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hphmmatthewluther · 3 years

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When Your Reflection Plots Against You: Part 1/3

Matthew Luther sighed, and leant onto a sink in the boy’s toilets. It had not been going well for him today. He loosened his blue and silver tie (he preferred it to the more traditional blue and bronze tie, and was glad to have a choice in the matter) and pushed the hair out of his face. No, today had not gone well. To start, he was nowhere nearer to finding his brother or the next Cursed Vault. Then, he found himself unable to focus on any lessons as a result, and finished the day with a shouting match with Merula Snyde, which led to Snape banning him from Hogsmeade for a week. These arguments usually made him feel a little better, though something was...off about today. Her insults seemed to hurt more, for some reason.

So there he was, looking up and seeing his hair flop in front of his face again in the mirror. Could nothing work for him today? He scowled at his own reflection.

“It isn’t fair. Everyone else seems to get by just fine. But oh no, not me. I bet even Merula does better than me. I have to be the one who struggles along...” He grumbled to himself.

“Hey...keep on stepping, my guy.” came a voice. Matthew scanned the room, hoping to see whoever had spoken.

“Nope, over here, in the mirror, you know?” He looked up, and was slightly surprised to find his own reflection replaced by someone else. He had black-and-white hair and was wearing denim jeans and a red flannel shirt. On his back was a large guitar case, which he put down at his feet.

“What’s shaking, dude?” he asked, in a way Matthew hadn’t heard anyone speak for nearly ten years. He had a smirk on his face that put Matthew off. However, it wasn’t like he had anyone else to talk to.

“Um...did you hear what I was saying?” he asked, looking around to make sure nobody saw him talking to a mirror.

“I caught a bit of it, y’know, this and that...” he said, looking around. “Sounds like you could use some assistance.”

“Well, that would be-” Matthew had to stop himself. “Hang on, who are you even?” he had to ask himself.

The boy in the mirror gave a laugh. “Right, right, sorry. I’m Edwin. Edwin Luther.” he announced, giving himself a small flourish as he did so. “And you?”

“Oh, well, funnily enough my name’s Matthew Luther.”

“Really?” said Edwin, his eyebrow raised. “Maybe we’re related.”

“Doubt it.” Matthew said, looking away. “My Dad was a Muggle, so that probably isn’t it...”

Edwin sighed, and leant forward on the reflected sink. “So, you need my help. You want to be better around people, right?”

Matthew nodded. It certainly would be nice...sometimes, it seemed like everyone except him knew what to say, and anything he said or did only made things worse, and so often he was left doing very little...but he didn’t completely trust this guy just yet. “Okay, hang on. Before anything else...what’s your story?”

“Me?” asked Edwin, moving back slightly, “I’m trapped in all the mirrors of Hogwarts, y’know? Been here for a while, too. Most people just seem to blow me off, but you...you can see me. There’s something about you, dig?”

Matthew thought about this. One the one hand, he really ought to know by now that not everyone could be trusted. But his thoughts lingered back to his last argument with Merula...if he had done something different, maybe…

“How can you help me?” he asked, leaning closer to the mirror to get a closer look.

“Look, kid. I know people. Just, for now, you go about your day and I’ll give you advice.” Edwin explained. “In return...well, as you may have guessed, I’d like to blow this popsicle stand and return to the land of actual people...but that can come later.” He put his hand towards the mirror, and it appeared as a ghostly image on the other side. “So, we have a deal?”

Matthew looked at the spectral hand, then moved his own hand towards Edwin’s and shook it.

“Far out!” exclaimed Edwin, drawing his hand back. “Let’s boogie!”

“Before we carry on, when were you sealed in that mirror?” Matthew asked, “Cause the stuff you’re saying is...painful to hear.”

Edwin laughed and picked up his guitar case, slinging it onto his back. “Well, I was last out and about in, ooh, 1976, I think.”

Matthew’s eyes widened at this. “Blimey...ten years...okay, now what?”

“Do you have something reflective on you?” Edwin inquired. Matthew fished around in his pockets until he pulled out a silver spoon that he used in potion making. He watched as his warped reflection disintegrated, replaced by an in-proportion Edwin.

“Lovely jubbly, Matt.” began Edwin, moving around his new environment. “Now, what do you really want help with, hm?”

Matthew initially wanted to ask about the Cursed Vaults, but he somehow knew to keep that to himself. Ravenclaws were good at reading people, and there was something about Edwin that made him unsure about divulging information. Instead, he focused on what Edwin already knew.

“Well, I’d really like to do something about that argument with Merula.” Matthew whispered, as he left the toilets and joined the crowds of people in the corridors.

“Hmm...Merula, huh? So there’s a girl involved, I see…” “What? No, nonononono!” Matthew hissed, hoping nobody was paying too close attention to him. “It’s not...she isn’t...we’ve been enemies since our first year, ok?”

“Okay, you’re saying that, but it sounds to me like this bunny-”

“Don’t call her a ‘bunny’, she’d rip you apart for that.” Matthew noted.

“Righto, righto...” Edwin trailed off, “Still, it’s a route you could go for...”

“Trust me, Edwin, it really isn’t.”

They had made their way down to the Dungeons, for their last lesson of the day: Potions with Snape. Matthew was dreading this. He didn’t even have Rowan with him, as he was in Hogsmeade for the day. Then came a moment he was dreading:

“Oi, Luther!”

Matthew spun around and saw Merula Snyde walking up to him. He heard Edwin squeaking from his pocket.

“Wow, man...what did you say to her?”

“Nothing...” Matthew muttered before stepping forward to meet the Slytherin girl.

“Well, well, well. I suppose it’s time for you to make a fool of yourself. Again.” Matthew wanted to say something back, but something was stopping him from fully focusing.

“Why aren’t you at Hogsmeade?” he blurted out. He could hear Edwin sighing.

“Oh, boy...”

“None of your business, Luther!” she shouted, stomping on the ground. Edwin, who had been complaining for a few seconds, suddenly stopped.

“Hey...those are some killer boots...why don’t you talk about them? Change the subject!” he suggested. Matthew had to work very hard to mask his shock at Edwin’s advice.

“No, no, think about it. It sounds like you two talk about what keeps you apart all the time. You need to try different avenues.” Matthew was going to ignore this, but Edwin hadn’t finished. “Come on, dude. You hate each other already. I doubt her opinion of you can get worse. What do you have to lose?”

Merula was getting impatient. “Well? Cat got your tongue, Luther?”

“No, I just...never mind. Sorry for intruding, I guess. But, I...” Matthew sighed. Here we go. “How’d you convince Snape to let you wear combat boots?”

Merula looked at him, the malice in her expression replaced by pure confusion. She took a quick look at her feet, then looked straight back up at Matthew. “I...I...what?”

“Justify the question, mate. Doesn’t have to be anything good...I think her brain’s stopped working.” Edwin ordered, the smirk on his face palpable.

“It’s just...well, Flitwick’s always really on the ball about what we wear with our robes, and I’d imagined Snape would be even more on it, so...”

It was a few seconds before Merula’s brain started working again. “Oh, that...I mean, he’s never really said anything about it...”

“That doesn’t sound like Snape.” Matthew observed.

“Hah, yeah, I suppose not...” Merula pushed a hand through her hand, offering a rare smile. “I mean, if you’d seen the shoes they expect us to wear you’d do the same, if I’m honest!”

“Yeah, the dress code for boys is ever-so-slightly shorter for boys than for girls.” Matthew admitted.

“You can say that again!” exclaimed Merula, laughing at herself slightly, “You’re luckier than you know…” she paused and looked around. Nobody else was there. They had all gone to Hogsmeade, which made sense seeing as it was the first trip for the third-years. The crowd that usually watched their ‘debates’ had vanished. Now they were gone, there didn’t seem to be much point. Matthew sniffed the air. Merula coughed into her elbow.

“Um...where is Snape?” Matthew asked aloud. The two-third years looked around the Dungeons, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

“Do you think we could knock on his office door?” Matthew inquired, moving towards a dark green door that was near the empty potions classroom. However, before he could knock on the door, his arm was pulled back by Merula.

“Wait, you idiot!” she whispered, her eyes darting around the empty room. “I think he’s in there! If you interrupt him, you’ll get in trouble, and I’ll get in trouble, and...”

Matthew wanted to respond, he really did, but he was too focused on the hand that was gripping his arm. Merula must have noticed this, as she suddenly pulled her arm back, clearing her throat with it.

“Not an option, hmm?” Edwin remarked, “You two...compliment her again! Go ahead! Say how nice she looks!”

Matthew had half a mind to chuck that silver spoon out of sight, but before either of them could say anything, a ringing noise emerged from behind Snape’s door, causing both teenagers to jump. It was high-pitched and buzzing, and sounded somewhat...mugglish.

Matthew heard footsteps from the other side of the door. There was the sound of latches being undone, followed by the door being pulled open, and there in the doorway stood Professor Snape, looking rather surprised.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, the alarm still ringing, “Why are you not in Hogsmeade?”

“You barred me from going as punishment.” Matthew reminded the man, “Sir.”

Snape looked at Matthew like he had sprouted an extra head, then turned to Merula. He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped himself before doing so.

“There is work on the board.” he said hurriedly, flicking his wand at his desk to turn the ringing off. “I suppose if you finish early, you may return to your common rooms.” And with that, he was gone. Merula and Matthew stared at the corridor he had darted down before entering the classroom and getting their notebooks out. The silence was deafening. Matthew tried to focus on his work, but couldn’t help but wonder why Merula was here with him. Why hadn’t she gone to Hogsmeade?

“Am I blocking your view of the board or something?” she asked indignantly. Matthew quickly shook his head and looked back at his notes. He eyed the spoon. Edwin was smiling.

“I don’t believe it. Sev’s still at Hogwarts after all this time.” he mused. Matthew took a scrap of paper and wrote ‘You knew him before?’ on it before moving it so Edwin could see.

“Very clever, mate...and yes, I did know him. We got on well when we wanted to, but I doubt he’d be pleased to see me.”

‘Snape isn’t pleased to see anyone’ he wrote back. That got a laugh out of the strange wizard. Suddenly, something occurred to Matthew. Quickly, he wrote another note: ‘You are a wizard, right? Just checking.’

Edwin looked at the note and laughed. “Of course! Y’know, back in my day we started calling Muggles squares.”

Matthew could imagine Edwin calling a lot of people squares. He tried to focus on the work, but it was difficult to do so as Edwin kept moving across anything with a reflection, making loud observations as he did so (“That was there back then !”). What Matthew did notice, however, was that Edwin never appeared on the silver bracelet Matthew always wore. He had had an inkling that it was magical, considering how he got it, but knew very little about its origins. But no matter what, Edwin never crossed it. Matthew made a mental note of it; he was still a little unsure that he could trust him. It was then that he noticed Merula staring at his arm as well.

“What?” he said suddenly, the theories in his head quickly dispersing. “Am I doing something- I mean,”

“What is that?” she asked, pointing down.

“What?”

“No, not your bracelet, you dolt. That.” she said, poking at the biro Matthew had been using. He hadn’t even realised he was using it instead of his quill.

“Oh, that’s a pen.” Matthew explained. Merula still looked lost. “It’s like a quill, but you don’t have to keep dipping it in ink every few seconds. It’s way better.”

“Oh...” said Merula, glancing down at the several inkblots on her parchment. “Well, I think quills are better. We’ve used them for centuries, after all.”

“Yeah, I mean, so did Muggles.” Matthew reminded her, “But then we found a better way of doing things.” There was a silence, and Matthew could see Edwin examining the situation. But then, the obvious solution hit him. “Do you want one?”

Merula looked up from her parchment. “Do I...what?”

“I have loads of spare pens. I was asking if you wanted one.” Matthew fished an identical biro out of his pencil case and placed it on the table. Merula slowly moved her hand towards it, before snatching it quickly, eyeing Matthew with suspicion. She looked at her parchment, before slowly writing out a sentence with the pen. Then she kept going. She looked at the pen, then at Matthew.

“A-..And M-Muggles have been using these for...”

“A good hundred years or so, yeah.” Matthew finished. It only then occurred to him just how backward the Wizarding World could be. I mean, they had house-elves, they didn’t have electricity, and they still worried about ink stains. It was just so...trivial.

Matthew saw Edwin give him a thumbs up, before moving off to explore elsewhere. The Ravenclaw stared at his work, and quickly realised he had done very little. Furthermore, it looked like some of the most difficult potion work devised by wizardkind. A few minutes later, Merula slammed her quill on the desk in a rage.

“Aag! This is impossible!” yelled Merula, “Why isn’t this...in any way...for third-years?”

“Because it probably wasn’t for third-years.” observed Matthew, putting his own quill down, “I imagine he would have made it a test if he hadn’t been distracted by whatever that alarm was.”

“But...why would he give such advanced work to us?” Merula asked.

“Actually, he probably planned to give it to me.” Matthew looked over at the board again. “He wasn’t expecting you to be here, remember?”

Merula nodded at this, frowning. “Thanks for the extra work, Luther. Much appreciated.”

“Anytime.” Matthew replied with a smile.

Merula returned a smirk, before gesturing at the work before them. “Well, if you’ve got any ideas, I’m all ears.”

Edwin had been silently guiding Matthew for a lot of this, but was starting to get slightly louder now. “Okay, now flirt a little.”

Matthew really had to focus to keep his face still now. He stared at the problem at hand. With regards to a Dreamless Sleep potion, discuss whether the Fleamont or Daedalus approach is more effective at preventing Rapid Eye Movement, and-

“Oh come on, dude!” Edwin moved from the spoon to the various bottles around the room, passing by the reversed lettering on the labels. “You are alone with a girl. How much more perfect can this get?” Matthew was surprised to find himself considering the previously unthinkable. Sure, these sorts of thoughts had started showing up recently, but they were never...realistic. But he had to admit that Edwin had a point. Nobody else was around. They could talk without being egged on by anyone nearby. They could just...reflect on things.

“Well?” said Merula, leaning forward slightly to hover over the book, “Anything?”

Matthew shook his head, turning towards the Slytherin. “‘Fraid not. I mean, we haven’t learnt either of these approaches, and all I can tell you is that one of them is named after Fleamont Potter, but that’s about it.”

Merula didn’t move back, but pulled the book closer to her, albeit with Matthew’s hand still on it. She gazed at the question with clear irritation. Edwin looked on from a nearby flask.

“Hey, Matt...you thinking what I’m thinking?” Both boys turned around and looked at Snape’s office through the open door. Even from here, they could see a large file on the desk, but not what had caused the ringing.

“What is it?” Merula asked, noticing that Matthew had turned away from the work.

“This is going nowhere.” Matthew admitted. “We don’t have a solution, but I imagine Snape might...”

He turned back to her and pointed at the office. Merula eyed it for a moment, then turned back to him. She seemed to be processing what Matthew was suggesting.

“If he comes back, we’re dead.” Merula said, looking straight at Matthew.

“If we don’t do the essay, we’re dead.” Matthew reminded her, trying desperately not to sound stressed.

“You really think Snape’s stitched us up?”

“Well, if the Greatest Witch in all of Hogwarts can’t do it, who can?”

“Good point.” Merula got off her stool and moved towards the corridor. “Nobody’s there. Let’s go.”

They quickly slipped into the office, Matthew closing the door behind him. It was just as dark and dingy as the rest of the rooms in the Dungeons, although this room was slightly more colourful, with a large red chest of drawers behind the desk. On the left wall of the room was a large silver box with a bell on it, which he assumed had made the alarm. It reflected everything perfectly, yet for some reason Edwin didn’t appear in it. It was like he couldn’t even see it was there. Attached to the box was a note, which read:

Severus,

Before she died, she returned here to place one of these in each of the Heads of House’s offices to warn us when they rear their heads again. She also said that if one was ever to emerge, they would have to be banished again via the way they came in, if that helps any. The devices are a mixture of magic and “science” the likes of which the world has never seen. I can only imagine the things she could have done with her magic if she were still with us.

Good luck, and do Slytherin proud,

-Horace.

“Find anything?!” Edwin yelled from the other side of the room. He was awfully loud, yet it was odd to see Merula completely unable to hear it. Matthew quietly shook his head, and left the box alone.

The two scoured over the room until Merula noticed an open book on Snape’s desk.

“Hah, here it is!” she exclaimed, leaning right onto the desk so that her feet left the floor. Edwin chose this moment to reappear in a nearby mirror.

“Wow, you choose well...that is one fine...”

“Shut up...” Matthew said under his breath. He didn’t just hate that Edwin was saying some outrageous things when Merula was right in front of them, but he hated that he found himself agreeing. He moved next to Merula, keeping his eyes away from her lower robes, and positioned himself next to her.

“Now how were we supposed to know that?” Merula said, scowling, before turning to Matthew. “Well, I mean, how were you supposed to know that. It’s...it’s...”

He nodded in return. “It’s bull. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been doing this the entire time. Hang on…” Matthew sifted through the papers, until he caught a glimpse of a tiny post-it note with three equations on it. There was one labelled “Slyth'', one labelled “Other”, and one filled with division signs called “Weaks''. Merula’s jaw dropped.

“He’s...he’s been...but that’s...” she stammered, taking the post-it note with her hand.

Matthew didn’t know what to say. He knew exactly what sort of thoughts were running through her head, as they’d run through his head time and time again. What on earth could he do? Edwin saw them struggling, and pointed at a sheet of paper on the far side of the desk. It was a collection of raw test scores. Matthew allowed himself to smile.

“Merula, look.” he said, offering her the table. “It’s the scores before they’ve been altered.”

The two gazed down the list until they came to “Snyde, Merula”, under which there was a list of perfect scores. Merula took the file with both hands as a smile formed on her face, as her breathing began to relax.

“So...panic over?” Matthew asked hopefully.

She looked up at him, the happiest she had been for a while. “Panic over, Luther.”

After about half an hour, they had both written an essay which was good enough to get a pass but original enough for Snape not to notice. Matthew put his hands behind his head and leant back on his stool.

“Boy, I can’t wait to see the look on Snape’s face when he sees our essays.” he mused, “He can’t even punish us! We’ve done the work!”

Merula smirked as she packed her things away. “Don’t get smug, Luther. He’ll find something to get you for next lesson.”

“Maybe, though I doubt it.” said Matthew. “Now I know his secret he’s a lot less of a threat.”

“As if!” Merula retorted. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around at all. They hadn’t heard anyone nearby, not even the first or second years.

“It...really is quiet, huh?” Matthew said, turning back to Merula.

“Mm, funny that.” said Merula. She paused. “Are we really the only ones here?”

“Yes, yes you are, Matt.” said Edwin, grinning, “Think of what could be!”

Matthew’s imagination began to kick into high gear. Moving towards her. Telling her how he hated their rivalry. How he wanted to be friends. How he wanted…

“Well,” she said, moving towards the door. “That’s that, I suppose.”

“Wait!” Matthew said suddenly, surprising himself. Merula looked a little shocked at that too.

“Come on, the castle’s all yours, right?” whispered Edwin, “You can do whatever you want...” At this, an idea suddenly struck Matthew.

“I was just thinking.”

“First time for everything.” Merula remarked.

“No, listen. Most of the school’s in Hogsmeade, right?”

“Yes...”

“So, nobody’s going to notice us if we...look for clues for the next Vault?”

Merula stared at him for a moment, then smiled. “Alright, sure. I suppose you won’t get another opportunity, and why wouldn’t you want to work with Hogwarts’ Greatest Ever Witch?”

“Quite so. Shall we?” Matthew said, gesturing up the stairs.

Merula smirked, and headed up the stairs, Matthew following after. This could actually work out, Matthew thought, glancing at Edwin in the silver again. He was grinning wildly. He moved around all the metals they passed as Matthew and Merula scoured the grounds for clues. As they did so, something occurred to the Ravenclaw. Edwin was a wizard, and he clearly knew Snape, but something was off. He meant to ask the strange boy about it, but he was too close to Merula at any given time to risk it, and that was a distraction in and of itself. Nevertheless, the question remained:

Where was Edwin’s wand?

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm jacobs sibling #hphm fanfiction #jacob's sibling x merula #merula x mc #severus snape

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werezmastarbucks · 4 years

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Whitmore guy - the boy in a shirt with a bat

Part One

Part Two

Kai Parker x fem!Reader slowburn

whatever gifs I’m going to use on this one, I hope the creators are okay with that

The Mystic Falls team decide they want to get rid of Kai Parker for good - and in a way that would ensure he won’t be able to come back. Death is not secure enough this time, so they go with Malivore. Who knows what the poor bastard is doing down there, but six months later, a new guy comes to work at the college - and meets the reader seemingly for the first time.

word count: 2987 ish

warnings: none

music: blink-182 - down, blink-182 - always, green day - the last of the american girls; Y/N quotes don’t leave me by - you guessed it - blink-182

MAY

Y/N was almost done. Almost-almost done, and the clock was only showing half past seven. It’s still half an hour until full sunset, and she has every chance to wrap it up and go rush to the football field in the town, perch herself on the seats and watch.

It’s just that all the troubles of all the Whitmore students were hanging like dead weight on her, and realistically, if she worked all day, every day, with a five hour sleep, and a twenty minutes lunch break, Christmas included, she would finish reading and delegating all student complaints and applications by the year 2098.

She threw herself back in the chair and pressed her palms against her eyes, letting the green specks poke the darkness. Then she realized that the music she’s been hearing for the last hour wasn’t playing in her head – the sound has been coming from the outside world.

Y/N opened her eyes and listened. Yup, she was sure it was her own brain because nobody’s listened to that reeeally old stuff in years. There’s just nobody left in the whole state of Virginia who’s openly a blink-182 fan.

She jumped up from her chair excitedly, happiness striking in her head like a flare gun; somebody was listening to their song! At the college! Somewhere on the floor! And it wasn’t her!

Y/N left her office and walked down the quiet corridor, following the sound like a thread. What a song it was, too.

Tidal waves they rip right through me

Tears from eyes worn cold and sad

Pick me up now…

The epic teenage angst made you want to go get all the bad tattoos you could possibly spend your money on.

Y/N knew she loved that song some time ago, but couldn’t remember why. It pulled on a surprisingly sturdy thread in her heart and made it bleed in a second; like she was a teenager again, like she was on the verge of a breakdown, and the whole world was full of amazement and bursting, vivid sensations.

Y/N almost ran to the sound, holding her lip between her teeth and never noticing it. Her face was lit with anticipation as she paused in front of the door. Somebody was playing music in the gatherings hall, where the acoustics were crazy, and all the space all but welcomed all kinds of dancing, prancing and hopping. The song ended, and another started to play; and yet she knew it again.

It went like this:

I’ve been here before a few times,

And I’m quite aware we’re dying…

Y/N pushed the door and it gave. She saw the hall, lit by all the lamps, although she was quite sure that the maintenance had already turned everything off except her office.

A guy was crouching on the floor next to the window, and a big sports bag was lying at his feet. Weird, he looked like a schoolboy, and the next second he stood up and she saw he was a young man. The guy didn’t seem to notice her at first, so Y/N had a couple of seconds to stare at the stranger. He was all jumpy, tall, boyish in a way; his dark hair was a little messed up, as he probably ruffled it with his hands; she’s never seen him here before. Being the welfare office worker, Y/N knew pretty much everyone in this huge place, - which was scary, by the way, - but this one was probably new. She couldn’t really place him neither with students nor with the staff. So she just placed him with the good music lovers. She already liked this dude. He was wearing a grey shirt with a stupid drawing of a cartoonish bat, green blood spilling out of its mouth. And Converses. Again, who still wears Converses in Whitmore or Mystic Falls?

He looked up, watching her for a second, and then waved his hand. They couldn’t really hear each other over the music, but the guy still said something. Y/N motioned towards his portable speaker which was spitting out the fast chords and energetic drumming. That was the best. That was the best song in the world, and she was almost sorry when the bat guy ran towards the speaker and turned the volume down.

“Hey- woah, I didn’t realize there was somebody alive here!” he exclaimed.

“Are you having a party?” she asked instead of a hello. They stared at each other for a mere second before letting out the air from their lungs.

“Does that bother you?”

“No way. I was drawn here like a rat by a flute. Man, I haven’t heard Blink on speakers or even on the radio, for ages”.

He smiled, and Y/N melted. The guy was approaching her slowly, walking like he owned the place. His smile was white, and his eyes, in contrast, seemed completely black, but, as he came closer, she saw they were dark blue. It’s just his pupils - so enlarged they covered almost everything, trying to devour his eye. He sure looked like he was high.

Something hit her, and backed off immediately. There was something about him, something weird, outlandish, not Mystic Falls at all, neither Whitmore, but hey. Everything in the closest vicinity of Mystic Falls is completely consumed by its spores. Everything was Mystic Falls color, the people, the nature, and the college; people spoke, walked and loved in such a way that you could tell they all come from the same place, full of scandals and vampires.

This dude, though. He looked a bit mad, Y/N reckoned, his wide smile never touched his dark eyes, and they shone with something that made her look just a little too long. He smelled like trouble. After all these years she’s been rubbing elbows with all kinds of bad, Y/N could tell who’s what. She could tell a beast when she met one. Vampires looked different to her, call it intuition or habit.

But this dude… he just looked different. He was like ink, like milk, like blood. His face looked perfect all-American beautiful, with lean triangle chin and strong jaw line. And yet, it was crooked somehow. He looked youthful, but the look about him said old. The fact that he was keeping silent a second too long, was standing an inch too close, looking at her too closely, all said trouble. It was blinding how quick she felt all that, in a flash, and against all odds, she smiled.

She didn’t know what he was.

“Ha, you’re staring”, he said, amused.

“Dude, I’m trying to remember if I’d seen you before”.

His sharp eyebrows, like two eagle wings, were drawn together in mocking concentration.

“Well. Have you?” There was an inviting smirk on his lips, showcasing two things: he had a very nice mouth. And. There was a reason enough to keep distance.

“No. I have excellent memory for faces”.

He shrugged like nothing in his easy, carefree life, mattered.

“Yeah, me neither. This is the first time my eyes are on you”.

“Wow”, she nodded, “you’re weird enough”.

“I’ve been said that”.

“How dangerous are you?”

“Uhm…” he pretended to ponder, poking his chin with his right index finger. Y/N saw a large steel ring on it, with a pretty, strange scattering of tiny dark dots. A very unusual marking, too, but she said nothing. He had a face of a TV star. She could very well picture him in a sitcom with a lame title like “My crazy family”, in which he would be the geeky, but sexy, smart oldest son of a little bit absent-minded parents.

“Like… eight out of fourteen. I’ve been to a camp once… it was a type of… you know, like a summer camp?”

Y/N found she had to actually focus to follow his thought. She looked straight at him attentively, feeling bright magenta giggle rising inside of her.

“Uh-huh. The Crystal Lake type? Or the Sleepaway Camp?”

“Get out!” he exclaimed, stretching his vowels. They laughed exactly at the moment for Billie Joe to yell about the Last of the American Girls.

“No, more like a concentration camp”, he offered, “but like, you’re alone there, so you have to do all the torturing yourself”.

“God’s sake, what kind of camp was it?”

“I literally just told you”, he replied with a pause, and his articulate face went blank. Y/N couldn’t hold off a sniff. She felt like she was a bit drunk, but that was more of overworking, late evening, lots of coffee and that everlasting feeling of despair one gets upon realizing that work will never end.

“Anyway, I learnt a lot of useful stuff there”, the boy said, “how to start a fire, how to make a knot, you know, the type you’re not getting out of, ever. A-and, like, how to make stakes out of sticks”.

Alert reddened Y/N skull from the inside. She tilted her head. Reading him was in vain. This dude was misty, he was shut off like a persona that’s uncrackable simply because it never really existed.

“What for?”

“Oh, you know, grilled sausages and stuff”.

She reprimanded herself silently for being a basket case. Yeah, sure. Grilled sausages, and only then – killing vampires; that’s how it works in the normal world.

“What about you?” he asked suddenly.

“Huh?”

“How dangerous are you?”

“Ow, extremely. I mean, look at me”.

She stretched out her arms, displaying herself (like a complete sellout, she thought. There goes the very first male who listens to Green Day and blink-182 and you’re already opening your ribcage for him, what a piece of work).

Diligently, the guy took a step back to get a better view. It was all very comical, with a very characteristic soundtrack.

“I am really looking, and I have thoughts. What exactly do you mean?”

“Small. Disproportional limbs. Frail muscles. Do you see? Very angry as a result. Very angry all my life. So, very dangerous”.

He smiled joyfully, wide, bright sparkles exploding in the dark of his eyes.

“I got it. Not gonna piss you off. Actually, I guess, since I’m new here, I should bond with the strong ones, right? I’ll be working as your computer guy. You need something fixed, so that you owe me a favor and don’t kill me when you get mad?”

Y/N scratched her temple, thinking if she needed anything in her laptop fixed. Ridiculously, there was something.

“Funny you should ask. I have the stupidest problem… I… what’s your name again?”

“Oh, my manners”, the guy sighed gravely, and outstretched his hand, “Mal. And you..?”

She considered his palm for a second before shaking it. A light buzz stung her which she barely noticed. Mal’s shirt was probably all synthetic fabric. She told him her name, and he gave a nod.

“Are you really an IT guy?”

“Why would I lie?” he asked, puzzled. He pointed behind his back, turning a little:

“You see that wall? I’m tearing out the old wiring right now. That’s why I’m here so late. Tomorrow you’re gonna have new wi-fi, with the dopest name and the password you’ll never guess”.

Y/N could instantly think of a thousand passwords that were puns for punk rock songs’ names. She abstained from vocalizing them all immediately.

“Alright then”.

“What stupid problem are you having? Have you tried to…” his eyebrows moved suggestively, like he was about to say something R-rated. “…you know?”

“Nah, it’s with the browser. The default search engine is Yahoo for some reason, and I hate Yahoo with burning passion… I’ve no idea how to make it Google again”.

“Are you for real?”

“Yeah. I’m the college sociologist, not a bloody programmer”.

Mal couldn’t help laughing. He headed for the doors, hopping a little in the rhythm of the song.

“Perhaps I made a mistake in detecting you as one of the leaders of this pride”, he mumbled, “where’s your office? You’re the sociologist here?”

Y/N followed him into the corridor.

“Yup”.

“What exactly does it mean?”

“If they need somebody to listen to how they’re closeted gays, I listen. If they need me to fill out the forms for their loans, I fill them out. If teachers had a party the night before and can’t come in now because they’re hungover, I come in instead and take their classes. If…”

“Gee, how much do they pay you for that?”

Y/N felt her face move, all parts of it separately. Just thinking about it was unnerving. But that’s the job she asked for. That’s the responsibility she’d grown into. She’d been a teacher herself for some time, and then got tired of the creative pressure of coming up with the new ways of explaining one thing every day; she thought this position would bring some diversity in her everyday thinking style. She was being silly. However, when she realized she was worked up, it also brought a strange taste of satisfaction in a way that she was giving all of her, and her conscience was clear. She explained all that to Mal. Then she pushed her door and they found themselves in her darkened office. The first pink flames of raspberry sunset were trying the sky.

“Damn it”, she swore, “I’m late for sunset again”. How the fuck long did she spend in the gatherings hall?!

“You like watching it?”

“Sure. It’s like the doorframe syndrome, have you heard about it?”

Mal smiled, sprinting to her laptop that’s been waiting for her on the desk, abandoned.

“Oh yeah”, he sneered, “I was just thinking about it, but then I entered this room and forgot”.

Y/N sat in the armchair on the opposite side of her desk, thinking to herself, he’s probably gonna die really soon. Like Brandon, the last interesting dude she’d met in Mystic Falls back when she was on the haul, working at the Grill. Brandon was the best bartender the place had ever seen in its prolonged history, and he was also very clearly interested in Y/N, too. They worked together a lot, and drank at night even more. They got to know each other pretty well, which made it even worse when someone came in, in the broad daylight, and broke his neck. Just when Y/N thought that the Mystic Falls curse has been lifted and normal people could feel safe. It’s been two years, or even more, since then, and now she sat there, cynical and certain, that such a cool dude like Mal wouldn’t last here long. The place consumes people like him – those who wake up her desire to live again.

“Oh-kay, I’ll just close all this porn here”, Mal looked at the screen. Y/N has been writing a report when she heard the music, and left the document open. “You wanna Google by default?”

“Yes”.

“Come here and learn while I’m alive”, Mal said solemnly, not noticing the look she gave him, stunned at the sinister coincidence of thinking.

She circled the desk and stood at his shoulder. Mal smelled of candy (literally this time), so sweet it was almost suffocating. Did he fucking rub it in his hair?! Y/N thought of tricksters casually, the Scandinavians like Loki, whose only downfall was in that extra sweet smell of all kinds of sugar poison that gave them away. Could Mal be a malevolent spirit, luring her into a trap? What’s he gonna do? Eat her insides?

“Are you looking?”

“Yes”.

“It’s two seconds. See?”

“Oh”.

Mal turned to her in her own armchair like he owned it and looked up without a shade of awkwardness.

“You seriously didn’t know how to do that? I don’t even need to be an IT specialist to be able to fix that”.

“What are you getting at?” Y/N barked defensively. She prided herself in not understanding anything about computers, like it made her old in a wise way.

“I gotta tell you before we kick it off – I have a girlfriend”.

Y/N digested it for a second.

“Oh, you smug face”, she spat out, “you think I’m hitting on you?”

“I mean…” his innocent-wild eyes acted very well.

“I don’t know shit about this computer crap, I thank God every day I manage to even turn it on…”

“You’re cool and very nice, but…”

“I don’t hit on people”, Y/N banged herself in the chest, “people hit on me”.

Mal puffed with laughter, still looking up.

“Okay, sorry. I’ve never met anyone like you. Quiet so… helpless”.

“There. Don’t you ever assume…”

“We’re gonna be friends though, right?”

Y/N shrugged.

“Sure. Emos gotta stick together, or else we commit unspeakable things. Now, get out of my office”.

“I prefer to think of myself as a broke-free treasure hunter, thank you very much”.

Mal was smiling like a cunning happy brat as he walked out of the door. He stopped half way, catching himself on the handle. Having crossed the line of the doorframe, he must have recalled something.

“What did you say about the sunsets? And the syndrome?”

“Oh, yeah”, Y/N uttered, propping herself back at the computer. She could feel evening migraine coming, together with the song blasting and echoing from the hall down the corridor. “When I see that, you know, the bloody pink when it’s just ending, I feel like I’m remembering something I’d forgotten. It’s a weird feeling. Kind of like a déjà vu backwards. You ever had that?”

Mal blinked, thinking. Seriously, this time. Looking at him, Y/N decided, that yes, they were going to be friends. He was making her feel something. Something good about all this job, and all that was in her past. All that she thought she outgrew. He was clear, black and white, sturdy, holding on to her door like he was keeping it in place.

“You have to have your head checked, Y/N. It might be terminal…”

“Get out, Mal. Don’t let my door hit your ass”.

“Jesus, you’re really obsessed with blink-182, aren’t you?”

Y/N felt no shame.

#kai parker #kai parker x reader #kai parker imagine #vampire diaries #imagine #whitmore guy

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weeklyfangirl · 5 years

Text

Frat Boy Pt. 17

https://weeklyfangirl.tumblr.com/post/188826127780/frat-boy-pt-18https://weeklyfangirl.tumblr.com/post/188826127780/frat-boy-pt-18part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7 (1), part 7 (2), part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13 , part 14, part 15, part 16

hi loves, s’been a while :) I’ve been working harder on the frat boy world than you know!

I had the nightmare again.

I woke up washed in relief that bodiless entities weren’t hanging over my head- but before the perturbed feeling completely vanished, it snapped back like a rubber band, stinging me harder.

The nightmare had gone further this time.

The gray crusting wallpaper was, at least, the same. There was a paper house, falling apart as it peeled, and me, trying to outrun the collapse and the ominous beings down its empty corridors. The Watchers, I’d decided to call them, came closer this time as if emboldened by my subconscious inability to dispel them. They’d survived my past dreams, growing stronger with it. And the all-encompassing dread that filled my body sprung each weighted step forward.

But before, I hadn’t known what I was running towards.

This time, my dream-self knew. There was someone beyond the wall whose animalistic cries weren’t just for anyone. They were for me. I needed to reach them.

I ran to the door, just barely ahead of the Watchers. It was barely open, a slight crack to a dark room - but still, it was open. I could kick it further and with a satisfying swoosh, I’d see what - or who - lay beyond it. I could reach them then.

It should’ve opened.

But it didn’t budge.

With impossible dream-logic, it was locked a stubborn two inches ajar. Hopelessly, I tried wedging my body through the opening. A dark shadow appeared at the end of the hall, drawing closer, closer. Slowly, though. It knew I had nowhere left to run.

My motions grew frantic, scraping myself against the door as I tried to jam my body further inside. The darkness expanded, trembled, delighted its prey was so easily trapped.

There was a flash of the knife from the shadows, the cries grew louder. But I couldn’t reach it, I couldn’t reach him.

Darkness stabbed me.

I woke up drenched in my own sweat.

The ghost of the sliding metal lodging between my skin felt hot. My fingers trailed along the dry skin, just below my ribcage, almost certain I’d find a bleeding gouge. Typically, didn’t people wake up before feeling pain?

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

Dull thuds filled the room. I blurred my vision, imagining the swinging mass to be the thing of my twisted imagination. I socked the punching bag until I felt my fingers were going to fall off. Which was about two minutes.

“YOU’RE ALL DOING GREAT! ALMOST DONE GUYS, YOU’RE GETTING STRONGER... besides Y/N!”

It was true. My arms were weak noodles. It didn’t stop me from scowling when Renny jogged over in tip-top cheer captain shape. “Come on! Let’s go!! You were doing great!!!”

She’d harassed me into coming to the gym tonight screaming “if you don’t show up, I swear I’m going to drag you with me.” Nobody can say she wasn’t true to her word. She’d subbed in for the usual kickboxing teacher, and honestly, she was a natural. A true prodigy. Give a girl a pair of Lulu Lemons and a kickboxing class and she’d… kick its ass?

“It’s a free form of therapy eh?” she reasoned, squatting while she spoke.

I scowled deeper, hitting the bag weaker than before.

“I’m tired,” I managed to moan. So. Incredibly Tired.

“Okay I hate to do this, but…” She paused, making sure I’d hear whatever she’d say next. “Think of you-know-whose face.”

By sheer Dwayne-The-Rock-Johnson-level will power, I threw my weight against the bag.

“There you go!!!” she encouraged, jogging back to the front.

I did it once more, in good faith. But my efforts were short-lived and I stopped, breathless, as soon as she was distracted. A droplet of sweat ran down my cupid’s bow. I tasted salt. Anger. Frustration at how weak I was. How helpless I seemed to be.

Where was the legendary endorphin high I’ve been promised all these years???! I turned out to be a sweaty sasquatch of a human being, collapsing on the floor as Renny picked up the abandoned towels around me.

“You are so dead,” she chuckled.

I half-huffed, half-laughed, wholly aware that her statement wasn’t a complete stretch.

“So it worked, huh?” Renny asked, driving us out to the free parking lot across the street. Three cop cars whizzed by. No sirens. Non-emergency.

“What worked?”

“Picturing Harry’s face.”

“It wasn’t Harry’s face I was picturing.”

“Oh?”

She waved her hand to the car waiting to turn in front of us. “Hello? Let’s go fucker!!! Ugh, stupid bitch.” The car moved, begrudgingly, and Renny bee-lined it for the lot. Her tone turned from deadly to friendly in a flip of a switch. “Also, you know there’s a parking garage next to the gym, right?”

“Oh, really?” I feigned ignorance. I knew there was a parking garage next to the gym. I just couldn’t afford to pay.

“Yeah.” We idled at the entrance, and I realized I hadn’t told her where my car is. “Wait, so who were you picturing if it wasn’t Harry?”

“You know in my nightmares there’s this… dark figure?”

Her face fell. “Oh my God, you’re still having those?”

No matter how much I considered Renny the sister I never had nor asked for, I couldn’t help but feel an odd distance. It was a distance that’d been building over the past weeks, and one that I’d been ignoring, but now, the task seemed impossible. I shrugged, not sure how to explain the unexplainable. I’d dizzied myself all morning trying to figure out what my dreams meant. But in the end, I was too tired. Too tired, too tired, too tired.

“I’m telling you dude, you should seriously try therapy. I did it after my parents split. Best thing I ever did. It’s something that’s... ugh, it’s stigmatized you know? Therapy is healthy.”

“Just like hating yourself in the gym for two hours?”

“IT’S HEALTHY!” she shouted at me for the tenth time that evening. I cracked a smile so she knew I didn’t hate it completely.

A notification blipped on her phone. She smiled, typing a reply. “Want to hang out with me and Niall tonight?”

I half-smiled even though she wasn’t looking at me.

“I can’t, I have dinner.”

“Oh shit that’s tonight?” She looked up, brows raising. The clock on her dash said 6:48pm - I was definitely late. “Fuck dude, good luck. Tell me how it goes.”

“I will,” I said. The bluetooth in her car suddenly screeched Timberlake’s “Sexy Back.” We jolted, hands covering our ears as she rushed to turn it down. Her phone glowed - incoming call from Niall - and she looked at me in question. I nodded.

“Heyyyy boy,” she drawled.

His laughter on the other line made me smile. It was crackly through the speakers, somehow making it even more likeable. “Hey beautiful. Where you at?”

I got out absentmindedly, closing the door behind me. Her car idled, waiting as I pointed to my car just a stone’s throw away. Nodding, she suddenly laughed at something funny I couldn’t hear.

I dug for my keys and slid in the driver’s seat- but my hand paused on the ignition. What in the hell?? My dash was black. Completely black.

Did somebody throw a blanket?? Was there a homeless person who’d decided to rest their stuff atop my car?

I got out, completely confused, looking at my dashboard covered in a thick liquid. Paint?

I smeared a finger through it, trembling, a familiar scent, a sick consistency running between my fingers. Knowledge fought against logic just as I caught the tail-end of Renny’s VW disappearing around the corner.

There were maybe four other cars in the otherwise deserted lot, dark houses lining the perimeter across the street. The world spun. Saliva bubbled up. Yellow fluorescent street lamps lit my surroundings, but the hue it cast was sinister. I was alone, they told me. Nobody else could see me.

Breathe.

The nausea that ran through me at the sudden knowledge of what I’d touched made me convulse.

“STOP IT!” I cried, to whoever could hear. “JUST STOP IT RIGHT NOW, YOU FUCKS.”

I hurried into the car, locking the doors. My fingers were still wet as I ran the windshield wipers. They weren’t going fast enough. It spread, making it worse. Air vents blew metal.

I didn’t care. The tires squealed as I tore out, sticking my head out the window to see. My car swerved on the road as I involuntarily twitched. The blood was drying on my hands. I just needed to leave. We needed to leave.

My nightmares no longer lived in the confines of imagination.

-----

I called Renny first. It went to voicemail.

A man exited the convenience store, eyeing me curiously as he went back in his truck. Renny texted -

With Niall bb. Call you later

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Fuck fuck FUCK.

I didn’t think when I dialled. I didn’t notice my hands were shaking until my phone knocked into my cheek.

The dial tone blared in the air. Voicemail. If I was going to die at least one person should know about it.

I forgot to speak for a moment. “Oh, hi. Harry, uh… they found me. There’s b” - I covered my mouth. Bile rose in my throat. - “...there’s blood all over my car. I’m at the gas station off PCH and Harbor. But you didn’t answer so… never mind. I’ll be fine. I’m fine- fuck.”

I hung up. The free windshield squeegee they had stationed at each gas pump was the only option. And their murky water were about to get a lot thicker. My dad used to do it all the time for my mom, just like my grandpa always got my grandma gas. Old school chivalry. Father would do it for me now. He’d take care of this. A part of me wanted to call him, but another part didn’t know how in the hell I would explain this. He was busy. Probably already eating with the rest of them or waiting for me. Oh, that’d be awkward. There wasn’t time.

I scrubbed with all my weight, pretending the blood wasn’t blood at all. It was thick paint. I just wouldn’t breathe. I wasn’t breathing.

The squeegee smeared it to a dull red now, the stains lessened but still very much there.

My phone rang before I could try scrubbing the other side.

“Are you hurt?” the familiar gruff voice asked. Just hearing his voice slightly calmed the mania.

“Hi,” I whispered. Why was I whispering? How did I even begin to explain- “Fuck.”

Wow, I was eloquent.

“Y/N, answer the question,” he rushed.

“I’m fine. I’m not hurt,” I stammered. “I’m fine.”

“Stay where you are.”

“I’m sorry, I tried calling Renny but she didn’t answer and now I’m late-”

“Just stay where you are. Keep to the lighted area. I’ll be there in ten.”

It was less than ten before the grumbling of a motorcycle grew louder, peeling around the corner. It slowed at the entrance, but its rider saw me and the engine roared, only stopping ‘til the sleek machine was propped next to my car.

He hopped off with ease, muttering something incomprehensible.

“I can’t hear you,” I said.

He pulled off his helmet, irritated that it didn’t come off easier. Curls in disarray made the worry etched across his face all the more soft. Each time, I forgot how beautiful he was, and the sight of his tall body rushing towards me hit me straight in my unsettled gut.

“I’m sorry.” He pulled me in for a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

His body held me tight, an influx of Harry and warmth and protection embodied in the steadfastness of his grip covered every inch of me. If I wasn’t so shocked, I would’ve hugged him back.

I breathed. For a second, the slow electric buzz spreading down my spine was all I could sense. “Y/N,” he breathed. For a second, I didn’t think about why he was holding me. Nothing else processed.

He held on a moment longer than I thought he would. His gaze passed me to the car. He was so tall in comparison to it, he didn’t even need to walk around to see the mess.

“Fuck.” His words echoed mine from earlier, and he ran a hand down his face. He shook his head, for once, speechless.

“I’m okay,” I offered.

He shook his head, backing up only a step. He took my buzz with it. “This isn’t okay, Y/N. I didn’t think they’d do this again.” But the last bit was spoken to himself. His eyes filled with something treacherous, a darkness I’d only caught fractions of before suddenly bore itself to me tenfold. The muscles beneath his black sweater tensed as everything about him tightened.

“Again?” I squeaked.

“It’s pigs blood. An outdated scare tactic.” The obvious came out sharp between gritted teeth.

“Well it worked.”

His glare locked on me, and I tried not to flinch. He bat his eyes, lessening the sting, and I watched as he tried to return to the present. “You said you were going to be late.” He was trying his best to sound casual, but I heard the strain in his voice. He caught a glimpse of my car and I saw the darkness begin to return before he turned his back to me.

“I’m beyond late.”

He walked to the motorcycle, and I watched as he swung his leg and kicked the stand up in one fluid motion.

“Hop on then,” he said, urging me forward with a toss of his head. I walked forward cautiously.

“But-”

“I’ll move your car later tonight.”

“-I don’t have a helmet.”

A ghost of a smile traced his lips. He handed me his helmet. “Don’t fall.”

We rolled down PCH, the harbor on one side, the hills on the other. Our coastal city looked different at night. More peaceful. The glitz and the glam more subdued, the orange hues of street lamps shining in a mirrored reflection of the deep blue waters surrounding us. Everything was more approachable and tranquil with everyone tucked away into their homes by 9 PM.

Which made it all the more unbelievable that I’d just abandoned my blood-stained car at a gas station.

He stalled as we crossed the bridge over our beach town’s harbor, and I tugged his jacket to the right - the system we’d established of how I’d give directions.

Harry turned his head, the sharp planes of his face stunningly close with how tightly my arms were wrapped around him. Every so often, he’d let an arm fall to rest against mine, letting it warm my own and fastening it tighter around him before we took off again.

I nodded. He turned. Cruising down Bay View Drive, we passed megamansions of all varieties - tropical Tommy Bahama gated villas with imported plants, Grecian marble fortresses with columns and underground garages. The steep hill to our left held the flower street homes atop them. I rested my head on Harry’s back, wondering what he must be thinking. The girl who always shuns me about money lives here? A nice neighborhood? She clearly doesn’t have the right-

He paused at a fork in the road. I tugged his jacket left and we reached the top of Petunia Park’s hill, the entrance to the flower streets. Just above Bay View Drive and the megamansions that were on the water, we were now surrounded by quaint $2 million two-story homes. He paused, the engine rumbling, gently quaking our bodies.

I lifted my helmet just enough. “I’m on Carnation.”

He remained still, looking out. From the hill, we could see the harbor and the peninsula creating its barrier from the ocean. The houses were twinkling safehouses against the abyss of black horizon. Our little seaside community. In another life, there weren’t as many lights. Traders and fishermen lived in simple homes with simple lives and returned from the sea to sit down at their modest table to have a simple meal and to be simply… happy. If I squinted, I could almost pretend this were something different. That we were in a different time. Time.

“Harry, I’m late,” I said, as gently as I could.

His gaze tore, ripped from reverie. Without saying a word, he adjusted my hands tighter around his waist. Further up the street until there was no view of the ocean, smaller cottages were sprinkled in between the contemporary beach homes. I pulled his jacket hard and he stopped before an earthy gold Provence-inspired home - quaint blue shutters and balconies overlooked an impressive rose garden.

I hopped off, handing him his helmet.

“S’this it?”

“No.” Next door, I walked to the dark-shingled home half its size. I took a deep breath, salty air and dried grass hit my nose. The scent of my childhood. I smiled. “You don’t have to come in. Thank you so much for picking me up-” But when I turned around he was already walking past me, hand reaching back to tug me forward.

“Woah, Harry-” I dug in my heels.

“I’m not inviting myself. Just let me walk you to the door.”

Voices drifted to us from the kitchen, the windows probably open. His black BMW was there in the driveway. It blended with the other cars on the street, but to me it looked strange. I’d never get used to it here. I looked to the boy whose black ensemble blended with the night, but whose tall stature made him rise above it.

“Okay,” I huffed, because the way Harry’s body was cemented to the ground, I knew that even if I’d said no, he'd walk with me anyway.

Three knocks was all it took for chairs to scrape along the floor.

An excited “She’s here!!” came from beyond the door.

“Well thank God, I would’ve eaten the last steaks.”

My mom’s eyes brightened as soon as she opened the door - then confusion, then recognition to the boy stood beside me.

“You brought your friend.” Her smile grew warmer, opening up her arms. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

If the BMW in the driveway was a bizarre sight. This, this right here, topped it all. Harry dwarfed my mom, but he effortlessly leant down, letting her scoop him up.

Over his back she mouthed - Nice, then winked.

“Where have you been? Dad tried calling a thousand times.

“We were…”

“At school,” Harry finished. “Her car wasn’t starting.”

I shot Harry a look, casually tucking a hair behind my ear. The less they knew the better.

“We can have dad look at the car- oh my Gosh, what’s all over your hands?”

I looked down - blood. Blood was literally on my hands.

“Paint,” I said, ignoring the nauseating fact that pig DNA was stuck beneath my nails.

“I thought you dropped the art class-?”

“-It’s a friend’s project.”

“She’s alive?” a voice called. For once, he was saving instead of berating. As if suddenly realizing we hadn’t even made it through the door before her interview, she turned to Harry with a smile only a mother could give. “Would you like to come in, get some dinner too?”

“Oh…” Harry looked at me, almost bashful. “I don’t know,” he settled on.

He leant a bit to the side, crossing his arms, then stuffed them in his pockets. It was the only time I could say I’d seen Harry look… awkward. A selfish curiosity wanted to see what he’d look like in my kitchen, in my room, in other parts of my life I’d never thought I’d be sharing with him. He looked like a lost little boy.

He must be nervous.

“You should stay.” I placed a hand on his arm and he almost flinched at the contact. He looked confused. I couldn’t blame him. Originally I was telling him not to walk me to the door, now I’m saying meet the family! “Stay,” I repeated, softer this time.

His eyes searched mine, looking for any hesitance, any joke. He didn’t find any. “Okay,” he said, as if he couldn’t believe it himself.

My mom flipped around, hands in the air. “Yay, perfect! There’s two steaks, one’s a little smaller. Y/N, you can have that one...” She continued walking away, heading for the kitchen.

I waited for Harry to walk through the door, but he stuck out his hand. Me first.

If only he knew what he was walking into.

part 18

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tomboyjessie13-artblog · 4 years

Text

Meeting the Fourth Shadow (KH: Remembrance of Days)

~The following story takes place during the events of 358/2 Days, and at the end of the first arc of my story~

Neashi Tamiki, a streetwise individual who lives in Sunset Hill, Twilight Town, in truth she once lived on the Destiny Islands before the Heartless attacked, because of that experience she lost her memories of her past life as a human. That's right, she's a humanoid Nobody who lost her heart and her memories of her friends, she can't remember their faces nor their names...but, it's slowly started to come back to her. and since her heart and will was strong, she can live on as a Nobody, why she knew that? You'd know when you spent sometime in Twilight Town.

During the time she had no memories, she was nursed back to health by the two old women who lived across town, she was also nicknamed "Midori" due to her green hair, even after she got most of her memories back, she still allowed them to call her by that name out of respect for her caretakers. But it didn't last long, her caretakers soon notified her of her "relative" and that they want her to return home. In reality, however, it was just a trap that she couldn't escape from, to lure her into a scheme, a Project lead by the mysterious and cryptic [Mr. Pere Noel].

All of that was three months ago.

She had just returned from her job at the garage, where she had to push cargo to it or fix vehicles. She lived in a two bedroom apartment picked out by the so-called "relative", though she uses the second bedroom for her paintings and drawings. Needless to say, this arrangement was done to prevent bystanders from getting involved. She kicks off her shoes by the door and walked into the living room where she can just lie on the couch, she fell on it faced down on a pillow...But just as she was about to drift off to sleep...

"...Beep beep beep, beep beep beep...beep beep beep, beep beep beep..."

She looked and saw that her laptop was beeping like crazy, to be frank, it didn't surprise her one bit, mainly because it was no ordinary laptop, it's used to make contact with her and vise-versa, and now she has to work with that person; [Mr. Pere Noel].

"Ugh, what now?" she groaned as she sat up to grab the laptop, she leaned back and opened it to find that it's has been on for hours, the screen was just a picture of a red circle in the center.

"Hello, [Fifth Pierrot]. Did I catch you in a bad time?" The voice in her laptop said using her code-name as a light red line in the center of the circle moves when he speaks, it was all distorted to hide his/her identity, but a name like [Mr. Pere Noel], Neashi can tell that he's a man.

"What do you think?" She said with irritation in her voice, "I just got back from my job at the garage, I'm tired, I smell, and my back is killing me and you had to pick this exact moment to bother me in a time like this? What more could you want with me?!"

The man with a distorted voice chuckled, "My apologies, friend, it's just that I'm calling to tell you I'm not going to be bothering you like this anymore." Hearing this, her face turned from irritation to confusion, asking:

"What?"

"I'm saying that your no longer under my thumb anymore."

From hearing that, Neashi let out a sigh of relief. "Well, it's about time." Finally, after all the dirty work she went through, from stealing from rich people's homes to killing rare Heartless to trying to interrogating Powerful Nobodies residing in downtown Twilight Town, she was free, "After everything you have done to me, I can finally take a break." She laid on her couch in a relaxing position.

"Indeed... however."

She perked her head up. "However what?"

"That doesn't mean your off the hook."

She jumped up, "What!? I done everything that almost got me arrested because of you!"

"That was just Phase One of our deal, but I have other businesses to attended to so I couldn't be bothered with you, luckily I have another "Intern" who is VERY eager to meet you."

"Another Intern?"

"Yes, the one you'll be meeting is named [Fourth Shadow], you are to go to Sunset Station and wait for the Dusks, they will take you to the Nobody Territory of "Long Shi City" in Land of the Dragons, you are to meet with him in at 6:40 on the dot."

Land of the Dragons, she had heard of that world multiple times from the Dusks, but she was too angry to think about it. "Are you kidding? I'm still doing this shady business? And now you're gonna get one of your interns to boss me around? You're a pathetic coward and a tyrant!" She yelled before punching the laptop screen with her fist, causing injury to her hand. Neashi winced in pain from the cuts and busted knuckles. "Ngh...Dammit...Curaga." Neashi called out, green colored vines and yellow flowers started to swirl around her hand, healing her injury.

"...I must say...you have a lot of brute strength, Pierrot." [Mr. Pere Noel] said suddenly, Neashi was baffled on how the chat can still operate despite having a busted screen. "So long, [Fifth Pierrot]...we'll meet again another time...Until...hen...play nice...with...[Fou...ha..do..." The laptop shorted out, never to be used again. Neashi sighed irritably, she took the busted laptop and threw it in the garbage in the kitchen in a rage. As she was cooling down, she looked up at the clock on the wall and saw that she only has an hour and thirty-five minutes left, knowing that she too is a Nobody, talking to other Nobodies wouldn't be much trouble.

"Well...if I gonna meet this [Fourth Shadow] dude, I might as well start cleaning up.". She said as she dug through her closet to find clothes for the said world, most of it, however, is just clothing from Twilight Town. "Ahh, these will do." She grabbed out a pair of black thick high-heeled boots that reach her ankles, a pair dark grey leggings, a dark green turtleneck dress that goes down to above her knees, and a black leather coat with buttons.

Later-

She got to Sunset Station as planned, just 15 minutes till 6:40, the sun has already gone down but the sky was colored in a lovely shade of cerulean blue. She sat on the bench and waited for them to arrive, she checked herself in her flip phone's camera to see if she looked alright, finding that she's wearing brown eyeshadow and her trademark lip piercing in the form of rings. Just then a corridor opened up and a white slim hand beaconed her to come with it, Neashi knew who's hand it belongs to, she got up and and stopped by the corridor. As expected, the one that beaconed was the Dusk that [Mr. Pere Noel] mentioned, how was he able to tame Nobodies? Never mind that, her thoughts were interrupted when it threw a black cloak at her.

"Hm?" She looked at the cloak with curiosity, "What's this for, I'm already wearing a coat?" She asked, the Dusk started hissing. To people, Dusks sounds like they're hissing, but in reality, they're actually talking, mainly to other Nobodies. "To protect me from Darkness?" The Dusk nodded, she looked at the cloak again, she just shrugged and threw it on her shoulders as they continued on through the corridor, they kept on walking for a few minutes until she saw a pale red light at the end. Upon entering through it, she became stunned, mouthed agape. There were buildings built alongside a mountain, covered in bright electrical lights and paper lanterns, and is populated with both Lesser and Humanoid Nobodies, this is one of the Nobodies' Territories [Mr. Pere Noel] talked about; "Long Shi City".

"Whoooooa." Neashi said in amazement, aside from Traverse Town that she went to sometime ago with one of her awful clients, she's practically in another world outside of that and Twilight Town; Land of the Dragons, she had heard this world is really ancient, though this spot is both a mixture of ancient and modern culture due to the Nobodies coming from outside of this world, surprising that no human had found this area. Everywhere she looked filled her with delight, the buildings, lights, clothes, and the delicious smell of food in the air, she can also see that the Humanoid Nobodies having a good time...or at least they're acting like it due to having no hearts.

"My goodness, this place is beautiful!" She said in a bright tone, Neashi is quite a sucker for art of any kind, including architecture. "OOF!" She bumped into the Dusk she was following, the Dusk had stopped in front of her for some reason, "Sorry, what's wrong?" The Dusk then turned itself to the left and pointed at a nearby ally. In the ally was a red gate-like door with letters she couldn't understand, is that an entrance to a garden or a brothel? There's only one way to find out, she started walking to the door. The more she got close, the stronger the scent becomes, and scent that filled her with two feelings: delight and hunger, she sniffed the air as she got closer, "...Mmmm, something smells really good.". As she would have thought, the Dusk led her to a traditional Chinese restaurant, but why here?

There was a young woman, wearing an orange short-sleeved Cheongsam with red lining, was waiting at the gates, she looked at Neashi, "Your name, young lady?"

"Huh? oh, Neashi Tamiki."

The woman looked at the list in her hand, "Ah yes, his Lordship reserved a booth for both of you, he's waiting for you right now, please follow me." She gestured inside, what does she mean by "Lordship"? Was she talking about [Fourth Shadow]? Oh well, at least she'll have something to eat, she did as the woman told her to and followed her into the place, the whole restaurant is crowded with more Humanoid Nobodies, there also seems to be a bar ran by another Dusk, only this time it's wearing a velvet red vest with a black bowtie. The decor of the place was as breathtaking as her walk through town...though the only thing that stood out was the Nobodies' symbol hanging on the wall near the kitchen, colored in gold.

She kept on following the woman until they got an empty private booth in the other room. "Was someone supposed to be here?" Neashi asked.

"Oh yes, he must be in the restroom or something, but I'm sure his Lordship will turn up soon." She answered, "In the meantime, you can take your seat, your food will arrive soon."

"Oh goody." She said with some enthusiasm in her voice as she took her seat, as mentioned before she enjoys art of any kind, not only in architecture but in culinary as well. A few minutes had past and nothing seems to had happened yet, didn't [Mr. Pere Noel] mention that his intern was supposed to be here? Neashi then put her phone away as it was gonna die soon, so she's left with no distraction, but was quickly taken out of it by the waitresses carrying food around, erasing her troubles.

"Looks good, huh [Fifth Pierrot]?" Neashi jumped when someone said that. Neashi turned and saw a man across the table from where she was sitting, the most notable features of his appearance is the fact that he's wearing a black cloak with a hood over his head, covering his face.

"How'd you know my name, Nobody!?" She asked in shock, she couldn't believe that she's sitting with a member of Organization XIII, a group of the most powerful yet dangerous Nobodies in existence, the very rulers of all Nothingness.

"Should be no surprise to you considering that you're a Nobody yourself." He said changing the subject. There was awkward silence between, Neashi didn't know how to respond to that.

She gulped, "Alright, listen... as much as I like to talk to one of the rulers of all Nobody-kind, I was actually waiting for someone important." She said while trying not to look nervous.

"Let me guess, is it: [Fourth Shadow]?" The cloaked man answered.

"Yeah!..wait, how'd you know that?" She tilted her head to the side. "And how did you know my name?"

"Heh heh heh." He let out a dark chuckle as he leaned forward on the table, before answering: "Guess."

Neashi looked at him with confusion in her eyes, though his face is hidden, she could've sworn that he smiled at her under his hood, after moments of thinking, her jaw instantly dropped upon realization of who he is.

"You're [Fourth Shadow]?!"

"Bingo!" He said pointing at her nose.

"All this time I've been working with Organization XIII?!"

"Mayyyyybe." He replied in a voice that makes him sound childish, "However, what's going right now is just between us and the Organization so try to keep it down, will ya? We don't want any bystanders listening for us." Neashi, though shocked at first, quickly calmed down and nodded quietly, she shifted herself on her seat to got conformable and asked:

"What does [Mr. Pere Noel] want with me?"

"Why, to take part in the [Project: Pere Noel] of course." He replied with a laid-back smile, his arms were also raised up to his head. "It's a project financed by our leader, Lord Xemnas, The Superior of the In-Between."

"[Project: Pere Noel]?" She asked, she lowering her head as if ashamed, she then let out a soft chuckle before raising her head with a look of disappointment. "Having a title like that makes it feel like I'm a lab rat to the Organization." She said with a half-hearted smile.

"Ok ok." he said waving his left hand, "Maybe that have came out the wrong wa-."

"Oh no, I like the name, but from what [Mr. Pere Noel] put me through, I can't show respect for him nor the project." The man sitting across from her frowned for a bit, it's as if what Neashi said offended him, but then he grinned and laughed it off. "I'd be pretty mad too if I was used as a tool, but the sad part that we don't have any Hearts to feel that way."

"Figures." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, are you aware of the roles that the Project does?"

"Well..., there are others as I heard, and I had performed some decent missions that almost got me arrested, and I learned about tons of Heartless I thought that never existed, that's all I know."

"Good Good."

"But isn't that job for the Organization? I mean I heard they only allow thirteen in the group."

"Hehehe, I thought so too, however.." He leaned forward on the table resting on his elbows. "A while back we'd received a 14th member, that and we lost 5 of our members during their stay at Castle Oblivion...some in which are said to be traitors, it kinda stopped our project for a bit but [Mr. Pere Noel] thought it would be wise to secretly train new recruits into the Organization to see if they're more worthy than our late comrades."

"Is that so?" She asked.

"Absolutely." Just then a waitress, wearing a green Cheongsam with yellow lining, came with a big plate asking:

"Who ordered the Stir Fry Chicken, Pork Dumplings, fried rice, and a side of Baijiu and Green Tea?"

"That's us!" [Fourth Shadow] called out to the waitress, she placed the food and drinks on the table.

"Here you go, your Lordship, enjoy."

"Thanks." After the waitress left, he noticed Neashi setting her sight on the pork buns with eagerness in her eyes, mouthwatering and all. "Dig in, Pierrot, I ordered it for both of us."

"Well don't mind if I do." She complied as she grabbed one of the buns and started eating it.

"So as I was saying, he's secretly recruiting Outsider Nobodies, which is what you are, into [Project: Pere Noel] in hopes that one of the few recruits are the most suitable comrades to join our fold." He said sipping on Baijiu. "Or at the very least replace the ones we lost." While setting up her plate for the rice and stir fry, she raised an eyebrow and asked:

"And your point is?"

"My point is that its sort of like a contest except for more beneficial reasons, some of the Members, myself included, are tasked to observe you guys." Neashi was quite interested in what the hooded man was talking about.

"You're friends are on board as well?"

"That's right, but right now its just the two of us." He explained as he made himself a plate as well. "Me, who goes by the name of [Fourth Shadow] as you already know, and Saix, the Superior’s right hand man, is [First Santa Clause]."

"Going for a Twisted Christmas theme huh?" She joked, but then her grin faltered when something came into her mind. "...Who is [Mr. Pere Noel] anyways...is it your Boss?"

"I'm not telling ya, we're keeping his identity confidential." He responded in a more serious tone. "If I did tell you, both of us would be dead by now." Neashi then formed a very mischievous smirk as she leaned back on her seat, lifting her left hand to her chin and gesturing it like if she was about to let out a laugh.

"Hm hm hm." She laughed through her nose, the hooded man was quite surprised by her change in attitude, it's as if she has mood swings, she then spoke again: "I never knew you were scared of your own bosses to not spill it."

"...As if." He rebuffed, he looked like he was forming a sneer underneath his hood. "You're not planning to stick around with the project just so you can get [Mr. Pere Noel]'s identity, are you?" He said tilting his head to the side, Neashi then lowered her hand and continued talking, this time in a more serious tone.

"...Stupid and reckless, yes, but he abducted me from the two old ladies who nursed me back to health, made me look and act like a complete fool, not to mention that I almost got arrested because of all the heists I had to do for him, that in turn caused several criminals to get their hands on me just to do more heists... even as a Nobody, I felt my first emotion from all of this...rage...therefore I plan to get close to him, and to have my revenge on him, he deserves punishment for what he did to me..." She was silent for a moment, but then looked at him in the eyes with another smirk, saying: "...and besides..." She leaned forward to his hooded face, she had just noticed that he has a very jagged scar across his left cheek. "...I can tell that you may be the type of guy who enjoys a game or two."

She leaned back on her seat, still giving him that smirk. From hearing all of that, the hooded man formed a Cheshire cat-like grin towards the green-headed tomboy and began to laugh loudly, "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I like your attitude, Princess, you have what it takes to be a formidable comrade and foe...however." He said as he removed his hood, revealing that he not only possesses the aforementioned scar but also an eyepatch over his right eye, his other eye was colored in a golden yellow, he also has prominent cheekbones, upturn eyebrows, and long black hair with grey streaks tied into a ponytail, judging by his appearance alone, its possible that he could be old. "...Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you, as the their Freeshooter, I promise you that I'll won't hesitate to rain hell on you if you even try to get close to the Project's founder...buuuuut I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt in tracking him down."

"So that's gonna be your game?...trying to prevent me from knowing too much?"

"Yep." He said, still grinning. Neashi thought about this for a moment, she then looked at him with determination in her eyes.

"Very well, Let the games begin, [Fourth Shadow]." She stuck her hand towards him, "Shake on it?" He took her hand and started to shake it vigorously. "Y'know I never actually got your name." She said after they stopped.

"I go by many names from enemies and friends alike, I'm mostly called Xigbar." He answered. "And yours?"

"Neashi Tamiki." She answered back, immediately she noticed that he frowned. "Does my name offend you?"

"No...its just...I felt like I heard it somewhere before...". His answer left her confused, have they met before? Later in the evening, once they're done with the food they ordered, Neashi looked over at the check and asked:

"Do you have any munny to pay for all this?"

He looked to her with a mischievous grin and answered: "As if." And as a result: Neashi was left to pay for the food, losing the munny she needed for a new art book she had her eyes on. Indicating that he's already giving her a hard time on the very first hour.

END

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

*Long Shi City is a fictional city I created, it's based on the real-life cities of Dali, China and Jiufen, Taiwan. It also translates to Dragon in Chinese. **Baijiu is Chinese white wine ***Pere Noel is french for "Father Christmas" or "Santa Clause", the project and code names are deprived from the criminal organization under the same name from the Vocaloid song series: The Evillious Chronicles.

#fanfiction #short story #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts oc #oc #xigbar

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mellz117 · 4 years

Text

Hello all and welcome to part 4 of my playthrough of KH2 on the PS2. If you haven't seen the previous entries please go do that.

[ _1_ ] [ _2_ ] [ _3_ ]

To recap: The Wonders of Twilight Town are boring as hell. We spoke to Namine again, Roxas finally realizes his life this week is a lie and starts to remember his life in the Organization. DiZ is racist against Nobodies but we already knew that. Roxas and Axel fight, I wanted to cry. Roxas meets Sora in his sleeping pod before disappearing, I wanted to cry.

And the adventure continues

I wanna know how Sora wakes up in the real world when Roxas merges with him in the virtual one. How in CoM does Sora go to sleep in Castle Oblivion, the whole-ass chamber and then some get transferred to Twilight Town, Roxas meets him in a virtual version of the mansion, and Sora wakes up in the real mansion in KH2? Nomura please explain this series. Is Final Fantasy ever this convoluted?

Donald and Goofy call out to Sora and we're once again reminded this is a Disney game. I don’t know why but the fact that Disney owns the original Kingdom Hearts characters bothers me. It means, unless DISNEY gives the OK, Sora will never be in Smash Bros. and that makes me sad.

I don't know much about comas but after a year of total inactivity, wouldn't your muscles atrophy like, A BUNCH? At least is wasn’t 7... OR VENTUS WITH A WHOLE DECADE WTF?

Again WHY COULDN'T JIMINY JUST KEEP EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN CHAIN OF MEMORIES WRITTEN DOWN IN HIS JOURNAL INSTEAD OF A CRYPTIC MEMO TO THANK NAMINE?

The trinity trio wanders out of the mansion, loot some chests, and find their way to the back alleys of town.

Hayner is rude RIGHT outta the gate, wow. Ok I remember that Pence actually met Roxas in Days, and so to me he seems to recognize Sora through his memories of Roxas despite the two sharing like, one visual similarly: blue eyes. But KH3 to my understanding reveals that the virtual versions of characters affect the real version so I dunno!! WHAT IS THIS SERIES?

"Have you finished the summer homework yet?" Olette asks Sora and his two ANIMAL COMPANIONS as if seeing two anthropomorphic animals is fucking normal in a town comprised entirely of humans and exactly one moogle.

Sora doesn't have any homework. For over a year he's been away from home and his mom couldn't make him go to school. I wonder how she's doing? Does she miss her son? Kingdom Hearts and parents don't gel.

I like how.. When Pence describes this cloaked figure who was looking for the trinity trio, as having big, round ears, they have to think about who it could possibly be. They’re not too bright.

Why is “sofa” capitalized? Also they weren't even sitting on it, neither of them were!

HAYNER IS A RUDE BOY! He tells us so ask Seifer about the town, as we are new. Bruh, if you’re this rude to us I’m sure how much worse Seifer and his posse are.

Seifer is immediately confrontational. “You here to pick a fight with us?” and Sora’s all like “No, we’re new here.” and DONALD FUCKING DUCK! INSULTS SEIFER AND NOW EVERYONE’S READY TO THROW DOWN! THANKS TO THIS DUMB FUCK DUCK!

But thank Christ big chungus appears out of nowhere and stops the children and two adult furries from causing a scene.

This dude is WAY too into the Struggle tournament. Seifer has an unwanted faaaaan! Bro, go away, you’re creeping on a teenager.

I wanna fight Seifer.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

I'm not working on this like I should be. I'm going on vacation soon and since we're all in quarantine I can't really do anything fun so this is the opportune time to catch up.

Moving on! We make our way to the train station and oh no, we're ambushed by Dusks! Because of COURSE we are. Who could've seen THAT coming? /s

I- I like how, even after hearing his voice, and seeing his fucking mousey silhouette, the gang STILL might not be sure this is their stupid rat king. One brain cell between the three of them, I swear, and Goofy is the primary carrier, and it only sometimes works.

Why do we need to purchase tickets to travel on a magical train embarking to an ethereal plane of existence? I guess it's the principal of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO HUG THIS BOY. LOOK, HE'S CRYING!

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Pence is so cute. I didn't care much for him when I was younger but he's such a cutie.

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I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO HUG THIS BOY. LOOK, HE'S SAD!

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It's fat cat Pete. For like ever, I had no idea he was a cat. Wonder what Maleficent saw in him to ally with him.

The trinity trio laughing about killing (or at least taking part in killing) Maleficent. "She's toast!" this sure is early 2000's dialogue...

Heartless everywhere! "You mean the worlds aren't at peace after all" well, no sweetie. It takes time for things to recover from horrible events. *looks at current state of the real world*

So like, I had no idea Yen Sid was a Keyblade warrior??? I had read about that in his Wiki page when I googled if any Keyblade warriors were left handed. (Ven might be, but more likely ambidextrous) But I guess being Mickey's teacher would imply his Keyblade wielder roots but whatever, I didn't pay attention when I was a teenager.

Yen Sid's decor is baffling. What are these bookshelves? What are these BOOKS? They're huge!

Good on Yen Sid for using singular “they” pronouns in 2005.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

On to our change of wardrobe. Without a doubt Sora's best look in the whole series, in my humble opinion. Lookit my handsome boy.

And Sora learns about drive forms, blah, blah, blah, powerful forms, gotta sacrifice something like in Duel Monsters, in this case an ally.

Yen Sid is so boring.

All seriousness and tension is just broken as soon as Goofy’s name is uttered, at least Sora and Donald have normal names wtf.

It’s interesting how like, 15 years later, Union X explains how Maleficent was able to return after her defeat. Something about, as long as someone from your original time remembers you and you have a physical object to represent you you’re able to basically some back from the dead. Right? Am I right on that? I haven’t played it but I’m hanging by a thread on this loop.

Sora’s hard work down the drain...

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Hollow Bastion! And of course there’s trouble. Heartless, Nobodies, and Yuffie, oh my!

A problem sequels have to work around is when the protagonist needs to relearn their abilities. KH does a well and good job with this one. In CoM, it’s a different battle style, in KH2 Sora’s been asleep for a hear prior.

Also, Merlin “leant” Sora some magic spells? How does that work? Like, once you learn it you can’t just... give that knowledge back...?

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How old is Leon? He has no right being this pretty.

Another ambush by Nobodies. Give it a rest, would ya? Battle ensues, Leon deals the final blow against an enemy, and as the camera usually does, zooms in on the victor and we get a nice slow-mo crotch shot of Leon. Thanks, game... Then, Xemnas’s very sexy, very manly voice echoes across town and the organization appears before our protagonists. I’m weak.

Demyx’s laugh, dude. I love it. Sora is ready to throw hands with anyone in his way. Honey, you’re barely out of a magic coma and this dude is like, two whole feet taller than you. Not to mention very fit.

I’m done thirsting over Xemnas...

After a few taunting words, the new villains depart, Donald attempts to give chase somehow? Where you gonna go? They disappeared behind dark corridors. It seems Goofy is still holding onto that shared brain cell.

The Bastard

I like the majority of the Organization. Xigbar is definitely one of my favorites based on this next scene alone. He’s so snarky and full of shit. I love it. He’s great. He was definitely a stoner at some point.

I’m confused though. “He used to give me that same exact look!” the Wiki says Xigbar’s talking about Ven but I always thought he was referring to Roxas? Did Braig and Ven have a history? That’s implied in Days (which released before BbS) IDK dude. I’m surprised I’ve gone this long without spoiling myself too much on BbS. Like, a few story beats here and there but a lot of it isn’t gonna be known until I play it.

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The dialogue for KH2 was so different from the first game. It dates itself so much in comparison.

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Xiggy stands like this for 7 whole seconds parting with a condescending “Be a good boy now!” before disappearing. I love this fucker.

Leon, who’s been sitting on the sidelines this whole time, joins Sora and the others after the real threat is gone. We chitchat for a little bit and say our goodbyes. It’s time to leave this place and move on to one of two available worlds.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

At the Beast's Castle. After fighting a hoard of Shadows, the least intimidating enemy in the series (although the demon tower in kh3 is quite frightening nlg), the Beast himself makes his appearance, takes out the Heartless that suddenly stop multiplying upon his arrival, disgracefully shoves his supposed friends aside, and takes his precious rose to the west wing, which is where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. ADAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

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No joke one of the funniest actual gags in the whole series is:

*Donald Duck manhandling Cogsworth*

Cut to Sora saying "I'm glad you're OK." to Lumiere

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OK the minigame where you gotta light the magic torches, why do we have to make sure Cogsworth has enough strength to keep the lever down when we have two perfectly capable companions that can hold it down instead? I remember this sequence being a lot more annoying when I was a teen.

Xaldin's voice makes me feel things. Ahhh he sounds so tired lol. He peaces out and we fight the Beast. I remember getting him to calm down being harder.

"Xaldin used my anger to control me!" Says Beast. He angers very easily so this must have been a cinch. Xaldin's been obsessed with him since Days so I would imagine this intel would come in handy.

More fodder to fight and on to the boss. Phase one is just an angrier version of the Darkball Heartless. Phase two is just skinny Ganon. I like its design though.

“Belle, I’m sorry. I wasn’t myself, being all rude and overall kind of a jackass to you and my servants” Except that’s kinda how you’ve always been lmao. Just because you couldn’t choose not to be an ass here doesn’t change that this IS in character. Still gotta work on that a bit.

“You don’t have to apologize” No, no he still does.

They all reconcile and the Trinity Trio departs until Xaldin shows up again to wreak more havoc.

Time to move on to the next world.

#mellz plays kh2 #Kingdom Hearts series #Kingdom Hearts 2 #square enix #disney #PlayStation 2

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artificialqueens · 5 years

Text

5 times Cracker and Brooke broke it off, and 1 time they didn't (Miz Cracker x Brooke Lynn Hytes) - fandomfeministe

A/N: I’m a sucker for a 5+1 fic, and this seemed a good place to start. Thanks to Saiph again for all your help and indulging me in this nonsense! I had such fun with it that if I get any more ideas, more of them might come along…

The line about the pomeranian came from a conversation with Veronica. That laugh is all hers <3

When they got caught out by Kameron

A near-winded gasp for air was the sound that first got Kameron’s attention.

“Oh… god…keep going,” said a familiar voice, a desperate, high-pitched whine threaded through the begging, accompanied by breathless panting that was the sign of someone clearly being given a good time by someone. Kameron, passing by his friend’s dressing room and spotting the slightly opened door, smirked a little as he approached, about to subtly close it before texting Brooke Lynn that she could thank him later. He was just about to wrap his hand around the doorknob before a second speaker became audible, stopping the eavesdropper in his tracks.

“Sssh, I’m repaying the favour, aren’t I? Be fuckin’ patient!” laughed the second man, whose voice was also familiar - so familiar, in fact, that Kameron could picture his face, the corners of his brown eyes wrinkled in laughter before he carried on doing… oh. His own eyes widened, recognising that it was his Season 10 sister, apparently in some kind of encounter with his sister from Tennessee. What the fuck?

Hating himself for feeling like a voyeur but kind of dying to see what was happening, Kameron carefully leaned forward, looking through the gap. There, he could see that his assumptions were right - Cracker on his knees before Brooke Lynn. The former’s hands were holding back the latter’s skirts, dark head confidently bobbing up and down while the blonde’s head tilted back, lipsticked mouth hanging open as the moans began to build. Still confused as to how the fuck these two had ended up this way - especially as they’d clearly been so keen to get started that Brooke’s only move towards de-dragging was getting untucked - a mischievous moment came over their mutual friend with a look on his face to match. With one swift movement, Kameron shut the door loud enough to cause the two men inside to yelp in surprise before he made his escape, being a safe fifteen feet down the corridor and around a corner before pulling out his phone, including both queens’ numbers in a text.

“Don’t be too mad, bitches. Really. It could’ve been Eureka that caught you going at it.”

2. When Bob couldn’t stop laughing

“Hytes? Seriously, bitch?”

Cracker and his drag mother were hanging out at his own place in Harlem, back from the tour where he and his Canadian lover had already tried to break it off once. After Kameron had caught them - and wasted no time in letting them know about it - he and Brooke Lynn had lasted a grand total of a week before falling back into bed round about the time of their gig in Paris, where their night off in the clubs of Montmartre had apparently been quite the aprodiasiac. Even now that they were back in the US, and in whole different time zones, let alone states, things between them hadn’t exactly gone back to PG13. In fact, at this very moment, Cracker was sitting through Bob’s uproarious laughter with the knowledge that Brooke had been sending progressively more filthy text messages all afternoon, and he was wondering what the hell he was going to actually find once he had the chance to check his phone after Bob left.

“I mean, fuck, what is she? 6’1? 6’2? It must be like a pomeranian fucking a Great Dane!” the larger man cackled, laughter ringing off the walls in the small apartment.

Cracker bristled slightly, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his friend. “6’3. And original, Bob, really fuckin’ original. I don’t seem to recall you complaining about it when we were together.”

Bob, seeing the look on his daughter’s face, took a couple of breaths, still giggling a little before eventually settling. “Alright, alright, I’ll drop it. I mean, clearly you got a fucking type, or a complex, but I’ll drop it.” He paused, though, looking more serious this time.

“For real, though, whatever this -” he gestured between the two of them - “is with you guys, you’ve got to think fast about whether it’s worth it. Because if Michaels knows, and I know… who else does? How long’s it going to be before someone tells Vanjie?”

Cracker’s face fell.

“Oh, shit.”

3. When Vanjie found out

Telling Vanjie was not a fun time.

It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, Brooke Lynn supposed, but it was still not an experience he would ever care to repeat.

He’d called him when he was in LA, suggested meeting for coffee as they often did, but even on the phone, his ex had been able to tell something was up.

“How long?” he’d asked, his foghorn voice unusually soft. When told the truth - that it had started on the European tour Vanjie hadn’t gone on - he almost snorted with laughter at the same time as looking plaintively at the man across from him. “Think I knew, deep down, you were ready to move on. Didn’t think it’d be with someone I knew so well, though.”

Brooke attempted to protest a little, said that he and Cracker were hardly enough of a thing for them to be considered as ‘moving on’ together, but Vanjie merely raised an eyebrow at him as first response. “Don’t you pull that crap with me. I know you both too well for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You both put up walls and shit. Tried to be public, got hurt, shut down and never told nobody how you felt ‘bout anything since. You both got people saying you got no feelings, but you sure do. Both got so many of ‘em that you don’t know what to do with ‘em, so you act the ho and don’t show anybody what you really got going on. It’s hard for most folks to get that, when they try and give and don’t feel like they got anything back, but you two?” Vanjie shrugged before taking a sip of his coffee. “You two fuckers might actually understand each other.”

It was all Brooke could do to avoid freezing to the spot in panic.

“Oh shit.”

4. When The Vixen told a few home truths

If there was one thing anybody knew about The Vixen, it was that she didn’t pull any punches.

“Hytes? Are you fucking kidding?”

Cracker slid further down into her seat at the bar, visibly cringing at her friend’s vociferous response. “Raise your voice, why don’t you, bitch? There’s a few guys over by the restrooms who can’t hear you!”

“I don’t care!” The Vixen slammed her drink down on the bar, some of the clear liquid within sloshing out and over the sides. “Seriously, I didn’t have you pinned down as having such… such bland tastes.”

“Bland?” Cracker was clearly shocked, her mouth hanging open as she stared at her friend so hard that her eyes even bulged a little. “The hell? You’ve seen how he looks on stage. How he dresses on stage. Shit, some of those finale outfits had people practically drooling, and you call that bland?”

“Tall, blonde, white, polished, pageant queen,” Vixen responded succinctly, counting off each attribute on her fingers. “Tell me how that’s not part of the furniture in any part of the entertainment industry, Cracks. You could spit in the air at Miss Continental and nearly hit ten dudes like him. And you… you’ve always prided yourself on being different. On being weird. Comedy queens don’t usually go for the model girls. Especially when you’re both so…”

“So what?”

“So different.”

“Do you really think he shouldn’t be going for me? Or do you just resent the bitch because of your known thing for his ex?”

For once, The Vixen was stunned into silence. Cracker had slid off his chair, turned and stalked out of the bar before a feeble ‘fuck you’ could even begin to escape his lips.

5. When Nina got concerned

“What is this, an intervention for introverts?” Brooke joked as he walked into Nina’s hotel room with him, the older queen with a recognisably worried look on his face. Their gig had been over for hours, both were long out of drag, and now they were falling into their usual routine of a bitch fest before bed. Only this time, Brooke couldn’t help but feel as though Nina’s mama-bear routine was incoming, and began to steel himself in preparation for a talk about his feelings.

“No, darling, it’s not,” Nina replied with sympathy, sitting down in an armchair by the window after patting the one opposite, motioning for her friend to join her. “I do have some misgivings, though. Maybe you can help me figure it out.”

“About what?”

“You and Cracker.”

Brooke sighed. He’d known this was coming. “Oh, here we go…” the Canadian queen cringed, reaching up to massage his temple, a literal headache forming at the same time as this figurative one. “There’s nothing to have misgivings about. We had… are having… had a thing for a while. It was fun. That’s all there is to it.” He felt his neck warm up at the look on Nina’s face, his old friend sitting there with staring eyes and brows raised unusually, sceptically high. Yep, blushing. He was definitely blushing.

“If it’s nothing, you wouldn’t be stumbling for words.. And… you know the last time I saw you look like that? Like you’d found somebody to spend time with who mattered - mattered enough to make you look like a schoolboy with a crush?”

Don’t say it, Nina. Don’t say it, don’t say it…

“That would be Vanjie. And Brooke, I love you, you know that, but I’ve got to remind you how that turned out.’

Brooke winced, and Nina reached out to him, regretfully picking up a hand and squeezing.

“I don’t want to cause you any embarrassment, but for someone who projects and even dresses like a goddamn ice queen, when you fall, you fall hard. And with the speed this has all happened, yes, I’m concerned for you. I watched you take the heat when it all fell apart with Vanjie and I saw the pain you were in. It’s like the whole thing just shattered you, and I…”

Brooke’s own eyes widened in horror as his best friend choked, his throat constricted and voice trembling. “If that happened to you again, I don’t know that I could handle seeing you hurt. Because you, you’d take it on the chin but wall it all up inside, letting yourself get so fucking lonely…”

With a sudden pang of anguish, Brooke got out of his chair, squished in beside Nina and threw his arms around the older man’s neck, hugging him tight. His chest felt both tight and full to burst at the same time, feeling both pains of guilt and full of appreciation for his friend’s love. “What did I fucking do to deserve you, Nina?” he chuckled softly, resting his head against Nina’s, resting there quietly while he rubbed comforting circles on his back, thumb twisting into the fabric of his shirt.

They both sat there for a while, doing nothing but hold each other and listening to the sound of each other’s breathing. It was true that each queen acted like the other’s support animal, an old joke, but one with an element of truth to be sure. However, while the two men sat quietly, Brooke’s brain began to run overtime, anxiety letting each passing through pull at his brain with increasing agony. Vanjie had alluded to it when they’d broken up, that one day, he was going to feel the way Vanjie did at another man’s hands, and his lack of prior relationships meant that the pain might break him. Cracker might dwell on his reputation, or be afraid of getting into something as serious as there’d been with his ex-fiancé and bolt. Worse, what if he, Brooke, panicked… again? What if he let someone get close to him, fall for him, and be let down by him… again? What if he was responsible for Cracker being broken by a man who screwed him over… again? Brooke wasn’t sure if he could cope knowing that he’d destroyed not one, but two people he cared about. Three, he supposed, if he counted the thought of disappointing Nina.

God, he was such a fuckup.

When they realised it could actually turn out OK

It seemed to Cracker, as he lay there in Brooke Lynn’s arms, that neither one of them seemed to know how to escape the other. At his last count, they’d tried to break it off a whole five times - sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both - and every time they’d found their way back to each other. It was almost as if they were a pair of magnets, drawn to each other so tightly that whenever they were separated, they ended up slamming right back towards each other, no choice but to deal with it, but the natural thing to do all the same.

He drew patterns on his lover’s taut arm muscles as he slept, feather light touches to match his own spirit. Watching him lying there, peaceful in his slumber, was weirdly soothing - not that Cracker quite understood why. Still, there they were, the smaller queen reluctant to move - not just because of the risk of disturbing Brooke’s rest, but because he too felt safe, strong arms keeping him held there.

He couldn’t help but smile as he watched Brooke’s eyes open slowly, the exhaustion writ large on his face as it tilted up to face him.

“Hey,” Brooke mumbled, his words muffled a little against Cracker’s shoulder. “Did I fall asleep?”

“Yeah, you did,” the other man replied fondly, kissing the top of his lover’s head. “Can’t say I blame you, though. You were being kept quite busy earlier…”

Brooke blushed a little, but grinned nonetheless. The memory of their afternoon together was definitely a happy one, full of laughter and mutual pleasure, ending up in a tangle of limbs under the covers. Their reunion, a good month and a half since they’d been at gigs anywhere near each other, had been more than needed. It was as if each was a human comfort blanket for the other, providing the security each other needed in their minds as well as their tired out bodies. Brooke himself had been surprised to feel this at first, but in a way, it made sense. They made sense. There wasn’t any pressure between them to be romantic, exclusive or any kind of fantasy - and in the greatest sense of irony, that had only made the Canadian happier to be in the arms of the Seattle-born queen.

It felt good to be understood. Understood was more important than anything to him.

“You know something?” he asked, prompting Cracker’s brown eyes to gaze into his.

“Mmm?”

“I think we’re gonna be OK.”

Crackler chuckled, then made an affectionate sound in the back of his throat as Brooke looked confused by his response. “No, I mean, I’m glad you think so… but what brought this on?” he asked, reaching around the pillow to twirl a finger into his blond hair.

Brooke shuffled a little so he could look at his lover properly, watching each emotion as it flickered across his face. “I’ve just been thinking… honesty between people in our position, it has to be a good thing, right?”

“Right.”

“I feel like… it’s easy to be honest. Like, that you’re going to get it, and I don’t have anything to be sick with worry about in telling you what I want. And that… that makes me happy, because… because I’m not forcing anything. This is me, this is what I want, and…” another pause, as he slid a hand down the other man’s back. “…I’m all in. Promise.”

A smile, eyes that crinkled at the edge and the gentle touch of Cracker’s lips on his was all the response he needed.

#rpdr fanfiction #miz cracker #brooke lynn hytes #brooke x cracker #fluff #angst #rare pair #fic challenge #fandomfeministe #(it's actually a courtney quote! -v)#canon compliant

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zach-the-fox · 4 years

Text

Furiends Episode 1: A New Beginning

“Just sign your name and we will take care of the rest,” says a deer with glasses to an orange fox, male in body build, with brown eyes. The fox takes the pen and writes along the dotted lines next to the “x”. Upon finishing, the fox hands back the pen as the deer takes the clipboard of the discharge forms. “Zach the Fox. All right, you’re all set, Mr. Fox. Is anyone coming to pick you up?”

The fox sighs as his ears droop. “I wish there was…”

“Nobody at all? Well, I’m sorry to hear. Hope you have a wonderful day.”

“I doubt that I will…” The fox heads off. “Everybody hates me… Nobody wants me…” Just as he heads out the door, he is stopped by a voice.

“Mister! Hey, Mister!” The orange fox’s ears stick up before he turns around to see a beige warthog approach him. Eyelashes and long, chocolate hair, messy on top but flowing in the back nicely straight with curves at the end, shows her gender to be female. Her eyes are protected by grey glasses as she dons an orange shirt underneath a black jacket and blue jeans. She stops in front of the fox, appearing to be half his size, then raises her hoof up with a blue bandana. Her brown eyes glare at the fox as she keeps the bandana suspending. “You left this in the hospital room. I was afraid you might’ve forgotten it.”

The fox keeps his frown on. “Keep it… I don’t want it anymore… It just reminds me of the life I dreamed of having… I can’t stand the pain of remembering all that…”

“Why does this blue bandana trouble you?”

“It was given to me by an orphanage patron, who thought I was special… Special enough to be labeled and picked at, as well as a symbol for being flawed.”

“So, it’s yours, then.”

“You can have it,” he tells her. “I insist.”

“I’d rather not have something that truly belongs to someone else. Besides, it would be better if you wore it, because it shows who you are.” She holds the bandana higher to him. “Here. Wear it.”

“If it’ll make you happy…” The fox takes the bandana from her hoof and proceeds to tie it around his neck. He makes sure the triangular part is big and points down toward his belly. “Happy now?”

“You don’t seem happy yourself,” she reflects. “Is this about Team Rescuers pushing you away? Or is it about everybody seeing you as the flawed fox of Heroto?” The fox looks away with his ears drooping. “Listen, I know how you feel.” The warthog takes a step closer. “It’s never good to be picked on or singled out because of a disorder or even from being a product of an inappropriate relationship or just be bad at something. I understand how you feel. My stepfather’s a big jerk, yet my mom and I struggle to put up with him.”

“Yeah, well at least you’ve got a family… I’ve had it hard my whole life… I have no family… no friends… No one… Unloved… Hated…”

“I’ll be your friend if you’d like.” The fox’s ears straighten immediately as he pivots his head to her quickly. “I really don’t mind. In fact, I could introduce you to some other friends of mine.” The warthog grabs the fox’s paw. “Come!” Being forced to follow her, the fox catches up as she pulls him away.

***

Walking along a grey-tiled foundation are three animals. One is a rottweiler, dressed with a white t-shirt underneath a steel-blue, opened vest, dark blue pants, and green sneakers. The dog is skinny in build to show a feminine gender. Beside her on her left is a blue jay with nothing but long, Persian-blue hair and black glasses, female in build as well. On the rottweiler’s right, a neon-blue wolf, male in figure with rainbow hair, walks alongside her. The three chat amongst themselves as they amble the right side of a long corridor, lined with stores.

“Did you really need that plushie?” the rottweiler asks, looking at the wolf.

“I couldn’t resist!” the wolf tells her. “He was just so cute!” He snuggles the little stuffed animal. “I didn’t want anyone else but me to have him. I love him!”

“If you love him so much, why don’t you kiss him?” utters the blue jay. She snickers.

The wolf looks at her with a mean glare. “Don’t start with me.”

“Hey guys!” The three animals turn to their front and see the warthog approach them.

“Well, look who it is!” the dog says. Her mouth bends into a small smile. “Glad you came. Was starting to think you weren’t going to make it.”

“I got held up at my appointment,” the warthog tells her. “Then, I met this fox here.” She turns to her guest behind her, letting go of his paw. “He was in the same hospital room as I, but he forgot his bandana, so I returned it to him.”

As the dog looks up at the fox, her smile reflects into a frown. “Hey, wait a minute.” She points at the fox. “You’re that fox whose been hanging around Team Rescuers, aren’t you?”

The blue wolf scans the fox up and down. “Yep, it’s the flawed fox of Heroto. However, I don’t see his friends anywhere.”

“Where are your hero friends?” asks the blue jay. “Aren’t they around?” The fox backs away a couple of steps, ears drooping with a frown.

“What’s wrong with you?” the dog asks. “Can’t you talk? Why are you backing away?”

“You’re not helping,” the warthog utters in defense. She faces the fox. “Don’t mind them. They’re not used to you.” She looks back at the other three. “Besides, he isn’t even with Team Rescuers anymore. They abandoned him a while back.”

“Oh yeah!” The rainbow-haired wolf spurts. “They booted him from the team…”

“Yeah, everybody knows that,” the fox tells him. “I always wanted to save people because I didn’t want anyone to end up like me… I was influenced by Captain Red Mask, telling me that caring and helping those is a great honor… I also wanted to prove that I wasn’t a … I failed… Not because I stopped trying, but I never got support because everyone thought I was a flawed fox; all because I’m the product of an inappropriate relationship and my disorder. That’s all everyone sees in me… Being a hero is all just a dream now…”

“Damn,” goes the blue jay. “That’s dark…”

“Nobody wants me… Nobody loves me… They all confirm that I fail because of my faults… I’m nothing! Nobody…” Tears develop in his eyes. “Why doesn’t anyone appreciate me…?”

“Hey listen,” the dog begins, taking one step forward to him and putting a paw on his shoulder. “I’m sorry about all that. I didn’t understand how rough you had it. It’s not an easy feeling to have your dreams crushed like that, and to have people view you for little things…” The fox’s ears raise but remain drooped. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you hang out with us?”

The fox’s ears straighten as he picks his head up. His tears ceasing. “R-really? Y-you wouldn’t mind at all? What if I mess something up?”

“Don’t worry about that,” the warthog assures him. “They’re fine with everything.”

The fox looks down at the warthog, sighs, then back up at the three animals. “Well, if you insist. Sure, I’d love to hang out…”

The blue jay steps up, grabs his paw with her wing, then shakes it roughly. “It’s such a pleasure to have you with us, Flawed Fox!”

“Zach,” the fox tells her, holding onto her wing as she shakes his arm. “I’m Zach… You’re hurting me…”

The blue jay takes back her wing. “Oops, sorry.” She chuckles awkwardly. “I’m Navy.” She points to the dog. “This is Sally, and the blue wolf’s Niji.” Niji waves and says “hello”, while Sally gives him a slight smile.

“And I’m Emmy,” the warthog butts in. “We’re happy to have you with us, Zach.”

“Um, cool,” Zach says. “So, what are we doing?”

“Not sure,” replies Sally. “We were just walking around the mall before Emmy brought you along. And we also stopped at one store so Niji could get a doll…”

Niji hugs the toy against his chest, then he spots a vendor with a long menu of frozen treats. “Hey, I’m kind of in the mood for some ice cream. Can we get some?”

“Oh!” shouts Navy. “I want some ice cream, too!”

“Calm down, “children”,” Sally orders. “Don’t rush me… Jeez.” She leads everyone to the line of the vendor. “Everyone know what they’re having?” Emmy, Niji, and Navy all give her a “yes” in response. “Okay.” The dog then faces Zach. “Zach, how about you?”

“I, um…” Zach rubs his arm. “I have no money. I just won’t have any.”

“It’s all right,” Navy tells him. “I’ll pay for yours.”

Zach looks to the bird. “You don’t have to… It’s fine.”

“I want to. Don’t worry. What flavor do you want?”

“Strawberry, I guess…” The five animals are next in line at the counter. As soon as they place their orders, the vendor gets to work on the requests. The ice cream person churns out the flavors the gang had called for, accepting the money laid out on the counter. The group takes their cups of frozen treats and amble away from the vendor, sitting around an iron-wielded table about ten meters away. They dig their plastic spoons into the colored, soft mountains and begin shoveling them into their mouths.

“So, Zach,” Sally begins. “Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I know the whole town knows who you are with the whole “flawed fox” thing, but I think it’s best if we learned about you in your own words. Unless, you don’t feel like sharing.”

“No,” Zach responds. “It’s okay.” He takes a deep breath in, starting with his story. “When I was born, I was immediately put up for adoption. My parents, David and Delilah, are infamous for their inappropriate relationship, but I’m sure you all know, right?” The other four all nod their heads. “So, the orphanage is where I grew up and spent my whole life. I never made a single friend or got adopted because of that relationship and the diagnosis of my disorder. Everyone saw me as different and were afraid. I was constantly picked on and bullied by the other kids, being told how much of a burden I am.”

“Harsh, dude,” Niji comments. “Did you tell the adults?”

“They didn’t do much to solve my issues. I was kept away from everyone and put in rooms alone. Everything was horrible until I met Team Rescuers. I would hang around with them and fight alongside them against Capital Corp of Buscity. For once in my life, I was happy. That was short-lived, however. They talked negatively about me on how poor of a job I would do. I asked them if I could learn from them… They neglected my request to prove I was more of a flawed fox than a fantastic fox…”

“So, it wasn’t your fault,” Sally claims. “It was theirs… They neglected and refused to train you…”

“It gets worse… I tried to learn on my own, but I wasn’t good enough… You guys know what happens next; the end of Zach the super fox…”

“Hard,” says Emmy. “But, you still talked to them, didn’t you?”

Zach shakes his head. “They wanted nothing to do with me. For the next three years, I focused on looking for a lover and struggled to find friends… Time ran out for me, though… I was evicted from the orphanage…”

“Oh jeez, Zach,” Sally utters. “I didn’t know you had it harder than I thought… What are your intentions now? What do you plan to do now that you’re on your own?”

Zach’s ears flop down again. “I… I don’t know… I never really anticipated it… I was just released from the hospital, yet I have nowhere to go… I have no family, no friends, nobody to care about… Team Rescuers has stripped me of the only dream I had and pushed me away… I don’t know what to do…”

“You’ll figure things out.” Emmy places a hoof on his paw. “You have us to be your friends now.” The others agree. “Think of it as starting a new life. We’ve got you.”

“Thanks, Emmy. Thank you all. I appreciate it… I don’t know where to go, though… Maybe I could find shelter in an alleyway and build myself a home…”

“No,” Sally tells him. “You don’t have to do that. You can stay with me. My mother and I have plenty of room.”

Zach’s ears straighten as he looks to her. “R-really? You would take me in?” Sally nods. “You and your mother wouldn’t mind at all?”

“I’d have to explain your situation to her. But other than that, she and I will be willing to let you stay. We have a room for guests that used to belong to my sister’s, but once I’ve cleared everything to my mother, it will be yours.”

“Thank you very much, Sally. I appreciate your kindness and generosity. If there’s anything I can do to repay you, let me know.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“I insist, though.”

“Okay, okay,” Emmy spurts out. “How about we focus on finishing our ice cream?”

“I want to hit the Kidsney store next!” Niji swivels his paw around quickly, shoveling as much of his ice cream in his mouth as he can.

“Don’t eat so fast, Niji!” Sally commands. “Or else you’ll get a-”

“Gah!” Niji holds his head as his eyes clench. “Oh!”

Navy chuckles. “Brain freeze!”

“That’ll teach you to eat slower next time,” utters Emmy. The group continues to eat their frozen desserts at their own pace.

A new beginning indeed! Here is the start of the revamped series of Furiends! Staring: @zach-the-fox @emmy-the-absolute-goof @sally-the-pack-leader @rainbow-strike @pink-unicorn-boi / @pink-unicorn-blood

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marvelousbirthdays · 5 years

Text

Happy Birthday, anerdykat

February 14- Brock Rumlow/Trip/Skye. I'll leave first words up to the author, but I'd love for it to start in San Juan and Brock to have been working UC for Fury, spying on Whitehall, for @anerdykat

Written by @ozhawkauthor

Brock knew everything was going to shit when Agent 33 called in from Vancouver to let them know she’d failed to capture Raina. Whitehall was seriously pissed off SHIELD thwarted his brainwashed agent.

“She got a tracker on the bitch, at least,” Whitehall said, looking at his phone and the moving dot on it. “I’m sending Ward to retrieve her. Go with him, Rumlow; take a quinjet squadron and shoot Coulson out of the sky if he tries to resist.”

“Sir,” Brock said, with a nod of his head, turning on his heel and getting out of there quick-time.

Shit, shit, shit. I need to get in touch with Fury!

There was no time. Fury was somewhere in Europe and he only had time to send a quick text and hope Fury would have time to pass it on to Coulson before they intercepted the Bus.

He’d mind the mission a lot less if he didn’t have to take orders from that backstabbing little prick Ward, too. There was something seriously creepy and disturbed about that guy, and Rumlow had spent a decade undercover in Hydra dealing with bastards who’d sell their own mother for advancement.

And that didn’t even touch on that wacko Doctor Zabo dude and the freaky as fuck Obelisk thing Whitehall was trying to weaponize.

Hydra out of the shadows were way worse than Hydra undercover, and literally nobody knew that better than Brock Rumlow.

At least, by virtue of the fact most of Hydra’s foot soldiers had been taking orders from him for years, he was able to commandeer a single-seat quinjet and take command of the flight part of the mission. He might have to blow his cover, but nobody was going to be blowing Coulson and his team out of the sky while he had weapons at his fingertips.

“Agent Ward’s brought out two women, Commander Rumlow,” one of the former STRIKE agents he’d sent onto the Bus with Ward advised him on a private channel.

“Say what? Who’s the other one?” Rumlow frowned at his flight displays.

“Ward called her Skye.”

It meant nothing to Rumlow, apart from someone else he needed to try and get out of Hydra’s clutches alive. With Ward’s jet detached from the Bus, he punched buttons fast, bringing up a different channel again.

“Director Coulson,” he rapped out. “This is Agent Two One. Repeat, this is Agent Two One. Come in.”

“Coulson’s busy, Two One,” a female voice said after a moment of endless silence.

“That you, May? I’m flight lead on the quinjet squadron alongside you. We have orders to shoot you down. Advise your tactic.”

He waited, knowing any moment now Ward would give the order, and if he didn’t, Whitehall would order it done. May knew what had to be done; if she could come up with an escape plan which didn’t involve him blowing his cover by shooting the other quinjets down, she’d give it to him.

“Stay covered, Five Five,” May said. “We have operational cloak. I’ll switch it on and blow flares and chaff when you take a shot.”

Risky, but it would leave his cover intact, and he’d need it if he was going to prevent whatever the hell Whitehall had in mind down in Puerto Rico. Damn that weird Nazi bastard anyway: he was so paranoid he wouldn’t share even the smallest snippets of information. Spying on him was more nerve-wracking than fighting Steve Rogers in an elevator.

“Now,” he said when the moment came, having already reserved for himself the right to take the shot.

It would take a team of forensic videographers weeks to figure out that the shot he took never made an actual connection, and by the time they even started looking, hopefully he’d have killed Whitehall, Ward, Zabo and every other maniac who thought themselves somehow superior to the rest of humanity just because they lacked a moral code.

“It’s done, sir,” he reported to Whitehall over the radio.

“Good. Now get your ass back here, Rumlow. We’ve work to do.”

“Sir,” he acknowledged, turning the quinjet and pushing it to full power, sparing a brief glance to the shimmer over the sea far below that marked the cloaked Bus.

Hurry the fuck up, Coulson. I don’t think I can do this alone.

* * *

He hadn’t met Raina before, and there was something very odd about her, he thought, as black eyes fixed on him for a long moment before she looked away. The other girl Ward had dragged off the Bus was just a scrap of a thing, not much more than a teenager he thought at first glance, but the rage in her eyes as she looked around made him reassess. She was dangerous, and probably unpredictable, and Grant Ward didn’t have nearly as good a read on her as he thought. Deliberately, Rumlow stepped between Ward and the door, forcing the taller man to stop in his tracks.

“Out of my way,” Ward snapped.

“I think you’d best recall just who you’re talking to,” Rumlow said, his voice soft and silky. “You don’t give me orders, now or ever. Or would you care to go a few rounds on the mat, to remind you who I am?”

Ward paled and shifted his weight just slightly, leaning away from Rumlow, but Skye noticed. Her eyes flicked back to Rumlow, narrowed assessingly. He wished he had some way to let her know he was on her side.

Maybe sticking a knife in Ward’s guts would do the job.

* * *

As it turned out, Skye was ahead of him, because he delayed to shoot Whitehall, though the Doctor fled when he realized Rumlow had turned. She used a gun, though. One of Ward’s own, unless Brock missed his guess. He gave her an approving nod even as he relieved her of it, before bending to check on Ward.

“Not bad. Next time, aim to the right.”

Skye’s eyes widened as he released the safety and put two rounds into Ward’s forehead, and a soft gasp escaped her lips.

“Never leave live enemies behind you,” Rumlow advised her. “They have a terrible habit of making a comeback to haunt you later. Don’t you watch horror movies?”

She shook her head, looking wide-eyed from the cooling corpse back to him.

“I wish I had more time to teach you, but I don’t. Raina’s gone down into the tunnels and I have to stop her. Go to this address. Coulson’ll find you there.” He tried to push a card into her fingers, but she resisted, something dawning on her lips that might almost have been a tremulous smile.

“I can’t,” she said softly.

He was so focussed, the words didn’t really register. “You have to. I can’t keep you safe and save the world at the same time, sweetheart.”

“I’m not leaving you, not now that I’ve found you. Trip’s here somewhere too, I can feel him close, and he’ll want to meet you.” She pushed up the sleeve of her black top to show words scribbled on the inside of her forearm.

Rumlow stared. “Well, fuck,” he said finally, and Skye’s smile widened.

“Later, if we survive.” Grabbing his free hand, she pulled. “Come on. We have to stop Raina!”

Stunned, he followed along after her for a few moments, until they got out into the hallway and found Coulson standing over Whitehall’s body with a gun in his hand.

“Oh, nice work, DC,” Skye said.

“Not my work.” Coulson looked at Rumlow with a raised eyebrow, his gaze tracking down to his hand joined with Skye’s. “Agent 21.”

“Sir. We’ve got a problem down below…”

“We’ve got more than one,” Coulson said grimly.

* * *

Even with Coulson’s orders added to Brock’s pleas, Skye refused to leave with Coulson.

“Trip’s down in those tunnels. I can feel it. And I’m the only person apart from Raina who can definitely touch the Obelisk without turning to stone. There’s no way I’m leaving it with her.”

Coulson met Brock’s eyes, and a small shake of his head told him what he was pretty sure he already knew; Skye wouldn’t be dissuaded.

“Come on, then.” With a sigh, he handed her back the gun she’d shot Ward with. “Remember what I said - next time, aim for center mass.”

“Got it.” Her hands were steady as she accepted the gun, and he looked back at Coulson.

“Get everyone out you can, Director. We’ll take care of the problem down below.”

“Good luck,” was all Coulson said, before he ran one way and they went the other, heading for the hole the Hydra agents had succeeded in cutting into the tunnels below before Brock killed them.

“There are a lot of dead Hydra people lying around,” Skye noted as they stepped onto the winch lift and Brock hit the button. “Your work?”

“They’re no loss to humanity, trust me. Sick bastards, the lot of them.”

They had to stand close together on the lift, and he was intensely aware of Skye, of her slight size and the scent of her hair, sweet and somehow spicy at the same time.

“So, Agent 21?” Skye looked up at Brock quizzically.

“Three times cooler and better looking than James Bond,” Brock responded automatically, and Skye choked on a giggle.

“I was wondering what your actual name is.”

“Oh.” Abashed, he shut his eyes briefly. “Brock Rumlow. And you’re Skye…?”

“Just Skye.” She looked away, lips pursed.

“And you mentioned Trip?” He was dying to know if that was their third, if this ‘Trip’ and Skye were already bonded - the way she’d said she could feel Trip under the city seemed to indicate it.

“Antoine Triplett.” Her smile returned, sunshine in the darkness of the ancient underground city. “Don’t speak to him until we’re out of here, okay?”

He blinked, and then realized what she meant. “Because if I don’t, that means we survive. Or at least, that he and I do.”

“Which is a good guarantee to have, right now. This place is really fucking spooky.”

It was as spooky as anything he’d ever seen, and considering some of the shit he’d seen with SHIELD and Hydra, that was really saying something. Rounding a corner, they came across a massive black man standing stock still in the middle of the corridor.

“Mack!” Skye gasped, running forward. The big man seemed to be in a catatonic state, hands hanging lax at his sides, his eyes far away. Skye’s jaw clenched. “We’ll come back for you, okay?”

They could hear noises up ahead now, ran faster, and then Skye shouted “Trip!”

Brock saw him then, a lean black man, handsome and strong, with a face which looked as though it smiled easily but right now was drawn in an expression of worry.

“Skye!” He looked askance at Brock. “Who’s this?”

Don’t speak, don’t speak… Brock clenched his jaw so hard he heard his teeth squeak. He should have asked Skye what his words were. She must know.

“Agent 21,” Skye said with a quick grin. “Three times cooler and better looking than James Bond.”

Trip’s expression was hilarious, but he shook it off. “That way to the chamber at the center of the labyrinth,” he pointed.

“Raina’s down here with the Obelisk. We have to stop her.”

A weird, unearthly music seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere; Brock clutched at his head, noticing that although Skye reacted the same way, Trip didn’t seem able to hear it.

“What the hell is that?” Skye gasped.

“What?” Trip asked, staring at her, and Brock decided he should risk speaking.

“If he can’t hear it, I don’t think he should go in. Tell him to stay with your friend Mack and we’ll come back for him,” he told Skye, carefully not looking at Trip.

“He’s our soulmate, don’t speak to him, do as he says,” Skye said hurriedly, and Trip’s eyes went very wide.

Brock couldn’t resist. Taking a step forward, he grabbed Trip by the back of the neck and planted one swift kiss on his lips before winking at him and taking off running again.

They slipped into the chamber just as the stone doors were grinding shut, finding Raina with a beatific smile on her face and the Obelisk on a pedestal.

“You.” Raina’s smile disappeared as she saw Brock. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

She didn’t appear armed, but he still moved between her and Skye, raising his gun. “Sorry to disappoint you and all.”

“That won’t work down here. Something about the city stops it.” Raina nodded at his gun.

“Good thing I brought backup weapons.” He drew the long knife he kept in his right boot and kept moving towards Raina, intent on killing her for her part in this whole deadly mess.

“Brock.” Skye’s voice stopped him in his tracks, and he looked around to follow her gaze to the Obelisk, splitting open to reveal a core of glowing blue crystals.

That unearthly music seemed to intensify as a mist started to pour off the crystals, and instinctively he moved back. He’d seen all sorts of ugly chemical exposure in his career, and nothing that bright a blue could possibly be conducive to his health.

“Brock!” Skye screamed this time, and he saw to his horror that a weird stone was beginning to creep over her skin. Trying to take a step towards her, he looked down and saw the stone climbing his own legs.

This isn’t good, was all he had time to think before the stone covered him entirely and the world went dark and still.

* * *

Seeing her newly-found soulmate turn to stone right in front of her eyes was even more horrifying than turning to stone herself, Skye thought afterwards, as the stone shattered away from her body, but then she saw him breaking free of his own stony prison, cloaked in some sort of light so bright it hurt to look at him. In that bright light she saw one last horrifying glimpse of Raina, spiked and scaled, before the transformed woman fled the chamber and Rumlow reached Skye with a single leap, the light around him somehow fading out as he seized her in his arms.

“Are you all right?” he demanded, and she clung to him desperately, feeling curiously grounded by the solid strength of his arms closing around her.

“I feel weird.” It felt as though her skin was buzzing somehow, and the earth was definitely trembling under their feet.

“We gotta get out of here.”

The Obelisk had closed back up, and Skye lunged forward instinctively to snatch it up, wrapping it in her jacket and hugging it close to her side. “We can’t leave it here!”

The ground was seriously shaking under Brock’s feet, but strangely as Skye ran to his side, the trembling seemed to still, although he could still see cracks zig-zagging up the walls.

“We gotta get out of here,” he said urgently. She was staring at him, and he frowned. “What?”

“You’re glowing.” She waved a hand at him, and he frowned, looking down at his hands. There was indeed a shimmery golden light under his skin.

“Okay, that’s kind of freaky,” he said, and as he spoke, the light brightened, and the low roar of the earthquake deepened, though he and Skye were still standing on still ground at the centre of it all.

“Time to bail,” Brock made the snap decision that everything else was going to have to wait until later, and Skye nodded.

As they ran back through the tunnels, they came across Trip and Mack. Mack was walking, or rather staggering, one arm slung across Trip’s shoulders. Without even thinking about it, Brock grabbed Mack’s other arm to help, gesturing to Skye to lead the way.

At the winch lift, it was clear they couldn’t all go up together.

“You take Mack first,” Trip told Skye. She got a mulish look on her face and opened her mouth, but Brock immediately backed Trip up.

“He’s right. Weight distribution. Heaviest and lightest go together. That means you and the big fella. He’s hurt, besides, needs medical attention. Get him topside, Agent.”

The note of authority in his voice had her moving, at least, stepping grudgingly onto the platform.

“Don’t know what you think I can do if he falls,” she muttered, but she hooked her arms around Mack and hung on firmly.

“Just don’t forget to send it back down for us,” Trip called as the pair ascended.

Left alone, Brock and Trip stared at each other.

“So,” Trip said after a moment, “hello there.”

Brock grinned. “That was the best you could come up with?”

“Any clever lines I might have managed were knocked right out of my head when you came back glowing.”

“I was hoping it might have been the kiss that knocked you senseless.” Brock grinned and Trip grinned back.

“That? Nah. Wouldn’t even call that a kiss. You’ll have to try a lot harder to impress me.”

It was definitely a challenge, and one Brock was more than happy to accept. They were kissing passionately when the winch came back down, and they were still kissing as it carried them back up.

#Brock Rumlow/Trip/Skye #brock rumlow #antoine triplett #Skye #soulmate au

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venacoeurva · 6 years

Text

Aftermath, Ch.9-Replacement

If you would prefer to read it on AO3, it can be found here.

You can read from the beginning here.

Warnings: Mild alcohol use

It was borderline-impossible to find Lea’s room in the tower; all the shifting and cosmic apparitions were annoying, to say in the least. How did anyone here go to bed within five or ten minutes of deciding to do so? He had a hunch the place was sentient and didn’t like him very much.

Eventually, though, Isa knocked on a select wooden door and it and heard Lea yell, “Yeah, come in.”

He slowly opened it and walked in, paper grocery bag in his arm. Well, at least the door didn’t want to stop him quite as much as the rest of the place’s architecture. Maybe it was imbued with Lea’s welcome attitude or something like that.

Lea was sat on the floor and leaning back against his bed, scribbling something in a notepad. He perked up upon seeing Isa step into the room and sat up on the bed.

“I’m surprised you didn’t bring vodka.” Lea chuckled as Isa firmly set a bottle of brandy down on the floor and opened the other one.

“I was in the mood for something more pleasant. You can keep the other one if we don’t open it.” Isa flatly explained, sitting down on his bed next to him.

“Works for me.” Lea smirked, taking the open bottle and not even bothering to get a glass. “Alcohol’s alcohol. Haven’t had time to sit down and drink in a long time, either.”

“I certainly can’t argue with that sentiment.” Isa uttered as he sank against the wall and into the stuffy creamsicle-orange quilt on Lea’s bed.

That was that. The bottle went back and forth between them, few words interrupting the silence while they watched the sunset drag itself across the parallel cream wall. That occasional brush of their palms and fingers against one another’s was never brought up or joked about.

“It’s strange, this normalcy.” Isa murmured and folded one leg over the other, as he typically did.

“Mm.”

Lea rubbed his neck and turned his stare down to his lap.

“I do miss having a steady routine, though.” Isa added.

“Heh, I don’t! I like having free time and just doing what I want without being turned into a Dusk.”

“That’s fair enough.”

“Hey, can I bring up something a little, uh, stressful?” Lea asked, his previous joking tone gone and replaced with a slight quiver.

“Sure.” Isa softly replied, studying the label on the bottle in his hands.

“I know everything went to shit and we were pretty terrible to each other—situation and everything--but…”

“We were, and?”

Lea sighed, but looked to Isa hopefully, “…you think we have a chance?”

Isa froze, but his face didn’t belie him. Don’t give him that damn look like that.

“We’ve outgrown each other when it comes to that.” He simply said then took another drink.

Lea was quiet. After scanning Isa’s face, he resumed facing forward and dryly chortled, “Right. ‘Course. It’s really been a while since we were…actually a thing…”

“You could also say I’m emotionally occupied, as it is.” Isa added.

Being handed the bottle, Lea frowned as he took it slowly. “Emotional—oh. Yeah.”

Stretching with a grunt, Lea then laid down on his side with his head rested in his hand. The hard beam of light now made the space right under the window seem significantly darker.

“I can’t believe you still like Xemnas. As in like-like him.” Lea groaned, pressing his back against the wall with bottle in hand.

“I can’t believe you just used ‘like-like’ as a 26-year-old.” Isa sneered.

Lea nudged his side with his foot, frowning and retorting, “Hey! I’m around a lot of teenagers with repressed feelings and questionably-developed social skills. Some are like…literally two years old.”

“Say what you will, but regardless. It was easier to like being around him than hating every second.” Isa sighed. “Also, I think I did develop some genuine form of feelings for him not caused by survival instincts.”

“Yeah, it has a name, right? Stock-something Syndrome?” Lea tilted his head like an intrigued dog, frowning slightly.

“I wouldn’t say my reaction goes as far as Stockholm Syndrome. As I’ve said, genuine feelings and reasons and not a simple reaction for survival.”

“Mm. I guess the sleeping with him thing was all started by you, so huh. Just a fucked-up situation, then. Can’t believe you got attached, though. All that tall, dark, and handsome?”

Isa mumbled in response about some psychological effects are hard to discern from genuine feelings and interpretations, however, but he doubted they’d last this long and took the bottle from him for a bit more than a swig.

“But hey, you can move on, right?” Lea commented reassuringly.

“I guess, and I sort of wish to, but Lea,” Isa sighed, averting his stare, “he’s alive.”

He got a blank stare, then a stunned “Shit.”

“He’s sort of alive, anyhow. He’s currently resting in my heart.” Isa explained, locking eyes with him—seemingly to be sincere but it just came off as his usual cold intensity—and shrugged. “His is still severely damaged and cannot exist by himself.”

Scrambling back up into a sitting position, Lea hissed, “Isa—Isa. Isa? Are you serious? After everything that happened, you let him in?”

“Terra’s not happy with me for doing it, either. But despite everything we did and the lives we took and ruined, we got a second chance at life, so why not him? He’s a branch of Xehanort, but not he himself.”

“He’s still Xemnas! Who knows if he’s gonna pull some shady shit on you!”

“Should he attempt,” Isa argued, annoyed and voice louder, “I have the power to oust him and kill him as a result. I have a metaphorical knife to his throat and his being a threat will not be taken lightly or with hesitation. He’s not exactly strong enough to try at the moment, either.”

“Well, you should do it now! Save everyone the stress.”

“If he decides to return to his antics, I will. Having his own heart may affect him.”

Lea sighed in frustration.

“What the hell is it about him?” He asked in a low tone and with hunched shoulders.

Silence.

“…I don’t know.”

Isa tucked his legs under him and added, “I guess I don’t want to have to tear open old wounds to a new person. And he’s possibly a new person but at the same time someone I know. As he’s said, there’s comfort in familiarity, and that certainly is true even when that familiarity isn’t ideal.”

“Maybe? But you don’t need to bear your soul when you don’t need to to just everyone. Nobody expects that from you except invasive assholes. If you’re worried about Terra being that way, he’s not gonna press you. He probably remembers most of the stuff Xemnas learned about you, anyway.”

Lea’s eyes wandered from the floor to his quilt, and then to Isa’s face.

“Besides, it’s not only just Xemnas, is it?”

Despite Isa’s typical stony composure, Lea could see the slightest crack in it forming.

“I feel terrible.” Isa muttered. “I know who was in there reciprocating, but I don’t…”

He let out a tiny, tender sigh.

“…Xemnas acts like Xemnas, and Terra acts like Terra now. Them being separate people truly complicated it.”

Lea raised an incredulous eyebrow, muttering, “And you...like how Xemnas acts or something?”

“I guess I sort of do...and I guess I would in a more normal setting. I’m used to it. And, oddly, I suppose I associate his face with the experience even though they have the exact same one. Terra isn’t bad, of course, but I’m not used to him."

Isa paused, then added, "His perkiness is something new.”

“Different isn’t bad, you know.”

“I know. I just have a comfort zone I love to stick to. Having a routine, as drab as it was, was nice.”

“You sure do.”

"And, well, even though we thought we didn't have feelings..." Isa groaned, "...we did. So much for no-strings-attached. God damn it."

"I guess he was kind of a replacement for when I stopped hanging out with you and doing all the intimate nonsense, huh?" Lea guessed.

Replacement...

Isa groaned again. In his slightly-inebriated state, this was irritating him more than normal. He'd sort it out some other time.

“Can we talk about something else?" He asked, glaring at the ceiling, "Plenty else has happened, and it could stand to be discussed. We’re always circling back to the situation with Xemnas, these days.”

Lea frowned, retorting, “Isa, you basically gave a potential harbinger of doom a couch to crash on for a while. We’re all a tad worried about that.”

“As I’ve said, if he tries anything of that nature, I won’t hesitate to end him myself.”

“Dude, you’re emotionally constipated right now, you’re probably gonna come up with some excuse when that happens.”

“The most he’s doing is taking days-long depression naps at the moment.”

“Still, we saw what happened with Sora and Ven. If his personality and memories start bleeding into yours, I’m kicking his ass.”

Isa chuckled, imagining Xemnas and Lea squaring off in a fist-fight. While they probably would use their weapons, envisioning them just slapping each other around was oddly hilarious to his semi-inebriated mind.

Then he paused.

“Wait, would that mean you’d also kick mine?” He asked, more amused than offended.

“It’s a necessary evil!” Lea argued, shrugging defensively. "Do you want me to just astral project and kick his ass?"

<><><>

A little more than tipsy, Isa took a dark corridor home. He was good at caring for himself even while mildly drunk, but his emotional walls tended to drop faster than Demyx with responsibilities. He felt good and everyone would have been able to tell.

He stumbled into the small living room with a yawn and walked into the kitchen to get a considerably-sized glass of water and then went to the bedroom. Not in the mood to bother changing into his pajamas or putting up with sleeping in jeans, he stripped down to his underwear and socks and clambered into bed. He snuggled into the sheets, mentally remarking to himself about how soft and comfortable they were, then gravitated to Terra’s body heat.

Most of his emotional inhibitions and concerns about being into two people at once and how they stemmed from the same person were both swept away by this point.

“Are you aware your hair is amazing?” He mumbled into the back of Terra’s neck and, for some reason even he didn't know, massaged his shoulders.

Groggily, Terra lifted his head and looked over his shoulder at him. “Yuh—wha? Thanks.”

He laid his head back down as Isa snaked his arms around his waist and resumed nuzzling into his hair. He didn’t mind by any means. Terra was a rather touch-starved individual.

Ooh, the tight tri-blend t-shirt he was wearing felt luxurious. Terra chuckled, confused--as anyone would be--at Isa’s catlike kneading and rubbing of his shirt.

“Oh, cuddly.”

“Mmyeah.” Isa purred and attempted to wrap a leg around Terra too but gave up. “I’m in a good mood.”

“I can tell. That’s good.”

Is this what you’re like when you get drunk and let loose?

Like a koala to a eucalyptus tree, Isa clung to him and passed out without another word.

Watching the moonbeams slipping through the blinds scale the wall, Terra smiled. It'd been a while since they'd had any contact like that.

---

Isa could hold his alcohol, but damn if he wasn’t hurting pretty bad. At least the bed was warm, but if the sun would kindly come down so he could punch it and stop this headache coming on? He opened his bleary eyes and painfully glanced around.

“Morning.” Terra yawned through the fresh muscle-shirt he was pulling on over his head, padding over to Isa’s side of the bed. “You’re not too hungover, are you?”

“I’m fine.” Isa sighed as he rolled over and winced.

Nodding, Terra fixed his shirt and continued. “Good, because I wanted to ask if you wanted to go check out a world with me to make sure no funny business is happening.”

Isa paused, nodded, slipped out of bed, then meandered into the kitchen for breakfast. A simple answer was probably the most of a response he was going to get for now.

And then it was off to Neverland.

The gently swaying palm leaves stood out against the intense blue sky of Neverland. The heat washed over the two of them, prompting simultaneous groans. They were more acclimated to the frigid halls of the Castle That Never Was and the mild climate of Radiant Garden.

“Huh, we might have to go for a swim later.” Terra chuckled, hands on his hips as he gazed up at the cliffs above and the waterfall cascading down it.

He prayed those seagulls wouldn’t poop on them.

Isa loosely folded his arms and walked ahead.

“Let’s see to what we must first.” He suggested while he smeared sunscreen across his exposed arms and face.

“Well, yeah, of course. No reason why we can’t enjoy our time here, though.”

They entered the foliage while internally angsting about the horrific tactile experience that was sunscreen. They walked on in silence for a while, eyes snapping to anything that looked unusual. As it turned out, not a whole lot was happening, so they simply enjoyed the heat and smell of the sea. Not much was seen of the inhabitants aside from a ship drifting lazily along the horizon.

“It’s good to just be away from everything else. No people, no Unversed or Heartless, no chatter.” Terra sighed from his seat on one of the raised rocks at the coast cliffs.

Isa nodded and muttered a soft “absolutely.”

I wish I could find such peace elsewhere. No change, all play, no worries…

He took in another breath of the sea air and gazed out at the glittering water, hands sliding into his pockets.

…I wish I could have been a child for longer than I got the chance to, but far away from adults.

“Are you ready to keep going?” Terra asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“I’m ready when you are.”

They leisurely walked along the coast and the jungle, occasionally climbing up the cliff faces and wading through the streams. By the end of it, they were wet up to their knees and had a few mosquito bites.

Terra plopped down on a soft patch of grass in the shade of some massive palm trees, practically beaming at the comfortable resting spot and being able to rest his legs.

“I’ve heard of the crocodile here. I wonder if he’s still around and if he’s finally lost interest in that pirate.” Isa uttered while he did a few stretches.

“I have no idea, but if this world is as repetitive as other ones then probably not.”

“That’s true. I think I’ll go for a swim, then; it’s been a good decade or so since I’ve done that.”

“Really?” Terra asked thoughtfully, watching him slip his black v-neck off then unbuckle his belt with nimble fingers.

“Indeed. As it were, there’s not much water in Radiant Garden to swim in or anything beyond a bathtub or a puddle in the World That Never Was.”

“Yeah, those wouldn’t work.”

“Could please you assist me with the sunscreen, by the way?” He asked, already rubbing some on his chest and stomach which prompted Terra to watch his hand go over those washboard abs.

To be fair, that was to be expected when he had to build himself up to be strong enough to handle going berserk like he did.

“Your back?” Terra asked in return while being handed the tube.

“Yes.”

Isa turned around and rubbed the remaining sunscreen on his hands onto his shoulders.

“You are so tense.” Terra stated while he smeared some sunscreen on Isa’s upper back.

“It’s to be expected.”

“No, I mean, maybe you should see a chiropractor or something.”

“It’s not as though my back hurts.”

“Okay….”

Stressed just seemed to be the natural state of Isa.

Thanking him, Isa pulled off his boots and wiggled out of his pants then folded his clothes in a neat stack.

“Perhaps I should…” Isa mumbled to himself in contemplation, “…mm, no, there are flying children about.”

“Is skinny-dipping in the ocean really a good idea, anyway?”

Isa replied as he walked down to the sand then stepped into the water, “I just don’t want to walk around with soaked underwear.”

“I don’t think anyone does.”

Watching him wander further into the water (and admiring the muscles and shoulder blades sliding under his skin as he went), Terra leaned back on his elbows under the shade of a comically-large palm leaf.

He didn’t know how long he was sleeping, but he groggily lifted his head to the sound of…ticking? Wait, where did he hear that before, here? Something about the ocean, and pirates…?

Wide awake, he shot up and saw a dark submerged blob sidle up behind Isa.

“Oh, dammit, Isa!”

“I’m well aware,” Isa said, face emotionless in preparation and voice flat.

Terra cautiously but quickly made his way down to the shore and swore he saw a glint of gold in Isa’s eyes as he coiled back.

The crocodile shot up out of the water and was promptly slammed back down into it.

“The fool.” Was all Isa hissed as his grip left its snout and it swam back into the blue.

“Don’t go berserk on an innocent crocodile…”

“Were he innocent, he would have stayed tailing his usual hook-handed prey. Perhaps his curiosity got the best of him.”

Isa stepped in up to his waist then splayed out. As he floated, he looked Terra’s way.

“You said you wanted to swim, so why don’t you join me?”

“If you insist.” He shrugged, pulling off the replacement to his older tight shirt (which Isa was now wearing around the house as it fit him), his hakama khaki (khakima) pants, as well as his shoes. He smeared some sunscreen on as well as he could, took a few steps back, readied himself, then then dove into the water.

His head splashed through the surface, shaking his bangs out of his eyes in the process.

“If any more renegade crocodiles come along, I’ll protect you from them.” Isa chuckled lightly. “Though I’m sure my display scared them off.”

Terra waded further in and studied the sand below, watching the light distort and bend and cause it to shimmer.

“Yeah, I don’t think they’ll be interested in chomping on either of us after that. They'd have to deal with you being pissed at them.”

"I would say my reaction would be more akin to annoyance."

"Yeah, I guess. But if I have any crocodile problems, I'll just call you."

He got an amused snort from Isa. He wasn't in the mood for much small-talk, it seemed.

With a content sigh, Terra turned his eyes skyward and watched the fluffy clouds drift as lazily as he was.

We're going to be so tired when we get home... they both thought.

#axel #saix #terra #kingdom hearts #fic #kh #isa #lea #alcohol #Aftermath #xemsai #artsyfartsyness

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btsjeonjazz · 7 years

Text

No decency II pt.2

Jungkook x reader

genre: smut, fluff, stepbrother!jungkook

word count: 10k

The next week Jungkook's attitude made a turn, letting you relax around him until a night escalated and you got to see a side of him you never thought he would reveal to you.

Regret filled your mind as you woke up the day after having slept with your stepbrother, Jungkook. Groaning you remembered how the unbelievable happened at the party, an occasion you always refrained from despite having sexual feelings for him. And here you lay in your freshly covered sheets, marked by Jungkook while thinking about a solution to turn time back. Unfortunately it wasn't possible, so you tardily shoved your blanked off of you and made your way to the bathroom across your bedroom.

The girl who was reflected in the mirror resembled you, but you felt strangely different as you looked in your face. How the hell would you turn the tables around again? You were sure that Jungkook would tease you to the moon and back if he lay his eyes on your state. But the most important issue was, that neither Mina nor any other human being was allowed to know that you hooked up with Jungkook. Your reputation would sink to the bottom otherwise. Bad mouthing how girls could be so stupid to fall for his charms, even if he was the cutest with his bunny teeth and had an undoubtedly toned, sexy body. And here you stood, being one of those easy girls he hooked up with usually, like every body said. Just that you had to see him everyday, living under the same roof as your biggest mistake.

Not even the hot water of the shower could relax you as you stepped out of the booth, rubbing down the remains of the previous night. It was time to face him, your best friend and whoever was still at your house. Therefore you dressed yourself in some sweatpants, a plain t-shirt and blow-dried your hair before you nervously went downstairs.

To your surprise was it after one pm and the house sparkled in tidiness and brightness as the sun illuminated your living room in bright light. Was it the work of a fairy? Or the next wonder of the world? You bet all you had that Jungkook wasn't the one who woke up early to clean the house, not as rumours told he was the baddest heartbreaking playboy around.

“What happened to the mess of the night?”, you asked as you saw Mina in your kitchen, nibbing on some toast. “And where the hell is Jungkook?”

“Oh, good morning, too, y/n”, Mina cocked her thin eyebrows up, leaning back in her chair. “He's gone to collect some stuff with Jimin. The boys have cleaned up last night.”

You turned apostate at her words, not believing what she told you about the boys.

“You would know if you would've been present till the end. But you just vanished”, the delicate girl snipped her fingers to empathize the meaning of her words. “It was so lit, y/n, but where were you?”

What should you tell her? A lie? Or did Jungkook declare that he fucked you already? Contemplating you slid on the chair across from your best friend. “I had too much to drink and felt like throwing up.” Never once did you look her in her eyes, avoiding the disbelieve in the girl's face that told you she wasn't buying your shit. But instead of telling you her honest thoughts, she just shrugged her small shoulders, taking another bite of her late breakfast.

Normally food was the first thing in the morning you needed, but today all your appetite was gone, the memories of a naked Jungkook flooding your thought every once in a while. Luckily Mina told you about her catch of the night, how he was a funny guy who knew how to take her the right way. She even messaged all morning long, exchanging dirty mails as she showed you some pictures she took of him. Last night. Naked.

“Seriously, you're too tense if I talk about sex, y/n. Go on, you are young, fuck around and have fun. I'm doing the same and? Don't you like me now?”, Mina tried to relax you, summoning you to follow her naughty actions. “And you are lucky, living with the hottest guy around. It would be so easy for you to go an seduce him.”

You choked on you own saliva. It sounded so natural from her lips, telling you to go and hook up with your own stepbrother. While you listened to her, blood rushed to your cheeks, betraying you. But before Mina could say another word about this topic, you heard a key turning in the front door's lock. Loud, dark laughs filled the corridor as Jungkook and his best friend stumbled in your house, your heart sinking to the bottom. You saw his dark locks as he talked to his shorter friend who was listening with wide eyes to the boy's story.

“For real dude? Man, I didn't get to fuck with someone last night, you lucky bastard”, Jimin responded to Jungkook's unheard story, nudging his friend.

But the moment Jimin had vocalized his words you knew that you had to interfere before more things got revealed, like your name. Maybe it was already too late, but you couldn't just sit there, listening in on their conversation of Jungkook hooking up with someone last night, that had to be you.

“Jungkook, Jimin, morning. Can I talk to you?”, you waved shortly, standing up and grabbing your stepbrother by the sleeve of his white hoodie the moment they stepped into the kitchen.

An amused expression traced his tanned face while he cocked his dark brows up, not saying a word. He just followed as Jimin greeted you, but you didn't hear him as your thoughts about the upcoming conversation clouded your mind. You let go of him as soon as you closed the door of your room upstairs. Casually he walked through your room, sitting down on your bed and spreading his muscular legs.

“What do you want to talk about, y/n?”, a teasing smile appeared on his face which fuelled your anger. How could he be at ease? Your mind was running wild, but he seemed to be the epitome of relaxation.

“Listen, I don't want you to tell anybody about what happened yesterday, got it? And it is worse that you told Jimin about it!”, you exploded, hands running through your hair. “Just shut your mouth. It was a one time thing and now go on and forget about it. You even treated me as shit after that.”

Jungkook just tilted his head as he listened to your outburst calmly. He didn't understand what was your problem. “Y/n, chill out, will you? I only told him about the sex, and didn't say your name. Nobody will ask anyway.”

You crossed your arms in front of your chest as it rose heavily from your rage. Even though he didn't explicitly reveal your name, he shouldn't open his mouth about how you was in bed.

“The things you told him should be the only ones, also please don't talk to anybody again. We have to live in this house together and I really want to just forget about it.”

“Why? I liked the new side of you, y/n”, Jungkook licked his bottom lip at that thought. “And you loved it as well.”

The tinge of pink on your cheeks deepened at his statement. Of course the sex was more than satisfying, for the both of you, but that's it. Therefore you sighed, arms falling back to your sides. “I beg you Jungkook, don't tell anyone again.”

The pretty boy with his raven hair sighed, a beautiful sound, before he nodded. “Fine, y/n.” He stood up from his position to step towards you. Then he pressed his hand on the door behind you to trap your body between his and the wooden entrance. You saw his pink lips getting closer, but as you pressed your eyes shut you heard his voice on your ear, “But you can't stop me from wanting you a second time. Be prepared.”

With that he separated your bodies and opened the door to go back to his friend, a strange pink hue on his cheeks. Long after he was gone you stood in your room, mouth agape at his rudeness.

This day you just lay on the couch, sapping through the broadcasts before you decided to let music play in the background as you scrolled through your phone. After Mina had to go home for the day because her dad came back from abroad, you had time for yourself. Fortunately Jungkook and Jimin decided to go out as well, so you made yourself a bath, used several products for your skin before you sprawled out on the sofa only in your bathrobe for a few hours. At eight you dressed yourself in your pyjamas, sure not to go out today anymore. So now you just listened to the music that filled your living room while trying to distract your restless mind with some social media. Some girls you had seen yesterday at the party had uploaded pictures of them posing for the camera on the terrace of your house..

“What the fuck?!”, you straightened yourself into a sitting position as shock washed over you. Cold sweat run down your spine as your fingers zoomed in on the background of the posing girls. Jungkook was seen, pressing his body into a girl while giving her a deep – and passionate – kiss. This girl was not anyone. It was you! Your black dress and hair reached past his tall figure as your hands grabbed him, seemingly eager to kiss him, face pressed into his so nobody could see it. But what if someone also took pictures, selfies or whatever from another position? You would be so screwed.

With panic you screen-shotted the photo before you wrote Jungkook a message.

You: [image.jpg]

You: You see this? If you know the girls, tell them to delete the photo

Groaning you fell back on the couch, hands above your face as you kicked your feet in the air. It was a huge mistake. A fucking dumb one from you to let your feelings take overhand of your rightful judgement. Nervously you waited for an answer, chewing on your bottom lip until it was swollen and red. It took him some time, but suddenly the display of your phone lightened up as a new message popped up. Eager you slid the over the display to read his reply.

Jungkook: Don't scare me like that. I thought you changed your mind and sent me a nude ;)

Was he for real? It nagged you that he was so calm about this issue. Just because he had several dozen of girls hanging on his lips doesn't mean that you wanted to be seen on a picture as you made-out with Jungkook. His teasing answer followed another one.

Jungkook: Relax, I already have seen this and wrote her a message to cut us out

You: And?

Jungkook: She told me if she is back home, so no problem goody-two-shoes

Despite his remark were you very content that the girl would delete it again. Finally you exhaled in relief before your phone buzzed again.

Jungkook: So what about my nude?

A chuckle left your mouth as you read his blunt message. He was so shameless. But you sent a picture, not the one he wanted, but your middle finger should do.

Jungkook: Super funny, y/n. Need something from the store?

Perplexed you read his words. He never asked you to bring you something, neither did he ever was so 'nice' to you, not even while sleeping with you. You imposed his sudden kindness and requested some snacks for the night. Again and again you checked if the girl had deleted the pic and after another hour it was gone. Thank god, no evidence anymore! And right than moment the front door opened, the usual faces of Jungkook and Jimin seen in the corridor. The boys didn't go up as you thought, but stepped in the room you sat in.

“Oh, y/n. What's up?”, Jimin greeted you with his smile, snacks in his cute hands. “We brought some goodies for you, too.”

“Not much, just chillin'. Jungkook asked me, so thanks for the sweets”, you smiled shyly at him, standing up to catch some packages that threatened to fall to the floor.

“Mind if we join you?”, he asked, nodding as a thanks to your action while circling the couch to throw the goodies on the coffee table.

You could spare Jungkook, but Jimin's company was quite nice, although you have seen him with some girls yesterday. And after you had sex with his best friend you had decided to stop all attempts to go near to Jimin as well. If they had the same characteristics – they definitely had – then you didn't want his attention anymore.

The orange haired guy plopped onto the couch whereas his best friend rummaged in the kitchen.

“I will look what he's doing”, you said, slandering a room further to find the boy bent over the fridge, his toned thighs rubbing at the fabric of his sweatpants. You gulped at this sight. Jungkook had so fucking perfect legs! There were solid, tanned and under the material of his clothes you could see how his muscles moved. But you had to stop staring, you reprimanded yourself.

“She deleted it”, you said, leaning at the kitchen island in the middle of the room.

Jungkook was so shook from your voice that he bumped his head violently on the edge of the counter next to your fridge.

“Fuck!”, the boy cursed, holding onto the top of his head while stumbling back.

With fast movements you held him before he bumped into the next item of furniture.

“I'm sorry, I thought you heard my steps!”, you apologized, pulling his head down to inspect the wound. Relieving you exhaled as you saw that he didn't bleed, sliding you fingers over the upcoming lump. He flinched at that, but didn't pull away. “Lean on the island.”

With that you rushed to the refrigerator, looking for a cooling pack. You felt bad, even though it was just Jungkook, but it was your fault that he hurt his raven thatch. Carefully you placed the ice pack on his head.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry”, you said a worried expression on your face.

“It's okay, y/n”, the hurt boy murmured, taking the cooling pack out of your hand. “Take the bottles of beer and don't be a bitch, then I forgive you.”

“Sure!”, enthusiastically you grabbed the two flasks before you followed Jungkook back to the living room where Jimin's eyes widened at Jungkook's appearance.

“What happened?”, he jumped up, walking towards his friend before he lay eyes on you. “Gave him a headache again, y/n?”

You tilted your head, grinning at his remark. He wasn't wrong.

“I bumped my fucking head thanks to her”, Jungkook snorted, sitting down and spreading his legs. A habit you've seen many times before. You felt uneasy while taking a seat on the very end of the large sofa, further away from the two boys than necessary. You decided to watch an old horror movie, you hated this genre, but two versus one and ate your snacks in silence. Unbelievably it was an relaxing night with comfortable atmosphere despite sitting on the same spot with Jungkook and his friend.

A few days later that night with peaceful coexistence should vanish from your minds as Jungkook invited his friends over, making a fuss in the kitchen. It was the beginning of a long weekend, but at two in the morning you and Mina had enough. It was one thing to party a little, but a completely other if the music droned up to you for eight hours straight. A little decency should be returned even from Jungkook. He had the nerve to invite his friends every fucking day, and even if you had to go to college the next day was he so noisy that you lacked sleep after a week.

“I'm going down now, seriously Mina! He is doing it on purpose”, you was angry as you stopped the movie Mina and you were currently watching to rush down.

“I never thought that they could be that annoying”, your friend agreed. Usually she was totally positive if it came to your stepbrother and his friends, but even she was annoyed at this rate.

You throw the remote in her lap: “It might take a while. Continue without me.”

Mina nodded, pulling the blanket up her chin and pressing the 'play' button while you closed the door shut behind you. The music got louder the closer you got to the kitchen where you found the seven boys, drinking some booze and eating pizza.

“Come on, Jungkook. Go on the terrace or wherever, but turn the volume down”, you said begging as you stood in the door frame of the kitchen's entrance.

Fourteen oculars shot in your direction.

“Sexy outfit, y/n”, Jimin chuckled while shoving a slice of food in his plump mouth.

How could you forget. You wore the oldest pyjamas you owned, little black cats printed on the light blue fabric of your two-parter. Heat shot in your cheeks while you crossed your arms in front of you, trying to control the discomfort in your bones. Several other comments reached your ears as you noticed that Jungkook just grinned at you.

“I would even help to carry your stuff outside”, you tried to compromise with the group of tipsy boys. Only slowly they stood up, packing the cardboards and bottles up before they slandered lazily out of the kitchen through the living room. Thank god, you thought. Maybe the rest of the night was more quiet.

You wanted to help the boys, but Jungkook grabbed your wrist, glaring at you with an unreadable expression.

“What do you think you're doing?”, he hissed, swirling you around to face him. He was clearly tipsy. “I have something to resolve and I don't want to be interrupted, guys”, Jungkook shouted as the last two boys slandered to the terrace, a 'Sure thing' coming as an answer ere they were gone.

“Can you let go?”, you asked, staring at him impatiently.

What did he want now? You let him do what he wanted all days, so it should be fair by now.

“Stop commanding my friends around, y/n”, he was clearly as angry as you were. “Why are you always so prude? Need another fuck to relax?”

His words startled you. It was uncool to be the party pooper to his friends, but that had absolutely nothing to do with getting some dick. What did he even think as he spoke those words? You decided that it was the alcohol that talked through him, letting the last sentence slide.

“Calm down, Jungkook. We just have enough from the uproar. I didn't say anything the last few days, but you should consider that I live here, too”, you tried to sound as reasonable as his tipsy mind could understand as he glared at you. His chocolate doe eyes wandered from your eyes to your lips and remained there too long ere he looked into your eyes again.

“Why do I think you're absolutely sexy even if you're wearing the worst pyjamas I've ever witnessed?”, Jungkook groaned, letting go of your wrist as if he didn't listen what you said.

You just stared at him, contemplating why he said something like this again. The last days were so peaceful, no lewd comments, no teasing messages. Therefore you pushed him back, shaking your messy hair.

“Jungkook, you're clearly drunk. Go out now and have fun. We talk in the morning, even if our parents will be back in three days shouldn't this stay in between us, okay? I enjoyed the time as you were nice to me, so let's not ruin it now”, your voice was calm although your heart was beating faster by the minute while your stepbrother's view changed between your eyes and lips over and over again. Before he could start any kind of contact with you, you separated yourself from him further. “Don't be mad at me.”

Jungkook watched as you moved away, his darkening eyes frustrated while you turned around to go back to your best friend who waited in your bed. You hoped he would finally understand why you put up the fronts between you and banished his group on the terrace.

“Y/n, how did you do it that fast?”, Mina straightened in a sitting position as you entered your room.

“My pyjamas scared them away”, you laughed, jumping onto your side of the bed to continue the movie you started to watch. But you couldn't relax as your mind wandered to Jungkook's strange behaviour down in the kitchen.

Whereas the movie was almost at its end you noticed that Mina was deep asleep. Her hair was brushed in her face while she snored lightly into the pillow. Giggling you reached for the remote to shut off the TV as you saw the display of your phone lighten. Questioningly you took your phone from the night stand, seeing that you already had several unopened messages. From no other than Jungkook. Confused you opened the messenger to see that 'online' showed Jungkook's status.

Jungkook: y/n I nred to talk to you

Jungkook: Can you cme down

Jungkook: Plaese

What was going on? You read the messages again until another one appeared.

Jungkook: I sew your onlne

You: Go to bed, you're too drunk to talk anyway

The small misspellings of the easiest words showed you that Jungkook's mind was clouded. His drunken state however was persistent.

Jungkook: Y/n

Jungkook: I need yu

Jungkook: Im coming to you then

He needed some time to write these messages and you caught yourself smiling at that fact. Only then you heard loud steps coming from the corridor. As quietly as you could you rushed to your door, closing it with a 'click' while seeing someone standing in the middle of the stairs in the dark.

“Jungkook?”, you whispered into the darkness.

“Y/n!”, it definitely was him. His voice was hoarse and low as he motioned you to follow him downstairs. Tiptoeing you went after him, seeing that he stumbled into the kitchen again, the only room in which the light was switched on. You reached your destination, Jungkook leaning at the kitchen island, drunk from the bottles of alcohol you saw on the counter.

“How much did you guys drink?”, you were shocked at the sight. “And where the hell is everybody now?”

Jungkook held his hand up before he spoke: “A little, but I'm okay. I just feel kind of dizzy. Jimin is upstairs and the rest is gone, but I cleaned the terrace 'cause you're so angry all the time.”

You crossed your arms, not falling for his false excuse. Why the hell wanted he to talk with at half past three in the night?

“Go to bed, Jungkook. As I said a few hours ago, let's talk tomorrow”, tired you turned around not playing his game, but a strong hand held you back.

“Y/n”, it was a whining sound that reached your ear, small, quietly, willing.

His big hand swirled you around, pulling you close while cupping your face. The usual doe eyes were tinged in black, lust spoiling behind them as he bis his bottom lip, gaze focused on your natural lips. You knew the path that would open in front of you while you both stared at each others mouths, remembering the taste of the other. But you had pleaded that it was a one time thing, not wanting to make the mistake twice. Sure, he changed his attitude towards you a little, but it was fine the way it turned out.

“Oh, no Jungkook”, you said, trying to brush his hands from your face, but his grip was solid. “I told you, it is not going to happen a second time.”

“But I know that you want it, too”, he mumbled, never leaving your lips with his hungry oculars. “I was so nice all week and why not? Tell me a reason.”

There were plenty reasons! Where should you start?

“First, you're my stepbrother, that's bad enough”, Jungkook agreed, “The second thing is that you teased the hell out of me after the last time”, another nod, “You annoy me like hell.”

“Ditto”, he hummed.

“Rumours say you're the biggest playboy.”

“We can talk about that.”

“And the most important reason is that you're too drunk to control your actions..and I'm afraid of catching unnecessary feelings”, you ended the list of your reasons, looking up to his eyes, but he still focused on the way your lips moved as you told him why you couldn't sleep with him.

“Does that mean you don't want this?”, he asked, voice low, quietly whispering while you felt his breath on your face.

“N-no..”, your voice was so silent, you had barely heard yourself, hesitating to speak the word. Right that moment Jungkook felt the hesitation before you vocalized a weakly 'no', pressing his lips heavily on yours at the same time.

It was like an explosion. The hair on your arms standing up, a tingling feeling in your down-low area and the electrifying lips of Jungkook's on your own. You were so perplexed, returning his kiss for a slight moment ere you pushed him off of you.

“No, no, no”, you stammered, shaking your head to emphasize your spoken negation. “Haven't you heard anything I just said?”

“Oh, I did, y/n”, Jungkook stated, breathing heavily. “But I want you. One last time, please. I wanna make up for the last time.”

You just stood there in pure disbelief. Was he even trying to think? The fronts were clear by now, so you thought. But the worst was that you actually weighted his offer in your head.

“Y/n, I'm drunk, yeah, but the last days were so nice. You were like another person after hooking up. Just give me a last time with you, please”, Jungkook begged you, his big hand rushing down his sweatpants.

God, what did he do with you? He didn't even touch you, just giving you his kiss, but this contact alone go you going. His frustrated state and the cute begging only the icing. Your house was silent as you both stared at each other, Jungkook waiting for your answer, you confused sorting out the wild thoughts which filled your mind. It was nearly four in the morning and your brain didn't function as you wanted to anymore. Therefore you sighed, feeling the arousal in your pyjama pants from the sight in front of you.

“Promise me something”, you finally said, scratching the back of your neck. “If I would say yes, don't even try to tell anybody. I will rip your balls off if you speak about it. And promise me that it would be the last time. Maybe it's like an adventure for both of us, but if our parents come back we should stop once and for all, understood?”

Jungkook's dark eyes watched you, stepping closer with every word spilling from you. He gave you a nod before leaning down, pecking your lips.

“Promise”, the boy responded, you felt honesty swinging in his words.

Even though you didn't really know why you did it, you let him carry you on the kitchen island, kissing your neck as you ran your hands through his raven thatch. Every pore in your body screamed at you, reprimanding the stupid decision you just made, but why did it feel so good? The last time you had sex with him was the best, but you swore that making a mistake once was acceptable, but twice was just your own stupidity. Even though, why couldn't you resist his charms? His cute bunny smile with the god damn body of his?

“Y/n, relax”, Jungkook whispered muffling as he kissed a path up to your jaw, gifting it with more wet kisses before he reached your lips. “The last time, remember? So just enjoy, princess.”

Your knees got weak at this name and hadn't he placed your body on the island you would be wobbling at his low, hoarse voice. Thanks to that your stiffened limbs relaxed, all negative thoughts abandoning from your mind as you responded to his delicate kiss, forcing your lips on his. Jungkook tasted so good, his soft mouth crashing on yours, moving in a silent rhythm ere he shoved his tongue in your wet hole. His strong muscle circled around you mouth, teasing your own while you smiled into the kiss, actually enjoying his warm breath which smelled like alcohol.

“You're so hot even though you wear..this”, he pulled away, roaming his big hands from your waist up to the collar of your pyjamas. There he opened the first button, laying his warm lips on the newly freed skin on your collarbones. His mouth felt so good on your cold skin that a tiny moan escaped you, hands sliding over his clothed shoulders. You expected him to be rough with you like last time, but he slowly opened one button after the other latching his tongue all around your skin ere he peppered pecks over your bare mounds. Tardily his tongue licked up to your nipples, stroking one and leaving his saliva all over it. The other one was pinned between his fingertips, circling lazily around it until you felt your core tightening at the sensation proceeding from your breasts.

While his attention still lay on your sensitive skin you reached down to cup the bulge in his sweatpants, enclosing your hand while stroking him through the thin fabric. The boy's breath hitched, biting down on your breast as he felt your hand bumping his dick. Therefore your voice was loud as it filled the room with cries, shivers running down your spine while you felt arousal pooling around your lower stomach.

“Can you strip your clothes off for me? I wanna touch you”, you asked Jungkook, pressing his member a last time ere you grabbed the hem of his shirt to pull it up. He obeyed immediately, getting rid of his shirt, the sweatpants as well as the tight white boxers he wore. The moment his remaining cloth was pushed down, his thick member sprung right in your hand. With slow movements you traced your fingers from his shaft to the swollen tip, a little wetness already pooling at his tip, staring in his eyes as they closed for a moment, enjoying the first contact to your warm skin. You smeared the pre cum all over him, making your motions way easier for both of you.

“Let me help you, princess”, he whispered, tugging at the bond of your shorts ere he pulled them down completely in a swift movement. He hissed as he discovered that you weren't wearing panties underneath your pyjamas. “You're not wearing underwear?”

“Never, Jungkook”, you grinned at him, stroking his cock in your hands a few times as heavy as you could without hurting him.

Your statement or maybe your touches made him hiss, eyes getting darker by the minutes while his own fingers grabbed your knees to push them apart, revealing your heated folds to his hungry stares. A low groan made its way out of his throat while he leaned down to kiss your stomach, a way further down showing his next steps. Your bare ass was cold above the marble of the island, but as Jungkook pulled you closer to the edge you didn't really care. His warm hands and breath making the coldness vanish ere he nibbled on the skin right above your core.

“Keep going, Jungkook”, you encouraged the raven haired boy, pushing him softly down to continue his path to your down-low area.

“No problem”, he shot you a lopsided grin while licking his lips before he narrowed his darkening eyes to your bareness. Then he traced his warm fingers from your knees to your inner thighs, massaging them further to your centre. A short flinch shot through your body as you felt one digit of his tardily running through your folds, inspecting how wet you were.

“Eager just as the last time, princess”, he said ere he stuck out his tongue to press it against your clit, a small moan leaving you at his touch.

In repeating movements he attached his muscle to you clit ere he licked his way to you folds and back, making you squirm under his actions. At some point you tried to close your legs, but Jungkook's solid grip on your inner thighs didn't allow you to move away. At your tries he just slowed down his expedition, nibbling at your folds and sucking at the bundle of nerves above. You couldn't hold your voice back so whimpers fell from your lips as you tried to cover your mouth with your own hand which let a victorious grin crawl on the boy's lips.

“I need some more, Jungkookie~”, you whined, head fallen on your shoulder.

Jungkook just pecked your pussy before he looked at you, a curious expression on his face while your juices wetted his lips. “What do you want?” His voice was teasing, low and patient as you squirmed further into him, signalling to continue.

“Your dick”, you blurted out, a hand enclosing around his black hair as he suddenly put one of his long fingers into you, never letting you go with his chocolate eyes. “Don't tease, Jungkook.”

“I'm not finished yet”, Jungkook smirked, pulling his digit out to shove it back in. “You're so damn warm around my finger, y/n.”

You just nodded, wanting to close your eyes to concentrate on the sensation, but you couldn't as your stepbrother still stared in your eyes, right into your soul. Then you felt a second finger slowly pushing in your wet hole, resting there before he started to move them in scissoring motion, leaving you a panting mass in front of his eyes. Heat rushed down your core into the pit of your stomach while Jungkook's other hand pressed down on your clit, making you moan his name. Thanks to the stimulation of your clit you might actually come in a short while.

“Your expressions are turning me on, princess”, Jungkook's cocky smirk was exchanged to a lustful one, his orbs focusing on your face.

“Then fuck me already!”, you cried out, his pace getting rougher, faster until you had to support your body with your hands, the friction caused by his fingers on your nub chasing your high. The boy didn't say a word, turning all his attention to your wetness while pushing his fingers deeper inside you, moving them dangerously close to your sweet spot. The other hand furiously rubbing your nub, your moans sounding like his name as time passed and you felt how the coin in your core snapped. Vibrations of lust filled your lower body, making you tremble in the best way possible ere heat surged through your limbs. Your orgasm washed over you, Jungkook's fingers getting coated in the drops of your cum ere he leaned down to lick and kiss his way back up, fingers slowly shoving in as he rode out your climax for you.

Panting you fell on your elbows, sweat landing on the surface of the island under your ass while you watched Jungkook standing up from his position and leaning down to press his wet lips on yours for a while. You tasted yourself on him as his tongue lazily roamed in your mouth, his hand positioning his erect cock at your entrance. He didn't even pull away from you, gliding right in as your mouth muffled his low, stretched moan. Jungkook hadn't to resist himself, because you were so drenched from your orgasm that he could move his tanned hips right the instant.

“Oh, y/n, you feel so fucking warm”, he growled above your lips, eyebrows furrowed as he closed his eyes, feeling you raw for the first time. “I can go the whole night. You're making my head spin.”

A giggle fell from your lips as you heard his words, pecking his cheek ere he straightened his upper body, holding your legs apart while he thrust into your pussy, a groan leaving his throat as he was so deep in you that his balls were pressed against your ass. Only then you realised that you made a big mistake.

“Jungkook, pull out. We have no condom”, you shouted, trying to push him off of you, but the boy just snorted. “It's not funny. Who knows how many girls you fucked without protection!”

Jungkook didn't move, just leaning forward, giving you a delicate kiss.

“As you said, rumours spread that I fucked nearly every girl on campus, but that's all bullshit. I shielded Jimin a few times and after that the rumours ran riot that I hooked up with every girl, but that's not true”, he admitted, circling his hips around. “Believe it or not, it's the truth.”

You looked right into his eyes, seeing no sign of a lie or excuse to fuck you raw at all costs.

“If you want I can go upstairs and get one”, he sighed, pulling himself out of you, but as his shaft left your folds you enclosed your legs around his waist, pushing him back into his position.

“I believe you”, you just said, shrugging at the sparkle in his eyes, his expression lighting up at your words and actions.

“Pinky promise”, Jungkook said, latching his lips on your neck to suck on a small spot that would be red after his caress. Moaning you stroked his head ere you supported your pose again. He on the other side began to thrust his dick in you, circling in a rhythmic motion while grabbing your hips. He sped up, growls and moans muffled against your skin. Slick sounds, heavy breathing and the constant tune of skin hitting skin filled the kitchen and slight fear rushed through you at the thought of waking Jimin or Mina upstairs. But this thoughts vanished as you heard Jungkook moan your name right next to your ear, shivers running down your back at his angelic low voice.

By the time you noticed how sticky his body felt on yours, sweat flowing down Jungkook's pretty face while his hips met yours aggressively, your breasts bouncing in circling motion. The dark thatch narrowed, Jungkook focused on his cock leaving your folds before disappearing back in, enclosing his dick in your hot wetness.

“Kiss me, Jungkookie”, you commanded as you wanted to treasure his delicious taste for as long as you could.

Jungkook obeyed, leaning down to you to attach his soft lips on yours, gently nibbling on your bottom lip. It was an opposing action to what his hips did as they merciless moved up and down, his dick rubbing all sweet spots in you, leaving you panting underneath his tasty lips.

“Your addicting, princess”, Jungkook moaned, separating you two while his head fell back as guttural sounds left his throat so loud you were sure that the both sleeping people in your house were wide awake by now. Neither Jungkook nor you cared at this point.

“You, t-too”, you tried to sound content but Jungkook's actions didn't allow you to, his eyes rolled back, swollen, red mouth agape letting loud moans fill the room.

You bounced even heavier as he thrust into you sloppier, tardily rolling his lower body into your own while the white knuckles on his hands stood out. He was so close, but you saw as he bit violently down his lip that he didn't want to end it yet, but he was drunk, his endurance put to test even more. Not that your overflowing juices and the contracting walls of yours weren't difficult enough for the boy's lust.

“Fuck, I don't want to stop”, he cursed, gritting his teeth as he held back his release. “It feels too nice with you, y/n.”

You also whined at the thought that every sexual contact would end after he shot his seeds into you. It was for the best even though you felt the tension increasing with every day you spent under your roof.

“Come for me, Jungkook”, you whispered as you pulled him into you, his face burying in the nape of your neck while his chest was pressed against yours.

He didn't say anything and after heavy, sluggish thrust you felt a warm liquid filling your pussy. His breathing was stuck and loud grunts vibrated through the kitchen as his arms hugged your upper body, pulling you into his chest. In this position you felt the racing beat of his heart, a warm hand hovering above his naked chest to feel the heartbeat even more. You didn't know how long you stayed in this unfamiliar pose, uncommon for the cocky guy that held you close cuddling. His dick had already softened as he pulled out of you, a few droplets of his cum escaping your clenched pussy.

“Stay like this”, he said, brushing the sticky hair out of his tanned face before he grabbed the handkerchiefs which lay on the counter of the kitchen next to the fridge. Then he crouched down between your legs, spreading your cum loaded folds open before his eyes. The word 'beautiful' spilled from his lips, a finger sliding inside to get some of his release on it. An aroused smirk plastered on his lips he straightened himself into a standing position, one hand cupping your cheek while his thumb put in the gap of your mouth. You bit him lightly, a faked 'ouch' leaving his swollen lips with a chuckle.

“Be a good girl and clean my fingers, will you?”, his voice was so sweet ere he pulled his thumb out to trace the digits which were coated in his cum past the line of your bottom lip. You immediately latched your tongue around his two fingers, sucking suggestively on them. Slurping sounds were heard while you looked him straight in his half closed eyes, tasting the mix of your juices and his salty release. Even as they were clean you stayed like this, your hot tongue swirling around his fingers, pressing them on your gums as if it was his dick. His orbs never left your mouth and his vanished fingers while you propped on your elbows, hands sliding up and down his toned abs.

“You're too hot to be true”, Jungkook moaned before he pulled his now clean fingers out, a loud plop as a result.

The raven haired boy crouched down again, taking the handkerchiefs and cleaning the bit remains of his seeds which flowed down from your entrance to your other hole. With gentle motion he swiped everything clean before you saw his curls disappearing further into you. Jungkook pressed his pink lips a final time on your heat, making out with your nub ere he stood up.

“I'm already hard again, y/n”, he laughed, looking down at his semi-hard dick.

You just shook your head at this sight. Despite his state was he turned on a second time, but you were too worn out to continue to hold your body up in this uncomfortable pose.

“My arms are giving in, Jungkook. I can't go a second round like this”, you affirmed, sliding from the kitchen island to stand on wobbling legs.

Jungkook saw how your legs started to tremble the moment you put your feet on the ground as to why he lifted you up into his strong arms, heading staggering to the living room.

“Sorry, but my legs won't carry both of us any further”, Jungkook apologized as he dropped you on the couch ere he sat down next to you. He leaned against the rest with his back, eyes looking at you. “Why are you still wearing this top?”, he laughed tugging at your open pyjama shirt.

You looked down, attuning in his laughter. “You didn't strip it off, Jungkookie”, you said, nudging his bare side to which he flinched.

“How about you take it off now?”, he suggested, facing you whereas he slid his hand around your stomach up to the collar of you pyjamas to pull it down. You obeyed, eyes locked with his. How were you supposed to stop all actions after your sex if he was this charming, looking at you with his dark doe eyes, bottom lips pulled between his teeth?

As the cloth dropped to the floor you turned around, kneeling in front of Jungkook. “The night isn't over, is it?”, you asked quietly, tracing your fingers tardily around his prominent biceps.

“It's over whenever you say it”, he responded, leaning closer into you.

Your lips met again, passionately slowly smacking them together. For some time you just kissed, playing with each others bottom lips, caressing his tongue with yours. He tasted addicting in his drunken state, not as rough as the last time, but it was just what you liked at that moment because you knew how he could be if he wanted. The time passed as you pressed your lips together, feeling the soft skin of each other before your hand found his already erect cock.

“It's not over yet”, you whispered, deepening the kiss ere you pulled away to place your hands on his chest. You pushed him down, his broad back laying flat on the couch, legs left at your sides. You sat in between his thighs, your kneeling position changing into a laying one, face buried in his toned, muscular thighs. A wet trail traced from his inner thighs up to his down-low area, kissing his skin with your hot mouth.

“You're perfect, y/n”, his drunken mind changed between your petname and your real one, not deciding which one he preferred.

Grinning you winked ere you pressed your tongue flat on the backside of his cock to which a hiss left the boy's red lips. The same wet pecks that lined his thighs covered his dick in no time. From the shaft to his tip you licked up and down, pulling his skin with every move of your wet muscle, causing Jungkook to tense his thighs under your palms. You took his swollen tip in your mouth, sucking at it with hollowing cheeks to increase the sensation for the guy underneath you. The same movement you did before with his two digits swirled your tongue around his red tip, pushing the foreskin of his cock back and forth while locking eyes with him.

“It feels so good”, Jungkook whimpered, his hands caressing your head while you deepened yourself on his dick until he reached your throat. You coated his thick cock with your saliva to take him farther into you, circling your tongue around to press him strongly at your gums. A deep moan reached your ears which intensified as you took him as far as you could, your nose touching the shadow above his cock. A gag left you and in slow motion your head moved back up till his tip lay on your lips. You kissed it while moaning, vibrations surging through his lap. The hand on your head enclosed lazily on your hair while you repeated your actions several times ere your hands began to stroke his cock at the same time. A loud plop filled the room as his swollen tip plopped out your mouth, saliva running down the corners of your mouth.

“You're so tasty, Jungkookie”, you hummed, moving your hands up and down his coated cock with both hands.

“So do you”, he answered breathless, chest heaving heavily whereas he licked his lips, remembering your taste on his tongue.

You hummed in agreement, straightening as far as you could without losing contact with his erect member as you leaned in on him, giving him a lust filled kiss. It was a short action to which he whimpered as you lay down again. This time you saw how pre cum pooled white on his tip, his abs flexing as you hands roamed circling up and down. He was close already as to why you wanted to please him even more. Therefore you buried your face into his balls, your hot tongue dampening them. Jungkook moaned lowly as you tug on of his testicles in your mouth, softly sucking at it before you also took his other and nibbled lazily on them. Your eyes focused on his expressions, how he furrowed his dark brows, the hair on his forehead sticking to his skin as grunts spilled from his open mouth.

“I'm so close, princess”, he moaned, the room tuned with his voice. “Be careful.”

His balls in your mouth you furiously stroked his cock, his pre cum the lubrication for your movements. You felt his body tensing, thighs and abs flexing before he tapped your head.

“Go away, y/n. I'm coming-ah~”, he shouted out, trying to pull your head up ere he shot his load, but instead of moving away you decided to make it a memory you both wanted to remember for a long time.

Heavily stroking you leaned down, your mouth enclosed on his tip as he arched his back, head shot forward as he moaned your name, his cum spurting on your tongue. Several times he shook himself, heels pushed into the couch while he filled your mouth. You waited for the last drops of his seeds to fill you ere you straddled his lap, leaning down to stuck your tongue out.

“So hot..y/n..”, he whined, grabbing your hips while you sat down on his stomach, your own juices making a mess on his abs. Your tongue rolled the white fluids on it, a perverted sound chiming from sweaty Jungkook. You leaned down next to his ear as you swallowed hard, making the boy growl beneath your body.

Jungkook pulled you away from his neck, pressing his lips delicately, soft on yours, stroking your sides gently.

“I can't stop with this, y/n. You're too fucking perfect”, he shook his head, saying his compliments right above your lips ere he pecked them again. Then he sat up, pushing you down on the couch before he stood up and took a blanket from the other end of the large sofa.

You watched his actions while brushing your hair out of your face. It was amazing. He was amazing. And how could he change so much with some more alcohol coursing through his veins? What did he hide the first time you slept with him? Questions run wild in your mind as he walked back, laying his big body behind you while covering your bodies with the blanket.

“Jungkook?”, you whispered in the dark, feeling his arm around your stomach.

“Hm?”, he hummed, propping up on his elbow, facing you as he lay on his side.

You contemplated how you wanted to ask him. How to begin this awkward conversation.

“The last time we hooked up you were so utterly aggressive, cocky and rough with me. Why the change?”

His listened ere he sighed, the hand on your stomach covering his flushed face.

“First of all, I'm not the playboy everybody thinks I am. It's not me, it's Jimin”, he admitted, the same words as before. “Some nights escalated a few month ago and I had to cover some one-night-stands for him as he is my best friend. After these several escalations it became quite a habit from us, because he got the girls he wanted and I was the dude that got his reputation.”

He sighed again, the story making him embarrassed. The alcohol spoke instead of his right mind, you knew it, but was thankful that he admitted that something was odd the last weeks.

“And the last time in the kitchen, I knew it was you. Obviously did I want you for a long time, but girls like cocky, confident boys, don't they? I got advice from some friends and so I acted the way I did around you. Only after seeing your shocked and hurt face after hooking up, I realised that it wasn't me who you had sex with. The me right now, who is drunk and persistent, a guy that can only talk openly when drunk, that the real me.”

Well, that was a confession. A drunken one, but a wasted person, children and tired people always said the truth, right? And if it was just that, then he was only halfway right.

“Jungkook, listen. I thought of you as the most annoying person on this planet. Seriously you made me crazy, but not the way you thought you would”, you told him, pulling his hand off of his red face to lay it on your stomach again. “Your god damn hot body and your bunny smile are what I like, not the asshole you claimed to be!”

Jungkook grinned at you, no believing your words.

“Also was it shit the last time! You just threw me out of your room! And if I have to decide I would happily go with the way you acted this week and forget your shitty attitude from before. Jimin was right about the other girls, such as Mina, she likes cocky guys, but I prefer the sweet types with rough hands”, you winked at him, but he only stared at you, caressing your naked belly with his warm hand under your warm covers. “Don't get me wrong the sex was amazing the last time as well.”

Jungkook chuckled. “Of course it was, y/n. And I can switch as you see. So..”

“No, Jungkook!”, you hit his shoulder. “Forget whatever you wanted to say about repeating this regularly!”

The boy sighed, his signature smile on his lips as he rubbed his shoulder.

“Calm down, y/n. If it may happen in the future we both should want this”, he said, laying down on his arm. “And right now I'm a little dizzy from the booze, sex and tiredness, to be honest.”

You nodded, snuggling up into the blanket while facing the boy next to you who just glanced up to your face. It was a peaceful time as you both just lay beside the other, staring in those dark chocolate eyes in the dark while all the adrenalin was exchanged to tiredness.

“It was so nice”, Jungkook whispered as he closed his eyes.

“It was, yeah”, you just replied doing the same motion as you felt sleep clouding all the memories you just made and the thoughts about his confession.

“Holy shit, I'm sorry!”, a loud voice woke you out of your deep sleep as you opened your eyes in shock.

Jimin stood in the doorway, a bag from the baker in his hands as he turned around in fast movements. Confused you followed him with your tired eyes as you remembered who lay next to you. A naked, slowly breathing boy with raven hair. Quiet snores reached your ears. Jungkook looked so peaceful, boyish as he slept next to you on the couch. Your bodies were only covered partly as to why heat rushed to your face. Not that Jimin found you, but that he found you naked.

You touched Jungkook's shoulder to wake him up, a groan escaping the boy's mouth as he opened his eyes tardily.

“What do you want, y/n?”, he murmured, tugging you back under him.

“Jimin just saw us!”, you whispered, trying to break free under his heavy arm.

Jungkook just closed his eyes, a small shrug from his shoulders signalling you that he was content with that. “He knows y/n, so don't panic, okay? I told you that I got advice from him to get you to notice me.”

You gulped, he never said that he got advice from someone to simply notice him. All you understood was for a fuck and nothing more, but you didn't want to probe on this theme. But why the hell had it to be Jimin to see you?

“Okay, but I really want to take a shower, now that I'm awake”, you stated, shoving off his arm and grabbing the blanket to cover your naked body.

“Yah! It's cold”, he protested, straightening himself into a sitting position.

A small laugh was heard from you as you moved away, taking the blanket with you. You could see that the night left his traces on him as to why he stood up, too, wobbling like hell as he ran after you, taking the cover away from you to muffle you both in it.

This move was too intimate for the compromise you agreed on yesterday, but you let it slide while staggering upwards to take a shower.

By the time you was back down all three people already sat on the table in the living you, a tasty smelling breakfast sprawled across the large table. Jungkook was faster as he run the last metres to the bathroom to take a shower first, the old him, but you heard water flowing in the bathtub as he walked casually naked out, the new him. The bath was so nice that you forgot that Jimin had caught you two this morning as you sat down on the chair across Jungkook.

“How was your night, Jungkook?”, Jimin grinned at his friend, a glance shot in your direction.

Heat flushed both your cheeks as Mina didn't even notice that it was a sideswipe from him about your night together.

“Good, thanks. Yours?”, Jungkook glared at his friend who just giggled as he shoved a roll in his plump mouth.

“A little noisy, right y/n?”, he replied, tilting his head in your direction.

“I saw them fucking on the kitchen island, guys. So stop this shit”, Mina stated annoyed with Jimin's tries to embarrass you.

Shock traced your expression. She didn't just hear you, but saw what happened in the fucking kitchen? Your hands run through your hair as you avoided her gaze.

“At least it was worth, judging by your loud moans, you two”, she shrugged her shoulders, but a grin spread across her lips as she lay eyes on Jungkook. “Are you two a thing now?”

Jungkook choked on his food while you just giggled at his reaction. The doe eyed boy shook his head, drinking some juice to clear his stuffed throat.

“It was a one time thing, Mina”, you declared, nodding in Jungkook's direction. “We agreed on that.”

“Two time thing”, Jungkook coughed, narrowing his dark eyes on his food, laugh filling the room from all three of them as they saw the expression on your face at his blunt statement.

At least they could laugh about his honesty! But a small chuckle fell from your lips, too, thinking about how peaceful and relaxing your cohabitation would be from now on.

2K notes · View notes

sweetvengeancee · 7 years

Text

Scotch (Justin Foley x Reader)

Warnings : Alcohol, swearing, making-out, Bryce being kinda a dick, and my English still sucks. Word count: 2500.

A/N: Here’s my third imagine, woo! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I’m gonna start working on a Jeff one and another Monty one; so let me know if you want me to post it! xx

You can also read my first Monty imagine here, and my Zach imagine here.

Y/N Y/L/N wasn’t the kind of person to host parties very often, but when she did – they were legendary. Her parents were both businesspeople and were rarely home, which allowed her to do whatever she pleased whenever she wanted to. That’s why her boyfriend, Justin, practically lived with her by now – considering his situation at home. Most of the time the couple would spend time alone at Y/N’s place, invite friends over and sometimes, like today, organize parties.

The party was in full swing, sweaty bodies grinding against one another on the makeshift dancefloor in the living room, teenagers getting drunk in the voluminous kitchen the Y/L/N family owned, couples getting at it in the various guest rooms upstairs.

Y/N, however, was standing in the corner of her living room, a simple bottle of coke in her hand as she kept an eye on everyone from afar. Y/N never got drunk at her own parties – her parents would never forgive her if something valuable went missing, or was broken. She knew her friends wouldn’t cause her trouble, but she wasn’t so sure about the other fifty or so guests.

Her lips curved into a smile as she caught sight of her boyfriend who was making his way over to her, a half empty bottle of beer in his hand and a smirk plastered to his gorgeous face. Biting down on his lower lip, Justin slid his free arm around her waist once he reached her, bringing her to his side and placing a sweet kiss to her temple.

“Hi there, beautiful.” He purred in her ear, giving it a small bite as his grip on her tightened. Y/N giggled, pushing him away playfully. She could smell the alcohol on his breath but she didn’t mind. It was a party after all, and she was probably the only sober person there – as crazy as it sounds.

Justin swiftly drank the rest of his beer before putting the empty green bottle on a table nearby, his now free hand travelling up to cup Y/N’s cheek. His thumb softly grazed her cheekbone as his blue orbs stared into her E/C ones. He pressed his soft lips to hers in a loving kiss, which she reciprocated – her arms moving around his neck, her fingers playing with his hair.

Justin groaned, pressing his body to hers as his hands moved to rest on her hips, squeezing gently. He started nibbling on her lower lip, his leg making its way between her parted ones and his hands now running up and down her body. Y/N tugged at the little hairs at the base of his neck as the kiss turned rougher, making him groan loudly which in turn caused her to smile into the kiss. Justin was always very needy, but when drunk he needed even more attention than usual. Y/N didn’t mind though; she actually loved it. The couple seemed to have forgotten about the dozens of sweaty teenagers surrounding them until a loud crash interrupted their make-out session.

Y/N broke the kiss, leaving her boyfriend flustered and confused for a few seconds. Panic filled her eyes as she searched for the origin of the sound, soon spotting a couple of people picking up pieces of broken glass. The girl sighed in relief as she noticed that it was just a glass, nothing valuable.

“I have to go clean this up, go find the boys.” She gave him an apologetic smile and his hand a gentle squeeze as he nodded, pulling her into him to kiss her once more before letting her go.

Defeated, Justin made his way back to the kitchen – where he knew his friends would be. And that’s exactly where he found them. Zach, Montgomery and Marcus were chatting with a few girls, trying and miserably failing to impress them; while Bryce was going through the kitchen’s cupboards, a permanent frown visible on his face.

“What are you doing?” Justin asked, his voice filled with annoyance, making Bryce stop and turn around quickly, the frown replaced by a smirk.

“Looking for more booze.” The older boy explained calmly, as if rummaging through his friend’s girlfriend kitchen was an acceptable thing to do. He closed a cupboard and opened another one, groaning as he found nothing interesting inside.

“It’s all on the table, man.” Justin said, gesturing to the multiple bottles of alcohol standing on the table while giving his friend a stern look, not even trying to hide how irritated he was by his behaviour.

“Come on, brother. That’s shit, not booze.” Bryce scoffed, his eyes scanning the almost empty bottles. “Y/N must have something better hidden somewhere.” He continued, closing the last cupboard before joining the younger boy at the table. He nudged his friend gently with his elbow, a knowing look on his face. He was fully aware that Y/N’s father had a fine collection of liquor somewhere in the house, he just didn’t know where. Justin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He had promised Y/N that he wouldn’t let anyone near her father’s liquor cabinet, especially not Bryce.

“Come on, just one bottle and just for us.” Bryce pleaded, determined to make Justin cave in.

“I don’t know, man… Y/N would kill me.” The blue-eyed boy said, looking back at his others friends to make sure that they weren’t listening. To his relief, they were too engulfed in their conversations with the girls to pay attention to what was happening right next to them.

“She won’t even notice.” Bryce reassured, his arm hanging lazily on Justin’s shoulders. A wide smile appeared on his face as his eyes met his friend’s – he knew he had convinced him.

“Fuck, alright. But just one bottle.” The smile on the baseball player’s face widened, if it was even possible. He nodded, his hand resting on his friend’s back, pushing him gently towards the kitchen’s door.

Walking into the living room, Justin let out a long shaky breath as his girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. Guilt was eating at him from inside but he couldn’t find it in himself to say no to his best friend. But Bryce’s confident demeanour and the bold look he had in his eyes kind of reassured him. After all, Y/N will never find out and neither will her father, right? He owned way too many bottles to notice that one of them disappeared.

The brown-haired boy led his older friend up the stairs, and into Mr.Y/L/N’s office. The average-sized room was dimly lit – the only source of light coming from the window that overlooked the garden, which was illuminated by small colourful paper lanterns. Justin glanced once more into the corridor to make sure that nobody has followed them before quietly closing the door behind them.

Bryce’s eyes immediately scanned the room in search of alcohol and soon enough, they landed on an old wooden cabinet standing in a corner. A wicked smile decorated his face as he quickly moved towards it, frantically trying to open it – to no avail. He groaned loudly as he pulled on the handle once more, but it didn’t budge. Frustrated, he went for a kick but Justin’s enraged voice held him back.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He whispered-shouted, his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw clenched tightly.

“Trying to open that god damned thing!” Bryce chuckled looking back at his frantic friend standing near the door, clearly less stressed by the situation than Justin was.

“Just let me fucking do it.” The younger boy sighed, his face softening as he approached him. His hand searched behind the liquor cabinet, where he knew the key was. Y/N had showed him weeks ago, when they decided to spend a nice evening together. She thought that a glass of wine would perfectly pair with the diner she had prepared. But she made it clear that it was an exception, as her father would surely notice if more than one bottle went missing.

Bryce’s eyes lit up as the cabinet’s doors opened, revealing dozens of bottles from gin to tequila, from whiskey to rum. A few bottles of vodka lingered in the back, but what tempted him the most was the expensive-looking bottle of scotch. He grabbed the dark bottle and another one before quickly moving away with one bottle in each hand.

“What the fuck, Bryce. We said one bottle.” Justin hissed, his hand reaching to take a bottle from his friend. But the older boy was quicker, opening both bottles and taking a big sip from one of them. He chuckled at Justin’s petrified expression.

“Chill, dude. It’s just scotch and vodka. None will notice.” He said calmly, bringing the bottle of scotch to his lips once again and offering the vodka to his friend. Sighing, the boy accepted the beverage. The alcohol burned his throat as he swallowed big gulps, but it just felt so right.

“Let’s get out of here.” Justin said after a few seconds, afraid of getting caught in Mr.Y/L/N’s office. He locked the cabinet quickly, putting the key back in its place before leaving the room, Bryce hot on his heels.

The boys sat at the top of the stairs, deciding that it would be safer up there than downstairs, where Y/N could catch them. Sip after sip, Justin’s head felt lighter and lighter. He couldn’t even tell what the conversation he was having with Bryce was about. His head was spinning from the alcohol and his stomach was hurting from laughing. Everything the older boy said or did seemed to be the funniest thing on earth to an intoxicated Justin.

Suddenly, Bryce’s eyes widened but he quickly tried to cover it with a smirk – which once again caused Justin to burst in laughs. A loud gasp could be heard, his head shooting to where it came from. And there, at the bottom of the staircase, stood Y/N. She was fuming – her eyes wide with anger, her lips pursed in a tight line, her fists clenched. She was looking up at the boys, her breaths short and rapid as she walked up the stairs.

“Are you fucking serious?” She snapped, snatching the bottle of vodka from her boyfriend’s hand forcefully and examining it. She quickly recognized the bottle as one of her father’s.

“Hi babe!” Justin slurred, his eyes twinkling with joy as he watched his girlfriend lovingly.

“Don’t ‘hi, babe’ me, Jus!” She yelled, taking the other bottle from her boyfriend’s best friend. “Do you idiots even realise what you did?” She groaned, gaining the attention of a few guests – including some of her friends.

“Come on Pau, chill. It’s just two bottles of booze.” Bryce laughed it off, earning a glare from the girl, to what he raised his hands in surrender, shaking his head a little.

“Just two bottles of booze.” Y/N scoffed, her hands falling to her sides in defeat. “These bottles are worth six hundred dollars each, you morons.” She said, her voice low and threatening. The words that left Y/N’s mouth made Justin sober up instantly. His eyes doubled in size and his mouth fell open. He could see the disappointment and the hurt in her E/C eyes, and it broke his heart.

“Y/N, fuck, I’m so-” He started, but she interrupted him with a wave of her hand. She looked around, noticing a circle forming around them. All eyes were on them, and she hated it.

“Get out.” She mumbled, her head hanging low, hair falling into her eyes. She could heard them all chat around, whispering things she couldn’t even make out but knew were about them. “Get out!” She repeated, this time louder to make sure that everybody heard her. “All of you, out. Now.” She gestured to the front door.

She was enraged and disappointed. She couldn’t believe her boyfriend did the one thing she had begged him not to. But she was also afraid – afraid of how her father would react. Her father was a big fan and connoisseur of scotch, so she was more than certain that he would notice that one of his bottles is gone.

The house emptied itself slowly, her friends kicking drunk and moody teenagers out as she stood on the stairs immobile, her boyfriend right next to her. Her eyes were focused on a wall as she patiently waited for everyone to leave.

“What the fuck, Jus?” Y/N faced him once the front door was shut and they were the only ones left in the house. Justin’s gaze avoided hers, falling to the floor in shame. “I asked you not to go in there, especially with Bryce!” She continued, making vivid movements with her hands to express how annoyed she was. “You know how much my father loves his little liquor cabinet! For fuck’s sake, Justin. What were you thinking?” Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” The boy whispered as Y/N sat on a step, brushing away the few stray tears that had now escaped. “I wasn’t thinking, I just… Bryce wanted more booze, and…” He trailed off, realising that he had no idea how to justify what he did. He sat on the step next to her, leaving a good amount of space between them as he didn’t know if she wanted him close, or gone.

Justin played with his fingers while waiting for Y/N to do something, to say something. He knew he fucked up, and he hated himself for it. He regretted letting Bryce into the office, he regretted opening the liquor cabinet to him. But he couldn’t do anything to change what has been done.

After a few minutes of sitting in complete silence, Y/N moved closer to her boyfriend, taking him by surprise. Justin tensed as she rested her head on his shoulder, making her giggle softly. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he tentatively brought an arm around her shoulders, expecting her to shrug it off, but she didn’t. Instead, she snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his stomach.

“You’re an idiot.” She mumbled into his neck, earning a chuckle from the boy.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He whispered back, nuzzling his nose into her soft hair and taking in her scent. He smiled, leaving a tender kiss at the top of her head. Y/N sighed, pulling away from him and looking into his eyes.

“You’re lucky that I love you.” Justin smiled slightly at her words, his arm bringing her closer to him.

“I am.” He breathed, his nose bumping into hers as he leaned in. “I love you too.”

“And you’re gonna have to make it up to me.” Y/N cocked an eyebrow at him, causing his smile to widen. The boy laughed, his hand cupping her cheek once more that night before crashing his lips into hers.

“I will.” He promised, pulling away from the kiss to take a breath before diving back in.

Well, that was embarrassingly cringy. The end was, once again, terrible. I’m gonna hide somewhere now, byeee.

@miles-heizer-in-ur-panties

#justin foley imagine #justin foley #13 reasons why imagine #13 reasons why #justin foley x reader #montgomery de la cruz imagine #zach dempsey imagine #alex standall imagine #jessica davis imagine #bryce walker #zach dempsey #alex standall #montgomery de la cruz #jessica davis #hannah baker #clay jensen #justin #13rw #13rw imagine

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neriede · 7 years

Text

Kingdom Hearts Other Diamonds - The Twilight (KH Novel Translation)

So @moeblob drew a little doodle of my rare pair, and it inspired me to just go ahead and translate the chapter in the novel that the doodle’s based on. Enjoy Namine being a sad and a cute (also Hayner being a lil’ shit).

I did take some liberties with some weird pronoun usage, and in a couple places to make it flow better in English, but it’s for the most part a direct translation.

The light of the sun was flowing in from the large window.

Namine opened the curtain just a bare smidge, gazing absent-mindedly at the outside.

This house was said to be haunted, and so the townspeople hardly went near the place—it was for this reason that there was practically no sign of any human presence. Occasionally the cries of birds from the forest in front of the mansion could be heard, but that was about the extent of it.

The sunlight properly lighting up the room, the ability to look over the forest and see how it was doing—this was the only room where that was possible. The room was the same pure white as that of Castle Oblivion, and yet being in this room was different, wasn’t unpleasant.

Before her very eyes, Riku and Axel would leave the castle, often and immediately. Time and time again—that was the state of things.

And because they never brought her along with them, she drew pictures in her sketchbook, alone in this room, and then stuck them to the walls. Today she was attempting to draw the two of them.

It wasn’t Riku in Ansem’s form—it was the Riku from before, in his original form. Axel was eating ice cream.

Together like that, they were on the verge of laughter.

It had somehow come to the point where Riku and Axel really got on well with each other. Since Riku was unfortunately in Ansem’s form, he normally didn’t speak much. However, whenever he was eating ice cream with Axel, he would laugh like a changed man. In those moments, even though Axel would say things like, “Don’t laugh with that creepy face!” it was the closest he was to being himself.*

Of course, Axel loved sea-salt ice cream.

If left to his own devices while he was in the mansion, Axel would be eating sea-salt ice cream the whole time. It didn’t seem like he ever got anything like an upset stomach, and he was always thinking about eating it, always in the mood for it. The refrigerator in the computer room was stuffed full of them, never empty, even though he ate them every single day.

When she had met Axel for the first time in Castle Oblivion, she never imagined he might have this sort of side to him.

He had seemed like such a terrible person.

But being acquainted with Roxas’ memories, she didn’t consider him to be that terrible person anymore.

Namine closed the curtain and sat herself in the chair.

On top of the table in front of her, the drawing of Axel and Riku she’d just been working on smiled up at her.

No matter how much she said she loved to draw, this was a bit tedious.

She’d gotten accustomed to the passing of time, all alone.

Even in Castle Oblivion she’d mostly been left all on her own, and even though DiZ had been at the mansion during the one year when Sora had been sleeping, they almost never met face to face.

Things like this were why she didn’t feel particularly lonely.

But it was tedious.

When Riku and Axel were both here, things weren’t very boring at all.

I tell those two all about Sora and his friends, spread out over all kinds of worlds.

And the three of us, we discuss the dealings of the Organization in those worlds.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, and even after all that the Replica who was my precious friend … I’ve never been able to just talk with anyone, not like this.

Ever since I was born—well, I don’t really remember the moment of my birth, but I’d always been in Castle Oblivion. Surrounded by Organization members, I was alone.

That’s why the times when it’s the three of us are so fun.

I thought I wasn’t lonely, but maybe now … is this what loneliness feels like?

I don’t have a heart, but this … somehow I get the feeling I understand what loneliness is now.

Namine breathed a small sigh, hanging the weight of her body on her back, causing the chair to tilt.

Come to think of it, it hadn’t been too long ago—Axel had tilted this very chair, and had fallen right on his back.

Namine remembered it and laughed, feeling her own small voice resounding throughout the quiet room.

Ah … perhaps … of course … I really do feel lonely.

I don’t know when Riku and Axel will come back.

Even though I believe that they have to return eventually, the possibility remains that they don’t come come back.

We are pursuing the Organization, after all.

As Namine stopped moving, likewise the chair stopped tilting.

If the two of them ever disappeared, what would I do?

I don’t really know for sure.

The way I am now, the thought of them not existing anymore is unimaginable.

Namine gazed at the Riku and Axel in her sketchbook.

Suddenly, she could hear the sound of someone’s voice from outside the mansion, and she raised her head.

Somebody’s … coming?

Quietly, Namine stood up and looked down on the garden from the crack in the curtain.

“Weren’t we told not to come here?”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Won’t you quit it already?”

Somewhere in between the girl’s warning and the other boy’s reply, the chubby boy’s expression became troubled. Hayner, Pence, and also Olette—that’s who was down there.

Namine knew about these three people. In that fake town they’d been “assigned” as Roxas’ friends, and prior to that she’d known very little about them.

“Come on, Hayner!”

“If you’re gonna be like that, then maybe it’s not such a good idea for you to tag along.”

Angry, Olette turned her face away, and likewise Hayner turned his head in a similar manner. Even from so far away, Namine could understand what was happening, and she let out an unintentional chuckle.

Now that she thought about it, these guys were also a three-person group.

Her and Riku and Axel—and then there was Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Sora and Riku, and Kairi as well, they were all a three-person group.

Her group wasn’t as lively as Sora, Donald, and Goofy, nor were they as close as Sora, Riku, and Kairi. But she thought they were friends, and had goals and things in common that bound them together.

“Would you two stop fighting?!”

Flustered, Pence looked back and forth at the other two’s silent backs.

“Well then. Guess I’m going home.”

It was Olette who broke the silence. She briskly headed back in to the forest alone.

“Is she gonna be okay…?” Pence asked Hayner as he crossed his arms, watching Olette’s retreating back with worry.

“Let her be, that one. Seifer and his gang wouldn’t come out all the way here, and like I said, there’s no such thing as ghosts!”

“If you say so…Oh!”

Pence lifted his head up, looking like he’d just seen something, and Hayner rushed over to him in a panic.

“J-j-j-j-just now, the curtain moved!”

At Pence’s words, Namine hid behind the curtain.

“Now wait, isn’t that the one we said was just swaying in the wind?”

“It moved again!”

Hayner gave a resigned sigh, and Pence pointed at the window as he spoke once more, “But look, that window’s completely closed!”

“Oh really? Woah! It moved!”

This time it was Hayner who jumped. Namine peeked outside the curtain, placing her hands on her chest and breathing deeply.

“You know that reminds me—there’s that rumor about a suspicious guy coming and going around,” Pence crossed his arms.

“The black coat guy? The old lady at the sweets shop was saying something about that, right?” Hayner also crossed his arms.

Namine smiled wide at their conversation.

The black coat guy the sweets shop lady had mentioned was probably Axel.

From time to time Axel would leave the mansion all on his own and set out towards the town. Riku’s expression was never good in response to such behavior, but nonetheless, based on what she was hearing it didn’t seem like Axel had stopped going out.

“Now wait a minute,” Hayner scratched his head as he spoke, “Isn’t that old lady at the shop going a bit senile lately?”

“You think so…? I don’t think that’s it though.”

“But wouldn’t it be weird for a black coat guy to just show up out of nowhere?! And the old lady hasn’t said anything about anyone actually looking suspicious, has she?”

“Yeah...well, that’s certainly true, but…I mean, have anyone of us seen a black coat guy anywhere around?”

“Huh?”

At Pence’s question Hayner stopped moving. His head tilted to one side and his eyebrows knitted together, “Don’t we know every single person in this town?”

“Yeah,” Pence resolutely nodded at Hayner’s words.

“You know of any black coat dudes in this town?”

“I don’t, but...what about someone who came from the train station?”

“If a stranger came from the train station, wouldn’t we immediately know about it?”

“I suppose that’s true, but...”

“I’ve never seen seen any black coat guy!”

At Hayner’s clear assertion, Pence began to seriously think about it, “Is that...really so…?”

“That’s what I said! Maaan, now I’m hungry,” Hayner started a long stretch.

“Sea-salt ice cream again?” Pence suggested, lifting his head.

“Would it be anything else?” Hayner replied, quickly running towards the forest.

Pence gave chase after him, breaking in to a run.

Namine’s face peered out of the curtain, watching their retreating backs.

Now that she thought about it, she’d only ever gotten ice cream out of the fridge in the computer room—she’d never purchased and eaten the ice cream from this town’s shop. More than likely the taste was the same, but perhaps if she ate the ice cream outside, it’d have a different flavor than before.

“Just a little...should be fine,” Namine murmured reassuringly to herself.

Axel had done it, there were no signs of any Nobodies or Heartless on the mansion grounds, and in case of emergency she could always use a corridor of darkness—

Namine clenched her fists.

She abruptly turned around, making to run for the door.

Namine walked the gloomy forest with her head hung low.

In her tightly closed fist was gripped a single 50 Munny coin. To be honest, this was the first time in her life that she’d ever held money. She had gathered this precious token from the first floor drawing room, where someone had been left it behind. She knew there was still money that hadn’t been used up in the safe in the basement laboratory, but that was DiZ’s money, and so she hadn’t felt right about using it.

But if it was money she had happened to find...well surely that was okay, right?

Namine raised her face, surveying the depths of the forest around her. It had a bit of a gloomy and scary atmosphere, but it had been a long time since she’d breathed the outside air, and it felt really good.

As she kept walking the winding and twisting road, she ran in to a wall. She passed through an opening in it, and found herself right inside the tram common.

Namine blinked her eyes, flooded by light after having been inside the dark forest.

And just like that, she saw a trolley passing by her.

Despite the fact that she shouldn’t have a heart, her chest quickly started pounding triumphantly, and she understood what it meant for one’s own heart to start jumping for joy.

Namine held the hand that carried the coin to her chest, squeezing it once more, and started to walk with just the barest of nimble steps.

If she wasn’t mistaken, the old sweets lady’s shop would be just beyond this point if she just went straight ahead.

She knew every inch of this town, and yet she’d never actually walked inside the real town for herself before.

In the space between the buildings, the old sweets lady’s shop appeared.

“I’ll have two!”

Beside Pence, who was already nibbling away at his own ice cream, Hayner held up two fingers as he gave the old lady his order.

“For Olette?” Pence asked.

“Uh...yeah, you got a problem with that?!”

“Noooo~?” Pence smirked at the way Hayner had shouted, “I’ll pay half too. Here ya go, 10 Munny.”

He placed a 10 Munny coin on top of the counter.

“Oh my. Who gets the change, then?” the old lady tilted her head to one side.

“He’s doing me the favor, so I’ll just take the 10 Munny.”

“Oh sure, sure,” the old lady slid the coin over to Hayner, who stowed it away in his pocket, before she handed over the two ice creams.

“If we don’t find Olette soon, it’s gonna melt!”

“I know that!”

With one ice cream in each hand, Hayner started to dash off when he looked back over his shoulder...and saw Namine standing there.

“Oh...”

Without thinking about it she froze, and for a single moment Hayner didn’t move either, before he once more set out in a run.

“Hayner?”

Pence, who hadn’t been as quick, turned back and also noticed Namine. He looked restlessly back and forth between Namine’s face and Hayner’s back, before scrambling to catch up with the boy who had already left.

“Wait up, Hayner!”

Namine calmly watched their retreating backs, breathing a sigh of relief. Then, with one more deep breath, she slowly began to walk towards the shop.

“Um, excuse me...”

“Who’s there??” the old lady lifted her head, “Oooh, a first-timer, eh?”

“Um, sea-salt ice cream, one please,” Namine gave her order, her fist still closed over her chest.

“Sure thing! Give me a sec.”

With slow movements, the old lady produced an ice cream from somewhere near her feet, and handed it to Namine.

She took it with the hand that wasn’t gripping her money and asked, “How much is it? The ice cream?”

“That’ll be 20 Munny!”

Namine stretched her hand with the money out in front of her, holding it straight out and opening it for the old lady.

“You’re change is 30 Munny.”

The old lady received the coin from the flat of Namine’s palm and replaced it with her change.

“Come again!” she smiled so sweetly.

“…again. I’ll come back,” Namine returned the smile, and slowly turned on her original path, starting to walk with ice cream in hand.

That’s when she realized.

Where was she going to eat this ice cream…?

“Um, excause me!” Namine quickly turned back towards the shop, once more troubling the old lady.

“What is it?”

“Is it okay if I eat this here?”

“That is definitely okay!” a smile floated on the old lady’s face.

“Thank goodness!” Namine leaned against the counter wall and took a mouthful of ice cream.

The salty sweetness spread throughout her mouth, the same taste that sea-salt ice cream always had.

But there was something special about it, Namine thought.

“Tasty, no?” the old lady asked.

“It’s delicious!”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

As Namine nodded a black cat nestled up near her legs and gave a small purr.

“You want some?” she squatted, stretching out the sea-salt ice cream to the cat.

In response the cat snuggled up against her feet and purred again.

“Oh ho, looks like the little fellow likes you,” said the old lady happily.

“Really?” Namine asked the cat.

At this the cat meowed once more.

Inside the warehouse underneath the train tracks—in the Usual Spot, Hayner and his gang were eating sea-salt ice cream. It seemed as though Hayner and Olette had managed to patch things up.

Sitting on top of the wooden boxes that had accumulated in a corner of the warehouse, Hayner at his ice cream the way he always did.

“Hey, Hayner.”

“Hmm?”

Pence, who had already finished his ice cream, looked Hayner in the eye, “That girl, where do you suppose she came from?”

At Pence’s inquiry, Hayner stopped moving.

“What do you mean ‘that girl’?” Olette asked the two of them.

“Just a little while ago in front of the old lady’s shop, there was a girl,” Pence answered, in lieu of Hayner’s deer-in-the-headlights state.

“A girl you didn’t know?” Olette moved closer with great interest, all the while eating her ice cream.

“And had never seen before! She had golden hair and was wearing a white dress. Tell her, Hayner!”

“Y-yeah,” Hayner nodding curtly.

“You think she moved in to town?” Pence looked up at Hayner.

“If that’s the case, maybe we’ll meet her at school when the new term starts,” Olette said, looking delighted.

“That would be nice,” Pence nodded.

“Hayner, are you listening even a little?” Olette asked Hayner, who was being a bit distant.

“Eh?”

At his surprised response, Olette sighed dejectedly, “Could it be...that girl was really cute?”

“She was! Maybe you’re on to something, Olette,” Pence once again answered.

“Maybe that’s why Hayner’s spacing out.”

“Th-that’s not it!” Hayner practically flew up and off the wooden box.

It was true, that girl had been pretty cute, but that wasn’t the reason he had zoned out.

That girl had had a kind of mysterious atmosphere about her.

“Good grief...” Olette said, resigned.

Hayner hung his head, down-hearted, then suddenly raised his head as if resolved about something, “You think we’ll see her again?!”

“When school starts up again, yeah,” Olette said, shrugging her shoulders and exchanging glances with Pence.

Namine had eaten her ice cream, said goodbye to the old lady, and then booked it back towards the mansion. She slammed the door of the white room completely shut, trying to gain control of the throbbing beat in her chest, and took one, large breath.

She could still hear the sound of her physical heart.

Namine sat in her chair and took out her sketchbook. Then she took out her black crayon and began drawing the black cat.

That was the first time she’d had that kind of conversation with someone, and it was the first time she’d eaten ice cream in such a place.

New things were fun—new places were fun.

She had gotten a sense from Sora’s memories—they were things that had touched her heart, but this was the first time she was feeling it for herself.

And furthermore, she’d met Hayner’s friends.

They hadn’t actually spoken to her, but—just meeting them had been nice.

“I should...definitely go again, don’t you think?” Namine whispered, as if speaking to the cat within the sketchbook.

She got the feeling the cat was purring, and she smiled.

It was the next day.

Namine quietly left the mansion, holding tightly on to her 30 Munny. Sea-salt ice cream cost 20 Munny, so she was still able to buy it one more time.

Riku and Axel still hadn’t come home last night.

But that was actually probably a good thing.

If they had met up yesterday, she would’ve definitely told them all about her time outside the mansion.

Axel would’ve certainly been scolded by Riku, who was somewhat prone to being a worrywart.

Moreover, worst case scenario, if the Organization learned of their existence here from the townspeople gossiping, it would be a grave situation indeed.

That’s why should couldn’t tell them about yesterday—she was sure of that, at least. But if she only dealt with the old lady from the shop, then surely that would be alright.

Namine made her way through the gloomy forest, passed through hole in the wall, and exited in to the town.

Today after buying her ice cream, she had plans to stroll through a little bit of the town.

She hadn’t had the chance to see the real clock tower at her own leisure yet.

Namine was going to go along a different path than yesterday, one that curved right from the hole in the wall, and she started walking parallel to the trolley tracks. Turn at the bulletin board, then straight ahead. After that, pass through under the overhead road. Exit on to the plaza where all the shops were lined up in a row. Namine’s feet stopped in front of the sweet shop lady’s store.

“Good day, ma’am.”

“Oh my, hello.”

The old lady smiled sweetly, the black cat on the counter purring just like yesterday.

“Sea-salt ice cream, one please.”

“Sure thing! Give me a sec.”

Namine placed two 10 Munny coins on the counter. That left her with 10 Munny. She wouldn’t be able to buy another sea-salt ice cream.

“There we go, don’t drop it now,” the old lady handed Namine the ice cream with a smile.

“Thank you,” Namine smiled as she replied, the cat purring softly.

“Come again!”

Namine bowed her head towards her, eating her ice cream as she entered the street in front of the train station. If she kept going up the slope from here, she’d arrive at Station Plaza after a bit of a hike. As she watched the children playing at the foot of the hill, Namine began to climb the hill with light steps.

If someone were to turn right at some point along the route, they’d reach Hayner and the gang’s Usual Spot.

Her feet stilled for a moment, and Namine peered in to the opposite side of the alleyway, before once again starting to climb the hill. The hill from this point on was a bit steep, and arriving here would lead one to a garage.

As she neared the garage, Namine had completely finished up her ice cream. Now, if she turned right at this garage and kept going straight ahead, she’d reach the Station Plaza. The moment she entered the plaza, the light of the setting sun flooded down upon her.

“So radiant...” she muttered before she could stop herself, holding one hand up to shade her eyes.

As if to get closer to the light she started walking, and birds scattered and took to the sky around her feet.

“Hey!”

“Who’s that?” at the sudden shout, Namine turned her head.

Sitting on the steps in front of the station was Hayner. Before a motionless and surprised Namine, Hayner also sported a surprised face, completely stock-still.

“...are you alright?”

She seemed to have said it instinctively, and Hayner stood up awkwardly, “I’m okay!”

“Oh, well then, that’s good,” Namine smiled, turning her head back to gaze at the setting sun.

This wasn’t her first time seeing the setting sun of Twilight Town. She had just the one memory of it, from when Axel had saved her. It had been lovely then as well, but today it was even more beautiful than ever.

At that moment, Namine’s vision was interrupted as Hayner rushed up in front of her.

“We met yesterday in the Tram Common, right?”

Namine didn’t know what to say in response to suddenly being talked to like that, and just stared fixedly at Hayner’s face.

“What’s your name?”

“...Namine.”

Her voice was small when she answered, and it made Hayner avert his eyes and scratch his head for a moment.

“My name’s Hayner. Where are you from?”

Namine looked away when questioned.

Even she didn’t fully understand where she’d come from.

She’d come from the haunted mansion today, sure—

But where did I really come from?

Seeing Namine’s troubled expression, Hayner walked closer, flustered. He had just one mouthful of ice cream left, and a drop melted and fell to the ground.

“Ummm...Sea-salt ice cream! I really love the stuff. Do you like it too?”

Namine quietly nodded.

“Guess it’s all melted though, huh?” Namine responded, pointing out the last bite he had.

At this Hayner stared, and took a deep breath, “So, y-you know...”

He was cut off by the resounding toll of a bell. They both reflexively looked up at the clock tower.

Across the way from them, the two chimes told them what time it was.

“Say, do you know the rumor about the ghosts that come out from the clock tower?”

“Huh?” Namine fixed her gaze on Hayner.

“That clock tower, the guard came to sweep up just like he does every half month, so nobody should’ve been able to climb up there. But sitting in front of the clock face were these two shadowy figures. They were standing next to each other and they looked like they might be people.”

The moment she heard Hayner’s story, she looked up once more at the clock tower, surprised.

“No one should be able to sit up there, right? That’s why people are saying it was a pair of ghosts.”

“A pair of ghosts...” Namine muttered, giggling a little.

Yeah, it definitely had to be those two.

She found it amusing that they were the same as her, getting mistaken for ghosts.

“Ya like ghost stories? Well then, here’s another one. On the outskirts of town, there’s this huge mansion...”

“Oh I know that ghost story. You can see a shadow of a girl on the second floor, right?”

“That’s right!”

At Namine’s smiling answer Hayner returned his own relieved smile, “That’s good, I got you to smile.”

“Hayner~!” from far away the sounds of restless footsteps mixed with Pence’s nearing voice.

Olette was right behind him.

“I have to go home,” Namine said, coming to her senses and taking a step back.

“What, already?”

“Sorry. Thank you.”

“Wha—What?! But I wanted to introduce you to everybody...”

Namine broke in to a run, leaving behind a surprised Hayner, his mouth hanging open.

“Oh?”

“Oh dear?”

When they realized Namine had fled, Pence and Olette also watched her go with shocked expressions.

“Wait!”

At Olette’s voice, Namine’s feet stopped for just a moment.

“Come and hang out with us!”

She could feel Pence’s voice on her back as well.

But she started running once more, without even looking back.

Namine slammed the door to the white room shut, breathing heavily with heaving shoulders, her eyes closed.

She really should not have spoken with townspeople like that.

If the Organization ever found out about it, there would be no going back from that.

And yet Hayner’s story had been interesting. She’d never spoken with a boy her own age before in such a way. Whenever she spoke with Sora it was always in such serious situations, and Riku didn’t really feel quite the same in age as her. It couldn’t be helped though—it was because Sora and Riku were special.

But Hayner was different.

He lived in the town and he was just a simple boy.

Pence and Olette too, they were an ordinary boy and girl.

They were different from her and her usual crowd.

Namine placed her hands on her chest, looking down in shame.

Her chest was still beating.

She really shouldn’t have left the mansion.

Namine was walking quietly by herself in the forest on the outskirts of town.

She hadn’t slept much last night.

Because she didn’t have another mere 10 Munny, she couldn’t buy any sea-salt ice cream.

Through that hole in the wall was the same town as always, Twilight Town—a special town.

Namine started walking, looking nowhere in particular.

It was then that she heard a voice.

“Don’t kick it there!”

“My bad, my bad!”

“You’re doing it wrong!”

That was Hayner, Pence, and Olette’s voices. Namine’s feet stopped.

The three were kicking a ball in front of the old lady’s shop.

“There!”

Penced kicked the ball and it rolled to a stop at Namine’s feet.

“Namine!”

“Hello,” As Hayner rushed over, a smile floated on to Namine’s face.

“Man, I thought we wouldn’t see you again.”

“I’m sorry for running off on you yesterday,” Namine picked up the ball from her feet and handed it to him.

“But you came back,” Hayner said relieved, smiling.

“What are you doing, Hayner?”

Olette ran up to him from behind, followed by Pence.

“Nice to meet you,” Namine quickly bowed her head at the two of them.

“Oh hey, you’re Namine!”

“I’m Pence!” he stretched his hand out and Namine shook it.

“I’m Olette. Nice to meet you,” Olette smiled fondly, and Namine nodded as she spoke.

“Did you just move here?”

At Pence’s question, Namine just smiled quietly.

The three of them traded worried glaces.

“So...Wanna eat some ice cream?”

Namine shook her head at Hayner’s invitation, “I’ve only got 10 Munny.”

“Then I’ll spot you half!”

“Me too, I’ll lend you some money!”

“And me!”

The three of them spoke all at once and exchanged smiling faces. Namine just couldn’t say no to that and giggled a little.

“Today will be our treat!”

“Thank you,” Namine looked down a bit at Pence’s words.

They all headed to line up in front of the sweets shop lady’s store.

“Yes, welcome! Oh my, I’ve got quite a crowd today!”

The old lady was, as always, smiling sweetly. The black cat was lying on top of her lap.

“Ice cream, ma’am. Four in total! For Namine’s share, you can charge me 10 Munny, and charge Pence and Olette 5 Munny apiece.”

“You’re fine with paying that much?” Olette looked a little concerned as she peeked in to Hayner’s coin purse.

“I said it’s fine!”

Hayner laid a collective 30 Munny on top of the counter, 20 for his own portion and 10 for Namine’s. Pence and Olette followed and laid down 25 Munny each.

“Alright, here ya go,” the old lady handed out ice cream to everyone.

“Thank you.”

Namine immediately took a bite, “…It’s sweet and salty.”

“That’s sea-salt ice cream for ya!” Pence answered, leaning his back against the same counter that Namine herself had leaned on the day before yesterday. Hayner lined up next to him, and Olette after that, and before long Namine also joined their side as a train crossed in front of them. Namine took advantage of the moment to open her mouth.

“I’m really glad I was able to meet you all.”

“We’ll meet up lots after this too!” Olette looked Namine in the eyes.

“Summer’s gonna be over soon though,” Hayner followed up.

Namine took another bite of ice cream and stepped in front of Hayner.

“Thank you, for the ice cream.”

“Don’t worry about it, it was nothing,” Hayner turned away, embarrassed.

Olette and Pence watched him with smirks on their faces.

“Today I came to say goodbye.”

“Huh?” Hayner stopped leaning on the counter and looked at her.

“Why?” Pence also stopped leaning and stood at her side.

“And after all we went through to finally meet you,” Olette also stood next to Namine.

She was completely surrounded by the three of them like this.

“We can’t meet up anymore.”

“…Why?”

“I’m sorry. I’m a witch—just a phantom.”

Namine took Hayner’s hand and placed her half-eaten ice cream in it.

“W-wait a second!...Namine?”

“And that’s why, we can’t meet again. Thanks, for the ice cream,” Namine smiled quietly and let go of Hayner’s hand, “Even if the chains of memories come apart, the fragments don’t disappear. Even if you all forget me, I won’t forget you.”

“What are you saying, Namine?”

“I’m sorry—goodbye, and thank you.”

Behind Namine a corridor of darkness opened—and just like that, it swallowed her up and disappeared.

At the sound of a small cat’s meowing, the three of them came to their senses and looked around them.

Since when was I standing next to the old lady’s shop?

“Hayner, were you daydreaming or something?”

Hayner turned at the sound of Olette’s astonished voice.

“Did you buy two ice creams without even realizing it?” Pence’s face appeared from behind Olette.

Pence spoke has he gazed at the other boy’s hands, where Hayner was gripping the two half-eaten sea-salt ice creams.

Why did he have an ice cream in both hands?

“I...I guess…?” Hayner tilted his head.

Hayner and Olette both gripped the ice creams in their hands.

From far away the sound of a bell could be heard, and Hayner lifted his head.

That’s right—ghosts coming out of the clock tower...hadn’t he just discussed that rumor with someone recently?

But he couldn’t remember.

Hayner absentmindedly bit in to his ice cream.

It was as sweet and salty as it ever was.

At his feet, the black cat snuggled up against his legs and meowed softly.

Namine was silently drawing a picture.

In the very middle of the sketchbook was a smiling Hayner, and after that were Pence and Olette.

These were her secret memories that she couldn’t share with anyone.

It would make her so happy if she could eat ice cream again in that town someday, but that was something beyond her control.

Because of her power to manipulate memories, they’d completely forgotten about her.

But even so, she wouldn’t forget.

She wouldn’t forget how they’d treated her to salty-sweet ice cream.

“Namine.”

She raised her head at the voice.

“Welcome back.”

“We’re back, Namine,” at Namine’s smiling face, Riku unfastened his hood as he replied.

“I’m here too!”

And there was Axel, sitting in the opposite chair. In his hand was already a sea-salt ice cream.

For now, if it was the three of them here, then that was fine.

My precious friends—Riku, Axel.

“How are Sora and his friends doing?” Namine asked the two of them, closing her sketchbook.

#Kingdom Hearts #Namine #Hayner #Pence #Olette #Neri's Translations

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