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sesamestreet47 · 2 years

Text

Bouquets

Camilo Madrigal x fem!reader

platonic!Isabela Madrigal x fem!reader

she/her for the reader & he/him for Camilo & she/her for Isabela

fluff with a little bit of angst

word count: 5522

!english isn’t my first language, so there can be some grammar mistakes that I am sorry for in advance!

MASTERLIST

@sesamestreet47

“Isa, I need flowers,”

Isabela jumped startled. She snapped her head towards the sudden voice but quickly calmed down once she noticed to whom it belonged. She faced her friend. “Oh, hi Y/N.” Isabela smiled at her and Y/N returned the gesture. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes though.

“Hi. I need flowers,” she repeated.

If it was any other person, Isabela would get offended by the impatience. But it was Y/N. The girl that rarely showed any emotions with a face always adorned with a stoic expression. Isabela stared at her friend. The fidgeting with her feet and pulling on the hem of her skirt didn’t go unnoticed by the oldest Madrigal kid. She might not identify as Señorita Perfecta anymore, but she still had the ability to point out even the slightest changes in one’s behavior. That girl was nervous.

“You need flowers? What kind?” Isa asked, the corner of her mouth lifting a bit. She crossed her arms as Y/N pondered over her answer. Isabela decided to help her a bit. She opened her arms before the teen and soon all kinds of flowers grew from her palms. Orchids, daisies, tulips, poppies.

“No, not these,” Y/N said after examining the plants. She tapped her chin a few times, before looking back at the young woman. “Roses.”

“Roses?” Isa exclaimed. Her smile grew wider. She shook off the remaining petals and soon she was holding a beautiful bouquet of red roses. Y/N looked at each rose but shook her head unsatisfied.

“No,” she stated. “not this color.”

“Then what color do you need?” Isa sighed. She pinched the bridge of her nose feeling the annoyance growing inside of her. She should’ve known better that it was going to go that way. No interaction with Y/N was ever a “straight to the point” one.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember what this type of roses is called,” Y/N shrugged, completely ignoring Isa’s annoyed state. “I think it was something like Jac… Jacquin?”

“Oh, you mean General Jacqueminots!” Isa exclaimed. “Hold on.”

The annoyance quickly disappeared as Isa took the red roses. She gently touched each of the flowers and soon their petals brightened a bit. The roses were now dark pink.

“There you go, amiga,” the woman said with a slight bow. She handed Y/N the bouquet. The girl took it and brought it up to her nose. The sweet smell filling her nostrils. She felt her cheeks warm up and she knew they matched the color of the roses she was holding. Gorgeous flowers, but it’s not like she expected anything less from the gifted girl.

“So,” Isa wondered, elbowing her friend. “who’s the lucky person?”

Y/N came back to reality. Her stoic expression reappearing as she looked at Isabela.

“Someone very special. Adiós Isa,” she stated and kissed Isa’s cheek as a goodbye. She rushed past the girl avoiding further investigation.

Isa stared at her figure. “I might have an idea who that special someone is,” she sang to herself.

“Señorita Isabela, could you make us some flower crowns?” a group of kids run up to her tugging on her dress. She looked at them, a few daisies blossoming from her palms. “Of course niños,”

—

Later that day, once Isabela finished all her chores, she spared no time in getting back to her house. She sprinted to Casita with a speed that put Antonio’s jaguar’s to shame. The house waved its roof tiles at her, but she was too excited to notice the greeting. She stopped in the middle of the house looking around. She panted out of breath, but was smiling nevertheless.

“Hola, Cariña. What’s gotten into you?”

Isabela turned her head and saw her father coming out of the kitchen. Augustín chuckled lightly seeing his oldest daughter in such an unruly state. It’s been some time since Isa stopped caring about perfection, but the messy hair and smudged eyeshadow, that sweat from running so fast melted, was a sight Augustín still found bizarre. He loved this new side of her though.

“Hola papi,” Isa breathed out. “Just looking for everyone else.”

Her father hummed and pointed at the first floor. “They should be up in the nursery. Do your mother a favor and tell them dinner is almost ready,”

“Thanks papá!” Isa shouted already on the stairs.

Without knocking, she practically stormed into the room making everyone’s heads snap towards her. She counted five heads. Just like her dad said, everyone was here. Spending time in Mirabel’s room became a frequent thing among the younger generation. They decided to catch up on all these years and bonding in the smallest yet coziest room in the house was the perfect way to do that.

“What’s up with you?” Mirabel asked with a raised brow. That huge grin on Isa’s face could either mean something really good or really bad. No inbetween.

“Oh, nothing.” Isa waved her sister off. Isabela picked up Antonio and sat in his place putting the smallest Madrigal on her lap. These two weirdly became really close, so affection was a frequent thing among them. Antonio paid no mind to Isa, he just cuddled to her side like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“What are we talking about?” she asked, trying to sound casual. The rest of the kids looked at one another before shrugging it off.

“Just wondering when Mariano will propose,” Luisa explained. “Again.”

“Yeah, he already asked Dolores four times,” Camilo chuckled. Isa looked at her prima amused. Dolores smacked her lips. “I keep telling him it’s too early, but he just doesn’t get it,”

“I’ll bet he’ll have asked you again by the end of the week,” Mirabel said.

“Pfft, more like by tomorrow,” the shapeshifter scoffed.

Dolores put a finger to her lips making everyone shut their mouth and stare at the girl. She put a hand to her ear listening intensely. After a moment the girl sighed. “Camilo won,”

The said teen smiled smugly at his youngest cousin, who in return stuck her tounge out. Isabela coughed into her palm.

“So,” she tapped her fingers. “while we’re on the topic of love and couples and stuff…”

“What are you up to?” Luisa asked her.

“Nothing!” she said trying to sound offended, but the smile she couldn’t contain betrayed her. “I just had an interesting interaction with certain someone earlier today and I was wondering if any of you happened to receive some flowers? Per se… My dear primo over here?”

Everyone turned to look at Camilo who himself had a shocked expression on his face. “Wha-what are you talking about? I’ve no flowers,” he said, cheeks and nose pink. Once again, five pair of eyes looked at Isa. It started to look like a pendulum. Her expression fell slightly.

He’s just embarrassed and doesn’t want to confess. Isabela reassured herself.

Of course the flowers were for him. She couldn’t possibly think of anyone else. Y/N and Camilo were close. Closer than regular friends would be. Only around him did her stoic façade disappear. Her eyes would become more lively, her body language more relaxed and at ease. Her lips always curved into a small but genuine smile whenever he was around. It seemed that for Camilo that smiled reached her eyes, only for him. Isa rooted for the pair and she got the whole family to do so as well. Ever since Dolores heard Camilo say something that made Y/N laugh (thing that Isa deemed impossible) the flower growing girl knew her little friend had it bad for her primo. Isabela was a hopeless romantic. She loved seeing people in love, especially when they were people she was close with. Seeing Dolores so in love with Mariano was probably the start of her little love is in the air phase. Was it even a phase? Maybe the two lovebirds that was her prima and ex fiance had just awakened something in her that was always there. Just hidden deep. That’s why when she noticed the red cheeks and lovesick glances between Y/N and Camilo, she started growing daisies and pulling on their petals muttering to herself he loves her…he loves her not…she loves him…she loves him not, hopeful these two would finally get together. Her brain just couldn’t accept the fact any of them could have feelings for someone else.

“Okay, then…” she trailed off squinting her eyes suspiciously. “Oh, dinner is ready by the way.”

Isa stood up abruptly making Antonio yelp in surprise and fall onto the bed. Mirabel looked at her cousins and Luisa with a confused face. Everyone else just shrugged not knowing what was that about as well. They followed Isabela out of the room.

—

“Ay, Camilo!” Pepa groaned at her oldest son.

He just slid onto a chair next to Isa, the one his mom wanted to sit on. Camilo just smiled sheepishly at his mother knowing she can’t get mad at him for too long. The woman rolled her eyes and sat on the chair next to him. The few small clouds that formed themselves above her head, fading away as her brother Bruno started telling her a story. Isa observed that scene with a confused look and mouth full of empanadas. She turned her attention back to her plate, but not for too long.

“Isa,” Camilo hissed. “What the hell was that in the nursery? With whom did you have an interesting interaction? What flowers?”

“It’s okay, primo. No need to be embarrassed.” she winked at him. Camilo cleared his throat.

“No, I don’t think you understand. I have no clue what you’re talking about. No one gave me flowers!” he said slightly annoyed. And slightly too loud. Everyone looked at the pair with puzzled looks on their faces. Camilo laughed awkwardly and Isa smiled nervously. The family hesitantly went back to their meals or conversing with the relative next to them. Isabela put down her empanada in disbelief. Did he really not get the roses? Then who did? Isa was so sure the bouquet was meant for her primo, it would never occur to her that she could've been wrong. Was there really someone else? But who?

“Are you sure? Like absolutely sure? ” she asked hoping that he was just messing with her. Knowing Camilo, he probably was. But her hopes were quickly destroyed as Camilo nodded.

Oh, no.

“So you didn’t get the General Jacqueminots? The dark pink roses?” she whispered looking ahead. Like she wasn’t asking but making the situation clear.

“No, what even are those?”

“Beautiful flowers, the meaning of mellow love,” she whispered, her gaze spaced out. Camilo blinked a few times leaning against the chair’s backrest. “And… Who asked you for those?” he asked, biting his lip in worry. He was afraid he already knew the answer to that.

“Y/N did,”

He lost his appetite.

—

It turned out that the situation with flowers wasn’t a one time thing. Y/N didn’t leave Isa alone for the next week or so. Every morning she would find her on the plaza, tap her shoulder making Isabela jump, ask for flowers and flee before Isa could question her. Same place, same time, same conversation. The only thing that differed was the kind of the plants. Y/N never asked for the same type twice. Each day Isa was tasked to grow a new bouquet. After the General Jacqueminots, she asked for Wild Pansies. Then Isa created a bouquet of Cornflowers. Next were Peach Blossoms. She also gave Y/N some Ivy Geraniums, Cedars and Gorses.

And when kids would ask her for flower crowns, she’d respond with “I wish, but I’m in a hurry niños,”. After daily interaction with Y/N, Isa would run back to Casita. She herself had no idea where that speed was coming from. Once home, she’d knock on the shapeshifter’s door and without waiting for an invitation she’d storm into his room. Camio realized she knocked to announce herself rather than ask for permission to come in.

“Jeez, Isa!” he shouted the first time she did that, visibly startled at the sudden appearance of his oldest cousin.

“She ordered Wild Pansies!” Isa breathed out ignoring Camilo’s annoyed expression. The boy covered his face with his arms groaning.

“And why are you telling me this?” he ran his hands through his locks.

“Oh, please.” Isa crossed her arms. “It's clear as day that you like her.”

Camilo pressed his lips together. “Not true,” he lied. Isa squinted her eyes and Camilo did the same. Their staring contest didn’t last long as Isabela’s sharp glare eventually made Camilo lose as he shifted into Y/N then himself, then back to Y/N and back to himself out of nervousness. Isabela grinned in victory.

“Okay, fine,” Camilo muttered. “but it doesn’t matter. She clearly likes someone else.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m telling you what flowers she asked for,” Isa explained, but rolled her eyes when Camilo looked at her puzzled. “We’re gonna figure out who that is.”

The shapeshifter’s eyes widened in realization. He reached for a piece of paper and took out a pen. “What flowers did you say she got?”

Everyday Camilo would add a new flower, or a clue as Isa called them, to his list. Isabela then would tell him what each plant meant.

General Jacqueminots - mellow love

Wild Pansies - think of me

Cornflowers - hope in love

Peach Blossoms - this heart is thine

Ivy Geraniums - your hand for the next dance

Cedars - I live for thee

Gorses - endearing affection

Every night Camilo would stare at the piece of paper before falling asleep. His mind was clouded with only one question that repeated itself on and on like a broken record. Who was this mysterious person that his Y/N, his luz de sol, fell for? Did he know them? Has he ever shapeshifted into them? Should he shapeshift into them? Maybe that’s how he could get her to- no. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

The longer Y/N’s request for flowers went on, the more Camilo became agitated and confused. He couldn’t stop pacing around his room waiting for Isa to come back from the plaza.

The next two bouquets Isabela grew, might’ve been her least favorite she ever created. Y/N asked for Moss Rosebuds and when she received them, she basically skipped across the plaza. Isa looked at her happy state. It was probably the first time seeing someone so content made her so sad. And if it wasn’t already bad enough, Y/N came back to the plaza moments later. Isa was surprised, she had yet to ask for two bouquets in one day. Isa felt the anxiety building in her stomach when Y/N told her she needed another batch of flowers. But that anxiety almost turned to tears as the name of the plants came out of Y/N’s mouth - Ambrosias.

This time Isabela didn’t run to Casita. She barely even walked there, it was really more trudging. She walked into her primo’s room with her head down. Camilo sat up on his bed alarmed knowing that didn’t make Isa a bearer of good news. Rather the exact opposite.

“Moss Rosebuds - confession of love,” she choked out. Camilo bit his lip preventing himself from tearing up and reached for the note as he didn’t expect Isa to continue. “and Ambrosias-”

“She got two bouquets?” he exclaimed genuinely surprised. Isa nodded with pressed lips.

“Ambrosias mean love returned,” she managed to say. “I’m sorry.”

Camilo didn’t come down for dinner that night.

—

“Isa,” Y/N tapped the girl’s shoulder. “I need new flowers.”

Isa not only jumped, but also screamed. A bunch of colorful daisies popped out on her head.

“Y/N! How did you find me?”

That morning Isa didn’t go to the plaza as usual. She decided to relax in her makeshift garden. She promised herself that she’ll grow something herself, without the use of her powers. So far it was going splendidly. She watered the garden herself, without asking Tía Pepa for help. She carried the bags with fertilizer herself, without the help of her sister Luisa. And she took care of bugs and pests herself, without asking Antonio to talk to them. Most of the seeds she planted have already started to sprout. It was hard work, but so rewarding. Mostly because she was doing it for herself. No one - except Antonio and probably Dolores - knew about this garden that has become Isa’s happy place. That’s why seeing Y/N here, looking so casually, got her incredibly confused.

“Antonio said his hummingbird saw you here, so I came,” she explained. “I have another flower request.”

“No.” Isa crossed her arms and looked down at the girl with a stern look. Y/N’s eyes widened slightly. She pressed her lips into a thin line. “What do you mean no?”

“I mean, no, I won’t grow any flowers for you,”

“Why not?”

“Because you won’t even tell me who they’re for.” she pointed her watering can at her accusingly.

Y/N rolled her eyes and looked down. Her fingers found a loose thread on her skirt. Isa shrugged and turned her back to the girl, attention back on her garden.

“I can’t tell you,” Y/N said after a moment of silence.

“Then I won’t give you any flowers,”

Y/N sighed loudly, making Isa scoff. “Okay, fine. I’ll find some Foxgloves myself,” the girl muttered, turning on her heel.

Foxgloves?

Isa felt gears turn in her brain. Foxgloves, foxgloves, foxgloves. She definitely knew the meaning of these particular flowers. Foxgloves, foxgloves, foxgloves. It was a different request, something was off, but what? Foxgloves. Foxgloves! Isa’s eyes widened in realization. Foxgloves meant insincerity!

“Wait!”

Y/N stopped in her tracks turning her head slightly, but still not facing the Madrigal girl.

“I’ll grow Foxgloves for you,”

Y/N blinked at that and then smiled lightly. Once again, the smile did not reach her eyes.

—

Another week of Y/N asking Isa for flowers went by, but this time Isa was more than eager to give her friend requested bouquets. There were times when it was Isabela who would look for Y/N, she just couldn’t wait to hear what plants she had in mind. It was ironic really. Isa was squealing with excitement when Y/N would ask her for flowers like Burdocks, purple Hyacinths and Primroses. Her smile couldn’t get wider when flowers like Lavenders, yellow Lilies, Mourning Brides and Peonies blossomed from her palms. After each new bouquet, Isa would kiss Y/N on the cheek, say her goodbyes and run off. Funny how the tables have turned, with Y/N now being left puzzled in the middle of the plaza and Isabela running before being questioned.

“Write it down, write it down!” she would shake Camilo’s shoulders, unable to contain her excitement. The boy would just swat her hands off, fix his ruana and roll his eyes.

“Dios mío, Isa. It seems that you’re more involved in this relationship than me,” he said on the one but last day of the week. He grabbed his note and pen.

“That’s because I am. You two have been dancing around each other for ages and now finally something is happening. Can’t let you screw it up. You desperately need my help,” she said, flipping her hair. Camilo threw his pen at her.

“Just tell me the name of the flowers and get out.” he pointed at his note.

“Peonies - anger,”

And Camilo added them to his list. He looked at it and read it out loud.

Burdocks - touch me not

Purple Hyacinths - sorrow

Primroses - inconstancy

Lavenders - distrust

Yellow Lilies - falsehood

Mourning Brides - unfortunate attachment

Peonies - anger

And somewhere in the middle of town, Dolores muttered to herself. “This is better than tío Bruno’s telenovelas,”

—

On the next day, Isa strolled around the plaza awaiting her friend’s arrival. She was unusually late. So when she finally spotted her in the crowd, she walked up, not skipped, to her. Isa gently tapped her shoulder. The girl turned and Isa noticed a slight change in her expression. She saw the little shimmer of mischief in her eyes. Being eagle-eyed was sometimes a powerful skill. A thought crossed Isabela’s mind. That maybe there was more to this situation than it seemed. She shook it off and as always asked Y/N what kind of flowers she needed already preparing her hands.

“Yellow Carnations, please,” she said. “and Pennyroyals. Make it a mixed bouquet.”

Isabela stopped in her tracks. She should be happy, right? These flowers didn’t mean anything good, just like the previous ones. And the sooner Y/N and her mysterious partner break it off, the sooner her primo can grow the guts to make a move. But what about Y/N? She got so caught up in interpreting the flowers’ meanings and giving Camilo pep talks, that she forgot to think about her friend. Was she okay? Was she heartbroken? Was her partner that cruel? Whatever that couple was going through, seemed like heavy stuff. Isa knew Y/N was strong and never let anyone do her wrong. She also knew that her friend was an independent girl, she wouldn’t ask for help. Especially when she knew the Madrigals were needed by everyone in town. She would never ask for help with such a petty thing like a relationship. It was something she could deal with herself. But Isa also knew that she didn’t have to. She had people who cared about her and who wanted to help. Isabela was one of them.

She gaped at her friend, worry present in her eyes. Y/N stared back.

“Are you sure, amiga?”

“I am.” Y/N smiled lightly.

Isa saw that mischievous shimmer in her eyes again.

—

Yellow Carnations - disdain

Pennyroyals - flee away

Camilo stared at the newest additions to his list with Isa peering from behind him. He read the names over and over again. He didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He closed it.

“So, what are you gonna do?” Isa asked.

“I don’t know,”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” the girl scoffed. Her cousin looked at her offended.

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” he looked up at her. “You even sure that these are the correct meanings?”

Isa gasped, placing a hand on her chest. “Never question my flower knowledge,”

Camilo groaned and plopped on his bed. Face covered by his hands. Isabela sighed at his pathetic state. She sat next to him and took the note in her hands.

“Look, it doesn’t matter anymore who that person is. What matters is that she can’t be alone now,” Isa started. Camilo uncovered his face. “We both know that there’s so much going on behind that neutral mask she always wears. Someone needs to be with her right now.”

Camilo nodded lightly. Isabela was right. He stood up and turned to his prima.

“Isa, I need some flowers,”

—

“Isa,” Y/N walked up to the girl. “I got flowers.”

Isa faked a surprised tone. “You did?” Y/N nodded.

“Yeah, Forget-me-nots,” she explained pulling a small bouquet of blue flowers from behind her back. “I found them on my doorstep.”

Isa looked smugly at the blue flowers.

Forget-me-nots - true love and respect

“They’re beautiful,” Isa said examining the flowers. Y/N looked at her with scrunched eyebrows.

“Of course they are, they’re yours,”

Isa’s eyes widened and she stepped back. Words got stuck in her throat. That girl. Did she have a gift as well? Reading minds or something?

“You know?”

Y/N smacked her lips. “I do,” she pulled Isa by her arm. She leaned so her lips were close to her ear. “so for the last time, could you grow flowers for me, please?”

—

Isa, the hopeless romantic that she was, couldn’t keep the smile off of her face. She trusted her legs would take her straight to Casita, as she couldn’t tear her eyes off of the bouquet she was holding. Nutmeg Geraniums were resting in her palms. That day she wasn’t just the giver, but also the deliverer. Y/N asked her to give the bouquet to Camilo. An actual love story was unfolding itself right in front of her. She didn’t even feel any shame as a bunch of ideas for a novel title were crossing her mind. Isa was so glad that no one in her family had the ability to hear thoughts. Feeling the path under her feet get familiar, she fastened her pace. Walking through the door, she absent-mindly greeted her parents, who looked at one another puzzled. She walked into Camilo’s room, without knocking as usual, and handed him the flowers.

“Woah, why am I getting a bouquet?” he asked. Camilo’s nose twitched slightly at the overwhelming scent that filled his nose.

“It’s a response to yours,” Isa explained. “Nutmeg Geraniums - I expect a meeting.”

Once again, Camilo didn’t come down for dinner, but only because he was off to meet his beloved.

—

He didn’t have to think twice about where he’d find her. Y/N had this place, that she used to clear her head. No one knew about it, that is until one day she invited Camilo to join her. He felt so honored that day. Ever since they would meet up there when other people’s presence was just too overwhelming. Y/N cherished the time spent alone, but she preferred being alone with Camilo even more. Did that make sense? Not important. So that was where Camilo went, under the bridge between the village and Casita.

Just like he suspected, Y/N was there. Sitting by the shore, with her feet splashing in the water. He stopped mere meters away from her. His eyes scanned her figure. The faint light of the setting sun was illuminating one side of her body. Her hair glistened, her face got brighter, but at the same time, some parts of her got dimmed. Like she was being hugged by her own shadow. Magical view. She was magical, almost unreal. And that came from someone with magic flowing in their veins.

“Hi,” he said gently. Camilo sat down next to her. Y/N looked at him.

“Hi,”

“Everything okay?” he asked, his hand making its way to his neck.

“Oh, yeah. Splendid,” she responded.

That caught Camilo off guard. He swore he could hear her smirking while saying that. He looked at her and realized he was right. Y/N was in fact smiling mischievously.

“Wha- are you laughing?”

His confusion jest grew more, as he saw her shoulders shaking a bit. Then he heard snickers coming out of her mouth. Oh, she was laughing all right.

“N-no,” she choked out, but then burst into laughter. “Okay, yeah. Maybe a little.” Camilo looked around. His mouth opening and closing, he looked like a fish out of water. Y/N just laughed more.

“Oh, god…” she wiped a tear. “I came up with quite a story, didn’t I?”

Camilo just got more confused if that was even possible. Then he noticed something on Y/N’s lap. Flowers. Not just any flowers, Ambrosias, Wild Pansies, Cornflowers, Peach Blossoms, General Jacqueminots. She was tying the stalks together making a flower crown. The girl followed his gaze.

“Yeah, I kept them. Wouldn’t want Isa’s hard work go to waste,” she shrugged.

And then it hit him. She was not giving these bouquets to her partner, because she didn’t have one. He facepalmed mentally. He should’ve known sooner. His sister not once did mention anything about Y/N being with someone and knowing her love for gossip she would’ve done that a long time ago. Y/N didn’t fall in love and break up with someone. She was just messing with him.

Just.

Messing.

With him.

What a jerk.

“Oh my god…” he whispered, eyes wide. “You’re cruel.”

“Aw, thank you cariño,” she cooed. Camilo tried to ignore the way his heart did a backflip at that pet name.

“You-you can’t just do that! You tricked me! You tricked Isa! Who does that?”

“Me. I do that,” she cut him off. “Relax, consider this me paying you back for all the pranks.”

Camilo opened his mouth to respond, but Y/N covered his mouth with her hand making Camilo blush even more. She placed the finished flower crown on his head and nodded satisfied.

“Pretty,” she breathed out. Camilo felt the anger disappear, he was still a little disappointed though.

Camilo’s eyes fixed themselves on the girl next to him. He stared at her hands that were toying with the remaining flowers and petals that fell off. He took a deep breath in and coughed to gain her attention.

“So, you’re not heartbroken?” he asked awkwardly when she turned to look at him.

“No,”

“And no one actually received the flowers?”

“No. Well, you did, just now,”

“And you’re not in love with anyone?”

Y/N took a second to respond to this. “I am.” she looked to the side but pointed at the flower crown. Camilo’s cheeks were probably redder than Dolores’ skirt by now. He bit his lip, but a little smile made its way to his lips.

“I’m not good with words, you know that. So I tried something else. I know Isa was rooting for us, hence the flowers. But you wouldn’t like that unless there was a little bit of messing around,” she explained after a minute or two.

“You call that a little bit?”

“Sorry,”

“Jeez and I was taking notes like some dumbass,” he pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“Let me see. I wanna know if you got them right.” she scanned the note. She stopped at Ivy Geraniums. “Oops.”

“What?”

“I didn’t know that’s what they meant,” she deadpanned. “I must have mistaken them for Roses Geraniums.”

“And what do those mean?”

“Preference? I think.” the pair looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

After calming down, Camilo reached his hand across Y/N’s lap. Not noticing the pink hue that adorned her face when he did so, he picked up one of the flowers.

“Well, just to be clear… Here.” he handed her a single Ambrosia with a smug look. So proud of himself for remembering the meaning of the flower. Y/N took it and used it to cover her face that was now way redder. A lovesick grin made its way to her lips.

“Okay.” she giggled stupidly. Oh, he finally got her flustered. Camilo absolutely loved that, that power he had now. She often took off her mask, that stoic façade, when around him and Camilo considered that luck. But now, now that he knew he was the only person she showed her true colors to, he would say it was a blessing.

“So,” Y/N picked up one flower and stood up. “May I have this dance then?”

She offered him her hand that was holding a single Ivy Geranium. Camilo grinned and accepted it. He wrapped his hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He took the flower and put it behind her ear. His eyes not once leaving hers. Camilo felt his heart skip a beat, when he saw Y/N shyly lowering her gaze to his lips. She leaned closer then leaned back a bit. So he decided to take the initiative and close the distance between them. Pulling her by the waist with the help of his other hand, he placed his lips on hers. And when he felt her kiss back, he almost started shapeshifting out of excitement. But he didn’t because that’s how she worked on him. She took off her mask when around him and he didn’t feel the need to put one on. Not once when with her did he feel like he needed to be someone else. Y/N was his escape from the life of the boy with thousand faces.

After breaking off the kiss, Y/N looked at him smiling and hid her face in the crook of his neck. Her warm breath tickled his skin. Camilo chuckled lightly and started swaying side to side humming a soft tune. They stayed under that bridge for a long time. Various petals falling over them, almost as if dancing with them.

And a little bit further away, two girls stood at the patio of Casita. One with her hand next to her ear and the other growing daisies on her head out of impatience. When Dolores told Isa everything that just happened, the girl jumped screaming. She tightly hugged her prima, making Dolores yelp.

“Am I the best matchmaker or what?” she asked smiling widely. Dolores rolled her eyes amused.

“You sure are,” she responded.

—

“I should thank Isa for the help, right?”

“I guess so,”

“Should I give her some flowers?”

“You’re hilarious,”

MASTERLIST

@sesamestreet47

#encanto #camilo x y/n #camilo x reader #mirabel madrigal #isabela madrigal #camilo madrigal #camilo my beloved #disney #antonio madrigal #luisa madrigal #dolores madrigal #encanto disney #camilo fics #camilo fluff

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imaginationintowords · 3 years

Text

The Kids Will Be Alright

Chapter 9

Single dad!Bucky, single mom!reader; Social Media AU

Summary: Bucky and Y/n have been friends for over ten years, since high school. Nothing has ever happened between them until one lonely night a few years ago. That one night left them with a little surprise. They agreed to raise their child together as friends. As their child gets older, as they get older, they’re faced with new challenges as co-parents, and possibly secret feelings (according to their friends).

[a/n: less social posts than normal, but I had to write half of the chapter out so figured it makes up for it. Hope you guys enjoy it! Also if i forgot to add you to the taglist, or if you want to be added, please just inbox/message me, it’s easier to keep track of them that way.]

Series Masterlist

*Later that Day*

Y/n decided to pay Natasha a visit later in the day. She brought a bag of hangover goodies.

She rang the doorbell and waited for an answer.

“Oh hey Y/n!” Sam greeted opening the door and letting her in, “Wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Thought I’d pay Nat a surprise visit with some goodies,” she says holding up the bag.

“She’s in the living room,” he says, “I’m heading to the gym.”

“Bye,” she waves as she exits the door.

She walks into the living room where Nat was laid across the couch underneath a blanket, watching the Food Network.

“Hey Nat,” Y/n quietly said walking over to the couch to sit down.

“Y/n, what brings you here?” Nat sat up as Y/n walked into the room.

“Snacks and I wanted to check on you,” she said handing Nat the bag of snacks.

“Oh my gosh, you’re a lifesaver. Thank-you,” Nat said grabbing the bag of goodies.

“Is Sam still mad?”

“A bit,” she rolled her eyes, “He’ll be fine once he gets back from the gym.”

“How are you feeling? She asks scooting closer to Nat, getting under the blanket to get comfortable.

“Better than this morning, probably shouldn’t drink like that again.”

“At least until Val’s and Carol’s bachelorette party,” Y/n jokes.

“At least I won’t be the only one,” she laughs opening up the Gatorade.

“Nat,” she softly says after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah?” Nat says looking over at Y/n.

“I need you to be honest with me. Should I be concerned about your sister?” She asks, “After seeing the way you’re taking all of this, especially after last night. I just need to make sure Bucky isn’t bringing a horrible person around our daughter. I mean your her sister and if you’re acting like this, maybe I need to have a more serious talk with Bucky.”

Nat let out a deep breath through her nose wondering how she can properly explain her feelings.

“Listen Y/n, I shouldn’t be letting my personal feelings get in the middle of what’s going with you and Bucky,” Nat says,” You guys are raising this wonderful child together, and I shouldn’t be creating more drama”

“But I respect your opinion Nat. You’re taking this way harder than I am.”

“My relationship with Yelena is complicated,” Nat explained, “I didn’t really grow up with her. She lived with our dad, and her mom, while I was raised by my mom. I never really told anyone this aside from Sam, but my father left my mother for Yelena’s. He completely abandoned us. He’d send the occasional gift here and there. He never helped my mom financially, she had to work two jobs. It wasn’t until I was in my senior year of high school that he made a reappearance and truth be told I only accepted him back into my life because I knew my mother wouldn’t have been able to help with college. So my father and I struck a deal, he pays for my schooling and I come around a few times a year. They had already moved to London at that point.

“By the time I officially started hangin around Yelena, it was too late. She was already a pre-teen. A spoiled one at that. I couldn’t help but feel jealous and resented towards her. She never had to struggle. Her parents gave her everything she could ever wanted. She’s never had to work for anything. She still doesn’t. It’s not that I think Yelena is an evil person. I just don’t think she’s mature enough to for all this. She doesn’t know the first thing about being a. Selfless person. And admittedly, I hate that she’s snaking her way into our group. You guys are my friends. My family. She already got my dad. The last thing I need is for her to take my friends.”

“She’s not going to take us Nat,” Y/n comfortingly said, “We’re not going anywhere. There’s no replacing you in our lives. No one would allow that. I won’t allow that. We’re all stuck with each other for life. No one can ruin that.”

“She can,” Nat mumbled, her eyes tearing up.

“You need to have this conversation with Bucky,” Y/n says, rubbing her back, “Let him know how you feel and why. He’d understand Nat. This is Bucky we’re talking about, he wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. He wouldn’t alienate you, just because Yelena tells him to. This is the same guy who threatened to kill Sam if he hurt you when you guys got together. This is the same man who walked you down the aisle after your dad got stuck because of a storm. He’s not going to let anyone get in the way of your relationship.”

“I guess that’s part of the reason why I’m taking this so hard,” she says wiping her eyes, “because he felt like he couldn’t tell me he was with her. It just feels like a betrayal.”

“Talk to him,” she pats Nat’s hand.

“Okay I will,” Nat agrees nodding her head.

The girls spent the rest of the night watching movies and eating takeout.

_________________________________

Series taglist: @splaine-to-me @aikeia @kmuir1 @that-one-person @sebastianstansqueen @slytherinambitious @shadowolf993 @sebssssthighssss @lharrietg @prentisswrites @mylifeiscrazy0423 @tanakaslastbraincell @puddinsqueen @its-yasbxtch @sarcastic-and-cool

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lettheladylead · 3 years

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The Golden Heir Chapter 7 - Family [Ch1] [Ch2] [Ch3] [Ch4] [Ch5] [Ch6] [Ch8]

Goldie didn’t know what to do. She thought Scrooge would’ve found a way out of this nonsense by now!

Watching Black Heron perish hadn’t been the treat she always imagined it would be. It’d been terrifying, instead, as Goldie watched the villain disappear into a bright red light. Next it could be her. It could be Twenty-Two or Della or Donald, who were kneeling next to her and looking just as helpless and scared.

But instead of finding a loophole or taking down Bradford in a surprisingly suave swoop, Scrooge was just mumbling over this paperwork and trying to buy time. Goldie knew stalling when she saw it and just hoped that meant Scrooge had some sort of back-up plan in the works.

“You need some incentive!” Bradford said angrily after sending a blast of energy towards Scrooge. “Perhaps the life of your most trusted ally?”

Goldie breathed a sigh of relief, happy to know that wasn’t anywhere near her role in Scrooge’s life. She did, however, immediately fear for Donald, and struggled a bit against her chains as did Beakley and Della.

He skulked over to Donald and picked him up like he was a toy, holding him over the vortex without hesitation.

“Donald!” Scrooge screamed as Donald cried and shook in fear.

Goldie stared at the scene before her and felt her eyes start to water. She knew, realistically, this wasn’t her fault. Bradford’s beef with Scrooge had nothing (mostly nothing?) to do with her. But she led them to Dickie. If she had to guess, they probably used Dickie to get that Papyrus. If she’d just let Black Heron kill her, they wouldn’t have been able to get it.

“What will it be, Scrooge? Adventure? Or your family?”

She looked down at Scrooge. He was going to find a way out of this, wasn’t he?

“You have til the count of five. One…”

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Goldie looked stunned. She’d never seen him give up so quickly. She’d never seen him give up at all before...except when it came to her. Surely this had to be part of his plan...he couldn’t give up adventuring. That was everything to him.

“No, don’t! Find a way out!” Donald screamed, still struggling in Bradford’s grasp. “You can beat him!”

“...it’s not worth the risk, lad,” Scrooge said softly, taking out a pen.

Goldie watched in awed silence as Scrooge signed the Papyrus. Adventure was such a vague term. If he couldn’t go on any kinds of adventure - nothing magical or mystical or worldly or secret...then she didn’t know where she stood. She could still go wherever she wanted, but it wasn’t worth it without him.

No one made a sound as Scrooge was surrounded by magical yellow light and he floated up into the air. He gasped as the Papyrus’ chains wrapped themselves around him and slowly forced him back to the ground. Goldie and the others just watched in miserable realization...the bad guy had won.

“I did it!” Bradford said happily. “The great Scrooge McDuck, now only a poor old man!”

Scrooge had never looked so defeated. Goldie felt her heart break.

“Normally I wouldn’t indulge in petty villainy, but since this is a special occasion…”

Bradford dropped Donald towards the vortex, laughing evilly as the duck tumbled towards oblivion, while Scrooge and Della screamed out in shock and pain. Goldie felt numb as she watched a duck she’d known for so long - and known as one of the kindest, genuinely well meaning people she’d ever met - head for an untimely death.

“Ow!”

“...ow?”

“Ow?”

Goldie blinked and leaned over the edge to see the vortex had disappeared and Donald had managed to get free of his chains. She wanted to revel in the joy of seeing one of her favorites of the McDuck family still alive, but as the red triplet’s voice reached her ears, Bradford was already back on his plan.

“No! No more adventures!” he screamed down at the kid - and she wondered who else was down there with him - before diving past the three ducks still chained on the ledge and drawing his sword with intention clear.

Scrooge screamed out and Goldie closed her eyes. She couldn’t save him this time. He was going to die and all she could do was sit there and listen.

Instead, she heard the clang of metal against metal.

“Get away from my grandpa!”

Goldie’s eyes widened and she struggled against her chains, shuffling her legs to move closer to the stairs so she could see what the hell was happening. Beakley and Della followed suit, clearly curious as to what was going on.

“Wait, what?!”

She looked down and saw exactly what she feared: Dickie was not just in danger, and not just with Scrooge, but she was holding a broken cane up to a giant magical sword wielded by a homicidal maniac. That was the opposite of the safe, danger-free lifestyle she’d tried to give her.

Webby and Dewey immediately flew down and kicked Bradford in the face, giving Dickie time to get away from him and rush towards Scrooge.

“You need to get out of here!” Dickie shouted, tugging on his arm.

Scrooge just struggled against the magical chains that disappeared and reappeared over and over again. “I can’t!”

As Louie ran around to grab the contract off the ground, Bradford gave chase and Dickie stayed with Scrooge to keep trying to get him to move. She watched helplessly as the kids ran for their lives and Gyro, Gandra, and Ludwig got blasted by a painful-looking blast of energy.

As Bradford transformed, Goldie, Della, and Beakley managed to wrangle their way out of their chains and the two McDuck Manor residents immediately rushed towards the villain, ready to fight for their lives. Goldie, on the other hand, tossed her chains to the side and rushed towards Dickie, who was visibly shaking in fear while still trying to stay strong for Scrooge.

“Lass, you need to get out of here,” Scrooge said to her sternly.

Dickie shook her head and sobbed. “But I just...I just learned about you now, I can’t lose you already!”

Scrooge looked both confused and sad at the strangely familiar teenager crying over him and wished he could reach out and comfort her somehow. As he opened his beak to say something, he was cut off by a voice he hadn’t heard in weeks.

“Dickie!” Goldie shouted, suddenly grabbing the girl by her wrist. “You need to get away from here! Come on!”

The teen didn’t fight as Goldie pulled her away, running in the opposite direction of Bradford’s fighting. Goldie glanced back at Scrooge with a sad, guilty expression, and Scrooge stared back incredulously. “Goldie?!”

As they ran away from the fight, Bradford flew over Scrooge and the kids and started powering up the sword for one final, deadly attack. Dickie pulled her arm out of Goldie’s grasp and stood her ground. “We can’t run away!”

“Yes, we can, they’ll be fine!” Goldie shouted, trying to grab her granddaughter’s arm again. “They’re the McDucks! They can take care of themselves!”

“But...I’m a McDuck, too!” Dickie said angrily, taking a step back.

Goldie stared at her sadly, then looked behind her to see Donald protecting Scrooge with a piece of the vortex chamber that fell apart. She looked back at Dickie and gave her a small smile. “...yeah, you are. And no kid of Scrooge’s is gonna run away from a fight, huh?”

Dickie smiled and reached out a hand, which Goldie grabbed with only a smidge of hesitation. They ran towards the rest of the family and joined them in holding up the one thing protecting Scrooge from death.

Goldie didn’t think about how it felt to be working alongside the family she’d known and avoided for so many years. She didn’t want to think about how long she’d kept Dickie from this group of people who would do absolutely anything for the people they considered family. How Goldie had never been a part of that before, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a part of it now.

Louie and Huey ran up to join them and huddled over the contract.

“The only way to break the Papyrus’ spell...is to find a contradiction on the Papyrus!”

“This contract’s air-tight! Scrooge only gets his family if he gives up adventure!”

The four kids who’d spent the last few years together echoed a simultaneous DING! before Huey took the lead again.

“Bradford! Your contract is flawed!”

The buzzard stopped in his attack. “What? Impossible!”

The shield went down and Goldie backed away, feeling the confidence radiating from Scrooge’s kids. They’d won and he was going to be alright...and she didn’t need to be there any longer.

“I worked on that contract for thirty years! Went over it with the finest tooth combs!”

Goldie took another look at Dickie’s back before turning to make her usual silent escape.

“According to this, Scrooge can be with his family as long as he doesn’t adventure!”

Completely by accident, she lifted her head and made eye contact with Scrooge, who was cycling between hopeful and desperate and tired and confused. She couldn’t look away from him. Her heart pounded in her chest like it never had before.

“But family is the greatest adventure of all!” Huey shouted.

“That’s...the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. There’s no way that-”

Goldie turned back towards the rest of the family and Bradford, her feet refusing to move, and witnessed the Papyrus float into the air and disintegrate into nothing.

Bradford screeched in agony and reached out for the pieces of the contract, dropping the sword and sending one final blast towards the family. Goldie didn’t even have time to react as she realized the blast was headed right towards Dickie and Webbigail.

Scrooge, on the other hand, finally broke free of his magical chains and rushed towards the girls, tackling them both to the ground just as the blast singed the top of his hat.

Goldie breathed a sigh of relief as Scrooge and the girls nodded at each other before getting up to enjoy Bradford’s angry screams.

“I will not lose to Scrooge!”

“You didn’t lose to me,” Scrooge said with a confident smirk. “You lost to my family!”

“All of them.”

Goldie turned around to see a variety of people all walking up to stand behind Scrooge both physically and emotionally. She looked at him and felt an unfamiliar sense of pride mixed with her usual complicated feelings of love and adoration. He looked good in that moment. Strong and sincere. She knew she’d softened up quite a bit after spending time with Sharpie, but seeing Scrooge and his family standing tall together was making her heart do backflips.

Dickie walked over to Goldie and grabbed her hand, smiling softly. “Thanks for staying, Granny.”

Goldie rolled her eyes and scoffed, ignoring the conversation between Bradford and some familiar faces in Scrooge’s life and choosing to focus on how nice it felt to be with people she loved. Maybe she could stand to do it more often.

They both looked up to see Scrooge talking to Webby, who proceeded to hug him tight and then point directly at the two blondes. He looked back down at the girl he’d known for so long - his clone, apparently, which was giving him all sorts of confusing feelings - and then back up at the girl he’d never met before.

Goldie felt an urge to get away before this confrontation that she never wanted to have, but Dickie held tightly onto her hand and wouldn’t let go. Scrooge walked over to them and smiled.

“...grandpa?”

Dickie smiled awkwardly and let go of Goldie’s hand to wrap her arms around herself. “...yeah, um...my name’s Dickie. It’s nice to meet you!”

He looked over at Goldie who was avoiding his eyes, but when she felt his hand wrap around two of her fingers and tug her a bit closer to him, she couldn’t keep herself from him. Too much had happened for her to just walk away...she had to make it right.

“...surprise?” she said with a small smile.

Scrooge breathed out a short laugh and pulled both of them into a big hug. Dickie hugged back without hesitation, but Goldie’s face turned red and she stuffed her face into his shoulder to avoid looking at anyone else. She was fine with PDA but only when she was the one initiating it. The loved feeling he was giving her was overwhelming.

She looked up to see Louie and Webby and Della and Donald giving her similarly smirky smiles and Goldie sighed before finally wrapping her free arm around Scrooge’s back and holding him close. She loved him so, so much and was so happy he was safe. But there was no way she’d say something that sappy, so maybe a hug would be enough.

He finally pulled away from them and smiled happily, one of his hands still intertwined with Goldie’s. “Come back to the manor. Both of you,” Scrooge said.

Goldie looked down at their hands and then up at Dickie, who was clapping her hands in excitement. Dickie cheered, “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of that place! It looks awesome!”

The older woman sighed, but she couldn’t pretend to be annoyed. “...alright. Sure.”

Scrooge smiled brightly and leaned forward, capturing Goldie’s beak in a sudden kiss that it made her cheeks light up in embarrassment. He pulled away as fast as he started, but gave her a look that made her think going back to the manor would be the best decision of her life.

He let go of Goldie’s hand and looked back at the rest of his family. “We do need to talk, Goldie Girl. But...it’s been a long day.”

“You have no idea how long of a day it’s been,” Goldie mumbled, thinking back to her weeks of imprisonment.

“So we’ll talk tomorrow,” he said softly. “And...Dickie?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s nice to meet you, too.”

#ducktales #scroldie #dickie duck #goldie o'gilt #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #bradford buzzard #donald duck #della duck #alright fuck it im not tagging em all #carrofics #art #the golden heir #anyway therell be one last golden heir post after this!!!

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awanderingdeal · 3 years

Text

You were the first

As I mentioned in this ask, I have polished up the fic I wrote live on discord. It's left at a bit of a cliff-hanger so I'll try not to leave it too long to write the second chapter, but I make no promises!

Anyway, have some Logan with his first boy crush.

CW: discovering sexuality and sexuality crisis

Rating: G

If you feel I need to add any content warnings or change the rating, please drop me a message!

Logan and Noelle are original characters from the sweater weather universe created by the wonderful @lumosinlove. All other characters in this fic are mine.

Logan tugged at his t-shirt, an expensive white thing that was more fitted than he was used to, scrutinizing his image in the mirror. He rose up onto the tips of his toes, giving a small sigh as he settled back down. He’d always been confident in his appearance, especially under the Nice sun, his hair a little lighter and his skin bronzing even more than usual, but he wished he was taller.

“Lo! Let’s go! I’m ready,” his sister called, appearing in the doorway to his bedroom a few seconds later. “Are you okay?”

Logan dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand, figuring his ensemble of the white t-shirt and khaki shorts would have to do. “Does this look too prep school?” he asked, pulling on a pair of battered vans that he hoped would soften the outfit before joining Noelle in the hallway.

“Since when did you care about your appearance?” Noelle teased, pulling his cap over his eyes as he fell into step beside her.

I don’t,” Logan grumbled, adjusting the brim, shoving Noelle away from him. He twisted away from her retaliating shove with a chuckle, raising his hands in a truce at the top of the stairs before bounding down them. “Maman! Noelle and I are going out now!”

“Do you have sunscreen? And water?”

“Yes, Maman!” He and Noelle rolled their eyes at each other, waiting around only long enough to hear the affirmative reply from their mother telling them to be safe and back in time for dinner.

“So, what’s going on with you and this Hugo boy then?” Noelle asked as soon as the door shut behind them.

Logan glanced back towards the house anxiously, even though he knew nobody would have heard. He picked up his skateboard, dusting an imaginary piece of dirt from it before tucking it under his arm. “Nothing is going on, he asked me out and I said I wasn’t gay, simple,” Logan mumbled. “Why don’t you concentrate on your own love life?”

“Alright, there’s no need to get defensive,” Noelle clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She strapped her board to her backpack, leaving her hands free to tap against her phone screen. “And my love life is very successful, thank you,” she added with a smirk that was begging for Logan to ask more.

“Oh yeah?” Logan latched onto the opportunity, glad to have the attention off of himself. “Is that who you’ve been texting all the time?” he chuckled, plucking Noelle’s phone from her hand. “What’s his name then?”

Noelle squealed, lunging for her phone, but Logan was too quick, looking at the message before she could grab it. “Oh,” Logan breathed, stumbling over his feet as he shoved the phone back at his sister. “Fuck, Noelle. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t -”

“Logan, it’s fine.” Noelle stopped, grabbing Logan by the shoulder so he halted as well. “Well, it’s not. You’re a little shit, but that’s what little brothers are for, right? Besides, you are so predictable. I was baiting you.”

Logan frowned, his features contorting into a picture of confusion. “What?”

“You’re such a dumbass,” Noelle laughed, shaking her head. “I wanted you to know.”

“You’re a dumbass,” Logan muttered. “So, Natacha, huh? That’s the blonde girl, right?”

Noelle looked at Logan pointedly, “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“Uhh…Congratulations?” Logan shrugged.

Noelle sighed and started to walk again. “Yeah, she’s the blonde one.”

Logan jogged a few paces to catch up with her. He chewed at his lip, glancing over at his sister every few steps. She seemed so confident, like she knew exactly what she wanted. He tried to reassure himself that he was only 14, he wasn’t supposed to know what he wanted yet. That’s what all the websites said. Finally, he couldn’t bear the silence any longer, “Do maman et papa know?”

“Not yet,” Noelle hummed, “I’m not worried, I just -”

“Logan! Noelle!” their friend, Ibrahim, yelled as they entered the skate park. Logan looked towards Noelle, mouthing that they would finish the conversation later. “We were just talking about you.”

Noelle replied, but Logan didn’t hear what she said, his attention pulled by the tall boy standing just to the left of Ibrahim. He had light blonde hair that flopped over his eyes and he was shifting nervously between his feet. Hugo.

“Hello! Earth to Logan,” Noelle clapped her hands in front of his face. “I said we’re going to head over there and practice on the rails. Are you coming?”

Logan looked back to Hugo, wincing internally at the obviousness of the action. “No, I’m going to stay,” he pointed behind him to the small group of teens “here.”

Noelle looked at him, her lips making a funny manoeuvre that Logan had come to learn meant she was suppressing a laugh. “Okay.”

Then Noelle was gone, and Logan didn't know what to do with himself. These were the same friends he'd been hanging out with every summer for nearly a decade, but suddenly he seemed to have forgotten how to interact with them. Or rather, with him, with Hugo. He couldn’t pinpoint why he felt so awkward. Sure, the other boy had asked him out, but Logan was certain that wasn’t the problem. He didn't want to be that person, but he had other male friends who were attracted to guys and it had never been an issue before. Even when one of those friends had admitted to a crush on him, Logan had just told them politely he wasn't interested in them like that, and they'd moved on with their friendship. So why did his stomach feel like it was trying to turn itself inside out, right now? And why did he feel like he wouldn't be able to string an intelligible sentence together?

"Logan! What are you doing?" Ibrahim shouted, pulling Logan from his spiralling panic. He looked up to see the group had moved. "Hugo has finally got that combo he was working on down, and for some reason he can't wait to show you." Logan thought he heard something teasing in his friend's tone, but he squashed the thought. He looked over, meeting Hugo's shy smile and decided he could figure out whatever was going on in his head later. His friend wanted to show him a trick, and Logan wasn't a jerk, so he was going to go and watch.

Logan dug his fingers into the edge of his board, clutching it close to him as he approached his friends, the walk to the edge of the bowl they had gathered on seeming to take an age with all their eyes on him. "You've stopped falling on your ass then?" he grinned at Hugo, by way of greeting, proud that the words came out with the same smooth tone that he usually managed.

"Yeah," Hugo blushed. "I told you, practice makes perfect."

"I stand corrected," Logan huffed out a laugh. A red haired girl that Logan didn't know that well, mumbled something that he didn't quite catch, but carried a tone that he didn’t like. He spun around to ask her to repeat herself when she smiled and mounted her board, dropping over the edge of the bowl. Logan turned back to Hugo, but the boy was now looking towards the bowl, sending a glare after Lydia.

"Okay, let's not build this up too much,” Ibrahim threw his arm around Logan. “We’re going to be expecting some Tony Hawk skills at this point." Logan sent him a grateful smile, receiving a small squeeze in return.

"Lyds, we get it. You are fantastic! Now get out the bowl. I already shot - gunned," Hugo said, laughing as Lydia flipped him off after she had exited the bowl on the opposite side."

“Alright then, Hewie. The floor is yours. Let us see your mating dance," Lydia swept her arms in front of her in a grand gesture.

“Sorry about her,” Hugo cleared his throat, his face getting impossibly redder and scratching at the back of his neck. “I think she thinks she’s funny.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Logan hoped the smile he offered was comforting, even if it did feel somewhat tight. He could feel the stares of the others boring into his back as he inclined his head towards the bowl. "What are you waiting for? Show me what you can do.”

Hugo opened his mouth to respond, but seemed to decide better of it, shrugging his shoulders. A cocky smirk spread across his face before he gave a determined nod and dropped into the bowl. It was easy watching Hugo skate. Years of practise had led to a relaxed form, commanding the board with a simple confidence. Any shyness he'd been exhibiting a few moments ago had melted away. Logan wasn't the best skater, rarely picking his board up outside of the summers, so he was easily impressed by the way other people were able to keep their feet stuck to the deck like glue. However, there was something about the way Hugo's body moved, leaning into each turn and shifting his weight with such subtly, that felt different. Logan found himself holding his breath, knowing that the trick Hugo could never land was approaching. He didn't want to think about why the determined crease of Hugo's brow made the same odd feeling in his stomach from earlier reappear.

Hugo carved his way up the side of the bowl, until only one wheel ground against the coping. Logan leaned forward into the movement, expecting to hear the crash of the board against concrete, but it never came. Hugo glided seamlessly back down to the bottom of the bowl with a proud fist pump. A loud cheer escaped Logan's mouth before he even really registered it, the rest of his friends joining in to create a barrage of noise. Logan felt lighter than he had in weeks. Hugo showed off a few more tricks, before exiting the bowl. His skin had a pink flush to it, and his breath was coming in heavy pants, the heat of the afternoon sun making the exercise that bit more intense.

"Here, drink," Logan ordered, thrusting a bottle of water in Hugo’s direction. He took the bottle, but instead of drinking it like Logan expected, he unscrewed the lid, pouring the contents over his head, sweeping his bangs up off his face. Logan thought he had gotten away with the choked noise pulled from his throat, but Lydia chuckled from behind him. Logan turned on his heel, sending her a steely glare, "Is there a problem?"

Lydia raised an eyebrow, cocking her head as if inspecting something, "I'm just wondering how long it's going to take you to get your act together, Tremblay."

Logan tensed, glancing behind him quickly. He let out a long breath, relieved to see Hugo's attention had been monopolised by Ibrahim and another of their friends congratulating him. "I don't know what you're talking about," he scoffed. "We barely even know each other."

"You may not know me, but Hugo and I have been friends since we were babies, so unfortunately I am aware of the exact shade of green your eyes happen to be," Lydia retorted, shrugging off the plaid shirt she had on over her vest top. Her expression had softened when she looked at Logan again, "Look, maybe I've made a big mistake here and you're really not interested in him like that, but if that's the case you really need to stop leading him on."

"I'm not-" Logan started to protest, a part of him wondering exactly what Hugo had told Lydia about him. "-this is none of your business.” He chewed at his lip, pulling his cap from his head. It felt like the temperature had risen dramatically in the last thirty seconds, Logan very aware of the beads of sweat forming under his t-shirt. He shoved his cap back on, tugging at the curls at the nape of neck. "I'm going to find my sister," he said, grinding the words through his teeth and turning on his heel. Somewhere behind him, he heard Hugo call his name, but he pretended he hadn't heard, continuing his quick strides away. This was all too confusing and he just wanted to see Noelle.

Logan crossed the park, finding Noelle sitting on a set of stairs, her head resting on Natacha’s shoulder, the two of them watching some of their friends work the rails. She seemed content, so Logan hesitated a few feet away, guilt creeping in at the prospect of disturbing her. Eventually, his need for comfort won out. "Nolly?”

Logan rarely used the nickname in public these days, receiving a swift smack to the back of his head whenever he did. Noelle whipped her head up, her glare melding quickly into a look of concern.

"Nolly, huh? Adorable," Natacha teased, nudging Noelle gently.

"Don't even think about it," Noelle deadpanned, her eyes remained locked with Logan's. "Hey Lo, what's up?" She patted the concrete next to her, and Logan took a seat, resting his chin in his hands against his knees. He looked between Noelle and Natacha, chewing at his lip. Natacha had always seemed nice, but he wasn't sure he wanted to bare his soul to her quite yet.

"Do you want me to go? I can always go and show the boys how it’s done, it's not a problem." Natacha smiled softly and instantly, Logan decided he liked her. Besides, he wasn’t sure he had anything to say yet, so it was pointless sending her away.

"No, it’s okay," Logan sighed. "I just needed a break." Noelle looked at him pointedly, and Logan could tell she didn’t believe him. For now, she refrained from an interrogation. Logan had a funny feeling that it was postponed rather than cancelled.

It took a while for the conversation to fall back into a natural rhythm, however once the initial awkwardness faded it flowed well, Natacha dropping into the natural gaps of Noelle and Logan’s conversation like she’d always been there. It was easy over here, away from his friends, and Logan let his mind wander to thoughts of Hugo, trying to reconcile these new feelings with the information he currently had about himself.

Natacha laughed, loud and smooth, pulling Logan back into the conversation. "No, my ex, he -" Logan didn't hear the next few sentences, fixating on the pronoun until he couldn't hold in the question any more.

"Did you say he?"

Natacha furrowed her brow, whilst Noelle's expression turned smug and knowing. Logan had questions about that too, but it'd have to wait. Eventually, Natacha gave a slow nod. "Yes, he...Jacob, my ex-boyfriend."

Logan waved his hand between Noelle and Natacha, "- and now you have a girlfriend."

Something changed in Natacha's expression, but Logan couldn't place it. "Well," she chuckled, "we haven't called it anything yet, but I wouldn't object."

Logan blinked. "You can do that?"

Natacha shrugged, looking between Logan and Noelle with a careful curiosity.

"No." Logan cut her off before she could answer. "I know you can change your mind or whatever. Or not know. But can I just...I guess, I had that crush on Alicia back in grade 7, but now I think - yeah, Hugo makes me feel kind of the same way, so am I gay now or what?" He felt Noelle squeeze his knee as he reached to scratch at the back of his neck. She always told him he'd be awful at poker because he had too many tells.

Natacha looked between him and Noelle again. It was getting a bit annoying, but he figured he had just dumped a whole lot of thoughts on somebody he had only spoken to a handful of times. The silence was beginning to feel heavy when she eventually spoke, "I can't really tell you that. You could be gay, you could be bisexual, I'm fairly sure there's other things too. Just try not to freak out about it, yeah?"

Bisexual. Now that he thought about it, Logan remembered hearing that word before. He'd never really considered what it meant though, it hadn’t been necessary. The only person he'd ever had a crush on before was Alicia. Maybe bisexual fit, but he'd never liked another girl like that either so maybe Alicia was just a fluke and he was just gay. He lay back, shielding his eyes as he looked up at the sun and groaned. "Try not to freak out. How am I not supposed to freak out?! I want to kiss a boy."

"Oh, you want to kiss him do you? You're a baby, you're not allowed to kiss anybody." Noelle teased, poking at his side. Logan threw a furious look at her. Could she not see he was having a crisis here and she was laughing. "Sorry," Noelle apologised, her voice more sincere. "I know it's a lot to think about. It's just difficult not to tease my little brother about his crush."

Logan had to admit something was comforting in the idea that even when his world was in chaos, there was always the constant of his sister's teasing. He'd never tell her that though. "I think I'm just going to pretend this isn't happening," he sighed.

Noelle laughed again, more committed this time. "That would be very fitting," she hummed. "You could also, oh, I don't know...talk to him?"

Logan sat up quickly, "And what if he asks if I'm gay!? I literally told him 3 days ago I wasn't interested.” The long sigh that followed felt like it was pulled from him.

"Erm..." Natacha muttered awkwardly. "I'm gonna leave you two to talk. Good luck, Logan," she added, leaning around Noelle to pat at his arm. Ordinarily he would have found the gesture condescending, but it was oddly comforting.

There was a quiet as they watched her walk away. “I like her,” Logan declared.

"Well, she's my girlfriend so you can't have her," Noelle quipped. Logan rolled his eyes; his sister shared their father's sense of humour and frankly, it was awful. "Can I let you into a secret?" she asked, pulling Logan into her side. There wasn’t time to answer before Noelle continued. "It wasn't easy for me either. But I got there and you will too. Just be honest with Hugo, and if he's an ass about it at least you know he's trash now rather than later."

"Thanks, Nolly," Logan said quietly, leaning his head on his sister's shoulder. "I think I'll talk to him. Or maybe I'll just show him my hockey reel, that's impressive." Noelle flicked her fingers against his leg and Logan scowled, rubbing at the spot.

"Try not falling off that board for once, that'll impress him," Noelle teased, inclining her head towards Logan's abandoned board.

"Or maybe, I'll just fall off and then get him to teach me." Logan retorted with a smirk, looking in the direction of the bowl that he had left earlier. He figured he should probably head back over there soon, he’d left before he could even really congratulate Hugo.

Noelle shook her head, laughing "God, you're such a Tremblay at times."

Logan heaved himself up, grabbing his board as he did. "Hey, you never did tell me what you decided on. You know...with your sexuality," his said, feeling his face heat up a little. Somewhere in the back of his brain, something told him he wasn't supposed to ask that, but the question had left his mouth before he'd really thought about it. "If you don't mind telling me."

Noelle looked up at him with a casual shrug, "I refuse to be defined by labels, I will date who I date and if people don't like it, well fuck them."

"Wow, okay," Logan raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot of anger in such a small person. Go skate it off."

"Alright, Mr 5 foot," Noelle scoffed, her expression softening before she continued. "I am

going to see if I can prise my board from Tasha's grip, but let me know if you want to go, yeah?"

"I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet," Logan reeled off his usual rebuttal to his sister's jibes about his height, but his mind was more focused on the latter words. "I'll be fine, promise," he smiled, even if he wasn't so convinced of the statement himself. He held Noelle's gaze for a beat longer, turning on his heel to head back to his friends

"Logan!" Hugo called loudly as he approached, the blond boy's eyes widening slightly when the loud sound left his mouth. "You're back," he added, at a more reasonable volume.

Logan smiled as he took a seat next to Hugo, "Yeah, sorry about that. Just had to sort some stuff.”

"No problem, just glad to have you back.”

Ibrahim faked a gag, and Logan shot him a glare. His friend mouthed something at him, but Logan couldn’t make out the words against the exaggerated movements of his lips. He turned his attention back to Hugo as he began to speak again. Ibrahim was probably only trying to chirp him anyway. "Hey, how's your Ollie going?"

Logan took a deep breath, trying not to think about his next words too much, "Yeah, I'm still practicing, actually. I was wondering if you could help me again? Somewhere," Logan looked around, "not here. I don't want to keep falling on my ass in front of everybody."

Logan swore he heard a low wolf whistle from one of the group, but when he glanced at them, everybody seemed to be engulfed in their own conversations. Ibrahim and Lydia's heads were close together, whispering conspiratorially in a way that was making Logan nervous.

"Yeah, I can help you," Hugo said, a goofy grin set on his face. "When do you want to do it?"

"Now?" Logan suggested, trying not to get distracted by the increasingly animated conversation beside him. Hugo must have noticed too, but he seemed unfazed.

"Oh? Now. Okay, Sure," Hugo nodded vigorously, brushing his hands through his hair. "We can do it now. I'm totally ready."

"Cool," Logan hummed, trying to appear nonchalant about the whole situation despite the uptick in his heart rate.

"Yeah, cool.”

Logan didn’t want to appear too eager so he waited for Hugo to stand first. Only it appeared Hugo had a similar idea bringing them to an impasse. Logan cringed internally, glad he currently had his back to Ibrahim because he could just imagine the mocking expression. He bolstered himself, letting his breath whistle through his teeth and laughed, hoping the noise sounded lighter than it did in his head. "Come on then," Logan said, rolling to his feet, offering his hand out. Hugo stared at it for so long, Logan was beginning to think perhaps he'd done something wrong. Then, Hugo slapped his own hand clumsily into it, pulling himself upright. Logan curled his fingers around the larger hand, holding onto it a second longer than necessary to help Hugo up. It was warm, slightly sweaty even, but Logan found himself wanting to test whether Hugo would keep their hands intertwined if he didn't let go. Still, a part of him was very aware of their current company, so Logan reluctantly pulled away.

As they walked away from the group, Logan braved a look behind him. Most of his friends quickly made to re-start their conversations, embarrassed to have been caught staring. However, the two he’d most suspected to lock eyes with had their heads down, fingers working furiously against their phone screens. Seconds later, Logan felt his phone vibrate. And then again, and again, and again.

Logan sighed, sending Hugo an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, let me just get this." He tugged his phone from his pocket, huffing when he saw the notification. Ibz created group 'Don't fuck this up Logan. He opened the chat, intending to mute it immediately, but curiosity got the better of him and he read through the messages quickly. Logan didn't have the third participant in his contacts so his phone just displayed the number, but if he wasn't already aware that it would be Lydia, the blunt tone of her messages would have given her away.

Ibz: His favourite colour is red!

Lydia: Why would that be helpful?

Lydia: Also, I think it might be green now ;)

Ibz: Lydia! That is not helpful! Logan, you can talk to him about hockey. He's been studying.

Lydia: That's true! He's kind of obsessed with dinosaurs too so try to work that into the conversation.

Logan worried at his lower lip, noticing that Hugo hadn't been inundated with messages. He could only surmise that Lydia and Ibz thought Logan was the only one of the pair that needed some extra help. He grumbled under his breath, typing out a reply with punishing taps against his screen.

Logan: Guys! Stop! I can handle this. Can you just stop meddling?

Lydia: If you say so. I am going to kick your ass if you hurt him though.

Ibz: Hey! That's harsh. Logan would never intentionally hurt Hugo.

Logan: Thanks Ibz! For the record, I'm muting this conversation now.

Logan smiled at how quickly Ibrahim had come to his defence, making a mental note to thank him in person later on. After following through with silencing his phone, he shoved the device back in his pocket, looking over at Hugo. He was sitting on his board, chin tucked against the palm on his hands, rocking slowly from side to side. He seemed content, but Logan still felt a little guilty about making him wait. "Sorry," Logan grimaced, "I'm all yours now. How about I show you what I'm doing, and you can correct me?"

#logan tremblay #noelle tremblay #cw: discovering sexuality #cw: sexuality crisis #sweater weather #coast to coast #rating: g

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thekookprincess · 3 years

Text

Strawberries and apples

JJ Maybank x kook! reader

Summary: The newest Kook Princess always smells like strawberries and apples and Outer Bank’s very own troublemaker can’t help but wonder if she also tastes like that.

Warnings: swearing i think? some angst but mostly fluff

Notes: hi! this is my first time writing here (please be nice!) and english is not my first language so sorry if there are any mistakes! this maybe a little cliche, also, no gold hunting! au ‘cause they deserve to be normal teenagers. hope you guys like it!!

(not my gif)

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If anyone were to tell the so-called Pogues that they would have a kook in their group at the start of the summer, the four of them would laugh and say that it was impossible, but two weeks in, the universe proved them wrong when no other than Sarah Cameron and their beloved leader John B started dating, making Sarah an “honorary pogue” as she liked to call herself once she was welcomed into the group.

At first, it wasn’t easy, Kiara and Sarah weren’t exactly best friends but after some little scheming from the boys they made up and everything seemed perfect, that is, until Sarah was dethroned from her “Kook Princess” title, apparently, hanging out with the Pogues made her a traitor and the kooks didn’t waste any second finding a replacement. Y/N L/N, Sarah’s best friend, accepted the title with a satisfied smile, after all, if the Cameron girl was going to ditch her for her new friends, becoming the new kook princess was the perfect payback.

Y/N wasn’t one to jugde, she even spent almost a year trying to make Kie and Sarah to make up, though that didn’t work out too well, the point is, once she found out about her best friend and the pogue leader she was nothing but supportive, only to have her little nice gesture smacking her in the face when Sarah started being “too busy” to hang out with her.

“I’m sorry, Y/N/N, is just that...I don’t think they’re ready to have another kook around” Sarah’s words replayed in her mind as she was “officially” presented as the new princess in an exclusive kook party; the ex-princess wasn’t invited and as Y/N danced with some stuck-up kooks she couldn’t help but think “another kook? that’s what she thinks I am?” and driven by the need to prove she was not just another annoying rich girl, she dissapeared from the party.

That’s how she found herself in front of John B’s house, her flower crown almost falling off her head and the sundress she was wearing covered in dirt from the roads she fell onto while running there; her once white shoes were now almost grey and her knees had little cuts covered in blood but she didn’t care, of course, she didn’t think she would find the whole gang sitting in the front porch.

Sarah was the first to break up the perplexed silence her friends had fallen onto, standing up from her seat next to her boyfriend and approaching the girl with worry “Oh my god, Y/N/N, what happened? are you okay?” the princess just nodded, her e/c eyes scanning the faces of the other four teens who were staring at her in silence. Kiara stood up and approached the girls with caution, they all knew who she was and what the flower crown in her head represented, so she still had some doubts about the seemingly innocent girl, but she noticed the cuts on her legs and her face softened, leading her to where she sat before her appearence.

Y/N remained silent as the brunette girl entered the house claiming she had to clean the wounds before they got inffected, Sarah, however, didn’t stop asking questions with evident worry in her face and voice. She looked at the girl she somehow still considered her best friend and just asked “Do you really think I’m just another kook?” her voice was barely avobe a whisper and she hated how soft and hurt it sounded, the silence didn’t help, as the blonde just looked at her two friends and her boyfriend with a confused expression that they mirrored; when she finally decided to speak Kie had already retourned and was starting to clean her cuts “What? What do you mean, I-I don’t understand” Y/N sighed, of course she doesn’t even remember, she thought “You said they weren’t ready for another kook...is that all I am?” she pointed at the pogues, who watched the conversation like it was a tennis match, with their heads moving to look a the two girls, even Kiara stopped playing doctor to look at them.

“I didn’t...I didn’t mean it like that, Y/N, and that was almost two weeks ago” the Cameron girl looked somewhat embarrased “Yes, it was two weeks ago since you stopped texting me and hanging out with me ‘cause, apparently, hanging around kooks isn’t so funny anymore” anger was evident in her voice and for the first time since she got there, John B speaked up “Whoah, okay, I’m sure she didn’t mean that, L/N, let’s not jump to conclusions” the kook rolled her eyes at the boy’s protective words “I didn’t ask you, John B, but since you seem so eager to respond, tell me, what did she mean, then?” after that, hell broke loose, Sarah claimed she was overreacting, obviously backed up by her boyfriend and when the kook princess said she didn’t know she needed a guard dog, the blond boy she recognized as JJ Maybank jumped into the discussion as well, defending his best friend; the other boy, Pope, she rememberd him from the countless times he delivered groceries at her house, and Kiara tried to stop the fight, they seemed to be the only ones with a brain, she noted.

“You know what, I get it, you were tired of playing the good girl in Figure Eight and figured I would be just a reminder of the life you hate so much” she was almost crying and she felt Kiara taking her hand when she finished cleaning the cuts, giving her a squeeze in hopes to calm her down; she muttered a weak “thank you” to the girl and looked at Sarah again “No! It’s not that! I’m sorry, okay? I was worried that I would lose you, that you wouldn’t like them, that they wouldn’t like you...I didn’t want to lose my best friend, but I guess I was stupid and I already have”

Y/N’s features softened and her angered voice dissapeared, her usual sweet tone reappearing “You could never lose me, S” a smile broke the guilty look in the blonde’s face and she wrapped her in a hug, whispering “I’m sorry” a dozen times “It’s fine, just don’t do it again” they both smiled and the pogues relaxed, offering the kook girl to stay with them for the rest of the day.

That was how the newest Kook Princess ended up being a “traitor” just like the one before her. It was almost a month after that day and the Pogues plus the two kook traitors, Y/N thought that sounded way cooler than “honorary pogues”, were sitting and chatting at John B’s front porch; Sarah and John B were cuddled up in a chair way too small for the both of them while they listened to Kiara rant about some envirommental issue, Pope was sitting beside her, watching her with a small smile and JJ was currently defending his right to use the hammock, but Y/N wasn’t having it.

“Come on, J! Just move a little! We can both fit in there!” Sarah glanced at her best friend, who stood in front of a grinning JJ, she had her arms crossed and the most adorable pout in her face, the blonde shaked her head smiling knowingly and focused on Kie’s rant again.

“No we can’t, sugar” sugar, he had been calling her that since she joined the group, saying it was because she smelled like strawberries and apples and that it was “too sugary”, that was also the argument he always used to not share the hammock with her “you know I can’t stand your sugary scent, Y/N/N, I’m sorry but we can’t share the spot” he smirked, thinking the girl would roll her eyes and take her usual spot next to the cuddling couple like she always did, but this time the L/N girl had another plan in mind.

Without a warning, she pushed JJ’s feet, that were dangling in the air as he sat in the hammock facing her, making him lay in his back, and she quickly climbed in the hammock, laying next to him and giggling like a little girl once she saw the look of pure shock in the boy’s face. “Great” the boy groaned and faced the opposite side, trying to hide the blush that threatened to reveal the real reason why he didn’t want to be close to the kook.

Since the girl joined the group and he discovered her signature scent, he became intoxicated by it, so much that it often clouded his mind when she would talk to him, the smell of strawberries always hit him first, followed by the sweetest apples he’s ever smelt; he often surprised himself thinking if the lipgloss she always seemed to wear tasted the same as her sugar coated scent, if she tasted like that.

He tried to push thoughts aside as he dared to look over at her, she was still giggling, and every time she moved the wind carried the intoxicating smell over to him, making him close his eyes and suppresing a groan, with his eyes still closed, he heard the giggles beside him ceasing and then he sensed the girl moving again “Are you okay?” her voice seemed too close and it was a sweet whisper that warned him, don’t open your eyes, but he was never the one to listen, even to himself, so he opened his eyes, and he immediatelly regreted it.

Her face was just centimetres apart from his, some strands of her hair tickling his cheeks, her e/c eyes stared back at him as she repeated the question, his gaze instantly fixating in her lips, the movement they created when she talked, how the lipgloss she was wearing made them seem shiny and how bad he wanted to figure out how they tasted, before he knew it, he was breathing heavily, his baby blue eyes turning dark.

Y/N felt her cheeks heat up once she realized the change in his demeanor, his eyes were still focused in her lips, his own slightly parted. His breath was hitting her due to the close proximity and if one of them moved a little closer, their lips would be touching.

“I’m fine” he swallowed “it’s your stupid smell again, I can’t stop thinking about-” he cut himself before finishing the sentence, eyes still dark and now wide as he stared in her eyes, that didn’t help, her eyes were shining with curiosity and they looked absolutely breathtaking up close. “About what?” her voice was soft, sweet and velvetly and he finally thought, fuck it, “about whether you taste as good and sweet as you smell” she let out a small surprised noise and as he looked away from her, he noted she was almost on top of him, arms in his chest, he placed his own tentatively in her waist and looked at her again, searching in her eyes something that told him to stop, but she just smiled and shifted even closer, lips brushing his as she spoke “Well, then you should figure it out, don’t you think?” he breathed a strangled “yeah” and closed the small gap between them.

He was finally kissing the newest Kook Princess, and, as he did, he smiled when he indeed tasted her sugary scent in her lips. He was right, she did taste like strawberries and apples.

#outer banks #jj maybank x kook!reader

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descendantofthesparrow · 4 years

Note

Maybe a soulmate au of your choice with a gender-neutral reader? Whatever you pick is bound to be cool!

Combining two requests this anons and @sephiralorange! Soulmate au! Sharing wounds

*GRAPHIC CONTENT! TALK OF BLOOD AND BONE*

Since you were little, your parents had been worried for you, even with the utmost care and sheltering, you somehow ended up with bruises all over you, sometimes even huge lacerations on your back, as if someone had taken a blade and slashed it down.

They were relieved each time when you would move along as if they didn’t exist, no pain, no aches, nothing, that was how they knew they were your soulmates wounds.

So instead, they worried about your soulmate, taking the best care of you to help heal the wounds on his side, as the faster you heal, the faster they did.

Once you realized why your parents always looked at you with such pain in their eyes, you took it upon yourself to keep yourself out of danger. You knew if you ever got injured they wouldn’t feel it but you couldn’t bear it if they did.

At 10 years old you watched as blood poured from your wrist, dripping down onto your carpet and staining it. Your skin peeled apart, the white of your bone showing, you almost threw up.

What were they doing?! You grabbed your towels, pressing them to your painless wound, wishing for whoever was hurting them to stop.

Soon, it stopped; a slight slice in the corner of the gaping wound telling you someone had ripped the weapon away from whoever was hurting them.

You let out a shuddering sigh, grabbing the medical kit from beside you and beginning to disinfect and wrap your arm, making a mental note to thank your parents for having you take those medical care classes for the extreme soulmate.

Your mother had screamed in horror as she looked at your wrist when she came home from work. She picked you up out of bed and had rushed you to the hospital; the doctor who took you in was confused in how you weren’t screaming in pain before realizing it was a soulmate wound.

They fixed you up and sent you home with some antibiotics and sterilized bandages, requesting you to come in once a week to change bandages and to look over the wound.

Once you were old enough to know about the isle of the lost across the sea, you knew.

Your soulmate was on the isle, what was happening to you would have been stopped years ago in Auradon.

You hoped one day your soulmate would be safe one day, but the reappearing bruises and cuts scared you, and if they stopped, you feared for the other option in your mind.

When Ben's proclamation for the new generation of children born from the villains came around, you jumped at the chance to support it, advocating for the VKs to come to Auradon to live their lives in a safe environment.

Your parents, knowing that their child’s soulmate was an isle child, they eagerly funded the program, helping buy the extra food they needed, any medical expenses, or rooming during the season breaks.

You had never been prouder of them.

But still, none of the recent four vks matched your scars, specifically the one on your left wrist; it had taken a long time to heal, leaving a heavy scar deep in your wrist.

You sighed, looking around the locker area, Mal and Evie chatting with each other as they switched their books out, Carlos and Ben waiting for them by the rails.

Tomorrow there would finally be another round of VKs.

One of which was Mal’s “arch-enemy” Uma, the daughter of the sea witch Ursula.

Honestly, she sounded cool, enough to want to seek her out and attempt to be her friend, but with Mal’s stories (most of which you took with a grain of salt) she seemed to be unapproachable.

But you always made it a point to wait until you met someone and got to know them before believing someone else’s stories about them.

“Look there’s scarry~” a group of nasty, privileged teens walked by you, taunting at your visible scars and bruises. “It’s a wonder that their soulmates even still alive!”

“I think that even they’ll be disgusted by them!” they snickered with their friend, squealing as you turned around and “accidentally” smacked their shoulder.

You grinned, making them pale slightly “what’s wrong~?” you purred, sneakily flipping your switchblade in your freehand “scared of lil’ ol me~ ‘scarry~’?” you took a step towards them, making them squeal and run off.

You rolled your eyes and closed your switchblade, pocketing it before turning back to your locker, stashing your history books before grabbing your nursing elective books.

“you ready for tomorrow (y/n)?” Evie asked as she passed you, stopping to lean on the rails to wait for you.

“as ever” you cheered, closing your locker and turning to Evie, a thought came to your mind. “hey uh, do you think….that maybe….THEY are in the next round?”

“they who?” Evie asked, tilting her head. You lifted up your wrist, shaking it around a bit, Evie’s eyes widened “oh! Um…I don’t know, I don’t remember anyone on the isle with a wrist injury?”

You sighed, shaking your head, letting your arm drop to your leg. “alright then, more of the waiting game I suppose, see you guys later”

“see ya (y/n)!”

Mal waiting till you were out of earshot before turning to Evie with a smirk “Harry has a wrist injury”

“he does!” Evie gasped, rummaging through her memory “but I don’t-“

“oh, right you weren’t…….around” Mal winced, remembering Evie's banishment from the main isle “um, harry tried to cut off his hand when he was 10, ya know, to get his hook?”

“That’s awful!.....oh…..oh!” Evie gasped, clapping her hands “Harry is-!”

“-Harry is (y/n)s soulmate~ also, remember when we went to the beach? (y/n) had scars all over their back, they looked exactly like-“

“-a hook ran down their back. Oh my” Evie sighed, her shoulders dropping “poor (y/n), thank goodness she didn’t feel any pain from it, I think even I could hear Harry's screams from my mom’s castle.”

“They were horrific, even my mother ordered him to stop, according to her they were “annoying” Mal curled her lip in disgust in thinking of her mother’s lack of sympathy.

“Shoot we have to get to class!” Evie jumped at the bell, grabbing Mal’s hand and pulling her down the halls to class.

Harry had not grown up with bruises or scars other than his own, no cuts, no scrape of the knee, nothing.

It was the one thing his dad was proud of him for,

“Nothing to be distracted by my boy! no true love to ruin your plans!”

But….one day, when Harry woke up with a large bruise on his jaw that wasn’t there when he went to sleep, and couldn’t recall getting hit in the jaw, nor did it hurt when he poked it,

He realized he had a soulmate.

All his wounds healed faster than they should’ve as well, his wrist healing within the month, the scars on his back never becoming infected.

His soulmate was looking out for him, taking care of “his” wounds on their side to help him.

He realized he loved his soulmate before he’d even met them.

They had to be from Auradon, no kid on the isle would be able to care for themselves this way.

So the day he got the letter to go to Auradon, he couldn’t wait until the limo came to pick him up.

Maybe he would finally meet them!

As he stepped out of the limo, his breath escaped him.

There, waiting by the doors, was the most gorgeous person he had ever seen. They looked to have soft (s/c) skin, (hair type/hair color) hair that reached their (where ever ur hair ends), very faint scars littered across them, Harry’s eyes drifted down, gasping as he spotted a bandage around their left wrist.

He looked from his own bandaged wrist to theirs, now he didn’t know if he was jumping to conclusions, but the feeling he got from just looking at them told him that he was looking at his soulmate for the first time.

he felt Gil shove his shoulder a bit, moving him forward a bit, he took his eyes off his soulmate and started to walk with his friends and following Ben and Mal around the dorms.

The new group had been settling in for a month now, you had tried to talk to Harry but he had been….shy? to say the least, he wouldn’t speak and couldn’t keep eye contact with you.

But whenever you walked away, you sneaked a look back at the tiro to see Harry hit his head against the table they were sitting at.

You snorted as you thought back to it, the pirate was quite handsome, what luck would it be if he was your soulmate huh?

He didn’t seem to be interested though, always off Standish and silent. What you didn’t know was that he ranted to Uma and Gil about you, constantly gushing about your eyes, saying they were brighter than the neverland stars.

Or about how your smile just made him feel things that he just couldn’t explain.

Uma and Gil were very close to just punching him in the jaw right in front of you to get him to stop rambling to them.

Your train of thought was interrupted as someone tapped the edge of your book, you looked up, smiling as you looked into Evie’s blueish brown eyes. “hi” you whispered, avoiding the chance of getting the library mad.

“hi~” she whisper-sang back, sitting down next to you and setting her bag on the library table. “whatcha studying?”

“history stuff” you hummed, flipping through another page “for the test tomorrow”

“ah, I for-“ Evie trailed off, staring at your face intensely “whats-(y/n) your jaw!”

You put down your book and touched your jaw, feeling nothing but gathering heat. “is it bruising?”

“yeah! Oh, there's, your shoulder too!” the librarian shushed you, stopping as she got a good look at your bruising body.

“oh shit” you muttered, pulling up your shirt to see multiple fist-shaped welts forming around your body. “they’re getting into a fight-“

Evie’s phone went off, and she picked it up, eyes widening “Harry’s getting cornered, lockers, come on!” she grabbed your wrist, tugging you out of the library and towards the lockers.

You pulled your wrist out of her grip and ran faster toward the lockers, skidding to a stop as you turned the corner. You gasped.

There against the lockers was Harry, being held down by two tourney jocks and Tyler, the asshole who had been obsessed with you since middle school.

“they’re mine, you filthy pirate!” Tyler spit in Harry's face, punching him in the jaw again.

“they-“ Harry spit a mouthful of blood on Tyler's shoes, looking back at the seething boy with a bloody grin “-they aren’t even yer soulmate yeh jackass”

Tyler screamed in rage and socked harry in the face again, slamming his head against the locker “shut the fuck up you asshole!”

“(y/n) your face” Evie whispered, you took out your phone and quickly opened the camera, in the same places Harry was getting hit, was forming welts and bruises on your face.

“that’s it” you snarled, swiftly taking off your jacket and tossing your phone at Evie, bolting towards Tyler and Harry “TYLER BACK THE FUCK OFF MY SOULMATE YOU JACKASS!”

Tyler perked up, eyes widening in horror as your fist flew at his face. You hit him with a hard right hook, breaking him away from Harry and blood spurting from his nose.

“ah-“ you grabbed his shirt and pushed him back towards the rails, hitting him in the jewels and tripping him over the rials, sending him to the ground below.

You turned, glaring sharply at the two leftover jocks holding Harry down, they looked from Harry to you and released him, backing away with their hands up before bolting off somewhere.

You looked around at the forming crowd, letting out a single snapping word “GO!” the Auradon kids scrambled off, leaving you, Evie, an arriving Uma, and an almost unconscious Harry.

You sighed and ran towards Harry, kneeling next to him and cupping his face gently. “harry, can you hear me?”

He shook his head a bit and shifted his striking blue eyes to you, he gave a small painful grin. “alright then” you huffed, giving him a soft smile “you’re an idiot Harry Hook, Uma!” she stepped next to you, kneeling next to you, giving harry a look “can you help him?”

“I can….but im thinking he needs to learn a lesson of not ranting to me about you” she huffed, giving Harry a shit-eating grin.

Harry groaned and flipped her off, Uma chuckled and waved her hand, the bruises on you and Harry disappearing. “there, now yall get officially acquainted and ill take evie somewhere so she doesn’t disturb you with her squealing” she stood and walked over to evie, dragging the grinning Evie away by the arm.

You sighed and took Harry's hand, pulling him out of his sitting position to stand with you “so why don’t we go get to know each other hm?” you grinned as Harry chuckled and held out his arm.

You wrapped your hands around his arm and let him lead you off to where ever.

What a way to “meet” your soulmate huh?.....saving him from getting his ass kicked.

-end-

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@daughter-of-the-stars11 @musicarose

@random-thoughts-003 @amorathegamingkitsune

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#Descendents #descendants #disney descendants #harry hook #harry hook descendants #harry hook x reader #harry hook imagine #request #two left i think?#then back to rewrite

204 notes · View notes

anonthenullifier · 3 years

Note

Makes me wonder how Tommy and Billy would handle being teens in a 50s sitcom.

You sent me down a rabbit hole of 1950s slang and 50s sitcom tropes for this story. I hope I succeeded slightly at giving you a 50s sitcom (laughtrack not included).

AO3 link

The lined paper rests unattended on the chrome rimmed table, Billy’s eyes straying away from solving for x and towards the counter. There’s a gaggle of his classmates occupying the stools, partially obscuring his view of the broad shouldered soda jerk. All Billy can really see is the scowl of concentration as the man wrestles with the fountain and the way his blonde hair is slicked back, not a single strand escaping from the paper hat he wears. One day Billy will sit at the counter and say hi. One day.

“You know what your dreamboat would notice?”

Billy tenses as he turns to face his twin across the table, Tommy’s grin as mischievous as ever. His first instinct is to deny the dreamboat descriptor but...if the shoe fits it fits, so he settles for what he hopes is a harsh and disinterested. “What?”

“A hot rod.”

“Not this again.”

A waggle of his white eyebrows confirms they are indeed having this talk again. “Just think about it. We convince mom and dad to get a screamer* and all you’d have to do is walk in here, tell ole dreamboat he’s the ginchiest** thing you ever did see, and then off to the passion pit*** for some backseat bingo****.”

“You know the deal isn't for a hot rod.” It is for a car, that much is true. Enough begging and pleading and logically explaining how much easier it would be if they had two cars for the family broke down their parents, an agreement in place that if they (Tommy, mainly) can go a month with no incidents then they can have a car. “We’ll be lucky to get a Metropolitan*****.” Tommy shudders at the thought, his eyes set on something much sleeker and faster, two things their parents will never get him, dad already dropping not so subtle comments about the hooligans that do street racing and how his sons would never be so reckless.

Despite the reality of the situation, his brother has deluded himself into expecting at least a green corvette. “Speaking of the deal, we gotta head out.” A surprising statement from Tommy, punctuality not his strongest skill.

“You gonna finish your malt?” It’s his brother’s fourth one, but still a waste to leave it behind.

“Bet I can finish it in five seconds.”

An easy feat for Tommy. “What do I get if you don’t?”

This gives his brother some pause, no doubt weighing how sure he is of success and how enticing of a prize he can provide. With a snap and smarmy smirk he lays it out, “If I can’t, then I’ll handle all of dad’s slang at dinner.”

Billy levels a serious stare across the table, first at Tommy and then at the three-fourths full chocolate malt. It’s melted a bit since he got it, suggesting that brain freeze is not as imminent as Billy would like. On top of that is the fact that being caught using their powers counts as an incident for their car deal...but for the prize offered, it might be worth it. “You’re on.”

Tommy loosens up his neck, head snapping from side to side, as Billy holds up a finger, waiting until the second hand of his watch hits 12. “In three, two, one, go.” The slurping is obnoxiously loud, the table next to them glancing over in disgusted interest, but Billy isn’t too bothered by it, more concerned at how there’s only about a third of the malt left after two seconds. Striving for subtlety, he flicks his fingers to the cup, thrilled at the way it slowly fills back up and at his brother’s increasingly angry slurping each time the malt reappears. “And time.”

“That was cheating!”

“You failed to set rules, so ain’t that a bite******.”

If not for the deal requiring they avoid a scene, he knows Tommy would have leapt across the table and smacked him on the arm, instead the fury on his brother’s face settles into a worryingly tight lipped smile. “Okay, dad,” for some reason he views being logical and rule oriented as an insult, but Billy readily accepts the compliment, “you win. Let’s go.”

They gather their homework into their satchels and get up. A “Have a nice day!” is lobbed towards them from behind the counter. Billy offers a sheepish wave at the blonde haired dreamboat and then exits. If only he’d remembered how a wronged Tommy reacts, his brother yelling back towards the soda jerk, “He thinks you’re a flutter bum G!”

Instantly Billy sets off down the sidewalk, desperate to get as far from the soda shop as possible and deciding that he can never ever show his face there again. It’s a shame that his brother is so fast, because he’s caught up within a couple seconds. “You mad?” Silence is the only way to get the teasing to stop, so Billy hunkers his shoulders down and keeps walking, unsuccessfully shrugging off the arm Tommy throws around his shoulders, “Aw well ain’t that a bite.”

“I didn’t publicly embarr--” a loud yelp and growl cuts off his sentence. “Say, what was that?”

Tommy zips away in a blur, returning moments later with a resolute nod. “Come on.” Billy follows his brother down an alley between the library and the suit shop, where there’s a scruffy dog backed into a corner by a group of three greasers Billy recognizes as a year ahead of them. “Hey,” Tommy wastes no time in giving away their presence, “why don’t you leave it alone.”

The group turns towards them, the leader sporting a deep sneer. “Why don’t you leave?”

Tommy stands taller at this, always looking for a fight if he can find it, sometimes even egging on a fight if he can’t. “Why don’t you duck asses******* take a long walk off a short pier, huh.”

Not that he disagrees with his brother but this isn’t really the time to provoke a group of people known for their antisocial behavior and proclivity for winning fights. Billy tries to cool his brother down, “Tommy, let’s just,” but It’s too late to de-escalate, Tommy already a streak of green running with his arm cocked and ready the second the leader of the group takes a step towards them.

Billy puts his satchel bag down with a deep sigh and approaches as well, hands held out and fingers bending in rapid succession to form what he hopes is a tight force field around their opponents to allow Tommy safety to do his thing. It’s a strategy mom and dad have practiced a lot with them in the backyard, one they’re only supposed to use in dire circumstances. This seems an appropriate enough time and is surprisingly easier than they practiced, the three guys not nearly as strong as their parents. It’s so easy, Tommy’s back at his side in less than 30 seconds, their opponents appearing dazed and terrified, especially when Tommy holds up their confiscated switchblades.

“What kind of freaks are you?” Billy glances down as the group shoves past them, torn between congratulating Tommy and yelling at him, knowing that this is going to travel fast and there are only so many more ways they can find to explain away something like this. The whispers about their parents are bad enough, if he and Tommy get thrown in as well, he can’t help but picture mom’s chilly anger and dad’s sorrowful disappointment. The only hope is that the greasers are too proud to admit losing a fight.

“Hey, calm down.”

Billy can’t believe his brother has the audacity to try and be soft with him, “I’m ca...oh,” The statement wasn’t directed at him, Tommy kneeling in front of the dog, hand outstretched to allow the cowering animal to sniff it before deciding he is safe. Billy grabs his bag and joins his brother, head cocked to the side as he watches the dog grow more bold in its affection seeking as it starts licking his brother's face. “Whose is it?”

Tommy runs a hand around its neck and shrugs. “No collar.”

“The pound’s not too far from here.” Tommy’s glaring at him. “What? We can’t take it home.”

“Why not?”

This is typical Tommy, act first and think never. “Well gee willikers Tommy, I don’t know, how about this is exactly the type of thing we’re not supposed to be doing this month?”

Defiance instills every ounce of Tommy’s body as he stands up to face him. “You really think mom and dad would be upset? We saved it! We’re heroes!”

“Yes. Not only did we have a brawl with our powers in public but it’s,” Billy looks at the dog, matted fur and muddy paws, big green eyes staring at him, its body still shaking slightly from the experience, and he can’t help but feel like an ass for even trying to argue against it. “Fine, let’s bring it home but we need to clean it and come up with a strategy for telling them, okay?”

**********

They stop outside the house, tucked around the corner so they can’t be seen through the main windows. Billy closes his eyes, fingers steepled as he reaches out for the mental waves of either parent, moving room to room until his assessment is complete. “Mom’s in the kitchen, dad’s not back yet.”

“So what’s the plan?”

Billy considers their options, the two best either being levitating the dog to their bedroom window or Tommy making a run for it while Billy distracts mom. The dog pants happily between them, tethered with a blue leash conjured up by Billy. So far it’s been calm and friendly enough, but there’s no saying how it'll react to levitating, or even if he can manage it without a lot of noise. “I’ll distract mom and you run him upstairs and give him a bath?”

“Okay.”

“Make sure to clean up after, got it?” Tommy flashes him a smile that does little to convince him his brother will follow through, but a car is on the line and Tommy hasn't been sent to the principal in almost two weeks, so there’s hope. “Okay, give me a few minutes and then go in.”

Billy closes his fingers tight around the strap of his satchel, knuckles growing whiter as he walks through the doorway, immediately greeted by mom’s cheerful, “Welcome home!”

He didn’t expect her to come out of the kitchen to greet him, but out she walks, lips spread in a broad, toothy smile. “Hi mom, um,” he has to get her away from the entry and the stairs, “gee mom, I'm awful hungry.” It sounds too fake, especially with the tummy pat he does along with it, and yet she cheerily waves him on into the kitchen where he takes a seat as an apple floats from the fruit basket and into his hand. “Thanks.”

“Where’s your brother?”

“Oh, um he had to stop at the library,” as he says it he knows it’s the wrong lie and that mom’ll see straight through it. “I...I forgot my math book and we figured he’d get it faster, didn’t want to be late for dinner.”

“Well that’s very nice of him.” Crisis averted, for now. Mom sits down next to him, a position that allows her to see out the kitchen and towards the front door, a factor Billy hadn’t calculated for when putting together their plan. “How was your day?”

“Oh, peachy keen,” which is true, up until they left the soda shop at least, “got an A on my history exam and I’m thinking of joining the—“

“Hi mom! Bye mom!” The words whip through the air as Tommy bursts through the door and disappears upstairs.

Besides his brother’s inability to understand stealth, another part of the plan he didn’t think through was the fact that Tommy never skips grabbing food the second he’s through the door. Which must be why mom’s eyes seem to be boring into his soul. “That was odd. I hope your brother is feeling well.” The words are of concern but said with a sharp and prodding edge.

“Oh well,” the rush of water through the pipes cements the oddity of it all, Tommy definitely not one to bypass food for a shower. Billy struggles to figure out a cover. “He spilled some malt on himself at the soda shop, must be sticky?”

This seems to ease some of the suspicion, “What are you thinking of joini-” that is until a muffled bark can be heard followed by a crash. A simple lift of her eyebrows sends a shiver down Billy’s spine, a scarlet sheen developing around her irises as she informs him, “I should check on your brother.”

Billy bolts out of his chair with a quick and shaky, “I’ll check on him,” and races up the stairs before mom can even respond. On his way up he hears a car pull into the driveway, meaning dad is home and that itself will buy him some time since mom will never pass up their disgustingly sappy welcome home routine.

Without knocking he enters the bathroom, making sure to shut and lock the door behind him, even if neither can stop their phasing dad or telekinetic mom. Immediately he can tell whatever has happened up here is a disaster. The trash bin is knocked over, it’s contents strewn across the red and yellow tiles. There is mud and drops of brown water clinging to every surface. Even the shower curtain hasn’t been spared, hanging limply from the last ring that survived whatever battle occurred. “What is going on?”

“Well,” Tommy’s in the bathtub, stripped down to just his underwear and the slightly cleaner than before dog is laying between his feet, tongue lolling happily out of its mouth. “He put up a pretty good fight.”

Billy grabs a towel from the wall, jumping at the clatter the towel rack makes as it falls to the ground. “We’re screwed.”

“Don’t have a cow, just,” Tommy waves his hands vaguely through the air while making a whooshing sound.

The suggestion isn’t a bad one, per se, really it’s the best option. Before doing anything rash, however, Billy thinks back to all the times mom sat him down to give him a lecture on when it is and is not appropriate to mess with reality and what the consequences are if it’s done too much. He’s already altered reality once today with the malt (admittedly something he shouldn’t have done) and he’s a bit wary to do it again if it’s not needed, even for something as small as fixing broken curtain rings. Which, really if he had to define it, maybe it’s not even reality altering but more so advanced telekinesis. Yeah, he could fix them by hand anyway, so it probably doesn’t count. “Fine, let me just,” gently he presses his powers out, feeling for the minds of his parents, careful not to fully touch them, lest they notice he’s prying, he just needs to know how much time he has. The quick sweep informs him that mom is currently halfway up the stairs. “Um, just stand still and don’t mess anything else up.”

“Roger that,” the salute is a bit much but still appreciated.

With eyes pinched shut, Billy throws his arms out wide, blue energy crackling along his skin. Once he feels stabilized, he opens his eyes and gets to work. The trash is whisked back into the bin, shower curtain and towel rod are pieced back together, and the mud and dirty water vanish from the walls, towels, and fixtures. At the sound of the door unlocking, a flick of his wrist closes the shower curtain on Tommy and the dog. “Everything okay up here?”

With a little too much cheerfulness he turns towards mom, her head leaning slightly to the side as she stares at him. “Everything’s just swell.”

The shower curtain parts slightly, Tommy’s face popping out and all Billy can focus on is his very noticeably dry hair. “Just swell ma. Gotta be squeaky clean for dinner!”

Billy finds his mouth moving faster than his thoughts, desperate to get mom’s attention away from Tommy, “Just want to look our best for dinner, they say it’s the most important meal of the day.” And he dies a little inside at how bad he is at improvising but it did at least take mom’s attention away from Tommy long enough to craft a shower cap over his brother’s hair.

What it didn’t accomplish was allaying any suspicion, mom’s already strained smile flickering with suspicion. “What are you two up to?”

Tommy’s, “Nothing at all!” is a little too fast and insincere and now that they’re looking at him again, Billy realizes the shower cap was a mistake as mom crosses her arms, the first sign that trouble is coming for them.

The second sign is the slow, dreadfully calm way she says, “Oh really?”

It is, of course, at this moment that there is a heavy flop accompanied by a panting sound behind the curtain. Mom takes a step towards the shower and Tommy, whose most consistent superpower is making a situation worse, ducks back behind the curtain and pants along with the dog, letting out a, “Man am I parched!” as if this is somehow a natural thing to say.

The third sign is the way mom’s head cocks to the side, eyes a bit dead and her hair the only thing with any liveliness. Then she smirks and he knows they’ve been caught. Billy lifts his hands at the same time as his mom, her scarlet energy ripping away the shower curtain and obscuring his own energy as he flails, hoping something happens.

“Mom!” Somehow the only sight before them is now a naked and soaking wet Tommy.

Billy sends a towel to wrap around his brother and tries hard to avoid making eye contact with either of them.

For their entire lives he has been lauded as the honest one, the mature one, the sensible one and all of that expectation is wrapped up in the way his name falls from his mom’s lips, “Billy?”

“I, um…”

A tinkling sound, like a wind chime, rises up from the floor and with it the crimson, vibranium laced head of their dad, “Wanda, darling, boys, time for,” he falters, face scrunching up before he sneezes.

“Vizh, are you okay?” All attention moves from the anomaly of the shower to the worryingly normal action of a sneeze coming from an unusual source.

Dad finishes phasing up through the tiles, pulling out a handkerchief from the pocket of his coat and dabbing his nose. “Oh yes, just allergies.”

“Allergies?”

“Yes, what a bother to deal with.” Dad says it so naturally and with such vim it’s hard not to believe he’s a long time sufferer of such an affliction.

Mom, however, remains dubious and transfixed, “Whatever are you allergic to?”

They all wait for the answer, curiosity thickening the air around them. Dad gives a little shrug and nonchalantly declares, “Dogs.”

Billy glances over at Tommy who angrily pantomimes that they need to keep quiet and pretend like nothing weirder than normal is happening. Thankfully their mom is still stuck on what their synthezoid father is saying, “Since when?”

“Since today!” An infectious cheerfulness abounds in dad’s explanation, hands moving about enthusiastically as he regales them. “At the water cooler everyone was complaining about their allergies and in order to be a cube******** I said something along the lines of ‘dog dander is just a yuck********* isn’t it.’ Then I realized that if any of my coworkers were to ever bring a canine around, that I would need to respond appropriately. Thus I heightened my olfactory sensors to recognize dog dander and reprogrammed my bodily response to be a sneeze if it’s presence is detected.” Dad leans towards them all with conspiratorial pride, “I even went to the pet store to test it out over lunch.”

“I wonder why your olfactory sensors thought there was a,” without even a hint of hesitation, mom’s scarlet tinged eyes snap back to them, “dog in the house?”

Billy considers phasing through the floor to escape but is rescued by dad, yet again, “Must have had some fur stuck to my jacket from the pet store. Knocked it loose when I came up to tell you all that dinner is ready and no doubt getting cold.”

Reluctantly mom drops it with a, “Tommy please put on clothes and both of you be downstairs pronto.”

Their, “yes, mom!” is synchronized and attempts to be upbeat.

Tommy waits barely two seconds after they leave to ask what’s been tumbling around in his mind, “Where did you send the dog?”

“I...I don’t know?”

“What?!”

Billy tries not to feel guilty about the mistake, especially since Tommy’s the reason they’re in this pickle, “It all happened so fast and I had to do something!”

Instead of responding, a gust of air blows past Billy as Tommy disappears and then reappears fully clothed. “We can figure it out later, I’m starving.”

******

At dinner Billy absentmindedly picks at his plate, stomach too unsettled by the unknown location of the dog and the seemingly omniscient stares from mom. “What do you all think?” Dad always asks this when he cooks, a question both from curiosity and pride of what he’s done.

Tommy, a human garbage pail, takes a break from stuffing his mouth, “It’s bitchin’.”

“Thomas,” this isn’t the compliment dad was seeking, “what have we covered about appropriate language?”

“Um,” they have covered a lot, or so Billy has heard from eavesdropping in, but Tommy always slips up anyways, the real test is in how he recovers. “I meant to say, gee it is just the bee’s knees.”

An appreciative nod from dad absolves his brother’s sin, “Well to that I say,” not that dad has eyebrows, in the traditional sense, but he is really good at giving the sense of wiggling big bushy ones in delight whenever he’s about to say something...youthful, “I dig it.”

Tommy, true to his loss at the soda shop, doesn’t flinch and even takes it a step further, “Anything you cook is made in the shade*********, dad.”

“That is a good thing?” Only after Tommy’s thumbs up does dad’s face break out into a victorious grin, “well cowabunga!”

“Vision, dear,” mom’s voice is amicable but far less complimentary than Tommy’s assessment, “Are you sure you used paprika?”

This seems to warrant investigation, dad standing up and hovering towards the stove, crimson fingers searching through the spices. It’s while everyone else is focused on the spicy answer that Billy senses another presence, a light tap tap tap drawing his eyes to the fluffy fur and bright pink tongue of the dog making its way towards the table. Billy tries to shoo it away with a couple of sparks of blue, but the dog persists, coming to sit right next to him. “Oh, it was cayenne!” With the dinner revelation concluded, Billy knows he only has seconds to act. Quickly he guides the dog under the table with a piece of chicken, his legs forming a makeshift cage around it.

Mom’s voice forces his attention back to the table, “Maybe you should leave the paprikash to me next time.”

“Oh Wanda, one day I will master i—achoo!” The sneeze is strong enough to send dad halfway through his chair, body solidifying once he’s floated back up to his seat, “Excuse me.”

Both Tommy and mom are staring at Billy now and he can’t decide who to acknowledge.

Mom smiles too sweetly at him. “What did you boys get up to today?” Each syllable is sharpened to perfection, an interrogation about to commence.

“Well, um, as I told you earlier,” having one conversation is difficult, especially when it’s tense and sure to be filled with lies, but having two is even harder. Billy sends a thought into his brother’s head, detailing where the dog is and that he is going to send the dog to Tommy who then needs to get it away from them. “We had school,” Billy opens his legs and nudges the dog with his foot. Instead of moving, it places its head in his lap. A tendril of blue leaves his finger and pulls the tablecloth over the the dog’s snout, “got our history tests back”

“Achoo!!”

“Went to the soda shop.”

“Achoo!”

Billy does his best to ignore his dad, too preoccupied with trying to pull the dog away with his powers, “Then we um,” but the dog thinks it’s a game and keeps coming back, “came home.”

“Achoo!”

“Where’s the dog?”

Mom’s voice leaves no room for disagreement or excuses, and yet Tommy still valiantly tries. “What dog?”

“Achoo!”

“This is ridiculous .” Three words and suddenly they’re all glowing red and five feet off the ground, the table going with them, leaving only a dogless floor below. “Billy, where’d you put it?”

Sweat has accumulated on his forehead from the energy it’s taking to keep up the ruse, “I don’t know wh,” and then there’s a woof! loud and clear from the basement. He hangs his head as he sends his powers down and phases the dog back up to the kitchen. Only then does mom put them back on the ground. “We were going to tell you.”

“Word from the bird L we were,” Tommy adds with utmost sincerity.

“I think,”

“Achoo!”

Mom rolls her eyes, her lips perking up at her husband’s plight. “Vision, can you turn off your allergy please?”

“Oh yes, of course.” All it seems to take is a quick shake of his head, nose crinkled for added effect, and his sneezing subsides. “I am now cured.”

“Wonderful, dear.” The sweetness in her voice segues to an uncomfortable neutrality. “Whose dog is this?”

Billy looks at Tommy and Tommy at Billy, neither seeming to be willing to talk. Billy mouths You lost and even though it is an admittedly weak argument, it seems to be persuasive. “We don’t know. Found it in an alley with no collar. He needed a bath,” understanding dawns on mom’s face, “and then we were going to tell you, honest.”

“William, Thomas,” full names always precede a lecture from dad, “I believe I speak for your mother and I when I say we are disappointed that you kept such a secret from us,” mom nods in agreeance, Billy’s heart sinking at the words, “we have tried to raise you to be comfortable with speaking to us and it is saddening to see you keep such innocuous secrets.”

“We’re really sorry,” and Billy means it.

“Never again,” Tommy’s sentiment is truly sincere but also more than likely a lie.

It’s enough for their parents, dad’s disappointment replaced with gratitude at their apologies and mom’s anger fading away as she speaks, “Thank you for the explanation.” Their parents share a little knowing look. “You know, your father and I…”

Dad takes over, turning his loving gaze towards his sons, “Yes, your mother and I have been talking about getting a family pet for some time now.,” He pats his knee, the dog happily trotting over, its tongue flopping about as dad scratches behind its ears, “it seems one managed to find us.”

“Cut the gas********! Are you serious?” Tommy is vibrating from so much excitement Billy won’t be surprised if he makes a hole in the floor.

“We are.” The dog barks, tail wagging as if it knows what’s going on. Dad bends lower to be level with their newest family member’s face, “What say you, Sparky, you want to stay with us?” Another bark confirms it, mom conjuring up a green collar with a diamond tag around its neck.

Billy can’t help but smile; it seems their misadventure didn’t go too poorly, something Tommy will no doubt brag about for months to come. “Oh and boys?”

“Yes, mom?”

“About the car,” Tommy can barely contain his joy at what this day is turning into, “I think this little incident resets your month.”

And joy exists no more in the Maximoff household, or so Tommy’s betrayed, “You can’t do that!” suggests.

Dad merely shrugs, “Rules are rules, Thomas, and I believe it is as you and your brother like to say: ain’t that the bite.”

1950’s language translator (for phrases not commonly used today):*

*Screamer: a hot rod ** Ginchiest: someone who is either very attractive or has a really nice personality *** Passion pit: Drive-in theater **** Backseat Bingo: making out in a car. ***** Metropolitan: type of car in the 1950s. I googled the worst cars of the 50s and it was high up on many lists. It was super compact and apparently not very fast. ***** Ain’t that a bite: Too bad ****** Flutter bum: very attractive man ******* Duck ass: type of hair style that is greased back into a ducktail like shape. ******** cube: normal person ********yuck: displeasure, annoyance ******** made in the shade: guaranteed success ********* word from the bird: no lie, I’m telling the truth **********Cut the gas: quit it, stop joking

#Billy kaplan #Tommy shepherd #vision #wanda maximoff #the maximoffs #scarlet vision #ask anon #replies #deathofink #mine #apparently tumblr won't allow for superscripts or multiple spaces in html anymore #so sorry for wonky formatting

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inkribbon796 · 3 years

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Flight of the Bomble Bee Ch. 1: Troubleshooting

Summary: Logan and Ethan take their new apprentices out to test equipment, and fail to not get themselves in trouble.

Chapters: 1, 2

In retrospect, Logan knew that taking Tubbo as an apprentice wasn’t the wisest decision. Not only was he a former young criminal, but he was completely unpredictable.

Tubbo had taken some thought on his superhero name: Bumble Bee. He enjoyed tinkering and threatening to test explosives in random parts of the city or the superhero base.

He reminded Logan a bit too much of the Duke on some days, but there were other days when Logan got to bask in the company of another scientist. Days when Tubbo would sit in Bing’s workshop with Logan and the other androids and he would tinker or build things. Tommy would come in and out to pester Tubbo and the young man would brush him off in the pursuit of trying to finish whatever he was building.

After a week or two of tinkering, Logan was rewarded for his patience with Tubbo by being the first to see Tubbo’s finished products.

Tommy was the second because Tubbo had spent his time building himself and Tommy streamlined superhero suits. Tommy’s was outfitted with speakers so he could play music if he wanted or shoot out concussive blasts of air. Tubbo’s fit a brown and black theme with all kinds of pockets and patches for him to hide all types of weapons and explosives. Then he started working on a third one that was a midnight black color that Logan initially — incorrectly — assumed was going to be Ghostbur’s outfit.

Tommy and Tubbo went out on a patrol with Ethan and the Core Sides. Ranboo had come to join their group because Tubbo was there, and what the heroes didn’t know is that the three teens were a bit of a package deal. Ranboo had wanted to check on Tubbo for a myriad of reasons, at first from a distance, and then he disappeared and reappeared a bit less human, and started walking with the group and just watching Tubbo and Tommy arguing.

Thomas came with in a new prototype suit that Logan had built for him, he was hesitant, but excited for a calmer mission. The new hero was more than a little excited for superhero missions, and had chosen the name: Iridescence. His outfit having a rainbow theme to it. Mostly to troubleshoot Tubbo’s new suits in the field. Even though Tubbo was spending half the time hijacking Tommy’s speakers so he could play his own playlists.

“Fook[1] you, man,” Tommy shoved Tubbo away from him as “Killer Queen” was playing on full blast from Tommy’s new speakers. “Play it from yer[2] own damn shit.”

“Nah, I didn’t wanna[3] bog down my own equipment with a speaker system, that’s what I got you fer[4],” Tubbo smiled, headbutting Tommy’s arm and side affectionately.

“Oh, fook[1] off,” Tommy rolled his eyes and stomped off to stand next to Ethan.

“What now?” Tommy smiled at Ethan.

“We got permission to test your suits in King’s park,” Ethan answered.

“What, like city hall had ta[5] give the okay fer[4] this?” Tubbo asked, sounding a bit confused. He walked a bit faster to catch up with Tommy.

“No, from King,” Ethan corrected. “Didn’t used to need one, but even since Phantom showed up, King said he needed to send a good message. So it’s mostly a formality.”

“King’s one ‘a[6] the Entity’s kids, isn’t he?” Tubbo asked, looking back at Logan.

“Yes,” Logan answered. “Although he has been very diligent about working with us for many years now. His loyalty is not to be called into question.”

“Nah, I wasn’t gonna[7], family don’t mean shit, I get that,�� Tubbo defended.

Logan mentally paused, there was a lot of charged emotion to metaphorically unpack in that statement. A lot of history that Logan didn’t think he’d even fully be trusted with.

“Oh no, Dark and King are close, but King’s on our side,” Patton tried to explain with a huge smile.

Logan quickly diverted the conversation to talking about the details of the sparring match. Which Virgil lost interest in, but he was noticing that Ranboo’s nervousness and apprehension wasn’t calming down. He was glancing at Tubbo and only seemed to be getting more highly strung. So Virgil tried to calm him down, even though he was awful at small talk.

“So, does everyone in the SMP take a class on shapeshifting?” Virgil asked Ranboo.

“Kinda,”[8] Ranboo admitted. “I was never really good at it, though.”

“You look fine to me,” Virgil told him.

“Thanks, but I can’t change my mouth, or my colors,” Ranboo confessed, pointing to his face mask. “I don’t know why there’s only so much my magic can do.”

“I’ll keep my eye on him, don’t worry,” Roman smiled, answering some comment that Logan and Tubbo had made about Ranboo. The two groups broke apart and quickly Roman cast an illusion so that Virgil, Thomas, and Roman could switch to their civilian outfits in secret with magic. They would have used more caution but Ranboo had already met them in both civilian and superhero outfits, so there was little point.

As they walked back to the other heroes, and loitered outside the park, watching Logan and Patton start the sparring match. Tommy quickly got a bit too rough and excited in the fight.

“Wanna[3] escape the madness?” Virgil offered Ranboo, leaning over.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Ranboo agreed uneasily.

“Good,” Roman smiled. “Virge, find Thomas a nice spot in the park. We’ll be along shortly.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “I’ll find a nice haunted spot next to the sewers.”

“No! Desist!” Roman ordered as Virgil chuckled before pushing Thomas into the park. Thomas looked confused.

Virgil cackled a little but as Roman was following them, he realized that Ranboo wasn’t taking a step into the park. He was glancing around and the young demon looked like someone was going to spring out of a bush and attack him.

“You alright?” Roman asked.

“Dark attacked me when I first walked into Egoton,” Ranboo explained. “I was trying to get groceries and I didn’t know where the boundaries were. I . . .”

Roman stared at Ranboo for a bit before calling out, “King!”

Almost immediately the animal magnet dropped out of a nearby tree, his squirrels scurrying around him. Ranboo stared at King in alarm and took a step back.

“King, meet Ranboo, his significant other works with us and he would like to enter your park,” Roman smiled.

“The SMP can go fuck themselves, but I’ll make an exception for him because he looks very polite,” King told Roman, pointing at Ranboo.

“Uhh, thanks,” Ranboo told him, and cautiously took a step into the park, and when he didn’t get yelled at or attacked, he took another.

“I can see why Dark targeted you,” King hummed. “You just radiate a certain energy.”

“What energy’s that?” Ranboo walked over to Roman and King.

“The kind that gets you killed or surprise adopted depending on his mood,” King warned. “So tell your parents to keep an eye on you.”

“I don’t have parents, or at least I don’t remember them,” Ranboo confessed.

King sucked in a deep breath, “Don’t tell him that, I have enough brothers.”

“Mm-mmm, okay, I won’t,” Ranboo promised.

“Don’t burn my park down, and we won’t have problems,” King said before he walked away.

Roman was quick to motion for Ranboo to follow him. “Come on, I gotta plan and it involves helping a prince find his prince charming and you and Virgil are helping.”

“O-Okay,” Ranboo repeated and followed Roman over to where Virgil was sitting with Thomas over by the park’s little food court area.

People had gathered around the hero exhibition at this point. Logan and Patton working together like a well oiled machine against Tommy and Tubbo, Ethan taking notes and sometimes cutting in to fight as well.

As the older heroes quickly found out, Tommy and Tubbo were not only experienced fighters, but were adept at working together. They enjoyed sparring, so the fight quickly got a little rougher than Logan would have preferred, but Tommy refused to go easy on them.

“Logic! Logic!” Roman raced over and caused Logan to get hit in the face by Tommy’s elbow. Thankfully his suit took all the damage and the worst it did was wound the logical Side’s pride.

“Shit,” Tommy pulled back, “I got yeh[9] good, man.”

“Oooh, that looked bad,” Roman hissed.

“I’m fine,” Logan dismissed, looking over to see Roman, Patton, and Thomas all in their superhero outfits. Ranboo was hanging back behind them, amongst the group of onlookers. “The suit was safety rated for worse blows.”

“Want me ta[5] test it with a sledgehammer?” Tommy offered.

“Another time,” Logan promised. “This suit is overdue a pressure test.”

“Yes!” Tommy pumped his fist down. “Nice!”

“So, I have the best news,” Roman gushed in overexcited glee, pushing Thomas closer. “Iridescence met someone. Someone amazing. It’s true love, I tell.”

“Uh, Princey, it’s a little too early for that,” Thomas tried to rebuttal as Patton let out an enraptured gasp.

“Interesting,” Logic looked from Roman to Thomas. “Were you all in costume when this happened?”

“Nah, don’t get your tie twisted, Specs,” Roman smiled. “We suited up afterwards so we could share the good news. He’s amazing, I tell you, a true wonder of the world.”

“I thoroughly embarrassed myself and toppled into a trash can,” Thomas corrected.

“It was awful,” Virgil agreed, with a goading smile on his face.

Logan led the group out of the park, it was getting dark. “I can see you’re going to be thoroughly distracted for the rest of the day,” Logan sighed as they started heading back.

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

Accessibility Translations:

1. Fuck

2. your

3. want to

4. for

5. to

6. of

7. going to

8. Kind of

9. you

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princesslocket · 3 years

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🧜‍♀️ Haimizu Little Mermaid AU 🧜‍♀️

Here’s another long AU idea thing I came up with. If you read this I hope you like it <3

The AU mostly follows Mizukamiya. He’s just a simple mermaid(man) who watches soccer players along the shores of a secluded island front that’s just barely visible from his underwater home. Although he plays a similar sport underwater, he can’t help but wonder what it would be like to play soccer on land with…legs!

One day Mizukamiya encounters a half shark mercreature who unintentionally grants him legs?! ((The half-octopus had just stolen a potion from a shady backwater alleyway that would grant them one of their hearts deepest wish and was hurriedly trying to sneak away with it when they bumped into Mizukamiya, spilling it onto the mermaid and thus granting him his wish)). Since his ‘transformation’ had happened so suddenly Mizukamiya was rushed to the surface by the half-octopus where he was quickly dumped onto the sand. When he turned around to thank the half-shark all he saw was a pair of glaring brown eyes before said eyes dove back under the water.

For the rest of the day Mizukamiya worked on learning how to walk. It took a great amount of effort since he was only ever accustomed to swimming around in the water but over the course of the day he figured out to move without falling face forward every other step. Around the time the sun began to set he found a pair of tattered clothes to where along with a makeshift shelter to sleep under for the night! When morning came around Mizukamiya would wander the shore some more in search of food, seeing as he could no longer eat what he was usually given underwater… During his search he’d wind up finding a group of teens playing soccer?! ((Luckily he had wandered to the area where his home was located near)). When he approached the group they happily let him join in. Around lunch time they all shared mini sandwiches and even offered Mizukamiya some spare clothes, all to which he graciously accepts. Unfortunately the group is unable to go start any other match afterwards because they all leave when a certain gray-haired guy heads their way. Mizukamiya is the only one to stay because he really doesn’t have anywhere else to go and because he doesn’t want to be rude.

The two don’t really end up talking… Mizukamiya tries to start up little conversations here and there but the other guy pretty much ignores him as he picks up liter along the shorelines. ((Mizukamiya helps clean up too- Placing trash into the bag the gray-haired guy is holding but other than that, it’s the only interaction they have)). For the next few days this cycle repeats. Mizukamiya playing soccer with the teens who journey to where he’s at, eating borrowed lunches, and then cleaning up with the guy, who he later finds out is named Haizaki. By the end of his first week of having legs, Mizukamiya is wondering how and if he’ll ever be able to return to the water. ((He’s tried going back in but has failed to make his tail or water breathing reappear)). He’s kind of growing desperate- So one night he tries to swim as far down as he can to find that half shark but alas his body doesn’t allow him to stay under long and he almost starts drowning but thanks to Haizaki, he’s brought back to the surface where’s he’s then scolded by the other. And since he can’t explain himself he just sits there and takes it before quietly muttering “you wouldn’t understand.”

After the incident Haizaki stops showing up. The soccer players also stop coming around, however their soccer ball is still there so Mizukamiya plays around with it every now and then… He’s been on the surface for about 2 weeks and hasn’t tried to go back in the water. He’s kind of come to terms that he’ll never be able to go back but surprise, surprise, just when he least expects it the half-octopus suddenly appears in front of him one afternoon, with legs?! They offer Mizukamiya a potion that will reverse the effects of his wish and just as he’s about to take it, Haizaki stops him- A soccer ball rams right into the potion, knocking it into the sand- The half-octopus and Mizukamiya look to Haizaki with shocked expressions. Haizaki takes Mizukamiya away and later reveals some shocking information about the half-octopus. ((Spoiler- The half-octopus is a bad guy who was going to poison Mizukamiya for reasons unknown)). The two of them then hide out at Haizaki’s place for the night. They end up forming somewhat of a friendship as they bond over their love of soccer and so on.

The next day they head into town to meet a few of Haizaki’s friends ((Tsunami, Tachimukai, Okuno and Akane)) and while talking Mizukamiya learns how each of them where once apart mermaids too, well minus Haizaki and Tachimukai, but they all end up forming a plan to get back at the half-octopus. Because of yeah! The half-octopus actually hadn’t been back to the surface for years until Mizukamiya showed up. So… They use Mizukamiya as bait to lure the half-octopus to where they last encountered them and sure enough the half-octopus shows up. From there the teens capture them and demand to be turned back to their former selves. The half-octopus only laughs at them, telling them the way to turn back is if a sacrifice is made. Of course nobody believes them but since the half-octopus drinks a bottle of poison before they can stop them, they’re kind of stuck with being human. Mizukamiya goes to bed with a heavy heart that night.

A month goes by before Mizukamiya starts to feel better. He’s slowly come to terms that this is his new life—He lives in a studio apartment next door to Haizaki and has more or less adapted to the human life style thanks to Tsunami and Akane’s advise. He’s also become the captain of the local soccer club! ((It’s a different group of teens from the ones he had been playing with earlier in the story)). And lastly, he’s become practically best friends with Haizaki and the group! ((He’s even got a small crush on Haizaki too)).

One night, Haizaki invites him out for a barbeque on the beach along with the rest of their friends. When they arrive Mizukamiya’s finds both Tsunami and Akane swimming around in the water. At first glance nothing appears to be out of place but when he gets closer he finds that their legs have been replaced with tails?! Tachimukai is the one to awkwardly explain how they transformed back- through a kiss… Mizukamiya had sensed some romantic tension throughout the group but had never paid any mind to it… until now so when he catches Tsunami staring fondly at Tachimukai he forces himself to look away with a laugh, congratulating everyone. ((And possibly crying on the inside because he knew Haizaki didn’t feel the same way about him)). But oh wait- A hand grabs his own, guiding him away from their friends and towards a more secluded area. He doesn’t get a chance to say anything because Haizaki kisses him as soon as they’re out of sight. And just like that Mizukamiya’s legs are replaced with a tail! Haizaki has to carry him back after that ((all the while grumbling about how heavy Mizukamiya is)). But when they rejoin the group Mizukamiya is placed into the water. From there the group congratulates each other and eventually eat before Tachimukai, Okuno, and Haizaki all wave goodbye. Since he wasn’t expecting them to leave, Mizukamiya tries to get back onto the surface but is pulled back by Akane who, with tears in her eyes, tells him that they can’t be on land anymore. Tsunami tries to lighten the mood by telling them they’re friends will be back the following day, but deep down Mizukamiya knows they won’t…

Several weeks go by and Mizukamiya has adjusted back to his old lifestyle under water. He’s welcomed back home with open arms and a very teary-eyed mother. Tsunami and Akane have both returned to their families and regularly keep in touch with Mizukamiya but everything just feels so different now. Mizukamiya misses life on land, which in retrospect wasn’t all that bad considering how he now preferred living on land rather than in the ocean. Another few days pass and he’s greeted by Tsunami, Akane, and their parents, along with his own. They all journey back to the shoreline where they last saw Tachimukai, Okuno, and Haizaki. From there Mizukamiya is given a necklace that will grant him legs for as long as he wears it. ((Akane and Tsunami had received theirs earlier that morning)). His mom tells him to go live his life on land, having been fully aware of his changed attitude at returning to the ocean. Mizukamiya thanks her and joins his friends as they each put on their necklaces to return to the surface --- The shocked expressions their human friends have are priceless…

And that’s all folks! I had posted this in a WAY SHORTER summary on Twitter a while back but uhhh never finished it. I still kind of want to make this into an actual fic and fix it up some more but who knows if that’ll ever happen. For now I hope you enjoyed this AU as it is. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it too by the way!!!

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

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Colony of Gotham (7/7)

The Colony of Gotham is an urban legend that is whispered about in the dangerous city. It’s said the Colony is a family of demons and spirits that stalk the night, hunting for the souls of the guilty.

When Bruce became Batman, he’d never intended to be mistaken for a demon. He was happy to lean into it, though, and as he gained his partners – as his family grew – they all followed suit.

First Part ~ Previous Part

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

Once Tigress had escorted Flash and Young Justice to the Watchtower and had calmed everyone down, she explained that the Colony was not, in fact, malevolent.

She told them that the family was simply territorial of the area they protected. Their actions had just been them making their point in their typical chaotic and playful way. She and Flash had encountered some of the Colony the night before and after assuring them they would continue to keep their business out of the city, the bats and birds had agreed to a truce. The Flash's kidnapping was just Flash wanting to get in on the joke. He was meant to show up that night with a figurative olive branch from the Colony, but then Young Justice had rushed in and the Colony reacted in kind by capturing them. They then informed Flash so he and Tigress could return them. The team was reprimanded for rushing in without backup and Flash was given extra monitor duty as punishment for his trick. He accepted it graciously, having expected it.

When they made it back to Gotham, Dick explained Damian’s past to Artemis and Wally. The latter was not pleased to discover the young boy he’d been teasing and calling cute for years was an assassin.

“He might be a former assassin, but he’s still adorable.”

“No, Dick, you don’t call people who can and will slit your throat if you upset them adorable. You could have warned me! I nearly died!”

“A lot,” Jason added from off to the side where the rest of Dick’s siblings were watching the show with popcorn.

“Damian wouldn't have actually killed you,” Dick argued.

“Maybe just maimed you a little. But hey, you heal fast.”

“Not helping Tiny Jay,” Dick hissed as Wally pointed at Tim and nodded.

“Maimed! I could have been maimed! Just because I heal fast doesn’t mean getting maimed doesn’t hurt!”

“Dami never meant to kill. Dami only meant to maim or seriously injure,” Carrie croaked from right behind the speedster, causing him to jump with a shriek.

“No voice filters in the manor,” Dick huffed at her before turning to his siblings as a whole. “Guys, please stop traumatizing my partners!”

Artemis, who until this point had been pinching the bridge of her nose, looked up with a murderous expression. “YOU STARTED IT!”

When Bruce and Selina returned from their honeymoon, the kids explained what had happened.

Bruce would never admit it, but he was proud of how the kids handled the situation. They ensured the other teams wouldn’t interfere in Gotham and limited the amount of information that got out about them to people who were already trusted. That said, he would have preferred they had taken the situation more seriously, which he made sure they knew.

No matter how amusing the recordings Barbara had shown him of the heroes’ reactions were.

He also would have preferred no information got out about them, but he knew it was only a matter of time for those who did find out. Young Justice was just a little too invested in Tim’s wellbeing, not that he was complaining, so they were sure to notice something eventually. As for Wally and Artemis, he’d been waiting for this since they’d found out the family’s other secret.

Selina had bet the engagement announcement would happen first, but he knew Dick wouldn’t have agreed without all secrets coming to light first.

He was a little less forgiving of the rest of the kids taking this as permission to tell their friends.

He wasn’t too annoyed with Damian as Jon had already suspected there was something different about the family (he was too much like his mother) and he mostly excused Stephanie and Bette seeing as Cassie already knew, which meant they were more likely to mess up in the group chat. He didn’t say anything to Barbara, partly because she wasn’t really his (no matter how much he cared for her) and partly because she’d somehow managed to convince Hank and Dawn she was still a demon.

He did have talks with Dick, Jason, and Carrie though. Kory might have been a friend of the family for longer than Jason had been a member (as Dick had been quick to point out in his defense), but they hadn’t been as close since the breakup. Artemis Grace tended to be a wild card in regards to her loyalties and her team had a looser grasp on the law then most others in their business (Jason took offense to this, of course, even if he didn’t object). As for Traci, they simply didn’t know her (No, Carrie, a two day round trip does not give you plenty of time to know a person. No, I don’t care if you managed to convince her you were a demon. Barbara’s situation is different!).

There was a bright side to this, though. The mix of information that the heroes had ended up causing a few amusing situations.

One such situation came up a few months later when Tim, Stephanie, and Bette were hanging out with their friends at Mount Justice. Bette offhandedly mentioned to Cissie that Damian’s mother was part of “the League” right before the three Gothamites got called away. This resulted in Cissie, who thought the Robins were human, gossiping with Roy, who thought Robin was a demon, about how “Batman totally knocked up someone in the JL and Robin’s the result.” This resulted in Oliver, who’d been eavesdropping, ending a League meeting by asking if anyone knew who’d spawned the Bloody Robin. The information reached anyone even remotely connected to the League within twenty-four hours.

The Colony just sat back and watched the accidental chaos, obviously.

The most common theory was Wonder Woman, though no one was willing to suggest it anywhere she might hear. One of Hawkgirl’s past lives was also a popular theory, and she was horrified when she realized she couldn’t be sure it wasn’t true.

It came to a head when the Titans decided to have a get together of current and former Titans and Teen Titans. Guests were allowed, so Kory and Roy invited Artemis Grace and Bizarro. Assuming the event would be boring and wanting to either have someone who would lighten it up or be bored with her, Artemis only agreed to come if Red Hood came too. To the horror of everyone not in the know, Kory not only agreed, but decided to extend the invite to all the younger members of the Colony.

Nightwing and Robin arrived first with Tigress and Flash, the older bird arm in arm with Tigress while the younger was sitting on Flash’s shoulders. Both gave too wide grins as they waved at the Titans and Teen Titans who were already gathered. Robin dropped limply off Flash’s shoulders and hit the ground in a roll before running off to drape herself over Thirteen.

Batgirl, Hawkfire, and Lark arrived next with Cassie and Donna, to the latter’s obvious discomfort. They were quickly joined by Cissie and Kara as Donna went off to greet her friends. Batgirl took great joy in disappearing and reappearing around the room, while Lark took great joy in selling her out every chance he got since he could always see where she was. Hawkfire was equally thrilled to use the voices of anyone who got near, having made sure to study up on as many people who’d be at the party as possible so she could mimic their voices.

The rest of Young Justice arrived shortly later with Superboy, Corvid, and Robin. The last surprised most of the people who’d already been there, until they realized Robin was no longer at Thirteen’s side despite many being sure she’d been there only a second before. Throughout the party Robin seemed to disappear from Thirteen’s side, only to reappear across the room at Superboy’s within a second. Some even swore they’d seen Robin in two places at once, but no one was ever sure. Meanwhile Corvid’s speech pattern had him sticking close to a member of the Colony or Kory so they could translate for him.

No one was exactly sure when Black Bat and Bluebird arrived. They were simply there, hovering around some of the others or hidden off in a corner. No one ever seemed to notice Black Bat come or go between groups either. She always seemed to just be there.

Pythia had been there from the beginning, but she mostly just kept to herself, watching and listening through the cameras, until Hawk and Dove arrived. Then she whispered at them through the nearest speaker. This meant the two mostly stayed off to the side on their own, but neither felt any need to complain.

Roy, Artemis, Bizarro, and Red Hood arrived after the party was already in full swing with no reason for being late other than a joke from Roy about being fashionable. Red Hood had a similar experience to Corvid, though Kory could not translate for him while Artemis and Bizarro could. Artemis had placed a comm into her ear for the occasion, but not even the Colony could explain how Bizarro managed to always know what Red Hood was saying.

Despite the Colony’s eccentricities, the party went smoothly.

Until someone brought up Robin’s heritage, at least.

The Robin with Thirteen snickered when she heard and disappeared into the shadows. Corvid, who had also been near, shook his head and let her slip under his cape as he headed towards where Kon and Lark were talking.

The debate began to spread until Beast Boy huffed and turned to Bluebird. “So who popped out the demon spawn?”

The room fell silent and a few people gave him terrified expressions before glancing at the Colony. The shapeshifter squirmed, not having meant for his voice to be as loud as it was.

The thing was, every Robin had been referred to as a demon spawn at multiple points in their lives, and Black Bat had had the title thrown at her a few times too. As such the group couldn’t help themselves.

With eerie synchrony, Dick, Stephanie, Bette, Duke, Damian, and Carrie all answered, “My mom.”

Most noticed that Jason, Tim, and Cass had all answered as well in growls, trills, and sign language respectively, which only added to the confusion or horror everyone in the room was feeling.

Those who knew the group to be the Wayne family and associates were confused about why they had all answered, and why answer like that as they had thought their friends had separate mothers. Didn’t they? Those who knew they were not actually demons were also thrown by how the group had managed to speak as one.

Meanwhile those who knew nothing were terrified as they came to the incorrect conclusion that a member of the Justice League had somehow managed to spawn most of the Colony without anyone finding out.

The Colony refused to say any names, but otherwise most of them were happy to answer questions about their mother. This really only managed to confuse people more, however. Especially when people would get conflicting answers. That was near always, really, as Nightwing was describing his mother; Red Hood was describing Catherine Todd; Corvid was switching between his mother and Selina; Batgirl was switching between her mother, Kate, Selina, and Talia (the middle two purely for the amusement and the last for the looks she’d get from Robin whenever he caught her at it); Hawkfire was describing her mother; Black Bat was just gesturing for Bluebird to describe her own mother; Lark was describing his mother; and both Robins were describing Selina (though Damian would later state it was purely for the consistency with his fellow Robin).

It was only after the party when the Colony, Young Justice, Tigress, Flash, Starfire, Artemis, Arrowette, Supergirl, Superboy, and Thirteen retreated to the cave that anyone got a real answer.

“Oh, Dami’s mother is from the League of Assassins, not the Justice League. There must have been a mix up somewhere.”

Surprisingly, this did not bring relief to anyone. Especially when they found out his mother was none other than Talia al Ghul.

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

One calm day, Artemis dragged her partners down to the cave’s sparring mats so she could see what Dick could do firsthand. He did not disappoint as he quickly pinned Wally.

“Well, this explains why Jade seems to like him so much,” the speedster muttered from his place facedown on the mat.

Artemis frowned as Dick sat next to their boyfriend, patting his back. “Wait… Oh my God, Dick! You sa-Is tea code for getting your butt kicked by my sister?”

Dick looked up with a sheepish grin. “No, tea is code for kicking your sister's butt.”

“You…”

He shrugged. “In her defense, she wasn’t expecting someone with my level of training. The fight would have been much closer if she had been.”

Wally looked up with wide eyes. “Hold on, she actually tried to kill you then?”

Dick gave Artemis a look. “You probably should have told her we were together. She thought Wally had cheated on or dumped you. I thought it was actually kind of sweet, really, but Bruce was ticked when he found out and I think Jason was considering hunting her down.”

Artemis threw her hands in the air and marched off. She dug her phone out of her pocket.

“‘Ello?” Jade’s sleepy voice answered.

“You tried to kill my boyfriend!”

“Oh, you found out about that?”

“Why didn't you tell me he could fight? And well enough to defeat you.”

“You didn’t know? Why did you think I approved? I don’t approve of the speedster and he has powers. He really needs to learn how to fight without relying on them.”

Artemis could admit she had a point on both fronts, but wouldn’t admit it. “Dick’s sweet and charming. I swear if he had a superpower it would be making friends. I just thought he’d made you like him.”

“Yes. By being a competent fighter. Although if he’s going around bragging about defeating me I might need to teach him a lesson, being brothers with an al Ghul or not.”

“Wait, you knew about his brother being Ra’s al Ghul’s grandson too?” Artemis choked.

“You really need to pay more attention to who you’re dating.”

“Who’s dating the brother of an al Ghul?”

Artemis blushed. “Is that Roy? Are you two still together?”

“It’s complicated. And before you freak out, we were just sleeping when you called. Actually sleeping.” Quieter, likely from holding the phone away, she heard Jade say, “Artemis is. Her little Gotham squeeze has league connections.”

“Jade,” Artemis hissed.

“League. You mean Damian? Of course he’s… Hold on!” There was some static and then Roy was talking directly into the phone. “I’m coming to Gotham.”

“No.”

He came to Gotham. He showed up right on the porch of Wayne Manor hours later looking more excited than she’d seen him in years.

“Please tell me Damian Wayne is who I think he is,” he said as soon as she marched up to where he was waiting outside. “Please tell me he is because I need to know if everyone has been freaking out thinking Robin’s the kid of Wonder Woman when he’s actually Talia al Ghul’s spawn.”

“Please tell me you didn’t ditch my sister to come here,” she shot back, glancing around to be sure her sister wasn’t hiding in any shadows.

“She took off after we had morn-”

“Nope. Shut up.”

“So is he?”

Artemis glanced over her shoulder to see Wally and Dick watching. Dick shrugged and she sighed. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m not ruining it. So Jason is Hood.”

“Yes.”

“And Dick is -”

“Yes.”

“This is amazing.”

“If you get yourself shot don’t come crying to me.”

“I’d die happy. You haven’t heard the things Ollie and Dinah have been saying. This is the best inside joke I’ve ever heard and I hate you for keeping it from me.”

“I only found out after the Titan party last week.”

“That’s an entire week where you kept me out of the loop.”

“You want to come in for food or are you going to go track down my brother?” Dick called.

Roy shrugged and they started for the door before his eyes widened and he glanced between the three. “So that stuff about Flamebird?”

“He was just messing around to tease Wally and freak out the League. Just like everything he and his family have done since Zatanna dragged them into the spotlight. That’s how I realized he was Nightwing. They are exactly the same level of troll.”

“I love everything about this.”

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

“Are you sure?” Dick asked.

“Absolutely not,” Wally said, but grabbed the blood bar Dick was holding out anyway.

“If you don-

“We’re fine,” Artemis said, grabbing her own bar. “Wally’s just whining like usual.”

“I’m just saying, we have no idea how this will affect me.”

“Duke’s a meta and he was fine.”

“He’s not connected to the Speed Force.”

Dick reached forward to grab Wally’s bar. “You don’t have to -

“I want to,” Wally said, jerking the bar away, grabbing Dick’s hand with his free one. “I do. I’m just nervous.”

“As per usual,” Artemis teased and kissed the speedster's cheek. Dick stepped closer and she kissed him as well before pulling the wrapper off her bar. She met their eyes, then took a bite.

She began to sway as she finished it so Dick helped her over to the bed. All the while Wally tossed his bar between his hands. He pulled it open and frowned down at it.

Dick pulled him to the bed once Artemis was settled. “It’s alright if you want to back out. Neither of us would blame you.”

Wally shook his head and sat down. “I want this, I do. I just can’t stop thinking about what could go wrong. Like, what if my body already burned through whatever it is that’s supposed to turn me.”

Dick cocked his head and slipped into his lap. He leaned down to nuzzle Wally’s neck, earning a sharp intake. “I can bite you while you eat it. Then your body won’t have time.”

The speedster shivered and swallowed. His free hand came up to card through Dick’s hair as he gave a quick nod.

Smiling, Dick peppered a few teasing kisses across his jugular before biting down.

Wally shivered again and melted into Dick for a moment before bringing the bar up and taking a bite. He finished it off quickly as Dick pulled away.

“It doesn’t taste like blood,” he said with a frown, tossing aside the wrapper as he licked his lips. “I don’t know what it tastes like, but it isn’t blood.”

“That means it’s working,” Dick said.

“Really?”

“You think Stephanie would have downed an entire bottle of blood by accident if she could taste it the same way a human does?” Dick pressed a kiss to the corner of Wally’s mouth. “Blood has a special flavor to us unlike anything else.”

Wally hummed and kissed Dick until his mind started to fog up. Dick helped him lay back then covered him up when the fever took him.

The bird took a moment to just stare down at the two, his thumb brushing the band on his left ring finger.

It was made from strips of black and gold titanium twisted together with rubies peaking through the cracks. It matched the one on Artemis’s hand, gifts from their wonderful fiancé.

Dick gave both a quick peck then left them to rest.

Things were sure to get crazy soon enough, especially once the announcements went out, but for now, Dick would revel in the calm and the feeling of family.

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

Vampires’ animal forms:

Artemis: North American cougar

Wally: Vizsla dog

#batman #batfam #colony of gotham #fanfiction

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falseroar · 4 years

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((Abe, a monster hunter, is distracted from chasing down a particular Colonel when he hears a rumor that he can’t let go without looking into it for himself.

Based on today’s prompt for Trail 5 of the Ten Trails Whump Challenge, “Muzzle”, this sort of went off track. Like I mentioned yesterday, think of this as a sort of in between story, after ITYC but a few years short of the present day.

Warnings: mentions of blood, animal cruelty, and light swearing))

Abe knew he shouldn’t be here. He had his own leads to follow, his own personal monster to hunt down, but he also knew that as soon as he heard the rumor, as soon as he heard that single word, he had no choice but to come and check it out.

Not that he bothered to share why he was so invested, when he came to this little village out in the middle of nowhere. He barely even had to ask any questions, as the people recognized him as a hunter as soon as they saw him and were excited to share what was probably the first interesting thing that had happened here in years. A couple of guys he didn’t bother to learn the names of immediately offered to show and tell him everything.

Everything about the werewolf.

“When did you say they showed up?” Abe asked as they led him deeper into the woods outside of town. The way they jumped at every crack of a twig and hint of a shadow, he guessed the village probably already had its own stories about the place before the recent arrival.

“Not sure exactly, but three days ago is when it came into the village looking for supplies,” one guy, the taller one who walked with a swagger when he wasn’t nervous, said. “Bought normal stuff for a traveler, but the butcher noticed when it came in and put in an order for meat, a lot of meat. More than one person traveling on their own should need.”

“How did you know that they were alone?” Abe asked, ducking under a tree limb and noting that despite the recent signs of multiple people passing this way recently, they weren’t following a normal trail.

The other guy, who had a way of smiling that made Abe check to make sure his gun was within easy reach, shrugged and answered, “Because there wasn’t anyone else with it? Some of us weren’t sure if it even knew how to really talk to people, the way it mumbled and wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. First sign something was off about it.”

Abe took a deep breath and released it slowly, trying hard to rein in his always short temper. He could save what he wanted to say to that until after he didn’t need these two anymore, although he felt his fingers twitch every time they said the word “it.”

“So how did you go from ‘there’s a new stranger in town’ to ‘werewolf’, exactly?” Abe asked, already prepared to learn that this was a wild goose chase that ended with him nursing a drink and hopes so dashed it was a wonder they kept coming back.

Again.

“Well, at first we were thinking it was a witch,” the taller man said. “Because it started asking around about herbs and plants and that night some of the teens spotted it walking outside the village walls at night, picking something in the moonlight.”

The other man smiled again and added, “And then their parents had a lot of questions about what they were doing out at night themselves, like we all didn’t know the answer to that.”

The two snickered, but the noise gradually died away into an awkward silence when the hunter didn’t join in until the taller man continued his story.

“But then old Mercer remembered that a farmer out near Wayforth told him that he’d seen a big beast back at the last full moon, and three of his cows had been killed by something big, and it would have got into Wayforth if their wards hadn’t held. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a full moon coming up the next night.”

The other man looked over his shoulder at Abe and said, “Well, it didn’t take much to put two and two together from there, did it? Us and a bunch of other men in the village talked about it all night and came up with a plan on how to deal with it.

“The butcher’s wife knew where some of those wolfsbane flowers grow, and they came up with a way to sort of test it, you know? Basically, she ground up some powder, and he mixed it into one of the packs of meat it was supposed to come and pick up. Lo and behold, when it came in the next day, it immediately snuffed out something was wrong and asked about that one pack, and when they said it was just some seasoning that must have got mixed in, it wouldn’t take it.”

The two men stopped when they realized Abe wasn’t following them and looked back to find the hunter staring at them in disbelief.

“Wolfsbane is poisonous, and not just to werewolves,” he pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but they planned on switching it out if it wasn’t a werewolf,” was the answer he got. “Sure, it was a waste of meat, but we had to know, didn’t we?”

The taller man added, “It didn’t want to stick around after that, but a group of us were already set up to follow it. We had planned on figuring out where it was holed up and coming back with something to take care of it for good, maybe a fire or something, but it realized we were after it somehow and took off running.”

“Not surprising,” Abe said. “A werewolf can hear your heartbeat and catch your scent long before you have eyes on them.”

He strode ahead of the two men, eyes on the less than subtle markers from yesterday’s chase. “So you tried to chase down someone you believed to be a werewolf. How’d that go for you?”

“Followed them all the way here,” one of the men answered him, just as Abe found where the trail ended.

It was a cave, or more like a tiny hole under a large rock outcropping, that looked like it could have been home to a bear or some other wild animal except most wild animals didn’t leave a store of chopped wood and gathered stones in neat piles outside.

Abe pulled a lighter from one of his many pockets and looked in before ducking under the low stone ceiling. The small light caught the circle of stones around the cold remains of a campfire, a worn pack resting against one earthen wall, various bags of recently bought groceries, and the mounds of wrapped meat hastily thrown to the other side.

“Why would they come back here when they were being chased?” he asked aloud, only to realize that he was alone. Looking over his shoulder, he could see the two guys standing at a distance from the mouth of the cave with their hands in their pockets, slouched as though they were just waiting around and not scared to come in here.

He rolled his eyes and looked back at the meager possessions left behind. He was surprised the food was still here after an entire night, but then he doubted any animal would be brave or desperate enough to come in here while the scent of a werewolf was still hanging around. The herbs they had been so interested in gathering were carefully sorted and bundled together in separate stacks, and after identifying a couple Abe suspected he knew what they had in mind long before he started looking through the pack.

A change of clothes, barely any money, a piece of paper folded and refolded so many times that it was soft to the touch, and at the bottom of the pack, a tiny drawstring bag that was so tightly knotted that it took one of Abe’s knives to get it open.

A single silver ring fell out into the palm of his hand, the letters inside barely legible with just his lighter to see by.

It took Abe so long to come back out that the two men were visibly relieved when the hunter reappeared and leaned heavily against the rock wall. He blinked a couple of times before remember the paper in his hand, which he carefully unfolded and began to read in the sunlight.

“What’s that?” the man with the uncomfortable smile asked.

“A recipe,” Abe said after a second. “Seen it around a few times, it supposedly makes a werewolf docile if taken on the night of a full moon.”

“Really?” the taller man asked. “Never heard of anything like that.”

“Because it doesn’t work,” Abe said. “Trust me, I’ve seen every so-called remedy or cure out there, and every one is concocted by a con artist or someone desperate enough to try anything. I heard of one guy selling a brew that didn’t so much cure a werewolf as leave them too weak to stand for half a month. Would have killed anything else that drank it.”

There was that smile again as that one asked, “Wouldn’t happen to know where we could get some of that, would you?”

“Not anymore,” Abe answered. “Someone else got to him before I did.”

Abe still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. By the time he got there, there was no sign of the crook, and every note and sample of his “cure” had either been destroyed or taken with him. Just as he wasn’t sure what the man’s fate might have been if he had caught up with him first.

So, one dud recipe to keep a werewolf calm during a full moon, enough meat to keep the wolf occupied for a while, and, judging by the stones piled up nearby, a plan to temporarily seal the entrance to the cave. They were setting up to weather a full moon, and instead these stupid wannabe vigilantes had chased them off.

By the time he was finished swearing, the other two were standing at a distance and looking ready to run themselves.

“Which way did they go?” Abe asked, stepping forward as they took another step back. “What did they look like?”

The two shared a look before the taller man said, “You mean you don’t know?”

Abe led the way back to the village, not outright running but apparently walking fast enough to leave the other two breathless and barely able to point him in the direction of the blacksmith’s workshop. The blacksmith saw him coming and had enough of a sense of self preservation to unlock the door and get out of the way long before the hunter reached him.

Abe slammed the door open and immediately regretted it when he saw the creature on the other side of the room flinch and cower away. The clink of iron chains didn’t quite drown out a weak whimper from the massive wolf that tried, and failed, to stand up as he moved closer. The full moon was gone, but it was possible they either didn’t have the strength or the will to change back.

The hunter stopped short halfway across the room when his eyes adjusted to the light, the crashing disappointment of realizing that the shade of the wolf’s coat and its eyes weren’t the one he desperately, stupidly hoped to see twisting and tangling itself up in the twin ache of seeing the muzzle wrapped around the wolf’s snout and head, the straps so tight after they changed that they were cutting into the skin in some places.

Funny, how quickly those feelings could turn into barely restrained rage.

Without turning around or looking behind him, Abe gathered enough control of his voice to say, “You put a muzzle. On a werewolf.”

The men seemed oblivious to the tone in his voice, but the werewolf’s ears twitched and one tired, bloodshot eye opened to look at him.

“Great, isn’t it?” He could hear the smile in the other man’s voice as he continued, “It was my idea for Blake to grind down some silver into dust, we coated the muzzles and chains in the stuff. Still thought it might escape when it went all hairy on us, but it worked!”

Silver dust. Abe could hear the labored breathing, see the short spasms as each of the wolf’s breaths brought in a fresh dose of poison. There were broken handcuffs on the werewolf’s front legs, below the heavy leg irons that must have been added afterwards to match the pair on their hind legs, both sets clearly old, but what he had mistaken for rust before was actually dried blood. A thick chain connected the leg irons to a ring on the wall which looked one or two more pulls away from being torn off. If not for the silver, they would have been able to escape easily, and under the influence of the full moon slaughtered who knows how many in the village.

He tried to keep that in mind, he really did, but then the man kept talking.

“Silver’s really the only stuff that works on these monsters, isn’t it? We tried all kinds of stuff last night, but nothing stuck. Probably a good thing though, since Mercer talked to his farmer friend and found out the Bronsons will pay out in exchange for a monster their institute can practice on. We just didn’t expect you to get here so fast, or I would have had a little more fun. Although if you want to give it a go, that fire poker over there—”

The crack of Abe’s fist against that stupid smile stung, but it felt good to see the guy crumple to the ground and finally stop talking.

He looked up at the guy’s buddy who was too shocked to do anything and said, “We have a strict policy against...you know what, just generally being an asshole.”

“Uh…”

Before the taller guy could catch up, Abe flashed his hunter’s badge with the assurance that no one in town would know the difference between him and the institute’s employees and started talking quickly. “Right, lucky for the institute I was already in the area. You got the keys that go to these cuffs and locks?”

“They’re on the anvil, but don’t you have a cage or something you need to bring in first?” the guy asked.

“Don’t need it,” Abe said, reaching into another pocket and pulling out a small drawstring bag. “You can’t cure a werewolf, but with the right stuff a good hunter can keep it under control.”

He made a show of holding the bag near the werewolf’s snout, who looked from him to the clearly visible outline of the ring inside the fabric and then back again. This close, he couldn’t tell if it was fear or hope in their eyes, but he knew that they could hear the words just under his breath that failed to reach the other man in the room. They didn’t have a lot of time before Smiles McGee over there woke up, and more importantly before the hunters who actually worked for the institute showed up, but at least he could give them a head start.

“Play along, and don’t make me regret this. Please.”

((Thanks for reading! I do plan on picking up the Traces of Silver series, and I’ve been working on the next story that I am dangerously tempted to title “Dog Days.” Please, someone, anyone, talk me out of this.

Also, it’s been so long I forgot to add a taglist. Oops.

Tagging: @silver-owl413 @skyewardlight @withjust-a-bite @blackaquokat @catgirlwarrior @neverisadork @luna1350 @oh-so-creepy @weirdfoxalley @95fangirl @lilalovesinternet-l @thepoolofthedead @a-bit-dapper @randomartdudette @geekymushroom @cactipresident @hotcocoachia @purple-anxiety-blog @shyinspiredartist @avispate @missksketch ))

#markiplier #fanfiction #traces of silver #wkm au #monster hunter au #werewolf #ten trails whump challenge #tw animal cruelty

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millennialfangirl · 4 years

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Wherever You Will Go (Ch. 2)

Fandom: Agents of Shield Pairing: Daisy x Daniel Rating: Teen and up Word Count: 2440 Summary: The team spends a week relaxing. Daisy and Daniel get closer before they have the rug pulled out from under them. Author’s Note: Who else is surprised I've already got the second chapter ready? Just me? I might even have the third chapter up sometime tomorrow before the finale!!!Well here you go, lovely readers. I hope you enjoy! Comments are treasured!

Read Ch. 1

Chapter 2:

Over the next couple of days the team settles into a routine. Most mornings, Coulson has breakfast prepared for those who aren’t sleeping in, which is basically everyone except Deke. They watch movies and tv reruns from the stored collection they have, and they sit around answering Sousa’s questions about the 21st century. They take turns making meals, and May leads a few of them in Thai Chi lessons.

And every night, Daniel finds himself back in Daisy’s bunk, and every morning they wake up wrapped in each other’s arms. They haven’t done anything more than sleep next to each other, content for now with enjoying the safety and intimacy of the bubble they’ve created.

The decision to try and not take the next physical step comes to Daniel while sitting around with the guys drinking some gross beer called Zima. It’s their third night of floating through the temporal zone, and the girls are in another part of the Zephyr doing girly things, or so he was told by Deke. Mack and Coulson bring out a deck of cards, and they all sit down to an impromptu game of poker. At least this is one thing Daniel doesn’t have to be shown how to do.

“And there are hundreds of women and men, ready to swipe left or right on,” Deke explains enthusiastically.

“That sounds...overwhelming...and depressing,” Daniel comments. “Like it’s too easy.”

Coulson and Mack discreetly fist bump under the table.

“Well, when you come from a future where there’s the same thirty people to choose from for all of eternity, it’s easy to fall for the next new person.”

“I suppose that would make this online dating thing seem ideal,” Daniel responds.

“Yea, but is it really the same as meeting organically? Jemma and I were best friends for years before, you know...and now look at us. We’re stronger than ever,” Fitz adds.

“C’mon Bobo, you and nana are totally relationship goals, but you’re one in a million,” Deke says before dramatically folding. “The rest of us aren’t that lucky.”

Daniel thinks about the infinite ways his life could have gone, and acknowledges the rarity of the situation he’s in with Daisy. He leans forward and carefully pushes all of his chips into the center of the table.

“I’m all in.”

***

On the fourth day when Daniel wakes up, he wakes up alone. He throws on some clothes, and carefully makes his way through the ship in search of Daisy. He’s light on his feet in an effort not to wake anyone. Eventually he finds Daisy sitting in the cockpit next to Coulson, both of them staring out into the bright colors flashing beyond. He pauses as he hears their conversation.

“I just want to make him feel at home, and I figured you’d be the best person to ask, what, with your love of history and all,” he hears Daisy say.

“That’s a very sweet idea. I’m sure he’ll really appreciate it,” Coulson replies. “I think I have something in mind. How about after breakfast I go over the recipe with you?”

Daniel’s heart melts and he backs away from the bridge of the ship. Hopefully they don’t hear him on his way back to Daisy’s bunk. He settles back into the still warm bed, and when Daisy reappears ten minutes later, he pretends to wake up. He doesn’t spoil her surprise, and when she makes a lame excuse to leave his side after breakfast, he easily goes along with it.

That night Daisy leads him into the dining area with his eyes covered. He can smell something has been cooked, but he can’t quite place it.

“Surprise!” she yells as she lets her hands fall.

He opens his eyes to see a large dish of meatloaf and sides sitting in the middle of the table on display. The team is gathered around the table, all with varying degrees of concern on their faces.

“I thought I would cook something you’re used to from your time,” Daisy explains even though he already knows.

He acts surprised and squeezes her into a big hug before sitting down in front of the meal. They all dish out their servings, and one by one, Daniel watches all of them try to hide their initial reactions to the meatloaf. He mentally prepares himself as he takes his first bite, conscious of the fact that Daisy is watching his every move. He likes to think he does his best undercover work yet.

He enthusiastically gulps down the overly dry and salty concoction, and then lies through his teeth.

“It’s delicious! Just like home,” he tells her. He watches her clap her hands in excitement, and he thinks his parched mouth is worth it in the end to see her so happy.

He carefully stares at every other member of the team in warning, and they all start to sing their praises as they hastily dig into their meals.

Despite how awful it tastes, it’s still his favorite dinner to date.

***

“You mean to tell me that Daisy isn’t a part of this group of superheroes?” Daniel asks, befuddled one night.

Daisy laughs and snorts in derision. They’re passing around snacks, gathered in the common area with a large screen t.v.

“I’m not exactly Avenger-material. I was kind of a vigilante for a while there,” Daisy says with self deprecation.

“Honestly,” Fitz starts, “she’s been too busy saving the world on her own,” he comments.

“Oh, that’s sweet Fitz, and very true,” Jemma adds.

“Okay, first, that’s a major overstatement. I have not been doing anything on my own. I’ve had your help at every turn, and sometimes I’m the reason the world needs saving, so no, I’m not supposed to be an Avenger,” Daisy finishes.

Everyone except Daisy passes knowing glances back and forth, but decides to drop the subject.

“So Jemma, do you have any more pictures of Thor?” Yo-yo asks with a grin.

The men groan and the girls huddle around Jemma’s phone.

***

Daisy is sitting alone in her bunk on their sixth night in the Zephyr. While she has enjoyed, coveted even, her time with the team and Daniel, she can feel restlessness brewing in her gut. Her body is no longer aching and her mind is already planning all the things they need to take care of as a team when they return to the present time. She’s looking forward to going home, and focusing on her family, and herself.

That starts tonight. While Daniel has been off with Mack, Yo-yo, and May training and exercising his new prosthetic, Daisy has enjoyed some quiet moments of pampering. She has re-highlighted her hair blonde, and has chosen to add back her purple streaks. She thinks it’s the perfection combination of the edgy side of herself she has had to embrace over the years, and the young, hopeful girl she’s always been underneath. It absolutely has nothing to do with Daniel’s preferences.

She’s parting her hair in it’s signature look when someone knocks on her bunk door. She answers it and is surprised to see Daniel standing there in a suit holding a bouquet of paper flowers. His face is just this side of sheepish as he holds them out for her to take. Then he notices her hair and his smile goes wide.

“What are you doing?” she can’t help but ask.

“I would like to formally ask you to dinner, just the two of us.”

Daniel’s face is full of hope and anticipation, so she doesn’t hesitate to answer.

“I would love to,” she says, pausing to take the bouquet. “I’m assuming you weren’t really training this whole time.”

“That’s need to know,” he says smugly, and she can’t help but laugh out loud.

Thirty minutes later she meets him in the dining area, wearing a hastily put together outfit, including the yellow shirt she had from the 50’s, and a pencil skirt she borrowed from Jemma. She’s nervous, because when she starts to really think about it, this may be the first real date she’s ever been on. She’s always fallen into relationships rather impulsively, and this feels more like a conscious decision. For the first time, she really wants to actively make this work, and for the first time, she feels like she’s with someone who’s willing to put in the effort.

He’s pinned to the spot when he sees her walk in, and there’s a softness in his eyes as he looks her up and down. Then he walks up to her and takes her hands while leaning over to kiss her cheek. It sends goosebumps all the way down to her toes.

From there, he leads her over to a chair he pulls out for her, and slides her seat in. In a moment he is pouring her a glass of red wine, which she didn’t even know they had, and she’s looking down at a delicious, juicy looking burger. She has been dying for a hamburger, and she eyes him suspiciously, wondering how he knew. He smiles back at her mischievously.

The dinner is perfect, and so is the company. Towards the end of the meal, Daniel puts on some soft music, and they spend the rest of the night dancing close. When they kiss at her bunk door, it’s the most passionate to date. Her back hits the door as their hands explore and their lips nibble. He seeks out her neck, and she holds him in place, her fingers mussing up his hair.

Without looking, she slides her door open, and starts backing them into her room. He stops abruptly, pulling away from her as he catches his breath. His face is flushed from the wine, or their kissing...or maybe both.

“I think, maybe, I should sleep in my bunk,” he says regretfully.

“Are you sure?” she asks, slightly disappointed.

“Yea, I don’t think there’s an ounce of me that I could control tonight,” he says with a dopey, longing expression.

So he kisses her goodnight, and leaves her standing at her door with a dreamy look on her face. And for the first time they sleep in different beds, and she’s okay with that, because she really wants this to work.

***

On the seventh night, their bubble of happiness pops as they sit gathered together and listen to what Coulson learned in the time stream.

Some of them will be going back to 2019, instead of 2020, to be turned to dust by an egomaniacal tyrant, while others will be going to different periods in time.

When Coulson is done explaining everything, the room is silent before abruptly breaking out into discussions and arguments.

“Why can’t we all just jump to 2024?” Yo-yo asks.

“It’s not that simple,” Coulson starts. “From what I can understand, the only reason some of us weren’t snapped back in 2019 is because of another time loop. Some of us have to go back to that point in time to be snapped, so that the other past version of ourselves can stay there and take care of Izel, and find Fitz.”

“So you’re saying that if we go to 2020, instead of 2019, our past selves will be turned to dust, and Izel will succeed in taking over the Earth?” Mack asks for clarification.

“I’ve talked it over with Fitz, and we think it’s because the stones will always choose to snap the oldest version of ourselves,” Coulson explains.

“And Daisy has to be there, where the battle will take place, so that she can help fight this Thanos guy?” Daniel asks with concern.

Daisy chooses that moment to stand up abruptly, and leave the room. Daniel moves to follow her, but May has him hold off. “Not this time,” she tells him, before going to follow Daisy herself.

Daniel looks around the room brokenhearted.

“In every timeline I really cease to exist if I’m there for the snap? I won’t come back with everybody else in 2024?” he asks.

“In every timeline,” Coulson answers regretfully.

Coulson looks pensive for a minute, a fraction of doubt on his face, and Daniel jumps on it.

“What is it?” he asks.

“There’s a very, very small cha--” he starts, but Daniel cuts him off.

“I’ll do it, whatever it is, no matter how small of a chance,” he declares with determination.

“Let’s go over a plan,” Coulson responds with a knowing smile.

***

An hour later, Daniel is standing outside of Daisy’s door. Coulson lectured him at length about all of the unknown variables at play, how one move could completely change the course. They’re not only relying on themselves, but others to play their part. When Coulson and Daisy return to 2019, they can’t warn a single soul. They can’t guide the Avengers in any way. They have to let things run their course, or they could be responsible for Thanos winning in the long run, and Daniel will never see the 21st century.

With the weight of everything he knows on his shoulders, he knocks softly on her door.

“Come in,” he can hear muffled through the door.

He steps in and closes the door behind him. She stands up from where she had been sitting on the floor against her bed, and he can see the balled up tissues littered on the floor. Her eyes shine with more unshed tears, and something inside him snaps. They deserve one moment of happiness.

He steps into her space and kisses her hard, and his hands connect with her body, pulling her as close to him as possible. He gently backs her up, and they fall onto the bed. He glides his hands up and down her sides as he moves his lips from her mouth to her neck. He starts to pull up her shirt, but stops.

“Is this okay,” he asks, and she answers by lifting the shirt the rest of the way off and over her head.

She leans back into place with her hand gripping the front of his shirt. There are dried tear tracks on her face, and a quiet desperation in her eyes.

“I need you,” she says, and it sounds a lot more like she needs him not to disappear from her life forever, but for now, he’ll give her everything he has.

“I’ve got you,” he says as he leans down to kiss her once again.

Their last night on the Zephyr, they go to bed together, like so many times before, but this time, they don’t sleep.

****

Thanks for reading!!!

#dousy #daisy x daniel #daisy johnson #daniel sousa #aos #agents of shield #my fic #daisysous #daisy x sousa #dousy fic #aos fic

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i-dream-of-twilight-sparkle · 3 years

Text

Chapter 9: The Sands Of Time & Love

While the ponies that make up the Elements of Harmony and their friends and family prepare for the upcoming Royal Ball and Wedding in Saddle Arabia. The capital city is also preparing from as high up as the Royals to the average everyday citizens that are just excited that Twilight’s coming back once more. Since the last time they were here, Saddle Arabia has been well, though the aftermath of the battle with Zathir was surely felt throughout. A good amount of cheers from the entire city were said to be heard when Zathir was sentenced to life in prison officially. And the Sultan immediately made it a directive of the army to apprehend any Desert Dogs, who still maintain some sort of loyalty to the former Vicegerent.

Though aside from stomping down anything remaining of the evil of Zathir, the citizens were kinda afraid the experience would scare Twilight and the others from ever coming back, as it didn’t exactly help that both times Twilight has come here, something happened whether it changed the course of her life by changing her into a genie in the first place, and being forced by a madman to almost kill all her best friends and her adopted dragon son, Spike. Thankfully, the news that Twilight is not just coming back but also being involved a big event where the populace can see more prominent Equestrian citizens, entertainers, and allies from other nations close to Equestria. Twilight’s surely making this her grandest reappearance yet, and that has brought great joy.

Not to mention two citizens who were now renowned as among the heroes that defeated Zathir are getting wed: Malakhar Manat and Kubuya Atka. A pottery shop owner and a librarian respectively. Both also were key players when Twilight was first genified, Malakhar being the first pony in a long time to successfully genify somepony, while Kubuya mainly helped with Twilight and Spike getting information in the library she works at. They met shortly after Twilight first left Saddle Arabia after deciding to stay a genie after all, stroke up a friendship that bloomed into love. And now about 4-5 years later, they felt they were ready to be wed. They’re delighted that the Royal Family are pulling out all the stops for their wedding coming up, hosting a grand event as a precursor though they definitely know that not everybody that will be at the ball, will also stick around for the wedding just days later. But they’re a modest couple that thought at first holding it at the Royal Palace was overdoing it a bit, but the royal family insisted. Regardless of the location of the ball, they’ll be grateful for any number of friends and family that come.

For now however, they’re on a very solemn occasion currently. As before the wedding happens, Malakhar wanted to visit his grandfather’s grave at the Saddle Arabia Cemetery, Kubuya also coming with. Malakhar bringing a bouquet of Flowers, before going in a prayer position. On the stone itself is the words “Here lies Hisan Manat. Proud Grandfather, Father, and Husband. May Wishes Return One Day”. The two just sit quietly for a few moments. In a little bit of time, Kubuya speaks up to ask something of Malakhar.

Kubuya Atka: Say um… if I i may ask. How did your Grandfather come across the Dragon’s Tear that would genify Twilight?

Malakhar Manat: He actually had a secret Dragon’s Tear that he didn’t tell me he had until he was on his death bed. Before then, we were still simply two ponies looking fruitlessly for years for another Dragon’s Tear to show up. Though there was one moment, where we briefly thought we had one come practically in our own backyard.

Kubuya: Oh really? Can you tell me about that?

Malakhar: It wasn’t literally in our backyard, but we were behind our hut at the moment…

*Flashback*

Hisan Minat and Malakhar Manat was up in the morning on what was expected to be just another normal day for the pottery-selling family. A young Malakhar in his teens was shaping up the clay on the spinning tables. His grandfather smiling at his grandson’s work.

Hisan Manat: You’re doing a wonderful job with your clay pots. You’re getting close to mastering them! Once you have, it’ll be time to teach you how to make glass bottles.

Malakhar: Thanks Grandpa!

In a little bit, Malakhar finishes his pot and procedes to place it on a table to later put it in the kiln. Malakhar stretches and proceeds to go outside for some fresh air, his Grandfather follows him. Malakhar looks around the are a little bit before seeing something faint far in the distance, but from the looks of it was something really big. He can just make out what looked like to be big wings and a long neck. He immediately calls out to his Grandfather to look at what he’s seeing. Hisan goes to his son’s side and watches what his grandson pointed to.

Hisan: Malakhar… that might be a dragon!

Malakhar: Oh wow!

In a few short moments, suddenly a big thud could be heard that might of vaguely came from the direction the dragon was coming.

Hisan: That sound… is the dragon dying? Malakhar, we have to go over there right away!

Malakhar: Won’t that be kind of dangerous, especially if it’s still alive?

Hisan: Maybe, but there’s a strong possibility that by the time we get over there, we won’t have to worry about it being still alive.

Malakhar and Hisan immediately head out to trek towards to the direction the dragon might of landed in the desert. To add to the intrigue, they weren’t alone. Sultan Theandri, Princess Celestia, and some Saddle Arabian Guards were also on there way there. Which raised Hisan and Malakhar’s hope that this was something big happening. in time, they find a nearby cave where just near the entrance a big mark in the sand that would fit if a Dragon that fell. Though also from the mark is the prints of a dragon crawling into the cave. Sort of worrying that the Dragon could still be alive and thus would be dangerous to approach the cave. The Sultan’s bravest guards decide to check if it’s safe before anyone else comes in. In time, they come back and say it’s safe because the dragon is deceased. Hisan can barely contain his excitement as this is perhaps the 1 in a 1,000,000 chance that a huge Dragon’s Tear has appeared. Providing enough to chip out to potentially make dozens of genies

However, when the entire group enters the cave. Hisan’s excitement slowly turns into nervousness as he sees no sign of a Dragon’s Tear, and eventually despair as he’s looked everywhere in the cave and see’s nothing. Not even a chip. He falls on his knees and just bangs his hooves on the sand in frustration. Malakhar shows concern for his grandfather though he decides to help by making a closer look around the Dragon. Malakhar first looks at the dead dragon itself, it had light pink scales all over with green back plates, and somewhere near the dragon’s legs was a small egg. It was purple, with darker shades of purple spots spread across it. Malakhar walks up to it, picks it up, and shows it to his grandfather as well as the royals in the cave. He in fact lets go of it carefully, and lays it at the ground near the tall princess, Celestia herself with a solemn sad face with concern for the egg.

Celestia: How awful that this dragon will not have a live mother to care for it. And if nothing is done about it, the dragon inside may never hatch at all…

Sultan Theandri: Is there perhaps a chance we can find the father of this egg?

Celestia: Unfortunately not, Theandri. Or at least it certainly wouldn’t be easy. Dragons don’t have marriages, they have many, many, many mates in their lifetimes. Only the mother takes care of the young. And other dragon mothers aren’t usually open to adoption. I’ll have to take it to Equestria and come up with an idea of what I should do with it.

Malakhar smiles to himself that perhaps he saved a baby dragon’s life by handing over the egg to the benevolent leader of Equestria, who will no doubt know what to do with it. Though he and his Grandfather then just accompany eachother as they leave slowly out of the cave. His grandfather still visibly disappointed the hope for a dragon’s tear went bust.

*Flashback ends*

Kubuya: Awwww, sounds adorable that you saved a dragon egg. I hope the dragon you helped save is somewhere out there.

Malakhar: I certainly hope so too.

Kubuya: Though that is a shame for your Grandfather to be given so much hope that a good sized dragon’s tear was imminent, only to find nothing. Though when do you think you Grandfather got hold of the dragon’s tear he handed you on his death bed?

Malakhar: I’m not exactly sure, though I’d be kinda surprised he found it sometime after the dragon in the cave. I think it’s more likely he had it since before then. But since it was only one chip, he had to be really careful who they ultimately chose to Genify. There was no one in Saddle Arabia that quite made him light up that they were perfect to try to genify at the time. So when he started thinking that maybe the next genie might have to be someone foreign to Saddle Arabia, that’s what led him to his eureka moment, when after reading the news about Nightmare Moon’s return and subsequent defeat by the Elements of Harmony, his eyes lit up and must of decided that the next genie must be one of the Elements of Harmony for the one shot to work. In fact, his very last words on his deathbed to me was “Please, genify the Element of Magic”, handing over the dragon’s tear he had all along to me as his last action before finally passing.

Kubuya: I see, thank you for the insight on your grandfather. I figured I’d ask since we are going to be family soon.

Kubuya gives Malakhar a short kiss.

Kubuya: Though I think I’m going to head on over to another grave that’s here if that’s ok with you.

Malakhar: No problem, I’ll follow you.

Kubuya starts on walking on over to a different area of the cemetery. Before finally stopping at one of the grander designed graves where it’s tall, and on top is a fastened brown ceramic bottle. This was the grave of Jinn. The first genie, who also remained a genie until the time she was the last genie before Twilight’s genification. She went back to being mortal for rather mysterious reasons as the day she finally came back to Saddle Arabia the populace found that she was a normal pony again. From there she’d have a peaceful life in Saddle Arabia, raising a family that after many, many, many generations eventually gave birth to Kubuya. She was the youngest in the bloodline of Jinn’s family still going on. Kubuya herself even as a family member doesn’t know what Jinn was personally like given it was so long ago she was still around, but her family has always revered her perhaps on a stronger level then most Saddle Arabians already did.

Kubuya: She must of been a great pony, would of been nice of her to remain a genie even to this day so I could of seen her. But perhaps I wouldn’t have been born since she was hesitant to have children as a genie.

Malakhar: I imagine the thought of outliving your own children is a bit tough to swallow. But yes, at least being able to speak with Jinn would of been interesting. Not just because she’s our nation’s most revered figures, but given she spent so much time in history. She probably saw many events across the entire world’s history. Granted, she couldn’t say a lot about Saddle Arabia during a long period since she put herself in exile to make sure she didn’t fall under the hooves of that radical part of the regime that wanted to do what Zathir did to Twilight to genies like her. But wherever she was hiding, she probably found ways to keep up with what was going around.

Kubuya: Twilight would of probably liked to spend a whole month just talking personally with Jinn just to hear all about all the historical events Jinn may have witnessed. *giggles*

Malakhar: I wonder if Jinn would of even been able to handle an excitable Twilight like that, haha.

Kubuya: I think ultimately though they’d be great friends. Twilight would probably get so much insight about being a genie from her, and Jinn herself seeing a new genie around.

Malakhar: Most certainly

Kubuya: But we are where we are, how about we head on back home, dear.

Malakhar: Sure

((Story continues after the break))

Malakhar and Kubuya head out of the cemetery and in time gets back to their home. The place used to simply be a hut, but was since upgraded to a full on house and has windows that display Malakhar’s latest pottery designs for customers to buy. They relax for a moment in the living room.

Kubuya: I wonder how Twilight and the others are doing it at this moment.

Malakhar: If I know them, Twilight already has them hard at work finding their invitees. We’ll probably be married within a month or 2 knowing how effective Twilight could potentially get everybody on board quickly enough.

Kubuya: Hehe, may actually be nice to have it done pretty quickly. I can’t wait myself until we’re officially wed.

Kubuya and Malakhar have a prolonged kiss.

Kubuya: Though… I hope it’s not too much to start possibly thinking about having kids? *Kubuya blushes*

Malakhar just smiles while blushing himself

Malakhar: Don’t worry about it, I definitely intend on being a father. And I think we’ll raise great kids. Though I do have a semi-related question for you.

Kubuya: Oh, what’s that?

Malakhar: We did bring Genies back with Twilight, but of course she lives elsewhere. If we can raise our child in the right temperament, and they consent to it. Perhaps we can bring Saddle Arabian born genies again too.

Kubuya looks off to the side with a rather concerned look, she may not like that this question is being positioned now of all times.

Kubuya: Hm, I wouldn’t be completely against it if done the right way. But I don’t want us to be indoctrinating any children we have that they absolutely must become genies when they’re older. We need to focus on being caring parents first before pressuring them to decide to become genies.

Malakhar: Of course, I know through my own Grandfather’s and my Father’s relationship that the next born may not exactly want to follow everything their father wants. I will definitely focus on being a good father first before thinking of genies, but I’m only saying if we should succeed at both raising a good child and they choose to decide to become a Genie when they’re all-grown up.

Kubuya: Just wanted to make sure that you weren’t saying this was the sole reason you wanted to marry me. I’d like to see more genies around too, but as of right now this is about us and our love. Time will tell if our children decide to do anything significant when they’re older. We shouldn’t be deciding what they do before they’re even born.

Malakhar puts a hoof around her shoulder and gives a gentle smile

Malakhar: Don’t worry, honey. I love you, for you. If there was anything I was doing that made you unhappy, even if it meant I got closer to making more genies I would much rather do anything I can to cheer you up. I’m not going to become obsessed with making more Genies as much as my grandfather was, as in all purposes our mission was completed the day Twilight decided to stay a genie. You’re absolutely right that we probably shouldn’t try to push our child to a direction and let them feel things out naturally. It would be much better if hearing things about the genies as they grew up made them curious about it rather then us trying to push them even subtly towards it. Just based on my father, that’s actually the fast track to make sure they never do what you hope they will.

Perhaps if I were a single parent, I might of made the same mistakes. But the more grounded and quite frankly smart approach from you is part of why I love you so much, you know how to make sure I remain grounded myself and think critically.

Kubuya’s eyes tear up in joyful relief for her to-be husband’s words.

Kubuya: Thank you, dear. That’s what I wanted to hear. The possible motive of that question just slightly worried me.

Malakhar: Yeah I admit, maybe that wasn’t a good time to spring a question like that. But at least we’re an honest enough couple to talk about our concerns and remain level-headed if perhaps something we say are worded strangely, or otherwise odd timing.

Kubuya gets up close and kisses Malakhar once more.

Kubuya: Let’s just relax until we get word the Royal Ball is underway. It’ll be exciting to see Twilight, Spike, her friends we saw last time, and even all their friends that we ourselves haven’t met yet!

Malakhar: Indeed, it will be. It should be a great night, but most assuredly our wedding will be the best part. *winks*

Kubuya just winks back and the loving couple hug it out and giggle. Before relaxing once again, as they await word for when the Royal Ball and also thus their subsequent Wedding begins.

Meanwhile, at the royal palace. The Sultan and Sultana are supervising the work the many butlers, staffers, and guards who are setting up the preparations for the ball. The stage where all the entertainers about halfway done and all the tables in their spots, albeit folded up. The Royal Chefs are also fast at work preparing the kitchens for what will certainly be a large number of guests.

There’s also being work done on the Palace courtyard where the wedding of Malakhar and Kubuya will take place in, but there’s less of a rush since it’s slated to be a few days after the ball. And some of the things from the ball’s preparation are going to be easy to simply move to the courtyard such as the tables, for whenever they make a headcount of whomever decides to stick around after the ball for the wedding too, as it’s expected to be a smaller crowd for the wedding, though there will still be some important guests at the wedding such as Twilight herself and her friends.

Sultana Elona: Looks like the preparations are going alright, Theo.

Sultan Theandri: Indeed Elona, I am absolutely looking forward to this.

The Sultan and Sultana of Saddle Arabia has generally remained a peaceful rule since the last time Twilight and the others are here. Though the military actually did get to see some action in hunting down the Desert Dogs and forcing an ultimatum of disavow Zathir’s ways or face the same fate of life in prison.

Aside from clamping down on the aftermath of Zathir’s attempted takeover though, things remained pretty normal in Saddle Arabia aside from said battle with Zathir making Twilight and her friends instant living legends, and anyone involved in the cavern that lives in Saddle Arabia known as local heroes, from Malakhar and Kubuya, the Sultana, and even the Prince who had once been considered the #1 suspect for Twilight’s disappearance for a brief time, since the gossip had come out that he had a date that went wrong with her. When the truth came out that while he did have a rather petty ending to his date with Twilight, he was in the heat of the moment and was going to apologize to her just before Zathir’s plan was put in place. And he along with his mother sneaked up on Zathir at one point to try to make Zathir fumble the lamp. Thus, Theandri II was now considered among the heroes.

Though despite the adulation a hero usually gets, Theandri II still hasn’t quite gotten what’s he’s been looking for: A suitor that he mutually loves, as either he just doesn’t have feelings for any native girl of marrying age, and/or he finds out said suitor doesn’t mutually love Theandri II for him, and were simply trying to eventually become the next Sultana for the fame and fortune, nothing more.

The Sultan takes a brief break from supervising the preparations to visit his son in his room. He finds his son lying on his back in his bed, with a bored expression.

Sultan Theandri: What’s wrong, son? Aren’t you excited for the Royal Ball coming soon?

Prince Theandri II: Kind of, I suppose. I’m sure it’ll be a grand event to attend. I’m just… thinking about other things…

By now, the Sultan usually knows what his son means by other things.

Sultan Theandri: I see, still a little down regarding finding a suitor... I understand it can be hard, it took a while for me to find the right one.

Theandri II: You didn’t exactly find Mother, though. She saved your life, and it was through that you met

Sultan Theandri: True…

Theandri II: The closest to anyone who’s saved my life is Twilight after she gave that beatdown on Zathir. And there’s multiple reasons why me and Twilight aren’t going to happen… I’ve already done all I can to make sure I’m over her. Though I am starting to worry that my slight joke to her before she left Saddle Arabia that someone half like her would be enough… is no longer a joke. I may actually need to find someone out there at least close to being like Twilight…Saddle Arabia has plenty of fine mares… but I can’t say any of them were like Twilight…

Sultan Theandri: I see… well the good news is perhaps someone from Equestria that Twilight and her friends bring might interest you. Granted, there’s always the caveat that they might not be willing to move to Saddle Arabia so easily, and of course you should always keep in mind that they may say no just like Twilight did.

Theandri II: Knowing my luck, that’s probably going to happen…

The prince just kind of slumps off to his side in slight frustration and sadness.

Sultan Theandri: Well, whatever happens at the Ball. You have plenty of time left in your young life to find a suitor. So don’t feel like you have to find someone right away.

Theandri II: I know I have plenty of time, but I’d also like some of that said young life spent with someone who might care for me, as I would them… so it’s been hard on me regardless… Don’t worry about me too much father, I’ll still attend the ball and probably Malakhar and Kubuya’s wedding regardless. I don’t expect to find a suitor even from this, but I’ll try to have a great time regardless what happens. You’re free to go back with Mother and continue watching the preparations coming up. I’m just thinking on my own.

Sultan Theandri: Alright, son. But if you need us for anything, you’re always welcome to come out and help with anything you may want.

The Sultan leaves his son’s room and closes the door. He himself has been somewhat worried about his son’s inability to find a suitor that’s mutual in feelings for one another. But continues to just try and be a supportive father and making sure the stress doesn’t get to his son. Even though it would be nice for him personally, to know who one day he and his wife will step down to give the reins of Saddle Arabia to as well.

He soon returns to the side of his wife, as they await for Twilight to show up with the Equestrian invitee list.

UP NEXT: Chapter 10: Dragon Love

#Secrets Of The Dragon's Tear #Saddle Arabia #Malakhar Manat #Malakhar #Kubuya Atka #Kubuya #Hisan Manat #Hisan #Sultan Theandri #Princess Celestia #Sultana Elona #Prince Theandri II

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phantomwitch16 · 3 years

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Humberto Lopez is a goldmine of a character

I haven't posted anything that was my content for a long time now, and I decided to change that with an essay about my favorite character from Marvel. With the new development that has happened, I decided to celebrate this Marvel character's return which has been in a limbo state for over half a decade. I will be going into spoiler territory, so if you want to read the comics to learn more about this character, go and read the comics and have your adventure experiencing his journey along with his friends. If you are interested in the character but don't want to read the comics (or go to the wiki), there will be a quick synopsis of his character later on down in the post, but I won't be putting down the necessary details so that this post won't get too long.

He first appeared in the comics was in Avengers Initiative: Featuring Reptil #1 in 2009 and reappeared in Avengers Academy comics that went on from 2010 to 2012. He was also part of the Avengers Arena comic series as one of the game participants and lasted from late 2012 to 2013. However, most people may recognize him from his animated appearance on the Super Hero Squad Show from 2009 to 2011, voiced by Anthony Del Rio. He was also in Avengers Assemble: Frost Fight, made in 2015 with Del Rio returning to voice the character. With these recent developments, in May of 2021, Reptil will be getting his mini-comic series by Terry Blas, and Enid Balám called Reptil...on the Brink of Extinction.

The main reason why I am making this post is that I believe Reptil is a severely underrated character within the Marvel universe. At the time of first writing this, he had not appeared in much since 2013 in the comics or 2015 in an animated setting. I began writing this over a year or so ago after glancing through the Marvel wiki to see anything new that happened since I lost interest in the comics after his supposed 'death' in Avengers Arena. Since then, there have been no new developments to his story until a while ago when there was an announcement on Twitter about his comics' return with his comic series and an appearance in a one-shot Spider Man comic.

To start this rant about him, I'm going to recount his origin story to bring people up to speed to explain who he is, what powers he has, what kind of person he is, his journey and my personal feelings about him before going into the possible story lines Marvel could do for after this short series. On the other hand, pray that they decide to take him out of the creative limbo within the next few years again, straight after this when his journey is getting better. And if you're wondering, yes, I'm still salty that he's been pretty much dead for nearly a decade.

Who is he?

Humberto Lopez is a Marvel character who is a Mexican-American teenage superhero known by the code name Reptil. Like many young kids, he wanted to be a superhero, mainly an Avenger. His parents, however, mainly wanted him to follow in their footsteps and become a paleontologist as they did.

In his first appearance, he was about sixteen years old when he joined the Initiative after his powers appeared to locate his missing parents. When they were declared dead, he went to live with his grandfather in Nevada. Not long after his arrival, he almost gets caught in a landslide that almost kills him when the amulet turns his legs into those of a dinosaur.

What are his Powers?

Humberto's powers are directly tied into the amulet he found in the dig with his parents. With it, Humberto can turn his body parts into those of a dinosaur or any prehistoric animal. If he wanted to, he could turn his entire body into that of the dinosaur. With this power, he runs, flies and becomes as strong as any dinosaur he desires. The major drawbacks of this power are that when he transforms into a dinosaur, he loses control over his instincts and becomes a threat to others. This would make him similar to the Lizard almost when you think about it in that way.

His origin story

His origin story is told in Avengers Initiative, where he made his first appearance. There, we learn that Humberto found his amulet during one of his parent's archaeological digs. During another dig, his parents disappeared without a trace, leaving Humberto to be placed into the care of his grandfather.

After nearly getting killed during a rock slide, he finds out that the amulet transforms his body parts into those of a prehistoric animal and only seems to be reactive to him specifically. He registers with the Initiative during the Skrull invasion. Still, it isn't until a year later, after his parents go on missions when Stregon starts attacking SHIELD bases, that he is quickly trained and joined a small squad led by Tigra to track him down.

However, they later learn that the attacks were Stregon's attempts to locate and rescue Moon Boy, captured by SHIELD scientists. Humberto sacrificed his place among the Initiative to bring Moon Boy back to the Savage Lands and meet Ka-Zar, who swears to help him find his parents.

His Journey as a Superhero

Months after his time with the Initiative, he is kidnapped by Norman Osborn and several other kids to push their powers to the limits. These kids include Hazmat, Finesse, Striker, Mettle and Veil, most of whom were kidnapped or captured against their will and were pretty much tortured to gain results. Soon enough, the Avengers come in to rescue them just before Osborn's HAMMER agents attempt to destroy all evidence of their crimes, which included the Reptil and the other kids and offer them a place to join Avengers Academy.

At the Academy, it isn't long before the kids find out why they are there. While they are led to believe that they were brought in to become the Next Avengers, they were brought in to prevent them from becoming rogue. While Pym and the others know that Humberto is a good kid who wants to help the others with Tigra even telling Pym about him, the major threat with him, as stated previously, is that transforming into a dinosaur will make him lose control over his instincts.

Anyway, Humberto begins to learn more about himself, his powers begin to develop, more students come to the Academy, and relationships develop with the team, primarily a romantic relationship with Finesse. However, the relationship gets strained after he switches bodies with his future self so that the future Reptil will become a definite one. There he learns of the possible future that he has Finesse and their daughter Maria, which strains his relationship with Finesse in the present. He eventually starts to distance himself from her and eventually develops a close relationship with White Tiger due to their similar powers following a fight with Jeremy Briggs.

During Christmas, he, along with several other teens, get kidnapped by Arcade to be part of a game where he and the teens would have to kill each other until one remains to walk away. He, Hazmat, Mettle, X-23 and Juston were just some of these kids kidnapped by Arcade.

On the first day, several of the kids died, with one of them being Mettle, who chose to sacrifice himself to protect his girlfriend, Hazmat. It's a downward spiral from there where it leads to the Hazmat and X-23 fighting to the death after X-23 got affected by a trigger scent, several of the kids dead and Humberto's fate is left ambiguous for several years.

My feelings for his journey and the new solo series

Overall, I am excited to see Reptil coming back to the comics. He was one of the characters that got me interested in the Marvel Universe when I started watching the Super Hero Squad and other animated shows made at the time. Shows like Wolverine & the X-Men (Nightcrawler), Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Wasp & Ant Man) and Spectacular Spider Man (Spider Man).

This series and an appearance in another comic is a big step for Reptil, and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves and hopefully has more story lines in the future.

Possible story lines

I'm excited about this series is the possible story routes that the writers could go in for the series and afterwards.

For me, I hope that we get a better look at his mental state and the struggles that he had to face since. Given what he had been since the disappearance of his parents and what had happened at the end of Avengers Arena, it made me wonder if the writers will mention the difference between the person he was and the person he is now. I kind of hope he isn't entirely the same person after that. The experience that he and the other kids went through was very traumatic, and I want there to be some acknowledgement of it like there was with Hazmat and the other kids in Avengers Undercover.

Before this, I considered making a fan-fiction about Humberto just leaving the Academy, trying to overcome the mental hurdles that are likely PTSD, depression and anxiety. I wanted it to be kind of angsty while showing a bit of truth of someone who is battling those hurdles, feeling alone and showing a bit of self-hatred over his inability to help his friends. Being the leader of his group of heroes in the Academy, a big piece of responsibility that's placed on a sixteen to a seventeen-year-old kid, then being put in a situation where your teammate and one of your best friends died in front of your eyes, I think would lead to Humberto also developing an inferiority complex. It wouldn't surprise me if he felt partially responsible for Mettle and Juston's deaths or even some of the other deaths that happened in the Arena.

And with that, I will be listing nearly everything that has happened to him since he had the amulet. His parents going missing at fifteen, he gets kidnapped a total of three times (first by Osborn and the second and third being by Arcade), having trouble controlling his powers. He is scared to do so, being the leader of his team of Academy students, getting mind-swapped with his future self and seeing the possible future he could have with Finesse and their daughter Maria, having his powers briefly ripped out of his chest (yeah, that happened), losing his friends in Avengers Arena and almost dying from getting nuked by Hazmat.

I hope that we get to see the extent of his injuries because I feel like it would tie in well with the first point above. I mean, you can't say that Humberto isn't resilient. He survived Hazmat having a meltdown and almost got blown to bits. Traumatic experiences can leave a devastating blow on a person. One such injury that might profoundly affect him because it has a tie in his possible future with Finesse. A part which may not exist anymore… Yeah, this sounds dark, but it is plausible.

I hope that Reptil will appear in other Marvel story lines as the main character or make brief appearances here or there. Maybe even join the Champions since we saw him staring at the news looking at Miss Marvels, and maybe even other heroes his age. Maybe interacting with Moon Girl due to their connection to Devil Dinosaur as a partner, hell, maybe even going back into his roots at the Super Hero Squad and maybe developing a mentor-student relationship with Wolverine...if he's still alive, that is...I don't know; it's been a while since I've been keeping up with the comics.

#marvel #reptil #avengers academy #humberto lopez

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