re a master of communication. Notes: Language. It is Techboy after all.

Technology is meant to be cold. It’s meant to be used for your purposes and then upgraded, and then thrown away. It wasn’t supposed to develop any sort of feeling. It’s representation as one of the ‘New Gods’ wasn’t like the others, who things were sacrificed to in order to incite favor. It was just supposed to work. And so it did for many, many years. Doing the thing that it was just supposed to do - until Mr. World had come into play, and stirred things up. And you. You had been the last thing that the Technical Boy had expected to come into his life and shake it like James Bond’s martini.

One of the New Gods yourself, you were on the fence about the war, having friends on both sides. Tech-Boy had been sent to try to lure you over onto his side. The winning side, he had promised. And with that charming tongue, he enticed you and you moved from neutral onto the new side, but preferred the sidelines because all of this violence and taunting was not your style.

It was his, so he did it on behalf of both of you.

“Irrelevant, medieval,” He ranted as you sat on your couch, sipping at a glass of wine. He had been turned down again by one of the other Gods, and turned to you in order to bitch about it. You didn’t speak, knowing that it was much better to let him get it out of his system. Shadow Moon - Wednesday - Bilquis. He would talk about all of them while you listened. He didn’t need advice. He wouldn’t have welcomed it, not even from you. He knew best.

He managed to get most of it out of his system, and then collapsed next to you on the couch. He brought his vape out of his pocket, and took a puff. It exuded a smoke that smelled of watermelon. Your favorite. You lightly tapped against his knees in a morse code pattern, telling him that everything was going to be okay.

“What in the fuck are they doing to me? Sending me as their errand boy,” He said, leaning his head back, exposing his long neck. “If I didn’t have you, I’d fucking explode.”

That wasn’t altogether new, but it was an unexpected compliment from him.

“All I do is listen,” You said, making little circles over his knees now. Communication was your talent, your gift to the world - made more prevalent by the psychiatrists of the last century and a half who found new ways of doing it. Body language. Different types of love languages. You even worked with technology on many things - morse code, binary. Media was your sister in many ways, and combined you created social media. That was the thing about Gods - they could merge. They became many things over time. Developed new skills as humanity became more and more creative about what they wanted and what they needed. “You’re more skilled than you realize. You’ve brought me and others onto your side. You just need to ... find the right language.”

He looked over at you, and seemed to evaluate what working with you on this would bring him. And then he nodded, agreeing with you. He paced around the couch and then settled down beside you, pulling his bony knees up to sit cross-legged. Such a Tech-Boy thing to do. He had troubles sitting still. He always felt the need to evolve. To be better. Restlessness was his demon.

“I-” He started. You turned your head to look at him, eye to eye. Whatever he was going to say didn’t come out. He looked like he had lost his nerve. You tilted your head to the side, patiently waiting for him to continue with it. “I...”

He’d never lost his words like this before. Been interrupted and stopped speaking, sure. But when all was silent, he always managed to fill it, even if it wasn’t in the most eloquent way. He was probably about as elegant as a gigantic elephant, stomping around, but instead of loud footsteps, he had his foul language. Not your greatest achievement in language.

“I appreciate it,” He finally managed to say. You nodded, and finished off your glass of wine, setting the goblet onto the table, and stretched out, your legs going over his body. It was hardly the first time. In fact, you were the only person that he allowed to get so close like this. His arm settled on top of your leg, and he had his thinking expression on. There was always something going on behind those dark eyes of his. And it was rare that he stuttered like that. Below his dignity, you would have thought.

“You seem like you want to say something else,” You said, speaking aloud what you were picking up on. He was tense. He was stressed quite a bit, but rarely tense. Of course you were going to notice. And of course you were going to grow worried. “What is it?”

“Fuck,” He said, rubbing the space between his eyes, breaking off the contact. That alone told you something. It was something about you. He was having trouble saying it.

“Just say it, boy,” You said, nudging him in the stomach with your knee. He held your leg down now, so you wouldn’t be able to do it again. He was stronger than those little twig arms would have you believe.

“I really fucking hate it when you call me that,” He said, glaring at you then looked away quickly. You sighed, and started to massage your own neck.

“Well, we’re going to be joining the old Gods by the time that you finally say whatever it is,” You spoke a bit dramatically. But that was what it was going to take. He was worrying you. But if you showed that to him, he would just revoke whatever it was. He wouldn’t say it. He’d go on ranting so he would seem normal again.

“I never speak properly to you,” He said, like this was some sort of revelation.

“What do you mean?”

“All I do is talk about this fucking war, how annoying media is, how much I hate Shadow...”

“Well, yes, but those are big parts of your life, our lives right now,” You said, reaching over and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Though you do seem really focused on Shadow Moon for some reason. You would feel a lot better if you just left that to Mr. World. You aren’t the only soldier in his army, after all.”

“Fucking right I’m not,” He grumbled.

His hands started to rub at your leg. It didn’t seem like he knew that he was doing it. His fingers made any tension that you were holding under your skin disappear. You weren’t about to start complaining. You smiled lazily, and moaned through your nose, enjoying it. He kept his eyes on you, watching you. “I need to tell you something,” He said, emphasizing the word need. You nodded, and decided to wait patiently this time. Clearly the pressure of earlier hadn’t worked.

He started to look like a fish that had been taken out of water. Or like a child in a school choir who forgot the words and was miming singing. “A little to the left,” You whispered, and his hands moved of their own volition, getting the sweet spot.

The room was preternaturally quiet. You did not keep clocks around in your house, so there wasn’t even the sound of one ticking.

“I -” He started, but then failed again. “Why do you have to make communicating so fucking hard sometimes? Isn’t it your job to make it easy?”

“I’m not trying to make it hard for you,” You said, watching him struggle. It hurt you a bit to see him that way. “Is there any other way that you could tell me?”

“What do you think I’m fucking doing here?” He asked. You pursed your lips and looked over all that he was doing. You took in all of those visual cues to try to understand what he was getting at. When it hit you, it hit you fast and by surprise. You hadn’t been expecting this message, let alone for it to be so loud and clear.

“And yet you still cannot say it?” You teased. It might have been malicious, he certainly thought that it was, but he smirked and looked away from you, focusing his attentions on the table.

“I ... love wine., He picked up your abandoned glass. There were still a few drops, clinging onto the bottom. Not enough to swirl but he attempted it anyway. You laughed lightly,  and shook your head. Well, some people were better at other forms of commuication than others. Tech-Boys wasn’t verbal, as was becoming abundantly clear. But it was physical.

“Silly boy,” You said, moving in closer to him.

“Don’t fuckin-” He was going to complain about you calling him that once again, but you stopped him with a bit of physical communication of your own. A kiss, put on his lips from yours. It was enough to make him shut up for a moment. Right in the middle of a swear too, which was no small feat.

He kissed back with a hunger that had been growing in his stomach for weeks. It had started off with a small craving, like one that he got whenever he discovered a new drug out there. But then when he had tried to brush it off, wipe it out of his mind, focus on work, it grew and it grew. It became so large, that he didn’t even have the room to develop the words to make it happen. His body went on autopilot, doing the work for him.

There were sparks flying during this kiss - both literally and figuratively. Little bits of electricity shocked the skin of both of you, until it became almost too much to bear and you pulled away, giggling at all of these sensations.

“Are you always this premature, or am I just lucky?” You asked.

“You and your fucking teasing.”

“What can I say? It’s how I communicate.”

[fishyfod]

(Slightly) more organized thoughts on the V8 finale.

tl;dr I think the finale had some issues.

I’ll start this off by emphasizing again that this is my opinion, so read something else if you can’t handle negative criticism of RWBY. I say this because too often people in this FNDM can’t handle a difference in opinion without insulting or patronizing others, and I want none of that.

Now, RWBY’s general structural issue is a lack of time to fulfill all their ambitions, and they usually tend to neglect one aspect a bit more than others. In volumes 7 and 8 this proved to be quite a problem, because they wanted to tell quite a complicated story while introducing a fairly large amount of new and returning characters. I very much like the story they told in these volumes, but it must be said that the development and focus on the regular cast, and team RWBY in particular, has suffered for it. It’s not a deal breaker for me personally, but I do think it’s an issue.

So when I saw the finale episode only had about 20 minutes, I figured the best course of choice for RWBY would be to focus on the Atlas-only plots, and leave RWBY & co’s stories for the next volume, which by all accounts seems to be focused only on their character. And credit where credit is due, this is what RWBY decided to do with this finale. This doesn’t really solve the underlying issue that the main cast has yet again been relegated to such a minor role in their own show, but I can live with it.

I still do have a problem with how RWBY’s role in this finale was handled, and forgive me because this might be the least well-explained part of this review. The best way to describe it would be that, though I know I’m watching team RWBY, they don’t feel present in the finale? I struggle to put my finger on it, if it’s more an issue of direction or execution, but something about RWBY’s fight felt off for me.

By comparison, when I think of the episode before, I don’t have this issue. While the way Yang fell isn’t RWBY’s best execution, the reactions of RWBY to that fall worked quite well. There was individual focus on Yang falling, Blake screaming and raging at it, Weiss’s heart breaking into two, Ruby falling into more despair - the tragedy works because of it. I don’t feel the same about the finale, RWB fall almost as if they’re passerby rather than the main characters.

Again, maybe this is just me, maybe I’ll change my mind later. Whatever.

I think Cinder is the one I’m most satisfied with. She seems in character, she acts a lot like she did in her confident state during Beacon, and I did get the impression Salem knows Cinder is lying to her. I admit that I did not expect this direction for Cinder, it seemed like the right spot to have her break free from Salem, but it’s too early for me to call where her arc is going to.

The only nitpick I have with Cinder is how she offed Arthur. I felt like it could have a little more focus? I get that his death is supposed to feel completely inconsequential, but I wish there was just a little bit more there. Again, only a nitpick.

Vine - I think my opinion on Vine’s death is quite unpopular. It felt too last minute, without enough setup. See, while killing Harriet here would have its own set of issues, she was well developed enough where you could actively feel for her, while also expecting a possible death. I can’t say the same about Vine; Vine is only a teensy bit more developed than Elm, which isn’t a lot. He’s making a huge sacrifice, but the lack of character makes him seem expendable by design. It feels like the writers put all their efforts into threatening Harriet’s life, realized last minute that actually they could a lot more with her character (good call), so they shoved in Vine in her place because they still needed a bomb sacrifice.

On the flip side, three of the Ace Ops surviving and proving once and for all they broke away from Ironwood too, with Harriet and Marrow still alive - that is good. I’m not sure what more they’re planning to do with their characters, but it’s preferable to far worse alternatives I can imagine. We’ll see.

Then there’s Penny. sigh

I’m not sure what I can add that P5, bell or cosmokyrin, and probably a few others haven’t already said, but I don’t think it was well written. The whole body-thing in “Creation”, sure, I can accept that was a difference of interpretation. This? This whole, let’s resurrect Penny, develop her immensely as a character, reaffirm her autonomy multiple times over, avoid multiple deaths, only to die like this?

I know the common comparison people make here is with V3, and I can see where people are coming from. After all, Pyrrha and Penny’s deaths were impactful and tragic there, and most people agree that was well written. What’s the difference here? Some differences in circumstance are worth visiting here.

Penny of the Beacon era, lovable character that she was already, was not the most developed character. At the end of the day, most of what we knew of Penny then was in relation to Ruby - we knew Ruby cared for her a lot, we knew why they bonded, so we had setup as to why her death would impact the Fall so much. It works, because it gave enough focus on her for us to care about, but not overly so where the shocking factor of the Fall wouldn’t work.

With Pyrrha, I think we all knew the signs were there at the end of the day. I’d argue that Pyrrha’s very conception as a character lead to her death, she was just slightly too perfect for us not to expect a tragedy to occur. Importantly, her major arc in V3 sets us up to her death - through her conversation with Ozpin’s gang and Jaune, the introduction of Ember and the soul transfer device, killing Penny - by the time Pyrrha dies you’re prepared for it, and it still hurts. Even if the tragic scenario presented (losing Pyrrha because of the soul transfer) wasn’t the one used, dying because she tried defending the use of those powers from Cinder made sense. It was enough of a switch you weren’t bored because you expected everything to go to plan, but it wasn’t too drastic where you felt completely unprepared for what would happen.

The trouble with how Penny’s death was handled here, is in part because they just kept pushing us to the edge, making us worry about one tragic scenario, another way for Penny to die, only to alleviate our fears - only to kill her off anyway in a completely separate way. It happened so often in these two volumes, when we were already fresh off recognizing Penny wasn’t dead in V3, that rather than feeling like an expected death that is tragic, is feels like they toyed with out perception constantly only because they could. When you raise and lower death flags over and over in such a small amount of time, the tragedy you aimed to convey is lost. Perhaps unintentionally, the point no longer seems to be telling a tragic story, it’s only playing this cruel game of perception with the audience. What’s the joke about Jean Grey in x-men, that she keeps being killed off and resurrected so often it’s hard to care about it all? Is this how I’m supposed to look at Penny, RWBY’s Jean Grey?

Granted, I’m not sure that if they committed to one consistent death threat with Penny and followed through, that necessarily would’ve been better. I’m not sure how I’d think of RWBY if she died from the virus, for example. At least, however, I’d be more confident in saying that was a difference of direction, rather than a difficult writing choice to comprehend.

It’s only fitting I’d talk about Winter now, huh? I think you all know my stance about her as a character, I’d argue that she, Ironwood and Cinder were the best handled characters in these two volumes by a fair margin, but the finale leaves me very conflicted about her.

On the one hand, it’s everything I want. Winter’s confrontation with Ironwood is like a mix of Blake facing off against Adam and Yang confronting Raven, and while not as impactful in terms of storytelling, they do deliver on the same fronts. Winter calls out Ironwood for his lies, establishing once and for all it was by her volition she broke off, her conscience that was always better, and there is something poetic about her gaining the Winter Maiden powers to fulfill her goal of protecting others.

...but I can’t separate this from Penny’s fate. And it frustrates me to no end, because I love her connection to Penny, I made comparisons of how it reminds of Bumbleby’s relationship, it drives their characters forward so much, heck, I like that Penny took a part in taking down Ironwood with Winter, in a sense. But because Penny’s death feels so contrived, its connection to Winter almost cheapens the importance of their relationship with each other. And it doesn’t seem quite needed either, since they individually as characters already broke free from Ironwood.

I can sort of see that I am supposed to interpret it as a tragedy, and I do indeed think Winter getting the Maiden powers is tragic for her character (not unlike Spring Maiden!Yang theories), and I am excited to see where this is going. I thought this was the end for Winter’s major impact on the story, but there’s a whole other arc waiting, and Penny’s a major part of it too.

To say I’m conflicted about Winter would be an understatement.

The actual silver lining, for me, is the post credit scene. Volume 9 is an opportunity for RWBY to try and change some of the problem I presented initially. My hope is that by focusing almost exclusively on team RWBY, with Jaune and Neo, and putting less emphasis on developing the settings of giant-tree-land and not over-complicating the plot. Hopefully, this would allow them to focus on developing the main cast again, in in particular addressing some of the main issues presented; notably, the Bees confessing, Ruby maybe reaching her breaking point, Yang’s issues being addressed, and hopefully something more individual for Blake and Weiss as well. Neo is an interesting curveball to throw into this equation, and I have a decent amount of hope with Jaune (although then I remember it’s probably going to be about Penny, and, ugh...).

Yeah, that’s all I have at the moment. If you want to talk about it, my inbox and DM’s are always open. If you disagree with me that’s fair, just give me the minimal amount of respect rather than being an ass about it.

[jamespotterthefirst]

Adore You (Ethan x F!MC)

Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Lilac Allende) Word count: 1,000+ Warning: Adult language Premise: Ask from @hatescapsicum​ : Can you please write a fic where Ethan "I'm a spoiled child" Ramsey mulls over the day's events and realizes how massively fucked he is and how utterly powerless he is in front of MC?

_____________________________

“For someone who's always talking about the way life works, sometimes you don't seem to get it.”

After the day he had, the last thing Ethan needed was to add insult to injury. Yet, his traitorous mind replayed her scathing words in a constant loop. 

If it had been anyone else, Ethan would have returned the insults tenfold, spectacularly ending his speech with a write-up or worse. The problem was that no one else at that hospital would have dared to set him right. 

“Oh, I'm sorry. Would you prefer ‘spoiled child?’ Or maybe ‘entitled jackass?’ Baz, June, and I are doing our best in a crappy situation. What exactly are you doing to help?”

No, the real problem was that, instead of nursing a bruised ego, Ethan found himself repressing an ever-growing admiration for her, paired with a swelling in his chest he refused to acknowledge. 

This power she held over him without even knowing or trying was maddening.

He was utterly fucked. 

Ethan stopped at the sliding doors of the diagnostics office. There she was, her back to him, her attention enraptured in a patient file. 

At the sound of his approach, Lilac shut the file and turned. “Sorry, Baz, I was on my way — ” Their eyes met and she paused. “Oh. I just came in here for the Solano file.” 

As he neared, he noticed the deep set crease in her brow and the carefully schooled smile she offered him, too weak to be authentic. 

“You're agonizing over something,” he observed. 

Lilac blinked, surprise etched on her beautiful features. A quick flush colored her cheeks. She was no doubt wondering how he could possibly know that with such certainty. 

Instead of asking him that, she gave a defeated sigh, shoulders deflating. “We saved Leland Bloom’s life today.” 

“That we did.” 

“Then why do I feel so fucking awful about it?”

“Ah, that,” he said wearily, running a hand down his face, the exhaustion of the day finally weighing on him.

There was a long pause as he considered his response. The shit storm that had been the Leland Bloom case was weighing heavily on him too.

“I won't lie to you and say that we should nullify our feelings of disgust and guilt because we saved someone,” he started at last. “But I can tell you, with absolute confidence, that the unfair advantage people like Leland Bloom have over others is not your fault.”

Lilac laughed humorlessly. “No, what is my fault is exploiting that advantage for the sake of monetary gain.”

“To help patients in desperate need of care,” he returned without missing a beat. His voice rose slightly impassioned. “Lilac, you were right. We might not always agree with the outcome but you were still right all along. Don't let the shitty state of our country's healthcare system or me acting like an ass convince you otherwise.”

Lilac looked wholly unconvinced. The way she gazed at him then, tormented and doubtful, was a far cry from the vehement, righteous Lilac who put him in his place. She had looked confident, beautiful in her fury, and more of an equal than a subordinate. 

He felt a stab of guilt for being the asshole who made her doubt herself. 

Ethan sighed. “Lilac, you’re better than this,” he said almost imploringly. His feet, of their own volition, carried him closer to her until only a feet or two separated them. 

 He offered her a small smile. “Just think of it as draining the rich of their money to give to those who need it.”

To his relief, she smiled at that. A playful arch of an eyebrow as she said, “Are you suggesting I think of myself as Robin Hood?" 

Ethan rolled his eyes, a smile of his own threatening to break over his face. “I'm not encouraging you to actually steal from them, Lilac. And if you are, don't tell me so I can have some deniability.”

“A doctor having deniability —” 

“If you make a Hamilton reference, I swear to God,” he interjected sternly though not unkindly.

That earned him genuine, delighted laughter that made his stomach feel weightless. He enjoyed the sound, feeling far too gratified that he was the one to make her laugh like that. 

They had moved closer to one another unintentionally, mere inches separating them now in the quiet office. 

When her laughter naturally subsided, she quietly studied his face, lovely green eyes finally fixing on his. Her teeth bit into her lower lip, a tell of her anxiousness. Ethan’s eyes focused on her lips and all coherent thought abandoned him. 

“Ethan, what I said, the other day at Leland's…” she started, the words spilling out in a rush. It was almost as if she wanted to say them before she ran out of courage. 

“When you called me a spoiled child?”

She grimaced at the memory. 

“And an entitled jackass,” she added.

“I recall.”

“I might've been too harsh.”

“You were harsh,” he allowed. “But I was being an unwarranted, unrestrained asshole all that morning. That's exactly what I deserved and probably more.”

It was definitely admiration and pride, that feeling stabbing through his chest. In a mere year, she had gone from an almost meek intern who wilted under his stern feedback to a self-assured, empowered doctor who could call him out without a moment’s hesitation. 

She said nothing, probably playing his jarring words from that morning in her own head.

 “I’m sorry for that,” he said quietly. “I was out of line with my remarks to you that day. You didn’t deserve that.” 

There was a short, stunned silence as both allowed the rare Ethan Ramsey apology sink in. 

Then, with a small smile, Lilac stepped even closer, completely closing the space between them. Her hand reached up to rest on the ridge of his jaw, thumb tracing the line of his cheekbone. The gesture, so intimate that it made his breath catch, was her way of accepting his apology. 

He allowed his eyes to close briefly against her touch. When he opened them again, he hoped she would not recognize the unconcealed love struck way in which he looked at her. 

It was the most contact they allowed each other to have. Lilac must have realized this at the same time as him because she gently dropped her hand and stepped back. 

A small silence. 

“So,” she said with a playful glint in her eyes. “You listened to Hamilton.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “What makes you so sure?”

“You got my reference,” she returned. “Way to keep up with the youth, old man.”

He almost laughed at her teasing. “You’re impossible.”

That laugh again, tantalizing and beautiful. He resisted the impulse of staring at her, awestruck as he was. 

He was utterly fucked. 

__________

Author’s Note: She was agonizing over you, Ethan. 

Also, all I can think about now is MC convincing Ethan to go see Hamilton live. They can go on his one dollar a year salary.

THANK you so much for reading. Truly! 

Masterlist

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Tags: @openheart12​ | @ethandaddyramsey​ | @noboundariesplease​ | @silverlitskies​ | @the-soot-sprite | @infinitiestones | @emotionalswift2 | @flyawayboo |  @paulfwesley | @hatescapsicum​| @myusualnerdyself​ | @thatysn​ | @choicesyouplayandmore​ | @chasingrobbie​ | @trappedinfandoms​

[utterlyinevitable]

and though love sometimes hurts, I still put you first - ordinary people by john legend for ethan and mc, thanks

thanks so much for the request!

Decisions 

Part 1

Word Count: 1.9k Warning: angst  Summary: This takes place somewhere after OH2 where Ethan and MC started dating. 

A/N: I wasn’t going to do a part two to Was It but after every comment was asking for one I couldn’t ignore y’all. 

not the best thing i’ve written but thankful to be coming out of my writers block.

________________________________________

Becca didn’t go to work for her next three shifts, taking personal time and swapping clinic hours with her roommates for next week. She just couldn’t bring herself to set foot into the hospital, not yet anyway. Instead, she sat in her room wallowing in her decision. 

It was the right thing to do, she convinced herself. 

There was so much heartbreak that came with loving Ethan Ramsey - too much heartbreak for one lifetime. Becca was deftly afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle the next blow - the next time her little slice of heaven was struck down to another circle of hell. 

Ethan Ramsey was a man that could never settle down. His career and ethics, along with everything he’s ever told her, made that perfectly clear. It was better for her to end this before he left her high and dry once again. What even would a life be with an emotionally unavailable attending? 

Her thoughts reeled, over and over again trying to find salvation in her decision. 

Was she really in love with Ethan or was it a continued stage of infatuation for Dr. Ramsey, her medical hero? When did their honeymoon stage end, and when was she left with this sinking feeling of no return in the pit of her stomach? 

Her mind replayed all of the moments where they had the privilege of just being Ethan and Becca - just people, not colleagues. All those sweet hours they spent as friends and lovers. All those wonderful moments that gave her a false sense of futuristic hope. 

They both had a lot of room for growth. Ethan had a decade longer to prepare himself - to focus on his career and get ready for love and the long term commitment that comes with it. But Becca’s still only 27. She has a bright career ahead of her - something Ethan has always been trying to protect. And although she’d never admit it, she was thankful for it. He gave her everything she could possibly need so she can achieve her dreams. What if they were both mistaken? What if, deep down, her dreams all led to a path with a family - a few little feet running around the grassy backyard by the bay she’d save up for. Something Ethan was adamant he could never settle down for, no matter how much he would like to want to. It was another reason to go. 

For her own sanity Becca needed to walk away.

She spent her whole life waiting for a love as great as Ethan. She never thought it was possible to be so completely obsessed and content in the arms of one person. How one person's presence could soothe all the current issues she’d be facing. She kept trying to convince herself she’d find a better match - someone with Ethan’s wit and intellect, his attractive features and banter. Someone who’s fingers fit just a bit better between her own and wanted the same dream as she. 

In those days she wanted to call him and take everything back. But this wasn’t a movie. There was no fairytale ending, against her better judgment she knew that. Becca was confused and didn’t know what to do - about her heart or about work. How was she meant to work closely every single day for the next few years with the man whose heart she just broke? 

God this hurts. 

Is love supposed to hurt this much? 

Ethan Ramsey was considered a god among doctors and aspiring medical professionals. His quick intellect and curt tendencies were admired much to his disapproval. The Ethan Ramsey did not believe in idolatry, especially among physicians. Ethan was just an ordinary person, sitting at his desk completely gobsmacked. 

The event from the other night is still very much ingrained in his brain. He’d played those last few days over and over again, dissecting every little detail for any sign of dissatisfaction. Maybe if he could pin-point the moment her mind changed he’d be able to salvage their relationship. He needed to salvage their relationship for his own sanity.  

They didn’t argue. They never really argued. Sure they had spats and quarrels but never over anything larger than life. They left as quickly as they started, with one of them admitting their wrong - usually Ethan. How was he meant to apologize if he didn’t know what he did to offend her so deeply? 

Ethan sat at his desk a few streets away from the woman of his dreams and so unsure of what to do. His gut feeling was to flee - to accept a position elsewhere and let her have Edenbrook. These days Edenbrook needed Dr. Lao more than him. He has done all he could and it’s her turn to shine. But Naveen, he couldn’t leave Naveen. And deep down he knew Edenbrook was his home, more so than any other physical location has ever been. Aside from Rebecca. Rebecca has always been home. 

What was Ethan supposed to do about their professional relationship now? He spent so long dreading the implications of having a relationship that he never thought to think about what would become if it had ended. 

With a heavy heart and a sigh, he pulled the small rectangular black box out of his desk drawer, turning it over in his hands. 

Where did I go wrong? 

He always has and always will put Dr. Rebecca Lao first. So where does that leave Ethan now?  

It was so quiet in the Diagnostics office between the still air and Ethan’s deprecating internal monologue that they didn’t notice one another. Becca gingerly entered the office, not noticing him sitting at the desk and Ethan still too transfixed by the box in his hand. 

As if on cue, their cheeks naturally began to flush with heat before lifting their heads to let their eyes meet. Dark surprised brown meeting with deeply conflicted blue. 

“I’m sorry,” they said in breathless unison. 

Becca quickly added, “I didn’t think you’d be here. It’s your day off.” She stood up taller, mustering up all the courage she had left, and let the glass door slip from her fingers and close behind her.   

Ethan tried to tear his eyes away from her but was frozen in place. He didn’t anticipate seeing her, not until he solved the case of her misery. Words fell off his tongue in an indifferent response, “A lot of work to do, I’ve been down a team member.” 

She stood there awkwardly, wringing her fingers. 

“Can I help you with anything?” he added when she didn’t advance.  

“I was just coming to grab the new case file. Hirata said it was on your desk.”  

He grabbed the lonely file from the edge of his desk and stood, carefully making his way over to her. Becca met him halfway, hesitantly. She held her hand out to snatch the hefty document but he pulled it up, using his height to keep it out of reach. 

“Can we talk?”  

“I don-”  

He cut her off, “What happened?” A bated pause. Becca bit her lip, anticipating his next words. They were the words she herself couldn’t fully comprehend. “Why did you leave?” 

“Ethan… don’t,” she warned, crossing her arms over her chest. The file now a distant memory. Ethan was within range she could feel the warmth radiating off of him even if he was three feet away. His gravitational pull was and will always be so strong.    

Ethan’s bloodshot eyes bore her down, “Tell me. You owe me an explanation.”  

Her eyes were fixated on the Hopkins Diploma on the wall behind him. “I told you,” she shrugged. “I can’t trust you not to break my heart - not again.” 

He took in the feisty woman before him. Her scrubs hung off her body and the ever-present purple bags under her eyes certainly matched his own. Her large brown eyes were showing the after effects of days of tears. Ethan reached out for her with his free hand. He hated seeing her like this. 

His hand ghosted her own. “Come back to me, Rookie,” he implored in the softest voice one would never have imagined came from the stern doctor. “We’ll make this work.” 

She let his hand linger before pulling hers back tightly close to her body. 

Becca watched as Ethan’s face fell. Any ounce of form he wanted to keep completely vanishing. Sadness coated his features and Ethan Ramsey never looked more human. It pained her to see him so vulnerable, though not enough to abandon her decision.  

“I’ve heard that one before…” Becca muttered.  

“I promise. I’ll do better.”  

With a long sigh of the air she did know she was holding in since he tried to take her hand she told him curtly, “I’ve given you so many chances, E. You keep pushing me away and I can’t keep crawling back.” Finally her eyes met with his once more. “I deserve better.” 

Without a moment's hesitation he agreed, “I know. You deserve so much more than me but…” He dropped the file to the floor with a thump and a scatter. His hands needed to be on her, to make her understand. But he couldn’t just grab her that would be wrong, he needed her permission. Instead he balled his fists as tightly as possible. “But you can’t help who you love.” 

There those words were again. That four letter word she had waited so long to hear but he’d never vocalized in the right of circumstances. “And, as I’ve learned, though love sometimes hurts, I still and will always put you first.” His feet carried him towards her on their own volition. Ethan made his decision then and there; if Becca couldn’t take him back then Edenbrook wasn’t big enough for the both of them. “You can shine brighter if I step down.” 

“Step down?” Becca’s jaw dropped. “What’re you talking about?”  

A sad, ghostly smirk appeared on his supple lips, “It’s going to take some time to get over you. I’ll consult somewhere else for a while.” 

There he was, leaving again. His selfish selflessness would be the death of her. But this time she didn't feel sad or abandoned, Becca felt empowered. She knew.  

“Stay,” she told him. “We can work together.” 

He wanted to ask her to clarify, but she continued on. 

“What’s that?” she looked over him to the black box sitting on his desk. 

“It’s nothing.”  

Becca raised an eyebrow, “Doesn’t look like nothing.” 

Ethan had no idea which way to go - if he withheld he just might always regret never asking her, if he told her he didn’t think he’d be able to handle the rejection of a second chance. 

He didn’t get the chance to ask. In true Becca fashion she went ahead and opened the box anyway. Her fingers brushed over the silver, trying to accept if this was a fantasy she conjured in a sleep-deprived state or the reality she had been manifesting for months. In fact it was a declaration straight from heaven - her chest rose and fell at a rapid pace, anxiety setting in. She made a terrible miscalculation. 

“Is this…?” 

He nodded. 

“We both made mistakes.” He crossed the distance between them, their bodies only inches from one another and Becca’s back pressed into his desk. “I love you. More than scientifically possible.” he declared and a crack of smile broke through their hesitant expressions. Ethan removed the small bit of shiny silver out of it’s makeshift container still held tightly in her hands, holding it delicately between his fingers Ethan asked, 

“Move in with me?”  

Becca’s eyes glowed, every doubt she ever had seemingly vanished all over again. 

“Yes.”

________________________________________

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A/N: if it’s not obvious the silver is a key not a ring 👀

[jamiedc-they-them]

Sibling Duty Part 2.5 (Platonic)

Requested Imagine - “I know you're vibing with your Sibling Duty series but I've imprinted on Bobbi acting like a mother hen/big sister and would adore some more of that with the reader? Not sure when to set it besides before they left the show though, only if you're up to it, of course! Love your work a lot!”

AN/ Hope it’s ok that I made it tie into the series :) I apologise if it wasn’t what you wanted. But I hope you like it!

To be honest, maybe running away with no plan wasn’t the best plan. In fact, the issue was that there was no plan at all. You just ran as far as you could. You had let your sister down; you had let anyone down. You had burnt yourself up trying to save her and everyone.

As bittered as you were by the sadly sobering fact that you couldn’t do that, you also realised that you weren’t fully burnt out.

You were still here. That candle wasn’t fully burnt out yet.

The truth about not being able to save everyone was a hard pill to swallow. But drinking alcohol? That was piss easy, just sip, and swallow the devil’s drink that seemed to soothe your darkened soul.

You knew that you could easily solve the issue of the candle not fully being out yet, all you needed was a blade from your ability then you were done.

Yet, something was keeping you here. Threw the drunken nights, you would remember it; those words from your sister….which one, you couldn’t remember fully. But that didn’t matter, you remembered the words.

“You’re not expendable, Y/N. No one is, ever. No one has a life you can just throw away.” You drank from your bottle again, trying to go into a peaceful slumber once again.

To forget the lies those words held.

You had no idea where you sister was, you just hoped far away from what you were doing.

You weren’t dead, you weren’t SHIELD; but you weren’t fully done yet with the whole stopping evil thing. Although, now it was stopping evil by evil. You weren’t legally allowed to chase the Watchdogs and kill them.

Did that stop you though? Of course, it didn’t.

If you were going to go down as a drunk, you might as well doing something not completely shitty.

However, as you laid down, a knock at the door got your attention. You sat up, cautiously, grabbing the pistol that lay by your pillow at night. You cocked it as you picked it up.

You put your hand to the door, taking a tense breath, before opening it and putting the pistol to the chin of the newcomer without a second thought.

The sight of who it was, however, made you stop.

Bobbi-fucking-Morse was the woman whose chin was currently being pressed against with your pistol.

Your eyes widened, freezing for a second as you looked at your old friend that had sacrificed but her life for SHIELD. She was gone, pronounced….something, you forgot. You had forgot, or rather tried to forget all the details in the binge.

No thoughts of those you cared for, maybe it’d make it easier for you to disappear too from theirs when you were gone.

You immediately pulled the pistol back, trying to pretty much dive back into your van and – well, you didn’t really have a plan after that. The main one being to just get away and start again.

“I’ve already punctured your tire, Y/nn. You can’t get far.” She said. You sighed, of course she’d thought of that.

Continuing that sigh, you faced her, putting a confused smile on your face, “What the hell are you doing here Bobbi? Why did you find me? Why did you find me? – Wait, is Daisy ok?” You started off easy with the questions but became panicked near the end.

Bobbi smiled, shaking her head, “Got a tip that you might be I came here to see you; And I have no idea, sorry, kiddo.” She said, listing the answers to your questions.

You nodded, “Wait….who gave you the tip?” To that, Bobbi held out a coin.

“Flip it, I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong.” She simply said.

You took the coin, doing just that. It landed on the heads, “Coulson?” You asked. Bobbi nodded her head.

Your gaze then turned more suspicious, “How the hell did Coulson get a hold of you and know what I was doing?”

She cocked her head to the side, “You really think that Phil Coulson, of all people will just give up on you or Daisy? Or anyone on that team? He sent me because if he went, it’d look suspicious. So, he sent someone whose off the grid.”

“But….you’re happy with Hunter, aren’t you?” You questioned, worried that you would be the cause of the death of a metaphorical thing this time.

“We are,” She assured, seemingly noticing your bubbling anxiety over it, “We agreed I should be the one to come see you, though. Both agreed I’d be better at handling this.”

“You mean the broken sister? Trust me, Bobbi, you don’t need to sugar-coat it.” Normally, that would be in a joking manner, but this time it was played completely straight.

Bobbi got into the passenger seat when you moved to the drivers side, “I’m not here to do that, I’m here to help you.” She sat in the seat, looking over at you as you only stared out the window.

You scoffed, “With what?”

“With this whole Watchdog thing. Your not as careful as you might think you are, Y/N. Noise is still noise.” She told you.

“You really aren’t going to leave, are you?” You asked.

“Y/N, Coulson may have asked me to come here, but I did of my own volition.” She softened her voice as she said that part.

You met her eyes, seeing nothing but warmth, love, and honest in them. She held you look with those emotions, only awaiting your reaction.

You bit your lip, bit it hard as you knew that she wouldn’t leave you. You knew she had too much of an instinct when it came to you younger folk.

“Here,” She said, handing you a button “It’s a beacon, just press it and I’ll come to you. Just in case we get split up.”

“Fine.” You said, turning on the engine and taking the beacon.

You did your best to ignore the grin she held as you did so.

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As said before, Bobbi seemed to have an instinct when it came to you guys (you, Simmons, Daisy and Fitz) she just had a way to know when something was wrong and whatnot. Granted, you had that as well, but Bobbi had more experience with it.

When you first met her, a part of you may have felt a bit threatened at the idea of her taking over the elder sisterly role. Despite Daisy’s assurances, it was Bobbi that had calmed your nerves.

“I’m not replacing you, Y/N. You were first, I’m just here as a kind of backup, to lighten the load a little. Make sure you take care of yourself, too.”

 That load now seemed to be your own shit, not someone else’s. That, in Bobbi’s book, was a vague step in the direction known as, “good”.

Even if it meant driving to a local hangout of Watchdog members. You knew that they were going to be having a big meeting later, you just had to find out where.

So, Bobbi just looked out the window as you drove, it was a nice place you had chosen to bunker down it; remote but completely isolated from life. However, the Watchdogs had chosen it too for those same reasons.

 Now, she didn’t really know this area, but you obviously did. That was shown by the way you got you both to where you apparently needed to go in pretty much no time at all.

“Here, this is where some of the sons of bitches are.” You told her as you cut the ignition and leant back in your seat as you looked at the place, a simple warehouse. Granted, it was simple on the outside, but on in the inside was people you were anything but good.

“Alright, let’s take this slow,” You rolled your eyes, “I mean it, Y/N. We go in through the back, get some sort of surprise one them.”

You debated it, knowing who you’d normally do it, a quick run and gun. But, thinking about it, you knew she had something in that plan.

“What if they’re gone by the time we get in?” You questioned.

“Well, better to miss and track them, then go in the front and they be the only ones to come out.” She fired back at you.

“Fair.”

 You both went around the back, the van parked at the front to cut them off. You entered, crouching, and using the crates that were in there as cover as they had their meeting. God it was disgusting, about how Inhumans needed to be taken out.

You looked at Bobbi, the woman hidden a little ways away from you. She met your eyes; and, despite being the one who brought you around the back, from here she seemed to be open to whatever way you wanted to handle it.

You knew that they had been after Daisy for a while now, that she had been disrupting them, just like you. It wasn’t exactly a connection or similarity you had wanted with your sister. In an attempt to fix what you had broken by protecting her, it seemed she had only gone out of her way to make it worse for herself.

You sighed, knowing that you had failed even more in your role as the elder sister.

You looked over, seeing the dogs as they spoke, “So, we meet up with the others later, talk about Quake? Or the other one?” One of them asked.

Before they could even get an answer, a gunshot went off, his blood hitting his mask, but part of it spraying through the holes in it. You continued to fire your weapon, Bobbi moved from behind the crate, shooting one in the leg as you went for the kill shots.

They were all gone, all except for one. One who crawled on the floor was he went for his gun.

“That was reckless.” You forgot that about your friend, she was blunt when it came to you all and you scared her, or she was worried.

“I was not.” You defended.

“You went in without a plan.”

“You looked to me for one, look how that went.”

“We have one –” You both stopped when you – out of the corner of your eyes – saw him bring out a pistol and you both fired at him in sync, “—Had one to find out this meeting place from. We find that, we find them, and we stop them. They’re after Inhuman’s –”

“They’re after Daisy.” You said, firmly, bringing it back to your main reason of being after them. You knew what you did before wasn’t right, and it had caused a strain, but doing this could maybe help a little. It wasn’t what you were doing before, so you were aware of the damage you had caused. Besides, this time too you were well away from her, helping her with everything that was happening from afar by doing a little, not as much as you did last time.

Besides, they were after other people too, your sister just happened to be atop of the list. You didn’t know where you were on it, you didn’t care to be honest. You just cared those others that were on it didn’t die.

“They’re after Daisy, and others. We’ll find the fucking meeting place, this place isn’t exactly big, Bobbi.” You snapped, rooting around in a guy’s pocket for something, only to come up blank.

When you turned to announce it to Bobbi, you saw her holding up a broken phone with a cracked, but still readable screen. On it, was a text message.

“It’s coordinates, to a place not far from here. That’s probably the meeting place.” She told you.

You breathed a sigh of secret relief at the fact you had found it. That you had this moment of victory.

That soon changed to worry, at least in Bobbi’s parts as she held out a phone to show you what else was on it.

A name that you had  hoped she would’ve missed.

Your own.

“Y/N….why the hell didn’t you tell me?” She asked, voice holding a slight bit of both worry and betrayal to it.

She then continued to scroll, finding something that made her eyes widen, “They’re planning a big attack on an Inhuman safe house.”

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Bobbi had been angry; she had been loving and caring. It all seemed to meld into one when it came to the four of you. However, this time, you were focus of that.

“When were you going to tell me?” Was what she had moved onto now as you both drove back to where you had started, there was shop nearby for you to get supplies from. It wasn’t exactly a ‘shop’ but more of a black-market kind of place.

Either way, it was the only place to get what you needed to take the bastards down.

“I wasn’t.” You were blunt, deciding to not beat around the bush and try and lie, seemed you both were just as bad as each other when it came to trying to lie to your loved ones.

“Why not?” She was being confrontational now. To be honest, so was your response.

“I never asked for you to come here, Bobbi. I never asked for you to help me. If you hadn’t, I’d have already gotten the information out of the guy by now and be on my way there.” It was harsh, and you saw the hurt that she was hiding behind her eyes.

“I’m not going to leave you, not like this –”

“God, you’re just like them.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” She asked.

“No, it’s worse. I don’t need this whole older sister talk, Bobbi. Worse comes to worse, I don’t make it out of there and stop them,” She hated that you shrugged, “I’ll just be a name on a list. They’ll get over it. Besides, if anyone needs this talk, it’ll be Daisy.”

 You had parked up and left for the shop, this time Bobbi hadn’t stopped you. You both seemed to know that you needed a small break, as much as you were a younger sibling to her, she knew when to hold back a little.

It as an alleyway, one that changed every time, but still an alleyway none the less. You walked down the newest pick, finding your guy at the end of it with a van that he then opened. He had made a name for himself as a reliable weapons vender, he had quickly become one of your favourites.

“There she is.” He said, smiling at your approaching figure, “What’ll it be today.”

“Heavier shit than usual.” He nodded, but looked a tad impressed.

“Finally giving what’s what to them, huh?” He asked as hr brought out an assault rifle.

You chuckled as you took it, putting it in your bag, “Exactly, they’re planning something, so I’ve got to at least try and stop it.”

“Good luck to you sweetheart. But…be careful? Can’t have me losing my most loyal customer.” He laughed, but you could tell the words were sincere.

Either way, it didn’t sit right with you. You felt off at it, but knew he was mostly harmless (Despite the massive amount of weapons behind him).

 You took the bag, swinging it over your shoulder and making your way back to the van. Just as you reached it, it erupted in a fireball. The blast knocked you back but didn’t drop the bag. In fact, it only made your fall more uncomfortable.

“Bobbi!” You cried out, remembering that she was in there. A black van appeared, parking with a skid as Watchdog members pilled out, firing at you as soon as their feet touched the floor. You pulled out one weapon, firing all the rounds to cover your escape. When you ran out, you grabbed a another, doing the same thing.

“Bobbi!” You called to the van you used to call home, but (obviously) didn’t get a response. Your power started to take hold and you felt it. More than that, you let it. You knew that this was most likely it, why not go own swinging?

Your power fully took control, darkness becoming you as you let it rip. Cars were flung and people thrown up only then to come back down.

Your power was darkness, you had plenty of that within you.

As it died, however, you felt a pain in your body. You looked down, seeing a blood stain on you that only grew more and more.

Your power made you almost unstoppable in terms of offense, not defence. Daisy’s power could do both, yours could only do one.

As you fell, you heard someone calling out your name. Hands then pressed against your wound. As you opened your eyes, you saw it to Bobbi.

“Hey, Y/N, stay with me. Stay with me. Come on. Comme on, kiddo, breath.” She begged you. You did your best to give her what she wanted, but you were fading.

You made your peace with the fact that this was it, that you would die here at your lowest point.

You let the dark take you, only this time in a different meaning of the term.

 What surprised you, however, was that you woke up. You woke up and felt something where your wound once was. It was a bandage, one that had been put tightly onto said wound.

You tried to move, but footsteps immediately started to come towards you. A bottle of water was placed down in front of you, “Don’t rip your stiches. I worked hard on them.” Bobbi admonished, slapping your prying hands away from you body that was previously losing blood.

“You brought me here.” You immediately felt stupid for saying it like that.

“Of course, I did. I told you, people still need you. Plus, you’re my friend, I’m not just gonna leave you to bleed out.”

You sighed, putting your head against the wall, “Thank you.” You were quieter, but she still heard the words. It wasn’t like there was much else to hear, besides cars passing.

“You’re welcome.” She meant the words; she took a sip of her own water.

She then held up the button you hit, “Turns out it was useful after all huh?” She said in a, ‘I told you so’ kind of way. You smiled a little at her words.

“Turns out it did.” You agreed.

“They’ll be doing that attack, soon.” You said, slowly trying to stand. Bobbi made her way over to help with that, getting you to a table where she had laid a map, “We need to get to them before that happens.”

“Which way in, though? It’s a barn, so there’s a few.” She said, pointing to those entrances you could take.

“Not the front door, that’s for one.” She looked at you with a smile, glad that you were putting that off the table.

“There.” You said, pointing to one.

“Ready to go save some Inhumans and kick some ass?” You asked your older sister.

“You know it.” She answered, bright smile not leaving her face for a moment longer.

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Together, you entered the barn through the back, this time both on the same page with the plan. As you both crouched through it, you listened to them once again talk about it. This time, though, the big guy was there, the leader of this op was there.

You looked to Bobbi, seeing she had noticed the same thing. She thought about it, before shaking her head, knowing that it wouldn’t work in your favour. Still, she didn’t seem against trying to bring him down.  

You both then fired at the same time, bringing the Watch Dogs down. They fell, others trying to escape. For once, their bravado and confidence had died, instead replaced with fear.

Seemed the Inhuman hater’s had flaws. They weren’t as big as the thought. Some tried to fight back, but you used cover instead of tried to get the shot off first. The shots hit the crate. Bobbi, seeing the Watchdog member shooting at you, she turned her pistol to him and took him down.

You shared a nod together, before something caught your eyes, “He’s getting away!” Bobbi called out, pointing to the leader escaping.

You knew you might be able to catch him, but you then saw the other Watchdog truck’s pull up. You looked to the leader and back to the truck. Old you would’ve gone for the man no mater what. However, you knew that you would be cut down if you tried.

“Hold them back!” You yelled to your sister. She looked and nodded, the two of you shooting at the new batch of Watchdog members.

However, another car pulled up. This one had the logo of the place you were tyring to run from big and centre on it. The SHIELD logo.

It was a group of SHIELD agents, all getting out to help you not be so outnumbered.

You fired, hitting one Watchdog member, before the SHIELD agent fired at the last one.

Finally, it was other. The plans of the Watchdogs was thwarted, at least for a moment. It was a start.

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The agents were getting ready to take you back, to take you home. As you got ready, Bobbi approached you, “So, end of the line.” She told you, the two of you sharing a timid smile.

“Yeah….That button wasn’t just for you, was it?” You asked her.

She tried to keep a straight face, before she smiled, “Told you some people need you.”

You smiled, sneaky bitch.

“Thank you.” Oh, you must’ve said that out loud.

“Yeah, that too.” She laughed, “I’m gonna miss you, Y/N. This was kind of fun.”

“In a fucked-up way.” She nodded, “Thank you….for taking some of that load off of me.”

“Of course, we’re family. It’s what we do.”

You smiled, hugging your older sister. She returned it, chuckling before pulling away, “Time to go home.” She told you.

“Yeah.” You agreed, going to the open door in the SUV. As you got ready to enter, you looked back at Bobbi. She gave you a smile and a nod, on your returned.

You had a long way to go, but this was a start.