guy trapped in a hell of his own creation: haha ive never done anything wrong in my entire life. and im always right:] anyway. why did my little brother move out:(

its so funny to me that at first glance tashi seems like hed be the most 'normal' out of all the clones but at least all the others are slowly healing n shit while hes just getting more and more insane each day and one day hell snap and explode and maim someone

𝙛𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙙 - 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨

A/N: request from my wife @soraya-daydreams - this is almost crack I stg.

Summary: The kids try edibles. Yuuji - maybe went overboard.

CW: the kids do edibles, swearing, crackfic, one or two suggestive sentences idk. mdni shoo go away

“But where would we even get it? It’s not like I have many drug dealing contacts.” Nobara hisses, as the three first years discuss their plans in a secluded part of the grounds.

“Fushiguro - your parents would definitely know where to get some, why don’t we ask them?” Itadori pokes his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Yeah they probably would, but they don’t do that shit anymore - Dad never could because of … all the eyes. Plus, with Akio being so young I don’t want them to have something to worry about if they start to fuss over us all smoking.” Megumi muses.

“Valid - when we started dating your Dad gave me lube and condoms and asked if I needed the sex talk, I think I died again that day.” Itadori nods, solemnly.

“Back to the issue at hand! Where do we obtain one bag of weed?” Nobara says, hands slapping the desk she sits at.

The three first years had decided that they wanted to do teenage stuff - since their lives were so crazy, Megumi was a potential heir for a large Sorcerer family and the son of the strongest sorcerers alive - Itadori was Sukuna’s vessel and Nobara was well on her way to a first grade, as well as the issues with being a young woman in sorcery. Because of their guardians (self-appointed) being as chill as they were, they didn’t really have anything to rebel against, so there was no point in sneaking out when they can just say where they are going with a ‘text when you get there’ from Y/N. There was no point in trying to sneak their parents alcohol, because there’s a ‘you can drink with us, or under our roof safely’ policy in place too. There was no secret dating, Itadori and Megumi were together already and Nobara… well, she hoped it wouldn’t be long before a certain Zen’in girl realised she was crazy about her. So that left smoking a joint, but Itadori said he had tried a cigarette before and hated it when he was at a party in school and Nobara didn’t want to smoke and stain her nails - so it was decided Yuuji would make brownies… special brownies.

“We could ask someone? Todo, maybe?” Yuuji suggests, before being answered with a unanimous ‘absolutely not’.

“I don’t know anyone else we could ask for weed from!” He responds, his sole idea shut down.

“You guys need weed?” A voice asks from behind them.

In the archway to the part of the garden stands a tall, beautiful woman with long blonde hair - holding a motorbike helmet under her arm and smiling.

Megumi thought he knew the woman from somewhere, photos maybe? Or was she at the wedding?

“Tsukomo-san! It’s - absolutely amazing to meet you!” Nobara says, shooting up from the bench.

“Wait - Yuki Tsukomo?! Who was Todo’s mentor?!” Yuuji adds.

“Ah, so you know that little knucklehead. Crazy kid, whole lotta balls I’ll tell ya that much. So - you guys need weed?” She says, leaning against the arch and shoving her hand into a pocket inside the jacket, before producing a small bag of greenery from inside.

“Eh! It’s - not what you think, we’re not - wait, is that weed? You have some?” Nobara asks.

“Sweetheart, I’ve travelled the world and back twice, of course I have some good - here, take this - share with the boys if you want.” She says, winking at Nobara who, for the first time in 6 months, swoons over someone who isn’t Maki Zen’in. Yuuji doesn’t fare much better.

She turns to leave, but gets caught by the sight of the boy beside Sukuna’s vessel.

“Holy shit, kid. Frightened the fuck outta me, fuckin’ clone of your old man.” She says, surveying him.

His head snaps to look at her.

“You knew him?” He asks.

“Yeah, cool guy - pretty fucked up, but still pretty cool. If ya ask me, you were way better off with the Jujutsu Royals - Y/N’s a badass, love that lil’ lady. The beanstalks alright, too - got some talent. She have the baby yet?” She asks, as she clips her bike helmet on.

“Um, yeah. He’s 10 months old now, just started walking.” He says, flabbergasted by this woman.

“Sick one, tell her good job from Yuki. Enjoy kids.” She says, and saunters away - and second later they hear the rumble of an engine.

The three are silent for a minute.

“What the fuck just happened?” Yuuji asks.

“Um… a special grade sorcerer just gave us a bag of weed.” Nobara says, equally as confused.

“I’m too tired for this shit. C’mon, let’s go inside.” He says, as they all begin making their way to the dorm rooms.

“Bone apple feet!”

Yuuji plops a plate of really delicious looking brownies down on the desk in front of his two fellow first years.

“So… do we just… eat a brownie each?” Nobara asks.

“Well, I made 6! So there’s 2 for each of us? Or we could ask the second years -” Yuuji is cut off.

“Ask the second years what?” Came the voice of Maki Zen’in from the doorway.

“Oh! Are they brownies?!” Panda asks, immediately making a beeline.

“They’re eh… special brownies.” Megumi nods.

“Shit - you kids make edibles?” Maki asks, a pleased smirk on her face.

“Do you guys want some?” Yuuji asks.

“Shake!” Inumaki says, sliding past Panda to grab a brownie as he turns away to pull his mask down and eat.

Maki looks at Nobara, who flushes and smiles, as Maki takes a seat on the bed beside her and takes 2 brownies - passing one to the flustered girl beside her.

Yuuji and Panda go next, each almost devouring their brownie in one bite - with Megumi taking his and deciding that you actually can’t taste the weed.

They all sit there for a few minutes.

“Yuuji - are you sure you put enough in? I’m not feeling anything?” Megumi asks, perplexed by the lack of effect.

“Well, I used the whole bag - but it was pretty small I guess.” They all just sit and chat together until out of the blue, a highly unusual sound comes from the corner of the room.

Inumaki was hysterically laughing at his phone, tears streaming down his face.

He spins the phone around, and immediately Maki and Megumi lose it laughing - true, belly shaking laughter from both the ex-Zen’in’s.

The video in question that made them all lose it was a man doing a voiceover on a video of a bird.

Maki’s laughter doesn’t seem to disturb the girl beside her, who - apparently within the last 30 seconds - passed out asleep, drooling on Itadori’s shoulder, and cuddling his arm.

Itadori on the other hand, had never looked so serious in his life. In his head, he was desperately trying to answer the universe’s biggest questions.

Are we alone in the universe? Is there other intelligent life? What is life, what are we here? Are human’s the true villains? Which Disney villain has the best fashion sense? Who closes the bus door after the driver gets off? Is this a simulation, am I being controlled by a greater being? What is God, was Ariana correct - is God a woman?

His mind was running through every profound thought a man could ever have, the universe’s question’s suddenly becoming his main goal and a quest only he can achieve.

Megumi’s interest in the multitude of videos that had Maki doing impressions of birds and Inumaki cackling had dwindled, growing distracted by the beautiful boy in front of him. Yuuji was so pretty, so perfect, so kind and so sexy. That thought flushed through his mind as the memories of times they had… ‘spent the night’ together made him giggle like a schoolgirl and flush bright red. He made his way over to Yuuji and sat himself on his lap, stroking his hair and pressing kisses to his cheeks.

“I love you, Yu - you’re so pretty. I wanna be your husband someday and I’ll help you make meatballs every night and we can get a dog.” Megumi started his enamoured rant, as he realised he’d never said these things out loud before and wondered why the hell hasn’t he? They’ve been dating for 4 months now, he must have just forgotten. He continued gushing over his boyfriend and pressing kisses to his nose and cheeks - Yuuji was externally smiling and had the Nobara free hand wrapped around his love’s waist but inside his mind was a whirlwind.

Is the s or the c in scent the silent letter? How does glue not stick to the bottle? What is colour? How many holes does a straw have? Is this real - am I real?

Panda, on the other hand - had never felt more paranoid in his life. This room, eyes everywhere. They we’re watching him, the walls we’re watching him. He abruptly stood up and stumbled to the door, and tried the handle.

It didn’t budge.

(It was just locked, he just needed to slide the lock.)

He tried again.

Nothing.

By now he was panicking and pulling at the door with all his might. He was Panda - he will not be imprisoned! So he did the only thing he knew and slammed his way through the door. It flew off its hinges and lay in two pieces on the hallway floor.

In the corridor, looking at a cheering Panda, running away and chanting ‘freedom’ - stood a tall, white haired man and his wife.

They just exchanged looks with each other before poking their heads into Nobara’s dorm room - where they had originally planned to knock.

They both surveyed the scene in front of them for a moment, before you just whispered:

“What the fuck…?” Your voice alerted the kids who all immediately froze.

“Is this opposites day? What’s going on here, kiddos?” Satoru asks, leaning against the wall.

“Nothing! Nothing is going on! We’re just - we’re having a girl’s night!” Yuuji spouted.

“Yeah! A girl’s night.” Megumi agreed.

As you both looked at all of them, you poked Satoru and pointed to your eyes - desperately trying not to laugh. The red eyes and droopy faces and flushed cheeks were painfully obvious and highly recognisable from your school days.

The kids were high as shit.

“Oh - what are you all doing?” Satoru says, thoroughly enjoying torturing them all.

“We’re eh - Nobara and I - we’re talking about boys! Crushes on boys and things. Penis talk.” Maki tries to explain.

Inumaki can’t deal with this and can’t hold back his laughter as Maki says ‘penis talk’ he loses his mind and flops laughing onto the desk.

“Maki honey, you’re a lesbian.” You say, and she raises her eyebrows - forgetting the ultimate flaw to her excuse being that she has no more interest in penis possessing men than she does going on a date with a curse.

“Also - Nobara doesn’t look like she’d make for a great conversation right now.” Satoru smirks, looking at the slightly snoring Kugisaki.

“Yuuji? Megumi?” You say, excited to hear what they say.

“I am doing homework! Studying, learning about eh - curses.” Yuuji says, picking up a blue object from beside him.

“Oh? I didn’t think you could do homework on a Nintendo Switch?” Satoru can’t help it now, the frantic excuses might be the highlight of his week.

“I do my homework beside a switch everyday.” Megumi says, smirking a provocative smile and pinching his boyfriend’s cheek.

That’s the final straw for you and Satoru who can’t help it anymore and the dam breaks.

You fall into him, head in his chest as he almost collapses from crippling laughter as you all survey the whacked out teenagers.

“Shit, ‘toru - were we all the obvious?” You ask, wheezing.

“God no - you guys were way better, how high are you?!” He asks, tears falling from behind his blindfold.

“I’m 5ft 11 inches.” Megumi says, smiling brightly and patting the top of his head.

That sets you both off again.

“Oh fucking hell, this has gotta be edibles.” You say, trying to catch your breath.

“That’s a fun word - isn’t it, edibles? ED - IB - LES. edi-bles. Wait - am I saying that right? Hold on, am I talking or is this in my head?” Maki considers.

Megumi stands up at this point, and puts a hand each on you and Satoru’s shoulders.

“Mom. Dad. You guys - you guys. You’re awesome. I love you both, Mom you are so badass and scary and you give the best cuddles and shit! You made a baby a while ago and then like? You can make flowers kill people? That’s so awesome. Dad you’re like, an idol, you’re so cool and it’s so fun that you have so many eyes, you’re like a spider! And I like your fancy hair.” He says, before throwing his arms around you both and hugging you tight into him.

Who the fuck was this kid?

You pet his head and thank him, and Satoru says that you both love him too - and that he also likes his fancy hair as he desperately tries not to laugh.

You notice Yuuji is deep in thought.

“You okay, Yuu?” You ask.

He looks at you, the most contemplative look you’ve ever seen on anyone.

“Is a gingerbread man made of house? Or is a gingerbread house made of flesh?” He asks, eyes wide with realisation.

You and your husband sit on the bed, megumi curling back up in Yuuji’s lap as Maki and Toge continue cackling over videos of dumb animals.

You settle in, Satoru’s arm around you.

There’s no way in hell you’re missing this show.

more dad!matty for you for whenever you feel like it. I'm thinking about a very tiny, very smart 3 year old whos a carbon copy of her dad and one day after you finish work in the study, you go up to her room to find her holding an audience with all her stuffed toys. You stand behind the door and watch for a bit and baba's none the wiser because she's so engrossed. After a bit you realise what's happening, she's copying her dad. You've taken her to a few of his interviews before to show her the bts and also because she loves hanging out with her dad and her uncles. so now she's basically just imitating everything she's seen.

And you FT matty instantly, because maybe he's on tour at that point idk, and you shush him first and tell him to stay quiet while you point the camera at your daughter. and he absolutely cannot fucking handle the cuteness and he's trying so hard not to coo and squeal through the phone at her. and she's just babbling away to her toys and at one point she says a big word that none of you recognises and then she says it again at which point you clock that it's her trying to say "juxtaposition" but she's 3 and doesn't entirely know how to say it yet so you quietly tell matty what's happening and that's the point he loses it. and he's like "oh my precious girl, who's my smartest girl in the world. you are!!"

Baba obviously hears him and she comes running to you because she thinks her dad is home and he's just there through the phone like "can you say that for me again? can you say that word again?" 😭

baba 2, literally a matty clone!! you've picked her up from her half-day at nursery after WFH in the morning, and after you've both had a little bit of lunch you get her settled in her room with all her toys and a fruit shoot drink, before you head back to the study to just have a final glance over the legal report you finished earlier. and you go back up after maybe 30/45 mins to get her ready for a little walk before you both pick up her big sister from school, and as you reach the landing you can hear her chatting away to herself happily through the open door - when you get closer, you're able to pick out familiar words and phrases amidst the three-year-old rapid fire speech pattern, like "write a song about" and "wanted it to sound like", and you start smiling because you know what - or rather who - she's imitating. when you get closer and you can see her, you have to try so hard not to giggle; she's sat on her bed, talking to the teddy at the other end, with her protective headphones for shows on one ear and holding one of the microphones that plugs into your old xbox for singstar lmao, clearly doing an impression of matty from the radio interview he did last week that you all attended with him.

he and the guys are in new york for a couple of days, just finalising production on a new EP they're putting out in a few months, and it's maybe 9am for him so you figure he'll answer a facetime call - you duck into your bedroom quickly so baba doesn't hear, but you can still see her across the hall, and call matty. he picks up immediately like "hi sweetheart!", and you're like "hi my darling, just wanted to show you something, but you need to keep quiet!" and you dash back across the landing and flip the camera so he can see your daughter, still doing her interview bit. matty beams anyway at the sight of his littlest girl, his smile growing even more when he clocks what she's doing and saying; he actually has to clap a hand over his mouth to stop from cooing at how adorable she is, or cackling when she makes a confused facial expression that's just so him. and she goes a little bit quieter when she tries to say juxtaposition, because she's a little bit unsure of the pronunciation, and matty's like "what's she saying?" - you listen again and flip the camera around, grinning, like "juxtaposition", and matty cannot stop himself laughing a proper, full-belly laugh and going "oh, my baby!", so naturally seconds later your daughter appears in the doorway like "daddy?", headphones still half-on and her little face just lit up. you scoop her up so she can see matty, who's making little kissy noises and being like "were you pretending to be me? my clever girl, i am so proud of you, using all those big words! can you say juxtaposition for me again, precious girl?" - she nods and then says it like "just-a-position", and you and matty both cheer (because that's good for when you're literally three!!) while she snuggles into your neck giggling. and then she's like "miss you, daddy. home soon?", and matty does a sad little pout like "i miss you too baby, miss all of my girls. but i'll get home tomorrow night while you're asleep, so i'll see you in two mornings, alright?"; she nods again and then perks up to ask "will you have presents?", which makes you and matty laugh, and he's like "tell you what, i'll call you back once you and mummy have picked up your sister, and you can tell me what you want me to bring back from america. yeah?" and your daughter's like "deal" lmao <3

Somehow it leaks into the press that Cloud Strife is the bastard son of Late President ShinRa. Unrelated, the news is Vincent Valentine being the biological father of General Sephiroth also makes it into the news.

It begins with a news article.

It's nothing too shocking, at first. Old ShinRa scandals are gil-a-dozen now, with investigative reporters digging them up on particularly boring news cycles to shock and horrify the masses with all the terrible things that had been going on right under their noses. This week it's detail on all the cloning business, all about Jenova, the SOLDIER project, mako. That week it's about the countless people died in various human trials, be they medicine, materia or weapons. That week it's the waste of resources, how much money was wasted on useless, ridiculous projects for no other reason than because ShinRa had the money to spend.

There's always something new and thrilling to be dug up in the grave of ShinRa to entertain the masses and so it's become kind of mundane. You can only shock and awe people with the crimes of a select group of people so many times in a row before it becomes, more or less… mundane. And this article had seemed more of the same.

Affairs, Bastards and Coverups – the numerous scandals of the ShinRa Elite!

Cloud scanned the first lines of the article and then dismissed it. Some reporter has compiled months worth of data and stolen documents concerning the personal lives of the Shinra family the various heads of department – and it turned out that they were living it up in the lap of luxury, cheating on their spouses, having secret love children, covering them up with money and non-disclosure forms, oh my. It's nothing new – everyone knew the President had mistresses and bastards in every ShinRa town, and it's not surprising the others followed suit.

At least it wasn't yet another secret ShinRa super weapon about to kill them all, Cloud thinks, moves to throw the whole paper aside, when sub header further down the article catches his eye. At first he doesn't quite understand it – he sees his name in the papers plenty, and maybe it's a mistake, maybe it's something unrelated – maybe he misread… but no.

Cloud Strife – or is it Cloud Shinra?

Then, then he stops to read it the article in full – and what do you know, it does have some surprises after all. And not, it turns out, just for him.

-

Vincent announces his arrival by grinding gravel under his metal heel – and by pressing a cool beer can against Cloud's shoulder in silent offering.

Ah, Cloud thinks, and accepts it. "You knew?"

"Suspected it," Vincent agrees and sits beside him on the cliff, overlooking Edge and the Ruins of Midgar. He's holding the paper in hand. "There's a family resemblance."

Cloud hums and opens the can, reaching the paper. It's open on the Article, of course it is – Vincent has even highlighted sections of it. "Family resemblance," Cloud repeats, running a thumb over the underlines – pressed in hard with a ballpoint pen. "I don't know – definitely didn't inherit the old bastard's chin."

Vincent hums. "You and Rufus. There was also another Shinra bastard in company employment with files left – Lazard Deusericus. You all have very similar features."

Cloud frowns a little at that, trying to remember – but if he ever met Lazard, it's not coming to him. Zack might've known the guy, but… most of those memories were faded now. "Well," he says and turns the page to the second section of the article – dedicated entirely to the family drama of Professor Hojo, and the Child Stolen – Sephiroth.

How the reporter had found out so much about Vincent, Cloud has no idea, but they had his whole career as a Turk down – right down to his disappearance under mysterious circumstances in Nibelheim, and his resurface as one of the Heroes who Saved the Planet, decades later.

Of course, Cloud's crew has been in the public eye long enough that none of their lives are secret anymore – everything that could be found out about them had been by this point, and that included the mystery of Vincent Valentine, as well as Nanaki's history and Yuffie's royal heritage. So maybe it's not that big of a surprise, that people figured out the rest of it.

They hadn't done enough try to hide their histories, Cloud muses. They hadn't realised that it might be something they should do – not until it was too late.

"You don't seem surprised either," Vincent points out, glancing at the paper, and the picture of young Sephiroth on it.

"You ever see Sephiroth standing beside Hojo? Definitely no family resemblance there," Cloud muses, giving him a look. "Sephiroth was always too pretty to be Hojo's kid."

Vincent looks away, blowing out a slow breath into his scarf. Cloud takes a drink of the beer and then reads the pertinent lines again.

Really, what's most surprising about the whole damned thing is how surprising it still manages to be. None of this really matters anymore. ShinRa family is all but gone, Rufus is pretty much powerless, Sephiroth is trice-over-dead, even Hojo is properly back in his grave, and none of this actually affects anything anymore. They all had some suspicion, before, they all had some theories, so it's not a shock. Except that it is and it does affect things.

"The things we could've done," Cloud mutters wryly, shaking his head. "If only we'd known."

"Hmph," Vincent answers and relaxes a little. "It likely wouldn't have changed things. Not unless we had known… years before."

"Yeah, and even then I doubt ShinRa would've much cared, considering how those assholes went about dealing with their bastards," Cloud says and drops the paper in between them. "I probably would've gotten shot – and you did get shot."

"I did get shot," Vincent agrees. "I suppose it makes more sense now. Why he didn't… really, kill me."

Cloud grimaces at that and takes another drink. Yeah – Hojo could get rid of obstacles without qualms and not think about it twice, but what he did to Vincent, oh, that was personal wasn't it? It was probably revenge – and not just for loving the woman Hojo had wanted, but being the father of the son Hojo had coveted. And how like Hojo, to have a loose end of that magnitude, and then just… drop it, when it stopped entertaining him.

Maybe it'd been the same with Cloud – and Zack. They got their taste of Hojo's personal interest for daring to kill Sephiroth, and then Hojo dropped them too and moved onto whatever else interested him. It's been years now, and Cloud dares to think he's mostly over it, but thinking about it now… Had Hojo known about his relation to the Shinra family – had he cared? Had it made the whole thing that much more fun for the asshole, did he get some sadistic delight in tearing into his boss' progeny?

"Yeah," Cloud muses and lets out a quiet, smothered belch. "I don't know about you, but I really could've done without this knowledge."

Vincent hums in answer. "Truth is neither good or bad. It simply is," he says. "It is always better to know, than to wallow in ignorance."

Cloud makes a face and glances at him. "Speaking of wallowing, how personally are you taking this?" he asks then, looking him up and down. Vincent has the tendency of drowning in guilt and blaming himself, and this, as little as it changes things, as much as it morbidly just amuses Cloud…

Finding you're the bastard son of a dead rich guy is one thing – finding out you had a son and were part of killing said son, several times now, that's something else.

Vincent looks down and says nothing for a long, windswept moment. "Very," he says finally and shakes his head. "How else can I take it?"

"You must've suspected," Cloud says and then grimaces – shouldn't have said that.

"Well," Vincent answers, his voice dipping lower, almost inaudible. "I must have."

Cloud sighs and then reaches one hand over, rubbing it up and down along Vincent’s tense back, fingers snagging on belts through the ragged cape. "I'm sorry, Vincent," he says. "Really, sincerely sorry."

Vincent says nothing, but he doesn't move away from the touch, which for him is the same as leaning into someone's shoulder and wailing out in grief. Cloud lowers the can he's holding and then releases a sigh. The whole thing blows, really, and it changes nothing – just another scandal for people to be entertained by. Another horror to add into their ever growing collection.

But it's something to imagine it – if Vincent had known, if he could've done something about it. Half of the whole mess was the hellish upbringing Sephiroth got in Hojo's hands – if something had interrupted that, if someone, anyone, would've interfered, then maybe, just maybe... Cloud's relation probably wouldn't have mattered much, he was just one ShinRa bastard among many, but if Sephiroth got an actual loving upbringing… who knows.

Maybe the guy wouldn’t have gone megalomaniacal world ending monster on all of them. Who knows.

-

tentatively dipping my toes in the waters of ff7... it’s been a while, i don’t even know if i know how to write these guys anymore

“i hate your old friends”

pairing: katsuki bakugo x female reader

cw: language, kissing, misogyny 

word count: 2500+

a/n: just something i was thinking of this morning, it’s probably very tapped but we move

summary: in which bakugo gets a visit from some old friends, making remarks about you and the other girls, a much more angrier bakugo realises that his past friends never grew up in the past months and he as sure as hell wasn’t letting some idiots talk about his girl in that way

↞ back to my hero academia masterlist

The late afternoon had brought an unknown chill to the class, you all had decided to go into town after a long training day against each other. Bakugo’s arm was around your shoulder, holding onto your much smaller frame. Your head leaned against his side which fit perfectly into him, talking to Kirishima who was complaining about how injured he felt after being knocked into a wall by you.

“That’s why my girl is so much better than you, shitty hair.” Bakugo mocked laughing with his head tilted backwards. The walk was short enough, the class converging into little groups themselves.

“Your girlfriend is an exact copy of you fighting wise.” Sero remarked remembering how you truly were a sweetheart but when fighting you became a Bakugo clone with anger and shitty talk to back you up with your ferocious quirk.

You turned to the boy pouting, “you don’t need to be so mean.”

Sero laughed along with the other boys a scowl on Bakugo’s face at the implications, “hey, you should be glad you’re a copy of me.”

Giving a disgusted face he rolls his eyes grabbing you closer towards him. His body always felt so warm, soft even but the look of disgust at being dragged along was evident in his scarlet eyes. “We’ll meet back in an hour.” Momo said as everybody began going their own way.

Bakugo and you were the only ones left, he had let go of your shoulder, putting his hand out for you to take. “Where do you want to go shitty woman?” He muttered knowing for the next hour he would just be dragged around.

“I want to buy some new shirts and I need to get some manga’s that have come out…” You began to think what else you needed to get, “oh yeah, I need to get some jewellery as well, we can get you some rings, they’ll look good on you.” You had said the last part touching his fingers with your other hand.

“Whatever.” He grunted dragging you into some stores, helping you pick out new tops and other jewellery, it was all a lot calmer with the boy. He tried to make you buy an ugly red and yellow shirt, but you refused at how gross it looked.

“Suki it literally looks like someone puked up on it.” He had put it across his chest as you were carrying some bags.

“And I’m the one who gets shouted out for being mean.” He grabs the bags in your hands having chucked the ugly shirt to the side and re-grabbed your hand.

“Hey.” You punch his arm as he shakes his head. “There’s rings over there.”

Dragging him along, he follows a lot more unwillingly, you look through the silver rings, and necklaces. “This would look nice on you.” He holds up a ring with a red diamond inside, it was all cheap jewellery, but it did look nice.

“Yeah, I might buy it.” You said attempting to grab it.

He stops you as you tilt your head in confusion, “I’ll get it for you.”

“You…”

He interrupts you, “I want too, it might not be that much but one day I’ll buy you a real diamond.”

You smile at the boy, a grin even at the boy who  hadn’t looked back at you, continuing to skim through the rings. But all you could look at was him, how his eyes were fixated on the rings, they were all pretty but on his veiny calloused fingers they’d be immaculate.

“I want these.” He takes out the rings, the silver that would fit nicely across his fingers, he just wanted your approval and your nod indicated that you liked them as well. “Come on, baby.” He takes your hand, grabbing you closer to his body as you stand in line.

You leant your head against his broad chest, his arms around your waist as you held the items. Maybe you had gone overboard with buying clothes, but the look of love Bakugo had when you had worn each item made you want them all. He grabbed the bags from the floor as you went to the counter putting them across. Taking some cash he passed it and took the bags for that as well, he definitely looked like a man being dragged by his girlfriend. Your empty hands as he held the bags and your hand looked like a scene, but he didn’t care if he looked like some sort of simp because it was all for you.

“We only have about 10 minutes lef…” You were interrupted by the sound of two boys, you didn’t recognise and by the look on Bakugo’s face neither did he.

“Bakugo.” They both shouted, both turning around to be met with two boys, one with grey black hair that went up to his shoulders and another with much shorter hair.

Bakugo looked confused as ever and he hated how his time with his girlfriend was being interrupted. “Bakugo it’s us.” The one with much shorter hair said.

Bakugo remained ever more confused, “who are you again?”

The look of confusion between the three boys was evident at how Bakugo had clearly forgotten who they were , “we went to middle school together.” The other boy said.

“Oh yeah, extra #1 and extra #2.” You tried to hide the small laugh at how Bakugo really remembered them as that and even then, probably only remembered having two friends and not who they actually were.

Before you could ask their actual names, you heard the shout of Mina running up to you with a lot of bags. “Mina don’t you think you went a bit overboard.”

“Really me, isn’t your boyfriend the one carrying your 10 bags, some of us aren’t lucky enough to have a man.” She fake wiped a tear before showing you the shirts she had, one catching your eyes, the ugly red and yellow shirt. Maybe it would work on her, maybe.

Momo and Jirio were the next to reach the two of you, “who are they?” Momo questioned pointing at the two boys who were trying to converse with an unamused Bakugo.

“Some extras I used to know in middle school.” Bakugo muttered back.

Momo turned to you and you shrugged looking at what she had gotten, in what seemed like less than a second, the whole class seemed to have come back, and you could see Midoriya eyeing up the two boys. You stood along with the girls unable to show your items at how Bakugo’s grip remained tight on the bags. Midoriya began walking over and you watched the scene take place.

“Kacchan, oh hey guys.” Midoriya, always the sweeties walked with a smile on his face, he’d grown a lot since his crying days and even then, through the tears there was always something strong to him.

“Woah Bakugo, you actually hang out with this loser.” At the sound of the one word you all looked wide eyed. Iida was about to say something but Bakugo spoke up instead.

He looked at you and you nodded, “I was with my girlfriend before you shitty extra’s interrupted us.”

“Woah, which one’s your girlfriend.” They both scoured the group of girls, eyeing each of you up and down like a piece of meat. They reminded you too much of the little grape head who had been trying to sneak into the bags to see if you had bought any lingerie.

“It’s got to be the one with the biggest boobs.” All your eyes flickered red; anger filled through the girls as you wanted to kill them in a flash.

Bakugo seemed pissed, not only had they looked at you with their disgusting eyes, but they were making remarks about his girlfriend's chest size. “We should all get going.”

Midoriya tried to calm down the situation, seeing the fury between the girls, specifically in your eyes but also the anger that looked to boil along Bakugo’s face. “No, why don’t we invite our old friends to UA, show them how an actual pro hero is made.”

You knew what Bakugo was doing, he was pissed. He knew he was better than them, he knew he had it all, the flashy quirk, the looks and even the girl but here he was in front of two random guys and he felt like they didn’t understand how much better he actually was.

“Katsuki, why not leave it fo…” You began to speak but he interrupted you once again.

“We’ve got time and the rest of the day off Y/n, we can show them the dorms, have a little chat.” You knew what the little chat indicated, him beating them to a pulp if it was necessary.

They looked between you and Bakugo and you were worried, it was easy enough to get them through if they came in with other students but the idea that Bakugo might hurt them worried you. You didn’t say anything and Bakugo started walking ahead, the two boys following behind him. It felt like a glimpse into the past, they were never his friends, you could tell, more an entourage who encouraged the behaviour.

Walking over to Midoriya you began asking him questions, “what were they like back in middle school?”

Midoriya hesitated scratching the back of his head, “umm…well I guess…mean really, don’t get me wrong Kacchan is a lot better now mainly because of you but back then he was a bully and those two would follow him around just as they’re doing now.”

Bakugo had noticed you talking to Midoriya, but so fuelled with anger he began to think you’d see his old side, even if little had changed, he’d become better around you, nicer to you. But the two extras following behind him, it pissed him off. “Wow Bakugo, the girls are really hot, you can’t just be sticking to one when you have such a wide range.”

Momo felt disgusted being talked about in this manner and Ururaka tried to bring comfort but being talked about as if you were a flavouring of ice cream was pretty unsettling. “You’ve got to admit it, the one whose around Midoriya is the hottest, why would she be around a loser like him though?”

Bakugo’s knuckles became whiter at the sound of them talking about you, his brows furrowed together and the bags in his hand would snap if he held them anymore. “Katsuki.” You whispered walking quicker to reach him up ahead, the two boys had noticed this action watching at how you stood beside him, even saying his first name. “Are you okay? We don’t have to do this; we can just leave them.”

The entrance of the dorms were near but even then, you could always tell them to fuck off, but Bakugo stayed adamant. Overhearing more of their conversation as your face fell white, “even if Bakugo could get her, she looks like a slut, she’s probably slept with the whole class.”

It was the final straw for the boy, just outside the walls, Bakugo dropped your bags. Giving a small look of apology before grabbing the two boys collars with both his hands and pushing them into the concrete. “If you ever speak about my fucking girlfriend like that ever again, I will kill you.” He lifted the two up before hitting them back onto the concrete.

“Katsuki, leave them.” You tried to calm him down, but he looked even more pissed. Those words they had spoken, you a slut, his girl, his gorgeous girlfriend was worth so much more than they are ever. “They don’t mean anything.”

You grabbed his hands, rubbing circles around his fingers as Kirishima helped the two boys and with Denki sent them off to leave. They seemed scared, pissed even but the look of horror at the class who seemed to acknowledge Bakugo’s strength spoke out more. They had realised Bakugo had grown a lot in these months, that to you he would never act the way he had acted prior.

Kirishima was the one to speak up first as everybody had started walking towards the dorms, you grabbed some bags and Bakugo took the others. He didn’t meet your eye but listened to the red head, “those friends of yours are real dickheads.”

You nodded in agreement, walking through the doors to feel the warmth surround you. “I hate your old friends.”

It was an acknowledgement that Bakugo was glad he felt as well, “they were never my friends, just stupid extras, you’re my friend.” Bakugo admitted to Kirishima who gave a toothy smile.

“Of course I am, we all are.” He smiled before excusing himself seeing how Bakugo needed some sort of comfort.

“Let’s go up to my room.” You put your hand out, it was a hand that had brought so much love and warmth in the months you had been dating. He grabbed it bringing it to his lips, kissing each and every knuckle individually.

Walking to the room in silence, you finally dropped the bags, the boy collapsing onto your bed in a heavy sign. “Kirishima’s right, they are dickheads and you’re worth so much more than them.” You spoke comforting him; he opened his arms out allowing you to rest on his chest, his arms around you.

“I shouldn’t have let them say all that shitty stuff, I didn’t care what they said about the girls or even the brat Deku, but they spoke about you as if you were replaceable as if you were some sort of whore and I just couldn’t stand for that. 

It was a confession, something that made the blond vulnerable in your arms, but the soothing pleasure he felt having you in his arms would relieve all the pent-up anger. “They don’t deserve to even have known you baby, you have all of us and I’m never leaving you for anybody. You’re stuck with me.”

He smiled, not a smirk or coy look, a genuine smile at the girl he loved, “i guess, if I have to have you forever.” Giving a small chuckle at the boy, you looked up to his face, lifting yourself up to encase his body between your arms and moving your face to face his own.

“Was this all a ploy to get me into bed?” He gleamed as he lifted his head up to make your lips touch.

The kiss was faster with pace and lust, he still needed to discharge all the anger and what better way than through you. His perfect little girl who’d do anything for him, who loved him and made him, the man who had been incapable of caring for another person, love. He held your arms before flipping you onto your back, his own mouth still attached to you. But now his body trapped yours underneath, as much as he hated having you on top, seeing how perfect you looked on top had become an ingrained image now in his head.

Tongue against tongue, mouth against mouth, hands in hair and others on your bodies. It was love in the purest form, no words only actions and it was the only way for Bakugo to prove that you were his and nobody would ever treat you like that ever again. Oh so help anybody who ever dared to see you as anything other than his strong independent girl.

i’d really appreciate if you guys could leave a like, reblog or comment, thanks x

if you guys want to be a part of a tag list, just reply to any post and i’ll add you xx

@samusimp @alainarose13 @crispychannie @underratedmage @jennammaee @cathy8taffy @sugacious @moonlightaangel @kat-sukis-hoe @effmigentlywithachainsaw @swankiifiied @maat-the-prescriptive @missmultifangirl @tvwhoresblog @kuroos-world @chrrylevi @ukaisgratefulwhore @answer-the-sirens @animexholic

Hey!! Just wanted to say that I love your blog so much, it literally makes me smile everytime that I see you’ve posted. Ngl, I get really invested in your AUs (they’re!!! all!!! so!!! amazing!!!) and if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear more about the dyad au ahah. On an unrelated side note, how do you feel about time travel?? Would you ever consider writing (headcanoning??) an AU with it??

Thank you so much! I’m always so happy to know that people like these AUs, they’ve become quite important to me now ♡ Just for you anon, I wrote a few more HCs about the dyad here! 

And time travel fics are my guilty pleasure! I’m really picky about it but I still enjoy them greatly. I especially like time travel fics where both Anakin and Obi-wan are sent in the past or the future, so they still have a chance to fix their relationship, grow and mature together. I remember writing a post about it months ago, with Anakin/Vader struggling not to lose his mind after being sent back in clone wars times, I’ll try to find it for you!

I don’t know why, but I also greatly enjoy the idea of Obi-wan and Anakin sent back in time during TPM, just because I want Obi-wan seeing 9-year-old Anakin and saying “Look, this is when you were still adorable and said ‘yes Master’ unironically” and Anakin replying “I’m sorry, Master, I’m too busy petting these perfectly smooth cheeks and squeezing your adorable padawan’s face to hear you”

And then I want some angst, because Anakin takes the opportunity to spend time with Qui-gon and he keeps saying that he’s such a great Jedi and he’s so interesting and he understands the Force like no one else does, and of course it  reinforces Obi-wan’s thought that Qui-gon would have been a better master for Anakin. 

So Obi-wan, who missed Qui-gon and would love to spend any second he can get with him again, chooses to give them time together, lets Anakin have a chance to connect with his grandmaster. In the meantime, he can’t help but care for kid!Anakin who grows more and more attached to this older version of Obi-wan who already knows his favourite ice cream’s flavour when he never had some before and never loses patience with his endless questions. At one point, wanting to cheer him up, Anakin says to him “Don’t be sad about them Obi-wan, they can stay together, I’ll be your padawan!” and Obi-wan laughs, says “No young one, you’ll have a better master than me this time,” and happily accepts his hug while thinking that there is truly no universe in which he doesn’t love Anakin. (It’s been years since the last time Anakin hugged him, he thinks as the child squeezes his little arms around his neck, grumbling that he doesn’t want anyone else because obviously Obi-wan is the best, and Obi-wan realises that he has missed it)

Meanwhile, padawan!Obi-wan is getting more and more annoyed at Knight!Anakin for monopolising his Master’s attention and even more talks about the chosen one prophecy (and Skywalker gushing about how adorable he is doesn’t help, he’s really starting to dislike the guy), unsettled by his older counterpart being this calm and serene version of him that seems to only melt around kid!Anakin, and even a bit baffled that it could be his future padawan, like “you’re telling me this is your... my... our padawan. Him. The man with who you did a rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going to tell us that Master Qui-gon died in your timeline.” “Unfortunately,” Master Obi-wan says, “he’s going to be the centre of your world.” and Padawan!Obi-wan is like “Mmmh, I don’t want this”

56. “I could’ve died and you couldn’t have cared less.” - Fox and Cody

HELLO yes absolutely!! here you go, my love.

(prompts)

words: 3431

notes: stitch, sketch, and zaisam are my ocs. other random clones you don’t recognise are probably some that i made up on the spot, just to avoid killing anyone else you guys are emotionally attached to.

Fox is dreaming. He has to be, because he feels safe, and he's never felt safe on Coruscant before. There's always a creeping feeling of something wrong, like a hand on the back of his neck, or of fingers digging into his mind. For the first time since leaving Kamino as a child, he feels genuinely safe.

It scares him.

He's dreaming that he's back in the Guard barracks, strangely comforting, though sparse as they are. There's a makeshift rug by the beds, made out of old blacks that were too worn out to wear anymore. Fox is lying on his bed, head in Thire's lap as his brother rests his back on the wall. He's running his ungloved hands through Fox's curls, gently untangling the knots that have accumulated under his helmet. Fox has never felt so relaxed in his life, and even in his dreaming state he is close to tears.

"I'm tired," Fox whispers, and Thire hums in agreement.

"You don't sleep enough, ori'vod," Thire laughs quietly, working his fingers through a particularly stubborn knot that's gathered itself in the grey at Fox's temples. "Lean on the rest of us. We can take some of your work."

"It's not just that," Fox says, stretching his arms in the air. He nearly hits Thire in the face, and they both giggle. "I'm so bone-tired all the goddamn time, vod. When we took leave the other month I couldn't remember any of it. I found bruises I don't remember getting. The medics say it's stress, but this is... this is different."

"You've had memory problems?" Thire asks, hands stilling.

Fox tenses as the atmosphere of the dream shifts. "Small lapses," he backtracks. "Just headaches. I'm not defective." His voice is more harsh than it has any right to be with Thire.

"I never said you were," Thire says carefully. "I've had them too."

"You have?" Fox is surprised - Thire is so capable, so reliable, it'd never even occurred to him that his own problems might be shared. "How much?"

"Rarely," Thire says, gently pushing Fox's head back down into his lap. "I'll be missing a couple of hours of a shift sometimes. It's usually whenever I pull doubles."

"Maybe the medics are right," Fox sighs, rubbing his eyes. "We're all kriffing overworked."

Thire laughs again, but this is a deep, rumbling sound. "You can say that again," he quips, and Fox grins. He opens his mouth to actually say it again, but Thire swats at his forehead. The grin on his brother's face is so genuinely happy that it makes Fox's heart clench, even as he's dreaming. His face falls.

"What's wrong, ori'vod?" Thire asks, looking concerned. "Fox?"

Fox's throat closes up, and he swallows his grief down. "I miss you," he says, voice cracking, and Thire frowns.

"Why?" He asks. "I'm right here."

"No you're not," Fox says, certain as anything, and closes his eyes. When he opens them, Thire's face has shifted: his hair is shorter, his face younger, yet edged with more grief than Thire had ever carried. Fives stares down at him, face contorted in fear. His hands are clenched tight in Fox's hair, and he lets out a high whine of terror, like a wounded animal.

"Fives," Fox gasps, staring into the face of the brother he'd never really known.

"Fox," gasps Fives, hunched over. Fox sits up, heedless of the hands in his hair, and Fives lets go. He brings his hands to his chest and Fox stares in horror as Fives' cuirass starts to smoke. "Why didn't you set it to stun?"

"Wh - Fives, what's happening?" Fox panics, hands frantically trying to hold his brother's chest together.

"Don't you remember?" Fives wheezes, collapsing slowly onto the floor. The bed is gone, and they're in the underbelly of Coruscant. "You shot me."

"Fives!" Comes Rex's anguished shout from behind General Skywalker's stubborn arm. "Force, Fives! Stay with me, brother!"

"Rex," Fives whispers, but Skywalker doesn't let Rex past. Fives is coughing and mumbling and dying in Fox's arms, and Fox comes to a horrible realisation this this dream seems familiar. He's played this out before, the blaster smoking in his hands, Fives dead on the floor, Rex crying as the final Domino falls, face blotchy and red, and then it's Fox's head in Rex's lap, and Rex is calling his name -

"Fox!"

Fox tries to move his arms, hoping he can somehow comfort Rex, but his arms are tied to the bed, and - since when was he in a bed?

Fox opens his eyes.

A brother's face comes into view, fading slowly into focus like a rock in a river. Fox thinks it's Rex, only for a second, but this brother's hair is dark, and there's a scar wrapped around his eye.

"Cody," Fox says, relieved.

"Fox," Cody says, furious.

Ah, shit.

Cody, clad in full armour, helmet held dutifully under one arm, stands up and grabs the first medic he can see - a tired clone, clearly awake entirely on caf at this point, and drags him to Fox's bedside.

"Good morning, Commander," says the medic. Fox notes his dreadlocks, tied back into a style that suits him quite well, actually, and nods in acknowledgement. "I'm Stitch, and I'm just gonna check you for a concussion, okay?"

"He's fucking fine," Cody snaps. "Discharge him already."

Stitch turns, frown deepening. "Marshall Commander or not, this is my medbay," he snaps. "I decide when the patients are released, and Commander Fox is not going anywhere yet."

Cody folds his arms, his Commander glare strong enough to kill a man, but Stitch isn't having any of it. Fox heard a brother say once that Hell hath no fury like a medic ignored, and looking at Stitch he's inclined to agree.

"If you hate it here so much you can either go and do some paperwork or whatever it is you soldiers do, or you can go grab us both some caf. Sir," he adds, seeming to remember he's talking to Marshall Commander Cody, not one of those idiot shinies he's obviously so used to dealing with.

There's a small laugh from further down the ward, and Stitch and Cody send matching glares in the general direction of the culprit. Fox feels sorry for whichever brother is currently in that bed, but before he can think too much about it Stitch is handing Cody an ID card.

"Use this to get the caf," Stitch says. "The Generals get the good stuff."

"Does General... Zaisam know  you've got his card?" Cody asks, peering at the writing.

"Absolutely," Stitch nods, grabbing a rather intimidating-looking little torch. "Gave it to me himself."

Cody looks unconvinced, but holds it in his fist like it's the key to eternal salvation. Fox looks hopefully up at Stitch, who shakes his head.

"Sorry, Sir," the medic says, shaking his head. "You're on water only, at least until you've slept for a solid eight hours."

Fox doesn't think he's slept for a solid eight hours in his entire life.

Cody sends one last glare to Fox, then stands up and walks stiffly out the door. Stitch stares after him, eyes glazing over for a second.

"That man controls two-thirds of the Grand Army of the Republic," he says slowly, "and I've just sent him to get coffee."

The voice from earlier laughs again, and Stitch turns around, brandishing the torch like a weapon. Fox almost considers laughing too, but Stitch does not seem like a man he'd want to cross.

"Shut your di'kut mouth, Sketch, or I'll sedate you," Stitch snaps. Fox winces, but this makes the other clone laugh harder.

"I literally outrank you," says the voice, presumably Sketch.

"Not in my medbay you don't," Stitch shoots back. "Now shut up and go to sleep. Your blaster wound isn't gonna heal itself."

"Yessir," Sketch calls, and Fox can imagine the half-assed, sarcastic salute the man is pulling off. Stitch shakes his head, glowering, then shines his torch directly into Fox's eyes.

"Bloody snipers," Stitch mutters. "Think they know everything." Fox hums in agreement, wincing at the brightness of the torch. Stitch gently tilts his chin, looking at his eyes again. The medic carries an air of softness that doesn't quite seem to fit with how much he glares and snaps at the others, but Fox isn't complaining.

"You don't look concussed," Stitch concludes. "What's your name?"

"Commander Fox," Fox parrots dutifully. "CC-1010."

"Correct," Stitch says, tapping at his Padd. "Next question. What day is it?"

"Ah," Fox says. "Last time I checked it was... Primeday, I think."

Stitch lets out a hiss of air. He nods, and taps something else into his Padd. He mouths the words "memory loss", and Fox sighs internally. "It's Benduday now," he informs the Commander. "Last question for now. How's your head feeling?"

Fox tries to bring a hand up to feel it, but they don't lift more than a centimetre off the bed. He'd assumed that the restraints he'd felt in his dream were just that - a dream - but apparently he has no such luck.

"Fine," he says warily. "I don't think I'm concussed, trooper. Why, should I be?"

Stitch shrugs. "You've just had brain surgery," he points out. "And you took a pretty nasty knock to the head just before that. Concussions can last for up to about a tenday, so I thought I'd check."

Fox stiffens.

"I've had what?"

"Brain surgery, Sir," Stitch repeats, fiddling with a handheld scanner. He points it at Fox's forehead and pulls some kind of trigger, then blinks at the readings. "Performed it myself. You've got a lovely brain, if I may say so. Very wrinkly."

Fox stares at him, then decides to focus on the last piece of information. It seems easiest to deal with.

"Is that... good?" He asks weakly. “Having a wrinkly brain?”

Stitch nods, then thumps the scanner against his hand a couple of times. "A wrinkly brain means you're smarter," he says. "Unlike the good Lieutenant down there, whose brain is smooth as a kriffing pebble."

"Smooth as the hull of the Resolute," Sketch calls cheerfully, and Stitch shakes his head.

"Stop eavesdropping on my patients!" He calls, then turns back to Fox. "As for who authorised the surgery... You'd better wait for Commander Cody to come back. I'm not supposed to talk to you about it."

"It's my kriffing brain!" Fox cries, straining against the restraints. "Why the hell would you just give me brain surgery?"

"You have to wait for the Commander," Stitch repeats, and Fox thinks he looks a little nervous. "Please calm down, Sir. You're okay. We didn't harm you."

"I don't kriffing care about that, I want to know why you peeled my skull open without my permission!"

"Wait for the Commander," Stitch says for the third time, and Fox is just about ready to scream. "He's the one who you need to talk to about this. I'm just the poor bastard with the scalpel. If it helps, you have a wonderful prefrontal cortex."

Fox raises his eyebrows at the last comment, but sits back down on the bed. "Fine," he relents. "Where the kriffing hell is Cody, anyway?"

"Right here," Cody calls, rounding the corner. His helmet is on his head, and he carries a cup of caf in each hand. He reaches the bedside and gives one to Stitch, who looks down at it and sniffs. Stitch winces, then downs half of it in one go. Cody stares in what is, to Fox, an obvious combination of awe, disgust, and admiration.

Stitch shrugs, then raises an eyebrow. "I don't fear God," he says.

"Seven Sith Hells," Cody mutters, then sits back down in the chair he'd been in when Fox first woke up. He takes his helmet off and sips at his caf. "What's the verdict?"

"No concussion," Stitch confirms. "A little memory loss, not to do with the anaesthesia or the surgery. His skull's recovering alright, brain all seems good. Like I said, he's got a lovely prefrontal cortex. His amygdala is even better, but the hippocampus could do with some work."

"I'll take that under advisement," Fox snarks, and Cody glares, folding his arms.

"Stay focused, trooper," he orders. "What else?"

"Memory problems," Stitch says again. "He woke up thinking it was Primeday, which means he's lost two days before the surgery. It was yesterday," he adds, for Fox's benefit. "I'm not letting him out until Centaxday at the very least, Sir, so anything you want to say you'll have to say in here. I can give you a little privacy, but he's my patient and by the Force I am going to make sure he's okay." The look of absolute determination on the medic's tired face makes Fox feel strangely cared for. Cody glares.

"Fine," he spits. "But you make sure that trooper down the hall doesn't hear us."

"Got it," Stitch nods. "I've been looking for an excuse to sedate him."

Fox can't quite tell if he's joking.

Stitch downs the rest of his caf, raising the cup to Cody as a thank you. Cody gives him General Zaisam's ID card back, and Stitch produces a cup of water for Fox from Force knows where. "Drink it slowly," he instructs. "You'll make yourself sick if you don't, and the less vomit I have to clean up today the better."

Fox nods, and he and Cody watch Stitch leave. He draws the curtain behind him, and Fox turns to look at his brother.

Cody looks more tired than Fox has ever seen him. More tired than he had after Kenobi's pretend death at the hands of Hardeen, and Fox is more than aware of how badly that affected him. He looks like a tempest, hands clenching and relaxing with barely-contained fury.

"What have I done?" Fox asks softly, and there's no emotion behind it.

Cody's head shoots up. "How'd you - how?"

Fox shrugs as best he can. "I woke up to find my hands tied to the bed. I can't remember anything for the past week. You keep looking at me like you want to tear my throat out with your bare hands. I've had brain surgery, for fuck's sake. It's not a hard conclusion to come to."

"You really remember nothing?" Cody asks, and he can't quite meet Fox's eyes.

With a thrill of fear, Fox shakes his head. "Last I remember was pulling a double when one of my Guard was sick. I always get tired on doubles."

Cody nods, then puts his head in his hands. He breathes deeply, and sighs. "You... Force, I'm sorry, there's no easy way to say this - Fox, you're under arrest for treason against the Republic. You're also under arrest on suspicion of murdering the Chancellor, four members of the Coruscant Guard, and ARC Trooper Fives."

The bottom of Fox's stomach falls out, and he gasps, breathing heavily.

"I - shit, I killed six people?" He whispers. "I killed the Chancellor?"

"Nearly seven," Cody says, and brings a hand up to pull down the collar of his blacks. There's an awful looking cut across his throat, obviously made by a vibroblade. "Four others are in bacta tanks. What the hell happened to you?"

Fox bites his lip and stares at the sheet covering his legs. He killed the Chancellor. The very man he was created to protect. His whole existence, his duty, his entire life, is centred around keeping the Chancellor alive, and he killed him?

Fox doesn't know what to do.

He looks up at Cody, face pale. "I don't remember," he whispers. "I'm so sorry."

""Sorry" is not going to bring Thire back," Cody snaps, and Fox goes dizzy.

When he comes back to himself, he's hyperventilating. Cody is glaring at him, the cut on his neck still exposed. Fox is crying, trying to gasp in deep, shuddering breaths, hands wrenching at the bindings that the him to the bed. "Please tell me you're joking," he whimpers through his tears. "Please. Not Thire."

Cody shakes his head, making no move to try to calm Fox down. "Stone and Hound are in bacta tanks," he continues relentlessly. "Stone has six blaster bolts to the chest. They don't think he's going to make it. Hound took a vibroblade to the thigh and very nearly bled out."

Fox flinches. "Who... who else did I... who else did I..." He can't bring himself to say it, as if saying the words would make it more true than it already is.

"Who else did you kill?" Cody spits. "Crow, Spanner, and one of those shinies that got assigned here a tenday ago. He didn't even have a name!"

That hurts almost as badly as Thire. Fox knows exactly which group of shinies Cody is talking about. A group of eight year olds, fresh from Kamino, all of them just a little too small to fit into their standard armour. Only one of them had a name, and he'd chosen it on the way to Coruscant.

"Parallel, Sir!" He'd introduced himself, saluting smartly.

"Parallel?" Fox had asked.

"I copy noises sometimes. Helps keep me calm. The others wanted to call me Copy, but that got a bit difficult on comms. General Ti suggested Parallel."

Fox had nodded, clapping a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Good luck to the rest of you," he'd said, receiving a small sea of determined smiles in return.

"He was just a kid," Fox whispers. "Fuck, Cody, and I killed him?"

Cody nods. There's not even a trace of sympathy in his eyes. "You were insane," he says. "Covered in the Chancellor's blood, face blank - you didn't recognise any of us."

Fox shakes his head, feeling the tears trickle under his chin. It feels bad. He's not sure what to say - anything he says, or anything he doesn't say, will make Cody angry. The anger is inevitable. And fuck if Fox doesn't deserve it.

He keeps pulling at his restraints, not trying to escape, but trying to ground himself. He can't focus: all his thoughts are on Thire. Thire, who he'd dreamed of, who'd had his hands in Fox's hair. Thire who had looked at him with so much love in his eyes, who'd never been anything less than steadfast and loyal, and Fox had killed him. Worst of all, he thinks, is that he didn't even remember doing it.

"Tell me what I did," Fox begs, voice cracking around the lump in his throat. "Please."

Cody leans forward in his chair, settling his elbows on his knees. "Two days ago," he starts, anger colouring his voice, "you disappeared in the middle of a shift. Security footage shows you took a comm, then made a beeline for the Chancellor's office. He wasn't expecting you, and he turned to kick you out, and - and you pulled a slugthrower on him and shot him six times in the chest, then four more in the head. Then you just... stood there.

"Thire was first to respond. He heard the shots and came to see what was happening. He saw you with the 'thrower, standing over the Chancellor's body, and called for backup. You took him out without even a second glance. When Stone and Hound got there you took them both out almost as quickly as Thire. Stone first, with your blaster, and Hound managed to get that and the 'thrower away from you, and you stabbed him in response.

“I came in with the rest. You weren't responding to any of us. You just attacked us, crushed that shiny's head into the wall like he was made of paper. Crow was next, then Spanner. Both were quick, at least. The rest of us were all pretty badly hurt. You slit my throat, Fox."

Fox is numb and unresponsive. So much death, so much destruction, and he doesn't remember any -

"Order 65," he whispers. "Cody, Cody, I remember. Order 65 states that should the Chancellor be declared unfit to rule, any available troops should detain the new Chancellor by any means necessary, including with lethal force. It got mixed up somehow."

""Mixed up"?" Cody snaps, disgusted. "Fox, you could've killed me! I could’ve died and you couldn’t have cared less.”

“Of course I care,” Fox shoots back, eyes locked on Cody’s throat, but there’s not enough truth behind the words. If what Cody says is true, then Fox wouldn’t have cared. “Fives was right,” Fox realises. “Fives was right.”

Cody wipes tears from his own eyes, standing up fast. He downs his own coffee, slams his bucket on his head and walks out. Fox is left staring at the door, and he’s sure he can feel the blood on his hands.

Island Dreams - Epilogue

So, this is it. We officially reached the end. I must admit I am very sad. Writing this story has been such a great journey but Aelin and Rowan have their happy ending. This chapter is set 5 years after the events of the previous chapter. it's divided in two parts. The first one we have Aelin telling in first person what happened in five years. Part two has a snippet of our beloved Whitethorn-Galathynius family. we get to meet Freyja and Morrigan and a surprise too. I hope you love the girls.

I want to say a massive thank to every single person who read the story, reblogged it or left a comment. Thank you. I am so grateful for all the support you gave me.

I am coming back..  A Little Braver is going well and I hope to be brave enough to post chapter one soon.

And now i'll leave you to the story. Enjoy <3

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

5 years later

My name is Aelin and my story began five years ago. I was once heartbroken and one day I left my old life behind and took a flight to Scotland, and then a ferry and I ended up on this island called Lewis. I am a bookworm and one of the first thing I did once on the island was to go and hunt for a bookstore. And well, you know the story after that. It’s been five years since the day Rowan and I officially tied our lives together at Callanish. As promised we went back there after a year and a day and renewed our vows.

Married life had its ups and downs but Rowan and I fought through every single challenge that came our way. We made it work, we fought for each other as we promised and we love each other just as we did when we began. And some. Every year Rowan has been celebrating the anniversary of the day I arrived on the island and officially entered his life. Sometimes I think he prefers that day to our wedding anniversary. Anyway, as you remember we finished the story with the four of us, Rowan, me and our two girls Morrigan and Freyja. Those two cute bundles of flesh are now two very active five years old driving mum and dad crazy but also being the most precious thing in our life. They will start primary school next month and I am trying not to cry if I think how much they have grown. Physically they are their father’s clone. They both have deep pine green eyes and his same silver hair. Freyja likes it long and loves when either I or Rowan braid it. He has become quite a wizard at braiding our daughter’s hair. Morrigan, on the other hand, prefers it short. But the similarities end with that. Personality wise they cannot be any more different. Freyja is like me. Rowan calls her his wee Fireheart. She is fierce and stubborn. She has a very strong personality and for a five year old she has her ideas clear on what she wants. She is like quicksilver and always active. She is the first one to wake up and the last one to go to bed. She is curious and fearless and loves nature just as much as her father. She is out little hurricane. Morrigan, on the other hand, is the calm one and reserved and she reminds me so much of Rowan. She observes a lot and when you think she is not paying attention, she comes up with question that makes you realise she was listening after all. She has an inquisitive mind and her non stop questions can be exhausting after a long day. She is shy. Where her sister had been since tender age happy to be with anyone, Morrigan has always been very selective. Growing up she has her favourite selection of adults. She is very close to her father, probably because they are very similar, but Uncle Malcolm and Aedion come second. Aedion got her hooked on planes. Once we were at his and Lys’ house and Morrigan grabbed one of his models planes and started playing with it. Aedion had started talking about the plane and now when they are together she always ask him about planes. We think she’ll be a pilot. Both girls are obsessed with books just like her parents and Rowan has taken upon him the job of teaching them to read. Morrigan can read very simple words and write her own name. Freyja would too if she could sit down for more than five minutes. Good luck with the teachers. She is very bright, she just can’t stay still for very long. She was probably the one doing all the kicking while in the womb. The amazing thing is that they get along. It took us a while to teach them to sleep in their individual rooms. For a while in the morning we would find one in the other’s bed. Always curled up together as they used to do when they were little. Freyja at the park always play the protective one and looks after her sister and chases away the kids who try to take advantage of her sister’s calmer nature. If we were in a fantasy I would imagine Freyja being the woman learning to wield a sword and who would train with the guys and dreamed of becoming a knight. Morrigan, I imagine her as the one with her nose in books and who dreams of becoming a healer. I think Rowan is writing a story about them. Oh yes, I will tell you about his book in a moment. There is a further family member that I need to introduce: our son Dalamar. Yes, Rowan and I have scandalised parents at kindergarten with our weird names. Freyja did not cause much problems but a couple of mothers had a go at me for calling my daughter with such as negative name as Morrigan. I usually explain that I do not expect my daughter to become the goddess of war but that simply Rowan and I liked the name. And do not get me started with Dalamar. No-one apparently has read the Dragonlace chronicles so when we say Dalamar is a dark elf in the books, well, the glares we get are incredible. But again, Rowan and I wanted an original name. We started searching in books to find something we liked and then Rowan found his old copy of the Dragonlance chronicles and he suggested Dalamar. I joked that if we truly wanted to scandalise Stornoway, we should have called him Raistlin. So in the end we went for something less alien and settled on Dalamar. Anyway, Dalamar is two. He was planned though. Rowan and I had decided we wanted a big family so once the girls were around three we started to try and add another member. When we had the conversation we had talked about having four kids, but alas, Dalamar’s birth has been so full of complication that my chances of another pregnancy are now non existent. But Rowan and I are happy. We have our big family. So, Dalamar has blond hair, much fairer than mine and very light blue eyes. He is a gorgeous wee boy. In terms of personality he is halfway between his sisters. He can be adorable one moment and stubborn like a mule the next. But at least they get along and again, Freyja has taken him under her wing. She really is our knight in shining armour. Both girls are fluent Gaelic speakers. After they were born I asked Rowan if he wanted to teach Gaelic to the girls and he had been very happy about it. So we decided that he would speak only Gaelic to the girls and I was the boring parents with English, although sometimes I am brave and I practice with them, then I embarrass myself and revert to English. We have started the same process with Dalamar and he is like a sponge. Morrigan sometimes helps me with my exercises and Gaelic homework. I am taking classes as well when I can. It’s quite embarrassing when you are almost forty and your five years old daughter tells you “Don’t worry mum, you are doing great.” And then adds something in Gaelic and you need to wait for your husband for a translation. Kids, aside… our lives haven’t changed very much. Rowan still works at the bookstore and Malcolm’s sister is still his assistant. She had been wonderful and he could easily count on her when he needed to stay at home with me and the kids. The shop is becoming very popular, my Facebook page has now reached many followers and a year after our daughters were born he finally managed to set up a website for online ordering. My dearest husband also managed to write a book, find an editor and have it printed and distributed in some smaller bookstores. Of course I told him to have in his shop. We did a book signing hoopla and I don’t think I ever seen Rowan so embarrassed. Anyway, he wrote a fantasy and as promised I was in it and I was Queen as requested. He was my warrior. Loads of angst and epic battles but we end up together. I am very proud of him. Now he is working on one were our children are the main characters. I have only read the fist few chapters and I love it already. But I am his wife so I am biased. I still work at the hospital and still love my job. I started helping as well as paramedic and specifically in the air squad. The team that gets to be airlifted at the site of accidents and the whole thing required a special type of training and it had been amazing. On occasions, I get to work with Aedion. He flies, I save lives. I wish I could tell the London guys that they were wrong. Working in a small hospital is not throwing away my career. I feel more satisfied than I ever felt when I was down south. Malcolm is still my second and I still adore him. Three years ago he finally got married. After my wedding Aiden went for his last deployment and made it back alive and then retired from the navy. He and Malcolm started dating seriously. A year later they moved in together and a year after that Malcolm finally proposed. Aiden has found a civilian job and well, they got their happily ever after. Another couple who got their happily ever after is Lysandra and Aedion. He proposed about five months after mine and Rowan’s wedding and three months later they were married. They had gone for a very small and private ceremony. One year later they had their fist child a boy named Marcus and now Lysandra is pregnant with their second, a girl. She climbed up again the ladder at the hospital and now she is just one level below the head of the department. Then we have Elias. How can I forget him? He is still in Shetland and we keep in touch and we meet when he is back on the islands. His job is going wonderfully and recently got promoted. Two years ago he got married to Ciara and he is happy and a few months ago she gave birth to an adorable little girl named Martha. She is cute. I have seen her when they came down last month. We remained good friends and both had the happy ending we wanted. We still joke and we love to compliment each other on making marriage number two stick. His book addiction got worse and I think I created a monster. He also bought Rowan’s book and raved about it for months. Then we have Elide and Lorcan. We see each other quite regularly. Every year in July they come to Heb Celt and now they can stay at our place. We have been down to Glasgow a few times and Lorcan yearly provides Rowan with tickets for the Six Nations and we religiously go and see the matches. I am officially a Scotland’s fan and I even learnt Flower of Scotland. The boys are proud of me. Elide is still a teacher and Lorcan still the coach of the Warriors. Their family has gotten bigger as well and they have a boy and a girl and Elide is expecting a third one. Apparently they want a big family too. Oh and Lorcan can smile for more than a second. I must admit I have changed my mind about the man and once he gets comfortable with someone he is actually quite a decent human being. He as a dark sense of humour and us two are usually the ones scandalising the group with dark jokes. Aunt Maeve is still running her cafe and she had been a great help as well while the kids were growing up. She would come up with crazy excuses to offer to babysit them and gave us plenty of chances for me and Rowan to have some time alone. Especially after the two births. She also spoils the girls and love to bake for them. Freyja loves to bake with Maeve and, like me is obsessed with cakes. Also, baking is the only activity when our energetic daughter can stay still for more than ten minutes. Morrigan, on the other hand is fussy as her father and not a fan of sweet stuff. We really got one clone each. Dalamar is still too small but he eats anything. My mum has joined the group as well. She has bought a flat up here and sold the house in London. She decided that she wanted to be a part of her grandchildren lives so she moved up here and she is in good terms with Maeve and sometimes she helps her at the cafe. The two of them cooking are becoming very popular in town.

***

“Come on, let’s go and see dad in the shop.” Aelin took Dalamar’s hand and made sure the twins were walking in front of her. Morrigan started blabbing something in Gaelic but Aelin didn’t understand. “Beurla, mo chridhe,” said Aelin to her daughter. “Tha mi duilich, mum.” Morrigan gave her a toothy smile, showing off her missing tooth. They walked to the shop and once they got in the two girls ran to their father who crouched down and they crashed into him. “I bring chaos.” Joked Aelin while Dalamar was still holding her hand. Rowan had started hosting afternoon for kids in his shop when he would reads books or just have storytelling sessions. He had started during the school holidays to have a way to keep the younger children busy but then it became very popular and he kept going, so once a week the shop is invaded by parents and their kids. The twins loved to listen to their dad tell stories. Dalamar loved it as well but he was far too young to understand what was happening so most of the times he would end up playing with Lys and Aedion’s son Marcus. Aelin reached Rowan and gave him a kiss and the twins made disgusted noises and Aelin laughed “one day you will find a boy or a girl and you’ll want to kiss him or her as well and it won’t be as disgusting,” she said tickling Freyja who was the one who was the most disgusted. “I am going to be a knight. I don’t need a boy.” Added Freyja proudly. “I am going to be a doctor like mum.” Was Morrigan’s turn. “So, a knight and a doctor, I guess we got very lucky.” Rowan pulled Aelin in his arms “looks like the goddess of love wants to fight and is not interested in love and the goddess of war wants to heal people.” “Well, you can’t say that we don’t have an interesting family.” Joked Aelin. Then Rowan bend over and lifted Dalamar in his arms “and you?” He kissed his cheek “what do you want to do?” “Tuathanach.” Replied the boy hugging his father. Aelin laughed and brushed his blond hair “that is lovely, my love.” With time and once they were properly settled down they had decided to dedicate a part of the land they owned to have a small farm. They had a couple of cows, a few chickens and loads of sheep. Dalamar loved to run after the sheep and help his dad look after the animals. That’s why Aelin and Rowan were not surprised when he said he wanted to be a farmer. The twins went behind the counter and grabbed the colouring books that Rowan kept stashed for when he had them in the shop and the pencils and ran to the kids’ table at the bottom of the shop. Rowan placed Dalamar on the floor “Go and colour with your sisters.” “Tha.” And the boy joined the two girls. Aelin leaned exhausted against Rowan. “You look tired.” “They have far too much energy. We went to the park. Freyja ran and jumped the whole time. Morrigan wanted to pat the ducks and almost ended up in the pond and Dalamar chased every single dog or cat.” She explained, looking at their kids with affection “then we had ice cream, we went to say hi to Aunt Maeve and grandma Evalin and Freyja and Dalamar stuffed themselves with carrot cake. Morrigan just had a carrot. She is annoyingly healthy like you.” “My girl.” Said Rowan proudly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love them madly, but I just wished they had just a smidge less energy.” Rowan kissed her forehead “I’ll entertain them tonight and make sure they go to bed early. Hopefully they will run out of energy soon.” “Morrigan and Dalamar perhaps. Not Freyja, that girl has limitless power.” “Just like her mother.” Rowan’s arms squeezed her tight “The girls are going to school next month so hopefully they will calm down a bit.” “I am terrified at the idea of Freyja sitting on a chair all day. I feel sorry for the poor teacher.” Rowan laughed “she might find it interesting and actually sit.” “Ro, she can’t even stay still when you read stories.” He scratched his head “I was thinking we can sign her up for some sport.” “You can take her swimming.” Suggested Aelin. Rowan had kept his job as swimming instructor with Dorian and they had made it work. When the kids were at home she would take them to the swimming complex and once Rowan was done they would all swim together. He had begun teaching the twins to float and some very basics techniques. Freyja had loved it, but she preferred jumping from the smallest platform. Morrigan on the other hand had been a good student and had followed her dad’s instructions and could do a nice basic breaststroke. Dalamar would soak with Aelin with his water wings. He loved being in the water. “She could become one of those athletes who jump from platforms into water. A professional diver. She is surely fearless for a five years old.” “I can see her as a rugby player.” And Aelin laughed. “We’ll let her decide.” “Of course,”Aelin kissed him “Look, some mum and kids are arriving.” Rowan was due to start his storytelling session very soon and mothers, fathers and kids had started to arrive in the shop. Five minutes later Rowan took his position at the bottom of the shop on his chair. All the kids sat on the floor on the colourful mats Rowan had bought. Morrigan and Dalamar would sit at his feet, but Rowan would alway keep Freyja in his arms so he could hold her still for a while. “Thank you everyone for coming this afternoon. Kids, are you all comfortable?” Aelin stood in a corner and stared at him as per her usual. Rowan was such a natural around kids. It had been so easy for him to settle into his role as a dad. He had been amazing with their kids and he’d do literally anything to make them happy. But at the same time he had managed to keep the wonderful balance to prevent them to become spoiled brats whose parents would give them anything. “Today’s story is about a princess. Her name is Aelin.” “Like mum.” shouted Freyja in her father’s arms. “Tha, mo chridhe.” And Rowan kissed her head and a smug smile appeared on the girl’s face. “She is fierce and brave and very, very beautiful. So beautiful that all the princes in the realm wanted to marry her.” Aelin laughed and blushed a bit. “Is there a dragon?” Asked Freyja who seemed had already passed her attention span limit. “Shhh, my love.” But he knew it was a desperate hope. “The princess had been put under a spell by her horrible stepmother who was very jealous of her. She could not enjoy true love with the man she loved until the dragon that held the necklace with the spell was killed. Aelin was in love with the captain of the guard, a man called Rowan. The wicked stepmother had found out and so punished her. She had planned to marry her off to a wealthy old man.” When Aelin noticed Freyja was getting fidgety, she took a chair and sat beside her husband and grabbed their daughter so that he could continue his tale. “Rowan offered to go on a quest and kill the dragon but Aelin refused to be left behind. She was not a damsel in distress. So during the night she gathered some of her stuff, donned her armour and together they set off on an adventure. During their trip he would train her with the sword so she could defend herself. It took them a few months but they did manage to reach the dragon’s lair.” “Dragon.” Freyja was ecstatic and Aelin held her tight. “But while they took the path through the magic forest to reach the dragon lair, Rowan and Aelin got separated. The forest was very dangerous but they were both very brave and fought all the perils and when Aelin finally reached the lair she saw that Rowan was already there but he was injured. She drew her sword and decided to face the dragon alone. In the forest she had discovered that she had fire magic and she wanted to punish the dragon. So she started fighting him, but the dragon was huge and she was getting tired. In that instant Rowan woke up again and walked to her. Together they fought the dragon and eventually killed it and destroyed the necklace, setting Aelin free. She finally kissed him and slowly they returned back home. Once back at the castle, they discovered the wicked mother was gone and Aelin and Rowan decided to get married. They invited all the villagers and they lived happily ever after.” Rowan had to simplify the story to make it acceptable to young kids but they seemed to have liked it. He told a few more stories and two hours later the shop was empty and he was alone again with his family. Dalamar had fallen asleep in Aelin’s arms. Morrigan had gone back to her colouring book and Freyja was pretending to be a knight, swinging around the toy sword Rowan had given her. “I am princess Aelin and I kill dragons.” She shouted while Rowan chased her around the shop. Rowan finally grabbed her and lifted her like a sack of potatoes “dad, the dragon,” she protested while trying to wriggle out of her father’s grip. “Freyja!” Aelin noticed Rowan’s command voice. The one that could actually slow down the little terror. The girl stopped moving and Rowan sat her down beside her sister and she grabbed a colouring book and joined Morrigan in silence. “You really have super powers.” Rowan leaned over to kiss his wife’s head “Give me ten minutes and we’ll go home.”

Half an hour later they were finally at home. Rowan carried a sleepy Morrigan and Aelin carried Dalamar who had been sleeping for an hour now. Freyja had followed in silence, with her sword tucked in the belt loop of her trousers. “I’ll make dinner, you change the kids.” Aelin nodded “Let’s go Freyja it’s jammies time.” The little girl gave her a huge smile and followed her mother with Morrigan at her side. Aelin placed Dalamar on the bed, and helped the two girls change into their night clothes. “Did you have fun at dad’s tonight?” “Yes.” They both squealed. Once they were ready, Aelin tied Freyja’s hair “now go back downstairs to dad but let him cook, okay?” The two girls nodded and left the room. Aelin grabbed her little boy and took him to his room, changed him into his pyjama and tucked him in bed “I love you,” she told him while kissing him on the cheek. Then grabbed the baby monitor and joined the rest of her family downstairs. The twins were on the carpet playing quietly with Morrigan’s planes. Aelin joined Rowan and hugged him from behind “Dalamar is in bed and the girls are playing.” She kissed his back “and your food smells amazing.” “Freyja finally calmed down.” “My mum says that she reminds her of me when I was little.” Aelin squeezed him. He switched off the hob and turned engulfing her in his arms “It does not surprise me.” And he kissed her deeply and Aelin replied in the same manner. He pushed her to the table and she grabbed his butt pulling him to her and she moaned against his mouth. He kissed her neck and Aelin’s hands found their way under his t-shirt. Then she pulled away “Ro, the kids are in the other room and awake.” Rowan leaned his forehead against hers cupping her face in his hands. The kiss he gave her was full of need and love “I know.” He sighed pulling away. Their intimate life had taken a bit of a hit and most nights they were too tired to even try and do something. The last time they had managed to get some action was when Aelin’s mother had kidnapped their kids for an entire weekend four months before. And the mornings were not good either because the twins had the habit of waking up and joining their parents in bed for some family cuddling. Aelin crashed her forehead on his chest “I miss our wall…” she laughed “but I know that I would fall asleep as soon as my back hits it.” Rowan kissed her again “I miss you too.” Then pulled away “Come one, let’s go and feed our hurricanes.” In that instant she heard Dalamar calling her through the baby monitor and five minutes later Aelin was downstairs with a weepy boy in her arms “Someone else is joining us for dinner.” The five of them had dinner and once they were done the kids moved to the sofa and Aelin gave them her old laptop so they could watch their hour of tv. She and Rowan had never bought a tv and the kids never asked for it but allowed them to watch an hour of cartoons on Netflix in the evening after dinner while they cleaned up. Most of times they got bored after half an hour and went back playing until bed time but when they were tired they did manage their hour. “They are watching Totoro again.” Said Aelin, joining Rowan in the kitchen with a pile of dishes then she grabbed a towel and started drying all the ones he had already washed. “They do love Totoro.” He added smiling. “Morrigan the other day said she wants to study Japanese so she could talk to Totoro and Freyja wants to go in the woods to look for him.” Rowan roared with laughter “I love the idea of studying Japanese, though.” “Our two wonderful weirdos.”Aelin stored away all the dishes. Once they were done they got back in the living room and silence reigned. The laptop was on the carpet and the three kids were are all hugged together on the sofa. Dalamar sleeping on Freyja’s chest like in the scene where Mei sleeps on Totoro’s belly, her arms protectively around her brother’s back. Morrigan was snuggled against her sister, her hand holding one of Freyja’s. Aelin gasped at the scene and Rowan pulled her to him and kissed her head “they are finally fell asleep.” He turned Aelin and held her from behind, his chin on her head and his arms tight around her. “This is it, Buzzard. This is my island dream.” Rowan kissed her temple. “This is my dream too.”

TAG:

@rowaelinismyotp

It's that time once again when Diabolical plays in my head on loop.

Can I please get fic where Hels gets back on hermitcraft server? Causing some shenanigans and general trouble?

This was so much fun to write, thank you!! It also ended up being WAY more angsty than I expected but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it anyway, my friend :) Slight CW: minor descriptions of injuries

...

  Welsknight had been avoiding his nether portal as much as possible since he saw his doppelganger disappear through it. Something about the formerly harmless particles and whooshing noise when he walked past it now just about gave him an anxiety attack every time he walked past it. Once, when Jevin popped out of it to say hello just hours after Helsknight had left, Wels had reacted so violently that Jevin was STILL wary around him all these months later. 

  Nobody used his portal anymore. He made sure of that. 

  One sunny day, he finally worked up the courage to go to the shopping district, something he hadn’t dared to do in weeks in case something happened. He went straight past his own portal and flew all the way to Etho’s; there was no way he was going to use the portal his evil clone went through to go back to the hell dimension from which he had come. 

  The shopping district had changed a lot in the weeks Wels had been avoiding it. He couldn’t help staring around at the myriad of new shops that had sprung up. It almost seemed like an entirely new place. 

  As Wels entered the barge, he found another Hermit already inside, browsing the chest full of golden carrots. 

  “Hi, Joe,” said Wels politely, unable to hide a smile at the sight of his old friend. 

  Joe turned and gave him a wave. “Howdy, Wels. Haven’t seen you around here for a few weeks.”

  “Yeah, it’s been… a while. Just been busy, that’s all.” Wels awkward;y indicated the chest. “You, uh… buying stuff?”

  “Nah, I’m not dealing with diamonds this season. I thought Grian might be open to some kind of trading system using stuff other than diamonds but he hasn’t responded to my message yet, so in the meantime, I’m-.” He broke off with a frown. “Okay, I think I might have forgotten to actually send the message.”

  Wels chuckled. “You’re busy too, huh? You only start forgetting stuff when you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

  Joe matched his chuckle. “I’ve got quite a few projects going at the moment, yes. You wanna come over to my base sometime and I’ll show you what I’m working on?”

  “That sounds nice, Joe, thanks.”

  At that moment, the sound of a firework going off nearby caused both of them to look up. A second later, a figure glided through the door and landed neatly on the ground, his elytra closing as he took a few steps further into the room. “Hey, Wels,” Etho said, giving a friendly wave. “Man, you really got here fast.”

  Wels frowned at his friend. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I just saw you over by Shade-E-E’s a minute ago. You said hello to me and everything.”

  “That…” Wels’s heart skipped a beat. “That wasn’t me.”

  Etho frowned back. “Well, then… Someone must’ve stolen a spare set of armour or something, cuz it looked exactly like you.”

  “Oh…” Blinking very fast, Wels let out a nervous breath. “Oh, boy… Please don’t tell me he’s back…”

  Etho and Joe exchanged a confused look. “Who?” asked Joe.

  Wels considered either making something up or dismissing his comment, but looking at the concerned faces of two of his best friends on the server, he decided to tell the truth. “The evil clone of myself that Beef and I accidentally created who ran off into the nether after I beat him in a rap battle when he tried to destroy the server.”

  Etho stared at him with wide eyes. 

  “I thought it might be something like that,” said Joe, nodding.

  “How can you possibly have been expecting that?” Wels said in disbelief.

  Joe shrugged. “I’ve heard weirder.”

  “Well… anyway. His name is Helsknight and he’s from a nether-like dimension called Hels, apparently. I thought I’d driven him back to where he came from but I should’ve known he wouldn’t stay away for long.”

  “To be frank, beating him in a rap battle isn’t quite as definitive as beating him in PVP,” said Joe. 

  Wels scowled. “The last time I tried PVP, you dropped an anvil on my head from a great height.”

  “Oh yeah.” Joe snickered. “I did.”

  “Leaving that aside,” said Etho, “it seems there’s an evil clone of you loose on the server, so we should probably deal with that. Helsknight, you said his name is?”

  Wels nodded. “He looks exactly like me except his eyes are red, his armour is slightly greyer than mine, and his hair is a darker shade of blond.”

  “Ohh, I noticed the darker armour,” said Etho. “I just thought it was the shade from my shop. I guess we’d better go find him, huh?”

  “Yeah, I need to find him before he causes any more chaos. You guys should probably warn the other Hermits so they-.”

  “No, we’re coming with you to find him,” Etho interrupted. 

  “It’ll be quicker if the three of us look together,” Joe added. “Plus, I’ve never met an evil clone before, so it would be rather thrilling to do so.”

  Wels frowned at his friends. “Are you sure? He’s really dangerous. I don’t know exactly what he’s capable of, but he’s from a hellfire dimension, so...”

  “As sure as the day is long,” replied Joe, patting his friend on the shoulder. “You need our help and we aren’t gonna abandon you.”

  As Etho nodded, Wels gave a small smile. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.”

  “No worries. So where should we look first?” asked Etho.

  “Well…” Wels thought for a moment. “He’s probably trying to cause some shenanigans on the server. If we check certain prominent places on the server, we’ll probably find him trying to lure me out somehow.”

  “I’ll check the rest of the shopping district, then,” said Joe. “He might still be here.”

  “I’ll have a look round the nether hub and the Upside Down,” Etho added. “You said he’s from a nether-like dimension so he might gravitate there. What about you, Wels?”

  “I’m going to Bdubs’s castle,” said Wels. “It’s the most medieval build on the server, so if he isn’t there now, he’ll end up there eventually.”

  “Okay, but be careful, Wels,” Etho said softly. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

  “I won’t.”

  With that, the group split up. 

  Wels flew straight over to Bdubs’s base. As he got closer, he couldn’t help marvelling at the sheer size and grandeur of the cliff and the castle sitting atop it. It was one of the grandest bases on the servers, so Wels felt sure he would find his clone here.

  He landed atop the cliff and started looking around. As he explored further, he spotted the person he was looking for standing at the entrance to Bdubs’s castle. 

  “If you’re looking for your little friend Bdoubleo, he’s in the nether,” crowed Helsknight. “I watched him go through his portal.”

  Wels glared up at his doppelganger. “You know I’m not looking for Bdubs.”

  “Are you here to rap battle with me again, then?” Helsknight grinned. “I warn you: I’ve been practising.”

  Shaking his head, Wels drew his sword. “No, Hels. I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place.” 

  Helsknight sighed and drew his own sword. “So boring. Come on, then.”

  His doppelganger’s relaxed, indifferent manner sent a bolt of anger straight into Wels. Letting out a yell, he charged to attack.

  Their battle lasted at least ten minutes, though to Wels, it felt like hours. He poured all his energy into his swings, attacking his evil clone with all the rage and fear that had threatened to consume him since Helsknight had disappeared into the nether all those months ago. He was done letting his negative emotions control his life. 

  Finally, Wels managed to knock Helsknight’s sword out of his hand and kick him to the ground, aiming his own sword at his evil clone’s neck. 

  Helsknight simply grinned evilly up at him. “You gonna kill me, Welsy? I wouldn’t do it if I were you; we Hels Hermits only get stronger when we die. If you kill me, I’ll come back with a vengeance. We have a special lava fountain in Hels that can-.”

  “Oh, shut up,” snapped Wels suddenly. “I’m not going to kill you, but not because of any stupid threats you make. I don’t care what you have in Hels. I’m not going to kill you, because I’m merciful. But if you ever come back here again, I won’t be so forgiving. Do you understand?”

  Helsknight simply stared back at him. “You’ve got some great friends here, Welsy. Better hold onto them in case something… happens.”

  Wels narrowed his eyes. “You stay away from them. I swear to god, if you-.”

  He hadn’t realised that he had lowered his hand slightly until Helsknight moved, fast as lightning, and kicked the sword out of his hand. Before he could react, Helsknight jumped up and grabbed him by the throat. He took two steps forward and threw Wels over the edge of the cliff. 

  The fall seemed to take only a split second, but the cliff was tall enough that Wels’s left leg broke immediately upon impacting the ground. He lay still in shock, too numb to cry, despite the searing pain in his leg, which was folded painfully underneath his body. 

  Helsknight appeared above him and effortlessly picked him up off the ground, again by the throat. He grinned, his face less than a foot from Wels’s.

  “You know what else we have in Hels?” Helsknight taunted. “Fire. Lots of fire.”

  He lifted his free hand, which was now engulfed in burning hot flames. Wels weakly struggled in his grip, trying to lean as far away from his counterpart as possible, as Helsknight slowly moved the fire closer to his face, taunting him with the fact that he couldn’t escape it. 

  The flames started to burn his face. He held his breath, trying not to let his pain show, trying not to give Helsknight the satisfaction. 

  But finally, he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He let out a cry at the burning agony across the side of his face.

  Helsknight barked a laugh and retracted his hand, as if all he’d been after was a reaction from Wels. “Maybe you should stick with the rap battles next time.”

  With that, he dropped Wels on the ground and walked away.

  Wels lay where he fell, unable to move through the burning pain in his face and leg. His chest moved quickly up and down as he struggled for oxygen, still winded from the battle. 

  “Wels!” yelled a familiar voice from somewhere behind him. 

  Seconds later, Joe appeared on his right and Etho on his left, their worried faces peering down at him. 

  “Is he okay?” Joe gasped.

  “H-His face…!” Etho gently touched Wels’s burnt cheek. Wels could feel his friend’s cool fingers trembling. “Wels, can you hear me?”

  Wels couldn’t speak, couldn’t reassure his friends that he would be okay. His leg would heal. His face, he wasn’t sure yet. The only thing he knew wouldn’t heal was the crushing feeling of failure, of knowing that because of said failure, an evil clone of himself was still running around the server, potentially hurting people he cared about. The pain in his leg and face served as an agonising reminder that he wasn’t strong enough to stop his doppelganger. 

  How was he supposed to protect other people when he couldn’t even protect himself?

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 21 (Geten X Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 21: The Commander’s Will

AO3 Link

Previous Chapters: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

–––––––––––

It was nice to know that Dabi’s Monday afternoon was interrupted by an emergency meeting by Shigaraki, who broadcasted it over their private channel. The LoV channel, which had gone unused for a while. Which meant that this gathering concerned only them. 

That would explain why the venue was the Doc’s place, which employed the usual protocol that Shigaraki had devised. Dabi let out a sigh lost in the gales blowing about, and got to work.

10 minutes later, Dabi found himself surrounded by his old ragtag group of villains, except that they were now in possession of wealth and luxury rivalling the richest families in Japan. He supposed, that included the family he left behind. 

“I’ll get to the point. This is about what’s happening next Monday night.” Shigaraki was once again undergoing more of Ujiko’s experiments, this time with metal injectors protruding from his back. Dabi was no stranger to gore, but it looked as if Shigaraki was suspended by large metallic spider legs, and that disturbed him. It didn’t help that even Tomura himself looked to be in agony, with a strained expression and a coarser voice than normal. 

Despite all that, he called us here for this meeting. Must be hell of an emergency. 

“What about Re-destro and the others?” Spinner asked.

“I got the suits to go do some mundane task, so we have this window of time. I don’t trust them. Don’t plan to. I’m somewhat certain they’re plotting something, but I don’t care. Once they’ve served their purpose, I’m getting rid of them.”

“Anyway.” Shigaraki closed his eyes, his face muscles tightening like a python was constricting itself around his neck. “I need two – no, three teams for Monday. Your regiments will all be fighting. I’ll do another briefing for everyone about the invasion itself.”

He let loose a tiny gasp as steam arose from his back. Dabi heard Toga gulp. Compress took a minute step backwards. 

“Toga, I need you and Spinner to infiltrate a laboratory. Doctor needs a last piece to help finalise all of this.” Shigaraki waved a floppy hand at the machinations behind him. Himiko vigorously nodded along with Spinner’s affirmation. 

“The doc’s up in that room.” Tomura pointed with a shaky finger. “Go see him, he’ll tell you what to do.” The two nodded with startlingly obedient demeanours and left. 

“Compress, I need you for this mission.” Sako nodded. “I’m in talks right now with this guy on the street and his gang. He wants, or he thinks that he can undergo some experimentation like mine to wield multiple quirks. Even the Doc confirmed his blood matched that of All For One’s. It would make a good diversion for the heroes. I’m trying to draw him off the scent.”

“Who?” Twice asked. 

“Hawks. Which brings me to number three. Dabi, you might want to join this. We’re getting rid of him.”

“What? Cool!” Twice said, while Dabi raised an eyebrow. “That soon?”

“Yeah, after I got my sensory quirk, I’ve noted how this guy’s been snooping around too much. I don’t think he’s gotten that much info, but he pokes around any deeper, he’ll screw us over. So you, me – Twice, you too, we’re killing him.”

“But...why? He’s not a bad person. I’ve talked to him a few times, he’s just like us.”

So you got to him already, huh, Keigo? Smart, smart. 

“Twice.” Shigaraki’s voice resonated through the chamber, drawing all attention back to him. “Just trust me on this.”

Twice gulped, but nodded with a shiver in his form. 

“Compress.” Shigaraki took a deep breath whilst squeezing his eyes shut. “The guy’s name, is Nine.”

“Wait.” Dabi cut in. That name. Memories spawned from the depths, flashes of them, cut through with blue and red flames. And through it all, a face he’d met with a few times. “Silver hair, blue eyes?”

Tomura looked at him. “Yeah, you know the guy?”

“Swap me and Compress. I’ll deal with him,” Dabi said. 

“Why?”

“Please, just let me handle this.” He needed to. 

“Wow. All right then, if you say so. Compress, you good with this swap?” Tomura looked to Sako, who nodded with a hat tip. 

“Haven’t heard this man say please in my entire life. How could I say no to his cute pout?” Atsuhiro chuckled upon noticing Dabi’s glare. 

“Bitch,” Dabi muttered.

Shigaraki uttered his name with an authoritative tone. Dabi realised only a second later that he had turned his head towards his commander out of instinct. 

“First, you’re first meeting him on Friday to bring him to the Doctor’s place. Next Monday, you need to escort the chamber in a transport to a separate location – during the festival – to meet up with the rest of his posse. We’re gonna leak this to the heroes, make them think it’s me or something important. I’ll bail you out at the last second. I don’t give a shit what happens to the lunatic.”

“Got it.”

Tomura faced the other two, continuing, “Compress, Twice, just follow my lead when we bait the guy in. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you guys safe. Twice, you’re a menace enough that you don’t even need to be there. Just keep generating copies of me. This’ll be a piece of cake.” Shigaraki clenched his fist.

“No, don’t do this! Sure thing, Shigaraki!” Twice gave a thumbs-up with his left and a thumbs-down with his right. Compress gave a grunt of assent. 

“That’s all I got for you guys, then. Bye.” 

A wave of gunk pouring from Dabi’s mouth enveloped him, and five nauseous seconds later, the trio were back in the council room. 

“That was a fast meeting,” Dabi’s clone droned from his seat. 

“Aww...time to go already?” Toga’s clone pouted as she spun her pocket knife. 

“Sorry guys! Not sorry!” Bubaigawara raised his arms, and the clones of the LoV were reduced back into grey sludge, which seeped back towards the real Twice. 

“I’ll be taking my leave then. It’s a lot to think about, going up against him…” Atsuhiro murmured. “Guess I just need to have faith in Shigaraki.” He departed afterwards. 

Faith. The thought was irksome to Dabi. Having faith in Shigaraki of all things. A few months ago, he would have balked at the thought of Shigaraki being a competent leader, and he would have laughed if he was told he would actually listen to his orders. 

And here he was, accepting another assignment at the boy’s request. 

He’ll turn on you, just like the rest, A voice in his head snarled. And to a frightening degree, as Dabi’s thoughts lingered on Shigaraki’s plan, the voice was right. Except this time, it wasn’t personal. Shigaraki sought the annihilation of Japan. That included him, and the ground he stood upon, and it would destroy his dream. That dream he had been having for a while now. 

Part of him wanted to rage against that, to demand that Shigaraki find some other way to defeat the scum of society, but something in Tomura’s eyes told Dabi there was no stopping what the boy set out to do. 

“He’s good, I know it…” He heard Twice murmur beside him, not even acknowledging Dabi’s presence, as he walk-stumbled out of the room. Dabi watched him go, his brow creasing. 

If Hawks gets to him…No, Shigaraki said he’d keep them safe.

Maybe he would have to place his trust in Shigaraki after all. Yet he’d trusted people before, people he looked up to, and where did that lead Dabi?

Unto death.

Perhaps – he thought as he surveyed the council room, a reminder of the leaders he found himself following with little question, this time would be different. 

Either way, meeting Nine made for an interesting reunion. Not that he cared about the fanatic, but if anyone could help him regain the memories he burned, he could. It was Nine who once worked with Dabi, his mentor, the body that remained silent, even when engulfed in flames. 

His flames. Touya had to remind himself of that from time to time. 

im sorry, the more you talk about rp on twitter the more Curious i get about the plot and stuff so. i understand that akane ditched the ab project bc the timeline got diverted, but how exactly did the timeline divert, and how did akane realise it did? and why'd you guys decide to have the timeline divert enough that ab project couldn't happen? thanks!

under cut because. i get embarrassed.

so the timeline in general basically got muddled/diverted the second we started fucking around with the characters. because of The Nature Of Rp we have a lot of different universes interacting & justify that as the construct of a literal multiverse within the plot, and the snowball influence of it changed enough that it could no longer connect with the vlr future

for one, aoi was kind of... hanging out in a different universe when the apocalypse happened, so he doesn’t die in it. (it was most convenient for our plot that we say he was ‘supposed’ to die according to akane’s vision of the future.) a few years later, when junpei shows up, aoi (who, when he could, would help send aid to the ZEverse apocalypse) helped get junpei and carlos placed at a shelter that was just getting founded bc conditions at their old shelter were super crowded and bad (and they got aid to that one as well). at the new shelter junpei met ren, a first nonary game kid, and after they were friends for a while and junpei was aggressively restless at his job at the shelter (radio operator & translator), they volunteered together to be a team for shelter explorations, where teams would go out to check up on shelters that weren’t in their communication network & either get them set up, report them as dead shelters, report them as viable to establish a new shelter, or take supplies if it can’t be salvaged

and due to Shenanigans ztd’s bomb shelter ended up being on the list (i decided that ‘ground zero’ of rad-6 was mistakenly reported as the nearby dcom facility rather than the bomb shelter). junpei and ren went there, junpei didnt remember shit, of course, bc of memory wipe, but if you recall in the apocalypse timeline of ztd, akane, junpei, and carlos are all time clones and didnt originally belong to the timeline— their original selves were executed in the vote.

so while exploring in the pod room running on reserve power the two found the dead bodies of the original junpei carlos and akane. junpei understandably flips his shit, ren contacts aoi to get carlos, who was at a hospital shelter visiting maria. (side note— carlos had been meeting akane during those maria visits bc akane had promises of curing maria, but he had to keep all correspondence with akane completely secret; so he’d seen her alive hours before). so they figure out carlos is fine, junpei’s fine, but carlos cant say that akane’s fine bc akane kind of internalizes in him that if junpei finds out anything the timeline will be fucked and carlos is carrying guilt enough as is from the apocalypse.

anyway junpei has a dramatic mental break later, aoi has a quiet, slow burning decline bc regardless of any of their theories about if akane is alive out there, he feels that the dead akane was His (timeline’s) akane and that hits him hard. he organizes a... not exactly funeral, but some stuff to memorialize her, junpei’s there. junpei leaves the one photo he has of akane. that’s the kicker.

at carlos and akane’s next meeting akane talks about how she never got to ask her brother why he hid the truth abt their parent’s deaths because he’s dead, and carlos is like uhh, i talk to aoi all the time he’s alive. he also mentions the C team bodies and subsequent events, and that’s when akane knows shit’s fucked.

so, two factors in the diversion:

a more passive one; aoi’s death wasn’t ‘necessary,’ it didn’t contribute to the AB project, but it was an indicator of being on the right track, a necessary consequence but not cause of being on the right timeline. without it, she knows something went wrong

a more active one; junpei giving up the photograph, which is minor in and of itself but indicative of larger shifts in junpei’s behavior and development that are setting him on a different path than tenmyouji was meant to follow

anyway at the time akane realized this, diana was due to die in like, 3 months. so she had that much time to come up w a proof of concept for some new way of solving their problems; she did manage to, deciding to utilize newfound knowledge of the multiverse to try to test technology for modifying the transporters to work across universes & become easy access to any timeline you want w/o duplication. with enough confidence in that she saved diana’s life and dragged sigma diana and the pods back down to facilities on earth to begin work at creating and perfecting that technology and figuring out how to utilize it 

and as for the question of Why: basically i really wanted to RP akane and phi, but i wanted them interacting with everyone else down the line, which wouldn’t be possible if akane were to continue with the AB project. i also now have the freedom to take junpei off of the strict path of VLR without worrying what ripple effects it’d have later. whatever we end up doing it’s definitely going to be less tightly-woven and thematic than ZE/the AB project, but it’ll be better suited to a rp environment and it’ll give us some more freedom to use characters that were previously occupied for 45 years. also i’m just having fun.

Master list:

This is my master list of fanfics that I enjoy reading! I will continue to add to it as I read more or maybe write my own! Most of these fanfictions are of ao3 or tumblr

Rick Sanchez x Reader:

Ricky Doll by rickssugarplum: You’ve missed Rick for so long and you have a Rick Plushie to fill the void. Rick finds out.

Rest Easy by sammys_lover: You're frightened by a storm that's way too huge for your liking. 

Innuendos by Hoodoo:  You just needed to get some grocery shopping done. Rick turned it into a thing.

Long:

F*CKING YOUNG / PERFECT by baconprincess:  The Smith-Sanchez family meets the new neighbors. (11 Chapters, but unfinished)

Curiosity by PsychoLolita: You get swept into Rick and Morty's lives thanks to a favor from Beth. It isn't until you see Rick using his trusty portal gun that you decide to find out for yourself just what kind of scientist Rick Sanchez is. Along the way, you find yourself falling for Rick's unorthodox ways and personality. Even though he seems disinterested in you, it all feels like a strange deja vu. On the other hand, Rick knows something that you don't, and wants to keep it from you (and Morty) at all costs. Will things go completely awry, or will you settle with what the future holds? (15 Chapters, but unfinished)

Rick Sanchez x Reader (Smut):

...the line broke, the monkey got choked... by Hoodoo: You catch sight of an old guy with a Mohawk. He catches sight of you too, and makes a daring suggestion.

Heat Wave by Hoodoo: It's too damn hot. You decide to surprise Rick in his garage with some sexy times. Maybe that'll cool things off?

Honey, I'm Home by daddyzanchez: You knew the sound of a portal opening in your sleep, could recognise it in a crowd and it made you giddy. Rick being home after a long adventure with Morty meant that he was short on a dose of you, making him a little rougher than usual, and you loved it.

Interrupted Plans by daddyzanchez: Rick portals home briefly (despite having plans) to take care of you. 

Slow Sex or Mushy Pancakes by daddyzanchez: Rick gets pissy about having to choose between sex or mushy pancakes, so he chooses the next best: A quickie and non-mushy pancakes. 

Did You Read It In Cosmopolitan? by daddyzanchez:  Rick is away on adventures a lot, making your sex-life consist of a little too many quickies. You want slow for once - you'll never believe what happens next!

More Than Just A Dance by daddyzanchez: Your apartment is in for a Spring cleaning, so when you are mopping the floor whilst shaking your ass to a groovy beat, Rick sees you and orders a dance for himself. 

Steampunked by Hoodoo: Rick and reader get dolled up, but sneak away from festivities for some naughty fun. 

Good Vibes by rick-frickers: Written from a request: Can you do a Rick/Reader fic incorporating a vibrator?

There’s a first time for everything by ricks-frickers: Written from a request: Please write one of your sexyass female self-inserts of Rick taking a young woman’s virginity

Provocateur by PsychoLolita:  Rick wants to spoil you on an expensive lingerie shopping trip when decides he can't take the heat anymore, and pulls you into a dressing room stall for a little fun.

Hard Candy by PsychoLolita: You and Rick Sanchez have been flirting for months. When you pay him a visit this time, he's working on a "special candy for Summer" that he insists you don't touch. But how can you resist trying one when he isn't looking? You can't- and he's the only one who can quench your thirst after you realize the candy was actually an aphrodisiac.

Tequila Sunrise by PsychoLolita: You're secretly into some kinky stuff, but you're too shy about it to bring it out on your own. Rick C137 knows exactly what to do. 

A Woman’s Place by rehpicllib: Rick’s kind of sexist. But still manages to fuck you up.

You Asked For It by Hoodoo: You make a request of Rick: can you have a night of hardcore fluffy sex? Can he do that? And then contrariwise, what about the opposite of hardcore fluff sex? Chapter 2. Requests from an ask, first chapter fluffy sex, second chapter hardcore sex (with detoxified Rick and Toxic Rick) (2 Chapters)

Up In The Air daddyzanchez: Your job as a flight attendant suddenly gets a little more exciting (and shameful) as a tall, strange man with spiky blue hair gets onboard... (4 Chapters, but unfinished) 

Extra Credit by GoldenSnowflake: As the clanking of plates and silverware gathering food filled the air, a tall, slim figure swept into the room and took the chair opposite of mine. He stared and I blinked at him, my fork in my mouth. "Who's this?""We're partners for a project," Summer muttered as if he should've known better, despite the fact it didn't seem like she warned anybody that I was coming over at all.

Sext by Hoodoo: Rick got a piercing. It's wrecked a month's worth of havoc on his sex life, until tonight.

Hair-pulling+ by Hoodoo: A short, filthy fic about being fucked from behind by Rick, with him holding onto my ponytail. Just some nice hair pulling and dirty talk.

Mint Chocolate Chip by Hoodoo:  It's summer and it's too hot. Ice cream should make it better.

Erotic Advent by Hoodoo:  24 days of new sex toys for Rick/reader!

Zero G by Hoodoo: You always wanted to have sex in anti-gravity. Rick makes that happen.

Focused on masterbaiting:

Tracker by NikkiDoodle:  Rick catches you during your alone time. But how does he know what you're up to? 

Desperate But So Far Away by daddyzanchez: Rick is not able to be reached right now which is a bummer. You have had your hand in your pants for an hour or more but your orgasm was just not happening. 

Better Than Fantasy by NamelyCranberries: Rick catches you masturbating. Lend a Hand by deliciousdeaddove:  You walk in on something interesting... 

House sitter by deliciousdeaddove:  You're watching the Smith's house while they're out of town. Your mind drifts to one of the usual occupants and you become carried away. Then you're caught. 

Caught Rick-Handed by CrazyRaynebow:  Rick walks in on Reader masturbating and well... what else is there to say?

Focused on eating out:

Originality - A New Year's Eve Story by daddyzanchez:  How does one enter the new year with Rick Sanchez? A Slip Of The Tongue by daddyzanchez: It took a moment before you realised what you had just said but when you did, your heart dropped and it felt like a train was hitting you at maximum speed. Distractions by rick-frickers: Written from a request: reader/Rick with reader as Morty’s tutor or something and the tutor and Rick have been flirting (which Morty notices) and Rick goes under the table and goes down on tutor and she’s gotta play it cool so Morty doesn’t notice and Rick’s really into it but also wants the girl to make a lot of noise so she’ll feel embarrassed. And later the reader gets her revenge and does the same to Rick when he’s in the garage or something! 

Period:

Monthly by NikkiDoodle: You're on your period and hate it. But that didn't stop Rick. (3 Chapters)

Bloodhound by Jinkies_Lydia:  This story is about period sex. If that is not your thing turn around now. Takes place after season 2 episode 7, “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez”. The Reader comes onto Rick at her bloodiest time of the month after a wild ride previously with Rick after killing his other clone bodies, drenched in his own blood. 

Monthly by GoldenSnowflake: “She’ll be watching the house while we’re gone,” Beth explained pleasantly.Long limbs draped across the back of the sofa and the coffee table, Rick looked at me with the barest hint of interest. “She’s cute,” he assessed, turning back to the television. “Just make sure she stays the hell away from the garage.” A little odd or not, the Smiths paying to housesit while they're gone is nothing less than perfect timing. Except for the fact that Mother Nature doesn't care whose life she's ruining. Oh, and neither does Rick.

agents of shield

okay so this show is actually bomb (spoilers)

they deserve so much better than being completely ignored by the mcu, especially as most of the team are seriously more useful than the actual avengers 

also, as much as I love cap:the winter soldier (one of the best marvel movies), agents of shield has to deal with so much literal shit from hydra after the movie. like the cap team was great in killing pierce and frank grillo guy and that other hydra agent with slicked back hair, but there is so much more than that

the agents of shield not only continued shield when the avengers gave up on them, but stopped so many actual catastrophes, including THE ACTUAL END OF THE WORLD, and where are the avengers? fighting some stupid purple grape  

some of their achievements:

- the team were fighting hydra for literally every season ?? that's like 6 years after they revealed themselves whereas the movies did it for like 2 films (age of Ultron where they were like ‘well this is the last hydra building, guess that's it ?)

- inhumans ?? I recently realised that is what scarlet witch and quicksilver are which is an actual good link between movies and tv. anyway why were the avengers like all alone when they have QUAKE, and YO-YO, and LINCOLN (if he hadn't died so soon)

- fitz and simmons went to SPACE - what the hell - move over thor, some tiny cinnamon rolls survived on a desert planet for 6 months, and also figured out not only what a random rock is, but also its history and how to get someone back - INCREDIBLE - and the fact that hydra had tried for centuries to get someone back and fitz did it in like a month ?? (a whole other story)

- ghostrider ?

- patriot ?

- THE FREAKIN FRAMEWORK

-another monolith - took THE WHOLE TEAM (like 70% normal people) to space and the future to face against a dystopian future and an alien race !! and they were still famous !! that's how good the agents of shield are - that they have become a literal old wives tale passed down two generations !!  and they WIN - normal humans who have done batshit crazy things killed a bunch of actual aliens - like avengers step UP (then also travelled back - against physics or something too)

- also were the avengers too busy to notice the actual end of the world - being destroyed by a former military general who was shot in the head by a robot and then brainwashed by hydra who they claimed to have destroyed ??

- the whole of season 6 !! people turning into actual crystal art ? a massive spaceship in earths atmosphere ? did no one else notice two alien ships over the earth, or did they see it and just decide to leave it to like 2 technically dead guys, two half aliens and a bunch of heroic humans !

- I also realised the other day that like half the team has died. Coulson died actually so many times its ridiculous. Fitz got crushed under a building but he had a clone so its fine. Daisy got shot like three times in season one and technically died and got saved by alien blood. May almost died at the end of season 6, (and in season 4 before jemma saved her somehow) but is now definitely alive but still weird, but maybe that's just the time travel. Jemma died in the framework. Yo-yo died in the future, which Mack saw and got very confused about, but Mack has actually never died, only temporarily infected by a kree virus thingy. 

this was just a massive rant about one of the best shows, which is now coming to an end. I havent seen season 7 yet, but I basically know whats happening cause im a sucker for spoilers, but I am still ANgRY that fitz hasn't appeared yet :(

The Creator

Summary: When Sean discovers he has the ability to bring his characters to life, he wasn’t expecting to be shunned by them or for it to lead to tragedy time and time again.

Warnings: Blood mention, implied death (including children), kidnapping mention

Sean wishes he never went to Max's house that night. It wasn't any fun. They were just really mean to him and he didn't like it. It's not like he didn't try to stay awake. It was a dumb anyway. His mother asks him if he'd like her to speak with Max's mother. He tells her no. In response she encourages him to stop moping about if it wasn't that bad. Well, fine then. Max sucks and Sean can make a way better friend than him any day. Right, what kind of qualities should a good friend have? He should be kind always, never teases him in a mean way, be willing to be there for him and want to join in with his games. For the hell of it, Sean adds 'never sleeps' to the criteria. This imaginary friend is named Jack, after the family nickname. Having been moulded into the 6 year old's interpretation of a perfect friend, Jack becomes a concrete part of Sean's life. Jack is always there when he gets home from school. They mess around in the woods near the house, complain about homework together and share a great deal of laughter between themselves. For years, his parents and siblings brush it off as him being a little boy. However, Sean is undeniably getting older. With each birthday, having an imaginary friend is increasingly becoming something he should outgrow. And he is, somewhat. It's just that Jack feels so real to him. But his friend understands. Sean is no longer 6 and it is time for him to gradually mature. He gets crushes, makes his way through secondary school and decides he may have made a mistake with his original degree choice. Through it all, he's maintained an interest in video games. So screw it, there is a place for gaming content on YouTube. What does he have to lose? This damn cabin doesn't exactly allow him many opportunities to socialise with those outside his family otherwise. He goes by Jacksepticeye on the website, harkening back to a nickname he gained following an injury years before. Months pass and it is soon July. To his surprise, his channel's subscriber count reaches 1000. He's delighted. That was 1000 more than he'd ever really expected. He films a vlog to mark the occasion and thank his audience. Something he'd expected even less than his sub count was his doppelganger, complete with an identical outfit, collapsing in front of his television. Regaining composure after getting to his feet, the clone speaks. "Um, hi Sean." "What the fuck? Who are you and why do look like me?" "I'm Jack." "Okay. Hello Jack. What the hell are you doing in my living room?" "No, Jack as in... Jack. From when you were a kid." Sean stands there, no words coming from his mouth. He seems to remember himself after a minute. "But you're imaginary. You were an imaginary friend, it's kind of in the name." "I guess that's changed." Jack shrugs, obviously as lost as he was by this unique situation. Sean falls back onto the sofa. With his hands in his hair, he lets out a deep breath. Jack gently sits himself on the other side of the sofa. Not bothering to lift his head, Sean opens his mouth. "I'm going to be honest. This was not how I imagined my day going." "I didn't think I'd suddenly come to life either." Sean leans back and their eyes meet. A beat passes before they both descend into laughter at the absurdity of it. That summer is phenomenal compared to his previous expectations for it. He introduces Jack to so many things that he usually took for granted. They eat more tubs of ice cream together than was healthy, don't allow a week to pass without a competitive gaming session and occasionally wander about in the woods surrounding the cabin. There was apparently a whole other world with people Jack haphazardly described as 'the NPCs to my main character'. Their faces were probably based on people Sean had walked past in the street. There was this completely separate world and the entry point was simply lingering outside his cabin. It was inconceivable. When he gets the courage to venture through the gateway, he discovers it's actually a bit remote. Isolated, like his cabin is. Jack helps him laugh it off. Besides, he couldn't be expected to be creative with his literal worldbuilding if he didn't know how he was doing it in the first place. Jack introduces him to a friend who was like him. This Australian guy called Angus Irwin tags along to a hang out session. Here was this person, standing right before him, whom he was entirely responsible for creating. By messing around in Far Cry 3 and putting on a dumb accent, he'd created life. What the hell was he capable of? The three of them are firm friends by the time the local trees have suffered a significant loss of leaves. He and Jack gradually become the joint face of the Jacksepticeye channel. For some reason (Jack cited Sean's 6 year old self for this) his doppelganger didn't sleep. This was actually very beneficial for him because he could edit while Sean slept. God knows Jack complained enough about his sleep schedule. When he gets announced as a winner of Pewdiepie's shout out competition in September, Jack swings by to congratulate him. Along with Angus, the trio spent the evening celebrating this bizarre occasion. There was a lot of work he'd have to put in to keep the momentum going but Sean knew it would be worth it in the end. The colder months fly by after that. Jack had never been particularly affected by the cold before. However, now that he could feel it, he suffered the consequences of not wearing enough layers. Jack detesting the cold is funny to Sean, especially after how much his friend thrived in summer. Angus wasn't used to the lower Irish temperatures either. He helped them stay warm as best he could. That goddamn cabin with its internally forming frost didn't help but still, he tried. He jokes he should conjure up more radiators for Jack and Angus' home despite not having the faintest clue how to actually do so. As the new year approaches, Sean realises he never gave Jack a birthday. They could have celebrated in November because he is maybe 90% sure Max was born during that month. Therefore, Jack would have been initially thought up during November 1996. But Sean had no idea what the specific date of creation was. Not to mention November had already passed anyway. There was that date in July but he wasn't sure he should pick the anniversary of Jack becoming corporeal as his birthday. At a loss, he goes for the day he associates with birthdays the most. Who says Jack couldn't share his birthday? He blanks on what to get his friend. He's not sure where he gets the dumb idea to let Jack experience hot chocolate for the first time as a birthday treat. Jack gets understandably frustrated by this ban on the drink. It pays off when Sean gets to witness the wonderful sight of his friend enjoying hot chocolate. Lost on what to give Angus for his birthday in early April, he approaches Jack for ideas. His friend suggests getting a toy leopard and jewellery that can fit on the animal. Sean can't help but question the odd combination. When Jack explains leopards love jewellery, especially the gold digging females, it's as if these were widely known facts. Sean had been bullshitting when he'd spouted that nonsense. Jack reminds him it was factual to Angus. Oh alright, fuck it. Let's present Angus with a jewellery loving leopard on his birthday. As predicted, the Australian wildlife man greatly appreciates the gift. It's late summer once more when Sean's problems begin. Jack mentions being concerned about their friend's changing sleeping habits. Then Angus' memory gradually starts suffering. Throughout 2015, Angus gets worse. Jack's always had a big mouth. He tends to speak before he truly thinks things through. Sean's technically to blame for that. However, it hasn't been much of an issue until now. The first time Jack brings up potentially finding a way to reverse whatever was affecting Angus, he hates to reject him. The painfully dejected look in his best friend's eyes breaks his heart. He wants to help, he really does. He just can't. Not long after, he spends an hour or two looking for a game with an open world. Perhaps he could put on an Australian accent for the anniversary of the character's first appearance. Nothing comes up. Life gets in the way. Sean abandons the search for a while. Jack never allows him to forget for too long. What starts as "I'm worried about Angus" soon morphs into "Angus only called me Jake once today". The longer it goes on, the more desperate Jack gets. And angrier. Sean has never seen such frustrated fury in his friend. He wishes he never had to. He's not even sure if he can call himself a true friend anymore, given how much he's already failed them. The cycle of attempting to find a solution and putting it on the back burner due to no leads continues. As do the arguments with Jack. Contrary to popular belief, he is putting in the effort. The main problem was he never seemed to have anything to show for it. He still cares for Angus too. The reason he wasn't visiting their home as often was because he didn't always feel welcome. As was in Jack's nature, he kept forgiving him. He'd say it was fine and Sean would agree for the sake of it. But it wasn't fine. He is beginning to forget when the last time things were 'fine'. Following some filming with Ninja Sex Party, Sean is excited to dress up as a superhero for a bit during a Welcome To The Game video. Jack is just as pleased to make a new friend. Jackie is a surprise, his young age even more so. He was 16 and, as far Jack had told him, brimming with excess energy. The new arrival had been a shock for Jack too, apparently. The most he could offer the kid last night was a can of Dr Pepper and some custard creams. Shit, this was new territory. He hasn't had to deal with a new ego in years. Jackie's age causes conversations about school and whether the boy would need an education in the first place. Sean doesn't necessarily see the point. Was Jackie currently the only minor in their world? Because in that case, has a high school suddenly popped up to accommodate a single student? Even if Sean created a character with children at a later date, the kids would probably be the wrong age group to attend school with Jackie. If it was that important to Jack to see the young superhero have an education, he would have to do it himself. Being home-schooled would also allow Jackie to do his job. Attempts at being responsible aside, he ensures Jackie knows he can come to him if needs anything specific. Naturally, he gravitates to Jack as his adult role model. Sean doesn't mind. They live together and Jackie therefore has easier access to him. But Sean is still there if the need arises. A month later, he buys a cheap cat mask that covers half of his face. It was something to use once and forget about until you throw it away in a big spring clean. The magic set was the same, only with extra smaller parts. The video is nothing spectacular. All it entailed was him messing around with the box's contents before switching to decorating the mask. The last thing he was anticipating was the creation of life. Although, by this point, perhaps he should have. Besides, he hadn't even given himself a name. It was just 'Jack the Magnificent'. Jack comes to rectify this oversight a couple days later. He explains he'd made the suggestion the night of Marvin's arrival. The box had the name on it so why not let the new ego make it his own? The main issue Jack had with all this was that Marvin had not been planned in the slightest. With Jackie, there'd been some preparation. Neither of them may have foreseen his creation but at least there had been a name and outfit. All Marvin had was a mask, plus a name that was already taken. "This better not happen again." Jack privately demands. "I don't want another Angus. God knows you're not going to help." Jack swings by at the end of August to inform him Jackie's in hospital. He'd gotten stabbed while confronting a thief. He was fine, recovering well and all that but he thought Sean might want to know. On the subject of requiring medical care, Jack brings up the idea to have a doctor ego. Just someone who understood their unique situation and could also take care of their health. Oh, oh yeah. He can totally do that. He'll need some things for the video so give him a chance to prepare but definitely, one doctor coming right up. He feels somewhat dumb playing Operation as if it were a serious procedure in this cheap surgeon's outfit he bought over the weekend. And yes, even he can admit the 'German' accent was atrocious. Half of what comes out of his mouth is bullshit. If this works as intended and he creates an ego from it, this guy is sure going to be interesting. He pretends to be distressed over Peter's death. Then it hits him that Dr Schneeplestein probably won't appreciate him killing his friend and personal accountant. He could try refilm it but he doubts he has the time. Fix it through editing? Sure, but then it might be obvious that there was another part. Alright fine, maybe he'll just have to deal with the consequences. Dr Henrik von Schneeplestein is indeed an interesting guy. A married father too, which surprises him. Not only has he made the doctor, there is a new family of 5 in the egos' neighbourhood. One of these days he'll know what he's doing with this creation thing. For now though, he thinks it's very cool that he managed a 5 for the price of 1 deal. Henrik himself is intelligent and if Sean was more knowledgeable on certain topics, he's sure they'd be able to share thoughtful conversations. Either way, Henrik was incredibly busy with his professional duties and personal commitments. It was understandable that neither had much time in the day to sit down and truly get to know one another. For the hell of it, he throws in a little extra into the egos' characterisation. They can't die. Or, to be more specific, they can't die for long. Jackie gets stabbed and bleeds out? Easy, just deal with the wound and he should wake up after a while. What this means for Peter, who knows? Sean is secretly thankful when the accountant isn't granted life. That's one less person to keep happy. Like seemingly everything ego-related he does, it backfires. Within a year, this failsafe will have caused more suffering than hope. Sean isn't to know. However, he convinces himself he's done the right thing for once. He sure as hell knows how much trouble it's going to cause him if they don't believe that too. Sean makes an irreversible mistake in the October of 2016. The entire month, he has glitches sprinkled throughout his horror game videos. He gets so caught up in the teasing and build up that he doesn't contemplate how this will affect the egos. Worse yet, he recklessly allows Jack to film the Halloween video. Sure, he would have used a bit of red paint if it had been him filming. But since it was Jack? He doesn't want to imagine the scene Jackie discovers. God, he can't believe he's been so thoughtless. Signe has to encourage him to bed before he manages to rack up over 24 hours of being awake in one go. Resurrecting the dead is exhausting, he finds. He postpones visiting Jack for a day before realising his avoidance is likely making matters worse. The dread cumulates to the point he swears he will be sick if he doesn't actively focus on his breathing. The loophole he made in September might have ensured nobody died permanently but it never mentioned scars. It's not visible behind the bandages but he knows it's there. Jack is pissed off. Rightfully so. Matters worsen even more after Jackie vanishes while attempting to get away from their fighting. It's just another thing that's ruined the egos' perception of him. If he thought the hill Jack was ready to die on was Angus, he's got another thing coming. There's only so much he can take before he has to force apathy for the sake of his sanity. He understands he can't control Antisepticeye. Once this situation is dealt with, he vows, the demon will never be used on his channel again. The subscribers' love for the character will have to ignored. It's too risky to play Anti again. He puts the red suit on again. In the short video, only a minute or so in length, Jackie sprints through poorly lit corridors to the exit. Sean acts scared and looks behind him frequently as he runs. It is uploaded privately. His community didn't need to know anything about this. He hopes with everything he's got that it works. Nothing. For days, for weeks, for months. Sean doesn't bother letting the egos know what he'd tried to do. It's guaranteed Jack and Marvin would tell him to try harder. He has no idea what that means in this context. Christmas passes without incident. As does January. In February, he celebrates his 27th birthday alongside Jack. It's a day devoid of resentment. Sean had almost forgotten that was allowed in their friendship. He exaggerates his dissatisfaction about getting older. In response to this, Jack smears the frosting of his slice across Sean's face. 'Accidentally', of course. Just as accidentally as Sean reciprocated the action. Signe humours them by taking photographs of their new cake-based look. The next time they are hanging out in Jack's room, he notices a picture from that day is in a frame on his friend's dresser. "What's this about?" "Oh uh, this is going to sound dumb but... I like being reminded it isn't always so rough between us." "No. No, I get it. I um, I feel the same way. That day was great." He glances at the image once more. He lets out a humoured scoff. "Maybe I should save your dumb face to my phone." "Aww, wow, I knew you loved me really." Jack puts his arm around his shoulder. A playful shove. "Fuck off." In an emotional slump during April, he buys a bunch of Lyons boxes and mini chocolate eggs. It's just a parody of Dude Perfect from someone with zero accuracy. Then he does the stupid thing and creates life again. Fuck it, his wife hates him and he may never see his kids again. Chase Brody's depression causes him to pretend to shoot himself before the end card plays. When Jack calls him and demands to know what the hell he was thinking, Sean has no answer. It turns out that when the ending translated into Chase's reality, he'd actually shot himself in the head. Fuck. Afterwards, Jack doesn't provide his creator with any updates. Insisting he has the right to talk to Chase only makes him more hated. Despite having never met before, Chase already resents him. The next time an ego is intentionally created, Sean's going to be there to intercept them. They're not going to enter that home and have their opinion of him influenced by people who wished he wasn't in their lives. The next new guy would be given a fair chance to see Sean for what he was. A massive screw up when it came to the ability he's unsure how to master. But in no way was he some villain. August is around the corner when Jack asks to visit. The two of them seem to be on the same page that day. Sean is more than happy to hang out and cheer him up. Believing Jack would be empathetic, he begins a conversation about how the YouTube algorithm was bothering him. Over three years of working as a duo on the Jacksepticeye channel meant Jack should understand where he was coming from. But, of course, his friend makes it all about himself and his own problems. Why wouldn't he? It's what he usually does. They argue because apparently that's the only way they communicate with each other nowadays. Jack sure knows how to pack a punch. Being friends with him shouldn't be such a struggle. Sean snaps. The emotional fatigue of trying to keep up with the algorithm and all this fighting causes him to make one of the worst decisions he'd ever go through with. If Jack wants him to be the bad guy, fine. Sean would be the bad guy. Just this once, he'd actually be the asshole. "You want to sleep, I'll let you sleep." He threatens when Jack begins walking off mid-argument. "Bring back Jackie. He's been missing for months. Do something!" Jack flings viciously back seconds before he marches out the door. He can tell Signe regrets asking him how the gaming session went. He dresses as Schneeplestein as soon as he finalises his plan, pretending he aims to save a version of himself in Bio Inc Redemption. He loses. Oops. He acts as he feels the real Schneeplestein would, desperate not to watch another patient die. He sends the video to Robin for editing. The final uploaded product is nowhere near what he'd recorded. His audience are all talking about Anti. They were praising him for his acting and Robin for his editing. But... he never included Anti. Any recollection of filming the final scene was non-existent. And the parts with Henrik getting possessed weren't him either. The more he thinks about it, the further the terror sets in. Over the course of years, Jack had chipped at Sean's mind until he cracked. It had only meant to end with Jack slipping into a coma. Just a chance for Sean to focus on his own problems for once. He would have gotten Henrik to wake his patient up when Sean was ready. God, he just wanted peace for a change. It was never meant to happen like this. Marvin ever so pleasantly greets him with a "Fuck off" when he tries to visit Jack. He supposes he deserves it. But he didn't come here just to back down at the first sight of opposition. He may have caused Jack to be in that coma but, as his friend, he was still entitled to a visit. He has to push past Marvin just to get in. "Leave right now before I make you regret it." Marvin tails him through the corridor. "Hey, listen, I'll be the first to admit I fucked up big time-" He says over his shoulder. "You don't say." "But he was my friend too. I am seeing him whether you like it or not." "Well, I don't like it. And this is my home. So get out." Fed up to the back teeth of Marvin, he halts to whip around before lashing out. "We both know a bad mood on my part can spell disaster for you. That is how we got into this situation is the first place. So I would watch your mouth." "Oh, look at me, I'm Sean McLoughlin. I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it." Marvin uses a mocking tone before reverting to venom once more. "Guess that's what you told your 'best friend' before you put him in a fucking coma, isn't it?" "Don't you dare suggest I don't care." "You made him feel like he had no choice but to keep being nice to your sorry ass. He barely survived Halloween and now look where he's en-" "God, cut it out!" Chase marches towards them, looking as if he was 30 seconds from grabbing a weapon to silence them. "Both of you. Sean, you have 10 minutes then we want you gone. Marv, leave him alone because we honestly have enough shit going on without you stirring more of it." Marvin bluntly says "Five." "Okay, fine, you have 5 minutes then you leave." The magician clearly isn't satisfied with this compromise but decides it's not worth the effort of fighting further. "Thank you." "It wasn't for you. I did it so I can avoid a headache." Chase promptly leaves him to it. He's not even sure he wants to enter once he reaches the infirmary's doors. Still, he's gone through too much trouble to get this far. He can't undo all that effort now. He walks into the room and- Nope, he can't do this. He means, look at Jack! He makes for an awful sight. If his friend had looked terrible while recovering from Say Goodbye, this was a whole other level. He decides against making it past the doors. He's simply there in the corridor, sobbing. "Sean, I think you should go before Marvin tries to commit arson or something." It's the most patience Chase can muster after all that's happened this week. Sean can't appreciate the effort enough. He answers with a mix of 'Uh-huh, yeah, sure.' Jackie looks like he hasn't eaten a thing in the past 11 months when Sean answers the door to him in early October. He doesn't know what to say. If Jack were currently conscious, he would have probably informed Sean of the kid's arrival by now. Yet, as it stood, Marvin seemed to be the new 'leader' and pigs would fly before he bothered to do anything that benefited Sean. He notices Jackie never lets his feet touch the ground the entire time he's there. There is a long silence in the living room before Jackie comes out with "Why didn't you do anything?" "I tried but it didn't work." "Somehow I struggle to believe that." "Jackie-" "You could have prevented a lot of shit. But why fucking bother when we're not even real, right?" "If you give me a couple minutes, I could find that video where I tried to trigger your escape." Jackie doesn't reply. He locates the footage for him regardless. The teenager remains silent the whole time. Sean decides to break it. "It must have backfired but I did try." He notices Jackie glaring at his own legs. "Great, now I know you're to blame. Not to mention you moved country while I was gone. Thanks for making me walk from Athlone, by the way." The boy superhero abruptly makes his exit, making no attempt to elaborate. Well then, great chat. Except, wait. Walk from Athlone? How the hell do you walk from Athlone to Brighton?! Sean makes good on the promise he made to himself months before. He risks uploading the pictures to Instagram. On the 29th, there is a fair amount of hype at the potential new character. He lingers inconspicuously near the egos' home for a couple hours, keeping himself occupied with his phone in case the ego didn't appear. Which he doesn't. He repeats the activity after posting the 2nd photo on the 30th. Still nothing. It's the video on Halloween that triggers creation. It was a simple thing. The same as the previous two years, he had carved a pumpkin. The main difference was that he had dressed up like a dapper gentleman, waistcoat and bowler hat inclusive. There was some glitching at the end, nothing Sean or Robin had a hand in. He supposes he should be glad there was such a small interruption. Outside the house, he spots the lost time traveller. His first surprise, for both of them it would seem, was that Jameson had lost the ability to speak. He seems reluctant to use the speech slides. No worries. Sean can buy a notepad or two for him tomorrow. Learning to sign, or in the very least understand it. will take a considerable amount of time. Written responses would have to be a sufficient compromise for now. Either way, the most important thing was that Jameson was willing to come with him before he met the others. He is in awe of Jameson. He knows he'd intended to create an ego with a proper backstory but this was far more than he'd been expecting. He had drafted a brief life story beforehand. Jameson would be the middle child of three in an upper class British family. He'd be too young to join WW1 but his brother would lose his hearing to it, allowing Jameson to know sign by the time he went missing. Maybe throw in some time in the army for good measure. However his power worked, it filled in the gaps nicely. Jameson is fully fleshed out, as are his memories. "Thanks for humouring me." He tells Signe that night. She hums in acknowledgement of what he'd said. "You can't keep him here forever, you realise that, right? I'll let you have tomorrow. But you really should let him make his own choices after that." On the 1st, Chase comes knocking. Sean relents, allowing him in to be introduced to Jameson. As expected, Chase calls him out. He assures Jameson that it was fine to go with the unfamiliar ego. As hostile as Chase was, he was still trustworthy and believed he had Jameson's best interests at heart. He lets his latest creation go. Now he will be taught the egos' version of the 'truth'. He doubted Jameson would be rushing back. But oh, there he is days later. It's completely reasonable for the dapper man to want answers. Sean provides them to the best of his ability. Jameson surprises him once more when he says he'll let the deception slide if he cuts it out from now on. Of course he will. As Jameson heads off back to his world, Sean is thankful he made him open minded. While having a casual conversation, Jameson mentions befriending someone named Shawn. At first, Sean is simply perplexed at the written name. Jameson knows how to spell his name, even includes the fada. So surely Shawn couldn't be him. When he has his friend explain, he can't believe it. Shawn Flynn. In other words, his Bendy voice cameo. Okay, egos like Henrik, Chase or Marvin, he could understand. Those guys had gotten specific videos that centred around them. He also got the whole 'springing from him putting on a voice for a series' thing with Angus and Jacques etc. Robbie... well, who the fuck knows what happened there. The point was they all came from his channel and his channel alone. Shawn Flynn was not his to claim. He was only a voice, a few sentences' worth of speech. He will always be amazed by his community's power to create from scraps. As soon as he lost Jack's contribution to the channel, he had been forced to pick up the slack. Even with Robin editing most videos, recording twice as many as he was used to was taking its toll. Something had to be done. He needed a new recording partner. And who better to help him than someone who already had experience with maintaining a channel? Obviously, Chase is opposed to the idea at first. He tries to get him to listen to his reasoning. Without Jack, he was struggling to have time for himself anymore. If he has no time outside of work, then how is he supposed to figure out how to reverse the coma? Not to mention, the community members were the ones responsible for keeping the egos from fading. Chase agrees to, in the very least, consider the offer. Sean is glad to have him as part of the team when he reluctantly accepts it. He is very grateful too. He knows this requires a sacrifice on Chase's part, perhaps more than he is aware of. In the run up to Christmas, he'd simply wanted to raise money for Save The Children with the help of his friends and community. There had occasionally been odd noises throughout the first day but nothing super suspicious. He has no clue where the hell the security footage came from. He had intended for the stream to stay up, sure, but it was meant to display a screensaver. Some people begin to notice the glitches and unusual goings on were triggered by donations of at least $1000. Well, how nice to learn that Anti liked encouraging charitable donations. The day after the event is over, Jameson attempts to speak to him about it. Listen, he's really sorry to hear about what happened over at the house. It's awful that Jackie suffered a huge panic attack from the music. But what do they expect him to do about an event that's already passed and he had no control over in the first place? The less he has to think about 'Overnightwatch' over the holidays, or Anti in general during the new year, the better. He's so fucking done with 2017. The following cold months blur. The Dr Jacksepticeye character becomes a community-made ego in January. That was great. He was aware the egos had been struggling to provide Jack professional medical care. March sees Chase getting custody of his kids on the weekend. Although he doesn't risk ruining the party with the scene his attendance would cause, he congratulates Chase on the good news in person. To top things off, he began the first leg of his tour. That had been a hell of an experience. Maybe 2018 would indeed be a better year. This hope is kept alight at the start of May. He had spent months attempting to work out how to save Jackie. Following that, they lost Henrik only to welcome the hero back. Then the doctor had been out of reach since August. It is for this reason that he receives the news of Henrik's return with great relief. Chase is ecstatic when he recounts what had happened at the end of his recording session. Sean is happy for him. He and the rest of egos need more positive events in their lives. Jackie certainly surprises him when he randomly shows up at his door days later. Signe gives him a heads up about the visitor as he leaves a recording session. The teenager comes across as distracted while they talk. Something feels really off. Then again, they haven't been able to talk since his kidnapping. Months' worth of trauma were bound to change how Jackie acted in certain situations. When he eventually leaves, Sean feels like he's missing some sort of sign. The community goes insane after Dark Silence is uploaded. He cautiously makes himself watch the infamous ending. Once more, Anti has added content to a video. The whole time Chase stands in that hallway, Sean is begging his screen for his friend to start sprinting in the other direction, as far from Anti as he could manage. But, of course, you can't prevent an abduction through a screen, especially when it had happened hours beforehand. Chase seemed so distressed. The thought of his reaction to Anti won't leave Sean be. Nor will those two questions. Jameson swings by in an attempt to comfort him. For what it's worth, his heart is in the right place. Sean just doesn't feel he's in a position to appreciate the efforts properly. He supposes this is his opportunity to finally get a rescue attempt right. Yet, with the tour and having to revert back to multiple recordings a day, time slips away. No doubt he'll get accused of not caring. Thankfully, Chase returns in June. Mostly unscathed physically too which is good. He wishes the same could be said for mental repercussions. Chase relapsing hard with his alcoholism wasn't great to hear either. Suffice to say, Chase needed help. Some good news about the whereabouts of his ex and two young children would be fantastic too. The Akinator video is fun. He enjoys making that website's algorithm figure out the characters. Admittedly, he doesn't know whether picking Jameson for a round was a smart idea. Even worse are some of the questions he gets offered. There are two specifically he doesn't feel comfortable answering on camera. He plays it off as teasing eventual ego content to his audience. In reality, he's not sure it's his place to say. And it's hardly like he can put the recording on hold to contact Jameson about his personal life. The video goes up and the community naturally laps it up. Sean wonders if he should be concerned about the fact Jameson was yet to speak to him about it. In October, he asks Jameson to deliver a card on his behalf. Henrik would be amputating Jackie's legs in an attempt to reverse one of the most prominent aftereffects of his time with Anti. Therefore, a get well card was in order. It's not much but he hopes Jackie will appreciate the gesture nonetheless. Jameson simply shrugs as he hands him a note a couple weeks later. He ends up finding the message humourous. On it is written: Thanks for the card but you don't need to bother next time. He's just about had enough of Anti when Quit The Game To Win gets recorded. He's not sure at which point in the video he becomes lightheaded. There's a brief moment of zoning out then he's sitting at his desk, having sent the video off for editing a minute prior. Unlike the other times, there is no extra content even Robin was oblivious to. The footage of Sean staring into the camera had undoubtedly been there the whole time. They debate whether to upload it. The decision gets taken out of their hands when it is uploaded regardless. That goddamn bastard. He probably realises Sean can't take down a video like that with no explanation. And what explanation is there to give? The community has no idea the egos were real or that it was actually Anti speaking to them. Oh but sure, the compliments to his 'amazing acting' pour in without fail. Also, next phase? What the hell was Anti planning to do? He and the egos would have to remain proceeding with caution. On his 29th birthday, he is surprised to find numerous egos on his doorstep. A little dumbfounded, he invites them in for cake. It wasn't like he was doing much today other than typical work stuff and checking out the community's birthday art. Chase spots his notebook, the one containing his story plans. This topic of conversation leads to them encouraging him to rectify his mistakes by waking Jack up. He's all for it. Even after all these years, he's not sure how exactly his power worked. He gets it into his head that staying up indefinitely will cause Jack to remain conscious. Somehow, this becomes the actual criteria. As the day goes on, he thinks about how things must be like over at the egos' home. It must be wonderful to have Jack up and about. He can imagine him sharing jokes, laughing and smiling, just generally enjoying the company of friends. He's always been a bit of a night owl. He can manage to stay up the whole night, for Jack's sake. Jack deserves as much time as he can give him. He increases his caffeine intake. It didn't matter whether it was coffee or a fizzy drink. If it had caffeine and could help him stay up longer, he'd drink it. His plan seemingly backfires when he plays Shadow of the Colossus while exhausted. He wakes up with a crick in his neck, the sight of Wander stationary upon Agro's back and looming guilty disappointment. When he checks in, Henrik confirms Jack was indeed back in the medical bay, unresponsive as ever. The doctor tells him that, not for nothing, they'd all enjoyed the day. It had been after 2am when Jack had begun exhibiting signs of diminishing consciousness. Even if the others may not admit it, he was sure he wasn't the only one who appreciated what Sean had given them. Perhaps one of the stupidest things he ever voluntarily subjects himself to occurs that May. He leaves peculiar edits in the Observation series. Then he posts an unlisted video of him facing off against his clone with a bloodied throat and exclusively black attire. It works. For the first time in Sean's life, he stands in Anti's presence. As it turns out, Anti is grateful. If it hadn't been for Sean spending weeks playing around with a community fuelled concept, complete with a grande finale, the glitch would still be lurking in the shadows as a nobody. Sean had solidified him. Antisepticeye had long since stopped being a fun idea that lived purely in fan creations or Tumblr headcanon posts. Even better, he'd been armed with a knife and violent tendencies. Bit of a bad combination, wouldn't you say? In fact, he's been revelling in watching the whole Sean vs Egos fiasco. Because sure, he could blame a lot of things on Anti if he wanted. But the mistrust that began with Jack then seeped into the others via the original ego? Sean's doing. The one who used his powers of creation when, even to this day, he doesn't quite understand how on earth they worked? Sean. Best yet, letting his emotions cause him to put a loved one in a coma he had no clue how to reverse? Once again, courtesy of Sean McLoughlin. Sean brushes these comments off. He's been called out too many times to be that easily affected by it. Besides, he had some things on his own mind that needed saying. Where were Stacy and the kids? Oh, in a ditch. They served no use without Chase's conscience there to haunt. Actually, where had Anti himself been during all these years? Here, there, everywhere. Why stay in one spot when he thrived on being near impossible to pin down. Any question Sean has, Anti's answers are delivered nonchalantly. Right. That's how Anti wants to play it, huh? He creates another piece of footage. This time, he dresses as Chase and speaks on the phone. 'Chase' begs Stacy to take the kids, stay hidden and only contact him when she really needs to. Once Sean posts it (privately of course), the real Chase updates him on the recent developments in his life. He'd gotten a text from Stacy saying they were safe for now. He had only managed to compose himself before leaving the house but ah look, there go the waterworks again. Sean apologises as he makes it abundantly clear that Chase would not be able to see his family for a while. It was for their safety. Chase understood, right? Yes, yes of course. For good measure, he also talks to Henrik. His wife and children weren't in as imminent danger of becoming Anti's targets right now. However, there was no harm in staying vigilant. It was up to the doctor but Sean thought it would be for the best if they maintained a low profile for now. Sean discusses another video with Chase in October. The father is reluctant to have more of his story explored, especially if things are going to play out the way Sean had planned. That's fine, he assures. That was exactly why he wanted Chase to be part of the process. Besides, it may seem a little bleak right now but his fortunes would improve as soon as the ball started rolling. When it comes to filming the short video, Chase kills it. The community may be praising Sean but he makes sure Chase is aware of the love he had earned. He decides to allow Jameson another solo video for his birthday. They brainstorm together, coming up with the premise of a puppet show. Jameson is the one who comes up with the 'I can't be questioned, I'm rich!' joke. As soon as he does, he goes off on a tangent about how he used to know people like that. Hell, his own parents had been like that. Sean laughs along with him. The first sight of trouble is the random bit of string around his arm. Jameson naively removes it without becoming suspicious. Sean's been in this position before. If the video's up, it's already way too late for the targeted ego. He forces himself to watch to the end. Jameson's wrapping up the story when the strings reappear. His arms go limp before he begins swaying on the spot. It is clearly Anti who is controlling his movements now. Sean really wishes he didn't know the sign for 'help'. He bets Jameson believes he has the power to save him. If only he did. The worst part of it is having to witness Jameson clearly attempting to fight against it. If Sean thought Henrik's distress during Kill Jacksepticeye had been a challenge to watch, he had another thing coming. Goddamn it. Can he please go one year without losing more of those he cared about? He'd once been friends with Angus before the fading fiasco caused them to drift apart. Jack kept giving second chance after second chance until Sean had let his frustration screw that up. Chase had gradually begun to see him as potentially trustworthy, only for Anti to kidnap him and set them back to square one. Is it too much to ask for them to feel happy and safe as well as remaining so? His 30th birthday is quiet. There are no egos hassling him or attempts to initiate a bout of insomnia. It's a nice day chilling out with Evelein and BB. He would have enjoyed it even more if he knew he'd achieved his goal of waking Jack up by now. Or even getting Jameson back. The last person he expects to see coming round to his house is Marvin. He doesn't think the magician is entirely sure why he chose to do this either. He states that he gave his word when he said he'd never forgive Sean. With his fae heritage, that meant something and he couldn't go back on that. Marvin seemed offended when Sean shows surprise upon learning he had connection to fae. Well, how exactly was Sean supposed to know this detail if Marvin's been keeping him far away for 2.5 years, especially since they hadn't been best buddies pre-coma either? The magician scowls before returning to a calmer neutral demeanour. He carries on his point. Marvin may not be able to forgive Sean for what he's done, not that he really has a reason to given what was still happening to the egos. That said, he wasn't going to judge his friends as harshly anymore if they decided to give their creator a chance. That uh... shit, that was huge coming from Marvin. All he can reply with is a thank you. August rears it's terrible head. It's been three years now. 36 whole months, god knows how many weeks or individual days. He's had all this time to fix this yet is still working on it. And oh, sure, he can rationalise it. He can remind himself that during 2018, if he wasn't on tour then he was preparing for a leg or decompressing after one. Not to mention that had also been the year he'd finally started addressing his mental health. Now, the biggest thing preventing him from progressing the story to the point where Jack woke up was the virus. For half the year, he couldn't film anything that required a crew, let alone do so on location in America or wherever like he had with CHASE. Instead, he sits at the end of the bed as usual. Legs to his chest, he simply lets himself be here. Henrik is going to kill him for the way he is seated. He rambles at Jack, updating him on recent goings on. When he's said his bit, he becomes contemplative for a moment. "I'm still trying, I swear. You're going to wake up one day. I'm just- I'm doing my best to get everything sorted. I promise you can call my ass out eventually. I will get there. Anyway, I'm sure you have better things to be doing than listening to me mope about like I have been for the past three years. See you around, buddy."

lost in days gone - excerpts in no particular order

Teaser of part 2 of this

Full title: lost in days gone (to give it all up for new rebirth)

Title from two different verses of Streets of Gold by Aviators

Summary: Landing back in time hadn't been the plan. The plan had been to finish the mission, report to Kakashi-sensei and spend the next days training with his friends.

But that damn broken seal had lit up from under his feet and now here he is: back at the beginning.

Naruto is now in the prime position to make the world a better place for his future friends.

(Taking Madara with him on his quest to save the world hadn't been the plan either. Neither was taking Tobirama along, too.)

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Kurama is gone. His loss pierces Naruto’s heart and grinds the shards into dust. Whatever that seal had been, it had latched on the more powerful source of chakra upon its activation and drained it dry. Or, well, it tried. The fox had thrown everything he was at Naruto, in a bid to protect the only human who had been willing to befriend him. And so the blond had inherited parts of Kurama’s chakra as well as animalistic traits. All of which Naruto would gladly give back if it means having the grumpy fox at his side, here.

‘Here’ being the past, apparently. It had taken him some time to realise the hill he woke up on was the Hokage Monument – now bare of all faces – or that the vast expanse of forest under him was where Konoha will be founded.

There had been a lot of flailing and cursing and probably one or two panic attacks. Naruto can’t really remember those first hours in the past. Everything is a blur of pain, both physical and mental as his body tried to adapt to its new abilities and as he tried to deal with the fact he may never see his precious people ever again.

(Not that he won’t try but… Kurama’s last gift has also included knowledge the Sage had imparted to his disciples and children. The chances that he would find the right combination of chakra, seal, time and space to land at the exact same spot as he was before that forsaken seal was activated and not break the timeline? Not good at all. Inexistent, in fact.)

(The new knowledge also concerns memories and events seen through Kurama’s Jinchuuriki: lessons learned and given, his parents’ first date, Mito meeting his mother… So many little pieces of his past now clicking together like some sort of puzzle he hadn’t know he was assembling.

He could have done without some of those memories though…  He shudders. He could have gone his whole life without seeing his parents – or Mito-ba-chan or Hashirama-jii – like that!)

At the same time… At the same time, he is now in the prime position to protect his precious people by ending Zetsu before he can wreak havoc on the Villages.

Naruto takes a long breath. Once. Twice. Okay. He needs to regroup, rest, think about the situation, plan and probably take a bath. He takes a sniff at his clothes and armpits only to get a nose full of road dust and old stone. He sneezes. His new senses are even more sensitive than before, it’ll take a while before he’ll adjust completely.

A quick riffling through his pockets and pouches gives him an estimate of his resources: a few thousands ryo, some ration bars, the sealed shakujo his friends got him as a belated birthday present after the war, fuuinjutsu supplies and plenty of shuriken and kunai. The mission he’d been on when he stumbled upon that damn seal had been one of reconnaissance and infiltration which means he’d been forced a kunai point into less attention-grabbing clothes. That hadn’t stopped him from wearing one of his favourite orange top underneath his new brown – bland – coat and packing a few others garments in storage scrolls.

Everything he has on him is new, thanks to his last growth spurt. So, at least, he won’t have to buy clothes for some time. He even has some winter and camping gears stocked away in one scroll. If he is careful, both of his materials and of his money, then he’d be alright. Especially since Naruto distantly remembers Iruka-sensei teaching them about price inflation... He recalls paying attention a lot during that lesson since he had to balance a budget ever since the day he entered the Academy. It had helped some – especially when it came to balance his ramen budget against rent and everyday life. He’s probably one of the richest guys around now despite his meagre amount of money.

(Seems his memory took a boost as well and not just his senses… Hum, something to test later.)

After tidying everything up, and erasing any traces of his passage, he leaves. When Naruto tries to reach out with his chakra to locate the shinobi around him, he gives himself one hell of a headache by reaching too far by accident. He almost brains himself on a tree during the attempt. Whelp. He’ll have to work on chakra control. Again.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The first thing he does is to seek a civilian village. After a bit of deliberation, he goes in as a wandering monk, carefully hiding the extra rings until only four are left.

Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Lee and Tenten as well as Sasuke and Konohamaru had gone together to special-order the weapon at a blacksmith specialised in forging chakra blades. Each part of the shakujo – the nine rings, the circle and the handle – represented one of his friends. As an added bonus, the rings were also a reference to the bijuu and Kurama’s tails.

Naruto fell in love with it the first time he held it in his hand, dedicating several clones per days for months to master the weapon.

The only way to make the shakujo cooler would be to paint it orange. His friends had been quick – perhaps too quick – to inform him the paint could damage the metal.

Naruto is happily welcomed in the village and offered room and board by the village chief. They all refuse his money when he offers to pay for his stay; so he reverse-pickpockets a few coins in his hosts’ pouches when they’re not looking. He knows priests and monks

When night falls and the village is long asleep, he sends out a few shadow clones to fix a few roofs with the help of some noise-cancelling seals and fences and two others to fetch medicinal herbs in the nearby forest – it’s high time Sakura’s first aid lessons start to pay out.

Once his clones are occupied, he sits down in full lotus to meditate.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

He misses Hinata. He misses her smiles and quiet-yet-strong presence at his side. He misses seeking her out to spar and test new techniques or just seeking her out for a nice meal and a bit a time together.

He hadn’t been in love with her. Not like she’d been since they were kids. But he had loved her and Naruto thinks that, given a few more months, he’d have fallen for her.

(He wonders if it makes him a bad person for falling so fast for Madara when it’d taken him years to realise Hinata’s feelings for him. When it’d been a version of Madara who had been responsible for a lot of atrocities; when that Madara had caused Neji’s death. And his parents’ and countless others.)

Love Is A Battlefield

Fandom - American Horror Story 1984

Pairing - Xavier Plympton/Reader

Rating - Explicit

Warnings - Suicide, Violence, Mental Heath Issues, Sexual Content, Language, Religious Content

Chapter - 2/12

Read on - ao3, ff.net

Fic Summary - The year is 1984. You're a poor student living alone in L.A., plagued by your problematic relationships with a false friend and a disturbed ex. You meet Xavier Plympton, an aerobics instructor with a dark past, at the gym where you’ve taken a reception job. You quickly develop feelings for him, and you learn to your relief that he likes you too. Soon a deadly series of events befall you and the people in your life. Overwhelmed by tragedy and with your blossoming romance cut short, you are left a wreck. Six years later you discover that while Xavier is dead, he hasn’t quite departed. You soon realise that if you are to be with him and finally achieve true peace and happiness, you must take your own life and become a Camp Redwood ghost.

Chapter Summary - You discover that Xavier likes you, but your first date is a mess. You end up back at his place and things get intimate. Before you can really release your inhibitions, memories of your troubled ex boyfriend leave you feeling closed off and vulnerable. To your relief, Xavier is understanding. 

As much as you try to fight it, all you are able to feel is a dull, ever-present dread that you can’t seem to squash down. You spent the majority of last night trying not to picture Amy with Xavier. An image of her sinking her long, predator's nails into the perfect white skin of his back during sex kept returning to you. In your vision, Amy's scratches drew blood from Xavier and she lapped it up like a vampire while he laughed. All the while she was staring into your eyes.

You swallow thickly and attempt to focus on a sheaf of papers in front of you. The top sheet is covered with lists of names, people you have to call offering discounted gym memberships. You have no idea where the hell the gym got these people’s phone numbers, in fact you don’t really want to know. If you get the calls over with quickly, you have permission to leave early. You don’t want to be here when Xavier starts his shift. You’ve heard nothing from Amy all day, which usually means she’s spent the night with some guy and returned to her apartment to sleep off her hangover. You are terrified that this time, that guy will turn out to be the one person you have feelings for.

You no longer live with Amy. After your joke of a relationship with Scott, you decided to live alone. Part of why it went so badly wrong with him was interference from your so-called best friend. You never told anyone, but you suspect she at least tried to sleep with him. Knowing Scott as you do now, she was probably successful. Any future relationships you have, you want to keep separate from your warped friendship with her. You take a deep breath, grab a Diet Coke from the mini fridge and attempt to push Amy and Xavier to the back of your mind. You have work to do.

~

You feel a tingle creep down your spine like a spider, as the fine hairs on the back of your neck rise underneath someone’s gaze. You’ve been on the phone for an hour, and you only sold one membership. Honestly, if it weren’t for Xavier you would have quit this job months ago. You swivel round to see who is looking at you and are met with the slightly slanted eyes and thick dark lashes that have a habit of haunting your daydreams.

Fuck. Seriously?

You’d make a pretty awful stalker, you can’t even memorise Xavier’s shifts properly. You could have sworn he was supposed to start later.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Your attempt to come across as bubbly is obviously successful. You are rewarded with that very specific smile that makes your heart flutter. Why does he have to be so fucking cute?

“Nothing.” Xavier shrugs. He walks around the side of your desk and grabs a red apple from the bowl of free fruit that is perpetually ignored by the gym members. “You?” He begins to toss the apple into the air, catching it absentmindedly.

“Nothing too.”

Ugh, stupid.

You urge your brain to get it’s shit together. Before you can stop yourself, you’re asking the question you really don’t want to be asking. “So, how was the date?” You hope you managed to sound normal.

Xavier stops tossing his apple and quirks an eyebrow at you, considering.

“Do you ever feel like this town is full of clones? Like, I feel I just keep dating the same girl over and over.”

Xavier’s gaze flickers imperceptibly towards Montana, who is sprawled out reading a magazine on one of the reception couches. You feel a tiny thrill of excitement. It sounds like the date may not have gone so well.

“Don’t get me wrong, Amy’s nice, but...” Xavier pauses. You wait as if on tenterhooks for his next words to come. “I told her we should stay friends. She’s just not what I’m looking for these days.”

“Huh. That’s a shame.” You say, attempting to keep your happiness under control. You didn’t see that one coming. Your elation is so strong that Xavier’s next words hit you like a truck.

“She said you might be disappointed. You and your boyfriend have been looking for a couple to double date with, right?”

What. The. Fuck.

Your stomach lurches when you realise what Amy has done. Before you can respond, Xavier continues on.

“It’s actually too bad. I had no idea you’re with someone. I’d been thinking of asking you out the past few weeks. I obviously got that one totally wrong, huh?”

Xavier tries to conceal his sudden embarrassment by throwing his apple at you. He winks when you catch it, then wanders away.

Shit. You have to fix this. Xavier has to know you’re single. He was going to ask you out! Despite your alarm, you feel a tiny spark of hope flutter within your chest. He left to take a class, you realise. That means you have to wait an hour, then you can speak to him. You busy yourself tidying up magazines and getting rid of empty coffee cups. You try to make small talk with Montana, but she seems preoccupied. It’s no skin off your nose, you’ve always found her sort of distant.

Finally Xavier’s class ends. People file out of the classroom, laughing and chatting, buzzed on endorphins. You watch Xavier head to the showers. If you were a different sort of girl, you might follow him in. The thought of approaching him all naked and wet sends a spark of energy coursing through your veins. The feeling consolidates in the spot between your legs that you’ve taken to exploring so regularly lately.

But you’re not that girl. You may not be the virgin people allegedly think you are, but that doesn’t mean you’re not shy. Brushing off your arousal, you return to the reception desk, planning to look busy until Xavier returns. One of the gym regulars is waiting there for you. Mrs Adams is a sweet, spirited older lady with an unshakeable passion for bright pink lipstick who likes to stop for a chat after senior’s aerobics. Usually she’s a welcome reprieve from your boring reception duties. Right know you seriously wish she’d go straight home.

“Y/n! Hello! How are you my dear?” She barrels on before you get a chance to reply, as is her wont. “I have to say, I’m not impressed with the standard of the class today. I could have done better if I had taken it myself!”

You start to speak, but notice Xavier out of the corner of your eye. Why does he always have to take such quick showers!? He stops to chat with a couple of instructors. You quickly tell the old lady in front of you the first lie you can think of.

“Mrs Adams, I’m so sorry but I can’t talk right now. I have to clean the showers.” You pull a face to illustrate your annoyance.

“But why? That’s what the cleaners are for dear.”

“They’re all sick! Some kind of stomach flu.” You shake your head in mock sympathy. “You should really get on home, it might be contagious.”

“My goodness, well you take care dear. See you next week.”

You wave at Mrs Adams until she’s out the front door. Luckily Xavier is still standing just across the room, clearly involved in an enthralling conversation. He flashes his perfect teeth as he laughs at something you can’t quite hear.

It’s now or never.

You fight the sense of panic that’s attempting to claw its way up your throat and urge yourself to calm down. This is no big deal. You’re just telling him Amy is mistaken, it’s not like you’re asking him out. And he probably won’t ask you.

You step towards the cluster of laughing people, attempting to catch Xavier’s eye. When his gaze lands on you, you clear your throat.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?” You gesture behind you, in the general area of your desk. “Um, privately?”

Thankfully Xavier’s friends have the good grace to ignore the fact that you’re clearly nervous, although you do notice one of the guys, Chet, rolling his eyes. You don’t have time to consider what that might be about. Xavier is breaking away from his group and moving towards you. You turn on your heel and walk towards your desk, ever conscious that Xavier is following you. When you feel you’ve reached a safe distance from prying eyes and ears, you face him again.

“Everything okay?” He looks slightly worried, you realise.

“Yeah, of course. I just... uh, I wanted to clear something up.”

Xavier waits silently, expectantly, for you to continue.

“What you said about the double date thing. I don’t know what Amy told you but, I’m not with anybody. I had a boyfriend, Scott. We broke up around Valentine’s Day. He was... well, that doesn’t matter. Anyway, I’m single. So... I thought I should let you know.”

Jesus. You barely got that out. You hope it didn’t sound ridiculous.

Xavier is watching you. You shift slightly from one foot to the other under his gaze, waiting for him to say something, anything. A smile spreads slowly across his face.

“I’m glad you told me. Really glad.”

His eyes flit from your face to the floor and back again. You have to wonder if he’s nervous. He catches his bottom lip between his teeth and you feel like your heart might explode. He wets his lips before continuing.

“So, would you maybe want to hang out sometime. With me that is?”

Yeah he’s definitely nervous. It’s actually cute, and realising it makes you feel a little bolder.

“Yeah, I would.”

~

You watch as cars speed by outside the window of the restaurant you’re sitting in. Xavier sits opposite you, avoiding eye contact. This is possibly the worst date you’ve ever been on. It’s almost as if Xavier doesn’t know how to function when he’s not in his normal environment, surrounded by the usual people. You never realised before how clumsy he can be. You glance at the ice-cream stain on the tablecloth and wince slightly. This is not how your first date with him was supposed to go. Him spilling food everywhere was nowhere near as bad as the prolonged silences. It suddenly dawns on you the extent to which you’d built tonight up in your head. You wanted it to be perfect. Maybe you’ve put too much pressure on the situation. You lean towards Xavier slightly, not caring that the table between you is sticky. He’s looking at his hands, probably wishing he was somewhere else. You place a hand on his arm.

“This has been kind of awkward, huh?”

Relief floods Xavier’s face. He laughs, looking a little flustered.

“I honestly don’t know what’s happening. I’m usually great on dates!”

You raise your eyebrows at him against your will. You do not want to be thinking about him with other girls right now. He realises his mistake and rushes to clarify, holding up his free hand.

“That didn’t come out right. What I meant is, I don’t usually feel this... shy.” Xavier looks as though he’s struggling with something. “Fuck it, I’m just gonna say it. I really like you. I’ve liked you for a while, if I’m being honest.”

You feel like your heart flips over. Xavier is looking at you, earnestly awaiting your response.

“I feel the same.”

You are rewarded with a smile that you will remember for the rest of your life. Xavier’s eyes look a little misty when he speaks again.

“Do you want to get out of here? We could go to my place?”

Your heart is hammering in your chest. Maybe you should say no, but you want so badly to say yes. You nod, and Xavier grasps your hand excitedly, saying,

“Let me get the bill.”

~

Xavier is kissing you. Your excitement is like a live thing within your body, threatening to consume you. You can’t quite believe this is happening. Your nostrils are filled with the scent of him. He smells like sweat, cologne, and hairspray. It’s delicious. He offered you a drink when you got to his apartment. You don’t even know what it was, but it was strong. You can hear your pulse inside your ears.

The room is dark. There is music playing, but the words wash over you, making no sense. Xavier leads you to his bed. You sit down together in unison. Your hands explore the muscles of his chest as his fingers twist into your hair. You have the urge to brush your thumb over the soft cotton that covers one of his nipples. You squeeze it slightly and he pushes his tongue into your mouth. You massage your tongue against his, and he lets out a soft, sweet moan.

You feel the pressure of Xavier’s body as he begins to lie down, pulling you with him. You happily oblige. You hear, rather than feel, when he unzips your skirt. When his hand brushes against your sensitive, intimate skin through the fabric of your underwear, you feel a throb in your clit. An image of Amy explaining female anatomy to you comes unbidden into your mind. You push it away, kissing Xavier harder. You wrap your arms around his neck as he nudges his hand under the waistband of your underwear, finding you slippery to the touch.

Xavier breaks the kiss to take a breath, and a gasp escapes your lips as he pushes a finger inside you. You can sense his eyes on you as he withdraws his hand, just long enough to add a second finger. The feeling of being stretched overwhelms you. You shudder slightly and release a sound that can only be described as animalistic.

“Oh fuck.” Xavier gasps. “You’re so hot Y/n.”

He leans in to kiss your neck as he simultaneously pleasures you. You reach your hand down to rub against his solid hardness. You can feel the shape of it as it strains to be free.

“You should get undressed.” You sigh.

Xavier looks as though he’d like nothing better than to do exactly what you’ve told him to, however he holds back.

“I want this to be about you Y/n.”

This is new to you. With Scott, you were lucky if he touched you without him getting something from you first. You shake your head slightly, trying to put Scott out of your mind, but the damage has been done. You feel yourself clam up. Xavier notices. He stops his ministrations, removing his fingers from inside you.

“What’s wrong Y/n? You’ve gone all tense.” His voice is full of concern. You can’t see his face, but you know he’s still watching you.

“I’m so sorry.” You suddenly feel incredibly vulnerable, and attempt to zip yourself up. “I think we should stop. It’s just so fast.” You await Xavier’s anger. Any minute it will come. What he says next takes you aback.

“It’s okay. It’s totally okay. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” His voice is soft, reassuring. “Let me get cleaned up, I’ll be two minutes.”

You hear Xavier leave. You sit up and comb your fingers through your hair in an attempt to relax. You take deep breaths, trying to calm your jumping pulse. Xavier returns, turning on a lamp by the doorway. Soft light floods the room. He smiles at you and comes to sit at the foot of the bed. You can’t help but notice that he’s keeping his distance.

“I’m sorry.” You mumble, close to tears. “Please don’t think you did anything wrong. This is my fault. I’m a freak.”

Before you can say anything else, Xavier climbs up the bed towards you and crushes you against him.

“Shhh. You’re not a freak. Jesus, I know what it’s like to be forced into something you don’t want to do. You were right to ask me to stop if you felt uncomfortable.”

A few stray tears spill from your eyes as Xavier rocks you in his arms, touching gentle kisses to your head. You briefly wonder what he was referring to, when he spoke about doing something he didn’t want to do. You make a mental note to ask him about it later, but for now you are content to sit with him in silence.