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is0gild · 3 years

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Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Bonus Chapter 1

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 12,577

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER | | NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

"Do you think Kristoff is cute?" Anna asked, elbows propped on the table and chin in both hands as she watched the man in question from across the food court.

"You kiddin'? The dude's a hunkasaurus. Total dreamboat," Lea replied distractedly, not looking up from his current task. He was seated atop a different table, this one behind me, his feet perched to either side of me on the armrests of my chair as he played with my hair, slowly braiding and unbraiding it only to rebraid it again. "Better snap him up quick. If you don't slice yourself off a piece of that beefcake, I might beatcha to it."

My sister blew out an amused pft through her teeth as she looked over at him. "Sure, like he'd even give you the time of day."

"Oh-ho, trust me. If I wanted that boy, I'd have him."

"Anna," I sighed, interjecting myself back into the conversation. "Focus, please."

She blinked owlishly back at me, clearly having already forgotten my question. Or quite possibly not even having heard it in the first place. "...on…?" she asked at last, dragging the word out uncertainly.

I exhaled softly. "About Mother and Father?"

Her eyes darted to the left as she squinted and tried, "As in… do they think Kristoff is cute?"

My eyelids drooped and I gave a flat, "No."

Today found me with not one visitor on my lunch break, but two. Lea came as little shock. Even though he had the day off, he'd lately taken to doing his homework here in the food court whenever I was on the clock. That way, he could spend my lunches with me, not to mention score free ice cream throughout the day. Anna, on the other hand, had been an unexpected surprise, but always a welcome one of course. However, it was quickly becoming apparent that it probably wasn't really me she'd come to see.

Not if the way she kept eyeing my coworker as he ran the ice cream counter was any indication.

It'd been a few weeks now since her rather explosive breakup with Hans. Given that she normally got over past boyfriends in under a day, maybe two tops, the fact that it'd taken her this long to quit moping over him said something. But it seemed at long last she was back to her old, perky self again and all but wearing a "cute, single and ready to mingle" sandwich board sign. And apparently it was Kristoff's lucky day, for it seemed my sister had set her mingle-crosshairs on him as her latest conquest.

I didn't know whether to congratulate the guy or tell him to run. My sister would eat him alive.

Anna was now staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to elaborate. I bit my bottom lip, looking down as my fingers absently began to trace the snowflake pattern of my stockings. "I just… I was wondering… how Mother and Father were doing, that's all."

I'd still yet to speak to them since the little blowout at their house the weekend of Grandfather's birthday. If they weren't going to contact me, I certainly wasn't going to make any effort to reach out to them either. Still, I couldn't deny that it weighed on me a bit. I'd mostly been trying to keep my mind off it, trying to distract myself by throwing all my attention and energy into rehearsals.

She frowned then puffed out a heavy breath, causing her lips to flap. "Ya know, I'm not sure really… Fine, I guess? The same? They're not really on speaking terms with me since they found out about me and Butthead."

If you couldn't guess, that was her oh so charming nickname for Hans now.

Not to mention the only name anyone was allowed to refer to him as in Anna's presence these days.

"Ah," I breathed, fingers fidgeting with the hem of my work skirt. "...I see."

Her lips pursed to one side. "Now that I think about it though… them and Grandpa haven't really been on speaking terms either lately. But no clue if that's so much as his choice or theirs."

"Oh? Huh…" my brow furrowed and my head tipped to one side.

What could it mean?

"You should talk to 'em, ya know," came Lea's low voice suddenly as he hunched down next to my ear.

A tiny scowl twisted my face as I glanced over at him. He quirked an eyebrow back at me from beneath my Ice Palace cap, which he was currently wearing backwards. I huffed and crossed my arms, "If they want to talk to me, they know where to find me."

He snorted and sat up straight once more, his fingers returning to gently combing through my hair, eliciting a tingle in my scalp that made me shiver. "Someone has to be the first one."

"Yeah. Them," I harrumphed.

Now he pressed his lips to the back of my head before his hand ruffled my bangs. "You can be so stubborn sometimes, ya know that?"

No comment.

"Right!" Anna was abruptly hopping up to her feet and pumping a fist as she set her determined eyes on Kristoff once more. "I'm gonna march up to that boy and work my magic! Prepare to have your socks knocked off, you big sexy manbeast!" She then smoothed a hand over her hair, tugged on the neckline of her dress to flash a little more cleavage, and took one confident step towards the Ice Palace.

That was as far as she got before, "Hold it!" A hand shot out to snag her elbow, stopping her in her tracks. "We need to talk to you."

Anna blinked down at the offending hand, then at its owner, Rayne. She'd just shown up with a grinning and waving Kairi at her side.

Where'd they come from? I hadn't even seen either of them approaching.

"...me?" Anna asked, pointing at herself as both eyebrows flew up her forehead.

My roomie nodded then turned her eyes towards me to clarify, "Both of you."

Huh. This now brought the count up to four people dropping by to see me on my lunch break today. Never before had I been in such high demand.

Had I become, dare I say it… popular?

Dear god, I hope not!

Rayne's gaze narrowed on Lea. "Beat it, Red. This doesn't concern you."

"You beat it!" Lea shot back as his arms hugged me from behind, pulling me back against his chest. He made a small hmph that I more felt than heard as he rested his chin atop my head, "This is my El Time. You're not allowed to cut in on it, you live with her."

She rolled her eyes. "You two have plans together tonight once her shift is over, right?"

"So?"

"So you can give up five minutes of your precious El Time for me and Kai here to have a quick chat with her. Now go on, shoo," she dismissed him with a bored flick of her wrist.

He grumbled, "Ugh, fine. Looks like the kiddos just punched in over at Pizza Planet, so guess I could go grace their sad existences with my glorious presence." Releasing me, he pulled my elastic band off his wrist so he could tie my hair back into its ponytail. Then he was nuzzling his face into my neck, planting a quick peck there before whispering in my ear, "Be back in a sec. You'll miss me, I know, but try to keep the tears in check, hm?"

In response, I turned my head to kiss him on the nose… followed by smothering his face with my hand and shoving him away. He sniggered, pushing himself off the table.

"Hope you're ready to have your ass curb stomped tomorrow, Organization scum," Kairi slyly smirked at him.

"Big talk coming from someone's who lost the last two years runnin' now, Princess twerp," he tugged down his left lower eyelid with his middle finger and razzed his tongue at her before turning and jogging off, still wearing my cap.

Eyes flicking back and forth between him and Kairi, Anna asked, "What was that about?"

"Laser tag," I grinned softly as my gaze followed Lea for a second before I reached back to tighten my ponytail and glanced at the rest of ladies once more. "It's practically all he's been talking about for the last week."

"Mm-hm," Kairi nodded as she and Rayne pulled up chairs to sit with us. "It's also what we want to talk to you about. We're here to recruit you two!"

My head rocked back slightly. Then my brows knit together as my eyes darted about. Uh, heh… no thanks! Checking my phone, I stood up quickly, "Er… would you look at the time? I'm due back from lunch! I should go cloc-"

"Sit!" Anna snagged my wrist and jerked me back down into my seat with a firm thud. "You still got at least another ten minutes, liar!"

"Snitch," I grumbled back.

Lifting her chin with a smug little smirk, she looked back at the other two. "Please, continue."

"You know Space Paranoids, right? The laser tag place here in the mall?" Rayne began, addressing Anna more so than me, seeing as how I already had some clue as to what was going on, thanks to Lea. "Well some years back, a buncha us rented the entire place out for like a whole day and it was a total blast. We all had so much fun that we decided to make it an annual thing. More and more kept joining every year and as people kept getting more and more competitive, it wasn't long before two official teams were formed. Lea's group calls themselves the Organization."

"Such a buncha dorks," Kairi shook her head with a snerk. Then she was pointing back and forth between her and Rayne, "Our team is way cooler. We're the Princesses."

Anna bit back a grin and cocked one eyebrow at my roommate. "The Princesses? Really?"

She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh, "Kai's idea. It stuck."

"Hey now. Princesses are cute and kick serious butt," Kairi cockily flipped her hair back over her shoulder.

"Anyway," Rayne chimed back in, "we thought this year those Organization losers were gonna have to forfeit because they were down two teammates that moved away recently. However, not only did those jerks manage to snag the mall security guards as replacements, but now we're down two people ourselves."

"Really? Who?" Anna eagerly leaned forward in her seat, thoroughly invested now.

"Me," she muttered, face twisting sourly as she gestured down to her belly. At five months along now, she was starting to look very much pregnant. She huffed indignantly, "Some people think it might not be safe for the baby."

By the tone of her voice, I was guessing "some people" included her husband.

"You are getting pretty big now, Ray-Ray," Anna snickered. "Maybe it's a good idea-"

"Shush!" she glared, striking up a finger in warning. "I get enough of that from Riku!"

Kairi spoke up once more, "Our other person who's out this time round is Ariel. She's got bronchitis."

I blinked. "Again?!"

"Again," she and Rayne groaned in unison. Kairi then beamed, clapping her hands together once, "That's where you two come in! Could ya please, please, pretty please help us outta this major jam here and top off our team? Whaddya say?"

"Sweet! Count us in!" Anna declared, excitedly balling her hands into fists in front of her chest.

"Correction. You can count her in," I touched Anna's shoulder, then placed a hand over my chest, "and me out."

Kairi's face fell, "But we need you!"

I snorted, "No you don't, I'm the last person you need. I've never played laser tag before. I've never even held a, uh… um…" I grimaced, floundering for the right word before saying lamely, "...laser… beam… shooter… thingie ever in my life!"

"You can just call it a gun, sweetie," Rayne cooed, reaching over to pat my hands.

"But that's the beauty of it! That doesn't matter! We don't need you to be good," Kairi argued before a tiny, wicked smile broke out across her face. "We just need you to take care of Lea."

My head tilted to the right as I frowned. "...Lea?"

Rayne nodded, "Yup! He's one of their best players, along with Xigbar and Saïx."

"Saïx?" I echoed, squinting at her. "You mean to tell me he's awake during the daytime for this?"

"There's three days a year that dude'll brave the sun, and our yearly laser tag game is one of those days. He takes it surprisingly seriously," Rayne explained solemnly.

Wrinkling my nose up at the ceiling, I inhaled and exhaled loudly. "I still don't understand how I'm supposed to help you with Lea, especially if he's as good as you say he is."

"Simple!" Kairi chirped. "You just need to keep him distracted! Mess with his head a lil. Throw him off his game just long enough for the rest of us to knock him outta the match early."

I furrowed my brow at her. "...and how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She gave me an impish wink. "Use your feminine wiles."

"My…?" A crease formed between my eyebrows now as I stared down at my lap. "...do I even have those?"

Kairi laughed, "Course you do! All girls have them."

"Yeah, even you, Sis!" Anna pinched my cheek. I shut one eye against it, swatting her hand away.

"Trust me, all Elsa has to do is exist around that boy and he's a total goner. He'll be eliminated so fast, he won't even know what hit him," Rayne muttered to Kairi, who nodded in agreement. Then my roomie was locking eyes with me once more, "So how 'bout it, sweetpea? Will you help us out?"

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. "I… uh…"

Anna nudged her shoulder with mine, "C'mon, Sis, pleeeeeeeease? I'm super friggin' pumped, this sounds like so much fun!"

Clasping my hands between hers, Kairi pleaded, "Help us, Elsa-Wan Kenobi! You're our only hope!"

"Well, I… er…"

Then they did it.

I was the victim of a triple-decker puppy-dog-eyes pout.

Perhaps I could have withstood one, even if it was Anna's. And maybe, just maybe I could've even resisted the combined force of two. But three?

I defy anyone to say no to that.

Shoulders slumping, I gave a long drawn out sigh. "...what time tomorrow?"

All three of them threw up their hands and cheered. After they took a few seconds to settle back down, Kairi said, "Don't worry, we'll get all the deets to you soon! And remember, you're our ace in the hole. Our secret weapon!"

A tiny gulp. "I am?"

"Yup! So don't breathe a single word of this to Lea!"

And breathe a word I did not. Thus, the next day…

"What the…? Oh, hell no!"

At Lea's outburst, I glanced towards him as Kairi, Anna and I walked out into the Space Paranoids lobby. We'd just been freshly geared up with blasters, half-helmets and vests - and by vests, I meant small, impossible-to-hit (at least I thought so anyway) targets over our hearts held in place by glow-in-the-dark, suspender-like straps that latched back behind our shoulders where a second target was located. The helmets also had targets on them, as well as see-through plastic visors that covered our eyes.

The lobby seemed to be split by an invisible line, with what looked to be the Princesses grouped up together on one side and what I could only assume was the Organization on the other, given that Lea was standing with them as he glared daggers at Kairi from across the room. She merely shot him a cheeky smirk and called, "Problem, beanstalk?"

He marched over, crossing enemy lines to glare down his nose at the considerably shorter redhead. "Uh-uh. Nope. Not allowed. I call foul. Objection!"

She snorted, unconcerned as she checked her nails and shrugged. "Dunno what has your panties in such a twist, big guy. Care to enlighten me?"

He jabbed a finger in my direction while still directing his snarl at her, "Get her outta here. She's not part of this, find someone else."

Kairi scoffed, "There's nothing in the rules declaring girlfriends off limits. In fact, there are no rules."

"Well there should be! In fact, I'll draw some up right this damn second!" he huffed, tucking his blaster into the back of his pants before storming over to a counter, behind which a pasty-complexioned employee currently stood. Lea snatched a pen off the countertop before stomping back over to us, angrily jamming his hand into one of his pockets and fishing out something crumpled. Then he slammed it to the wall and attempted to smooth it (without much success), uncapped the pen with his teeth and began scrawling across it.

"Rule 1…" he enunciated as his pen furiously scribbled, "...no… girlfriends…" He paused, then amended, "or boyfriends…" Another pause, then he scribbled it all out and started over. "Rule 1… no… smooch-buddies…" he underlined those first two words three times before continuing," ...on opposite… teams. Period. That's it. That's all… the rules." His pen stabbed down hard with finality before he shoved the crinkled thing with his handwriting all over it in front of Kairi's face. "There. Rules. Happy?"

Kairi dully stared at what he was holding, unfazed. Then her eyelids drooped. "...that's a napkin."

Lea rolled his eyes, "So what? Doesn't make 'em any less ironclad!"

She gingerly took "the rules" from him, eyeing them with a thoughtful nod for a second. Then she looked him dead in the eye as she ripped them in two, forcing a horrified gasp out of him as the shredded halfs fluttered to the ground. "Sorry, I don't recognize your napkin rules. She's playing, so suck it up."

He narrowed his eyes down at her. "I'm onto you. I know what you're doing."

"Oh? What, pray tell, is it that I'm doing?" she asked all sugar-sweet like.

His face pinched and there was a low, annoyed growl in his throat. Then he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then at her, then back and forth a few more times. "I see you, villain!" he hissed before turning away from her to address me now, his face and tone softening. "...can I talk to you real quick? Please?"

I fidgeted with my gun, struggling to keep a straight face after the sheer ridiculousness of the tiny spat I'd just witnessed, especially with them both wearing their little cheap, plastic helmets the whole time and looking absolutely absurd. At my nod, he slipped his hand into mine and led me over to an empty corner of the lobby where we could chat with some small amount of privacy.

"If those girls pressured you into doing this, you can ignore 'em, ya know," he told me quietly, shooting the Princesses one final scowl out of the corner of his eye. "You don't hafta do this if you don't want to."

I bit back a grin. He actually kind of looked adorable right now, sulking like an overgrown child behind that silly eye-visor he was wearing. It was hard to take him seriously. "It's okay. Really. I'll admit, I was a bit nervous and hesitant at first, but this also sounds like it might be kind of fun. It's fine. I want to play."

"But I don't want you to," he frowned, his fingers reaching out to idly fiddle with the tip of my braid. I don't think he even realized he was doing it. "...some of the guys don't hold back, El. Once that starting buzzer blasts, all bets are off and it can get pretty rough in there. You could get seriously hurt."

I slowly shook my head, "But the other girls-"

"-have played this before and know what they're getting into. You don't," he insisted.

I made a small hmph in my throat as my stubbornness began to spark. "How bad could it be? Really?" Glancing back towards the Princesses, I pointed out one of them in particular. "What about her, right there? She's, what… ten? Eleven years old? If you got grade schoolers playing, I think I'll be fine."

"She's one of their scariest players. Seriously, they hop that kid up on a mega shit ton of sugar from the Wonderland candy store until she's stark raving mad, then set her loose to wreak unholy hell in the laser tag grounds."

Huh. On second glance, the little girl did look twitchy. Almost freakishly so.

Sighing, I looked back up at Lea once more. "Look, I told Kairi and the others I would play, and that's what I'm going to do. I'd feel bad backing out now as I doubt they'd be able to replace me at the last second like this. I can take care of myself, you know. I promise I'll be careful, but I am doing this," I brought a comforting hand up to stroke his cheek, my eyes crinkling slightly. "So suck it up."

He snorted, dragging a hand along the nape of his neck and puffing out a heavy breath. "Fine, I guess I can't stop ya. But know this," he hunched down to my eye-level, tapping me lightly on the nose, "if we cross paths in there, don't think I'll go easy on ya."

"Good," I grinned back. "Neither will I."

"Oh-ho, pretty sure of ourselves, are we?" he smiled, rubbing a finger over his chin now. "In that case, care to put a lil wager on this?"

I turned my head to one side, shooting him some side-eye. "...I'm listening."

"How 'bout… whoever is the last one standing between the two of us, wins. And if I win…" his eyes hooded as he ducked down next to my ear, his voice silky and low as he continued, "...you ravage me senseless tonight. Maybe while wearing that lil mini skirt I like ya in so much."

My face warmed. Flirting was a part of relationships that I still wasn't fully accustomed to just yet. Hans had never really done it and it's not like I could simply brush it off as Lea's empty teasing anymore. Clearing my throat, I just asked, "And if I win?"

He gave a soft chuckle, nipping at my earlobe. "Then I'm the one who ravages you senseless."

A tiny smirk tugged at my lips. "...maybe while you're the one wearing the mini skirt?"

Lea shot up straight, eyes wide. Then he laughed, "Deal!"

I stared at him blankly. "I was joking."

"I wasn't. Be careful whatcha wish for," he singsonged, wagging a finger in my face. I merely drooped my eyelids at him and he snerked. Then his hand was cupping the back of my head, pulling me in for a sound kiss to the lips and murmuring, "Good luck."

"You too," my arms hugged his neck as I gave him a light peck in return. "You're going to need it."

"You have way too much confidence for someone who's never played before," he snorted and I just shrugged. Then we reluctantly parted and started making our way back to our respective teams.

I glanced around as I walked, getting a better look at the lobby. It had a very retro futuristic feel to it, what with all its hard angular lines that glowed neon blue and red decorating the walls, ceiling and floor. Even that pale employee behind the counter was dressed head-to-toe to match the room. His nametag read TRON - I had to wonder if that was an actual real name or (more likely) just the name he was assigned while on the job. On the wall beyond the two teams were a pair of doors, one that was dark grey and blue like the colors of the Princesses' helmets, while the other was white and red like the Organization's. I could only assume each group would enter through their matching door once the game was about to start.

Opposite the room from there was a wall made entirely of thick glass, through which could be seen the front desk where customers came in to sign up and pay for laser tag rounds. That area had several flatscreens hanging on the walls showing live feeds of various sections of the laser tag arena for onlookers to observe the match in realtime, so the place was currently packed with a small mob of people who'd come to watch our little face-off. It seemed this annual event drew quite the crowd.

While I didn't recognize most of the faces, there were a few familiar ones here and there. Aqua, Ventus, and Terra grouped together on one side… Yuffie and Leon on another… and over next to Sora, I could even spot Naminé there with a sketchpad in hand. I think she was drawing us players all decked out in our gear. And was that… Vanitas, of all people, trying to cozy up next to her? She seemed oblivious to him. Rayne, on the other hand, most definitely was not. She shoved her baby bump in between the two of them, forcing Vanitas to stumble back a step as she plucked Naminé's art pad from her hands and smacked the goth lord across the face with it. She then handed it back to Naminé, who just went back to sketching as if nothing had happened. Then Rayne was smiling and waving at me through the glass as Riku stepped up behind her to slip his arms around her waist and rest his chin on her shoulder.

As I waved back and took my spot next to Anna with the rest of the girls, I heard a wry voice coming from the enemy team, "Trouble with the lil missus, Flamesilocks?"

"Bite me, Cyclops," Lea snapped as he rejoined his team, his sour mood apparently resurging.

"Heh. As if," that same smug voice shot back. It belonged to a tall man with a jagged scar on one cheek and an eyepatch that looked rather odd to say the least when paired with his helmet's visor. His long black and grey-streaked ponytail swished as he then bent low into a dramatic, mocking bow directed towards another guy with long silver hair who I recognized as the supervisor over at Cinema XIII. "If I may do the honors, oh illustrious leader?"

The man - presumably their team captain - said nothing, just gave an uninterested flick of his hand.

That was all the go-ahead Eyepatch needed. Raising his voice so both teams could hear, he called, "Alright, listen up, scrubs! For most of you, this ain't your first rodeo, but I'll give a quick rundown anyhow seeing as we have a few first-timers in the ranks today. Here's the short and skinny of it: This first round - as in the only round that really matters - is one shot, one kill. Meaning all it takes is one hit and," he smirked, dragging his thumb across his throat, "you're out. Luckily for you gals, friendly fire has been disabled. This is where we separate the real men from the thumb-suckers. And there are zero points this first match, so when all you pretty, pretty Princesses are KO'd-"

"When?" Kairi sneered, narrowing her eyes at him from across the room.

He flashed her a toothy grin. "You hard of hearing, Strawberry Shortcake? Must be all that glitter and unicorns jamming up your earholes. Yes, when all you ladies are down for the count," he jerked his thumb to his chest, "we win. And for any boohooers out there who wanna play by points and multiple lives, don't worry. All the matches after this one are wimp-friendly. But might I suggest instead of relying on those lame handicaps, you all just get good like me?" he puffed up his chest, planting one hand on his hip while twirling his blaster in the other.

Suddenly the target on his vest lit up red and started beeping loudly, indicating he'd been hit. His assailant - a chick on our team with long, wild, curly red hair - lowered her gun with a snort before roaring with laughter while several of the other girls joined in.

Eyepatch chuckled, "Nice potshot, Hotshot. Save it for the game."

I had to wonder if this guy was Xigbar - one of the Organization's three best players besides Lea and Saïx, or so I'd been told. He certainly seemed cocky enough, that was for sure. Then again, cocky didn't necessarily mean he was any good.

As I eyed the other Organization members, I spotted a few I recognized from around the mall. The team leader wasn't the only one from the movie theater - that kid with the emo haircut was there too. So was Larxene, the blonde chick sporting the funky hairdo. I'd finally had a chance to learn her name, seeing as how she was assistant director in the musical I'd joined. The director himself, Marluxia, was there too, as well as Demyx who was helping provide our play's music and who also worked at The Blue Sitar, if I was recalling correctly. Then there was Roxas and Xion, who were doing their best to perk up a still slightly pouty Lea. Saïx was near at hand to those three, although he seemed to be keeping to himself and concentrating… or more like… meditating? Maybe... honing for the upcoming match? Wow, he certainly did take this seriously!

Next in the lineup were the two mall security guards who I'd met that night I'd accidentally pushed The Anger Button on the soft serve/milkshake machine - their names were escaping me at the moment. And lastly, there were two blondes. The first one had a goatee and piercings and I believe I remembered seeing him working at the magic shop here at the mall. The other one wore his hair long and had a chilly expression. I don't think I'd noticed him around the mall ever. In any case, I suppose there was a chance one of them could be Xigbar too.

A siren blast suddenly blared out through the overheard speakers, making me jump as the team doors slid open. Whoops and hollers from the players filled the room as they all started shuffling into their corresponding doorways. Anna hooked her arm through mine, flashed me a grin and dragged me along to follow the others.

"Don't worry, big guy, we'll try to return her to you in one piece," Kairi gave Lea one last parting shot. In response, he merely flipped her the bird as he disappeared through his door and all the Princesses erupted into cackles.

Beyond the doorway was a long winding hallway that got darker and darker the deeper we went, the only light source now coming from those neon glowing lines above, below and all around us. The further in we got, the more it began to look like we had somehow found our way inside a ginormous computer from the 80s. Eventually it brought us to another big room that was decorated in nothing but blue lines - our team's HQ, if I had to take a guess. There were three more sealed doors that would probably lead out to the rest of the map once they opened up, with huge, light-up timers over each one counting down until the start of the match. We had less than five minutes.

Quick introductions were made - I actually knew a handful of the Princesses already. There was Snow White and Tiana, who were in the musical with me. Aurora, who I remembered from auditions. Belle from Friday night drinks at the 7th Heaven. Then some girls I recalled seeing around the mall and was just now getting to know their names: Cindy from The Glass Slipper, Jasmine from Cave of Wonders, and Rapunzel from Hair, Here, Everywhere - gosh, how was she not going to trip over all that hair of hers while she ran around playing laser tag?!

"And this," Kairi went on, gesturing towards the redhead who'd landed a hit on Xigbar earlier during his little speech, "is Merida from over at DunBroch Goods, the camping and sporting goods store. She's our best shot."

"You're damn right I am!" she declared proudly in a thick Scottish accent. "And I've been putting extra time in over at the archery range! All those scaffy dolts aren't gonna know what hit 'em!"

Next Kairi was nodding towards the little twitchy girl. "This here is Alice. She's Luxord's baby sister from over on the other team." I smiled and Anna began to wave, but Kairi grabbed her wrist and lowered it with a subtle shake of her head, whispering, "Try not to make eye contact."

Apparently lost in the sugar-rush sauce, Alice just gave another twitch.

"And last but most certainly not least, this is Kida from Atlantis Electronics," Kairi pointed to a girl with long white hair and a blue face tattoo who grinned big, "annnnnnd Moana from Heart of Te Fiti, the lil surf outlet we have here." The chick with a mane of frizzy black hair next to Kida wiggled her fingers in greeting.

"Right, that's everyone! Now, onto the plan of attack!" Kairi clapped her hands and rubbed them together with an evil gleam in her eyes. "Everyone knows their positions except for the newbies. Anna, stick close to Alice and Punzie."

"Got it!" my sister nodded before giving a tiny squeal and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Ahhh! I'm so excited!"

Kairi then looked to me, "As for you, you're with Merida and me. We'll keep you safe until we can track down your boy toy. Then it's all up to you to do your stuff!"

My forehead wrinkled. "My… stuff?"

"Ya know," she waggled her eyebrows at me. "Work that groove thang, girlfriend!"

...first it was feminine wiles. Now apparently I also had a "groove thang?"

I was learning so much about myself within the past twenty-four hours.

"Once you got him good and distracted and all puddy in your sweet lil hands, Merida and I will be sure to put him six feet under," Kairi smirked, squeezing one eye shut as she aimed her blaster and mimed firing it, shouting, "Blam!" before blowing the imaginary smoke away from the barrel and beaming.

"Blue combatants prepare to enter the Grid in sixty seconds," a synthesized female voice announced over the sound system.

Kairi glanced up at it, then added, "Now! Real fast before the game starts, let's show you ladies how these bad boys work!"

In the scant time we had remaining, Anna and I were given a quick rundown on how to aim and reload our guns. Then we broke into smaller groups that stood ready at each of the three doors that would soon open. As my teammates started giggling and counting down the final seconds in a loud chant, I swallowed hard.

All that confidence I'd been flaunting to Lea earlier? Yeah, nothing but talk. Now that the time was finally upon us, icy anxiety began to flood my veins and my free hand came up to twist at my braid. On its own, playing laser tag for the first time was scary enough since I really had no idea what I was doing. But all this talk tossed around about feminine wiles and, er… groove thangs? Wasn't helping. I wasn't sure if I could pull off what the Princesses were asking me to do.

...Rayne had said me just existing around Lea would trip him up. Maybe that would be enough? Maybe-

Another siren blast startled me once again and those big metallic doors slid open. Alice let loose a blood curdling war cry that was surprisingly loud for one so small before charging off out of her door. Anna mimicked her with a bellow of her own as she and Rapunzel raced after her. "Come on!" Kairi snagged my elbow and I staggered into a run between her and Merida as we exited through our own doorway with Moana and Kida bringing up the rear.

The place was an absolute maze inside. We took so many turns that it wasn't long before I was utterly lost and couldn't have found my way back to HQ if I'd even tried. Each new section we entered looked exactly the same as the last. It was all just dim lighting and those glowing blue, red, and now orange lines. Part of me was beginning to wonder if we were just running around in circles.

I could hear muffled shouts and digital blasts echoing from beyond the walls surrounding us, coming from somewhere that sounded far away and making me wonder just how big this map really was. Regardless, each zip and every zap that reached my ears had me flinching and almost stumbling over my own two feet as I ran. I was getting more and more on edge with every passing second.

Alright, Elsa, deep breath. In and out. Nothing to worry about. This is easy. This is fun, in fact… or so I'm told, anyway... Just relax and have a good time. It's a new experience. We like new experiences, right? New experiences are great. New experiences can be liberating. New experiences-

"Watch our backs!" Moana suddenly yelled.

I jolted and started to spin around to look back at her, "Wha-?"

She shoved me out of the way, getting us both around a corner to use for cover just as the sound of laser fire reverberated down the hallway we'd just come from. Breathing heavily, Moana gave me a firm nod and a fierce grin. "You're welcome!"

I just stared wide-eyed back at her, panting to catch my breath after all the running. Then she was ducking low and darting across to the other side of the hall, laying down cover fire as she went.

"Damn," Kairi hissed as she and the other two girls pressed their backs against the wall next to me. "How'd they get around behind us so fast?!"

"Embrace the nothingness!" someone roared from the other end of the hall before several blasts went off.

Returning fire, Moana called over to us, "Sounds like its Xemnas! He has someone else with him, but I can't quite make out-"

More rapid laser zaps cut her words off, followed by someone else snarling, "Grovel before me!"

Wait… I knew that voice… but no, there was just no possible way it could actually be-

"Crap," Kairi hissed, face turning stark white. "Saïx."

I stand corrected. Apparently, it could be and in fact was him.

Talk about being a completely different person! It seemed laser tag turned Saïx from Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde.

As the gun fight grew louder around me, my heart began to pound in my ears, my knees shook, and my mouth went dry. I felt totally paralyzed and had to keep reminding myself that this was fun. Just... oodles and oodles of fun!

Oh dear, I was hyperventilating a bit…

...hyperventilating from all the fun, of course!

Kida was suddenly in front of me. I think she'd sensed my anxiety, because she was gripping my shoulder tightly and giving me a warm reassuring smile. "All will be well, Elsa," she told me calmly, soothingly… right before her face twisted ferociously as she leaned around the corner and shot off her blaster several times while letting loose a banshee shriek, making me flinch. Then she pulled back to reload and look me in the eye again, face serene once more. "Be not afraid."

...right. Okay. I came, I saw, I experienced… I'm done. Where's the exit to this ride? I want off.

To Kairi and Merida, Kida said, "The three of you keep going, find the target! Merida and I will keep them busy here and get them off your backs. Go!"

"Roger! Let's get outta here!" Kairi snatched my wrist, pulling me along with her. Merida shot off a few final blasts down the hallway behind us to help the other Princesses before dashing after us. I took one last look back to see Kida and Moana locked in a heated laser battle with our opponents before I lost sight of them as we took a sharp turn down a new corridor.

We hadn't been running for long when a tiny, red vertical slash lit up in the upper right corner of my visor. Huh… so these things had some kind of display built into them? But what did it-

The overhead speakers let out a long, resounding beep followed by that female announcer voice again, "Red combatant derezzed."

"Yes! We drew first blood! Take that, Organization trash!" Kairi crowed happily.

Ah, so the display was showing me a sort of… death count? I guess? I don't even know. There was a lot going on and I was just struggling to stay sane and-

"Freeze!" a new voice abruptly shouted.

So I did.

I froze.

Because, I mean, that's what you're supposed to do when someone yells that at you, right?

Apparently not. At least, not when you're playing laser tag.

"What are you- ugh, get down here!" Kairi was suddenly yanking me to the ground where she and Merida had dove for cover behind a low barrier just as I heard more blaster shots going off, presumably aimed right where I had just been standing like a deer caught in the headlights. Shaking her head at me, Kairi sighed, "Never fall for that. It's the oldest trick in the laser tag book. Vexen tries it every. Damn. Year."

As enemy fire abruptly died down, presumably so they could reload, Merida sprung up to her feet and released a torrent of zaps from her gun, roaring, "Choke on my laser, ye gutless, lily-livered bawbags!"

"Yeah! What she said!" Kairi popped up from our hiding spot as well to blast off a barrage herself.

Not wanting to feel left out and just now remembering I was in fact holding a gun that I'd all but forgotten about since the match started, I squeezed my eyes shut, lifted said gun up above the barricade and pulled the trigger, blindly firing several shots into the fray and hoping for the best.

Woo, look at me. I'm helping.

As my two teammates ducked back down to reload, Merida shouted, "Don't think I didn't see ye skulking behind that pylon, ye namby-pamby, scone-guzzling twat! Best get running with your tail tucked between those toothpicks ye call legs cuz we got ye outnumbered three to two!"

"My my, that does sound pretty grim for us, doesn't it?" a male, distinctly British voice called back. "But maybe the odds are more in our favor than you realize. By my count, we're the ones who have you outmanned four to three."

Merida and Kairi exchanged a look. Then Kairi scoffed, "You're bluffing!"

"Maybe… then again, maybe not… do you really want to roll the dice and risk it?"

Now Kairi lowered her voice so only we could hear her, "Definitely bluffing. Merida, let's go see if we can sneak around and get the drop on 'em." She then glanced towards me. "Stay here. I'll call out when it's safe for you to follow."

I blanched. "But-"

"You'll be fine, trust me. Just stay down, keep your back to this barricade, point your gun that way," she nodded towards the corridor we'd come from, "and pull the trigger if anything so much as moves. The advantage is yours from this position. We'll make it quick, so just keep your head down and wait for my signal." And with that, the two of them slipped off into the shadows and I quickly lost sight of them.

So I did as I was told. I stayed on the ground, knees hugged to my chest as I aimed my blaster and waited. There was a slight tremor to my fingers. The sound of blood rushing in my ears made it hard to hear much else.

Gosh, this was really just… so much fun.

It felt like an absolute eternity, but it was probably only seconds before I heard the fighting break out from beyond the barrier I was using for cover. Sounded like the girls had found them, as their maniacal laughter mingled with the digital blasts filling the air. Then Kairi was yelling, "We got 'em on the run! C'mon, Elsa!"

Jerking at the sound of my name, I scrambled to stand only to catch my foot on something and crash back down to the floor hard.

Ow.

Elsa, Queen of Grace and Dexterity.

Picking myself back up and dusting off the knees of my leggings, I ran towards where I'd heard her voice coming from…

...only to find no one there.

The area was completely empty except for me.

Fudge, they'd probably gone chasing after Vexen and that British guy, thinking I was right behind them. Which I would have been if I hadn't tripped over my own two friggin' feet. Worst still, I had no clue where they'd gone and three different archways to choose from.

Now what, oh Nimble One?

...should I just wait here and hope they come back for me? That'd probably be the smartest call. Better than blindly picking a direction to run off in and getting myself even more lost.

Several far-off blasts from behind me made me wince.

...then again, I was standing out in the open and an easy target. Maybe it would be better to just select a path, start running, and hope the next person I came across would be one of my teammates. But now, how to choose which way to go?

Eeny… meeny… miny…

More laser fire went off from behind, this time closer and making my heart leap up into my throat.

Screw it, that one, just go!

I didn't even know which hallway I'd picked, I just took off and didn't look back. My feet propelled me forward, not hesitating whenever new forks in the road appeared. I'd just take a turn on impulse and keep going. A left here, a right there, and another right. Far too soon however, I was puffing for breath. I couldn't keep this pace up, I needed a break.

As I slowed to a walk, sweating and chest heaving, I held my gun up at the ready. I was jumpy as I crept along now, twitching at every distant hollar, laugh, or laser burst. Something rattled behind me and I gasped, spinning on my heel and jerking my blaster around to point at… nothing. I narrowed my eyes and kept my weapon aimed behind me as I started inching backwards, heart jackhammering and breathing shallow.

If anyone was back there, they certainly weren't going to get the jump on me! No sir! I was vigilant. My eyes were keen, like that of a hawk! No one was going to be sneaking up on me, nuh-uh, not today, not-

"Pssssst."

The sudden low noise in my ear sent a chill running up my spine, making me yelp and nearly drop my gun. My hands desperately fumbled it for a second before catching it at last and I whipped around to target-

"Lea?!" I squeaked out.

Quite valiantly, I might add.

He'd already leapt back to put some space between us with his own weapon trained on the target over my heart.

So there we were. Locked in a mortal standoff. Our fated clash to the death would soon be upon us. You could all but hear the-

"You're holding your gun backwards, ya know," he said flatly, eyelids drooping.

...so I was. Heh… oopsie. I hastily corrected it, almost dropping it again before managing to direct the barrel at Lea instead of myself.

Now where was I...? Ah, that's right!

So there we were. Locked in a mortal standoff. Our fated clash to the death would soon be upon us. You could all but hear that whistling tune that plays in cowboy movies right before a pair of desperados have a shootout. Only one of us would be walking away the victor here.

...was it wrong that I was starting to relax and feel comforted by Lea's presence?

Yes. Yes it was. He was the enemy! And I had a job to do! To be fair, that job had only just been to play decoy while somebody else took him out. But seeing as how I was the only one here, looks like I'd just been promoted to executioner.

But now, how to get that killing blow? It wasn't just as simple as shooting. I could see the way he was warily watching me. I knew the second I started to squeeze my trigger finger, Lea'd be dodging out of the line of fire and then it'd be curtains for me. I had to catch him off guard first, distract him somehow or-

Ah-ha! This was it! The moment we'd all been waiting for! It was my time to shine!

Alright, feminine wiles… go!

...aaaaaany time now.

Hmmm… nothing.

Alright, you're up, groove thang. Care to take a crack at it?

...I'll take your silence as a no.

Well, fudge. Now what?

...wait! Hold on… something was possibly stirring…

Yes, I think I might be feeling a feminine wile coming on!

Oh yeah. This was definitely it. Get ready, here it comes…

I clicked my tongue and winked at him.

Nailed it.

Lea blinked at me. Then he snerked and choked back a laugh, shaking his head, "What was that?"

I hesitated, shifting my feet awkwardly. "...my, uh... my feminine wiles?"

Now he spluttered, struggling to keep his gun pointed at me. "El. Sugar-darlin'. Honey-boo. I adore you, you know I do. I worship the very ground you walk on and think you're smart, gorgeous, perfect and God's gift to all mankind. But babe… you wouldn't know a feminine wile if one came right up to you and bit you on the nose."

My spine snapped straight and I blushed. "I would too! I… I have feminine wiles!"

"Uh-huh, sure ya do. By the way," he pointed at a spot behind me, "what's that?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "You really expect me to fall for-"

In the blink of an eye, he'd kicked my blaster out of my hands and sent it clattering to the ground.

Huh. Guess he didn't even need me to fall for it. Apparently it was enough for me to just be irked at him for thinking me so easily tricked.

Crud, he was way better at this whole distraction thing than I was.

"Say goodnight, babydoll," he smirked, aiming his weapon at the target on my chest once again. I held my breath, screwed my eyes shut, twisted my face into a grimace, balled my hands at my sides and waited. Any second now, my target would vibrate and beep, announcing I'd been hit and taken out.

...only nothing was happening.

Why was nothing happening?

Slowly, I creaked one eye open. Lea was still standing there, still with his gun pointed at me… but for some reason, he hadn't pulled the trigger yet. Gone was the smug look on his face, now replaced with a tiny, sour frown. He grit his teeth angrily, his blaster wavering slightly before he lowered it and growled, "Goddamnit!" Then he ducked down and snatched my gun up off the floor, holstering it into the waistband of his pants at his hip.

I cocked my head at him. "Lea? What are you-"

That's as far as I got before he was then picking me up by the waist and flopping me over his shoulder like a rag doll. With one hand maintaining a grip on my legs to keep me secure while still holding his weapon in the other, he took off running.

I grabbed at the back of his shirt to prop myself up and turned my head so I could yell at him, "Just what exactly do you think you're doing?!"

He didn't break stride, just kept speeding straight ahead. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm taking you hostage!"

"But that's not how the game is played!" I snapped back, making a grab for a metal bar sticking out of one of the walls as we rushed past, my fingers latching on.

He stumbled and nearly toppled over backwards, but caught himself. "Shit! Leggo, you lil..." he pried my fingers free before taking off again. "And I can play the game however I damn well like! Deal with it!"

Huffing out a grumbling breath, I just hung my head and let myself be carried off to wherever it was that he was taking me.

Turned out to be the Organization's HQ. I mean, that was my best guess anyway by the look of it, considering how similar it was to the Princess's HQ. The only difference was there were nothing but glowing red lines decorating every surface in here instead of blue.

"Now what?" I heard a voice unhappily mutter. Sounded like Larxene but I couldn't see her to verify, not with ninety percent of my vision being filled up by Lea's upside down backside and the other ten percent taken up by a lovely view of the floor.

"Whaddya mean, now what? What are you guys still doing in here?" Lea asked as he slid me off his shoulder and unceremoniously plopped me down onto one of the benches that lined the inside of the HQ's walls. I started to stand back up, but Lea narrowed his eyes at me and held a finger up in front of my face, "Ah-Ah!"

I sighed through my nose but stayed put, crossing my arms and slouching down into my seat.

Now that I could see the rest of the room better, I was able to confirm that it was indeed Larxene who'd spoken, with Marluxia in here as well. Larxene quirked an eyebrow at me but apparently decided not to comment just yet, instead opting to answer Lea's question. "We're trying to drag this dumb loser off his lazy ass and get him out into the fight," she ground out through her teeth, pointing at-

Oh! Apparently Demyx was in here too! Almost didn't spot him cowering behind that column over there.

Lea groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Crap, this again? He does this every damn year! We seriously need to stop recruiting him!"

"That's what I keep saying!" Demyx piped up. Or rather, his voice did. The guy himself remained in hiding.

"Dude. Why do you bother signing up every year if you don't even wanna play?" Lea shook his head.

"Because Larxene always threatens to taze me until my nose lights up brighter than Rudolph's if I don't," he whimpered, just barely poking his head out now. Then he seemed to spot me for the first time. "Oh! Hey Elsa!" he waved cheerily.

"Hi Demyx," I mumbled, returning a halfhearted wave myself.

Larxene slammed the sole of her boot against the column, making him squeak and hide again. She snarled, "This fuckwit's actually a halfway decent player whenever we finally manage to chase the damn baby out of his hidey-hole and-"

"Lea! There you are!" Roxas suddenly came barreling in through one of the doors, his sneakers skidding to a stop as he doubled over, wheezing for breath. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Xion was hot on his heels, stumbling to a halt beside him and huffing, "You shouldn't have run off on your own like that! Why'd you come back- oh, hey there, Elsa!" she blinked at me in surprise, tilting her head slightly. "What are you doing here?"

Marluxia settled his cool gaze on me, "Yes… why indeed?"

Larxene pulled a face and spat, "Ugh, Firecracker! Please tell me you didn't sneak back here so you could make out with your little girlfriend! You seriously need to stop thinking below the belt all the time!"

"Agreed," Marluxia nodded with a frown. "You should learn to show some decorum. Xemnas will be most displeased when he finds out you were squandering precious game time to nurture your budding romance."

Shaking his head and rapidly waving his hands back and forth in front of him, Lea said, "Guys, guys, it's not- Ah!" he exclaimed the last syllable in warning to me as I tried to get up again to tiptoe off. Placing a hand on my shoulder and pushing me back down firmly into my seat, he addressed the others again, "It's not like that! I just-"

"We don't have time for this!" Xion cut in. "Why is half our team just chilling back here at the base? Get all your butts out there before everyone else gets slaughtered!"

Lea batted his hand through the air, "It's fine, Xigbar's out there! That psycho could take out the whole other team solo with one hand tied behind his back!"

As if on cue, two blue slashes suddenly lit up in the upper left corner of my visor opposite of the red one from earlier. Overhead, that synthesized female voice announced, "Blue combatant derezzed," twice, one for each mark.

"See?" Lea pointed up towards the speakers triumphantly.

"Wait…" Roxas's brow furrowed. "...those were the first two kills our team's gotten… meaning…" he was eyeing me now.

"Son of a… she's not dead yet?! Firecracker, you dumbass!" Larxene hissed, whipping her blaster up and aiming it at me.

Lea was quick to jump between her and me, his hands shooting up in a placating gesture, "Woah now, easy there!"

Not lowering her weapon, she yelled, "The hell do you think you're doing, bringing her back here alive?! Just shoot her already!"

"C'mon, give her a break, it's her first time playing!" Lea argued back. "I just wanna make sure she has a good time! She can't do that if she gets eliminated right out the damn gate."

Larxene made a noise of disgust in her throat. "You are seriously whipped, numbnuts. What'd she do to get you to fold like a wet paper towel, just bat her lashes and pout and go," she poked a finger into her cheek and mockingly cooed, "pwease don't shoot me, I'm just a poor, defenseless widdle girl!"

My shoulders tensed and I snapped, "I most certainly did not-"

"Butt out, Princess! This is Organization business," Larxene growled.

Roxas sniggered as he flumped down beside me on the bench, "Ignore her, she's just cranky."

"Yeah, we lurve you," Xion sat down on my other side, beaming and making a heart with her hands.

Lea was rubbing the back of his head with his gun. "Look, I just wanted her to have fun, is that so wrong?"

A scoff erupted from Larxene. "Yeah, sure, cuz getting taken hostage is so much fun!"

"More fun than being dead in the first five minutes!"

She was glaring down at his hip now, something having caught her eye there apparently. "Wait a minute, is that…? For fuck's sake, you brought her gun too, bonehead?! The hell is the matter with you, are you trying to get us all shot?!"

Rolling his eyes, Lea brushed it off, "Relax, I won't let her get her hands back on it. I just didn't want it to get lost or totally busted and for them to charge her with some bullshit replacement fee for the thing. And trust me: me taking her hostage is a good thing."

Larxene fixed him with a dull stare. "...I think your brain is what's lost or totally busted."

"No, hear me out!" He tossed a hand in my direction, "El is valuable to the Princesses and they know she hasn't been eliminated yet. Once they realize we got her prisoner, they're gonna make stupid moves trying to get her back. They'll be easy pickings!"

"It would seem to me that you're the one making stupid moves," Marluxia deadpanned.

Lea snapped his fingers and tapped his nose, "Exactly! That's why the Princesses'll want her back! To make sure she stays in the game and messing with my head! But if we keep her here and alive, then I'm less likely to screw up while the Princesses keep tripping all over themselves trynta to rescue her! It's a win-win!"

The silence stretched for a bit. Then Larxene sidestepped so she could point her blaster at me again, "I'm just gonna shoot her."

As Lea moved to block her again, Marluxia placed a hand on her weapon and gently pushed it down. "No, let's hold off. His plan, ridiculous as it may be, holds some merit. Let's see how it plays out."

Larxene wrinkled her nose and gaped. "You have got to be shitting me." However, Marluxia's stern look brooked no argument. Curling her lip with a tch, she grumbled, "Fine, whatever. But you!" She marched up to Lea, stabbing her finger into his chest several times, "This is your dumb idea, so your stupid ass gets to be the one to watch her!"

"Lea has so just earned himself a date with Larxene's taser after the match," Xion whispered with a giggle.

Roxas snerked under his breath as he looked to me, "Hope you like your boyfriends with enough electricity coursing through 'em to power a small toaster oven."

"What are you two twerps snickering about?!" Larxene turned her wrath on the pair of them now and they both yelped. "Get off your asses, get out there and bring me those Princesses' heads on pikes or don't come back all!" They leapt up to their feet and bolted out of there as if their lives depended on it. Which, let's face it… they very well might've.

Now Larxene's dark scowl zeroed in on the column that Demyx was using for cover as she snarled, "And you!" A terrified squeak could be heard from beyond the pillar. Muttering a long string of curse words, Larxene stomped over and disappeared behind it as well. Then there was a high-pitched scream before Demyx tore out of the base like a bat out of hell. Re-emerging and dusting her hands together, Larxene smirked with a satisfied sigh, "I do so love being part of a team. The feeling of encouraging and uplifting my fellow players can be so rewarding."

Retrieving her blaster from where she'd tucked it into the top of her pants, she glanced to Marluxia and jerked her chin towards one of the doorways. "Now let's go snuff out some Princesses!" However, as she was moving past Lea, she stopped to narrow her eyes at him. "...swear to god, Firecracker, if we lose because of your bullshit here, I'll-"

"Yeah, yeah, my head will be the one on a pike, I get it! Will ya just beat it already?" Lea lazily shooed her away with his gun.

She glowered but said nothing more, simply stepped outside the door and waited for Marluxia. As for Marluxia himself, he walked over to Lea and fixed him with a hard stare. "I trust when the proper time comes, you won't hesitate to pull the trigger," he told him, shooting a meaningful look my way out of the corner of his eye.

"Not for a heartbeat," Lea waved a dismissive hand. Marluxia squinted at him. "What, I won't! I hate losing just as much as you do, Mr Bubble Yum!"

If Marluxia felt reassured, he didn't show it. Regardless, he faced me now. "No hard feelings, of course. See you at rehearsal tomorrow."

"...looking forward to it," I muttered back as he slipped out the doorway to join Larxene, the two of them stealthily sprinting off.

Now that it was just down to the two of us, Lea glanced towards me with a tiny frown. Then he looked away and readied his weapon, poising it in front of him. He began patrolling from one HQ door to the next, keeping an eye out for any foolhardy, would-be rescuers.

The minutes slowly ticked by. Save for the occasional announcement whenever another player had been derezzed, the silence was absolute. Were this any other time, Lea would probably be cuddling up close to me and delightedly chatting my ear off. But not now. Not while there was a laser tag game to be won. Apparently, laser tag was very serious business. At least, if his expression and posture as he stood guard right now were any indicators, that is.

After a time, I released a low sigh. If anyone was trying to come save me, they were certainly taking their sweet time about it. I felt restless. My muscles were stiff from sitting still for so long. So, I gave a small stretch and began to rise to my feet.

In a flash, Lea had his gun's crosshairs centered on me. "Hey, hey, hey! Plop that cute lil butt of yours back down, Missy!" he ordered, gesturing the barrel of his blaster down towards where I'd been seated.

I hitched my chin. "The bench is hard and uncomfortable. Just let me stand and stretch my legs for a min-" I took a step forward and I winced, a soft hiss escaping me. "Ah, my ankle!"

He blinked, then his eyelids drooped. "Please, that lame ol' trick? Nice try, but I wasn't born yesterday."

"It's not a trick, I think I'm really hurt!" I huffed. Then setting my lips into a grim line, I gingerly tested putting some weight on it. "...you must have smacked it against something while you were manhandling me earlier and- ow!" My ankle gave out and I stumbled forward.

Lea instinctively moved to catch me, his arms wrapping around my waist while mine latched around his neck for support. But then his eyes were immediately suspicious and his empty hand clasped protectively over where he had my weapon holstered.

I rolled my eyes at him with a scoff. "You actually think I would go to this much trouble if I were only faking it? All just to get my stupid gun back? Seriously?"

He continued watching me skeptically, his hand remaining steadfast over my blaster. "...maybe, maybe not. Jury's still out."

"Damn it, Lea, this really hurts!" I snapped at him.

I felt his muscles relax somewhat as he puffed out a breath, bringing his free hand up to ruffle at his hair now. "Then why ya standing on it, dummy? Go on, sit back down."

"No," I turned my head to one side with a tiny hmph. "I told you already, that bench is uncomfortable."

"Whaddya expect, it's a bench. You'll live," he laughed incredulously. Then he was carefully shifting me around, mindful of my ankle as he took a seat himself to demonstrate. "See? Perfectly fine. Now c'mon El, please, if you would just-"

I finally sat back down.

Right on his lap.

I felt him tense beneath me. Then he was shaking his head with a chuckle as he brought up his hand to tweak my nose, "Cheeky."

Slipping my arms back around his neck once more, I drew in a deep breath before giving a pleased little exhale. "Ah, much more comfy."

"I would hope so," one corner of his lips twitched up. Then he was setting his gun down on the bench beside him and readjusting me in his lap a bit so he could more easily reach down, gently feeling my ankle. I flinched, sucking in a little breath. His eyebrows knit together, "Sorry… hm, doesn't seem to be any swelling, so probably isn't sprained or fractured. Guessing it just got banged pretty good. Probably only gonna leave a nasty bruise."

My eyes crinkled as I watched him. "...it's sweet."

"What's that?" he asked absently, still cautiously inspecting my ankle.

"The way you always take care of me." I leaned in closer to murmur into his ear, "It's sweet."

Lea stiffened, then cleared his throat as he straightened back up in his seat and laughed sheepishly. "What can I say? Gotta make sure my lady's taken care of!"

I gave him a warm smile before resting my head on his shoulder, my arms hugging more tightly around him as I sighed against his neck with a soft, "Hmmm."

He shivered and echoed a low, "Hm?"

"Nothing really." My fingers began to lightly toy with the hairs at the nape of his neck as my lips brushed along the side of his throat. "Just trying to think of how I might show you my gratitude later."

"...well, I might have a… few suggestions…" There was a gruffness to his voice now as I felt his thumb idly stroking along the curve of my hip.

"Mm, I'd love to hear them," I hummed a quiet laugh as I trailed my hand down his chest, avoiding the target strapped to it as I went. Then I lifted my head once more to meet his gaze while using my other hand to press a fingertip to his lips, silencing him before he could answer me. "But first… told ya."

His eyes hooded as he playfully nipped at my finger before ducking his head down to press kisses to my jawline as he whispered, "Told me what?"

"That I have feminine wiles."

His whole body went rigid. "Motherfu-"

Too late. I already had my gun back, barrel directly up against the target over his heart. I pulled the trigger and-

"Red combatant derezzed."

"Ha!" I dropped the blaster and shot up to my feet, hopping up and down in triumph on my fine, healthy, and one hundred percent pain-free ankles. Lea groaned and slumped down in his seat, thumping the back of his head against the wall a few times. His moping only made victory taste all the more sweet. Giggling, I lightly clapped my hands a few times before holding my palms together, pressing my fingertips to my huge grin.

My tiny victory party of one was interrupted however as someone else suddenly came charging inside the base. I turned and gasped as their feet came to a screeching stop, revealing the person to be none other than that weirdo with the eyepatch.

He took one look at me, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "What the…?" Then with a bemused smirk, he aimed his weapon at me, "Oh-ho no, not on my watch. As if!" He fired and, well… as you could probably guess…

"Blue combatant derezzed."

With a self-satisfied snerk, Eyepatch twirled his gun and took off running once more, disappearing out the door opposite the one he'd come in through.

...well then.

My stint as a legendary, professional laser tag assassin supreme may have been brief, but it had been undeniably glorious.

"That was a cheap, dirty underhanded trick ya pulled," Lea said, pulling my attention back to him as he stood up and removed his helmet, shaking out his crimson spikes. Then his lips stretched into a crooked smile, "One I completely saw through, by the way."

I arched an eyebrow at him, biting back a small grin. "Oh really?"

Tucking his helmet under his arm, he then reached out to undo mine as well. "Mm-hm! You were as transparent as a soap bubble."

"If I was being so obvious, why'd you play along then?" I challenged, crossing my arms.

"Rather, the question you should be asking is... why wouldn't I play along?" He ruffled my bangs before offering me my helmet with a wink. "Never have I more thoroughly enjoyed being proven so totally wrong."

I felt heat creeping up the back of my neck as I took it from him, averting my gaze with a dignified sniff. "I don't believe you. I don't think you saw through it at all."

He snorted, scratching a finger behind his ear. "Alright, ya got me. Can't blame a guy for trynta salvage what lil dignity he has left! But damn, El, you've been holding out on me. Where've you been hiding those lil moves of yours this whole time?"

Rocking on my heels a bit, I mulled over it for a second. Honestly, I'd even surprised myself a bit there. Only reason I hadn't been blushing furiously the whole time was because I wasn't really here to fraternize - it'd just been a means to an end. I'd had a job to do. Finally, I gave a tiny shrug, "Suppose I just needed the right incentive."

"That incentive being making me eat crow on this most holy of battlefields that is laser tag."

I smiled brightly. "Bingo."

He crinkled his eyes at me, then sighed and dragged a hand across the nape of his neck. "Shit, the rest of the team is gonna be out for my blood when they find out 'bout this. We're talking torches, pitchforks, the whole nine damn yards." However, he was next flashing me that dimple of his as he retrieved both our weapons, holding them together in one hand. "Still, was definitely worth it for this lil revelation. I'm telling ya, never woulda thought you had it in you, especially not while we were entertaining an audience no less."

"An audience?" I repeated, frowning. Then I slowly shook my head, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Did you forget?" A half grin tugged at his lips as he pointed up at a corner of the ceiling where one of the arena's cameras could be spotted. "Big Brother's watching."

Just about every last drop of blood drained out of my face.

Fudge, the cameras! All over this damn arena! Feeding a live stream of events as they unfolded here back to anyone watching in the store front! And there had been a lot of people there, meaning…

...every single one of them had just had a front row seat for watching me seduce my boyfriend.

Bolting behind Lea to hide from the camera, my arms clutched around his waist as I buried my now roasting face into his back.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for the cold, sweet embrace of death right about now.

Laughing softly, Lea patted his hand over mine, weaving our fingers together but not removing it from where I still had it clasped against his stomach. "C'mon, we're not s'posed to linger this long after getting KO'd. Let's find a way out. Your adoring fans await."

Remaining firmly latched onto him from behind, I staggered as he began to lead us towards the nearest exit. "I don't think I can face any of them ever again," I muffled into his back. "I am never going to live this down."

"Well, we can hole up in one of the equipment rooms between matches, but that'll only buy you a lil time. Sooner or later they'll hafta kick us out when this place closes up for the night." As he pushed open a door beneath a glowing green EXIT sign, he glanced back at me over his shoulder with a smirk. "But you got bigger problems to worry 'bout now, boo."

I glanced back up at him, gnawing on my bottom lip. "...what do you mean?"

"Now that I know you've got feminine wiles, I'm gonna expect you to start using 'em more."

Author's Notes: It's the face-off of the century, the battle you've all been waiting for… Organization XIII vs The Princesses of Hearts! Gosh, now I want fanart of all of them decked out in laser tag gear and glaring each other down! Could look hella badass! Anyhoo, I think this chapter might have been even more jam-packed with references than that 7th Heaven chapter xD I went with OG Org as you can tell cuz, one, they're my fave incarnation of the Org, and two, let's face it… old man Xehanort would probably break a hip playing laser tag xD And of course, all the official Princesses of Hearts made an appearance, plus a few extras, any of which would get my vote for being one of the mystery New 7 Hearts that were never revealed in KH3! Minor fun fact: If you didn't recognize them, Xemnas's and Saïx's lines were direct battle quotes from the video games. I would've liked to have done the same for Vexen, but I couldn't figure out how to make any of his battle quotes fit, so I took the lame, cheesy way out by just having him shout "Freeze!" xD As for which team won this first match… Princesses finally managed to break the Organization's winning streak, woo! Yeah, Lea barely survived the wrath of his fellow teammates after their crushing defeat xD I was originally trying to figure out a way to fit this laser tag chapter into the main story, but decided in the end it would be more fun if Lea and Elsa were already a couple for it - certainly had more fun with the chapter's ending that way at least ;D

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who’ve liked, reblogged, and followed so far, seeing those lil notifications always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

See ya next week for the next bonus chapter, which will have a lil more substance than this one xD Your clue phrase this time is... hair dye. What could that possibly have to do with next chapter?! Stay tuned and find out!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER | | NEXT CHAPTER

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olliedollie1204 · 4 years

Text

the kids are alright

AKA, Kai will see Elliott and ask “Is anyone going to adopt that?” and not wait for an answer

Edit: now also on AO3!

Characters: Kai, Elliott, Emile Picani, Larry and Dot (mentioned)

Words: 2,354

(A/N: I read both Elliott and Kai as being older teenagers, with Elliott being like 17/18 and Kai being 19/20? That might not be accurate but that’s the vibes for this.)

As soon as Kai pushed his way through the glass door, he started the process of freeing himself from the ridiculous amount of safety gear he had to wear while skateboarding.

Off came the elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards, which he dumped unceremoniously in his backpack; then he undid his helmet, the black and purple gradient one that Lauren got him when he told her he was gonna take up skating again. That, he tucked under his arm for safekeeping, grabbing his board with his other hand as he made his way down the hall to Picani’s waiting room.

Kai didn’t know how many patients the quack doctor had; enough to keep his business from shutting down, he guessed, but he’d never even seen another person in the building at any of the sessions he’d been to already.

So the sight of someone actually sitting on the waiting room couch made Kai freeze in his tracks.

The other person— around Kai’s age, maybe a little younger— had their eyes on their phone, and made no outward reaction when Kai appeared in the doorway; but Kai was way too suspicious of everything around him to not pick up on the way the kid’s eyes flicked towards him for less than a second before returning to their phone, or the way their thumb was moving across the screen too fast and haphazard for them to actually be doing anything.

They were nervous, Kai suddenly realized, because he’d shown up, and now the two of them were alone in a tiny waiting room of a therapist’s office.

Ah, fuck. Kai hated knowing people were uncomfortable. His social anxiety wasn’t quite like that, but he’d certainly seen enough of his friends go through it to know that this encounter was ticking a lot of boxes: in tight quarters, with a stranger, in a vulnerable setting, in silence.

Well, Kai never had much of a filter anyway, so he might as well try to relieve some of the tension in the room.

“Sup,” he offered, dropping onto the other end of the couch, leaving the cushion in the middle empty as a buffer space. The kid nodded politely, pulling their backpack up onto their lap and hugging it against their chest. Kai caught a glimpse of a ‘they/them’ pronoun button on their bag.

He felt a release of breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Thank fuck, another one.

“Did the Doc double book his appointments or something?”

Kai pretended not to notice the way the kid jumped slightly before looking at him, hesitant and confused.

“I’m sorry?”

Kai gestured towards the door. “I’m his 11 o’clock. What’re you in for?”

The kid faltered for a second before holding up a crumpled stack of papers in their hand. “I, um, just need to drop off some paperwork.”

“You had to do that in person?” Kai asked. Too late, he realized the words were kind of unnecessarily hostile, but, well, he wasn’t a people person, so he didn’t know what the fuck he should be doing better, okay?

Luckily, the kid didn’t seem too bothered, merely looking down at their lap and picking at their nail polish.

“Uh, he asked me to? I was gonna email them but he said he doesn’t have a computer, so…” They trailed off, apparently not knowing how to finish the sentence.

Kai furrowed his brow. “How does he advertise his shit without a computer? That just seems like a bad business practice.”

They shrugged. “I mean, I guess word of mouth is good enough. Um, my friend told me about him, but I don’t actually know where she heard about him.”

“Same,” Kai replied. “My girlfriend made me come here at first, but she never told me how the fuck she found him. Probably some magic newspaper ad— ‘The person you need is Emile Picani’, or some dumb shit like that.”

The kid huffed a small laugh. “Was that— was that a Nanny McPhee reference?”

“… Huh,” Kai replied after a moment. “Yeah, it was. Didn’t think you’d recognize it.”

Again the kid shrugged, but now there was a small smile on their face. Kai grinned back, leaning against the stiff couch and kicking one leg on the table as he bounced his other leg against the floor.

“I’m Kai,” he said, lazily throwing up a peace sign. The kid blinked in surprise.

“Um, Elliott. Nice to… meet you,” they finished awkwardly.

“Same,” Kai replied, nodding. The room fell silent for a couple beats before he continued, “Still, no computer. I mean, Jesus, get with the times, man!”

“Probably doesn’t have one because he spent all his money on stuffed animals and Funko Pops,” Elliott muttered. The quip came fast, and Kai let out a huff of surprised laughter. Fuck, yes. Now this was something he wanted to talk about.

“Okay, I have to ask you this, because no one else will fucking get it,” he blurted, turning so he was facing Elliott more directly. They looked at him with slight apprehension as Kai leaned closer.

“What is his deal with cartoons?”

A beat, and then a slightly exasperated half-smile formed on Elliott’s face. “I know. It’s like, I assume he went to school for, you know, counseling or whatever, but he only knows how to explain things through kids’ shows? Like, how did you even get your degree? Or your license?”

Kai nodded. “I mean, I guess it makes sense. That hyper ass motherfucker practically is a cartoon character. Like, you know how he literally sings when he walks in the room? Who fucking does that?”

“Yes!” Elliott’s smile finally broke through completely. “Yes, oh my God, yes. And have you noticed the way he’s, like, incapable of sitting still? Like, he practically bounces all over the place, he throws his arms and legs everywhere, and his face—”

“Oh, way too many facial expressions, for sure,” Kai finished. “Oh! Oh, and sometimes he’ll, like, scrunch his nose up and stick his tongue out when he’s taking notes or whatever? Like—”

Kai demonstrated, making Elliott snort with laughter. Kai started laughing, too— it wasn’t a particularly funny impression, but something about the dissipating awkwardness in the room made laughter come easier.

“And you can’t talk about any other form of media with him, because he won’t get it!” Elliott continued, their voice brightening throughout the conversation. “Like, anime? Never heard of it.”

“Video games are a bust, too,” Kai added. “Unless it’s, like, ‘Steven Universe: Save the Light’ or some shit.”

Elliott paused before sheepishly holding up a finger. “Actually, I’ll give him that one. My first real session, he, uh, he talked about Steven Universe for an hour, and— I don’t know, it’s not that bad.” They shrugged again, suddenly timid again.

Kai blinked. Backtrack, dumbass, backtrack. “No, yeah, I— I actually think the shit he talks about is… you know, it can be good, or whatever. Helpful.”

Ugh, fuck, that was embarrassing. Even though Kai could admit that Picani’s methods weren’t completely insane, he didn’t wanna share the intimate details of why he was there with someone he just met, even though Elliott seemed like a pretty cool kid.

He was just starting to visualize the letters WWLD in his head— What Would Lauren Do?— but thank fuck, the two of them were saved from any more awkward apologies by Picani’s office door swinging open. Kai slumped even further in his seat, while out of the corner of his eye he saw Elliot go ramrod straight.

A kind looking couple walked out of the office, holding hands and speaking quietly to themselves.

“Alright, Dorry, I’ll see ya next time!” The doctor’s cheerful voice carried into the waiting room as the couple left.

Eliiott darted their eyes to Kai, mouthing, ‘Dorry?’

‘Like the fucking fish?’ Kai mouthed back, making Elliott snort. The noise made Kai struggle to stifle his laughter in the otherwise silent waiting room, and suddenly the two of them were folding in on themselves, hands pressed over their mouths in a weak attempt at keeping quiet.

“Well, hey there, Thing One and Thing Two!”

Kai and Elliott snapped their heads up in unison, looking to where Picani was leaning in the doorway.

“I’m sorry for the wait, but I must say, I’m so happy to see you two smiling for once!” The doctor giggled, smoothing his tie and giving them both a knowing look.

Kai glared at him, opening his mouth to deliver some scathing retort, but he was interrupted by Elliott practically jumping off of the couch.

“Here’s the paperwork you asked me to bring.” They thrust their arm out to Picani, who took the papers and carefully smoothed out their wrinkles.

“Ah, thank you, Elliott! Kai, you mind hanging tight in my office for a second?”

Kai nodded wordlessly, gathering his bag and his skateboard and brusquely moving past the others into the small office. He dropped onto the couch, his bag hitting the ground with a weighty ‘thud’, as he tried not to eavesdrop too much on Picani and Elliott in the hallway. ‘Tried’ being the keyword, since they were about two feet away from the door, and Picani was a loud motherfucker.

“Thanks for bring this in for me, Tinkerbelliott!”

“That barely makes sense,” Elliot’s voice interrupted, and Kai smirked to the empty room. Get his ass, Elliott.

As the conversation continued, Kai let the rise and fall of their voices wash over him. He tried to get into his “whatever” mindset, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the kid in the waiting room.

It was like he and Elliott had some instant fucking connection or anything cheesy like that. They weren’t platonic soulmates, and honestly, it didn’t even seem like they had that much in common. But as Kai sat there, lazily rolling his board back and forth under his feet, he couldn’t help but think about all the crazy shit Picani put him through, and how talking about it with someone who really got it was… kinda fun, or whatever.

“So sorry for the wait, Agni Kai!”

Picani’s chipper voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and suddenly there was the Doc himself, shooting him a friendly smile as he made his way behind his desk.

“I’ve just been busier than a Mighty Bee this morning,” he rambled, sliding Elliott’s paperwork into a file while still managing to talk with his hands. “But I promise, starting this second all of my attention is on you. So!” he finished, folding his hands on the desk and looking at Kai expectantly. “What’s up?”

Kai looked at him for a few seconds before standing, the abrupt movement startling Picani and making him jump back in his rolly chair.

“Kai—?”

“I’m taking this,” Kai stated, snatching a pen from the cup on his desk before Picani could respond.

“Oh! Um, ok, just be careful because it’s a glitter gel pen—” Picani’s voice got quieter as Kai swung himself out of the office, hoping he could catch Elliott without having to try and run.

Thank fuck, as he turned down the main hallway, he caught a glimpse of a figure dressed mostly in black halfway to the front door.

“Yo, Elliott, hold up!”

They froze for a moment before turning around to face Kai, curiosity and wariness lining their face.

When he got closer, Kai pointed to the folded paper Elliot was holding. “Is that important?”

“Um, no, not really— ah.” They cut themselves off as Kai snatched the paper out of their hand. “Okay.”

Kai didn’t respond as he flipped the paper over, leaning against the wall to scribble something on the back.

“You got Instagram?”

A beat, and then Elliott nodded. Kai finished with a flourish, underlining what he’d written despite it being the only thing on the paper, and passed it back to Elliott.

“Here. Follow me, I’ll follow you back,” he said as Elliott read his messy scrawl, their mouth dropping just slightly.

“Oh!” There was a distinct tone of surprise in their voice, which Kai didn’t comment on. They folded the paper in half and held it tightly in their fist. “Um, thanks, Kai. I’ll— I’ll do that as soon as I get home.”

Kai nodded. There was just a beat of awkward silence before he spun on his heel, walking casually back to Picani’s office.

“Later,” he called over his shoulder, not looking back.

“Um, yeah!” Elliott replied in a voice that clearly wasn’t used to yelling. “Later! Bye!”

Kai heard the front door open and close again by the time he reached Picani’s waiting room. He swung around the corner, feeling uncharacteristically optimistic for his session, but barely stopped himself before he collided with the good doctor himself.

“Woah! Watch out, Speed Racer!” Picani chirped, looking down at Kai. “Thought you were trying to make a run for it.”

Kai rolled his eyes before setting his gaze somewhere over the other man’s shoulder. “I left literally all of my shit in your office, obviously I was coming back.”

“Well, you just left in a real hurry, is all!” Picani replied, reaching up to straighten his tie. His voice went strangely neutral as he continued to ask, “Did you need to talk to Elliott before they left?”

Kai’s eyes flicked back to the doctor’s face, and— ugh, fuck, Picani was looking at him with that annoying sort of half-smile he always got when he thought Kai had reached some stupid ‘breakthrough’.

Kai flushed, folding his arms across his chest. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Picani—”

“Nothing!” Picani replied with faux-innocence, putting his hands up defensively. “Just nice to see you making a friend, that’s all.”

Kai groaned, rolling his eyes so hard they nearly got stuck in the back of his head.

“Don’t be weird, man,” he grumbled, pushing past Picani into his office. He pretended not to hear the doctor’s amused chuckle as he followed him in, gently shutting the two of them in for what Kai was certain would be yet another absolutely ridiculous (yet unfortunately helpful) therapy session.

#cartoon therapy #emile picani #kai cartoon therapy #elliott cartoon therapy #me on my one woman campaign to write more cartoon therapy fic #(i know picani is familiar with naruto but pretend he doesn't know other animes ok)#my writing #my posts #the kids are alright

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meikodenji · 3 years

Text

CODA

Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6:

Right Here

Proteins bars? Some homeless-looking guy giving you a hard time? And he busts karate on you? Huh.

Johnny was filling out a form in the office while the teens clean up around the dojo. As Miguel washed the window of the small room, he questioned, "Hey, Sensei, is there any particular way you want us to clean?" "No, I don't give a shit. Whatever's easiest. " He finished up. "You know what? You two go clean the restroom and we'll call it a night." "Okay. C'mon, Joey." "Right behind you.

The blonde smiled, "And do that one on your hands and knees." He chuckled, the boys going straight to work.

Daniel made his way into the dojo. He kept a hard gaze on the cobra right by the doors. Unknowingly, Johnny greets the person, "Welcome to Cobra Kai."

"Somethings never change." LaRusso threw. Johnny stood at his end, "yeah, what are you talking about?" "I heard you beat up a bunch of teenagers in that parking lot." He pointed. "Oh, that." Lawrence said in his defense. "No. I didn't beat up any teenagers." The blonde slowly made his way into the middle of the mat, closer to LaRusso. "I kicked the shit out of a bunch of assholes who deserved it." The brunette scoffed at him. "Wow. Johnny Lawrence calling someone else an asshole. That's rich, man." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Look. I'm not here to rehash the past. Just stay away from my daughter's friends." "Your daughter's friends?" Johnny bit back a smile. "Yeah, that makes sense. Nice company she keeps." "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" "It means those friends of hers were wailing on a kid half their size." All true. "Maybe you don't know your daughter as well as you think you do. Get your house in order, LaRusso." Daniel quickly made his way to his rival. "Who the hell you think you're talking to?" At that moment, Byers and Diaz came out of a clean bathroom. "Bathroom's clean!" Miguel shouted. "Is there anything else you need us to do?" Johnny stopped them The boys were baffled at the sight of their Sensei and Daniel. They apologized, "Sorry, Sensei." "Sensei? Really?" Daniel said, unbelievably. He felt like the boy who stood beside Miguel, looked rather familiar. "Oh my God, kids, I don't know what he's told you but you shouldn't believe a word he says, or you're gonna end up exactly like him." He turned to Johnny. "You and I. This. We aren't done." He went to exit the dojo. Johnny put his arms up. "I'm right here, man." The other man scoffed, brushing him off. J: "Sorry if we interrupted anything, Sensei." M: "20 push ups on our knuckles?" He kept his eyes on the man in his car, chuckling at the boy's question. "Right. Like you could. Johnny smugly smiled at Daniel.

...

Will knocked on his son's bedroom door. "Joey, ven a poner la mesa." He put his ear on the door to listen behind the blasting 80s rock. He heard his son throwing punches in the air. "Joseph!"

"¡Saldré en un minuto!" He replied. "¡Tu tío Jonathan y yo hicimos tacos de asada!"

"Okay!"

Joey sat, eating the asada tacos his father and uncle cooked up. "They're good. So, what's going on, tío?" Will drank his soda as his older brother spoke. "Wanted to stay for a while and Rae told me to take care of you two." W: "And, the wife." Jon winced, nodding. "The kids are out of town and she's nagging right now. Wanting more, uh, sensual things." "Bleh!" Joey jokingly cringed. "Yeah, bleh." His father agreed. "Oh! Have you decided what you're going as for the Halloween dance?" Joseph thought, "Well, yeah, I thought about going as Freddy Kruger but the costume is expensive." "Oh, don't worry, J. He's got you." Jon said with a smile. "And what happened there?" He pointed at his nephew's knuckles. "You don't wanna know." Will teasingly answered. Joseph looked at his father, "What?" The two Byers brothers laughed at the confused child. --

Joseph and Miguel did their training as Johnny went through papers. He walked out of his office, talking to his current students. "Hey, you guys don't happen to have any friends who wanna learn karate, do you?" They were very concentrated, letting his question go. "Aw, what am I saying? You don't have any friends. Sorry." Miguel paused, turning to Johnny. "Hey, Sensei, when will the kicking begin? I saw this YouTube video of a guy breaking boards, and it looked badass." "Yeah, no shit. Kicking is badass. But you're not ready." He further explained, now Joseph was all ears. "If I don't get students in here, I won't be able to teach you anything." Joey reminded him, "You've thought about advertising, right?" "Yeah, duh." He semi-lied. "Of course."

It was the next day. Joey and his friends sat at their usual table during lunch, Counselor Blatt speaking. "Cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel message to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their face." The students were either on their phones, not caring. Miguel and Joey kept their eyes on the woman as they ate. "I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity." The teens all darted their eyes on Eli as he covered his scar. Joey sighed, sick of their insults. "But today, our goal here is to make this school a safe space for all students." Miguel turned to the table. "If you're sick of getting bullied, our karate dojo's looking for recruits." Demetri turned it down with sarcasm. "Yeah, right. You hear that, Eli? A little karate training, and you're gonna kick some major ass." J: "He's serious, Demetri. Our sensei's the real deal." M: "Yeah, I'm sure we could get you both discounts." "As enticing as that sounds, I think we'd rather spend our afternoons playing Crucible Control than getting hit in the face."

Counselor Blatt continued, "One last thing. While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of sexy nurse, maybe try gender-neutral hospital employee." The students laughed. Joey's phone buzzed, a notification on the lock screen. PAPA: sent you a photo

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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

Text

Winter’s Fall (Two)

Glimpses of Bucky and Tony growing up together and those first few moments where their friendship dips into something more. This chapter is equal parts shenanigans, tooth rotting fluff and pearl clutching peeks into first loves.

(also, Idk why but I cannot get over how much Sleeping Beauty’s mom must have just panicked thinking about the curse basically all day every day, so I wrote some of that in here too)

MASTERLIST HERE

Enjoy!

*************** The castle cook shouted in alarm and swiped after the little hellion that had stolen two cupcakes from the counter, but Tony was seven years old and entirely too fast for the old cook to catch. He spent every summer at the Castle Barnes and by now he knew exactly how to snatch treats and get away with it.

“Ha ha, Happy! You can’t catch me!” Tony called over his shoulder and then tore down the hall and skidded through the foyer, bolting up the winding staircase with his hard won prizes clutched in his little hands. “Bucky! Bucky, I got cupcakes! Bucky!”

Tony tripped and fell over the rug closest to Bucky’s suite, but tucked into a roll and bounded out of it with feet steady and only a little frosting smeared on his shirt. “Bucky?” Tony burst through the door of his best friend’s room and glanced around wildly. “Quick! We gotta eat ‘em before Happys stomps up here looking-- oh my gosh-- BUCKY!”

The cupcakes pitched to the ground when the young Prince darted forward with hands outstretched, and Bucky screamed, “Tony!” as he fell from the railing of the top bunk and towards the unforgiving floor.

“Ooph! Gotcha!” Tony wheezed when the brunt of the five year old’s weight landed on his chest, but his arms locked tight around Bucky’s frame anyway, holding him tight until Tony was sure he was fine. “Are you dead? Please don’t be dead. Mama will be so mad if you’re dead, Buck!”

“M’not dead.” Bucky was shaking like a leaf as he rolled off Tony and onto the floor, hugging his knees to his chest, blue eyes wide and terrified. “But--but don’t tell Ma, okay? She might kill me for real.”

“Not dead?” Tony repeated, and when Bucky shook his head, Tony hauled off and popped Bucky in the shoulder, howling, “What the hell were ya doin’ up there! Dang it, Buck! You scared me!”

“Ow!” Bucky popped Tony right back, not caring a single bit that the other boy was two years and several inches taller. “Don’t hit me! I was just tryna see out the high window!”

“You coulda done it without costing me my cupcakes!” Tony shouted. “I hadta drop them to save you!”

“You didn’t have to save me!” Bucky raised his voice too, balling up his little fist in frustration. “I would’ve been fine!”

“Mar’get says I gotta make sure you don’t fall from anywhere, dummy!” Tony scowled at Bucky, then scowled over at the remainder of their cupcakes. “You could make it easier by not falling on purpose all the time! You’re so--”

Tony stopped when Bucky sniffed, the five year hiding his face and starting to cry. “You’re so-- aw Buck, don’t cry. S’okay. You fell and I caught you, right? Everything’s okay. Don’t be scared. I’m not really mad, hey, it’s okay.”

“S-Sorry.” Bucky hiccuped and Tony budged closer to give him a one armed hug. “Th-thanks for catching me, Tony.”

“I’ll always catch you, Buck.” Tony promised. “But no more climbing the top bunk, okay?”

“Okay.” Bucky hiccuped again. “Can we go get some more cupcakes?”

“Happy will be really mad.” Tony said doubtfully. “We’ll have to sneak in. Maybe even wear masks so he doesn’t know it’s us.”

“Oh I know!” Bucky lit up in excitement. “We can cut up my Ma’s stockings for masks! We’ll be invis’ble!”

“That’s a great idea!” Tony exclaimed. “C’mon c’mon c’mon!”

Later that night Winnie shrieked in horror when she found the remnants of her very favorite pair of stockings cut out into vaguely child sized masks, and even though Bucky and Tony swore they knew nothing and absolutely hadn’t used the stockings to try and steal cupcakes, the frosting around their mouths told another story.

“Absolute hellions.” Winnie said mournfully and Maria only barely managed to stop laughing long enough to agree, “Hellions.”

***************

It was only a matter of time before Winnie and George caught Bucky trying to climb along the top bunk in his room of course, so by the time Tony was ten and Bucky only about eight, the bedroom had been redone so Bucky’s bed was on a low platform and the high window boarded up so he wouldn’t be tempted to climb to it again.

Having a low bed didn’t stop Bucky from being reckless, of course. Now the boys were old enough to play unaccompanied in the gardens and they spent every minute of the day outside playing knights and dragons, soldiers and archers, pirates and privateers. Bucky could scale a tree in only a few minutes but Tony was faster on his feet so their play time took them from one end of the orchard to the other, up through branches and tumbling through hedges, scaling ladders and jumping from the roofs of shops and sheds.

“Oh I wish he wouldn’t do that.” Winnie clutched at her tea cup and grimaced as Bucky swung upside down on a branch, stabbing and swinging at Tony with his wooden sword. “I’m so worried about him falling.”

“He’s a boy, Winnie.” Maria said mildly. “You can’t expect him to simply sit and do his sums and alphabet all day, the poor dear would go mad.”

These days Maria and Tony lived in the Castle Barnes most of the year, only traveling back to their own Kingdom to spend the holidays with Howard. Tony and Bucky were best friends, happy to sit together at meals, to do lessons side by and side and even to share a suite with twin bed pushed to opposite ends of the walls, and Winnie--

--Well, Winnie’s nerves grew worse every year and since George was too occupied with matters of the realm to worry about his anxious wife’s panicky spells, Maria stayed on to help keep her oldest friend calm and collected.

“You don’t have to worry so much, you know.” Maria poured fresh tea into Winnie’s cup and tried for a comforting smile. “Tony would never let Bucky fall. Look at them, they are the very best of friends! Breathe, love. All will be well.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Winnie said tightly, staring out the window at the boys. “It isn’t your child that’s cursed.”

Outside in the garden, Tony faked a stab at Bucky’s belly and when Bucky gasped and grabbed at his stomach as if it had been a fatal blow, Tony crowed, “I am victorious! Bring me the Princess!”

“The Princess?” Bucky made a face. “Who wants a Princess?”

“At the end of the story, Prince Charming always gets to kiss the Princess.” Tony explained in a rather no duh tone of voice. “And I won, so where’s my Princess?”

“Kay, but just cos you won doesn’t mean you’re charming.” Bucky protested. “You flick boogers at me during lessons! That’s not charming!”

“Maybe if you were a Princess, I wouldn’t flick boogers at you.” Tony countered, and got a mouth full of dirt for his efforts, Bucky dropping right out of the tree and taking Tony to the ground with him. “Ack! You weigh a thousand pounds! Get off!”

“You weigh a thousand pounds!” Bucky cried and just that quickly, their discussion about Princesses derailed into wrestling and trying to shove mud up the other’s noses.

They were an absolute mess when the servant came to call for dinner, Bucky’s beautifully embroidered shirt torn at the shoulder and Tony’s shorts stained beyond redemption.

“Hey, you got a little--” Tony wiped a smear of dirt from Bucky’s cheek and grinned at him. “I got it. Race you to dinner?”

“Yep.” Bucky stomped on Tony’s foot and took off running for his life, cackling gleefully as Tony tore after him. “I’m winning! I’m winning!”

The servant only sighed and stepped out of the way so she wasn’t run over.

Such was life when Tony visited the Castle Barnes.

**************

“We should tell him.” Winnie whispered the night of Bucky’s tenth birthday. “George my love, we should tell Bucky about the curse. He doesn’t understand why we are so strict with him and if he only knew then he wouldn’t try to break the rules so often.”

“Don’t you dare.” George said flatly. The monarch loved Winnie very much but he had endured quite enough of her ceaseless worrying and panicking over every little thing. He thought about the curse every day too, but Winnie had actually boarded off the balconies the other day because Bucky and Tony were leaning on the rails and spitting into the grass. Just seeing Bucky on the balcony had sent Winnie into a faint and George had had enough of her hysterics.

“Why would you wish so much worry and stress on the boy?” He asked, throwing his hands in the air. “Boys fall, Winnie. They get hurt and they get back up again. Telling Bucky about his curse would mean that every time he slipped he’d panic, and then he’d stop doing anything that might cause him injury, which means he would stop doing anything at all. Do you want that? Do you want our boy to live in fear every waking moment, wondering and worrying and too afraid to even go outside?”

“...no.” Winnie covered her face. “No, but George I--”

“You will not tell him.” The King’s word was final, his eyes flashing in annoyance. “I forbid it. If Bucky is doomed to fall, then all the worrying in the world will not keep it from happening. We cannot live our lives in fear, and I won’t let Bucky live that way either. He does not need to know, not now and maybe not ever.”

Winnie nodded stiffly and George put a comforting, if not hurrying, arm around her waist to send her along to her chambers. “Off to bed then. Get some rest and I’ll see you in the morning.”

Winnie passed by the boy’s room on her way to bed and only the height of self control and perhaps fear of George’s anger kept her from opening the door and waking Bucky just to check that he was alright.

She needn’t have worried. The boys were perfectly alright and perfectly awake, curled up together in Bucky’s bed trading a book back and forth and talking in hushed whispers.

“How come the Princess is always in the highest room of the tallest tower?” Bucky wanted to know. “Seems like a dumb place to hide. Did she get trapped up there?”

“She’s not trapped.” At twelve, Tony was sure he knew absolutely everything. “That’s where she’s the safest! She’s safe from the dragon, safe from any bad guys, plus when the Prince rescues her it's all romantic and everything. They can watch the sunset while they share true loves kiss.”

“Nah.” Bucky was ten, and sure his best friend knew exactly nothing. “If it were me, I wouldn’t wait to be rescued. I’d tie the bed sheets together and jump out the window and rescue myself.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Tony shook his head. “You’d wait for me to come rescue you just like you always do.”

“Wait wait wait.” Bucky pushed at Tony’s shoulder irritably. “You say that like I’m the Princess. I’m not the Princess! And I don’t always need rescued!”

“Sure you do.” Tony turned a page and tapped at the picture of the Princess clutching flowers and reaching out for the Prince. “See? You got long hair just like her and you held roses last week and told me to rescue you!”

“I like my hair long.” Bucky informed the other Prince. “And I wasn’t holding roses, you pushed me into the rose bush and I needed help getting out! It doesn’t count as a rescue if you pushed me first!”

“You’re just bein’ picky for no reason.” Tony insisted and Bucky walloped him with a pillow. “Ow! Dang it, Bucky! I can’t help that you’re a Princess and I’m Prince Charming! It’s just the way the story goes!”

“DON’T CALL ME A PRINCESS!”

Bucky got a pillow to the face when he yelled and the book was quickly forgotten in favor of a full out pillow fight. Howard was only just heading to bed when he heard the racket, and he pounded at the door, hollering, “You two be quiet or I’ll separate you!”

The boys scrambled apart and into their respective beds and only after Howard’s footsteps had receded down the hall did Tony whisper, “You don’t gotta be the Princess, Buck. I’d rescue you anyway. You know that.”

“I know.” Bucky whispered back. “But the next time you push me in the flowers, I’m gonna thump you, alright?”

“That’s fair.”

**************

By Tony’s thirteenth birthday, he had moved into the Castle Barnes entirely. Maria still split her time between Winnie and her home with Howard, but Tony simply moved most of his belongings into Bucky’s suite of rooms and stayed, perfectly content to share everything with his best friend.

The witch Margaret came to visit shortly after Tony’s birthday, appearing in a wash of warm wind and tinted air, waving her hands and exclaiming, “I meant to be here for your special day, little love. But time is different when you are old like me, the days blend together and weeks don’t mean much of anything at all, and before I knew it, I was late to the party!”

The boys forgave Margaret in an instant, always too happy to see the witch to care that her visits were sporadic and always thrilled with whatever gifts she magiced from her cloak.

This time the gift was a set of twin daggers, beautifully carved handles and runes etched onto the gleaming blades and Margaret was very serious, very careful as she handed the knives to the boys and admonished, “You are near to grown now, and it’s very important to keep yourself and each other safe. These will help, do you understand? Keep them on you always.”

“So long as Tony’s got his, I’ll be okay.” Bucky pushed his hair out of his eyes and beamed at Margaret. “He always rescues me!”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Margaret had a warmly approving smile for Tony. “But all the same, I want you to wear yours too, James. Promise?”

“I promise.” Bucky said seriously. “But it’s just Bucky, ma’am. No one but Ma calls James and only if I’m in trouble.”

“Ah. Bucky then.” Margaret was equally as seriously, and leaned down to give both the boys a kiss on their forehead. “Go and play so I can talk with your mothers.”

The boys were gone immediately, exclaiming over their new knives and shouting about all the monsters they would slay with the blades, and Margaret took herself right to Winnie’s rooms to see the Queen.

“Are you quite alright, love?” It was clear Winnie wasn’t alright, but Margaret asked all the same, retrieving a cool cloth from... somewhere... and laying it gently on Winnie’s forehead. “Tell me what’s wrong, what could have happened to have you so worked up?”

Winnie burst into tears, crying about how Bucky had slipped and fallen just that morning and how George was tired of her hysterics but how she couldn't help it, and oh every year that passed she got more and more nervous and how could they ever hope to break the curse when Bucky might not make it to old enough to love--

“Hush, now.” A hand in the air and a softly murmured blessing, and the tension washed right out of Winnie’s body, the witch’s influence calming her nerves like no earthly medicine could. “Didn't I tell you that there are many ways to love? Very few require a kiss, darling. So long as the love is true, there is always a chance to save our boy.”

Margaret tipped her head towards the window as Bucky and Tony raced by down below, calling to each other in excitement on their way to another adventure, and the witch smiled to herself.

So long as the love is true, there is always a chance.

***************

The year Bucky turned thirteen, he and Tony greased the banister of the staircase and spent an entire day rocketing down the three floors at a speed just below breakneck.

It ended much the way most of their shenanigans ended-- with a miscalculation and a scream and Tony lunging to grab Bucky before something terrible happened. Bucky walked away with only a couple bruises, but Tony’s shoulder strained as he had grabbed for his friend, and Bucky spent a solid week rubbing healing cream into Tony’s arm as an apology.

“Come off it, Buck.” Tony finally said on the last night. “I’d’ve grabbed you even if I hurt my shoulder worse. You know that.”

“I know.” Bucky bit at his lip in concentration as he worked at the hurt muscles tentatively. “But I wanna take care of you anyway. I feel bad you got hurt helping me.”

“Yeah well, I’m bigger than you.” Tony nudged at Bucky good naturedly. “Better me getting hurt than you, Buck.”

Winnie moved the boys bedroom down to the ground floor after the stairs incident, telling Maria shakily, “If Bucky isn’t on the upper floors than he can’t fall from the balcony or slip down the stairs, right? He can’t fall if he’s on the ground.”

“You’re right.” Maria held Winnie’s thin hand and nodded, sharing a worried look with George over Winnie’s head. “You’re right, darling. He can’t fall if he’s always on the ground.”

“I hate being down here.” Bucky complained one day as he slumped in his desk chair and worked on his Latin. “Only thing out the windows is trees and I can’t even see over them to see the ocean! Why is Ma being so weird about letting me near anything high?”

“Probably cos every time you get more than an inch off the ground you’re flailing about like a lunatic and trying to face plant.” Tony was fifteen now and catching the eye of every scullery maid and serving girl in the castle. His curly hair never managed to stay tamed, his dark eyes sparkled with gold when the light hit it just right, and despite many many arguments with Bucky over whether or not his behavior was charming, Tony’s smile could get him just about anything he wanted.

Right now his smile was just aggravating though, so Bucky threw a wadded up piece of paper at him and went back to work.

“You been kissed yet, Buck?” Tony said next and Bucky’s head shot up, crystal blue eyes narrowing in confusion.

“...no? But you know that, cos you know everything about me.” Bucky tapped his pencil on the table for a few seconds before asking, “Have you been kissed yet?”

“Nah.” Tony shook his head. “I think one of the serving girls would let me kiss her if I wanted though. They’ve sure started being nice now that I’m grown.”

“You’re not grown.” Bucky scoffed and Tony retorted. “More grown than you! My voice got deep last year and you still sound like a kid!”

“Whatever.” Bucky played with the end of one of his braids, bottom lip poking out as he thought for a minute. “Who wants to kiss, though? I saw Ma and Pop kissing and it looked real uncomfortable. And Pop says things like Ma looks like spring, cos her hair’s brown and her eyes are green and she smells like flowers? I don’t get it, but it’s dumb.”

“Sure sounds dumb. Who wants to be called after a season?” Tony unwrapped a package of cookies and offered most of them to Bucky. “If I said you looked like Winter that would be stupid, right? Your hair looks like dead branches and you’re super pale like snow and your lips are red like they’re frostbitten? That’s stupid, nobody wants to hear that.”

Bucky paused with a cookie half way to his mouth. “...you think about how I look, Tony?”

“We sleep in the same room, I gotta look at your ugly face all the time.” Tony deadpanned and Bucky frowned at him, flinging back, “Yeah well, you look like Autumn. Muddy eyes and hair like shriveled up leaves and your freckles look like dirt!”

“What!” Tony jumped to his feet in outrage. “My eyes don’t look like mud!”

“You didn’t deny the dirty freckles!” Bucky taunted. “I bet them serving girls don’t wanna kiss you so much as they wanna clean your face!”

“Damn it!” Tony cleared his desk in one leap and tackled Bucky right out of his chair, the wooden legs cracking under their combined weight and splintering to pieces. “Take it back! My freckles aren’t dirty!”

“They are!” Bucky was gasping with laughter as they grappled and rolled and pinched at each other. “You look like Autumn! Muddy, dirt trackin’ in Autumn!”

“That’s better than dead branch hair Winter!” Tony insisted. “And frostbitten lips! They’ll turn black and fall off and no girl will ever want to kiss those

“Don’t wanna kiss a girl anyway!” Bucky argued back. “So I guess it’s fine!”

“Oops, I gotcha.” Tony automatically put his hand behind Bucky’s head to keep it from bouncing off the hardwood when they rolled one more time. “Wait. What do you mean, you don’t wanna kiss a girl?”

“Well I dunno.” Bucky’s whole body moved on the floor when he shrugged. “Who needs to kiss a girl when I could kiss you if I wanted to?”

“You--” Tony blinked in surprise, his fingers tightening briefly in Bucky’s hair before falling away. “You want to kiss me?”

“You’re my best friend.” Bucky clambered up from the floor and dusted off his pants. “If I wanted to kiss somebody, guess it’d be you, right?”

“Huh.” Tony brushed a few splinters from Bucky’s shoulder and nodded. “Yeah, I guess if I wanted to kiss someone it’d be you.” And then with a glare. “Gonna call you Winter from now on, though. Stick hair Winter.”

“You call me Winter and I’m gonna call you mud.” Bucky threatened. “Just you watch and see.”

************

When a Prince turned fifteen, it was common practice to send him to live with another family, usually a neighboring royal, possibly even a rival Kingdom. The years away from home taught the Prince how to adapt to uncertain situations as well as reinforced the bonds of established friends and strengthened relationships with tenuous allies.

More than likely, Tony would have come to live at the Barnes castle on his fifteenth birthday since Winnie and George were the Stark’s closest friends, and two years later Bucky would have gone to live with Howard and Maria.

Tony already lived at the Barnes castle of course, so his fifteen birthday came and went with nothing more than a birthday party and pile of gifts, and life continued on much the way it had for years.

By the time Bucky turned fifteen, Winnie was anxious to the point of not even wanting the Prince to wander the castle grounds un escorted and the thought of Bucky leaving to foster-- even to someone trusted like the Stark’s-- was enough to make her hands tremble.

Much like Tony’s fifteen birthday, Bucky’s was a day of celebration, of presents, and of nothing changing at all.

Not that Bucky was disappointed to be staying home. Besides his Ma’s increasingly anxious episodes and the ever stricter rules about where they could go and what they could do, Bucky didn’t want to leave home. He didn’t want to leave his Ma and Pop and he certainly didn’t want to leave Tony.

Tony was his best friend and partner in crime and confidant and some days-- some days--

“Hey, I dunno if I want you to call me Bucky anymore.” he said one day as they sat curled up on the sofa in the library, tucked warmly under blankets to keep out the winter chill, sharing a book between their laps. “Seems like a little kid’s name.”

“But everyone calls you Bucky.” Tony didn’t look up from the illustrated page, tracing the lines of a terrifying beast and skimming the information beneath. “Did you know if you cut the head off the Hydra monster, two more grow in its place? Scary.”

“Hydra monsters aren't real.” Bucky slouched into the couch and put his head on Tony’s shoulder. “And I’m serious. I don’t know what else to have people call me, cos James doesn’t really feel like my name unless Ma’s yelling at me, but Bucky sure seems like a kid.”

“I could start calling you Winter.” Tony shifted on the couch so he could get his arm around Bucky tugging his friend closer. Lately it seemed like all he wanted to do was hold Bucky and since Bucky never seemed to care, Tony kept right on doing it. “I remember threatening to call you Winter for a while, wonder why I never did.”

“Cos I threatened to beat you stupid if you kept saying my hair looked like dead branches.” Bucky snuggled closer and tapped at the Hydra monster painting. “That’s sure freaky looking though, imagine seeing one’a them? That’d make anyone scream.”

“I could kill it.” Tony said confidently. “Just get my sword real hot and chop it all off at the neck, burn the flesh so it doesn’t grow back. Easy.”

“Easy.” Bucky mimicked and Tony pinched his side viciously. “Ow! Damn it! Don’t do that! We’re not kids anymore, Tony! I’m bigger than you and I’ll get you for that!”

“You’re maybe the same size as me.” Tony said scornfully. “Don’t push your luck.”

Bucky settled back down into Tony’s side and after a moment Tony said, “Your hair doesn’t look like dead branches by the way. It’s more like… like black silk. And you’re real pale like snow but not ugly snow like I used to tell you. Just pretty, fresh snow all glittery on top, you know what I mean?”

“...oh.” Bucky’s lips parted in surprise and Tony’s dark eyes dropped to watch, his voice a little hoarse when he continued, “I know I said your mouth looked frostbitten but I think it’s more like um-- well you remember that one year the gardener got the orchards to grow red plums and we stole a bunch and ate them until we were sick?”

“...yeah?”

“That’s what color your lips are.” Tony’s cheeks flushed pink. “So you know I could-- I could call you Winter. If you wanted. I won’t mean anything bad by it. Promise.”

Bucky’s heart was pounding, his throat suddenly dry and his face probably as red as the fruit Tony was talking about. What was he supposed to say? “Um, Tony--”

“Shhh.” If Tony blushed any harder he’d probably combust, so he just opened the book wider and pointed to a new section. “Leave me alone, I’m reading.”

“Okay.” More than a little relieved Tony didn’t expect him to say anything, Bucky just stayed quiet, leaning in so he could read too. And if his hand brushed Tony’s when they both reached for the same page, that was alright and if Tony maybe leaned back so Bucky was leaning more on his chest, well that was alright too.

They still shared a room, beds pushed to opposite walls and clothes all stuffed into one big dresser and tonight for the first time ever, Bucky ducked into the en suite to change into his sleep clothes.

He was suddenly feeling self conscious, suddenly over aware of his body and of Tony’s body and that their beds were in the same room, even if they were twenty feet apart. He’d never felt awkward around Tony before but tonight Bucky thought he’d pass out if he had to see Tony almost naked as they changed.

The en suite, it was.

When Bucky came out of the bathroom, Tony was already in bed with his back to the room but there was a tiny bouquet of flowers on Bucky’s pillow, the last of the blossoms from the plum tree, a rose or two from Winnie’s favorite bush, a sprig of greenery, all tied with a bright red ribbon.

Bucky brought the flowers to his nose and inhaled their fragrant scent, whispering a shy, “Thank you.”

“I’m sleeping.” Tony whispered back and Bucky only grinned, setting the flowers carefully at his bedside and climbing under the covers to sleep, and to dream of Tony.

*************

“You should have seen the fuss the boys put up about being separated.” Maria cut into the delicate cake and offered Margaret a piece. “But once Bucky turned sixteen, they needed their own space. I don’t understand how they’ve been content to share just one room their whole lives, I go batty sharing a suite with Howard and we’re in love!.”

“Quite right, my dear.” Howard didn’t even look up from his newspaper, and Maria sent him a fond smile.

“The boys don’t love each other?” Margaret queried, sipping at her tea and keeping a close eye on Winnie, who could barely manage a taste of her own cup. “How odd, last time I came they seemed so close.”

“Oh they love each other very much.” Maria was quick to assure her. “Bucky is still reckless and Tony is unfailingly patient when it comes to keeping Bucky is safe. They trust each other implicitly, it's rather wonderful to see. And even thought they argue at least twice a day, at least they’ve finally out grown the habit of wrestling all the time.”

“Winnie, my love?” Margaret reached and lay gentle fingers on the Queen’s arm. “You haven’t said anything. You don’t approve of how close Tony and Bucky are?”

“Tell me.” Winnie set her tea down and clasped her shaking fingers together. “When you came through the bridge, did they have it shut down on both the castle side and the city? Or just the city?”

“Both castle and city.” Margaret answered calmly, thinking of the barricades on either side of the bridge across the gorge. “As you’ve ordered, isn’t that right?”

“I just can’t take a chance.” Winnie whispered, her face very pale now. “The curse will come true before my baby is grown and he is so close to grown. No balconies, no stairs, no bridges. He can’t fall if he’s always on the ground, isn’t that right?”

“Oh my love.” Margaret sent an alarmed look towards Maria and then switched seats so she was right next to the Queen. “When was the last time you slept, darling?”

“A few days ago, Bucky and Tony were practicing their dances for the upcoming winter ball.” Maria supplied quietly. “Tony wanted to try lifting Bucky and they argued about how Bucky was certainly not a girl to be lifted and Tony insisted he was strong enough and well--” she sighed. “Winnie came to the ballroom just as Tony dropped Bucky. They both ended up on the floor but Bucky didn’t so much as bump his head. Tony caught him well enough to take most of the hit and Bucky isn’t even bruised.”

“She hasn’t slept since then?” Margaret whispered, and Maria pursed her lips, shaking her head. “Where is the King?”

“George is... “ Maria hesitated. “George is out doing a rotation with the general the past few weeks.. Winnie’s nerves are only getting worse and sometimes he needs the time to himself.”

“Poor dear.” Margaret’s hand lit with a gentle glow and she placed her palm on Winnie’s forehead. “Sleep, love. You can rest, all is well.”

Winnie was out like a light, slumping into the couch immediately and Margaret rescued the tea cup as it fell from her hands. “How long has she been this bad?”

“It’s been getting worse every year.” Maria spread a blanket over Maria’s still form. “But every since Bucky turned fifteen she seems drastically worse. We all live on the bottom floor now because Winnie ordered the stairs blocked off. The doors to the balconies are boarded, even the ones over the garden. She doesn’t want Bucky riding his horse and the boys haven’t been anywhere near the cliffs for years.”

“How do they feel about being so limited?” Margaret wanted to know and Maria lifted one slim shoulder in a shrug.

“Tony and Bucky are happiest when they are together, to be quite honest don’t think they even notice the restrictions.”

Margaret raised a knowing eyebrow and Maria amended, “Alright. I know for a fact they sneak out at every given opportunity. I’ve caught Tony bandaging Bucky in the kitchen very late at night, I’ve found clothing torn on tree branches and sometimes I visit the stables and catch their horses still being wiped down.”

“I see.” Margaret nodded as if she understood completely. “Is it safe to assume they are together now?”

“Oh always.” Maria confirmed. “They don’t spend a single day apart. I’m sure you’ll find them in the garden together.”

The boys were in the garden, tucked away on the roof of the gazebo in the farthest corner from the castle. They could just barely see the ocean through the surrounding trees, they were all but invisible to anyone passing by, and moments like today when the sun shone down and birds were singing, the rooftop was practically paradise.

“How come you always want to be up high?” Tony stretched his lean frame out on the roof and sighed, folding his arms behind his head. “You know I don't mind it, but is sure makes your Ma worry.”

“I know.” Bucky nibbled around the edge of a cookie. “But Ma worries about everything these days. She’s gonna start locking me in my room soon, always scared I’m gonna fall or get hurt or something like that.”

“To be fair, you fall a lot.” Tony rolled onto his side and reached for one of the cookies from Bucky’s lap. “Not like you get hurt though, not since we greased the stairs anyway.”

“I don’t get hurt only cos you’re always there to rescue me.” Bucky scooted closer and brushed the crumbs from Tony’s shirt. “Otherwise I’d really be in trouble, huh?”

“M’always gonna be there to rescue you.” Tony said quietly and when Bucky only smiled, Tony reached for his hand and wove their fingers together.

They did this sometimes, only sometimes since Tony had left flowers on Bucky’s bed. They held hands or sat closer than necessary and even though their bedrooms were separate now, most nights Bucky ended up sitting with Tony and reading until they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer, or Tony would sneak into Bucky’s room so they could talk until they both fell asleep. Most times it was fine and nothing felt different but sometimes Bucky would blush and Tony would be tempted to brush his fingers along the strip of skin where Bucky’s sleep shirt rode up from his pants….

Sometimes it was overwhelming, but usually it was just right. Bucky was his best friend and they loved each other. They could laugh and tease each other and argue and sometimes --sometimes--

“You’re so pretty.” Tony whispered and Bucky’s smile stretched bigger. “Is that okay? Can I tell you that?”

“If I can tell you that you’re pretty too.” Bucky whispered back.

Promptly, almost predictably Tony objected, “Prince Charmings are handsome, not pretty!”

“If you were charming, maybe I’d call you handsome.” Bucky said flatly and the tentative sweetness of the moment dissolved into an age old argument of whether or not Tony was charming, whether pretty was a word only for Princesses and then Tony blurted, “Get used to it, Winter! When we get married I’ll be King and you’ll be my Queen and I’ll call you pretty all I want!”

Bucky’s mouth fell open just as Tony’s snapped shut, eyes closing in embarrassment. “Um, what I meant was-- I didn’t mean-- not that you and I will--damn it, um--”

“Tony.” Bucky had never kissed anyone in his life, but he suddenly knew he wanted to kiss Tony. They were close together anyway, so Bucky leaned in to press their lips together just as Tony was ducking his head and cursing his own awkwardness and--

“Ow!”

“OW!”

Both boys yelped as their heads collided, Bucky’s nose connecting with Tony’s forehead and he shouted, rolling away and grabbing at his nose when it started to bleed.

“Oh shoot, are you okay? What happened?” Tony scrambled over to check on Bucky, wiping at the blood with his sleeve. “What the heck were you doing?”

“What do you mean, what was I doing?” The words came high pitched and nasal as Bucky pinched at his nose to stem the bleeding. “I was trying to kiss you! Why did you duck?”

“I felt like an idiot for saying the thing about you being my Queen.” Tony muttered. “But if I would’a known you were trying to kiss me, I wouldn’t have ducked, I promise.”

“Course I was gonna kiss you.” Bucky huffed. “What else was I ‘sposed to do when you announce you want to marry me?”

“I didn’t know that’s the sorta thing you kiss after!” Tony tipped Bucky’s head back so he could see if he was bruised or not. “Sounds right, but how do I know? I’ve never done it before.”

“You--you’ve never kissed anyone before?” Bucky couldn’t help the way his voice wobbled. “Really?”

“Well... n?.” Tony’s lips curved in a sheepish smile and he backed off a little, chucking a pebble off the roof just so he wouldn’t have to look at Bucky as he admitted, “I always figured you’d be my first but--”

“-- but what?”

“--but I don't need to kiss you to prove I love you.” Tony said quietly. “Right? You’re my best friend, Winter. I love you. No kisses needed.”

“I love you too.” It was the easiest thing in the world to say and a piece of Bucky wondered how they had never said it before. “I um-- I like when you call me Winter.”

“Yeah.” Tony’s eyes sparked warm. “I know you do.”

“You um--” Bucky took a deep breath. “You look like Autumn, okay? You got a bunch of colors in your hair like when the leaves change and your eyes look like gold when the sun hits them just right and I dunno what your freckles remind me of, but I love them.”

“Oh.” Tony had never been speechless before but he was sure speechless now, so he didn’t bother trying to talk. Instead he held out his hand and gave Bucky a hopeful smile, sat real close together, and hid his blush in Bucky’s long hair.

No kisses needed.

***********

Bucky turned eighteen and for the first time in his life won the argument with Tony about which one of them was more grown. Not only had Bucky’s voice mellowed into something deep and smooth, his shoulders broadening as he packed on muscle, but he stood a full two inches taller than Tony and that was really all that mattered.

“If you ask me if I need help reaching something again, I will end you.” Tony stated, carefully tying Bucky's neckerchief and giving it the appropriate amount of fluff. “I’m still older than you.”

“I feel like age doesn’t count when you’re smaller than me.” Bucky pointed out and then wheezed when Tony yanked the cloth tighter than strictly necessary. “You gonna strangle me on my birthday, Tony?”

“Bucky--”

“--Won’t you need a step ladder for that?”

Tony pursed his lips and Bucky snorted with laughter, and even though everyone in the party assumed Bucky’s tie was crooked and his hair messy because he and Tony had spent a moment locked in a passionate embrace, the truth was much less romantic--

--Tony had retrieved a step ladder and tackled Bucky, pinning him with a well executed and often used move, and Bucky had been laughing too hard to even try to escape.

“The least you could have done was straightened his neckerchief.” Margaret said in disapproval. “Honestly, Tony.”

“It’s not what you think, Margaret.” Tony’s dark eyes tracked Bucky across the dance floor, and he smiled when he saw Winnie make a rare appearance from her rooms long enough to dance with her son. “Everyone here thinks we were cavorting in our bedrooms, but it was less of a lover’s embrace and more of an ambush and all out war.”

“Of course it was.” Margaret’s smile was endlessly amused, her fingertips glowing with magic as she touched Tony’s cheek. “You love him very much?”

“Of course I do.” Tony didn’t even hesitate. “Bucky is my best friend.”

“And have the two of you…” Margaret raised an eyebrow meaningfully. “...made your love official?”

“What?” Tony nearly inhaled his champagne and Margaret laughed softly as his embarrassment. “No! I mean, yes we love each other, but we haven’t-- not-- oh god why am I even talking to you about this?”

“I was only curious.” Margaret patted at his arm gently. “There are many types of love, my Prince, each as wonderful as the next. I’ve lived a very long time but it will always be my favorite to hear a love story. I’m only being nosy, don’t worry. The two of you will find your moment, no matter how it comes to be.”

Tony kept sending the witch suspicious, embarrassed glances but Margaret didn’t say anything else, just gave the young Prince one of those peculiar, all knowing smiles and changed the subject.

Later that night Margaret managed a moment alone with Bucky, and she pulled him into the parlor murmuring, “You must come with me dear, we have much to talk about. It’s time for you to know a thing or two.”

Bucky sat and listened with wide eyes as the witch told him about the day of his christening, the creature Echidna and the curse, the reason why his Ma couldn’t bear to see him anywhere high and how the curse was supposed to take him before he was grown.

“But I’m grown now.” Bucky pointed out, eyes wide and lips trembling. “Eighteen years old, I’m-- I’m a man now, so I’m safe. I’m safe now, right?”

“You are indeed a man by some accounts.” Margaret allowed. “But by others, not so much. As a Prince you are a man at eighteen, but unable to take the throne until you are twenty five. If you were a peasant, you would be a man the day you could own property at twenty one. Those of us who have seen centuries don't consider a man grown until he’s married or at the very least taken a lover…”

She let her voice trail off pointedly and Bucky’s brow furrowed. “I love Tony, isn’t that enough? Perhaps our love has kept the curse from coming true.”

“Perhaps.” Margaret tried to smile. “But we must be extra careful now, little love. I know your mother has spent these last years worrying herself sick but now that we are so close to the curse running out, you are in more danger than ever.”

“...why didn’t anyone tell me?” Bucky whispered. “My whole life I’ve tried to climb to the highest places, the tallest trees. So many times I could have died if Tony hadn’t been there to catch me. Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Would telling you have done any good besides make you worry?” Margaret asked. “Or break Tony’s heart? Tell me, Bucky. Would you still climb the gazebo roof to sit with your love if you knew a fall would bring a curse to bear?”

Bucky chewed at his bottom lip as he thought, and Margaret waited patiently.

“Yes.” he finally said. “Because Tony will always catch me. Curse or no curse, he will always rescue me.”

Margaret nodded, but her smile was sad. She had known what Bucky would say, had known why the Prince would say it. Bucky did not fear a curse he thought could never come true, not when he had a constant companion that promised over and over to save him.

But Bucky couldn't sense the growing doom around the castle, he couldn’t feel the tension in the air like Margaret could. With every balcony boarded up and every set of stairs barricaded, ribbons of fear seeped into the very stones of Castle Barnes and stained them black. The windows were clouded over no matter how well the servants cleaned, the air itself heavy with foreboding. Winnie was on the verge of collapsing and only needed the slightest provocation to be lost, Echidna had gone too long without her revenge and the fairies had warned of plants dying, of thorns growing where flowers had bloomed, of the ocean growing restless at the shores.

The castle was being wrapped in darkness, smothered by panic, fear of a coming curse doing more damage than perhaps the curse itself and Margaret knew it could only be a matter of time before everything came crashing down.

But she didn’t tell Bucky about the darkness, instead she reminded him, “True love conquers all.” and kissed Bucky’s forehead the way she always did. “Do not lose your faith, my love.”

True love conquers all.

It was nearly midnight before Tony had the opportunity to steal Bucky away from the party, and he clasped Bucky’s hand tight in his own as they ran from the hall and out the back doors of the castle into the gardens.

“Tony, wait up! I can’t run in these stupid--” Bucky hopped on one foot trying to kick out of his expensive and uncomfortable shoes. “--fancy--” his neckerchief yanked off and tossed aside. “--clothes!” his stiffly formal suit jacket dropped over a hedge and Bucky finally breathed a sigh of relief when he found Tony waiting beneath the branches of their favorite plum tree.

“Hi.” he grinned, taking both Tony’s outstretched hands and moving close enough for their noses to bump. “This is already the best part of my night.”

“You got a new sword.” Tony pointed out and Bucky countered, “Yeah, but I wear my dagger every day. The sword will just sit in my room.”

“It has your name in gold on the hilt.”

“Alright, it will be fancy while sitting in my room.”

“Oh my god.” Tony rolled his eyes, but his hand came to rest so so softly at the back of Bucky’s neck, and he sounded nervous as he whispered. “I know you hate those fancy clothes, but you were gorgeous tonight.”

“We should have danced together.” Bucky inched even closer, feeling like he wanted to wrap himself in Tony’s smile and just melt away. “Cos you sure look gorgeous in your fancy clothes too.”

“Just once you need to call me handsome.”

“Handsome is reserved for Prince Charmings.” Bucky said immediately and Tony’s eyes lit with laughter, open affection and something else that made Bucky’s breath catch and his heart start pounding.

“Tony?” he scarcely dared ask. “What are we doing out here?”

“I um--” Tony took a deep breath. “Bucky--” and with a secret sort of smile. “--Winter. I love you. You know that.”

“Sure I do.” Bucky said hoarsely. “I love you too, Tony.”

“I know.” Another one of those deep breaths. “And we’re both grown now. So I thought maybe we could-- maybe I could--”

Bucky waited with bated breath, already knowing what Tony would ask but wanting to hear it all the same.

“Could I kiss you?” Tony asked in the barest whisper. “Sweetheart, would you let me--”

“Yes.” Bucky blurted and in the next instant Tony’s lips found him, pressing and molding in a way that was completely new and somehow familiar all at the same time. They could have kissed a thousand times for all Bucky knew to put his hands at Tony’s waist, for the way Tony sighed and wove his fingers into Bucky’s hair, for the way their bodies knew each other and fit effortlessly, beautifully.

But they hadn’t kissed a thousand times, this was the first time, the first time of a millions times, innocent and almost chaste and still Bucky’s knees were unbearably weak, Tony’s chest heaving as he gulped for air, and Bucky couldn't hardly speak when they parted and he saw Tony’s eyes shimmering with tears.

“I feel like I’m gonna collapse.” The words were nearly inaudible, Bucky not trusting his voice to say much more than that. It was alright though, because Tony leaned in to touch their foreheads together and in the same soft tone whispered back, “I’ll catch you if you fall, sweetheart. Every single time. I love you.”

“Oh.” Bucky clutched at Tony’s side, pulled him impossibly closer and nodded. “Oh, I love you too.”

**************

Lost in the moment, lost in each other, neither Bucky nor Tony saw the thorns creeping along the walls of the castle and choking out the roses, and neither felt the sudden shift of icy wind as something stirred deep in the cliffs.

Margaret felt it though, and she turned from the window with a shawl pulled tight around her shoulders.

“True love conquers all.” she whispered to the room. “... please oh please protect those boys.”

*******************

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER!

*******************

@ships-galore @ceealaina @izziebladez @cwar1864 @hausoffro @lookuplaughing @tonystarkisanangel @multishippinglife @girlnic @iam93percentstardust @water-colouredmemories @paranormalmoonlight5 @igotloki @moosette05 @wayward-student-philosopher @kaz-brekkers-gloves @atomicfandombomb @desitonystark @1fuckingshitup69 @agentlokii @thepunisherreigns @bibbarnes @dixiehellcat @peteryoulittleshit @here-for-your-bullshit @nanita90a @bluedreamdino @i-am-worth-it-25 @livewire28 @kimstark @simplynerdy-gal @fallen125 @slashupmylife @scorpiomindfuck @dwarrodamned @inevitablyironman @coolmusicnut @marvagon @myboyfriendsteve

#ncts fics #winteriron #sleeping beauty #tony stark #bucky barnes #peggy carter #fairy tale #magic

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inkribbon796 · 4 years

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The Lost Ones Ch. 4

Chapter 4: I am a Lost Boy, from Neverland

Summary: Many things in a large city fall by the wayside, one of the things, unfortunately, are that many children are forgotten and lost.

A/N: Title for this and the concept for this entire story were when I was listening to Lost Boy by Ruth B. it’s a really good song.

Warning: Yancy is kidnapped in this fic, something I’ve been alluding to in a couple of fics. Nothing else happens to him but it does touch on the fact that worse could have happened to him.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

~::~ 14 Years Ago ~::~

-::- Arthur Isaacs -::-

Arthur had hazy memories of his birth parents. He didn’t know much but he did know that they gave him up because they couldn’t handle him.

But in the world of temporary homes he’d learned that if you wanted attention, the fastest way to get it was to be louder than anything else.

It usually got him into trouble and caused fights, but they weren’t ignoring him. He was there to them.

One of the caretakers was trying to fix his collar, it was dirt and bloodstained from a fight with another kid.

“Arthur, can you put the book down for five seconds?” She demanded harshly, then tried to push the little pocket spiral notebook out of his hands.

“NO!” Arthur screamed and twisted away.

“Listen to me,” she told him sharply. “You have someone who’s talking about adopting you. This isn’t a foster home.”

Arthur didn’t believe her, no one wanted him, she was just trying to take his notebook!

“I got this,” a deeper, southern drawl spoke up. “Howdy kiddo.”

Arthur looked up at a man in a bushy mustache, his normally messy brown hair combed back but there was still an indent that showed he usually wore a hat.

“Howdy, what’cha got there?” The man knelt down a little, smiling.

The boy glared at him before kicking the man in the shins, making him scream in anger and pain as he pulled away from him.

“Arghhhh! Yah son-of-a—!” The man screamed and Arthur smiled back.

“That’s quite enough, Edgar,” a sharper baritone sliced through the air.

The man glared at someone down the hall and Arthur froze when he saw a man standing in the doorway of the office. Arthur had heard whispers of the older kids who snuck out at night and talked about finding “The Demon”. A monster who they said dragged kids under their bed and ate them as they slept.

Arthur clutched his notebook to his chest. One of the caretakers was hovering close to his side, as if she was going to pull him away.

“Hello Mr. Isaacs,” Dark greeted, walking towards him.

Arthur stepped forward and moved to stomp on the man’s foot; confident that regardless of what happened, he’d get a pretty cool story out of it.

Dark was faster and Arthur’s foot met an impenetrable barrier that looked like it should be made of smoke.

The Entity just stared at Arthur, all the adults braced to see the seven-year-old sent flying back down the hallway for his bravado. But Dark just chuckled, clearly more amused with the boy than offended.

“Are you the Devil?” Arthur asked, not breaking eye contact.

Dark laughed, absolutely tickled by Arthur’s attitude. He bent his knees and brought himself down to Arthur’s level, “What if I said I was?”

“Prove it,” Arthur dared. “Where do you take the kids you eat?”

“I don’t eat children,” Dark told him.

“If you want my notebook, you can’t have it,” Arthur spat, twisting a bit and shielding his notebook with his body.

“You like to write?” Dark asked, smiling.

“I’m gonna be the best writer ever,” Arthur proclaimed.

Dark’s smile didn’t fade, “I’m sure you will be.”

After that Dark would walk into the office with the director. Arthur would be sent back to the other kids. He would tell the older kids he’d seen the Devil and spoken with him.

They, of course, didn’t believe him. Arthur was infamous for making up stories. He was hit by a particularly tall thirteen-year-old.

But when Arthur disappeared one morning and never returned. One of the other kids would say they saw him with a person who made the room ring and lose its color . . . well . . . they were inclined to believe that he had been right.

-::- Illinois Jones -::-

Illinois has been through a couple foster homes in his short seven year life so he knew what it meant to be brought into this room. It was the outer lobby where potential parents and foster parents got to meet the kids they were hoping to take care of. Sometimes some of the older teenagers would come and go from the room because it was a quiet place to sit and relax.

The first time he’d been in the room he had snuck in. Right now, after his last . . . he didn’t like to think about going to another place.

But he was led into the room that, unlike any other time Illinois had been inside of it, it was empty except for a man sitting at a table. He was playing chess with himself.

“Hello,” he greeted when Illinois was brought to stand next to him.

“Hello,” Illinois responded back. “Were you playing with someone?”

He smiled, resetting the board and gesturing for Illinois to sit down. “In a way. Do you like chess?”

Shrugging, Illinois looked at the man, “I played once with one of the older kids. I lost.”

“Tends to happen,” Dark chuckled, waved his hands over the board and it became a deck of cards. “I remember losing my first couple of games. Do you play cards?”

“Yeah?” Illinois answered. As he began shuffling, Illinois added, “I’m Illinois.”

He smiled, “My name is Dark.”

Really? Illinois thought, but what the boy said was, “I’ve never heard that name before.”

There was a slight, silent chuckle that passed through Dark, “Have you ever played spoons before?”

Illinois nodded.

“This is a little variant we play at my house,” Dark told him, pulling out the card on the top and tapping the little letters, “four matching numbers. Only we draw from the deck instead of passing it to each other.”

He drew three more cards, he now had: a three of clubs, a queen of spades, a four of hearts, and a seven of hearts. Then he tossed the queen into the center next to the deck. “Do you understand?”

With a nod, they started. The two played in almost complete silence.

Dark won.

They started another game, and halfway in Dark spoke up, “I’ve heard a lot about you. They say you’re quite the escape artist.”

Illinois felt . . . the closest he could call it was scared.

“I don’t like being stuck,” Illinois evaded.

“I suppose I can relate to that,” Dark told him. Then he won again, and Illinois felt frustrated. It didn’t seem fair.

But he let Dark start another round.

“You’re good at this game,” Illinois told Dark.

The Entity smiled, “I’ve actually grown quite rusty. My . . . boyfriend and his son love playing spoons, and he has been teaching him how to cheat. So the game is less who’s faster, but who doesn’t get caught.”

Then he placed down a group of four sevens, “I win again.”

Illinois glared at him, “Hey, you cheated.”

Dark had a huge, cat-like grin on his face as he took the cards and shuffled again, “Now why would I do that?”

“How am I gonna win if you’re cheating?” Illinois complained in frustration.

“Now Illinois,” Dark’s tone was marginally firmer than before. “I’m going to ask you a simple question. I have time for one more game, or we can talk a bit. What would you like to do?”

He tapped the top of the deck twice and Illinois frowned.

“We can play another game,” Illinois pouted.

“We don’t have to,” Dark insisted.

Illinois insisted and Dark shuffled them in again and in the first round, Illinois had two fours. The game proceeded two more rounds and Illinois was feeling hopeful. Then Dark tossed the last four Illinois needed into the discard pile. Dark didn’t break eye contact with him, clearly expecting something from him. Illinois knew Dark was going to cheat again, that he was going to take the win from him.

It wasn’t fair, if he could just get into the discard pile then he’d win.

There was some clattering off in the distance and Dark turned his entire body to look down the hall. Illinois darted, grabbing the last four. But in his rush he’d forgotten to get rid of the ten he still had before Dark turned back around. He quickly chucked the card into the discard pile.

“I won!” Illinois smiled, putting his cards down and throwing his hands up in the air.

Dark just smiled, as if he was amused by him, chin resting on his palm. “I guess you did.”

He collected the cards and then grabbed the deck and fanned the cards out to show Illinois that deck was half-full of nothing but fours. Then he brought them back together and tapped them on the table, making them all disappear.

“Illinois, I am going to have to go, but I will see you again,” Dark promised.

“When?” Illinois felt a weight settling in his chest.

“If all goes well? Tomorrow, if not the day after.” Dark stood up but when he held out his hand again the deck of cards was back in his hands. “Do practice, you’re going to need it, and I want someone other than Wil winning all the time.”

“Thank you,” Illinois took the cards and held them to his chest.

Dark left and Illinois took the cards into his room, sneakily making sure to stay up late to practice and when he was ushered into a car by one of the caretakers he was yawning and almost falling asleep on his feet.

-::- Kaylor Kingston -::-

“I don’t wanna go,” Kay sobbed in panic, holding onto the table leg.

One of the caretakers was sadly looking down at the little five year old. Yesterday a man in a dark suit had come to talk to him and in the moment he’d been put at ease a bit, but now that he was being taken out of the facility, Kay was having a minor panic attack.

“Kaylor, it’s not another foster home, you even liked him when he came over,” she tried to calm him down.

It took a bit of time before Kay could be convinced to follow them down and into a waiting car. It was a black one, and when the door was open Kay could see another boy sitting inside, curled and sleeping against the door.

At first Kay was fine as he was basically belted into his car seat, but soon as the doors closed he was struck by blind fear again. “No! No! No!”

Kaylor was crying and lightly hitting his forehead on the door but it wouldn’t budge.

The other kid in the car was sleeping with a deck of cards tightly clutched in his hands. At Kay’s tears and the screaming, he woke up drowsily. “Hmmm?”

“Hello,” he mumbled before leaning over. Kay fearfully cried because he didn’t want to be alone but he couldn’t get out of his seat.

He introduced himself as Illinois and then eventually fell asleep again and it was a bit of a drive before the car stopped.

The car door on Kay’s side opened and there was the grey man in the suit again.

Their driver got out of the car to help him get Illinois out.

“I trust the drive was uneventful?” Dark asked and Kay watched Dark’s smoky dark grey aura take him out of his seat but didn’t pull him out of the car. Illinois slowly walked over to Dark, looking like he was going to fall asleep while still standing.

“Yes, Sir, smooth driving,” the driver answered.

“Hello Kaylor, I’m here to take you home,” Dark told him. “First we’re going to get something to eat.”

Kay eyes him suspiciously and Dark produced from the Void a little rabbit plushie, “Timid little one, aren’t you? You’re definitely a smart one.”

The small boy took the rabbit but it took another moment of gentle coaxing before he got out.

“There we go,” Dark smiled, using his aura to carefully scoop both boys up and whisk them toward his favorite restaurant.

-::- Yan Ayano -::-

Yan followed after the man in a cowboy hat. He looked scared. She’d never seen an adult look scared before.

“Where are we going?” Yan asked him.

Ed, for his part, was trying desperately not to panic in front of a five-year-old. Dark had a relatively specific order when he’d contracted Ed to bring him kids. They had to look like the one he already had.

How Dark wound up with a five-year-old, he had no idea. Probably Wil if the man was to put money on it. Wil had probably got sloppy drunk and the poor girl had been found out by Dark.

Really Dark made his job so much harder by being vague. About five, Asian-descent, and male were the only things Ed could think Dark wanted.

The problem: Yan ticked only two of those boxes. But it was showtime. He was already short a kid, and being short two kids would look even worse. Ed honestly blamed it on the little girl’s short hair.

In his scramble to get the kids, he’d overlooked her gender and Dark was—

Dark stepped through the portal into the warehouse that Illinois and Kay would eventually be brought to in about an hour.

The girl looked at Dark and hid behind Ed with a gasp.

Dark looked at Yan and Ed braced for a sharp dismissal. “Number four, I’ve got five in the next room.”

Ed held out her file, “Yan Ayano, from Pembroke Holy Orphanage.”

Dark took the small file, quickly flipping through it. He let out an amused chuckle, then looked back at Yan.

Then Dark bent his knees a little to get closer to Yan’s level and he change almost at the blink of an eye. Dark shifting to look like her red soul.

Ed had seen Dark’s “other half” one other time so far. Back when he worked for his father before the man was forced to retire. He knew that his father feared Dark when she was like this. That Dark was more dangerous in this form.

“Hello,” Dark smiled at Yan.

Yan poked her head out from behind Ed’s leg a bit.

Dark smiled, keeping her teeth hidden to try not to frighten the girl. “Well it’ll certainly be good to have a little lady in the house. A nice little sister.”

Ed just about died from relief.

“What if I’m not a good girl?” Yan mumbled.

Dark’s’s head tilted a bit, almost like a cat, “And why wouldn’t you be?”

“I cut Jenny’s hair because she said my haircut looked dumb,” Yan mumbled into Ed’s leg.

Dark laughed, a lilted high pitched laugh, and clapped her hands, “Oh aren’t you a delightful little peach. You are just perfect.”

Yan’s face peeked out more from Ed’s leg, looking more hopeful. “You’re really pretty.”

Dark smile didn’t fade, holding out her hands, “And so are you.”

Carefully Yan stepped forward and took her hands.

-::- Yancy Times -::-

Yancy was having the worst week of his life. He’d been going to a family reunion with his parents and he’d been sleepy during the drive. Next thing he knew someone was grabbing him away from them and he couldn’t think to scream before they were already out the door and being shoved into a car.

Then he was taken to another car and driven away from there to another building where he was put in a room.

He hid in the closet, trying to hide.

He was found by a man in a cowboy hat who dragged him away from the room and he was so scared and terrified that he just dead fished on the ground. Which in retrospect would be a last-ditch effort technique he would be taught later in life.

Yancy was unfortunately dragged off to a warehouse and locked in a room. His only tactic hid under a chair.

Then, after ages of waiting terrified, the door opened.

“As far as I know, nothin’s happened ta him,” a southern drawl was the first thing he heard.

“You’re sure?” A deeper voice demanded, he sounded angry and that terrified Yancy even more.

“Bout 75%,” the southern drawl answered. “One ‘a my boys might have gotten handsy behind my back but they wouldn’ta had a lot of time ta do anythin’.”

Then someone knelt down in front of him and Yancy tried to flinch back but there was nowhere to go.

“I want my mommy and daddy,” Yancy sobbed.

The man with grey skin glared at the cowboy, “I said no families, was I unclear?”

“Look I don’t know where he’s from, I was cleanin’ up the room an’ he was in there,” the southern guy spat. “Where am I supposed to move him ta?”

“Just go, I’ll handle this,” there was a ringing that accompanied his voice that seemed to get louder and Yancy whimpered, trying to cover his ears.

He braced for . . . something but it never came and eventually he saw the man sitting a bit farther away, “Hello, what’s your name?”

“Yancy?” Yancy replied.

“Do you know who I am?” The man asked.

Yancy shook his head.

“There’s been an unfortunate mix-up,” the man told him. “You are not supposed to be here.”

“Can I go home?” Yancy asked.

“Not yet, do you know where you’re from?” The man asked.

“I live in a blue apartment, number 18, third floor,” Yancy explained, just a touch braver.

“No, I mean—” he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, “city. What city are you from?”

Yancy went quiet, trying to remember but the name escaped him.

“Well then,” the man threw his hands up, standing up. “I’ll have to keep my eyes on you until I can send you home. My name is Dark.”

When he offered his hand, Yancy reluctantly worked his way out from under the chair. It would take him almost eleven years to make it back to his birth parents, and unfortunately it would have grievous results.

#Superhero AU #Masks and Maladies #Egoton Origins #kidnapping #Markiplier #Darkiplier #Ed Edgar #the Author #Illinois Jones #ahwm Illinois #King of the Squirrels #Yandereplier #Yancy #ahwm Yancy #surprise adoption #adoption through suspicious means #Yancy got lucky REALLY lucky

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rogueariadne · 4 years

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To Have A Villain’s Quirk

FIVE: SHORT AND SWEET

The day before seemed to spark a fire, a rather large fire, in Kaida's heart. She made a new friend, attempted to save him and the school bully, and made up with her mom. She even had used her quirk in public without too much fear. She felt like she could do anything, so when the next day rolled around, Kaida felt more alive than ever. She grinned as she got herself ready for school, looking forward to the days ahead. She needed to work as hard as she could to pass her classes, and needed to train harder to be able to pass the entrance exams for UA. She was going to be ready for it. Sure, there were about ten months before it, but Kaida planned on finding out if Midoriya wanted to study with her, or even train. Music blasted in the young girl's ears as she practically bounced to school, filled with a new reason to be happy. It seemed like everything was finally going right. But it wasn't long after the train ride, a rough hand stopped her as she entered the courtyard. Kaida flinched in response, jerking herself away as she pulled the earphone from her ear and looked at the suspect. She blinked in confusion at the lone blond who stood before her.

"B-Bakugo..?" Violet eyes glanced to the sides, looking for the lackey's he usually had with him but, luckily, didn't see them.

"Look, Red. Don't go getting a big head just 'cause you think you helped yesterday. You didn't. You and Deku didn't do shit. Just 'cause you happen to have a quirk, you're still the same weakling you've always been. S'not like you use it enough to be good anyways. So, get this through your head. You're nothing." He spoke through clenched teeth, staring down his nose at her. Yeah, it intimidated her, and she felt like she was an inch compared to him. Eyes cast down, she nodded as he started turning around.

"I...I know that.. Trust me." It was soft, but didn't go unheard. Looked like her happiness wasn't turning around. There was always going to be something to bring her down. Keeping her eyes down, she quickly moved past him and into the building. Normally, the gossiping, and the names didn't bother her, but maybe it was because no one ever said it to her face. So, with Bakugo straight up telling her just how worthless she was made her want to cry and just go home. Why did he have to be such a jerk? She sniffled as she walked through the halls, lip trembling as she bit back the tears that threatened to spill. It just wasn't fair. She never did anything to him to warrant being treated like that, so why? Just because it made him feel better about himself?

"Hiyama!" She jumped at her name being shouted down the hall, her quickly looking up at the green haired boy who waved at her. He had a welcoming smile on his face, patiently waiting for his friend to join him to walk with him the rest of the way to class. She pushed her negative feelings aside and forced a small smile on her face, walking up to the boy.

"Midoriya, how are you?"

"Ah, I'm alright. Still kinda shaken up about yesterday, to be honest. What about you?"

"I'm.. okay. Um.." She cut herself off, Midoriya looking at her curiously as they wove their way through everyone.

"Hm?" Kaida glanced at him before looking at their surroundings, making sure a certain blond boy wasn't around them.

"D-did Bakugo yell at you for trying to help?" The boy blinked before letting out a dry laugh.

"Hah, yeah. But that's just Kacchan..He's just.."

"Prideful."

"..Yeah. Yeah, that's one way to put it."

Silence fell between them as they continued walking, Bakugo's talks with them bringing them back down. As they entered the classroom and took their seats, Kaida remembered what she thought of this morning. "Oh! I almost forgot. I wanted to ask you, since we both need to try really hard for the finals and the entrance exams, w-would you like to study together? Or train together? I wouldn't mind helping out. I need to get better, too. But if you don't want to, it's okay.." She stopped herself before she could ramble too much. Izuku tilted his head at her as she spoke, sitting sideways in his seat to look at her better.

"Ah! Really? Th-that'd be great! Oh! I actually have someone training me though, um, we could still study though. I know I'm gonna need all the help I can get."

"You and me both!" They both laughed as the bell rang, nodding to each other as they both turned to the board. Out of the corner of her eye, Kaida could see the human bomb himself watching the two of them. This was going to be a long ten months.

So, the next ten months began, and between school and her own training, she was also studying with Midoriya. She also made sure she had put in for her quirk change, letting them know the extent of her powers as they asked their many questions. Kaida often saw Midoriya dozing in class but doing his best to stay awake. She often kicked his chair to snap him out of his thoughts when she thought he was getting too out of it, he'd usually turn around with a thankful smile before focusing again. She could tell how hard he was working, which made her want to work harder. So, after studying with him, she began training harder and longer everyday, often losing sleep to do her own workouts. She was beginning to eat and require more flesh, which her mother began noticing, occasionally scolding the girl when she was outside for too long, or working herself too hard. The months were grueling as she pushed herself, her and Midoriya still only seeing each other at school, though they had exchanged numbers a few days after the sludge incident. They didn't talk much unless it was about studying or the workout regimes they had, and if the other had any pointers. They had their normal conversations, and Kaida wondered if she would ever tell him about her quirk and what it really does. Of course, they were too busy to really worry about any other stuff. They hadn't heard much from Bakugo over the months, either. Which didn't surprise her. He was probably busy, too. But after the sludge incident, it almost seemed like he was threatened by them. She was probably wrong, but she couldn't help but wonder.

Of course, Kaida noticed that the poor boy was slowly getting sick, and she did her best to scold him to slow down. He only waved it off with a weak smile. But over the next few days, he was slowly but surely getting better, which made them both happy. Their studying was definitely helping them in class, and they both could see the physical difference in the other with just how hard they've been working. Midoriya might've been doing this so he could become the hero he's always wanted to be, but Kaida was doing this for herself. To prove a point. To be a hero. They were going to make it.

February 26th - Morning of the UA Entrance Exam

The person in the mirror didn't look like the same girl ten months ago. She looked older, brighter.. stronger. She had gained several pounds too, getting herself up to the desired weight she had been aiming for. Kaida was slowly becoming the person she wanted to be. She had her rinkaku under control, her hunger under control. She was in control. Closing her eyes, she let out a slow but shaky breath. Finally, she proceeded to get dressed, throwing on an extra coat as she stuffed gym clothes into her bag. She needed to hurry and meet Izuku at the train station, or they were going to be late. The young Hiyama stumbled down the stairs, trying to push down the feelings of nervousness as she fixed her uniform. Her mother looked up from her breakfast with a gentle smile.

"Oh, Kai! Are you off? There's coffee ready if you wanted some." Kaida nodded, quickly getting herself a thermos full of the black liquid. She glanced at her mom before quickly stealing a few of the left over pieces of food she could eat, putting them into a small lunch bag to eat before the exams. She needed to have all of her energy. Plus, for some after.

"Thanks, mom! I gotta go!" She started out the door before pausing, doubling back. "Oh! I'm catching up with Izuku after school, so I'll be home an hour late or so!" She didn't wait for her moms answer as she darted out the door. Pedestrians quickly sidestepped out of the young girls way, her apologizing as she passed them by. Her heart raced in her chest at the thought of the exam just being an hour away. It was so exciting! She came up on the station, weaving her way around the people waiting for the next train, spotting the messy green mop just a few feet away. "Izu~!" Over the last few months, they had come to first name bases, finally getting out of the formal stage. Of course, Midoriya still had trouble every now and again, but she didn't mind.

"Kai! You made it!" The boy snapped to attention, looking worn out but excitable for what was yet to come.

"You know I wouldn't miss it for the world. We're in this together, remember?" Kaida held out her hand, face up with a big grin forming. He grinned back, just as big, and gently slapped her hand. Their conversation took off on what they needed to expect from the tests, already trying to find out what it was going to be like and going over every single possibility they could think of. They boarded the train with hope in their eyes, taking the ride to talk about other things to help calm their nerves.

"Made it just in time!" They panted out, coming to a stop from the sprint they had from the train station. They were so sure they were going to be late. As Midoriya walked on, Kaida was too busy looking around the area, falling just behind him as they walked. She heard him mumble something but she had learned just to ignore it.

"Stupid Deku." They both stopped at gravelly voice behind them, Kaida noticing how he didn't even address her. He was probably more pissed about Izuku trying than her. "Get out of my way, now, before I set you both on fire." There it was. Midoriya yelped, jumping back as he stuttered out a quick greeting. Over the months, she had been trying her best to be nice to Bakugo, but with how much Izuku was always calling him Kacchan, she had let her own version slip a few times. It was just the basic name shortening but..

"Good morning, Katsu."

"Don't call me that." It was the same response every time. It was all he said as he walked on without them, Kaida frowning a little bit. Both Bakugo and Midoriya had come to realize that the more the girl opened up, the more they realized she just wanted to have friends, and make them happy. Obviously, Midoriya was more than happy to oblige. Bakugo, on the other hand, did his best to just ignore the girl. Even when she attempted to lighten the mood when they'd pass each other in the halls. She had a lot of demons, but she wasn't going to let them bring her down. Not when she's gotten this far.

As she was lost in her own thought, she hadn't noticed Midoriya starting to walk, not until she hard his normal scream of shock. She snapped her attention to her friend, who was joined by another girl. "Izu, are you okay?"

"Ah, I stopped you with my quirk. I'm sorry I didn't ask first. But... I figured you wouldn't mind me catching you." The brown haired girl smiled at him, before turning to Kaida. "Hah, sorry, isn't this all, like, way nerve-racking?"

"Yeah, and thanks for catching him, he's hopeless when he's lost in thought." Kaida teased, making the girl laugh while Midoriya let out an embarrassed noise in response. His poor facce was turning pink.

"No, problem! Well, guess I'll see you guys inside! Bye!" The girl walked away as she let Midoriya take in what just happened. She had come to accept that Midoriya didn't see her much as a female, but as someone who was his friend that happened to be a girl. As odd as that sounded. She knew that because of their previous encounters, it was easier for them to talk to each other when they became better friends, and now that they were best friends, almost like siblings, it all came so natural to him. But with a new girl suddenly talking to him, he didn't know what to do. It just made Kaida laugh as she pulled him into the auditorium.

She, Midoriya, and Bakugo all sat together during the explanation by Present Mic, her looking over her card to see she was in Battle Center C. She wouldn't be able to make sure Izuku was okay, damn. She hardly tuned into the explanation, but still caught what was going on. She glared at the boy who called out her friend but otherwise didn't say much, resting a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. The rest of the commentary for what was to come was short and sweet, and soon, they were all sent to change and carted off to their battle centers.

#THAVQ #To Have A Villain's Quirk #mha #bnha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha fanstory #fanstory #Kaida Hiyama #Hiyama Kaida #rogueariadne

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ailawritesanddraws · 4 years

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[Plasmashipping Fic]

"Maybe there's A Chance"

On the deck of the bounty, a certain brunette was training away with the equipment on board. kai has been up here since early morning, fighting the metal dummies that opposed as his threat.

His hand moved in a circular motion, the katana in his grasp following his movement. He swung his hand forward, sending a blow on the dummy, creating a long diagonal mark on it.

Stepping back, he turned his upper body around and aimed his weapon on the dummy behind him. The head of the dummy made of hay flew across the deck and landed right beside the pole.

His head whipped towards the sudden shuffle he heard, aiming his katana at the intruder.

Jay held his hands up, his body leaning backwards to avoid the blade pointed at his neck. "Woah there, Kai!" He spoke in a shaky voice, "I-I uh didn't m-mean to startle you! Haha!"

Kai took a moment to process what just happened. He glanced at the smaller male skeptically, only then noticing the ginger's strange mannerisms. Jay had chapped, dry lips as if he peeled it off himself, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as well as that awkwardly stupid smile plastered on his face, and...

The sleeveless shirt he's wearing.. it's Kai's.

"Why are you wearing my shirt?!" The hothead exclaimed, weapon lowering and face burning red. Probably a shade of red that's darker than his ninja gi. He watched as Jay's face flushed in embarrassment as the guy glanced down at the cloth he's wearing.

"S-so-sorry! It's l-laundry day and a-all my clothes are i-in the dryer still!" He said in a hurry. "I s-saw this o-on the couch and I had nothing to wear s-so---!"

His rambling was cut short when a snort came to earshot, followed by a wholehearted laugh from Kai. He glanced up at him, eyes glued to the taller male in astonishment and awe. It's rare to see Kai laughing like this. He swore he could see aesthetic lights and fluffy clouds around the red ninja.

Shaking his head, he refused to believe his stupid little crush, or as he calls it. He thought that the reason he had the weird urge to get close to Kai was to get to Nya. It was really the only logical reason, seeing that he and Kai didn't really have much to talk about apart from missions they were sent together.

The longer he spent with the hothead, the closer he came to realization. It wasn't Nya he had a thing for.

It was Kai that he liked.

It became harder and harder to interact. The thought of confessing crossed Jay's mind but he knew he would never attempt it, ever. He always thought that Kai was probably homophobic and that if he said anything about how he feels towards the hothead, he was sure he'd be hated.

So he kept his feelings hidden.

"This is why you do laundry every week," Kai mocked, a hand on his hip. He gave out a smirk, propping the katana over his shoulder, the blade facing upwards.

Jay rolled his eyes at him, "Yeah, yeah, I know," he huffed, hands shoved in his shorts. His eyes darted to the floorboards of the bounty, a sigh escaping his throat. "Something wrong, bud?" He shook his head at Kai's concern, eyes staring off into the distance.

"Nothing..I just have this thought in my mind." He said softly, "I just can't get rid of it."

"Yeah? What's that?"

He shook his hand, waving his hand dismissively at the brunette, "I told you, it's nothing."

Kai approached the weapon's rack, "Well, if you're not gonna tell me," He started, reaching out to grab a pair of nunchucks from the shelf. He swung it with one hand, throwing it across to Jay, who caught it in his hands. "Why don't we spar? If I win, you gotta tell me. If you win, I'll shut up about it."

Jay thought for a moment.

This proposal is a chance for him to confess but it's also a ridiculously huge risk. Knowing Kai, even if he did win, he probably won't stop pestering him about it in some other way he can.

Having made a decision, he took a deep breath and stood up, "You're on. 'Course, you won't stand a chance against the master of lightning!"

"Oh we'll see about that!" Kai launched at him, katana held high, preparing to slice. He swiftly dodged Jay's nunchucks, moving to the side. His opponent reached out for the low pole, grabbing it before swinging to his opposite side, a good feet away. "I know you well enough, Kai." Jay smirked, hands gripping tightly onto his weapon of choice.

"Let's see how you like electricity!" He maneuvered to his left, dodging a slice from Kai. He used his element to send an electric shock throughout Kai's body, sending him a few feet away.

Kai panted, his body slightly bent over as he had a hand over his stomach. "You've gotten good at close combat." He huffed, trying to stabilize his breathing, "Didn't think you'd actually land a blow."

"I learn from the best!" Jay grinned, giving Kai a thumbs up. He's sparred with the hothead countless times before this one. It's become some sort of tradition for the both of them, sparing whenever the others are out on individual missions and they would be left alone in the bounty with nothing else to do.

Although Jay's way of spending his time was just playing videogames, he also enjoys watching Kai train from the shadows. Yeah it's a bit creepy, he admits, but hey, with that ripped body, and well, being Kai, who wouldn't want to watch him train those muscles?

"But you're easily distracted,"

Jay gulped, head held high as Kai's blade barely touched his neck. He chuckled awkwardly, "It's not my fault!" He avoided eye contact as the taller male chuckled at his antics. "Seriously, you gotta work on that. If this was real combat, you'd be dead meat by now." He shook his head, though a smile stood prominent on his lips.

".. it's not my fault you're so dreamy," Jay muttered underneath his breath, cheeks slightly puffed. He let out a sigh of frustration the moment the katana's blade was removed.

Eyes staring up at Kai's smug expression, he sighed, "Fine."

With another gulp, he placed a hand on the nape of his neck and the other in his pocket. "It's about relationships."

"Is it about Nya?" Kai questioned, an eyebrow raised at the ginger as he waited for his response patiently.

"No..not this time anyway." Jay said, "It's about those guy to guy relationships. I've been.. thinking lately. Girls just hasn't worked out for me. Heck, you can see it with Nya already. I just.. thought.. maybe--"

"Having a romantic relationship with a guy would work better?"

"..yeah?" He said, though it sounded more of a question. He avoided making eye contact with the other male, embarrassed and afraid of what he might say next.

Though Kai's next set of words surprised him, "If you were going to come out of the closet, you should've told me earlier." Kai said with a soft smile, "I'm not one to shame people for liking the same gender. I'm bisexual myself, so I know what you're going through. The only thing that's different between us is that most guys would find you cute, but hey, that's an advantage, I guess?"

The ginger blinked a couple of times, processing what Kai had just said to him.

When he regained his grip on reality, he furrowed his eyebrows, "Did you just imply that I'm cute?"

Kai shrugged, "Maybe."

With a light laugh, he propped his weapon on the desk alongside the pair nunchucks Jay used during their spar, "Anyway, it's getting late. I'll see you back inside, cutie," He pecked Jay's cheek before heading back inside, leaving the ginger in a flustered state, "Shoot he just got really hot all of a sudden,"

~~~~~~~~

I take requests!

#ninjago #plasmashipping #kai #jay #kai x jay #fanfiction #fiction #stories #ninjas #ninjago fic #ninjago fanfiction #ninjago fanfic #zine's story hub

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always5hineee · 4 years

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Hell and Back- Chapter 15: Canyon Birds (Trial 21)

Word count: 1894

Chapter warnings: Dangerous actions

[Please do not replicate any of the behaviors read in this book.]

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"Alright, the limited power is Suho this time." Y/N said, finally having calmed down from their not-so-joyride.

"Luhan was originally going to go, so why not have him do it now?" Sehun pointed out.

"Uh-" Luhan started to sau, before Kyungsoo agreed.

"Yes, that would make the most sense."

"I don't know if I-"

"Alright, Y/N, hit the button," Kris said, trying to get a move-on as quickly as possible. Noting his nervousness, Y/N leaned over, muttering a small bit of reassurance.

"Luhan, the sooner you do the challenge, the sooner it will be out of the way. They get harder, so the longer you wait, the worse it's going to get. It's your second challenge, you're almost there." He breathed in.

"Yeah, I guess, but still... I have a bad feeling about this."

"We'll keep you safe, don't worry."

"I... If you say so." Making brief eye contact with her, she realized that he was even just slightly shaking. Was he actually that scared? She put a hand on his shoulder, nodding, then clicked on his name. Watching it load up, she called everyone back to attention.

"Alright, the next trial is... Parkour?"

"That sounds like fun." Baekhyun shrugged.

She looked over at Luhan, who was now completely white.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"I- I can't- that's not-" His hands were tangled together, knuckles pale with the pressure he was putting on his own skin. He was obviously trying to get the words out, but he was just stuttering over and over, practically zoned out.

"He'll be fine," Kris waved a hand. "What's the rest of the challenge say?"

"Uh," she looked down. "The price of dropping out is still... 'failure', whatever that means. The italics..." she squinted to see them. "Apparently there are a few bridges nearby. We need to pick one, and he can cross it by jumping between the beams on one of the outer edges."

"That explains why Suho is out." Kyungsoo mentioned, always analyzing the reasoning behind each challenge. "If it's a bridge, there's water underneath, so he'd be at an advantage." Kris continued driving, pulling onto a left turn. He evidently knew where the nearest bridge was. As it was becoming late afternoon, there were periodic cars, but it didn't seem like anyone would bother them.

Everyone started to get out of the car, although Luhan remained in place. She looked to him, then out the window at the bridge. Just as the app had said the sides were lined with support beams, although they weren't very deep. Or sturdy. It wouldn't be impossible to make it across, just very, very difficult. He'd have to focus.

"What's so bad, Luhan?" she asked in a low voice, trying to make it not seem like a big deal. "Even if Suho can't use his powers, we still have Sehun with wind, Kris with flight, and Kai with teleportation. Even past that, Tao can reverse time if something bad happens, or you could even use your powers on yourself." It was ironic how just moments before she had been complaining about the reliance on their powers, but now she was trying to use it to calm Luhan down.

"I... I don't... I just don't really prefer being high up." She tilted her head slightly, not having expected it. Although Luhan was clearly one of the shyer members of their friend group, he had never seemed so shaken by something.

"It'll be alright, come on." She grabbed his hand, half helping, half pulling him out of the car. Putting her arm behind his, she placed a hand on his lower back, trying to steady his shaking. As they walked to the edge of the bridge, she looked down, head spinning at the distance. Even aside from his self-proclaimed discomfort, the height would worry anyone. Still, the rest of the boys seemed nonchalant about it.

"Let's get a move on!" Baekhyin cheered, jumping around dangerously close to the unguarded edge. She looked over to the man she was supporting, his eyes dilating in and out, proving to her that his vision was falling between focused and blurry.

"Listen," she muttered. Step on the first beam, and I'll follow you on the bridge side. You'll be on the outside edge, I'll be on the inside. The requirements never said I couldn't help you, yeah?" He looked at her, acknowledging her words, but was unable to nod or say anything. "It'll be okay, I promise."

She helped him over to the bridge, trying her best to cover up how terrified the man was. She knew that at least some of the boys must have known that this wasn't quite his thing, but she still didn't want him to suffer the embarrassment of everyone watching it. His ankles tremors with weakness as he stepped out onto the first bar- the only one still supported by the Earth. Removing her hand from his body, she carefully crossed around the wall to come face-to face with him on the other side.

As she was on the bridge and he was on the beams, he was a bit shorter than usual, gripping the edge with white knuckles. She placed her hands on top of his, palm to the overtops of his hands, allowing her to firmly grab onto his wrists as best she could without hurting him. He looked up to her, eyes on the brink of watering as they darted back and forth, occasionally glancing to his feet.

"Don't look at the ground. You're fine. I've got you, okay?" He breathed in, the noise shaky, trying to nod. "Alright, now you just have to step to your left. Can you do that for me?"

"B-but-" He started trying to say, the first words he'd spoken since he'd gotten out of the car. "But I can't see t-the floor unless-"

"Just keep reaching your foot out until I tell you you'll make it, okay?" He had no choice but to do as she instructed, feeling around for the wooden beam as his hands slid excruciatingly slowly, guided by hers, along the edge. "Good." She reassured him as he just lightly touched the beam with his foot.

Once he was on the second beam, she looked to his feet. The distance from them to the water had increased a sizable amount, even in just that one large step. She glanced back to the group of boys, who was watching eerily silently. Normally they would be joking around, or just not paying attention at all, but for some reason, this intrigued them.

"Let's go on to the next one."

"I- I don't want to, I can't-"

"You'll be fine." She kept repeating. "Everything's going to be fine. Just keep going." They made it onto the third, then to the fourth. By the fifth beam, they were nearly to the center of the beam. The rushing water below was roaring in her ears, making it impossible to concentrate, but she still tried to keep Luhan's eyes on her. "Good, now just step."

As he reached for the fifth beam, testing it with his foot, it was about the same as the previous times. His leg was still shaking uncontrollably, but he hadn't slipped. Once he mounted the beam, shifting his wait and drawing the other foot over, though, she heard a sickening crack. Looking down, she saw that the beam was writing at its ties with the bridge, clearly already failing under Luhan's weight.

"Alright, next one-" She prompted, trying not to sound panicked."

"J-just give me a s-"

"No!" She said, laughing awkwardly. "No, you need to move now Luhan. Right now."

"I-" Instinctively, she looked back down to the beam, which was already leaning. Feeling it under his feet and seeing her look, he, out of habit, looked down. Not only was he faced with the near-breaking-point board supporting his entire body, but he also leered into the seemingly endless abyss, rushing water taunting him at the bottom. Yelling in surprise and terror, he half-shook, half-jumped, causing it to snap completely beneath him.

"Luhan!" She screamed as he fell instantly, wrists torn from her grip as the angle wrenched his hands away from her. Leaning over the bridge, she was reaching out, as if able to stop him with her sheer willpower. His face was nearly blank, as if his brain had shut down the idea of his fall altogether. Quickly, Kris appeared underneath him, grabbing him by the waist like a firefighter catching a trapped kitten. He swiftly brought the man back up past the edge of the gorge, sitting him down on the grass. Running over, Y/N knelt next to him, winding her arms around his shoulders as he rocked back and forth slightly.

"I am so, so sorry, you're okay, everything's okay." She was shushing him as if he were a little kid, trying to get his crying to subside. It wasn't a soft, dignified crying, either. He was completely racked by sobs, holding his head between his knees in terror. "It's all right, everything's all right."

"We still have to finish the challenge, though." Chanyeol said under his breath. Chen tried to shush him, but Luhan overheard, sending him into even more of a panic.

"Just give him a second." Suho said with a sigh. "He can try again when he's ready."

"No!" He shouted, startling everyone. She tried to keep him from freaking out, running her hand over his shoulder blades, but he continued to yell. "No! I'm not trying again! I'm not! I'm not! No!"

"Luhan, we-"

"I'm quitting! I'm dropping out!" He said, tears still streaming down his face as his body heaved. He was going to cry himself to the point of throwing up.

"Honey, you can't do that-" she started to warn him, running a hand through the back of his hair as he continued crying. "We don't know what the catch really means, and if you stop now you can't play anymore.

"I don't care!" He yelled. "I don't care..." Wiping his eyes, he tried to stand, nearly falling if not for Y/N catching him. He pushed her off rather rudely, walking past the car.

"Luhan, come on-" Suho ran after him, trying to grab him by the arm. Shaking him off, he moved from being terrified and shaken to just angry.

"I didn't even want to be a part of this to begin with. It was a fun idea, okay? But this is ridiculous. This is only the twenty-first challenge, by the end, what will we be doing? You all can keep playing for as long as you want, but I refuse to put myself through this anymore."

"But the failure, it's not-"

"I don't give a shit. How is this-" He pulled out his phone, waving the app around. "This stupid little thing going to ruin my life? I'm not dumb, they just want to mess with us, and it's gonna get one of us killed. Well you know what?" He pressed a button, Y/N leaping forward to try and stop him, but it was too late. The screen had shifted to a maroon color, a white message reading that he had left the game.

"I quit."

Go to Chapter 16

#exo #exo x reader #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #chen #chanyeol #sehun #suho #baekhyun #xiumin #kyungsoo #luhan #kris #tao #lay #kpop #Kpop x reader #x reader #Kpop fanfiction #Kpop fanfic #trials

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akemiozawa · 4 years

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An Adventure Awakens (RP PT.2)

The pirate and hacker duo begin their epic quest. After discovering a mysterious object within the object, how will this kickstart their adventure?

Sol: @treasureoftheseas

Trina: me

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Trina jogs down the hall towards Hooksclave, her satchel bouncing against her hip sharply. Filled with all of her tools in hand: scan jammers, scanning glasses, etc, she didn’t pay attention to the short painful hits. Plus, some water, snacks, her headphones, portable charger for her phone, with said device in hand, and her wand, shoved into a small pocket art arched to the strap of the bag.

Soon, the front doors were in sight and Trina picked up her footing. She slammed the doors open, ignoring the weird looks the students were giving her, eyes darting to find their lead.

Soon, after running like a chicken without its head for ten minutes straight (she never had time to take a tour of the Dorm), she finds Sol in the Hooksclave library. The Pirate had multiple books and scrolls scattered on the table, some with the same weird language, others with maps and charts of ancient places.

Trina’s voice rings, “Hey, Sol! I’m here! Sorry ‘bout the wait. Couldn’t find my graphene knives for ten minutes!” She pushes out the lie like it was nothing but stale air. “But I’m here, though. So, what’s the plan?”

Sol looked over at her partially flushed-faced comrade. The former was aware that Trina always gets lost throughout Hooksclave like the impossible mazes over at Heartslabyul. But just to humor her, she takes the lie and doesn’t bring up the subject. Not until another time.

She nods. “Hey Trina. I’ve been looking over the ancient text and illustrations, and-” she waves her over to the table to see what her results were -so far-and catch her up on any missed info. “I found the general location of the empire that the language belongs to.” With one hand, she points at the wrinkled map lying on the table, to show the mass of land she centered on. Light markings of notes, written in ink, were smudged here and there, but Trina paid no mind.

“It’s in the deep sea near the country I found the sphere in.” Sol’s pointed finger slips towards the mass of ocean that was near a marked up and disfigured shape of land. “I feel like our best bet would be to go there. I mean, the engraving did say ‘To awaken the truth, one must persuade the sea’.” She recited.

Trina listens and after listening nods as assign that she understands. “Ah, going back to where it all begins. Bit clichè, if you ask me,” she throws in her two cents of sarcasm, but clasps her hands together, “But I’m ready! So, where’s the sphere? I wanna crack open that thing and see what’s up!”

At that claim, Sol nods and walks over to a nearby bookshelf. Tilting one of the books, so the upper left corner peeks out, the bookshelf triggers and sinks in, then slides to the right, revealing a secret spacious area, big enough to fit five whole bodies in.

Another one of Trina’s inventions. With some persuasion from Idia, and convincing towards the Headmaster, where it would take other Ignihyde people to finish things in about a week or so, Trina spent three days fixing a secret compartment for Sol where the Captain can keep some things hidden from the prying eyes and nosy minds of her dorm members.

A cobalt rectangular-shaped block. The door popped out a bit more, displaying the number pad and a fingerprint scan secured into the front. And right below it, a hexagonal shape etched into the bottom right hand corner with a cursive “H” painted in a bright Cardinal Red.

Slipping the white glove off her hand, Sol places the pad of her left thumb on the small scan screen. A green line moves up and down, then sends out a “beep” of approval after scanning. Turning to the keypad, she pushes in a four-digit code and after a second beep, the lock inside clicks, signaling that the safe is now unguarded.

She pulls open the door and sitting stoutly is the questionable object both girls had been left pondering about.

Turning back to Trina, who was texting someone on her phone, shuts it off at the sound of boots clicking against the floor toward the table space.

“Here it is, I wanted to make sure it was safe, so I hid it. You never know who’s watching after all.” She claims, her time a grateful one towards Tris. “Here you go.” Plunking it into Trina’s hands, Sol reminds her, “Just remember to not let it kill you.” A serious tone takes up her cords.

Trina doesn’t pay heed to the seriousness, having gotten used to it for so long, and winks in return. “Gotcha.” Spinning to the doorway, she takes her time getting to the workshop next door, which just so happens to be next to the area where the dorm ships are docked. After spotting another empty table, she placed the object in question on the table. Flinging her bag next, she zips it open, and starts digging for her tool. “ ‘Kay, beastie, what’cha got for me?” With a screwdriver in hand, and a smirk on her lips, Trina begins her work.

———Fifteen minutes later———

Grabbing a small towel, Trina dabs at the sweat beading on her forehead.

A quarter of an hour, from pulling out fried wires to unscrewing and rescreding pieces, hopefully would be worth for what Trina eventually unearthed within this contraption. Muttering, “Okay, I made a few dents in this thing. Wasn’t easy...but I think I found something Sol may be interested in.” Unfurling her fist, she brought out the mysterious object she had held in her lap for ten minutes.

The object in question was a cylinder-shaped tube no bigger than a can of soda, with two firm silver rods hitting out the top. However, inside, was a more bigger mystery: a red plastic cylinder as big as a thimble, fitted in a compartment, and coming out from the ends were two silvery wires, one had semi-thrashed wires, the other perfectly intact. Both ends of the wires were connected into a circuit board within the first cylinder, and etched into the side a weird symbol, probably originated from the same place as the language encrypted on the surface.

Sol, on the other hand, had just finished her final analysis and planning of the trip. She decides to go check on Trina and catch up on any progress she’s made. However, the hunched over figure wasn’t what caught her attention. Rather, it was the mysterious item clutched in Homura’s hands. Sol skips over to where Trina sits, looking over her shoulder, and widens her eyes in surprise at the much closer look. “Okay, now that is strange. What do you think it is?” She questions as she moved to Tris’ side.

“Looks like a cross between a diode and a capacitor. But that’s just my theory.” Tris shrugs nonchalantly, not bothered by the fact that Sol appeared out of thin air. Turning on her stool, Tris continues, “I managed to carve out a few more pieces and the exterior of the object for further examination.” She nods over to a pile of extra gizmos cut out from the machine.

Sol tried to follow through with what she was saying, but nods nonetheless. “Er, well in any case, at least you were able to get something out of it, and it didn’t explode.” Shifting her body to the doorway, she walks out. Tris scoops everything into her bag, caring less about the mess, and jogs after her to the docks.

They soon arrived. “I’ll start setting sail; since my sailboat doesn’t have any defenses, were going to have to take this ship.” Sol points to a boat big enough to fit several cruise passengers in. An eggshell white sail gently flutters in the breeze. Some small boxes were moved and tucked into each other to make room as Sol steps into the boat. She places her documents in her bag, which she plops directly by her feet for safekeeping. “Since we’ll be flying, we should get there in a few hours. I’ll be manning the helm. Let me know if anything new happens.” She directs while fussing with a couple of ropes.

Tris just looks at her like she was speaking Martian. “Uhm...sure.” She decides not to say anything else, and instead focused on the objects in her hands. Carefully placing them in airlock bags, she takes precision not to lose any pieces in the calm waters. Most people would definitely freak if they suddenly dropped anything in the ocean, and Trina is no stranger to that. But hey: one person’s loss is another person’s gain! And the more you gain, the more you’ll reach ultimate success. At least, that’s what her father claims....

“By the way, no one else is gonna know about this, right?” Random, but hey, she had to say something. After checking all her stuff was together, she, unexpectedly continues, “For several reasons, One: you know how fast word travels around these halls and Two: cuz, in some scenarios, if people know they’ll wanna tag along, which could end up with any of us in perilous danger, someone ends up betraying their team, the list goes on!”

...............

Okay, usually at this point, the sound of an audience laughing would pop up as if you were watching a sitcom. But...NOPE. ITS REAL LIFE, BYOTCH.

Tris, after getting ahold of herself, reflects back in what she said and lightly slaps her cheeks in a flurry. Like this:

“Damnit, I gotta stop watching those adventure movies!”

Sol was watching the display and chuckled at her witty antics. “You don’t have to worry about that. I told my dorm members that if they leave us alone and keep quiet about us using the ship, they could have a party after we get back.” She tugs at a mass of ropes for extra security. “ I also threatened that if they told anyone, I’d drop ‘em off at a deserted island. So long as we aren’t gone for too long, we should be fine.” She motions to get into the boat before hauling anchor.

Trina throws up a mock salute. “Whatever you say.” She tips carefully into the boat, throwing her bag gently aside. Just as she sits down, the anchor was fully hauled, the sail fluttered out, and the boat began its move out into the clear blue vastness.

‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this....’ Sol thinks as she handles the wheel with care. A pit of nervousness grows in her stomach the further they move out. If her calculations were correct, they should reach the island a little after noon. As long as they didn’t run into any obstacles

Meanwhile,

‘Might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts.’ Trina slips on her blue and black headphones, and scans through her playlist. ‘And...cue the Traveling Montage.’ After tapping the Play Button, Tris lets the music blare out the noises for the long haul ahead.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pAgnJDJN4VA

youtube

———————————————

And so our duo begin their perilous journey into the unknown. What will await them? What secrets will they uncover? Will they stumble into something more dangerous than expected? Why am I asking you all these questions?!

....stay tuned!

#twisted wonderland oc #twst rp #twst oc #solena bucanero #trinity homura #night raven #rp tag

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echoes-of-the-clockwork · 5 years

Text

Deacon St. John || The Sarkoski Siblings [2/2]

A/n: I just wanted to swing by and give hugs and kisses to all the people who've been liking my crappy stories.

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️

Let's get this story rollin'! Love you all!!! •••••••••••••••••••••

***HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD! PLEASE NOTIFY ME OF ANY (I FEEL LIKE THERE’S A TON IN THIS PIECE) ERRORS!!!***

***** Prompt: A couple of days have passed since your departure with Carlos. Deacon and Skizzo have been complete messes during your absence. Deacon finally snaps, unable to withstand the thoughts of what the Rippers could possibly be doing to you. He heads to Iron Butte on a rescue mission and doesn't plan on coming back until you're safe and by his side. *****

~3rd Person POV~

"Fuck it. I can't stand this anymore," Deacon growled under his breath as he stormed over to his bike.

Before he could ride off, Rikki rushed over and placed her hands on the handlebars of the motorcycle. "Whoa there, Deek. You can't just ride into Iron Butte guns ablazing and search for (Y/n). You'll be risking your life and possibly hers."

"She's been with those unhinged assholes long enough. If I wait any longer, she'll be dead by the time I find her." Deacon scowled at the mechanical engineer as he spoke. "And I'll make sure to take care of Carlos, too, while I'm gone. Kill the leader, kill the rebellion."

"(Y/n)'s a tough girl. She can withstand whatever those bastards throw her way. As for the "killing the leader" part, you might end up enraging the rebellion instead of stopping it."

Deacon leaned against his bike, eyes boring into Rikki's. "I don't give a damn as long as (Y/n)'s safe. I'll kill all the Rippers if I have to in order for that to happen."

The woman exhaled, running a gloved hand across her forehead. "You're really protective of her. Gotta admit, I'm... a little surprised. Guess love does that to some people."

Deacon went to retort, but Skizzo interrupted their conversation. "If you're goin' after my sis, I'm coming, too."

"Hell no," the drifter snappily responds. "You'd only get in the way."

"(Y/n)'s my fuckin' sister and it's my fault Carlos targeted her!" He seethed. "I also know Iron Butte like the back of my hand and where Carlos might be keeping her."

"Neither one of you is going anywhere!" Rikki shouted, catching both men off guard. "I care just as much as you both do for (Y/n), but this is a suicide mission! She went of her own accord and I don't think she'd appreciate the two of you riskin' your lives for hers."

"You're not gonna stop us, Rikki," Deacon proclaimed.

"For once, I agree with him," Skizzo reluctantly confesses. "My sister—the only family I have left in this fucked up world—is possibly being tortured to death by those freaks."

Rikki hung her head and released the handlebars of Deacon's bike. "Fine. You both are stubborn assholes and I know when I've been defeated."

Deacon glanced at Skizzo as he clutched the handlebars tightly. "Get your bike. We're leaving right now."

"I'll meet you at the gate." Skizzo left to grab his bike while Deacon waited patiently. He was well-equipped and had plenty of ammo in the saddlebag attached to his motorcycle. He also had spare crafting ingredients in case he needed more explosives or traps during the mission.

A minute passed and Skizzo returned on his bike. He stopped beside Deacon, exchanging glances with the drifter. "You ready to do this?"

"You've no idea how ready I am," Deacon scoffed, revving the engine of his bike.

Skizzo followed Deacon's lead and revved up his own ride. "Let's get my sister back."

<——————————<<<<<<<<<<<

After riding for five minutes in silence, Skizzo contacts the drifter following close behind and asks the one question that's buzzing inside his head. "So... you like (Y/n)?"

"Jesus," Deacon grumbled. "We are not discussing this right now, Skizzo."

"It's a simple "yes" or "no," bro! Just answer the damn question!"

"What—so you can play the overprotective big brother? I don't fucking think so," the drifter chortled.

Skizzo fell silent before confessing his true feelings if (Y/n) chose Deacon. "Y'know, she could do worse. In all honesty, I rather it be you than any other damn drifter."

"Jeez, thanks," Deacon sarcastically replies.

"I just want what's best for her, y'know? I fucked up her life before the world went to shit and even after. Guess I kinda want to make amends now for all that."

Deacon couldn't bring himself to make a snarky remark since he knew Skizzo's heart was finally in the right place. "Yeah, well, it ain't gonna be easy."

"I still gotta try, right?"

The drifter nodded even though he knew his companion couldn't see his gesture. "Right."

They arrived at the tunnel connecting Lost Lake to Iron Butte. The second the Rippers guarding the tunnel spotted them, they open fired and chanted at the top of their lungs. "Get low!"

Deacon and Skizzo dismounted their bikes and took out the adversaries on foot before continuing through the funeral cautiously. Now in the Iron Butte region, the drifter called out to his partner for this mission. "Hey, uh, where the hell are you taking us?"

"Carlos has a lodge he stays in. It's located in the valley," Skizzo answers.

"And you think that's where he's keeping (Y/n)?"

"That's where I know he's keepin' her."

The drive to the lodge was dangerous with the constant threat of Rippers and Freaks. Fortunately for the duo, they were able to ignore or take out the enemies from their motorcycles. Some of the Freaks has even helped them take out the Rippers shooting at them.

Looming in the distance, there was a large structure with the normal decorations of blood and wooden spikes. From the second floor windows, they could see the faint glow from a fire.

"Looks like they're home," Deacon said. "Good, 'cause I'm gonna kill every single one of those bastards."

"Hey," Skizzo retaliates. "My sister is our main goal. Don't forget that."

"I know," the drifter hurls back. "I'm still gonna make them pay for what they've done, especially Carlos."

"Don't do anything stupid until we find her, alright?"

"You're the one who runs off and does something stupid. We wouldn't be in this situation if you would've just left the damn supplies alone. And guess who's paying for your fuckup—(Y/n), your own damn sister."

"I know I fucked up, 'kay?! Stop reminding me," Skizzo snarled.

"I'm sure (Y/n)'ll tear you a new one once we get back to Lost Lake."

They arrived at their destination, dismounting their bikes in the shadows and sneaking in on foot. Deacon peered our from behind the school bus they were hiding behind and surveyed the area. "Place is crawling with Rippers..."

"What'd you expect? A few here and there?" Skizzo scoffs with an eye roll.

Deacon grimaced at the man but quickly focused his gaze back onto the Rippers. "You've been inside, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Just once, though."

"Good enough. Where do you think they'd be keeping (Y/n)?" Deacon questioned in a hushed voice as one of the Rippers wasn't far from where they hid.

"Maybe in one of the rooms upstairs. I'll check the first floor, you'll handle the second. Sound like a plan?"

Deacon sighed through his nose. "It's all we got. Let's go."

The two separated and snuck around the enemies. Skizzo managed to get inside without being seen while Deacon meandered around to the back of the lodge and find a stairwell to a balcony on the second floor. He peered through one of the shattered windows, spotting several Rippers—including Carlos—dancing around flames while carving into their skin with machetes, knives, and shards of glass.

Lowering his body, Deacon vaulted through the window. His boots crunched the shards of glass under his feet as he made his way across the room without disturbing the Rippers. He opened the first door he came across, but he regretted it as a putrid odor assaulted his nostrils. His face scrunched up as he stared at the corpses strewn about with blood caking the walls and floor. "Jesus... What the hell have they been doin'?"

Deacon closed the door and moved on to the next room. He opened the door and peeked inside to see if (Y/n) was there. When all he found was a stash of weapons, he shook his head in disbelief and moved on.

In the last room, Deacon cautiously opened the door. Unlike the other rooms he checked, this one was neat and void of blood, corpses, and weapons. The window were boarded up and the only furniture in the room was a bed. When the drifter saw who was laying on the mattress, he rushed over and placed a hand on their shoulder. "(Y/n)," he whispered as he flipped her body over so she was now facing him.

The moment Deacon saw the state she was in, his eyes widened in horror. Her (h/c) hair was tainted with blood and there were deep gashes along her arms, legs, and face. She was unconscious and a large splotch of blood down her side caught his attention. He apologized under his breath as he lifted her shirt and saw a cut reaching from her armpit to her waist. "Shit..."

Deacon kneeled beside the bed, placing his hand against her cheek gently. "(Y/n)?" He softly called out, hoping she would wake up if she heard his voice. He didn't even receive a finger twitch in response, which frightened him. His heart raced inside his chest, threatening to burst through his rib cage and out of his chest. "C'mon, sweetheart. Give me some kind of sign."

Finally, his voice elicited a painful whimper from (Y/n). Deacon watched as her eyes opened but remained half-lidded. "Deacon...?" Her voice was weak and raspy from screaming.

"Hey, I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? Just hold on for a little while longer," he reassured her as he went to pick her up.

(Y/n) grasped his hand to stop him. "I-I'm chained to the bed frame. You... need a key..."

The drifter glanced down at her ankle and saw the shackle locked around it. He gritted his teeth before stepping away from the bed to see if he could lift the bed, but it was nailed to the floor. "Goddammit. Do you know who has the key?" When Deacon didn't receive an immediate response, his eyes darted back to (Y/n). Seeing she was falling back into an unconscious state, he shook his head frantically and patted his hand against her cheek. "Hey, hey, hey. Stay with me, (Y/n). Who has the key?"

Before her eyes shut, she murmured one name. "Carlos..."

Anger boiled inside Deacon as he went to retrieve the key. Before he could open the door, someone walked into the room. Luckily, it was only Skizzo. "Did you—?" He glanced past the drifter and saw his sister curled up on the bed, blood covering her body. "Oh, fuck." He ran to her side and placed a hand on her head. "Is she—?"

"She's alive. Stay here while I get that key." Deacon stories out of the room, throwing his stealth approach out the window. Without a care in the world, he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Carlos!" His loud cry was heard by every Ripper within the lodge.

They rushed towards him with their weapons drawn, but Carlos stopped them. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Deacon St. John. What brings you here?"

"You know exactly why I'm here, Jessie," the drifter snarled.

Carlos smirked in amusement at hearing his old name. "So, you do remember me."

"Yeah, well, that was one hell of a night to forget so easily."

"You, Boozer, Jack... And how could I forget the blowtorch?" The leader of the Rippers scoffed as he paced a circle around the drifter.

Deacon raised his pistol, alerting the other Rippers. He aimed it at Carlos' head, eyes sharp and brimming with hatred. "You the one responsible for hurting (Y/n)?"

"Why, we all are! We are setting her on the path to freedom!" Jessie wailed with a sinister chuckle.

"This isn't freedom, this is a fuckin' cult!" Deacon shouted. "Now, hand over the key or I'll pry it off your corpse. Your choice, Jessie."

"How about—?" He started, but Deacon didn't let him finish his question as he pulled the trigger. A single bullet pierced the man's skull, killing him instantly. The other Rippers became enraged, unleashing their fury onto the drifter.

Deacon quickly took cover as gunfire rained down upon him. When he saw an opening, he didn't hold back. He whipped out his assault rifle and unloaded an entire clip, killing more than half of the Rippers in the process. Reloading, he waited for another window to take down the remaining assailants.

A handful of Rippers were brave and tried to attack head-on, but it only resulted in a swift death for every single one of them. With only three enemies left, Deacon switched out his assault rifle for his handgun. The remaining Rippers were killed, a slew of corpses filling up the room.

Stepping over their bodies, Deacon reaches Jessie's corpse and searched for the key. He found it in one of the dead man's pockets and headed back to the Sarkoski siblings.

"Got it," Deacon announces as he made his way into the room and over to Skizzo and (Y/n). He unlocks the shackle and takes it off her ankle before scooping her up into his arms. The jostling woke her up and an immense wave of pain washed over her. She cried out, alerting the drifter. "I know it hurts, but just bear with it for a little bit."

"How the hell are we supposed to get her back if she's barely conscious?" Skizzo inquired as they left the room.

"Just focus on covering us," Deacon responded. Skizzo nodded and took the lead, killing any Rippers in their way.

Back at the bikes, Deacon gingerly placed (Y/n) on the back of his. She was having difficultly staying awake and keeping her balance.

"What now?!" Skizzo bellowed. "She can't ride in her condition. She'll fall off the second we take off!"

Deacon yanked out the red handkerchief from his back pocket and mounted his bike. The second he sat in the seat, (Y/n)'s body slumped against his back. "Wrap your arms around me," he said. She did as she was told and wrapped her arms around his waist. Using the red piece of fabric, he tied her wrists together.

Skizzo wasn't afraid to discuss his doubt about Deacon's plan. "You really think that's gonna keep her from falling off?"

"It's all we got, Skizzo," Deacon fired back. "Get on your damn bike."

"Fine, but if she falls off—"

"She won't."

Skizzo didn't agree with the idea, but he decided to not argue any further with the drifter. He also knew it was the only safety precaution they could take to prevent (Y/n) from falling off in her weak state. The men started their bikes and took off. The Rippers tried to stop them with their weapons, but they were too slow.

After what felt like an eternity, they arrived back in Lost Lake. "Open the damn gate!" Deacon shouted as they pulled up at the front gate of the encampment.

The woman behind the gate hurriedly opened the gate to allow Deacon and Skizzo inside. They pulled into the camp and the drifter untied (Y/n)'s hands from around his waist. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the infirmary with Skizzo close behind. "Addy!"

The doctor ran over, eyes wide at (Y/n)'s battered body. "Put her on a bed."

Deacon followed Addy's orders and placed (Y/n) on the bed by the front doors while she fetched a bin of supplies. When she returned, the drifter lifted up the woman's search to reveal the deep, bleeding gash down the side of her body. The doctor grabbed what she needed in order to clean the wound.

Before applying the antiseptic, Addy glanced at Deacon. "You're gonna have to hold her down."

"Just do what you need to do." Deacon pinned down (Y/n)'s arms down while Skizzo restrained her legs.

The second the antiseptic made contact with the wound, (Y/n)'s eyes flew open and she screamed at the top of her lungs. She tried to break out of Deacon's and Skizzo's grasps, but both men were holding her down with all their strength.

Suddenly, her screaming and struggling ceased. Deacon's eyes darted to the woman's facing, seeing her eyes were shut. "Addy," he called out with a worried tone.

"She's passed out from the pain. That's good because it'll make stitching her up easier," the doctor responded as she threaded a needle through (Y/n)'s skin to suture the wound to prevent an infection. "Could you both clean the other wounds and make they aren't deep?"

"Yeah," Deacon responded as Skizzo silently picked up the material he needed to help his sister. The drifter handled her arms and face while the older Sarkoski tended to (Y/n)'s legs.

As Deacon was cleaning the cuts on her cheeks and forehead, he couldn't help but stare with a small frown. The beads of sweat trickling down her face and the hasten rise and fall of her chest caused him to become more worried.

Once the drifter was done cleaning the cuts on (Y/n)'s face, he placed his hand against her cheek and stroked his thumb across a section void of lacerations. Skizzo watched in silence as he saw the loving, caring, and worried gaze Deacon sent his sister. "You better tell her when she wakes up," was all he said before leaving the infirmary once he was done cleaning the wounds on her legs.

Deacon stared at the door Skizzo had exited for a few seconds before eyeing Addy. "How's she doing, Doc?"

"She's lost a decent amount of blood, but it isn't enough to be a concern. I've stitched up the wound on her side, but she needs to refrain from tearing them. Since her job is to help me with the injured, it won't be difficult for her to avoid reopening them." When Addy saw Deacon staring at (Y/n), she placed a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be fine, Deacon. Give her time to heal and she'll be back on her feet in no time."

"Can I..." The drifter's voice trailed off, but the doctor knew what he was going to ask.

"You can stay with her for a little while."

Deacon grabbed a chair and placed it beside the bed. He sat down and leaned forward, myriads of thoughts racing through his mind and none of them were reassuring. By the time he leaned back in the chair and cleared his thoughts, he fell asleep.

<—————————————<<<<<<<<<<<<

When Deacon woke up, he saw the bed in front of him was empty. Flying to his feet, he searched the infirmary for (Y/n). It took him a few minutes to find her, but when he did, she was standing in front of a mirror with her shirt lifted up. With her eyes glued to her injury, she trailed a finger up the stitching. She winced slightly due to her skin still tender from the neat sewing.

Deacon leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms as he watched her. "You shouldn't be walking around."

(Y/n) locked gazes with Deacon as she met his eyes in the reflection of the mirror. "Sorry," she whispers. "I was curious, that's all."

"How're you feeling?" He asked.

"Besides the cuts and stitches, I feel much better." She saunters over to the drifter and smiled up at him. "Thank you for saving me, Deacon. Even though it would've been easier to have left me behind, you didn't and I'm grateful for that."

"You're the last person who deserves to pay for someone else's mistake even if it was your brother's fault."

"Skizzo's the only family I've got in this fucked up world. I would do anything to keep him safe and I know he would've done the same for me."

"You sure 'bout that?" Deacon raised a brow as he questioned her.

(Y/n) smacked him on the arm. "A hundred percent. Skizzo may come across as an asshole, douchbag... you name it, but he always has the best in mind when it comes to others. Even when he was dealing drugs and firearms in California, he made sure I wasn't dragged along for the ride." Deacon pushes his body off the doorframe and follows (Y/n) as she makes her way back to the bed. She sat down and winced when she felt her skin tug at the stitches. "Fucking stitches..."

"I can get Addy if you need—"

"No, I'm fine," (Y/n) quickly interrupts him. "I've had stitches before and they're not fun."

Deacon sat down in the chair he had been sitting in when he fell asleep. He scooted closer to the bed with a sigh. "You should get some rest."

"Really, Deek, I'm fine. I've been trapped inside a room chained to a bed for the past two days. What I need is a refreshing walk." (Y/n) stood upend headed to the doors. Before she was out of his reach, Deacon grabbed ahold of her wrist. The woman peered down in bewilderment as to why he was stopping her. "Don't tell me I can't go for a walk."

"You've had a shitty past couple of days. The walk can wait," he responded. "And we can't risk you reopening your wound."

(Y/n) saw and heard the genuine concern from Deacon. She decided to not fight him and allow him to pull her back to the bed. She sat down across from the drifter, staring into his eyes with a smirk. ""We," huh? Who's this "we" you speak of?"

Deacon didn't hesitate as he already knew how strong his feelings for her have become since her absence. "Mostly me. I'm pretty sure Skizzo also doesn't want to see his own sister kick the bucket because she was being a moron."

"M-Moron?!" She shrieked as she leaned closer to him. "Going on a walk is not moronic! I should—!"

Deacon saw an opportunity and took it. He silenced her with a light, meaningful kiss. (Y/n) reciprocated the moment she realized their lips were connected. It was a short and brief kiss, but it was enough to display their love for one another. "You yell too much," Deacon retorts when he pulls away.

(Y/n) crossed her arms with a grimace. "I'll try to remember that..."

The door to the infirmary swung open and Skizzo stepped inside. When he saw the scowl on his sister face, he was utterly confused. "What the hell did I miss?"

#days gone #days gone x reader #female reader #deacon st john x reader #deacon x reader

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