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hollandorks · 2 years

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shadows in the night

battinson!bruce wayne x f!reader

chapter fifteen

summary: more than a year after the events of middle of the night, y/n and Bruce are happily engaged and working to lower the amount of crime in Gotham. However, a new killer calling himself the Riddler has other plans for their happiness…set during the events of the movie, mostly canonical, some changes made to fit the story

a/n: so sorry this took extra long to get uploaded! I was really unhappy with my first draft of the chapter and took some extra time to work on it, then the day I planned to post I had to go to the dentist for a gum infection and ended up scheduling to have my wisdom teeth removed. Yikes. The good news is, I’ll be trying to write tons and finish this and at least have the rest of the story written before surgery in about a month!

word count: 3316

Y/n sank into a crouch, biting back a sob, as she watched the Gotham Project go up in flames.

Within a minute, Ollie was there, and then so was Bryn, and they held her and cried with her as all of their passion and hard work burned.

Y/n watched, numb, as months of hard work turned to ash.

She was certain the fire had been set on purpose. She’d checked and rechecked everything before they’d opened, had every certification on the planet that deemed the building safe, and even then Bruce had hired someone else for a second opinion.

There was no way it had burned down by accident, right? Maybe there had been lightning or something but–it was barely raining.

The numbness spread through the rest of her as she watched the last of the flames disappear into plumes of smoke.

“Shit,” Ollie said next to her, the first word any of them had spoken in a while. “This sucks.”

“Yeah,” y/n said, voice rough from the combination of exhaustion and smoke.

It had been so much work to get it started. Endless planning and paperwork and interviews. She had spent hours working every day as the space had been renovated. Hell, she’d even helped build things wherever the contractors would let her. She’d painted and sanded and hammered and hauled in furniture. She’d spent time doing interviews to get the word out, then interviewing potential staff. She’d spent hours figuring out how to order the things they needed and then ordering again when they inevitably ran out. She’d cooked and cleaned for weeks after they’d opened until she had enough employees.

It had been a passion project she hadn’t known she’d wanted. A project she hadn’t known she needed. Working on it had gotten her through a lot of the residual stress and trauma from almost dying the year before. How many nights had she woken from nightmares and gotten up to do paperwork so she wouldn’t wake Bruce? How many hours had she spent in the abandoned subway station working while he was out in the city? How many times did she go help people when she was feeling particularly small and insignificant?

The work creating and then running the Gotham Project had given her a purpose when she’d had none. It was even what had started her going out into the city like Bruce did–because she could always be doing more for the city.

And there it was, all of those hours, her literal blood, sweat, and tears–all just gone.

Y/n’s phone started ringing sometime around when they finally got the fire put out. She wasn’t sure the smell of smoke would ever come out of her skin. The air was thick with it.

“Shit,” she said when she saw the number. She wiped her eyes and glanced at Bryn and Ollie as they stared curiously at her. “It’s the hospital.”

She stood from the curb where the three of them had been seated, and answered the call.

“Hi, I’m so sorry for the late call. I’m calling on behalf of Mr. Pennyworth. He regained consciousness and was asking for Mr. Wayne, but we couldn’t get ahold of him. Your phone number was listed to call in case we couldn’t reach Mr. Wayne.” The woman’s voice was too perky for it being the middle of the night, y/n thought vaguely.

Then her words sunk in. Alfred was awake. “No, yeah, thank you for calling. Thanks for letting me know. Can we–can we visit?” She hastily wiped at her eyes again. Finally, some good news.

“Yes, of course. Visiting hours are technically over, but…since he’s only just now awake…” The woman’s voice softened. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

Y/n thanked her again and hung up.

Alfred was awake.

She cursed again. There was still so much to do with the Gotham Project–or what was left of it. She’d had to fill out an incident report and was informed that, as soon as it was safe, the investigators had to go inside and see if they could find a cause. Then and only then would she be able to go inside and see what was left.

“What is it?” Bryn asked softly. She pushed one hand on Ollie’s shoulder to help herself stand. Ollie grumbled and yanked on her arm in turn as he stood, too.

“Alfred’s awake. I–I have to–”

“Go,” Ollie said as he made a shooing motion with his hand. “We’ll take care of things here and call you if there’s anything else they need. And when they let us in I’ll document everything for you. Go be with your family.”

“Yeah, we’ve got this,” Bryn said. She squeezed y/n’s hand. “Go.”

Y/n went, calling Bruce as she did. She had no idea what he was doing, if he’d ever made it home from meeting Falcone.

He answered almost immediately. “I got the voicemail from the hospital,” he said instead of a hello. “And your voicemail about the Gotham Project. Is everything okay?”

“No,” she said truthfully. Her voice broke on the word. “It’s…gone. But–I’ll meet you at the hospital, okay?”

“See you there,” Bruce murmured. He hung up without another word.

At the hospital, she eagerly grabbed Bruce’s hand when she saw him at the reception desk. She had no idea how he’d beaten her there, but she didn’t care. Something within her settled slightly the moment she felt his fingers lace with hers. His hands were freezing. She wrapped both her hands around one of his for a moment to try and warm it.

“Mr. Pennyworth is resting again,” the doctor informed them when they made it to Alfred’s room. “Feel free to go in and wait, though. His condition looks much more stable and I think surgery might not be necessary either. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

Y/n let out a trembling breath, relieved. “That’s great news, thank you, doctor.”

She and Bruce went and sat beside Alfred’s bed.

“How’d the…visit with Falcone go?” she asked softly, afraid of waking Alfred up.

Bruce shrugged.

“That great, then?” she said, eyebrows raised. There was tension radiating off of him in waves. Her half-hearted joke didn’t seem to even register with him.

“I…have to talk to Alfred about it first,” Bruce murmured. “I don’t…know what to think.”

Y/n could see him pulling away from her as easily as if he were actually walking away. He was withdrawing into himself, shoulders curved, jaw tight. It was as if there was an ocean between them all of a sudden, the waters churning in a storm, uncrossable. She didn’t know how to reach him or how to make it better. She wasn’t sure she could make it better, not with the state of her own mind.

“What happened at the Gotham Project?” Bruce asked after a moment. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Alfred since the moment they’d stepped inside the room.

“I’m not sure yet,” she said. She rubbed at her face. Her clothes smelled like smoke. Her body knew it hadn’t slept in much too long. Her muscles ached from the explosion and then sitting for so long on the curb outside the restaurant. She wanted to sleep. She wanted all of this to be over. “They’d just finished putting it out when I left. Then the investigators were going to go in and see what caused it. Bryn and Ollie stayed there, they said they’d call.”

Finally, Bruce looked at her, but there was a flatness in his eyes that made her unbearably sad. “We’ll rebuild,” he swore softly. “As fast as the city lets us.”

She gave him a watery smile. “I know,” she said. “But I just–it took so much work to get it started before…”

She sighed and rubbed at her eyes again. She stood. “I’m going to go get some coffee. Want anything?”

Bruce shook his head and looked back to Alfred.

She gently squeezed his shoulder and set off in search of caffeine.

When she came back, coffee cup clutched in her hands like a lifeline, she heard Bruce say, “You lied to me.”

Something made her stop outside of the door and wait. This was a private moment between him and Alfred, and she didn’t need to be a part of it.

But she also didn’t want to walk away. Bruce was drawing away from her, and she might not otherwise be able to hear about what happened with Falcone. She knew he would do his best to keep it to himself, to keep his pain to himself. He always did. Whether it was to protect her or to protect himself, she didn’t know.

“My whole life,” Bruce continued, voice barely above a whisper. Y/n leaned against the doorframe just out of sight in order to hear better. “I spoke to Carmine Falcone. He told me what he did for my father. About Salvatore Maroni.”

Y/n closed her eyes. So the Riddler had been right.

“He told you Salvatore Maroni…” Alfred started, voice uncertain.

“Had my father killed,” Bruce said. Y/n had to bite her tongue to hold in the gasp. No wonder Bruce was so withdrawn. “Why didn’t you tell me all this? All these years I’ve spent fighting for him, believing that he was a good man.” Bruce’s voice shook with anger.

“He was a good man,” Alfred said in a growl. “You listen to me. Your father was a good man. He made a mistake.”

“A ‘mistake’?” Bruce scoffed. “He had a man killed. Why? To protect his family image? His political aspirations?”

Y/n didn’t want to hear anymore of the pain in Bruce’s voice, but she couldn’t move away.

“It wasn’t to protect the family image, and he didn’t have anyone killed. He was protecting your mother. He didn’t care about his image or the campaign, any of that. He cared about her, and you, and in a moment of weakness, he turned to Falcone. But he never thought Falcone would kill that man. Your father should have known that Falcone would do anything to finally have something on him that he could use. That’s who Falcone is. And that was your father’s mistake. But when Falcone told him what he’d done, your father was distraught. He told Falcone he was going to the police, that he would confess everything. And that night, your father and your mother were killed.”

She fumbled for the seat in the hallway at Alfred’s words. It made a terrible sort of sense, didn’t it? When confronted by Bruce, Falcone blamed Maroni–who was already out of the way–and took the suspicion off of himself.

“It was Falcone?” Bruce said softly after a beat. She ached to go in and comfort him, but this was between him and Alfred. She hadn’t known the Waynes, she hadn’t been around twenty years ago, so she shouldn’t insert herself into it. But she wished, more than anything, that she could take just a little bit of Bruce’s pain away.

“Oh, I wish I knew for sure,” Alfred said, voice just as soft. “Or maybe it was some random thug on the street who needed money, got scared, and pulled the trigger too fast. If you don’t think I’ve spent every day searching for that answer–” Alfred stopped, the pain in his voice all too apparent. “It was my job to protect them. Do you understand? I know you always blamed yourself. You were only a boy, Bruce. I could see the fear in your eyes, but I didn’t know how to help. I could teach you how to fight, but I wasn’t equipped to take care of you. You needed a father. And all you had was me. I’m sorry.” The last two words were barely a whisper, almost lost in the noise of the hospital.

Y/n wiped at the tears that were falling. Alfred and Bruce had both gone through so much. And they were still going through it. Was it better for them to have answers now, after all this time? Or was the Riddler simply stirring up shit that should have been left untouched? Because the pain she knew both of the men inside the room were feeling was too much, on top of everything else, for them to bear.

And the Riddler had caused it.

The Riddler, and probably Falcone.

Y/n wished they were both dead. Hell, maybe they’d kill each other for some reason, and she and Bruce could be left out of it. It was wishful thinking, but it helped her feel better.

“Don’t be sorry, Alfred,” Bruce was saying as y/n sipped on her coffee to ground herself from her anger and heartache. “God. I never thought I’d feel fear like that again. I thought I’d mastered all that. I mean, I’m not afraid to die.” Y/n couldn’t help the small gasp at the words, chest aching, even as Bruce continued, “I realize now there’s something I haven’t got past. This fear of ever going through any of that again. Of losing somebody I care about. Last year with the gala–” Bruce cleared his throat slightly. “And now, with all of this…”

There was a rustle, like Alfred shifting. “I–is y/n alright? I never asked.”

“She’s fine. She went to get a coffee. I…Alfred, I’m sorry.” Bruce’s voice broke, just slightly.

“Don’t be sorry, I’m just glad you weren’t home. And I’m glad y/n is okay.”

Bruce sighed, cleared his throat. “I know, but–I need to tell you something. I…when I saw it was you, my first thought was ‘thank God it wasn’t her.’ I–”

Y/n had to wipe more tears away.

“My dear boy,” Alfred said softly. “I’m glad it wasn’t her, too. Don’t feel guilty for having that thought. I’m getting to be an old man, and I would gladly die in her place. Or yours. You still have so much of your life ahead of you.”

“Don’t say that,” Bruce snapped, but there was no real fire in it. “I don’t want to lose either of you, ever.”

Y/n figured it was time to go inside. She stood, composing herself, and gently pushed open the door.

“Alfred! You’re awake!” She didn’t have to feign her enthusiasm, even though she knew for a fact he’d been awake for the past several minutes. She paused at the foot of the bed, noticing that he and Bruce were clasping each other’s hands. She almost cried again at the sight. She set her coffee down on the tray to lean over and gently kiss Alfred’s cheek. “I knew your head was hard enough to survive an explosion,” she joked as she straightened, earning her a raspy chuckle.

“Yes, well, it certainly feels like I’ve been blown up.”

Y/n stood beside Bruce and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, squeezing gently. Maybe now they could go home and sleep some. Alfred was okay. He was awake. And he’d had a heart-to-heart with Bruce that had sounded much needed.

“We should–” she said, but stopped when she saw Bruce and Alfred both looking towards the skylight in the room.

Batman’s signal shone through the dark.

Y/n’s phone started ringing.

“Motherfucker,” she muttered, glaring up at the signal, then down at Bruce. “I’m going with you, and you aren’t arguing,” she said as she answered her phone.

It was Bryn. “Y/n–”

“Is everything okay?” she asked, because at this point she was assuming it was bad news.

She wasn’t wrong.

“They said it was most likely arson. And…” Bryn hesitated. There was a fierce, whispered conversation she couldn’t make out. Ollie, most likely.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“They found something painted on the bricks on the back wall outside. The one thing that didn’t burn.”

“Just tell her!” Ollie said in the background.

Bryn sighed. “It said ‘rat’ in red paint.”

Y/n blew out a breath. “Yeah, well, it was only a matter of time,” she said a bit bitterly.

“Y/n…” Bryn said. “This is serious. Arson? Vandalism? You–”

“Did you see the news earlier tonight? What the Riddler told everyone I did? It was only a matter of time. Send me pictures of everything, I’ll have to take care of stuff later.”

“You can’t just–” Bryn started.

Y/n interrupted, “I have to go. Thank you. You guys get some sleep, okay?”

She hung up and found Bruce standing and watching her. Alfred’s eyebrows were raised underneath the bandages on his head.

“Um. The Gotham Project was burned down earlier,” she said for Alfred’s benefit. She winced.

“What?”

“Bryn just called. The investigators said it was arson, and someone painted the word ‘rat’ on the bricks, too.” She sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. “Bruce, we should–”

When she looked up again, his eyes were hard. He was angry. So was she. But there was nothing they could do about it at that moment.

“Arson?” Alfred repeated as she and Bruce stared at each other. “They’re sure?”

“I guess so. After the Riddler’s video…”

“What video?” Alfred asked.

“I forgot you’ve been unconscious for a while,” she said, but her joke fell on deaf ears. “The Riddler…outed me as the confidential informant in the case from last year. Within a few hours the Gotham Project burned down.” She shrugged even though there was a hard knot burning in the center of her chest. God, she just wanted to sleep.

Alfred cursed impressively for a man with a head wound. “We should call–”

“I have to go,” Bruce interrupted, voice almost a growl. “You two stay here.”

“Nope,” y/n said, “I’m coming with you. I’m in this shit as much as you are now, if not more.”

“Be careful,” Alfred said, interrupting whatever argument Bruce had been about to make. “I mean it.” It was his dad voice again. Y/n almost smiled. He really was feeling better if he was using it on them.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” y/n said as she took Bruce’s hand and led him out.

He waited until they were in the elevator to speak. “Arson?” He spat out the word.

“The Riddler has a lot to answer for,” she said. “That’s just one thing on the list.”

“I have to finish this,” Bruce said. He turned a tight circle in the small space, like he was full of too much pent up energy to stay still.

“We have to finish this,” y/n said. She put a steadying hand on his arm. “And we will.”

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. When she went to step out, Bruce caught her wrist and tugged her close. Their chests brushed as they breathed in tandem. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers.

“What?” she asked softly as the elevator doors slid shut again. Bruce simply stared at her for a long moment.

“I won’t let him take anything else from us,” Bruce said in a whisper.

“I won’t either,” she said.

He kissed her lightly, all of his pain and frustration and anger pouring into the kiss as surely as it was her own.

“We shouldn’t keep Gordon waiting,” she murmured as he pulled away. “It’s cold as shit outside, he’s probably impatient.”

Bruce took her hand.

“I heard, um, your conversation with Alfred,” she told him as he led her to his car. They’d speed home, change, and swap cars as quickly as they could. “I’m sorry about–about your parents. About all of that.”

She braced herself for Bruce to be angry at her eavesdropping, but he stayed silent as they pulled away from the hospital.

“The Riddler has a lot to answer for,” Bruce finally said, “But so does Carmine Falcone. And I intend to collect on both accounts.”

Y/n intended to collect from both of them, too. One way or another, they would pay for what they had done to Bruce, to Alfred, to her, and to the city. She was going to make sure of it.

Next Chapter

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usagiverse · 5 months

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Conversations are hard, but you're doing okay. I feel okay, knowing you can say to me what you wanted to say.

Another Bunnon interaction, I left it private as well, I know you didn't ask but you seemed a little embarrassed, so I think maybe it was more for me than for my account -- and our secrets, Bunnon, remain our secrets.. Speaking of, I am also working on a turtles fan project! ..I'm not sure when I start, but I recently got accepted into a group to work on the ROTTMNT "New Age" (season 3) fan project. Good luck on your secret stuff!

For the time... uh.. I have a weird schedule, I'm sorry if it worries you, I get enough sleep usually. This week has been hard for me to update in particular because I have relatives visiting on their holiday vacation, tomorrow in fact. I've been very busy running errands and cleaning up my place, and I had to schedule a lot of people to do at-home maintenance (deep cleaning, vent repair, new lights, etc.) and haven't had a lot of time to myself, so I stay up much later to get my personal time back. I tend to wake up either slightly before or slightly after noon, and then I go to bed whenever based on how I feel.. usually between 3 - 4 AM, lol.

Ah, we are the same.... are you sure you're not just me??

All of my influences are inspired by anime and nerdy stuff. My facial expressions, at least I thought had a bit of an anime influence, but don't worry, I'm equally as much of a nerd except replace D&D with. . . . . . League Of Legends. Oh yes, Bunnon, I am very much a nerd... To be a LoL player is the highest level of degeneracy known to normiekind, aside from uhhh.. well, illegal stuff and those people who have characters in jars. I read lots of stuff, same as you, but also growing up, I collected Manga for series I liked, even the not so innocent and definitely NSFW ones.. (I brought them to school to read in my downtime during classes haha). I had a big musical phase, you could actually still see all of my old stuff on my main account, where I was not only a big Hamilton fan, but I was also a . . John Hancock fan? He deserved to be in the musical too! I took a random extra from the OG Broadway recording and gave them an identity, and that had been my headcanon ever since. I also was an avid Thomdosia shipper, because Theo deserved a classy, uptown bougie Jefferson to make her day (don't ask how it happened, i literally, do not remember, it was on Amino, that's all I know). Hmm, is there anything else I could say to make you hate me.......

ALL OF THAT TO SAY, NO, I AM NOT DISAPPOINTED! Never be scared of or ashamed of who you are. If people don't like YOU, Bunnon, then you don't need them anyway! You will always find someone who wants you. Everything and all that you are. Thank you for the ask again! I'll try to post more stuff during the actual day, just for you. (─‿‿─) stay tuned...

#uv asks #not uv #bunnon #bunnon usagi #ft turtlesona #bunnon should be smaller here but i wanted to fit them in the frame #my b

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theia-eos · 1 year

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IkeSoren Week Day 4

Author notes above cut, skip to cut for the story.

This takes place in my interpretation of Tellius canon. A few years after Radiant Dawn, Ike and Soren are invited to Hatari so that Ike can participate in a fighting festival. After being in Hatari for a few years, they return to Tellius and spend a little while in Tellius before leaving back to Hatari. If you want to read more about my view of Hatari, you can read Paradise on AO3 that details Rafiel’s first year or so in Hatari.

My work is always “no beta - we die like men” but I’m scheduling this ahead of time and wrote it in a few hours because I wanted to do a little something for Ike/Soren Week since they’re my first OTP, but I’m not going to be in town during Ike/Soren week. So, it’s extra no-beta as a first draft. I may clean it up and throw it onto AO3 sometime.

Marriage

Ike and Soren stood on the shores of black sand beach, as far east from Tellius as the land in Hatari went. The sun was beginning to set behind them, the distant ocean already blackened by the night sky and rising stars.

Ike looked out at the horizon and then turned to face Soren. “You still have that sending stone Kurthnaga gave you, right?”

Soren nodded. Ike sighed heavily.

“We don’t have to seek out the land beyond the horizon,” Soren said quietly. “There might be trouble there. Hatari is peaceful, and Nailah’s finally admitted that it would be easier to reconnect with Tellius than to migrate all her people across the desert.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ike said, “There’d be another new language to learn too.”

“Probably.” Soren smiled gently and looked up at Ike. “You still want to go.”

Ike nodded. “I just hate the fame. So much. I can’t breathe anywhere if people know me.”

“Then we’ll go,” Soren said simply. “If there’s nothing out there, we can figure out something else.”

“Before we go,” Ike called out, reaching into a pocket.

“It’s hardly necessary.”

Ike blinked and smiled ruefully, still grabbing the rings out of his pocket. Soren was only getting sharper as he got older. “Is that a no?” Ike asked. “I did a lot of work to get it right for you.”

Soren smirked and then shrugged. “I know. You tried so hard not to wake me when you used that string to size up my finger.”

Ike nearly pouted, deflated. Soren had known for that long?

“It’s been in your heart for ages, Ike,” Soren whispered, putting a hand over Ike’s chest and taking a step closer. Soren’s red eyes searched Ike’s face. “Every time you’ve looked at me since we received the invitation to Micaiah and Sothe’s wedding two years ago, you’ve thought about it.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because it’s irrelevant.” Soren pressed against Ike and closed his eyes. “I can feel you so clearly, I don’t need to see you anymore to know your thoughts. An ancient custom means nothing to me in light of that.” Soren opened his eyes and he looked troubled, as he always did when recalling how his laguz blood made him so different from a beorc. “It hardly surprises me that herons and dragons never feel the need to formalize their unions with a ceremony.”

Ike smiled gently and leaned forward to kiss Soren. Soren returned the gesture softly.

“Is that a yes?” Ike whispered against Soren’s lips.

“Of course it is.”

Ike smiled, resting his forehead against Soren’s. “Never a simple answer with you.”

“If that’s what you wanted, you should have picked a different partner.”

“Never say that,” Ike admonished gently, picking up Soren’s left hand and slipping a simple silver band that had an engraved message inside onto his ring finger. “I want to be with you forever, there’s no one else I want at my side than you. Thorns and all.”

Soren smiled sadly up into Ike’s eyes, taking the other ring from Ike, a solid and sturdy gold plated-steel band, and put it slowly onto Ike’s left ring finger. “A single lifetime will have to suffice for both of us.”

“A hundred of yours wouldn’t satisfy me, Soren,” Ike said sternly.

Soren snorted, smiling. “I doubt you can conceive how long that is, I hardly can.”

“I just know it wouldn’t be long enough,” Ike said, wrapping his arms around Soren and kissing him. “But calling you my husband from now on might help.”

Soren smiled, it was such a contented, serene smile. And then it turned into a playful smile. “So I am Mr. Hero of the Blue Flame now? Or Mr. Radiant Hero?”

Ike chuckled. “Just Soren is fine.”

“Just Soren then.” Soren rested his head against Ike, reaching up his left hand to lay it against Ike’s shoulder. “A hundred of my lifetimes? You really are the clingy one.”

Ike laughed out loud and held Soren tighter. “You wouldn’t complain.”

“Did it sound like I was?”

“No, I guess not.”

#ikesorenweek2023 #fire emblem fan fiction #fire emblem #fire emblem path of radiance #fire emblem radiant dawn #fe9 #fe10 #fe9/10 #ike fire emblem #soren fire emblem #ikesoren #tellius #This one is a little sad #I apologize

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peachyteabuck · 1 year

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**I OFUND THIS WHILE CLEANING OUT MY DRAFTS. THIS LEGIT WAS FROM OCTOBER 10TH AND I QUIT LIKE 2 WEEKS LATER this job fucking suuucked

Things that bother me about this job, just so I can remember why I’m quitting in December:

Calls students that have accommodations/need extra help “special students,” as if they are 5. I find it incredibly demeaning even for children, but especially demeaning for adults who deserve to be treated as such

Notoriously and constantly late - once missed an ENTIRE office hours because he didn’t tell me he had a meeting during that time

Doesn’t know how to allocate time and therefore is constantly behind in class, and it’s not because he’s going too in depth for the material. He literally spends the first 10-15 minutes of class explaining the same thing he’s discussed several times - he is currently going over how EAA grades work and why he doesn’t like them…but no one asked about them

Doesn’t explain things and gets mad when people don’t understand something (e.g. the ‘biographical sketch’ incident). For example, for whatever reason he doesn’t want students to do research presentations on topics that have already passed, but he has a) never explained that this is the case and b) never explained why this is a good idea

Has the emotional regulation of a toddler - one time I didn’t know how to do something and he threw a tantrum. (See also the BS incident)

Is incredibly inflexible with his way of doing things. I organize things a lot in spreadsheets and he doesn’t like that, even though it’s the same information as in a word doc but it’s easier on eye tracking

Anything that doesn’t align with what he wants is useless, everything that he wants is important.

Never meets deadlines - the fact we got EAA grades in last friday on time was an act of god tbh

Doesn’t understand that just because I *can* work more than my contracted hours (of 10 hours/week) doesn’t mean I want to - I have a life outside of this job

Has asked for a schedule of when I can do work asynchronously with a fast turnaround time…which is asking for an hour by hour breakdown of MY FREE TIME

Misgenders me constantly but gets upset when i use the wrong pronouns for a student, and then will misgender that student as well

Makes us clear our hours with him, but I’m genuinely not sure that’s necessary

Refuses to abide by basic university bureaucracy that makes things easy - e.g. booking conference rooms

Won’t. Fucking. Clean. His. Office. It’s not that big of a deal - me, him, and the other TA can fit in there just fine, but he’s such a control freak he has to see everything all of the time

He’s in a very large wheelchair and doesn’t let anyone know when he’s moving and has almost run over me…several times? And will ask me to, say, unzip his vest but block me into a corner

Constantly talks about why hard copies are useful but has never given reasons as to why. I know sometimes hard copies are useful!! But i also have reasons for that opinion! He will constantly just say what he thinks about thinking about why

#this job sucked so hard #lukis says things

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thoughtsfromthecowshed · 14 days

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The Scheduling AU - pt 10

Yes I’m aware I’m late. I ran out a spoons and I’ve been having a chronic pain flare up so it’s justified. Anyway this is going to be the last major part. I’m mostly out of ideas for this but I might add some miscellaneous ideas to this later. Anyway for the last part I’m going to focus on the behind the scenes of running the school.

First up the dining hall:

There is a cooking staff of six people who rotate out night and day shift

The students are heavily encouraged to help out with cooking

The cooking classes do one meal a week each

The dorm halls are on a weekly rotating shift for who serves and does dishes.

Theres also a schedule for who does which job each day worked out between dorm parents and the students

The dinning hall also runs a snack stand during non meal times. This consists of fruits, musli bars and other such healthy foods and on Fridays each student is entitled to one candy bar each.

During the weekends there are cooking classes run out of the dining hall and they basically do the meals for the whole school.

Second up support staff:

While having an out of school therapist is good. Not a single school I know of doesn’t have at least one school counsellor so I’m giving Nevermore 2

The students that need more support are referred to the therapist but everyone else sees the counsellor

There are 2 librarians

We saw the nurses office in the show and im going to say they have 2 staff members helping out

The front office has 3 people running it and one of them is trained to be able to also help in the nurses office if needs be

There are 2 groundskeepers and in keeping with stereotypes they are the local weed suppliers (weed is somewhat ignored as long as it doesnt interfere with school work but anything harder is a big no-no. Although the graduating class has a ‘secret meet’ where they do acid or shrooms at the end of the year and somehow Larissa always gets dragged into being trip advisor)

There is also a cleaning crew. Their numbers fluctuate depending on the time of the year but theres typically a team of 8ish. (It’s a big school)

Students are expected to clean their own rooms which include, doing their own washing, vacuuming/sweeping/moping, dusting and just general, if it’s dirty clean it. This is expected to be done at least once a week.

There is 1 tech assistant and they are bloody overrun on a good day between jammed printers to people just being stupid with their laptops.

3 teacher aids, they do a lot of work between helping students who can’t do tests traditionally for any reason to just being extra support in a classroom

Science technician, they basically get all chemicals needed ready or complex equipment set up beforehand

1 Careers advisor - what it says on the tin

Theres also a couple of people that come in day to day to run things like one on one instrument lessons and things like speech and drama clubs

Right I think thats all for now. I might add a few short stories but I’m pretty over thinking about this and the hyper fixation has run it’s course

#moo writes #larissa weems #the scheduling au #wednesday addams #wednesday au #wednesday series #wednesday netflix #god I hate having to think about how a school works #i am not cut out to think about it #I haven’t even talked about accounting and lawers

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structuraremodeling · 4 months

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HOW TO SAFELY LIVE IN YOUR LOS ANGELES HOME DURING A MAJOR RENOVATION PROJECT

Ok, the contract for your LA Home Renovation project is signed…and your General Contractor is ready to begin. That means the plans are in place and you have made the decision to weather the dust storms, the noise, and experience living in your home during the stages of your upcoming renovation project. You will need to know what to expect, how you can keep your family safe, and stay sane through it all!

DAY ONE – HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER FOR RENOVATION SAFETY:

The demolition phase is the messiest and most chaotic step in your renovation. It may look fun and exciting on your favorite HGTV show but trust us when we say, “plan to be out of the house until the demolition is complete and the area being renovated is sealed off.”

NEW FAMILY SAFETY RULES:

No one goes barefoot in the construction site

Tools are not toys

The more you can stay out of the way the faster your general contractor & crew can work

Sleeping in late will be put on pause until you’re on the flip side of your remodeling project.

HOW TO SAFELY LIVE IN YOUR LOS ANGELES HOME DURING A KITCHEN RENOVATION

Plan ahead and set up a second kitchen site. Luckily, living in Los Angeles you can cook outside most of the year. If you are concerned about the weather, choosing the summertime for your home renovation could be really helpful. Use your old cabinets to create a pantry and store your dishes. Move your microwave and refrigerator to a convenient location nearest the outdoor grill or camping stove. Great time to pull out the instant pot and air fryer you received as gifts last holiday season. Set up a folding table as your prep area and you will be good to go. If you have a utility sink in the garage for washing dishes and pots …. great! If not, purchase a large metal tub to get the job done. You can always use it as a planter later to grow your own veggies. Stock up on paper plates. It’s not the “greenest” solution…. but sometimes you must go with a practical alternative. This is a great time to get each family member a new water bottle. Be gentle with yourself. There are some great healthy, pre-made microwavable meal options that will simplify your life. Time to reinstate a weekly Pizza Night! Have everything emptied out and packed away before your LA Renovation Team arrives. Great time to get rid of the items in the back of the cabinets that are just taking up space. Don’t forget to pack up your good dishes and crystal glassware. Even if they are stored in the dining room the hammering and vibrations from the renovation can endanger delicate items. Better to be safe than sorry.

HOW TO SAFELY LIVE IN YOUR LOS ANGELES HOME DURING A BATHROOM RENOVATION

We suggest, you proceed with one-bathroom renovation at a time, so patience is your friend! All the above rules apply when it comes to your safety. Please remember to completely remove your items from the bathroom before the renovation demo team arrives. Set up family rules for sharing the second bathroom. Even though your contractor will clean up at the end of the day, in Los Angeles, you should be prepared for extra dust. Bathroom renovations can be thrown off schedule if mold is discovered during the demolition. This is common in older Los Angeles homes. This could add a week or more to your timeline. That’s where your patience will be tested.

THE POSITIVES ABOUT CHOOSING TO STAY IN YOUR HOME WHILE RENOVATING:

You are available to make quick decisions on materials and design options

You can easily check on the progress

You are around for any necessary troubleshooting when unexpected problems show up

You will save money on AirBnB or hotel stays

You won’t have to move in with your In-Laws…which for some people this will be a blessing.

With a little pre-planning, you can stay safely in your home while your Contractor manages a professional renovation project to create the home of your dreams!

#home additions los angeles #general contractor & home remodeling services la #Santa Monica home exterior remodel near me #home exterior renovation contractors los angeles #home renovation interior designer los angeles #home & lifestyle #interior #home decor

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krahra · 6 months

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Story Time: Introduction Part 1: My Husband

So not to overwhelm everyone with a bunch of information, I will be doing my back story in two parts. This is part one.

For this, we will call me Krahra, technically it's a character name I use in a game I play but it is one that isn't well known by many people. (If by chance you know who it is please please keep quiet about who I am. This is more of a way for me to vent and track things).

I'm in my 30s. I have been married for the last 13 years to who I thought was the love of my life. He came into our relationship with a boy who is now 18, but is with us for the rest of his life (I promise that will come out too). But together we have two children a boy and a girl (ages are not important).

In the first 10 years of our marriage, every fight we would have would be him making cheating accusations at me. I have had to quit 3 different jobs because of his problems (whether it be because he won't talk to his work about adjusting his schedule so we can both work, or he didn't like who I was working with). The job he didn't like the people I was working with, I planned on transferring to another location but he didn't even give me a chance to transfer locations.

Fast forward to the present day, while he doesn't make the accusations as often they still come up. Mind you, I have text proof of these accusations because I keep a file folder of screenshots from the text messages he has sent me. It tends to come if he's sleep-deprived.

He has cheated emotionally and verbally over text and FB messaging, but nothing physical. I forgave him. This was around 2015. I have proof of this as well, as I never delete anything. He apologized and we made strides to improve our marriage. Accusations still stood. His excuse for the accusations "All my exes cheated on me including my baby mama, so you will just do the same". This is what led me to find out about what I consider cheating.

The location we live at now is just down the road from where my kids go to school and is only a 20-minute walk to my school and also where I work. Since living here we got into a huge argument over the summer and he got physical with me. The only reason I struck back was in defense of myself. That was the night that while I love him for what he's given to me (my children, as I never thought I would have any), I'm no longer in love with him, but I think I stay with the hopes that it's going to come back. He doesn't realize this as I'm good at hiding my emotions from him and I have had to constantly do that because he can't be bothered if something is bothering me or I need to talk about something. No time is ever the right time. During the week when he has to work, he can't be bothered with things. On the weekend when he's off, he's too tired and needs to be able to sleep. Even when he was off work for an injury (not work related so no paid time off) I busted my ass with my hours (I'm limited to 20 hours a week) and extra things that I get paid through my work for, but it still wasn't good enough for him. He refused to get up with his son (my stepson) when he had to get on the bus at 6:20 in the morning even though I was the one getting up and working. I was still expected to clean the house when I got home, go get our youngest from school when I got home, and make sure everything was done for them, and that they were fed even when I had to work at night due to events going on, I still had to come home and make sure that the kids were fed or they wouldn't get fed at all.

I'm hoping with this information you can understand why I'm starting this journal. It's more of a way to track things and to vent because I have no one to vent to. I'm not allowed to get my license. I'm not allowed to go out anywhere because he can't function without me around him constantly. It's to the point it starts to affect my job and the events I work for the extra money which by the way because he refuses to work the hours he needs to we have issues paying bills. Not sure what will happen with Christmas either.

Anyways that's just the introduction about part of my life. Stay tuned for Part Two: The Stepson. In truth, he's the biggest problem out of the two, and I promise you will understand why I say that.

#relationship #relationship issues #Relationship problems #wife #husband #family #kids #stepparenting #stepson

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alanahleadership · 2 years

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Week 4

When was a time when you were on a high performing team (if you have not been part of a high performing team select your best team experience):

The experience that I will talk about is the time I spent volunteering at an Animal Sanctuary in South Africa. The volunteers would be split up into multiple smaller groups for half the day and then come together to do one big group activity for the other half of the day. So, it gave me a lot of experience in bother larger and smaller teams.

1. What was happening that made it a high performing team?

A big part of what made my group such a high-performing team was our enthusiasm for the jobs we were doing. The reason we were all there in the first place was to help out at an animal sanctuary, so we all went in knowing what was expected of us and wanted to do our best, rather than a random school project you have no interest in. Another part of it was our growing friendship with each other. It's amazing how quickly you can get close to people when you live together, work together, and eat together with no wifi. Even when our tasks did not involve interacting with any of the animals (like cleaning up bones in an empty enclosure, going on a hike to check the grounds for potcher traps, or cleaning out the empty elephant house every morning) they were still enjoyable because we were all becoming great friends, so everything felt more like a game than work. Once, when we were disposing of bones by throwing them into a big pit, we noticed a piece of meat barely holding on to a long protruding rib bone further down the hole... so naturally, we made it into a game to see who could hit the meat off the bone by throwing bones at it. This sped up our progress tenfold and I'm proud to say it was I who managed to hit it off.

2. What was your contribution to the team development?

I contributed an extra dose of positivity, excitement, and encouragement to the team atmosphere. I also was generally the one who would help out members who were a bit more anxious about interacting with certain animals. Off duty, I was also the designated spider killer. The spiders in Africa are no joke and everyone else was too afraid to do anything about them. That's where I come in. Once a week the facility allowed the volunteers to have a party after work hours where bringing your own alcohol was allowed (once a week you could go with a group on a bus into the nearest town to buy things from a store, including alcohol). I was the only one among the volunteers who doesn't drink, so when the fun was over, I would help some people who partook a little too much get safely to their rooms. There was also a time during one of the parties when a crab had crawled out of a neighboring pond (these parties were always outside) onto the dancefloor and I needed to come to the rescue to bring the crab back home. So, I think I bring a level of security to whatever team I'm a part of

3. As you look back on this team now, what might you change about the team and about your role in the team? Why?

Looking back, I don't think I would change anything about my role or my team. In that environment, eating three delicious and nutritious meals a day with a daily schedule that had me exercising outside all day long, surrounded by such great people and the experience of a lifetime, I think I and my teammates were the healthiest we've ever been. Plus, as I mentioned before, everything was fun and did not feel like work. I would, however, still change a couple of tasks we were given. One day we were given the job of breaking apart a concrete floor to clear space for a new small enclosure to be built. None of us were strong enough to even make a dent with the tools we were given, and thus, no work got done. Even though that was a bit frustrating, we didn't let it create conflict among us, and instead, our volunteer leader realized the futility of the situation and let us hang out in the shade for half the day until lunch.

4. Think of how you currently respond to conflict in a team. In what ways does this help develop the team and develop yourself. If you feel another approach to handling conflict might be more effective what might that be?

I think learning how to handle conflict in a non-confrontational and non-destructive way is vital for everyone in any situation. I did not have any conflicts during my time in Africa, but in other instances, I approach the subject very casually. I like to always be calm because most of the time conflicts among group members are not that big of a deal. However, when the consequences are major I will approach whoever I have this conflict with directly and clearly. This came up most in group projects I've written about previously, where I've had to put my foot down and state the facts. Being direct and honest about your issues or conflicts in a team setting is important in order to keep everyone on the same page and tackle any problems that arise together. It's important to be firm, but also open to what others have to say as you might have misinterpreted the situation. Then apologize if you were in the wrong, or forgive and move on if you were acknowledged to be in the right. It might be uncomfortable for a bit, but the result of not doing anything will be much worse. There's an old piece of advice that is along the lines of "You shouldn't treat any conflict like it's 'me vs you', rather, you should treat it like it's 'us vs the problem' ". I believe that advice is meant for couples, but I think it is relevant in any situation involving more than one person.

5. If you could do one thing differently when working in future teams what might that be? Why?

I think I would like to approach my future teams the way I did my volunteer group. Most of my group projects have been the opposite of my volunteer experience. In fact, both my time in Africa and my time volunteering at a veterinary clinic were very memorable and positive experiences. I think the difference is in those scenarios, we all are excited to do our tasks and are proud that the work we do is going towards helping animals, which is a nice feeling. However, with most schoolwork, it's seen as something you HAVE to do rather than something you WANT to do. So, to answer the question, I think one thing I would do differently is try to approach future teams with a more positive attitude and try to find more meaning in the work that we are doing.

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awkwarddystopianwarlord · 2 years

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Summer is Overrated

All throughout our formative years, it is ingrained into our brains that summer is the bestest, goodest season of the year because school is out and we are free! Sure winter break and spring break are lovely too, but they are a temporary escape from deeds that are not yet finished. We still have more units to go, more exams to study for. We can’t allow ourselves to completely forget what we’ve learned because we still need to return and continue where we left off. When it’s summer though, oh we can forget now. We can dump our memory stores of the whole year into our subconscious and refuse to think about it again until we are forced to for some future assignment. We have no commitments to our education any more. We have no worries about upcoming exams and reports and projects. We can leave all our worries in the past and look to the bright tomorrow of sleeping in and seeing friends.

Until we get a job. Or graduate. Or both.

Summer isn’t really a break anymore. You escape school but now your days are filled with work. You have a new commitment that you have to show up to and function during. You don’t get to sleep in. you don’t have time to see your friends, they’ve all got jobs now too. You’re stuck indoors once again and it’s hot but you have to wear a stupid uniform that involves pants. You’re too tired after work to do anything the rest of the day so even though it’s light until ten pm, you sloth in your room because the feet are sore and the brain is mush. The short nights suck now too since you have to get up early and the sun blasts your eyeballs at five in the morning so you don’t even get a good long sleep to prepare for another work day. Summer isn’t any different now, yet we still act like it is.

I have heard so many automatic ads over the speaker at my drug store telling us all how everyone looks forward the entire year to summer. It haunts my head eight hours a day. I don’t like summer, and therefore, this whole thing I guess is biased. Here’s my reasoning though, due to the fact our climate is extra unhinged now, we have had stupidly hot summer months. I’m talking lethal temperatures given that there is no air conditioning in houses. I lose too much sleep because I cannot for the life of me pass out well when the air is suffocating me. I usually use a comforter and curl around it in a particular way because my body is eighty seven and is very specific about sleeping positions to ease pain. However, if it gets too hot, my comforter gets moved to my upper bunk and I swap it with regular blanket that doesn’t bunch up as well and support my body the way I need it to. I’ve woken up the next day with aches all over too many times. I can’t get to sleep, I can’t stay asleep, I can’t wake up feeling rested. I am constantly uncomfortably overheated and I hate it.

Here’s more reasoning, the job thing. I work all day, four days a week. It may be the most beautiful day ever but if I’m at work, I ain’t enjoying it. I don’t get to have six sleepovers or go to the lake every day or camp for a week. I have work and grocery shopping and laundry and meal prepping and cleaning and resting to do. Not to mention that my friends are also working, or online schooling, or just busy in general. We got shit to do. Saturday is the only day we could all commit to and even then that’s not a for sure thing. We have two people that can drive and one with a car so if we plan a lake day or a sleepover or something that takes more effort than just showing up at my house, we can’t really be spontaneous since the lot of us have different schedules.

So with the heat issue and the lack of free time, summer is just another season where the days are occupied and the soul is feeling overworked. I am completely aware that seasonal depression is legitimate and that people can get affected by the change in air pressure during the finicky rainy months. I know that weather has an impact on the mind. I also know that commercializing summer to such an absurd extent despite it really only being a valid time for teachers and younger school children does not help either. If we are all constantly told that summer is the only good time of year, the only time when anything is worthwhile and fun and carefree then obviously we’re gonna have some resentment towards the other nine months. The holiday season is advertised a bunch too but it’s more chaotic, stressful, and can be a sensitive time for a lot of folks. It’s not as colorful and without consequence. Summer is shown to be the best time of year when we can all finally be productive and relax and enjoy each moment we’re awake. During the rest of the year, it’s inevitably going to feel dull and boring and a waste of time. It’s no fun to be inside, you should be outside, in the sun, breathing the fresh air. You can’t do that if it’s not summer. Yet, with all that pressure to be happy during a season that isn’t even a break anymore, it’s easy to feel like you failed when you didn’t particularly fill your days with wild activities. What’s left now is for you to wait a whole nother year for next summer to hopefully redeem yourself.

Except, that isn’t true. Summer isn’t the end all, be all escape to sheer bliss. Going outside and embracing that bright sun and hefty dose of vitamin d isn’t the only method to bring you joy. Not everybody gets seasonal depression, and even if you do, you can’t just look for the next summer. We need to find a new love for the colder months and rainy days since they’re a part of your life whether or not you like it. Therefore, I’ve made a list of fun things to do when you can’t live in a constant summer.

Going to a movie theater: the experience of this is always fun just because it’s not something you can do at home and thus it feels like an event. Also big screens are exciting.

Indoor sports and games: there’s indoor mini golf, skydiving, rock climbing, escape rooms, and skating rinks. There are arcades, bowling alleys, and pools. We have a couple board game cafes here, so mayhaps there’s something like that in your settlement.

Bars and clubs: if you’re a social butterfly or just like to be in lively environments, well, restaurants, pubs, and nightclubs are a great indoor option.

Here are things my friend group has done during the other seasons so you all don’t think I’m just suggesting things without trying any of them:

We went to Tofino for four days at the end of January. It was wet and not particularly sunny and awkwardly in between cold and warm. It was also a grand time. We stayed at a nice Airbnb house and relished in our wee vacation away from the city and regular lives. Even though it wasn’t super hot and bright out, it still remains my favorite thing I’ve done this year. Also it's the second time we've done this and we went two years ago in February.

We went to Vancouver during Black Friday by accident just for a Japanese dollar store and Hot Topic. Malls are a wonderful way to spend the day inside, perusing stores, and avoiding sad weather. Even if you don’t want to take a two hour ferry to get there, just wander your local mall for a while. We’ve done that too, made a day out of it for the purpose of seeking a couple wants.

We went on a Star Wars marathon. Every second Saturday, because that’s what one of our friends requested, we watched Star Wars in chronological order from the prequels to the Book of Boba Fett. It did not matter if the weather outside was fantastic, we holed up on my three person couch, featuring bean bag, and stared at an entertaining screen for hours. The only times we left was to gather sustenance and even then, sometimes we ordered in.

We went to a fabric store, got some fleece, and sewed frog plushies two Saturdays in a row whilst watching season four of Stranger Things. It was too toasty to go outside, so we didn’t.

We had a sleepover because luckily no one worked on Sunday and we did face masks, went to Red Robin, made banana splits, and went to brunch the next day. Aye, this was after going to a lake and spending a few hours there, but beyond that, we were inside most of the time. The goal was to have a classic sleepover experience so we watched Legally Blonde, then a bunch of dumb and funny Youtube videos, and ate a butt ton of snacks.

One time we played Uno for three hours straight whilst listening to The Piano Man over and over again the whole time.

Recently, we figured out how to operate my Wii that was acting up and played Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and Mario Kart for a decent while.

When a friend was visiting, we decided to go out for dinner, but it was pouring. Instead of surrendering though, the both of us bundled up in sweaters and coats and she even borrowed a pair of my boots. We armed ourselves with all the layers and braved the shitty rain and wind, trudging for fifteen minutes to get to our destination. It was hilarious and stupid and memorable and the warm restaurant and dinner was ever more satisfying in contrast.

There. There’s my proof that you can have a wonderful time inside even when the weather isn’t what you want it to be. As long as you have good company or mildly creative ideas, it won’t matter what the outside looks like because you will always have something fun to keep you occupied. I know it’s easy to blame a grumpy mood on the weather, but us people who have year round depression have to figure out coping mechanisms to keep going, so why shouldn’t the seasonally depressed? It’s not worth being miserable most of the year. You need to look for little things, little joys to push you forward one step, one day, one week. Waiting isn’t going to be enough for you, it isn’t going to satisfy you, because what if, when summer finally does come, you don’t get to do all the things you wanted? What if your plans fall through, the weather isn’t actually all that good, you’re too busy, your friends go on vacation? What happens when the one span of time that was supposed to make you happy doesn’t? There won’t be such a desire to make each summer the best one yet if we put that amount of effort throughout the rest of the year. Finding alternatives to happiness, making back up plans, and being flexible will help your sad brain immensely.

We can’t rely on one thing working out for us, that’s unrealistic. But we can’t simply give up either when it doesn't, that's also unrealistic. Life can still be worth living even when it’s not the life you want to be living. It’ll be through finding wee positives anywhere you can that makes it still worthwhile.

#rants #thoughts #writing #blog #weeklyblog #friday post

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boldlyvoid · 2 years

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R&R

18+

Summary: Professor Reid has an appointment with a 'student' in his office, at the end of office hours, to discuss a position piece of hers.

Warnings: teasing, showering together, role-playing student/teacher relationship, semi-public sex (spencer's office at the college), oral (fem receiving), fingering, unprotected sex, wall sex, creampies, cum play

word count: 3.3k

Masterlist

She’ll never tell him, but she prefers when he’s a teacher over when he’s an FBI agent. He’s so much calmer, happier even when he’s allowed to be himself and teach people the things trapped inside his mind. He was over the moon planning and showing her his lessons, going over his thoughts and opening speeches with her, it was lovely seeing him this excited.

Even at 6 in the morning when he’s crawling out of her bed, waking her up from a peaceful slumber to use the shower and grumble around the kitchen making himself breakfast. She wraps herself in one of his cardigans on her bedroom floor and wanders in after him.

She makes his lunch while he’s getting dressed, putting it in a cute paper bag with a sweet little message of encouragement for his first day. “Did you still want me to come to visit you?” She asks as she hands him his lunch.

He nods with a smile, “anytime you’re free this week let me know, I’ll make sure I pencil you in.”

She laughs, “what about you schedule me in at the end of the day on Friday, and we can discuss my grades?”

He awkwardly giggles, “y-yeah,” he clears his throat. “I can do that.”

“I love you, you know,” she leans in closer, on her tippy toes so she can brush her nose against his.

He holds her delicately with his hands around her waist, “I know, thank you.”

“And…”

“I love you too,” he whispers with a smirk, pressing his lips to hers gently as they both keep smiling.

“Good,” she teases as she pulls away, “because I need to ask something…”

“What?” He looks as if his heart drops to his stomach just then.

“Nothing bad, I was just wondering if I could maybe, with your help this week, merge all our stuff into one room and then turn the other into a double office with both our desks and things?” She can hear her voice rising a pitch as she gets nervous, worried about disrupting the space he so carefully crafted over the last 15 years.

“Yeah,” he nods enthusiastically. “We should use the master for us, obviously. If you want to remodel anything, you’re allowed to, just run it by Dorothy if you’re going to go crazy.”

She rubs her hands together nefariously, “oh this is going to be so fun.”

“Just don’t start on my room till I get home, I should clean it out and get rid of the things I don’t need first and make it easier for you to move it over,” he smiles, slipping on his coat and reaching for his things again. “Not that I have anything to hide, I just don’t like the idea of my things being moved without me there.”

“I get it,” she smiles back, “tonight we could get take out and I can help you go through things to donate?”

“Text me your order and I’ll get it on my way home,” he leans in for one last kiss, “I finish at 5 today.”

“I’ll miss you until then,” she steals another kiss right after.

“Love you,” he pulls away for real this time, reaching for the door and opening it.

“love you more, be safe, text me when you get there?” She worries.

“Of course,” he calls back as he leaves, biting the bullet, pulling off the bandage, and taking the plunge. He has to go like this or he’ll stay there saying goodbye for hours.

She closes the door behind him with a sigh, it sucked missing him during the day.

—

His first class goes so well it leaves an extra pep in his step.

So many students showed up, and they all listened attentively and asked questions, it was the longest he’s been able to talk and feel truly appreciated for his words in a long time. Other than with Y/N, although lately, they haven’t been saying as many words to each other, they’ve been speaking mostly with their hands.

He couldn’t wait to get home and see her, to tell her about his day and bounce the excitement off of her.

That was probably his favourite part of being with her.

The fact that she mirrored his energy perfectly time and time again. From the moment he met her, he’s felt like he unlocked a new part of himself; a happier, more carefree version of Spencer Reid that he’s always wanted to be. She was a blessing and he wanted to show her just how much for the rest of his life.

He walks into their apartment with a smile, his shoes and coat come right off then he immediately looks for Y/N. He knocks on her open bedroom door before walking in, just in case she didn’t hear him come home, but she’s not in there.

“Spence?” She calls out from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and sporting a smile, “I was about to have a shower… if you want to wash the day off too?”

He walks towards her while unbuttoning his shirt, “I’d love to join you. How was your day?”

He kisses her on the lips when he reaches the door, her towel drops when she pulls him into a hug and takes over unbuttoning his shirt. “Better now that you’re back,” she mumbles against his lips.

All his clothes come off, and the two of them stumble into the shower while still kissing each other. Slowly caressed by the water, it’s such a nice way to come home.

They tell each other stories from their day as they take turns under the water. He covered his body in soap while she ran soap off her own, and then they switched, he’d clean himself off all while she watched with a smile. “You’re so handsome,” she whispers and lightly runs her finger down his chest. “How’d I get so lucky?”

“I ask myself that every day,” he sighs, tilting his head back and letting the water run through his hair. He wipes the water from his face and looks at her through his saturated eyelashes. “I love you.”

“I love you,” she pulls him into another quick kiss, melting into him while her hands roam his back.

He can’t help taking a handful of her ass, squeezing it slightly before slapping the wet skin with a smirk, “we need to get out before I try to fuck you against this wall and we both come out with a broken hip.”

It makes her laugh, “imagine calling someone to help us still mid penetration with broken hips…”

He laughs too, “It’s better than that scene in greys anatomy you showed me, where Lexi broke Mark's penis.”

“It’s surprisingly easy to break a penis—

“Mine is literally going to retreat inside of me if you keep talking,” he cuts her off but it makes her laugh harder.

He takes that as his queue to turn off the water, opening the shower door and passing her the first towel while she just shakes her head with a smirk.

“You’re so fucking funny sometimes.”

“Only sometimes?” He pouts.

“I’m not smart enough for all of your jokes,” she teases him further, wrapping the towel around herself and getting out of the shower.

“Hey, you’re not that dumb,” he teases her right back without a problem.

She gasps, shocked that he’d insinuate that she’s any amount of dumb, as revenge, she takes his towel off the hook and runs out of the room. Leaving him naked and wet and alone, “hey!!”

“Who’s dumb now?” She yells back.

“You,” he gets out, water dripping on the floor as he carefully walks out of the room so as to not slip on the hardwood floor. He runs right to her room, getting in her bed and using her sheets as a towel.

“You did not!”

“It’s not like you’re sleeping in here tonight,” he explains, not knowing what his own room looks like right now.

“Actually, we might have to seeing as most of your things are on your bed right now…”

“Why?”

“I was cleaning out your closet, you have 15 years' worth of things in there that I don’t know how much you like, so it’s all organized into categories on your bed now,” she explains. “It’s a mess, but you have to make a mess before you can re-organize.”

“Why don’t we just move?” He shrugs, “this place is old and not even mine… I’m 40, I should buy a house.”

“But I can move with you?” She seems confused.

He nods, getting out of her bed and taking the sheets off with him, “if you want to get a mortgage together, I would be down, but I didn’t want to assume you’re at that level yet.”

“We already live together, having a house that is ours that we can make a home together would be really nice.”

“It really would be,” he smiles so wide. In love with her more than he could explain, “I’m sorry about this, by the way,” he apologizes for her wet sheets, “I’ll do the laundry in a minute.”

“It’s fine,” she doesn’t mind, dropping her towel to the floor, “lets at least give them a reason to be washed.”

—

She wears a short skirt, a slightly small button-up shirt, and a very long jacket. Her long legs on display, heels clicking as she walks down the hall, the minimal amount of eyes in the building are on her as she passes and they stay as she walks away. All the way down to the back of the library where she knows Spencer’s office is.

She knocks 3 times, hearing “come in.” She turns the knob and enters cautiously, “hi doctor reid, I have an appointment with you today…”

“I remember,” he smiliest her, “you can close the door, come sit.”

She pushes the door closed and locks it as a precaution, she unbuttons her coat and lets it fall off her shoulders before she turns to face him. Taking it off fully, she hangs it on his coat hook and makes her way to the chair, she crosses her legs and sits like a lady, knowing she was about to get treated like a whore.

She pushes her glasses up and smiles at him, “thank you for seeing me.”

He leans in closer with a smirk, “are we starting now? We never talked about the plan?”

She leans in closer too, laughing slightly, “are we disputing a grade or are you helping me understand something?”

“Can you pretend to not understand something and I’m like clueless that you actually want to fuck me?” Spencer suggests.

She nods, “is it my turn to pretend to take advantage of you?”

He sucks in a deep breath and nods, “please?”

“Resume,” she winks at him and sits back in her seat.

“There’s not much I can do to change your mark at this point, all I can think is offering you some extra credit?”

She gets up from her seat, walks around the desk and sits on the edge in front of him. Legs slightly spread, her skirt has ridden up, panties now on show, she leans towards him with her boobs pushed together, “and what can I do to get that?”

“uh—”

“I have a few ideas…” she cuts him off, taking his tie in her hand and pulling him in closer. “You can just say I wrote some position paper and I can show you a few positions in person?”

She watches his face heat up, and he swallows sharply making his Adam’s apple bob in his throat, deliciously. She feels like a feral cat, ready to pounce on him and just have her way with him. She’s been dying to just fuck his brains out with no rhyme or reason as long as she’s known him. Now’s her chance.

She pulls him in by his tie, kissing him with tongue, and he moans into her mouth. His hands are on her sides, cautiously, it’s like the first night all over again. He doesn’t know what he’s allowed to do, like if he was to actually fuck a student that just wanted to use him.

He’s putty in her hands, going where she says and she’s giving him free rein. She pulls back and looks into his lust-blown, chocolate brown eyes, “I know you’ve been looking up my skirt during lessons, so why don’t you get on your knees and take a closer look.”

He follows orders well, dropping to his knees and spreading her legs apart further with a groan. His eyes roll back as he runs his finger over the white fabric. Symbolizing purity, he couldn’t believe she’d even pretend to give it to him this way. If only his past self could see him now.

“You look fucking delicious.”

“Thank you, professor,” she smirks, running her fingers through his hair and making eye contact with him again, “want a taste?”

“You know, most students just bring me cookies… or an apple?” He teases.

“Is that a no?” She fakes offence, closing her legs slightly when he protests.

“No, it was a compliment… pussy is my favourite,” he practically purrs.

He stands again, pushing her skirt up to her waist and pulling her panties off. They go right into his pocket, he sits back in his chair, letting her rest her feet on the armrests while he takes his position between them. He licks his lips in anticipation, “now remember, we’re in the back of the library, so try and be a little poised.”

“Yes sir,” she bites her lip, watching him hook his arms around her thighs and he digs in.

Instant relief, she sighs and leans back, hand still in his hair and using it as a leash. Guiding him where to go, rejoicing in his free choices and begging for more. He was so good with his tongue, and his hands too. His fingers were long and dainty, the knuckles were boney and his nails were always nice. When he pushed in two fingers, slowly as to feel the ridge of each knuckle before he couldn’t get any deeper, he curled them so the soft pads of his fingertips rubbed that special spot inside of her.

She was trying her best to stay quiet, but the gasps she was letting out were a tell-tale sign to anyone passing the door that locked them there. No one could come in, they were safe in there but the rumours could still cause him some issues if she was heard.

She kept quiet as long as possible but it broke when the heat in her belly hit a fever pitch. She covered her mouth with her hand, losing her grip on the desk and laying back against his papers. His closed laptop was cold against the exposed skin of her back, cooling her down as her orgasm rushed through her with a shock. “Oh, fuck,” She groaned behind her hand, trying so hard not to squeal the way she would at home when he kept going. Fucking her through her orgasm, torturing her with pleasure.

When he pulls away he wipes his fingers on her skirt and moves to unbutton his pants, he stands to push them off and pull her in closer. His bulge collides with her aching, empty pussy as she whines for more. “Please, professor?”

He pulls her back up to a sitting position and then to her feet, turning her around and pressing her against the blackboard behind him. With a fistful of her hair and her cheek touching chalk, he grinds against her ass. “Please what?”

She moans slightly, “use my pretty pussy, show me what grade I deserved?”

He lets go of her hair and relieves the pressure on her back, her chest heaves as the adrenaline courses through her body. He runs his hands down her sides, making her shiver. When he reaches her skirt, he flicks the hem up and grips both of her butt cheeks, spreading them as she leans forward a bit more, showing him where he can put it.

He free’s his cock from his underwear, rubbing it against her ass for some relief for himself, and to tease her. She thinks he’s finally going to fuck her when he slides between her folds, gliding the head of his cock over her clit, making her shiver again and sigh in frustration. “Please?”

“Fine,” he pushes right in.

She’s shocked, her gasp becomes a moan as he fucks her immediately. He doesn’t wait for her to adjust to the size or get used to it at all, he just takes her the way she’s been begging him to. He breathes against the back of her neck, kissing right under her ear, “this what you wanted?”

“Yes sir,” she can’t help but smile as the pleasure courses through her. The cold blackboard she’s resting against is relieving the heat she feels all over, desperate for so much more, she pushes back against him, arching her back more, wishing she was bent over the desk.

Like he’s reading her mind, he pulls out and maneuvers her over the desk again, slapping her ass once and then slipping right back in. He keeps the same pace as before, fucking her with a glorious rhythm, she reaches between her legs to rub her clit where she’s met with his hand too.

He rests his on top of hers, showing her how to move her fingers, helping her out in more ways than one, it’s so fucking hot she can’t take anymore. “close… fuck.”

“Wanna let go baby?” He coos in her ear.

“You first,” she begs, “fill me up, professor?”

“Fuck,” he growls, teeth gracing her neck, he fucks her harder and faster until he erupts, pumping her full of his cum as his hips still, but her’s quake.

Her orgasm hits the same as his, rushing through her as she feels the heat inside. It’s her favourite part of having sex with him, knowing that he’s never cum in anyone but her, feeling like she’s been marked by him, she belongs to him, it’s everything to her.

They take a moment to catch their breath, his chest rests on her back, his chin on her shoulder, she reaches her free hand around to hold him in a weird hug, “thank you.”

“You’re getting A’s for the rest of the term,” he jokes, out of breath and full of love for her. The smile on his tired face proves it. “I love you.”

She knew that already but hearing it was still wonderful. “I love you,” she smiles back. “Can I have my underwear back or are you going to make me walk out of here with your cum dripping down my legs?”

He pulls out slowly, reaching for a tissue to catch the mess on his way out. “You can have them back in a sec,” he can’t help but laugh. “If I had the energy to go again,” he groans as he watched his cum leak out of her. “fuck…”

“Hey,” she giggles, “I’m tired too.”

She turns around, reaching in his pocket and taking her underwear back, she sits on the edge of the desk and slips back into them carefully. “Do you have anything else to do or can we go home?”

“Let’s go home,” he agrees, pulling his pants back up and buckling his belt once more. It was still funny to both of them that they could fuck like that and then go right back to their normal, giddy, selves.

He took her coat off the hook, wrapped her in it and grabbed his own, they linked arms, he turned out the lights and the two of them made their way out of the empty library, happier than ever simply because they had each other.

Permanent tag list

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@hotched @mrs-dr-reid @wander-lustbabe @m-mhotchner @reidselle

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid self insert #spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine

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five-rivers · 3 years

Text

Changeling Chapter 1

A DP Fae Au fic. I've been promising you this for so long XD. I can hardly believe I'm finally delivering, even if it's only one chapter for now.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning, There Was an Offer

They studied legends. According to those legends, today, Beltane, was a time of renewal, of birth, of fertility.

It was not supposed to be… this. Their dreams weren’t supposed to be crushed today. Not under this sun, not under these blue skies and among softly blooming flowers.

This kind of news should have come with rain. It should have come with storms.

Maddie wiped tears out of her eyes and Jack patted her on the back. The air smelled sweet and dusty at the same time. The bench was uncomfortable.

“We could try adoption,” said Jack. He sounded shocked, too. Drained. His voice was pulled taught over a great hollowness. “Lots of people adopt. We can- can do some good in the world, maybe.”

Maddie sniffed and cried harder. She’d wanted her own children, and Jack knew it. Adoption was all very well and good, but at this point the suggestion felt like some consolation prize, and she felt terrible for even thinking it was, because Jack was right, it could be a good thing, and…

She wanted children. Her own children.

“Excuse me, I believe I can help.”

There was something about how he said that, about how the voice wound and slipped through her ears that had Maddie’s head snapping up. The man who stood to the side of the bench wore a long coat with a deep hood. Symbols, symbols that Maddie had spent hours, days, weeks, researching were stitched into the fabric. His eyes glittered in the shadows. The fingers of his hands, clasped in front of him, were too long, their coloring faintly lavender, as if they had been dipped in ink and retained the stain even after they’d been washed clean.

This was not a human.

“How?” asked Maddie, feeling hope drip back into her limbs even as Jack tensed behind her. “How can you help?”

“We shouldn’t have done that,” said Jack as they drove home. “We really shouldn’t have done that. Maddie, they’re evil, there’s always a catch and it’ll always be looking for a way to push us into it.”

“The catch is in the open,” said Maddie, leaning back against the seat of the car and closing her eyes. “It isn’t as if it’s in the fine print and we’re going to stumble into it. We have one, and then I get my tubes tied, or you get snipped, and we go on with our lives.”

“What if we have twins? Triplets? Maddie, we should have talked about this.”

“There wasn’t any time,” Maddie said defensively. “I had to decide right away.”

“What are we going to do if we have twins, Maddie?”

Maddie bit her lip, her eyes opening without her full permission as she thought. “We know how to deal with things like him.”

The car jerked just a little to the right as Jack failed to suppress his flinch. “Do you remember our work on motivations? On why they take artists, musicians, children?” he asked. He forged on without waiting for an answer. “Creative sterility, we called it. For this one to be able to cure sterility, he has to be powerful. I don’t think nails in pockets and inside-out clothing is going to stop him.”

Such protections were hit and miss to begin with. One faerie might hate bread, another might love it. The sound of bells would drive off one, and another would wear them in their hair. Even cold iron was no guarantee against them.

“We’ll have to find something better, then,” she said, firmly.

Maddie laughed. Not a twin. A single child showed on the ultrasound monitor. A girl. A beautiful baby girl. Perfect.

On the other side of the bed, Jack sunk into a chair, obviously relieved. “She’s healthy?” he asked the OB/GYN.

“Completely,” she said. “This is quite the miracle the two of you put together here.” She shook her head. “We must have gotten something wrong during our examination. I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am to have put you through all that, and I won’t blame you if you wanted to find a new doctor.”

“It’s fine,” said Maddie, patting the woman’s arm. “It happens.” Yes, being approached by a powerful fae just ‘happened.’ “The important thing now is to make sure there aren’t any complications.”

They made sure Jazz was born on a Sunday, with two middle names, one of which Maddie made sure to forget. They scheduled her baptism for as early a date as possible, even though both Jack and Maddie were as lapsed as it was possible to be.

Precautions.

Jack had his surgery only a month later.

They were safe. They had won.

The family of three snuggled together on the couch. Well, Jazz snuggled inasmuch as a newborn was able. They watched TV.

“Jack, dear,” said Maddie, roused to awareness by a news story about a rising young businessman. “Is that our Vlad?”

Jack blinked at the screen. “I think you’re right,” said Jack. “I haven’t seen him since college. I don’t think we’ve talked to him since college.” He frowned. “Did something happen? The three of us used to be so close… He was the only one in the whole folklore department that would put up with our theories, do you remember?”

“I don’t know,” said Maddie, trying to remember. “It was like he was there one day, gone the next.”

“Do you think he’ll mind us getting back in touch?”

“Only one way to find out.”

(As it turned out, Vlad did not particularly care to get back in touch.)

Jazz was not a normal child.

She saw too much. She understood too much. Her teeth grew in early. She learned how to get the milk out of the fridge at about the same time she learned how to walk. Her eyes were too large, even for her age. She didn’t start talking until she was almost two, and when she did, it was in complete sentences. She took to responsibility like a duck to water. No, she demanded responsibility, from waking up the family in the morning to answering the door. She loved rules and games, and the rules of games.

But they had never raised a child before. Perhaps this was simply how they were. Perhaps this was within the expected variety of humanity.

Most importantly, Jazz was theirs. Completely.

Maddie was not terribly concerned when her period missed a few days, or even when it was late by a week. But when it started pushing two…

She bought a test.

It came back positive.

Danny’s birth was different from Jazz’s in almost every particular. Instead of being infused with a sense of joy, proceedings were overshadowed by dread. Jazz had been born in a hospital. Danny would be born at home, behind every ward and protection Jack and Maddie could conceive of. The midwife they hired was more than used to odd belief systems and threw a few of her own traditions in as well.

It couldn’t hurt.

It didn’t help.

After the birth, Maddie held Danny in her arms. He’d been born in a caul, which had been slightly alarming, even though Maddie had known that it was a thing that happened regularly, and that, by most accounts, it was lucky.

He was such a tiny little thing. Smaller than Jazz. Which made sense, he was a little premature.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” she promised him, whispering into the silky, wispy curls on top of his head.

Someone knocked on the door. Maddie jerked her head up, even though the front door wasn’t at all visible from the basement. Jack flinched hard enough to drop the towels he was holding. The midwife froze.

“Hospitality,” croaked Maddie. Those rules were always humanity’s first defense against the uncanny. Don’t want something in your house? In your life? Don’t invite it in.

Although, she had arguably already invited in the fae they were worried about. Hence all the other contingencies.

The knock came again. And again, louder.

Jack let out a sigh of relief. “It can’t get in,” he murmured. Then he smiled, broad and bright. “We just have to wait it out.”

Maddie nodded, tears in her eyes. The knocking continued. This was far from ideal, obviously, but she’d been half expecting the fae to simply rip through the wards like tissue paper.

Perhaps the theory that more powerful fae were more bound by custom, more vulnerable to their weaknesses, held water? She and Jack had always dismissed it as fanciful, but they’d never been able to gather evidence before.

Then, a sound that made her heart stop.

“I’ll get it!” called Jazz, childish voice muffled by distance and the obstacle of the floors above. She’d been told not to answer the door when Danny was being born, to wait patiently in her room, but for all her unusual maturity, she was only three.

Faster than she’d ever seen him move, Jack bolted for the stairs, pushing aside several pieces of furniture and medical equipment in his haste. He took the stairs four at a time and nearly taking the door off the hinges.

He wasn’t fast enough.

“Who are you, mister?”

“Me?” said a voice Maddie had prayed against ever hearing again. “I am your uncle, my dear. Did your parents not tell you about me?”

Jazz tipped her head to one side and stared up at the man, making her eyes extra big. She knew it made a lot of people uncomfortable when she looked at them like that, so she treated it as a kind of test.

The man smiled, kind and patient. He was kind of funny looking, but in a good way.

“No,” she said finally. “Are you Mommy’s brother or Daddy’s brother?”

“Ah, you already know about uncles, then. I was worried I’d have to explain. May I come in? I would like to greet your little brother, as your parents promised I could. I have gifts for both of you.”

Jazz liked gifts. “Okay,” she said. “But I dunno if Danny’s been born yet. Mommy said it can take a while. And I dunno if he can have gifts, yet. He’s gonna be really little. That’s what all my books say, and also the internet.”

“Jazz! Don’t!”

Jazz turned to see her Daddy skid around the corner, just as her uncle stepped across the threshold.

“Not quite on time, I fear,” said uncle. “Young Jazz has already let me in.” He patted Jazz on the head. She ducked away and stuck her tongue out, like she always did when Daddy did that. “Having greeted my niece, I would like to see my nephew.”

The fae did walk past the rest of the wards as if they weren’t even there. It didn’t even break them, just ignored them. Some of them he even commented on, as if approving.

He gazed down at Danny with his otherworldly eyes. The midwife had retreated to the corner of the room, refusing to look at what was happening. Jack had attempted to attack the fae with his bare hands, only to be pushed away with something approaching gentleness by an invisible wall. Maddie didn’t know where Jazz was. Upstairs, somewhere, hopefully.

“So beautiful,” the fae said, brushing Danny’s forehead with his off-color fingers. Faster than Maddie could react, he had a pair of scissors in his hand and was cutting off a lock of hair. “A lovely child.” The lock of Danny’s hair disappeared into the fae’s coat.

If Maddie didn’t know better, she’d call the expression on the fae’s face love. But she did know better. Love was as incomprehensible to the fae as fae laws were to humans, so she’d call it by its true name: avarice.

She tightened her grip on Danny, as if she could keep the fae from plucking him from her arms.

“Not now,” said the fae, after another moment. “Soon, I should think.” It ran a hand over Danny’s head. “Soon.” The fae looked up, meeting Maddie’s eyes. “I will return,” he said, “in one year.”

“For what?” demanded Maddie, unwilling to get her hopes up.

The fae blinked slowly. “For his birthday.” He tilted his head. “To determine whether or not he is ready. Perhaps, also, to visit my niece.”

“You stay away from Jazz!” snarled Maddie. “You have no claim on her.”

The fae merely shrugged, then smiled, slyly. “She does, however, have a claim on me. I promised her gifts, before your husband whisked her away.”

“Gifts,” repeated Maddie, hoarsely.

“For the sister of my child, yes,” said the fae, voice and face as calm and even as ever. “Would you ask me to forswear myself?”

“Then,” said Maddie, “you can leave them here, with us.”

“You will give them to her?”

“Yes,” said Maddie, through her teeth. She did not say how long she would let Jazz be in the presence of these ‘gifts.’

“Very well, then,” said the fae, pulling a number of boxes out from beneath his coat. “One year. Be prepared.”

And, with that, the fae faded from view, as if he had been an illusion all along.

Danny was still with them. Their son was still with them. Still theirs.

“One year,” she said, breathless. “Only one year.”

“One whole year,” corrected Jack, rushing to her side. “You’ll see, Maddie. Next time, that fae won’t know what hit him!”

“One whole year,” echoed Maddie, weakly.

“One year to prepare,” said Jack. “Look what we did with half that time! We’re Fentons! We can do it!”

“We can do it,” breathed Maddie. “One year. We’ll be ready.”

Jack nodded, firmly. “We’ll be ready.”

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2021 #dannymay 2021 day 30: fantasy #fae au #changeling #dp fae au

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dazz-linglight · 3 years

Note

Mafia couple got7 reaction

(you ask and I deliver! I got a little carried away hehe, come back soon xx)

Jaebeom

You are in command of another mafia group in the South of Seoul while Jaebeom is the leader of the West side, so you were surprised when he offered an alliance between your families in the form of marriage. You were hesitant in the beginning but after a few meetings and deep talks he convinced you and it led to what was happening right now.

"Turn around." Jaebeom ordered and you did as told turning to look at the the full body mirror in front of you, curious about the jewel box he had in his hands. Soon you felt a necklace touching your collarbones and turn to face him again.

"Already spoiling your future wife?" You asked in a half playful tone and he shook his head once.

"I've lost people before, so when I care about someone I plant a tracking device on them." He cups your face in both of his hands to make you look at him.

"This is for me to be sure you're safe when we're not together." You get closer to him and touch his wide shoulders.

"How caring. However don't you forget I'm not a defenseless lady, okay?." You leave a kiss on his jaw catching him off guard and see his surprised face just before you dodge him to get out of the room.

"I still have things to solve today, call me later." He stay and watch the way your hips move as you leave.

Mark

"If he lays a hand on you, just cut him off." Mark tells you positioning a well sharpened knife on your thigh as an extra to the gun on your bag before sending you off to buy the cooperation of the new officer in town.

•••

"Miss Tuan, the lady I've heard so much about." You meet the officer on a restaurant during his lunch and give him a simple smile, sitting in the chair in front of him.

"I hope you heard good things only."

"Oh, I heard you're very persuasive."

"That's very true."

"So what can I help you with?"

"Tell me how much you need to stay away from the East side during your work time."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your price. Let's not play innocent here, Mr. Lin." He looks at you in surprise as you open your bag to take out an envelope with a few thousands, surely more than his salary.

"Listen, I don't do that stuff."

"Oh, really? I have 20 pages here that I'm sure you don't want your Superior to see." You show him the file full of information, some of them genuine and some were fake but all of them convincing enough to make him accept the deal.

"$20K and you let me keep that." He points at the file and you pass it to him together with the envelope.

"That's the right amount on the envelope. It was a pleasure talking to you." You get up and stop by his side.

"Just so you know to not try to turn tables, that's the file you have is a copy, I have the original. Have a good day." You leave, not waiting for him to say anything else.

Jackson

You accompanied Jackson in a trip to Shanghai to close a new deal in the town to support the negotiations on expanding the business from Seoul. The meeting is occurring on one of the most expensive rooms of KTV, and you get in helping other lady bringing drinks to the group of men.

"Are we using companion tonight?" One of the old guys say in a malicious tone, ogling your ass when you lean to place the tray of drinks on the table in front of them. Jackson's expression go dark as he hear the man talk and he extends a hand for you to grab and pull you to sit on his lap, gripping your waist tightly.

"Whatever you wish, just pick someone else."

"Oh, you already pick yours? Agile, are you?" The man laughs and accepts a card from the other girl in the room. An hour passed and the deal was finished the old man was wasted leaving with a expensive girl on his arm.

"If he touched you I would've killed him in a heartbeat." Jackson mumbles as the two of you walk out of the building and to his car.

"I would gladly help you with that."

Jinyoung

Jinyoung opens the door to enter his office and the first thing he sees is a female dead and covered in blood on the floor next to his lover looking back at him, cleaning her 38. Your eyes narrowed as you bend down to get the girl's phone.

"What happened here?"

"I caught this bitch installing a spy camera here." You point out the now broken camera on the table behind you.

"Shit, she was leaking information?"

"That's what I will find out through her phone, and then we will get those rats."

"You better start searching, I'll get someone else to clean this mess and tell the others about her."

Youngjae

Youngjae doesn't look very intimidating, he fools a lot of people with nice and smiley aura but makes up for it with cunning manipulation and is still dangerous nonetheless. He plays baits and you're the honey pot, attracting men and women to deathbed without them noticing.

You tie the wrists and legs of the passed out man tightly on the hard chair and wait for him to wake up, which he does a few minutes later.

"Took you long enough. Tell me, do you prefer to lose an arm or a leg first? Not that it will make difference, I will kill you either but, but which one do you think it will hurt less?"

Bambam

Today you could visit Bambam on prison but only get a phone call and see him through a glass with other people instead of having time alone. He's been locked in jail for a month after getting caught in a drug deal but he didn't say a word about his group.

"How was the weather these days?" He asked in a code that meant if you succeeded on the plan of revenge against the people that snitched him.

"The sky is clear, had a little bit of rain yesterday but it's fine now." You answer positively and show a little smile, touching the glass that separated you from him and he did the same.

"Thank you. I miss you so fucking much." He sighs and you nod.

"I miss you too, your trial was scheduled for next week, we're preparing everything."

"Finally, can't wait to get out of here."

Yugyeom

The pin on your earring slipped and fell on the floor near the bed while you put it on your ear, so you crouched down to look for the little piece, but instead of finding what you were looking for you ended up finding something very different.

YUGYEOM!" You scream from the bedroom for him to hear since he is currently in the bathroom finishing his morning routine and he came out running to see what happened, fearing you were in danger and got surprised to see you holding the spare gun he kept under the bed in case of need.

"Since when you have this under your bed??" You ask in complete confusion as to why your sweet boyfriend of a year possessed such a weapon. Now the moment he was dreading came and he couldn't get away from it.

"Sit down, Y/n." He comes closer and takes the fun off your grasp, entrelacing your fingers in his as he tells you the truth, that he works with security and driving to a gang. He admits to be terrified of the thought of you leaving him because of his kind of environment and it took you a long moment to comprehend the whole situation and after a long talk you decide to stay the same, not wanting to throw away the love you felt for him.

#linawritings #got7 x reader #got7 mafia au #got7 masterlist #got7 reactions #got7 imagines #mark tuan x reader #jaebum reactions #jaebum scenarios #jackson x reader #park jinyoung x reader #youngjae x reader #bambam x reader #yugyeom x reader

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solalunar-eclipse · 3 years

Text

A Gift To Remember

Summary: Shadow receives a gift for his birthday that causes a series of very interesting (and often cute) events.

Word count: about 7500 words

Author’s Note: I didn’t realize today was Shadow’s birthday! At the moment I’m more than a little confused because the release dates for SA2 say everything from the 18th to the 23rd, but this seems to be the one, so here this is!

Also, to that one anon whose question about this fic I never quite managed to answer- sorry about that and I do hope you’re still here to read this!

...

The main room of Team Dark’s home was, on a normal day, at least somewhat clean- which was in and of itself surprising, considering the fact that three teenagers lived there. (It was, of course, slightly less surprising when it was noted that one of these teenagers was a giant robot, one was already a businesswoman, and one had grown up in an incredibly clean environment.)

At the moment, however, said room was currently rather less clean, instead covered in various colorful signs, streamers, balloons, and other such decorations. After all, today was a very special day.

When Shadow and Rouge had discovered they shared a birthday (or creation day for Shadow, technically), they both became infinitely more determined to celebrate it for the other’s sake. This had actually, interestingly enough, also ended up making them enjoy their own festivities more than they had in quite some time.

Omega, meanwhile, had officially decided that this was his favorite day of the year.

Over the past few days, Rouge had already received a few presents from various people she knew in the line of clothes, makeup, or jewelry- but as much as she loved gems, her favorites so far were definitely the ones Omega and Shadow had gotten for her: a laser cutter that could slice through anything and a pair of (stylish) infrared goggles, respectively.

Shadow had just opened his present from Omega, which happened to be a sword that looked very cool...but was also longer than his actual body. This wasn’t actually as big of a problem for him as might be expected, as he’d gotten used to handling weapons several times his size during the alien invasion a little while back.

He had, however, been told rather quickly by Rouge to put it away ‘before you slice the wall in half, this place does cost money, you know!’.

Next, Rouge placed her present in his hands, but at first all Shadow could do was just stare at it. This was likely because the gift wasn’t actually wrapped, but instead consisted of a box made of wood slats and filled, oddly enough, with paper shavings. There were quite a few ribbons on it, though, in an attempt to make up for the lack of other decorations.

“I couldn’t wrap it, or else the present wouldn’t have worked.” she explained, sitting back down to watch him open it.

After prying off the top and shifting aside some of the paper pieces, the hedgehog froze.

Inside, there sat a single white chao egg.

Carefully lifting the egg out of the box, Shadow held it gingerly, as though he were afraid it might try to bite him if he wasn’t gentle enough.

“Rouge…” he began nervously. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate this, but...are you sure I’m the best person to be taking care of a chao?”

“Of course, hon!” she said. “You’ve taken care of them before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but…” Shadow protested, “...are you sure I’ll be able to do as well at home? The garden is their natural habitat…”

Omega folded his arms. “YOU ARE THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM. OF COURSE YOU CAN RAISE A CHAO.”

“That’s right!” Rouge added. “The chao are always happy when you take care of them- this time isn’t going to be any different.”

“…I suppose so.” Shadow conceded, taking a deep breath. He began to rock the egg slowly from side to side. “Here we go-”

A crack appeared across the pristine white surface. The split spread rapidly while Shadow sat and watched, making sure not to move the egg about much. Chao had to hatch their eggs on their own- it was the way they first began to strengthen themselves.

Rouge laughed. “See? You know exactly what you’re doing!”

Shadow studiously ignored her and continued to focus on the egg. Then, suddenly, a chirp came from inside and the whole top half came flying off.

The hybrid looked at his newborn chao...and his heart (though he’d never admit it) immediately melted. Soft, big eyes gazed up at him, an overjoyed smile on the creature’s face. It cooed happily upon seeing him give a small smile back, and he reached out and began to gently pat its head.

The chao broke into an even wider smile as its eyes closed blissfully, the little sphere above its head popping into a heart. Shadow continued to pet it, offering gentle words of praise, and might have continued like that for the next ten minutes had a camera noise from Omega not made him look up in alarm.

“ADDING IMAGE TO FILE: SHADOW BEING SOFT.” he declared, while Rouge looked on with a giant grin.

“You will do nothing of the sort-” Shadow growled, jumping to his feet, before a soft whimper from his chao stopped him. Its eyes were watery, wide and distressed, and the hybrid immediately scooped it up in his arms, holding it close. It relaxed quickly, snuggling into his chest fluff, and he shot Omega one last semi-serious glower before turning his attention back to the newborn.

Omega promptly took another picture.

…

Later that day, at the party that all of their friends had thrown for them, the chao and Shadow were nearly inseparable. It tended to rest in his lap when he was sitting or rode in between his ears whenever he stood up to get something. Eventually, though, the excitement of a new environment overwhelmed its initial nervousness, which unfortunately led to Shadow returning from the dining room with his hands full of plates of food to discover his chao crawling along the precarious edge of a bookshelf.

Suddenly, the chao’s footing slipped, and Shadow froze, unable to move or do anything- but then Sonic of all people noticed and was already there, leaping up and catching the chao before resting it snugly in his arms. “Looks like someone’s already progressed to the giving-their-owner-a-heart-attack stage, hm?” he asked, smirking at the little creature.

“Thank you.” Shadow said as his chao was returned to him, trying very hard to ignore the way his hands and Sonic’s brushed in the process.

(He’d been nursing a bit of a crush on the hero for a while now, but had decided to ignore it until it wore off. Sonic had admirers from all across the globe vying for his attention- it was absurd to think that anything could happen between them.)

…

Over the coming weeks, all three members of Team Dark made sure to rework their schedules so that someone was always home to watch over the chao- no more climbing on bookcases for the little one now. Shadow did most of the caretaking, feeding, training, cleaning, and providing Chaos Drives (mostly green) to the chao. Rouge did, however, occasionally claim she could ‘handle the extra work’ to give him some spare time and Omega even took it upon himself to watch it every so often.

Sometimes, Shadow and his chao would even cook together in the kitchen (a hobby he’d discovered he enjoyed after finding out that Rouge tended to eat takeout all the time- “You can’t live off that day in and day out- you’re not me, Rouge!”). The sight of a tiny pale blue creature determinedly lifting a bag of flour and flying it across the room was awfully cute- especially after Shadow bought it a tiny apron in what he unconvincingly claimed was an accidental purchase.

Shadow never made accidental purchases.

As much as the hybrid took care of it, though, the chao also seemed to be helping him. He smiled more, glowered less, and generally seemed more tolerant of mistakes than he had been in the past. Nowadays, errors that would once have caused him to go off on a rant or huff about were now met with a calmer ‘it’s okay’ or an offer for help fixing it.

He often laid a hand on it in his sleep or curled around it protectively, and could easily be seen patting its head, carrying it around, or even- when he thought he was alone- nuzzling it gently. The amount of time and care he put into making sure that his chao was happy would have been astonishing to anyone who hadn’t already seen how much he cared about his friends.

It was no surprise then that, before long, Rouge and Omega woke up one morning to find the chao inside a cocoon (and also a very stressed-out Shadow).

The hedgehog promptly called in sick for the entire week- an incredible occurrence for him. He’d originally sworn that since he couldn’t get ill, he’d give his sick days to others when they needed it, but now that was all out the window. He wanted nothing more than to stay home and essentially sit and stare at the cocoon until it hatched.

While the two other members of Team Dark managed to convince him to eat, sleep, and do chores on regular intervals, whenever Shadow had a spare moment he’d stay in his room, watching and waiting. Their friends got so worried that Rouge and Omega had used everything in their power to coax him out of the house twice over those five days, but he refused to do any more. Even then his outings had to come with the promise that they’d both stay home, check it every five minutes, and call him the absolute moment something happened.

On the sixth day of waiting, the cocoon began to hatch while Shadow was attempting to discreetly read out loud to the chao from one of his favorite books. The moment he saw the split, he dropped the novel, jumped up, and shouted louder than he had in months- “Rouge! Omega! It’s HAPPENING!”

He hovered so closely around the cocoon that Omega had to physically pull him back as Rouge reminded him to give the chao more space. Within moments, the split had widened enough for a single black paw to poke out, feeling around carefully for some sort of purchase to pull itself the rest of the way outside. Soon enough, it had succeeded, earning- impressively enough- widened eyes from Omega and a gasp from both Shadow and Rouge.

Frowning light blue eyes were set in an equally grumpy (albeit adorable) face, with two little black ears and three tiny quills on the chao’s head. The ears and quills both had red stripes, as did the arms, legs, and even its tail. A red crescent shape sat on its chest, and two tiny purple bat wings flapped slowly behind it.

In short, it looked a lot like a tiny Shadow.

The hedgehog in question reached out carefully and began to pet his chao, offering some quiet words of praise, but before long it flew up and settled in its favorite spot in between his ears. When Shadow turned around to face his friends, they were met with the sight of a little glowering creature settled on top of his head…which really did look far too similar to the hybrid himself when he was irritated.

Rouge covered a smile with both of her hands. “Shadow...hon…”

He frowned at her, only serving to make the resemblance more obvious. “What?”

“It looks exactly like you!”

“Not really- it has blue eyes and...bat wings…” He looked up at her suddenly. “Rouge...how much time have you been spending with Spark again?”

“Oh, just a little- wait, Spark?” she said quickly, redirecting his attention.

Shadow flushed a bright green at that. “I might’ve already picked out a name...does it sound alright?” he asked, studiously looking anywhere but at his friends.

The chao chirped at the name and snuggled a little further into the fur on his head, seemingly pleased with the title.

He began to smile at that. “You like that name, do you?” he asked teasingly.

“It sure looks like it! I think it’s a lovely name, hon.” Rouge added.

The chao cooed, cementing its name with all of the team (whether Omega would admit it or not).

Now, if anything, Shadow and his chao were even more close than before. Rouge even bought it a tiny leather jacket to match his style, which was quickly deemed by everyone (especially their friends, to whom she’d sent about fifty photos) the most adorable thing ever.

...

One day, Shadow came home from lunch out with Silver and Blaze only to discover a quite unexpected scene- though he really should have seen it coming, considering what he’d noticed after his chao had hatched. Rouge was kneeling next to the sofa, scratching Spark behind the ears and saying in what could only be described as a baby voice, “Who’s your favorite momma? Me, that’s right. That’s right, isn’t it?”

“Uh….” he interrupted, feeling more than a little uncertain as to how to respond to this. He was torn between “I didn’t know you had a baby voice” and “I’m glad to see you and Spark getting along” and wasn’t entirely sure which one to go with here.

The bat, on the other hand, jumped a good three feet in the air at the sound before glaring at Shadow furiously. “Don’t startle me like that!” she shouted, more than a little tense...and also a bit worried?

The hybrid didn’t react, instead saying “It’s nice to see you spending time with Spark too, Rouge.” with a smile.

She relaxed a little at that, and Shadow sighed. “Rouge, I wouldn’t make fun of you- I do the same kind of thing, don’t I?”

“You’re right, you’re right.” the bat admitted. “I just had to! It looks like me- it even has my wings! How could I not?”

Shadow moved to sit down on the sofa at that, reaching out to pat the chao as well. Rouge smiled at him gratefully, and then they both looked down at the cute creature in between them, who was promptly staring up at both with a confused look on its face. After a moment, though, it seemed to realize that everything was alright and nuzzled both Mobians before curling up on the couch happily.

…

Another time, the entire team was out grocery shopping at their favorite store when Spark’s eye was caught by the soft, warm cinnamon buns sitting behind a glass case. After a minute or two of desperate pulling at the seams- to no avail- it flew over to Shadow and began to poke at his shoulder until he turned to look at it.

“Yes? What is it?” he asked, giving the chao a little scratch under the chin.

The chao pointed excitedly at the sweet treats, but its expression melted into one of dismay upon hearing him say “No, Spark, that’s not very good for you- and it’s too big for you to finish all by yourself, too.”

It mimed a clock insistently- they didn’t go to the store that often, after all- its frown deepening all the while. Shadow felt a little uncertain- he enjoyed giving the chao treats, but was now really the best time to feed it so much sugar? It could end up flying all over the place, and he really didn’t feel like getting banned from yet another grocery store. (The last one had been because Omega got a little too excited while messing around with the shopping cart and had melted it and twisted it into a knot...somehow. They were rapidly escorted out after that.)

Suddenly, though, the chao shuffled forward, took one of his fingers in between its tiny paws, and stared up at him with the softest, most pleading look it could possibly manage, its eyes wide and mouth quivering. “No...no, come on…” Shadow protested weakly, but already his resistance was melting away. It practically seemed to be saying haven’t I been good all week? Can’t I please just have this one treat? and the hybrid was in no condition to fight back.

Within moments, Spark was holding a cinnamon roll and dug into it with glee, only pausing once to nuzzle Shadow happily and offer him a quick bite as thanks. He accepted the gesture of appreciation easily (even though now his face had sugar on it after the chao’s affectionate thank-you) and was more than happy to see his chao smiling broadly with the treat in its hands.

…

The chao was, of course, still a great help to Shadow as well. One night in particular, it woke up to the sounds of quiet whimpering and began to look around, startled. For a moment, it turned to its caretaker for help- and then discovered that he was the one in trouble.

Shadow was curled up on his side, his brow creased in distress and his whole body shaking terribly. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut and occasionally the most terribly saddening sounds would escape his mouth. Once or twice, a tear escaped and trickled down his face.

Spark crawled up to his face gently, licking away the tear and nuzzling his cheek. Shadow shuddered briefly, but seemed to relax almost infinitesimally when the dark chao pressed itself against his chest for a moment. Eventually, the creature managed to get him to roll onto his back, at which point it crawled onto his chest, hoping that this would help him begin to relax.

It really did work- within moments, the small, warm weight on his chest made Shadow’s breathing even out and his shivers ease as the nightmare that was plaguing him began to fade.

Spark curled up, pleased with itself, and fell back asleep not long after.

…

There was just one problem amongst all this newly-discovered happiness that came with the chao. Ever since it had evolved out of its cocoon, Omega seemed as though he were hardly willing to interact with it.

Rouge or Shadow would hand it over to him, only to get it back less than a minute later. He spent the least amount of time with it out of the three, but when he was asked if he didn’t like the chao, he never said as much.

Omega didn’t tend to lie...but then why wouldn’t he do anything with it?

Once or twice, they’d caught him merely staring at Spark as the little creature sat on the couch, his optics clicking but otherwise utterly silent. The two Mobians hardly knew what to make of it- he’d never acted like this before.

They finally had the opportunity to discover why he was behaving strangely several days later, though, entirely due to an accident on Shadow’s part. Rouge and Omega had been answering a distress call regarding some rogue G.U.N. robots and needed to call in the hybrid to help. He’d driven his motorbike directly to the scene and leapt straight into battle…

...and hadn’t noticed Spark peeking out of the bag he’d left on his bike.

The chao- while fast, to be sure- was in no way prepared for a full-on battle. While at first it had hoped to help its little family, flying about uncertainly in hopes of doing something, it quickly discovered that the only thing it could really do was to hide behind an upended concrete slab and hope it wasn’t noticed.

That, unfortunately, didn’t quite work out.

It didn’t take long before one of the rogue drones spotted a fourth heat signature aside from the three it was fighting and began to stalk towards it, charging its laser cannon in the process. Shadow, confused at first, felt his stomach drop in horror upon seeing his tiny chao shaking in fear as the machine advanced on its hiding spot. He hadn’t thought to bring a Chaos Emerald, believing this would be an easy battle- and Rouge was busy in the air.

The laser cannon on the drone was almost fully charged, and Shadow fired up his skates in a futile attempt to somehow reach Spark before-

A white hot blast lit up the area.

Shadow couldn’t have stopped the strangled cry that came from his mouth if he had wanted to. The smoke began to clear, and he almost couldn’t look…

Something stirred within the haze, and as it cleared away, Shadow felt his whole body sag with relief upon seeing Omega shifting to an upright position from where he’d shielded the chao with the back of his chassis, blocking the full force of the laser. He let out a sigh as he caught a glimpse of Spark held safely in Omega’s hand as the other one retracted to reveal a flamethrower.

“MY TURN.”

Within moments, the drone was just so much melted slag on the floor and the battle’s tide was turned. Shadow and Rouge dispatched the other robots and then rushed to Omega, who had held onto the chao this entire time.

“Omega...thank you.” Shadow said, taking Spark from his friend and holding it tightly.

“IT WAS- zzzt- NOTHING.” Omega said, a sudden staticky buzz splitting his sentence in two.

“Omega?” Rouge asked, her eyes narrowing. “What happened to you?”

“NOTHING.” he said hurriedly, his voice still glitching. “WAIT- DON’T YOU D-DARE-”

The three had already begun looking to see what had happened...but then froze when they saw the damage his back panel had taken while shielding Spark from the blast. A giant, smoking hole of warped and fused metal was burned into his chassis, revealing a bunch of melted and sparking wiring that definitely needed urgent attention.

“Omega…” Shadow looked horrified.

Rouge frowned, confused. “Why would you do this to yourself? I know how much you hate having to go get repairs.”

The robot let out a burst of static that sounded almost like a resigned sigh. Turning around, he muttered, “IT’S LI-LITERALLY YOU. AND ROUGE. BUT TINY. THAT APPEARS TO HAVE… STRANGE EFFECTS- zzzt- ON MY BEHAVIOR.”

“Do you...not like those effects?” Rouge asked, now clearly shifting into ‘I’m figuring things out’ mode. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding it so often?”

“I AM A ROBOT OF MASS DESTRUCTION. I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR TINY CREATURES SUCH AS THIS ONE. I SHOULD NOT FEEL ANY ‘WORRY’ ABOUT IT- AND YET-” Omega cut off there with a frustrated crackle.

Shadow still didn’t understand. “You’ve always been a robot of mass destruction, but you never thought it was weird to worry about us before.”

“THAT WAS DIFFERENT!” Omega insisted. “YOU BOTH ARE POWERFUL. IT IS NATURAL THAT RESPECT AND CONSEQUENTLY OTHER THINGS SHOULD COME FROM THAT. BUT THIS-! IT HAS NO DESTRUCTIVE QUALITIES! BUT STILL I...YOU KNOW...”

“It’s official, Omega.” Rouge said at that, a smirk growing on her face. “You’re becoming more and more like us...organics are always weak for cute things.”

“IT IS SHAMEFUL THAT I SHOULD COME TO THIS.” he grumbled.

“It’s not so bad, really.” Shadow said, placing a hand on his arm.

“And that’s coming from the guy who never used to admit he cares about people!” Rouge insisted. “Omega, you know you don’t have to be embarrassed about that kind of thing here- you’d never make fun of Shadow for not being tough all the time, would you?”

“I GUESS NOT…” he said, still seeming irritated.

At this point, Spark flew up to sit in Omega’s hand, looking up at the robot with its little frowning face, before reaching out and patting a single finger solemnly with its paw.

“OH NO.”

“Oh yes.” Rouge answered, grinning. “Let’s get you to Tails now though, okay? Then once you’re fixed up you can come home and pet the chao.”

Omega turned his head away and refused to dignify that with a response.

(He did, however, pet the chao when he got home. Nobody teased him about it, for which- while he’d never say it- he was rather grateful.)

…

It was inevitable, eventually, that Team Dark’s schedule wouldn’t be perfect and that they’d all have to be out and busy at some point. This, of course, meant that Spark would have to be dropped off at the chao daycare.

Shadow had managed to force himself to reconcile with that fact, but the chao wasn’t nearly as good at that sort of thing.

On the day of, it was sobbing desperately, clinging to Shadow’s jacket with a tight grip as though it’d been handed a horrible punishment instead of a day spent at the warm, welcoming building in front of it. “It’s going to be alright. You’ll be okay, it’s just for a day. See, the Mobians who run it are very nice- won’t you look?” the hybrid whispered in a soothing voice, gently rubbing Spark’s head.

Omega stepped forward. “DON’T YOU...WANT TO SHOW HOW BRAVE YOU CAN BE?” he said awkwardly. Talking to the chao was still taking some getting used to for him, but he was definitely trying his best.

Rouge smiled warmly at that. “Of course! We’ll all be so proud of you, don’t you know that?”

“We can make a cake especially for you when you get home too, alright?” Shadow said, and that was the final thing the chao needed to hear. Wiping its eyes with a final few sniffles, it flew over to the little walkway towards the entrance and stood up tall, its body shaking slightly with leftover stress and its attempts not to cry.

“We love you!” Rouge called, blowing it a quick kiss.

“See you soon.” Shadow said gently, waving with a smile.

“YOU’LL BE THE BEST ONE THERE.” Omega added, shuffling in place a little.

The chao whimpered briefly, but then turned away and bounded into the daycare before it could lose its nerve.

Throughout the morning, it remained relatively antisocial- a bit like the hedgehog whose appearance it had taken- during the music and karate lessons. The other chao all babbled and played together, being mostly neutral and hero-types, and the few dark chao that were there wanted to cause an awful lot more trouble than Spark was in the mood for.

One thing that it noticed very clearly, though, was the extraordinarily frustrating presence of a royal blue hero and speed-type chao.

This chao didn’t seem to think even once (let alone twice) about anything it did. It banged on the drums until Spark’s ears were sore during music class and then somehow managed to smack it in the face during karate lessons twice, and all the while it chatted away with about five other chao all around it.

Needless to say, by midday, when it was playtime, Spark had just about had enough.

When the blue chao rushed directly through the little sand city that it had been carefully building, swiping everything away with a single dash, Spark growled, picked up the plastic shovel it had been playing with, and threw it so hard it whacked the other creature in the arm.

Snarling, it began to stomp off when it felt a hand on its shoulder. The blue chao darted away and began hurriedly to try and rebuild the city, occasionally glancing up at Spark with an apologetic expression in its eyes.

It...looked awfully sad, actually.

Suddenly, the dark chao remembered how it had quickly stopped banging on the drums when the teacher had told it to, and how it had looked rather guilty when it had smacked Spark in the face, and how excited it was when talking with the other chao…

Maybe it was just a little clumsy sometimes.

Spark sighed a little. The other meant well, it decided, as its anger began to fade. It appreciated the apology...but now the sculptures were gone and it couldn’t get them back. Then, though, its gaze fell upon a pair of toy cars sitting nearby.

Pulling the blue chao over to a strip of flat, packed earth nearby, it gave one car to its surprised companion and then set its own down at a line that could work quite well as the start of a race.

Soon enough, the other creature worked out the idea and began to cheer with delight, and before long they were racing cars like they’d been friends since the start. Eventually, they even switched to running races themselves, over and over again until they were all worn out and collapsed on the cool grass in a heap. Before long, though, they were up and at it again, only this time they started with a building game, and then had a little fun with the musical instruments, and soon enough Spark couldn’t help but wonder how they had ever fought in the first place.

Eventually, they decided that their next activity would be a race to the top of the jungle gym they noticed nearby. Spark was determined not to lose as it scrambled up the bars. It pulled itself paw over paw up the structure, getting closer and closer to the top, until-

Suddenly, a bar that it had been sure existed in front of it only a moment ago was now clearly just a little too far away, and the mistake caused it to reel forward, desperately clinging to the slippery bar it sat on. It twisted head over heels until it slid and fell all the way back to the ground, the wind slammed forcefully out of its little lungs.

Spark gasped soundlessly, trying and failing to pull air back into itself. After several agonizing seconds, it finally caught its breath- and then nearly got it knocked back out again by the impact of its new friend.

Regaining focus, the dark chao realized with a start that its friend was practically wailing into its chest, the soft blue creature shaking with desperate, panicked sobs. It looked up quickly, its eyes swollen and teary, and then reached out with its paws and hurriedly patted Spark’s body down, as though to reassure itself that the dark chao was still there.

The creature in question sat up and pulled its friend into a tight hug, feeling nothing less than awful as the blue chao sniffled and whimpered worriedly in its arms. Eventually, it managed to calm down enough to amble over to a small nest made of blankets especially for tired chao and lay down there next to Spark. The two chao curled up together, nuzzling gently as the shaky breaths of the blue one finally evened out.

Spark felt the little ball over its head pop into a heart shape, and noticed briefly that its friend had done the same. They remained curled up like that for the last half-hour or so of their time in the daycare, alternately simply cuddling or talking about their respective owners.

Spark hoped they’d get to spend more time with this friend of theirs soon.

…

Shadow pulled up to the daycare on his motorcycle at closing time, doing his best to smooth out his frazzled quills. It wouldn’t be very good to let his chao know that he’d been nearly as worried about it as it had felt itself.

He sighed, making his way towards the entrance of the building- and instantly felt the last wisps of his composure vanish upon seeing Sonic standing just inside. Before he could panic and flee the area at top speed, his legs (which didn’t seem to have received the message just yet) carried him through the door and inside.

Almost immediately, the blue hedgehog turned to face him with a bright smile. “Oh! Hey, Shadow!” Sonic said happily. “I didn’t know you brought your chao here, too! I’ve gotta say hi to the little guy again sometime!”

“This is my first time bringing it here. If it’s alright with that…I suppose you may.” the hybrid said, trying his best to sound coherent and cool (but actually just seeming stiff and awkward).

They talked for a little while as they waited for their chao to come out, chatting about their lives and friends. More than once, Shadow had to pinch himself in order to stay focused. His mind kept threatening to wander off into dreamland when he was around the hero, ready to admire his many great qualities (and wonderful appearance) at the drop of a hat.

Eventually, though, he became a bit worried by the fact that chao after chao were wandering out through the playroom door, being collected, and leaving…but neither Spark nor Sonic’s chao had even showed up. Soon enough, the two decided to walk into the room and find their tiny charges themselves.

“Uh, hi, mixter!” Sonic greeted the leopard who ran the daycare. “Didja see my lil’ buddy somewhere around here?”

“Oh, hello Sonic!” they said brightly- clearly the hero had been to this place quite a few times before. “Yes, your chao is over there in that nest there, sorry. I just hated to disturb those two…”

Shadow frowned. Those two?

His question was promptly answered when Sonic whisked aside the blanket covering the nest, only for both of them to stare at the sight inside.

Two purring chao, one clearly Sonic’s and the other obviously Shadow’s, were snuggled up together with big hearts floating over their heads. Even the hybrid’s dark chao, notorious for its ever-present frown, looked completely at peace with a small smile on its face.

He tried his best not to freak out.

“Erm…” Shadow began eloquently.

“Uh…” Sonic replied.

The two chao perked up at this, looking happily at their owners before nuzzling gently together in a manner that made Shadow’s stomach leap into his throat and then crash straight through the floor. In a further twist (both in events and in the striped hedgehog’s internal organs), Sonic’s chao then leapt happily into his arms, leaving Shadow to stare at the tiny version of his crush cuddling into his chest fur.

He sincerely hoped there was a convenient couch nearby for him to sit down on.

“Blu- come on-” Sonic began, looking oddly panicked for some reason, but then Spark sprang eagerly onto his shoulder and the hero rapidly fell silent as the dark chao nudged his cheek.

The two hedgehogs stared at each other for a long time. Shadow tried to move or do something other than just stand there, but it was awfully difficult when the hero was looking at him with those wide, soft green eyes….

“Er…Sonic?” Shadow finally choked out, in an odd, strained sort of tone.

“Yeah?”

“I think I’d like my chao back now.”

“Yeah.”

They each handed over their respective creatures, though Shadow felt rather reluctant to let such a tiny version of Sonic out of his arms. And for a moment he could almost have sworn that the hero held Spark a little longer than necessary, too…

…

Once he got home, the hybrid collapsed onto the couch and covered his eyes briefly with a hand. Spark, who had at first rushed into the kitchen (not having forgotten the promise of cake), came back and began to tug on his arm briefly before realizing that maybe Shadow wasn’t quite up to doing much of anything at the moment.

Rouge and Omega walked in just a moment later, their work having ended a little after Shadow’s. Upon seeing him slumped on the furniture, though, their greetings were cut short and instead replaced by worried questions.

Shadow sighed. “Spark...just spent a bunch of time cuddling with Sonic’s chao. And he noticed.”

“And that’s a good thing, hon.” Rouge shot back, having resisted a facepalm the moment she realized what all this was about.

“It is not!” the hedgehog cried out, before realizing that Spark was more than a little stressed by his tone of voice. “I’m not mad at you, don’t worry, it’s just...I already make enough of a fool of myself around him on my own. He’ll figure it out soon enough if we keep this up.”

“SO LET HIM.” Omega said. “EITHER HE STARTS DATING YOU OR HE’S AN IDIOT.”

Shadow blushed furiously. “It doesn’t work like that!”

“EXCEPT WHEN IT DOES.”

“Why don’t you tell him, hon?” Rouge asked. “I mean…” and here she developed a devious smile, “...didn’t his chao technically also act all affectionate with yours?”

The hybrid’s ears were bright green by now. “He’s nice to everyone, Rouge.”

At this point, Spark- who had left temporarily to get a pencil and paper- held up a drawing it had made of the scene at the jungle gym earlier. Shadow, of course, immediately began fussing over his chao, checking for any bruises or scrapes, but the bat in particular saw something entirely different.

“Kinda...reminds me of what happened on Space Colony ARK.” she mused.

Shadow’s head shot up at that. “What?”

Rouge smirked, but it was bittersweet this time. “Your fall...it really hurt him too, y’know? He didn’t go out in public for a long time after that.”

“He...he never mentioned that to me…”

“He wouldn’t have!” she said. “Sonic isn’t the type to ‘bother’ others with his feelings.” Rouge explained, doing air quotes at one point.

“HE ALSO STARES AT YOU WHEN YOU ARE NOT LOOKING.”

“He what?!” By now Shadow had been reduced to just looking back and forth between his two friends.

Spark flew in front of Shadow’s face and began to mime something. First pointing at Shadow, then a heart, then talking, then a hedgehog with all its quills pointed down…

“No! I can’t just tell him!”

“We’re hanging out with his team next week at the park- you should do it then.” Rouge replied, ignoring the last thing he’d just said.

“Did you not hear me, I can’t-”

“YOU WILL NEED SOMETHING NICE TO WEAR.” Omega said loudly over the rest of his sentence.

Spark cheered approvingly.

“So...you three have just decided for me whether or not I’m going to confess to Sonic.” Shadow sighed, beginning to resign himself to the fact.

“Absolutely, hon!” Rouge said brightly, slipping an arm around his shoulders.

He glowered at all three of them, but it lacked any real malice. “Alright, I’ll play along...for now.” he grumbled.

“EXCELLENT. LET THE PLANNING COMMENCE.”

…

One week later, Shadow was standing in the middle of a patch of grass, feeling like his knees were about to buckle as sweat trickled through his quills. He was no longer resigned to telling Sonic about his feelings and was in fact considering jumping into the nearby lake and hiding there for the duration of the hangout. His stomach- along with whatever scraps of resolve he may have had- were currently all the way back at their house.

On top of all that, he was frankly surprised he didn’t just spontaneously burst into flames when the other three Mobians showed up, Sonic in the lead.

“Hey guys!” he said excitedly. “Long time no see!”

Rouge snickered a bit at his catchphrase (it was one of many) but Shadow just felt his ears burn. He was just so cute and cheesy and already the hybrid’s mind was devolving into a mushy mess.

“Rouge, Omega.” he greeted them each, but he seemed to pause for a second on the last name. “...Shadow.”

The hedgehog in question thankfully managed a reply, and then the fun began in earnest. Knuckles and Shadow competed in several arm-wrestling matches with narration from Tails (“...aaaand Knuckles looks like he’s in the lead!”) and commentary from Omega (“YOU’RE LUCKY I DON’T ARM-WRESTLE OR ELSE BOTH OF YOUR ARMS WOULD BE BROKEN.”). Rouge and Sonic were busy pranking other innocent people, though once in a while the latter would look over at the competition, distracted.

Eventually, Tails and Omega got bored- which of course meant Knuckles and Shadow had to play the role of caretaker (“No, you can’t blow up trees. No, not even for ‘science’.”) for a little while.

At one point, though, Rouge got bored with the pranks and had dragged the echidna off to a park bench and was now flirting with him enough to turn his face as red as his spines. Tails had promised to behave- which now meant that he was halfheartedly attempting to convince Omega not to modify his cannon to launch ducks from the nearby pond- leaving Sonic and Shadow to themselves. Blu and Spark had been playing in the grass all this time (since both of them had brought their chao without really realizing that the other would do the same), and Shadow had very definitely not been thinking about how lucky his chao was that emotions were easy for it.

He remembered the talk his friends had given him before this outing then and wondered if maybe, just maybe, it could be that easy. Before he could stop himself, he’d already spoken.

“...Sonic?”

“Yeah?” the hero asked, turning to face Shadow.

“I...wanted to talk to you about something.” he said, regretting everything already because look how stupid he was about to seem...yet Shadow Robotnik the Hedgehog had never been one to do things by halves.

“Oh, really?” Sonic said, and now he almost looked relieved, for some reason. “I, uh, was actually hoping to do the same. That’s cool, what is it?”

“No, no, you go first.” Shadow urged him, hoping that he’d take the offer.

Unfortunately, today was not his lucky day. “No, man, you asked first! Go ahead, what was it?”

“Really- it’s fine.”

“No, you had something you wanted to say!” Sonic insisted.

“It’s okay, I swear-”

“Well, I guess-”

“I mean, if you want-”

“Okay-”

“You see-”

“I like you!”

Both hedgehogs shouted the words at the exact same time, before freezing and staring at each other.

“Wait…” Shadow began.

Sonic’s eyes were wide. “You like me back?!?” he gasped, hands flying up to his mouth.

“...yes.” he admitted, looking off to the side in embarrassment. Then it hit him. “Wait. You like me back?”

“Of course! How could I not?” Sonic asked incredulously. “You’re smart, funny, nice-” He’d begun listing off attributes while counting on his fingers, but cut himself off upon noticing Shadow’s confusion.

“Yes, but you’re a hero. The world’s hero.” Shadow began to frown, staring at the grass. “Why would you settle for someone like-”

“No.” Sonic growled, and the hybrid looked up suddenly to see his face twisted in anger. “Don’t ever say that.”

“But everyone thinks it…” Shadow protested weakly.

“Yeah, well, ‘everyone’ isn’t part of my love life.” Sonic assumed a slightly less aggressive stance, placing a hand on his hip. “Whoever’s been telling you that can either leave you alone or get their face introduced to my sneakers.”

Shadow blushed. “Nobody needed to. I just assumed...but perhaps I shouldn’t have.” he added quickly, seeing the hero begin to glower again.

“That’s right!” he said, zipping over to stand directly in front of Shadow. “No assumptions here- talk to me from now on if something’s worryin’ you, ‘kay?”

Then, he seemed to notice the sudden stiffness in the hybrid’s posture, as well as the green flush slowly creeping up his ears. Sonic leaned forward with a smirk, resting his forearm on Shadow’s shoulder. “Thinkin’ about something?”

Shadow gulped.

For once, he decided that he could do what he wanted. So, he slowly reached up a hand and touched the peach fur on Sonic’s arm gently, like it was the most delicate thing in the world.

Rather more quickly, Sonic turned a shade of bright red to rival Omega’s paint job.

“So, uh…” he began, his voice shaky. “Erm...do ya feel like sitting under that tree? Together?”

Shadow agreed, and the two walked over to the shady patch, sitting down and resting against each other. Soon enough, though, Sonic turned to face Shadow, a little nervous. “Do we, like, need to talk about this? Figure out...what to do about…us?” He started turning pink again.

“Maybe later. We have a lot of time, after all.” Shadow said, trying to contain the soaring feeling inside when Sonic said ‘us’- until he realized that he didn’t have to any longer.

“What’re you smiling about?”

“You. And me. Together.” Shadow said simply, making Sonic laugh and snuggle up against him, resting his head on a black-furred shoulder.

“Wow. That’s, uh….that’s new. I really like it though.”

Then, the hero looked up at him. “I really like you, too.”

At this point, a loud whistle could be heard from Rouge, who was standing not too far off and had likely heard a lot of what they’d said. Sonic just giggled, while Shadow shot her a death glare. She just winked and mouthed I’ll keep them occupied, at which point the hybrid tried not to show how very much he appreciated that and failed miserably.

And Sonic was purring now. Which of course meant that every single brain cell in Shadow’s head was promptly dead for the next five minutes.

After he’d recovered from that, Shadow wrapped his arms tightly around his...boyfriend? Maybe? He thought for a moment. “Hey, Sonic?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you feel about being my-” Shadow paused briefly to cough, trying to get the words out- “-boyfriend?”

“I think I like that a lot.”

Shadow smiled warmly, feeling the beginnings of a purr rise up in his own chest.

“I like that a lot, too. Almost as much as I like you.”

#shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #sonic the hedgehog #happy birthday shadow and rouge!!#these two are the best #i swear i panicked when i realized that their birthday was today and not the 21st haha #me: has never actually fully raised a chao in-game #also me: *throws in made-up chao facts like i know what i'm talking about*#also all names for shadow's chao are valid this is just the one that i personally picked #hopefully everyone enjoyed being blasted by 7500 words of fluff :)#(and hurt/comfort of course)#i liked writing the part where it was like #blu and spark: *speedrun enemies to friends*#sonic and shadow: *PANIC*#just checking: is the term 'mixter' alright for a lengthened version of 'mx.'? i've seen it before but don't know for sure #this is my second attempt writing proper sonadow hopefully it was alright #:D #as always suggestions for how to improve my writing are more than appreciated!#sol's fanfiction

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