man i'm on a roll tonight

DP x DC idea:

Bruce Wayne has somehow managed to become the unofficial guardian of at least two more kids. Maybe three. He's not sure yet. Various members of the Batfamily have made new friends recently and have been having them hang out at Wayne manor for extensive periods of time. Now only if he could actually meet the rascals face-to-face, maybe he could adopt them for real.

or

Danny, Elle, and Jazz have all made friends with different Wayne kids at different times from different places. Damian met Elle at school, Danny met Tim while working at a coffee shop, and Jazz met Cass outside the local theater. All three visit the manor separately, and no one communicates that they've befriended people from the same family. Eventually, however, their hangout sessions accidentally overlap and the Waynes have to deal with the excitement of three Fentons under a single roof.

Let's just say there's a reason the three of them live separately.

Five-and-a-Half

Based on the Phic Phight prompt: Danny gets de-aged and Sam and Tucker have to take care of him til he's back to normal without anyone noticing. (from @yellow-rhymes-with-dna)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for mentions of past trauma]

Tucker had gotten used to a lot of strange things over the years, especially with a best friend like Danny. Giant robots controlled by a technologically controlled ghost he could deal with. A blob ghost hunter in a heavily armed mech suit was a piece of cake. An evil ghost king sucking their town into another dimension was more than Tucker alone could take care of, but he could at least keep his cool. Sam Manson showing up at their apartment with a five-year-old Danny was a bit much, even for him.

"Sam, I love you, but what the hell?"

"For the record, this was not my fault," Sam said immediately. "Danny was the one who pissed off Clockwork and got himself kidified. I told him to shut up twice, and we've both told him that the clock tower is not the place to hide from his royal duties."

"Who's this, Miss Sam?" Danny asked, looking up at the goth girl with wide, curious blue eyes. He was so small now that he had to reach his arm almost above his head in order to hold her hand.

"God, your cute," Sam said through gritted teeth, then sighed. "This is Tucker. You remember him, don't you?"

"Tucker?" Danny looked back at his oldest friend, shock written all over his baby-face. The two of them had met in preschool when they were three, and had been together ever since, first as best friends, and now in their little triad with Sam, So even de-aged as he was, Danny should know Tucker. "No way! He's way too big to be Tucker! He's old!" 

"I'm not old! I'm only eighteen!"

"That's so old!"

"How come he calls you 'Miss Sam', all polite like, and he calls me old?" Tucker demanded with a pout. 

"Can you let us in already?" Sam said, rolling her eyes at the question as she pushed past Tucker into the apartment the three of them got together when they started at the local community college. Sam and Danny had both desperately wanted to move out of their parents' houses, and Tucker wasn't about to be left out.

Danny had been so understanding and kind, insisting that they not hold themselves back just because he had to stay near the portal after high school. Of course, Sam and Tucker had completely ignored him and applied to Amity Park community anyway, even though either of them could've gone to a much better college.

"I take it he doesn't have his memories?" Tucker asked, closing the door behind them and going to sit on the couch.

"Nope," Sam confirmed. "He doesn't have his powers either. His body and mind have been completely reverted to his five-year-old self."

"I'm five-and-a-half!" Danny piped up.

"Right," Sam obliged, "his five-and-a-half-year-old self. I figure we'll wait for Clockwork to cool off, finish whatever work Danny interrupted, and then bring him a gift basket of time-pieces or something to butter him up and ask him to put Danny back to normal."

"I'm normal!" little Danny insisted. "I'm totally normal! My sister says so!"

"Of course you are Danny," Tucker agreed. "She didn't mean it like that."

"Until then, we have to make sure nobody sees him like this," Sam continued, "which means we have to keep him here and watch over him, at least for a few hours."

"Do you have any crayons?" Danny asked. "I wanna draw."

"Uh... I think Sam has some markers she might let you use if you ask really nicely," Tucker said, and Sam immediately gave him that look she gave him when she wanted to punch him but wouldn't because she loved him even if he was an idiot.

"Miss Sam, can I pretty please use your markers to draw?" Danny asked, very sweetly, batting his eyelashes the way Jazz used to to get whatever she wanted from grown ups when she was a kid. Sam clenched her fists and her jaw, but, much to Tucker's amusement, she seemed incapable of saying no.

"How did you live like this?" she shouted. Her combat boots pounded on the floor as she trudged to the studio/lab they'd converted the spare bedroom into. "Thank the Ancients I didn't meet him until we were in middle school. He's too damn cute—it's unbearable!"

"Is Miss Sam always such a pushover?" Danny whispered to Tucker.

"Believe it or not, she's usually pretty strict and bossy," Tucker whispered back. "She's just soft on little kids."

"Oh." Danny looked up at him, blue eyes strangely piercing, as if looking right through him.

It was strange. These days, Danny had gotten very good at masking his expressions to hide how he was really fearing. It was a skill he'd learned to hide his fear, to reassure civilians, and to show his enemies he wasn't intimidated, no matter the danger. But over time, that mask had edged into his personal life too. Danny put on a brave face, a reassuring smile, a too-wide grin, but his partners could never be certain what he was truly feeling. It sent a pang through Tucker's heart to see Danny's feelings so openly in his expression.

"Are you really Tucker?" the kid asked. "My best friend Tucker?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "Actually, I'm your boyfriend Tucker, and Sam's your girlfriend. A few hours ago, you were the same age as us, and then you got turned into a little kid."

"So I get a girlfriend and a boyfriend when I grow up?" Danny asked excitedly. "That's so cool! I must be pretty awesome to get both of them!"

"Tucker!" Sam chided as she came back into the room with her box of expensive, artsy markers. "Don't tell him that!"

"Why not?" Tucker asked. "What's it gonna hurt? It's not like this is his past self, it's his age regressed present self. I'm not changing the past, and if we lie, he'll be upset at us when he turns back." Sam's lips pressed together in a thin line as she considered his argument.

"Fine, I guess it won't do any harm," she relented after a moment. She put a stack of papers on the coffee table, but before she put down the markers she knelt down to look Danny sternly in the eyes. "Now Danny, these are very expensive, and very special markers, and they were a gift from my grandmother. You have to be careful with them and use them gently so you don't mess up the tips because if you do, I'll be sad. Do you understand?"

Danny nodded, brows set in determination. "I got it, Miss Sam! I'll be very careful with your special markers so I don't make you sad, I promise!"

Tucker could almost see Sam biting her tongue to stop from cooing as she put the box of markers on the coffee table and opened it up. She plopped down in front of the couch while Danny knelt next to the coffee table and uncapped a blue marker. "He's... such an earnest kid," she muttered as she leaned into Tucker's side. "It's different."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed softly. "He used to wear his heart on his sleeve. I never thought about it much, but it sucks that he can't really do that anymore."

"We've been by his side for so long, sometimes I forget how much more he's been through than we have." Her brows pulled together in a frown. "Why does he always go where we can't follow?"

For a long moment, Tucker didn't respond. He felt the same way she did. As much as they'd all gone through together, as much as they tried to stay by Danny's side, there always came a point where Danny had to forge ahead without them. "Because somebody has to."

Sam sighed and slipped a little further into Tucker's body, letting him wrap an arm around her. She was undoubtedly thinking of something melancholy that she'd eventually share at a goth poetry slam, but didn't want to talk about with him. Aside from physical reassurance, there wasn't much he could to about it, but he could do that much, and maybe offer a distraction.

"What are you drawing, Danny?" he asked the kid.

"I'm drawing a rocket ship!" Danny chirped, turning his head to grin at Tucker. Then he scrunched up his face. "You can't look yet! It's not done!"

"A rocket ship, huh?" Tucker asked. "Are you gonna draw yourself on the rocket ship?"

"Duh! I'm gonna be an astronaut!" Sam and Tucker wore the same sad smiles when he said that, both remembering the time they had to console him in the aftermath of his first physical exam after the portal accident. He'd discovered that because of his altered physiology, he would never be accepted into any space program, and he'd been utterly distraught. Now he was studying engineering, because he said if he couldn't go to space, at least something he'd built could.

"Can me and Sam be on the space ship with you?" Tucker asked.

"Sure!" Danny agreed cheerfully, his expression back to that beaming smile. "You guys can come with me!"

Tucker's heart ached. How many times had they heard Danny say, "You guys can't come with me. It's too dangerous for you." A dozen times? A hundred? Easily too many to bear, but they bore it anyway.

"Where are we going?" Sam asked. "Is the rocket going to the moon?"

"Nuh-uh," Danny shook his head. "We're going to 51 Pegasi b! They just discovered it a little while ago and it was super exciting! I read in my mom's science magazine that the guys who discovered it got nominated for a Nobel Prize because it's the first planet anyone's found orbiting a star like our sun! Its orbit is just four days long, and they think it might be the core of a decomposed star!"

"That's so interesting, Danny, tell me more," Sam encouraged, and Danny gasped in excitement at the invitation. He hunched over his drawing as he continued enthusiastically babbling about the planet his imaginary rocket was going to. Sam lifted her head to ask quietly in Tucker's ear, "Did he do this a lot as a kid?"

"Yeah," Tucker confirmed. "It's kinda why we got along so well. He would talk a lot about space, and I would talk a lot about computers, and we would go back and forth like it was a conversation, except we were just taking turns talking about completely different topics. Children of STEM parents with highly specific interests gotta stick together, y'know." 

After a while, Danny interrupted his rant about space to show them that he'd finished his drawing. Despite being drawn by the unsteady hands of a five-year-old, they could tell clearly enough what it was. The rocket was gray, and each one of their faces smiled out from one of the three round windows.

"Look, that's me at the front because I'm the one flying the rocket, and Tucker in the middle, and Miss Sam in the back!" he said.

"Wow, Danny, that looks great!" Sam complimented.

"Yeah, I think this one goes up on the fridge," Tucker suggested, eyeing Sam with a devious look. "What do you think, Sam?" She looked back at him with a matching expression.

"Oh definitely," she agreed. Danny was going to be so embarrassed when he was back to normal, and the two of them could practically see their boyfriend's tomato-red face already. Danny grinned and let Sam take the picture from him to stick up on their fridge with one of the little ghost-shaped magnets Sam had bought for them. "Since we're in the kitchen, are you hungry, Danny?"

"I'm hungry!" Tucker said.

"How about some sandwiches," Sam suggested. "What kind do you want, Danny?" She already knew Tucker's favorite sandwich, Turkey, roast beef, and Swiss on rye bread. Since they'd all started dating, she'd even coaxed him into liking some vegetables, though she'd given up on convincing him or Danny to go vegan like her. Her own preferred sandwich was all vegetables, of course. Tucker liked to call it a salad on toast.

"Peanut butter and blackberry jam please!" he asked.

It was kind of funny. The Danny they now knew was so different from the five-year-old awkwardly climbing up onto one of the kitchen stools, but despite all that he'd been through and all that he'd changed, he still liked space and blackberry jam.

"Do you want the crusts cut off?"

"Yes, please!" 

Tucker handed her three plates and cleared his half-finished homework off the kitchen island for them to eat at. He'd been working on it when Sam knocked—she'd forgotten her key and Danny couldn't phase them through the door—and then the situation with Danny had distracted him from going back to it. It was just calculus; he'd finish it later.

Sitting around the island, eating sandwiches, Danny asked them questions about his future.

"Are you guys astronauts?"

"No," Tucker said. "We're in college now. We'd have to finish to become astronauts. I'm studying computer programming."

"That makes sense." Danny nodded. "I remember you like computers and stuff. I'm studying to be an astronaut, right? What's Miss Sam studying?"

"Actually, you're studying engineering," Sam corrected, but when she saw the confusion on Danny's face she backtracked, not wanting to tell the child that he'd never achieve his dream. Once was more than enough. "But engineering is one path to becoming an astronaut." It wasn't a lie, even though she wasn't telling the whole truth. She changed the subject. "I'm studying ecology, with a minor in political science." 

"And we all go to the same school?" Danny asked.

"Yup!" Tucker said. "We go to Amity Park Community College."

"A community college?" Danny frowned. He'd heard enough about college from his parents to know that a community college was not as good as a university, even if he didn't know the difference between the two. "We couldn't get into a University? Mom and Dad went to University of Wisconsin."

"It's not that we couldn't get it," Sam assured him. "We could have gone to much more prestigious—er fancy schools, but we wanted to stay in Amity Park. We have obligations here, at least for the time being."

"What kind of obligations?"

"We hunt ghosts," Sam said, trying to make it sound exciting instead of annoying. Tucker made a cutting motion to stop her from saying it, but it was too late. Danny's expression immediately fell into disappointment and he looked moments away from crying.

"But... but I don't wanna fight ghosts," he said. "Ghosts are stupid!" Sam blinked in surprise and looked to Tucker, only then seeing in his expression that she shouldn't have said that.

"Uh..." she cringed, visibly trying to find a way out of this. She liked kids, but she had no idea how to handle a crying child. Thankfully, Tucker chose that moment to step in.

"Danny, you have to know, that even though we hunt ghosts, none of us are anything like your parents, okay?" Tucker promised, his voice very gentle and earnest, in contrast to his usual sarcasm, a tone which all three of them shared. "Sometimes it's scary, but we would never hurt the ghosts, and we would never try to experiment on them. If they cause trouble, we make them stop, and send them home, safe and sound, okay?"

Danny started to cry, and reached out for Tucker, who picked him up and held him close to his chest, rubbing soothing circles into his back. "I d-don't like ghosts! I d-don't ever w-want to see a ghost!" Danny bawled.

"It's okay, Danny, you're not gonna see any ghosts," Tucker said. "We'll keep you far away from them."

"Y-you promise?"

"I promise."

Slowly, the tears subsided. Danny had tuckered himself out from crying and drawing, and fallen asleep.

"I'm sorry, I thought he'd think it was cool," Sam whispered, so as not to wake the sleeping child in Tucker's arms. "Why'd he react like that?"

"His parents have always been overzealous about ghosts," Tucker responded. "When he was really little, his parents rants scared him a lot. They talked about finding ghosts and running tests, and experiments. Most of their science talk didn't get to him, and he even thought it was cool, but something about ghosts got under his skin, even back then, you know?"

"I wonder why?" Sam said thoughtfully.

"I dunno," Tucker said. He started to shrug, but aborted the action when Danny hummed and shifted in his sleep. "Do you think Clockwork's calmed down yet?"

"It's been two hours for us," Sam said, looking at the clock on the wall. "So probably a year-and-a-half for him? Yeah, probably. The trick is getting him through the Fenton Portal into the Realms without his parents seeing."

"Yeah, and we don't have his invisibility and intangibility to help us out like we usually do," Tucker said. "So what? False tip?"

"Already on it." Sam's phone was already in her hand and she hit the contact for Fenton Works. When she spoke into the phone it was with a low, nasally voice that sounded nothing at all like her own. "Hello, am I speaking to the Fentons, the ghost hunters? Yes, this is Audrey Goldberg, and I have a ghost problem I hoped you could help me with. It's haunting my bathroom. Twelve-nineteen Pine Road. Yes, come as quickly as possible. Thank you." She hung up. "You got Danny?"

"Yup," Tucker confirmed. "Don't forget the key to Fenton Works."

"Right." They headed downstairs and out of their apartment building, walking to Fenton Works since Sam insisted none of them needed to get a car. It wasn't far, even carrying a kid. All the ghost fighting they did had eventually whipped even Tucker into shape. When he first realized he was getting some actual muscle, Tucker had worn sleeveless shirts for weeks. Neither of his partners said anything positive about it, but he knew they secretly love his muscles.

The GAV was long gone when they got there and Fenton Works was empty, allowing them to go in without any resistance. With Danny fully human, thanks to being de-aged, they didn't even set off the ghost sensors. They headed down to the lab and borrowed the Specter Speeder to go to the clock tower.

Navigating the Ghost Zone was a tricky thing, especially since everything within it was constantly in motion, but they'd figured it out, more or less. To be perfectly honest, even they didn't know exactly how they did it, but as long as they got where they needed to go, it didn't matter.

The door to the clock tower swung open when Sam knocked on it and they climbed up to the top, where Clockwork would be.

"Clockwork, buddy, how've you been?" Sam greeted.

"Samantha, Tucker," Clockwork said blandly. "I assume you've come to ask that I revert young Daniel back to his proper age."

"Yes please," Tucker requested. "I don't know exactly what he did to piss you off, but we really can't have our boyfriend as a five-and-a-half-year-old anymore. Humans have laws about that kind of thing."

"Very well, I suppose the Infinite Realms can't have a king so young either, or so human." Clockwork waved his staff and Danny rapidly aged back to his nineteen-year-old self. Tucker's knees buckled under the sudden increase in weight and the pair of them collapsed onto the ground. Danny woke up to sore knees and Sam hunched over laughing at them.

"Thanks so much," Tucker grumbled, trying and failing to sound sincere. "Now that we've got our boyfriend back, we'll get out of your beard."

"From now on, perhaps you'll think twice before coming to bother me just because you're bored, won't you Daniel?" Clockwork asked pointedly.

Danny blushed, and put a hand over his mouth before nodding. "Yeah, yup! Lesson learned."

"You're ears are steaming," Sam teased, even as she offered a hand to help each of the boys up.

"Shut up!" Danny said as she pulled him to his feet before helping Tucker. "Bye, Clockwork. Thanks for not making me go through puberty again."

"And if you don't disturb my work, I never will," the old ghost warned.

The trio headed back down the stairs and to the Specter Speeder. "You guys are gonna take that awful drawing off the fridge, right?" Danny asked.

"Not a chance in all the Realms," Sam said.

"Yeah, no," Tucker agreed. "If you even try to get rid of it, we'll make you regret it." Danny groaned and buried his face in his hand.

"I can't believe I did all that," he mumbled. "I cried like a baby and then fell asleep."

"In fairness, you were five," Sam said.

"I was five-and-a-half!" Danny snapped, put his face in his hands again. "Why did I say that?" His partners just laughed as they climbed into the speeder and flew home.

Into The Unknown, Part 1

... I have no self-control do not perceive me

Marinette stared at the pile of bright red, yellow, and green clothes on the ground. It was all she’d done in the five-ish minutes since she’d portaled onto the scene. Just… stared.

It wasn’t like there was much else to do, anyways. Red Robin was currently beating the absolute fuck out of the person that had the audacity to disintegrate his brother right in front of him. It wasn’t like she could even fix it because the witch had been out cold before she had been able to pull Red Robin off to get a hit in so she could use her lucky charm.

So, she stared.

It was weird. She could almost feel a person inside the clothes but… maybe that was the residue or the ashes or whatever gets left behind when you zap a person out of existence? She didn’t really want to check, to be honest. Gross.

Eventually, though, she hesitantly leaned down and brushed her hand over it, trying to find the energy and get rid of it because it was really uncomfortable --.

… oh hell no that pile of clothes did not just fucking giggle at her.

She narrowed her eyes and carefully lifted up the bottom of the shirt, only to yelp and fall back. She scrabbled on the gross Gotham alley ground until her back hit Red Robin’s arm and he was forced to pause or risk hitting a meta (which would not have been good for his health).

“What?” He hissed.

She swallowed thickly. “That’s a child.”

“... what?” Red asked, all the anger bleeding from his tone in his confusion.

“We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby,” she whispered… then, it sunk in more. “We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby.”

He straightened on top of the thing that was really more bloody pulp than person at this point. “What do you mean ‘we let Batman’s kid turn into a baby’?”

But she didn’t really get a chance to answer because the baby chose that exact moment to be sick of being suffocated under all the armor and pushed it off.

Red Robin gulped. Because, yep, that was Robin as a baby. Batman was going to kill them.

Except he wasn’t going to kill them. Because Batman doesn't kill. No, Batman would find something even worse and that would suck.

The baby -- Robin? Should she still call him that mentally? -- giggled at their pain. Like an asshole.

They were so fucked.

~

He’d let B’s favorite kid get turned into a baby. Was there a way to get unadopted? Because if there was it was totally going to happen. Or maybe his dad would just cut him off because he was 19 now and could just get kicked out.

No. Nope! Not going to happen. No. He could fix this.

“Okay. Okay okay okay. We need a plan,” he heard himself saying.

Ladybug scoffed. “We? I was barely even here, this is on you.”

“Leave me alone to deal with this and I swear to god I will tell B that you did it.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t. No way.”

“Yes way. So, help me think of something.”

The baby giggled and started crawling over and both of them averted their eyes because, unfortunately, the child did not get baby clothes to go with his random transformation. Baby Damian didn't seem to care as he reached them and started climbing on Ladybug since she was closest. At least it wasn’t him. He did not want to see his adoptive brother’s… ew.

Ladybug made a gagging sound and then quickly summoned a lucky charm. She kept her face turned away as much as her neck would physically allow as she fumbled her way through swaddling the child in a polka-dotted blanket.

And then her shoulders slumped a little. “Great. Great. This is… great,” she muttered, picking up the bundle o’ baby.

He let himself look down now that it was safe.

“Alright, we need to go to another dimension where time moves faster,” Ladybug said after a few seconds. “And then we wait for him to age… fifteen-ish years. Best way to not make Batman notice.”

“... what about us? We also age.”

“Huh…? Oh. Right. You’re human.” She pulled off the glasses she was wearing and blinked a few times before handing it over. “Congrats on your upgrade. The tiny horse god is named Kaalki. She likes cake.”

“The tiny --?” He let out the world’s manliest screech as his eyes landed on the floating bug horse hybrid thing holy shit no no no no no the sci fi movies didn’t prepare him for this shit.

Kaalki looked a little offended but then her eyes landed on the baby and she gasped. “Aw, baby humans are always so cute.”

“Great, Kaalki, you take it,” said Ladybug.

Kaalki did try, to her credit. It just so happened that the approximately one-year-old baby was a lot bigger than the… whatever she was. Tim was refusing to believe that this was a god. Too many implications. He already had something to have a breakdown over, he didn’t need another thing right now, thank you very much.

Tim rested his head in his hands but he had more things to worry about than the blood that he was accidentally streaking through his hair.

“Okay. Okay. We can go to another dimension and try and raise him. Maybe we can make it have a ratio of one month here for every year there so any differences could be blamed on that.”

“Ya!” Said baby Damian. He probably didn’t actually know what was going on but he sure seemed excited so that was cool.

Ladybug sighed and nodded. “Great. You get food and money and clothes and I’ll take this lady to the cops… and I guess I’ll watch the kid until you get back because your dad cannot know.”

They shook on it.

~

This may be the dumbest idea that she’d ever had, and that was saying something. She didn’t know if she could trust Red Robin on this one, they hardly ever worked together. What if he just left her alone with this kid and let her try and figure this out on her own?

No. He wouldn’t do that. He was the last person known to be with Robin. Robin going missing would be bad for him, too. And, besides, she was pretty sure that he was a duty-driven person based on what she’d heard, she just had to hope that he saw this as his duty, too.

She turned the baby in her arms to get more comfortable as she waited for him to (hopefully) come back.

Part of her wanted to try and find someone from this world to reverse this but she didn’t know any outside of her, Adrien, Alix, and (now) Red Robin. Not on a personal level. Not enough that she knew for sure that they wouldn’t blab to Batman about it.

So, no, this is what she was doing.

But she had things to do. So, she pulled out her yoyo-phone-hybrid-thingy and wedged it against her ear.

“Chaton,” she said the moment he picked up. “You’re alone, right?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Great. I, Ladybug, relinquish the Miracle Box and name Chat Noir the new guardian.”

“WHAT --?!” He didn’t get to finish as a box dropped on his lap and knocked the wind out of him.

“Just for, like, a year and a half. Sorry. Bye!”

“DON’T JUST ‘BYE’ ME WHAT THE --?!”

She hung up and closed the yoyo, hooking it back to her belt and ignoring it when it started buzzing again.

She looked down at Robin, who was squinting up at her. She returned the squint. Why was this baby so quiet? She didn’t get it. Surely, he should have been crying at this point.

“Do you still… remember things?” She asked, hoping against all hope that maybe he had retained his memories at the very least.

Robin smiled at her, but it was the blank-eyed baby smile that meant he wasn’t really understanding her. She bit down a curse.

Great. So, she’d not only gotten a baby but she’d gotten a fucking weird one. Great.

~

Tim left a note for his family saying that he, Damian, and Ladybug were bored and were going dimension hopping. His family would probably be suspicious but, hey, at least it wouldn’t be his problem for a good fifteen years on his end.

And, yeah, he knew this was probably one of his dumber plans but… it wasn’t the dumbest. And he was always one to commit when it came down to it. One time he had faked being shot and dealt with crutches for an entire year just to convince Vicki Vale that he wasn’t Red Robin. He had no fears that he couldn’t see this through.

Ladybug, though? A total mystery. She did nearly everything on a whim as far as he knew. She hopped from city to city fighting crime for absolutely no reason outside of boredom and made up all of her plans on the fly. No, he was a bit concerned about her ability to keep doing it.

So, he went as quickly as he possibly could. There was no rhyme or reason to what he was grabbing. He was just… putting stuff in there. There was money and three watches to help them move between dimensions, yes, but there was also a fanta orange and a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and exactly seven pairs of socks.

��� yeah, he had the necessities. Probably.

He nearly got out the door before he realized he was still in his crime-fighting gear and he quickly shucked it all off and tossed it into the tub so the blood wouldn’t track any more than it already had. He did not need to avoid Batman’s wrath only to end up on the receiving end of Alfred’s.

He pulled on the first hoodie and jeans he could grab and looked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything of importance.

Okay. Now he was ready to go.

~

Marinette was awkwardly bouncing the baby when Red Robin finally showed up.

… not that she would have recognized him if she hadn’t felt Kaalki hovering in his pocket. In her eyes, he was just a random white guy wearing shades in the middle of the night.

She glanced up at him and gave him an awkward smile.

“Ready?”

He smiled back and held out two watches. Neither fit baby Robin so she prepared herself to choke out a literal baby holy fuck what even was her life.

“Which dimension should we go to?”

“Preferably one without miraculi,” Marinette said. “I don’t want to know what happens if there’s two of the same god in a dimension.”

He nodded slowly. “Probably best if Batman doesn’t exist, either, he’d probably notice my existence.”

“... so… no heroes at all?”

“Looks like we’re going cold turkey,” Red Robin said in a tone that was probably supposed to be joking but just came out flat.

She pushed herself to her feet and waited as he scrolled through the millions of dimensions.

Finally, he came upon one and she added the coordinates to her and Robin’s watches.

She readied Robin’s watch against his neck and tried to ignore the kid’s sudden squirminess.

“3… 2… 1…”

They were gone in a whirl of blue light.

~~~~~

Next

@nathleigh @peachmuses

Downsides of Thievery Pt. 3

~ Previous Part ~ Next Part ~

Going through the portal from one dimension to another felt as simple as walking through a door. There was no flash of light, no weird tingly sensation all over Gavin’s body, no “welcome to a new dimension” announcement; Gavin could almost believe he was still back home...were it not for the fact that every single thing around him was mega sized.

Trees as tall as skyscrapers loomed overhead, and although he was looking down on them from Rael’s hip height, Gavin could still tell that even the wildflowers sticking out of the ground would be taller than him. He swore he even saw a chipmunk the size of a car scurrying up the side of a tree.

Suddenly, Gavin felt almost glad he was secured inside a cage. As much as he hated being confined, right now he didn’t feel like he could handle being out in the open, not with a bunch of big ass woodland creatures roaming about. Being attached to a big ass dude was bad enough.

Though he couldn’t see it from his current position, Gavin figured the portal they’d come through must have gone away, judging by the abrupt disappearance of the soft blue glow that the portal had been giving off a moment ago. “I’m officially closed off from the rest of humanity,” Gavin’s brain helpfully reminded him.

Glancing upward, Gavin caught Rael throwing him a brief look as if to ensure his captive was still there. The teal eyes examined him for only a moment before they returned to looking forward.

Gavin sighed. As intimidating as Rael was, he knew he couldn’t avoid talking to the guy forever. For one, he needed to ask his captor where exactly he was being taken, because in the middle of the woods hadn’t been what he’d been expecting. Gavin was admittedly not all that knowledgeable about alteon customs, but he was pretty sure they mostly lived in cities and towns.

Before Gavin even got the chance to mentally prepare himself for the prospect of addressing the alteon, he was bucked forward by the movement of the giant leg behind him.

Once again lying at the bottom of the cage, Gavin groaned. He was really beginning to sympathize with hamsters, lizards, and other handheld pets. Getting tossed around in a cage really sucked. Although, he figured most pets would be handled more carefully by their owners than Rael was currently handling him.

Every other step the aleton took jarred Gavin’s cage, meaning there was zero point in trying to stand up because he’d just be thrown to the floor again in an instant. Instead, he opted for sitting in the back with his arms wrapped around the iron bars for stability. It was still an unpleasant experience, but at least this way he could spare himself a few extra aches and pains.

About five minutes passed by and Rael continued to make his way silently through the forest. He clearly had no intention of striking up a conversation, which meant the task fell on Gavin. “Just picture him in his underwear,” he thought to himself, but then quickly realized that trick only worked on normal sized people. Picturing Rael in his underwear would only make Gavin feel both afraid and uncomfortable. “Okay…just imagine he’s not gigantic then.”

Gavin tilted his head back so he was looking up towards Rael’s face, however from the angle he was at, he could only really see the underside of the man’s jaw. “Yeeeah, kind of hard to imagine he’s not huge when I have to almost break my neck just to see his face.” After taking a deep, steadying breath, Gavin opened his mouth to speak.

-

Were Rael someone well learned in the magical arts, he could have easily teleported both himself and his human charge to the palace. However, as things were, he had no choice but to travel on foot through the woods that surrounded the city of Ostrad.

Rael didn’t necessarily mind a little hiking, but having to walk back to the city added on about an extra hour to the assignment he never wanted in the first place. He blew out an inaudible sigh, ignoring the way the cage hooked onto his belt repeatedly bumped against his thigh as he walked. At least the human had kept quiet so far, as long as it remained that way--

“Hey, uh--Rael?” The unexpected sound of the human’s voice nearly caused Rael to stop in his tracks. He paused for a moment but quickly recovered and continued making his way forward.

Rael flicked his eyes downwards for just a moment and saw that the human was looking up at him expectantly. Half because he didn’t want to end up running into anything, and half because he didn’t want to give the human the satisfaction of getting his attention, Rael quickly went back to looking forward. “What is it?” he responded reluctantly, making no effort to hide his irritation.

“Well--um, I was just wondering where we’re headed,” said the human nervously. Rael had been a little surprised when he found out that humans didn’t have high, squeaky little voices that fit their size. Instead, their voices were essentially normal, though much quieter than that of an alteon. This was something Rael was grateful for. While it would have been briefly amusing if the humans squeaked like mice, Rael had no doubt he would quickly tire of it.

“I’m delivering you to the Emperor at the palace,” Rael stated tersely. Surely the human could have deduced that on his own.

There was a pause, and Rael hoped that would be the end of the discussion, but evidently the human had other plans. “Right but uh--why didn’t we just...portal straight there?” he asked.

Rael rolled his eyes. He didn’t know whether it was all humans or just this one in particular, but there was certainly an air of obliviousness emanating from Gavin Stone. “The portal needs to be distant enough from civilization in the event intruders manage to slip through somehow,” Rael explained slowly, as though he were speaking to a child.

Honestly, the precaution of keeping portals isolated seemed as though it was more for the sake of protecting the humans that might come through than any alteons. Prior to departing for this assignment, Rael had been educated in all the ways humans could potentially bring harm to alteons. The list was quite short, and mostly involved large weapons of mass destruction, which were apparently not widely available in the human realm.

A thoughtful hum came from the caged human. “I guess that makes sense, though I can’t imagine any human intentionally trying to come here,” he commented. He seemed to be gaining some confidence in his speech and no longer stumbled over his words, much to Rael’s annoyance. The last thing he needed was for his captive to start getting talkative.

“Believe me, we don’t want humans here either,” Rael retorted. Perhaps he was speaking from his own opinion more so than that of the general population of his dimension, but he wasn’t about to tell Gavin Stone that.

-

Gavin narrowed his eyes at Rael’s comment. If he didn’t know any better, he might say that his captor wasn’t all too fond of humans. He had to wonder what the alteon’s past experience with humans had been. Was Gavin the first he’d met? Had he really made that bad of a first impression? “Oh yeah, I sprinted away from him full speed,” Gavin reminded himself.

People not liking him was not an unfamiliar thing for Gavin. Admittedly, he maybe didn’t have the best verbal filter, and had the unfortunate tendency to blurt out whatever popped into his head. He had been fired from his first job at a movie theater for accidentally calling his manager a “lazy dickwad” within said manager’s earshot. He had gotten sent to the principal’s office in third grade for letting it slip to another kid that Santa wasn’t real. And Gavin knew it was only a matter of time before he said something to Rael that really pissed off the giant.

If Gavin were smart, he would just keep his mouth shut. It was obviously what Rael would have preferred. The only problem was, Gavin wasn’t smart. Smart people became doctors, settled down with a sweet spouse, and moved into a fancy house in the suburbs. Smart people did not become thieves who stole from literal giants.

“So uh--are you like the Emperor’s delivery guy then?” Gavin asked. He didn’t really know where he was hoping the conversation would go or what he hoped to accomplish, but running his mouth felt familiar. If he stayed quiet he’d just end up wallowing in his own anxiety and fear.

Rael shot Gavin a quick, sharp look. “I am a member of the Imperial Guard, not a ‘delivery guy’,” he snipped, clearly not fond of Gavin’s insinuation.

Gavin didn’t really know what being in the “Imperial Guard” entailed, though he supposed it had a fancy enough name. Honestly, it kind of sounded like something out of Star Wars, though he wasn’t going to mention that to Rael considering the guy probably didn’t even know what a movie was.

“So did they specially choose--” Gavin’s sentence was interrupted midway through by an annoyed huff from Rael.

“There is no need for us to converse. So unless you have something crucial to say, I recommend you keep quiet,” the alteon stated coldly.

Despite Rael’s less than friendly tone, and the fact that it was a colossus of a man saying it, Gavin did not intend on keeping quiet. A familiar desire to be contrary was rising up in him. His mom had always called it his “urge to be a complete pain in the ass.”

Gavin didn’t necessarily want to intentionally piss off his captor, he didn’t want to make an enemy of the alteon. That would be stupid even for him. However, Gavin wasn’t about to roll over and behave like a good little boy. He was a criminal, following the rules was basically the antithesis of who he was. No, Gavin was going to talk to Rael whether the elf looking son of a bitch liked it or not.

we got so much snow, why do i still have class today? I mean it was short, but why have it at all?

oh and you’ll like this one today @petrichormeraki

:)))))))))

“Holy fuck you’re my dad. The captain is my dad.” Tubbo was stunned, still trying to comprehend it. Crumb on the other hand already accepted it. 

“I’ve got a big brudder! Tubbox is my brudder!” She was running around happily and eventually decided to just sit on Tubbo’s shoulder.

“You’re the kid of a celebrity Tubbo!” Tommy slapped a hand on Tubbo’s back in celebration. “Does this mean I can be your plus one to fancy events and shit?”

“I’m not really that kind of celebrity.” Sparklez rubbed the back of his head. “I mean I’m well known, but that’s mainly because I travel a lot.”

“Sprinklez is definitely a celebrity!” Crumb said happily, her tail flicking about. “Millions of people know him! He’s been so myany places!”

“Wonder how Kara’s going to react to all this. ‘Oh hey Kara, remember how I wouldn’t be available for a few days and now it’s been longer than that? Well found my long lost kid!’ I mean it works, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“Is Kara my mom?”

Crumb, feeling a bit chaotic at the moment, answered the question for Tubbo. “Ye!”

“No! No she is not!” Jordan immediately shouted. “That proposal was for being her thousandth kill or something, not for getting married!”

“Honorary mom!”

Sparklez inhaled sharply before sighing to calm himself. “Yes, fine. If you want to think of her like that, sure. Don’t know how she’d react if you call her that though, so maybe don’t actually say it aloud.”

“How’d you even lose him?” Tommy spoke up. He knew Tubbo’s side of the story, but he was a child at the time and it was around ten years ago, so the details might not be accurate anymore.

“Tubbo was really curious as a kid. Always following me around everywhere no matter how much I tried to get him to sit still. He got interested in almost everything I did. We were visiting one world, Univcraft, and I was just driving around.” Grian’s feathers puffed up at the name of the world. “Tubbo was in the back in his seat, but was getting restless. Next thing I know, he had managed to unlock and open the door.”

“Did you keep driving?”

“No! Of course not! I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. Forgot to put park on at first and it started to roll away on its own before I could jump back in to fix it. Tubbo wasn’t in his seat so I assumed he fell out when the door opened but he was nowhere in sight. There seemed to be no evidence and the weirdest part was that he would have had to unbuckle himself from his booster seat and they were all still done up.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “I remember that! I… I think when I first realized I wasn’t in the car anymore, the first thing I was upset about was not being in my cool racing harness.” Tommy started laughing. “Hey! I was five!”

Sparklez couldn’t help but chuckle along with Tommy before pulling Crumb and Tubbo into a hug. “Both my ducklings are finally with me.”

“Duckling?” Tommy asked with a mischievous grin.

“I said Tubbo followed me everywhere. He also liked bees a lot so wore yellow half the time. He reminded me of a little duckling.”

“I remember wen Sprinklez cried wen we went to space an I followed him around in my yellow space suit!”

“Okay Crumb, don’t need to bring that up.”

“Hey, if you can say embarrassing shit about me, let her say embarrassing shit about you.”

Jordan winced slightly. “I guess that’s fair. So, what’s your life been like? I can tell you’ve been… active.” He vaguely gestured to a visible burn scar on Tubbo, which made the teen slump their shoulders a little. Tommy pulled Tubbo away into a protective hug and Grian put a hand on Sparklez’s shoulder.

“To put it lightly, they’ve been through hell. I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s doing as good as he is right now is because of Tommy. Don’t expect him to open up about everything right away. Give him space before you start asking questions.” Grian glanced over to the duo and Tommy gave him a quick thumbs up. “Trauma sucks, but having someone there to be supportive, even if you don’t know them as well as you should, is really helpful.”

“Thanks.” Sparklez gave Grian a short nod. 

“Well, I’m sure you guys will have a wonderful time together, but I still need to go see Xisuma and give him updates on… well, everything.”

“See ya Big G.” Tommy said to Grian before the avian was flying off.

Mumbo was trying his best not to completely panic, but he was slowly failing. “No no no no no. It has to be there! Why isn’t it there? Is it because of the ice? Is there something with ice?” Mumbo looked down at himself and still saw no symbol. “Maybe it was whatever Dream did. That’s surely something that wouldn’t be accounted for.”

“It wasn’t him, idiot.” Mumbo’s blood ran cold and he turned around to see Drista sitting on a chest. “Obviously it was you. I thought you knew VG and Watcher magic doesn’t mix.”

“This is. No. I, I’m not a Vault God. I refuse.”

“Again with the refusing. It worked before but it won’t now. I told you it was only a matter of time.”

Mumbo was in a state of complete disbelief, trying to find some excuse. Then his disbelief turned to anger as he thought of something. “No, this is your fault. You were keeping in contact with Dream. He said you were. You didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t do anything. But you did instead. And how did you do that? Became a Vault God.”

“Well tell me how to unbecome one.” Mumbo demanded. 

“You pretty much don’t. That’s why Dream was able to do what he did. Even exiled, he was still a Vault God.”

“Please, there has to be something.” Now he was starting to plead with Drista, hoping for some glimmer of hope for him.

She tilted her head from side to side as she thought about the question. “Well, technically you’re not completely official. In fact I’m here to bring you to that. Maaaaybe if you say something to them, you can get some exception.” She paused to shrug. “Who knows. They may just force you to be one.”

“And if I don’t go?”

“You’ll still be a Vault God, just unstable. Though I will say, you’re doing pretty well on your own.”

Mumbo didn’t care to ask what she meant. He had to go. If he went there was at least some percentage of a chance that he could go back to normal. If he didn’t, he would absolutely end up hurting Grian. “Alright fine. Where do you need to take me?”

Drista smiled and pulled on a mask that was almost identical to the one Dream had worn. “Just follow me.”

Grian spun the chicken feather that was his quill on the table as Xisuma talked. Sure, this was all very important, but the avian was already bored. He kept asking more questions that should have been answered already, but the admin was too focused on the answers themselves to think about the entire context. “I said that it’s going to be like another dimension already. You can’t get to other dimensions without a portal. Think of it like a third being tacked on. And fourth since they have their own nether.”

“What about their end?”

“Again, they haven’t seen it because Dream destroyed all connections to it.”

“And the Watchers?”

“Are combining groups and are adding in two new Watchers to keep things running smoothly.”

“Any previous relation with Zoy and Riffed?”

“Zloy and Pixlriffs, and no. Petrichor and Meraki are just helpful with world crosses. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Can I go yet?”

Xisuma paused, tapping his helmet where his chin would be. “Alright, but I’ll be sending messages to you, so look out for those and try to respond quickly.”

Grian nodded and passed the book and quill over to Xisuma with the notes he had taken. He then got up from his chair and stretched before flying into the air. Now that Xisuma was dealt with and Tommy was occupied, next was getting the kids from Stress.

The avian flew over the desert between Xisuma’s jungle and the one that he, Stress and others lived in. He smiled as he passed Mumbo’s base, though he had to steady himself when his flying became a little wobbly. He brushed it off as him just getting distracted and then landed near where Stress said she would be.

“Dad!” Jrumbot was running up to Grian and the avian picked up his robot son in a hug. “You’re okay again! Daddy was really worried about you.”

Grian quickly gave Stress a thankful nod for her looking after the bots. “Well it wasn’t the best situation, but he figured it out like the smart man he is. Now speaking of him, we should go see him. He needs some more cheering up and love. Think you can help with that?”

Jrumbot nodded and then Grian helped him onto his own back, right between his wings. As the younger of the robots held tightly to Grian, the avian picked up Grumbot and then thanked Stress before flying towards Mumbo’s base. As they approached, Grian suddenly felt much more tired than he had moments before, so much so that Jrumbot slapped his face slightly to wake him up so he didn’t crash.

“What?! Huh? Oh right, I’m flying! Sorry boys, guess the meeting with Xisuma took more out of me that I realized. At least we’re almost there.” And he landed at Mumbo’s base, only stumbling slightly.

“Are you alright dad?” Grumbot asked Grian, who gave a nod.

“Yeah, ‘m fine. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for your help. We found Tubbo’s dad.”

“While I’m glad I helped, you shouldn’t be trying to change the subject.”

Grian sighed, having forgotten how well Grumbot could read him. “I’m fine. I just want to find Mumbo and then we can all go to the big bedroom and hang out there.” He helped Jrumbot down off his back and ruffled his wings before folding them “Mumbo! I’m here with the kids!”

There was no answer making Grian frown. “Maybe he’s tired like you and went to sleep?” Jrumbot suggested.

“Yeah, might be.” Grian then pulled out his communicator to send random messages to Mumbo to either follow the hum of the vibration of a message or to wake Mumbo up with the sound. He sent off one message and was just starting to type another when he got the error message. “Wh- Mumbo’s not here.”

“What do you mean not here?” Grumbot asked, worried by how worried Grian looked.

“I… maybe he went back to the other world? But everything’s connected now, that shouldn’t be an issue.” Grian continued to worriedly ramble. The bots looked at each other and then took Grian’s hands, pulling him to where Mumbo’s bedroom was and got him to lay down on the bed.

“Do we need to get anyone?” Grumbot asked. “Iskall or Stress? Possibly Xisuma?”

Grian shook his head. “We just left Stress’ place. She’s helped plenty. And Xisuma is busy with the world merge. Iskall… they might be available, but message them first.”

Jrumbot’s screen face changed briefly. “Okay! I did it!”

Grian nodded then curled up in the blankets. He really felt tired now and a bit woozy. He gave a groan. “Ugh… Dream was a Vault God and I was around him for who knows how long. Plus I went to visit again… maybe there’s magic sticking to me or around here.”

“Are you sick again?”

Grian gave a half hearted nod. “Yeah, now both of you come here so I can cuddle you. That’s the best kind of medicine right now.”

Jrumbot immediately jumped into the bed and curled up in Grian’s arms. Grumbot on the other hand, wasn’t as fast. “Contact with people is usually not a type of medicine and I’m sure us not being humans makes it even less effective.” But despite his comments, he also joined his brother in Grian’s arms.

Rabbit Asks Eeyore for Help || Moon Donkey

Summary: Jun plans for a trip away, and goes to Gregory for help. Featuring Eomma, who I love. 

Follows:  Dalmajung Cat Got Your Tongue? 

@notmuchofatail 

JUN: Jun was a cat.

Unfortunately, this fact had not changed despite Jun’s most fervent hopes that Ting-Ting’s, er, diagnosis of sorts was false. He had stubbornly clung to denial as long as he could that this horrible curse could only be lifted by the Royal Sorceress of the Nihon Court (a real thing...in a real place…). Maybe it was temporary, he reasoned! Maybe if he closed his eyes and wished very hard! When that didn’t work, he had bargained with every mysterious force in the universe to give him his human body back in exchange for a lifetime of good behavior. He’d never drink again! He’d go to church TWICE a week. Hell, he’d get married to a very nice Korean woman before the year was up! When that didn’t work, anger quickly dissolved into grief, and while he caterwauled for about an hour, at the end of it he only felt exhaustion, and a sense of dimming acceptance.

He had to go to Nihon.

Through the portal in the dumpster behind the Moon Market, where Haru had popped out over a year ago.

And he had to convince a sorceress (who was a CAT!) to have pity on him.

Dammit all to hell.

Now, Jun had never done this sort of thing before (traveling to other dimensions, dealing with sorcerers etc etc), so he really didn’t know how long it was going to take him. Which meant, before he left, he needed to sort out a plan.

Jun finally...revealed himself to Eomma first. It had been as terrible as one would expect. What mother wanted to hear their first-born son had been cursed into the form of a cat? The whole “Yes, I’ve been lying to you about Haru’s true origins all along!” and “Yes, she was actually a cat princess I’ve accidentally promised myself to!”  went over just as well. But after convincing Eomma not to kill Haru, she of course agreed to run over the market in his stead, because what else were they going to do?

The answer was: Gregory Eeyore.

Jun had thought long and hard about it. Moons didn’t like to ask for help. Questions and rumours would spring up if they turned to Eomma’s church friends, and Vixey was just getting her own business off the ground! So, Greg. Of course, Greg. Eomma called him up and asked Greg to come to the farm for a little meeting.  

Now here Greg was, sitting on the couch. Eomma put down a cup of tea for him before she sat down. “Now er...don’t be alarmed,” she said, as good-naturedly and calmly as she could. “You might find all of this a shock, but trust me, Junnie has it all under control. Erm, Jun-ah?”

Jun sighed and then hopped onto the coffee table. “Yes, hullo, it’s me, yes, really, yes, I am a victim of a curse! Just another day in Swynlake, isn’t it, eh!” he tried for humour, to bark out a laugh, but it came out a bit shrieky. Jun winced.  “Oh, that was embarrassing.”

GREG:

It wasn’t too bizarre that Gregory had been contacted to come to the Moon Farm. He’d been coming three or four times a week ever since Mr. Moon had decided he was going to work there for his mental health or whatever, at least. Sometimes he stayed for breakfast - usually when Eomma insisted, and rarely he swung by outside of those times to drop things off for them from his own mother.

So Gregory hadn’t really batted an eye at the woman’s phone call, agreeing to swing by after he’d closed up Ruff to Fluff for the evening. The only difference was, of course, the lack of Jun.

At least in the moment. However, he figured perhaps he had to stay late at the Market or..was on a date or doing something important. Jun always appeared to have very little free time to sit around and do nothing, after all. He was a very busy man - and...Gregory was sure with all his issues (re: mental breakdowns, possibly curses, etc) that he didn’t help with that. He wasn’t going to question it though, even if he was curious on what Eomma could possibly need from him that didn’t involve the eldest son too - instead just agreeing to tea and thanking Eomma quietly when she placed it in front of him.

His brows furrowed almost immediately however upon her comment - knowing that despite the words themselves, they only ever elicited a concerned response from him. Now don’t panic, but… - don’t be alarmed! I’m sure it’s nothing but-

Words like that were never actually followed by good things, were they? Head tilted slightly as she continued, his lips parting slightly as if he was going to question her almost immediately when he found himself caught off guard again. Jun-ah? Wait...what?

Try as he might to avoid it - Gregory could have sworn his jaw hit the floor when the delicate little paws of a cat hopped up onto the coffee table. Greg’s gaze swept over it almost immediately, always having been drawn to animals of course - and for a moment - he might’ve thought it was a joke. That the… shock that his mother was referring to was the fact that Mr. Moon had adopted a cat! That alone would have been quite a shock to him too. Enough of a shock for him to handle, really…. But then the cat spoke.

The cat spoke and the cat sounded just like Jun. Acted just like Jun. Was Jun. “...Oh my god.” Came the words before he could stop them, his hand covering his open mouth as concern knit his brows deeply across his features. Mr. Moon…. Mr. Moon was a cat. A cat. What the f— “...What… what happened?” He finally questioned, gaze slipping between the (admittedly very cute and adorable!!) Cat-Jun and Eomma.

JUN: Jun grimaced. Well, he supposed not really, because cats did not have the same facial muscles as humans. So his lip curled a little and his eyes narrowed and he looked off a bit to the side, squirming in his own fur. Aish, he knew this was going to be embarrassing, but he was never ready for just how embarrassing! Every single time he had to reveal himself to someone (ahem, so far-- Tae, Ting-Ting, and Eomma) he was sent further down a hole of humiliation he never wanted to crawl out of.

With Greg, that hole was especially deep.

He was supposed to be Mr. Moon after all! Not many people called Jun that-- not many people respected him the same way Greg did. Now, Jun didn’t quite understand why and he definitely didn’t deserve it, but that didn’t mean Jun wanted to lose Greg’s respect either. Over the last few months, his quiet and steady presence had grown into the grooves of this place, as if he were one of Jun’s most beloved fruits. And my, wasn’t that an apt metaphor? When Greg had arrived on the farm, he was wilted; now, he had bloomed!

At least, he wasn’t threatening to disappear into the country sides of France or what-have-you. A marked improvement.

Would that all be lost now? Would Greg find the Moon Farm unsafe? Would he be horrified to learn of how Jun had lied? His ears flicked back and forward. He didn’t want to tell him any of it.

But Jun had to. If he didn’t, Eomma would.

“It’s-- it’s a bit of a story,” Jun chewed out after a prolonged beat of squirmy silence. His tail lashed again. “Agh, and it’s going to sound ridiculous, trust me, I know! I thought it was ridiculous the whole time--”

“진짜 !” exclaimed Eomma, followed by some more annoyed Korean that only Jun (thankfully) could understand. It translated roughly to: So you say, and yet you brought that beast straight into our home, let me feed her at our table--

“Eomma, I know!” Jun mewled in distress.

Eomma just sucked her teeth and picked up her cup of tea. “Go on then, tell him about the 걸레같은 년.”

Jun winced. Not going to translate that.

Whiskers twitching, he glanced toward Greg with a pathetic expression, struggling for another few seconds for the words and then finally bursting out--

 “Yah, fine! Haru is a CAT! She was a cat all along, from a distant cat kingdom and I didn’t know, I tried to take care of her, eh, I thought-- oh, she was a stray! And then POOF! One day she was a woman! She didn’t know what to do, so yes, I helped her again, I signed her up for a cellphone and gave her a job, and then I thought, hey, what a good idea, I’ll pretend to date Haru so my eomoeni gets off my back! I didn’t know it would end like this!”

“You made a deal with a cat demon!” Eomma shot back at him.

“She’s not a demon, Eomma! She’s a normal cat! It’s a spell, it’s-- a weird marriage spell!”

“You really didn’t like Kim Do-yeon that much? Why, because I like her?”

“Eommaaaaaa, this isn’t about Kim Do-yeon!”

“My son made a deal with a cat demon and now look at him!” Eomma repeated to Greg this time, flourishing a hand. “Gregory, this is why you should always listen to your parents. I bet Gregory would go on dates with nice girls that his mother likes.”

“I AM A CAT, CAN WE PLEASE NOT TALK ABOUT MY LOVE LIFE!” Jun mewled, his fur puffing up.

Eomma raised her hands again, then sipped her tea.

Jun turned back to Greg, flattening his ears and crouching down. “...Does that answer your question?”

GREG: Okay.

...okay. That was… that was a lot of information that Gregory tried to follow in a very short amount of time. His head whipped back and forth easily between Jun and Eomma, like he was invested in a terribly long volley of a tennis match. Back and forth - the quick and sharp words between mother and son as Gregory felt himself tug his lip ring between his teeth, gnawing on the metal like the discomfort gnawed in his gut.

He tried to focus on the big picture. To...process it in his mind in a more simple and compact way. In his head, the story went something like this: Eomma wanted Jun to talk to a ‘nice girl’ that she liked by the name of Kim Do-yeon, and evidently Jun did not wish to do so. He hadn’t a clue where on the timeline that fell, but not important. Then Jun found a stray cat that he helped take care of (which was good!! Very cute that grumpy Mr. Moon would take in a stray!!) Not so cute was the fact the stray turned into a full grown woman. One that… as of five minutes ago Gregory had thought to just be the man’s girlfriend.

Oh - and said cat-woman (normal cat?? So… cursed...to be a woman??) was from a distant… cat kingdom.

...what?

Belatedly - Gregory realized quite a bit of time had passed since Jun last spoke. He’d simply been staring in his direction with that same blank look on his expression as he struggled to take that information in and form… any cohesive thought about it. Straightening up mechanically, Greg cleared his throat, hand moving to rub at his temple as his tongue wrapped around words a few times before he could only shake his head.

“...uhm---... n-.. No.” He admitted. If anything, it just opened up so many more questions for him to ask. There were a lot too!! However they were… likely not as important at the moment (even if Greg was… incredibly curious about a cat kingdom). Priorities though. Jun was a cute cat right in front of him. That was kind of a problem. “..I-... I still don’t uhm…. I don’t...see how that involves...you becoming a...cat. I--.. Did… did she turn you into a cat??” Is that why his mother kept calling her a cat demon? “...Or-- I-... I’m sorry I just..” This is a lot he almost said. However...if it was a lot for him he couldn’t imagine how Jun felt. Or..well, actually he could. At least an idea, given he thought he’d been cursed just recently too.

“I...I mean are you … okay?” Stupid question, perhaps.

JUN: “Am I okay?” Jun responded incredulously. And he stood up on all four paws again, fur puffing up. “Do I LOOK like I’m okay to you?! I could be stuck like this forever!”

Hopefully not. He was getting ahead of himself.

Luckily, Eomma chimed in. “Aish, hush,” Eomma said to him, swiping a hand through the air. “That’s no way to talk to a friend. Just answer his questions.”

Jun growled low in his throat. He didn’t want to.

The fact of the matter is that he had purposefully avoided the how. Part of Jun still did not understand himself. This was what Eomma kept forgetting in her quest to make Jun the bad guy here-- this was all news to him too! When Haru first appeared, she’d not explained the details of the spell that sent her to Swynlake. She hadn’t mentioned a mysterious cat sorcerer named Purrseph, who obviously had her own motives.

Maybe Jun should have inquired more deeply into these things. But he wasn’t a sorcerer, or a fairy, or a...a...animal shapeshifter! He was a gardener. A grocer. A mundus. 

Just…Jun.

So to him, Haru’s story was something out of a faery tale. He wished it could stay that way. Why he of all people-- a gardener, a grocer, just Jun-- had been thrust into the narrative made no sense. Look at him! Did he look particularly heroic? He was no knight in shining armor. And definitely not a prince.

Aiya, at least the black fur hid the fact he was definitely blushing. His blood felt like it was on fire!

“Haru...did not mean to. She-- agh.” He grumbled again and swiped an annoyed paw over his whiskers like he was batting away an annoying fly. “I suppose I should have mentioned Haru is not just a cat, she’s...a Cat Princess.”

“HAH,” Eomma barked.

“And she...had to wed a Cat Prince in a different kingdom to unite the lands or… stop a war or something.”

“HAH,” another laugh from Eomma.

“But she didn’t want to--”

“Children are all the same,” sighed Eomma.

“So she asked a cat sorcerer--yes, very funny, Eomma, I know! Erm, anyway. She asked a cat sorcerer for help. According to her, the cat sorcerer cast a spell that would lead her to her own happiness. That’s how she ended up in Swynlake. And apparently, the theory is that once Haru and I … we… uh... ”

Eomma tsked under her breath.

“It isn’t like that!” Jun shot quickly toward Eomma. “We shared a moment of true happiness together! It was just-- a cup of coffee after Chuseok! We fell asleep watching a drama! It was nothing inappropriate or, or grand, or anything! But I woke up and poof, I’m a cat, and I’m supposed to go back to Nihon and marry her, I guess!”

“Over my dead body,” said Eomma.

“Obviously. I just need to get the spell lifted, that’s all. And then everything will go back to the way it was and we can all collectively agree to never mention this again!”

GREG: Gregory shrank back a bit almost immediately at the older man (cat’s) response. Half of it was because that tone that Jun used so easily made him uncomfortable in any situation - but the other half stemmed simply from the fact he….appeared as an angry cat. And while Greg had gone through a lot of things in his life, he’d always been incredibly good with animals. Never had one turn on him in anger in any walk of life. Even the scared dogs at the shop would never turn on him in anger. So it was… weird to see a cat angry. Weird to feel like he might reach out and try to bite or scratch him (and truly he didn’t know if he would).

Either way, the urge to reach out and comfort him like he would a normal cat was immediately ignored. He was not going to have the very first time in his life that he was attacked by an animal be from Jun.

So instead Gregory just leaned back slightly, putting a bit more distance between the pair of them as he listened with a deep frown to the hesitant explanation of.. What exactly had happened to cause this. An explanation, of course, that had him adding new little tidbits to that already too wild story in his mind. Cat Princess. Got it. Right… why not at this rate.

Though Gregory had half a mind to hush Eomma the same way she had Jun for him - though he didn’t dare. He didn’t find the humor in this at all. Even if he could tell it was… bitter humor, Gregory still didn’t feel any inclinations of a smile. Of a laugh or even the slightest shift of humor in his expression. If anything he felt his frown tug down even deeper as he rubbed his hand over his mouth in deep rooted concern.

His expression did shift slightly at Eomma’s tsk, his gaze lifting immediately to Jun’s own with raised brows - and he was just about to interrupt and tell him whatever detail he was about to share was… not important. Gregory didn’t need to know whatever Haru and him had done together to… seal whatever curse this was!!! Jun was quick to interject though, filling that gap quickly and Gregory cleared his throat lightly in relief.

So - ...alright,..Eomma →  Jun+Kim Do-yeon=Happy Eomma, unhappy Jun. Caring Jun adopts stray cat. Cute. Stray Cat (Princess Cat) → full grown woman. Not cute. Fake couple. Not cute. In place of a true love’s kiss - a… true moment of happiness or something. (Cute) Poof, Jun is a cat and needs to marry the Princess Cat in the Cat Kingdom. (Not cute!). Again - as noted when Jun was originally helping him with his ‘maybe curse’, this wasn’t Gregory’s first rodeo. His boyfriend and him broke up to leave the country to find a way to break his curse and he hadn’t returned. Hadn’t...spoken to him.. Seen him. It’d been...well over a year. Honestly it was terrifying to never know what became of him. To think that.. Something like this could happen to Jun and that he’d just up and disappear forever too!

Blowing a deep sigh through his lips, Gregory leaned forward again as he swept both of his hands over his face - massaging his temples roughly. It was...a lot. A very large amount of things to process and Gregory didn’t know if he was mad at Haru for letting this all happen or for Eomma for blaming Jun so much for something that was clearly out of his control. Being angry wasn’t going to help though - and clearly he was called here for a reason..

“....———okay…. So… What can I do? How--.. How can I help?” A hopefully… less stupid question.

JUN: Finally! The reason they were all here.

If only Jun could have started here, but Greg had deserved the explanation, especially because the truth of the matter was-- Jun had no idea how long he was going to be gone. He hoped he could get everything sorted in a matter of days. Get in, find Purrseph, claw her until she listened, lift the spell, and poof! He’d wake up in his bed with thumbs and everything! Whatever happened to Haru, he didn’t know-- it was one of the thoughts he was pushing away. It wasn’t his business. Despite whatever friendship they’d been building… and maybe something more, or at least, he’d had that brief, ill-advised thought last night which was clearly part of the reason he was LIKE this-- it was probably over. Good riddance, and all that. He-- he didn’t care.

But he would need her up until the point he was human again. And he needed Gregory too.

He cleared his throat. “Right, yes. Er, see-- Ting-Ting told me the only way to lift this sort of spell is to go to the sorcerer who cast it. Very annoying. I’ve got to head off to Nihon later today with Haru, and I’m not exactly sure how long I’ll be gone. Probably not very. Haru assures me she knows exactly where that cat sorceress is hiding. So, well, they don’t have boats and cars and things there-- it’s all wild terrain, you know, um, think Lord of the Rings, I guess-- so it might just be a bit of a trek… maybe a-- a week, tops.”

Eomma sighed. She had no comment for all this-- he knew it worried her. It worried Jun too, but he was trying to pretend like it didn’t.

“So I er, just need a bit of help with the store. Eomma will do most of the work, but...but well, if you could help her out. Mostly during the weekdays, er, opening it up--she needs to get my sisters to school, you know. It won’t be that hard, I can walk you through everything, and I created a whole manual of instructions after my um, my abeoji died, just in case, so-- it should all be sorted.” He licked his muzzle, eyes darting down and then up. “I know it’s quite the favour to ask. You...you have your store too.”

GREG:

I’ve got to head off to Nihon. I’m not exactly sure how long I’ll be gone. Maybe a week, tops.

Gregory felt himself stiffen at that - straightening up a tad as that discomfort clenched again in his gut. Jun was leaving. Jun was leaving Swynlake to find a way to lift his curse. He still remembered that night his ex-boyfriend last flew into his window. The way he stood in his room and tried to explain that he was leaving - that he didn’t know for how long, but he needed to break his curse. That he was closer to doing it than he’d ever been before and that this would be it. The final steps. That he’d come back when it was over… I’m not really sure how long it’ll take.

What if Mr. Moon never came back either? What if he left to lift his curse and Gregory found himself alone again? He’d lost his boyfriend. His best friend left for University and never said goodbye. Hadn’t contacted him since graduation. He couldn’t lose Mr. Moon too - but he also couldn’t ask him to stay. It wasn’t fair - and it wasn’t… realistic. The man was a cat and… obviously had a very good idea of how to solve it.

But the thought still terrified him. He didn’t want him to go.

“I--.. It’s fine.” He said perhaps too quickly, offering a slight dismissive wave of his hand. “I-... Ian can..basically run my shop without me.” Any of his employees probably could. They were all incredibly trustworthy and he’d trained them to. They’d all learned quickly - but Ian covered a lot of the important business work aspects. Knew how to operate the books, to close up or open, how to handle appointments and customers and inventory. That was why Ian would always be the one to get the keys when the time came.

So Gregory wasn’t worried about that.

“It’s not..it’s not a problem. I uhm… I mean I can..I can just come here and help on the farm a little earlier - and then go back and open for her like you would. And uhm… - Go to class or my shop or Board stuff during the day and check in again near closing. It’s.. - it’s more than doable.”

JUN: People often thought that Jun was not a very emotional person, or that he wasn’t very empathetic.

This was a mistake.

Now, he wasn’t as empathetic as he could be, and yes, he did make decisions based on logic and facts. But Jun knew when people were upset. Maybe it was all the training in hospitals. Maybe it was growing up with three sisters, being raised by Haleomoni and Eomma before his abeoji was ever in the picture. Whatever it was, he’d become especially attuned to Gregory’s stormy emotional states-- and he saw the boy stiffen, and knew that this was not good news.

But Eomma had cried too. This annoyed, sarcastic version of herself was a shield she was putting up for Greg, so she wouldn’t cry again. But she had asked him-- how long will you be gone? How can I live without you, my Yeong-junnie?

Jun frowned a bit, squirming again as Greg looked away from him and, naturally, agreed, like the very good boy he was. How readily and easily he agreed too. It tugged Jun’s heart. It made him feel worse.

He was bringing so much worry to all the people he loved, when it was supposed to be his job to carry it.

And so that was why Jun hopped from the table onto the couch, where he situated himself next to Gregory. He put a paw on the boy’s leg. “That would be wonderful, Gregory. Really, from the bottom of my heart… thank you,” he said. “And… and look, it really is not as scary as it sounds. Haru tells me there aren’t even any predators where she’s from! They’re the, er, top of the food pyramid so to speak! So I’ll be back before you know it! I promise. Who else can keep this town in check, eh?”

GREG: The sudden blur in front of him startled him, a hand raising slightly away from his side as Jun hopped across the gap and settled beside him - a fuzzy little black paw resting against his thigh. Much like the gentle hand that would rest across his knee or shoulder in an attempt to comfort him - Gregory knew that even if it didn’t physically carry the same weight, it carried the same implication. Despite the fact Jun was the one in this situation this time around, he was still doing his best to comfort him. To make sure Greg was okay.

His fingers curled gently into a fist, if only to resist the urge to reach out and scratch the small kitty behind his ears - to pull him against his chest and hold him close like he might’ve Calliope or Faith at the shop. Maybe then he could stop Jun from going. Keep him safe and find a way to get him out of his curse without him having to leave.

Lips parted to say something - but the words caught a bit in his throat. Forcing him to swallow that small lump as his gaze shifted briefly to Eomma before it landed back on Jun’s own again.

Despite his furry appearance, his eyes were so incredibly telling. Still the same dark eyes. The same bright, expressive eyes that often told him more than Mr. Moon ever would himself. The conversations the other man could hold just in his looks - from the gentle assurance, to stern reprimands. Even now - he could tell Jun’s words were genuine. Even if he knew there was… uncertainty there. But...he couldn’t blame him. Who wouldn’t be uncertain about going to a cat kingdom to demand your physical form back - but… the promise was genuine.

A week tops.

“...Of..of course. It’s..no big deal. It’s like--...the least I can do after all.” He was still...forever in debt to the other man, after all. Whether Jun wanted to acknowledge that or not. Clearing his throat a second time before offering a quick smile, Greg shifted again slightly. “That’s uhm...that’s good though. I uhm… - I’m sure it’ll be fine. ...knowing you - it’ll just take a look and you’ll be back to..to normal and on your way home.”

JUN: Yes, Jun was trying to comfort Greg, but he needed to hear it himself. The more he repeated it out loud, the easier it became to believe the strange story of it all-- that he would go, do his silly little hero’s journey, and come back in the end. That was how it always went, after all! At least, in every book and tv show and movie he had ever seen. The hero always came home.

Some hero you’ll be, he thought sardonically to himself. But if Greg believed in him…

Jun glanced back at Eomma, who gazed on worriedly. He cleared his throat. “Well-- er now that that’s settled-- I can go over a few specifics with you. Eomma, you don’t have to stay.”

Eomma nodded. “Thank you Gregory. This is very kind of you.” She got up and then reached over to squeeze one of Gregory’s hands gently, a small, tight smile on her lips. “You are a good boy. Jun-ah, tell me before he goes, eh, I want to send him home with more leftovers!”

Eomma went back out to her pottery studio, leaving Jun to talk to Gregory about the second part of his favour-- the most important part, really.

“I just wanted to say-- if you could look after her too,” he said much more quietly. His ears flicked backwards, as the shame bubbled up from the pit in his stomach. This was his job. It was one thing to let the store down, all those customers, and another to leave his eomoni all alone. She was a capable woman, of course, but-- only a year had passed since Abeoji died. He could sense her dread, her fear, almost like it was a smell caught in his ridiculous cat nostrils. And it was all his fault.

When Jun came home, it was where he was supposed to stay, so he could care for her, and his sisters, and Tae-yah. What if he didn’t come back?

No! Of course he’d come back. It was not an option. And until then…

“She might come across as very casual about this whole thing, but I know it scares her. Please, try to keep her spirits up. An-anything you can do.” A note of pleading sharpened Jun’s words. “If you need any help at all, also, please don’t hesitate to lean on Yeong-tae as well. Remind him that he is the eldest son while I am gone. He has to take that seriously-- but not too seriously, he should--focus on his studies too, of course, that’s first--”

The more Jun spoke, the more panicked he started to feel. Best to just stop, and so he did, abruptly.

GREG: Somehow Gregory managed a smile for Eomma as she got up and squeezed his hand - his head nodding gently. “...s’no problem.” He dismissed easily one last time, letting that smile stay on his lips just until the woman stepped from the room, where it then quickly faded back into the same frown that was often etched onto his features. The very one that still carried the worry he held for the older man.

A worry that only seemed to grow tenfold when Jun spoke up again, Gregory’s gaze immediately falling back down to that black cat beside him. He looked so… small. Scared. The ears pressed back against his head, the uncertain movements of his tail. See, Greg had always been good at reading body language, it was one of his skills of knowing when people wanted nothing to do with him, but even better than reading human body language? Was Greg’s ability to read animal’s body language. A skill that became especially important with his job at the shop.

So...he could see the discomfort in Jun’s figure. The… anxiety that seemed to spike through his small frame, only confirmed by the way his words grew seemingly faster before they abruptly came to a halt in all.

Mr. Moon’s request was a valid one, of course. One that Gregory would agree to quicker than he’d agreed to watch the store. It was...a no question situation - but the hint of desperation in which Jun requested it made him nervous too, and in the end - his own empathy overruled his logic.

So his fingers uncurled from his palm as they gently reached out to wrap around the back of Cat-Jun’s neck - thumb softly petting behind his ears as he nodded in easy agreement. “...Mr. Moon.. You don’t have to worry about that.” He spoke quietly, letting his hand rest upon his neck before it moved down slightly to gently scratch against his shoulders and the stiff tension he might’ve held there. “...course I’ll watch out for her. ..Keep an eye on her, Tae and your sisters while you’re gone… - but..” He trailed off slightly, his brows furrowing again as he swallowed another slightly larger lump in his throat.

“...You--.. It’ll just be a week. You’re coming back.” He finished - firmly, even. It wasn’t a question. Mr. Moon would come back (and as a human, no less) in just a week tops. “You promised…” He reminded, a little softer before his fingers stilled in the other’s soft fur. “...You promised. N’I promise I’ll look after them.”

JUN: Yes, he promised.

And oh, it was humiliating, everything about this was humiliating, but Jun closed his eyes at Gregory’s touch and let himself relax, if only for a moment. He hated this body-- it wasn’t his-- but with his eyes closed, he could at least forget that. With his eyes closed, he did not have to be a cat. He did not even have to be Mr. Moon, not anymore. Though he didn’t know what that made him-- if he were not Mr. Moon, the eldest son of the Moon family, what was he?

But Jun did not have to answer that question, at least not in those few seconds where he was not Mr. Moon at all, because only Mr. Moon would have the answer, eh? Instead, Jun got to have a few seconds just to himself. He got to have a comforting hand, and let himself listen to a friend’s kind words.

When he heard a rumbling, like a gentle murmur of rain, he didn’t realize it was him, purring, until he opened his eyes again.

And then the purring abruptly stopped.

And Mr. Moon was Mr. Moon again. Mr. Moon did not purr. Mr. Moon did not need comfort. He had quite a lot of work ahead of him actually. Normally, that work was familiar and routine: get up, do farm chores, open the store, run the store, run the errands, close the store, wake up, do farm chores…

But really, what was so different about this if he thought about it as one long errand, eh? It was bound to frustrate him, as most of his errands did!

Yes, one long errand, and dealing with people-- er… cats he did not want to deal with, and plenty of red tape, but then: home.

Jun cleared his throat. “Er-- yes-- of course. Exactly. One week, and then I’ll be back,” he said confidently, like he’d never doubted at all. “...Thank you again, Gregory. It’s… very…” Jun cleared his throat, feeling the heat under his fur. “I’m glad I can depend on you.”

GREG: He wouldn’t mention it.

Not if he wanted to live, of course - but Gregory was always going to remember the way the cat in front of him seemed to relax. The way his eyes closed and that soft rumble of purring filled the empty space between them. Perhaps if it had gone on any longer, he might’ve even seen the jet-black paws curl against his leg and knead the material of his jeans gently. But it didn’t - quick as it started, the purring came to a halt as Mr. Moon opened his eyes again and Gregory quickly took that as his cue to let his hand slip off the other man’s figure and instead rest on his own thigh.

Greg wouldn’t dare be weird about it. It was a cat - but it was still Mr. Moon. Still his elder. Still a respected businessman - and still in a situation that Gregory could only begin to understand. So he wouldn’t mention this, likely ever in his life. He’d consider that another addition to the endless debt he owed to Jun. Keeping this secret safe with him for as long as he lived, even if the man hadn’t yet asked that of him.

“...please don’t mention it.” The younger man said instead with another dismissive shrug. “It-... it’s never even a question.” And while Gregory didn’t know if Jun could depend on him, ...well at the very least he could try for him.

No matter what he asked, he’d try for him. Which was perhaps why he was even still here in the first place. Mr. Moon had basically asked him to try. So he was. So he too would try with this - make sure he did his very best to keep an eye out on Mr. Moon’s family and his store. To help his mother open, close or anything else she needed in between. Hell - Gregory would have gone to a Cat Kingdom to fight for him too if Jun asked.

“...maybe uhm…” He cleared his throat then, knowing better than to let them get stuck in an awkward gratitude cycle. “...Maybe we should actually go over a few things, yeah? I wasn’t cool enough t’get the summer job at the Market like everyone else so.. We gotta touch the basics.” He teased with a small smile.

Anything to lighten the mood.

Ford vs. His Family-part 4 (Welcome home)

Everything hurt.

Yelling everything out like that left Stan feeling torn apart inside, like he’d ripped himself open down the middle and pulled his heart out, laying it on the table in front of him for all to see-and it not only hurt...he was terrified.

Specifically, he was terrified about what his brother would do next.

Probably not laugh at him, he wasn’t that much of a bas...ketcase.

...But maybe say something scornful to trample Stan’s heart, bared and laid out for him as it was, into the dust.  Or walk away and go hide in the basement-that was certainly Ford’s style, just run away from things he didn’t want to deal with and try to pretend they hadn’t happened-

He definitely didn’t expect Ford to finally let out a long exhale, reach into his coat, and pull out an old, crumpled photograph, which he set on the table between them.

Even though it was faded and torn and stained, it was obvious who was in it, and what boat they were standing on.  And it hadn’t been in the house for the last thirty years; Stan would have seen it if it was.

Stan stared at it for a few seconds...and then gave Ford a disbelieving look.

“You just happened to be carrying this in your pocket when I came here?”

His brother shrugged, and a few spots of color rose in his cheeks.  “I didn’t realize it at first either.”

He let the implication ‘but I kept it all this time’ hang in the air between them unsaid.

So.  Ford had missed Stan enough to keep one of their old photos, even when he got sent to another dimension.

It wasn’t much...but it was something.  It was maybe enough to make Stan’s heart-treacherous, optimistic piece of crap that it was-jump a little in his chest, and stir with the beginnings of hope.  But he tried to push it down again just as quickly, because every time he did that with Ford it just meant fresh disappointment, betrayal and hurt.

Maybe this photo meant Ford wasn’t completely indifferent to him-but it didn’t get rid of the possibility that he hated him instead.  And Stan wasn’t too clear on which one was worse, because while arguably someone hating you meant you were still important to them, as opposed to their not caring about you at all, in his experience that also meant they were more likely to actively try to hurt you.

*********

Stan didn’t look convinced.

He at least didn’t seem ready to start throwing punches again, but his expression hadn’t relaxed either.  There was still visible tension in his shoulders and his eyes. Not to mention, Ford realized, pain.

It wasn’t something he’d allowed himself to think about too hard, but Stan was in just as much pain and fear of being hurt again as he was.

Somehow, even though he still wasn’t sure what to say, that made wanting to say the right thing to help fix this a little bit easier.

Ford sighed, running a hand through his hair.  “I may have been...a little too hasty in my initial decision about the house.”

Stan looked surprised...but then he asked sarcastically, “May have been?”

“...You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

He smirked a little.  “Nope.”

Again, Ford swallowed his pride.  “I was too hasty in my decision.”

“That’s better.”

Ford rolled his eyes, but continued, “I had convinced myself that the solution to my problems with Bill, and to finding out that I was back in my own home but no longer in the time that I left, was to bring things as close to how I remembered them as possible.  Which...was not realistic or viable. And it was unfair. So. I am willing to discuss other options.”

Stan sighed, releasing even more of his tension.  “...Thanks.”

“I maintain my stance that what you did was incredibly reckless.”

It seemed only fair to be honest about what he felt.  Stan bristled again, but Ford hurried on, “If you know about Bill, and what he wants to do if he finds a way into this dimension, then you should understand why.  No one person is worth risking the fate of the world, and you had no way of knowing if I was even alive.”

The glare lessened.  But Stan shook his head stubbornly.

“I’d still do it again.  If it meant there was any chance I could find you and bring you back, I’d do it.  Maybe you wouldn’t have had a problem leaving me there, but I couldn’t have lived with myself.”

Ford gulped.  Put like that, it did sound...a little more than a little extremely heartless.

And therefore not something he should ever have expected from Stanley, for all his faults.

At last, he swallowed and said hoarsely, “Your stubborn loyalty defies logic sometimes.”

“It does not-it defies logic all the time!”

He rolled his eyes again, and let out a croaky kind of laugh.  “You’re impossible.”

“And you’re a knucklehead.”  The retort came out in what seemed like a knee-jerk response; as soon as it did, though, Stan’s eyes widened nervously, and he shrunk back in on himself, looking like he was ready for Ford to lash out at him again or say something full of icy hostility-

Ford just laughed again, even more genuinely.  When he finished he admitted, voice soft, “...I don’t think I could have left you there either.  Believe it or not.”

Stan clenched his teeth down on his lower lip, eyes shining behind his glasses, before he twisted to the side, burying his face in his hand.

For the first time in forever, Ford reached out to his brother, gently touching his shoulder.  To his relief, Stan leaned into his touch; he squeezed the muscle, while rubbing a circle in his back with his thumb.

********

It wasn’t hugging it out like Mabel had ordered them to, and there was still a lot of old crap they had to dig up and talk about even though it would hurt...but hearing that Ford would have done the same thing if he’d been the one sucked into the portal was still something.  It was like there’d been an old, rusty razor blade stabbing him in the heart all this time, getting twisted and digging in further every time Ford gave him a cold stare or made a cutting remark about his business or the size of his gut or how he spent his time with the kids-and at last, it had been removed.  The area was still very sore and probably infected, but maybe now there was a chance for it to heal.

“‘M sorry,” he whispered, without looking at Ford.  “I’m so, so sorry, I-”

His shoulder was squeezed again.  “I know. I am too.”

********

From the doorway, Dipper pulled his sister away before she could squeal with excitement and spoil the moment.

“They need privacy, Mabel,” he whispered as he hustled her downstairs.  “Let’s...make them a celebratory dinner or something.”

Mabel covered her mouth with her hands and released her delighted squeal into them.  “Let’s make pie! Grunkle Stan loves pie! And bacon, let’s make bacon! Oh man, I don’t know what kind of food Grunkle Ford likes!  We should have asked him what kind of food he likes!”

“We spent the last two days not talking to him, remember?  We’re just gonna have to guess.” Dipper towed her towards the kitchen, on the way grabbing Soos and Wendy.  “Do you guys know anything about cooking? They seem like they’ve made up, or at least started to, so we’re gonna celebrate.”

“Well, my grandma’s tried teaching me how ta make burritos a few times,” Soos said, chubby face lighting up happily, “and they’ve only been charred on the outside and raw on the inside, like, seven out of ten times, so those are definitely good odds!  This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, it’s gotta be an opportunity where my thirty-percent success rate will be a thing!”

Wendy shrugged.  “We don’t cook much at home, but I can open cans and things.  I can give it a shot.”

“This will be the best celebrating-our-grunkles-making-up dinner EVER!” Mabel proclaimed, giving everyone a round of high-fives.

****

Twenty minutes later

Everyone ran screaming, searching frantically for where Stan kept the fire extinguisher, as two-foot-high flames rose from the stove.

“LOOK FOR A BUCKET!” Mabel yelled, running to a cupboard and throwing it open-only to have a pile of junk fall on her.

Soos flung open a cupboard and filled every cup, bowl and tupperware he could find with water, before throwing them at the fire, which sizzled but determinedly continued to burn.

“How!”  Wendy yelled, looking under the sink for the extinguisher, “How the heck did we manage to do this using tortillas and beans?!”

Dipper scrambled onto the counter and grabbed a pitcher, which he filled to the brim before running at the stove and hurling the contents.

Water splashed everywhere...including right in the faces of their grunkles, who had just entered the kitchen to see what all the commotion was.

Everyone froze in a mosaic of horror.

Water dripped from Stan and Ford’s glasses and the tips of their noses.

Dipper’s mouth flapped helplessly.

Mabel extricated herself from the mess, and the broom clattered against the linoleum.

At last Soos coughed.

“Sorry dudes.”

Stan examined the chaos, and snorted.

“We leave you knuckleheads alone for just a little while…”

“Dare I ask what... this is?”  Ford prodded gingerly with the tip of his blaster at the twisted blackened mess on top of the stove, which resembled something out of a horror movie.

“We were trying to make celebratory burrito pies,” Mabel said, standing up.  “...It didn’t work as well as we thought it would.”

“Obviously.”

She flushed, and looked at her feet.  Ford felt his heart twinge a little.

“Who wants Chinese?” Stan asked, heading for the phone. “I’m gonna order takeout.”

****

Ten minutes later

Working together, they were able to finish cleaning up the mess just before the delivery guy got there with their food.  Then they gathered together in the living room to eat.

The only real chair was the yellow armchair, which of course Stan claimed for himself, with Dipper and Mabel perching on each of the arms.

Mabel was startled when Ford came over to her side, where the dinosaur skull was, and asked softly, “...Is this seat taken?”

Part of her wanted to say that yes, it was for either Soos or Wendy.  The fact that he’d called her relationship with Dipper suffocating, and taken it for granted that she’d be fine with having her brother unexpectedly taken away from her without even discussing it with her or their parents first, still stung.

But the nervousness in his eyes, and the fact that he was probably trying to be apologetic in his own way, were enough to make her shrug and say, “Nope.”

Ford smiled, perching on the skull with his carton of Chinese food.

Stan pulled the remote control out from between the cushions, and flipped the television on, going through a few channels before settling on some mindless game show.

And for the first time in days, things in the Pines household were comparatively peaceful.

********

There are more details that need to be dealt with, of course, but at least for now they just want to enjoy some quality time together without anger or tension or resentment or excessive hurt. Since the rift has been taken care of, Ford finds it easier to relax with his family without worrying about Bill disturbing them again. He begins watching Stan's tours more, making his brother growl that he's gonna start charging him for admission. But he doesn't seem too serious about it. Ford retorts by complaining about the silliness of some of the exhibits-the names alone are ridiculous. I mean, a Cornicorn? Really? Stan gives an understanding nod, and says that ohh, of course, he should give them more serious, scientific names, like the plaidypus, or beard cubs, or the leprecorn. Ford blushes sheepishly, and stops complaining about the quality of the exhibits.

He also tries to make things up with Mabel by letting her paint a turkey on his hand, and telling her about some of his adventures in other dimensions. He apologizes to both twins for hurting them and trying to split them up before they were ready for it, and he and Dipper agree to maybe talk about the apprenticeship again when he's at least had a chance to graduate high school.

By the time of the twins' birthday, things are relaxed enough for Stan and Ford to work together to plan a surprise party for them in the yard. And when the kids go home the next day, Stan's a little nervous about getting kicked out despite everything, and wonders if he should've taken them up on their offer after all, but when Ford makes no effort to make him leave or close down his business, he allows a little bit of his newfound optimism to stay.

If Bill had any hair, he’d probably be tearing it out by the roots, but nobody cares what he feels.

strangers and lost ones

Summary: Magic, Bruce had long since decided, was frustratingly random and he very little patience for it.

AO3

Note: This stemmed out of the batfam discord server and a conversation about neonatal abstinence syndrome and then it got wildly out of hand. This is for @helplesslynerdy and @androbeaurepaire, because the conversation inspired this fic. Andro also made awesome art that inspired this fic, which you can find and love and appreciate HERE

Magic, Bruce had long since decided, was frustratingly random and he very little patience for it. From an outsider perspective he could appreciate the artform; the skill, talent and dedication it took magic users told hone their craft to accomplish great things, but as a man dressed up in armour currently trying to outsmart someone who could conjure things out of nothing and rain lightning down from the skies it was just exhausting, especially after having spent days tracking down the offender only for them to slip through dimensions to disappear.

This was the fourth time he had tracked down Klarion in the past five months and at this point part of Bruce was hoping that he would just get tired of this game of cat and mouse that they’ve been playing and just stay in his own damn dimension for a while to give Bruce time to test the prototype he and Zatanna had been working on to seal access between the two worlds.

Klarion cackled as he opened the doorway to his home, casting out a final curse causing yellow sparks to blast around the field, before he and Teekl escaped through his portal back to Witch World. Again.

Bruce ducked and dodged, missing the spell by inches, but he heard a shout behind him, Jason’s familiar yelp of surprise when something caught him unaware, and his heart jumped into his throat and sank into his stomach at the same time and he turned and ran to where his back up for the evening had been fighting from.

But they weren’t there. Not exactly.

Instead of Red Hood and Nightwing, Bruce found a baby and a small child, curled up together on the forest floor in tiny, maskless versions of their uniforms, somehow less armor and more like footie pyjamas, but easily recognizable. Bruce crouched down and picked up tiny baby, Jason, who now that Bruce was closer to him, was even younger than originally thought at first glimpse, days old at best. Bruce had held babies before, countless of times both as Bruce, where people seemed to thrust them into his arms for photo ops, and as Batman, when people always wanted to pull them away because they had just been rescued, but he had never held one with this much personal meaning to him before. He had missed all of his kids at this age, when they were absolutely helpless and dependent on others in the world for everything beyond breathing. Jason was so small that Bruce could barely even notice the weight in his arms, less than five pounds and impossibly fragile, and all he could do was coo in attempt to settle the trembling baby.

He directed his attention to the older boy and Dick was staring at him with wide blue eyes, sitting back on his hands and feet like a crab and schooched farther away from Bruce, just out of arms reach, as soon as Bruce attempted to get closer.

Had Klarion somehow de-aged them twenty years? It made sense based on the apparent age of them. Jason’s twentieth birthday had been mere days ago and as much as it was terrifying to have a newborn baby in his arms, Bruce had to let out a sigh of relief because it was a good thing Tim, Cass or Damian weren’t there because Bruce wasn’t sure what would have happened then. “Dick?” It wasn’t a common event, but de-aging was something that had been known to happen, and there were two regular ways that it seemed to go. The person either retained their memories from their time as an adult and was just trapped in a younger version of their body or their minds were regressed along with their body back to their corresponding developmental stage. Both weren’t without their challenges, but only one of the two targets could tell him which it was, because even if Jason’s adult mind was in the baby, he wasn’t able to communicate it. “Can you tell me how old you are, chum?”

The child stared at him for a moment longer before holding up a shaking hand with four fingers extended. Four tiny and delicate fingers that he then closed again tight and curled up into a tight ball, eyes darting around quickly, looking at the forest clearing they were in in bewilderment before looking back to Bruce and sucking in a quaking breath that shook on every part of the inhale. The child, his son, was terrified and confused and did not remember that he was a twenty four year old superhero at all.

“I don’t know where my parents are,” whispered Dick, voice high and soft, and tears started dripping down his cheeks. He struggled to swallow and took another deep breath. “I think I’m lost.”

Bruce’s heart shattered at the words, not just at the verbal confirmation that Dick and Jason had reverted twenty years in mind as well as body, but that Dick sounded so scared. It wasn’t an emotion that Dick often let show as an adult and seeing it now, so open and raw, had Bruce wanting more than anything to wrap him up in his arms and assure him that everything would be alright but he couldn’t because four year old Dick, who appeared to be teetering on the edge of a very much deserved meltdown, didn’t know Bruce at all and probably wouldn’t react well to that at all.

“I know, Dick.” A lot of kids, even those who had toys of him and knew that he wouldn’t hurt them, found the Batman costume terrifying in person, especially the mask, so pulled off the cowl and gave his hair a shake so that Dick would be able to see his face, a small attempt to let him know that he wasn’t a monster but Dick’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Bruce huffed out a short breath, and looked at the ground, because of course Dick didn’t bat an eye at the mask. At four he would have spent his whole life travelling with Haly’s, surrounded by people in costumes and masks. He tried again. “My name is Bruce and I’m going to look after you for them while they are gone.”

The small boy finally looked away and buried his face into his knees, and his little body shook. “But I don’t know you,” he finally mumbled. “I’m not supposed to go with strangers.”

Something snapped into place for Bruce. Of course the child knew that he shouldn’t go with strangers, especially with travelling from place to place it would have been something repeated over and over again by his parents, but it was also very possible that because of that lifestyle, Dick had never been left alone with a stranger at all. Never had a babysitter that he hadn’t grown up with, hadn’t been dropped off at daycare or first day of school. Bruce was quite possibly the first stranger that Dick had ever met in person and not just seen from a distance in a circus crowd. “I understand, and that is very smart, but I can’t leave you here all by yourself.” Dick’s head rose from his knees, face red and a mess of tears, and he looked around the field again before settling back on Bruce, but didn’t say anything. “I’ll take you back to my house and we’ll wait for your parents there.” He didn’t know if that was going to work, if four year old Dick would ask how they would get in contact with his parents, how they would know where to find him. Bruce rocked the baby in his arms gently, and tilted his chin down at him. “You can help me look after Jason.”

Dick’s eyes dropped and then widened, apparently not having registered that Bruce was holding a baby in his arms before with everything else that he was trying to absorb. He uncurled from his ball and leaned a little closer to Bruce, trying to look at the tiny version of the brother that he didn’t know he had. "Is he lost too?"

"I think so."

Dick straightened up, squared is tiny shoulders in resolve and rearranged his face into a smaller version of one Bruce knew quite well on Dick; fierce protection. It frankly looked adorable on a small child in a pyjama version of the Nightwing costume. "I'll take care of him." I don't know you but I'll protect the baby. "Do you know my dad?" Dick asked, not taking his eyes off Jason.

“I’ve never met him,” Bruce admitted because it felt like a test more than it did genuine curiosity. He could have lied, said that he did know John Grayson if for some reason that made Dick feel better about him, and fake his way through whatever questions Dick followed up with, but it didn’t seem right to lie to him any more than was necessary. “But I do know Mr. Haly, if that helps any.”

That seemed to catch Dick’s attention back and he looked up at Bruce again, still uncertain but a little more at ease, tension easing from his frame. “You know Pop?” He slid closer to Bruce, finally back within reach, close enough that if he wanted to, Bruce could reach out and run his hand through Dick’s soft hair.

“I do.”

That seemed to be the deciding factor for Dick, because he got to his feet and held out his hand to Bruce. “Okay. You can look after me until Mama comes.” He was still scared, as he absolutely should be, but between wanting to look out for the baby and Bruce saying that he knew Pop Haly was enough to make him feel like going with a strange man was a better option than staying alone in an empty forest. As glad as he was the Dick had agreed to go with him without a fight and he didn’t have to drag him kicking and screaming to the car, it made Bruce nervous how easy it was to convince the child to got with a strangers in a scary costume into a car, with only the slightest of prompting. It was terrifying how much trust was being placed in his hands. Bruce got to his feet, made sure that Jason was snug and secure in his arm and held Dick’s tiny hand and led him back to where they had left the car.

They got to the car and Dick stopped short, looking at it in awe. “Your car is cool!”

“Thank you. My son named it the Batmobile.”

“You have kids?”

“I do. Five, but they are mostly all grown up now.” Or they were usually all mostly grown up at least.

Bruce paused at the car and tried to think about logistics. The car had taken a lot of damage earlier in the night as they had been chasing down Klarion and the autopilot function was offline and the steering column was malfunctioning and he was going to need both hands to drive home, which left the problem of what to do with Jason. Considering all of his options, he looked down at Dick. “Have you ever held a baby before?”

“Once, but she was bigger.” Dick bit his lower lip and looked at the baby in Bruce’s arms. “He’s really little.”

“He’s brand new,” and probably a premie. Bruce detached his cape and laid it on the hood of the car before carefully laying Jason in the middle before wrapping him tight into a burrito wrap. This was a terrible idea, but it was the best that he had right now if he was going to be able to drive back to the cave. “I’m going to need you to do a very important job for me, Dick. Climb into the backseat and put the seat belt on.” If he was going to drive with a four year old holding a newborn without car seats in a car that was absolutely not street legal, they were going to sit in the backseat even if it was only for some pretense of safe decisions. Dick climbed in, Bruce resisting the urge to give him a boost, and pulled the belt across him. “Do you need help with the buckle?”

“No, I can do it.” It took him a few tries, but he got it locked in place and smiled up at Bruce triumphantly.

“Good job,” Bruce said and then smiled as Dick kicked his legs against the seat at the praise. “Now, I’m going to put Jason in your lap and you are going to hold him like this.” Bruce arranged Dick and Jason in a way that was going to be the best that he could do in the moment. “Can you hold onto him like this until we get to my house? Keep him safe in the car?”

“I can do that.” He looked down at the tiny baby. “I’ll keep you safe, Jason.” His head snapped back up to Bruce, expression serious and dour, like it did when Dick saw an unexpected bomb as an adult. “What if he cries?”

“Just remember that it isn’t anything you’ve done. Babies this small mostly just cry when they are hungry and we’ll get food for him at my house.” He looked at his first two children in the car, curled up together in a way that in his wildest dreams he never thought he’d get to see and fought the urge to take out his phone for a picture, knowing that the cameras in the car would cover that for him. “If something happens and you think you need to let go, tell me and I’ll stop the car right away to help you, alright?” Dick nodded and tightened his arms up around Jason, either so that he could be sure that he had him or that he could show Bruce that he was taking his job seriously, Bruce wasn’t sure, but it was as good as it was going to get.

He slipped into the front seat, frowned as the engine turned over in a struggling way, but managed to get on the road without a lot of issues. He’s glad that he hadn’t tried to drive while holding Jason because the steering was even worse than he had thought, pulling severely to the right and he had to overcompensate to keep the car straight on the road. He was headed back towards Bristol, driving through the heights of Gotham, under the speed limit, when a call came through from the cave.

“Master Bruce? Is everything alright.”

“Things are,” he shook his head as he tried to sum up what happened before he settled on “complicated.” He looked at Dick in the rear view mirror and saw that he was being watched with interest. He didn’t know how to best explain to Alfred without potentially frightening tiny ears not understanding properly what was going on before he decided to be honest, but while using big words and hope that Dick didn’t understand what they meant. “There has been a mystical chronological regression anomaly in regards to Nightwing and Red Hood. I’ve found two unattended minors and I am transporting them home now. My new young friend Dick is listening from the backseat. He’s doing a very good job of holding on baby Jason for me.” He saw Dick beam at the praise, but kept looking at Jason’s face.

Several seconds passed in silence before Alfred responded. “That explains the changes in their vitals, I suppose,” Alfred muttered, more to himself than Bruce, and it sounded like he was looking something up on the monitors, keys clicking quickly in the background. “They are both unharmed?”

“It seems so.” Dick hadn’t said anything about any injuries and Jason hadn’t been crying at all, but he hadn’t actually checked either of them out physically, instead choosing to get out of the field.

Alfred hummed and there was more typing and clicking on his end of the line. “In that case we may need to take a look at Master Jason in the med bay when you arrive. Nothing to be alarmed about, but I’d like to examine him thoroughly to be certain.”

Minutes later, Bruce drove into the cave and Alfred rushed over to meet them in the parking area as the car shut down and the automatic doors opened. Bruce got out and came around to Dick’s side where Alfred was already crouched down and introducing himself.

“Hello, Master Dick. My name is Alfred. I heard that you were looking after the baby.” Dick nodded, but said nothing, maybe nervous again now that they had arrived at their destination and in the face of yet another unknown stranger. “Would you be willing to let me take him? I would like to give him a medical exam to make sure he is healthy.”

Dick’s arms tightened around Jason. “Will you hurt him?” The little voice shook, fear back in his eyes as he looked to Bruce before turning back to Alfred’s kind face.

“I’m going to use a needle to take a little of his blood and it will pinch, so he may cry, but no.”

“Like a doctor?”

“Yes, my boy. Exactly like that.” The small boy looked at Alfred inquisitively, trying to discern about whether he should let him take Jason or not, but Jason took that moment to let out a sharp cry and Dick loosened his grip in surprise. He nodded quickly at Alfred, who scooped him up in a practiced and steady way, rubbing his back through the cape burrito. “You can come watch over him while I do the examination.” Dick unclipped his seat belt and clambered out of the car, determined on following Alfred. He got a few feet away from the car and then ran back and grabbed Bruce’s hand and tugged him along after Alfred.

Alfred laid Jason down on the bed, and unwrapped the cape, and took in Jason’s appearance and then looked down at Dick before turning to Bruce. “Did you stop on the way home and buy… costumes?”

Bruce shrugged, because yes, he had noticed that they were in kid versions of their costumes, but hadn’t really had a chance to think too much about it. “No, it’s what they were in when it happened.”

“How peculiar,” Alfred mused as he unbuttoned Jason’s Red Hood onesie, when he paused and chuckled. “He’s even wearing a nappy.”

Bruce and Dick watched as Alfred did his examination, warming the stethoscope with his hands before listening to his heart and letting Dick listen to the beat as well, gently feeling his muscle tone, and as he had told Dick he would, taking a sample of his blood, which Jason chirped at, but didn’t actually cry and Bruce didn’t know if that was good or bad based on Alfred’s expression.

Dick had climbed up on the bed beside Jason and was watching everything with interest. Bruce hesitated, but this was probably going to be the best opportunity that he had to change out of the suit, and he still needed to contact Zatanna about the situation. “I’m going to go get changed and shower, Dick. Will you be fine with Alfred until I get back?” Dick shrugged and Bruce bent down to look at him in the eyes, putting a light touch on his shoulder. “I promise that you will be absolutely safe with Alfred. He looked after me when I was your age.”

“Is Alfred your daddy?” Dick asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. Bruce gazed up at Alfred, who was currently doing an examination of Jason’s ears, but listening to the conversation between himself and Dick. Dick was looking uneasy at the idea of Bruce leaving the room, and his little face was threatening to flood with tears again. He had to express to Dick that he trusted Alfred more than anything in the world in a way that he would understand, so he nodded firmly.

“Yes, and I swear he’ll keep you safe.” Dick sniffed said nothing else, seeming to decide that was good enough for him to agree to stay with Alfred while Bruce changed. Bruce leaned in and mock whispered close to Dick’s ear, but so that Alfred could hear as well, “And I happen to know that he has a jar of lollipops that he gives out after he gives someone a needle. Jason’s too small for his, so he will probably give it to you after he’s finished if you ask him nicely.”

“A red one?” Bruce nodded and Dick copied the action before wiping his eyes with his hand. “Okay. Come back soon?”

“Ten minutes.”

Bruce could do a lot with ten minutes. He went back to the locker room, stripped out of the suit, texted Zatanna, showered, threw on some sweats, downed a protein shake and then followed up with Zatanna that she would stop by tomorrow morning for some breakfast and magical evaluations and possible conjuring if the case needed it, however she confirmed what he already knew that more de-aging usually wore off on it’s own over time.

He walked back to the med bay to find Alfred sitting at a chair beside the bed, holding Jason just in his diaper against his chest and rubbing his back in slow circles, while Dick sat on the bed, swinging his legs over the edge, lollipop sitting in his mouth, chattering away at Alfred about tightrope walkers when Dick saw him and froze.

“You look like you lost a fight with a lioness,” he gasped, and Bruce followed his gaze down to his chest where he hadn’t zipped up his hoodie. He had some fresh cuts that weren’t deep enough to suture but needed bandaging and he was mottled with scars from previous exploits. “Are you okay?”

“I will be. It looks worse than it is. Alfred will look after me.”

“Just like you are looking after us?”

“The very same.”

“You have a dinosaur in your house,” Dick remarked randomly, looking out past the limits of the med bay into the rest of the cave. “Do all houses have dinosaurs?”

It was such a calmly asked but bizarre question and it threw Bruce completely off guard, and by the expression on Alfred’s face, did the same to him which meant a lot because Bruce could count the amount of times that he had seen Alfred truly caught unaware during his lifetime on his fingers. “Have... you never been in a house before?” It was something that Bruce had never really considered, and when Dick had moved in when he was eight he hadn’t mentioned anything remotely like that, so Bruce had to assume that by then he had been in a house at least once, but now that he thought about it, not only had Dick never met any strangers before, his entire upbringing had been either on a train or in a caravan. The child had travelled internationally and had more stamps in his passport than most had in a lifetime but had never lived in a stationary residence.

And now he just accepted that Bruce’s house was an underground cave with a dinosaur in it because he had no other frame of reference.

“No,” said Dick, as if was the most obvious answer in the world. “Can I go look at it?”

“Yes, but be careful? Just to the dinosaur and back. Stay where I can see you.” Dick jumped off the bed and then walked towards the dinosaur a little skip in his step.

Despite Bruce’s words to Dick, he didn’t need Alfred for these injuries and was able to reach to the cabinets for the tape and gauze that he needed and set to work on his own injuries in silence. He looked at Alfred as he bandaged himself up, still holding Jason in his arms and caressing his skin, and was troubled by the pinch in Alfred’s face, the way that his eyebrows were drawn in, ever more slightly than they usually did, unless he was upset about something. “Is he okay?”

“His blood work is still running, but he is as I expected.” Alfred frowned, but leaned down to kiss Jason’s small head. “He is dehydrated and has a slight fever, as well as being underweight for his approximated age and I suspect that he was not full term. He’s quiet, which is unusual, but based on what we know of his personal history and the information we do have, I have reason to suspect that he may be dealing with withdrawal.”

Bruce’s breath caught in his chest. “NAS? Even though that was twenty years ago?” His fingers twitched with desire to track down the ones who had hurt their child, his child, in such a way, who had focused through own wants over the well being of their unborn child like that, but Sheila Hayward and Willis Todd were long past punishable for this particular sin and Bruce was going to have to just swallow this rage down and redirect onto things that he could help the current situation. “Jason doesn’t touch drugs. He barely ever drinks.”

“His de-aged body doesn’t appear to know that,” murmured Alfred. “Has he been fussy?”

“No. Barely a peep.” He stared down at the baby nestled against Alfred. He wasn’t sleeping, and Bruce wasn’t sure that he had slept since the entire incident had occurred. He just laid there, lax against Alfred, simply breathing with his eyes cracked open, too young to even see anything besides blurs.

“Well, that is something at least.” Alfred looked out towards the dinosaur, and smiled as he watched Dick walk around it, running his hands across the surface of it as he wandered between the legs which made Bruce snort. It was something so achingly familiar that Dick had always done and never grew out of, dragging his fingertips across all kinds of surfaces and letting the touch translate his environment around him in a way that only made sense to him. It had taken forever to train it out of him when he was Robin, but it was something he still did when he was Dick, without even noticing he was doing it. “Why don’t you and Master Dick get settled while I feed Master Jason and prepare something for a snack and bring it up to your room?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’d rather try feeding him for the first time without Master Dick around if it is alright with you. I’m not sure if there will be issues and I’d prefer not to frighten the boy further.” The two of them stood and walked out of the med bay and Dick ran towards them as he saw them move. “And he seems rather fond of you.”

The four of them rode up the elevator to the manor, where they then parted ways with Alfred and Jason headed to the kitchen and Bruce leading Dick to the third floor when he noticed that Dick was no longer beside him. He turned and backtracked and found Dick sitting on the stairs, silent tears painting his cheeks, everything that he had been doing is best to hold in having reached a breaking point and bubbling over. Bruce sat down beside him, trying to figure out what to say or ask, but before he had a chance Dick launched himself at Bruce, climbing fully into his arms and wrapping him in a tight hug as he started sobbing a full force.

There was nothing that Bruce could do other than to hug him back, which only made Dick somehow cry harder which he hadn’t thought was possible. He petted Dick’s hair in a way that he remembered Dike liking when he was a child and hoped that it would have the same effect now, and mumbled reassuring nonsense that everything would be alright.

They sat there for a long time, much longer than Dick’s meltdown had lasted, wrapped up in each others arms, Dick’s tiny hand curled into the fabric of Bruce’s shirt and with Bruce wanting more than anything to be able to be the thing that Dick needed him to be right now but knowing that he was a weak substitute at best.

“My mama and papa aren’t coming tonight, are they?” A small voice asked out of the silence, muffled into the fabric on Bruce’s shoulder.

“I’m afraid not. Hopefully they’ll be here tomorrow.” Bruce had no idea what to do if this was going to be a long term thing, what he would say to convince Dick that he hadn’t been kidnapped or separated from his parents by force or any other thing, but he could only focus on the now. “It’s okay if you’re scared. You are in a new place, and you don’t know anyone and you miss them. You’ve been very brave.”

“I’m a Flying Grayson. I’m always brave.”

“Very true.” Bruce stood up slowly, carrying Dick carefully in his arms and still holding the hug tight, while continuing the walk up to the bedroom. “How about you and Jason and I have a sleepover tonight in my room so that none of use have to be alone. We’ll get a big pile of blankets and pillows and snacks and watch any movies you want.”

“I don’t have to go to sleep?” Dick wiped his eyes, whether it be from the tears or a self conscious reaction to talking about sleep.

“Not if you don’t want to.”

“Okay.” He rested his head back against Bruce’s shoulder. “Do you have…” He trailed off into silence, question disappearing.

“Do I have any what, Dick?”

“Stuffed animals?” he whispered hopefully. Of course the child would want a toy for comfort, a familiar face in the middle of chaos even if it wasn’t their own.

And Bruce had something even better.

“I can think of the perfect one for you if you don’t mind that it is used.” He stopped and walked back to the door that they had just passed and adjusted Dick in his arms as he turned the handle and opened the door slowly, flicking on the light. “This is my oldest son’s room. He’s not here right now, but I know that he has some that you can borrow.”

“He won’t mind?” Dick asked carefully, as if he didn’t want to get excited about the idea only to be told that he couldn’t borrow the toy after all.

“Not at all. He’ll be glad that you played with them.” Bruce settled Dick down onto the carpet, and rubbed his back, nudging him forward. “There is one on the bed that I think you might like. It’s his favourite.”

Dick walked up to the bed and let out a giggle. “It’s an elephant!” he whispered, before turning back around to look at Bruce, excitement in his eyes. “I have an elephant like this at home!”

“I thought you might.”

“Are you sure it’s okay? If I use his elephant?”

“Absolutely.” Dick reached for it and hugged his arms around it tight as soon as it was in his grasp, burying his face into the worn fur and Bruce was caught with a sense of deja vu, remembering a slightly older child, but in the same room with the same elephant doing the same motion when he was upset and homesick. “Let’s take it and go to my room and settle in for the night.” He reached a hand out to Dick, and they headed back to Bruce’s room.

They worked to pull blankets and pillows together on Bruce’s big California King bed, building a nest fort hybrid on the mattress until Dick deemed it perfect and snuggled down into the goose down duvet, while Bruce propped himself up against the headboard and stretched his legs out before turning the television on. Dick didn’t know what movie he wanted to watch and Bruce had the suspicion that the Grayson’s may not have had a TV in their trailer so he didn’t have a good idea of what he liked. He was flipping through the options, trying to figure out what movie wouldn’t be potentially triggering for a four year old in Dick’s situation (Tarzan? No. Bambi? Definitely not. Why were all these movies about death and loss? Toy Story? Maybe?) when Alfred tapped a knuckle on the door frame, which startled Dick and had him diving under the covers.

“Master Bruce?”

Alfred entered the room with Jason cradled against him and a picnic basket tucked in the crook of his arm. “There are bottles of formula and snacks for the two of you in there, as well as some other baby supplies that you may need for the evening.” He didn’t say the words exactly, but as he settled the basket onto the bedside table Bruce understood that this was his way of saying that he was going to bed and that it was now Bruce’s turn again.

“Did he eat?”

“Not as much as I would like, but some. He has some issues with suckling but he managed to keep some formula down.” Alfred swayed back and forth, rubbing Jason’s back and looking at the pile of blankets that was Dick before turning back to Bruce. “Skin to skin contact is best for struggling newborns, my boy.”

Bruce stared at him blankly for a few seconds as the words registered and information that he had read on NAS, premature babies and other such illnesses came rushing back. Kangaroo care; skin to skin contact for as long as possible, human touch can help to normalize breathing, heart rate, weight gain, among other things. It was an interesting phenomenon that he had often wondered about but had no way of testing himself. He shrugged off his hoodie, laying it beside him on the bed and reached out for the baby in Alfred’s arms and was reminded again of just how small Jason was as he came to rest on his chest, receiving blanket covering them both.

It was different than before, when there had been a layer of armor between them, now when he could feel the skin on his own, feel Jason’s tiny heart fluttering in his chest, fighting battles so hard from the very start and doing so well.

Bruce was going to do everything in his power to keep this tiny heart safe from harm.

"Do you want for anything, Master Dick?" Alfred asked kindly. Bruce thought for a moment that Dick might says something, but instead shook his head silently and burrowed deeper into the blankets, closer to Bruce's hip, snuggling up against him.

“Thank you, Al.” Alfred nodded and retreated from the room, leaving Bruce, Jason and Dick to along their own devices.

They sat in the quiet for a little while before Bruce started to hear a voice in the general area that Dick was hiding under the blanket. He couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like Dick was having a conversation with somebody. “Are you alright, Dick?”

A tiny head popped up, closely followed by a stuffed elephant, which Bruce only now realised had been the thing that Dick was talking to. Dick shifted up closer and cuddled close enough that his head was resting on Bruce’s stomach as a pillow, but below the bundle that was Jason. “I miss my family.” He confessed, squeezing the elephant tight. Bruce couldn’t see his face, but he could feel wetness under Dick’s face again. “What if they don’t know where to find me?” he whispered.

“Your family will find you Dick. They’ll always find you.” Bruce reached down and ran his hands through Dick’s hair, just as he had a million times before and would do countless times again, and the boy leaned into the touch. “You’ll never be lost again.”

Hidden Gems of the Silver Screen (And, to a Lesser Extent, the Telly)

It can’t have escaped your notice that the majority of my more recent posts (and fuck knows I’m not posting regularly at the moment) are about movies and TV. The reason for that is pretty simple: 2019 has, surprisingly, yielded some great movies and TV... and also some really torrid shite. On the one hand, films like Ma, Brightburn and The Perfection continue to breathe new life into the horror genre. On the other hand, sci-fi as a cinematic and televised thing continues to ignore its actual audience in favour of sniffing its own farts in a sound-proof chamber designed specifically for next-level virtue-signalling. One thing I will say about the dreck of 2019 is that it’s interesting dreck, at least so far. Another Life, for example, isn’t just bad: it’s mind-bogglingly, fascinatingly bad, as though someone set out to make the worst TV series imaginable and accidentally created a portal to another dimension made entirely of crap.

With all the amazingly wonderful and transifxingly terrible visual media on offer lately, it’s easy to forget that there’s a rich repository of films and TV series from just a few years ago that you’ve probably never watched. You see if you, like me, are a snooty, card-carrying member of the elitist intelligentsia, you probably missed films and TV series that looked dumb as soup on the surface on the grounds that they weren’t worth your time. Luckily for you, I’ve dived nose-first into the detritus of our dying culture, so you don’t have to, and I’ve ferreted out the diamonds from the pig-swill. Without further ado, I’d therefore like to present my list Easily Overlooked Gems.

1. Mandy The phrase “Nicholas Cage stars in a sword-and-sorcery rape/revenge thriller” does not inspire confidence. It’s therefore easy to ignore Mandy and the promptly forget it ever existed. Which is a shame, because it’s kind of a work of genius. The plot is exactly what you’d expect: a cult kidnaps, rapes and kills Cage’s girlfriend, Mandy, and Cage sets out on a mission of revenge culminating in a blood-bath. The nature of the revenge quest is what puts a sting in the film’s tail- or tale, if you’re feeling puntastic. You see, a lot of the bad guys exist in a constant hallucinatory haze after taking a drug that sent them mad after one dose. In order to fight on their level, Cage has to take a dose too. As a result, the world around him slowly but surely transforms into a nightmare landscape that looks like a cross between a D&D illustration and the cover of a heavy metal album and his grubby, personal mission of fury takes on the unmistakable resonance of a Conan-esque hero’s quest. By the end of the film, you have to wonder if Cage has actually slipped into some sort of alternate dimension or if he’s just lost his game-pieces completely. In places, it’s nearly as painful to watch as Landmine Goes Click (crikey, there’s one for the history buffs) but it looks and feels like Beyond the Black Rainbow. Worth your attention just because of how weird it is. I give it a solid four-out-five decapitated rapists.

2. Baby Driver Nothing about Baby Driver suggested it would be a good film: the way it was advertised as a car-chase movie trying to be cute; the stupid title; the fact that it came and went through cinemas like a fart in the night. Which is a shame, because it’s secretly brilliant. It’s a highly stylised crime film populated with the archest archetypes money can buy (to the point where some of the dialogue has a weirdly beat-poetic feel to it). It’s saturated colour palette and off-beat affect actually have something of a full-colour Jim Jarmusch flick about them. The hook, of course, is that the lead character (only ever referred to as Baby, because he’s got a punchably youthful face) has tinnitus and therefore has to listen to music constantly to drown at the buzzing in his head. The practical upshot of this is that a) every single scene is overlayed with surprisingly great and situationally appropriate music and b) he goes through life like he’s always dancing, so his way of moving lends to the film’s easy-going sense of flow. It also explains where his preternatural driving skills come from (I mean, not really, but within the context of the plot): he’s used to sliding effortlessly into patterns and rhythms because of the music thing. All of this could make a terrible film, of course, but execution is everything and, to everyone’s surprise, especially mine, this flick was executed with an astonishing level of panache. I rate it ten out of ten grizzly motor way pile ups.

3. Nightflyers It’s not just films that get overlooked as the tide of culture washes back and forth, like a great big sea of effluent. TV series also vanish unduly into the dustbin of history. Case in point, the criminally underappreciated Nighrflyers: Netflix pre-Another Life sci-fi offering that was actually good. It’s a pretty classic set-up: a group of mismatched wing-nuts on a spaceship, all of whom have secrets that that will threaten to tear them apart while they try to make contact with an alien life-form. What elevates Nightflyers is just how fuck-uped the cast are. There’s an angry British psychic whose spent his whole life in captivity in case he goes full Scanners on somebody’s head, a guy who only ever appears as a hologram for reasons too twisted to explain here, his evil mother whose uploaded her mind to the ship’s computer and gone batshit crazy, a genetic superbeing and a hacker who can send her mind into computers via a dodgy implant and who may or may not be drifting out of touch with the human condition. It’s great. 6 and half billion out of 7 billion monkeys, boiling in the void.

4. Hardcore Henry No, I don’t know who thought that title was a good idea either, but the point is that Hardcore Henry has no motherfucking right to kick as much arse as it does. It was clearly made on a budget that would embarrass a Youtube shampoo commercial, but it just flat-out rocks. Shot entirely in first-person, it follows the adventures of a mute cyborg as he seeks revenge against the bastard psychic entrepreneur who first built him then tried to kill him. Along the way, his main ally is a dude who keeps dying and coming back to life in a series of identical bodies but with radically different personalities and haircuts (this is eventually explained, but I’m not going to spoil it for you). It’s premise is demented, it’s surprisingly well-choreographed and its soundtrack is an aphrodisiac for your ears. Also, Tim Roth is in it, so that’s just yer seal of quality right there. It came out to a lot of fanfare and many, many cinema trailers back in the day and was then promptly forgotten about as soon as it launched. So I’m dragging it kicking and screaming back into the limelight. It’s on Netflix right now, so go watch it. I rate it a solid 11 out of 15 creepy duplicates of Tim Roth.

5. Upgrade Another lesser-known film about a cyborg. Unlike Henry, however, this cyborg’s life doesn’t so much ‘rock’ as ‘suck balls’. He gets crippled and then ends up with a sentient computer chip in his head that allows him to remote-control his own body despite not having a working spine anymore. Naturally, his experimental tech attracts the attention of some unsavoury characters and he and his brain-chip have to work together to figure out what’s going on, often through a series of ultra-violent, gory fight-scenes that horrify the protagonist himself. Of course, all might be well, except that the head-chip is a homicidal little shit that clearly has its own agenda. I give it at least 0000 0111 out of 0000 1001 painstakingly restored vintage kill-bots.

6. The Tick The Tick isn’t as overlooked as everything else on this list, especially since there have been a couple of previous televised incarnations of the franchise to lay the groundwork. However, I still feel like the modern iteration doesn’t quite get the love it deserves, so I’m throwing it out here. Following the adventures a mad, amnesiac and possibly stupid superhero and his neurotic sidekick, The Tick explores a world where superheroes aren’t the paragons of good from classic comics, the corrupt psychotics of The Boys or Watchmen, or the eternally struggling, walking moral life-lessons of modern cinema. Instead, they’re just ordinary people operating at various levels of competence/incompetence and mental illness and working within a bureaucratic, wildly inefficient framework. That might not sound like a recipe for a successful TV series, but it really is. Drawing out the mundane, human side of heroes and villains against the backdrop of cataclysmic, civilisation-threatening events makes for infinitely compelling and very, very funny viewing. It’s kind of doing for the superhero genre what Futurama did for sci-fi a few years back. It’s also where the phrase and/or popular song ‘seven billion monkeys boiling in the void’ comes from. My rating is four out of five sapient, homosexual boats (which will make sense when you watch it).

7. The Void Amid the high-budget horror extravaganzas of recent years, it’s easy to forget about the void, which feels like the best story H.P. Lovecraft never wrote and looks like David Chronenberg tried to adapt a Heironimous Bosch painting... in the ‘80s. The actual plot concerns a group of people getting trapped in a hospital by murderous cultists and discovering dark secrets and, arguably, a whole other dimension in its basement. You’re not exactly there for the plot though: The Void is a mood-piece and an exercise in visual FX craftsmanship. You’re there to drink in the atmosphere and see what each new cosmic horror looks like. I am delighted to award it ten out of ten unspeakable whisperers in the darkness. That’s enough for two barbershop quartets, an emcee and a supporting act.

8. Happy Death Day It’s Groundhog Day but as a horror film starring a really annoying lass in her late teens has to keep dying horribly until she learns to stop being such a terrible person... and also kill her murderer with a little help from her newly-minted, non-cunty friend. There’s a sequel that I haven’t seen yet, but the original is a low-key, oft-overlooked delight. I give it 9 out of 11 suspiciously similar corpses.

Bad News, Good Intentions

                                  IT x Stranger Things crossover

Summary: Derry is a small town were nothing happens but things started to get weirder and weirder, little did this club of losers know that there was another small town that was just as weird as theirs.

Pairings: Reader x The Losers Club

Word Count: 2364

A/N: This is my first fic... and idek man, I think I’ve got a cool concept going on in my head but I don’t know how to properly write it down??? Anyhow, I hope you enjoy it & tell me if I should continue!!

Living in a small town had its perks, boy, you would know. There was no comparison between the empty streets and calm nights with the sounds of cars honking their way through the streets and midnight arguments.

Derry was no different from the other small towns, it was just a place in the middle of Maine where nothing truly happened and everyone was aware of that or at least tried to keep it that way. The only reason why people would mention Derry was because of the outrageous number of missing kids and even then, it seemed like no one was planning to do something about it... well, no grownup at least.

You sat on the edge of the quarry’s cliff, swinging your feet as you waited for the rest of your friends to arrive. You enjoyed being alone as much as everyone else but in days like these, there was nothing you longed more than being with your friends, your losers. Perhaps you spent too much time around them, but when you are being chased by a demonic clown, how couldn’t you?

These people were the only ones aware of IT besides yourself, meaning that you were the only ones who knew the true reason behind the disappearances of all those children. Telling any adult was no use, they wouldn’t listen, your parents didn’t care about you, that’s a thing you all had in common... except Eddie, perhaps his mother cared a little too much.

It wasn’t like you didn’t love your parents, you did, but they were never there for you. You were aware of how busy it was the life of a scientist... or at least, could imagine, considering they were always going from place to place and were never home. They were like a pair of strangers, strangers who would feed and dress you but that was it. You were still fond of them, to a point, after all... they are your parents, and you had to.

Grabbing a pebble next to you, you threw it over the cliff, watching it fall and splash. You stared at the greenish water, smiling to yourself. “Having fun?” A voice said, breaking the silence. Turning around, you saw one your friends walking towards you. “Mike!”

“Hey” he sat next to you. “Don’t you think you arrived kind of early, Y/N?” He checked the clock on his wrist. “It’s just 10:30”

“I don’t know” you said, shrugging. “I thought we were supposed to arrive at 10:00, plus, it’s not like I had anything better to do. What about you?”

“I thought Bill or Beverly would be here by now” Mike smiled. “Guess I didn’t have anything to do either” he playfully punched you in the arm. You laughed, pushing him to the side. “Shut it, home-schooled” you teased.

“You better keep it fucking PG-13, guys!” Richie shouted, hopping off of his bike and making his way to were the two of you were. “If you don’t wanna see, just take your fucking glasses off” you said, puckering up your lips and pretending to kiss Mike. He placed his hand on his forehead, just like a maiden would.

“And listen to the unholy noises? No thanks”

The three of you sat down and talked, the rest of the losers arriving one by one. You all waited until the last one arrived to swim. Beverly was the first one to jump, she always was, followed by Bill and Ben. Richie and Eddie started their usual banter, fighting over something probably stupid, you and Stan had stopped listening for a while now.

Once the eight of you were splashing around, the real fun had started. This was the best part of the day, were everyone would laugh and forget about their problems and pretended to be normal teens. “You’re going down Richie!” Beverly laughed, pushing Richie and trying to get him to fall from Bill’s shoulders. “You sure about that, Beaverly?” He flashed her a playful smile as he pushed her back. “We’ll show them, right, Ben?” She said, looking down at him. “Got that right”

You laughed, resting your arm on Stan’s shoulder. “Whoever wins goes against me and Stan!” You shouted at the other four. “No way, I am not doing that” he said taking your hand off of him and rolling his eyes. “C’mon, Stan! You are being lame, I bet she’ll let you be on top” Richie shouted.

“Beep Beep, Richie!”

After a while of playing, everyone decided to dry off. Eddie wrapped himself in a towel, shivering. “Y-You okay, E-Eds?” Bill asked.

“I don’t want to get a cold because if I do, my—“

“Your mom won’t have more time for me, guess I’ll have to sneak at night so we can—“

“We get the picture, Richie” Mike sighed.

Richie raised his hands in a defeated manner.

“Escaping to see Mrs. K after curfew? Man, that must be true love” Beverly said, taking out a cigarette from her backpack’s front pocket.

“The curfew can suck my dick, it’s not like it works anyway” he shrugged. “That fucking clown takes kids whenever the fuck he wants so... what’s the point?”

“Do you think it will ever stop?” You interrupted, looking down.

“W-What?”

“Pennywise. If we don’t stop him... do you think it’ll stop?” You continued. Richie let out a rather bitter laugh, fixed his glasses and looked at you. “We’ll be dead before that happens, sweetheart, I—“

“I’m being serious, Richie!” You frowned at him. “Listen, I enjoy being haunted by a fucking clown as much as the next person does but do you truly think we will stop him?! Don’t you think we need at least someone to help us?!”

“Who?” Stan sighed. “Who in their right state of mind would help us defeat this—this monster?!”

“Stan is right... Even if he got someone’s attention, what would be our proof? Nobody but us can see IT” Ben said quietly. “It’s like the blood in Beverly’s bathroom...”

“We are helpless” Eddie muttered.

You looked around, the happy faces had been wiped out from their faces. You were just a bunch of kids being attacked by something you didn’t quite understand... but you knew some people who maybe could understand, maybe. “I need to show you guys something”

Hoping on your bikes, they followed you all the way home. You trusted them with your life but even with this kind of information, you weren’t sure if it was a good idea to share it. You weren’t supposed to know and yet, you were making your way home to show your friends all of it.

You unlocked the door and ran upstairs, to your room, everyone else followed close behind and closed the door behind them once everyone was inside. “Did I ever mentioned that my parents were scientists?” You asked.

“I think you did once” Mike said.

“Is that why you are such a nerd?” Richie asked, looking around. You had posters of every sci-fi movie you could imagine, shelves filled with books and action figures. “That’s not the point”

“Why are you asking us this?” Beverly looked at you.

Ignoring her question, you asked another. “Ben, in the research you did about Derry... did you find anything about a laboratory research? Anything related with that?”

“No, not really... why?”

You walked over to your bed and started pulling the mattress. You pushed it to the side, unveiling a couple of folders hiding underneath. You handed it to him. “My parents take part in a project, an investigation about a neighbor dimension. The documents explains how they opened the “gate” between that world and ours—“

Eddie turned to look at Stan and then at Bill, blinking rapidly. “You know that this isn’t fun, right?”

“What?” You asked, confused

“You can stop pretending now. Richie and you got us, all of us. You’ve got poor taste in pranks, you know? This is something serious and—“

“Are you serious?! You think this is a joke?”

“It might as well be” Stan looked at you, unsure of what to believe. “This is bullshit”

“But it’s not!” You defended yourself.

“You’re giving me way too much credit, guys, but I don’t take part in this” Richie said.

“And this, this portal?, what does it have to do with us?” Beverly said, scooting over Ben’s side to have a better look.

“You believe that shit?!” Eddie exclaimed.

“I-I don’t understand either, Y/N...” Bill looked at you, biting the side of his cheek. 

“Look, here” you said pointing at a certain paragraph. “It talks about how that other world is inhabited by an unknown species”

“So?”

“So, naturally, people crossed the gate to investigate and do research. All of the expedition members went missing and were eventually found dead, parts of their bodies had been eaten by, probably, a pack of the species.” Ben gulped loudly, opening his mouth to say something but in the end, nothing came out. “But Pennywise has been feeding itself from Derry’s population for centuries… “

“Maybe the gate has always been open” Bev bit her lip, trying to find a proper way to put her thoughts together. “Maybe they just found a way for us to cross to the other side but these creatures have always been able to cross from theirs”

“Exactly but that’s not all” you handed them another folder, it was full of pictures and newspaper articles. “There was this kid, William Byers, who was taken by one of these creatures” she said pointing at the picture of him, “and he made it out alive… “

“But that doesn’t mean Pennywise is related to this” Mike said, breathing heavily. “What makes you so sure this could be related to us? This project was held in Hawkins, Indiana… Five or six states away from us”

“I don’t think this dimensions would limit itself to just Indiana, if it’s a world just like ours there must be a place just like Derry” your hands rested on your hips. “Plus, do you have a better theory? All we know about IT is the fact that he comes out to eat children every 27 years.”

“You’ve lost your fucking mind, haven’t you?” Richie said, pinching his nose anxiously. “Bill you better take notes, none of the stories you’ve created can compete with this kind of bullshit”

“She has a point” Beverly defended. “What do you have, Richie?”

“Common sense, clearly! Even if I decided to believe this mental story, what would we do? Drive all the way to fucking Indiana and then what?! We’ll ask your parents to help us kill this clown? Fucking great! Sign me the fuck in!”

“G-Georgie could be there” Bill said. “Betty R-Ripsom, Ed… everyone c-c-could be trapped in there and maybe we can save them!”

“I don’t want to save them!” Stan shouted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It’s suicide! “

“I’d rather kill myself trying to save them than doing nothing and let it kill me from the inside” you growled.

“That’s you! What makes you think we want to get involved! I didn’t ask for this---“ Eddie responded, stopping to take deep breaths. He took out his inhaler and shook it, later putting it inside his mouth and breathing in the medicine.

“None of us did!” Beverly spat out. “But if we can do something about this, we should!”

“Nobody of us want this, Y/N” Ben whispered.

“I get that all of you are terrified! So am I! But if we find a way of killing this thing one and for all, we might get a shot of living normal lives! We might get our fucking boring lives back, we would no longer have to worry about getting killed by IT! We wouldn’t have to watch our backs when we’re walking alone down the street!” you sighed. “I want my life back”

Before you could continue, an alarm went off. It came from Eddie’s clock, making all of you jump in surprise. “What time is it?” Ben asked, looking at Eddie.

“6:30” he said, popping one of the pills in his fanny pack inside his mouth. “I should get going…”

“Yeah, the curfew starts in 30 minutes and I---“Stan walked towards the door. “Why don’t you stay the night? We can forget about this…” you said pointing at the documents. “We can forget about it for the night and talk about it tomorrow. You don’t have to take a part of this, I just thought you… you would be interested and maybe we could find a way of killing IT”

Stan, Eddie and Richie looked at each other. Sighing. You were sure that Bill and Beverly were with you, maybe Mike and Ben too but the eight of you had to be together to actually make a change, that was a fact. “I’ll say I’m staying at Bill’s” Eddie said. “That way my mom won’t worry that much”

“We’ll stay” Beverly placed her hand on your shoulder and hugged you. “Don’t worry” You rested your forehead on her shoulder and sighed. “I’m sorry for putting all of this weight on your shoulders”

“Now, that’s enough” the redhead said, pulling away and ruffling your hair. “It’s already late enough, we should rest… all this fighting is making me hungry. What about you guys?”

“Finally! I was waiting for someone to say something about food” Richie said, smiling, with an attitude completely different from the one minutes before. “Aren’t you hungry, Eddie Spaghetti?”

“Stop it, Richie”

“We could order some pizza” Ben said, handing back to you the set of documents. “or something, do you think they'll deliver it this late?” he asked Mike, who just shrugged.

You sighed and put the documents back in their hiding place. Everyone was pretending to be happy again, you knew that because you were part of this act but it was alright, it had been enough for today. You would talk about it in the morning ad even though you didn’t have the best feeling about the whole situation, you had hope and you all needed that more than anything now.

Welcome Home

First of many to come - kinda angsty but this is the perfect Christmas story I’ve been working on for a few a while - let me know what you guys think probably not my best

@devilsnevercry1388 @tmntwhat-you-get-is-what-you-see @red-clad-rebel @fyreball66 @saismatters @frecklecakes @ihlni686

She should have been there with them to fight, should have been at their side to protect what she held dear but Leonardo had ordered them to go and against her will Casey had pulled the young woman into the van where Master Splinter was already waiting

Raphael, after grabbing her in the middle of the fight to kiss her good-bye finally let her go with a soft peck on the lips before hearing Donatello yelling for Casey and April to get them out of there while he and Michelangelo held off the Foot soldiers who had attacked them in the middle of another invasion from General Krangg only this time there had been no warning – there had been no time to plan a counter attack

They had been forced to run and leave her brothers to fight alone

Raph had told her it would be okay and that they wouldn’t be far behind but that didn’t help the whole two days they had waited at a motel miles outside of the city for the others to catch up like they had strategized or on the five and a half hour drive out to the cabin they retreated too in the mountains off to the center of the woods when nobody showed up…

Upon arriving she had immediately ran for the TV looking through the news channels for any updates on the events that were transpiring in New York, they had all opted to unpacked the van later once they knew what was going on

The others joined her the moment she hit channel six which was covering the entire thing as she slowly turned the silver band in her finger not seeing the eyes focused on her while she was doing so

From the story they had come in on she could tell it must have finally been over after a few days but the city was destroyed - Cars flipped over on their roofs, buildings that had been hit by something were either crumbling or had massive holes in their sides, she swallowed hard as they started showing amateur videos of several flying objects shooting overhead before one showed four figures racing over the roofs hearing the reporter covering the story talking about aliens and monsters being spotted close to where they had left the guys her eyes scanning the area where the four figures had vanished moments before making her eyes tear up as she waited for them to reappear off to the side when the video was cut off

April came to her side holding her hand as they watched a story the reporter yelling it was over as the rip in the sky closed until a blast could be heard breaking the speakers as the camera man screamed moving as something on fire crashing down the street seeing smoke then an explosion not far from where they were standing hearing someone yelling for assistance before the video was jumping around as they ran to see what was happening

She was fast to shift pulling away from the young reporter who looked after her with a troubled gaze as she moved over to where she had dropped her bag dumping the contents onto the floor grabbing her phone quickly dialing Raphael’s cell waiting before it went straight to voicemail dialing Leo then Donnie finally calling Mikey only to find their phones doing the same

She looked up dialing Raph’s phone again unable to breath as she kept trying to reach them until her father came to a stop by her side grabbing her hand ending the sixth call “Dad… their not answering-” she looked up at Master Splinter the moment he was next to her before glancing at the TV when she caught something in his sad features, he stroked a hand through her hair whispering something as her green orbs locked on something ablaze in the center of the screen that made her eyes widen

The camera had finally stopped on a trash truck that was on fire flipped on its side looking like it had exploded - the still recognizable ‘Tortuga Brothers’ painted on the side facing the sky as it burned out of control

Off to one corner she saw a blade broken on the ground the blue ribbons on the handles singed by the flames before seeing a boxing glove not far from a bent sai as she dropped her phone on the ground standing stiffly in place “N-No… no it can’t be” she was sure she’d drop there but somehow her body was moving closer to the screen unable to breathe when she finally dropped in front of the old television set, a sob ripped from her throat as she touched the set running her fingers over the picture they had paused

She looked back at the others shaking her head looking back fast still not wanting to accept it “No. NO! THEY CAN’T BE – NO!” April tried to comfort her as she tried to get up to get her phone only to drop when her legs wouldn’t work pulling the teen into her arms when she shattered screaming out when her mind finally came to accept what she was looking at “NONONO - LEO! RAPHIE! DONNIE! MIKEY! THEIR NOT GONE!” her screaming their names and practically begging for it not to be true broke April until she was crying just as hard rocking the heartbroken girl with her, Casey was there instantly holding tight to both of the women shushing the youngest as she cried out for her brother’s begging between frantic gasps “THEY HAVE TO BE OKAY! THEIR OKAY TELL ME THEIR OKAY…”

They couldn’t be gone… it couldn’t be true but nobody had the heart to tell her it could be

~*~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~*~

Raphael had felt bad making Raven leave the city while he continued the mission with his brothers but he never thought it would have gotten so out of hand having the Foot attack them while searching for the three beacons that had been placed to create more portals when they had forced her into the van Casey had hotwired; they had agreed they didn’t want her getting hurt if the fight escalated and he had been the one to suggest the rest of their family go up to the cabin where it would be safe and away from the harm that had befallen the city.

He had just needed her to be where it would be safe and man; he knew she was going to kill him when they got back to the others but he had to protect his mate regardless of what she wanted, he had to do whatever it took to keep the rest of his family safe even if she hated him for it

They had finally turned the battle when Leo had took out the first portal generator and lost the Foot heading for shelter in an old abandoned building they had deemed a safe point to rest up a bit since they couldn’t risk heading for the lair when the battle fell silent before being startled by a loud rumble that had them moving instantly knowing something worse was coming if they didn’t hurry

Every second after kissing her goodbye for what he hoped wasn’t the last time had been spent either fighting for his life, running, or missing home. Missing Raven…

He knew they all were missing the teenager, all their lives since she came into it she had never been this far away from them, this had to be the first time since she had joined the team that they had made her run and sit out on a mission - but he missed the kid more than anything

He missed the way she kissed his neck in the morning, how she made him feel like the world didn’t suck, how no matter how bad things had gotten he was happy the way they were, and that perfect smile that always made his day brighter, he missed the way she could calm him down with just a look or the smallest touch of her hand that just seemed to ground him in a second – he was miserable without her there but wouldn’t admit it out loud to any of his brother’s

No matter what he felt he knew they had made the right choice

The second device had been found and destroyed before the Foot could reactivate it, there had been no guards or Foot patrols to get past so it had felt too easy to have been anything but a diversion to keep them busy and the moment the ground shook under their feet Leonardo had called for them to move out heading towards where they could see the sky splitting open revealing the dimension that was swallowing theirs

They were quick to make towards where Donnie was picking up the signal flying over the city fast before landing just the other side of a tall building seeing Don scanning the area before he swallowed hard looking down to check his tech again before meeting the leaders eyes letting him know they were on top of it before signaling for the truck with his remote calling for it to come to their location from the warehouse glad he had finally installed the tracker last week, they split into two teams sending Donatello with Mikey while Raph and Leo held off the men that started flooding the room watching the youngest two turtle’s shells while the genius tried to get close enough to destroy the ark they had up

The battle had taken a turn for the worse hearing Leonardo yelling for a retreat as Donnie placed the detonation box next to the beacon hitting the timer to start it before they had bolted for the garbage truck scrambling in and speeding off just as the device exploded taking the smaller building with it in a burst of fire knocking the truck to the side with the force of the blast as they screeched away

The three other turtles were all cheering as Donnie drove trying to get them away before more of Shredder’s men could get there making plans to head for the cabin in the next few hours so they could catch up to their family if he could make the repairs to the vehicle quickly knowing there was a chance it wouldn’t make it very far; Raph was so excited that he had even hugged Leo for a moment laughing with Mikey realizing he was finally going to get to see their family and Raven after being without her for three days before an alarm started sounding-

Leonardo pulled out of his brother’s arm hurrying to the front leaning over his brother’s shoulder seeing he had deployed the auto drive while he was typing away at his tech looking over his halo screen for whatever was setting off the alarms “What’s going on Donnie?” the genius looked to him his eyes wide in panic before he was pushing buttons fast

“Uh y-yeah we have a small… m-maybe make that an astronomically gigantic huge situation if – DANM! GUYS HOLD ON TIGHT TO SOMETHING!” he shoved Leo back hard as he moved from the driver seat

Seconds later the truck exploded under them in a huge ball of fire sending it into the air before rolling down the street taking out cars and crashing into several utility poles that broke behind the force as it finally blew up before coming to a rest in the center of the street in plain view of all the panicked citizens who were coming out of their homes

~*~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~*~

She had been counting the days since they had fled the city three weeks ago staying where they were since Christmas was just around the corner, Master Splinter had tried to comfort his youngest child but it didn’t help she was distraught over the idea that her brothers were gone

The holiday just held nothing for her anymore and she drifted away from her family even more

She had broken down that night crying loudly into a pillow letting the pain out when she woke up finding herself alone in the bed after having the best dream where she had been in her mate’s arms as they all sat in their home talking and spending time together just to get up and find they were still not there and every night after that was the same so she started sleeping in the other rooms trying to feel closer to her brothers when her father’s suggestion of meditating showed nothing but more heartache only finding the connection they shared somehow severed rather than her inner peace, tonight was no different except she finally was unable to take the loneliness any longer going down to the kitchen to make her some coffee

She didn’t have the energy to make it the way she liked – but dumped a lot of sugar in it like Donnie tended to do when he was working late in the lab smiling at how nasty it tasted but cracked a wobbly smile anyways sipping on the hot beverage, the clock read a little bit after three in the morning and where as the place was usually dark tonight it was lit up brightly

She couldn’t bring herself to look into the den where the other’s had decorated for the holidays putting up a tree and several strings of lights – it looked great even more beautiful than she was willing to admit and there were several already wrapped packages under the tree a few she knew were to her brothers from the colorfully bright bows each one with their signature colors everything was perfect except for one thing

Nothing felt perfect if the four turtles weren’t there with them to bring in the holidays.

Leo had always had a different attitude around this time of year and it made her appreciate the season all that much more since the older of her brother’s just had a happier self of being that was tranquil and calming on the whole family letting go of his uptight leader status until they were on patrol always smiling and joking around with them even laughing more everything about her older brother changed and for a whole month he was a different person

Raph although he acted like he never liked this time of year something about the massive turtle’s lighthearted personality just brought her so much happiness and made her want to make Christmas special if just to see him and the guys smile as she remembered them doing so often when they were still kids

Donnie always made her laugh having created his own homemade device back when he was twelve that flashed the lights whenever she was listening to music putting on several fun and memory filled light shows that could brighten even the worst day for any of them always making their gifts and spending more time out of his lab and around his family

Mikey’s cheerfulness always put her right in the holiday spirit even though he likes to go overboard with the decorations or decorate every room in the lair when he wasn’t supposed to going all out in Raphael’s room whenever either he wasn’t there or was passed out cold from a long night on the surface with Casey, he always reminded her of a child because no matter what the youngest turtle just embodied the Christmas time joys she should have felt

Tears came o her eyes, she held fond the one year Mikey had stepped up his décor game after Raphael had called him a lousy ninja – he showed all of them.

Raph had stepped into the den making all of them laugh to see the youngest of the brothers had decorated his older brother as well as his room with tinsel strands and bows stuck all over his shell and glitter stained flesh making the turtle shimmer in the light even painting in bright red across his plastron I’ve Been A Naughty Boy he had started after the smaller turtle when Leo stopped him telling him to go clean up already getting onto Mikey even though he was struggling not to smile or laugh at the sparkly form beside him that had her smiling on the couch, he grumbled several run together statements under his breath as she jumped up pressing a kiss to one cheek making him blush before he stormed off heading for the bathroom making them all burst into laughter again, Leo hit the floor in tears laughing harder than any of them finding Raph’s lower shell was flourished in glitter glue with Spank Me written out so beautifully

Those were the times she wanted to remember

“Hey kid… Mind if I join you?” she spun around looking up to see Casey had been standing in the backdoor watching her in silence, she had noticed he was hanging out in the building out back where Raphael usually stayed for part of the day, she knew she wasn’t the only one who missed the guys April had cried a few times, the man had waited before moving closer getting him a cup taking the seat across from her when she didn’t speak but gave him a small shrug “How you holding up – April said you haven’t been eating?”

She didn’t look up at him as her chest started hurting “I’m not hungry Jones...” the man nodded slowly sipping at his hot drink before he reached out taking her hand giving it a gentle squeeze as she stared at her cooling cup “I should have been there… I should have stayed to help them”

He didn’t say a word seeing the battle she was waging on herself before needing to change the subject “You know – they wouldn’t like the fact that you’re not eating… Raph would have already-” her body shook making a small shiver float threw the wood at the mention of his name as she put her head on the tabletop unable to shoulder the pain anymore “Aww come on don’t cry – I was just saying he’d be thrashing you by now”

His words were no comfort to her

“I-I didn���t get to tell him…” a sob ripped from her throat as she cried out loudly pulling the attention of the old rat sitting in the den who hadn’t been able to fall asleep easily feeling the troublesome aura from his daughter’s spirit while he had been searching for his son’s through meditation, he slowly walked into the kitchen watching as she clung to the human man’s hand that she usually couldn’t stand to be around seeming to need his grip on her hand more than she might ever admit “I didn’t tell Raphie I loved him… I never got to say goodbye to any of them – and… now their-”

She got up going to walk past the man to put her cup in the sink unable to finish her sentence when Casey stood up fast, it surprised even him that the teen hadn’t fought it when he took the cup from her hand setting it on the counter pulling her into his chest holding tight to her with a firm hug “He knew you did kid… they all know you love them”

She instantly clung to him sobbing into his chest embarrassed that her tears were soaking his shirt as April made it to the kitchen standing beside Splinter watching as the man kept her up, she had been calling Vern daily sometimes more then once to see if the guys had shown up or been seen around lately but so far nothing. The police had taken the truck to their compound lot but couldn’t get it open so they had no word on their missing friends and family members

“H-He was my mate… I loved him - just as much as my brothers… but my heart keeps telling me something’s gone. I-I can’t feel them anymore-”

Master Splinter put up his hand as April moved to comfort her stopping as Casey hugged her tightly as she shattered in his arms neither of them noticing the other two watching them just yet “I already knew kid… he told me a while back – ya should have seen that big goofs face when he talked about… y-ya made him so happy Rave” she looked up as his voice cracked meeting her eyes seeing her bottom lip wobbling as she took a step back looking him over as the pain only seemed to grow seeing his friend tearing up as he tried to reach out for her again “You were all he talked about when we hung out, he loved ya so much – you were his everything kid… that’s why he bought you that ring-”

She broke and this time she pushed him back sprinted from the house before he could stop her running deep into the woods until she dropped next to the pond letting out a howl of agony punching the moist dirt over and over until she let go hitting the ground sniffling as she curled in on herself letting the distress she was in crush her

How long she laid there in the mud – how long she had been crying and screaming – the echoing screams for her brothers going unanswered – how long she let the pain crush her heart… it didn’t matter anymore

It was just as the sun was peaking over the horizon that she moved walking back slowly finally returning to the cabin to find Master Splinter on the porch sitting quietly; he shifted moving to stand next to the young woman before he pulled her into a firm hug just holding his little girl as she tried to quell the need to shatter again “Your brothers wanted you to be safe… But it was Raphael who pleaded with me to keep you out of the fight – he wanted you to be protected” she looked up choking out a ragged wail into his furry shoulder feeling her father press a gentle kiss to her head holding her in a way that told her it was all going to be okay

Whether she believed that was another story entirely

She had finally pulled away smiling at him as he wiped her tears away sending her to shower before she was back down stairs starting breakfast and doing the dishes accepting Casey’s help when he offered letting him hug her once before he headed out to gather more wood to keep the place warm almost asking him if she could go

His company was better than the silent loneliness she had been enduring the entire time they had been there

She tried to keep her head up but that only got harder as the day passed, letting her mind float back over to her brothers and the last moments they were together, to the moment she had grabbed Raphael’s hand to keep him there opening her mouth to say anything but instead found his mouth on hers in a soft yet short goodbye kiss

He had to have known that might be the last time they would see each other but he had kept the contact between them for only a second slipping the ring on her hand before he had to move away from her “See ya in a bit Kid”

The others shot them a glance to say goodbye but the more she thought about it the more she wished she would have took the chance and hugged all of them one last time… kissed Raphael back or held onto him a second longer

By the time lunch rolled around she was on the verge of another mental break watching as the skies grew dark with clouds making her homemade stew before it hit her she had made too much… she always made enough to feed sixteen since her brothers always ate seconds whenever the teen made stew – but once more it was a reminder they weren’t there

They wouldn’t be there anymore – ever again

She looked up at the calendar on the wall realizing what tomorrow would be looking back when one of the glass balls shattered on the floor sighing before closing her eyes as she picked up a small angel her and the guys had found on their first Christmas as a family in one of the tunnels close to their home… Raph had given it to her to keep safe and she hadn’t seen it in a few years since the move to their new home, they had all thought she had been destroyed in the explosions that had brought down the old lair a few years back.

She looked rough – she had been through hell with the small family but had seen every Christmas from the time she was four until three years ago with them, how she had survived all the time she had been dropped thrown or sat on was beyond her or how the tiny figure had even made it with her brothers but here she was in the last place the teen ever expected to see the old friend she had made as a child. Her once beautiful dress had dirt and stains on the red, green and gold cloth that made it up, her white feathered wings were broken and frayed to the point they were ready to fall off, and her once blonde painted on hair was now blackened from the years but she was still the most beautiful doll she had ever seen

Leonardo had told her she was an angel sent to always make the holidays special and that she had only enough magic for one wish – she had believed it for a few years and had saved that wish wanting it to be a good one until she got old enough and Raphael had revealed she was just something one of the human’s had tossed out in the garbage when they no longer wanted it but a small part in the girl still believed in her heart she was magical…. She had to be if she made it all these years

She was never one for the holidays but had tried to make Christmas special the same her family had done when she was younger but this year she had nothing to do, Master Splinter and April had taken care of decorating the cabin, Casey had hung lights after getting the tree, all three of the other’s had decorated it to try and cheer her up but it had only made her pull into herself even more.

She was thankful they had made it safely to the cabin, she still had her father and their friends that she looked up to as family… but the price of that right now just seemed too high and never in her life had she thought she would see the day it was paid

She took a deep breath making a wish on the little angel kissing it on it’s head before she sniffled to herself “I want to see them… I wish my brothers could come home to me” she needed that right now - wanted the wish to come true hoping with anything left in her heart it worked but as she looked at the worn out figure she couldn’t help but tell herself it was stupid placing it back on the window seal

“Who am I kidding…” looked up to watch the trees trying to clear her mind so she wouldn’t break down in front of her human friends again when movement through the trees caught her attention making her focus on what looked like – it couldn’t have been but the longer she watched it…  It really did look like him “L-Leo-” she moved the curtain out of the way looking harder as Casey looked up from the table where he had just sat down to eat softly calling out to her before she was moving walking out the back door letting it softly close behind her not caring how cold it felt right then moving across the porch watching as the figure cleared the shadows off the edge of the thick woods observing as it got closer immediately recognizing the blue mask and leaf green skin once the figure cleared the shadows between the trees “Leonardo…?”

The individual looking up at the house as the door flew open hearing his name spoken softly before seeing the young woman who was frozen in place once she was outside “Hey little sister – you missed all the fun” he grinned joking for once in a good mood at finally seeing they had made it to safety as she almost doubled over laughing and crying out all at once seeing him waving at her running forward when she finally moved jumped over the railing hitting the ground taking off towards him as he dropped his pack

“LEO!”

April came out the screen just as Raven slammed into the oldest turtle looking shocked as Donatello and Mikey stepped out of the underbrush grinning when Leonardo scooped up their baby sister hugging her tightly as she cried in to his shoulder clinging to her older brother for her life “Your alive… we thought – I thought you were… Oh my god your home” he nuzzled her neck as she wailed into his shoulder wrapping around him as he kept walking towards the house chuckling when she planted quite a few kisses on his cheek

“Guys you made it!” the reporter looked them over seeing their cloths were dirty and scorched, they were patched up in a few places, Looking a little rough but there in one piece

“Aww come on baby girl you really thought General Bubbalicious and old metal butt could get rid of us” she looked over seeing the orange banded turtle stepping closer with a smug grin carrying Leonardo’s bag as she choked out a small laugh as more tears flooded her eyes

“MIKEY!” he took hold of her as she grabbed him pressing several pecks to his cheek clinging to him as the genius turtle moved closer ruffling her hair until she moved to hug him “D-Donnie” they all laughed as she turned wrapped him up in a tight hold nuzzling her face into his chest as he brushed his fingers threw her hair “I-I’m tempted to hit…all of you jerks for scaring me - but… I guess that can wait til I’m done loving on you”

“Glad to know we were missed”

“Angelcakes!” April ran over hugging Mikey tightly as he spun her around before Casey and Master Splinter were to their sides smiling as his daughter hugged them again

Raven moved back wiping her face quickly hiding the tears as their father hugged each of the turtles looking relieved before the teen looked up at them once more in relief turning looking off into the woods “My son’s”

They had come home, bruised and a little bit broken, but alive and together - or at least that’s what she had thought until she looked back to find her mate only to see he wasn’t there glancing back up at her older brother “Leo – where’s Raph?” he looked her over as she turned to see Mikey looking at Donnie as if looking for help before his baby blue eyes met hers slowly looking like he wasn’t sure what to say “G-Guys?” her eyes filled with tears as she looked down at her hand taking in the small ring he had given her when they all didn’t answer her right away “W-Where’s Raphie…?”

Mikey stepped forward placing a gentle hand on her shoulder before he brushed a hand through her hair shaking his head as Donnie moved to her side “Rave… we had to leave him behind-”

She stepped back in shock out of their reach putting her hand over her mouth turning around unable to breath as Casey reached out to comfort her, he stopped when she moved to go in the house so they wouldn’t see her break down but as she hit the door something in her chest made her stop clutching the door hard feeling a pang of hope that had been there a few seconds ago flying away even though she had been holding tight to it

She couldn’t bring herself to admit he was gone…

 Raph lumbered through the tree line with a glare walking slowly towards the others who all smiled seeing he had finally caught up after having sat down on a rock three miles back to rest contemplating waiting until she fell asleep to go to the cabin until it had gotten too cold for him not to start moving again, he missed his friends and he defiantly couldn’t wait to see Master Splinter again but the person he had been anxious to see was also the person he feared seeing the most – what if she was mad at him… what if she tried to hit him for forcing her to go. He was convincing himself she was going to kill him up until he had stopped off in the trees seeing the teen race across the yard crying and hugging Leonardo before clinging to each of their brother’s looking so relieved, he saw Mikey say something after the other’s had all looked to each other sharing a small look as she froze moving towards them when she headed to the house

 “Ay! What the shit ‘s that? Ya gonna welcome them back but ain’t gonna say hi to me kid-?” she looked back in shock seeing the red masked turtle making his appearance from the woods throwing his bag over his shoulder to get it up better above where she could see a thick bandage around upper arm “Now I know - I didn’t just walk my happy go lucky ass up here fer ya not to acknowledge me ya little shit!”

“Look he finally caught up guys! You get over the fear she was gonna whip yo ass hothead?”

He grinned at her as she turned slowly unsure if she was really seeing him “R-Raphie…” he smirked relief flooding through him at seeing she had been waiting there for him as she slowly turned “I-I’m dreaming” unexpectedly that smile he missed so much lit up her face as she let go of the door allowing it to slam loudly against the frame seeing the tears dripping down her cheeks fast

“He wouldn’t stop bitching sis so we left him in the dust”

She was suddenly overcome by a sense of relief as he kept moving towards them raising a hand over his head to wave at Casey and April coming up from the right side of the house twenty feet where the guys had appeared “Ay there kid – ya miss me” she took another step forward heading down the steps as he laughed at her stunned expression holding his arms out a smug grin plastered on his face as he finally stopped giving her a loving expression holding both arm out to her “Well c’mere kid – get yer ass over here baby”

A soft giggle came from her ending in a short sob that almost had her on her knees unable to process his presence, all at once everything hit her bolting off the porch racing across the grass fast as a few snowflakes drifted down around them punching Mikey in the arm hard as she passed him unable to scream at him right then taking the low groan as he rolled his shoulder as if she had hurt him “RAPH!” the massive turtle tossed his bag to the side in the doorway of the barn mentally telling himself he could get it later racing towards her fast having missed her so much, so damn much while they had traveled to get back to their family, and he wasn’t going to wait another second to hold her in his arms.

Raven slammed into him hard almost knocking him over as he picked her up off the ground having the shift his footing so he wouldn’t hit the ground, holding tight to her waist as her arms wrap around his neck, holding onto him so tightly as the tears returned “So – I take it I had ya all types of worried” a soft sob ripped from her throat as she held tight to him for a moment longer before looked him over touching his face trying to reassure herself he was really there as he shot her a smirk seeing her emerald orbs over flowing with tears “Ya really did miss me, didn’t ya kid”

He didn’t wait for her to respond finally leaning in fast catching her mouth under his as he kisses the teen hard growling as she melted into his grasp holding tight to him with an urgency just wanting to feel his body against hers. Oh, fuck, he had been dreaming of those lips… as well as a few other things since they had gotten separated. Still holding tight to her waist she tilted her head kissing him back just as hard maybe even a little more to make up for not kissing him back in New York swiping her tongue over his bottom lip not caring if the others were watching as she met the intensity head on groaning as she pulled him all that much closer when he tried to pull away from her finally breaking the lips lock she had him in the seeing her looking him over

“I-I love you… I love you so much Raph – I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner” he grinned feeling her kissing at his face making sure he knew without a doubt before pressing her lips back to his in a firm loving way until he pulled back seeing her sobbing silently

“Ay - it’s okay don’t cry ya know I hate seeing my girl in tears… I love ya too baby”

She slowly nodded as he started moving closer to the cabin hearing Mikey laughing as he finally sat her down on the ground keeping his arms around her “Dang – she sure knows how to make a great hero’s welcome”

She laughed for the first time in forever as they all joked around but she was quick to run in the house grabbing the bag of clothes that she had put up the day they had seen the news getting all of them a change of clothes while they all got showers and warmed up

Once they were done she made sure they got plenty food happily waiting on them hand and foot even if they didn’t want her too checking over their wounds that were still open helping Donatello clean and put fresh bandages on each of the turtles having to do the most with Leo’s right shoulder and down his arm where he had a healing burn that had seared the skin badly enough it was still bothering the oldest turtle

Raphael took every chance he could to pull her to him kissing the teen when he thought the others weren’t looking throughout the rest of the day trying to keep her grounded reminding her they were there as she kept her body moving cleaning and fixing up their rooms so they would be comfortable until she was able to sit down knowing she had finished everything

They had gave the girl a play for play of everything that happened from the moment they had split up all the way to when Donnie had realized there had been a bomb attached to the gas tank, explaining how they had managed to escape after the first blast before the truck could completely explode. Also explaining how their phones had gotten destroyed, why they hadn’t called not wanting to risk trying to contact them in fear of it being tracked if Stockmen was still somewhere in the city

They had gotten supplies after letting their major injuries heal up for a week or so before hopping a freight truck out of the city getting two hours out before having to travel the rest of the way on foot when they had realized the truck was going to be heading in the wrong direction. The four had walked what had taken them five hours to drive traveling on foot for the hours where the sun was down each evening while resting, eating, and sleeping the remaining part of the day the sun was high sometimes having to move through unknown tunnels just too clear areas if they got somewhere that didn’t have forest or cover

Raphael finally moved into the living room sometime around two the next morning after a few drinks with Casey to catch up or threaten him in a playful banter stopping in the door way to watch where she was curled up on the couch between her brothers still talking to the others about their journey after he got back from his alone time at the barn moving closer seeing his brother’s smiling “C’mon kid I think it was time we were heading off to bed” her eyes drifted up to him as he leaned down scooping her up off the couch walking away from the group and up the stairs into his bedroom with his prize hearing a few catcalls and excited whoops from the guys as the others laughed

He snorted rolling his eyes before slamming the door behind him in a solid warning, gently dropping her onto the soft bed hovered over his woman, taking a moment to look at his beautiful mate before kissing her once again “God danm I missed ya kid” his mouth moving over hers in a rough yet sweet fashion just like what she had been missing these past few weeks she had thought he was dead.

“You four scared me… I want to say I hate all four of you but-” tears dripped down her face as she pulled him closer running her fingers over his face thanking god he was okay and only sporting a few new scars on his hide and a deep wound to his upper arm nuzzling at him as she pulled him to her “I missed you too Raph…”

“Sorry about that baby – kept my promise though” she giggled holding him tight in a hug letting him silently know he was forgiven as she breathed in his scent blinking back the tears threatening to fall, he had kept his word – he had come home to her even if it took him a little time, he pulled back brushing a finger over her cheek looking down on her in a gentle way kissing her cheek softly “Love ya kid” nuzzling his nose into her neck he did his best to try to comfort her in the next moment the air around them shifted before their eyes met in a silent yet well understood message between their hearts

“I love you too hothead”

They immediately fell into a messy make out session as she pulled him down on top of her stopping for a moment to exchange a look before she yanked him down holding him in place by the back of his neck giving him a unmistakable signal he caught immediately

He churred as her hands drifted down his plastron before they were at his pants as he moved tearing the clothing off of each other until they were both naked beneath the comforters and ready feeling her heart beating fast under his plated chest as she reached up pulling his bandana off his face setting it over on the nightstand looking at him completely for what felt like the first time in complete bliss

His rough face looking just as handsome if not more so than it had the last time they had been this close; already the teenager had hickies and bite marks peppered across her body marking her as his mate but he was determined to mark her for good

Raphael could smell her arousal vividly in the cool air knowing she was dripping wet for him making him stiffen until he was so rock hard it hurt “Ya ready” he panted out a low growl as she shifted under him pressing her hot opening against his tip just as he positioned himself between her thighs cradling her in his strong arms

There had been no hesitation as she pulled him closer before he entered her taking the teen’s gift to him as he slowly allowed her to adjust, being so careful in all of his movements until his lover gave him to okay to do more; worshiping the woman all while fucking her through the night wanting to enjoy every second he had with her after going all those long sleepless days wondering if she was okay, if she hated him for making her leave, if they had ever made it out of the city or to the cabin, or if they were even alive.

He hadn’t bothered to lock the door behind them being loud as fuck not caring who heard wanting everyone to know what she meant to him so he was swearing and growling out his pleasure, fucking his younger mate so damn hard he was sure the bed was seconds from breaking under their rough mating while worrying he was going to hurt her, thrusting in and out of the woman under him as his cock pounding that tight coil raw holding her tight to him as he took her the only way he was willing needing to be so close wiping the tears from her face as he whispered to her letting his mate know he was still there.

He must have cum ten times making sure she climaxed before him, growling in her ear as the mixed juices soaking the sheets beneath their bodies and his thighs, the room smelled to high heaven of sweat and sex and he was sure they had burned through any fluids in their bodies half way through.

He loved it

At some point he had turned her over fucking the woman from behind moving in and out of her body in a frantic lust letting his animal urges take hold having found she was so much tighter in that position, watching her ass and thighs jiggle with every deep thrust giving them a few hard but playful slaps seeing she didn’t mind the rough treatment welcoming it wholeheartedly after what they had been through those long lonely weeks.

He growled loudly, gripping her hips tight as she convulsed under him panting before he slamming in deep as she cried out his name coming once again together “Rave…” she reached back pulling him down on top of her holding tight to his neck as he finished inside of his mate making sure his cum filled her womb each time until he was sure she would be his forever

Raphael pulled out of the teen once he could move pushing his body up off hers collapsing onto the mattress in complete exhaustion watching as she dropped coming to rest on the damp sheets beside him grinning as he pulled her limp body closer snuggling against the smaller form drawing the blankets back over their naked bodies

“That… was…” she panted breathlessly, her voice somewhat rough from screaming his name so much during the night feeling him nuzzling against her throat kissing at the bruised up flesh he had claimed and marked knowing there would be no hiding it from their family when morning finally came along with the fact that he knew he had been too rough at some point even though he had tried to be gentle she didn’t have a lot of faith that her legs would even work

He shot her one of the rare yet ever so bright grins she lived to see as she looked back over her shoulder “Too much kid?” she was flushed and still breathless from their night together but to him she was absolutely beautiful smiling happily down at her his golden orbs showing all the love and care he had for her before completely turning over to face him nuzzling into his neck.

“No… it was perfect – absolutely perfect Raphael”

He smirked pressing a soft kiss to her forehead pulling her in close breathing in her soft sweet scent that now accented under his “That’s m’ girl.” She tiredly giggled her body pressed flush to his and only moments later they had both fallen asleep together in each other’s arms

For the first time in weeks Raphael slept peacefully finally having a good dream curling up closer to her as she held tight to him getting a pleased churr from her man

 Hours later he woke up to find her still at his side and only one thing on his mind as he brushed a finger over her pale skin kissing her softly staying still so as not to wake the sleeping teen

 Man, it felt good to finally be back home…

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Well it’s about damn time estimate two half years ago I made this marble synthetic universe in chronological order video ever since then the question is in the most is wins election coming out so with avengersand Cindy working out in about a Librarian Find My Soul Poster from AmazinkShirt.com weekand that is a big sign is a need to do one last one of theseand yes this will most likely be the last of theseand seek analogies because after this this university to be weighted a trick out this video is high enough to make already just be the moviesand TV shows in the short filmsand even the tying comics as this video is ridiculously hilariously long but considering everything a document here in total is about 256 hours long condensing ends in two hours I think is not bad but maybe to watch this on one setting or do be impressive to just put a few disclaimers upfront if you must get themand find the video you can click to this time go had I will be too offended 170 states are to be 100 accurate that you might be assumptions recipe name hereand there because there are a lot of weird names of artifactsand planets also considering the stuff I need to cram into this I will be painting with a pretty broad brush for some of these especially TV shows I can go into every tiny subplot of agents of shield as much as I’m I went to’s that wasn’t super obvious spoilers ahead for everything like having everything I know I said sit back relaxand let’s get this thing started before we had to get into the eventsand everything are few things you should know about this universe is elite think of this universe is having two main sections there is the normal universe first which has earth that branches off to the rest of space goes to the galaxiesand planetsand guardians even further to planets like Asgardand the restaurants now in other card realms not planets but for my researchand understanding that realms are just planets deep out in spaceand is not specifically are connected to each other by Qaeda system called Yggdrasil basically just think nine important different planets connected to each otherand it got names from Norse mythology for the sake of not starting massive argument in the comments plan arounds from the out the nameplate around his Asgard with aliens living there have technology so advanced that they appear to be godsand also yeah have some magic powers that make them pretty godly then be on this regular universe in this other section there are hundreds thousands infinite number of parallel dimensions to this world all this is called the multi verse we mainly say our dimensions at this but in the story to be a lot of references to other dimensions basically universes that existed Dr strange portal with Myers so there planets switched rounds find twoand then there are the dimensions which will point out along the way okay I don’t Arity lots of people not set up but now it actually it started before the universe existed several billion years ago there were six singularities that eventually morphed into tiny gems with the powers of the universeand the powers of time power reality space the souland the mind in this pre universe darling on us to call it is a race of aliens called the dark elves who rule this place cousins are comprised of darknessand the love that I can’t get enough of darkness then the universe starts the dark elves don’t like this is no more infinite darkness so they would return the universe to how was before without of these planetsand speciesand whatnot so the albino leader of the dark elves Malikand gets his hands on the reality stoneand turns it into a substance called the ether basically turns a stone into a substance he can use as a weapon then as the universe evolves these giant spaceguard type things called celestial startup where we don’t really know the power to manipulate huge massand energyand so they are able to use the most powerful objects in the universe the infinity stones these into planetsand civilizations wherever they want is there just got pics like that of the celestial’s called egoand he finds being spaceguard disk kind of lonely he discovers he can manipulate the matter around himand create shells ponchos himself until he is an actual planet being a planet boring though so creates a smaller avatar from self to explore the universe over the next millions of years he finds tons of planets around the universeand decides he must conquer all of them he does this with a well thought out plan we start supplanting little seasonal planets that can turn this planets into extended versions of himself but to activate them the power of another celestial so how do you get another celestial you bang anything that moves in the entire universe apparently ego gets busy across the universeand since people church or the kids he makes for him one of these retrievers is eventually undo but were getting out of ourselves as pre pesto because none these kids inherit his celestial powersand so their useless 10 so he kills them all in stores the corpses in the lower part of the planet just technically inside of himself ill I at this point earth has finally formed kind of an immediate right filled with a superstrong element called by brainyand crash landsand what will become Africa because it’s awesome the rebellion gives the pilot around it special powersand extra strength had a few million yearsand now humans have evolved on earth in Africa five tribes of humans discovered the vibratingand decide to build a home around itand call it Wakonda that drives us fighting until one day one of the tribes warriors gets a message from the panther goddess passed to consume this plant affected by the librarian called the heart shaped herb okay pods yes there is apparently a panther goddess maybe this was just a hallucination as guy had a something because there’s really no expiration plan is universe whatever maybe does exist in part but anyway is he consumes the vibrating power plant superstrength speedand enhancing sinks from losses like yeah right as prequel he should be arcaneand so the tribes are united under his ruleand live in peace in Wakonda except for Jabari tribe who decide to live in the mountains instead a guy who eats the heart shaped herb also becomes the Black Panther the warrior protector of a condo over the centuries the natural kingand Black Panthers passed down with the help of the heart shaped herb also because they have a boatload by brainy him over the centuries work on it develops into an incredibly technologically advanced country far more advanced than anywhere else in the world however they decide to hide themselves so they don’t assure the techand wealth with the otherwise pretty sucky world of timeand so discuss themselves as a poor Third World country meanwhile this being somewhere else in the world who might be human might not it’s not really clear called out tomorrow discovers the Mystic arts basically realizes magic Israel Mr guards essentially allows you to manipulate those alternate dimensions I mentioned beforeand also do other cool stuff like make magic shields because this secretes a little club called the Masters of the mystic arts with a bunch of humansand start training in this art of energy manipulation magic really at some point he uses his magic powers to get his hands on the time infinity stone which he uses to make the Iraq Amato so he can control it as their fancy necklace he puts of three symptoms around the world to protect the world from threats from other dimensions these are symptoms in Hong Kong Londonand New York or what will eventually be displaces threats from other dimensions you ask my ass like for example this big amorphous that called her mother who is the Lord of the dark dimension that our dimension is one as many dimensions that exist out there in the multi verse time does not exist there that’s important detail the mother wants to conquer every dimension in the multi verse is he’s a giant superpower for bad guyand so he just wants to consume worlds it’s also possible to draw power from the dark dimension that old let’s say let you live for superlong time by is generally not a good idea to do so because the memo can influence youand come throughand destroy literally everything it’s not recommended now over to I called Oden who is the heir to the throne of that plan around the mentioned before Asgard currently the king is this guy called bore Asgard is a tale told of ragged rock this event that will destroy Asgardand sci fi demon called starters can do that using the eternal flame which basically gives them loads of powerand can resurrect that people like the sound of any of that so he fights orderand locks up on another plan around called Miss Lewis behind Danny Locke’s eternal flame is big screen textile vault back homeand Asgard will be stubborn rock from ever happening please take note as does the first of countless times Oden sucks at hiding stuff fast forward of itand the convergence is happening physically this means that all the nine plant rounds align with each otherand so they’re much easier to get to like literal portals open up between themand the fabric of reality starts getting weird so that race of aliens from before the universe called dark elves who are credentialing on the planet realm of content it take this opportunity to try destroy the universe again using the ether reality stone their stop by these guardians led by King Borer who also take ether from corpus either way were known find it kind of delicateand some of his troops managed to escapeand put themselves in hibernation until the next chance comes now back outthere’s a space of aliens called the Cree what you need to know about them is that they’re just the worst like pretty much all the time there also were with some other aliens at this particular time their suffering huge casualties in the war anyway to get the upper hand so they’re trying to search for that eventually they come across Earth set aside humans aren’t exactly good weapons but if the modified they can become good weaponsand so they decide to make in humans is not because the next part of this is slightly gatedand very important to the rest the story Cree experiment humansand give some of them powers that only manifest exposed to a missed called carriageand missed this mist is released by Turgeon crystals this process is called terror Genesis when she becoming human usually does get some sort superpowerand maybe deformity does the Cree put these Turgeon crystals in these weird shipping is called diviners while they were there the Cree decided also to go to Puerto Rico where they built a giant underground city where you can easily release the Turgeon list to activate your dormantand human powers if human with the inhuman Jean touches this divider Turgeon crystal carrier they had visions of a big that cities so they go thereand get their powers confused or just going started the Cree are happily making superpowered humans but after a while they like a these kind of suck let’s get out here when the first humans are made from this mine Hunter turns out to be a super powerfuland dangerousand human called hive who has a tentacle face is so powerful that the Cree want to get rid of them so they find a planet called Navistar Mavis found the universe call Mammothand build a portal called the monolith to easily transfer the human there to get rid of him they do soand he destroys the entire planet turning it into a barren wasteland however this hive has some followers back on earth that they believe that eventually can be brought back to rule the world so they started trying to get them backand built a whole society around the idea this secret organization became known as Hydra yes Hydra wasn’t always crazy Nazis they were originally crazy tentacle monster worshipers one point Hydra gets its hands on the monolithand transitionsand people to get hive but they never come back anyway the Creekand hallway from Earth but one poor Cree died while thereand so’s corpses just left behind at some point years well something humans that are left on earth find a way to get to the moon or a portal maybe anyway they get to the moon build a city thereand set up their own monarchyand society where the people who get good powers get to be royalty in divorceand lives while the people who get less can powers have to work in the mindsand remember you’re supposed to root for the rich people here for some reason back Asgard has become the King he has a daughter called hello who is now the heir to the throne decides he wants to expand as God’s powerand brings kingdom more glory does run the nine plant rounds of helloand conquers them sometimes that means that aren’t necessarily very sanitary eventually though multi lung style house a mission goes too bigand she gets a little too let’s say crazy with murdering so I banishes her to the plan around of hell is only capable realized yet is kind of a bad dude I was getting ashamed of all the terrible stuffand held it together so we just covered a lot then act like it never existed like the hero hits out finally were in the 80s metal multi verse thing where there are bunch of different dimensionsand another one of these dimensions theirs is awesome mystical city called Conlon which appears on earth somewhere in China about every 15 years or so in the city this group of monks called the order of the Crane mother teach the art of G this mystical life energy in every living thing is we can help you heal people superfast or can be used for fighting purposes also did I mention that dragons live in the city because they do that without style dragons over the years often die out except for one college shall allow is also always one special trainee in the order of the Crane mother who if there super amazing at punchingand kicking testified the Dragon shall allowand when the powers of the immortal iron fist the damage eventually achieve one fist to make it really strong busing heal peopleand you’re really good at fighting the orifice job is to defeat the enemies of the order of the Crane motherand got a secret passageway to come onand the metals passed down from generation to generation think of it as the city’s Black Panther minus the cloth it but things are all sunshine shall beatings and their five students one immortality using the Chi door of the grandmothers likeand so these five get banished to earth those five are called because no madam gal Alexandra Murakamiand so one day they been together to form an evil organization called the hand very sinister name figure out around the world their opponents while those dragons died scattered undergroundand through these bones they can get an elixir that lets you bring that people from the dead take elusive on time which is what they want has to strive to conquer Asia getting their own little army of ninjas together so the group called the chaste who don’t like that stand up against themand they battled for centuries to come the chased a big believer’s income line in the iron fistand they’d really like iron fist to help them out they had to go around being able to one point destroy the city of Pompeii is still a twin helland she hates it so she tries to escape ownsand his army of super bass worriers called the Valkyries to stopper they do it but all the Dina process except for one of them called Brunhild make a medical doctor for the rest of this she’s pretty shaken after seeing literally all of her friends get murdered so she goes off of the universe as her faith in Asgardand all that is shaken Jens Obama’s junk planet on space called cigar more or less all the garbage in the universe goes where she slowly turns in a Han Solo mixed with archer also has another kid with his lovely as guardian wife Freda called Thor Thor is now the heir to the throne of Asgard as hell it totally doesn’t count later on in another plan around cardio nine there’s a species called the frost giants who want to conquer earth they came that guard which again guest yes Earth is another planet realm so they start invasion in the heart of the earth Scandinavia in Norway these guardians meet themand paddle them all the way back to your nine where they defeat them also licking the frost giant has a baby but he just is not to die outand find that baby is like God’s cute so he keeps in the namesand Lokiand he raises him with his actual son Thor never telling him that he’s actually frost giant nice of negotiate a peace treaty with frost giantsand take their source of power at the casket of ancient winters he also present on his vault Loki grew up togetherand they love each other even though they don’t always get along snake transformed into himselfand make Loki’s generally just kind of envious of Dorcas secretly gets more attentionand Thor also gets kind of writing area as he grows up as a is a prince those blue aliens called the Cree welder still hated by actually everyoneand so the end of starting a war with this huge Empire space called the no vampire this empire spends a lot of planets that were last for a long long time don’t worry we’ll get back to it Asgard also has his army of special soldiers a bit super enragedand store everything called the berserker Army one member of this army after a battle on earth decides to stay thereand he ends up living in a quaint little monastery in Ireland is berserker staff makes a person superstrong so he split it up into three piecesand distributed around the world is still a pretty busy kingand so he gets his hands on another infinity stone the space stone which is also called the Tesseract is IK the subject of insane power the most secure place in the universe Norwayand so he does also this as guardian woman whose voice ensnares men called Laura lie goes around nine plant around collecting an army of slave men she stoppedand imprisoned by as guardian where your name sift though still in Asgard yes a bunch of as good stuff happens this time there’s this blacksmith called how dear which if I was using my Danish voice would probably be had to buy this videos in Danish so hold dear anyway this guy finds artifact called the cup of glory but Loki seizes him because he’s Loki things a plan to steal it insults hold yearand gets chased by Holger sunblock Thor stuff the Chaseand Loki says it should have a contest of skill intelligenceand virtue to settle the matter in teams together this challenge enters tricksand schemes Loki steals a cup of in the process however through circumstances that really unimportant here Thor is arrogantand tries to take the cup they are realized the companies at the worst of them looking at what he did how do those crazy with power because the cupand trust sealed until Thorand then Thor was the fightand that’s the end of that Burger King time comic I’m not getting nothing really important happened for about 300 years by the 1800s hydra still sitting people through portals to the novice to get their tentacle leader back I on the other side keeps killing themand taking on the bodily forms to stop himself from dying some pieces also cut off from the monolithand given to the biggest fatcatsand Hydra now over the next 100 years hydra sort of moves away from the Holton Gloucester thing becomes more focused on just world domination as you do still doesn’t the above there are still big passing also the hand still rock about just being eviland stuff just don’t forget in the 1930s this kid called Howard Stark make some pretty crazy inventions because he’s a genius uses these at his other brilliant ideas to become a multimillionaire at a relatively young age there’s this sickly skinny sad kid called Steve Rogers in Brooklyn who has a heart of gold this other guy called Bucky Barnes helps them with some bulliesand so they become testes for decades to come like a lot of decades 1934 one of the biggest members of hydra is a guy called Johann Schmidt now that the Nazisand taking over Germany you want to join up with them Schmidt meets with Hitler is IK unable your evil let’s do thisand it was like sounds good to also needs the scientist called Arden Zola yes Arden not Armen starts working closely with him Hydra is now the Nazi deep science divisionand Schmidt has quite a few things on his to do list was a turn itself into a super soldier weapon for hydra he wants to adopt special weapons for the Nazis to use is looking defining the mythical Tesseract since it’ll probably be pretty useful in the whole taking over the world thing Howard Stark in his billionaire ring also meets Dr Abraham or Scott a German scientist was working on a serum that enhances a person’s physical abilities to the max super soldier serum if you will that is like KS it was a serum convenientand so Schmidt capturesand forces her skyand make the serum threatening to kill as a family Hydra continues to develop high tech next suits weapons but don’t have the extra to make them super laser heand cinematic yet the rafters Steve Rogers’s mom Sarah Rogers dies of tuberculosis is not often but Bucky helps to get through the tough times is with them to the end of the line over in Soviet Russia the red room program is started by the Soviet government is designed to brainwashand train young women to be super deadly assassin’s physical tank of shooting forceful sterilizationand ballet a little girl who would later be called Dottie Underwood is draining this program to become a superspy out Stark has all this moneyand all this tackling around so he starts of the company for all his awesome inventions called Stark industries which start stealing scienceand eventually weapons with the help of his own resources Stark also comes across in that I bring him that still left over in Africa takes the tiny man he finds back USA to work on now there’s this woman called Peggy Carter she’s a code breaker in England working for the British she doesn’t get married to this guy called Fred her brotherand BFF Michael recommends her to be a field agent because she such a badass the pays like I can fight this guy you hate Michael but then Michael diesand this pushes Peggy to become field agentand call for wedding needs to start working with Chester Phillips in the US Army. Important treatment and the patient is all in and he in vision and that made an egg on his interest optimal division is going what you want me on cannot get invited process is improves that the evidence you can maintain a nice thing is I anything I can feel collecting data about a penny on family desk. But I’m immune more and more people are getting better we have a problem that’s a worldwide problem this is a worldwide problem but I’ve been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we’ve been able to do that with the if you if you take a look at what we’ve done in terms of goggles and masks and downs and everything else and in particular ventilators were now making ventilators all the real thousands and thousands a month distributing them all over the world it will go away as I say were rounding to turn where rounding the corner it’s going away from you as you leave the country out of this crisis 220 000 Americans dead here nothing else I say tonight to this anyone is responsible for not taking control in fact not saying I’m I take no responsibility initially anyone is responsible for that money should not remain as president of United States of America were a situation where there are 1000 deaths a day now thousand yesterday and there over 70 000 new cases per day compared to what’s going

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Through the summer every single day were increasing testing every single day average flights are coming into the country there like I can promise you with presence direction there will be no letting up on on making sure that our hospitals had the equipment at the personal protective supplies for medical personnel of the no letting up on the development of therapeutics by our great pharmaceutical companies are driving toward a Librarian Find My Soul Poster from AmazinkShirt.com vaccine as soon as it is possible to make available to the public and on the be no letting up on continuing to scale testing already more than anyone in the world but by next fall will have a a broad range of testing variety of different means and that’s why we say with confidence that should the coronavirus reemerge at any point next fall or next winter we will be prepared to deal with it identify it do the contact tracing and isolation to ensure that that we we deal with this epidemic in the manner that we are that we deal with infectious diseases are promoting for your happens. More that November it was pretty good I the special I know this said it was actually soon realized that this is the bow release G herbal when he got arrested him and I got into now course heard it almost he didn’t get talking about yes sex with a couple weeks ago Jerry back in August it what was your initial thought Kiki all that you spelled all three United that you heard this buddies very big game product that is not the right when a bad man doing right by Concetta bring you that this man is happy he will be doing stuff but a key and successful relationship Godbey got something from year ago and didn’t talk about it on the radio because I know that it will be a part of a bashing to do with his girl time to the right year ago I’m sorry he was hired as he was questioning his manhood that you know you you know we you only you great like being the main you know you you know you shall that nice advice the blanketed life began to give you herbal advice radio either as are doing their job imagery that now ladies at. Often learned after the fact presence had serious health problems in the White House everyone from FDR to JFK I and then even now Ronald Reagan’s will that this is the most serious public health crisis for president probably since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 no question about it on the other incidents where the 25th amendment has been has been enacted is when Evan scheduled surgeries that this is the most serious condition and present has faced since rally was shot and there been other presidents are Dwight Eisenhower varies serious heart attack when he was in the White House and there was no 25th and at that point since this is something to take seriously but it is it is important to remember most people have it do recover and the president of the best medical care in the world we are told I should say George by the White House the president has not invoked the 25th amendment to temporarily transfer the powers and duties of the president to VP Mike pence and then make sense as long as he is capable of taking See Other related products: Everything Is Fine Earth 8 Bit T Shirt