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it-lives-in-westchester · 1 year

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ILITW Reunion fic

Hello so this fic has been in my google docs forever now, and I decided to finally finish it, so it stopped haunting my google docs.

Anyway hope you enjoy, to summarise this one shot. ILITW Gang meets Redfield!Noah again after the events of It Lives Beneath. It's awkward as hell but what did everyone expect

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Claudia’s last talk to Mai Vance about what to do with Noah was still on her mind. The rest of her friends still did not know what she had been doing this past year and she knew deep down they deserved to know. So she finally got around to tell them. It went as well as she expected, a lot of yelling, a lot of questions and some people asking if she was being mind controlled. After a while they had accepted it….mostly.

Well, at least they had agreed to meet him again, for closure she guessed.

There wasn't any real talking when walking into the woods between them. Some murmuring, Claudia didn't catch any of it, she couldn’t be bothered.

"So you are sure this is safe…right?" Claudia heard the voice of Lucas next to her.

"Yeah of course I wouldn't bring you guys here if I didn't think this was safe"

"It's not like he's going to try to kill us again?" Stacy said under her breath, Claudia pretended not to hear that, she didn't feel like doing the same conversation she has had with them a million times before. She knew Noah would not intentionally hurt anyone…pretty sure. It was that bird incident a few weeks back but she wasn't gonna mention that now.

When the group arrived at the familiar clearing, Claudia stopped and the rest of the gang followed suit. Claudia tried to feel for it, the power that was thriving in these woods. It seemed calm enough for her to try this. The rest of her friends looked at her kind of unsure what was gonna happen next.

“Hey Noah, I brought our old friends with me, you know the old gang wanna come and meet them again?” Her words seemed to be carried away by the wind. Everyone in the group seemed to look around the place after she said that.

"So how does this even work?" Lucas asked.

"I call out to him and he shows up if he feels like it," Claudia answered.

"... that doesn't answer my question" he replied with "Just trust me, okay, I know what I am doing, been doing this for a while"

“Sure you do,” Ava said while she was laying down on the forest floor. Claudia was about to protest but could not bother. If they wanted to, they could leave, but she wasn't gonna force them to stay here.

After a few minutes, Noah had still not shown up. Claudia was used to it, like whatever, maybe he was doing something he thought was important. Like scratching up the walls of the old ruins, playing with the vine dog Cora gave them, or just sulking. However, when Claudia looked over at her friends, they didn’t seem to have the same patience as her and seemed to have gotten more fidgety.

"Is he even gonna show up or what?" Andy snapped while pacing back and forth impatiently. Claudia felt like everyone was thinking the same thing, but he was the only one brave enough to say anything about it.

“He’s gonna show up, ” She tried to reassure her friends. "He wouldn't let me down like that"

She hoped the others in the group didn't hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Suddenly she noticed something through the trees. A shadowy figure standing staring, well speak of the devil as they say.

"Noah you're not slick, I can see you"

The rest of her friends started to look around

"You can come a bit closer, I promise they won't bite," she said, suddenly the figure disappeared, and then she felt a presence behind her. By the others' reactions, she could already guess what was behind her. So she turned around to face the lanky shadowy figure with glowing eyes.

“Hey dude, for a moment they thought that you wouldn’t show up,” Claudia said pointing behind her where her friends were standing.

“Crazy right!? like you would ever do that” Claudia said in a half-joking manner, trying to ease down the tension that she felt was already building up.

Noah was staring up into the sky, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group at all cost, as Claudia suspected. Claudia tried to wave to get his attention, then he looked down at her. She was used to his eyes feeling like they were staring through her soul so she didn't flinch away. She pointed behind her where the group was standing. He was still looking at her with the same intensity as before, she gave up trying to give hints and just said it like it was.

“You know you can at the very least greet them. They did not come all this way for you to say nothing to them” Claudia tried to encourage him. Noah then quickly glanced at the rest of the group, raising one hand.

“..sup...” he said hastily and glanced back to look at Claudia again just as quickly.

“Well, there’s no denying it’s him at least,” Andy commented. Claudia noticed that Noah glanced at Andy after he said that. Andy started to tense up a bit and Noah just as quickly glanced away again.

“Hello” Dan finally said after what felt like minutes of awkwardness. Claudia and Noah turned their heads towards Dan and he started to wave weakly.

“How...How are you feeling today?” he continued trying to give a small smile.

"Dan, that's the question you're going for?" Ava said

"Well, what would you have gone with?"

"Not the one that makes it obvious what you are working as a therapist"

"That is not telling anything, a lot of people start conversations that way"

"Eh kinda agree with Ava there" added Andy.

"Oh not you too!"

Claudia turned back to Noah. He was looking at the three of them who had started to bicker with each other. She was hoping he did not get too confused by it.

"Hey are you okay?" she whispered to him, trying to make sure no one was listening to what she said. Noah started to nod a bit and then turned to look at his old friends.

“I feel….fine…” Noah finally said, which made everyone go silent and turn their heads towards him. Claudia saw that Noah was not used to all this attention so he crossed his arms defensively.

"Well that's good to hear," Dan said with a smile. "Like Ava mentioned I'm working as a therapist now so that's been fun, been enjoying that"

Noah kinda just stared at Dan for an uncomfortable amount of time before giving him a thumbs up.

"...Claudia mention…" he replied.

The group looked at Claudia.

“May have told a bit about you guys to him. Try to make him remember stuff and catch up with stuff that has happened since…it all happened"

"Really? So what do you remember then?" Stacy asked towards Noah.

"Noah.." he pointed towards himself "....Stacy..?" He pointed back at her. Claudia nodded to tell him he was correct.

"you…write..?" he said, while mimicking how people type on a computer keyboard. Someone gave a nervous laugh, Claudia wasn’t sure who.

"You are correct I guess," Stacy replied. Noah looked happy with himself by that, Stacy less so.

"What about me?" Lucas asked seemingly a bit curious.

Noah thought a bit longer on that one before he pointed at Lucas.

"...Lucas…know-it-all…” Noah said, Lucas stopped smiling after he said that.

This time Claudia was sure it was Ava that was laughing.

"Speaking of remembering stuff, isn't there something else you want to tell them?” Noah stopped looking at the group. “Like the whole reason, we are even here to begin with”

Claudia stepped aside so Noah was just standing in front of the group. He tried to follow her, but she gave an angry glare back at him and he stopped in his tracks. Then he turned his gaze back to the group.

"..sorrrrry…." he looked just at a point above where everyone was standing.

"..so so so so...sorry…"

"...messed up...bad...sorry…"

The group didn't say anything back, like what more was it to add to that. Claudia could see that Noah started to fidget with his fingers again.

"...at least…happy end.." he added at the end.

"It’s not all happy though?" Lily said

Noah tilted his head and turned his attention to her. The sudden shift of focus made her jump a little, which Claudia did not think Noah had noticed. Claudia could also see that Lily avoided looking directly in his eyes and continued talking:

"As this whole thing must be awful for you, isn't it?" He stopped trying to look into Lily's eyes and looked down at his hands. Claudia wanted to ask if he was okay again, but he said something before she could ask anything:

“...Everyone alive… Noah dead...happy ending…” then he gave two thumbs up with a stupid grin to the rest of the group. Lily’s eyes widened in horror and the rest of the group gave a similar look as well.

Claudia hid her face in her hands and started to groan quietly to herself. She should have planned this better. Of course, he would say stupid shit like that. It was probably his way of making everyone feel better. In his undead funny way and not having proper human contact with anyone except her, she was terrible with social interactions as well. Poor boy didn't stand a chance.

At the same time, it's not like her just writing him a script or telling him exactly what to say would have been better, probably way worse. Why did he have to say that? C’mon!

“...said...wrong..?”

Claudia sighed deeply and was about to answer him but before she could, she got interrupted:

“No of course not, it’s just a depressing thing to say” Ava answered him. Unlike Lily when he turned his unnatural gaze towards Ava she did not try to look away, almost looking like she tried to hold a staring contest with him.

“Like jeez, yeah you messed up, but like even I am not sure if you deserve…. this?" she gestured towards him.

Suddenly Noah’s eyes lit up with a neon blue color, he pointed a finger at Ava. She started to frown, looking straight at the long shadowy finger.

“..wait…” and suddenly he was gone. Everyone was standing around shifting around a bit, staring at Claudia like she had answers to what he was doing. She had no idea what he was doing.

“We came all this way for him to just bolt after five minutes,” Stacy broke the silence in frustration. Claudia was not sure if it was directed at her or if it was Stacy just talking to herself

“Nah, he’s coming back, trust me,” Claudia still answered. After a few seconds after she said that, he came back again. It looked like he was holding something behind his back.

"...yours...sorry.." he said and dropped a long shiny object on the ground in front of Ava.

"Wait, is that a..?" Dan started to say.

“A knife? Oh yeah, that's my knife alright,” Ava realized while picking it up. Parts of the knife were shining in the moonlight, but a lot had gotten rust on it after those three years and was probably completely useless now.

“...sorry...” Noah said again.

Ava looked at Noah and then at Claudia. Her eyes were going back and forth between the two of them. In more rapid succession, before she settled on looking at Claudia.

Ava widened her eyes and shrugged towards Noah like she was not sure what to do or say next. Claudia just shrugged back at her. She was not even aware that Noah still had that thing after all those years. Why would he even bother keeping it? Guess he could not exactly get rid of it when she was thinking about it.

"Thanks...was missing that one," Ava said reluctantly, taking her thumb over bits of the handle that was falling off. Ava pressed her lips together into a forced smile.

“Thanks...I appreciate the gesture man” She said and put the knife away in the pocket of her jacket.

Noah didn't seem to notice her reluctant tone, or maybe he did but didn't care. Because he looked back at Claudia rather proud of himself.

"...anything else?.." Noah asked, trying to look at the group again.

No one answered him, they were mostly looking at each other.

"Well I don't know" Andy started. "I don't think there is anything else"

Noah's eyes brighten up when Andy finished talking

“....leg?”

“....huh?”

“Your Leg…” He pointed a finger at Andy's leg "broken…right?"

"Oh well it's not broken anymore, it's been like 3 years dude"

"three…years…" Noah looked down at his hands again "…three years?". It looked like Andy realized what he had done and quickly changed the subject.

"Heard you saved Tom's life?! That's pretty cool"

"Tom?….yes Tom…friend!" Noah exclaimed. He then calmed down and crossed his arms again.

"..was nothing…"

“Dude c’mon! You saved my best friend and other people as well when the dam in Pine springs broke. Claudia told us” Andy pointed towards Claudia who nodded to confirm that she did indeed tell them that.

“Besides, my leg is doing fine now, see!” Andy started to demonstrate by doing a high kick with his leg with no problem. Which almost hit Claudia in the face.

“And besides with both my legs working, I could kick your ass now if I wanted to, trust me” Giving a smug smile.

For a few seconds nothing was happening, but then Noah started to laugh. Andy looked at the others frowning.

“...good luck...” Noah finally managed to say and continued to laugh at Andy's comment while hiding his face behind his hands.

“Huh?”

“I think he's challenging you, you should go for it dude” Ava tried to encourage Andy.

“Nope, no fighting” Claudia interrupted the banter between them.

“Well it's getting late, so better go back," Stacy said.

“Yeah I agree,” Lily added on.

“Well we’ll see eachother soon” Claudia said to Noah before she was about to follow the others.

“Wait!” Noah said

“What is it No..” before Claudia could finish the sentence Noah was hugging her, well more like curling around her.

“Oh,” she blurted out. It did not feel like much, kind of like a cold mist.

“Thanks..for...everything,” It sounded more like how Claudia remembered Noah to sound like. Which made her smile a bit, it would sometimes happen when they hung out long enough.

"Yeah of course Noah, we're friends, right? I know we'll figure this out"

He pulled away holding his hands on her shoulder. It looked like he wanted to say something else, but he stopped himself before doing that.

“Bye…” he said and then he dissolved into the air and was gone.

"Was that sweet or weird"

"Kinda weird" Stacy admitted

"But mostly sweet" Lily tried to add

"Let's say both," Dan smiled.

"Okay, can we go back now, these woods are still really creepy," Lily said and pointed in the direction where Claudia’s house would be.

"Yeah, of course, we can even order pizza, I’m starving" Andy suggested

"Sounds like a plan" said Lucas

The rest of the group walked way ahead of Claudia. She turned her head around back to the wood, she saw that Noah was watching them walk away. She gave a weak wave at him, before joining the others.

#it lives in the woods #ilitw #noah marshall #ilitw mc #lucas thomas #stacy green #andy kang #ava cunningham #dan pierce #lily ortiz #it lives beneath #ilb #playchoices #choices ilitw #choices ilb #my writing #fanfic

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alj4890 · 1 year

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To Make It Better

(Tom Sato x F!MC*Taylor Vance) in a Choices It Lives Beneath drabble

Thirty Kisses in Thirty Days Challenge with the prompt: kisses against a wound.

A/N I've wanted to write for these two for a long time. One of my favorite scenes in It Lives Beneath is when Tom offers to help the MC with some first aid on the cult boat (and realizes he's in love *sigh*). I think, given how adorably sweet he is that he would have offered to treat her wounds in previous chapters. In this drabble, I'm going to have it happen after the attack at the gala.

Rating: Mature for brief mentions of violence and death *trigger warnings*

Masterlist

Taylor couldn't wrap her head around all that happened. The past events themselves defied belief. There really is a cult in Pine Springs! Her grandfather was not only a member but had also admitted to being part of the group who killed her parents. Then the monsters coming out of the woods to attack were just the icing on the cake.

And let's not forget the weird ghost skeleton in the lake who tried to drown her brother, Elliot.

If that wasn't enough to kill her, at least in spirit, then the rich jerk who was hosting the party tried to finish the job.

Remembering how it felt to be lifted in the air made Taylor shiver. The weird, mystical power Richard Sutcliffe used to choke her without even touching her made chill bumps erupt across her skin.

"What a night." Taylor mumbled as she collapsed in one of the kitchen chairs.

She gazed around her grandfather's kitchen. The log cabin had seemed cozy when she and Elliot first moved in. Now, she wondered at the shadows. They possessed a slightly ominous edge to them since she knew the kind of man her grandfather was.

Is he really a murderer? Is that why Mom and Dad never had him come around while I was growing up? Did they know Grandpa was evil?

A knock at the door made Taylor nearly jump out of her skin. Fear trickled down her spine as she crept quietly to peep out the window.

Her body relaxed once she made out Tom's faint outline in the porch light.

"Hey." She motioned for him to come in. "What are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you." Tom ducked his head bashfully with that admittance. "When Imogen's dad said he needed to talk privately to you and Elliot, I knew I couldn't horn in."

"That's really sweet of you." Taylor said. "You want to sit down?"

"Yeah!" He cleared his throat. "That'd be um, yeah."

They went into the living room and sat down on the couch.

"What's in the box?" She asked.

Tom looked down in surprise as if seeing the box he'd carried over for the first time.

"It's a first aid kit." His cheeks heated with color. "I um, I noticed you got banged up tonight and thought you could use some help."

He gestured towards her left shoulder. "You were bleeding there earlier."

"You could tell?" Taylor joked. "I thought wearing a red dress would hide that sort of thing."

Tom grinned at her. "What can I say? Nothing gets past these sharp eyes of mine."

He pushed his glasses up then popped the top off the container. He began to tske out bandages along with antiseptic spray and cream.

Taylor bit down on her bottom lip as she carefully eased her nightshirt off her shoulder.

Tom winced at the sight of deep gashes along the once flawless skin. He gently touched near the wound while studying it.

"Give it to me straight, Doc." Taylor looked over her shoulder at him. "Will I live?"

"You'll live." He began to clean it with some alcohol. "It's going to hurt like hell for a while, but you'll make it."

Taylor sucked in a painful breath when he dabbed at the deepest part of her scratches.

"Sorry." Tom gently rubbed her back with his free hand. "We have to clean this before I bandage you up."

"I know." Taylor hissed when fresh alcohol was added. "Damn weird snake bear thing! I'd like to rip its claws out!"

Tom fought a grin as she described all the ways she would tear the monster apart if it ever crossed her path again.

He next applied some antibacterial cream. It had some type of numbing agent that helped Taylor calm down.

"That feels good." She mumbled, relaxing back some closer to him.

"Yeah?'

"Yeah."

Tom added more, gently dabbing it into every crevice of the claw mark.

He reached for a set of gauze.

"Still good?" He checked.

"Yep." Taylor looked at him over her shoulder. "Though I think there is something that could make it better."

"What's that?" Tom searched through the first aid kit. "Other than sutures, I don't think I have anything else that can help heal it faster."

"Haven't you ever heard of kissing to make it better?" She asked.

Tom's face turned beet red. He nervously tucked a lock of his own hair behind his ear while debating on whether or not she was serious.

Does she really want me to kiss her on her shoulder?

After all, they had already kissed a couple of days ago. Granted, she'd been the one to kiss him. But still...he really wanted to kiss her again.

"I uh, I don't think you want me kissing your wound." He stammered.

"Maybe not directly." Taylor replied. "But I wouldn't say no to some kisses around it."

Tom blinked as he stared at her shoulder.

Taylor softly sighed. She knew she shouldn't pressure him into kissing her. She simply couldn't help herself. When she first met Tom Sato, she'd been instantly smitten. Seeing him take out the first monster who attacked her made her fall even harder for him. Take that and add in the fact that he believed her story about the ghost in the lake without question, she knew she was almost in love with him.

He was everything she'd been looking for in a guy. He was sweet. He had a great sense of humor. And...Tom was incredibly brave.

Why wouldn't I fall hard for---

Taylor remained perfectly still when she felt the first brush of his soft lips upon her skin. Her eyes closed over the strange flutters zigzagging in her stomach as he dotted gentle kisses around her wound.

His arms slid around her waist as he pressed a sweet kiss to the side of her neck.

"How's that?" Tom's voice was deeper with emotion than it had been before.

"Perfect." Taylor whispered.

"Then let's get you bandaged up."

Once he finished, the two settled closer to one another on the couch.

"You want to talk about what went down tonight?"

Taylor scooted even closer to his side while shaking her head.

Tom quietly touched her arm in understanding.

"Would you mind staying?" She asked. "At least for a little while?"

"I don't mind at all."

Taylor lifted his arm and snuggled under it, pulling it around her.

Tom grinned at her doing so.