#everything in her mind is revolving around Logan now. everything wrong in her life is because her dad died. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lumosinlove · 3 years

Text

Vaincre

part vi

cw: brief mentions of past injury and past outing and anxiety

December

And then the cold came, the dark days

When fear crept into my mind

December brought loses, and not just Remus’. By the handful. Like coal in a stocking, bulky and bitter. Remus couldn’t help but feel like his own frustration was leaking onto Sirius, who slowly but surely, regained the tightness in his shoulders. Through Sirius, it trickled over the rest of the team, tar-like and sluggish.

“All right,” Marlene said from behind the camera, blond hair obviously carefully curled that morning but thrown into a stressed, messy bun now. “Remus. Loops. Re. Babe. It’s one line.”

“Yeah, babe,” Finn said from the sidelines, arms crossed over his elf costume, the bells on his shoes and cuffs jingling as if spurred on by his sly grin.

Remus narrowed his eyes at him, but repositioned himself on his mark. He was sweating a little in his Santa suit and beard.

“I got it, I got it, sorry,” Remus sighed.

“You more bad than Cap,” Evgeni said helpfully from the sidelines, nose painted bright red and antlers worn proudly. “We make good, Remus, let’s go. For fans.”

“Got it,” Remus huffed out a laugh. “Jeez, guys.”

“Where is Cap, anyway?” Marlene asked.

“Went over to Dumo’s earlier this morning,” Remus said. “Visiting the kids.”

Truthfully, Sirius had been almost skittish this morning. All nervous laughter and uncharacteristically uncoordinated limbs. He’d all but tripped out the door. Remus didn’t know if it was the loses piling up or Regulus due home from school for vacation in a few days.

“All right,” Marlene said. “Ready now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Remus grumbled, “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Is fun,” Evgeni insisted.

The camera’s light went back on, Marlene pointed to him with two finger-guns, and Remus mustered his best Evgeni-level baritone.

“Ho, ho, ho, it’s a Lion’s Christmas!”

“Thank fuck, finally,” Marlene said, clapping her hands. “Jesus, thank you.”

“I’m out,” Remus grimaced, tugging the fake beard off his face and gasping for air. “Harz, you’re up.”

Finn sauntered in front of the camera, squatting a little with his butt out. “Marls, am I a good elf or a bad elf?”

“Bad elf,” Leo’s voice sounded from the back of the room where he was precariously trying to keep a BLT sandwich from falling apart.

Marlene just closed her eyes. “This is the longest day of my life.”

It was a fun day at the rink, watching all the guys have to put on a series of, by the end of it, slightly sweaty costumes. Logan was forced into a reindeer outfit post land exercises, and Cole didn’t look too happy slipping it on next. Logan just laughed at his wrinkled nose.

But the Captain was missing.

“We’ll have to snag him later,” Marlene was mumbling to one of her assistants, eyes on her clipboard.

“Maybe after that radio interview? Tuesday?” the assistant replied.

Remus looked down at his phone. Where are you? he’d typed out. The words turned blue as they sent. Still at Dumo’s?

Here! was the only reply.

“Remus,” Pascal’s voice came, and Remus looked up clicking his phone off.

“Hey, Dumo,” he said, glancing over Pascal’s coat and scarf. “Did you just get in?”

“Don’t lie,” Pascal smiled, slipping his scarf from around his neck. It was slightly lumpy—Remus recognized his son Marc’s handiwork from Sirius’ present last year. “You’re looking for the Captain.”

“Maybe,” Remus smiled. “How’re the kids?”

“Happy with the ever-revolving-door of new teenage boys to wake up early,” Pascal said with a nod to Cole who passed them clutching a travel mug of what Remus knew was Celeste’s perfectly brewed coffee. Remus’ eyes roved the hallway behind him, inhaling slowly. It smelled like new carpet, the way it always had. Then why did everything feel so off?

“That’s good,” Remus replied distractedly.

“Okay,” Pascal laughed and turned Remus around with an arm around his shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Remus spared a last glance behind him. “Nothing’s wrong, but you can’t deny he’s been…”

“Backsliding,” Pascal finished for him, taking a sip of his own coffee. “Yes, why do you think I had him come over with the kids?”

Remus nodded. “All right, all right. Point taken.”

“He’ll be okay,” Pascal said as they reached the locker room doors. He raised a thick eyebrow towards his neatly pushed back hair, feathered with gray. “Are you?”

Remus sighed. “Pascal…”

“You cannot be a hockey player if you think it’s all your fault,” Pascal said gently.

“I know that,” Remus said quietly.

“Let yourself be a part of the team,” Pascal said after a few moments. “Okay?”

Remus was yanking at the straps of his pads, dressing for practice, by the time Sirius appeared. He received a few shouts of greeting, and made to go to Remus when he was stopped by Marlene’s assistant. Remus watched him nod a few times, then smiled at the skeptical grimace that crossed his face, no doubt at the idea of dressing up for a Christmas video.

“Hey,” Sirius said when he had escaped. He crossed the room before Remus could get up. “You were still half asleep when I left this morning,” He pressed his hands to either side of Remus’ stall. “Come here.”

Remus smiled and leaned in for his gentle kiss. “That’s because you all but jumped out the door.”

Sirius just kissed him again.

“Good morning,” Remus whispered.

Sirius just smiled at him, swiping his thumb over Remus’ lip. Remus couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“What‘s with the face?” He asked.

Sirius pulled Remus in again, just brushing their lips together this time. “Nothing. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Remus smiled, and stood. As he stood, he caught Logan’s eye and his smile faltered.

Logan had a funny look on his face. His green eyes darted away once he realized that Remus was looking, looked back with a quick smile, and then busied himself with his stick tape. Remus frowned, and then watched Leo notice, too. Leo nodded at him, then shrugged, eyes flicking to Sirius.

Remus thought of Logan’s words at the bar, with Thomas. All the things they’d shared.

Be a part of your team.

Remus had felt like it that night. Even more so than on the ice. Snorting laughter with Logan and Thomas, despite the heaviness, oh-so different for each of them, that weighed around their necks.

“We’re doing special teams today, boys,” one of the assistant coaches called out. “All right? So, that’s Black, Potter, Olli…Harz, Tremzy, Reyes.”

Remus’ chest deflated a little. He wasn’t sure if it was in relief or disappointment. Was he really so embarrassed that he was relieved to not be the attention of practice? He didn’t want to be.

A slump was a slump.

“I think I want to go home,” Remus said, and Sirius looked up, confused.

“Over the holidays,” Remus elaborated. “Instead of my family coming here.”

They had already booked the flights, and some small, older part of Remus winced at that, but he had money now, an NHL entry level contract was more than enough. He could just buy more flights. Sirius could buy tons.

Sirius nodded, obviously still taken aback at the sudden declaration. “Uh, oh. Okay. We can do that. It’s not that long, but…”

“I know,” Remus said, and suddenly felt small. “Two days are enough.”

“Two days,” Sirius repeated. “Yeah. Yeah, d’accord.”

Remus nodded and looked back down at his skates.

Hey, Sirius, we wondered if we could ask you about your partner, Lupin, of course.

Remus flexed his fingers against the steering wheel. The city’s main street flowed past slowly outside his windows. What would Julian prefer? More Gryffindor merch? That was barely a present anymore. Maybe a video game. Remus wanted to find something perfect. Something that made up for the, lately, more than infrequent phone calls. Something in Remus couldn’t stand to listen to the silence in between Julian’s words. His older brother was in the NHL. And, frankly, he sucked at it.

You two haven’t been the same on the ice. And I know your preseason performances gave a lot of people a really good feeling. Lupin’s not seen much ice time at all, actually.

These things happen, Sirius’ voice said. To all of us.

Remus bit his lip. Put on his blinker.

Well, what’s it like? the host asked. Playing with your boyfriend?

Remus is a valuable member to the team, Sirius replied. Of course, he’s valuable to me, as well, personally, but that doesn’t matter on the ice.

How could it not, though? another interviewer asked with a laugh in his voice. I guess what I’m getting at is, do you wish you guys were always on the same line? I bet that’d be the dream.

Ah, Sirius laughed. Non, I mean, there are some certainties in our team right now. I’m happy every day that Remus is with us, but I’ve been playing with James for…

Remus didn’t completely hear the rest of his sentence. He jammed the car into reverse, pulling into a parking spot. He felt stupid. He pulled his phone out.

Where are you?

The reply was immediate. Staring at your car.

Remus huffed out a breath, pulled his hat back over his ears, and shoved his door open.

“Hey,” Lily said, fists deep in her pockets and bouncing on her heels in the cold. “What’s with the murder face?”

“Nothing,” Remus said defensively. “I don’t have a…”

Lily raised an eyebrow.

“I just,” Remus groaned. “I just want to shop. Okay? I just want to look at the Christmas windows and I want to find a cute present for my baby brother, and I don’t want to think about Sirius right now.”

Lily snorted, dark red painted mouth curling up. “Who said anything about Sirius?”

Remus paused from where he had looped their arms together. “I don’t know.”

“All right, all right,” Lily said, squeezing their linked elbows. “I want hot chocolate.”

Within a hour, Remus was laden down with far more than a gift for Julian. He had a new, expensive set of oil paints for his mom, an adjustable textbook stand for Regulus, and a large bag of sour candy for Logan. Thomas had a portable photo printer that plugged into his phone.

“I have no idea what to get him,” Remus sighed. “Why is he so hard to shop for?”

“Oh, he’s just he now, is he?” Lily laughed. “God, what’s got you so wrapped up with your boyfriend? And not very happily, I could add.”

“I’m happy,” Remus said. “I just don’t know what to get him. What do you get the star of the NHL?”

Remus made a protesting noise as Lily yanked him to a stop in front of a particularly bright window display consisting of red and green mirrors that reflected dazzling lights on some sort of white sweatsuit. Remus all but squinted down at her.

“Your not shopping for the star of the NHL,” Lily said, green eyes stern. “You’re shopping for Sirius. I don’t shop for ‘James Potter, Gryffindor Lions top six, Hart trophy finalist.’ I shop for James. My James, my best friend, the father of my baby boy.”

Remus looked towards the darkening street, busy with shoppers. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What happened?” Lily pushed. “This isn’t like you. In fact, not much has been like you lately—”

“He all but said he didn’t want to play together,” Remus snapped. “On the radio.”

Lily blinked in surprise. “Is that was he said, or is that what you heard?”

“Jesus,” Remus sighed, adjusting his many bags and moving around here. “I don’t need another talk about how this isn’t my fault.”

“Then stop making leaps in your head,” Lily said, following him. “Stop putting words in my mouth.”

“I have to get home,” Remus said. “Sirius’ll be waiting for dinner.”

Lily tugged him around one last time, grip like iron. Remus glanced down at her slender fingers, surprised.

Her cheeks were flushed against the red hair blowing against her face in the cold. She looked like she badly wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite decide what.

“Talk to him,” she settled on after a painful beat of silence. “Just…if not me, him. If not him, someone.”

Remus gave his head a small shake. “About what?”

Lily just sighed and released him. “I’m parked over there.”

Remus took one look at her disappointed eyes and nodded shortly, turning away. The gifts didn’t seem to weigh him down half as much as the feeling that settled over his chest.

It was dark by the time he pulled into their garage. His stomach was growling and the hot chocolate had made him unbearably thirsty. He welcomed the blast of warm house air as he opened the door, sparing a glance to the calendar. They had an early team weight session tomorrow and he was glad. He felt like he’d burn up with the restlessness in his muscles.

Sirius didn’t call out with the opening door, and Remus frowned, letting his bags fall to a heap by the kitchen table.

“Sirius?”

“In here!” came his voice from the living room.

Remus followed it, shrugging out of his coat and gloves as he went. When he reached the living room, he stumbled to a stop on the threshold.

Sirius glanced up from the TV, controller in hand, seemingly unfazed by Remus’ sudden stop. “Hey. How’s Lils?”

He said it so casually, like the dark strands that had been curling almost to his shoulders for months weren’t sheered clean away, tighter without the added weight and scooping upwards above his ears.

“You cut your hair,” Remus said.

Sirius shrugged, leaning to the side a little with the mock effort of moving the figure on the screen. “Yeah. Marls pulled me in for the holiday video and I just…I don’t know, I decided,” He hadn’t even paused the video game. “You don’t like it?”

“I…no, it’s not that, I just…” Remus let his eyes wash over him. “I didn’t know you were going to.”

“Thought I’d change it up. It’s not like I’m scoring.”

Remus could only look at him. Sirius’ phone chimed and he glanced at it, then flipped it over.

Of course. Of course it would be related to their ice performance.

“Right,” Remus said tightly. He knew Sirius hadn’t meant that as a dig at him, but it still felt like one. He cleared his throat.

“Heard the interview.”

Sirius sighed. “Re, they do these things—”

“Will you pause the fucking game?”

Sirius didn’t look at him for a moment. The figure hovered between two motions on the TV, a strange, glitching motion, and then Sirius set the controller down.

“What’s wrong with the interview?” he asked, turning towards him on the couch.

“They—“ Remus hesitated. He felt his hands curl into fists. “You sounded so…unbothered. About me.”

“What would bother me?” Sirius rose. “Re, we’ve talked about this. It’s just a slump.”

“It doesn’t feel that way!” Remus snapped. “I…God, never mind.”

He turned on his heel, back towards the kitchen, strange, unwelcome tears at his throat.

Sirius didn’t follow him. Remus thought he heard the TV turn back on, heard the swoop of a sent text.

He was being ridiculous. He took two pans off of the wall. Opened the refrigerator.

He felt so unbearably guilty.

“Baby,” Remus called, clearing his throat again. “What do you feel like for dinner?”

He heard Sirius’ shuffling as he stopped the game and turned the TV off. He appeared around the corner a moment later, already walking for his coat.

“I’m actually going out with Logan.”

Remus studied his back, the tight pull of his wool coat across his large shoulders. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to wait up if I’m late,” Sirius said, offered a shaky smile, and then was gone.

Remus listened to the garage door opening and the car start.

Sirius hadn’t even kissed him goodbye.

Logan was woken up by a strangled shout from the living room. No less then two seconds later, he heard the bedroom door open, there was a beat of wind-filled silence, and then a six foot hockey player landed on his legs full force. Logan groaned and heard Leo do the same from where he was spooned up against his back.

“Boys,” Finn all but shouted.

“Harzy, Jesus,” Leo mumbled.

“Wha’time,” Logan cracked an eye open.

“Alex got traded to the Rags,” Finn said, and gave a loud whoop, bouncing his weight down on the bed twice. “Boys! He can come for Christmas.”

Leo pushed himself up onto an elbow, blond hair pressed down at one side from the pillow. “Wait, seriously?”

“Gotta call him,” Finn said, and was gone just as quickly as he had come, phone already up to his ear.

Leo snorted, then looked back down at Logan. “Wow. Wake up call.”

They jumped when their actual alarm went off, sending Leo reaching across Logan’s chest to turn it off. Logan looped his arm under Leo’s shoulder, keeping him in place. He all but felt Leo’s smile in the kiss placed to his forehead.

“Finn will love being closer to Alex,” Leo said.

“Alex will be closer to Kase and Natalie,” Logan replied, and opened his eyes, combing his fingers through the soft hair at the base of Leo’s neck.

“Hm,” Leo nodded, pulling back to look down at Logan’s face. He laughed at the sleep that still lingered there. “Good morning. Happy game day.”

Logan’s mouth twitched towards a smile. “Are you going to really say that every time we have a game?”

Leo just grinned and leaned down for a proper kiss. “I am.”

Sirius watched his team circling the ice for warm-ups against Detroit. The crowd blurred their red and gold with some more festive colors. The last game before their short Christmas break always had the feeling of the last day of school. Sirius didn’t actually like it much. He felt a twitchy sort of unfocus from everyone around him, his own teammates included. He knew, before the game even began, that, though they’d all try to win, there wouldn’t be much hitting or fowl play tonight. Like the Christmas truce in La Grande Guerre.

His eyes found Remus across the rink, stretching out with Timmy and Olli. He looked so beautiful, helmet off and hair curled and slightly sweaty already from his pre-game warm up. Sirius’ chest hurt thinking of the previous night. Remus hadn’t asked about the sudden departure. Sirius didn’t have an excuse.

“If you want him to stop suspecting something, maybe stop staring at him.”

Sirius looked over at Logan, who had an unimpressed look on his face. Sirius sighed, busying himself with tapping a puck between the blade of his stick.

“He’s angry with me,” Sirius said.

“He’s angry with himself,” Logan amended. “Believe me. I know the feeling. And so do you.”

“Did he talk to you about it?”

“Yes,” Logan said shortly. “But not so I could tattle to you.”

Sirius groaned. “Tremz…”

“Stop staring at him,” Logan said. “For the sake of the cameras if not your surprise.”

“No one’s going to be focused,” Sirius said. “We’re going to have so many turn-overs, just like the last…fuck number of games.”

Leo, leaning against the boards for a water break, let out a low whistle. “Say it how it is, Cap.”

Sirius just set his jaw, eyes down. He didn’t remember the last time they won a game. They were falling rapidly in the division standings. Soon, he worried that there wouldn’t be anywhere left to fall.

Sirius pushed away from the boards, picking up another puck and wrapping around towards Remus, their eyes caught, and Sirius did almost stop. But he flipped at the last second, skating with quick cross-overs, back towards Remus, and shot hard at Kasey in the net. Kasey gloved it easily.

The first ten minutes of the period went quick, and Sirius couldn’t help but glance at Remus out of the corner of his eye. Coach was sitting him. Remus had barely moved, and he looked like he was just winding up tighter as the game went on and his teammates came and went around him.

He’d been asleep, or pretending to be, when Sirius had gotten home from dinner with Logan—who had brought Finn along. He’d been hoping to leave even before Remus got home from shopping with Lily, but when he’d heard the garage door open, he’d been afraid to speak. It all felt close to spilling out; his secret.

“I don’t know if I should do it now,” Sirius had said to Logan and Finn. “He’s so unhappy.”

“Dude,” Finn had replied. “If there’s ever a time to confess your undying love to someone, it’s when they need your support.”

“But,” Logan had added. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be about marriage. Maybe it could just be you and him, away from all the pressures on the ice.”

He’d come home even more unsettled than he’d left. The ring, shoved in the back of his underwear drawer, seem to let off a high pitch sound, a faint ringing that Sirius was worried Remus could hear.

“Black!” Coach shouted. “Tremz, Pots!”

Sirius blinked. He hadn’t even been paying attention to the game. He hesitated too long, Coach angrily had called to Finn instead, and the whistle blew for too many men on the ice.

“Jesus, Black, do I have to sit you, too?” Coach called.

“Sorry, Coach,” Sirius said. He was burning. Remus glanced at him.

“Get out there,” Coach said. “Lupin, to the box.”

Sirius’ chest gave another lurch. That was an unspecific penalty. Anyone could serve it, and Coach had chosen Remus. He watched Remus slam the door to the penalty box a little too hard, and keep his eyes down, away from the crowd on either side of him.

In the second, Sirius hit cross bar four times before finally sneaking in a goal. His lungs were aching from his long shifts, and he rested his stick across his knees, bent over on his way towards the bench when the siren went, signaling the beginning of the second intermission. It didn’t even matter. They were down four. Reyes had had a miscommunication with Olli, letting number 24 right through their defenses to slip one between Kasey’s blocker and the ice.

Sirius’ lungs were only just beginning to loosen when they made it out of the tunnel, towards the locker room. He dropped his wet gloves in the bin held out by Layla and felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Baby,” Remus said softly.

Sirius almost shook him off.

“Hey—hey,” Remus curled his fingers until Sirius gave, ignoring the glances they were getting from Logan and Pascal.

“Quoi?” Sirius asked, then felt like shit. Remus’ golden eyes already looked dull. But Sirius was trying so hard. Remus hadn’t budged the last few weeks, had been silently curling into Sirius’ embraces, only to pull away again when the conversation hit a nerve, or he winced at something in his own mind.

“I know when you’re beating yourself up,” Remus said firmly.

Sirius clenched his jaw and pulled away, shouldering around him. “Marlene wants me for intermission.”

“Talk to me,” Remus pleaded from behind him.

“What?” Sirius turned on him, accent heavy. “Like you’ve been talking to me?”

Remus snapped his mouth shut, looking away. “You’ve seen tonight. This game. What’s there to say?”

Sirius closed his eyes, trying to control his breathing. “Come here.”

He didn’t want to talk in front of just anyone. Not about this. Preferably, he didn’t want to talk here at all, but this was the moment Remus had chosen and Sirius was thankful he’d finally chosen a moment at all.

He found a carved out little corner of chipped white hallway. Once no one passed for a few moments, Sirius stepped forward and took Remus’ hands.

“You don’t have to say anything to talk to me. But you’re…quiet. Please don’t avoid it. Don’t avoid me.”

“I don’t avoid you,” Remus said.

“A little you do,” Sirius said more quietly, thumbs swiping gently across Remus’ knuckles. “After a bad game, like this one, you do a little bit.”

“I’m…” Remus swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

“I want to be there for you,” Sirius said. “I want to be with you. For my entire life, d’accord?” Suddenly, fear sunk its teeth in a soft bite. “You know that, don’t you?”

Remus nodded quickly, but he wouldn’t look up.

“It’s Vegas,” Remus said, ducking his head. “That’s all. Probably. It’s coming up. But—Jesus, I asked about you.”

“I just want us to win,” Sirius said. “Yes, I get like this. But I know I get like this, and I’ve gotten help figuring myself out, my own signs. You? I’m not sure you know that yet.”

Remus’ eyes finally snapped up. Sirius shrunk away. He was angry again, and his voice came out low. “You’re not sure I know how to figure myself out? What, like this is brand new to me? Like pressure is so new to me?”

“This is new,” Sirius couldn’t help the edge in his voice. “You think I like this? How public this is? We are? You think I want to be asked why my boyfriend gets benched?”

He knew he’d toed over the line even as the words slipped through. He let out a harsh breath through his nose, closed his eyes for a moment.

“Re…”

“Don’t,” Remus tugged his hands free and they stood there, silent. Sirius was still breathing hard from the game, and it only seemed to uneven the field they were standing on opposite ends of further.

“Remind me to give you the car keys,” Remus said quietly, finally. “You’ll need them to get Reg later tonight.”

Sirius hesitated. “You’re not coming?”

Remus raised a half-hearted shoulder. “Take him out for dinner, he probably missed you. I’m just going to…I’m kind of whipped.”

Sirius watched the 6 on his jersey disappear around the corner, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair.

“Talk to me,” he sighed under his breath. Marry me.

He went at Marlene’s call of his name.

Sirius’ breath fogged the air as he opened his door when he saw Regulus exit the Arrivals terminal. It smelled like airplane fuel and cold. Sirius wondered if Remus would want to go alone to the airport, when his family arrived. He hoped not.

He mustered his brightest smile, but Regulus just snorted, seeing right through him.

“Uh-huh, who do you take me for?” his little brother asked, and shoved his suitcase at Sirius to put in the trunk. “Sorry about tonight’s game.”

“Nice to see you, too,” Sirius sighed, and hurried them out of the cold air.

They ended up squeezed into the back of one of Sirius’ favorite restaurants. The waitstaff knew him, were used to him—wouldn’t let anyone bother him. They had welcome him and Remus with open arms, given them private tables when the fuss of Remus joining the team had yet to die down.

Regulus tore a piece of crispy bread in two.

“Did you bring it?” he asked. It was nice just the two of them. They could speak French. It would be mostly English with Remus around, and at family skate.

Sirius glanced up from the menu he didn’t need to look at. “What?”

Regulus gestured, like it was obvious. “The ring. I want to see.”

“Non, I came straight from the rink. I don’t just carry it around with me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Sirius laughed, folding the leather booklet closed. He sighed, and reached for a piece of bread himself. “We actually—”

Sirius was cut off by the waiter bringing him his favorite wine. They were near the front tonight, given the late hour.

“Actually…” Regulus raised an eyebrow, picking up his glass.

Sirius settled back in his chair, the bars of the back feeling good on his sore muscles. He should have done more of a cool down, but after the loss, after Remus…

“We fought,” Sirius finished. “Tonight. Between the second and third. I keep saying the wrong thing.”

“What did you say?”

“I don’t even know,” Sirius shook his head. “I mean—I do but I didn’t mean it like that. It wasn’t even all bad. Like we know how much we love each other we just keep—it’s like we just keep missing each other on the ice.”

Regulus seemed to hold his wine in his mouth a moment. His eyes were bewildered, and Sirius spread his palms in confusion.

“Quoi? You asked me!”

Regulus was still for another moment, then finally swallowed and leaned forward.

“All right…I’m sorry, but…” he paused, shaking his head. “What the fuck does hockey performance have to do with how much you two love each other?”

Sirius stared at him.

Regulus stared right back.

The restaurant went a little fuzzy, the noise a little dim, and Sirius’ blood seemed to rush at him. It started up a throbbing headache at the base of his skull. Every time he thought he was getting better…

“Fucking maman,” Sirius breathed in realization.

“I think the phrase is motherfucker,” Regulus nodded. “But…yeah. Guess that’s a hold over from whatever we call a childhood.”

Sirius covered his face with his hands. “Jesus. Nothing. Nothing, it has nothing to do with how much I love him. I never meant…”

“D’accord,” Regulus eased. “But, if you’re really just having that a-ha moment now, any chance you’re projecting the wrong message onto Remus?”

Sirius kept his face covered for just a moment more. He breathed in, then out. Had he been? Was that how Remus felt? He thought of the I’m sorry, even that first night. Sirius suddenly didn’t want the steak dinner that was coming. He wanted to go home. But Regulus was shoveling more bread into his mouth and…he missed his little brother. Remus would be at home. Sirius would try to explain.

“Okay…D’accord, merde, well, I’m gonna fix that, but enough about me,” Sirius said, pressing his water-glass-cooled hand to his flushed cheek. “Tell me about school. Tell me about your normal life, is it everything you wanted?”

“My friend keeps sneaking Central Park squirrels into her dorm.”

Sirius just stared at him as Regulus smirked, cutting into his steak.

Sirius closed the door to their bedroom, on a last pointed look from Regulus down the hall, and stood on the soft carpet for a moment, at the end of their bed, listening to Remus in the bathroom. He eyed his drawers, where the ring lay. Everything in him wanted to make Remus smile.

He needed to explain. He didn’t even know where to begin. He was…embarrassed.

Sirius tugged his t-shirt off, tossing it in the direction of the hamper, then thought better of it and went to pick it up and place it inside. He replaced his jeans with sweatpants, tugged his hands through his newly cropped hair. It was a relief to have it off of his neck.

Remus didn’t look up when Sirius entered the dim yellow light of the bathroom. The bathroom tiles were warm beneath his feet.

“When my ankle was broken and swollen, I use to come in here and just stand on the heated titles,” he said into the silence.

Remus didn’t look up from where he was running a washcloth under the tap. Steam rose from it, flushing Remus’ cheeks.

“Oh,” he said shortly. “Like a heating pad. Could work.”

He’s just frustrated, Sirius repeated to himself. It’s not you. He winced. It’s not only you.

“You don’t need to score goals for me to love you,” he said firmly, neck hot. God, his chest hurt from how hard his heart was going.

Remus didn’t seem to notice. He huffed out a laugh. “I sure hope not.”

Sirius closed his eyes then looked down at his feet. “Re…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said that earlier. I’m sorry I didn’t defend you more in that interview. You…”

“I don’t want you to be sorry about it,” Remus replied. His sandy hair fell into his eyes in a way that, in the mirror, made his entire expression unreadable. “Sometimes you can be my boyfriend, but out there you also have to be my captain. I really understand.”

“We’ll—“ Sirius took another step forward. “I’ll get better at balancing the two. It’s hard, Remus. Everything in me loves everything you do. But I can’t look at it that way as a captain, and it’s hard, and I am sorry.”

Remus didn’t move. Just braced his hands on either side of the sink. Sirius risked another step forward, and then settled one hand on Remus’ waist. When he didn’t pull away he matched it on the other hip, and them slid his arms forward, pressing Remus’ back against his front. Their eyes met in the bathroom mirror. Sirius held his gaze as he pressed a gentle kiss to Remus’ neck, right over his even pulse-point—or, no, it was fast. Nervous, even. As nervous as Sirius’ felt.

“Do you regret it?” Remus whispered.

Sirius pressed a hand over Remus’ chest, right where he could feel the pounding, rubbing gently with his thumb. He kissed Remus’ neck, his jaw, until it slowed some, until Remus was leaning back into his embrace, head tilted to rest back on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Never,” Sirius whispered back. “Mon loup. Never.”

Remus was silent, tilting into Sirius’ gentle mouth, his words.

“I’m sorry I’m not helping you more.”

Remus’ eyes flashed open. “You’re…”

Sirius didn’t let go, but shook his head. “I don’t mean on the ice. I mean here. I…I’m too close to what’s happening on the ice, I think. There’s nothing I want more, but I’m not. I see that now. I never want to push you too hard and I…I never want you to feel like you can’t come to me. But I also know you have an entire team of people who love you, too.”

One corner of Remus’ mouth raised, just a little. “You sound like Dumo.”

Sirius arched a brow. “Dumo confesses his undying love for you while kissing your neck?”

Remus bit back a more full smile. “No, but that’s an interesting image.”

Sirius feigned a gasp, mouthing with a scrape of his teeth at Remus’ neck. Remus turned in his arms and their mouths met in a slow kiss. Remus made a soft sound into it, almost like relief, and Sirius ached a little with the way he seemed to sink against him.

“I’ve been horrible,” Remus breathed. “I know, God, baby, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking—frustrated. And I shouldn’t have been pushing you away, you know exactly what this is like. It’s not your fault.”

“And us losing isn’t yours,” Sirius stroked a hand through Remus’ hair.

Remus bit his lip, didn’t look quite convinced, but nodded with a sigh. “I’m going to make Reg a full fucking bacon-egg breakfast to make up for how much of a grouch I was downstairs.”

Sirius snorted. “Grouch.”

Remus laughed, tiredly but more happily, and settled a palm against Sirius’ cheek. “You do help me. Maybe not…maybe not directly with this. Whatever it is. But tonight…tonight you helped me. Here. Just the two of us, on these heated bathroom tiles.”

Sirius held him tighter. “Julian’s coming soon. Does that make you feel better?”

“Mhm,” Remus said. “And you.”

Sirius smiled gently, and Remus bit his lip. It was his relaxed summer smile, not the tighter one he gave in the middle of a failing season.

“It’s not summer anymore,” Remus sighed. “I think part of me liked having you all to myself too much.”

Sirius laughed. “I’m not going to complain. But I know what you mean. It’s the real world now.”

Remus pushed up on his toes, requesting another kiss. “I like you in the real world.”

Thomas was never going to stop kissing Noelle. He didn’t care that a family of six was trying to maneuver three luggage carts around them. He didn’t care that Noelle’s flight had come in at four in the morning and he had practice at ten. He cared that she was holding him just as tightly as he was holding her. A small, scared part of him hadn’t been sure that she would. She smelled like stale plane air and her perfume, something sickly sweet that Thomas hadn’t liked at all at first, but he buried his nose into her neck now, feeling her fingers trail over his closely shaved head. It felt good. He was overheated from keeping his coat on in doors, from the anticipation, and her hand was cold.

“I missed you,” she whispered. “I missed you, I missed you.”

Apparently this was a Tremblay thing. Say it three times, and you mean it.

“When we fought, me and the girls and Lo,” she had told him that summer, half a croissant in her mouth. “Half of the fights was one of us thinking the other wasn’t really sorry. My dad came up with it. If you mean it, you say it three times. I didn’t think much of it, but it caught on. And you don’t think to say something three times when you’re screaming at your sibling, but you might when you have to say you’re sorry.”

He noticed Logan do it sometimes. He heard three I love yous, or three repeated assurances to Finn that he had played well. He wondered if Logan’s boys knew what it meant. Part of him hoped they didn’t, that Logan hadn’t thought to tell them, and that it was his secret about this beautiful girl. He repeated the words back, six times, making Noelle laugh.

“Non, non,” Noelle protested when he tried to take her bag. “Your foot, baby, I’ve got it.”

“It’s as good as healed!” Thomas protested, flexing his ankle to see. “Our PT’s got magic fingers.”

Noelle laughed, and tucked herself under his offered arm. “Do I still get to push you around on a chair for family skate?”

“You can do whatever you want,” Thomas said. “As long as I’m not watching through a screen.”

Noelle grinned. “Speaking of lack of screens. I’m gonna kiss you stupid when we get home.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Certainly not.”

Thomas wrapped her up tighter as the sliding doors leading to the parking lot opened for them. “I missed you so much, Christmas. You have no idea.”

“Bet I have some idea,” Noelle pressed a hand to his chest. “I can’t stand those sad brown eyes of yours, though.”

Thomas bit his lip, shrugging.

“It’s been hard,” he settled on. “Watching the team lose and not being out there to help. Also knowing we’re both doing what we love but…”

“Not close enough,” Noelle said.

They stopped at the car, and Thomas skidded her suitcase to a halt to cradle her face gently in his hands.

“Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be close enough to you.”

Noelle smiled and pushed up as far as she could, then looped her arms around his neck to pull him down.

“One way to find out,” she whispered into the first kiss.”

Natalie opened the door before Alex was even half way down the apartment complex hallway. It made for the perfect runway, a running leap. Alex dropped his bag, his suitcase, and caught her, laughing.

“You freaking scoundrel,” Natalie said and then leaned down to kiss him.

“Hm,” Alex mumbled into it. “It’s not my fault twitter’s as fast as me. I did tell you first, though.”

Natalie bit at his lower lip and pulled gently before release. “Barely.”

Alex just shook his head, fond and happy, and used the hand not supporting her legs around his waist to move all of her blond hair over one of her shoulders, bending to kiss the bare side of her neck.

“Missed you, gorgeous.”

“Will you two get inside?” Kasey’s voice rumbled from where he was leaning against the doorway. Alex held Natalie closer with the way his heart pulled. They were both in sweatpants, Natalie’s rolled at her hips—Alex’s sweatpants, the ones she had stolen on her visit. The media was still asking him about that one after someone had snapped a picture of them at dinner. Dinner, O’Hara? With your former teammates girlfriend?

He’d just smiled. Not that it’s any of your business though, right?

Natalie hopped down with a kiss to his cheek and tugged Alex and his suitcase inside. Alex looked Kasey up and down as he passed his broad chest on his way inside the apartment. Kasey gazed back, brown eyes made even darker by the dim light of the apartment. They had their Christmas tree standing squat and short in one corner, already with a few gifts beneath it. Alex spied his name on some of the tags and wanted to drop into their arms again. He didn’t have to mail his gifts this year. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to mail them any time soon. They took up most of his suitcase. He’d wear Kasey’s clothes if he really didn’t have anything, or Natalie would jump at the opportunity to buy him something new. And Christmas morning. They were planning it with Finn and the boys. Alex loved the idea of all of their families together. Hockey was hockey, it was everything, but it was also unbearable distance. Sacrifice. The relief from it made him dizzy.

“How many string lights can one apartment hold?” Alex laughed, looking around. They wrapped around the loft’s banisters, loped along behind the TV and at the edge of the kitchen’s splash back.

“You spoke too soon,” Kasey said as Alex turned towards him. His hair was a tangled mess, like he’d been napping, and he smelled like sleep and warmth when he, finally, pulled Alex in. “She insisted on saving some decorations for you.”

Alex grinned into the kiss and, as he felt Natalie press against his side, the feeling of an anchor settled deep in his chest with a pleasant little tug.

He woke up the same way, Kasey’s eyes locked on him and Natalie tangled together.

“We going skating, or what?” Alex whispered into the morning light. “Ready for me to score on you?”

Kasey’s grin was the same one he wore behind his goalie mask. “You wish.”

Logan felt guilty about it, but he wished Cole wasn’t there, across the rink, with his mother. Cole didn’t know anything, Cole was new, and that meant Logan couldn’t hold either Finn or Leo close. The cameras present prevented it, too, of course, but they were being kicked out so that the families could be alone. There was only so much footage one could use.

Logan was tired of waiting.

Kris, who had his daughter in his arms, and Leo who was asking her questions about her favorite Frozen character, looked over at Logan when he skated to a stop beside them. Logan took a slow breath, and Leo seemed to catch on. Logan watched his long legs, clad in dark jeans and regular skates for once, rather than his longer-bladed goalie ones, lead him away from the group beneath the ruse of a chase towards Finn.

“You okay?” Finn asked. Had they been alone, Logan would have expected a gentle hand to his cheek, through his hair.

“Do you trust Cole?” he asked.

He didn’t have to say more for them to know what he meant. They looked surprised, though.

“You…” Finn blinked. “You want to…”

“I want to skate with you both,” Logan said, then huffed. Say what you mean. You’re allowed. “I want to be with you both. For this. We didn’t get it last year, so…”

“Yes,” Leo said, smiling softly. His nod was firm. “I trust Cole.”

“Do…” Finn jerked his chin in Cole’s direction. “Now?”

“I’ll go,” Logan said. “If it goes bad, I don’t want him staring at all three of us.”

“It won’t go bad,” Leo said firmly. “Cole’s great. Reg and I are taking him to dinner over New Years.”

Logan looked back over. Cole was now leading Katie around the rink with small, careful strokes. Logan tapped his stick against Leo’s, then Finn’s shins, and pushed his way over.

“Reyes,” he said, coming to a stop in front of Katie. He took a knee, the familiar, easy smile crossing his face. “Are you skating, ma petite?”

“Tremzy, I’m doing it, see?” Katie grinned from her bundle of warmth—puffer jacket, winter pom-pom hat, and scarf, all impossibly small.

“You are,” Logan smiled, sharing a hidden laugh with Cole.

“All by yourself,” Cole nodded seriously, keeping a tight hold on her little hands.

Logan had maybe been a little jealous at first, of Cole taking his place at the Dumais’. Not every teenage boy was happy to be surrounded by kids all the time. He’d briefly—half jokingly—considered stealing Katie away to their apartment for himself. Logan wanted a daughter someday, he decided firmly as Katie let go of Cole’s hands and with two wobbly pushes, fell into Logan’s arms. Logan held her tiny form as tight as he dared, her arms squeezing around his neck.

“You stay with me for a moment, okay?” he whispered in French, and scooped her into his arms.

“Cute, hm?” Logan said, as he fell into stride with Cole.

Cole’s smile was fond as he looked at Katie. “Very. Except when broccoli is involved.”

“Ouais,” Logan laughed, remembering. If Katie had been his daughter, he could say she got her sweet tooth from him. “Um. Reyes…”

Cole look expectantly at him, and Logan held Katie closer.

“Um,” Logan said, and felt his neck heat. “So, I live with Finn and Leo.”

“Leo,” Katie repeated happily, watching some of the Weasley kids toss a puck around.

“Right,” Cole nodded, obviously confused. He still had the new-rookie look of being intimidated by the entire team. It reminded Logan of himself. It reminded Logan of Sirius, of Leo.

Logan realized that he had no idea how to do this. He glanced behind him, looking for Finn or Leo, both better with words. He’d said it to Sirius, back at All Stars. He’d said it to his family. Why was this harder?

“Right,” Logan mumbled, eyes down, watching both of their feet skate slowly around the outer edge of the rink. “So, I…”

“They’re together,” Cole blurted, then flushed. “I—sorry. Jesus, sorry, I just…right? I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“I…” Logan really wished he hadn’t.

“They’re…not?”

“How did you…”

“I thought I saw something,” Cole looked more nervous than Logan felt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. I know that…I didn’t mean anything bad about them.”

“Why does them being together mean something bad about them?” Logan replied.

“It doesn’t,” Cole said quickly. “Fuck, it doesn’t. I just—some guys in this…area of work…think that. I thought…I didn’t know what you meant. Sorry.”

For the love of God, Logan thought. Cole was worried Logan would be offended on his friends’ behalf that he had implied they were together. He didn’t blame him. That was how most locker rooms worked a lot of the time.

Logan looked down at his skates again, at the soft rhythm of their strides, gathering himself. Cole’s nerves were putting him off, but he supposed it was good that he was so nervous. And that he’d suspected and hadn’t blinked, though Logan still wondered what he’d seen.

He stopped their strides with sharp turn.

“It’s not Finn and Leo,” Logan said, and realized he could hear his own heart in his ears. “It’s Finn and Leo and myself.”

Cole stared at him for a moment. Logan watched his eyes find Finn and Leo somewhere behind him and wondered if they were looking or pointedly not looking.

“I didn’t get to be with them last year at family skate because I’m…” Logan huffed out a breath. “I’m…never mind. But I want to be able to this year. And so I’m telling you. Sorry we didn’t.”

“It’s okay,” Cole said softly. He smiled a half smile, eyes warm. “I’m the new rookie. I get it. I’m…I’m glad you thought you could.”

“Please don’t—”

“Not mine to tell,” Cole said, and then nodded to where Logan guessed Finn and Leo were lingering after all. “See you for the scrimmage, yeah?”

Logan just stared after him as he skated away. Something about his words…Logan liked them. They weren’t, I’ll keep your secret. They were it’s your truth to tell.

He felt Leo’s presence before he saw him. He brushed up against his shoulder, nice and close.

“Okay?” Leo said softly. He was smiling, blond hair bright beneath his gray beanie, and poked Katie’s tummy, making her giggle.

“I’m exhausted,” Logan mumbled, and then took Leo’s hand and squeezed it, warm all over.

“Heads up, Jules!” Adele called as she passed a puck to Julian, who took it up ice with a control that filled Remus with pride.

“He’s been practicing,” he said to his mom, and Hope smiled, nodding.

“He has. I think for this very day.”

Remus laughed, and then tried to be subtle about scooting just a little closer. He knew it was a bit of a travel pain, but he was glad to be going home for Christmas. He missed the familiarity of his living room on Christmas morning. Not that he would jump out of bed like Julian, but if he did, he’d know just where to step to keep quiet.

Hope patted his thigh. “You know I’ll be nothing but happy to see you and Jules on our old go-to pond again, but I have to ask…”

Remus smiled. “Uh-huh, I know you do.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re the ones with the mansion and guest quarters with its own kitchenette.”

Remus laughed. “What? I just thought it would be nice.”

Hope raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around Remus’ shoulder. “Gryffindor’s making you a little squeamish these days, baby. I can see that. You don’t have to lie to me.”

Remus felt warmed by the fact that his mom could still do that to him.

“I…it’s not really a lie, even if you’re right, too.”

“Okay,” Hope nodded. “True.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t…” Remus said after a moment of biting his lip. “It feels like it did after my shoulder. I can’t do anything. It makes me—not scoring makes me miss hockey. Even when it’s right in front of me. And missing it makes me mad, and then I’m mad and I can’t score.”

“I’m going to turn into the substitute teacher I was for about two years before I realized I do not like teaching groups of twenty children,” Hope said, then put on a mockingly slow voice, making Remus snort. “I heard the phrase I can’t in there about twenty times.”

“Mom,” Remus laughed. “I’m not trying to do long division, I’m up against the greatest players in the world.”

“Which probably means a lot of people thought you qualified to be one of them.”

Remus looked down. “I’m worried about Sirius.”

“Oh, yes, the most pressing issue. What’s it like to have a boy who can’t keep his eyes off of you?”

Remus glanced up through his lashes. Sirius was, indeed, glancing over at them. He smiled, maybe a little hesitantly, and went back to talking to Layla and Nado.

“What if I’m letting him down? He hasn’t said anything, but…and he’s been, like, not sneaking around but…I don’t know.”

“How?” Hope said, looping her arm through his. “How would you let him down, baby? Tell me.”

Remus opened his mouth, then closed it, shaking his head.

“How are you different than your teammates when they do something wrong?”

“They weren’t the PT,” Remus blurted. “No one’s questioning that they have a right to be here.”

And there it was.

“Because they’re not dating the captain,” Remus continued, feeling small. “And no one’s wondering whether this is all some weird sort of favoritism. Something that was bought.”

“Of course you’re thinking about that,” Hope said. “No, you’re not the same as them. They didn’t go through what you did in college, and they didn’t go through what you did last year. They didn’t have their future and then their privacy stolen from them. But you are,” Hope said around slight tears in her throat. “deserving of everything you have fought for. All the time spent being a wonderful person when the world didn’t make it even a little easy.”

Remus swallowed hard. “Mom…”

“You have to start believing it first,” Hope said softly, offering a smile. “Believe me. You deserve to be right where you are.” She kissed his cheek. “And go easy on yourself. Okay?”

“Remus!” Julian’s voice came, and Remus sniffed, laughing as his mom did the same.

He nodded, squeezing where their arms were linked. “Okay.”

“Re, you have to get changed for the game,” Julian skated fast, crashing into the boards in an excited heap. “Come on.”

“I’m coming,” Remus said, rising and trying to blink his wet eyes away. “All right, all right, cool it.”

Remus felt good after getting changed. He liked listening to Finn and Alex banter, liked seeing how happy Thomas was as Noelle changed into her gear beside him.

“Pascal,” Sirius called out as they filed out of the tunnel, already poised at center ice, spinning his stick idly between his two gloved fists. “You’re not stealing Remus from my team this year.”

“Oh,” Pascal smiled. “How sweet, is that what you think?”

Finn just snorted, holding up the quarter he had just been making disappear and reappear for the kids. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads,” Sirius said without hesitation, and looked at Remus. Remus tilted his head with a grin.

Finn whistled as he smacked the quarter on the back of his hand. “Heads it is, Captain.”

“Loops,” Sirius crowed happily, holding his arms out for Remus to skate into.

“Why don’t you let the cameras stay for this cute shit,” Marlene shouted from the bench.

“Nothing’s cute when there are cameras around,” Logan shouted back from where he was nestled under one of Leo’s arms, despite both of their bulky padding.

Remus knew his parents and little brother were watching, but he let himself linger a little in Sirius’ kiss anyway, just because he could. Just to show himself how far he’d come from secrecy. Sirius seemed to be having the same thoughts, tilting Remus’ chin up for another quick kiss when Remus made to pull away.

“My line,” Sirius said.

The teams divided up pretty evenly after that, and Julian dropped the first puck before scurrying out of the way as Sirius and Pascal went for it hard. Sirius won it, but Noelle defending with Thomas was basically as brick of a wall as Kasey was. Remus was panting with the effort to keep the pass Sirius had shot him. He tapped it back to James, laughing when Harry let out a happy, high-pitched scream from the bench. Their laughter ruined whatever play they were thinking of, and Noelle all but cackled when she stole it back, passing it to Logan.

“Do something, baby bro!” she shouted.

Remus thought he heard Logan curse under his breath as Remus shoved him into the boards two seconds later.

“Sorry, Tremz!” Remus laughed, and got the puck back to James.

“No boarding!” Coach hollered from the bench. “If I have to put someone on IR in the name of Christmas, I’m going to be real angry!”

Remus’ entire attention was drawn to Sirius’ delighted laugh that sounded as he nipped the puck back from James, who had taken it from Logan again. Remus watched him skate hard, and pushed into a long stride to catch up.

“Cap!” Remus shouted as he dodged around Logan’s block. Thomas, double-teaming just behind Logan, swerved with him, and for a moment, Remus thought he was going to miss the pass. But he picked his stick up, pushed hard off his skate to get to the right circle, and pivoted again. The puck hit heavily on his stick blade, and Remus snapped it towards Leo, just above his right shoulder.

The goal light lit up. There was no horn, not for just a scrimmage, but there might as well have been with the amount of noise his teammates—his family—put up. James slammed into him, then Thomas and Logan. He felt the light bump of Leo’s goalie mask from behind him.

Remus let out a breathless laugh and raised his head, looking for dark hair.

“Re, Re, Re,” he could hear Sirius’ voice, laughing again. Remus almost cared about that more than the goal. Sirius had looked so sad the other night.

Do you regret it?

And then Sirius’ mouth was on his, still laughing, half kissing.

“Maybe we can still read each other’s minds,” Remus laughed helplessly, then grinned at the arms wrapped around his hips and looked down. “What do you think of that, Jules?”

“We’re winning,” Julian all but tried to pick Remus up in his excitement. “New lines, new lines!” He shouted, waving almost frantically at the others. “Keep playing, we have to keep the momentum going!”

Alex laughed as he skated onto the ice with Finn. “Maybe you should be the coach, little Loops.”

Remus’ attention was drawn back to Sirius with a kiss to the cheek.

“Nice to see it’s still there,” Sirius laughed, then faltered.

Remus tried to hide his wince, keeping his arms tight around Sirius. “Ouch.”

“Non,” Sirius said. “Fuck, I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay,” Remus sighed, leaning into Sirius’ shoulder. “I’m glad to see it, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Sirius said into his hair. “That was such a stupid thing to say.”

“Kind of,” Remus laughed. The words were rolling off of him right now. Sirius hadn’t meant it like that and, truthfully, he was glad to see that he could still score a goddamn goal. Even if it was just in a scrimmage against Kasey.

Sirius shook his head, pressed a gloved hand over his eyes. “It’s not what I meant, Re.”

Remus just pressed a hand over Sirius’ chest. “It’s okay. Really.” He leaned up for a quick kiss. “Really. I was just as surprised as everyone else.”

“I…I’m a little pent up, I guess.”

“No way, really?”

Sirius just groaned through a laugh and dipped his head into Remus’ shoulder. Remus let himself settle into it.

“We both are,” Remus whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Sirius whispered back. “I just want us to be…I really meant it as a good thing.”

“Baby,” Remus said. “I’m only going to get annoyed if you keep apologizing. It’s really okay. I know.” He took Sirius’ cheeks in his palms until their eyes met. They were a little red from being on the ice for so long. “It’s okay.” He peppered a short kiss to Sirius’ mouth. “I’m…I’m trying. I think I feel better. Today’s been really really nice.”

Sirius’ smile was a little smushed by Remus’ palms. “I’m still excited to watch Hope baby you.”

“Baby me?” Remus laughed, giving Sirius a shove. “I think we both know you’re her new favorite one to baby.”

“Love birds,” Alex called in a sing-song voice. He had a Rangers hat on, Remus noticed. “I am patiently waiting to score on my boyfriend. If you could move it along.”

Sirius looked down at Remus. “Hat trick, just for his tone of voice?”

Remus grinned back. “Definitely.”

227 notes · View notes

deadanddeactivated · 4 years

Text

The Crow Brothers: Patton’s Story

Fandom: Sanders Sides Pairing: Moceit, Intrulogical, brotherly Pat & Logan & Virgil & Remy & Thomas Characters: Patton, Deceit, Virgil, Logan, Roman, Remus, Remy, Thomas Notes: Day 14 for @tsshipmonth2020 - Free Day. I choose Moceit (with a side of intrulogical). It was... it was not meant to be this long. At all. Summary: Patton and his brothers are under a horrible curse, one that's shaped them all their lives. Even when the curse is over, Patton still has to live with it quite plainly. It all leaves him feeling very alone.

Until he meets De, that is.

AO3

–

This, Patton thinks as he watches Logan and Virgil dance, is what was supposed to be like. If their father had never been forced to hide them away, if their stepmother had never found them, this is what their life would have been. How nice it would have been, Patton thinks, to have been forever human.

“Care for a dance, stranger?” Patton jolts, looking away from his brothers to look at the voice. Or the man owning the voice, really. ��

His first thought is that the man is very, very pretty. His second is that he hopes he’s not blushing.

“Oh, um, that’s alright.” Patton says. “I’m waiting to dance with someone else.”

“The new fiancee?” The stranger guesses. “You’re staring rather obviously.”

“I guess I am.” Patton accepts. “My brothers and I are old friends of his, we just want to give him our best wishes.” He explains. Or lies, really. Patton’s not fond of lying but there’s no avoiding it. Virgil says any talk of their curse, or their relation to Logan, could risk their stepmother finding them before they break the curse. Nothing good will come of that.

“So your brother said.” The stranger hums. “What was his name again?”

“He goes by Ani.” Even their names could give them away.

“And you?” The stranger asks, leaning a little closer. Don’t blush, don’t blush.

“Mora.” Patton answers, suddenly very glad for Virgil’s insistence they practice their names. “What’s um, what’s your name?” He asks.

“You can call me De.” The stranger says. “Since we’re going with nicknames, apparently.” He doesn’t sound malicious, but Patton still feels his heart stop for a second. How could he tell? Well, probably because everyone here has like three names and two titles to introduce. Yeah, it was probably just that. Right?

“So,” De starts, “that dance?”

“I really should wait to give my well wishes.” Patton claims. He really shouldn’t dance. Even if De is very pretty. And it would be very nice.

No, stop that, Patton orders himself. They only have so long they can be human, and it’s much too risky to grow attached.

Of course, Remy’s been dancing all night and even Thomas looks like he’s made cautious friends in the court. It’s really only Patton and Virgil who’ve stuck to the side lines. So maybe it’d be okay?

“I think the prince-to-be will be a while.” De claims, gesturing to where Virgil and Logan are still dancing but more idly. Most of their attention seems to be on the gestures they’re making with their hands. To Patton, it’s only sign language. Gestures they all learnt from a book shortly after Logan took his vow of silence.

To the new King, who watches Logan with cautious and untrusting eyes, it must look sinister.

“If you dance, I can tell you about the newly crowned king.” De offers. He must have followed Patton’s eye. “And your friends new lover.” He adds, nodding towards Prince Remus who's watching Logan with a more jealous expression. Probably not happy that some childhood friend has stolen his date. Which means Logan probably won’t have time to dance with Patton, even after he and Virgil stop talking.

So… well, what’s the harm with dancing with De? Especially since they are here to learn about Remus and Roman, to make sure their brother is really safe and happy here.

“Alright.” He agrees, smiling at Dee. “I’ll dance with you.”

At first they do talk about the King and Prince. Dee reveals that the old King, the twins father, was killed by a witch. Which is why King Roman is so protective of his brother, and so anxious about Logan. He shares stories about Remus as a child, because apparently the two were rather close. Patton quickly finds himself laughing at their antics.

And then they’re talking about De’s childhood, and Patton finds himself telling the safest stories he can about his own. Before Patton knew it, he and De had been dancing and chatting for hours.

It’s the most fun Patton’s had in years.

“I think you’re about to get that dance you were waiting for is coming this way.” Dee says as a song winds down.

“Huh?” Patton asks, confused until he feels a tap at his shoulder. Turning, he sees Logan standing there. “Oh, Lo!” He grins. “Hi!” Looking amused, his brother waves then holds out his hand.

“He’s all yours.” De says, stepping out with a bow.

“It was nice dancing with you.” Patton says before De can get too far.

“The pleasure was all mine.” De returns. “I hope to see you again soon.” And oh, ouch, that’s a real punch to the gut isn’t it? They’ve spent months building up the strength to remain human all night, it’ll be a long time before they’re able to be human for even the usual fifteen minutes again. Patton is very, very unlikely to see De any time soon.

Unless, a small part of him whispers, Logan breaks the curse.

“Hey Lo.” He says quickly as the song starts up and they start to dance.

‘Sorry to interrupt, but I have missed you.’ Logan sighs, amusement in his eye. It’s nice to see. Even since this curse started, Logan’s looked so… dead inside. The only time Patton’s seen him light up like this is around Remus.

“I’ve missed you too Lo.” Patton smiles. “And you didn’t interrupt, we were just talking.”

‘Oh yes, just talking.’ Logan teases, making Patton laugh and blush.

“Well, I guess he is pretty.” He admits. “But it’s not like anything’ll come of it.” That was the wrong thing to say, Patton knows immediately as Logan’s shoulders slump.

‘I’m sorry.’ He signs. ‘I should be sewing, not dancing.’

“No.” Patton says firmly. “None of that. You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s your life, you know, it shouldn’t revolve around some curse.”

‘Yours does.’ Logan argues.

“Sometimes.” Patton agrees. “But I don’t mind. I like being able to fly. And I think Ani likes being able to squawk at people.” That manages to get a small smile from Logan.

‘I think he’s been wanting to peck at Roman all night.’ He signs and Patton laughs. They dance for two songs before the brothers need to part. Sunrise is coming soon, best not to turn into birds in the middle of the castle.

As they say their goodbyes, as Logan promises he’ll have the shirts done before the wedding, Patton can’t help but look forward to it. Of course he’s always wanted the curse to break but, as years have gone on, he’s sort of gotten used to it. But now, with a taste of what human life is like, he can’t wait for Logan to finish their shirts.

He just hopes Logan lives his life in between all the sewing.

“Remus asked me to teach him some signs.” Thomas says when the four of them have returned to their bird forms. They could have waited until the sun light reached them but none of them like the sense of having their humanity ripped away. It reminds them too much of the first time. Best to just turn back willingly. “I couldn’t teach him much, just the basics. Logan’s going to be thrilled.”

“De told me some stories about Remus as a kid, he sounds like a good guy.” Patton adds.

“Apparently he gushes all about Logan to everyone else.” Remy says. “I guess he’s good enough for Logan.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Virgil says. “No one’s good enough for Logan. But, if he makes Logan happy…”

“I can’t wait for the wedding!” Patton announces, raising in the air in excitement.

Of course it’s not that easy.

It’s never been that easy for them, Patton should have known.

De had explained King Roman’s resistance to their brother, but he’d given Patton the impression King Roman would warm up to Logan. He doesn’t. Instead he has their brother put on trial, deaf to Remus’ protests. Throughout the trial Logan can do nothing to defend himself. He’s refused a quill and paper, people too convinced he’ll use them to write spells. The signs he makes in protests, the caws they make it protest - it all means nothing to those around him.

That alone, perhaps, they could handle. King Roman isn’t cruel, right? He’ll just… banish Logan or something like that and when the curse is lifted and Logan can talk once more, they’ll come back and explain and everything will be fine.

But it’s not King Roman that casts the final judgement.

Virgil sees her first, looking through the castle window. He immediately turns to block the others, demanding they fly away.

“I don’t want you to see this!” He snaps, wings flapping in such a way that it’s impossible to look past him.

“That means it’s bad, doesn’t it? Oh gods, what are they doing to Logan?” Thomas fretts, looking torn between doing what Virgil says and trying to see what was going on.

“They’re not doing anything to Logan.” Virgil claims. “I’ll make sure of that, just let me handle this.”

They don’t want to, not really. Patton knows his brothers feel the need to protect Logan as firmly as he does. But he also thinks they’re just as scared as he is because they leave without much protesting, flying back to their nest in silence.

Patton makes the mistake of looking back. Of seeing Virgil turned to the window, and seeing what he was desperately trying to protect them from.

There’s a new advisor in the royal hall, wearing the same high-ranking, long-serving clothes of the old advisor. But it isn’t Joan.

It’s their stepmother.

She’s found them.

Patton doesn’t tell the others, but only because he’s expecting Virgil too. He’s not sure what he’d do if Virgil returns and doesn’t tell them what happened.

Thankfully he doesn’t have to.

“She found us?” Thomas asks, feathers bristling.

“No, she found Logan.” Virgil clairfies. “She doesn’t know where here.”

“She has to know we’re not far.” Remy points out. “And that Logan’s trying something.”

“Yeah, probably.” Virgil agrees, sighing. “But only in theory. Besides, I doubt she knows Logan can break the curse. The magic he’s using is very different from hers, she’ll probably assume it doesn’t work.”

“What did she do to him?” Patton asks cautiously.

“She probably cast a spell on the court, to convince everyone she’s always been there.” Virgil says, not at all answering the question. “Once Logan breaks our curse, her magic will backfire. That’ll break the spell on the court.”

“That doesn’t answer the question Virgil.” Remy says, frowning.

“I know.” Virgil sighs, bustling. If he were human, Patton thinks he’d be running his hand down his face. They wait but he doesn’t continue.

“Well?” Remy presses.

“I need you all to promise me you won’t go near Logan or the castle until it’s safe.” Virgil says. “No matter what she did, alright? Because if she gets her hands on us we’re screwed.”

“What did she do?” Thomas asks.

“Promise me first.” Virgil demands. Begrudgingly, they do. Or Remy and Thomas do, Patton manages to mumble with them but he promises nothing. Virgil’s too distracted to notice, which speaks volumes of his stress.

“She sentenced him to death.”

Because Patton promised nothing, he feels no guilt in sneaking towards the cells beneath the castle. Okay, he feels a little bit of guilt but, well, he’s worried! According to Virgil they only have a week until the date, and that was half a week ago! Since then he’s said nothing about how they’re going to get Logan out. So Patton’s worried!

It takes some time but eventually he finds Logan’s cell. Patton expects to find Logan pacing, maybe picking the lock.

Instead he finds Logan on the ground, desperately working on the nettle shirts.

With a caw, Patton flies in. He makes sure he’s seen then flies to the door, pecking at the lock. Logan shakes his head, turning back to the shirt. Patton caws again, and then a third time when Logan ignores him. Finally Logan looks up, eyes sharp.

‘I don’t have time!’ He signs. ‘I already lost a day with Remus having to fight to get these too me! I need to finish them!’

“Finish them?! You need to escape!” Patton argues, even knowing the Logan can’t understand the sounds he’s making.

‘We’re running out of time. I can’t remake these again.’ Logan claims, apparently getting the gist of it. Patton all but bawks at the words. He knows what Logan is saying. They’re running out of time before the curse is truly complete, before it can’t ever be broken again. If they were to get Logan to safety they’d have to leave the nettle shirts behind and Logan would have to start again. Which could be too late.

But is Logan really saying that he’d rather die than let that happen? Surely he knows they don’t want that. Patton would rather be a bird than let anything happen to Logan.

Ah, but that’s the conundrum, isn’t it?

Patton isn’t sure what else to say, knows he can’t really say anything at all. He can only stand there, a useless bird.

‘Go, before she catches you. I’ll have these done in time.’ Logan says, and then all his attention is on the shirt in his hands. Patton hesistants, looking to the cell window. Instead of leaving, he cuddles next to Logan. He’s careful not to touch the nettle shirt, knows that would ruin everything, but he sits with Logan as long as he can. It’s all he can do.

Virgil is there when he leaves.

“You promised to stay away.” He points out, although he doesn’t sound particularly mad. Just… tired.

“I didn’t.” Patton admits. “Just mumbled along.” Virgil can only sigh, rather than giving the usual lecture on magical bonds and how most wouldn’t put up with that. “Isn’t there something we can do.”

“Remus is trying.” Virgil says. “Roman seems hesitant to go through with it, but she’s got everyone else wrapped around her finger. If Roman pardons him, people aren’t going to take it well.”

“Can’t we convince Logan to run?” Patton asks. “You’re the oldest, he’ll listen to you.”

“No, he won’t.” Virgil shakes his head. “I tried, I even turned human for as long as I could. Logan isn’t backing down.”

“I don’t want him to get hurt.” Patton mumbles.

“And yet, you’d do the same if you were in his shoes.” Virgil points out. “We just have to hope that Logan’s done early, so we can step in.”

The day comes and Logan isn’t finished. He’s on Patton’s shirt, the last of them, and he’s so very, very close. But the fire is being built before him, and the people are jerring around him. What is an act of selflessness, they see as trouble. If not for Remus, Patton thinks someone might have ripped the shirts from him.

“You have been sentenced to death as a witch.” King Roman’s voice bellows over the crowds, his face somber. The ‘advisor’ next to him smirks. “Do you accept this plea?”

Logan says nothing, doesn’t even look up from the shirt.

“Burn him!” Someone in the audience cries.

“Burn the witch!”

“Damn it!” Virgil exclaims. “Screw the risks, we’re stopping this.” He swoops in, his brothers more than happy to follow him towards Logan. Whatever they have to do, they’ll do.

Their stepmother was watching for them.

“The witch’s familiars!” She cries. “Kill them too!”

But Logan was watching too, and though the last shirt isn’t done he knows his time is up. He throws the shirts to them. The first to Virgil, then Remy, then Thomas, and finally Patton.

To the astonishment of the crowd, four human men appear in the place of the birds. Each wears a shirt made of nettle leafs. The youngest boy wears a shirt without a sleeve and, in place of his arm, there is a crow’s wing.

“If anyone comes near him, I will kill you myself.” Virgil growls.

“It worked.” Logan whispers, the first words he’s spoken in almost seven years. “Oh thank the gods it worked.”

“See!” Their stepmother cries. “Witchcraft!” But the crowd doesn’t not jeer along with her. Just as Virgil suspected, breaking the curse has backfired on her. Her magic is gone, her spells are broken.

She cannot manipulate the crowd.

“What did you do with Joan!” King Roman demands.

“Impossible.” The witch mutters, realizing what’s happened. “That’s impossible!”

“Oh it’s very possible, step-mother asshole.” Virgil huffs. “See, magic doesn’t come free. When you cursed us, you forgot to pay the price. Logan’s sacrificed and suffered to free us, and your magic has come from your debts.”

“Is she going to turn into a bird?” Remy asks. “‘Cause I think that’s a bit too kind.”

“Oh trust me, she’s going to get so much worse than that.” Remus assures, glaring at the woman as an exhausted Logan rests on his arm.

Their step-mother does pay, although Patton doesn’t like to think about the details of how. Logan gets some much needed sleep as his brothers explain everything to Roman and the people. It’s a long tale but, once it’s over, Logan has turned from suspicious stranger to loyal brother and hero. Patton’s pretty sure there are already ballads being written.

King Roman apologizes grandly to the four of them, and then to Logan when he wakes. Logan is unbothered - he read the kingdoms history and he understood Roman’s suspicions. Virgil understands his suspicions too, although more from the ‘magical price Logan was paying’ perspective. He still doesn’t forgive Roman, although he’s civil. Remus seems just as mad at his brother, which puts him in the good books with Virgil at least.

Patton isn’t sure how to feel.

He’s not sure how to feel about Roman.

He’s not sure how to feel about Virgil reaching out to their kingdom, taking strides to accept the crown he never used to want.

He’s not sure how to feel about the crow wing that will forever replace his left arm.

Their stepmother is gone but her curse on them wasn’t like her ongoing spell on the townsfolk. It didn’t die with her. The curse wasn’t fully broken, and so Patton will always have to live with a wing for an arm. At least, that’s what Virgil tells him. Far out of ear shot of Logan, who Patton can already see looking at him with guilt.

Which is just ridiculous because Logan gave up so much for them. What’s one wing for all that Logan suffered? For Logan’s shock when he woke up alive and well the day after his scheduled execution?

But Patton hasn’t been able to talk about that with Logan because… well, because it’s so depressing a thought.

Right now things are so wonderful. The curse is broken (mostly), they’re all together again, the wedding is back on. Everything’s just, perfect. Right?

So, yeah, Patton isn’t really sure what to feel right now. Especially as the bliss of those first days start to wear off.

Especially at the celebration ball that Roman scheduled for a month after their return. To celebrate their return, and reintroduce them into noble society, and probably in hopes it’d make Virgil and Remus less mad at him.

Except Patton kind of is sure what he’s feeling right now. He’s just… trying not to. Because he doesn’t want to feel sad, doesn’t want to start thinking that it’s unfair. But… well… he can’t really pretend things are going great right now. They’re not. Everyone’s gawking at him, and the only words he’s gotten all night are about his wing.

No one’s even asked him to dance.

Well, his brothers have but Patton thinks that doesn’t really count. Plus that was earlier, when his brothers weren’t all engaged in important looking conversations.

But it’s fine! Patton’s not sad! He’s happy! He’s human again, the curse is broken, of course he’s happy!

Right?

“So, is Mora a family nickname?” Patton startles, looking up to find De. Which is a little surprising because Patton’s sort of-maybe-definitely been looking for him all night with no success. For a moment Patton brightens. And then he remembers that he lied to De’s face last they met and his shoulders slump a little.

“It’s short for Morality.” Patton explains, mumbling a little. “It’s tradition back home for your middle name to be a trait your parents want you to have, I think it’s meant to be a blessing. Mine’s Morality.”

“Patton Morality of the Forest.” De says his title easily, far more easily than Patton manages. The Forest, that’s what people call his kingdom and his home, but Patton finds himself with little attachment to the name. He was so young when their father hide them, he hardly remembers the kingdom at all.

“That’s me.” He smiles all the same.

“What would that make your brother? Ani was his name wasn’t it?” De asks.

“Oh Virgil’s middle name is actually Understanding, because he’s the heir and dad thought it was a good trait for a king. But dad used to joke that he should have made it ‘shy’ because apparently Virgil didn’t like social events, and then when he was older Virgil said it should have just been anxiety. That’s where he got Ani.” Patton explains, feeling a little better as he recalls the childhood story.

“I can definitely see the not liking social events part.” De notes, looking over to where Virgil is talking with other princes. Although Virgil is keeping a good face, Patton can tell he would just rather caw at the lot of them and go fly off to do his own thing. “What about your other brothers?”

“Well Remy’s middle name is confidence, although he always jokes that it’s actually sleep.” Patton says, nodding to where the man in question is lounging against a different wall, talking to some noble Patton hasn’t actually met yet. “And Thomas’ is Dedicated.” He says, gesturing to where Thomas is grabbing some food from the buffet.

“Interesting.” De hums. “Here we simply keep our middle names secret, to make it harder to be cursed.”

“Oh we have hidden names too.” Patton assures. “Can’t be too careful with magic.” He adds and then mentally winces. He sounds too casual about that. He shouldn’t sound so casual about that. Hasn’t he already noticed the way it makes the servants uncomfortable? But De doesn’t seem to mind, humming and nodding as though Patton had said something obvious. Which, to be entirely honest, he had.

“Well,” he starts, “since you’ve given me your proper name, it’s only fair if I return the favour. Although I’m afraid I don’t have nearly so much of a story.” He says, smiling a little.

“I remember you having plenty of stories.” Patton teases. De only shrugs before stretching Patton a bow.

“Dante of the Mountain, pleasure to officially meet you Prince Patton.”

“And you.” Patton returns with a short bow of his own. He means to give a proper one but his arm still throws him off, too light and too odd moving for things to work how he means them too.

“Care to dance?” Dante offers. Patton smiles, hoping it’s not dreadfully obvious how much he wants to, but he falters as he goes to lay his hand in Dante’s.

“My arm…” He points out. “I can’t really…” Do anything with it? Patton’s not sure how else to phrase it but he’d really rather not say that.

“You can alway dance with one arm.” Dante offers. “I saw your brothers doing it quite a bit so they could sign.”

“You wouldn’t mind?” Patton asks.

“What’s there to mind?” Dante says. Oh Patton hopes it’s not dreadfully obvious how nice those words are to hear.

“I’d love to dance.” He says. Dante leads him to the floor and, just like last time, Patton quickly forgets everyone for the man in front of him. Even the gawking and gossiping nobles.

That sense lasts for the rest of the night, and the next week that Dante stays at the castle. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last forever.

“Safe travels back.” Patton smiles, trying not to feel too sad as he watches his first non-family friend leaving.

“Safe travels here.” Dante returns, organizing the last of his bags before turning to Patton. “You look like you’re never going to see me again.”

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Patton mumbles, looking away and ruffling his feathers. Which he, of course, immediately regrets while Dante didn’t even seem to notice. Patton was going to miss that. And miss the conversations, the invitations for tea.

He was going to miss Dante a lot.

“I’ll write when I get home.” Dante assures.

“I’d like that.” Patton smiles.

“Until next time, Prince Patton.” Dante says, bowing and taking Patton’s human hand to press a kiss to it.

“Dante!” Patton laughs, hoping his face isn’t too flushed.

“Come visit when you can.” Dante suggests. “I think you’ll like the mountains, lots of fresh air. People with manners.”

“Oh someone’s always going to stare.” Patton claims, hoping he doesn’t sound bitter. “I’m already getting used to it.”

“You shouldn’t have to.” Dante claims. He lifts Patton’s wing up with his free hand. “This doesn’t make you any lesser. If anything it proves how strong you are.” Okay, Patton can’t pretend he’s not blushing now. Smiling, deciding to be a little brave, he leds forward and presses a quick kiss to Dante’s check.

“Thank you Dante.” He says, feeling a little validated when he pulls back and sees Dante’s cheeks are flushed.

“Come visit.” Dante repeats, smiling.

“I will.” Patton promises. Nodding, Dante finally steps away. He waves from the carriage and Patton watches him ride off, wing resting against his chest as he tries not to feel too giddy. That sounds like something, right? All the flirting was really real, right? Not just in Patton’s head?

“He seems nice.” Patton jumps, lighter wing flailing much more than his arm. Turning, Patton spots Virgil smirking against a pole.

“You did that on purpose.” Patton pouts, only one arm capable of resting on his hips.

“Maybe.” Virgil grins. “So, that’s the great Prince Dante?” He asks.

“Wait, Prince?” Patton frowns, looking back towards where the carriage has long since vanished. Dante didn’t say he was a prince! But then, he hadn’t given Patton any title at all.

“Remus says he’s Prince of the Mountains, that might just be Remus though.” Virgil shrugs. “Still, he seems nice.”

“He is.” Patton agrees, and then realizes he’s sighing and immediantly shuts that down. Virgil doesn’t miss it. “It’s not like that!” He tries but he quickly gives that up. “Okay, maybe it’s like that. At least I hope it is…”

“Looks to me like it was mutual.” Virgil says. “So, are you going to go visit?”

“Of course! But… well, maybe I should wait until everyone’s sorted. Like our home, and what we’re all doing.” Patton mumbles.

“None of that.” Virgil says firmly. “We’re spent our whole lives waiting for things to be sorted. Dad’s marriage, the curse. I think it’s time to stop waiting.”

“...I’ll think about it.”

Patton does think about it, and he thinks that Virgil is probably right.

But also, he’s not really sure what to do if he’s not waiting. The others don’t seem to have that problem.

Virgil’s been making plans to return home, although he insists he go alone until he knows what the situation is. He leaves in a couple of days.

Logan is settling in as Remus’ husband and stepping up as Prince. Apparently he’s the only one in the castle with a good enough sense of numbers to haggle.

Remy has already left to visit another kingdom. One of the kingdoms Logan, and they, travelled to during the curse. There’s an alchemist there Remy wants to revisit, and possibly learn from.

Thomas is about to leave as well, travelling with the advisor Joan and Talon. It seems he joined the party almost on accident, having stumbled into a conversation they were having about magic and proving he knew more theory than most. Patton’s sad to see them go, outside his family, Joan and Talon were probably the most relaxed about his wing.

And really that’s why Patton’s so unsure, isn’t it? Because of his wing. The others can go off on adventures no problem but Patton? Well, it’s not exactly easy to live life with a wing for an arm.

He can’t even cut his own food.

So he stays put in Roman’s castle, content to stay there until he can return home. He ignores Dante’s offers about visiting, always bringing up some excuse, and eventually Dante stops asking. It’s silly and, logically, Patton knows that. Dante has already proved he doesn’t care about Patton’s wing. But somehow it feels different. Dancing and walking around the castle is different to having to deal with Patton and his wing all the time.

So Patton doesn’t know what to do, really. All he can do is watch his brothers live their lives while sticking to the sidelines. Still waiting. For something.

But it’s okay! He’s content! Patton becomes something of the castle babysitter and he loves it. Kids just ask about his wing and move on, they don’t gossip and mutter. And being at the castle means he can actually stick close to Logan, and get to know Remus and Roman. Plus, he has his letters from Dante!

Patton’s content waiting. He’s happy even.

And then the letters stop coming.

At first Patton thinks that maybe Dante’s just busy. It doesn’t bother him that he doesn’t get a letter.

But then he sends a second.

And a third.

Quill hovering about the paper of his first, Patton decides to give up. He hasn’t heard from Dante. Maybe Dante’s grown bored of him. Or maybe he’s mad that Patton won’t visit. Or, or a thousand other horrible things that mean Patton should stop bothering him.

Patton doesn’t write a fourth letter.

Instead he throws himself into helping around the castle and the kingdom. He ignores the twinge in his heart when the only letters he gets are from his brothers, and double ignores the twinge when he reads about the lives they’re leading.

He’s happy.

Or at least that’s what he tells himself, blinking back tears before he knocks on the door to the green tea room. It opens soon after to reveal Remus and Logan sat at the table, the latter moving his leg relentlessly.

“Morning.” He greets, smiling and taking a seat across from them. Tea and breakfast is soon brought out. “What did you two want to see me about?”

“You and De are friends, right?” Remus asks. “Or more than friends? He was all over you when he was here last.”

“Remus.” Logan scolds.

“Just calling it like it is babe.” Remus shrugs, smirking.

“We’re friends.” Patton answers before the conversation can get derailed before it begins. Remus seems to have that effect with conversations. “But we haven’t spoken in a while. He stopped sending letters.”

“Yes, all correspondence with the Mountains has ceased recently.” Logan confirms. His voice still hasn’t recovered from the seven years without use, still too quiet and too rough. “The little we have heard suggests that something’s gone wrong.”

“Gone wrong?” Patton repeats. “Is Dante alright?”

“We aren’t sure.” Logan admits.

“Probably not though.” Remus hums. “It’s his kingdom, so if something’s gone wrong it’s definitely affecting him.”

“Remus.” Logan scolds again, getting another shrug in response. “We were hoping you could go check on him.”

“Me?” Patton frowns. “Won’t someone else be better?” Someone with two human hands, for insistence.

“Nah.” Remus claims. “It doesn’t make sense for anyone else to make a causal call. Plus, with the wing, you won’t be seen as a threat!”

“I’m not a threat.” Patton claims. “I can’t do much with only one arm.”

“You can do plenty.” Logan argues. “You just need to think a bit.”

“You’re sure Dante’s in trouble? And only I can help?” Patton checks, just to be absolutely certain.

“Most definitely!” Well, Remus doesn’t really leave any room for doubt does he?

Stepping into the Mountain Palace, Patton knows the problem immediately.

Well, actually, he knew the moment the carriage pulled into the kingdom that there was a problem. It was too quiet, too sombre. But as he walks into the castle, he can see the problem.

It’s hanging off of Dante’s arm.

“What?” Dante frowns, almost stepping out of the strangers grip. Except the stranger doesn’t let him.

“Sorry for not sending word ahead.” Patton apologizes, forcing a smile and relaxed figure. “My brothers were getting a bit stuffy, you know? Thought I’d stop by. Is that alright?”

“Oh of course it is!” The stranger claims, smiling like this is his palace and his hospitality to give. “We haven’t the pleasure, Call me Amber of the Mountains.” The stranger greets, hand out.

“Call me Pat.” Patton returns, shaking his hand. He can see Dante tensing to the side. It’s okay, he wants to say, I know what I’m doing.

“Forgive my rudeness,” Amber starts but Patton cuts him off with a sheepish smile.

“The wing?” He guesses.

“Apologies, it’s not a common sight. I must admit, I’m curious.” Amber says.

“It’s alright. It’s the result of a curse, never quite broken I’m afraid.” Patton answers. He can almost sense Dante’s confusion, no doubt because he knows that what Patton’s saying isn’t quite the truth.

But it isn’t quite a lie either, and really that’s all that matters with someone like this Amber.

“Horrible thing, curses.” Amber smiles, hand squeezing Dante’s arm.

Something has, indeed, gone very, very wrong.

“Pat, let me show you the gardens before anything else.” Dante says. “You’ll love the flowers.”

“A wonderful idea.” Amber agrees.

“I hate to steal him from you, but could we have a moment alone? It’s impolite to gossip about family members to strangers.” Patton smiles.

“Ah, of course.” Amber says, his expression turning swear for just a moment before he, begrudgingly, let’s Dante go. “Don’t be long now.”

“We won’t be.” Dante says, although he doesn’t sound too happy about it. He almost flees the room, Patton has to rush to keep up.

As soon as they’re in the garden and out of ear shot, Patton speaks up.

“Why is there a fairy in your house?” He asks, whispering.

“So you could tell.” Dante notes, frowning.

“Of course I could tell, my brothers and I aren’t exactly strangers to magic.” Patton points out. “What happened?” Dante hesitates and then, with a sigh, starts talking.

“I’m… not entirely human.” He admits. “Amber showed up talking about knowing my mother and I unfortunately fell for it. He’s taken to pretending we’re lovers, and that this is just as much his kingdom as mine.”

“How?” Patton presses.

“He’s bound me, if I’m gone from him for too long well…” Rather than answer, Dante turns fully to Patton.

The right side of his face is covered in scales.

“Supposedly, if I don’t return at all, I’ll become a snake. I haven’t tested it.” Dante mutters.

“How did he do this to you?” Patton asks. “Tell me what happened?”

“I told him my name.” Dante admits. “Not intentionally. I simply said the wrong thing and Amber figured it out. There’s nothing you can do for that.”

“Of course there is!” Patton claims. “You just need to take it back!”

“What?”

“Leave it to me, okay? Let’s head back.” Already the wheels are turning in Patton’s head. You can learn a lot of things as a bird. You can learn a lot of things as a prince hidden away in a forest.

Logan may not be a witch and Patton most certainly isn’t one.

But Virgil is.

By the time dinner rolls around, Patton knows Dante is getting tense. So far it doesn’t look like Patton’s done much of anything, except play nice, and Dante must be getting nervous. But just because it doesn’t look like Patton’s down anything doesn’t mean he hasn’t. Already his clothes are backwards, and his pockets full of oats. Precautions he shouldn’t need, but precautions none the less.

“So,” Amber eventually says during the main course, “tell me about these brothers of yours.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Patton grins. “They’re rather great brothers. I’m the youngest, so they can be very overprotective. You might have heard of the oldest. I think you’d call him Fear.” For a moment Amber pauses, and then he laughs.

“You expect me to believe that you’re the brother of the infamous Fear? Unlikely.” Amber claims.

“We both know you can tell if I was lying.” Patton says.

“Fear is a bird spirit.” Amber argues.

“No, Fear was cursed to be a bird.” Patton corrects. “How do you think I got this wing?”

“Alright.” Amber says. “Say I believe you, why tell me that? Even Fear couldn’t do anything to me here. I’ve got his name.” He nodded to Dante, unbothered when the Prince hissed at him.

“Would you trade it?” Patton asks.

“I doubt Fear gave you his name.” Amber rolls his eyes.

“He didn’t. But he’s very protective. If I trade you my name for Dante’s, Fear will trade you his name for mine.” Patton offers.

“Pat, no.” Dante refuses, eyes wide.

“Shush dear.” Amber orders. “You’d trade me your name?”

“If you give me Dante’s. And you leave forever afterwards.” Patton confirms.

“Alright, brother of Fear.” Amber smirks. “Give me your name.”

“Give me Dante’s first.” Patton says.

“Alright. I grant to you the name of Dante Riverdale of the Mountain.” With Amber’s words a rush runs through Patton. This magic has a different feel than his curse did, it’s more refreshing. Free from Amber, Dante immediately pulls away. The fairy looks unbothered but then what’s one castle compared to power like Virgil’s.

“Your turn.”

Too bad he won’t get it.

“My name is Patton Morality of The Forest.” Patton says, and then goes back to eating. Amber’s grin drops.

“That isn’t your true name.” He says.

“No, but it’s my name.” Patton argues. “That’s all you traded for.” A scream of rage fills the room but when Amber tries to step forward, he can't. “I upheld my part of the trade. Now you have to.”

Despite the curses Amber tries to fling, he can’t stop himself from disappearing and none of them hit their mark.

“Where did he go?” Dante asks, staring at the space the fairy had once been.

“Well I said he had to leave.” Patton says. “So at the very least he’ll never be able to come near us again.”

“Okay.” Dante accepts. Then, calmly, he walks around to stand in front of Patton’s chair. Lifting him out of the chair, Dante wacks him hard on the wing. “What the hell were you thinking?!” He demands.

“Ow!” Patton whins, rubbing the sore spot. “I told you I’d handle it!”

“You didn’t tell me you’d do something so reckless!” Dante snaps.

“I knew it was going to work… probably.” Patton claims. “Oh! But that reminds me, I give you-” before Patton can return Dante’s name, the royal presses his hands to Patton’s mouth.

“Keep it.” He says, blushing. “And don’t do something so stupid again!” He adds as he takes his hands back.

“If it means protecting you? No promises.” Patton grins.

84 notes · View notes

acrobaticcatfeline · 5 years

Text

Logan and His Little Bumble Bee (Single Dads AU) Chapter 4!!!

Word Count: 3643

TW: swearing, deceit, vague mentions of vague trauma, arguments, crying, unconscious projecting, one quick mention of homophobia, roman is a big nervous a lot lmk if I missed anything!!!

Notes: This was out way sooner than I expected. So I made this one revolving around Roman and Dmitri for once, because we don’t get that much and now he has thoughts and things to say!!! Anyways it starts a bit angsty but its really soft and fluffy and I love my baby gays. It’s dialogue heavy this time around, it’s almost as if my writing changes subconsciously depending on which character I am writing. Huh. I hope you enjoy it, I worked my butt off for it. Previous chapter here, first chapter here!

Summary: “you are 15 years old! Absolutely not!!!” Logan is having trouble letting Roman be himself, projecting his own bad experiences on him without realizing it. Roman and Dmitri kiss a lot because they’re really soft and really gay.

“you are 15 years old! Absolutely not!!!”

“dad people in my grade have been dating since they were 10 come on!”

“and they're irresponsible and don’t know better! Roman it is not a good idea-”

“Logan dear be rational; kids are supposed to-”

“NO!”

Everyone paused as Logan screamed. Roman had flinched and Logan winced knowing he caused it, but he couldn’t just stop at this point.

“Roman, dating this young is a bad idea, take it from me. I mean that was when I got together with mercy-”

“you can’t say that like it’s the biggest mistake you’ve made dad!!! Because… because if it was then I would have-I know it ended badly with you and her, but you were still happy at the time! You can’t just keep me from experiencing things because you're scared dad. I'm not you. I-I need to live my own life eventually, and if I don’t know how to then what am I gonna do when I'm an adult?”

“you don’t- Roman that isn't necessary to be happy, I mean look at me and Patton-”

“well maybe I don’t want to pine for someone for 9 years!!! Maybe, maybe I want to live my life now, instead of waiting in fear!!! Maybe I want my happily ever after before I settle down, maybe, for once, I want to live my life without worrying that I'm a disappointment to my parents!!! I know you don’t mean to but you just, you make everything so hard! You-you have so much, so much hope. That I'm going to be this perfect kid and I'm gonna grow up to be amazing, and its exhausting! I want to make a decision without worrying that I'm going to do wrong by you! And then mercy… mercy never saw me for me, and I always had to be perfect for her and she's gone now but I'm just so tired dad! I'm tired of trying to fit inside this perfect box that I think you have for me, I want to be a teenager, I want to date, I want to go to parties, I want to make mistakes and not cry myself to sleep thinking I've made you hate me. It’s so hard to try to make you happy all the time. I want to have a chance to just make me happy.”

Logan stared at Roman. He had been trying so hard to protect him and take care of him, and all he had been doing was overwhelming him. He had never meant to do any of it, Roman was right, but he went back through his brain and it hurt to see that he had unconsciously pushed his son onto a pedestal that was impossible to escape from. He was never disappointed in him, whether he did good or bad or made mistakes, he had always tried to show that he was proud no matter what. He felt tears welling in his eyes and saw Roman twist uncomfortably. He felt Patton's arm wrap around his shoulders, but he couldn’t stay there, his mind was racing too fast. He was catastrophizing he knew, but he couldn’t so easily stop himself. His head was knocked out of the process when Roman ran into his arms, wrapping him in a hug. He let his arms fold around his sons waist, letting a few tears fall.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry dad I just- I needed to tell you and I was going to tell you in a nicer way, a better planned way but then this happened and it all came out I'm sorry dad I didn’t mean to make you cry”

“it’s- its fine Ro. I needed to hear that from you. I'm. I'm sorry Ro I didn’t mean it. I try so hard to show that I'm always proud of you, god you have helped me so much and I've never realized that I was making you feel so pressured I'm sorry bee, I’ll try harder, I didn’t know-”

Logan’s head was buried in Roman’s chest, it was the benefit of his son growing taller than him, he could hide his tear stained face out of sight. He sniffed a bit, rubbing his eyes before letting go of him. He smiled widely at Roman.

“I was wrong to have set such impossible standards. It was wrong of me to treat you like I had a second chance at my childhood. I really, just want the best for you but-”

He took a sharp inhale and looked him in the eyes.

“but its your life. And-and if you want, if you want to date. Then, I-I support you completely. Because, because I love you Roman. So so much.”

His eyes teared up again, and he let out a choked laugh while rubbing his eyes clear. Roman smiled at him and hugged him again, thanking him profusely. At that point Virgil walked back inside. He looked at the scene, sending a questioning glance at Patton over the other two. Patton let out a small smile and shook his head, to which Virgil shrugged and went upstairs without a further thought.

“so, he was fine with it?”

“I mean he wasn’t, but I explained a few things and he's fine with it now. It took a little bit of the harsher truths to be spilled for him to understand my point, and a few tears, but yeah.”

“wow. I haven’t seen… either of you cry in my entire time knowing you.”

“yeah it doesn’t happen often. I think the last time I saw my dad cry was when he told me that mercy wasn’t coming back.”

“geez that’s a long time. And its always baffled me that I've never seen you cry; I've known you since you were 2.”

“yeah, I'm a uh, private crier. I don’t think I've cried in front of people really since I could talk.”

“fuck man how the hell did you manage that?”

“… I mean I don’t remember it, but I think it was a leftover from when I still lived with mercy.”

“what.”

“eh, it doesn’t matter.”

“no wait what? What did she do to you?”

“pfft, I just told you Vee, I don’t remember. I get vague fuzzy feelings that are sorta like if memories were feelings, but otherwise I have no idea.”

“that’s fucked up man”

“meh. Anyways back to the original topic, soooo can I get Dmitri's number?”

“oh my god.”

“oh, and you're at 75 cents.”

“shit.”

“a dollar!”

Virgil had handed over his number easily, smirking as Roman gave him a hug before dashing into his own room. Roman had immediately sent Dmitri a text, ‘hey, its Roman! Dads way more chill now so I stole your number from Virgil’ and he had responded almost immediately.

‘neat so are we gonna talk about what that was?’

‘I mean, I thought it was p straight forward, but I mean if you think we should?’

‘I mean yeah but’

Radio silence for a minute

‘but like, idk if you want this to be serious or smth like, casual. I mean I don’t care either way’

‘oh! Well something serious sounds nice!’

‘thank god I was not prepared for something casual regardless of what I said’

‘pfft, its fine tough guy’

‘if that nickname sticks you gotta use it around rem, it'll make him bug out’

‘alrighty! Tough guy~’

‘ouch yo chill it with that I'm in public’

‘pfft ur a dork Dee!’

‘I am absolutely not a whale’s penis and I'm offended you would even imply it’

‘oh my god I'm gonna break up with you’

‘nooooo don’t do that I'm too dark and mysterious to be broken up with for that’

‘dark and mysterious my butt! The only dark thing about you is your humor and the only mysterious things about you are your eyes!’

‘babe I have a reputation to keep up!’

‘guess your rep will just have to fit me in there somewhere then!’

‘god you are adorable, I gtg before you somehow make me start uwuing at my family’

‘uwu bye bye mistew dmitwi!!!’

‘god its disgusting kill it with fire’

‘love you too Dee! <3<3<3’

‘<3’

Roman set down his phone afterwards, feeling the butterflies attacking his insides like rabid animals. He changed the tab over to his YouTube and put on his headphones, listening to his curated BTS playlist, starting off with answer: love myself, bopping along and humming. He switched the tab and scrolled through Tumblr smiling at the posts about his favorite superheroes.

The next week was absolutely blissful for Roman, he alternated between sitting at his table with a few of his acquaintances who he would chat with about his hyperfixations, and with Dmitri and his friends. Virgil had a different lunch hour luckily, otherwise he would have been slightly embarrassed. But hilariously the first day he sat with Dee, his friends were caught off guard as a boy in soft pastels and stonewashed jeans sat beside Dmitri and was immediately nestled underneath his arm. There were words signed across the table and Dee would chuckle and respond which sent their eyes flying to Roman in his seat as he ate his sandwich oblivious to the reason he was being stared at, just sending kind smiles back at them.

When lunch had ended, he had stood on his toes and kissed Dee’s cheek and his friends all had the shocked looks on their faces again. He ran off to class and had forgotten about the whole interaction afterwards. He was only reminded after school through a text from Dee.

‘sorry about my friends at lunch, they're judgmental shits. I told them off but knowing them they might continue to be asshats anyways’

‘huh. Didn’t even notice. I really need to get around to fully learning sign, I have the smallest feeling that if I'm hanging out with you more it might possibly be useful.’

‘meh, if I really need you to know something and I can’t talk I’ll just text you.’

‘mmm but I still want to learn! Anyways what were they saying’

‘oh they were being dicks about your clothes and then they were being shits about me dating you, they're assholes, I only hang out with them cuz coach had everyone learn sign for me and they're the only people I can talk to during the school day’

‘oh, that’s rude! Do you want me to stop hanging out with you at lunch?’

‘no not at all, I just want you to know what you're getting into’

‘mhm!’

The next time Roman sat with them, he had sent about 8 insults to the people around the table while Dee wasn’t looking, essentially ‘fuck off you judgmental homophobic dicks’ and after that the group shut their traps about him and Dee.

The week after, Dmitri was busy almost always. There was a big game this weekend and he Remy and Virgil were always either practicing, doing schoolwork, or sleeping for the most part. He would send good morning and good night texts but that was mostly it and Roman felt dumb for missing him so much. Virgil invited him to practice after seeing him sitting around staring at his phone like a kicked dog.

He had sat on the bleachers, watching the coach drill them and them playing near their best. They had taken a rest and Dmitri had made his way up to him, a giant bottle of water in hand. He smiled and let out a croaked hello.

“oh, Dmitri when was the last time you spoke?”

He had coughed and held up a 6 on his fingers. Roman pouted and placed a kiss on his chapped lips. Dmitri waved his hand to say it isn't a problem with a smile on his face and it made Roman pout more and kiss him again, wrapping his arms around himself after. Dee ruffled his hair and went to say something when the whistle blew calling them back. He sighed and stood up, signing ‘I love you’ before rushing back to the field. Roman sat in silence, watching them play once again.

Roman was beaming. The game was today and that meant he would get Dmitri back afterwards along with Remy and Virgil. He was filled with jitters; he knows the team had been working tirelessly for the whole week and he was excited to see his friends kick the rival schools butt! He was rushing Patton out the door again, just like he was a few weeks before but for a separate reason this time.

He wasn’t expecting the time at the game to fly as quick as it did, but here he was. It was nearing the end and they weren’t very far ahead, and the worry was clear on the teams faces. And then Dmitri had the ball! The crowd roared in surprise and excitement as he weaved around the opposition. He got caught near the goal and Roman was on the edge of his seat as Dmitri kicked the ball straight into the goal. The cheers were immediate, the buzzer signaling the end of the game followed a few seconds later. Roman was up and standing at the edge of the guardrail of the bleachers jumping up and down and screaming. He raced down and met Dmitri at the entrance of the showers, looking around before tugging him off towards the underside of the bleachers. He spoke in barely restrained squeals.

“Dee I'm so proud of you!!! Oh, my goodness you did so well!!! I can’t even-”

Dmitri cut him off with a kiss, one that Roman reciprocated immediately, wrapping his arms around his neck and tilting his head as well as he could with the height difference they had when suddenly he wasn’t standing on his own feet but being held in the air from his waist. He broke the kiss with a squeak, placing his hands-on Dmitri's shoulders as he was hoisted in the air by a happy Dee. He squeaked again as he was spun around before being set on the ground. When he was steady again, he looked up at Dmitri with an amused but confused face.

“we did it”

“you did! Had you not processed that yet?”

“not really no.”

“oh, my goodness you are a dork.”

“listen if you had scored the last goal you would be a little stunned too”

“valid however-”

“oh, just shut up and kiss me again you prep”

“gladly”

“ey before you two start making out you might want to go talk to the team? They're sort of wanting to congratulate you, but you disappeared.”

Roman froze in embarrassment at his brother catching them. Dmitri just smirked and turned to face him.

“listen if any of them could get a significant other they would understand. But considering that even you haven’t gotten the nerve to ask out Remy yet, I guess they wouldn’t so I guess I should grace them with my presence, huh babe?”

“hey, fuck off my little brother didn’t need to know I like your brother!”

“oops!”

Roman giggled a bit at the blush that spread across Virgil's face. He nudged Dmitri.

“be nice honeybee. And he's right, I stole you from your festivities! We should head back over; we can be cute later”

“nonsense, that implies that you can stop being cute”

“bluhhhh that’s my brotherrrrr come on you two, be gross later”

“DMITRI THAT WAS LEGENDARY!!!”

Dee had a cocky look on his face as his teammates congratulated him, Remy running up and tackling in a hug at first sight. He chuckled wordlessly at his brother who was screaming praise at him and then dragging him into the showers. The team followed them in all continuing to shout praise and Roman contemplated following as well. He eventually just went in after about 10 minutes, finding Dmitri surrounded by his team and. He blanched and turned around a corner, hiding his face in his hands. On the other side, Dmitri sat with blue jeans and no shirt, still dripping water from his hair. He took a few big breaths before wandering back over, not trying to push past anyone and just standing where he knew Dmitri could see him. He flushed when Dmitri smiled and winked at him over the heads of his teammates, curling up in his arms and covering his face again. He whispered to himself in his hands

“gosh I'm really gay and he's unfairly pretty”

It wasn’t much longer before the group had filed out, done with the celebration, Virgil given him a nudge as he left. He walked in, seeing Dmitri finally pulling out his shirt, and Roman couldn’t help but turn away with a bit of shyness hitting him again.

“what's up Roman? You good babe?”

“mhm! You just um,”

His mouth felt dry as salt and he was wondering when that happened.

“you look nice…”

“pfft you're a nerd.”

Roman’s mind came up with several scenarios for what could happen as he stood up to kiss him. Of course, all that happened was hands around his waist as Dee leant down to give him an easier time. He still felt fuzzy but ignored it as Dmitri pulled away to put his shirt on, quickly pulling on his leather jacket on afterwards before placing a kiss on Roman’s temple and grabbing his hand.

“come on, I'm stealing you, my folks are treating the team to ice cream and pizza and they’ve been wanting to meet you.”

“wh-what? Wait you talk about me with your parents?”

“Remy sold me out day one, but yeah, they seem genuinely interested in meeting you, so I mean why not?”

“oh. Ok then. I should probably tell my dads first, but I’ll be back!”

He ran up to Logan, wrapping him in a hug before explaining everything to him and Patton. Logan looked unsure but Patton backed him up.

“Lolo, Virgil's going to be there too, and it’s not like he's going to be stranded! Plus, there's a new diner that opened a bit ago that I've been wanting to take you to!”

“…ok. You have your keys and your wallet and your phone, right?”

“yes dad!”

“…ok then. Go have fun. Let me or pat know when you are coming home.”

“ok! See you guys tonight! Love you!!!”

The party was far more calm than Roman had expected, most of the team dipping early on leaving just him and Virgil as guests. Neither could complain, they had free access to an abundance of pizza and ice cream, and they could spend uninterrupted time with the objects of their affections. Virgil and Remy had absconded upstairs playing games or something while Roman was sitting next to Dmitri and his parents.

“how long have you been dating now?”

“um, 2 weeks!”

“wow! And you two are already attached by the hip huh?”

Roman nodded as his cheeks burned. He felt his boyfriends arm snake around his waist, pulling him closer.

“oh, you two are adorable! We’ll leave you be, don’t have too much fun with him kiddo!”

Roman visibly relaxed as they left, leaning against his boyfriend and letting out a sigh. Dmitri moved his arm up, running his fingers through his hair, grinning at the purr like noise Roman made in response.

“you should stay the night”

“my dad wouldn’t let me do that unless-”

Virgil stormed down the stairs with a lovesick expression.

“Roman we’re staying the night!”

“oh! Does dad-”

“yeah don’t worry its fine they're chill!”

“what happened?”

“I-”

“BOY YOU BETTER GET BACK UP HERE AND KISS ME I'M HAVING KISS WITHDRAWL”

“let’s say me and Remy are a thing now? Gotta go!”

“…about what I was saying…”

“isn't that the best timing huh?”

“oh hush!”

“wanna head to bed? It is pretty late.”

“um, sure. But I wanted to cuddle some more…”

“who said I was gonna stop cuddling you nerd?”

“I? um uh”

“you can share a bed without it being sexual I hope you know.”

“oh! Oh yeah I totally, yeah duh, of course”

“come on babe”

Roman frowned at him rolling his eyes but followed him upstairs. He had walked into his room and grabbed some clothing before filing into the bathroom. When he came back, Roman had to confronts his gay again, as he was shirtless once again and he was talking to him and he's got to focus dammit!

“-so that’s why, also I have various pajamas in there, and I also have shirts that are probably way to big for you in there as well, take your pick.”

“oh um, I was just gonna sleep in this!”

“…yeah no. those jeans are way too form fitting to get away with sleeping in, and your shirt does not look nearly comfortable enough.”

“o-okay then I guess…”

He grabbed a pair of sleep shorts and one of his shirts and headed into the bathroom. When he came back, he immediately launched himself into his boyfriends’ arms. Dmitri giggled seeing the shirt choice, placing a quick kiss on his nose.

“nah you're a sarcastic butterfly”

“shhhhh I'm a sarcastic mothhhh”

“keep tellin yourself that precious”

Roman sputters a bit before giving up and hiding his face in Dee’s chest. Dmitri goes back to playing with Roman’s hair, and Roman leans into the touch. After a bit of time passes, he stops, and nudges Roman fully into bed.

“why’d you stop?”

“because that’s not a comfortable sleep position. Lay down prep, sleep is important.”

“but I don’t want to sleep, I want kisses”

Dmitri rolls his eyes and kisses Roman. By the time he pulls away, Roman has passed out. He laughs quietly and wraps his arms around the smaller boy, letting himself drift off as well.

Taglist: @fivebyfive-finebyfive @tacohippy56900 @analogical-mess @crookedlyoptimisticdestiny @angels-and-dreams @fandomloverangel @asleepybisexual @starbucks-remy @idioticsky @ijustreallylovesanderssides @superwholocked-for-life @band-be-boss-blog @llamaly @logicality-trash @fiive-second-cookies @whats-going-on-kiddos @snowshoe-main-blog @007ardra @internetwhy @musikasworld @Sammy-is-obsessed

Let me know if you want to be tagged in my writing!!!

Thank you for reading I will see you later ladies lords and nonbinary royalty!!!

23 notes · View notes

survivor-themyscira-blog · 6 years

Text

Okay well, that challenge was a fucking bust. LMAO. I should’ve numbered everything

I’m shook to have made it through the vote tonight. Like after being told the other day that Nicholas was going to go home, only to be blindsided and have fucking Rhone die, it was a shock that everyone stuck to their word for once. I’m starting to feel a little more awake in the game, too. Thankfully, I’ve got my hands typing away feverishly to everyone on the tribe as often as I can handle. I think that there are other people doing the same thing, but who knows for certain! I hear a lot that I’m the “only person who talks a lot of game with me”, so that’s an improvement from before already.

I’ve got to keep downplaying that I’m a big threat going forward. Nicholas left and said that he was gonna vote for me to win if I made it to the end, which I highly doubt is the case. I tried my hardest to attempt to clear the air with him and get him to at least consider other options on this tribe other than voting for me to go home. In that conversation, I tried to just make peace with him as a person but I dunno. I think that Nicholas doesn’t like me very much and according to everybody else, he had nothing but criticisms to say about me. He was my biggest adversary when I won my way back and I knew from the get-go he’d do whatever he could to fuck my life up. Now he’s gone and probably shit-talking me to Rhone so there’s another jury vote I’ve lost this far LMAO.

There’s no chance that I’ll win today’s immunity, unless of course everybody else fucks it up majorly. If I don’t win, I’d prefer Jack to win because I want to start to paint him as a bigger physical threat than myself so everyone can target him before me. As I said in my host chat, he and I have a final two agreement right now but the only way I can get there is if he’s dragging me along.

The plan for now is to just take out all the goats. So rip Lily, Toph (to an extent), Logan, and Madeline. I don’t want Ian, Kai, Jack, and Emily to think that they’re more important to take to the end than me because I’m trying to sell to everyone that I’m the perfect little goat to take to the end and beat because I’m an ugly returner with no fucking friends on the jury. I think that the jury is going to either hate or at least partially respect the game I played – so far, I’ve been really chaotic but I’ve calmed down a lot since the merge. Even though I played that idol on Ian, some people think it was a one-time use thing and others think it was a regular idol. I don’t need Jack on the jury finding out that it was a regular idol because he’ll NEVER respect the move I made with it and he was already super fucking critical of me for it to begin with.

Toph is so fucking messy, man. He voted for me after trying to get me to vote a certain way all afternoon. I understand why he likely did it, because he didn’t want to vote out Nicholas and Lily would be pissed if he wrote her name down. I think Lily needs to know that Toph was being really messy so she thinks about turning on him sooner than later. Honestly, if I can get all the other weaklings to turn on one another, that’d be perfect so I can ride it smoothly with the larger threats.

The way I see it, Emily and Kai are the two biggest threats in this game. Kai seems to be the one controlling everything, while Emily is the one who KNOWS everything; she’s voted correctly the entire game by my knowledge. She took out Rhone, turned on Nicholas, and yet nobody bats an eye at her. She hardly acknowledges me unless I acknowledge her first and everybody RAVES about how much they love her. Although my strategy of keeping the threats around is more realistic for my chances at just getting to the end, I know that I need to make some serious moves to still have the opportunity to win. If I can somehow take out and replace both Kai and Emily with myself, while coasting under the radar, I could potentially win. I dunno. I need to be smart and not emotional from this point on…

Relying on fact over emotion is really difficult for me. I am a really opinionated person and I often make plays based off of those opinions I form or hear from others. This is super dangerous to do because there is a risk that people don’t share your opinions. Objectively speaking, I can’t determine who the biggest threat to win is because we’re only at the final nine… but I can’t figure out who that biggest threat is without listening to the opinions of others! The whole setup of Survivor revolves around a big opinion everyone shares on who deserves to win. And there isn’t a whole lot you can do to change crazy people’s minds… we’re all crazy because we’re playing this game SOOOOO….. fuck!

I feel like none of my confessionals make any sense. I just want y’all to know that I need to get rid of Emily probably soonish because she’s a huge danger to me. I should be more selfish than I already am (if that’s even possible) and push that agenda onto everyone, but idk if everybody will take too kindly to me being a huge bitch to them about it.

JACK IS A SMALL LITTLE BEAN BUT SO HELP ME GOD IF THAT BOY INTENDED TO GIVE ME A DISADVANTAGE THAT BOY IS OUT OF HERE.

If I go home on this next vote expect fireworks on my last words in the game. Kai was the one that gave me the idol to use, Emily is the leak, Toph is just a pawn, Lily who even are you in this game? Jaiden good effing game, Madeline is irrelevant and Jack thinks he can control her, Logan says he has an idol, Jack says he has a super idol. Have fun yall.

i’ve been #flopping st confessionals recently (well i don’t actually know but anyway) so here’s a tea filled confession

i think i have figured out what was in the hippothias bedroom: a legacy advantage. all i know is that the room was empty when kai got to it, but using that knowledge, i just have to figure out who got whatever was in there. and i think it was jordan. jordan and i talked a lot about how to get into that room pre-merge and i’m thinking he got there first. when i asked what was in the room, he told me it was empty and that someone got there first, but he didn’t send a quote. i didn’t push him on it because i didn’t feel it necessary or smart at the time. kai sent me a quote, though. and something was gone. so! using my brain, i’ve decided jordan got whatever was in there. and i think the only thing he’d not tell me about being there (because we were very close before merge hit) is a legacy advantage, just in case he didn’t want to will it to me. and i don’t think he did. i think he willed it to jack. (just remember this is all me thinking hypothetically and could all be COMPLETELY wrong, but it is also me trying to justify voting out jack.) since madeline and jack are close now, i think there’s a good chance that jack would will the legacy advantage to madeline. and i would MUCH rather have madeline have the advantage than logan or lily or toph or jaiden. i just need madeline to fight hard for jack to stay this round to the right people (toph) and then one of the dudes and dames can throw their vote to lily. make it look like a fight was put up to keep jack in, but in reality there wasn’t. if madeline fights to keep jack then he’ll likely will the advantage to her rather than the people who voted him out. the votes will ideally fall like this:

5 jack: ian, kai, jaiden, logan, lily

3 lily: jack, me, toph

1 madeline: madeline (bc she got a self vote while searching the island lmao)

again, this legacy advantage may be nonexistent but STILL! if it is real, i truly did that. i came up with this all on my own and shit!!! look at me making moves and being cracked as fucc!

APARENTLY JACK IS SOREADING MY NAME AROUND AND ITS FUCKING CLOSE SKSNSJSNWJ THIS IS A MAJOR MESS A BITCH THOUGHT SHE WAS IN CONTROL HELLA TONIGHT AND JOW IT MIGHT T I E

GUESS WHO WAS SO RIGHT ABOUT HATING JACK BC THE BITCH IS SPOUTING MY NAME EVERYWHERE SJSJSJSJSWJWJ IM GOING TO CLOCK THIS FUCK

Everyone is lying to my fucking face and i am REALLY working hard to not be OTT right now!!!!!!!!!!!!! Emily u r not an OTT you are a CP stay calm BUT I CANT DUCKING STAY CALM

i feel very sad. kai was like my best friend in this game and seeing him go was the last thing i wanted. i would’ve gone to rocks for him. and then joseph had to play that fucking idol. and he didn’t even understand that my voting confession was a vine reference “keep my name out of your mouth or i’ll fucking rip your face off BITCH” like i’m so funny. anyways this is one of the saddest tribals yet. i miss kai and i’m going to miss going on call and making fun of his accent and making fun of weird british words. just making fun of kai in general. i’m just so upset kai was fucking robbed i didn’t even know he was getting votes! i thought it was going to be me. and i’m still here. but kai is gone. i’m fighting so hard for this immunity. i’m avenging kai. this is absolute bullshit.

I’m still convinced Jack has the legacy advantage even though I have no evidence to back that up

We had to lose a soldier, but we will win this war. Kai is being avenged. They have awoken the tiger. I’m mad. Logan, Lily, and Jack will get voted out if I have ANYTHING to say about it.

listen i know i have confessed like eight times already in the past hour but i am so upset. kai was fucking ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck the gay agenda.

#whatidoisnotuptoyou #athena11 #episodes #otherwise known as the round where emily earned her OTT edit

1 note · View note

infernallewords · 7 years

Text

Stereotypes

I’m sick of them. I’m sick to death of them. If I see one more show, movie, or book with a stereotype of a minority in it, I will scream and pretend that piece of garbage doesn’t exist. If you have to add a commonly used adjective to your minority to describe it (one you’ve seen used previously), you are writing a stereotype. I have dropped show after show after show because of this. At this point I just watch silly videos online, because almost every show has this, with the exception of The Flash, because that show is apparently being written by people who actually interact with minorities. The story line may be a little hackneyed, but the minority characters are gold. And people need to take a page from its book, because fucking hell it’s beautiful.

If I can watch a movie/show or read a book with a minority, and predict exactly how they will behave, that thing will be dead to me.

Example: I was so excited to read a Christopher Moore book. Super excited. I’d heard so many good things about Lamb. Everybody I knew loved it. Well, I wanted to read a horror story, and he had written a horror comedy called A Dirty Job. This book was set in San Fran’s Chinatown district. The main character, a white male, was written with some depth (goofy, beta male stupidity, but some depth). His lesbian sister was written as just that. Her entire story line revolved around her being a lesbian. Not her as a person, but just her as a lesbian. Okay, I said, and continued on. His Chinese landlady spoke in broken English, stole his many pets to eat them, and screamed in Cantonese at him. His female Russian neighbor constantly talked about fighting bears. The one black guy in the book, who could also sense the dead, always dressed like a pimp, is called “Minty Fresh”, and pretends to be gay to lure in gay men to buy all his Cher albums. Also, the main character is constantly “talking black” to him. He’s also super physically strong. His creepy fellow shop keeper is constantly searching for “desperate Filipina girls” on dating websites and fetisizes them. There’s some ugly “trans humor” attached to it that makes me cringe. And the women are all fuckpuppets. One of the female souls gets attached to her breast implants.

Do you see the problem here? I will never read another fucking book by this author, because the method by which he wrote his minority characters was stunningly bad. Not all black men have to be big, burly pimps dressed in pimp suits. Not all Asian people “eat dog”. I guess he was trying to throw you off the scent with the Russian lady and “wrestling bears”, but fuck man, you don’t make something better by doubling down on it. And if you’re trying to comment on stereotypes, you have to subvert them in a well-written way. This author does not do that in the least. All he needed was the sexed up, saucy Latina character with her big hips and “feisty attitude”. Thank god there was no “sassy Black woman”, or the many, many stereotypes depicting Black women as either whores, mammies, or non-sexed magical characters for the main character’s benefit (though Minty did come off as a bit of a magical negro character to help guide the story line). Also, if the main character hadn’t been portrayed as a “beta male”, I’m sure there would have been some white savior complex a la every main white male character Hollywood throws in with a bunch of minority characters.

“Oh, stop talking down about white people! That’s just racist!”

Well, I am talking about minority stereotypes and the inherent racism therein, so it makes sense to talk about the opposite problem, y’know? You can’t improve upon a problem without talking about the problem. Also, stop getting cringey when somebody talks about white characters and their juxtaposition with minority characters in pieces of entertainment. The troupes are already proven and they are well-worn. Besides, I’m talking about representation, and it matters. White characters get amazing representation with depth, personality, romance, wants, goals, dreams, and hopes for their future. All I want is to see is that with minority characters, which rarely happens unless it’s written by a minority. And then if it’s a movie, expect a slave narrative, which I pretty much will not watch (#nomoreslavenarratives).

Example: While I did enjoy the movie Logan (went to the theatre and everything), its WSC was off the scales. I still enjoyed it, but why? And if anybody rolls their eyes at me mentioning this, just take a look at the way Hollywood furthers this standard. Avatar, The Help, The Blind Side, The Last Samurai, Dangerous Minds, etc. Hell, martial arts films made by Hollywood have a straight up complex when it comes to the Asian master who teaches the non-Asian to fight and be the best there ever was. I can direct you to Iron Fist, the Netflix show that does this, but everybody says, “Hey man, that was the original story!” Okay, but that’s actually not better. The fact that this has been going on forever doesn’t make it excusable. The movie Man of Tai Chi doesn’t exactly endear me to the concept, either. And I won’t even go into everything wrong with that horrific Dragonball movie.

And so you know I’m not pulling this out of my ass.

http://feministfilm.tumblr.com/post/6608112156/a-brief-list-and-analysis-of-white-savior-films

All I’m saying is this: I just want to see some realistic depictions of minorities in Hollywood and beyond. I’m sick of the stereotypes. I’m sick of being super excited to watch or read something, only to be hit over the head with stereotypes anytime a minority is introduced. And I’m also sick of people refusing to even write minorities in lead parts, because they don’t want to offend or have “tokens”. As Tim Burton put it, “Nowadays, people are talking about it [diversity] more ... things either call for things, or they don’t. I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct. Like, OK, let’s have an Asian child and a black. I used to get more offended by that than just… I grew up watching blaxploitation movies, right? And I said, that’s great. I didn’t go like, OK, there should be more white people in these movies.”

First of all, lol. This is why I haven’t watched a Tim Burton film since he fucked up Sweeney Todd. Second, “a black”? Blaxploitation films? Oh man. Third, minorities aren’t just people you sprinkle in stories for the sake of diversity. If you have a diverse group of friends, they aren’t there just because you “sprinkled them in”. You have them because you like them and what they bring to the table as human beings. You have friends from different backgrounds, because you have things in common. It’s those commonalities that cause you to come together and experience life. Why people who write these scripts and screenplays and books seem to completely forget the real people they know in real life when they put pen to paper is beyond me. If you have black friends, are they are sexless mammies who are magical negroes that merely exist in your life to further your story? Are they all thieves or pimps or gangstas who have at some point involved themselves in criminal activity? Do the young black women you know all resort to drugs or having a bunch of kids for child support or welfare? Are they turning tricks? Are the guys all players who fuck women and leave them with kids? Are the black women in your life all neck-swiveling Shaniquas who wag their fingers and eat fried chicken and talk about “oh no you didn’t!”

I certainly hope none of the people I know who write would try to shove me in any of those boxes, because I don’t fit in any of them. I’m childless, in a long term relationshipand have hopes and dreams and a love of creativity, writing, and books. I also have mental illnesses that affect my ability to be social and end up staying at home all day trying to parse my own reality while struggling with existential dread and nihilism. I have the type of personality that would never be attributed to a black woman in many scenarios. I’m not strong and independent--I’m a sad, depressed girl with anxiety issues who spends her time fumbling through life while trying to be successful and artistic. That black girl never gets written, and it’s a shame. That Korean/Chinese/Filipino/Indonesian girl never gets written. That Latina girl never gets written. That Indian girl never gets written. Same with minority guys. That guy, as a minority, never gets written, and I know so many going through the same ups and downs as me.

Minority characters are fucking human. When I see us get written as humans in a movie or show or book, I inhale it and support it with all my might. I will stan for these things. I get excited about them. I tell everybody about any piece of entertainment that does this and does it right. And if you don’t know how to do it (I’m looking at you, again, Hollywood), then just write a character and make them a minority second. Again, take a page from The Flash, who does this marvelously. They wrote people first, and minorities second. Did they have some slip ups (the absent mother who becomes a drug addict arc for Iris West), yes. And it was stupid. Did they make up with it with Iris’s brother in a way when they introduced Kid Flash? Absolutely, and his character is awesome. He was a little hotheaded at the beginning, but when they found his voice and disposed of certain stereotypical aspect (illegal drag racing), it was much better. And really? Even the drag racing played into him becoming Kid Flash due to his motivation for speed. Even the mild stereotypes made some sense. He’s a college student now with a job and a loving family, and that makes me so happy. Why can’t more shows and movies do this? Why is this so hard? Joe West is a hard-working detective in the show and a black father who supports his kids. He doesn’t have some edgy past with drugs and other crap. He’s just ... amazing. Why is that so hard?

Why is this so hard to comprehend? I’m not complaining to be controversial or aggressive or mean or hateful (though many will obviously see that, regardless of how politely I structure my argument simply because I am mentioning race). I’m complaining about it because I am none of these stereotypes, nobody I know or love are these stereotypes, and nobody I’m around are purely and only these stereotypes. Whether or not you choose to believe that “stereotypes come from somewhere”, those same stereotypes can be found in any group of people. So why are they only attributed to some and not others? Or, if they are attributed to others, why do those others get to redeem themselves while the minorities who have these stereotypes don’t? That’s where my frustration lies.

#stereotypes #Hollywood just doesn't get it #why I hate most entertainment #writing #mini rant about stereotypes and minorities

1 note · View note

epickendall · 5 years

Text

The Summer of Del'goxoth part 10

Logan Hall tells Danny about how he died than how he became ghost afterward.

"See after a heated argument with my director about my acting skills in a certain scene we were filming. I went to a local bar I got hammered never got so fucking drunk since I was a teen actor anyway I kept drinking cheap beer and tequila until I fall off the bar stool after that the bartender got me off I went back to my car,"

"So let me get this straight you argued with your director, so you decide to get wasted and then get in a car while drunk?" said Danny

"Yes, it wasn't the smart move but fuck it at the time I thought I was the king of the god damn world, and I could survive anything in my career. So drove pretty good while drunk until I pass out on the wheel my foot was still on the accelerator. I drove off into desert surface driving straight toward off the road then one medium size rock flip my car over and over until it lands on the roof of the car. At my final moment alive I see a small fire and gas leaking out of the car then boom I died thing I knew I see I was ghost floating over the flaming car and my bad body,"

"I'm truly sorry about your death, Mr. Hall."

"Don't sweat kid and..wait a minute your Danny Phantom are you?"

"Yes,"

"Oh my god, I thought I it was mind playing tricks, and I was talking to myself,"

"Your not, I got to ask why did you damage that guy car in the garage?"

"You see Danny I'm still a bit frustrated and sad about my death I flew around for a couple of days until stumbling on this town. So decided to take my frustration on the whole town with pranks let me tell you kid it's was hilarious the reactions I got from my pranks. like this big buffy red dude, I prank where I put a shocker on one of his axes; he grabs one of the axes he got shook so much that you can smell his hair burning funny right?"

"No that was kinda dangerous and being a douchebag Mr. Hal,"

"Whatever It's funny to me pranking people below but since your here and we're both celebrity sorta I come up with ideas for both us that you'll never disagree with on the outcomes of it,"

Danny crossed his arms, "what's your idea?"

"See we get an agent for the both us to have our own TV show or movies starring us that why we could getting rich off being ghost celebrities,"

"Look, Mr.Hall.."

"Wait not done yet then merchandise, toys, videogames, magazines, and even rap music about us we'll get us a fan base, more money, and all the hot girls will come to us. Hey, is there any hot ghost chicks?"

"Mr.Hall! There no way I agree to that idea of yours, it's both ridiculous and insane,"

"Fine do you have a way of making me human again since you can do that I heard I bet I can do it faster than you,"

"God this guy is such an asshole," Danny thought "no I have no idea how to make you human,"

"But you can?"

"That's because I'm half human and half ghost your just a ghost,"

"Your joking, I'm stuck being a ghost?"

"Yes, Mr. Hall you are a ghost there no way you'll never be alive again I'm sorry,"

"No no Danny I'm Logan Hall I have to be alive or at least famous will I’m dead,"

"Calm down Mr. Hall"

"Calm down! you know how much work and things I have to do become a famous actor all the great movie I was in,"

"Not all them great," Danny said to himself.

Logan heard him, "what mean not great?"

"I mean I got to agree that some of the movies you were in are not that good, to begin with,"

"You little bastard first you reject my idea, then tell me you can't make me alive again, and now you insult my movies I'm getting the feeling that you want to be the only famous ghost around here,"

"No, I hate being famous you douchebag,"

"What wrong with being famous; it's everything anyone wants, and you don't like it.” Logan get more and more angry “That's it you son of a bitch I'll take away your fame and your life!"

"Oh god, he snapped," Danny thought as he gets into a fighting stance "Mr.Hall you don't have to do this we can work things work," Danny trying not to get in a fight with Logan.

"I want to do this,"

Logan flies straight toward Danny for a punch Danny dodge Logan punch Logan kept trying to land a blow on Danny but Danny ducks and dodges Logan punches until Danny kicks Logan in the stomach and the ghost actor fly back away from Danny.

"I'm guessing you got your stuntmen to do your fight because you suck at fighting,"

"Ha, I learn something new I can do in my new ghost body,"

In front of Danny's eyes, Logan changes his appearances into a cowboy bandit with an unkempt beard.

"This is my cowboy bandit character Joe Strong I played in my fifth movie Dead Eye Alex partner," Logan said in a country accent.

Logan pulls out a long barrel colt revolver he fires six bullets rapidly Danny managed not to get hit by five of the six bullets, but the last shot managed to scrap his shoulder. Logan reloads his gun then he and Danny shoot at each other until Danny shoot the gun out of his hand.

"What are going to do now without your six-shooter cowpoop,"

"I got plenty more forms from past works for you idjit,"

Logan turns into a hockey mask-wearing slasher that wore an overall and black boots.

"This Sid cole from Bikini Beach Massacre I star as him the killer,"

"Dude that movie sucks it didn't make any sense,"

"I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!"

Logan pulls out a machete and a spiked bat he tries to stab and bash Danny head Danny quickly use his ice power to freeze Logan hands together then he uppercut punch to Logan chin seemly knocking him out. Danny pulls out the thermos.

"Now it's time for you to go to the ghost world where they can deal with your shitty pranks,"

Logan wakes up seeing what's going happen from he heard on the news and read websites about the Fenton Thermos when he was alive Logan breaks out of the ice from his hand that Danny made.

"You won't see the last of me, you asshole!" Logan shout

Then Logan suddenly teleported away from Danny before Danny can turn on the Fenton Thermos.

"Dammit, I have a deal with that guy while I'm in witness protection this can't get any more complicated,"

Danny put's away the thermos he flys down to a forest area near the road he lands on the ground he changes back to his human form suddenly his blonde wig falls off of his head when he goes to picks the wig up he hears.

"River?"

Danny turns to see Wendy holding an ax in her right hand as she has shooked face Danny fly to her as he was worry and also shock.

"Wendy! What are you doing here?"

"I saw some green light flashes in the sky when was I driving the kart back to my job I drive to find where the green light flashes coming from then saw you change and your wig drop, are you, Danny Fenton?"

Danny couldn't say anything but sadly say "Yes I'm Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom,"

#Danny Phantom #gravity falls #OC #gravityfalls wendy

1 note · View note

funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

Text

25 Memes Only People Who Have Seen Deadpool 2 Will Get

New Post has been published on https://funnythingshere.xyz/25-memes-only-people-who-have-seen-deadpool-2-will-get/

25 Memes Only People Who Have Seen Deadpool 2 Will Get

413 Shares

ShareOn Facebook

If there is any movie — comic book adaptation or otherwise — that was ripe for memes, it is clearly Deadpool 2. The movie, much like the comic book antihero it features, is self-referential and is almost a two-hour live-action meme on its own. The R-rated Marvel movie from Fox also didn’t disappoint, taking the humor and violence of the first one and delivering even bigger laughs and inside jokes than the original managed to pull off. Deadpool 2 was able to knock Avengers: Infinity War off the top of the box office pedestal and had made over $487 million worldwide following into its second full weekend in theaters.

As expected, the fans of Deadpool 2 did not let the movie down — showing up to support it in theaters and then going home and making some great memes full of inside jokes caught in the movie. With Deadpool holding nothing back as he raced through his second movie, cutting loose on anything and everything that crossed his demented mind, there were plenty for fans to mine when putting together their Deadpool 2 memes. From the opening credit sequence to the post-credit scenes, here is a look at the 25 best memes that only the people who have seen Deadpool 2 will get.

There are major spoilers for Deadpool 2 in this article.

25. THAT’S POOL … DEADPOOL

The first Deadpool movie had a great opening sequence with the battle on the freeway playing out in reverse and in slow-motion, as the Juice Newton song “Angel of the Morning” played. The opening credits were also humorous, not giving any names but mocking everyone in the cast and crew. When it came to Deadpool 2, the entire idea of mocking opening credits continued and as this meme makes clear, the entire joke was that Deadpool 2 was making its own version of the iconic James Bond opening credit sequences.

The movie threw in everything, from aiming the gun into the camera to the backlit and silhouetted shots of Deadpool, such as the bullets falling onto the chair-dancing Deadpool in this meme shows (even though it’s a direct reference to Flashdance). Not only that, but the song chosen for the opening credits was a perfect match for the types of songs that the James Bond producers go with and it was just a perfectly self-referential movie moment in a film that was about to fire them at the audience in a hail of bullets. Add in the fact that they got Celine Dion of all people to perform the song, and it was perfection — but more on that in the next meme.

24. CELINE DION

If Celine Dion is known for anything, it is her theme song from the movie Titanic — “My Heart Will Go On” — possibly one of the most overplayed songs of the ’90s. It makes sense that someone would try to make a meme linking Titanic to Deadpool 2, and here it is. The quote in the meme is not exact but is from Deadpool himself — something he said in the first movie. Of course, here they add that Dopinder — the hapless cab driver — it happy now too, and it isn’t just Deadpool who is “living the life” (although Deadpool’s happiness was fleeting as the fans of Deadpool 2 saw).

But, back to Celine Dion. The song in the movie that plays over the James Bond-styled opening credits is called “Ashes” by Dion, and much like “Angel of the Morning,” it does not fit in with the theme (or the shots in the opening credits) at all. Fans have to give Dion some credit though. She actually shot a music video for the song, with her singing on an empty stage while Deadpool danced. The music video had a great ending as well, with Deadpool telling the singer that she needed to dial it back. He called her a “10” but said that a song for Deadpool 2 needed to be no better than a “5.”

23. DEADPOOL HATES WOLVERINE

If there was anything in Deadpool 2 that the movie aimed its talons at, it was the X-Men universe — both the comics and movie franchise. It all started with Wolverine. As a matter of fact, Deadpool 2 continues the trend of featuring Logan in every single one of the Fox X-Men movies — including both Deadpool films. The first movie saw Logan end up on a movie poster as a reference — along with Deadpool mocking him in the film as well. This time, they took it two steps further.

For this meme, the first reference is all that will be dealt with. In that first reference, Deadpool was complaining that Wolverine died in Logan and Deadpool was not going to let him one-up him when it came to these huge moments. Then, Deadpool has a small music box, with the impaled Logan on it, slowly turning in circles to the music. It was a great send-up of that seminal moment in the last Wolverine film and showed that nothing was off limits this time around. This meme is just another way for Deadpool to mock Wolverine, using a metal detector to try to find his buried body thanks to his adamantium skeleton.

22. DEADPOOL – THE RESSURECTION

The first scenes in the movie showed Deadpool on his reign of terror, attacking villains everywhere and killing them all. He did some incredible things, including leaping from a roof through the window of a neighboring building and finished it all off with him slaughtering everyone in a warehouse, except for the main guy he was after (something that would prove tragic for Deadpool later). However, there was also a scene in the middle with Deadpool killing what looked like mafia members at a funeral.

This shot comes from that scene where Deadpool pops up in a casket and starts spraying bullets into the bad guys in the cemetery. The meme ignores the first Deadpool movie and instead plays with the idea that the Wade Wilson that died in X-Men Origins – Wolverine did not regenerate until years later and came back as Deadpool — the character that most fans hoped they could have seen in that initial Wolverine film. The meme does signify that Ryan Reynolds was able to achieve with his own movie what Fox was unable to accomplish the first time they tried to bring the character to their fans. The scene from Deadpool 2 was pretty funny as well.

21. DOPINDER LOVES INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE

The cab rides with Deadpool and Dopinder were always full of awkward moments. In the first Deadpool movie, Dopinder told Deadpool about his unrequited love and this movie reveals that he went ahead and went through with the revenge against those who wronged him in that movie. Now, with the Deadpool 2 cab rides, Dopinder explains that he wants to be just like Deadpool — or at least what he thinks that Deadpool is. He wants to be a contract killer, something that has Deadpool exasperated.

Even when Deadpool puts together his X-Force team, Dopinder gets really frustrated when they choose Peter over him. When Deadpool and Dopinder are in the cab early in the movie, Dopinder tries to sell his idea of a partnership with Deadpool by comparing their relationship to the movie Interview with a Vampire. In his always awkward manner, Dopinder admits he wants to be the Kirsten Dunst (Claudia) to Deadpool’s Tom Cruise (Lestat). In some very ironic trivia, the other star in that movie was Brad Pitt (Louis), who also happened to have a little something to do with Deadpool 2 when he pops up in a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo as one of the pivotal members of X-Force.

20. MARTHA!!!!

After the entire mess with the botched assassination attempt in the warehouse, Deadpool heads back home to Vanessa, where he is officially late for a date. He starts off by trying to make an excuse that he was late because he was trying to save a large group of children. The original trailers also indicate that there was a cut joke of Deadpool claiming he was shooting all the gluten into space to save people from it. However, the one joke that did remain was when Deadpool said that he was fighting a caped guy only to discover that his mother was also named Martha.

Interestingly, when asked about that joke, Ryan Reynolds said that there was nothing wrong with making fun of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, no matter how rabid the fans of that movie are. As Reynolds said, that was a perfect Deadpool moment and that he was “willing to break a few eggs to make that omelet.” This particular meme even revives an old MCU joke by adding it to the Captain America: Civil War memes questioning what started the war, with Deadpool trying to be the voice of reason between Captain America and Iron Man.

19. DEADPOOL + COLOSSUS

Some of the most popular Deadpool 2 memes revolves around the untold love story between Deadpool and Colossus. This one might be very confusing to anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, with some just thinking that it has to do with that one “hand on butt” shot in this particular Deadpool 2 meme. The fact is that the entire love story was carried throughout the movie, with Deadpool showing more than a little affection for the big Russian X-Man. It all started with Colossus showing up and gathering the pieces of a dead Deadpool and helping him return to life in the X-Men mansion.

There was even a moment with Deadpool holding up his tiny mobile phone “boombox” app and playing a song to try to get Colossus to forgive him and return to help fight (this was an homage to Say Anything). There was also a lot of innuendo throughout the movie, mostly by Deadpool, but some by the always disappointed Colossus. When Colossus finally arrives to help Deadpool in the final fight, it was a moment that proved that their love was indeed true. This meme adds one of the most iconic couples in X-Men comic book history with Colossus and Kitty Pryde at the top and the now preferred Colossus and Deadpool pairing below it.

18. OH, HI WADE!

Shiori Katsuna played a new character in Deadpool 2 and ended up as one of the most important characters when dealing with inclusivity. Katsuna played Yukio — a character that is not from the X-Men comics, but a member of the team that is also the girlfriend of Negasonic Teenage Warhead — the first openly gay couple in any superhero movie from Marvel or DC Comics. There were a lot of rumors about who this was, as there was also a character named Yukio in The Wolverine. Others thought she might have been Surge, but the Deadpool writers said she was based on a minor character from the comics who is an assassin.

Much like Negasonic Teenage Warhead, the Deadpool franchise just took the character and changed everything about her — the most important aspect being her relationship with Negasonic. However. This meme takes into account her bubbly relationship with Deadpool, as she is always happily saying “Hi Wade” when she sees him and Deadpool seems to like her better than anyone else, greeting her back, much to the chagrin of Negasonic. This meme puts Yukio into the scene from the cult classic The Room, where Johnny walks out onto a roof screaming that he didn’t hit his girl, only to look over and randomly say, “Oh, Hi Mark.”

17. THANOS IS CABLE

When Josh Brolin signed on with Marvel to play Thanos and then signed on with Fox to play Cable, it seemed like a no-brainer that Deadpool 2 would have something to say about it. Brolin had worked for years to try to get a successful comic book movie franchise. He started out with a huge financial flop with DC Comics Jonah Hex and then hit everything from the remake of Old Boy to the sequels to both Sin City and Men in Black. However, he finally knocked it out of the park with not one, but two great comic book roles, both in the same year!

First up, Brolin appeared in Avengers: Infinity War and wiped out half the universe as one of the most dominating bad guys to ever step foot into a Marvel movie — MCU or otherwise. After that, Brolin took on an iconic antihero in Cable and delivered a pitch-perfect performance playing off the sarcasm of Ryan Reynolds Deadpool in a way that made him an instant fan favorite. To add icing to this delicious cake, Deadpool couldn’t let his winking fourth-wall-breaking comments go and he had to call Cable by the name “Thanos” at least once in Deadpool 2.

16. BROWN PANTHER

Not all of the jokes in Deadpool 2 hit and there were a little too many puns thrown at the audience. This fake movie poster Deadpool 2 meme refers to the moment where Dopinder is driving Deadpool around and makes it clear that he is serious about wanting to be part of the team. If he can’t be a hired assassin, which was his first dream in this movie, he at least wants to be part of X-Force. Deadpool, knowing that Dopinder will likely end up dead if he sets out to help them fight the villains calls him “Brown Panther” — breaking that fourth wall by once again letting fans know that he either lives in the same universe as the MCU or that he has at least seen those movies.

Deadpool also later calls Domino the “Black Black Widow” and also tells Cable, “I am Batman,” when he asks who he is. There was also a Winter Soldier comment about Cable’s mechanical arm. Add in the already mentioned references to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and a line where he asks Cable if he should be in a DC Comics movie because he is dark and edgy, and it is clear that Wade Wilson watches a lot of movies when he isn’t out killing bad guys.

15. THE PASSION OF THE DEADPOOL

This was one of the promotional posters that popped up online during the phenomenal promotional campaign for Deadpool 2 — but without the words. Those words were added to make this meme fit in with an interesting bit of trivia that Deadpool actually talked about in his own movie. Honestly, it is things like this that makes Deadpool 2 feel like you are watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 — an R-rated version of course. That is what the joke is about as well — R-rated movies at the box office.

In the movie, Deadpool makes a comment that causes someone to ask if he just referred to himself as Jesus. Deadpool then breaks that fourth wall again and informs them that the first Deadpool movie did come in second place to The Passion of the Christ, and then decided to just go all in. He wasn’t happy with just coming in second place, so he mentioned that his first movie also beat Passion of the Christ worldwide because overseas, “there’s no religion.” In the U.S., The Passion of the Christ beat Deadpool by $7.7 million, but worldwide, Deadpool made $172 million more, destroying it for the international box office crown.

14. HAWKEYE IS WORTHLESS

Deadpool 2 saw the law enforcement officers using a Mutant Inhibitor Collar. Fans of the TV show The Gifted might recognize these devices, created by Trask Industries to prevent mutants from using their powers. These somehow sense the X-gene in the specific mutant and if they try to use their powers, they get a major shock. They are a little different in Deadpool 2, as the collars actually eliminate all mutant powers completely. The mutants don’t get shocked when they try to use their powers — they just can’t use them at all. That was bad news for Deadpool.

Deadpool’s mutant powers are healing and regeneration. Without them, the cancer that he had before his mutant abilities surfaced are not there and he will die. Of course, after committing murder in front of the police, the authorities don’t care and he is sent to the Ice Box to pretty much die. While there, Russell wants them to work together but Deadpool admits that without his powers, he is no better than Hawkeye. This Deadpool 2 meme adds the lack of respect for Hawkeye to the original Captain America and Iron Man monologue that was ripe for memes a few years back.

13. GOONIES FOREVER

As mentioned earlier, when Josh Brolin’s Cable was battling Deadpool — and later working beside him — the Merc with a Mouth had no problem using fourth wall insults to the time traveler. He called him Thanos at one point, which was nuts since that was so current that Deadpool 2 actually knocked Avengers: Infinity War from the top of the box office charts — meaning Josh Brolin played a major role in the top two movies in the world at the same time.

Of course, Brolin has enjoyed a long acting career, playing everyone from the Mad Titan to the son of Cyclops to former President George W. Bush. The first movie that Brolin ever appeared in, and the role that made him famous from the start, was Goonies, where he played Brand — the older brother of Sean Astin’s Mikey. Deadpool wasn’t going to let that one slip by and actually called Cable “One-Eyed Willie” because of the glowing eye. That also happens to be the name of the pirate whose treasure the kids in Goonies were searching for. It is slightly surprising not to use any of the older Brolin comic book movies as canon-fodder — especially with Jonah Hex an obvious and easy target.

12. DEADPOOL IS “IT”

Not much was known about the members of X-Force before the movie hit theaters. There were the scenes that showed the members of the team on an airplane ready to jump into action, with parachutes on their backs. With that said, there were at least three of the heroes that were known — at least by name. Terry Crews signed on to Deadpool 2 to play Bedlam. The breakout character in the movie was Domino, played by Zazie Beetz. There were four more members of X-Force, with the only other one being Zeitgeist — played by Bill Skarsgård.

While only shown briefly in the trailers, the look of Bill Skarsgård’s character revealed it was Zeitgeist — mostly thanks to the familiar mouth covering. The powers of Zeitgeist is to vomit acid, an interesting ability that makes some wonder how it can be used in an actual battle. It turned out that never came into concern in Deadpool 2, although the effects of his powers were shown in gruesome detail. This meme references the last major blockbuster that Skarsgård appeared in — as the killer clown Pennywise in Stephen King’s It. As these memes prove, there were plenty of jokes based on past movies, even with the most dispensable characters.

11. PETER IS THE HERO WE ALL NEED

Possibly the best member of the entire X-Force team outside of Domino was Peter. Why was Peter so great? Well, the reason is that he has no superpowers and was just there because the job sounded interesting — besides, he wasn’t doing anything else. The other members of X-Force had powers and were from the comics, including Domino, Zeitgeist, Shatterstar, Bedlam and Vanisher. However, other than Domino and Deadpool, none of the superpowered heroes stood a chance against high winds, except surprisingly Peter. He landed and was good to go until he met his end at the hand (or mouth) of a vomiting Zeitgeist.

While he had no powers, it was Peter that has stuck in the fans’ minds more than the other more powerful, yet also more expendable members of X-Force. This meme takes the old Justice League meme where Alfred sees Superman come into the room and tells him that he hopes he is not too late to help the Justice League beat Steppenwolf, but switches it to Peter, who is the last person in the world that anyone would think would be the man to save the day. Peter even took on a life of his own with his own Twitter account.

10. X-FORCE IS DERIVATIVE

When Deadpool is on the plane with his highly trained team of X-Force, they are getting ready to jump into action and try to save Russell as the police transfer him from the Ice Box. They are sitting there waiting and Deadpool starts to give them an entire speech to pump them up and get them ready for battle. He then says that they are not the X-Men, they are something different. They are X-Force. As he says that, he crosses his arms over his chest to signify an X.

This gets a strange look from Domino who seems flabbergasted that Deadpool suggested this, asking if it isn’t a little derivative. Deadpool responds that she is absolutely right. However, it isn’t just the name X-Force that is derivative. The fact that he crosses his arms when rallying his team into battle reminds people of another battle cry. That is the exact same arm motion that Black Panther uses when he rallies his troops into battle before yelling “Wakanda Forever.” This Deadpool 2 meme just slams home the fact that Deadpool learned everything he needed to know about superhero battles from watching the movies — along with more than half of his other puns and insults in the movie.

9. SUPERHERO LANDING

There is one spot in Deadpool 2 where Deadpool makes fun of the famed superhero landing that is easily mocked in movies. For those who don’t know, the superhero landing is when a hero (or villain) leaps down into the street and lands with one hand on the ground as well as one knee kneeling and an arched back. Think about someone like Superman or Iron Man landing in a movie and that is pretty spot on. Deadpool even made fun of this in the first movie when Angel Dust leapt down before fighting Colossus in the movie. He even says it is “impractical” and “hard on your knees” but “they all do it.”

That made the fact that Deadpool did it himself in Deadpool 2 ridiculous — especially since when he landed he yelled out in pain and let everyone know how much the superhero landing actually hurts. Of course, that took place at the Essex House and this meme is not the superhero landing but is, in fact, a much more compromising landing and one that no superhero other than Deadpool would get excited after ending up in. These are the moments that make his pairing with the uptight Cable so fun.

8. CALMING THE BEAST

Now, we are getting into the biggest spoiler in the movie. When Deadpool and Domino finally reach the transport truck to save Russell, they had no idea that the boy was already starting to go full-on supervillain and doing what Wade Wilson told him to do. When they were in the Ice Box together, and Deadpool had given up, he told Russell to find the biggest and baddest man in the prison and become friends with him. Russell did that and the biggest and baddest man in the prison turned out to be The Juggernaut.

When the transport truck crashed, and Juggernaut came out with Russell, Deadpool became a giddy little school girl. He told Juggernaut how he was his biggest fan and thought he was the best character from the X-Men comics. However, when Deadpool saw that Juggernaut was coming for a fight, he told the big man that the sun was getting real low. Of course, this is the same line that Black Widow used to calm The Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor tried to use in Thor: Ragnarok. It worked out as well for Deadpool as it did for Thor in the gladiatorial ring on Sakaar.

7. THE JUGGERNAUT SECRET

Sticking with the appearance of Juggernaut, Deadpool 2 delivered the perfect adaptation of the big man in a movie yet. The only other time Juggernaut appeared was in X-Men: The Last Stand with Vinnie Jones wearing his… odd attire. That appearance alone caused a hundred memes making fun of the character. This time around, the Juggernaut was 100-percent CGI and he walked right up, lifted Deadpool into the air and ripped him in half, tossing the legs in one direction and the upper torso in the other, before leaving with Russell to attack the Essex House.

Domino grabbed both halves and took Deadpool back home to heal up. So, what does this Deadpool 2 meme really mean? While Juggernaut was complete CGI, he still spoke and there was an actor who was delivering the lines — almost all ad-libbed. So, who is best to ad-lib lines for a Deadpool movie? Yep, Ryan Reynolds was the voice of The Juggernaut, and in a scene reminiscent of Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Dormammu and battling his own Doctor Strange, Reynolds voiced Juggernaut as he ripped Deadpool in half. Reynolds also motion captured the face of Juggernaut, who surprisingly admitted in the movie that he was Professor X’s brother.

6. DEADPOOL LEGS

After Juggernaut ripped Deadpool in half, the hero needed a place to rest and recover. Remember at the beginning of the movie, Deadpool blew himself up and Colossus took him back to the X-Men mansion to heal up. The movie then cut to Reynolds waking up on the couch and being back to normal — but it never showed how that happened. After the Juggernaut fight, Deadpool was back at Blind Al’s sitting on the couch with her. Domino was there and Weasel showed up, saying this had happened before. Then Cable showed up and Blind Al was the only one rescued from the horrors of Deadpool’s legs growing back — which at the time were still little baby legs.

Right after the movie came out, Deadpool 2 memes started to pop up online with the tag saying “Deadwood 2 spoiler without context.” One of those was a My Little Pony meme with Flutterface saying “Hi Wade” in reference to the pink-haired Yukio always being happy to see Deadpool. Another was this great meme from Rick and Morty that shows the baby legs, albeit thankfully with a diaper, whereas Deadpool was letting it all hang out as he struck a deal to finally help Cable — once his real legs grew back out.

5. NEGASONIC TEENAGE ELEVEN

Ever since the first movie, Deadpool has had too much fun making jokes about the mutant no one had ever heard of — Negasonic Teenage Warhead. In the first Deadpool movie, he called her Ripley from Alien 3. He also called her “Sinead O’Connor 1990.” He doesn’t let up too much in Deadpool 2, although it is to the credit of the movie that he never takes a shot at her sexuality and seems more than happy to see her relationship with Yukio. He actually develops a friendly relationship with the girlfriend of Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

However, he never let up on the young X-Men member other than that. There was a great moment where Russell told Deadpool to stay back or Justin Bieber dies, which cracked Deadpool up to hear him say that about Negasonic. However, the best pun was when Deadpool decided to nickname Negasonic Teenage Warhead “Eleven,” which was the name of one of the main characters from Stranger Things. Both characters have short haircuts and both have serious problems relating to other people. Interestingly, the Negasonic character from the comics didn’t have the explosive powers of her movie counterpart, but instead had telepathic powers — something that Eleven possesses as well.

4. DEADPOOL IS TOO SELF-REFERENTIAL

When it comes to breaking the fourth wall, no one does it better than Deadpool and that makes this meme even better. When it comes to being self-referential, Deadpool is able to joke about his own absurdity, make fun of the man who created X-Force by saying that the guy can’t draw feet, poke fun at other movies (like Batman V Superman and his own X-Men Origins – Wolverine appearance), and rattle off puns like a machine gun. So, when Deadpool is in a movie, there is no reason not to expect a ton of memes.

The idea that Deadpool knows this and realizes that he himself is trapped in a meme is self-referential, which makes it possibly the perfect Deadpool 2 meme. Referring to the meme makers as “nerds” is also something that Deadpool would clearly say — in possibly his own loving manner. Whether he is making fun of other movies, ripping on the actors and filmmakers involved in making his movie, or making fun of Ryan Reynolds’ career, Deadpool is a walking, talking meme. In this case, he just happened to realize that he was, in fact, trapped in a meme that he had nothing to do with.

3. PETER – THE SPIN-OFF

Peter is the hero that is so great that he gets two entries on the Deadpool 2 memes countdown. As mentioned in the first one concerning Peter, he was the only member of the X-Force team who didn’t have powers and the only one who actually landed on his feet after parachuting out of the plane. Even Deadpool got hung up on a sign and Domino ended up on a bouncy pad, but it was the powerless Peter than ended up on his feet and ready for action. Sadly, he then watched Zeitgeist end up in a woodchipper, where he then realized he was being eaten alive and vomited acid onto Peter — killing him as well.

With all the members of X-Force dying except for Deadpool and Domino, it was curious that when the Merc with a Mouth had a chance to go back in time to save anyone, he left Zeitgeist, Shatterstar, Bedlam and Vanisher all dead but made sure to tell Peter to go home, saving his life. This Deadpool 2 meme made a fake movie poster that featured a spin-off film for the now popular Peter, made by the producers of Deadpool and How I Met Your Mother.

2. DEADPOOL FIXES A MISTAKE

The mid-credit scene for Deadpool 2 doesn’t promote any upcoming Fox X-Men movies but it might be the most entertaining post-credit scene following any superhero movie. It was so great, the last two Deadpool 2 memes on this list are based on that one scene. Of course, in the scene, Deadpool is at the X-Men mansion and has asked Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio to help him with something. In what remains inexplicable, while Cable can’t seem to make his time travel device work more than once (and wasted his one chance in order to save Deadpool’s life), a teenage mutant is able to fix it, although she realizes she might regret that action.

Deadpool then heads back in time to save Vanessa from her death (which feels like a huge cheat considering how it affected him) and then to save Peter from his death (which made more sense). However, he then went back further and Hugh Jackman made his only live-action appearance in a Deadpool movie as he prepared to fight Weapon XI in X-Men Origins – Wolverine. Deadpool then walks up to Weapon XI (who was Wade Wilson before he was Deadpool) and fires bullets into him, killing him and ending that movie before it really went off the rails.

1. DEADPOOL PREVENTS A MISTAKE

After Deadpool kills Weapon XI, ensuring that the complete misuse of the Wade Wilson character ended quickly, he had one more travel back in time to fix a mistake. Ryan Reynolds has always taken the time to poke fun at himself in the Deadpool movies. Anyone who knows Reynolds knows that he is a comic book fan and wanted to create great comic book films out of the ones he starred in. Before Deadpool, Reynolds got a chance to star as Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity and even in R.I.P.D., based on a comic book published by Dark Horse.

However, the biggest failure for Reynolds in his comic book movie career wasn’t X-Men Origins – Wolverine or Blade: Trinity. It was the 2011 DC Comics film Green Lantern, which at the time was supposed to kickstart the DC Extended Universe. That movie was a universal failure, rated 26-percent rotten on Rotten Tomatoes and bringing in only $219 million worldwide on a $200 million budget. The last thing Deadpool did with his time travel device, and the genesis of this Deadpool 2 meme, was to travel back and kill Ryan Reynolds after he finished reading the Green Lantern script to prevent the movie from ever happening.

413 Shares

ShareOn Facebook