#and i feel like it might help with Cassy's eating. just maybe. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jazzy---j · 1 year

Text

Daughter of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief

“even the gods have to bow to fate”

Chapter Summary: A simple game of deadly capture the flag turns into the worst day of Cassie's life.

Masterlist >>> Read on ao3 (8/23)

We Capture A Flag

Believe it or not, the next few days were normal. Normal in the sense that I settled into a routine, not the getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

Each morning Percy and I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. Annabeth was right about our dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, even Percy could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, we'd both rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something to be good at. Chiron tried to teach us archery, but we found out pretty quickly that we weren't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to de-snag a stray arrow out of his tail.

Foot racing? Not good either. The wood-nymph instructors and Hermes kids left us in the dust. And wrestling? Forget it. Despite my protests, Percy wouldn't let me go anywhere near the mat with Clarisse. I was left watching from the sidelines as she beat the snot out of my brother as the other Ares kids cheered her on. Markus seemed to be the only one of them that didn't seem to delight in my brother's public humiliation, but he rarely seemed interested in anything at all other than those knives and daggers he constantly was tossing and playing around with.

The only thing we really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic godlike skill that they created myths about.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching us both, trying to decide who our dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. The fact that we weren't half-siblings, as far as I know, wasn't helping anyone. Apparently, It was rare for siblings to have the same godly parent. But Percy and I looked too alike to be half-siblings. Plus, my mom had only talked about just one guy my entire life.

Either way, I began to rule out our potential fathers. As freakin crazy as that sounds. We both weren't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I definitely didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid, Percy stated—Dionysus's way with vine plants.

Luke tried to treasure us that we might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I knew he was just trying to make us feel better. He really didn't know what to make of us either.

Regardless, I was actually starting to like camp. I was comforted by the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, and even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. Which was really not that different from the noise in the city. I would eat dinner with my brother and cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and speak to my dad. Day after day, a quick plea to just tell us who he is. Nothing came. Just a warm feeling that Percy talked about sometimes, the memory of his smile. I had never really cared about it before but, to be in the place where he wanted us to go... knowing who he was seemed a little more important than before.

I tried not to think or talk too much about my mom, but Percy kept saying that if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back. I don't know if that was even possible but I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.

Like yeah, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear? Instead, he showed no sign that he ever existed.

Thursday morning, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I visited the archery range, determined to try again and at least hit the target. I made sure to lug a target to a secluded area deeper into the woods so no one would be able to see all my spectacular failures. This precaution held true as I started to get frustrated when my 7th arrow went wide and landed on the ground nowhere near the target. I had started to pull back my 8th arrow when I heard a rustle in the forest behind me.

I quickly whipped my head around to peer into the bushes. The noise was probably a drayd that lived in the trees around camp but, I remembered Annabeth talking about the monsters that were sometimes in the woods and my heart started pounding a little faster in my chest. I clutched the bow in my hand tighter and yelled, "Who's there?"

After a moment of silence, I thought whatever had made that sound moved on but, the sound of a twig snapping proved that something was still there. Fine. If it wasn't gonna come out on its own I was gonna make it. I lifted my bow, pulled back the arrow, and aimed at the noise, saying, "If you don't come out I'll shoot!"

Slowly someone moved out of the forest line, with their hands up, and into the clearing, "Based on your seven missed shots I don't think I'm in that much danger."

"Markus," I grit out pulling the bow even tighter and aiming for his bored face, "what ar- were you watching me!?"

He tilted his head in a so-so type of way, "I didn't mean to- could you please put the bow down? Please?" A little bit of unease crept into his voice.

I snorted, "why? I thought I couldn't hit you." "You can't, your form is the worst I've ever seen but an arrow is an arrow and I’d rather it not be pointed at my face," he said plainly. I narrowed my eyes, "Why should I? You and your sister tried to give my brother a swirly!"

He groaned and threw his head back, "I- I'm sorry about that… sometimes I get caught up in what my siblings are doing… I- I don’t think, ya know? I just do."

I stared at his eyes, usually so guarded, but at this moment steadily looking at me, remorse filled his gaze. But you know what, he had been a total jerk, so I was gonna be a jerk.

I moved the point of the arrow away from his face, pulled back as far as I could, and let go. He didn't even flinch when the arrow sailed wide of his face and landed in the bushes behind him. But I saw a flash of an emotion I could not recognize in his eyes as I moved to slowly lower the bow and he slowly lowered his hands.

Cooly, he said, "Told you so."

My face burned in embarrassment. Obviously, I missed, everyone knew that would happen but his calm reaction to my tantrum made me feel foolish. Which only fueled my frustration with him. I mean, come on, this guy is being a jerk and not even giving me the basic human decency of a response. How rude is that?

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" I hissed at him.

He didn't respond and just stared. His dark eyes bore into me, searching for something. His stoic expression made me squirm uncomfortably. Two can play at whatever game is going on.

"Why were you watching me?" I asked schooling my face into a measured glare.

His lips quirked at the gesture and continued to study me so curiously that I almost didn't think he heard me. "Why were you following me?!" I stomped my foot angrily in emphasis. He chuckled and began to circle me, finally answering, "Isn't everyone watching you, trying to see what you and your brother can do?"

That didn't really explain why HE was watching me now, or any of the other times really. I tried to follow his movements, keeping my eyes on him, as he paced around me like a shark.

I narrowed my eyes. "That all you got? Dude not only were you just watching me in the bushes like a stalker, but you visited me in the infirmary to what? Talk? I mean seriously what is your problem?"

He stopped circling to firmly stand in front of me, close enough for me to get a whiff of pine from his shirt.

"I sensed your power as soon as you crossed the border. It was... interesting," he paused seeming unsure, "I wanna know if you are a threat to the camp or not. I have never sensed someone as powerful as you or your brother."

I couldn't help but laugh incredulously, "Me and Percy a threat?! Please, I mean we can cause a mess if we want to but like a threat? Ha." Wow, these guys took this medieval stuff seriously. What really bothered me was how he said he could sense my power. Was he saying he could like smell me or something? I sniffed my shirt discreetly as he scowled in my direction.

"This is not a joke. Something is coming and you and your brother are at the center of it," he pressed urgently.

I rolled my eyes at that, "Oh yeah, and how do you know? Can you tell the future or something?" I mocked.

He stiffened, "thankfully, I do not have that gift but my father did bless me in other ways. I can sorta feel the potential power of demigods or monsters or whoever it is."

His father, the god of war, I remembered. Knowing that, him being some kinda power radar makes sense. Seemed very helpful to be able to immediately size up someone before a fight.

I frowned, "So, what's the plan then? Are you just gonna stalk me forever?" I knew I was being difficult but you know what, this guy was stressing me out. More than before. He was gonna have to be a little nicer if he wanted me to make whatever this conversation was easier for him.

He closed his eyes and signed, seeming to gather himself, and calmly responded, "No, no I... I want to help you."

I blinked at him dumbly, "Help me?"

He seemed very uncomfortable and very out of his element but continued, "Yeah, like get the hang of camp and everything."

I stared at him for a moment, until it clicked in my head and I gasped, "Oh, ok you wanna be friends?" Nobody has ever actively tried to be my friend before. I was always too much of a bad influence to be invited over to someone's house to play dolls or have a sleepover. Despite myself, I felt a growing bubbling excitement in my stomach.

He frowned and shook his head, "No, no I don't need any friends. I just don't want any weak links walking around," He paused, "Something is coming and we ALL need to be ready."

My excitement dimmed at his confession.

Ouch ok, that stings on multiple levels. But as I began to turn over his words in my head, I realize he was right. Percy and I were so far behind everyone else, I could barely fire an arrow, let alone hit a target. We got lucky with the Minotaur and Mrs. Dodds, it would take a miracle if I wanted to survive in this place. I would need some help.

I sighed and took a deep breath. "Ok, ok, ok why don't we start over, and then we can talk about your advice or whatever? Deal?" I held out my hand for him to shake.

At that moment all time seemed to stand still as we eyed each other warily, on the edge of something new and unfamiliar to both of us. Suddenly, he grabbed my hand and shook it.

"Deal."

Markus helped me put away all the archery stuff and we began to awkwardly walk in the direction of the training ring. I knew this guy was not trying to help me just out of the goodness of his heart but I would try to make the best of it. But as I glanced to my left at Markus's intense face I couldn't help but wonder what I had gotten myself into. I wiped my sweaty palms against my jeans. Damn nerves.

We reached the arena just as Percy and the other campers were gathering around the center training ring to start the sword-fighting lesson. I began to feel more and more uneasy as everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be the instructor. If they didn't notice Markus and I show up together then they definitely noticed our closeness as we stood on the side of the ring and were probably wondering if he was holding me captive.

Either that or, why wasn't I out there with Percy skewering the other kids? What they didn't know is that earlier that day when Annabeth took Percy and me to the shed by the armory to pick a weapon, as soon as I touched a sword I got the immediate feeling of wrongness. So strong that I got vertigo. Every weapon in the shed I tried was uncomfortable in my hand. So, no I would not be joining in the wholesome fun today.

They started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. For his first day, Percy was doing okay. At least, I think he was, he looked like he knew what he was doing.

The main problem was, that like me, he couldn't find a blade that felt right. I could tell by his face that they were either too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke was trying his best to help him out but even he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for him.

I glanced over at Markus to see him intently studying everyone in the ring. "Why aren't you up there?" I ask. He didn’t even move his eyes from the ring as he declared, "I practice with all kinds of weapons, but this is not an interdisciplinary class." He paused glancing at me in mild disdain, "but what I'm doing or not doing doesn't matter right now. Watch what's going on now you’re gonna need it later."

I frowned at him because one, he was being rude, and two, I didn't even know what to look for. Nevertheless, I focused my attention back on the ring.

They began to move on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would partner with Percy since this was his first time.

Markus nodded, "That's a good matchup." "Why?" I questioned "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years." My eyes widened, "that's not a good matchup, he is gonna beat the crap out of him!" He shrugged, "best way to learn is to be thrown to the wolves."

I very much disagreed with that. "Maybe he'll go easy on him," I said. Markus gave me a side eye that said he didn't believe that for one second.

Luke showed Percy thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way.

With every swipe, he got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," Luke said, then whapped him in the ribs with the flat of his blade.

"No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

I winced at every blow. By the time he called a break, Percy was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head.

I bounded over to Percy waiting his turn, "Dude, are you ok? You're kinda getting pummeled out there."

Percy gave me a wild look like he can't believe I just said that. "Yuh, think?" Percy exclaimed out of breath as he reached down in the cooler copying Luke and pouring ice water over his face.

Instantly, his eyes seemed more alert than before and his sword didn't look so awkward in his hands.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded some more.

The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in Percy's position before and this was some sort of stupid initiation ritual. Luke told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon. "This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

He demonstrated the move on Percy in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my brother's hand.

"Now in real-time," he said after Percy had retrieved his weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

I held my breath as Percy nodded, and Luke came after him. Somehow, Percy kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of his sword.

My eyes widened as they sparred. It was turning out to be a real match with Percy seeing his attacks coming and countering. He even was stepping forward and tried out a few thrusts of his own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw the change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press Percy with more force.

I saw the look on my brother's face and could tell he knew that it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took him down.

His only option was to throw caution to the wind and try the disarming maneuver. His blade hit the base of Luke's and he twisted, leaning his whole weight into a downward thrust.

Clang.

Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of Percy's blade was an inch from his undefended chest.

The other campers were silent. I was silent. I couldn't believe it worked.

Percy lowered his sword, looking around at everyone staring at him, and muttered, "Um, sorry." For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

Percy looked hesitant. But Luke insisted.

This time, there was really no contest. The moment their swords connected, Luke hit Percy's hilt and sent his weapon skidding across the floor.

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised my brother with an entirely new interest. Like he was this new variable that he had never considered until now. Something about that rubbed me the wrong way.

"Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."

I looked around the ring back to where I left Markus. But there was no one there.

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Percy and Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten Percy. His shirt had smoking holes in it, and the hairs had been singed off his forearms.

I, on the other hand, had to visit the burn ward in the healer's tent to get my leg bandaged. We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving until Percy got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D. His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he said. "Just great."

"So your career's still on track?" Percy sounded hopeful, but I knew better. Based on what Chiron said I don't think it would be so simple.

He glanced at us nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"

"Well... no." I nudged Percy to stop talking. I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.

"He just said you had big plans, you know," I chimed in "... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

I let out a huge breath. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of either of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

"Of course, we'd want you along!" Percy exclaimed. I nodded my head in agreement.

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill." Percy tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. I wisely kept my mouth shut, knowing nothing I could say would do much.

I changed the subject and we talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods and who our dad could be.

Finally, I asked a question that had been bothering me since we got here, "So, what's the deal with the empty cabins? Are those campers not here yet or something?"

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?" I press. Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades," Percy chimed in.

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh," Grover affirms.

Percy furrowed his brows, "But wait, Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"Well that doesn't seem very fair," I exclaim, "aren't they a family?"

Grover looks at me a little funny, "Not that kind of family."

I considered his words. Yeah, I guess he was right, I mean all we talked about in Mr. Brunner's Latin class was how the gods were not that kind of family. They were always backstabbing, marrying, or generally causing chaos for each other and the world. Of course, they would leave out the weird emo brother, just cause.

Percy still wasn't satisfied with that answer, "but Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed.

Percy muttered, "That's the most serious oath you can make, right?" Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?" I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault," Percy grabbed my hand as if he was afraid I was going to disappear.

Grover hesitated. "Percy, Cassie, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

I stared at the pine in the distance. The story was one of the saddest things I had ever heard. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. How could her dad have let that just happen to her? If that's what demigods were up against I didn't know if I could live up to it.

I also wondered if I'd been a little bit braver like Thalia, maybe I could have saved my mother.

"Grover," Percy said carefully, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini." "Houdini?!" I questioned in surprise. Grover shrugged as if to say, yeah I guess.

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" Percy pushed. "No. Never. Orpheus came close... Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"

"No," Percy quickly responded, "I was just wondering." I gave him a bewildered look. Was he suggesting that we go to the Underworld!?

"So... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?" Percy continued ignoring my stare. Grover studied us warily. What a surprise Percy's very obvious lie, hadn't persuaded him that he'd really dropped the Underworld idea. Shocker.

"Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them since they could cause really huge problems."

Whoa, wait for a second, he alerted Chiron because our dad might be one of the Big Three? With the story of Thalia still fresh in my mind I was in disbelief that our luck could be that bad.

"And you found us. Chiron said you thought we might be something special," Percy said dryly as he started to piece it together as well.

Grover looked as if we'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

Heck no, I was worried. I just wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure himself or us.

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag. I was trying the psych myself up for the game and ignore the nervous butterflies in my stomach.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse, Markus and their siblings ran in screaming and going wild, carrying another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Percy turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah." "Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" "Not always," he said. "But often."

Made sense, god of war vs. goddess of war.

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do—repaint the flag?" I questioned

He grinned. "You'll see. First, we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?" He gave Percy and me a sly look as if he knew something we didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. He was a lot more intimidating in the dark I realized. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. I wish I'd paid more attention, instead of being in my head all the time but, from what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.

Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about it. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares'scabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet. Markus caught my eye in the chaos of his siblings jumping around and gave me an unimpressed look.

Markus's offer to help me get the rundown on camp had started a couple of days ago. He first gave me a basic lesson on camp dynamics and a spear lesson. It was going great, if great is getting my ass kicked.

"I heard Chiron gave you Stormbreaker?" He said to me on our first day in the ring. He gestured to the bracelet cuff on my wrist.

"Um, yeah I guess," I mumbled.

"Do you know how to activate it?" He questioned as he scanned over the spears on the rack and began weighing them in his hand to find a good fit.

"Activate? You mean turn it from a snake to the spear thingy?" I responded. He turned to me having finally found a good enough spear. He frowned at me and rolled his eyes as if I couldn't be serious. "First of all, it's not a snake it's a sea serpent, supposedly the one that Perseus killed on his second quest trying to save the princess, Andromeda, Second if I'm gonna teach you how to fight with weapons I need you to be serious."

I nodded embarrassed. He rolled his eyes again and sauntered over to me grabbing my wrist. He was so close I could see all of the faint scars on his hands. I squirmed, uncomfortable with him in my personal space. He clicked the eyes of the serpent and it began to loosen and uncoil itself down my wrist. Eventually straightening and lengthening into a 5ft bronze spear with silver detailing twining up the shaft just like before in the museum.

It was surprisingly light and comfortable in my hand, but I could tell the tip was sharp enough to do some serious damage.

Markus looked a little awed himself but quickly shook it off and was back to his scowling self. He began by showing me a few motions and explained how spears differ from other weapons. "It's like dancing, you put your whole body into it." It was all going really well until we actually began to duel. Whenever I left my flank open he would smack me with the flat of the spear tip. I let my guard down, whap! I swing with only my arm, whap! By the end of our session, I was bruised and sore all over.

As I lay on my back in the center of the ring, sweat soaking my shirt, I groaned, "Aren't boys not supposed to hit girls?" Markus signed and walked over to me. In a rare display of vulnerability he leaned over my face to make eye contact, "Look I know I'm going hard on you but I'm not sorry. Monsters won't be sorry or hesitate, they will kill you. You're a demigod it's time to start acting like it."

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble, bringing me back to the present.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, and oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," Percy said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at him as if he were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit you two. You'll be on border patrol."

Percy's shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle, and looked like it weighed about a million pounds. I was given a slightly smaller shield but it was still heavy as hell. I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast.

Our helmets, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes. Luke moved to hand me a sword that I knew wouldn't feel right in my hands. I looked down at my wrist, the serpent's maw looking like it would devour my middle finger as it wound around my arm. Here goes nothing I thought as I clicked the serpent's eye and it came alive to form the spear. It activated so suddenly that I had to quickly move it out of the way so I didn't skewer Luke.

"Whoa, there," he said surprised, "Cassie did not come to play today!" His loud voice attracted the attention of nearly everyone around us. Especially the Ares kids who now looked at me like a personal challenge. Markus was as always frowning and staring but this time not at me but at Luke. Still, my face burned at the attention as Percy helped me put on the rest of my gear.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

Percy managed to catch up with Annabeth, but I was struggling a bit on account of my microscopic height.

"So much for sticking together, huh?" Luke said.

I hadn't noticed he had slowed down to jog next to me.

"Huh," I said loudly. He motioned ahead to Percy jogging alongside Annabeth. "Ummm yeah, I guess," I said noncommittally, "I mean he should make friends other than me and Grover." He smiled at me in a pitying way like he thought I was lying to myself. Like he could see something I couldn't. That agitated me a little bit. "Sure. Anyways don't worry about border patrol. It's an easy job and pretty boring, you and Percy won't have to do much this game. I'll see if next time after a bit more training we can get you a little more in on the action."

My agitation eased a bit at that. Who was I kidding Luke was just trying to look out for me. Help out the new girl who clearly didn't know what she was doing. Still, I picked up the pace to catch up with Percy and Annabeth, leaving Luke behind.

"So what's the plan?" I heard Percy ask her as I reached them, "Got any magic items you can loan me?" Annabeth's hand drifted toward her pocket as if she were afraid he'd stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means," I puffed out already out of breath. My helmet was too big and falling over my eyes as I ran. I had to keep reaching up to fix it.

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

She pushed ahead, leaving us in the dust.

"Okay," Percy mumbled sarcastically. "Glad you wanted us on your team." He turned to me, "Stay close Cassie." And then he jogged faster into the woods.

I grumbled to myself still out of breath, "kinda hard to do that when you're running away." I struggled to catch up with him. It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed us next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there with just Percy, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt incredibly ridiculous. I barely know how to use this big ass spear, and the shield I was carrying was weighing down my arm. How was I supposed to do this?

"There was no way anybody would actually attack us, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?" Percy said. I knew it was supposed to be a joke but I could hear the tinge of nervousness in his voice.

"Awwww, are you scared Percy?" I teased even though I had to set down my spear and wipe my sweaty hands on my jeans.

He scowled at me and ignored me, turned back to watching the woods. Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, and kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

"Percy..." I started. He didn't answer me but he must have heard it too because his eyes immediately began to dart around. "Get behind me," he said and shifted in front of me.

I raised my shield instinctively and quickly snatched my spear from the ground; I had this feeling that something was stalking us. Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Four Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. "Cream the punks!" Clarisse screamed.

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear similar to mine, but its barbed metal tip was flickering with red light. The way she held it while she ran to us, confident and sure there was no doubt she could use it way better than me. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream and there was no help in sight. We could run. Or we could defend against the Ares cabin. We've done it before. Quickly Percy and I looked at each other knowingly. Anticipation tingled in my arms and legs. Maybe we could do this, maybe this would be like the scraps and fights we got into at school that we always managed to survive.

We both sidestepped the first kid's swing, similar to the days before. Percy going right and me going left, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur.

Three of them broke off and managed to surround me, separating me from Percy and Clarisse. Who thrust at my brother with her spear. His shield deflected the point, but his body stiffened, jerking a bit as his muscles visibly constricted. He gave a loud shout.

Electricity, I realized as the air around us burned. Her stupid spear was electric.

I wanted to help Percy but the kids around me seemed not too keen to let me. My confidence quickly dissipated as we were separated. Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and knocked the wind right out of me. I doubled over and wheezed out a couple of curses that would make a nun blush, searching the three faces around me, all of them sneering kids looking delighted to beat the absolute shit out of me. Markus's stoic face was not among them. Thank god. I don't think I could handle that guy's attitude right now.

They could've really given me a beatdown, but they were too busy laughing at Percy and Clarisse. This was quickly spiraling out of control.

"I think I'll give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "What do you say, boys?"

I turned to watch as Percy managed to get to his feet and raise his sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew in the night. I grabbed my spear and scooted backward trying to get my bearings while the three Ares kids were distracted.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound intimidating, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way. She barely gave me a glance. Her entire focus was on Percy trying to lift his sword.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the two kids who made our cabin look stupid." The three begin to circle me backing me up farther away from Percy.

I finally got to my feet with my spear clutched in one hand and my shield discarded somewhere in the distance. "You didn't need us to make your cabin look stupid," I told them, "Your entire existence made that possible." It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but, I didn't care I was pissed off.

The guy on my left, enraged raised his sword and swung down toward me in a mighty arc. I raised my spear horizontally with both hands blocking his strike. We had reached the edge of the creek, water lapping at my feet and soaking the cuffs of my pants. I looked down at his wide stance and in a desperate thought, moved my leg behind his and pulled. Throwing him off balance, he lost control and fell back into the shallow bank of the creek.

The other two of them looked down at him shocked. Allowing me a little time to look over at Percy and Clarisse dueling farther down the bank of the creek. Percy backed up toward the water, trying to raise and use his shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck him straight in the ribs. If he hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, he would've been shish-ke-babbed. But I could tell by his face that the electrical shock was definitely doing some damage.

I started to move towards him down the bank of the creek but I all of a sudden felt a burning pain done the length of my shoulder blade to my elbow. One of the Ares kids snuck up behind me and slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good- size cut. I fell forward, splashing into the warm water of the creek. At the last second, I was able to catch myself from slamming face-first into the rocky bed of the creek.

I stared at my dirty reflection in the water as it changed from a clear dark blue to a deep crimson as the water washed the blood from my wound into the creek.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time. "N-no maiming," I whimpered.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

He shoved me down with his boot and I splashed around trying to get away. They all laughed.

"Awww, look she's gonna cry," one of them mocked, "are you gonna cry?" Let's be honest, I was gonna cry.

Not because I was scared but because I was frustrated. Ever since we got here everything has been trying to kill us. All because of a dad we never knew. My entire life had been dictated by a guy who never even came to see me. Who maybe doesn't even know I exist? The thought filled me with such anger that I could barely even hear the Ares kids bellowing laughter. Who cares, I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened.

The water seemed to wake up my senses as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans. It also fueled my anger.

I looked over at Percy and he seemed to feel what I was feeling. We locked eyes as Percy began treading water to get to me. Clarisse and her cabinmates finally came fully into the creek to finish us off, as Percy reached me and helped me up. We stood together to meet them. We knew what to do and I wasn't afraid anymore.

Percy moved forward and swung the flat of his sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. He hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water. Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. But I had retrieved my spear from the water and slammed the shaft of it into one's face. Next, I turned to use the blade to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick.

But Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, Percy caught the shaft between the edge of his shield and sword and snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but Percy smacked her between the eyes with his sword butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

Then I heard yelling, and elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes kids covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.

The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. "A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

My heart was still pumping and blood was still roaring in my ears from the adrenalin still raging through my body. Unable to understand that it was over. I was startled when Annabeth's voice, right next to us in the creek, said, "Not bad, heroes."

I saw Percy look around, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I looked over at Percy cause I was honestly still confused and a bit dazed. Was she just invisible? I mean it shouldn't have fazed me but still.

"You set us up," Percy gritted out. "You put us here because you knew Clarisse would come after us, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always has a plan."

"A plan to get us pulverized," I muttered warily.

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed Percy's wounded arm. Her brows were drawn together and she frowned. "How did you do that?"

I noted her reaction and turned to look at his arm. What I was expecting was a gnarly-looking half-burned cut, but my eyes widened at what I saw instead.

"Sword cut," he said distractedly looking at the ongoing cheering and commotion of our fellow teammates. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

He similarly to us looked down and was shocked to see the blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As we all watched, it turned into a small scar and disappeared.

"I—I don't get it," Percy said.

I was barely able to form the thought before I dropped my spear and scrabbled to try and look at my shoulder and the corresponding cut. It was a strain to crane my neck but I eventually saw the wound. Or I would have if it was still there. Similar to my brother all the blood was gone and only a faint slightly larger scar was left on my shoulder blade. What the hell?

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at Percy's feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What—"

"Just do it."

Percy looked at me cautiously before treading closer to the bank and finally stepping out of the water. I followed him but stopped right at the bank staying where the water still lapped at my feet.

As he came out of the creek it was like all his energy immediately left. He almost fell over, but Annabeth and I rushed out of the water to steady him. But it's kinda hard to steady someone when your strength immediately leaves you as well.

I ended up having to lean on Percy and Annabeth so I didn't face plant on the gravel. I suddenly felt like I needed to take several naps.

"Oh, Styx," Annabeth cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."

I looked up at her through droopy eyelids. She didn't look like a confident kick-your-ass Annabeth anymore. Her brown skin had got ashen.

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest. Percy still a bit sluggish gripped my arm protectively, eyes frantically searching for the source of the noise like many of the campers still on alert.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!" Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at us,

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, Cassie, run!"

She tried to step in front of us, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it was about to collide with us everything seemed to move in slow motion as Percy pushed me to the side, out of the way.

I could barely open my mouth to scream, as I flew backward in the water I saw its razor-sharp claws ripping through my brother's armor. There was a cascade of thwacking sounds like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my brother's feet. Time resumed its normal pace.

Instantly on my feet, I rushed over to Percy, at this point too shell-shocked by the night's events to even cry. I aggressively kicked the hide of the hellhound aside as I ran past its corpse to crash so hard on my knees by my brother that my teeth shook.

"Percy, Percy!," I screamed trying to get a better look at him. By some miracle, Percy was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of his shredded armor. I could see the red color staining all over his shirt and I knew he was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned him into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..." "Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

I looked back over at the bank to see a gruff-looking Luke come over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone. As I looked at the shocked and fearful faces of the campers around us I caught a glimpse of Markus. His face was shadowed by this red-plumed war helmet but I could guess that he also had a grim look on his face at the scene before him. I noted that he had a bow strung in his hand.

In the distance, Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

I shot her the nastiest look to ever be thrown. The hell he did, I wanted to scream.

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her. We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. "You're wounded," Annabeth breathed out. "Quick, Cassie, get him in the water." "I'm okay," he said still a bit stunned.

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I think I was understanding what Annabeth was trying to get at. I gripped Percy's arm to help him up and said, "It's okay Percy just trust us." He nodded and I helped him stumble back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around us.

Instantly, I felt better. No more fatigue and I stopped shaking from the fear. I felt strength and a sort of calm pulse through me. I looked down and could see the cuts on Percy's chest closing up. I stepped away as he straightened up feeling the same surge of energy that I did. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know why," Percy said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry...."

But they weren't watching his wounds heal. They were staring at something above his head.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um..." By the time Percy and I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident. But it was clearly only above his head.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced. He stepped forward glancing my way in pity.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. Markus's eyes felt like a burn on my skin as he lowered his head along with them.

"Our father?" I asked, completely bewildered. Still not getting it.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

And that's when I finally understood what had happened.

My dad didn't claim me.

to be continued...

22 notes · View notes

walker-extended-universe · 8 months

Text

The Right Moment

Relationship(s): Trey Barnett/Cassie Perez

Tags/Warnings: Injury, Fluff, Feels, Love, Love Confessions, Flirting

Summary: Four times Trey almost told Cassie he loved her and one time he did

Written for @flufftober Day 5: x + 1

taglist: @theladywyn, @ihavepointysticks, @klaatu51, @itsjessiegirl1, @neptunium134

----

The night was perfect. Kelly and Larry were married, the whole Walker family was at peace, and Trey finally felt like he was going somewhere in his life. Maybe it was the wine or maybe he was just happy, but he wanted to live in this moment forever.

He was dancing with Cassie. The lights danced of the disco ball, making a constellation on Cassie’s bare shoulder. It was definitely the wine that made Trey want to kiss it but he could control himself. For now.

He just couldn’t believe this was real. That he was dancing with her. That he’d told her his feelings and she’d returned that. That she was here, laughing in his arms.

He’d never believed in love at first sight. He tried to be more careful with his heart. But despite only really knowing Cassie for less than a year and only just starting a relationship with her tonight, he knew he wanted to be with her forever.

I love you , he thought, listening to her commentary on the other dancers. I love you , he thought, toasting their drinks at the punch table. I love you , he almost said when they parted ways. But he wouldn’t. Not tonight. The timing wasn’t right.

Soon.

—----------

“So, how is it in Florida?”

“Hot. And wet. But the gators aren’t biting so at least I only have dangerous criminals to worry about.”

Trey chuckled. “Well, that’s good. Graves giving you any trouble?”

“Surprisingly, no. She’s been very cooperative. I think it helps that she’s not in charge of this mission though; like we’re pretty much on the same level so she can’t look down on me. Not that she should be in the first place, but whatever. She’s actually pretty decent when she’s not stuck up on her high horse.”

Trey laughed. “Sounds like you two will be making friendship bracelets by the end of the week.”

Cassie snorted. “Yeah, right. Anyway, how’re things back home? Walker almost kill himself yet this week?”

“No, actually. But he almost got himself suspended for breaking chain of command to go after a suspect. I think James was just relieved to catch the guy or Walker would’ve been in his office for a lot longer.”

Cassie chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Is it okay working with him?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. I think he misses you though,” Trey said. “I caught him longingly looking at your empty chair. I’m sure he’ll be writing longing sonnets for your return in a couple weeks.”

She laughed. “Oh, that poor man. However will he survive without his amazing, spunky, badass partner?”

He chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll manage somehow.”

There was some noise on Cassie’s end. “Shoot, that’s the end of my break. Boss needs me in a meeting. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure. Tomorrow.”

“Alright. Bye, babe.”

“Bye, Cassie.” I love you was almost instinctive. But he couldn’t say it. Not yet. Not over the phone when she might not even be coming back.

Soon.

—-------

Cassie had the most beautiful smile. Trey didn’t see it often enough.

It’s not that Cassie was a rare smiler. Far from it. Trey just liked seeing her smile.

Which is why he always agreed to watch Hawk’s Shadow with her because that’s when she was at her smiliest. Sure, it was a cheesy show that would barely be background noise for him on a normal day. He wasn’t all that interested in the story and he barely remembered any of the plots once the episode was over. But it made her happy, so he sat with her and let her eat most of the popcorn while they watched.

“Oooooh this is the best part!” Cassie leaned forward and turned up the volume so they could hear better. She sat back on the couch and leaned over to get another mouthful of popcorn. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see she was watching his face more than the screen.

This was the other thing he loved about watching this. She wasn’t just dragging him into this for her own gain; she really wanted to share something she loved with the person she cared about.

Just another reason he loved her. When the episode ended (and he’d given an appropriate reaction to her favorite scene), he almost told her. “Next week, we’re starting Yu-Gi-Oh. I even have a card set so I can teach you to play,” he said instead.

Maybe after she could match his skill level, he’d be ready to lay out that trap card.

—-------

Trey wasn’t exactly a stranger to being shot. He spent most of his career in the military and there was always a risk, even if he was acting as a medic. He’d been shot more times than he cared to admit to his mother.

Having a lot of experience with it didn’t make it any easier to deal with.

“You’re gonna be okay, Trey.” Cassie’s worried face filled his vision. “We’re almost at the hospital and they’re gonna fix you right up, okay? This isn’t going to get you out of meeting my family next week.” She tried to smile; he tried to smile back. Neither of them were successful.

The rest of the car ride was a blur of pain and Cassie’s increasingly frantic voice. Trey wanted to comfort her. It wasn’t a fatal wound, not really. It hurt a lot but as long as he didn’t bleed out too much he’d be okay. He was just too tired.

“Trey?? Trey, honey, don’t fall asleep! Focus on me, okay? Look at me. You’re gonna be okay. We’re almost there.”

I love you . I’ll be back, he promised silently as they loaded him onto a gurney and took him in for surgery.

—------

They both had the day off from work and no other plans. Just them, some good food, maybe some extra time in the sheets. He didn’t realize it before, but Trey had spent so much time in the past few years doing anything and everything to try and ignore the emptiness inside of him. Now, he didn’t feel quite so lonely nor desperate. Now, he could relax and hold the woman he loved in his arms.

Cassie sighed and rolled over to kiss him. “Thank you for turning off our alarms,” she muttered. “I think I would’ve thrown your phone off of the balcony if I had to wake up at 5 on my day off.”

Trey chuckled. “I know you would have. Good thing I’m a smart and good boyfriend who would never dare commit such a crime.”

She hummed and snuggled closer, resting her head on his chest. “Good. That means I can keep you.”

“That so? That’s good news for me. I like it when you keep me around.”

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this secure. Content. Happy. Loved. He wasn’t sure he ever felt this way with Micki.

“Well, if I’m going to keep keeping you around, I’m going to need some breakfast. I need energy to keep you in line.” She folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on top of them, giving him her best pout. “Make me french toast?”

He smiled and kissed her. “Anything for the woman I love.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped slightly. It was rare he made her speechless like this. “You….?”

“Yes. I. Love. You,” he said, punctuating each word with another kiss. “Now, I believe I promised you french toast?” He got out of bed and made his way to the kitchen.

The day had only just started and it was already a great one.

#flufftober #x+1 #walker #walker fic #walker fanfic #cassie/trey #cassie perez #trey barnett #my writing #my fic

10 notes · View notes

followingthefanfiction · 4 months

Text

Mourning Star OCs

@luckynature here they are.

Normal not an alien who’s been here lifetimes for us and ten minutes for her Cassandra Nova (Cassie Casanova to the High school kids) she’s just here to get a good view of the stars for her art project and also maybe to grow plants because her… hometown did not have plants. Absolutely a Nightvale inspired character. (Cecil voice: and if anyone wants to help out local interplanetary transfer students, please point out nice stars for them to draw on our canvases. If you can’t help with their art endeavors, please, give them plants to keep them docile. We don’t want to rebuild the earth history room again.)

Jonas “Chip” Artife is a normal human teenager. He eats and drinks like a person and is waterproof. Like a person. Please call him A Person. He is Not An It. He decided that Himself. He is a True Intelligence and not Artificial. He was built in Bessie’s Garage- I mean born. Like a person. Born of Bessie. He likes football but his mom is always worried he’s going to “knock something loose” so he’s benched a lot. Probably a good thing because he’s not very physical. He likes movies and music and art and everything that can invoke feelings in him. Maybe… Cassandra can. Cassie. He likes spending time with Cassie. Show him some paintings some time. If she wants to. He loves feelings. He loves the entire world so much and has such a passion for life. He might be in love. He can’t tell. He wants to explore everything.

Bessie Ann Jones. Just. A mechanic who’s a southern lesbian. Somewhere between 20 and 30. Oh. And she’s possibly dead and there’s definitely a disease eating her flesh. But that can be fixed! All things can be fixed! So she’s got a space in the garage to tinker! Make a body or two, repair a space ship, get that death ray working. Whatever you need, she’s just happy to help out! Always doing tasks for the locals, and hell even the tourists! She also waitresses part time at the local bar. Meets ~The Ladies~ there you know what she’s sayin Doll? Do you understand how southern cringe mom she is.

#Mourning Star #LuckyTown #That tag is for when I inevitably forget the name and just call it “luckynature oc place”#Hope you like them all

4 notes · View notes

sleepy-achilles · 1 year

Note

Hey can we play in your sandbox with the kids?

The way you worded it has me confused. Do you mean, the kids playing in a sandbox or just me throwing out different ideas I've got? Feel free to send another ask telling me if I'm a complete idiot. You can call me an idiot, I won't mind.

But hey.

The kids playing in a sandbox in the meanwhile 🤷🏼‍♂️

The Family of Destruction- Sand Destruction

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

"Are they gonna like it?" Goldust asks, hands on his hips and all. "They are kids, of course they will!" Shawn smiles. "Cassie is a kid. Leon? Will he even know what it is? Will he try eating the sand?" Goldust questions. Shawn pauses. "I..I didn't think about that.. " Shawn whispers. "Guess we will see. Atleast taker is playing lifeguard." Goldust huffs.

Taker stands between the two kids. "You want us to play in that?" Cassie asks. "Papa brought it, the least you could do is pretend to enjoy yourself." Taker mutters. "But it seems dirty.." cassie mutters. 'You play with bugs, what's the difference?' Leon signs. "Hes got you there" Taker points out. Cassie frowns. "Why does papa play with it?" Cassie asks. "Because its for kids. Just. Build a sandcastle or something, cmon" Taker huffs. 'A sandcastle?' Leon asks. Taker and cassie both stare at him. "I've really failed as a father...Jesus, get in the box" Taker orders. Both kids huff and stand in the sand filled box.

"Will this work?" Cassie asks picking the bucket up as Taker kneels down. "Of course. Fill it with sand and quickly tip it over." Taker tells her, grabbing another bucket and starting to demonstrate. Leon pulls a confused little face as he looks around the box at the different toys. He tilts his head as he spots the shiny little shovel.

"Oo he's found mine" goldust smiles. Shawn just smiles as he watches his husband show cassie how to build a castle.

"Lee?" Taker asks after he spots the blonde turned away. Leon sits and turns to look at taker, revealing the hole he's started to dig. "You know you can't dig a hole in this, right?" Taker asks. 'Why not?' Leon asks, picking up a ball and dropping it. Taker and Leon stare at each other as the ball continues falling a lot longer than it physically should for a hole in a sandbox.

Taker moves towards the boy and looks to see he's managed to dig through the sandbox into the earth. He glances at Leon who stares at him with innocent eyes. "H..how? What did you.." Taker let's out a quiet groan. "I installed this, this morning. How have you, one, already broke it and two, how did you break it?" Taker asks.

Shawn, who's leaning against the porch pole, glances back at goldust concerned, who's now sat on the bench. "Maybe we should go check on them.." Shawn suggests. "Oh no, this is all daddy takers job. I mean your baby girl might become a millionaire and you baby boy will 100% be able to escape prison when he ends up there" goldust states. Shawn looks at his kids. Cassie, sat amongst a massive, a too big, sandcastle and Leon, who's showing Taker the hole he's dug.

'Whats the issue?' Leon asks. "You know damn well what it is" Taker snaps looking up. His eyes widen as he spots cassie sat amongst massive sand castles. "H-how have you...?" Taker trails off. "I don't know. It just happened" cassie shrugs dropping the bucket and moving over to them. "Whatcha doing?" She asks. 'Hole' Leon points. "I give up.. I left you for a minute. And I left you for five." Taker groans hiding his face. "Can I help?" Cassie asks. Leon nods and hands her a shovel. Taker looks up as Leon nudges him with a shovel. "Cmon, you might aswell help up" cassie states. "Yeah...might aswell." Taker sighs accepting the shovel.

"Its like Lord of the flies." Goldust mutters, now sat on the stairs with shawn. "I have a feeling Leon might be Jack." Shawn mutters sipping his water. "I can't believe your husband just gave in" goldust chuckles. "He doesn't understand them. So it happens a lot. Gives me a excuse to redo the garden" Shawn smirks. "Atta boy Shawn, atta boy" goldust chuckles.

#wwe #shawn michaels #the undertaker #wwf #hbtaker #undertaker x shawn michaels #shawn x undertaker #goldust #leon michaels #cassidy michaels #the family of destruction fics #the family of destruction

9 notes · View notes

lesser-bohemian · 2 years

Note

what future careers do you imagine the euphoria characters have?

lexi - lexi studies creative writing in college and publishes her first novel, a very autobiographical coming of age story soon after. it’s a huge hit and even gets adapted into a tv-show. my girl’s already a nyt bestselling author to ME. fez - i’ve been following @euphoricfez for so long i feel like i’ve seen this man have every career on the planet and i agree with all of them, but in my heart he’ll always be lexi’s malewife and stay at home baby daddy <3

cassie - this one’s hard. we know so little about cassie’s hopes and dreams, outside of romance and relationships, but i could see her working with animals. maybe she’d become a vet or work at a dog shelter? rue - just like everyone else, i think she’ll use her experiences to help teens struggling with addiction and excel at it.

jules - in my mind jules moves to new york, studies fashion and ends up doing costume design for theater or movies. maddy - i see maddy becoming a big make-up influencer, moving to L.A and getting into doing make-up for movies. if i hc her and jules working on the same project and falling love, that’s my business :) kat - yeah, everyone’s right she’s 100% an erotic novelist. i could also see her doing modeling, but i might just be brainwashed by my obsession with all of barbie’s photoshoots.

ethan - again, everyone else is right. the boy belongs on broadway!

gia - i think gia would work in the medical field. maybe as an addiction expert or an oncologist, she’s badass.

faye - we can have youtuber faye, as a treat <3

nate - he sells cars. sorry but nate jacobs and dan scott are the same person to me. can’t wait for a dog to eat the heart he needs for his transplant.

elliot - he’s a failed busker.

thank you for asking me! 💗

23 notes · View notes

quiet-girl-short-stories · 11 months

Text

That Annoying Time of the Month

The sounds of nature were nothing compared to nature's blessing, or as Cassie liked to call it nature's devil. This shit that happened every month with the slight hope that Cassie would think to get knocked up, is what was going on. She didn't want to work, she didn't want to move and most importantly, she wanted to stop feeling like a baby with a wet diaper!

"Fuck me!" Cassie said rubbing her head. If nothing else, Cassie always got a headache when her period came. "Like the blood coming out of me isn't enough of a sign this shit is happening and for what? The hope that I might want a baby?"

She groaned and thought about getting something to eat, but then again that would mean she would have to get from her comfortable spot and that wasn't about to happen.

"So never mind I guess."

She sat there for a while longer when she heard someone at the door. I'm not getting up, maybe if I just stay quiet they'll think I'm not home. So she did just that and sat there for about two minutes in dead silence, the knocking went on and then she heard a voice.

"Cassie? Are you home?"

Koto?

She still wasn't going to move and instead just yelled. "Yeah, you can come in!"

He already knew where the spare key was and soon she heard her door unlocking. He let himself inside and nearly sprinted to see her, but once he did he stopped.

"Oh, were you sleeping?" He asked with a worried look on his face.

"No, I'm just not feeling too good."

"So, you're sick?"

"No."

"Then what's wrong?"

She wondered if she could tell him. Well, if he has beef with this then he shouldn't be someone I'm with. It's a part of life you lucky motherfuckers don't have to deal with.

"Well, it's a special time of the month..." She began and Koto instantly understood as evident by his expression.

"Oh, w-well is there anything I can do for you?"

Helping me get off would really help. "Not really, I'm pretty much set just to sit here until I get tired."

He nodded and sat down near her feet. Cassie then touched her head and couldn't help but let out a pained expression.

"What's wrong?" His voice cried with concern.

"I just get headaches sometimes with this."

Koto smiled. "Then that's how I can help!" He stood up and walked to where she sat on the couch. "I'll give you a head massage."

"Koto, it's fine I swear."

"No it's not. Guys should help girls when they're going through this. I don't know what it feels like, but I can assume if some girls take medicine just to feel better, it must be pretty bad. So let me do this."

Why must you be so cute?

Cassie gave into him and moved as Koto directed. He seemed excited by this as he quickly sat where Cassie's head once was.

"Okay, um, you can rest your head in my lap."

Cassie nodded and turned on her side before dropping down to his lap. Her eyes were closed and soon she felt Koto's hands on her head. They were strangely warm, but she didn't really notice that until his fingers lightly brushed on her neck.

Cassie let out a soft sound which made Koto clear his throat, she couldn't help but smile.

"Oh, before I forget, why did you come over anyways?" She asked

"Right, uh, I came over because I wanted you to check this scene I wrote. I wasn't sure if I got the character's emotions right or not."

Cassie hummed. "Well, maybe you could just read it to me."

"Really? Even though you have a headache?"

"I've done worse with a headache." Plus I've had them my whole life, so I doubt if your voice will bother me that much.

"I really want to say no, but I know you'll just keep telling me otherwise..."

Damn right. He stopped touching her and pulled out the rolled pieces of paper, one of his hands returned to his head, but Cassie could hear him holding the papers with his other hand.

"The scene's supposed to be by a lighthouse. My main character just realized his wife cheated on him and the wife is trying to apologize since it was a moment of weakness." Cassie nodded and Koto began to read the script.

"The waves crash while the husband looks out to the ocean, his head is up and he begins a monologue: he says Was it something I did? I know I'm not perfect, but I tried my best to be sure she was happy... to be sure she at least loved me. I can't keep myself happy and now I know I can't even keep another happy. He walks over to a rock and begins to hit his hand on it. Why do the ocean's taunt me? They can keep going when I can't? Even when they're still here they work elsewhere. I fail when I'm supposed to work and my waves never crash properly. I can't even destroy things properly!" Koto read that with as much passion as he could all while Cassie's hair was run through. "Then the wife comes out and tries to stop him from hurting himself. Mark, don't do this! It was my mistake and I didn't think it would ever happen! He says, I knew it would have, eventually you would have realized a life with me wasn't worth it. I just wished you could have abandoned me instead of leading me to believe I was a good husband! He antagonizes. She says; You are a good husband. I do love you and being separated from you makes me want to stay with you... work past our differences and begin a new life together. He pauses for a while and eventually turns to her and she sees that he's crying. He then says, your new life doesn't include me and I know it. Then the scene is supposed to end and go on into something I haven't written yet."

Wow, that sounded amazing, but boy does Mark sound like a bitch sometimes.

"It's really good Koto and I think you have the right idea when it comes to how they should be feeling. I think what you have an issue with is making believable comments."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Mark feels like he's a failure, not that he's done his wife wrong in some way. He should make comments that reflect that he hates himself for lack of skill or whatever it is he's missing. Yes he should comment on his wife, but only on the part where you say that he can't even make another person happy. After that the audience shouldn't be reminded he's married until she comes out to put emphasis that he feels like a failure personally, not at their marriage."

She felt Koto's lift up, the paper was crinkling and she could hear his scribbling as he quickly wrote. Once it stopped, his hand returned to her head.

"That's amazing, I didn't think to do it like that! I'll rewrite it tonight."

"I'm glad I can help, but I would love to see this play on stage."

"I know, that's why I'm working so hard on this. Mr. Wry said if I can give him a compelling piece he'll allow me to put this play on!"

"Oh, really? Good for you!"

Koto paused for a bit. "Uh, though, you would really want to come and see this play?"

"Of course!"

"Even though you're helping me with the entire thing?"

"Yes Koto, I always look at things through a new lens so I never get tired of watching or reading anything interesting. Besides, I want to know how you see your words, not how I see them."

Cassie heard Koto whisper something, but when she turned to ask him what he said, he just shook his head and focused on her hair.

"I'm really glad we met Cassie."

She smiled and shut her eyes once more. "I am too Koto."

#a collection #a collection of short stories: quiet girl #short stories #short story #writerblr #writing community #creative writing #writeblr #writeblur #writers of tumblr #comfort #boyfriend imagine #cute boy #adorable

1 note · View note

yunafmd · 2 years

Text

hey, everyone 💖 it's been a little while since i got into a rp so pls bear with me 😭 but i'm cassie (she/her, 21+) and i introduce you to candy's mom leader, han yuna! she's also the main vocal of the group though she lowkey feels like that ain't nothing since candy isn't known for the vocals anyway 💀 here's her profile and here's her bio (trigger warning for child neglect and bullying) and here's a plots page with a couple of ideas that i could think of so far (might be updated later) and under the cut an also simple rundown of yuna so pls do like this post if you'd like for me to pop in your ims for some good ol' plotting 💖💖

han yuna. 25. main vocal and leader of candy. bc ent was her first and only company under which she trained for long six years before she was put on the survival show that would form candy later on. she wasn't picked by the public but by the judges and honestly for a while that difference haunted her a bit. 💀

TW CHILD NEGLECT. she's an older sister but basically raised her baby sister on her own with the occasional help of their neighbor because mom and dad were always working (maybe to run away from raising their kids?? maybe) so she's very attached to her. that's also where she got her habit of looking after other people, being the responsible one™.

hence bc entertainment selling her as the reliable and relatable mom friend/leader.

overall a very easygoing and warm person. not very loud, but it's easy to feel comfortable around her. idk how to explain it but yuna sort of gives cozy vibes if it makes any sense.

suffers from wanting to always meet the expectation that people have of her even if sometimes those expectations are things that she makes up in her head (and it's hard for her to tell the difference) so sometimes she can't see how good she truly is. but it's also a good motivator for her to do/accomplish things as long as she stays on the healthy side of it. is there a healthy side of this

but there are occasions that she accepts her (alleged) mediocrity and some that it eats her up inside, usually the former happens if it's something that only concerns her and the later it's because other people are depending on her and again she hates letting people down 😔

loves routine and stability which is sort of funny considering what kind of career path she chose for herself or maybe this just shows how suffocated she felt because of the consequences of having to grow up too once/have more responsibilities than she could handle for her age and this was the only way out she saw in tha moment.

TW:BULLYING was born in busan and stayed there until she turned thirteen. then she moved to seoul and was bullied while hiding away from her bullies as much as she could, yuna ended up spending time with her music teacher and they're the ones who showed her how much she actually enjoyed music and introduced her to songwriting.

doesn't know to feel about candy's success tbh because as much as they're the girl group of the nation, it isn't for their talent that they're recognized for so 🫠 also isn't sure if she wants to try to change that or simply go along with it.

honestly she just wants to survive in this wild industry.

#( * ooc. )#also thank you for the lovely welcome messages #i'll be replying to them now 💖

5 notes · View notes

acertainmoshke · 7 months

Note

Trick or treat! 🎃

Treat! 🍬

Have a little Cold Iron Halloween scene:

"They're just going to...give us candy?" Cassie frowned and tugged at the hem of her blue Dorothy dress. She kept peeking into the bag on her arm as if it might already have candy in it. "Apparently." In truth I felt just as strange about it as she did, but this seemed like a normal childhood experience to give her. Why the witch hat was necessary I wasn't sure, but Maggie had been so excited. It was hard to say no to her, after everything. "It'll be great! I haven't been since I was little!" Maggie spun into the room, her short red dress crinkling loudly with every step. The little red horns on her headband looked like Kris' used to before they grew tall. Jack, as always, giggled at the spinning, before taking off his tiny cowboy hat to bite it. Outside it was cold and windy, which made me feel a little better about the whole thing. I had drawn the line at the short black dress Maggie wanted to get me, but gave in when she amended it to a long black skirt and shirt with loose sleeves that whipped in the wind. The skirt was surprisingly comfortable after decades in jeans. I liked the way it beat against my legs and then away again. I might keep it. As soon as we were on the sidewalk, Jack wiggled to be let down and went running after Cassie. Would they still be running down sidewalks, alongside flying cars maybe, to go trick-or-treating in a hundred years? Even I would be getting old by then. They ran up to the first door before Maggie or I even reached the walk, banged on it, took a step back— And froze. The smiling old lady looked at them and waited. Maggie rushed up behind them and whispered, "You're supposed to say trick-or-treat! It's their first time," she explained. The lady looked oddly at Cassie, but handed them each a chocolate bar. I looked away quickly, up to the half-bare trees swaying in the wind, but Maggie caught me anyway. As the kids shouted "Trick-or-treat!" in an old man's face at the next house, she looked at me thoughtfully. "What would happen? If you had chocolate?" I had to think about it for a moment. "That depends, I guess. Fae deals and consequences can be...unpredictable. I traded it away as something I loved, for the car to work again. So it could be that that car just stops working. I don't even know what happened to it. Or it could be that every car I touch refuses to work. Or something worse. Some are more vindictive than others and come after you individually. It's..." I couldn't help the dramatic sigh. Really, I tried. "I have Cassie now. I can't risk it." "Fair enough," Maggie frowned. "You know, I don't even like chocolate that much. You could always try something else." "Like what?" "Licorice is my favorite." "Is it sharp?" Her brow furrowed. "I don't know what that means." And I didn't know how to explain, but maybe I'd stop by the drug store for some later. Only eating pancakes was getting a bit old.

#is this scene incomplete?#probably but I got tired #moshke writes #writeblr #cold iron #writeblr trick or treat

1 note · View note

babyyweebbitch · 2 years

Note

Sorry to bother you again D:

Can I please request headcanons for Erron, Hanzo, Kitana, and Johnny having a thicc, female S/O who loves food, experimenting with various recipes?

you’re not bothering me at all! i’m sorry it took a while🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️ (BRUH IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I AM MENTALLY UNWELL OK-)

trigger warning : spoilers for Johnny cages but

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚗 𝙱.

i have a headcannon that Erron loves food as much as you do! whenever hes home with you hes always asking if you could try out a few recipe every night hes home.

he loves to watch you in the kitchen whenever you cook. he’s always wanted to have a somewhat normal life with a woman he loves, he’s never had that in this life since he’s always fighting with other realms and such.

obviously he offers to help you with whatever you need, weather it be passing you stuff, mixing something for you or whatever you ask, hes happy to do anything for you

he’s the type to ask to taste your food as you’re cooking it. i don’t know why but he gives off those vibes, he also always washes off his spoon if he’s gonna be trying a lot of things. he knows it’s just gonna be you, him and maybe Kano and Kabal eating but he doesn’t wanna get his “germs” in the food

whenever you’re waiting for a timer for anything he likes to dance with you in the kitchen. he likes to twirl you around in the dining room while there’s music playing (he also likes to hold ur hips👁👁)

long story short, he loves your cooking he thinks you should be a billionaire chef tbh

𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚣𝚘 𝙷.

Hanzo loves to help you while you cook. he never wants to sit by and just watch because he doesn’t want you feel like you’re the only one doing anything even though you’ve told him countless times you don’t mind

while he’s helping you he likes to tell you about his day but he loves to hear about yours. he’s not really home during the day so he has no idea what you’re up to all day so he loves to hear about it so he feels included in a way

he’s the type to add spices to his food so you might have to make a separate batch just for him the way he likes it just incase you don’t like spicy food

whenever hes home for a long period of time he loves to bake some sweet things. he has a slight sweet tooth and he barely gets to eat sweets since he has to maintain his diet due to his occupation but if hes ever injured and he knows hes not gonna be fighting for a while he likes whenever you make him sweet treats or he’ll even make some for you if you’re ever out and he wants to surprise you

𝙺𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚊 𝙺.

kitana has a very large kitchen with basically anything you can think of inside. all the different pots, pans, plates, bowls literally ANYTHING. there are some things you’ve never heard of or seen in there. so you’re pretty much cooking or baking a lot. you spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking stuff for kitana (and sindel and shao because you’re nice)

just like Hanzo she’s not home alot so she can’t be there with you whenever you’re cooking and it saddens her because he likes to watch stuff happen from beginning to end.

but, whenever she is she is always helping you and always around you. she likes to make other things while you’re making one. like if you’re making dinner she’s making dessert, if you’re making dessert she’s making dinner and such.

her favourite thing that you make is Udon with small thin slices of meat. you made it one day just because you were bored and had kitana eat some to see if it was good. she fell in love with the food immediately and now you guys have it every day she’s home for lunch

𝙹𝚘𝚑𝚗𝚗𝚢 𝙲.

i feel like johnny is kinda a little chef himself 😀 Cassie always tells you how he would always make food for her and Sonya (when she was alive) so you who likes to make food a lot and experiments with different styles and recipes is kinda like a (second) match made in heaven, he loves to do the same thing

he is like Hanzo, he hates feeling like you’re just doing everything by yourself so he helps you, even if you say you don’t need it. he can just hand you stuff to make your life easier or clean up a mess as you’re making it. so if there is a pile flour on the counter, he cleans it. he also likes to wash utensils/dishes once you’re done using them. i feel like he picked this habit up from Sonya when they were married, she would always clean up a mess as she was making it, so it rubbed off on him

he’s also the type to start mini food fights (ironic for a mf who hates messes huh 😐) he likes to playfully throw shit like a pinch of flour or salt (yes, salt) or like place a bag of sugar on your head while you’re mixing something. he learned his lesson after you pointed a water gun at him ans started shooting him in the face with water (that’s how y’all fucked up the tv with a water fight 🧍🏾‍♀️ we don’t talk about that tho….. (the tv was expensive as hell too btw)

novas brain went stupid and didn’t know what else to add after that

#mortal kombat x reader #mortal kombat headcanons #mortal kombat 11 #mk x fem reader #erron black #erron black x reader #erron black headcannons #hanzo hasashi x reader #hanzo hasashi headcannons #hanzo hasashi #kitana kahn #kitana x reader #kitana headcannons #johnny cage #johnny cage x reader #johnny cage headcannons

640 notes · View notes

holylulusworld · 3 years

Text

Mother’s Boy

Summary: You want a man, not a mother’s boy.

Pairing: AU!Dean Winchester x fem!Reader

Characters: John Winchester, Sam Winchester, Mary Winchester, Jo Harvelle

Warnings: angst, language, Mary being a bitch, harassment, mentions of alcohol abuse, break-up, strong reader, a hint of fluff, remorse, hopeful ending, Sam is afraid of a dry spell

Divider by @firefly-graphics

“Dean why is your mom here too?” you look at Mary sit at your table, in your favorite restaurant. “I thought we wanted to have a romantic dinner, not another fallout with your mom.”

People might get the wrong idea and think you hate Mary.

Well, you hate her. She’s the devil in disguise, hides her evilness behind a fake smile and her friendly attitude in front of Dean.

“She’s lonely since dad left her, okay,” Dean ever the good son tries to talk you into sharing his attention for months. It’s not like you didn’t try to warm up to Mary, you really tried but she’s just evil, and her son doesn’t see it. “Please, for me sweetheart.”

“Baby, I’m trying so hard to like her, but every time we want to be alone, or you bring me around for family dinner, she harasses me the moment you leave the room,” you sigh deeply, already feeling the headache return. “Dean, this can’t go on forever. I talked to Cassie last month, and she told me Mary did the same to her.”

“That’s a lie,” you flinch at Dean’s harsh tone, but don’t give in. Not this time. “Mom would never do such a thing.”

“Yeah, when you are around she pretends to like me or at least tries to not let her façade crumble. Problem is, the moment you are not around, she begins to talk low about me. Hell, she called me a gold-digger, Dean.”

“You have to understand, we met a few months ago and I brought you home. I never bring a girl home, sweetheart,” Dean pecks your cheek, and you swallow the anger bubbling up once again. “Let’s have a nice dinner.”

“Fine,” you let go of Dean’s hand, missing he gasps when you pull your chair, not waiting for him to do so. “Hello Mary, how are you?”

Two can play a game so you put on your sweetest smile, sit down opposite Mary and try to ignore the nagging feeling Dean will never take your side.

“Fine, just fine,” you can hear the venom in her tone and feel her hatred for you with every false word leave her lips. “I hope you are fine too. How’s work at the diner?”

“She works at a library too,” Dean is fast to correct his mother as if he’s ashamed you belong to the working class, not born in wealth like he and his brother.

“For now,” you correct, hiding you study medicine while working three jobs. Dean never asked about your dream or what you want to do in your life.

Honestly, you met at a bar and ended up in the backseat of his car one night.

You never planned to see him again, but the next morning, you woke at his apartment, wrapped in his arms and he promised to never let you go again.

“Oh, do you want to become a housewife after my son proposed?” Mary spats, still that sweet smile on her lips. “I knew you are after his money, nothing else. Why would a girl like you go after my son? He can’t even handle his life without my help.”

“No, I do not want to become a housewife,” you retort. “No offense, I admire every woman who stays at home and takes care of kids, household, and her husband but this is not who I am.”

“Mom, what do you want to eat,” again, Dean doesn’t side with you, ignores Mary’s attacks. “Pasta maybe?”

“What do you want then?” she won’t stop, and you pinch the bridge of your nose, groaning at the pounding in your head and the weak man by your side.

It’s hard to keep your cool when the mother of the man you love harasses you right in front of him, in the middle of a restaurant.

“Well, I study medicine to become a doctor,” Dean gasps when you get up from your chair to toss the napkin onto the table. “I’m almost finished and, I already got a great job offer in New York.”

“New York?” your boyfriend jumps up to grasp for your hand, but you flinch away. “Sweetheart, why did you never tell me about your plans?” Dean steps closer to you; tries to cup your cheek but you won’t have it.

“Dean, you never asked,” you shrug. “What did I expect from a man fucking me in the backseat of his car. I pretend you can be more than a good fuck, but you are not. Thank you for making my decision to move to New York easier. I wanted to take a job here to be with you.”

“Baby girl, what are you talking about,” Dean stammers.

“I need a man, not a boy by my side. I believed you are a man, the perfect partner but I was wrong,” you turn on your heels, ignore Mary has a triumphal smirk on her lips when you give up on Dean. “Go and suckle at your mothers’ tits, because you will never touch me again in your life.”

You storm off, ignore Dean runs after you, calling your name. He reaches out for you, tries to grasp for your arm but you swat his hand away.

“Don’t Dean. I told you your mother is the worst. I guess someone working hard for her money is not good enough for her eldest son, her beloved Deany.”

“Baby girl, please,” he tries one last time, but you give him a sad smile. “You will break up with me, right?”

“I already did, at the table when you did not stand up for me,” you press a soft kiss to his lips, let your touch linger for a moment. “I love you, but I love myself more to not let your mother harass me. If you grow up and find a nice girl again, do not let Mary make her life living hell…”

“Baby girl,” Dean watches you walk away and out of his life, knowing there is nothing he can do to make you stay.

“Wait, you invited mom to your special dinner with Y/N? Dean, that was stupid,” Sam shakes his head in disbelief. “I told you to stop looking the other way when it comes to mom. Dad gave up months ago.”

“Son, Y/N is a great girl. Pretty, smart and she has a nice ass,” John whips his head toward the kitchen to make sure Jess can’t hear him talk about your ass.

“Dad, can you just not talk like that about my girlfriend? Isn’t it enough mom ruined my relationship?” Dean shoots his father an angry look. “What can I do now? I—I love her, and I don’t want to lose my girl.”

“Dean, I hate to say it, but you are the last person Y/N wants to see right now. If you want to get her back, talk to mom first. She needs to realize you are not a child anymore and that you are in love with Y/N,” John pats his son’s cheek. “We are rooting for ya.”

“Maybe you are right,” Dean runs one hand down his face, hoping he can find a way to fix things between you.

“That’s all for today,” you crack your neck, ready to go home, have a warm bath and enjoy a glass of cheap red wine. “We only need to share the tips and call it a day.”

“Uh—this woman is watching you, babe,” Jo jerks her head toward an elegant woman standing in the middle of the diner. She looks around the sixties-style diner, hands clutched tightly to her chest, nose scrunched up in disgust. “Bitch looks like she shoved a stick up her ass.”

“Great, Mary Winchester is the last person I wanted to see tonight,” it’s hard not freak out when the reason for your breakup with Dean stands right in front of you. “Can you kick her out? Use the baseball bat Rufus hides in the back if you want to.”

“She waves at you.”

“I don’t care,” Mary shuffles from one foot to the other. She’s not used to people ignoring he presence and doesn’t know how to react to your behavior. “Why pretend she’s not an awful person. Mary got what she wanted. I broke things up with Dean.”

“Y/N,” she finally moves toward you and your colleague. “Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you.”

“Sorry, but the diner is closed,” Jo says, giving Mary a wink. “A lady like you can effort to go to a nicer restaurant. This place is for the working class, ma’am.”

You hold back a chuckle as Jo continues. “I think my friend doesn’t want to talk to you. I will not let you bully Y/N again. You must be very proud of yourself for destroying your son’s relationship.”

“Y/N. Please, can we talk?” Mary tries once again. “I know you must hate me.”

You scoff at her words. “Hate you?” turning around you give Mary a dirty look. “Why? Only as you ruined my relationship with Dean, harassed me from the first day we met, and refused to get to know me? Do you want to tell me he found someone more suitable for your taste and rub it into my face?”

“Dean doesn’t talk to me since you’ve been gone,” she cries, reaching out for your hand, grasping your limb. “Please, you need to talk to my son. Dean tried to contact you, but you blocked him. You moved out of your shared apartment without looking back and now, he’s not himself anymore.”

“Why should I care?” you fight the lump in your throat. You never wanted Dean to suffer, only for him to see his mother is an awful person. “He’s not my problem. You wanted your Deany all for yourself, now you got him.”

Jo snickers. “Lady, you should leave now. You know, some people work hard to pay for shit. If you would excuse us now.”

“Please, call him. He needs you,” Mary sniffs, close to tearing up. “Dean is drinking too much and barely leaves his apartment. For months he didn’t go to work. He’s a wreck.”

“Well, you wanted me gone, Mrs. Winchester,” you quip, giving her a fake smile. “I’m gone, now if you would excuse me, I got to find a new man…”

“If you mess this up, Jess will kill me. So please, don’t mess up,” Sam hands his brother a piece of paper with your new address.

“You got her address?” with shaking fingers Dean takes the piece of paper out of his brother’s hand. “How’d you get it? I thought Jess doesn’t know anything about Y/N’s whereabouts.”

“She changed her job and address but not her friends, Dean. Jess is still in contact with Y/N, and I checked on her address register. Again, don’t mess this up,” the younger brother warns. “If not, I will have a dry spell for months…”

“Please, baby girl,” Dean knocks again, tries anything to make you talk to him. “Sammy will kill me if I do not fix things with you. I—I got your favorite ice cream and flowers. Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I talked to my mom; told her she can’t talk to you like that.”

“Dean, what do you want here? It’s been two months,” you slowly open the door to face your former boyfriend. “Maybe I’m not alone.”

“Y/N don’t say things like that,” he takes a step toward you to hand you the flowers. “I let you down. Baby, without you in my life, I have nothing. If you want me to, I’ll never talk to my mom again.”

“Dean, I never wanted you to not talk to your mom. All I ever wanted was for you to stand up for me. I tried so hard to get in your mom’s good graces, but I didn’t stand a chance.”

“Oh, I see,” he takes another step toward you to show you the ice cream in a paper bag. “I hate that I hurt you, Y/N.”

“Dean, I don’t want to get hurt even more,” he drops the ice cream to cup your face, eagerly pressing his lips to yours. “Dean.”

“I will do anything to make you see, you’ll come first. I always was mom’s good boy and tried to make sure she’s happy. I know this is no excuse, but I promise, this will never happen again,” you try to resist him. “Please let me in.”

“You’ve got time to talk until I’m done with the ice cream,” he looks down at the ground, wincing as the ice cream melted and there is nothing left to eat. “You’ll get me ice cream, of course. And don’t get me the wrong flavor.”

“I’ll get it for you,” Dean almost runs along the hallways, trips over his feet before he manages to find the exit.

“A toddler in the body of a grown man,” you muse, laughing when he runs back toward your apartment, calling your name. “What’s wrong? Did you forget anything?”

“I forgot to tell you how much I love you,” he’s on you in a blink to kiss you again. “…so much, sweetheart. I’ll be a man for you, not a boy. Promised.”

“Fine, come in and forget about the ice cream, we can talk inside, but—” you smirk, looking at the ruined ice cream, “you will clean the floor in the morning…”

“In the morning?” Dean swallows thickly when you take his hand to drag him into your apartment. “I don’t have a pajama with me, Y/N,” he whispers against your lips.

“We will find something for you to wear. I don’t want you to freeze your ass off on my couch,” he huffs. Dean had hoped you’d let him sleep on your bed.

“Can we not cuddle a bit?”

“Not tonight, Captain Cuddle,” he snickers at your words, still there is a deep sadness in his usually sparkling emerald eyes. “If you want to be my man, you must prove you’ll not let me down again first. Until then, you will sleep on the couch.”

“I’ll earn my place in your heart and your bed again,” Dean follows you toward your living room, silently praying you’ll give him a second chance.

Tags in reblog.

#Mother’s Boy #au!dean x reader #au!dean winchester #dean winchester #dean winchester fanfiction #au!dean winchester x Reader #angst #dean winchester SPN #dean winchester x you

173 notes · View notes

clean-bands-dirty-stories · 3 years

Text

XOXO ~ H.D. (Part Two: Distract)

A/n: I need to stop doing this and just make decisions RIP (This prompt list)

Request: “38 and 17 for Hamish Duke” by anon

Word Count: 2800+

MASTERLIST

~ A Kiss To Distract ~

You know you think you'd meet one demon that fed off of fear and that would tick the boxes for any need you might have to meet a fear eating demon. You could just continue about your life, just meeting the one, and that would be fine. That would be enough. You could stop at the one.

Not for Jack and his friends.

After the one demon who came in and pulled fear out of ears and nearly ended the world, another one came waltzing in - just as dangerous in a completely opposite way. Rather than ridding you of your fear, Curza cultivated it, bred it. This way the fear didn't run out. He fed on it a lot more slowly and had to eat more often - rather than just feeding once and then moving on. This way people were nearly crippled by their fear instead of completely free of it.

Honestly they weren't sure which one had been worse.

All they knew now was that for some reason, Y/n was far FAR more resistant to the effects than anyone else. He had been fed on more than any of them and still remained on his feet. He had turned into that terrified, jumpy ten year old Cassie had talked so much about once in jest, but he still had ideas and plans and kept going. Most of the Order had been cut out of commission, and had taken Alyssa with them. Now it was the wolves, Vera and Nicole, and it was looking like they were going to lose even more people soon.

Nicole was currently on the floor, eyes vacant and hands shaking slightly. Lilith was with her, trying to knock her out of it, but wasn't making much progress, as Lilith was having a hard time too. Jack sat close to them, eyes closed and head leaning against a wall. Randall crouched on the other side of him, holding his hand while listening to Vera and Y/n go back and forth as they tried to come up with a plan. Even Hamish leaned against a wall, one foot propped up and arms crossed over his chest. He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing as the two talked. Listening to his boyfriend's voice was like an anchor, grounding him. It helped him focus to hear Y/n buzz around and go back and forth with Vera. He couldn't think of any ideas himself, like he usually could, but he could listen and that was enough.

For now.

Nicole began hyperventilating and Vera sighed. "Take her back to the Den with Alyssa, will you Lilith?" She had been beaten down so much that her voice was gentle, even with Lilith of all people. They were all going through too much to be snapped at right now, and Vera couldn't muster her usual attitude. Lilith just nodded, trying to hide the relief on her face as she dipped out with Nicole leaning against her.

Vera looked at Y/n, who ran his hands over his face as he sighed. "Okay, okay. We need to stop arguing and planning and need to start doing something. We're running out of people. Fast."

Vera crossed her arms. "Do you have any ideas?"

Y/n pursed his lips. He paused, and then his eyes drifted over to Jack. "Didn't Jack say the demon was weak to hell fire?"

"All demons are," Vera confirmed, nodding. "But it's impossible to get, that's why-"

"No I know. I know. But what if he THOUGHT we had Hell fire and we could distract him? Just long enough..."

"To get close?" Vera offered.

Y/n nodded. "Do you think you could enchant a blade with something, to stab him? Or maybe we could stick something on him that would sap his energy? I mean he feeds on fear, what if fueling him with hope or something crippled him in some way? Just slowed him down a little, so that over time it..." he sighed, his chest shuddering. "That'll take too long."

"Not necessarily," Vera began. "If we could close him in a small area, lock him up, and surround him with people feeling good things - snuff out the source of fear. Maybe on top of that hope pin idea..." her mind was racing. "You're right, he does feed on fear but only when he can build and grow it. If we could somehow combat it-"

"He would starve?" Y/n offered.

"It might even act like a poison," Vera agreed.

So the plan was set. All the magic users teamed up to create the spell that would be placed on the demon. Hamish and Randall came together to build an area and create a devil's trap. That left Y/n and Lilith to come up with ideas on how to focus and distract people from their bad feelings to create an environment that the demon won't be able to feed off of. The hope of an actual solution being so close had several of those that had been knocked out working along with everyone else, no matter how bad they'd been doing before.

When they were all done they stood is a circle, outside of the demon trap. The only exception was Y/n, who stood in a bubble written into the demon trap. It would keep the demon locked in and unable to attack Y/n. The contract, the conversation - whatever happened it would be between the demon and Y/n. He would have to answer Y/n’s questions or be distracted enough that Y/n could get close and place the button so they could behind sapping the demon’s strength.

Now that they were ready to go, they summoned the demon. There were only a few seconds of silence before the demon appeared on the middle of the circle. It’s eyes found Y/n as if it had appeared here on purpose, ready to get into an argument with Y/n specifically. They faced each other. No one moved. No one even breathed.

Y/n broke the every silence. “Curza.”

The demon smiled. A twisted, disgusting expression on his face. “Y/n.”

An impressed quirk of the eyebrow and Y/n tilted his head. “You know my name.”

“You summoned me, and out yourself directly into my spotlight in doing so. You’re either very stupid or trying to make me focus on you. Either way, you’ve made yourself the most vulnerable living thing to me I have access to. I know your name. I know everything about you.”

Y/n swallowed, forcing the fear he felt down. Everyone in the room had frozen in terror - Hamish most, as it was his boyfriend who was currently under threat. “I have questions for you.” He struggled for only a split second before taking a solid step forward. His eyes locked with Curza’s, whose expression flashed with intrigue. Not many could move under his influence, let alone talk so civilly or freely move around.

“And what question would that be?” Curza asked, his tone nearing on purring as he stepped closer to Y/n as well.

Taking two more steps, Y/n felt the air get thicker and his heart beat pick up significantly. He held onto the same thing he always did when facing these feelings. He could give into fear and let his friends die, or he could push past it and focus on the fear that ruled him the most. The one that had driven him for twelve years. The fear that had kept him alive despite everything he had been through. Everything that had been expected of him when he had bonded with Midnight.

The fear of losing everyone he cared about, just like he had lost his sister. Like he had lost Cassie and all the wolves that had once been his family. He had more family now, and they meant more to him than anyone ever had before. He wouldn’t let them die because he couldn’t keep his feet under him.

Not again.

As if sensing Y/n’s sturdiness, the demon’s eyebrows actually rose. “Not many people want to get closer to me, let alone can.” He took two steps toward Y/n and the werewolves shivered, blinking a few times to orient himself again. “See every time we get closer my influence becomes greater. Especially when I am focused on you like this, the amount of fear I am currently pumping you with has only been dealt with so beautifully for two reasons.

“One, you have a lot of hope.” Curza huffed in amusement, as if that was a silly idea. “That usually comes from years of dealing with hopeless, terrifying, truly horrible things. Often powered by spite more than anything. Not a wishing for a better future, but a demanding of one. Because you deserve it. Because I do not deserve to see you keep suffering, so you will get better.” He shrugged.

“The other reason?” Y/n asked, taking another step. It was slow, painful. Obviously a struggle. But he did it.

The demon smirked, taking two steps again. Y/n didn’t move but his hands moved behind his back. Everyone behind hun could see that his hands were shaking. “The other reason is that they fear something greater than what I can use to cripple them. Those who fear something greater than death, greater than failure. If you can find a greater fear, it can power you to keep going even as what I remind you of tries to rip you to a stop.” They were nearly chest to chest now. After seeing Y/n unable to move Curza had kept walking until they had gotten here. Curza was shorter than Y/n, just enough that Y/n had to look down at him. There was no power or confidence in it though. Y/n had only ever been this afraid of someone smaller than him when he interacted with a very angry Lilith.

“We all have our fears,” Y/n dismissed, shrugging.

Curza’s grin was like a shark’s. Pointy teeth - Y/n didn’t have to stretch to imagine them covered with blood. With his blood. With his friends’ blood. With the blood of the entire world. For someone else it might have been enough to knock him out of the game, but Vera had been clear. If Y/n failed, everyone in this room would be in danger of Curza. Y/n wouldn’t allow that.

Everyone was counting on him.

“And what?” Curza asked very quietly. While he was distracted Y/n slipped the little button on the back of Curza’s shoulder. They had been so locked in the moment that Y/n barely noticed - there was no way the demon was, not when he was trying to win his food over. “What is your fear?”

Y/n was fighting too much. Just standing was enough to exhaust him. He couldn’t fight this one, so he was just honest. “I have a future. I have a boyfriend who means the world to me, and we have had to fight one thing after another to get over our own stupidity and make it official. I’m not losing him now. I finally have a family again. I have friends. I have a woman who’s become like the older sister I should have had. I had one, taken from me so long ago, and she had someone to take care of once too. But we both lost those people and now... we see a little both of them in each other.” Y/n’s jaw locked. “You’re not taking them from me. You’re not taking me from them. And you’re not taking our world, our future. Not because we deserve better, but because we have come too far to fail now. I don’t care what we deserve. I don’t care about karma or any of that bullshit. I just want to see them happy and successful. That’s it.”

Curza smiled, and it was smaller. Tamer. “You have a plan.”

“I always have a plan.” Y/n’s voice had been reduced to a whisper, but it didn’t matter. He twisted his foot, digging his heel into the ground. It was the signal - the button was planted.

Curza’s smile wiped off of his face as everyone in the room reached out to each other. Thought as hard as possible with as much hope and love and spite as possible. Anything that combatted fear. Anything that pulled them further, kept them going. Whatever it was that had brought them here despite everything they’d been through. We’re going through. Would go through even later.

It was over soon. It was an ugly ordeal, with lots of screaming from the demon as very quickly he melted into a bubbling pile of mulch. But when he was gone, the tension lifted from the room and finally Y/n broke.

It was over.

He could finally give up.

Propped up only on his elbows and knees and hands wrapped in his hair, Y/n screamed. He screamed so loud and so high that it became a roar. A roar that broke very quickly into a sob. The only thing that was a saving Grace was that he didn’t transform. Midnight had given up too, so wrapped up in his head and feelings and thoughts that he couldn’t take control just as much as Y/n couldn’t. They were too close, Y/n’s fear was too personal at this point. They were equally incapacitated.

Everyone watched Y/n with stunned regret. They had been able to feel what he felt in that moment. Even Vera Stone herself had been brought to her knees. As if the demon had been projecting Y/n’s thoughts to them all individually, they had felt it and they had watched in amazement as Y/n kept on moving anyway. Vera, used to sorrow and loss and misery rather than terror and anxiety and adrenaline, had been just as useless against the assault.

Hamish got to Y/n first. He kept trying to soothe Y/n but the boy began shaking in Hamish’s arms. There was no getting to him, he was just melting down.

“Panic attack,” Alyssa whispered very quietly, trying to tell Hamish what was going on. “Severe. Never seen one this bad.”

“More like a trauma response,” Gabby added even more quietly. Her eyes were reflective of a deep, dark hole that stretched too far to see the bottom. Haunting. Hollow.

Hamish wracked his brain for a single thing he could do to help Y/n as the boy’s knuckles turned white and he began to pull on his hair. Hamish’s heart began to fill with a fear that wasn’t induced by any demon. Y/n could really hurt himself like this.

He panicked.

All thoughts left his brain.

Hamish grabbed Y/n’s face and kissed him.

For a second Y/n pushed away, almost appalled at Hamish’s actions. But already he had quieted and his vision had come into focus. His brain was still clogged and his heart was in is throat, choking him, but he was... better. Hamish’s lips were so warm and soft. His hands were familiar and gentle. His shoulders were broad and strong. No one could really hurt Y/n, not while Hamish was around. He might struggle and things might hit him where it hurt every once in a while, but with Hamish...

With Hamish, Y/n was safe.

Y/n pulled him back into a kiss. Hamish didn’t hesitate to return it and they held each other. Hamish filled the moment with as much passion as he could, for once drowning out fear not with spite or hope for a goodness one day, or even more fear, but love. Hamish poured all of himself into the moment, holding Y/n tightly securely. Pushing away all the darkness and the lonely nights and the anxieties of the future. Pushing away anything other than Hamish and Y/n, in this moment, with all their friends and family. They had won. Y/n was safe. They were all safe, because of Y/n. It was okay.

It was enough.

Y/n melted into Hamish embrace, eventually leaning away to press his face into Hamish’s chest. Everyone slowly moved closer as Hamish whispered, “Breathe with me.” And they did. They ALL did. Even Vera and Lilith and Gabby made their moves closer, nestling together as a complete group, and they breathed. Slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Together they not only helped Y/n get rid of the last effects of his own fear but also banished their own.

When they stopped, it was leaning against each other and holding hands and listening to each other and grounding themselves with the people around them.

Nothing could stop them. Not while they had each other.

Y/n and Hamish were together and that could be enough. They could defeat anything. For now, in this second, they could just be together. They could just be okay. That’s all they needed to focus on right now.

#hamish Duke #the order #the knights of saint Christopher #hamish duke imagine #hamish duke x reader #the order imagine #the order x reader #the knights of saint christopher imagine #the knights of saint christopher x reader

79 notes · View notes