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hermannsthumb · 3 years

Note

possible prompt for a university au: newt is the biology major who maintains all the fish tanks in the physics building at 11pm and hermann is the physics student who likes to wander the halls to think. newt accidentally flings water all over the ground and hermann trips, hijinks ensue.

earlier today I was thinking about how I wrote a college AU fic almost 3 years ago to the date, and how I wanted to do more bc its fun thinking about newt and hermann as dumb college students

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Newt's not really sure how he ended up with the weirdest work-study job on the planet, but honestly, things could be much, much worse (he could be stuck down in the dining hall, or dealing with confused freshmen in the school bookstore) so he keeps his thoughts on the whole thing to himself. Every Friday at eleven sharp, Newt pulls on his grodiest t-shirt and a pair of long rubber gloves and treks all the way over to the physics department to set to work scrubbing down the fish tanks that line the classroom walls. Why does the physics department have fish tanks? Newt's not really sure about that, either. It's kind of an insane amount of them, too, more than even the marine bio department has. Maybe it's supposed to boost morale or something. Hey, look at these crazy cool tropical fish who get to do nothing but eat and swim in circles, sorry you're stuck inside calculating velocity and shit.

Whatever, Newt's not complaining about that either. Let the physics nerds have their fun. It'll be good for them to branch out a little, realize there's life beyond robotics club meetings.

Also, Newt likes the fish. They're cute. He likes to think they like him, too, because they're very well behaved when he has to scoop them out of their tanks and plop them into smaller fish bowls (the kind goldfish in movies always use). He's going to teach them tricks eventually—he had a beta fish once who would do a little flip when Newt tapped the glass a certain way because he knew he'd get rewarded with dried worms, so Newt knows it's possible. Just imagine, a hundred fish doing flips on command. Newt Geiszler, fish whisperer.

Yeah, maybe the job could be more glamorous. It's really hard to get algae out of the gloves, and he hasn't been allotted the budget for a new pair yet.

"Hey, guys!" he shouts as he pushes in the door to room 214. The fish don't acknowledge him: they just continue swimming in their giant tank. In and out of plastic plants and rock caves. The rock caves were a gift from Newt three months into the job, and so were some of the moss balls—stimulation is important for fish! He wouldn't want to be trapped in a glass box with nothing to do, either. "I bet you missed me. Ready for a clean tank?"

Newt always talks to the fish, even if they don't talk back, because he thinks it's important to build their trust. He'll usually keep a running commentary of his week as he scrubs the tanks, just get everything off his chest that he needs to get off. Stuff he's worried about. Stuff that went well. Stuff that went badly. Therapy's expensive, and Newt's student health insurance can only cover so much, but talking to fish? That's free.

That's also kinda why he does it so late at night and over the weekend. The last thing he wants is an audience. Because, one, talking to fish is admittedly weird, and two, no one wants a glimpse at Newt's psyche like that, probably not even the fish.

The first step in cleaning the tanks is relocation. Newt digs his stereotypical goldfish bowls and an industrial-size mesh wand out of the supply closet, fills the former with some of the special tank salt water, and begins the slow and arduous task of scooping out the fish and depositing them into the bowls. "I had the lamest week," he announces once he's about three clownfish in. "I was working on a group project Saturday—"

Then Newt stops, because he hears footsteps in the hallway just outside the classroom.

Serial killer, Newt's instincts supply helpfully.

No, Newt corrects himself, that's dumb. Why would a serial killer wander into the physics building at eleven o'clock at night? Why would anyone, period? He's probably imagining stuff. Lack of sleep, stress over his upcoming projects, residual embarrassment from his disaster study session Saturday, all of it culminating in Newt thinking there's someone there. No, definitely imagining it. Newt can only even get in this late to the department because his ID swipe card is set up with the right permissions—not even the physics students have the permissions he does to be in this late at night. Well, not unless they clean the kitchenette in the student lounge or something.

Or if Newt left the door unlocked.

More footsteps. Closer now.

Newt's pretty sure he didn't leave the door unlocked, because he thinks it locks automatically behind him, and he would have to literally prop it open for anyone to get in after him. But anything's possible. The door could've caught on a dropped pencil or a paper scrap or other weird shit that physics students leave around, and a serial killer could've noticed and taken the opportunity to sneak inside on the off chance a hapless young biology major was scrubbing slime off fish tanks in the middle of the night. Any minute now, Newt's about to end up on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. The Physics Department Murder. The Disappearing Biologist. (Nah, neither of those are very good titles, but that's why Newt isn't on the creative writing track.)

Step-tap-step. Closer now; Newt's heart leaps to his throat. Step-tap-step. Step-tap-step. Pausing just outside the door of room 214. God, why didn't Newt turn the lights off? Why didn't he shut the door?

Newt reaches for the first vaguely weapon-shaped thing he can find—an empty fishbowl, because Newt's not going to sacrifice any of the fish for this—and, as the door swings open, hurls it with a cry.

The bowl clunks on the ground. Except it turns out Newt grabbed the wrong fish bowl, because (even though it doesn't shatter, thank God) water quickly begins to seep across the slate floor tiles towards Newt's serial killer, a pathetic little clownfish (Newt thinks this one is named Albert, because the physics department is made up of nerds who do shit like name their random pet fish after their kind) flopping around in the puddle. Newt's serial killer, meanwhile, cries out similarly, his arms windmilling as he loses his footing and slips backwards, his cane—

Oh, fuck.

The intruder is not a serial killer. It's someone possibly worse, actually: Newt's mortal enemy, Hermann Gottlieb.

Newt's not really sure at what point Hermann became his mortal enemy and not just some guy I have class with that I hate, but he can pretty easily say that they've hated each other since the moment Hermann walked through the doors of Engineering 101 and was deigned Newt's lab partner by the Alphabetized By Last Name Seating Chart god. Something about Hermann just gets under Newt's skin. It's not his prissy English accent, or his oversized sweaters, or his absolutely horrendous haircut, and it's not even that he takes every opportunity to savagely rip apart every single thing Newt says in class. Don't get Newt wrong, that's all super fucking annoying, but it's annoying levels he can deal with.

It's the stuff they have in common that makes Newt hate him. It's like Hermann's a slightly broodier and more angular mirror that reflects all of Newt's most egregious faults—his arrogance, his stubbornness, his social awkwardness, his desperation to be taken seriously—right back at him. It sucks.

Plus, one time Newt caught Hermann ripping down the flyer he put up on the quad for Anime Club to advertise his stupid chess club instead, and he's never managed to forgive him for that.

Newt may hate Hermann, but he's not about to let him land on his ass in a puddle of fishy water (especially not on a freezing November night) just because the subsequent bitching would be unbearable, and, yeah, it would be supremely shitty of Newt, so he leaps forward just in time to catch Hermann and his cane before he hits the ground. He's so impressed with himself with his amazing catch that it takes him a few seconds to realize that Hermann is shouting and probably has been shouting since he slipped.

"—bloody maniac! What on earth are you doing in here? How are you in here? Did you just assault me? I'm going to phone campus police, you wretched—"

"Hold that thought," Newt says.

He rights Hermann and snags the mesh net and rescues poor Al before it's too late, dropping him back into the big tank with the rest of his friends. Newt can't be sure, but he thinks Al blows a bubble in thanks at him. Maybe he needs to make friends outside fish.

Hermann is still yelling at him.

"I am going to tell the head of the department you're—you're skulking about in here after hours!" he declares. "You're a menace. Pay attention to what I'm saying to you, Newton!"

Newt sighs and turns around. Hermann's turned an interesting shade of red—sort of like an over-boiled lobster, or if he fell asleep in the sun for too long. Newt wonders if it's from embarrassment (almost falling on his ass) or anger (almost being knocked on his ass). Probably anger. "Look, dude, I'm sorry," Newt says. His face twists like he ate a lemon, and he hopes Hermann doesn't notice. Newt hates apologizing to Hermann. "It's my job to clean the tanks every weekend. You scared the shit out of me and I freaked out—it's just that, like, no one ever comes by this late. Ever." He decides not to mention the serial killer thing. Hermann might make fun of him for being jumpy or paranoid or something.

Hermann's scowl doesn't lessen, but he does nod. Plus, he stops shouting. That's as much as Newt's gonna get of forgiveness. "Hmph," Hermann says. "You clean the tanks?"

"Every weekend," Newt repeats. He realizes he got some fish tank slime on Hermann's button-up when he caught him. Oops. Hopefully Hermann won't notice until Newt's in the safety of his dorm. "Gotta pay for my textbooks somehow." Then he frowns. "Wait, so what are you doing here? I didn't know you had access to the building this late."

Maybe Hermann is the kitchenette-cleaning guy after all. But, to his surprise, Hermann sniffs and casts his eyes to his dorky Oxford shoes. "Er," he says. "It's just—I was having trouble working out a solution to a problem, and thought a walk might do me good. Chilly nights like this one always do. And I quite like this building at night—it's calm, and much quieter than my dormitory." He fidgets. "And—well—only don't say anything to anyone, but I rewrote the permissions of my ID card so I could come and go wherever I please ages ago."

"You rewrote the permissions?" Newt says. "What the hell, wouldn't you have to hack into the security system or something to do that?"

"Well, obviously," Hermann says.

Despite himself, and despite Hermann being his Mortal Enemy, Newt is genuinely impressed. "Dude," he says. "That is so badass." Since when has Hermann been a badass?

Hermann's eyebrows jump, and he blinks at Newt behind his dorky librarian glasses. What twenty-one-year-old wears librarian glasses? With a chain? "You think so?" he says.

"Uh, totally," Newt says. "What problem were you stuck on? The one from Saturday?"

Being lab partners for engineering means Newt and Hermann have to collaborate on pretty much everything, including their midterms. Their midterm is what they've been working on for the past two weeks. On Saturday, though, they met in neutral ground to work on it (a reserved study room in the library), and, after a stupid and massive argument that had the librarians hoisting them out by their shirt collars and threatening to ban them for life, Hermann called Newt an idiot and stomped off into the night. Newt still hasn't gotten around to giving the problem another shot. Whatever, they have another week before the dumb thing is due. Plenty of time. Hermann nods. "Yes," he says. "Er—that one."

Newt glances at the clock ticking away on the wall. Quarter after eleven. Hermann's delayed him a whole fifteen minutes. Technically, he reminds himself, he doesn't actually have to have the tanks scrubbed by Friday night—he has the whole weekend to get it done. Also, he kind of feels like he owes Hermann for attacking him the way he did. Accidentally attacking. "Listen, Hermann," he says, feeling totally insane for what he's about to suggest. But he kind of wants to know more about Hermann The Badass. "What if we went back to my place and worked on it together? I'll buy us pizza, and I have, like, a bunch of energy drinks." The pizza place nearest campus is open until three in the morning, almost definitely because they get all of their business from sleep-deprived undergrads. Plus, they have midnight specials where you get free breadsticks with every pizza. Newt could go for some breadsticks. "It might be...fun," he adds.

Fun? With Hermann? Hermann will think he hit his head or something.

But to his surprise, Hermann doesn't hesitate even a second before saying "Alright, then."

"Oh," Newt says. He honestly thought Hermann would put up more of a struggle. "Cool!"

"But I might need to borrow a jumper," Hermann says. "If you'd be so...courteous, that is. I'm a bit chilly."

For some reason, the thought of Hermann (Newt's mortal enemy, but also a secret badass) curled up in one of Newt's baggy sweatshirts makes Newt feel all weird and warm all over. He swallows a few times, because his throat feels a little weird, too. Too tight. Like he just ate something he's allergic to. "No sweat," Newt says. "Let me just get these fish back in the, um, the tank. And—" He waves his slimy, gloved hands. "Take these off. And clean up that puddle. Gimme—um, gimme like, ten minutes?"

"Of course," Hermann says, and gives Newt a small, terse nod.

From Hermann, it's a smile. Newt almost slips on the puddle he's so blindsided by it. Stupid Hermann, making him feel all weird and clumsy.

#newmann #maria's fanfiction tag #Anonymous

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nriacc · 2 years

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D Is For Dangerous | Teaser |

Heres the teaser for NRIACC Part 25! You can read more (another section) than what’s below on Wattpad (don’t worry, Tumblr will get the full chapter before they do) Hope you enjoy. New chapter next week x

It’s needless to say that the next day when you and Alex crawled out of your bunk everyone had grins on their faces. As any normal friends would, they teased you both about it but when you told them that you were both serious about it and wanted to make it work they were thrilled for you.

And it made for a very fun warm up leg of the tour for Alex. He was doing what he loved and he had the woman who he’s been crazy for by his side for a good section of it.

Your mini date that he took you on was adorable. You’d not felt so giddy to be by his side since you were a hell of a lot younger.

And you honestly felt like you were on top of the world. Despite him only taking you out for lunch and then you went and watched Black Panther at the cinema.

It was the best day, filled with lots of stolen kisses and random acts of affection that made your heart soar. Him blowing random kisses at you whilst he was meant to be soundchecking and Y/B/F then telling him off made you giggle more than you let on.

You had to bite your lip sometimes, her shouting wasn’t scary like it was when Adam shouts. None of you could take her seriously until she actually lost her temper and then it frightened you all.

But you nearly burst a blood vessel trying not to laugh when she shouted at Matt. He was so taken aback and scared by her, when she moved on to micromanage something else the drummer looked around at you and the band very dazed and said, “She's not invited to the next tour.”

She was a funny one, bless her. But she calmed down when Charlie made the trip down again for the band’s London shows because they fell just before Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day was fucking hilarious for you. And very adorable.

Because you were in London, you stayed at Alex’s house the night before after his show which most of the 1975 boys were there for which was fun for you.

Matty was on a trip away to LA with Gabby. Not that he’d told anyone else that other than you because they still weren’t official yet but he was getting there with it and he was happy so you were really happy for him.

But what made you happier was the fact that you got a night to cuddle Alex in a proper bed. And you got to kiss him as much as you wanted to and you could talk and laugh and be as flirty as you wanted without prying ears around.

You had the best time. And the fact that Valentine’s Day was the next day and you had the day to yourselves, or that was what you thought until the doorbell to Alex’s front door went off.

“You alright to get that for me, Angel.” Alex calls from upstairs.

“Yeah,” You shout back as you get yourself up from the settee, “Is it someone you’re expecting?”

“You’ll see.” Is what you hear him call back as you head to the door.

You’re confused until you actually open the door and you’re met with your true soulmate standing on the doorstep looking fine as fuck. “Hey Baby.” George grins.

“What are you doing here?” You grin all excited opening the door more so your gentle giant can come in.

“I asked Alex last night if I could call and see you today and he said it was sweet, so here I am.” George explains and then he pulls a box of chocolates and a card from behind his back and says, “Happy Valentine’s Day. These are for you.”

“George,” You pout, your heart aching for him.

You’d actually marry this man in a heartbeat. You truly adore him.

“Your card is in my suitcase but it’s on the bus.” You tell him, scorning yourself for not thinking about it.

You both silently decided that Valentine’s Day was going to be your thing. After having such a good day with him last year you promised to do it again. But you really hadn’t foreseen you seeing Alex now.

“Don’t worry about it.” George grins before trapping you in the biggest hug.

God, you’d happily die in these arms.

As you clutch him back, your soulmate asks, “I was wondering if you would do me the honour of joining me for dinner again this evening?”

“Oh Baby,” You pout, a little sad to tell him, “I’m afraid I’ve got some news for you… Didn’t want to tell everyone last night.”

George releases you from your hug and raises his eyebrows, silently telling you to continue, “I’m seeing Alex now… We’re going out for dinner later.”

“You’re joking?” He asks with a blank expression which makes you nervous for a hot second before George then pretends to hold back tears and chokes out, “You’re leaving me on my own on our day?!”

“I’m so sorry Babe,” You giggle a little before telling him to, “Come here.”

You reach up to grab his jaw and when he leans down towards you, you pepper kisses around his face because he is the sweetest man to possibly ever live.

“You can kiss him on the lips.” Alex says from just down the hall, clearly coming to the door to greet George. He chuckles, “I won't stop your love affair for George, even if I wife you up.”

You giggle at that before you kiss his cheeks a few times and you finish off with a final peck to his lips. George laughs at you then but gently pushes you towards Alex who’s just come to stand beside you.

You give him a quick peck too because he’d been generous about you and George and he laughs a little at you. Nodding down to the card and chocolates in your hand, he laughs, “You’ve been spoiled today.”

“I know.” You grin and then look at George as you lean into Alex’s side. You tell the gorgeous tall man, “Thank you G.”

“Any time Y/N/N,” He smiles and then pries, “Are you official then?”

“Not official official yet, but I’m off the market.” You tell him with a little grin.

George grins at your best friend, “Clearly he’s been off the market for years, right Alex?”

“Yep,” Alex holds you the tiniest bit tighter when he confirms, “Very off the market.”

You can’t help the way your heart skips a beat then. An almost giddy excitement comes over realising he’s really yours to grab at this point.

All you need to do is wait until the break between the legs of the tour and you can date properly and then make it official. The thought makes you so unbelievably happy.

“I can’t say I’m not upset.” George pouts a little which makes you giggle

Moving out of Alex’s hold, you wrap your arms around George again, cooing, “Babeeee”

He hugs you back with a little giggle, “You know I’m joking, I’m happy for you Baby.”

George chuckles a little, “But I did want to fake a proposal again so we could get free dessert.”

Both you and Alex can’t help but laugh at that. The memories of last year always make you giggle but you can’t help but be a little devastated you’ve let him down this year. You glance up at him in your hug and offer, ”We could go out for lunch tomorrow?”

“Actually,” Alex surprises you both by saying, “I need to set things up for later so maybe you could go out to lunch with each other now. So then you keep your tradition and I can get the surprise set up?”

You look at Alex a little shocked but then you glance back up at George who has the makings of a smile on his lips, but you make both of them laugh when you say, “Wow, he’s bored of me already.”

Alex is shaking his head at you and George says, “If after ten years it’s not dissipated Baby, I don’t think it’s going to start now.”

You giggle at that knowing that’s very true and when you glance back at Alex you give him a cheeky grin. And then he makes your heart melt by tapping his collarbone twice.

Just as you’re going all gooey, George says, “Right come on then, let me take you out and sweep you off your feet to give this guy some competition.”

“Thanks G.” Alex grins and they do that bro hug thing which you find adorable.

George really has come a long way since that day in your flat where he was flabbergasted that you were telling the truth that you were friends with Arctic Monkeys. Almost too scared to talk to them and now he’s standing in Alex’s house.

George tells you he’ll go and wait for you in the car whilst you grab what you need and you can’t help but find the situation funny. You slip your shoes on by the door and when you're ready to go, you double check with Alex, “You sure I’m okay going?”

“Yeah course,” He smiles, wrapping his arms around your waist, “I want later to be special anyway so get going so I can sort some things out.”

“You’re adorable.” You grin and lean up to kiss him and your best friend kisses you back with a smile playing on his lips.

There never seems to be a day that either of you can fight the smiles away now. It may have only been a week but you feel like you’re permanently grinning all the time.

Kissing him for a few seconds makes you feel all gooey inside and when he holds you that bit tighter you half wish you hadn’t just made plans. Those plans see you’re otherwise occupied at the front door and he decides to beep his horn a few times with makes would have you rolling your eyes if you had them open.

You stick your middle finger up towards the open front door and whilst Alex chuckles into the kiss. After another few seconds, you pull away full of glee and say, “I’m really glad that this between us will never come above my love for George.”

“I know when I’m beat.” Alex shrugs and nudges you towards the door.

You giggle, playfully telling him to, “Shut up.” and before you leave, you kiss him once more and say, “I’ll see you later, my Darling.”

“Have fun, Angel.” Alex calls as you start walking towards George’s car.

Hearing that somehow makes your heart flutter, like the nickname always has done to you really. But as you head down the small steps, you turn back to your best friend who occupies your heart and you tap your collarbone twice and the grin that comes to Alex’s face makes your whole day.

He of course taps his too just before you turn back around and head to George’s car. You blow your man a kiss as you open the door and you turn to smile at George with a grin.

Your soulmate looks at you as you put your seatbelt on and you ask him a quick, “What?”

George looks back at you and smiles, “You’re both sickeningly adorable. I hate you both.”

And with that, George starts driving away with you laughing in his passenger seat as you wave to Alex who’s still standing at his door waving you off with a smile playing on his cute face.

~*~*~*~

Whilst you were out with George, you told him about you and Alex and what happened and that you wanted to take it slow with him to make sure it works. And your gentle giant is absolutely thrilled for you.

He tells you he can see how happy you are and you find him really cute that he’s so happy for you. George tells you that you deserve to be happy though which makes your heart warm because you were a little worried about what his reaction would be because of everything with Matty. But you’re so thrilled he’s happy for you.

And the way he keeps calling you, “Sickeningly cute.” because you keep grinning at every mention of Alex makes you even more flustered. So when your soulmate does his fake proposal to get you both a free brownie, it makes the whole thing even funnier considering he’d just been saying how cute you were with Alex.

Acting all loved up with George wasn’t a hardship when the time came though. You both play the part very well and you’re sure in another life you’d have been together in a heartbeat.

Who knows, if you weren’t Adam’s cousin maybe you’d have met your gorgeous George at the back of a crowded party where you both got a bit of peace before you finally ventured home with him by your side. You just know you could pull off flirting with him easily, even offending his precious snail tattoo would probably do the trick.

All thoughts of George are cast out of your mind when you get back to Alex’s house though. You’re greeted by your best friend with a big kiss and he asks you if you’re ready for what he has planned, to which you obviously reply yes.

The evening plays out with you and Alex cooking pasta from scratch with you both listening to music in the kitchen as you work, sharing the cutest moments where you’ll randomly kiss the other or one of you will wrap your arms around the other from behind. You’d honestly never had so much fun making spaghetti bolognese.

You’re pleased to report that when the time comes to actually eat your creation it tastes beautiful and Alex paired it with a lovely red wine. You both sat at his dining room table that your fucking adorable best friend littered with candles (you’re surprised it didn’t go up in flames) but then he got even cuter with what he had planned for after it.

After you’d eaten he brought you outside into his garden where you could now see that there was a hot tub on his patio and fairy lights illuminating everything around it. Turns out that Y/B/F must have been in on it because she’d apparently purchased a bikini on your behalf which your best friend gave you to change into.

Course it was a black one, you wouldn’t be surprised if Alex put that request in as you know it’s the colour he really likes to see you in. The both of you end up practically cuddling up together in the hot tub, drinking the wine until early hours of the morning where you share endless stories and kisses.

You don’t know how you haven’t heard every story he has to tell at this point but you’d listen to anything he had to say even if he was repeating himself over and over again. You’re so enamoured by every little thing he has to say and you could happily stare at those lips all day until they meet your own.

You can’t help yourself but just kiss him now. Saving your asking for another time, you savour these quiet moments with him because you know you’ll have to go back to reality of him being on tour soon.

You’re not worried about it though. Both of you have waited so long to be together like this that you’re okay to wait a little bit longer to have the build up that you crave.

After all, it makes it more exciting for what’s to come. After he’s done a month and a half of this warm up leg of the tour - with a week's break in between - you can start going out on proper dates when he gets his two month break. And you can’t fucking wait.

~*~*~*~

Read the next section of the new part Here!!!

Hope you enjoyedddd x

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mediocrevideopodcast · 3 years

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Happy Valentines Day!

Request: Hey since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, think we can have a Rottmnt special? Like crush made them homemade chocolate and shyly gives it to them? ✨✨ pretty please! 🙏

Pairing: All, Non-Poly. (Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, & April O’Neil.)

Content Warnings: None! Except for swearing?? I don’t know if people still tag for swears or not </3

Word Count: 1658

You thank the universe that nobody could hear your heartbeat, for if they could, the world would surely fall apart at the intensity of its beats. Your face burns hot, and your body shakes with each step you take. You pray to every deity you can think of that you don’t drop the chocolate you stayed up all night making. Pan after pan and recipe after recipe lead you to this moment, finally finding the perfect concoction. That’s what you tell yourself, at least. No, it is perfect! Right? Fuck, what’s the backup plan if he doesn’t like it? Should you scrap it? Should you have brought some for everyone? You’re so lost in your thought, you hardly recognize your surroundings as you step into the lair. An enthusiastic “hey!” from your friends seals your fate: there’s no turning back now. No second-guessing.

You’re gonna give it to them.

Raphael:

He’s so excited!! Chocolate? For him? From his crush?

He actually has to ask if you’re serious first, he can’t help it. Like really? Ethereal you made him homemade chocolate? He has to be dreaming.

“Are you sure you’re not confusing me for someone else? Not that I’m saying I don’t want it! Wait hold on, this isn’t coming out right-”

Raph what other giant, anthropomorphic snapping turtles do we know???

He smiles so big when you manage to stammer out that yes, this is for him, and he cradles the package so gently too. He’s such a sweetheart.

He actually made you something too!

He puts the box down gently before going to his room to grab it.

It’s a small handmade card with a little bouquet of wildflowers! (White trillium and starflower to be exact. He thought they were really pretty.) The bouquet is tied loosely with a red ribbon, pulled gently into a bow.

He was so nervous about giving it to you, that he actually wasn’t planning to at all! He’s had everything planned for weeks, but his anxiety kept getting the better of him. But getting something from you was exactly the kind of encouragement he needed to take that final leap.

He’s so flustered when he hands it over, and the way his hands shake makes you feel a little less shy. Maybe he does feel the same way?

Two shy dorks in love <3

Leonardo:

Yoo, for real? For him? Hell yeah, thank you!

He’s really confident on the outside. Like, he’s so excited and accepting about it it’s unreal. All of your anxieties melt away, as they tend to do around him, and you can’t even remember why you were so stressed in the first place! It’s Leo, after all.

He’s dying (in a good way) on the inside though. He’s just internally screaming. Holy shit his crush is giving him chocolate? And it’s homemade? Oh my god look at that tiny white chocolate drizzle, that’s so cute!! Is that a strawberry?? MANY thoughts, head FULL, and in LOVE.

(He’s gonna hardcore brag about it to his brothers later.)

His heart is pounding out of his chest, although he doesn’t divulge that information.

He asks you out right then and there. Like!!!

He doesn’t actually say the word “date,” but god. You’re suddenly all shy again, and you can’t do anything but nod furiously.

The date is super casual, (yes its at Hueso’s. He begs him to pull out all of the stops, and he does so, even if only to shut up Leo. Actual king <3) and it really puts you at ease. At some point he moves to hold your hand, and you can’t help the way your heart leaps into your throat. And he'd be lying if he didn’t feel the same way.

His confession is so eloquent, and yet… dorky. Sweet. Like he’s rehearsed it a million times, trying to find the best possible words to win your heart. Little did he know, he’s always had it.

Donatello:

oh no

He didn’t plan for this. Like, this was literally the one thing he didn’t plan for.

(He has confidence issues, give him a break!! How could he have known that you were going to give him something too? And give it first as well?? Which sets a precedent for the gift he gives?? Social interactions are Awful and he’s in Hell.)

He’s still pleasantly surprised though!

He kind of short-circuits for a moment, and he’s completely deadpan for at least three seconds. It’s the worst couple seconds of your life. Then he comes back to reality and thanks you super genuinely.

(It’s hard to read him at the best of times, and this is. So much. He just doesn’t know what to do with himself!!!)

He takes his time looking at every detail on the chocolates, and your anxiety dies down as you see the softest smile grace his features. It’s so genuine, and you don’t even think he knows he is smiling, so it’s really reassuring.

You take the time to really study his features, and fuck, he’s really pretty. You’re both flustered when you guys come back to reality.

He made you a gift too!! In fact, he has a whole day planned out.

It’s a long and fun day of running around the Hidden City, and at night, in New York.

It’s incredible.

He’s confident, and he says all the right things. He’s had this night planned out for weeks, and fuck if it doesn’t shine through.

At the end of the night, he gives you his gift with averted eyes. It’s a strange contrast to the pure exciting, confident persona he’s been putting on all day.

It’s handmade, and tailored to your exact interests and equipped with his own, Donatello-Style flair.

He’s confident in his tech, and he knows you like the back of his hand, but this is… completely new territory.

Valentine’s Day has never been so perfect.

Michelangelo

He did the same thing, actually!!! So this is actually so perfect for him!!

He spent all night making the perfect chocolates. Most of them are filled, and those that aren’t have some unique, artistic drizzle adorning them. If you hadn’t known better, you would have thought he got them from a fancy chocolate place.

He genuinely can’t contain his excitement when you hand him the box all shyly. His eyes light up with the brightness of a dying star going supernova.

He immediately hugs you, careful not to crush the chocolates, and then his mouth is moving at a mile a minute. It’s almost hard to keep up!! He’s just so happy and excited, and he’s running to the kitchen and he has a box too??? Hello, what’s going on??

He’s trying so hard to not just blurt out a confession here and now.

It’s completely impromptu, but he suggests going out on the town. He didn’t plan it, he was honestly just planning to stay in and watch some movies with you, but now that you’ve brought him a Valentine’s Day gift too? That means you like him too right, maybe?

If he’s gonna confess to you, it’s sure as hell not gonna be in a sewer. (Even if it is his home. It just ain’t right, man!)

It’s really fun! You feel so at home with him, and there’s no pressure at all.

Everything just seems to fall into place around him. He’s your home. Unbeknownst to you, he feels the exact same way.

He confesses by the end of the night. It’s so sweet and sincere, but there isn’t a single moment of hesitation. He’s so head over heels for you, and that love shows itself in every movement and word.

April

She’s never been given chocolates before!! She’s always looked on in envy through middle school, highschool, at work, etc. So fuck, if she’s not immediately swarmed with emotion. She’s like, two seconds away from crying. I love her so much…

It’s actually really funny, because she ordered a really nice bouquet of ivory & pink flowers from her local flower shop for you, but they hadn’t arrived yet! She’s super upfront with it, and it gets a good laugh out of both of you. The classic April O’Neil luck, ey?

It definitely lightens the mood, and she suggests going out to a local restaurant to get lunch, and then maybe go sightseeing! Or maybe just goof around in the Hidden City? No pressure!

It’s super fun! You never want the night to end, to be quite honest.

You get to choose the music while you guys drive around, and you end up picking the silliest stuff. You guys laugh and belt out the lyrics to every song.

The food at the restaurant is perfect, and everything goes off without a hitch. At some point she reaches across the table to interlock fingers with you, and you’re suddenly alight with so much love and recognition that this is an official date, and your best friend - your crush - is holding hands with you, and her hand is so soft and warm and… you’re so in love. And unbeknownst to you, she’s feeling the exact same strain of emotion.

At the end of the night she takes you to a rainy spot in the Hidden City, and you guys dance and sing in the rain.

Everything feels so natural and perfect with her. She’s your safe space, your home, your world.

You can barely stand to part at the end of the night.

When you do get back to your home, you find her gift at your front door. It’s a beautiful bouquet of white Gardenias, pink Carnations, pink Peonies, and… a white Lily. They stand perfectly in a vase, apparently left at your doorstep by the delivery driver. You place them on your kitchen counter as soon as you can, and text her immediately.

You love her with all your heart, and she’s head over heels for you, too.

#rottmnt x reader #rottmnt imagine #tmnt donatello x reader #tmnt leonardo x reader #tmnt raphael x reader #tmnt michelangelo x reader #tmnt april x reader #april o'neil x reader #rottmnt mikey x reader #rottmnt leo x reader #rottmnt raphael x reader #rottmnt Donatello x reader #rottmnt donnie x reader #donatello hamato x reader #leonardo hamato x reader #rottmnt leonardo x reader #tmnt imagine #tmnt x reader

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real-work-of-art · 4 years

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Can We Fall?

A little fall themed piece.

A/N: Thank you x a million to @oh-honey-styles, @for-fucks-sake-h, @andwhenshesays, and @haute-romance-quotidienne for always reading and encouraging me. 💕💕

Word count: 1.9k

Many people consider fall a time that represents sadness. As the leaves fall off the trees or as the days get colder, it’s only a matter of time till winter storms in with her frosty bite. But for you, fall always feels like electricity hanging in the air. Like something new could be waiting at the end of every gust of wind.

You were walking out of your favorite coffee shop on this cool Saturday morning, heading to the small pumpkin patch just around the corner. Dressed in your favorite blue jeans, brown booties, and a thick knit mustard cardigan, you held on tight to your cup of this month's specialty drink.

The pumpkin patch was less of an actual patch and more like a little stand surrounded by pumpkins that also sold some delicious fall desserts.

This was your tradition— every year you picked out a few small pumpkins and gourds to decorate your apartment with.

Luckily it was still early enough in the morning that only a few other people were out picking up pumpkins. As you approach the stand, you notice a young couple pushing a stroller and a man dressed in a black hoodie and running shorts picking through the box of gourds. Waving to the cashier, you walk around the little stand to search for the perfect sized pumpkins to decorate your window sills with.

Looking down at the pumpkins scattered on the ground, you notice two giant pumpkins next to a pair of feet. As your eyes travel up you realize it’s the man in the black hoodie. Letting out a little snicker, you wonder if he carried both of those over at the same time. The image, making you let out another little giggle.

~~~~~

Hearing what he thinks is a laugh, Harry looks over his shoulder to see a woman wrapped in a yellow cardigan, smiling down at his feet. He follows her gaze to the pumpkins next to him. With furrowed brows and a small smirk, he looks back up, but no one is there. Confused, he turns his head to the other side trying to find where she went. He only sees the couple talking to the cashier as they pay for their pumpkins. He questions if he imagined her. Just as he is about to forget about the strange moment, he hears a quiet “oh shit” come from the back of the pumpkin stand.

He sets the gourds he is holding back into the bucket, taking a few steps towards the back. Popping his head around the corner he sees the woman. Her back is to him but she’s bent down picking up an empty coffee cup and wiping away at a pumpkin covered in coffee.

“Are you okay?” Harry takes another step towards the girl but she jumps at the sound of his voice, falling back onto her butt.

Harry tries to take another step but his foot catches on a pumpkin and he trips. Falling on his hands next to her, he lets out a grunt before turning his head over his shoulder to look at the woman next to him.

~~~~~

You’re staring back at him with wide eyes, trying to hold back a laugh. “That pumpkin is a menace,” you say with your thumb pointed over your shoulder.

Shifting over to his bum, he leans back on his hands with his legs stretched out in front of him. “He takes the trick in ‘trick or treat’ very seriously,” he says with a smirk that makes a dimple dig deep into his cheek.

You laugh at his joke, while taking in the mess around you.

“I’m Harry by the way,” he says as he moves to stand, sticking his hand out to help you up.

Sharing your name, you grab his hand and let him pull you up, not letting the strength of his grip and his pull go unnoticed.

Dusting off your jeans, you’re at least thankful none of the coffee spilled on your clothes. As you check the different places of your cardigan for possible coffee stains, Harry picks up your now empty cup and walks to the nearby trash can, careful not to trip on any more pumpkins.

“Sorry about your coffee,” he says as he makes his way back to you. “They sell a really good pumpkin coffee cake here, though.”

“Oh! I’ve never tried it. I always get the apple pie.”

“Me too! It’s my favorite.” Harry was smiling at you but after a few seconds, when neither of you spoke again, you found yourselves awkwardly looking around at the pumpkins scattered on the ground.

“Um. I was actually just about to get one. Would you want to join me? Maybe we can split that coffee cake too.” His voice was smooth but you could see the hopeful glimmer in his eyes and the way he was fidgeting with his fingers.

You really wanted to turn him down. He was a stranger, after all, and the whole situation felt a little awkward, but you were also planning to order a dessert. So, it would feel silly if you both just sat at opposite tables.

Your eyes scan around the little pumpkin stand, realizing you are the only two customers left. “Um, sure,” you finally say. Looking back up at his face, a flash of surprise runs across his features before a smile spreads across his lips and his teeth poke into his bottom lip. You look away, distracting yourself from letting your mind wander with thoughts of how pink and soft his lips look.

Harry steps around you, walking back into the stand and straight to the cashier. You follow behind him unsure how this whole thing is supposed to play out.

As Harry reaches the counter he quickly begins to order. “Two apple pie slices, a pumpkin coffee cake, and two hot apple ciders, please.” You’ve barely reached the counter as Harry is pulling out his wallet and handing over his credit card.

“I can pay for mine,” you try to interject while reaching for your own wallet.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says with a smile, quickly making eye contact with you before turning back to the cashier. “I can carry this over. Do you want to grab a table?”

Honestly, you’re confused. Confused why this stranger is being so nice to you. It’s not like he knocked the coffee out of your hand or pushed you to fall on top of those pumpkins. There’s no reason for him to be buying you treats and offering to eat them together.

Regardless, you nod shyly and walk towards the two little tables set up against the stand. You slide into the seat with your back towards the counter. If you got up right now and ran away he wouldn’t know which direction you ran in. Checking over your shoulder to see if Harry is looking at you, you notice him engaging in a full on conversation with the cashier as they put your order together.

Maybe this guy is just friendly with everyone? You turn back around, quickly getting lost in the possible reasons for how you got here, who this man is, and why he’s so kind.

Lost in thought, you barely register Harry approaching the table, carrying a tray filled with all of the treats he ordered.

“Alright, here we go! One apple pie for you,” he places the desserts on the table in front of you, and quickly runs back to the counter to return the tray. When he sits down at the table he’s looking at you with the biggest smile spread across his face. You can’t help but let the corner of your mouth pull up into a smirk in response to his happiness. There really is just something so magnetic about him.

Harry and you talk and share stories while you finish your food. He asks you tons of questions about yourself, listening to your answers with an endearing intensity. He fights you for the last bite of the coffee cake, ultimately letting you win. His smile leaves you breathless every time. He tells you about his career, apprehensive at first but relieved at your calm reaction.

You knew of Harry Styles, of course. Having been a fan of One Direction back when they were together. The band separated and your life moved on as well. You tried to follow along with their careers. Listening to the music they released whenever you got the chance, but you hadn’t seen a picture of Harry in years.

He really was just a normal guy. Strikingly beautiful, sure, but also kind and genuine. He makes you laugh and as you both gather up the pumpkins you had picked, he offers to walk you to your car that was parked down the street by the coffee shop.

He insists on carrying your things for you, and as you reach your car, after placing everything in your trunk, you find yourselves standing awkwardly in front of each other. You want to see Harry again, but don’t know how to make that happen or if he is even interested.

Clearing your throat you finally speak up. “Thanks for walking me to my car, and for dessert. It was really nice meeting you,” you say as you dig the toe of your boot into the sidewalk.

“I had a great time too.” He looks like he wants to say more but quickly averts his eyes back to the ground shuffling his feet backwards. A gust of wind whips between you two. Stuffing his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, he slowly brings his eyes back up to yours, holding your gaze. With eye contact so intense, your body feels like it’s being pulled towards his.

“I uh thought, um maybe…” he stumbles over his words before taking a deep breath, “Maybe we could do dinner and dessert next time?” You can’t resist the wide smile spreading across your face, so completely endeared by him.

“Yeah, I would really like that. Maybe I could give you my number,” you offer. Harry quickly pulls his phone from the front pocket of his sweater. Unlocking it and handing it over for you to save your number in it, he can’t seem to wipe the smile off his face. You wonder if he’s having as much trouble as you are controlling the pounding of your heart against your chest.

Returning his phone back to him, you watch as he takes a moment to read over your contact in his phone. “I’ll text you,” he says accompanied by another one of his gorgeous smiles.

“I hope so,” you quip back as you step towards your car. Harry steps back as well, moving to turn and walk back up the street. He gives you one last look over his shoulder as you slide into the driver's seat. Watching him walk away for a couple more seconds, you turn on your car, place your phone in the cup holder and buckle your seatbelt. Just as you reach for the gear shift, you hear your phone vibrate. Seeing a message notification, you unlock your phone to view the message.

“Are you free tonight? - H”

Shaking your head, you let out a chuckle and quickly type out your response.

“Completely.”

Thank you so much for reading!

Falling For You (part 2)

Other works

Golden

The Night Before

Shut Up And Kiss Me

#harry styles writing #harry styles fanfic #harry styles x reader #harry styles blurb

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singtheskyandfightlikehell · 3 years

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BatFamily Headcanons: Stuffed Animals

In an attempt to productively combat my recent writer’s block, I’m practicing writing the batfam characters through short character study fics (which I will post once I make enough) and comparative headcanons. I might end up making short fics out of these, as well, since some of them got a bit long anyways

Today I decided to explore how many stuffed animals each member of the batfam (plus an adjacent character or two) has, what they think of them, how they got them, etc. I’ve got eleven characters on this list (and I’m still missing some, sorry)

Bruce:

Bruce put aside stuffed animals when he was eleven, deciding it was time to become serious. However, since acquiring children, he has been gifted a number of stuffed animals, ranging from a small and realistic brown bat to a child-sized bear wearing his cape and cowl. None of the children know this, but he keeps them all in a prominent position in his walk-in closet. Sometimes, when he has a particularly nasty fight with one of his kids, or he discovers something (like an injury) that they were hiding from him, he’ll tell the stuffed animals all the things he struggles to tell his children in the hopes that, one day, he’ll figure out how to express himself when it actually counts.

Alfred:

Alfred has no stuffed animals of his own, but he keeps the old, worn teddy bear that was once Thomas’ and later Bruce’s, alongside the somewhat lopsided bunny that Martha attempted to sew for Bruce when he was two. They sit side by side in a spotless glass cabinet filled with other memories that various members of the family have at one point or another attempted to cast aside.

Dick:

Dick has a pair of stuffed elephants, Eleonore and Zitka, and a teddy bear of his own, all from the circus. Most of the time they sit on the shelf under one of his nightstands, but when he has a particularly bad day, he’ll hold them all tightly until he falls asleep. If he’s crying, he finds it slows the tears to press kisses to the tops of their heads, or just smoosh his whole face into them. Sometimes, if he’s having a particularly good day – especially if no one else is sharing in his good mood – he’ll tell them about whatever made him happy. The rarest occasions are a bittersweet combination of both, the moments when he dwells on his happiest memories of his parents. When this happens, he is more likely to address them than his family, talking to them like old friends who were “there” for the things he’s recalling. It reminds him of the parties he would host as a small child, attended by his stuffed animals and his parents and sometimes other people from the giant family that was Haly’s, and for just that moment he’ll feel suspended somewhere between grief and content.

Barbara:

Barbara had lots of stuffed animals growing up, but as she got older, she gave most of them away. The only one she kept was a little otter that her father gave her for her first birthday. She doesn’t remember this, of course, but they have an old home video of that day which she’s seen a few times, and she know it’s one of her dad’s favorites to watch when he’s feeling nostalgic. She does remember the way she used to drag the otter with her everywhere she went when she was about four, and it’s so worn now that all of its original fluffiness has disappeared. She sets it up near her main computer and uses it in place of a rubber duck.

Jim:

When Babs decided she was too old for her stuffed animals, Jim was instructed to give them away at one of the Gotham children’s toy drives he helps run as commissioner. Only about half of them ever make it out of the house, because he keeps looking at them and remembering little moments that involve each of them. He has two boxes full of them that he swears he’s going to bring to the next drive, but he’s been swearing that for over ten years now.

Jason:

When Jason first arrived at the manor, he swore up and down that stuffed animals were dumb kids toys that he was way too old for. The first time Dick showed up at the manor after Jason was there, he brought a plush dog he’d picked up on the way there, unsure what to get his surprise new brother but not putting an excess of thought into it either. After all, he wasn’t about to ask Bruce what Jason might like. Jason made a show of scorn and tossing the toy in the trash, but when Dick was gone he dug it back out. When he was sleeping, he clutched the dog protectively against his chest like it might be snatched away at any time. When he wasn’t sleeping, he kept it hidden in a box wedged under a floorboard beneath the bed, alongside his other contraband. It was there when he died and it’s still there now. Every time he’s in the manor, he thinks about sneaking into his old room to retrieve it, alongside some of his other old belongings, but he never does. His reasoning alternates between not caring, being too old for toys, not wanting to set foot in his old room, and not wanting to get caught caring after all these years.

He does however have an obnoxiously long bright red snake that Roy won at some sort of archery carnival game while they were supposed to be tracking a suspect. He’d griped at Roy for wasting time with frivolous games, a complaint that was very on brand for their relationship. He’s pretty sure Roy saw through him, though, and understood the real reason he was so antsy to leave the carnival, given his soft apology later that night. He also recently acquired a floppy stingray, a gift from Lian for his latest birthday. She told him that she’d gotten to pet a stingray at the aquarium where she’d bought it, and it reminded her of him. Specifically, she’d said he was, “Kinda dangerous and maybe a little scary, but actually really soft to anyone who’s nice enough”. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that description, but the gift had a place of pride, resting atop an old model of his helmet that Roy had “defaced” with a sweet message that always made Jason smile.

Cass:

Cass grew up without stuffed animals, and was honestly a little confused at first about why she might want one. The first one she ever got was a tiny key-chain cat that was given to her by a little girl she saved. She was unsure what to make of the object itself, but she treasured it as a symbol, proof that she was doing good in the world. It was Steph who convinced her to look for more, to look for stuffed animals in her “style”. Eventually, she got two of the most different ones she could find: an iridescent octopus packed tightly with beans and made of a coarse fabric, and a large fluffy goose that squished like a cloud and was made of the softest fabric imaginable. She likes tossing the octopus lightly in the air to feel the weight of it, and faceplanting into the giant goose. She also has a big bear holding a plush heart that Steph got her for their first Valentine’s.

Tim:

Tim’s relationship with stuffed animals is a bit more complicated. He had five growing up: a dog, a bear, a lion, a rabbit, and a lamb. They had names, stories, personalities, and they were his friends (his only friends, at the time). When he was seven, he woke up one day to find them gone. His mother scolded him for his tears, explaining that he was too old for baby toys, and that his attachment to them would only hinder his path forward. For years, he felt ashamed whenever he thought of his grief towards them, because he knew they were just toys, he knew he was being a baby about it, and yet…

It wasn’t until he was fifteen years old and stumbled across an article about autistic people and the projection of feelings onto objects that he understood why he had been willing to sneak out at night to search through pawn store after pawn store and – once – the landfill in the hopes of seeing his beloved toys again. As a teen in the Wayne household, he knew he could get as many stuffed animals as he liked, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so after what had happened before. He got one giant, floppy moose, barely half a foot shorter than himself, that he clings to like an octopus when he manages to lay down, whether he succeeds in falling asleep or not. Additionally, on a night after Jason made amends with the family, Tim returned to his room to find a fifteen inch plush latte with a cute little face on the mug portion and a sticky note on top that simply read: Sorry for trying to kill you a bunch. My bad :) He keeps it on top of his dresser, and while he doesn’t really hug it, he did discover it was the perfect object for chucking at his siblings’ heads whenever the situation calls for it.

Steph:

Steph loves stuffed animals. While she never got any of the fancy brand name ones, or the luxuriously soft ones, or the hyper-realistic ones, her mom had a tradition of buying her one for every birthday, Christmas, and Easter. She soon had quite a collection, and – like Tim – she gave them all names and personalities. She played out complex scenarios with them and the few dolls she had, designing an intricate world of wild concepts and plots. She also used her stuffed animals to conquer her fears, like thunderstorms and darkness, by pretending they were all more scared than she was, so she had to be brave for all of them. Steph still has her whole collection, as well as quite a few “nicer” (though equally loved) ones that she has acquired from various Waynes. At this point, pretty much everyone in the Wayne family has given her a stuffed animal at some time or other. For a couple of years now, she has taken to posing with her massive collection and making fake family Christmas cards to send out to everyone she knows, where she will update them on the well-being of any plushie they’ve given her.

Duke:

Duke also has a great love of stuffed animals, although he doesn’t match Steph for quantity. He only had a few beloved animals growing up, all of which he’s held onto (a panda, a penguin, a turtle, a frog, a leopard, and a pikachu). Since being fostered by Bruce, Duke has taken to searching out and buying only the rarest stuffed animals he can find: an anteater, a platypus, a manatee, a sloth, and an axolotl have made the cut so far. Bruce knows about this and has taken to keeping an eye out for anything interesting whenever he’s out. After accidentally mentioning it at a gala one time, it has since become his favorite topic, as getting drawn into an intense discussion with Bruce Wayne about where to acquire strange plushies for his son elicits one of two reactions from his guests: delighted awws or hilariously awkward attempts to steer the conversation back to high society definitions of business and pleasure. At Duke’s request, a large shelf was built around the top of his room, so that all of his stuffed animals can sit comfortably and be clearly seen.

Damian:

Damian was much like Jason when he arrived at the manor in more ways than one, but his determination to prove himself above stuffed animals was certainly on that list. He sneered at his siblings’ attempts to treat him like the child he swore he wasn’t. And honestly, even after he began to lower his walls just a little, he still wasn’t particularly fond of stuffed animals. Sure, he privately thought they were cute, and sure he might (might) find himself holding one at night if it happened to have been left in his bed by an annoying sibling, but in general he preferred live animals to fake ones. Real animals had personalities and feelings, fake ones did not, it was as simple as that, no matter what Stephanie claimed. But as time went on, Damian found himself acquiring a small army of stuffed animals against his will. Some of his siblings (Jason, Tim, sometimes Duke) gave them to him because they found it funny to watch him growl about how he was not an infant in need of deceitful comforts. Some of his siblings (Dick, Cass, sometimes Duke… sometimes his father as well) would give them to him because they knew he liked animals so they assumed he’d like imitations of animals as well. Steph would just give them to everybody, every now and then. But regardless of motive, Damian soon found his room overflowing with stuffed animals that were moderately cute but ultimately pointless.

It wasn’t until a patrol a few years after he’d taken on the mantle of Robin that he discovered a solution. Tim had hidden a tiny stuffed bear in the medical supply compartment of his utility belt, a felt bandage wrapped around its little head. He hadn’t been wounded, but the young girl he’d rescued had been bleeding from a wound that looked worryingly dirty. The bear had fallen out of the pouch, right into her lap, and she’d stared at it with wide eyes, surprise halting the flow of her tears. She’d held onto it the whole time he disinfected her arm and bandaged it, and afterwards he had insisted she keep it. For the first time that night, she’d smiled. After that, Damian began taking a few of his many stuffed animals out on patrol with him, ready to hand out to any and all injured, lost, or otherwise traumatized children once he’d rescued them from their troubles. Eventually he began running out of toys he’d been gifted, even though he kept getting new ones, so at some point he begins to regularly sneak out for the sole purpose of acquiring stuffed animals to hand out. He never tells his siblings, but he suspects they’ve found out anyway, when the presents they give him drastically decrease in size.

#batfamily #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #duke thomas #cassandra cain #stephanie brown #barbara gordon #jim gordon #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #jayroy #stephcass #my headcanons #i stole elements of the hc for dick tim steph and duke from my own personality lmao #also the only portion of this that draws on canon (to my knowledge) is the stuff about dick #i've seen stuff about him having a stuffed elephant with both of those names so i decided to just give him two #can't go wrong with extra elephants #but yeah i hope there's nothing that like blatantly contradicts any of this stuff #i'm trying to speed read a bunch of comics rn but i keep reading like 50s-80s era primarily #so there's a number of characters i haven't really gotten to yet #also i've discovered i find green arrow comics more entertaining so lowkey i keep reading those instead oops #i have a very convoluted list of what i need to read to hit the major plot points of batfam and arrowfam #but i also lowkey feel like major plot point comics are gonna tell me less about characterization #filler episodes are where its at #but there's no reading order lists that give me 'best filler issues' sorted by character

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toastedkiwi · 4 years

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Wrong Cards

Summary: on a fateful day, Chris meets you.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Teen!Reader

Warning: angsty, death, gun violence, blood, shitty childhood.

You haven’t had the easiest life. In all your 14 years on this earth, it’s been hell. You’ve been on the streets. You’ve been moved around all over the country and put into homes only to be shooed away. It became very apparent that nobody wanted you or cared. Not even teachers. You’ve dealt with abuse, bullying, pretty much any nasty thing that a kid shouldn’t have to deal with. A kid should be loved and wanted and taken care of but it seemed like you ended up with the short straw way too many times. Until you met Chris.

It was dark all around except for the parking lot light. You and Issac had gotten into a scuffle by these gangsters— wannabe gangsters. Punches were thrown along with threats. Then a gun went off. He was this 12 year old you met— he lost his home and his abusive parents. You were looking out for him. You had gotten in front of him and took the hits and beatings. But Issac took the bullet.

Chris heard your crying and calling out for help. He ran. He pulled out his phone and came around a truck to see the scene. Your hands are covered in blood as you’re doing chest compressions on your dying friend. He can tell that you’re way too young and Issac is way too young to be shot. You’re just kids.

“Help! Please!” You begged.

Chris dials 9-1-1 and presses call. He pulls off his scarf and gets on his knees. He puts his scarf over the wound that oozes blood. He holds it down with one hand while the other holds his phone and he already feels the warm blood soak through the fabric.

“911, what’s your emergency?” The operator asked.

“A- A kid’s been shot,” Chris said as calmly as he could for you. “He’s losing a lot of blood. You gotta hurry.”

“Where are you, sir? And is the shooter still around?”

Chris gives the street and said, “I don’t know. Probably.”

He’s told to stay on the line so he puts the phone on speaker and puts it on the ground. Chris can see that you’re struggling.

“Switch with me, kid,” Chris said.

You looked up at him with a quiver of the lip. You nod and it’s a quick switch. He’s doing chest compressions and you’re applying pressure to the wound.

“What happened?” Chris asked.

“I- I can’t tell y-you,” you said.

You both hear the sirens of the cop cars and the ambulance. He looks at you to see your own face has been beaten. Your bottom lip is slit and bleeding. You have a cut over your right eye brow and it’s also bleeding. Your cheek is starting to bruise already.

“What happened?” Chris asked.

You kept your mouth shut. The ambulance rolls into the parking lot following a cop car. The paramedics rushed over. The cops immediately asked where the shooter is and you pointed the way to them. They head off and the paramedics take over. Chris has to pull you away from Issac. More cops show up.

“No pulse,” one of the paramedics said. “Shocking to 200. —Clear.”

You clenched your jaw tightly as you watched them try to bring your friend back alive. A cop is trying to talk to you. You haven’t slept in days. You haven’t had a proper meal in months. You don’t even know what day it is. And you’re numb.

“He’s gone,” are the words that you hear.

You screamed and cried. Chris stops you. He can’t believe the situation he’s in at the moment. He doesn’t know you at all. He doesn’t know the kid that’s dead on the wet asphalt of the parking lot. He just wraps his arms around you. You fight against him but you’re weak. You’re not that strong and Chris is an adult who religiously works out.

“Stop, stop,” Chris said. “He’s gone.”

You cried harder and managed to put all your strength into clutching onto Chris. He’s keeping you on your feet. If he wasn’t holding you, you’d be running till you have to stop and then you might be dead somewhere else.

~~~~~next day

“Y/n, you’ve got a visitor,” Andrew, a nurse, said coming into the room.

Chris Evans followed behind with a giant gift bag. You recognize him from last night. The one person who came when you called for help.

“Hey,” Chris said coming into the room. “I got you something.”

You’re left alone with the actor. He places the bag in your lap. You’re very confused. You’ve never have been given anything in these 14 plus years on this earth. It’s a first.

“Why?” You asked.

He sits down on the edge of the bed and faces you.

“Just open it,” he said.

You squinted at him. He grabs the pink tissue paper and tosses it behind himself.

“There,” Chris said. “Now, you pull out what I got for you.”

You pull out this LEGO set and Chris pulls away the now empty bag. You look at the front. It’s the Super Hero Airport Battle with Captain America, the Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, War Machine, and Antman.

“Why are they fighting?” You asked. “Superheroes don’t fight each other.”

“You haven’t seen the movie?” He asked.

You shook your head no and said, “I’ve only seen Iron Man 3.”

“Really?” He asked surprised. “Just Iron Man 3?”

“Yeah. That was when I had parents that wanted me,” you said and you looked back at the box of legos.

“What happened?” Chris asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“They’re dead like Issac,” you said. “They died in a fire. The house burnt down.”

“That sucks,” Chris said looking at you.

“I know,” you said. “Now, you didn’t answer my question. Why are they fighting?”

“There’s this document called the Sokovia Accords. All these countries wanted all the superheroes to sign them,” Chris started telling you. “And make the superheroes liable for their mistakes. The governments of the countries wanted to tell the heroes where they can go help and where they can’t even if people need help.”

“That’s stupid,” you said.

“Right. It’s pretty stupid. So, Iron Man, War Machine, and a few other Avengers signed the accords but Captain America was like, ‘fuck that.’ And so the Avengers were split,” Chris said. “They had one team— Team Cap, obviously the best team and they had another one- Team Iron Man.”

“Who wins?” You asked.

“Nobody. They’re divided,” he said simply.

“All because of the government?” You asked.

“Pretty much,” Chris said.

“Thats fucked up,” you said.

“Language,” he said.

“That’s messed up!” You corrected sarcastically.

“Much better,” Chris said with a shit eating grin on his face. “Why don’t we get started on building the set?”

He pulls over the table. You sit yourself up crisscross even though there’s pain in your ribs and abdomen but you haven’t asked for any painkillers. Chris gets onto the bed more invading your space.

“Take off your shoes, you wild animal. Haven’t you learned anything?” You sassed.

He immediately takes off his shoes giving you this exaggerated annoyed look. He gets onto the bed and sits across from you crisscross. You try to pick off the tape. He lets you struggle trying to get open the box.

“What’s your favorite superhero?” Chris asked but he has a feeling that it’s Iron Man.

“Whoever can get the stupid ass box open,” you said putting the box on the table in between the two of you.

Chris chuckles and takes the box. He rips it open and tears the back wide open.

“There we go,” he said putting it on the table.

“That was obnoxious,” you said looking at him.

He just smiled cheekily. You just shook your head.

“Alright, lets get building,” Chris said rubbing his hands together.

“You sure you didn’t bring this so you could build it yourself?” You asked.

“Excuse me?! I’m helping you build it,” he said and mocked offense.

“Sure,” you said sarcastically and taking out the instruction book.

Chris rolled his eyes. He knows for a fact that he’ll come back tomorrow to visit you.

“What’s your favorite movie?” Chris asked.

“Iron Man 3,” you said opening bag one on the table.

“I know Iron Man,” he announced.

“Are you trying to impress me? Like I don’t get it. I don’t even understand why you’re here and why you’re in the bed across from me or why you’re trying to get to know me by asking questions,” you said. “Don’t you have something better to do instead of spending time with a stupid ass foster kid that nobody wants?”

“First of all, you aren’t stupid. You’re smarter than you think you are. Secondly, I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you,” Chris said.

“No, you don’t. You just feel bad for me,” you said.

“Honestly, yeah, I do feel bad—,” he said.

“Get out,” you said without hesitation.

“Let me finish,” Chris said.

“No! Get out!” You yelled pushing the legos off the table. “I don’t need you! I don’t need your fucking pity!”

“Y/n,” Chris said.

“GET OUT!” You screamed.

He sighs and slides off the bed. He grabs his shoes and quickly puts them on.

“GET OUT!” You yelled.

Chris finally leaves. Your jaw clenched tightly and tears streamed down your cheeks.

“Dude, you literally kicked out Captain America,” Andrew said shaking his head.

“Leave me alone!” You yelled.

~~~~~next day

Chris walks into the room with a fuzzy blanket, his iPad Pro, and a bag of snacks. The LEGO set is built and off to the side on the table. You’re so far in the bed on the edge that you might fall off. You’ve also been crying. Chris puts the things he brought on a chair except the giant fuzzy blanket. He covers you with the blanket. You looked at him with your eyes red and puffy.

“I told you to get out,” you said.

“That was yesterday,” Chris said grabbing the snacks and his iPad. “Today is a new day.”

He kicks off his shoes and puts the snacks in your lap. He gets into the bed. You try pushing him off. But he’s a 38 year old man. He plants himself right next to you laying on top of the blankets.

“I do feel bad. No kid should’ve seen another kid die or be shot, Y/n,” Chris said opening up his iPad. “I don’t know what else you’ve gone through but I know that it sucked for you and it’s unfair. You should be dealing with high school drama instead but you got dealt the wrong cards, kid. It’s not fair at all.”

He looks at you to find that you have this frustrated look on your face as tears streamed down your cheeks. He puts his arm around you and pulls you into his side. You bury your face into his side and shut your eyes closed tightly. You choked out a sob. His other arm wraps around you and he holds you tightly as you cry.

“You’re gonna be alright,” he said softly. “You’ll make it through all of this.”

You continued to cry and Chris did his best to soothe and console you. He honestly doesn’t know what he’s doing. He just knows he’s gotta protect you.

“Let’s watch a movie,” Chris said as you calmed down a bit.

“W-What movie?” You asked quietly.

“I was thinking Iron Man 1,” Chris said opening his iPad back up.

“You- you have it?” You asked with your eyes lighting up.

“Yup,” he said nodding.

He opened up the collection of movies he houses on the iPad. He scrolls through until he finds it. He taps on it and plays the movie. He looks to see that you’re already entranced. It brings a smile to his face and he turns his focus back on the screen.

The two of you crashed as the credits of Iron Man 2 rolled on the screen.

“Would it be alright if I adopted you?” Chris asked when you two woke up from your impromptu nap.

“Don’t be saying shit like that if you don’t mean it,” you said immediately sitting up and looking at the actor.

“I mean it, Y/n. You don’t have to be dealing with terrible foster parents or being homeless cause it’s better than the other places you’ve been. I got room in my house,” Chris said sitting up. “I got air conditioning.”

“You’re- you’re lying. You don’t want me,” you cried.

He wrapped his arms around you and held you close. You tried your hardest to fight against his hold but he doesn’t budge.

“When have I lied to you?” Chris asked as you cried into his shoulder. “Have I lied to you since we met?”

You shook your head no and he rubbed your back.

“Then I’m not lying now. I’d like to adopt you if you let me,” Chris said.

“O-Okay,” you sniffled.

Chris smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

~~~~few weeks later

You were first greeted by a very happy Dodger. He jumped on you which freaked you out and you tensed up looking at the dog warily.

“Dodger,” Chris said grabbing Dodger by his collar.

He gently pulls Dodger away and you went back outside. He looks over his shoulder to see you descend down the porch steps. He puts down your backpack that has all you have in it and he takes Dodger outside with him.

“Dodger is very excitable. He loves people,” Chris said sitting down beside you but giving enough space in between. “Sit, Dodger.”

Dodger sits down planting his ass on Chris’ foot. Chris chuckles and pets his furry friend. He makes sure that Dodger doesn’t do anything to you.

“You okay?” Chris asked looking at you.

You shrugged your shoulders and looked away. You sniffled and tried your hardest not to cry. Chris watches as you hold yourself with your arms wrapped around yourself.

“I- I don’t w-want to get attached to him or- or you,” you whimpered with your voice trembling.

Chris slides closer and wrapped his arms around you.

“It’s okay to get attached, Y/n,” Chris said.

“B-But everyone dies!” You exclaimed looking at him with tears streaming down your cheeks. “My parents died. My sister died. My adoptive parents died. Issac is dead! He died right in front of me. Everyone I get attached to dies, Chris. You’re just gonna be one of them.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m not immortal and neither is Dodger and neither are you. Death is inevitable and you’ve dealt with it a lot. The world hasn’t been kind to you,” he said running his fingers through your hair. “You’ve lost so many people and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Y-you don’t know that,” you said.

“You’re right. I don’t but it would be a dick move on the world’s part,” Chris said.

You let out a small laugh as he pulled you into his side more. Your arms wrapped around his torso.

“C’mon, let’s go inside,” he said.

You nodded but you don’t move. He chuckles. He stays put for a little longer and holds you.

#chris evans x female reader #chris evans fluff #chris evans x y/n #chris evans oneshot #chris evans angst #chris evans x teen!reader #angst #ironman #iron man #marvel #chris evans fanfic #dad!chris evans x reader

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itsmeevie01 · 4 years

Text

Bio!Dad Bruce Month Day 13- Gifts

a teen was standing in an airport, the hood of his hoodie pulled up to hide his dark hair. His hands were stuffed in the pocket of his sweatpants, and he kept his eyes (really blue eyes!) fixed on his phone. When the arrival of the last flight from Paris for the night was announced, he glanced up, scanning the area. Satisfied that whoever he was looking for wasn’t yet at the baggage claim, he returned to his phone.

20 minutes later, the device binged, and his head shot up, once again scanning the area. The athletic boy’s face split into a smile when he locked eyes with a girl who was waiting near a pile of bags, looking through the ones that were spitting out. The boy made his way over and pulled the girl into a hug. After they had snagged the last of her bags (how on earth did the kid have 6???) the two made their way to the parking garage. When they neared the doors separating the warm airport, the boy pulled the girl’s hood up and made sure his was up as well before pulling the bags he had taken behind him. the tow hurried through the cold air, heads down.

As they passed a line of cars in the drop off lane, the boy’s hood got knocked off by the wind. He ducked down further, but by then, it was too late. “Timothy! Timothy Drake!” his name flew through the reports and visitors in the crowd. The boy, Tim, scowled and cut those closest to him a glare. The girl behind him sniggered at his distress before pulling her hood farther forward. As she pushed past the teen, there was a flash of blue eyes, before she was pulling him after her. As they hurried off, there were multiple flashes of cameras and questions floated through the air.

---

“what that fuck did you do?” the question was punctuated by the slamming of Marinette’s door. Tim huffed as he slumped into the driver’s seat.

“I didn’t do anything though! Honestly, it’s not my fault B has been making me do the public appearances for WE!” at his sister’s suspicious look, the older teen made a face and checked to make sure she had buckled her seatbelt. S

oon, the two were speeding down the road that led to the manor, where the rest of the family was gathering.

---

When they walked in, they were greeted by Alfred, who gave Tim an unimpressed look before smiling at Marinette and insisting that the two go join the family in the big sitting room. When they entered, they found everyone staring at the television, where a news story was flashing on the screen. As the Anchor continued to talk, a picture of whatever had caught the family’s interest appeared on the screen and-

“well shit, Timmy, can’t you even pretend to be low key?” Jason’s question made the other boy groan and throw himself into a chair.

“I tried, Jason. I tried. It wasn’t until we were almost to the car that someone saw us.” He glanced at the image on the TV, “at least M can’t be seen clearly. That went correctly.” Jason snorted derisively and let himself fall back into his seat.

“how long do you think before the conspiracy theories start flying?” at his question, Marinette looked up from where she was scrolling through her phone.

“oh, those have already started. Half of Twitter thinks I’m Tim’s Girlfriend.” The room erupted in laughter and the siblings moved to accommodate the teens before turning back to the news.

Bruce smiled at his children as they started to stumble down the stairs. First, Marinette had come down from her room. The 14-year-old had taken the holiday to swap out her jeans and long-sleeved tees for a pair of leggings and a long green top that settled mid-thigh. Although her clothes weren’t festive, per say, you could tell she had thought her appearance through very carefully. At this point, Bruce mused, he wouldn’t expect anything less from the budding fashion designer.

Next had come Tim, somewhere around 5 am. The teen had also changed from his Pajamas into what Bruce realized was an outfit Marinette had planned. Black joggers, black tee peeking out from under a red hoodie, and a pair of slippers that Bruce suspected were actually his.

Once the two had curled up together gripping their coffee, Dick and Jason appeared. They too had forgone the customary pjs for joggers, in Dicks case, and sweats in Jason’s. Dick was wearing a deep blue hoodie that was almost back, with…OH that must have been Marinette’s doing who else was going to make a custom hoodie for Dick that displayed his Nightwing symbol so subtly. Jason on the other hand…Marinette clearly had put less into being subtle with him. instead of a deep garnet that could blend into the bat symbol on his chest, the hoodie was a bright glaring red. On the back, in cursive, the name “Red Hoodie” had been sewn. Bruce held back a laugh of disbelief at the ease the girl had used to sneak the hoodies into the boy’s wardrobe.

While Bruce was marveling at his daughter’s creativity and sneakiness, Cass slipped in and settled next to him. she too was wearing a hoodie that Bruce now recognized as one of Marinette’s. it was black on black with white outlining the bat symbol. At his look of amusement, Cass handed him the hoodie in her hands.

It was black like hers, except much bigger and completely devoid of color. As he inspected the hoodie, Bruce found a small selection of embroidery on the bottom hem. “dad, I didn’t want to do anything huge, but this is a thank you, and a small reminder that I love you. Stay safe, Marinette Cheng-Wayne” he smiled as he ran his fingers over the stitching.

When he glanced over at Cass again, he found her playing with the embroidery on her own hoodie where it met her leggings. Before he could turn and say anything to the designer, Damien made his presence known as he entered the room. The boy scowled at everyone before he plopped down on next to Marinette, on the side opposite of Tim. Bruce shook his head as he watched his two youngest interact, Damien in a green hoodie and sweats. The hoodie wasn’t anything special, except for the red lining and yellow accents that Marinette had obviously added as a nod to his hero persona.

Alfred came in shortly after and handed out coffee and Hot Cocoa. As the siblings woke up, they moved so that the family made a semi-circle around the tree. They pulled out their phones and started checked the time, texted their friends, and generally got accustomed to the early morning.

When Alfred came back to join them, toting two giant trash bags and a camera, Dick perked up, it was time to start handing out presents. As the young adult started moving through the room, the others sorted what he was handing them when they all were given boxes in an unfamiliar paper, many of the older ones traded confused glances with each other. When the last present had been distributed, everyone turned to Damien who glanced around in confusion. “what? Do I have something on my face?” the others laughed, and Marinette bumped him with her elbow.

“its not that, little brother, you are the youngest, so you go first. You open one and everyone else will take turns after until it comes back to you!” the boy rolled his eyes at her explanation, before reaching for the paper that the rest of the family knew signifies that the gift was from Alfred.

When the youngest had opened the parcel to reveal a selection of books on drawing and wildlife, Marinette smiled at him and nodded to Dick, who had ended up next to Damien. Dick flashed her a bright smile and opened his own present form Alfred. After Dick, Jason tugged off the paper on his box. Then, Cass who turned to Bruce with a prompting tilt of her head. After Bruce had opened his bag (really, Alfred! He didn’t need any more books on raising emotionally stable children. He had done well so far, right?) he nodded to Alfred who raised a pointed eyebrow at him (about what, Bruce wasn’t sure. He hadn’t done anything yet, had he? It was barely 6 in the morning!). Tim rolled his eyes at their interaction, before ripping open his own package and letting out a yelp of happiness at the stack of books that he found waiting for him.

After that, Marinette simply giggled at the family antics and opened her gift. When Damien reached for the next present, Alfred lifted his camera to capture the smiles that were flooding the room.

Somehow, Damien had left the unfamiliar papered gift for last. When he reached for it, he tried to do a mental tally to figure out who it could be from. First they had opened Alfred’s gifts, so it couldn’t be him. then they had moved onto Bruce’s then Jason’s. After that, they had gone through Cass’s (apparently, she was a notoriously bad gift giver) and his own. Then, Damien had reached for the ones he knew came from Marinette, before deigning to opened Tim’s. if they had opened all of the family presents, then…” Alfred, why are these under the family tree?” Dick’s question broke Damien from his thoughts. “shouldn’t we wait until the Kents get here to open these?” the old Butler shook his head and gestured for the vigilante to open the box.

When Dick did as instructed, he full on squealed. “How!” at the family’s confusion, the oldest of the siblings held up a card that had been nestled inside. The small crème square read ‘Complements of MCW’. As the family processed what they were seeing, all hell broke loose. The others tore into the boxes in front of them, and all found a personalized gift, and a matching Christmas sweater. No one noticed Marinette’s small smile at the chaos surrounding her, or that though she had the Christmas sweater, she didn’t have a personalized item to go with.

No one, that is, except Tim.

so, this is LATE, because the place im staying over the weekend has crazy spotty internet and i couldnt get Word to save anything. that said, i will also be uploading day 14, so keep an eye out for that today...

#b!dbwm2020 #ml x dc #miraculous ladybug #maribat #bio!dad bruce wayne month 2020 #b!dbwm #marinette dupen chang #my writing

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snowdice · 3 years

Text

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 45]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17

I have an aggravating task to do tonight which I have been avoiding... let’s do this!

Chapter 18

They made it all the way to the big blowout between Al and Melly where Melly got mad and left the group to their fate in the magical garden by the time Virgil awakened completely from his food coma (he’d never actually fallen asleep, or at least he always responded when Patton asked) and squirmed around for a bit before sitting up.

Logan hadn’t been particularly interested in the story he’d heard many times before and was reading a book of his own on Patton’s other side, but he put a bookmark in his book when Virgil sat.

“Want to take a break from reading?” Patton asked. “We can do a bit more later, but we have more than just food and books planned for tonight.

“Okay,” Virgil agreed easily.

“Great!” Patton said clapping his hands. “We’re going to introduce you to the most fun sleepover party event ever!”

Virgil tilted his head.

“Dress up!” Patton said. “Also make-overs. We’ll do you first and then we’ll help you learn how to help pick out other people’s outfits and make-up. If you want to, of course.”

“Sure,” Virgil said with a shrug.

“Yay!” Patton hopped to his feet. “You stay here. Lo and I will get everything ready.”

He pulled Logan to his feet and over to the chair that was the perfect height for doing make-up.

They set up what they’d need for make-up and then Patton instructed Logan to grab the clothes of his they usually used for this sort of thing out the closet that Virgil wasn’t set up in while he grabbed the pieces he himself had brought upstairs and strew them over the bed so they could see anything.

Smiling happily, Patton looked over at Virgil who had stood up in the giant pile of pillows and blankets to watch him with intense eyes. He looked like he was memorizing every action Patton took as though expecting a test at the end. He was so adorable. A rush of affection and a touch of mischief hit him suddenly.

“Hey Virgil,” Patton said. Virgil looked over at him. “Can I tackle hug you into that pile of pillows?”

“Tackle hug?” he asked.

“I run over and hug you so hard that we fall into the blankets. I do it to Logan all the time without warning, but I didn’t want to confuse you.”

Virgil considered the offer for a couple of seconds. “Okay,” he finally decided.

“Great!” Patton did a little hop before launching himself across the room. He slammed into Virgil, who apparently had very good balanced because they didn’t immediately fall backwards, but then he seemed to remember that he was supposed to let Patton slam him into the pillows, and so he fell back on his own power.

Patton giggled when they hit the ground and drew back to look at his face. “I got you!” He leant forward to kiss him on the nose. “Oh wait! I should let you fight back.” He propped himself up on one arm and held out the other hand. “Pinkie promise not to hurt anyone if I let you use the 3rd setting again?”

“Pinkie promise,” he agreed with a grin, linking their pinkies.

“Great!” Without hesitation, Patton did the hand motion to allow the restraints to be in the third setting.

Patton was on his back almost instantly, but he didn’t even have a chance to think about worrying before Virgil pressed a kiss to his nose in a mirror of what Patton had done a moment before. “I got you,” he said proudly.

“So, you do,” Patton agreed with a laugh. He reached up on of his hands to card it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil leaned into the touch and then practically melted on top of him. “Virgil,” Patton laughed. “It isn’t nap time.”

He grumbled something unintelligible into Patton’s neck making Patton giggle more.

“Sweetie, please.”

Thankfully Logan saved him from the unrelenting cuddling by poking Virgil in the side. “I have finished preparing the stations for the makeover and dress up. You need to get up now.”

Virgil made a noise that sounded like a growl, but he did roll off of Patton.

Patton hopped to his feet and helped Virgil up before pulling him over to the piles of clothes. “We pick the outfit first, but you don’t put it on. Then, we do your make-up and hair based on it. Then, we get you dressed and do touch ups. Okay? Pick anything you want.”

Virgil looked over the options, eyes going a bit wide. “It…” he said. “It all looks really fancy and expensive. Are you sure you want me to touch any of it?”

“We wouldn’t be offering anything we didn’t want you to touch,” Logan said gently. “In fact, I insist you touch all of it. Beyond just appearance, making sure the texture of the fabric is agreeable is a large part of this activity.”

Patton picked up one of the pieces of fabric he knew was very soft and offered it to him. He touched it with careful fingers, his eyes lighting up at the feel of it. They had to continue nudging him into feeling the different fabrics, and he hesitated when they asked him to pick his favorite at the end, but eventually he shyly pointed at a dark purple dress.

Patton clapped. “Great! Ooo, I already have some ideas for make-up that will go with that.”

Virgil let Patton pull him over to the chair they’d set up and settled down on it.

29009

Patton hummed. “I think silver and purple make-up mostly?” he said.

Logan nodded and they grabbed a few things from the make-up kit. Logan let Patton do most of the make-up as he tended to be better at the more creative parts, but Logan was the one who gave him the fancy winged eye liner with purple sparkles because he was really good at them.

“You look fantastic!” Patton squealed when they were done. He held up a hand mirror for Virgil who studied himself in it for a long few moments. “Do you like it?”

“It’s really nice,” Virgil confirmed. Patton smiled and hugged him.

“Next hair. We have a lot of accessories. I’ll let you pick from the purple ones.”

He and Logan sorted through the jewelry box full of different hair accessories for the royal family and ended up finding three purple ones. Patton hesitated a bit over one of them, but Logan picked it up and set it in front of Virgil for him.

“Your choice from these three,” he said.

One was a purple feather with little hooks to braid into hair, one was a smattering of purple and silver stars that would weave through the back of someone’s hair, and the last was a string of silver leaves with purple tips that would wrap up the back of a person’s head from a bun.

Virgil thought for a moment and then pointed to the one made of leaves.

Patton glanced at Logan who took the hairpiece. “I’ll do your hair right for that one,” he said. “I know how it fits.”

He grabbed the brush and carefully ran it through Virgil’s hair. Virgil seemed to like the attention, leaning into the touch, and a smile flickered over Logan’s face. Logan started gathering the hair together to make the low bun that would be the base of hair arrangement. Patton honestly did not expect him to speak, but then he did as he started to secure the piece with pins.

“This was my Pa’s favorite hairpiece,” Logan said. “Not the father you came here for, but my other one. He died when I was six.”

Virgil went shock still. “I don’t have to...”

“I wouldn’t have let it be offered if I wasn’t okay with you using it,” Logan said.

Virgil didn’t move as he finished securing the hairpiece. “There,” Logan said when he was done. He picked up the hand mirror and positioned it so Virgil could see. “It suits you.”

“I…” Virgil said. His eyes were wide, and he clearly didn’t know what to say.

“Now,” Logan said. “I believe there are some other pieces of jewelry that would match this very well in the other room. I…” he turned away. “If you will excuse me.”

He turned away and exited through his bedroom door into the hallway. Patton watched him go and then turned to Virgil. “I’m going to go make sure he’s okay, okay?” Patton asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong, there’s just a lot of emotions.”

“I can take it out…” Virgil said.

“No,” Patton said. “I think he likes that you’re wearing it.” Virgil bit his lip. “He never really moved on,” Patton felt inclined to say. “This is… a lot for him, but I think it’s good too.” He leaned forward to kiss the top of his head, being careful not to mess up his artfully done hair. “I’ll be right back.”

He turned to follow Logan out of the room.

Chapter 19

Thomas sighed in relief as the door to the royal wing finally came into sight. He was exhausted from his journey to Lamir for many reasons. Beyond just the physically taxing journey, he’d also had to deal with the emotions of loosing someone he had thought of as a friend while also trying to help her young daughter who had just had the crown thrust upon her.

Now he just wanted to see his own child and curl up into bed. He smiled at Owen and Kalani as he approached. “Is Logan here?” he asked.

Owen nodded. “The prince and his royal advisor are having a slumber party.”

Thomas smiled. “Of course, they are,” he said.

He said goodnight to the two guard as they’d be getting off duty soon even if he did manage to drag himself out of his room again tonight and walked past them into the hall.

He walked past the room where they kept the jewels, though was unsurprised to see that the room was unlatched as Patton loved playing around with the different jewelry and had probably left it open when he grabbed them. He was however surprised when his son’s room’s door was thrown open, as Logan usually couldn’t stand for the thing to be open with or without him in it.

Thomas didn’t think much of it however, and simply walked over to look inside. He was surprised when he didn’t see his son or Patton and instead saw that the only person in the room was a young boy that Thomas did not recognize. He was seated in one of Logan’s chairs and had his head tilted looking at himself in the mirror. He seemed to be trying to get a look at the ornament on the back of his head, and Thomas felt his heart seize a little bit when he recognized the hairpin.

He hadn’t recovered from that gut punch when the boy’s eyes drifted and met his in the mirror. There were a couple of long seconds where the two of them stared at each other in silence.

“Hello?” Thomas finally managed to get out.

Panic. There was suddenly horribly intense panic in the child’s eyes, the likes of which Thomas had never seen before. Thomas could only blink dumbly as he hopped to his feet like his seat was suddenly made of hot coals and then threw himself across the room to the opposite side from Thomas.

He looked around himself, back to the wall and considered Thomas with wildly spooked eyes. Clearly, he realized that he was pinned in Logan’s room by Thomas being in the door.

The boy dropped suddenly and disappeared under Logan’s bed.

“Uh,” Thomas said, confused and shocked and still a bit in pain from seeing that piece of jewelry in use. He crossed slowly over to the bed and bent down to look under it, moving the bed skirt slightly to the side. He saw a small shaking blob curled up into itself under the bed. “Um, hi,” he said softly.

The blob did not respond except to continue shaking.

Thomas frowned and settled himself onto the floor. “It’s okay,” he said softly. Had he been here stealing things? Thomas had to wonder as he wasn’t sure why someone here for legitimate reasons would be acting so terrified of being caught. Though, that posed the question of how he’d gotten past the guards, and why Logan hadn’t noticed him. “I’m not mad,” Thomas said. “You’re fine.”

The boy looked up briefly from his knees looking terrified. Thomas tried to smile at him gently, but that just made him hunch into himself more, his breathes coming faster. That wasn’t good.

“No, shh,” Thomas said softly. “It’s okay. I promise it’s okay.” He did not seem to believe him, and Thomas winced. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just leave him here but trying to talk him down himself didn’t seem to be working.

Luckily, a familiar voice spoke from behind him then. “Dad?” Logan asked.

Thomas looked back at him. Both Logan and Patton were standing at the door, a couple of pieces of jewelry in their hands. They seemed very surprised to see him.

“You… seem to have a guest,” Thomas informed them.

“I…” Logan said, beginning to edge into the room like he was expecting something to blow up at any moment. “Yes.” He got to Thomas and squeezed himself between him and the bed, putting a physical barrier between Thomas and the boy. Confused, Thomas took a couple of steps away without challenge. “That,” Logan glanced behind him. Patton had moved to the opposite side of the bed from Logan and Thomas and had gotten to his knees to look under it. “That is Virgil.”

Thomas blinked at him. “Virgil?” he asked.

“He’s… new to the castle,” Logan explained. Patton started speaking softly the boy, but Thomas could not make anything he said out. “Patton and I… invited him to a sleepover.”

“The guards didn’t mention anything,” Thomas said, sure that they would have warned him if there was a stranger in the royal wing.

“Uh, well, Virgil is… shy and we didn’t think you’d be back for another week. So, we snuck him past them.”

“Shy?” Thomas asked doubtfully. That was a lot more than shy.

“Particularly of adults,” Logan said.

Thomas took a moment to let that sink in. “Oh.” He was… scared of adults. Thomas could imagine many reasons why that might be the case and none of them set well. “I see.”

“Hey, no, sweetie, stop that,” Patton said, sounding distressed. Patton had managed to draw Virgil out from underneath the bed, though they were both still mostly hidden behind it and Thomas had no question in his mind that if he went to step towards them, Virgil would be back underneath it in a moment. Currently the boy seemed to be clawing at his own head. “No, baby shh,” Patton said, trying to stop him from tearing the pinned in hairpiece out, Thomas realized. “I’ll get it out,” Patton promised him. “Just calm down and let me do it.” He sounded close to tears, and Thomas couldn’t particularly blame him with the way the boy was acting. “You’re hurting yourself, baby.”

He must know, Thomas realized. If Logan had known he was here, then he must have allowed him to use that hairpiece. He’d probably even told Virgil that it belonged to his dead father. Now he was probably terrified that Thomas would be mad at him for touching it, especially when he’d come in to find Virgil alone without Logan to explain.

Patton managed to get all the pins undone and placed the piece delicately on the bed before wrapping himself protectively around the boy and hushing him.

Logan was looking back at them as well. He looked between the puddle of upset on the floor and Thomas. “Could…” he said. “Could I maybe come and see you in a few minutes, Dad?”

“Of course,” Thomas said. “Of course, I’ll go wait in my room. Take as much time as you need.”

He was careful to move slowly as he stepped towards the door, so the poor thing didn’t notice him move and mistake it for him approaching. He closed Logan’s bedroom door softly behind him feeling even more drained than he’d been before as well as anxious and a bit sickened. He went to his own bedroom to wait for Logan.

Chapter 20

Logan let out a slow breath as his father closed the door behind him. That could have been very, very bad. He turned his attention to Virgil and Patton. Patton had curled himself around Virgil as much as physically possible and had tucked the boy’s head under his chin.

Logan slowly rounded the bed and knelt in front of them. “It’s alright,” Logan said, cautiously moving to put a hand on his shoulder. Virgil didn’t pull away. “I asked him to leave. It’s alright.”

Virgil tilted his head slightly too look at him. Logan rubbed a circle into his back as he slowly got control of his breath.

Logan smiled softly at him and reached out to touch his cheek with a gentle hand. “You… didn’t hurt him. You didn’t even try to hurt him.”

Virgil shook his head.

“Why not?” Logan asked curiously. “It was a perfect opportunity.”

“Promised Patton,” Virgil mumbled, and the idea that perhaps the thing that had saved his father’s life was a pinky promise just about gave Logan a migraine, but then Virgil ducked his head. “And it would make you sad.”

“I see,” Logan said, heart in his throat.

Virgil kept looking towards the floor, his eyes starting to fill with tears again. “Are you going to turn me in now?”

He was shaking and barely holding back a fresh wave of tears. Logan knew of course that no one would hurt him here if he turned him in to his father and the guards, but he also knew that Virgil would be terrified if he did so. He was already terrified. Logan didn’t want to know what he thought the fate Logan would be condemning him to.

“No,” Logan said before he could even truly think it through. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re not?” Virgil asked.

“Well, there wouldn’t really be a point, would there?” Logan asked. “The reason we planned to turn you when father got back in is because you posed a danger to him, but you have just demonstrated that is no longer an issue.”

“Really?” Virgil asked, sniffling a bit and Logan saw Patton’s arms tighten even more around him.

“We will have to figure out a better cover for you than just that you’re new to the castle, but I believe it will work fine. No one besides the two of us would ever guess your origin anyway.”

“S-so I can stay?” Virgil asked, “and you won’t throw me into prison or execute me?”

“I promise you were never going to be executed Virgil,” Logan said. “Even if we turned you in, but yes you can stay with us. We’ll figure out a backstory for you that doesn’t involve assassinations and you’ll have to keep up the lie, but I doubt anyone will question it.”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” Virgil said, chocked up. “Thank you. I really didn’t want to go.”

“Well, you’re our friend now so there will be no going anywhere,” Patton said kissing him on the cheek. Virgil relaxed back into his hold, pleased with the affection.

Logan smiled at them both. “Can I see your wrists, Virgil?”

Virgil blinked but offered them and Logan tapped the restraints doing a quick incantation. They popped off after a moment.

“You’re letting me go?” Virgil asked, eyes wide.

“Of course,” Logan said. “We’re not just going to keep you prisoner for no reason.”

“That’s…” Virgil said, eyes watering as he clearly was trying not to cry. “You’re the best people I’ve ever met.”

“I wish that was not so clearly the case,” Logan replied. He slowly reach up and set a hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to go speak with my father. Patton will stay with you.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed, seeming a bit hesitant.

Logan smiled softly and leaned forward to gently touch their foreheads together. “I will be right back,” he assured. “We will finish our slumber party, though perhaps we will table the rest of the dress up activity for another night.”

He stood then, leaving Virgil in Patton’s capable hands to exit his own bedroom and cross the hallway to his father’s. He took a brief moment to compose himself before knocking on the door.

“Come in,” his father called.

Logan opened the door to see his father sitting on one of the armchairs in his room. Despite the almost disaster that had taken place a few minutes ago, Logan found himself smiling at the man. It was nice to have him home.

“Sorry about that,” Father said.

“It was more my fault than yours. If I knew there was a risk of you coming home today, I wouldn’t have left him alone.”

“Is he alright?”

“I believe so,” Logan answered. “Patton is with him and will certainly smooth out any lingering distress.”

“Good,” his dad said. “That’s good.” There was a pause and then he gestured at the seat beside his.

Logan settled himself down on it. “How was your trip?” he asked. “You’re back a week early.”

“Yes,” Father said. “The trip went better and worse than anticipated.

“How so?” asked Logan curiously.

“Well,” Dad said. “The purpose of the trip was to convince the new queen of Lamir, Cecil not to ally with Mocnejsi, but by the time I’d arrived there wasn’t really a risk of that.”

“Why not?”

“After investigation, it turned out that Cecil’s mother had been poisoned by an assassin from Mocnejsi.”

“Oh,” Logan said, mind already racing.

“They figured out that one of the young women who had been hired on in the kitchen for the winter had done it, and had learned her origin when they questioned her,” Dad informed him. “Considering Cecil was immediately approached for an alliance with Mocnejsi, their aim was likely to manipulate her going forward because of how young she is. Luckily, Cecil is a smart girl and has the help of her mother’s advisor as well as her own. By the time I got there, my only real role was to extend my condolences and reaffirm out alliance. I would have stayed longer, but the possibility that Mocnejsi may think to attack us in a similar way hastened me home.”

“That…” Logan said. “That is wise. I assume you are going to institute more security.”

“I am, yes,” Dad replied. “I would like your input on plans in the coming day.”

“Of course,” Logan agreed.

Dad smiled at him, “But for now,” he said, “I think it’s time you get back to your slumber party and I get to finally go to sleep.”

Logan nodded and got to his feet. He leaned over to hug his father perhaps a bit longer and harder than was strictly necessary, but Dad did not seem to mind at all. “Goodnight,” Logan said.

“Goodnight, son.”

Chapter 21

Virgil woke with something soft but kind of stringy in his face. That was weird. He didn’t know what in the closet would feel like that. In fact, as he woke more he noticed more things that he couldn’t sus out the origin of, particularly the warmth curled up against his side. Curious, he blinked open his eyes. Oh, right. Patton.

The soft stuff in his face was Patton’s hair and the warmth next to Virgil was the rest of the boy’s body. Patton had all but refused to let Virgil go last night after Logan had taken off the restraints and Virgil hadn’t minded the attention. They must have fallen asleep together in the piles of pillows and blankets on the floor.

Virgil brushed his hair gently away, internally (for fear of disturbing him) shaking his head at him. He’d fallen asleep hallway on top of an assassin. He had no self-preservation instincts. He looked at his wrists. It seemed no one had any self-preservation instincts. This of course, included himself as instead of running off when free in case they decided to turn him in after all, he had fallen asleep on the floor with Patton too.

He looked to the side and saw Logan was already awake, reading on one of his chairs. He seemed to sense Virgil’s eyes on him because he looked up after a moment.

“You can get up if you like,” Logan said. “He is a heavy sleeper and won’t wake up if you squirm out of his grip.”

Virgil frowned, unsure if he wanted to risk it.

“I have breakfast ready for you.”

Okay, Virgil was going to risk it.

He carefully squirmed out of Patton’s grip, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead in apology for leaving him before getting to his feet.

Logan handed him a plate of eggs and toast when he walked over and gestured to the chair next to him. Virgil sat there to eat while Logan continued to read.

Virgil ate his food quickly, and then glanced over at Logan once he was done. Virgil was honestly at a bit of a loss. Usually, they came and got him out of the closet only once they were ready to do something, but Patton was still sound asleep on the floor and Logan looked engrossed in his book.

Virgil fidgeted slightly, unsure what he should be doing or even if he should be doing anything. Considering Logan hadn’t given him any instructions, he should probably not do anything. He didn’t want to screw up the first day of… whatever this was now.

Logan glanced over at him after a few minutes. “Don’t forget about the potion,” he reminded.

Virgil nodded and stood, walking over to the closet since it would still be in there from the previous morning. It was about half gone now and it had gotten to the point where Virgil didn’t feel any immediate affects from it anymore other than some warmth. It basically just felt like drinking tea.

He said as much to Logan when he walked back over to him.

“That’s good,” Logan said, “it means it has been working. It has healed any damage it can from malnutrition. Any internal organs that were damaged should be mostly healed. You may even notice your eyesight getting slightly better. Your immune system should also be boosted. You will likely also find it is easier to gain muscle and while you likely will never be as tall as you could have been, you will likely still grow a few inches during your next growth spirt.”

Virgil studied his hands where they were sitting on his thigh now as though he could see the changes that allegedly had already taken place in his body. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Of course,” Logan replied, eyes already back on his book like it was some normal thing and not a huge kindness he’d bestowed on Virgil before even really knowing him. As though Virgil didn’t just owe him more than just his life going forward.

They sat in silence then for a few more minutes, before the was a soft sigh from the floor and Patton started to wake. He sat up and looked around. His eyes landed on both Virgil and Logan sitting together and he seemed to light up.

“Good morning!” he chirped.

“Good morning, Patton,” Logan said as Patton popped to his feet, “I have breakfast for you.”

“Thank you Lo,” Patton said, throwing his arms around Logan’s neck, and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Virgil presumed from the lack of surprise on Logan’s face that this was normal for morning Patton, not that the fact surprised him considering how night Patton acted.

He still managed to be somewhat surprised by the fact that Patton turned to hug Virgil a second later. Patton’s lips were pressed briefly to Virgil’s head and then he turned to grab the plate Logan had saved for him.

“So, what are we doing today?” Patton asked.

“I was thinking Virgil and I could continue our reading lessons if he is not opposed,” Logan said. Virgil nodded, happy with that prospect. “Other than that, I have no plans. I have already spoken with my father before the two of you woke. He is going to spend most of his day catching up on things he missed and said I could take the rest of the day off royal duties.”

“A whole day to relax then!” Patton said, happily chewing on his toast. “Reading sounds fun, but we should do something more active too.”

Logan hummed. “We can show Virgil the courtyard after the reading lessons,” he said.

It took a moment for it to register, but then Virgil froze. “Wait,” he said. “We’re going outside?”

Logan raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes.”

“So, we’re leaving your room?”

“Are you alright with that?” Logan asked cautiously.

Virgil nodded quickly.

“Oh,” Patton said at his enthusiasm. “I guess you have been cooped up a while, haven’t you?” He smiled sadly and turned to Logan. “Maybe we can do reading lessons in the garden.”

“That would be satisfactory.”

“Great!” Patton said. He looked over at Virgil. “If we’re going out, we should probably put your hair up and get you in some clean clothes.”

Logan nodded. “You finish eating, and I will help Virgil find something to wear.”

Logan found him an outfit, though it was a bit baggy on Virgil and the hem of the shirt went halfway to his knees. When Patton finished breakfast, he sat Virgil down and carefully worked a brush through his hair.

“Can I braid it?” Patton asked.

Virgil hummed his consent. Having his hair brushed and done up by another person was a lot more enjoyable than he’d anticipated. He’d liked it when Logan did it the night before, though he had to very firmly push away thoughts of where that led.

“Okay!” Patton said after a few moments. “You look good. Ready to go?”

Virgil nodded and they both led him out into the hall. He paused before they got to the door. “What about the guards?” he asked hesitantly.

“I’ve already given them the same story as I did Dad,” Logan replied. “They know you’re here.”

Virgil still hesitated.

“It’s okay,” Patton promised. “Here, hold my hand?”

Virgil took the offered hand immediately, and Logan stepped in front of them both. Virgil felt himself relax a bit knowing the prince was between him and the guards.

They led him to the door.

Logan greeted both of the guards at the door, and they said good morning back. Both of them glanced at Virgil curiously for a moment making him shrink into himself, but they quickly averted their gazes.

Patton pulled him past them without incident and soon they were in the small dining hall Virgil had passed through his first night here. He remembered how he’d snuck around at the edges of the room in the shadows with the aim to kill the king, but now he was being pulled through the middle with the prince having just wandered past the royal guards in broad daylight like it was nothing.

It was so strange, and Virgil still couldn’t totally believe this was happening. The retraced his exact steps back down the spiral stairs near the kitchen and out of the door he and the nice gardener had came through. He could even see the shed he’d been hiding in from here. With a blink, he remembered they were going to the garden, and he wondered if he’d see the man again.

For now, he just looked around them as Logan and Patton led him past the garden shed towards an area with many trees. Orange and yellow leaves were starting to fall from many of the trees.

They made a satisfying crunching sound under his feet as he was led to a tree. He had seen the group of trees when he’d first arrived here and had even thought about hiding amongst them instead of in the shed, but they’d seemed scary in the dark. They were pretty in the daylight, however, and Virgil found himself tilting his head to watch the branches sway in the slight wind.

Logan sat down under it and pulled out a book and some writing materials from the bag he’d brought. Virgil settled down next to him so they could both look at the book at the same time and Patton flopped down on the other side, immediately setting to work tying fancy knots in the yarn he’d brought with him. Patton shuffled slightly to the side so they bumped shoulders as Logan opened the book and started Virgil’s reading lesson.

Chapter 22

Patton bit his lip to keep from laughing or awing. “Do you like the flower, Virgil?” he asked.

Virgil glanced up at him briefly and then his eyes returned to the flower he’d found. “It’s nice,” he said.

They’d finished the reading lessons and let Virgil explore the garden a bit. He’d found a dark purple and yellow flower (a pansy, Patton thought) and seemed to be endlessly fascinated by it. He’d been staring at it for minutes now, almost as though he expected it to do something. Patton did not quite understand his interest, but he was still adorable.

Logan sat next to him and the flower, smiling at him softly. “I imagine you’ll enjoy the garden in the spring,” Logan said. “There are many more flowers then. Of all types. We’ll have to show you all of the best spots. Mr. Deknis has a particularly good eye for colors, and it is always quite beautiful.”

“Who is Mr. Deknis?” Virgil asked.

“He’s the head gardener,” Logan said. “He’s a nice man, though a bit prickly when it comes to his garden. We may see him today if he’s in this part of the garden.”

“Would he have been the multrum I saw in the gardening shed when I hid there?”

“Ah, yes, that would be him. I was unaware you interacted with anyone in the castle.”

“He caught me in his garden shed, but he wasn’t mean,” Virgil said, he tilted his head curiously at Logan. “Why…” he trailed off.

“Yes?” Logan asked.

“Why is he the gardener?”

Logan looked confused, “Well,” he said, “I guess because he wants to and is good at it.”

“No,” Virgil said with a frown. “I mean. Shouldn’t he… he’s…”

Logan seemed to think hard for a moment. “Right,” he said. “You’ve been under a blood compulsion. I’d guess you would have only worked with multrums in the military.”

“I guess I didn’t realize that they could be other things…”

“Of course, they can,” Logan said. “Their abilities don’t make them any less of people. Mr. Deknis likes to garden so he gardens.”

Virgil blinked at him.

“…Of course, all things considered, that may not be a familiar concept to you.” Virgil turned back to look at the flower instead of answering. “Right,” said Logan.

There were a couple of awkward beats of silence. Patton bit his lip and happened to glance up. “Oh,” he said. “Speaking of Mr. Deknis.” He gestured to the gardener who was coming up the path between the trees.

Logan sat up on his knees as Patton waved at him. He saw Patton and turned to walk towards them. “The two of you had better not be up to mischief in my garden,” Mr. Deknis called, his voice a bit gruff. He clearly did not see Virgil who had laid flat on his stomach to stare at the flower.

Logan rolled his eyes automatically. “We were just reading Mr. Deknis,” he said. “Your piles of dirt are safe.”

“No mud cakes?” Mr. Deknis asked skeptically still coming towards them.

“It has been a literal decade…”

Patton saw when Mr. Deknis was close enough to see Virgil.

He stopped in his track and looked down at Virgil who was already watching him a bit warily. “Hello,” he said, his voice a lot softer than it’d been a few moments before. His expression completely flipped in a moment to something very gentle when he saw Virgil and the cautious look on his face. Virgil did seem to have that effect on people.

“Hi,” Virgil replied.

Mr. Deknis looked at Logan and then at Patton and then back at Virgil. “This is our new friend, Virgil,” Patton offered.

“Hello, Virgil,” Mr. Deknis said with a nod.

“Virgil, this is the gardener Mr. Deknis.”

“He’s not nearly as grumpy as he sounds,” Patton assured.

“Well,” Logan said, “yes he is.”

Mr. Deknis shot him a look that only served to prove Logan’s point if Patton was being honest. Logan just smiled back. Mr. Deknis apparently decided to let it slide because he turned back to Virgil.

“It’s good to see you again,” Mr. Deknis said. “Are you feeling better?”

Virgil nodded. “I’m a lot better,” he said. Mr. Deknis considered him for a moment, clearly reading how true that statement was. Patton was glad he seemed satisfied with the answer.

“I see you’ve met these two.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said.

Mr. Deknis smiled slightly. “Be careful with this one,” he said, pointing to Logan. “He’s a bad influence.”

Virgil frowned in confusion. “He’s the prince,” he pointed out.

“And a bad influence,” Mr. Deknis repeated. “He’s a beacon of irresponsibility and mischief and he corrupts that one,” he nodded to Patton.

“I am completely responsible,” Logan replied.

“Need I remind you of the cucumber incident.”

“I was 8,” Logan said.

“I know how old you were,” Mr. Deknis replied, “and you are hardly any older.”

“I resent that.”

Mr. Deknis just smiled and turned back to Virgil who was watching the interaction with pure curiosity.

“I just picked a few more of those apples for Patton’s mom to make into apple sauce. Would you kids like some?”

Virgil glanced over at Logan and Patton.

“That would be nice, thank you,” Patton replied for them all, standing up. Seeing that, Virgil also climbed to his feet.

“It’s back this way,” Mr. Deknis said, inclining hid head back the way he’d came and then turning to lead them that way. Patton followed him. He glanced back to see Logan put his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and give him a gentle push to get him going. “So, what are you kids up to today?”

“We wanted to show Virgil the garden and courtyard,” Patton said. “He’s been cooped up inside for a bit.”

“I see,” Mr. Deknis said. He glanced back at Virgil. “Feel free to come out in the garden anytime you like. As long as you don’t go about purposefully destroying stuff, I don’t mind you being out here.”

“I won’t destroy anything,” Virgil promised instantly.

“Well I hope you manage to keep that attitude even while befriending the large upright groundhog behind you.”

Virgil looked a little bit nervous. “He’s just teasing Virgil,” Patton assured. “He loves Logan.”

Mr. Deknis glanced back again and seemed to read the same thing Patton had read on Virgil’s face.

“Yes, of course,” Mr. Deknis said. “I have simply known the prince for a long time and joke with him in that way often. Logan is aware of that.”

“Indeed,” Logan agreed, his hand squeezing a bit on Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil relaxed a touch.

Mr. Deknis stopped and reached down into a bucket next to a tree. “I wouldn’t offer my apples to people I don’t like,” he said, tossing an apple underhand to Logan. Instead of trying to catch it, his eyes widened and he dodged out of the way.

“You would however throw apples at them despite knowing they have never been able to catch things.”

Mr. Deknis just rolled his eyes fondly, but Virgil frowned and turned to Logan. “You don’t know how to catch things?” he asked scandalized. “You should know how to catch things. What if someone throws a knife at you?”

Mr. Deknis looked… probably the right amount of concerned about that statement coming from a 14-year-old’s lips.

“Haha, yeah,” Patton said awkwardly. “Maybe you can teach Logan how to catch things Virgil, but later. Right now, why don’t we just get the apples and then show you the courtyard.”

Virgil was still frowning, but he did not argue with Patton’s suggestion.

Thankfully, Mr. Deknis did not push, though Patton did have to dodge many a meaningful side eye. He might… need to make sure he did not get cornered by the gardener in the coming days… or brush up on his lying without lying skills.

For now, though, he just handed out the apples, not tossing them this time. Virgil thanked him softly and Patton could see the way the usually fairly gruff man went all melty at that. He even slipped an extra apple to Virgil for later which Virgil perked up at.

Patton and Logan pulled him away gently after that so Mr. Deknis could go back to work, but Virgil seemed happy with the apples and copied Patton at waving goodbye to him cheerfully.

Despite the fact that he liked Mr. Deknis and he’d been nice, Patton still took a calming breath when they were no longer at risk of lying about something and getting caught by the man’s powers. They went back into the castle towards the courtyard.

Chapter 23

Logan was unsurprised that after showing Virgil the large courtyard, Patton almost immediately decided to instigate a game of tag. They were, after all, here with the goal of getting Virgil a bit active after having had him only in Logan’s room for weeks.

He was also unsurprised that Virgil seemed confused about the concept of tag, and Patton had to explain the game in detail to him.

It made him wince, but he still was unsurprised when Virgil went about inquiring after the consequences of losing the game.

He was, however, very surprised when, after getting all of the facts about tag settle, Patton was chasing after Virgil trying to tag him and suddenly the boy disappeared.

Patton almost ran into a wall in his confusion. He stared at his hands stretched out and just a couple of inches from touching the wall for a moment, before slowly looking up.

“Virgil!” Patton exclaimed. “What?”

“What?” he asked.

“…What are you even hanging onto?”

“The wall,” Virgil replied.

Logan walked closer to the two of them and tilted his head up to look at him. Virgil had jumped up and somehow managed to find hand and foot holes on the seemingly smooth wall. He climbed about 5 meters above their heads and was peering down at them curiously.

“Okay,” Logan said. “New rule. Virgil is not allowed to scale walls during tag.”

Virgil frowned down at him. “Why only me?”

“Because Patton and I cannot do that anyway,” Logan said. “We would not be able to actually play if you remain up there.”

Patton glanced over at him and reached over to touch Logan’s shoulder. “No tag backs,” he said. Logan glared at him. “Why don’t you come down sweetie?”

“But Logan will tag me,” he said.

“Well, honey, that’s part of the fun,” Patton reasoned. “Don’t you want to try being it?”

Virgil seemed to consider this for a long moment. “Okay,” he agreed.

To Logan’s terror, he simply let go of the wall, falling straight down and landing crouched. He blinked at Logan. Right. With a start, Patton took off, so he’d have a head start. “No tag backs means a 10 second head start for me,” Logan reminded. Virgil nodded, and Logan reached out to poke him in the arm before immediately running off in the opposite direction as Patton.

Logan’s strategy worked out since, knowing he couldn’t go after Logan for a few seconds more, he chose to turn and go after Patton. After finding one of the statues to hide behind on the edge of the courtyard, Logan risked glancing back.

Virgil was faster than Logan (and likely Patton) had accounted for. Patton had gotten a good head start on him, but Virgil closed it quickly. Patton shrieked as Virgil barreled into him, bringing them both to the ground.

“Virgil!” Logan heard Patton giggle. Logan figured he was more than okay despite the tackle. “This isn’t how you play tag!”

“I combined tag and tackle hugs,” Virgil declared, making Patton giggle more.

“That’s very innovative, honey,” Patton said. “Now are you going to let me up?...Virgil… I’m counting down your 10 second head start in my head, and if you don’t let me up I’m going to tag you again.”

This did not seem to have the intended effect as Virgil did not remove himself from Patton’s person. Patton laugh when it became clear he was not going to move and began counting down “7, 6, 5, 4, you’d better let me go sweetie, or you’re going to get tagged again.” Virgil did not seem to care. “3, 2, 1.” Patton reached up and bopped him on the nose. “Tag!” he declared.

Logan was surprised when Virgil instantly jumped off Patton at that. He whipped around.

‘Oh,’ Logan thought as the boy’s eyes narrowed in on Logan immediately, ‘I see.’

“Virgil was already halfway across the courtyard towards him before Logan could even think about running away. There was no way that he was fast enough to outrun him. Perhaps he could outthink him, he thought. His eyes scanned his environment in the seconds he had left and landed on a large square piece of stone that held flowers in the spring. It was just full of dirt now, but it was still about waist high. Perhaps if he kept that between them, he could outmaneuver him. He sprinted towards it and scrambled to the opposite side from where Virgil was heading.

He really should not have been as surprised as he was that Virgil did not even slightly slow as he approached the planter box, instead grabbing ahold of the side of it and vaulting over it. Logan stumbled back, bracing for impact, but instead he just got a quick tap on the shoulder.

Logan blinked at him.

“I don’t know if you would be okay with tackle hugs,” he explained.

Logan considered him. “I would be okay with a nontackle hug.”

Virgil happily jumped forward to hug Logan, pressing his nose into Logan’s shoulder. Logan chuckled and patted the top of his head. “Six,” he said, “5, 4, 3…”

Virgil bolted away suddenly, actually making Logan stumble a bit. He paused just out of reach of Logan, looking at him with anticipation. “2,1,” Logan finished with a raised eyebrow. He already knew he was being played with, but he indulged him by starting towards him. Virgil danced out of the way, eyes alight. Logan sighed. “Is this truly how it’s going to be?” he asked.

Virgil didn’t answer, but to watch him with wide, excited eyes.

“Fine,” Logan said. He dashed towards him again, only to have him continue to maneuver just out of Logan’s reach each time Logan went forward. He’d call it taunting if there was any sign of malice in it.

They ran around the courtyard in spirts of Logan charging at him and Virgil expertly dodging. Eventually Patton came closer to them. Logan could tell that Virgil was aware of his presence, by how he glanced back at him briefly, but considering he was not ‘it,’ it seemed he chose to disregard him. However, he was not aware of the way Patton winked at Logan as he walked up behind Virgil.

Logan, on the other hand, knew exactly what was happening. He went to spring for Virgil again, and Virgil again moved to dodge, but this time Patton grabbed him around the waist, allowing Logan to actually tag him.

He turned slowly to face Patton who started to giggle immediately at the perplexed look on his face. It cleared into something else as soon as he heard Patton laugh. “Traitor!” he claimed. “We were on the same team and you betrayed me.”

“I just thought we should probably have mercy on poor Logan,” Patton replied.

“Hmm,” Virgil said, eyes again full of that playful mischief Logan had not seen until today. “Plea for mercy not accepted.”

Patton once again half-shrieked half-laughed as he was pounced on. The two of them went rolling across the grass, Virgil clearly keeping the rolling going longer than it should have as they made it a good few meters.

Virgil sprung off of him a few moments later.

“Oh, is it my turn?” Patton inquired with a huge smile. He slowly got to his feet. “Hmm, I’m probably at about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” He took off after Virgil, but Patton had a bit more endurance than Logan, so instead of doing quickly calculated lunges at Virgil as Logan had done, he just ran at him full tilt without stopping.

Virgil ran from him, though Logan was pretty sure he was intentionally slowing himself down a bit so Patton had some amount of a chance. He kept turning to check behind him and make sure Patton was still somewhat close as he ran.

Which is why he didn’t see the imminent disaster in time.

Chapter 24

Thomas should have been paying more attention, but his mind had been on the meeting he’d just had with the castle guards about increased security in the wake of the possible threat from Mocnejsi. He’d decided to take a brief walk around the courtyard to clear his head but was still distracted with mulling over the options that had just been presented to him. He stepped into the castle courtyard and did not have time to step out of the way of the much smaller body rocketing towards him. Virgil slammed into his front, but not before Thomas got a good look at his face.

Virgil’s expression changed dramatically in the few seconds between him registering Thomas was there and running into him. For the briefest moment, Thomas could see that he must have been having a lot of fun. He’d caught the wide smile and sparkling eyes as Virgil turned his head back from looking at Patton who was chasing him across the greenery. He’d looked very happy which made it all the more painful to see that happiness die in and a few instants. When his head had turned back towards Thomas, there was a flicker of confusion at something being in his path.

Then, clearly everything about the situation registered, because his eyes blew wide in horror as he tried to stop himself, but there was no way he’d be able to in time. Thomas saw that fact register on his face the moment before he hit. Gone was any trace of happiness or joy in that split second. All that was left was dread that had no place anywhere near a children’s game of tag. It was the expression Thomas would expect from someone who felt ice give way under their feet in the middle of a lake they had thought was frozen solid.

He hit hard, but he wasn’t nearly big enough to actually harm Thomas. Thomas was thrown slightly off balance but managed to stay on his feet. He reached out a hand to his shoulder automatically to steady the child. There was a moment of pseudo calm where they both absorbed the impact and stilled.

Then, the boy’s shoulder slipped out of Thomas’s grip as he went crashing to the ground in a move that made Thomas wince for the state of his knees. Thomas couldn’t quite grasp what was happening for a moment as Virgil face planted onto the ground in front of him, but when he did, Thomas couldn’t help but flinch and take a step back from him.

Thomas had been bowed to before, of course, seeing as he was a king, but this was not out of respect or courtesy or even just tradition. This was out of terror. He was begging for mercy and it made Thomas feel sick.

“I’m sorry,” he said, meek and shaky into the ground, and there was almost something worse about the fact that he did not beg for forgiveness with his words, but only his posture. The way his breathes came far too quick and shallow said he was likely on the verge of a panic attack, but he was not blubbering through apologies or even not speaking at all. He gave a clear, if shaky, apology, and waited for whatever he thought Thomas planned to do to him. There was no way that was not learned.

“You don’t…” Thomas stuttered. “You don’t have to do that. It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, but he reacted in no other way. He did not even react when Patton made it to his side and knelt down next to him. Patton’s hand hovered over his back, clearly wanting to touch down, but he pulled back on that instinct.

“Virgil, honey,” he said softly. “It’s okay. No one is mad. It was an accident.”

Virgil did not react to this at all.

Thomas caught Logan’s eye as he hurried over to them himself. “Sorry,” Thomas mouthed. Logan just nodded and turned his attention to his friend.

“There is no reason for any of that,” Logan said, his voice firm, almost clipped. “You are not in trouble. Now sit up.”

Virgil did respond to that, slowly shifting back on his knees. He kept his head down looking at the ground. “Sorry,” he said again.

“I…” Thomas said, surveying the three kids on the ground in front of him. Thomas slowly sunk to the ground to be at their level. Virgil was tracking his movements out of the corner of his eyes, his head still bowed and his shoulders tensed. “Hey,” Thomas said softly. “Were you three playing tag?”

Virgil hesitated, eyes flickering as he debated whether he should respond or not.

“Yeah, we were,” Patton answered for him after a moment of stressful silence.

“Well that’s fun,” Thomas said. “I’m sorry for interrupting the three of you. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

Virgil glanced up at him for just a moment before looking away again. Patton apparently felt it was safe enough to touch Virgil, because he settled a hand on the boys shoulder.

“Yeah, we’ve just been having a fun day,” Patton said, carefully matching Thomas’s light tone. “We went to the garden and did some reading. Then, Mr. Deknis gave us some apples.”

“That’s nice,” Thomas replied. “He’s been talking about the new apples he’s been growing. He’s been working on them for years and they’re just beginning to bare fruit this year. I haven’t gotten a chance to try any yet. Are they any good?”

“They’re very good,” Patton told him. His hand rubbed slowly on Virgil’s back. “Isn’t that right, Virge?”

Virgil nodded a bit, a little less tense now, but still nowhere near calm.

“Well, I’ll have to try them soon,” Thomas said with a smile. “Thank you for the information. Now, I’ve got to get back to what I’m doing, but I hope you three have a good day.”

“I’ll see you later, Dad,” Logan said.

Thomas nodded and pushed himself to his feet. “Goodbye you three,” he said before turning away towards the door back into the castle. He paused to take a breath when the door closed behind him, cutting off the courtyard. There were a lot of thoughts to shirt through in regards to that conversation. He hated that Virgil was so obviously terrified of him. Both of their two interactions had ended with the poor thing panicking on the ground. He wished he had some idea of how to help him or at least someone to talk to about it.

Maybe he’d go visit Mr. Deknis himself and not just for the apples.

Chapter 25

“Alright,” Patton said, pressing a kiss to Virgil’s forehead. “I’ve got to go back to my room for the night. Will you two be okay?”

“We’ll be fine,” Logan said. “It won’t be particularly different than the last two weeks.”

Patton nodded and leaned to the side to squeeze Virgil in another hug. He’d been clingy since the incident in the courtyard, and Virgil had been appreciative considering he was still pretty shaky from it. He was still surprised he’d touched the king of Prijaznia (let alone ran into him) and lived to tell the tale.

“Goodnight, Pat,” Virgil said because he was pretty sure he wouldn’t leave if Virgil didn’t.

“Night Virge,” Patton said with a smile before standing up from where they’d been sitting on the ground. He reached over to hug Logan who was sitting on a chair. “Night Lo! Put the book down and go to bed.”

Logan looked up from his book with a frown.

“It’s almost midnight,” Patton scolded.

Logan sighed and set his book down. “Very well,” he agreed. “We will get ready for bed.”

“You better! I’m going to come and wake you up early in the morning.”

“Early in the morning for you is 9am,” Logan scoffed.

Patton stuck his tongue out at him as he walked backwards out of the door.

Logan gave his book a mournful look once the door closed and Virgil almost giggled. “I won’t tell on you,” he said.

Logan thought about it for a few moments. “No,” he finally said. “We should probably get some sleep.”

Virgil nodded and pushed himself to his feet.

“We should probably both take a bath after sitting in the dirt today,” Logan said. “Do you want to go first or should I?”

“Don’t care,” Virgil answered.

“You can go first,” Logan offered.

Virgil felt himself smile. “You just want to finish the chapter in that book,” he accused.

“Perhaps,” Logan conceded.

Virgil just grinned and walked over to his closet to grab one of the outfits he’d been given for pajamas. He chose a pair of baggy shorts that went past his knees and the huge soft black sweater Logan had found in the back of his closet. He headed into the bathroom, noting Logan had already picked up his book again.

Logan may have declared the both of them dirty enough for bathing a few minutes before, but Virgil was cleaner than he thought he’d ever been before coming to the castle. Logan had taught him how to use the tub and what soaps to use for what a couple of days after he’d arrived and had suggested he clean himself regularly.

Virgil didn’t mind. The tub was enchanted to warm the water inside of it and Virgil loved it. Though, that had the negative affect of making it very difficult to leave.

He cleaned himself up quickly, so he’d have a few minutes to just sit in the water before he felt like he needed to get out and let Logan have a turn. He changed into his pajamas, pulling the crescent shaped protection charm out of his day clothes pocket and storing the warm to the touch stone in the short pocket. He used the clip Patton had made it to pin it to the cloth to make sure he wouldn’t lose it.

Logan was engrossed in his reading by the time that Virgil exited the bathroom. He did not look up as Virgil approached.

“Your turn,” Virgil said to him.

Logan clearly just barely managed to tear his eyes away from the book. “Right,” he said. “Yes.”

“The book will be there in the morning,” Virgil reminded.

“I know,” said Logan sadly as he set the book aside.

Logan never took much time in the bath, so Virgil quickly went about getting ready for bed the rest of the way. He put his day clothes in the basket Logan had for that purpose and started to straighten out the blankets and pillows in the closet.

He heard Logan come back into the room a few minutes later.

“Virgil,” Logan said. “What are you doing?”

Virgil looked over at him. “Getting ready for bed,” he answered, confused.

Logan frowned at him. “You don’t sleep in the closet anymore,” Logan said. “That’s only for when we were worried you might escape.”

“Oh,” Virgil said blinking over at him. “Right.” He felt a slight pulling at his chest. He liked the closet. It was warm and soft. Patton had taken a lot of care with how he’d arranged all of the pillows and blankets. It was the best place he could ever remember having to sleep in his life. Yet, he did not argue. He knew getting to sleep out in the open was supposed to be a reward and he wasn’t about to reject it.

Virgil stood and closed the closet. He tugged on the bottom of his sweater, stretching the fabric between his hands as he watched Logan pull down the covers of his bed and settle down onto it. Cautiously he walked over towards the bed. He wasn’t sure where he should lay down exactly. He dithered for a moment before bending down to sit on the floor near the right side of Logan’s bed and then laying down.

There was shuffling on the bed above him and then Logan’s head popped over the side to squint down at him. “On the bed Virgil,” he said.

Virgil looked up at him in shock. “But it… I’m…” He trailed off and there were a few seconds of silence.

“It is just a bed Virgil,” Logan said.

But it wasn’t ‘just’ anything. Virgil was pretty sure touching the bed of a royal family member without permission would be considered a capital offence. At least, it would in Mocnejsi. Yet, Logan was expecting him to just… crawl into it?

“Please just get up here,” Logan said. Virgil’s caution at touching something he was definitely sure he should not be allowed to be touching wared with his resolve to repay his literal life debt to Logan by doing whatever he wanted.

Feeling honestly a bit sick to his stomach, Virgil slowly pushed himself back to his feet. Logan scooted back over to the left side of the bed, and Virgil cautiously sat down on the empty side of the bed. After a second of hesitation he slowly laid down, his head hitting a soft fluffy pillow. He jumped when Logan flopped the covers on top of both of them.

Virgil took a long moment to absorb the situation while Logan took off his glasses and reached over to turn off the light next to him. He’d never slept in a bed before, or if he had he’d been too young to remember. In the orphanage there was a lack of actual beds due to overcrowding and there had always been someone bigger and stronger that Virgil didn’t dare fight for the use of them. During training, none of the kids had a bed. Only a few of the higher ups had ones at the more permanent training sites. There were very few situations where any of the assassins, at least a Virgil’s level, would be allowed to touch a real bed.

The light switched off, plunging them into darkness.

“Is this…?” Virgil said, eyes still pointed towards the ceiling even though his eyes had not adjusted to the darkness enough to be able to see it. “Do you want… things?”

“Things?” Logan asked.

Virgil did not move his head, but he did reach over and put his hand slightly above Logan’s knee. Logan didn’t move, so Virgil slid his hand up.

Virgil’s wrist was grabbed immediately and pulled firmly away from Logan’s inner thigh. He did not let go afterwards, his fingers squeezing hard, but not quite painfully. “Never,” Logan said, his voice harsher than it had ever been even on the day when Virgil was nothing more than an intruder with deadly intent. “Never offer anything like that to anyone ever again.”

“I was just…”

“I know what you were doing,” Logan said, voice icy, “and it inadmissible. Never offer that again for anything. Do you understand me?”

“I... yes.”

“Promise me.”

Virgil took a short moment to think. “I promise,” he agreed.

“Good,” Logan said, releasing his hand. His voice got softer too. “Good.”

They were silent for a long time after that, though Virgil had no delusions that Logan had fallen asleep. He could almost feel the tension.

“Sorry,” Virgil finally said softly.

“It’s not something you should be apologizing for,” Logan replied. The bed moved as Logan shifted and a hand lightly touched the top of his head. “Just… never.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. He shifted slightly after a moment until his head was in the crook of Logan’s arm. Logan brushed the hair out of his face with the hand that had been on his head.

“Goodnight Virgil,” Logan said.

“Goodnight,” Virgil responded. They were quiet after that, though Virgil was still awake for a while yet and Logan’s hand slowly stroked through his hair for a while. Eventually though, Virgil relaxed into mattress. He stuck his hand into his pocket and curled it around the charm in his pocket. The bed was nice, he thought. It was soft and warm… and safe. He finally fell asleep.

Chapter 26

Patton did their new special knock on the door so Logan and Virgil would know it was just him and they didn’t need to hide the fact that Virgil was sleeping in the prince’s room. He didn’t wait for a response, however, and just shoved open the door. He was surprised to see that Logan was not already out of bed and wondered for a moment if he had broken his promise stayed up way too late reading like he was sometimes known to do. Yet, then, Logan spoke from the bed. “I’m awake,” he called.

Confused, Patton stepped into the room. Logan wasn’t one for lazing around in bed; usually he was out of bed the moment he woke.

He stepped over to the bed and had to stifle a smile when he recognized the problem. Logan was awake, but Virgil was still sleeping, and he was half on top of Logan, his arms wrapped around him.

“Why don’t you just squirm out of his arms like you do me?” Patton asked, keeping his voice low.

“He isn’t like you,” Logan said. He did not bother to quiet himself at all.

“What do you mean?” Patton asked amused.

In answer, Logan started to move as though to squirm out of Virgil’s death grip on him. In response, Virgil made a pitiful mewling sound in his sleep that landed like a piercing blow straight to the heart. Logan stopped moving immediately and Virgil shifted to grip Logan tighter.

“Aw!” Patton said.

“It’s not cute,” Logan insisted. “I’ve been stuck for hours and I have to pee.”

Patton chuckled. “Alright, alright, I’ll save you.” He rounded the bed to Virgil’s side and crawled up on it. “Virgil, honey,” he entreated softly. “I think it’s time for me to get cuddles so Lo can get up.” Patton softly touched Virgil’s shoulder and pulled at him gently. He reached forward to carefully pry Virgil’s arms off of Logan.

Virgil made a more confused than heartbreaking sound this time, turning towards Patton so Patton could wrap his arms around him. Logan managed to scoot towards the edge of the bed.

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Logan made it off the bed and dashed towards the bathroom as Virgil’s arms came around Patton and squeezed. Patton laughed and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. After a few moments, Virgil’s eyes started to flicker a bit.

“Good morning, honey,” Patton said softly. “Did you sleep good?”

He hummed sleepily. “Beds are nice,” he said. Patton felt a slight pang at that because it implied he didn’t get to sleep in beds very much, but he chose to shove that aside.

“They are,” Patton agreed. Virgil’s eyes started to close again. “Honey,” Patton laughed. “I think it’s time to wake up now.”

Virgil made a sleepy whining sound, squeezing Patton tighter. “Don’t you want breakfast?” Patton asked. That question managed to make Virgil open his eyes again. “I was thinking we could go down to the kitchen to eat that way it’s nice and fresh and I can introduce you to Mama real quick.” He neglected to mention the fact that they really did not have a choice. Mr. Deknis had blabbed to Mama about Virgil, and worse, had apparently mentioned that Virgil was skinny. As soon as he’d gotten home yesterday, he’d been met with an already worked up Mama firmly insisting that she meet Virgil sometime today.

He wasn’t going to tell Virgil that though, because he thought it might scare him away from both Mama and Mr. Deknis.

Virgil thought about the prospect of breakfast for a long moment. “Fine,” he agreed. “I’ll be awake.”

“Good,” Patton said. He reached up to bop him on the nose. Virgil narrowed his eyes and then bopped him back making Patton giggle. He sat up then, and Virgil let him. “Let’s get you something to wear and do your hair,” Patton suggested. Virgil nodded and reluctantly got out of bed, just as Logan returned to the room. “We’re going to go downstairs for breakfast,” Patton told Logan. “That way Virgil can meet my mom.” He gave Logan a significant look and Logan nodded once in understanding that this was not a choice.

Logan and Virgil got dressed, and Patton did Virgil’s hair up nice, before Patton led them out of the royal wing. They went down the main staircase instead of the spiral staircase that went right to the kitchen, mostly because it would be very busy, and Patton thought they should probably eat in the main dining room anyway. He could feel Virgil getting more anxious as they entered the busier part of the castle, and he stuck close to either Patton or Logan from the time they hit the top of the steps all the way to the main dining room.

There were a few people in the dining room already eating breakfast when they arrived. Virgil’s curiosity seemed to temporarily overwhelm his anxiety as he looked around the large hall and at all of the people there. Patton looked around trying to see it through his eyes. He’d been running around this place since he was little, so he never really thought about how big the room was or how grandly it was decorated, but Virgil was just seeing it for the first time. Patton smiled at him as he guided him to one of the seats. There was already muffins on the table so Patton grabbed one and plopped it in front of Virgil.

Virgil frowned down at the muffin dubiously. “You just… keep food out in the open?” he asked.

Right.

“It’s fine, Virgil,” Patton promised. “No one here would have put anything in it.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes and looked around at the other occupants of the room suspiciously.

“Honestly,” Logan said. “No one even knew we would be down here for breakfast. Nobody would just put something in random people’s food for no reason.”

Virgil gave him a look like he’d just told him people could in fact breathe under water. Virgil was really from a… whole different world, wasn’t he?

“It’s really fine,” Patton said. “Logan and I have eaten things on the table like this a lot.”

“I’m surprised your not dead yet,” Virgil said.

Logan rolled his eyes and reached for a muffin. Virgil slapped it out of his hand and onto the floor. “Really?” Logan asked.

Virgil narrowed his eyes at him. “No eating unsecured food!”

“Virgil,” Logan groaned.

“I bet you don’t even know what common poisons taste like.”

“No,” Logan said. “I don’t because I don’t worry about being poisoned on a daily basis!”

“You should!”

People were starting to look over at them. Patton shot an awkward smile at the woman a few chairs down.

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“Just don’t eat the muffins Logan,” Patton said under his breath.

“I do not understand why-”

“Because it’s stupid as he-”

“Shush,” Patton commanded out of the corner of his mouth, “people are watching, and Virgil is just a normal castle resident.”

That shut the both of them up at least.

“No muffins for now,” Patton said. “I assume it’s okay to eat the things they bring straight from the kitchen.”

Virgil looked a bit leery of this still, but he nodded.

“Good,” Patton said, “then we’ll just wait for that to get here and then everyone will be happy, right?”

Logan opened his mouth and Patton turned to glare at him.

“Right?”

#proofread stories #not writing

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hello-im-not-a-possum · 3 years

Note

If you know Snowflake, could you do a fic of the little guy and his dad playing a board game together?

Considering what I put the poor guy though in the tape fic, he deserves some fluff.

(Snowflake is @floxy-offical ‘s OC, I did not steal.)

In spite of his clumsiness and care-free attitude, Wally did take his job as a janitor seriously. A solid 90% of the time, he was focused on mopping up spilled ink and fixing the leaking pipes, but that wasn’t all he was paid to do. On the rare occasions where the ink wasn’t trying to escape the pipes to get on everyone and everything (especially Sammy) he was cleaning normal things; like windows, tables, trash cans, and in today’s case, the insides of closets.

Sometimes while he cleaned, a little freckled imp would watch out of curiosity. Being new to existing in general, while he was often spooked by many things, Snowflake would also find himself fascinated with random things in the studio.

“Hey dad, what is that?” The toon inquired as Wally pulled out a long, large box.

“This?” Wally blew the dust off of the cover, revealing the box’s faded, illegible title. “Looks like a board game to me.”

The cartoon imp tilted his head in confusion.

“Oh, it's Hey, why don’t we play it later when I’m on break?”

“Really?” The small toon broke out into a wide grin.

“Sure! It’ll be fun. But first, I gotta finish up dis mess.”

“Okay”

The imp sat down and waited patiently as his father finished up his job.

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As playing on the floor in front of the closet where pipes were notorious for bursting was not the safest or the smartest idea, the two started to set up the board game on the break room table. At first, Wally assumed that the box was some kind of knock-off monopoly considering how the board itself looked and that there were cards, worn but still colorful paper slips that seemed to somewhat resemble money, and six silver pieces that the janitor assumed were the 'player' pieces.

However, the more of the board game the pair got out of the box the less sense it seemed to make to him; the paper that he originally thought was the game's currency were actually pictures of weapons, there were also a bunch of tiny wooden skeletons, livestock, castles, and a giant rubber hand were all apparently important parts to this monopoly-esc ...fantasy farming board game?

Honestly, at this point he was beginning to suspect that the 'Board game' he found was actually three or four different board games all crammed together in the single box, even the rules didn't make any sense and it didn't help that they were mostly ruined by ink! Yet strangely they seemed to be the only thing in the box that was ruined by ink, everything else either looked brand new, worn with time and time alone, or worn down with time and many years of being played with. Which had also further supported his idea that this was three completely different games all mixed together in one box.

"Ya know, I have never seen this game before now, guess it'll be a new experience for both of us!"

Snowflake nodded excitedly, while he took beautifully painted tiny wooden sheep out of the box. The timid devil normally was uneasy about new experiences, the board game seemed to be safe enough, even if neither of them quite understood how it was meant to be played.

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The bad news was that the ruined rules meant that they couldn't play the new game how it was meant to be played, but the good news is that the janitor was creative enough to suggest that the two made up the rules for the game in a way that made sense. They didn't know what it was before, but the new main goal of the found game was that the players go around the board slaying the skeletons and collecting livestock while avoiding the giant hand who would steal all of the unlucky player's animals. Collecting enough different animals meant you got a castle and whoever had the castles at the end of the game won.

"So after slaying the skeleton on the blue space, do I collect two cows and three sheep or three cows and two sheep?"

"Hmm..." Wally looked at the weapon cards Snowflake had played and back to the handwritten rules the two had made. "Well, ya used two axes an' five firyahcrakeahs against da bonehead ova there, which breaks him down real quick but spooks away two of da sheep due to ovakill. So ya get two cows, one sheep."

"Aw, shoot! I knew I shoulda used the longsword instead..."

"But da good news is, ya now have enough cows ta get anotha castle!"

Snowflake excitedly took out his third castle, proudly putting it on the blue space he was currently on as both a victory against his skeletal foe and possibly the final push he needed to beat the game.

"Yes! Now I'm tied with you, and I just need two more chickens to win!"

"Not if I get my tenth sheep first!" Wally rebutted mischievously as he reached for the dice.

"Remember, the hand is closer to you than me!" Snowflake giggled with the same amount of mischief in his tone.

Maybe after the game, they should ask Joey were he had found it in the first place, or if they could bring the one they found back home.

#bendy and the ink machine #hell's studio au #wally franks #snowflake the demon #fanfic

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embeanwrites · 4 years

Text

Finding Home Gavin Reed x Reader

Chapter 5

First chapter, previous chapter

Thursday went by slowly. Neither Nines nor Gavin came to my office during lunch that day. Which after Wednesday’s fiasco, that made sense. I woke up Friday morning once again feeling nervous. My dad and Connor were coming to my office to help me rearrange the furniture. I also had a box in the corner of my room of decorations I wanted for my office. It was 10 am, my dad was probably awake, right? I grabbed my phone and scrolled through my contact list till I found his name, clicking his name and I waited for him to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Hey dad, it’s (Y/n). I was wondering if you guys could pick me up before heading to the university. I have some decorations I want to bring to my office.”

“Yeah, sure. We can pick you up in like half an hour? Connor’s taking Sumo for a walk right now.” He said with a chuckle.

“That works, Connor knows my apartment building, so just send me a message when you guys get here!” We both said bye and hung up.

I moved the box closer to the front door and lounged on the couch, pulling out my phone to pass the time. I thought about looking Gavin up on social media, but that felt like a huge overstep of boundaries. Plus, I don’t even like him, it doesn’t matter to me whether or not he comes to my office anyway. While debating what I wanted to do Connor sent me a message saying they were here. I quickly put my phone in my pocket, grabbed my box, and headed downstairs.

Walking up to my dad’s car I saw Connor had already moved to the back seat. I got into the passenger seat and turned around to look at him.

“Connor, you don’t always have to sit in the back.” Connor was wearing a plain gray t-shirt and jeans. It was strange seeing him in casual clothes. My dad was in an ugly Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. I wrinkled my nose at his outfit. “What are you wearing?”

“Are you kidding? This is a great outfit.” My dad said defensively.

“I mean, it’s a great outfit if you want to get mistaken for an off-brand Jimmy Buffett.” I said with a laugh, my dad just shook his head and started driving towards the university.

“What all do you have in the box?” Connor asked.

“Some photos, gifts from friends before I left, and a few random knick knacks. Just things to make my office feel more like me.”

“God, I remember your room when you were a kid, you hung on to everything. Movie tickets, napkins with drawings on it, anything you could save you would, and you would tack it up on your wall.” My dad said with a laugh.

“That followed me until I started college and got sick of taking them down every 8 months.” I looked down in my box. I realized quickly I had a picture of me and mom in a frame for my desk, but not one of me and my dad. Should I hide it? Should I act surprised when I notice it?

“(Y/n), I’ve noticed that your heart rhythm has sped up in the past 20 seconds. Are you okay?” Connor spoke from the back seat, my dad quickly glanced over to me and back towards the street.

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about some of my stuff. I think I lost a couple of things in the move.” I quickly shook my head and glanced at Connor through the rearview mirror. His LED flickered yellow. He could probably tell I was lying, but I just hoped he wouldn’t say anything about it.

“Well, I’m sure they’ll turn up.” My dad said as he pulled into a parking spot. I quickly got out with my box before they could ask any more questions.

“My office is on the second floor of this building. Do you guys want to take the elevator?” I asked as Connor walked ahead to get the building door.

“What do you think because I’m old I can’t take a couple flights of stairs?” My dad scoffed and I laughed.

“I’m just making sure, old man!” I said, I looked at Connor and gave him a mischievous smile. “Hey Connor?”

“Yes (Y/n)?” He tilted his head.

“I’ll race ya!” I shouted as I started taking the stairs two at a time. It took him no time to catch up and pass me, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the serious look on his face.

“God dammit you two!” My dad shouted at us as we ran up the stairs, causing me to laugh more.

When I reached the second floor, I quickly put my arm on Connor’s shoulder and pretended to be blowing on my nails. In the corner of my eye I saw his LED flash yellow, but he didn’t say anything. My dad panted as he reached the top of the stairs, he glared at both of us and I couldn’t help but to laugh.

“Screw you two.” My dad huffed, he leaned over to look behind us and he suddenly had a confused look on his face. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I whipped around and saw Gavin standing outside my office.

“Oh, is Nines here too? I forgot to send him a message that I would be too busy to discuss sociology today.” I walked towards him, but he kept his eyes on my dad and Connor.

“Ah no, he’s running interrogations right now with Chris, they didn’t need me, so I wanted to come talk to you about the other day.”

“We’re rearranging and decorating (Y/n)’s office, do you want to help?” Connor asked quickly.

“I don’t really have a lot of time...” Gavin rubbed the back of his neck.

“Um…here! Let me give you my card and you can text me and we can find a time to talk if you want.” I reached into my wallet and handed him my card.

“Okay, yeah that’s fine. I’m sorry to put a wrench in your guys’ plan.” Gavin quickly waved and walked off in the opposite direction.

“That was weird.” My dad said. I shrugged my shoulders, honestly not knowing how to respond to what just happened. I balanced my box on my hip and unlocked my office. “So, what do you want moved?”

“Well, I was hoping to have my desk facing the side wall instead of towards the door and the chairs placed across. The couch can go against the wall by the door.” I sat the box down on the floor.

“Alright, Connor help me move the desk, (Y/n) get the chairs out of the way.” The three of us got to work, it honestly didn’t take very long, and I began unpacking my box on my desk. “Are those real books?” My dad asked taking one off of the shelves.

“Yeah, that one’s my book actually.” He flipped around and looked at me.

“Really?” Connor walked over to my dad to look at the book.

“Yeah, I had to publish my articles in order to get my PhD. It’s really a collection of my theories, not like an actual book. It’s not for sale anywhere. At least not yet.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Could I borrow it?” My dad asked me softly, his face was stoic as he looked at me. I quickly nodded.

“Yeah I have copies of all of the articles on my computer.” I looked away and started unpacking. I had a dumb little bobble head of the Iron Giant that one of my students gave me after I made them watch that movie as homework when I was a graduate assistant. I sat it by my computer, wondering if there was room in my syllabus to do that assignment again. I pulled out a couple pictures of friends from school and one of me with my first class. I looked at the one of me and mom. I took a deep breath and sat it down with the others. I spared a glance upwards; my dad was looking through my book and Connor was staring at me.

“Is that your mother?” My dad’s head shot up and looked over.

“Yes.” I said softly. They both walked closer to me to look at the picture. I felt my eyes start to pool with tears and I shook my head, trying to clear the bad feeling away, but when I opened my mouth to answer the words got stuck in my throat. I felt the tears start running down my cheeks.

“Have you talked to her since you got here?” My dad asked softly. He really didn’t know. I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t.

“Excuse me.” I rasped and pushed past them out of my office.

I think my dad tried to go after me, but Connor must have held him back. I exited the building and sat against one of the brick walls. I tried to calm my breathing, inhaling in big gulps of fresh air, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I wiped my eyes so I could read the notification without tears blurring my vision. There was an email from the university talking about the new semester, but underneath a text from an unsaved number.

this is gavin

He sent that five minutes ago. What are the odds he’s still here? I bit my lip and tried to keep my hands from shaking.

Are you still nearby?

yeah why

Where?

im in the parking lot. i can see u crying

I quickly looked up. I scanned the cars for a moment, but I saw a gray Jeep with someone waving. I stood up and looked back at the door. Neither Connor nor my dad had come to find me. I walked over to his car and opened the passenger door and climbed in. I glanced over at him; he was staring at me. I quickly wiped my tears. Gavin cleared his throat.

“You okay?” I couldn’t look at him, I was so embarrassed.

“Yes…no…I don’t know.” I put my hands over my face as I choked back a sob.

“Connor said you like cats, right?” I turned my head and looked at him. He was staring at me with pity which just made me feel worse. I couldn’t even bring myself to respond so I just nodded. “Do you want to come meet my cats?”

“Okay.” I said softly. Gavin nodded and started his car.

#gavin reed x reader #gavin reed #detroit become human #hank anderson #dbh #connor is like a son to hank #connor rk800 #dbh nines #x reader #fan fiction #gavin reed has three cats

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rhubarbplants · 4 years

Text

Renegades Secret santa fluff. No spoilers

Danna held out a baseball cap with a few folded pieces of paper. Nova reached in first and pulled out one of the crumped papers, and then she watched as the rest of her teammates pulled their secret santa names out, one by one. She didn’t want to open it yet, she would save it for later. She watched as people opened their cards. Ruby blushed and Oscar just looked confused. Danna was smirking and honestly Nova didn’t have a clue what the look on Adrian’s face meant. His brow was furrowed but he had a small smile.

“Ok” Danna said. “Keep quiet about who you have, don’t tell anyone, and don’t get anything lame.”

Someone in the Renegades had suggested a secret santa tradition a few years ago and it had been slowly adopted until it had gained the name: adopted, quasi official tradition. It was officially secret snowflake as to not make it religious but no one called it that. Even Nova, who was an adamant atheist, called it secret santa. Adrian escorted her up to her room in the tower. She was on probation so she couldn’t be alone outside her room, so Adrian and the team had taken it upon themselves to be the ones who ‘escorted’ her everywhere. She would have been annoyed if it hadn’t been for the way they almost make her forget how bad her situation actually was.

It was basically luck she wasn’t in jail right now but her mind zoomed around the memory of that day. Forgetting was easier.

“Good night” Nova said, Adrian leaned down to press a kiss to her lips, before saying

“Good night to you too, I love you.”

She closed the door behind her and open her paper. She sighed and put her face in her hands. This was going to be awkward. She get her laptop and pulled up google, she scoured amazon for two whole hours but nothing popped out at her. Everything was either to effortless or just not right. She sighed and closed her computer, walking to bed and throwing back the covers. It was hard to sleep that night, her mind was so focused on the gift she couldn’t sleep, not that it was an issue, but since her curfew was set she had found it a nice was to pass the time.

She spent the next day obsessing over finding the right thing. Nothing that would upset their tenuous relationship. She was scribbling her way through archive paperwork when it came to her. She rushed out and immediately got to work. She worked for hours on end making sure every little element was perfect.

A few days later the team gathered in the space in front of Max’s quarantine where he still lived most of the time. All the presents were wrapped and Danna started the exchange,

“Ok, so the person who gets a present has to give theirs, Nova can start.”

“Oh, ok” Nova wasn’t ready but she lifted the light blue box adjusting the ribbon, before handing it to Danna. She looked surprised that she was on the receiving end of the gift, but unraveled the bow and lifted the present out of the box. It was an aerosol spray can and Danna looked at Nova questioningly.

“Its a spray that will make your butterfly wings fireproof and waterproof without compromising flying ability.” Nova explained.

“Nova that’s amazing how did you come up with this.”

“Well, I kind of had a genius chemistry teacher.”

Danna jumped up and hugged Nova tightly, before sitting down again and handing her present to Ruby. She unwrapped in to see a giant geology book, once again hugs were exchanged and then it was Ruby's turn to give her present. She practically chucked the red and white wrapped rectangular package. Oscar caught it and started to unwrap it,

“You got me?” He asked,

“Yeah, it took me forever to find anything,” she said. Oscar pulled the gift out of the paper and smiled. It was a picture of Ruby and Oscar in the snow and the frame was made or carved red stone.

“I have so much crystal lying around, I figured I could make something out of it.”

“It’s great, really really great.” He said, enveloping Ruby in a hug. Oscar handed a small square package to Max who carefully took the paper of, making sure he didn’t rip it. He pulled out a pair of small metal figurines,

“What are they for?” He asked

“You can use your metal manipulation powers to make them move around, and they can live in your model Gatlon city.”

Max looked at them intensely and they began to walk their movements slow but fluid.

“Oh my god! This is the best thing ever!” He gave Oscar a hug and the figurines ran over to give him a hug too. “Ok, my turn now”. He tossed Adrian a sloppily wrapped package and Adrian started to rip the paper. He was halfway through when a regular looking pen slipped out. Adrian looked at Max questioningly and Danna gave him a disapproving look,

“I thought we said no lame gifts” Danna said,

“It’s not, it’s not.” Max reassured, “it’s super cool, it can turn in to any color you want just just have to name which ones.” Adrian’s confused look turned to excitement and he picked up the pen and said,

“Indigo.” Then scrawled a little cat doodle on the floor. It was in fact indigo, a perfect shade too, then he pulled the cat into existence. The kitten walked over to max and snuggled up to him.

“The cat is my thank you note.” He said, smiling as the cat nuzzled Max’s leg. Then Nova realized she was the only one who hadn’t gotten a present, which meant Adrian was the one who had gotten her. Adrian’s present was going to be for her. He picked up a large rolled up piece of paper with a big blue bow. She unfurled the poster and saw a star map like the one she had on her desk. Her heart sank and Adrian must have seen the look on her face because he said,

“Look closer.” She did and noticed that some of the labels were different. A few constellations had different names.

Fornax, ‘The Furnace’ was labeled with Oscars name, which made Nova laugh. Pictor, ‘The Painter’ was Adrian, Ruby was Mars and Danna’s name was by a butterfly cluster. Max is by a black hole which is a dry kind of humor but the fact that he wears the charm now takes the edge off the joke, and she knows that Adrian would never make a joke that would actually hurt Max’s feelings. Nova was searching the poster for her name and when she found it, she gasped. Her name is printed in white bolded letters right under the constellation Perseus. The Hero. One last label pops out at Nova, just as she’s about to roll up the star chart. It simply said, Us. She took a closer look and saw it was by the constellation Argo. The crew of heroes who had become like a family over the course of their quest. Adrian was right about that, when she looked at the people around her that was what she saw. Not a team or colleagues or even friends. These were her family. Her stood and hugged Adrian, then pulled the rest of them in. She hadn’t felt this loved for years, but it felt perfect.

#marissa meyer #renegades #adrian everhart #nova artino #max everhart #oscar silva #ruby tucker #danna bell #no spoilers

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myownpersonaldemons · 4 years

Note

*breathes in* goth reader (who is lowkey a e girl and looks like she could’ve been in the underground the whole time) meets uf grillby. Go crazy with this one darling like go fuck wild with the prompt. Go apeshit. :)

So, I’m an old lady, and I had to figure out what an e-girl was because yo, I had no idea. I’ve heard it before but never actually understood what it meant. So it took a bit before I actually could write this because I had to do *adjusts glasses* research.

By research, I meant googling it and still being confused so I asked my tumblr followers and someone explained it so I accepted that term as the One.

Anyways! Prompt away! Goth(lowkey e-girl) Reader meeting UF!Grillbz.

Heads up, there is some mature themes to this. As in, Reader works at a sex shop. So, be aware. (because you said go wild I was like ‘what’s a wild way to meet someone for the first time? a sex shop. yes perfect got it let’s go.’)

You hummed softly as you scrolled through the comments on your newest Instagram post. You’d started doing OOTD’s because a couple people who followed you on other social media websites begged you too.Though, you had to admit that a lot of the comments were validating as fuck. A couple of people asked where you got specific pieces of clothing, so you answered honestly.

Honestly, once you saw the goth aesthetic you were all over it…and when e-girl aesthetic became a thing you were all over that as well. There was just something about it that felt…right. You looked great, and you didn’t mind people staring at you as much as you might’ve at one point.

Plus, ever since the monsters came to the surface, there was an explosion of alt-clothing available everywhere and it was beautiful. You could actually find new pieces at your local clothing stores instead of needing to order online and pay the hefty shipping fees.

The bell on the door rang and you locked your phone and tucked it back into your pocket. As you glanced up you saw two masculine looking monsters, but honestly with them you knew to never assume anything.You tried not to assume, especially at your place of work, anything aboutanyone who walked in through the doors. So, you merely smiled, “Hey! Welcome, if you need any help gimme a shout!”

The skeletal monster shrank in his hoodie, making a ‘tch’ sound and proceeded to stare directly at the ground. On the other hand, the monster made entirely of purple flame tilted his head down slightly so you could see his bright white eyes which he winked at you.

You merely kept your smile on because honestly? You were way too used to people flirting with you randomly when they came in.

The two headed off deeper into the store and you waited a bit before moving from behind the counter to start organizing some merchandise.

“tch…no fuckin’ way,” the skeleton’s voice reached your ears as started to front end face all the boxes along the far wall closer to the two monsters. “look, m’tellin’ ya stockings are way fuckin’ hotter than thigh highs.”

“You drink mustard for a beverage, Sans…I do not think your ‘tastes’ are considered viable in anyway,” the fire monster replied back coolly. The skeleton monster, Sans, made a disgruntled noise. “Thigh highs are far superior, and are less likely to tear and be ruined. Quality is sexy.”

Another noise, “what th’ fuck? quality? sorry, forgot your stupid rich ass is into bullshit like ‘cashmere and silk.’” You could hear the distain in the skeletons voice that almost made you snort in response. Instead, you kept your opinions and thoughts to yourself as you continued to hear them banter back and forth. Sans was still avoiding looking at anything while the other perused the merchandise casually.

A purple firey hand picked up one of the boxes near you and began to examine it closely.

“uh, s’cuse me,” Sans said, and it took you a second to realize he was talking to you, but once you did you quickly apologized and asked him if there was something you could help him with. “what d’ya think? stockings or thigh highs?”

You paused, confused as to why you were being asked that. However, when you shifted your weight you were reminded that you were wearing stockings. Ah, was he trying to get you to agree with him? You tilted your head in thought, did you agree with him? Potentially…but you sawstockings as more ‘traditionally sexy’.

“Thigh highs,” you said finally, “because if the girl is wearing a skirt you can see that little strip of thigh between the thigh high and the skirt and that's hot.”

The fire monster, whom you still didn’t know the name of, gestured at you with a dildo. “See, Sans? A woman of culture. Unlike you.”

Working at a sex shop was never a tiresome endeavour, especially when customers use a dildo to emphasize a point before they realized they were in fact holding a phallus shaped object.

Sans tsked, “then why aren’t cha wearing thigh highs insteada stockings?”

You glanced down at your stockings. They were just basic fishnet stockings beneath a black skirt. You returned your gaze to Sans and then shrugged, “cus I thought I looked cute like this today. But, anyways, enough about me!” you waved your hands, “What brings you two in for? Anything I can help you out with?”

The fire monster was already looking at a different dildo, examining it curiously. Sans on the other hand shrank into his hoodie, glaring over at the fire monster. “tch, this asshole’s lookin’ for some shit.”

“You could get something for yourself too,” the fire monster pointed out, placing the dildo back down to pick up a bigger vibrator.

“I can make some suggestions if you’re looking to spice things up in the bedroom together,” you said, and the reaction was instant. The fire monster recoiled visably, and Sans started sputtering, eye sockets wide.

“i!!! ain’t with this asshole!” he said, his accented voice becoming thicker as he took a few steps away from his companion.

“He is my ride here, nothing more,” the fire monster said quickly.

“y-yeah!” Sans added. The two began to insist that they really weren’t together, not letting you get a word in edge wise to apologize for the confusion. You hadn’t meant together as in they were together but just together as in friends shopping together. Of course, you listened in amusement as they basically listed off all the reasons why they totally couldn’t be together to you before falling silent. You basically got to listen to two people roast each other for thirty minutes, progressively finding stupider reasons about why they wouldn’t work together.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume,” you settled for and Grillby, whom you finally figured out his name during their attempt to prove that they weren’t together, nodded stiffly before turning and front end facing a few boxes that you hadn’t gotten to yet. He picked up one of the larger dildos that your store carried and you added, “We also have some beginner ones-“

He gave you a dry look, “I’m not a beginner, I’ve had bigger.”

“didn’t need to know that,” Sans grumbled, covering his face with a hand, “look, grillbz, imma wait for ya outside. this is too fuckin’ weird.”

He strode towards the door quickly, and with a light dingle of the bell was gone. The moment the door shut completely, Grillby placed the dildo back on the shelf. “I’m here only because he spilt mustard on my favourite white shirt. I apologize for taking up your time, though I must admit, I’m glad that such a lovely woman as you is the one working. I haven’t seen many humans dressing like you.”

You would blush but you had stopped taking anyone’s flirts seriously while on shift. “It’s kind of a niche look for humans,” you admitted, subconsciously tugging at the sleeves of your shirt. “To be honest,it was incredibly hard to find this sort of stuff until Monsters got to thesurface. You all look so awesome, how do you even find this sort of stuff?”

He gave you a thoughtful look at that, “I know a spider who custom makes clothing. A lot of monsters make their own clothing…for obvious reasons. Though…if I am honest, I thought you would have known that by now.”

You rose an eyebrow, “Uh…why?”

That made him pause, then he gestured to your neck, “You have a collar.”

It took a few seconds before it hit you.Oh! Your neighbour explained that monsters wore collars for different purposes. You were wearing a black leather choker with a silver heart on it. “Oh! Uh…no, this is a choker…it’s a fashion thing for humans. There’s no one…I’m not with anyone like that,” you quickly said, hoping you weren’t offending him.

“A woman of your quality and beauty? I’m fucking amazed you don’t have a plethora of people begging to be with you,” he said, eyes slowly raking over your body. “But again, I apologize for taking up your time.”

That compliment did manage to have your cheeks heat up.

“You’re my first customer in thirty minutes,” you admitted with a shrug instead, “Though if you are looking for something I can help you.”

He was silent for a moment before nodding, “I was actually curious about the body safe wax candles?”

“Oh! Those are my favourite, we got some new ones in,” you said happily, leading him over. You spent the next thirty minutes talking to him about the safety and precautions while using the candles, how to use them. It then dissolved into talking about different objects around the store that he was curious about, and he actually ended up purchasing a good amount of products.

He paused before he left and then pulled out a business card and slid it across the counter towards you. It said ‘Grillby’s Bar’ in swirling purple font, along with an address and times on it.

“If you ever swing by for a drink, I’ll be sure to be as gracious as a host to you as you’ve been to me today,” he said, voice dripping with as much swagger and confidence as someone who had bought a giant purple dragon dildo should have. He said it was to freak out Sans, but when you told him that dildos weren’t returnable (for obvious reasons), he said that he wouldn’t need to.

You raised your eyebrow at him, “You own a bar?”

Grillby smirked, “Best one in town if you ask me.”

You laughed, rolling your eyes. “Says the owner.”

He chuckled before looking at you over his sunglasses, “I have excellent taste, after all.”

“That you do,” you replied, dropping your gaze to his bag, teasingly, “I hope you enjoy yourself!”

Grillby winked at you, “Oh, I will. Though, if you swing by my bar after your finished work tonight, I think my night would be just about made.”

“I’ll think about it,” you replied quickly, and he sauntered out with a wave.

You rolled your eyes but grinned. Maybe you would stop by his bar tonight.

Maybe…you’d switch your stockings for thigh highs.

#Anon Friend #asks #requests #uf!grillby/reader

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steve0discusses · 5 years

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep1 Part 2: The Soul Stealing Motorcycle Card Gang With an Australian Accent

So a lot of things that happen at once in this episode, and one of the wild things is something that has been building for 3 entire seasons of Yugioh but because all this other stuff is happening, it’s like...secondary. Slowly, we’ve been watching all of these cards becoming more and more real to the point that yes, they are in fact Physical now--other people are noticing, it’s finally happening. the cards are finally real. Magic exists. This is a very big deal.

Like I’ve seen some of y’alls comments about how S4 is kind of crazy and well...cards becoming real was my one and only guess as to what crazy thing could happen in S4 and that happened halfway through the first episode so...it’s all uphill from here

But what’s crazy about this is that although this has been built up for so long, all our main characters are so freakin distracted, that they look up at the sky and see...youknow...this tapestry here:

And treat it like they’re looking at a flock of really weird birds or something. Like this is world breaking, terrifying, end of the world, Independence Day level red alert and yet instead of the military marching down and shooting lasers at all of these things, everyone is going to just simply walk home.

No one is going to evacuate. Yugi’s Dad isn’t going to show up in a Mad Max style motorcycle in jean cutoffs and be like “I knew it was happening, Son, this is what I’ve been doing for the past 3 years PS, it was worth it now, huh?” no, that isn’t happening.

Instead we’re going to very patiently, and very carefully just not panic and walk home.

Everyone’s just gonna...walk on the sidewalk home, huh? Patiently follow traffic laws? Wait for the light to turn red and everything?

No one even slightly wants to know what any of these monsters taste like? Just me? I mean this is your one opportunity to cook and eat a scapegoat and you know that thing’s got to be delicious under barbecue sauce.

And the funny thing is, people saw this happening and was like “I should call that game company and let them know that there’s real ass dragons that look like their video game flying around.”

Like imagine that Nintendo became real and there’s just...Goombas everywhere. Would I be...calling the Nintendo Hotline?

Hell No. I would be checking all food blogs everywhere for how to roast a Goomba on a grill, because you KNOW those things would be nuts after a few hours in a marinade, draped with fried egg on rice.

But in Yugioh, they’re like calling up Kaiba Corp and hoping that customer service can somehow make the living, breathing dragons and whatever that flying turtle thing was just...stop existing. They’re pretty sure Kaiba can “turn off” the flying monsters.

I think I’m still spelling it wrong, too.

Also, Kuriboh is real now and that...sucks.

That’s a lot of gross hair just flying around and I guarantee it’s gonna give everyone lice. That nasty ass sentient ball of hair you pulled out of your shower drain is just...flying around outside with huge googly eyes.

Freakin sucks. You can’t possibly eat a Kuriboh, it’s way too much hair and I guarantee when you skin that thing it’s like just a meatball to put on the tiniest little skewer and that’s it.

Sorry Bro just informed me that Kuriboh is a ghost??????

???

Also one of the cards is straight up an American Quarter.

I just want to bring up that there’s one (1) cursed ass American Quarter somewhere on Earth and that is going to be a real shocker for the one person that picks up that Quarter and doesn’t realize that when you flip it, it can kill people.

And I just did hunt to figure out what the hell the quarter card is called and I’m starting to think maybe the the show made it up? Wtv my memory is patchy when it comes to the cards.

And for all the cards that are just people but with more muscles, what are they gonna do? Is Dark Magician gonna have to go try and get a reception job to pay the bills? Is anyone going to hire Dark Magician in this economy?

(read more under the cut)

On their pleasurable walk home amongst all the horrible abominations and I guess a couple of bizarre magician hats floating around, they come across...this:

They just left them there in the middle of the street next to this nasty ass Gecko that would ABSOLUTELY eat them.

Also that Gecko...that’s just an alligator that can climb walls, right? Like this is Florida level of insane terrible creature you never want to have climbing walls? That was the one thing we had on alligators--vertical walls.

Youknow, Florida is probably the only place on Earth in this Universe that is actually completely fine.

On the other side of town, Roland is having his best day ever.

I do enjoy that Roland's line was “Mr Kaiba assured me that it’s not their company’s fault” which makes it sound sort of like he had some serious doubts. And might still have some serious doubts. And that he’s so sure that it was Kaiba, that he’s just going to say the “company” isn’t to blame.

And so they decided, well instead of evacuating the city, lets go have dinner at the Muto house. So, they all decided to not check in with everyone else’s parents and family and instead had a fun hang out sesh and watched TV.

They went to school with this guy.

Like they went to school with this guy like a month ago and now he’s giving press conferences in front of a dictator-style tapastry.

The imposter syndrome in Domino High must be pretty wild if you’re always getting compared to Seto Kaiba, is all I’m saying. Maybe that’s why the rest of the class has just decided to drop out.

*Cut to Pegasus’ island where there’s like 80 dead wife zombies running around and Pegasus and Croquet have locked themselves into the bathroom while they watch the zombie wives eat whatever’s left of PaniK.*

It looks like my dream ending of Yugioh, that Seto Kaiba’s company gets sued to hell and back and everyone goes to prison isn’t quite realized yet but it’s looking slowly and surely more real every day.

Kind of surprising that they assume so quickly that Kaiba is lying when they’re sitting next to Pinocchio over here.

So once you think, well...they can’t add more to this episode, no, we’re just gonna straight up knock out Yugi’s Grandpa...again. He needs a life alert. Does Yugi wear a life alert?

And you’d think they’d assume that a monster did this, right? Nah. It’s people. Real ass people did this but not one of the many huge ass monsters that apparently are kind of like Pokémon and don’t feel like doing more than just flap their arms and sit on stuff.

Anyways, the God Cards are gone. Goodbye, Deux ex Machina cards.

Feel a little bad for the one building just directly under the shadow of obelisk, looking up and just seeing a giant, glittery, blue ass.

And then a whole bunch of motorcycles showed up??? Like MOTORCYCLES. And I was like “BRO are they gonna play cards on motorcycles!?” because one of the only reasons I decided “OK Bro, lets actually watch Yugioh” is, and I’ve said this before, because someone mentioned on twitter that they’ll play cards on motorcycles but no.

No one plays cards on motorcycles this episode, they just show up to rev their engines and shine their brights.

Also at least one of them has like the thickest stage Australian accent and it is...rough. He said “bum” once instead of “butt” and you could tell it was just...they said bum to make him sound a little bit more Aussie because we don't really know how to do Australian in the States. We don’t know how this accent works, I’m so sorry.

But anyways, apparently after the God Cards got their energy sapped out, they can now just...be played by whomever? Not entirely clear.

And then they just...drove away.

Like they drove away without even telling them where to go?

And I was like...maybe they just went to that building under construction right there that is...somehow directly across from Yugi’s house which is...directly across from a super wide 12 laned street?

But...that can’t be right, right? I’m sometimes a little confused by the geography of this show but it’s a cartoon and they’re hard to make so we’ll forgive it.

Anyway, while Grandpa Muto counts up the damages to send to the insurance company, they figure out where to go, probably by following the God Cards which are...summoned here like holograms although...they are real? Right?

Like...

...so if there’s monsters just flying around, and it’s all the monsters of the duel monster deck, then there is a version of Slither just hanging out somewhere already, right? Or is the one they summon with the card the real Slither?

The show never thought that hard about it honestly. You can both play duel monster cards which I believe are no longer holograms when you play them and also they just inherently exist now so...Lets not think about it and just go to a brand new fight club roof. You know how much these kids love construction equipment.

Also is this the roof of a freakin IKEA? Look at the size of that thing.

This cultist just begging for Seto Kaiba to run a helicopter straight into him. Which Seto would probably do all over again if Seto were here.

I guess Seto decided to either go the hell to sleep and hope tomorrow will prove today was a bad dream, or he is celebrating the very best day of his life with his brother, sight seeing all the dragons and desperately trying to lure the dragons into his home with carrots under a box trap or something.

This guy ABSOLUTELY does Shakespeare in the park and only gets like minor, very minor roles, right? Like he’s the understudy for King Lear’s manservant who has no speaking lines and just pours water into a cup in one scene? And he takes it VERY seriously?

Yo these side burns.

So bro was like, who do you think would have more product in their hair? This guy or Yugi? And it’s like..well...here’s the thing about Yugi’s hair, he’s got a lot of product, but he has enough scalp to tease the hell out of it. But how do you tease your side burns? How do you tease your side burns so they have the lift of an old timey moustache? you can’t. Those side burns are 90% Elmers glue.

Hello there, offbrand Final Fantasy guy I see you got a Cloud shoulder pad but you wear two of them.

...

It’s a look they chose.

I...there’s a lot going on with all of these looks, especially the guy who is straight up wearing pieces of armor on his shoulders in the middle here for no reason but oh I will get to the looks when we see them in more detail later.

But it’s like, do you think Mr Monocle, who’s only character design trait is a single Monocle, will stay in the show very long? Compared to these guys?

Hm.

I guess we will see.

Thanks, Pegasus.

Thanks for giving us absolutely NO heads up about any of your disaster cards you produced and let loose across the world. Congrats on that. Congrats on printing this freakin card that steals people’s souls and delivering it out there where children could find it in their happy meals.

Like do you think he printed the Orichalcos card before or after the God Cards? Because I’d like to think that he finished up shoving the God Cards onto Ishizu and then was like “phew, crisis averted” and then immediately painted a weird geometric shape and was like “Damn it! I did it again!? Every time I decide not to paint my dead wife I just paint something even worse!”

Anyways, it’s aesthetic takes me back to a much simpler time of my life, and when it shows up the Titanic song pops up in my head? I can’t explain it. It’s just very...very...

It just screams edgy Riverdance to me, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like it should be accompanied by Enya? Just me? The runes just seem very old world Europe.

Bro really wants these to be the runes above Noah’s fireplace and he’s been holding this in for like an entire season, but that’s not going to happen.

Because I have the receipts:

Evidence again that Noah’s fireplace was just what Noah thought art was, since he’s a computer and all. He rendered perfect fire and then got to the art and was like fuuuuuuuuuuu just like anyone else who first gets into Unity.

Anyway, Joey got knocked over, so Pharaoh decided to save his friends and it got him nowhere because, like we already figured out last episode and basically more and more every episode of Yugioh, Pharaoh is a freakin idiot.

So fun fact about the 00′s I’m sure everyone here fondly remembers unless you’re 12 (in which case, why are you on tumblr?) Remember how much we were OBSESSED with glowy blue-green lines and dots on everything in concept art? I really think that trend lasted until about James Cameron’s Avatar when we realized “we took it too far y’all” and then it just kinda died. Still hangs around, but it’s not quite as obvious as the 00′s when it was like “ah I see you have a glowy pastel magicky thingy in your art. A+, lets put it in a grimdark dystopian YA fiction.”

...It was a phase and seeing this shade of green as a glow just really brings me back to the halcyon days of a little less than 10 years ago. It’s very something that would have been in steampunk.

They also get this logo on their head when they use this card, just like Pharaoh but significantly less cool. And it’s on all this guy’s monsters too, so everyone gets the power of branding. With this logo that looks like a joke Portlandia would make about indie logos.

Pharaoh kind of shrugs this off because like...his soul lives in a freakin necklace and he has magic so...whatever.

And then we get the full cheese spread--look at this cheese!

WOWOWOWOW

Look at Dieselpunk Amelie! Here I thought that now Marik wasn’t around we’d have no more stupid crop tops, but it’s back and man I am so happy it’s back. Damn. Everyone has a popped collar covered in as many square inches of belts as they could fit on em. Belts just hanging off willy nilly in every direction so you can barely walk through a hallway without your belt slapping on the edges. Them walking through a revolving door must be the most dangerous game outside of Duel Monsters.

woah.

Oh man, and I didn’t even noticed that they made the middle guy ripped as hell for no reason. His arm looks like a Payday candybar.

But MAN.

Someone give that guy on the right a sword the size of himself because...holy hell his jacket is so massive that it has an accordion shoulder pad for some reason???

Oh shoot I didn’t even realize guy on the right has about 6 rivets on his fingerless gloves, too. Wow.

Oh man it’s a lot to take in.

Do you see em? Do you see how many weird ass accessories are all over these characters these underpaid animators will have to draw SO MANY TIMES?

Oh man, the poor cosplayers! It must be so hard to go from Bandit Keith--a fairly easy cosplay--to the Accordian shouldered 11-belted jacket on Mr I-Dare-You-To-Cosplay-These-Sideburns.

And then this guy screws himself:

I’m not gonna add him to the Yugioh Death Counter yet, but I have a feeling, especially after seeing how few belts this guy has on...I just have a really strong feeling he’s absolutely going to die.

Goodbye, normal guy, you were too normie for this bizarre world.

Anyway, feel free to leave in the comments, if Yugioh cards became real, which one would you immediately eat and how? (and we can count plant cards as actual plants for the vegans, even if they can talk or whatev--them’s plants, they’re kosher.)

(realizes I have no idea if there’s even plant type cards in Yugioh or if that’s just a pokemon thing)

Anyway that’s all for now but if you just got here, this is a link to read all my Yugioh recaps in Chrono Order, fair warning...this is S4.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh recap #photo recap #S4 #S4 ep1 #gurimo #yugi muto #joey wheeler #grandpa muto #tea gardner #tristan taylor #I don't know the name of the three new dudes yet #but wow they have more belts on than my local old navy #cameo by Seto Kaiba #who is somehow not seeing a lawsuit yet

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oh-ranpo · 5 years

Text

i hate valentine’s day. {roger taylor}

AN: Cause I really need more one-shots right now when I still have seven requests for my writing contest, but in the spirit of the holiday, I had this idea. I hope you like it! Let me know what you think.

“I hate Valentine’s Day,” you growled, as you plopped down on the couch next to Brian. You had just arrived at the studio where your friends were recording, and they all looked over at you when you came in.

“What are you going on about?” Freddie asked, as he went back to scribbling furiously in one of his lyric journals. Brian was giving you a sympathetic smile from next to you, and John was watching you intently from the chair next to Freddie, waiting for you to explain your most recent bout of frustration. The only one who didn’t really pay much attention was Roger, who was spinning his drumsticks around his fingers as he stood looking over Freddie’s shoulders as he was writing.

“You know that guy I’ve been seeing?” you asked, drawing Roger’s attention to you.

“Yeah, Jack?” he asked, and you narrowed your eyes at him.

“Jason. Well, he decided that he was going to ask out another one of my co-workers for Valentine’s day. Can you believe it? He sent her flowers and everything. The prick.”

You crossed your arms over your chest in anger, as the image of the bundle of red roses that had been sitting on Amy’s desk ran through your mind. Of course, you hadn’t been all that interested in Jason, but it was the principal of the matter.

“He was an asshole, YN. He didn’t deserve you,” Brian comforted, as he gently patted your leg. You gave him a small smile, and your eyes lifted to meet Roger’s. He was still staring at you, but after a few more moments, he looked away. You had noticed more lingering glances from Roger lately, but you didn’t really think too much of it. He was a little weird sometimes, but you knew that ultimately it meant nothing.

“Well, Valentine’s day is a little over a week away. You still have time to find a new date,” John said encouragingly, and a scoff fell through your lips.

“That’s totally something a man in a committed relationship would say. I appreciate the sentiment though, Deaky.”

John shrugged, a smug smile on his lips as he stood up from his chair and walked across the room to grab his bass. Freddie finished writing a few more words, and then he finally turned back to face you.

“You know that I’m having a single’s party at my house on Valentine’s day, now you have no excuse not to come. Rog’ll be there. Won’t you Rog?” Freddie glanced up and over his shoulder at the blond towering over him. Roger shrugged, and you weren’t the least bit surprised that he might consider going to one of Freddie’s infamous Valentine’s Day parties. There would be plenty of single girls there vying for his attention. It was right up his alley.

“I don’t know, Freddie. You know those parties aren’t my scene. Besides, that party is known for just hooking people up for one-night stands, and nothing more,” you replied, your arms uncrossing as your leg started to bounce up and down repeatedly. A wry smile crossed Freddie’s lips and he gave you a wink.

“That’s the point, darling. I’m not Cupid, I can’t make people fall in love. But at least it keeps people from feeling alone.”

You couldn’t argue with that, and as much as you wanted to go on a proper date for Valentine’s Day, you knew that Freddie’s party would help you forget, at least for a few hours, how pathetically alone you actually were.

Brian and John pretended like they weren’t listening to the conversation considering that the both of them were in happy, loving relationships. You were happy for them, but you always wondered how they had gotten so lucky so early in life. You weren’t exactly the romantic type, but you were almost 27 years old. You thought that you might have met the love of your life by this point.

“Valentine’s day is a stupid holiday anyways,” you mumbled to yourself, as you sunk back into the couch cushions. No one acknowledged your grumblings, but you didn’t expect them to. They knew, just as well as you, that you would get over it eventually.

x.x.x

When you walked into work the next morning, you received an abnormal number of stares from some of your co-workers. As you passed their cubicles, several eyes glanced up and watched you as you made your way back to your office. You felt incredibly self-conscious, wondering if you had worn your shirt inside out or you had something on your face, but as soon as you caught sight of your desk, you figured out that it had nothing to do with how you looked.

Sitting on top of your desk was a giant vase with a bouquet of white lilies. An audible gasp fell through your lips as you stepped into the room, searching for a card or something that might tell you who the gift had come from. Whoever it was knew exactly what your favorite flowers were. Your mind immediately jumped to Jason, but you figured he couldn’t have been dumb enough to send flowers to two different women in the same office.

You spotted a small white envelope pressed in among the flowers, and you quickly reached out to open it. You were a little disappointed when there was no sender name, but just a quick message on the card that said, “I hope you enjoy these.”

You spent the rest of the day with a smile on your face, and you often found yourself pressing your nose close to the flowers so that you could enjoy their fragrant smell. You still had no idea who could have sent them, but the sour feeling you had felt the day before was completely gone.

x.x.x

The next morning, things returned to normal with no new present on your desk. Your good mood from the flower delivery the day before carried over into the day, and you went happily about your work, as you continued to think about who could have sent them to you.

A couple days later, just two days before Valentine’s Day, you walked into your office and found another large box sitting on top of it. When you got closer, you saw that it was a box of chocolates, and a smile spread across your lips. There was another card, but still no name on who had sent them to you. Instead, there was just a short message of, “Just another little something to help you feel special.” Just as you closed the card, one of your co-workers walked up to your door and knocked gently.

“Does someone have a secret admirer?” she asked with a giddy smile on her face. You looked up at her and shrugged. You really had no idea what was going on, but you couldn’t complain.

“I honestly have no idea where this stuff is coming from,” you replied, as you looked down at the small note once again. You spent the rest of the day trying to scope out whether there was anyone in your office who might have been the culprit. However, everyone went about their normal business, and you gave up trying to figure it out.

x.x.x

You didn’t know what else you expected. Whoever was sending you gifts had already sent you flowers and chocolate, so you figured that would be the end of it. Especially since whoever it was didn’t care enough to tell you who they were. So that’s why, when you walked into work the day before Valentine’s day, you were completely taken aback to see a small stuffed giraffe sitting in your chair. He had a little bow tie, and there was another card attached to it.

You smiled adoringly down at the small animal and you couldn’t help but wonder who knew that lilies were your favorite flowers and giraffes were your favorite animal. The card still had no name on it, but this time, there were instructions rather than a short little sentiment.

“Roses are red, violets are blue. I know you think Valentine’s sucks, but I want to have dinner with you. Meet me outside by your car at noon and you can give me your answer.”

You felt your pulse quicken at the thought that you could be meeting the person behind all the gifts in just a few short hours. Then, as you read over the card again, a thought hit you. There were only four people that knew how much you hated Valentine’s day, and that was Freddie, Roger, John, and Brian. You knew that it couldn’t have been John or Brian who were sending these things to you, or at least you desperately hoped that it wasn’t because that would make things entirely too awkward, so that left Roger or Freddie.

It has to be Freddie, you thought to yourself. Freddie was one of your best friends and he was always looking for ways to cheer you up when you were feeling down. You smiled to yourself as you went about your work, desperately trying to make the time pass quickly so that you could go out to your car and meet with Freddie.

When it was about five minutes until noon, you told one of your co-workers that you were going to be stepping out to lunch and then made your way to your car. At first, you didn’t see anyone anywhere near your car, but you didn’t think anything of it. Freddie was known for running a little behind, even when he set up the time to meet. You went around to the back of your car to wait for him to show up, and after a few minutes you felt a tap on your shoulder. Another smile made its way across your lips as you turned, but when you came face to face with the person who had gotten your attention, your expression drooped slightly.

“Roger?” You gave the blond a questioning look, but he smiled brightly at you. “Where’s Freddie?”

Roger’s smile disappeared and his eyebrows knit together in a confusion.

“What do you mean?” he asked quietly. You noticed that his hands were still behind his back as if he were hiding something from you, but you didn’t acknowledge it.

“Yeah, he’s been sending me gifts this week to cheer me up after what happened with Jason,” you replied, as you looked over his shoulder in hopes of seeing the brunette coming up behind him. There was a heavy silence that fell between you, and you brought your eyes back to his. You were surprised to see hurt in his eyes as he took a step back from you.

“You were expecting Freddie.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. A sad sounding statement at that.

You nodded, but you felt more confused than ever. You had been so sure that Freddie was the one who had put all this together, but the fact that he still hadn’t shown up yet made your rethink it. Suddenly, realization washed over you and your stomach dropped. Roger wasn’t looking at you anymore, and you could see that he felt awkward about the entire situation.

“It was you.”

Roger looked up, but his eyes still didn’t quite meet yours. His hands came from behind his back, and he held out a small black box. Hesitantly you took it, but he still didn’t say anything. You flipped the box open and a you inhaled sharply at the beautiful charm that lay inside of it.

It was a light gold drum head, and as the sun hit it, it shimmered brightly. Your eyes moved from the charm to the bracelet that you were wearing around your wrist, and you realized that it was the perfect size and fit for it.

It had been Roger that sent you the lilies. It had been Roger that sent you the chocolates. It was Roger that sent you the little stuffed giraffe. And now, it was Roger that stood in front of you, offering you the perfect addition to your favorite accessory. You had been so convinced that Roger wasn’t the romantic type, you hadn’t even considered him as an option. When you looked up from the small charm and met his blue eyes, you felt your heart skip in your chest.

“I know you hate Valentine’s Day, but you didn’t deserve what that asshole Jack-“

“Jason,” you corrected, a smile slowly making its way across your lips.

“Whatever. You don’t deserve what that asshole did to you, and I’ve been trying to come up with a way to ask you out for a while, and-“

Your hand gently reached out to grab his, and his words trailed off as your skin made contact. His eyes fell to your hand and then quickly back up to your eyes. There was a full smile on your face now, and Roger started to smile back.

“I had no idea you were so thoughtful, Mr. Taylor. What girl could possibly turn down such a proposal?”

A fluttering filled your chest as Roger let out a sigh of relief and he used the hand that was holding yours to pull you closer. He pressed his lips gently against your cheek before wrapping his arms around you in a tight embrace.

“So, that’s a yes, right?” he asked, as he pulled away to see what your answer was. You quickly nodded before you were pulled against his chest once again.

“Freddie’s going to be disappointed we aren’t attending his party,” you mumbled against Roger’s shoulder before he released you from his arms.

“I told him what I was planning. I think he would be more disappointed if we did show up,” Roger replied.

“Wait, Freddie kept this a secret from me all week? I’m surprised,” you laughed, knowing full well that Freddie was never the best at keeping any kind of secret.

“Why do you think you haven’t heard from him at all? Trust me, it’s been killing him.”

Roger gave you a wink, and you laughed again. You hadn’t really noticed, but he was right. Freddie hadn’t called you once since the day at the studio. You had just been too busy with work and trying to figure out who your secret admirer was to notice.

“I can’t wait to call him tonight and tell him the good news.”

You hadn’t ever really given Roger any serious consideration before because of his usually promiscuous ways with the ladies. He wasn’t the settling down type, and you weren’t the one-night-stand type. It had never seemed like a good match before now. However, as butterflies exploded in your stomach with each look he gave you, and the reminder of all the sweet gestures he gave you, you couldn’t believe that you had never seen it before.

Maybe you didn’t hate Valentine’s Day quite as much as you thought you did.

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#roger taylor #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor fluff #valentines day #kylie writes

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