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anothertimdrakestan · 4 years

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Batboys Getting Betrayed By Their S/O HC

Requested? Yes! From a lovely anon!

“Hello! I'd like to make a Batboys reaction request if I may! If writing for all of them is too much please pick whoever you'd like! Have fun with it! Batboys finally catch the villain they've been after for a disgusting amount of time, they grab their mask/helmet, rip it off and BAM!! It's their S/O. How do they react? Thank you for your time!!”

THIS HC TURNED INTO AN EPIC COLLAB BETWEEN @birdy-bat-riya AND WE POPPED OFF!!! Riya really said “lets break the boys heart then give them the best fluff in the world” and I agreed then BAM this beauty. I hope you enjoy and I’m super excited to collab w my tumblr soulmate more!!!

ALSO GO CHECKOUT STAY WITH ME A TIM DRAKE FIC THAT IS KINDA LIKE THIS IF YOU WANT STORYLINE IT’S ONE OF MY FAVES!!!

Damian Wayne

- Damian would not see it coming

- after a painful bout of hand to hand combat, Robin had you stuck to a wall with Batarangs, and he stalked forward

- hoping he would get pulled away by Batman so wouldn’t notice your similarity to the love of his life, you sucked in a deep breath as you realized there was no escape

- “The great villainous sidekick defeated by Robin. Sounds good doesn’t it? But I want to know just who I bested” he quipped, reaching for your mask

- as he pulled it off he froze, your mask dropped to the ground as you began begging for forgiveness

- “Baby it’s not what it looks like! I’m sorry you know I couldn’t tell you! I love you Damian please understand!” you cried, pulling against the batarangs you felt your suit rip as you jumped to the ground reaching for Damian

- Damian looked beyond stunned, trying to process the idea that the one person he trusted above all had betrayed him. He’d spent months hunting, fighting, deeply wound you, then calling you beloved just a couple days later

- pulling yourself forward you flung your arms around him, trying to love him into submission

- instinctively his arms began to wrap around you and you could feel the material of his gloves grace over the exposed parts of your side from where your suit ripped, but he drew them back, pushing you off of him

- “belov- Y/N” his tone was harsh, and broken, “is this really you? You knew I was Robin, and yet you lied to me every day? Learned my weaknesses and my truths all just to use it against me?” you could see him shaking, his domino mask hid his glassy eyes but not his heart broken expression

- you realized he thought you’d only befriended him to use him and you jumped to explain “No! Babe never! I keep this life and our life completely separate! I never used anything and would never tell your secrets to anyone! This, this life [ you gestured to your suit ] is out of necessity, for my survival I have to be strong. But with you, Damian, with you life is worth living, you make my battles worth fighting, everything I do is for us!” you realized how good it felt to let everything go, tears streaming down your face

- Damian looked conflicted, broken because of your betrayal, but you could tell he still loved you

- “Y/N you know I can keep you safe, why? Why live this life when you know of the one we could’ve had together?” Damian

- “I didn’t think of it that way” you whispered, thoughts flying through your head

- “Then let me help you” was all Damian said, and he reached out a hand

- Batman and your boss appeared behind you and Robin, both confused with what was happening

- Bruce looked shocked to see who the villain’s sidekick was, but he was trying to keep his Batman level confidence

- “C’mon kid lets go” you felt a tug on your shoulder, trying to lead you back to your base, but the look Damian was giving you stopped you, unable to turn your shoulder on him

- this was Damian asking you to pick a new life with him. And you knew he was the only thing that truly made him happy, but this would be the end of your reputation, and your safety

- you began to reach for Damian but stopped, needing his reassurance

- “you promise you’ll protect me?”

- “always.” you took his hand, falling into his arms, and decided a future with Damian was better than anything else

Dick Grayson

- Dick didn’t know you were Slade’s protege after Dick told him no all those years ago

- you knew he thought of your villain persona as his greatest opponent and you couldn’t break his heart

- you’d both been in the good guy vs bad guy business since you were kids so you couldn’t expect him to understand, so you hid it.

- he told you he was Nightwing a couple months before and your heart dropped realizing you’d been fighting the love of your life for years, and were trained by one of his greatest tormentors

- in a terrible turn of events you, Nightwing, and Slade all ended up fighting each other, Nightwing and you after Slade for seperate reasons just before his escape he noticed how you couldn’t hurt Dick like you used to

- in an act of revenge for you leaving his side all those years ago, he shouted “catch you later sweet Y/N!” before jumping out a window out of your sight

- Dick’s head whipped to you, a look of confusion at Slade knowing your identity

- hoping he’d missed it you tried to run out of the building and take off

- angy Dick is basically super powered so he caught you (yes i said angy)

- when he rips off your mask and the face he’d adored for years looks up at him he physically can’t stand

- watching the love of your life crumple to the ground is the hardest thing you’ve endured

- frantically trying to explain you keep trying to cup his face in your hand but he pulls away, refusing to look you in the eyes, eventually finding the strength to get up and grapple away

- the entire batfam goes after you. Damian especially, because he trusted you, glad Dick had someone that loved him the way he secretly did. There is no way you’re gonna get away from an angry Batfam especially when their mutual favorite brother has been broken

- I honestly don’t think Dick would let it go back to normal. His family would never approve and knowing you lied for months was too much, he knows what is good and bad for him and is surrounded by family.

- One day the two of you would team up and apologize, continuing forward as mutuals that come when the other needs you, but Dick wouldn’t be able to look at you the same, and Damian would never leave his side, refusing to let Dick get hurt again

Jason Todd

- Jason was used to coming home to you bruised and cut. He never liked to see you battered and bleeding, but he understood it was part of your job as a Criminal Investigator.

- at least that’s what he thought

- you were used to seeing him beat up too. The only difference was that you knew the real reason he came home beaten and injured.

- it was because he would spend his nights fighting you.

- you truly loved Jason, but you couldn't bear to break his heart by telling him the truth. That the woman he loved was his sworn enemy and was lying about it.

- little did you know, he was beginning to get suspicious of your injuries. They seemed a little extreme for an investigative agent, and dare he say, they seemed to match the injuries his enemy walked away with last night.

- then one night, it happened. You were being chased by Red Hood. You thought you were in the clear. And knowing jason would be home any minute, you headed back home, hopping from rooftop-to-rooftop.

- you stopped in the parking lot of your building, about to take off your mask when you heard a voice. Red Hood was leaning on your car, looking more tense than usual. “Go on. Take off the mask.”

- you were mortified. You tried to run but he caught you and you were cornered. He took off the mask and you looked down, afraid to meet his eyes.

- he wasn’t startled or shocked. You heard the seams of his gloves rip as he clenched his fist. You looked up and saw him scowling, but behind the anger, there was so much disappointment. You could see his heart breaking.

- he stepped back and began to walk away. You tried so hard to explain and apologize but he only turned you down, unwilling to see your face.

- realizing everything was ruined, you gave one final apology. “Jason, I know you can’t forgive me. But I truly am sorry. I'm sorry for lying, I’m sorry for hurting you, I’m sorry for everything. But I promise, I really do love you. And I know you might not believe me, but I mean every word.” Tears were streaming down your face, and he wouldn’t let you see it, but they were brimming in his.

- you left and didn’t come back. You kept your distance from Jason but made sure you knew was still alright. He was frequenting bars, skipping patrols. You began to worry when he was nowhere to be found, so you donned the mask once more, only without your usual uniform.

- that night, to your disbelief, you found the Red Hood fighting some petty cat burglars outside of a museum. You noticed how his punches held more force than they used to and felt a little pained, seeing his hurt in his movements.

- while he was taking care of the robbers, you saw one of them run off to a car with a jade vase and instinctively charged in. You hopped in the car roof and swung into the passenger seat, knocked out the driver, and safely drove the car back.

- you put the vase back where it belonged and left the scene of the crime without anyone’s attention.

- Red Hood turned the burglars over to the cops. There was something about a tripped alarm and missing vase but the item was kept exactly where it was meant to be when they checked.

- he was about to trudge away when he heard something. “This masked broad, she jumped into the car! From the bloody window!” His mind wandered. It couldn’t be…

- that night, you returned to one of your old safehouses and headed to your closet to put away your mask, but the first thing you saw was your suit. You looked at the domino mask in your hand and all you could remember was Jason’s face when he found out. Right then and there, you threw it all away.

- months passed. You hadn’t heard from or seen Jason Todd. You revamped your suit and donned a new mask. You went by your old name still. You couldn’t change who you were, and you didn't want to either.

- the only difference now was that you didn’t kill. something tilted the needle on your moral compass, and as much you wanted to deny it, Jason rubbed off on you.

- you took your burglary jobs, and got into your own type of trouble, but you could almost always handle it. Emphasis on the ‘almost’

- once or twice you bit off more than you could chew, for example the time when you needed to collect some money from a Bludhaven gang. you were outnumbered and unarmed. just when you thought it was all over for you, you heard two gunshots and violent cursing.

- you found yourself standing before two gangsters with bloody hands and one Red Hood. “You’re welcome.”, he said with his usual snarky tone, muffled by his helmet.

- this was the first of many times he would save you. You would drop in on his gigs sometimes as well, just to lend a helping gun.

- bad blood aside, you were always there for eachother. He meant it as a silent acceptance of your apology and that’s exactly how you took it.

- soon enough the tension faded, you both went down your own roads but found comfort in knowing that you were never alone. It was an unspoken pact that when one of you needed the other, you’d never be far.

Tim Drake

- Tim would notice something, maybe you stuffing your suit in your trunk, you using a phrase his enemy always used, something that gave him the wrong feeling

- he’d push it away, always wanting to believe the best of you

- but eventually it wouldn’t add up

- Tim came over one night and made a beeline to the back of your closet, a drawer he never saw you open during all the years of knowing you

- you heard a small gasp when he pulled out the suit of his rival, the strangled sound of disbelief was the last noise he made before he threw your suit on the floor and stormed out, and it was the last you saw of him for months

- watching the news seeing “RED ROBIN GONE BAD?” or “IS THIS IS THE SAME HERO?” as you watched Tim become more and more reckless and cruel. Tim rarely got so physical the medics came instead of the police but watching him through your screen you saw a new person

- seeing Tim (and Red Robin) break down on television gave you the realization of the necessity behind Tim’s heroics

- almost as an homage to his heart break he began using the moves you’re villainous alter ego used on him on his new targets, showing you the hurt and the damage you’d done to your victims

- after weeks of watching the torture you knew villainy wasn’t worth it if it meant Tim was broken like this

- knowing he’d be on patrol like always you waited on the top of the building he’d brought you to the night you started dating, hoping he’d miss the memory as much as you did

- rushing up to him, begging for him to listen, even after the heart break Tim couldn’t say no to you, and he needed to know why, this was a mystery he really couldn’t piece together

- frantically explaining everything from your childhood forward, you couldn’t stop, the honestly was refreshing, and Tim listened the whole time

- after admitting everything you brought your suit out, and in front of Tim you began to rip it to shreds, hoping he’d see the meaning behind your words

- this was a lot for Tim, and he asked for a week to settle his feelings

- Red Robin was inactive for a week, 168 hours you spent praying to anything that he’d take you back

- and exactly one week later, you were holding your head in your hands sobbing, wishing you could’ve changed earlier and hoping Tim would go back to his heroism - when you heard your apartment window carefully opening

- Tim came back, suited up, holding a new suit for you that he’d had created

- Tim explained that he wanted you back, and he intended on helping you fix all your past mistakes, one life saved at a time

- you often looked back on the news from that week, the headlines showed a new chapter of your life

“RED ROBIN AND NIGHTINGALE Y CRIME FIGHTING DUO!” “RED ROBIN IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER WITH A NEW HERO AT HIS SIDE!”

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS IS A REMINDER TO GO FOLLOW @birdy-bat-riyaBECAUSE SHE IS THE REASON THIS IS SO AMAZING ILY GIRLY

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Witch”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, it's perhaps happier provided you didn't watch today’s episode lol. Getting through these 18 minutes felt like watching an extended version of a CinemaSins vid. I heard a little 'ding!' every time something nonsensical, contradictory, or just downright stupid happened. My mind became a pinball machine.

Which, in the interest of being fair as opposed to just snarky, only matters if you're looking for something resembling emotional depth in this show. RWBY, for all its faults, is enjoyable as a mindless spectacle. It's when you expect — or simply hope — for anything more that this very fragile house of cards comes tumbling down.

If it’s not clear already, today’s recap contains copious amounts of salt. Fair warning.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in. Episode nine is titled "Witch," which is fitting since many members of our group go toe-to-toe against Salem herself. The narrative issues inherent in having your heroes fighting their final boss years before the series is meant to end might have been avoided if it weren't for Oscar's ridiculous, sacrificial attack... but we'll get to that.

We open with a sweeping shot of the Atlas battle, as hundreds of dead soldiers segue into endless grimm. Hold onto that image for a bit. At the end of this carnage is, of course, the mouth of the whale. We cut to Jaune, Ren, and Yang already safely inside.

"Well," says Yang, "that was harrowing."

I'm on the fence about this choice. On the one hand, yes, it's good that RWBY knows it can skip over extraneous scenes. We have NINE characters to keep track of and develop, fourteen if you count Ozpin, Maria, Winter, Ironwood, and now Whitley. Plus villains. There simply isn't time to show every insignificant moment... but was this insignificant? Obviously finding Oscar and escaping Salem's clutches is the true hurdle of this mission, but that doesn't mean getting through an entire army of grimm is in any way a cake walk. I'd be more willing to ignore this time skip if it weren't likewise presented as such a challenge for Winter's team. They have to "clear a path" to the whale, but our trio got there unscathed and unnoticed? The obvious implication here is that Ren just masked them the whole way — supported by his aura breaking later in the episode — but it still feels like we missed an important chunk of this task.

I'm nit-picking though. As said, I’m straddling the fence on this one and, given that, I'm inclined to settle on a, "Good job, RWBY. You're keeping the writing tight," if only because I don't have much else to praise about this episode. Throw the poor, struggling show a bone lol.

Now that they're inside, they realize they haven't the slightest idea how they'll find Oscar. “Like finding a needle in a giant…whale… why did we think this was a good idea?!” Because you and your friends are idiots who no longer bother to think about a situation before throwing yourself straight into it? This isn't me being mean to Yang, she literally says as much later on. Our heroes no longer get by on intellect, strategy, and skill, but rather plot armor and a staggering number of coincidences. For example, Ren.

Yang: Wow, it sure is lucky for us that on our way to this incredibly dangerous mission Ren inexplicably developed a new part of his semblance. Now he can not only mask peoples' emotions, see the true emotions that someone is feeling, pull thoughts out of their head about what they believe about a situation, but can also track someone across long distances through their emotions alone. Even that doesn't actually help us find Oscar, we just got lucky again when, in this maze of a whale, he ran right into us!

Me: So what were you going to do if this meta-world stopped giving you the most contrived solutions in Remnant history?

Yang: Die gloriously, I guess.

What Yang actually says is, "Okay. That's new!" and they enter the literal belly of the beast wielding a shield of convenience.

Jaune is also being awkward again because remember, RWBY doesn't know when to incorporate humor and when to treat a situation seriously. He reminds Ren not to "drain [himself]," he'll help him, and it's clear the scene is hinting at their earlier fight. There's a lot to unpack there, but I want to save it for the second conversation.

For now, we cut to Oscar, curled up in his cell, repeating stories to comfort himself. Yeah that's fine. I could use a broken heart right before Valentine's Day.

“She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest." It's a line from The Girl Who Fell Through the World, which Ozpin recognizes given that he's "lived through" a fair number of fairy tales. He immediately asks how Oscar is holding up — because he's a caring person! — and Oscar admits that he never understood why the girl of the tale was sad upon reaching home again. Now he does: she wasn't the same person anymore. I don't think the fact that Oscar has had both a metaphorical fall — leaving his farm to 'fall' into this war — and a literal one — falling through Atlas to unlock his magic — is lost on anyone. This is a nice allusion to our themes. Yang's speech to Salem later on? That’s something else entirely.

Storytelling done, Ozpin says he thinks "this plan to divide might have run its course” and it's time to try and find a way to leave. I'm sorry, I love my farm boy, but what plan? He didn't do anything. At least nothing that could remotely be termed an intellectual plot. Oscar convinced Ozpin to try and turn Hazel by telling him the world would end under Salem's rule and the only reason that worked is because the story decided to chuck out Hazel's entire character. You know, the one that hates Ozpin above all others, wants the world remade into a non-Academy horror show, can't understand that people make their own choices, is terrified of Salem, and has no reason to trust a prisoner he's currently torturing. Oscar's "plan" hinged on his writers erasing a great deal of work to build a new story that fits said “plan.” He didn't even get Emerald involved, she just — again, conveniently — eavesdropped outside their door at just the right moment.

To be clear, I'm not against a story being written to work in the hero's favor. Of course things are going to be convenient in a happy-ending tale. Someone manages to hold out just as long as they need to, a sword is lying just within reach, you, yes, happen to run into the one person you're desperate to find. This kind of stuff is reassuring, telling its audiences that sometimes things do work out for the best. It's enjoyable... but only provided the hero's entire success doesn't hinge on fate being shockingly kind to them. That's what RWBY has become. A world where Salem doesn't attack Mantle, Amity Tower is suddenly finished, the group can charge into any deadly situation they want to and bank on destiny twisting around itself to ensure they come out of it safely. A hero finding a convenient weapon nearby to defeat their enemy with is only reassuring after we've seen them implement a brilliant attack, struggle, nearly win, but then suddenly be faced with failure, necessitating that little push from coincidence. They earned it. The hero doesn't get to run in blindly and find a Defeat Bad Guy plot point gift wrapped for them at the first sign of trouble. They just die.

RWBY used to be a better written show because that's precisely Pyrrha's story. She charged a Maiden unprepared, without a single plan or hope for success, and she died. That's what happens in a dangerous, internally consistent world, but RWBY has since lost the second half of that formula.

I'm harping on this because this entire episode is built on that foundation of coincidence, something that shouldn't be happening at all, but especially not when you're pitting the heroes against Salem herself.

So yeah, it just gets worse from here.

Back to Oscar. Without the cane magic is the only weapon they have at their disposal, but he's reluctant to use it because every time he does, they merge more quickly.

They... do?

Okay, there are three major problems with this announcement:

I'm pretty sure we've only seen Oscar use magic once: creating that barrier to survive the fall through Atlas. That was the point of his near death experience, to unlock something that had previously been unavailable to him. Yet if he's only used it once, why is he so sure that it hurries the merge along? What's this "every time" business? This confusion could have easily been avoided if the show had just let Oscar use his magic this volume, tackling some other questions and gaps in the process. Let him use it to fight off the grimm in Mantle, giving him the opportunity to admit to at least Jaune, Ren, and Yang that Ozpin is back. He could have used some magic against the Hound with Ozpin's encouragement, answering the question of why he was entirely silent while the two of them got their ass beat. Give us a moment where Oscar uses his magic against Hazel, nearly escaping in the process, but is captured again at the last moment. Basically, his line makes it sound like magic has been this ongoing resource with an established downside when... it hasn’t.

Coinciding with all of the above, how is it that Oscar can suddenly use magic at will? Yeah, yeah, he unlocked it during the fall, but really? You open up the magic gates and from then on out it's as natural as breathing? This is the same issue with Ruby's silver eyes. The story gives these characters incredible powers, but never has them talking about how they work, let alone training them. They just exist, perfect in execution, as soon as the plot needs them. (See: the final shot of this episode.) At least Weiss had to practice her summoning for multiple volumes.

Finally, the question of how Oscar instinctively knows how to use magic could easily be answered with, "Well, he's kind of Ozpin now," but that would require the story to actually explain what the merge is. "We merge faster," Oscar says, but what does that mean? The Ozpin and Oscar we see in this scene are fundamentally indistinguishable from the Ozpin and Oscar who existed at his aunt's house, four whole years ago. They're still separate people, with one controlling the body and the other existing as a consciousness he can talk to. Nothing has changed. The show keeps insisting that Oscar is going through this deep and painful arc of losing himself to Ozpin... despite the fact that he has yet to lose a single bit of Oscar-ness. Has he changed? Well of course, but anyone going through these experiences is going to change. Remove the "merge" aspect and Oscar's confidence or power up is likewise indistinguishable from any of the other characters' developments. Nora is becoming more of an individual this volume. Ren is becoming more powerful in his semblance. Neither have an Ozpin to force that change, it just happens on its own. So what separates Oscar from every other character going through a formative experience? When is “I’m not the same person anymore” due to unnatural magic vs. just growing up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy our boy is getting more screen time — and that the cast is actually being kind to him now — but overall his arc is objectively terrible. He bought some clothes, told Ironwood he was as bad as Salem, told Hazel how to access the Relic, and then asked him not to be a villain anymore. Somehow these things are presented as significant moments of growth while the real questions surrounding his merge go unanswered.

“Honestly, I think you’re doing just fine on your own," Ozpin tells him, but he's not. God knows our boy is trying, but this is a moment where Ozpin's self-hatred (and the story's insistence that the younger generation is intrinsically better than the older) is blinding him to the situation. Oscar has made terrible decisions lately, in as much as he's been able to decide anything at all, and now he's rejecting escaping captivity because he's terrified of a concept he doesn't even understand yet. None of that is fine. Reassurance is one thing, but painting this situation as Oscar making better choices than he would with Ozpin's input is insane. He literally just decided to keep them in Salem's clutches indefinitely because something something magic is scary, I guess. Oscar doesn't need a, 'You're better than me' speech, he needs a reality check so they don't both die. Remember back in Volume 5 when Oscar, a brave but idiotic 14 year old, insisted on fighting someone entirely out of his league and Ozpin was like,

then saved him from getting his head crushed in like a cantaloupe? We need more of that. Our teenage heroes need guidance, but because RWBY keeps insisting that every adult they encounter is corrupt or incompetent, that hasn't happened in three volumes. They're just aloud to decide things like, “Let's tell our captor the Relic's password because UwU ~trust~” and then the story bends over backwards to make that work. Instead we could, you know, let characters learn that they can be wrong.

The snow scene was the beginning, but RWBY really went off the rails the day it let Qrow warn the group against stealing from and attacking an allied city, only for them to call him an idiot for doubting them. Now, Ozpin doesn't even get to warn Oscar about stupid decisions, he just agrees with them, reassuring and passive. Never mind the complication of whether Ozpin is even emotionally capable of providing guidance after they labeled him the worst thing to ever happen to them.

Why does RWBY keep ruining my faves 😔

Anyway, we’ve got to stay on track. Oscar has decided to just lie there but, luckily for him, Hazel's redemption — I use that term so loosely — has begun. He drags Oscar out of his cell before we cut to Winter.

She's leading a portion of Ironwood's army, trying to get things ready for when the bomb arrives. Neon and Flynt are a part of her team, sharing scared glances and trying to remain optimistic. It's a legitimately hard-hitting moment, striking that balance between horror and hope. Funny though, I wonder that RWBYJNOR would think of their friends fighting for evil Ironwood...

Marrow, continuing the tradition of insisting that our heroes be both adults and kids simultaneously, looks sadly at the soldiers heading into battle and goes, "But... they're just kids." I would like to remind everyone reading that Ruby is younger than them. Anyone who thinks that these teenagers shouldn't be fighting grimm — the thing they have been training to do as their professional career, during an unprecedented attack on their home — should not simultaneously be looking to the girl who is two years younger as his savior. (Something that, while not overt yet, is very much where Marrow is heading as he continually doubts the Ace Ops and looks to RWBY's group as his new, moral leaders.) I'm glad that, for once, this perspective is firmly called out. Elm arrives to tell him point blank that he needs to figure out his personal ethics later. It doesn't matter because there's an army of grimm out there and monsters aren't going to spare anyone, adult or child. Quit philosophizing and kill some already.

Back to Hazel where we get the doorway shot from our trailer. He's taken Oscar to the Relic, because of course he has. Do I really need to list how convenient this is too? Apparently, "the moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert," but there’s no alarm for when Oscar is taken from his cell, they enter the Relic's room, or when they use it. What does a movement alert matter if someone can just waltz in and waste the last question themselves? Put some of those endless grimm in the room to guard it, Salem!

Just assume that I am, at any given point in this episode, letting out the longest sigh my lungs are physically capable of.

Emerald shows up, demonstrating both the convenience of everyone arriving when they need to, and the very real danger that Salem herself could come in and discover what they're up to. Hazel has Oscar summon Jinn, only to immediately say that “Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.”

I'm sorry, how does this answer any of Hazel's questions? His driving question was not, "Is the Relic actually a magical object capable of doing magical things?" but rather "Are you telling me the truth about Salem's plans to summon the Gods and destroy all of Remnant in her quest to finally die, thereby changing who I'm going to support in this war?" Seeing a naked, blue djinn does not answer that question.

Hazel's "redemption" is non-existent. He — we — learned about Salem's death wish despite how that contradicts previous lore, then he trusted Ozpin despite that contradicting his entire character, now he joins the heroes because, literally, he sees Jinn floating there. It’s bad enough that Hazel goes from clear villain to sacrificial hero in a matter of in-world hours, but we don’t even get a reason for why that change occurred.

Oh, there's also this:

So Jinn doesn't come out of her lamp unless someone intends to ask a question, but does it for Ruby because she's special, yet still reiterates that this won't happen again. Then Oscar summons her without intending to ask a question, she comes out anyway, confirms that none of them seek knowledge from her, and happily pops back inside her lamp because eh, it’s whatever.

If RWBY had any courage the three of them would be cursed now for toying with a powerful, magical object. Remember the days when Jinn was a little terrifying because it felt like she was warping her answers and we had no idea what she might do to someone who used her carelessly? When she felt like a djinn? Good times.

Or better times, at least.

So Good Guy Hazel and Good Gal Emerald promise to get Oscar out. Never mind all the horror they caused, the people they killed, and that for Hazel, at least, this defection is coming out of nowhere.

Anyone remember that Emerald orchestrated Penny's death? No? Just me?

As they leave it turns out Neo was camouflaged against the wall, because she was also precisely where she needed to be. Does everyone just periodically pop into the Relic room to see what’s going on? At least this time it's not working in the heroes' favor. Remember when I said it's beyond idiotic for Oscar to just hand out the Relic information to known enemies currently holding him captive and torturing him?

Yeeeeaah.

So Neo's got the Lamp. Funny how all of this could have been avoided if Ruby had just put it in the vault like she came to Atlas to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We return to our trio where Jaune and Ren need to rest because their aura is giving out. Good! These guys fought a battle, fought Neo, fought more grimm, fought the Hound, traipsed through the tundra, presumably fought through more grimm to get to the whale, and have been using both their semblances to look for Oscar. It's about time their reserves started to falter.

Jaune decides to scout ahead a bit, leaving Yang and Ren to talk about nothing of importance. I mean that seriously. Remember a few days ago when I spoke about how, if the snow conversation does come back up, Ren's points would be entirely ignored for a nonsensical “I’m glad we’re friends” speech? Remember how I also spoke about how every emotional beat now is entirely generic and you could replace any character with another and not a single thing would change? Yeah. This is both those arguments in one. Nothing is said about the points Ren made. His problems with how the group has been acting lately and the very real, very deadly consequences it has had are flat out ignored. We went from

"But these aren't the kinds of decisions we should be making because we have no idea what we're doing!"

"Forward, no matter what!"

in a matter of hours, with precisely zero insight into how Ren went from one perspective to the exact opposite. Kind of like Hazel. Because see, RWBY doesn't write arcs, it just writes one thing until it decides to switch it up for something else, with the opposite idea presented as a “resolution” or a “twist.” Our creators writes scenes they know the fandom is begging for without considering how to get a character to that place, let alone how to get them out of it. That's all Ren's speech was, the equivalent of moral fan service. Here's a glimpse of actual character depth and a morally gray situation... now forget it ever happened because we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Instead of working through the laundry list of issues Ren raised, Ren instead accepts Jaune's aura help — something they've been doing since Argus — and tells Yang it's okay to be scared. These moments are meaningless and, as said, could have been between anyone in our cast. Ren could have told Nora she doesn't have to use jokes to cover up that she's scared. Jaune could have reminded Ruby that she can depend on him. Yang could have tried to keep Blake and Weiss' hopes up. This scenes ignores the individuality of the characters, like the fact that they just fought over very different world views, to instead favor any dime-a-dozen moment of support. The number of times this volume has rejected the conflict and resolution the group needs for bland, generic reassurances staggering.

Also, apparently Jaune isn't scared at all? I don't think that's as good a thing as Ren seems to think...

Then Jaune immediately rounds the corner, terrified lol.

One of the seer grimm is on its way and he tells Ren to mask them. Apparently he had been masking them before — one of the reasons he's so tired now, trying to do two things at once — but it's only here that they go black and white again. Ren manages to keep it up for a little while, but his aura breaks before the seer passes and they're spotted.

Hark! A consequence!

That was well done. It makes sense and it adds to the stakes. We've seen the insane amount of fighting the group has done since Volume 7, we just established that they're at their breaking point, and then Ren's aura fails him right when he needs it the most. Add this to the miniscule pile of things that were well done this episode.

Salem runs into Emerald and Hazel, the former of which is acting very suspicious when asked if he's made any headway with Oscar. The seer's alarm interrupts them though and... okay. Was I the only one who cackled during this moment? Between Salem's voice acting and the fact that she just yeets herself down the hallway, it came across as really funny to me.

Either way, it is a bad situation. Our trio is trying to figure out what to do, to which Yang responds, "Do what we do best… charge blindly into danger!!”

Ren's aura is broken. Jaune barely has any left and it’s unlikely he could heal right now even if Ren had any aura to amplify. If Ren takes a single hit anywhere important he is dead.

Me, on my knees, surrounded by the ashes of the Hound, the last bit of serious storytelling we had: "For the love of God, the kingdom is on fire and simultaneously dying of cold. There's a grimm army decimating hundreds outside. Half their group is missing and they're wandering lost inside a devil whale, about to have the most powerful being Remnant has ever known personally try to kill them — can we please have their attitudes reflect that?"

The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.

Back to the bomb. Whatever scientists were given this task have completed it and Marrow watches as it's flown out towards the whale. "Come on, Juan" he whispers and I'm all, "Juan?" Apparently it's a callback to last volume when Marrow couldn't remember Jaune's actual name, but it took me hopping onto the RWBY wiki to remember that.

As death via explosion inches closer, the trio runs into Hazel and Emerald. Turns out though that Hazel is really Oscar, disguised through Emerald's semblance. Nice trick! Jaune immediately drops both weapons to hug Oscar and, while that's nice and all, it's also the stupidest thing he could possible do in enemy territory. Also, Oscar has been beaten up by the Hound, tortured with magic, and likewise beaten bloody by Hazel. I was hoping for a tender hug like the one Nora gave him, not a giant squeeze for more comedy purposes. It just feels like RWBY has no idea how to manage the tone of this volume, let alone the torture of a child...

There's the obligatory, "Why should we trust you?" from Yang regarding Emerald joining the team, to which Ren responds, "Because she's scared, just like us."

That doesn't prove anything. Literally everyone is scared right now. There is a war going on. I really cannot emphasize enough how RWBY throws out Deep™ sounding lines that are, upon inspection, absolutely nonsensical. Nora reminding Penny that there are different parts to her personhood, Hazel saying that all his questions have been answered, Ren announcing that Emerald is scared... it's all worthless chatter that has no bearing on their problems: How do I keep from being hacked? How do I know you're telling the truth? How do we know you're trustworthy after you spent years trying to kill us? But of course, because it's RWBY, Ren's announcement is treated as some sort of secret truth that everyone accepts. Emerald joins up.

As they head for an exit we return to Marrow who, frankly, is getting on my last nerve. I know the fandom loves him because he's clearly leaning towards Team RWBY, but does anyone actually listen to what he says? He starts yelling at Winter for sending in the bomb because the trio might still be alive in there, despite:

Seeing for himself the hundreds of soldiers that have fallen trying to keep Atlas safe

Knowing and hearing again from Winter that the only way to stop this carnage is to take out the whale. Given more time, the whole city falls

Sadly announcing to the world that children shouldn't have to fight in a battle, rather than just joining the fray and helping to keep those kids safe

How does Marrow think those kids are going to be able to stop fighting? How does he think he'll get a city to return to? It's no wonder that he's drawn to Ruby because both characters stand around twiddling their thumbs, mourning that things are bad, and blaming others for imperfect solutions rather than doing something to make the situation better. Marrow's disgust at Winter over the bomb is precisely the same as Ruby's disgust at Ironwood over Mantle: how dare you not have a plan that results in both victory for us and zero sacrifices? They want perfection which, yes, is an admirable trait, but their problem is they refuse to do anything until that perfection appears. They’re paralyzed, a trait that’s particularly dangerous when your story insists that perfection will never appear: it’s not a fairy tale. So they just continue to get mad at others for the fact that they live in an unfair world. You want that perfect solution? Think it up yourself. Otherwise, stand aside and let those coming up with something do what they can to make things better.

Marrow goes so far as to drag Weiss into things, trying to guilt Winter with the knowledge that she'll have to relate the death of her sister's friends back to her. Winter, because she's a badass who isn't in denial over the situation, tells him that yes, she will shoulder that responsibility. To Marrow's credit he backs off then, but man. RWBY has legitimate moral questions here — when is holding out for a few worth risking the many? — but they go about exploring it in the most frustrating way possible. I personally have no respect for the guy who wants to announce that Children In War Is Bad instead of, you know, using the power he currently has to protect those kids already neck deep in a battle.

Because John Mulaney remains relevant:

"There shouldn't be a horse in the hospital :( "

"We're WELL PAST THAT."

Marrow is the one going, "There shouldn't be kids in a war :( We shouldn't have to kill a few to save the whole kingdom :( " and everyone around him is like, "No shit, dude! But this is the hand we were dealt! You going to help us, or what?"

Literally all of these characters could have been so much more than what they currently are.

Except Winter. She's doing great.

Now for the final scene. Our group nearly manages to escape the whale, but is incapacitated by some sort of screechy power that Salem employs.

She contorts her body, stretching out her arms to snag Emerald, and the others have a brief, but intense skirmish. Jaune manages to block a blast of magic aimed at Ren with his shield — nice — and Yang dots Salem's face with a bunch of bombs before blowing her sky-high — double nice. Oscar shoots out some magic of his own because, yeah, I guess he can just do that now? It really feels like it came out of nowhere after eight episodes of being the punching bag.

Of course, Salem immediately reforms. She traps the group with grimm arms that come out of the whale, interrogating Ozpin about why he bothers to keep coming back. There's a very sad answer there of, "I don't," referring to his lack of choice in reincarnating to fight her.

Yang interrupts their little tet-a-tet to throw the question back in Salem's face, calling her out on her choices. A great idea but, as always, execution: "because something bad happened to you once upon a time? No one gets a fairy tale ending."

I’m sorry, but that dialogue had me cringing. Like I said before, way too on the nose. There's keeping with the fairy tale theme, and then there's shoving the viewer's face in it. More of Oscar's musings on how he relates to the protagonists of fairy tales, blurring the lines between storytelling and reality, which in turn encourages the viewer to consider how they see themselves in the RWBY cast. Less... whatever this is.

Yang goes on to talk about how many people Salem has taken from her, which upon reflection makes a certain amount of sense if you toss in all the people who are here, but changed somehow due to Salem's influence, as well as acquaintances who died as a result of her meddling: Raven is scared off, Tai suffers as a result, Pyrrha dies, Penny dies, Yang loses her arm and her school. I think the dialogue could have been revised to reflect that better though because what Yang implies is that Salem has killed countless of her loved ones, yet what she says is, "Summer Rose. My mom." Honestly, for the few seconds this exchange was happening my thoughts weren't even on Summer. Yang calls Salem out for killing loved ones and my brain went, "Pyrrha??"

That's how little they've done with Yang and Summer. I know in the past I've argued that RWBY has a "better late than never" situation going on, that I would praise them for making the right writing choices even if they arrive years too late... but now that we're here, I find that it's a hard problem to overlook. Summer is Yang's mom? When's the last time we heard that? Volume 2? Whenever the conversation with Blake was. Since then Yang has called Raven "Mom," focused on that emotional connection (or lack thereof), was excluded from the conversation with Qrow, comforted Ruby after she was blindsided by Salem's taunt, and otherwise hasn't mentioned Summer at all. There is no foundation for this accusation except a few lines about getting cookies as a child and the fact that we're tossing references in now makes me worried that we'll indeed get a grimm!Summer reveal. Better remind the audience that she exists before the twist arrives! Honestly, as much as a part of me wants to praise RWBY for trying to get things back on track, moments like this just ring hollow now. They waited years and now it’s too late. It doesn't help that this is the episode where we shrug off Ren's speech. What will Yang's cutting admission amount to based on this trend? Probably nothing. Summer will become Yang’s mom again in another six seasons.

Salem, obviously, doesn't care. The real Hazel arrives and she orders him to take Oscar back to his cell. Instead, he gives him his cane with a whispered, "No more Gretchens, boy."

Behold, another meaningless line. Hazel hates Ozpin for "forcing" Gretchen on a mission and "getting" her killed. The whole point of his villainy is that he doesn't understand the concept of choice and that bad things can happen to good people with no one able to prevent it. Not every loss has a responsible party attached (outside of, you know, Salem/the grimm). So what is he even demanding here? No more huntsmen schools? That's what you wanted Salem for. No more "forcing" people to fight for you? Ozpin never did that in the first place. Or is it just a strange promise that no one else will die here? RWBY seems to be under the impression that they can just name drop dead family members — Summer, Gretchen — and that's that. Emotional depth created, never mind a lack of buildup or clarity.

Then Hazel punches Salem across the room and she releases every single hero from their bonds. See the theme of this episode: convenience. Hazel shoves a whole bunch of dust crystals into his shoulders and yells that he's doing what Gretchen would have wanted, clearly sacrificing himself so that the others can escape. The battle between him and Salem is pretty decent. I enjoyed the dust vs. magic creativity and the sheer damage Salem can take before reforming. This fight really showcases how not human she is.

It does, however, bring into question Hazel's reveal about her needing an hour to heal at the longest. I mentioned how unlikely it would be that our heroes would get the chance to "kill" her multiple times, yet here we are, just a few episodes later. They got that opportunity and... does it matter? Salem's reforming doesn't appear to slow down at all, despite her head getting obliterated at least three times, so at what point does she need longer than a few seconds to heal? If this was meant to be a potential weakness the group would eventually exploit, we needed to see it here, both for that setup and to keep it consistent with Hazel's story.

Regardless, they fight and at first it looks like a pretty straight-forward sacrifice on Hazel's part, giving the group their chance to escape. Except... Oscar.

"She'll just come after us," he tells Jaune, turning away from him to fight.

I need a list for this:

Of course she's going to come after you. This is not some shocking revelation. At no point has anyone thought that escaping the whale is the answer to all their problems, it just creates one less problem to deal with. Namely, the problem of "Our ally is captured, being tortured, and may give up important intel to the enemy. Oh, also he's about to be blown up with a bomb." Salem coming after them doesn’t matter. What matters is making her plans as difficult as possible as you work to come up with more solutions of your own. This is just a smaller version of the Ironwood conflict: “Well, Salem will just follow Atlas into the sky so it’s useless to attempt escape, or to buy ourselves time.” It’s really not. I know I’ve used this ridiculous comparison before, but if you’re ever chased by a horror movie serial killer hell-bent on your destruction and your reaction to this problem is, “Why run? He’ll just chase us. The only possible choice is to fight him with a 99% chance of our death,” then I beg you to re-evaluate things.

What was the point of coming to rescue Oscar if he was just going to stay behind? The whale is about to be blown up by a bomb and the trio risked their lives ten times over to get to him. If I were them I would be pissed. We went through all that to get you out and now you’re refusing to leave when we have a chance? Thanks for that.

Same with Hazel. Not that I care about the guy, but if I was sacrificing myself for others to escape I'd be pretty annoyed at them randomly deciding not to do that.

What does Oscar even think he's going to do? Kill the immortal witch? The entire point of our series is that they can’t do that (yet).

However, if he is able to do something significant via Ozpin's magic, why didn't Ozpin do that generations ago? Somehow I don't think a younger Ozma closer to the height of his power was in a worse position to attack Salem than a tortured, aura-less kid who unlocked his magic yesterday. The more RWBY reveals about Salem, the more I go, “Okay, but why didn’t his happen [insert any number of years] ago?”

Did Jaune actually leave? I assume he's just grabbing an airship or something before coming back to drag Oscar away, but seriously where did he go?

There's no way I can approach this scene without throwing up my hands and going, "What? WHY?" Which is a real shame because we finally get to see a bit of what the cane does and it’s... precisely what Ozpin's magic has always done? I mean, we saw that green shield five years ago and now there's a giant white beam. Okay.

If the beam just hits Salem with Generic Magic Power then there was never anything secret about the cane, it’s just, you know, Ozpin’s weapon. If the cane does something significant to hurt her we're left with the question of why it took literal generations to use it. Nothing is making sense to me and the only way I can think to salvage this scene is if Jaune runs back in, snags Oscar like a sack of potatoes, and runs out yelling about how he's clearly suffering from a concussion because what are you trying to accomplish here?

It doesn't help that this moment feels... final. Hazel has managed to hold Salem in place. Oscar has unlocked his cane and lands some mega hit right before Hazel passes out and looses his hold. Not only does this feel like a scene that should be at the end of the volume (we've still got five episodes), but also the end of the series. RWBY is building Salem into an unbeatable enemy by giving her more and more powers, and simultaneously eliminating the stakes by having our currently weakest character (in terms of exhaustion/injuries/aura/training) landing a shot like that. Why would you nerf Salem's threat level like that in the middle of a volume? Especially with a tool our group has had available from the start? If the cane does damage, maybe lead with that in the, “Here’s why we should stay and fight” office conversation.

I assume that Oscar's hit will obliterate Salem to the point where both he and Hazel have time to escape, or he obliterates both of them (“Do it”) and that's somehow presented as a better choice than just running while Salem is captured, or the bomb will interrupt things somehow... but it's just so shoddily done. At the very least, if they were going to have Oscar refuse to let someone fight alone, have it be an actual friend he's staying to assist. Having Oscar refuse his own rescue to help Hazel has more than one problem attached to it. We can say what we want about RWBY's themes of forgiveness, but this guy was torturing him just a few hours ago while serving Remnant's version of the devil. Just let him sacrifice himself and move on.

And that's where we end. Oscar powering up, the cane getting all magic-y, and him shooting a crazy big blast that engulfs both Salem and Hazel. I can't believe how not excited I am about my farm boy doing something badass, but here we are.

Overall I think this episode was way worse than last week's. We absolutely had problems in "Dark," particularly when it came to the Hound and the group's blind devotion to Ruby, but at least those moments were cushioned by an otherwise decent episode. "Witch" felt like I was watching something closer to a parody of RWBY, one deliberately poking fun at the fandom's desires: erase all conflict for awkward silly times, your favorite villains are instantly good now, the heroes go toe-to-toe with the main antagonist because why not, throw a bunch of magic in there for good measure, and wrap it all up in some over the top "this isn't a fairy tale" lines. I can see the pieces of a much better episode here — Emerald sneaking Oscar out with her semblance, Neo snagging the relic, Flint and Neon, Hazel attacking Salem — but it simply didn't come together.

I know I said this last time, but I have no idea what we're going to do for another five episodes. Salem slowly reforming from bomb damage as the group tries to keep Penny from opening the vault? The grimm attack halted with the whale gone so Qrow can go after Ironwood? The longer this volume runs, the more I think it was a mistake for them to introduce Salem as a fightable antagonist now. RWBY doesn't know what to do with her besides have her inevitably fall in the final season, so until then she's left being stupid (Relic), passive (Mantle), or, likely, written out of the story temporarily so the heroes can turn their attention towards smaller conflicts and weaker foes. They literally can’t beat Salem yet, but they can’t focus on other problems when she’s around without coming across as negligent, so if you have to find ways to erase her to make room for that... what was the point of bringing her here in the first place? We could have established that Salem is bound to her realm and had her send the Hound and whale to attack Atlas. There, all the fun parts of the volume without her complicated presence.

Well, the next five weeks will certainly be interesting, at the very least...

Until next time 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby witch #mymetas #rwby recaps

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rainydayhogwartsimagines · 3 years

Note

heyy, idk if the requests are open, but hm, could you do a fred x reader where he likes her, but she likes somebody else and then it doesn’t work out and she’s heartbroken? and he comforts her🥺 i just really need some comfort rn lol. thank u in advance! (btw sorry for my bad english and sorry if the requests aren’t open)

You felt like a moron, standing there in the rain the way that you were. Cedric had walked off with Cho, leaving you with this sinking feeling of sadness. You had pined for this boy, praying to any god he'd just look up and notice you but you were given nothing. He acknowledged your existence occasionally but never truly took an interest to him. Well. Until recently.

Lately he seemed to linger near you. He took a liking to your kindness and started sitting with you. You didn't exactly realize he was doing this because of your friendship with Cho. After a incident where Snape wrongfully accused you of something and Cedric stood up for you and you both ended up in detention you assumed he felt the same way until this afternoon.

It was bright at the start of the day. You were in your dorm with Luna, talking about things when Cho came in. "Hey, have you seen Cedric?" She asked. You rose a brow. "Uhm, I was going to hang out with him in about fifteen minutes, why what's up?" You asked. "Just looking for him. Mind if I go with you?" She asked. "Yeah, sure." You shrugged. You waved to Luna and Fred came in soon after. "Hey, have you seen Y/n?" He asked. "She just left with Cho, why?" Luna asked. "Cedric is about to ask Cho out. I know she has a thing for him and I think this is really bad." He groaned before bolting out the door.

He didn't make it time to pull you out of there before Cedric asked Cho to be his girlfriend. You stood there the whole time with this blank stare. Fred booked it down the stairs and stopped when he saw you standing in the courtyard. He knew instantly from that look it was too late. You felt a droplet of rain once you watched Cedric happily wrap his arm around Cho's shoulder and walk away with smiles, completely unaware to your pain.

You felt another droplet of rain before it started pouring. You didn't move. You couldn't move, why wouldn't you move? Fred used a simple incantation to act as an umbrella as he walked over holding it over you. "You okay?" He asked. You swallowed the forming lump in your throat. "he's an ass Y/n." Fred said. You sighed and shook your head. "I'm such an idiot to think he would've gone for someone like me--" "Do not even say that." Fred said. You sighed and wiped your eyes.

Fred wrapped an arm around you, pulling you to his chest. He held his wand so you at least weren't getting soaked and held you. He understood you viewed him as a friend. So right now he was being the best friend you needed. "What do you think about us hanging out in the common room with some hot cocoa?" Fred asked. You let out this laugh through your silent crying and sniffled. "That sounds nice." You said. "Yeah? Well let's go! We'll prank Slytherin later too with George, it'll be fun." He said. You smiled and nodded, him walking you to your dorm.

The next morning you woke up with Fred sleeping on the floor next to your bed. You slowly woke him up and he chuckled. "We sure tired ourselves out last night hmm?" He chuckled before running a hand over his face "Draco did not take kindly to your smoke bomb." You chuckled. Cho walked in and you looked over. "Where were you?" You asked confused, realizing she never made it back to the dorms last night. "With Cedric." She said. You felt a small ping of sadness when she answered and Fred cleared his throat. "Might not wanna go into the Hufflepuff dorm rooms for a bit." He told her. She sighed. "What did you do now Weasley?" Cho asked. "Planted a stink bomb to go off in about thirty minutes." He said. "Is that what you were doing when we were hiding from Filch!?" You asked. "Maybeee." He said, earning a laugh and a playful smack to his shoulder.

You walked into the great hall later and George smiled. "How's it going you two?" He asked. "Seen the puffs yet?" Fred asked. "They've been delayed. Filch said their common room smells like piss." George snorted making you smile. "Thanks Freddie." You muttered. His heart skipped at beat and he smiled. "Let me know if you need me at all today. I'll be there." He said with a smile. "You should go, filch has been looking for you all morning." George said. "Best be going too. Don't want him thinking he's got Fred instead of me!" George said. You watched the twins walk away and Fred turned around, giving you a small wave with a wink.

You smiled and turned back to your breakfast before Luna sat down. "You know my dad smiled like that when mum did something." Luna said. "Well I wouldn't exactly say..." You paused. "Wait, do you think I love Fred?" You asked. "I know you do. You spend all your time with him, I honestly just think your feelings are misguided." She answered. You rose a brow. "What?" You asked. "How much time do you willingly spend with Fred?" Luna asked. "...A lot?" You answered. "And in this time you don't find your thoughts wandering to what it would be like if you didn't friendzone Fred?" She asked. You opened your mouth but said nothing. She was right. And as of late you had been thinking about that more and more. "... Just something to think about." She said. "...Luna you only get wiser with your age." You said. "Dad says the same thing." She shrugged making you smile.

You looked through the large doors to see Fred and George sprinting away from Filch and you smiled before having one thought.

"Well... Shit."

Taglist: @amhyeah @newtaholic-staygold @bbeauttyybbx @fleurho @yodeadxss @mariah-can-dream

#fred weasley x reader #fred weasley x you #fred weasley

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the-softest-puffball · 3 years

Text

of the naming of planets and the colliding of galaxies

notes: yes this is just an excuse to infodump about space and also make more space metaphors, but i like it so

prompt: Song/Stars

pairings: analogical

warnings: a curse word or two

read on AO3

@analogicalweek

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

“The constellation Orion contains two of the brightest stars in the observable night sky,” Logan said as he pointed towards the recognizable cluster of stars, “Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse is about 300 times the size of the Sun’s diameter. It also is a red supergiant star, which is the largest class of stars. It’s so big, in fact, that when it dies, it will create a giant fireball that will be so bright it will outshine many of the stars around it for a brief moment.”

“Wow,” Virgil muttered from beside him. “That’s really cool.”

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Logan said, his gaze fixed on the constellation. “Rigel is directly opposite to Betelguese in Orion's chest in the constellation, and it is a blue supergiant, meaning it is still larger than the sun like Betelgeuse. However, it’s surface is thousands of times hotter, making it appear blue.”

“That’s awesome.” Silence filled the air around them after that, both deep in thought. Logan kept watching the constellation, imagining the surface of the stars, imagining seeing them up close with his very own eyes.

As if Virgil could hear his thoughts, he spoke again. “Do you think we could ever visit outer space? Like, I know space travel already exists and stuff, but do you think we could go that far into space to see those stars?”

“Well, it will possibly never happen unless we somehow discover the power of immortality, as it would take us about 8 million years to reach Betelgeuse, at least where it is now.”

“Oh, jeez. Time’s so fucked up.” Virgil laughed to himself, which made Logan smile as butterflies began to awaken in his stomach.

“Yes, time is a very strange construct.”

He looked over to Virgil, who was back to gazing at the sky with complete wonder, his eyes reflecting the stars as if he had captured them from the night. Logan’s breath apparently was also captured by him, and Logan willed himself to calm down.

The cosmos Logan could understand. He could conceptualize the creation of stars, gases coming together under pressure from an intense amount of gravity until it explodes in a sequence of fusion reactions. He could comprehend the constellations in the sky, how ancient people saw shapes in the sky and decided to connect them to their own mythologies and history. However, Virgil and his feelings towards him were an enigma.

Logan didn’t ever mean Virgil being an enigma as a bad thing; he always thought of enigmas as a new thing to learn, a new thing to explore. Virgil was another mystery that he wanted to uncover. Another universe that he wanted to understand, which confused him the most.

Logan had never been so fascinated by another being before. Space had interested him since Thomas was a child, and chemistry had come later, so much so that his infatuation with it spread to Thomas and pushed him towards getting a degree in chemical engineering. It was one of Logan’s proudest achievements, but Virgil made him feel different things than when he was looking through a telescope at the newest star he had learned about or when he was mixing different elements together to see how they reacted to each other. Virgil made him feel like he was solving a puzzle, but a puzzle that gave him figurative butterflies and distracted him from everything that wasn’t related to him.

Logan was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice Virgil had turned back towards him, possibly to ask a question, until he started talking again.

“Hey, you alive there?” He said with a joking smile, Logan quickly blinking for a moment to break the trance he was in.

“Yes, I’m alright. Why would I have died if I had been lost in thought too long?” He replied, catching back up to Virgil’s words.

“It’s an expression, Lo.” Virgil laughed again, the combination of Virgil’s laughter and the nickname he had used making Logan’s heart figuratively skip a beat. “Anyways, I have another question.”

“Of course, what is it?” Logan was glad Virgil seemed excited to learn about space and shared a similar appreciation to it. Answering questions was something that Logan thought was one of his strengths.

“How did all the planets get their names? I know they’re all based on ancient gods and stuff but how did we decide on those names for each planet?”

Logan thought for a second, trying to recall the information as he looked back out to the sky. “The planets in our solar system are named after ancient mythology, specifically Greek and Roman mythology, which you are correct about, but they were named over thousands of years ago. Mercury was named after the god of travel, possibly based on how fast it moves across the sky. Venus is named after the goddess of love and beauty, and only the moon and the sun shine brighter than it, at least from our viewpoint on Earth. Mars was the god of war, therefore the red planet, a color associated with blood and war, was named after it. Jupiter was the ancient Roman’s version of Zeus, and it is the biggest planet in the solar system. Saturn was named after the god of agriculture, though we are not sure why. Those were all of the ones that were observed by ancient astronomers, the outer planets only being discovered more recently, following the naming process of the other planets.”

Logan turned towards Virgil again, who had been watching him explain. “I hope that wasn’t too much information.”

“Nah, that’s really interesting. So the planets besides Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all observable from Earth?”

“Yes, you are correct.”

“Wow.” Virgil looked to the stars. “Can we see any right now?”

Logan followed his gaze, scanning the night to see if he recognized any of the planets. Then, he spotted the small red spec of Mars, pointing at it. “There, you can see Mars clearly next to the constellation Taurus.”

Virgil leaned closer to him so he could follow his hand easier, which made Logan fluster slightly. It wasn’t the first time he and Virgil had gotten this close, but something felt different this time.

He looked at Virgil’s face, seeing as he stared with a furrowed brow, concentrating on trying to see it. Logan thought he looked adorable like that, which then made him want to shake his head to get the thoughts out of his mind. It wouldn’t actually work, but it didn’t make the urge to do it any less strong.

However, Virgil’s eyes then lit up as a grin stretched across his face. “I see it!”

Logan quickly looked back at the planet, feeling Virgil move away from him, which made Logan a little more upset than it should have. God, his feelings were so confusing.

“That’s awesome,” Virgil muttered. “That’s really Mars?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Woah.” Virgil paused. “Really puts into perspective the size of the universe, doesn’t it?”

Logan thought about it for a moment. The red spec floating between the billion of stars that looked about exactly the same size was a planet. He had never thought about it that much to realize it fully. “I suppose you’re right." He paused. "Doesn’t it make you feel small, though?”

“No. In fact, it kind of gives me comfort, you know? Like, you were telling me last time, we are all made of the same atoms and elements the stars are made of, so it almost makes me feel at home. We might be only here for a small amount of time but the universe has been here for billions of years, and just, I don’t know, it’s nice to know that we aren’t all alone. Maybe we'll become our own stars when we die.”

Logan looked back towards Virgil, the intense feelings of confusion and butterflies and love rushing back to him. The idea of Virgil finding comfort in the stars in that way made Logan understand the universe in a whole different way. He had always seen the universe more as collection of things to learn, but Virgil offering such a different perspective, connecting what he had learned to an emotion of loneliness and home was something Logan had never been able to do. The thought of Virgil being such a fascinating enigma returned, this time in such a profound and fond way Logan had to at least express his appreciation for such an interesting, figuratively eye-opening idea.

“You are much more astute than people lead on,” he said, hoping that Virgil understood what he meant.

“What? No, it’s nothing,” Virgil replied, glancing over at Logan before looking at the grass they were sitting on, slightly flustered.

“It is not nothing, you offered a fascinating perspective that I have never been able to even connect together myself.”

“Well, thanks.” Virgil sent him a smile, Logan noticing even in the dark the red dusting his cheeks. Logan returned the smile himself, hoping it didn’t look too fond as he didn’t want to let all of his emotions for Virgil figuratively spill all over the floor.

“You are a wonderful listener, Virgil. Thank you for joining me these past couple times.”

“Yeah, it’s no problem. Anytime.” Virgil looked back to the sky, his grin returning as he gazed at Mars.

Logan checked the time with his phone. 1:21 am. They should probably go to sleep soon if they wanted to be able to help Thomas fully tomorrow.

“We should go back, it has gotten quite late,” he said, voicing his earlier thoughts.

“Okay,” Virgil replied, but making no moves to actually get up. Logan slowly stood to his feet, stretching a bit as sitting on the grass for an hour or two was not very beneficial for his body.

He held out a hand for Virgil to grab, pulling him up when he did. Virgil also stretched, Logan turning around so he couldn’t see how flustered he was. His feelings were going to be the death of him if every time Virgil even touches him it sends shockwaves up his spine.

He started making his way to the door of the Imagination, which was just about a 3 minute walk away, but then he heard Virgil behind him speak.

“Hey, uh, actually, I have another question,” he said. Logan stopped, turning back towards him.

“What is it?”

Virgil got closer to him. “Well, you were talking about how the planets are named after ancient gods, and, uh, so Venus is named after the ancient Roman god of love, so, do you think that, uh, affects our lives here?”

“Well, of course, Venus is the name we use for the planet-”

“No, I mean, like…” Virgil paused and took another step closer, which was starting to distract Logan to an unreasonable amount. “Does that planet, and therefore the god it’s associated with, affect our relationships with people and how we feel about them?”

“Oh, you mean like astrology?”

“Yeah, I guess, yeah.”

“Well, there’s no specific scientific evidence supporting it, but perhaps, since many have said the planets’ positions in the universe is quite accurate in figuring out certain personality traits or relationships with others.”

“Oh, well, uh, okay.” Virgil seemed more anxious than usual, and Logan began to worry.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s just, uh, that was actually just a really shitty segway into the actual question I wanted to ask, which is…” Virgil gulped and took Logan’s hands with his own. Logan instantly flushed deeply once more, and his stomach felt like the figurative butterflies had multiplied. “Since we mentioned a goddess of love, I wanted to ask…”

Logan didn’t dare interrupt. He didn’t know where Virgil was going with this, but he didn’t seem to care when it felt like he could barely get a sentence out anyway.

Finally, Virgil found the courage to say it.

“Can I kiss you?” He looked right into Logan’s eyes as he spoke, and Logan felt as if he was going to fall over if it wasn’t for Virgil’s touch grounding him. “Like, just I already liked you before, but right now I just realized while you were talking that I think I’m in love with you, and it’s cool if you don’t want to or if you don’t like me that way, we could just pretend this never happened, and yeah.”

Logan couldn’t find the words to reply. It was as if Virgil had taken all the words from his mouth by saying four words, four that Logan couldn’t believe he would ever hear. He knew he should respond, but his mouth wasn’t responding to his brain, which he knew was actually unlikely but it felt like it. How Virgil had managed to make him completely speechless was another mystery that Logan was desperate to solve. However, he noticed Virgil still staring at him, probably waiting for him to say something, and Logan sucked in a breath just enough so he could speak.

“Please do,” he said, breathless and a whisper, which he thought was completely pathetic but Virgil must have thought it was the best thing he’s ever heard because he grinned as bright as the sun before pressing their lips together.

It was as if two galaxies collided together; a merging of completely different planets and stars forming into one beautiful spectacle. Logan went to run his hand through Virgil’s hair, tugging slightly and moving his lips against Virgil’s as Virgil’s hands moved to his hips. Logan felt like he was moving through an entirely different universe, but it was one of the most captivating and effervescent universes he had ever seen.

This amount of emotions Logan was experiencing at that very moment threatened to overwhelm him, so he pushed Virgil back a bit to break the kiss.

He took a couple shaky breaths, his eyes still closed. He still had so many questions about Virgil, perhaps even more now, but when he opened his eyes and saw Virgil staring at him like how he stared at the stars he couldn’t seem to mind anymore.

“That was… wonderful,” he said, at a loss for any other words that could describe even the slightest of what he feels. Virgil laughs.

“Nerd. Come on, let’s head back.” Virgil separated a little more, but still grabbed Logan’s hand with his own as they began walking back to the door.

Logan looked back at the sky, stopping Virgil in his tracks as well, and watched as the stars twinkled knowingly from their spots in the night. He gave one last glance at Betelgeuse and Rigel and smiled.

Maybe he understood how to connect emotions to the stars after all.

#analogical #logan sanders #virgil sanders #liz writes #analogicalweek #of the naming of planets and the colliding of galaxies

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driedflowersforbrain · 4 years

Text

You’ll Run Away // Theo Raeken One Shot

Not my gif.

Summary- Theo finds the reader in the street in the a drunk state, takes her home and some undiscovered feelings are confessed.

Pairing- Theo Raeken x Reader

Tags- Fluff, super fluff. Kissing. Nothing out of the blue.

A/n- Here goes nothing. First work of mine. Hope you guys like it. Theo Raeken is my soft baby soooo this was obv coming. Comments are welcome.

Go ahead <3<3<3

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Your Pov

I was pissed at Scott for trying to stop me. The pack was on some sort of mission that night, to try finding a way to know more about the Dread Doctors. Considering the fact, that I was a mere human, any and all details regarding their plan were kept from me. Scott, Stiles and I've been childhood friends. We have always been inseparable. But lately, I feel useless because I can't help them in any way.

But it wasn't my fault. So being the stupid, dumb idiot I am, I decided to do something reckless. Maybe not reckless, but I went to the club. A little clubbing and drinks never killed nobody.

Theo's Pov

I was driving back home after a frustrating meeting with the Dread Doctors. They didn't understand how important it was for me to have a pack. I was still gripping the steering wheel tightly and clenching my jaw, trying to control my anger.

I was in downtown now. It was quite dark outside and late. The streets were mostly empty except the occasional people here and there. When suddenly, my eyes fell on the dark silhouette swaying, dancing on the sidewalk. There was something awfully familiar about that figure. I stopped my truck and got out.

It was y/n! But what the hell was she doing out here at this time.

'Y/n?' I said in a questioning tone despite knowing well that it was her.

She turned around, confused at first but soon her expression changed. A sheepish grin appearing on her lips. While a tired sigh escaped my lips.

'Theo!' she said, her words slurring. She took a step towards me, stumbling and falling. My supernatural instincts kicked in and I got her before she fell and hurt herself.

'Are you drunk?' Now that was a literal question. I didn't think of y/n as anyone who would go out late and get wasted, maybe I was about to be proved wrong.

My hands were still wrapped around her torso, trying to get her to straighten up.

'Yeshh' she said answering my previous question.

'Why?'

'Cause..cause' she thought hard for a while, withdrawing from my embrace, swaying left to right. I held out both my hands just in case.

'Yeah, cause 'm angry at pack'

'Your pack?'

'Yes' she said seemingly proud of herself for giving a reasonable answer.

'Why are you angry at them?' I asked trying to get any sort of information from her that might help my plans for the future.

'Oh no!' she suddenly looked distressed.

'What's wrong?' I was on edge now.

'I forgot my glasses at the club.'

'y/n, you don't wear glasses.' I said, defeated. I knew she was incapable of helping in my endeavors in any way.

'Come with me.' I grabbed her wrist, trying my best to be gentle. I pulled her across the road towards the dark blue truck. She leaned against the passenger side door and kept mumbling something. I grabbed my phone from the pocket of my trousers. I searched for Scott's number through my contacts and hit call when I found it.

Pressing the phone to my ear, I waited. The phone ringed for a while then went to voicemail. After my three unsuccessful attempts to reach Scott, I gave up and sighed loudly. I looked at y/n. She was staring at the sky, looking towards the sky, the back of her head softly pressed against the passenger side window. She was humming something.

A small smile appeared on my lips. Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat. Why was I smiling?! I wiped the smile off my face and grabbed y/n's forearm and opened the truck's door.

Seems like I have to do this myself. Driving drunk y/n home was not something I thought I would be doing tonight.

As got to the driver's side, I tried reasoning with myself. Maybe this would earn me some extra credits with the pack. This may make them think I can be trusted after all. Y/n didn't exactly trust me either but her that demeanor was asleep somewhere at the moment.

'Do you wanna hear a joke?' she asked innocently, her eyes gleaming like a child.

I looked straight ahead, towards the road and replied without looking at her,' No!' It came out harsher then I wanted but doesn't matter now.

Y/n stuck her bottom lip out and pouted like a kid, giving me puppy eyes. Oh no, I was obviously not falling for this. I'm a highly modified creature, a mix of supernatural and pseudo science. No way in hell was I going to give in.

Exactly seven minutes and three glances in her direction later, I gave in.

'Fine.'

A huge smile broke out on her face. 'What will you call a werewolf that doesn't know they are a werewolf?'

I thought for a moment. Actually trying to contribute to her efforts. 'I don't know, dumb wolf or something?'

'No silly!' She giggled loudly, making me smile again but this time it slipped my mind to be bothered about this unreasonable smiling. ' You call it an unawerewolf!'

I raised my eyebrow more amused by her answer than finding the joke funny. She laughed at her own joke. And hearing her laugh made me laugh myself. The encounter with dread doctors was now at the back of my head.

'That was really bad.' I said shaking my head despite my smile saying something else.

'Shut up.' She pouted. I guess I had offended her. I took this as a chance to stop any further conversation. She was quiet for a while.

Soon y/n reached for the radio, turning the button for any station playing nice songs. After toying with the button for a few minutes, she finally stopped at a station playing a Kygo song. Firestone was blasting from the speakers.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw y/n rolling down her window. But before I could react, she poked her head and then her torso was out of the window. I grabbed her shirt, trying to hold her, and also keeping the car steady.

'Y/n, get your head back inside and shut the window.'

'NO!'

'Y/N I SAID GET INSIDE!' I raised my voice. She gave in. After doing as I said, she slowing looked at me. My heart was beating erratically. I was worried?

The rest of the drive passed in silence. When we reached her house, I went to her side and opened the door.

She had her arms crossed and a dull expression on her face.

'C'mon, you' re home' I said, while getting her out and closing the door with my foot. She still had the same expression, not giving me any reply, not even looking towards me.

'Okay, I am sorry... for yelling at you' I said rubbing the back of my neck,'even though it was totally your fault' I added under my breath, sure she didn't hear that.

Hearing me say this, a smile broke out on her face. She threw both her hands around my bicep, resting her head on my shoulder. My heart fluttered, slightly.

'Theeeooo' she said in a sing-song voice. The rest of what she said was probably gibberish, her words too slurred for me to understand but her voice was high- pitched, cute. We both moved to the front door, swaying because of y/n of course.

'Keys?'

' Flower pot.' she said with a small yawn.

I understood immediately, looking under the flowerpot beside the door. And surely there was a key . I unlocked the door, took under inside but stopped at the threshold.

'Good night y/n. You should rest now.'

'Wait? Where are you going?' she said genuinely disappointed.

'I should go.' I raised my eyebrow, trying to keep my point. I turned around to leave.

Suddenly I felt two arms wrap around me from behind and a head resting gently on my back. There was silence for a while. Neither of us moving. I didn't try turning around.

'Please...stay' I heard her say in a small yet soft voice.

I finally did turn around.

Sighing I thought to myself , 'This is going to be a long night.'

Soon I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed, in y/n's room. It was nothing like I expected it to be. The bed was in the center of the room. Fairy lights covered the ceiling, illuminating the room with their yellow glow. A wall was covered in posters, photos of the pack and her family, artworks and evidence of any creative outbursts y/n had. It was incredibly quiet in the house considering that y/n lived with her uncle, who was her only family, and even he was out of the town most of the times.

She was currently in her walk-in closet, ransacking it in hopes of finding something comfortable to wear at night. The door to the closet was open a little. I sneaked a quick glance inside but then quickly looked away. Maybe she was changing. I heard quite shuffling, thanks to my supernatural instincts.

Not long after, she came out wearing an over-sized grey hoodie that reached up to her knees and fluffy socks. She gradually dragged her feet to the bed and sat down beside me.

I turned a bit to look at her. Water drops still rested on her face, probably from washing her face after changing. Her face was lit with the faint yellow light, highlighting the delicate curves and soft features. Her eyes were drooping.

"You should lay down. Your look sleepy." She looked at me slowly and shook her head. A frown appeared on my face.

"Why not?" I asked looking at her hand. She was fidgeting with the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

"Because...because you'll...ran away." She said in a soft voice. My face softened upon hearing this. I understood where this was coming from. Y/n was all alone on the street, Scott wasn't picking up any calls, y/n was angry at the pack. Now it didn't take a genius to understand what was going on here. She was left out of whatever the hell the pack was doing. She was alone without her pack. And frankly, nobody at the moment knew how that felt other than me.

I turned my body towards her. I slowly took her hands, which made her look up at me. My thumb rubbing gentle circle upon her hand.

"Hey, I'm not running away anywhere. Not from you." We sat in silence for a while, hands still intertwined.

"You should really sleep. I'll go...sleep on the couch...outside." I said getting up, pointing towards the living room. Then suddenly a look at her face made me stop. I sighed.

I took off my t shirt. A small smile came on y/n's face when she realized I wasn't going anywhere.

Y/n laid down on the bed leaving place for me. I climbed on the bed and put the cover on both of us, and turned off the light.

We both laid on our backs. Moonlight pouring through the only window in the room. I turned towards y/n. Her y/e/c eyes were open and her breathing even. My heart skipped a beat. That seemed to be happening a lot tonight.

I brushed a strand of dark brown hair away from y/n's face. She turned towards me. I was afraid I was afraid I might have offended. Usually sober y/n kept her distance from me, always plotting with Stiles because they were the only ones I hadn’t won over yet. But somehow despite my agenda, I just couldn’t stay away from her. Sometimes it really frustrated me that I was getting distracted by a girl, but then I imagined her face with those soft curls framing her face and that smile that made the sunshine nervous and-

I even got scared that something I might do or maybe if she got caught up in the middle of my fight some day, she’d get hurt. And that was enough to keep me from trying to get too attached to her.

But on seeing her eyes night now, at this moment, relief washed over me. There was a delicate smile on her face, like I was not some stranger to her who she barely knew. Like I could be someone, was someone she trusted.

Unconsciously my hand lifted a little and stroked her cheekbone as lightly as I could. She wrapped her hand around my fingers and for a moment I thought she might push it away, but to my utter surprise, she pressed it to her cheek, leaning into my touch.

She was so precious, and her pack had abandoned her despite knowing how alone she was with only an uncle to call her family. Anger bubbled inside me, in that moment I could have fought the whole pack, even killed Scott but not for my gain, rather at the thought that they could call themselves your family and leave you behind like this.

My attention was snapped back to her, as she moved, pulling closer to me. I could fell her breath fanning my face, due to our proximity. All the anger that my erupting inside, plaguing my thoughts, vanished in mere seconds, as I took in her scent. Y/n was the one who drank tonight yet here I was feeling intoxicated.

My eyes scanned her face. Drinking in every detail, trying my best to memorize in the fear that this might not last till tomorrow. My eyesight lingered on her lips. They looked so soft like frail petals of a rose. I wanted so bad to kiss her.

What happened next had me in shock. As if she read my mind, y/n slowly leaned forward and kissed my lips. It took a few seconds for my shock to subside. Once it did, our lips met and it was nothing like I had ever felt before. The bite, the blood lust, everything fell flat in front of this.

Our lips moved in perfect synchrony like they were made for this, and after a lifetime of longing they were united, knowing every inch of each other. I gently tugged at her lower lip as she smiled into my lips. I slowly let my tongue slip into her mouth, tasting the alcohol and the sweet taste of y/n that I had been longing for so long, yet only realized it now.

I ran my hand through her hair, as softly as I could. Something had taken over me. As if my hands had a mind of their own. Y/n's hand reached forward closing any distance that remained between us and wrapped around my torso. It made me kind of nervous. I stiffened a little. But slowly, it comforted me. I haven't felt like this in a long time. Felt calm, comfortable.

I closed my eyes. One hand reaching her waist. Suddenly, she climbed on top of me, our bodies fitting like two halves of a moulds. I wanted this for the rest of my life. But there was a nagging that I didn’t deserve her, this won’t last when I wake up. So I tried to savor every second of this.

But no. No. I couldn’t. Y/n was drunk. Maybe she didn’t even know what she was doing.

I lightly pushed her away, even if it broke my heart. And laid her down beside me as before. A little pout appeared and her face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked cupping my face with her hands.

“Y/n, you are drunk. Just go to sleep, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“But I want to kiss you.” She said childishly pecking my lips, it took everything in me to not give in.

I sighed,”Y/n, I can’t. You...you are you. And tomorrow when the sun comes up, you’ll see me as me again, and I would be nothing but a guy you don’t trust. And I can’t live with that. Not after tonight.” I blurted out in a single breath.

“ But I like you silly, since the day you saved Scott at school, yeah you are a little shady and your hair are too perfect all the time to not be a wig. But I still like you.” She said as if it was the most obvious fact.

A chuckle escaped my lip,” My hair are real.”

Her lips broke into a hearty grin as she ran her hands through my hair. She leaned forward again, but I pulled back, leading to another frown.

“Not tonight, y/n. The next time I kiss you I want you to be sober.”

“Okay. Cuddle me though.” She agreed grudgingly and then made grabby hands.

How could I not give in to this. So that is how I spent my night. With my face in the crook of her neck, breathing her in and arms wrapped around her, holding her as close as I could.

When I thought that she had fallen asleep, she said in a hushed, sleepy voice-

“Theo, nothing changes tomorrow. Not ever.”

I pressed a light kiss to her temple before falling into a deep slumber devoid of any nightmares, which was a first. All I dreamed of was y/n and the possibility of a not-so-dreadful future.

Something had changed tonight. I don't really know what. But this girl beside me... I'll not ran away. Not from her. Not ever now.

#theo #theo raeken #teenwolf #teen wolf #stiles #scott #pack #scottmcall #stiles stilinski #lydia martin #theoimagines #theo raeken x reader #theoxreader #theo one shot #fanfic #oneshots #one shot #fluff #theo raeken fluff

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helloprettybb · 4 years

Text

made a mistake

Here’s a prequel to “bring me back.” I was thinking about how interesting it would be to see what made Steve want to come back.

bring me back

warnings: angst, racism

word count: 3.7k

Steve knew when and where to be. Even without the super-soldier serum, he would never forget the date. Stepping into 1945 Brooklyn felt surreal especially since he thought he’d never see this again. It’s quite different than the 21st century, but just as he remembered.

No electric screens like when he first stepped foot outside in 2011. It’s nice and comfortable Steve thinks. He looks at the clock and realizes it’s 7:55. He knows where he has to be.

Entering the Stork Club, Steve reads that it’s 7:59. Sitting at the bar is Peggy. “Ready for that dance?” he asks. She turns and can’t believe her eyes.

“Steve, how did you?” she begins. He doesn’t answer, sweeping her in his arms and placing his lips on hers. It’s nice and sweet, nothing like the kisses you two would share. He doesn’t know why you appear in his mind. He came back for a reason: her. So he pushes you into the back of his mind and gazes down at Peggy. She’s as beautiful as he remembered.

“I’ve missed you,” he says, eyes never leaving hers. He still can’t believe he’s really here.

It starts with one date and then another and before Steve realizes, he’s getting married to Peggy. Only a few months of coming back, Steve is already preparing to walk down the aisle. It’s all rather fast, but she’s his love.

At the altar, Steve takes a subtle look to his left and the corners of his mouth go down just a little. Not only his Bucky not here, but his other friends like Sam and Clint.

Before he could dwell on his old friends, Steve sees the doors open. Peggy walks down the aisle in a modest, yet beautiful dress. Steve smiles at the sight of her. She’s radiant, but he’s hit with an intense flashback.

“How do I look?” you ask, bursting out of the changing room. Steve looks up and laughs. You’re dressed in a big, dramatic wedding dress, even sporting a long veil. As ridiculous as it looked, Steve had to admit that you pulled it off.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a bit much for the gala.” Steve jokes. You ignore him and do a slow twirl in front of the mirror.

“I know! But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun.” you jab back. Tony was having a charity gala, which meant the whole team had to dress up. You practically jumped Steve and forced him to drive you to a boutique. You told him you needed his input, but five minutes in the store made it clear that he was only there to keep you company. Since Tony was paying for the clothes, you didn’t even look at price tags before grabbing everything you could and running into the changing room.

For the last half-hour, Steve sat on a chair too small for him as you occasionally popped out from behind the curtains. After the first fifteen dresses, the rest seemed the same. You could sense that he was getting bored so you slipped on a wedding dress to grab his attention.

You sigh as you look in your reflection. “It is a nice dress, though. I think for our wedding, I’d go for a smaller skirt.”

Steve’s ears perk up and his eyebrows shoot to his hairline. You notice Steve’s shocked expression and quickly explain, “Oh no, Steve. I didn’t mean it like that. I know we’ve only been dating for four months and saying our wedding sounds really weird, but I just meant that in the future, like far, far future. Because I really like you and want to spend the rest of my life with you and I really should stop talking.”

Steve eases into a smile at your nervous rambling. He stands and walks over to the mirrors. Your face is in your hands and you keep mumbling out of embarrassment. Steve wraps his arms around you from behind and whispers in your ear, “It’s okay because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too.”

Steve snaps back to the present when Peggy is only feet from the altar. The ceremony proceeds and Steve is happy. He gazes at Peggy lovingly and when the minister finishes, he kisses his bride. He closes his eyes, but for a second, your face appears. His heart skips a beat at the thought of you, but he pushes you away. It’s his wedding day after all and he’s marrying the love of his life.

Relationships took work. Steve knew that, so when Peggy started leaving him alone to go on missions, he wasn’t mad. Hell, he’d done that to you how many times. But the days turned to weeks and then months and sometimes, Steve would only see her for a day before she had to leave again. He understood because he’d been there.

She offered him a job at SSR, but after all his years of fighting in the 21st century, he figured he’d retire. Although confused, Peggy didn’t pry. She continued her life as normal, going on missions frequently. She didn’t realize it was an issue.

Steve paces the floor as he waits for his wife to come home. He hasn’t seen her in three weeks since she went to god knows where. Steve hates the secrecy but would feel very hypocritical if he complained. After all, he did the same for you.

Oh, you. The more time that Peggy is away, the more often he thinks about you. It started with little things, like waking up in the morning. With Peggy, Steve wakes up on one side of the bed while Peggy wakes on the other. He realized early on that Peggy wasn’t as fond of physical touch as you. Steve told himself that it didn’t bother him and he definitely didn’t miss the way you would doze off on his chest. Steve also most certainly did not miss how your small hands would grab his face and comfort him after a particularly bad mission.

Still, Steve wonders how you are doing (as a friend of course). Do you miss him?

Steve hears the door open. He lifts his head and sees a very tired Peggy walk into the house. “I’ve missed you, doll.” he says, walking up to give her a hug. However, she stops him before he could wrap his arms around her.

“Sorry, Steve. I’m just really tired. I need to get some rest. They’re placing me somewhere else tomorrow morning.” Peggy quickly explains before heading towards the bedroom.

Steve frowns slightly and asks, “Where are you going?” Peggy shakes her head, having had this conversation multiple times.

“You know I can’t tell you, dear.” Peggy responds, already getting ready for bed. “All I know is that I’ll be undercover for two months.”

Two months! Steve can’t believe that he just got her back and now he barely sees her. His frustration finally taking over, he groans, “Are you serious? Why can’t you just stay?” The last part sounds more like a plea than a question.

Peggy, too tired to argue, sighs, “Steve, it’s my job. I told you when we got married that our life would be like this.” Steve thought he was a fairly patient person, but his anger finally gets a hold of him.

“If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have come back!” Steve shouts louder than he wanted. He realizes what he’s said but it’s too late.

Stone-faced and very much awake, Peggy replies in a tone that’s too calm, “Then leave.” Steve tries to think of something to say, but it seems that his mind is blank. He doesn’t even grab anything before leaving the house.

He’s such an idiot. He sacrificed everything, his friends, the internet, and you, for Peggy. He knew what he was doing when he took that detour. He weighed all the pros and cons, yet he thought he made the right decision. Was he wrong?

Steve’s feet seemed to have a mind of its own as he walked around the streets of New York. Troubled with his thoughts, Steve blocked out most of the city’s noise until loud shouting pierced his ears. Running towards the noise, he ends up in an ally behind a drugstore.

The closer he gets, the more slurs he hears and it disgusts him. When he’s close enough, he yells at the two white attackers, who are beating up an African American man. The man’s head is bleeding and it looks like he’s drifting in and out of conscious.

Steve acts before he thinks and throws a punch at the larger man. He immediately collapses to the ground. His friend tries to hit Steve, but he’s too slow and soon enough, he’s also on the ground. He didn’t mean to knock them out, but he brushed it off, determining that they deserved it.

He turns his attention to the injured African American man and crouches down by him. “Hey, you okay?” Steve asks nicely. The man struggles to open his eyes, but when he finally does, he widens them with shock and fear.

Still severely injured, the man attempts to scramble back and cries, “Please, stop. I didn’t mean to be here. I got lost.” Steve’s heart hurts at the desperate plea. He holds his hands up to show that he means no harm.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. Let me take you in there so I can patch you up.” Steve replies sincerely. The man still looks a bit scared, but Steve can see that he’s easing up a little. He moves a little closer, but this time the man doesn’t scoot away. “Do you need help getting up?” The man nods and Steve helps him on his feet.

He starts to direct him into the drug store when the man speaks up, “They’re not going to let me in.” Steve furrows his brow in confusion.

“Why wouldn’t they?” he asks rather innocently. The man lets out a bitter, resentful laugh.

“Are you serious? Do you know where we are right now?” he asks, tone as disgruntled as his laugh. Steve thinks for a second before he realizes. He couldn’t believe he was being so naïve, but spending over a decade in the twenty-first century made him realize how much he took for granted.

“I’ll take you home, then. Did you come in a car or anything?” Steve asks the man. He nods and points across the street. Steve supports the man while they cross the street to his car. He hands Steve the keys and he starts the engine.

“Where do you live?” Steve acts as he pulls the car out of the spot. The man rolls his eyes at Steve’s cluelessness.

“Harlem.” The man groans as he sits up, he continues, “You’re not from around here are you?”

Steve lets out a short laugh and responds, “Well, I grew up here. But I haven’t been around for a very long time.” It was the truth. The twenty-first century made Steve forget about the bad parts of the 40s. He used to look back fondly, but now he feels like a fool for excluding the extreme racism and segregation.

He pulls up to the man’s house and helps him to the door. A woman, who Steve assumes is his wife, opens the door and stares at Steve. She cowers a little behind the door until she sees her battered husband. She quickly moves out of the way as Steve moves in. He places the man at the kitchen table. His wife quickly jumps into action and searches for the first aid kit.

“Where did you find him?” she cries, seeing the condition he’s in. He tells her and the woman’s eyes well up in tears. “Oh, Robert, you didn’t have to do that! I already told you. I bought candy from the store in Harlem.” She’s scolding him, but Steve can tell that she’s just worried beyond belief. It reminded him of you whenever he came back from a mission with anything more than a scratch.

“I know, honey, but she loves the candy from that shop in Brooklyn.” Robert replies, slurring his words a bit. Steve’s about to ask who they’re talking about when a little girl walks out from the hallway.

“Mama?” she asks, staring at Steve. She’s small, probably five or six. She catches sight of her father and asks, “Daddy, what happened?”

His wife is about to reply when he interrupts, “Daddy got in a fight, but this nice man saved me.” Even though he has a bandage wrapped around his head, he still has a comforting smile on his face when he talks to his daughter.

The young girl starts to walk towards them when her mother springs up and starts, “No, young lady. You’re supposed to be in bed.” She delivers a little pout before turning around and heading down the hall.

Robert’s wife sits next to her husband and grabs his hand. They lock eyes and share a look that Steve could only describe as true love. She turns towards Steve and states, “Thank you, sir. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have happened.”

“Oh, anyone would have done it.” he replies but realizes that it isn’t true, at least now.

“Please, if there’s anything we could do to repay you.” she insists. Steve doesn’t want anything for just being a decent person, but then he remembers his situation.

He sighs and asks, “Can I stay here for the night? My wife kicked me out.” He hands his head a bit at that last sentence. She easily accepts and fetches some pillows and blankets for Steve.

“Why did you do that?” Robert asks, still confused why a person like Steve would help him.

Steve simply shrugs and replies, “I don’t like bullies. There’s no reason to be so hateful towards someone different, someone who’s done nothing.” Robert simply laughs at his response, but it isn’t as bitter.

“You’re really not from around here then.”

Steve knew he had to go home at some point. After staying the night at Robert’s and thanking his family for the hospitality, Steve returned home. He expected an empty house since Peggy was on a mission, but when he opened the door, he was greatly surprised.

“What are you doing home?” was the first thing out of Steve’s mouth. Peggy’s arms were crossed and she was staring daggers at Steve. He closed the door behind him. Zeroing in on the carpet, Steve found that he couldn’t look Peggy in the eye.

“I didn’t go.” Peggy replies, stating the obvious. Steve finally looks up at her and all he sees are cold, brown eyes. When Steve doesn’t say anything else, Peggy continues, “We need to talk Steve.”

“What about?” Steve asks, too much sarcasm slipping into his voice.

Peggy huffs a sigh and starts, “It’s not working out Steve. I know it and I hope to god you do, too.” Steve can hear the frustration and anger in her voice. He doesn’t answer, not knowing if he could control his temper. The two remain in an uneasy silence for a couple moments.

In a softer voice, Peggy asks, “It’s because of her, isn’t it?” Steve didn’t know how to answer that. Was it really all about you? Clearly, Peggy thought it was and in a cold, professional manner, she states, “I’m meeting with my lawyer Friday.” Steve just nods and Peggy moves towards the door. He moves out of the way and Peggy leaves.

The entire process took six weeks since both of them agreed to keep the court of it. After all the paperwork was filled out, Steve Grant Rogers was officially divorced. He knew it had to happen, but Steve still had difficulty processing it. The day after the divorce finalized, Steve went out for coffee with Peggy.

“So...” Peggy starts, struggling to find something to talk about. Steve felt the same, opting to take a sip of coffee instead of striking up a conversation. The two of them had grown increasingly distant since the day Peggy filed for divorce. It got to the point where they didn’t even share the same bed. It wasn’t just because they didn’t love each other. It was because of you.

Apparently, the stress of the divorce process restarted Steve’s sleep-talking habit. At first, they were just quiet whispers of your name, but they evolved to full-on conversations with you. Steve couldn’t blame Peggy for being irritated at his love confessions toward you so he volunteered to sleep on the couch.

Peggy taps on her mug while Steve looks around the shop awkwardly. When Peggy offered to go out one last time, Steve saw it as a form of closure. The two of them have mostly moved on, but there were many things left unsaid. Peggy clears her throat and finally says, “Let’s talk about it.” Steve focuses his eyes on her and his heart hurts a little. Although his feelings are mostly gone, he still sees the woman he came back for.

“Okay. I’m sorry.” Steve states bluntly. If he’s being honest, he doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for specifically since it seems there is so much. He continues, “I left everyone I knew and cared about to come back for you. I think I expected too much.”

Peggy nods and replies, “Steve, I didn’t ask you to come back for me.” He can tell she’s trying to remain calm, but her tone wavers enough to tell him that she’s on the defense.

“I know and I’m not mad at you.” Steve sighs. “It’s just... all those years in the twenty-first century made me long to go back. Even when I met her, I still thought I’d want to be here.”

Peggy takes in his confession and finishes his thought, “But you don’t belong here.” Steve averts his eyes and gives a tight smile. At least she’s understanding and not upset. “You need to go back.”

He looks up at Peggy. Her tone is calm, maybe even a little sanguine. “Excuse me?”

Peggy shrugs and replies, “You should go back. To the twenty-first century, to your friends and to her. You can do that, right?” Steve smiles a little at her curiosity. It’s ironic that this conversation started with her wanting nothing to do with him, but now, she wants to help.

“Well even if I could. I don’t have enough particles.” Steve reasons. Peggy raises an eyebrow slightly confused. Steve remembered that he didn’t tell her exactly how he came back. “I had these Pym particles that allowed me to travel in time. I used them all already.” Peggy thinks a little then comes up with a solution.

“Well, maybe you could find a way to communicate with your friends.” she suggests. Steve searches his mind for any opportunity, then it hits him. His realization must have reached his face since Peggy laughs lightly for the first time in weeks.

“So, I figure you discovered a solution?” she jokes and Steve laughs a little.

“Yeah.” Steve replies, smiling at the way everything is coming together. She starts to get up and he states, “Thank you, Peggy.” She gets that he meant for everything and she smiles.

In a tone that completely contradicts her words, she says, “I hope I never see you again.” She gives him a final kiss on the cheek and leaves for the last time. Well, that’s one way to say goodbye.

Steve laughs to himself at how lax the security is at Stark Industries. If it were like this in the twenty-first century, missions would get done much faster. He drives around the complex until he spots it in the distance. Standing tall and proud is The Tree. Although rather younger, it looks like it did on Steve and your first date.

You are beautiful. Steve can’t help but stare as you grab a strawberry from the picnic basket. You notice him looking and blush a little, “What?”

You laugh a little out of embarrassment and Steve replies, “Nothing, t’s just you’re so beautiful.” Your eyebrow quirks a little out of surprise and you smile brightly.

“Thank you, Steve. If it’s any consolation, you’re very beautiful, too.” you laugh and Steve beams. Everything about you is so perfect that Steve can’t believe you agreed to go on a date with him. When he asked, he had to conceal his surprise at your acceptance. He waited for a nice day so that the two of you could go on a picnic.

The two of you talked for so long that Steve lost track of time. A large shadow began to cast over the sunny field. Steve looked up and saw giant storm clouds roll it. He mentally cursed himself and his poor technological skills for not checking the hourly forecast. Picking up the basket and blanket, Steve started toward the compound when you grabbed his hand. Before he could ask any questions, you pull him toward the old tree that sat in the middle of the field.

He followed and the two of you make it just in time before the rain starts to pour. Protected by the tree, you say sheepishly, “I didn’t want the date to end yet. I knew that if we went inside, the others would pester us.” Steve laughs in agreement and sets everything down. He looks down and notices that your hand is still in his. You seem to notice it too and with a sly smile, you pull him away from the tree.

Steve follows and in a matter of minutes, the two of you are drenched. Neither of you cares and he jokes, “So much for nice weather.” You laugh, running your hands through your soaked hair. Steve doesn’t know why the simple gesture gets his heart going, but instinctively, he asks, “Can I kiss you?” He immediately worries that it was too forward, but you smile even wider.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

It’s drizzling lightly when he gets out of the car. Steve’s hair slowly grows damp as he walks toward the tree. Tracing his fingers over the bark, he looks for a place to carve. He stops halfway around and takes out his knife.

Stepping back, he’s relieved to see that it’s readable. Now he prays to god that you get the message.

#steve rogers #steve rogers imagines #steve rogers angst #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #marvel #marvel imagine

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flowers-creativity · 4 years

Text

Whumptober alt. prompt 9: Memory loss

Fandom: The Musketeers

Characters: d’Artagnan, Athos,Porthos, Aramis

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, head injuries, blood, amnesia

Summary: Porthos forgets something important after getting injured in a fight.

Notes: Please do not look for medical accuracy in this fic XD (or any of my fics, especially during Whumptober, really).

AO3 link

“Shhh!” Aramis suddenly raised his hand, interrupting the banter between d'Artagnan and Porthos. Both of them turned around in the saddle to look at him, eyebrows raised questioningly. Behind Aramis, Athos was sitting very still on his horse, radiating concentration as he was listening for whatever Aramis might have heard.

It took another few heartbeats but then d'Artagnan heard it, too: Hoofbeats. Enough that even he could tell that it had to be several horses, and he was sure the others, with their superior experience, were also aware. They exchanged grim looks, and as one, they dug their heels into their horses' flanks to put some distance between themselves and the group of riders coming closer.

As they rode, d'Artagnan was aware that Aramis and Athos were hanging back a bit, turning around to watch for the approaching men. After a few tense minutes, a shot cracked through the air, and when d'Artagnan looked back, Aramis was stashing his spent pistol in the holder of his tack with a grimace. “They're still coming,” he called. It must have been a warning shot, d'Artagnan surmised, but it had obviously failed to deter them. He could see them now, if not clearly – five or six men, he guessed at a glance.

Athos gave a sharp whistle, and Porthos immediately reined his horse in, forcing d'Artagnan to slow down, too. “Let's greet these gentlemen properly, shall we?” their leader drawled with a wry glance when they had stopped and turned around. “It seems they are eager to make our acquaintance.”

d'Artagnan grinned, and at his side, Porthos' face lit up with eager anticipation. “We wouldn't want to be impolite,” he growled, loosening his schiavona in its sheath. Aramis was reloading the pistol he had used earlier with quick, practised movements, then drew the second from its holster. “Perish the thought,” he agreed.

They got into a line, pistols drawn and ready, and waited for their pursuers to appear. When they did, d'Artagnan let his gaze skip across them quickly, taking in as many details as possible. Six men – his initial estimate had been right – clad in dark clothes, hats pulled low, and there was the glint of metal in their hands. A moment later, it was revealed as pistols, and a first shot cracked, short and sharp like a whip. Immediately, Aramis returned fire, and the others followed him just another heartbeat later. d'Artagnan bit down hard on a scream, not allowing it past his lips, when fire streaked across his left biceps, and for a moment he swayed in the saddle. He caught himself, shaking his head sharply, and dropped his spent pistols, sliding from the horse's back and drawing his sword.

“d'Artagnan?” Aramis asked among the momentary lull, between the last echo of the shots fading away and the men crossing the last few metres to them while the Musketeers stood, ready to face them but letting them come towards them.

d'Artagnan shook his head. “A graze, I think,” he said breathlessly, pushing the pain into the back of his mind. “I'm fine.”

The medic did not argue – he knew as much as d'Artagnan that there was nothing to be done. And then the strangers were there, swords clashing, and d'Artagnan's focus narrowed to his blade, catching the oncoming man's and twisting away from his slash down towards the young Musketeer's thigh. He was vaguely aware of his brothers moving around him, of their opponents – five, one must have gone down with their shots – pressing them, at one point smoothly changing position with Aramis and taking his opponent on. The marksman's eyes sparkled with laughter as he sketched a quick bow, and d'Artagnan grinned back at him, his blood singing with the fight.

But the next moment, there was a loud thud, and at the same time, Athos called out: “Porthos!” d'Artagnan bit down on his lip, all mirth draining from his face. Suppressing the urge to look around, he redoubled his efforts, and two, three strikes later, his opponent went down with his blade buried in his chest.

He glanced back at the others and saw with horror that Porthos was down, crumbled on the ground and his face wet with blood streaming from his temple. It was mixed with relief when Aramis fell onto his knees next to his best friend and bent over him, touching his shoulder. d'Artagnan turned away and moved to help Athos finish off the last two bandits.

An hour later, they had set up camp since Aramis didn't want to move Porthos. The medic had cleaned and stitched the deep head wound, and they had made him comfortable, as much as possible on a thin bedroll on hard ground. His heart was beating strong, his breath steady and unaffected.

But he hadn't woken up yet.

d'Artagnan sat leaned back against his saddle, staring at the as of yet unlit fire they had built. His wound – actually only a shallow graze, like he had said – had been cleaned and bound by Athos while Aramis took care of Porthos, and there was nothing left to do. Nothing but wait for Porthos to wake up and try to swallow the lump of fear in his throat that rose every time he looked at his friend's unmoving form, at Aramis beside him in silent vigil, head bent and lips moving tonelessly, his crucifix held in clenched fingers. It was not the first time Porthos or any of them had had a head injury, and he remembered all those jokes about his thick skull, but he also knew that Aramis feared head wounds more than almost any other injury, saying that the brain was a most delicate organ, and if it took too much damage … He swallowed again and closed his eyes, trying to banish all those what-ifs.

When he opened his eyes again, Aramis had gotten up and was striding over towards him with determination in his step. He raised an eyebrow at him as the medic dropped down at his left and reached for the bandage around his arm. “Let me have another look at that wound,” Aramis said, his voice rough with some emotion d'Artagnan could not name.

“Athos took care of it, it's fine,” he protested. “He said it doesn't need stitches.”

Aramis pursed his lips. “Let me be the judge of that,” he replied while his nimble fingers were already unwinding the linen.

d'Artagnan threw a helpless look at Athos on the other side of the firepit. His mentor looked back, face unreadable, and just shook his head slightly. The Gascon frowned – sometimes he understood his brothers perfectly, even if he'd been with them so much shorter than the three of them had been at each other's side; and sometimes he still felt like they were speaking a language he had barely any grasp of. “Shouldn't you concentrate on taking care of Porthos?” he asked and immediately regretted it – Athos' face twitched into a grimace that told him this had been the wrong thing to say, as much as the hands on his arm suddenly stilling completely did.

He turned his head towards Aramis and opened his mouth to speak, to apologise or say something that would make it better, but Aramis shook his head sharply and continued removing the bandage, his gaze on his fingers and his face shadowed by the brim of his hat. “Let me do this much, at least,” he said softly, and this time d'Artagnan understood what wasn't being said, how helpless Aramis had to feel, with nothing more he could do to help his friend until he woke, and not knowing how he would wake, if at all. He covered Aramis' hand on his arm with his right and squeezed, giving him a nod of silent sympathy. A ghost of a smile flitted over Aramis' lips, and he turned back to checking the wound.

Movement had both their heads snapping up – Athos had surged to his feet and was at Porthos' side with a few strides. d'Artagnan held his breath as Athos knelt down and bent over the injured man, calling his name softly. There was no audible reply but they could see Porthos moving, a hand raised to reach for his head, intercepted by Athos who gently tugged it back down, murmuring something too soft to reach the other side of the small clearing.

Aramis jumped up, startling the young Musketeer, and went to join them, and d'Artagnan scrambled to follow. He knelt down a bit farther back, leaving the places directly at Porthos' side to his older brothers. He knew full well how disquieting it was to have too many faces looking down on you while you were laying on your back, so he didn't want to crowd Porthos while he was still adjusting.

“What--?” Porthos' voice was rough with pain and confusion, and he tugged again at the hand Athos was holding down.

Aramis smiled down at him and took his other hand, giving it a squeeze. “Welcome back among the living,” he said, and the teasing tone did nothing to cover the relief shining in his face.

Porthos frowned, then winced, his gaze flitting from Athos to Aramis, then meeting d'Artagnan's before it glided away, taking in their environment. “What 'appened?” he asked.

“Hit to the head,” Aramis supplied, leaning forward to peer into Porthos' eyes. “Bad enough to challenge even a skull as thick as yours.”

Porthos' gaze was skittering from one of them to the next still, and his face was screwed up in discomfort and no small amount of confusion. Then it landed on Aramis' pauldron, and he stilled, going rigid. Aramis frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Porthos spoke. “You're-you're soldiers.” He swallowed audibly. “Am I under arrest?”

And d'Artagnan felt his stomach drop into his feet.

Athos and Aramis exchanged alarmed looks. It was the medic who found his voice first, and he said gently: “No, you're not.” He withdrew his hand and motioned for Athos to do the same, straightening up and putting some distance between Porthos and him. It looked so wrong, Aramis willingly withdrawing from Porthos when he was injured, that d'Artagnan had to swallow against a new lump in his throat. Something was terribly wrong indeed …

Porthos relaxed minutely when they withdrew, but distrust was still predominant on his face. “Why're you botherin' with me, then?” he asked.

More looks were exchanged until Athos finally spoke. “Well, you got hurt, and someone had to take care of you,” he said mildly. “Do you remember what happened before you were injured?”

Porthos sat up laboriously – Aramis twitched with the need to assist him but held the careful distance – and scrunched up his face, then shook his head. “No,” he admitted.

“That can happen with head injuries,” Aramis said, his voice and face bright with an insincere nonchalance. “You'll remember in time.” He reached out as if to pat him on the shoulder but quickly held himself in check.

“What do you remember?” d'Artagnan asked, unable to be quiet any longer.

Porthos startled at the sound of his voice and took a moment to search him out, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I don' have to talk to you if I'm not arrested, soldier” he finally said, and it ached that there was no recognition in those dark eyes. d'Artagnan looked to Aramis and Athos, searching for an answer in their faces but seeing only helplessness and confusion reflected back at him.

“Do you know your name?” Athos asked. Again, Porthos' gaze went to the speaker distrustfully. “Yes,” he said after a moment of deliberation, then his frown deepened. “But … you knew it, too. You called me by it, earlier,” he said accusingly. Athos inclined his head in concession. “How do you know me?”

Aramis turned and picked up Porthos' pauldron where they had settled it on his doublet after taking them off to make him comfortable. He placed it in Porthos' lap. “Because of this,” he said simply. “You're a soldier, too, a Musketeer. You're our friend, our brother.”

Porthos stared down at the tooled leather piece with open confusion for a moment before the suspicious mask he had worn since he had woken up slid back into place. “That's a joke,” he finally said. “I'm no soldier.”

“Yes, you are,” Athos confirmed. “You've been a member of the regiment for five years now.”

“No!” Porthos jumped to his feet but stumbled, falling back down onto his backside and instead scrabbling to push himself away backwards with unsteady legs and arms. “Quit lyin' to me! I don't know you! And I'm not a soldier, or whatever a Musketeer is!”

The other three sat frozen, Aramis' arm extended towards him as he fought to suppress the urge to bridge the distance between them. He slowly lowered it in what seemed to be a Herculean effort. “It's not a lie,” he said. “But please... You're hurt. Don't move around so much, you'll make it worse.” How could it get any worse than Porthos not remembering them, not remembering who he was, d'Artagnan thought slightly hysterically.

“We'll leave you be if you rest for a little while,” Athos suggested. “We can talk again later when you're feeling better.”

Porthos looked around their circle, everything in his posture and expression speaking of his distrust. However, his abrupt movements had made the blood drain from his face; he was almost frighteningly pale and swaying slightly where he sat. After a seemingly endless stretch of time, he finally nodded begrudgingly. “Don't come near me,” he said.

“We won't until you say it's alright,” Athos promised solemnly. He looked around to the other two and nodded at them, then jerked his head towards the other side of the clearing. d'Artagnan frowned but got to his feet obediently to follow Athos' direction. When he noticed Aramis did not follow, he stopped and turned around.

The medic had stooped and picked up a blanket from Porthos' abandoned bedroll. The injured man had retreated a few steps away to a nearby tree where he sat with his back to it, his legs drawn in and arms wrapped around them in a tight ball. Carefully, Aramis approached him as he would a dangerous animal – not his best friend, his brother – and held out the blanket to him. “Please, at least take that,” he said, worry evident in his tone, at least for his other two brothers. “It'll be more comfortable than the blank floor.”

Porthos continued to glare at him but finally nodded, and Aramis let the blanket drop near him, then turned and hurried to join the other two.

A few steps away, they huddled together. Athos turned towards their medic and asked: “Do you---” He hesitated, then began again: “Have you seen or heard of something like this before? He knows his name but beyond that--” Again, he broke off, shooting a glance towards Porthos who had at least picked up the blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders. “What can we do?”

Aramis shook his head and buried his hands in his curls, tugging at the roots, and d'Artagnan reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to lend some support. It was perhaps unfair to put all of this onto the medic's shoulders but then, he definitely had no clue how something like that could happen and how to fix it, and neither had Athos, it seemed.

“I've heard of it, yes,” Aramis finally said. He stared ahead blankly. “I've read some treatises on similar cases, where people woke up from a head injury and had lost part of their lives. Sometimes just a few hours before the injury, sometimes weeks, months.” His voice fell to a whisper as he finished: “Years.”

“If he doesn't remember being a Musketeer, doesn't remember us, even you two,” d'Artagnan said, fighting to keep his voice even. They were all reeling with this discovery. “--it really must be years. Is there anything that can be done?”

Aramis grimaced. “I-- one report on such a case said--” He shook his head and forced out: “It said that the man was hit over the head again, in the same spot. That cured it.”

Athos and d'Artagnan exchanged looks of equal dread. The image of Porthos still and pale on the ground, his face painted red by his life's blood pouring over it, was fresh in their mind, and who wanted to purposefully hurt someone they loved in that manner, even if it were to help? It was Athos who said: “And the other cases? You said you heard and read about several of them.”

The medic shrugged, shook his head, tugged at his hair again. “Some regained their memory later. By themselves, supposedly. But some … never did.” He glanced back at their injured brother, desolation in every line of his face. “If he never does--”

Athos grabbed his shoulder opposite of d'Artagnan who had not moved, had, for all intents and purposes, forgotten how to move. “Don't say that,” he said fiercely. “We don't deal in what-ifs.”

Aramis met and held his gaze for a few moments, then nodded and straightened up slightly. “You're right. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said. Thinking hard, he then added: “Well, not knowing what, exactly, we're dealing with, my advice as a medic would be to treat it like any head injury. Let him rest as much as possible, and I'd give him some of my herbs, protect him from bright lights, make sure he eats and drinks.” A flicker of doubt crossed his face. “If he lets us take care of him, that is.”

He did not.

Not really, at least – but Porthos, whether he was “their” Porthos, or this stranger Porthos who, judging from his behaviour and from what little he had said, most remembered his life in the Court of Miracles, was chief of all a survivor. No matter how little he believed them otherwise, he could not deny that he was injured and needed rest to heal. And so he conceded to his needs enough to take his bedroll when they offered it to him, accepted a water skin from them and took some soup and bread after he had seen them eat. He had found a spot as close to the fire and as far from them as possible, his back to some trees, and sat there on the bedroll, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, a blank knife close at hand, and watched them as they went through the motions of their evening routine.

“He needs to sleep,” Aramis fretted, practically vibrating with the need to take care of Porthos, beyond the little he had accepted. “If he forces himself to stay awake on top of that head injury ...” The offer of the medic's herb tonic had been summarily refused.

“Aramis,” Athos said with a sigh, giving his shoulder a squeeze, “I know how hard this is, especially for you. But we cannot do anything right now. Let's give him time.”

Aramis let his shoulders slump. “I know,” he said. “But I hate this. So much.”

“I know,” Athos repeated. He put an arm around Aramis' shoulders and steered him towards his own bedroll. “Sleep. I'll wake you for second watch.”

Aramis looked as if he wanted to protest; though to what end, d'Artagnan didn't know, and he doubted Aramis knew, either. In the end, he opened his mouth, closed it again and nodded, taking off hat and doublet, wrapping a blanket around himself and bedding down. “Wake me immediately if anything happens,” he told Athos sternly before laying down his head and closing his eyes.

“You too. Third watch,” the eldest Musketeer told the youngest, and d'Artagnan nodded reluctantly. He knew Athos was right – there was nothing they could do. Still, it felt terrible to just go to sleep while across the fire, their friend was confused and alone.

He was torn from his sleep what felt like only a few minutes later. It took a few moments until he recognised Athos' grim face in the fire's low light, and he lowered the arm he had raised instinctively in self-defence. “Athos? What is it?” he asked anxiously – both Athos' expression and the fact that he had woken him when it should have been Aramis made him think it wasn't time for his watch after all.

“Porthos is gone,” Athos said, his voice a neutral tone that sent the warning bells in d'Artagnan's head into a frenzy.

“What? What do you mean, gone?” The Gascon scrambled to his feet, snatched up his doublet and weapon belt from the ground and quickly donned both of them.

“I mean that I just took my eyes off him for a second, and when I looked back, he wasn't there any more.” Athos looked up at him, and though his face was as controlled as ever, the icy blue eyes were full of anguish. “It was just a moment ...”

“You know how he is,” Aramis murmured as he stepped up to join them. “He's good at that. And maybe even more so right now, when his memories of the Court are the most recent he has.” d'Artagnan breathed a sigh of relief that the marksman was showing no sign of blaming Athos. He was so protective of Porthos – d'Artagnan vividly recalled an arm across his chest and wooden boards digging into his back when he had dared to question Porthos' role in the death he'd been accused of – that he wouldn't have been surprised if he'd done so. But Athos was quick enough to blame himself, most of the time, and was doing so already, obviously.

“He didn't take a horse,” Aramis continued. “Nor did he take anything else, other than the knife.”

Athos nodded and straightened, drawing his shoulders back. “Then let's go after him. He may not remember it but you don't run away from your brothers,” he said with grim determination.

d'Artagnan exchanged a look with Aramis that spoke of both their worry and hurt – that Porthos had done so was almost unbelievable. But there was nothing to be done but try and bring him back. Even if he did not remember it, maybe even if he never did, they would take care of their brother. They quickly fashioned torches from some branches, then kicked some earth over the fire to smother the flames but left the rest of the camp undisturbed. Spreading out in different directions, they set about looking for tracks.

d'Artagnan was almost despairing of finding anything when Athos called them over. “Here,” he said, pointing out several broken and bent branches. Aramis breathed an audible sigh of relief and nodded. “Let's go.”

It was slow going, following tracks in a dark, unfamiliar wood, but though they lost them a few times, they always managed to find them again. While Porthos was extraordinarily good at moving quietly for a man of his size, he was less so at leaving no trace. Still, the longer they were following him, the heavier the stone in d'Artagnan' stomach got. He had really wanted to get away from them … It was little comfort that he had done so because they were essentially strangers to him.

Aramis suddenly threw out his arm, halting d'Artagnan's step. “Slope,” he hissed, and d'Artagnan gave him a thankful smile. It quickly drained away when Athos knelt down and studied some skid marks before looking up and giving them a grave nod. Porthos had gone down there, in the dark, while unsteady from a head wound.

“Careful,” Athos told them, and they both gave their assent, though d'Artagnan could see that Aramis was struggling as much as he was. Athos took the lead, and slowly, carefully, they made their way down the slope in the flickering light of their torches which were half hindrance, half help, leaving them with only one free hand to support themselves on the ground or on some trees and casting dancing shadows over the uneven ground, but still lighting enough of the way so they made it to the bottom of the decline in one piece.

However, d'Artagnan had barely reached the ground when he heard Aramis gasp aloud: “Porthos!” The medic pushed past the young Gascon and towards a dark bundle laying a little bit to the side. Exchanging a look, Athos and d'Artagnan followed and watched with bated breath as Aramis bent over their friend and carefully turned him over. Porthos' face was slack, his eyes closed, and Aramis quickly pulled off his glove with his teeth and pressed two fingers against his neck. He sighed out a long breath and said shakily: “Alive.”

The other two Musketeers exhaled in shared relief. As always, with this fact established, they fell into the familiar practice of caring for an injured brother: Athos took the torch from Aramis and found a place to anchor all three torches in the soft forest earth so that the medic would have light to work, and d'Artagnan got down to his knees next to Aramis and watched with dark, alert eyes how he checked every bone and body part for injury, ready to help in any way Aramis might need. Silence reigned over the small group, only interrupted by a low mutter on Aramis' part now and then. Finally, he sat back and took a deep breath. “He's been lucky,” he told his two friends. “No broken bones, though I'm sure that right ankle is badly twisted. The rest is just scrapes and bruises.” Still, he frowned down at the unconscious man, his expression deeply troubled. “But I'm certain he hit his head again, and ...” He trailed off, biting his lip.

Athos placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I understand,” he said. “But remember, no what-ifs.” With a sigh, he lowered himself to the ground and ran his hands over his face tiredly. Looking up the slope they had climbed down, he shook his head. “There is no way we can get him up the incline while he is unconscious, in the dark,” he remarked. “We'll stay here until he wakes or there is enough light to see what we are doing.”

Aramis nodded, and d'Artagnan hurried to follow suit. He was sure it looked about as defeated as he felt – they had been in much tighter spots in the time he had been with the Musketeers but he did not remember feeling so crushed and uncertain of what was about to happen since his father had died. What-if scenarios were clambering for his attention despite all of his efforts not to indulge in them.

He didn't know how much time had passed when a soft, low moan made three heads snap upwards. Aramis leaned forwards, dark eyes intently on Porthos' face as if he were able to will him awake, hale and hearty. When the sound repeated, he raised a hand and carefully placed it on Porthos' shoulder. “Porthos,” he called softly. “Can you hear me?”

For a moment it seemed as if Porthos had fallen back into unconsciousness, but then his eyelids twitched and finally rose, slowly and reluctantly, as he squinted in the torchlight. Aramis twisted to block the light, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Come on,” he urged him on quietly.

A small frown flitted over Porthos' face, and his eyes travelled over the faces surrounding him until they found Aramis' gaze and held it. “Ar'mis?” he mumbled blearily.

d'Artagnan held his breath. Across from him, Aramis' face lit up. “Porthos,” he replied. “You-- you know who I am?”

Porthos' frown deepened. “What?” He looked from him to d'Artagnan and Athos and back at Aramis. “Course,” he mumbled. “What're you talkin' about?”

Aramis closed his eyes and raised his face heavenwards, lips moving in a silent prayer of thanks. Meanwhile, Athos leant forwards and took one of Porthos' hands in his. “You didn't, earlier,” he explained gravely. “You had lost your memory of the last few years, of your time with the Musketeers.”

Porthos' eyes blew wide open at that, and he attempted to sit up. d'Artagnan yelped and quickly pressed him down again. “Don't!” he scolded him. “You've given us enough of a fright tonight to last a lifetime!”

The injured Musketeer frowned up at him, then turned again towards his other two brothers who were hovering worriedly. “I did?” he asked. “Sorry. Didn't want to.”

Aramis smiled, and it seemed to wipe away the lines the events of the day had drawn on his face. “It's alright,” he said, leaning forward and pressing a gentle kiss on Porthos' forehead. “As long as you remember who we are, and who you are, everything will be fine.”

Porthos nodded, his eyelids already fluttering with the effort it took him to keep them open. “Can't believe I've forgotten you,” he mumbled. “Can't forget part of my heart now, can I?”

d'Artagnan swallowed and saw that Aramis' and Athos' eyes were suspiciously bright, too, watching Porthos' eyes drift close and his face go slack as sleep, not unconsciousness, carried him away this time. The young Gascon took a deep breath and wiped his face, feeling wetness clinging to his fingertips. A hand found his shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and when he looked up, Athos gave him a solemn nod. He stretched out his other hand to Aramis, and the marksman accepted the invitation readily, slinging his arms around their shoulders and completing the circle over their sleeping brother, a part of their hearts returned to all of them.

#whumptober2020 #no.26 #memory loss #altprompt #the musketeers #fic #flower writes #athos #porthos #aramis #d'artagnan

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watchmegetobsessed · 5 years

Text

“We can’t be friends anymore.” (Shawn Mendes)

i had this thought about this story this morning and just had to write it. please keep it in mind that this is just fiction! don’t come at me after reading this lol

5.2k angst and fluff at the end

drabble list masterlist

You feel betrayed. Like you’ve been just stabbed in your chest, multiple times by the person who is the closest to it. Sorrow takes over your body in waves as you stare at the screen of your phone that’s flooded with pictures of the guy you’ve been in love with since forever and the girl he always said was just a friend for him, holding hands, smiling at each other in a way that makes your stomach churn.

Texts keep popping up from your friends, checking in on you. The picture just got out and they are all concerned about how you are taking the news that Shawn and Camila are kind of official. It’s not even the fact that they are together. Well, it is, it’s making you want to scream till you lose consciousness, but there is something that’s just making it worse. He didn’t even tell you.

You had to find out about it from some damned paparazzi pictures on your Instagram feed. The guy who has been your best friend for almost a decade didn’t take the effort to let you know that he is dating someone. That’s what hurts the most.

A hot teardrop rolls down on your cheek as you finally make yourself exit the app and locking the phone you throw it to the couch as you take some deep breaths, trying your best not to totally break down. You tell yourself it’s not even that serious, it doesn’t hurt that bad, but it does. It’s making your chest feel like it’s about to burst, your limbs numb, vision blurry from the relentless tears in your eyes.

Your phone buzzes again, it’s another text from someone with the same “u okay?” message, but you don’t want to talk to anyone right now. You just want to mope all day with ice-cream and chocolate under your hands, stuffing yourself. Unfortunately, you have the whole day ahead of you and you can’t afford to disappear and not do anything.

It’s sometime after three in the afternoon when Shawn calls you. You’re in the middle of Walmart, your last stop before you head home and finally rest. Standing at the dairy aisle you hesitate as you stare down at the photo of you and him on the screen. It was taken on your eighteenth birthday, he surprised on your party, telling you that he wouldn’t be able to make it but then out of nowhere he just walked into the backyard with the widest grin on his face. Your mom took the picture, he hugged you from behind, pressing his face to yours as you laughed happily. A nice memory that feels tainted right now. The two of you talked about a lot that evening when the guests were long gone. Sitting by the pool, legs in the water.

“What if I never find the one?” you remember him asking. He was moping about some girl turning him down in a restaurant.

“Don’t say that,” you nudged him with your shoulder. “We have time.”

The way he smiled at you that moment made your heart skip a beat. You wanted him to tell you that he wants to be with you, that you are the one for him. Your mouth felt dry as you thought about telling him how you feel, something you’ve been thinking about for so long. But you couldn’t make yourself do it, again. Instead, this is what came out of your mouth:

“We’ll have each other even if we are still single at thirty.”

There was something in his smile, something you couldn’t really put your finger on, but it made your whole body shiver. He wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to him as the two of you stared at the rings on the water your legs created on the surface.

“I know. I’ll always have you and I’m so lucky for that.”

That night made you feel like there was hope, that he might feel the same way, but it has been two years since then and today made you give hope up totally.

You stare down at the phone and answer the call last minute probably, before he could have hung up.

“Hey,” you softly say, your whole body tensed up, afraid of even hearing his voice.

“Hey!” he greets you delighted. “So what are you doing tonight? I’m having a few people over and you could come over as well.”

Your hand turns into fist next to your side as you grip hard on the phone. It’s making you feel sick how carefree he sounds, like nothing really happened. For him, nothing did, but for you… the world has changed.

“Um, I don’t know,” you mumble under your breath. To be honest it’s the last thing you want to do, face him when you just want to cry yourself to sleep.

“Oh come on! I haven’t seen you in weeks, I want to hug my best friend!”

His words feel like a punch in your stomach. Tears are dwelling in your eyes, threatening to make you break down in the middle of the store. Covering the mic of the phone you sniff a few before replying to him.

“Sure. I’ll go over,” you say knowing well he wouldn’t leave you alone until you say yes. You’ll just go there, hang out for an hour and then leave saying your headache is killing you, which is kind of true.

“Amazing! Come any time after six.”

Ending the call the tears keep rolling down on your cheeks, making people stare at you, some of them confused, but most of them give you a sympathetic look as you wipe your face and continue shopping with red puffy eyes, sobbing to yourself while grabbing all the stuff you need.

***

Shawn and you kissed once. It happened about one and a half years ago, when he was about to leave for his festival tour. You were over at his place a few days before he was supposed to leave, just spending some quality time together. You ordered Chinese and watched Netflix, at one point he popped a bottle of wine… and then another one. Getting drunk together was never a problem, you just messed around, talking about the weirdest stuff, but that time was different. Maybe it was the weight of his leaving, or something else, you can’t recall. You were sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking the lasts of the wine. You were extremely emotional, talking about your deepest fears as he had an arm around your shoulders, listening to you.

“I’m just… I’m so afraid I’ll end up alone,” you sobbed, wiping your face with the palm of your hand.

“Don’t say that, you won’t end up alone. You’ll always have me, okay?”

“But you’ll end up marrying some amazing girl and then I’ll be forgotten.”

“Hey.” Lifting your chin up with his fingers he made you look into his eyes. “I’ll never forget about you. I can never do that. Understood?”

You just nodded your head, staring up into his beautiful eyes when you realized that he is leaning closer. You didn’t move, completely frozen as his lips slowly touched yours. They tasted salty from your own tears as he gently took your bottom lip between his. It took you some time to make yourself move and finally kiss him back. It soon turned into something more passionate and raw as you pushed yourself up and let him deepen it, his tongue slipping into your mouth. You made out on the kitchen floor like two teenagers, shutting the whole world out.

That night you slept in his arms in his bed as he didn’t let you go home drunk. When you woke up in the morning he was still fast asleep. Your heart was aching as you told yourself that everything that happened last night was out of pity. You didn’t think he would have done it if it wasn’t for you pouring your heart out about fearing loneliness. You left before he woke up and it was never discussed, strengthening you in your belief that he didn’t really mean it.

As you pull up at his rental home and park in the line of cars on the driveway this memory keeps playing in your mind over and over again until you step your foot inside and it gets lost in the voices of the people in there.

You are greeted by a lot of familiar faces as you know most of Shawn’s friends. Brian and Connor hugs you tight upon seeing you and while Brian rushes out to get you an alcohol free drink Connor gives you a look.

“How are you holding up?” he asks. He knows how you feel about Shawn. You didn’t tell him, he figured it out sometime when you were traveling with them on the European leg of the tour. One night he came over to your room and asked you straight forward if you had feelings for Shawn. You were so surprised you couldn’t even get out a proper answer and it gave him just the perfect reply to his question. Luckily he promised to keep your little secret and he has been your support ever since whenever it came to your feelings for Shawn.

“I’m trying,” you sigh with a tired smile. He squeezes your arm gently.

“I’m sorry you had to find out like this, I already told him it was an ass move. I think he will want to talk to you about it. I wanted to tell you myself but I felt like it’s not my territory.”

“It’s alright,” you tell him, but your stomach churns thinking about having to face Shawn and talk about Camila. You don’t feel like you’re ready for that.

It makes you angry that he always told you how he is just friends with her. You asked him several times if he had feelings for her but he always denied and yet he is still together with her now. He wasn’t honest with you and it’s just making everything worse for you.

Brian returns with you drink and the topic is dropped since he doesn’t know about your feelings. You have a nice chat with them, listening to their updates about what has been happening to them when you see Connor’s eyes look over your shoulder and the expression on his face tells you that Shawn is somewhere behind you.

When a large, familiarly warm hand touches your bare shoulder you curse yourself for not changing your tank top to something that covers more of your skin.

“Hey, when did you arrive?” he smiles down at you embracing you in a hug and you force yourself to wrap your arms around his torso.

“Not long ago. I was just catching up with these two,” you say nodding at the guys.

“Mind if I steal her for a little?” Shawn asks his friends.

“You’ll be fine,” Connor mouths to you as him and Brian leave and Shawn leads you to his bedroom so you can talk privately.

Your grip onto your drink hard, thanking Brian that he got you a glass not just a red solo cup that would have been already butchered by your nervous fingers. You don’t sit down, just stop somewhere at his dresser and turning around you wait for him to talk.

“Listen, I know I messed up. I should have told you about me and Camila earlier. But it all happened so fast and I didn’t have time to adjust.”

“You could have called me or something, a little heads-up would have been nice,” you tell him, anger and jealousy building up in you. “I had to find out that my best friend has a girlfriend from Instagram.”

“I know, and I’m sorry!” Taking a few steps towards you he stops just a couple of feet away from you, regret all over his beautiful face. “I was stupid, okay?”

“Yeah, you were,” you mumble crossing your arms on your chest.

“But you’re still my best friend and I’m telling you now. I’ll tell you all about it, filling you in on everything you want.”

You shake your head, tears forming in your eyes once again and you just hate yourself for being so emotional. Why can’t you be just cold and not care about it that much?

“Don’t,” you whisper, still shaking your head. You see his face drop as he realizes you are about to cry. Closing the distance between you and him he puts his hands on your arms and tries to look into your eyes, but you are avoiding his gaze with everything in you.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Did it upset you this much? I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would hurt you so bad,” he rambles, trying to find out what’s happening and you can’t stop your sobs. He tries to pull you to his chest to comfort you, but you push him away, almost spilling your drink on him. You don’t need his arms around you, that would just make it even more painful and you had enough for today.

“Stop it, Shawn,” you plead turning away as you wipe your cheeks.

“Talk to me, Y/N! I’m your best friend, I want to help you.”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“Do what?” he asks confused.

“We can’t be friends anymore.”

The words almost burn your throat, never in a million years have you thought you would be saying this, especially not to Shawn. But your heart has spoken and this is the only way for you to heal. To stop acting like you’re fine, like nothing is wrong.

“What are you talking about?”

“You, I’m talking about you,” you choke out. “I can’t be friends with you because it hurts too much.”

“Is this still about me not telling you in time? Because I swear to God it wasn’t anything against you, it just slipped my mind!”

“It’s not about that. It’s about… Camila,” you say, not sure how to express yourself. Your thoughts are racing and your head is about to explode.

“You don’t like her?” he asks running his fingers through his hair and you shut your eyes closed. Why doesn’t he understand what you are trying to say?

“I don’t like her because… Because I want to be her, Shawn! Because I love you!” you exclaim, tossing your glass to the dresser and making your way past him, but he grabs your wrist and pulls you back.

“Hey, where are you going?”

His fingers wrap around your wrist desperately as his eyes widen on you.

“Home. I don’t want to be here,” you simply say.

“Wait, you can’t just say that and then leave! Let’s talk about it!”

“But I don’t want to talk.” You yank your hand out of his grip and slip out of the room before he could grab you again.

You hear him call your name, running after you but you are keen on leaving, slaloming between the guests until you make it to the door. Luckily someone holds him up, you hear him trying to excuse himself, but you are out of the house just in time, making it to your car before he could catch up with you.

He stands in the door, staring at you as you drive away, holding yourself up until he can’t see you anymore. Once you are out of his sight you let everything out. You don’t stop crying even after you get home. Shawn is blowing your phone off, but there’s no chance you are talking to him so you just simply mute it and put it to your nightstand with the screen down.

It takes some time, but all the crying and anxiousness works magic on your body, tiring you out enough to fall asleep sometime around midnight. When you wake up you feel like you’ve been ran over by a damned tractor, exhaustion is still ruling your body, but checking the time on the clock on your nightstand you see that it’s already one pm, meaning you slept for more than 12 hours straight.

Taking your time in the shower you wash your hair and condition two times before getting out from the steamy cabin. Towel wrapped around your head and a fluffy robe on you, you make your way into the kitchen when the doorbell rings.

You freeze completely. You forgot to check the texts from Shawn last night and now you are pretty sure it’s him. The bell rings again and your heart jumps. Quickly taking the towel off your head you throw it to the couch as you step to the door.

Just as you thought, a concerned and tired looking Shawn stands on your doormat, staring down at you worriedly. The dark circles under his eyes makes you think he didn’t have much sleep last night.

“Do you know how worried I was? You didn’t even let me know that you got home safely!” he scolds you, pushing his way into the house without you even inviting him in. “I was worried sick something happened to you!”

“Why would have anything happened?” you ask sighing.

“Because you left so upset, you shouldn’t have driven like that!” he growls and you almost start feeling guilty for causing him a sleepless night.

“Stop pretending like you’re my dad,” you mumble making your way into the kitchen and he follows you behind.

“I’m serious, Y/N! You can’t drop a bomb like that and then leave and not answer any of my calls!”

He is seriously mad at you, anger boiling under his skin as he towers above you. But you don’t feel like he can hold you accountable for anything at this point. You made it clear you want nothing to do with him for your own sake.

You put on some water to boil while you make yourself busy with looking through your tea filters in your little box. Shawn steps next to you, his large hand placed on the counter top.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” he asks, the anger is gone from his voice. It’s soft and comforting this time.

“And what would have I said, Shawn?” you snap at him dropping the filters from your hands and finally daring to look at him. “We were best friends, it’s not something you can just casually discuss.”

“Why are you saying that in past tense?” he asks, pain tainting his hazel eyes.

“I told you. We can’t be friends anymore, it’s too painful for me and I’m done pretending like I can deal with being around him and act like nothing is wrong.”

“If you… If you told me, we could have figured something out!”

“Figure what out, Shawn?” you ask with a sad smile. “There is nothing to figure out. You are with Camila and I’ll be fine too. Not now, but one day. I just need you to respect that I need time and distance.”

His staring down at you intensely, lips pressed together into a thin line. You wish you could read his mind, get into his head and see what’s going on in there. His lips part and you hold your breath, waiting for his reply.

“Is that really what you want? Time and distance?”

“Y-Yes,” you nod, eyes turning away from him as you can’t stand his gaze on you. You’re not sure this is what you want, fuck, you know you will suffer if you can’t talk to him and can’t see him anymore, but this is the only way you feel like you can ever get yourself over him.

He nods, clearly pissed by your decision, but he has to respect you. If you mean anything to him he’ll accept your will.

“Fine,” he simply says before just walking out of the house, slamming the door behind him, leaving you in the painful silence with your thoughts. You hold onto the edge of the countertop as you slowly process that you just lost your best friend.

***

It has been the worst month of your life. Since Shawn walked out of your house he went radio silence. No texts, no calls, nothing. When you read back his desperate texts from the night before you broke down in tears again, the thought of losing him eating you up alive. But you had to move on.

There has been several times you almost called or texted him without even thinking about it, him still being the first person you want to share anything major with. But realization hit you hard every time.

You went offline for your own sake, not able to bear seeing him happy with another girl, or just seeing him at all. You have no idea what’s been happening to him and it’s been killing you, but time started to heal you slowly.

Connor hit you up a few days ago, he has been back from school and you agreed to have lunch together. He is basically the only one you kept in touch with from Shawn’s circle. Not long after Shawn’s last visit he dropped by as well, checking in on you. He stayed and listened to you for hours, crying about everything, offering support that you really needed in that moment.

“Hey, you look great!” he compliments you as you arrive to the restaurant, hugging you tightly.

“Thanks, you too!” you smile back at him taking a seat.

“So, how have you been?”

You shrug, fidgeting around with the empty wine glass on the table.

“Fine, I guess.”

“But you miss him, right?” he says your thoughts out loud. You don’t answer, just nod your head. “You haven’t talked to him since then?”

“No. Not at all,” you sigh leaning back in your seat.

“And you don’t even know what’s been going on with him?”

“Connor, can we stop talking about him?” you plead, keen on changing the topic. The thought of Shawn still makes you feel uncomfortable.

“He and Camila broke up,” he then says, making your eyes go wide.

“What?”

“Yeah, about two weeks ago. Everyone has been going nuts about it, saying that their relationship was shorter than Kim Kardashian’s shortest marriage.”

“That’s rude,” you mumble.

“Yeah, but kind of true. They didn’t even last for two months.”

You’re aching to find more out, but you’re not sure if you should ask him. Luckily, he can feel your hunger for more information so he decides to file you in.

“I don’t know exactly what went down, but I think Shawn was the one who ended it. He is not talking to us about it and I think they are done for good. Camila refuses to even talk about him, so we are kind of in the dark.”

“And how is he doing?” you ask concerned about his mental state. Even though you are in a weird place with him you still care about him a lot and love him.

“Not too good. He is mostly at home, doesn’t hang with anyone, just keeps going to the studio, recording a bunch of songs he doesn’t show to anyone.”

You are totally confused about what to think of it. His breakup with Camila took you by surprise, it’s not something you were expecting at all, seeing how happy they looked. And knowing that he is isolating himself from his friends is breaking your heart.

Shawn doesn’t get mentioned for the rest of the lunch, but your mind keeps drifting away to him from time to time. When you get back home later that day you are burning to check in on Shawn and just see how he is doing. You decide you’ve had enough time to be able to handle seeing him again so you get into your car and head over to his place.

Your nerves are burning up as you get closer and closer to him. When you park down on his driveway you need a minute in the car to collect yourself before seeing him for the first time.

“You can do this,” you peptalk yourself before heading for the front door.

The door opens before you even reach it and a messy haired Shawn appears, in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else as he stares at you like you’re a ghost.

“Hey,” you greet him shyly, his bare chest making it hard for you to focus.

“What are you doing here?” he asks.

“What a nice way to greet an old friend,” you chuckle a little hurt by his tone. Realizing his not so warm welcoming he invites you inside.

“You want something to drink? Tea or coffee?”

“No thank you,” you smile politely as you sit on a stool at the kitchen island and he leans against the countertop across the room, still shooting you confused looks.

“I um… I talked to Connor today. He told me about… About you and Camila.”

“So you came here to talk about my breakup?” he asks a bit sassily.

“No! I wanted to check in on you. He said you’ve been isolating yourself.”

“So good to know my friends are going around, talking about my personal life,” he scoffs.

“It’s not like he told to some stranger, it’s just me,” you say defending Connor.

“It’s you, and you don’t want to be my friend anymore, if I remember correct.”

He is angry and you can’t decide is he is angry at you or just at the situation in general.

“Don’t be like this. You know why I said that. I needed time to—“

“Yeah!” he snaps. “You needed time and space to move on, but you never even listened to me! You just shut me out without hearing me out!”

His outburst surprises you, not knowing what to think about his anger. Hopping off of the stool you walk around the kitchen island and stop a few feet away from him, his hands gripping onto the edge of the counter furiously.

“Because I was hurt, Shawn. You have no idea what it felt like to me,” you explain. “I couldn’t just go and pretend like I was okay.”

“But this whole thing could have been avoided if you just talked to me earlier or let me talk that night, but you ran off!”

“What would have been different?” you chuckle in disbelief that he is so delusional and you continue with a raised tone as you are growing impatient with his reasoning. “I don’t think you would have ran to Camila and broke up with her because you realized you were in love with me!”

“I didn’t have to realize because I already knew it, damn it!” he snaps, voice ringing through the whole house as your stomach drops. “I’ve been in love with you for years, Y/N! And then you break down when I get together with Camila, telling me that you love me and I was so shocked because I’ve been wanting to hear you say that for so long, but that was not how I imagined it.”

You stare at him with lips parted, eyes widened and you think you’ve stopped breathing for a couple of seconds too. He takes a few deep breaths as he tries to contain his anger and then he continues in a calmer, more low-key tone.

“You didn’t even give me a chance to tell you how I feel, just wanted to get rid of me. You have no idea what I went through since then. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat for days. Camila got so mad because I told her that I can’t do it anymore. She said I was just playing with her and I swear that’s not what it was, but once I found out you have or had feelings for me I was screwed, no one else existed but you for me. She hates me now, but I couldn’t even care about it because you weren’t talking to me. I wanted to call you so many times, go to your place and tell you everything but I didn’t want to upset you. You said you needed time so I wanted to respect you. I was planning on talking to you once it was over with Camila but then I thought that what if you’ve already moved on? I didn’t want to hurt you.”

You’ve never seen him so broken, so lost and it’s all because of you. Those damn tears are back and you don’t even bother to wipe them off as you wrap your arms around his torso hugging him tight. His skin feels hot on your face, but in weeks this is the first time you feel like everything is going to be alright.

Shawn wraps his arms around you hesitantly, cheek pressed to the crown of your head. You can feel him shaking and you just want to turn back time, make yourself shut up and let him speak, sparing the hurtful time for both of you.

“I missed you so much,” he whimpers into your hair pressing a kiss to the top of your head. Leaning back you finally look into his eyes.

“But… How? When?” you ask, your mind still racing from his confession.

“Literally for years, Y/N. How can I not be in love with you? You are beautiful, funny, nice and caring, everything I’ve ever imagined about. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I always chickened out. Then… I finally built up the courage to kiss you that night. I felt like it was a turning point, like everything is about to change but I woke up and you were gone. I took it as a hint that you regretted it and wanted nothing to do with me romantically. So I never brought it up and tried to move on.”

“You dumb shit, I thought you kissed me out of pity!” you say slamming your hands on his chest, your palms staying there as you let out a shaky chuckle.

“Pity? I was literally a puddle that night, so whipped for you and so happy when you kissed me back! There was no pity in that!”

You shake your head in disbelief. So much could have been different if only you and him talked.

“So… What now?” you ask, your fingers gently stroking the base of his neck.

He tugs your hair behind your ear, leaning down and resting his forehead against yours.

“Have you moved on? Or do you still love me?” he breathes out.

“Of course I love you. It’s not something that changes over night.”

“Over night? It has been a month,” he chuckles.

“One month is nothing compared to the years I went through loving you,” you whisper as you cup his cheeks in your palms.

“Then let’s start with this,” he replies and his lips are pressed against yours.

He kisses you hard and passionate, putting every emotion into it and you return it just as enthusiastically, arms wrapped around his neck as his lips work perfectly against yours and then his lips part from your, but only to kiss you again and again and… again.

#shawn #mendes #shawn mendes #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes imagines #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes fanfics #shawn mendes fanfictions #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes oneshot #mendes army

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smileybokuto · 4 years

Text

| Spooky Story |

a/n: This is a story I wrote in creative writing when I was a senior in high school! I thought you guys would enjoy it. I just want to preface this I was also taking Criminal Psychology at college while taking this class. It only has original characters in it.

Warning: Graphic, tw:blood, tw:torture, tw: killing, tw: stalking, dystopian society

wc: 2.9K

Ethereal

11.01-31.20XX

01.

The world in utter turmoil, violently crying against the classroom window. This room however, remained still not worried about the rain banging against the window. The bot at the front of the classroom unaware that all of the other students, who were engrossed by its lesson about old earth’s flora. Everything is as it normally is here in the Ethereal.

Then it happened.

The bot stops writing and the room goes quiet. Then the lights go out and the room is engulfed by darkness. Everyone sits still, so still you could hear a pin drop, no one dared make a sound. Until we heard a blood curdling scream. People started to panic, saying ‘we were going to die’.

Chaos set in quickly.

November 01, 20XX:

The world went dark.

This was the end but also the beginning.

-Fox

19.

Our society is stuck in hopeless depravity ever since the power went out.

“Fox,” Fleance yells, “Come on the others are waiting on us.” Fleance is my best friend, he found me when the world went dark. He dragged me out of the high school. When we got outside we saw a group of kids for our school terrified for their lives. I remember telling them it’s going to be okay and to follow us. They are Jett and Jace the twins, Wyatt and Keegan the lovers, Warren the go with the flow kind of guy, Abel and Hunter the inseparable best friends, and the girls Fora, Peyton and Thea. We all have our positions that helps us survive.

“Fox!” Fleance snaps in my face.

“Yes, what’s up?” I ask.

“Come on the others are waiting for us,” He rolls his eyes.

“Oh sorry,” I laugh.

“Such an airhead,”He shakes his head. We walk back into the camp to see that the fire pit is burning and Jace the hunter was back with an Gerenuk corpse.

“Dinner’s here,” Abel screams, “It’s about damn time too.”

“Sorry man, I got my foot stuck on a tree branch and fell,” Jace laughs. This is how it is everyday here for our small family.

26.

“Wyatt and Keegan it’s game time, stop making out,” I whine.

“Sorry Alpha,” Keegan teases, “We’re making you uncomfortable aren’t we.”

“I told you not to call me that. I’m the leader not an Alpha.” I chuckle. “Anyways we need Wyatt our raid organizer to organize a raid; and stop doing your mental tricks on me.”

“Fine. Also it’s not a mental trick. I am simply a Mentalist. By the way the Scientist, Herbalist, the brains and the genius want to see you.” Keegan says.

“Can’t you just call people by there names,” I groan and walk off. I walk over to the ‘Scientist’ more commonly known as Peyton who specializes in Science back in school.

“Oh, Fox just who I was looking for, I made a new drug. I call it, ‘drink this or you’ll die.’ Not very original but it works, it makes you puke up any poison from poisonous berries.” Peyton squeals.

“Sounds good Peyton glad to hear,”I say patting her on the back. “Oh if you need anything tell Wyatt and Fleance so they can do the raids.” She nods and I walk over to Fora our Herbalist, she’s basically our doctor.

“Hey, Fora, I heard you were looking for me.”

“Yes, the boy who wandered in…he died. However before he passed he kept saying watch out for Cain. He said it over and over until he died.” She says with a look of concern.

“This is the third one this month right?” she nods yes. “Okay then we’re going to keep this between us and don’t worry this Cain person hasn’t made any attempt to hurt us.” She nods, “Ok, I have to go see Jace and Hunter. One more death and we’ll move again.”

“Ok, I trust you. The boys are at the lake trying to test as the boys say ‘alkalinity’ of the drinking water. Which is just a fancy way of checking to see if the water has any neutralizing components to acid.” She rolls her eyes with a bright smile. I chuckled and walked down to the lake to see the boys in the lake.

“Fox!” Hunter says walking out of the Lake to greet me.

“Why hello there ‘Genius’,” I smile and he gave me a puzzled look, “don’t worry about it. So what did you guys need to talk to me about?”

“Oh, so the water is neutralizing itself…hey you okay, you look a little down,” He says looking directly into my eyes.

“I’m fine, I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah you are our leader seems like a hard job. If you ever need anyone to talk to I’m all ears.”

I smile, “Hey, I’m the therapist that’s my job.” He laughs when I finish, “Anyways I have to go find Fleance.”

-Fox

01.01-31.20XX

08.

“I’m Cain, and I love the way your heart beats can I see it?” A sinister laugh resonated around the tent. I sit up screaming and Hunter runs in.

“Hey,hey, hey. It’s okay. What’s wrong?”He says in a soothing voice while hugging and rubbing my back.

“I…I…I just had a bad dream I’m fine,” I stutter.

“You’re not fine, you are far from fine.” He looks into my mind. “What’s the problem? I’m a genius so I can solve it.” I laugh and it calms my nerves.

“Thanks,” I hug him a little tighter, “ Sometimes I feel so ordinary and I don’t understand why everyone picked me to be their leader.”

“I’m a man of science but listen to me when I say you’re everything but ordinary, far from typical. The way you dress, the way you think it so unpredictable. I look into your eyes and I believe in miracles.” Hunter finishes.

“I didn’t know you felt that way. Is that why you voted for me?” I ask

“That and you inspire us to keep living. I remember the day you found Abel and I. You told us ‘everything you want is on the other side of fear.’ This made me join your group, but it isn’t what made Abel join, he joined because he told you he didn’t know what to do. You responded with ‘I just wanna go on more adventures.Be around good energy.Connect with people. Learn new things. And grow.’ You know exactly what to say and when to say it to put people at easy.”

“Wow your edenic memory serves you well.” I chuckle. “Hey, if I tell you something will you keep it a secret even from Abel?”

“Yeah,” he stared into my eyes waiting for me to speak.

“I think someone is hunting us. I think it’s someone named Cain. I keep hearing a voice saying they like my heart and they want to see it. It’s a malicious voice. I think that Cain is one of the psychopaths trying to kill people like us. I think he wants to destroy the Ethereals peace. We are the last surviving peaceful group.”

“ Maybe, I’ll create a way to protect this base. That’s why you’ve moved us so much. Makes sense.” He shakes his head. “Don’t worry I’ll figure out a way to make this place safe.” With that he left my tent.

12.

“Fox!” Hunter runs over with the biggest smile. It was like an adult getting socks for christmas. “Guess what,” he whispers.

“What?” I ask curious about why he was so excited.

“I figured it out. We can use the new drug, we’ll have to do a raid for it but, we can do it. We have to get Fillory.” He says

“You mean the drug that glows when touched by skin or anything that human made?” I ask.

“Exactly, we will be able to see whenever someone enters here. We’ll be able to leave.”

“That’s brilliant,” I hug him.

“Are you two a thing now?” Fleance asks pointing between us.

“No,” I say lightly patting his arms.

“Good, cause I’m the only one you can have.” Fleance says faking betrayal.

“ Oh you’ll always be my best friend. No matter what.”

“Of course I will, there was no way I would let you leave me.” He laughs. He’s such a chuckle head.

-Fox

20.

“Fox, we’re ready for the raid. Get everyone ready. I saw two Psychopaths, one being Sam, and the other name I could not read.” Wyatt tells me. Damn two psychos, they have their names branded on there backs to let us know they are coming. This is a tactic they use to instill fear in us but I won’t let that happen.

“Ok we can deal with it, we need to get the chemical and get out without any of them seeing us. Is that understood?” I tell him sternly.

“Yes, I’ll get Fleance, Jace and Hunter,” I nod to him and he walks off. I wonder who the other Psychopath is. What kind of ink do they have? Why do they have tattoos of there names on there backs.

“Hey, ready?” Fleance asks and I nod in response.

“Okay, we are heading in from the west ward. It is the quickest route to the pharmaceuticals. To leave we’ll take the front entrance since it’s the closest to our base. Everyone got it?” We all nod. “Let’s head out Fleance and Jace be on the lookout, Hunter there's a code to the vault we’ll need you to break. Fox, I need you to use your bow to defend the back and i’ll defend the front while to boys defend the sides.”

“Let’s move out,” I say as we all take our positions. We get into the hospital without a single altercation. We quickly made it to the vault with all the drugs and Hunter takes about three minutes to figure out the code. But he cracks it, then I hear a squeak. “Guys,” I whisper to silence them. I put my index finger to my mouth, and they all look confused. Then another I hear another squeak. I felt chills run down my spine. Then I saw the ink, it was a thick and violent print. The tattoo almost took up his entire back and it read ‘CAIN’. I turned around and Hunter grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the back where we came from.

“That’s him,” I say recalling his shoulder length blonde hair and his grey stormy eyes. His smile also held something sinister.

“I’ll find you,” Cain screams after us, but he doesn’t pursue us. He simply stands at the exit and watches us as we run away.

“We’ve got it. We got Fillory.” Hunter skips.

-Fox

04.01-31.20XX

01.

It all started on a cold day, specifically June 11 2018, the day I turned ten. My ‘mother’ told me I was a monster after I cut off an infant's head. This to me was exciting, it gave a sense of thrill. The reason that I cut off the infant's head is due to the fact that it would not stop crying. This lead my mom to think I was a psychopath, telling me I was not her son, that I was adopted and probably from a family of killers. I thought she was joking until she pulled out the adoption papers. I looked at it and it read:

‘Adoption of Cain Lillian by Samantha Lillian and Charles Lillian. The biological son of Lily Ford and James Ford brother to Abel Ford still in custody of biological parents.’ I was outraged and in that time of outraged I searched for them. All of them, I wanted to know why was I not good enough for them. When I finally found them they were at a park sitting having a nice picnic. However sadly I was detained before I could gut them…I mean talk to them. They strapped me down to a table and stabbed me with a small needle over and over again until they were done carving my name into my back so that everyone would know I was a psychopath or so they put it. They then put me in a cell with a food bot. No human interaction and I felt my anger bubbling and bubbling until it happened.

On that fateful day when the power went out. I was free the bot was down and the cells let up and I could exact my revenge.

-Cain

12.

November 01 20XX, I killed them. To be more specific I skinned them alive. I started with my father, James Ford. I tied them both to chairs across from each other they sat there struggling but I drugged them before hand. I sat in between them sharpening my knife, smiling and laughing at them.

“Why are you doing this to us?” She cried.

“Mother dearest are you so vain you don’t even remember your son,” I chuckled.

“C-Cain,” she recalled. “How did you find out about us? I thought you were happy with your new family.”

“Well if you’re conscious enough to make coherent sentences, it’s time to start.” I laughed.

“Start whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” She screamed as I cut a chunk of her thigh off.

“I love hearing you scream!” I shouted enthusiastically jumping for joy like a little kid high off candy. “Can I take out your kidney? Or your tongue? I promise I’ll show it to you.”

“My K-”

“Too long, Tongue it is,” I say grabbing her tongue and slicing it out. I wiggled it in front of her face. “I told you i’d show you.”

“You monster, kill me! Leave her alone! Kill me!” My ‘father’ cried.

“Oh are we going to have a hero here. Fine, I guess I have no choice. I’ll take your heart out,” as I finished my thought I lunged at his chest and carved out his heart making sure that I didn’t cut any vital organs so it continued to beat.

“ If you're going to kill me just do it.” He groaned with pain shining in his eyes. I loved it.

“On the contrary I will kill you but I want to skin you first.” I laughed starting to carve away at his skin until all you could see was muscle. “Now you look beautiful don’t you think?” I kicked his foot. “Did you die on me, Awe that sucks oh well. On to the next one.” I turned around and did the same thing to my mother.

-Cain

15.

After a couple days I found there first hideout. My targets and the last of my family. I however was bored so I wanted blood and lucky for me there was kid passing by. I captured him and tortured him but he didn’t satisfy me the way my parents did. So I told him to head into the camp and tell them Cain is coming. I did that three times and I will keep doing it until the day comes.

Then one day they went to get Fillory. I’m sure they didn’t know this but Fillory was a drug created to react to the psychopathic gene in people so that the government could find us easier. Now they have spread it across the whole entire perimeter of their base but it’s okay. They’ll have to come out soon enough.

-Cain

06-11-20XX

11.

“Teams?” Hunter asks tilting his head slightly.

“Abel and I, You and Fleance.” I laughed, “Wyatt and Jett, Jace and Keegan, Fora and Thea, Peyton and Warren.”

“Ok, who’s going first?” Warren sighs not wanting to play hide and seek in the woods.

“Hunter and Fleance,” I declare.

“Ok, we're counting to thirty, go and hide,” He says as he covers his eyes. Abel and I run deeply into the forest. We run until we find a cave and duck into it. We muffle our laughter with our hands, when we finally stopped laughing it was silent, it was so silent it reminded me of that day. The day the world went dark but now I feel safe because I found them. I found all of them.

Then I heard something.

A snap I think, it is probably an animal…but where is the scurrying noise.

“Fox,” Abel whispers, I turn my head to see Cain holding a knife to Abels throat. He sees the panic on my face and smiled, “It’s ok.”

Then I saw Cain smile and I knew, “Say goodbye,” he laughs. As soon as I start to say goodbye, my vision instantly turns red and the smell of sulfur engulfed my senses as Cain drops Abels lifeless body in front of me.

“Why,” I sob, “Why did you kill him, you monster!” I threw a rock at him and he dodged it with ease.

“I’m the monster! Ha, he had everything. He lived in my bed, he was loved by my parents, he was loved by all of you, and I wanted it all for myself.” He sneers, clearly outraged.

“What are you talking about? Abel had no siblings,” I cry, I couldn’t stop.

“None that he knew of. They gave me up and now, I killed the son they wanted.” Cain looks down at his brother and smiles. I sat there sobbing cradling Abel’s head in my lap as Cain says

“Goodbye brother.”

#spooktober #halloween #smileybokuto #tw:blood #tw: torture #tw: death #tw: psychological torture #tw: jealousy #tw: killing #tw: human experimentation #original work #original fiction

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overthemoon4themarauders · 4 years

Text

Coffee Shop Part 3

Here’s a link to Part 1:

https://overthemoon4themarauders.tumblr.com/post/615893666666610688/wolfstar-coffee-shop

The days leading up to the date with Sirius, Remus was a nervous wreck. It was so bad that Lily had to slap him for being so ridiculous. Remus really really didn’t want to mess up his chances with the gorgeous barista. The rest of the week seemingly dragged on forever.

Finally, Saturday came. At around 4 o’clock, a few hours before the date, Remus was an absolute mess.

“Lily,” Remus yelled from across his apartment. “I don’t know what to wear. What if he doesn’t show up? What if I-”

“REMUS!” Lily shouted. She looked amused, exasperated, and frustrated all at once. “Wear something that really shows your personality. And don’t worry; he’s going to show up. Jesus, Remus, what on Earth has gotten into you? I haven’t seen you like this since…” she trailed off, and Remus sobered up immediately.

“I just want to forget that relationship. I want to move on and be with Sirius. And,” Remus paused. “Lily, there’s something different about him.” He finished.

Lily stared. ”You’re really serious about him aren’t you?” Remus simply nodded. “Well then, let’s go style you up for your date!!” She squealed as she dragged Remus back to his room.

----------

Remus and Lily had decided on Remus’s lucky cardigan and khaki dress pants. It was an outfit that practically screamed ‘Remus’. The walk to the cafe should have felt like less than 10 minutes but i felt like forever, and Remus couldn’t get there fast enough. When he finally made his way, James was outside closing up the shop. He looked surprised.

“Hi Remus,” he started with a smile on his face. “Sirius should be here soon. He just texted me.” He paused before saying, “How’s Lily?”

Remus smiled and shook his head. As he opened his mouth to answer there was the sound of an engine roaring that kept getting louder. Remus’s words about Lily were drowned out by someone on a motorcycle pulling up to a cafe a few feet from where James and Remus were standing.

Remus couldn’t stop staring as the person shut off the motorcycle, got off and started to pull off his helmet. And this next part, Remus watched as if it was in slow motion. They reached up and elegantly pulled the helmet off their head. Rich black hair cascaded out of the helmet and onto broad shoulders that were covered in a nicely fitting leather jacket. It was Sirius, Remus noted, in all his gloriousness. Remus swore his heart skipped a beat. Little did he know that Sirius’s heart did the same thing upon seeing Remus.

“Hi,” Sirius said breathily. “So, are you ready?”

“Yeah, where are we going?” Remus was curious now. He came to the startling realization that even though they’d been texting all week, he didn’t know where they were going.

Sirius patted the second seat of the motorcycle as he made to hand Remus the helmet. Then he smirked and said, “Hop on and you’ll find out.”

Remus froze at this. “What?” He exclaimed. That thing was a death trap. There was no way he was getting on this, so he voiced his opinion. “You want me to get on that?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Sirius asked confused.

“It’s practically a death trap.” Remus bluntly stated.

James snorted at this. “I told you he wouldn’t want to.” Then he spoke directly to Remus. “That stupid thing is a death trap. No matter how many times we tell him, he refuses. Honestly Sirius, you had to bring the bike?”

Quickly making up his mind, he interfered before Sirius could reply. “No. It’s okay. I’ll get on it.” All of Remus’s common sense was screaming at this, but the look of Sirius’s face was worth it. He broke into a huge grin and looked like a little kid on Christmas.He really hoped it was worth it.

Remus took the helmet and got on the bike with Sirius. Well, it’s too late to go back now, Remus thought.

Before they left James screamed over the noise of the motorcycle, “Have fun kids, but not too much fun. AND TELL LILY I SAID HI!” Remus chuckled at that last part.

“Ready to go?” Sirius asked from the front.

“Ready,” Remus said breathily as he pulled himself closer to Sirius. Maybe he’d enjoy the ride afterall.

-----------

In Remus’s opinion, the ride wasn’t so bad. It was loud, but the speed and the wind on the way made it exhilarating. He felt so free and light. He now understood why people liked it, but Remus would still never do it on his own. Sirius pulled up to a restaurant. Sirius got off the bike, and as Remus moved to do the same, Sirius told him, “Hold on. Don’t get off the bike yet. I’m just picking something up.”

Remus was confused, but he stayed on the bike anyways. Now he was even more curious. What in the hell were they going to do tonight?? Remus thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Sirius coming back with a bag of food. He didn’t say anything about it as he packed it into the sidebag of his bike and climbed back on. Then they started riding again, and after a few minutes, they were by a grassy area with a lake.

Remus got off the bike and looked around in wonder. It wasn’t too far away from the university, but he’d never been here. He turned back around and saw Sirius with a bandana in his hands. He also looked sheepish.

“Remus,” he started nervously. “I’m going to need you to trust me. Can I blindfold you real quick.”

“You’re not going to kill me while I’m blindfolded are you?” Remus asked half seriously and half jokingly.

“Of course not.” Sirius replied. With that Remus nodded wordlessly and turned around so Sirius could tie the blindfold. Once it was on, Remus was led to some grassy area (he could tell by the texture of the floor). Suddenly, they stopped. “Wait here,” Sirius said, and suddenly there was a loss of Sirius’s touch (which Remus silently missed). He didn’t have to wait long, though. In less than a minute Sirius grabbed Remus’s hands.

“You can take your blindfold off now.” He heard Sirius say. So Remus did. He slid the blindfold off, and as his eyes adjusted, he was amazed by what he saw. They were by the lake, on a blanket surrounded by fake candles. There was a traditional picnic basket, and Remus could see the bag from the restaurant peeking out. And Remus’s heart melted as he saw Sirius nervously holding a rose.

“Surprise,” Sirius said. “Sit down so we can enjoy the food. I got basic pasta and bread. I also have cake for us. And um, I brought Uno in case you wanted to.” He looked so cute when he was nervous, Remus noticed.

“You did this for me?” Remus squeaked.

“Uh,” Sirius was nervous now. “Yeah.”

Then Remus surprised both of them. He tackled Sirius with a mind-blowing kiss. Nobody had ever done anything like this before for Remus. It may have seemed small, but this was huge to Remus, so he wanted to show how grateful he was.He showed him through a kiss. Sirius was obviously surprised at Remus’s excitement, but was excited nevertheless and pulled him closer. There was an obvious spark between the two, and right now, the spark escalated to fireworks.

Once they both ran out of air, they pulled apart. There was a silence, but it was short-lived. Sirius broke the silence by saying, “I take it you like it.” He chuckled as he spoke.

“Yeah just a bit,” Remus said breathily.

“Well, I have food, not that I don’t like this, I actually really enjoyed it, but I know you haven’t eaten yet.” As if on cue, Remus’s stomach growled causing both of them to chuckle.

“Food sounds great. It sounds amazing actually” With that statement they both sat down and began to dig in.

The rest of the date was a blur for Remus. He didn’t remember what they talked about, what they ate, or what else they did (though he did remember how amazing the snogging afterwards was). He only remembered how he felt being around Sirius. Sirius made him feel wanted and important, and that was just scratching the surface. He made Remus feel so much more that couldn’t be put into words.

For once, it seemed to Remus, the universe had truly done something good for Remus. He just hoped that he wouldn’t mess it up.

Part 4??

#wolfstar #Wolfstar fanfiction #wolfstar muggle au #muggle au #remus x sirius #Sirius x Remus

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anika-ann · 4 years

Text

Think Again (When You Stop Freaking Out) - Pt.6

Mirror and Mirage

Pairing: None Word count: 2012

Warnings: language, hella lot confusion, attempt at humour, medical drug use… irony and sass? ;)

Summary: Matt and Steve bond over superpowers and strange yet amazing friends. Tony Stark does what he wants. The usual.

Story Masterlist

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

Matt had a suspicion that Tony Stark liked to show off his wealth. He also thought that Bruce Banner definitely was more of a good host than anyone would expect from a man turning into a huge green monster (not that Matt could tell the colour).

With these two things combined, they ended up in what seemed to be a living room for all the Avengers, cups of coffee in front of themselves, Bruce talking in hushed voice with the other genius.

Foggy – after making sure it was okay for what could be four times – excused himself to the balcony so he could admire the marvellous view from the Tower. Matt was frankly sure he took a selfie. And Thor disappear god knew where, no pun intended.

Which left the captain and Matt alone, each of them sitting on a different couch. The silence wasn’t particularly awkward, but neither it was comfortable.

It made Matt realize that he was probably the only one to perceive silence in this situation. Which was really, really weird.

“How you’re holding up, Captain?” he addressed Steve hesitantly and the man in question raised his head to him immediately.

He was still glasses-free, which meant Matt had his emotions served on a silver plate. It dawned to him that while for him personally the glasses shielded people from the uncomfortable sight of his unseeing eyes, they had much more important function. Matt wasn’t sure if it was a Steve Rogers thing or Matt Murdock’s face thing, but boy, thank god for the red lenses. They were a mask on their own.

“I’m fairly sure we can drop the titles, Mr. Murdock.”

“Matt.”

Steve extended his hand Matt’s general direction. “Steve.”

Matt chuckled as the absurdity and accepted the hand, this time trying to be wary of using too much force. To be honest, he was surprised how well was Steve coping. The supersoldier had been blinded and given terribly strong senses; he was holding up incredibly well.

“You seem to be doing really well, Steve. How are you really?”

Matt was met with a sight of himself shrugging, his face once again revealing more than the simple gesture. It’s not easy, the expression said. I’m fine, the gesture hinted. Strange dichotomy. Was it like this with him all the time?

“Well, I’m trying. It’s… overwhelming.”

Matt laughed humourlessly. “That’s one way to say it.”

“But… the Tower seems to muffle the noise of the city pretty well, rooms seemed rather soundproof. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you to live like this all the time…” he hesitated, as if he was reluctant to say more. “I… I think that… the body remembers a way to cope though. When Foggy came to the apartment… the world fell silent. Not completely, just… it… he grounded me.”

Matt watched him struggling to explain the feelings, the soft note of awe and admiration in his voice, and couldn’t help but relate – to the struggle, not the admiration. That part was just… unexpected. He wasn’t used to people acting like this. Foggy could never understand, no matter how much he tried; and everyone else… it was just waves and waves of pity washing over him whenever he mentioned things weren’t always easy; so as a rule, he tried his best not to.

But Steve seemed simply astonished. Matt wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Well, I guess there’s something true about that. I… people help with that. If I can focus on something or someone, it gets easier. Foggy… he is a good thing to focus on. Just… please don’t mention it in front of him.”

Steve looked like he was considering the pros and cons for a minute – lying and keeping secrets versus the consequences of telling the truth – , and then nodded.

“Well, I’m just grateful. It’s none of my business.”

Lots of things aren’t, Matt heard despite no more words spoken.

He smiled at Steve with relief and gratitude even though he knew the man couldn’t see it. “Thanks, Steve.”

The soft smile was thrown right back at him.

“What about you? How you’re holding up? I’m not exactly… great at interpreting all the info I’m being offered…”

Matt huffed. “To be honest, I think I understand what you mean by the muscle memory thing. I knew Doctor Banner was a friend of some sort when he approached me. It’s all… weird.”

Matt knew he didn’t need to say that he meant mainly the ability to see – Steve read between the lines.

“Imagine that,” Steve hummed vaguely, lowering his sightless gaze.

“I guess I just want this to be over with,” Matt admitted, feeling the tiredness settle in his – Steve’s – bones.

At that, Steve raised his head again, his eyes somewhat searching. Curious, but not noisy. Compassionate, but not pitying. Understanding, Matt realized.

Steve opened his mouth several times without a sound coming out and then spoke in soft reluctant voice.

“I was given this opportunity to… to serve my country despite being sick most of my life and I…, finally be able to fight for what I believed was right was all I could want. I had something I could never hope to have. And after the transformation… I had this recurrent dream, almost every night – still have it sometimes. I dream that wake up and… I’m back to my old self. It only gets worse with time. The longer I live like this… the worse the dream about relapsing is becoming. And it’s not the fact itself that I’m small and helpless… it’s that I am small and helpless again.”

Matt’s lips parted, releasing a shaky exhale under Steve’s genuine eyes – well, his own, whatever. His heart was hammering in his ribcage, the world swaying off its place slightly.

How… how was he able to get to the very core of the problem? How— how could he know exactly the worst part? Because he knows it, a tiny voice whispered in Matt’s head. He knows it.

Matt had no doubt Steve was telling the truth – and he finally understood what Foggy meant when saying that Matt was a terrible liar, seriously, Matt Murdock’s face screamed truth right now and it wasn’t hard to imagine that lie would be just as clear.

Matt fought against the lump in his throat, swallowing loudly.

“Yeah,” he rasped, watching the corner of Steve’s lips rise in a lopsided sad smile. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”

Or once, Matt was sure of his own feelings. He didn’t hate the ability to see. He was in peace with not seeing too, for most part.

But he despised the limited period he was given the great opportunity, only to be robbed of it. Again.

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

“So, I have an idea.”

“That can’t be good,” Matt murmured under his breath, making Steve chuckle silently. In response, Matt’s heart skipped a beat, probably not expecting to be heard.

Tony was oblivious to the note, so Steve assumed Matt truly spoke too low for anyone to hear it. Except for a guy with superhearing, who was now in the position of being surprise surprised by being heard. Steve thought that maybe, one day he would be able to truly laugh at that.

“It’s very scientifically advanced so I’m gonna say it in plain English…” Foggy, Steve and Matt all held their breaths, while Bruce… Steve was pretty sure he rolled his eyes, even though he had no way of knowing that. “You should go to sleep.”

“I beg your pardon?” Matt blurted out.

Yeah, what he said. When had Steve zoned out enough to ignore Bruce and Tony talking anyway?

“Hey, I don’t want to explain it in science talk-“

“There’s zero ‘science talk’. We just think that if the artefact affected you in sleep, it might activate again when your consciousness is in the same state as it was during the first exchange,” Bruce cut him off and Steve could feel the shuffle of air as Tony gave his friend an annoyed look.

“Now you’re just oversimplifying-“

“Tony, that was a thinking of a five year old reading enough fairy tales-“

“I don’t think I can fall asleep now and like this,” Matt sighed, interrupting the bicker.

“I kinda agree,” Steve confirmed hesitantly.

“Yeah, well, in this century, we have those things called sleeping-pills,” Tony informed them sassily and Steve crossed his arms on his chest. Yeah, sure, except he would need a dose for an elephant. Or, well, Matt would need it. Steve’s actual body would. Whatever.

“I don’t like drugs.”

“Yeah, drugs are bad,” Foggy stated and Steve knew he crossed his arms as well. “I mean… he really doesn’t like it.”

“It messes with me for days. Call it oversensitivity…” Matt explained reluctantly, his voice sheepish and clearly uncomfortable.

“Yeah, well…”

Too late, Steve smelled something that set all alarm bells in his head off. It was a strange smell, artificial, making his stomach turn up. Before he could locate the source, he felt a sting on his neck. His hand immediately went to cover the place, strange warmth spreading through his body.

“HEY!” three voices protested loudly and Steve’s world swayed. His fingers touched a small object sticking from his skin, pulling it out with another sting.

With mind cloudy and his limbs swimming, he identified it painfully slowly. A tranquillizer arrow.

Tony had never meant to ask them if they wanted to go to sleep. Of course he hadn’t.

Steve didn’t even manage to curse. The world turned upside down and the last words he heard were ‘sorry pal, you’ll need like ten of these.’

And then the world went silent.

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

“When I wake up – if I’m gonna wake up like myself again –, I‘m gonna ask someone to punch you,” Matt growled, watching his own body crumbled on the couch. That son of a bitch-

Tony Stark didn’t even have the decency to look guilty and shrugged.

“Sure thing, DD. Or MMM? Gotta love these alliterations. Anyway, you might wanna sit down again. It sucks to drag Cap’s body somewhere. Lots of muscles. Which is why we need to give you so much. Fast metabolism and shit.”

“Matt, I volunteer,” Foggy informed him stiffly and it took Matt a moment to realize what ‘call to arms’ Foggy was responding to.

“I think I’ll just find him when my senses are back too normal and hit him myself. It would be more satisfying,” Matt hissed, but sat down on the couch, getting ready to be dosed with what would probably be enough medication to bring down a horse. Or an elephant. Or the whole herd of elephants.

“Kinky.”

“Tony, please…” Doctor Banner cooled down his sassy friend, his hand massaging the bridge of his nose. “Just… do it, since you already set the plan in motion without, you know, asking for permission.”

“Non-consensual drug use. You’re drugging him against his will. Matt, you can have the punch. I’ll just sue his ass off.”

Despite the annoyance and anger, Matt couldn’t help but grin at his best friend’s note.

“You just got yourself a deal, counsellor.”

“Cute. Now sweet dreams, Cinderella.”

“I’m pretty sure that was Sleeping Beauty…” Matt murmured and it was the last coherent sentence he was able to say, because next thing he knew, he felt several stings, warmth enveloped him in a blanket and his eyelids started feeling too heavy. He couldn’t fight the natural response of Steve’s body and his own – it didn’t want to yield.

On the other hand, the amount of drugs that had just been pumped into him was way too much to handle.

Foggy was kind enough to hover over him; so it was him what Matt potentially saw as the last thing and not the smirk on Tony Stark’s face.

And then… darkness greeted him like an old friend, painting everything in black.

Still, he could hear the annoying voice of the billionaire. “Well, at least he admitted he was a princess…”

━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━

Part 7

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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart

@igobypoet

#marvel #fanfiction #mcu #steve rogers #matt murdock #captain america #daredevil #bodyswap #steve rogers fanfiction #matt murdock fanfiction #think again when you stop freaking out #anika ann

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emocean-is-trash · 4 years

Text

when a friend of mine requested the prompt “Under The Cover Of Darkness” i had a really fun idea planned out. i hope you enjoy this royalty au with a twist!!

you can also find this on my ao3 @emocean_is_trash

if you’d like to request a prompt (the list is on ao3 in chapter 1) you can send me a comment there or message me here~ :) i’ll get to your prompts as soon as i can. thanks!!

~~~~~~~

“Psst Blake! Look out your window!”

“Yang?”

Blake’s ears flickered and she opened her eyes from where she was sitting in her bay window, now looking outside into the darkness of night. Yang was crouched in a nearby tree, waving goofily and grinning from ear to ear. Blake unlocked her windows and slid the glass open as quietly as possible.

“How did you get up there?” Blake frantically whispered as Yang almost lost her balance on the branch she was perched on.

“Don’t doubt my climbing abilities!” Yang shouted in a hushed tone as she gave Blake a mock salute and smiled even more. “Were you asleep?”

“Well, you took especially long to get here, so I ended up dozing off while reading.” Blake sighed, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Nerd. You better hurry up or I’m gonna leave without you!” Yang chuckled as she began her descent to the ground.

“Like I would ever let you beat me.”

Blake stepped outside of her home onto the nearby ledge and closed her window. She rapidly climbed down the side of her home, using the support beams as a guide on where to land. After thirty seconds of waiting, Yang landed beside her and held out her hand.

“Ready to go?”

Blake took Yang’s hand and nodded.

“Where are you taking me today?” Blake asked as the two of them began to move at a slow pace across her backyard.

“I was thinking we’d go to our secret lake. Menagerie doesn’t have many places left to explore.” Yang explained, her tail swaying behind her.

“Sounds good.”

Blake squeezed Yang’s hand as they continued to stroll towards their destination.

Ever since Blake had laid her eyes upon Yang for the first time, she knew that the dragon-faunus was the most gorgeous woman she had ever seen. Her wild golden hair was left untamed and flowed freely in the mid-summer air. Her lilac eyes practically sparkled in the blazing sun. Yellow scales of many shades and hardened skin littered her right arm and were exposed freely. But besides her extremely toned body, a large golden-scaled tail swung behind her back. Yet for whatever reason, this beautiful woman wanted nothing more than to be with Blake.

As they continued to travel to the lake, the two of them exchanged more small talk and banter until they could clearly see the water and pier in front of them. Yang sprinted across the decking and cannonballed into the frigid waters before emerging and beaming at Blake.

“Can you blame me for wanting to take a swim? It’s really humid out tonight. Why don’t you join me in the water?”

“If you insist. Just let me take off my yukata. I had a feeling you’d want to swim tonight so I put a bathing suit on underneath.”

“Awesome!”

After Blake removed her clothing, she rushed forward and did a graceful dive into the lake. When she breached the surface a few seconds later, Yang whispered something along the lines of “show-off” before wrapping an arm around Blake’s shivering form.

“Hey, I never said that the water would be warm. But it’s okay! I’ll keep you warm!” Yang held Blake closely and rubbed a hand gently over Blake’s cat ears. Blake sighed at the motion, relaxing against Yang and looking out into the horizon.

“Yang, you do know that the ceremony is in two weeks right?” Blake’s gaze now focused on Yang, who appeared to sag at the admission.

“Yeah, of course I know. We’ll just have to spend as much time together as we can before then, Kitten.” Yang stated with a solemn look on her face. After a few minutes of silence passed between them, Yang spoke up again.

“Blake, can’t you just skip the ceremony?”

“You know that it doesn’t work like that. My parents will find a way for me to be there no matter the cost. They’ll send out an entire rescue team if they have to. Becoming the next chieftain is kind of a big deal.” Blake sighed, though Yang’s offer was quite tempting.

“I just...This isn't what you really want, is it?”

“No, it’s not. But there’s nothing I can do. If only you had been born into wealth...” Blake shut her eyes and grimaced at her confession. She knew that Yang understood where she was coming from, but she still felt bad that she couldn’t do what she truly wanted to.

“Why don’t you just run away with me? I don’t have much, but my family will take care of you. We can take a boat to Vale and find somewhere to stay off the grid.”

“Yang...we can’t. I don’t want to force you to live the rest of your life in hiding just for me. That would be unfair to you.”

“We’ve been meeting in secret like this for two months! And in those two months, I’ve realized that I don’t care if I have to give up everything. I want to be with you. I love you.”

“Yang...I’m sorry. You know that I am.”

“If you really care about me, then stop playing with my heart and stringing me along. Just give me a chance! Tell your parents the truth. If you try and it doesn’t work out, then I’ll be okay with that. But I’m not going to let you get taken away from me without a fight!” Yang shouted as she motioned her fist upwards, pulling Blake closer and staring intensely into her amber eyes.

Blake shivered and felt tears forming in her vision.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t think we should see each other again until after I become the chieftain. I can’t do this.” Blake pushed Yang away and rose out of the water, leaving Yang alone in the lake as she sobbed and ran back to her home.

“Blake…Don’t leave me...”

~~~~~

The next two weeks went by extremely slowly. Blake’s entirety of her time was spent rehearsing for the big day. She tried on several different dresses, she spoke to Sun’s parents about their living arrangements, and now she was in the midst of practicing her speech in front of her mother, Kali.

“...and when my father has stepped down as high leader and handed the torch for me to follow, I will continue to uphold his honor and legacy faithfully. I vow to lead with respect and valiance, to keep our country safe, and to protect us from the onslaught of war. Our enemies will always continue to spite us. But even so, I will stand strong in the face of adversity, for the bettering of all of us. This time of peace and acceptance will continue to flourish under my leading and beyond, forevermore.”

“Blake, that was wonderful! I’m sure the people will love it just as much as I do.” Kali praised, although Blake didn’t care about the ceremony at all at this point.

“Thanks mom.”

“Of course sweetie. Now, are you ready for the rest of your new life? You only turn 18 once, and even though you are spending a majority of the day receiving the crown, it is your coming of age. I’m sure that your vacation with Sun will be lovely. He’s a great guy for you.”

“Yes, I am ready. It’s my duty.” Blake answered shortly, looking out at the sun and sighing.

“Blake, is something wrong dear? You seem upset about something.” Kali questioned concernely, walking over to her daughter and placing a hand on her shoulder.

“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about Sun.” Blake lied, shaking her head and plastering a fake smile on her face. The only person she was thinking about was Yang, and she couldn’t seem to get the blonde out of her head no matter what she did.

“Aww, you really do like him huh? I knew he was going to be a good partner for you.” Kali cooed while squeezing Blake’s shoulder, reaching one hand up to nuzzle Blake’s cat ears.

“I guess so.”

Suddenly, a guard bursted through the door to the study and stepped inside, cutting off Blake’s train of thought.

“Miss Belladonna! We caught some scoundrels trying to sneak into the house from the back way.”

“Oh dear, lead me to them. Blake, would you join us?”

Blake could only nod and follow along as a sudden wave of nausea washed over her. It couldn’t be Yang, right? Yang knew better than to try something so stupid. Blake could hear a commotion going on in the living room, which was probably where the intruders were being held for the moment. Before she came to the conclusion as to if it was Yang or not, Blake had already stepped into the room and saw what was going on.

There Yang was, being held by the back of her shirt with her father Ghira’s right hand. Being contained in his left fist’s grasp was Ruby, Yang’s sister, her wolf ears twitching at Blake’s entrance into the room. Another guard held Taiyang’s arms and dragon tail behind his back, Yang’s father and her only other family besides her sister.

“This girl claims to know you personally.” The guard holding Taiyang stated, tightening his hold on the man’s wrists while gesturing to Yang who had a sheepish grin on her face.

“Let them go. Yang, come to my room. Send Ruby and Taiyang home.” Blake responded sternly.

“You’re just letting them go?” Kali asked while looking over at her daughter in confusion.

“Yes. I’m sure that they have learned their lesson by now. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have business with Miss Xiao Long.”

“Okay dear, if you insist. Guards, leave us. Blake will take care of it.” The guards exited the room and escorted Ruby and Taiyang out of the house. Ghira finally set down Yang, and Blake grabbed her wrist and pulled her up to her bedroom. She locked the door and slammed her hands on the wall surrounding Yang, cornering the blonde against the wall behind her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you know how much trouble you could’ve been in? They could’ve taken you to jail!” Blake yelled as she felt her eyes begin to tear up. “They could have hurt you, Yang.” Blake practically whimpered as she dropped her arms to her sides and started to cry.

“Oh Blake..” Yang whispered as she wrapped her arms around the cat faunus and rubbed small circles into her back with her fingertips. Blake continued to sob into Yang’s shoulder for a few more minutes as she tried to take a few deep breaths.

“I don’t wanna be the chieftain, I don’t want to be with Sun. I just want to be with you.” Blake choked out between sobs as she buried her face in Yang’s shirt.

“I know baby, I know you do.” Yang whispered in Blake’s ear as she continued to draw circles on Blake’s back. After a few more minutes of crying, Blake finally calmed down and looked up at the dragon faunus.

“I think... I’m finally ready to tell my parents about everything. About us.” Blake mumbled as she sniffled and took another deep breath.

“Okay, good. I’ll be here for you every step of the way.” Yang smiled gently and grabbed Blake’s hand, reassuring her.

Blake smiled back at Yang and closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind as much as possible of her current nervous energy. After a few seconds of silence, she reopened her eyes and looked over to Yang earnestly before unlocking and opening her bedroom door. They walked out into the living room, still holding hands.

“Mom, Dad? I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

“Blake? What’s going on? You just stormed off to your room for no...” Kali started to say until she realized that the two girls were holding hands.

“I’ll get Ghira.”

Blake sighed and moved to the couch after Kali left the room, tightening her hold on Yang’s hand and sitting directly next to her.

“You can do this Blake, everything is going to be fine.” Yang reassured Blake again as she smiled at her.

“I hope so.”

“Now… who’s this supposed guest in our house that Kali mentioned? Oh. Hey there sport, what are you still doing here?”

“Dad, this is Yang. She’s...I’m in love with her.”

Ghira sat down on the chair across from the two of them and Kali did the same, a look of concern evident on their faces. A few minutes of awkward tension and silence occurred as Ghira and Kali whispered to each other, Blake not being able to totally pick up on what they were saying. Finally, Ghira turned to face them and cleared his throat.

“So Yang, how long have you been seeing my daughter?”

“It’s been..about two months I’d say.”

Kali sighed at Yang’s response and a saddened look passed over her face.

“Oh Blake, honey, you spent two whole months keeping this from us? You do know that we’ll always accept you no matter what you choose to do with your future, right? Nothing is set in stone.” Kali explained as she reached out and placed a hand on her daughter’s knee. Ghira chimed in next.

“If you truly care about this girl, and she promises to take good care of you, then you have our blessings. I don’t care if she’s poor or rich or who she is at all, if you love her then go for it.”

“Of course I’ll take good care of her! She means a lot to me.” Yang responded while beaming at the pair in front of her.

“Dad...thank you so much.” Blake exclaimed as she let go of Yang’s hand and stood up to give her parents a hug.

“Of course, my daughter. This is a bit last minute as your ceremony is tomorrow, but we’ll let Sun’s parents know of the change. Sun may be a little upset, but as long as you’re happy I am too. Now go spend some time alone with your girlfriend, you won’t need to sneak around with her anymore.”

Blake smiled and grabbed Yang’s hand, running out of the room into the backyard.

“Where are we going?” Yang asked in between long strides.

“You should already know by now.”

They had arrived at their secret lake again, Blake sitting down on the edge of the pier and motioning for Yang to do the same.

“First of all, what were Ruby and Taiyang doing in my house? Did you rope them into kidnapping me or something?”

Yang laughed out loud at Blake’s question.

“Ruby has this ingenious plan to try and break you out secret agent style. And Taiyang wanted to see if it would actually work. I agreed to it because why not? Any consequence would be worth it for you.” Yang recalled, wrapping her arm around Blake’s shoulders and swinging her legs over the pier.

“I guess I’m not totally surprised. Ruby would think that some plan like that would work. I’m just..I’m so glad that things worked out.” Blake answered while leaning into Yang’s touch.

“I am too. You know, things might be complicated right now, but we’ll figure this out. Together. I love you.” Yang turned Blake’s head and pulled her in for a tender kiss. They pulled away after a few moments and Blake leaned her forehead against Yang’s, smiling the most she had in months.

“I love you too. Now that I can be with you, that’s all that matters to me. As long as you’re by my side, we can get through anything.”

#bumbleby #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #fanfic #rwby

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everlastingdreams · 5 years

Text

Dex X Reader: Sugar Crush Chapter 28

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Notes:

Summary: Reader moves into the same building as one Agent Poindexter. A bond starts to grow between them. Can the reader move on after a traumatic past ‘relationship’ ?

Chapter: 28/28

Trigger Warning: Mentions of physical and emotional abuse ! YES this one will come with trigger warnings. I tried not to post too much into detail stuff but this entire thing comes with a trigger warning !

Word Count: 1742 words

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dex sat in the emergency room, waiting for news. He didn't know how long he had been there, minutes, hours..

It felt like days. Like eternity. But at the seem time it felt like time had stopped to exist. The voices screaming in his head, whispers crawled their way through the screams. He held his head in his hands as he tried to breath.

A voice broke through his train of thought. He looked up for only a second to see that Ally stood there, next to her an older woman.

Ally said something to to woman before she walked up to Dex and plopped down in the chair next to him.

“Any news yet ?” she sounded as tired as he was.

He just shook his head.

“Grandma brought me here. The FBI wants to talk to me again about what happened.” Ally tried to get a conversation.

“Just tell them what you know. It will be fine, kid.” he told her.

“I wanted to help her.. looks like I ended up being the one to get her killed.” Ally looked down at her feet.

Dex looked at her now “She's not dead.” not yet, he thought to himself “And you didn't cause this, kid. Reed shot her. (y/n) just..”

“Yeah... she always helps everyone.” she said quietly “She was trying to escape when I bumped into her. She told me something.. something involving you.”

Dex looked at her with interest “What did she say ?”

“She said Wilson Fisk told Reed where she was, Fisk wanted her dead because she knows you.” Ally explained.

Dex looked away from her as he processed the new information. Fisk had tried to twist his mind, tried to get him to believe that society would never accept someone like him. He didn't believe one word of the bullshit he was trying to sell him, in the past he might have but since meeting you he was more confident. Fisk must have found out about your existence, must have seen you as a block in his plans.

“She said that ?” Dex asked Ally for confirmation.

Ally nodded “ What does Fisk want with you ?”

Dex didn't answer as he stood up from the chair, ignoring her question “Will you and your grandmother stay here ? I'll be back soon.”

Ally looked at him suspiciously “Yeah.. but.. what are you going to do ?”

“Just.. stay. Please ? ” he kept his voice in control “And uh... let's keep this information between us, alright ?”

“Okay..” Ally watched him walk away, unaware of his intentions.

O o o o o oo OOO Oooo o o o o o oo ooo OO oo o oOO OoO O O Oo O O oOO O oo

Light made it's way to your eyes when you opened them and you groaned at the sight, you already felt dizzy.

Ally jumped up from the chair and placed her hands on your arm excitedly “Oh my god ! I thought you were dead.”

You couldn't believe Ally was alive, you wondered if you had died.

“But... Shaw.. he shot you..” your head was hurting with questions.

She quickly shook her head “No ! No, the fed shot that asshole. He's dead.”

“DEX?!” you asked in shock not knowing how to interprent that.

“What ? OH NO I MEAN SHAW. Shaw is dead. Dex shot him. He saved us, well the FBI showed up as well because I borrowed some stuff from that Nadeem guy and guess he was salty..” she trailed off.

“Borrowed, huh ?” you picked up on that “ You stole from a federal agent ?”

She shrugged her shoulders “At least it got their attention. And maybe they figured that I would try and help you. Could be why they showed up.”

You tried to sit up in the bed but winced in pain when you did “Ah shit.” your hand went to your side.

“Oh yeah. And you got shot.” she stated the obvious.

“Gross.” you said and she let out a laugh.

“It looked worse with all the blood though. The fed almost lost it, he prevented you from bleeding out.” Ally sat down on the side of the bed now. “I thought you were going to die. So did he. He doesn't know you're awake yet. He left a while ago. I thought he'd be back by morning but..”

You couldn't imagine what Dex must have been through when he found you bleeding out on the ground. He had saved you, you would have bled out without him.

“I'm sure he'll be here soon, looks like he's pretty in love with you.” Ally tried to lift your spirits.

You nodded and gave a small smile “You said your dad was shot ? Did he...” you left the question open.

She shook her head “No. He uh.. he woke up. The doctor's say that it'll be a while before he will be back to normal. I'm staying with my grandma Nancy in the meantime.”

Your eyes widened “Nancy is your grandmother ? Bob... damnit.. Shaw destroyed everything.”

“Not everything.” Ally corrected you and you took her hand, giving it a squeeze.

A knock on the door made Ally jump of the bed, before someone would enter.

Your heart skipped a beat when you saw who it was. Even in his tired state he still stole your heart.

“Dex !” you smiled brightly. He seemed amazed that you were awake, or alive even.

He took two big paces and he was by your side “(y/n) ! You scared the hell out of me.” his hand cupped your cheek before he placed a kiss on your forehead.

“Well, in case you need me.” Ally pointed to the door “I'll be outside.” she said as she walked to the door.

“I thought...” Dex pinched the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath “I thought I was too late..”

You shook your head as you grabbed hold of his hand and brushed your thumb over it “None of this was your fault, Dex. On the contrary you and Ally... you saved me. I thought I wasn't going to survive this time. That Shaw would have dragged me to the other side of the world, that the nightmare would start all over again..”

"I'd never let that happen. I would never let him get away. Even if it took me all my life." he was serious as he said it "Besides, you're the only one who has the recipe to those waffles."

You breathed and laughed lightly at his comment "Yeah. I'm still taking that to my grave, Dex."

He nodded "I know. But not anytime soon.”

You knew you still had to tell him what Shaw had told you “Dex.. he told me something while I was with him in the house.”

Dex raised a brow as he waited for you to speak.

“He told me Wilson Fisk wanted me dead, that me being alive and around you was a torn in Fisk's plan. I've only heard Shaw mention Fisk once before.. he did some dirty work for him. Why is Fisk doing this ?”

Dex avoided your eyes, suddenly becoming nervous “He..uh.. he tried to make me believe things.”

“What kind of things ?” you pressed the question.

Dex shook his head as he took hold of your hand with his own “He wanted me to believe that society would never accept someone like me.”

You let out a breath, he looked so tired “He's wrong, Dex. I know you, I know that there is so much more to you then what you believe. You told me I was special to you.” he looked at you now “But you are special to me too.” you smiled at him.

He let out a soft chuckle, his features softening “You don't have to be afraid anymore. He'll never hurt you or threaten you again.”

You were confused now, had the FBI found out about Fisk's plans already ? Had they moved him back to prison ? “Did Ally tell you this already ? Does this mean Fisk is back in prison ?”

He avoided your gaze again and this time you took note of it “He was found dead this morning. You're safe now.”

The way he said it, cold, emotionless.. you knew.

“Dead ?” you repeated his words.

He gave a nod “They found him in the penthouse. They have no leads, but a guy like that had many enemies.”

You just nodded.

You knew.

“When did it happen ?” you asked.

“Couple of hours ago.” he answered and looked at you.

He knew that you knew.

You squeezed his hand “Guess the city, or even the world is now safer without him or Shaw in it.”

Dex smiled for a second before he cleared his throat “The FBI still wants to take your statement about Shaw. Ally's too.”

“I'll make sure to help her remember the important things.” you told him, hinting at the fact that you sure ass hell weren't going to sell him out.

“She's a smart kid.” He said with a smirk.

“Was that a compliment ? I should tell her that.” you joked and he almost rolled his eyes.

He chuckles “Smart apart from the fact that she stole from Ray.”

“Well, technically that does make her smart. She was able to borrow things out of his pocket unnoticed.” your voice was sarcastic.

He smirked at you “Since when do you support thieves ?” a playfull glint in his eyes.

“Since they save my life.” you shrugged your shoulders and giggled. “Sometimes we have to do something bad, sometimes it's the only option to stay safe. As long as we don't start to see it as the only way, there is still hope.” your words were heavy, Dex must have understood way you had said it as he nodded in agreement. “I won't give up on you. I see the good in you.”

His eyes were soft and for a moment he looked so peacefull. He leaned closer to you and his lips brushed against yours.

“I love you.” it was as if the words had escaped him, as if they were hanging on his lips ready to be spoken. There was still uncertainty in his eyes when he looked at you.

You could only smile brightly “I love you too.”

Tag list for this series (let me know if you want to be added or removed from the list :) ) :

@givemeabite @aquietfortitudeandstrength @missminx1993 @fuchsiagrasshopper@legion-18 @love-mia-marisol @star-spangled-man @bilson-bethel @peterbxrnes@burningmusicmachine @xxemoluverxx @queenselana @superflashvengers@marvelmayo @qrangcr

#benjamin poindexter #ben poindexter #benjamin poindexter x reader #ben poindexter x reader #reader x benjamin poindexter #dex x reader #dex!reader #poindexter!reader #reader x dex #poindexterxreader #daredevil dex #daredevil bullseye #daredevil fanfiction #daredevil fic #daredevil story #daredevil imagine

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my-rae · 5 years

Text

Love Scenario-CRS

We met and loved each other and it became an unforgettable memory.

Requested by @matesb: Hey, can I request a raesung fluff? Where we both are trainees 😊

I’m sorry this took me so long ugh. I hope you like it!

Words:2k+

Genre: fluff+ lowkey angst?? idk

Warning: English is not my first language, so pls be patient with me hehe. Besides, this story is completely made up, but at some point I tried to include a dash of reality??? Don’t be scared pls.

Since it’s my first au in this account, feedback is very apreciated pls

The first time you saw Raesung was in a monthly evaluation, in fact, in your first one. He was well known among trainees because of his amazing skills in each field (Dancing, rapping, singing), you had heard about him, and even saw him on television once, when he was little. Rumour had it that he was very cold and he barely talked to other people that weren’t his A team friends, and because of that, he made you feel intimidated when he came into the practice room.

Your eyes didn’t leave his silhouette for a second, filled with curiosity. He was standing with the “team A”, looking at the CEO and waiting for his name to be announced. He was one of the first ones.

He performed a song he had written, produced and arranged himself and was so into it that you then understood why he was so popular. But there was something that called even more your attention. All those little things he made, such as sometimes bopping his head to the song that other trainee was singing, or making a supportive gesture towards them during the performance that was, apparently, unnoticeable to the rest. How can you call a person like that be “cold”? It was obvious that he wasn’t payed enough attention, yet everyone talked about their first impression about him.

“You did good.” Some trainees complimented eachother, some others remained quiet. You decided to do the first option and congratulated your peers and talked to them afterwards, hoping you would get to know anyone soon.

You ended up high-fiving Raesung and, somehow, with his Snapchat account.

Back for then you didn’t consider it flirting, even though some people you met there thought it was.

But, going straight to the point, let’s just say that Snapchat made you become friends.

Raesung 👊👊

“Do I look intimidating enough?” He captioned in biggest part of the photos.

“Lmaoo you??? Intimidating??? Where??”

“Shut up I’m cool, I already have a cold facade”

“A fake cold facade*”

Your conversations were basically like that, just joking and making fun of each other, but outside Snapchat, you barely saw him. He was all the time nowhere to be seen, you wouldn’t find him even if you looked for him, overall because you trained in different floors.

Until it finally happened.

“Come to the second floor, I’m bored.” You were about to go to the dorms after a long day of training when that Raesung sent that Snapchat message. Still, you went anyways.

“Why are you still here?” You asked him.

He was inside a little studio, sitting in a chair, looking through his phone. When he heard your voice, he turned to look at you with smile on his face.

“I want to work a little longer.”

“Are you crazy, Rae? It’s getting late.” You looked at your watch. 23:00 pm. “What do you even want to do so late?”

“I’ve been working on my monthly evaluation, I want to perform something different.” He explained. “Do you want to listen to it?”

You are still not sure why Raesung wanted you to listen to it, out of all people that could give him a better review. Still, you agreed.

He was beyond excited, you could tell by how his eyes sparkled. The track he played was slow compared to the song he performed the first time you saw him, still it had a catchy vibe that made you love the song instantly.

“Do you like it?” He asked when it finished.

“Are you kidding? I love it!” You exclaimed excitedly. The corners of his lips raised to form one of the cutest smiles you had ever seen.

And your heart skipped a beat immediately.

“Let me show you this other one! I don’t know which I should develop to the monthly evaluation, I want to show our CEO something different.”

You kept it going, day after day. Once you had finished training you always stayed together for a little longer, even if you were tired. At first it was only to help him for the monthly evaluations, but at some point it became just two friends, talking about anything, complaining about the company and the trainee life, sharing some good and bad experiences there.

Your friends began to think you were dating him and they wouldn’t stop teasing you about it. Deep down inside, you didn’t mind.

“Remember the first track I played?” You pretender to think even though you remembered it perfectly, he named it “desired situation” and it was your favourite one.

He wasn’t good at naming his songs.

“I do, why?"

"I’ve decided that I won’t use that one.”

“Why?” He was so excited about that one, it didn’t make sense.

“I have a few ideas in mind, and I don’t know why I think that track is more personal.” He looked straight into your eyes and you froze.

You knew you had fallen for him, but taking into consideration your situation it was better to hide it as much as possible.

But those little moments with him made you think that it couldn’t be just one sided. Eventually, you discovered you were right.

“I’m so sick of this company Rae, how am I going to be able to stand this until I debut?”

He held your hand and caressed your hair without realising, just spontaneously.

“Hang in there, okay? We will debut, I know it.” Was his answer.

“I know you’re going to debut, I have no doubt, our CEO loves you, but I don’t really know if I’ll end up doing it or not. He doesn’t care about me, he won’t mind if I leave.“ He froze and gave your hand a squeeze, looking at you with his eyes filled with concern.

“Are you going to leave?”

“I don’t know Rae, I don’t want to keep wasting my life.“

“If you ever do, please warn me beforehand, I don’t think I could stand it if you leave without warning.”

Raesung was like that, spontaneous, you were sure that his words didn’t mean the same for him that what they did to you, but they made your heart beat like crazy every time.

From there, it only got worse, all your efforts were useless, it wasn’t enough, you weren’t enough for YG Entertainment, so you took your decision after talking to your trainee friends for a long time.

“Rae, I’m leaving, I can’t take it.“ You said that day inside those four walls that had seen you grow up with your friend.

He kept quiet. He had a good ability to come up with lyrics and melodies easily, but not to talk about this with someone that meant the world to him, so he gave you an awkward hug and let you cry on his shoulder.

It was unusual in Raesung to let you do that, yet you didn’t question it.

“Before I leave, there’s something else I want to say.” You stated when you stopped crying. “This had been a hard decision to take because I don’t know if I’ll ever see you when I leave. I like you, Rae, I hope you can forgive me.”

He shook his head and pouted.

“There’s nothing to forgive.” He was about to hold your hand, but suddenly he pulled it back. Through his hair you could see his ears getting red.

“In the hypothetical case that you loved me back.” You began cautiously to confirm your recent suspicions. “Would you say it back?”

“You know how I am y/n, this is hard.“

“So, do you love me back?”

“Could be.”

“Hypothetically.”

“And in real life.” He finally admited.

You smiled. If it was going to be your last month there, you had to make it worthy.

It went by fast, you and Resungwere exactly the same, but you didn’t look at each other like you did before. It was like an open secret just between you two, which made everything way much better.

Until it came to an end.

Your contract expired, as well as your journey in YG Entertainment, with all the friend you had made and, of course, Raesung.

You talked to them a lot, but as you auditioned to another company and your timetable couldn’t fit any of your friend’s, you began to lose contact. Overall with Choi Raesung.

You met, and loved each other even if it was to yourselves, and it became an incredible memory.

The last thing you knew about him was that he was friends with Ikon members and that he became a producer and left the trainee life, as well as snapchat. You only got updates through his fans, that were only a few, so you would have said that he was missing in action if it weren’t because of his appearance in Stray Kid’s reality, but he was in your life. Almost as if you had erased each other.

Until one day you heard it. It was a bit modified and had been added good lyrics, but you were sure that it was that track.

“Desired situation” was being played by some other trainees that had taken a few minutes to rest and watch Ikon’s comeback.

“Sorry, Minhye, are you listening to desired situation by ikon?” You asked your friend.

“Desired situation?” He laughed. “Nice try Y/n, it’s called love scenario. And yes! It’s awesome right? Ikon always have good songs.”

Love scenario… That’s how it was called now. You decided to google the credits and yes, effectively, his name was right next to Kim Hanbin’s and some others.

To find Raesung after that was hard. You had lost his number, then you tried through twitter, but he never answered his DMs, then Instagram, but he didn’t have an account, his fancafe was abandoned too. Hanbin was right that time he said that he was living his best life watching anime. In the end, and by chance, you found him, even sooner than Noa’s reply to the message you had sent the boy that morning asking for Raesung’s number.

It happened at some random café, his hair was a little longer, but it still looked great. His styling was the same, but apparently he had enough money to buy some expensive clothes. That thought made you smile.

“Hello, Choers.” You greeted friendly.

He looked shocked and a little confused to see you there.

“D-did you just tried to call me by my twitter username?”

“I’m surprised you remember your username taking into consideration that you haven’t used it since 2012.”

“You forgot to add the number one to choers, nice try Y/n.” He joked.

The conversation went by a bit awkwardly, but none of you wanted to stop talking.

“So… Love scenario.” His ears turned red, just like they did every time he was embarrassed. “You did a great job, you know it, right?”

“It was Hanbin hyung who did the biggest part of the job. He and Bobby hyung came up with great lyrics and showed them to me. Then I suggested to use that track.”

“It sounds awesome Rae, it was my favourite out of all those you came up with.”

“I know, that’s why I suggested it. I trusted your opinion.” He seemed proud, and that made you smile even wider. “What about you? How’s your life going?”

“I’m a trainee that is going to become a rookie idol soon!” You announced happily. “I’m going to debut in five months.”

“That’s great! I’m glad that you finally made your dreams come true after what happened at YG.”

“I’m glad too. And what about you? What made you become a producer?”

“It was my only choice.” You didn’t know what he meant, but you let it be.

“Anyways, Rae, I should get going now. I’m very tired.” You said. “We should meet soon.”

“Yeah, we should.” He knew he had to tell you, but how would you react? He was afraid, it had happened ages ago after all. Then, he remembered all the times Hanbin made him try to contact you, and how excited he was to know about Raesung’s story with you. So he said it. “By the way Y/n, you know the song, love scenario…”

You nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“When Hanbin hyung showed me the lyrics, the reason why I chose desired situation was because it reminded me of you. Love scenario, in the end, is dedicated to you. At least half of it.”

You felt your cheeks burning. You definitely weren’t expecting that.

“I’ve missed you, Rae.” You finally said.

“God I’ve missed you too, a lot.” He answered, becoming relieved.

You didn’t know if it was appropriate to hug him, but you did anyways.

“We have a lot of things to talk to. Hanbinhyung won’t stop telling me I should have asked you out.” He sighed.

“I don’t want to say I agree with him but… I mean.”

“I know, I know. By the moment, let’s meet up here tomorrow, okay? You know, to catch up.” He suggested, looking confident for the first time ever.

“That sounds good Rae. It really does.”

#choi raesung #raesung #millennium #raesung au #choi raesung au #millennium au #silver boys #yg silver boys #silver boys au #requested!#matesb #pls don't let me flop #raesung imagine

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woildismyerster · 6 years

Note

Could I please request a fic where Crutchie and the reader practice kissing and they keep insisting it’s totally platonic and “for science” and stuff?

Dude, I loved this prompt. I love Crutchie. (I know I say that about every person I write about, but it’s always true.)

“Doesn’t it freak you out, though?” Elmer was one of the many unlucky people who had gotten to Davey’s house too late to get a chair, so he was leaning against the bookshelf.

You shrugged, a little uncomfortable. “I dunno. Not usually.”

“God,” Race mused. “I think I had my first kiss when I was thirteen.”

“You don’t remember?” Albert tossed an M&M at him. “You’re such a man whore.”

Race grinned. “It’s the first one to make an impression. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that I got married in first grade or something.”

The room dissolved into stories about first kisses, thankfully drawing the attention away from you. After all, you can’t tell a story about something that hasn’t happened yet. You excused yourself to use the bathroom while Romeo told his story, though it seemed a little too embellished to be true.

You stayed in the bathroom longer than necessary, hoping that the topic would have changed by the time you went back downstairs. You understood why it was so strange to all of them - nobody really talked about the kids who got to the end of high school without kissing anybody. It just didn’t feel weird to you until people started telling you it was weird, and then it spiraled into something that felt bad and ugly and like maybe there was a reason nobody had killed you yet.

What if there really was a reason you were a senior, and nobody had kissed you yet?

You decided to buy yourself a few more seconds by going to the kitchen. To your surprise, Crutchie was there. He smiled at you before ducking behind the open fridge door.

He pulled out a can of soda, frowning at it. “Who buys off brand Mountain Dew?”

“It should be a crime.”

“It explains a lot about Davey,” he said. He grinned when you laughed. “Want one?”

You fumbled the one he tossed to you. Maybe you would wait a few minutes before opening it. The last thing you needed was to make a mess of the Jacobs’ house. You looked toward the basement stairs, a little apprehensive. “What are they talking about right now?”

“Still kissing,” he said. There was something almost sad about the way he said it. “It kinda sucks to be down there while they talk about something you haven’t done, right?”

You nodded, but paused. “Wait, is that why you’re up here?”

“Yep.” He laughed when you gaped at him. “What, is that really a surprise?”

“I mean - yeah?” Crutchie was cute. Like, really cute. And he was funny and kind, so why would you not think that somebody had tried to jump his bones already?

“No kissing yet,” he said with a shrug. “You and I are in a club of our own.”

The club meeting was still going on twenty minutes later, though the two of you had moved over to the kitchen table.

“It’s not that I’m that worried about it, usually,” you said. “It’ll just suck when I do start going out with somebody, and the person will think that I’m a crappy kisser just because I’m an inexperienced one.”

He nodded. “Yes! Maybe it would be better to just get it over with, so the anticipation stops building.”

Getting it over with. You had thought the same thing before, but it always sounded kind of sad. Like you were settling for something you didn’t want, just because it was better than nothing.

“Shouldn’t it be better than that?” You propped your elbow on the table and rested your chin in one hand. “Not ‘true love’s kiss’ or anything, but better than getting it over with.”

“Ideally,” he agreed. “But maybe getting it over with is the best I can do.”

You stared at him, confused. There was no way he could actually think that. Surely, he knew what a catch he was. “That isn’t the best you can do. You deserve a lot better than that.”

“Like what?”

You paused. Like what? You didn’t want to accidentally lie to him in an attempt to be nice. You didn’t want to promise him anything that you couldn’t keep, and you couldn’t promise him something that had to do with somebody else.

“How about,” you said slowly, “a kiss between friends? That seems a little better.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you trying to volunteer?”

You gave a jerky shrug. “It doesn’t sound so bad. To have your first kiss be with somebody who loves you, even if it isn’t -”

“If it isn’t that kind of love,” he finished. “I get what you mean.”

You took a swig of the soda. It wasn’t as good as the real thing. “Right.”

There was a moment of silence. You meant what you said, but it was a strange thing to talk about. The two of you were friends. Not flirty friends, or friends that hid crushes on each other. You were just friends, so how could you broach the topic of kissing when you were sitting in a friend’s kitchen?

“Okay,” he finally said.

“Wait, really?”

“Sure. This isn’t, like, you trying to confess your undying love, right?” He looked mock-hurt when you laughed. “Hey, I’ve watched Hallmark movies with Romeo before. I know how this goes.”

You stuck out your hand for him to shake. “I swear, this is totally platonic. We’re just two pals, helping each other prepare for something not-friendly later with somebody else.”

He shook your hand. “Cool. So, how do we - how do we do this?” It was a great question. How do you kiss somebody that you don’t exactly want to kiss? There was no physical build up, no desire to be closer to him. It was a mental readiness, but not a physical one.

You shifted to the chair next to him. “I guess we just go for it.”

That was a bad idea. The two of you leaned in at the same time, and your nose smashed into his. He laughed, and some of the awkwardness receded.

“Okay,” he said. “Just - just sit there. Don’t move. I’m going in.”

You were laughing when he kissed you. Your teeth knocked again his a little, but you put a hand on his knee when he tried to pull away. You do better. It wasn’t a long kiss, but by the end, it was nice.

You grinned at him. “There we go.”

He smiled back at you, almost shyly. You supposed that made sense. If it had been weird to get ready to kiss him, it was weirder to stop. It was like something needed to be said, but there was nothing to say. “Right. We have officially had our first kiss. Meeting adjourned.”

Luckily for you, life was not a Hallmark movie. You did not leave Davey’s house with newfound feelings for Crutchie. Looking at him did not make your heart skip a beat, and the sound of his laughter did not make you weak in the knees. It did, however, make the two of you better friends.

It was a little strange - you only got closer because you decided to keep the kiss a secret. Logically speaking, the two of you should have hung out less. You should have acted as though nothing had changed. Instead, Crutchie sat by you at lunch. You would put stickers on his cane. You started a Snapchat streak, but kept it going by having actual conversations.

The others were a little surprised by it, but not unpleasantly so. None of them suspected the cause of it, and none of them cared about what may have prompted it. Everything was good.

“You and I,” Crutchie announced one afternoon, “are going to watch ‘A Christmas Prince.’”

You snorted, but realized he was serious. “Seriously? I thought you only watched Hallmark movies with Romeo.”

“I’ve heard it’s terrible,” he said reverently. “We have to watch this awful movie, Y/N.”

“Why would we want to watch a bad movie? And it’s not even near Christmas.”

“To make fun of it,” he said.

You shut your locker, but didn’t bother jimmying the lock. It didn’t lock if you left it alone, and you liked not needing to remember the combo. “Afterwards, we can go find a car crash to watch. Or we could shoot birds with BB guns.”

He acted as though he was going to hit you with his cane, but pulled the blow so it was just a tap. “C’mon. It’ll be fun. I’ll make popcorn.”

He looked so hopeful, so carefree, that you agreed. If you didn’t go, you would probably just end up doing nothing online, at home in bed. Crutchie was better than that.

“That was the actual worst movie,” you marveled. “Was it supposed to be bad? Did they just stop caring partway through?”

Crutchie was grinned, bemused. “I have no idea. I’m kind of impressed.”

“No.”

“We should watch it again.”

“No,” you said again. The two of you were laying on opposite ends of the couch, legs in parallel. You dragged a finger along the arch of his foot, smiling when he jumped. “There are so many good rom-coms I would watch with you. Let’s not watch the bad one.”

“C’mon,” he crooned. “It was great.”

“What journalist would write that they need to find out more in their actual notes? It was so dumb,”

“Doesn’t it make you so happy to see them at the end, kissing in the snow? So romantic,” he said. He was beaming.

“No,” you said resolutely. “I don’t want to kiss outside in the middle of winter. It’s cold. Could they not just go inside?”

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s different when you like the person.”

“It would have to be a great kiss,” you said.

Crutchie thought for a minute. “Maybe it was. When we kissed, it wasn’t like that. We didn’t, you know, do much.”

“I guess that’s true.” It had just been a kiss. It wasn’t deep, and there wasn’t a lot of touching. “Our kiss wasn’t really the Grand Gesture kiss.”

Crutchie swallowed thickly. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but maybe that’s something we should have thought about then. We’ve had our first kisses now, but it doesn’t change the fact that we don’t really know how to kiss.”

You nodded. “Right. We’ve had an experience, but we aren’t experienced.”

“Maybe we should -”

“It might not be so bad to -”

You both stopped. You licked your lips, suddenly nervous. This was different than sharing your first kiss. You were talking about an entirely different kind of kiss. “If we practice,” you said slowly, “we might know what to do when the time comes with somebody else.”

He smiled, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “Yeah. It’s practically a public service.”

You sat up and scooched a little closer to him. “Totally.”

“And it’s just a kiss between friends,” he said. He moved a little closer too, eyes locked on yours.

“Like before. It should be between people who love each other -”

“Even if that love is only platonic,” he finished. Your face was only a few inches from his. You closed the distance, one hand on his neck and the other on the back of the couch to keep yourself steady.

It wasn’t graceful. Neither of you knew what to do with your hands, or what do with your tongues. Still, he smelled like mint and tasted a little like popcorn. You liked the way his hands rested on the small of your back. You liked the way he made a little sound when you tugged on the hair at the nape of his neck. It got better once you figured out how his mouth moved, and it took conscious effort not to melt into him.

It wasn’t kiss-in-the-snow good, but it was definitely good.

The first kiss made your friendship with Crutchie better. The second kiss made it weirder. Weird wasn’t a bad thing, since what it really meant was that it led to a third, and then a fourth.

You weren’t dating him - you were practicing. They were very different things, and you knew that once he started going out with somebody, they would be very lucky.

That person just wouldn’t be you.

Your lab notebooks were laying on the floor, forgotten. Crutchie’s mouth was on your neck, and your brain was foggy with his scent.

“We should probably - probably be studying,” you gasped. Your hands pulled him closer, nulling the comment.

“We are studying, he murmured. “It’s all for science.”

You huffed out a laugh. “Yeah?”

“Sure.” He pressed his lips against the corner of your jaw, the corner of your mouth. “We’re conducting our own experiments.”

You hummed before dragging his mouth to yours. This was a science you could get behind.

“What’s going on with you and Crutchie?” Jack had materialized next to your locker, and you jumped.

“Jesus, Jack. Sneaky, much?”

He waved your words off. “Are you going out with him?”

“No,” you said immediately. You weren’t going out with him. You guys hung out alone, and sometimes you kissed while you hung out, but you definitely weren’t dating. You both said that it was totally platonic beforehand every time.

“I think he’s going to ask you out,” Jack said. He watched you closely, maybe to search for a smile or a grimace. You gave him nothing.

“What makes you say that?”

“The way he looks at you.” When you looked at him blankly, Jack smirked. “Have you really not noticed? He looks at you all the time. He’s cancelled plans with us a few times because he wanted to do something with you -”

“I didn’t know he was cancelling on you,” you interrupted, stricken.

“Well, he has been. He’s around you all the time, and when he looks at you, it’s like he wants to keep being around you all the time.”

You had no idea what to say to that. You couldn’t deny it, not when you weren’t sure what he was thinking when he saw you. Jack was his oldest friend, so maybe he would know better about Crutchie.

“I don’t think he’ll be asking me out,” you finally said.

Jack shrugged. “Will you say yes if he does?”

The warning bell rang, and you leapt on the distraction. “Oh! Gotta go, bye!” You darted around him and rushed to class, genuinely thrown. What if Crutchie did ask you out? You liked him a lot more than you had ever imagined you would, but everything was happening out of order. You had no idea what you wanted to do next.

You tried to think of a way to broach the topic with Crutchie. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to keep “practicing’” if one of you had caught feelings. You weren’t sure which of you might be having those feelings, but it didn’t matter. You wanted to talk about it.

Bringing it up was a lot harder than you expected.

You had plenty of time to talk about it. You and Crutchie hung out all the time. The trouble was, every time you were with him, you didn’t want to talk about it. You just wanted to eat, or talk, or let him breathe about science or practice into your ears and lips.

You should say something.

You were sitting with him in a love seat in his basement, enjoying the tight fit. He was watching an episode of Danny Phantom on the TV - his favorite TV show as a kid - while you watched him.

What should you say?

His lips were curled into a perpetual smile. Looking at him now, you wondered why you were so confused about Jack’s words. Of course you would say yes if he asked you out. It was Crutchie. You hadn’t liked him when you first kissed him, but you had changed since then. There was nothing platonic about practicing with him anymore.

You leaned over and kissed his neck. He looked over, surprised, but didn’t pull away when you kissed him on the mouth. He reached up to cup your cheek, and he didn’t say a thing.

Neither of you said anything about science. Practicing was the last thing on your mind. It was just kissing, plain and simple. You waited for him to talk, be it cracking a joke or assuring you that this wasn’t real love, but he was silent. He returned your ministrations, leaving you to wonder if this was something significant or the same as always.

Crutchie kissed you when he got out of swim practice.

You kissed him in the booth at your favorite diner.

You had no idea who initiated the kiss in Pulitzer’s room at Katherine’s birthday party, but it hardly mattered once it happened.

Neither of you mentioned practicing anymore. You kissed more than ever, but it also changed the time you spent not-kissing. He didn’t feel like just a friend. You flirted. You definitely had a crush on him.

God, you really had to talk to him.

“Hey, Crutch?” You looked at him over the checkers board.

He jumped one of your pieces. “Yeah?”

“Do you think kissing is even better when it’s with somebody you love? Romantically, I mean?”

He looked up, surprised. “It’s probably best then, yeah. Why?”

“I’ve just been thinking - we started all of this because we thought it would be best to try all of this with somebody who loved us, even if it wasn’t romantic. We’ve practiced plenty, so why haven’t we stopped?” It was still your turn, but you were having trouble focusing on the board. You were winning, but he would probably win if you stayed this distracted.

“Because we want to kiss somebody we love, I guess. I want to kiss somebody I love, I mean,” he said.

“Platonically?” You moved a piece at random.

Crutchie’s face was uncharacteristically solemn. “Not platonically.”

“Romantically?”

“Kissing-in-the-snow,” he confirmed. He watched you carefully, hands white knuckling the cane the rested on the ground beside him.

You grinned. “We should try that. Kissing in the snow, I mean. I think we’ve got what it takes to make it good.”

“That’s, like, six months from now,” he said. Hope lit his face.

“Yeah. Assuming we still love each other then, it could be pretty cool.”

“Pretty cold,” he corrected, beaming.

“Shut up,” you groaned.

He was still smiling when he jumped another of your checker pieces. You tried to scowl at him, but your smile was just as big as his. The experiment had ended, and the results were in. You were happy that you had been practicing for somebody you loved. Finding Crutchie would have been a lot harder if you hadn’t.

#Newsies #newsies fanfiction #newsies x reader #crutchie #crutchie morris #crutchie x reader #Ally writes

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