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halothenthehorns · 3 months

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Chapter 21: MY BIRTHDAY PARTY TAKES A DARK TURN

Thank you so much to:

@ary-cm

on Tumblr for the awesome cover image!

I can't believe I'm already almost done with one of the three series?!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Will read what he was sure to be the last chapter title with heavy concern. What on earth could be left to happen to Percy that couldn't have waited until the next disaster of an adventure to start with?

Nico's heart sunk that's how his appearance was described. Apparently whatever respect he'd gained from Percy was already twisted into fear so early. He couldn't blame him, after what he'd talked him into. A lifelong curse he now had no clue about...

"Please involve something cool and fun for once," Thalia sighed, imagining him having one last fight to the death and passing out on his birthday or something. "Like blacklights! You don't enjoy the effects of those enough!"

"To see all the blood in my room? No thank you," Percy scoffed.

The rest of the summer seemed strange because it was so normal.

Will's tone was happy, hyper even, he seemed genuinely excited he was finally getting to share Percy having a normal time at their camp for actual weeks on end for once.

The daily activities continued: archery, rock climbing, Pegasus riding. We played capture the flag (though we all avoided Zeus's Fist).

"Clarisse actually sat out of most of them," Percy recalled in surprise. "Her whole cabin didn't, but she and Chris helped be the medics for a few fights. It was sooo weird, but it made a lot of the campers who were clearly uneasy about him warm up a bit. Especially when Mrs. O'Leary cuddled up to him too."

"He caught on pretty quick," Will agreed, "he still helps out in the infirmary too when he doesn't really need to anymore," he finished with a significant look at Nico. Most kids didn't seem to care who was helping them as long as the pain was going away, his parentage or whatever he'd done in the past usually wasn't on their mind when it hurt like that.

"Are you sure it wasn't changed to Kampe's fist?" Alex asked when Nico didn't seem to be answering in any way. "The first never even seemed to fit."

"Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to try and get everybody to agree on a new name for something?" Will asked. "Even if we did a poll it would be chaos."

Which was no bother at all to Alex of course, so she looked at him like he was the one who was nuts for pretending that was a good excuse not to.

We sang at the campfire and raced chariots and played practical jokes on the other cabins.

Will hid well how hard the adjustment had been for him that time marched on. Kids had come and gone from the camp, his siblings hadn't been immune to shocking deaths from a random monster attack in the forest or even defecting, it wasn't even the first time he'd been witness to such a thing, if only a handful of times before; but it was usually the ones who'd been there a few weeks. The kids who he'd barely gotten to know.

Lee had been there from day one. Had shown Will the ropes and been his Luke, his best friend, his go to for advice on everything there. It was strange for so long to not wake up every day and have him rousing them for breakfast. Micheal had never tried to emulate him either, he'd done it his own way, which had been all right, but a part of Will had wished someone in there would keep making Loony Tunes references, would keep challenging them to archery target practice instead of just letting the memory of him slowly fade away. Hearing him in Percy's life had been the most he'd been able to think of him in a few years now, and it felt nice.

I spent a lot of time with Tyson, playing with Mrs. O'Leary, but she would still howl at night when she got lonely for her old master. Annabeth and I pretty much skirted around each other. I was glad to be with her, but it also kind of hurt, and it hurt when I wasn't with her, too.

Percy expected the laughing at the teasing, probably a few snarky comments about Rachel.

None came, and as he looked around in surprise he just saw sympathy. Because he didn't have that option now with her nowhere to be seen. He had friends down here, but he still didn't have someone very important to be going through all of this with him.

I wanted to talk to her about Kronos, but I couldn't do that anymore without bringing up Luke. And that was one subject I couldn't raise. She would shut me out every time I tried.

Jason couldn't let that one go without a good laugh though. "I'm now imagining you following her around and she actually darts into random cabins or bathrooms or anywhere she can to slam a door in your face. Maybe even a window if you agitate her enough."

"You're right Jason," Percy sighed with indulgent exhaustion. "I should have cornered her in the woods, maybe used Grover and Tyson to triangle her in so she couldn't escape."

"You say that like she doesn't need an intervention," Thalia grumbled.

July passed, with fireworks on the beach on the Fourth. August turned so hot the strawberries started baking in the fields. Finally, the last day of camp arrived. The standard form letter appeared on my bed after breakfast, warning me that the cleaning harpies would devour me if I stayed past noon.

Magnus opened and closed his mouth several times like he couldn't decide if he wanted to ask how real that threat was. If he stayed and killed the harpies would he be punished or rewarded for yet another fight for his life? Would they devour him if he stayed until 12:01 or if he managed to avoid them until next summer would the ban be lifted?

He ultimately closed his mouth and decided it wasn't worth the headache.

At ten o'clock I stood on the top of Half-Blood Hill, waiting for the camp van that would take me into the city. I'd made arrangements to leave Mrs. O'Leary at camp, where Chiron promised she'd be looked after.

"Tell me you at least intend on riding her down the streets of New York once Percy," Alex looked rather betrayed such a glorious hound was being confined to one camp.

"She deserves to be on a farm where she can stretch and be happy, um, without the death metaphor," Percy shrugged.

"You can still have her for the weekend," she sighed but didn't argue the point further.

Tyson and I would take turns visiting her during the year.

I hoped Annabeth would be riding into Manhattan with me, but she only came to see me off. She said she'd arranged to stay at camp a little longer.

"I can't decide how the bus should feel about that," Jason told him with an almost straight face. "You now range from blowing them up to awkward silence when she's around."

"He's blown up more on his own in his younger years without her, I think the bus should be worried," Thalia offered.

Percy sighed and muttered something about normal friends, whatever that meant.

She would tend to Chiron until his leg was fully recovered, and keep studying Deadalus's laptop, which had engrossed her for the last two months.

"I think you should be thanking some god out there for making sure she stepped away from it," Will agreed.

"She slept with it, Malcolm has proof," Thalia agreed.

Then she would head back to her father's place in San Francisco.

"There's a private school out there that I'll be going to," she said. "I'll probably hate it, but..." she shrugged.

"Yeah, that but," Percy agreed with the same feelings of awkwardness swimming through him now. A feeling that apparently wasn't as good of a swimmer as him, as it kept coasting up and down his throat like vomit!

"Truancy, something even a child of a wisdom goddess would never break the rules for," Alex agreed tragically.

"Yeah, well, call me, okay?"

"Sure," she said half-heartedly. "I'll keep my eyes open for..."

There it was again. Luke. She couldn't even say his name without opening up a huge box of hurt and worry and anger.

"I'll get the key," Nico promised through gritted teeth.

"Maybe you could lose a few while you're at it," Will muttered. Nico seemed to have been better as of late about not keeping everything so close to the chest, but it was still something he found himself worrying about.

"Annabeth," I said. "What was the rest of the prophecy?"

She fixed her eyes on the woods in the distance, but she didn't say anything.

"You would nag Zeus himself about not finishing destroying you," Alex told him with a hint of awe in her voice.

"Seriously Perce, learn to let it go," Jason couldn't help but agree with a troubled frown. Annabeth had been through enough.

Percy didn't feel particularly ashamed though. His stubbornness paid off, and if Annabeth didn't resent him he wasn't going to let these guys make him feel guilty for getting the full picture. It had happened so rarely before meeting her.

"You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze," I remembered. "The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise. We raised a lot of the dead.

Magnus had a cheeky remark on his tongue for, 'who's this we,' before he paused and realized. Bianca might never have revealed herself to Nico if Percy hadn't been there. His coming along on Annabeth's quest was likely essential for that to happen. It hurt his head, a lot, to realize all over again how powerful those fates were to be able to weave together such immensely different and important things.

We saved Ethan Nakamura, who turned out to be a traitor.

A line that Annabeth had probably hoped referred to Luke all this time, Thalia thought miserably. The girl had been a hopeless optimist when it came to him, but that would imply she'd ever fully admit to Luke being a full blown traitor.

We raised the spirit of Pan, the lost one."

"Raised, and or released," Will agreed.

Jason pursed his lips rather than putting in. He kind of regretted his comment to Percy because he loved that they went over these at the end to analyze them, but he felt like he'd only be encouraging Percy.

Annabeth shook her head like she wanted me to stop.

"You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand," I pressed on. "That wasn't Minos, like I'd thought. It was Nico. By choosing to be on our side, he saved us.

Nico still smiled at how casually Percy acknowledged the good he'd done on this quest instead of that unfortunate period of threatening his death. Seems Will had been right, Percy really didn't go around saying a bad thing about him.

And the child of Athena's final stand—that was Daedalus."

"I'm sure Malcolm is so relieved," Percy snorted.

"Percy—"

"Destroy with a hero's final breath. That makes sense now. Daedalus died to destroy the Labyrinth.

"Which is very awesome," Alex couldn't deny. "Though I'm still mildly disappointed Annabeth didn't discover some kind of sonic blast breath or something along the way."

"She uses words as a weapon, isn't that enough?" Percy sighed.

"Whoever said words don't hurt never got hit by a dictionary," Thalia nodded in agreement. She'd gotten quite angry in her youth trying to memorize all the homonyms once and thrown it across the room where Thalia's head happened to be.

But what was the last—"

"And lose a love to worse than death." Annabeth had tears in her eyes. "That was the last line, Percy. Are you happy now?"

"No," Percy whispered, shivering for the first time in the cold depths of the ocean. He'd always known she liked him, but it didn't really hit him until now she liked liked him. Not just admired and was impressed, as Percy once was. It left a very dead feeling inside him, wondering what had stopped her from running away with Luke back when he'd tried to kill Percy. If Luke had gone to Annabeth and taken her away then, how different his life could have been without her.

The sun seemed colder than it had a moment ago. "Oh," I said. "So Luke—"

"Percy, I didn't know who the prophecy was talking about. I—I didn't know if..." She faltered helplessly.

If it meant him, Percy clearly understood that context! She'd thought him dead, she might have even thought kissing him was some final breath that had been all her fault!

He found himself scrunched up in his seat to stop himself beating at the walls. He wanted her in here! He wanted Annabeth to look him in the eyes and say she was okay with how this had all gone and mean it! It was probably selfish of him to want her to relieve this nightmare with him, but he ached for her in a new way he couldn't even begin to describe to himself. Annabeth meant so much to him, couldn't her prophecy have mentioned that!

"Luke and I—for years, he was the only one who really cared about me. I thought..."

Before she could continue, a sparkle of light appeared next to us, like someone had opened a gold curtain in the air.

Magnus finally released a breath he'd been holding for getting to jump off the topic of the creepy idea of his cousin hoping some guy twice her age would be in love with her too and instead blanched in horror if that was Kronos/ Luke about to appear from thin air and murder them all. How was it possible her life was so much more miserable and complicated than his?

"You have nothing to apologize for, my dear." Standing on the hill was a tall woman in a white dress, her dark hair braided over her shoulder.

"Oh hey," Alex said with a hint of violence already on the horizon. "She owes you an explanation!"

Percy grinned a scary sight, tapping his fingers impatiently on his leg and glowering at the book. She'd scarred the piss out of Annabeth, her advice had been in no way helpful, and he had a bad feeling already he could blame more on her soon for how miserable this quest had gone.

Jason sighed. Just what they needed, another god for Percy to piss off.

Thalia was glancing uneasily between Percy and Jason though as her own guilty thoughts got an unpleasant jumpstart. Their reaction to her showing up only reinforced in her she was doing the right thing for now, keeping her suspicions to herself. Percy was already unhappy at Hera for his own and Annabeth's past, if he found out what Thalia was considering he'd rip apart the ocean in a heartbeat just to get rid of his growing tension.

Jason, Jason just looked like he would want no part in this. He was too cautious, to content to let things slide. She enjoyed that about her little brother, it would make picking on him much easier and made him nothing like their dad, but for this it felt right to keep him where he felt safe.

"Hera," Annabeth said.

The goddess smiled. "You found the answers, as I knew you would. Your quest was a success."

"A success?" Annabeth said. "Luke is gone. Daedalus is dead. Pan is dead. How is that—"

"Our family is safe," Hera insisted.

Will couldn't help but read that in agreement. He couldn't help but share the sentiment, that the good had outweighed the bad this time. His brother had died, his camp had felt vulnerable and left him scared to sleep at night like nothing before...and yet he still had a bed. Siblings he could lean on. Not all was lost as it could have easily been. There were better paths out there, like if Hera had actually stepped in and banished all the monsters before any of her 'family' had to die, but Will honestly read that with a sense of joy in his tone that, to Percy's ears, had somehow been lacking. Hera had been stating a fact with pride, Will made Percy smile in some sense of agreement of the word family, even if not the whole pie.

"Those others are better gone, my dear. I am proud of you."

I balled my fists. I couldn't believe she was saying this. "You're the one who paid Geryon to let us through the ranch, weren't you?"

Hera shrugged. Her dress shimmered in rainbow colors.

"Taking a rainbow in vain," Alex scowled hotly for such a beautiful representation of inclusiveness being taken hostage by someone so selective.

"I wanted to speed you on your way."

Will's voice cracked, like someone had stabbed his bubble with a knife. He knew Annabeth had a beef with Hera, the whole camp knew she blamed the goddess for Percy missing. His heart broke though that Nico's journey hadn't even been considered in her wisdom? That she'd only paid for just Annabeth's group to get through and any other half-blood could suffer the consequences? That had been Hera!

"But you didn't care about Nico. You were happy to see him turned over to the Titans."

"Oh, please." Hera waved her hand dismissively. "The son of Hades said it himself. No one wants him around. He does not belong."

The pain of hearing that surprised Nico more than the actual words. His dad said it all the time, he assumed it frequently from the few interactions he'd had with these major gods, but for Hera herself to just come outright and say it made him flinch.

Which quickly morphed into admiration when he heard Will cuss. He hadn't seen that before. Sure he'd been angry in the past, but never full-blown swearing like he was doing now. His southern accent really came through too, he was twanging bad on all his i's and drawing them out to a noticeable level.

"It's, erm, not a big deal Will," Nico patted his hand again. Not one person in here looked like they even sort of agreed with Hera, instead they all looked varying levels of anxious at Will and a tad angry too and his behalf. For some reason that didn't surprise him anymore, which surprised him. "We all know that's how the gods feel about-"

"It is a big deal Nico, because she's being a mother fu-"

"Will," Alex sighed, rubbing her temples. "I agree with every word you're saying, but maybe use some other language, oh child of a poetry god."*

Will finally shut his mouth with a restrained grimace. He didn't feel nearly the amount of better as he'd have liked after venting, but Alex looked as discomforted as Nico for once, who was looking equal parts uncomfortable as usual at being so focused on, everybody watching him for his reaction, and just a tad flattered at Will so vehementily defending him; all while looking rather anxiously at the book clearly wondering how Percy had reacted to that.

So Will conceded he'd made himself plain enough while wondering what the opposite of an offering was as he muttered and searched for his place.

Thalia looked on, mildly impressed and perhaps recruiting Will on her kill Hera crusade, while Percy just felt bad the guy was finally at his level of outrage. He hadn't wanted to drag anyone else down with him.

Magnus and Jason were to busy glancing at every speck to make sure Hera wasn't going to appear and blast them all to smithereens to react properly in time.

"Hephaestus was right," I growled. "You only care about your perfect family, not real people."

Will's voice still shook with fury at just how right the god of the forge was about that apparently. When the gods were born, how much understanding did they have? Had this newborn child looked up at his mother and seen the look of disgust on her face before being pitched off a mountain?

It was an ugly truth Will had never really been confronted with until this moment. It made him sick to realize if Luke had been telling kids this kind of stuff all along and how it wasn't that unbelievable to him anymore. He'd never considered the gods perfect, but growing up in camp had always given him a sense they'd at least grown from their first depictions as the very worst they could be called today. They'd laid out a safe space for their kids to practice and grow, they had to have been evolving with the times, if slower, right?

His breath shook loose, a calming feeling as he remembered his dad helping Percy find Artemis and how awkwardly yet fervently Posideon continued to help Percy. None of them were perfect. They were distant and often harsh and more often unhelpful if they did try and tended to make their lives worse, but Hera was just a horrible exception.

Ares and Hephestus, Zeus and Posideon, he'd never really had much firsthand experience with any god except Mr. D and flip-flopped between pitty and heavy annoyance with him with minimal grudging appreciation he didn't just incinerate them all and call it a job done. Percy's adventure in detail didn't really change anything, it just gave him a heavier feeling of what he'd been fighting for than he'd gone to Manhatten with.

It sort of scared him for a moment, actually, as he frowned at the rest of the page and his skin twitched with displeasure at what he'd really just been doing. He never would have considered thinking all that before being thrown in here, let alone saying it out loud, verbosely, and only having to be stopped because someone asked him to. He'd been noting Nico's slow change with enthusiasm, but hadn't really stopped to consider his own until this moment, and it left an uncomfortable knot in him as he continued.

Her eyes turned dangerously bright. "Watch yourself, son of Poseidon. I guided you more than you know in the maze. I was at your side when you faced Geryon. I let your arrow fly straight. I sent you to Calypso's island. I opened the way to the Titan's mountain.

Nico felt his mouth open for several moments before he realized he should close it. Not since the stories of old had he heard such blatant interference, and it kind of impressed him. That Hera had gone so out of her way, unprompted, to help them every step of the way. He'd never have believed such a thing from Percy's own mouth, but to hear it from an Olympian herself was amazing. Like a real flip of the cards to reveal what her plan had been all along and strike down all foes come to life.

It was, of course, possible she'd done all that just to gloat and change history a bit in making her seem like the caring mother her title suggested she could be, Thalia's painful looking sneer proved this wasn't a popular thought, but Nico still found it extremely fascinating. He'd have never wanted such help from a god before all this, every interaction he'd had with them was laced with tension and she herself proved they wanted nothing to do with him in return...but that didn't make this less interesting to hear by a mile.

Annabeth, my dear, surely you see how I've helped. I would welcome a sacrifice for my efforts."

"Do you think anybody sacrifices to her?" Magnus had very mixed feelings about hearing this, Percy was a tad disgusted to hear a touch of pity in his voice. "I think she really did do this, like a kind of adoption?" He didn't sound that sure though. Like a theory he expected to get trashed. He even mouthed 'sorry' to Nico, not trying to disconnect from the fact she didn't do it well! Yet Annabeth's own mother didn't seem to have stepped in here, maybe Hera had really wanted to help and was just out of practice.

Percy strived to keep his voice even and not too harsh in return. "I, um, think it's a tad more selfish. It sounds like she was willing to win by any means necessary, it just happened to align with our means."

Annabeth stood still as a statue. She could've said thank you. She could've promised to throw some barbecue on the brazier for Hera and forget the whole thing.

Jason looked very queasy at all of this, for once instead of being the arguing party he understood both sides well. Juno probably did feel undervalued, with no direct link to those kids at Camp. Her temple dusty, her history rarely spoken of and if so negatively.

Yet, he had a feeling what Annabeth was about do. The same thing Percy would have done. He had almost grown used to the level of disrespect these guys so often showed to the gods, and it froze some inner part of him with dread at the mere bubble of thought, let alone what his ears were about to hear worse than anything Will could have called her.

But she clenched her jaw stubbornly. She looked just the way she had when she'd faced the Sphinx—like she wasn't going to accept an easy answer, even if it got her in serious trouble. I realized that was one of the things I liked best about Annabeth.

"Name a thing you don't like about Annabeth," Thalia rolled her eyes.

Percy opened his mouth, closed it, thought about it for a moment, and then said with confidence, "her love of olives. I tolerate them at best, but she puts them on everything!"

"Ah, the olive theory, a classic," Alex snickered while Thalia just looked at him with complete pity. Gods, boys.

"Percy is right." she turned her back on the goddess. "You're the one who doesn't belong, Queen Hera. So next time, thanks...but no thanks."

"Not really as harsh as I was expecting," Magnus admitted even as his heart tried to jump around his chest like a jackrabbit on crack no matter what he said.

"I guess that was her restrained dismissal," Alex agreed with a tad more disappointment. She'd probably wanted at least one jump scare at minimum to impress her.

"And this was the girl who warned you to be polite to Ares," Jason mumbled through numb lips, expecting her to drop dead any second honestly.

Hera's sneer was worse than an empousa's. Her form began to glow.

"That, is not great," Magnus said with a very dry mouth. Somehow Percy constantly pissing off gods felt like second nature by now, it really wasn't that great of a concern at this point since he was alive.

Where the heck was Annabeth?! Was this curse to be forced to live at the bottom of the ocean meant for her? If so, the digs seemed way to nice, though perhaps by their standards this was poverty?

"You will regret this insult, Annabeth. You will regret this very much."

I averted my eyes as the goddess turned into her true divine form and disappeared in a blaze of light.

Most of the others flinched and instinctively wanted to close their eyes, imagining a mushroom cloud in her wake after that.

Except Jason, who sat frozen in place without the good sense to do anything other than mutter, "uhoh."

Percy sighed, already knowing he'd probably have to tackle this idiot to the ground at least once in his life if he saw something cool enough to kill them all.

The hilltop was peaceful again. Over at the pine tree, Peleus the dragon dozed under the Golden Fleece as if nothing had happened.

"I'm sorry," Annabeth told me.

"She's sorry?" Percy asked meekly, a very strange expression on his face. "Where's my apology?" His tone implied none was needed though, his lips were twitching to much and he kept rubbing his thumb across them. They all figured out what that tone was and collectively decided they didn't want to hear it again.

"I—I should get back. I'll keep in touch."

"Listen, Annabeth—" I thought about Mount St. Helens, Calypso's Island, Luke and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and how suddenly everything had gotten so complicated. I wanted to tell Annabeth that I didn't really want to be so distant from her.

Then Argus honked his horn down at the road, and I lost my chance.

"Remind me to smack an eyeball onto Argus's sense of timing," Thalia groaned. She would have personally handcuffed the two together if it would have resolved their problems already.

"Duly noted," Percy and Jason both promised, causing the others to snicker hard.

"You'd better get going," Annabeth said. "Take care, Seaweed Brain."

She jogged down the hill. I watched her until she reached the cabins. She didn't look back once.

Percy had never felt so much at once seeing her take off like a blond comet across the green fields. Her confidence in every stride, how happy he was for her she'd finally made peace with her dad and felt no need to look back.

The longing he wished she'd at least slow down, that she'd shove that tenacity of hers in his face and kiss him again when he wasn't about to die. That she'd tell him he was a Seaweed Brain and that her feelings for him were just as complicated as they were for Luke's at minimum.

Will's voice startled him out of his memory, to be dragged back here as lost and confused as ever what Annabeth would ultimately decide was best for her with no clue how to show her it could be him.

He didn't even know who to ask for advice about this. His dad was kind of out of touch at the dating thing, he'd probably just suggest Percy snap his fingers and offer to split the ocean for her or something, or ban him from talking to Annabeth if he didn't already know who she was. His mom was just way to embarrassing to even consider every time her name came up. Chiron, maybe...nope. Still to awkward. He was starting to become more convinced by the hour that lone memory he'd awoken in here with was a dream and a fortune teller was probably his best bet. Gods he was hopeless.

Two days later it was my birthday. I never advertised the date, because it always fell right after camp, so none of my camp friends could usually come, and I didn't have that many mortal friends.

"Do you, have any?" Thalia honestly tried to ask without sarcasm, but it sounded that way anyways.

"Um, I used to cat sit for this really old lady before we moved and she'd give me jelly beans when I walked her dog," Percy shrugged.

"A true bestie I'm sorry we never got to meet," Thalia chuckled.

Besides, getting older didn't seem like anything to celebrate since I'd gotten the big prophecy about me destroying or saving the world when I turned sixteen.

"There are so many themes you could do around that though!" Alex sighed. "I can think of three off the top of my head!"

"Alex can and will make a volcano explode in your apartment," Magnus sighed with full confidence.

"But I'll leave the surprise of who jumps out," she winked.

"Pass," Percy could only say hesitantly though. It sounded fun, he'd never even had a bounce house before...but hadn't it already happened? Retroactive birthday party? Maybe? If he survived another year?

Now I was turning fifteen. I was running out of time.

My mom threw me a small party at our apartment. Paul Blofis came over, but that was okay because Chiron had manipulated the Mist to convince everyone at Goode High School that I had nothing to do with the band room explosion.

"Yes!" Percy fist bumped the air with such exuberance there was yet another new crack in the ceiling. "I thought of that before but didn't know if I'd remember to tell Chiron before I left!"

"Now remember this plan for the next time," Nico chuckled.

Percy sighed at the already assured knowledge there was going to be a next time, but it had been a nice five seconds while it lasted.

Now Paul and the other witnesses were convinced that Kelli had been a crazy, firebomb-throwing cheerleader, while I had simply been an innocent bystander who'd panicked and ran from the scene. I would still be allowed to start as a freshman at Goode next month. If I wanted to keep my record of getting kicked out of school every year, I'd have to try harder.

"You say that like it was your fault," Magnus told him bracingly. "Until someone invents monster repellent, you can try all you like and get nowhere."

He meant it in a positive way, but Percy nodded as glumly as before. It was something he'd heard all his life being ADHD. He'd have to try ten times harder than the 'normal' kids and still never be on their level, which to him sounded like he really shouldn't bother trying that hard at all.

Tyson came to my party, too, and my mother baked two extra blue cakes just for him.

Percy bounced in his seat for a moment with one of the happier grins they'd seen on his face today. Annabeth couldn't or wouldn't be there, Percy didn't feel like his own birth should be celebrated, but his little brother was there. His mom had opened the door and greeted him with a Tyson worthy hug and had extra cake just for him and that was pretty much the greatest birthday present he'd want anyways.

While Tyson helped my mom blow up party balloons, Paul Blofis asked me to help him in the kitchen.

As we were pouring punch, he said, "I hear your mom signed you up for driver's ed this fall."

"Would Percy's bus explosion problem translate to cars?" Alex asked eagerly.

"Gods I hope not," Percy sighed.

"I'm not sure I get the stereotype about New Yorkers and driving," Magnus admitted. "You have to walk everywhere because the streets are horrible, but if everybody walks or takes the subway why are the streets so bad?"

"We're fearless about any obstacle but are to impatient," Percy grinned.

Magnus might as well have asked him to spell out those Canadian monsters names again for all the light that provided on the subject.

"Yeah. It's cool. I can't wait."

Seriously, I'd been excited about getting my license forever,

"Pretty sure that's something we look forward to from the time we're born," Will said wistfully. He'd spent the whole day of his sixteenth birthday on the chariot track, imagining it as his dad's sun-mobile. He'd spent the previous week painting it bright red and everything and, according to his own imagination, won every Indie 500 Race that day.

Only to have several of his siblings show up and hog the races the rest of the day from the rest of camp to make that a reality. Kayla had even painted brands and logos on some of them for authenticity while Micheal and Lee somehow always had the dastardly bad luck of fumbling the finish so Will could sail through.

It really had been a good day, and only a tad bittersweet at the end as he sat on the roof of his cabin watching the sun go down, his prayer unanswered of hoping his dad would just make an appearance, let alone let him touch the sun. Austin had assured him that night as he flopped into bed they'd all made that wish and Apollo hadn't answered in centries for any of his kids, just another day.

but I guess my heart wasn't in it anymore, and Paul could tell. In a weird way he reminded me of Chiron sometimes, how he could look at you and actually see your thoughts.

Will realized his thoughts had drifted him into a melancholy mood, and trying to jump right back out, he offered, "hey, did you know Chiron will help kids at camp get their license if they want to. He does something with the mist, gives them papers if they need it, but they still have to pass on their own merit," he finished with a grin at remembering Connor nearly drove his practice car into a jewelry store and still insisted it was an accident. It probably was an accident, but it was still funny too.

"I was actually wondering about that for a second," Magnus told him gratefully. He knew he was out of luck on that front and would likely remain homeless forever because of it, but for once this Camp finally had a solid, irrefutably good thing he might be able to look into.

I guess it was that teacher aura.

"Is the dark turn Paul's been a secret FBI agent all along infiltrating the school," she paused with a wild gasp, "or your family! And he reveals the secret conspiracy of hauling you all away to Area 51!"

"Alex," Percy sighed with a good-hearted grin. "You are going to be excellent at whatever you decide your life is."

"Living that dream," she smirked.

"You've had a rough summer," he said. "I'm guessing you lost someone important. And...girl trouble?"

"I guess we know who the problem child is, the ones the parents gossip about," Thalia did a pretty good impression of an ornery older sister to Percy's ears while he flushed and muttered a bit about how he wasn't surprised this had come up with his mom.

I stared at him. "How do you know that? Did my mom—"

He held up his hands. "Your mom hasn't said a thing.

"Oh," Thalia sounded as stunned as anybody while Percy went from shocked to pleased the fastest. Percy had never really missed his life as a mortal, he'd spent to much of his younger years being the odd kid out to even know what that felt like but at this moment he knew that if Paul was the dad in his life that he didn't have to be, things would have still turned out all right for him.

And I won't pry. I just know there's something unusual about you, Percy. You've got a lot going on that I can't figure. But I was also fifteen once, and I'm just guessing from your expression...Well, you've had a rough time."

I nodded. I'd promised my mom I would tell Paul the truth about me, but now didn't seem the time. Not yet.

"Save that for his birthday," Jason chuckled, "see how long he thinks you're pranking him and asking for his real present before it sinks in."

"Well I know who I'm scratching off my next guest list," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I was on the list?" Jason looked surprised, which Percy hoped was a joke. Obviously everybody in here was.

"I lost a couple of friends at this camp I go to," I said. "I mean, not close friends, but still—"

Will looked touched all the same Percy didn't go back to his home and try to forget it even happened. Maybe the next time there was a war council meeting and Lee wasn't at the table Percy wouldn't just blink and breeze right past it like it had entirely left his mind.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. And, uh, I guess the girl stuff..."

Percy had never been the greatest with his words. He had no more clue what to say to Paul than to Annabeth herself, how to get started on her and Rachel and Luke and the constant question mark bouncing around in his head. It wasn't because of Paul though. He'd stood there waiting patiently the entire time as he'd gathered his useless thoughts and then scraped them at least five times.

"Here." Paul handed me some punch. "To your fifteenth birthday. And to a better year to come."

We tapped our paper cups together and drank.

Percy couldn't have asked for a better toast. Any year had to be better than the one he'd just had. Right?

"Percy, I kind of feel bad giving you one more thing to think about," Paul said. "But I wanted to ask you something."

"He asks you if you're a half-blood?" Thalia asked, because really, it had to be something with Paul. Maybe he could see through the Mist too and never knew how to say it before he saw Kelli.

"Is he going to ask what he should have gotten you for your birthday?" Will asked, imagining he'd gotten Percy, like, a black puppy that turned out to be a hellhound too or something and that was the 'dark turn.'

"Is he going to ask to move in already?" Magnus asked, no clue how fast these things were supposed to go, but it felt like 'a step,' worthy of including Percy.

"What is the capital of Bulgaria?" Alex chuckled.

"Yeah?"

"Girl stuff."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Oh gods," Jason's mind started spinning like a guinea pig. "He's not going to ask you what he should get your mom for her birthday?"

"Sounds, um, kind of nice?" Nico offered. Percy obviously got along with Paul, maybe Paul was looking for a way to spend more time with him.

"Your mom," Paul said. "I'm thinking about proposing to her."

"Oooh," all seven of them said with the same blank look. That was, so beyond the scope of their understanding honestly, they barely knew how to react to that other than nonplussed, maybe a little mild pleasure. None of the others really had a great enough relationship with their own mortal parent to process entirely what was being said.

I almost dropped my cup. "You mean...marrying her? You and her?"

"Sally and Paul, sitting in a tree," Thalia burst out singing with surprised laughter.

Percy came out of his dumbfounded state enough to react to that and give her a shove. He was happy for them, a hundred percent. Really, it wouldn't even be that weird, the guy was over all the time anyways. He just didn't even know how to process something like this because it didn't involve stabbing something.

"Well, that was the genera idea. Would that be okay with you?"

"You're asking my permission?"

Paul scratched his beard. "I don't know if it's permission, so much, but she's your mother. And I know you're going through a lot. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't talk to you about it first, man to man."

"Man to man," I repeated.

Percy had never been called anything more than his mom's little man before. He found himself sitting up straight in his beanbag chair, smiling with a new kind of pride.

It sounded strange, saying that. I thought about Paul and my mom, how she smiled and laughed more whenever he was around, and how Paul had gone out of his way to get me into high school. I found myself saying, "I think that's a great idea, Paul. Go for it."

It had felt like the obvious answer the moment he'd said it. Paul had looked him right in the eye while asking, despite their height difference. He was always there for his mom, he'd never made her cry. Percy didn't even know what else people needed to be in a marriage, but he already knew it would be better than what she'd had before.

He smiled really wide then. "Cheers, Percy. Let's join the party."

Percy had followed him with a strut in his step he'd never had before. His imagination had already been going wild, asking Paul to help him put on those weird monkey suits he'd only seen on TV. Would Paul ask Percy to call him dad? How upset would he be if Percy never wanted to?

But his mom...those seemed like minor problems when he could already feel the happiness through a kind of faith alone he'd never had for the gods that she was never going to stop smiling after this day.

I was just getting ready to blow out the candles when the doorbell rang.

"Did you make a wish?" Thalia asked with interest. The only time she'd ever managed to sit down for one of her birthdays was over a trashcan fire with Luke and Annabeth. They'd found some lumpy, frozen chocolate that had clearly all once melted together and were chipping it away, the two teasing her not to blow out their 'candle' that was keeping them warm, and she'd only promised her wish would be it never did. Other than that experience, she had no clue what someone would wish for.

"Yeah," Percy grinned without elaborating. It had just been a feeling really, of hope, that everything would be okay. He'd bottled it up tight and been about to exhale it onto that candle as a kind of offering all its own to the cosmos when that knock had interrupted him. He tried not to frown at that being some kind of bad omen.

My mom frowned. "Who could that be?"

It was weird, because our new building had a doorman, but he hadn't called up or anything. My mom opened the door and gasped.

It was my dad.

Percy had instantly felt zapped, shrunk back down to twelve years old again and seeing him for the first time on Olympus. He'd wanted to load him into a taxi and have some fairy tale ending. Instead, he'd told Percy he regretted him being born.

He was wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks, like he usually does. His black beard was neatly trimmed and his sea-green eyes twinkled. He wore a battered cap decorated with fishing lures. It said NEPTUNE'S LUCKY FISHING HAT.

"Pos—" My mother stopped herself.

"What kind of fake name could she have even given?" Alex asked in amusement. "Pos, pause, pus," she kept trying to enunciate that into something and looked increasingly frustrated coming up with nothing. "Posterior? Pustrami? Pussudinym? Postumus? Possible? Positive, Pustual, Potter, Pos-"

"Posey?" Percy offered. That was a flower, and a girl's name, right? Then he went crosseyed as he realized what he just suggested his dad should go by for any length of time.

"Yes! Great one Percy!" Alex cackled in delight.

"I think we could go through every religion to find his alter ego and he'd still rather just go by his own name," Will finally interrupted the madness with a laugh.

She was blushing right to the roots of her hair. "Um, hello."

"Hello, Sally," Poseidon said. "You look as beautiful as ever. May I come in?"

"Can you say no to that?" Magnus stage whispered.

"I wouldn't want to try," Percy shrugged though because it was his dad, not in general.

My mother made a squeaking sound that might've been either a "Yes" or "Help." Poseidon took it as a yes and came in.

Percy shook his head at the six of them getting a good laugh out of that, Thalia of course escalating it by giving him a hearty clap on the shoulder and saying, "well, now we know where you got that from too."

"I don't squeak," he finished with a long, exhausted sigh knowing he couldn't really deny any such thing.

Paul was looking back and forth between us, trying to read our expressions.

Jason nodded in understanding. Some random guy showing up probably had Paul instinctively worried about Gabe showing up, if Sally had shared anything about him at all.

Finally he stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Paul Blofis."

Magnus crinkled up his nose in disgust at the idea of a creepy, three-eyed monkey coming to mind who always introduced himself like that at the end of those old cartoons. He'd really hated that thing. It had nothing to do with Paul, it was just a bad name association.

Poseidon raised his eyebrows as they shook hands. "Blowfish, did you say?"

"Ah, no. Blofis, actually."

"Oh, I see," Poseidon said. "A shame. I quite like blowfish.

"Poseidon's favorite son confirmed," Will snorted.

"At least it's not Antaeus," Percy shrugged.

I am Poseidon."

"I kind of like that better," Alex said. "Just come right out with it, why hide?"

"I think we just heard Alex's life motto," Nico grinned.

"Poseidon? That's an interesting name."

"Yes, I like it. I've gone by other names, but I do prefer Poseidon."

"Like the god of the sea."

"Very much like that, yes."

"Well!" my mom interrupted.

"I have never thought of your mom as a killjoy before this moment," Thalia admitted. "Even when she's being boring and safe and loving, telling you not to die and be careful and all that nonsense. This, this I would have paid to see how long your dad would go on like this."

"She's a little stressed," Percy shrugged, "and she gets a free pass."

"She gets all the free passes," Thalia nodded in agreement.

"Um, we're so glad you could drop by. Paul, this is Percy's father."

"Ah." Paul nodded, though he didn't look real pleased. "I see."

"Oooh, jealousy," Alex snickered in surprise.

"I'm guessing Paul's not his biggest fan," Percy agreed, confusion mixed into every syllable of how he felt about this. "My mom always made sure I knew my dad didn't abandon me, but you know, I was a little kid. I don't think Pual would have taken to that lost at sea thing. He probably wants to speak to him man to man too," he finished with an awkward smile he'd definitely have to be a part of that conversation to make sure nobody got turned into blowfishes.

Poseidon smiled at me. "There you are, my boy. And Tyson, hello, son!"

"Daddy!" Tyson bounded across the room and gave Poseidon a big hug, which almost knocked off his fishing hat.

"Naww," Magnus smiled in surprise.

"It was that or Tyson was going to burst into tears of joy or something," Percy grinned in relief at this choice.

Paul's jaw dropped. He stared at my mom. "Tyson is..."

"Not mine," she promised.

"Legally," Percy mock whispered, using air quotes and everything.

"It's a long story."

"I couldn't miss Percy's fifteenth birthday," Poseidon said. "Why, if this were Sparta, Percy would be a man today!"

"That's true," Paul said. "I used to teach ancient history."

Poseidon's eyes twinkled. "That's me. Ancient history.

"Have the gods written a memoir?" Jason asked with a false amusement meant to hide his instant need for such a thing. "An autobiography? A manuscript? A rough draft I could steal?"

"Jason, that last one could count as high treason, worse than stealing the bolt," Percy told him with wide-eyed concern that wasn't really mocking.

Jason laughed like he was kidding, but even to his own ears he knew he didn't convince anyone.

Sally, Paul, Tyson...would you mind if I borrowed Percy for a moment?"

He put his arm around me and steered me into the kitchen.

Once we were alone, his smile faded.

Percy sighed as that chapter title came true, again. He wished they wouldn't even be there to kill his blue skies, always looming over whatever nice moment he'd been having. Like storm clouds rolling in and chasing everyone off the beach. His dad hadn't done it on purpose he was sure, it had just instantly killed his mood.

"Are you all right, my boy?"

That immediately felt like the storm running out of rain though as Percy smiled. Chiron had called him that many times, but it had never hit as hard as that did.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I guess."

"I guess," Thalia nodded without surprise. "You know Percy, you don't have to guess every question you're given."

"I'm right like, fifty percent of the time," Percy shrugged.

"I call bullsit on that number," Jason scoffed.

"And I'm to bad at math to do the actual percentage," Percy scoffed right back.

"I heard stories," Poseidon said. "But I wanted to hear it directly from you. Tell me everything."

"See, this is why they invented cellphones though, to avoid awkward moments like this," Magnus said with a twitchy feeling in his gut. The gods popped up at any old place now, yeah been there done that, but something about Poseidon being in Percy's apartment was giving him a feeling of anxiety. Ever since Gabe had left, Percy had always felt safe there, and though his dad was clearly no threat to him, it felt invasive. Like he could hear howls in the distance...

So I did. It was kind of disconcerting, because Poseidon listened so intently. His eyes never left my face. His expression didn't change the whole time I talked. When I was done, he nodded slowly.

"I cannot say I've ever had a god's undivided attention before," Will said with a touch of awe. When Annabeth had done it, he'd been infuriated beyond words. Now his mind felt overflown with jealousy at Percy getting the same from his dad. It really did feel like all or nothing for the Olympians sometimes.

"So Kronos is indeed back. It will not be long before full war is upon us."

"As opposed to the minor battles you've been dealing with," Nico sighed.

"What is war if not just for a bunch of little battles," Thalia agreed.

"Violent," Alex offered.

"Profitable," Percy raised his hand for something he actually remembered from a class.

"You two think you're so clever," Thalia scoffed.

"What about Luke?" I asked. "Is he really gone?"

"I don't know, Percy. It is most disturbing."

"But his body is mortal. Couldn't you just destroy him?"

"We've been asking that since he summoned a scorpion and tore a rip in the air with a sword," Magnus said, and by we he clearly meant himself.

"Mortal, perhaps, but there is something different about Luke, my boy. I don't know how he was prepared to host the Titan's soul, but he will not be easily killed. And yet, I fear he must be killed if we are to send Kronos back to the pit. I will have to think on this. Unfortunately, I have other problems of my own."

"That, was the best summary of the gods, and I didn't even have to Sparknotes it," Nico sighed. Yeah, your problem sucked, but I'm busy with other things!

I remembered what Tyson had told me at the beginning of the summer. "The old sea gods?"

"I wonder if Oceanus is listening in on us and muttering about how his strategies still would have worked," Thalia said with interest. She wished he wasn't such a reclusive old nut, she'd have liked the chance to hear the perspective of an old Titan.

"More likely he'd forget our names every other minute and be whining about how the Olympians run things," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Back in my day we squashed puny mortals on their birthday!" Alex even gave a helpful old man impression again to prove Percy's point, earning a grin from said child of the sea.

"Tethy's didn't seem that bad," Jason was clearly on Thalia's side with a hopeful smile at the door.

"So long as she keeps that thermometer away from me," Percy insisted.

"Indeed. The battle came first to me, Percy. In fact, I cannot stay long. Even now the ocean is at war with itself. It is all I can do to keep hurricanes and typhoons from destroying your surface world, the fighting is so intense."

His dad had been stroking his beard the whole time, a nervous tick Percy had never seen him do before. He didn't have his triton on him, also a first. Poseidon had seemed more human in that kitchen than Percy realized he even could be. Like that delirious moment of him just waltzing back into his mom's life and snapping his fingers to make everything perfect was possible for just this second.

And then what he'd said really sunk in. That his dad, in all his godly power, was already exhausted and torn in half by a war long before Zeus even admitted one was happening. His father, like any of the gods, was far from perfect.

"Let me come down there," I said. "Let me help."

"The summer camp I'm honestly surprised you haven't attended yet," Alex agreed.

"Not for lack of trying!" Percy groaned.

Poseidon's eyes crinkled as he smiled. "Not yet, my boy.

"Yet," Percy sighed, though when he did try and search through his mind to get a glimpse for that feeling, it hurt. A trace of pain lancing through him he had no wish to play connect the dots with in the slightest.

I sense you will be needed here. Which reminds me..." He brought out a sand dollar and pressed it into my hand. "Your birthday present. Spend it wisely."

"Is, that a joke?" Jason asked slowly.

"Um, spoiler, I didn't laugh," Percy promised if it was.

"Uh, spend a sand dollar?"

"Oh, yes. In my day, you could buy quite a lot with a sand dollar.

"Could probably buy a whole sand mansion or something back in his day," Nico snorted.

"Wasn't he kind of born owning the ocean?" Magnus asked. "How rich is he from just all the treasure in the seas?"

"More immeasurable than his already infinite power I'm sure," Percy sighed at them missing the point, as usual.

I think you will find it still buys a lot, if used in the right situation."

"What situation?"

"When the time comes," Poseidon said, "I think you'll know."

Percy sighed at the strange feeling that gave him. Like he knew his dad was right, and it wasn't even particularly painful like the last time he'd just tried to understand this cryptic advice, but it was still as exhausting as wondering whose string those old ladies had cut. Better than sending him another card though.

I closed my hand around the sand dollar, but something was really bothering me.

"Only one something?" Jason sighed. "Because I'm over here losing track of all my somethings."

"I prioritize better," Percy smirked.

"You forget more," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Dad," I said, "when I was in the maze, I met Antaeus. He said...well, he said he was your favorite son. He decorated his arena with skulls and—"

It had been a really horrible moment in a vast, never-ending sequence of horrible moments down in that maze. Nobody was surprised this one had stuck with Percy.

It was nice he got the chance to air it for once. That Poseidon had a chance to answer for why he'd never stepped in and told Antaeus to knock it off with the murdery entertainment.

"He dedicated them to me," Poseidon supplied. "And you are wondering how someone could do something so horrible in my name."

I nodded uncomfortably.

Poseidon put his weathered hand on my shoulder. "Percy, lesser beings do many horrible things in the name of the gods. That does not mean we gods approve. The way our sons and daughters act in our names...well, it usually says more about them than it does about us. And you, Percy, are my favorite son."

Percy smiled to bright for them to do anything other than smile along, the answer had clearly meant a lot to him that they weren't going to badger for more.

Yet it felt more like a redirect than an answer.

He smiled, and at that moment, just being in the kitchen with him was the best birthday present I ever got. Then my mom called from the living room.

"Percy? The candles are melting!"

"You'd better go," Poseidon said. "But, Percy, one last thing you should know. That incident at Mount St. Helens..."

For a second I thought he was talking about Annabeth kissing me, and I blushed, but then I realized he was talking about something a lot bigger.

"There was something bigger that happened?" Alex said in an oh so innocent impression of Percy's voice.

Percy gave her an eye roll for that, a blush on his cheeks but sinking lower in his seat all the same for what he'd done.

"The eruptions are continuing," he said. "Typhon is stirring. It is very likely that soon, in a few months, perhaps a year at best, he will escape his bonds."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean—"

Poseidon raised his hand. "It is not your fault, Percy. It would've happened sooner or later, with Kronos awakening the ancient monsters.

Percy couldn't believe the weight that was lifted off of him, like taking a much needed breath of air. He did still feel the responsibility of that on his shoulders, but for his own dad to assure him it wasn't his fault was unbelievable when he knew best the gods would try and blame this kind of mistake on the easiest target available.

But be aware, if Typhon stirs...it will be unlike anything you have faced before. The first time he appeared, all the forces of Olympus were barely enough to battle him. And when he stirs again, he will come here, to New York. He will make straight for Olympus."

"Oh, so it's not just my birthday that took a dark turn," Percy sighed. "It's the whole stinking continent that's soon going to be covered in ash and blotting out the sun getting a dark turn."

Thalia gave his shoulder a gentle shake and her usual spiel about not freaking out to early while Nico batted his eyes at Percy in surprise. He'd been so sure that stupid thing related to him, that he'd hear Percy's uncomfortable thoughts about inviting him inside to darken his apartment. Percy's wasn't exactly a great interpretation, but it certainly was different than his.

That was just the kind of wonderful news I wanted to get on my birthday, but Poseidon patted me on the back like everything was fine. "I should go. Enjoy your cake."

And just like that he turned to mist and was swept out the window on a warm ocean breeze.

Alex chuckled for a moment before telling Nico, "you still have the best calling card in this one by the way, but Poseidon does get points for spirit on that."

Nico swelled with pride he was being compared to some god other than his dad to care what those points were worth.

It took a little work to convince Paul that Poseidon had left via the fire escape, but since people can't vanish into thin air, he had no choice but to believe it.

"I feel so bad for Paul," Magnus chuckled as he rubbed his temple. "Knowing the answer you're given isn't the truth but feeling crazy there's no other answer."

"Yeah," Percy agreed with a sorrowful nod. He'd felt awful lying to Paul after the awesome talk they'd just had and resolved in himself to tell him the truth sooner rather than later. He hoped he'd managed to do that before this whole disappearing off the face of the earth thing he'd apparently done so his mom had someone to really confide in about her worries.

We ate blue cake and ice cream until we couldn't eat anymore. Then we played a bunch of cheesy party games like charades and Monopoly. Tyson didn't get charades. He kept shouting out the answer he was trying to mime,

"Which is lucky for you because he would have kicked all of your butts being such an awesome artist," Alex grinned.

"I call him on my team!" Jason instantly yelped.

"Hey, no dibs before we even set up our own game night," Alex narrowed her eyes with a menace none of them were sure was entirely playful.

"Got to be faster Alex, sorry," Jason just shrugged smugly.

Thalia loudly cleared her throat to move that on before she had to restrain the two.

but it turned out he was really good at Monopoly. He knocked me out of the game in the first five rounds and started bankrupting my mom and Paul.

"I see Tyson really got all of Poseidon's good traits," Magnus laughed in surprise.

"I call him on my Monopoly team," Alex said swiftly.

Jason sighed in defeat they would switch it up between games and gave in.

"How do you play Monopoly in teams?" Percy asked.

"By making shit up I'm sure," Thalia shrugged at the amount of chaos that was going to happen when this night happened.

I left them playing and went into my bedroom.

"Aw Perce, don't tell me you're a sore loser," Will frowned.

"More like I was getting a headache watching their money move hands so fast," Percy grinned.

I set an uneaten slice of blue cake on my dresser.

Nico smiled in surprise that finally explained why, when he'd materialized, he'd heard shouting in the background like there had been a gameshow on when the TV was off as he'd come in. He'd thought he had shut it off or something crazy when he'd come in with his weird powers and aura and they'd fallen silent upon seeing him. Turned out it was a much more fun, and mundane reason.

Then I took off my Camp Half-Blood necklace and laid it on the windowsill. There were three beads now, representing my three summers at camp—a trident, the Golden Fleece, and the latest: an intricate maze, symbolizing the Battle of the Labyrinth, as the campers had started to call it. I wondered what next year's bead would be, if I was still around to get it. If the camp survived until next summer.

Percy did have another bead on there, of course, and he clasped his fist around the lot now, his throat as tight with worry as ever what had happened between all that. He felt like the best-case scenario was he'd come out alive, but the more realistic possibility was he'd just gone nuts and molded one for himself in a mock victory from his grave or something before being plopped in here.

I looked at the phone by my bedside. I thought about calling Rachel Elizabeth Dare. My mom had asked me if there was anyone else I wanted to have over tonight, and I'd thought about Rachel. But I didn't call. I don't know why. The idea made me almost as nervous as a door into the Labyrinth.

Thalia sighed with guilty relief he hadn't. It would have just been awkward if Annabeth found out about that...and yet she knew from Annabeth Percy had spent a large chunk of time coming up hanging out with Rachel so she was a tad surprised that hadn't started here.

I patted my pockets and emptied out my stuff—Riptide, a Kleenex, my apartment key.

"You kept up with that this whole time," Will asked in complete disbelief. "I need the brightest rainbow lanyard I can find to keep up with my key to my cabin because I keep losing the dang thing and my siblings started locking me out after the seventh time."

"I never lock my cabin door," Percy said blankly.

"You scare kids to much to sneak in there," Thalia scoffed.

"I want to know how and why you got a kleenex," Alex snorted. "And, more importantly, why you didn't offer that to Annabeth when she was sobbing her nose out."

Percy's heart froze and his mind scrambled as he suddenly found himself asking the same thing before Magnus jumped in saying, "probably pocketed it from that meal with Hera, I wouldn't trust that thing not to be poisoned anymore. Grover's probably just immune to such things."

Which didn't make Percy feel better, but did make him laugh for a moment along with the others.

Then I patted my shirt pocket and felt a small lump. I hadn't even realized it, but I was wearing the white cotton shirt Calypso had given me on Ogygia.

"I bet Annabeth loved that," Jason muttered, imagining she'd hardly looked at him the entire time because of the reminder.

Percy had been amazed it held up so well, covered in dirt, mud, and other unmentionable things he was sure. She was probably more amazing with a loom than Circe for giving him clothes he hadn't lost and or torn to shreds.

I brought out a little piece of cloth, unwrapped it, and found the clipping of moonlace. It was a tiny sprig, shriveled up after two months, but I could still smell the faint scent of the enchanted garden. It made me sad.

Percy touched where the little pocket had been over his heart, of course no longer there on his camp shirt. He had done the impossible, he had forgotten about Calypso even for a brief time in all the other madness that went on when he came home. Now it was Annabeth, Rachel, and Calypso all bouncing around in his head like a screen saver all fighting for his attention as his fingers tightened in his shirt before he dropped his hand back to his lap and sighed.

What the hell had Hera meant by it, sending him to her island? Had it been a warning, that all the Titans had faced punishment and Percy had better remember which side he belonged on? Had it been her deranged way of helping, giving him a chance to heal there, a place she knew he'd never stay on?

All he did know was that, like all help with the gods, it felt more harmful than good really. From now on, only his dad was allowed to send him off on vacations, and that was a spotty vow considering he wasn't sure what the outcome of this place was going to be yet.

I remembered Calypso's last request of me: Plant a garden in Manhattan for me, will you? I opened the window and stepped onto the fire escape.

My mom kept a planter box out there. In the spring she usually filled it with flowers, but now it was all dirt, waiting for something new. It was a clear night. The moon was full over Eighty-second Street. I planted the dried sprig of moonlace carefully in the dirt and sprinkled a little nectar on it from my camp canteen.

Nothing happened at first.

Then, as I watched, a tiny silver plant sprang out of the soil—a baby moonlace, growing in the warm summer night.

"I'm surprised Grover didn't sniff that out and eat it," Alex broke the heavy tension falling around them. "I honestly expected this to be mentioned back at camp as an invasive species and D would rip it up and threaten to strangle you with it."

"My brain works in mysterious ways," Percy grinned, a sad but meaningful one to help take his mind off all the bad. "That's probably why it waited until just now, weeks later, for me to ever think of cleaning out my pockets."

"Mmm, yes, mysterious," Alex laughed, because she said mysterious like one would their least favorite kind of cheese.

"Nice plant," a voice said.

I jumped. Nico di Angelo was standing on the fire escape right next to me.

"Nico's back!" Will yelped in surprise. For once he hadn't been tensing up beside him, fidgeting and internally freaking out about this happening, so Will had not a hint of warning any more than anybody else.

"I've been here the whole time you nit," Nico rolled his eyes with a smile.

Will's arm pulled him just another tiny little bit closer as he just laughed in surprise and kept going like the whole room was a bit brighter all of a sudden, making Nico blush and for the first time think of pushing him away making this 'a thing.' It was just a fleeting thought though, one he didn't act on.

Will didn't find it hard to explain to himself why he was so jazzed for this news. It was the very first instance of Nico reaching out to anybody, especially the most perfect person on the planet being Percy with his mom right on the other side of that door. For Nico to get a glimpse of how he should be greeted any time he entered a room.

"Is anybody going to ask how?" Percy yelped loudly, rudely interrupting Will's joyful reading as he stared strangely at Nico. "You appeared out of nowhere dude!"

"Practice," Nico said with pride in his voice, which of course, was no answer.

Percy groaned, Chiron and Thalia were known to do that too so it wasn't just the gods being cryptic and annoying, they were passing it on!

Nico really did give him a sorrowful smile though and pressed his finger to his lips, his skull ring gleaming. They had shadow-traveled a lot in the coming time, and he didn't want to upset Percy now when he saw the last page in Will's hand. They were nearly done with another, no need to go pushing Percy's mind to its limit when he'd get his answer without Nico forcing it on him soon enough.

He'd just appeared there.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to startle you."

"That's—that's okay. I mean...what are you doing here?"

Nico inhaled carefully, letting his mind think of that with interest now rather than the little happy dance he'd been doing in his head Percy's first reaction back then hadn't been pushing him off the fire escape in surprise. Now he really heard this for what it was. Not the blatant acceptance he so craved, just Percy reacting to him somehow even better than he had Rachel popping up in his mortal life. It was surprisingly a nicer, warmer feeling than his old feeling he had to keep off any part of his face.

He'd grown about an inch taller over the last couple of months. His hair was a shaggy black mess. He wore a black T-shirt, black jeans, and a new silver ring shaped like a skull. His Stygian iron sword hung at his side.

"An outfit you apparently never changed out of," Jason chuckled in surprise.

"I bet he has a closet full of the same outfit," Alex sighed tragically.

"I like this color," he kept the childish note out of his voice almost well enough. He should get used to defending his odd choices now if he was going to go to camp and hear this over and over...then he was surprised how easily that thought had come to mind. Tartarus had gone to far from his plans, he realized as a cold feeling swept him.

Will's hand curled gently around his arm, a warm pulse radiating from his palm that gave Nico a chance to exhale and focus on this.

"I've done some exploring," he said.

"A common day pirate," Will smiled in delight. "A vassst yee, I shall be tied down to no land!"

"See, now you're getting it," Nico's eyes shimmered with delight at the goofy impression.

"Even pirates need a secret cove to bury all their treasure," Will reminded hopefully. If that's all camp could be to him, a way station of safety, it would feel like enough so long as he'd always feel free to use it.

"Hmm, I'm not much of an artist Will, I'll have to work on getting a map together," Nico couldn't help the glib comment, the wishy-washy response. Despite how comfortable he felt under Will's arm, it was the longest, most permanent feeling he'd ever had in his life up to this point. Something so solid, even more permanent like Will kept wanting still sounded like to much for him to wrap his mind around right now.

"That's okay, I know a good one. X marks the spot and all that," he grinned all the same. He'd still carve that on Thalia's old tree when he got back and knew Nico at least would get the reference.

"Thought you'd like to know, Daedalus got his punishment."

Will's voice somehow sparked with even more joy getting to read this so soon. He really had wanted to know his fate, and Alex was right there with him, leaning forward eagerly in her seat, her teeth sunk into her lip as she wavered back in forth in her head how harsh she wanted to hear this being.

"You saw him?"

Nico nodded. "Minos wanted to boil him in cheese fondue for an eternity, but my father had other ideas.

Nico had been surprised when he'd showed up in his courtroom he hadn't even needed to step in and offer anything for this. Daedalus had been such a notoriously lost soul for so long Hades had already taken an interest, and swift execution before Nico had even woken up.

Hades had laughed to himself about the cheese fondue idea and even filed it away for later though. As far as Nico knew, Minos was still on his seat at the judge's table, so he hadn't exactly been as punished as Nico would have liked, but hey, you win some you lose some.

Daedalus will be building overpasses and exit ramps in Asphodel for all time. It'll help ease the traffic congestion. Truthfully, I think the old guy is pretty happy with that. He's still building. Still creating. And he gets to see his son and Perdix on the weekends."

It was just the perfect kind of Greek ending really. Quintus, Daeadlus the fifth's body, had had a very long road, and his punishment was to continue making them. It was no reward, but really, it was no great punishment. Hades seemed to have found a stroke of balance in his domain that all wished for really, a kind of medium eternal life after his grand adventure that rocked to many boats.

"That's good."

Nico tapped at his silver ring. "But that's not the real reason I've come. I've found out some things. I want to make you an offer."

"What?"

Percy hadn't squinted suspiciously at him or anything, he hadn't gone for his sword or jumped back in and slammed the window in his face. He hadn't exactly jumped to his feet with delight either and hugged him for finding all this out, so, that had been the highlight of Nico's month.

"The way to beat Luke," he said. "If I'm right, it's the only way you'll stand a chance."

I took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm listening."

Will's voice was so happy as he read that, his pupils kept wanting to jump away from the text to glance at the two with such bright eyes. This, this had been what he'd been hoping for Nico for so long, ever since he'd vanished after the Titan War. He already knew Percy and Nico made an awesome team, the two working together had been the saving strategy and the reason they were probably all alive today. Why did Nico constantly think he wasn't accepted again when Percy had been open and amenable from the start to his plan?!

Nico glanced inside my room. His eyebrows furrowed. "Is that...is that blue birthday cake?"

It had been the strangest feeling, Nico shook his head at himself. He'd been glancing around for an enemy, someone eavesdropping. Instead he'd seen the brightest splash of color, a blue swirl patterned cake with sprinkles. The exact kind of thing Bianca would have smacked his hand for reaching for, telling him he'd get a cavity just looking at that thing.

He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. I wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he'd ever even been invited to one.

No, and no, Nico pursed his lips together rather than answer. Will, thankfully, read right over the moment without waiting for an answer, bless him. Nico still considered himself a no on both too, because he hadn't been 'invited' to this party. He'd gate crashed.

"Come inside for some cake and ice cream," I said. "It sounds like we've got a lot to talk about."

"Everything Percy brags about his mom's cooking is true by the way," Nico said swiftly before anybody could ask questions they weren't going to get an answer to. "It was, the best cake, I've ever had." He smacked his lips in appreciation at just the thought. It had been the most solid food he'd had in months and he was pretty sure his ambrosia had switched to tasting like that for a while.

"We'll get her her own cookbook, or a TV network show or something," Jason laughed.

Percy had a lot more questions buzzing around his mind about how that night would have continued. He opened his mouth with at least three trying to all bunch together, but all that came out was a very rude yawn.

"The question now is, do we take a break or just start the next one?" Thalia asked, stretching and jumping to her feet all the same.

"A break, definitely," Percy pleaded at once. "Hell, can I take a nap, since the days all out of whack anyways and we start the next one tomorrow."

"Nap yes," Thalia told him not unkindly, "but I am waking you back up to at least start on the next one! We'll be in here for twenty years if you sleep to your heart's content Rip Van Winkle!"

Percy nodded and then, actually just slumped over, right there in his chair. It would have been a tad concerning if he hadn't started drooling only moments later.

Nico expected Will to jump up and join the others as they all started talking quietly, stretching and going off to eat, but instead he stayed in place, hugging the black book tight to his chest and smiling at it still. Nico still thought him nuts, but a very charming kind. Nuts and berries.

Something had been nagging at the back of his mind though. A pessimistic idea that wouldn't leave him, an observation about Will always being so happy and optimistic at the idea of Nico being at camp. "Did you kiss me because you want me to stay at Camp?" Nico asked, his stomach in painful knots that the answer was going to be yes and how much he should care about that and how much it would make a difference. Maybe Will did just want something from him-

"No!" Will's startled blue eyes were pure honesty. "I kissed you because I wanted to, no other reason." Nico still seemed confused though, so he offered, "look, I, I feel like I should apologize, for kissing you right then," Will confessed. "That, um, wasn't exactly, 'friendly,' and if that's what you need right now-" his arm started to pull away even.

"I like it," Nico interrupted, the surprise on his own face for admitting that causing him to sheepishly avert his eyes, but his hand darting up to hold his fingers in place, nearly pining them to his black shirt. "L-liked. Um, it was, it feels- felt, good, but if you regret it-" his hand spasmed as he told himself to let go.

"Woah, I never said that," Will interpreted right back. "I've been trying to get to know you since we met. I just, um, was trying to make sure-" he was blushing himself and stammering and going very blank in the mind to find words to describe anything.

"Right, well," Nico took a shaky breath but looked back at him with a hesitant smile. He interlocked their fingers, and Will easily mimicked him. "That's, established. Neither of us, regret it, and we both like talking, so let's just, keep doing, that."

"Sounds perfect," Will grinned.

PJOPJOPJO

I am not promising that this will be the last book to end with Solangelo, I don't want to be a liar like that, but I do already have the ending to the next book planned out and it's not focused on them, so there's that?

So I'm taking a short break and then posting Demigod Files next month for sure, and then I'm going to start Last Olympian in May! I'm so excited guys, I'm looking forward to it all as much as anybody!

*I know most people probably imagine Alex using the f' word like a bestie, but I'm more familiar with people who grew up in verbally abusive households disliking strong language because it's been used on them to much. Also I do my best to keep these PG, T at most, so it's going to stay at least in the level of clean you've seen so far in the tone of the original books, so this is what I'm going with.

#pjo #Percy Jackson #HDYSG #Thalia Grace #Jason Grace #alex fierro #Magnus Chase #Will Solace #nico di angelo #solangelo #fierrochase #percabeth #BotL #battle of the labyrinth

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strawberryfairi · 2 months

Text

“I loved you then…back when I knew you”

Synopsis: 💎 When your old high school best friend, and admittedly, first love randomly shows up at your door one morning after a bit over ten years apart, your memories of him that you once locked away comes flooding back. Are you open to hearing him out after all this time? (In other words…will you take your man back or nah?)

♕Pairings: Kazutora X Black Fem Reader 🤎 (ANYONE CAN READ)🛑Content: 18+ Eventual smut, Some grief, Some angst ~Crossposted On: Wattpad ONLY ~Updating WEEKLY

w.c. 3.9k💠 Released March 21, 2024

NOTE: It’s been too long since I’ve posted another chapter but hopefully I’m fully out of my (ridiculously long💀) writers block! Ngl, this chap kinda ass fr but the next chapter will be longer/better for sure! Thank you all for bearing with me🧚🏾‍♀️💜

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CHAPTER 8; EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTIES

A Few Days Later

This morning just before classes started, the girls demanded an emergency girls meeting in the bathroom to discuss what happened Halloween night. It was funny to you how they never wanna text or Facetime about these things, they only love to do it in person. It was cute though, and made the experience of sharing your gossip all the more exciting.

"YOU GUYS KISSED?!"

You winced as all the girls shouted practically at the same time. You already knew what was coming.

"I knew it! I knew something happened between you guys! We called it, we straight up called it, Yumi!" Asuka rambled, Yumi just nods her head proudly with that classic devious smile.

"You better not ever come talkin' to us about "Oh, I don't know how he feels guys" again! At this point you'd be a fool to not see it!" Hayashi-chan ranted.

"Wait, but see there's the thing-

"NO! You guys are getting married, and that's final!" Yumi hollers.

"Um, I don't know 'bout married. We're in high school." You chuckle. "But listen guys, 'cause there's something goin' on now that's making me feel weird about the kiss. Afterwards, when we all were goin' home things were so awkward, and now it's like he can't even bear to touch me. You think maybe he regrets it?" You frown, fiddling with your fingers resting on your lap as you sat on the bathroom sink.

All the girls turn quiet in thought, briefly looking at one another as they process what you said.

"Ok well...when you guys touch now does he pull away like "ew, oh my god"? Or is it like "oh shoot, I touched her!"?" Miyazaki-chan questions.

"What's the difference?" You furrow your brows.

"One is that he's like genuinely disgusted to have touched you, and the other is just him being nervous that he touched you." She explains.

"Some guys can get like that! I'm pretty sure you're probably the first girl he's ever gotten this close to, like..ever. It was probably his first kiss too, and now that he did that he's like unsure about how to go about dealing with you. You went from friends to...this." Asuka says, gesturing with her hands towards all of you.

She did have a really good point though, you hadn't thought about it that way at all. You were so pressed about not liking the way he's been acting since Halloween night that you never really bothered to take it a step further and think about why.

"That makes sense. I mean, he doesn't seem disgusted, he's just so jumpy! It's like he calculates every little thing he does and sometimes says now; like a robot." You frown, looking over at Miyazaki-chan.

"Yup. He's for sure nervous." Hanako-chan nods.

"But it's not like I'm not nervous too!" You rant, throwing your hands in the air in frustration.

"Yeah, but when guys get nervous they get stupid. An even dumber than usual kind'a stupid." Yumi explains with a disappointed sigh.

"Facts, that'd be the next thing to warn you about. With what you told us about how he's acting...he's for sure gonna be in his idiot era from now on." Hayashi-chan says with an apologetic smile.

"His idiot era? Ughh no..." You facepalm, not liking the sound of this at all.

"Let's just hope he can character develop fast enough to breeze through it." She adds with an apologetic tone.

The bell signaling for students to get to homeroom rang just as you all finished your little gossip chat. One by one each of you left out of the bathroom, saying your goodbyes and going your separate ways down either side of the hall.

"I'll see y'all at lunch or..whatever class we have together." You giggled, walking backwards as you wave goodbye. Just as you go to turn around, you bump into someone accidentally, almost falling on the floor on your back in the process.

"O-oh, I'm so sorry!" A soft, familiar voice stutters out, quickly turning around and steadying you by the arm.

"Oh! No no, it's my fault-Yamagishi?! I haven't seen you in so long!" You beam, finally noticing who it was you bumped into. His two other friends seeming to be with him in the hallway quickly scurried into their classroom with nervous looks on their faces, leaving the two of you alone. You didn't think too much of that, but it was definitely weird.

"Oh uh...yeah." Yamagishi says in a particularly hushed voice.

"What's been goin' on? Did you do anything for Halloween?"

Yamagishi barely manages to respond to you, letting out nothing but a short "Y-yeah" in response. You furrow your brows in concern at the way his eyes keep darting everywhere but at you. It seems Kazutora isn't the only boy acting stupid around you now.

"Are you alright? What's wrong?!" You ask, starting to get a little freaked out. He looked completely shook, hands slightly shaking and his entire face has gone pale white.

"Sorry, I-I gotta go!" He stammers, pivoting on his feet and darting right into the classroom.

"What the-?!" You were confused and also a little offended. What the hell is wrong with these guys?! Shaking your head, you decide to brush it off, continuing on down the hall.

"Hey!"

This time a male voice you didn't recognize calls from a few feet behind you. You turn around, pointing at yourself with your brows slightly furrowed, silently asking the guy if they were talking to you.

"Yeah." He says, finally catching up to you.

"Uhh, hi?" You greet awkwardly. You've never seen this student before. He was pretty tall, with slicked back black hair and dark eyes to match.

"Just wanted to let you know, in case you were wondering, Yamagishi isn't allowed to talk to you anymore." He scorned, looking at you like you were the biggest nuisance in his life.

"What do you mean-

"You're boyfriend made it clear some weeks ago." He clarifies with a slight grimace at the word 'boyfriend'.

That was all he needed to say for you to understand, and man were you instantly fuming. Is he serious?!

"What did he do?" You grit out lowly. Even though it was a question your tone was demanding an answer, a fully in depth answer as well.

And a full report he sure did give you. He told you the full story exactly how Yamagishi told him and his other friends the day it happened. It was like the more Yamagishi's friend spoke the more your blood boiled, and by the time he finished telling you the tea, you were ready to find Kazutora.

"Oh, I got somethin' for him. Imma deal with his ass..trust." Was all you said before turning on your heels and storming down the hallway to your homeroom.

💎

You couldn't wait not a second more for lunchtime to come around, so when it finally did you jumped straight into action. Of course you told the girls what happened to which even they were annoyed about it. Everyone knows Yamagishi is a sweetheart, so picking a fight with him knowing he's not a fighter all like that anyways is just absolutely ridiculous. First of all, you're not even Kazutora's girlfriend, and second, for him to act so possessive like you can't have other guy friends besides him is childish!

The girls saved your spot at the lunch table, already knowing you were off to find him before he could even come to you. You walked through the halls like a lion hunting for its prey, focused on one thing only until you finally saw him.

There he was by the vending machine in the hallway before you reach the cafeteria, looking all calm and collected.

You storm up to him, the sound of your school shoes making contact with the ground alerting him of your presence. It just pissed you off even more the way his expression brightened when he noticed you.

"Hey! I was just on my-

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" You cut him off.

"-way...?" He finishes, blinking a few times in confusion while looking down at you with his brows furrowed.

"Why'd you beat up Yamagishi?! You told me you were only going to fight Osanai that day! You really had the audacity to tell him to stay away from me?! Who the hell are you?!" You rant, feeling your face starting to heat up with anger.

"You're mad at me because of that? He's the one that let Osanai hurt you in the first place." He shrugged, like it was the very last thing occupying his mind.

"I had already handled Yamagishi that same day though! He said he was sorry, and you already know he doesn't fight!" You defended, throwing your arms up exasperatedly.

"He should've thought about that before asking you out then. He already went wrong right there." He scoffed.

"Are you serious?!" You furrow your brows with a scoff, genuinely shocked.

"I'm very serious. He had no business asking you out knowing he can't protect you at all. He's lucky all Osanai did was give you one black eye! What if he did worse?!" He argued. It actually annoyed you a lot that he kind of made sense there.

You clench your jaw, looking to the side and letting out a deep exhale through your nose.

"Look...I was mad, alright?" He mutters softly.

"You can't just beat somebody up because you're mad, K! Like, I'm mad but I'm not beating you up." You grumble.

He lets out the tiniest chuckle. You both knew full well you'd never be able to beat him up. "I think both my anger and beating him up was justified. I can't let something like that slide; not anymore." He mumbles the last part to himself.

"Not anymore?" You question, looking back up at him curiously. He was already looking down, his hands clenched into fists at each side. You've never seen him look like this before. He wasn't angry or even worried, he just looked regretful.

"It's just-...I used to be the one to watch while someone else gets beat in front of me all the time. I hated that I could never do anything except cry and curl up in some corner." Kazutora explains bitterly, his eyes carrying a hollow, far off look.

You gasp lightly, hovering your hands over your mouth. "What do you mean?" You ask, mouth still hanging open in shock. You really hoped it wasn't what your mind was starting to conclude that it was. He sighs deeply before continuing.

"Before my parents got divorced, my dad would-... he'd beat my mom all the time. I was little, so it was never really anything I could do about it. So when I found out Yamagishi was the one that let you get hurt like that..." He looks back up at you, letting you connect the rest of the dots.

"Ohh." You whisper, suddenly feeling like a fool for pressing him. You had no idea, you just figured he beat him up out of some kind of stupid possessiveness he has towards you, but it was way deeper than that. Without a second thought you wrap your arms around him, resting your head on his chest.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know any of that." You apologize, nuzzling your face into him in hopes of comforting him.

"It's...fine?" He mutters awkwardly, hesitantly wrapping his arms around you.

It's the first time he's ever shared anything about his family dynamic, and definitely the first time someone's comforted him about it. He felt weird, like he didn't know what to do, but he also felt...a little good about it?

"No it's not. I was all yellin' at you and stuff. I'm really sorry." You repeat, sniffling a little as you start to tear up. You were never strong when it comes to things like this. You could watch someone cry in a movie scene and be bawling your own self. Hearing about Kazutora having such a past...it hurt you somewhere deep. Then to think he got triggered that badly all from what happened while you were with Yamagishi. Of course it doesn't mean hurting Yamagishi is right, but there's clearly some traumatic things Kazutora's been dealing with for a pretty long time.

His father's absolute garbage, and you hope he's completely out of his and his mom's life. Hopefully his mom moved on and found somebody better too; a real husband.

"It's ok. Are you crying?!" He looks down at you in bewilderment. Now the two of you were really out of his territory. You nod slowly, holding onto him tighter.

"Oh. Well uhhh, don't cry, ok? 'S nothing to cry about." He reassures awkwardly, gently patting your back.

His words meant for comfort only made you feel a thousand times worse. Him, the one who went through such a traumatic childhood is saying it's nothing to cry about?! Something's definitely wrong for sure, and you feel terrible for never noticing it. He always looks so cheerful and bubbly, but of course, that's what most people do when they're trying to hide something about themselves that they don't want other people to see.

Once he notices you aren't letting go any time soon he sighs, resting his head on top of yours.

"I don't want you to pity me, ok?" He mumbles softly into your hair.

"I don't. I just don't like hearing that someone I care about went through something like that. I'm sad." You murmur right back into his uniform, sniffling much more frequently. If you kept going like this, your mascara's gonna start running. Kazutora's heart clenched so hard in his chest. He felt butterflies hearing you say he was someone you care about, but it also hurt him seeing you so upset.

"Come on. Don't cry anymore, ok? Please?" He leans up from your hair, placing his hands on your shoulders. You look up at him, your bottom lip slightly pouting, and nod, wiping your eyes carefully.

"Wanna go back to the caf now?" He suggests softly.

"Mm mm. I wanna stay with you." You whine childishly. He laughs lightly at your cute expression.

"But your food's back there. Come on, we'll be alone together anyways when I walk you home later." He chuckled lightly, walking you back into the cafeteria.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You had thought, with good reason, that after that emotional moment you and Kazutora shared together he'd be back to normal, no longer acting so awkward and skittish around you. Yeah, no..he's still being like that. You figured that due to the heat of the moment he wasn't really thinking about anything else except comforting you so you'd stop crying.

Now that that moment's passed, things are even more awkward than before.

"So...how was the rest of school for you?" You ask, trying to break the silence that's been ongoing for about seven minutes since the two of you left the school building.

"Uuuh..boring as usual, I guess." He replies shortly with a little shrug.

"Same." You mumble dryly, pursing your lips afterwards.

Aaaand we're right back to the silence. You sigh dramatically in frustration.

"K, why're you being so quiet all the time now? You're acting so weird." You question, looking up at him with a slight pout.

"What? I don't think I'm any different." He furrows his brows slightly.

"Liar. You don't even put your arm around me anymore like you used to." You grumble bitterly, looking straight ahead as you adjust your tote bag strap on your left shoulder.

"Do you want me to put my arm around you?" He asked.

"I mean, not necessarily, I was just pointing out stuff you used to do that you don't do anymore." You answer back as nonchalantly as possible.

"But if you pointed it out doesn't that automatically mean it's something you want me to do?" He probed, leaning down a bit closer to you.

"....Sure, yeah..maybe I do." You reply sassily, trying to hide the embarrassment on your face.

"Then..I'll do it." He affirms, his cheeks already starting to turn pink.

"Ok, fine." You mumble plainly, trying to hold back the excited smile wanting to make its way on your face as his arm hesitantly wraps around your shoulders, bringing you close to him.

Every time you both are close like this it always feels so different from before Halloween. The air becomes heavy, the sound of your heart beat seems ten times louder, your palms get all sweaty, and your face gets unbearably hot. Worst part of it all your mind starts going crazy with thoughts when you get like this.

You think about how you want so badly to kiss him again. To touch and kiss each other again just like that night, maybe something even more than that. It almost feels wrong having thoughts like this when you didn't know for sure if Kazutora thought similar things.

The girls always know how to make it seem so simple, so obvious that he feels the same, but it's so hard to see it when you're in a situation like this in real time.

If I kissed him would he push me away...?

Even if you had the guts to kiss him you knew you probably shouldn't do it. He's already acting different, it would highly likely make it worse. At this point you weren't even sure when you should ever invite him over to your place again. He'd probably completely lose his mind if you were on the same bed together again.

You sigh, closing your eyes and leaning your head just slightly against his chest. This'll have to be enough for now, but in the meantime you figure it's time to whip out the big guns when it comes to boy advice.

💎

"-And then...we actually ended up kissing there, but after we left from the park it was like he was completely different. He wouldn't do anything that he used to, and still doesn't unless I point it out like I did today! That's the only reason he even put his arm around me, 'cause I mentioned he'd stopped doing it."

Your mom listens intently from the edge of your bed, trying not to show her ever growing smile.

"I was waiting for when you'd finally tell me about this boy." She says warmly.

Your jaw drops, completely taken aback by her words.

"Wha-...you knew about him this whole time?!" You gawked, completely shook.

"Girl, I knew from the get-go, don't even play." She chuckles lightly. "I knew after weeks and weeks had passed that you liked him and would come to me about him eventually. I was just waitin'." She chuckled, brushing you off with a hand.

"Well, so...what do you think?" You inquire nervously, fiddling around with your hands in your lap.

"There's nothing to think! He likes you; it's clear as day! You don't even gotta stress about this one, honey."

"But why does he act so weeeeird?!" You whine dramatically.

"Because he likes you, as I just said! That's how guys are. He made a move randomly, 'cause from how you're describing it he definitely didn't plan it, and now he's freaking out because he went and blurred the lines of y'alls relationship." She explains with an amused chuckle.

You stay quiet, brows furrowed as you think over what your mom said.

"Sometimes, there are guys that have a hard time facing their feelings, and unfortunately, this boy seems to be one of them." She adds, placing a hand on your knee.

"Don't decide nothin' for him, ok? You let him figure out his feelings and come to you.We're not chasin' any guys, no matter how cute."

"Why do you think he's struggling with facing his feelings?" You murmur curiously.

"Oh honey, it could be anything. Sometimes they're just nervous, other times it can be a little more complicated than that. If he's strong enough, he'll be able to acknowledge how he feels about you and decide what he wants to do. If he's not, and he keeps teetering around back and forth...then you decide for him, and you keep it pushin'. That doesn't mean end the friendship and walk away, but you make it clear y'all will be nothing more than friends." She explains, her tone more serious now.

You nod, looking up at her.

"Today...we got into a fight but then it turned out to be something sad." You mutter.

"What d'you mean somethin' sad?" She says with concern, raising her left brow.

"Well remember when I got that black eye with the boy from my math class?" You pause, watching her nod as a sign to continue. "Ok so Kazutora had actually went and beat up the guy who did that to me, this dude named Osanai, but he didn't tell me he also went and beat up Yamagishi too that same day. He said he was mad that he didn't keep me safe, but he also said it was because it reminded him..of when his dad would beat his mom when he was younger."

Your mom's lips part slightly, sucking in a short breath as she listens to you. Immediately she was filled with a deeper concern than before. Back when she was much younger, before you were even born, she had spent a lot of time as a youth pastor, caring for the kids who carried trauma and had to deal with neglectful, hateful parents. She's always loved kids, and it would anger her beyond belief when the parents of the kids from her youth group would try and justify why they treat their children the way they do.

"I had started crying 'cause...he'd never told me that, and it kinda clicked. He's always so bubbly and like really upbeat, but I think it might be because he's actually really sad." You explain softly, a deep frown on your face.

"He fights a lot, and before he met me he used to never really come to school. I had a thought while he was walking me home that maybe his dynamic with his mom at home still isn't any better even though his dad is gone." You add, looking over at her again for her reaction.

"Ok...well, there may definitely be some 'things' inside him that he needs to work through. I also think he's probably acting weird around you because you might be the only person he feels safe with, so he doesn't want to mess that up; what he has with you." She says softly.

"Yeah. That makes sense." You sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kazutora's story about his family was all you could think about as you laid in bed. You'd spent a majority of the night worrying about him.

This only made you realize just how much you actually didn't know about him. That was just one little piece of the story, who knows how many more details and puzzle pieces fit into the rest of it. It would probably be wrong to just ask him about his past, you didn't want to upset him or even trigger him in some kind of way. You honestly didn't know too much about mental health and all the nuances and verbiage that comes along with it.

He could have PTSD or..something from what happened in his past. If he does have something like that he's damn good at hiding it...at least around you.

A deep sigh left your lips, letting go of the situation so you could finally sleep. You'd have to figure this out another time.

#kazutora x reader #kazutora hanemiya #kazutora #kazutora x black fem reader #back when i knew you #strawberryfairi🧚🏾‍♀️#tokyo rev #black female reader #black female writer #kazutora x dem reader

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briansastro10 · 1 year

Text

Day 3: Secret Lover 9 Days of Lancaster

Jaune and Ruby are college students, they have been dating for a while and they had move in together. Tonight, Ruby went out to meet her family while Jaune stayed back at home. Wearing his comfortable pyjamas, he settled on the sofa and started watching some TV shows, completely at ease. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Suddenly, the front door bursts open, and Ruby storms into the apartment, her face filled with panic. She opens her mouth to scream, but it comes out silently, as if she's desperately trying to keep her voice down.

Ruby:(whispering urgently) Jaune! You're gay! You are gay!!

Jaune is taken aback by Ruby's words, confusion written all over his face.

Jaune: *stammering* Wait, what? Ruby, what's going on?

Ruby quickly begins to explain, her voice low and rushed, her anxiety palpable.

Ruby: *whispering* I need you to act gay in front of my family. They don't know that we're dating.

Jaune's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and concern.

Jaune: *sincerely* Why should we lie to your parents? They deserve to know the truth.

Ruby's expression turns desperate, and she pleads with Jaune.

Ruby: *desperate* You don't understand. My parents have no idea I'm dating someone older

Jaune: *defensively* But I'm not that old, Ruby. I'm only 21 years old!

Ruby looks at Jaune with a mix of guilt and anxiety.

Ruby: *quietly* I might have had grade acceleration in school.

Understanding dawns on Jaune, and panic washes over his face. He was screaming internally

Jaune: *concerned* Don't you think it's still be better to tell them?

Ruby: *anxiously* No no no, Dont do that Jaune. My older sister is a professional boxer, and my father was a veteran soldier. They have a history of fighting and assault charges. It's not safe for us to reveal the truth.

Jaune: *Taken aback* WHAT?!!!

Ruby went over to the door to let them in

Jaune:*Clearly panicking* Ruby wait!! This is too much to go on a whim!!!

She opens the door to let her father and older sister, into the apartment.

Ruby: *excitedly* Dad! Yang! So good to see you! Come on in.

They all hugged each other and as they entered the room, Jaune, walks up to them with exaggerated gestures.

Jaune: *enthusiastically* Ruby, you didn't say anything about bringing a Daddy! You're lucky to have such a handsome father!

Tai raises an eyebrow, seeming a bit irked by Jaune's comment.

Tai: *slightly irritated* Uh, thanks? Nice to meet you, uh...

Jaune: *with a playful smile* Oh, where are my manners? I'm Jaune, Ruby's fabulous partner.

Tai's expression shows discomfort, but he tries to remain composed. Yang, on the other hand, seems excited and convinced by Jaune's act, noticing his pajamas.

Yang: *amused* Well, Jaune, I can definitely see your fabulousness. Love the choice of pajamas!

Jaune:*playing along* Oh, these old things? They're just my fabulous loungewear. Comfort is essential, you know.

Yang was giggling and intrigued while Ruby watches nervously, her eyes darting between Jaune, Tai, and Yang.

Ruby: *trying to divert attention* Dad, Yang, why don't we all settle in? your room is just around the corner, just put your stuff in then we can talk

They all move to their room and for a brief moment, Jaune releases a sigh of relief and finally takes a breath. He gathers the courage to address the age gap once again, expressing his concerns.

Jaune: *filled with concern* Ruby, I just want to be clear again. How old are you now? You're not a minor anymore, right?

Ruby: *reassuringly* No, Jaune. I'm already 19 years old. I'm not a minor anymore.

Jaune's face reveals a mix of relief and newfound awareness.

Jaune: *realization dawning* So, when we first started dating, you were....

Ruby: *Reassuring* what matters now is that I'm no longer okay..

For a brief moment, Jaune's stress lifts, but the weight of the situation quickly settles back onto his shoulders.

Jaune: *stressed* And how long are they planning to stay here?

Ruby: *nervously* They'll be staying for a week, Jaune.

Jaune: *increasingly stressed* A whole week? Ruby, you want me to keep it up for a whole week?

Ruby's heart fill with tears, realizing the toll their secret is taking on Jaune.

Ruby: Jaune, I never meant for it to be like this. I'm so sorry for putting you through this.

Jaune: *stressed out* Ruby, I love you, but right now you're making it very difficult

Ruby pecks Jaune on the cheek, a gesture of gratitude and apology.

Ruby: *whispering* Thank you for doing this, Jaune. I appreciate your sacrifice, I promise I'll make it up to you somehow.

#rwby #rwby lancaster #jaune arc #ruby rose #lancaster #jaune arc x ruby rose #jaune x ruby #9 days of lancaster #9daysoflancaster23

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bricommissions · 1 year

Note

I couldn't check if you were doing this still, or how early the post was for the commission for the ask starter. Though I'm shooting a shot haha! Do ignore if you're not doing it ✨️

Preferred Name: Nyx

Age: 20 (Turning 21 this year whoop!)

Pronouns: She/They

Personality: I don't show too many emotions really. Most of the time I bounce off of other people's emotions/energy. What they give I give back. Otherwise I'm pretty laid-back and nonchalant. I also keep everything to myself, unless I choose to tell something. I might drop hints at wanting to, but I will not outright say what secret I want to tell about myself. I don't mind making new acquaintances or friends. I'm just super shy about it and anxiety ridden haha! I'd rather someone talk to me first. I don't open up easily and it takes time for me to actually trust someone with personal details about me. My friends say I'm the therapist and the mom of the group. I look out for other people more than I look out for myself. I'm empathetic and sort of a day dreamer. I may or may not also like to give random trinkets to people I care about as a symbol of trust

That's about it! I know Genshin Impact more than Emsamble Stars, so I'd like to see who my possible match could be from Genshin Impact.

I hope you have a great day/evening/night and a fabulous time in getting writing commissions! Wish you the best of luck!

hello & happy early 21st birthday to you, nyx !! i hope your special day is super awesome when it happens <3 thank you for the good luck wishes :D

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE . . .

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

i'd ship you with : KAEYA ALBERICH !!

as soon as i read that you tend to keep to yourself & have a hard time opening up most of the time, i knew kaeya would be the man to want to genuinely understand all of you. he would try to get a read on you on numerous occassions. you capture his curiousity.

let's say you were in mondstadt for personal reasons that are entirely up to you. maybe you swing by the tavern to get to know some of the locals, but you don't go inside since you cannot legally drink just yet. kaeya would instantly notice the new face seated outside of the tavern chatting with passersbys.

he'd sit across from you in an empty seat with a polite "may i?" & instantly introduce himself. he catches the vibe of your somewhat secretiveness right away. he's pretty secretive himself. he'd make sure to remain friendly & talk in his low, soothing voice in case you're feeling anxious. a new city can be quite overwhelming, after all. he'd ask if you're settling in well & you both would hit it off pretty quickly. he forgets all about going inside of the tavern for an after work drink. he's far more interested in you.

every time you throw out a hint, he takes the bait. kaeya admits that you're the most interesting person he's spoken to all week. says that luck must be on his side for him to cross paths with you. the air between you is filled with warm laughter. he respects that you don't open up very easily since he is the same way. he doesn't pressure you.

once every single star is out in that night sky, kaeya walks you to your hotel room & bids you farewell. he's already excited to cross paths with you again. the cavalry captain hasn't felt excitement like this in far too long. for the duration of your trip, he makes an effort to cross paths with you & make sure you're doing alright. he is a gentleman, after all.

even though your time in mondstadt is not permanent, you see each other almost every day. when the time comes for you to leave, you take one of kaeya's hands & place a trinket of your choice into his hand with a promise to write. he keeps his hold on your hand as he gives you a deep bow of respect, letting you know that he greatly anticipates the day he receives the first letter. should you be alright with it, he even places a featherlight yet romantic kiss to the back of your hand.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THANK YOU FOR READING !!

if you are unsatisfied with the results, feel free to shoot me an ask or im !!

if you'd like to receive one of these yourself, they are still open at the moment. please refer to THIS POST if you're interested. they just come out a bit slowly since they're lengthy.

if you liked my writing, please consider commissioning me !! it is my only source of income at the moment. i offering writing commissions such as custom character x reader fics, comfort character emails, ship fics, & more <3

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

#genshin impact imagines #genshin impact x you #genshin impact x reader #genshin x you #genshin x reader #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin impact fanfic #kaeya alberich #kaeya x reader #kaeya x y/n #genshin x y/n #genshin impact x y/n #genshin impact #genshin reader insert #genshin impact reader insert #genshin impact requests #itsactuallynyx #thank you for the ask!!

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eoieopda · 1 year

Note

re soft asks: actually...... what if i said "all of them." how unhinged would that be (do it)

well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions..... i did this to @moni-logues last week and — uhhhh — i guess i deserve this, lmao.

buckle up, kids.

1, 2, and 3 were just answered here.

4. what flower would you like to be given?

i love, love, love, hydrangeas. idk if that yoongi drabble made that clear, lol.

5. who do you feel most you around?

my older sister and my best friend, IRL. if we're talking internet, @jihopesjoint has proven to be my actual clone in all respects, which is both spooky and incredible. we're like the lindseys lohan from the parent trap except instead of camp, it was tumblr.

6 was answered here.

7. what color brings you peace?

hmmmmmmmm. lilac or mint green. also really deep forest green.

8. tag someone (or multiple people) who make you feel good.

i already tagged nicki but ope here she is again: @jihopesjoint. also YOU, @sailoryooons, @here2bbtstrash (though idk if m will see this,) @luaspersona. this is not an exhaustive list!

9. what calms you down?

i don't know if i've ever actually felt truly calm in my entire life?? but the closet i get is driving around with the windows down, listening to music, and drinking a silly little coffee.

10. what’s something you’re excited for?

well, i moved to a new state yesterday and start a new job on monday, so.... a new chapter. the previous one was v ouchie and i'm excited to put down the baggage i've been shouldering.

11. what’s your ideal date?

be honest — is this you asking me out? jk..... unless 👀 (no, i'm kidding.) i never don't want to go to a dive bar, listen to a band, be bad at pool, and laugh until my stomach hurts!!

12 was answered here.

13. what’s your comfort food?

this is so embarrassing and really snitches on my depressive habits, but lately, smuckers uncrustables have been sustaining my whole life. specifically, the strawberry ones. tell me you're struggling without telling me you're struggling!!!!

14. favorite feel-good show?

new girl and schitt's creek are always the first ones i think of when i need to turn my brain off and laugh!

15. for every emoji you get, tag someone and describe them in one word.

you didn't give me any, so i'm just gonna yeet right past this one.

16. compliment the person who sent you this number.

this is gonna sound so dumb because i don't know you in the literal, physical sense, but i'm so fucking proud of you??? i know the gauntlet you're currently going through and it warms my old, dead heart to see that you're not only surviving it, but doing (what looks to be) a really incredible job at holding onto you — your interests, your joy, your hobbies. i wasn't super successful at that. it's hard as fuck, but you're doing the damn thing.

17. fairy lights or LED lights?

HALLOWEEN LIGHTS. LIL LIGHT-UP PUMPKINS. next question.

18. do you still love stuffed animals?

yes, binch! all i have atm is a gigantic raccoon squishmallow that my sister gave me when my life exploded last year and i cling to that shit, lol.

19. most important thing in your life?

my family. my siblings, my parents, my nephews, my dog, and my best friend.

20. what do you want most in the world right now?

the first thing that came to mind is taco bell because i've been craving it for days. but uhhhhh, if we're getting existential here, i want whatever is the emotional equivalent of a deep breath.

21. if you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

all you can do is love him hard and let him go.

22. what would you say to your future self?

drink water. seriously, get up and get a glass of water. right now. how are you even alive? lmao.

23. favorite piece of clothing?

an old, beat-up denim jacket that used to be my mom's! she wore it when my parents brought me over from korea, once my adoption was finalized.

24. what’s something you do to de-stress?

🏃🏻‍♀️ run, beautiful, run, yeah, you gotta run 🏃🏻‍♀️

25. what’s the best personal gift someone could give you (playlist, homemade card, etc.)

you could give me a pen cap that you chewed on and i'd still be like, omfg, you made this? for me?

but fr, i'm a sentimental bitch, so anything along the lines of "i saw/heard this and thought of you/this thing we did," etc.

26. what movie would you want to live in?

oooh, idk! is it weird if i say the craft, given what happens? i just really wanna be a witch with a bunch of other baddies.

27. which character would you want to be?

....from the movie in 25? or generally? because i'd want to be baby yoda, thottin' and boppin' around with pedro pascal, drinkin my lil drink, and being baby.

28 was answered here.

29. morning, afternoon or night?

morning! i'm an up-and-at-em kinda fella. love having a whole day ahead of me, love a breakfast sandwich, love a sunrise.

30. what reminds you of home (doesn’t have to mean house… just things that remind you of the feeling of home)?

bon fires, maple syrup, people singing while they cook/work/whatever, getting zooted and then over-competitive while playing egyptian rat screw, being hugged for a laughably long time.

#mj!#you menace #ily #jade speaks #ask game #game over y'all can go home now lmao

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leftoverenvy · 2 years

Text

Tastes Like Sugar (ch. 21)

Summary: India Mae, or Indi, is a music major, struggling to pay bills, tuition, work, and make good grades. Emily Prentiss is a BAU profiler, as well as a DC socialite thanks to her huge family fortune. The two enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement: Emily will pay for Indi's school if Indi accompanies Emily to her social functions for a few months, posing as her girlfriend. As weeks go by, the lines between their arrangement and their true feelings start to blur. But money can't buy love, right?

Pairing: India Mae Banks x Emily Prentiss; OC x Emily Prentiss

Warnings: sugar baby relationships; age gap (16 years - but all over 18)

Word Count: 2.6k

Read on Wattpad | Ao3 | Previous Chapters

Taglist: @ssa-sapphic 🧸; @5raysofsunshine 🌮; @reidselle 🦭; @milfprotector 🐝💚; @gaelic-symphony 🎻 ; @scargarcia-magshotchner 💜; @sadgirlml 🌻💌; @hotchs-bitch ; @multiverse-mxdness; @madelineleong

Chapter 21 - Evolution

I stared at my phone in disbelief. Before I could stop myself, a Penelope-like squeal erupted from my mouth. My favorite band was coming to DC. A local band from back home, they had yet to tour anywhere outside of Washington state. I immediately moved through the steps to buy tickets but paused when I had to input how many tickets to buy. I bit my lip, worrying whether Emily would want to come with me. I certainly wanted to share this experience with her, but I wasn't sure if she would like this band, or if she even liked concerts at all. We had been to the symphony together, but a loud, indie-pop concert was a far cry from Chopin.

I flew downstairs to Emily, my stampede down the stairs startling her.

"What's wrong?" she asked in alarm.

"My favorite band is coming to DC!"

"Oh!" She breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great, angel," she placated me, already turning back to her iPad. I sighed and sat next to her. When she didn't say anything further, I pushed her iPad out of her hands and straddled her lap. "What's the issue? You know I don't care what you do with your money in your account." I just looked at her, inexplicably nervous about asking her to go with me. "Or do you need more?"

My jaw dropped in shock. How could I possibly need more money? She gave me so much. "No!" I nearly shouted. "You've given me plenty!" I paused, my lip once again between my teeth. "I was hoping…or er…wondering…" I took a deep breath and resumed, "…if maybe you wanted to go with me?" I rushed out. Too impatient and embarrassed, I buried my face in her neck.

I felt her head turn to nuzzle against mine. A smile in her voice, "You want me to come with you?"

"Of course I do! But I understand if you don't want to come to a pop concert…" I trailed off, still nervous about making Emily go to a concert with me.

"When is it? I'm there if we don't have a case." I raised my head to look into her eyes, gauging her sincerity.

"Really?"

"Of course, baby. I'd be thrilled to go with you." She grabbed her iPad and rested it on my back, looking at it while cuddling me. I pressed a soft kiss to her neck and settled into our silence. After a few moments she asked, "What's the band called? I want to listen before we go."

______________________________

The day of the concert, I was wired all day. The excitement started coursing through me as soon as I woke up. I had chosen two moderate tickets. Though I would have normally chosen a seat in the nosebleeds to save money, I knew Emily would have taken issue with that. I felt uncomfortable spending so much for a floor seat, so I chose a close seat in the first tier. But at breakfast, I learned it wouldn't have mattered what seat I chose.

Emily had already left for work, leaving a fleeting kiss on my forehead when I was still in bed. When I made my way down for breakfast, in my spot at the kitchen island was some paperwork. I knew I shouldn't snoop through Emily's files, but if she needed them, I wanted to drop them off at Quantico for her. I was shocked to instead find two VIP passes for tonight's concert. "Holy shit," I whispered. This couldn't be real. I grabbed my phone to text Emily.

Indi🥰: Babe??

Em💘💗: Yes? 😏

Indi🥰: Is this real?

Em💘💗: Hmm 🤔 I'm not sure I know what you're talking about.

Indi🥰: Come on, Em!

Em💘💗: You like?

Indi🥰: DEFINITELY. Thank you, ma'am 😚

Em💘💗: You can thank me later, princess. I'll see you tonight.

If I had been wound up before, I certainly was now. I stared in disbelief at the little card that said "VIP Access" and my name below it. Emily's connections never failed her, and I suppose now they would never fail me.

The rest of the day was a blur of not paying attention in class and bouncing up and down waiting for Emily. I hoped and prayed all day she wasn't called away on a case. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she walked through the door around 4:30.

"You're home early," I noted.

She dropped her go bag and came over to place a kiss on my forehead. "The team was called on a case, but I declined to go." Affection swelled in my chest. Instead of letting on how much that pleased me, I objected, "But you stayed? Just for tonight?" I started to lie, "I don't want you to-"

"I can miss this case, baby. I'm excited for tonight."

"In that case," I said, already grinning widely, "I can't wait! Thank you thank you thank you!!"

"Go get ready baby. I'm taking you to dinner first." I ran upstairs to look my best for Emily tonight.

______________________________

It was surreal to stand up in our private box with unlimited champagne while staring down at my favorite band. I couldn't help but think about how far we all had come. It was like we had grown up together: just four years ago, they were playing house parties and I was in high school. I felt proud of them for making it big and nearly selling out a venue so far from home. I also couldn't help but ruminate on how different my life was thanks to Emily.

When the band finally took the stage, I couldn't contain my excitement. I was nearly trembling in anticipation. As the music started, my excited bouncing turned into full jumps. I screamed the lyrics to some of my favorite songs, not caring that my voice would be raw tomorrow morning. Though I was dancing like a maniac, Emily stood behind me, a hand on my hip. I figured Emily would be tired of me bumping into her, but she insisted on standing so close.

After about half an hour, a smooth bass intro sounded throughout the arena. I cheered loudly in approval for them playing my favorite song. I couldn't help but sway my hips to the sensual beat. Though Emily's hand never left my hip, it slid around my waist to pull me into her chest. She pulled me even closer when my hips ground into her. Her hands started moving in time with the beat; they smoothed up and down my body as my hips moved against hers.

It only took about thirty seconds of Emily's hands on me to completely change my mood. My moan was muffled by the noise of the concert around us. "Don't think I didn't hear that, angel," Emily teased directly into my ear. Her hot breath raised goosebumps on my skin. Before I could respond, her mouth trailed a line of kisses down my neck while her hands continued to tease me. She continued long after that one song. Though the music's pace had picked up again, I continued to grind into Emily. For the next forty-five minutes, Emily teased me relentlessly. Her lips teased my neck or ears; her hands squeezed my hips, ass, or boobs. Emily took advantage of our private box seats by teasing me for the remainder of the concert.

When the lights came up, I simultaneously let out a breath of relief and a groan of frustration at her hands returning chastely to her sides. She picked up her champagne flute and sipped on it, her eyes sparkling in faux innocence. My knees nearly buckled seeing her smirk at me so arrogantly. "Take me home," I begged pathetically.

"Don't you want to go meet the band?" she reminded me, her voice lilting deliciously. I whimpered. Of course I wanted to go meet the band; I had been ecstatic when she gave me the VIP passes. But I was aching for her right now.

"Em," I begged softly.

She grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the door. "Come on, sweet girl. There's plenty of time for that later."

I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her waist, tucking myself into her side. "Alright," I sighed, feigning exasperation. "I suppose I can go meet my favorite band." She chuckled and kissed me on the forehead.

We weaved in and out of crowds as we made our way through the arena, fighting against the flow of the crowd. It took us nearly half an hour to make our way backstage. And when we finally got there, though I was tired from exerting so much energy during the concert, adrenaline coursed through my body again. I was a starstruck, stuttering mess. It was a dream come true to meet them. I just wish I could have been a little cooler around them.

I blubbered about how much I had enjoyed them, and for how long. They all appreciated that I had followed them even when they were a small band back in Washington. It thrilled me unreasonably so that they remembered the first house party I saw them at. They ruminated on how it was a fun night and how they missed the intimacy of such a small venue.

Emily took numerous pictures of us all together. As I stood in the middle of the three bandmates, I couldn't help but stare at Emily in awe. She was looking down at the phone, trying to make sure she got us all in, but I was staring at her, blind to everything else surrounding us. I couldn't help but marvel at this incredible life she was building for me. These were the best few months of my life, and none of it would have been possible without Emily. I would never be able to properly thank her for this night.

After quick goodbyes with the band, Emily and I made our way to the front of the arena to wait for an uber. I stood in front of Emily, feeling cherished in her embrace. I looked up at her, love shining in my eyes. Though I was ready to tell her, I feared she wasn't ready to hear it. I hoped she felt my silent love as strongly as I felt it. "I don't know how to thank you for this night, Em. I can't believe what a dream it was. Thank you for coming with me" - she cupped my face - "and thank you for the backstage passes. That was incredible."

"Of course, angel. Only the best for my girl." I swooned, completely head over heels for her. I stuffed my feelings down. It was too soon. She wasn't ready. Hell, I wasn't ready. But no one ever said love caught you when you were ready for it.

We spent the entire uber ride tangled in each other's arms. Emily insisted I wear a seatbelt, but for some reason traffic laws didn't apply to her. Surreptitiously, she unclicked hers about five minutes in and slid into the middle to get closer to me.

"Em-"

"Shh," she interrupted. She picked up my legs and draped them over her lap. "I needed to be closer to you." Butterflies swarmed in my stomach. Her hand snaked around my waist, her thumb swiping against my bare skin under my shirt. I bit my lip and stared at her in the dark. I stared into her eyes as the passing streetlamps briefly illuminated her face. I would never get over how beautiful she was. I would never get used to her being mine.

I scooted closer and rested my head on her shoulder. I tilted my neck back and kissed her neck softly. "I'm so lucky to have you, Emily." That was as close as I could get without saying what I really wanted to say. Lucky to have her was the understatement of the century.

"Oh, angel," she sighed. She squeezed me closer and kissed the top of my head. Her hand continued to etch patterns into my back. Her soft breathing and warm arms lulled me into a near-sleep. Though I had wanted to repay her for tonight, the energy of the concert had tired me out.

The next thing I knew, Emily was shaking me awake. "We're home, love."

"I'm sorry, babe," I whispered, languidly unbuckling and extracting myself from her arms.

Emily helped me out of the car, thanked the driver, and led us up to the front door. "What for?" she asked softly.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep."

She chuckled softly. "You're so cute, Indi. Let's get you to bed."

"No!" I protested childishly. As we trudged up the stairs, her arm never fell from my waist. "I was supposed to pay you back for how amazing tonight was."

She chuckled again. "Baby, I know where you live. You can 'pay me back'" - she put air quotes around my own words - "sometime tomorrow."

Both of us flopped into bed, not caring about our nightly routines. I immediately moved in her open arms, resting my head on her chest. "But how will you know how thankful I am for you?" I asked, my hand running lazily up her chest.

"Please, angel, I'm not as youthful as you," she said catching my roaming hand. "Let's sleep." I was asleep less than five minutes later.

______________________________

I woke up to the sun streaming in through the window right in my eyes. It split my head open faster than an ice chisel. I groaned softly, flopping my arm over my eyes to try and block it out. I had promised myself just a few weeks ago that I wouldn't be drinking ever again, and here I was back in the same position. I could feel Emily's warmth against my back, her arm wrapped loosely around my hips. Waking up with Emily spooning me was always a quick way to ensure I would have a good day. I smiled softly to myself.

I slowly and gently lifted her arm so I could slide out of bed. I padded down the steps softly so as not to wake Emily. I wanted to surprise her with a light breakfast in bed. I quickly scrambled some eggs while the coffee brewed. I poured a splash of milk in Emily's cup and a sprinkle of cinnamon, grabbed the plate of eggs and toast, and bounced back up the stairs.

"There you are," Emily commented as I walked in the room. She sat up and raised her eyebrows. "And with breakfast?"

"Mmmhm." I set the plate down on her lap and plopped a kiss against her cheek. "Coffee too."

Emily took a huge gulp, sighed, and said, "It's perfect, baby. Thank you. How'd you know how I like it?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Babe, I've been watching you make your coffee every morning before work for weeks now. Of course I know how you make your coffee."

She slid a hand around my neck and pulled me in for a deep kiss. Her mouth turned up into a smile against my lips, breaking our kiss. When I pulled back, her eyes were shining brightly despite her hangover. Such a simple gesture, just coffee, seemed to make her whole day. It filled me with warmth to be able to make her smile like that.

"You make me feel so special, Indi." My stomach flipped pleasantly; I beamed at her. "You mean the world to me." I had never felt so loved before. I knew then I would not be able to live without Emily Prentiss.

- - -

Continue to next chapter

#🌬 fics #tastes like sugar #emily prentiss #emily prentiss x oc #emily prentiss fanfiction #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds au #wlw writing

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aggimaginary · 1 year

Text

The Bad Guys season 1: Our Own Story (chapter 21) - Clutter and Down

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Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry it's been a long rest. I need more time to finish some of my upcoming chapters of the Bad Guys season 1.

So, here's a new chapter. Hope you'll like it.

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Intro

Mr. Wolf: Yeah! I'm bad!

Mr. Snake: You're bad!

Ms. Tarantula: He's bad!

Mr. Hornet: She's bad!

Mr. Piranha: We're bad!

Mr. Shark: Who's bad?

The Bad Guys: Yeah! We're the Bad Guys!

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It's another peaceful morning in Los Angeles. The sun has risen, brightening up the city. In their hideout, the Bad Guys had a peaceful sleep. It was hard to get this early wonderful morning. It would be best to just stay in bed for a couple of hours, purposely trapping themselves in their dreamlands, and… hoping that they would come true.

Snake was cuddling his little blanket as he slept happily, until

"Wake up, everyone!" Wolf shouted, making Snake shake awake on his bed.

Wolf then burst into Piranha's room, "Rise and shine!" Piranha was startled awake as he jumped up, and his head banged on the ceiling.

Wolf then came into Shark's room, and yelled, "It's that time of the year again!" Shark woke up, also startling, and rolled down the bed.

A minute later, all five Bad Guys woke up tiredly, and walked out of their rooms with Wolf standing in the middle of the living room excitidly, and waiting for his friends' attention. There were objects and big boxes everywhere.

"Ugh, what is it, Wolfie?" Tarantula groaned exhaustingly.

"Yeah. what gives, chico?!" Piranha snapped, feeling cranky this early morning.

"Why did you wake up at this time of hour? You know we spent the whole night stopping criminals out there last night," Shark reminded.

"Get ready, guys, because today is the day… It's Spring Cleaning time!" Wolf declared enthusiastically.

But the Bad Guys weren't so excited as Wolf was as they showed their deadpanned faces.

"Seriously?! That's what you've been waking us up for?" Snake hissed.

"Plus, Wolf, it's Summer," Hornet corrected.

"Oh! Better late than ever, right?" Wolf grinned sheepishly,

"Why are you so interested in cleaning anyway? I mean, you already cleaned up the place since we… you know, 'turned good'," Snake recalled.

Wolf held out a book to show his friends, and said, "Everyone, I just read this book I found at the bookstore, and it was really inspiring. It says that when you de-clutter your house, you de-clutter your mind and clear a path to true happiness. So I want everyone to go through every single item you own, and if it doesn't kindle joy, throw it away." Wolf demonstrated as he took out an old grayish-blue sweater, "See? This sweater, it's okay, but it doesn't kindle joy. I'm throwing it out," he threw the sweater into the box to throw it out.

"Ugh, Wolf. some things might not be necessary, but you'll never know until you'll realize you actually need it in your life," Tarantula stated.

"Webs, I'm pretty sure some of these things are useless to me, so you guys can get to it," Wolf demanded as Shark, Tarantula, and Hornet went to their respective rooms to find the things they need to keep and throw.

"Wow, he's really all in on this," Snake said.

"Well, he's searching for something to fill his good empty life. You remember when he thought the solution was putting a lemon slice in a plain glass of water for a 'very simple kind of pleasure'?" Piranha reminded.

"Yeah, that's a very odd one," Snake commented.

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In Hornet's room, he took out all of his stuff, and had two different boxes beside him. He threw away the ones he didn't need, and others that he wanted to keep. Then, he found a doll that looked just like Chief Luggins in needles.

"Oh, my voodoo doll of Chief Luggins. Yeah, totally throw. It never worked, anyway," Hornet said as he pulled one of the needles, and stabbed it back again at the doll.

"Ow! What the hell was that?!" Chief Luggins' voice was heard from the living room.

Curiously, Hornet crawled out of his room to see where that voice came from. The TV was left on, and saw Chief Luggins rubbing the spot where Hornet pinned the needle on the doll while she was in the middle of an interview with Tiffany Fluffit.

Noticing it worked after all, Hornet went back inside his room, and decided to keep the doll. It wasn't useless all along, "Oh. Keep," When Hornet threw the voodoo doll into the keep box, Chief Luggins was sent flying into her police car.

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Meanwhile, Shark was also finding some things he needed to throw, but most of his things were thrown in the keep box.

"Box of cords that go to computers from the 1980s. Keep," He threw the box of 1980s computer chords. Then he took out some cash that was tied with a rubber band, "$30,000 in Camel Cash. I should've pulled the trigger on that umbrella. Keep." He threw the cash into the keep box, then pulled out a large book that showed tiny Winnie-The-Pooh and Piglet toys, "Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, who definitely are not alive, so I can turn my back…" Shark pretended to turn away before turning back at the two toys to see if they were alive, "On them!" He saw the toys were still lifeless, "Well, I guess they passed the test. They're really…" Shark turned away once again before turning back at Winnie-The-Pooh and Piglet, "Not alive!" But still, the toys didn't move at all.

When Shark turned away sadly, Wolf's voice was heard, calling him, "Shark, what are you doing there?"

While Shark wasn't looking, Pooh and Piglet were revealed to be alive as they hopped out off the shelf, and quietly ran away.

"Oh, nothing, Wolf. I was just making sure I kept my Winnie-The-Pooh and Pig…" When Shark turned around, he saw his Pooh and Piglet toys were gone, "I knew it."

Wolf came into Shark's room, and noticed his "Throw" box was empty, "Shark, there's nothing in your throwaway pile."

"I know. I'm keeping everything. Everything kindles joy!" Shark said.

"That can't be true. Even these colorful glass bottles?" Wolf pointed out the glass bottles with water on them that each held small to large amounts, "I mean, what are you even doing with this? You're a grown man! You don't need these to play music. Why would you possibly need this? If anything is garbage, this is garbage."

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Meanwhile, Piranha was also trying to throw away something that didn't kindle joy. On his shelf, he found a medium-sized box.

"Oh, look, my box of ribbons I've saved from various presents since I was a kid," Piranha opened the box, and a lot of colorful ribbons were stored inside. He took out a red ribbon, "Oh, I'm not throwing that out. That's a good ribbon," Then took out a purple ribbon, "This is a good ribbon, too. These are all very usable ribbons."

Then Shark appeared behind him, "Hey, little buddy. How's the sorting going?"

"I'm not getting rid of my ribbons!" Piranha shouted as he held his box of ribbons, and snapped his teeth at him.

Shark backed away in fear, and said calmly, "Okay, okay. I just wanted to know if I could borrow a ribbon."

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Later, when Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet were pushing out the boxes of things that they'll throw away, they noticed Snake slithering away from his room without bringing out a box of "throwaway" things.

"Snake, where are you going?" Shark asked.

Snake turned to the four "children" of the team, and replied, "Look, Wolf made such a big deal out of this. I'm going out for fresh air."

"Fresh air in the middle of stinky L.A.?" Hornet described the fact of L.A.

"What about de-cluttering your room?" Piranha pointed a hand at Snake's door.

"I don't have a lot of stuff. So, see you later, kiddos," Snake quickly slithered towards the elevator, and pushed the down button. When the doors opened, he slithered inside, and the elevator doors closed.

As the four watched Snake leave, they glanced at each other, remembering what Snake said about not having a lot of stuff.

"I don't believe Snake had not a lot of stuff," Tarantula said in her monotone voice.

"Yeah, he's the baddest out of all of us, and a safe-cracker. He has to own something," Shark added.

"Let's just go to his room." Piranha suggested.

"But the only one who knows the code of his own room is Snake," Hornet stated.

"Hmm, I wonder…" Tarantula thought of an idea as she took out her laptop, and some chords.

She crawled up the walls beside Snake's door, and attacked some chords to it. Tarantula then opened her laptop, and typed on the keyboard, hacking the code to open the safe door. The safe door was unlocked and opened with a tap on the keyboard. The three boys were impressed as Shark and Piranha entered. Tarantula detached the chords from the door, and closed her laptop. She jumped off the wall, and joined Hornet entering the room,

"I knew you got the answers, Webs," Hornet winked at her as Tarantula responded with a playful gentle punch on his arm.

As the four entered inside, they gasped in horror to see Snake's room was full of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff! Words cannot describe how cluttered Snake's room was! Most of the stuff was just junk. The four Bad Guys couldn't even identify each object in the room.

"This is… disturbing," Tarantula was the first one to describe.

"I can't believe Snake had a lot of stuff than us!" Hornet exclaimed. When he turned around, he noticed a stuffed ferret, one of the things he was afraid of, and yelled in fear, "AAHHH!" He quickly covered a with a checkered cloth to hide it from his sight.

"Is that his beanbag shape like a money bag?" Piranha rushed to what looked like a beanbag, but when he laid on it, he felt that it wasn't soft as a pillow, or a beanbag at all. He could feel metal and hear nickel clanging inside, "Nope. That's a real money bag!"

"Ugh! Can't believe you were right about L.A., Hornet," Shark turned to Hornet, who shrugged proudly.

Just then, they heard the elevator open. This meant there was someone coming, and it was not just someone…

"Snake's back!" Hornet declared as the four Bad Guys rushed out of Snake's room before he could see them.

When the elevator was wide opened, Snake quietly and grumpily slithered out of the elevator, and headed to his room. From there, he could see Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet standing beside his room door, which was already closed. The four just grinned sheepishly at him.

"What are you four looking at?" Snake asked, but the four still grinned sheepishly and silently, refusing to answer.

Snake sensed something weird about the four Bad Guys, but he rolled his eyes, and ignored them. He turned on the lock of the safe, decoding the vault, and opened it to get inside his room. Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet watched Snake slithering inside to see if he didn't suspect a thing.

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Later at lunch, the Bad Guys were eating their food, and Wolf placed the spices back in the cupboard.

"I can't believe Snake's still in bed," he said.

"I'm surprised he could find his bed," Tarantula teased. She, Shark, Piranha, and Hornet laughed loudly. Wolf heard that joke as he closed the cupboard, and slowly approached the four at their table.

"All right. What have you kids been up to?" He asked demandingly.

"Nothing!" Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet exclaimed.

Then Wolf stared at Hornet, "Hornet don't make me use my guilt look on you."

Hornet took a palm beside his right eye to cover his sight from Wolf, "Shield your eyes, fellas!" He will make you talk like an African prairie dog!" The other Bad Guys followed him as they covered their sight from Wolf.

Just then, Snake burst out of his room really angry while carrying the same bag of money Piranha laid down on, "Who broke into my room and touched my money bag?!"

Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet stared silently, refusing to respond. But Snake already know it was them.

"I can't believe you would all violate my privacy like that! And leave such a mess!" Snake yelled while Wolf crossed his arms disappointedly.

"We left a mess? A mess that big had to start being made before we were all born!" Hornet chuckled.

"But props for the giant dust bunny that looks like Taylor Swift," Piranha added.

"Guys, breaking into Snake's room is very wrong. He deserves his privacy," Wolf scolded them.

"Thank you, Wolf," Snake smiled at him.

"He has a Philippine mummy and a big jar of glass eyeballs!" Tarantula stated.

"This I gotta see!" Wolf exclaimed excitingly as he rushed to Snake's room.

Snake tried to stop him, but Wolf was really fast. The rest of the Bad Guys left the table, and followed behind them.

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When they arrived in Snake's open room, Wolf came in first, and gasped to see all the clutter in his best friend's room.

"Holy landfill!"

Snake held a feather duster, and pretended to clean his stuff, "I wasn't expecting company."

Wolf stared worryingly at Snake, and told him, "Snake! You're a hoarder!"

"No, I'm a collector…" Snake corrected before continuing, "Of everything."

"So, a hoarder," Wolf repeated, declaring what Snake said was the real meaning of a hoarder.

"Why do you have all this junk?" Piranha asked while walking around.

"It's not junk! These are useful items that I might need someday," Snake responded.

"You need a chest full of winter gloves?" Tarantula found a small chest, and opened it, containing cool-colored gloves.

"Can't an armless snake dream?" Snake snatched the chest from Tarantula with his tail.

Shark then noticed an unplugged piano, "What about the electric piano? Do you play?"

"Of course not. I don't have hands," Snake scoffed.

Wolf then noticed a giant ball of feathers beside him, "A ball of feathers? Really, Snake?!" he scolded in high pitch.

Snake sighed in defeat as he couldn't excuse himself from all this mess, "I'm so ashamed! I'm not fit to hold a feather duster," He threw away the feather duster, and slithered around a medium-sized Taylor Swift dust bunny, "Help me, Taylor Swift!"

Wolf pulled Snake from the dust bunny, and said, "She can't, but we will."

"Yeah, Snake, we will help you. You're never alone in this," Hornet reassured him as the rest of the Bad Guys smiled at him.

Snake stared at his friends worryingly. He was too stubborn to ask for help to clean his room, but he can't turn them down to help. They were his friends, and no matter how he refused to accept them, they would still help him in any other way.

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Out of the room, Wolf pulled out garbage bags from the drawer while Snake was holding cleaning equipment.

Snake already felt panic when he saw how many garbage bags Wolf pulled out, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Are we really gonna need all these trash bags? I was thinking we could just start with some light dusting."

"We should start with a light bonfire," Wolf stated, "Look, you've got to get rid of all…"

"All?" Snake stammered nervously.

"Most of…"

"Most of…?"

"Some of that junk."

Shark then approached the two, and told Snake, "Snake, buddy, just listen to Wolf. He knows what's best for us."

"Aw! Thanks, buddy," Wolf cooed gratefully before turning to Snake, "See? At least someone appreciated me."

When Wolf left the living room to bring the plastic garbage bags to Snake's room, Shark opened the door of his room to get inside, only for his room was flooded with a lot of stuff, and some of them rolled out of the room.

Snake gasped at what he had discovered from Shark, "Wait, your room is also a mess? I thought you got rid of some of your stuff…. You hypocrite!"

But Shark begged to keep quiet, and whispered, "Look, I can't get rid of it all. These stuff kindle me joy, and I won't be happy if they are all gone."

"That's what I'm feeling about my stuff!" Snake snapped.

"Sorry, Snake. Wolf won't prove that I'm also a hoarder if he didn't see my room," Shark grinned as he pushed some of his stuff back into his room, and closed the door.

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When Snake slithered back into his room, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet already set up the boxes they need to put their stuff in.

"So. We'll have two piles. "Keep" and "donate," Hornet pointed in each box.

"Where are you donating it to?" Snake asked.

"The dumpster," Tarantula stated as Snake whined.

"Look what I found!" Piranha held a purple afro wig, "An afro wig! So stylish, hermano!"

Hornet snatched the wig from Piranha. Despite being small, the wig is light for him, "A wig, Snake? I can't even look at you right now," he threw the wig into the donate box, "Donate pile!"

But Snake quickly took the wig from the donate box, "No! The '70s are back. I'll only use them for disco roller skating!" He threw the wig on the keep box, "Keep!"

"Snake, we know this is hard, but you're going to have to throw away something," Hornet said.

"Kind of like how you threw away your pride when you started collecting these rubber snake toys," Tarantula recommended while holding a purple snake toy.

Snake yanked the snake toy away from Tarantula, "Can we put her in the donate pile?"

"Well, well. Someone just lost his padlocks of the world collection," Tarantula crawled on top of the box filled with padlocks.

"No! I need those!" Snake yelled while hugging the boxes.

Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet picked up most of Snake's things, and placed them in the donate box, but Snake transferred them to the keep box.

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Meanwhile, Wolf grabbed a broom to help Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet clean Snake's room.

"Okay, Shark, we need to help the rest to clean Snake's room," he reminded his marine friend.

"Got it," Shark held out a thumbs-up as he left his room door. But the door suddenly creaked, catching his and Wolf's attention.

All of a sudden, the door popped open, spilling out all of Shark's stuff for Wolf to see.

Wolf gasped, "You didn't get rid of your junk too?"

Shark pouted in defeat as he didn't need to hide anymore. He has already been caught, "I can't help it, Wolf. These stuff brought me good memories. I can't get rid of it all."

Wolf glared at Shark as he held the broom up, pointing at the room, "Oh yes, you can. Some of them are garbage, and they need to be thrown away."

"Make me!" Shark demanded.

The fight between the wolf and the shark began as Wolf charged himself into Shark's room, but Shark grabbed him to prevent him from entering his room.

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Back in Snake's room, one side of the room, where Snake was standing, looked clean and organized.

"Well, thanks a million, guys! You're right, the uncluttered life is amazing. See you!" Snake said in a fake appreciated tone as he pointed to the door, guiding his friend out.

"Snake? What about the rest of the room?" Piranha widened his arms as he referred to the junk that was still kept in half of the room.

"Why don't you just throw out my heart?" Snake sobbed while leaning on his stuff.

"Which box is that in?" Hornet asked.

"It's all going. So bag, tag, and get ready to drag!" Tarantula declared.

"Back to work, fellow unpaid laborers!" Piranha announced while holding a garbage bag.

As Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet were ready to get rid of all of Snake's stuff, Snake began to cry that his collection would be thrown away.

When Tarantula dragged a garbage bag towards the door, Snake quickly grabbed at the end of it with his tail, "No!"

Tarantula tried to pull the garbage bag from Snake, "Let go!"

"My pocketbooks are in here! And my neck pillows!" Snake sobbed as he tried to pull the bag from Tarantula.

When Tarantula lost her grip on the bag, Snake accidentally swung the bag to his tower of stuff, and all of the piles lost their balance, and everything went down.

"Avalanche!" Snake shouted as he, Piranha, and Tarantula quickly ran out of the room.

All of the stuff fell, filling the whole room, and blacking the door. While Snake, Piranha, and Tarantula were safe outside the room, there was still dust of smoke filling the air, and noticed the door was blocked by a bunch of stuff.

"My whole life just flashed before my eyes!" Piranha exclaimed in horror, "Most of it was napping and hiding my broccoli. I gotta get out more."

"My life flashed before my eyes, too. But that's because my shelf of photo albums fell on top of me," Snake added while hyperventilating.

Piranha looked around, and realized someone is missing, "Wait! Where's Hornet?"

Snake gasped as he looked around to check if Hornet was somewhere in the living room. Tarantula and Piranha were looking around to see if their tiny friend made it.

"I don't see him!" Tarantula said.

Thinking that Hornet might be still inside his room, Snake yelled through the blocked door, "Hornet! Are you still in there?"

Inside Snake's room, Hornet was trapped inside the fallen stuff, "Gods, is that you?"

"No, it's Snake! You're not dead!" Snake yelled.

"Oh. So I have to keep cleaning? Is death still an option?"

"Hornet, can you get to the door?!"

Hornet tried to move, but felt his leg stuck under a heavy object, "No! I am trapped! One of my legs is wedged beneath your giant feather boulder!"

"Oh, come on, it can't be that heavy!" Tarantula groaned.

"On the contrary, Webs, it is quite dense. It appears to have a solid core of petrified shirt," Hornet reported.

"I'll go get Wolf. He's great in a crisis," Piranha said as he was about to leave.

Wolf's horrified voice from Shark's room. He must've been still fighting with Shark while trying to get rid of his stuff.

"Shark, no! Please! Somebody help me!"

Snake, Piranha, and Tarantula glanced at each other before Piranha shrugged, and headed to Shark's room.

Back in Snake's room, more stuff fell on top of Hornet. Luckily, he was missed, but he wasn't sure if he would be safe much longer.

"Please get me out! The junk is closing in!" He cried helplessly.

"Don't worry. Help is on the way!" Tarantula yelled through the blocked door before secretly telling Snake, "He's doomed."

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Later, Hornet pulled out a video camera to videotape himself. It was revealed he had been there for 127 seconds.

"Hello, outside world. I have decided to make this video in case the… feather ball wins. I can already feel the air getting thicker. I am almost out of oxygen," Hornet coughed. "No. It is just the suffocating stench of Snake's Hawaiian shirts."

Snake heard Hornet's narration as he believed he wasn't to be blamed for this, "Hey, you broke into my room!"

"QUIET! I AM SHOOTING HERE!" Hornet shouted angrily and loudly as he didn't want any off-screen voices to fill his taping. He then looked back at the camera, "Webs, if you ever find this tape, I want you to know you have been a wonderful big sister. And I also want you to know it was I who scratched your 18 Years 'Till Gone CD."

Tarantula heard that and growled while stomping one of her legs down, "I knew it!"

"And I-ee-I will always love you," Hornet said before putting the camera down.

Outside, Piranha returned with Wolf in tow.

"Good, you're here. You have to save Hornet so I can pound him!" Tarantula punched a fist on her other hand.

Ignoring Tarantula, Wolf called Hornet through the blocked door, "Hornet, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, but I am starving," Hornet replied, until he found an orange ball, "Oh, look, a cheese puff."

"Don't eat anything!" Wolf, Snake, Piranha, and Tarantula warned loudly.

But it was already too late as Hornet shouted from inside, "Not a cheese puff! It was not a cheese puff! Get me out of here!"

Shark then approached the scene, and panted after that fight with Wolf, "I think I can help."

But Wolf wasn't over with the situation in Shark's room, "Oh no. The next you'll gonna do was made another mess."

"Trust me, Wolf. I can help Hornet out of there," Shark reassured him.

As much as Wolf didn't trust Shark to save Hornet because of the stuff he stored in his room, their little bug friend was more important right now.

Wolf sighed, "Fine."

Shark nodded as pushed himself inside the room by punching everything out of his way. Moments later, Shark got out of the room while carrying Hornet in his large fins.

The other Bad Guys gasped happily as they sighed in relief to see Hornet was out safely.

"Hornet, are you okay?" Wolf asked.

"I'm fine," Hornet answered.

"Guys, none of this would have happened if I had just let you get rid of all my ridiculous junk," Snake admitted as he smiled, I'm ready to throw it all away now.

"Even your snake toys?" Tarantula mentioned.

"My little babies? Have you no soul?" Snake hissed at tarantula, who rolled her eyes.

Wolf then brought Shark aside from the team, and told him, "Shark, I'm sorry I forced you to throw away your things. Having a cluttered room makes you know how to get through the hardest obstacles."

"Thanks, Wolf, but after I've been in Snake's room to rescue Hornet, I realized that cluttered rooms don't really kindle joy, and you're right," Shark responded as he declared, "I'll get rid of something. There are things I admit that they didn't kindle joy."

"I'm so proud of you, Shark," Wolf said as he and Shark hugged each other.

"Besides, I don't want to end up like Snake," Shark tilted his head, pointing at Snake.

"Hey!" Snake exclaimed, reminding Shark he was beside him.

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At night, Wolf covered Snake's eyes as he helped him lead to his room.

"Ta-da!" Wolf took off his paw from Snake's eyes for him to see.

The room was revealed to be spotless. All of the junk are gone, and the important things like the bed, drawers, the real beanbag money, and shelves were reorganized.

"From garbage pile to living in style!" Shark squeaked.

"Wow. This is amazing." Snake cooed in awe to see his room was brand new and sparkly clean. As he slithered in, he felt that he could move freely without avoiding tripping his stuff, Oh! Thanks, guys."

"Look, Snake, we mounted your gold collection!" Hornet announced as he and Tarantula showed the golden bars stacked in two pyramids together in one of the drawers available in the room, which Snake smiled appreciate. He had never seen his golden bars for a while because of the clutter.

"So, Snake, do you agree to stop hoarding junk and get rid of everything you don't really need?" Wolf asked.

"Absolutely. Believe me, I've learned my lesson. I'm a changed snake," Snake swore while raising his tail like raising a promised hand.

But then, several balls fell from the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt, making the other Bad Guys gasp loudly.

"You kept your eyeballs? For shame!" Wolf scowled.

"They were my mother's!" Snake was about to retrieve his eyeballs, but the other Bad Guys quickly stopped him.

"Hey!" Shark warned, "I wouldn't."

"Back away from the eyeballs!" Tarantula added as she was about to pounce.

Snake stared at his friends for a moment before quickly dove into his eyeballs, and retrieving some of them with his tail from the floor.

Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet tried to tackle him, but Snake was really slippery as he escaped from their grasp, and rushed out to the door.

The four were about to follow him, but Wolf told them, "Kids, leave him alone," as Wolf turned, he gasped to see a white necktie with brown polka dots, "All this time Snake had my necktie?" Now Snake was gonna get it for stealing and keeping Wolf's tie, "Sic him!"

Shark, Piranha, Tarantula, and Hornet obeyed as they started yelling and rushing out of the room to chase after Snake.

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

Credits:

Sam Rockwell - Mr. Wolf

Marc Maron - Mr. Snake

Craig Robinson - Mr. Shark

Anthony Ramos - Mr. Piranha

Awkwafina - Ms. Tarantula

Rhenzy Feliz - Mr. Hornet

Alex Borstein - Chief Misty Luggins

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Author Aggimaginary

Co-Author MasterClass60 TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3

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Spring is almost coming, so I decided to have a chapter related to Spring Cleaning time.

This chapter is based on Family Guy: Throw It Away, and Jessie: The Kid Whisperer.

The scene where Hornet had a voodoo doll of Chief Luggins was based on Meg's voodoo doll of Lois. Coincidentally, Lois Griffin and Chief Luggins had the same voice actress, so they shared the same lines in this chapter.

Snake's chest of gloves was a reference to Olaf's Frozen Adventure where Elsa and Anna found a trunk full of gloves.

When Hornet was recording a video diary while being stuck in Snake's room, the time is referencing the movie, 127 Hours, the time he said how long he had been stuck was '127 seconds'.

In Hornet's video diary, just before he turns off the camera, he says, "And I will always love you." This is a reference to Whitney Houston's version of Dolly Parton's song, I Will Always Love You.

Special thanks to MasterClass60 for giving me a few ideas for this chapter. Special thanks to TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3 for letting me borrow a fan singing group he was working on, 18 Years 'Till Gone.

I hope you guys like this chapter. There is more to come!

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lov3rro · 2 years

Text

Y❦ung l❦ve

Chapter one - “snacks and drama”

( Oc - Delani Moore | 21 | )

“Hmm, there's a place in Tribeca for 3000”

A girl named paige said, popping a fry into her mouth with one hand whilst pointing to an add in the paper with the other one.

“That's too expensive all the money I saved up won't even cover two months rent, I'm gonna have to work every second I'm not in class till graduation!”

Carly her best friend replied frowning slightly.

"Carly" Paige starts

"Don't even think about not going..."

"You've work so hard for this you can’t just not go." D

Paige says, giving her a concerned look.

Carly sighed, her eyes looking anywhere but the two girls.

“Good, because you know how proud we are of you.”

Paige said popping another fry in her mouth

“It's just an internship….” Carly said modestly, but they could see the excitement shining in her eyes.

“At Instyle Magazine!!” Paige squealed in unison.

“Or you could stay at the Waffle House as a waitress forever….” Paige says sarcastically.

“I'm good thanks!" Carly replied. The girls carried on looking through Instyle magazine until a voice spoke “Hey babe” he said sitting down next to Carly.

“Hi” She replied smiling.

Sorry there were two drunk red necks wrestling in the bathroom and I also think delani hates me now” Wade says turning to Carly

“What, why?” Carly responded confused

“Well-“

“ There's no rednecks in New York.” Said Paige, pointedly staring at Wade.

"No. There's not." Came his tight reply, followed by an awkward silence.

...

" Well, I'm gonna go see what Blake's doing, he seems to like that car more than me nowadays"

Paige said giggling before sliding out of the booth, leaving the young couple.

With Delani

Carrying her box of fries and soda to the counter to pay for Diner, delani had stopped when she felt someone staring at her, she noticed a guy staring at before sending a wink her way.

"Eww, God when where are those two” she groaned turning away" continuing to pay herfood, and headed turns the men bathroom.

“ Nick, Delton lets go i wanna eat! ” Dalani yelled banging on the door.

Delani walk out the diner building hanging around the front eating her food. As soon she gets a bite Nick and Dalton walk out. “Finally y'all took forever in there” delani said smiling widely at the boys,as they continue to walk closer to her.

Nick smirks and wraps an arm around her waist. capturing her lips with his.

Nick was Delani's “bad boy” boyfriend and Dalton was their best friend well Dalton was more like a brother more than anything. Nick and Dekani have been stuck together since they were kids. Three years ago they made it official.

It was love in first sight for her, she was really in love with him.

“hi baby” delani giggled

“Hello, darling” He whispers.

“Hi to you too Dalton”

“Hi, lani!”

Nick pushed Delani closer to him, his arm around her waist and walks back toward the dinner table, not before kicking a homeless man's cup.

"What's up, crow man?" Dalton says to him.

"Get a job." Nick mutters, still walking.

“Nick, Dalton You know karma going to get y'all in the ass” Nick smilef

“Yea sure babe”

Before they can even continue they were already at the table, “That's nice. Yeah”

Delani sits with nick sitting next to her arm still around her neck. "So. What do you think, guys? Gonna be a sweet game tomorrow, huh?" Wade says, trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah." Nick says sarcastically, before drinking from his beer. Nick stopped being nice to Wade because Wade's is dating his sister. (honestly I don't remember if it's true but let's go by that) Of course he isn't going to like him.

Carly looks up and sighs. "Dalton, please don't film me." "What?" He looks around the camera he has pointed at her directly. "I'm not filming now."

"The red lights on, Dal." Delani says, taking a bite out of her food.

Nick reaches his right arm in front of Delani and pushes the camera down, "Put the camera down. She doesn't like having people up in her face." Nick glances at Carly. "She folds under pressure”.

Carly looked up slightly before putting her magazine down.

"You got something to say to me?" She asks, staring at her brother

"No. I think you've already spoken enough for the both of us." Nick smirks and stands up. "You guys are lame. I'm out of here”

Nick starts walking away hand in Delani’s dragging her away from the table not before Delani mouths a sorry at the grope.

#Spotify #house of wax 2005 #house of wax #house of wax x oc #house of wax x black! oc #oc #black! oc #nick #nick jones #nick Jones x black! oc #chapter 1 #fluff #cause of death #gore #blood #angst #happy ending #slashers #©luvvawhore

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flowerslut · 1 year

Note

I'm sooooo excited for one fell swoop!!! i loved loved loved the snippets! do you already know when you are going to post it?? also, could you give us a context about the story?

if you have more snippets i wouldn't complain yk

ahhhh! this makes me so excited! I'm also sosososo excited to finish and edit and share it!!! I always laugh thinking about this post where I shared pieces of the old draft for it (scroll to the bottom to read it on the reblog) and this specific thing I said back in 2019 makes me laugh:

it might not be for another decade but a girl would like to return to this idea! maybe!!! she’d have to rewrite the #yikesheavy one-shot first. but like. you never know..... i’ll hit y’all up again when i’m in my 30s.

well jokes on me because I turned 30 this year and have 70k of the first draft written now lmfao. #yikesheavy one-shot included. I have NO clue when I'll be posting it but not a single piece of it is going up on Ao3 or FF until the entire thing is finished and polished to perfection baby!!!! I will eventually post the first chapter of it on tumblr exclusively sometime in the next several months (yes even before I finish) but not until I throw a few more tens of thousands of words onto the 1st draft first 🤪🤪🤪

[context + a special lil treat under the cut! 😌]

I summarize the gist of the story fairly well in this answered ask from october, so it's just as I explain it there.

when the story starts we meet jasper, a 21-year-old freshly-relapsed addict who is sprinting towards rock bottom. this girl, alice, quite literally stumbles onto the scene. she's a rude little amnesiac and the most well-off homeless girl jasper's ever met (not that he has a lot to go off of). very quickly jasper finds himself stuck trying to keep this damn girl from getting herself killed while he barely wants to be alive himself. it oozes codependence! unhealthy relationships! and they make just! about! every! bad decision you can make in their positions! it's great honestly. they're having a horrible time but I'm having a fantastic time writing it and it's pretty much a super-long rewrite of the first twilight fic I ever wrote back in high school! 🤩

if we're lucky I'll be able to split my time between writing this fic and writing roots and hopefully at least one of them will be done and ready for posting by summertime!! no promises, but fingers crossed! 🤞🤞🤞

anyways here's a tiny snippet from chapter 8 since this ask just got me soooo excited to get some writing done this winter!!! enjoy!!!

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

It was as he was rearranging Alice’s clothes on his arm when someone smacked him on the back of the shoulder. He stepped forward, dropping the clothes to the ground and ducking. Spinning quickly, he pulled his fists closer to his face, readying himself.

“Relax, fuck!” A man stood a few feet away, hands lifted in front of him in surrender. “I didn’t even hit you that hard.”

“Peter,” Jasper gasped, shocked to see his friend. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, motherfucker,” usually Peter’s tone was good-natured but today it held a hint of ice. “You’ve been ignoring my calls all week.”

“My phone’s been off.” He glared, straightening himself back up. He felt a little embarrassed at reacting so severely to a clap on the back, but since getting back into town a few nights ago, he’d been especially anxious. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw your car outside. Why are you in Kohls? And,” he glanced around Jasper, his jaw going slightly slack. “Are those women’s clothes?”

“I’m shopping with a friend,” Jasper growled, turning his back to the white-blonde man and picking the clothes back up. “What do you want?”

“Just checking up on you, God,” he defended irritably. “You fell off the face of the fucking planet when you got fired from Paul’s. Forgive me for fearing the worst.”

Jasper glared down at the pile of clothes as he shuffled them back onto his arm. He hated that Peter—the only person who really knew him—would apparently just know how he’d react to news like that.

“I’m fine.” He lied.

“Then why’d Charlotte see you pulled into Maria’s driveway last Friday?”

Fuck.

“I thought you weren’t in contact with her anymore,” Peter accused, his voice low.

Jasper understood the man’s anger. Being caught seeing her again was a shameful thing. And knowing that Peter knew about it made him feel worse. The self-hatred that fell over him in that moment was almost suffocating.

“Those aren’t for her are they?” Peter asked, voice still hard as he stared at the clothes Jasper held.

He turned back around and shook his head. There was nothing more he could really say. He was embarrassed. “Are you going to lecture me?” He asked, finally looking his only real friend in the eye.

“Depends,” he folded his arms. “How high are you right now.”

“I’m not,” he muttered. He wasn’t going to admit the fact that he wished he were, because that was a given.

#one fell swoop

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hurricaneaurora · 20 days

Text

Today was a rough shift at work. By 11:30 I had sold just one dance, meanwhile one of the other dancers had already sold 21 (her final count was 36, I think... she's 44 and I hope to someday be as good as her when I'm her age). Her customer wanted to go for a double, so she came over to me and one of our other coworkers and said she needed one of us. We did rock paper scissors to decide who was going to get to go, and the other dancer won. It sucked, but whatever, it happens. They're gone for a while, and six songs in, I started spiralling. I've been struggling with depression and suicidal ideation for weeks now, but all of a sudden I went from moderately bummed out and frustrated, to having some of the most intense urges to commit suicide or to self harm. I was visualizing self harming after work, planning where to get the tools, etc. I was making serious plans in my head about how to end my life once I got back to the house after work. It was bad, and it was dark. The night ended up turning around and I ended up selling 13 dances, which while not great also was not terrible. I'm still frightened about how dark my thoughts got that quickly. I can be competitive and I can get really down on myself, but it's never been this bad.

I got back to the house and the coworker who had won the rock paper scissors game got there first (the other three of us were in a dance at the end of the night and got home later). She'd gotten a bottle of wine out and made a charcuterie plate with salami, cheese, and crackers (the fancy crackers were brought out because I can't have the cheese and she wanted me to have something exciting besides salami so I wouldn't be sad about missing out on cheese). We spent a couple of hours talking about the differences in strip club culture across the country, about dating as exotic dancers, and about how to handle telling family you're an exotic dancer. By the time we were done talking and snacking and we all went to bed, I felt so much better. As I write this, I'm still stressed and depressed (and it's 6:30am and I need to be up in 5 hours, but I still can't sleep), but I no longer have strong urges to harm myself or die. I honestly believe that 30 years from now, I'm going to look back at these years as the best years of my life. The incredible sense of community that we have here is so healing. I am no longer connected to my family of origin, I moved to another country as an adult and feel disconnected from both cultures now, I left my faith and am no longer religious so I have no religious community. Being an exotic dancer on a circuit where we live together and have cheese parties after work allows us to form close bonds that have helped me feel less alone. Have helped me feel like a part of something bigger. I was talking with my therapist about my distress over my loss of faith and how I felt I lost that sense of community and sense of being part of something larger than myself. She pointed out that religion isn't the only source of community. She said I'm a Swiftie, and pointed out the similarities between the ritualized aspects of Catholicism that I enjoyed and all the rituals and little inside gestures that Swifties share at concerts. In the same way, I think I've found my own community through work, of people with similar pre-work and post-work rituals.

#my post #personal

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izdatazn · 4 months

Text

S.U.I.T.S - Terran's Hidden War

TERRAN 21 - GUNKATA

"I asked, 'How long until I see you again?'"

"It's only a couple of months," Asuka teased. "Do you already miss me?"

"I definitely do," I admitted.

She giggled shyly and said, "Me too, I miss you too."

I stood in front of the mirror in my private quarters, having a video chat with Asuka. It had been a long time since I saw her in person. The current conflict kept us both busy with SUITs, but whenever we had some free time, we used it to talk about random stuff through private communication. She looked stunning as always, but even better in person than through the screen; she knew it too.

"It's pretty stressful as usual. You already know the details of where I'm going," I continued. "When we get back, let's go on a date. It's been far too long since I last saw you."

"What kind of place do you want to go?" Asuka asked.

"Anywhere with you is fine by me," I answered.

Asuka grinned and shyly answered, "So it's okay if we go to a hotel?"

"You know what? I'm grateful for these soundproof walls so that our conversations remain private," I chuckled. Suddenly, a red light flashed in my room, irritating me as I massaged my temples.

"Go," she whispered softly. "It seems like something significant."

I nodded and promptly terminated the video chat before exiting my personal quarters to join my team who eagerly awaited me in the main room.

"I asked, 'What's the situation?'" I inquired.

Big Bertha chimed in, "We have two teams requesting backup."

An audio transmission followed. "Good afternoon, Kobayashi. This is Team Leader Ann Younghee reporting in. I have Park Haeun's team with me as well. I'll keep it brief. We received information suggesting a massive production line is concealed in Colorado's Black Canyon, located 50 miles away from Arcane Headquarters."

"How did Arcane Conglomerate overlook this?" Harmony questioned. "It was right under their nose."

"Similar to the ordinary world, there are ways to easily hide illegal products from prying eyes or produce assets in inconspicuous locations," I explained. "Big Bertha, how much longer until we reach our destination?"

"In a couple of hours," Big Bertha replied.

Hauen interrupted us. "Miyoung, it's good to see you working with a team instead of being on your own. I'll see you soon."

Miyoung nervously stammered, "Shut up."

I looked at her, confused, and then glanced at my other team members. Had she just stuttered? It was clear from her bright red face that she had. I turned back to her.

"Ahn Younghee, we will arrive within the hour," I said.

"We'll be waiting, Kobayashi," Younghee answered. "I'm excited to see you too, Miyoung." The feed suddenly cut off. Awkward silence filled the air for a few seconds. It was evident from Younghee's expression that something was wrong.

Viktor took a step closer to Miyoung and asked cautiously, "Miyoung, did you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Miyoung struck him with the butt of her gun and said firmly, "I didn't do anything." She walked away as Viktor crumbled to the ground in a fetal position.

"But what did Viktor do?" he groaned as he lay in a fetal position.

We reached our designated location in less than an hour, arriving in a small town somewhere in Colorado. Harmony took the wheel while Viktor stayed in the infirmary temporarily. It was Tuesday, July 16th, 2079. Big Bertha was the vehicle that brought us to our destination, with Harmony as the driver. We met up with Younghee and Haeun's team at a family restaurant and acknowledged each other's presence before proceeding with our individual tasks.

Miyoung chose to guard our meeting point on top of the rooftop, possibly avoiding her friends. I wanted to ask about it but hesitated because I didn't want to end up in the infirmary right after like Viktor did earlier. Viktor stood by the entrance.

Ahn Younghee, born in 1215 during the Goryeo Dynasty, came into this world thirty years after the military coup d'état of the Sambyelocho Rebellion. She lived under the reign of King Taejo of Goryeo and served as one of the few female chefs in the palace. In 1231, when Korea was invaded by the Mongols, she bravely saved King Taejo from being assassinated by Kublai Khan's assassin in 1234. Because of her heroic act, she was promoted to lead a protection detail for several years until her unfortunate demise on the battlefield in 1236 while defending King Taejo against another attack from the Mongol Army.

We sat at a corner table towards the back of the restaurant, opposite Younghee and Haeun's team. Facing towards the dining room, I scanned the area as we waited for our food. Younghee sat at a table near the window while Haeun occupied another table near the register. When a waitress approached us, we placed our order before she left again. To communicate discreetly with my teammates, I tapped my right ear twice and continued our conversation

Park Haeun was born in 1370 and took part in a coup alongside Yi Seong-gye, witnessing the downfall of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1392 and the rise of the Joseon Dynasty. Later on, she witnessed Yi Seong-bye, who became King Taejo of Joseon, establish the Joseon Empire. Throughout her career, she served under King Taejo and later King Sejong the Great. It was during this time that she encountered a young blind individual named Lee Miyoung and became his adopted personal guard at the request of King Sejong. Haeun trained Miyoung extensively in archery, swordsmanship, and survival skills in natural environments.

"Miyoung," I whispered, "What is the current situation out there?"

"It's loud and clear," she replied. "Haeun and Younghee's teammates are three streets away from the restaurant. They have already established a perimeter. Younghee's scout is positioned on a rooftop across from the restaurant, while Haeun's guard is stationed across from Viktor."

"Viktor?" I questioned.

"Yeah," he answered. "She's a pretty cool girl."

I continued, addressing Haeun and Younghee, "Nice to meet you both."

"You have an impressive system here, Kobayashi," Haeun remarked.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person and see you collaborating with a team instead of working alone, Miyoung," added Younghee. Miyoung remained silent. A few minutes later, our waiter arrived with our ordered plates and left shortly after.

Younghee carried on talking. "I briefly mentioned a potential target during our previous meeting, but I will provide more details to your team because we've discovered that there might be multiple targets."

“Hits?” I asked. “As in multiple locations?”

"We have three locations," Kobayashi said. Younghee continued, "The Black Canyon, Painted Wall, and Denver. Each site has production lines for drugs, poison, and viruses."

"They have a production line under the city of Denver," I declared. "This could mean that they might release the virus or the drug among the citizens and cause panic. What else do we have?"

Haeun added, "There's a possible sighting of Zaporg leaving the Black Canyon and entering the Painted Wall in the last 24 hours."

"It's good to know we have that information as well," I replied while taking a bite of bread. "If we target the Painted Wall, Zaporg would already be long gone. Our main concern is in Denver since their production line is beneath the city. We need to focus on that first." I let out a sigh before continuing, "Miyoung."

"I'm on it. I've always had a personal vendetta against Zaporg," she answered confidently. She then turned to Isabel and asked, "Are you joining us?"

"Let me finish my lunch first," Isabel responded casually. "I'll be there in a couple of minutes."

"Haeun playfully questioned, 'The lone wolf asking for help? That's quite a character development! I'm proud of you, Miyoung.' Miyoung stuttered in response, while Younghee couldn't resist teasing her further through our communication device.

Isabel added teasingly, 'We had a girls sleepover in my private quarters the other day. Miyoung is such a cutie when nervously sleeping next to me. I saw a vulnerable side up close and personal that I never got to see in public.'

'ISABEL!' Miyoung shouted. 'I'm signing off!'

Isabel giggled and took her last bite of egg, gulping down the remaining orange juice. She stood up, grabbed the untouched bread from her plate, and left with Harmony.

"Do I want to know what kind of history you all have?" I asked.

"Probably not," Haeun answered.

“Noted."

Haeun's squad assumed responsibility for the north side, while Younghee's squad took charge of the southwest region in Denver. Meanwhile, my team was tasked with covering the southeast side. We diligently patrolled the streets, remaining vigilant for any signs of suspicious activity that might lead us to a hidden entrance to the production line. The absence of Miyoung's sharp senses and keen sight put our team at a disadvantage.

I noticed a sudden change in weather as dark clouds rolled in overhead. Within moments, rain began to pour down from above, followed by intermittent flashes of lightning.

Curious about this unexpected weather phenomenon, I turned to Haeun and asked, "What has the weather been like over the past few days?"

Haeun responded, "We've been here for a month now, and it has consistently been sunny. The forecast didn't mention any rain or lightning."

"Do you feel it too, Kobayashi?" Younghee asked.

"Yeah, I do. Contact SUITs and activate the shields," I said.

"I'm on it," Haeun replied.

I looked up at the sky and witnessed the rain pouring down and lightning flashing in different directions. Something faint caught my eye emerging from the clouds.

"Guys, look above us. Can you see it?" I asked.

There was a moment of silence before I noticed more objects descending from the sky. They were drop pods landing all over the city - not just a few dozen, but hundreds of them. And that's not all; there was also a small carrier descending stealthily through the clouds.

"Kobayashi," Isabel spoke up. "Zaporg's location is correct, but he's heading west."

"He's once again one step ahead of us," I gasped. "Isabel and Harmony, gather everyone immediately."

"We'll be there as soon as possible," Isabel answered.

"Miyoung," I continued.

"I'm already on it," she replied determinedly. "He won't escape from me again."

"What's the situation, Haeun?"

"We're expecting reinforcements from Arcane Headquarters within an hour and some SUITs personnel are already stationed in the city," Haeun informed us.

As we huddled behind a wall for cover, three pods crashed down around us. We found ourselves surrounded as enemy combatants emerged from the pod doors.

"I wonder if I can take on two people at once," Viktor grinned confidently while urging Vivian to stay behind him.

I unsheathed my sword with determination. "We won't let Denver fall into their hands.”

Despite being on a transport vehicle, Miyoung followed Zaporg discreetly in the forest from a distance. It didn't take long before another security vehicle joined Zaporg, and both vehicles eventually slowed down and came to a complete stop. Five figures, including Zaporg, emerged from the vehicles. Miyoung found cover in the bushes while observing from afar.

Zaporg yelled out, "I'm aware of your presence, human!" He chuckled. "It's not that difficult to figure out that you're tailing me." Taking advantage of the opportunity, Miyoung silently took down one of the guards near Zaporg without giving away her exact location with her noiseless gun. Zaporg remained standing there, still amused by the situation.

"Little girl," he scoffed, "Just because your gun didn't make a sound doesn't mean I know where you are." He shifted slightly to his left as a bullet whizzed past him from behind and successfully struck another guard. "You're a thousand years too early to kill me," Zaporg laughed, tauntingly. "You should go help your friends back in the city."

Miyoung swiftly took down the remaining guards and emerged on top of a tree branch, fully visible to Zaporg.

"So, you've finally arrived, little girl," sneered Zaporg. "Your head will be a great addition to my trophy room." He pointed his gauntlet towards her.

"You've been nothing but an annoyance since you showed up," Miyoung declared as she detached her pistol from her leg and removed her eye patch. "Kimchi, Precision is Key." Her mechanical eye shifted as steam emitted from it.

"Analyze," I whispered as I prepared myself to face off against a reptilian creature equipped with four mechanical legs and two tails. Although I felt somewhat disadvantaged in this fight, observing Viktor simultaneously battle two other creatures gave me confidence that I would be able to handle the situation.

I successfully blocked an attack from one of the reptilian's tails and swiftly evaded a strike from its other tail. As I focused on the intense battle, crucial information began appearing in the corner of my peripheral vision through my device. After glancing at it multiple times, I decided to seek assistance from Big Bertha while simultaneously dealing with the creature.

According to the data provided by Big Bertha, this particular creature belonged to the subspecies Baeno of the species Crocodilio. The Baeno subspecies was among only a few found on their homeworld, Cotorus, which resided in Quadrant 2 of the Milky Way Galaxy—just like its counterpart that Viktor was currently engaged with.”

"Viktor, what should I name him?" I inquired.

"Dexter," he replied.

Dexter continued relentlessly attacking me. Despite my efforts to defend myself, I managed to damage one of Dexter's mechanical legs. Dexter redistributed its remaining legs for better stability before detaching the damaged leg from its body. I noticed a new tail growing from behind. Dexter's attacks became more aggressive and precise, making it difficult for me to get close.

"Are there any other potential threats I should be concerned about?" I asked.

"Dexter is Zaporg's second-in-command," Viktor informed me.

"Miyoung, did you hear that?" I questioned.

"I suppose Zaporg really wants us off his back if he's willing to sacrifice his trusted second-in-command," she responded. "Dealing with Zaporg is such a pain."

"Yeah, his right-hand man is no joke either,"I changed the topic. "Isabel, where are you?" As Dexter lunged at me with its clawed tail once again, I narrowly evaded it but failed to react in time when the other clawed tail struck me. Dexter pulled me closer and lifted me up to eye level.

Dexter growled menacingly. "This is what Zaporg was worried about? A worthless bag of water?" It chuckled mockingly

Dexter snarled, questioning, "Is this what Zaporg was worried about? A useless water sack?" He chuckled, but before he could react, I heard honking noises coming from behind him. "You forgot two worthless water sacks!" Isabel shouted as she jumped off her vehicle just in time to avoid crashing into Dexter. Acting quickly, I sliced off his clawed tail before I could be dragged along with him.

"Leave for a few minutes and the team leader is already struggling without his best wingman," Isabel scoffed as she helped me up to my feet. "Do you guys need assistance?"

"Assistance?!" Viktor grunted as he tore off another claw and thrust it into his enemy's chest. He clapped his hands together defiantly. "Viktor doesn't need any help."

"That's my boy," Isabel said proudly.

Suddenly, we noticed Isabel's vehicle being thrown in the air and hurtling towards Viktor. With reflexes like lightning, he turned around and caught it with both hands just before it crashed.

"You think that would hurt!" Dexter shouted arrogantly as he charged forward.

"Dexter, please," Viktor dismissed him casually while tossing the vehicle aside. "Don't mess with my toys!" He joined the fight without hesitation, with Isabel and me right behind him. However, despite our efforts combined against Dexter's advantage remained intact in this three-on-one match.

Miyoung and Zaporg engaged in a fierce close combat battle within the forest. Unfortunately for Miyoung, Zaporg had the upper hand due to his superior weaponry and armor sets. Despite Miyoung's exceptional aim with her gun, her bullets proved ineffective in penetrating Zaporg's armor.

Miyoung relied on her experience and knowledge of the terrain to gain an advantage over Zaporg. She strategically fought up close when it suited her, but would retreat into the forest momentarily whenever she sensed a disadvantage approaching. Once out of danger, she would aggressively launch another frontal assault in an attempt to weaken Zaporg's armor. Whenever Zaporg adapted to her tactics, Miyoung quickly changed her approach - a strategy that was currently proving successful.

"You've been quite the annoyance, human," Zaporg sneered irritably.

"Not bad for a mere mortal," Miyoung grinned back.

She expertly evaded his right hook and counterattacked by forcefully slapping him across the face with her pistol. In one seamless motion, Miyoung spun around and delivered a powerful blow with her feet, swiftly followed by another strike from her other leg. While performing these maneuvers, she fired multiple bullets at his body armor, but they had no impact whatsoever. Undeterred by this setback, Miyoung holstered her pistol and retrieved the sniper gun attached to her back. She continued to relentlessly attack him while skillfully avoiding any counterattacks.

Miyoung released two latches on top of her gun and slammed it onto his shoulder, causing two sections of the gun to unlatch and wrap around his shoulder. She firmly grasped the tip of her gun and snapped his arm off his body. Kicking him backward, she quickly reattached her guns before discarding his arm.

"Pretty impressive for a human," grumbled Zaporg as blood spurted from his injured arm. "I would love to keep fighting you, but I have more urgent matters to attend to." Zaporg chuckled as something crashed behind Miyoung in the forest. "However, I'll leave my first commander to finish the rest of this fight."

Multiple claws emerged from the crash as Miyoung did her best to dodge their attacks. In a few quick movements, Zaporg managed to elude her sight. "Kobayashi, I lost him. I think I need some assistance," she said.

I responded, "We're currently occupied with Dexter."

"We'll be there soon, Miyoung," Younghee assured.

Miyoung noticed a claw retracting into the forest, followed by an eerie silence for a few seconds. Then, three claws simultaneously shot out towards her. Reacting quickly, she used the power of wind to push away three of the claws but couldn't avoid the final one in time. She leaned left and narrowly avoided having her arm sliced off as it passed just above her shoulder. In an instant, Miyoung vanished and reappeared in a safe location.

"You took your time, Haeun," Miyoung said.

Haeun appeared on the right side of her. Miyoung watched as the two other claws and arm quickly retreated back into the forest.

"Nothing gets past your extra sight," Haeun grinned.

"Pay attention, Haeun and Younghee. We're not out of danger yet," Miyoung said. "Kimchi, Guide Me."

Haeun sighed. "Always serious. Spit Fire, Gochujang."

"Haeun's right. Lighten up," Younghee appeared on the left side of Miyoung said calmly."Tranquility is Key, Ssamjang."

A massive mechanical tripod emerged from the forest and charged straight at them followed by several smaller lizard creatures.

"Damn it! This doesn't seem as dangerous as last time," Younghee casually remarked."What do you say we rough them up a bit?"

"Miyoung, you take down the big guy; we'll deal with these smaller ones," Haeun suggested confidently.They charged forward with Miyoung a few steps behind.

"This is not a game guys!" Miyoung grunted.

"Status?" I shouted.

"Zaporg escaped," Miyoung spoke. "His right-hand man slipped from our grasp, but we managed to take care of the rest. Fortunately, there were no injuries. Kobayashi, what about you?"

"Dexter also escaped from the city. They sent a small strike force for us to handle, and it went according to plan for Zaporg," I continued. "Viktor and Isabel suffered minor injuries, but we can quickly patch them up."

"Viktor is ready to go," Viktor stated.

"What's your next move, Kobayashi?" Haeun asked. "Younghee and my team will stay behind and provide support until reinforcements arrive."

"We will continue pursuing Zaporg; he remains our top priority over the decks of clubs and other dangerous matters on our planet."

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troublewithvampires-a · 1 year

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//stealing a page out of dani's book a bit here, but i'd like to share some headcanons about sal's mom to celebrate mother's day <3 a holiday sal is always more than happy to pretend doesn't exist.

sal's mother was a woman named anna burke (formerly anna o'malley), a third-generation irish-american immigrant whose family had strong mob ties.

her parents expected her to marry a family friend's son and be part of the family business--the family business in this case being organized crime, even if anna wouldn't be working in a very direct capacity.

instead, though, anna eloped with sal's father, westley, a man she'd met while out and about with friends. her family never approved of westley for a variety of reasons, but she hardly cared--he was a way for her to escape from the expectations her family had placed on her. so, the moment she was 18, she and westley got married and ran away together.

anna and westley had four children together in total: jesse (born when anna was 21 and westley was 25), beth (born when anna was 25 and westley was 29), martin (born when anna was 30 and westley was 34), and finally, salvatore (born when anna was 35 and westley was 39).

(salvatore obviously isn't the name he was given at birth, but i'm not gonna mention his deadname in this particular post.)

(putting the rest under the cut b/c this got long)

anna and westley always wanted a big family, and they were happy with the children they were able to have, but anna did struggle quite a bit to actually conceive and suffered frequent miscarriages in her attempts to have children. she was never properly diagnosed, but she did suffer from pcos, which sal would inherit from her.

sal does look a lot more like his mother than he does his father--he has anna's hair texture and eyes, for example, and when he was younger he had the same freckles. his hair color is very much westley's, though.

westley died when salvatore was young, far too young to have much memory of him.

anna tried her best to be a good mother to her children, but the family's financial struggles after westley's death meant that she had to spend much of her time away from home and at work. feeding and caring for four growing children is expensive, after all, and anna's family wasn't exactly willing to help out at this point after she'd turned on them.

eventually, anna figured out a solution. it wasn't one she was particularly excited about, but she reasoned she had no other choice if she wanted to keep them all afloat: her kids had to pull their weight and cover their own expenses as much as possible.

by the time anna had children, child labor had already been outlawed in the united states. but anna was able to secure a few under-the-table jobs for them to help make ends meet. it was still tough, though, and over time, anna came to resent her situation, and at times she even resented her children by extension, though she forced herself not to let that show.

not that she always succeeded. salvatore best remembers his childhood as a time of constantly walking on eggshells where his mother was concerned, because one wrong step could spiral into a screaming match before he knew it.

eventually, though, anna's family reached out to her again. her brother clarence, older than her by quite a few years, came to visit her, and he told her that her family had chosen to forgive her for running away and turning her back on them. not only that, but they would be willing to help her out of the situation she'd found herself in (she chose not to think about how they knew so much).

it took quite a bit of time and discussion, but anna was given a way out of the situation she'd found herself trapped in. if she was willing, clarence could take her youngest, a scrappy and disobedient girl who always looked and acted more like a boy anyhow, and have her run jobs for some of his contacts in local gangs. nothing official just yet, considering the girl's age, but enough to lessen the financial strain on the family.

young salvatore, of course, wasn't given any say in the matter or even really told the full details of what his new position would entail. he was taken out of school and given a new life working for strange men under a new name. all the while, it was made very clear to him that his family was depending on him.

anna wasn't particularly keen on the idea, but eventually she came around. a small, terrible part of her reasoned that, if the worst were to happen, at least she would have one less mouth to feed. and until then, at least the family's financial troubles would be lessened.

#❝ there i was‚ a gangster turned vampire on the loose ❞「 headcanons 」#❝ ain't no jesus here‚ billy boy ❞「 ooc 」#//happy mother's day! i'm walking into the fucking ocean #//there are definitely many aspects of this i need to do more research into #//and a lot of this is subject to change #//but for now these are my thoughts #//[hitting salvatore over the head with an oversized rubber mallet labeled MOMMY ISSUES]#ask to tag

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randomshyperson · 3 years

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The Scarlet Witch Prophecy - Chapter 13 - The Sixth Year (Part Three)

My dear friend @abimess, I keep stealing your gifs and making updates without telling you. I hope you never get tired of it.

Summary: As the youngest daughter of Howard Stark, you have ordinary expectations for your years at Hogwarts. Little do you know what adventures await you when your destiny is intertwined with the legendary Scarlet Witch.

Warnings: +16. Adaptation of the Harry Potter Saga, Magical Thematic, Prophecies, Mentions of Violence, Torture and dark magic, Language (swearing and minor/major offenses), manipulation of will, Underage kissing, insinuation of smut with minors, Smut (overage), descriptions of death, aggression, obscurity, angst, fluffy, soulmates analogies. || Chapter Warnings: Magical torture with minors, cursing, angst, ptsd, derogatory thoughts and behavior, dark magic.

Chapter Words: 8.486 K

A/N> Yes, I've gone for a month without warning anyone, and yes that might go on, but at least i'm near ending this (I'm already writing chapter 21). Once I'm finished, I'll just programe tumblr to upload them all for me because i'm lazy. I hope anyone like this yet, i don't even know what i'm doing anymore. Good reading!

Series Masterlist || Read on AO3 || All Works Masterlist

Chapter 13 - Part XIII - The Sixth Year (Part Three)

Gossip really starts to irritate you when you go to lunch after potions.

"You want to say something to me, girl?" You charge impatiently when you hear the giggles behind you again, coming from a group of students sitting at Ravenclaw's table.

The group turns around with wry smiles on their faces, and you notice the editions of the Daily Prophet in the hand of one of the boys. It is Hope Summers, your classmate, who speaks first:

"We're just sharing some theories, Stark." She says in a provocative tone. "Some of us find it an interesting coincidence that just now that Mephisto is back, you and Maximoff are losing control of magic."

You frown.

"What are you talking about?" you ask in surprise, referring to Wanda, but Hope thinks you want her to keep mocking you.

"It's just suspicious that no one knows what happened to you in that dungeon, or at the ministry of magic." Hope counters. "And now you two are blowing things up, and we have a dark wizard on the loose."

"Fuck you, Summmers." You curse as you stand up, leaving the girl in shock at your aggressiveness.

The same auror from the first day stands in front of you as you try to approach Slytherin's table.

"Students must respect..."

But you interrupted his speech with a loud shove that sent him staggering backwards, and drew the immediate attention of several people.

You were seeing red by now, the man's wry smile only making you more irritated.

He drew his wand, but so did you. And the room held its breath.

"Put your wand away, Miss Stark." Warned the auror angrily, but you didn't.

Wanda stood up as she noticed the confusion, rushing to reach you, but the auror put his arm in her way.

"Now, miss." He warned again, and you grunted in irritation.

"Get your hands off her." You retorted, feeling your body fever with hatred.

"Stark." The man said, his arm reaching down to push Wanda back, and you exploded.

You didn't even finish thinking about the spell, the magic exploding out of your wand.

The auror masterfully blocked it, and you dropped your wand to jump on top of him.

It was a confusion of shoving, other bigger students pulling you away from the man and he away from you.

" Never fucking touch her again!" You warned snorting in anger, Thor Odinson stopping you from jumping on the man's neck.

"I just pushed her away from the line of fire, you crazy bitch!" The auror retorted indignantly and angrily. "Go to the headmaster's office now!"

"Fuck you!"

Thor pulled you out of the hall as the crowd of students whistled in celebration, excited about the whole fight. The auror was too busy dissipating everyone to follow you.

"Hey, hothead, calm down." The blonde warned as he released the grip of you by the courtyard. You grunted angrily, wishing you could break something.

"Fuck this school, fuck that asshole." You complained aloud, as Thor looked at you curiously.

"You have quite a rage, Stark." He comments, and you grumble in irritation.

But Wanda catches up with you the next moment, and she looks even angrier than you.

"What the hell was that?" she asks and you roll your eyes, running your hands through your hair.

"I think you are going to be fine for now on." Thor comments, smiling at the thank you Wanda says to him before leaving you two alone.

"So?" Wanda insists, arms crossed. You bite the inside of your cheek as you look at her.

"What do you want me to say?" You retort angrily.

"You just started a fight for no reason! Again!" She accuses. "Only this time it was with a wizard who could kill you. I want to know what's going on!"

"I don't know, Wanda!" You exclaim angrily. "Why does everyone expect me to have answers? I don't know! Do you understand that? It feels like I'm going to explode in frustration any second, neither you or Gamora seem to get it. I don't understand what's happening to me!"

"Because you won't talk to us!" She shouts back, just as annoyed as you are. "You're pushing everyone away! Even me! We can't help you if you don't talk to us!"

You grunt impatiently, turning around. There was a strange throbbing in the back of your head, a strange whisper. Like a voice telling you that no one was telling you the truth, that your friends expected too much of you, that Wanda didn't care...

This last thought made you sob. Wanda softened her expression immediately, taking a step toward you and touching your shoulder, but you pulled away from her touch as if burned, wiping your tears away quickly.

"Leave me alone, Wanda." You mutter between teeth. She hesitates, raising her hand toward you again.

"Please."

"I need some time from you." You insist, pushing her hand away, and walking away.

A part of your brain is begging you to go back and make things right, but there is a cloud of anger and irritation that keeps you walking.

//-//-//-//-//

You roll over in bed in discomfort.

Nightmares. Again.

It has only been five days since you had your fight with Wanda, and you are getting worse every day.

With Summers' teasing, you end up noticing other things too.

How the school really found the theory that you and Wanda were somehow related to Mephisto, because the minister had covered up what happened in the dungeons and in the ministry, and everybody thought it was strange that two students were showing an increase in magical potential with the return of a dark wizard.

Unlike you, who were failing considerably in any simple execution of spells, Wanda was demonstrating exceptional abilities. Kaecilius was more than willing to make her the face of progress at Hogwarts, you heard the gossip about bringing in reporters to share the news of the new direction.

You know that the only reason Wanda hasn't come after you yet was because you're running away from her like the plague.

And you couldn't even explain why.

You were also blocking out your real health condition from her. Just like you two practiced during the summer.

Besides hiding this from Wanda, you have kept your friends away too, isolating yourself from everyone else in search of a little rest, only succeeding in taking a nap when you are running away between classes.

And the detentions with Kaecilius keep increasing as you skip classes.

You begin to consider learning to write with a different hand, just so the bruise has time to heal, but at this point you don't even care about the scar anymore.

"You really must like pain." Loki teases wryly as you sit in an empty room, waiting for the aurors' shift change again after your detention.

You don't ask him what he's doing on that floor again, and he doesn't ask why you haven't spoken to your friends in two weeks.

"Sure, that must be it." You joke back, massaging your injured hand.

He assumes a pensive expression for a second.

"Are you sure you haven't been cursed by someone?" He asks, causing you to frown in shock and confusion.

"Excuse me?"

He gives a little chuckle, settling himself better against the wall.

"Everyone's been talking about you being sick." He says. "I heard some of the Ravenclaw people theorize that you became a werewolf over the summer."

You laugh helplessly, massaging your temples lightly.

"I guarantee that's not it." You say making Loki smile.

"If you are sick for no reason, it could be a curse." He says. "I wouldn't be surprised, the way things are."

"But how do I find out if I've been cursed?"

Loki takes a thoughtful stance.

"I don't know." He says. "But I'm sure you can learn that in the no longer reserved session of the library."

You laugh at the joke, but soon you both return to silence. When that hallway's shift ends, Loki sighs, getting up and helping you to stand.

"Still can't perform spells?" He asks, already drawing his wand.

"Only if I want to blow things up." You scoff making him laugh.

"Fine, I'll enchant you." He says. When you are transparent, he looks at you with an amused expression. "See you next Saturday, troublemaker?

"Don't worry, I plan on skipping DADA, maybe I'll be here tomorrow." You retort in the same tone before turning to leave.

//-////-//-//-//-//

It takes three more days for Wanda to finally corner you.

You are skipping class in an empty room on the seventh floor, trying to doze off, and almost fall out of your chair with fright when the door opens and Wanda comes in, looking annoyed.

You grunt impatiently, without lifting your face from the desk.

"I told you I needed time." You complain, but tense up when you notice the tears in her eyes as she moves closer to sit at the table next to yours.

" You want to break up with me?" She asks in a whisper and you raise your head immediately, feeling your chest tighten.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Wanda gives a humorless laugh at your expression. "Why are you acting like this is an absurd idea? You've disappeared. You've been avoiding me, not even talking to me anymore."

You shake your head quickly, feeling the urge to cry.

"I don't want to break up with you." You say. "I..I would never want to be away from you."

"You just said you need time away from me." Wanda retorts with annoyance, and you feel your stomach clench as she sighs. "I don't know what's going on with us. And I miss you, but you won't let me near you."

You are exhausted. So you cry.

You rest your head on your arms, and let your sobs fill the silence, hoping that the tears will take this bad feeling away.

It's Wanda's gentle touch on your back that helps.

"Babe, tell me what's wrong." She whispers to you, her tone concerned.

It takes many minutes for you to calm down. But when you do, Wanda holds your hand, kneeling on the floor beside the chair you are in.

"I can't do magic." You breathlessly tell her from crying, "And I can't sleep. I've been sick for weeks, and I'm angry all the time. Healer Cho doesn't know what's wrong with me, but everyone at school seems to have a theory about it. I think I'm going to suffocate, Wanda. I'm messing everything up. Between us, between my family, and at school." You sob as you finish and Wanda shakes her head, her hand coming up to your cheek.

"Don't say that." She urges. "You didn't ruin anything. Hey, look at me. I love you. Your sisters love you, your friends love you. We'll figure out what's going on."

Wanda hugs you tight, and you sob, shaking.

You want to believe her words, so you push the intrusive thoughts away, and believe it.

//-//-//-//

Wanda takes you to a door in that same floor you two were before, but you have never seen that door until that moment.

And you are very surprised to realize that it is a bedroom.

"How...?" You ask confused as she closes the it.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement." She says with a smile, pulling you by the hand around. "We hold our Avengers meetings here." She counters and you frown.

"In a bedroom? Interesting choice." You comment and she giggles.

"No, my love." She says. "That's how this room works. It is charmed to meet your needs. That's why I asked you to come in first."

"Oh, that's pretty cool." You say looking around. Wanda smiles at you, and then you both reach the bed. "The room thinks I have to sleep?"

"I do too." Wanda retorts, pushing your shoulders gently for you to sit on the bed. "Go on, nice dreams."

You hesitate. "You gonna leave me here alone?"

Wanda denies with her head, pointing to the chair that probably just magically appeared next to the bed. You frown.

"Can't you sleep in the bed with me?"

She giggles. "We don't have much time for you to sleep. If I lie down, you'll want to kiss me. So I'll be sitting in that armchair, studying as I should." She explains seriously, and you pout.

"Stupid rules." You grumble moving your hands up to her waist. "Lie down with me."

"Babe..."

"Please."

Wanda sighs, then nods. You smile, quickly removing your shoes as she does the same. You quickly adjust yourself on the bed, opening your arms for her to lie on top of you, and she gives a little giggle before doing so.

"Are you cozy, sweetheart?" You murmur against her hair, and Wanda squeezes her arms around you.

"Yeah, your boobs are good pillows." She teases, making you laugh with reddened cheeks.

Your eyes begin to heavy quickly, fatigue catching up with your body relaxed by the comfort of the moment.

"Go to sleep, babe." Wanda whispers. "I'll be here when you wake up."

You smile with your eyes closed, surrendering.

It's the best sleep you've had in weeks.

The problem is that as soon as you start to wake up again, you are feeling sick.

You touch the emptiness in the bed, mumbling softly. When you open your eyes you find Wanda sitting in the armchair, the darkhold in her lap.

"Damn it, Wanda, this book again." You complain in a hoarse voice, but she just sighs.

"Why the attitude?"

"I hate that book." You grumble sitting up in bed, massaging your face lightly. "Why do you keep reading it anyway?"

"It's interesting." She says, closing the item to look at you. "Agatha really told me a lot, but there are also things I didn't know."

"For example?"

Wanda bites her lips, appraising you.

"Scarlet witches are forged, for instance." She says and you frown in confusion. Wanda sighs. "Many powerful witches, born scarlet witches, never got to fulfill their destiny because the forging didn't happen."

You straighten your clothes uncomfortably, pensively.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"What the headmistress did last year was my forging." She clarifies and you swallow dryly, feeling your stomach turn. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" you ask confused.

"Everything." She says upset. "I know we've talked about this, but it seems like all I do is cause you problems. With the bond, and with the forge. If Agatha didn't want my powers, she wouldn't have taken you to the dungeon and you wouldn't have suffered."

You poke at the knot of your tie, feeling yourself suffocate slightly. Wanda is speaking, you blink to focus on her words.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" You ask out of breath, sweating. You blink to find Wanda's concerned gaze on you.

"Babe, what's wrong?" She asks worriedly, her hands around your face.

You feel your head spin, and everything goes dark before you can answer.

//-//-//-//

You smell the scent of grass when you wake up.

Then you blink in confusion, getting used to your surroundings to realize that you are in what looks like a ward bed.

"Hey, all right, take it easy getting up, Miss Stark." Asked Professor Strange with one hand on her shoulder. In the other he held a potion that you imagined he had given you.

"W-what happened?" you mumbled confusedly, sitting up in bed. Only now did you notice Professor Munroe and Wanda standing in front of the bed, both with worried expressions.

"You passed out, but you're better now I imagine." Stephen explained gently, but you were still feeling very weak.

"Professor, she simply blacked out." Wanda commented in a tearful voice. " Don't you have any idea what's wrong?"

Stephen sighed, and then pointed at the chair, the darkhold.

"Where did you get that book?" He asked, and Wanda frowned, taking a step toward the chair in a defensive posture.

"What does that have to do with my question?" she retorted dryly, and Stephen looked at you one last time before standing up.

"There's a reason it's called the Book of the Damned, Miss Maximoff." He says."It damns its readers."

"That's ridiculous." Wanda retorted, crossing her arms. "I've been reading it for weeks and nothing has happened."

"Not with you."

Wanda hesitates, widening her eyes. And then she takes a step back, swallowing her cry as she reaches out to grab the book and hand it to Stephen.

She turns her gaze back to you, and lets the tears fall.

"I am truly sorry." She says with a mixture of guilt and shame before turning to leave the room.

You call out to her about three times, but she leaves and you don't have the strength to go after her.

"Damn, couldn't I have said that in a different way?" You complain angrily to Stephen, who just sighs, exchanging a look with Professor Munroe. "How come you two are here anyway?"

"It was Wanda." Professor Ororo replies. "She asked the room for someone trustworthy to help her with you. Then there was a door opening in the potions room. Stephen was there with me, and we both came."

"Great." You mutter annoyed, thinking about how you are going to talk to Wanda and convince her that you were not angry with her. "Would either of you happen to know how to make me better now?"

"Sure." Stephen comments by raising the book in the air, and with a wave of his hand, the item dissolves into several pieces until it is gone. "I didn't destroy it, if that's what you're thinking. I just put it away, to prevent something like that from happening again."

"Congratulations." You grumble wryly as you straighten up in bed, the same migraine from before is now weaker, but it's still there.

"You know, you had a better attitude when you didn't have a magical doom on your spirit." Stephen complains, causing you to frown, but Professor Ororo gives a chuckle.

"Thanks professor." You comment wryly, making him laugh. He sits back down beside your bed, and pulls out of the cover a small notebook.

"Now that Miss Maximoff has stopped reading the book, I suppose you will get better." Stephen says, making you sigh.

"You suppose? That's encouraging." You say moving to stand up.

"Where are you going, Miss Stark? You need to rest." Warn the professor, but you ignore him, and ignore the weakness in your body as well.

"What I need, Strange, is for people to stop lying to me."

"No one is lying, Miss Stark." Professor Ororo states next. "We really don't know the extent of the magic the darkhold carries."

"And why is that I imagine?" You sneer. "Because someone omitted the truth from you, and it's been passed down for generations, isn't it? Well, that's over now. Because we've finally studied everything in this place, including a book that condemns anyone who reads it." You exclaim impatiently, stooping down to put on your shoes. "If you two will excuse me, I'll figure out how to get better on my own. But first I'm going to explain to my girlfriend that none of this is her fault."

Ororo and Stephen are silent, but you wouldn't have been paying attention to anything they said anyway.

Soon you are up and out of the requirement room looking for Wanda.

//-//-//-//

She seems to have disappeared from the castle, so you must concentrate to use your instincts.

The hardest part is dodging the aurors, but you finally reach the astronomy tower.

You're a little out of breath from the run, but it's the image of Wanda standing on the edge, the sunlight in her hair that leaves you breathless.

"Hi." You say in a low tone, your hands in your pockets as you approach. She startles slightly, wiping away tears as she keeps her gaze forward.

"What do you want here?" she asks in a husky voice. You sigh.

"That you stop hating yourself and listen to me." You say and she lets out a short laugh.

"And what do you think you can say?" She questions turning her body toward you. "All I do is hurt you."

You shake your head, but Wanda lets out a tearful laugh.

"No you don't understand." She says. "Since I met you, you have only brought me good things. Affection, happiness, hope. You've been that kind warm feeling that I need on my worst days. Hell, you're even the memory for me to cast a patronus." She confesses with emotion, her face wet with tears. "But me? All I bring you is pain and suffering. And now I even bring sickness. This is wrong, I hurt you. You need to see this, and understand that we can no longer happen."

"Don't say that." You ask, reaching up to touch her face, wipe away her tears. "That's not true, Wanda. I love you, you make me..."

"Stop it." She interrupts with a sob. "Don't make it any harder than it already is."

"Please, Wanda, listen to me." You plead, resting your forehead on hers, your hands on her cheeks. "You make me happy, you are the only thing that makes me happy, I love you, please..."

Wanda kisses you hard, and you respond with the same intensity, both of you gasping into each other's mouths.

But then she is pulling away, thrusting you farther apart.

"I'm sorry." She cries, taking a step back. "We're over."

And she's running away again, and this time you don't go after her.

//-//-//-//-//

Without Darkhold's being consumed, you really start to improve in terms of physical health.

The only problem is the emotional ditch you find yourself in.

Gamora, Nebula and Mantis find you, again in the Room of Requirement, skipping class.

"My god this is worse than last time." Gamora remarks as she looks around at the mess of junk food and pillows. The room had been transformed into a "comfortable place", which basically had the appearance of a living room, with several soft armchairs, and lots of unhealthy food. "Why did you guys break up this time?"

"Please don't talk to me." You grumbled, your voice coming out muffled because you were lying on two soft puffs, your face buried in the pillow, your hand inside a bag of muggles snacks.

"I bet you five bucks they'll be back together before the end of the month." Nebula commented and you sniffled against your pillow, hearing a noise that sounded like Gamora hitting her sister.

"We talked to Wanda." Mantis said. "And with Professor Stephen, too. We're sorry about everything, but have you decided you're not going to study anymore?"

"I don't care about school." You grumble against the pillow. "Leave me alone, I want to cry."

Nebula gives a short laugh, and Gamora elbows her.

"Stop hitting me, you crazy." Nebula complains loudly, moving away from her sister to approach you, taking the bag of snacks you have, and making you complain softly. "And you stop being such a drama queen. Aren't you two like soul mates or some shit? It's just a fight, you'll work it out. You're acting like you've never broken up before."

"Your sensitivity is admirable." Gamora scoffs, pushing her sister away to sit next to you, stroking your back until you look up at her. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

You feel the urge to cry arise again. "Wanda thinks she is bad for me." You say. "And she doesn't want to be with me anymore, and I want to die."

You start crying again, stuffing your face into the pillow as Gamora strokes your hair.

"How did this happen anyway?" Nebula asks, confused, chewing on salty snacks."You barely slept at home over the summer to be with her, and now you guys are breaking up. It's hard to keep up with this relationship."

"Merlin, Nebula shut up." Gamora asks impatiently, and her sister raises her hands in surrender with an ironic expression. You want to scream against your pillow, but all you do is try to control your crying.

"You can't keep disappearing, sweetheart." Gamora says as she runs her hands through your hair, trying to calm you down. "Kaecilius has already noticed. He's trying to figure out where you're going, and eventually he'll figure it out since you can't stay here forever."

"Maybe I can." You mumble making Gamora laugh softly.

"Come on, I'm sure you miss a decent meal." She says. "Why don't you join us for lunch?"

"I can't sit at your table."

"Who said anything about a table?"

This is how you end up on the edge of the great lake, at a picnic.

Mantis gets several dishes from the house elves, and since lunch is a free social hour, nobody seems to mind that you are eating outside.

Your sisters are not the only students who, over time, have learned ways around school rules.

You grumble slightly as you feel the sun on your face, but lie back on the grass, closing your eyes.

Your mind wanders back to last summer immediately, the memories of Wanda, and you feel horrible. You just want her back. And then you swallow the urge to cry again to accept the juice Mantis offers you.

"We wanted to tell you that we've found a way to help you, too." Gamora says after a moment, causing you to raise your eyebrow. "About the darkhold, and the eternal damnation thing."

"Light topic." You sneer, throwing your arm over your face. The day is hot. "I appreciate the help, of course."

Gamora giggles. "Merlin, I had forgotten how grumpy you get when you're upset."

"I'm not upset, Gamora." You retort angrily. "I'm frustrated."

"Sexually." Nebula sneers, making you grunt in anger, but Mantis holds back a laugh.

"What's your problem with my feelings lately?" You accuse the girl with irritation.

"Not everything is about you, you know." She retorts and you sit up quickly, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nebula laughs, rolling her eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, there's a war going on." She says. "We're all stressed and scared. And the three of us have been in the same classes as you, having to watch the same things. But you only have time for Wanda. And now you've broken up, again, because there's some mortal danger, again, that she's caused for you. So, I don't know, but maybe she is right to break up. Ever since you guys started dating everything has been about her, and the trouble she causes!"

"Fuck you, Nebula!" You exclaim angrily, advancing against the girl in front of you. Gamora and Mantis quickly separate you.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Gamora shoves you. "Were you really going to hit her?"

"Fuck this." You curse angrily, taking a step away. "I didn't ask any of you to come after me. I don't need you. I just need Wanda. Fucking leave me alone."

You turn back to the castle, cursing the wild on your way.

//-//-//-//

Loki is the only friend you have now.

You wouldn't call him a friend exactly.

Kaecilius has put you in detention for three days a week, including Saturday, but mostly you just clean the castle. But when he takes you to the seventh floor, and makes you scrape sentences against your own skin, you don't worry about being alone anymore, because Loki is always on that floor.

It takes a week for you to tell him about the requirement room.

" You could have mentioned it earlier, we would have stuck around here." He comments without sounding upset.

Soon it doesn't take long for you two to start seeing each other even when you're not in detention.

You are not surprised that Loki also skips classes, he has always been quite mischievous, but the reason is different from yours.

He knew dark magic. Much more than you or your classmates. And he has no interest in practicing it in class.

"It's stupid." He comments as you are sitting in the armchairs. "Most people will never have the courage or willpower to cast a death curse. It's useless to learn."

"Is that the only reason you don't agree with the teaching at Hogwarts now?" You ask in surprise, setting up the chessboard for yourself as Loki shrugs his shoulders.

"I feel like you're judging me, Hufflepuff." He sneers but you smile, rolling your eyes.

"Honestly, I don't give a damn."

And you really didn't care.

Wanda was avoiding you in the halls, and you were doing the same with your friends and family.

When Iron delivered the mail to the Slytherin table, including Nebula's birthday presents, you wanted to throw up, but all you did was walk away from the Hufflepuff table toward the requirement room.

Without the darkhold, you didn't feel sick, but the anger didn't go away.

Your magic hadn't stabilized, and you were failing at everything, but you couldn't bring yourself to worry about it.

Erik wrote to you, commenting on the importance of you and Wanda practicing magical balancing together, and you burned the letter while crying on the carpet.

And at this rate, time went by.

It was almost the middle of the school year when things started to take a turn for the worse at Hogwarts, and in the wizarding war as well.

Mephisto is getting stronger, and the order is losing. And Kaecillius must be under some pressure from the ministry, maybe for answers from organizations like the Avengers, which are forbidden, because his detentions get too horrible.

It is Saturday again, and you drag yourself to the room where you are supposed to fulfill your detention, but unlike the other days, Kaecillius locks the door.

You only notice because he seems tense and distracted, and there is no feather or book.

"Professor, what will my punishment be today?" You ask confused, and he is nodding to the center of the room as he stands in front of the desk, a few feet from you.

"Miss Stark, today I want to ask some questions and I expect honesty." He declines as he turns to you.

You hiss softly, putting your hands in your pockets.

"Shoot."

Kaecillius doesn't even mind your lack of formality, looking at you with an impassive face.

"What is Mephisto's location?"

You choke in surprise and disbelief. "Excuse me? Why do you think I know that?"

"The ministry has reason enough to suspect that the Order of the Avengers is nothing more than a cover for the death walkers.Your brother, whom I had suspected of being part of that order of delinquents, is no longer at Hogwarts, but you will have to serve." He speaks and with each word you become more outraged. "Now answer me, where is Mephisto?"

" Did you just fucking call my brother a delinquent?" You mutter incredulously. "I have no idea where Mephisto is, what's your problem?"

But you widen your eyes when the professor draws his wand, and you barely have time to swallow dry before the spell hits you in the chest.

It's the cruciatus curse. You know the second it hits you. The sharp pain fills every cell in your body and you scream, not having the strength to stand or with your eyes open, hugging yourself.

"We must not tell lies, Miss Stark." Kaecillius says as soon as he stops enchanting you, the pain disappears in the same instant, but you continue to tremble.

In complete shock and fear, you sob.

"I will ask you again, where is Mephisto?"

You let the tears flow, and shake your head. "I don't know, professor."

Kaecillius lets out a sigh of disappointment. "Some cases are more difficult than others." He comments somberly, taking a step toward her. "Did you know that the record for enduring the Cruciatus curse before madness is six hours? Incredible, isn't it? It happened during the first war, with a muggleborn. You're a half-blood, maybe you can take longer"

He has a devilish grin as he finishes, and you clench your jaw at the threat.

"I don't know where Mephisto is." You repeat, but the professor points his wand at you again.

"My bet is seven hours."

And then the pain returns.

You don't know how long you stay in that room.

But it is long enough for your consciousness to begin to fade. The pain gets so severe that it gradually fades away. You begin to gasp breathlessly, not even able to scream anymore.

Someone help me. Please, help me. Help me. Wanda.

Between the tears you see the floor of the room, and between a twinge of pain, a red light. And everything is dark again.

//-//-//

“Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Warcraft and Wizard is arrested in flagrant by aurors from the ministry of magic this week, full coverage on page..."

You blink confusedly, your eyes getting used to the clarity, while the headline of the Daily Prophet was the first thing your vision caught.

And then you shifted in bed, realizing that you were in a hospital room , and whoever was reading next to you put the paper down when they heard you, and you could behold the curious look on your brother's face.

"Tony?" you whispered confused, and he smiled as he stood up quickly, the newspaper forgotten on the armchair.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked as his hand reached for the loose strands of hair on your face and put them back. "You scared the hell out of me."

"What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

You thought, and then sighed, closing your eyes for a moment.

"Kaecilius."

Tony bit his lip nervously before speaking.

"I'm sorry." He said, lowering his hand to his own. "I came here as soon as I got the howler from Professor Strange, but honestly, I didn't even need it, because all the newspapers are talking about it."

"What...?" You started in confusion, but Tony hurried to explain.

"Wanda found you, Y/N." He told. "She, well, wasn't exactly happy about the whole thing. I think she lost control. Kaecilius is lucky to be alive if you ask me. She almost destroyed the seventh floor, it was a huge mess. And then the aurors interfered, and soon there were reporters everywhere. I guess now everyone knows she's a scarlet witch."

You widened your eyes, straightening to sit up and grumbling a little in pain. Tony looked at you with concern, asking you to take it easy, but you were already asking about Wanda.

"She's at the ministry of magic." He clarified. "Kaecilius is going on trial for torturing a student, and she will answer for putting everyone in danger."

" What?" you ask incredulously, and Tony sighs.

"Yeah I know it's unfair." He says. "But the minister of magic seems to be looking everywhere for people to blame for his lack of control. The problem is how much of that information will get to Mephisto. The whole ministry seems to be full of walkers."

You ran your hand across your face, frustrated.

"I'm so tired, Tony." You confess in a whisper. "It feels like everything is falling apart around me, and things are only getting worse."

Tony squeezes your hand. "I'm sorry, I really am. This whole situation sucks, and I wanted to help you. I'm trying, sister. I haven't been talking to you as much as I should, but I didn't want you to think you're alone. I'm working on breaking the bond. To free you and Wanda from the prophecy, and the wizarding world from dangers like Mephisto. I'm sorry I haven't been by your side."

You swallow your cry, and nod, trying to smile at Tony. He reaches up to hug you, and you gasp softly, taking a few seconds to relax and let the tears flow.

When you calm down, Tony tells you that he is going to get a Mediwizards to check your situation.

You lie down again, sighing softly. The memories come back with full force, and you choke softly, feeling your body tremble.

It's as if you can feel the curse again, sense the pain on your skin. Opening your eyes and shaking the memories away, you swallow dryly and reach for the glass of water on the nightstand.

You just want Wanda by your side telling you that everything is going to be okay.

//-//-//-//-//

You stay under observation for two days.

Doctor Hank makes a joke about you enjoying St.Mungus more than you should since you keep coming back, but Tony doesn't laugh.

Then you' re going back to Hogwarts by train, because the doctor thinks you shouldn't use magical means of transportation for a few days, and it's weird to take the empty express, but as soon as you arrive at the station, Gamora and Nebula are waiting for you with boxes of candy bought in Hogsmeade, and tight hugs.

You are not surprised by the stares you receive from the other students, but you ignore them as your sisters escort you around the castle to the Hufflepuff communal hall.

"Did you get to talk to Wanda?" Gamora asks as soon as you sit down on your bed, sighing with exhaustion from the train ride. The mention of the other sorceress' name doesn't help.

"Not yet." You say. "And I wouldn't be surprised to hear that she's ignoring me."

Nebula exchanges a look with her sister before sitting down on Mantis' bed, who is hugging her knees and looking at you.

"Honestly, I just want to finish this year without any more problems." You confess as you take off your jacket. And there is a moment of silence before you swallow dryly. "I also wanted to apologize to you guys."

Gamora frowns slightly, but says nothing. You take a deep breath.

"I know I was under the influence of an evil book, but that was still no excuse for treating you guys like that." You begin. "Tony told me about how things are in the wizarding world. Everyone is going through something, and it was selfish of me to think that only my problems matter. I'm sorry."

"Really, Y/N, it's okay." Nebula says, surprising you a bit. "We were all stressed, and well, I think an evil book is a pretty fair excuse." She jokes, making you smile. "Maybe things will get a little better now that Strange is the director."

"Oh, that's right" You comment just then remembering the things Tony updated you on while you were at St.Mungus. Like Kaecillius' resignation, and the position being passed on to Professor Stephen. "But honestly, I won't be at peace until I hear from Wanda."

"The trial isn't until Friday. And the way things are going, we won't get any news until it's over." Gamora warned as she sat down on the bed next to you. "I think the Maximoffs are probably too busy to write."

"What do you think will happen to Wanda?" You ask as you tug at the loose strands of the comforter. Mantis sighs lightly.

"I don't have a good feeling about things, Y/N." She confesses and you frown in concern. "And the stars never lie."

"Thank you, Mantis." You mock softly, and Gamora runs her hands through her hair.

"Let's not be pessimistic, okay?" she says. "Maybe the predictions are about, I don't know, the school finals? It doesn't mean something bad is really going to happen."

You grumble unhappily, grabbing a pillow and sinking your face into it. Gamora strokes your back.

"I'm sure things will work out, Y/N." She says. "Wanda will write as soon as she can."

"Do you guys think Kaecilius will be sent to Azkaban?" Nebula asks next, making you raise your head curiously.

"I wouldn't be so sure." You grumble. "I was actually surprised that he was put on trial at all."

"Well, with the whole mess that happened, it was bound to happen." Gamora said. "More than half the school became aware that he used the cruciatus curse on you, and then the daily prophet. And I didn't even know they were in the castle."

"It was because of Wanda really, wasn't it?" Mantis added. "Kaecillius caused his own ruin. He called the journalists to show what he called progress and decided to torture a student while they were in the castle. Then Wanda destroyed the entire floor and the next morning his arrest was all over the pages."

"I'm just really outraged to know that if no one had seen it, he would probably still be at Hogwarts." Gamora says angrily, and you sigh, agreeing as well as the others.

"Well, you must be hungry, shall we go to the great hall? It's almost dinner time." Gamora comments next, pulling you by the hand. You grumble softly, but agree, and soon you are leaving the communal hall to join the rest of the students.

//-//-//-//-//

You are tapping your fingers gently against the desk as you wait for the History of Magic class to begin.

It is Friday, finally.

You have barely slept because of anxiety about news of Wanda's trial.

Things at Hogwarts have changed a lot this week, all because of Strange's administration.

He restored the old classes, banned the teaching of dark magic, the scandal at the Daily Prophet being enough of an argument that the Minister of Magic no longer had a defense over this kind of teaching at Hogwarts. The restricted session of the library was also put back, and the seventh floor was off-limits because of the destruction Wanda caused, and you unfortunately lost access to the Requirement room.

Mantis was writing what looked like a lunar calendar for the divination class while Professor Okoye didn't arrive, and you started whistling distractedly.

And then Thor Odinson was poking you in the back to get your attention, and you turned around in your chair.

"Hi, Stark, what's up?"

"Fine." You grumbled suspiciously. "Can I help you with something?"

Thor looked almost unsure. "I was just wondering if you know of anything going on with Loki."

You frowned. "Excuse me?"

"I mean if you know if he's sick or something." He explains. "We had a fight, and well, he's not talking to me. And I've noticed that you guys have been kind of close lately, and I was curious if you knew anything and..."

"No, Thor, I'm sorry." You interrupt with a sigh. "Maybe you should ask him that."

Thor assumes a sad expression. "I would, but he's ignoring me. I think it might be about our mother."

You make a confused expression, and Thor looks surprised.

"Our mother, she...died earlier this year, Y/N." Thor counters, and you widen your eyes. "Our family is a name of reference against Mephisto. With the war, the walkers came to our home. She was there while we were here, and Dad was at the ministry."

"I'm so sorry, Thor." You whisper to him, still shocked by the information. He shrugged.

"I thought Loki told you."

"We don't talk about things like that, I guess." You say. "Sorry, I wish I knew how to help you."

"No, it's okay." Thor says with a sad smile. "You being his friend this year is more than enough. I don't like seeing him all alone out here."

You nod lightly, settling into your chair as you notice the teacher entering the room.

Mantis exchanges a look of understanding with you, having overheard the conversation even if accidentally, but she says nothing, and soon you are hearing about the witch hunt in the United States, and you try to focus on that rather than curiosity about how Wanda's trial is going or Loki's current emotional state.

//-//-/-//-//-//

As soon as lunchtime begins, you join the Slytherin table, where some of the students have placed a radio on the table, equally with other students from the other houses, to listen to the trial.

You are not surprised that a student's trial is such an interesting topic for everyone, but after the school started talking about Wanda being a scarlet witch, and the theories circulating around the halls, it was to be expected.

So you sit back while biting your fingertips and listening.

"And now directly from the Ministry of Magic, the trial of seventeen-year-old witch Wanda Maximoff, daughter of legendary witch Erik L-"

Your attention is slightly diverted from the narrative when loud laughter catches your ears.

They are Gryffindor and Slytherin students, exchanging coins. You don't need to hear the conversation to know they are gambling about the trial, the mean laughter and glances in the direction of you and your sisters are enough.

And as if she could feel your growing fury, Gamora touches your shoulder gently.

"Just ignore them, Y/N." She urges and you clench your jaw. " Everything is going to be okay with Wanda."

"I hope you're right, Gamora." You grumble, turning your attention back to the radio.

The narration of the newspaper is generic, and you discover that the audience has been closed off to the reporters.

You take a deep breath, concentrating.

No strange feeling, so Wanda is safe.

You wonder if Erik and Pietro are by her side during the whole thing.

It is only at the end of lunchtime that you have the result.

"It's amazing how things unfold in the ministry this afternoon." Counted the reporter with almost excitement. "After a unanimous vote, the witch Wanda Maximoff was found guilty of endangering her fellow students by not registering as a scarlet witch to the ministry of magic, after it was proven that her father, the sorcerer Erik Lehnsherr knew of her condition, as well as the affiliation with the criminal, Agatha Harkness was also mentioned. The ministry finally decided on Wanda Maximoff's expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding"

You felt your stomach plummet.

And everything became a little muffled around you, a soft whistle in your ear. You think Gamora and Nebula were calling for you, but you were getting up, feeling the room getting too small.

Stumbling out, you loosened the knot of your tie, finally stopping in the courtyard as you leaned your body against a pillar.

Wanda had been expelled from Hogwarts, publicly exposed as a Scarlet Witch, and tried as a criminal. You wondered if they would break her wand. Banned wizards led horrible lives.

Your sisters and friends caught up with you quickly, and you let them hug you.

In a few minutes Director Strange is catching up with you as well, and you release Gamora's grip to talk to him.

"Professor, I need to..."

"You cannot leave Hogwarts, Miss Stark." He interrupts with a wave of his hands and you frown in confusion, ready to protest but he is already speaking. "Tony sent a patronus as soon as the results came out, he already figured you'd want to see Miss Maximoff. The ministry is a mess, and Wanda will be staying with her father there for the minister's final decisions. You should stay here, where you are safe."

"That's not fair!" You squawk angrily. "Wanda needs me, I must-"

"She needs you to be safe." He interrupts again seriously, and then lowers his tone slightly as he notices the curious looks of the surrounding students. "Be rational, Miss Stark. Now that the Wizarding community knows the nature of Wanda's powers, how long before Mephisto has enough information and discovers your identity as protector."

You swallow dryly, clenching your fists begrudgingly. Stephen is right. You look away, and he sighs, placing his hand on your shoulder.

"Wanda will be fine, even without her NEWTS, she is an extraordinary witch." He says. "And the year is coming to an end, soon you will be able to see her again."

"She needs me now." You grumble annoyed, turning away from the professor's touch. He looks at you for a moment and then clears his throat.

"I'll see what I can do, Miss Stark." He says."In the meantime, focus on your studies, and be careful."

You frown at Stephen's words, but he is already turning and leaving before you can ask.

As you turn to your friends, Gamora has a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay?" She asks, and you sigh, agreeing to hug her again as you mumble no.

"I can feel how upset she is, Gamora." You grumble against your sister's shirt, wishing you could hug Wanda now. Gamora squeezes you against her arms, and you thank her for her intention even if it isn't enough.

The next few days are like a blur for you.

Many letters arrive, as do many editions of the Daily Prophet.

When the picture of the day Wanda's wand was broken comes out on the front page and you see her tired face, you have to run out of the common room to keep from crying in front of your colleagues.

Everyone writes to you, even Carol, everyone but the Maximoffs.

It is frustrating, and honestly, it breaks your heart in many ways.

The news of a Scarlet Witch after a century is almost as bombastic as Mephisto's return, and you're not surprised that many of your colleagues would start to comment on the possibility of Wanda working with him or against him.

It's overwhelming how everyone talks about her, but all you can feel is how much you miss her around the castle, around you.

You couldn't even remember that your magic is stable, and with everything that has happened, you haven't had time to figure out how to fix things.

Stephen tried to help, but he didn't know what was going on. At least the theoretical part of magic you were able to master, and you hoped to get at least an acceptable score in some subjects.

Only almost a week and a half after the trial, Professor Strange interrupts the potions class to talk to you.

Ignoring the curious stares and whispers of your classmates, you ask Professor Munroe to excuse you, and leave the room.

"What is wrong, professor?" You ask curiously as you close the door, watching Stephen with his hands in his pockets.The dungeons feel emptier without the ministry aurors around the castle.

"Saturday, in the Astronomy tower, nine-thirteen at night." He says as he hands you a small gold key, causing you to frown in confusion. "You will have exactly one hour, Miss Stark. Not a second more."

You stare at the object in your hand, and understand. A portal key. To Wanda.

"Thank you, Professor." You say, and Stephen nods before leaving.

You turn back to potions, the object in your pocket. You could barely contain your anxiety.

//-//-//-//-//-//-//

Tag list> @imapotatao / @aimezvousbrahms/ @ensorcellme/ @helloalycia || @mionemymind / @abimess / @stephanieromanoff / @yourtaletotell / @tomy5girls / @justagaypanicking / @thegayw1tch / @idek-5 // @myperfectlovepoem // @helloalycia // @ENSORCELLME // @AIMEZVOUSBRAHMS // @drpepperobsessed // @sighsam // @olsensnpm // @sxfwap // @table57 // @madamevirgo // @causeitswhatjesuswouldfreakingdo // @emptysince18x // @xastrydx || @yuhloversxx || @ymzki-haruki || @wouldirunofftheworldsomeday || @lostandsearching || @lezzzbehonesthere || @musicinourlips || @chaekhan || @diaryoflife || @nervoustrack || @aquamarinescarlet || @cristin-rjd || @idamaemann || @fortunatelynerdylight || @iliketozoneout || @blackwow34 // @tiny--freak || @spongebobtentacles || @cyberbonesworld ||

A/F/N> Place your bets for my next comeback (a week, a month or tomorrow?). If I delete the blog, and you're in love with this story for some reason I don't know about because there are so many better things to read, know that I'll post everything on AO3 if I ever do.

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #scarlet witch x reader #marvel imagines #The Scarlet Witch Prophecy #elizabeth olsen x reader #harry potter au

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