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coliverxxx · 4 years

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#PleaseTreatChenleFairly

Summary: Exactly how it sounds like from the title.

Pairings: Chenle x Everyone, Chenle x Reader, Everyone x Reader

Angst: Angst, Comfort

Words: 4,209

Warnings: None, hopefully

A/N: A couple of days ago, this hashtag trended on Twitter and this was pretty much how I reacted to it and also how I wanted to react to it if I had the chance. I know I said Chenle x Reader but when I wrote this, I kind of wrote it like the Reader represents the NCTzens. Of course, we can’t all be that person but I’d like to think this is what everyone will do if they can had it happen to Chenle under their watch. Because Chenle doesn’t deserve to be treated differently and unfairly from the rest of the members. He works hard to bring us quality music and performance like the rest of them. He’s not even my bias and yet I feel so bad how they treated him that I even wrote some four thousand words because that’s how bad I felt and I needed to let it out.

Please Treat Chenle Fairly

Because of the nature of your work, you have worked for contracts and extended contracts with several entertainment companies and through luck or lack of it thereof (it was luck, you wouldn't really fool yourself) you met, worked with a lot of times, and became close with the kids of NCT. It hasn't always happened with everyone you worked with but they have managed to piqued your interest through their obvious talent, extraordinary bond, and boisterous laughter (especially when together) that unconsciously or not, you would join in. The way they laugh when huddled in the same room was probably what did it for you, especially when they were laughing at one another's individual strangeness (which sort of makes them human and that's probably what paved their way to your heart).

However, you were particularly soft with the babies from their youngest average age unit, especially after Mark left and they all seemed a little lost with no one among them to call "Yo, Dream!" anymore. It has always been engraved in your being to be a little more accommodating to their needs, a little more ready to extend a helping hand whatever they may need, and a little more protective. Sometimes, the older ones — Jungwoo, because that boy could always use a little more love and he'd have the extra space in his heart to take it all, and Ten, just because he liked pestering you, most of the time — would complain about you being a little more doting, a little more giving to Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung but you knew they were all just empty complaints because they probably do more and would do more than you if needed.

That's how precious the Dreamies, all of them, were to you and the boys.

Which was why you couldn't help the fire that was burning inside of you, the tightening of your chest, the heaviness of your breathing, and the overall pissed-off frustration of your mind when you logged into Twitter to check the updates from fans about the boys' 'To You #3' but instead of Jaehyun trending about asking Taeil to be with him even until they were forty or fifty, you saw another hashtag that was trending that you never thought you'd see at around one or two in the morning.

#PleaseTreatChenleFairly

At first, you honestly thought it was something simple like letting Chenle be the ending fairy of their live performances or something. Of course, as much as you didn't want to lose anymore sleep, you couldn't stop your finger from clicking the trending hashtag and seeing what it was really about and what really happened because this was Chenle. If it was a hoax, that would probably be better. But if there was something that happened that made fans all over the world to trend that hashtag, you needed to know because Chenle — or any of them — does not deserve to be treated unfairly.

With curious eyes looking for answers and overly anxious fingers, you scrolled down the top tweets. You might not understand Chinese even if your life depended on it which regrettably was the reason why you could not understand the post of Chenle's biggest fan club but you could clearly see. You could clearly see the images from their album of a group shot that Chenle was stupidly cropped from.

Your mind was racing because you worked with Super Junior back when they have thirteen members. You still worked with the group even now that they have nine active members left. You worked with Girls' Generation when they both have nine and eight members. You even worked with groups from other agencies with significantly more members. Which was why you couldn't understand no matter how hard you try to think of an explanation why they could inadvertently crop Chenle out of this own group photo in his own group album.

They were six members! Six ridiculously good-looking and talented members. Six good people who has an average age of twenty years old bringing more smiles into this world than probably who you wanted to blame for this huge fucked up mess. Six members. Six.

You stared at the photo through your phone. As much as you were understandably mad at this, when you read the tweets of the fans, you were more sad than mad. Imagine being Chenle's fan ever since he was a child, five or six. This boy was a music protege, a naturally gifted young boy with a very beautiful voice, who came from China, trained for a few months, and debuted in a foreign country he could only speak a little at that point. Imagine how heartbreaking his fans felt when they saw the boy they loved purely with all their heart cropped out in his own fucking album. You wanted to cry and you also wanted to hunt down whoever was responsible for this and rip that person's head off (okay, figuratively, you weren't a murderer, but can that person at least be transferred in another department because he/she/they clearly wasn't/weren't cut out for this).

It was impossible to retrieve every single ordered album and replace it with a right one, one which didn't have such animosity of cropping Chenle out of the group picture. You tweeted and retweeted several tweets. You wanted to do more than that but it was two in the morning and you couldn't see the kids until at least the following night. You tried watching 'To You #3' again but you couldn't concentrate on Jaehyun's words for Taeil anymore and that wasn't right. You tried rewatching Dream and 127's reaction to 'Ridin' music video but it wasn't as fun as you first watched it. Because you couldn't keep Chenle out of your mind.

Then, you saw their uploaded 'The Stage' video. Somehow, with all the content since that afternoon until evening, you either completely missed that or delayed watching it for a better time. It's not like you could watch while doing your thing at the toilet or when you were chatting with a client once the videos were uploaded. (But then again, that would still depend.) You thought it was something to tear your mind off the unexpected but probably already timely hashtag because you understand the fans, especially Chenle's fans, have kept quite for so long. But it wasn't. You didn't even need to see it from the tweets (but you saw later when you checked again to torture yourself) when you shouted to yourself, "Where the fuck was Chenle's message to Jisung?"

No one could tell you it was already finished after Haechan's message to Chenle. No fucking way. Because Taeil said his message to Taeyong. Because that's how it was supposed to be. The last member was going to give his message to the first member. So what, all the first members now who would give their message don't deserve their own? "Are you kidding me?" you frustratedly wanted to throw your hands in the air but you stopped yourself because you would look ridiculous even to yourself and you would not stoop down to the level of these people who were doing this to Chenle. You would not, however, not do anything though. You tweeted a bit more and might have reached the maximum daily tweet capacity because #PleaseTreatChenleFairly deserved to be trending. Because if they could not treat Chenle fairly, they might as well be called out on it. You would not keep quiet. Hell no.

You weren't sure how you fell asleep that night (or morning, depends on how you look at it) but between reading through #PleaseTreatChenleFairly, another hashtag began trending which was #재민버블 (Jaemin bubble). You would not stand another unfair treatment or another slander involving your children. Surely, the company wouldn't appreciate something burning in front of its building at three in the morning. It was ironic because you were still frustrated with Chenle's unfair treatment. Knowing yourself, it would last long, depending on how the company treats Chenle from now on. It could last years. It was during times like this when you were grateful that you work with them but you don't work for them. Perhaps the only reason why you keep working on this goddamn company was because of the boys. Seeing Jaemin's message for their fans sort of slowed down your self-destructive process of committing arson and that lulled you to sleep.

It was strange how you could be affected negatively by some people (as indirectly as it may be because this wasn't Chenle's fault, certainly not, it was the damn company and the people who worked in that album photobook, you needed that cleared up) like their pain was also your pain, that cliche, and be calmed by the exact same people, like their happiness and achievement was also your happiness and achievement. What do they call that nowadays?

The first thing you did the following morning was check #PleaseTreatChenleFairly though and you wondered if your tweet capacity had replenished by then. It was still trending when you were having your breakfast, when you were getting ready for work, and when you were leaving your place.

Your work, you were glad, with how demanding and time-consuming it was, took most of your brain energy the entire day that you barely even glanced at your phone. You were finishing up something very late when you walked past the practice rooms and heard some shuffling in one of the rooms. You didn't need to hear clearly for you to know what song was blasting through because it was safe to say you'd probably hear 'Ridin' more than a working person could. (Well, you might not be checking your phone for messages, or tweets, for this matter, but you were streaming a lot. How could you not? The boys deserved the world. You knew how much hard work they put in their music and in their dance. This was just something you needed to do.)

You peeked inside, careful not to disturb anything that might be going on, and was not surprised when you see them practicing even at eleven in the evening. They were in the middle of promotions. Surely, the logical thing to do in their free time, as little as that may be, was to rest, but they were still practicing. You wanted to scold them, you wanted to call them out and tell them to pack up and go home, but you stopped when you saw Chenle dancing with such power and intensity and suddenly, you wanted to cry. You were an adult working in one of the biggest companies in the country at the moment, watching a group of boys with an average age of twenty-years old dance at almost midnight, and you were tearing up.

Crumbling, you forced yourself not to. You ran to the nearest vending machine and bought drinks enough for maybe, the whole twenty-one of them. You were desperately trying to distract yourself. When you came back, when it seemed like they have taken a little break, you took a deep breath and opened the door, showing yourself with the drinks.

They were stunned a moment when the door opened but recovered easily when they saw your face. Unsurprisingly, Haechan and Jaemin were instantly approaching and attaching themselves on you like glue but you expertly dodged them and went to Chenle who was sitting on the floor. He seemed a little surprised at first because whenever Haechan and Jaemin would glue themselves on you, it was almost impossible for the other members to hug you until you would literally tear them away when you needed to go already. You weren't sure how to keep your emotions in check but you have been with them for quite some time already and during these times, none of you really needed to say anything.

That's why you just hugged Chenle. That's why you just did the thing you wanted so badly to do since last night.

It was expected when he seemed startled at first but easily relaxed when he realized you were the one hugging him. And then, Chenle was the one who crumbled. You thought it was a blessing for when some people don't allow themselves to crumble and in a way, make room for those who were holding out for so long to do so. These people don't always have the luxury to go down, to feel bad, or even just to feel. (The luxury, and also the time.) And by disabling yourself from that chance, you were giving it to them. Chenle didn't cry or anything like that, he didn't even sob, but he held on to you like a baby koala would, tight and not letting you go until he was almost sitting on top of you, face hidden and buried on your shoulder, arms tight around you.

They weren't blind and they weren't holding their phones just for the sake of holding them. Of course, more times, there were a lot of things to ignore in the Internet, but when some things literally have your name in it, it was hard to ignore. Even if they wouldn't talk about, or comment on them, it didn't mean they never saw it or it wasn't affecting them. Most of the time, they don't exactly have a choice.

Your arms were as tight around Chenle as his arms were around you. You weren't surprised when you looked at the other members, none of them was speaking and was only looking at you and Chenle, but everything was crystal clear in their eyes. Renjun's eyes were frighteningly mad because he wanted to take action but knew he couldn't. Jeno was frozen and speechless because he probably didn't know what to do but god knows how much that boy wanted to do something, especially for his teammate, a brother. Haechan wanted to say something to lighten up the atmosphere but he didn't want to disturb the peace he knew all of them were desperately grasping for since last night. Jaemin's eyes were soft, so soft, because he wanted to hug Chenle and give him the same affirmation and console him just as much as you were doing and was just glad you were there to do it when he wouldn't receive it from them because he didn't want to worry anyone. And Jisung... a part of you wanted to tear yourself from Chenle to hug the youngest boy because he was sobbing. He was trying to keep it as quiet as he could but even when he was furiously trying to wipe the tears, it was obvious that the thing that happened to Chenle was affecting him just as much as the older boy. Actually, when you looked at them with their heads and shoulders down, you could say the same to all of them. If you could just multiply yourself and hug each one of them.

You closed your eyes and just tried focusing on holding Chenle for now because you knew he needed it the most right now. You didn't know how long you stayed like that but you opened your eyes when Haechan said, "Chenle, don't you think that hug's long enough?" It was light and was supposed to be cheeky but you looked up at Haechan and saw the exact expression he was holding a while ago. He was still worried. Actually, they were all worried.

Carefully, you moved a little to take a peek at Chenle's face, to see if he was listening but to your surprise, his eyes were flittering, his mouth was slightly open, and when you listened closely, his breathing wasn't hitched anymore like when you first hugged him. Close enough though, it broke your heart to see stray tears in the corner of his eyes. You turned to look at Haechan and the others and mouthed, "He's sleeping."

"Oh," Jeno softly said, suddenly moving to one of the lockers inside the practice room and coming back with a retrieved blanket. He easily draped it in Chenle, and you, since you and Chenle were basically tangled together, with a thin smile. "He finally slept, huh?"

You looked from him to the other members, waiting for an explanation. You knew comebacks were frustrating and exhausting but they could always sleep in the car, or in between schedules. It wasn't ideal but they need to make use of what was given to them no matter how small of a time that may be. Sadly, that's just the way it goes for them, and other idols, sometimes.

"He hasn't slept since yesterday," Renjun said, sighing, and sinking on the floor a couple of feet away from you.

"I was telling fans to sleep last night but it was actually for him, too," Jaemin continued, sitting across you with Jeno. He looked down at his hands and muttered, "He shouldn't have seen that."

Haechan sat on your other side but much closer than Renjun's distance. "But you can't blame the fans. They've had enough," he said to no one in particular but it was Jeno who sighed loudly, a little exasperatedly. "Someone please make Jisung stop crying," he added, scowling a little for effect but they all knew they were as affected as what was happening as their youngest. They just couldn't cry all at once for Chenle because what would you even do then?

"He always... worked so hard," Jisung croaked out in between his silent sobs, covering his entire face so no sound would come out. He didn't want to wake up Chenle but he couldn't stop the tears he was holding. He wouldn't say anything, he wouldn't tell them it was hurting, he would smile at them as if everything was fine because he didn't want them to worry and add to the stress they have because of their comeback, but they knew better. And yet, they couldn't do anything, and perhaps it was the reason why Jisung couldn't stop himself from crying.

They all looked pretty miserable and you wanted to tell them they all worked so hard, all of them, each one of them, but Chenle was still sleeping on your shoulder and you wouldn't want to wake him up, not after what you heard from the others.

Suddenly, Renjun was standing up and getting more blankets from the lockers. Alarmed, you looked at him as he was approaching back at your little party and mouthed, "What are you doing? You're not sleeping here."

"But Chenle's already sleeping though," Renjun answered in a quiet voice.

"I just want to let him sleep for a while," you tried explaining in hushed whispers, panic immediately rising to dangerous levels for you. "But you guys can't all sleep here. You need to go home and rest properly. I can drive Chenle home later."

You stared at them because they obviously weren't listening, already building their little circle around you, with no pillow, just blankets around themselves. It was almost like a sleepover. Jeno had the nerve to look at you for a while and asked considerately, "Do you need extra blanket? Are you warm enough?"

"Guys, I'm serious," you were already speaking at this point in your normal voice, but still careful not to wake Chenle up.

They weren't listening. As far as they were concerned, they were already in their sleeping positions around you and Chenle. You couldn't let them sleep here but you were not a ninja, you couldn't multiply yourself and drag each one of their tired asses home while sleeping cradling Chenle in between your arms. You gave up when Jisung gave you one last pointed look, as if making sure Chenle was still sleeping and alright and safe and no one was going to hurt him, and pulled the blanket above his head.

You stared at the bag of drinks you bought for them, untouched and losing their coldness, wondering how you would explain to their managers tomorrow why they ended up sleeping in the practice room with you. They would probably let it slide, since it was you, but you were more worried about their sleeping comfort and getting their much needed rest than explaining to the authorities. Explaining to the managers was one thing, explaining to the other older members were another (based on previous instances when you had a sleepover with Dream because you promised them you would as soon as they got their first win and talented babies as they were got it quickly). You could already hear Johnny's exaggerated questioning and Mark's excessive worrying (because he knew, you knew he knew, and he would probably be there with the lot of you if he didn't have his own hectic schedule), but this time, you wouldn't blame them. They all have pretty good reason as you knew if Dream had a good grasp of what happened, the older members had more than good grasp. They were probably trying their best to stop Taeyong or Doyoung or Mark from calling out their own company in their own ways.

You were lulled to sleep with the thought that you might never be enough to protect all of them, but they've also got one another's backs and that's pretty good coverage already.

Four hours later, Chenle felt something wet touching his finger and mildly stirred from his sleep, blinking his eyes several times to figure out why he was literally sleeping on you in the practice room. You looked like his make-shift bed that was warm and hugging him back and briefly, he wondered why couldn't you be his bed from now on because he didn't want another sleepless night. He looked at his finger and realized the drinks you brought them lost all moisture and have made a little pool beside you. He stared at your face, slightly opened mouth, and loose arms around him, wondering how someone could sleep sitting uncomfortably like that with a legal adult as big as him weighing on top of you.

As if on cue, you suddenly tightened your arms around him again, effectively crushing him in a hug, and whispering, "Don't worry, Chenle. We love you. We will always protect you." His face was crushed again in your shoulder and he knew you were sleeping when you said that but he bit his lips to keep himself from crying because he knew even when sleeping, you meant that. Why else would you sleep in such insufferable condition if not?

Probably being lulled to sleep again, your arms loosened around him and he was able to lift himself off you since his legs were beginning to numb being in the same position for a few hours. Your back was leaning against the wall, your body facing forward, that Chenle didn't expect what he saw when he turned around and realized it wasn't just the two of you who slept inside the practice room. On his right side was Haechan, bundled like a ball, on his left side was Renjun, sleeping soundly with his body facing the wall, on his back was Jeno without a blanket, Jaemin with two blankets, and Jisung with a blanket to his face. His mouth hanged when he saw everyone in such uncomfortable sleeping states when they could have gone home anytime, they could have woken him up, they could have told him to sleep at home (which he couldn't, he tried but there was no sleep when the world seemed to be telling you weren't worth anything, maybe even sleep), but they stayed.

They stayed, Chenle realized. Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Jisung, and you. He couldn't stop the helpless whimper that came out of his mouth, but it wasn't helpless like he didn't mean a thing, it was helpless because he knew he meant something and that you and the people sleeping around him was proof of it and thay you guys were going to prove to him over and over again.

You blinked your eyes and saw Chenle's back, his head hanging low, and you gently pulled him back into you and softly said, "Chenle, sleep some more. I'm going to drive you guys home later so your managers won't scold you."

Chenle dipped his head on your already drool-stained top because of him and you only hugged him tighter. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to, because he was shaking and probably biting his bottom lip to stop himself from crying the tears he probably thought he didn't deserve to cry. After a while, when you were almost dozing off again, he whispered in broken syllables, "Thank you."

You brought one hand to his head, gently patting his hair, before hugging him again, making sure he was comfortable, and saying, "You deserve the world."

You weren't sure why you said that but aside from hugging him, that's what you wanted to tell him the most since yesterday. It was unfair how someone who could make millions smile by his voice and his smile was being taken away his own smile. You knew he didn't deserve that. He deserved the world.

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toomuch-caffeine · 3 years

Text

Titles don't matter

AO3 link

Word count: 8726

Summary: First, Happy was dating some mysterious woman. Then his new nephew turned out to be superhero. And now Tony somehow gained a kid.

Rating: Teen

Warnings: kidnapping, gunshot wounds, unnamed bad guy's death

A/N: Reposted from AO3, third fic in a series

---

A big reveal of Spider-Man’s identity and by consequence Happy’s mysterious girlfriend, who was a vigilante’s Aunt, brought a lot of yelling and long conversations in med bay. Said vigilante was a teenager and hid the fact that he fights criminals in his pajamas for more than a year, which made his Aunt mix of angry, guilty and terrified. When the situation calmed down, a couple of days after Peter Parker woke up from the surgery and had a chance to defend his actions, Tony made a proposition to May and Happy. Peter could train in the Tower with the Avengers and also would make a super suit with Tony. A suit that would contain a lot of safety protocols and a way to control young hero’s actions by adults.

That’s how Tony ended up giving a tour of his workshop. He observed the awestruck teenager in front of him. Peter looked around, lips slightly parted and eyes wide open. Tower’s lab was definitely an update from dumpsters and school workshops. It occupied two whole floors, one of them belonged to Tony, one to Bruce. Sleek holotables and expensive materials were enough to make every nerdy teenager’s knees weak. There was still some clutter in the corner, but Tony had cleaned up a bit, to impress Peter more.

“Come on, kid, that’s your workstation.” Tony showed a big, empty oval table, to a lingering in a threshold kid. Peter’s eyes widened even more, something that Tony didn’t think was possible.

“Wow, seriously?”

“Yeah. And those are Dum-E and U.” Tony didn’t even have to motion at the two robots, as both of them were currently surrounding Peter, trying to get to know the newcomer. Kid petted both of them, laughing and they seemed satisfied. He was seriously endearing. Couple of minutes spent with him and Tony could already tell why he wormed his way to Happy’s heart in no time. He was still shy with Tony and other Avengers, but around May and Happy he acted like a rambling ball of sunshine. He was too polite for his own sake and looking at his school records, Tony could tell, he was brilliant and right now he wanted to test that.

“So, introductions are done, time for fun!” Tony clapped his hands. “You can use everything in here-”

“Oh my god, this is like the best day of my life, Ned, you know, my friend, won’t believe me!”

“-but there are gonna be rules,” Tony continued. Mention of the rules brought all of Peter’s attention to him.

“First of all, FRIDAY won’t let you in the lab without me or Bruce present. You can experiment with whatever you want, but you have to run your ideas by me or Bruce or FRIDAY first. If you set something on fire, Dum-E has a fire extinguisher. Don’t eat or drink anything bots give you, they mix food with motor oil.

“Okay, so for the first project, we’ll do your spider suit together and you will learn along the way what FRIDAY can do, where are the tools and so on.” Tony sat down next to Peter, motioned for holograms to appear. “So, let’s get started.”

~~~

Tony never liked having company in the workshop. Other people were loud and nagging him to do stuff like eating or sleeping. But then came Bruce, who was quiet, could keep up with him and stand his moods. And then Peter appeared. The kid that understood arc reactor technology and Bruce’s papers. Even when something posed a problem to him, explaining was a pleasure, not a hindrance. He actually wanted to teach him all that he could and he already made several notes of what to do with the kid after they finished the suit. Peter’s ramblings replaced his workshop playlist and soon Tony knew all about his friends and teachers, his stories from patrols, as well as his favorite dishes and ice cream flavors. So he enjoyed working with Peter. His teammates might have also noticed that.

~~~

“Keep this up young spider and you will beat me in sparring,” Natasha praised him after the training. Peter, red faced from exertion, smiled and thanked. Then, he quickly grabbed a bottle that Steve threw at him from behind. He opened it and took a sip.

“Wow, I’m so hungry right now,” he stated.

“We have a lunch in an hour, think you will survive ‘til then?”

“Uhh, I don’t know, who’s cooking?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, because there’s your favorite pizza waiting for you in the lab.” Another voice butted in. The owner of this voice appeared a moment after. “Spiderling! Come on, we’re burning sunlight!”

“But Mr. Stark, it’s not even noon and we don’t need sunlight in the lab!”

“Yeah, but Happy picks you up at 5, come on, come on, we have a lot to do.”

“Stark, stop making excuses to hog the kid just for yourself,” Natasha joked.

“Yeah, it’s been a month and he spent that mostly with you in the lab,” Bucky backed her up.

“Well, maybe because he knows who is best. Kiddo, who’s your favorite Avenger?” Tony shot them all a smile and clapped Peter on the shoulder.

“Well, I don’t know, but Bruce Banner is pretty cool? You know the most renowned scientist of his generation, his work on gamma rad-“

“You ungrateful child. I build a multimillion dollar super suit with you and that’s how you repay me?” Tony mocked outrage and started dragging Peter out of the gym. “We’re going. But maybe take a shower first.”

~~~

“Parker, you’re cheating!” Sam shouted when Peter threw at him another blue shell and won the race.

“I’m not cheating!”

“That’s not fair!”

“Rules allow that!”

“Then the rules are wrong!” Sam threw his hands up in the air. “God, I can’t believe that I lost to a teenager.”

Clint, who came the last, said, laying face first on the carpet, “You never win with kids in those things. Seriously, I have three of them, I know it.”

“Kid? Where are you? You said you are going to eat. Did the fridge eat you?” Tony came shouting.

“I’m sorry Mr. Stark, but Mr. Barton and Mr. Wilson invited me to play Mario Kart with them,” Peter answered beaming.

“And how did you do?”

“I won!” Peter gestured at the screen with the results and two defeated men.

“That’s great. Hey, when you come to the lab, I’ll let you mess with Iron Man repulsors.”

“Oh my god, yes!” Peter’s eyes lit up and he hurried after Tony.

“Wow, Tony stole Happy’s kid,” Sam said incredulously, when they both left.

“Do you think he will hide and lock him in his lab forever?” Clint lifted himself from the carpet.

“Dunno. Wanna go another round?”

~~~

So when the summer break ended, Spider-Man’s suit tested and ready to use, the atmosphere in the workshop changed. Kid started spending mornings at school and afternoons alternating between patrols and spending time in the lab. But the amount of time spent together was significantly smaller and emptiness started annoying Tony. It did wonders to his responsibilities to SI and Avengers Initiative as he was less inclined to lock himself up in the workshop.

~~~

“Tony, did something blow up here?” Bruce entered his workshop and stopped in his tracks, shell-shocked and looking around. He hadn’t been in Tony’s workshop for a long time as he worked mostly in his or small med bay’s lab and it was Tony, who would pay friendly visits to other labs (or come to bother Bruce). Currently, on Peter’s workstation were piling papers and textbooks. Every other surface was covered in post-it notes with Spanish vocabulary.

“I’m helping Peter with Spanish.”

“Tony, do you even know Spanish?” Bruce asked with raised eyebrows.

“I do now.”

“So… You are learning Spanish. For Peter,” Bruce stated.

“I’m learning for myself. It’s just a side effect that I can help him.”

“And it has nothing to do with Nat and Bucky teaching him Russian?”

“Nothing.”

“Sure. Now, do you have a UV lamp? Mine had broken down.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s there.”

~~~

“Soo, Mr. Stark, I have a question, you don’t have to say yes, of course…” Kid said, playing with a zipper.

“Just spit it out.”

“Cannedcometotheworkshopplease?” Peter let out a question in one breath with unbelievable speed.

“Say that again, but slower?”

“Can Ned come to the workshop, please? We have a robotics project for school, an-“

“Jesus, of course you can invite your friend over, you don’t need to stress so much.”

“Thank you Mr. Stark!”

And that’s how Tony ended up giving a lab tour to another teenager, this time a chubby, Asian kid, that gave the gaping fish impression at the first sight of the workshop.

“So, kiddos, what do you need to do for your little project?”

The project ended up with a very angry May Parker yelling at him.

“Stark! Why the fuck school called me to tell me that Peter’s last project was to dangerous to show in class?” Her lips were pressed into a thin line and she crossed her arms.

“Wha- It wasn’t anything that would blow up?” Tony said hesitantly as he didn’t exactly remember what he came up with.

“There were lasers, Tony.”

“Not very dangerous, if you ask me, just for a show.” He was sure that he didn’t let kids put anything that would destroy school in their project.

“Lasers that apparently cut a school desk and a whiteboard in half.” Or maybe he did. “He was given a 3 day suspension for bringing dangerous objects to school!”

“Oh, wow, I mean, that’s bad…” Tony was literally unable to act guilty, because that meant Peter would be out of school, and that meant…

“He’s not going to spend that time with you.” May Parker’s sharp voice cut off his train of thoughts.

“Oh…”

He spent those three days redecorating and personalizing the guest room, where Peter had stayed a couple of times. His actions brought some half-hidden smiles from his teammates and Pepper, but he shrugged it off.

~~~

“Pepper, why did you take my intern?”

“I didn’t take anyone, Tony.” Pepper leveled him with a stare. “Peter came to me, asking for help with English essay for school.”

“Why didn’t he ask me?”

“Because you said that English classes are useless and he should ditch them.”

“What? No! I didn’t! Why would I?” Tony sputtered.

“FRIDAY, pull up the footage, please,” Pepper said with an exhale.

“Okay, FRIDAY, don’t, I did, but I shouldn’t. Kid, don’t ditch school, your education is important.”

“Well, I can always become a full time Avenger.”

“Wha- no! No, you can’t, I forbid, you are going to finish high school, then go to MIT and then work in SI, and you are not going to be a full time Avenger. Over my dead body!” Tony’s speech made both Pepper and Peter laugh.

“I was just joking.” Peter scrunched his eyebrows as some thought just came to him. “Have you already planned my life for me?”

“No?”

“Oookay,” he replied, dragging the o. “Anyway, I just thought, that Pepper has more experience in humanities that you,” said Peter

“So when you are done with English, head down to the lab, because I have some upgrade ideas to discuss with you.”

Tony shot a glare at Pepper and she glared back. Tony decided to do a tactical retreat and leave the room.

~~~

“Tony, wait!” Happy called after him. “Look, I just wanted to talk about Peter.” That grabbed Tony’s attention.

“Is he okay? I didn’t get any-“

“No, no, he’s fine, I just wanted to talk about him. And you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I talked with May and she noticed that as well and he spends a lot of time with you.”

“If you want me to stop h-“

“I don’t want you to stop, there’s just a building full of people who also want to spend time with him.” Happy’s words were rushed and he seemed out of breath.

“So what do you want me to do, throw him out of the workshop?”

“Tony, just don’t go around complaining that he’s currently doing something with someone else.” Happy made a placating gesture and continued, “Look, I know you love him, I do too , but you can’t monopolize all his time.”

Tony opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He thought about his interactions with Peter for the past couple of months. Yeah, he liked the kid, liked teaching and helping him, a lot of his Spider-Man’s adventures had raised his heart rate and had given him a few gray hairs, but love? Nope, he didn’t need it and the kid didn’t need it.

He finally found his voice, “I don’t l-“

“God, you are an emotionally stunted idiot.” Happy shook his head. “Everyone sees that. Talk with Pepper.”

“Oh-okay,” Tony replied in confusion.

~~~

Pepper and Tony were laying in bed, the former reading a book, the latter looking at some blueprints.

“Happy said that I love Peter,” Tony dropped suddenly. The woman closed a book and turned on her side to look at him.

“And you don’t agree with that,” she stated.

“Well, it’s not like I don’t agree with it, but…”

“Tony, you literally started learning a new language to help him. And you also do your paperwork, while he does his homework, because you want to set a good example. You also started sleeping and eating regularly, for the same reason.”

“I just want to be a good example.”

“I also know something else.”

“Hmm?”

“Your will.”

“Oh.” Tony had, in fact, updated his will a month before and made Peter his sole heir. Peter wasn’t aware of this fact as Tony waited for him to be eighteen. May, as a legal guardian, and Happy, by extension, were the only ones informed about it. “But you know, he’s clever.”

“Would you do that to every clever kid?”

“…no.” Pepper smiled and picked up her book. Tony stared at the ceiling, thinking. After a minute he said, “He also said that I spend too much time with him.”

“Happy said that?”

“Uh-huh…”

“Tony… He just means that you are fairly annoying, when Peter spends time with the team and you come dragging him to the workshop.”

“I don’t drag him anywhere.”

“You know what I mean,” Pepper responded disapprovingly.

“Okay, okay, I know.”

After the beat of silence Tony spoke again, “You know, we could make our own kids.”

“You already have one.”

“He’s Happy’s and May’s, I just borrowed him.”

“And after we make our own, you are going to give him back?”

“Ehh, no, he grew on me.” Tony blinked, realizing something. “Wait you said after? Does that mean-“

“Good night, Tony.” Pepper turned off the lights.

“But you don’t dismiss the idea…”

“Good night.”

~~~

He did make it weird. They were five minutes into their usual lab time and Tony couldn’t stop staring at the kid and recalling conversations with Happy and Pepper. Peter , currently unaware of the turmoil inside Tony , was sitting at his workstation, chewing on a pencil and focusing on calculus homework. Tony sitting with his own pile of papers moved his eyes to the sheet of paper before him. ‘ Article 5c…' What the fuck am I reading? He looked on the desk, where read pieces of paper were laying. Apparently it was a contract. He didn’t recall its content at all. He looked at Peter again. Still chewing on a pencil.

“Hey, don’t chew on that!”

“What?”

“You’ll destroy your teeth by chewing on pencils.”

Peter scrunched his eyebrows.

“Seriously?” He looked at the pencil and at Tony. “Why are you so weird today?”

“I’m not weird.”

“You are looking at me.”

“Maybe I like watching you.” As soon as those words left his mouth, Tony winced internally at them. Great, now he is a creepy, rich guy, who likes watching teenagers. “Or maybe not.” Peter’s eyebrows raised in question. “But I still like you.”

“You are being really weird,” Peter said, unsure of what he should do.

“Do you like being here?”

“Sure, why wouldn’t I?”

“You are not feeling obligated to do so? You wouldn’t prefer to spend time with Steve right now?”

“I don’t understand…”

“It’s a simple question, Pete.”

“Yeah, but I don’t understand why you are asking me that.”

“Just answer it, kid.”

“No , I don’t feel obligated to spend time here. I wouldn’t prefer to spend time with Steve right now” Peter replied, confusion and nervousness clearly visible, with how he started playing with the pencil.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s good, good talk, go back to your homework.” Peter looked at him quizzically for a moment, then he shrugged and went back to calculus. Tony started going through the contract. Except after five lines he lost his focus again and started thinking about Peter again. Emotions were always confusing for him and it didn’t help that everything about a situation was complicated. He couldn’t exactly Google ‘my bodyguard is dating a woman with a kid and I think I kind of love that kid, but I’m not sure what to do.’ Happy and Pepper both said that it’s okay and their only complaint was he tries to keep Peter to himself too much. And he was willing to admit that they were in fact right. But that was followed by the doubts if Peter actually wants to spend time in the workshop or if he just a pressured poor kid, who didn’t feel like he could refuse. Even if he wanted to spend time with him, where would he draw the line ? He had May and Happy as, well, parental figures. So what did it make Tony?

“Why are you staring at me again, Tony ? ” Peter’s voice startled him. He didn’t even notice when he moved his gaze from paperwork before him to kid again.

“I’m not.”

“Yeah, you are.”

Tony moved his eyes to the ceiling and sighted.

“Okay, I am. But I want to talk to you about something and I don’t know how.” Talking about feelings. Apparently a mature thing to do.

“Oh. Did I do something wrong? Because-“

“No, no, no, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Tony quickly denied. “Wait. Why did you think that you did something wrong? Did you?” He stared intensely at Peter.

“No, I just, you know…”

“Okay, never mind, we’ll talk about this later.” Tony took a big breath and started, “I talked with Happy. And Pepper. They both thi-“ A ping from his phone interrupted him, he looked at it and swore. “Okay, looks like we need to postpone our conversation.”

“What’s going on? Is that a mission? Should I-“

“Not a mission, stay there and do your homework, I’m going to be back soon or I’ll send Pepper.” Tony quickly left the workshop and once he was out of hearing range, he said, “FRIDAY, what’s going on?”

“There was a shooting at Central Park. Happy Hogan and May Parker were involved.”

“Are they okay?”

“911 reports say that Mr. Hogan was injured.”

“Send location to the suit, I’m going there. Divert the ambulance with Happy to the Tower, inform Cho and Pepper of the situation.”

“What should I tell Mr. Parker?”

“Don’t tell him anything yet.”

May and Happy had a date tonight, they should’ve been safe. But something happened and Tony had to do damage control quickly.

~~~

There was already the police and an ambulance departing the scene. Tony couldn’t see neither Happy nor May anywhere. He hoped that they were both in the ambulance that he saw leaving. He landed and immediately saw the crowd turn to him. He didn’t have time for fans and questions, ignoring them, he confidently strode towards NYPD officers, the crowd parting like the Red Sea.

“What’s going on, where’s May Parker and Happy Hogan?”

“Excuse me Mr. Stark, but you have to stand behind that tape.” one of the officers pointed with a finger.

“Mr. Hogan is my employee and has close ties to the Avengers and as such, that case falls under our jurisdiction,” he quickly replied, leveling the cop with a stare. It was a young looking man in uniform. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth in shock.

“Okay, I know that you are here to just keep the crowd away. Just bring me to someone, who is in charge here,” Tony quickly added more calmly. This worked, because he quickly found himself in the company of Detective Morrison and Detective Slater. Both of them were tall, unimpressed looking men.

“I understand Mr. Stark that you are nervous, but we are currently questioning the witnesses.” Morrison crossed his arms over the chest. Tony looked at his phone. Steve was trying to get that case handed over to them, but there’s only so much that can be done in five minutes and without any proof that it was an Avengers-level threat. Happy was admitted in the Tower’s med bay, unconscious and with a bullet hole. May Parker wasn’t with him and Tony was currently trying to locate her.

“You don’t understand. I just need to talk to a woman. May Parker. This high, brown hair, wears glasses. She was with Happy Hogan and probably will know what happened here.”

“I’m sorry, but there was no woman matching your description among people on scene when we arrived.” Finally Tony got confirmation of what he suspected all along and could act on that. He unblocked his phone and chose the number.

“Rogers, shooting in Central Park, May Parker wasn’t on scene when authorities had arrived, she’s possibly missing.” Then he turned to the Detectives, “We’ll need the witness statements that you’ve gathered.” He handed them a business card.

~~~

Back at the Tower Tony immediately rushed to the workshop. Peter was still there, having finished homework, he was preparing a web fluid.

“Hey, kid,” Tony started. Peter jumped in surprise and spilled the chemicals. He moved to clean it, but Tony stopped him

“Leave this. We need to talk.”

“Uhh, yeah, you'd said that before you left.”

“About something else, actually.” He placed his hands on the kid's shoulders and pushed him gently in the direction of a lab stool. “Sit down.” Peter complied and turned his attention to him.

“I left, because FRIDAY informed me of… shooting in Central Park. Happy and May were involved in it. Happy is currently in surgery and we don’t know where May is.” Tony decided to be short. As he watched Peter’s expression morph from neutral to disbelief and then pure shock and fear, he thought that maybe being more gentle and less direct was a better idea.

“What? No! That’s not… Please…” Peter’s breath quickened and started coming in short pants. He swayed on the unstable lab stool. Tony caught him by his shoulders.

“You need to breathe, kid or you’re gonna pass out.”

Fortunately Peter was able to get his breathing under control on his own and didn’t work himself into a full-blown panic attack. After a short silence filled only with the sound of his inhales and exhales, he feebly said, “I want to help.”

“Absolutely not,” Tony answered sternly and moved back.

“It’s May!”

“That is exactly why you won’t be doing anything!”

“You don’t understand!”

“Yes, I do! You won’t be able to keep your cool and you will be a liability not help! We can’t afford that!”

“Well, you can’t stop me!”

“Oh, yes I can. FRIDAY, Peter is not allowed to leave the Tower or access any files on the case.” Tony gave his orders to AI and looked at Peter. The teenager was fuming.

“You have no right!”

“If you think I’m the bad guy here, you can talk to Steve, he’s going to tell you the same thing.”

“I hate you!” Peter pushed him and stormed out of the workshop.

“FRIDAY, tell him that he should go to med bay to keep Happy company,” Tony barked out and then sighted, sat down by the desk and put his head in his arms. Somehow he managed to destroy everything in two minutes. Well, at least he knew where he stood. He rubbed his face and got up. Team was waiting for him in one of the conference rooms.

~~~

Avengers got permission to handle the case with the NYPD. So along with the team, there were two disgruntled detectives that Tony had met before. Steve led the meeting. After an hour of talking that had led them exactly to nothing he summed up, “For now, we have first responders and witnesses reports, none of them actually saw what happened, most of them heard the gunshot and saw only the result. Nobody recalls seeing May. FRI (DAY?) is running facial recognition, but to no avail. She’s also reviewing all of the footage from the nearest cameras to the scene and flagging anything unusual.”

At that moment Bruce entered the room.

“I have an update on Happy,” he started. ”GSW to the stomach, although nothing vital was hit. Cho’s using her regeneration cradle, so he should be able to tell us what happened when the anesthesia wears off.”

The team nodded at that.

“How’s Peter, Tony?” Natasha turned to him.

“He said that he hates me, because I didn’t let him help us,” Tony said dryly.

“He doesn’t really hate you, Tony,” Clint reassured him. “He’s just frightened that he’s going to lose the closest thing he has to a mother.”

“You need to talk to him,” Natasha stated.

“Yeah, I need to check on him anyway. FRI, where is he?”

“I am unable to determine Mr. Parker’s location.” Blood in Tony’s veins froze in an instant. The whole room went quiet, you could hear the pin drop.

“What… What do you mean?”

“Mr. Parker left the Tower approximately 30 minutes ago.”

“What?! I told you not to let him out! Track him!”

“The protocol has been overridden. Current protocol prohibits me from tracking him.”

“How?”

“I believe that the current protocol was created by Ned Leeds.”

“Fuck.” Wow, letting the kid’s friend in the lab bit him in the ass for the second time.

“Tony, what’s going on? Who’s-“

“Peter and his friend hacked FRIDAY to sneak out and they added coding that makes it impossible to track him. I’m going to fix that.”

It was a long night. Tony spent hours fixing FRIDAY’s programming. At the end he was seriously considering whether it’s better to kill or hire Ned. Unfortunately after removal of the offending code it was too late to find Peter. He disappeared into thin air. His spider suit and phone were left at the Tower. He had changed his clothes in a back alley nearby and he wasn’t caught by any cameras, so they didn’t have anything to go on. At 4 AM it started sounding a bit surreal. Man gets shot and a woman goes missing in a public place in broad daylight. Teenager runs away and doesn't leave any trace. Everything in the span of two hours. Now they were just waiting for something. Clint and Sam played cards quietly. Steve and Natasha were going through everything they’ve managed to gather for an umpteenth time. Bruce went back to med bay to help Cho. Bucky just fell asleep on the table. The two detectives had left. Tony just stared at the screen no longer understanding what he was seeing, his mind exploring horrifying scenario number 78, where they find two mutilated bodies in a river and Happy dies because Cho missed something.

“Mr. Parker was registered by a street camera near the Tower, five minutes ago.” FRIDAY’S voice cut the silence. “He seems to be heading here.”

“What? Where’s he now?” Tony jumped to his feet.

“Mr. Parker just entered the Tower,” FRIDAY announced. “He’s going to the penthouse level.”

~~~

Tony for the past few hours imagined the lecture that he was going to give Peter when he saw him again. Something that would make the kid regret the day he was born. But when he saw him standing by the elevator, all of the anger had left him and immense relief washed over him. Peter was pale and shaking like leaf, but according to FRIDAY was unharmed

“Thank god!” That was all Tony said before pulling him into a hug. Peter, stiff at first, melted into him and started crying. His legs gave out and they both crumbled to the floor.

“I don’t hate you, I don’t hate you, I don’t-“

“Sh, sh, I know, it’s okay, I know, kiddo, I know,” Tony instinctively shushed him and started rocking them back and forth. He looked up and saw Pepper in pajamas, who was woken up and drawn there by the noise and he shook his head a little. She quickly understood and left for their bedroom.

Tony didn’t know how long they sat there but his legs went numb. Eventually Peter calmed down and said, “I thought you would chew me out for running.”

“I thought too. I’m still going to, after you get some sleep.”

“Hmm…”

They sat like that in silence for some more time. Finally Tony moved and helped Peter up.

“Come on, you still need to sleep.”

~~~

Peter looked better after the shower. Not so pale. Tony pushed him into bed, turned off the light and was about to leave, when the small voice called, “Can you stay?” Tony turned towards the owner of this voice. In the darkness he could only distinguish the lump on the bed and curls peeking out from beneath the covers. He moved closer and sat on bed next to Peter, leaning against the headboard.

“Only until you fall asleep,” he said softly. He didn’t exactly know what he’s doing, comforting someone was completely uncharted territory for him. He remembered something that Jarvis used to do for him, when he was little. He put his hand on Peter's head and started running fingers through the soft curls. Peter sighted and leaned closer.

“I’m sorry for running away,” he mumbled.

“You should be.”

“I just wanted to do something…”

“And what did you do?”

“I just wandered around. I didn’t have any plan and I realized that I won’t help. I was scared that you would be mad, so I didn’t come back immediately.”

“I was mad, I still am, but I was mostly afraid, kid. You can’t do things like that.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

Peter finally closed his eyes and relaxed a little. Tony thought that he was asleep.

“Do you think you’re gonna find May?” Peter asked quietly, startling Tony, who looked down and saw wide eyes staring at him. ‘ He’s just frightened’, he remembered Clint’s words.

“I don’t know. I hope so.” Peter closed his eyes again and pressed his cheek against Tony’s thigh. Tony kept playing with his hair until his breaths evened out and face and shoulders relaxed completely. He stayed like that for a moment before standing up. He stopped in the doorway, looked at sleeping form and whispered, “Sleep tight, kiddo.”

After that Tony went to the kitchen, where Pepper waited for him.

“How is he?”

“Physically? Good. Mentally? As well as he could be in that situation.” He moved towards a coffee machine.

“I handled CPS. He can stay here, for now.”

“That’s good, good.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Coffee. And then go to the team and see if there’s some progress. Find May eventually. You?”

“I’m going to make sure that nothing burns in the process.” she smiled at him softly.

“FRIDAY will let me know when he wakes up, but can you keep an eye on him?” he looked at her.

“I’ve already cleared my schedule.”

“What would I do without you?”

~~~

When he entered the conference room everyone was a bit agitated.

“What happened?”

“A witness came forward, she saw a van and some men in ski masks near the scene,” Natasha started explaining. “One of the traffic cameras caught a vehicle matching the description. We have a license plate.”

It turned out that their excitement was short-lived. Sam and Bucky found the van in an alley a couple blocks away. Police forensics examined it. They would have to wait for the full results, but for now it seemed that it was cleaned. The only noteworthy thing they discovered were traces of blood, presumably May’s. All of the nearby cameras recorded many other cars at the interesting period of time and it was impossible to tell which one belonged to kidnappers. The owner was a kind old man, named Stan, who reported the van's theft a week before. The investigation on that also hit a dead end. They were in process of reviewing the material gathered by the police and made FRIDAY find footage from the night of the van’s theft, but it didn’t seem to go anywhere. They also found May’s phone, or rather what was left of it. They were working on two theories, first one that someone noticed that she spends lots of time with Happy and kidnapped her for information, second one that she was kidnapped for a ransom. They had thought that maybe Happy would say something groundbreaking, but his story didn’t tell them anything that they already knew or suspected.

“There were three men in ski masks and non-descript clothes, with guns. They tried to grab us, one of them shot me. I think they got scared and took only May. I don’t remember much more.”

That left them to wait and look into the enemies' of Avengers, SI and Spider-Man recent activity. Honestly with the amount of material they had, they should have made some progress.

24 hours have passed and they managed to hit a dead end. No one saw anything, no camera registered anything. Tony looked at the clock in the conference room accusingly. First 48 hours were the time when most of the missing people were found. After that chances started to diminish. They’d already used half of that time. Tony should probably go find and comfort Peter instead of sitting and not doing anything, but he couldn’t make himself leave the room in case something happened. Besides, finding May would be probably the most comforting thing they could do.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by an email notification. He looked at the new message and felt his heart drop immediately.

“Fuck! Guys?”

~~~

Everyone in the conference room sat in silence as the video was playing. This time apart from two detectives, there were ransom specialists joining the team. Video featured the kidnappers beating up May and making demands. It looked really bad, with two men punching and kicking her without even looking where. She already had some bruises and what looked like a broken nose. Hits were leaving red marks that would soon turn into bruises. What raised the biggest concern was that May barely reacted. She probably already had a concussion or was drugged.

“Mr. Hogan, we have your girlfriend. In exchange for her, we want 5 million dollars. We are sure that you can get that amount easily from your boss. We give you 48 hours, or we will have fun with her.”

Tony immediately took his phone to organize the demanded amount of money in cash.

“Tony, what are you doing?” Steve asked him.

“Getting them what they want, what do you think I’m doing?”

“I think we should make a plan first,” Bucky joined calmly.

“What plan? They said, what they want, we give them that, we get May back!”

“Excuse me sir, but you shouldn’t do that,” one of the K&R specialists interrupted. “This video doesn’t count as proof of life, so we don’t know if that woman is still alive. A phone call would be preferable. Also, in ransom negotiations the first offer generally should be declined.”

“Am I the only person in this room that actually watched this video? You didn’t hear what they wanted to do? Didn’t see what they were doing?”

“It is not in the kidnappers interest to kill her quickly if they want ransom. They just want to show the power they have over you.”

“Besides, the more we communicate with them, the more we have to track them,” Natasha added. “Also you shouldn’t negotiate. When they get to talk with the billionaire Tony Stark, they are immediately going to raise their demands.”

“It’s also going to be a press nightmare if the media get a sniff on this.”

“Fine!” Tony threw his arms over the head. “Do whatever you want.” He left the room slamming the door.

~~~

Tony went to med bay to inform Happy about the recent development. Peter and Pepper also were there. They sat on plastic chairs, Pepper hugging Peter. Happy laid in bed. He woke up, when Tony entered the room. Tony sat down heavily on the chair in the corner.

“Anything has changed?” Pepper asked. Tony sighted and gave them an extremely watered down description of the video content.

“Those specialists tell me that paying immediately is a mistake and the team says that I shouldn’t get involved.”

“They’re specialists for a reason,” Pepper reasoned.

“I want to see that video,” Happy said.

“Trust me on this, you don’t want to.”

“Tony…”

“You focus on getting better, Hap,” Tony cut him off and turned to Peter. “Have you eaten?”

“Yeah.”

“A sandwich a couple of hours ago,” supplied Pepper.

“You have to eat more with your metabolism, kiddo,” Tony said seriously. “Come on. We’re going to the kitchen and then there’s bedtime for Spider-babies.”

“I’m neither hungry nor tired.”

“Yeah, I’m not explaining to your Aunt, why are you starved and sleep deprived.”

“If you will have someone to explain to,” Peter mumbled under a breath.

“Yeah, you're not talking like that. We’ll get her back and you are going to eat.” Tony put his arms under Peter’s armpits and pulled him up. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll use a suit to drag you to the kitchen.”

~~~

Tony managed to coax Peter into the kitchen, without dragging and made him blueberry pancakes. (“Pancakes? But that’s breakfast food.” “Yeah, and you are going to eat them at 10 PM.”) They repeated the routine from yesterday. It also calmed down Tony and he started accepting that specialists and the team might be right. He came back to the conference room, where everyone was except for Clint and Natasha.

“FRIDAY tracked the kidnappers, they didn’t cover their tracks well.” Steve’s voice greeted him. “Clint and Nat are doing reconnaissance right now.”

Clint’s and Nat’s intel helped them develop a plan. There were four kidnappers, holding May in a suburban house. They were armed, but definitely weren’t professionals. This didn’t work in the team’s favor, because their lack of experience made them unpredictable. With the hostage present they really couldn’t afford a fight, even though they outnumbered the opponents. So they formed a plan, when they would try to take the criminals one by one.

It was just an ordinary house at the outskirts. The whole neighborhood was peaceful and unaware of horrors currently happening in one of the houses. Well maintained, clean area, small streets and wide sidewalks, a playground nearby. With a shining sun and birds singing cheerfully it looked like a suburban dream. It was really weird, that nobody had heard anything, but on the other hand it was the kind of neighborhood where the residents would leave their homes in the morning for work and come back in the evening.

“It just really creeps me out, this place,” Tony started wondering. “It looks perfect and beautiful, but no one has any idea what neighbors are doing.”

“Do you know what our neighbors are doing, Tony?”

“I have FRIDAY monitoring for any suspicious activity in the nearby buildings.”

“You're a stalker.”

Tony chuckled as he watched people getting to their cars and leaving. They had been observing the house since wee hours of morning waiting for the best moments to strike. Right now any action was out of the question. There were too many people on the street and any Avengers action would attract a lot of gawkers.

“One of the kidnappers went out for a smoke, he’s at the back. I think we could take him out without attracting any attention.” Natasha’s voice carried through the comms.

“Do not engage. Neighbors haven’t already left, we can’t risk being seen,” Steve ordered. “Tony, how’s the front of the house looking?”

“The guy with a nose from the house on the left is having a polite conversation with the fat guy from the house in front,” Tony relayed what he could see from his car.

“Guy with a nose?”

“It’s seriously big, trust me.”

“Seriously, you would think that people at 7:30 in the morning would hurry to work and not engage in conversations with neighbors,” Clint complained. Three yelling children came out from one of the houses.

“Oh and now the guy with a nose is packing his children to the car and the fat guy looks like he’s about to go,” Tony updated and relaxed into a seat. He took a sip of a coffee and choked, when someone suddenly knocked on his window.

“Yeah?” He asked, rolling down the window.

“You can’t park your car here!” a middle aged blonde woman started yelling at him. Peter called those ‘Karens’ as he recalled.

“It’s not a no-parking zone,” he replied.

“You cast a shadow on my flowers.” Tony looked at the sad excuses for plants and immediately thought that they need water more than sunlight. Before he could share his idea, comms cracked and he heard Steve saying, “Tony, do not argue with her, we can’t afford her to recognize you. Just drive around the block, maybe she’ll leave.”

Crazy plant lady didn’t leave and Tony was forced to find another observation spot.

Finally, the neighborhood emptied and quietened.

“That guy is smoking in the back again.”

“Okay, the neighbors have left, you can take him out now.”

Tony looked at the stream from the camera Clint had on himself. Natasha and Bucky moved in complete silence. She stepped behind the kidnapper, and with surgical precision pressed a spot on his neck. Bucky immediately caught the man, before he could fall and make a noise. They dragged him into bushes and hid there.

“One out, three to go.”

“Okay, now we wait.”

Couple of minutes later another criminal appeared.

“Clint, go.”

An arrow soundlessly flew through the air and hit him in the shoulder. Bucky appeared and again caught and dragged the guy into bushes, where Natasha was keeping an eye on the first one.

“He’s out. Two more to go.”

“Attention guys, the remaining two kidnappers moved from the basement to the kitchen.”

“Uh-uh, people on the street,” Tony warned. “Someone with a kid, I think. I can’t see clearly.”

Two NYPD officers in civilian clothes appeared and herded the newcomers to where they came from.

“Okay, all clear now.”

“Good. Nat and Bucky, you are guarding the back door and kitchen window, Tony and me from the front. Clint stays watching those two taken out guys, Sam, survey the area from the air. Bruce, move the ambulance here.”

Tony got out of the car and went to the front door, where he met Steve. He activated the nano gauntlet and leaned on the door. Steve looked around while the lasers from the gauntlet were destroying the lock.

“Okay, the door is unlocked, we’re going in.”

“Copy that.” i

Tony pushed the door and let Steve in first. He activated his whole suit and immediately followed the man. They were in a hallway that opened at the end to the living room, connected to the kitchen. On the right there were the stairs. They moved quietly toward s the living room. Tony gestured to Steve that he wants to enter first and stun both remaining criminals with his gauntlets. Steve nodded. Tony smoothly went to the room and fired at the unsuspecting kidnappers. He hit one of them, standing by the counter, but instead of the other he hit the cupboard full of tableware. The cupboard like in slow motion fell on a criminal, emitting an ear-splitting noise of breaking glass. Cracking and clanking reverberated through the room for what I seemed like an eternity. It made both men stop and just watch in shock what was happening. Steve regained his bearings quicker and ran towards the man buried under the glass and porcelain.

“He’s dead.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, his brain is on the floor.”

Tony didn’t wait for more. He retracted the suit and ran towards the basement.

“May, May?! Oh, shit…”

May was slumped in the chair, which she was tied to. Her face was covered in dried blood and bruises.

“Hey, May, wake up,” Tony said while looking for a pulse. He jabbed his fingers to her neck and prayed quietly. Fortunately, he felt slow beats.

“Get a medic here ASAP, she has a pulse, but it looks really bad!” he shouted at the comms. “Hey, wake up, Peter’s waiting for you.”

This seemed to do the trick.

“Pet’r?” she slurred.

“Yeah, he really misses you. And Happy’s okay.”

“Mmm…”

After that everything went rapidly . Suddenly the place was swarmed by medics and NYPD officers. Tony was pushed back as they put a collar around May’s neck and an oxygen mask on her face. She was placed on a stretcher and pushed into an ambulance that left soon.

“Jesus.” Tony slumped against a car and slid down, so he was sitting on asphalt. After the stress of the past few days left him, he felt exhausted. “I need a coffee.”

“You need a sleep.” Steve materialized from nowhere.

“Everyone needs that. I need to talk to Peter, Happy and Cho.”

“ The NYPD wants us to stay here. But… Maybe nobody will notice your absence.”

“Steve Rogers, goody two shoes, encouraging me not to cooperate with law enforcement? How can I refuse?”

“Drive safe, Tony.”

“I will.”

Tony got into a car and started the engine. He drank the rest of the now cold coffee and started driving in direction of the Tower. There were still a lot of things to do.

~~~

Couple of days later Happy was allowed to leave med bay on condition that he will have plenty of rest. May was cleared by Cho the day before that as the biggest issue was concussion. Steve and Bucky were preparing a big dinner since everyone finally could participate and even Rhodey managed to leave DC and was joining them. They were very secretive about the chosen dishes and had forbidden everyone from even getting near the kitchen. Tony honestly just hoped that they wouldn’t set the building on fire. He holed up in the workshop.

The elevator ding announced somebody’s arrival. Tony turned and saw Peter lingering on a doorstep.

“Hey, what are you doing there? Come here.”

Peter looked at the floor, shuffled towards the workbench and stood there awkwardly. Tony got up and approached him.

“Did you forget that you usually sit here?”

Peter sat down and started playing with the hem of his shirt.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“Before… Before all this, you said that you need to talk to me.”

Honestly Tony hoped that Peter forgot his attempt at the serious conversation.

“You were weird that day and then, you know what happened, and you were nice, but not there, and then again weird.”

Tony cleared his throat and said slowly, “I’m sorry that you felt that way. I spent most of the time with the team, because I thought that finding May was what you needed the most.”

“I mean, it was. I just felt lonely. Happy was on strong pain meds and Pepper is nice, but…”

“Yeah, I get it, I’m really sorry. And for being weird. Happy told me that I spend a lot of time with you and butt in your time with others and I started questioning how you are feeling about this.”

Peter suddenly moved and wrapped his arms around Tony and with a muffled voice said, “I don’t mind, seriously.”

“I know now.” After a moment he added, “You know, I just don’t want to replace anyone.”

“You’re not. You are just Tony, not Happy, or May, or...”

“Just Tony, huh?” Wow, where did the hero worship go?

“Titles don't matter, only that you care.”

I care so much , he wanted to say. I want you to be safe, I want to see you grow and learn. Instead he just said, “I do.” Peter didn’t respond. Tony broke the silence, “You know I’m not good at emotions. Happy called me an emotionally stunted idiot.”

“I know.”

“You little shit. You were supposed to say, ‘You handled this very well, you are great!'” Tony broke a hug and ruffled his hair. Peter beamed at him

“Miss Potts asks if Peter got lost in the workshop and if she has to come and get you to the dinner,” FRIDAY interrupted them.

“Wait, you were supposed to tell me the dinner is ready?”

“Maybe.” Peter smiled sheepishly.

“You really are a little shit. Come on. I’m starving.”

When they got to the kitchen everyone was waiting for them. Pepper, with crossed arms, scolded Tony, “What did you do in that workshop of yours? Everyone was waiting for you and it’s extremely disrespectful to Steve and Bucky!”

“I’m really sorry, Pep, but we needed to have a conversation. And someone-” he looked sternly at Peter- “didn’t tell me that dinner was ready.”

“I’m sorry, really, it just happened,” Peter frantically started explaining himself. Something in Pepper’s face softened.

“I guess it’s fine, you two really needed it, but next time maybe find a better moment, okay?”

“Okay, okay!”

They finally sat down at the table. Steve and Bucky really put a lot of effort into the meal. The main course was salmon with asparagus. They also prepared garlic bread and a salad as side dishes. They even chose the right wine for a fish, but Tony suspected Natasha’s or Pepper’s help here. Conversation flew freely and they made their way to the dessert, in an amiable atmosphere. Pepper started conversing with May, which brought his attention.

“You know, maybe you could move to the Tower.”

“I don’t know really…”

“Peter and Happy spend most of their time here anyway and you too were here a lot, even before.”

“Plus, you know, Happy already has an assigned private floor, so it’s mostly a question of packing and moving stuff from your apartment,” Tony joined them. “And you would have the help of superhumans and Pepper Potts to plan everything.”

“Oh, the last thing makes the best argument. How’s wedding planning going anyway?”

“Well, it would go better if Tony listened to me. We have a cake tasting scheduled next week.”

“You know, we could just take Peter, feed him cakes and ask him which one he likes best. It would be faster. I swear his stomach has no bottom.”

“What?” Peter turned towards them at the sound of his name.

“Only if you are dealing with his sugar high, Tony,” May chuckled

“Hey, guys, I can hear you!”

Before they could continue they heard Steve clearing his throat. He got up and looked like he was about to give a speech.

“Last week was very hard for all of us,” he started. “We are very pleased that everyone important is able to be here. Me and Bucky have some important news to share and we are glad that you are the first to hear that. Without further ado, we decided to get married.”

Cheers and questions erupted immediately. Everyone congratulated and the toasts started.

Tony looked at the large table. Maybe titles didn’t matter. But the only thing that he could think was that after all these years, they became a family somewhere along the way. Big, loud and unconventional, a patchwork family, that wouldn’t make sense to a stranger. There were still a lot of issues that needed to be solved in the long run, but at that moment they were the happiest people on Earth.

#fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #marvel #spiderman #may parker #peter parker #happy hogan #tony stark #iron dad #the avengers

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colourmealivecollective · 4 years

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Coronavirus: Dealing with uncertainty, worry and anxiety compassionately and flexibly

Understanding your anxiety

It is a challenging time. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, with towns and even whole countries being placed on lock-down. Some of us already live in areas where coronavirus has spread. Others are preparing for what might come next. When we read the news, we can think to ourselves, "What will happen next?". We do not know exactly how we are going to be affected or how bad things might get. These uncertainties can lead to catastrophisation, leaving us vulnerable to states of fear and dread. However, there are simple techniques you can implement to ease your anxiety and fears–particularly in the face of this unprecedented crisis.

•Stay informed—but don't obsessively check the news or social media for updates.

Staying informed, particularly about what's happening in your area, is essential as you can take advised safety precautions and do your part to slow down the virus spreading. But there is a lot of misinformation going around, as well as sensational reporting which only feeds on fear. Therefore it is critical that you are careful about what information you are reading and television programmes you are watching, to protect your mental well-being.

• Restrict the number of times you refresh your news feed. Constant tracking of the news and updates on social media can become compulsive and counterproductive— only fueling your anxiety. The limit for everyone is different, so keep an eye on how you feel and adjust your screen time accordingly.

• When you start feeling low, move away from the media. If anxiety is an ongoing problem, consider restricting your television exposure to a limited time frame and daytime (e.g., half an hour at 6 pm each evening).

• Ask someone to share important updates with you. If you feel better off totally avoiding all forms of media, ask someone you trust to pass on any growing developments that you need to know.

• Be mindful what you share. Do your best to verify the information you read before

posting it. We all need to do our part to avoid spreading rumours and creating unnecessary fear and panic.

Focus on what is within your control

We live in a moment of great upheaval. There are so many things beyond our control, including how long the pandemic will last, how other people will behave, and what will happen within our communities. With all these uncertainties at hand, many of us are coping by endlessly searching the internet for updates and worrying about what might happen in the future. If we continuously place focus on issues outside of our personal control we will wind up feeling exhausted, nervous, anxious and frustrated.

When you feel caught up in fear of what could happen, try to shift your focus to things that you can control. Here is what you can do to protect yourself and others around you:

·Stay home as much as possible, even if you don’t feel sick.

·Washing your hands frequently (for at least 20 seconds) with soap and water or a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

·Avoiding touching your face (particularly your eyes, nose, and mouth).

·Avoid all non-essential travel and shopping.

·Maintain 2 metres of distance between yourself and others.

·Get plenty of rest to boost your immune system.

·Follow all recommendations and updates from health authorities.

Plan for what you can

It's normal to become frightened over your workplace possibly shutting, or someone you love getting sick or having to quarantine yourself. While it can be scary to think about these possibilities. Trying to cultivate an optimistic attitude will help ease at least some of your anxiety.

Here are some tips for planning ahead:

• Write down a list of concerns about how coronavirus can interfere with your life. If you become too stressed while writing, pause and come back to the exercise when you feel stronger.

• Begin to problem solve and create possible solutions for issues that may arise. Make a list of all the supports that will help you cope should something negative happen and beside that create a list of possible solutions to certain problems. Try not to get too stuck on “what if” possibilities. Log everything that comes to mind that could help you get by!

•After you’ve evaluated your options, create a plan of action. Then, set it aside and resist the urge to go back to it until you need it or your circumstances change.

Practising self-care

If you feel overwhelmed by all of this, be assured this is a very natural response given all that is happening in the world right now. It's necessary, though, to be kind to yourself and take time out for self-care. Here is a list of ten self-care activities you can do from home. They will make you feel a little better during this very difficult period, and give you a sense of control.

1. Play music that boosts your mood. Log onto Spotify and create a playlist that has all your favourite songs. You could make a group playlist and get your friends to add their favourite songs as well. If you want to get fancy, you could make several playlists for different moods/vibes (e.g. sunny day, feeling joyful, etc.).

2. Be kind to yourself. Practice self compassion if you’re experiencing more stress than usual. Remember that you not alone in your struggles, we are all in this together.

3. Maintain a routine as best as you can. Try keeping to your daily routine for sleeping, working and eating. That can help you retain a sense of normalcy, which will increase your mental well-being.

4. Find fun ways to exercise: Staying active can help reduce anxiety, alleviate tension and improve your mood. There are many many activities you can do indoors, including yoga, dance and HITT workouts that will increase your physical well-being.

5. Cultivate a relaxation practice. At times like these, our nervous systems can be thrown out of balance due to increased stress. Therefore, calming methods such as deep breathing, meditation and yoga can help get you back into a state of equilibrium. A little goes a long way, even puasing for a moment while reading this and taking 3 deep breaths can significantly boost well-being. So start small, build your mindfulness practice up and notice array of benefits!

6. Be kind to others. There is no link between this infectious disease and any racial or ethnic group, so speak up if you hear negative stereotypes which only perpetuate prejudice. With the right mindset and actions, we can all ensure that compassion and generosity spreads much faster than this virus in our societies.

7. Learn something new. Do you want to learn to paint watercolour landscapes or play a musical instrument? Now is a perfect time to get going. If you want to learn a new language, Duolingo is an awesome free language learning program you can access from your computer or phone. YouTube has fantastic free tutorials for pretty much everything online! Go and explore!

8. Connect with friends online. Even if an in-person meet-up is off the table, try to stay in touch with your friends via text, WhatsApp, Messenger, FaceTime, or a good old-fashioned phone call!

9. Make a home-cooked meal. Good nutrition is essential and there is nothing better than a delicious, healthy home-cooked meal during stressful times- particularly if you've cooked it yourself! Ask family and friends for their favourite recipes or check out your favourite chef’s free recipes online to get inspired!

10. Watch or read something uplifting. In moments like this, a little distraction can be a positive thing. Watch something you consider to be uplifting, to help detach yourself from what's happening in the world. YouTube has a great selection of feel-good videos. If you're more interested in reading, go to your bookshelf and pick an old favourite or complete that book you never got to finish! If you don't have physical books, e-books and apps like audible are a great choice.

If it’s all getting a bit much…

You can still feel overwhelmed, even if you’ve been practising self-care. As most people will be physically distancing or self-isolating, a great way to reach out is through telephone helplines and online services. Here's a list of some services that can help:

The Samaritans are available 24/7 for free support by phone or email. ☎116 123 Email: [email protected]

Aware are operating their free phone support line, email support and online Life Skills programme. ☎ 1800 804 848 (7 days a week from 10 AM - 10 PM) Email: [email protected]

Pieta House, Preventing Suicide and Self Harm have 24/7 free phone supports and text support services. ☎ 1800 247 247 text HELP to 51444 turn2me.org offer peer support, online support groups and professional support. https://turn2me.ie

Shine - Supporting People Affected by Mental Ill Health are offering remote support to people who use their services including online and over-the-phone support and an outreach service. 📧 [email protected]

Jigsaw have online services available such as "Ask Jigsaw" and "Jigsaw Online Group Chats". 🖥 https://lnkd.in/eBN5sRW

GROW Ireland is providing support groups online, where face-to-face groups are not available. 🖥 https://lnkd.in/eCvgs2b

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huds-hub · 4 years

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GASP! I finally updated my ‘About the Muse’ page!

Text-only under the cut:

About Undertale Teen Undyne:

Age: 15 (default) (can be 12~13 or 16~17 years old in other verses)

Pronouns: she/her

Orientation: lesbian

Residence: Goes back and forth between a cave in Waterfall and Asgore’s castle in the Capital.

Appearance:

Fire-red hair cut in a short bob, azure-blue scales, both eyes with black cat-like pupils and yellow sclera.

Earfins at the sides of her head, two sets of gills on her neck, and webbed fingers and toes.

190 centimeters tall (6 feet, 2 inches) (significantly shorter in her younger verse).

Lean body type - so lean that she would be considered ‘gangly’ if it wasn’t for her muscle mass.

Casual attire: purple t-shirt with green stripes and tan knee-length short pants.

Training attire: dark-blue and green unitard.

Relatives: Biological relatives are unknown. Considers Asgore to be her adoptive dad and mentor.

Abilities:

Wrestling

Spear fighting (ability varies depending on verse).

Swimming and breathing underwater

Summon water-charged magical spears at will. Change their trajectory and size (ability varies depending on verse).

Physical strength greater than average monsters her age.

Dormant green SOUL magic (accessible in her older teen verse).

Shadow-melding in places with heavy darkness.

High levels of physical fortitude that further increases when she sets her mind on a goal.

Flippity-floppity friggin’ high levels of her own DETERMINATION.

╳ Flaws: aggressive // immature // impatient // impulsive // competitive

♔ Strengths: determined // enthusiastic // strong // independent // caring // courageous

Personality: Undyne was not joking when she said she used to be “a pretty hot-headed kid” during her hang-out with Undertale’s protagonist. The younger Undyne gets riled up very easily. She’s loud and brash. If she interprets any hint of competition, she’ll take it. Not necessarily out of malice, but more of a side-effect of her own determination and a strong desire of proving herself as being the best.

But wait… that’s true for Undyne as an adult, too! What’s the difference? You wonder. As Gerson states, Undyne came “a long way since she was a little urchin.”

She’s more rough around the edges. Being an orphan, she’s learned to depend on herself. It’s made her stubborn and somewhat selfish. Despite her thick layer of confidence, there’s a thread of insecurity that stems from unanswered questions about a family she knows nothing about.

One could say the young Undyne has an ‘underdeveloped’ sense of justice. ‘Humans deserve justice for what they did to us’ is the furthest extent of it. She’d cheat. If she’s hungry enough, she’d steal… all the while not expecting any consequences of those actions. Fortunately, she will understand real justice better under Asgore’s tutelage and truly understanding Gerson’s example.

The teenager does indeed have a quieter, softer side that she has trouble admitting she has. She has a huge capacity for kindness, especially for monsters who are more unfortunate than her. The sound of water calms her given the right state of mind. Other times, it makes her mind dwell on things that burden her.

Past: For as long as she can remember, Undyne didn’t have any parents to take care of her. The little fish monster thought school was so boring – idolizing local hero Gerson was way more fun! Young Undyne followed the turtle around during his patrols.

When Undyne became too much of a handful for Gerson, he took her to the castle to meet King Asgore to determine what to do with the scrappy urchin. Taking matters into her own hands, she challenged the king and lost: it was a humiliation to the proud pre-teen.

Asgore took Undyne under his wing to train her. As the years went on, their relationship deepened to the point that Asgore was like a father-figure to her. He was a positive influence to a once aimless urchin with dreams of being like Gerson.

One thing continued to gnaw at her: she was feisty ball of energy and was told she “had a lot of potential”… but she was still not good enough to knock Asgore down! What the hell was she doing wrong?! It became a source of tension for her.

Then Undyne turned 15 years old. She’s had enough of “being stuck” as Asgore’s trainee. She grapples with wanting to be recognized as the badass she is, maintaining her own independence, and (though she won’t readily admit it) keeping the parental love she wished she had as a kid.

#ooc #about teen fish #now in post form so that mobile-only users can read it *jazz hands*

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hatari-translations · 5 years

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Griðastaður - 2017 draft version

So, before there was award-winning play Griðastaður starring Jörundur Ragnarsson, there was an early draft read by Hákon Jóhannesson, better known as Hákon from Iceland Music News (presumably, he was studying acting at the Academy of the Arts at the same time as Matthías was studying playwriting). Because it’s fun, I’m going to compare this early version to the final product! It’s the same core idea and significant chunks are very similar, but there were also a lot of interesting changes made between this 2017 draft and the final version, overwhelmingly for the better in my opinion.

(Scroll down to the “Thoughts” section below the cut if you just want to hear the overall summary, as opposed to me very lengthily laying out all the noteworthy changes because wow there were more changes than I realized.)

What Changed

The first thing to note is that the early version starts with Lárus’s phone conversation with his mother. The entire opening, with Lárus preparing for a meeting, explaining his relationship with IKEA and how he came to IKEA this one particular morning when he woke up with a guilty conscience, just isn’t there, though a small part of it is implemented after the phone call. I expect in part it was expanded to make for a more substantial play, but the opening of the final version also contains some fun/interesting bits of setup or foreshadowing for later: Lárus ends up backtracking on telling the meeting attendees to turn off their mobile phones, saying they can keep them on if they’ve got kids or moms (turns out it’s because he missed the notifications when his mom was dying), he mentions the Securitas guy isn’t going to have a problem with them staying late, and the weird little tangent about the IKEA flags serves to set up the flag-bearer who rescues him at the end.

This also means that in the early draft, him having to tell his mom that he’s just in IKEA because it’s his sanctuary and he's not there to buy anything is how the audience actually learns he’s in IKEA.

After the phone call, he says “I often have nightmares. (That was my mom.)” He explains that there’s a void inside of him, which he tries to fill with chocolate or Netflix subscriptions, but that gives him this guilty conscience, which then calls for more chocolate or thoughtful status updates or “neat patterned socks” - or, as he’s been doing increasingly recently, carefully evaluating the selection available at Swedish megastore IKEA. He wakes up with a guilty conscience, and makes coffee according to the guilt that he’s feeling. Then he explains about heading to Garðabær, the eco-labeled house, and going to IKEA and spending whole days there, and then we go on to, more or less, the section that follows the phone conversation in the final version.

When recounting the things he’s going to leave behind, he mentions a facial soap that he bought and used and now misses, which I thought was kind of a fun little detail.

The deodorant story is rearranged a little in the final version; in the draft version he talks about how he doesn’t know Chinese and would never be able to say any of this to the Chinese guy before he actually imagines the man’s response. He says he can’t even tell his brother what he thinks of him, or talk to his mom; the brother’s gone in the final version (makes sense, since the brother is never mentioned again and has nothing to do with anything). When pleading with the Chinese man, he suggests the chemicals are produced in really toxic conditions like maybe where he works, not where his sister did.

At the end of the deodorant story, as he asks the Chinese man to help him understand, he moves straight from there to shouting about spiders, as if he’s imagining the spiders attacking while he’s trying to talk to the Chinese guy! I kind of like that, compared to the final version where these bits are separated and don’t feel connected, and Hákon doesn’t play it in this very deliberately fake voice, instead just coming off more like he got carried away with this imaginary scenario. The thing he sprays on the spiders is the Nike Xtreme Men Edition deodorant that the Chinese guy was using. Afterwards, he says this story, which he dreamt once, is only one of his many go-to stories.

The bit on B-products isn’t there, nor is the fake PowerPoint, but he still talks about discounts, quality of life, etc. When talking about how stuff pollutes, he includes property rights, “which aren’t going anywhere”.

In the draft version, the IKEA employee really does compliment Lárus on his contemplation on environmentalism, where in the final version Lárus merely imagines the employee tells him that. Lárus thanks the employee, says IKEA is his sanctuary and if there is any place where he can cry it’s in IKEA, and then the employee goes “You’ve been in the bathroom department since we opened.” In the final version Lárus sounds defensive and awkward about this, but here he just sounds like nothing is more natural. When the employee asks if Lárus is looking for anything, he says “Well, aren’t we all looking for something? Haven’t we all been in the bathroom department since it opened, ever since we were born?!” The employee goes “Yeah, sure, but are you looking for anything special?”, which prompts Lárus to realize he’s going to try to sell him something, at which point Lárus goes off on another rant about how they’re here in the Mecca of disposable crap and he’d be even worse than the Chinese guy from the story if he bought stuff - upon which the employee asks what all the disinfectant he’s bought was for (showing that yeah, he literally launched into that whole rant within earshot of the employee), and from there persuades him that if he could buy 34 bottles of disinfectant he might as well buy this Silverån mirror cabinet without significantly depleting the Earth’s resources, and it’s really convenient and easy to clean, and then Lárus asks if he can put his toothbrush in it, etc. I’ll just translate how that whole conversation plays out, because it’s got a pretty different feel to it:

“So could I store my toothbrush in it, for example?”

“Sure.”

“How many?”

“As many as you like.”

“And toothpaste? How many tubes of toothpaste?”

“As many as you like.”

“200 tubes of toothpaste?”

“Yeah, if you like.”

“How about deodorant, eco-labeled?”

“Eco-labeled? Sure.”

“What about chocolate and popcorn and olive oil?”

“Yup, whatever you like.”

“Essays and books? Das Kapital, for example?”

“I-I’ve actually got better cabinets for that.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah, you can put anything in that one.”

“Medicine?”

“Yes, absolutely!”

“Mom?”

“...N-no?”

“My mom is chronically ill in the hospital.”

[The employee makes a tiny awkward grunt]

“Dental floss?”

“Sure, sure.”

“Mouthwash?”

“Yeah, yeah, uh, sorry about your mom.”

“Self-respect?”

“Huh?”

“Can this cabinet assure me that I’ll see her again?”

“Who? It’s just a cabinet!”

“Uh-huh. Disinfectant and band-aids? The contradiction inherent in my lifestyle and my fundamental beliefs?”

“Yeah, yeah, disinfectant, whatever, maybe not 34 bottles, that’s an excessive amount of disinfectant, and sorry about your mom.”

And then the employee says actually he needs to help other customers and he’ll write it down. All in all, this whole encounter is a lot more parodesque and weird, the employee is a more absurd, comical character, and Lárus is more condescending and actively hostile, where in the final version the employee feels very much like a real, ordinary person, and Lárus makes it a bit awkward by bringing up his mom but is a lot more sympathetic and keeps his annoyance at the employee to himself. I think this is a really solid change; the draft version is amusing but Lárus just comes off as kind of an annoying dick in it and it’s hard to come away from this actually caring about his relationship with his mother.

The following sequence, where he goes down to get the cabinet and finds they’re all gone and then his phone chimes with the text about his mom being dead, is very similar, although it’s been fleshed out a bit with some details in the final version.

When he’s been hiding in the warehouse for those six hours, he “feels something break - and it’s not the Billy shelves”. Definitely a good call losing that joke; in the final thing he totally pulls off this sequence as a serious moment where you actually feel sorry for him, but in the draft this keeps it fairly ridiculous.

The security guard scene is very similar, but in the middle of it he throws in a “This is all imaginary, come on.” Good call losing that too! This little emotional breakdown into twisted violent power fantasy is my favorite part of the play, and he ought to be far too worked up here to have the self-awareness to remind the audience this isn’t really happening. Hákon punches the script as he beats the guard half to death, though, which is amusing.

When he goes back to the cafeteria and there’s no hot food, he specifically states that he imagines they’ve thrown it all away, rather than sounding like he genuinely assumes this is the case. Again, I think the final version works better; he’s still in this supremely agitated emotional state, and it’s far better conveyed if he sounds like he really believes what he’s saying, even if he is telling this story at a later point. He also doesn’t take the bathroom break where he starts to calm down and catch his breath; he just immediately notices the salads and heads on up to his favorite staged bathroom. When he says “I’ve always dreamed about doing this”, he adds, “staying the whole night at IKEA.”

In the draft version, the rant to his mom about how everyone dies keeps noting, both at the start and throughout the first half of it, that he didn’t actually literally say this to her. I think the final version, where he says that whole rant and only then admits he didn’t actually say it, works better, especially since it’s set up by the previous encounter with the employee where he does the same thing. He also doesn’t say “I love you” at the end, which in the final version really lends that extra punch to it when he follows it with “...No, I didn’t say that to her.”

The whole bit with him imagining another meeting with the Chinese guy, his sister the marine biologist and the turtle and them coming to a mutual understanding, isn’t there in the draft; the Chinese guy doesn’t come back at all, much less parallel Lárus’s sense of loss the way he does in the final version. We just pretty much go straight from the everyone dies rant to Guðrún arriving, and she’s just a random employee rather than the person who raises the flags (I don’t think the flag introduction in the final version is entirely elegant, but the presence of that setup is nice narratively).

The part with them visiting his mother’s grave and the exchange ending with “Mortality is a staged bathroom” is more or less the same, but again, we don’t get the “No, she didn’t actually say that”, or the entire following paragraph talking about all the kinds of people at IKEA who are going to die.

Then the final bit about how Guðrún led him down the escalator is there but a bit shorter, and then Lárus proudly presents the first eco-labeled cabinet at IKEA. We don’t get the bit about how none of this makes sense because there aren’t two escalators facing each other at the IKEA in Garðabær. I am convinced this is because somebody who frequents IKEA watched the workshop performance, came to Matthías and pointed out that it didn’t make sense, and he just brazenly decided to have Lárus address the complaint in the play instead of ditching the escalator scene. Amazing.

Thoughts

Overall, the tone of the play and the character of Lárus comes across differently in the draft version. It’s more of a straight dark comedy, and accordingly, Lárus is basically an unsympathetic comedy protagonist archetype. Hákon really plays him that way, too, primarily angry and indignant and pretentious.

In between the two versions, Matthías (or one of his instructors, or someone else who commented) realized that Lárus could actually work as a sympathetic character: he’s pretty eccentric and obsessed with IKEA, sure, but he’s also just lonely and repressed and goofily imaginative and overwhelmed by everything and worried about his sick mom, and by fleshing things out and editing various details and just playing him differently, we could genuinely feel for him when he learns his mom is dead and breaks down and crawls into the shelves at IKEA - which makes for a way better play than if we just can’t stand him. Jörundur plays him as awkward, nervous, constantly second-guessing himself, bad at expressing any of the things he’s thinking, and for all his eccentricities you just care about him and can follow his emotional journey, or at least the most important section of it.

The final version also just ties various things together better, bringing things from earlier back later and so on. I don’t think it’s 100% successful at being a satisfying narrative, but it’s a lot more so than the draft version, which is largely just an amusing ramble describing events that don’t seem to be in much of any coherent relationship with one another.

All in all, it really shows that Matthías spent a lot of time and care improving the play since the draft, which I, possibly the biggest nerd about revisions and adaptations that I know, think is pretty cool.

#griðastaður #matthías tryggvi haraldsson #translation #I WROTE A WAY LONGER POST ON THIS THAN I MEANT TO #I am sorry #I don't know who I'm apologizing to but somebody needs an apology for this

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soulofatiny · 5 years

Text

No fear, I’m here... Ch.3: the ninth member

-a/n: i feel like this chapter is soooo much better than the last chapter since there are more interactions. i hope you guys enjoy!

-warning(s): some minor mentions of anxiety, but i really wanted to put this as a warning in case it is triggering for some

-word count: 5.8k yikes

Ch.4

masterlist

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“Retreat your mission and come see me immediately. Things have changed…”

*click*

You slipped your phone back into the inner pocket of your leather jacket and began walking straight towards the exit. The musicians have stopped playing and you could feel their eyes that’s been following every path you make for your leave. You could still hear Yunho taking turns yelling at you and then at Seonghwa for still holding him back in the background. Goodness… he was honestly starting to give you a headache with all the creative threats he was coming up with… This was the guy who took out your entire west wing? Massaging your temples to relieve some of your aggravation from the loud noise, a figure swiftly moves in front of you, blocking your way to the exit that was only one step away from your reach.

“Leaving so soon?”

He spoke with such bold confidence emitting from him.

You looked up to link where the voice was coming from, startled because you didn’t feel his presence coming at all and were met with the cheekiest grin you’ve ever seen. You took a small step back to observe his face fully. He also looked like he was roughly around the same age as you, being a few inches taller. He had red highlights in his dark hair that matched his brash, dimpled smile perfectly. But what truly caught your attention was his eyes. They were soft yet intense that almost had a cat-like glint to them. It made you feel serene yet intimidated all at the same time. If wisps of his hair weren’t partially concealing his eyes, his gaze that was piercing into your eyes would’ve been twice as more intense.

“What? Cat got your tongue?”

You averted your eyes, his gaze almost too hypnotizing for you to bear. When you finally regained your composure, you were finally able to speak in a slicing decisive tone, “Move.” You looked up to meet his eyes again, this time with a strong glare. His smirk and eyes seemed softer this time. If you made your judgment correctly, they also had a hint of regret that laid with his dark pupils. “I mean, you barely finished your coffee and Yunho looks like he really wants you to stay.” You physically cringed upon hearing Yunho’s name, unable to stand the huge amount of annoyance you had developed towards him during this short amount of timeframe. Honestly, it must be a talent to get under someone’s skin so quickly. Your thoughts were adverted when you suddenly heard a deep voice that spoke up behind you, “San, enough. Let her go. I’m sure she’s been summoned.” The man in front of you who’s now apparent name, San, regained his cheeky grin again, “Awww come on Mingi, you’re no fun!” You turned your head to see the man named Mingi, who was much taller than you. His vivid blue-green streaks in his hair were much more vibrant up close compared to when he was on stage. He also had prominent features. Something you’ve noticed that all of the men in this building seemed to have. Not just outwardly appearance but their auras as well. They all carried themselves well.

“Hongjoong’s orders. Come on, move so she can go.” Mingi and San stared at each other for a couple of seconds, seemingly communicating in an unspoken conversation until San finally gives in and sighs, “Alright, alright,” he looked down towards you and spoke in a hushed tone so quiet that you almost missed what he said, “I’ll see you again.” He finally moves to the side, unblocking himself from the exit. As you were walking you quickly muttered, “Seems unlikely,” not catching San’s face slightly falling into gloom as you finally walked out, leaving everything and everyone behind you. Mingi walked up to San who was still looking at the direction where you just left and put his hand on San’s shoulder, knowing how San must’ve been feeling. “Hyung, come on. We should probably go tell Yeosang what happened. I’m sure he would like to know.” The two men turned to their maknae, and Mingi added, “Yeah. Jongho, go update Hongjoong. He should be at the base right now. The rest of us will go to you guys after we update Yeosang.” Jongho nodded and left for the base exiting from the back door. Mingi slung his arm around San’s shoulders as dragged him towards the rest of the members where Yunho still seemed angry but seemed much calmer thanks to Wooyoung additionally helping Seonghwa calm him down.

“Honestly, Yunho. Did you really have to provoke her?” Seonghwa scolded at Yunho, who looked extremely unimpressed until Mingi added in, “and thanks to that, you’re going to be the one to tell Yeosang what happened.” But Yunho was quick to retort, “No way! Who knows what he’s going to do to me-“ “Well you should’ve thought of that before you picked a fight with her,” San stated matter-of-factly. Yunho knew that his members were right but he couldn’t help but feel distaste towards you. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to win an argument against four people, he gave in, “fine, I’ll tell him but I still don’t like her.” “Alright, case closed! Let’s go. I’m hungry!” Wooyoung blurted out with a huge smile, honestly finding the entire situation too serious and gloomy for his liking. All of them left one by one, Yunho being the last. He looked back one last time at the stool you were sitting on earlier. There’s no way he would ever trust you…

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As you were making your way towards your organization, you couldn’t get you Boss’s determined voice out of your head, “Things have changed…”

What could’ve possibly changed? Could he have really changed his mind about the assassination when your entire west wing was annihilated? As much as you disliked him, his skills must’ve been pretty subpar taking in that information and your small encounter with him earlier. No… your boss would never let a man like him left unterminated. Knowing your boss, he definitely has something bigger planned. Something more beneficial to him.

Also, San… you felt almost the same sort of comfort you feel towards Yeosang, but at the same time not quite the same. The fact that you were swayed by your emotions just by looking at his eyes means that he’s going to be a negative impact for you. Well, you’re never going to see him again so it shouldn’t be a problem. You pulled your leather jacket closer, the night air being significantly chillier than a few hours ago. You picked up your pace when you saw the big ‘ZG Banks’ sign that illuminated brighter than it did during the day when you first left the building. You walked in from the back, where the elevator that led directly to your boss’s office is located. The elevator doors shut and rise to the 72nd floor, the compressed interior heat immediately hushing your goosebumps. 69….70….71….72. As the elevator dinging, your face immediately removed any signs of emotion, almost like a cue or a reminder. You knocked on the door three times as the golden nameplate shined.

“Come in.”

You complied, shutting the door as you made your way in. The lights were dimmed with the moonlight reflecting in through the large bulletproof windows aligned behind him. The smoke of his cigars filled the room, making an appearance of the dreadful foggy night. Your boss was sitting on his office chair, his back facing you.

“You took too long to get here. Speak.”

You breathed in quickly and silently before speaking, “I apologize. I got caught up in a disturbance.”

“Did you find Yunho? Speak.”

“Yes. I was about to strike until I received your call and retreated.”

Your boss took a long puff before speaking again, smoking escaping from his mouth, “I called you back here because I changed my mind.”

Another puff, “It seems that killing one measly rat would not satisfy my rage so I had a team find me more information. It took a while, but it turns out Yunho is from ATEEZ. I have been warned by my partnering conglomerates about ATEEZ, being known as a small unit from a small corporation KQ and yet the most deadly they have ever faced. There are no available sources regarding the boss of KQ and I want more information.” Your boss’s face contorted into a sinister smile before continuing, “You act as both a spy and as a peace offering for our companies, to which they’ve already easily accepted, and report any notable information back to me. When I feel that there is no more information for me to keep, terminate all of their associates, except for Yunho and his boss. Bring them here and kill them in front of me so I can watch their pity lifeless faces with glee. I always love a dinner and a show,” your boss’s menacing aura was oozing from every fiber of his being.

“Report to me once a week. Do whatever it takes to retrieve the most confidential information. Get close if you have to. I want this to benefit me entirely.”

Your boss added one final comment, “Do not disappoint me.”

You bowed and exited his office. It was only until you entered another confined space and the elevator doors shut that you were finally breathing stably again. Your face relaxed a little more but your chest felt heavy. Ah…there it was again. Fear.

Suddenly, the voice in your nightmares flooded your mind.

“You don’t feel any emotions and you will not feel any emotions except fear. Fear for your life.”

You clutched your head, shutting your eyes, hoping that the voice will somehow go away.

“Nana! Listen to me! You killed me here on October 24, 2008. You. Killed. Me.”

Your throat tightens as you felt your anxiousness edging. You can’t remember anything. Why couldn’t you remember anything? You leaned back, feeling the cool metal walls of the elevator, trying to remain calm.

You knew you weren’t supposed to feel emotions. ZG’s assassination training should have ejected any sorts of emotions and yet for some reason, you still had yours.

Uncertainty. “I have too many unanswered questions.” Who and where is Set? Is he dead?

Loneliness. “Why am I alone?” Is there anyone in this world that remotely cared for you?

Anger. “If Set is my brother, why did he leave me?” Did Set abandon you, his sister?

Anxiety. “I can’t breathe…” You wanted this to end.

Terror. “I don’t want to die…” Your biggest fear.

And if your boss were to ever find out the truth, it would be the end for you…

You straightened yourself, removed your hands from your head, let it fall to your sides, and exhaled slowly one last time. The elevator dinged, indicating your arrival on the ground floor. You took out your flip phone, hit number 3 for speed dial, and waited for a response. It rang once...twice...thr-

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“You did what?!” Yeosang raised his voice while Yunho, being the receiving end of the yelling, visibly flinched. The members excluding the boss and the maknae gathered in one of the base meeting rooms.

“It wasn’t even that big of a deal! I just pushed her buttons a little bi-“

“A lot. You pushed her buttons a lot. She pulled her blades on us.”

“Shut up, hyung. You wouldn’t even be here yapping your mouth if I didn’t save your ass.”

“Is that why you have a cut on your cheek?” Yeosang asked eyeing Yunho. It was odd for Yunho to get a minor injury. He either got hurt to the extreme or without a single scratch.

Yunho stifled an unpleased mumble, “Yeah…”

Yeosang sighed, “Yunho… I’m not that mad at you for making her mad... I mean, you certainly can’t charm everyone-“ Seonghwa chuckled at that with Yunho shooting him a glare.

“Anyways, as I was saying. I’m just worried that Nana won’t join us now… you weren't supposed to provoke her. We planned this for many years and the chance finally arrived, but you could’ve potentially ruined all of that.”

At that, Mingi spoke up, “San also provoked her.”

“You did what?!” Yeosang snapped his head quickly towards San who was obviously caught off guard by Mingi calling him out.

“I did no such thing! She stared into my eyes and I stared into hers, which were very pretty up close by the way-“

“Ew, gross. It did NOT look pretty when I saw them-“

“Shut it, Yunho. That’s because she was looking at you full of disgust, unlike what she did with me-“

Among all of the bantering, Yeosang, clearly stressed, was massaging his temples to alleviate some stress, “Let’s just…go meet with Hongjoong and Jongho, yeah?”

The members all agreed and migrated towards Hongjoong’s office. Their “base” was really one big mansion that consisted of each of the member’s bedrooms along with a few extra guest bedrooms, living room with the entire wall being one giant window, huge kitchen that comes with a coffee bar and real bar that makes up for the lack of one at Fellaz, training room in the basement, multiple meeting rooms, and lastly Hongjoong’s office.

All eight members finally gathered together.

“I’ve heard about what happened from Jongho. Yunho, I’m sure Yeosang already scolded you plenty so I won’t touch that topic anymore. There are things I want to remind everyone. First, Nana is going to be one of us. We’re all going to welcome her, just like we’ve been planning for the past few years. Second, Nana doesn’t know about us knowing her codename, so we still have to call her ‘y/n’. Make sure you guys won’t mix it up. Third, Nana doesn’t know us like we know her. We can’t have our plan backfire so be careful with that as well. Yeosang… you do know you have to eventually tell her right? She doesn’t have to know everything at once, but she’s going to find out that you’ve been working behind her back with the whole Yunho incident.”

Yeosang knew this. He knew that you would feel betrayed when you find out that he’s apart of ATEEZ.

He was definitely shocked to receive a photo of Yunho when you asked him to find more information about someone that was one of his members, but you had no clue. The plan had actually worked. Yeosang has been telling Hongjoong the cruelty of your organization, murdering anyone and everyone being completely corrupted and has been pleading Hongjoong to let you join ATEEZ, where they fight for justice and mercy at any cost, even if it means murder. Hongjoong agreed. This plan was thought out for many years to ensure your complete freedom. The plan was for Yunho to attack the entire west wing. Then ZG would either send in their top assassin (you) or offer a peace offering and ask for Nana during the negotiation.

Now, what was unexpected was for ZG to do both of the choices. Why would he send in an assassin, retreat the mission, and ask for a peace offering instead?

“Yeosang?”

“Sorry, Hongjoong… Yeah, I know. It’s just…. isn't it strange how ZG retreated his assassination on Yunho and then ask for a peace offering?”

Hongjoong nodded, clearly trusting Yeosang’s intellectual judgment.

“I told you guys, I don’t trust her,” Yunho spoke up but Hongjoong was quick to retort, “The problem isn’t Nana. The problem is ZG and he’s planning something big.” “Exactly! She’s apart of ZG!” Yunho raised his voice continuing, “What makes you guys think she’s the same person as she was 8 years ago?! Nana doesn’t even remember anything!” This time, San spoke up, “She may not remember everything but she saved my life. So I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her out of that hellhole.” Wooyoung spoke up for the first time, “I agree with San. Nana deserves her freedom. I get where you’re coming from Yunho, but what if she’s still the same Nana?”

Yunho’s voice softened, “I get that… I just want the best for you gu-“

*ring ring ring*

Everyone’s head instantly turned to Yeosang who was staring at his flip phone.

“It’s Nana.”

*ring ring ring*

“Hyung, what should I do?”

*ring ring ring*

“Answer it.”

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“Y/n? Hello?”

“Yeosang, I need to find KQ headquarters. I’ll give you a lot of fried chicken for this. Can you just… find where it’s located asap?“

The members looked at each other's faces as the phone was on speaker. Unbeknownst to you that they were listening to every word you were speaking through the other end of the call. There was a small trace of weariness with your voice that only Yeosang could notice. You may have sounded normal to everyone else in the room but to Yeosang, you sounded exhausted. Not physically, but mentally.

Yeosang looked and Hongjoong and he nodded, cueing to answer.

“No chicken, it’s fine… I know where it’s at. It’s right next to Seven Seasons park…”

There was no answer.

“Y/n? Are you still th-?

“Next to Seven Seasons park? Our meeting place?”

“Y-yes.”

“So, you’re telling me that the mansion next to the park is KQ headquarters? Right next to our usual meeting place?”

“Yes…”

“Are you f*cking kidding me? You’re one of them aren’t you?” He always knew you caught on quick…Yeosang looked down, feeling the members staring at him. With the lack of response from his end of the call, you continued.

“You knew all this time and put me directly into your little setup,” You knew it was unfair for you to be angry since you shouldn’t trust anyone in this field of work. It was every person for themselves. You’re used to betrayal and should’ve expected this from anyone you work with but something about the betrayal coming from Yeosang made you sick to your stomach.

“You know…I bet your members are even listening in to this conversation.”

At this, Yeosang looked up and saw that all of his members were surprised with wide-eyes.

“Y/n, it’s not like that. I just-“

“Save it. I’ll be over there in a bit.”

*click*

The members were all silent after the call ended. They definitely didn’t expect you to catch on this quick but they definitely didn’t expect you to still come to their base.

Wooyoung spoke up being the first to break the silence, “Well~ that definitely wasn’t how I expected for her to find out.”

“At least she’s still coming, “ Jongho added.

“Yeah, maybe to wreak havoc and kill us all,” Yunho also added.

“Must you always expect the negative from her?” Seonghwa expressed to Yunho, which earned him a sigh from the younger member.

Mingi spoke up next, “Yeosang…you alright?”

Yeosang nodded, still looking down. He never wanted to make you upset.

Everyone looked at their leader as he made his first comment after the call, “Yeosang or even San… You both know her the most. Can you predict what she could be planning?”

San shrugged, “I can only predict her combat move. I don’t know her on an emotional level as much as Yeosang.”

Yeosang finally looked up, “She sounded determined but I don’t think she’s planning to kill all of us…” Yunho scoffed at that, but Yeosang continued, “Really, to me she sounded more hurt and betrayed than anger. If anything, she’ll only have a problem with me truly.”

Mingi put his hand on Yeosang’s shoulder, trying to alleviate the guilt his fellow member must be feeling.

Hongjoong spoke once more, “Yeosang, everything will be okay. It’s understandable that she’s upset but no one will be getting hurt on my watch. I won’t let her hurt my members nor will I allow any harm come to Nana.” Hongjoong looked at Yunho as he said Nana’s name, “Is that clear?”

Everyone hummed in agreement including Yunho, although unwillingly.

Wooyoung stood up and clapped his hands, “Well come on! Let’s get ready, our guest is coming soon~” No one could truly understand how Wooyoung was able to keep his vibrant smile all the time but it was definitely comforting. San got up with him and wrapped his arms around Wooyoung and Jongho dragging them out, “Let’s gooo~”

The rest of the members followed. As Yunho was about to walk out, Hongjoong stopped him, holding his arm. He looked down to his leader who was shorter than he was but still radiated with charisma.

“Yunho, please give her a chance. You know how much this means to the members, especially Yeosang. I didn’t forget how much hatred you have for ZG and I know she may be apart of ZG right now, but please…”

Yunho’s eyes softened towards his leader’s plea. He knew it wasn’t fair to judge you just because you’re with ZG especially not by choice. He just can’t forget what ZG had done. Yunho sighed and gently shrugged his arm to be free from Hongjoong’s grasp.

“I know, hyung…” Yunho left that one final comment before walking out, leaving Hongjoong in his office by myself.

“I know you do, Yunho. I know.”

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You flipped your phone shut and started making your way towards KQ. You were mentally exhausted. You should’ve seen this coming. You should expect betrayal coming from all directions but you didn’t… Not from Yeosang. But his boss accepted you as a peace offering and you still had to complete your newly arranged mission. You couldn’t afford to be lost by your emotions right now.

Not ever.

You saw the large mansion, the lights lit from the indoors, and the perimeter surrounded by gates and cameras. It’s definitely luxurious, just not something you expected from a small organization.

You inhaled and exhaled deeply. The air that escaped from your mouth transforming into a puff of smoke from the chilly midnight weather. You finally hit the buzzer and waited for an answer until you heard a slightly high toned voiced coming from the buzzer box, “Yes? Can I help you?”

“Hello. I was sent by ZG. I believe your boss had spoken with mine about an agreement-”

“Oh, yeah! We were expecting you! Hang on, let me open the gates for you.” The voice suddenly spoke in a more casual, cheerful tone.

Upon cue, the gates opened and you walked down the path that led to the entrance. The door was already opened with a figure standing there, waiting for you. Getting a closer view, you’ve noticed that it was the drummer on stage back at Fellaz. What was his name again? Woogie? Woo?-

“Hey! Glad you could make it. I’m Wooyoung. Come in, come in!”

Ah, that’s right. It was Wooyoung. His ashy hair suited him even better up close. Although his cheerful demeanor was definitely a bit loud and overwhelming considering it was around midnight but his boxy smile quickly dissipated your thoughts. It was nice to see someone who seemed genuinely happy with his life. Not what you expected from someone being in the mafia, but it was definitely a relief because you were used to being surrounded with an area full of bloodlust.

You gave him a small smile as you introduced yourself, “I’m y/n, nice to properly meet you, Wooyoung.”

Wooyoung smiled even bigger, not exactly sure how that’s possible. “It’s really great meeting you, y/n! Let me take you to meet the rest of our members and our leader!” He reached to grab your hand and you almost mistook the gesture as an attack, quickly stepping back.

Wooyoung’s face fell quickly as he noticed this, “I’m so sorry, I was just reaching to grab your hand. I’m sorry, I should’ve been more careful…”

You felt bad for seeing Wooyoung’s mood dropping so suddenly so you quickly reassured him, “It’s fine. I’m sorry, I’m just not used to skinship… Sorry.” You reached forward and softly grasped his hand.

Wooyoung smiled at your gesture, “All’s forgiven. They should all be in the living room. Come on, let’s go!”

As Wooyoung was leading you to the living room, you looked around, taking in your surroundings. The white marble floor was well polished, reflecting the dangling lights hanging from the ceiling. It was elegant and modern with perfect simplicity. He turned and led you through a corridor, passing by multiple doors made with rich mahogany woods, leading to rooms you didn’t know what it was used for.

Wooyoung noticed you looking around and commented, “We can give you a tour later after you meet everyone. They’re all excited to see you~”

You met some of them back at Fellaz and you certainly weren’t ready to meet some of them… “The ones back at Fellaz right? and Yeosang?”

Wooyoung squeezed your hand a little bit, “Yeah, the ones at Fellaz. Our leader wasn’t there or Yeosang, but they are all here now. All eight of us.”

“Then I’m sure some of them aren’t excited to see me again,” you commented. Wooyoung knew you were talking about Yunho. In all honesty, you didn’t want to see him either and you’re not sure if you’re entirely ready to see Yeosang or any of them for that matter. You just had to do your job.

Wooyoung chuckled at your comment, “Well, he’ll get over it-“

You both finally reached the end of the hallway, exposing a spacious room with the entire windowed wall exposing the vast view of the night cityscape. In the middle of the room, you can see seven boys gathered on the black leather sofa. All of them stood up upon noticing you and Wooyoung’s arrival, well all but one who you recognized to be Yunho. You saw one of them nudge him and he finally stood up with the rest of them.

One of the men, shorter yet extremely charismatic, walked forward with a charming smile, “Hi, you must be y/n. I’m glad you could make it. I’m Hongjoong, the leader of ATEEZ.” He finished his introduction, bowing his head to show his respect. Even if he didn’t tell you that he was the leader, you would’ve been able to guess just by how he carried himself. He was extremely well-mannered.

You bowed back to reciprocate your respect and then suddenly yanked by Wooyoung bringing you closer to the members, “There’s no need to be so formal! It’s just Hongjoong-hyung~” Wooyoung laughed with some of them following.

“Yeah, we keep things casual here. Hongjoong just likes to show off sometimes- I’m Mingi. We saw each other briefly at Fellaz but nice to officially meet you.” He held his hand out for you to shake, and you took his hand to do so.

Mingi looked down at your other hand being occupied, “Wooyoung, how long are you going to hold her hand?”

You looked down at yours and Wooyoung’s hand still linking together and quickly retreated it, honestly forgetting that he was still holding it and your face heated up a little due to the new skinship.

“Aw come on, Mingi~ Did you really have to mention it?” Wooyoung whined until another voice cut in.

“Hyung, stop whining,” giving Wooyoung a strong shove with a smile on his face before turning to you. You noticed that he was the one playing the violin on the stage.

“Hi, I’m Jongho, the youngest on the team and I like to break apples in half while singing.”

Odd…the members were very…odd, to say the least.

But you smiled back at Jongho, “Nice to meet you. I would like to witness that one day.” The maknae smiled even wider at your comment and another voice commented, this time more familiar,

“Glad you could make it, y/n.”

You reciprocated the same gentle smile he was giving you, “Thanks, Seonghwa.”

Then you were startled when a figure quickly moved next to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders. It was frightening how fast he moved and how you could never feel his presence until he’s directly next to you. You were about to nudge it off but his grip far too strong yet careful so he wouldn’t cause you any discomfort. You looked up and met his eyes. It’s him. His hypnotizing cat-like eyes.

“I told you we’ll meet again~” his tone lull and soothing. You tried to say something but your voice failed you as you felt your heart beating faster.

Suddenly someone karate kicked him from behind, making the boy releasing his grasp on you, “San! Personal space!” San quickly got up and retorted, “I don’t want to be told that by you, Wooyoung!”

Hongjoong sighed watching two of his members bickering before turning to you, “I apologize…for them.”

You waved your hand off to indicate that it was fine until you heard a voice.

“Y/n….”

It was Yeosang’s voice. You turned to see Yeosang’s face, covered with guilt. Hongjoong looked between the two of you before finally saying, “I’ll let you two work it out, I’m going to attempt to stop…that,” Hongjoong pointed towards San and Wooyoung and walked away, leaving you and Yeosang to yourselves.

You looked at the two guys still bickering with the other members trying to make them stop, “Shouldn’t we help?” You asked, looking up to Yeosang.

Yeosang could tell you were trying to act normal. Despite what anyone says you were always attentive towards other’s feelings, dissipating any conflict that would make the other party feel uncomfortable.

“No, they may bicker like that sometimes, but they’re actually really close. Closer than the rest of us. I guess that’s why they’re able to freely express their feelings to each other so easily.”

You nodded at his comment.

“Y/n, I’m really sorry…”

“I know, it’s okay.” You looked up at Yeosang’s face, confused and suspicious by your quick forgiveness and you continued, “You did what you had to do for your organization. It’s understandable. I’m not mad anymore. I was just shocked.”

Yeosang observed your face to see any trace of you lying, but he couldn’t because you genuinely meant what you said.

“and…I think I was hurt but I know you honestly feel guilty about it so it’s okay now. Let’s work well together, yeah?”

You held your hand out for Yeosang, “Let’s shake, forgive, and forget,” you stated with a smile.

Yeosang took your hand and shook it, smiling back, “Thank you. All’s well.”

You and Yeosang truly meant what you’ve both said at the time, but you both still felt the secrets you both kept from each other deep inside, pushing it away for now.

“Not yet, maybe another day,” you both thought to yourselves simultaneously.

You both joined the others on the sofa after noticing that things have calmed down in their end as well.

“So y/n, I first want to say that I appreciate you coming here to symbolize peace within two organizations. I believe your boss had commented on how your skills are subpar, and I honestly believe it. Secondly, rather than acting as some sort of “offering”, I truly want to offer you a position as our ninth member. What do you say?”

You were surprised by his offer. You honestly thought you were going to be used slaving away as an assassin whenever needed. That’s what ZG had told you that was what you were going to be but he was offering you an actual position… an equal position with the rest of his members…

Half feeling content because you know you could gather more intel working close with the members and the other half feeling some sort of discomfort deep within your chest, but you shook off the latter half and accepted Hongjoong’s offer.

To which he smiled big. He looked as if he was genuinely happy about your acceptance, “Great! We have a guest bedroom that you can stay in for tonight, and tomorrow you can get your stuff and officially move in. We’ll have one or two of us help you-“

“Is that really necessary?” you blurted.

All of the members turned to look at you, and you realized that you sounded defensive so you continued to elaborate, “I mean, the help. I can move everything on my own. I don’t have much stuff.”

Hongjoong sighed with relief, “Ah, yeah. It’ll be no problem. The sooner we could properly welcome you, the better!”

Everyone hummed with an agreement and carried their own conversations of renovating your bedroom and things in that matter. You continued to listen to their conversations until you felt someone staring daggers into your soul so you turned to see the culprit.

It’s Yunho and you weren’t surprised but you did feel some sort of satisfaction upon seeing how there was a bandage that covered the cut you’ve caused on his cheek.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

Yunho’s eyebrow twitched at your comment before blurting back, “Why would I save a picture of the ugliest lil gremlin I’ve ever seen? Actually, you know what? I just might and turn it into the guinness world records. I’m sure I’ll make big bucks out of it.”

Yeosang and everyone in the room immediately stopped their conversations at the moment and stared at the two of you. You could feel your blood boiling and you’ve never felt your anger rising up to this point, but you remained a straight face. There’s no way you were going to let him enjoy mocking you.

Although you had many colorful words flowing through your head, you resisted the urge to verbalize it and the deep urge to rip his head off. Instead, remaining a straight face.

Yeosang was glaring at Yunho so hard, and he knew he went too far.

“Yunho.” Hongjoong called him in a directive tone.

Yunho got up from the sofa, “Yeah, yeah…I know. You all enjoy your night. I’m going to bed,” and left the living room. Leaving the area quiet and speechless.

After a few moments of silence, Wooyoung announced, “Well! It’s getting late, we should all probably head to bed now,” saving the gloomy atmosphere yet once again. Everyone agreed and got up, leaving one by one.

“Come on, I’ll lead you to the guest bedroom, “Hongjoong offered and you thanked him.

Both of you walked down the corridor in silence. As you followed Hongjoong, he finally broke the silence, “I’m sorry about Yunho…he’s actually a really caring guy. He just has trouble showing it sometimes.”

You nodded at that, “It’s okay. I understand,” and you really meant it.

“I really hope you’ll enjoy being with us... Really, we view each other like family rather than a business-related organization,” he stated with a caring tone.

He must really love his members…

You both stopped at a door, “Well, this is the guest bedroom. I hope you’ll sleep well tonight.”

“Thank you, Hongjoong.”

You turned to enter the door but was stopped when Hongjoong made one last comment in the most authentic smile you’ve ever seen.

“Goodnight, y/n,” and with that he turned and left.

“Goodnight, Hongjoong,” you whispered, fighting back the unsettling feeling in your chest…

∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘

-e/n: wow wow wow, this chapter turned out longer than i expected but i truly enjoyed writing it! what could yeosang’s secret be? how does all the members already know nana? could yunho and nana ever get along? (lol)

let me know what you guys think and if you guys are starting to have any idea who she might end up with? thanks for reading :)

#ateez #ateez scenarios #a-tothe-z masterlist #ateez fanfic #seonghwa #hongjoong #ateez yunho #yeosang #ateez san #ateez mingi #wooyoung #jongho #atiny

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bats-did-u-mean-assholes · 6 years

Text

Habitual Arrangements

hi everyone! this is my first fanfiction ever! its set in the young justice (cartoon) universe just after the finale of season 2. the fic explores a relationship that we barely see on the show, and showcases my take on it. the relationship here is Mal and Dick’s , i don’t know why but i was drawn to these two. so please enjoy !

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It started not long after the invasion, at first it was barely noticeable, a bag of chips missing here or there and the window magically appearing to be unlocked, even after he was sure to check it a hundred times. Honestly he didn’t think much of it, he figured it probably just one of the kids playing a dumb prank and if it was, hey who was he to be upset by it. Hell after the year these kids have had they deserve some fun. So it continued like that for a few weeks, small things like snacks and loose change disappearing from his apartment. He really wasn’t sure what to make of it at this point, surely if it was one of the kids someone would have let it slip by now. Oh well, he was glad the team was bonding even if it was at his expense.

After about a month and a half had gone by he was pretty sure it wasn’t a prank. More than once now he had come home to a freshly used shower or a warm couch or both. Once again he didn’t really mind, but he was certainly curious. There were really only a few options as to who his mystery squatter could be, the list was as follows; Artemis: the grieving sort of widow trying to make her way in the world, Conner: his newly homeless friend with anger issues, Arsenal: his equally homeless and most spiteful acquaintance, and finally Nightwing: the man who had dropped off the face of the Earth in the midst of his grief over his childhood best friend. With his new list of suspects in mind he decided to more carefully analyse the actions of the enigma in order to determine their true identity.

Within about a week or so he had already crossed off half the list, it wasn’t Arsenal, he had been brought into league custody weeks ago after wreaking havoc on Lexcorp for the billionth time, and it wasn’t Artemis because she had apparently been visiting family in Vietnam with her mom since before the frequent break ins had begun. At some point he had just started leaving the window unlocked and the enigmas target snacks out on the counter before he left for work every day, he really wasn’t sure if he was more happy or confused when he started coming home to a cleaner apartment and post-it notes with various reminders and messages littered around the place.

A few weeks later he was finally able to definitively discern the identity of his pseudo roommate. He had eventually just grown the balls to ask Conner about it, the poor guy seemed genuinely bewildered, and had even offered to watch over the apartment to catch the thief for him, after plenty of reassurances he was able to soothe Conner’s inner guard dog, even then he still insisted that he take wolf home with him to keep him safe. So now he knew that it was definitely Nightwing visiting his apartment when he was away, which perplexed him more the more he thought about it, wasn’t batman stupid rich? Oh well, at least now he knew who he was dealing with, he could start to actually be more proactive. Instead of just leaving out snacks when he left for the watchtower, he began leaving out books that he thought Dick might like, as well as updates on the team and occasionally show recommendations accompanied with the password to his Netflix account (he notices a new profile on his account called big blue and smiles to himself a little bit).

The arrangement continues on for months, Mal leaving out snacks and entertainment and Dick leaving little notes and gifts for him to find, it soon becomes a familiar routine and after a while both of them get a little more comfortable with their predicament. Mal starts leaving self-care reminders and lush products with his regular stuff and in return Dick writes him little shopping lists and homemade meal recipes for him to try (he has no idea how Dick discovered his love of cooking, but he could deal). Eventually he just bites the bullet and leaves a spare apartment key behind. The next day he finds a cute little Nightwing keychain in its place and his heart swells just a little bit.

With the establishment of this new routine Mal finds himself oddly calmer than he’s been in a while, he’s no longer worried about the mystery guest in his apartment which means he can finally relax back into his life with some semblance of normalcy and structure. Since his inevitable breakup with Karen he’s had trouble with finding a balance, but with Dick around it’s … easier. Just easier. And god he knows it’s bizarre, he really does, but he can’t help but find it comforting to know that someone is looking out for him. He wished it could have stayed that way, but a certain self-sacrificing idiot vigilante had to go and throw himself into danger and ruin his Zen.

Just when everything seems to be going well for him, everything all of a sudden bursts into flames. He starts worrying after about a week goes by without any visits from Dick. He tracks the news for any signs of Nightwing and attempts to contact all of dicks friends to see if he’s popped up anywhere and nothing. Absolutely nothing. No signs of the idiot anywhere. He frets for a few more days before deciding to take matters into his own hands and go out to look for him, he barely makes it to the door before he hears a thump from somewhere in his flat. He rolls his eyes before sprinting to the source of the noise, and what he finds there is quite a sight to behold; Nightwing: the hero of Bludhaven , first protégé of batman and founding member of young justice, is curled up in a ball on his couch fast asleep (still in uniform, and coated in sweat mind you).

He stands there for a while, locked in a trance just watching the 18 year old sleep, he moves forward cautiously and the closer he gets the more his concern increases. Upon closer inspection it’s clear to see that Dick is shivering. Violently. That sets off a million alarm bells in his head and when the poor guy starts whimpering and moaning he realises that he’s never been this worried about anyone in his life (well that might be a slight exaggeration, but the point still stands). The sound of a sob breaks him out of stupor, if he wasn’t concerned about Dick before he definitely was now. He jumped into action, reaching towards Dick’s forehead only to discover that he was burning up, which explained the whimpering, because he was clearly delirious. He set to work attempting to lower the offending fever, wetting a wash cloth and laying it on his forehead seemed like a decent start.

After about an hour Dick’s fever had gone down significantly, but not nearly enough. The good thing was that Dick seemed to be coming to his senses, hopefully soon he would have a coherent and reasonable (well as reasonable as Dick could be) person who could explain this whole mess to him. Of course, because Dick really had impeccable timing, he chose this exact moment to wake up. This of course did not go very smoothly at all. Instead of waking up like any normal human, Dick woke up and kicked him in the face. He kind of felt bad for the kid: waking up in a strange place not feeling well and with a big man looming over him, but not as bad as he felt for his face right now. After about 15 minutes and a ton of coaxing and reassurances he managed to get the man to calm down enough to get him to come down from where he was perched on top of the fridge.

When Dick finally did come down he was sluggish, and considerably less alert than he had been 20 minutes ago. Mal was still slightly in shock about the events of the last few hours, but what shocked him more as the way the Dick seriously attempted to climb out the window, as if he hadn’t looked like death warmed over less than an hour ago (and to be honest he still did). Mal of course put a stop to this the second it begun, simply grabbing the man around the waist and hauling him back over to the comfy leather sofa (where he was quickly laid back down and covered in all the blankets Mal could find in his apartment) and trying to get information out of him, namely: what the actual fuck he had just witnessed.

The explanation he received was less than satisfactory, and left him with more questions than it had answered. Like how long had Dick been this ill? Why didn’t he come home sooner? And, when did he start considering this both of their homes? Those were all questions that could be answered later though, his primary concern right now was dealing with the heavily infected bullet wound on Dick’s shoulder. He was definitely not equipped to deal with this alone though, so he called in a “dealing with Dick’s bullshit and healing his stupidly advanced wounds TM “expert- The one and only: Tim Drake (he was so lucky that he was authorised to know everyone’s identities).

Tim arrived within about half an hour armed with common sense, disinfectants, and questions in spades. At the sight of Tim, Dick visibly calmed and relinquished himself over to their duel care, allowing them to examine his wounds (plural because the idiot didn’t think the others were significant enough to mention), and help him clean himself up. Pretty soon they had their idiot cleaned up and disinfected (turned out it hadn’t been an infection, it had just been very close to one), and the man was now situated comfortably on the couch sleeping soundly.

With the room finally quiet, aside from the gentle snoring coming from underneath the mound of blankets on the couch, Tim finally let the questions loose. Explaining their weird situation had been somehow easier than he thought, but answering the barrage of questions that Tim had come up with was difficult. After clarifying that ‘no he had no intentions of hurting Tim’ big brother’ and ‘no he wasn’t on Mal’s lease’ and ‘yes of course Dick had the wifi password, he wasn’t a monster Tim!’ and most confusingly ‘no they most absolutely were not together (although he couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t mind if they were), Tim finally thanked him for taking care of Dick, and took his leave, but not before promising to come and check in soon.

With that over and done with he let out the breath he didn’t fully realise he was holding and decided that it was time to turn in for the night. He looked towards the couch where Dick lay looking rather uncomfortable and couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for the man. Maybe it was the fact that it was currently 2am and he had yet to go to bed, or maybe it was the new found protectiveness he harboured for Dick but he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave the poor guy there. So he waltzed over to the couch, looking the picture of Nonchalance (although he was probably in reality being very chalant), and gently scooped Dick up into his arms, blankets and all. This elicited a tiny squeak from Dick accompanied by a very confused look, he carefully explained that they were going to bed, and that there was no way in hell that Dick was sleeping on his couch after today’s events. Apparently this seemed agreeable to Dick (either that or he was too tired to argue), because he promptly snuggled (yes, snuggled) into Mal’s chest. Five minutes later the pair were situated comfortably in bed, and Dick had yet to un-burrow from his chest, so that was where they stayed. In the morning there would be questions and conversations (and there most definitely would not be work) but for now there was sleep, and sleep was good.

END CHAPTER ONE

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hi! i hope you enjoyed! whether or not this actually turns out romantic or not I honestly cannot decide. please comment your thoughts and feelings!

(this might become a series where i explore unseen and unexpected relationships that we don’t see on young justice, so please feel free to recommend characters)

@langst-is-my-unborn-baby first cut baby!

#young justice #nightwing #dc comics #Mal #Dick Grayson #tim drake #fanfic #batfamily #Artemis #Conner Kent #Guardian #wally west #My stuff

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ilovereadingandilovebreathing · 6 years

Text

3 Tiny!Sides and a Virgil

A/N: Get it? Like “Three Men and a Baby,” but reversed? No? I’m old? Okay. Also, should I be updating my multi-chapter stuff instead of writing new stuff? Absolutely, BUT this idea came to me and I loved it SO HERE it is (run-ons for the win).

Summary: Ro, Lo, and Pat are Tiny, and Virgil isn’t, but he can handle this right? Yeah, of course he can. He’s dealt with each of them in this tiny state before, so how hard could it be? Breakfast? No biggy. Lunch? No problem. Hide and seek? Not as easy as you’d think.

Word Count: 2,277

Genre: Fluff with a little sprinkle of angst/hurt/comfort

Characters: Virgil, Roman, Patton, Logan

Warnings: mild panic attack (crying, hair pulling, rambling in fear, dizziness, mention of hyperventilation), being up in a high place/possibility of falling, knife (nothing bad happens), crying, hitting (let me know if I missed any!)

Tags: @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @ssides @pantasticpanini @anxious-but-whatever @celiawhatsherlastname @misc-merde @anxiousoddish @didsomeonesayprince @fandomsofrandom @leesacrakon @tinysidestrashcaptain

Taking on three other tiny sides at once was a task they all secretly hoped they’d never have to endure, but, of course, fate decided that the first time such a horror happened, Virgil was the adult in the room.

After a particularly rough night, he’d trudged down the stairs at 8am, accepting his inability to sleep in favor of food, only to find smaller versions of Roman, Patton, and Logan trying to make their respective breakfasts.

Roman with a knife, Patton climbing onto the counter, and Logan trying to work the stove were terrifying occurrences on their own, but all three at once sent Virgil’s instincts into instant overdrive.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” He called into the kitchen, holding up his hands to signal all motion to come to a stop. Three tiny Sides froze and stared at him for half a second before everything fell apart.

Roman toddled toward the bid Side with knife still in his pudgy grasp, a mischievous glint in his eye as he yelled, “Halt, villain!” in the tiniest voice Virgil had ever heard. Patton, on the other hand, collapsed in the chair he was using to try to get onto the counter, sobbing and crying out for Virgil to hold him. Logan, of course, calmly approached his side; the little one pulled on the bigger Side’s pantleg and mumbled “Help, please,” pointing to the stove.

“Okay okay okay, hold on one second, guys!” He bent down to Roman’s level, holding up his hands in surrender. “I mean no harm, brave knight. Please disarm yourself.”

“A prince never surrenders!” Roman retorted indignantly.

“Roman, give me the knife or no Disney.” The tiny prince gasped and carefully laid the knife on the ground. Virgil sighed with relief. “Thank you.”

Logan crossed into his view, but before he could open his mouth, Virgil reassured him, “Yes, Lo, I know. ‘Help, please.’ I will in a second, okay? Let me help Pat out first.” He awkwardly patted the pouting Logical Side on the head and rose to get the still wailing Patton. “It’s okay, Pat, it’s okay.” Virgil reassured him, tone even as he could get it. “What’s wrong, buddy?”

“I-I-I-In tr-ouble?” Patton asked between sobs.

“No, buddy, no, you’re not in trouble. It’s okay. Just come here and get off the chair, okay?” Virgil reached down and plucked tiny Patton off the chair. Once he was in Virgil’s arms, Patton curled up against the other’s chest and quieted down significantly.

“Okay, now your turn, Lo. I’m assuming you want some breakfast, all of you?” Three little heads nodded in unison, so Virgil set to work making breakfast as quickly has he could with small Patton in his arms, clinging to him like a baby monkey.

Roughly 20 minutes later, a small spread of toast, juice, fruit, and eggs sat before them.

“Thank you, Virgil!” Tiny Patton cheered, now completely calmed down.

“Yes, thank you.” Logan reaffirmed, and Roman merely nodded in agreement as he inhaled his breakfast.

“You’re welcome, guys. Sorry the toast is a little burnt, but it should be okay.”

The other three nodded from their spots at the coffee table. Virgil had been nervous about the prospect of all three of them sitting in normal-sized chairs on the hard kitchen floor, so he’d told them they would try something new and fun and eat in the sitting room on the floor.

After the food was munched and four happy Sides remained, each of the small ones took off the pursue his own interests while Virgil washed up, making them promise not to leave the first floor of the house.

The morning carried on with relatively few issues (those only being Roman’s solo escape attempt to get art supplies from his room and Patton nearly running into the sliding glass door when he saw a pretty bird outside). Lunch was a fairly plain spread of sandwiches and chips, but after the midday meal was when things got interesting.

The three tiny Sides were bored of the downstairs area, begging Virgil to let them go into their rooms, but the bigger Side came up with an idea.

“How about we play hide and seek?”

“YEAH!” Two out of three little ones screamed; Logan sighed, but reluctantly agreed as he put down one of the copies of The Berenstain Bears Virgil had obtained from Patton’s room.

“Virgil, you go first!” Patton declared. “Count to....”

“Twenty!” Roman butted in, dancing in place already.

“Okay, I can go first.” He barely held back a grin, and he made a show of putting his hands over his ears, closing his eyes, and beginning to count. “One...two....three...”

The tiny Sides scattered, hardly trying to hold back their giggles as they went to find their hiding spots.

“Nineteen...Twenty! Ready or not, here I come!” Virgil opened his eyes, and his gaze immediately went to the closet door. “Hmm....” He mused out loud. “I wonder where they could have gone...Maybe...in...the closet!” He cried as he threw the door open, only to find nothing but the closet’s normal contents. “Hmmm...maybe...somewhere in the kitchen...” Virgil tiptoed into the kitchen and stopped; a grin spread across his lips when he heard muffled shuffling from within one of the lower cabinets. “A HA!” He threw open the door with a flourish, revealing a surprised Logan.

“That was fast.” The tiny one commented as he carefully removed himself from among the dry food boxes.

“Not a bad spot, though, Lo. Not at all.” The tiny tot trailed behind Virgil as he searched the foyer and slowly returned to the sitting room.

“Hmmm...I wonder where Patton could be....” The sound of uncontrolled giggles shattered the silence of the room, followed by a light smacking sound.

“Ouch, Roro, why’d you do that?!” Patton whimpered.

“You’re loud!” Roman whispered back furiously. “You can hide with me if you’re quiet!”

“Sorry, Ro...”

“Hey, I thought I said no going upstairs!” Virgil gazed up at the pair perched at on the third step from the top.

“No!” Roman challenged as he wobbled down the steps. “You said stay down stairs. We went up the stairs, but we didn’t go into upstairs.” Roman smiled proudly as he descended the final step. “But that didn’t count because Patton gave us away!”

“Sorry, Ro.” Patton sniffled.

“Roman.” Virgil glared and jerked his head toward Patton.

“It’s okay, Pat...” The prince reluctantly conceded.

“Yay! Let’s play again! By ourselves this time!” Patton recovered quickly.

“Okay, I guess I’ll be ‘it’ again, huh?” Virgil queried.

“Mmmhmm!” The three small ones nodded together and got ready to take off again.

“Okay, ready? One...two...three...” And they were off. This time, when Virgil removed his hands, it was dead silent. No giggles, no shuffling, no noise at all from the tiny tots. “Wow, they got better already.” Virgil thought to himself as he checked all the usual places, finding nothing this time.

He checked every kitchen cabinet, but found nothing. He opened the hall closet, but no Side spilled out. He checked under the couch and coffee table, even behind the TV, but no Sides were to be found. He’d searched the entire downstairs, and now the panic was setting in.

“Roman? Logan? Patton? Okay, guys, game’s over, you win, come out now. Please.”

Silence. Stillness.

“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no ohnoohnoohno ohnoohnoohno.” Virgil sank to the carpet, hands in his hair, and tears daring to pour out at any second. He’d lost them. In the MindScape. All 3 of them. What would this do to Thomas? What would this do to him? Would they vanish? Would they get overtaken by some-

“Virgil?” A meek little voice nearly made him jump out of his skin as it shattered the tense silence building up around him. His head shot up, and there before him stood Tiny Logan, peering at him with wide, curious eyes.

“Oh my god, LOGAN!” Virgil sobbed openly as he threw his arms around the tiny Side and pulled him into a bone-crushing embrace. “Oh my god you’re okay I’m so glad you’re okay don’t ever do that to me again oh my god-”

“V-Virge-”

“Heeeeyy I wanna get in on the group hug, too!” Virgil felt something small and squishy slam into his side, and he looked down through his tears to see tiny Patton grinning up at him and hugging him tightly. “’Ey, Virge?” The bespectacled being queried. “What’s wrong?”

“I...thought I...lost you guys.” Virgil choked out between sobs, his right arm shooting out to pull Patton into the big bear hug.

“Does this mean I win?!” A shrill tone that could only be Roman shrieked from above him, and Virgil nearly screamed when he saw Roman perched on top of the ceiling fan.

“Aww no fair, Roman, you can use your creative powers!” Patton pouted.

“ROMAN HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE?!” Virgil yelped, letting go of the other two to jump up and stretch his arms out beneath the little prince. “Oh my god okay just....carefully slide yourself to that side...oh my god....Roman, Roman right there, Roman right above my arms-”

“WHEEEEEE!” Roman jumped from atop the fan blade and landed giggling in Virgil’s arms, but his laughter was squelched out by Virgil squeezing him tight to his chest and sobbing into the small one’s hair.

“Don’t. You. EVER. Do. That. Again.” Virgil choked out; he felt like he would hyperventilate. He suddenly felt dizzy, and he lowered to the floor as carefully as he could. Roman looked up at him, his eyes wide and actually a little scared as he realized Virgil wasn’t acting right.

“What’s wrong, Virge? It was just hide and seek!”

“Yeah....but you guys...you were gone for so long....and I couldn’t find you....and when I called, you didn’t come!”

“That’s because it’s hide n’ seek, silly! That breaks the rules!” Patton spoke up.

“R-right...” He sighed, running his hands through his hair.

“Virge, you okay?” Roman asked form his lap, eyes wide and watery.

“Y-yeah...I’m...I’m okay...” Virgil pulled himself and the tiny prince up onto the couch; he lay sprawled out on his back with Roman sitting on his stomach, one arm dangling toward the floor. His ears registered a chair squeaking across the kitchen floor, but he was too spent to react. “Whoever that is-”

“It’s Logan.” Patton murmured.

“Logan, be careful.”

“Yeah.” The other one called back.

“I’m sorry we scared you, Virge.” Patton whispered, slowly petting the Anxious Side’s hair with tears welling in his eyes.

“We didn’t mean to! Promise!” Roman chimed in. “Here!” Roman clumsily conjured up a round plushie of Jack Skellington’s head with a distorted smile and two different sized eyes. “This is for you!” He held out the soft gift proudly, and Virgil took it with the best smile he could muster.

“Thanks, Ro. It’s cool.” He murmured, tucking the stuffed toy under his arm and snuggling it for good measure.

“Make way-” Tiny Logan tottered in with an overfull glass of water, walking incredibly slow to avoid spilling any. “Here you go!” He announced proudly when he approached Virgil.

Virgil gave him a grateful nod and sat up; he downed half the glass in a few gulps. “Thanks, Logan.” He breathed, laying back against the sofa, eyes half-lidded as he stared straight ahead. “God, I’m tired.”

“Me, too.” Tiny Patton yawned, rubbing at his eyes with a pudgy fist. He toddled over to the couch and attempted to crawl up, Virgil giving him the final boost under his diapered bottom to get him up there. The tiny, poloed Patton snuggled up to the Anxious Side and sighed contentedly, both of his arms curled securely around one of Virgil’s.

“I am, as well.” Tiny Logan agreed, hoisting himself up to perch on the other side of Virgil.

“Well, I’m not!” Roman declared, jumping a bit in Virgil’s lap. “I wanna play! And run around! A-a-and...” Roman trailed off, pouting his lips and crossing his arms after the unwanted yawn escaped his throat. “I don’t wanna take a nap! I don’t wanna! Don’t wannaaa!”

“You don’t have to, Ro.” Virgil reassured him, ruffling the tiny one’s hair; he got a pout in return. “We can just watch a movie or something, and you can pick! Any one you want!”

Roman considered for a second, and then he lowered himself to the floor and happily skipped over to the movie shelves and pulled out Sleeping Beauty.

“Appropriate.” Virgil chuckled as Roman got the movie started. The little prince catapulted himself up onto the couch and back into his spot on Virgil’s lap.

Not even ten minutes in, Logan and Patton were sound asleep, both snoring softly and snoozing soundly.

About an hour in, Roman’s little head began to bob, making the slowly, jerky descent to his chest. The final time, the motion startled him awake, and he began to cry. Virgil’s heart nearly broke for the sleepy little Side, so he gently rearranged the little one in his lap, murmuring reassurances as Roman settled into a better position. The bigger Side rubbed the small one’s back as he sighed in contentment, snuggling into the bigger Side like he was an over-sized teddy bear; he bit back a snort when Roman popped his thumb in his mouth, reflecting that the little royal trait might not be as secure as he tried to seem.

Virgil made it to the scene where the fairies put everyone to sleep before he, too, fell victim to exhaustion. His head leaned back, Virgil breathed deeply and evenly along with the little ones cuddled up around him, reveling in a well-deserved bout of peace and rest.

Let’s Play!...(Normal Virgil and Tiny!Roman fic)

All of my Sanders Sides fanfics

#Sanders Sides #sanders sides fic #Sanders Sides Fanfic #Thomas Sanders #Thomas sanders fanfic #mine #tsfanfics #tiny!sides

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blakesacnladventure · 6 years

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Blake’s ACNL Adventure Week 1: 7/29-8/6

Hey guys, I decided to do an acnl town blog since I got the game again. I’m a bit long winded but hopefully you’ll enjoy it!

This blog is planned to be updated on a (mostly) weekly basis. Going over accomplishments, characters, and overall shenanigans in New Leaf. Anyway, I am Blake, mayor or Arietis. All of my Animal Crossing towns have a spacey type name, and Alpha Arietis is a star in my zodiac Aries. Bing bang boom, got a town name.

I’m not sure if others do this as well, but when me and my friends play Animal Crossing, we add an extra layer to the ridiculousness and have these little stories for the villagers. Yes, I am aware there is only 8 personality types, and only so much text in the game, but because each character does and says different things at different times and interact with different animals differently, it just makes sense for me to further build on there character...even if it just in my mind. Hell, sometimes there are two snooty characters I have wildly different opinions of because of this mentality. Anyway, I’m saying all of this because this villager character building will be a major role in this adventure. So, let’s meet our cast

Name: Amelia

Species: Eagle

Personality: Snooty

When I saw Amelia in my town, I was so overjoyed...I almost through my 3ds out the car window. Amelia is one of my favorite characters, she’s been in several of my towns, so I know her very well. For a snooty, she isn’t terribly stuck up. In fact, she is very level headed and mature. I’ve never viewed her like a big sister though, more like a that friend that has there shit together. She is really into archeology and fashion...but honestly her fashion is truly the archaic thing. Her taste is just awful, it’s always been. I always have to send her clothes because she walks around looking a fool. That being said, she is truly a lovely woman to have right off the bat.

Name: Tia

Species: Elephant

Personality: Normal

Tia is another I thought was super cute. My only experience with her was through the app, but I knew I really wanted to have her live in my town the minute I saw her. As I’ve gotten to know her...her whole character concept...is very ironic. Let me explain. Tia is very sweet and kind. She is very bookish, preferring to stay inside with a good story and a cup of tea. Ironic enough but...there’s more. Her kind attitude makes people very fond of her, and she is often caught up in conversation with others. Being such a good listener, people end up airing their laundry out to her. She ends up the accidental gossip queen of Arietis. I don’t think she means it intentionally, but loves hearing and telling stories so much she can’t help it. Every time I talk with her she always...spills..some...tea... I swear though she does say some shit.

Name: Peewee

Species: Gorilla

Personality: Cranky

Cranky is my favorite villager type, so I’m glad I got one in town. Peewee is more interesting than I initially expected. Peewee is very mild mannered, and seems more like a jock than anything. Peewee is a hard nut to crack, as he hasn’t really shown any sign of imperfection. He is curtious, fun-loving, and overall good dude. He is like that guy in high school that was captain of the football team, prom kind, got straight A’s and was still the nicest guy you ever met. That being said, I know this boy has some darkness in him, and I am dedicated on finding that out.

Name: Carmen Species: Rabbit Personality: Peppy

Not my favorite. Day one, Carmen claimed me as her bff, made all these plans for us, then asked me to run all of these errands for her. Ok sis, calm down. Her biggest personality trait is claiming how great friends we are when I barely even know her. If she got married tomorrow, I’d probably be the maid of honor and flower girlt. It’s probably some gay best friend thing, but it rubs me the wrong way. She reminds me of a girl I knew in high school, high strung and simply too much

Name: Egbert

Species: Chicken

Personality: Lazy

The last of the OG 5 and... I... don’t really know that much about him. I don’t hate him, but I end up talking to everyone else instead of him. He’s that kid you have several classes with but never talk to. Easily identifiable but...I mean I didn’t even bother getting a screenshot of him.

Name: Frita

Species: Sheep

Personality: Uchi

Leave. Leave right now. I have a bit of a history with this character which I will save for another time. I know her well enough...but I do not like her at all. She is this selfish, rude food-truck owner (that she converted into a house) and conversations with others are purely to satisfy her career. She is demanding and even a bully sometimes...and she NEVER LEAVES.

Name: Pietro

Species: Sheep

Personality: Smug

OK, I thought about restarting my town after Frita moved in. I REALLY did not want her in town, and I was so early in to it. However, every negative has a positive. Pietro is ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES. He is a rainbow clown sheep whose biggest aspiration is to make people happy. He brings the fun, the laughs and the heart wherever he goes. Also, no doubt, he is bisexual. Very romantic, but often gets shut down. He is extremely generous too. If you get to know him, you’ll start to notice he is always so positive to cope with his crippling anxiety. I know that’s a bit deep for animal crossing, but I can’t think of it any other way. However, that complexity makes me like him even more. truly a treat to see him move in.

Name: Lyman

Species: Koala

personality: Jock

This one was a surprise. Lyman is significantly less abrasive than other jock types. In fact, I think sometimes he ends up trying to play cute instead of sporty. To be honest, he is a lowkey flirt. I’m not sure if he has a crush on me or not, but it seems he is always acting real sweet around me. We will have to see as time goes on, but I’m starting to enjoy Lyman.

Name: Sylvia

Species: Kangaroo

Personality: Uchi

I know very little about her. As of writing this she just moved in. I don’t think she is cute per say...but hey you never know.

Those are the villagers at the moment. There are already some inter-character relationships forming which I will share at a later date, but for right now, I do like this bunch of characters.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement since I just started the game. I build a bridge, the campsite, and a few house upgrades but that is about it. I have no house or town theme yet, but do have a few ideas.

The last bit of note this week was the 6/5 fireworks festival which was pretty fun.

Redd really is a con-artist, I got mostly dud tickets, but it was a cute little end to the week. Next week we will check in more with the characters, and see if I can actually have a decent looking house. See Ya!!

#ACNL #animal crossing #animal crossing new leaf #animal crossing blog #animal crossing new leaf welcome amiibo #frita #amelia #new leaf #ac #nintendo #3ds #2018

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peacefulheartfarm · 3 years

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Spring Growth on the Homestead

So much going on with spring births on the homestead. And abandoned lamb was the immediate task to take care of today. A quick trip to town to get supplies and now I’m late getting to this podcast. That’s what it’s all about on the homestead. I have so much to share with you today and most of it is so much fun!!

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the homestead this week. As I said there is a lot of it and all relates to spring births.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

Before getting to that abandoned lamb, let’s start with the garden and the birthing of new plants.

Spring Garden

If you are new to gardening perhaps you are not familiar with the terms spring garden, summer garden, and fall garden. Spring is the time of year to plant crops that thrive in cool weather. Some can thrive in the heat, like maybe potatoes. But most spring garden plants require cool temperatures. Things like lettuce and spinach will simply give up and go to seed if it gets too hot. Other things like root crops will just not grow in the heat. Their growth stalls and there is nothing to do for it but try again in the fall when the weather cools off again.

This spring we are planting two kinds of peas, snap peas and shelling peas. Shelling peas are those green peas that you buy frozen or canned. Snap peas are best for salads and such. They are eaten pod and all, though they can be shelled as well. But the pods are sweet and crisp.

I’m not going to plant potatoes this spring although Scott did dig up the potatoes that we had left in the ground over the winter. They were just starting to sprout and grow again. Really, we should have had them out of the ground a week or so ago before they sprouted. Fortunately, there are not tons of them. We will be able to eat them before they get soft. In the normal course of planting, I would have planted some of them for a new crop. I have enough potatoes and will forgo them this spring. Perhaps in the fall.

I have yellow, red and white onion sets to plant. Onions make bulbs according to the amount of light they need. There are short season, mid-season and long season varieties. Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other northern states can grow those long season varieties. During the height of summer, the hours of daylight are significantly higher than we get in Southern Virginia. And farther south from us, only the short season varieties will grow. The farther south you get, the more equal the day and night hours become. While far in the northern States like Alaska, they have sunlight nearly 24 hours at the height of summer. Of course, it is dark for nearly 24 hours in the winter also.

Strange place, Alaska. I was there twice. Once near the spring equinox and the days and nights were fairly equal. But the second time I was there in July, just past the summer solstice. The sun was still up at midnight. It dipped below the horizon for about 3 hours and then daylight began to show once again. It happened in Germany also. I was there in August and it was daylight past 11:00 pm and the sun was back up long before I got up in the morning.

So that’s the story of onions. The rest of the garden will get planted in May. That will be the green beans, herbs and crowder peas.

The 500 strawberry roots are all planted and looking great. Leaves are visible on almost all of them. The beds look fantastic. Scott did a great job there. That bank of strawberries will also have four sections of culinary herbs. I already have a good stand of thyme and oregano. Inside I have started more rosemary as it didn’t do so well last year and I just let it go over the winter. It can survive the winter but needs protection. It did so poorly that I just decided to start over this year. And just today I got some garden sage seeds to fill in that fourth section in between the strawberries.

The blueberries and blackberries are leafing out. The blueberries will bloom soon and we will have berries around the first or second week of June. The blackberries will be ready in mid-July.

On to the cows.

Cows and Calves

Last time I talked with you, we had one calf. Now we have three. Rosie, our new Jersey heifer gave birth to Princess. Then Cloud gave birth to Winston. And finally, Claire gave to birth to a, yet unnamed, bull calf. No one has had any trouble so far, knock on wood. Butter and Violet have a bit of time to go before giving birth, Late May and early June respectively.

Now to the fun part of the cow story. Rosie, though she is her first calf, was giving about 2 ½ gallons of milk per day. We were estimating in the beginning because Princess was getting her share so we guessed about how much she was drinking. We were getting about a gallon and a half in the beginning and guessed Princess was getting about a gallon a day. Well, it didn’t take long and we were getting a gallon a day – and then a few days later, a half-gallon or even less. Princess was getting it all.

At this point, we would normally separate momma and baby and control the amount of milk baby is getting. Calves need about a gallon or so of milk to grow strongly. Certainly not two gallons. But they will drink everything they can if you let them. Take a beef cow for instance. Those calves are never going to get more than a gallon or so a day because that is all momma is going to make. But the dairy cows make lots and lots of milk and the calves simply don’t need that much. So what were we to do.

We came up with a very good plan. During this time when the milk volume we were getting was diminishing rapidly, Cloud had given birth. We cannot milk Cloud anymore. About mid-season last year, something spooked her and she began kicking the milking inflations off. Then she began kicking more and Scott got quite a few bruises and even a really badly sprained thumb from her kicks. We had to stop milking her. We thought we might try again this year if she perhaps had calmed down a bit. No luck there. We had her walking into the stanchion before she even gave birth, just getting her used to coming in and getting a little treat. They all get this training. It makes it easy to work with them for just about any vet treatment. Anyway, she got startled again by something and started kicking and we weren’t even trying to touch her udders. That answered that question. Cloud would not be milked this year either.

This is also a dilemma on a homestead. Every animal needs to have a purpose. Her purpose was to have a calf every year and to be milked. Now half of her purpose was eliminated. That means she has become more of a cost than a benefit. And even though we love all of our milk cows, we simply cannot afford to have any of them as pets. They must cover their own expenses at the very least. And of course, we really need them to provide some income. Otherwise, we are using our precious time to maintain a cow that is not giving much in return.

This year, she got a reprieve. We figured out how she could pull her own weight. She could become a nurse cow. Separating a calf from mom is normally a loud experience for three days. However, we separated Princess from Rosie and began grafting her onto Cloud. Princess was happy with the arrangement. Rosie was not. She still moos at Princess all the time. Princess ignores her and has since the second day.

A cow will sometimes easily take on another calf. In fact, we have had issues in the past with calves nursing on any cow in the area. Our Normande cows are pretty willing to let anyone nurse. Cloud was not quite so willing as Claire and Buttercup, but we were confident she would eventually accept Princess as her own.

We put Princess in with Cloud and Winston. And we had them separate from the rest of the crew for the exact reason I just described. We didn’t want Winston browsing around and finding milk beyond Cloud. Anyway, each day we bring all three up to the milking shed. Cloud goes in the stanchion and her head is locked in. She can still see who is back there nursing and the first day, she kicked Princess off repeatedly. Princess is quite resourceful and persistent. She was hungry after all. It didn’t take long for her to figure out how to position herself so that Cloud could not reach her with her kicking. She would get almost right up underneath Cloud with her butt close up next to Cloud’s front legs and her body nearly underneath Cloud’s belly. Cloud is locked in the stanchion and can’t walk away. The first two days, Princess was voracious in nursing. We were relieved and confident that she would be fine. She was filling her belly at least once a day. The third day or fourth day, Princess did not persistently try to nurse. In fact, she was rather disinterested in nursing at all. That told us that she was getting at least some nursing in earlier in the day.

As of yesterday, I did not see Cloud even push her away. At all. Princess was getting some milk with persistence in previous days. Now she is nursing whenever she wants. It’s a done deal. Cloud now has two calves. And we now have that full two and a half gallons of milk.

A yesterday and today’s bonus is that Rosie all of a sudden started producing even more milk. We believe it is the warmer weather. She now gives us over three gallons every day. That is fantastic for a first year Jersey cow of her size. Remember, she is still quite small in stature.

I can’t wait to see how Butter does this year. We are expecting in excess of five gallons a day from her as she is now a seasoned Jersey cow. Butter is as tall as any of the Normandes. She looked like a mini cow when we first got her, but she is definitely full grown now.

That’s it for the cow stories. Now on to the quail.

Quail Babies

Just a brief tale here. We had 68 eggs in the incubator. There were 40 of those eggs that hatched. We lost three babies in the first day or so and now have 37 quail babies in the brooder. They are about 10 days old now and have nearly all of their feathers. In about 8 days, they will be fully feathered and strong enough to go out on their own.

We will do our semi-annual deep cleaning of all of the quail cages just before we turn them out into the grow out cages. The breeder cages also get a deep cleaning during this time. We will sterilize and treat the cages for mites. They will all get fresh new sand in which to take baths and the automatic watering system will be started up again. The automatic waterers don’t work well in winter as the lines and water cups freeze over. Instead, I take fresh water out to the birds every day from late fall to late spring.

So, the cycle of birds is in motion. I’ll keep you updated on each new batch of cute quail chicks.

Sheep and Lambs

The biggest spring birth story is the lambs. It would have been nice to have a 100% success rate like we achieved last year, but alas, we knew it was not likely. Lambs are delicate animals in the beginning.

The first ewe’s lamb was born without a hitch. He is strong and healthy. The second ewe, not so much. She had a big beautiful boy and a very, very tiny girl. The girl was born an hour or so later and we suspect that she was in the birth canal too long and was oxygen deprived. She passed within a couple of hours. She was never able to get up.

We only have four ewes giving birth this year and I thought perhaps that would be the only issue. Unfortunately, that was not the case. This story has a better ending. I had to rush into town to get colostrum for an abandoned lamb. In all of our 11 years of raising sheep and lambs, this was the first abandoned lamb that we had. Well, Lambert was close to being abandoned. That was two years ago. He was small and one of three. The other two were getting all the milk and we ended up bottle feeding him.

Today’s spring birth of lambs was, again, twins. But the ewe never touched the second lamb. Right after milking this morning I went out to check on the ewe because I could tell she had given birth. I had looked out the window and I could see the one up and running around. He was already dry. But she was laying down and straining again, so I thought another was on the way. And perhaps she was having an issue as the other was already standing up quite strongly and dried off. I feared a repeat of the previous situation where the lamb was damaged in the long birthing process. Nope, not this time. When I got out there the lamb was born and was actually standing up. She was significantly smaller than her brother, but still quite strong. She was as wet as she could be and still standing strong. I could tell that mom had not licked her at all. Who knows why it happens? But it does happen. Mom just rejects one of the lambs, usually the second or third one. As I said, we have had lots of issues with lambing but this was first time we had experienced the complete abandoning of a lamb. I tried rubbing the birthing fluid that was still on the new one onto the older one. Perhaps I could fool mom into accepting both as hers. No luck. She simply ignored the other lamb.

What to do? What to do? We quickly put all three in a smaller enclosure. We tied up mom and put baby girl underneath her and showed her where to nurse. While this little girl was strong, she seemed to have no clue as to how to nurse. Finding the correct location was no issue, but latching on was not going well. We fiddled with her for about an hour before giving up and deciding that we were just not going to be able to get her to nurse. And even if we did, mom was going to push her away, or walk away and leave her behind. She had already done that. When I first arrived, she took her boy and moved away from me. I brought the girl up to the boy and laid them together. Mom approached as a I walked away. She sniffed and licked the boy and completely ignored the girl. Then she walked away again with her boy in tow, abandoning the girl.

So, what happens when a lamb is abandoned? Well, we have to get colostrum into her within 24 hours. If you ladies out there have children you know what I mean when I say colostrum. Or if you have your own homestead you will know what I’m talking about here. For those of you still considering and learning, colostrum, not milk, is created for about three days or so. In sheep it contains lots of protein and a higher amount of fat than other species. The fat is important for lambs. The other really, really important part of colostrum is it contains the antibodies for common ruminant diseases. Lambs, kids, and calves can survive without it, but their chances of getting sick and dying due to lack of the antibodies to fight the infection is very, very high. All newly birthed ruminant animals need that colostrum for survival. On top of that, the ability to absorb the antibodies declines quickly after 24 hours. Therefore, it is imperative that the newborns get that colostrum immediately.

Once we made the decision to bottle feed the new lamb, we now needed the supplies. We have never really kept lamb colostrum on hand since we reduced our flock to a half dozen ewes. We picked the best moms and we’ve never had an abandoned lamb, as I said. I was aware that this stuff can be hard to come by for lambs. All kinds of calf colostrum which will do in a pinch. But the lambs really need the extra fat. That means I had to get on the phone and find some ASAP. The closest Tractor Supply that had some was an hour away. No problem, put everything else on hold, get in the car and make the trip.

I got back with the goods, fixed up a bottle for her and she drank it down in a couple of minutes. She is a really strong lamb and I think she will do fine. The other thing I needed to find was lamb milk replacer. Again, this formula needs to be made for lambs. The fat content of ewe’s milk is very high compared to cows or even goats. Fortunately, the Tractor Supply store that had the colostrum also had the lamb milk replacer. Phew. I got it all done. I feel pretty good about this little girl’s chances of survival. It was as flurry of activity, but that’s pretty normal for homestead life in the spring.

There is one more ewe still to give birth. Praying all goes well for her.

Final Thoughts

That’s about all I have time for in this podcast. It’s time to go bring up Cloud and make sure once again that Princess is being fed properly and we need to give Cloud some calorie treats daily as she needs to supply milk for two calves. I’ll feed and water the baby quail and get another bottle of colostrum ready for the ewe lamb. She will get fed at least three times a day for a few days. Then it will drop to twice a day for at least two months.

It’s all in a days work on the homestead.

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Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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