"I need them to die in eachothers arms and for it to mean something" then proceeded to make a terrible. horrible punch to the gut

The Daily Dad — Feb 11, 2024

Things you might want to know:

Is There Lead in Your Reusable Water Bottle? 💭 I feel like “drank hourly from a lead-tainted tumbler” is going to be the origin story for the world’s worst super-villain. UltraKaren or some shit. She’ll have the power to sigh loudly in line at the coffee shop and then shamelessly take five minutes to negotiate the preparation of her own venti latte.

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps ❝ New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work.

Should you flush with toilet lid up or down? Study says it doesn’t matter 💭 A parallel study concludes that pointless clickbait is a waste of everyone’s time.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’ ❝ WIRED spoke with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber about the X competitor opening signups to all, how to crowdsource deepfake porn moderation, Jack Dorsey, and more.

Wil Wheaton Rages at Larry David for Elmo Attack: “Appalling, Unforgivable, Despicable” 💭 Oh for fuck’s sake, Mr. Wheaton. I loved Stand By Me. I skipped the first couple seasons of TNG so I have no anti-Wesley bias, and bear you no ill-Wil. But c’mon, dude… it’s a fucking muppet. My dad hated and screamed at me, too… but we’re adults now. Intentionally triggering yourself with stupid, entirely optional shit and then publicly freaking out about it is infantile. And as for the sanctity of beloved Elmo…? Have you considered how many dicks Elmo has jerked off after-hours in a locked bathroom on the set? Elmo has probably done The Artistocrats for private audiences. Elmo goes to work every day with a man’s hand up his ass. Settle down, bud.

Merlin is a brilliant pig who communicates through "speech buttons," and loves to dance and eat ice cubes ❝ Pigs are so very smart, and this one named Merlin is no exception. In this terrific video, Merlin, who lives in West Sacramento with his human, Mina Alali, demonstrates how he communicates through pushing…

Ars Technica used in malware campaign with never-before-seen obfuscation ❝ Vimeo also used by legitimate user who posted booby-trapped content.

Polyamory Has Entered the Chat ❝ Mainstream awareness of polyamorous relationships is becoming more widespread. On dating apps, making connections is about more than sex.

TikTok is full of tryhard slang 💭 When people with sex blogs do it, they’re called “neolojisms”.

Bluesky Social Network Ditches Invite Codes, Opens Registrations to All ❝ Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has now opened registration for everyone. On...

Plex Launches Movie Rental Store ❝ Media platform Plex today announced the launch of a dedicated movie rental store, allowing U.S. Plex users to purchase content directly from Plex...

feeeed: Embracing Feed Diversity and Personal News Curation 💭 I don’t think it’s for me, but feeeed is interesting… it’s essentially a news and social media bucket for your life, collecting everything from dozens of sources and presenting them via an algorithm tuned for the end-user and not advertisers.

Apple Updates Its Collection of Windows Apps ❝ Today, Apple introduced a redesigned version of its iCloud for Windows app. The updated app, which allows users to access photos, files, passwords, and other content on a Windows PC, has clarified how it works and where synced content can be found. The app also adds physical password keys and other refinements. I don’t spend

Why Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About Palworld ❝ Palworld is the first video game blockbuster of 2024—but it’s not what it seems.

Landline Phone Owners Are Protesting AT&T’s Plans to Drop Service ❝ In California, AT&T is designated as the Carrier of Last Resort. The fight is on to keep it that way.

Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic to create ‘persistent universe’ tied to Fortnite 💭 When Epic rebooted a flailing Fortnite —ripping off PUBG in the process— I decided to give it a try… it’s such a mishmash of mechanics, I figured there had to be something in there for me to enjoy. I was wrong. Bleh.

The Best Vibrators to Get Your Groove on ❝ Gender? I don’t even know her! No matter what you’ve got, these tools promise good vibes for all.

Apple Vision Pro Users Are Mad They Can't Watch 3D Porn ❝ Sorry, horny weirdos. You’ll have to find another way to get off.

A Designer Dog-Maker Regrets His Creation ❝ The inventor of the Labradoodle believes he created a Frankenstein.

Deepfake scammer walks off with $25 million in first-of-its-kind AI heist ❝ Hong Kong firm reportedly tricked by simulation of multiple people in video chat.

Carl Weathers, Rocky, Predator and The Mandalorian star, dies aged 76 ❝ Actor played Apollo Creed in the Rocky film franchise

Microsoft may bring Bethesda’s Starfield and Indiana Jones games to the PS5 after all 💭 After the massive, long-term strategy leak last year, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is ready to just throw up its collective hands, pull a Sega, and exit the hardware business entirely.

Apple made an AI image tool that lets you make edits by describing them ❝ The model, called MGIE, lets users type out their edits to photos. MGIE is open source and available for download on GitHub.

Raw Bone

Short story  Post-apocalyptic  Triggers / Warnings - Not nice people doing not nice things. Violence. Harsh language.  General post-apocalyptic-ness.   Summary:  After a series of unspecified apocalyptic events, a pair of former members of a billionaire’s security detail share conversation and a meal around a fire.  Enter a world where small towns are built out of former suburban American stores, where tough people name their dogs out of 1980s cartoon villains and where people who probably should regret their life-choices are saved by clever acts of defiance.   _________________________   Raw Bone    Game meat was getting scarce to find, but Mickey and Dan had enough to share between them.  They’d chuck the bone they were scraping with their big combat-knives over to Tor when they’d gotten enough flesh off of it. The dog already had an abundance of bones to gnaw on.  Alex should be back with Meg shortly.  If his latest hacking attempt had worked, they’d get more than some nasty, stringy meat from a hastily-slaughtered elderly animal.  If they all were really lucky, the liver that they’d cut up and used as bait for traps would net them some tastier game.   All in all, it was a lot of work for little return, but folks had to make do when the land had been blighted and feeding themselves became difficult.  The kill had given the pair at the fire great satisfaction.   “Suppose he’ll crack it soon?” Mickey asked before she brought a skewer of campfire-roasted meat to her mouth and tore off a tough chunk.  She arranged a few raw bits onto another bit of metal as she chewed.  She coughed.  A trash fire wasn’t optimal for flavor or health, but it was better than nothing.  She wasn’t about to eat this any other way than well-cooked.   “Any day now, maybe any hour,” Dan muttered. “Either that or the blow-torch has got to work, provided we can find enough fuel.” “I suppose we ‘knew what we signed on for,” Mickey groused as she set up the fresh, drippy skewer by the flames.   Dan took the femur they’d been stripping, now just a raw bone and stood up gripping it in one meaty hand.   “Tor!” he called out into the open, “Pah-wheep!” he whistled.  “Skeletor! Come here!” A large German Shepherd with fur that was grizzled at the outer edges loped up from inspecting the dry weeds that had overgrown the broken parking lot.  Camping on a median – that was what their little group had been reduced to.  They could go inside the Tower for shade, but carpeted hallways were poor grounds for a fire.  And who knew?  One of the old cars might just have enough gas to run for a few miles if they could get the battery working.  They hadn’t checked them all.   Dan tossed the bone to the ground and Tor’s teeth fell upon it gratefully.  If the little group was lucky, perhaps he and Meg could breed some pups at some point, something that Mickey, Dan, Alex and the others they were with could either train up for protection and hunting, trade for the same or have as food when it came down to it.  Neither Dan nor Mickey wanted to think of their dogs as livestock, so the last option was only a final resort. “Tor” was short for “Skeletor.”  “Meg” was a bitch, not fitting her masculine full name, which was “Megatron.”  It had become a joke in their unit to name all of their dogs after villains from 1980s cartoons.  There were, and had been more.  Poor Texhex had gotten shot by a scavenger.  Starscream had run off to God knows where.  Hordak was keeping their sniper, Benny, company guarding the Tower. Dr. Claw was out with Sarah and Rodger hunting for squirrels.   Mickey had taught Dan how to crack roasted squirrel-skulls for the brains – a ‘hillbilly delicacy’ as she had put it, something she’d learned from her parents where she’d grown up and had been doing since she learned to hunt and cook as a kid in a place that used to have many trees.  Dan had taught her how to shelter down during a dust storm – a frequent feature of the place he’d grown up in even before their former boss and others like him had wrecked the world, hoarding wealth by selling resources, lives, bodies and minds to one another.  The man and the woman looked out on the horizon and a cloud of brown.  It was in the distance and appeared to be moving away from them, but they knew that the wind could turn in a second.  Most likely, they would have time to finish eating and to smoke some meat and so they decided not to take shelter yet.   “Could always go to Giant,” Dan mumbled between cramming bites between his jagged teeth.  “Actual settlements are better than this.  Hopin’ for a storage and hydroponics farm put up behind walls to be cracked open when the food will probably just rot before we get to it? It’s takin’ too goddamed long!” “We can’t go to Giant,” Mickey said with a stern glare at him, “because the last time we met those people we were shooting at them!”  She plunged a stake of meat down by the fire hard.  “We were on orders to fire into the crowd!  There were children there!” “Teenagers,” Dan huffed, “hardly little children.  Teenagers scare the shit outta me.” “We can’t go to Giant.  I’m sure they’ll recognize our faces… the guards, someone will.” The two were speaking of a small town just up the road, walled in cinderblock all around.  It was centered on a former grocery store, actually.  People had turned it into a settlement, living within the store and in old housing and other vacant stores around it.  It was quite genius.  While the apocalypse was a slow-burn, when every institution was in its final collapse, the local survivors had banded together.  Instead of simply raiding the store, they chose to make use of it – rationing out its goods and actually planting some of the fertile produce.  Now, many of the goods found in a store during the late-stage capitalism of the twenty-first century were not, in fact, fertile, even if one thought they should be. Seedless watermelons, corn bred to produce a single crop and otherwise be sterile - but many goods escaped this fate. Some plants could not be engineered or husbanded for consumer or corporate preferences completely away from nature.  The budding town had been saved by gardening hobbyists who knew how to grow things from cuttings and to tease out seeds.   Another successful town nearby, a trading partner and a potential merger in the near future was Hompot.  It had been built around and within an old construction materials and hardware store.  Mickey and Dan were not likely welcome there, either.   Mickey took a stick of roasted meat off the fire and tore into it.  It was tough, stringy and flavored by the smoke of scrap-wood and old cardboard. She winced and gulped down what she could not properly chew.  “What I’d give for a fresh tomato,” she sighed.   “The numbers don’t favor us on a raid right now,” Dan said. “They’ve got themselves armed up good, too.  Beggin’s our only option if we approach the towns and hopin’ they don’t recognize us.” “As I said, I don’t think we’re forgiven for following the boss’s orders.” “It was months ago, maybe a year?  That last push they made had to have been at least that long.”   “People don’t change their minds that quick, even with a good story – when folk were hurt and dead.  Hold tight.  Alex should have the vault cracked soon.”   “Glad we got the collars off, at least.” Mickey rubbed the back of her neck.  It was not long ago that their former boss had an almost total control over them.  The group of former mercenaries that gathered in and around the Tower was free now, and procuring their liberty had been surprisingly easy.   The boss had been incredibly wealthy – one of the richest men on the planet, although his name was not a household word. He was able to secure his privacy. He had inherited his fortune from his father and had grown the business, all while perpetuating the myth that he was a “self-made man” as all such wealthy bratlings do.  His work had been involved in the buying and selling of profitable poisons, which had been the key cause of making the world what it was today.  Most of what the man knew was how to hire people to do things.  In everything other than marketing, he had been dreadfully uncreative, himself.   The team of mercenaries, when hired, came into the boss’s employ for a variety of reasons.  Mostly, it was good pay and lodging – the kind of pay where one could have anything one wanted – the best of meals, the best of booze, the best of sex, and to indulge in more generalized hobbies – Benny with his cars, Mickey with her hunting trips, Sarah with her interest in keeping and breeding horses – a hobby less tenable now since they had to become food after the Series of Events. Very few of them had families, but those who did could care for them in comfort.  It was a good deal.  Dan enjoyed the access to high-powered weaponry – a hobby of his, entertainment on the target-range as well as the opportunity for violence if the need arose.  He also liked having a home with a swimming pool and a private theater.  The boss had paid them well when things were relatively peaceful.   The “loyalty insurance” was a necessary part of their contracts.  It had been two-fold.  The boss had tight control of the pay-schedule, which, at first, was money, and then was food when imaginary numbers started losing their value.  The other part of it was thin collars affixed around the necks of each member of the security detail – even around the dogs. There was an apparatus within each collar that could deploy tiny needles releasing a powerful neurotoxin stored within a chamber – a very small amount, but enough to stop a 300 lb man in his tracks, a near-instantaneous death.  The boss held the codes to each collar.   Too bad for him that he didn’t actually know how the technology worked, having relied upon supposedly loyal engineers – from a firm that had designed these things for multiple billionaires.  Dan and Mickey did not know if there had been a legitimate flaw in their design, something that the designers did not know about, or if it had been put there on purpose.  Mickey, for her part, believed that the engineers of the devices, when confronted with the ghastly prospect, were likely overworked and underpaid enough to just say “fuck it” and to give their fellow minions a simple out.   Alex and Sarah had figured out that if one wedged a penny beneath a component of the collar, the injection-mechanism shorted out and was completely disabled.   “Ah, yeah, those things,” Mickey reminisced. “It was like those shopping carts at grocery stores that you’d take from the caddy with a quarter!”   “Alex said that a quarter wouldn’t work, needed the copper.”   “Still as easy as taking a cart from a chain! I honestly couldn’t believe it was THAT dumb.”   “Boss never checked, wouldn’t have known how!” They both laughed.   Of course, they’d worn their collars as a “fashion statement” when shit had really hit the fan and they were demanding their rations for the final time.  The mercs didn’t exactly “choose their own leader” – not specifically. Each of them led in different expertise, wherever they’d had specific talent and experiences.  This is why some of them were great at hunting, Dan was good at defense and heavy guns, and their “nerds” were at work cracking things that their boss managed to not flub up in terms of keeping locked and keeping secret codes for only in his head.   Not that anything was in his head anymore. The man had been pretty surprised when his small army of hungry, angry security detail had apparently grown tired of picking off the masses who’d just been trying to survive by getting into his stuff were demanding said stuff themselves and had gotten into the penthouse. Dan had a huge grin on his face. “Remember how hard he was pressing that collar trigger of his for my set and how low his jaw hung when it didn’t work?” “Alex was downright SMARMY when he explained the design-flaw!”   “He was right when he said ‘But you don’t have the garden-vault codes!’  Thought the idiot would have them right on his desktop, but no…” “I guess you have to have some smarts to become a near-trillionaire, even if you trust too many people to just do things for money too much.”   “I feel like an idiot.  Can’t get codes from splattered brains.  I was too quick on the trigger.  Should have held him, drawn it out of him.”   “Meh,” Mickey assured him, “He serves.”   She bit into her meat-skewer.   “That he does,” Dan agreed, “Though I wish he hadn’t been so old, or exercised as much.  Damn meat’s stringy!”   A scrawny blond figure came running out of the tower and over to the broken parking lot and its median to the two figures by the fire. He was followed by a white dog – the same breed as Tor, though not the same color.  “Guys! I got it!” Dan and Mickey looked up at him. “No foolin’?”  Dan asked.   “No foolin’!  Tons of stuff ready to harvest!  You wouldn’t believe what’s in there!  There are even some pigs and a sheep-pen in there!  Robotic rationing system for their feed so they’re all still alive and plump! The pigs haven’t even started eating each other yet!”   “Tomatoes?”  Mickey asked hopefully.   Alex fisted his hands and put them on his hips and stood up tall with a smug, happy look on his face.  “Tomatoes,” he said, “And lots of them.” He sniffed the smoky air.  “You can probably stop eating the rich now.”   Mickey dramatically finished the skewer in her hand, tearing the last chunk of rough-cooked meat off with a tug.  “Nah, I like the feeling of it.”   Tor happily chewed on the red raw leg-bone behind them.  

Stray Kids + Water Gun Fight | Masterlist |

wc: ~750 genre: Headcanon warnings: None

Bang Chan

Fills up everyone's water guns at the start

Makes sure everyone has the water gun they want

Takes the smallest/most useless one so the kids can have the good ones

Hiding in the most obvious spot ever and giggling

Out first because dad is bad at games

Cheering everyone from the sidelines and refilling water guns

Scolding Minho for throwing rocks

Laughing, clapping, yelling, taking videos

Just enjoying the kids playing like a proud dad

Rats out Hyunjin's hiding spot

Lee Minho

Has to win at all costs, failure is not an option

Yelling various threats at all times

First one to chase Hyunjin out of hiding

Using physical violence to win

Attempts to cheat by using two water guns

Gets scolded for throwing rocks, sticks, water bottles, etc

Dodging the water somehow?? Like wow the skills on this man

Smirking! Lots of smirking and taunting

Makes it to the end on pure determination alone

Bragging on Bubble at the end of the day

Seo Changbin

Yelling! Literally the loudest person, yelling over Minho constantly

Wastes all the water in his gun because he's shooting it in the air just to meme

Gets out because there's no water in his gun when Minho finds him

LOUDLY whines about it

Continues yelling from the sidelines

Rats out every one of Minho's hiding spots to get revenge

Keeps trying to sneak back into the game

Eating all the snacks while everyone else is busy playing

Randomly yelling in English to make Chan giggle

Hwang Hyunjin

Somehow breaks his water gun right off the bat

Can't figure out how to use any of the other ones Chan gives him

Screaming, whining, drama llama antics

Hiding the entire time because he still hasn't figured out how to work his gun yet

Running as fast as he can away from Minho when he gets found

Tries throwing his water gun as a last resort while screaming

Pouts because Changbin ate all the snacks

Enjoys watching the game more than playing it

Taking selfies on the sidelines

Han Jisung

Telling everyone he's going to win because he's the best

Slips and falls so much that Chan lost count

Somehow lost a shoe while running??? But just one shoe, continues anyways

Low key kinda good at this

Slips and crashes straight into Minho, apologizes like his life depends on it (because it does)

Gets out because he took his eyes off Felix for a split second

Actual professional sports commentator on the sidelines

Still has not figured out where his shoe went

Loudly singing at all times, never stops vocalizing in some way

Lee Felix

More determined than Minho

Gamer mode: activated

Hunting everyone down like it's the Hunger Games or something

Laughing constantly from start to finish

Let's just take a moment to think about his freckles in the sunlight............. okay let's continue

Strategizing at a military level like the man has battle royale down to a science

Taps out everyone except for Changbin and Hyunjin

Jumping over and off of things like it's the Olympics (how does he have this kind of energy and where can I get some?)

Fortnite dances when he gets someone

Winner winner chicken dinner

Kim Seungmin

Forms an alliance with Jeongin at the start

Finding the best hiding spots

Super quiet, sneaking around everywhere

Nobody sees him until halfway through the game because he's hiding so well

Collecting extra water guns and hiding them in strategic spots just in case

Tripped Jisung at least once

Almost got Minho out but somehow it was dodged?? Claims cheating

Tapped out because his alliance was betrayed

Yang Jeongin

Feigns an alliance with Seungmin for protection, plans to betray him anyways

Rats Minho out for throwing things because Chan doesn't let anyone mess with Baby Bread

Gets everyone to feed him snacks through out the game because everyone is whipped for the maknae and he takes full advantage of it

Is allowed to have two water guns because nobody can say no to the baby, Minho complains loudly and dramatically about it

Taunting his hyungs in the most disrespectful manner possible like wow what a savage

Tiny fox laughter, smiling the whole time

Unsure how he got to the top 3 but doesn't want to be here (Gamer Felix is a lil terrifying)

Betrays Seungmin's hiding spot to Felix in exchange for not getting sprayed

Gets tapped out by Minho anyways (that's what you get for betraying the alliance)

general tag: @abiaswreck @nymeriaaa @lex-thesimpzzz @kp0p10v3r2 @wooyoungsbae @changsbin @hjsraccoon @hwxnghyunjin

sfw general tag: @yungisstar1117 @kun-flower @hwarora @queenmedi

skz sfw only: @daydreaming-my-life-away

Please fill out this form to be added to any of my tag lists.

[emerges from the dirt] hey gamers here’s part 2 of reverse au [recedes  back into the dirt]

[ao3 link] [ch 1]

Were it possible, he would say he had gone unconscious for an unknown period of time.

    However, he knows better.

    The energy of the Ark detonating likely overloaded his systems to an unbearable degree, making them shut down altogether. It could, he supposes, be considered akin to fainting. Titans may be built to be overall durable, but they are not invulnerable.

    Yet another fault in his coding. He really supposes he should turn himself in when the Militia finds him.

    If they find him.

    BT is unsure of where he is. He’s not certain he’s anywhere for a good amount of time: weightless as he is, it is hard to tell if he’s drifting in space or, and he rolls his optic internally at this, if this is the “afterlife” Cooper and all the other soldiers were so fearful and worried about experiencing. 

    He resists the urge to huff. If this is what happens after the end, it’s definitely not worth the bother. 

    He’s jostled out of his distracted thinking by Briggs forcing her way into his comms network. He has half the will to call her rude. Her voice quickly voids any hope of harmless jesting.

    “Cooper! BT!” she shouts desperately. “Do you read?”

    Struggling through the proverbial fog in his processor, he responds. “Copy, Commander,” he rumbles out through the comm. 

    “What’s your status? Where’s Cooper?”

    He considers himself. He’s certainly seen better days. So, he’s bluntly honest with her. “I...may be unsalvageable.”

    “Not with that attitude,” he can feel Brigg’s stubbornness in her voice. “We’re doing our best to locate you. Where is Cooper?”

    BT is forced to realize that he does not know.

    He has lost his Pilot visually. Hell, he’s lost his Pilot in every sense of the word. 

    Cooper is gone.

    “I--” he starts, then falters. “I do not know.” Admitting it out loud puts figurative weight on his shoulders. His optic fretfully darts around, hoping to find any semblance of his Pilot--alive or dead. At least he would know for sure. 

    “Don’t worry, big guy,” Briggs tries to soothe his rising panic. “We’re working on finding him, too. He’s a resilient sonuvabitch. He’ll show up.”

    As much as the Titan would like to feed off the Commander’s optimism, the proof had just played out in front of him. His last-ditch resorts fed him nothing good: the Link felt smothered, he couldn’t feel Cooper’s pain (if he was alive), and he couldn’t read Cooper’s vitals. For all he knew, they were all flat.

    His rapidly-developing mind decides to take that information and run.

    Of all they’d been through, from Lastimosa’s final words, to the Apex Predators and, eventually, Blisk, to the haphazard improvisation of shoving himself into a rail cannon with Cooper safe inside-- all for naught. For all he knew, their efforts of saving the planet had fallen flat and hard. 

    A thought hits him so suddenly that his hands twitch involuntarily: he couldn’t even die with Cooper properly.

    For a Pilot to lose a Titan is one thing. A Titan can be replaced, at a cost. Pilots definitely mourn their lost companions--Titans are literal pieces of their mind. To lose a Titan is, in a way, akin to losing part of one’s self. However, Pilots can move on. They can mourn properly, and be reassigned to a new chassis.

    Titans lack that option.

    Losing a Titan is one thing. Losing a Pilot is another. 

    To lose a Pilot is to admit failure in every degree: failure to maintain a Neural Link; failure to uphold the mission; failure to protect the Pilot. Many Titans aren’t given a second chance after such a misfortune-- they’re sent away to be scrapped for whatever miscellaneous parts can be garnered, sentient or not. While he doubts the Militia would do such a thing (especially with a one-of-a-kind Vanguard as himself, he thinks humbly), the results would be just as severe. 

    Remembering the failure of Protocols. The Pilot’s last words. Hearing command call out to them to no avail. Physically having to admit that they’d lost.

    It is much more… fitting, to lose both in one fell swoop.

    He shakes his head. He is dwelling.

    Still, he can’t see his future going any better than what he’s predicted his own doom to be. He’ll be labeled a failure, a mishap, a mistake. Faulty programming somewhere within him that needs to be combed out with a fine eye. At most, they’ll keep him ‘alive’ for testing. At least...his mind rewinds.

    “I can hear you thinking, buddy,” Sarah continues. (“Buddy”--he feels a pang of unhappiness and discontent wash through him-- just as Cooper had called him). “I promise we’ll figure this out. You can count on it.”

    BT seriously has his doubts. The commander may be hellbent on her beliefs and tasks, but no amount of determination can bring someone back from the dead. He would say something along the lines of “the past being set in stone”, but he remembers Major Anderson’s contribution to the havoc.

    He does not have the heart, metaphorically and literally, to tell her so. Instead, he issues a vague, abrupt response.

    “Copy that, Commander.”

Foreigner – Peaky Blinder Fanfic

PART ONE – WAY BACK HOME

Featuring: Tommy Shelby x Reader

Warning: Angst (don’t worry, Smut is coming in the next part for you dirty minded people)

Words: 3462

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Your Story

It has been 8 years since you left Birmingham and embarked on a journey to the US with your parents. Your brother was killed by Arthur Shelby, after having stolen from the Lee Family and getting involved in your father’s business.

It wasn’t your brother’s fault that he resorted to stealing. In fact, it was all he had ever known since he has been a young boy. He was stealing to feed you and your mother while your father was preoccupied interfering with Thomas Shelby’s gambling business.

Over 8 years ago, your father was employed by the Shelby Family to fix races but, at the same time, he was trying to skim money from their forged winnings and it wasn’t long after your brother’s and father’s actions had come to the attention of Thomas Shelby that a war emerged between your family and the Shelby gang.

The war was bitter and a threat made by Thomas Shelby against your father’s life caused your family to flee to a safe haven offered by your aunt Esme Bortelli in Atlanta.  Just like you and your parents, your aunt was gypsy. But, she made a deal with the devil after her first husband had passed away from Spanish flu.

Her second husband was no other than Luigi Bortelli. Luigi had a direct affiliation with the North Italian Mafia in Atlanta. He enjoyed the dangers in life. Handling and dealing with cocaine, heroin and alcohol, which, at the time, was prohibited in the US.

Luigi was shot a few years ago by police along with his brother Pepe while collecting a shipment of cocaine from the port of Atlanta. Following Luigi’s death, your aunt Esme took over the family business and dealings with the North Italian Mafia. Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t taken serious by some of her suppliers. It wasn’t common for a woman to be in this kind of business. Your father became her assistant, taking shipments and dealing with suppliers on her behalf. Nonetheless, it was her all along who pulled the strings.

The business ran smoothly for several years until, one day, a dispute occurred between the Sabini family and yours. As a result, your mother was shot in your family home by Sabini’s men. Giovanni Sabini resided in the UK and was Darby Sabini’s brother. He had family in the US which operated a rival gang importing the same products as your aunt Esme. After your aunt Esme ignored several of Giovanni’s demands to cease dealings in the area and accept shipments from the UK arranged by the Changratta family, he sent his men to send a message and kill Esme’s sister (your mother).

Esme and your father soon declared war on Giovanni Sabini but, your family’s local men turned against Esme as word came to them that Sabini had turned on the Changratta Family and, as a result, Luca Changratta was killed in Birmingham and the Peaky Blinders took over the supply of alcohol and cocaine to Atlanta exclusively to Giovanni Sabini’s men. This caused the Sabini family to gain greater power within the Atlanta area, much to the disadvantage of your aunt and the North Italian Mafia.

Your aunt Esme saw only one option to rectify this issue and replenish her standing within the North Italian Mafia. She sent your father back to Birmingham to make Thomas Shelby an offer he could not refuse, namely an alliance between the Peaky Blinders and the North Italian Mafia, guaranteeing exclusive supply to the entire West Coast.

Since you had become interested in the family business over the past few years and your aunt had taught you a lot about her supply and trading operations, you demanded that you join your father during his trip to Birmingham. Whilst your father had grown fearless and calculating, you were smart and practical which is just what your aunt Esme needed in order to represent her business.

Unfortunately, whilst your aunt was suspicious of your father’s recent behaviour, what she didn’t know was that he had a very different plan of his own. He wanted revenge on both, Arthur Shelby and Giovanni Sabini, even if it would cost him his own life. For this reason, your father was against you joining him on this journey. You were his only living child.

But, aunt Esme demanded that you join him and so you went.

‘Watch him and his men and report back to me’ were your aunt’s words as you left the port of Atlanta.

Back in Birmingham

After a three day boat journey, you and your father arrived in Birmingham along with several of his men.

Three of your men were questioned by border security upon their arrival. Fortunately for them, aunt Esme’s men in Birmingham had already made pay offs and you were escorted to your hotel.

Birmingham has changed a lot since you have been there last. Most factories, bars and residences were owned by Shelby Company Limited and even the hotel you were staying at was owned by Thomas Shelby.

You never met anyone from the Shelby family. Your father and older brother both worked for the Shelbys for many years until conflict emerged between them. Nonetheless, during this time, your father shielded you and your mother from these dealings. He always said there is no place for women in this business. It therefore comes as a surprise that your father works for aunt Esme now.

You know that your aunt does not trust your father. She always tells you that your father is a danger to himself and you have begun to believe it. His anger and hate has taken over in the last few months and that is why aunt Esme has sent you.

As you finally arrived at the hotel, it became clear to you that Shelby family already had tabs on you. A note from Thomas Shelby was left at reception for your father. It was an invitation to a charity event.

‘Smart’ is what you thought when you read it. Thomas Shelby obviously doesn’t know whether or not he can trust your father. What better place to discuss their business could there be than a public event where your father and his men cannot strike against him. After all, most men in Birmingham work for the Shelby family in one way or another.

Your father, however, was not impressed with the invitation and liaised with two of his men. A message was to be delivered to Thomas Shelby at the Garrison. You only ever heard of the Garrison in conjunction with your brother’s death. This is where he was killed just over 8 years ago by members of the Lee family. But, despite this, you recalled your promise to aunt Esme, to keep an eye on your father and his men.

Shortly after the two men had left to the Garrison, you sneaked out of the hotel.

The Garrison

‘Excuse me sir, how do I get to the Garrison?’ you asked the delivery driver who was delivering Gin to the hotel you were staying at.

‘The Garrison? This is really no good place for you Love’ the delivery driver said.

‘I have business to attend to at the Garrison. I am new in town and am looking to promote a new type of champaign to all of the establishments in the area’ you explained.

‘I don’t think you are going to have much luck at the Garrison Love, but I can take you there after I finish unpacking these. It’s my next delivery stop’ the man said.

‘Thank you sir, I much appreciate it’ you said as you climbed into the man’s truck.

The drive was less than 10 minutes and after you gave the man a couple of pounds for his troubles, you climbed out of the truck and went inside the Garrison while keeping a careful lookout.

The Garrison was full of drunk men, some steel factory workers and some men nicely dressed in suits.

Unfortunately for you, you could not see the men your father had sent. You carefully removed your hat and ordered a glass of whiskey.

‘Top shelf please sir’ you said as you sat down at the quite end of the bar. To your surprise, the bar tender didn’t question you or your choice of drink. It wasn’t common for women to drink in establishments like this. In fact, it was prohibited.

You decided to stay for maybe ten or fifteen minutes to see whether your father’s men would turn up. You took a careful look around every two minutes or so but the men couldn’t be found.

There was, however, one man who caught your eye. He was incredibly well dressed for a place like this and accompanied by a beautiful blonde woman. It was obvious to you that the woman wasn’t his wife. In fact, she looked just as much out of place as you did.

His eyes were blue like the sky on a sunny day in Atlanta and his hands were perfect, clean and masculine as if they had been crafted by an artist.

You couldn’t stop starring at him. His charisma was almost overwhelming.

It wasn’t long until he noticed you too. His eyes gazed over to you several times, much to the dislike of his female companion.

His looks were intimidating and you didn’t know whether he noticed you starring at him or whether he had taken an interest in you. Probably the earlier, considering that he was obviously much older than you.

After 15 minutes had passed and you felt surprisingly awkward in this man’s presence, you quickly finished your drink and decided to call it a night. You did not think that your father’s men were going to appear any time soon and it was getting quite late.

As you left, you noticed two drunk men following you.

“Ey Love, how much for the both of us?” one of the men said as he followed you.

‘In your dreams’ you said with laughter as you turned around for a brief second as, all of a sudden, the man grabbed your wrist.

‘Feisty… I like feisty girls’ the man said as he pulled you closer towards him while his acquaintance approached you and ran his hand over your blouse.

‘Fuck off and leave me alone’ you responded angrily and with some ignorance towards their actions.

‘Oh, you like it rough love?’ one of the men shouted in return while the other pushed you against the wall.

You tried to reach for your gun which was pinned to your left upper leg as, suddenly, you heard a gunshot from near the entrance to the Garrison.

It was a dark and foggy night and you couldn’t see much more than a shadow of a man approaching you and the attackers.

‘The lady said that she wants to be left alone’ another man said from the distance while pointing a gun at the attackers.

‘Piss off man’ one of the attackers yelled in a rather drunken tone, ignoring the first gunshot that had already been fired by the mysterious man.

Suddenly, you heard a second gun shot and a loud scream from one of the drunk men right beside you. He had been shot into his left knee and was in agony.

‘The next time I will aim higher’ the gunman said as he approached you closely, just before the uninjured drunk man scrambled and ran off, knocking you down onto the gravel in the process, while the other man began pleading for his life.

‘I am… I am very sorry please. I won’t…It will not happen again’ the man said. The tone of his voice was frightened and you could tell that the men knew each other.

‘I will not see you and your friend at the Garrison again, you understand?’ the gunman said angrily before allowing the injured attacker to leave.

You were lost for words. This mysterious man may have just saved your life.

Getting to know the Stranger

‘Are you alright, Miss?’ the man asked as he put away his gun and reached for your hand to help you up.

‘Thank you, I am fine’ you said quietly.

As you looked up towards the mysterious man you noticed that he was the man you had seen before, at the bar, with the beautiful blonde lady by his side.

With thoughts racing through your head, you almost didn’t notice that your legs were shaking and you had an awful pain in your left knee.

‘You are bleeding’ the man said, but you barely noticed the red staining on your white skirt. It was like you were hypnotised by this stranger.

‘Common, lets get this sorted out for you, ey?’ the man said with a caring voice and, without further words, you followed his lead back to the Garrison.

The Garrison was still as busy as when you had left and no one really noticed you walking in.

‘Bring us some bandages and whiskey. Top shelf, two glasses’ the man said before guiding you to a private room next to the bar.

‘Thank you for your help but I am fine, really’ you said to him as he pulled out a chair from beside the table in the middle of the room.

‘If you do not get this cleaned out, it will get infected. Now sit down love’ the man instructed as the barmaid brought bandages and a bottle of top shelf Irish whisky with two glasses.

The man poured you a glass of whiskey and handed it to you. Without words, you took a hasty sip knowing that, what was about to follow, would hurt. Your mother used to clean out your wounds with whisky on numerous occasions after you had fallen off your bicycle, just not as expensive as the bottle that was standing on the table right in front of you at this moment.

Without warning, the man kneeled down in front of you and lifted up your skirt just above your knees. He poured a good amount of whisky onto your wound, which caused you to clinch your teeth and some tears escape from your eyes. He then used his handkerchief to carefully pull some pieces of gravel and broken glass from your knee before wiping the wound again with some more whiskey.

‘So, tell me, what brings a girl like you to a place like this? You are clearly not from here’ the man asked as he wrapped your knee up with a bandage.

‘Business’ you clinched as you grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the table and poured yourself another glass while the man finished bandaging you up.

‘Business?’ the man asked surprised as he sat down opposite from you while lightening himself a cigarette. ‘What kind of business?’ he added.

‘Export of products to the US’ you said carefully. You didn’t know who this man was so you didn’t want to reveal anything that could be of detriment to you or aunt Esme.

‘Now that is interesting’ the man said with a grin before taking a short pause. ‘Let me guess, you want to export alcohol to your country because of the prohibition’ he added.  

‘What makes you think that?’ you asked carefully with a little pretend chuckle. It was not your place to discuss matters like this and you were surprised that he caught onto you almost immediately. Could he read you, you wondered, and regretted saying anything at all.

By this time, you were quite intimidated by this man and were contemplating to leave. On the other hand, you didn’t want to be rude. After all, he had just saved you from an attack.

‘What else could you possibly export from Birmingham to America? You manufacture machinery, vehicles and weapons yourself. This means you have no need for them. You are after something you cannot get where you are’ the man said as he leaned back into his chair.

‘Let’s not talk about business’ you said nervously. You felt as though you had been cornered.

‘Alright…let’s talk about something else’ the man said before pausing again. ‘Maybe let’s start with your name. What is your name?’ he added.

‘Y/N’ you said.

‘It is nice to meet you Y/N…’ and, before the man could introduce himself, another, older man stormed into the room.

‘They fucking got him, we need to move now’ the man yelled.

‘I am sorry Y/N, I have one of my drivers take you to wherever you are staying’ the man said before storming out of the room and grabbing two guns from behind the bar. With him were several men and all you heard was yelling and cars driving off within moments after.

Family Confrontation

A young man came into the room and introduced himself as ‘Finn’.

‘Apparently, I am your driver’ Finn said rather annoyed. ‘Where are you staying?’ he asked.

‘Renaissance Hotel’ you answered.

‘Alright, then let’s go’ Finn said in a haste.

This was an abrupt ending to an eventful night and the drive back to the hotel was rather quiet. Finn didn’t speak a word with you, not a single one.

As you approached the Hotel, Finn wished you a pleasant night before racing off. Your guess was that he was going to join the others for some kind of fight.

It appeared to you that life in Birmingham wasn’t so much different to life you knew in Atlanta. Violence, gangs and conflicts. It all was the same.

‘Y/N, what the fuck did I tell you?’ your father shouted at you as you entered the penthouse suite.

‘Father, I am not a child anymore. I can look after myself’ you said.

‘What is this, on your knee? Your skirt is full of blood’ your father asked worryingly.

‘I fell. It turns out that heels do not go well with all the horse shit on the streets here. A nice man at the Garrison helped me to get bandaged up. It is not a big deal’ you explained, not wanting to admit that you had gotten in to trouble.

‘The Garrison? What the fuck did you do at the Garrison? This place is dangerous, you hear me Y/N?’ your father said angrily.

‘I am keeping an eye on your men, something which you have obviously failed to do as they weren’t there’ you answered, causing your father to raise his hand at you.

‘Careful Y/N. This business is not for you and I wish that your aunt would learn to understand this. Get yourself cleaned up’ your father said before walking away.

And, so you did. You ran yourself a nice warm bath, knowing exactly that it will hurt, but this was exactly what you needed. Sometimes pain makes you feel alive and there has been a lot of pain in your life in the past eight years.

Your mother never got over the grief of losing her son while your father never gotten over his hate for the Shelby and Lee family. Your aunt Esme was the one who took you in, who ensured you were educated and who had confidence in you.

Being in business with her was something you wanted. You both felt that change was needed and the success that came with the business was something that gave you satisfaction. You were running her accounts for the past two years and you knew how lucrative this business was. But did your father care about it? This was always something you were wondering about.

‘Perhaps these questions and thoughts were for another night’ you said to yourself as you poured yourself a glass of whiskey and climbed into the warm bath.

It stung terribly but soon the pain went away and all you could feel was the warmth over your body.

Your mind soon drifted off into more pleasurable thoughts about the man you had met tonight.

You only ever had been with one man before and it didn’t take long for him to bore you. That being said, he was barely a man at all. He was the same age as you and studying to become lawyer. There was no adventure and no intensity. But, this man you met tonight, who was a fair bit older than you, he appeared to be far from being boring. There was some kind of intensity in his eyes, it was almost hypnotising. His voice was calming but yet intimidating and the thoughts that appeared about him in your mind were unfamiliar to you. They were intense. They were pure pleasure.

You kept wondering who this mysterious man was and whether you would see him again.

HEY, I just seen in your feed a fanart of Levi being the big spoon and it hit me hard!!! Could you write a oneshot about this? How he would love to have four eyes in his arms and hug her tight?

Ooh, finally, a fluff request! I have, like, 10 angst prompts waiting to be written, so this one’s for a change:

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

It’s always Hange who does the hugging.

Always the person who tackles him into a death-glomp, the same one who comes up from behind him and slides her arms around his torso while he’s working on something.

"Oi, Four-Eyes, what are you---"

"Keeping you warm."

Surprisingly, he relents to Hange's touches. Doesn't even complain at all. Any person would have been irked by the invasion of personal space, would have freaked out at the sudden interruption, but not him.

Because, why would he?

She's his favorite person, probably the only one who can touch him like this. The last time the brats went in for a group hug with him in the middle, he nearly did a judo throw on all of them until Hange held him back in amusement.

Levi doesn't tell anyone that he likes it most when Hange buries her face into his hair as she pulls him tighter to herself. His mind just goes blank, his body automatically relaxing upon contact. He has to fight the urge to turn red as well.

"Hmm? I like this, too," she chuckles, holding him for a little longer.

Then it all changed when Hange became commander.

Work has become more tedious, papers piling up faster than they could finish them. Hange has resorted to spending more hours than usual in her office, the stress already taking a toll on her sleep.

Levi then makes the decision to intervene.

"Oi, Hange." He calls out from the door. "You should get some rest."

"Not yet."

The commander hasn't even taken her eyes off the paperwork.

He tries again. "You've been working nonstop today."

Levi then comes closer and plants his hands on the desk. Hange looks up, frowning. "I can't just leave all of this undone for tonight," she sighs.

"I'll help you out tomorrow," he offers. "I should be able to assist after the morning report."

He doesn't have much on his schedule in the afternoon, and the brats can train on their own.

But Hange already knows this. She's tapping her pen on the desk, as if weighing her options. "You're not going to leave until I go with you, are you?"

"Not a chance."

"If I do, would you stay with me tonight?"

And so he does. He'd love nothing more than to have her in his arms and hold her tight. They head back to her quarters, trying to avoid being seen by anyone who might still be up at this dead of the night. Levi joins her in bed, clothes strewn onto the ground and bodies warm under the sheets.

This time it's Hange who relents to his touches. She turns to her side, her back facing him. Levi then drapes an arm around her waist, his other hand pinned beneath his head. It will probably go numb in an hour or so, but he doesn't mind. He pulls Hange closer to him, inhales the scent of her as he gently digs his chin on her shoulder. Hange chuckles when he plants kisses on the curve of her neck.

"Didn't know touch is also your love language, Levi."

"There's still a lot you don’t know.”

Leave No One Behind

Chapter 15- Leave No One Behind...

Co written with @icanfeelastormbrewing​

Summary: The magic thing about home is that it feel good to leave, and it feels even better to come back…

Warnings: Bad Language words.

Pairings:  Ari Levinson x OFC Hannah Horowitz

Word Count- 8k

Leave No One Behind Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Part 14

It was way past dinner time when Ari and Hannah got back to the resort. Fortunately, most of the guests had already called it a night and only a few remained on the beach enjoying the clear starry night and gentle sea breeze. Some of the staff were busy cleaning and clearing the dining area and the kitchen, so Ari asked the team to gather in the reception area as simply put, they had no time to waste.

The team shared concerned glances as Ari, with Hannah's help and assistance at some points, briefed them on the plan. He paced back and forth only stopping to check everyone was following him, and once he had finished explaining and everyone confirmed they had understood what they had to do, it was all systems go.

They needed to wait until all the guests were in bed and not a voice could be heard in the resort before they moved the refugees. Ari knew it cut their window of time down even more and, though it wasn't an ideal situation, he was painfully aware that they couldn't afford getting caught. It had already been hard enough for them to keep more than four hundred people away from suspicious ears and prying eyes and by rushing things he could blow all their hard work. But, ever true to his own nature, he was getting more nervous by the minute, his anxiety heightened by the fact that there was nothing he could do but wait. 

He stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray on his office desk as his eyes roamed the room and took a deep breath, his fingers running through his hair. He needed to focus on what he had to do. The worrying about their safety and that of the refugees they had to smuggle from the country would have to be done later. Right now it was urgent that they got everything ready to abandon the resort in such a way that when Ahmed undoubtedly came looking once more, it appeared they’d done a flit due to a sudden “entrepreneurial vision” rather than it being a matter of "life or death".

The team were running around as sneaky and stealthily as possible, destroying anything that was too incriminating. Lighting a big fire to burn everything to ashes was not an option, the smoke would alert too many people and they also couldn’t waste the time it would require to ensure that everything burnt sufficiently in the small bonfire they occasionally had on the beach. Burying all incriminating evidence was out of the question- it was risky and sloppy too since no matter how deep you dug down on a sandy beach, it would eventually come back to the surface again. In the end, Max saved the day by using one of his suitcases as an improvised treasure chest into which they crammed everything they needed to dispose of. Jake and Sammy then added some extra heavy rocks which made sure it sank when they threw it overboard from one of their diving boats a fair way away from the shore.

Meanwhile, Hannah headed to her and Ari's hut to sweep the place. She was well aware she didn’t have the time or room to take anything that she couldn't put in her pockets or in Ari's small knapsack. She was going through the drawers on her bedside table when she found a stack of Polaroids, most of which dated from two years before when Sammy got her the camera. They were too incriminating to leave behind and, from a selfish point of view, she didn't want to leave them either.

She looked around as she stuck the set of polaroids in the back pocket of her jeans. As she took the now so familiar hut in for the last time, she felt a lump in her throat and her right hand instinctively flew to her firefly pendant. The last few years of her life passed in front of her eyes in a whirlwind. She had known from the moment Ari had set foot in the clinic that morning that it would mean a turning point in her day to day life, his presence around her always did, but what she had never suspected in a million years was the extent in which her life would change.

If someone had told her that day at the clinic, that she would embark on a secret mission to a dangerous African country with the man who had broken her heart all those years before, she would have told them to fuck off. But here she was two years later, about to leave that dangerous country and unofficially engaged to that very same man.

Her Lobo.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she took a deep breath and had turned to leave the room when in the corner of her eye she spotted a photo stuck to the mirror that she had very nearly missed. She headed over to grab it looking down at the image of her, Ari and Simon on the beach. She smiled fondly at the memory of that day. Simon had been sick with food poisoning the previous night and they had spent almost all afternoon on the beach with him, trying to stop him eating anything he could steal from the kitchen, or rather to prevent Max from feeding him contraband…

And then it dawned on her, she was going to have to leave Simon behind.

Hannah felt a pang in her heart at the mere thought of it. Her throat suddenly felt like it was closing and tears began to well in her eyes. Simon had been her first support. Even when she hadn't had Ari, she had Simon. The dog had found her when she needed him the most and he had been her shadow ever since. It broke her heart to think what would happen to him when they were gone.

She wiped her face as she tried to rationalise it. She knew Simon had survived many years before her, but he now was her baby, and she couldn't help but worry. With a sniff, she took a deep breath, and blinked back more tears as she told herself she needed to be realistic. She was wasting time, and they had important stuff to do. So, with a final swallow, she hastily put the polaroid in her pocket, together with the other ones and headed out onto the beach without so much as a glance back at the hut.

When she got to the reception area, she found Ari there, checking through a filing cabinet. He looked up when he heard footsteps and smiled softly at her, but his smile slid into a frown almost instantly, as he could clearly see she had been crying. Hannah couldn't trust herself to speak, she knew her voice would break the moment Ari asked what was wrong, so she simply nodded and handed him the polaroids to put in his bag.

"Come here." Ari told her once his hands were free again, pulling her to him and holding her tight. "You've been crying, firefly." He whispered in her hair. But Hannah just sniffed in response. "I promise you I'm going to get us home safely, Han."

"But not Simon." She whispered and at her words she felt Ari's shoulders slump slightly.

"Yeah, I know." Ari sighed. "I don't want to leave him either but, well, the staff all love him. We'll leave him in the kitchen with food and water and they'll take care of him, sweetheart."

Hannah nodded. "I know..." and then her voice trailed off and she started crying again. She knew Ari was right but it was not like the staff could write to them back home telling them Simon was doing okay, sending them the occasional photo of the dog.

Ari tightened his hold of her and started rubbing her back in an attempt to sooth her grief a little bit and at that point there was a voice in the doorway. Hannah pulled away, hastily wiping her face.

"Sorry, but, we got one of the women in the huts and she doesn’t look great Hannah, I don’t know if it's nerves or something…" Rachel explained, almost apologetically.

"Yeah, I’ll erm, come now." Hannah nodded, before looking at Ari who gave her a soft smile.

Ari watched her go and sighed, taking a glance around before heading outside too. He found Max and told him to start loading up, there was no time to waste. As he watched Max nod and disappear behind the trucks and into the night, Ari remembered he had left his bag in the office by the reception desk. He headed back inside, grabbed it, and shut the office door behind him, knowing he wasn't going to open it again.

He made his way down the beach a little. More as a way of saying goodbye than to make sure there were no guests still around. But he knew it had been a mistake the moment he set his eyes on the star lit ocean surface and a wave of nostalgia hit him, crashing over his head like the very surf he was watching had done many times over the past few years.

Ari lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. He was counting the minutes till he could finally leave the resort and that fucking country for good. But, at the same time there was something else there. A nagging, gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach that was fighting with his sense of duty and his survival instinct. As he stood there he suddenly realised that the feeling was sadness. He was sad to be leaving, and he knew why- because this was the last mission he would ever run.  

And it had all been his. 

Ari had spent most of his life as an agent following orders and running his bosses, mainly Ethan's, missions, and even though Ari Levinson was known for not sticking to plan and following his instincts when making last minute, even debatable, decisions, he still had to follow his superior guidelines and do as told, for the most part. But this one had been different. He had designed it from scratch, still amazed at how the idea had come to him. He had matured it and watched it grow into something worth selling to Ethan, Isaacs and eventually Weiss. Damn, he had even chosen and recruited the agents he wanted for the mission. Including her. Ari smiled fondly at the memory of his Firefly’s surprised face at the clinic that morning, "Fuck me." was the only thing she had been able to say when she saw him in that examination room.

Ari chuckled softly as he started his way back to the main building. Whilst it had been a while, he still remembered all the expletives Sammy had thrown at him that day too. And then he was pulled out from his memories by the sound of hushed but hectic voices at the front of the hotel as he approached.

He hurried round to find the team gathered near the trucks, loading them with the refugees. He stabbed his cigarette on the floor and started directing a few refugees himself until Max, Sammy and Hannah approached him.

"We've got a problem." A weary eyed Max announced. "There's no way we're all going to fit in the two trucks.”

"There's too many people." Hannah added.

Ari frowned. "Shit. Fuck!" He hissed, looking around frantically for a way out.

And then his eyes landed on the solution.

"Are you serious? A Sudanese tour bus?" Jake, who had spotted what Ari was looking at, asked in disbelief.

Max laughed softly, visibly amused at another of his boss tricks to save his neck again, and looked at Hannah who was grinning and shaking her head as she mused. “You little shit."

Ari looked at her, his brow raised, before his eyes flicked back to the refugees. Hundreds of them, but only a fraction of the amount they’d saved to date…

"Start loading them up. I gotta grab something." He suddenly ordered, as he turned to leave, pausing as Hannah caught his arm.

"Where are you going?" She enquired nervously. "Ari?"

"I'll be right back.” He assured her. “Get on the bus."

He didn't look back and ran inside. In a typical Ari Levinson fashion, he had just decided he wanted to take something with him, a reminder of their time and work there, a reminder of what exactly they had accomplished. He stood by the desk and reached up to the Satisfied Guest board which hung on the wall, removing the shells which bore the total number of refugees that had safely left the Sudan shore. Unhooking it from the wall, he walked back round the desk and paused to take a last look around, into the dining area.

Why was it so difficult to say goodbye?

His eyes then glanced towards the door at the back of the room which led to the kitchen and he signed, knowing what, or who was in there. He bit his lip, pondering for a few seconds, before he let out a groan. He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t leave him.  

“Ethan’s gonna kill me,” he muttered as he ran to the kitchen door and jerked it open. “Come on, Si.” He whispered, panting slightly with exertion and the adrenaline now flooding his system. The dog looked up from where he had been napping. “Time to go, buddy.” Ari insisted.

Simon got to his feet, stretching as he yawned. 

“Yeah, we’re on a schedule, come on.” Ari hurried the dog as he rolled his eyes. Simon simply stared up at him as he talked and wagged his tail, before trotting out of the door. Ari then bent down to pick him up under his spare arm and hurried towards the bus.

 Rachel, who was in the driving seat, looked at him as he climbed up the steps, the painted wooden board under one arm, dog under the other. She snorted as he set Simon down on the floor and he simply shrugged and then smiled as Hannah’s little gasp hit his ears from where she was stood, a little further down the aisle of the bus. Simon scooted off towards her as Ari looked back at Rachel.

"Let's go" 

Rachel nodded at Ari's instruction and, as she fired up the engine Hannah reached him, Simon in her arms, eyes full of tears. Sammy, who was sat behind Rachel and next to Kabede, looked up and noticed the dog for the first time and let out a groan.

´Fucking, fuck me."

Kabede turned to him, then to the dog, and then just looked ahead, utter confusion on his face.

“Ari, I…” Hannah began, her voice cracking a little as she cradled her precious pooch in her arms and Ari chuckled a little as he leaned down to give her a quick peck.

"Leave no dog behind."

Once they set off, the bus soon became quieter. No one spoke for a while. The silence only broken every now and then by Ari, who was navigating. Hannah was sat by him at the front row of seats, Simon perched on her lap, looking out of the window right at the front with perked ears. 

Every so often, when he felt her squirm on her seat or heard her sigh, Ari would take Hannah's left hand, kissing over her ring finger, exactly where the big lavish ring he was going to buy her would sit. And every so often she would smile and look up at him, the pair of them sharing their happy little news, which remained between the two of them for the time being.

They had been driving for about an hour when Rachel shifted on her seat and Ari looked at her.

"Want me to take over?" He offered.

Rachel hesitated for a moment before asking. "How far we got?"

Ari checked Bowen's map again and then glanced at a passing old road sign before answering. "About eight more kilometers."

She shook her head just as Sammy, who had also spotted a road sign, demanded, “what is this place?"

"Carthago." Ari explained, raising his voice over the noise the bus engine was making. "It's an old British airfield."

"If it's still there." Hannah thought aloud, earning a glare from her brother

"What if it's not still there?" Sammy asked, his voice stern.

Ari took a deep breath and looked at Hannah, then to a dumbfounded Kabede and finally to Sammy who simply shook his head, giving a scoff. No one had an answer.

It was only ten more minutes till Rachel drove through the gates of the long time ago abandoned airfield, making part of it get stuck to the front of the bus. They drove a little distance more into it, with the gate stuck on the front of the bus bumping into every obstacle they found on their way. 

Once they stopped, they all quickly climbed off the bus and Max darted up the watch tower. Jake located the power banks and ran up another tower to try and fire up the lights they needed. 

Hannah and Rachel stood by the vehicles with the refugees, radio in hand as they watched Ari and Sammy head to the runway and start marking out the guide path with glow sticks, Simon jogging behind them.

They had been there for a few minutes when Hannah's radio cracked and she could hear Sammy talking to Ari.

"Not to state the obvious, but there’s a tree in the middle of the runway."

 "When are they supposed to be here?" Max's voice suddenly broke through, just as the bulbs of the tower were brought back to life, flooding the runway with bright, white light. "I don't know, why?" Ari replied, panting as Hannah saw him look round, brushing his hair away from his face. "We have company. Nine kilometers away"  Rachel and Hannah shared a worried glance, before Rachel took the radio and spoke. "Should we get them back on the trucks?"

"No, there's still time." Ari stated.   

"What did he say?" Hannah asked Rachel, visibly annoyed. "Give me the radio." She snatched it from Rachel's hand. "Ari, stop being a reckless asshole. We need to get out of here." "He’ll be here any minute. We can do it, Han. Just trust me." She heard him say, and scoffed. She could see him still, activating the glow sticks, dropping them to the ground to guide the plane. The plane which should already be there if they wanted to make it before Ahmed’s soldiers, because they all knew too well it would be them approaching, got there.

"Come on, Walton, you motherfucker." Ari whispered as he continued with his task. "What do we do?" Sammy asked as he approached him, having finished his side of the path. Ari looked around worried before he groaned, they were rapidly running out of time.  

“Shit, come on."  

Both men started running back to the trucks. Ari could see Hannah pacing along the front of the vehicles as he approached, a tell-tale she was anxious and no doubt pissed at him.

"We should get everyone back on the bus and get the fuck out of here." Rachel looked at Ari as he drew up beside her, Sammy to his other side.   "She’s right Ari. We’ll have to find another way." Hannah backed Rachel, her eyes pleading with Ari's, who looked at her, trying to think clearly about the best way to proceed. He didn’t want to give up, simply put he couldn’t give up, he had no other plan. "Okay, fine. Get everybody back inside again." Sammy stepped up, leaving no room for hesitation, making everyone start moving. But then Kabede cut in.

"No, wait. Listen. Listen." He urged.

They all paused, their ears straining, and through the quiet of the night came a soft, whooshing and rumbling sound-  plane engines.

Everyone looked up at the dark night sky, Hannah gripping Ari’s arm. Simon, who was a short distance away sniffing the fence attached to the front of the bus, suddenly ran back towards them, barking at the noise. And, seconds later, they got their first glimpse of their ticket out of here as the plane suddenly light up in the dark sky above them.

Ari was now grinning ear to ear, and he glanced down at Hannah, relief flooding his system and hers, clearly, as she let out a loud breath. There was a shared feeling of contained excitement as the plane landed and Ari kissed Hannah's temple. 

Not wasting a single second, they hurriedly headed over and started organising the refugees onto the cargo plane, Ari yelling a few instructions so that he could be heard over the deafening noise of the plane engines.

However all the relief they had felt upon the arrival of the plane was short lived. A couple of minutes after the first refugees had boarded, the marine pilot in charge of the operation turned to them and said there wasn't enough room for all of them on the plane and that barely half of them would fit in due to weight limitations.

"What the fuck?" Hannah snapped, breaking the shocked silence that had fallen over the group, her forehead creasing at the marine. "Are you serious?"

"If you leave us, we will die!" Kabede pleaded.

The marine looked at them and shook his head, and at that point, Ari’s temper snapped. He was done, and he was fucked if they had come this far only to be thwarted at the last minute. He was adamant they would leave no one behind, certainly not when it meant sentencing them to a certain death.

He lunged at the marine and grabbed his arm, pushing him a couple of steps towards the group "All right, then you decide, you decide who stays and who goes,  'cause I can't do it. You choose who lives, who dies." He spoke sternly, his eyes piercing the dumbfounded marine's, who hesitated as his own eyes roamed the group of people in front of him.

 "They're three kilometers out." Max announced, as he appeared panting among the people.

"Better do it fast." Ari urged the marine, who still looked around hesitating.

"We're waiting." Hanna pressed, her arms folded.

The marine turned to look at her and then sighed dejectedly. "It's not that I don't want to, there's no room on the plane."

"Then we'll make room." Sammy declared as he strode up the ramp with determination. Hannah and Ari exchanged a glance but joined him, the three of them quick to start ripping out the seats, throwing them onto the runway. Soon after Max, Jake, Rachel and Bowen started making room as well while Kabede and the marine helped the refugees up the ramp.

And then, rounding the corner in the distance, they could see the lights of the approaching soldiers' trucks.

"Shit." Hannah hissed as she threw one more seat into the runway and Ari darted to up the plane cabin to alert the pilot to start moving the damn plane. For what felt like hours but wasn't more than a couple of minutes, it was a mad scramble to get everyone on, urgently hurrying up the ramp as quickly as they could. They had barely succeeded as the trucks were already speeding through the airfield gate, guns firing, when the plane started moving.

As the plane gathered pace down the runway, the gun shots pinging off the metal of the closing ramp, Ari, Sammy and Bowen made it upstairs to the cabin. As the huge tree in the middle of the runway loomed nearer and nearer, Ari felt his stomach start to drop like a stone.

“We're not gonna make it.” He whispered, “we're not gonna make it.”

“We're gonna make it.” Sammy’s voice was calm yet stern as the nose of the plane began to pull up into the air. But it wasn’t rising fast enough, they were going to hit it.

“We're not gonna make it!” This time, Ari’s comment was louder, frantic almost and Sammy’s voice rose in retaliation, as he repeated his earlier statement.

“We're gonna make it!”

As the plane began to gather more and more height, Ari winced and couldn’t help the loud yell that bust from his mouth as the plane flew straight into the foliage of the tree.

“Shit!” Sammy grabbed Ari, as they both ducked a little, expecting the branches to fly through the cockpit window.

But nothing. The plane steadied, and gathered height, nothing but dark sky in front of them.

Ari’s chest was heaving, as he clung to the side of the plane, shaking his head a little. He raised his head, looked at Sammy, and he couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across his face. Sammy chuckled a little, tipping his head back.

Bowen patted Ari on the shoulder, “I  think we can breathe now.” And with that, he headed down the stairs.

Barely daring to believe their luck, Ari took one last glance out of the front of the plane and nodded to the pilot before he followed Bowen and Sammy down into the cargo hold. As he started making his way amongst the sitting refugees towards where Hannah was sat, his throat and chest suddenly grew tight with the realisation of the magnitude of what they’d just done.

He’d never seen this side of their missions before. Once they set the refugees on the rafts with the Navy Seals, their involvement finished. He’d never experienced their quiet, hushed chatting, or seen their tired and anxious, yet relieved faces.

It was amazing, humbling and completely overwhelming.

As he picked his way carefully across the metal cargo hold floor, his eyes flicked to Jake and then Max, both men wiping at their eyes as they too were clearly feeling the emotion of the moment. He nodded to them both and finally reached his girl who was sat next to Kabede. Her own eyes were red, as was the tip of her nose from her tears.

Ari flopped down heavily besides her. For the first time he could recall, he felt old. He ached all over, and he was just so fucking tired. He let out a groan as he lifted his arm to allow Hannah to snuggle into him, rubbing gently at her back as she sniffed.

“Leave no one behind.” Kabede’s gentle voice spoke and Ari turned to look at him. “You're crazy, you know that?”

With a soft chuckle, Ari kissed Hannah’s head as she clung to him. His eyes strayed to Sammy, who was sat across from him, Rachel cuddled into his side. As Ari watched, she gently pressed a kiss to Sammy’s arm and Sammy met Ari’s smile and gave him a small nod back.

Ari shifted a little, and then felt something a little un-even in his back pocket. Reaching for it, he pulled out  Maya’s drawing of him, Hannah and Simon. He’d shoved it in there before when he was leaving the hotel, not wanting to leave it behind.

And then, the emotion which he’d fought so hard to keep at bay completely crashed over him as he looked at the drawing that his daughter had done. His face crumpled and his shoulders began to shake in a silent sob. A moment later, he felt Hannah move and she let out a soft sigh.

“Oh, Ari. It’s okay, we made it.”

He sniffed again and then gave a smile, wiping a tear which had trickled down to the tip of his nose as he glanced again at the drawing, then to Hannah.

“I can’t wait for you to meet her, Firefly.”

“I can’t wait to meet her either.” She whispered, smiling at him.

“God, I love you.” He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes as she whispered back.

“I love you too.”

****

Hannah was asleep, her head resting on Ari’s chest. His large arms held her protectively to him, his bearded cheek resting on her head. He wasn’t in a deep sleep, more like a heavy doze. He woke a few times as people attempted to move around in the confines of the aircraft carrier. Eventually, though, the hushed voices started to get louder and murmurs spread across the cabin. Ari cracked his eye open and looked up to see one of the marines descending the stairs. He caught Ari’s eye and gave him a weary smile.

“We’re about to start the descent.”

Ari took a deep breath, the relief washing over him and he felt Hannah stir.

“What’s going on?” She asked, her voice thick with sleep.

“We’re about to start our descent, baby.” He kissed her forehead, his voice cracking with emotion. “We’re home.”

At his words, her eyes begin to water and she struggled for her own words, but managed a strangled whisper of his name. He swallowed in response, wrapped his arms around her tighter and pressed his face into her hair. “I know, I know.”

They sat silently, and air of unmistakable, yet nervous excitement as the plane slowly began to lose altitude. As there were no windows, no one had any idea how far off the ground they were at any given moment, and there were loud shrieks as the wheels hit the ground and they were all jolted slightly. Ari felt Hannah’s hand grab his, and he squeezed her fingers as she glanced over at her brother. Sammy’s lips brushed Rachel’s hairline, smiling as he caught his sister’s eye.  

After what felt like forever, the plane came to a shuddering stop, and the agents in the cargo hold all rose to their feet. Ari moved to the rear, his hand still around Hannah’s as he took her with him, the people who were sat on the floor all parting to allow them a path through. As the ramp lowered, the morning sun started sifting through the opening tailgate. Hannah blinked, raising her hand to shield her eyes from the sudden glare.

“Lobo, what time is it?” She asked suddenly. “I err, I don’t know where my watch is. I didn’t-“

“It doesn’t matter, Firefly,” Ari soothed, knowing she’d be upset about losing it, “I’ll get you ano-“ then he stopped dead as he glanced down at his own, realisation flooding his system. “Han?”

“Yeah?”

“Happy birthday, Sweetheart.”

She blinked and then smiled. “Yeah, it is.”

Ari chuckled as he kissed her softly. “I’m so sorry, I nearly forgot…I did have something for you but-”

Her lips curled into a smile against his. “I’ll forgive you, it’s been a busy few days.”

Their foreheads touched together for a few seconds until the ramp hit the floor and they were jerked back into the operation. Ari moved swiftly into his leader role, barking orders to get the people off requiring medical assistance first as a buzz of activity swarmed through the plane. Once he was satisfied that everyone had heard him and understood, he turned and made his way down the ramp, the metal clanging beneath his boots. As soon as his feet touched the ground of his homeland, he took a deep breath, his shoulders sagging in utter relief. He couldn’t even begin to describe the emotions being back spiked in his chest.

But, he didn’t have time to dwell on it. It was non-stop activity as he threw himself into helping the people off the plane, directing them across the tarmac towards the waiting ambulances, military attendees and aid-givers.  

Ari had just turned back to the ramp after helping an elderly lady towards a waiting stretcher, when he saw Bowen approach Ethan and Isaacs, shaking their hands. Ethan looked over and caught Ari’s eye and gave him a nod, which he returned before he moved forward to relive one of the soldiers of Kabede.

“I’ve got him.” Ari insisted as he helped his friend over to the paramedics, wanting to make sure the man was given care as a matter of priority.

“Ari, there are thousands more…” Kabede began and Ari nodded, his hand curling over the man’s shoulder.

“We’re gonna go back,” he assured, before he hesitated and took a deep breath, “well, some of us will.”

As the paramedic assured Ari they’d take care of the man, he stood up straight, his hands falling to his hips as he contemplated his words. The us wouldn’t include him, but he felt at peace with that, it was time to bow out.

And what a success of a swan song.

He watched Kabede getting wheeled towards a waiting ambulance and he took a deep breath and headed over towards Hannah who was stood hugging Rachel. Ari stopped with a slight chuckle to pet Simon as the faithful mutt ran towards him, jumping up at his legs.

“Welcome to Tel Aviv, buddy.”

Sammy met him a few strides later, the two men embracing silently. There were no words needed. With their arms around one another they moved towards the girls and Ari inclined his head to Hannah, signalling for her to follow him.

“Is that a fucking dog?” Isaacs asked, watching the animal as it trotted behind Ari and Hannah as they made their way towards them.

“Yes. Simon.” Ethan replied, his eyes twinkling slightly.

“What?” Isaacs turned slowly to look at him.

“The dog. His name is Simon. Simon Le Bone, to give him his full title.” Ethan’s lips curled up in a slight smile as Isaacs let out a noise of disbelief from his nose.

“They brought a fucking dog from fucking Sudan.” It was a statement not a question, and he followed it with a snort and a shake of his head. “He’s so fired.”

“Oh, I already fired him. Again. The other night.” Ethan replied. “But I have a feeling it’s a moot point. By all means, feel free to try once more.”

Hannah and Ari exchanged a look as they approach the two men who had, at that moment, both burst out laughing. Ari shook Isaacs hand as Ethan swept Hannah into a hug.

“From the hospitality trade to animal transportation I see, Ari.” Isaacs levelled him with a look, his eyes twinkling with humour.

“Four hundred refugees,” Ari shot back, as he moved to shake Ethan’s hand “I figured one more wouldn’t make a difference.”

“Mrs Horowitz, nice to see you again.” Isaacs smiled as he shook her hand.

“Miss Navon.” She corrected him a little shyly, and Ari looked at her smiling softly, taking her hand and lacing their fingers together.

Isaacs clearly noticed the sign of affection as he arched his brow, sharing a side glance with Ethan. Simon then gave a little whine, jumping up at Hannah’s leg once more and Isaacs gave a snort. “Yeah, that’s the oddest looking dog I’ve ever seen. Where’s his hair?”

“Same place as mine, I expect.” Ethan spoke, humour in his voice and both Hannah and Ari laughed. “I think he’s rather distinguished looking, wouldn’t you say Barack?”

Isaacs looked at Ethan, his brows raised before he snorted and glanced down at the dog. “Distinguished, hairless Simon.” He stated, before he shook his head and looked back at Hannah and Ari. “Welcome home.”

 “Thanks.” Hannah let out a deep breath before she looked at Ethan. “Is Mama here?”

“Everyone is waiting at HQ. We didn’t want to draw too much attention by having everyone here.” He answered and she nodded.

“Is Maya there?” Ari asked.

“Yes.” Ethan raised a brow. “And Sarah.”

At that Hannah frowned and looked down at her shoes, a funny feeling brewing in her stomach. This was the side to being home that she hadn’t, until now, really given much thought. In Sudan, they’d been in their own little bubble, nothing to worry or bother them, no complications pertaining to their relationship to think about. And that was all about to change.

As if he could sense her trepidation, Ari squeezed her hand and she looked at him. He gave her a soft smile before Ethan cleared his throat and spoke again.

“Oh, and happy birthday.”

“Thanks Ethan.” Hannah’s voice was quiet, unlike her brother as he spoke loudly from behind them.

“It’s your birthday?”

She rolled her eyes and turned to look at him over her shoulder where he stood with Rachel. “Don’t worry, Ari forgot too.”

Ari rolled his eyes and was about to answer her back, but he his attention was drawn to Isaacs who was now busy dodging Simon’s attempts to bite his trouser seams. Ethan looked at Ari, both of them trying to hold back a laugh as Isaacs cursed at the dog, nudging him away with his foot.

Max and Jake then joined them and after they had both shaken hands with Isaacs and Ethan, they all made their way towards the cars which were waiting to take them back to HQ.

“There’s no room for the dog in the cars.” Isaacs grumbled, once again moving his leg out of the way of Simon’s teeth. “Not if the fucker’s going to keep biting me, anyway.”

“Don’t worry, he can sit on my knee.” Ari bent down and swooped the dog up into his arms. Simon’s tail began to wag as he licked Ari’s beard. “He likes to put his paws on the dash.”

Isaacs merely groaned in response.

*****

The minute the group of agents walked into the main foyer of Headquarters they started to attract attention, which Ari wasn’t surprised at. Not least did they all look battered and worse for wares, but they had a strange looking dog trotting ahead of them, one that insisted snigging at everyone who stopped to greet them.

After a few hellos, smiles and shaking of hands, they made their way to the elevator at the rear, Ethan selecting the floor that would take them up to the Operations Office. Ari had to give an amused chuckle when, as it started to move, Simon splayed his legs a little and then looked up at Hannah, giving a little whine as he wobbled. She bent down and scratched his ear, soothing him a little as the dog clearly wasn’t impressed with the strange, moving metal box they were in. It didn’t escape Ari how stupid that seemed, considering he’d just spent a fair few hours on a bigger metal box flying through the sky but then again the dog was a funny little creature when all things were considered.

It was for that reason, that as soon as the elevator doors opened, the canine pushed his way out and then stopped dead at the loud round of applause that had erupted. He paused and cocked his head to one side, and then Ari heard a familiar voice, one he’d been aching to hear for so long, as it shouted over the cacophony of noise.

“Simon? Mom, it’s Simon, look! Daddy and Hannah brought him home with them!”

Ari swallowed, tears instantly filling his eyes as he stepped out of the elevator with a purposeful stride and looked at Maya who grinned back at him.

“Daddy!”  

He barely had time to register her loud, excited shout when she launched at him. With a heavy thud he dropped to his knees and held her close, his large arms wrapping around her small frame. His face pressed into her long, black hair as he screwed his eyes shut, taking a shuddering breath.

“Hey, Munchkin.” He managed to whisper out, his voice choking as the lump in his throat threatened to close off his airway.

“You stink.” Maya whispered and Ari gave a splutter of a laugh as he pulled back a little, brushing her hair off her face. 

“Sorry.” He sniffed and she shrugged, her hands moving to his shirt, fingers fiddling with the buttons just under his collar bone.

“It’s okay.” She smiled, before her arms wrapped around his neck again and she pressed her cheek to his. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, baby," he let out a small sob, “so very much.”

Meanwhile, Hannah had set off running towards her mom, followed closely by Sammy. The three of them embraced, a loud babble of sobs and whispers of love and greetings in a flurry of English and Spanish as they held each other tight. Maria pulled back to look at both her children, her hands reaching up to cup their faces in turn as she pressed kisses to both their cheeks.

“You two are never going back to a dangerous mission, you hear me?” She spluttered and Hannah gave a little laugh as she cried, hugging her mom tight.

“I didn’t even wanna go on this one so... no arguments from me.” Sammy mumbled as his mom pulled him close. Hannah smiled as he stepped away and turned to watch Rachel who was hugging her kids tightly. As her brother gestured for his girlfriend to come and met their mama, Hannah’s eyes than looked over to see Sarah was embracing Ari tightly. Ari pulled back and smiled at his estranged wife, as he adjusted Maya who was now balanced on his hip. He said something to the woman, who gave him a smile, softly touching his arm as she nodded.

A flash of jealousy suddenly washed over Hannah and she swallowed, taking a deep breath, telling herself she was being unreasonable. No matter what had happened between the two, they had a deep history, and would always in some form care for one another, they had a child together, it was understandable.

 Still, she wasn’t sure she liked it.

But, thankfully, she didn’t have much time to think on it all things considered, because Maya tapped Ari’s shoulder and he looked at her, kissing her cheek. She laughed and then spoke, a huge grin spreading across Ari’s face as he nodded. Then, he turned and beamed at Hannah, pointing towards her.

He placed Maya down on the floor and she took his hand, practically pulling him over towards Hannah, a huge grin on her pretty little face.

“Firefly, I got someone here very keen to meet you.” Ari spoke as he stopped in front of her and Hannah raised her brows teasingly, despite the sudden nerves flooding her system at the fact she was about to meet Ari’s daughter for the first time. 

“Really? And who would that be?”

Maya gave a little giggle and she looked at Ari who himself chuckled before she turned back to Hannah. “Hi Hannah!”

“Hi, Maya, sweetheart!” Hannah smiled as she crouched down. “I’m so happy to finally meet you.”

Maya beamed and threw her arms round her, temporarily stunning Hannah who recovered quickly and a hugged the girl back as she spoke. “Me too, Dad’s told me all about you.”

Ari smiled as he watched the two of them, his heart feeling beyond full. He took a deep breath and glanced up, spotting Mama Navon reprimanding Max for something he had just said, slapping him behind the head lightly. Ari chuckled, there was no doubt in his mind that Max had quipped something to her about Ethan. Maria looked round, spotted him and smiled. He grinned back and stepped forward to give her a hug.

“Hey, Maria.”

“Oh, Ari, It’s good to see you.” She whispered as she hugged him. He smiled down at her as she pulled back, slapping his arm. “You all had me worried sick!”

He gave a little sigh and a shrug. “Had myself worried for a moment, too.”

Maria squinted her eyes at him. “Typical Levinson, huh?”

At that he smirked. “You know me.”

“Yeah, he never has a plan!” Sammy shot as he stood a few feet away, arm round Rachel who was talking to Ethan.

Ari looked at his friend who was smirking and he let out a scoff, as Sammy’s eyes then flicked to Hannah who was still crouched down chatting to Maya who was bombarding her with questions about Sudan and Simon, the dog sat beside them, his tail thumping as Maya stroked him.

“Well, sometimes the stuff you don’t plan is what works out best.” Ari responded as he met Sammy’s eyes. Sammy scoffed before he chuckled.

“Yeah, because you’re a lucky son of a bitch.”

Ari looked down at Hannah once more, before he met Sammy’s gaze, his eyes flicking to Maria before he shrugged, a soft smile on his face. “Yeah, I am.”

Ari’s attention was then taken by Sarah, who’d approached them a little shyly, her hand dropping to Maya’s head. “Maya, honey, give Hannah some rest.”

Hannah looked up, before she rose to her feet. “Honestly, it’s no bother.”

Sarah gave her a grateful smile before she took a deep breath, holding out her hand. “Hi, Hannah.”

Hannah smiled back, taking it in hers. “How are you, Sarah?”

“I should be asking how you are.” The dark haired woman replied and Hannah shrugged.

“I’m fine now, thanks.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

Maya, who had been watching them both from where she sat on the floor playing with Simon, looked up at Ari who simply shrugged, before he held his hand out and she took it. He pulled her to her feet where she jumped once more into his arms and he lifted her up.

“How long are you home for?” she asked him. He looked at Hannah who’d turned to face him and he smiled, kissing Maya’s cheek again.

“For good baby, for good.”

****

The main office became more and more crowded as time ticked by. Food and champagne suddenly appeared as a ‘Welcome Home’ party of sorts struck up. As Isaacs stood to give a small speech, talking about what they’d achieved, Ari felt a little pang of guilt as his mind flicked to the refugees that had been transported away from the airport to their temporary accommodations. They wouldn’t be getting anything near as flashy or as lavish as this, but he knew they’d be taken care of and given food, water and shelter in a lot better conditions than they’d been in before. With that in mind, he let himself go a little, allowing himself to be proud of what they’d managed to pull off.

It was astounding when he thought about it, the many missions they’d run, the danger they’d overcome. But as he stood in the room where he’d first outlined his vision years ago, he couldn’t help but think about how the best thing of all at that moment was how well Maya and Hannah seemed to be getting on. Maya had almost stuck to her side, and Simon’s, like glue. Ari noticed Sarah’s expression slip a few times as she observed them, but to her credit she said nothing.

Eventually, later in the afternoon, Isaacs called time on the celebrations as they had to debrief and go through the rest of the serious stuff that came after missions. Maya wanted to stay, growing teary when both Ari and Sarah tried to reason with her that she couldn’t. To avoid an impending tantrum and floods of tears, Ari promised he would collect her the following evening from school for dinner, assuring her once more that he wasn’t leaving again and eventually she allowed her mom to take her home after bidding a final goodbye to him, Hannah and the dog she now seemed to be totally in love with.

The formal discussions and reports were given to what felt like the entire Mossad and Military board. There were numerous things to sign, all were given dates and times for appointments with therapists, they were also all subject to medical examinations to ensure neither of them had any temperatures or other symptoms which would suggest they had any underlying infections or diseases. By the time this was over, it was pushing eight pm and all of them were relieved when Isaacs finally dismissed them, telling them to head home for some well-earned rest and recuperation. 

But, it was only when Ethan handed Ari the keys to his apartment that it suddenly dawned on him that Hannah and he were about to go their separate ways. He knew she intended on going home with Sammy to her mom’s, having not seen her in over six months and Ari didn’t want to stop her from doing that, especially not on her birthday.

Yet, whilst he understood, completely, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to a night on his own in his apartment. 

“You okay, Lobo?” Hannah’s voice roused him from his thoughts and he looked up, closing his fingers around his keys as Ethan left the office.

“Yeah, fine. Just tired.” He smiled as she stepped forward into his arms. 

“Me too. I feel like I could sleep for a week.” She mumbled and Ari chuckled.

“Well, you can wake up late tomorrow with your mom fussing and making you brunch.” Ari smiled as he pulled back and Hannah looked up at him, her lips curling up at one side.

“Yeah, she’s looking forward to spoiling us.”

“Sure Sammy can’t wait.” Ari chuckled. “He can finally stop complaining about not knowing if his meet is beef,  camel or goat.”

Hannah laughed and then took a deep breath, her fingers playing smoothing gently over the shoulders of his shirt. “She’s already been grilling me about whether you still like Spanish Omelette.”

“Me?” Ari blinked. “Why?”

“For tomorrow.” Hannah looked at him. “I thought, well assumed, that seeing as Maya isn’t staying with you that you’d wanna come back with us. I mean, if you don’t that’s-“

“No, I mean, yes. Of course I do, I just figured that you and Sammy might want a family night alone with your mama.”

“Ari, you are family.” Hannah looked at him, her hand moving to his neck, gently tangling in his hair. “And besides, Sammy’s not had much say in the matter. Mama slapped his protests down about you being a pain in the ass straight away.”

Ari chuckled and shook his head. “He still hates me, huh?”

“No, he loves you.” Hannah shook her head. “He was smiling when he said it. Mind you, we might wanna wait a little till everything’s settled to tell them were getting married.”

Ari smiled, before he took a deep breath and bit his lip. “Yeah I need to break that to Sarah, too. And buy you a ring.”

Hannah beamed, her nails gently scratching his neck. “One thing at a time, we’ll think about all that later. For now let’s just be happy we made it back.”

Ari took a deep breath before he gently leaned down and pressed his lips to Hannah’s. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Hannah whispered as she kissed him back, his tongue gentle yet domineering as it swept into her mouth, sliding against hers.

He pulled away, pressing his forehead to hers and she smiled before a small bark interrupted them and they turned to see Simon sat by the desk on the corner, his head cocked to one side.

Ari shook his head. “You’re a pain in my ass.” He said to the dog who merely wagged his tail.

“Come on, Lobo.” Hannah slipped her hand in his as she tugged him behind her towards the door. “Let’s go home.”

*****

Chapter 16

So I've been playing Dishonored which is my favorite game and this popped into my head so now you all have to suffer with me. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

He's so fucking cold. Like he’s been plunged into a lake mid winter and can’t find his way to the surface. Hands shaking, Billy sifts clumsily through the box of his mother’s things he keeps hidden in the back of his closet. He's found that if he thinks about the good times, picnics at the beach under the California sun, the thing oozing it's way though his brain losses just a bit of it's grip. Leaves Billy with enough motor function to stumble around his bedroom, trying to find the right pieces. And fucking hell it’s been so long since he's done this. He can remember helping his Ma when he was little, chubby fingers clenched tight in her cotton sundress as she arranged the items on the table just right. Pricked her finger to draw sigils in a language long forgotten, her voice a soft cadence through the bedroom as she hummed Billy’s favorite lullaby. No words, just a beautiful mournful thing. Humming a song of grieving loss. Billy doesn't know why he likes it so much.

“Remember baby. When you offer your gifts they have to be special. Well loved. Something that brings you joy every time you use it.”

His mother kept a pair of earrings on the cloth covered table. She never wore them when his father was home. Took them out and put them back on the little rickety stand in the back of her closet every day before he came back from work. Dangling silver daggers with the onyx beads. Billy shoved one straight through his left earlobe when he turned fifteen and has barely taken it out since.

His Ma told him that everything he built his shrine with had to mean something. Had to be something he treasured. From the fabric to the stand itself. So Billy tried his best. Draped his best leather jacket over the milk crate that held all of his favorite hair products. Placed his Ma's Fleetwood Mac album next to one of his mother's silver earrings (the one he always wears), arranged as neatly as he can manage. He’d had to prick his thumb seven times because to his dawning horror it kept healing over. Just another tally mark towards something being really fucking wrong. And he remembers the warehouse. Can still feel the slimy caustic sludge being pumped down his throat by a fucking tentacle. But he’d hoped it had been a dream, a nightmare from reading to many Lovecraft novels. Billy curses as he slices open his thumb for what feels like the millionth time.

Apparently not.

He's drawn the characters just how he remembers. His mother had made him practice every day, showing him each and every shape and line, drawn in colorful crayon. She gave him a cookie every time he got them right. Never hung them up on the fridge though. Didn't want his father to see.

He can feel the shadow creeping through his blood, dragging it’s claws against his veins. It might not know exactly what he’s doing yet, but it must be able to feel the intention. Billy thinks of ocean waves and a soft hand running through his curls. Fights the pull at the back of his mind to just give in. To sleep. His hands shake harder.

Fuck, where is it?! Billy combs through records and trinkets, a bottle of her perfume. He’s desperately hoping it didn't get lost in the move because his mother never taught him how to make one. Hell, he's pretty certain that he wouldn't be able to find the pieces he needs in Hawkins anyway. Not like Melvalds has a supernatural voodoo isle.

Then finally, finally he finds it. Lifting up his mother’s satin scarf it comes tumbling out to land on the floor with a clatter. Bleached white and beaten smooth by the waves, it's about the size of a sand dollar. Billy picks it up, places it in the palm of his hand. He still remembers the day he found it out on the shore. Washed up between some sea glass, the leather bindings still somehow soft even soaked with salt water. Etched with symbols and shapes Billy will never understand. When Billy showed it to his mother an unreadable expression crossed her face. It was that evening she showed him her shrine.

The rune seems to hum against his skin, an otherworldly song from far away ghosting past his ears. The thing that’s trying to Shanghai Billy’s brain writhes. It's angry, but more than that it’s fucking terrified and Billy has never been more sure of anything in his life. This was a good idea. But his limbs are getting colder, heavier. Whatever this evil piece of shit is it doesn’t like what Billy’s doing. He has to fight against the deadening of his limbs, crawling towards his shitty attempt at a shrine from his place on the floor. His vision is starting to grow dark when he finally clutches on to the milk crate, placing the rune between the earring and his cassette tape. And he knows that there's no guarantee. That whatever his Ma prayed to every night never shielded her from Neil’s fists, didn’t do a damn thing as the cancer slowly drained her down to nothing. That sometimes (most times) when someone would call out to the void the only thing they heard in return was their own disappointment. But he's got no other options. This is his trump card. His last resort. If this hocus pocus bullshit doesn’t work then Billy is up shit creek without a paddle. With a frustrated shout against the nightmare pulling him in, Billy begs.

“Please! Fuck, help me! I'll do anything, c’mon just- please!”

The air in Billy’s bedroom all of a sudden seems to shudder. The shadows flicker and meld together, reaching outwards. The sound of dry fall leaves blowing in the wind, a wail of a thousand dying worlds ricochets off the walls. Then nothing. Billy scrunches his eyes shut against the sting of tears. Fuck, of course it didn’t work. Story of his life. He called for help and just like always it doesn't mean shit. No one is coming to save him.

“Well well well. Certainly been a long time since someone summoned me like that. Very old school.”

Billy’s eyes snap open, the surprise and adrenaline enough to fight the heaving weight of his limbs to raise his head. And there, perched on his shitty milk crate shrine, sits the most beautiful boy he's ever seen. He's got hair the color of soil after it rains. High cheekbones and full lips, milky white skin dotted with a constellation of beauty marks. Billy didn't know what he expected but it certainly wasn't this. The boy god is dressed in a swanky leather coat the color of charcoal with pants to match. Eyes like an oil spill, inky black and endless. With a good look at Billy, they narrow dangerously.

“I thought I fucking told you not to touch this world. You want a repeat of last time?”

Whatever deity he summoned looks pissed as hell. Did he not do it right? Maybe the items weren’t good enough. That would be just his luck. He's so confused he almost doesn’t notice it right away. The shadow slowly working it’s way through his body has stopped, retreated a little even.

“I-... I don't know what you’re talking about. Please, there's something wrong with me. Something got put inside of me and I need it out. Please, help me.”

Billy hasn’t begged since his Ma was takin her last breath in that damn hospice bed. Didn't see the point when it always got you nowhere. But now he can't make himself stop. Cuz he's never been this scared before. The things this monster inside him wants him to do. It's so strong, like he’s fighting a steam roller. He's got no hope on his own.

The boy sitting on his best leather jacket stills. Cocks his head to the side slightly, considering. Then those pretty pink lips are spreading out into a gleeful smirk. Slides off the shrine to settle on his knees in front of Billy. Reaches out his hand to cup Billy’s jaw gentle enough it makes him want to cry.

“You can't get a good enough hold of this one can you? Interesting. Tell me trouble maker, what's your name?”

That voice, deep and ethereal, seems to echo from all around him. He can feel it vibrate in his bones. He wants, no, needs to answer.

“Billy. Billy Hargrove.”

The boy smiles now, all gleaming pearly whites. If Billy looks long enough reality starts to flicker. And for just a second all he can see is teeth sharp like knives in a Cheshire grin. There for a moment and gone in a flash. The hand on his jaw tightens just the slightest fraction.

“Well Billy Hargrove. You seem to find yourself in quite the predicament. That parasite sucking on your soul is an old acquaintance of mine. He's one nasty little shit.”

If a brain washing shadow monster could feel indignant he’s pretty sure that’s what's happening now. Whatever was hijacking Billy's mind has curled up somewhere tight, sunk it’s teeth in deep. Cornered like a threatened animal.

“Please, I’ll do anything you want. I can’t… I can’t fight it. It's too much.”

There’s enough tears leakin down his face that it's soaking the front of his shirt. The boy is giving him this look, almost amused. The longer he holds Billy’s jaw the more the monster losses his grip, and Billy is ready to do anything at this point. Because that thing stuck to his brain wants him to find people. Feed it people. Wants Billy to drink all the chemicals in the supply shed at the pool. Told Billy that if he tried to fight it would take Max first and he can't let that happen.

The boy seems to come to a decision, grabs Billy’s hands to help him shakily to this feet. He doesn’t let go even when they’re both standing.

“You know there’s not many who can fight his hold for this long. I'm impressed.”

He steps forward until his chest is practically pressed up against Billy's. He smells like ozone and smoke, bottomless black eyes trained on stormy blue. Reaches up to tangle his fingers into Billy’s curls, sending tingles across his scalp. Smiles wider at the small noise that escapes Billy's throat.

“I'll help you Billy Hargrove. But in return, you have to do something for me.”

Billy's nodding before he can even really register what’s being said. Anything. He'd do whatever this pretty boy asked as long as he keeps touching Billy like this. Gentle, with a reverence no one has ever bothered to show.

“I need you to kick this little shit back into the hole he crawled out of. Can you do that for me Billy? I wanna see how your story pans out trouble maker. Wanna see what you do when someone gives you a chance.”

Billy nods again, breathless. The boy chuckles, the sound saccharine. Like warm honey dripping down his spine.

“Gunna have to use your words baby.”

Billy swallows, the click of his dry throat loud in the warm personal bubble they’ve created.

“Yes. Yeah. I’ll do it. Whatever you want pretty boy, please.”

It comes out a whisper but the boy hears it all the same. The boy smiles bright, pulls Billy forward. Soft warm lips press against his own and Billy is floating. He's never been kissed like this before. Slow and deep, the boy's tongue pressing in to curl and slide. Stuff him full. Billy's shaking for a whole other reason now. Reaches out to grip the boy's coat, cool to the touch where Billy is burning. Fire rushing through his veins, and he's already so close just from this. Whimpers brokenly into the kiss.

The boy pulls him in impossibly closer, slots his thigh between Billy’s legs, pushes up up up. And Billy is right fucking there, grinds down as he swaps spit with an old god in his shitty bedroom with the peeling yellow paint and the door that locks from the outside. Can feel the tell tale tingle spreading behind his navel.

“ ‘m gunna cum! Fuck, more please!” Billy mumbles curses into the kiss, breath hitching as his balls draw tight. The boy smiles against his mouth, yanks his curls back to bite into the meat of his neck and Billy’s gone, pulsing rope after rope of cum into his underwear.

“Oh my- .. Fuuuuuck. Yes! Uhhhnn!” He's panting like a dog as he slumps forward into the boys shoulder. Gentle fingers card through his hair as aftershocks zap up and down his body. A kiss is pressed behind his ear, a soft warmth flooding his core. He can't feel the shadow anywhere.

“So good for me sweet thing. Makes me want to keep you.”

It's said so quiet, like the boy doesn’t intend for it to be heard. Billy presses his face into his neck. There's no heartbeat under the boy's skin.

“You could. I want you to.” Whoever this is, whatever he is, he came for Billy. Answered his literal cry for help when no one else did. He doesn't know what he has to offer but he wants to give this impossible boy everything.

The boy in question hums. Brings Billy's left hand up to kiss the back of it. His skin feels hot under his lips, bordering on uncomfortable. Like stepping on sun scorched pavement. When the boy pulls back there’s a tattoo on his hand. A strange design that looks vaguely like a compass. It's the same mark as the one on the middle of the rune sitting behind them.

“I haven't given my mark to someone quite so special in a while. Try not to disappoint me Billy Hargrove.”

The boy goes to pull away but Billy still has his hand clenched tight on his coat. Panic wells up in his chest. Doesn't want to end whatever this is quite yet.

“Wait! What’s-…what's your name?” Which is a valid question he thinks. And probably one he should have asked at some point before he started grinding his dick on the guys leg. Oh well.

“I've had many names, none if which would hold any significance for you. Call me what you want trouble maker. I'll be there when you need me.”

Billy believes him. Then between one blink and the next the boy is gone, tendrils of dissipating smoke the only evidence he was ever there. A deep voice whispers from nowhere and everywhere.

“Ask your sister about the monsters in the woods.”

On the shrine the only thing that remains is the rune, both his gifts having apparently been accepted. Billy gives a hysterical bark of laughter at the thought of some higher being listening to Fleetwood Mac somewhere out in the void. It gives him an idea. He drags his lips across the fresh mark on his hand, mumbles into his skin.

“Thanks Stevie.”

if you have the time and capacity I would greatly appreciate some chronic health advice! I'm also someone who deals with the clusterfuck of problems that is MCAS (and POTS and EDS and immune deficiency...) and I'm wondering what drew you to an organic diet to treat MCAS? its really hard for me to find reliable information on if and why it works, but I've seen several mentions within the MCAS community about it.

I've been Struggling to keep my MCAS symptoms in check, and they keep escalating (severe asthma flares, burning in my mouth while consuming things, and bleeding sores suddenly appearing in my mouth and taking forever to heal, along with all the typical MCAS symptoms just short of anaphylaxis) so at this point I'm willing to try anything that might help 😭 I do have an allergy/immunology doctor, but a lot of their focus lately has been trying to treat my immune deficiency, so I haven't gotten much info on how to handle this. any advice or info you can point me towards would be greatly appreciated.

So, I was prescribed an all organic diet by my allergist before we new I had MCAS because during a bout of testing to try and figure out what the hell was going on, I had two different skin reactions to corn. One was organic corn, and my body was completely fine. The other was regular corn and my body broke out in hives. I wasn’t told which was which, or even what they were testing, in order to prevent any possible psycho symptomatic reactions. My then allergist, who I honestly miss cause he was way more competent and 💯% less of an ass than the one I have now, looked at that, looked at all my other problems and went “well that’s weird”, and summarily prescribed me an all organic diet to see if it would help.

It did, and it was concluded that my body was reacting to the minute trace amounts of synthetic pesticide (probably glysophate) found in non-organic foods. I emphasize synthetic, because organic foods still use organic pesticides, which are also not that great for the environment or people due to lack of FDA regulation, but when your choices are death now or potential cancer in 40 years, you take what you can get. He also hypothesized that because I grew up in the UK/Europe where pesticide use in general is more heavily regulated, as are preservatives, that that was also what was making me ill.

Some five years later and we fast forward to now, and we do indeed know that pesticides and preservatives can be mast cell disorder triggers. Even more natural ways of preserving foods (like fermenting) can be a mast cell dysfunction trigger due to histamine intolerance. The more you know 🌈 ⭐️

Which is also something to consider. Not everyone with MCAS has histamine intolerance, just like how not everyone with HIT has MCAS, but the two often go hand in hand. If you haven’t tried a low histamine elimination diet, it might be worthwhile to see if it helps. I do urge caution though, as a low histamine diet is extremely dangerous long term due to lack of nutrients, and it should ideally be done under the guidance of a doctor for no more than 4 weeks. I was left on a low histamine diet for almost two years by a negligent doctor, and almost starved to death. Also with things like MCAS and HIT the goal is to gradually build your list of tolerated foods back up, not to keep eliminating them, as that is the only way to heal. You need to get your body to a good baseline for healing, then try to get as much nutrients back into your diet as possible. And before anyone jumps in to recommend feeding tubes as they’ve done in the past: feeding tubes should be an absolute last resort when all other options have been exhausted. They are also no guarantee against anaphylaxis and have other complications that can be fatal, so it is imperative to try and avoid them at all costs.

With an HIT diet and competent medical supervision, I’ve gone from being able to eat 2 things to 21 in the last year. Still not a huge amount, but it’s huge progress for me, considering my body was reacting to tap water at one point. Still does sometimes, so I recommend looking into filters that remove trace amounts of chlorine from the water, for both drinking and bathing. You can get shower filters that attach to the head for like $30 and it can help with skin reactions/eczema like symptoms. I do not recommend full house systems that filter via the pipes, as the treatments used in water are actually essential for preventing things like pipe corosion or mold build up, but filtering from the faucets/shower heads is a good idea.

Which brings me onto things like skin products and household items. With MCAS, there can be any number of things that trigger us that in turn make our bodies primed to react to everything and anything we put into it. A lot of household cleaners, especially scented things, are mast cell dysfunction triggers. Tide washing detergent, for example, absolutely murders my throat if I breathe the scent in. We had friends come to stay recently to help with our basement demolition, and the smell of their laundry detergent made my throat swell and my eyes burn. It also helped me realize that yeah, actually, switching to all free and clear products for all of our household needs has Substantially reduced my overall reactions, including to foods. I now avoid anything scented, yes including essential oils, because essential oils can be triggers for anyone, not just folks with mast cell issues. Natural doesn’t mean safe. Nor does it mean shit to MCAS where some people can eat potato chips just fine, but can’t eat healthier things like fruit or veg because our mast cells have gone wonky and mistake certain proteins for allergies, whether we have a true IgE allergy or not.

Unfortunately, this does mean we end up incredibly deficient in many vitamins and nutrients, and supplements are necessary for our survival and recovery. Re: the mouth sores and bleeding, if no one has tested your b12 levels along with a homocysteine test, get that done asap. I had mouth sores for up to six months before we found out I had severe pernicious anemia and was on the verge of death. Low folate and low iron can also cause tongue/mouth burning, and those things go hand in hand with b12 deficiency. (And most foods that are high in b12 are often off-limits to people with HIT/MCAS. EDS also means we don’t absorb them as well from the gut, so it’s a good thing to check regardless) if it's not that, try looking at things like your toothpaste/mouthwash. Try avoiding toothpaste with SLS in them; see if that helps. Sensodyne is a good brand that makes an effort to avoid SLS but double-check the ingredients. I can't use any mouthwashes, so I make a point of doing salt water rinses when I remember. Some people also use oil pulling as an alternative to conventional mouthwash.

Unfortunately, MCAS is one size fits no one disorder, so the only way to get a handle on it is to find out what works for you. It makes things very overwhelming, but I hope some of the above is helpful and proves useful to you. Best of luck, and if you've got any more questions hmu, I'll try to help where I can 💖

Tangled Salt Marathon - Day of the Animals

While perhaps not my favorite episode this season, Day of the Animals is easily the best written story of season three. Even so, it still has problems due to the third season’s poor approach to characterization. 

Summary: Rapunzel, Varian, Angry and Red are returning stolen loot that the two girls had stolen years ago. They are accompanied by Max, Pascal, Ruddiger and Hamuel who all cannot stop quarreling with each other (or in Hamuel's case, just being useless). While messing with a sea shell pendant, it magically transports the humans into it, leaving the animals to fight over it. A minor thug named Dwayne, steals the pendant forcing the animals to work together to retrieve it. 

So Why is a Polynesian Inspired Kingdom Within Riding Distance of a Northern European Country? 

If you’ll remember my review of Beginnings, Neserdina’s princesses were wearing Polynesian garb and dancing the Hula when prepping for the competition. Now I’ve already went into length as to why that’s not good representation, but in addition to that it’s also just plain dumb. You can’t just transport one ethic group and dump them into another part of the world because it’s convenient for you. You don’t earn any brownie points for doing that. Especially when your fantasy world is still based off of our own historical earth. 

To make things even more confusing, we actually saw Neserdina way back in season one in Way of the Willow. It’s where Willow bought the gremlin knock-off. 

That is an island. How the heck do you get to a volcanic island riding in a horse and cart? And don't tell me they’re riding to a port, because Corona is a port city already. They could have gotten there by boat. It’s also can’t be too far away from Corona’s borders if Angry and Red were able to get there on foot during their year long travels. 

The only explanation is that the entirety of the Tangled crew doesn’t understand geography, and this won’t be the last example in the show to back up that statement. 

So Why Is Rapunzel Here?

We get explanations for why everyone is on this road trip, except for the main character herself. Red and Angry are trying to return some stolen loot. Varian is wanting to pick up rare alchemy supplies at the market and was invited along because Raps hopes it’ll be a chance for Ruddiger and Max to get know one another better. 

But why on earth does Rapunzel feel the need to come on this trip herself? Doesn’t she have a kingdom to run? While I’m sure Eugene is more than capable of handling things, this doesn’t reflect well upon the writers supposed plan of making Rapunzel appear more responsible. 

Literally any other adult could have come along on this trip. This wasn’t something Rapunzel needed to waste time on. Lance especially would have been more appropriate here as he’s the one who’s suppose to eventually adopt Angry and Red.  And the sad thing is, all they had to do was give Rapunzel a line about needing to attend some sort of diplomatic business in Neserdina. That’s it. 

In a show that’s supposed to be all about Rapunzel; Rapunzel sure doesn’t have a whole lot of reasons to exist in the majority of the episodes. 

Lack of Worldbuilding Strikes Again

At this point I’m kind of numb to the whole “magical thing just exists for no adequately explained reason” and so I’m not as upset as some people are about the shell necklace. But it’s still not good writing. 

Why does this thing exist? How did come to be cursed? How did it get mixed in with their stuff? What activated the magic and why did it only effect the human’s even though the animals were closer to it? 

Just something show. Anything. You bothered to give use rules for how this thing works and even stuck to them this time, but you can’t just make the last leg of the trip and give us some exposition? 

Yeah, okay. 

So Where Exactly Are We in Relation to Corona?

We can see Pittsford and Ivangarr on the road sign and we have to be in riding distance to Neserdina from Corona, but like are we in Corona still? Are we in Koto, which is Corona’s nearest neighbor to the east according to season three. Are we in some no-man’s-land where none of the kingdoms have control, or are we already in Neserdina itself? 

The series gives us no sense of direction nor any firm placement for Corona within it’s world. I only know it is a Northern European country because Corona itself is a peninsula with a north sea, uses French, English, and German fashion/customs, and Rapunzel is a Germanic fairy tale. But like those clues are thrown into a blender and contradicted several times over, on top of never being told where it’s closest kingdoms actually lie. 

All of this matters when traveling and exploring the wider world are big themes of your show. You need more solid and consistent world building than this. It also impacts how much authority and control your main character has within the episode itself if she range of political power is limited to one area. So like we need to know where the heroes stand here. 

(FYI I personally headcannon Corona as former Prussia which was once part of Germany and it’s alliance of smaller kingdoms. It’s also a peninsula next to the Curonian Spit) 

This Is Not Progress

Okay so the idea here, is that the show is implying that Rapunzel is trying to improve Corona’s justice system over Frederic’s previously inhumane crack down on crime. However, this is terribly executed. 

For starters the show has never called Frederic nor Rapunzel out for their previous misbehavior. You can not change any system for the better without acknowledging the flaws within said system first. Therefore this comes right out of nowhere and doesn’t stick around long enough to stay within the viewers minds for later. 

Secondly, Rapunzel is incredibly fickle about who she does and doesn’t set free. The Saporians were still in the dungeons last time we saw them, Caine was shipped off to the prison island and left to die there as far as we know, and the Stabbingtons are shown shackled together in the wedding short even though they supposedly changed their ways and befriended Eugene again. 

Meanwhile Dwayne and Stalyan are free to go their marry way and continue their life of crime, Varian is only released from his overly harsh punishment because he kissed Rapunzel’s ass not because it was wrong to imprison him in the first place, and later Cassandra gets away scot free because she’s Rapunzel’s bestie even though she committed the worst crimes out of everyone in the show and for very little reason. 

That’s not justice. That’s not compassion. That’s not progressive reform. It’s just nepotism, and it’s every bit as corrupt as Frederic’s classism and totalitarianism. 

Just because Rapunzel is “nice” it doesn’t mean that she is kind. Real reform has to treat everyone with equality and have a set of base standards that are beyond one person’s personal judgment. She is still a dictator and an abuser even if she lets the occasional person go free on a whim. 

Finally, Rapunzel’s methods are just downright ineffective. Dwyane may not be a threat to our heroes, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a threat to other people. He’s not actually sorry about trying to rob people at knife point and he fully plans on continuing being a thief after feeding Rapunzel the lines she wants to hear. 

Furthermore, we don’t know if this course of action is born out of malice or desperate need. He half heartily comments about finding ‘an honest job” but can he even do that? Is it even a realistic option for him? The series has been weaving this class inequality theme through out it’s past three seasons and directly connecting that to Corona’s crime rate. 

Eugene had a hard time finding a job during season one directly due to his past record, remember? A life of crime he was forced to lead in order to survive, and he’s the Prince Consort! What chance does Dwayne have? Did Rapunzel even try to help him find work or did she just wag her finger at him and told him “Now, now, stealing’s not nice.” 

The show wants to act like Rapunzel is this progressive reformer but then they turn her into a Republican instead. That’s not me being sarcastic either, this approach to criminal justice is the foundation of conservative belief and has been for centuries. The right are not interested in why people commit crime. They don’t care about addressing the fundamental problems in society that lead people to break the law. Let alone bother to analyze why those laws exist in the first place. Instead they resort to doublethink and survivor bias to either write off those that fall through the cracks or make excuses for why their policies repeatedly fail, often ignoring the fact that things aren’t actually working for whole swathes of people who aren’t themselves.  

Tangled the Series is far too simplistic and childish in it’s approach to deeper subjects like this to enforce the messages it supposedly wants to enforce. Rapunzel herself relies on magical thinking, double standards, and personal bias to see her through every and any problem and the show just rewards her for it rather than challenging her to grow and in doing so winds up supporting people like her in their authoritarian ideas, whether that was the writers’ intentions or not. 

In short, Rapunzel shows no interest in putting in the real work it would take to implement genuine restorative justice. She doesn't honestly care about Dwyane or his victims. She’s just posturing here for the sake of her self image.  

You’re Not In Any Position to Talk Rapunzel 

Speaking of Rapunzel being a hypocrite.... The entirety of season three’s main conflict is her having a petty bitch fight with her supposed best friend and needlessly dragging everyone else into it.

In fact that’s the whole show. Rapunzel repeatedly failing to get along with other people because she’s deep down a shitty person despite the veneer of ‘friendliness’ she slaps on to hide it. Having her just say she knows better does nothing to convince me that she’s actually learned anything. You have to show that she’s learned it first, and that requires acknowledging her own wrong doings.  

Varian’s face here just tells it all. Rapunzel is full of shit and no one in the show knows it better than him. Why are they even friends again? Why should we trust her with the three kids she neglected more than once? Why should any of these people take what she says seriously? 

Well This is Contradictory

Also, since we brought up double standards, here’s Varian undermining that whole “jail is bad” thing Rapunzel is trying to push with Dwayne and later with Cass. Not only is the show under cutting it’s themes for a joke, but it just reinforces the abuse Varian received. He’s now bought into Frederic’s stupid beliefs and winds up reinforcing to the audience that that his ‘reform’ was due to his past imprisonment.   

As an adult watching this series, Varian’s supposed redemption continues to increasingly look like a victim complying with their past abuser out of fear of further harm rather than anyone genuinely learning to be better.

Can We Please Stop Infantilizing the 16 Year Old

As if to deflect from Varian’s past mistreatment and continuing parentification, the show then goes on to showcase the opposite extreme whenever possible. I know it’s hard to tell just from these few screen shots alone, but over the course of season three Varian is spoken down too and treated condescendingly by the rest of the cast, and by Rapunzel in particular, even as he enters his later teens/early adulthood.  

Some of this is just to due to Rapunzel being her usual holier than thou self, but there’s also times, like here, where Varian is lumped together with the actual children of the show, even though he’s 6 to 8 years their senior. 

In fact out of everyone Rapunzel interacts with, Varian’s actually the closest to her in both age and development. Queen for a Day forced the two of them into a power imbalance due to a mixture of classism and society’s ongoing unhealthy (and often artificial) divide between younger and older teens, but as we get further and further away from that point in time and as Varian nears the same age Rapunzel started out as, that imbalance becomes less and less relevant. 

Look at how this scene is framed, He’s standing between Angry and Red and is placed lower than them to make it look like he’s one of them. He’s not. 

Varian may still look 12 with his big old eyes and short stature, but seeing as how we’re past Hearts Day, he’s actually close to being 17, if he isn’t already. The timeline gets even wonkier after The King and Queen of Hearts, but trust me, we’re close to being two years past Queen for a Day, if not more so. 

Varian, for all counts, should be Rapunzel’s equal by now in terms of story. Not only is he closest in age to her, but he’s also the only other person going through a coming of age arc. And of the two, Varian’s the one who has actually learned and grown as a person. He has more real world experience than Rapunzel ever will and knows how to implement that experience. (He’s also the more mature, but that’s more of a failure to write Rapunzel competently than a reflection of his capabilities.) 

No matter how you slice it, Varian shouldn’t be taking orders or advice from Rapunzel; no one should be, really; and he most certainly shouldn’t put up with her condescension. Rapunzel is not his nor anybody else’s mother. She’s not even a big sister like figure, and at no point should be treated as the leader of anything or anyone. 

Rapunzel is a Poor Man’s Rose Quartz 

I typically try not to draw too many comparisons between Tangled and other shows outside of the occasional parallel, as a show should be able to stand on it’s own for good or for bad, but it’s hard not to discuss the series without also discussing Steven Universe in some way. 

Steven Universe is this generation’s Batman the Animated Series or Scooby Doo. It’s the game changer that everybody else is trying to copy in some manner. Chris desperately wants Tangled the Series to be the next Steven Universe, right down to how the show is structured, paced, and what themes are presented. But unfortunately Chris has no idea why Steven Universe works the way it does. 

For starters SU adjusted it’s pacing as it went along, smoothing out its rougher edges while Tangled doubled down on its filler. SU had a planned arc from the get go and stuck to it, so that by the time the twists came they made sense. SU kept it’s focus on Steven purposefully so that the story unfolded from his view point while making to sure to acknowledge the importance of other characters around him and their conflicts. It didn’t make him infallible nor shove aside everyone else’s arcs.  

But most importantly, Steven Universe was written by a bisexual nonbinary person who set out to make a show for people in the queer community like themselves. Meanwhile, as a middle aged white man, Chis hasn’t a damn clue about his primary audience and has shown no interest in connecting with them. 

This isn’t to say that Steven Universe is a perfect show. No show is beyond criticism. Nor is this to say that straight white cis men can’t write; many of them do and can portray characters unlike themselves competently enough. But if you’re completely disinterested in other points of view than you can’t be a good writer of fictional stories, that’s just a fact. Because in order to understand proper characterization you need to acknowledge that not every character ever will be like you and that even you’re main heroes will hold beliefs and experiences different from yourself. Otherwise there is no genuine conflict to build off of. Either no one will disagree with each other or the conflict will come across as flat and forced, complete with lopsided bias. 

Therefore, in the end, Rapunzel winds up being less of a Steven and more of a Rose Quartz/Pink Dimond. Both are spoiled princesses/co-rulers of a kingdom that mistreats it’s people and anyone outside of it, who rebelled against their guardians, supposedly out of a sense of justice, but really for themselves and their own freedom, only to make things even worse for everyone. On top of that they both accidently harmed their friends, freindzone their best friend while also bossing them around, are condescending to their love interests, is controlling of people who trust them, and throws temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want, oh and neglected someone for an inhumane amount of time. 

Even then, Rapunzel winds up being the worst of the two. 

The whole point behind Rose was that she is someone whom the main characters place upon a pedestal and as the series went along slowly had the scales fall from their eyes and learned to view her for who she really was flaws and all. By the end, in Future, she is even metaphorically removed from her pedestal when Steven removes her picture from the wall.  

Rose also grows as a character, unlike Rapunzel. Her story is deliberately being told to us backwards. The awful person she was in the past was no longer who she was by the time of her death. True she was still flawed, and the consequences of her actions continued on even after her demise, but she actually tried to be a better person. She got called out for her behavior, she wasn’t excused for actions even when the show explained why she did what she did, and she stopped doing harmful actions whenever she realized that they hurt someone. 

Greg was allowed to stand up to her and show how she was wrong, and she respected him for it and later fell in love with him because of it. She tried to better control her temper when she wound up hurting her friend. Her failed revolution and her mistreatment of Spinel was actually born from a misguided desire to help, rather than outright selfishness. 

Rose Quratz/Pink Dimond is a brilliant fucking character. You may not like her, but you can’t deny that she is one of the most complex figures in children’s media to ever be created. She is real, nuanced, and multifaceted. He role within the story is complicated, messy, and intricate. She is the most well rounded female character I’ve ever seen and she is what I had hoped Rapunzel would be when I first watched season one, only even more so as the actual focus. 

I want women in cartoons to be people! 

But Rapunzel fails at every turn to follow through with this promise. She is not a deep complex character. She’s not a flawed and complicated heroine. She’s a blank canvas in which the creator can shove his creepy ass views upon. She is never taken off her pedestal, she’s never allowed to be wrong, and she is forced to spout the the creator’s personal bias against other characters. 

Rapunzel isn’t a person. She had the chance to be one, but then was reduced to .. to this. As a woman, the treatment of Rapunzel and Cassandra in this show is just flat out insulting. 

So What Is the Difference Between Angry and Red Now?

I’m all for character growth, but at this point Angry and Red are just interchangeable. Anything that made them uniquely them has been lost, and they’re now just fulfilling the generic rambunctious little kid trope. Red becoming more assertive shouldn’t mean she stops being an introvert altogether; that’s not how that works. While Angry shouldn’t lose her temper completely just because she’s wiling to open up more. 

So Why Dwayne?

I like Dwayne as a character and in truth I don’t mind his existence here, and unlike that werewolf hunter last time he at least was established in a pervious season. But this is still time that could have went to a more important antagonist. 

Also notice that Dwyane gets a villain song, but not Lady Caine or Zhan Tiri. Just saying. 

Rapunzel Has Not Earned the Role of the Wise Sage and Mentor 

Rapunzel has never learned to listen to others. Ever.

On it’s own this might have been a good speech, but when taken in context of the wider story it just makes Rapunzel look like an ass. 

A year traveling does not make Rapunzel suddenly all knowing. She is not wiser nor more experienced than anyone else in this scene. She’s also a crappy leader and big fat hypocrite.  

Even when she’s technically right, as seen here, she’s still in the wrong because she never follows through and acts upon her own advice; making this whole story pointless in the grand scheme of things. 

And that’s the core problem with season three. Rapunzel is shoved into a role she is not designed for and the whole premise of the series runs right off the rails. You’re main heroine in a coming of age story can not inhabit the mentor role. She can not simultaneously learn and grow and be always right while instructing everyone else. 

All through out season three Rapunzel is either rendered completely useless in her own damn series, or she utterly fails to fulfill any sort of narrative promise laid out for her while she infuriatingly hijacks the story from more interesting and dynamic characters. 

Behold The Only Reason Why Varian was Included in the Episode 

Speaking of hijacking things, Rapunzel of course has to get the idea to save everybody, even though what she thinks of isn’t anything special. It’s not derived from her character as an individual nor from all that experience she supposedly has. It’s literally an idea anyone could have come up  with and the show just hands it to her in order to justify her exitance. 

Meanwhile the character who actually is useful to the plot is sidelined and reduced to just a plot device. And not just here, Varian is rendered practically pointless in all but two episodes in season three, even in episodes that he actually should have more impact in, like the season opener and series finale. 

Good writing treats characters as equally contributing to the plot in ways that complements who these characters are.  

Ok I’ll Admit That This Line Is Funny

Look, I know this whole review series is about pointing out the negative, and I stand by my opinion that Tangled the Series is one of the worst written shows I’ve ever seen, but I want to make one thing clear.... I do not hate the show. If I hated the show I would not waste my time reviewing it. 

Yes the over all writing is shit, but there are a lot of good things to be found in the series beyond just the crap story arc. The humor is usually solid, the animation is gorgeous, the music is a delight, and the majority of the characters are likable even though they don’t develop in the ways that they should. There’s a lot of talent that went into this show and there’s a lot of potential to be had in it’s set up and lore. 

Being critical or negative about the aspects of something doesn’t mean you dislike it, or that you’re not a real fan, or that you’re just a ‘hater’, and I actually find TTS to be fascinating because it’s such a mess. I write reviews because they’re fun and because I genuinely think there is something to be learned from Tangled’s mistakes. 

So Why Do We Cut Back to Rapunzel Here and Not Varian? 

This is such an odd framing choice. Varian is the one who is talking and reacting to what’s happening. It’s his pet that’s in trouble and therefore he carries the emotional weight of the scene, and yet it’s Rapunzel’s shocked face we focus on? Why? What’s the point of that? She has no business being the center focus here. The action does not involve her. 

If you wanted to include her for a later set up then why not have both her and Varian present in this shot? Usually I can at least count on the story boarders to frame things better than this, but they really missed the mark here. Unless Chris is just that stupid and petty that he over ruled them and forced Varian out of the scene, but that seems like a pointless fight to pick, even for him. 

See This is How you Fulfill a Narrative Promise 

The conflict between Ruddiger and Max was set up in season one with What the Hair, then it was reiterated a few episodes ago during The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne, and then it was reintroduced in this episode along with a stated lesson about working together that they needed to learn. By they end of the episode, guess what, they’ve learned to work together. That is how you properly set up and resolve a conflict. 

It’s clear from this that the writers of Tangled the Series know the basic tenants of writing and how to fulfill narrative promises. So the fact that they don’t follow through with this in the majority of the show’s episodes and ongoing story arcs just baffles me. 

Is it negligence? Is it hubris? Is it incompetent management and editorial mandates? Is it just one asshole ruining everything or is this a failure in the writers room as a whole? 

I just don’t understand what the fuck went wrong here. There’s no reason for why the show got as bad as it did. How does the most acclaimed animation company in the world put out such amateurish tripe? 

Just... wow. 

Now you know why I’m mesmerized by this show. It is a mystery to be solved, like trying to figure out how the crew on the Titanic fucked up so badly or why Hindenburg blew up. You just can’t look away. 

Conclusion 

Like I said at the start, structurally speaking this is the strongest episode of the season. I personally enjoy Lost Treasure a little more, just because Rapunzel annoys me less in that, but it’s not a bad story. However when you’re best episode in your final season is filler, then you know you’re in trouble. 

If you like my reviews and want to support my writing endeavors you can drop a tip in my kofi https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines

Dot x Steve x Male! Reader Headcanons

God knows how but it just works

You met the boys while they were out at the pub after a late shift (Ted dragged the whole team there, put money behind the bar and left)

Steve caught your eye first, he was laughing loudly with Kate and some of the team

You thought he was just gorgeous and sent a drink his way via the bartender

You met Dot in the toilets, he was coming out and you were walking in

You kinda just bumped into each other and stood there looking at each other for a few seconds

It was so intense, Dot just stared into your eyes like he was about to eat you

Dot just grinned and pushed his way past you

You walked back into the pub and saw the two of them whispering to each other, you knew some sort of game was on

Walking over to the bar and they sidled up to you, one on either side

It soon turned out that they were actually together

They hadn't been together long mind, they'd started out looking for someone else and figured after seeing you they'd see if you were interested

You agreed, and the three of you left the pub and went down to a small cafe a few streets away to get to know each other better

It all kicked off from there

Dot, it turned out, was a prick with a (very small) heart of gold

Steve was the human embodiment of a golden retriever- fiercely loyal and dangerous when crossed

The two of them obviously worked together, but you soon were made aware of their fears about Hastings finding out and any consequential disciplinary action against them for seeing each other

They had to keep their own relationship underwraps- but they were happy to be open about you

After a few separate dates (the boys insisted on getting to know you on a one to one level*) they were happy enough to properly give it a go

*dot took you for a chinese, steve took you for an indian and you took the pair of them to a foodstand by your work which sold incredible pizzas and kerbabs

Steve had moved into Dots place before you had joined them so you pretty mich spent most of your time round theirs

They'd try not to spill too much about work (confidentiality and all that) but eventually they literally didn't care and would keep you posted on their cases

Dot was more closed off at first, but eventually he began to trust you more and open up

Steve tried to not overshare and tell you about things but he just couldn't help it

With Sam it had been very much 'she's in another department, mustn't talk about work' but then he'd get home and you and Dot would be sitting on the sofa and he'd be filling you in about any new findings and Steve just had to tell you about his day too!

You'd originally thought Dot was easily spooked- he'd check the locks, keep an eye out for certain cars and would be wary when you and/or Steve were out with him in public

One Friday evening, Steve had picked you up from work and the pair of you walked into the flat to see Dot looking stressed as hell and making a batch of chilli

Obviously you were confused but mainly concerned- Dot was usually so controlled in his emotions but you could feel the nervous energy radiating off him

Steve explained he 'just got like that sometimes' and jumped into the shower like nothing had happened- clearly Dot had at some point asked him to leave him be

You weren't having it

Softly approaching Dot and trying to make him explain whatever was bothering him

He promises to explain over dinner - hence the chilli

Once Steve was dressed and joined the pair of you at the table, Dot proceeded to slowly explain his ties and involvement to the OCG- how they had groomed him into the force, manipulated him into feeding them intel and how he was now effectively running the cutaway group

By the end of it, none of you were hungry and Dot was sobbing

He was so scared of losing you both over his involvement

You both assured him neither of you were going anywhere

Steve started asking questions, trying to figure out what the next steps were

Obviously you both had to keep him safe, but he could hardly step down from the OCG or you'd all be targets

You'd sat there, listening to Steve do his job and be a detective whilst you just sat, silently raging

Dot wasn't giving Steve much- he'd slowly stopped sobbing but his throat was horse from it so he resorted to just shrugging and shutting down any of the suggestions

'Mate, i can assure you I've already thought all options and there's not much of a chance of us getting out alive if i leave'

'but what about-'

eventually you cut in and told Steve to leave it

Getting up from your seat and wrapping Dot in a fierce hug from where he was still sat

He clung to you, softly whimpering and crying again about how scared he was and how he couldn't lose either of you

Steve started clearing the plates away, kissing Dots cheek softly as he walked past to bin the now very cold abandoned chili

Steve returned with a glass of water and tissues

You had to slightly peel Dot off your torso as Steve got him to drink the water

Steve concluded going to bed was probably the best thing right now- staying up talking about it and rehashing all the same ideas Dot had probably been had would do more harm than good

Seeing as Steve had already showered, he urged you and Dot to get cleaned up before bed

Dot was completely drained and you and Steve were scared shitless of leaving him on his own in his current state

Eventually- after Dot wouldn't physically let you go (he'd become very attached to your side) - it was decided between all of you that Dot was too exhausted to shower alone

You and Steve had to drag Dot into the bathroom and sit him on the toilet seat so you could undress him

Dot's lanky frame wasn't helpful, he was all limbs and his limbs were currently behaving like they were boneless

You managed to get him undressed and into the shower - Steve left to lock up the flat and get stuff sorted for his 10am shift the next day

Steve appeared at the door just as you were towel drying Dots hair while he sat on the toilet seat and brushed his teeth

The domesticity of it all- despite the obvious exhaustion from the evenings expose- hit Steve like a tonne of bricks

He really loved you both

Eventually the three of you ended up in bed, your hair still damp from the shower and Dot smelling faintly of Steve's bodywash as his had run out

Dot was in the middle of the three of you- Steve slept on his front and had to be up early anyway so you just clung to Dot and wrapped yourself in him

You were woken up the next morning by Steve kissing your head and whispering a quick goodbye as he walked out the bedroom

You sleepily admired Steves ass in his suit pants as he walked away until Dot groggily whispered 'somethings never get old'

The pair of you stayed in bed most of the day, eventually getting up mid afternoon and finding a note on the fridge from Steve saying he loved you both and he would get more milk on the way home

You let Dot use the last of the milk for his breakfast as a sorry about your trauma i really love you gesture

At some point, you had to do some work so you grabbed your computer and sat on the bed whilst Dot dosed off with his head on your legs

Steve got home later with a bag of Chinese Food and a bottle of wine

After a glass of wine, Dot declared he couldn't leave the OCG but he'd try and take a backseat and divert operations more away from AC-12 and Steve

You all relaxed after that and spent the rest of the night watching some shit film and pointing out the plot holes

That evening you had to leave the to go back to your flat as you had work on the Monday

Dot and Steve decided right there they had to ask you to move in

The flat felt weird when you weren't there- the boys obviously knew how to survive on their own (they'd been doing fine before they met you!) but it felt like something was missing

The next weekend you were over, they asked you and you accepted immediately

They helped you move all your stuff into boxes and then move it into their flat

Well, it was now your flat

The three of you consumating the move in

You woke up the next morning feeling sore and loved

Dot had been up for a while and when he walked into the bedroom to check on you both he could hear you and Steve laughing softly

He cracked open the door slightly and saw you and Steve all cuddled up, hair a mess and the duvet spread haphazardly across both your legs

Dot was, as he had been many times, struck by how much he loved you both and how much he was glad Hastings had put money behind the bar that one night

___

my heart hurts, but what can i say?

its 12:22am as I'm posting this- big love to everyone and anyone who enjoyed this fic!

drop me a comment- I'd super appreciate it 😍

Hi! Is it possible to request Kaeya and #22 for the 50 followers event? Congrats btw!!

Hey, thank you so much for your request!

It’s still posibble to request around 5 prompts I think, so feel free to send in another ask!

Anyways, I don’t know what I aimed for here. All I know is that I always wondered how in the hell did the vision bearers learn to control their visions? And how do they work? Do you need to hold it or something?

Either way, please enjoy our dear Cavalry Captain Kaeya saving us.

50 Followers Drabble Event, prompt #22 with Kaeya

If you wish to check out the official “50 Followers Drabble Event”, press here

Title: You Will Be Okay

Prompt: “Do you trust me?”

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Pairing: Kaeya x gn! reader

Genre: angst (?) with a happy ending kinda?

Warnings: mentions of injury, fire, burns, mentions of death (minor unnamed characters)

Spoilers: brief mentions of his and diluc’s past

Word Count: 900+

Description: After fending off the attacking fatui agents, you got a pyro vision. One you cannot control. So your fear feeds the flames before you pass out and Kaeya comes to your rescure, bringing you to the sisters to heal you. You will be okay.

Enjoy!

This is so random...

Also I am aware that drabble is supposed to be under 100 words, but I consider it to be under 1000 words

You Will Be Okay

Soaring fire surrounded you, smoke filling your lungs and dying your soul black. Another spark of fire made its way towards your leg and burnt you, causing you to let out a yelp and to take another step back towards the cliff.

This wasn’t your intention, and you would take it back a hundred times if you could, but you couldn’t, they pyro vision gracing your hip was the proof of that. ‘At least they are dead’ you thought to yourself. Fatui agents couldn’t get to you even if they were still alive, the fire you shot out of the palm of your hand moments before you were slashed was keeping them away. But it was keeping away help as well.

You are sure the Knights have already seen the flames and sent someone to check it out, maybe they even sent a back up to tame down the flames after they saw the fallen fatui agents. But it still didn’t help calm your fear.

Your legs were shaking, your heart was pounding, and your vision was becoming hazy. You inhaled too much smoke and it was slowly making you succumb to the darkness.

Flames started to move again, just like in chess. The enemy was getting closer to you and you had to retreat in order to protect yourself, the most valuable piece. But you can’t last for long, all your comrades were on the other side of the board, even your beloved boyfriend, the second most valuable piece that caused many kings to fall.

Seemingly out of options and with yet another burn on your lower leg, you let out a pained cry hoping someone would hear it and finally come to your aid.

“Is someone there?!” You heard a male voice call out towards the flames.

“Please h-“ a cough cut you off, your body tried to eject all the smoke, finally seeing a chance of survival, a sign of hope “help me!”

“Y/n?!” a familiar voice called out to you this time. However, your memory was becoming foggy and you couldn’t pin down the face to the voice even if your life depended on it. “It’s me Kaeya, are you alright?”

The was hidden concern in his voice, but you could easily pinpoint it. You knew him too well; you know he is just trying to stay calm for your sake.

“I’m going to use my vision to cool off these flames, okay?”

And he did just that, his cryo vision calming down your pyro one, but you were still shaking. This time another fear came over you, what if you hurt him on accident? You can’t control your vision!

“No! Stay back!”

“Huh? What are you talking about??” For the first time, he was genuinely confused.

“I-“ another cough, another tear sliding down your burning cheek “I can’t control this! I can’t control myself and my vision!”

“Your vision?” You could make out a shape of a man behind the thinned down curtain of flames.

“I got it and this is the result” your voice was quiet; you were ashamed even if you did everything just to protect yourself. “I’m sorry, please just go, I’ll be alright!” An obvious lie, you can’t help yourself anymore. If he walks away now, he will take your life with him.

But he isn’t ready to give up on you just yet. “That I cannot do! Stay back, I’m almost there!”

“No!” You took a step back and almost fell; a small bit of your footing came falling down. You let out yet another yelp and more fire escaped you, it seemed to grow with your fear.

“Y/n!” Kaeya called out for you, worst case scenarios running through his mind. He can’t lose you! If he does, he feels like he might lose his mind. Once again, just like all those years ago when the man who took him in died, burning flames and freezing ice collided.

He could see the fragments of your face from where he was standing, a petrified look in your eyes was evident. He knew he must find a different approach.

“Do you trust me?” he said it quietly, you would almost miss it. It was his silent plead, last resort.

You opened your mouth to say yes, but instead started coughing, black spots overcoming your vision.

You know you are going to pass out so you find the strength to mutter the most silent and softest “yes” ever, before closing your eyes.

Kaeya immediately sprung into action, putting out the last bit of fire before catching you mere seconds before you hit the ground. He lifted you in his arms, careful of your burns and turned around. “Cathedral, quick!”

He sprinted like his own life depended on it, pushing everyone out of the way. You need urgent medical help. His gaze fell on you as he ran up the stairs leading to the archon statue, you looked too peaceful, but as he pressed two fingers to your pulse, he felt a weak beating. A sense of relief washed over him as he made his way to the sisters to help you.

You were going to be okay and then he’ll help you control your fear. He’ll even ask Diluc, Bennett and Amber to help you control your vision, he didn’t care, he was just glad you were alive.

The sisters took you away as Kaeya watched after them, muttering “you will be okay” under his breath.

HASO, “Saved by a Nightmare.”

I wanted to write something short and quick today, but this is what happened instead. I hope you all like. I knw you wanted to know more about the Bran and what happened to Ket

He was alone.

Finally!

He said that, but what he didn’t know is that he had actually been mostly alone for the past five years. After his traumatic experience some five years earlier, he had requested a transfer to a mining station on an unnamed planet in an unnamed system  on the very outskirts of andromeda.

He had not come up for air in those five years.

He had not seen a sole or the suggestion of another sole other than the glowing bioluminescent coating that he left behind to brighten up the tunnels just a bit.

He was technically supposed to be down here mining precious metals, and of course every day he sent up a token care of rocks and waste through the main shaft just to make him think he was actually doing something. He was not, in fact, doing anything at all really except slowly excavating his tunnel deeper and deeper, this increasing the likelihood that he would never see another living being for the rest of his life.

And so there he rested at the bottom of the deepest shaft amid a pile of rubble contemplating his own thoughts.

A pastime that was not really recommended because when he went into his own thoughts he often spent much of that time bitterly contemplating the last few years and what had led him here in the first place.

Ket was famous, and he had spent the list five years trying to make himself anonymous once again.

Why was he famous?

Because he had been the first alien to have ever met a human.

He was the first alien species humans had ever come in contact with, and because of that chance meeting he would probably have emotional scars for the rest of his life. When he closed his eyes at night he often watched, as if in slow motion as the dangerous creature with its too sharp teeth and strange churring growl chased him through mases and tunnels, never giving up, never ending pursuit until Ket wa exhausted and lying helpless on the floor.

He saw the thing in his dreams.

Jumped at every noise 

And cowered at the very thought.

He had been just a pup then really, but the meeting had scarred him for life.

He had asked to come here only months after the encounter and hadn’t come up for air since. The outside world was lost to him, and he knew nothing of it except for the horrible humans which were now probably waiting for him on the surface, ready to eat him.

A part of him wondered if the strange predator creatures had taken over the galaxy yet, and maybe he was the last one of his species left trapped down here in the dark.

Ket didn’t watch the news, or seek any information about the horrifying creatures that had turned him into this. It would have taken him less than half a day to crawl from his tunnels and go ask, but the thought of leaving his safe, protective confines, just make him sick to think about.

No, he would stay here where it was safe.

He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, when suddenly a low rumbling tremor rose up through his body.

He sat up and looked around as the cave shook and pebbles danced on the floor.

What was going on!

He turned in a tight circle pressing his ear against the wall.

Oh hell!

The tremor had destabilized his tunnel. He could hear it through the rocks.

What was happening! He tried to move, but as he shifted he felt the tunnel rumble slightly.

On no….. On no, this wasn’t how it was supposed to end, he was going to die down here, and there was no one to come save him. He hadn’t submitted a report in weeks….

In reality years.

No one was going to be ale to find him!

He sat there frozen in shock as another tremor rocked his tunnels. WHat was happening!

*** “Mayday mayday, Omen one this is mining facility 46A13 requisition immediate assistance.”

“Copy that 46, Omen in root to your position, please stand by.”

“And how do you plan on dealing with a tunnel collapse, Admiral. That's not exactly our area of expertise.” Sunny walked beside him, her long even strides eating away the distance as they made their way down towards the hanger.

“I have no idea but we are going to find a way.” They rounded a corner and the Admiral dropped to one knee for a quick moment offering his hand to a small fluffy figure who climbed onto his hand and allowed the Admiral to rest him on his shoulder, “Lord Avex, I am glad you could make it. Have you been briefed.”

The small, colorful, and pig eared creature tapped his foot on the Admiral’s shoulder.

“I think, if we remove one of the Vrul shield modulators, and unhook one of the laser mounts we might be able to make something functional for a rescue mission.”

“How dangerous is that going to be taking two high powered objects into a cave?”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

“Sure.”

“A twenty.”

Admiral Vir grunted and rounded the corner to where a group of marines werve suiting up in armored spelunking gear.

“Don’t the mining companies have equipment for this kind of thing?” Sunny asked, “I would assume they would be ready for any eventuality like this?”

“You would think that.” Adam said, walking over to joining the others, “But they are actually a little less prepared than you might think. The Bran have been mining manually for a long time, and they usually don’t need precautionary measures because they mine so well, of course this planet had also not shown any seismic activity up until now either, so I guess we can all be wrong about something.

“Lord Avex, talk to your men about getting the equipment ready.”

The fuzzy creatures bobbed its head, which looked more like it’s entier body, and rolled down the Admiral’s arm like a ramp, plopping to the floor and then dashing off into the darkness.

Adam pulled on a hard hat and tested the light.

“I still don’t see why they would send you. You guys have to experience in this sort of  thing.” Sunny pointed out 

Adam secured his hard hat and looked up smiling, “If I didn’t know any better I would say you were worried about me.”

She crossed both of her arms, “I AM worried about you, you big idiot. You seem to have this thing for running into dangerous situations with only half assed plans.”

He just smiled, “Not entirely half assed, we are going to be hooked up to camera feeds leading up to some of the diggers who are going to give us instructions.”

“Then why don’t they do it themselves?”

“The bran aren’t exactly known for their bravery, Sunny.”

She stared at him with narrowed eyes, “And sometimes, I wish that you weren’t known for yours either.”

“I’m flattered, I really am, but I have to go.” he reached out a hand, paused and then drew it back, stepping away while awkwardly clearing his throat, “Anyway, keep the crew out of trouble while I am gone will you.”

Sunny had no time to say anything else as Lord Avex returned at the head of a small army of his fluffy companions carrying some random parts that they were able to attach to Adam with some warning that this was going to be very dangerous.

Lord Avex would be accompanying him to make sure the machine didn’t self destruct at any point.

Sunny did not find that particularly comforting.

The humans on the other hand suited up like it was just another day for them, setting up and loading onto the drop ship without so much as a backward glance. 

Adam flew one of the ships down, lord Avex claiming the copilot seat.

The world they landed on was tidally locked with it’s star leaving on side completely cold and the other side overly hot. They landed on the band between light and dark where it was bearable, and  made it to within the Bran’s atmospheric bubble, which was the one piece of technology they were actually known for.

Upon arrival they were briefed on the situation.

Less than an hour ago there had been some sort of seismic activity below the surface of the planet. The jolt had been enough to destabilize many of the tunnels. Fortunately for them large groups of Bran had been able to make their way out due to their superior mining skills, but there were still a few trapped inside due to cave ins.

No bran was willing to go back down there to help their comrades, but the Tesraki overseers had had the brilliant idea to look for a group of creatures stupid enough to try themselves.

At least the Tesraki seemed to care about their people, which  wasn’t often the case with the furry businessmen.

Most of the workers were stuck on upper levels, and would be relatively easy to get out.

But there was one.

“I am going to be honest with you Admiral, we aren’t entirely sure the bran is still alive down there. No one has seen him in nearly five years. We are only sure that he lives because, occasionally we get sent up a cart of useless rubble from one of the deeper shafts. Generally I would say he is a gonner and just leave him there, but, we have to try all of our options before we resort to abandoning one of our people.”

Adam nodded, “I have a Vrul strength shield and a Celzex designed laser. Will that be enough.”

The two Tesraki looked between each other in quick contemplation before one of them nodded, “The laser, for sure, but I don’t know how well a shield would stand up to the entire weight of a mountain crushing you, we can only hope that we can navigate you down there fast enough and quietly enough not to disturb the tunnels too much.”

“I will go with you to work the laser.” Lord Avex announced, and Adam didn’t argue. He knew the little creature would be offended if he questioned his honor. Celzex may have been insufferable egoists most of the time, but no one could deny their sheer bravery, or perhaps stupidity, but that was something he could admire at least.

He was a human after all, and had practically written the book on competent stupidity.

They were led across open ground under a dark sky, where massive floodlights were being shined down on the multiple tunnel entrances.

They walked a ways into the darkness of the first mine shaft where Bran were still fleeing for cover.

From there each of them was paired with a handler, who would give them instructions on their way down.

Adam was paired with the team lead since he was going to be going deepest. Lord Avex sat on his shoulder.

The Bran stared at them as they walked inside, shying away from the much taller, much scarier looking humans.

Looking at them brought back memories of his first alien encounter, a memory that was both fond and embarrassing considering he was pretty sure he had driven that particular alien to madness.

He had tried to find Ket before, to apologize for freaking him out, but by the time he had gotten around to it, the Bran had already gone to ground. Oh well, maybe one day something would happen, and he would get his chance to apologize 

“Can you hear me.”

“Yeah I've got it.: He said, adjusting the sound on his implant.

“Now the entire cave system has been built throughout with audio relays, so we shouldn’t lose contact, but if we do, keep moving forward, and whatever you do, try to keep control of your feet and don’t let them touch the side walls.” 

“Yes sir.”

The Bran had mostly cleared out of the front entrance leaving it open for Adam and the group of marines to begin their descent down into the darkness. He looked over at the marines in admiration, never had he had the opportunity to work with such a brave group of men and women, and he looked up to them every day.

They started breaking off halfway down the shaft to their different areas, until Adam was the last one still walking down. At this point the saft was still big enough for him to stand at his full height, and floodlights on the walls were still giving him a good view of where he was going. He had gone down some distance by the time he reached the end given two passages to chose from.

“Left.” he was ordered, and he stepped inside, gingerly making his way across the floor and trying not to touch the walls.

Lord Avex rested on his shoulder controlling his head mounted light.

The tunnel grew smaller and smaller as he went, and he found himself crouching along the way.

Lord Avex moved around back and clung to Adam’s harness.

“See the cracking in the cave above you,”

Adam looked up and did, to his chagrin, see a web of hairline cracks spidering across the ceiling, “Yeah.”

“Those are kept in check by the shoring up along the walls, and you don’t have to worry about them. Cave ins are going to be our biggest concern, now take the next right.”

He did as told,and had to duck under a low opening before continuing his way down. By way of instruction he made his way deep into the ground, sliding down ropes, and climbing through caverns with the ease of a creature that could only have been Bran or human. As far as he knew the Bran were the only other creature that had ever been designed for climbing besides humans, though he was finding that that kind of climbing was a bit different. Humans had originally found their homes in trees, while the Bran had always been cave dwelling creatures.

He found this out pretty soon as he tried to fit his shoulders through a very small opening, slithering forward and trying not to disturb the rock too much.

He was glad he had never been claustrophobic because even he was feeling a little closed off, he could hardly imagine what someone with a fear of being crushed would feel at a moment like this.

“How are you doing down there Admiral.”

He was huffing and puffing rather heavily as he army crawled through the next section of tunnels, lord Avex waddling ust before him.

“Good, good If these caves get any smaller I might not be able to fit though…. Shoulders too big, and there better be a place for me to turn around or otherwise I’m well and truly fucked.” He said that as a joke but a part of him was definitely panicking at that possibility.

“The Bran always build turnaround areas into their tunnel, Admiral, you are going to be fine. Anyway you are approaching the next section. This is a part no one else has been in as far as I know, so we are going to have to play it by ear.

That also was not entirely comforting, but he was going to have to work with it.

He hurried forward , as much as he could and slithered into the vertical shaft going downward. 

This was scary as hell, but he kept control and didn’t panic crawling his way deeper and deeper into the caves.

At one point he was coming round a sharp corner some hour down into the dark when a soft rumbling rolled through the stone.

He felt his heart jump into his throat and the rocks swayed around him.

For a moment a spot of true panic colored his thoughts. He was going to die down here…. After everything that had happened….

“Hold on, must be an aftershock.”

He gritted his teeth and kept his head lowered, hand hovering over the control for the shield. He had no idea what would happen if he engaged it this far down, and he didn’t really want to find out, but soon the tremor passed, little fountains of dust falling onto his head. Up ahead the fluffy Celzex was no longer so colorful, matted with dust and gravel.

“Are you ok Admiral.”

“Alright.” he grunted. “A little bit shaken up is all.” He began crawling his way forward again.

Based on our sonar readings, you are getting close. The rock is much less stable down here, so you are more likely to run into cave ins.

He followed as instructed, moving forward and examining the rock below his hands. 

As they said would happen they found a caved in part of the tunnel just up ahead.

“You’re going to have to use that laser to dig around one side and create a new tunnel, you will want to avoid the weakened areas of ceiling, so move back a few feet and go through the right hand side”

Before him, the little Celzex move into position ready to fire the weapon, now turned mining equipment.

The laser was bright red and almost blinding in the darkness, and he only had his gloved hands to scoop away discarded rubble, which he gently pushed up the tunnel praying nothing would be distrubed.

It took them a good hour to work through the new tunnel despite the laser, and when they did he was surprised to see an open tunnel glowing with a strange bioluminescent film.

“Something has been living down here.” he muttered kind of glad he was wearing gloves as he crawled into the tunnel.

Getting close Admiral.

***

Ket lay in the rubble ready to die, he knew it was coming, new his life would soon be at an end. Oh how sad it was that it should be so early.  Stuck underground in the darkness for the past who knows how long…. Probably no more than a year or so.

Either way he was going to die here, and no one would come to help him. Bran weren’t brave, they didn’t come to your aid.

Bran were cowards at heart and he knew that most of all.

No one was coming for him.

Of course that is when he heard the strange scraping up the tunnel.

He sat up lifting his head and staring into the darkness. WHat could that be!

He was the only one here and had been the only ne here for as long as he could remember. Was he going mad, Where were those sounds coming from!

He pressed back into the wall. 

Maybe that hadn’t been an earthquake, maybe there was some sort of giant worm crawling through the depths of this planet finally coming to eat him. Oh the depravity! Couldn’t he just be left in peace!

The scraping sounds grew louder and louder and louder, and he watched in shocked terror as a shadow jolted forward in one of the upper bends.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere for him to go, and even as he thought that the tunnel began to shake again. He held on for dear life, eyes closed praying that death would take him quickly, for he did not want to know what was around that corner. The shaking soon stopped and the figure started moving again.

Ket watched, in mesmerized horror as the thing poked its head around the corner.

Bulbous head, bony shoulders, long spindly arms and bony digits. 

Ket began to scream, scream and scream as loud as he could as the creature born of his nightmares scuttled out of the darkness and came crawling towards him. It made some of its same guttural gurgling noises, the ones that had haunted his dreams, and he pressed himself back into the wall screaming and screaming and screaming.

It had come for him at last to devour his heart.

It reached out and grabbed him by the snout, cutting off his scream.

The ground around them began to rumble as the creature gripped him with iron hands, the pale white of its eyes glistening wetly through its dust smeared face.

“Shut UP, shut up shut up, do you want this whole damn thing to come down on us.”

He certainly had not expected to hear his own language, and his attempted screams cut off in a confused gurgle. The rumbling died down a little.

The creature made a gesture with one hand, “Ground team this is Admiral Vir, I have the last survivor and am bringing him up now.”

What…. Wha?

What was going on.

The creature's white teeth glittered in the illumination of his tunnel just as wet and gaping as before.

He was so scared he could hardly move, but shocked as well as the creature from his nightmares pulled him forward and hooked a harness around Ket’s body clipping it to a loop on a harness that encircled the creature's back legs.

“Now do what I do, and you might just live.” The creature hissed at him, still, disconcerting in his own language.

In a daze, Ket followed after as his nightmare dragged him from the collapsing tunnels. Trickling runnel of dust poured down around them from cracks in the ceiling above. It was made pretty clear early on that this creature had not ever been meant for the caves, despite Ket’s memory      of one of it’s kind chasing after him through the underground. It was too large, meant to walk upright on thick sturdy legs, but till it climbed with the ease of any Bran.

Didn’t mean he wasn’t scared.

Memories from that night not so long ago, or it seemed to him, kept racing through his mind. Flashes of glowing green eyes and flashing white teeth champing at his heels. The sound of its revving hunting cry as it raced through the darkness. But now he was being towed along behind it as the tunnels rocked around him.

“Shit shit shit shit.” Came the muttering up ahead, and he looked to see that there was another creature riding on the thing’s back. It stared at him with very wide white eyes.

“Lord Avex?”

“Yes?” The creature responded, sounding much less concerned than the predator.

“What happens if you die here?” it was a very blunt and morbid question, but the creature didn’t seem to mind. 

“I will be honored for centuries having died in a heroic manner.”

The predator made an incomprehensible grunting noise.

“Admiral, the cave system has been compromised and the tunnels are collapsing. Get out as fast as you can, I repeat as fast as you can, if there is a cave in you will want to be closer to the surface because we might be able to reach you. 

They were talking like they expected a collapse, which wasn’t really all that comforting.

The predator went very quiet, but sped up to the point Ket was being dragged along behind.

All around them the tunnels were shaking.

Dust filled the air clogging their vision as the beam of light fractured off dust motes.

They passed a point he had not gone further than in five years, and the predator scrambled up the vertical climb as easily as a Bran would, he scrambled on hands and knees dragging the two of them along. He was almost able to walk in a crouch now, but the tunnels were beginning to cave in around them, rocks falling from the roof and smashing against the ground. The Preditor  ducked and pulled to the side grabbing ket around the middle and the strange fluffy creature in the other hand. The tunnel was wide enough for him torun now.

Ket could do nothing but watch.

The predator probably could have escaped if it dropped him, but it refused to do so, adjusting him even as it ran so it could keep better hold, clutching KEt to it’s chest. Its breathing was ragged, labored and panicked, but still it refused to let him go.

He thought he could see light.

And then.

“Its coming down!”

The predator pulled to a stop and threw himself to the ground.

The cave rumbled and roared as rocks egan to fall around them. Ket looked up only to see the underside of the human’s chest and belly as he hugged the two smaller aliens in the leah of his body against the falling stone. He heard the cave ceiling fracture and then felt a pulse of energy around them.

The Last thing he heard was a scream and then a crushing weight.

***

Ket woke unable to breathe, or barely able to breathe, all around them there was a dim glowing of a blue purple nexus, and as he looked he watched the nexus quiver under the strain.

Overhead the predator was curled in around them in a tight ball pressed up against Ket and the strange fluffy creature who was blinking confusedly in the dark. 

The predator wheezed as the nexus flickered, holding the two aliens' protection to his chest, pressing his back against the nexus.

“Admiral, are you alright?” The fuzzball asked

“How long will the shield hold?”

“It depends on how many tons of rock we are trapped under.” The Celxex said mildly.

Ket was surprised they were alive at all, based on their original depth he would have said a couple thousands tons for sure.

They were dead.

He glanced up at the predator, nothing more than a dust painted face and two glowing whtie orbs in the dark. This predator had died trying to save him, was dying trying to save him.

It seemed odd that his life was going to end like this.

He looked up at the human and in that moment, in the glowing of the nexus lights he saw the green of its one working eye.

He would have known that color anywhere.

“You!”

The predator looked down at him in confusion.

What? “You…. You’re… that thing!”

“Did a rock hit this one in the head or something.” The one called Lord Avex asked.

But the predator eyed him ,sudden recognition crossing his face, “Ket?”

The creature made that same strange revving noise that made ket pull back in shock.

“Sorry, Sorry, I am just a bit surprised to see you here, I tried to find you to apologize but…. You had already vanished by then.”

“Apologize?” He was so confused 

“Yes, I was a bit enthusiastic upon our first meeting. They say I scared you half to death. I promise it was an accident. I never meant it that way, I just get a bit out of hand when I am excited.”

This was news to Ket

He wasn’t entirely sure how to take it.

“Ok ok you two kiss and make up already.” Lord Avex jumped in

The predator grunted, “At least when I die I will have that off my conscience.”

The Nexus flickered and shrunk.

They folded forward on themselves just slightly. Pressed uncomfortably close.

Wheezing fill the hot and muggy confines of their bubble. 

The were going to die son.

The nexus continued to grow smaller and smaller until they were curled into a ball with the predator around them, pressed to the point of not being able to breathe. He felt the human’s belly rise and fall with his labored breathing.

They were about to die

And then, The nexus expanded slightly.

The human relaxed, and as minutes wore on the nexus continued to grow until with an eruption it burst up through the rock and dark night sky appeared above them.

The nexus flickered and then died, leaving them all lying on the stone gasping and covered in  dust.

Paramedics ran forward to where tey lay with shocked yelles describing how they were still alive.

Ket stared at the human as he was attended to by aliens and others of his kind.

No one seemed to find it odd.

It became clear to Ket in the next few minutes that he had missed a lot.

Bu he hadn’t missed, his once nightmare, becoming his now savior. 

𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕔𝕜 𝕓𝕪 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 (𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕚 𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠𝕦 𝕩 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣)

Request by @number1bakuhoe: can i request one for bakugou? n do yk that tiktok trend where in u kiss ur best friend but instead can it be thats how they reveal their relationship to the rest of the class?? ty💗💗

A/N: This is my dream. I had this thought and disregarded it, but this icon brought it back to my attention! I hope you all enjoy this Bakugou chaos with our favorite U.A. class. My requests are still open, and now my asks are actually working correctly (I didn’t know they weren’t). Enjoy this cuteness!

Genre: established relationship fluff and competition, Tik Tok trends, a little bit of swearing, one weird question from Kaminari, a couple references to different books 💥❤️

Word count: 3.1k

♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥

School was never boring at U.A. Whether you were listening to Present Mic drone on in English class or waiting for Mr. Aizawa to stop staring at you during training, it was always a good time. Your classmates also made sure of this, especially one in particular.

You had come to date the most ornery and obnoxious guy in 1-A, Katsuki Bakugou. His temper annoyed your classmates to no end. He never shared his trauma with anyone. It was as if “problem child” was his middle name. However, you had fallen for the spiky blonde-headed boy nonetheless.

How your relationship started was straight out of a movie, and the fact you both had been together now for 6 months made it all the more romantic. He called you one night by accident. He needed Kirishima to come to his dorm room, since he was late for a study group. When you picked up, he was annoyed at first but settled down after you told him you would help your friends. Being ranked number 5 in the class meant something, so he begrudgingly agreed.

“I’ll come,” you said, expecting rejection.

“Ugh,” he groaned.

Of course. Why would Bakugou want you to come help? He was so egocentric that he didn’t want you trying to show him up. They were your friends too, though! If they failed this test, it would make you upset. Sadly, that’s the downfall of being an empathetic person.

“Fine, just hurry your ass over here,” Bakugou ordered, hanging up immediately after.

You were stunned. If he didn’t tell you to hurry over, you might’ve freshened up just a bit. He wasn’t waiting for you, though, and if you were late, he would come to probably demote you from the rank of “extra,” if that was even possible.

The study sessions became a routine thing. Soon enough, each person kept leaving the group until it was only you and Bakugou left. It made you uncomfortable. It made him colder. Both of you were so awkward about it, which definitely didn’t help your situation. One night, you decided you were done playing this strange little game and did something about. The outcome was quite different than you had intended it.

“You know what,” you began, pushing away your binder, “I can’t do this anymore.”

“Huh?” Bakugou questioned, glaring at you.

“You and I both know that this hasn’t been productive. For crying out loud, it’s just filled with tension!”

He huffed in annoyance, clearly done with your shenanigans. This man was going to be the death of you. Why was he so annoyed with you trying to leave? He usually liked to do things alone. If anything, this study group, if you could still call it that, was only a burden to him.

“It’s not you, Bakugou,” you said. “If anything, I feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome. I only feel uncomfortable, and I can tell that you don’t like the vibe we’ve created.”

The man in front of you fell silent. His gaze still pierced through your soul and spoke louder than words. You could tell he didn’t want you to go, but he didn’t know how to articulate it. Despite this, you knew you couldn’t stay. Being in the same room as him wasn’t healthy. Your heart rate always picked up speed. Plus, being so hot caused you to wear a t-shirt with the AC as cold as possible. Maybe you were coming down with something?

You began gathering your supplies as quickly as possible. You were studying a classic literary work: Romeo and Juliet. Was it cheesy? Absolutely. Did you love it? Without a doubt. However, Bakugou was beginning to be as intense as Montague or Capulet. 

“Thank you for these past few weeks,” you blurted. “It’s been really fun, but I don’t want to stay anym--”

Suddenly, your forearm was yanked by your study partner. You landed atop his lap, causing your heart to almost burst out of your chest. Your face felt very hot, and your breath was trapped in your lungs. Bakugou’s hands fell on your waist and slowly rubbed circles into them. He let his gaze change between your lips and eyes.

You didn’t know how to react. Was he just teasing you? Then, he began to lean in slowly. Realizing what he was doing, you moved in and let his lips touch yours. It was your first kiss, but you didn’t feel bad about it. Bakugou was soft and took his time, which is not what you were expecting with his personality. In that moment, you realized why you always felt hot around him. Your pulse quickened because you liked him. You just never wanted to admit it to yourself.

After a few seconds, Bakugou pulled away. Staring into your (e/c) eyes, he took a deep breaths and kissed you again. This time, his heartbeat spoke to you. It matched in rhythm with yours and told you its deepest desires. Bakugou wanted you to be his. He initiated this kiss as a last resort to get you to stay. He needed you to stay with him, not to study but just to hold and kiss.

After that fateful evening, Bakugou had become your boyfriend unofficially. Both of you knew your relationship should be kept a secret. It wasn’t like you had a choice. Bakugou was supposed to be the number 1 hero, and you were just an “extra.” Plus, the Bakusquad and certain 1-A students would be a pain to deal with if they found out he was soft for someone.

Despite keeping your relationship hidden, you both made sure to make it a competition. Bakugou would always ruffle your hair when others weren’t looking, which would tempt you to plant a kiss on his cheek before you both went your separate ways during lunch. The nights in the dorms were domestically sweet rather than competitive like during school hours. Your loving boyfriend would always make two plates of food and slyly pass one to you. You would always make two cups of tea, making sure to hide one behind your back, and bring them to his room. When you did do this, you slipped in while he was taking his usual shower. He always came out, gave you his sweatshirt, and watched you with love-filled eyes. The tea-filled evenings always ended in cuddles and playing with each others’ hair. You stayed until your boyfriend fell asleep at his early time, and then you would sneak off to your dorm room to get some sleep yourself.

This was your normal with Bakugou. During last Christmas, you both were able to go on an actual date for the first time. However, you saw Kirishima and Kaminari hanging out, and you and Bakugou had to abandon your outing. Sadly, your relationship has never been normal because of how secret it was. You both had to get creative with your relationship, but it was worth it. He was your explosive baby, and you were his sweet angel.

Recently, you’ve been getting quite a few relationship Tik Toks in your feed. Whether it was “the faster you run to me, the more kisses you get” trend or the “oh, you want me to make you some soup” sound, you wanted to recreate them. The Pomeranian you were dating didn’t want this. He thought Tik Tok was a complete waste of time, and you always argued with him about how it was a de-stresser for you. However, he still watched every video you showed him and loved the smile you got when watching his reaction.

One of your favorite Tik Tok trends going around was with the popular song “Electric Love” by BØRNS. Best friends admitting their feelings through a kiss was so romantic, and it reminded you of how your adorable relationship began. After seeing about 1 million of them, when in reality it was only 3, you decided you had to do it with Bakugou. 

Finals were just around the corner, and everyone was stressing out. There was a rumor going around that you would all be facing the teachers again, except this time there would be bigger groups to face 3 teachers at the same time. You coculdn’t believe it and burshed it off. However, the thought still lingered in your mind that the rumor could be true. Kaminari and Kirishima reminded you of this painfully often.

One morning at the dorms before class, Momo and Iida said they were holding a study group for the class that night to prepare for the written exams. They said they didn’t care how many people showed up. They just wanted to extend the offer since they were the top students in the class. Realizing it would be beneficial, you begged your boyfriend to attend it with you. As per usual, he wanted to make your life just a little bit more difficult.

“Please, Katsu,” you begged.

“No way, dumbass,” he said, flicking your forehead. “Why go when you’ve got me?”

“I just want to hear what other people have to say. Besides, Momo is really good at algebra! She could help both of us.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes before turning to walk towards his door. You had to convince him. No matter what it would take, you had to convince him that this was the best possible option to study for the written finals. 

“Wait,” you blurted, gaining his attention. “What can I do that would make you come with me?”

“Don’t even,” he huffed.

“Come on, Katsu. I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?”

“Yes, anything!”

Your boyfriend turned around and met your gaze. His eyes were soft, but his smirk was hard. Oh no...he had something up his sleeve. It could go one or two ways: easy or hard. You figured it was the latter.

“Kiss me,” he stated.

“That’s it?” you asked, cocking your head to the side.

“That’s it.”

Smiling, you skipped over to him and wrapped your arms around his neck. You leaned closer to his lips and met them sweetly. Bakugou wrapped his arms around your waist and melted into the kiss. It was filled with love and passion, causing a fire to erupt in your heart. You had never been happier in your life. He was all yours, and you couldn’t believe it. After pulling away, his smirk was even wider than it had been the first time. Something wasn’t right.

“I probably should’ve finished what I was gonna say,” he said. “You have to kiss me by surprise before class is over.”

Your eyes went wide. He was not asking you to do this. No way. You guys kept your relationship private for a good reason. He was out of his mind.

“Katsuki,” you sighed, “please tell me this is a joke.”

Laughing, he squeezed your cheeks before turning around and opening his door. “No way, dumbass. You said you’d do anything. Just try not to get caught.”

With that, he sauntered out of his room confidently. Never in your relationship had you been able to kiss him by surprise. He always knew what you were trying to do. He watched your fidgeting hands, crinkling nose, and squinting eyes all too much. It was like he could predict your every move. He watched you like a hero watches a villain.

You had to figure out a plan to catch him completely by surprise in only a few minutes. Then, you had only 7 hours to execute and achieve your goal. That sounds like a long time, but it was going to be a race against the clock. How were you going to pull this off? It’s not like some romance movie where the song for the love interests just starts out of nowhere.

Suddenly, you squeaked out loud. That’s it! You finally have the opportunity to do the “kissing your best friend” challenge. Of course, you and Bakugou were already dating, but he was still your best friend. You both told each other everything. Plus, he had never been around when you were watching those Tik Toks. You had your plan. Now, when could you execute it perfectly?

The morning started off like any other. Mr. Aizawa began going over the day’s schedule, causing the daily antics of your class to begin. Mina and Denki began dozing off, Aoyama was just staring off into space, Koda was focused on some birds outside, and Midoriya was already murmuring to himself. Despite all of this, your boyfriend was staring directly at you from across the classroom.

Once you noticed him, you stuck your tongue out at him. Clearly annoyed by your actions, he sighed and rolled his eyes at you. The dynamic was always like this between you two. However, your attack plan was finalized.

Using your skills, you deducted that the best time to initiate the plan was right before lunch. You would say you were showing him a Tik Tok, kiss his cheek like usual, and then strike. It was perfection. Nothing could go wrong.

The morning classes went by slower than ever. Present Mic kept correcting Jirou’s grammar the entire English class, Cementoss took too long to analyze Fahrenheit 451, and Ectoplasm spoke complete gibberish in math. You stayed focused throughout all of this, though, because you knew what was to come.

Finally, the bell rang for lunch. Waiting for the class to leave the room, you slowly packed up your bag. Once Tokoyami and Shoji had left the room, you walked over to your boyfriend, who purposely took just as long to pack.

“Bakugou,” you began, sweetly, “you have to see this Tik Tok I found.”

He groaned, prompting you to lean down and kiss his cheek. Being the tease he was, he quickly turned directly to face you and kissed your lips. You laced your arms around his neck, causing your plan to become even easier. Thankfully, Bakugou was too in the moment to realize the placement of your phone. You had positioned yourself so you were facing the window, allowing your phone to lean against the glass and stand in the window sill.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than that, (y/n),” Bakugou said, pulling away from you with a smirk.

With your arms still around his neck, you returned a sickeningly sweet smile paired with a glare. “Oh, just you wait.”

You hit the record button on your phone, causing the lyrics to begin. Apparently, this gained his attention, and he turned his head to look at your phone.

Baby, you're like lightning in a bottle / I can't let you go now that I got it

“Babe,” he groaned.

“Oh, come on,” you replied, pinching his cheek. “It’s just one Tik Tok.”

He groaned and looked at you through the screen. He was clearly waiting for you to start dancing or something because he never broke your gaze. Internally smirking to yourself, you realized you had caught him hook, line, and sinker.

And all I need is to be struck / By your electric love

Once the word “love” was sung, you turned his head towards you and kissed him the deepest you ever had. He paused for a brief second with wide eyes before chuckling and pulling you into his lap. Your lips met in a fiery passion of love, and you had never felt more alive. This was definitely the best kiss you had ever shared with him.

“Wait, you gotta be kidding me!” you heard someone say.

Both of you stopped, pulled away, and looked at the door. Standing there was Sero and Kaminari with the biggest grins on their faces. Before any words between the four of you could be exchanged, they both bolted off towards the cafeteria.

“Shit,” you sighed.

“You can say that again,” Bakugou agreed.

“If they know what’s good for them, they’ll keep their mouths shut.”

He chuckled at that and picked you up, placing a simple kiss on your forehead. After setting you down, you both went and grabbed your things before heading off to the cafeteria together. Of course, neither of you were aware of the hurricane that pounded the windows or shook the roof, but that would change very soon.

As soon as you walked in, you spotted the Dekusquad and Bakusquad all together. Once the door shut, Asui looked at you with the widest eyes possible. She turned back to the group and gained their attention, causing them all to unanimously charge the both of you.

“When did it start?” Mina asked, beaming.

“Were you always going to keep it a secret?” Uraraka questioned.

“Have you gone past kissing yet?” Kaminari smirked.

“SHUT UP BASTARDS!” Bakugou yelled, partially activating his quirk.

Stepping in front of him, you placed your hand on his cheek and whispered to him to calm down. After repeating that a couple of times, he did and began sulking to avoid confrontation. Turning around, you mustered up all of the courage you had.

“Ok,” you began, “Bakugou and I have been together for 6 months. We had planned to keep it a secret until graduation. Kaminari, I’m not answering your question.”

Kaminari groaned before turning around and walking off. After you answered the first initial questions, more came at you. You responded honestly and kept the conversation going. Bakugou was beside you the hold time, and, at some point, he took your hand in his. You leaned your head on his shoulder before sighing.

“Anything else?” you smiled.

“Yeah,” Asui replied. “When will you guys tell everyone else?”

“Oh, that’s not an issue,” Sero chimed in. “I already told the rest of the class.”

Everyone in the group fell silent. You prayed silently to whatever higher power was out there to protect Sero from major damage before saying, “Get him, baby.”

Bakugou took off after Sero, causing them both to sprint out of the cafeteria. You knew that they would probably get in trouble big time, but you were relieved. Finally, you and your boyfriend didn’t have to keep your relationship a secret. You were free to share as much PDA as you wanted, within school regulations, and were free to go on worry-free dates. It was a huge weight off your shoulders.

“D-do you think K-Kacchan will hurt him?” Midoriya asked, glancing at you.

Chuckling to yourself, you smiled and said, “I have no idea. I’m just proud to say that he’s mine. Sero will get what’s coming to him.”

It’s safe to assume that the both of you decided a night in studying together was better than having the whole class ogle you during the group study session.

Yandere!Wooyoung (2PM) Headcannons

July 15, 2021 | 1,008 words

Series Masterlist

Assumes reader is an adult, but includes for if you have an age gap

Gender-neutral reader I think

tw: age gap, toxic behavior, kidnapping, yandere (which is basically thinking you are "in love" with someone but actually you should see a psychiatrist and that's really not a joke. This character trope can become very sick and violent and abusive at their worst, though I tend to go for the softer variety. They are often possessive, over-protective, delusional, etc.)

I don’t believe Wooyoung is actually like this nor do I condone the unhealthy behaviour in this post

Wooyoung is pretty possessive

Not so much in a dominant way

He’s more just kind of clingy, and he wants to monopolize your time

Feels upset when he even sees you hanging out with people who are just friends. EVEN if you have said you are not attracted to people of that gender, he wants to be there instead

So he manipulates you away from them, but quite subtly and sparingly because overall he is less firm with you and less controlling

"I just think they could show you more respect than they do..."

If you have an age gap, he’s cautious at the beginning, but there was never really any stopping him

Actually he gets a little defensive about it if someone pushes back on it

He’s such a puppy

Messages you every day even if you aren’t in a romantic relationship, often multiple times a day

But he manages to make the habit endearing and not clingy 

Because all the messages are things like “This made me think of you!” and it’s something like nice street art, or a picture of a puppy, or a funny video

At the very least he comes off as a harmless man with a crush

If he gets drunk, he video chats you basically every time and lets some of his yandere slip, but not a ton

It’s the sort of stuff that makes you think he’s just being weird or joking, like picture him drunk saying “Is it that one guy bothering you again? Give me his address and I can show him a thing or two” and then he makes a fist and his face scrunches up in cute anger

You think he’s acting cute, but that’s just because the alcohol and the screen you’re watching him on is making it hard to tell that he’s serious

He will beat up anyone who bothers you without hesitation. He just won’t tell you

He also always has something to feed you whenever you see each other

Likes to give you sweets but if you don’t like them he’ll figure something else out

Like maybe there's a type of snack food you like

Or something you collect as a hobby and he can get you that to contribute to your collection

Sometimes he shows up with bigger gifts, because sometimes you see something in a shop and you just know that that one friend of yours will like it, right?

Well if he sees something he knows you'll like he'll buy it

So yeah he's pretty obvious about liking you

If you seem distant or anything he’ll be very worried

Did he do something?

He’ll try pretty hard to find out what’s wrong. He’ll be direct and ask you first because it make him anxious

If it’s related to him or his behavior he does whatever he can to fix it, except for not having feelings for you anymore

If the issue is not related to him, he’ll insert himself into the situation because he’s over-eager to make you happy and he thinks it’s his job to make your life as problem-free as possible

He’ll definitely cross some lines in the process

For example say you are having problems with your landlord/landlady

He’ll first turn it to his advantage and offer to let you move-in with him

Then if you turn him down he’ll approach your landlord/lady about the issue himself and try to solve it he can, including paying for a lawyer or legal consult!

All through that he’ll still be offering for you to move in with him. He’ll be subtlety pushy

“You know there is always the option to move in with me!”

Then if nothing works he’ll turn to things that are more illegal

Murder is a last resort, but if things aren’t working out, then your safety and happiness are more important

Or if you have problem at work he’ll offer to find another position for you

Optimally that position would have you in regular contact with him

So if he makes it obvious that he likes you (honestly you and everyone else will probably figure it out pretty quickly), when does he confess?

Well first of all he is very nervous to do that for real

In his mind you are kind of already together, but you just don’t know it yet

You’re his whether you realize it yet or not

But he also knows that you two can’t be official until some kind of move is made

But he wants to make a fairly big deal out of it

So he’ll probably confess officially in a kind of cheesy way

I can see him confessing with a bouquet of flowers and a sparkler on a romantic day like White Day or Valentine’s Day

If after everything you turn him down he'll probably kidnap you sorry

But he's very patient and treats you well even after kidnapping you, if it's any consolation

He is actually completely delusional after kidnapping you

In his confusion part of him denies that you don’t love him

Because it can’t be true!

You are his sweetheart, his darling, his everything

But the part of him that knows what is going on keeps you locked away from the world, unable to escape

“Shhhh, sweetheart it’s fine, it’s only me!”

“Now baby I know you don’t mean that! You love me... You know you do...”

For your first time together:

First time together would probably be him on top

He wants eye contact to know that you are present with him and in-the-moment 

But after that anything goes in terms of who is on-top or in-control

He doesn't mind that sort of thing as much

Actually would not mind you being more in charge or just taking the lead

Then he knows he has your attention and your focus

But if that’s not your thing that’s okay too

He’s just happy that he gets to be with you at all

Exchange of mutual praise is something he really likes