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#the height difference gets crazier i told you
zachstaph · 1 year
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FAMILIAR 🌸 ch15
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jungle-angel · 2 months
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The One With The Wrestling Contest (Frat!Rhett x Reader)
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Summary: It's the height of mating season in the Delta Tau Epsilon house and the boys are holding a little contest in the basement to win the hands of their s.os
Warnings: Frat parties, wrestling contests in the basement references to smut 18+ only
Tagging: @floydsmuse @attapullman @sebsxphia
The basement was louder than a friggin concert stadium on a summer's eve, the bluetooth speakers blasting the music on high volume. The ding of a bell and the raucous shouts of a bunch of drunken frat boys and sorority sisters filled the basement which was already packed full of people from across the campus spectrum.
You were watching from the homemade bleachers on the other side of the room, you and several of your girlfriends from the Phi Gamma sorority and a few others, were all sitting close together each in a different colored toga that you had all made from shitty repurposed bedsheets, cheering on the boys who were down in "the pits".
"C'mon Kyle!"
"Beat the shit out of him Kyle!"
"Go for his balls Kyle!!"
Kyle Shanahan slipped in and football tackled the Alpha Beta rival by the waist, dragging him down into the inflatable pool full of strawberry scented k-y jelly.
The bell dinged again and everyone stood up, cheering and barking as Kyle victoriously threw his hands up, howling with all his long-haired, bearded glory. His girlfriend, Karen McCann, practically jumped from the bleachers and into his arms, riling up the crowd in the basement.
"Oh God I don't think I can do this," Kayce groaned.
"Ya'll know what happens to us if we don't right?" Rhett asked him.
Kayce's nostrils flared at the thought. Every Delta Tau in the past had to fight for their mating rights every year around this time, those slimy little Alpha Betas daring to encroach into their territory. Kayce looked up at the bleachers and saw Monica cheering everyone on. Under no circumstances would he allow Stan Winthorp to put his grubby, pervy hands all over Monica Long. Kayce could feel his eyes burning when he saw Stan making his way into the pits, ready for action and eyeing Monica who rolled her eyes.
"Over my dead fuckin body!" Kayce blurted out.
"Down homeboy!" Rhett ordered. "Look at me, look at me......are ya'll gonna allow Stan to get with your girl?"
"FUCK NO!"
"Are ya'll gonna allow him to get with her?"
"FUCK NO!" Kayce shouted furiously.
"Then ya'll get in there and show him who the top dog is!" Rhett told him. "Ya'll are a LEAN, MEAN FIGHTING MACHINE!!"
Kayce let out the most frightening war yell anyone had ever heard when the bell dinged again, signaling for him to get in the pits.
"Oh my God I don't think I can watch this," Monica laughed.
"Brace yourself Monnie, it's about to get crazier," you chuckled.
"In that case I'd better do a shot," said Cairo, Foster's boyfriend.
You handed Cairo the little nip of McGuillicuddy's mint flavored liqueur which he swigged back as though it were water. It was eight seconds.......eight painful seconds before Kayce leapt up off his feet, grabbed Stan and landed him in a triangle choke right on the ground. You, Monica and the others cheered from the bleachers as Kayce riled everyone up, the crowd chanting his name as Stan sulked off to clean himself up and lick his wounds.
"Holy shit!" Kayce gasped, wiping his face with a fresh towel. "That was fuckin great!"
"Alright Foster ya'll are up! Go get'em!" Rhett told him.
Oh man did Foster look pissed. It wasn't even a split second before he had the Alpha Beta prick on the ground, the very same one who had been pestering Cairo the week before at one of the bars. It had taken both Kayce and the vice president of the Sigma Sigma Kappa house to get Foster off him and drag the prick away.
Rhett eyed Smitty from across the room with a fury, his eyes burning like a pair of cobalt flames, nearly black with the intense desire to fight. The other frat leaders kept encouraging him, tapping him on the shoulder and hurling obscenities and insults at the Alpha Betas.
The bell dinged and it was time for him to go in. The bluetooth speaker started to play Eminem's "Till I Collapse", full blast as the two frat leaders entered the pits, staring each other down as they assumed the position.
Rhett nearly blacked out as the bell signaled for them to fight. It was a slippery mess as they tried to keep their feet balanced, holding onto each other as he fought to wrestle Smitty to the ground.
"Think you're too good huh Abbott?" Smitty sneered. "Just you wait until (y/n)'s in my bed and I can......."
A loud war yell fell from Rhett's mouth as he flipped Smitty right over onto his back, the slick of the k-y jelly splattering everywhere upon impact. Rhett rose, beating his chest with one hand in the ecstasy of his sudden victory.
You ran from the bleachers and threw yourself right into his arms, kissing him heatedly, neverminding that he was coated in strawberry scented lube. Smitty angrily slunked away into the corner with the rest of the Alpha Betas while you and Rhett basked in the afterglow of his triumph.
"Wanna meet me upstairs later?" Rhett asked wiggling his eyebrows a little. "Meet Caesar at the midnight orgy?"
"As long as your truck doesn't turn back into a pumpkin I'm down," you chuckled before kissing him again, much to the delight of the basement crowd.
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lemon-trap · 3 years
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The Main Six with a Adventurous MC
Now, if you don’t know, an adventurous person in this head canon is someone who will randomly go down a different path that isn’t the main one or finds more joy going somewhere that isn’t the main path. I am an adventurous person and I love finding new paths and doing new things outside. There was this one time-
I think I’m getting sidetracked. Anyway, this is my first head cannon! So if you would like, please like and reblog! Reblogs are important!
Also, a little WARNING: I kinda went overboard on Nadia’s so if you get creeped out easily then don’t read that one.
Enjoy.
~~~
Asra 🔮💜✨
We know Asra and we know how chill he is
He loves to explore and is a bit of a wanderer himself
He’d smile at how you went down a small path without hesitation and he would be close behind you
You two probably wouldn’t say much but instead listen to the woods around you
You find a small lake with a huge tree next to it
Immediately, you want to climb the tree
Asra joins you, of course, and makes sure you don’t fall but this isn’t your first tree climb
You go as far up as you can and look around the area, amazed by how much you could see up there
Asra joins you but not on the same branch
You both marvel at the sight of the trees, far off mountains, and the beautiful lake underneath you
Your little banter up there is so cute
“You think a fall from this height would kill me?”
“Yes, please don’t do that.”
Eventually, because you can’t stay in one place for too long, you hop down and check out the lake
Asra drops a little flower onto the water and blows towards it, watching as it floats away
You pick up pretty rocks and place them in a pile because shiny rock pile
You two spent way too much time there and would have probably spent the night there if it wasn’t so cold that night
You make a promise to have a picnic out there one day and Asra happily agrees
Nadia 👑💖🍷
At first she wanted to stay on the main path but by the end of your adventure she was glad she went along
She’s usually the one leading so it’s odd for her to follow you down a path that she doesn’t know
She’d want to listen to what else you got yourself into the other times that you wandered off
You’d tell stories that would make the pretty lady laugh
Your adventure takes a darker turn when you approach a somewhat of a clearing
Nadia notices that the clearing has little buildings in a small circle
Surprisingly, Nadia walks to it first
Once closer, you realize that it’s a town that has been abandoned for a very long time based on the overgrowth and the types of buildings
You only go into a few buildings, making sure it’s safe and not touch anything
Everything seemed so untouched. Personal belongings were spread in the rooms. Tons of clothes still where they belonged
Nadia ponders on what happened there, telling you her thoughts at times
You reach the center and it’s a little statue of a strange creature that you can’t quite describe
Nadia then asks if you hear anything and that’s when you notice that it’s eerily quiet. No animal or wind noises at all
The town seemed so untouched
On your way out, no one says anything but you can tell that Nadia is thinking
It’s not until you’re out and back into the forest when you start talking again
You talk about strange things that happened to you before and she talks about this one time when her family was visiting another royal family
Nadia was very little but said that she remembered it vividly. There was a little boy who used to follow her around the castle wherever she went. He was dressed in royal clothing but on one in that royal family they were visiting had a son that young but they told her the story of a little prince that once lived in this castle but he died years and years ago. Visitors and servants would say they saw the boy follow them then weeks later those people would go mad and always drown themselves in the lake behind the castle.
Nadia’s curiosity was killing her so she went to the lake at night and didn’t tell her parents. When she was there, she saw the little boy just staring straight into the water and she watched for what seemed like hours before the boy smiled and walked into the lake. Nadia had waited but she never saw anyone come out. She was so scared that she’d be next that she ran back to her room but she didn’t tell her parents because she didn’t want to get in trouble.
You couldn’t believe your ears yet you knew that Nadia wouldn’t make up a story like that
Nadia just waves it off like it was nothing
Soon enough, you’ve reached the main path
Nadia thanks you for the adventure even if it was a little dark
Julian 🎻🖤☕️
As a wanderer myself, I think that Julian would be an excellent exploration partner
I’m sure he’d be right next to you or even ahead of you
With it all the way
If both of you wanted, you could spend hours just exploring new paths
He’d make suggestions for a new path, you’d see where that lead you then you would pick a path
You find an untouched clearing that’s just covered in flowers
They aren’t exactly roses or anything fancy but with all those different colors and types it looks so beautiful
Julian brings up the fabulous idea of making each other bouquets
You are excited for the idea and immediately you both go your separate ways to find the perfect flowers
Now, we know that Julian’s favorite flower is Wolfsbane but if you know anything about that flower then you definitely don’t want to put it in your bouquet
You find some pretty blue flowers that you’d think he’d like
Once you’re done, you go back to where you both were supposed to meet and you see that Julian is already there but with his back to you
You call his name and he almost drops what’s in his hand but he turns around with his hands behind his back
You show him the bouquet you made him and the look on his face is priceless
He looked so grateful and excited that you picked out these flowers, even though it was his idea
Julian brings his hands in front of him to show you the one he made for you
You gasp at how beautiful the array of colorful flowers were, they were so beautiful and thoughtful
You both switched bouquets and held on to them as you walked back into the forest
As Julian went on about having a picnic next to those flowers, you couldn’t help but stare at the flowers he gave you and smile
Muriel 🪨💚🪵
If your in the forest then he’d probably tell you to stay on the path but you really wanted to see what else there was in the forest besides the path you always went down
In the end he agreed and just went along with it
He’d follow right behind you, making sure you didn’t go somewhere dangerous
It would be mostly quiet. He wouldn’t start any conversation
You somehow find a temple of sorts
It’s built out of stone and despite how old it looks, it was pretty sturdy
Muriel was hesitant to go in but was kinda curious to what was inside too
It’s not a big or professional temple, just one that a little village would have
Neither of you say anything in the temple either out of thought or respect
You find the main shrine and put a small flower on top of it and Muriel does the same
After you leave, you look up at Muriel and grin then thank him for letting you go this way
He’d probably say that you left him no choice after you ran off
You know that he enjoyed this adventure even if he doesn’t talk about it often
Portia 🐈🧡💫
Doesn’t take much to convince her
“Hey, how about we go down there?”
“Really, (Y/N)? We were just heading back.”
“Yeah but-“
“Alright you’ve convinced me, let’s go!”
She’s so excited
She’d point out all the cool things she sees like a fat little bird
You both find a small abandoned castle that is so heavily overgrown with plants that you almost don’t see it
Portia basically drags you in there
It’s a really cool thing to see because both of you wonder what this castle held
You both make guesses that get crazier each time
Now, it isn’t a big castle but it is certainly beautiful
She finds the big room where the people who owned this castle would most likely have held parties
She convinces you to dance with her and of course you say yes
You dance formal then start just making up your own dances that just felt good
Something about dancing in a abandoned castle just hits different
By the end, you’re both laughing and you’re cheeks hurt when you leave
By then it’s dark so both of you decide to head back to the main path
Lucio 🍑🤍🔥
Honestly, he probably won’t like it.
He’ll complain that his feet hurt or that he was thirsty
But give him a minute and he’ll be excited
He’d swing around his sword at the overgrown plants like he was a professional explorer
He might even tell about a few of his own adventures
You’d listen and laugh and try to get a few of your own stories in but you took him on this trip so now you gotta deal with him
At first, you find a fountain that is almost in the ground and covered in moss
That fountain was connected to a small path that led to a huge mansion that was so engulfed by nature that you couldn’t tell where the house began or where the plants ended
Lucio was absolutely ecstatic
He kept going on about how amazing the mansion was while also gloating about how much better his castle was and he did this while basically running to the house
You could barely keep up with him but you were happy that he was having some fun
The front door was nailed shut with boards so Lucio decided that it would be a good idea to basically slam himself against the boards
Because the boards were so weak, he fell right through
The inside was magnificent with big staircases that led to the second floor
Lucio twirled in the middle of the big room then he smiled at you and asked for a little dance
You nodded, not having the power to say no to that offer, and danced with him while the sun from the many windows poured down on the both of you
You can’t help but laugh when he twirls you
The dance stops when you’re both out of breath
He still wants to explore the mansion and so do you
You find many rooms, some of the belongings of the people who used to live there still scattered around the rooms almost as if everyone left in a hurry
Lucio makes guesses as to what he would do if he lived in this mansion
You chime in with a few things you would do
The mansion definitely had led an interesting life in its prime but was now just an empty shell of what it used to be
Lucio reluctantly agrees when you say it’s time to go home
He’d definitely bring this adventure back up whenever he thought of it
~~~
Thank you for reading!
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maya2cute · 3 years
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Dating Ukai’s son/daughter
🏐Hinata
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🏐Hinata being the smol “innocent” boy he is, Ukai wouldn’t be too worried about you two dating. I can see Hinata having a slight confidence boost because of his height he is usually looked down upon (you get it) so dating his coach’s teen would be the best thing to him. Before you two started, you guys were best friends (like besto friendo type beat) so you were always together so when you started dating nobody would’ve guessed it until this boy’s whole world changed. He is usually upbeat so multiply that times 10 and that is his current happiness level.
🏐I think Tsukki was the first person to really notice the change with Hinata but Noya and Tanaka already knew you guys were dating. They probably helped him with his confessions (best hypemen) When Hinata comes to your house to you it doesn’t feel that much different, it's kind of like before you guys were dating and he would come over. But to him that’s a whole different story. Hinata is so nervous (and for what) to be at his “girlfriend’s” house. He thinks its so much different from when you two were just friends. You would be filled with laughter at his nervousness.
🏐Hinata is probably a little intimidated by Ukai. So he would try to avoid him at the beginning of your relationship but overtime he starts to feel less weird about it. When Ukai catches you two having a couple moment he can’t do anything but sit back in awe that is his little boy/girl has grown up so much and has found someone. Overall Ukai would be fine with you dating Hinata because he knows he will always treat you right no matter the circumstance.
Kageyama
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🏐I feel like Kageyama probably didn’t know you were Ukai’s daughter until he went to pick you up for your first date. Like when he ringed your doorbell, Ukai answered the front door. Ukai and Kageyama both shared a surprised Pikachu face. (It’s safe to assume Ukai didn’t know you two were dating) After an awkward moment of silence you come down. “Dad get out of the way and let him in, you're just standing there looking like you’ve seen a ghost, it's just Kags!” Ukai snapped out of his trance to let him in. “Is he that boy that you’ve been talking about nonstop?” Ukai asked. You and Kageyama both blushed profusely. “Yes he is and what about it!” you answered.
🏐It’s safe to say after your date you three had a long talk. Now there is this awkward tension between Kags and Ukai so eventually you would have them talk it out to clear the air. That conversation lifted a huge weight off of Kageyama’s shoulder because he assumed Ukai hated him and that you would force you two to break up. But Ukai would never do that because after months of hearing you talk his ears off about this mystery boy he wasn’t going to be the reason that your not happy
🏐The team found out you guys were dating most nonchalantly ever. One practice you gave him a kiss and when I tell you everyone was shook (like the principal's toupe flew off) they were not expecting that. After that kiss even Tsukki had nothing smart to say. They didn’t even think Kageyama could pull a girl like you, especially the coach's son/daughter. Then after y’all kissed y’all moved on with life like you didn’t just kiss in front of the whole team. After you left the gym the team bombarded Kageyama with questions and let's just say he was very annoyed with his sudden popularity.
🏐Overall it took some time for Ukai and Kageyama to be comfortable with you guys’ newly established relationship but he ends up being your number one fan.
Sugawara
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🏐When you first told Ukai you were dating Suga he thought it was a prank. He has been shipping you and Suga for the longest time and now it seems his ship is sailing(Mr.Refreshing). However all this information is unknown to Suga and when I tell he had to rethink his whole life when he remembered who your dad was. He was anxious and nervous to be introduced to his coach as your boyfriend.
🏐You probably had to give him a reality check by retelling him your feelings like its day 1 of your relationship. But in the end he appreciates you calming him down but now it’s time to face the music. Ukai is absolutely over the moon when you introduce Suga as your boyfriend(mans is screaming yessss from the top of his lungs and he gives Suga a big bear hug) and Suga is just standing there with his blank confused face. This is not at all what he expected but he is happy that Ukai has accepted him with open arms (literally).
🏐After about a week of dating you and Suga announced your relationship to the team and they were all happy but not surprised. The third years were all excited and they felt a wave of relief wash over them. Now they can finally stop hearing Suga talk about how perfect you are(but that was just the beginning).
🏐Overall Ukai was a fan of Suga before you guys started dating so when you finally did he thought he had died and went to heaven.
Tanaka
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🏐Ukai was concerned for you when you told him out of the blue that you were dating Tanaka. He questioned why choose one of the most troublesome team members. You just answered back saying how you fell in love with his craziness. He thought you were crazier for dating Tanaka but he wouldn’t tell you that. So when you introduced Tanaka to Ukai as your boyfriend, Ukai was absolutely brutal, he questioned Tanaka like a strict parent even though he is really laid back.
🏐Tanaka answered those questions like a champ. No hesitation with his answers and he was RESPECTFUL(like get you a man like Tanaka). After grilling Tanka Ukai then decided to give Tanaka a chance. Now whenever Tanaka comes over to your house he better be on his best behavior because Ukai only wants the best for you. Over time their relationship would get better to the point where they can have conversations like old friends. I think the main reason Ukai gave Tanaka a chance would be the fact that he changed his Tanakaness without removing all of Tanaka(just enough to where you could bring him home to the parents).
🏐The team found out as soon as he asked you out. Like he did a public confession since he’s bold bold. You best believe Noya was on the side hyping his best friend up with Hinata. The team was not surprised that he asked you out but they were surprised when you said yes. They never thought in a million years that Tanaka could pull a person like you(I just know this boy has no game).
🏐Overall is the type of parent who doesn’t like the typical bad boy and that’s how he viewed Tanaka until he saw you two together. Your relationship changed his whole perspective of Tanaka.
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kalimagik · 4 years
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As Family the First Time
Charlie Weasley x Reader
Includes storyline of “A Hogwarts Mystery” 
Word Count: ~4K
A/N: Here is the Charlie post that I promised you all! I already wrote it, so it was easy for me to edit and such just to upload. If you enjoy reading, like, reblog, comment, or give me a follow! I have a few requests that I will get to writing, but I’m away for the week, so I will write them when I get back home! (Don’t you worry! I got some good ones too!) I’m also starting to edit my long fic that will be a Harry Potter Series! So be on the look out! Happy reading, loves! <3<3 P.S. I didn’t really have time to edit this, so I apologize 😅
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“Are you sure you want to do this, love? It’s always so crazy at home.” Charlie questioned as the couple prepared for their journey from Romania to England.
“Charlie, I’ve told you a million times. I can totally handle your family. I’d been there a few times during our school years. Plus, at school, I spent time like half of your siblings anyways! Bill was there for our first 5 years and one of my good friends. Percy was Percy. And I even befriended the twins! I can totally handle this. Why do you doubt me?” Y/N laughed, tossing a sweater into her suitcase.
“Okay, you got me there, but it’s gotten even crazier. Ronald’s friends are almost always there and the twins have gotten even more chaotic since their first two years at school!”
“Charlie, do you not want me to meet your family as your girlfriend or something?”
“Yes– I mean, no. I just like to have you for a little more to myself in that aspect.”
Y/N rolled her eyes. She’d been in Charlie’s house during school and they’d gone on the craziest adventures while Y/N broke all the cursed vaults. She’d been very close to following in Bill’s steps as a Curse-Breaker, but was pulled towards dragons after practically raising a Welsh Green and visiting the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary with Bill on assignment. They were magnificent creatures.
Now, she didn’t work with them like Charlie did. The boy was constantly covered in cuts, bruises, scars, and burns from working so closely with the dragons. Y/N on the other hand observed and took notes and did research surrounding all of the different ones. However, there was one dragon that both of the dragonologists shared a bond with. The dragon that Ron wrote to Charlie about, Norbert or Norbertta, adored Y/N. Maybe since she was raised by Hagrid, she was a little better with humans, but she loved Y/N.
She’d laid some eggs and Y/N got to watch the entire process close up. It was a dragonologists DREAM!
Anyways, once Y/N and Charlie found themselves at the same dragon sanctuary, they reconnected. They’d always been good friends in school and maybe, there’d been a little spark between them, but they never dated or anything. Just an intense amount of tension in their last 2 years. It drove Bill mad because he wasn’t around enough to push them together.
But, here they were. 4 years out of school and they finally started dating, but for the first year and a half, they hadn’t gotten around to telling either of the families yet, so Christmas was the best time, right? That’s why they were packing, Charlie told his family that Y/N had moved to Romania and that her family wasn’t going to be around. And seeing as how she had holiday time at Christmas as well, Molly immediately invited her to their home at the Burrow.
“It’s about 4:30. The portkey is going to leave soon, so we should get going,” Y/N smiled, zipping up her bag and pressing a kiss to Charlie’s lips to get him moving.
“Now is your last chance to stay here, love. I’d of course stay with you and we could just make a family of our own!” he beamed.
Y/N couldn’t stop the loud laugh that erupted from the back of her throat. “WOAHHH! Slow your roll there. We haven’t even thought about an engagement yet!”
“Okay, maybe not, but who says we’ve ever done things in the right order? I mean, I kissed you before you even knew if you liked me or not.”
“True, but a kiss and a baby are two very, very different things,” Y/N giggled. “Now, common, we’ve got a portkey to catch!”
The couple made it to the location of the portkey where about 7 other witches and wizards were travelling to England. Once they reached England, they would then apparate to the Burrow. Simple.
“Okay, please grab onto the boot, it will be leaving in three…two…one!”
The pulling right behind her navel was never something she could get used to, but once landing in England, she’d gotten the hang of landing on her feet.
“I will never like those things,” she shuttered, picking up her bags. “Not when Rakepick took us on one and not now!”
“Really, I think it feels like riding a dragon! It’s blood brilliant!”
Y/N rolled her eyes, preparing herself for yet another uncomfortable experience as they prepared to apparate.
Regaining her balance once again, Y/N looked down the hill to see the Burrow standing brightly in all of its glory.
“I’m telling ya, this is your absolute last chance. We can always snag a room in London and spend the holidays there.”
“Charlie, why do you not want for me not to spend time with your family?”
“Not you, I’m just slightly selfish. I know the second we walk in, my mother is going to feed us. Bill is going to want to catch up. Ginny just loves having you around more than Fleur, so she’ll be right there. Fred and George will want to show you what they’ve been working on or flirt with you because they don’t realize you’re dating their handsome older brother and couldn’t care less about any age difference. They just see you as the badass girl who mum should’ve despised for all the danger Bill and I got into, but didn’t. Ron isn’t as much of an issue because the boy is in teenage moods according to mum. Although, if Harry and Hermione are there, he should be okay.” Charlie rambled on about his family.
“We’ll be here for at least two weeks, so if they take me from you for an evening or two, it’ll be completely fine. Oh look, it seems that they have seen us. Do you want to tell them we’re dating now or what?”
Charlie took in a deep breath trying to decide, but it didn’t have a chance to respond before Arthur, Bill, Fred, and George were calling out to them.
“I’ll find the right moment, don’t you worry,” he whispered. “Dad! Brothers!” he smiled, opening his arms.
“I’ll hug Y/N first!” one of the twins yelled.
“Fred! I called the first hug!” George quickly interjected.
“I do have the capabilities of hugging two people at once,” Y/N chuckled, opening her arms for both twins, who seemed to have doubled in size since the last time she’d seen them. “When did you two double my height?”
“Oh you know, a lot changes when you move off to Romania. Freddie and I have matured,” George informed her, straightening his coat.
“That’s not what mum’s last letter said. I heard you two blew up a bathroom. I bet McGonagall had a heart attack.”
“Charlie, we used to sneak off school grounds on a regular basis for dangerous adventures. She didn’t have a heart attack because of us.”
“Good point. Also, don’t talk about all that in front of Ron and his friends. Mum would kill me if I gave them any ideas. They put themselves in regular danger too, so I hear.”
“Yes, uh, no ideas would be excellent,” Mr. Weasley echoed. “Now, Y/N, how are you doing?”
“Dad, you took my question!” Bill smiled, coming in for a hug.
“I’m doing well. Hagrid’s dragon’s eggs just hatched and Norbertta has let me get near them. It’s been SO exciting!” Y/N smiled.
“Missing curse breaking at all?” Bill asked.
“I would say that I’m enjoying the quiet life, but like with dragons isn’t exactly quiet,” she laughed.
“So are we going to stay out here talking all night or are we going to head inside? I mean, Y/N/N and I are used to camping, but I was promised a warm bed,” Charlie pointed out.
“Right you are, Charlie! Fred, George, can you take their bags please. Y/N will be going to Ginny’s room. We’ll be a tight fit, but we’ll make it work. We always do.” Arthur instructed.
“Oh, dad, Y/N can sleep in my room. She doesn’t need to sleep on a cot. I’ll bunk with Bill.”
The two lived with each other already, so it would be weird to be in a room by herself for a few weeks. Who knows though, maybe if Charlie told about them being together,
“Is Fleur here, Bill?” Charlie asked on the way down to the house. Y/N walked beside him, so Charlie had to resist the urge to take her hand in his.
“She went back to France for the holidays. Wanted me to come with her, but when I heard you were coming home, I decided to hang back. Haven’t seen my closest brother in a while, not to mention one of my best friends from school,” Bill winked at Y/N.
“I’m excited to be back in England! I just wish my parents and brother would have decided to stick around. We could’ve gone to see them too!”
“We?” Bill asked, eyebrows raised, but a smirk on his face.
Y/N bit her lip. Shit. Little did she know that Charlie had spilled the beans to Bill months ago, making him promise not to say anything to anyone.
“Brace yourselves, Mum has been looking forward to this since you wrote home, Charlie,” Bill said, keeping the door open behind Arthur.
“Y/N! Charlie!”
The pair was hit by the warmth of the Burrow and Molly making her way around the table to them.
“I’m so happy you got here safe! PERCY! RONALD! GINNY! HERMIONE! HARRY! Y/N and Charlie are here! Dinner will be on soon!” Molly called right before wrapping her arms around Charlie and then Y/N.
“We’re so happy to have you hear, dear! I cannot believe your family decided to go on holiday over Christmas. No matter, we’re happy to have you back in our house. I don’t think you’ve been here since 3rd year! It’s been far too long.”
“I think 3rd year is when Bill brought Merula and I back for Christmas, but I saw you guys when Bill graduated from Hogwarts and when Charlie and I did,” Y/N thought back.
“Still, far too long! Ah, Ginny, come say hello!” Molly motioned over.
“Y/N! You’re here!”
Y/N opened her arms wide for the young red head. She was in her 2nd  year already and Y/N couldn’t believe it. She’d always gotten along with Ginny. She saw a lot of herself and her spirit in Ginny.
“Hey squirt! How have you been! How’s school?”
“It’s fine. Been crazy all year as usual, but I’m happy you’re here!”
“Hogwarts is always unusual! Always was for Bill, Charlie, and I. Lots of adventure to be found in that place.”
“Hello, Y/N. Good to see you again.” Percy said formally.
“Hello, Percy. How is your last year at Hogwarts?”
“Busy. There’s been a lot going on!”
Before Y/N could respond, they heard Ron’s voice coming from the top of the stairs.
“Mum, did you say Charlie was home?” Ron asked, footsteps being followed by 2 other pairs.
“Yes, dear!”
“You’ll love Charlie,” Y/N heard Ron tell his friends. “And…Y/N’s here too,” he suddenly stopped at the bottom of the stairs, eyes wide.
Harry bounded down, running right into him. “Ow! Ron, why’d you stop?”
Y/N couldn’t help  but chuckle. Ron never seemed to know what to say around her.
“I’m Charlie.” He held his hand out to Harry and Hermione. “And this is Y/N. He went to school with me. She was in Y/H, not like it really matters though. She was the bloody best curse breaker Hogwarts has ever seen.”
“Hey!” Bill played offended.
Knowing what it felt like to be all anyone can talk about, Y/N did her best to remain normal around the Boy Who Lived, even though she couldn’t believe what he had been through already in his short life.
“Hi! It’s so lovely to meet you. Charlie has told me all about you two from Ron and his mum’s letters.” The two 3rd years shook her hand too.
“Dinner’s on! Everyone to the table please,” Molly said as plates flew from the cabinets to the table.
“Y/N, you can sit next to me here!” Fred hollered from down the table.
“Oi! She can sit here,” George retorted across the table.
“Knock it off.” Y/N could tell that Charlie’s voice was deepening, almost as if he was getting angry. He did say that he hadn’t wanted her to be taken away by his family. “She’s going to sit next to me, alright?”
Y/N did her best to conceal her laughter. It was always amusing when he got like this. Not to mention, Y/N then never had to do any teasing.
“I think I'd like to sit with Ginny. If anyone wanted to know what I would like,” Y/N laughed, walking towards her little friend. “We have a lot to catch up on! But, you can come sit beside me, if you’d like, Charlie.” She giggled.
Dinner went well. Ginny told Y/N all about what she’d been learning, who she hung around, which professors were her favorite, and how she loved Hogwarts. The twins went on about the best pranks that they had pulled since the last time they saw her. Y/N heard from Ron’s friend Hermione a little bit. She was as sweet as could be, but definitely a bright witch. She of course caught up with Bill. They still wrote to each other, but not as often as they had before.
But, when Molly stood up to clear the table, Y/N’s attention broke away.
“Oh, let me help you with that, Mrs. Weasley,” she offered.
“No, no! Sit down. You’ve traveled so much today. Bill and the other boys can help me. Ginny will show you her room, so you can get settled in.”
“Oh, mum, I told Y/N that she could stay in my room. I’ll bunk with Bill. There are already enough people in Ginny’s room. She should get some privacy,” Charlie responded.
“Fine, fine. Ginny, show Y/N where Charlie’s room is. Boys, will one of you get her bags?”
“No worries, Mrs. Weasley! I can get them myself! Thank you though,” Y/N smiled, picking up her two small duffle bags. “Lead the way, Squirt!” Y/N smiled at Ginny. Red spread onto her cheeks as she turned towards the stairs. What had Y/N said?
Y/N followed the red headed girl up the stairs to the 4th floor. A green dragon painted on the door.
“I’m guessing this is Charlie’s?”
“Uh huh!” Ginny beamed, her usual persona returning. “Want me to help you unpack your things?”
“Sure! Lead the way in!”
Ginny sat on the bed while Y/N took things out of her bags. She could sense that she wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say, so Y/N started instead.
“Do you not like it when I call you ‘Squirt’ anymore, Gin?”
“Oh, no, no, no! I just uhhh….”
Y/N raised an eyebrow.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Ginny asked. “A secret that you won’t tell anyone else?”
“Of course! I promise I won’t say it to anybody,” Y/N smiled, sitting on the bed across from Ginny.
“I sort of, kind of have a crush on Harry. And when you called me squirt, I remembered that he was there and it probably made him look at me!” Ginny blurted out, like she’d been just waiting to tell someone.
“Squirt, you’re shaking! It’s okay to have a crush! Everyone has them.”
“Even you?”
“Yes, even me,” Y/N smiled, hoping she was calming the girl down.
“Who?”
Well, Y/N wasn’t expecting that.
“Can you keep a secret too?” Ginny nodded vigorously. “I have a crush on Charlie…”
Ginny’s eyes grew wide. Ugh, gossiping with a 13 year old was fun.
“Really? Charlie? I think you two could work. I mean, don’t tell him, but he’s had a crush on you for a long time.”
Y/N giggled, feeding into Ginny’s antics. “Oh really? How long?”
“I think he had one on you ever since he heard you fought the Hungarian Horntail. And then, when you went to the Dragon Sanctuary the first time, Charlie said you weren’t scared at all. I think he was mesmerized. You should tell him,” Ginny giggled.
“Wanna know another secret?” Y/N whispered.
“Another one?!”
“Well, it has to do with the same one. Want to hear it?” Ginny nodded. Hanging on to every word. “I did tell him,” Y/N smiled.
“You did? What happened?”
“We’ve been dating for a year and a half,” Y/N whispered, as though someone would be listening in.
“REALLY?!” Ginny squealed. “Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“I don’t know. We are just always in Romania and haven’t really seen anyone. It was fun being in our own little world. No one else in the world to worry about, you know?”
Ginny’s smile was huge! She was so excited she was nearly trembling. “Are you going to tell everyone? Is that why he said you could sleep in his room?” Ginny was blurting out questions left and right.
“We were going to tell everyone during this trip, but I don’t know when. I sorta left that up to Charlie.”
*Knock, knock, knock*
“How’s unpacking going?” Charlie asked, opening the door.
“Half done!” Y/N laughed, looking at her unpacked bags.
“What have you two been doing all this time?”
“Just chatting,” Y/N responded, a twinkle in her eye.
“Yeah, just chatting,” Ginny smirked, still not containing her excitement.
“Alright, Squint, what’s going on with you?”
“Y/N told me a secret and I can’t tell anyone else. She made me promise…”
“Oh, did she now?” Charlie asked, moving his focus to Y/N’s grinning figure.
“You can tell him, Gin. He’s in on the secret!”
Ginny essentially combusted. “YOU AND Y/N ARE DATING!” she yelled.
“Wooooah, Squirt. I said you could tell him, not the whole house!” Y/N laughed.
“Sorry,” Ginny blushed.
“Alright, now get outta here. I wanna talk to my girlfriend,” Charlie cooed. Ginny couldn’t stop giggling as she hopped off the bed and out the door, shutting it behind her.
“Don’t look at me like that!” Y/N laughed, picking one of her duffle bags off the ground.
“You blabbed!”
“Oh? I blabbed? How about the fact that you’ve definitely told Bill. I made the ‘we’ comment and he didn’t even question it! Don’t think I didn’t figure it out!”
“But you told Ginny. What would possess you to tell Ginny? She’s always been the blabbermouth!”
“No way she’s worse than Fred and George,” Y/N spit back.
“Okay, no, they’re worse. But you saw how she was when I walked in, she couldn’t keep it to herself.”
“Yeah, she also mentioned how you were mesmerized by me after we went to the Dragon Sanctuary for the first time,” Y/N winked. She watched as his freckles disappeared with the color of red growing on his cheeks.
“See, what did I tell ya! So, why did you tell her?”
“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret!” Y/N turned her nose up.
“She’s got a crush on Harry, doesn’t she?”
“How do you know?”
“Mum’s thought so since they first met. Ginny can barely say two words around him. It’s hilarious!”
“Don’t be mean! First crushes are hard!” Y/N slapped Charlie on the wrist.
“Tell me about it!” he rolled his eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“I had a crush on you since 2nd year and you had no idea. So obviously, the other person can be quite oblivious,” Charlie laughed, thinking back on it.
“I was not oblivious! I just wasn’t thinking about that. I was kind of busy avoiding being killed, remember?” Y/N pointed out.
“Oh no way! You went on your first date with Barnaby in our 4th year. And everyone had a crush on you!”
“Okay, but that was in school. Look who ended up with me, huh? Huh?” Y/N tried to direct him away from school time memories.
“True. I did get pretty lucky that you didn’t follow Bill into his job. I’d be so lost now!”
“Lost? More like dead. You’d have gone and tried to tame the meanest dragon in the place. Really, your family should be thanking me!”
“I don’t know. That could be payback for putting Bill and I in so much danger during school…”
“Merlin! I don’t think your mum ever blamed me for that. She still invited me for Christmas every year, no matter how much danger we were in…”
“mhmmmmmm, you may be right.”
“Should we go back downstairs?” Y/N asked.
“Wait, but I came all the way up here and haven’t kissed you yet!” Charlie pouted.
“Fineeee,” Y/N groaned before giggling. He was still pouting when she quickly pecked his lips and pulled away.
“Woah, woah, woah! I was thinking maybe a little more, maybe?” Charlie begged.
“Charlie, we’re in your childhood bedroom with your family downstairs.” She felt bad looking into his sad chocolate eyes. Ugh, why was he so cute?
“Uh, Charlie?”
“One more?”
“Do you think Ginny’s spilled the beans yet?”
Charlie’s eyes grew double the size. “We need to go.”
Y/N tried to stifle her laughter as Charlie pulled her down the stairs, going way faster than she was.
“Charlie! I’m going to fall over!”
“We have to make sure she hasn’t told them yet! I’m not ready!” Charlie shot out.
“Not ready to tell us what, brother?”
The pair came face to face with essentially the entire Weasley family, including Harry and Ron.
“I was just preparing to give everyone dessert,” Mrs. Weasley said, putting down a plate of food.
“Mum! Don’t change the subject. What do you have to tell us, Charlie?” George pushed, following the suite of his twin.
“Yeah Charlie, what do you have to tell them?” Y/N teased, standing right beside him and grabbing onto his hand.
“No!” Ron’s mouth dropped open.
“Merlin’s beard!” Fred spat out.
“Are you two…together?” George asked, big eyed.
“And I already knew it and didn’t say anything!” Ginny added in proudly.
“I hadn’t even said yes or no, squint. Thanks for the help.”
Y/N felt the grin on her face grow as she watched the interaction between a family that she adored so much. “Want to tell them then?” she pushed.
“Fine,” Charlie groaned. “Y/N and I have been dating.”
“Have been?” Bill scoffed.
“Oh, sod off. I told you like 2 weeks after it started! Don’t give me that grief!”
“This isn’t new?” George wondered.
“It’s been about a year and a half!” Ginny stated proudly, smiling at Y/N who nodded in return.
“A YEAR AND A HALF!?” 4 voices, one being Mrs. Weasley said in unison.
“Well, how did this all happen?” Mrs. Weasley now smiling rushed forward, pulling Y/N into a second hug for the night. “You’re with my boy. Oh thank goodness. I was really starting to worry that one day he was going to bring home a dragon!”
“Gee, thanks mum.” Charlie sarcastically replied.
“Well, tell us what happened,” Mr. Weasley encouraged. “You won’t get any peace and quiet until you tell this lot the story.”
“Yeah, not even I got the full story!” Ginny giggled, pulling out a chair for Y/N.
“Wait, wait, wait. Y/N. You mean to tell me that you have kissed our brother? The brother that has been in love with dragons since I was born and that used to dress our owl up as a dragon?” Fred asked, disgusted.
“What? He’s passionate,” she giggled.
“EWWW!” the twins replied at the same time.
“Wait,” Ron piped up, “you’re saying that you two just hang out all the time in Romania, working together and seeing each other…after work?”
“Well….actually….” Y/N dragged on, looking over to Charlie.
“We live together,” he grinned broadly for the first time since his family started grilling them.
“LIVE TOGETHER! Y/N no way. He isn’t even that great!” George blurted.
“I think he’s pretty fantastic actually,” Y/N blushed as Charlie stood behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“Oh, Fred, George, be quiet. Let them tell their story! We want to know everything! Common, common! Everyone sit down. Have some dessert. Listen to Y/N and Charlie!” Mrs. Weasley commanded.
The room quieted and all eyes were on the newly outed couple.
“Would you like to do the honors?” Y/N asked Charlie.
“I like it better when you tell it, love,” Charlie grinned, kissing Y/N’s forehead.
Ignoring the groans from the boys, Y/N began to tell the story with Charlie interrupting way too often to add in details. Y/N didn’t say anything because it was just so cute how he did it. But, it turned out to be a really wonderful first evening of an even better two weeks. It was really just a great time to be back in England.
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LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT NEWSLETTER
Do you remember what it was like during the early days of the COVID crisis?  I didn’t.  I had to look it up.  Seventeen months ago to the day, on March 31, 2020, Time Magazine published a story about a woman in Brooklyn who had been watching from her apartment window as refrigerated trucks were pulled up outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and temporary wooden shelving was constructed to hold the bodies of people who had died from the disease because there was no space left for them in city morgues.
It was happening all over New York City.  They even had a name for them:  BCP’s, or Body Collection Points.  There were two in Brooklyn, one in Queens, and one in Manhattan outside Bellevue Hospital.  Some were 53-foot long trucks, some were refrigerated tents.  They started building what they called “pop-up hospitals” to keep up with the COVID caseload, which had overrun the city’s hospitals.  One such pop-up hospital was in the Jacob Javits convention center on the city’s west side.  Another was quickly set up in Central Park.
Back in Brooklyn, they built a wooden ramp for hospital workers to use to wheel the bodies out of the hospital and into the trucks.  Curious people started stopping on the street to watch the bodies being loaded into the backs of the trucks, so they brought the construction men back to the site to build thin white panels to keep the passersby from getting too close to the dead bodies or gathering in small crowds to stare.
Time reported that the New York State death toll had reached 1,200, with more than 66,000 cases of COVID.  More than 900 people had died in New York City alone, thus the need for the temporary morgues in refrigerated trucks and tents.
Cable news covered the COVID crisis in New York City.  You could see images of the refrigerated trailers lined up in Queens and Brooklyn.  People were asking what it was about New York that the city had so many deaths from the disease.  Was it because people lived so close together?  Was there something about the lifestyle of New Yorkers that had made the disease spread throughout the city?  Was it travelers coming in from outside the city?
I remember finger-pointing by politicians in states in the south and the Midwest, and the fingers were pointed at the big liberal cities of New York and Chicago and Los Angeles.  There must be something wrong in those big cities to have so many people dying.
Oh, there was something wrong all right.  A vicious, highly contagious virus was spreading rapidly through the population and infecting thousands of people and some of them were dying. Very little was known about the disease.  Medical experts were arguing about how the disease could be controlled.  Some recommended wearing masks, but it turned out that there was a shortage of what was called PPE, or “personal protective equipment,” and some experts were against recommending that civilians be told to wear masks so there could be enough for the medical professionals in the hospitals who were so overrun with patients with COVID.
The president of the United States formed a so-called “task force” and began holding briefings from the White House, but those briefings quickly devolved into exercises in denial and attacks on the press for making more of the emerging pandemic than the president thought was necessary.  With shortages of medical equipment and PPE hindering the fight against the disease, he told the states to find their own, and his own son-in-law even set up a “shadow” task force, the so-called hedge fund volunteers assembled from young friends of Jared Kushner and housed in an empty office in the FEMA building.  But the hedge fund volunteers quickly started bickering about how many deaths they should budget for – they made an estimate of a possible hundred thousand, because the estimate by outside experts, who actually had experience with disease and pandemics, was “too severe.”  The group paid a lot of attention to Fox News personality Jean Pirro, who was calling up her friend Kushner and getting him to direct lots of the PPE to her favorite hospital in New York.  And then one of the young hedge fund volunteers came down with COVID and the group had to stop meeting, and the whole thing fell apart and the states had to go back to bidding against each other for badly needed medical gear to fight the disease.
More than 639,000 dead bodies later, we’re still at it.  Once again our television screens feature interviews with exhausted ICU nurses and red-eyed doctors attending patients lined up in crowded hospital hallways.
But there’s a difference.  A big one.  Seventeen months after the initial panic over the rampaging virus in New York City that no one knew anything about, we know a lot about how it spreads and what to do about it.  This time, the New York Times tells us, “Of the 10 states with the most cases per capita in recent days, nine voted Republican in last year’s presidential race and nine are led by Republican governors.”  This time the refrigerated trucks are being lined up outside hospitals in Mississippi and Texas and Arizona and Florida, and the temporary “pop-up” hospitals are being built in Mississippi and Missouri and Texas.  This time, the states with spiking COVID case numbers and steeply rising death curves are in the South and upper Midwest and the country’s heartland.
What, you might ask, are all those Republican governors in all those Republican states doing to help contain this new pandemic outbreak?  Are they following CDC guidelines and imposing mask mandates and encouraging residents of their states to get vaccinated?
No, like South Dakota governor Krisi Noem, who, wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket recently rode a black Harley Davidson motorcycle into the big motorcycle rally in her state in the small town of Sturgis, they are brushing aside calls for vaccine and mask mandates. “The left is accusing us of embracing death when we’re just allowing people to make personal choices,” said Roem.  Personal choices to die? you might ask.  Apparently so.  Texas senator Ted Cruz chimed in, “Freedom is good policy and good politics.”  Cruz has introduced federal legislation to forbid mask and vaccine mandates, because, you know…freedom.
The Republican Party, which only a few years ago caused a stir by requiring welfare applicants in states it controls to get a blood test for drug use, has now decided that walking around coughing and sneezing without the bother of a mask that would protect those around you is what “freedom” means.  The Republican Party has decided that Republican governors know better than local school boards which have the safety of school children as their responsibility, and they are busy passing anti-mask mandate laws giving parents the “freedom” to decide whether their children will wear masks to school to protect their fellow students.
This is beyond the old shibboleth that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  Republican governors are not insane.  They are cruel and mean and without feeling for anything other than power.  And they are afraid.  They are afraid that if they do what they know is right, which is to require that their citizens wear masks and get vaccinated so they won’t get sick and die, a big bad bogeyman named Donald Trump will come and take their toys away.
You look at the COVID statistics and they are incredible.  On August 30, yesterday, 1,725 Americans died from COVID.  280,403 contracted the disease.  In a single day.  Go back and look at those New York stats from March 30, 2020.  66,000 cases and 900 deaths total, over a couple of months.
Is it that we don’t learn anything anymore?  Or is it that some of us just don’t care?  Is it that these people in Mississippi or Alabama or Arkansas or Missouri or South Dakota would rather watch the refrigerated trucks fill up with dead bodies than put on a mask and walk into a supermarket or sit down at a Walgreens and pull up their sleeves and let the libs win?  Is it that they would rather die than act rationally?  Is it that they’re sheep being herded by Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott or Ted Cruz, or are they the ones herding the Republican politicians?
It would be nice to just sit back and say they’ve lost their minds, the whole Republican Party has gone crazy, wouldn’t it?
But people are dying.  Thousands of people.  Still.  Once again, the bodies are piling up in the 53-foot long trucks.  It’s sad.  It isn’t all of us, but we’re fucking this up, folks, the whole nation of us.
Lucian Truscott
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12yeahiminluvwu · 4 years
Text
You Should Have Said No
pairing -  Rafe Cameron x Musician!Reader, John B x Sister!Reader
summary-  You debut your new song Should Have Said No… and everyone knows who it’s about
word count-  1,108 
warning(s)-  cheating, ex-boyfriend, live performance, swearing, break up, alcohol, 
Italics are flashbacks
----------------
Your eyes scanned the crowd of sweaty drunk people in the bar as you began strumming your guitar. He was out there, you knew that, and you only wished you’d be able to see the look on his face when you played your next song. 
“So, I wrote a new song the other day… and I was thinking I could play it for y’all?” You said, earning cheers from the people in front of you, which brought a smile to your face. 
“This song is called Should Have Said No.” The crowd cheered once again as the band behind you kicked into action, the sound of drums and guitars filling the small space. All the memories from that night flooded your mind, replaying like a movie, as you began the first words of the song.
“It’s strange to think the songs we used to sing, the smiles, the flowers, everything, is gone. Yesterday I found out about you, even now just looking at you feels wrong.” You sang, the fiery feeling of revenge pitting in your stomach. All eyes were on you as you sang the story of your break up with Rafe, everyone in the room quickly realizing who it was you were singing about. Word travels fast on a small island, and the events between you and the boy in question had been anything but private. 
Your eyes burned with angry tears as you stormed into Topper’s house, looking for none other than Rafe Cameron, your soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. The party around you seemed to melt away as he came into your view, your hands began to sweat and you felt sick to your stomach.
“Oh hey baby, where you been?” You saw him standing against the counter, signature smirk adorned on his face. This only made your anger burn hotter.  Before you realized what you were doing, your arm swung across your body as your open hand collided with his cheek, earning a loud *snap* that you know would sting for the rest of the night. Rafe stood there, hand on his bright red skin, looking dumbfounded that you’d just slapped him, in front of all his friends nonetheless. 
“What the hell Y/N?” He snapped, and you scoffed at his silly little act. 
“Did you really fucking think I wouldn’t find out?” Steam was practically blowing out of your ears as you fought back the hot angry tears threatening to spill from your eyes. 
“Baby, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He said, trying to play dumb but you saw right through him. You could see the guilt slowly creep across his bright red cheeks and into his eyes. 
“Spare me the stupid show.” You said, shaking your head and walking away from the boy. 
“I can’t resist. Before you go, tell me this: Was she worth it?” You sang out, finding his eyes in the dark room and locking onto them. You were gonna make sure he knew what he lost when he cheated on you, and you were gonna make him regret it. 
Your hips swayed along to the music, knowing you’d drive him even crazier. He always loved to watch you dance. He began trying to walk out, but a few of your friends in the crowd quickly grabbed onto him, and turned him around, holding him in place so he’d hear the rest of the song, making sure he heard every single word you spat at him. 
“Y/n, baby please listen to me! It was an accident! I was drunk and I didn’t realize what I was doing. Baby, if I could I would take it back, but I can’t… please just give me another chance…” He begged you, following you out of the party but you shrugged his hand off your arm, walking faster to your car. You could feel all the stares from the people at the party but you didn’t care, you just wanted to get out of here. 
“Do you honestly expect me to believe that we could ever be the same after you fucked another girl?” You whipped around, looking him right in the eye despite your height difference. It took everything in you not to break down right here in front of him.  Not to show him exactly how much power he had over you. 
“I told you, baby girl, I was drunk. I didn’t mean it!” He began again, trying to dismiss the venom dripping from your words, but you quickly brought your hand up to stop his attempts. 
“For fuck’s sake, you made your bed Rafe, now you have to sleep in it.” You said, getting into your car and driving away, going straight up to your room as the tears you’d been holding in all night rushed down your face. The sobs racked your body as you picked up your guitar and notebook, grasping onto anything that would keep you from going off the deep end. 
“You should have said no, should have gone home. You should have thought twice ‘fore you let it all go. You should have known that word ‘bout what you did with her would get back to me.” You shook your head, drilling every single word right into him.
 “And I should have been there, in the back of your mind, I shouldn’t be asking myself why, you shouldn’t be begging for forgiveness at my feet.” 
“You should have said no baby, and you might still have me!” 
---
You listened to the chatter of the crowd after the show had closed. Everyone was talking about the song. 
“Y/N, hey! That was pretty bad ass, what you did up there!” You saw your brother and his friends coming up to you, backstage. 
“Thanks, JB!” You smiled, bringing him in for a hug. JJ, Pope, and Kiara all joined in soon after. You guys all walked out to the parking lot and they helped you put your stuff away in your car before piling into John B’s van and leaving. You told them you’d meet them there. 
You glanced back at the bar you’d just exited before opening your door and getting in the car. 
“Y/N wait!” You heard, recognizing the voice all too well. 
“What do you want Rafe?” You asked, turning around once again. 
“I just… wanted to tell you,  I’m sorry… for hurting you. I love you, and I never meant for it to happen...” He said, and you scoffed. 
“I guess you should have thought about that…” You said, leaving him in the parking lot, driving back to the chateau, and moving on from the boy that should have said no.
-------
tags: 
@afterglowsb-tch13  @tomfreakinghollandneedsaoscar
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star-doll-universe · 3 years
Text
Michelle Goes to Yakigashi Island
FINALLY FINISHED THIS! Oh my gosh, this took so long to complete, and I’m so glad it’s finally done. I hope you enjoy the final part of this little mini series I started for @one-piece-dumpster-fire​
Have a lovely holiday everyone! Merry Christmas <3
Part 1   Part 2  Part 3
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“Cracker, why are you putting explosives in the picnic basket?” Michelle cocked her head to the side, a worried expression knitting her brow.
“They’re not explosives!” her fiancé exclaimed, holding up the offending rocket-shaped objects. “They’re fireworks! You can’t have a Founding Day celebration without them.”
“Oh.” Michelle bit her lip. “Is that really safe to bring to a party that kids are going to be at?”
“Are you kidding?! Oven’s sons will be furious if I don’t bring them.”
“Ok fine,” Michelle finally relented with a somewhat heavy sigh, “Just make sure they don’t crush the cookies. Giuseppe and I spent hours on those.”
Honestly, the young woman would like to admit that she was more than a little exhausted from this week. The planning process for her and Cracker’s wedding had been temporarily put aside somewhat when they received an impromptu invitation to Cracker’s older brother Oven’s home for a “Founding Day Party”.
Not long after moving to Tottoland, Michelle had learned that the citizens of each island in Big Mom’s territory celebrated the day they were assimilated into the empire as an annual holiday.
Apparently, today was the anniversary of that event for Yakigashi Island where Oven was Minister of Browned Food.
So, Michelle had to put her wedding planning on hold so that she could quickly prepare for the celebration. Initially, she had somewhat hesitated accepting her future brother-in-law and his wife’s invitation, but she knew that it would be rude to not do so, and Cracker seemed really excited about the party.
Plus, she remembered meeting Oven’s wife Samore at Winter’s tea party on Candy Island, and the woman had extended an invitation for a future visit. She supposed now was as good as time as any to take her up on that offer, even in the midst of her currently hectic life.
You are going to be the wife of a Minister of Tottoland, Michelle, the young woman had reminded herself. Not to mention he’s one of the sons of Big Mom, a Sweet Commander at that. Your life is probably only going to get crazier after you’re married.
Michelle mulled these thoughts over again as she finished the last of the packing for the trip, careful to navigate around Cracker’s fireworks. She’d prepared several batches of different flavored cookies with Giuseppe, and the couple was also bringing a bottle of spiced cider as a gift for their hosts.
Although, she supposed Spice might drink most of it. Michelle smiled to herself, remembering her feelings towards this party improving drastically when she learned Spice would be attending as a fellow Sweet Commander.
Sakura and Katakuri were also going to be there as well, along with Perospero and his family and even Smoothie was joining them.
Even if times were crazy, this party was still going to be fun.
“Ready to go, my dear?” Cracker asked, jerking Michelle from her thoughts. She looked up to see him holding his hand out to her, his trademark grin bright on his face.
“Yep. Let’s go,” Michelle picked up their basket and took his hand with her free one. The folds of her blue dress swished around her legs as she let Cracker lead her out of their lavish home and down to the docks of Cookie Town where his ship was waiting for them.
It would take a few hours to arrive at Yakigashi Island. Cracker predicted they should reach it by sundown, just in time for the party to begin.
                                                          ~~~
 “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Cracker snarled through gritted teeth.
Michelle, meanwhile, was too absorbed in the startling sight before them to really offer up much of a response. Her eyes were wide in her face as she gawked up at the monstrous wall of fluffy white pastry that stretched out before them.
It rose out of the sea like the back of some bulbous sea creature, snaking across the line of sight of Cracker’s ship, dwarfed in comparison. It obscured the entire island from view as it drifted almost lazily in the scalding sea, which foamed and bubbled all around them like a living thing breathing.
“What is this?!” Michelle exclaimed.
“It’s some of the Popover rocks that line the coast of Yakigashi Island,” Cracker explained after shouting some orders to the Biscuit Soldiers they had manning their ship. “Sometimes they break off the mainland and drift out into the Boiling Sea. The heat causes them to expand and form something like a wall around the island’s borders.”
Michelle glanced back at the massive mound of fluffy pastry. “It looks like things got a little out of control.”
“You think?”
“What are we going to do?”
“It’ll take too long to sail around it,” Cracker proclaimed as he produced a Transponder Snail from his pocket. “I’ll call Oven.”
However, before Cracker could put the call through, Michelle saw a massive, gloved hand reach over the top of the Popover wall. She couldn’t help but scream as a huge face followed suit, falling onto her butt on the deck.
Cracker glanced at her. “What?” He then followed his fiancée’s terrified gaze to see the huge pair of red eyes peering down at them. However, he did not react in nearly the same way, he didn’t even reach for Pretzel resting at his hip.
“Oh. Hey there, Samore!” He called up to the massive person, who slowly straightened up to their full height, dwarfing the pastry iceberg floating in the sea. Michelle could now make out the familiar figure of a woman with warm brown skin and crimped dark brown hair that reached her waist. Her eyes were a deep red, and she was wearing marshmallows as earrings. The fluffy pastry mound now only reached her waist as the giant woman peered down at Michelle and Cracker’s tiny ship.
“Cracker, how lovely to see you again!”
Meanwhile, Michelle was still huddled on the deck of the ship, staring up at the massive woman before them with her mouth hanging open. “S-Samore?!”
“Hello, Michelle!” Samore’s voice echoed across the Boiling Sea as she smiled down at them, her teeth large and white, each the size of a house. “How have you been?!”
The other woman blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what she was looking at. “I’m not crazy right?! She was not this big when I first met her,” she said to Cracker.
Cracker chuckled at that.  “I guess no one told you about Samore’s Devil Fruit power. She has the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Giant. That’s the whole reason why Mama wanted her to marry Oven, so that she could finally have a Giant in Tottoland.”
“Oh?!” Michelle’s eyes were still huge. “I see.”
“Do you want me to give you two a hand?” Samore called down to the couple, easily stepping over the wall of puff pastry and trudging through the Boiling Sea seemingly unfazed by the searing heat. Michelle soon noticed that she was wearing a pair of thigh high boots that looked a bit like the lower half of a hazmat suit, which was most likely protecting her skin.
Cracker grinned up at his sister-in-law. “If you don’t mind.”
“No problem at all.” Samore then knelt down and grasped either side of their boat as gently as she was able.
It still jostled them quite a bit and Michelle would have toppled over again along with several of the Biscuit Soldiers if Cracker hadn’t caught her.
“Easy does it, Sugar Cube,” he grinned down at her as he held Michelle against his chest.
The young woman felt her face grow hot in spite of herself.
Meanwhile, Samore had successfully lifted Cracker’s ship out of the Boiling Sea and now held the entire thing in both hands as gingerly as an egg.
The giant woman then turned and slowly clambered over the wall of puff pastry, trudging through the bubbling water in her protective boots.
Michelle clung to Cracker the entire time, trying to keep her knees from knocking as the Biscuit Soldiers scrambled about all around them, struggling to remain upright.
Cracker laughed as he took out Pretzel and stabbed it into the deck, giving him more of a solid footing as Samore trudge through the steaming water and towards Yakigashi.
The island in question soon came into view not long after they crossed the Popover barrier, slowly coming into focus amongst heavy clouds of steam, like it was gently floating closer to them out of the boiling water.
Gingerly, Michelle broke away from Cracker and slowly made her way to the edge of the ship, gripping the railing so she could remain steady while she peered down through the steam at the island before them while Samore slowly waded closer to it.
Yakigashi was another one of Tottoland’s larger islands. It seemed like everything on the island was made of some kind of bread or type of pastry. The city that spread out from the island’s center and stretched down its coast of fluffy rocks was comprised almost entirely of warm brown buildings with a heavenly baked aroma wafting from them.
Michelle inhaled deeply, a small smile forming on her face as Samore approached the dock at the edge of Yakigashi and then gently set their ship down beside it. As Michelle looked on, she noticed the pier was made of breadsticks.
“Let’s go, Michelle!” Cracker called to her, holding out his hand. His fiancée quickly accepted it, still a little wobbly on her feet as the Sweet Commander lead her off the ship, shouting commands to his Biscuit Soldiers to watch over things while they were gone.
As Michelle and Cracker exited the ship, they heard the thunderous footsteps of Samore stepping out of the Boiling Sea and up onto the shore.
The young woman glanced up, open-mouthed as Samore stepped over their heads and, as she watched, started to shrink down. The other woman had barely blinked before she was standing in front of her, far closer to her size.
“Michelle!” Samore’s grin was still large as she leaned closer and grasped her hands. “It’s so good to see you again!”
“It’s good to see you too,” Michelle replied, still a little flustered.
“I love your dress!”
“Oh? Thank you…” the young woman’s face went a little pink at the compliment.
Her outfit for the Founding Day party was brand new, another gift from Cracker, and consisted of a purple tea-length dress with a vest made of biscuits and laced in the back with white icing stays as well as large white bow tied around the waist. Over this, she had draped a magenta cape in case it got cold. Her outfit actually somewhat coincided with Cracker’s: he was wearing a shirt for once and more armor which matched the shoulder guard and leg pieces that he normally wore along with his billowing cape and sparking hair.
“Let’s go. Our ride is waiting for us,” Samore continued, grabbing Michelle’s hand and pulling her along with Cracker following after the two women, smirking at his fiancée’s slightly flustered state.
Michelle quickly found walking on the island a bit difficult. The ground beneath their feet was very soft and fluffy, like walking on a marshmallow. She stumbled a little, but Samore gripped her arm tighter to steady her.
“Sorry, the terrain does take some getting used to, but my daughter enjoys making the ground soft and fluffy like this with her Devil Fruit. She says it’s more fun this way.”
“It feels like a cloud or something,” Michelle mused, bouncing experimentally on the fluffy ground.
Samore lead them over to two large porcupine Homies with saddles on their backs and smoking marshmallows stuck to the ends of their quills. “They’re quite harmless,” she said as Michelle looked at them wearily.
One of the porcupine’s snorted, blowing smoke out of its nostrils. Cracker walked over and pet the closest one’s nose before helping Michelle climb into the saddle as it was a bit of a long way up. Samore then clambered on in front of her and grabbed the reigns while Cracker mounted the other marshmallow porcupine.
“Let’s go!” Samore called out, cracking the reigns and the two spiked creatures took off into the city ahead of them.
The capitol of Yakigashi Island was called Fukkura Town, and it soon became apparent that the Founding Day celebrations were already well underway.
Color and light had exploded across the streets of the city in the forms of streamers and balloons, torches and sparklers. Crowds of people and Homies weaved throughout the buildings while thunderous music reverberated between them like a storm.
Michelle didn’t know where to look. There was dancing and singing, performers doing backflips and juggling flaming torches, people selling and eating delicious foods and bands blasting loud and rambunctious music.
“Oven really outdid himself this year,” Cracker mused from on top his porcupine mount, waving halfheartedly to some of the passerby that had recognized one of the Sweet Commanders.
“He can be pretty competitive,” Samore replied with a fond smile, leaning down to accept a flower from a young female Fukkura Town resident, who was smiling sweetly up at her and Michelle.
“Is it a competition between Charlotte siblings for who has the best Founding Day celebration?” Michelle inquired.
“It certainly is between some of the older ones,” Samore agreed with a nod, pausing to smell the flower she’d been gifted.
Soon after, the group arrived at the gates of Oven’s massive estate, which was built out of pure white bread that looked almost like polished marble. There were torches made of giant marshmallows mounted at the entrance, spouting crimson fire into the growing night.
A pair of Biscuit Soldiers were patrolling at the gate, both of which quickly bowed to Cracker and Michelle as the former disembarked from his mount and then turned to help his fiancée off her own porcupine.
“At ease,” Cracker said to the soldiers, who jumped aside as Samore breezed past them, the gate swinging open with a bombastic shout.
“The lady of the house is home!”
“The party is happening in the back yard. We’ve got a pavilion set up,” Samore called back to the other two as she lead them around the side of the massive white house and through a garden gate.
In the backyard, more of the roasted marshmallow torches were set up around a dancefloor made of polished saltine crackers. Multicolored streamers looped through the autumnal trees above their heads, making a canopy around the floor and the white covered tables that create a semi-circle around them.
The rest of the guests were already there, and Michelle spotted Spice immediately. Her hair was as bright as the flames and her smile just as brighter as she leapt over to the other young woman in two levitated bounds.
“Michelle! It’s so good to see you!” Spice exclaimed, grasping the other woman’s hands and squeezing them tightly. “How have you been?!”
“It’s good to see you too,” Michelle replied, beaming. “I love your dress.”
“Oh, this old thing?” Spice giggled as she smoothed down the folds of her orange and yellow dress with red accents that looked like it was made of fall leaves. Her choker and bracelet looked like dripping maple syrup.
Michelle was about to compliment her outfit again when a pair of gloved hands suddenly covered her eyes, making her gasp. “Guess who, Aunt Michelle!
“Peppermint?” the young woman whirled around as the hands were removed from her vision to see Peppermint and Candy Cane, the twin oldest children of Winter and Perospero. They were wearing matching red and white striped suits with top hats. CC in particular really resembled his father in the outfit, especially since he was wearing his blue hair loose from its ponytail.
“How have you been, Auntie?” He asked Michelle.
“Very good, thank you.” She replied with a warm smile.
“Hey, you two! It’s been a while” Cracker exclaimed, clapping each of the twins on the back. “I hope you two have been practicing the sword techniques I taught you.”
“Of course, Uncle Cracker,” Peppermint insisted.
“We can show ya if you want,” her twin added, a mischievous glint in his red eyes.
Spice’s face lit up. “That sounds fun!”
“Not now, it’ll be dinner soon,” Samore replied insistently.
“You’re no fun, Samore,” Spice grumbled.
“Oh, there you are, Cracker. I was starting to think you wouldn’t show up.” Michelle turned at the sound of an unfamiliar voice as Oven strolled over to them. He was wearing long white robes that were trimmed in brilliant embroidered flames.
“I wouldn’t miss one of your parties, Oven,” Cracker replied with a grin. As he spoke, his arm wrapped around Michelle’s waist, pulling her closer to him. “You remember my fiancée, Michell, right?”
Oven smirked down at the young woman, giving his brother a knowing look. “Of course, how could I forget? She’s very memorable.”
Michelle felt her face go rather warm, and she doubted it was from the marshmallow torchlight.
“Don’t tease her, darling,” Samore lightly chastised him, crossing her arms disapprovingly.
“It’s just a bit of fun, dear,” Oven exclaimed with a booming laugh before he scooped his wife up and placed her on his shoulder, despite Samore’s protests.
“Oven! I need to get changed.”
“Come on, you’re fine as you are!”
“Oven, please put me down!”
A loud bang from across the yard interrupted the couples’ friendly argument.
Samore froze for a moment, fingers tangling in her husband’s reddish orange hair to steady herself. “Burn! How many times have I told you not to turn your brother into a bomb!”
The boy she was referring to whirled around immediately, a guilty expression on his wide brown face. He looked to be in his early teens and was dressed like a traditional magician with a black waistcoat and top hat. He had bright white gloves which offset his warm brown skin and red eyes like Samore. From under his tall hat, reddish curls peeked out to frame his face.
“Aw come on, Mom! I can just make another one!” called a slightly younger boy with orange dreadlocks that danced around his lithe form. He was wearing a cheetah print button down and black ballet slippers and was expertly twirling around the boy in the top hat, jumping around with acrobatic expertise.
As Michelle looked on in confusion, the boy with the orange dreadlocks and cheetah print top suddenly split into two identical beings like some kind of single celled organism. As she looked on, mouth falling open, the boy divided again and then again and suddenly there were six identical copies.
Almost as soon as he did so, the older boy with the top hat and red curls pressed his gloved hand to one of the moving bodies and it suddenly light up bright red. With another loud bang it exploded like a lead balloon, sending the other copies scrambling to get out the way.
“Again! Again!” Laughter and clapping could be heard from Perospero and Winter’s other set of twins, nearly identical boys named Truffle and Fudge, whom Michelle remembered from the tea party on Candy Island.
“Burn! What did I just tell you?” Samore loudly chastised the red-haired boy, “Stop using your Devil Fruit before someone gets hurt!”
“But Mom! Bake is fine!” Burn insisted.
“Yeah, he’s only blowing up the fake mes!” the orange haired boy insisted.
Samore sighed in exasperation, pinch the bridge of her nose. “I’m going to get changed. You talk to them,” she added to Oven before jumping from his shoulder and landing on the ground with surprising ease. She then made her way to the house, flanked by some of the dough boy Homies that were wandering around the pavilion serving drinks.
“We brought spiced cider, by the way,” Michelle exclaimed, remembering the drink and producing it from the basket, giving it to Oven.
“Oh thanks for that,” he took the bottle from her. “Now excuse me, I’ve gotta go deal with my kids.”
“I’ll take that!” Spice exclaimed, snatching it from her older brother and flying off.
“Hey boys!” Cracker reached into the basket he and Michelle had brought as well, pulling out the brightly colored rocket-shaped explosives. “I brought fireworks!”
Burn and Bake both clapped and cheered at this as did Truffle and Fudge.
“Wait until after dinner,” Oven called over their reverie, giving Cracker a murderous glare.
Meanwhile, Michelle felt someone tap her on the shoulder and turned to see Perospero standing over her, holding his youngest child Chestnut close to his chest.
The baby babbled and waved his chubby fingers.
“Good evening, Michelle,” the eldest Charlotte sibling said to her, smiling through his long tongue.
“Hello, Perospero. Hello, Chestnut,” Michelle couldn’t help but brighten up immediately at the sight of the baby.
She reached up towards him only to immediately draw her hands back when the baby suddenly took a snap at her fingers.
“Chestnut!” Perospero quickly adjusted him in his arms. “Terribly sorry, he’s teething.” His father quickly explained, waving his hand to produce a piece of candy using his Devil Fruit. “Here you are, my boy. Suck on this instead.”
Chestnut eagerly slurped at the candy piece as Michelle looked on fondly.
She then spied Winter sitting a short distance away at one of the covered tables beside her sister North, both of whom were wearing heavy fur coats. It soon became obvious why as a heavy cloud of snow was hovering over the two women and frantic flurries danced over their heads thanks to Winter’s own powers.
Michelle’s eyes soon met with the older woman’s steady gaze, and she waved halfheartedly, still a little intimidated. Winter smiled at her in response. Her demeanor was cold, but her eyes were warm.
She then slowly rose to her feet and walked over to Michelle and Perospero, holding out her hands to the latter so she could take their son from him.
At that moment, a large arm suddenly wrapped around Michelle’s shoulders, pulling them against a firm body. The young woman glanced up to see the sharp yellow eyes and flowing green hair of Sakura. “Hi, Michelle! How are you?!” the taller woman exclaimed in her thick Wanonese accent.
“S-Sakura!” Michelle struggled slightly against the other woman’s strength. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Sakura was wearing a magnificent pink yukata with her hair all swept into an elegant updo. She had cherry blossoms and other ornate clips twisted into her hair as well as many necklaces and rings on her fingers. She was even wearing a pair of gold earrings shaped like tiny samurai swords.
“Same to you.” Sakura held a pastry out to the smaller woman. “Want a maple bacon donut.”
“Thank you,” Michelle accepted the treat before glancing around. “Where’s Katakuri.”
“Over there,” Sakura pointed to where her husband was lounging at another table, arms and legs crossed and face mostly buried in his white fur scarf. “He doesn’t want to be here,” she added in a hushed voice with a knowing smile.
Perospero clicked his tongue, “He works too hard.”
“Tell me about it,” Sakura rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, Spice swooped down between them. “Drinks girls?!” she handed them each a champagne glass of the spiced cider Michelle and Cracker had brought. “Smoothie’s bartending, so this party is going to be awesome!”
The other young woman could indeed spy Spice’s fellow Sweet Commander behind the bar further back from the pavilion floor. She was wearing a magenta suit that accented her long silvery hair perfectly. She was speaking in hushed voices with Crystal, Winter and North’s middle sister.
Even from this distance, Michelle could see the yearning in their eyes, and her heart felt sad.
“Oh wow!” Spice’s exclamation drew the other young woman’s attention towards Samore, who was making her way back from the house.
She had changed into a beautiful evening gown that was made of melted chocolate that dripped down her entire body like a waterfall, perfectly molded to her form. Her jewelry was tiny marshmallows that glittered like crystals and the decorative clutch she clasped in her gloved hand was made of graham crackers.
“You look beautiful, Samore,” Sakura said to her. “Does it stretch to accommodate your other sizes?”
Samore smirked at her. “Nope!” She seemed almost happy about this, and Michelle felt her brow crinkle in confusion.
“Mama always makes her stay in her Giant form for Tea Parties and such,” Spice whispered to her, “So she can show her off to all of her socialite friends. I think it’s frustrating for her, so it’s probably nice to stay in her normal form.”
Michelle didn’t really know how to respond to that, especially since as Samore walked back over to where she, Spice and Sakura were standing, she noticed the rather prominent scars against her neck indicating there had once been a very heavy collar fastened against her throat.
“So, is this a party or what?!” Sakura suddenly exclaimed, throwing up her hands, “Let’s dance or something! It’s a celebration.”
“Figures you wouldn’t be impressed,” Spice replied, rolling her eyes as she floated after Sakura towards the dance floor, “Your dad throws wild parties every night of the week!”
Michelle almost jumped when someone tapped her on the shoulder, but the tight knot in her chest instantly softened when she turned to meet Cracker’s familiar grin. “How about a dance, my dear?’
His fiancée quickly accepted his hand, “I’d love to.”
As Cracker lead her onto the dancefloor, Oven and Samore followed suit, and Michelle caught a glimpse of the branded mark burned onto the small of the other woman’s back.
The Hoof of the Celestial Dragon: scarred over but still there.
                                                         ~~~
The rest of the party was a blur of eating, drinking, talking and dancing. There was so much food available, Michelle thought she might burst; although she supposed it should be expected for an event involving the Charlotte family.
She danced with Cracker and drank cider with Spice and Sakura (as well as a bit of sake courtesy of the former). She talked with Winter and her sisters and even took Truffle and Fudge up on their offer to dance with her.
As the night carried on, and the stars moved across the sky to the rhythm of the city’s fervor around them, Cracker eventually got out the fireworks for Oven and Samore’s sons Burn and Bake to enjoy.
They set up the rockets in the field, down the grassy slope from the pavilion. Everyone else pulled their chairs to the edge and lined them up, so they could watch the show.
Michelle was sitting beside an empty seat for Cracker on her right while Charlotte Souffle, Oven and Samore’s third child and only daughter, sat on her left.
“Isn’t this exciting, Auntie Michelle?!” she was saying. “I always love the fireworks.”
Michelle turned to give her a warm smile. She was a small girl with medium skin and red eyes like her mother. Her hair was yellow and very curly, mostly hidden behind a blue bonnet which matched her dress that had a balloon like skirt that seemed to puff out like a great white and blue balloon. Her face was painted white like a clown’s with additional eye makeup and a small blue dot on her nose. Her mouth was wide and full of an innocent grin.
Michelle had to put hers on somewhat. She was personally a little anxious about fireworks.
She nearly jumped when the sudden popping bang could be heard. Facing forward once more, she watched another of the fireworks shoot up into the sky and explode amongst the stars with a loud bang and eruption of color. All of the party guests clapped and exclaimed their appreciation.
Souffle’s eyes were filled with nearly as many stars as the sky above them as she took in the fireworks, raining down around them like shimmering jewels.
Michelle then noticed Chestnut was sitting up in his mother’s lap, his hands reaching up towards the remnants of the fireworks as they fell back down to earth, almost as if he wanted to catch them in his chubby hands.
She felt a familiar warmth in her chest that reminded her of how much she wanted to have children of her own one day. She couldn’t wait for her and Cracker to get married.
Meanwhile, Katakuri was sitting off to the side with Sakura on his lap; his arms were wrapped around her waist, keeping her in place as she leaned back against his chest, a content smile on her face.
The fireworks show seemed to take forever and seemingly no time at all; it held a spell over the crowd, transfixing everyone and practically lifting them out of time and space and temporarily transporting them to a pocket dimension where only this moment existed, only this land of noise and light reminded, independent of everything else.
Michelle sat, surrounded by her family, and she was happy.
Once the last rocket had been set off, Burn and Bake ran back up the hill, out of the darkness of the field towards them, with Cracker trudging not far behind.
Michelle leapt up from her seat and ran to meet him, leaping into his arms as he caught her by the waist.
“Here’s my girl!” he exclaimed, “Something on your mind, sweetheart?” he added.
Michelle blushed as she wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling her cheek. “I’m just having a very good time,” she replied simply.
The party started to wind down after that. Winter, North, Crystal gathered around the bar to talk with Smoothie while she cleaned the used glasses.
Perospero and Oven were having a heated discussion about some Tottoland politics while Samore and Souffle played with baby Chestnut.
Spice was entertaining Truffle and Fudge along with Burn and Bake, who were soon having another round of fireworks with Spice’s soul clones.
Peppermint and Candy Cane soon challenged Cracker to a duel, which carried out into the field. It was a friendly spar, but still intense as all things tended to be with the Charlotte family.
Michelle watched from a distance, starting to feel a little chill coming from the night air.
After parrying Peppermint and her sword Uzumaki and then blocking CC and his sword Kasane, Cracker looked her way. “Michelle! You look like you’re getting tired, sweetheart.”
“Oh! No, I’m fine,” she barely got the words out before the young woman had to stifle a yawn.
“Perhaps you should get going,” Perospero mused from nearby, “We’ll probably leave soon as well. The younger children shouldn’t be up too late.”
“You do have a bit of a journey back as well,” Samore agreed. “I’ll have one of the dough Homies fetch yours and Cracker’s coats.” Their hostess paused, glancing around, but there were no Homies in sight.
Oven chuckled. “I think our kids may have destroyed them all.”
“Those little pyromaniacs!” Samore huffed.
“It’s alright, I can get them myself,” Michelle insisted.
“Are you sure, my dear. I can always-” Samore started to offer, but Michelle shook her head.
“I don’t want to keep you from seeing off your guests.”
“Well, alright. The coatroom is the fourth door on your right when you go in the back entrance.”
“Thanks!” With that, Michelle ran across the garden towards the large white manor.
It didn’t take her long to locate the back entrance, but the hall beyond was dimly light and difficult to navigate. Remembering Samore’s instructions, she fumbled through the shadowed corridor until she found the door to the coatroom.
As she was gathering hers and Cracker’s cloaks up, she heard muffled noises and what sounded like voices coming from another room nearby.
Somewhat disoriented, Michelle stumbled out of the coatroom only to notice that the room across the hall’s door was slightly ajar. She could still hear the hushed sounds coming from inside.
Curiosity burning inside her, the young woman tiptoed across the hall and peered through the gap between the door and the wall.
It took a moment to come into focus, but she could soon make out Katakuri’s large form braced against the wall with one hand, holding Sakura’s leg against his hip with the other. His scarf was loose, but his face wasn’t visible as it was buried in the crook of Sakura’s neck. His wife’s arms were gripping his shoulders tightly, her long nails digging into the fabric of his suit jacket. She threw her head, gasping her husband’s name.
“K-Katakuri! Ah!” she yelped as he seemingly sank his teeth into her neck, her hands scrambling up into his hair, pulling the short strands tightly.
Michelle scrambled back from the door, struggling to force down a surprised squeak. She probably made far too much noise in her frantic dash towards the exit thanks to her bad leg, but she didn’t linger long enough to see if she had been discovered.
She dashed back outside, her face burning in the cool night air only to run straight into Cracker’s broad chest. “There you are, Sugar Cookie. I was wondering where you went.”
Despite the short distance she had run, Michelle was panting, “I-I got the coats.”
Cracker smirked down at his fiancée, reaching out to clasp her face between his large hands. “Is everything alright, my dear. You look a little flushed.”
“I’m alright,” Michelle insisted, forcing back the urge to pout.
“Very well, I suppose we should be going then.” Without another word, Cracker scooped his fiancée up along with the coats and carried her towards the gate despite her feeble protests.
The other party guests were making their way out as well, sharing final farewells with their hosts.
Michelle managed to regain her composure enough to thank Oven and Samore for inviting them and to say goodbye to Spice and the others.
As Cracker carried her back to their ship, she felt her eyes beginning to grow heavy. It was indeed very late; the edges of the horizon were starting to fade indicating they were not long for a sunrise.
The party that had been carrying on in full swing had died down, with only some drunken revelers lingering sporadically in the messy streets.
Cracker’s long strides covered the distance almost as quickly as the porcupines they road into Fukkura Town on, and the rhythm of his movements practically rocked Michelle to sleep.
As they approached the coast, she could barely make out their waiting ship through her sleepy haze. Cracker leaned down and whispered, “We’ll be home soon, my love. Sleep well.”
Michelle smiled to herself, resting her head against her husband’s broad chest as her hand lazily reached up to stroke the side of his face before going limp as she drifted off to sleep.
                                                           The End.
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cmagines · 4 years
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Halloween
Summary: A murder at Halloween brings Y/N Hotchner into her father’s world.
Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader
Word Count: 7,660 
           The time had come. After years of being sheltered, you were finally going to enter the FBI offices as a full-fledged adult in need of full-fledged protective custody. You could’ve lived without the latter, but if anyone was going to hold your safety within their hands, you felt your dad and his team were the best possible choice. You followed behind him, taking advantage of his height to duck down and keep your eyes on the backs of his shoes while he led you out of the elevator and down a short hallway to the double doors in front of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. A visitor’s badge was clipped to your cardigan, a backpack was over one of your shoulders, and you held possessively to your phone in your left hand.
           You were still wearing the black dress you had donned for her funeral.
           It all started a week ago. Since the Reaper had killed Haley, you’d decided to take a gap year between high school and college so that you could stay home and help raise Jack, permitting Hotch to continue to take cases and stick killers behind bars. As much as you hated that you’d lost your mother, and as well as you knew how much she had grown to detest Hotch’s career, you also realized that the Reaper could have just as easily killed someone else to taunt Hotch and left that woman’s daughter in the same state that you’d been in. Hotch had an important cause to work for and you supported it, so in turn, he financially supported you while you worked a part-time job during Jack’s school days and played the role of his guardian the rest of the time. Just this year, you had decided that, since Hotch had Beth helping your small family out, you could afford to start taking a few classes at the nearby college. While there, you met Olivia. You hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone, but Liv refused to take your silence as an answer. The two of you could have been sisters; it was a little bit strange at first to look at her and first wonder what was wrong with the mirror. You had the same color of hair and eyes, the same thick hair and easy, slightly messy hairstyle, were only a fraction of an inch apart in height, and similar skin tones. There was ten pounds of a weight difference at most. What was crazier? She had a twin.
           There were three people who looked like you on campus, and it drove the professors nuts in the two classes that you and Liv shared.
           It was the Halloween party that probably sealed the fate. Everyone acted like a freak on Halloween, but someone had decided to take it a step two far. Twisting Dr. Seuss, you, Liv, and her sister had all gone dressed in skirts and red shirts as Things One, Two, and Three, wearing thick white face paint and heavy pink eyeshadow to further obscure the differences between you. When they’d picked you up from home, Jack had run to Marie and started excitedly telling his “sister” about his day at school, and Hotch had given Liv a list of chores that he wanted done by the end of the week. Then you’d come down the stairs, Jack and Marie had emerged from another room, and both males looked as though they’d seen ghosts.
           “Too many of you,” Jack complained, tugging on Marie’s long red sleeve. She giggled and patted his hair and told you that your brother was cute.
           You’d had more fun than you would have thought. The twins had taken you to a frat house and you’d become the center of attention of a handsome boy who came on way too strong. Luckily, he turned out not to be a complete jerk – once Liv saw you were in trouble and intervened, politely asking the young man to back off and informing him that you weren’t comfortable with all of the attention, he had apologized profusely, given you a crooked smile, and told you that he was around for help if you needed it. His name was Seth, and he was a sophomore. You didn’t see him again that night.
           You didn’t see much of anything else that night, either, because the party was broken up by the police being called when Liv found her sister’s body in a huge puddle of blood in one of the bathrooms. She had screamed. You were normally uncomfortable talking to large groups of people, but adrenaline and concern had pushed you to power through, and you cited your father’s profession and shoved your way through. The few frat boys who had thought it was a prank hadn’t even bothered to check Marie’s pulse, just assuming she was having them on. You felt her throat and as soon as you felt the very real, and unfortunately very familiar texture of blood, you knew you weren’t going to find a heartbeat. If she wasn’t wearing face paint, you would have known she was dead instantly, the same way you had known when you saw Haley’s body on the floor of your old house.
           A murder had transpired, and you did the first thing you could think of and called your dad. Why wouldn’t you? Beth was called to stay with Jack while Hotch came and got you, and after you gave your statement to the police, he took you to your favorite restaurant and didn’t comment when all you did was pick at your food, stomach rolling.
           That morning, you were contacted immediately by the police and brought in for a series of questions. You weren’t a suspect, but they thought you might be in danger, because Liv’s parents had gotten back from a meeting with a funeral director and found Liv changed into her Halloween costume, murdered just like her sister, with her body splayed out over the kitchen table. The police thought that having forced her into the same outfit the previous victim had worn might be a little bit significant, and yeah, you agreed. Even you saw the danger in it, so as soon as you told Beth that you couldn’t pick up Jack from school, you called Hotch. The stress finally caught up with you and you told him through tears where you were and that you needed protection.
           The BAU was on the case before it had even been sent up through the right government channels, and your father assured you that you would stay with only the agents he trusted most, and you would never be left alone. If you weren’t going to be in a secure room with the technical analyst he considered family, then you were going to be with Rossi, Reid, JJ, Blake, or Morgan (the names meant nothing to you), who were all armed and wouldn’t let anyone touch you.
           Hotch glanced behind him to look at you and see your face. You were still nervous about meeting his coworkers. He assured you that they were all people he trusted with his very life, but you had always been timid about meeting new people. You’d been introverted for as long as you could remember, and only grown more so after Foyet.
           “You’ll be okay,” he promised, reaching for you. Without moving, you let him hold his hand to your lower back and guide you in through doors that he held open with his other arm. Crossing your own over your chest, you rubbed your arms and kept your head down, looking around but careful not to make eye contact with anyone.
           The bullpen didn’t seem like it was loud, but it became very hushed when you and your dad were noticed. Most of the agents towards the wall by the doors and mezzanine looked straight to Hotch before they checked you out, but no one seemed anything but sympathetic and curious, until a woman came up to you both, leaving the desk of a black man with a gun at his hip, which you noticed with a slight grimace. Guns were not your favorite. You’d like them for as long as they kept you safe, but after being threatened with one by the Reaper, you’d be happy if you never saw anyone with a firearm again. Yet, if Dad said that he trusted these people, then you supposed you would, too.
           This woman in particular looked out of place in the bureau. You looked at her clothes rather than her face and hoped that she wouldn’t take offense. Other than noticing the frames of glasses and streaks of a coral-pink color in her blonde hair, all you saw were gold bangles on her wrists, manicured fingernails, and bright-colored clothes, including pastel tights, purple pumps, and a dress with swirls and polka dots splashed with a rainbow.
           “Is this her?” She asked Hotch with a note of wonder in her voice. Your dad nodded. You nodded a little bit, too, interested to know who she was. Hopefully, she would take it upon herself to explain so that you didn’t have to ask. “Oh, chica,” she sighed, holding her hands out. She reached halfway between you and stopped, giving you the power to decide whether or not she touched you. You lifted your hand to shake hers and she had a tight, motherly grip. “I’m so sorry, darling, but I promise you, you’re gonna be so safe here that if you get a papercut, we’ll arrest the printing machine.”
           You giggled a little bit.
           “Y/N, this is Penelope Garcia. She’s our technical analyst. If you have any homework for your computer programming class, she’s the person to ask,” Hotch chuckled warmly at both of you. “Garcia, this is my daughter, Y/N. She’s majoring in computer sciences.”
           “Gosh, have you come to the right place!” The analyst was kind and worked herself into optimistic excitement, pulling you gently by the hand away from Hotch’s side. She started leading you away from the other desks. Over your shoulder, you looked at Hotch in alarm. “You’re gonna love my lair. Well, it’s not actually a lair, it’s an office, but I call it my lair because it’s not as drab. What’s the fun in going to an office? But a lair, no one says no to going to a lair.”
           “Don’t you think she should meet the rest of the team first?” Dad called after you both, making Garcia halt in her tracks. One of her hands stayed on your wrist, which you didn’t mind too much. You didn’t not like people, you just weren’t a big fan of socializing. Having friends was fun. Making them was intimidating.
           “Right! Yes!” Garcia gasped and pulled you back towards your father. Your head was going to spin if your entire stay consisted of being commandeered and driven around the FBI. You had a lot to deal with already, and you just hoped that this team was as good as you thought they were and could catch the killer. You wanted justice for your friends’ wrongful deaths. “Yes, Chickadee, come on. I’ll show you to your honor guard. I promise they won’t bite.”
           My honor guard? Well, at least she was taking the “protective custody” thing seriously.
           First, she took you to the desk that she had been at before she noticed your entrance. Several agents were all looking at you and watching the proceedings, but the one Garcia had been standing with rotated his chair around so his feet were out from under the desk and had covered up his sidearm with his jacket since you’d seen it. Maybe there was an advantage to being looked after by profilers; he must’ve noted your negative reaction. Other than appearing athletic and well-built, he seemed friendly and exuded warmth and hospitality.
           Garcia was excited to introduce you to him. If you had to guess, you’d say she had a clear favorite. “Y/N, this is Special Agent Derek Morgan, and he will defend you heroically because he is my, and now your, knight in shining FBI-issue Kevlar.”
           You smiled shyly at Agent Morgan, who didn’t reach for your hands, so you didn’t offer. “Hi,” you said quietly.
           “Hey, sweetness,” Morgan returned kindly. Unlike the frat kids who would’ve sounded lecherous, drunk, or flirty, Morgan managed to make the endearment sound like an actual endearment, the same way that Beth sometimes called you “honey” or Hotch called you by your nickname. “This computer over here is Reid.” He pointed over his desk to the one behind it, to a young guy with dark brown hair and a lanky, tall figure, even when sitting down.
           “Reid Dr.,” Reid told you, standing up hurriedly and rubbing his palms over his thighs. He realized what he’d said and frowned. “Dr. Reid,” he corrected himself, switching the words back around. Instead of relaxing, his frown just intensified. “Dr. Spencer Reid.” Finally, he seemed satisfied, smiled at you a little awkwardly, and sat back down, scratching the back of his neck.
           Sure, the introduction was a little bit comedic, but you knew better than probably anyone else in the room how mean it could be to tease someone for a little difficulty with presenting themselves or mixing up their words, what with being sensitive to it yourself, so you ignored the mistakes and nodded, getting out a ‘nice to meet you.’ “Why did he call you a computer?” You asked. Garcia had let go of your hand, so you wrung your fingers in front of you to control the urge to shut up and go back to your father’s side. College wasn’t so bad when you were soft spoken, but the FBI was much more intimidating. Not only were they federal agents with guns, but you were there because of a killer, which made it ten times more stressful.
           “Watch this,” Morgan grinned. “Reid, what’s thirty-six to the power of four divided by seventeen squared?”
           Reid looked up to the ceiling, but only for a couple of seconds before he had done all of the mental math on his own. “Five thousand, eight hundred eleven, point eighty-two… when rounded to the nearest thousandth.”
           “Wow,” you commented, blushing along with Reid, who seemed pleased but unused to being complimented. Both of you looked away from each other when Garcia cooed.
           “And this is Alex Blake!” She turned around and indicated for you to come with her, going to the next row. On the outer desk was an older woman, maybe in her forties, with brunette hair and a black blazer over her long-sleeved shirt. Blake smiled at you and held out a hand. You shook her hand with a loose grip and ended it when she did. “She can scare off a bad guy in four languages,” Garcia cheerily bragged.
           “I have a PhD in linguistics and I’m a licensed translator,” Blake supplied in explanation.
           The next person that Garcia dragged you over to was your father again. “There’s also Rossi and JJ, but JJ’s not here right now and Rossi’s been locked in his office like a recluse for the last two hours,” the techie told you conversationally. She didn’t seem to mind being the one doing most of the talking, instead being compassionate to that you weren’t the most outgoing person in the world. “You can always meet them later. No, really, you definitely will. Rossi’s been bugging the G-Man about you ever since he told us he had a daughter, and JJ’s excited to meet you, too. Is that all you brought?”
           It took you a minute to realize she’d changed topics and was now asking about your backpack. “Yes,” you answered, looking down to your hand as you fisted the strap over your front.
           Garcia smiled. “That’s okay, sweetie, I’ve got lots we can do that can’t fit in a backpack and I’m sure we can convince someone to get you to a laundromat if you need one.” Personally, you’d been banking on the investigation being closed pretty quickly. You weren’t looking for something just a step short of Witness Protection; a day or two sleeping in the FBI, and then you could go back to your normal life before you got too far behind in your courses. Garcia moved on breezily. “On to the Batcave, Robin, where magical worlds of computer software await. If you’re a computer geek, you’re gonna do a backflip when you see everything I got. Would you believe the FBI gives me thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment when they only actually hired me so they could stop hunting me?”
           It had been maybe five minutes, and your head was already spinning. You hoped Garcia elaborated on that last part.
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           You had never taken to anyone as quickly as you took to Garcia. Maybe it was her kind and loving nature, or maybe it was just how she was so wild and outgoing that you didn’t feel like you could be judged for being your normal, quiet self. All you knew, or really cared to know about it, was that she made you feel comfortable, especially once you were a little bit more used to her. You started to speak a little bit more, didn’t worry about muffling your laughter when you were amused. With her huge monitors, Garcia pulled up your favorite movie franchise and the two of you watched as much as you could before you were yawning, even with the assistance of coffee.
           The next morning, you changed clothes and took care of your hygiene in the bathroom. Garcia had fallen asleep after you had, so you didn’t know how long she’d actually been resting, and hadn’t wanted to wake her up. The FBI in general had to be a pretty safe place. Transferring your visitor’s badge onto your new outfit, you pushed back your hair and ventured back into the bureau. Your dad had had to go home – he did have another child to care for, after all – but maybe it was late enough in the morning for him to be back. You weren’t sure what you’d do if he wasn’t.
           Six in the morning was not, as it turned out, late enough. No wonder you were so tired… if you’d thought to check the time before changing, you’d have just gone back to sleep. The bullpen was practically empty. But was that – yes! It was! There was a light on under the doorway of one of the offices up on the mezzanine. Your dad had told you that his office was up there. Being the unit chief, he had the seniority and the authority to have a specially-large office instead of just desks on the floor level.
           Keeping your head down, you went up the mezzanine steps to the raised walkway along the wall and followed it past a dark office to the one with the light on it. You knocked to be courteous, but one of the few agents that was in was looking at you. Being up higher than the desks made you more noticeable. Eager to get into a smaller space where you didn’t feel like you’d be in trouble for no reason, you walked inside without being invited… and regretted it, because the man at the desk was not your father.
           A tiny, anguished squeak made its way out of your mouth. How embarrassing…
           “Um.”
           “Well, hi,” the man said behind the desk, swiping reading glasses off of his face. He wasn’t that tall. Even sitting, he seemed less intimidating than your dad. He was European, maybe Italian or Spanish, and older than your dad, at least fifty, with the beginnings of a salt-and-peppered beard. He was dressed business casual, with a comfortable black blazer, and a piping mug of hot coffee with the steam still rising sat near his right hand. “I didn’t know I was expecting company.”
           There was no reassuring hand at your back or preppy analyst to help you out. Shifting to your other foot and swallowing hard, you took a deep breath. You were here in protective custody, not in interrogative custody. No one was going to hurt you, and the guy seemed amused, not angry. “Well, um, you weren’t… I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
           You held your breath then. Your wardrobe was pretty typical for a college student, and while you owned a few nice things for practical reasons, dressing professionally hadn’t been your biggest concern when you packed your things for your field trip to the BAU. So, while you tried to present yourself as an innocent and insignificant individual who made a mistake with no ill intent, you stood there in your jeans and t-shirt with the band name emblazoned on the front. You did not fit in.
           “Don’t tell me,” he said dryly, picking up his coffee and taking a sip. Obediently, you shut your mouth and looked down. If he didn’t want you to tell him something, well, by God, you were not going to tell him something. “Hotch’s little girl, right? Though, I guess, you’re not all that little.” Grimacing, you nod. He put his mug down and leaned over the desk, rolling his shoulders and crossing his forearms on the table. “SSA David Rossi. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
           “Thank you, Agent Rossi,” you murmured.
           “Dave.”
           “Okay.”
           He studied you intently. “How is it that you escaped the clutches of the Good Witch?”
           “Galinda’s asleep over her computer, so I popped on out of Oz via yellow bricks,” you quipped, leaping without thought onto the references. Then your eyes widened, blood rushed to your face, and you wished you could just disappear.
           Rossi seemed to think you were funny, though, because he chuckled heartily. “I like you, kid,” he said in what was clearly supposed to be a praising way. “Have you had anything to eat?” You shook your head. He stood up. “Well, I’ve been staring at this one page for twenty minutes, so I could use a break. C’mon. It’s not DiGiorno, but there is a place downstairs where we can pilfer some food. What do you say?”
           Dad wasn’t in, Garcia was unconscious, and none of the three agents she had introduced you to were around yet. Rossi was the only person you knew. As nervous as you were that you might do something wrong or make some horrible social faux pas that existed only between federal agents that you didn’t know about, you would prefer being with someone you barely knew to being completely alone… especially since two of your friends had died and the Halloween costume that you had all worn seemed to be pivotal to the murders.
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           You spent nearly an entire forty minutes in the cafeteria with Rossi before his phone rang with a notification alert, and he announced that you both needed to go back to the BAU – yourself as proof of life and Rossi as brain trust to work the case. Hotch was a little aggravated that you weren’t within sight when he went to try to find you, but relaxed and gave you a hug when you said that you were fine and that Rossi had just been helping you. You hadn’t even realized you were hungry until the profiler had suggested it.
           In the meantime, you went back to Garcia’s lair, expecting just to find the techie you’d grown to tentatively like. Only, when you got there, Garcia wasn’t alone. She was accompanied by a tall, slim blonde, who introduced herself as JJ, the media liaison-turned-profiler. She was beautiful and kind, and had a child at home with her husband. You were warmed to her before she’d even opened her mouth, and she quickly became one of the first people you went to talk to in the next few days.
           You had to stay longer than you had thought. When the un-sub didn’t find his third victim – AKA, you – he seemed to go to ground for a while. You wanted to be optimistic and say he had never intended to target you, but Beth had taken Jack home after dinner two nights into your protective custody only to find that the house had been broken into, your bedroom door broken in, and a broken vase on the floor that you used to hold a bouquet of flowers in. When he hadn’t found you, he’d thrown a temper tantrum and made your bedroom look terrible. Dad didn’t let you see the pictures, but Garcia had wrapped you up in a short hug and promised that she would take you shopping for some new things.
           Three days, and you were content with staying right where you were. If you had fought with Hotch on whether or not you needed protecting, you very well may have lost your life.
           Four days, and you were starting to feel a little bit of cabin fever, but overall, you were still content with staying where your safety was ensured.
           Six days going on a week, and all you wanted was to shoot the killer yourself so that you could go sleep in your own familiar bed, and maybe read your brother a bedtime story. You always read Jack a bedtime story, unfailingly, until someone had decided they wanted to plunge a knife through your back.
           You played with the hem of your nightgown when you ventured out of the little cavern of Garcia’s office that you had been holed up in for the majority of most days. It was barely past one in the morning and most of the sane people had gone home, even Hotch. After the break-in, you felt immensely guilty that the un-sub might’ve encountered Jack or Beth, and believed it to be nothing short of dumb luck that they had decided to go out to a restaurant. Hotch refused to concede that you were in any way to blame, but, just to be safe, he and Beth had both agreed that it was better if the three of them stayed at a hotel until the case was solved.
           If you wanted anything, you had a technical analyst who had all but cried several times just from trying to imagine how you felt and several agents in the building at any given time to respond to your distress call. However, you couldn’t remember a time you had felt more alone – isolated in a building full of people who didn’t really know you, with someone wanting to murder you in a Halloween costume you had swiftly grown to loathe, and without the chance to partake in any of the normal activities you enjoyed. Sure, you were learning a lot from Garcia, and your professors had been appraised of the bare necessities of the situation and had given you projects in lieu of classes, but you still had so much time to be lonely that it was hard to keep your chin up much longer.
           Part of your assignment involved making your own website, so, with a sigh of your shoulders and a gentle roll of your head around on your neck, you took your laptop and travelled out to the kitchenette. Hotch usually locked his office door when he left, but he’d been leaving it open for you if you needed to be alone. You’d not really been given a chance to mourn for your friends before you got swept up in everything else. The logic you used was that you could get some of the cheap bureau coffee and get some homework done in his office. You felt terrible and your heart wouldn’t be in it, but you could always touch up on it later.
           At this rate, it seemed like you wouldn’t be going back to school for weeks.
           Your plan was derailed halfway through making your coffee. Someone cleared their throat and coughed, startling you, and with wide eyes, impulsively feeling guilty for using coffee that belonged to an organization you weren’t really a part of, you started to apologize.
           Reid held up his hand, a mug in the other, and with a gentle smile, he quieted your apologies and calmed your nervousness. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that. I thought you would still be asleep.”
           “Nightmares,” you mumbled, sinking back against the counter and out of the way. Reid slipped past you, going to make his own coffee refill, while you moved your filled mug out of the way and sought out the milk in the little fridge. You were acutely aware of his presence, but tried not to act like you were on edge by it. He didn’t make you feel threatened, just a little awkward. What were you supposed to talk about?
           “I used to have those,” he responded empathetically while his coffee brewed.
           You looked up to him curiously. You’d seen one of your friends’ corpses, touched her dead body while looking for a pulse that wasn’t there, felt her blood on your hands. “How did you make them go away?”
           Reid’s smile became a little crooked. “I didn’t, not at first.” He, too, leaned against the counter, hands behind him and pressing on the edge. “And sometimes, they still come back. But I manage them, because I remember that I may have memories that my brain can scare me with, but I’ve also shored up a list of things that make me feel better, too. Safer. Less lonely.” He paused. “Gideon – an agent who used to work here – he helped me by giving me a photograph of a little girl we saved, not long after I joined the team. Maybe you could ask Hotch to bring you a photo of your brother.”
           “I have plenty on my phone,” you replied.
           He shook his head. “It’s not the same as having a physical picture to touch,” he disagreed, and you had to hand it to him – his calm tone was soothing you, his quiet voice making you feel like you weren’t quite as abandoned and hopeless as you had thought.
           You swallowed. Most of the time, you didn’t want to talk. You still didn’t, but you thought maybe it would be worth speaking up a little if it meant that you got to have a little more of Reid’s time and his relaxing attention. “What are you still doing in? I thought everyone would have wanted to go home.”
           Reid’s smile turned confused, yet remained polite. “I don’t think anyone would be going home if they could help it,” he told you earnestly. “But everyone has someone to go back home to. Even Rossi – one of his ex-wives is in town. Hotch has, well, Jack, and Garcia has a cat she has to feed. Blake’s husband is visiting, Morgan has a girlfriend, and JJ has a son. If they didn’t have responsibilities at home, I don’t think they would’ve left you here on your own.”
           “So what about you?” You questioned, unable to let your curiosity rest. The notion that a bunch of adults who didn’t personally know you would give up the comforts of their homes for your sake if not for other personal obligations seemed weird and abstract when applied to anyone but your father, and maybe Beth. Why was Reid still there, talking with you, when he could’ve been with someone he cared about? “Why stay when you have someone else?”
           “Well, my mom lives in Las Vegas, so I can’t really visit her every day,” he said, aiming to make a joke. You giggled a little bit and he smiled, pleased to have lessened some of the tension. The bumbling, awkward doctor you’d been introduced to seemed much more at ease when it was just the two of you. “And… I don’t know, Y/N. The thought of you being here on your own, when you might need to talk… when you apparently do need to talk,” he amended, looking at you meaningfully, because that was what you were doing right then. “I didn’t want that to happen if I could prevent it, so here I am.”
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           You and Reid quickly became friends, to the point where you interacted with him as much as you did with Garcia. Your late-night chats became the norm for the pair of you. Reid tended to come in later in the morning, but because Hotch knew that he was keeping you company long after the sun had gone down, he pretended not to notice. In your head, you stopped thinking of him as Reid and instead as Spencer, your friend, and although you hadn’t had enough time together to talk about everything, you did seem to talk about anything.
           Your nightmares persisted, but you felt like you had more control over them. Spencer didn’t ask you to talk about them, but he didn’t say not to, either. Instead, you talked a little bit about his life growing up, and a bit about the funny misadventures he had when he and the team were off the clock. You were amazed by Spencer’s intelligence. Three PhD’s by the time he was twenty-one, and finishing up high school before he was even old enough to have a driver’s permit. Spencer tried to pick up some of your language skills from you, since you’d taken four years of a foreign language in high school, but you’d found out that he was great at memorization while terrible at pronunciation. You told him about a boy you’d dated during your senior year of high school, and added a detail you hadn’t even told Hotch: he had broken up with you because he thought you were spending more time with your family than with him, and this was while you were practically raising Jack, because your mother had been murdered. He had known what had happened, and he’d still cited your prioritizations of taking care of your baby brother as a reason to break up with you. You grew sullen while you talked about it, but it felt good to get it off your chest for the first time. Obviously you couldn’t tell Jack, and you hadn’t known Beth at the time, and you hadn’t wanted Hotch to feel bad about the responsibilities you were taking on as well as being a student, so you made up a lie about how you broke up with him peacefully so you’d both have more time to focus on school and SATs.
           You talked about lighter things than your lives, too. The two of you bonded over shared interests in science fiction and “geek” movies. Spencer had developed a healthy appreciation for Marvel after you talked him into bringing a box of popcorn so that you could watch the Iron Man movies together one night. Your unofficial plan was to watch all of the movies with the individual superheroes and lead up to The Avengers. There was a convention coming up in the next few months that Spencer invited you to go to with him. He wanted to dress as Tom Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor, his personal favorite, and you theorized that maybe you could go as Tegan or Sarah Jane.
           “If I even live that long…” You’d muttered under your breath, hit by a wave of pessimism. At nearing two weeks of bureau captivity, it was getting harder to believe that the un-sub would be caught. You’d seen enough horror movies to know that the minute your guard was let down, you’d be murdered in your bed. The problem was that not letting your guard down meant staying in the FBI for the foreseeable future.
           Spencer had set down a mug of fresh coffee that he seemed to live off of and touched your knee with his hand, rubbing his thumb over your thigh and leaning forwards to meet your eyes. Spencer wasn’t much of one for a lot of touching, and he was rather conscientious of everyone’s personal space, so it was shocking enough that he’d touched you, much less when he locked eyes with you in an intensity that made your stomach flutter.
           “We will catch him,” he stated simply, and then went on to tell you everything they’d gotten. Partial (unidentified) fingerprints from the house break. A profile (white male around your age, disorganized, with a fixation that revolved around the identical nature of your and your friends’ costumes). They had reason to believe that he lived nearby, and knew he’d been at the party to kill Marie, and suspected that he may even be one of the frat kids in order to commit the crime without standing out. “So, Y/N, I promise you, you won’t be here forever.”
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           The next night, you came to Spencer reasonably early. You were sure that the rest of the team, Hotch included, had gone, because you wanted the privacy to be uninterrupted and the security that came with having someone you trusted to be honest yet sensitive leading you. Then you approached Spencer’s desk with a mug full of his favorite flavor of coffee and approximately four tablespoons of pure sugar dumped in, delivered it to his desk, and locked your hands behind your back.
           “So, I was thinking about something, and I realize it may not be fun, but I’d rather be a little upset for a while than let this continue.”
           The genius finished what he was doing on the computer in a few seconds, saved the document using the control shortcut, and then pushed the chair away from the desk, swiveling it around to face you. He planted both shoes on the floor and leaned over, hands in his lap, and met your eyes, giving you his full attention.
           “You said that you think the killer was at the frat party,” you reminded, grimacing even as you said it. You couldn’t believe you’d been talked into going to a frat party. “And I picked up somewhere that serial killers like to see the results of their actions. So maybe it’s possible that he was there when Marie-“ You flinched, took a breath, and started again, trying to depersonalize. “-When the body was found?” Spencer nodded slowly, encouraging you to continue. “I want you to do a cognitive interview on me,” you announced, looking down to your toes. “When I heard Liv scream, I took over. I pushed everyone away and instructed someone to call the cops. I even blocked people from the bathroom to preserve the evidence. If there was someone trying to nose their way in, I probably would’ve seen them.”
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           You breathed a little bit faster. Liv’s scream echoed in your ears, just as loud and heart-wrenching as it had been when you’d heard it for real. Although you kept your eyes screwed shut as Spencer had instructed, you had a hard time seeing the black of your eyelids when what you were thinking back to was full of colors and movement. The only grounding sensation you felt was Spencer’s larger hand in yours, gently squeezing your palm in reassurance.
           “You’re doing so well,” he praised, half-cooing in comfort. “You have to push a group away from the door. What happened next? Do you recognize any of them?” His thumb brushed over your knuckles.
           While you were reasonably sure you were supposed to be focusing on your memory, you instead paid more attention to his hand, swallowing hard and squeezing. You were sure your grip was too tight to be nice, and possibly a little sweaty from nervousness and apprehension, but Spencer didn’t move or comment, for which you were grateful.
           “I recognize some of them,” you said, imagining yourself in the shoes you’d worn three weeks ago. Some of the colors were unclear, faces distorted, but the ones that stood out weren’t always the ones that had just been closest to you at the time. Flashes of features through the door of a frat boy you shared a calculus class with, although you’d only glimpsed the side of his face in passing over the shoulder of a blurry zombie costume. “Mostly from around campus, but a few are in sports teams. Oh, and Seth,” you added as an afterthought, scoring your eyes across the doorway, refusing to move your eyes to the right. You knew you’d see the blood-filled bathtub in your flashback if you did.
           “Who’s Seth?” Spencer asked, pressing calmly for more details.
           You didn’t think it was that important, but you went along with it. He was the profiler. “Just some guy that we met earlier that night. He came onto me, Liv asked him to back off, he said he was sorry for being too forward, and he left. I didn’t speak to him again.” In your recollection, you could vaguely place his voice, maybe saying something. Maybe saying your name. At the time all you could hear were Liv’s screeches, alternating between heartbroken and furious. “He’s taller than me. Shorter than you, though. I… he had a cup in his hand. Probably something alcoholic, because he didn’t look completely with it. Drinking messed with his red face paint.”
           “What was he?” Spencer pushed his fingers into your palm, pressing on the back of your hand with his thumb, the pressure relaxing your grip. “Who did he dress as?”
           “Tate Langdon,” you answered with a slight grin, remembering how you’d initially jumped when he’d come and tapped your shoulder. Then you’d hid behind a bottle of water and laughed, recognizing the cosmetics and the black hoodie.
           “Who?”
           “Oh. He was a character from American Horror Story,” you explained. “He wore the outfit from when Tate shot up his school. Um, dark black and oversized sweater with a hood up, and black, white, and grey paint to draw a skull on his face.” You faltered as you explained. That was right. When you’d recognized him from his face paint, he had been dressed just like Tate. And later, he’d had red face paint. “Oh…”
           “Oh?” Spencer drew you out before you got too far wrapped up in your realization. You realized your hands were trembling. Spencer covered your hand in both of his and held on, silently promising that he wasn’t going anywhere. “What is it? What do you see?”
           You swallowed. “He wasn’t supposed to be wearing red face paint,” you said dryly. “And it was on his hoodie, too.”
~ ~ ~ Halloween ~ ~ ~
           October 31st. Your least favorite holiday.
           “Are you okay by yourself, Chickadee?” Garcia, respectfully wearing a dull-colored outfit, touched your shoulder while you stared down at the two headstones side-by-side.
           Wordless, you nodded, clutching a bouquet of black-painted roses in your hands, with a silk ribbon wrapped around the flowers in your murdered friends’ favorite color. Garcia left you alone in the cemetery, finding the path and going back to your car. It was the anniversary of Marie’s death. Soon it would be the anniversary of Liv’s. In mere days, you would be standing in the same spot, a bouquet of the same flowers in hand, the same dress on your body, the dress you’d worn to their funerals.
           Seth was nailed on all charges – first-degree homicide, stalking (to find your and Liv’s addresses), breaking and entering, and trespassing with malicious intent. He would never get parole, but after several appeals by a lawyer his high-income father had hired onto his retainer, it seemed as though he might be declared mentally unfit and taken off of consideration for a life sentence. You personally hoped that would never happen, and in the upcoming weeks, you would be called into court to testify against the decision.
           “I won’t let him walk from what he did to you both,” you whispered to their graves. A gentle rush of wind acted up and teased your hair, lifting it over your shoulders, strands curling against your cold cheeks. Kneeling down, you deposited the bouquet gently on Marie’s grave, the flower petals a gentle cushion against the granite headstone.
           On your way out of the cemetery, you were met by Spencer, who took one look at your face and then reached for your hand. He held onto your hand and entwined your fingers loosely, pulling you to walk by his side as he led you to the car. Tiredly, you rocked your head onto his shoulder. “Thank you for coming with me,” you whispered to the man who had become your best friend in the last year, tying with Garcia in the role.
           Halloween sucked for you, but Spencer loved it. You thought it was time you got some closure. The holiday was never going to be your favorite, but if Spencer adored it, then you would learn to be okay. You were determined not to see any real corpses that night. Spencer was going to go to the opening night of a horror film and follow it up by attending the Safe Treat event that you, JJ, and Garcia were all taking Jack and Henry to. The Safe Treat was hosted by your college, and it was the first annual event of its kind, founded in honor of the two students who had died the year before. Faculty and students alike were attending to game, candy, and pumpkin-carving booths, there were going to be photograph opportunities, a costume contest was arranged, and campus security had enlisted their full staff, as well as volunteers from the local police, to make sure that everyone was safe and secure while they had their spooky fun.
           “Of course I came,” Spencer responded back to you softly, turning his head to rest his cheek over your hair. While you slowly walked together down the block towards your car, he pressed his lips against the top of your head. “I love you.”
~~~
~~~
A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! I wrote this a couple of years ago, took it down, and am now reposting it here.
If you liked this oneshot and how I write, please consider commissioning me through Ko-Fi! A oneshot of this length is about $14 ($1/500 words + 500 words FREE), but shorter stories start at only $4, and for just $1, I’ll take prompts for preferences, would-includes, and imagines. My Ko-Fi handle is /writingsofstardust . If you have any questions, please send me an ask or a message and I’ll reply as soon as I see it. :)
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kacxa-fan · 4 years
Text
Costume Party
Request from @rorylum about Kacxa dressed as Big Barda and Mr. Miracle for a costume party!
___
Summary: Typically the two weren't ones for parties, especially those considered loud and flashy, but for the sake of pleasing their friends who kept insisting them to "take a break", they did so.
___
"But you have to! C'mon Acxa, it's just for one night! It'll be a good chance to clear your mind, then you can go back to stressing yourself out." Whined the pleading voice from across the line.
"Hmm, alright. Inform me of the whereabouts and time it would be most appropriate to visit."
"Wow, really? Awesome! Okay, so the party's at James's place around uh 9 p.m., got it?"
"Got it." Acxa responded, quickly jotting it down just in case she forgets due to all the clutter kept in her busy mind.
"Oh- How could I forget? It's also a costume party! So be sure to prep yourself up, k? Can't wait to see you~!"
"Wait. What is a-" the phone call ended "Oh Veronica..." she groaned.
Acxa avoided recalling her friend, deciding it be best to ask her significant other. She walked down the stairs and met him sitting on the couch, Kosmo lazily splayed about his lap. She took whatever was left of space on the furniture.
"Hey, got your work done yet?" Keith glanced over at her before returning his gaze to the TV as he switched through the channels.
"Not quite. I've decided to put work aside for a bit since Veronica asked me to come join her to a 'costume party'... Whatever that is."
"Huh? That's a surprise, but hey, it's nice to get out and destress. Also, a costume party?" He paused and tilted his head over to fully face her.
"If you will, please explain to me what the customs of this type of party are?"
Keith muted the TV, turning his full attention to her.
"Well, a costume party is basically a party where the guests dress up as whatever they'd like. Examples say being uhhh a monster or character from a show. Stuff like that."
"Like a disguise?"
"Yeah, like a disguise, but you don't really gotta fool anyone."
Acxa nodded, her hand reaching it's way over to Kosmo's ear.
"Very well, but what should we dress up as?"
"We?"
"Oh, I forgot to ask. It's just that I thought you'd like to join..."
"Or you'd feel a lot more comfortable if I joined you, huh?"
"Perhaps, that too..."
Keith chuckled, scooting closer to Acxa. He wrapped his arm around her waist and placed a kiss on her blushing cheek.
"I'm in!"
"Thank you, Keith."
"Mhm. Okay so costumes, uh we could be hmmm... Oh! I grew up really liking Batman, and I guess you could say Catwoman was his girlfriend? You'd rock a Catwoman, not gonna lie."
He pulled out his phone to search the duo up.
"Here, look. See?"
"Ah, how um interesting. As much as I'd like to say that she looks quite flattering, I can't help but notice how uncomfortable her outfit seems. Leather, is it?" She looked down the image "And high heeled boots?"
Acxa unconsciously took his phone from his hand, scrolling through the various images of the peculiar lady.
"Oh my, this is... suggestive?"
"Hahaaa, yeaaah." Keith muttered in slight embarrassment, scratching the back of his neck.
"Is that a whip? Her weapon?"
"Okayyy! That's enough lookin' her up. Let's say we think of another couple, if you're not sure about this one, k?"
The two huddled closer as Keith offered various other options. Somehow Acxa always seemed to pick at one or the other, more so fascinated and weirded out by the outfit. Time ticked by as Keith grew tired. They ended up with few ideas.
He blew out a puff of air, "Uhm welp here's these two. Superheroes. Named Big Barda and Mr. Miracle?"
Acxa, again, took the phone. Her eyes dilating at the bright colors.
"Guess it's a no too?"
She shook her head, "No, I actually find it suitable. Considering that I am the tallest out of us both. Also, we are running out of time, no?"
Keith rolled his eyes playfully, although their height difference was never much of a bother for them.
"My only complaint is the bold colors. Other than that, it looks to be comfortable enough. Don't you think?"
"As long as you're sure, I'll settle for it."
What Acxa wasn't aware of is that Keith was not necessarily looking forward to wearing such a thing, as it was not his sort of style. In fact, this duo's fit was nothing of their style, but nonetheless they agreed to it.
---
"Here we are. Ready to show off?"
"Just a moment. I think my cape got tangled."
Keith and Acxa exited their car, pinkies hooking and having nervous talk about their suits. They entered the apartment complex, scanning the numbers of each door.
"Here it is! Ready?"
"What other choice is there..."
Keith knocked, and low and behold, James answered.
"HEY! ACXA AND... KEITH? NO WAY! THAT'S PRETTY FUNNY SEEING YOU TWO HERE. ESPECIALLY WEARING THOSE!" He shouted as the commotion of the dark yet colorfully lit room dazed the visitors viewing it. The brunette took his time looking the deadpanned couple up, incapable of holding his growing amusement.
"WELL, COME ON IN! THE GANG'S JUST RIGHT OVER AT THE POOL TABLE."
Keith took the lead, holding a hand out for Acxa to follow. Acxa examined the area, taking notice to the strange figures, assuming that some were not human at all, but actual aliens to Earth such as herself. She heard the booming and perked her ears, worried that a fight involving weaponry was taking place. Hesitantly, she took his hand and stepped foot into the strange presence. They walked behind James as cautiously as they could, with the few bumps here and there from strangers in all sorts of display.
"KEITH, IS THIS WHAT ALL PARTIES ARE LIKE? GOODNESS WH- OH, FORGIVE ME!" Acxa hollered.
"NOT ALL, BUT WHEN IT'S RUN BY PEOPLE LIKE JAMES, THEN YEAH. PRETTY MUCH."
Finally straying away from the crowd and their noise, the trio were reintroduced to their friends.
"Aw Acxa, and Keith~! Glad you actually came. I was beginning to think you'd bail out on us and this fun!" Veronica hugged her confused friend.
"Why yes, I would never do such a thing. Although, I would have to disagree with you on how this could be 'fun'." Acxa responded, massaging her ears.
"Oh there you go again blurting out your opinion without a care. Typical Acxa-"
"Our Acxa!" Veronica consoled James by patting his back playfully.
The rest of the MFE group exchanged their greetings.
"So, Acxa. You think this ain't at all fun? I'll make it my mission to prove ya wrong!" Nadia spun back to the others, "Right guys? Everyone come on and join us!"
"Sure, sounds fine by me." Said Veronica.
"I mean, I'm kinda busy on keeping check who's at the door cause this is my place-"
"Don't worry about it, Jamesy! Someone else can take care of that stuff. Spend time with us and quit looking around for a girl to dance with and hopefully date~"
Veronica and Nadia shared a smug smirk towards the now heated boy. Ina simply shook her head in shame.
"If you'd like, may I offer you all to a game of cards?" Ina asked.
"Cards?" Acxa tilted her head.
"What kind of ga-"" Keith was cut off.
"CARDS?! Inaaa sweetie, again?" The blue haired, hyper girl whined.
"Shush Nadia, there's nothing wrong with playing some more. Plus, I think it's a great way to show Acxa how a party can be fun!" Veronica stated, pulling Acxa and Keith to the table as the rest soon followed in.
After this "boring" and time consuming game, Nadia was sure to introduce her alien friend to a whole variety of other party activities.
Some not so appropriate to her friend's taste, that is.
___
Hours passed, around four. At least, that's what Acxa assumed. It was quite dark afterall.
Clumsily, she walked, or rather stumbled, her way back to the snack table. Her eyes dilating as her gaze lingered from item to item, looking for that deliciously red-colored juice. To be honest, she didn't really think it to be that good, terrible actually, but nonetheless she had the urge to engulf her system with some more. This beverage was making her feel... happy anyways.
"Acxa? Acxa-" Keith trotted to his girlfriend. He rested his hand on the small of her back, looking over to see her pouting face. How cute.
"...Ac-?"
"No, nooo, nooooo! There's no more *hiccup* juiceee!" Acxa aimed to pound her hand onto the table, but instead missed and hit Keith's stomach area. She turned around at the sudden sound.
"Ow. Acxa are you-"
He felt her cold finger poke his lips. She giggled childishly. Her toothy smile making the man blush almost uncomfortably. She looked so happy, and he knew well that it was not exactly in her control.
"You're... I think you look very handsome~! Do I *hiccup* know you... from somewhere?"
"Yes, yes you do. I'm your boyfriend, remember? Keith." He couldn't help but chuckle.
She looked up and stared at nothing in particular, thinking.
"Keith. Oh yes! I remember you, I think."
"I sure hope so. It'll suck if you don't and I lose my beautiful girlfriend."
"Aw, you're too kind, sir." Acxa bashfully covered part of her smiley face with her hand. So cute.
"Really looks like Nadia did her job, huh? How much did you drink?"
"Hmmm, I estimate around 57 *hiccup* cups? No wait, maybe it was 70..."
Keith was shocked. Then again, he was dating a 6 foot something to 7 foot girl from another planet. He should've been surprised more at the fact that Earth alcohol even had an affect on her.
"Wow, ahaha! That's enough for you then. Let's say we go back home and go to sleep. I'm beat and this party is getting crazier by the minute." He took her hand and tugged her to, again, follow him.
"Waaait~! Not yet! I wanna say bye to my *hiccup* friendsss!" Acxa protested and limped herself back.
Keith sighed, "Ina told me to say goodbye for her to you a while ago. Veronica went out earlier too. Nadia's passed out black on the couch. And James is... eh whatever who gives a damn."
"Nadia? Passed out! Is she okay? She's not okay! I need to help her- Let me go help!"
Great.
"Woah woah calm down, baby. Nadia's okay. She's with a few other girls watching over her. Trust me?" Keith wrapped his arms around her frantic self.
"Always have, always will." She puffed.
"Good. Thanks for that. Now, ready to go?"
"M'kayyy~!"
___
AN: Gee, look who's back. 🤡
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xmalereader · 4 years
Text
Kylo Ren X Modern! Male Reader
2/2
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|| Masterlist ||
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Summary: Reader lives on earth, far away from Kylo Ren and somehow he is able to see him one day during kylos training, he feels the readers force and tries to search for him but can’t. So, in order to find him he has to talk to him through the force.
Warnings: force sensitive, angst, bad parents, soft Kylo Ren
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“He’s not stable! He needs to go see a professional!”
“”He’s just a kid!! We can’t do that to him!”
“You didn’t see it, he was talking to no one, Arthur! Our son has officially gone insane!”
Both parents were arguing downstairs while y/n sat in his room. His back was against his bedroom door as he hears his parents argue about his ‘conditions’. He knew that this day was going to come, that his parents were going to crack and send him away to some asylum just because he was talking to Kylo who somehow did exist but not in person?
He groans in frustration and covers his ears with his arms, not wanting to hear his parents arguments anymore he just wants to block them out he just wants to block it all out!
“How you holding up?”
“oh shut up!!” Y/n shouts at kylo who stood by his bedroom window, it was dark outside and the moon was the only thing that lit up his room. “This is all your fault, if you just didnt get inside my head!”
“My fault? This was never my problem, the force guided you to me and a connection was created. I wanted to destroy that bond but I couldn’t, I can’t break what has been made between the two of us.” Said Kylo as he approached y/n, he held out his hand for y/n but this time the gloves were removed. He could see his hand this time I and clearly. “I know that you are stuck here and that you want to get out.” He bends down to his height and says. “come with me, I can help you. What you have doesn’t matter to your people but I do. I know what you are and what you have is powerful, I can train you and we can become one with the force.”
Y/n glares at Kylo and slowly laughs. “your crazier than me.” He whispered out and leans his head back against his door and blinks back the tears.
Leave everything behind?
Start over?
Not be seen as a freak or a monster?
He began to think about his parents, When was the last time that he’s actually had a happy moment with them? When was the last moment that they went out together as a family? When was the last time that he received a kiss from his parents? He was just wasting his time here, before he knows it he’ll be stuck inside a hospital and surrounded by therapists and doctors who’ll question him about his life and kylo.
Kylo.
Kylo has already proven to him that he was real, that damn bastard was able to steal his headphones and bring them back the next day. He thought he lost them and lied to his mother about them being broken, he felt Kylo’s hand when he was returning them meaning that he was real. If it was all an illusion then he wouldn’t have felt him and he wouldn’t be able to feel his emotions and this strong power that surrounded him.
He leans forward to see Kylo sitting in front of him, his Hand reaching out for him. “I can help you.” He whispered again.
Y/n sat up and reached out to take kylo’s hand into his own, he can feel his hand and how warm it was. He moved his fingers to graze against his pulse and he felt a light bump, he’s real. He’s really real, but was he here?
“We have to go.” Kylo lets go of his hand and Y/n lowers down his own hand and stands up with him. “Go where?” He asks.
“Some where far away from here.” And with that he disappears for a short period of time.
Y/n can hear his parents coming up the stairs a sudden panic fills him up.
“Leave, grab what you need and meet me outside.”
He hears Kylo’s voice in his head once again and quickly got to work, he grabs his backpack and stuffs in things that’s considered important to him. He makes sure that he has everything before zipping it up and walking towards his window. He slides it open and jumps out without thinking, his landing was stable enough for him to land. Groaning he stand up straight and began to rush towards the woods, he can hear his parents calling out to him which only causes him to run faster, He needs to get away and fast.
Y/n pants heavily as he ran, he takes a shot cut to the bridge.
“You’re almost there.”
He hears Kylo’s voice near by, each time he got closer to the bridge the voice in his head was slowly fading away like a heavy weight being lifted.
“Y/n.”
He stops on the opposite side of the bridge, on the other side he see kylo waiting for him. A large ship was behind him, ready to move. “Let’s go.” He can hear him say as y/n moves his legs to cross the bridge.
“Y/n!!”
He can hear his parents screams which makes him run towards kylo, he just has to get away. He ran to him with fear taking over him, he feels kylo walk towards him and pull him into a warm embrace. “You’re safe now.” He whispered against his hair before pulling away and guiding him towards his ship. “We should leave, people are waiting for us.” He instructs.
“Who’s waiting for us?”
“Supreme leader, I seen that you’ve broughten your new apprentice.”
Y/n was standing behind kylo, hiding from the unknown faces from the unknown world. All of his life he thought that his people would never reach past mars but yet here he is, standing inside a ship that was located far away from the Milky Way, far away from earth and it only took them a few seconds to arrive which left y/n shocked.
As he stays hidden behind Kylo he glances to see the tall ginger haired man. “He looks weak.” He blurts out. Causing kylo to glare at Hux.
“He’s—“
“I’m not weak I’m just new.” Y/n shot back with a small glare, stepping out from behind kylo as he stands up For himself. “All my life I thought that there was nothing else in space but here I am, standing in front of people who have been traveling around space for years. So I’m not weak, if I was the weak one then I wouldn’t be here, I would be out there back in my room and hiding myself from the world that I truly hate. I;m glad that I’m here because from the looks of it I seem to have potientional here!” He was glaring at Hux now and standing in front of him.
Hux doesn’t flinch nor does he say anything, he simply looks up to kylo. “I like this one.” He earns a small nod from Kylo which leads to Hux nodding back in return. “Your chambers are ready, just don’t destroy anything that’ll take days to repair.” He warns before turning around and leaving.
Y/n watched the ginger walk away and frowns. “Who was he by the way?” He has no idea who he just yelled at and from the looks of it he seemed like a pretty important person on this ship. “He’s general Hux one of my trustworthy companions.”
“General?! I was yelling at a general?!” Y/n yells out in panic. “Why didn’t you say anything?!”
“I enjoyed watching.” Kylo says.
Y/n could only blush in embarrassment and follow kylo down the lit corridors. It took y/n awhile to memorize the whole place, he had to keep track of where he was going so that he wouldn’t end up lost. Kylo has guided him to his chambers and allowed him to explore the ship without causing any trouble.
“I’ll be in a meeting, don’t cause any trouble. Feel free to roam around the ship but don’t go anywhere your not suppose to be.” Kylo instructs. He stands outside his doorway as y/n enters his own room and looks inside, his eyes widen in amazement. This room was bigger than his back on earth, the bed was large and wider too. The room was all covered in a black color with hints of gray.
He sets his bag on the bed and listens to kylos instructions before turning to look at him. “How long will you be gone?” He suddenly asks and bites his lip nervously. A habit that he had suddenly picked up from his mother. “I won’t be gone for long, but if you need me—“ he approached y/n and taps his temple. “—you know where to find me.” With that he leaves the room.
Y/n remains inside his chambers for the first ten minutes of arriving, but once he reaches another minute he groans in frustration. He was bored out of his mind and exploring wouldn’t hurt right? It was a huge place and he was afraid of getting lost and causing trouble but let’s be honest, when hasn’t he ever caused trouble?
He unzips his bag and takes out his phone and earbuds, slipping them on he plays some music and makes his way out of his room. The door sides open for him which startles him a little before relaxing and continuing on with his journey. He takes a left and decides to see what he can find thats interesting.
Y/n hums to the music that was playing, he randomly takes turns and heads down different floor levels. He explores the ship and is able to find the control room, peaking inside he sees multiple people on computers and barking out orders that y/n couldn’t really hear since his music was playing. He looks up ahead to see the ginger haired man again, frowning a little as he watched him stand tall with his arms behind his back as he shouts out orders.
He reached up to pull off one of his earbuds.
“—I want all cannons to be checked, the next time we use them I want them to have full power!”
He raised a brow and listen as the General continued to bark out orders. He turns to leave but ends up stepping on his own shoe lace and trips forward, stumbling inside the room that was full of working people. The loud thud caused everyone to turn their heads towards his direction.
“What are you doing here?” He hears the General say as he stands in front of him with a glare on his face.
Y/n scrambled himself off the floor and stands up, clearing his throat nervously as he answers. “I’m sorry, just wandering around.”
“I thought Ren told you to remain inside your chambers.” Hux questions.
“Yeah, but he told me that I was free to roam around as long as I didn’t cause trouble and from the looks of it, I seemed to have stumbled into some important things. I’m sorry for bothering you I was just curious about your position and all...” he says shyly and fidgets with his headphones, he would wrap the wire around his fingers as a distraction.
Hux could only stare at him, he was different from Ren. This man wasn’t full of darkness he was just anxious and nervous and he’s been there before, once with his father.
He looked innocent and almost looked like a lost puppy.
Hux couldn’t be upset about this and simply sighs. “That’s quiet alright.” He whispered out, hoping that the others around him didn’t hear. He wasnt one for being nice and he didn’t like showing it.
Y/n smiles softly at the other. “Do you mind If I stay around? Maybe you can teach me a thing or two about this place and in return I can teach you something about earth?” He offers with an awkward smile. Hux thinks about the offer and sighs. “Fine.”
It was weird how the two had suddenly gotten along, they two were able to open up to each other without being afraid of talking about their pasts. Y/n learned about Hux’s childhood and how his father was abusive towards him and how he left his own mother to die. Y/n told Hux about his own parents and how they were loving at first but once the force came to him they immediately avoided him and everything that they once had was cut off without hesitation. His parents feared him and sent him to live in the outskirts of London, far away from social places.
“That must’ve been awful for you, you’re quiet young to be going through something like that.” Said Hux.
Y/n scoffs and rolled his eyes and stares out the large window. “Me? Let’s be honest here you’ve had it harder than me. You were hurt as a child and no one did anything to help you.” He gently placed a hand on Hux’s shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. Before Hux could say anything else a booming voice filled the room.
“General.”
Y/n flinched at the sudden dark voice, he turns around to see Kylo standing in front of the two. His arm quickly drops from Hux’s shoulder and by instinct he hides behind Hux. He’s got to stop doing that.
“Y/n I thought I said not to cause any trouble.” Said Kylo.
“I was simply teaching him a few things, supreme leader.” Hux steps in to defend y/n but quickly regrets it when Kylo held up his hand to silence him. Y/n takes notice of this and comes out of hiding, “Stop it, leave him alone.” He shouts out. gaining the rest of the troops attention. Y/n stands between the two and glared at kylo. “Like he said he was just showing me around, don’t blame him for my mistakes.”
Kylo frowns under the mask and lowers his hand. He was able to feel a strong power coming from y/n, it was like a protective shield was around him. Stopping him from doing anything to hurt anyone. “Leave him alone, I’m warning you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Yes.” Y/n answers back without hesitation.
He hears Hux’s breath hitch as he stands frozen in place, his eyes wide in shock. No one has ever threatened Kylo Ren before and if they did they would usually end up dead. But y/n wasn’t afraid of him, he’s been fearing his whole life that having Kylo stand in front of him was like another daily task for him to go through. He didn’t care about what others thought of him, he simply wants to enjoy this day by at least making one friend on board.
“Very well, you are to meet me in the training room in five.” Said kylo and turns around to leave the room. Y/n could only glare at his back before he disappeared. “Dumbass.” He says.
“What did you say?!” Kylo barges back inside the room with his light saber on this time. Y/n tilts his head to the side, unafraid. “that’s new.” He points out and stares at the light saber, the same one from his dream. “I asked you something.” Said kylo as he held the saber in front of y/n, close to his face to feel the heat radiating from it. But that doesn’t scare y/n. “I said nothing, oh, one and powerful supreme leader.” He smirks at kylo and reached up to gently push the saber away from his face. “Ill try to find the training deck, sir.” He walks past Kylo with a grin still on his face.
Kylo watched him walk away, his grip on the saber tightened.
“From the looks of it he won’t be easy to train.” Said Hux, earning a growl from kylo as the two gave each other a death glare. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He added with a smirk on his face.
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lovestrucked-again · 4 years
Note
MLT date someone under 157cm? I’m 150cm and I don’t get feet and inches but google says that 4’11 🤷‍♀️
Masterlist | Mtl mlist
I work with cm in height so can’t help with the feet and inches either. I took it as NCT127 but if you want the others feel free to ask and ill post another. I honestly don’t think there’d be much difference or a reason for a few of them so I grouped them instead. I just put in a cute scenario that would probably happen with his shorter s/o in my imagination..
_____________
Most
Jaehyun
He has a bit of problem forgetting that fact though when he’s actually dating as he leaves items on the shelves at a different eye level to you are. “If you haven’t noticed yet i’m actually not the size of a tree so why are you putting everything on the top shelves that’s eye level for you but basically a different atmospheric layer to me?!?” You’d say, yelling at him.
“Sorry I cant help being tall.” He’d reply, laughing off your cute rant.
Johnny
Towards the most likely mainly just because majority of the girls that he meets are always shorter since he’s so tall. He’d always tease you about your height but never to the point where you feel insecure about it. You’d be just as brutal though, always comparing him to the height of a skyscraper or something impossibly tall.
“What do I get if I win?” He’d ask, raising an eyebrow
“I don’t know. A kiss?” You reply.
“How will i reach you? Do I have to bend down?”
“I will climb you.”
Doyoung
No denying for him that he likes to feel more of a man in a sense of providing security. Taller girls might scare him in the fact that they can give of a personality of enhanced confidence and dominance which leaves him feeling a little intimidated.
Middle
Mark
He’d probably go towards a shorter girlfriend only because he doesn’t really approach girls in general since they might seem a bit scary to him. Mark probably fell for you back when you were friends and you offered your jacket on a cold night. You were a lot smaller than him but that didn’t stop you from giving it to him. He told you to keep it on but you just chucked it over his head instead telling him its better than freezing to death. So he took it, his arms feeling restricted and body a little cramped up trying not to break it.
Haechan
Everyone thought that you’d be the evil angry midget who was crazier than him but they soon realised the satan was still Haechan. Occasionally he’d probably joke around with your height though but on the few times you do go mad, he’d run the other way. “Stop being a snarky little boy or I will elbow you in the crotch with no regrets. That’s what you get for being tall and mean.”
Taeil
Taeil is also in the middle mainly cause he finds it adorable when a smaller s/o is angry and they pull a chair over to stand on to be more intimidating. He’d struggle to take them seriously but that would make it so much more harder for you as he tries to fight back his laugh. You’d eventually burst and yell at him. “Stop laughing at how ridiculous i look and damn it don’t laugh, it isn’t going to make me less angry AND PUT ME DOWN DONT HUG ME IM STILL MAD AT YOU!”
Least (as in don’t mind)
Yuta
He doesn’t really care what height because all he wants is cuddles and kisses. I feel like the first thing that might’ve got him attracted to his s/o is by what she said about, “people thinking smaller people cant be “big spoons” are cowards.” He doesn’t like the societal norms being such an influencing issue in relationships and he prefers to just follow his own heart and the fact that she said that, got him instantly hooked.
Jungwoo
Jungwoo dating a shorter girl would be hilarious mainly because you’d constantly scare him by accident because he just doesn’t see you since he’s almost a ruler taller that you and 2) because he doesn’t pay attention to anything below chin level.
Taeyong
I don’t think he’d care what height his girlfriend is whether tall or short. But he’d also forget that he had to cater a little for his shorter girlfriend. I feel like he would have the habit of walking too fast when you first start dating so you’d constantly have to remind him, “can you stop walking so fast? my legs aren’t the same length as yours.”
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raywritesthings · 3 years
Text
Bird in a Storm
My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Athena, Roy Harper, John Diggle, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Ted Grant, Moira Queen, Walter Steele, Raisa, A.J. Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Female OCs, Male OCs Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: The confrontation between the Hood and SWAT on the roof of the Winick Building goes differently, altering the course of Laurel’s career, relationships and efforts to save her city forever, the shockwaves of such an altered path making themselves felt throughout her family and friends. *Can be read on my AO3, link is in bio*
John had only just dropped A.J. off from their morning in the park. He’d given his nephew some pointers and shot a few hoops with him, then sat him down on a bench to finally tell him about how the cops had caught the bad man who took his father away. It was a simplification, maybe, and when A.J. was older, he would get the full story. But John wanted his nephew to know that justice had been done.
A.J. had listened raptly, then asked, “Did the Hood help them?”
John had smiled. Ever since his mother had been saved first by the Hood and then later by Laurel’s vigilante persona, A.J. had become rather enamored with Starling City’s unconventional protectors. If he only knew his uncle was right in the thick of it. “Yeah. Yeah, he did.”
He had turned the radio on upon getting back in his car for the drive home, only to find not music, but a news bulletin playing across the airwaves.
“An anonymous source delivered the blueprints to the bomb being developed at Queen Consolidated’s subsidiary Unidac Industries to this station as as reportedly to the police. Eyewitnesses outside the SCPD’s downtown precinct say they saw who appeared to be Moira Queen, the current CEO of Queen Consolidated, being led inside by officers over an hour ago.”
John had sat there, stunned, only able to listen as the news report continued on. Oliver’s mother stood accused of sabotaging the Gambit to kill her husband, having her second husband kidnapped, hiring the Triad assassins to kill Malcolm Merlyn and commissioning a bomb to be set off underneath the Glades.
That last one chilled him to the bone. He had plenty of experience with bombs going off in cities, destroying buildings or cars, killing handfuls of people here and there in an unpredictable pattern designed to cause terror and paranoia. But from the sounds of it, this device at Unidac Industries was so much more than that. No one had been meant to learn it was even a bomb.
Now we know why their symbol was the subway map, John thought grimly to himself.
Something was missing from the news report, however. Where was the rest of Tempest in all this? What about the man Moira had been talking to that night John had spied on her? The man whose voice had been too indistinct to make out on the recording?
“Oliver and Thea Queen have reportedly left the precinct,” the reporter announced, breaking John out of his shock. If Oliver had been at the precinct, then he knew more about what was really happening than the news was telling. And John had a feeling that as long as his friend and Thea were in the spotlight like this, they might actually need a bodyguard.
He called Oliver’s phone and got Laurel, though she quickly filled him in on where they were headed. John drove as fast as he could to the base, made difficult by the number of people out on the streets. Some were shouting, others just wandering around with their mouths hanging open like they just couldn’t believe what they were seeing and hearing. A restless energy seemed to hang in the air.
He parked and let himself in the back, entering the base to find Oliver already grabbing his suit to change and Laurel in her own clothes that she wore at night, minus her jacket.
“Where’s your sister?” John asked when Oliver caught sight of him.
“She’s upstairs with Roy. I need you to stay with them while I track down Tommy.”
John frowned. “What’s Tommy got to do with this?” He knew Oliver was in something of a silent feud with the man, however reluctantly, but it felt like that should be further down the priority list.
“Everything,” Oliver answered simply.
“According to Moira, Malcolm Merlyn was the real leader of Tempest,” Laurel elaborated, causing John’s eyebrows to rise as high as they were able. Their city’s supposed great humanitarian had been planning a terror attack? “She had him killed, and Tommy swore he was going to find out who did it. He would have had access to everything his father had on this device and the Gambit and everything else.”
“So instead of having her killed, he’s taking her down publicly. Setting his father up as a martyr, too,” John realized. “He probably told them your mother had Merlyn killed to stop him from going to them.”
Oliver’s fists clenched. “It’s an easy story to sell.”
“Does your mother have some kind of dirt on Merlyn she can use?” John wasn’t particularly fond of Moira Queen; the woman had been a party to this plot in some capacity or another. But she didn’t deserve to go down for the whole thing. Not when it wasn’t the truth.
“The Dark Archer took it,” Laurel said with a scowl.
“He’s still out there? Oliver, if he’s working for Tommy now, then I need to come with you. I can’t let you go into that kind of battle alone again.” He didn’t want to rub his friend’s defeat at the other archer’s hands in his face, but he would gently remind him if he had to.
“John, I appreciate that, but right now there is a whole city of people who think my mother is a domestic terrorist, and there are some who are going to be angry. If they can’t get to her, they will try to get to me or Thea. If I’m gonna fight the Dark Archer again, I need to know that she’s safe.”
As much as he didn’t want him to be, he knew Oliver was right. John looked to Laurel. “What about you?”
“I’d be pretty outmatched against that kind of fighter,” she admitted. “And that’s assuming I could even get up close to him. Besides, I’m gonna be needed in the Glades tonight. People are panicking. That never leads anywhere good.”
“Alright, you might actually be crazier than he is,” John decided. “The best thing anyone can do is hunker down tonight.”
“But a lot of people won’t be, and people are going to get hurt because of it. I can’t sit down here watching it happen when I started down this path to stop it.”
Oliver was frowning but held his tongue. Either they’d already been over this privately before John arrived or he was keeping his thoughts to himself. He couldn’t imagine it was easy. John had often found himself worrying about Lyla whenever they had run separate missions in Afghanistan. Sometimes he still worried.
Laurel took her wig off the table and bent over to fit it onto her head. She rose quickly, the blonde locks falling down her back. She shrugged into a jean jacket resting on the back of a chair. Then she turned to Oliver, placing one hand to his cheek.
“Be careful.”
“And you.”
Oliver bent his head to meet her lips in a kiss, one hand at the small of her back pressing her closer. John looked away, having no desire to intrude on their moment. This was hard enough for them both already. Then she headed out to the back where she kept the motorcycle Oliver had bought.
John joined his friend by the computers as he brought one of the monitors up. “How are you planning to find Tommy?”
“One of the things I had to do on the island was learn from example. The more I observed, the better off my chances were.”
“Which means…?”
“Which means that thanks to Felicity, I know how to ping a phone.” He stood back up to his full height after clicking and typing away in a far more serious manner than their temporary teammate had done. John wondered what she must be thinking about all the news. At the least, she was probably safe since her small townhouse was outside the Glades. “I’ll change and then run it. You should get upstairs.”
“Alright.” He held out his hand and Oliver clasped it with his. John placed his free hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Good luck.”
“Thank you.” Oliver didn’t need to tell him the thanks was for more than a simple well-wish.
John headed up to the club area of the Verdant, finding Thea and Roy sitting at the bar watching the news on a low volume.
“Mr. Diggle? Where’s Ollie?” Thea asked as he joined them.
“Still downstairs. He’s trying to take care of some things regarding your mother.”
“Okay, what about Laurel?”
“She went back out,” John answered, not missing the spark of recognition in Roy’s eyes. “Said she needed to make sure her home was secure ahead of what’s shaping up to be a pretty rough night.”
“I, uh, I should probably do the same thing,” Roy said, standing up.
“Wait, what? Roy, no,” Thea said, standing with him and taking his hands. “It’s dangerous out there.”
“I’ll be fine. But this is my home, Thea. I gotta do something. Stay here with your brother’s bodyguard. I’ll come back.”
“Roy!”
But the young man hurried out the front door. John went over and locked them behind him.
Thea stood there a moment before sinking back into her barstool. She looked terribly lonely and afraid.
“I know this isn’t easy, Miss Queen, but the best thing we can do is stay out of the public eye right now.”
“They’re really gonna blame me and Ollie for this?”
He looked down. “The truth will become clear eventually, but people aren’t interested in truth right now.”
She said nothing, and he took the time to send a text to Carly, checking that she and A.J. were at home and planning to stay there. The news continued to play in the background, and he tuned it out but for a few snippets here and there.
“Chaos as protests break out outside Alderman Blood’s office. The alderman himself appears to be leading them.”
“People are storming the local groceries, taking food, water and other essentials, many refusing to pay.”
“As you can see below, traffic is backed up several blocks as some look to flee the Glades. Mayor Altman’s statement that the Unidac device is in police custody doing little to calm a public fearing a Biblical reckoning.”
“Susan, is it true we have sighting of who folks have taken to calling the Woman of the Glades?”
John looked up, but just then a pounding started up at the front door.
“Open up, Queen!” A voice called, some muffled jeers accompanying it. “Your mom’s sending us all to Hell, and I want a drink first!”
John shut the TV off. “Sit down behind the bar,” he said in an undertone to Thea. She nodded and hurried to do as told. John crouched down behind a table with his gun drawn, waiting for any sign of the door caving in.
This was going to be a long night.
—-
Tommy surprised himself at times whenever he recalled how little time had really passed since his life had changed forever. Even if he started counting from the day Oliver had come back home and brought the Hood with him, it hadn’t even been a year.
He reflected on this past year as the chauffeur drove him and Athena to the airport. He had finally made a bid for the heart of Laurel Lance, only to find hers would always belong to another. He could only think of their time together with scorn, now. To think he hadn’t needed to throw fundraisers or offer to better himself at all; Laurel’s tastes had and always would be for the bad boy, and seemingly one who used his might to get his way. He wondered how she might feel once Tommy completed his training with Athena. Would she realize what she could have had?
He had been cast out of his inheritance, forced to face the reality that he was a grown man, and what sort of man he wanted to be. While his anger had once burned towards his father for what had felt a rejection, he had realized what his father had felt he needed to do. Tommy’s life had not held much meaning before that; a part of him had always felt life itself was meaningless when good, honest people like his mother were gunned down for nothing. Now, he was the head of Merlyn Global and the last, best hope for both his parents’ legacies.
His life had been placed under threat over and over again in the very neighborhood his mother had lost hers and even in the safer sections of downtown. Starling was diseased, was the only conclusion he could draw, and he felt a smug satisfaction that now the whole city could see it, too. It wouldn’t change anything for the better, of course. They would sooner destroy each other than work towards a common good. Just like how Oliver claimed to work for the good of the people and yet was little more than a killer.
Oliver. His oldest friend and someone he once called a brother. He had always been jealous of Oliver in many ways; he had the loving parents, an adoring sister, the heart of the girl Tommy yearned for and the ability to bed countless others. He had always tried to tell himself that jealousy was irrational and a part of him he needed to suppress. Now he could see it for what it had been: a warning of what was to come. That his supposed friend was really his enemy.
In many ways, Oliver had caused these changes in his life to happen. His sudden return had had Tommy anxious to try and secure an exclusive commitment out of Laurel, only for that to fail thanks to Oliver enchanting her with vigilante theatrics. His attack on his own mother had caused her to take action against Tommy’s father. His dad’s convalescence in Starling General had brought Athena into his life and opened his eyes to what was really happening in their city. So perhaps, in a way, he ought to be grateful to his friend and brother.
He wasn’t.
His thoughts were interrupted as the car slowed to a stop once it passed through the gates to the private airstrip.
“Sir, there’s someone — I think it’s the Hood standing on the tarmac,” the chauffeur called into the back, bewilderment lacing his tone. Athena’s perfect posture somehow straightened up more, but Tommy wasn’t worried in the least.
“Stop the car here and start loading the rest of our things. I’ll deal with him.” It didn’t surprise him that Oliver had tracked them here. His old friend clearly had or knew someone with tech capabilities who would be able to get a look at the flight manifests of Starling International.
Tommy let himself out and walked about ten paces away from the other man decked out in his costume. Athena followed, her hand hovering by her belt where she kept her knife.
“What do you want?”
“For you to tell the authorities the truth about Tempest,” Oliver said, a growl in his voice even if he had realized using that modulator of his was pointless.
“Why, so they can prosecute a dead man? Face it, Oliver, if you were serious about wanting to save this city, you would have needed to turn her in anyway.”
“Don’t pretend this is about saving the city. All you’ve done is caused a mass panic,” Oliver accused him.
“Good,” he replied, watching the shock play out across what he could see of Oliver’s face. “I never said I wanted to save it. And really, all I’ve done is shake them out of their apathy. Funny how an innocent woman can be bleeding out in the street and no one lifts a finger, but even suggest a threat against any of their lives and suddenly it’s riots in the streets!”
His old friend eyed him sadly. “What happened to your mother was terrible. It shouldn’t have happened at all.”
“For once, we agree.”
“I know you are better than this, Tommy. What about CNRI? The firefighters benefit. There’s a desire to do good in you in a real way. Not the posturing Malcolm was hiding behind.”
Tommy sucked in a breath through his teeth and released it, smiling as he said. “Funny you should say that. Getting involved in charity work was actually Thea’s idea. Said I should act like I was interested in the things Laurel was. What did Laurel call it…? Oh yeah, my annual attempt to get back in her pants.” He spread his arms wide. “Have to say, it worked for a while.”
He thought he heard the creak of leather as Oliver’s gloved fist clenched around the bow in his hand. For once, his friend could know exactly how he had felt watching him with Laurel all those years.
Tommy couldn’t possibly stop himself from adding, “You know she went down on me after the firefighter benefit? But I’m sure that’s nothing compared to what she lets you do every time you come swinging in to rescue her—”
With a snarl, Oliver drew an arrow and loosed it point-blank at Tommy’s chest.
Athena slashed it out of the air with her knife where it clattered to the ground before he could do more than blink in shock. A rope sprung harmlessly out of it a moment later.
His confidant went on the offensive, lunging towards Oliver, though he blocked the attack with his bow. The two traded blows while Tommy watched, wishing he actually did know this stuff already.
“Uh, Mr. Merlyn?”
He jumped in shock, having pretty much forgotten the chauffeur.
“The plane is ready.”
“Great. You can head back now. Don’t bother calling this in,” he added, holding out a one-hundred dollar bill. The man took it and dutifully went back to his car. “Athena! Let’s go.”
Athena was on the ground but had just swept Oliver’s legs out from under him as well. He gave an exaggerated wince as his once-friend went down like a ton of bricks. She jumped back to standing and came to join Tommy at the stairs, only for a second arrow to come flying and wrap around her.
Oliver had risen onto one knee and held another arrow in his hand ready to aim and loose. “I can’t let you leave.”
“Actually, you can.” Tommy smirked. “Because there’s something I know that you don’t, and after the year we’ve had, Oliver, that’s a pretty good feeling.”
Oliver stayed silent, waiting rather than give him the satisfaction of asking.
“Your mother was too hasty to get her revenge. Walter Steele is still alive.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’ll send you the address myself,” he offered. “Once I’m in the air. But if this plane doesn’t take off with me on it, the other men at that address will be ordered to finish the job. So what’ll it be, Ollie? Keep me here or save a man’s life?”
He could see the conflict that warred on Oliver’s face, knew the moment that he decided when his bow lowered just an inch.
Tommy nodded to himself. He’d known Oliver would have to choose Walter Steele and that he wasn’t really risking anything by offering the choice; how else could his old friend pretend he was a hero? “Just like you couldn’t beat my father at Christmas,” he said, watching Oliver’s eyes widen. “I’m going to learn everything he knew. Maybe once I have, we can settle this.”
He took the knife Athena had managed to work into her hand and cut her bonds for her, then turned his back on Oliver Queen and boarded the plane.
Once he sat down, he took out his phone in preparation to make good on his promise of revealing Walter’s location. Athena sat beside him, perfectly composed once more.
“How long will my training take?” He wondered aloud as the plane finally began to taxi down the runway.
“That depends on the dedication of the student. Your father completed his and rose to become one of our leader’s most trusted within two years. Another girl from your city has also excelled in her training, though she did so by seducing our leader’s heir.”
“A girl from Starling?”
“Yes. I believe she was called Sara Lance in her former life.”
Tommy froze, then a smile stole slowly over his lips. It truly was nice holding the most cards.
—-
Roy ran home as fast as he could, getting his gun and a knife out of their hiding places. He wasn’t going to try and use them tonight if he could help it, but he didn’t want one of his old crowd breaking in to take them and use them instead. With both tucked out of sight in his pockets, he grabbed his hoodie and pulled it down over his face and went back out into the night.
Laurel was going to be out here trying to restore peace to their streets. Why wouldn’t he be doing the same?
There wasn’t much point to jacking a car; the streets were packed with honking vehicles, people trying to leave like they thought the bomb was still going off. Roy couldn’t really blame them.
A block down the road, he saw two men with beers in hand grabbing the arm of a woman trying to go the other way. “Let’s have some fun before the end of the world, baby!”
“Let go of me!”
Roy charged down to meet them, slugging the first man across the jaw as he made a grab for the woman’s chest.
“What the fuck, dude?”
“World’s not ending, so get lost or get put down,” he declared, breathing harshly through his nose.
“Think you’re the Hood, big man?” The second man asked. He surged forward, only to stagger back with a howl as the woman sprayed him with a can of mace. “Shit!”
“Thanks for the help,” she said, and Roy nodded back. She turned and hurried to keep heading wherever she was going. Roy hoped she made it okay.
A wail caught his attention next, and his heart lurched as he noticed a toddler wandering dangerously near the curb, arms reaching up in a plea to be held. Roy ran and scooped the girl up, looking around wildly. Where the hell were her parents?
“Steffi? Steffi! Someone help me find my daughter!”
“Hey, that kid’s got her!”
Roy was grabbed roughly by the back of his hoodie and hauled around to face a potbellied man with a clenched fist.
“I wasn’t taking her—”
“Right, just a Good Samaritan, are ya?”
“Wait! Wait!” It was the grocer, Khan, who cried out. He rushed between them. “I know this boy. He would not hurt a child.”
He noticed who he assumed was Steffi’s mother standing just a few steps back, and Roy slowly lowered the little girl down to the ground. She was still sobbing, and he wasn’t sure she knew how to stop.
“I saw her near the road. I just…”
The man who had nearly decked him sagged while the mother gasped and hurried around him, picking up her daughter and shushing her.
Khan patted his shoulder and Roy looked down at the ground. All the times he’d stolen bits of food or dumb knick-knacks from the guy’s store, and he’d rushed to his defense.
“You should get home, Roy.”
“I’m alright. What about your store?”
Khan’s smile looked strained. “Ya Allah! It will wait until morning.”
“Okay. Okay, I’ll come check on you,” he promised. Roy took off running again.
He passed a number of smashed storefronts and people running in every single direction. He still saw no sign of Laurel or even the Hood. Where was the Hood? How could he save Roy’s life and not show when countless others needed him? How did he decide which battles he fought?
Roy stopped for a moment, panting. He took out his phone. Five missed calls from Thea. But a quick check of Channel 52’s webpage gave him at least one answer: Woman of the Glades escorts legal aide office workers to safety amid riots
Of course, her old coworkers. Roy turned and cut across the bumper-to-bumper traffic, hoping to head her off before she got too far. 
Several blocks later, a police cruiser was stuck in the middle of the street unable to make anymore progress. A garbled voice blared from its speakers. “Return to your homes. I repeat, return to your homes.”
“Hey, fuck you!”
“Yeah, fuck the man!”
A couple of teenagers in designer ripped jeans and spiked hair threw a couple rocks at the car. Their buddies all laughed.
“Stand down. Return to your homes.”
They weren’t even from around here, he realized, watching another one in the group filming it all. How much of this rioting was just people from outside the neighborhood taking advantage of all the chaos?
“Hey, get the hell out of here!”
A couple of the kids turned in his direction.
“Do you want to start a shooting?” He gestured towards the car. “They’re not gonna throw rocks back.”
The ringleader of the group stepped up and pushed at his chest. “Mind your own business, asshole.”
Roy shoved him to the ground.
“Hey!”
They were on him in seconds, and even if Roy could hit harder than any of them, he was finding it hard to fight his way past so many. He hit the ground, blows landing on his back while he brought his arms up to shield his head.
The whistle of metal through the air preceded a number of grunts, and the punches and kicks let up. The other boys all staggered back nursing arms, legs and backs as Laurel stood there in her wig and mask, seething.
“Get out of my part of town.”
The boys ran off, and she reached a hand down that Roy gladly took.
“We should get you back to the club.”
“I’m good,” he said, rubbing at his ribs.
“Put the weapon down and surrender with your hands up!”
The both jumped at hearing the command. One of the officers had gotten out of the car and was unclipping his gun.
“Come on!” Roy kept Laurel’s hand in his and ran, ignoring the stabbing pain in his chest. Of course the cops weren’t interested in lifting a finger when some rich kids were beating up on him but when someone showed up to actually do their job.
They worked together, helping some who had stumbled and fallen or breaking up fights. There were shouts from a building where smoke streamed out, but when Roy raced forward, Laurel snagged him by the arm.
“You’re already having trouble breathing. Wait here.”
She kicked the front door open rather than chance the handle, waited a moment as an initial plume of smoke billowed out, then rushed inside with a hand pressed over her mouth.
Roy waited, hands twitching at his sides. He’d give it five minutes. No, two. Damnit, how long was someone able to go inhaling smoke?
“Hey, boy!”
He turned at the call, spotting an older Black woman two doors down. She was watching the smoking building with fear in her eyes.
“I have a hose. I don’t know if it’ll reach.”
Roy hurried over to the side of her house, grabbing the hose and yanking it as far as it would go in the direction of the building. “Turn it on!”
Water trickled and then spurted out, hitting the front of the building and getting in through the door. It wasn’t like TV; the smoke didn’t immediately start dying out. He couldn’t even tell if it was helping. But he was doing something, right?
Shadowy figures appeared through the smoke, then were spluttering as well as coughing when they were hit with the spray. Roy hastily moved the hose.
“No, it is good!” One man exclaimed, his Russian accent not nearly as thick as some of the others. He gestured for the hose, and Roy passed it to him, watching as the man drank straight from it. He offered it to each of his family in turn, each of them thanking the woman whose hose they had borrowed, a Mrs. Ross according to what they were saying.
The last ones out were Laurel and a woman with gray in her hair who clutched a necklace with wooden beads and crosses. “You save my sister on the buses, you save my family, you are saint.”
“Come inside, all of you,” Mrs. Ross insisted.
“Sorry, I can’t,” Laurel replied, her voice raspy with the smoke. She bent double, hands on her knees. There was a streak of something black on her cheek and the wig she wore looked frazzled rather than silky.
Roy moved by her to indicate he was staying with her. The Russian family took up their neighbor’s offer after many rounds of thanks, and soon it was the two of them left on the street.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just let me… let me breathe.”
He knew how she felt. Roy had no idea how long they’d been at this by now, but the streets seemed to stretch before them with no end in sight.
Eventually, Laurel straightened up. They exchanged a nod, and then were off running again. There was nothing in his head but the pounding of his heart, the whirring of helicopter blades as the news documented their struggle while never stepping in, and the buzz of his phone as Thea kept calling and probably worrying out of her head. It was stubbornness that kept him going, stubbornness and a sense of duty, but he wanted nothing more than to curl up in her arms and sob out his exhaustion.
Several minutes later, Laurel gasped and sped ahead of him towards a car wreck right on the main road. It was a pileup, and it looked nasty.
Some of those who had been involved had seemingly already gotten out of their cars. Blood stained the pavement beneath a few of the cars, indicating where more serious injuries had occurred. Roy saw a group of people gathered around a body that had been dragged to the sidewalk.
But the front of one man’s car was totally dented in, and the doors had crumpled up as well. The driver sat inside unmoving, a cut on his forehead oozing blood.
On the far side of a car, two kids who couldn’t be older than ten or twelve were crying. “Daddy! Daddy!”
He and Laurel each took turns yanking on the door handle. Roy went to the side door and opened it, crawling into the backseat to see if he could pull the man out that way, but he was wedged up against the steering wheel too tightly.
“Smash the window,” a gruff voice suggested, and Roy looked out of the car to see a man all in black with a mask on. He wasn’t the Hood, but who was he?
“Wildcat,” Laurel said warmly, a spark back in her eyes. She took her staff and did as requested.
Wildcat stepped in closer, his teeth grit together as he braced one hand against the inside of the driver’s door and used the other to pull the handle. There was a series of pops and crunches. The door finally opened with a great screech of the hinges.
The man’ kids came running around to their side, but Wildcat cautioned. “Easy, easy. We need to move him slowly.”
Together, the three of them managed it, gently laying the man to rest on the ground. Roy was relieved to see him breathing. 
“How do we get him to Glades Memorial?”
The roads were too backed up even if they had a working car to drive him. Shouting and the occasional scream continued to rip through the air. They were surrounded by people, and yet no one seemed to care for anyone else around them.
Laurel’s face took on a pinched look for a moment before she suddenly started scrambling up onto the hood of one of the cars. “Hey!”
Roy exchanged a bewildered look with Ted, backing up a little when she whacked the roof with her staff. He noticed a couple people look up or around their way. Most of them didn’t.
On the roof of the car, Laurel was ripping one of her gloves off with her teeth. She shoved two fingers in her mouth and let out a whistle that had both Roy, the two kids and this Wildcat clapping their hands over their ears.
“Hey!”
It didn’t go completely silent. The whirr of helicopter blades still filled the air, and distant honking and sirens sounded on other streets. But every eye that Roy could see was now fixed on the Woman of the Glades.
“What we learned today is beyond words,” she began, her voice seeming to ring in the sudden stillness around them. “That there are some who consider human beings nothing more than collateral to pave a new parking lot over our graves. It makes me angry, too. It’s enough to make you lose faith in humanity.
“But we are more than they think of us! We’re better! We don’t step on each other’s necks to get to the top. We help each other.
“I was inspired by the Hood to take to the streets, yes. But I was inspired by this community to imagine the better world that might come if everyone was a little kinder, a little more like a family. Because that’s what I found here.
“So we can take out our rightful anger and fear on these buildings we aren’t allowed to own ourselves, or we can stand up tall and prove to those watching from the safety of their comfortable homes—” One hand pointed straight up to the helicopters still circling the sky. “—that we have our humanity even if they don’t. What’s it gonna be?”
Roy held his breath as he watched the faces of the people around them. Some stood slack-jawed. Others were nodding slowly, determination set in their shoulders and jaws. Still more simply watched, tears still leaking from their eyes.
“I need people to help me move this man,” Wildcat declared in the wake of her speech. “He needs a hospital. Someone to look after his children, too.”
“We can help.” Two men, older than Roy but not by much, came forward. “And my brother can watch the kids.” A teenager hurried to join them.
“I need a phone to call my son,” a woman called out, and her request was soon answered. As Wildcat led the group escorting the unconscious man and his kids away, Roy watched in wonderment as, little by little, the harsh shouts and screams of anguish turned to offers of aid and shared tears. It wasn’t as if a switch had been flipped. He had, he realized, seen brief moments of kindness all night even amongst the panic and boiling anger. But Laurel was making them all see it now.
On the hood of the car, still, she seemed to sag a little in relief, a tired smile rising on her lips. At least until a spotlight suddenly landed on her.
Roy shielded his eyes, heart sinking as he realized one of the helicopters hadn’t been for the news after all.
“Police! Remain where you are.”
Before he could act, a figure in dark green swooped down on a line, grabbing Laurel around the waist. She tucked her legs in, and they landed beyond the abandoned pile of cars in the shadow of two buildings. The Hood slowly let her back down, though their foreheads remained pressed together for a moment. Then the pair slipped away before the police’s searchlight beam could find them again.
Around him, people quickly helped each other make evacuation arrangements. None of them wanted to be around whenever the cops sent boots on the ground to canvas the area. Yet Roy stood there another long, stunned moment as his mind could only process one thing: the Hood was Laurel’s boyfriend. He was Oliver Queen.
Roy staggered back a step, then started running again. With a record like his, he couldn’t afford getting picked up by the cops on some trumped up charge to make them look good for doing something. And he wanted some things answered far more than he wanted to be sitting in a holding cell.
Good thing the one place he was guaranteed to get those answers was the one place he really wanted to be right now. Even if Thea was going to kill him.
—-
Oliver was exhausted even as he pushed on, Laurel running at his side. From confronting Tommy and being forced to acknowledge his friend had chosen a dark path to travel down all in the name of his murderous father, to the drive out to Bludhaven to rescue Walter and back again once he had made sure his step-father would be seen to by the local authorities there, he couldn’t actually believe it had been less than one day since his mother’s arrest. Since the city had turned upside-down.
He had arrived home to a Glades in chaos. Oliver had done what he could here and there, noting the shock on the faces of those he helped. He was known for beatings and killings, after all, not tying tourniquets around people’s legs to stop the rush of blood from a gunshot wound or ferrying them to the hospital. Oliver hadn’t stayed with any one person too long, partly to keep his identity safe and the rest because he was desperate to find Laurel.
And then he had heard her voice.
“We don’t step on each other’s necks to get to the top. We help each other. I was inspired by the Hood to take to the streets, yes. But I was inspired by this community to imagine the better world that might come if everyone was a little kinder, a little more like a family. Because that’s what I found here.”
Listening to her, seeing her standing there with a run in her leggings and her wig a disheveled mess of blonde, she had never been more breathtaking. She wasn’t just trying to save the world; she was doing it.
Just as things had calmed and taken a turn for the better, the police had caught her in their sights with a searchlight. Oliver had quickly jumped into action, swinging with her out of their view and hurrying away through the streets. In silent agreement, they were each putting off whatever questions they had for the other until they returned to the base.
Only there looked to be a slight situation developing outside it when they arrived. A number of men were gathered outside the Verdant’s locked doors, which had been painted in incredibly rude graffiti and negative sentiments towards his family. Every so often, one of the men would knock and holler something, a majority of them sounding half-drunk.
“C’mon, Queen! Open up, open up.”
How long had they been here yelling? Thea was inside, probably terrified out of her mind. Oliver reached into his quiver, but Laurel placed a hand on his arm. Then she stepped forward.
“Hey.”
A few of them turned, some slower and less coordinated than others. “Hey, that’s the lady — Shit, the Hood!”
Some small part of him couldn’t help being pleased at his reputation in this particular instance, and he knew he was smirking.
“The cops are coming through and probably looking to round up any troublemakers,” Laurel told them. “Go home, okay?”
“Or we can leave you here for them to pick up,” Oliver offered. She looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
The men seemed to get the message, however, and they quickly scurried off, empty drinks and spray cans left behind.
Oliver led them around the side, sniffing the air in disgust at the scent of urine that permeated the alley. Laurel’s face had scrunched up as well. They quickly made their way to the back door to the base, relieved to step into the far cleaner facilities.
For a moment, they stood there, the weight of everything, the aches and pains from battles fought, the weariness that set into their bones overwhelming. But Oliver caught Laurel’s eyes, and suddenly nothing mattered more than being close to her.
They surged together, Oliver’s hands smoothing up her back beneath her jacket and Laurel’s hands gripping his face and knocking his hood back. He took a moment to pull the wig off her head and place it on a nearby table, his other hand coming up to massage her scalp. Laurel moaned against his mouth, and it shot straight through him.
“I’m sure that’s nothing compared to what she lets you do every time you come swinging in to rescue her,” a snide voice whispered in the back of his head. Oliver shook it off with a growl. He wasn’t going to let Tommy and his jealous words poison this. Laurel did what she chose with who she chose, and he was grateful that he was who she had chosen in the end. That was all there was to it.
A loud pounding on the door that led to the club upstairs had them both looking up sharply.
“Ollie, what is so important down there?” Thea’s voice called, a little muffled.
“Be—” he cleared his throat and shouted louder, “Be right up!”
“We gotta get you cleaned up first,” Laurel muttered, displaying her hands, the fingertips of which were all smeared in greasepaint.
She helped wipe his face off, then Oliver changed and hurried upstairs alone. Laurel wasn’t supposed to still be here, after all.
His sister was fortunately distracted from his entrance and didn’t even get a glimpse of what lay beyond the door as she was busy laying into a tired and worse for wear Roy Harper. “—can’t believe you stayed out there, you could’ve gotten killed!”
“I know, sorry, I just—”
“You were trying to find the vigilantes, weren’t you?” Thea accused.
“Yeah, and I did.” Oliver’s stomach dropped when, for the briefest moment, Roy’s eyes flickered in his direction. “But the cops chased them off.”
“And that’s probably a good thing,” Oliver added, making Thea jump and run to him. John sent him a questioning look over her shoulder, to which he gave a single shake of the head in a negative.
“You were down there forever. Did you not hear any of those guys that were lurking around outside?”
“Uh, no. Sorry, I was on the phone. The, uh, the police in Bludhaven, they…” he had no idea how to break this gently. “They have Walter.”
Thea’s eyes went wide as she backed up. “They found his body?”
“No,” said Oliver, and he saw Diggle’s expression turn shocked now as well. “He’s alive. The guy the Feds found, he was tricked. He heard a shot and assumed, but he was wrong.” Alonzo had been wrong which meant Oliver had been wrong. And in telling his mother bad information, he had set her on a path to bringing Tommy’s wrath and the law crashing down on her. Oliver had done this.
His sister, meanwhile, gasped. “Oh, my God. When can we see him? When- when does mom get to see him? What’re we gonna do?”
“I don’t know, Speedy,” he answered truthfully. He had put off all those questions before because he had thought if he could just get Tommy to go back to the police and tell them the whole truth, things would be better. But now Tommy was gone. His mother was still on the hook for a conspiracy to destroy an entire city neighborhood. What did the future look like?
“What’s it like out there, Roy?” John asked, and Oliver was grateful to his friend for taking the focus off him at least for a few moments.
“Not great. And the cops are gonna be crawling all over. They could probably get you home,” he offered to Oliver and Thea.
“I’m not leaving you here alone tonight,” Thea declared, gripping his hand in hers.
“We’ll stay here,” Oliver decided. “It’s best for us all to stay in a group. Unless, John, do you need…?”
“Carly texted me a half hour ago. Bunch of the mothers at A.J.’s school have made the gym into a big sleepover area. They’re staying there until the morning. You’re right, there’s strength in numbers.”
“Ollie, what about Laurel?” Thea asked. “She lives alone.”
“I’ll call her,” he said slowly. “See where she’s at. Um, John, do you want to come help me look for blankets or something? I guess some of us can use the booths to sleep in.”
His friend nodded and followed him back behind the bar. Laurel was listening at the top of the steps, the door cracked open slightly, but she waited until they all headed back down to the main floor of the base to say anything. “Walter’s alive?”
“Tommy told me. I- I had to choose between bringing him in or saving Walter.”
“He was going to have him killed?” Laurel looked aghast.
“It’s what he said. Maybe he was bluffing. But he left on a plane to learn everything his father knew… everything the Dark Archer knew, because apparently they were the same person,” Oliver revealed. “And I let him go.”
“You had to, man,” John insisted. “Whether he was bluffing or not, you made the choice to save a life. Tommy will have to come back sooner or later. We’ll get him to give up the full story then.”
“It’ll be sooner than later,” Laurel added. “He’s the key witness, so whenever your mother’s case goes to trial, he’ll have to show.”
Oliver smiled softly. “I almost wish you were representing my mother instead of Jean.”
“I’m not sure the police would be happy with that kind of conflict of interest,” Laurel pointed out, though a pleased smile played at her own lips. “They didn’t fight it in your case because most of dad’s superiors were convinced he had no case. Ironically enough.” She reached out and took his hands. “But I am here to offer you and Thea any legal advice I can.”
“Speaking of your sister, we should head back upstairs,” John reminded them. “You gonna come in through the front, Laurel?”
“Probably would sell it better.”
He and John grabbed a couple of the hoodies and towels they had down here to use as makeshift pillows or blankets, then went back up to the club. Thea had gotten out the first aid kit that sat under the bar and looked to be touching up some of Roy’s smaller cuts and scrapes while he rested in a booth.
“Laurel’s gonna come stay with us,” Oliver announced as he offered Thea her pick of their meager supplies. It occurred to him they were all running on little to no food, but there was nothing he could do about that problem. He knew he at least was used to sleeping on an empty stomach.
Not two minutes later, Laurel knocked on the front door. Oliver let her inside quickly, locking it behind her and cutting off the wail of distant police sirens. Thea was busy getting Roy situated for the night, so Oliver simply led Laurel back to their own booth.
“Are you actually going to be able to sleep tonight?” She asked quietly.
“I don’t know.”
“Okay.” Laurel pushed him to sit back in the booth first, then crawled in after him, resting her back against his chest and her head under his chin. Oliver brought his arms around her, gladly soaking up the comfort of her presence.
A thought came to him. “What happened to your bike?”
“Had to ditch it behind CNRI,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “The roads were too backed up.”
“We’ll get it tomorrow. If it hasn’t been taken to sell for parts.”
“I’m sorry, Ollie.”
He shook his head. “A bike’s just a bike. You, you were amazing out there tonight.”
She snuggled a bit closer and closed her eyes. “I love you.”
Oliver’s breath caught in his throat, and his eyes felt as though they were burning for a moment. “I love you, too,” he finally managed, kissing the top of her head.
A hush settled over the nearly empty club as, one-by-one, the five of them all dropped off to sleep.
In the early light of dawn Oliver’s phone rang, and he answered it with a groggy, “Hello?”
“Oliver?”
Instantly, he was wide awake. “Mom?”
Was it possible the police had released her? That they had discovered the truth on their own?
“Are you and Thea safe?” Her voice sounded shaky, like she had only just managed to pull herself together.
He sat up, causing Laurel to stretch and yawn as she woke fully. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re both fine. Where are you?”
“Still in the holding cell,” she told him. “They’re reluctant to move me given how riotous the situation was last night.”
“But they haven’t released you,” he said, disappointment resettling in the pit of his stomach.
“No. I’m just being allowed my phone call, finally. Two phone calls, really. You see, Starling General phoned me this morning. It seems Walter is alive and was transferred to their care late last night.”
Oliver’s eyes squeezed shut. His mother would have been notified first as next of kin, but had no way of getting to her own husband. “Mom, I’m sorry.” Sorry she couldn’t see Walter; sorry she had spent a night in a holding cell; sorry that he had been wrong, and because he had been wrong she had lost everything. The last he could never tell her, no matter how guilty he felt.
“You shouldn’t feel sorry for me,” she told him. “I played Malcolm’s games instead of doing the right thing, and I’ve paid the price for it. I only hope you, Thea and Walter will be safe now.”
Oliver swallowed once, feeling Laurel slip her hand into his empty one. “We will be.”
“If I can ask you to do one thing for me, sweetheart—”
“Anything,” he promised right away.
“Could you go to Starling General? The doctors think it would do Walter good to have some visitors given how long he was alone.”
“Thea and I will go, mom,” he answered her request.
“That’s my beautiful boy.” The warmth in her tone threatened to undo him. “They’re signalling me that my time is up.”
“But Thea—” His sister was still sleeping and wouldn’t even have a chance to talk to their mother.
“Look after her. Look after each other. I love you both so much.” His mother said quickly. The line disconnected before he could reply.
It was quiet for a moment. Nothing but the sound of his own breathing and Laurel’s hand in his. He turned his face into her hair for a moment, hiding from the day and all it would bring. A city in turmoil, his mother imprisoned and who knew what else. He just needed a few moments more before he could face it.
Once he felt in control again, Laurel let him out of the booth, and he went to where Thea lay, one arm hanging off the booth she slept in across from Roy. “Hey, Speedy. You gotta get up.”
“Five more minutes…” Thea groaned, and it was such a familiar, innocent sight his heart ached for a moment.
“We can see Walter at the hospital.”
His sister shot up, blinking and rubbing her eyes. “What? Where? Oh,” she said, taking in the surroundings. Her face threatened to crumple for a moment as yesterday’s events no doubt reasserted themselves in her memory.
“Come on, they think seeing some familiar faces might help him.”
“Is he even gonna want to see us? What if- what if he thought mom was the one who had him kidnapped?”
“Even if he did, he’d know you have nothing to do with it,” Oliver assured her. “Walter loves you, Thea.”
Roy was sitting up, one hand pressed over his ribs. Oliver frowned.
“You need looked at?”
“I’m fine,” Roy said immediately, though it didn’t have the defensive air it ordinarily did. Rather it almost seemed like Roy was hoping to impress him with his answer.
“We’re going to a hospital anyway, so you may as well come.”
“Need a lift?” John had gotten out of his own booth and looked about as well as could be expected for a man of his size having squeezed himself onto a small cushioned bench for the night.
“We have the car. And your family should see you.”
“Would you mind dropping me at my place, though?” Laurel asked, smiling in gratitude when John nodded.
Their group split up into two, Oliver navigating the roads still littered with debris and the odd abandoned vehicle here and there. It was eerily quiet after the night the neighborhood had seen, and the amount of damage done was a lot to take in.
“Why would they trash their own stores and homes?” Thea wondered aloud.
“It’s not theirs,” Roy said shortly. “No one in the Glades owns anything.”
“They couldn’t, thanks to Tempest,” Oliver added on a sigh. His sister shrunk down in her seat, looking sorry she had voiced the question.
They arrived at the hospital and saw Roy off to a specialist. Oliver told them any treatment would be covered by him. Then they were shown to Walter’s room.
They both paused in the doorway. Despite what Oliver had said, he was a little nervous to see his step-father as himself again. What did Walter know? What did he guess?
He was sitting up in his bed, the television playing what looked like grainy cell phone footage of Laurel from last night. Oliver was relieved to see she was unrecognizable. Indeed, the caption on the lower third simply read Who is the Woman?
“Walter?” Thea asked timidly.
He started, then turned his head. A smile rose to his lips, though his eyes were sad. “Thea.” When he opened his arms, Thea ran forward and hugged him.
Oliver entered more slowly, reaching the bedside and saying, “It’s damn good to see you, Walter.”
Walter had the grace to laugh. He picked up the television remote and shut off the screen. “I’m very happy to be back in civilization. I can’t imagine how you went without it for five years, Oliver.”
“From the sounds of it, you didn’t have it any easier.” Of course, Walter may not have been physically harmed, but he had seen the room the man was being kept in with his own eyes, and it was tiny. At least on Lian Yu he had had freedom of movement more often than not.
“We’re so sorry, Walter,” Thea said.
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for,” their step-father told them. “Moira’s choices are her own.”
“You don’t really think…” Oliver said, wincing slightly.
Walter sighed. “No, I don’t believe she ordered my abduction. If Moira had been behind the whole thing, there would have been little point in keeping me alive. But I can’t say I know who I was being held as collateral by.”
“Mom says it was Mr. Merlyn,” Thea told him darkly. She looked back at Oliver. “Would Tommy know about it? Why haven’t we heard from him anyway?”
“His secretary said he left town,” Oliver lied, though it was technically the truth. “He might just want to process this alone.”
“It’s not a terrible idea, regardless if what your mother is saying about Malcolm Merlyn is true or not,” Walter said. “As much as I’m sure you both wish to be there for her, no one would blame you for wishing to get away from all this, at least for a time. Even if it’s to pursue higher learning,” he added with a look at Thea.
“I never actually applied to colleges,” his sister muttered.
“But maybe you should,” Oliver said. “Walter’s right, Speedy. We have no idea how things are going to turn out for mom or the family. The more you can learn and develop your own skills, the better off you’ll be.” Oliver truly didn’t know what he would do if the worst happened. He had no work experience outside barely running a club, and his only skills would out him as one of the city’s vigilantes.
“One thing that is certain that I should tell you both in advance is that I will be filing for divorce,” Walter told them, and he and Thea both looked down. “I wish things had been different, but I cannot remain married to Moira after this, not when I offered to help her find a way out of her situation before it came to something like this. But there simply isn’t trust between us. I’m not sure there ever was.”
“We understand, Walter.” Oliver said quietly.
“That doesn’t mean I wish to see either of you out of my life,” the man added. “When I married your mother, I consented to making Thea, and later you, Oliver, part of my family. That won’t change.”
“It won’t change for us either,” Thea promised, and he nodded along.
Oliver’s phone started ringing once again. “Excuse me,” he told them both before stepping out into the hall to answer it. “Hello?”
“Oliver? It’s Ned Foster,” said a voice he vaguely recalled. The COO of Queen Consolidated. Oliver felt a headache coming on. “I’m hoping to have you come into the office so we can discuss what things are going to look like for you and your family.”
As much as he wanted to just put it off, Oliver knew it would only make things worse in the long run. “Okay, yeah. I can do that. Is it fine if it’s just me?” He didn’t want to have to pull Thea away from Walter so soon. And given that Roy was still being seen to, she would need to stay for him as well.
“Thea will need to sign some legal documents, but your family’s attorney can deliver those papers to her.”
“Okay. I should be there in about ten minutes, then.” Oliver hung up and ducked his head in to let Thea know where he would be going and to call him if anything came up. Then he went back down to the visitor’s garage and drove over to Queen Consolidated.
There were paparazzi stationed outside the building probably hoping he or his sister might turn up. Oliver shielded his face with a hand and marched through the shouting crowd to the front door where security turned them away. Inside the elevator to Ned’s office, he could reflect on some of their questions. Had he known his mother’s plans, what did he think of them, what was going to happen to the company and the Queen fortune. That last question was about to be answered for him.
Ned shook his hand when Oliver was shown into his office. “Thank you for coming by so quickly. I can’t imagine it’s an easy time for your family.”
“No,” Oliver agreed quietly.
Ned grimaced as he sat down. “It’s also not an easy time for the company. You see, the authorities have determined your mother a flight risk, so they’ve frozen her assets. This is a document for you and Thea to sign that will protect the assets your parents left to you.”
Oliver read over the whole thing before signing. He had known this was the case, but the lack of mention of the manor did not speak well to their chances of keeping it. Ned took the paper back and placed it in a folder.
“Now, the trouble is the company. As it stands, the board has voted to remove your mother from the position of CEO. They’re also not open to accepting your or Thea’s candidacy.”
“That makes sense,” he replied, even if his heart was sinking. This was his family’s company, and it was being taken away.
“You have to understand that the board is doing what they can to get out from under this media storm. The stock has taken a serious nosedive, and that threatens the livelihoods of countless employees here and at our various international branches. As it stands, we’ve already made the decision to try and sell off Unidac. We’ll see if anyone takes it.”
“Right. Right,” he agreed. It would be selfish to hold onto the company if it was just going to cause people to lose their jobs. “What, uh, what do we do about income?”
“That’s not really something I can tell you one way or the other, Oliver.”
He thought for a moment. One thing that worried him more than all the rest about losing the company: his base. He had beta sites, of course, but it would be inconvenient to lose his main one.
“What about the Verdant property? Could I purchase it from Queen Consolidated? Most people associate it with me, so it’s probably not something the board will want to hang onto. And it can’t be very valuable compared to the other holdings.”
Ned sat there a moment or two. “That is not an unreasonable request. Let me talk to the board and Legal, see if we can work out a sale. I’m glad you’re thinking ahead for you and your sister, Oliver, and I do wish you both the best of luck through all this.”
They stood and shook hands again, and soon Oliver was descending in another elevator. It stopped on a random floor, and he nearly hit the close doors button — except Felicity Smoak had just walked in, head buried in her tablet. Before she could blindly reach out for whichever floor’s button she needed, Oliver pointedly cleared his throat.
She jumped, eyes widening at the sight of him. “Oh! Uh, hi.”
“Hi.”
“Sorry about your mother,” Felicity said, then immediately added, “I mean, I’m not sorry she was caught. Someone had to do it if you couldn’t — though I can understand that would be a tough position to be in. And obviously this is a really bad position for you to be in. Um… what are you doing here in this specific position?”
“Getting my family’s affairs in order, the best I can,” he told her. “I guess you were right about me ruining lives.”
Felicity winced.
“Walter’s alive,” he added conversationally.
“I know. I was reading about it, actually,” she said, gesturing with her tablet. “The Hood rescued him.”
Oliver hummed.
“Thank you,” she said in an undertone. “And I hope that, you know, you and your girlfriend’s hobby works out for the best.” She blinked and said. “That really sounded dirty, but I meant—”
“Felicity, I know,” he interrupted. The elevator doors opened on the lobby, and he stepped out. “For what it’s worth, I wish you the best.”
“Thanks.” She smiled shyly, and the doors closed on her like that.
Oliver sighed and left his old teammate and his family’s former company behind. If his years away had taught him nothing else, it was that people and places came and went. So long as he held onto what was most important in his heart, he could make it through.
—-
Having not actually gone home the previous day, it was a little jarring to pull up outside her place and find her windows boarded up. So were Anita’s and Jerome’s.
“You need me to stick around?” John asked.
“No, I’ll figure it out,” Laurel said slowly, opening her door and stepping around bits of trash strewn around the yard from her can, which had apparently been knocked over. She would get around to it later. First thing first was seeing if she could even get inside.
Her key worked, and Laurel couldn’t honestly spot a thing out of place. Before she could think on it too much, there was a sharp rapping on her front door. Laurel checked the peephole and smiled as she pulled it open.
“Anita,” she said as she hugged her friend. Anita hugged her back. She was honestly relieved to see she hadn’t been hurt, not having seen her all the last day.
“Was starting to worry you weren’t coming back,” Anita said when they pulled apart. “Jerome did your windows anyway. Soon as we heard the news yesterday, we knew it was gonna get crazy, and we had some extra boards in the back.”
“Thank you so much. You both were safe last night?”
“Yeah, we just stayed put. No way was I letting him go to work last night. Your dad came by around two-thirty, though. Probably woke the whole street up hollering outside your door.”
Laurel winced. She had a number of missed calls, most of them from him. Anita had tried once and Joanna as well, though the latter hopefully didn’t realize she’d seen Laurel last night. “Sorry about that.”
She shrugged. “Can’t blame him for worrying. I was, too.” There was something heavy to the weight of Anita’s gaze on her, but her friend changed the subject. “Jerome’s helping clean up the main street, and I’m making a bunch of the volunteers some food. You wanna help?”
“Yeah. Just, um, just let me clean up my yard and I’ll be over.”
Laurel got all the trash picked back up and back in the can, and by the time that was done Anita had finished most of her cooking. It was probably for the best. Laurel assisted her in carrying it the several blocks where they found a card table had been set up to host what looked like an impromptu potluck.
“Take what you need,” Mrs. Ross was telling a mother with her three kids. “Anita, put yours down on that end. We got paper plates and napkins set up on the other.”
“Laurel!”
She turned at the sound of Raisa’s voice, smiling at the sight of the other woman. “Raisa, hi. How’s your family?”
“We could be worse. The building, someone threw a- a—”
“Smoke bomb.”
“Yes. There is some damage, but we still have our home. I only saw it this morning. The staff at the manor, we remained at the house last night. No one knew what to do after Mrs. Queen…” Raisa looked down, and Laurel patted the woman’s arm in sympathy. “But I wanted to ask, have you seen Mr. Oliver or Miss Thea? They never came home.”
“Oh. Yes, they are both safe. The police actually found Mr. Steele, so they’re visiting with him at the hospital.”
Raisa gasped. “Mr. Steele is alive? Oh, that is good news. If only…”
“Yeah.” Laurel bit her lip, then asked. “Raisa, is there anything you might have heard Mrs. Queen ever discuss with Mr. Merlyn about all this?”
The housekeeper slowly shook her head. “I never intruded. But I always suspected he made her uncomfortable. She would request a glass of her favorite red after any of their meetings to calm her nerves. Was he involved with this Tempest?”
“I’m not sure how much I can say,” Laurel admitted, to which Raisa nodded in understanding. She looked around. She wasn’t much use at the food table accept for eating it. Laurel snagged a couple sandwiches for her empty stomach, then approached Jerome and a few more men tacking tarp up over missing windows. “What can I do?”
She was directed to help another group sweeping out storefronts and setting displays and other furniture back to rights. They were headed to 17th Street, and Laurel took the lead, anxious to check on Pam and her job.
The windows of Green Glades had survived, but every last pot and planter out in front had been smashed. “Oh, Pam.”
Her boss was using the push broom, and Laurel quickly took possession of the dust pan. “It’s to be expected. People want something to control when they feel like they’ve lost control of their own lives. I was perfectly safe upstairs.”
Laurel helped Pam to set everything to rights, then spent a little time at the other storefronts with the group she had joined up with. Someone had brought some kind of speakers, and the music and food helped create something of a lighter atmosphere. Back on the main road, Anita had coaxed Jerome into dancing while he and his group were on a food break, and Laurel smiled as she saw kids skipping around on the sidewalk. People were complicated things, but she thought so long as there were times like these, they could weather through the bad.
“The hell you doing showing up here?”
The angry shout had Laurel turning sharply. A few men had intercepted Oliver, Thea and Roy. The Queen siblings, both changed into what Laurel knew were their less nice t-shirts and jeans, looked unsure how to respond to the harsh greeting, if it could be called that.
“We- we just want to help,” Thea offered timidly. “We’re so sorry—”
Laurel cringed and hurried forward.
“Sorry?” One man repeated with a sharp laugh. “Sorry doesn’t cut it. What your mama did—”
“Isn’t what they did,” Laurel interrupted, coming between the two groups. “They didn’t know.”
“Yeah, they both work in the Glades,” Roy added. “How dumb would they have to be to do that if they were in on it?”
Most of the street had stopped what they were doing to watch this unfold, even a few of the children abandoning their game to stand and stare in confusion. Jerome had pulled Anita close, half-shielding her from the Queens and frowning at them. Raisa had a hand over her mouth, clearly worried for her charges.
“Thea and I were ignorant of what our mother and her associates were involved in,” Oliver agreed quietly. “Ignorance also isn’t an excuse for what could have happened had it not been exposed. What we hope is that we can atone for the things our family has done to yours if you will accept it.”
Laurel stared the men down, making it quite clear that if they chose to reject that offer with anything other than words, they would be going through her.
“They’re right.” A man in coveralls with a receding and graying hairline stepped forward. “Queen isn’t his parents. I heard you try to give Derek and his family a fresh start last fall, before that horrible business at the bank.”
Oliver swallowed once, not seeming to know what to say to that.
“We’re better than them in their mansions. We’re not gonna judge. You wanna do the work? Then do it.”
At the tables, Mrs. Ross gave an affirming hum. Anita patted Jerome’s chest, and her husband looked away and nodded.
“Innocent till proven guilty,” Hank shouted from where he was serving his usual wraps free of charge today. Laurel felt her lips twitch despite herself.
Gradually the small group that had gathered in front of the Queens slowly dispersed, some less happy than others, but Laurel let out a breath in relief. 
She turned to the Queens. “I’m really glad you guys came out. It’s not going to be easy, but the more people see the real you, the more they’ll understand why you shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush.”
Raisa joined their group, hugging both Oliver and Thea. “It is a hard time for you both.”
“It’s not just for us. Raisa, the accounts… things aren’t looking good,” Oliver admitted to Laurel’s dismay. She’d known the Queens were going to take some kind of hit over all this, but she had no idea how this might affect Oliver’s ability to operate as the Hood. “We might lose the house. I’ll have to call the staff together for a meeting, but it can wait. This is more important.” He briefly pressed his lips to Laurel’s temple before heading over to Jerome’s group since they were getting back to work. The men grudgingly set him to work, though Laurel thought she saw some of their distrust melt away to grudging respect when it quickly became apparent Oliver was no slouch when it came to manual labor.
“Maybe we could offer to keep an eye on those kids?” Thea suggested to her boyfriend. “Roy has bruised ribs,” she added in explanation.
“Then something like that would be perfect,” Raisa agreed. “Come.” She led the young couple off, only for Anita to join her instead, looking smug.
“So, giving billionaire boy another shot?”
“Shut up.”
The next several days passed in a strange haze. No one quite seemed to know what happened now that the world hadn’t ended. Oliver was busy constantly between getting the outside of the club cleaned up and handling his family’s affairs. Laurel kept herself occupied with cleanup efforts and checking in on her friends and neighbors, both old and new. That had her climbing the steps to her old office building one afternoon and stopping at a desk buried under paper.
“Have to say, kind of glad I was fired before all this,” she remarked.
Joanna’s head shot up. “Laurel! Oh, thank God.” Her friend got up and pulled her into a tight hug which Laurel readily returned.
“I texted you I was fine,” she pointed out with a smile.
“Yeah, well fine for you could mean anything from you caught a cold to your house is burning down.”
Laurel held up her hands in surrender. “Well how’ve you been? Lot of new cases?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. Even Anastasia’s moving her butt now. There’s probably going to be a class action suit brought against the Queen family. Anyone who lives in the Glades is entitled to compensation if we win,” Joanna told her. “But that won’t be on the docket for a while. Her assets are tied up right now because of the criminal case.” “I know.”
Jo winced. “How are Thea and Oliver taking it?”
“As well as can be expected. I think they’re just relieved the bomb wasn’t actually, you know.”
Joanna nodded. “Considering how crazy it was the other night without the bomb, I agree with that completely. Have you, uh, heard about the Woman?”
“The one in the mask?” Okay, Roy really had had a point, she should have thought of a name before starting all this.
“Yeah. She showed up that night, helped me and the others get out of the Glades since there were people outside the building.”
“Wow,” said Laurel, hoping she sounded surprised.
“Yeah, I kind of felt like you a bit. Don’t tell my mom,” Jo added with a laugh. “She doesn’t want me getting anywhere near vigilantes after what happened to you.”
Laurel smirked. “Oh, it hasn’t been so bad.” On the inside, she was relieved; Joanna definitely hadn’t recognized her that night. Her friend would’ve demanded answers by now if she had.
She left Joanna to her work soon after, thinking back to that night. It had been exhilarating and exhausting all at once racing from one end of the neighborhood to the other, first on her bike then on foot. Roy’s company had been a comfort when she had found him, and Ted’s appearance a welcome surprise. And part of her had just known Oliver would find his way back after facing Tommy, that he wouldn’t leave her to face it all alone.
It was strange, though, walking down streets and hearing bits of her own words played back at her. It didn’t really sound like her. Part of that was because it had been captured on somebody’s cell phone, and it didn’t seem like their speakers were the best quality. Another was that, for maybe the first time, Laurel felt like she heard a sense of command in her own voice.
She hadn’t been planning to make some kind of speech that night. Yet she had needed to reach people, some way, any way. And to her own amazement, she had. That was the real power that being a vigilante gave; a voice that was listened to.
By the end of the week, she was back to work at the flower shop. And that was where her father finally caught up to her.
It was startling seeing him enter the florist’s. He seemed so out of place and knew it, too. Pam opened her mouth to start her customary greeting, but Laurel said, “That’s okay, Pam. This is my dad.”
“Oh. Well, what a delight to finally meet the man who helped bring my lovely assistant into the world,” Pam said, and if Laurel wasn’t mistaken, seemed to be at least somewhat serious about it.
“Yeah, uh, good to meet you, too,” her dad mumbled. “Listen, can I talk to my daughter for a moment? I’ll be quick about it.”
“I suppose,” Pam agreed. Laurel had been sort of hoping she would say no. But she squared her shoulders and came around the counter to join him outside.
“Stopped by your place that night of the riots,” he began.
“I know.”
“Where were you? Where did you go? You know how badly I panicked when I realized you’d left the station?”
“Dad, we’ve talked about this. I’m living my life, my way now, you know?”
His shoulders slumped, and his head shook from side to side. “Look, I’ve accepted that you’ve made a life here in the day-to-day. But riots are different.”
“It’s not different for any of my neighbors and friends who have nowhere else to go,” she pointed out.
“But you weren’t even home!”
“I was at a shelter,” she lied, and thought she was more convincing than even with Joanna. Laurel had practiced this one because she’d known it was coming. “One of the local schools was letting people stay in the gym and needed volunteers to help keep things organized with all the kids. I was too busy to notice my phone at first, and my battery died overnight so I couldn’t call you back.”
He paused, scrutinizing her. “So you weren’t out there that night?”
“Why would I be?”
Her dad studied her another moment, then pulled her close. “I just worry about you, honey. You know I- I’m used to knowing everything about what you’re up to. I miss that.”
Laurel looked down. “I know those times made you feel better, but they weren’t what I needed.”
He blew out a breath. “I know.” A rueful grin rose on his lips. “You know, it’s funny. I keep going back over what she’s told us so far, how it was all for her kids.” He didn’t have to clarify which her he meant. “Her kids never would have wanted her to do it.”
Laurel blinked. Implied or not, that was one of the nicer things her father had had to say about Oliver in a long time.
“Maybe we all just kid ourselves. Maybe we don’t know what our children want, cause we don’t ask them or we think we still know best long after they’ve grown,” he continued. He cupped her face with one hand, thumb brushing the corner of her lip that had only just finished healing from that night she’d gone toe-to-toe with the corrupt SCPD officers. “But how’s about you keep me in the loop just a little from now on, eh?”
Laurel smiled, though she hoped he didn’t think it was sad. There were parts of her life now that she knew she would never share with her father. He just wouldn’t be able to take it, and it had the potential to destroy his career. “Yeah. A little.”
With a one-armed hug avoiding her dirt-smeared apron, he let her get back to her shift.
At night, she and Oliver patrolled together which more than made up for the time spent apart during the day. The nights were busy given that after the crackdown on the riots, the police had once again retreated back out of the Glades. They didn’t talk much about what was going on with his family, though she knew he had been to see his mother at least once more.
She also knew the day of Mrs. Queen’s hearing to determine if she would be allowed bail. It was a closed session given the possible danger to Mrs. Queen’s life if someone with revenge fantasies like the Savior had had decided to show up, so after her shift, Laurel went to the Verdant to wait, Roy keeping her company when he wasn’t needed to wipe down the scant few tables that were occupied.
When Oliver and Thea entered with morose expressions behind John, Laurel didn’t need them to say that Mrs. Queen would be spending the time before her trial behind bars. She stood from her stool and offered each of them a hug.
“We knew it wouldn’t happen,” Oliver said in monotone. “It just…”
Laurel squeezed his hand, unable to say the words he really needed to hear with Thea and Roy present: this wasn’t his fault.
Oliver gave a small shake of the head. “We need to talk about the future. Thea… I really think you should consider Walter’s suggestion.”
“I’m not just leaving home,” Thea said immediately.
“What’s this?” Laurel asked.
“Walter thinks it would be a good idea for Thea to take some time away from Starling while she considers her options regarding higher education or a career. You don’t have the guarantee of an easy life anymore, Thea. A college degree is something you might need someday.”
Thea scowled but had no argument.
“Look, all I am suggesting is that you take a vacation for a few months while the worst of this dies down a little. Take some online classes to improve your transcript, write a few college essays in preparation to apply.”
“While you stay here?”
“I have to stay here. I own a club, and I can’t afford a new manager.”
“What if you and Roy went together?” Laurel suggested.
Roy blinked. “Me?”
“What?” Oliver immediately demanded.
Laurel rolled her eyes. “Thea does not want to be separated from everyone she cares about, so if you’re staying here then her boyfriend is the next best option. It’d be good for Roy, too, let him see some more of the world.” She doubted her younger friend had had a vacation in his life. “And as long as they promise to behave themselves, I don’t see why it’s a problem. They’re both adults, and we went on trips together at their age.”
“We didn’t behave ourselves,” Oliver murmured in her ear, and Laurel smirked.
Thea, meanwhile, seemed to be warming up to the idea. “So Roy and I could take a trip together so long as I fill out some applications? Okay.”
“I want you to take this seriously, Speedy.”
Thea waved a dismissive hand, already getting out her phone to start looking at vacation hotspots. She grabbed Roy’s hand, but he stayed put.
“Find a table. I’ll be right over.” Once Thea was our of earshot, Roy said, “I can’t leave right now. The city’s a mess.”
“Roy,” Laurel said.
“Look, I figured it out. You’re — you know,” he said to Oliver after a furtive look around. “I want to help you. I helped Laurel the other night when things were crazy.”
“And you were hurt pretty badly,” Oliver pointed out. Roy looked about to argue, so he held up a hand. “Take the vacation to heal and to think about what you’re asking for. This kind of life is not easy, and sometimes, it takes more than it gives. If you come back and are still committed, Laurel and I will discuss it with you then. That fair?”
Roy didn’t exactly look happy about it, but he seemed to realize it was the best offer he was likely to receive. “Fine.”
“Good,” Laurel said. “Now go plan your trip with your girlfriend.” Roy left the bar for Thea’s table, and Laurel turned her attention on her own boyfriend. “Now we need to talk about you.”
“Me?”
“You’ve been sleeping downstairs, man,” John said, coming forward now that the discussions surrounding Thea and Roy were over. “And not even on a real bed.”
“The island didn’t have real beds,” Oliver deadpanned.
“But you’re not on the island anymore. And you shouldn’t have to feel like you are,” Laurel pointed out. “If you needed a place to stay, you could have asked one of us.”
“One of you?” He repeated with a raised eyebrow.
“Figured you’d like having options better,” John explained.
“And I know better than to assume we’re living together,” Laurel added lightly.
Oliver’s face fell. “Laurel, you didn’t assume anything. I told you we could do it even when I knew I wasn’t ready.”
“And now?” She asked.
“Now I would love nothing more than to be with you,” he told her. A smile spread across her lips, which didn’t stop him from leaning in to kiss them. “I’ll bring my things over tomorrow.”
“My day off. Perfect.” It was far from perfect, she supposed. Instead of a spacious downtown apartment with a five minute emergency vehicle response time belonging to a lawyer and the heir apparent to a Fortune 500 company, they would be sharing a cramped one-bedroom on a forgotten street in the poorest neighborhood as a florist and the owner of the least popular club in all of Starling City. But it felt, in a funny way, far more them than the children their parents had tried to raise them to be, and in a way that was its own perfection.
That morning, she was in the middle of her workout when a knock came at the door. She hadn’t actually expected Oliver this early, but she called to him, “One second!” before grabbing her towel and heading over to unlock it. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Ted!”
Her old teacher nodded at her. “Morning. Mind if I come in?”
“Sure.” Laurel grabbed her tank top off the couch and threw it on as well, noticing that Ted had stopped by the heavy bag she had only just been working at. “What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. Just was thinking, I might need this back,” he explained, gesturing to it.
“Oh,” Laurel said, her shoulders drooping.
“Seeing as you’re welcome to start lessons back up any time,” he added, turning around to look at her with a sheepish smile. “Turns out you were right and there’s, well, still stuff we’re needed for out there.”
Laurel grinned. “I knew there was still fight in you.”
“Wouldn’t be much good at teaching it if there wasn’t. I’m not kidding about the bag, though,” he added, but Laurel just shoved at his arm which had him smirking.
Ted stayed for a moment or two longer where they hashed out a schedule, both for her lessons and for nighttime. He wasn’t so keen on getting to know the Hood just yet, and Laurel knew it was something she would need to talk to Oliver about first anyway.
After her teacher left, she thought about hitting the shower before Oliver arrived, but there was another knock at the door. Laurel pivoted on the balls of her feet. “Coming!”
She checked this time to find Anita waiting rather than her boyfriend. Laurel opened the door and showed her friend in. Anita carried a bag with her, which she held out for Laurel to take.
“Finished this last night,” her friend explained as Laurel lifted out her black leather jacket. She smiled. She’d been using the jean jacket at night for now, but it just hadn’t been the same.
“Thank you so much,” Laurel said, running her finger over the arm where the tear had been. “Hopefully by Christmas I’ll have made something all by myself to pay you back.”
“Yeah, well look the whole thing over before you thank me,” her friend said.
Laurel did, puzzled at first, with her eyes widening as she turned over the jacket to see the back.
“I should have asked before I did it,” Anita said. “But I kept thinking about that photo you’ve got of the thing in its cage and how it wouldn’t shut up, and I thought it was sort of like you, you know? Trapped in a shitty situation but not gonna go out without a fight. But that’s why I did the wings spread,” she added, stepping forward and smoothing her fingers over the yellow embroidery thread. “It symbolizes freedom. And that’s what you are now, Laurel. You freed yourself.”
She stared down at the outline of a bird with wings spread, a strange sort of lump sticking in her throat.
“I mean they’re probably gonna call you the Bird Lady or something stupid now,” Anita muttered, and it shocked her enough that Laurel looked up to meet her friend’s eyes.
“I—”
“You don’t gotta explain it. I won’t say a thing more about it.”
Her eyes watered and spilled over as she moved forward and wrapped her free arm around Anita in a hug which she returned. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You don’t hate it?”
“I love it. Really.” She sniffed once and let go, stepping back. Laurel hugged the jacket to her chest, smiling.
Yet another knock on her door had her quickly tucking the jacket back in the bag even if she suspected who this finally was. Laurel let Oliver in, her smile widening at the sight of the bag he had slung over one shoulder and one box tucked under his arm.
“Hey, everything okay?” He asked, reaching out and wiping at her cheek with a calloused thumb.
“Yeah. Come meet or re-meet one of your new neighbors, Anita.”
Anita’s eyebrows shot straight into her hairline. “Billionaire boy’s living here? This is one for the books.”
“It’s uh, Oliver,” he said awkwardly, holding a hand out.
“Well, welcome to the neighborhood, Ollie,” Anita greeted as she gave it a firm shake. Laurel stifled a laugh behind her hand. “I gotta head out, so have fun unpacking, you two.”
“See you,” Laurel told her. The door shut, and she spread her arms a little, turning one way and the other. “Well, make yourself at home.”
“Thank you,” he said, taking the box and setting it on her counter. “This is for you.”
“Everything you own fits in one bag?” Laurel asked dubiously. “Also you really don’t need to be getting me presents right now.”
He shrugged. “I missed your birthday.”
“You paid to fix my front window.”
“Well it’s our window now, so it doesn’t count. Anyway, I really want you to have this.”
It clicked, and Laurel reached for the box. “Is it—?”
She opened it to find a rather sleek ensemble in black and dark blue. Laurel couldn’t identify the material it was made out of, but she imagined it was sturdier than her leggings. A brand new wig and mask sat underneath.
“It’s amazing, Ollie.” She felt far less guilty knowing he’d already paid for it before his financial situation had become precarious. Laurel dove for the bag and her jacket, holding it and the undershirt of her new suit up to see how they might look together.
“Is that a… bird?” Oliver asked, eyebrows furrowed as he peered at the design on the back.
“It’s a canary,” Laurel answered. She set both items back in the box, smoothing the jacket down so the embroidered image rested face-up. Then she went to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “And it’s what I’m going to start calling myself out there.”
“The Hood and the Canary,” he said. “Doesn’t quite go together.”
“You could always pick your own name for yourself,” she offered. “Instead of letting everyone else decide it for you.”
“Maybe. If it weren’t for you going out there, the Hood probably wouldn’t even exist anymore,” he admitted, and Laurel tilted her head in an unspoken question, her hands sliding to his shoulders. “I became the Hood to fulfill my father’s mission. And in a lot of ways, I failed because I was playing my parents’ game. Sticking to the shadows, paying more attention to the wealthy than the victims suffering from those with wealth. Starling City is going to take a long time to get better, and it has to start here.”
“That all sounds good to me,” she agreed. “And now that you’re doing things your own way, without all the family secrets, I think we really can make a difference. Whatever’s coming, we’ll handle it together.”
He smiled down at her. “Then let’s save the world.”
Laurel met him on her tiptoes for a kiss to seal that promise.
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ghost-hyunjin · 4 years
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👥🤝👥🤝👥🤝👥🤝👥🤝 TALK ABOUT THEM ALLLL
x | meme status: not accepting now!
5 Family Members
I was very close to my umma (mom) when I was alive. She shared how hard her pregnancy was, since the doctor told her that it was risky for her to carry a baby. A lot of people say I look like her, but taller and a boy. Actually it hurt a lot to see her cry as she packed up my belongings when I passed away. I wanted to tell her so badly that I was okay and I wasn’t suffering, but I didn’t want to scare her away. Plus I wasn’t that good at maintaining my visibility whenever I wanted.
Appa (dad) was really proud of me when I got into college on scholarship and grants. That left books, food, and housing left for us to handle at the end of the day. I know his secretary said he couldn’t stop bragging about me at work and I got kind of, I don’t know, embarrassed? These people only met me once at some holiday party, you know? You know how I said I look more like my mom? Apparently the only things I got from Appa were his height and his nose.
I drove both of my parents crazy when I wanted a dog at 16. They knew I was doing well academically and I think Umma wanted to reward me for focusing and working so hard. Of course Kkami wasn’t easy to train and raise, but he was a puppy and learning! He had been separated from his mom and siblings at a young age and was a bit scared to be on his own. But we started to understand each other – he liked to sleep with me whenever I came home and always hung around my chair when we eat meals. Maybe he was sick of me kissing him or trying to be affectionate in the mornings, but I loved him. Not more than my parents of course, but it was a big step for me to be responsible for a pet of my own and building a relationship.
Cousin Yeji and I used to have our differences as children. People called us the Hwang Twins at school, and it annoyed us all the time. See, we were the only pair of boy-girl twins at our school and everyone thought it was funny how similar our faces looked. When we got older, she tried to beg her parents to let her do things like add color streaks to her ends or dye her hair lighter colors. (Turns out she snuck the semi-permanent stuff when she slept over at a friend’s house and that um, didn’t end well.) Then some guy asked her out and I had heard things in the locker room about him. I didn’t want to see her get hurt, so I told her best friend who would have a better time convincing her that this guy was a jerk and didn’t want to take her on a real date. I don’t know if her friend ever shared that I heard these things, but I think we started to put up with each other in a friendlier manner than when we were kids. @nerdy-yeji and @kitten-yeji
My twin @street-racer-hyunjin was a surprise to my mom. The doctor initially thought there was one baby, then realized it was two. We aren’t that different – literally it was a few seconds when they delivered us via C-section. I don’t honestly care if people want to know who is older or not – it’s kind of meaningless. Too many people kept getting us mixed up, so it kind of helped when he bleached his hair (courtesy of one of our friends helping him buy the stuff and doing it in the bathroom one night) and got some piercings. Umma really screamed that night when he came home with the lip ring – pretty sure the neighbors came over to check on us and then realized it was one of those parent-kid talks about doing things without permission. I gotta say I’m kind of jealous of him in a way. I’m not that brave or confident to do those modifications to my body or well, was that brave. He and Appa always had an interest in race cars and watched a lot of the races on TV. His 15th birthday gift was a pair of tickets to see a race in person with Appa. I never told our parents about how he got mixed up into his first race shortly after high school graduation and for his sake, they’ll never know it. We were different, but we get each other and respect each other’s space.
5 Friends/Acquaintances
Han I met in school when I was alive. I think we got paired up in some partner project and turns out both of us actually we kind of glad we did? Well, I say that because you hate getting stuck with the slacker who cruises on their partner’s workload to pass. We did equal work and did well on the project. Sometimes he’s a bit hyper, but I am glad to have him around – it did ground me and reminded me that life isn’t always about school, work, and the boring stuff. Sometimes you need to let loose and have fun. I didn’t know this until we graduated, but some of the people at school joked we were the attractive smart guys with different charms. @hanjisung-bot @sweetbbyboyhansungie
@j-05 was one of my classmates. I felt terrible that I forgot about him, but it turns out we were in one of my largest classes I took for a general education requirement. The class was mostly papers and answering the professor’s questions, but we were in a final group project for the class. I guess I may have forgotten about him because he actually bothered to do his part of the project, unlike some of the others who claimed to be too busy or not talented enough to draw a few panels for a comic. He saw me after I passed and it shocked both of us – I never thought anyone could sense a ghostly presence and I doubt he thought he’d see his dead classmate again after all of this. He confessed that he had a crush on me when I was alive and I didn’t know how to feel about it? I never thought about guys that way but also I never had a serious relationship. (Maybe I took one girl out for a school dance, but then she ditched me for her friends and insisted she wanted to stay when I wanted to go home.) I don’t know where this will go, but it will be interesting at the very least.
@ryujin-chatbot was one of my cousin’s friends. Turns out we are both interested in dancing and happened to join Dance Club at school. She is really talented and I always hoped that some talent company or troupe would take her on professionally. She was one of the few who understood my pain and Cousin Yeji’s pain about the messed up “twins” jokes and references both of us got. She told off some messed up guys on the baseball team who suggested Yeji and I were in some kind of romantic relationship behind everyone’s backs and I’m pretty sure to this day, he will avoid eye contact with her if they’re in the same room. (That I owe her for.)
I’m drawing a blank on how I met @mafia-chaeyoung. I was already a ghost when we met and one of the first things she asked me after making sure this wasn’t some joke by a rival, was who killed me. She almost added the frat president to her hit list, but I told her that he’s already convicted and serving time, plus his family is out a lot of money for damages and emotional suffering. I’ll admit her line of work is hazy in my mind and I’m a little intimidated at times by her. But I do appreciate someone talking to me like a normal being and not going “OMG GHOST! I’m cursed!” or “Do you want revenge? Is that why you’re still around?” Sometimes I wish I could do more to say thank you, but seeing where I died, I’m limited in what I can offer. I do hope she stays safe because there are some crazier people out there who will try to take others down without a care.
We didn’t get off on the right foot when we crossed paths, but I think we’re okay? @thejilixtwins-cb are an oddball pair to comprehend to say the least. Always talking and they look and sound charming, but both are full of trouble. I’m not 100% sure what their deal is, but their antics kind of remind me of some duo I once saw on TV. Not sure who, but the back and forth banter or one interrupting the other is very similar to this TV pair. All I can say is, once we cleared the confusion, we seemed to be okay and not as mixed up as we thought.
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quirkless-deku-aus · 4 years
Text
Those Times That Dick Grayson Got Tangled Up with The BatFamily
It was one of those days where Dick starts to question – just for a tiny bit – the decision he made for himself.
Was it a good idea to become a policeman in the first place?
Living in one of the most crime-ridden and corrupt city in the world, also being a policeman at that, it’s safe to say that NO, it wasn’t such a good idea. Not to mention that vigilantes and villains also roamed (owned) the streets all the time.
He might as well have thrown himself off of a building and that would have been a much more merciful ending to his life.
So, did he ever regret the decision of being a policeman?
Hell no, he doesn’t.
Okay, so maybe he does regret it but only for a small bit. There’s still a part of him that wishes that he should have pursued his career of becoming a gymnast instructor instead or even as a stripper but no, he still chose to become a cop.
Because call him silly and weird but despite witnessing something traumatic at the tender age of ten and also being mentally and emotionally scarred for life, he still try – and succeed most of time – to see the beauty of life and give the love and joy that the world deserves.
Crazy, right?
It might be even crazier than the Joker.
Um, maybe not crazier than the Joker. Nobody’s beating that record and he doubts that anyone actually wants to in the first place. Periodt.
Dick is pretty much aware that most of the people believes that everyone who lives in this world deserves to suffer and die because of the sins we have done and sometimes, he may or may not agree with that statement but it’s the harsh truth. The world and the people in it can be cruel and mean and disgusting. It’s just that, it doesn’t have to stay that way.
There’s this saying that, “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” So, meaning that no matter how dark the world gets, a ray of light will still manage to penetrate it and serve as a beacon of hope.
So that’s what he’s going to do.
Serve as beacon of hope for those who needs it.
Sure, the superheroes and vigilantes and heck, even the anti-heroes already got that covered, he would still like to contribute using his own way.
Like, helping an old man cross the street. Chasing a snatcher in between the very busy and crowded streets of Gotham. Even by just preparing a cup of coffee for Commissioner Gordon during a hasty night.
These actions might seems small to others but he enjoys doing them and he never gets tired seeing the smiles of those he help.
Although, the coffee one had caused him to be teased relentlessly by his fellow co-workers that he’d make an awesome errand boy.
It hurt but he knew better so he laughed it off with them. Every time.
John Blake, Commissioner Gordon, and even his daughter seemed to be the only ones who notices his discomfort whenever someone in the office makes a joke about him being an errand boy and calls them out for it.
He flashes them a grin every time.
Well, it originally started as a joke. Since his ‘saviours’ aren’t always there to ‘save’ him, the others started to actually send him on errands.
Ranging from simple errands to downright ridiculous ones. You know, the type of ridiculous where he wouldn’t have believed if he didn’t get to witness it first-hand.
Just like the situation he is in right now.
Dick finds himself gawking at a child wielding a katana inside a pet shop near downtown. Like, who lets a child have access to deadly weapons?!
He knew he should’ve just told Commissioner Gordon about the others sending him on errands.
Damn it.
Dick let out a small sigh. Okay, he can do this.
He let a small grin grace his lips, “Hey there, buddy.”
The kid narrowed his eyes more and spat out, “Do not call me with such a demeaning name. Heed that and I assure you that you will not be leaving this establishment with your right hand missing.”
Dick blinked at that and he felt his grin falter. Oh boy.
“Alright then, no using of demeaning names.” He said as he manage a gesture of air-quoting and he also didn’t fail to notice how the other’s grip on the katana tightened, “Do you have a name I could use?”
Silence met his question and he wasn’t even surprised. This is going to be a long day.
A second sigh left his lips that hour and his hands found permanent residence on his hips. “So no names too, huh?”
He let his eyes take in the kid in front of him. If he were to base the kid’s age by his height, he couldn’t have been older than ten and his voice served as another factor for his theory.
A deep scowl lay across his youthful face and Dick briefly wonders if that’ll stay there for the rest of his life. He’s also wearing a black hoodie and despite the hood obstructing his full view of the other’s face, his piercing teal eyes seemed to be glinting with relentless rage and intense distrust.
The distrust he could fathom but the rage doesn’t seem to be directed towards him. So, who could that rage be for?
Dick knew that he wasn’t the only one doing an assessment, the kid looked pretty keen on observing him as well.
Probably to find some sort of weakness he could use against me. His mind supplied bitterly.
“-Tt- You’re a detective, are you not?” He could sense a hint of sarcasm in the kid’s voice, “Surely, you will be able to discern those yourself.”
He wasn’t even sure if the kid was serious or is just being a huge brat but he doesn’t have enough will in him to explain to the other that there’s a huge difference between being a police officer and being a detective.
But, he likes the idea of becoming a detective one day too.
“Okay, can you at least tell me what are you doing here?”
Dick was sure that he wouldn’t get a straight answer again but was startled when the other diverted his gaze elsewhere. His piercing eyes landed on a cowering man – probably the owner of this pet shop – sitting on the floor.
“This imbecile does not have enough qualifications to run this pathetic-excuse of an establishment, much less to have the audacity to sell these animals.”
He wasn’t sure how to react on the raw emotion that bled into that statement so he remained silent and instead decided to actually look around him.
He noticed how most of the cages appear to be crowded. The AC wasn’t really running and the sunlight were directly hitting some of the cages.
Dick frowns. He knows that this isn’t his field of expertise but he can still tell that this isn’t a standard condition for the animals to be placed in.
Maybe he could call someone from the Animal Control to deal with this—
“Please don’t kill me!”
Dick didn’t have enough time to let the situation sink in but he used his quick reflexes to grab the kid’s hood and pull back. The katana missed the man’s head by a few inches.
Holy shit.
“Oh my God!” the man continued to shriek then he proceeded to scramble on his feet and hid behind the counter.
The kid flailed around for a moment before trying to stab him next. Luckily, Dick anticipated this and so used his height and flexibility to his advantage. He manage to avoid the unforgiving end of the katana before forcefully trying to pull it away from the kid’s grasp.
He’s basically just having a tug-of-war with a ten-year old with the rope being a deadly katana.
It was definitely hard with using only one hand to pull it away while he also have to hold the kid up with the other.
“Unhand me this instant, you bastard!”
Okay so he’s a homicidal brat and a potty mouth. Great.
“No can do.” Dick supressed the urge to sigh again for the third time that hour, “At least, not until I make sure you won’t kill the poor guy over there.”
“He deserves it!” the kid screeched and pulled at the katana harder. He also heard the guy whimper from behind the counter.
With how strong the rage the kid is fuelled with, Dick wasn’t really sure on how he’s still holding on to the katana.
“Jesus, kid. Calm down for a second.”
The answer he received is more disgruntled outbursts and revitalized tugging from the kid.
He needs a new tactic to use.
“How about we make a deal then?”
Surprisingly, the kid paused at that. He didn’t get to dwell on that because the other turned towards him and gave him such a dark and spine-chilling glare that may or may not rival the infamous Bat-glare (yeah that’s what he calls it).
“I shall not partake in a deal with a disgusting and vile figure of this society. I was not wrong to assume that the GCPG serve as a breeding ground for corruption and treacherous acts.”
Dick bristled at that. He felt temper suddenly flared up.
The kid noticed this and gave him a crooked and sharp grin, “Oh, did I hit a nerve there, detective?”
Fucking brat.
“Look, I have been really, really patient with you, young man but I think that you have gone far enough.” He growled out, “And haven’t anyone told you that it’s not nice to start spouting assumptions? That could really get you in trouble.”
The other blinked at him and something flashed through his eyes but it was gone before Dick was able to identify it.
The kid’s expression turned blank. He gestured towards the katana and deadpanned, “I am not nice.”
Dick rolled his eyes and wrenched the weapon away from the other’s grasp. Immediately, the kid reached after it and bared his teeth at him like some pissed-off cat.
“Return that at once!”
“And I will.” He drawled out, “I just need you to listen to what I have to say. I know that you don’t trust me like a lot and I get that but you have to understand that I can’t let you murder the pet shop owner.”
He saw the other starting to open their mouth so he spoke up again quickly, “However, I can offer an alternative where I call the Animal Control and let them deal with this. They’re much more qualified with handling this sort of situation.”
The kid remained silent. He was probably contemplating the pros and cons of his offer.
Smart kid. Murderous, bratty, and a potty mouth but definitely smart.
“-Tt- very well then.” The kid crossed his arms and held his chin up, “I accept your alternative offer but do not think for a moment that I trust people of your calibre.”
“Should you do something that upset me, I will not hesitate to take you down.” His eyes flicked towards his name badge for a moment before settling on his eyes, “I will be watching you, Grayson.”
Dick let the third sigh of that hour escape his lips.
“Duly noted.”
Please continue reading here:
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maikatc · 4 years
Text
Black Sun Tale | Two Weeks
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i’m dropping this bad boy early!! this is by far my favorite chapter i have written as of yet so i really do hope this gets spread around from the people that reads this because boy is this an experience!-
regardless, remember that this is a first draft with only minor edits, but nonetheless enjoy the chapter.
The child picked upon the grasses of Fowls and freed the broken pieces from his hand. Only instead of it flying away through some gentle breeze, dashing away into the nature ahead, it fell without any weight behind it, landing flat into the rest of its brethren. He sighed at the falling pieces, continuing to drop them and sitting beyond disappointment. The greens coaxed his weighing patience and filling stomach, yet an emptiness lied in both matters at hand. 
His mother sat by him, face crinkled in concern and gaze fixated on the grass he broke. Her position imposed his usual state: knees up, arms wrapped around and mouth buried in. However, her dress fluffed out of the arms she belted her legs to, the summer blue of the fabric touching both of them, while her hair crumpled up against her arms. No cold winds blew the hair, the dress, even fragile skin away, but the stillness brought eerie silence. 
“What’s the plan,” he spoke. “The one for me to start eating?”
She continued watching the greens falling, no seeming heart to reply at first. “I won’t be the one to guide you in this,” she replied. 
“Then who is?”
“Margaret,” was her answer, “a second era.”
He broke a new piece. “Why her?”
Her tone rang empty, no energy peeping from her arm. “Her and her brother are known in the society to feast on their victims.”
He squirmed. 
“She’s more fitting to aid you than I am.”
Plucking an entire patch of grass, he stuttered out, “What’s her plan for me?”
The best answer she gave was, “I haven’t an idea. All I know is that it may work.”
With the last bit of the grass patch gone from his hands, the boy sighed. He dusted off his dirt-less hands and plummeted himself down. “When do you want me to meet her?”
“… A day.”
“A day?”
She told him, “You likely need to be as energized as possible, as I’ve said.”
“Right.” his body tensed at nothing as the possibilities arrived closer than he would have wished. “So, tomorrow then.” 
She hummed a yes. “I give you my luck.”
Soon, his vision began to blur along with his sense of consciousness. It seemed he must be returning to his normal state. Though before he could frolic with a full stomach and painful guilt, he muttered to himself, “I hope I even have luck.”
***
“Oliver,” Vittorino asked him, “Are you ready to go to Grettie’s for once?”
“Grettie’s?” Oliver whisked his head from his music, a great distraction. 
Vittorino’s arms crossed between one another as he wore an impatient face. “You’ve been avoiding it since you came back from school.”
“And why’re you so worried about it?”
He whined, “Because Alice told me I had to take you.” 
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, besides I haven’t met up with the twins in a while.”
Oliver retorted back, “But that’s your choice! I have nothing so far except that I have to.”
Vittorino sighed. “I’m sorry to say but you gotta get over this,” reminding him, “you’re only gonna get hungrier.”
Plucking a string harshly, the next few days of the starving cycle flashed to him. Morally speaking, dying was the better option. Though the escape from pain and survival weighed more in his fears. “Fine.”
In an instant, another door appeared before Oliver’s room, basking in loving swirls for a design. The bubbliness of it subdued his overall interest.
“I do not like that.”
“Nobody does, except Grettie.” Vittorino opened the door to the inside of another home. Walls formed by wood and decorations to spare. “Hey! Margaret! It’s been forever!” He turned back to Oliver, gesturing him to enter. 
Oliver, still in bed, sighed and brought himself over, grabbing his cardigan on the way.
Once inside, the door slammed shut.
Vittorino already adjusted himself by the dining table. His back leaned by the side of the wooden chair and legs relaxed by laying on another. The table decorated itself with a flower vase and coasters that shined with antique beauty. The fine detail of all the furniture were similar to the table, even. Loving swirls and loops cradled each other in its old-fashioned beauty. And along with it all was the woman of the household carrying a bucket to the kitchen. 
Warm colors bloomed unto her dress and apron, her sleeves dangling against her elbows even when rolled up. Her height continued to stature Oliver, especially in heels, though still not as tall as Vittorino. She held a smile upon her face at him, with brown eyes shining like agates and hair tied with a braid. “Why Oliver! It’s such a pleasure of meeting you.” Her accent was thick compared to others, Oliver supposed German. She lowered a hand to meet his as a greeting, a dirty substance piled onto her skin. “Forgive me for not washing up yet, but I suppose you’ve met the same issue before,” she joked.
Oliver knew the scent, and reluctantly took the hand. “You’re Margaret?”
“Yes, but you’re always open to call me Grettie,” she said. “You can sit with Vittorino while I make preparations.”
“For training…?”
“Oh no,” she laughed, “I simply plan on making sweets later today.”
“Don’t eat them,” Vittorino whispered. “The sugar’s like poison.”
Trusting some of Vittorino’s guidance, Oliver nodded at him while sitting in the other chair. 
As brought herself to the kitchen, and no loud noises rang at her area. Oliver breathed, “Okay, so far, she isn’t as bad as I thought.”
“Oh, Gret’s definitely one of the nicer ones of the second eras.”
He questioned, “Then what’s worse?”
“Well, there’s some that are just stuck-up, so they’re annoying. And others like to complain like first eras, so they’re annoying too.”
“… And?”
“Yeah that’s about it.”
God, I can’t believe it, “What about the crazy ones?”
He chuckled. “We’re all probably ‘crazy’, but the crazier ones of us are just funny.”  
Bluntly, Oliver replied, “You all suck.”
Margaret exited her spot in the kitchen. “Now Vittorino, we need to catch up with one another.” She sat between the two of them. 
He eyed Oliver before speaking. “C’mon, I’ve just been busy with work for months. I need to hear what’s up with you and everyone.”
“You haven’t had any interesting targets?” She pouted. “You have to have at least one good story to tell.” 
Vittorino scowled, “Even with our break, Alice’s been having me deal with eight different people! And I can’t even kill them off like normal because ‘she says so.’”
“That’s seems like a fine hassle, Vittorino.”
“They aren’t. Half of ‘em are dumb and boring.” He rolled his eyes as Oliver sat confused. “But let me hear about how everyone else is doing.”
“Why,” she started, “Hans and I have been living comfortably as always.”
“Yeah, duh, you guys are functional.”
“Though apparently, Orelia found Mei.”
“Huh, no way,” Vittorino’s face widened. “How’d she find her?”
“Got bored herself and hunted her down,” she exclaimed.
“Sounds like her,” he laughed. “And did Mei panic?”
“Well, of course, no! She actually managed to escape from what ‘Relia says too.”
Wait a minute. Oliver continued to stay silent. Is this just their gossip?
“Look, look, now the question is how she even got out.”
“Jumped out of the window while tied up.”
Vittorino busted out laughing.
“It was all for fun and games, so there wasn’t much effort put into it.”
“Still! The savageness,” he wheezed, “is unreal!”
Says the savages. 
“So now Mei’s gone again,” Vittorino asked. 
“Yes, yet again.”
“Darn, I would’ve gone and picked on her a little.”
Margaret asked him, “Well, what about Adeen?”
He shrugged, “We both got tired of each other a while ago. But she had the same deal with everyone else.”
“Well, have you seen her since?”
He scoffed, “No, she’s just bothering herself with her own fires and crying about it, probably.”
“My, what a shame,” she huffed. “But Vittorino, we may need to find another time for stories because of the little one over here.” She gestured her hands at Oliver, now washed and clean. 
He smiled. “Ah, right. Sorry Oliver.” He stood up from his chair and waved as he walked by the door. “Good luck with her,” he commented.
“He’ll need it,” Margaret replied. 
As he shut the door, the woman shifted her gears towards Oliver. “Now then, let’s talk. Cannibal to cannibal.”
Oliver shuffled in his seat. “Even if I joke about it, I don’t like being referred to that…”
“That’s fine then,” she ensured. “About your diet…”
Adjusting his jacket, he replied, “Yeah…” 
“Is there anything you’re curious of?” She pointed towards the kitchen. “Anything you want to try out?”
Oliver twiddled his fingers with a teared-up fabric from her pointing, and tapped his foot against the table. “Not really, but what– … How come you started to eat like that?”
“Why,” she exclaimed, “there isn’t much to it, but my brother and I were introduced to it thanks to Akeldama.”
Akeldama…? The name rang a bell in his head. “What do you mean by introduced?”
“Oh, he gave us flesh for meals as our experiment,” she told. “They tasted all fine and well but we grew accustom to it.”
“Wait,” Oliver pointed his finger to a pause. “Experiment?”
She gasped, “I’m sorry. I forgot you aren’t one of us.” She flipped her braid to the side and twisted it. “Akeldama saved every one of us from one thing or another and raised us all to be free endeavors. But whilst raising us, he experimented us with different kinds of exposure for curiosity sake. Effects varied but for me and Hans, we live jolly lives.”
Oliver pulled back, disturbed at the actions. “And you all were okay with it…?”
She answered, “Some put up with it before he even found them. But all of us trusted him one way or another.” She grasped her apron’s bow. “Besides, if it weren’t for the experiments, I wouldn’t have found a fun joy in the career we have.”
Oliver bit his lip. “Okay, I know you guys have fun with killing and all that stuff, but… explain a little more?”
She chuckled. “Killing is alright, but it’s not my interest. I found more fun in making meals of the matter.” Explaining herself, she grabbed a cup and kettle, serving herself tea. “Nobody’s ever explored what you could make with the meat because of the moral standards, but we don’t have that to back us down. So, it’s like discovering a whole new type of art in cuisine!”
He bit harder. 
“It’s lucky that my brother and I share our payments, because now we’ve set it to where he hunts our share while I venture to see what I can make in the world here.” She grinned in pride at him. Though Oliver refused to genuinely smile back. 
“So, uh, you like cooking then. That’s why.” Oliver studied the house more as a distraction from implications. Cute frames and paintings floated above them on the walls, staring him down. “… How are you gonna help me?”
She swirled her tea around, eying him. “You see, my ability is going to help us today definitely.” Clicking on the ring of the cup, she assured him, “There’s nothing to worry about considering time.”
He questioned her on the statement. 
“My ability preserves time and magic in closed areas and objects.” She said in excitement, “If I ever were to store ingredients, they’d never rot for instance; and that way, we can take as long as needed.”
“Oh wait, that’s useful.”
“It truly is.” She then stood and pushed in her chair. Tea was still buried in her hands as she led a new route. “Come with me, now.”
Oliver followed. 
“How do you feel about eating the meat? As a concept.”
“Terrible.” 
“Oh, that’s no good.” She stopped at a rustic door, one made of newer metal than the rest of the home. She sighed, “I haven’t used this room in forever!” 
Yanking onto the door handle, Margaret pulled with all of her weight and muscle. She tried to keep her grunts hidden though failed the more she pulled on the metal. 
As she struggled, Oliver insisted upon himself grabbing the handle she once held. “Can I try?”
Huffing, she nodded. 
The weight was mild, but his strength prevailed with his missing hunger. The door opened quite easily for him. 
“My,” she cheered, “you’re definitely the son of a strong fellow.” She scuffed his hair, to his pride and discomfort.
Stepping on over, Oliver entered into what laid behind the door. A setting of bricks created a small room along with cobwebs to match the darkness. Rotten water stank the area and the only scene of comfort to be found was a worn-out pillow and a rock bed floor on the side. Countless of cracks and withers dressed the land, grass plucking up down beneath. It was all empty abandon. 
“Huh…” Oliver tensed. “What exactly is the plan for being here…?”
Slam. 
Eyes widening, Oliver whipped his head back to find the door shut against him. Immediately, he run to the door and tried to push it back open. No avail. “Margaret,” he gasped for air, “what are you doing?”
“Ah, luckily I can still close this old thing. Anyhow, it’s my plan for your training,” she said. “I won’t let you out until you eat- oh hold a second, I forgot.”
Her will was correct, as it only took a second until the edge of the door opened up, leaving a little hole. “Until you eat this.” Through the hole, a plate appeared before Oliver, scent thick once she closed the opening again. A raw piece of flesh was on that plate, blood dripping at the edges and forcing Oliver’s heart to pound at the sight. “I’ve heard you tended to eat uncooked meat. Mighty interesting, I say.”
“No…” The shaking body dropped to the ground, gagging and wheezing. “I- I have a family, and friends, and-”
“Don’t worry about that. If you take long, you’ll only be gone for an hour or two.” She added, “And the dungeon disables magic, so you aren’t able to turn into the wolf here.”
Tears were too staggered to drip against his cheeks. He covered his mouth as he whimpered, “Let me out.”
She giggled, “You think that’ll get me? This may have been years ago but I’ve had plenty of people crying in this very dungeon before. You won’t be any different.” Though, after she said, “That is, aside from the fact that I’ll force you if you get to the brink of death- but that’s just because this was all Alice’s request.”
He cried, “But I can’t-”
“And if you’re worried about the meat, there’s no need for concern. It’ll be fresh no matter how long you prevent yourself!” Steps uttered in Oliver’s ears as his heart dropped. “And trust me, it’ll be delicious.”
“No, no, no,” the breathing began. He banged on the door as he screamed, “Let me go!” over and over. “Please let me go!”
But nobody arrived in his aid. No way sufficed as a way out. No one hid to find him at the latest moment. Nobody comforted him in the hopes of anew after so long. 
Minutes passed and he realized this. His last scream finally croaked out as his panicking high peaked. Still restless however, he turned to the plate of flesh, disgusted at the sight. Pushing it aside, he escaped from his thoughts to the corner of the dungeon, and curled up into a ball, shaking and crying in the silence of the darkness. 
***
She hummed as she cooked and baked, twirling around in the meanwhile as she made her fun. 
Hans would arrive to the home from time to time; their sibling bonding being rather kindly and that of a truly connected family. 
Otherwise, some guests would arrive at the home, Grettie greeting them all to her lovely home with delicious sweets and rarities. They’d discuss all kinds of topics and all expressed such great interest and passion between one another, until they left for the satisfying day.
Time spent at her home was considerably gracious. At least, from Oliver’s observations in the dungeon. 
Shaken from weakness and exhaustion, he listened. Carefully and quietly, the life outside his cell irked in his skin as his hunger ached him. A mixture of a certain emptiness welled inside of him, something he could never describe again every second, over the time he had been trapped. And the length of how long he was inside? He lost that long before. 
No distractions were laid out in front of him. The beautiful music to focus upon; the news to worry over; the few friends to trust and talk to, gone with seeping recollection. He wept for them without knowing who he truly wept for by that instance. 
All there was, from the useless bed and careless bricks, was that plate. It daunted him. From the ever-growing scent and tiny pool of blood, it ravaged his mind to almost a resisting obsession. The only answer of escape was through that core of a human, taking it up and knowing it down to his throat where the nectar and bites lodged itself with flavor. He gulped at every thought from the scent, though never carried out. He still refused to lose his own battle despite the torture it brought him. The pain will eventually force him to truly forget his purpose, he imagined; however, the conversations from the outside was his only grasp to the rope of sanity. 
Margaret’s humming continued, a hellish humming so-to-say. Basic and leaning towards off-pitch, but Oliver did not mind anymore. Cutting ingredients and burning kettles tickled his ears harshly, the sounds growing more aggressive the more he stayed. Though, yet again Margaret’s door opened up. 
“Margaret? You’re home, correct?”
His twitching eyes darted at the cell door. The timid voice screamed into Oliver’s memory. And soon his breathing quickened over the voice of his mother who brought him here. 
“Why, Alice! Of course, I’m home.” Steps pattered on the floor. “It’s always lovely to have guests over, come, sit.”
More trickles of steps hit the ground, the new ones much more gentle and hesitant in sound. The chair squeaked away from its spot for one to sit. 
“Would you like some tea?”
“Oh- No, thank you. Your brews are considerably too sweet…” 
Another chair screeched back. “Says the woman known for her amounts of sugar.” An object, likely a sugar cube, dropped into a beverage. The clicking against her tea cup jabbed into Oliver’s ears. 
“Well, not many trust your meals anyways.” 
“But it’s always kindly to offer. Besides, Hans and sometimes Orelia already enjoy what I make.” A sip replied to her words. “Oh, it still needs more sugar.”
She continued to drink her tea as Alice sat silently along with her. 
“So, Margaret…” She cleared her throat. “What was the conclusion for Oliver?”
“Ah.” The junior set down her cup. “It’s been about a week but he’s still in there. Quite stubborn I’d admit.”
“He- what are you speaking of?”
“His training, obviously.”
“… What did you do for him?”
She clicked the cup. “What I did? Why, I decided to use up the old dungeon again and keep him there until he eats. There’s not much else to it.”
A slam banged the table. “You WHAT?”
“It’s a simple method, Alice. People grow desperate quick with it.”
“- And he’s been stuck there for a week? It’s only been an hour since he was dropped off-. Margaret, you’re traumatizing him!
“Is that what you call it?” She laughed. “My dear, his lifestyle must have been filled with so much ‘trauma’ that this will be nothing.”
“Yes but-” she paused. “He’s only a child!”
“A child that’s seen faces of death millions of times for almost half his life, who isolates himself constantly and penalizes himself to the brink of death. I wouldn’t refer to him as an innocent one.”
“… How do you know that?”
She sipped. “It was merely a hunch though it wasn’t hard to guess. Us lost children have had similar instances at some point in time.”
“You’re just excusing yourself,” Alice hissed. “Where is he?”
“Right over there.” A running dashed and slammed at his door. 
“Oliver! Oliver, are you okay?” Alice cried out for him carelessly. 
Thoughts were blurred for the sickened one, his opinions empty. However, few words he remembered, those he questioned, rang out like none other. “I’m fine,” he croaked, throat burning at his first time talking in ages. 
She choked back her tears. “I’m so sorry, Oliver. I didn’t expect her to go this far!”
He never questioned her words, only her actions. 
In silence, he asked, “Why was I created…?”
“What,” she gasped through her sobs. 
“You put me here… because of how I was made,” the words flew out of his mouth without thinking. “Why make me when I have to be in this…?”
She spoke softly. “Because I wanted you. That’s all I ever wanted… But now, I regret being so careless of my desires. Careless enough to make you the way you are. And it pains me every day to know what you are because of me, Oliver.”
A pit in his gut yanked him into a sicker state. “Then, I was a mistake.”
“I-” She paused. “No, no, that’s not what I’m telling.”
She stuttered at words. 
“You’re… an anomaly to be amazed with, Oliver. It was a miracle for you to be created in the first place… But all I’ve wanted was to live a normal life, living in a pretty cottage with my daring husband and beautiful, happy son. I tried my best for my dreams to come true, trust me.”
There was no reaction to the words that displayed soulless for him. Though a certain lie stuck in his head. “What about my father?”
“Your father…” She giggled against her crying. “Christopher was… a rambunctious fellow. He’d pull off some idiotic things just to spite like- like he named himself after his housecat to make our leader mad! He made so many stunts in rebellion it was charming until… that, occurred. But, nevertheless I love him.”
“… Sounds nice.”
Oliver lost the time between their silence. All he heard was her crying, and sobbing endlessly until the emotions laid dry. 
“Why won’t you let me go,” he asked. 
She delayed her answer at first. “Regardless of how terrible it is, you have to learn. Forgive me…” A step back uttered in Oliver’s ears yet again, but this time with no panic or fear. “I’ll have to leave you now, but good luck.”
She left him there, as his loving mother, thanking Margaret for the visit and shutting the door.
***
“What were you thinking, Margaret?!” The door slammed intensely to the harm of Oliver’s more sensitive ears. His conscious began to fade in and out without his control along with his skin wilting into black. Though, despite the weakness, the angered voice brought an unrecognizable memory.
“Oh my!” Margaret cheered while placing down her knife. “Akeldama, it’s lovely of you to be here after so-”
“Answer the question.” 
“What? About Oliver?” 
“Of course, about him,” he yelled. “You don’t know of the consequences that it would bring, don’t you?”
“Well, I figured he’d be fine considering being of-”
“It doesn’t work like that,” he interrupted. “He’s been inside for almost two weeks, hasn’t he?”
No sound of a reply. 
A click was made. “He should be going numb by now from his senses going wild without anything.” He ordered, “Let me see him.”
No steps crinkled into his hearing, however a new feature of the cell door arrived so late. The top opened up a small linear hole for eyes to appear before him. Oliver shook and winced at the light he never recalled. Yet what pierced his heart was the blood red eyes looking back at him. 
“How long were you planning on keeping him here?”
Margaret answered, “About three weeks, since that was the point most of my targets lasted.” 
“That’s too much of a risk,” he replied. “He’ll last two or three days at most by now.”
“Wow,” she exclaimed, “I wouldn’t imagine him being weak-bodied.” 
“Just special,” he commented. However soon after, his voice grew stern. “Now, if he doesn’t eat by tomorrow, you make him eat the food or else I’ll execute you and your brother. You understand?”
Again, no reply. 
“Good, now go. I want to talk with him.”
Soft steps surrounded the area slow and steady, with muttering words, “He hasn’t executed anybody since the 1700s!”
“And I won’t hesitate about it, Grettie,” he spoke back. “But give yourself credit. It’s a first for me to be this frustrated. Consider it a good job on your part.”
“Ah, why thank you, Akeldama.” And she ran off to a room she normally wandered off to in Oliver’s head.
After a moment of silence, Akeldama looked away from the peep-hole and sighed. “I should’ve expected this honestly, but hopefully majority of your memory here is blurred over time.” 
Oliver refused to open his mouth at the supposed, experimental heathen. 
“You don’t have to talk, if you’d like. I’ve just wanted to talk for a long while. Besides, humans need some sort of interaction once an occasion, so it’s for the best.”
The boy followed the beast’s response. Though, his way of speech poked in his mind. 
“… Okay. You’re not in the best situation, even for an apparent benefit. And I know you listened to what I said so let me say one thing: it’s fine to feel however you’re feeling about your case.”
He listened against his wildering mind. 
“People can say idiotic things, make absurd actions, that can overall be ridiculous in the grand scheme of things. But that’s the beauty of it. They choose to do as they please because they feel like it’s the right thing, even if to others, it isn’t, you know?” He blabbered silently, yet with passion sighing out. “And what’s greater is that you don’t even have to listen, you don’t have to agree with them or follow them. Humans choose their own paths because they are themselves and their own mind, and you’re even able to do that as well.”
He paused. “… The point is, no matter the reasoning, or the excuses some make up, you don’t have to follow them or continue on liking them. It’s all one’s choice and you live for your benefit, that’s another beauty.” He formed a short chuckle. “Honestly, you were one of those sudden impulses… from what I recall. Sure, you may not live the best life, but be grateful for living. I’m surprised this has all come this far, even. You’ve been a wondrous creation just with some faults in the mixture, but that shouldn’t back you down at all.”
The monologue eased Oliver’s shaking breathing. His words held no panic nor inane excitement. Only a foreign, changing accent and honest words spoke even when he could not understand them.
“You may not enjoy your hardships with them but you should still live… You’re able to be furious, despondent, fearful, and even if that leads to one’s downfall, it’s still one of the best things you can have. It makes you human. And as-”
He stopped. Then began to pace in his new steps. “I’ve said too much. Far too much, haven’t I?”
Oliver stayed silent still. 
“Why, this is very new for me,” he stammered. “I must’ve gotten it from Livi- no, don’t say that… What should I consider this, then?” 
He talked to himself for some time, to Oliver’s still listening ears.
“Ugh, I want you to forget this- practically all of this, but that’d be ill-wise for your sake.” He continued his fast steps. “Forget about me but don’t forget my words,” and a command was made.
Afterwards, his steps led to the exit and a shut was made. 
More steps scuttled back in, with Margaret’s voice following. “My, he’s never said anything like that to us. What a surprise.” After a moment, she walked on over to the cell door, opening the peep hole and Oliver meeting her eyes. She gasped, “Oh wow, I never imagined something so peculiar… Well, you heard him earlier, I’ll make you eat by tomorrow, so enjoy your time.”
And the opening was shut, cutting off the light he yearned for so long. 
***
After fading away from himself once or twice, he began scratching up his arms. Yet no blood seeped out from the deepening black they have become.
Every movement ached in numb pain. A burning sensation crawled under his skin every second as his heart raced for something to take. His mind floated away from any thoughtful strength, waiting for something to take over him like all the other times, but to no avail, his reliance failed. Outside noises began to ring an inaudible tone while the darkness finally blinded his surroundings. The bricks he laid against disappeared as he lost what he once viewed as a simple corner. And the pain blocked him from being able to acknowledge himself through touch. 
All that remained was his desperate self, and his scent. 
How long will it be until he was finally free? He wondered. It must only be a few hours until she arrived again, dragging him back to the light. Returning him to his home, his music, his apparent love. He would return to where he was cherished, right? Only one would believe of where he had been, and care for him, he knew that much. The gratification of comfort awaited him the more his pain faded away. 
All that was needed was a bite. 
A delicious bite that would bless him back his senses the most sinful way possible. The tender meat stacking on his tongue, blood staining his refurnished skin. The scent and taste masking all of himself and pain with ecstasy instead while the meat crumpled in his mouth into more flavor within itself. 
He would lick up the blood off his fingers, for what a fine delicacy it would be! Such a tiny bite would turn into the amass in front of him. His tiny hands grabbing and hassling all the meat until he gobbled it all up, for what a delight, it was! What an amazement, it was, for embracing such a sin! Who knew something so torturous would transform to something so addicting! 
… That is, until his sight returned to him, and in the dark, was his bloody hands in front of an empty plate. He gasped back with a jump as his energy already started returning to him. The metallic taste blended into his mouth while processing what he committed. His fingers curled into his mouth, his body craving more for what was on it. 
He whipped it away, and tried rubbing it all off on his cardigan. Don’t. 
He stared back at the plate, now empty but still carrying trickles of blood. Don’t. 
Crawling back, his pain ached for more. Please, don’t.
Yet his heart’s cries failed while licking off the blood on the plate. 
“Well, well…” Her words articulated perfectly again. Oliver turned to find the peep hole open. “I wonder how delicious it would’ve been before,” she laughed. 
Glaring at her, he wiped his face, thoughts trying to lick it off. 
“You only had an hour left but, congrats.” The door knob turned, but she grunted back with no door movement. “Oh, now I didn’t think this through…”
“What,” with a tone empty.
She continued to pull the door until she pouted. “It seems that you have to open this yourself, but you don’t have the strength yet, don’t you?” With a sigh, her steps faded off. “I’ll fetch you more food to gain yourself then. Consider this as more than seconds.” 
He sat in silence, and all he reacted with was a lick of the teeth. 
***
“You don’t have to…”
“But I insist!” Margaret rushed back and forth from the kitchen, carrying various items each time from an old cloth bag to a kitchen knife, her apron getting dirtier every minute. “Consider it an apology treat.”
He asked without effort, “And why an apology treat?” 
She rushed out of the kitchen with the burlap bag, brown and sturdy, and handed it to him with blood slowly staining the cloth underneath. “I didn’t expect this to be that much of a controversy, so to say.” She grinned. “This won’t rot by all the rest, but I know you’ll gobble it up in no time!”
A pit in his now full stomach grew. His senses acted up upon the treats inside the bag. “… Okay, just get Vittorino please.”
“Gladly, but you may have to wait.” she dabbled on a piece of paper and pen she quickly grabbed, only to then slide it into a box. “Would you like to talk in the meanwhile-?”
“No- no,” Oliver replied. “I’ll wait… here.” Sitting down, he stared at the bag whilst she sat across from him. 
She placed an arm on the table. “If you must.” 
Only a few minutes passed before Vittorino returned by the door. His arm held his head from behind as he walked in. He sighed, “You cannot believe how dumb some teenagers can be.”
Glumly, Oliver found Vittorino in his relaxed state as always in his talking, but the aching relief of seeing him again simply moved him to his side. 
Vittorino noticed, and looked down upon him. 
“… Take me somewhere quiet.” 
Vittorino stared, then made an understanding face. “Margaret, you took him in there, didn’t you?”
“Did you think it was a bad idea too?” Her arms crossed each other. “Even Akeldama got mad about it!”
He never replied, and instead returned to Oliver’s request. “Yeah, I think I know a place.”
The place was a beach, cobbled with sandy air and a serene blue sky. Clouds overweighed the color; recent drops kissed marks on the ground with gentle mush at every touch. The clouds refused to walk on yet the gusty breeze blew away from any dim atmosphere, blowing speckles of sands and the fluff of one’s hair.
Waters slept soundly, not pushing against the end of the island and instead snoring little tuffs of its puddles. Its clear body reflected the sky above, and through glimpses shined the rocks it used as pillows. Those rocks of smooth sheen crept around every step, from the waters to the growing forest behind. No tide could interrupt the restful evening, not the moon nor any sight of the sun. 
The greys of the land contradicted lifelessness.
Vittorino trudged himself over onto the sidelines of the water. Sitting down, he snatched a pebble and watched the whistling waves.
Oliver only stood against it all, eying Vittorino without the rest of the world. “What’s this place?”
He threw the pebble into the water. “A place that no one’s lived in for 300 years. It’d be quiet, yeah?” The pebble skidded through the water for seconds’ count until dripping down below. 
Without a motivation, he joined the other. His shoes tipped at the edge of the water with temptation of dunking in. The water tickled his soles, but to none of his laughter. He stared down upon it and Vittorino’s pebbles. The gratifying wind of the land dissatisfied his unknown desires. As the wind carried his hair against his face, he turned to the bag by his hands, gaining closer to stain the sand underneath him. 
It was a bag of fulfillment, one that he could show off to himself and bask in the treasure. Such a fulfillment already engrailed in his stomach in which he obsessed over only minutes ago. Why would he like that, he asked. A mere worthless beast would crave such a fulfillment. Yet, the pit in his spirit craved to be rid of it, and told his arm to move. Staring blankly against the sky, his dried-up, bloody hand dipped into his mouth, creeping down to into his throat until he brought himself down to a gag and-
A hand grabbed his arm back, another trapping around his torso. “Don’t do that-” Vittorino struggled to speak. 
“No,” he wrestled back at him. Water leaped out of his eyes. 
“You’ll die, Oliver.”
“Please stop and leave me-” His spirit stopped at the final word, complete fear and pain returning at the thought of the word, the thought of the phrase. The sickening pit gouged his skin to an utter freeze. And the seeking of comfort finally returning him to a necessity. 
“Oliver…?”
“Take me to the street,” he said.
“The street?”
“You know which one,” he said.
Vittorino studied and loosened his grip, still grabbing hold. A small wave finally kicked and watered their feet, catching a small trickle of blood along the way. 
“… Okay.”
***
The comfort was writing on his journal, drabbles of lines sinking down into the corner without control of the page. He was curled up in his blankets, earbud wires attached in the abyss of his hair and the end of an MP3 player.
Oliver stood beside him in his distraction, bag in hand, until he finally turned around and saw.
He froze from his writing, eyes widening and blinking to a red tint. He stared up at his dead eyes, mouth agape and finding a word. But Oliver already knew what to begin with. 
“Let’s not talk about it.”
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